by Faith Gibson
“Don’t make a sound,” a woman’s voice said behind him at the same time a blade was pressed against his throat.
Fuck that noise. “Cassandra,” he said while looking around for Digger. He didn’t see the traitor anywhere. Now he had to stay alive long enough for the others to come looking for him. He didn’t want Natalia to fight this woman, but he wouldn’t take that away from her. He would deal with the former Hound if he lived long enough. And by former, he wasn’t talking about the MC. Digger’s deceit was a death sentence.
“So, you know who I am.”
“I do. And I have to say, I’m impressed you found us so quickly.”
“You don’t work for the world’s top assassin organization without having a few tricks up your sleeve. I should have known Tatiana wouldn’t do the job she was hired for. She’s not as good as she thinks she is.”
“She’s pretty damn good.” The blade cut into his neck when he swallowed. Taunting this killer wasn’t smart, but he couldn’t let her speak badly of his Princess.
“Let him go, Cassandra.” Ryker stepped into view. Tank was behind him, scanning the area. Where was Hayden? Better yet, where was Natalia?
“Hello, lover.” Cassandra’s voice dripped with disdain.
“I wouldn’t go that far. Lover is a term reserved for people who give a shit about each other. You and I were nothing more than fuck buddies,” Ryker sneered.
“Always so serious. But I’ll give you that. I always knew you were incapable of feeling.”
“So why continue fucking me?” Ryker was calm. He kept his eyes on Cassandra until Tank took a few steps backwards. Mav cut his eyes to the side, expecting to see Natalia. He was almost disappointed when Digger walked from between two buildings.
“You know you’re dead, right?” Ryker told the male.
Digger shrugged as if the finality of Ryker’s words meant nothing. Before he opened his mouth to argue, the most beautiful sight in the world appeared before Mav.
“Ah, Tatiana. So nice of you to join us. Take one step closer and I slit his throat,” Cassandra purred in Mav’s ear. Hmm. Sadism as foreplay? Not Mav’s style.
Natalia stopped walking, but she was smiling. It was eerie the way her eyes darkened with something sinister. Mav had seen Natalia happy. He’d seen her sad. He had even witnessed her anger when taking on her cousins. This was a whole new level of malevolence he prayed he never encountered again. Gone was the woman he’d come to love, and in her place stood someone he didn’t recognize. She was dressed differently than she had been just a few minutes ago. While he’d been wondering where she was, he now knew. Natalia had slipped back to the house and changed clothes. She still wore the black tactical pants, but now she had on a long-sleeved black T-shirt.
“Thank you, Cassandra.” Natalia wasn’t purring, but her tone was low. Seductive. Hmm. Maybe the foreplay depended on the woman. Mav’s dick should not be getting hard with a blade at his throat, but his female was sex on legs when she was ready for battle.
“What the fuck are you thanking me for?” The blade loosened just a fraction. It was no longer cutting into his skin but was still close enough that one flick of the wrist would end his life.
“For helping me get what was rightfully mine. With Mikael out of the way, I can now take over the family business.”
Cassandra scoffed. “Like you would know anything about that. Our father trained you to be a killer, not head of the family.”
Natalia grinned, cocking her head to the side. “So you think. So he thought. By keeping me in the dark, he taught me so much more than shooting a gun. Or taking a punch. Or how to make it so the bodies were never found. You see, Sister, our father taught me how to be invisible. I learned how to hide. How to listen. How to find all the best places in the manor where voices carry. Where to stash money so no one else could find it. Where to place listening devices that recorded everything. I have to say, fucking our cousin? There’s not enough bleach in the world to wash that image from my brain.” Natalia did a full-bodied shiver. Mav wasn’t sure taunting Cassandra was the best idea, but he couldn’t tell her so without risking his life.
“I knew you had something to do with Anatoly finding out about us! I should have killed you then.”
“Tell me, mor cectpa, why did you wait so long to come after me? Why recruit me into Nexus? Why try to get me to kill Maveryck?”
When had Natalia moved closer? And had Cassandra noticed? Damn, his Princess was good.
“When Father sent me away, I trained harder than ever. I spent years becoming the best. But when I approached him, he threatened to have you kill me. I knew then he would never accept me as a Volkov, so I convinced Viktor to put the contract out on him, under the guise of Mikael ordering the hit.” Cassandra was lost in her conversation with Natalia, and the blade dipped lower, settling against his chest. She still gripped his nape, but her hold had loosened. Digger stood with his arms crossed, his rapt attention on the woman he was going to die for. Or because of.
“Getting Father out of the picture was just the first part of my plan. I made sure Ryker took the contract. It just happened to be Maveryck who did the job. Once that happened, it was a matter of biding my time for Viktor to convince Mikael to let me back into the family. Only that didn’t happen. He was too focused on finding Father’s killer. By making you disappear, giving you a new identity, it convinced Mikael you were a traitor to the family. He was so lost in his hatred he never questioned how Nexus knew all about you.”
“How did you come to work for them?” Natalia asked from a step closer. Zeus, she moved like the wind.
“The man I found to train me was a former operative. He was impressed with my skills and contacted his former handler. Nix really shouldn’t be allowed to remain in the organization. He was too easy to sway after a night of debauchery.” Cassandra laughed as if she had cornered the market on seduction. Digger uncrossed his arms, his lion showing on his face.
“Digger,” Mav warned.
Digger’s eyes snapped away from Cassandra to meet his gaze. The lion retreated, but Mav knew the Gryphon was close to the surface.
Natalia got Cassandra’s attention when she asked, “Why Ryker? Why did you single him out for the contract?”
The blade fell away when Cassandra gestured wildly with it. “Because I wasn’t enough for him! I was good enough for a monthly fuck, but it was never more than that. I gave him years! Years to realize what we had could be so much more. We did jobs together. Working seamlessly taking down our marks. We were the perfect team, but after the high of the kill wore off, he walked away, going back to his family. His precious club. I was good enough to fuck but not good enough to take home to meet the parents. So, I set you up to take out his family.” Cassandra flung her hand out toward Digger. “Found another man who gave up secrets after a night in bed.”
Maveryck took advantage of Cassandra’s focus on Digger to step back several feet. Natalia’s face briefly flashed with relief before returning to her focused demeanor. Squaring her shoulders, she smiled at the other woman. “Too bad your plan didn’t work. Your days of treachery are over.”
“You think so?” When Cassandra turned, she was holding a sai in one hand and a short sword in the other. Maveryck wanted to shout at Natalia to run. Why would she go into a fight unarmed?
“Yes. I do.”
Cassandra sneered at Natalia. “As you wish.”
Chapter Thirty-One
Natalia
While Maveryck was cooling off, Hayden decided to look out the back door. When the youngest brother returned, he was pale. “She’s here,” he whispered. “At least, I think it’s her. Tall, scary-looking, with a blade to Mav’s throat.”
“I need my knives. Can you buy me some time?” Natalia asked.
Ryker nodded. “I’ll go with Natalia. Hay, you and Tank go outside with Mav.”
“I think you should go outside. Maybe since the two of you have been doing the horizontal mambo, you’ll be a bigger di
straction,” Hayden countered.
Ryker thought about it for a moment. “Yeah. You’re right. Tank, keep your eyes peeled for Digger.”
The big Hound inclined his head. “Be careful,” he said to Natalia.
Natalia promised she would, then she and Hayden slipped out the back entrance. Hayden scanned the area, both down low and up high. Natalia was glad she had studied the map. She ran the quickest route to the house where she wasted no time grabbing her knives and the special sheaths for her forearms. She checked her Sig before shoving it in the back of her pants. When she tore her shirt over her head, Hayden choked, turning his back.
“A little warning there, Lolly. I know we’re family and all—”
“Sorry. No time for modesty. Besides, I’m sure you prefer a woman who doesn’t look like a boy,” she said as she secured the blades to her arms before pulling on first her vest, then a long-sleeved tee. Knife fights weren’t like what was depicted in the movies. With blades, someone was going to get cut. Wearing the vest lessened Cassandra’s chance at slicing Natalia’s torso.
“Uh, not that I noticed or anything, but believe me, you’re all woman.”
Not that she wanted Mav’s brother’s attention, but his words made her feel good. “Let’s go.” Natalia ran back toward the dining hall, only this time, she took the route that placed her in Cassandra’s line of sight. She thanked Zeus for keeping Maveryck alive. Zeus might not be her god, but he was the Hounds’.
Natalia knew the best distraction was conversation. Not only did talking give her time to get Cassandra’s attention away from Maveryck, but they all got answers to questions they had. When Maveryck was safely away from the other woman, Natalia took a deep breath and focused on the fight before her. It had been many years since she had sparred with anyone, but her blades were like an extension of herself.
Natalia had trained with Cassandra’s weapons of choice on the off chance she would one day come up against them. Never was she gladder than that moment she had. Every time Anatoly sent Natalia out on a job, she spent extra time away from her father training in weaponry he didn’t feel she needed to learn. His thought was why let someone closer than what a bullet could stop?
The only way to take out your opponent using either weapon was up close. The proper mentality of using blades was knowing you were going to get cut. You just had to be able to strike more blows than your opponent. Natalia closed her mind from everything around her other than Cassandra. She trusted the males to stay out of her way.
While Cassandra twirled her sai in her hand, grinning, Natalia flicked her wrists and released her knives. Cassandra was momentarily distracted at the sight of Natalia’s blades. Natalia flipped one knife so it was aiming toward her forearm in an icepick grip while keeping the other in a hammer grip. The alternate holds gave her the ability to parry against the sword with one and slice with the other. Natalia’s fists were tight around the hilts of her double-edged Shaitans as she stepped in close. Cassandra’s arrogance was a mistake.
Natalia moved both hands with a speed born of practice and necessity. She hit Cassandra with several quick slashes across her torso, but Cassandra came at Natalia with a sword to her chest. The weapon hit Natalia’s vest where it was thickest, thus doing its job. Cassandra scowled and tried to find purchase again, but Natalia drove her knife across the top of Cassandra’s forearm. Going on a quick offensive once again, Natalia arced her left hand downward, but Cassandra caught the blade in one of the tines protruding from the hilt of her sai. Cassandra tried to remove the knife from Natalia’s grip by slicing Natalia’s arm with her left hand. In doing so, she managed to cut Natalia’s forearm, but Cassandra had angled her body away from Natalia, giving Natalia the opening to stab the other woman in the side. Cassandra, who was not wearing body armor, yelled out, but she didn’t stop.
Cassandra, in her thirst for revenge, wanted to make Natalia pay for everything that happened when they were younger. She wanted Ryker to pay because he hadn’t fallen in love with her. Natalia wanted retribution for all the damage her half-sister had caused. Attempted murder was a death sentence in Natalia’s world. If it was just the fact that Cassandra had used Ryker’s family because she was scorned, Natalia would let the male deal with his lover himself. But it was so much more than that. She had tried to make it so the twins didn’t have their father or Natalia in their lives.
Blood dripped down Natalia’s wrist, loosening her grip on her left hand. She flipped the knife in her right hand around so it, too, was pointed up. This was necessary to be able to block as well as strike. Cassandra was quick, but she was losing a lot of blood from the gash in her side. Natalia knew if she didn’t finish this, she would lose the grip of her left hand completely, so she took a deep breath, found her resolve, and went in for the kill. Natalia felt they were pretty evenly matched, but her nemesis was weakening with the blood loss, and she didn’t have as much to lose as did Natalia.
When Cassandra raised her sword, Natalia dropped low, slicing through the back of Cassandra’s knee before diving to the side, barely missing the tip of the sword as it swung down in an arc where Natalia had been seconds before. With the artery cut, Cassandra stumbled, trying to remain on her feet. Natalia strode forward and executed a roundhouse kick, sending her opponent to the ground.
“You fucked up.” Natalia pointed her knife at the downed woman who was struggling to get to her feet. “I just severed your popliteal artery. You have about three minutes before you bleed out, if that long.”
“No!” Digger yelled, shifting into his Gryphon.
“Tank, Hayden, stay with Natalia,” Maveryck yelled before he and Ryker both turned their Gryphons loose.
“Fuck you!” Cassandra yelled, tears streaming down her face. Her chest was heaving with each breath. “Fuck... You,” she repeated.
Natalia squatted, but far enough away Cassandra couldn’t reach her with her sword if she somehow managed to find the strength. “I can almost understand you coming for me, but you went after my family. That I could not abide.”
“You killed your family,” Cassandra managed to choke out.
“No. Maveryck is my family. His sons, his siblings, his parents – they’re my family. Going after the man I love? That, mor cectpa, was your final mistake.”
“Rot in hell,” Cassandra whimpered, slumping over. Her breathing became shallow until she finally stopped moving, and her hazel eyes stared unseeing at the chaos around her.
Natalia stood, and with shaking hands, returned her knives to their sheaths. “Save me a seat,” she muttered, turning her gaze to the magnificent display in the sky.
Hayden ran over to where she was standing. “Lolly, are you okay? You’re bleeding. You’re, holy fucking hell, I...” Hayden looked her over. “Of course you’re not okay. You’re bleeding. I already said that, but you’re fucking bleeding. Let’s get you back to the house—”
“No. I’m not going anywhere. The wounds are mostly superficial. I’ve had worse.”
“You have? Of course you have. You’re the badass princess who rides Gryphons. Holy hell. I—”
“Hayden, breathe. I promise you I’m okay. I’m still running on adrenaline. Now hush and let me watch my Maveryck.”
“Right. Your Maveryck. He’s the one—”
“On the right. Digger’s on the left, and Ryker’s the one hanging back.”
“How do you know that?”
“I’m a badass princess, remember? I know my Gryphon. Plus, I saw Digger shift. His wings are gold where Ryker’s are blue.”
“Damn, you’re good.”
The two Gryphons circled each other, talons swiping out, trying to gain purchase. Each flap of their wings rustled Natalia’s sweaty hair. Maveryck clamped onto Digger’s leg, snapping at the other creature’s face with his beak. Digger kicked out with his hind legs, claws extended. They found their mark in Mav’s stomach, and his grip faltered. It was fascinating how the eagle’s wings were strong enough to keep the weight of the lion�
�s body aloft.
As the two continued to dive in and retreat, Tank appeared next to Natalia. “Here you go,” he said, holding out a wet towel. “Since you won’t go back to the house, I thought you might want something to wipe the blood.”
“Thank you. I don’t want to miss this,” she said, looking up at the two Gryphons.
“I know you don’t, but Maveryck can smell your blood, and I know for a fact it’s making him crazy.”
“Crazier than Digger? Because I just killed the woman he loved.”
Hayden sliced a hand through the air. “Bitch got what was coming to her, and if Digger was paying attention, he heard her say she was using him.”
Tank shrugged. “Sometimes the heart overrules the head.”
Natalia pressed the towel to the deepest wounds. “I don’t want to distract Mav, but I can’t not watch. And why isn’t he calling on his element?”
“They’re both earth shifters.” Hayden grabbed Natalia’s belt loop, pulling her back a few feet. “Let’s give them a little more room. I don’t like the way Digger keeps looking down here.”
Natalia took her gaze off Mav to look at Digger’s Gryphon. Hayden was right; Digger was more focused on her. Tank took a few steps back, putting himself closer to Natalia. The next thing she knew, both he and Hayden were shifting, clothes landing at their feet. Tank was knocked backwards as Digger slammed into him. She jumped sideways as large talons grabbed for her. Natalia squeezed her eyes shut, bracing for the pain, but two distinctly different squawks had her opening them. Maveryck’s talons were embedded in Digger’s feathers, pulling him backwards. The two beasts tumbled ass over head with Maveryck landing on top of Digger. Natalia blinked, and Maveryck had shifted into his lion. His gorgeous mane shook as he fastened his powerful teeth around Digger’s neck. His sharp claws were slashing every part of the downed Gryphon he could reach.
Maveryck released Digger’s neck and roared, the sound echoing all around. His mighty jaws clamped down on his opponent’s back, and with a jerk of his massive head, he snapped the vertebrae of Digger’s spine. Blood coated his golden fur as he ravaged the dead shifter’s body.