Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
“Kill me and you absorb my shadows–and your brother’s,” he threatened, but I shrugged.
“My brother is not dead yet, and yours will be loyal to me,” I said, not knowing if that was the truth but willing to bluff it anyway.
I did know my brother wasn’t dead yet, though. His were not a part of the shadows I had pinned; otherwise, they would be a lot harder to hold there. Elias’s were hard enough but not as bad as they were before.
They were getting stronger, though, now that I wasn’t distracting Elias. He shrugged and looked over at my brother with a smirk.
“He will be any minute, and then this little game will be over. Once he dies, his shadows will be mine as promised, and then your little hostage trick is not going to work.”
He grinned. “All I have to do is keep you busy a little while longer.”
He laughed, getting ready to fight again.
I gritted my teeth and looked over at Lucas. So Elias was just keeping me distracted, same as I was.
And if he was telling the truth, that my brother’s shadows would go to him once he died and that I didn’t have long, then I needed to hurry up and end this.
I couldn’t let my brother die or Elias get the shadows his ritual promised.
So I went for him.
I stabbed at him, swiped at him, his reflexes not as impressive as before. I caught his body, slicing through the flesh on his chest before sinking the blade into his stomach.
He grunted and coughed, dropping to the ground, blood falling from his wound like it had done from mine. I wanted to feel good about that, but I just wanted it to be over.
I moved behind him, gripping his hair in my hand, tipping his head back so I could press my dagger against his throat, just like he had done to me.
“The best part about your ritual? It makes you as human as me,” I taunted, not giving him a chance to respond with some threat before I cut his throat.
He gurgled and spattered, his shadows curling around mine as they felt their winter born dying. I let him go, and he slumped forward, landing on the ground with a thud, his blood pooling over the concrete.
I let out a breath, closing my eyes for a second before putting my hands on my knees and trying to get my head together.
I felt so sick, my stomach turning, my forehead sweating, the reality of actually ending Elias snapping in my head so sharp it made me wince.
An ache formed in my bones, and I sucked in a breath. A weight fell inside me, and I went to my knees, my hand splaying on the ground. My shadows retreated to my body, but they were different, a little darker and heavier.
I looked up, gasping, falling back as my shadows, light gray mixed with Elias’s black, turned and mixed in a huge cloud before me.
They fused into each other, pouring back into me as I winced, the ache and pain throbbing in every part of me as I took on his shadows. There was so much power and potency it had me coughing and clutching my stomach.
My brother coughed next to me, and I forgot about the shadows. I crawled over to him, my knees scraping on the concrete as I did. I lifted his head into my lap, brushing his hair back from his face.
“Lucas?” I asked, looking over his pale face for a clue as to whether he was going to survive. He coughed again, and the tears welled.
“My shadows are mine again,” he wheezed. “They’re keeping me alive, but it’s not permanent, Lorelai. I’ve lost a lot of blood,” Lucas murmured, looking at me with that soft, patronizing look.
I shook my head fiercely.
“No. I’m going to save you,” I bit, but he just smiled softly before his eyes closed.
“Lucas!” I cried, but he didn’t move.
I pressed my bloodied fingers against the pulse in his neck. It was weakening. I panicked, not sure what to do, crying as the life literally left him.
My shadows filled me, but they somehow got heavier, and I knew it would be too late to save him any minute. But I had just gotten him back, I wasn’t going to give him up.
I called down the link, trying to find out how close the werewolves were.
“We’re close,” Derik said, sounding like he was panting, probably running.
“Elias had a trap for the pack, we were fighting a spell in the city,” Brax explained.
“You beat him, Little Human. I knew you could,” Kai said proudly, but I didn’t feel proud, just pain.
“My brother is dying. Can you turn him?” I asked.
The link went silent, but there was hesitation there. And my answer.
“Why not?!” I cried.
“If he’s dying, he’s not strong enough. A bite can be rejected,” Derik said, and I cried harder, the pain getting worse.
“There has to be something,” I said.
“There is,” Kai said, but Brax snarled.
“No.”
“A vampire bite is guaranteed,” Kai bit back.
“You want me to turn him into a vampire?” I asked, surprised any of them would suggest that.
“It means they would get a winter born and he would survive,” Derik said, realization in his voice.
I chewed my lip, looking down at his face that held a gray sheen over it that wasn’t getting better. There wasn’t long to make my decision, but in my heart, it was already made. A vampire had to be better than being dead.
“And then we’d owe the vamps a favor! No, Lorelai!” Brax snapped, and I hated that I was going against him, but I had to save my brother.
“I have to.”
“Brax, the wolves will want his head for what he has done, the humans too. With the vampires, he is immune,” Kai explained, and that made my decision for me.
I was summoning Silas.
“Don’t make any deals before we get there, Lorelai,” Derik warned, and I stayed silent on that.
“Summon him to the crypt in the cemetery.”
“We will. How hurt are you? Can you defend yourself?” Kai asked.
I looked down at my injuries, not entirely sure I could win another barbarian fight, but the shadows in me were stronger than ever and I knew I could handle Silas.
“That’s our girl.” Kai grinned down the link, and I smiled. I missed them.
“We miss you too, we’ll be there soon. Silas is on his way,” Derik said.
“When Elias died, it cut the spell he had us fighting. Did you absorb his shadows?”
Brax asked.
“Yeah. I didn’t mean to,” I admitted, but my conversation was cut short when Silas’s red velvet cape appeared in my peripheral. I gasped and turned to him as he tucked his wings in behind him.
He was an impressive vamp, one of those ones that looked like he belonged in one of the sexy books I liked to read, but he was no wolf.
He smirked as he kicked Elias’s dead body. It exploded into ash, and I coughed away the dust. Silas came over and bent down by my brother, running his talons over his face.
“The other winter born.”
“Don’t touch him unless you’re going to turn him,” I snapped, edging us away.
Silas stood up and leaned against the crypt wall. “I’ll turn him, but nothing comes for free, winter born. So, shall we start the negotiation?” He grinned, his eyes running over me, making me shiver.
I may have just asked to make a deal with the devil, but it was worth it to save my brother. At least, I hoped it would be.
46. The Curse
“Negotiate? Are you fucking kidding me? You wanted a winter born. Here’s your chance. If you turn him, he goes with you. You get what you want, and I get my brother alive,” I argued, refusing to negotiate with a vampire.
Especially when they were already getting something out of it.
Silas narrowed his eyes at me, striding around the crypt, his chin high, his eyes assessing everything in a critical manner, but I held my ground, refusing to let him close to my brother before he had agreed to my terms.
“I suppose you would have some conditions then,” Silas said, turning to me in a dramatic way that flared his cape out, “assuming I was to turn your brother.”
New Book: Veiled Desires of the Alpha King Novel
Dayson was the alpha of the largest pack in North America. Powerful figures from other packs sought to offer gorgeous girls as potential mates for Dayson. He steadfastly rejected these advances, he was not a pawn to be manipulated. But eventually there came a mysterious girl he could hardly say No. Who was she?