by A. Vers
Her lips curve upward. “I don't have one, Alpha. But I’ll get you one.”
Chapter 16
Nisha
I watch as Tanner pulls away from the slim African American woman in his arms. His mouth was locked to hers and those calloused hands were tight on her ass. He kissed her hard. Harder than a human could handle.
No. That was tame compared to what they did. He feasted at her and she responded in kind as he slammed her against a tree.
It still sways ominously.
I wince.
The woman pushes from his arms with a smile, eyes glowing with inhuman sunlight that is visible even over the distance.
Something knots in my stomach. Something burning and wrong.
“Hey. You okay?” Daisy's voice draws me away from Tanner and his conquest.
I look at her. “Yeah, I’m fine.” It’s complete and utter horseshit.
It’s not like I have any stupid former claims on Tanner. And yeah the man is hot. That’s easy enough to see. But he’s just like Chuck, and I don’t need another asshole like that in my life.
Besides, as flighty as Daisy said Tanner is, there is no future there. Nothing but heartbreak and a man that always walks away. If I want to be part of the pack here, in my town after the rogue shifter is caught, I need to find someone closer to home.
My eyes roll back to Daisy. “Yeah. I’m fine.”
She scours my face, her bright green eyes cunning. “No, doll. You’re not.” She turns her head and peers around. Her lips curve and she reaches for my hand. “Tell you what, since you haven’t seen the best Silver Rock can offer, let me show you.”
I glance back toward the trees but Tanner and the woman are no longer in sight.
Something tells me Tanner didn’t take her deeper into the trees to finish what they started. At least not with the body so near.
I shudder. “I don’t know, Daisy …”
She huffs. “Call me D for starters. My parents were hippies and I hate my name.” That makes me look at her, a small smile pulling at my lips. “And you can’t stand here mooning over T or worrying about the human.”
I flush. “I wasn’t—”
“You were,” she tells me firmly. “And I get it. I do. But T and Ebony will handle the rogue, so you don’t need to even worry about that.”
She smiles prettily at me. “Now as for T himself … We have done had that convo. So come on. Let me introduce you to a few people.” She tugs at my hand and I stumble a bit. “I promise not to force you into any threesomes or mating proposals.”
I laugh and her smile grows. When she pulls again, I let out a small sigh but let her lead me deeper into the pack.
As much as I want to help Tanner catch the fucker responsible for attacking me and for killing the human, he was right earlier. I’m ill equipped to handle a shifter in human form let alone when they change shape.
The ferocity between him and Ebony is a dead testament to that.
I’m outclassed.
But Tanner is an alpha. One of the strongest shifters there is. If anyone can take the sick fuck down that hurt me, it’s him.
So what else is there for me to do?
I’m here. At Silver Rock.
My head cants.
I might as well see what all the fuss is about.
***
Daisy drags me all over hell and highwater. Or the full length of pack land anyway. But I don’t mind. It helps to keep my mind far from the dead human and far from Tanner.
By early evening, the heat has forced many of the others inside the low slung cottages and the rec hall. The only buildings at Silver Rock with air conditioning.
I’ve long since lost track of Tanner and Caine. Though I have to continually remind myself that I don’t need to look for them, my eyes want to scan every grove and shaded spot along the fields for T. If Daisy notices, she doesn’t remark on it. Instead, she leads me to the small creek near the ciorcal, or the ritual circle in the old hollowed out basin.
Somewhere between a magick circle, graveyard, and palace, the ciorcal is the birthplace of Silver Rock power. When the first alpha walked this land and called his pack, he did so from the nest of roots and smooth rocks beneath the old oaks.
Every mating ring takes place in the open ravine. As does every challenge for hierarchy. For dominance. Blood, sweat, and tears have christened the very ground with power and pack. And it damn near oozes from every fallen leaf, stone, and twig.
Though I can’t feel it, Daisy assures me if I join Silver Rock, I will.
We trail down the slope and through the massive pines with glistening bottles of water in hand. It’s quieter now with nearly half the pack indoors. Though the heat is atrocious, an occasional breeze ruffles my hair and pulls at my clothes. In the shade cast by the trees all around us, it’s bearable.
Daisy sits down at the edge of the narrow creek bed. The waterway is little more than a trickle between rocks, but it offers a secondary respite from the heat as I shuck my socks and shoes and wade in up to my ankles.
“Sometimes I swear I forget how hot it is here,” she says after a while. Leaned back on her hands, her wavy red hair seems to dance with gold highlights as the sun hits it just right.
I snort. “How could you ever forget how hot it is?”
Her cheeks flush. “I moved closer to the gulf a few years ago. I just make the drives up for the sabbats.”
“You drive here from the coast twice a month?”
She shrugs and a few strands of hair cascades over her shoulder in a fiery curtain. “After Tanner dipped and Callus started booting the other male alphas, I figured maybe it wouldn’t hurt to see what other packs had to offer.”
I turn fully to face her; the gentle babble of the creek glides over my ankles in a tickling caress. “And what did you find?”
She sighs. “That no matter where I go, Silver Rock is still home. And even though I hate what Callus is doing, my ancestors are buried here. My ties are here. There is no other pack for me.” The iron in her voice draws me up short. She squints over at me. “It’s why I don’t understand how T has stayed away for so long. This is home, you know? How can you just walk away?”
“Maybe he didn’t have a choice,” I say, and then don’t know why I’m even defending him. I peer at her. “Sorry. Tanner had his reasons. Now whether they were right or—"
But her attention isn’t fixed on me. Her emerald eyes begin to glow softly and she leans forward, gaze locked over my shoulder. “I need you to walk towards me. Slowly.”
My heart slams. “Daisy—“
A low growl pours from her full lips. “Now.”
I shuffle through the water, forced to obey that one word command by the same force that held me captive with Tanner earlier.
So slowly I believe time itself has crawled to a stop, Daisy begins to rise from the creek ledge. Her hands curve inward, fingers creating jagged hooks.
No.
Not her hands. Her claws.
My eyes widen, but she merely slinks past me through the tepid water. At the bank, I lift my foot and step onto the bed of pine needles and fallen leaves.
"Go towards the rec hall, Nisha."
I start to peer at her over my shoulder.
"Don't," she snaps, and my head locks in place, partially turned. A new echo thrums through her tone, raising gooseflesh all over my body. "Get Tanner. Don't turn around, don't stop. Just go."
My body jerks and I start forward. Every fiber of my being rails against it, rails against losing my freewill with a few choice words. My hands fist. I struggle in place, trying to break free. But the command sears through my insides like fire.
Shit.
Behind me, harsh rumbles spill forward in two separate cadences. One is pitched so low it seems to reverberate into my marrow. I shiver.
But it does the trick.
I whirl in place.
Daisy's form disappears in a cloud of black mist and low moans. I try to see past the fog. Try t
o discern anything of the woman who has rapidly become a staunch ally in my crazy new life.
Something russet and petite streaks out of the shadowed haze.
In human guise Daisy is curvy compared to me. As a wolf, she is resplendent.
Her amber and russet fur seems to glitter, covering her over five-feet body in a wash of color.
With a baying howl that sends me running, she rushes through the trees after a sickeningly familiar expanse of tawny fur and rosettes.
My attacker.
Shit.
I slam my feet over the ciorcal floor and rush headlong up the hill. It's not Daisy's command that sends me off like the hounds of hell are behind me. It’s the surety that only one person has scared the big cat off, and he is somewhere on pack land.
My lips part and I draw in a deep lungful of air before I start screaming for the only help I can think to give.
Chapter 17
Tanner
Bending down, I pull a longneck from one of the coolers and chug half.
Fucking Ebony. All her posturing just to leave me fucking hanging.
But with her and the thetas helping to scour pack land, it look me a lot less time to realize that the body was placed here. Something Gage was only too happy to confirm.
I take another draught of the beer.
With the pack being in and out of the trees, it’s been damn hard to track the rogue by scent or print. Now my fucking head aches and my nose burns from scouring every inch of the fucking forest.
And still nothing.
How did the rogue get the body in the tree without anyone noticing?
Gage walks up out of my peripheral. “Coroner just left with the stiff,” he says mildly. “He’ll call if he comes up with anything else, but he’s ruling it as an animal attack for now.”
I nod. “Better than nothing.”
“I’m going to head back and clue Ruin in,” he says, pulling a hand rolled smoke from a slim black case in his jeans. He snaps and the end catches with a burst of his ethereal green flames. “You want me to head back when I’m done?”
My eyes dip to Caine where he waits leaning against a thick oak. His hellfire gaze tracks over every inch of the field and the trees beyond.
“Nah. We get another body though and I’ll call.”
Gage takes a long drag and claps me on the back. “Keep me posted, true?”
I salute him with my beer and he walks off back to the cars. Downing the last of the brew, I toss the empty bottle and grab another before heading toward Caine.
“Any idea where Nisha went?” I call when I’m within earshot.
He shrugs, making his dark shirt scrub the tree. In his hand is a dark bottle of rich red liquid that he conjured from some fucking where. “She is with the redhead. She will be fine.”
“Daisy, Caine. Her name is Daisy.” My eyes cut to him. “Besides, the way you were eyeing her, I figured she was already your full moon plus one.”
He takes a long pull on the bottle, but his carnelian irises glow from behind the fall of his dark hair. “I’m Asmodean, cat. I never take just one.”
As much as I want to roll my eyes, there is something in his gaze that leaves me still. Watchful. “I never pegged you to swing that way.”
His lips curve. If he was a vampire, he would flash fang. “I’ve partaken of every sex, every race … every breed on this ratty planet and beyond for nearly two hundred years. If I aligned myself with only the fairer sex, do you truly believe I would not have grown bored by now?”
“So you’re bisexual?” I motion absentmindedly down his frame. “Among other things?”
The smile remains though he doesn’t answer.
And I realize he can’t.
Though Caine is a demon, one of the tainted ones, even his people have their standards. Something based on Lucifer’s diction, and a reminder of the word of God. To lay with the same sex, even in the Hells, is reserved for the depraved of even the damned. The twisted of the wicked soulless.
Only prostitutes and lower downs resort to such means to keep themselves alive in the Abyss. That Caine not only bats for both teams but seems unabashedly proud by of it means it was by choice. So why was he cast from the Seven Hells?
I take a swig of my beer my curiosity sparks. As a cat I need to know more. But in the last seven years, he has never opened up even this much, and I fucking doubt poking at it now will help. “I won’t say anything,” I mutter as I gaze back out over the field.
The bottle falls back to his side, and the weight of his gaze is heavy over my face. “What do you want in return?”
“Want?” I ask.
His lips curl on a snarl. “No one does shit like that for free. So again, what do you want for your silence?”
I eye him. Really appraise him.
His dark hair is ruffled from the breeze all day. But with his shades pushed back, it leaves his narrow, sinister face open. In the years since he came to Lock Lake, I’ve never noticed the thin scar in his eyebrow or the one bifurcating his ear. Indeed, now that I have picked them up, I can only wonder if there are more.
Despite the sun and the heat, his skin remains flawless fucking moonlight, not a hint of redness anywhere other than his eyes. Eyes that seem to have hardened even more than even the day Lilah died.
I jerk my chin. “I want a sip of whatever you’re guzzling.”
His thin lips part.
I reach forward and snag the bottle without waiting for his approval or agreement. I have to do something. Something to get him to stop looking at me like I’m a fucking bug under a damn microscope. So I drink.
The liquid is spicy, rich, and flavored with smoky undertones of citrus. A deep groan rips from me as the flavor coats my tongue. It’s like being rubbed all over my body with fur. Like having hands through my hair, and nails down my back.
Caine snatches the bottle back as my chest heaves.
Beer forgotten, I turn slowly to peer at the demon. “What the fuck is that?” I pant.
His lips are pressed into a mottled line, but his irises fucking gleam with suppressed humor. He coughs. “Fíanac.”
I gasp and could swear invisible fire spurts from my mouth. “Demon liquor?”
He finally gives up on holding in his laughter. “What did you think I would drink? Wine? Cap’s whiskey?” He leans over, slapping one muscular thigh.
My fists clench to punch him in the jaw.
“Tanner!”
My head whips over as Nisha’s voice rips through me.
She hauls ass over the field, her eyes wide and color in her cheeks. I let my beer fall and run to meet her in the low grass.
I grab her shoulders, slowing that insane forward momentum. Her sneakers slide in the loose dirt and small stones as she stumbles. My hands tighten over her arms. “What?” I demand, searching her face.
“Daisy,” she gasps. “Attacker. Ciorcal.” She motions frantically behind her as she continues to pant past her exertion.
My buzz from the demon liquor vanishes.
I shove her toward Caine. “Stay with her,” I snap and take off for the ancient trench.
Chapter 18
Nisha
Tanner’s body disappears in a cloud of dark mist and impenetrable shadow. Faster than Daisy, a midnight panther soars out the other side, his massive paws devouring the earth as he sprints like lightning toward the basin.
I start to pivot and go after him. A strong, hot hand closes over my upper arm.
“Bad idea, pet,” Caine says. He pushes me behind him, already shoving a cellphone into my chest. “Call Lilah.”
I grasp his phone with shaking hands. “I can help. I can—”
He whips around, eyes glowing with blood-red light as small sparks of fire seem to whirl in their depths. Orbs of the same hellish mix fill his hands. “You’re still mostly human. The cat will kill me if you get hurt. Call Lilah and tell her to have Gage turn around. And stay here.”
The last is a rushed order as that bri
lliant red glow surrounds him in a bubble. He rises into the air, encased by an unearthly shimmer, and zooms after Tanner. I sputter as he all but disappears into thin air.
My fingers blanch around his phone. It creaks. “Shit.” I loosen my grip to keep from breaking the little device and fumble to unlock it.
The background wallpaper is a familiar face. Lilah gazes across what appears to be a well maintained courtyard, her dark hair up in a loose ponytail as she converses with Ruin. Even though Ruin has been cropped mostly out of the frame, he’s easily recognizable.
My stomach knots. Seeing the photo is like reading the demon’s diary.
I quickly pull up the contacts. Thankfully Lilah is simply under her name and not some cute nickname or something.
She answers on the first ring. “Hey, Caine. Everything okay in the wonderful world of beasts?”
“Lilah? It’s Nisha.”
“Nisha?” Her confusion comes across the line loud and clear. “Where’s Caine?”
I exhale, bolstering myself. “Caine is currently chasing Tanner who is chasing a rabid cat and Daisy. I have no idea how far they’re going, but I’m pretty sure someone or something is going to be dead by the end of all this, and—”
“Where are you?” Ruin’s voice is like a punch in the gut. But it washes away some of my fear, reiterating my years at the station. Years I spent desensitizing to every hard and jarring call. I catalogue all the emotions coursing through me, accept them, ignore them, and square my shoulders with resolve.
“Silver Rock, sir.”
“Good girl. Now I want you to round up the pack.” What sounds like a car door slamming fills the speaker. “Especially the alpha. Tell him what happened, but don’t go into the woods alone.”
I start off, sneakers pounding the dry ground. “Got it.”
“And Nisha?”
“Yeah?” I barely pant.
“Keep it sensical and on point. We may be on borrowed time.” Ruin’s words slice through me, but I shove that down with the rest of my emotions into the little box in my head. The one that holds my parents, their divorce, Chuck, and everything else I am trying to forget.
