by Kimber White
I’d done my best to fill them all in about what I’d overheard from Grace’s father. I was trying to be diplomatic. I wanted it to be simple. Pavel Vadim thought he had a claim on Grace. If he intended to go after her, I would end him. A lone wolf was no match for me. His pack was the problem.
“Vadim is probably the most powerful Alpha wolf in the world now that the Kentucky Chief Pack is no longer a threat,” Loch said. He had his laptop in front of him. Since I brought his name to my brothers, Loch had made a quick project of learning everything he could. “He’s got holdings throughout Russia and Europe. He’s not as rich as we are, but he’s close.”
“Straight up mobster,” Finn said. “He’s not a Tyrannous Alpha. It’s not mind control he uses. It’s financial and old-fashioned brute strength. Got his fangs into Russian politics too. No wonder Grace’s father was trying to get out. Like I said, it’s not mind control, but if one of Vadim’s pack tries to mate without permission, he goes after family, their businesses, all of it. They stay in line, they get to be with their fated mates. Pretty simple, really.”
“Grace’s mother,” I said. “What did you find out about her?”
Loch raised a brow. He turned his laptop so the monitor faced the rest of us. Shae let out a little gasp. Amelia Barnes was stunning. Loch pulled up a press photo from the newspaper she wrote for in the late eighties. She was blonde, blue-eyed, with a bright smile and deep dimples.
“They found her in an alley with her throat cut,” Loch said. “Claw marks on her back made post-mortem. That’s Vadim’s calling card. There were rumors, but no one was ever arrested for killing her. But, she was working on a political corruption piece. It’s not hard to figure out what happened. Sure, Vadim didn’t want Kalenkov with her. She knew too much and wasn’t afraid to expose it. Killing her solved two problems. It pulled Kalenkov back in line and kept her from running this story.”
“Kalenkov was lucky,” Finn said. “He got out. We’ve heard rumors of whole families being taken out. But, that was more in Vadim’s father’s day. Late sixties, early seventies. Sonny boy rules with a gentler hand.”
Loch let out a bitter laugh at his sarcasm. “Sure, I’ll let your family live if you let me rape your daughter. So that’s the choice Andre Kalenkov faced. I’m sorry, Gideon. I don’t condone it. You know that. But maybe Grace’s dad just did it all to buy time. Everything you’ve said and what we’ve seen, the guy seems to love his daughter. Some of this just doesn’t add up.”
“I know what I heard,” I said. “I know what I felt coming off those wolves. If Andre thinks he can double cross someone like Vadim, he’s underestimating the guy.”
“You can’t let this stand,” Shae said. “Grace is your fated mate, Gideon. You know you have no choice. You have to intervene. No one here questions your duty. Our duty.”
Kian turned. His eyes blazed. “I’ll be the first one in line to lay down some fire, brother.”
“When’s Avelina getting back?” Loch asked.
“I expect any minute,” I said.
“Does she have any news?” Shae asked. “About...uh...you know?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “She said she’s got a contact in northern California who knows everything there is to know about shifter biology.”
“I just can’t believe there isn’t a way around this,” Xander said. “Shae’s human too. And yet, fate found a way for us to be together. Don’t lose hope.”
“I’m not,” I said. “But, I won’t put her at risk. You of all people understand that. If it means I’m celibate for the rest of my life, so be it.”
“If we go to war with the Vadim pack,” Loch said, his tone sober, “you all know what that means.”
“You trying to say we shouldn’t?” Kian shouted. Scales popped out on his forearms. Xander let out a warning growl. Baby Cassia was only twenty feet away from her uncle. If he couldn’t control his dragon around her, Xander might rip his head off and put him out of his misery.
Kian put his head down and stepped back.
“We know what it means,” Xander answered. “If Gideon goes after Pavel, he’ll risk facing his whole pack. His whole pack. There’s no way we get out of this without revealing what we are. If we do this, there’s no going back to the way things are now.”
The room fell silent. Even the baby seemed to understand the gravity of the vote before us. I loved my brothers. I would die for any one of them as they would for me. But, to protect my mate meant exposing us to the very forces that had made our kind extinct.
“And every wolf alive will know what happens when you mess with a dragon!” Kian said. He was nearly roaring, but he’d taken a position on the other side of the table away from Shae and the baby. Still, if he didn’t go topside and shift soon, his fire would eat him from the inside out. I knew exactly how he felt.
“Avelina should be in on this,” Loch said.
“You know what she’ll say,” Finn answered before I could.
“She’s a mother,” Shae said. “She’s sacrificed everything so that you could live. And she’ll keep on doing that until her last breath. It’s what I would do. What I will do.”
“Still,” Xander said. He was more cool, more circumspect. Of all of us, he had the most to lose if we ignited a new dragon shifter war. “We didn’t live through the end times like she did. She kept us safe, hidden for centuries before she felt the time was right to take dragonfire to our eggs and bring us into the world.”
“There’s never a right time,” I said. “I think she’d be the first to tell you that. It’s the same with this.”
“But wolf shifters,” Xander said. “And not just any wolf shifters. Grace is connected to probably the worst pack left out there. Couldn’t you have picked a lone bear, a jaguar, a tiger even?”
He meant it as half a joke, but the last bit made everyone in the room bristle. Our father had been betrayed and taken out by a clan of tiger shifters right before our mother’s eyes.
“We don’t get to choose our fate,” Shae smiled. She reached back and put a hand on her husband’s forearm. He leaned down to kiss her, his eyes alight with love and fire. Kian turned away. It was getting so much harder for him. For all of us.
“No,” I said. “We don’t. But we do get to choose whether this is the right course. I can’t do it for you. And I will not ask you to risk Shae or Cassia’s safety. You have to go on. No matter what happens to the rest of us. Xander, you, Shae, and Cassia have to survive. Or else...none of this was worth it.”
“So what do you think?” Kian said. “You think we’re just going to let you face down an entire wolf pack by yourself?”
“It’s the best option,” I said. “Taking out Pavel Vadim won’t be easy, but he’s no match for me one on one. If it’s just me...even when the rest of his pack knows what I am...that doesn’t mean they need to know about the rest of you. It can end with me and you can go back to the way things were. Safe. Hidden.”
“Bullshit!” Loch, Finn, and Kian shouted in unison.
“We have had each other’s backs for centuries,” Finn said. “That’s never going to change. I may never have what you and Xander have. Every day that passes, this sickness grows stronger. I feel it. We all feel it. While I still have control of my dragon, you bet your ass I want to go down fighting. I want to go down for something that matters. I say you let me take Vadim out. Then you and Grace have a shot. Just like Xander and Shae, you’ll go on for the rest of us.”
My heart went into my throat. Finn, Loch, Kian were of the same mind. Loch rose and stood shoulder to shoulder with Finn. Kian joined them.
“We vote,” Xander said. “Before Avelina gets here. Yes. She’ll have her say. But the five of us...the six of us need to be clear before that.”
“If Pavel Vadim’s pack is threatening our brother’s mate, then we neutralize that threat no matter what. Together if we have to. I say we take the risk of exposure. It’s worth it,” Finn said.
“Aye,” Loch joine
d in.
Kian’s “aye” came out as a growl. All eyes turned to Xander and Shae. Her eyes misted. “Xander,” she whispered. “We’ll lose Gideon anyway if anything happens to his Grace. I can’t live with that. Can you?”
“No,” Xander dropped his eyes.
“Don’t,” I said. “Let me go alone.”
“No,” Xander said more forcefully. “A threat to you or your mate is a threat to all of us. I won’t live in fear. And I won’t stand by and let you suffer the same fate as our father. We’re all in.”
He spoke quietly, but the impact thundered through me. Through all of us.
“Then it’s war,” Kian said. “You give us the word. You say when. You say how. Set things straight with your woman, and we’ll be at your side.”
I went to him. I put my hand out. Kian clasped my fist and we came together, thumping each other on the back. I went down the row and hugged my brothers. Shae slowly rose. Tears spilled down her cheeks. Baby Cassia stirred against her, opening one clear green eye. I kissed the top of her head, inhaling the intoxicating scent of her. My own loins ached with the hope of a child of my own.
There had to be a way. Shae was right. If fate brought Grace to me after all this time, I just needed time to find it.
A hot breeze blew in from the hallway. Avelina arrived, still breathless from her shift and long flight. Her eyes glinted ice blue as she charged into the room. She scanned it, reading the expressions on our faces. She swallowed hard and set her mouth into a grim line. Though she couldn’t read our minds, she knew us all well enough to understand what just happened.
“Mother,” I said. “We’ve come to a decision you probably won’t like.”
She flipped her hair behind her shoulder as she came fully in the room and reached for her granddaughter. Shae lifted Cassia into her arms.
“So,” she said. “You think you’re going to take out Pavel Vadim’s pack without me, eh?”
“Well, not without you,” I said. “We were kind of hoping you’d want in on it.”
She kissed Cassia and gave me a withering stare. “It might yet come to that. If it does, God help the poor bastard wolf who tries to mess with any one of you. In the meantime, I have some news about you and Grace and your...uh...delicate little problem.”
My heart turned to ash. Her tone and expression betrayed nothing. My mother could burn hot as hell and cold as ice.
She snuggled Cassia, then handed her back to her mother. She turned on her heel and flicked two fingers above her shoulder, beckoning me.
“Come on,” she said. “We need to talk. Alone.”
I shot Xander a look. He just shrugged his shoulders and gestured for me to follow. My heart pounding straight out of my chest, I went to catch up with my mother.
Chapter Sixteen
Grace
I waited until Sunday dinner when Milo, Erik, Edward, Leo, and Val were all there. My heart felt like a ticking bomb inside my chest. The air felt thick and stale as I tried to breathe. Gideon had to be wrong. He had to have misheard. I’d debated talking to Milo alone. But, I just didn’t know how to start.
Oh, by the way, there’s this dragon I’ve been seeing. He thinks Papa is planning to whore me out to Pavel Vadim. Thoughts?
I just could not find a way to confront my father without betraying Gideon and his family. I carried a large wooden salad bowl to the table, reaching over Papa to set it in the middle. He reached up and patted my shoulder, his eyes filled with the love I’d found there my whole life. Val reached for the tongs before I even set the bowl down.
“Did you get in touch with Tadek Roscov like I told you?” Papa asked Milo. “It’s going to be a big job.”
Milo was busy chewing on a breadstick. I’d made lasagna tonight. Not my father’s favorite, but it didn’t stop him from chowing down. Milo hesitated. His eyes flashed to mine. “I’ll call him next week,” Milo answered.
My father scowled. “You keep putting it off, he’s going to give the work to someone else. He’s got bids in all over town. This is a chance for all of you. You get a foothold in the neighborhood, you’ll have to turn away construction work. You can make your own pass.”
“Write your own ticket,” I corrected.
“Next week,” Milo said. It seemed we were all lying about something. I knew damn well Milo and the rest of them had been working security for Val’s connection. None of them had been on a construction crew in weeks.
“What about you?” Papa said as I sat down. “The Petrovs are supposed to be back from their cruise next week, right? Time you stayed under my roof again.”
My cellphone buzzed and flashed. Papa shot me a hard look. He hated those things in general, but even more so if we brought them to the table. It was Gideon. Though he wasn’t thrilled, he’d finally relented and accepted I had to confront my father alone. I knew he was close by though, ready to swoop in at any hint of danger to me.
“About that,” I said. “I think it’s time I get my own place. There’s a rental just a few houses down on North Oakley and I put an offer in.”
My father slammed his fork down. “Without discussing this with me?”
“That’s what I’m doing now,” I said, meeting his hard gaze.
“Out of the question,” he said.
I sat back hard in my chair. Milo caught my eyes and raised a brow that said, “good luck with this one.”
“Papa,” I said. “I’m an adult. It’s time. And I’m not talking about moving across the country. I’m talking about moving three blocks from here.”
He crossed his arms. “No. You belong under your father’s roof until…”
Something snapped inside of me. This wasn’t how I wanted to approach this at all, but I’d been holding so much in it all just came gushing out. “Until what? Until you mate me off with someone like Pavel?”
Dead silence.
Val moved first. He slid his chair away from the table. Milo and Leo sat across from each other and I saw the shock on their faces.
“Grace,” Leo said. “That’s a little harsh, don’t you think?”
I held my father’s gaze. He turned just about every color of the rainbow, but he still hadn’t spoken. My heart turned to ash. There was something. Oh, God.
“Grace,” he started.
It was my turn to push away from the table. Sweat broke out on my brow. “He was here the other night, right?”
“What are you talking about?” Val asked, his tone a dark monotone. He stared straight at my father.
I whirled around. “Tell me it was a misunderstanding. Tell me you haven’t bargained me to Vadim for your safe passage.”
“Who told you that?” Papa said. Val let out a growl. Milo’s wolf eyes glinted. I could sense the testosterone level in the room rise. They didn’t know. It twisted my heart with relief. No matter what my father may or may not have done, the rest of them didn’t know.
“Is it true?” I asked. “Is that why you’re alive? Why we’re all alive? And here? Because you promised Pavel he could have me when I turned twenty-one?”
All hell broke loose. Val was in mid-shift. Milo rose and staggered back from the table Erik and Edward were at his side. Leo dropped his head into his hands. Slowly, my father rose. Tears glistened in his eyes.
“Who told you that?” he whispered.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said, my own tears freely flowing.
My father let out a great sigh that I would hear for the rest of my life. It confirmed everything and broke my heart.
“Papa,” Milo said, turning on him. “Tell Grace she’s wrong. You wouldn’t. You would never do something like that.”
The room was thick with tension. Five virile wolves struggled to stay contained. My phone buzzed again. They had their beasts to control; I had my own rage, and connected as we were, Gideon could feel it. I let out a steady breath and picked up the phone. “Not now,” I texted back then set the phone down.
“It isn’t what you think,” Papa said. �
��I have a plan.”
Val’s wolf sprang forth. Silver-gray fur flew as he bared his teeth and rounded on my father. Milo sprung into action. He put himself between Papa and Val. Val didn’t stand down, but he didn’t advance. Tears streamed down my father’s face.
“Will you let me try and explain?” he said.
I straightened my back. It felt like my heart ripped from my chest. But, I had to stay level. If I didn’t, Gideon might misinterpret it and come blazing through my father’s front door.
“Sit,” Papa said. “All of you. Grace is right. It’s time I told you the truth. But, it’s not what you think. Val, I’m not your Alpha. You’ve no cause to challenge me. I’ve sacrificed more than you know to give you the life and freedom you enjoy. That all of you enjoy.”
I sank back into my chair. Val met my eyes. I gave him a slow nod. His fur rippled and he walked behind my father and down the hall. Milo and the others settled back into their seats. Papa went down the hall behind Val.
We waited. I had eyes on Milo. He looked as miserable as I felt. Val came back in first. He’d shifted back though sweat still glistened down his back. He’d grabbed a pair of black drawstring pants and sat beside me. He reached for his beer bottle and downed it in one swig.
Then, Papa came back. He held a large, black box in his hands with a gold latch. He set it on the table in front of his chair but didn’t take a seat.
“You know the history of our family,” he said. “You’ve all grown sick of it. You think I’m an old man telling war stories. That I’m out of touch.”
“No one thinks that,” Leo said.
“But none of you remember. You were all little boys when your fathers...my brothers were killed. One by one. Erik and Edward, you know your father Peter was my oldest brother. The Vadims killed him and your mother together. Left their bodies at my doorstep. Leo, your father died protecting you. Your mother was already long gone. And Valentin…”
“Don’t,” Val said. “I remember. I was just a boy, but I remember.”
