by K. C. Hamby
“One more thing. Ash kind of wants to meet you.”
“Yes! Yes, yes, yes! That would be so fun. I can get some dirt on you from him.” She waggles her brows and I cringe. He definitely has a lot of dirt on me. “Can we do it tomorrow?” Hope lights up her freckled cheeks. She’s just going to jump right into my world then. I huff out a laugh and pull her to me.
“That should be fine.”
After quickly running back to my car to get my overnight bag, Nina and I get ready for bed. I check the welts on her neck and convince myself I don’t need to go after Sara and torture her when I see the marks are turning a deep purple. I make her put more ice on the spots to sooth the pain as much as possible and then we head for bed.
I fall asleep nearly as soon as my head hits the soft pillow. Nina curls up on my chest and the pressure from her head brings into focus how light I am. The weight of the world has been lifted from my shoulders and has turned into a perfect, wavy-haired girl in my arms. She is my world now and I don’t care if the weight crushes me. I’ll die knowing I held my whole world in my arms, if only for a short while.
***
My eyes peel open and, beside me the sheets are cold, telling me Nina is not here. I feel around the bed and come up empty. I’m in the bed by myself.
My nose catches the scent of something absolutely delicious. I sit up in an instant, my mouth embarrassingly watering like a salivating dog. Nina is running around in the kitchen area, going back and forth between the stove and her MacBook on the counter. I watch her silently until she catches me staring.
“Well, good morning sleeping beauty.” She gives me a playful grin. “I wanted to cook you breakfast and I had a few articles I had to write for the paper today. You were sleeping so hard, I didn’t want to wake you up.” She squints her eyes at me. “Wait, that’s a lie. I tried to wake you up, but you were out cold. Kicking ass must be taxing.” She guffaws at herself and I roll my eyes. She turns around and types furiously on her laptop, impressing me with her ability to multitask. She pads over to the bed, kisses my cheek, and runs back to the stove. “I hope you like pancakes. Strawberry, to be exact.”
I think I almost fall out of the bed.
“Be still my heart,” I wail and dramatically slap my hand over my chest. “I love them.” She gives me a winning grin while Luna hops on the bed with me, begging for some attention of her own. I scratch behind her ears, reveling in the thump thump thump of her foot kicking because I’ve hit the right spot.
“Huh,” falls from Nina’s lips.
“What?” I get up and walk over to the counter and take a seat. Luna follows loyally and lies down under my feet.
“Oh, nothing. It just makes sense why Luna is so crazy about you. She must sense your inner canine.” Luna snorts, seeming to agree. I guess it makes sense. It’s not like I’ve ever tested the theory and I’ve never had a pet before. I shrug as Nina plops a huge plate of pancakes in front of me. She’s even cut up fresh strawberries and placed them on the very top. I could kiss her right now, but I’m too hungry to do anything with my mouth other than stuff it full of pancakes. I groan at how amazing they are and Nina wiggles her shoulders arrogantly. She goes back and forth between eating and typing. Her wavy, honey hair is up in a messy bun on top of her head with the two dreaded braids snaking up the back. The silver beads woven in them shine in the artificial lighting. Her blue shirt has an array of writing utensils across the front with the words ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’ underneath. Her sapphires eyes catch the reflection of the computer screen.
“What are you working on?” I ask between mouthfuls. Her head pops up and she meets my gaze.
“Just everyday news stuff. Weather, politics, and, a few months ago, I wrote an interesting story about five missing girls showing back up I think about nine or so months ago, claiming they were taken to be a part of a sex slave….” She freezes. “Wait. Was that you? That was totally you, wasn’t it?” I nod. “Wow. Those girls couldn’t give any concrete descriptions of their rescuers other than there were two. One was a large male with an axe.” I roll my eyes at Ash’s description. “And the other was a female who could have taken down all the guards by herself.” She squints at me as I smirk at my shining description. “You weren’t lying about being able to kick so much ass.”
I shrug. “I just do what I have to do, that’s all. I don’t really worry about anything else. I’ve done nothing but duty ever since I was seven. Duty and heartlessness. It really boils down to it being hard to have a heart when you’ve stopped so many.” I bow my head, trying to avoid Nina’s wide eyes. “It strips the emotions away. Sometimes, I feel like a monster. Well, I know I’m a monster.” I whisper the confession, my eyes stinging. I didn’t mean to dredge up these feelings of guilt. Guilt is right up there with anxiety on my ‘I Despise You’ list.
“You are not a monster, Fal. I’ll admit, you’re scary when you’re angry, but you are nowhere near monster level mean or scary.” She takes my hand in hers and I want to believe her. But I know what I am. I know I have darkness inside of me. I’ve accepted it.
“You’re pretty scary when you’re angry too,” I tell her, plastering a smile on my face I’m sure doesn’t meet my eyes.
“Yeah, whatever.” She huffs. “Oh, hey. So, I know you have your Chosen tattoo thing. What does the one on your back mean?” I scrunch my forehead and look down at myself, realizing I’m sitting here rudely eating with just my sports bra and boxer briefs on. My face heats as I try to muster up an answer.
“It’s the Paw; the mark of the assassins. I got it when I graduated from the assassin track.”
“It’s a real tattoo then?” She wiggles her eyebrows and I frown.
“Yes, it and the ones circling my arm are real tattoos. Painful needle and everything.”
“Oh, right! You said the bands are your rank. So, what is your rank?” She leans on the counter toward me and props her chin on her hands. Curiosity is cute on her.
“Alpha.”
“Oh, shit. I’m dating an Alpha?” I solemnly nod. “That’s so badass!”
Chapter 25
We pull up to Ash’s house a few hours later and I turn off the car. I actually remembered to text Ash this time to make sure Invidia wasn’t around. Go me.
Nina is quiet in the passenger seat and her scent is tinted with anxiety.
“Hey.” I touch her arm, getting her attention. She smiles nervously when I give her arm a little reassuring squeeze. “Ash is going to love you, okay? You don’t have anything to worry about except whether you will like him.” She giggles and nods her head for us to get out. We do and walk up to the porch. I grab her hand to try and calm her nerves, and hold on to calm my own.
I hope this doesn’t completely suck.
I raise my fist to knock on the front door when it opens before I even touch it. Ash must have been watching like a creeper from the window. I blow a laughing breath out of my nose.
He stands in the doorframe tall and intimidating in his black T-shirt and dark-wash blue jeans with a huge grin on his face. Nina’s grip tightens on my hand as she takes all of him in.
“You must be Nina,” Ash says in his upbeat, charming voice. “I’m Ash, the better-looking, more charming sibling.” I curl my lip up at him as he shakes Nina’s hand. It looks dwarfed in comparison to his. She blushes and follows him inside of the house with me following, shaking my head in exasperation.
Nina plops down on the couch, gazing around the room. I sit beside her wondering what the hell kind of thing Ash is about to pull. I don’t trust him one bit to act like a normal host.
He doesn’t disappoint. He fires questions at her without taking a breath. I give him a warning glare he promptly ignores.
“What do you do, Nina? Are you a painter? You look like a painter. Or some other artsy person. Do you work at a coffee shop?”
Oh, my goddess. I’m going to kill him.
Nina takes it in stride with a sing-song laugh. “I’m a writer!�
� Ash gives me a ‘I knew it’ cocky smirk I want to slap off his face. “I write for the local newspaper about things going on in the city. I wrote about two mysterious heroes rescuing girls from a sex slave operation.” She raises her eyebrows in challenge as she keeps up with him. It’s my turn to give Ash an arrogant grin.
“Ah, yes. I think I heard about that. Interesting story.” He rubs his face like he’s deep in thought. “I heard the taller, more attractive hero was the brains of the operation.” I groan at his cocky playfulness. He smiles so wide he could catch hundreds of bugs in his mouth. I hope it happens.
“Oh, absolutely. He was the star character,” she flawlessly shoots back, playing along. He looks at me with a ‘hear that? I’m better than you’ look and I sneer at him. “But anyway, I like writing poetry the best. Spoken word is my favorite.”
“And you like her?” He points at me and laughs. Nina giggles and I childishly stick my tongue out at Ash. He wiggles his shoulders with a smug set to his mouth and leans back in his chair. “I guess her being the best assassin ever does give her some cool points. But don’t tell her I said that.” Ash winks at Nina and I try to hold back my five-hundredth eyeroll of this visit. Nina turns and gives me an ‘oh really?’ raise of her brows and fire races up my neck, threatening to make me blush. I’ll never hear the end of it from Ash.
“Oh, she didn’t tell you. How humble.” He guffaws, slapping his knee. “She’s the best sniper and fighter I, and the whole Pack, have ever seen. Hecate chose wisely.” I think I see pride in his eyes and I can’t do anything to stop the blush this time. He raises a comical eyebrow at me. Great.
“Oh, I don’t doubt that. I saw the fighting part in action last night.” Nina giggles and Ash’s face immediately falls into a concerned frown. I jump in before he has a chance to go all ‘protective brother’ on Nina.
“It was just a jealous girl who was mad I’ve been hanging out with Nina. She ended up trying to choke her out and I….I handled it.” He looks to Nina’s neck where she has expertly hidden the bruises under a forest green scarf. She smiles reassuringly and he calms a little. She seems to have that effect on everyone. Huh.
Ash lets out a low laugh. “The poor girl probably shit herself. I know I never want to be on Fal’s bad side.” I sigh. I glance at Nina and the corner of my mouth tilts up in a smile at her amused expression. “So!” Ash yells, making Nina jump. “Do you guys want to get some lunch?” His voice booms unnecessarily loud across the living room. Nina nods eagerly and my stomach growls. Ash smirks at me knowingly. “The lady—and stomach—have spoken! Let’s go.” He stands up and grabs the keys from the kitchen counter and slips out the garage door. Nina stands to follow him and I grab her arm.
“Let’s go out the front door. The garage is where he….disposes of evidence from missions.” My lips press together, not wanting to go into details. She pales.
“Oh. Okay, good idea,” she whispers and does an about-face, striding toward the door.
We walk toward the driveway where Ash has backed the SUV out of the garage. He rolls down the window and motions to Nina with a wave of his hand. “Hey, Nina. You can sit in the front and control the radio.” She looks at me with questions in her eyes.
“Oh, please do. He has horrible taste in music,” I whisper. She smiles wickedly and runs to the passenger side while I slide in the backseat.
“Hey!” Ash yells, obviously hearing my remark. “I do not have bad taste in music.” He crosses his arms over his chest like he is genuinely offended. I snort as Nina concentrates on the radio with determination in her posture.
I find myself retreating into my own thoughts. I vaguely hear Nina talking to Ash, but I tune them out.
I’m immensely grateful Ash made me keep my Chosen identity a secret. If he didn’t, I probably would have never met Nina. I would be paired with some Chosen guy and we would be forced to try and make Chosen babies. The thought makes me cringe. I am not mother material. They would slap some leadership position on my shoulders and I would have to leave Seattle with my maybe Chosen baby. I can handle being a leader. It’s in my genes and my nature. I’m an Alpha after all. But, I can’t stomach the thought of being with someone else other than Nina. Even before I met her, even thinking about being with someone—even if it’s with only the intent to have a child—made me extremely uncomfortable.
Without Ash, I wouldn’t have found my true Mate. I would walk around heartless with half a soul and I would be lonely for the rest of my unnecessarily long existence. I’m glad they have hit it off so well. It makes my black heart happy.
I tune back into the conversation when I realize there’s arguing going on. My breath catches until I realize what they are bickering about.
Nina is trying to explain to Ash that PennyForward’s songs all sound the same—which is apparently annoying and I concur—and he is shaking his head furiously. Goddess, help me.
“No! They are awesome and totally have different sounding songs,” Ash fires across the center console. Nina groans and turns around in her seat to look at me with tired eyes.
“Does he really only listen to PennyForward CDs?” I press my lips together trying to hide my amusement and nod my head. She scoffs and looks back at Ash as he drives. “Today, you are listening to the radio.” She hits a few buttons on the touchscreen control panel, going through channels quickly, filling the SUV with jumbled concoctions from every style of music known to man. She throws me a victory smile when she finds what she was looking for. Austin Woodriver’s voice rings through the speakers and Nina dances wildly underneath her seatbelt. I laugh at the look on Ash’s face in the rearview mirror. He goes through the five stages of grief right before my eyes.
Denial. He shakes his head and groans, “This is not happening right now.”
Anger. His brows furrow and his mouth twists in fury at each high note Austin hits.
Bargaining. “Okay, what if I let you play one song and then I play PennyForward?” Nina shakes her head and continues dancing without missing a step.
Depression. He stares straight through the windshield with sad, drooped eyelids.
Acceptance. He raises his eyebrows as Austin hits a particularly high note. I see his fingers lightly tapping on the steering wheel to the beat of the song.
Nina flashes me a smirk and I silently applaud her great accomplishment. “I mean, I guess it’s catchy,” Ash says, pretending to be indifferent when I can tell he likes it. I can smell it in his scent. I huff a laugh.
“I think you’ve met your match, brother. She gives you a harder time than I do.” He laughs as we pulls into the parking lot of The Love House and find a place to park. This place is our unspoken favorite.
Nina quirks up a brow at me. “A vegan restaurant?” I nod my head at her skepticism.
“I tried pizza for you. Now you have to try something I like.” Ash flips around in his seat and stares at me with wide, dark amber eyes.
“You tried pizza? How was it? Holy shit, I’ve heard it’s delicious,” Ash babbles. Nina guffaws.
“She nearly ate the whole thing by herself.” Ash glares at me for an explanation.
“It was good, okay?” I defend myself. I hop out of the car and slam the door before Nina can tell him other embarrassing things and vice versa.
They follow suit and we all make our way inside and sit in a booth by the window. Ash plops down on one side by himself and Nina slides in our side first, sitting next to the window. I sit beside her silently and we all order water when the waiter comes to take our drink order. Nina insists on having a lemon in hers.
When the waiter leaves, Nina asks me to order for her since she doesn’t know what’s good here. I order us some delicious looking veggie burgers while Ash decides to nearly order the whole menu for himself.
“Geez.” Nina breathes in disbelief at him when our waiter disappears into the kitchen.
“What?” Ash asks. “I’m a growing wolf.” He rubs his flat and muscular stomach making Nina’s lip
s turn down in a frown. Ash leans across the table. “So, how are you feeling about the whole ‘there’s a different world that I didn’t know about and my girlfriend is an assassin dog’ thing?” Fire lights up the skin of my cheeks at the word ‘girlfriend.’
“I mean, I read a lot of fantasy books, so it’s not like I was completely unprepared.” Ash gives her a wolfy grin, but turns to me with seriousness in his eyes.
“I’m not saying anything to Invidia.”
“Invidia?” Nina glances back and forth between us. “Who is that?”
“She’s this amazing, fiery, beautiful woman. And my girlfriend,” he says in this awestruck voice that would usually make me want to barf, but I understand it now.
“Ohhhhhh,” Nina drawls and wiggles her brows at him. He blushes. I throw him a mean smirk and he ducks his head. Point for me.
“Thanks, blushy. You’ve evened the score.” I sneer. He gives me a ‘you’re one to talk’ look I ignore.
The waiter drops our food off and Nina dives right in. “Oh, my god. This is so good,” she mumbles through a mouthful of food.
“Right?” Ash digs in to all the food the kitchen has to offer. We each clean our plates and Ash sits back groaning from a full stomach. As soon as I sit back to do the same, my phone buzzes with an incoming call on the table beside my plate. I read the caller I.D. and the blood drains from my face. Ash glances at the screen and bites the inside of his cheek in sympathy. I grab the phone and press the green answer button mocking me from behind the screen.
“This is Falen Thana,” I answer. Ash holds his finger over his lips at Nina’s questioning look, telling her not to speak.
“I have an assignment for you,” Cosma’s voice tears at my ears through the speaker. “It should only take two days. Come to my office for more information after Nathan’s training today.”
