by Dia Cole
Nathan’s amber eyes widened. “Everyone?”
I nodded. “They believe the worst is coming.”
“You mean—”
“Yes,” I said, answering his unspoken question. “Liam and I just came from extracting Dr. Wheeler from the hospital. The entire place is swarming with infected. This town has twenty-four hours at most.” Nathan couldn’t be surprised at this news. For the past few days social media and television had played nonstop footage of hollow-eyed humans attacking and eating each other.
Nathan cursed and glanced at his Rolex. “I thought we’d have more time.”
I shook my head. The entire human race was out of time. “If we don’t get on the road now, there’s a good chance we’ll be trapped in Saguaro Valley.” And although we were immune from the virus and could easily take out a few attacking infected, even the strongest Lykos would fall under a massive horde. At that thought, a chill crept through my jacket and swept down my spine.
Nathan ran a hand through his hair. Although the silver streaks in his dark hair had looked strange on him when we were boys, now it only added to his distinguished look. He reeked of money and prestige from his tailored suit to his perfectly manicured hands.
I, on the other hand, probably looked like a bum leaning on his expensive car with my black leather jacket and eye patch.
Stiffening, I reminded myself that I was the head Enforcer. Only the best fighters in the faction were handpicked for the honor of being the Alpha female’s personal guards. Although if I was being honest, indentured brute squad would probably be a better term for what we were. “Look, you need to come with us. The mountains are covered in ice. That vehicle won’t make it to Winterhaven.”
“We’ll take the Rover,” Nathan said, clicking a button on his dash. Behind us a door rolled up revealing six gleaming vehicles inside a vast garage.
I barely stopped myself from drooling over the sight of a cherry-red Porsche parked between a green Range Rover and a silver BMW. Must be nice to be Alpha. A bitter taste coated my tongue before I reminded myself that Nathan wasn’t like Tasha. He’d never abused his power and had abdicated his seat on the Council in order to save his only child. That he’d gone toe-to-toe with Tasha and survived made him a hero in my book. If he wants to drive himself, fine.
“I’ll ride with you.” I started to telepathically relay the change in plans to Liam when Nathan said the words I’d been dreading.
“First, I have to go pick up Mira from her nanny’s house.”
Tensing, I said, “Tasha didn’t lift Mira’s banishment.” How any mother could condemn her child to death was beyond my reckoning. I rubbed my eye patch as pain flared in my right eye socket. The constant throbbing ache was something I’d learned to manage except in moments when I was reminded of my greatest anguish.
Nathan froze, a fierce expression crossing his face. “That fucking bitch.”
I couldn’t agree more. But it didn’t change one fact. “You can’t bring Mira back to Winterhaven.” If he did, Tasha would kill her immediately. Or even worse, force me to do it. My chest grew tight as I thought of my sister’s child. Isla never had a chance.
“I know,” Nathan said, rubbing his temples. “I’ll take her to Sanctuary.”
“The mountain lodge?” I asked unable to keep the incredulousness out of my voice. The luxurious vacation home had been built as Tasha’s personal retreat.
Nathan nodded. “She’ll be safe there.”
In theory he was right. Although the forty-acre property and ten-bedroom lodge was impressive on its own, like all Tasha’s homes, it was equipped with a below ground doomsday shelter. Only one problem. “Tasha will find out.” This time of year, Tasha made frequent trips to the lodge.
Nathan growled. “I won’t let that happen. Mira and Havana will be safe there.”
“Who?”
“The female you’re going to pick up for me tonight.”
My mind swirled in confusion. “Who’s Savannah?”
“Her name is Havana James, and she’s a human that I want you and Liam to pick up on your way out of town.”
“You want us to bring a human woman to Sanctuary?” I repeated slowly. My mind couldn’t grasp that he would ask such a thing. The act of bringing a human to one of Tasha’s homes would be nothing short of suicidal.
Nathan fished a phone from his pocket and tapped on it. “Yes, I’m texting you a photo of her along with the address to the club where she works. She’s dancing there tonight.”
“Dancing? As in stripping?” My voice rose several octaves. Has the Alpha lost his mind?
“Yes,” he replied, his voice sharp as a blade. “She used to be Mira’s nanny. She’s special…very important to me.” He looked up at me with an intense look in his eyes that spoke volumes. Clearly his relationship with this woman hadn’t purely been a business one.
I shook my head. “I’m sorry. That’s impossible. We have our orders.” Alpha or no Alpha, what he was asking us to do would not only incur Tasha’s wrath, but also violate every cardinal rule we lived by.
Nathan stepped out of the sports car with a lethal grace that had me backing up a step. Although on the shorter side for an Alpha, he was nearly eye level with me.
Refusing to meet his gaze, I stared at the setting sun behind him. It looked like the mountains were being dipped in fire.
“Look at me, Gabriel Perez,” he said in a voice that rang with power.
Unable to fight his will, I glanced into Nathan’s eyes. They glowed with the same golden hue as the sun. “You’ll pick up Havana James, you’ll bring her to Sanctuary, and you won’t let any harm come to her. Do you understand?”
The compulsion in his words was so strong it reverberated in my skull like a gong. I gritted my teeth knowing it was futile to resist Nathan, just like it’d been futile to resist Tasha’s horrific orders all those years ago. I bowed my head. “Yes, sir.”
“Mason and Liam, swear to do the same,” Nathan called out to the SUV in a voice filled with Alpha power.
“Yes, we swear, sir,” the two males answered in unison.
Nathan bared his teeth in a facsimile of a smile. “Good. I'll pack and pick up Mira. We’ll meet you at Sanctuary and then we can discuss the plan.”
Just great. I’m sure whatever “the plan” is will get us all killed. Biting my lip, I nodded, stepped out of his way, and walked to the SUV.
Both Liam and Mason looked slightly dazed when I got back into the vehicle.
Liam rubbed the side of his head. “Fuck. Looks like we’re picking up a female.”
“Yeah,” I said, grounding my molars together. I can’t believe Nathan used compulsion on us. When Tasha found out he’d circumvented her orders, there’d be hell to pay. For him and for us.
Shaking his head, Liam followed my directions to the club. By his silence, I could tell he was livid. Of course, that was before he’d met Havana. Now he couldn’t pry his eyes away from the female.
“Eyes on the motherfucking road,” I reminded him for the twentieth time.
The big man punched my arm hard enough to leave a bruise and focused his attention back on the road.
With a heavy sigh, I glanced behind me and saw Mason tightening his arms around the woman.
Havana shifted in her sleep and her already sinfully short dress climbed farther up her thighs. I gritted my teeth and forced myself to look away. With a growing sense of dread, I realized she was no Atavus.
There could be only one explanation for why she was affecting me, Liam, and Mason this way. She was a latent Lykos who had yet to go through her transition. It was exceedingly rare for one of our kind to be found among the humans, but it happened. Hell, the doctor sitting behind me was evidence of that.
Once Havana went through her first transition, she’d instinctively seek out other Lykos. Or we’d hunt her down attracted by her scent. Havana couldn’t be more than a week or two away from her transition. I could smell it in the intoxicating musk of her skin
. I shuddered, my claws extending and retracting.
Just being around her fogged my mind with lust. It’s got to be the pheromones.
When females transitioned for the first time, they entered their first heat. There was a reason they went into seclusion during that time. It drove every unrelated, unclaimed Lykos male in a ten-mile radius mad with lust. I would never forget the first time my sister transitioned and went into heat. My father and I had to guard her all night fighting off her would-be suitors.
Shit. Alpha order or not, there was no way we could bring this female back to Sanctuary. The three of us would tear each other apart to have her while we waited for Nathan to arrive.
I clenched my hands into fists imagining what would happen if the Alpha male found one of us screwing her. He’d kill us slowly and painfully.
Havana let out a soft noise in her sleep.
Liam looked up sharply as Mason made a soothing noise that settled her.
If we were to survive, I needed Havana as far away from them…and me as possible. But how can I do that without bringing down Nathan’s wrath? I rubbed my jaw as I racked my brain for a solution. Outside, the sun peeked over the horizon illuminating the changing landscape. Desert shrubs gave way to large pine trees.
As we continued rising in altitude, I yawned, feeling the pop in my ears. At least we were heading in the direction of home. We’d be safe when we got there. Winterhaven was a sustainable settlement with all the food, water, and housing our faction would need for the foreseeable future. Due to her paranoia, Tasha had been forcing us to prepare for some cataclysmic event for years, and she’d make sure that, unlike the humans, we would survive it.
A wave of melancholy gripped me as we approached Sunridge. Even the remote ski town would be overrun by the infected soon. I studied a tight cluster of snow-covered cabins in the distance. The virus would rip through this place going from cabin to cabin.
Wait. Cabin. Yes. I grinned realizing there was a way I could fulfill Nathan’s request without endangering Havana or taking her to the lodge with us.
I glanced over at Liam who was studying the sleeping female in the rearview mirror again. Neither he nor Mason would like my plan. Tough shit. I straightened my shoulders. As the head Enforcer I was in charge until Nathan returned and my word was law. I’ll make sure the female is no longer a threat to us all.
8
Havana
“Wake up, love.”
With a start, I opened my eyes and found Mason staring down at me. The sunlight streaming through the car windows backlit his blond hair, making it look like a halo. And his eyes. God, his eyes were as blue as the deepest end of the ocean. I wanted to gaze into them for hours.
“We’re here,” he said with a smile.
My face warmed as I realized I’d fallen asleep plastered across his chest. What’s going on with me? I was never usually this comfortable with guys. Hell, it normally took me a couple of months of dating before I could even fall asleep next to a guy, and here I was drooling all over this stranger’s shoulder after we’d met just a few hours ago.
Blinking away my fatigue, I looked out the window at snow-covered pine trees surrounding the SUV. Snow! I’d never seen the white stuff in real life. Excited, I sat up and a bolt of pain knifed into my spine. I let out a cry before I could help myself. Damn it. The pain pills had worn off. I cursed my last-minute decision to leave the bottle of oxy in my locker. Living with this constant pain was going to suck ass.
“What’s wrong?” Mason asked his brows knitting together.
“Just my back,” I said, giving him a strained smile.
“Let me take a look at it.”
“It’s nothing, just a recent injury,” I said, waving my hand as if that would dismiss the throbbing pain. Noticing the empty driver’s seat, I asked, “Where’s Liam?”
“Getting your new home ready,” Gabriel replied from the front seat. He pointed out the window at a small, dilapidated shack. The windows of the ancient-looking structure were boarded up, and the snow-covered roof looked ready to collapse at any moment.
What the…? “That’s Sanctuary?” With a name like that I’d envisioned a fortified mansion or at the very least some kind of sturdy structure build in this century.
Gabriel let out a dry laugh. “Hardly. But it’s where you will be staying for the foreseeable future.”
Mason tensed next to me. “She should stay with us.”
Gabriel glared at him. “It’s not safe.”
Mason jabbed his finger in the direction of the shack. “And she’ll be safe in some cabin that’s been abandoned for the past forty years?”
My heart pounded. “Wait, you’re not really expecting me to stay in there, are you?”
Gabriel scowled at Mason. “It’s not her safety I’m concerned about. She’s a threat.”
I gave him an incredulous look. “Says the guy with the gun.”
Gabriel ignored me. “She can’t be anywhere near us. Not if you want to live out the rest of your days.”
“That’s ridiculous,” Mason said, wrapping his arm around me protectively. “She’s not dangerous.”
Gabriel cursed. “You can’t even keep your fucking hands off her for a second and Liam’s been mooning over her the entire drive. She’s an attractive Ly—” He looked over at me and shut his mouth. After taking a deep breath, he said, “I’ve made my decision.”
Mason tightened his arm around me. “You’re wrong.”
A tension grew between the two men so thick it made the hair on the back of my neck stand on end.
Gabriel bared his teeth. “Are you challenging me?”
Mason made a low rumbling sound in his throat. If the noise had come from a dog, I’d say it was a growl, but Mason was a man. Right?
Suddenly, the shack didn’t look so bad. “I’ll go look for Liam.” I grabbed the handle and swung the car door open. The cold air burned my lungs and shook the last bit of lethargy from my limbs. Taking a deep breath, I stepped out into the snow remembering a second too late that my boot heel had snapped off. “Ah,” I cried, barely stopping myself from falling.
“Havana!” Mason slid out of the seat and scooped me up in his arms. “Let me help you.”
The abrupt motion sent waves of pain radiating down my back. Not wanting to ruin his chivalrous move, I bit back my moan of pain and let him carry me up the rickety steps of the shack. To think I’d gone my entire life without a man picking me up and in the space of twenty-four hours two mouthwatering men had.
Mason shifted me and opened the shack door with one hand. The door creaked so loudly I half expected the whole thing to fall off the frame.
I took one sniff of the dank musky cabin air and sneezed.
Mason laughed. “You sound like an adorable chipmunk when you do that.”
“No, I don’t,” I said, playfully slapping his chest. I’d long been teased about my high-pitched sneezing.
Smiling down at me, Mason stepped across the threshold and his foot plowed straight through the floorboard. He fell forward, and I sailed out of his arms.
Moving so fast he was a blur, Liam snatched me out of the air. “Gotcha.”
I couldn’t stop the gasp of pain that escaped my lips when the auburn-haired giant gently set me on my feet. Wincing as I rubbed the small of my back, I said, “Wow, you move fast for a big guy.”
“I’ve got all kinds of moves, beautiful,” Liam replied with a wink. He looked over at Mason. “Sorry, I didn’t have time to warn you. The floor is bad over there.”
Mason tore his loafer free of the broken plank. “This place is an uninhabitable death trap.”
I wholeheartedly agreed. The dark space was covered with spiderwebs and inches of dust. It contained only one room no bigger than the dressing room at the club. The only furnishings consisted of a small table and bench, a wooden rocking chair, and an old green-and-red plaid couch that looked like it might be home to a colony of fleas.
“Oh. It’s not so bad. It’
s actually kind of nice with the creek right out back. Most important, the stove still works.” Liam marched over to the large black woodstove in the center of the room. “I’ve cut enough wood for several days, just make sure to keep the stove going.” He opened the rusted metal door to the stove to show me the fire flickering inside and then patted the four-foot-tall pile of logs he must’ve stacked next to the stove.
“She shouldn’t stay here,” Mason said, eyeing the small section of roof that had collapsed in the far corner of the room.
Liam straightened to his full height, the top of his head skimming the exposed timber ceiling. “I agree, but it isn’t up to me.”
“It’s up to me,” Gabriel announced carrying in my duffel bag. He stepped over the hole Mason had made in the floor. As he set the bag down on top of the table, it sent a plume of dust into the air. Gabriel coughed, looking around the room. “Isn’t this cozy? You know people pay a lot of money for rustic travel experiences these days. Who needs running water and electricity when you can have the sights and sounds of the forest?” He lifted his arms up and turned in a half circle. The heel of his boot crunched through another weak floorboard.
I’d stopped listening halfway through his monologue. “There’s no running water or electricity?” Hysteria filled my voice. Roughing it was staying at a motel without cable. I’d never been camping before. I couldn’t imagine anything more horrific than sleeping on the ground outside with nothing but a bag and a nylon tent separating me from the creatures in the wilderness. I glanced at the area by the door that probably served as a kitchen space. There was a rusted basin, but no faucets. “Where’s the bathroom?”
Liam rubbed the back of his neck. “There’s an outhouse out back, but I think a family of raccoons might be denning in there.
“Raccoons,” I shrieked.
