I opened my mouth to order him to drop the weapons and surrender, but he pointed the blade at me and made a circle motion with his wrist. I was incapable of speaking; he’d hexed me.
Lunging forward, Daryn sliced the air between us. I jumped back. The blade slashed through the material of the shirt, but somehow missed my flesh. He hissed and jerked away, focusing his full attention on Ace when the silver dagger sank beneath his skin, into his shoulder.
Daryn thrust his arm forward and Ace fell to his knees, the weapon in his hand clattering to the ground as he became immobile. Daryn clenched his jaw as he touched the wound on his shoulder and his fingers came away stained crimson with his blood. “Silver can’t kill me. My power will defuse it. But you are going to pay for the weak attempt to end my life.”
I rushed toward him, my dagger poised for the strike, but he turned and threw a gust of power at my chest, knocking me twenty yards back and over the wolves surrounding us. They closed in around me.
“Hold her there!” Daryn shouted at them. “I’ll deal with you in a few minutes, Mena, but since you’re so hell-bent on saving this one, you can watch him die.” He turned back to look down at Ace, who was still immobile and on his knees.
I opened my mouth to scream, but I still couldn’t speak.
“Ace!” I shouted through my mind.
“Andra, run!” he shouted back.
“I’m not leaving you here!”
I decided that if I couldn’t use my voice, I was better off in a form in which I could actually do some damage. These wolves weren’t keeping me pinned. If I was going to die today, it wouldn’t be because I let it happen. I wasn’t about to let Daryn hurt Ace, not without a fight.
I called my wolf and felt her energy ripple under my skin. “Andromeda, let’s do this!”
Less than a handful of seconds later, I was standing tall and pissed off on four giant paws. It was the first time I had been in wolf form since I’d taken full control, and the feeling was exhilarating. I shook off what remained of the leather clothing and took a step forward, ready and able to kick some shifter ass.
As they were surrounding me, I only had to get through possibly three of them to clear a path to Daryn before he killed Ace. I was Alpha; I was stronger than them ten-fold, but fighting them would take time and there were at least sixty feet separating us. Ace closed his eyes as Daryn raised the hand holding the silver dagger, the very dagger that had been missing.
“Ace! Give him a command!” I shouted through my thoughts, but I couldn’t feel him in my mind anymore. Did the bond between us not work after we shifted? No!
I crouched, ready to pounce on the first of my attackers, but just before I leapt, I heard Daryn scream. Glancing up, I saw that two wolf shifters had him on the ground, mauling him. He slashed at one of them with the dagger but missed, and the wolf quickly bit his wrist, causing him to release the blade.
Was the pack turning on him?
Out of my peripheral, I saw four other wolves running toward me. I bared my teeth, growling out my warning, but instead of lunging for me, they attacked four of the wolves surrounding me.
I made eye contact with one and recognized Roel’s irises staring back at me. Roel, Heath, Heather, Tracy, Brad and Alex had managed to shift, and they weren’t writhing in pain because Daryn’s spell had left the whole pack exempt as long as they were in wolf form.
A wolf to my right took that moment to attack me, but I turned on it and sank my teeth into its neck, not quite killing it, but leaving it incapable of putting up much of a fight.
I didn’t waste any more time. I had an opening, and I took it. I ran as hard and fast as I could toward my enemy, but Daryn was in the middle of shifting. If he finished before I got to them, he would kill Ace if he got away from Brad and Heather.
Daryn sprung into a magnificent dark-gray wolf and turned his full attention on Ace, but as he leaped through the air, Heather collided with him. She howled in pain when Daryn’s sharp claws dug into her back and they tumbled to the ground. I was concerned for her well-being, but she had given me the time I needed to get there.
I hit both wolves at full-force, knocking them apart, and then I turned on him, my teeth bared and ready for his challenge. We circled, glaring at each other. I had never been more eager to take another life. This was my pack, and he couldn’t have it.
“Stop, Daryn!” Ace shouted. “Bow down before your Alpha!”
Daryn’s front legs buckled and his head dropped low before me, but his baffled eyes were on Ace.
I risked a glance in Ace’s direction, and saw that he was standing, and that Phoenix, Jaxon, six lions and three witches were there with him. My gaze moved to the wolves Daryn had under his spell, but a dozen naked men and women were looking around, dazed.
My only guess was that Daryn couldn’t use his magic in wolf form.
“Kill him, Andromeda,” Ace said. “If you don’t, I will. Something this dangerous can’t be allowed to live.”
He was right, but now that I’d had a moment of clarity and had calmed down a bit, executing someone seemed impossible to me. I wasn’t a killer. I shouldn’t have this responsibility; I couldn’t handle it.
“Do it, Lupacchiotto,” Phoenix said.
But I couldn’t. I’d had too much time to think about it. Surely the sisters could take his magic somehow, and we could lock him in a cage until we figured out a different punishment than death.
My eyes shot back to Daryn as he began to shift back to human form.
“Kill him, Andra!” Ace shouted. “He’ll kill us all when he is able to use his magic again.”
I was frozen in place. Even knowing what would happen, I couldn’t make myself kill another person.
“Fuck!” Ace swore, and then dropped to his hands and knees. The breath left my lungs when a massive lion burst out of Ace’s body, nearly twice as large as the six lions behind him.
Phoenix and Ace attacked Daryn just as he became fully human. There wasn’t even time for Daryn to scream or cast a spell before Ace’s jaws clamped down on his throat. Phoenix grabbed Daryn’s legs and they jerked Daryn’s body in opposite directions, tearing his head off.
My heart pounded against my ribs as I stared at Daryn’s unseeing eyes. He was dead, and I had put everyone in danger because I couldn’t do what was necessary to stop him. I didn’t have enough courage in me to kill someone who threatened the people I loved.
I wanted to hide in shame, but nobody was looking at me like they blamed me. They were cheering. They were celebrating. Was I the only one unhappy about this?
I had to face them, regardless of the coward that I was.
Calling my wolf back, I transformed to my human body.
Phoenix was in front of me and wrapping me in his arms, shielding my nudity from the others. At this point, I didn’t care who saw me this way. I had failed them, and I felt like crap because of it.
“It’s okay, Andra,” Ace said through my mind, and my eyes met his human ones over Phoenix’s shoulder. “We took care of it. You’re all right.”
“I’m not alright,” I said back. “I can’t do this. I can’t be who they need.” Tears stung my eyes.
Ace’s eyes shifted to the back of Phoenix’s head, and then he just looked down at the ground, his lips pressed into a hard line. I could tell he wanted to come to me, to touch me, to take my anxiety and fear away, but Phoenix was holding me, and he didn’t want to upset me again.
“I need Ace,” I whispered to Phoenix.
He pulled back a bit, enough to look down at my face. His eyes were saddened, but he finally nodded and took a step back, allowing Ace to pick me up and carry me toward the woods.
“The witches and vampires have left to go get blankets and vehicles,” I heard Brad say. “An unscheduled naked marathon running through Montgomery might alert the police.”
I was tired, but it made me smile.
Chapter 61
Mena
I spent the rest of the night an
d the whole next day in bed, wrapped in Ace’s arms. Every time I tried to leave his side, the fact that I’d almost let Daryn win would slam into me, and have me running back to feel his touch.
Regardless of how many times he tried to assure me that this was normal behavior for new shifters, I couldn’t get past it.
Phoenix, Roel, Alex, Brad, Heather, Tracy and Heath all came to check on me at different times, all of them saying the same as Ace had, but none of their reassurances seemed to help me feel better about the situation.
I didn’t know if I ever would.
Ace brushed my hair back with his fingers. “You will, Andra.”
“I don’t see how.”
“I can teach you how. I’ve been where you are. I will train you to fight and show you how to be an Alpha.”
“Can’t I just step down, give the crown to someone else?”
“I wish it were that easy.”
There were some fuzzy parts in his memories, but I did manage to see a face and put a name with it. “Who is Justice?” I said out loud.
He stiffened, and then I sensed walls being thrown up. He blocked me out of his mind completely. I sat up in alarm. “How’d you do that? Or, better yet, why did you do it?”
“I’m not ready to talk about him, okay? I promise I’ll tell you, but not while you’re going through this. It’s a lot to swallow.”
I sighed as I lay back down. “So, how did you block me?”
“The same way I think about a memory, I guess. I just imagined walls going up around them. I’m really not trying to keep anything from you, Andra; it’s just not time for you to know yet. Okay?”
My mouth pulled to one side as I thought about it. At least he’d told me how to block him from my mind when I didn’t want him knowing something. That made me a little happier. “Okay.”
“The full moon is tomorrow night. Have you chosen a Beta yet?”
To test his theory, I imagined cement blocks going up around my mind, and he chuckled.
“You don’t want me to know? That’s not fair!” he said as he poked me in the ribs. I jumped in response and let out a squeal. His eyes widened, and then he dug all his fingers in, tickling me until I thought I might piss myself. “I can do this all night, Andra. Are you going to tell me?”
“Stop, stop,” I said, and he did, but he was wearing a sexy smirk that told me if I didn’t tell him something he was going to start again. “Let it be a surprise, Ace. You know everything about me. Please, just let me have this one thing.”
He huffed as he rolled his eyes and lay back down, pulling me in close to him. He watched me as I stared at the ceiling. After a moment, he whispered, “Go with me to Las Vegas.”
My head turned toward him fast enough to give me whiplash, and I stared into his eyes, horrorstruck. “You’re not leaving, Ace. You can’t leave. I’m here. I need you.”
“And so does my pride. I can’t stay here. Somewhere deep inside, you knew this conversation was coming. We need to have it now.” The sexy smirk was gone, his mouth now a line of seriousness across the bottom of his face.
I sat up again and looked down on him. “When are you leaving?” I demanded.
He reached out to touch my arm, but I jerked it away from him. His lips thinned.
“Tomorrow night, after the party.”
My hand shot up to cover my mouth as hot tears pricked my eyes. Shaking my head, I took my hand away and said, “No. I’m not ready to be away from you—”
“Then go with me, Andra—”
“You know I can’t!” I screamed, and the tears brimmed over when I slapped his chest. “My pack is here—”
“Your Beta will take care of your pack until you return. You need to train, Andromeda. You need to learn how to fight and how to kill someone when they threaten what is yours.”
I shook my head, refusing to believe this was actually happening to me. I couldn’t leave. I wouldn’t. I wiped my cheeks. “Phoenix is here. I’m not leaving him, Ace.”
It was his turn to stare at the ceiling, but he still hadn’t taken down his walls, so I didn’t have a clue what he was thinking. I knew I would freak out if he really did leave me. It drove me bat-shit crazy when he was even in another room, out of my sight. I didn’t want to think about what six states separating us would do to me. He couldn’t leave. I would bribe him, do whatever he needed me to do in order to persuade him to stay.
“Ace, please…”
He reached out and gently caressed my arm with the tips of his fingers, and then he took hold of my wrist and pulled me to him. “Your sadness is killing me. Forget about it for now. We’ll discuss it later.”
“Is that a maybe you’ll stay here?” I asked, hopeful.
“No. It was a ‘we’ll discuss it later,’ now get some rest. You have a big night tomorrow night.”
I snuggled in against him, desperately trying not to think about him leaving me. He was right. I did need training. I did need to be taught how to fight, but why couldn’t my pack train me? And why couldn’t he stay here with me for a while longer, just until I got over my anxiety of being away from him?
“Your Beta could watch your pride until you get back,” I suggested.
An irritated-sounding breath expelled from Ace’s mouth. “This isn’t later, Andra.”
“But I need to talk about it now, because you leaving me here isn’t an option—”
“Then go with me—”
“That’s not an option, either!”
He huffed. “I knew I should have waited—”
“Why? Why would waiting to tell me later that you’re going to destroy me be any better than telling me now?”
“You can’t stay here, Andromeda. The thing… the thing I can’t tell you right now… about Justice, is the reason I need you with me. I thought I’d ask first, to see if you would agree, but I will have to force you on that plane if you refuse to go.”
I stared at him, my anger rising to the point of boiling over. “Are you kidding me? I told you not to make decisions for me, Ace. My pack can train me and teach me anything I need to know. Go. Go back to Las Vegas! I’ll be fine without—”
He grabbed my arms and pulled me on top of him, then rolled until I was under him. His mouth was on mine, hot and full of need. I couldn’t help but respond. Our connection had never been stronger. It was like desire… times a hundred.
You know that perfect kiss that every girl dreams of? This was it. We were so in tune with each other physically and mentally. He knew exactly how I liked to be kissed. His left hand slid down my side, over my hip and around to the back of my thigh, pulling my leg up so he could rub his erection against me through our clothes.
Ace groaned.
I moaned.
There was no doubt in my mind that I wanted this to happen. Fighting it seemed like a foolish and idiotic thing to do, but somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it was only the bond making us feel like this. Taking this step would make this our date four. Taking this step would move us forward into another status of our relationship. And taking this step with Ace would cause me to lose Phoenix.
I couldn’t let that happen.
Panicking, I pushed him off me and quickly crawled to the foot of the bed, out of his reach.
“Andra,” he said, and reached for me, but I jumped over the footboard onto the floor, shaking my head as I backed toward the door. “Andra, where are you going?” I felt for the door handle and opened the door. “No!” he shouted. “Look, I’m sorry—don’t go to him, please.” I could barely see him through my tears, but I knew he punched the mattress with his fist then got out of bed to try and stop me when I turned to run. “Andra! Stop!”
I didn’t stop. I didn’t even look back as I sprinted down the hall, rounded the kitchen wall and pulled open the door to the basement. Not bothering to pull it shut, I bounded down the stairs and up the corridor to Phoenix’s chamber.
He was sitting in a chair when I flew through the door and his head jerked up in
alarm. I didn’t stop. I was running from Ace, running from the bond, running from my feelings and running for Phoenix.
He only had time to take three steps and brace for my impact before my body slammed into him and our mouths met with a ferocious hunger.
Without breaking contact with my lips, Phoenix picked me up so I was straddling his hips and walked to the bed, bolting the door locked on the way.
The walls in my head crumbled to the ground, like a wrecking ball had smashed into it.
“Andra, nooooo!”
“I’ll find a way to cope without you, but I won’t leave him, Ace. I’m sorry.”
There was a loud bang on the door, and then it sounded like something was sliding down it. I could feel Ace’s grief washing through me, but I ground my teeth together and forced him out of my mind, throwing up extra sturdy walls as Phoenix laid me on his bed.
Chapter 62
Mena
I could feel Ace’s anger the moment I woke up, but I could tell he wasn’t angry with me, and Phoenix wasn’t in the room.
Either Ace was out of mind-reading range, or he was blocking me from knowing what he was saying to Phoenix.
Jumping out of bed, I quickly searched for where Phoenix may have thrown my clothes the night before, and I found them folded neatly on the back of the couch. I needed Phoenix. I needed Ace. Growling in frustration, I realized I didn’t know what the hell I needed, but it wasn’t in this room right now.
My foot got caught on the crotch of the cotton pajamas and I nearly fell on my face, but thankfully managed to get a hand and knee out to break my fall. I yanked them up the rest of the way and threw my shirt on as I ran for the door.
As soon as I jerked it open, I was face to face with Phoenix and Ace, standing in the hall outside Phoenix’s chamber. Both men immediately stopped talking and stared at me, sadness in Phoenix’s eyes and anger in Ace’s. Seeing Ace, being this near him, felt good. But I tamped that down. I wanted Phoenix.
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