by Krista Wolf
Damien however, sensed my confusion. He jumped in, and thankfully he spoke in more layman’s terms.
“Broderick and I are bonded,” he said. “It’s like we’re brothers but not brothers.”
“Okay…”
“As members of our pack, we did everything together. We ran together. Hunted together. Our ties went beyond kinship, beyond blood. The deep sense of connection formed unbreakable bonds between us.”
I noticed Broderick leaned back in his chair a little. But Damien leaned forward. He placed his hands together before continuing.
“When we choose a mate,” he said carefully, “it’s as a pair also. Before we became outcasts, we were bonded to the pack’s alpha female.” His eyes shot to Broderick, and I sensed hesitation. After a pause, he went on anyway. “Her name was Karessa.”
Karessa.
The name seemed familiar somehow. It couldn’t have been though, because I’d never heard the name in my life. At least, not that I could remember.
“So… you were, how do you say, ‘mated’ to this woman?”
“Yes.”
“The two of you.”
Damien couldn’t hide a tiny smirk. “Yes.”
“Together. At the same time?”
Though I was half mocking them now, the idea was oddly attractive. It made me warm, somewhere deep down in my belly.
Broderick leaned suddenly forward, tilting his chair back down. He arms slid back onto the table with a loud ‘thump’. “YES, okay? That’s how it works with us. It’s not our choice exactly, it’s a decision made at a primal level. More of an irrepressible instinct.”
He was rattled. He looked cute when he was rattled.
“Didn’t seem so irrepressible about a few hours ago,” I smiled, crossing my arms.
Damien almost chuckled, but a scathing look from his brother-not-brother shut him up. Broderick leaned in again, and this time directed his attention toward me.
“Think it’s funny?” he asked. His voice was suddenly deadly serious. “Go on, Serena. Look at me.”
Slowly I raised my eyes to meet his. I was lost in them almost immediately. It was like dying of thirst, and falling into two pools of cool, crystal blue water. I could envision opening my mouth and drinking it in. Letting it flow down my throat…
He shifted closer. Internally, I welcomed it.
“Now tell me you don’t want me.”
The tingle I’d felt over my body was concentrated now, to the area between my legs. I was wet down there, and not just from Damien.
Holy shit. What’s happening to me?
Looking at Broderick gave me butterflies. The first date, first kiss, first time ever taking a man inside me kind of butterflies. The pleasant but scary kind. The kind of fresh, new, once-in-a-lifetime moments you always wanted more of, but as life wore on, seldom arrived.
And there was an underlying sexual attraction too. Okay, maybe not so underlying. I looked at Broderick and I wanted him. Wanted him in all the same ways I’d wanted Damien, and then some.
“Well?” Broderick said. “I’m waiting on an answer, Serena.”
The way he said my name only made me want him more. I couldn’t stop staring at his masculine, perfectly symmetrical face. His strong, beautiful body. And I could smell him too, in ways I’d never imagined. I could smell him in layers, and he smelled wonderful.
“I— I don’t understand it,” I said. “But yes. I feel it.”
He nodded, finally pleased. For some reason I was glad to have pleased him, and I didn’t even know why.
“Now think about this,” he went on. “As much as you feel it? I feel it too. Even more than you. The pull, the Call — it’s more powerful for me, because of my blood. Because I’ve already been through it.”
He was leaning in now, his face only inches from mine. I felt the irresistible urge to kiss him. To press my lips against his, and inhale him through my nostrils as his big arms slid around me. And I wanted to do it in front of Damien, too. That part didn’t matter. Nothing mattered. Nothing at all except—
“Now you understand,” he said, pulling back. He stood up, and my stomach lurched with disappointment. I knew it was stupid, but I couldn’t help it. I felt almost… almost in heat.
“So how do we fix this?” I found myself saying. There was a part of me that regretted the question. The part that didn’t want it fixed.
The two men looked at each other. A moment passed between them, and their silence said everything.
“We’ll talk about that later,” Broderick said. “Right now? We need to come up with a plan.”
12
DAMIEN
“So which one of you is responsible for this?”
She pushed her phone forward confidently, a photograph already taking up the full length of the screen. It was the book. The one I’d brought back from the underhalls. The one I’d recognized as belonging to the Hallowed Order, although I was supposed to have forgotten that part.
“That would be me,” I said.
Serena’s gaze shifted in my direction. I could feel the excitement in her now, the rush of adrenaline that came with the heat and turmoil. She’d been sated, but only partially. And until she was, it would be difficult for her to focus on much of anything.
I’d been sated of course. I’d been called selfish for it, but I honestly didn’t mean it the way it happened.
And poor Broderick hadn’t been sated at all.
This was my first experience outside of the pack. Outside of Karessa. I’d fallen back into old habits, back when I hunted in a much different way. The pier at Santa Monica. The boardwalk. The strip. Back then I’d been carefree and careless, sun-bronzed and magnificent. Idolized in the way youth and beauty are always worshiped, until they both inevitably fade.
I took women when I wanted them in those days. Fought them off when I didn’t. And yet nothing felt like it did here, with my brethren. With Karessa and Broderick and the rest of the pack. Here I belonged. There was a sense of kinship and blood. Pride too. Always pride.
At least up until that was suddenly gone.
“Do you know what this represents?” Serena was saying. “How important this is?”
The book I’d found was old. Dark red leather. Bound with raised bands on the spine that looked painted with gold leaf. It was in bad shape, almost unreadable. But on the cover…
On the cover was a symbol I’d seen before. An all-seeing eye, set against triangles, encapsulated by a circle. An eye with a crescent moon in the iris.
“Not really,” I said. “But when I showed it to Xiomara…”
“And how did you know to show it to Xiomara?” Serena jumped in. She was still astounded I knew the woman’s name. “How are you even aware of her?”
That story was on the longer side. I decided not to tell it just now.
“I know your symbol,” I said simply. “I knew immediately when I found it that the book belonged to your Order. An ancient branch of it, anyway. Or so I was told.”
“She told you that?”
“Yes.”
I stared down at the photo of the book I’d shipped off to New York. The old lady had called within minutes of receiving it. She’d been excited — more animated than I’d ever seen her before. And I’d seen her pretty jacked up.
“And you said you saw more like this?”
I nodded to Broderick. He slid open a drawer and tossed two more of the books onto the table, both torn and beaten all to hell One was nothing more than a leather cover and the first few pages. The other was water-damaged to the point where the book had swelled up and split its bindings.
“We found those three days ago,” I said. “Same area, pretty much. A little further down though. The whole place is in rough shape.”
Serena reached out excitedly to take the books in her hands. She turned them over and over again, running her fingers over the edges.
“We know your people had roots here,” I said. “And that at one point, almost all of y
our knowledge was lost.”
Serena nodded slowly. “Your whole damned city caught fire,” she said. “1618.”
“Not my city,” I replied with a chuckle. “I only live here.”
Serena smirked. “Can’t be much surfing on the Seine, though.” Even her smirk was sexy.
“No, actually. The waves suck.”
I stared down past her pretty face, my gaze lingering on the long hair that had brushed up so softly against my stomach. Those smooth curves that had belonged to my fingertips just hours ago. Mentally I kicked myself again for not going for round two.
“That’s pretty much all we know,” I lied. “That this lost ‘archive’, or whatever Xiomara called it, is something highly important to your Order.”
Serena rubbed at her chin. “And you’ll take me?” she asked.
“Of course.”
When she looked at us again her expression was softer. All the accusation was gone. I could sense a certain measure of faith there now, and of course, the constant, underlying heat. She knew we were there to help her, though. And she us.
Hopefully, anyway.
“Alright,” she said calmly. “Tell me everything you know about us.” After a moment’s pause, she smiled sweetly and added the word “Please.”
“You’re a member of the Hallowed Order,” I said. “Blackstone Manor, upstate NY.”
She tried to keep a straight face. It wasn’t working.
“Don’t worry I’ve been there,” I assured her. “I’ve walked its corridors. I’ve met some of the people there, including Xiomara.” I jerked a thumb back in Broderick’s direction. “Not him though. Just me.”
This information seemed to ease her fears a little. Her body relaxed, and the tension went out of her shoulders.
“I found this first book two weeks ago,” I said, tapping her phone, “in the underhalls beneath Château de Bardenois. It’s a ruined castle, just outside of Paris.”
It was funny saying that like it was no big deal. Back when I was surfing Malibu, if you’d told me I’d be wandering the catacombs beneath an eight-hundred year-old castle on the outskirts of Paris I’d have laughed my ass off.
“I recognized the symbol,” I said, “and sent it straight to Xiomara. Apparently she loved it. And now you’re here.”
I’d left out the part where Broderick forbade me to send the book. He’d told me to destroy it, actually — that it wasn’t anyone’s business but ours. Normally I might’ve obliged him, or at the very least, taken his wishes into consideration. But this was the Order, and therefore, Xiomara.
And I owed her. Big time.
“Why were you down there to begin with?” Serena asked. “These… underhalls?”
“Because at one point that’s where we lived,” Broderick stepped in.
“Or gathered, rather” I amended.
“Gathered?” Serena’s brow furrowed. The motion formed a little crease between her eyes that looked utterly adorable.
“Yes… well…” Broderick stumbled. “We all had different places,” he said. “But as wolves — as a pack — we ran the forests and warrens surrounding the Château and its cathedral.”
If any of this was supposed to make her less confused, it wasn’t working. Serena was shaking her head.
“It was our home for a while,” I jumped in, “all of us. The elders had been using it for almost a century, so a good part of it was secretly modernized, kept with the times. But the rest… the rest was left intentionally decrepit to keep outsiders away.”
She nodded mechanically. I knew she was blowing off most of what we were saying, but that was fine. I didn’t expect her to buy into everything. I didn’t buy into it at first, either.
“I was told you’ve been away from your group for a year now, though. That the two of you are outcasts.”
Broderick’s face soured. I didn’t like the term myself, to be honest.
“That’s a lie,” I explained. “We weren’t cast out. We left on our own.”
“Okay, why?”
“Doesn’t matter,” Broderick stepped in. He still had his guard up. “The point is, we broke away. Let’s just say the pack was going in different directions. Directions that Damien and I weren’t interested in pursuing.”
She considered this for a moment, then asked the question I’d been waiting for.
“So if you’ve been gone for a year,” she said, “what were you guys doing there twice in the last two weeks? Why do you keep going back there?”
I glanced at my wolf-brother. He nodded.
“We were looking for something,” I said.
Serena raised an eyebrow. I responded with a wink.
“And that’s where you come in…”
13
BRODERICK
She had fire. That was the best way to put it. Of all the things I sensed coming from this strange girl who sat in my kitchen, it was her inner fire that made her fearless And in all the ways I loved most, too.
“So you need help dealing with your old clan,” Serena said. “Is that it?”
“Not clan,” Damien explained. “Pack. But yes. That.”
The combination was rare. She had infallible confidence, plus the courage to back it up. And skill, too. I could sense that most of all. Damien had already hinted she had abilities that made her beyond special. I had only to concentrate in order to feel them, thrumming inside her, just beneath the surface.
But looking at her? It was so hard to concentrate…
“What were you there for again?” Serena asked.
“We were trying to retrieve something,” I said. “Something valuable and important.” I glanced at Damien. “Something that belongs to us.”
Serena grinned. “So you were sneaking in. Stealing something.”
“If by that you mean stealing it back, then yes.”
She looked thoughtful for a moment. It was a good look on her.
“Well whatever it is, why don’t you just ask your ex to get it for you? What’s her name again… Karessa?”
The word was still a knife to the back, even after all this time. I saw Damien look my way, expecting a reaction. My jaw flexed, but that was all I was giving.
“Karessa is… with them now,” I said tersely. In retrospect, I should’ve probably unclenched my teeth first.
Serena blinked once, then recognition dawned. “Oh, you mean with with? As in—”
“Yes,” Damien interjected, trying to be merciful. “Like that.”
In truth it hurt him too. I knew that. We’d both loved her, and we’d both suffered the same loss. Only he got over things much more quickly than I did. Probably because he hadn’t fallen as hard.
And she didn’t make him, I reminded myself silently. He was made before he came here, before he joined the pack. When it came to Karessa, they would never share that special bond…
“What about these guys who jumped me?” Serena asked. “Your ex brothers? Couldn’t they—”
“They’re the ones with Karessa now,” I said coldly. I thought saying it like that — laying it all out there — might feel somehow cathartic. It didn’t.
“They were like our brothers,” said Damien, stepping back into the conversation. “But not anymore. Not after everything we’ve been through.”
No, definitely not anymore.
Serena talked some more, asking more questions, demanding even more answers. I couldn’t blame her. She was at a grave disadvantage, and I could tell her superiors hadn’t briefed her properly. Either they were holding back to protect her, or they expected us to fill in the gaps. Whichever it was, it was lazy and annoying.
And then I’d look at her, and realize most of the problem was on my end. My heart raced just from the scent of her. My vision was almost blurred.
Goddamn it, Damien.
I’d been suppressing the feelings as best I could. Tamping down the compulsions, shoving them back inside me as strong as they were. Being this near her made it hard. Maintaining control was becomin
g nearly impossible.
I’d have to, though. If we wanted to succeed, we couldn’t have any distractions.
“If these were your brethren,” Serena went on, “and you weren’t excommunicated… why would they keep these things?”
“Out of spite,” I said. “Out of a false sense of betrayal.”
“And you didn’t betray them?”
The question was infuriating. I wanted to shove it back down her beautiful throat.
But I knew it was the compulsion talking.
“No. If anything, they betrayed us.”
She glanced to Damien for confirmation, and his body language backed me up. I was grateful for it. In that regard, we were both on the same page.
“So what’s next?”
I looked out the window. The sun was finally almost up.
“We go tonight,” I said. “After dark. After the pack has left the grounds, and gone into the woods to hunt. It’s our best chance of getting in, without being seen.”
Getting seen wasn’t the problem, really. But if we got the timing wrong, one of them would sniff us out long before we got there. She still didn’t believe that though. And I wasn’t about to confuse her further.
“You’ve got abilities,” Damien said. “Powers that can Xiomara said can help us.” She looked uncomfortable. I got that. We both did. “We’re allies now,” Damien went on. “So don’t hold back.”
Serena looked like she was about to say something, but didn’t. I couldn’t tell, really. I couldn’t even look directly at her.
“Help us retrieve what’s ours, and we’ll show you the vault,” I said. “The library of books left behind by your Order. We’ll help you retrieve anything you need, once we…” My throat began closing. I hated myself for it.
“Once we’ve dealt with Karessa,” I growled.
A long silence settled over the kitchen before she finally spoke again.
“And what do we do from now until dusk?”
“We rest,” I said quickly. “It’s too dangerous to go out, especially for you.” I threw Damien a dirty look. “And besides, none of us got much sleep last night.”
