by Scott, Helen
“Fuck this!” Cade yelled as he burst upward from his chair. “You think we’re going to listen to you, you sick old fuck? You’re screwing the students—no one has to abide by your dictates.
“Listen to me when I say . . . we don’t want Lily as our Sixth. We won’t accept her. Can’t accept her.”
When he finished his tirade, silence descended. It was oppressive as we all tried to figure out what to do next. My brother was terrifyingly close to trying to time-walk again, but it was too soon since his last adventure, and if he tried, he could cause himself a permanent injury, which wasn’t ideal when you were expected to be a fighter.
“I’ll forgive your outburst as shock, but mark my words, and mark them well. Do not cross me. Lily is your Sixth. If you reject her then you will be demoted to low Beta and will need to earn your place as Alpha all over again.
“Marcella will never be anyone’s Sixth. She’s destined to stay at the Academy, feeding and cleaning for real Sixths. It’s exactly where trash like her belongs. Illusion is a common enough power, and we will soon have someone with a similar talent to hers, and she will be forgotten as unremarkable.
“Meanwhile, Lily will raise her brotherhood to a whole new level. If I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t hesitate to snap Lily up. Now, get out, before I take offense to your remarks.”
Cade kicked back, and his chair flew across the room smashing into the bookcase behind it, cracking into pieces before he turned and marched out.
“Master Lee will escort you back to your rooms where you can collect yourselves before the ceremony begins tomorrow.
We’ve sent up plenty of blood and food, so you will have no reason to leave. Lee will retrieve you in time for the ceremony to begin. Dismissed.”
Winterborn picked up the same book he’d been carrying when we first arrived, and I’d still thought we had a chance at getting Marcella as our Sixth.
With a sigh that seemed to come from his soul, one that made me wonder if he was fearful of what Cade had revealed, the Headmaster turned to the bookcases behind his desk and pretended like we weren’t still sitting there.
The four of us filed out after Cade and found Lee holding a sword to his throat to prevent him from leaving the area. “Let’s go back to your rooms, shall we?” The trainer seemed much too gleeful at the turn of events.
Even if I hadn’t known what I did from my brothers’ skills, I would be suspicious of his demeanor. The fact that I knew why he was gleeful, and that it meant he believed he wouldn’t suffer any consequences for his actions, turned my stomach. I knew no matter what happened next, I’d be coming for that asshole later.
* * *
Keiran
Of us all, I knew I’d been the least convinced about having Marcella as our Sixth, mostly because I knew something like this would happen.
It always fucking did.
No matter how independent we became, no matter how many asses we kicked, and how often and how fucking hard we proved ourselves to the pursangs, they never trusted us enough to give us our heads. To let us do what the fuck we wanted with our lives within the parameters they set for us.
Even though I’d been more aware of that than my brothers—I had been the one that was least taken with Marcella—the rage that flushed through my system as I saw Lee’s smirking face made me want to bestow a lifetime of nightmares on him.
I wanted to ruin his sleep, wreck his life from the inside out.
I was capable of it, too.
Even our kind needed to sleep. Rest was a pivotal part of our existence, just as it was with humans, and the pursangs were more susceptible to diseases anyway. It wasn’t like in the movies or the books where being a vampire meant you were untouchable. We had our own issues and being a dirty blood, just like any mongrel, meant our DNA was always tougher than a pursang’s.
It was why, even though Cade could move time itself and Raven could walk into a man’s mind and fuck-up his psyche, mine was the most dangerous. Sleep was where we were most vulnerable, and those vulnerabilities would bleed into our daily life.
Even if I hadn’t minded Lily Addams, I wouldn’t have wanted her as a Sixth—not after I visited her dreams. She’d be a fuck-up forever since I’d tangled with her fears. Even though she’d finally made it out of her bedroom, that didn’t mean she wasn’t sick to her stomach every time she left one room and entered another.
That was my power.
I could destroy people, and they didn’t really know it. If they did, Lee and Winterborn wouldn’t have spoken to us, wouldn’t have looked at us as though we were shit on their shoes.
At my side, I felt one of my brothers’ energies surge to the fore. I could sense the tension in Barclay and knew he was ready to shift. We’d been released from our quarters, but I knew Lee would shuffle us back in there. Having been excused by Winterborn didn’t mean we were free to roam, especially not now that our preference for Marcella had registered.
I grabbed his arm and squeezed his shoulder, trying to imbue some calm in him through touch. Shifters were tactile creatures, and if he could sense I was just as annoyed, that should ease his agitation. He shot me a look that was loaded with anger, and I blinked at him, trying to convey without words how I was feeling. When his nostrils flared, I watched him firm his jaw as he realized I was just as mad, then he nodded. I cast a look around, saw my other brothers were resolute as we followed Lee back to the rooms.
Our silence was being taken as our complicit agreement, but I knew we hadn’t agreed to shit. We were staying quiet until we could talk without ears listening in. Unless they’d bugged our rooms—a distinct possibility—we’d be discussing this the minute Gideon had made sure there were no listening devices, and he’d deactivated them with his powers.
Our tension soared with every step, and it ricocheted around us as we passed the wing where we knew the Sixths slept. Marcella would be down there, sleeping, I imagined. Was she dreading the coming match? Was she hopeful? Did she know her loss was ordained from the very start?
My heart ached for her, literally ached. What was it Winterborn had said? That she was destined to be a servant, just as her mother was. That she should be grateful she’d only be a slave that cleaned up, rather than one who was used for blood and sex.
I gnawed on my bottom lip, outrage filling me. We’d all had rough starts and had been reared to believe our Sixth would be privileged. It had torn me up to think that a female so integral to us would forever be out of reach because she came from a different background, but Marcella understood.
She’d had it hard. She knew what it was to fight. What it was to struggle to survive.
I didn’t want Lily. The thought was a dull thud in my head.
I didn’t want her.
I wanted Marcella.
The pomp and privilege that came with being a part of the LeFauvre line meant shit to me. I’d be a low Beta again if it came to it. I’d deal with the shit tossed our way in a heartbeat, but I knew, point blank, that even if we took that route, we’d always be denied Marcella.
Only the Maker knew what they’d do to her if they learned she’d bonded herself to us.
“Now, behave like good doggies,” Lee sneered as he opened our door.
Before any of us could stop him, Cade surged forward. In the blink of an eye, he had his forearm under Lee’s chin, his wrist pushing into the Master’s Adam’s apple. The smug look on Lee’s face disappeared, that sneering curl to his lips faded as he tried and failed to suck down air.
“You listen to me, you piece of shit, if you think you can talk to any of us like that without facing any repercussions, you’re more of an idiot than I realized. If anyone is going to bark here, it’s you.” I knew Cade, of us all, was the most on edge. We felt the lack that came with being half bound, but he was missing Marcella with an ache we’d only understand when the bond was fully consummated.
I watched as Cade rammed his arm harder into the bastard’s throat. “Well? Do it.”
&nbs
p; “Do what?” Lee squeaked.
“Woof like a fucking dog.”
The man’s eyes rounded. “What?” he spluttered, but he gasped when Cade merely exerted more pressure.
It was telling that not a one of us made a move to stop him, to corral him in. Lee’s disrespect was no longer tolerable.
“Woof, woof,” Barclay murmured, his tone coolly amused as he folded his arms across his chest. His muscles bulged in a way that told me, behind closed doors these past few days, he’d been working the shit out. Because Maker, he was fucking huge.
Lee bit off, “You can’t–”
“I think I can do anything I want.” Cade reached down into his jacket, and I saw the dagger’s blade before I saw Cade move. “If I want to slice you ear to ear, I will, and what the fuck is anyone going to do about it? I’m Lilly Addams’ brotherhood. She’s our fucking Sixth, and as I just had rammed down my throat, I’m going to be attached to the LeFauvre line. As far as I’m aware, that makes me un-fucking-touchable.”
There was a beautiful kind of agony in Lee’s eyes as he stared at Cade and saw death in the flesh. He knew, just as we all did that Cade spoke the truth.
After Winterborn’s declaration, in the eyes of the council, we were LeFauvre. And, as Lee was, too, this was an in-house matter . . . one that would fall in our favor because we were of far more use to the family than a piddling Master in the Academy.
“Woof, woof,” Lee sounded.
“Louder,” Cade demanded.
“Woof, woof,” came the noisier response.
“Good,” was all my brother growled. “Now, fuck off.”
As he released Lee’s throat, the other man’s hands came up to hold his neck. Even as he coughed, he whispered, “I have to seal the door.”
“Like I said, fuck off,” Cade snarled and, it was with delight, we all watched Lee scurry away like the rat he was.
“That was foolish,” Gideon said on a sigh.
“Perhaps, but good watching,” Raven murmured, sounding uncaring. I knew that to be a falsehood—Raven cared too much. That had always been his problem.
“Gideon, check that they haven’t planted any listening devices in our rooms,” I ordered, making Gideon’s brows lift. It wasn’t often I issued commands, but we needed to talk.
Stat.
I rubbed my chin after I’d crossed the threshold. Without the seal on the quarters, there was less tension brimming in here, and I felt it in my lungs—it was easier to breathe. Watching Gideon move from room to room, his runes and tats lighting up as he meandered here and there, I knew I’d been right to make the order because his face was wreathed in a glower as he took a seat at the central table.
“One in each room. They’re new. I checked earlier this afternoon.”
“Figured as much. They’ll want to know what our next move is after that piss poor showdown back there,” Cade snapped, jerking his thumb toward the door even as he pulled out the chair and took a heavy seat. “That was a clusterfuck. You’d better not be sitting there contemplating a way to tell me we have no choice in this, Gideon.”
The druid glared back at Cade. “Fuck. You. Marcella is as much mine as she is yours, Cade. You think I don’t feel the pull?”
Before they could get into a fistfight, I cleared my throat. “Of us all, I was the least attached to her.” My words had Cade’s gaze snapping to mine. The outrage in the depths of his eyes was enough to procure a smile from me. “Calm down, brother. I was just about to say . . . I was the least attached, and I’m equally against the idea of this idiocy with Lily Addams. It will be a cold day in hell before I accept her as my Sixth.”
My words had a curious effect on the group. Everyone seemed to calm down, my acceptance hitting home.
This was real. What we had with Marcella was unstoppable. I’d just sealed that particular deal.
“What do we do?” Barclay asked quietly after a few moments of silence where we all pondered our fates.
Raven blew out a breath. “Why do you think Marcella is still alive? From what I saw, she was supposed to die in the quarters.”
Cade’s top lip quirked up. “Bet she was too good. Our Sixth has guts.”
That made sense. Marcella was tough, and she had gifts that would complement ours perfectly. Whatever Winterborn said, however hard he dismissed her talents as illusion, I knew that was how she’d kept herself safe for all these years.
“She’ll have confused her opponent with an illusion,” I murmured slowly. “She’s powerful. Too powerful for one so young.”
Gideon scratched his jaw. “You’re right. She is very strong. Either way, at least their plan failed.”
“Thank the Maker,” Barclay said, blowing out a breath.
“We’d have felt her passing, hell, we would know we only had days or maybe even hours left. Not to mention Cade would be dead, too,” I tried to reassure him with a statement that was anything but reassuring.
He gulped. “I know but that’s . . .” He exhaled roughly again. “I can’t even deal with the thought.”
“None of us can,” Raven soothed, clapping a hand on Barclay’s back. “Look, we’re all in agreement here. Lily isn’t going to be our Sixth, which means one thing and one thing only.”
We turned to him, most of us frowning as we contemplated his words and wondered what he meant.
“We have to snatch Marcella and go rogue.”
Barclay
The prospect of going rogue actually didn’t perturb me.
I’d always known that the confines of our lives were suffocating, enough to choke us all with how heavily we were controlled. The beasts in our souls weren’t accustomed to that. It didn’t matter that we’d been raised knowing this was the way of it, the prospect of being free from that soothed something deep inside me.
I knew it soothed all of us.
It was why we’d all agreed with Raven.
It was why I was here, in my wolf form, sneaking down the hallway to Marcella’s room.
We were all engaged in some act that would take us forward. Keiran was fucking with Winterborn’s dreams, Cade—even though it was dangerous considering he’d used his gift so recently—was tampering with time to give us more of it, and Gideon and Raven were working together to find a safe house for us.
All our old safe houses were council property, and pooling our resources together gave us a hefty sum, but we weren’t used to dealing with humans. We were, essentially, savages to them. Sure, we dressed nicely and looked the part, but we were about to go Tarzan on them.
There were liaisons who dealt with humans for our kind, people who knew how to talk the talk and walk the walk. We were going to have to deal with realtors and bankers and shit like that if we had a hope in hell of getting Marcella out of here alive.
I knew, deep in my heart, that even though Winterborn had said Marcella was born for a life of servitude, she’d die in whatever plot Lily had drafted to best our Sixth.
This was more than just about going rogue, it was about saving an innocent girl. A girl who just happened to be tied to us in more ways than most would ever understand.
My claws clicked against the polished floor of the hall as I slipped toward Marcella’s tiny quarters.
Most people were sleeping, and though I heard a few giggles and laughs—even a few moans—as I maneuvered down the corridor, I heard Marcella’s sobs from ten feet away and felt my heart rate pick up.
My senses were strong enough to know I was alone. Everyone else was tucked up in their rooms—I had no doubt that Lily was finding it hard enough to cross her threshold for something as simple and as urgent as the need to use the bathroom, never mind to spy on her main competitor after Raven had fucked with her head tonight. That didn’t mean she couldn’t have a friend watching, but I knew that wasn’t the case.
It was why I shifted a second later, and without knocking on my Sixth’s door, slipped inside.
She jerked on the bed, slamming upright and onto her feet, her stan
ce aggressive as she put herself in a pose of attack. But the minute she saw me, the minute it registered who I was, it was like all the starch in her joints had disappeared. I watched as she slumped, and fearing she’d drop to the ground, I rushed forward and grabbed a hold of her. Jerking her against my chest, I slipped my arms around her and hugged her tightly.
When her tears drenched my shoulders, I wanted to kill whoever had made her cry, again.
“What is it, sweetheart?” I asked, pressing a kiss to her temple.
She shivered at the gentle caress, and even as she began to whisper, she turned her face into me.
Pursangs were renowned for being cold. It was one aspect of finding our Sixth I’d always dreaded. Being tied to someone who was unaffectionate was a shifter’s idea of hell, but Marcella, as always, seemed tailor made for us. She didn’t push herself out of my arms, didn’t move away from my caress. She seemed to sink deeper into me.
I felt her need for tenderness like she’d spoken it aloud. She was, pathetic an analogy though it may be, like a flower whose buds unfurled with the kiss of the sun on its petals.
The need for more was a soul deep yearning we both shared.
“Lily tried to kill me.”
Her words were in deep contrast to her body language, and for a second, I was slow to process what she uttered.
Then, when I did, I stiffened.
“How?”
“During the quarterfinals,” she whispered. Before I could ask anything else, she murmured, “Everything is so weird at the moment. The past few years, when term has hit this point, the brotherhoods weren’t sealed in their quarters. They were there, watching the challenges. Only at the finals, they weren’t allowed to attend. I guess they had to prepare for the joining ceremony. Never have brotherhoods been locked away as early as you have.
“Then, normally, we have the finals over a few days. It gives the competitors a chance to rest, but today, we had both the quarters and the semis, and then tomorrow, it’s the big event. It’s like. . . .”
