by Kimber White
Mikhail threw down his plate and snapped at Adam. Adam yelped and backed down.
One of the other wolves calmly finished his meat then pushed his chair away from the table. “Mikhail,” he said. I learned the other men called him Dack. A nickname, though I didn’t know from what. “We can’t stay holed up here forever. There’s…”
He shifted into Russian, frustrating my efforts to learn more about their pack.
But, an argument ensued. I picked up a few random words to get the gist of the thing. The pack wanted to turn me in and get their bounty.
I took a chance. “Is it enough?” I said. The pack went quiet. They couldn’t figure out if I’d been able to understand them all along.
“I mean, Erik Kalenkov was barely more than a boy when the Vadims drove his family from Moscow, right? He was never going to lead that pack. If you want to hurt the Kalenkovs, you’re not going to do it from here. And what? Just keeping him away from me? That’s your grand plan? You’re barely making a dent. You have no power. If you stepped foot in Russia you’d be dead before the next dawn.”
I was right. I knew it.
“She wants to go to the Ring,” Adam said. “She told me.”
“She’s playing you, you idiot,” Mikhail said.
The wind kicked up outside. I scanned the sky. The sun was setting, but there were no clouds. Strange. The air had the feel of a storm.
“I don’t have to play him,” I said. “You think this is the life I want for myself?”
“She said the bounty on Sena Gray was five million dollars,” Adam said.
A hush went through the rest of the men. It was news to them. Good.
Mikhail let out a tirade in Russian. Of course he was telling them how I couldn’t be trusted.
A large willow tree in the yard began to sway. Still no clouds rolled in. It was odd.
“They’ll kill you if they find you,” I said. “Have you ever known anyone who was able to defy the Ring and live? I mean, other than Wolfguard. And they’re looking for me too. Your only play here is to hand me over to the Ring. Maybe it’ll be enough to buy your freedom.”
Mikhail smiled. “You think you’re the only thing of value in my possession.”
It was subtle, but he placed his hand against his chest. The medallion. Could I find a way to get it away from him?
“What good is any of it doing you?” I said, “You’re living here in squalor. Hiding like rats. The Kalenkovs are still in power. You’ve just earned the ire of Wolfguard on top of everything else. And you’re going to lose. Think about it. You think it’s just that you’re so cunning the Ring hasn’t been able to figure out where to find you? They’re leaving you alone because for now, it suits their purposes. For whatever reason.”
“The contract doesn’t expire until next month,” Adam said.
Mikhail struck. He raked his claws across Adam’s face. The force of the blow sent him flying backward out of his chair.
The wind howled. A lamp in the living room blew over.
“Shut the windows,” Mikhail said.
I rose from my chair and forced a laugh. “This whole thing is a ticking time bomb! You don’t have an actual plan beyond your deadline to hand me over? And you’ve blown it the second you marked me. I’m betting that was never part of the deal. The Ring doesn’t pay for marked shifters. They want them untouched.”
“They’ll understand it was the only way to get you away from Kalenkov. Torturing him was just a bonus.”
“Was shooting me?” I said. “Or was that just one more member of your pack you couldn’t control?”
“You’re not as smart as you think you are,” he said. “I have more magic than you can ever imagine. How do you think I tracked you?”
As he said it, I felt the tightness beneath my ribcage where the bullet went in. Just before Mikhail found me at the safehouse, I remembered a strange tingling there. Magic. My God. There was something in that bullet he’d used to track me.
I went on my tiptoes and got in Mikhail’s face. Behind him, in the yards, the willow tree lifted out of the ground by its roots.
“It’ll never be enough,” whispered.
The windows blew inward, spraying glass in all directions.
Mikhail and the others shifted. His command drove me to the ground. Then he turned away from me. His tail high, he faced the unknown threat at the door.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Erik
I just needed Nadia to get me close. The Vadim pack leader could try to take Nova, but he would never stop me from being able to scent her.
As we approached the small, run-down house in the middle of a rotting cornfield, it was Nadia who put a hand on my arm to hold me back.
“If you charge in there fangs blazing, you won’t be able to help Nova,” she said.
I was barely human. How I managed to stay on two legs in those next few moments I don’t know.
Because Nova was there. I couldn’t feel her heartbeat. I could no longer sense the soft caress of her breath. Something had been broken between us, whether it was the magic the Vadims stole or...something worse...I didn’t yet know. But, I didn’t need any of those things to know my mate was nearby. And she was scared to death.
“Erik!” Edward’s sharp voice somehow managed to cut through my rage.
“I see her too,” he said. “She’s alive. That’s all that matters right now.”
“How many?” Payne said. It meant everything that he’d come on this mission with us. As head of Wolfguard Security, he didn’t have to. No one would have thought twice if he’d delegated this mission to the men who served him. But he was here. Fangs dropped. Eyes blazing. He had his war face on.
“Eight.” It was Nadia who answered. We’d picked a clear, calm night. But, a breeze picked up. Her hair lifted off her shoulders and her eyes turned, the pupils widening.
Wind magic.
“She can see that?” Payne turned to Milo.
Beaming with pride, Milo nodded. “She can.”
Nadia’s wind spell caressed the branches of the trees surrounding the little house. From here, I could see the dingey curtains in the window lift. Whatever Nadia was doing, it seemed she could touch the people inside that house.
“Nova,” I said, my voice choked.
Nadia froze. Her face went slack. My heart tripped. Then, a second later, she broke into a smile.
“She’s okay,” Nadia said. “And I think she knows we’re here.”
I growled then let my claws come out. “I’m tired of waiting,” I said.
Nadia gave a look to Milo. Milo signaled to him.
“I can give you maybe thirty seconds,” Nadia said.
“I only need two,” I said.
“Erik,” Payne said. “I’m gonna need you to keep it together. No matter what happens in there.”
I turned to him. My vision went red around the edges as I let the bloodlust set in.
Payne nodded to Nadia. “Now.”
She drew in a breath. Her hair blew straight up. Then, with outstretched arms, she unleashed the storm.
The force of it nearly knocked me sideways. The little house creaked on its foundation and the windows exploded inward.
I didn’t wait for Payne’s command. Nova was my only thought, my only need.
The wolves inside the house shifted. There was no more time. Nadia had hoped for thirty seconds to give us the element of surprise. We weren’t that lucky.
Then Edward and Payne took the east side of the house. Milo stayed at his mate’s side. Nadia’s burst of magic began to wane. She would be at her most vulnerable for the next few minutes.
Nova’s scream reached me, cutting my heart in two. I wanted to call to her. I never should have let it get this far. I should have marked her, claimed her as my own weeks ago. If I had, the Vadim leader never would have gotten this close. His decoy at the stream wouldn’t have worked. If anything happened to her now I would never be able to live with myself.
A
pack wolf came at me, his eyes blazing red. His Alpha controlled him. It was a suicide mission as I was almost twice his size. He leaped through the air, claws out. I rose on my hind legs and sank my fangs into his neck, severing his jugular. He yelped and twisted as he hit the ground, but he would never get up again.
In the fog of the battle, the pack moved as one. It could be an advantage. There was no hesitation. No chance they could get in each other’s way.
But, we outnumbered them. And we were all Alphas.
Payne and Edward took out three wolves at the front of the house. We cleared each room. Still, I couldn’t get eyes on Nova. She was close though. He would have taken her deeper into the house, luring us in.
I let out a howl.
Where are you, baby? Let me know how to find you.
Nothing. Not a scream. Not her cat’s growl. The Alpha was keeping her from making a sound. God. No. If…
“Erik!” I heard my brother’s voice thundering inside my head. He was the only one who could reach me that way in the most dire of circumstances.
He’d made it to the back of the house. I charged forward as Payne and the others took out two more of the pack. That would only leave the Alpha himself and one other. They were cornered, defeated.
And yet none of it would matter if he took Nova away from me.
I slid to a halt at an open doorway off the kitchen. Stairs led to the basement.
“Wait!” my brother’s voice slammed into me.
I didn’t.
I charged down those stairs, heart lurching as I knew what I would find.
She was there, crumpled at the bottom of the steps. The knife stuck in her side with blood spilling into a great circle around her.
Irina. Nova. They were one and the same.
Magic. A trick. Another illusion. Except this time, I could see the assassin hovering over Irina’s body. His eyes glowing red, his fangs dripping.
“Erik!” her voice finally reached me.
My heart stopped.
Irina looked up at me, eyes pleading. She reached for me knowing there was nothing I could do to save her.
“Kalenkov,” the Alpha said. I knew his name. Mikhail Vadim.
I felt movement behind me. I turned at the last second just as the beta wolf caught me, his fangs digging into my back.
The force of it knocked me forward down the rest of the stairs. I rounded quickly. The beta circled. He’d been wounded already. Behind him, I saw my brother’s eyes glowing with hatred.
He knew. He saw what I saw.
I gave Edward a subtle nod. The beta kept his eyes on me. Mikhail loosened his control of him just a little as he used his borrowed magic on me.
I faked right. The beta tried to counter. Edward pounced. With one murderous swipe of his paw, he opened the beta’s neck, killing him almost instantly. His blood spread over the floor, almost matching the vision inside my head.
I turned to Mikhail. Nova’s jaguar was behind him. She couldn’t move. He held her at the end of a long, pink leash and my blood raged.
I shifted, rising to my feet. “It was you,” I said. “You killed Irina.”
Mikhail passed the leash from one hand to the other. He jerked it, making Nova yelp with pain. She locked her amber eyes on me. I didn’t have to be mated with her to know what she was trying to convey.
I’m sorry.
“She asked for a quick death,” Mikhail said. “But you didn’t give her one,” I said.
He smiled. “We’re at war,” he said. “And you left her unprotected.”
“She was a civilian!” I shouted. “We weren’t even...she was…”
“I did my job,” Mikhail said. “And today I get to finish it.”
Edward shifted and came to stand at my shoulder. “You lost,” he said. “Haven’t you heard? The war’s over, Mikhail.”
“It’s never over as long as Kalenkovs and Vadims still draw breath.”
“I’ll cure you of that problem,” I said.
Mikhail tugged on the leash. He ripped something off of his neck. A silver medallion on a chain. It was cracked and jagged with a sharp edge.
“Come here,” he said to Nova. With halting, robotic steps, she went to him.
It was then I understood. He’d marked her. The bastard had marked her. God.
He held the sharpest edge of the metal against her throat.
“You’re not walking out of here alive,” I said to him.
“I’m walking out of here with her,” he said. “It’s the only way she gets out of here alive.”
“If you kill her,” Edward said, “It won’t just be the Kalenkovs after you. You’ve stolen her from the Ring, haven’t you? She was never meant for you. You’re nothing more than a minion to them. What we do to you here today will be nothing compared to what they will do.”
Mikhail flashed the medallion. It glowed with an unnatural light. I was no mage, but even I could sense its strange power. At that moment, I understood what Nadia had said. It held magic, but of a kind none of us had ever seen. And I knew with one quick swipe, he could kill Nova with it.
“Easy,” Edward said to me.
“Listen to your brother,” Mikhail said. “This one’s already mine. Let me pass and she and you get to live.”
Edward took a few steps backward. His gaze cut through me. He wanted me to retreat.
Nova gave me a pleading look. She was trapped. His mark had to be causing her agony. Sweat poured down her flanks. Her breathing was ragged. She was fighting a battle inside of herself.
Edward moved back against the wall. He tugged on my arm. I stayed still as stone.
“Let me pass,” Mikhail said. “You can kill me. You outnumber me. I know even the great Payne Fallon is waiting for me upstairs. But, he won’t move if you ask him not to. For her.”
Mikhail jerked Nova’s leash. She took another lurching step forward, unable to break free of the power of Mikhail’s mark. I knew it was more than that though, the medallion’s magic was making his hold stronger than it would have been naturally.
“All I have to do is tell her to die and she will,” Mikhail barked.
No. God. No.
I took a step back.
“Another day,” Edward whispered. “He can’t go far. As long as he holds that thing, we can track him.”
Mikhail smiled. He advanced, getting as far as the base of the stairs.
“One word,” he said. “I say die, and her heart stops. You can kill me, but I still win.”
He took a step. Then another. He pulled Nova halfway up the stairs.
“Stand down,” Edward shouted, signaling to the others.
Mikhail made it to the top. I waited three seconds, then charged up behind him.
They were at the front door. Payne, Milo, and all the others formed a perimeter around the house.
“You can’t go far,” I said. “You have no pack now. No respite. You’ll be hunted by Wolfguard, the Kalenkovs, the Ring.”
“I have the things you all want. I like my chances,” Mikhail said.
He turned to face me, eyes blazing. He dropped his hand for a moment, the one holding the medallion. It was just a split second. A break in his concentration. But it was enough.
Nova grabbed Mikhail’s wrist between her teeth. She couldn’t bite down. Not with his mark burning into her. But, I could.
I shifted in an instant, arching through the air. I had one shot. One chance. It was all I needed.
I ripped into Mikhail’s neck. He tumbled backward, never even getting the chance to shift into his wolf. He dropped the medallion. He dropped the leash.
He got in one blow. His claws ripped open my back. But, I would not let go. I held his neck in a vice-grip. Mikhail thrashed and fought. He’d already lost too much blood.
Something made me loosen my grip. I felt Nova’s need.
Her tail grazed my neck. I looked up. Our eyes met and I understood. I moved, giving her access. Then, Nova delivered the coup de grace, severing Mik
hail’s head from his neck.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Nova
As Mikhail took his last breath, I felt his mark release as if all the pressure inside my chest went out. For a moment, I couldn’t draw air.
Was this it? Was this how it would end? Would I die anyway because the Alpha who marked me did?
Then, the Alpha who I was meant for knelt beside me. Erik put his hand in mine. I hadn’t even realized I’d shifted. He kept one sharp claw out and used it to slice through the collar around my neck.
I rose on unsteady legs. Erik and I stood facing each other. His blue eyes were murky with doubt. For me, all doubt washed away as he took my hand.
“You came,” I said, my voice sounding foreign to my own ears.
“I’ll always come for you,” he said. “I keep my promises.”
The others closed in. Payne, Edward. Another who looked enough like Edward and Erik he had to be family. Later, Erik would tell me he was his cousin Milo. Milo kept a firm hand around his mate. I recognized her as a witch and knew at once she had brought the wind that threw Mikhail’s pack into disarray. I owed my freedom as much to her as the others and to myself.
I felt an instant kinship to her. I went to her. She greeted me with open arms.
“Thank you,” I whispered.
“It’s good to finally meet you,” she said. “My name is Nadia and...well...it seems we have a lot of catching up to do.”
I wanted that. But, a more urgent need took hold. I felt it in Erik as well. The others seemed to understand. He went to his brother and whispered something in his ear. Then, Payne joined them. He didn’t look happy, but whatever Erik told him, he nodded in resignation.
Then, Nadia and the men of Wolfguard said their goodbyes. I wanted to get as far away from this ramshackle house as possible.
“I’ll have a cleanup crew here within the hour,” Payne said. There was carnage everywhere as Mikhail’s pack still lay where they died.
I felt a tinge of remorse. I believed Adam and some of the others might have been good men at heart. But, they couldn’t get out from under Mikhail’s influence, and their need to believe his empty promises and dreams of glory had killed them as much as Wolfguard.
