Andromeda's Reign

by K. S. Haigwood

  She was quiet for a long moment, and then she simply said, “Okay.”

  I knew she didn’t fully buy the lie, but she was still a few up on me in that department. She climbed in, and I shut the door then put my hand on the truck to guide my way to the other side.

  I could hear her typing on her phone when I opened my door. Click-click-click-click-click. After a moment, she tossed the phone in the console and put the truck in drive. I could guess who she was irritated with. “Roel?”

  “Yep,” she said, letting the ‘p’ pop on her lips extra loud.

  I fought to contain my laughter, but failed miserably.

  “Why is it funny?” she snapped. “He sent four of my pack and a guy I’m dating here without asking my permission or notifying me of it.”

  I reached over and took her right hand from the wheel then laced our fingers together. “It’s funny because you’re irritated with him, and I know that I’m the only thing on this planet that can calm you down and make you moan instead of growl when you’re that way. I’m not laughing because you’re mad, per se. I’m laughing because the more often people piss you off, the more often I can get you naked and under me… or on top of me… or—”

  “I get it, Ace!” She jerked her hand out of mine as she laughed and whacked my chest. I feigned being injured as I chuckled. She slipped her hand into mine again, her mood much lighter than before.

  Chapter 41

  Friday, February 6th 2015 4:00 p.m. CST

  Montgomery, Alabama

  Roel

  Roel’s phone pinged from Phoenix’s nightstand, but he stayed in his relaxed position of lying on his back in the vampire’s bed, with his fingers linked together behind his head. He had a feeling what the text would say when he looked at it, as well as who’d sent it. Brad had texted him after they landed and called Mena to come pick them up from the airport. He’d been expecting her call, but figured she was probably too angry to talk to him.

  At any rate, he wasn’t looking forward to her ruining his happy mood. He hadn’t been able to erase the smile from his face from the moment Lea kissed him, but he was pretty sure Mena’s text would do the trick when he read it.

  He could pretend to be asleep and not text her back until later. Not having had any sleep in over twenty hours was beginning to take its toll on his mind and body. He’d even called two shifters to watch the moonrising wolf in shifts so he could get some shuteye and take a break from it all, but he couldn’t stop thinking about Lea now. Christ, that woman was amazing.

  After kissing him senseless, she’d pulled away and politely excused herself, grinning like an angel all the way out of the room.

  On a huff, he reached over and grabbed his cell.

  Yep, it was from Mena.

  Roel, you’re lucky you are seventeen hundred miles away from me at the moment. Do not interfere with my love life. I can assure you, any attempt will backfire on you. Don’t act coy. I know exactly what you’re trying to do. ~Andra

  He was right. His mood was definitely in the pisser now. And what bothered him most about the text was her signature. Before, she had always signed herself off, in any of her other texts, as Mena. He didn’t want to call her by her wolf’s alias. And he wouldn’t, unless she gave him a direct order to. The moonrising wolf had picked that name, and that stupid Alpha lion called her that. To him, she would always be Mena.

  It was looking like he wouldn’t get any sleep any time soon, so he got out of bed, with a scowl on his face, and headed for the holding cell.

  The damn moonrising wolf was going to turn today if he had to get in the cell and force him to do it.

  As he opened Phoenix’s chamber door and rounded the corner, the door of the holding room opened at the end of the long corridor and Jess ran out, her eyes wide, with a mixture of panic and excitement in them.

  Roel’s pulse quickened. “He’s shifting?”

  Breathing heavily, she came to a stop and nodded as she smiled. “Yeah.”

  “Thank God!” he said as he broke into a run.

  The small man was hunkered down and naked on the cement flooring of the cell, his frail body trembling from the aftereffect of staying in wolf form for so long, or possibly the temperature of the floor under him; Roel didn’t know why the guy was shaking, nor did he care. He only wanted answers.

  Roel stopped just out of reach of the silver bars and stared at the captive. He had to keep in mind that Mena wanted them to find him someone for the guy to bond with if he was bitten after the last full moon. She hadn’t necessarily given a direct order on that shit, and Roel didn’t really favor the bond anyway, so he could lie to her if he didn’t get the answers he wanted and it turned out the new shifter was actually bitten in the last week.

  “What is your name?” Roel said sternly.

  The guy shivered as his eyes cut up to look at Roel. He was a small guy, maybe a hundred and fifteen pounds at best, with dark brown hair and deep-set, brown eyes. The guy could have been a jockey, with how short he was. Roel thought the nearest horse track was in Birmingham. Long way from home, little buddy, he thought. He didn’t need to know the actual specifics of the guy’s life. That would make it personal. It was harder to kill someone if he saw them as a real person. “Ma-a-at-thew,” he stuttered as his teeth chattered.

  Well, it looked as though he was going to cooperate. Roel glanced over at Jess. “Get him a blanket.”

  Her eyes grew wide as she stared at him in horror. “How am I supposed to find a blanket, Roel? I’m a shifter in a vampire’s lair. We were enemies only a month ago.”

  “But you’re not anymore,” he said. “I’ve been sleeping here more than in my own bed for the last few weeks. You’ll be fine. Grab the duvet off Phoenix’s bed. He won’t care.”

  As Jess left the room, Roel’s eyes narrowed on Matthew again. “You’re in the wrong district, Matthew. Do you know who bit you and what you are?”

  Matthew nodded as tears sprung to his eyes and rolled over the bridge of his nose, hitting the floor silently.

  “How long have you been a shifter?” Roel asked, instead of pressuring him to give up the name of his attacker first.

  “S-s-since Wednes-day mmm-morning,” Matthew replied.

  Roel quirked an eyebrow. That was the morning after the full moon, so the guy still had over three weeks before he was a lost cause. Shit. That didn’t make him feel better. It just meant more work for him, trying to find someone to bond with him—if it could even happen at all, since he wasn’t an Alpha—when what he needed to be focused on was Mena and finding a way to destroy the bond she was under, so she could come home for good… as herself. It was still a possibility that the wolf in him hadn’t named itself yet. Perhaps Matthew still had a fighting chance. Usually they had forty-eight hours. Almost two full days had passed since he was bitten. It was worth a shot, but first, he needed answers.

  Jess chose that moment to walk in with Phoenix’s comforter. She held it out to Roel. “I’m not going anywhere near that silver. I’ll take the pain from the punishment of refusing a direct order, if you plan to give me one, but I won’t take the risk of my skin coming in contact with those bars just to get this blanket through them to him.”

  Roel sighed as he took the cover from her and looked back to the naked man on the floor. “If I open the cell and give this to you, are you going to be nice?”

  Matthew nodded. “Y-y-yes.”

  Roel nodded once as he picked a towel up from the table, spread it over his hand then took the silver key from the hook on the far wall.

  “Roel…” Jess said, panic clear in her voice.

  “I’ll be fine, Jess. If he shifts, I’ll shift and kill him. I’ve killed far stronger beasts before. I’m going to leave the towel on the key. Shut and lock the cell door once I’m in there.”

  “Are you sure—”

  His narrowed eyes shut her up. “I’m sure. Do as I say. That’s a direct order.”

  She swallowed, but nodded. “Okay.”
/>
  He pushed the key home then turned it. The sound of the lock being freed echoed throughout the room. Keeping his eye on the shaking guy, he pulled the cell door open and slipped inside. Jess immediately did as he told her to do.

  “Can you stand?” Roel said, and Matthew slowly began to sit up.

  “I’m so tired,” he said, and his lower lip quivered as he got to his hands and knees.

  Once he was standing—albeit slumped over and trembling from head to toe, with his fingers curled in on themselves, as if he had a bad case of arthritis—Roel draped the thick duvet over his shoulders. Matthew grabbed the edges and closed his body in tight, like a cocoon.

  “You certainly appear harmless. Why did you try and attack us yesterday?”

  Matthew blinked a few times. “You hit me with a car. Wouldn’t you be frightened?”

  Roel chuckled. “Touché.” He held out his hand to the chair in the corner. “Want to sit down? I’m not going to hurt you now. No car in here. Just… steer clear of the silver bars. They hurt like a bitch.”

  Matthew nodded as he shuffled to the chair and sat down. “I know.”

  Roel undid the buttons at his wrists and rolled each sleeve up, before crossing his arms over his chest, ready to settle into some Q and A, hoping there would be a lot more A than Q. “Have you been in wolf form since you were bitten?”

  Matthew nodded. “I was forced to. He stayed with me the whole time, knowing you would come looking for me. That was his intention. He made me run in front of your car.”

  Roel’s eyebrows drew in. “He? Only an Alpha or Beta can give direct orders. Who is he?”

  Matthew shook his head. “I can’t tell you yet. I have other things you need to know before I’m allowed to tell you his name.”

  “So, spill it,” Roel said.

  “I can’t. You have to ask the right questions before I can tell you.”

  Shit. This dickhead Alpha or Beta was going to get a beat-down. “O-kay,” Roel said, drawing out the word. “Why did he force you to stay in wolf form for so long?”

  “Because he said the longer I stayed in wolf form, the weaker I would be when I shifted back to human.”

  Roel nodded. “That’s true, but what was his purpose for you being weak?”

  “He didn’t want me to be able to fight back if any of you tried to kill me after the deadline passed and I was allowed to shift back. I couldn’t have hurt you in wolf form, even if I wanted to. I was just scared and wanted y’all to leave me alone. I never wanted this.” His lips quivered some more. “He didn’t want any of you dead or injured.”

  What the fuck? “Uh… okay. I’ll go ahead and take the bait. Why doesn’t he want us dead or injured?”

  “Because he plans to become your Alpha.”

  Roel chuckled dryly. “Reeeally?”

  Matthew nodded.

  “What’s your purpose in all this? Why didn’t he just come here and challenge our Alpha?”

  “He didn’t know where the vampire’s lair was. He knew you would bring me here and he can locate me. I was used as a distraction, and, to answer your other question, because she’s in Las Vegas.”

  Roel stood a little straighter as a tingling sensation crept up his spine and goosebumps rose on the flesh of his arms. How would this guy know that and why the hell would the Alpha want to know where Phoenix’s compound was? “You said something about a deadline. What deadline?”

  “I wasn’t allowed to shift back until four o’clock p.m. on Friday. That’s when he would give the order to take over.”

  The blood drained from Roel’s face, but he refused to fidget in front of this little twerp. “We are spread out all over Montgomery, Matthew. Nobody can attack us all when we’re spread out.”

  Matthew met Roel’s cold eyes then swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down with the action. “He can, and he is.”

  “He is? Don’t you mean that he will try?” Roel shouted in Matthew’s face, forgetting his composure. Fuck that. If the guy wanted him riled up, he was getting everything he asked for.

  Matthew slowly shook his head, and then an ear-piercing scream came from down the corridor, up the stairs and in the main part of the house.

  “Roel!”

  Lea! His heart stopped beating. “Lea!” Roel shouted. “Who is here?” he screamed at Matthew, and then swiftly turned to Jess, without waiting for an answer. “Jess! Open the fucking cell door!” he said as he ran toward the locked door. Jess fumbled with the lock, but her hands were shaking too bad to turn it.

  “I can’t,” she cried. “What’s happening, Roel?”

  “He wants you to call and give his cousin a message,” Matthew said, and Roel staggered back a few steps as he realized his greatest fear was actually happening.

  Roel knew exactly who was going to challenge Mena and take her pack from her, and he knew why. Justice had as much as told him, when Roel had called around to find someone to bond with her before her moonrising wolf took over. He also knew how the Alpha would be able to attack Mena’s pack, even though they were scattered all over the city. He’d had days to track them, and the number of his men trumped Mena’s at least ten-to-one. They were in so much trouble. And they had Lea! “Oh, God!” he screamed, and then shoved his hands through the bars and knocked Jess’ hands out of the way, only burning himself twice on the silver bars, before hearing the lock mechanism spring free.

  Pushing out of the cell, with his clothed shoulder, Roel ran for the holding room door. His hand froze on the door handle when the sound of boots beating up the corridor floor reached his ears.

  A few of the vampires are asleep deep inside the underground tunnels of the compound. Will they kill them? A male’s tortured cry reached his ears, and then there was another gargled scream that immediately followed. Jaxon! Shit!

  The silhouette of two shoes appeared beneath the door. Roel’s eyes widened as he backed away. His gaze locked on the handle that was slowly lowering.

  “Hide, Jess,” Roel managed to get out around the constriction that was closing his throat up tight.

  “Where?” she cried. “We’re trapped!”

  He turned and ran to one of the other cell doors, unlocked it and ushered her in, before slamming and locking it back. He tossed the key and towel in with her. “Don’t open that door unless Mena or I give you a direct order to do so. Do you understand?”

  “Get in here with me!” she cried as tears trailed down her face.

  “I can’t,” Roel said, and then swallowed. “The Captain has to go down with the ship.”

  “Roel, no!”

  His head whipped around when the door opened.

  The guy’s appearance staggered Roel a bit. He didn’t look anything like Roel expected, and didn’t appear to be any older than twenty-five or twenty-six, but he was just as tall and filled out as Ace was. That’s where their similarities ended, though. Where Ace’s hair was a sandy blond, his was a deep brunette. Where Ace’s eyes were light golden amber, his were almost black. His skin was olive-toned, like it was naturally sun-kissed. His shoulders were broad and his waistline was small. It was obvious the guy cared about his appearance.

  His full lips slid over a set of perfectly aligned teeth, smiling venomously at Roel. “Roel… we finally meet.”

  Roel’s blood began to boil in his veins. “You will never take over Mena’s pack, Justice.” He’d meant to shout that at the Louisville, Kentucky’s Alpha, but it barely came out more than a whisper, definitely not as threatening as he’d intended for it to sound.

  “On the contrary, my friend, I do believe I will,” Justice said. “And never say never. Bad karma, you know.”

  “I’m not your friend,” Roel said, because he honestly couldn’t think of anything else to say. He could see no way out of this alive. He’d die before he let them take him. That’s it, he’d challenge him. If he won, he would join his new pack with Mena’s, and they could all be together, even the vampires, the ones that were still alive anyway. If h
e lost, then he wouldn’t have to watch what was certain to be the worst thing he had ever seen or heard of in his life.

  Reaching around to his back with both hands, he gripped the hilts of the daggers Lea made him, from the back carrying scabbard that he’d snatched from Phoenix’s weapon’s supply room, and flicked them free of their leather bindings with his thumbs. Crouching, he aimed the points of the daggers at Justice. His brow rose. “Come get you some,” he gritted out between clenched teeth.

  “You’re challenging me?” Justice said on a thunderous laugh, but just as quickly as the laugh started, it was gone, along with his smile. “You don’t want to fight me, fledging.”

  “No!” Jess screamed from the other side of the cell. “Roel, don’t!”

  “Hush, Jess!” Roel shouted. “Call Mena. Tell her what’s going on. Tell her… Tell her that I said I’m sorry.”

  As Jess began to dial on her phone, Roel glanced at Matthew. “Name your wolf,” he said. The memory of Alex naming his wolf Peanut, because Roel hadn’t been more specific, came to mind, and then he added on, “Pick a real masculine name that you like and name that fucker inside you. Shout it out. Do it now!”

  Matthew’s eyes grew wide and darted from him to Justice. Finally, he said, “I name my wolf Derby!” Matthew’s eyes flashed silver. Derby? What was with all these pansy-ass names people were picking to name their wolves? And then he realized that the guy probably really was a jockey. The name made Roel want to throw him a sock, though. At least he’d fixed the moonrising problem. Not that it mattered now.

  Roel rolled his eyes back to Justice who was just standing there, with amusement glimmering in his dark eyes.

  “I see you learned your lesson,” Justice said coolly, leaning against the wall behind him as if he hadn’t a care in the world.