by Hettie Ivers
Alex’s eyes cast fire and brimstone at Remy before flitting hopelessly back and forth from me to his sister. He appeared at such an utter loss that for a split millisecond a part of me could’ve almost felt sorry for him if the greater part of me hadn’t felt completely enraged all over again at the reminder of his antics with Amy.
“It was just … practice …” he said stupidly, giving Alessandra his most wounded, pitiful eyes. “Because … because I know humans are more fragile. And I didn’t … I was just worried … about hurting Milena,” he justified. “And Remy and Alcaeus both slept with her too,” he abruptly, shamelessly tattled yet again.
To my horror and revulsion, Alessandra seemed to partially buy into his completely piss-ass rationalization, her features noticeably softening. I decided right then and there I would accidentally-on-purpose telekinetically throw the nearest vase at her head if she made that “aw” face of hers next.
“Well, it was still terribly inappropriate of you, Alex,” she reprimanded, before turning the full force of her glower on Remy. “But it’s Remy’s fault for bringing her here in the first place.”
Inappropriate? I was reminded that this was the same woman who’d insisted it only “proper” I be present in the foyer when Alex was killing the men who’d abducted me—before racing me to my executioner! Did she always take Alex’s side? It sure seemed that way based on the annoyed, yet not so surprised, reactions from Remy, Alcaeus, and Kai.
“Your creepy research-slash-fetish compulsion thing with these human girls needs to stop, Remy,” she proceeded to scold. “It’s become an embarrassment to the whole family. And what the hell’s gotten into you, Alcaeus? I thought you swore off shagging humans decades ago? It’s not like you to compel them for sex. How could you do that to Alex?”
“Oh, my fucking God, Lessa!” Kai detonated, his unexpectedly loud and incendiary response catching me off guard. “Couldn’t you breast-feed Alex in private somewhere for once so that the rest of us don’t have to be sick?”
I was dumbfounded to note that Kai’s flushed expression seemed to reflect a mystifying fusion of rage, disgust, and … hurt?
Alcaeus and Remy exploded into boisterous laughter. Even Kaleb guffawed. My own hand flew up to cover my mouth, while Alex streaked across the room and barreled into Kai, their bodies smashing straight through the closed wooden door Kai had been leaning against to thrash and tumble about in the hallway beyond. I heard Guadalupe yelling at them moments later.
“Eh, seems I’ve suffered a slight case of human fever since Milena showed up,” Alcaeus laughingly offered in response to Alessandra’s inquiry. Meanwhile, it sounded like all hell was breaking loose in the hallway outside of his study. “Thanks for asking, though, Sis. For the record, Allison looks nothing like Milena,” he maintained. “And you know I don’t compel girls for sex. Takes all the fun and challenge out of it,” he said, giving Remy an impish grin.
“Fuck you, I do not compel them all the time!” Remy disputed.
But Alessandra wasn’t paying attention to her other brothers at that point, having raced from the room—presumably to check on her “baby” in the hallway.
Alcaeus rolled weary eyes. “Okay, okay, that’s enough,” he determined, idly waving two fingers in the direction of the broken doorway, and by doing so somehow causing Alex and Alessandra to levitate backward into the room and then drop onto the couch, both of them cussing and struggling to no avail against the strength of his newfound ability. Kai walked back through the door, his clothing torn and his hair mussed.
“Why does Kai get to make a dignified entrance?” Alessandra complained, still wrestling against the invisible restraints holding her to her seat on the couch. “Al, this is bullshit! Stop it at once!”
“You will so fucking pay for this as soon as Milena’s powers are all her own!” Alex threatened.
“Riight,” Alcaeus half chuckled, half yawned, as he stretched his arms behind his back. “So … getting back to Joaquin’s little revenge curse, I feel bound to point out Joaquin may have mentioned something about me being guardian of Hector’s bloodline as long as a trust existed.”
“And? What the hell does that mean?” Remy asked.
“I think it means that on a blood level Milena had to have trust in me in order for me to be able to control her shift and hold her powers for her.”
Super. Not only did I have an inner dog weighing in on my love life, but now my blood was capable of its own emotions? Emotions as complicated as trust?
“If memory serves, Joaquin said something or other about some possibly dire repercussions if I or any other member of the Reinoso pack”—Alcaeus looked at Alex then—“were to ever willfully spill or taint the blood of Hector.” He paused to let that message sink in to his literally captive audience. “I suspect there was a good reason Hector made me promise never to turn any of his kin.”
“Aw, fuck me!” Kai once more startled me with his strong reaction, his brown eyes awash with an uncharacteristic level of apprehension that was disconcerting. He had obviously clued into something within Alcaeus’ ambiguous wording that the rest of the room failed to immediately grasp.
Although … Alex seemed to also go curiously ashen …
Gah! Goddamn verbose, code-talking, secretive, snarky werelocks!
“Thanks to our favorite little brother, I believe we’ve just handed half of the Salvatellas’ long-sought powers back to them on a silver platter. A silver platter hell-bent on his own revenge, at that.”
“Raul,” Remy groaned in resignation.
Raul?
“Raul!” Alessandra gasped.
“Uh-huh,” Alcaeus confirmed, “Raul escaped from Salvador a little over an hour ago. Single-handedly managed to kill four guards, injure over two dozen more, and reduce an entire wing of the estate to rubble. The guards he left injured but alive were instructed to tell us that he wants his sister returned to him unharmed and that he’ll kill anyone who gets in his way until she’s safely recovered.”
CHAPTER FIVE
The room fell silent, save for the sound of quickening heartbeats. The stench of tension bloomed and swirled all around me. Time ceased to exist—much as it had that first night in the foyer when Alex had announced to the hall that Raul was dead.
At first, I felt nothing, my logical mind taking over, banishing my emotions as it sorted and assembled the facts as they had been presented, like a math equation in my head. Raul was a werewolf. He’d been turned.
I knew this. Since the night of my arrival I’d known it, and yet I’d striven to deny it for as long as possible. Until now, no one had bothered to confirm it—to spell it out for me in plain terms, further corroborating my ability to bask in denial.
That first night in the hallway, Alcaeus had spoken of Alex “turning” Raul. He’d concluded there was otherwise no way Raul would still be alive. At the time, I’d been so overcome with relief simply to count Raul among the living, I’d put off digesting the unwelcome revelation surrounding those circumstances.
But now it was unavoidable. Because now Raul was a full-fledged supernatural monster too.
Raul had killed four people? Werewolf-warlock people, rather—but living creatures, nonetheless. And he’d injured over two dozen others? My brother?
I refused to believe what Guadalupe had told me in the kitchen, though, until I heard it from Raul himself. There was no way Raul had wanted this! As I sensed myself getting riled up, anger and sheer panic taking root, an inexplicable wave of calm suffused me, and a pleasant numbness gently embraced me.
Kai was the first to speak. “You know, I also met Joaquin Salvatella once. Before he was a broken and dying young Alpha driven mad with grief over the loss of his mate,” he emphasized to Alcaeus. “If even a fraction of his long-lost coveted powers have passed to Raul, our problems just became a lot bigger than managing Milena’s transformation.”
“Fuck, yeah, they did,” Alcaeus concurred. “Although … I suppose it does at least add a
nother layer of karmic entertainment for me.” His hazel eyes settled on Alex. “Speaking of which, Raul left a cute personal video message for you, Alex. Delivered it directly to one of the surveillance cameras on his way out. Had to watch that shit three times, it was so good.”
“What did he say?” Alessandra’s voice was unsteady.
“Eh, you know … the usual cliché stuff about torturing and killing Alex slowly and making him suffer for every single moment of pain he caused him.”
“He’s a newly turned wolf,” Alex said with an air of indifference that belied the tense set of his shoulders. “Regardless of how much power he’s inherited, he won’t know how to control or wield it. He’s more of a danger to himself right now than he is to me.”
“Except he won’t be alone when he comes for Milena,” Remy pointed out, his expression grim. “He’ll bring the best of the Salvatella pack down on us.”
“Exactly.” Kai nodded thoughtfully. “Raul’s undoubtedly on his way right now to beg Gabriel’s assistance.”
Raul was going to Gabriel Salvatella?
“Oh, God,” Alessandra groaned into her hands. She looked to be on the brink of tears. Or hysteria.
“And, unlike before, Gabriel and his brother will be only too eager to provide Raul asylum and assistance this time,” Alcaeus predicted, his tone infused with contempt.
Raul had sought the Salvatellas’ assistance before? Had Mateus not warned him?
Remy’s laugh was hollow. “The whole Salvatella pack will embrace and get behind Raul, once they realize he’s the virtual embodiment of Joaquin’s long-lost, coveted power. But they’ll be especially motivated when they learn he has a sister who also harbors Joaquin’s blood curse. A sister we’re holding captive.”
“Yup,” Alcaeus agreed. “Gabriel will know that she’s our vessel.”
“And he’ll use Raul to get his hands on what he really wants,” Kai said. “Milena.”
Even through my fog of detachment, I felt Alex’s anxiety escalating, his temper mounting. My heart began to pound against my rib cage as Mateus’ spiteful words replayed in my memory.
“The heart of this whole Salvatella blood curse resides in that little witch sleeping upstairs you want to protect so much!”
But what had he meant? If Raul and I had both inherited Joaquin’s latent Salvatella Alpha blood, why was my blood so different that it should cause the Salvatellas to value me over Raul? What did it mean to be the vessel that it had made my biological father despise and shun me?
I fought to keep my mother’s words of warning from surfacing; the words I’d purposely neglected to tell Alex, Remy, and Kai back in the gardens when Remy had asked if there was more my mother had relayed about the Salvatellas. I wasn’t sure whether Alcaeus was listening in on my thoughts, and if Raul truly was planning to align himself with Gabriel on my behalf in a foolhardy attempt to rescue me, there was no way I would heed my mother’s forewarning.
Raul was in true danger now. And it was my fault. I should never have come to Brazil.
“Oh, Gabriel will want Raul, too,” Alcaeus said. “Make no mistake, the Salvatellas will want his powers to remain within their pack. However, his usefulness is limited. Raul can’t give Gabriel what he wants most of all”—Alcaeus’ eyes drifted to me—“a Salvatella heir destined to usher forth the next most powerful generation of werelock. Milena’s the only one who can provide him that.”
“Never!” Alex growled, his eyes glowing with a look of murder as he stood from the couch. “Over my dead body will that happen!”
“Trust me,” Remy huffed. “Gabriel will be counting on your demise as a bonus prize of the acquisition. Especially now that he has the perfect henchman to do his dirty work.”
Heir. Henchman. The words floated aimlessly around my ill-fated head. So that was it then? That’s what Joaquin’s brilliant blood revenge had set us up for? Raul was to be a Salvatella pawn and I was to bear the devil’s offspring?
For a blood curse designed to protect his beloved Sofia’s surviving kin, Joaquin sure seemed to have done a shitty job of shielding us—especially when his brilliant plan for “protection” also involved simply enslaving us for all eternity to another bloodthirsty, power-hungry pack. How had he ever imagined this resulting in anything but disaster?
My fatalistic musings were violently disrupted when Alessandra screamed. It was an awful, piercing yowl, full of bitterness and torment that breached the stillness that had enveloped the room.
She subsequently commenced railing at Alcaeus for not telling her sooner, berating Kaleb for not informing her immediately of the Salvador incident. Then she began pacing about the small study, muttering to herself in Portuguese before rambling on in English that they needed to move quickly in order to find Raul before he found Gabriel.
“Why are we all still standing around? We’ve wasted too much time already!”
“He’s being tailed as we speak,” Alcaeus informed his anxious sister.
“Followed? Goddamnit, he needs to be stopped! Once he gets to Gabriel it’ll be too late! He doesn’t understand, Al,” she said, her watery eyes desperate. “He’s convinced himself that Gabriel’s the good Alpha. He’ll never see his attack coming until it’s too late. Until he’s far too ensnared within Gabriel’s web of deception to ever find his way out again.”
“Perhaps …” Alcaeus mumbled, his eyes falling curiously upon me rather than his irate sister. Another rush of relaxing energy dispersed throughout my system, and I realized it was Alcaeus’ influence that was keeping me from freaking out over the news of Raul and Gabriel Salvatella the way Alessandra was.
“Perhaps?” Alessandra squawked. “Perhaps!” She whacked her fist hard against her older brother’s chest. “Why aren’t we fucking doing anything? I don’t understand.”
“You didn’t see the Salvador surveillance footage, Lessa,” Alcaeus replied, giving his sister the full weight of his solemn stare. “Alex is right. Raul’s far too unstable in his present state. We’ll lose more men if we try to capture him now. Only one—or several—of us in this room might be able to subdue him at this point, and it would more than likely result in either us harming him or him harming himself in the process.”
“Then I’ll go after him alone if I have to,” Alessandra submitted stubbornly. “I will not just fucking sit here and do nothing and allow Gabriel to warp and destroy Raul!”
Just when I could have kissed Alessandra for her efforts to rally a supernatural rescue squad to save my brother, Kai’s snort of derision extinguished my fledgling ray of hope.
“Please. As if anyone here but Milena might believe such drivel. I don’t recall you making such impassioned pleas on Raul’s behalf when it was Alex who was bent on destroying him.”
Her mouth fell ajar. “Fuck you,” Alessandra blustered at Kai, her chest rising and falling rapidly and her tanned skin blanching as she seemed to struggle for her next words. “How dare you judge me, you—you conceited, sanctimonious, freak of nature!”
Kai smirked in the face of her insult, his eyes subtly glinting with some sort of twisted knowledge that he’d hit the exact nerve he’d intended to batter. “So the boy is precious to you now that he has infinitely more to offer? More than his paltry human adoration that he was so foolishly willing to get himself killed over?”
“Enough!” Alcaeus fired a warning look at Kai, at the same time blasting Alex violently back into his restraining seat on the couch when he growled and made a lunge in Kai’s direction.
“Get out!” Alessandra screeched at Kai, her eyes shifting yellow as her entire demeanor became markedly more feral in nature.
“Wait …” A frowning Remy nonchalantly interrupted the mad chaos with a raised forefinger, as if a thought had just occurred to him. “Who the fuck was responsible for controlling Raul’s transformation anyway?” His accusatory eyes settled on Kaleb. “How the hell did they not notice his emerging superpower at any point during his weeklong shift?”
�
��Outstanding question, Remy, so glad you asked,” Alcaeus lauded, crossing his arms over his chest as his own flinty eyes locked upon Alex. “Care to enlighten us, oh, wise, mighty Alpha?”
Alessandra’s features registered alarm as her gaze shifted to her younger brother. “No …”
I watched with a detached, yet rapt curiosity as a certain look of horror altered Alex’s brooding features. As if in slow motion, his face turned from his siblings directly to me, his dark eyes pleading, his entire visage twisting into a portrait of contrition I wouldn’t have believed him capable of as all manner of random, babbled excuses spewed forth from his lips.
He sputtered inanely that he hadn’t known … that he’d forgotten … that the guards had neglected to remind him.
“Alex!” Alessandra wailed anew, launching herself across the room at her little brother and attacking him with her fists. “How could you?”
“Fuck, you left him to shift alone?” Remy reproved. “You left no one in charge of his transformation?”
“Typical,” Kai said under his breath, looking equally disgusted, although not surprised.
Alex fought to calm his sister, and to disentangle himself from her striking fists as she howled, “How could you do this to me?”
“To you?” Kai scorned as Alcaeus pulled a sobbing Alessandra off of Alex and into his consoling arms. “Always about you, isn’t it, Lessa?”
“I said that’s enough!” Alcaeus growled at Kai.
Alessandra began shouting obscenities at Kai in Portuguese. With his sister’s ire redirected at Kai, Alex moved across the room to me, sinking to his knees directly in front of my chair. I felt the blissful numbness that had encompassed me wearing painfully thin.
“Milena, I swear upon my life it was an oversight,” he avowed, his black eyes desperate as more inadequate excuses tumbled forth. “You have to believe me, I never intended for him to endure the whole transformation process unassisted. I was just so infuriated with him … and he was being such an asshole … telling me things about his meeting with Gabriel Salvatella and his brother Nuriel … saying anything he could think of to purposely incite my wrath—”
