by Elle Lincoln
“I think you are doing well. For a woman who didn’t know a thing about us, you are taking everything in stride.”
“Because this was Dad’s fairy tale,” I state softly. “One that ended in his death, and I intend to find out exactly what happened to him.”
“That right there, Sabina.” Nix spins me around, and my neck arches back as he towers over me. He gazes down at me with his chestnut eyes, his hands bracketing me in. “You aren’t the damsel Christian claims you are. You aren’t the little cub Alpha calls you. You aren’t a doll either, though you are beautiful.” His finger presses to my chest. “In here, there is so much more, and I, for one, cannot wait to learn everything there is to learn about Sabina, the woman.”
I roll my lips inward, my heart bubbling over with appreciation. Nodding and holding back tears, Nix lets go and spins the chair back around. “Now, let’s see exactly why Allen’s wards were activated.”
“Wards?” I make a few more clicks.
“Magical spells created by a mage. Think of it like a security company humans use for their homes. Same thing, only with magic.” He taps the screen with a finger. “Play.”
He’s pointing to the back of the cabin that sits in the mountain, to a tree where it looks like something brown shuffles beneath the brush.
I press play, allowing the camera to roll the footage before us on every screen. My heart drops as something stalks in the woods. Finally, it creeps toward the house.
“What the hell is that?”
Chapter 20
“Is that a wolf?” I lean in, squinting at the screen until my eyes blur. “A lycan?” I cock my head to the side, staring at the creature before me.
It looks like the guys when they shift, but not quite. Long muscular legs carry the starved body, and where there should be fur, there are bald patches with long, stringy hair fluttering in the wind.
No sound emits from the camera, just the wolf who sniffs the ground, its skin clinging to bones and muscles well on their way to atrophy. The creature takes two steps into the space out back before darting back into the woods.
The other guys come thundering into the bedroom, I assume called telepathically by Nix. “Play it again,” Athos demands, while they all crouch around me. I replay the scene, letting the wolf come back onto the screen again and again, until I finally turn it off with a frown.
“So…” I turn in my seat, because they each clench the back, refusing to allow me to move. “What are we looking at here?” Because it sure as hell isn’t a good thing if Dad’s emergency measures kicked in.
I can’t believe he was a prepper. Of sorts. Though there isn’t enough food in here to keep us for weeks or months at a time.
Athos stares at the screen, his jaw clenching, while the others look to him for guidance. Finally, he breaks his eyes away. “Grab the gun, we need to go.”
“You willingly want me to grab the gun? The one with silver bullets? The one that Christian—”
“Yes,” he interrupts, spinning the chair around. “Nix, do not lose sight of her.”
He turns to leave the room, not uttering an explanation or even why they all look ten shades of pissed off. “What the hell is that, Athos?”
He pauses in the doorframe, his body eating up the space there. I watch the muscles in his back as they flex and pull at his shirt. His hands reach out and grip the frame, his fingers turning white with tension. From here, I can see the internal debate raging within him. The fire he struggles to dampen.
Yet the other guys say nothing, instead choosing to allow the tension to build until it’s thick enough to suffocate us. This is his power, power he keeps leashed, tethered in the back of his mind, and yet as he turns around, the glow in his eyes tells me the beast who shares his body lurks close to the surface.
“Lycans live by a code. We are blessed by the goddess Selene, given a long life of purpose. Meant to guard the mortals from harm. To keep the other creatures who share this world in check.” His barely restrained fury radiates off of him in waves. I know he isn’t directing it at me, but I feel it all the same. He points at the screen, his lip curling into a snarl. “That is no lycan who lives by the code. That is a beast who has tasted the blood and flesh of a human and liked it.”
I swallow my fear, and the chill that creeps up my spine racks through my body with a shudder. My eyes dart to the paused screen, then back to Athos. Slowly, I stand and walk toward him, my heart pounding at everything he just said. As I press my palm to the center of his chest, a fresh wave of calm washes over me.
I stare up into his blue eyes, the thump of his heart pressing a rhythm against my palm to match my own. As mine speeds up, so does his. There, that connection flickers between us. Strengthening each day from moment to moment.
It’s then I realize that perhaps those couples that rush into marriage aren’t so foolish. A bond isn’t subject to the time it takes to develop. But each little moment, each word, each struggle, and small yet significant moments of connection that don’t live in a linear time frame. As his hand comes up to capture my face, he shrinks down and presses his forehead against mine. His breath wafts over my lips where I inhale his essence and devour his presence.
Together, our hearts slow, his eyes boring into mine where they view the rawest parts of my being.
“Thank you.” His words drift over me before he takes a heavy breath and steps back, his hand falling, and my skin immediately misses his touch.
“Do you always feel my heart?”
“Every beat. Steady and missed,” he replies softly.
“It’s how we knew to get back to you,” Nix states.
“We felt your fear,” Liam adds.
I step to the side, my eyes catching on each of the other guys who all look at me with a longing so deep that my soul demands I go to them too. Soon, I mentally promise them.
I heave out a sigh. “What’s the plan, Alpha?”
His lips twitch in amusement, his rage settled for now. “Now we head to the pack, and we hunt.”
“Can’t you, I don’t know, just use your telepathic link and give them a ring?” I glance at the windows, knowing the steel shudders reside in them to keep me safe here.
Athos’s lips twitch. “It doesn’t work that way.”
“Then how does it work?” I cross my arms and stare at him in defiance.
“Two links. One through the whole pack and one to my brothers here.” He pinches my chin with his thumb and forefinger, tilting my head higher. “One is stronger than the other, care to guess which?”
I nibble my lip. “So you can’t call to them?”
“Out here? No. Your father built at the edge of the territory, testing its limits. If there was a wolf patrolling, then yes, I could call to them, but there isn’t.” He growls the last as though there should be a patrolling wolf.
I sigh, my shoulders slumping. “Can’t I stay here?”
“I want to keep you with us, and besides, there is a mess hall and a safe room.” He lets go of me before stepping back.
“Fine,” I grumble, not at all happy to have to leave the safety of the cabin.
“Come on, Damsel, we will explain the rest on the way.” Softer than I thought him capable of, Christian’s hand presses against my back, guiding me out of the door where he pauses at the frame. “Grab the gun.”
“Don’t think we’ve forgotten about that, doll face. We will want to see that armory,” Liam adds with a gruff tone. His posture claims he wants nothing to do with that room, but his mind is curious for that speck of information.
Saying nothing, I grab the gun, checking the safety and tucking it into my pants.
“No.” Nix grabs the gun out of my pants.
Turning, I raise a brow in question. “Why not?”
“Because you, my mate, are clumsy, and would probably end up shooting your ass instead of the rogue wolf,” he teases, but I’m so surprised by Nix I can’t even be mad.
He’s also probably right, and I am quit
e fond of my ass the way it is.
“Let’s go,” Athos calls from the hall.
Silently, we all file out of the house. I lock the door with the code and follow the guys down to the driveway. I’m halfway down the steps when I feel that the world isn’t quite right. That something is wrong. I pause on the steps, scanning the woods with Nix at my back.
Brows wrinkling, I try like hell to pinpoint what I’m feeling. But like a forgotten word that sits on the tip of my tongue, I can’t quite place it. It’s lost to me for now.
“What is it?” Liam asks from the bottom of the steps, as Athos moves to the driver’s side.
My heart skips a beat, one I now know they all feel. I gaze back out into the distance, trying to place the feeling again, but it just keeps slipping away. Nothing moves in the forest beyond. No wind, no chirps, nothing.
“What is that?” It feels like a storm closing in on us, steady and strong with rolling thunder and lightning that cracks through the air. But there’s no storm—yet. The promise is thick in the air. For now, just the heavy presence of a storm exists, the power that it would exude dense around me.
“The forest pauses when danger nears.” Nix’s palm lands heavily on my spine. “We should move quickly.”
I don’t need to be told twice. Okay, sometimes I need to be told twice and then a third time for good measure. This time, however, I feel the need to get my ass moving, and I thud down toward Liam who sweeps me into his arms and carries me to the truck.
“I can walk, you know.”
“And I love to watch you walk away.” He chuckles, stealing a laugh from me. “But right now, I need to make sure you are safe.”
Again, I press my palm to his chest, the magic of our heartbeats stunning me once more. All too soon he’s throwing me into the truck, following me in with Nix on the other side.
Nerves tickle my stomach as Athos takes off down the drive, and reality settles in around me. Liam’s fingers thread though mine, and Nix places a palm on my knee. Their touches calm me, but they don’t steal my thoughts.
I stare out the front window until we hit a main road, breathing easier now that no wolves jumped out in front of the truck. “Do you think that wolf killed my dad?” I voice the question that has captured my thoughts since Athos told me what that wolf was.
“It’s possible. We have the scent of the beast who killed your father. Sabina...” Athos pauses, his eyes flicking to mine in the rearview mirror. “A lycan that feeds on the flesh and blood of humans loses his humanity.”
“He becomes rabid. Unfeeling,” Liam states softly.
“It’s like a drug,” Christian growls, turning in his seat, and I know I’m about to get more out of him than the others, if only to see a rise in me. Yet I can’t prepare myself for his words, knowing they will dig their way under my skin and burrow there. “Human blood tastes like a drop of water in the Sahara. It’s that first taste of fair food that melts in your mouth. The last meal before an execution. And it is addictive. It holds the power to destroy a lycan. To take our body, mind, and soul hostage and leave us as nothing more than a shell of a wolf. These are the legends told by humans to scare children into being home at dusk. These are the nightmares of our kind.”
I lick my suddenly dry lips, my body threatening to spiral back into that crazy, insane bitch when I lost my shit at first seeing them shift. “This is what you meant when you said you kill rogues.”
He nods once. “That isn’t even the issue here, Damsel. The issue is we didn’t see him. We didn’t hear him. And he walked right onto your dad’s property. Your property.”
“You think he was there for me?”
“I know he was.”
“That’s impossible, you cannot just know something like that.”
“Sweetheart, we haven’t had a lycan lust for human flesh in a long ass time. Not since—” He shakes his head, his eyes momentarily glossing over before he continues, “Then your dad died, you show up, and here we are.” Christian turns around as though dismissing me.
Like hell. “That still isn’t proof. I may be here now, but I wasn’t when my father died.”
“How do you know that mangy mutt didn’t figure out what Allen was hiding all this time?” Christian throws over his shoulder, not making eye contact.
I rub my forehead, knowing he’s probably right.
“Enough, we are here.” Athos pulls into another driveway.
Unable to help myself, I lean forward. Liam hooks his fingers in my belt loops, and I glare back at him because his fingers suspiciously dip in the crack of my ass.
“What? I can’t have you flying through the windshield, now can I?”
“It doesn’t mean you have to finger my ass.”
“Is that permission?”
“What? Ew, no.”
“Sounded like permission to me.” His fingers dip lower, making me marginally uncomfortable but in an enjoyable way. Bastard. “Smells like permission.”
Rolling my eyes, I lean forward again, but all I can see are driveways branching off as we go. The thick trees shield everything, and I’m sure that isn’t by chance.
I flop back, disappointed. I wrinkle my nose as something occurs to me. “Hey, How old are you? I know you said you live a long time, but I’m worried about the age gap.” Okay, I’m not, I’m just being a nosey bitch.
“I’m thirty-four,” Athos answers, maneuvering around a massive pothole. “Liam is the baby at twenty-eight. Nix is thirty and Christian is thirty-two.”
“What’s the life span of a lycan?” I move forward again, unable to sit still knowing that a rogue wolf is out there possibly hunting me.
“On average?” Liam’s voice holds a certain kind of amusement. “Eight hundred years.” He smacks my ass, eliciting a cry from me as I flop back again.
“What the hell, Liam?”
“Don’t worry, Athos is the one who enjoys spanking games. I just wanted your attention.”
My eyes widen at I watch Athos freeze, but he doesn’t say a damn thing. And I don’t poke the bear.
“Once mated, your life force with acclimate to ours. You will live a long time, Sabina.” Nix pats my knee as though I need the assurance. “I can’t recall a human mate in history, but I’m sure there have been. I’d like to do research into this.” He’s speaking more to himself than to me, and I smirk at his audible dialog.
Though I didn’t even think about it like that. Not at all.
The truck jerks as Athos parks it in front of a huge building. I lean forward again, peering out at the massive clearing. All around it, other buildings sit in a cluster. It’s my first look at the pack and nerves light up my belly.
“This is a pack?” I frown. “It looks like a summer camp.” Which did not have pleasant memories. In fact, those are horrible memories I want to shove down into a sewer.
“What was that thought right there?” Liam pinches my thigh.
I’m thinking he isn’t the only one who enjoys games. “Summer camp was awful.”
“I thought you spent summers with your dad.” Nix threads his fingers into mine as Christian and Athos turn around.
“I did. Only once did my mom fight him, saying summer camp would be good for me. Said I needed to learn survival skills. Dad quickly agreed, which I fully understand now, but my fifteen-year-old self was not at all impressed.”
“Later,” Athos states, urgency in his tone. “Sabina, there are no women here. The only women allowed are mates, and there hasn’t been a mate in a long time. Unless the gods gift us with a female child.” I nod, understanding all of this. “The men go into town to find women.”
I cock my head at him as a blush rises up his neck to bloom on his cheeks. It’s the cutest and hottest thing I’ve ever witnessed, and I’m definitely here for it. “Are you telling me that you are about to bring me in to meet a bunch of really horny men?” I can’t hold back my smile, even if I wanted to. It creeps up my face, sinister like a clown’s.
“Look, if
it wasn’t for a rogue lycan on our territory, we wouldn’t bring you here.”
I cut him off. “Athos, you can’t hide me forever.”
“We don’t want to share you,” Nix admits, finally sharing the actual reason they never brought me to the pack. “They will all want a chance to look at you and see if your heart beats for them.” He doesn’t growl like the others, but his displeasure is clear in his tone. This silent man is spilling his emotion and fear into me all at once.
I squeeze his fingers, not at all mentioning that Dad has five beds in the basement for them. Not four. Unless that center one is mine, but I already have a room. Though I’m sure Dad would try like hell to keep us somewhat separated. I don’t mention that though. No need to poke the wolf.
“I doubt there will be any more of that. Now let’s go, we have a rabid wolf to catch.” I bounce in my seat, practically dying to get out of here.
“Sabina, you will stay here inside that building there.” Athos points to the center one. “Until you share our healing abilities, you stay.”
I bristle at his tone then bite my tongue. He isn’t wrong. “I get super special abilities?”
“That’s what you got from that?” Christian flings open his door to climb out, but I don’t miss the smirk on his face.
“You know,” I begin, “you should probably put a fence up to keep rabid wolves out.”
“An impossibility. We patrol the lines and we don’t work with mages on that scale. They were only willing to cover the roads.” Athos follows Christian, climbing out of the truck.
I trail after Liam, sliding down and onto the gravel drive. Once more, I’m struck with the silence of the forest as the day bleeds into night. Closer and closer, dusk creeps, and with it lightning bugs should twinkle like faeries in the trees. Crickets should chirp. And all the nocturnal animals should peek out of hiding. Yet nothing wakes and nothing stirs. Even here, the silence shrouds us.
“What are the odds you can make that happen now?” Athos walks ahead, Liam is to my right, Nix is to my left, and Christian is behind me. Blocking me in and keeping me safe.
