by Abigail Owen
Anger bubbled up over his panic. “Have you disagreed with any one of my decisions?”
Emotion darkened her eyes to emerald, and her shoulders fell before she turned back to her packing. “That’s not the point,” she said quietly.
Was that disappointment lacing her voice? No one had ever found him lacking his entire life. Marrok opened and shut his mouth, unable to process his reaction. He was a proven alpha. He’d made decisions, and he wouldn’t apologize for that. What’s more, he’d protected his mate. Or tried to. What did she want from him?
Before he could form a response, Tala’s cell phone rang.
She checked the screen and answered it. “We ready, Delilah?”
“Delilah?” Marrok asked.
Tala held up a finger, shushing him. Marrok scowled. Delilah could only be calling for one reason—Kaios. But why did Tala sound as though something was going on only she knew.
“The cabin is all set.”
Cabin? What was going on?
“You’re coming yourself?” Tala’s eyebrows flew up in surprise. “Okay. I’ll meet you both at the airstrip?”
Tala hung up and tossed her phone on the bed before she resumed packing.
“What was that about?”
She spared him a glance but continued her activity. “I’m helping Delilah hide Leia from Kaios.”
Now he crossed the room, unable to stop himself and halted her packing with a hand on her arm, her soft skin under his fingertips a distraction he didn’t need. “Nothing was said during the morning call. Has something happened?”
“Leia called Delilah this afternoon and asked for help. I’m providing a cabin to hide her at.”
“And you decided this when?”
She shrugged. “Around noon.”
“And when were you going to consult me?”
She cocked her head. “I’m an alpha, and this is my cabin on my lands.”
Marrok received her message loud and clear. If you can make decisions without consulting me, so can I, screamed in the silence between them.
So that’s how she wanted to play it?
“Does Castor know?”
“No. Leia’s choice.”
He pulled his cell out, only to stop when she growled. “Call him and you’ll deal with me.”
Slowly, he lifted his gaze to find her with her whip chain already in hand. He hadn’t even sensed her move. Fury and shock warred within him. When had he been reduced to this?
“This is Leia’s choice, not yours. And you will respect that.”
“Castor would never have let her go without him.”
“Then he can deal with Delilah. But he won’t hear it from us. We won’t break her trust that way.”
Tala moved away, though she kept her gaze trained on him warily. Hurt and disappointment joined shock and fury. His mate didn’t trust him. Marrok’s wolf, who’d been growling constantly, now raised his head and howled. The empty sound was a pure reflection of Marrok’s own reaction.
Had he done this? Where had he gone wrong?
She grabbed a jacket out of the armoire—one she had yet to pack—and slipped it on. Then she grabbed her purse. “I have to get going. They’ll be waiting for me. I’ll have Shyla come get my things.”
“I’m coming with you.” He followed her out of the room, making sure the door closed behind them.
Her lips tightened, but, otherwise, she didn’t argue.
CHAPTER 11
From her hiding place in the forest, Tala diligently watched the tiny cabin in which they’d hidden Leia. It was tucked in the middle of the wilderness, one that smelled of the pine trees the logs had been hewn from. The home where they’d placed her was where Tala had been born, long before being an alpha was even a thought to her family.
The building was as basic as you could get, with a combined kitchen and living area on the first floor and a ladder leading up to a loft which functioned as a bedroom. Minimal furniture, a power generator, and a well system for water afforded all the required comforts of living. A large pond was situated within walking distance, about half a mile down a steep hill from the flat area on which the cabin was situated.
For once, Tala was dressed for the woods in cargo pants and a t-shirt, simple running shoes on her feet. Gear appropriate for camping—and fighting, when it came to it. Only three days had passed since they’d arrived. While Leia acted at hiding alone in this isolated spot, Tala, Marrok, and most of their most trusted warriors remained hidden nearby. Delilah had provided a warlock who’d cast a spell over their encampment, rendering them invisible to anyone searching, sniffing, or listening for them. The warlock had disappeared shortly after performing his service.
“Ma’am. A male is approaching from the west.” Ulrik, one of her best fighters, came over her earpiece.
Tala placed her hand at her throat and pushed the button to speak. “Identify.”
“Looks like Marrok’s best man. Tall, dark hair, demigod-like.”
Tala glanced to Marrok, who nodded. He copied her motion to speak. “On my way to verify.”
“Copy that.”
Her mate moved through the forest on silent feet. The man was a marvel when it came to stealth, she’d learned over the last few days. Besides, she didn’t mind watching him walk away when he had a backside that wouldn’t quit. He hadn’t touched her since they’d arrived, and even her wolf was getting antsy. But Tala was determined to stand strong.
“Confirmed. The man sighted is Castor.”
Marrok’s voice gave her shivers, but she forced the sensation to settle and focused on the issue at hand. Leia was going to freak. However, Tala wasn’t about to attempt to hold back a determined demigod. “Let him through.”
“Copy that.”
Castor started calling his nymph long before he came into view. “Leia.” His voice floated on the wind. “Leia, it’s Castor. Honey, are you in there?” He walked with an odd combination of determination and caution, stopping in the field of wildflowers outside the cabin, half-way between the home and the trees where Tala remained unseen.
The splintering crack of shattered glass came from inside the cabin. Leia must be beside herself. She’d hidden here partly to protect Castor, and now he’d followed. A shadow appeared at the window at the front of the cabin and inched back the edge of the white cotton curtain to peer outside.
Seconds later, Leia pulled open the door. Hands on her hips, she confronted him. “What are you doing here?”
Tala checked the tall pine trees around Leia and Castor but caught no trace of her people—or of danger.
“I’m here to be with the woman driving me absolutely crazy.”
Tala gulped at the demigod’s words. A traitorous part of her longed for her mate to want her in that nothing-will-stop-me-from-getting-to-you kind of way.
To give them privacy in what appeared to be an intimate moment, as well as to shut down her own cravings, Tala tuned them out. She didn’t need a mate in a romantic sense. Hers was a marriage of convenience, and that was fine.
“How’s it going out there?” Marrok appeared at her side out of nowhere. She really should get him to show her how he did that.
“I’m giving them privacy.”
A deep voice boomed across the clearing. “How sweet.”
Tala’s wolf growled, while, out in the flowers, Lea and Castor both whipped toward the sound of Kaios’s voice. The ancient werewolf stepped out of the cover of the dark woods. How had no one spotted him?
“Trying to protect a demigod?” Kaios pulled his lips back in a sneer of derision as he advanced toward the couple. “You always did have an overblown sense of your powers, nymph.”
Behind him, out of the darkness, a line of werewolves, already shifted into their animal form, advanced upon them. There had to be at least thirty. A low growl rose from a few, while others pulled back their lips, baring their teeth in snarls meant to terrorize.
Beside Tala, Marrok’s smothered growl caused the fine hairs on
the back of her neck to raise. She didn’t need to look to know his eyes were glowing with fury. His wolf was probably pushing for the change.
“Kaios isn’t an alpha of a pack,” Tala hissed. “So where did he get them?” She indicated the wolves with a jerk of her head.
“And why are they helping him?” Marrok rumbled.
Castor stepped closer to Leia and took her hand, presenting a united front. Above them, the skies darkened with the warning of his wrath, swirling with dark clouds.
“Oh, I have a way to deal with you.” Kaios turned to signal someone over his shoulder. A woman with deep red hair stepped out of her hiding spot. She raised her arms and whispered words Tala couldn’t catch. The clouds cleared in an instant, returning to the blue skies of moments before.
“What’s she doing?” Tala asked under her breath.
Marrok shook his head. “She must be a witch.”
The woman closed her eyes, her face a study of regret. Tala got the distinct impression the witch would rather be anywhere than here right now. “I’m sorry,” the woman mouthed at Leia, misery pinching her face. Tala hadn’t seen anything happen. What was she doing to the nymph?
The woods were eerily quiet—no bird chirped, no animals scurried through the underbrush. Even the wind stilled. They’d all gone into hiding.
“Your brothers and sisters will be no use to you now, Lyleia.”
Tala wanted to wipe that smirk off the werewolf’s arrogant face. She turned her head and caught Marrok’s gaze on her. He lifted his eyebrows in question and she nodded, for once in total accord with him.
A sexy smile tugged at one side of his mouth. Suddenly, Marrok leaned over and planted a swift hard kiss on her unsuspecting lips.
Before she could comment, Marrok put his hand to the device at his neck. “Let’s move,” he ordered.
“Why don’t we make this fight a tad more even, first,” Marrok boomed from beside her as, together, they stepped out of the line of woods across from where Kaios’s force stood, Leia and Castor stuck between them. Tala and Marrok’s own pack of werewolves—at least fifty—fell in line behind them, emerging with barely a rustle.
Kaios’s smug smirk fell. “You’d fight one of your elders?”
“We’ll kill you if we get the chance,” Tala snarled.
Tala and Marrok took off, their forces right with them. At an imperceptible signal, Kaios’s werewolves burst into a dead run as well. Both sides aimed straight at each other. Together, Tala and Marrok shifted, the action as swift as alphas could push their bodies to change, rending their clothes and accompanied by their twin yelps of agony as their bones realigned. In seconds, chaos reigned all around them.
CHAPTER 12
Sounds of the violent battle echoed off the peaks of the mountains all around—snarls and growls, yelps of pain and howls of rage.
Tala stayed close to Marrok. A niggling sensation in the back of her mind—a sinking suspicion her wolf battled an urge to lunge at Marrok—was a distraction she couldn’t afford. Her wolf was behaving right now. She’d figure that out later.
She’d shifted because in combat with many wolves, her human form, even with all her skills and weapons, was too fragile. But that meant she wasn’t as effective as a fighter—not that she was bad, but she just wasn’t as proficient a killer.
Marrok, however, was even more impressive, if anything. A pure black wolf with piercing blue eyes, the sheer size of him was enough to make most werewolves hesitate to attack. This was the first time they’d loosed their wolves together, but the heat of battle claimed all their attention.
They fought well together, working in tandem. She’d force a wolf into Marrok’s space, and he’d snap their back leg. He’d pin a wolf, and she’d go after its belly or neck. The smart ones stayed clear of them.
As a large grey wolf approached, Tala hunkered down low and bared her teeth in a vicious snarl. Her hackles raised the fur on her back and her tail pointed straight out. The wolf paced, teeth also bared, and searched for an opening. Finally, he lunged, only to have Marrok slam into him from the side. The grey wolf gave a yelp, then went silent as Marrok’s momentum drove him into a tree and knocked him out.
*****
Marrok gave his head a shake. He’d gotten his bell rung pretty good when he’d slammed that grey wolf into the tree. Damn thing went after Tala, and his wolf went a bit nuts, applying more muscle than was needed. Before Marrok could get to his feet, a warning bark split the air. Fear for his mate sharpened inside as he turned his head to see Tala leap onto the back of a wolf intent on taking him out while he was down.
She sank her teeth into the scruff at the back of his neck, mostly getting fur. Before he could intervene, she pulled off an impressive flipping maneuver and pinned the wolf to the ground. The creature, in desperation, made the change. With a yell of pain as the bones snapped back into their human size and alignment, he held up his hands. “Don’t kill me!”
Tala gave a snort, then jerked her head. Her message loud and clear. “Get out and stay out.”
A loud cry came from the woods around them, and suddenly a handful of nymphs were in on the action. Leia had told them a Napaeae wood nymph lived there. Had she called them? Marrok searched the trees for the red-headed witch who’d been holding Castor’s powers at bay. Had she done the same to the nymphs? If so, what stopped her now?
Sure enough, Castor stood over the witch’s limp form. Lightning sprang from the demigod’s fingertips, blinding in brilliance, crackling with power, the scent of burnt ozone rancid in his nose, overpowering the earthy scents of werewolves and underlying metal of blood. The electricity in the air had Marrok’s fur standing on end. With a boom of thunder Castor fried the wolf closest to him, but he left the witch unharmed, beyond knocking her unconscious. Good. Marrok’s impression was the woman had been forced to use her magic against them.
Further searching revealed Kaios had disappeared. Damn.
With a toss of his head, Marrok indicated Tala should follow him. Together, with very little to stop them as their pack of wolves was now winning the fight, they ran to where Castor continued to light up opponents.
Marrok made the change as quickly as his body would allow, knowing Tala would stand guard, protecting him while he was vulnerable. He panted in agony until the last shard of pain left his body. Blood coated his mouth with its copper-tasting stickiness. Not his blood though.
From where he knelt on all fours, he glanced up at Castor. “Where’s Leia?”
Panic filled his friend’s eyes as he searched the fighters. “By the pond. Where’s Kaios?”
“Gone.”
Castor took off for the pond at an inhuman sprint, faster even than werewolves could move. Tala and Marrok followed. They skidded to a halt at the sight of Kaios standing out of the reach of the water. Leia stood waist-deep in the pond, facing him. Castor had stopped at the edge of the trees, unnoticed. At his signal, Marrok and Tala remained hidden just inside the tree line.
“Do you want to know why I rejected you?” Leia asked.
A snippet of emotion passed to Marrok through the mating bond. Tala was impressed with the nymph, who appeared calm given she faced her worst enemy.
Kaios turned a bored expression Leia’s way. “No. I want you to die.”
Without warning, he held up the gun Marrok hadn’t seen in his hand, pointed it at her, and pulled the trigger.
Castor and Tala both tensed to leap at the wolf, but stopped abruptly, as a wall of water surged up in front of Leia and turned to solid ice in an instant. The bullet lodged in the block. She dropped it into the pond with a splash. Before Kaios could react, she and her nymph sisters, now visible behind her, worked together. They tossed a wave up around him, and tendrils of water lilies wrapped around his legs and arms.
They dragged him, kicking and screaming, into the water, pulling him to the center of the pond, where they forced him under. His scream turned into a gurgle of terror as his head submerged. They held him under unti
l the thrashing stopped, his eyes rolled back in his head, and he stopped his struggles. To be sure he was dead, they kept him under even longer, until the water reeked with the taint of death.
Leia closed her eyes. Once again, Castor started toward them, only to stop when Calli, Leia’s sister, spoke.
“What do you want us to do with him?” Calli asked.
The fight up by the cabin must’ve wound down, because the sounds of the battle no longer rang through the trees.
“I don’t care.” Leia trudged back out of the water. She flopped down at the edge of the pond, her clothes once more dry as a bone. Handy trick.
Castor remained still, watching and listening. How could his friend not go to the woman he was obviously in love with? Marrok turned to Tala, who gave him a wolf version of a shrug.
“What will you do?” Calli asked Leia.
“Find a new job.” Marrok winced as Castor tensed, devastation written on his face.
“What about Castor?”
Leia ran a hand over her face. “Do you think there’s a chance for a son of Zeus and a failed nymph?”
Marrok put a hand on Castor’s shoulder. “We’ll give you some privacy.”
His friend probably didn’t even hear him, his focus solely on Leia.
“I think love is worth trying for.” Calli murmured.
“I’m not worthy of his love.”
Worthy. Why did that concept ring true inside Marrok? He turned and followed Tala, who remained in her wolf form. Love had never been a part of the bargain for them. But suddenly, he wanted to be worthy of her love.
Marrok froze.
He didn’t know when he’d fallen for Tala. The strong, independent, fierce woman who hid beneath a façade of icy control and couture clothing had captured him—heart and soul. All the signs had been there—his wolf’s approval of her, his need to claim, to protect, to care for a woman who pushed him away at every turn. Despite their obvious physical connection, which couldn’t be all pheromones, he had no idea if love even made her radar. Worse, if the troubles she had with her pack were any evidence, worthy was not a word he’d apply to himself.
