by Sedona Venez
Mist eyes flashed with anger. “We’re all weapons, so what’s your point? But unlike us, there’s redemption within her… She’s the key to unlocking the Immortals’ Prophecy and stopping another cleanse.”
Mom tapped her foot impatiently. “Fuck the Immortals, fuck the Council, and fuck the Immortals’ Prophecy. They can all kiss my ass.”
Mist’s eyes opened with shock. “Do you hate the Immortals that much, that you’re willing to destroy the one thing created with the power to save us?”
Mom stared at her coldly. “I’ll do what’s necessary. I always do. The Council wants the end of the Others… I’ll give it to them over-the-top celebrity style. Then I can have my life back.”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“I don’t care, Mist. I’m so damn tired of this stupid-ass war over power. Let’s give the Council what they want. Kill them all.”
I stared at her in shock as way too many emotions whirled within me. Anger that she never wanted me. Fear that I had the power to kill. And sadness that everything I believed about Mom and me was nothing but smoke and mirrors.
“What they want and need are two different things, Kara. They need to be proven wrong. The Others are not just some mistake to be killed for their amusement.”
“And the Immortals? Did they have any part in their punishment?” I asked.
“The Immortals watch and influence, but that’s all. What happens from that nudge is none of their concern,” Azura responded.
I pursed my lips. “What does that mean?” I paused for a beat before something occurred to me. “The Immortals influenced Mist to betray the Council,” I stated incredulously.
“They just showed her the errors in her ways.”
My eyes snapped to Mom when I heard her hysterical laugh.
Mom sneered. “Just one flick of your finger and they would’ve been dust. But you chose them over us.”
My heart seized at the hurt in her eyes.
Tears streamed down Mist’s cheeks. “It was never about them. It was about my child.”
“You could’ve told me, Mist. Yet you carried that monster in secrecy for months.” Mom rubbed her eyes wearily. “Goddess! I’ve grown so tired of this game and I want to be done with it. Be damned the cost.”
“If you choose to protect and love her, she will give us what we need: the end of Glen.”
Mom looked at her incredulously. “You expect me to love a monster capable of destroying everything in her path?”
Mist sighed heavily. “I expect you to do what’s necessary. You need her.”
Mom’s eyes narrowed. “I don’t need something that will kill us all if the darkness is awakened. I’d rather sell my soul to the Council.”
“Don’t let bitterness and hate blind you to the truth. Her true-mate can prevent the darkness from consuming her.”
Mom scowled. “Just another pawn in the game.” She sneered. “I’m such an idiot for ignoring how far the High Council will go to win. Just look at you.”
Mist locked eyes with her. “I have no regrets. This is my kismet. My fate. My sacrifice is my life and my will is to bind my daughter to you for protection until the day she is ready to fight by her mate’s side.” Her eyes transformed from dull black to bright violet. “No matter what happens, do not let her lose her way.” She gasped and hissed before her body went eerily still.
I stepped back as violet embers drifted from her body. It hovered and contracted before forming what looked like the shape of Mist’s body. “She is both salvation and destruction. Give her what she needs to choose wisely,” Mist whispered before the embers dissipated, leaving nothing but cool air.
My heart thudded. It hurt too much to watch. To feel. To want this not to be true. “Why did you bring me here?” I swallowed over the pain.
“The truth is never easy, but you must choose Boulder,” Azura responded coldly. "But this choice comes at a price… sealing his fate and death.”
The pieces of the puzzle slipped into place. A message the visions had been showing me since the day I was born. A message I recited like a nursery rhyme. “Three that will change my life forever. One that will awaken the darkness within me. One that will feed my lust for vengeance. One that will tame the darkness within me… and all will fight to claim me.” My heart raced. “The three are all men.”
“Yes, but there is only one who will free us all… Boulder.
My stomach rolled with queasiness. “This is bullshit!”
“The logical choice has already been made. It’s now up to you to take that leap of faith.”
My head snapped back to Mom as she wiped her cheek angrily before saying, “I’m sorry, Mist, but the monster must not live.” She moved out of the room with a determined stride. She was a woman on a mission, a deadly mission.
This time I didn’t wait to follow. I needed to know everything she tried so hard to hide all these years. Tracing her steps as she moved down the now-silent hallway littered with bodies of Others, I knew it wouldn’t be long before I learned what it was.
Standing before a door marked “Project 9,” Mom pushed a button, tapping her foot impatiently as the door slid open to reveal a large, white, sterile laboratory. Slipping in from behind, my senses were instantly assaulted by a sickly sweet scent wafting through the air. A scent that smelled… wrong.
“What is that smell?” I asked.
“Experiments gone horribly wrong,” Azura responded flatly.
Scowling, Mom’s gaze flickered around the lab, stopping at the ten small capsules inside. The first nine were empty, but inside the tenth, a female baby floated and bobbed weightlessly in a clear, thick gelatine substance with lines of tubes connected to its frail limbs.
I marched around her, staring at the baby. “What kind of experiments?” I asked flatly. Needing to know exactly what type of twisted monsters they created.
“Experiments that morphed Other’s DNA, creating Others that even the Council couldn’t control.”
“The nine are just like me?”
“Not as powerful, but just as important.”
The place was a mess with papers and equipment tossed around the room. It looked like whoever took them was looking for something before they left.
I looked around the room suspiciously. “Where are they now?”
“Scattered like stones in a pond. Hidden from the Council and from you.”
Mom’s face contorted with disgust as she stared at the baby. “What have they created?” She pressed her palm against the surface of the capsule. The baby’s body convulsed, fighting against the thick gelatine. She tapped on the glass loudly, causing the baby’s eyes to snap open, revealing beautiful, bright-emerald eyes. My eyes. Bubbles of air surrounded its mouth as the baby desperately struggled to breath, choking on the fluid.
“Not happening, monster,” Mom barked.
My eyes narrowed on Mom as she took a step back, turning on her heels to walk away. I stood there, stunned. Not believing she could actually walk away, leaving a baby—me—to die. A loud crack ricocheted throughout the room. The baby started fighting wildly, bouncing against the glass with more power than someone of that size should have, causing the glass to shatter and the gelatine substance to ooze out of the capsule, taking the baby with it.
“What the hell?” Mom spun around on her heels and inched closer. She pulled her sword from her back scabbard, watching as the baby hiccupped and whined, sounding like a cross between puppy and human.
“I’m sorry, Mist.” She raised her sword above her head for the deadly blow, stopping abruptly when the baby suddenly stretched out her chubby arm with tiny fingers extended. My baby eyes locked on Mom’s like a lifeline, and as if against her will, she calmly sheathed her sword.
“Message received, little monster. You want to live.” Mom’s eyes narrowed on the baby as if it were a speck of dirt on her boot.
The baby’s chubby arm flayed around, showing a glimpse
of an ink-black mark on her inner wrist. Mom crouched down, roughly grabbing the baby’s left wrist, examining the raven wing birthmark on her inner wrist. “So it’s true. They created the key our salvation… and destruction,” she sneered.
The baby gurgled happily, kicking her chubby legs. Hesitantly, Mom touched the baby’s tuft of jet-black hair interwoven with sky-blue strands. A flicker of doubt washed across her face as if wrestling with her conscience.
“I will keep you until the day you and the nine can save my sisters. After that… all bets are off, little monster.” She scooped the baby into her arms, frowning when the baby clutched at her chest, staring up at her with unflinching intensity as if desperately searching for assurance.
“Are the nine my siblings?” I asked.
“Not by blood, but by spirit and purpose. For better or for worse, you will need them to stop the Council.”
I arched a brow. “Something about this doesn’t feel right. Did you tell me everything?”
A weighty silence filled the room before Azura sighed heavily. “Of course…”
Yeah, right. She might be Boulder’s mother, but there is something she needs from him that goes way deeper than motherly love.
“Then how do I stop the Council?” I whispered.
“You must fight to hold on to Boulder.”
Exactly what I thought. All roads lead to Boulder.
“Uh-huh!”
“This is the truth and the sooner you stop fighting the inevitable, the sooner you can begin to protect yourself from the High Council’s ploys to tear you two apart. Be warned. Things will get worse before they get better. The darkness will fight for your soul and mind—do not let it win—and more importantly, death will take him away—you must let him die. Your decisions will decide the fate of us all. Show no mercy. Prove that you can stand by his side and you both shall win in the end.”
The air stilled in the room, and Azura sighed. “Our time is over.”
I felt a soft tap on my shoulder, like a caress, before a shock coursed through my body, dropping me to my knees in agony, and before I could catch my breath, the room whirled and I found myself staring strangely up at Mom through the baby’s eyes.
Mom looked down at me coldly while speaking in some weird ancient language that wrapped around me, comforting me like a warm blanket, before darkness enclosed me.
CHAPTER 5
New York… Friday
The scanner crackled to life. “All units stand down. Engine eighty-three will take care of the situation,” the man’s voice calmly said.
Boulder banged on the steering wheel with unleashed fury. There was no engine eighty-three taking care of the situation. The man wanted to ensure that Kara’s mansion burned down to the ground… killing everyone in it.
Barely putting his vehicle in park in front of Kara’s mansion, pure fury raced through his blood when the stench of tigers wafted through his windows.
Infinity was in danger.
Hopping out his vehicle, he leapt over the hedges, running toward the raging flames of the burning mansion. A low growl rumbled in his chest. His wolf battered and clawed inside his skin with the primal need for release.
Tearing past Cruz, he growled impatiently when Cruz tackled him, keeping him from charging into the roaring flames. His heart plummeted. She could not be dead. She was his, branded by the primal bond that tethered them together, and no one was going to snatch that away.
“Get the fuck off me, Cruz.” He growled, ignoring the pain of his canines piercing his bottom lip. He felt the wild power coursing through his veins as he pushed Cruz off, springing to his feet. His hands transformed to wolf as he tried to clamp his rage, fighting the feral edge creeping through his blood, but it was difficult to battle.
Cruz rolled away, jumping to his feet and grabbing him. “Shit, Boulder. Calm down. You can’t go in there. You’ll die.”
“Let me go, Cruz,” he hissed. His eyes were wild, levelling Cruz with so much Alpha power that Cruz lowered his eyes in submission.
Cruz stepped back. “You’re acting like a fucking ass. You know that, right?”
Boulder growled before storming past him. Besides Torch, Cruz was one of the few wolf-shifters on the team that had the balls to defy him, but even he recognized that now was not the time for getting in his way.
Boulder stood, gut-punched, watching as the flames licked the air with ferocious intensity. The stench of burning rubble seared his nose. His heart raced as his body battled the primal need to shift, tearing into the house like a feral beast. He watched with his heart in his throat when only two shadows staggered toward the entrance. Torch and Kara, both covered from head to toe in ambers and ash. They were battered, but their injuries were healing as they coughed the last bit of black smoke from their lungs.
His lips curled and body tensed in preparation to attack the one man in the world who was like his brother. His blood raced as he ran toward Torch with murder in his eyes, punching him so hard that the distinct sound of cracking bones pierced the air.
Mouths dropped open when Torch flew through the air, landing on the ground. Boulder rushed forward, berserk with rage.
His eyes were dark and hopeless. “Why didn’t you protect her?” he asked through clenched teeth.
Torch stood exhausted, covered in debris. Snarling with menace, he snapped his jaw back in place. “Calm the hell down, Boulder.”
Boulder’s wolf growled, fighting the urge to rip Torch apart. “My mate is dead! And you’re telling me to calm the hell down?” Eyeball-to-eyeball, Boulder realized that something about the way Torch looked at him was different—off.
“Dead? You really can’t sense her?” Torch blinked hard as if mentally struggling. “She’s alive. Mason took her.”
This news hit Boulder hard with relief and fear. “So let’s go get her.”
Torch watched with him with impatience. “You’re too close. You can’t even sense her. It’s time we cut our losses and run.” He nodded toward Kara. “Let her and Maxim find and retrieve her.”
Boulder shook his head with rage, struggling with the truth. “Don’t give me that shit. Remember what happened years ago? The tide’s turned. I was behind you then, for better or worse. I’m asking the same from you now.”
A vein along Torch’s jaw pulsed angrily. “And do you remember how long we searched?” His were eyes filled with pain. “Too many long, agonizing days and nights and we still never found her,” he spat.
“Fucking wolves!” Kara snorted with disgust. “Save the damn theatrics for later. Right now she’s probably confused, hurt, and vulnerable.”
Boulder and Torch watched with annoyance as she went straight over to the ravens sitting in the tree. She tilted her head and stared at them while they croaked frantically. She turned, looking at Boulder and Torch with impatience.
“The ravens tracked Mason and Infinity from the air but lost their trail when they took a jet.” Kara walked over to them with worried eyes. “His location is the least of our worries. Getting her back without starting a war with the Immortals, well, that’s where things will get really tricky.”
“I don’t give a shit about starting a war with Immortals. He’s got Infinity and I’m getting her back,” Boulder barked before walking away.
Torch lunged forward, grabbing his arm. “The hell you are.”
Boulder looked down at Torch’s hand pointedly. “Do you want that?”
“You’re an ass.” Torch reluctantly removed it. “Our job is done. They hired us to protect her during the concert and get her home safely. That’s it,” he said with a strained voice. He glared at Kara with distaste. “Let the Valkyrie get her precious daughter back.”
Boulder’s big apple-green eyes went wide. “Are you out of your damn mind? She’s our mate. We fight for what’s ours.”
Torch sucked in a breath as he looked at him. “You’re the one who can’t sense her, Boulder,” he said with a darkened
expression.
They both clearly knew what this meant. Torch exhaled, shaking his head. “That means that she’s yours, not mine,” Torch said briskly.
“Let’s go get her.” Boulder’s heart lurched with both happiness and sadness. He was happy that she was his to claim yet sad that Torch would never know the completeness of having a true-mate. It was bittersweet.
Torch nodded over at Cruz. “We can’t go starting a war with the tigers without cause. We have a responsibility to our team—our pack.”
“You damn prick!” Kara stepped forward with outraged eyes. “Infinity is more than a worthy cause, Torch.”
He looked her up and down with disdain. “For you, but not for us. You contributed to this bullshit by hiding who she really is." He stormed away. "If Mason wants her, then he can fucking have her. I’m out.”
Boulder’s muscles jumped and twitched and fingers clenched. “You fucking walk away from this and I’m done.” He growled. He meant it. He and Torch were like brothers, but for Torch to turn his back on Boulder’s true-mate was unforgivable. This not what wolf-shifters did… especially pack mates.
Torch skidded to a stop, levelling him with an icy glare. “What do you mean by done?”
Boulder locked eyes with him. “You know exactly what I mean. She’s mine and you allowed her to be taken by Mason. You are duty bound to help me get her the fuck back.” He crossed his arms, widening his stance. “Now let’s be perfectly clear, brother. I will get her back with or without your help, but I hope to God that you don’t make me do that, because if that happens”—he paused briefly before frowning—“I’m turning my back on you and the pack… forever.” This was his solid promise.
Torch’s lips curled upward. “You’ve got to be fucking shitting me.” He stomped back, getting in Boulder’s face. “If this is about getting a piece of ass, then I promise you that I’ll move heaven and earth to find you a she-wolf, but this shit cannot continue. We have lives to take care of and a business to run.”
