by Mina Carter
“…the only person touching her will be me. A hot fuck will make this whole tedious business bearable.” The noncat, nonhuman’s smirk widened to a lustful leer, eliciting an answering snarl from Ryder. His body shivered but he held his control. All he wanted to do was leap across the clearing and tear this guy’s throat out. In hot, bloody chunks of meat. He could already feel the heat of the blood on his tongue, taste it in the back of his throat. He didn’t care what this guy was, he would take him apart if he so much as laid a finger on Cat.
“You want her? Then you have to go through me first,” Ryder declared, thumping his chest.
“Ry…” Cat’s voice was soft and wary behind him, her hand tapping his back lightly to get his attention.
The speaker grinned. It wasn’t a nice expression, a lecherous look in his eyes as he glanced past Ryder. “Not a problem. You may think you’re the big bad…but I’m the real deal. You think the lady wants an animal when she can have a god?”
Ryder laughed. “Oh a god is it? Nice one…I thought I was arrogant but you, mate, you take the cake. Don’t worry, babe,” he dropped his voice and murmured over his shoulder. “I’ll sort this out. When I say the word, you run, as fast and as far as you can. Find Jayce.”
“No, Ryder—”
“Just do as you’re told, Cat,” he snapped, concern for her overriding everything else.
“Trouble in paradise?” the self-proclaimed god asked with a raised eyebrow. An expression that made Ryder frown. It was familiar, too familiar…like he’d seen it somewhere before.
“Ryder, look…look at his face,” Cat whispered urgently.
Ryder already was, studying his opponent’s features. A broad forehead, wide intelligent eyes set over high cheekbones, lips that curved into a cruel smile but on another…
“Fucking hell…” It was like looking into a mirror. Except he had light green eyes instead of dark, his mother’s eyes. “Dad?”
“Never call me that. You think I want people to know I fucked an animal and sired you? My name is Vangadr and I am a god, you can call me ‘my lord’ or ‘sire’…well, for the last few minutes you have left of your life, that is.”
“Yeah, yeah. I got the god thing already. You really are full of yourself, aren’t you?” Ryder’s brain moved a mile a minute as he tried to figure a way out of this. He’d always known he and Jayce were different…the elders of the pack had known too but they’d gone for the downward option rather than something more heavenly. Considering the look on his newly found father’s face, somewhere between anticipation and lust, Ryder wasn’t sure heavenly was the right word.
He reached up and latched a hand into the neck of his shirt, pulling down in a swift and brutal movement to tear it from his body. Vangadr’s eyes flickered as Ryder’s heavy, muscular torso was revealed. The blond werecat with the black eye grinned. Ryder was bigger and heavier than daddy-dear. He hoped it was enough to carry the fight.
The power building in the clearing shattered that hope as the air shifted around Vangadr.
“I’ll break your fucking neck…no, I’ll strangle you. I want to watch the life drain out of your eyes just like I watched your mother die.”
Ryder’s world stopped as pain threatened to engulf him. It was bad enough knowing his mother was gone. Bad enough she’d been murdered and died in pain. But to find out his father was responsible? Rage boiled up within him, threatening to boil over as he looked at his father.
Vangadr shook his head. “Ohh, that hurts, does it? Your mommy in pain?” The god sneered, stepping toward Ryder. “Good. You’re going to die a slow and horrible death while your bitch watches. Then, when I’m done with her…I’ll give her to the cats to play with.”
The four men around him grinned, the same sick look in their eyes as in Vangadr’s. Ryder’s heart pounded in his chest as the tension in the clearing mounted. Blood and adrenaline surged through his veins, a potent mixture that galvanized his body.
“Like I said, you gotta come through me first.” There was no way they were going to touch Cat. He’d make sure of that. Pausing, Ryder reached down within himself for the power of his wolf, his voice dropping deeper as he carried on speaking. “Cat?”
“Yeah?”
“Run.”
Chapter 6
“He’ll kill them, you know?”
Jayce had been lying on the outcrop as the paleness of the dawn brightened into day. Watching idly as the shadows shortened in the valley below. He hadn’t moved for hours, just wallowing in pain and misery.
At the soft feminine voice, he yelped and leapt to his feet. Sitting on the boulder behind him was a woman. Slender and so beautiful it made his heart ache, her pale gaze held his.
Stepping back Jayce summoned the change, his human form bursting from the lupine within seconds until he was standing naked in front of her. There was no shame in his expression, just demand as he looked at her.
“Okay, lady, three things. Who the hell are you, how did you find me and who’s killing who?”
She rose to her feet, her fluid grace tipping him off that she wasn’t human. The scent that surrounded him as she approached, of heat mixed with something delicate and floral, told him whatever she was, she didn’t spend long in the mortal plains.
“I am Rokki.” Her words were simple as she came to a stop in front of him and extended a hand. Her fingertips trailed over his side and Jayce had to remember to breathe.
“What the…?”
“I am Vangadr’s mate and, unless you heed my warning, he will kill your brother and your woman.”
Pain surged within Jayce and he shook his head. “Sorry, lady, I think you got the wrong guy. One, I don’t know a Vangadr and two, I don’t have a woman. She chose Ryder.”
Rokki smiled and shook her head. “A woman’s heart is a complex thing and choices are not always what they seem. Trust the woman you love…but first save her from your father. He knows you live now, and he’s vowed to wipe out all his bastard children.”
Jayce blinked, trying to take it all in. He didn’t question her word; he’d always been able to pick out when people lied and her voice had the ring of truth about it.
“Okay. This Vangadr is my father…and he’s trying to kill Ryder? Err…you do know what we are, right? We’re wolves. The big bad. Ryder’ll chew him up and spit him out in small pieces. I think it’s your mate you need to be worried about.”
She smiled, softly. “Vangadr is a demi-god.”
“Shit.”
Fear for Cat and Ryder filling him, Jayce started to turn and then stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Two questions.”
Rokki inclined her head. “If I can answer, I will.”
“Good. First, brother? Ryder and I aren’t related.”
She smiled again, patience in her pale eyes. Eyes almost the same colour as his own. “One soul, two bodies… you are more brothers than those of flesh and blood. But, your father doesn’t know there are two of you. That was my gift to you.”
Jayce grinned. He could use that. “Okay, second. Why are you helping us? You’re his mate.”
Rokki didn’t answer for a long moment, her lovely eyes filled with sorrow. “Not by choice, by someone else’s will. I want…” She stopped and shook her head. “We don’t have time. You need to save them. I cannot help you further. He already knows I’ve interfered. Go. Now.”
Without pausing to think, Jayce turned on his heel and ran, changing on the run again and heading back to the brother he’d abandoned and the woman who’d rejected him. He didn’t care whether they wanted him around or not. They were stuck with him. He just hoped he got there in time.
The fight, such as it was, lasted moments but it seemed like hours. Cat looked on in horror, she would run but her legs had forgotten how to move. The werecats surrounded the two of them, Vangadr with an evil grin on his face as he walked toward his son.
Ryder’s father. Cat shook her head and blinked as she looked at the self-proclaimed god. Ryder had celestial blood? In her
mind things slotted into place.
Divine parentage would explain the oddities about him, and by extension, Jayce. Their ability to control the change for one…an ability Ryder was displaying even now as he took on three of the werecats at once.
Power rolled over his skin as he part-shifted, just his hands changing into a half-form. His fingers lengthened, nails turning to razor-sharp talons he used to swipe at the cats as they tried to surround him. It was an ability she’d only ever seen in alphas before and once again she wondered if, without a pack, the brothers had not gone feral as everyone expected but had gone alpha instead.
“Hello, beautiful, how about me and you have a party all our own?”
Cat backed up as Vangadr broke away from the main fight, the cats keeping Ryder busy. The big werewolf roared as he moved like lightening, swinging under a vicious punch and raking his claws along an unprotected abdomen. A feline shriek of pain and rage filled the clearing. Ryder didn’t waste any time, picking the injured werecat up and throwing him at another. Cat’s eyes grew wide in surprise. She’d known Ryder was strong but to just pick up a man like that was a whole different level.
“Cat, run!” he bellowed, sparing a second to cast a glance over his shoulder. His fear for her showed stark on his face but a heavy right hook drew his attention back to the fight.
“Touch me and I’ll take your hand off at the wrist,” she promised, backing away from Vangadr. She didn’t like him. Her hackles rose as he got closer. He was handsome, yes, but it was wrong seeing Jayce and Ryder’s face on this hard-eyed stranger. Jayce, please, she silently begged, we need you.
“Ohhh feisty little bitch, aren’t you?”
“You’d better believe it,” Cat snapped back, a low growl of warning in her throat. For every step Vangadr took forward, she took one backward. She should escape while she could. But how could she leave Ryder? If she did, he was as good as dead.
Vangadr grinned, his eyes full of lust and excitement as he looked her over. Cat felt sick. “I know you want it. I can feel your heat rolling off you. Interesting what a female wolf will do at certain times of the year, isn’t it?”
“I’d rather die,” Cat spat, disgusted. A shudder ran down her spine. Like earlier, with Ryder, she kept stepping around the tree but this time she didn’t want to be caught. It wasn’t suppressed excitement making her heart pound or her limbs quiver. It was fear.
“That can be arranged.” Vangadr’s voice dropped flat, his eyes hard as he lost interest in the game. He sighed and as he waved a hand, the air around it shimmered. Cat tried to move back a step but she couldn’t. Instinctively she reached for her wolf, only to find the connection to the lupine part of herself blocked off.
Shit. Panic surged through her body and in her heart as she hammered at the wall between them. She’d never been cut off from her wolf before and not being able to reach into that part of herself terrified her. Whimpering, she pulled at her feet only to find they were rooted to the spot. “What the hell?”
As she struggled the paralysis got worse, spreading up her legs, freezing her knees and then her thighs. Pinned in place, she flinched as Vangadr stalked around her.
“Nowhere to run, sweetheart…Hmm, perhaps I’ll kill you while my son watches. He can see the life drain out of your eyes and know it’s his fault. Or,” he leaned in to whisper in her ear. “How about we stake you out until you’re mad with need…and he can watch you go feral?”
Cat blanched, feeling sick. Of all the things a wolf feared, it was that. A feral wolf was a force of nature, concerned only with feeding and, as its favorite prey was humanity, any wolf pack with a feral in its area would move heaven and earth to hunt it down and destroy it.
A body flew through the air in front of them, hitting the tree trunk with a heavy thud, the breath groaning from the unconscious form as it slid down into a crumpled heap.
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. Can’t you cats do anything?” Vangadr sighed in annoyance and waved his hand at the group fighting in the middle of the clearing. “I have to do bloody everything around here.”
The tsunami of violence resolved itself, Ryder held between two of the werecats, his head hanging low, and fresh cuts and bruises mottling his skin. Confused, Cat shrieked at him to fight back, but it was as though he was as frozen in place as she was. Paralyzed. Just like she was.
The sickening sound of fists hitting flesh filled the clearing, swiftly followed by the scent of fresh blood on the air. Not just any blood, but blood with the distinctive tangy scent of wolf.
Ryder’s blood.
“Please…don’t hurt him,” Cat begged, trying to tear her feet from where they were rooted to the ground. Her muscles protested and her bones ached but she ignored the pain to lock eyes with Vangadr. Nothing mattered besides stopping them from hurting Ryder.
“Please…” she pleaded, desperation threatening to choke her. “I’ll do whatever you want, just don’t hurt him.”
Vangadr laughed, the rich sound echoing around the wooded clearing, bouncing off the trees and back at them. The forest itself was silent, as though it was watching the little scene unfold.
“You just don’t get it, sweetheart. Do you?” he sneered as he left her frozen in place. “As pretty as you are, this isn’t about you…oh, I’m sure you’re a good fuck and my boy here is going to be heartbroken when I kill you…and rest assured I will kill you,” he added, wagging his finger over his shoulder at her as he circled the beaten wolf.
On his knees, his arms locked out at an uncomfortable angle behind him by his captors, Ryder’s head hung low.
“…but you really think anyone cares when one bitch buys the farm? Oh, no. This is about something far more important…” The god rolled his shoulder, all puffed up with his own importance. “This is about me.”
He turned and stopped suddenly as Ryder lifted his head. The big wolf might have been down but he wasn’t out, a malevolent hatred burning in his green eyes.
“Too damn right this is about you, Dad. And it’s gonna be all about you when I get these cats off me and break your fucking neck,” he promised, his voice low but determined. As though it agreed with him, the odd tattoo on his chest, the one both he and Jayce had had since birth, pulsed red for a second and then faded to normal. Vangadr’s eyes widened as he dropped back a step and considered his son.
Heart in her throat, Caitlin watched the interplay. She had to figure some way out of this. Had to save Ryder, even if it meant dying herself, because she loved him. Somewhere between the fight in the bar and being threatened by a self-proclaimed god, she’d fallen in love so completely her heart ached with it. Ached because it was full, ached because she was about to die and she’d never gotten to tell Jayce she loved him too.
Vangadr stopped, a frown on his handsome face as his vision snapped back to normal. Whatever normal was for a conceited, self-important, minor deity anyway. “Something is wrong. It’s like part of you is missing…” he said, his eyes widening, “…where is the rest of your soul?”
“Right behind you, sunshine.”
Cat caught her breath. Like an avenging angel, Jayce stood at the edge of the clearing, his arms folded over his broad chest. There was no amusement in his eyes, or his expression, as Vangadr did a double take, glancing from one brother to the other. In that moment, Cat realized they weren’t brothers at all… They weren’t bonded, but instead were the same soul in different bodies.
“Wha…you’re…you’re—”
“The word you’re looking for, is ‘family.’” Jayce let his gaze flicker from Vangadr to the cat trying to flank him. “Call the cat off or I’ll neuter him.”
He’d lurked in the shadows before making his presence known, listening to what was going on. Long enough to work it all out.
This man had killed the only mother he’d ever known.
His father as much as Ryder’s.
His eyes connected with Ryder’s and the link between them cracked wide open. “God…” Ryder’s voice,
not just his feelings, fed directly into Jayce’s mind. “Always knew I was special. I’m a god!”
Jayce’s mental voice snorted slightly. “You’re an idiot. Get over yourself, if anything I got the god bit. You hurt?”
Amusement filled Jayce’s mind coming down the link with his brother. “Hurt? You think I’d let this lot damage me? Purrlease, you wound me.”
“You’re not stuck like Cat?”
“Fuck no, just waiting for you to stop posing so we can finish this. This guy—”
“—killed mom. Yeah, I got that bit. Let’s do it.”
The exchange was over in a second and both wolves fixed their attention on Vangadr. The god looked nervous, his dark eyes shooting from Ryder to Jayce.
“One soul…not possible. It’s that bitch Rokki…she put you up to this,” he mumbled, taking a step backward. This time, though, Vangadr was being stalked as Jayce backed him up across the clearing.
The tabby werecat trying to sneak up on the left side snarled and launched himself at Jayce. The wolf moved like lightning, as graceful and elegant as a dancer. His extended arm caught the werecat in the throat, a spin bringing his opponent into his arms, hard hands locked on either side of his head. Jayce twisted his shoulders—a quick, savage movement that ended in the crunching of broken bone. Dropping the body at his feet, he carried on.
Out of the corner of his eye, Jayce watched as Ryder dealt with his own guards, dragging the men hanging on to his arms upright and slamming them together like an overenthusiastic toddler with new toys. They dropped like stones to lie groaning at his feet. Ryder stepped over them, his eyes fixed on Vangadr.
The god continued to back up, looking from Ryder back to Jayce with fear in his eyes. He stumbled into Cat, still held fast by the enchantment he’d put on her. She growled and shoved him back toward his sons.
He yelped in surprise as he landed between Ryder and Jayce. Ryder’s merciless face mirrored how Jayce felt as both took an arm.
“Hello, Father—”
“You can’t do this! I’m a god. Do you hear me? A god. Do you know what that means?”
