by Hettie Ivers
As Alcaeus’s wrath was unleashed, my blood vibrated to life, and I felt a foreign tugging sensation in my chest—a swirling of magic rising up in reaction to Alcaeus’s emotions. What the—
“Fuck, what’s wrong with you?” Raul screamed at me, his level of anxiety scaring me more than the bizarre awareness awakening in my chest and the stifling rage I sensed emanating from Gabriel and Alcaeus. “Wake up, for fuck’s sake. Wake up before it’s too late, Miles! Do it!” he ordered, his eyes wild. “Now, Miles!”
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“Christ, you had one fucking job to do,” Alex was berating Alcaeus as they materialized in my darkened bedroom.
I pulled my weary, stiff body upright in bed, my heart thumping overtime and my limbs trembling. What the hell had just happened?
I could feel the strain in every shaking muscle, the tension that had settled into my very bones, as I pressed the heels of my fisted palms to my eye sockets in a futile attempt to stave off the inevitable tsunami of emotions about to drown me.
“Was it too much to expect you to look after Milena’s mind and person for just eight hours while I was gone?”
I reached out blindly as soon as I felt the bed dip beneath Alex’s weight, his rapturous scent wrapping around me moments before his body did. And I broke.
“Is that a fucking joke?” Alcaeus retorted. “Did your head finally get lost up your ass for good?”
“Just leave,” Alex grated at his brother. “I’ll deal with you later.”
His voice took on a gentler tone as I wound myself around Alex like a vine, clamoring and clutching at every inch of his body that I could get my greedy fingers and limbs upon as the first quiet sob escaped me.
“I know, I know. I’m sorry.” He stroked my hair and back as I climbed into his lap and buried my face in his bare shoulder. “I should’ve gotten you out of there sooner, but I saw an opportunity and I took it. I’m so sorry, baby.”
I couldn’t get close enough to him as I straddled his waist and locked my heels together behind his back. Couldn’t breathe enough of his scent through my nostrils. I felt absurdly panicked at the prospect of him leaving me again. I wanted to ask him if he was staying. I didn’t know if he had to return to Brazil, as I’d not expected him back until morning. And it was all I could do to stop myself from begging him to stay. So wordlessly I begged him with the entirety of my person as I clung to him, pressing every inch of myself against him.
“Not going anywhere,” he hushed my unspoken fear. “I’ve got you.”
“You do actually realize that I have been handling literally everything for the past week, while you’ve been busy moping and feeling sorry for yourself, right?” Alcaeus’s booming voice spurned, startling me with his presence in my bedroom still.
“Raul doesn’t mean it,” Alex crooned to me, ignoring his brother. “He’s not himself. He still loves you. I promise he loves you. He thinks he’s doing the right thing.”
The fact that Alex was now defending Raul’s love for me and offering up excuses for his behavior only served to underscore just how dire the situation with Gabriel and my brother had become. I smothered a shuddering sob against Alex’s neck. Meanwhile, my she-wolf wanted to bite him there as hard as she could. So much so that I could feel my mouth watering, my canines elongating. God, I was all kinds of fucked up.
“Do it,” Alex enjoined on a groan, one hand wandering to my ass while the other pressed against the back of my head.
I did. Uncaring of the scores of women he’d slept with or the fact that Alcaeus was right there in the room watching, I bit down—not quite as hard as my wolf wanted, but enough to elicit a moan from Alex. And I proceeded to suck on his neck like it was my salvation, caught in a bizarre space between despair and arousal while Alex squeezed my ass and ground me against his erection.
“That’s it, baby. Just like that,” he encouraged, raking his fingers through the hair at my scalp. “I never slept with Jussara. Promise.”
My vision blurred further at his confession, and the taste of my tears mixed with Alex’s flesh.
“Mm-mmm …” Alex hummed with approval, rocking me back and forth in his lap as his fingers traced up and down my spine. “Feels so good … promise I’m all yours. Bite me as hard as you want.”
“Seriously?” Alcaeus complained. “Do you have to do this right now? Jesus, Alex, we have vital issues at play. Lives at stake!”
“Get out!”
“No. Alex, you’ve been so damned distracted that Remy, Kaleb, and I have had to run our entire operation since Milena showed up. And this current bullshit of you eschewing all responsibility in favor of playing fucking house with Milena in the States is unacceptable. I need you to get back to Brazil and lead our pack. Your pack.”
“Not now, Al,” Alex snapped over my head at his brother.
I was only half-listening to Alcaeus, as I’d moved on to nibbling and sucking my way down Alex’s shoulder. I suspected Alex wasn’t really listening either, as he’d yanked the quilt from the foot of the bed halfway up across my back, concealing where his hand had boldly nestled between my legs, cupping my sex from behind through my sleep shorts. I was pretty sure we might resort to shagging behind the cover of that quilt next if Alex didn’t get Alcaeus to leave my room soon.
“Yes, now! Damnit, we need to talk. Strategize. Obviously, we’ll never trade Jussara. But there are things … things you need to know about before we meet with Gabe and Nuriel next,” Alcaeus muttered cryptically. “I’ll hand it to you, though, that was a brilliant call working Lessa into the mix. Nicely played. They really had no idea about her attack. Which confirms several things while still raising other questions. That was your read on Gabe too, right?”
“Yes,” Alex groaned. “Agreed, Al. We’ll discuss all this later. Get the fuck out of our bedroom.”
“C’mon, Alex, we’ve just hit a breakthrough. We need to move on this. Raul practically threw all their cards on the table, the dumbass. Idiot thought to bait me and wound up burying himself. If they didn’t want Milena and Jussara so badly, Gabe and his brother would be killing that boy right now.”
“Al!”
“Gah, sorry, Milena. Didn’t uh … mean that.” Alcaeus coughed. “Did you sense how scared they both were of her?”
I knew I should care—pay attention at the very least to the revelations Alcaeus was broadcasting, but I didn’t want to hear them. Didn’t even want to think about anything right now. I just wanted to tunnel within my connection to Alex and forget everything else that was happening around me.
“I’m busy,” Alex panted. “Ah, fuck … fuuck, baby, right there,” he encouraged, his hands running over my body beneath the quilt.
“Mateus said that Milena was the ‘heart’ of the Salvatella blood curse,” Alcaeus recounted. “I saw it in her memory. And there had to have been a bigger reason he separated Raul from her other than the fact Raul’s an imbecile. In a body, the heart pumps blood to feed the rest of the system. Milena must be the life source for the curse, Alex. And that has to be what ultimately connects her to the Rogue, right?”
“Later!”
“Fuck you, Alex. Milena is not your only responsibility.”
“She is in this moment,” Alex rejoined, the air bursting from his lungs. I knew he was as uncomfortably aroused as I was. I could feel it. “And I’ve been running this pack day in and out for over a century longer than you ever fucking did, so save your self-righteous tirade. I’m entitled to a week off.”
“Not when we’re on the brink of war and of possibly having the Rogue slip through our fingers. And I co-managed this pack for over two centuries before you ever came along, fuck you very much. Just because Dad was Alpha doesn’t mean I sat around on my hands.”
“Leave!”
“Nope,” Alcaeus refused. “Not happening. I care about Milena, too, you know,” he declared, switching tactics as the bed dipped to my left side. My bedroom had never felt so small before. Alex growled and pulle
d me closer, his hand clenching down between my thighs beneath the blanket, halting my unconscious grinding.
“Milena?” Alcaeus appealed to me rather than his brother. “Honey, I’m really sorry about Raul. And I’m even more sorry I was late and that you were left alone with Gabriel. But you handled yourself like a fuckin’ boss, and I’m proud of you.”
I released a watery laugh at his praise, feeling as mentally confused as I was physically frustrated. I was pretty sure I’d barely held it together and had sounded like a moron throughout most of my interaction with Gabriel Salvatella. I just wanted to forget it all right now. To lose myself in Alex.
“He’s right.” Alex squeezed me tighter before whispering, “Gabriel preys on insecurities, baby. You handled him remarkably well.”
But not well enough. He didn’t say it, but I felt it just the same. It was there in his fear for me. Or maybe it was in the fear I felt for myself.
“Gabe’s a creepy motherfucker, and you have every reason to be shaken up right now by his twisted mind games,” Alcaeus continued, “but you’re going to be okay. Remy’ll find a way to block him. He’s spent over a century obsessing over what happened with Luiza and Renata, researching human girls’ heads and toying with emotional compulsion methods.”
“Milena is not just another human girl,” Alex reminded him crossly.
I recalled how Alessandra had reprimanded Remy before for his “creepy research-slash-fetish compulsion thing” with human girls, saying that it had become an embarrassment to the family. Were the unfortunate circumstances of his mother’s demise really what drove him to keep those human pets?
“Of course she’s not,” Alcaeus agreed. “Milena is exceptional. And that’s why she’s going to be able to handle Gabie just fine.”
I wasn’t at all sure what Alcaeus meant by that statement, as in the moment, I didn’t feel capable of releasing my mouth’s hold on Alex’s neck, or of even sleeping alone in the dark ever again, much less making good on the ballsy threats I’d slung Gabriel’s way.
There was a tentative rapping on my bedroom door before light from the hallway flooded the room and the scents of Kai and Remy made their presence known.
“Fucking Christ,” Alex groused.
“Alex, Milena is going to be fine,” Alcaeus persisted. “The rest of us I’m not so sure about if we don’t form a clear strategy and sort out a few key pieces to this puzzle fairly quickly. She’ll be perfectly safe with Kai and Remy while you and I talk. Besides, she’s exhausted. Kai will keep watch over her mind if she falls asleep while you’re gone. Please, Milena?” Alcaeus implored me directly instead of his brother. “I really need to speak with Alex alone.”
I stiffened and relinquished Alex’s shoulder as the dim light bulb in my head finally went on and I realized what Alcaeus had in no uncertain terms been trying to convey for the past few minutes. I was keeping Alex from doing his job. Distracting him from taking care of his pack, from those who depended on him for their safety. I began to disentangle myself and was about to readily acquiesce to Alcaeus’s request when Remy’s voice stopped me.
“Al, let’s let them fuck a few times first,” he suggested. “Alex might be less inclined to kill you if he calms down.”
“Get out before I teleport all three of you to China!” Alex ordered.
“But—” Alcaeus tried.
“Out!”
“Wait,” I interjected, pulling away from the warmth and temptation beneath my fingertips. “It’s okay, Alex. I’m okay. You … you should talk to Alcaeus.”
He was shaking his head before I’d finished. “Not leaving you.”
“Really. I’m okay,” I repeated, hoping that I sounded even a little convincing. “Alcaeus is right. I’ll be perfectly safe with Kai in my head if anyone tries to … you know … ” I swallowed. “I’ll be fine. Please? Go talk to Alcaeus. It’ll make me feel better. I think I just—I need a minute to myself to process everything anyway,” I lied.
And I knew that Alex knew I lied. Which only served to confirm he did in fact realize he was neglecting his duties when he reluctantly agreed to my feeble attempts at rationalization and persuasion.
“Ten minutes, Al,” he told his brother, his eyes still on me.
Alcaeus gave me a wink and mouthed, “Thank you,” as Alex began rattling off what sounded like instructions to Kai and Remy in Portuguese.
Wait … Why in Portuguese? I knew he was most likely instructing them about me, so a sinking feeling clawed at my insides when I caught Lessa’s name spoken twice amid his directives.
“Is Alessandra okay?” I asked, afraid to hear the answer. “Is she … recovered?”
Alex gave me a nod and a forced smile. “Everything’s fine, baby. I’ll be right back.”
He hadn’t answered my question. And he quickly departed, his footsteps flying down the stairs outside of my bedroom. Alcaeus followed, but not before directing a meaningful look at Remy and Kai.
Remy responded by flipping Alcaeus off, and Kai actually muttered what sounded like foreign curse words under his breath at Alcaeus’s retreating form. I frowned at their strange reactions as the three of us were left alone in my bedroom, Kai and Remy standing awkwardly just a few feet inside of my open bedroom doorframe. Quietly watching me. Waiting. For what?
A shiver danced up my spine. I drew the covers around my shoulders. They were keeping something from me.
“Sure you got this?” Remy asked Kai.
“I have a choice?” was Kai’s wry reply. His eyes were closed where he stood leaning against my bedroom wall in his pajama bottoms. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was beyond exhausted himself or if he was concentrating on something. Perhaps he was listening?
I’d tried my best to eavesdrop as well at first, but I was at a severe disadvantage since Alex and Alcaeus were conversing in Portuguese downstairs. A glance at the clock revealed it was half past three in the morning.
“Alex is going to want to kill him,” Remy commented. Still fully dressed, he looked fairly tired, too. I wondered how long he and Bethany had stayed up talking. And whether Bethany had even gone home?
“No doubt,” Kai said. “But he won’t. Least not today. Still needs his help.”
“Where’s Bethany?” The tone that accompanied my words was harsher than I’d intended—admittedly, somewhat laced with accusation.
Remy’s mouth merely lifted at the corner, though, giving me a lazy, lopsided grin. “She’s fine, Milena. Not to worry; I didn’t do anything you’d disapprove of.”
“I wasn’t worried,” I denied. “Just wondered where she was.” I knew I was sounding more disagreeable by the second, but I was out of sorts and growing more so. Something was off. What was I saying? What wasn’t off?
I wanted Alex back.
“Of course you weren’t.” Remy bobbed his head, his smile broadening. “I saw Bethany home safely. And she was quite well when we parted company.”
I nodded. It was a small comfort knowing Bethany was home safely at least.
Silence ensued. “You two look tired,” I remarked, contemplating whether it might be overly rude to simply ask them both to leave my bedroom.
“We’re fine, Milena,” Kai answered, eyes still closed.
Meanwhile, Remy was regarding me askance, giving off that eerie vibe that only he could—the one that said he was cataloging every minuscule emotion I expressed, that he somehow understood exactly what I was feeling and could predict the very emotions I would experience next. “How are you feeling, Milena?”
I nodded again for no reason, realizing after the fact that the gesture pretty well signified nothing, but not so much caring. Because I lacked both the desire and the ability to answer Remy’s inquiry. Something was definitely wrong. For as calm as they appeared on the exterior, they were nervous about something. I smelled it now. Fortunately, they let my nonresponse fly as Remy addressed Kai next.
“You know,” he mused with a yawn, “Al’s had quite shitty timing lately.
”
Kai shrugged. “Or maybe overly shitty circumstances stacked against him. Let’s face it: this whole thing can only end badly for him, no matter how Alex takes this latest piece of news.”
“Fuck, I know it.” Remy stretched and scrubbed a hand through his hair. “We never should’ve let her keep the baby. I knew it’d be the mistake that forever haunted us.”
Baby? Were they talking about Gabriel’s niece? Jussara?
“Right. Shame on us for drawing that hard line at infanticide, eh?” Kai acceded with dripping sarcasm. “Henceforth we shall know better.”
Who were they talking about? And why were they openly dishing such intriguing gossip in English in front of me when I was pretty sure they were actively trying to hide something else from my attention?
“Well, I never liked her,” Remy offered up.
Kai chuckled. “Sure.”
Unless … unless they had intended to distract me from whatever was presently so distressing to Alex downstairs? Shit. Belatedly, I sensed Alex’s mounting fury—along with a few other choice emotions—now that I was paying better attention.
“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Remy balked.
“I think you can figure it out.”
“What? I never liked her.”
“She never liked you first,” Kai said, opening his eyes at last. “I believe yours was an aversion borne of convenience. Ah, here we go,” he announced, moments before a loud crash and shouting in Portuguese erupted downstairs.
I threw my blankets aside and leapt for the open bedroom doorway. But Kai caught me around the waist and hauled me back before I could reach it. Remy shut the door, then leaned against it. Blocking my exit.
“Let’s let them talk it out, hmm?” Remy coolly suggested.
I barely heard him over the sound of my own heart rate spiking as I struggled in Kai’s arms.
“They’re not talking,” I pointed out, as full-blown panic set in. “They’re shouting and breaking things. And this is my house!”
