Silence fell between us as hot water pounded our matching red hair, our backs, the tiles on the floor around us.
“I'm sorry,” I told Nic, reaching out and putting a hand on his knee. He flinched a little at the touch, licked his lips and glanced away. “Not for mating with Che, but for the way I did it. I should've waited, talked to you first. You're more than just another alpha male in the pairing, Nic. You're … my right hand.”
“Maybe your left?” he asked with a slight smile, and I knew he was joking about his usual position, standing behind and to the left of me. It was where an alpha's bodyguard always stood.
“Okay, my left,” I said with a matching smile. Nic glanced up at me and the expression faded a little. He was jealous; that was okay. I expected him to be jealous. It was only natural.
He blinked wet lashes over dark eyes and then sighed.
“The last thing I want to do is cause you more trouble, Zara. You've got enough on your plate as it is. I just …” Nic closed his eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. “I just wish you were mine.”
“I am,” I said, getting onto my knees and crawling closer to him, so I could brush some dark red hair from his face. He opened his crow black eyes to stare into mine, telling me without words that he loved me, that he'd do anything for me, that we'd fight through this together. The one thing neither of us mentioned was that at the end of the Pairing, I'd be expected to choose one mate. Just one. And we both knew the other packs would never accept both an Ebon Red Alpha Female and an Ebon Red Alpha Male.
That was a problem for another day.
“Do you forgive me?” I asked as I dropped a thumb to the moist curve of Nic's lower lip.
“There's nothing to forgive you for,” he said, but I shook my head, wet hair clinging to the sides of my face.
My mother might say a leader never acknowledged their own mistakes, but … what kind of leader—what kind of mate—would I be to these men if I didn't at least take their feelings into consideration? It was hard enough for Nic to see me dating other guys. I could've given him a heads-up about the sex, talked to him about it first, let him know my intentions. Maybe I didn't have to, but I could have. In the future, I'd remember that.
“Next time, I'll warn you first.”
Nic's mouth twitched, somewhere between a smile and a frown.
“So … before you sleep with yet another guy, you'll ask my permission?”
My turn to smile.
“No. But I'll admit to my own intentions.”
Nic sighed again and bit his lip for a moment.
“Okay,” he said, with another of those half-smile, half-frown things, “I forgive you and I accept. But I don't like it.”
“I know,” I said, leaning in through the hot steam to press a smoldering kiss to his wet lips.
Nic might not like it, but this was our future.
For the next year, the seven of us would live together, work together, sleep together.
And hopefully … ensure that our people actually had a future to look forward to.
So. The fate of the werewolves, an ancient people born from mother earth's womb, rested on the shoulders of a bunch of hormone crazy young adults.
How scary is that?
Monday morning rolled around and with it, a whole storm cloud of issues followed. On the one hand, I was glad that the Pairing Ceremony was officially over. It was something I'd been dreading for months and now, it was done. Not only that, but I still had Nic with me, standing by my side in the parking lot outside the Triad Historical Society.
On my right, I had Che, the connection between us throbbing and pulsing like a live thing. I knew Nic could tell, but he did a damn good job pretending he didn't notice. At the very least, it felt like Che was trying not to rub it in his face today. Smart choice on his part.
“Let's get in and get out,” I said, the rest of my boys fanned out behind me. Montgomery held up the rear, his arsenal of weapons enhanced with a few extra bone knives. I was also rocking my badass tool kit, just in case.
“That's what she said,” Tidus whispered under his breath, and then chuckled, his mood as lighthearted as always. I gave him a quick look over my shoulder and a small half-smile that didn't quite reach my eyes.
I had included protection for the pack until the night after we picked up the map from the witches. But I'd also fucked them pretty hard with my end of the bargain. Suffice it to say, they were not going to be happy to see me here. I needed to keep my guard up.
'Keep your eyes on the cats,' I added in wolfspeak, leading the alpha males through the wrought iron gate and onto the property. Up ahead, a gray and white cat crouched, opening its mouth in a violent pink tongued hiss. It swiped at us and then disappeared into the bushes.
'Back in the day,' Anubis said as I ascended the steps and made my way to the front door, 'when my alpha-father was in charge of the pack, he bought more than just witch hazel from the local coven.'
I paused at the door and lifted my nose to the air, trying to sniff out either the metallic-floral scent of magic or the stink of witches. I got nothing. Either there weren't any spells waiting in hiding for us out here, or else Coven Triad had just done an incredible job covering it all up.
'Crimson Dusk had anti-magic charms to wear around their necks. They activated whenever a spell was cast on them.' Anubis paused his story as I lifted my hand to knock. No way was I walking straight in there, not this time. Although the sign on the front did say Open … Technically a curious human could waltz in here at any moment for a tour.
Goddess help them if they did.
“What's your point?” Silas asked aloud, lighting a cigarette and eyeing the old Victorian house with distaste. It was a beautiful building, at least aesthetically speaking, but I could understand the twisted scowl on his lips.
Even if it didn't reek of magic, even if there were no outward signs of malice, there was just this feeling in the air that no amount of witch hazel could ever hide. As I stood there, I couldn't help but wonder—were the missing pack members below my feet? Trapped in the witches' catacombs beneath the building? And if they were, how the hell was I going to get them out?
“I'm just saying,” Anubis said aloud, sounding slightly irritated. “That they'd be nice to have right now. I feel like I'm about two seconds from being blown up.”
I knocked again, glancing over as Che sneaked along the deck, cupping his hands and trying to peer through the glass and the gauzy curtains inside.
“Zara,” Montgomery growled, his voice low and menacing.
I turned around to find the Maiden standing at the end of the walkway, her pointed witch hat tilted to one side, her lips painted a bright purple and dotted with silver sparkles. Even from here, I could see the bits of iron and silver pierced through her lips, her nose, her ears. And there was no missing the tattoo that wound around her wrist, the one that sealed her into the bargain with me.
“Don't trust what you see through that glass,” she said, her voice a low, even keel that gave nothing away. “The windows are spelled to keep everything looking peaceful and serene. It could be a bloodbath in there and you'd never know.”
I exchanged a glance with Nic and headed down the stairs, a knot of wolves around me, all of them in human form, all of them dressed casually enough to be seen in public. It felt good to be surrounded like that, in the center of a whole mess of backup.
“Glamour?” I asked as I moved forward and took the point of the group again. Nic followed along, sticking to my left side as usual. And Che? He was on my right, as if he were a guard, too. When I looked over at him, he blinked at me and cocked a brow like he didn't know why I was staring. I refused to admit that I found his lazy bad boy slouch attractive.
Just yesterday, we'd had sex for the first time ever, our bodies joined in primal heat. If I looked at Che for too long, I could still feel the wild thrust of his hips, his warm breath feathering against my neck …
Deep breath and focus, Zara Wolf. Dea
l with the witches first and then boy troubles later.
“You could call it that,” the witch said, reaching up to adjust her hat. Her brown-blonde curls cascaded out the bottom, twisted with bits of ribbon, beads, even bones. None of it was there for aesthetic purposes. No, each one of those items was a weapon.
“You have our map?” I asked, cutting to the chase and crossing my arms over my chest. I needed to get this damn thing and get the hell out of here before the coven decided how, exactly, they wanted to pay me back for the stunt I'd pulled the other day.
To be fair, they were rounding up my people and eating them; it was hard to imagine they could do much worse.
My skin rippled with disgust, and it took every ounce of self-control I had to fight back my anger. The missing pack members could be right here on this property, and I wouldn't know it, had no way to get to them. Penetrating the bubble of power around this place, it wasn't happening without a whole lot more help and a whole fuck of a lot of casualties.
Nikolina would be willing to pay the price; I was not.
“There are two maps in my pocket,” the girl said, dressed in a black leather half-jacket, a purple crop top, and skinny jeans with heels. If it weren't for the hat and the piercings, I'd almost believe she was your average, everyday college student. Even the items stuck all over her jacket could be written off by the average person. I knew they were all spells, but most humans wouldn't think twice about a tiny bird skull pendant on a girl's jacket—especially not in Eugene, Oregon. “One of them is the real map and the other, a manipulation of the magic that the Crone wants me to give you.”
Both my brows went up.
“Excuse me?”
“Look,” the girl said, and I sensed a ripple of magic around us, something small, barely noticeable but definitely there. Another glamour? “Not everyone trapped in this nightmare likes the way things are going, you see where I'm coming from?”
“Not particularly,” I said as Nic scoffed from beside me and Jax let out a low growl.
“I'm going to give you both maps: only one of them is real,” she continued, ignoring my comment as she pulled a scroll out from inside her jacket, handing it over to me with a hard look in her umber eyes. “Look them over real careful, alright?”
I reached out with confidence and grabbed the scrolls, wondering what this girl's angle was. If she was serious … well, hell, I'd take an ally from the inside. But the chance of one of the Three actually deflecting from the coven? Highly unlikely.
“Thank you for your business,” the girl said, lifting her wrist up, the moon tattoo shattering into pieces.
With that, she skirted around us, headed up the porch steps and disappeared inside.
I didn't dare open the scroll right then and there. Not when I was damn near certain one of the dozen pairs of cat eyes in those bushes belonged to the Crone's familiar.
“Let's get the hell out of here,” I said with a slight shiver, handing the maps to Montgomery to slip inside his jacket.
We'd just picked magical vampire maps up from a coven of werewolf eating witches. And now, now it was time to go to school.
Once we were safely tucked back inside the metal walls of the pack's GMC Yukon, I took the maps from Monty and unrolled them on my lap. Inside, there was a small scribbled note from the Maiden.
Call me sometime and we'll talk; you have until the sun rises to rid yourself of the false map, it said, and it was signed simply, Whitney. It was strange, to think of the Maiden as an actual person and not just a figurehead for the coven. The Crone was so … inhuman, I guess her strangeness seemed to wear off on the other two. But if I really let myself think about it, the Maiden's life was probably much like mine, straddling normalcy and supernatural oblivion at all times, just perching on the edge of a cliff and waiting to fall.
“There's a phone number here,” I said, wondering if I'd ever feel confident enough to use it. But trust the Maiden? I so did fucking not.
Looking at the two maps she'd given me, they were almost identical to one another. Both showed the continent of North America from Canada through the USA all the way down to Mexico. They were awash in constantly shifting hues of red and pink, slight variations that required the use of the key in the bottom corner.
Kingdom Ironbound was the first color I sought out, using my finger to trace across the map. With this large of an area, it was almost impossible to see the tiny pockets of territory they still had left in the state of Oregon. Good thing I had Majka's map as backup.
As I studied the maps, I handed the note over to Anubis to read aloud to the rest of the group.
“Call me sometime and we'll talk; you have until the sun rises to rid yourself of the false map,” he said, sitting between me and Nic in the front seat. “What the hell does that mean?”
“I have no idea,” I told him as he passed the note back and let the other boys have a look. That was one of the major bonuses of getting seven mates for my Contribution—lots of eyes to look things over. “But … I think I know which one is real.”
Using Majka's map, I identified a small area in the bottom corner of Oregon that wasn't owned by Kingdom Ironbound or Crown Aurora. The hot pink color matched to another group called Kingdom Kindred. It was the only area in the Pacific Northwest that belonged to that group. The rest of their territory—and it was substantial—spread across Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.
Now.
That piece of territory did not show up one of the maps.
“Somebody put Whitney's number in their phone. Nic, pull the car over.” I turned around in the seat and held out a hand toward Silas. “Lighter, please,” I said as he raised his dark brows at me.
“What's going on?” he asked as Che lazily typed the Maiden's number into his phone and handed the note back to me. When my fingers brushed his, I felt it, that snap of lust that had come over me like a storm yesterday. There was no denying it was there. Crap. What I really needed was a day off to process everything that'd happened in the last few days. Instead, I had to deal with witches' tricks.
Silas dropped the lighter in my open palm—I was almost afraid to touch him, too, just in case we sparked another surge of magic inside the tight confines of the SUV.
“Right here, Nic,” I instructed as I turned back around.
“Yes, Alpha,” he said as he flicked on his blinker and came to a stop in a no-parking zone near the college. I hopped out, taking the map with the missing territory and the note with me. The back door of the SUV opened, and Tidus peeked his head out.
Pausing next to a trash can, I lit first the note and then the map on fire with the lighter, watching as they burned. The note disappeared in sprinkles of gray ash, but the map … it melted. Oozed like goo into the can, as thick and viscous as oil. In the air above it, a series of fiery runes appeared, flickering through three separate designs before the map was dissolved.
“What. The. Fuck. Was. That?” Tidus hissed, standing beside me suddenly. I was so focused on burning the map, I hadn't noticed him getting out of the car.
“A spell,” I said, pursing my lips and taking a step back from the strange ooze inside the can. “My guess? Something that would activate after my bargain of protection had expired.” I exhaled sharply and took a step back, bumping into Tidus and feeling that rush of earth magic swirl around us.
Uh-oh.
It swept around me and crashed into my hands with the force of a fucking hurricane.
The lighter fell from my fingers and hit the cement as a whole different set of runes etched themselves across my knuckles, flickered, and then burned away. The sharp scent of magic mixed with the acrid reek of soot and ash.
“Is everything okay?” Nic asked, coming around the front of the SUV to stand beside Tidus and me. I exchanged a glance with the gray-eyed boy and then knelt down to pick up Silas' lighter. “Zara?”
“Everything's alright,” I said, shaking out my hand and taking one, last look at the trash can. I didn't know what
spell it was that our newfound magic had just obliterated, but it was pretty obvious we'd just narrowly avoided getting tangled in something nasty.
I glanced back at Tidus and Nic.
“But we better check the other map first; grab it for me?”
Nic did as I asked, handing me the scroll and stepping back, sliding his hands into his pockets to watch. The wind tousled the strands of his dark red hair and made him look so classically handsome that my heart literally hurt inside my chest.
'Do you mind?' I asked, projecting my wolfspeak voice so that only he could hear it.
At least he knew me well enough that I didn't have to spell it out.
'Go for it,' he said, a slight sigh escaping his lips. 'I can handle a short kiss a hell of a lot better than … well, you know.'
Smiling softly, I turned back to the Alpha-Son of Pack Amber Ash. I held the paper tight in my right hand, put the other on the back of Tidus' neck, and before I could question what the hell I was doing, pressed my mouth to his.
“Oh!” I heard Anubis whisper from the front seat. “Damn it, I knew I should've gotten out with her, too.”
Tidus put his arms around me and wrapped me up tight, that sandalwood scent of his making my skin pebble with goose bumps, a cool breeze wrapping around us and teasing strands of bloodred hair across my face. I felt the easy whisper of earth magic glide along with it, touching my skin with delicate fingers, dancing down my fingertips and into the scroll.
Nothing happened. No more runes. No more black goo.
When I pulled back from him and cracked my eyes, I found a smile stretching across those lips that was hard to resist. Despite the witches and the bullshit, I smiled back. Kissing a stranger … kissing my mate … that was the fun part of the job.
“Map is all good then, I take it?” he asked, his gray eyes crinkling at the edges with humor.
“Map is great,” I said, feeling the thundering pace of my own heart, matched only by the rapid gallop of his. Nic looked like he wanted to kill someone, but less so than usual. I think he might've actually liked Tidus. “Thanks for helping me check it.”
Pack Violet Shadow (The Seven Mates of Zara Wolf Book 2) Page 2
