Witch's Reign

by Shannon Mayer

  “We aren’t.” I grinned at her. “But if it were me, I’d go in as a cat, grab the jewel and be out before she even knew we were there. As it is, that’s up to Steve and Kiara now. And they’d better not fail Ish.”

  To be fair, that was always the plan when I worked on a heist, but so often Steve fucked it up because he wanted to go in too and he was a hell of a lot harder to hide considering his size as a shifter. He didn’t want to wait on me and lose out on any glory, as he saw it.

  “That sounds easy enough,” Maks said. “But it never goes that way. At least, not from what Ish has told me.”

  I spun to glare at him, my defenses going straight the fuck up. “What would she tell you about anyway? How could she trust you with anything, human?”

  He shrugged and looked away, a faint pink on his cheeks. “I might be human, but I do have feelings, you know. Ish has been kinder than she needs to be to me, and I have done what I can to reciprocate by listening to her.”

  “She likes charity cases,” I said.

  “I’m not a charity case.” There was more than a hint of anger in his words.

  I rolled my eyes. “You’re a man, which negates any feelings you might have as a moot point. And trust me, Ish showing you kindness has done you no favors. You’re human, and you’re going to die here weak and afraid.”

  Lila snorted softly. “I don’t want to die like that.” I didn’t either, but Maks had to get it through his head that his life was on a timer.

  “You understand, Maks? You’ll die here, because you are of zero use to anyone. Zero. You don’t have the balls to be an alpha and take charge, even if you were a supe.”

  Then Maks did something I did not expect. He dropped his stirrups and pushed off his horse, strode over to me, and grabbed my leg, his fingers digging into my calves. I arched an eyebrow at him, not comprehending just what was going on until it was too late. He yanked me out of the saddle. I let go of the reins so I wouldn’t pull Balder with me.

  “Hey!” I yelped as he threw me to the ground and jumped on top of me. What the fuck was going on?

  His hands were on my wrists faster than they had any right to be, and he pinned them to the ground with an ease I didn’t like. I twisted my body out from under him—my flexibility was a bonus here—and drove a knee into his side as hard as I could. But he didn’t let go and I didn’t have the leverage to break any ribs.

  Instead he pulled me harder toward him, using his size and weight to overpower me.

  “Maks, get off me now!”

  His face was flat, no emotion showing in his eyes—not even a flicker. What was he thinking? For a moment, fear sliced through me. Bryce had said it. I wasn’t strong enough, and Maks was loaded with muscle. Even though I was a supe, he was stronger than me.

  “You want help?” Lila flew above us.

  “No.” I growled the word and then the fight began in earnest. I managed to get a leg around his hip, and with a heave, rolled him off me. But he didn’t let go. I tried head butting him, but he held me at arm’s length—like it was easy to keep me held down, which did nothing but piss me off more. I tried getting my legs between us to kick him in the balls but he blocked me with his thighs, twisting with each blow I landed.

  “Let me go!” I screeched finally, losing my temper and whatever sense of control I might have had.

  “Apologize. You need to apologize for being a snot, Zamira,” he said as calmly as if he weren’t holding me down.

  And then suddenly I was on my belly, my face shoved into a bank of snow. It was like I was wrestling with Bryce again, unable to move, unable to truly fight his strength and speed. When Steve and I had been a couple, he’d never out-wrestled me because he’d not had the speed. Strong, yes, but not like this. Never like this. So just what the hell was happening? It was like Maks was seeing past me, to my next move and blocking it before I had a chance to see it through and turn it on him.

  He pushed my face harder into the snow so the ice crystals went up my nose and bit at my closed eyes.

  “Apologize, Zamira. I get that you’re bitter, but it’s not a good look on you. Not all men are assholes, not all men are useless. Not even a human like me. And if you hadn’t noticed, I just made you submit.” His voice was right in my ear as I lay there, humiliation flowing through me like I’d never felt before. I’d just been thumped soundly . . . by a human.

  “No.” I gritted the word out, my pride not letting me buckle under his demand, as simple as it was. I would not admit I was wrong.

  “Never thought I’d say this, but I think I feel bad for Steve. That he married you that is. That he had to put up with your shit day in and day out.” He pushed off me and I scrambled away from him. Part of me wanted to lash out at him, to prove I was stronger.

  But . . . he’d already shown he was tougher than me, and the cat in me buckled to that truth and submitted. Just like it buckled under Bryce’s demands that I listen to him. Because there was a time when he’d been my alpha—my brother, yes, but my boss, too, and I respected that.

  I didn’t want to respect Maks.

  I didn’t want him to play an alpha to my submissive smaller form.

  I turned my back on him and stumbled to where Balder was, shaking with the need to go to my knees in front of him and bow my head. Did he know that would be my reaction? Did he know that if he bested me I would be fighting my own instincts once he made me submit? It didn’t matter that I hadn’t verbally given in, my body knew it had been beaten and every instinct tried to force me to give in to him, to do as he wished.

  I pulled myself into the saddle and gave Balder his head, and he tore away from Maks and Batman. Shame, hurt, and uncertainty flowed through me. I’d been cruel to Maks, bitter as he’d said. But he was human. He didn’t deserve anything else. Not with what they’d done to us. Locking us away like animals.

  Caging us.

  Making us fight each other to survive. I clung to the old truths as the last bit of armor to keep myself safe from this new twist between us.

  I didn’t know where I was when I stopped. I only knew it was hours later. I’d run from all the truths that a simple fight had shined a light on. I was weak, and as useless in some ways as a human, more so seeing as it was a human that had beaten me. I shook from head to foot even though I wasn’t cold. Balder picked up on it, prancing on the spot. I put a hand to his neck. “I’m sorry.”

  A sigh from behind me turned me around. Lila sat on Balder’s saddlebags, her eyes on me.

  “Why did you run?”

  My shoulders slumped. “I . . . I’m hard-wired to give in when someone proves they’re stronger than me. The best I could do was run to give space between us. He cannot be my alpha, Lila.”

  “But he’s your partner, and he’s here to save your friend, isn’t he?”

  “He’s human. They did this to us.” That was my father coming out of my mouth, his beliefs, but they were mine too. Weren’t they? Steve had believed it. Bryce believed it.

  Did I?

  “And I’m a runt of a dragon, who cares? We all have abilities even if they might seem small and insignificant. He needs you. He might be physically stronger, Zam, that much is true. But he can’t navigate this world like you. And if your friend Darcy is truly in danger and he could help you save her, shouldn’t you go back and get him? I mean . . . otherwise, aren’t you doing to him what you’re accusing all humans of doing to us. Judging him based on all the others?”

  I closed my eyes. “Fuck, Lila. Why did you have to say that?”

  “My father used to call me Blunt for a nickname. As in I said the truth regardless of what it did to others. I’m sorry if I hurt your feelings, but I think you’re being a brat and meaner than you really are.”

  My eyes flew open. Blunt indeed. She stared back at me and I slowly nodded.

  “Damn it. You’re right.”

  I turned Balder back the way we’d come.

  “I don’t think he’s all that bad,” Lila said. “I me
an, I like teasing him, but he’s trying real hard to help. I shouldn’t have egged you on. Obviously, he thinks his emotions are important and that he has value. So maybe tread carefully.”

  She was right, I knew she was. But my whole life had been nothing more than a litany of ‘humans are assholes, the human men are the worst, the only thing worse than a human man is a Jinn.’

  But maybe this was one human I could be friends with, could work with to help Darcy.

  I nodded to myself, letting the truth fill me. I’d been the asshole this time. Maks had been trying to help. And maybe, just maybe, I’d been pushing him away for more reasons than being human.

  More maybe because those blue eyes of his were haunting my sleep more than I wanted to admit.

  “You like him, don’t you?” Lila said and I sucked in a sharp breath. “Ha, I knew it! What’s wrong with that? He does have big muscled arms, and those eyes are lovely. I knew a male dragon with blue eyes like that, they were lovely on him too.” She swept around in front of me and I shook my head.

  “I don’t like him.” The words were strangled, though, and even I heard the lie in them. Damn it, when had this happened? Somewhere in the last week I’d seen him work, seen him help me without having to be told or prodded. When I’d been staring at his ass and thinking about those eyes and starting to wish he’d been a supe.

  He’d been a partner rather than the dead weight I’d thought he’d be. I urged Balder into a faster trot, shame driving me.

  Why did I have to be so thick in the head? Pride, it was a curse of a lion in more ways than one.

  An hour later we’d not found Maks, or any trace of him or Batman. They shouldn’t have been this far back. Sweat and nerves bit at me. What the hell had I done now? Cursed I might be, but I still wore my necklace, which meant the curse was not supposed to be in play.

  Lila broke the silence. “Is that blood on the snow?” She shot into the air above my head.

  I stood in my stirrups and looked where she pointed with a wing tip.

  My nerves tightened as I stared at the bright red blood. “Yeah, yeah it is.”

  Chapter Nine

  The marks in the snow, the perfect imprints, led southeast. I flicked my hood off, turned and leaned into Balder. Because while I could see the blood on the snow and the hoof prints, I could also hear the thunder of another set of hooves ahead of us. We’d be able to catch Batman, I was sure of it.

  The snow flew up around us in a spray as if it were liquid water and not frozen. Through its mist, I could just make out Batman as he slid to a stop, reared up, and threw Maks from the saddle.

  “Damn it,” I growled.

  A part of me that I didn’t like tried to pull me back, to hold me away from helping. Not to be an asshole, but because I was a cat and he just finished whooping my ass so he should have been able to take care of himself. That was nature for you.

  We raced toward him but I couldn’t see what was attacking him. If it was a dragon, it wasn’t a big one. “Lila, what is it?”

  She swept up ahead of us then called back, “Pack of wolves. Normal as they can be.” She swooped down and grabbed hold of my shoulder. “Five.”

  Five wolves were not insurmountable. We could do this.

  I grabbed the flail from its holster across the back of my saddle and pulled it free, my palm tingling as I tightened my grip. I whistled for Batman and he spun, kicked out at a wolf and caught it in the jaw. We closed the distance, my body tensed for battle and then there was a blur of golden fur and a snarl of a lion.

  Steve had caught up to us.

  He burst out of the trees in full lion form, his body fucking glittering in the sunlight as if he’d indeed been touched with 24k gold. He slammed into the first two wolves, mowing them down with no effort, using his weight and size to his advantage like always. His big paws swiped the next one off its feet, downing it hard enough that it lay there, stunned. A second later the remaining wolves scattered like leaves before the storm, tails tucked between their legs. Just like that, it was done. Maks was safe.

  And I was saddled with my ex-husband once more.

  Kiara rode out from behind Steve on one of the smaller horses. She was bundled up against the cold. Her eyes went to me and then narrowed as she blew out a short puff of air.

  “Holy shit,” Lila breathed out. “That was fast. You mean, you should have been like that, but you got stuck with . . . wow.”

  Steve turned and let out a roar that echoed through the trees, rattling the branches and reverberating through my chest. “Shut up, you moron!” I slid from Balder’s saddle. I put the flail on my back again, once more unused. Maybe that was a good thing. That tingle on my skin had to be some sort of warning.

  I went to Maks first. He stared up at me as I held a hand out to him. “Why’d you come back?”

  “Because I was being an asshole. I can admit it when I’m wrong.”

  And I kinda like those blue eyes of yours, human man.

  He took my hand and I helped him up.

  Steve trotted close to us and then shifted into his human form. “Give me my clothes.”

  I stared at him. “We didn’t bring clothes for you.”

  “I meant Kiara,” he growled. She and her horse cut between us, pushing me aside as she handed Steve a pile of clothes.

  He yanked them on and I turned my back on him. Didn’t need to see any of that. I’d had my fill of his naked body over the years in more ways than one. I bumped into Maks and he caught me by the arms, steadying me as if he understood. But he didn’t, and that was okay too.

  “Let’s go,” I said. He dropped his hands, confusion cutting across his face for just a flash.

  “Yeah, listen to her, human. She’ll get you killed faster than if you were here by yourself.”

  Maks’s back stiffened. I turned and smiled at Steve. “Good luck getting the jewel, asshole. We’re out of here before the wolves bring back any friends.” Maks nodded, catching my drift. The White Wolf was the first guardian for the Witch. We did not want to tangle with him, and for all we knew, the wolves would report back to him and lead him straight to us. That was a distinct possibility.

  Steve, though, was too dumb to see the connection. “I can handle wolves, hell, Kiara could have handled them. But not you, not you, Zam. You’re too much of a fucking pussy to be able to save anyone. Darcy is going to get shipped off to Marsum, your human there is going to die, and I doubt even your shit luck will get you out of this one alive.”

  I kept moving, my mouth clamped shut, taking the lead much to the chagrin of my inner cat. She didn’t want me to be bossy, she wanted to rub up against Maks and let him be the boss. Maks had slammed me into the ground, held me there, and proven he was stronger. I shook off the need to submit. I refused to be like the rest of my kind. Like Kiara, mincing and mewling at the men who could tackle them to the ground.

  Nope, that was not me. Not me and I wasn’t going to let that kind of stupidity rule my life, not even for those baby blues. I looked at Maks and he lifted an eyebrow.

  “We’re good,” I said. “I just had to get over a case of the dumbs.”

  His lips twitched. “Even though I’m just a human?”

  “You light a good fire, and cook a mean stew. I’ll give that to you, though you need to work on keeping rare rabbit down.” I was not going to admit within earshot of Steve that he’d caught me off guard. That because he was a human, I’d not thought him a threat, and in another context, it could have meant my life.

  “You know, the next time we fight, I’m not going to go easy on you,” he said.

  I could have strangled him. “Next time wolves come to eat you, I won’t come running back.”

  “Touché,” he said softly. “Then are we agreed to work together? Properly?”

  Lila bobbed her head, hanging out the side of my hood, and I slowly followed. “Partners. Darcy needs us both.”

  “STOP.” The voice was Steve’s and I cringed, knowing already what he wa
s going to say. “What the fuck are you doing with a dragon?”

  “She’s a guide. I’ve paid her to help us,” I said. Yeah, this was not going to go well. Ish’s rules were embedded in my mind.

  Don’t befriend the enemy. No matter what. They will use you.

  Lila flew above me and she bobbed her head, her eyes wide. I knew Steve was out for himself and he finally showed his true colors to someone other than me. I had my back to him. “We need a guide to get through here, and maybe she’ll help us with our next trip.” I didn’t want to say out loud that as soon as the dragons were done making babies, we’d be back here searching for their jewel too. But with my back to Steve, Kiara and Maks, I missed the first part of what happened next.

  “Steve, what are you doing?” Maks said and then there was a thud. I spun in my seat to see Maks fall to the ground and Steve leap into Batman’s saddle. My ex stared hard at me and lifted something into the air.

  A flare gun. The same one my brother had been working on in his workshop.

  “Don’t you dare!” I reached for the flail. If he didn’t put the gun down, I’d take him out. Funny how I was afraid of Maks beating me, but with Steve . . . I’d fight him to the literal death if I had to in order to prove myself. I would never submit to him.

  He smiled as he pulled the trigger, the flare shot into the sky and burst open in a shower of sparkles. “Leave the human,” he said, “or die with him. I don’t care which. You’re about as useless as him anyway.”

  Kiara’s horse danced under her and she smiled and blew me a kiss as she turned away. Oh, I’d like to smack that saucy grin right off her stupid face, give her some scars so she wouldn’t be so fucking smug. Smart, she was the smart one.

  It hit me then who had set us up, who had let the Ice Witch know we were coming.

  Kiara.

  Darcy and I were both ex-lovers of her new mate. What better way to rid him of any temptation but to have us killed?

  Batman bucked once under Steve and I just stared at him. The words he’d spoken finally sunk in, those words that shouldn’t have hurt after this long apart, after all he’d done to try and leave me behind, they cut into me like claws tearing at my flesh.