Filed to story: Owned by the Alphas Novel
“We will,” Derik replied.
“Soon?”
“How soon is soon for a vampire?”
“What if instead of waiting for them to come to us, we go to them?” I asked, thinking if we could get the jump on them for a change, it would be dealt with. But Derik went wide-eyed and shook his head.
“No. It is an absolute law, beautiful. We don’t attack first. We won’t be the ones to fuck with the balance. It always gets its revenge, and we will not make our pack a target. The vampires think they have outsmarted the balance by giving their dirty work to everyone else, but it will come back to them. And I will not risk it coming for us too.”
“So we wait until Karma bites them? What if we get bitten first?” I demanded.
“We’ve just got to be prepared in case it happens. Keep our wolves and humans strong, training, protecting until the vamps get sick of waiting.”
“That’s an infuriating plan. I don’t want to sit around and do nothing, Derik.”
“Then don’t. Train with Cain to use your magic, train with us to get used to the extension of power from your wolf. Learn to fight, get faster, angrier. Be the weapon they are scared of, beautiful. Silas is already intimidated by your power; if he wasn’t, he’d already have attacked,” Derik said.
It sounded great–in theory. But what if we were just giving them time to get their perfect plan together? What if, while we were training and getting ready, they were finding every way to get to us?
“It’s all we can do to make sure we protect the humans here and the city. If we separate to go off hunting for vamps or to take on their territory, it will leave us vulnerable. We have been through all the possibilities, and this is the safest option, beautiful. By not going to them, we are forcing them to meet us on our territory, where we know every little piece of it and where we are strongest. We need that advantage,” Derik explained, as if I were a child, because it was probably the fiftieth time he’d explained it.
I still didn’t like it. Not because it didn’t make sense, but because it didn’t include getting rid of Silas for good.
Zale finished, and I put him on my shoulder, patting his back to help him burp as Derik placed Enzi in the crib. I stood up, and once Zale was winded and asleep, I put him down with Enzi.
He screamed if we put him in his crib by himself now. Sometimes we could get away with it for naps, but at night? Not a chance. I felt the same way.
As soon as I was free of children, Derik swept me into his arms, kissing me harshly.
I smiled against his lips.
“You are not normally the impatient one,” I teased, and he grinned, kissing the corner of my mouth, my jaw, my neck.
“I watched you with Kai,” he said, as if it explained everything, and it did. He saw the connection there, the aftercare, the intimacy that had been missing. Now he wanted that.
He had struggled the most without it, and I needed to make that up to him, but the twins were right there, and I wasn’t so far gone that I could follow through in the same room as them.
But I could keep kissing him. That felt so fucking good, his lips teasing heat into my veins, pulling at the mating link.
I kissed him back, my arms going around his neck as he held me against him, my feet off the ground, his mouth claiming mine with slow, precise movements that tingled everywhere delicious.
I sighed against his lips as he sunk into the couch along the wall where I had been sleeping, sitting down on it, pulling me onto his lap, still kissing me.
The flames of desire licked at every part of me, begging me to keep going, knowing it would be different, more intense than the last few times we had been together.
We needed it together, we deserved it after everything, but before we could get lost in each other further, or I could beg Kai to come watch the twins so I could be with Derik, a howl ripped through the air outside.
I froze on top of Derik as the pack link tugged.
Derik pulled me off him and went over to the window, looking out into the night, the darkness soaking the world outside. He frowned as more howls met the sound. I dove into the pack link, panic seizing my chest.
“Something’s coming up fast. It’s big,” Tatum said gruffly, ordering his patrol to go to the main gate of the city where whatever the scent they had caught was heading.
“It doesn’t smell like a vamp,” Kai said, already heading that way.
“Don’t take the patrol; they need to stay on the border in case it’s a distraction,” I said, and Tatum rectified his orders. The patrol went back to where they were meant to be, and Brax arrived at the nursery.
“You need to be down there. Go, I’ve got the twins,” Brax said, going to the window as Derik moved away.
“Why?” I asked, surprised he didn’t want to be there with Derik and Kai.
“I think it’s the beast. I recognize the scent from the caves.”
“And you don’t want to be there with it?”
“It has a connection with you, and we don’t know why it is coming toward us.
You’re our best chance at stopping it before it attacks.”
I sucked in a breath. “You think it will?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean it won’t.”
“I smell blood, Alphas. You might want to get down here,” Tatum said, and that was all it took.
Derik and I ran down the stairs and out of the mansion. We ran over the grass yard outside, jumping off the edging of the stone half wall and down the cobblestone path toward the front of the city.
I was only a few feet away when the metallic scent hit my nose. Blood. And there wasn’t just some of it. There was a lot.
My heart raced as we waited in the dark, flame torches on the entrance flickering shadows everywhere. We waited for the bloodied beast, but I wasn’t scared of what that meant for the beast or ourselves.
I was terrified of what that meant for Adrenna. If she was still alive, then we were not going to be able to just sit back and wait. No, she had to be dead. Maybe it was her blood on the beast?
We were flanked by the wolves, some in their human forms, some not. I had Derik and Kai standing on each side of me, strong and intimidating, while my shadows poured out of me, ready with my magic to stop it from getting through the gates if it tried.
I had to find out whether Adrenna was dead, and until it gave me that information, it was not getting anywhere near us. Not if I could help it.
7. The Fantasy
LORELAI
Everyone tensed as the beast ran up to the gates. His giant body skidded to a halt in front of us. The pack growled and snarled, but I told them to stop, stepping forward.
The beast was covered in blood, its sparse fur coat matted, and there were cuts all over him. And bite marks.
“What happened to you?” I asked quietly as the beast whined.
“Is the witch dead?” Kai demanded. The beast snarled at him.
“We need to know,” I said to it in a softer tone, but it growled and shook its head.
My chest tightened, a heaviness sinking in my stomach. I turned, my eyes meeting Brax’s in the nursery window.
He nodded and stepped back, shutting the curtains, then closing the shutters. He would protect them; his shadows would close the room off. I trusted that, but being away from them and knowing Adrenna was out there was still making me panic.
I stepped forward, but Derik grabbed my arm.
“You are close enough,” he hissed, and I scowled at him but didn’t fight him.
Instead, I turned to the beast who had dropped to the ground, lying there, breathing hard, his eyes closed as he whined.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with you. How can I help?” I asked, but it just whined louder.
“It’s a beast; we cannot have it here,” Tatum interrupted, holding the flame torch and scowling at the beast.
“He won’t attack. I trust that, but I think he might be hurt. I just can’t figure out how. In the shadow realm, he was literally being crushed by a mountain and he still made it out, healing himself. These wounds aren’t healing,” I said, going to touch one.
My shadows hissed and barred my fingers from touching his skin. I frowned as they writhed inside me, my stomach turning. I stepped back.
“Something’s wrong,” I breathed. The pack tensed, edging in closer.
“No, not in that way though. They’re… I think he has been poisoned? Or…wait.” I looked into the beast’s eyes, standing directly in front of him, sending out my shadows so they could read what I couldn’t.
“Did the vampires attack you?” I asked. It nodded, its body rolling to the side as it breathed harder.
“The beast is not immune to vamp venom then,” Kai said, stepping forward, ignoring its irritated grunts. Kai sniffed over its body, circling it before grimacing.
“Definitely vamps.”
“And Adrenna?” I asked, trying to get my own senses to pick up her scent on him.
The beast shook his head before meeting my eyes. He directed my look to the dirt beneath his paws. He drew a line in it. Then a V on one side, a ~W~ on the other.
“Werewolf and vampire?”
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?