by Lexi Blake
Dev pulled me close to him and started to lead me out of the room and down the hall toward the front door. We needed fresh air. I needed to be away from Daniel. I needed to cry for a really long time.
“What’s going on, Zoey?” Lee asked as we walked toward the outer door. I was sure he heard more than I would have wanted as he sat in his chair in the front room.
I shook my head, but he was a brick wall. “I’ll be fine, Lee. Danny is leaving us. Could you please let Albert know that he’s leaving tonight? Albert doesn’t like surprises.”
“I don’t either,” Lee replied, looking behind me with a stern frown. “I don’t like them at all.”
“I don’t think I’ll be leaving until we clear a few things up, Zoey,” Daniel said, following us out into the parlor.
I ignored him. He’d said everything I needed him to say. He’d brought another woman in. She was waiting at my house. I had to stifle a cry because of all the things he could do to me, I hadn’t expected that. I suppose it wasn’t fair. I had Dev. I wasn’t exactly pure, but Dev was part of us. I thought we’d gotten past that.
Dev walked up to Lee. “Zack will be going with Daniel. I hope you’ll stay on with us. Zoey is comfortable with you and she’s going to need your help more than ever. We’ll be doing a bit of traveling, though.”
Lee’s gaze shifted between us and Daniel. “I’ll follow Zoey. I said I would. I’ll take care of her.”
Daniel shook his head. “What the fuck are you doing, Dev? This isn’t what we talked about. You know why I’m doing this, and you’re fucking everything up. You promised me if everything went to hell that you would take care of her.”
Dev turned back and acknowledged Daniel’s presence. “It hasn’t gone to hell, but you obviously have made up your mind. I talked to McKenzie earlier. He found me during my ritual. He was very intent on making sure I knew he’d changed his mind. You have your meeting. The alphas will be gathered at ten thirty this evening in the main house.”
His blue eyes wide, Daniel stared at us. “How? He was extremely negative last night. It’s why I decided to do this now. You said so yourself.”
“He told me he was impressed with Zoey. She saved Neil earlier today from a pack of wolves. She stood up to all of them, McKenzie included. He said any man with a woman like that could probably be trusted,” Dev explained. “Good luck, Daniel.”
I heard Daniel curse as we left the tent.
Dev pulled me into his arms, carrying me as we fled the tent. Even as I started to cry into his shoulder, I heard Lee and Daniel screaming at each other. I lifted my head and turned back toward the sound.
“Don’t, Zoey,” Dev commanded as he walked into the forest. “Lee can handle himself. I think your big brother is giving Daniel a much-needed lecture. I take back everything I said about that wolf, by the way. He’s a perfect guard for you. He’s welcome in our household.”
I held onto Dev for dear life as he walked through the quiet forest until he found the spot he was looking for. It was a clearing near a pond, and he sat down, shifting me in his arms so I sat in his lap as he relaxed on a huge rock. He stroked my hair and let me cry for the longest time.
I finally looked up at him, wiping the tears from my face with the back of my sleeve. “She better not touch my shoes.”
Dev chuckled, holding me close. “I promise you, my love, she cannot fit in your shoes. Her feet are enormous. They’re not sweet and dainty like yours.”
“So she’s really big?” I asked hopefully. “The only answer here is she’s an awful person and she’s horribly unattractive and she’ll make Daniel miserable.”
He smiled faintly. “All of those things, lover. She’s quite mercenary, actually. I’ve only spoken with her briefly on the phone, but Daniel described her to me. He really did think to bring her in for his vamps at first. He’s been negotiating with her. Obviously he would never bring in an unwilling companion. He was going to bring her in and allow her to choose.” He took a deep breath. “Zoey, I’ll take care of you.”
“And I’ll take care of you. So we’re going to Venice, huh? I’ve never been out of the country.” I held on to him so tight. I knew what Marcus was going to want. It made me uncomfortable, but Dev was right. I didn’t see another way to go. I didn’t want to end up on the auction block. Marcus was strong enough to defend a companion, and I knew he cared for me. He would never give me a platonic, marriage-in-name-only arrangement though. He would want blood and sex in exchange for that protection. I steeled myself. If that was what it took to protect Dev, myself, and my dumbass husband, then I could handle it. Even now, when he’d broken my heart so completely I wondered if it would ever be whole again, I knew I couldn’t leave him to fate.
Dev pulled my face to his. His green eyes were serious. “Zoey, I will never share you with Marcus. I would kill him first. I have no intention of selling your body for our protection.”
“But, Dev, it makes sense,” I argued.
“No, Zoey.” His expression was the tiniest bit savage. “I will not have it. That was just a bluff to break Daniel’s game. You wanted me to fight, sweetheart. Well, I don’t fight fair. That’s the way to lose. It still might work. Daniel seemed perplexed that things didn’t go the way he wanted. If it doesn’t work, then I have another plan.”
I shook my head in amazement. “You always do, Dev.”
“It certainly doesn’t involve marrying you off to another damn vampire,” Dev said under his breath. “I’ve enjoyed our relationship with Daniel, but that’s the extent of our experimentation. After tomorrow night, there will be no more threesomes, lover, not if Daniel proves too stubborn. It will be you and me. Daniel said something about using his assets. Well, I intend to use mine. I’ll be making a deal with the Unseelie. When we return to this plane, you’ll be tied tightly to Faery. You’ll have Lee and apparently Neil, and you’ll have an Unseelie guard. I assure you, lover, that I can find some nightmares to protect us. Literally. They’re actual mares, though they have some really nasty teeth. Please, don’t try to give them carrots.”
I nodded. My trip to Faery was going to be educational. There was a certain comfort in Dev’s planning. It left me feeling less bereft. It gave me something to hold on to.
“If all goes as planned tomorrow night, when we get back from Faery, Declan and Padric will return with us and we’ll meet with Marini. We’ll set down all the rules and regulations regarding your employment. He can agree or he’ll have a war on his hands. And, Zoey, if anything ever happens to me…”
I knew what he wanted, and I was willing to promise him anything. “I’ll go to Faery and find Declan.”
“Not Marcus,” Dev reiterated.
I wound my arms around his neck. “Not Marcus.”
Dev pulled me into the warmth of his body and kissed me passionately. There was a lot of emotion between us in that moment. There was love and sadness and an overwhelming sense of commitment. My heart ached at the thought that Daniel wasn’t with us, didn’t want that commitment from us.
There was a rustle in the forest, and Dev shot straight up, shoving me behind him. He cursed as he reached for the gun that should have been in a holster at the small of his back. In the chaos, he’d forgotten it. The SIG Sauer was still in the nightstand where I’d replaced it earlier. We hadn’t thought about safety or weapons when we were fleeing the scene with Daniel. Lee had stayed behind because he trusted me with Dev. He wouldn’t be prowling around.
“I thought I smelled you,” Mitchell Roberts spat as he walked out of the woods. “Are you going to try to shoot me again, bitch? I won’t give you a second chance.”
He snapped his fingers and two large wolves prowled out of the trees, baring their teeth. One of the wolves was a sandy blond, and I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt it was Wyatt Roberts. He’d healed from the gunshot wound I’d given him and anything McKenzie had done to him earlier in the day. The other wolf was gray. The fur on their backs was standing straight up. They were ready for
blood.
I took a deep breath and held on to Dev’s waist. It was time for us to take care of ourselves, and I had the sudden feeling we weren’t anywhere close to being ready for the task.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Quinn,” Mitchell addressed Dev, “my fight is with the girl. We’ve been kicked out. My place as alpha has been challenged. McKenzie is sending in three strong candidates to replace me. I have to fight and kill all three if I want to keep my spot.”
“You won’t survive.” Dev looked around for anything that might help us.
“You think I don’t know that? That’s the point. They’re going to kill me, my son, and my second in command,” Mitchell spat. “McKenzie wants all of us out because of her. I’m going to kill her, Quinn. Walk away now and I’ll let you live. I don’t have a fight with you.”
“Walk away from my mate?” Dev laughed, using terms the wolves would understand. “That’s not going to happen and you know it.”
“It’s your funeral,” Mitchell replied.
“And how will McKenzie handle it when you kill me?” Dev asked suddenly, trying to keep the werewolf talking. “He’s going to know it’s you, Mitchell. No one else wants me dead. The rest of the wolves need me alive. McKenzie will hunt you down. For that matter so will my brother.”
Mitchell smiled, a pale imitation of joy. “You seem to think I got something to live for, Quinn. You don’t understand. The alphas are just a legal way to kill me. If I run, McKenzie will have me assassinated. He’s done with my family and all because we won’t have a queer in it. You should have stayed out of this.”
Mitchell changed. His wolf was a large black thing with powerful muscles and a set of razor-sharp teeth.
In my experience with wolves, they rarely just up and attack. They greatly prefer to elicit a maximum dose of fear from their victims. I’ve never had it confirmed, but I often suspected some wolves feed just a little from the raw emotion that courses through you when realizing that you’re about to be eaten alive. I would have used my speed dial—because this was one of those times I’d promised to give Lee a little call—but I was underdressed for the occasion. I was the dumbass who wore a short cotton robe and no shoes to a wolf fight. My cell phone, like Dev’s shiny, would-have-been-really-helpful gun, was sitting on the nightstand.
Unlike a regular, plain old doesn’t-turn-into-anything else wolf, the werewolf will split their targets. A normal wolf pack will choose the weakest target and all of the pack will attack, leaving a Darwinian shot for the stronger animal to flee. This would not be the case with us. If Dev or I tried to run to increase the chance of the other surviving, they would simply split up and run us down separately. I tried to remember just how far we had come into the woods. How far away were we from the tent and the range of Lee’s supersensitive ears?
“Stay behind me, Zoey,” Dev said quietly as the wolves growled.
“So they can eat me second?” I didn’t see how that was going to help.
I didn’t need to see his face to know he was rolling his eyes. “Yes, my sarcastic love. I want them to eat you second. Have a little faith.”
Dev hands were at his sides and now his fingers spread apart, splaying wide. I felt his skin get hot as his magic grew. The wolves reared back and as they attacked, vines shot out from the ground, thick shiny roots and glorious arms of green pulling at the wolves’ limbs, carrying them to the ground. The wolves struggled mightily, using their teeth and claws to chew at the ties that bound them.
Dev moved quickly. “Time to get up, sweetheart.”
He held his hands out to give me a boost up the nearest pine. I planted my foot in his interlaced palms, hurrying because I could hear the wolves struggling to break free. Dev used his strength to shove me up. My hands gripped the lowest branch and it almost felt like it was going to break under my weight. Miraculously, it held and I climbed up to the second, much more stable branch above it. I leaned down, reaching for Dev.
“Not going to happen, lover,” he said, shaking his head. “I’ve got a good seventy pounds on you.” He turned back to the wolves, two of whom had gotten free. “Stay where you are no matter what happens. Declan will look for us. Go with him, Zoey.”
“Dev,” I yelled as the first wolf pounced. I saw blood and just started screaming.
The black wolf was at Dev’s throat. He managed to kick up with his legs, pushing the wolf back. There was a deep scratch across his cheek and the wolf had taken a bite out of his arm. Blood began to well up. God, I couldn’t lose them both in one night.
Dev kicked his legs up and was suddenly on his feet again. He picked up a heavy branch that had fallen from one of the trees and wielded it like a baseball bat. The other wolf was kicking and biting his way free.
I screamed for Lee, praying he could hear me with those freaky sensitive ears of his. The wolves circled Dev now, and he didn’t dare throw down the only weapon he had. They would be on top of him before he could call anything else. I had one option.
Dev needed a diversion.
I looked at the forest floor below me. It was a good twelve feet away. I needed to hit the forest floor running as fast as I could. It was instinctive for a wolf to chase something that was running. It might give Dev a chance to try something else, and if it didn’t then we would both be dead anyway and he wouldn’t have a chance to yell at me. I leapt, but before I could reach the ground, two strong arms caught me. Daniel looked at me with a frown.
“Not on your life, baby,” he said before he shoved me back into the tree. “Stay there, Z.”
Dev brought the stick he held down on the yellow wolf’s head with a satisfying crack. The wolf howled but was back up and snarling as the black wolf was leaping onto Dev.
Daniel pulled the black wolf by the tail and swung its heavy frame through the air in a circle until it crunched against the trunk of a tree.
I heard the wolf’s spine break. Daniel let Mitchell Roberts drop as he changed forms, his human body hitting the ground. Daniel pulled the gray wolf off Dev, who had fallen down. The wolf tried to take Dev’s leg with him but Daniel reached down, putting a hand on the top and bottom of the wolf’s jaw and just pulling.
It didn’t take much before the jaw split and the wolf whimpered. Daniel, now with a nice coating of blood, had his fangs out. He pulled the injured wolf up and twisted his slack-jawed head around until it broke and the wolf fell silent.
Dev sat up and pulled himself out of the line of fire as Daniel turned to the last wolf standing.
The wolf whinnied and backed away, realizing it was facing a bigger, badder predator. He tried to avert his eyes, to give Daniel his submission. I could have told him that was never going to save him. He’d tried to kill me, and Daniel wasn’t going to accept an apology.
Daniel can call wolves. It was a talent he used rarely, but he now called on it to force Wyatt Roberts to change. Daniel held out his hand and his magic spoke to Wyatt’s power. Unwilling, Wyatt fought the change, and the pain was apparent from the way he screamed.
Daniel showed no mercy.
I dropped out of the tree, perfectly safe now that Daniel had made sure none of the wolves could move of their own volition, and I made my way to Dev. I grimaced at his wounds as Daniel and Wyatt fought to gain control of Wyatt’s body. There was no doubt in my mind about the outcome, so I focused on Dev. His leg was the worst. It was bloody, and I could see a chunk of flesh had been torn out. I ran my fingers through his hair and kissed his forehead. He sat there, completely exhausted, but watching the scene before him with rapt intensity.
Daniel had come for us. Dev’s fingers threaded through mine. There was still hope.
Wyatt was finally in human form, and his whole body shook, terror on his face.
“It was my father’s idea,” Wyatt said, practically pleading.
“Was it your father’s idea to try to kill my wife?” Daniel asked. It was his beast talking. His eyes were glowing a sapphire blue, and he pinned Wyatt with his will. T
he wolf tried to run but found his feet wouldn’t move. This was vampire persuasion at its finest. “You will tell me the truth. What would you have done with my wife had you caught her?”
“I would have raped her.” Forced by Daniel’s persuasion, Wyatt’s mouth spoke the truth. “I would have raped her and gutted her with my claws. I would have bathed in her blood.”
Daniel crossed the space between himself and Wyatt in one of those quicker-than-my-eye-can-see moves. One moment Wyatt was standing and the next he crumpled like a broken doll, but not before I saw a gap open in his chest and blood bloom across his white skin. Daniel turned back, and I saw a heart in his hands.
Daniel crossed the ground to where Mitchell Roberts was lying, his spine shattered and unable to move.
Daniel dropped the heart in front of him and knelt beside the man. “Your line dies now. The only one left to carry your name is the only one you denied. He won’t weep for you.”
“Kill me, Donovan.” Mitchell could barely speak.
Dev forced himself up.
“What are you doing?” I asked, scrambling to help him stand.
Daniel pulled a wicked knife out of his boot, offering it to Dev. I stilled my surprise. It went against Daniel’s nature to offer Dev a piece of his kill when it came to revenge. Daniel was a killer, but a quick, efficient one for the most part. He was only brutal when those he cared about were threatened, and then he acted ruthlessly and always in a singular fashion. Offering Dev that knife was a sign of respect. It said Dev had as much to lose as Daniel. Daniel was acknowledging Dev had the right to defend me. “Would you like the honors? You suffered more.”
