by Katie Reus
His father nodded. “See that he does.”
There would be no room for failure.
“What about Abana? Is she our ally?”
“No. She refuses to join with us.” Rage filled his father’s expression.
His father spoke for a few more minutes, directly addressing each of the clanmates on the conference call before he ended the feed. They’d been careful so far about their communications and now was no different. All their calls were encrypted. Human governments might have toppled but there were plenty of supernatural spies and hackers out there that couldn’t be trusted.
Brennus turned to look at the others in the room, focusing on one male in particular. A male not part of his clan, but a dragon nonetheless. A powerful one. “I will take on King.” It was important that he eliminated the wolf. He had to show the entire city that he was the true Alpha of this area. “You know what to do.”
The male in front of him nodded. “I saw the manifestation last night. Reaper has claimed the female. I’ll take her tonight and bring him to me. I’ll make him watch her die. Is your distraction in place?”
Brennus nodded as anticipation filled him, coursing through his veins like the strongest supernatural drug, potent and exhilarating. Soon he would have everything he’d ever wanted. Everything he deserved. He was a fucking dragon. A god. He bowed to no one. “I’m leading King exactly where I want him to go.” He’d had his dragons stir up some of the humans in the city and now they were in a state of panic and ready to riot. Brennus had no doubt that King would personally step up to ease their fears.
That was when Brennus would make his move.
“What if he doesn’t accept your challenge?” the male asked.
“He will. If he has any pride—and he does—King will definitely accept my challenge. If he doesn’t, I will kill him anyway.”
But by officially challenging the Alpha, Brennus would have an easier time stepping into the role as the true leader of the city. That was how supernaturals operated. He expected to get pushback from the wolves in King’s pack but they would be crushed easily enough. And all other supernaturals would either fall in line or challenge him. Simple as that. This was his territory now.
“Go. All of you.” He focused on his longtime ally. “Take the female then do what you want with Reaper. Just make sure he dies.” Because there was no room in this new world for Reaper. He was too powerful. Too much of a wild card.
The male nodded and left the room on silent feet.
Once he was alone, Brennus turned and looked out the huge window, watching the city spread out before him. The windows had a thin tinted covering over them so people couldn’t see inside. But he could see out.
He was still in hiding, still not out to the world. And he hated that. All that changed tonight. Soon he would claim what was rightfully his. What he was owed.
This was his territory and everyone in it would bow to him.
Chapter 25
“So…what’s going on with you guys?” Cynara asked as she stepped back into the kitchen, not even hiding the fact that she’d been eavesdropping.
“I’m pretty sure I screwed up. Actually I know I did. I hurt his feelings.” And Greer felt like garbage because of it. She might still be coming to terms with the fact that they were truly mates, but she shouldn’t have said they were just “having fun.” She should have told her Alpha that what she and Reaper had was none of his business.
“That man will definitely forgive you.”
“It doesn’t matter. I hurt him and…” Ugh. She pulled out her cell phone and called him, but he didn’t pick up. Either he was ignoring her or he couldn’t answer because they were hunting down Brennus. Which made her feel even worse. She shouldn’t have let Reaper go at all without talking to him, without making things right.
“You’re not perfect, girl. It’s okay.”
“Yeah…” Greer cleared her throat, unsure what else to say. Guilt ate away at her as she remembered his expression. It almost seemed impossible that she could hurt the arrogant, confident male. But she had. “Let’s not talk about me. I’m so happy for you and Justus. When did this happen?”
“Literally as soon as I was fully healed and out of here. You were asleep but we headed back to his place and…we’re mated.” Cynara’s smile was blinding. “And crazy enough, all my brothers are thrilled. One of them had the audacity to say it was good because I needed a male to take care of me.”
“Javier?” The youngest, who loved to mess with Cynara.
Cynara laughed. “Bingo. I swear I can’t wait till he gets mated.”
“I’m so happy for you both. You and Justus deserve to be happy.”
“Thanks. It still feels a little surreal but I’m trying to roll with it. I figure if the world is going to go mad, I’m taking this happiness with my mate for as long as it lasts.”
Greer fully understood that, which was why she was kicking herself right now. “I feel kind of disconnected with what’s been going on.” That being an understatement. She felt as if she’d slept for a century. “Reaper said Prima left the country?”
Cynara nodded, her expression tightening. “Yeah. She felt the psychic link between her and her sister snap.”
“Oh hell, that’s not good. Is Mira okay? Or do you guys know anything yet?” Mira and Prima might be eccentric, but they were her clanmates and well loved.
“Well…sort of. Apparently Lyra and Vega’s psychic connection severed as well. So Finn and Lyra are in South America now, the same as Prima. They hated leaving their baby, but he’s with the pack and protected. Cell service is kinda spotty down there though. And from the gossip I’ve heard, Vega and some of the people she works with, including Gabriel, got sucked into some sort of Hell realm too. Prima, Lyra and Finn have gone after them.”
The bombs just kept dropping. “Holy hell. Who’s running the Stavros pack?”
“Solon, Ophelia and Gray are keeping things running. The pack already listens to Ophelia for pretty much anything and the other two are heading up security teams and keeping the city safe. Rory is really stepping up too but he’s been back and forth between Biloxi and here thanks to Nyx’s gift of travel.” She paused as her phone buzzed and glanced at the screen. “Speak of the devil, Nyx just texted me. Prepare.”
“Prepare for what?”
Before Cynara could answer, a cacophony of wind and noise burst through the kitchen, blasting out two of the glass-paned cabinets. Then suddenly four people stood in the kitchen. Bo immediately lifted his hand, freezing the glass in midair before guiding it back to its home.
Nyx’s inky black hair was tousled with her arrival. She gave an apologetic smile. “Sorry about that.”
“Don’t apologize for who you are,” Bo grumbled.
Rory and Ian straightened their shirts as they nodded at Greer and hugged Cynara.
As the daughter of a goddess, Nyx could transport herself and anyone touching her anywhere in the world she wanted, as long as she had been there before or had a clear image of the place.
“Everything okay?” Cynara asked as she squeezed Ian tight, looking up at her brother adoringly.
“We got a call that some shit was going down near here. Apparently humans are upset, and while it’s not in straight riot mode yet, it could get there.” Bo shook his head as he spoke.
“I just got a text from Justus saying the same thing.” Cynara frowned at her phone screen as it buzzed again. “King, Reaper and the others diverted to the human mob instead. Who called you?” Cynara asked her brother, even as they all headed for the front door.
“The Magic Man,” Bo said.
“Ah,” was all Cynara said even as Greer nodded.
The Magic Man of New Orleans was Thurman, a human seer who ran a magic shop and had apparently been a little in love with Bo’s mother many, many years ago.
For a moment Greer wondered where Fiona and Liberty were, but knew that Fiona wouldn’t come if things were tense in the city—not when she wa
s pregnant. And Liberty would be helping out with her pack.
Right now Greer was going to help out all she could. It bothered her that Reaper hadn’t contacted her when Justus had texted Cynara, but things were very new with Greer and him. They had a lot of getting used to each other to do.
It didn’t take long to get to Washington Avenue where at least two hundred humans and supernaturals alike filled the street and sidewalk that ran parallel to an old cemetery. It was late and all the shops across the street from the cemetery were closed, and from what she could see there was no actual rioting. But she scented fear.
So much fear from the humans that it was stifling to her senses.
“This is not good,” she murmured more to herself than the others as they hurried up the street, coming up on the tail end of a cluster of humans.
Most of the humans had their backs to them, facing the huge wall where King stood addressing everyone.
A human woman who couldn’t be more than twenty years old glanced over her shoulder, and when she saw Greer and the others her eyes widened. After the news, there was no way they could hide what they were.
And though Greer had over a thousand years of practice hiding what she was, she was actually grateful not to have to hide anymore. It was oddly liberating to just be herself. To embrace all of herself.
“Go on,” she murmured to the others as she approached the woman and her friends—who had all turned around by now.
“What’s going on?” she directly asked the first woman she’d made eye contact with. She wasn’t going to ignore the woman when she was staring right at Greer.
The woman—hell, girl, really—cleared her throat as she continued to stare. She wore a ratty sweatshirt with the word Tulane on the front and her blonde hair was pulled up in a messy bun.
“We heard that King’s pack is going around and dragging humans out of their homes and killing them,” the girl next to her said. Her afro was short and she wore a similarly sad-looking sweatshirt as her friend. But she was a little braver or at least able to talk.
Greer snorted, the thought of that ridiculous. “Who did you hear that from?”
Her friend with the blonde hair finally spoke. “We all go to Tulane. We were in the quad and some guy was telling my friend Nate about it. Said that the supernaturals were going to kill everyone in the city. That New Orleans would end up like the rest of the world.” Tears filled her eyes then, but she dashed them away. “My family was in Chicago and it’s all gone now. I can’t get ahold of anyone because…they’re gone.”
Yeah, Greer had heard Chicago hadn’t made it either. It was a fucking mess out there. A fiery, chaotic mess. “You have no reason to believe me but King is not killing humans. Whoever told you that is a liar and wants to sow dissent.” She glanced over their heads at clusters of different humans, eyeing the males more than anyone. Both genders could be violent, but in her very long existence she had learned that human males tended to be a lot more angry and violent in general than females. And when they were together, a pack mentality could take over.
She half listened to King talking to the humans, and while she trusted the Alpha to get things under control she would do what she could to help.
“I saw you on the news,” the brown-skinned girl said. “You looked pretty cool.” One of her friends nudged her and made shushing sounds but the girl lifted her shoulders. “What? She was cool.”
“Thank you. Look, you guys need to head home. This will be taken care of tonight but I don’t want you getting hurt in case some of those dumbasses over there start trouble,” she said motioning toward the cluster of men who looked to be in their mid-twenties.
“All right,” the first girl said after following where Greer had indicated. “But only because we saw you on the news. We saw what you did to kill those…dragons. It was scary awesome.”
“My name is Greer. If you need anything, call me, okay?” She rattled off her phone number and the blonde quickly put it in her own phone. “Now go,” she ordered.
The young women nodded and hurried off.
The others Greer had come with had already dispersed, slowly circling around the group of humans who were facing the wall along the cemetery where King still stood, continuing to talk to the humans there, trying to calm them down.
As he spoke in that rich, deep, melodic voice, she sensed some calmness settle over the crowd—but overall emotions were far too high. And it was no wonder. The people here might have survived what happened but they would almost all know people around the world and have family elsewhere. Family and friends that were now gone.
She saw the girls moving away from the crowd toward a side street and she was grateful they had listened. Now she just needed to convince more humans to leave—and to find Reaper. She scanned the crowd but didn’t see him anywhere, and he was a male impossible to miss. At least she knew what had drawn the humans here. Someone was lying, and if she had to guess, it was probably Brennus and his clanmates.
It made sense. His endgame would be to take over the city, so how would he do that? Upset the people, then challenge those in charge. He and his ilk would be all about wreaking havoc and then taking over when people were weak and beat down.
She maneuvered her way through the back of the crowd, using her healer’s energy to gently nudge people out of the way without them even realizing they were shifting for her. She more or less created a little barrier around herself as she moved through the throng of people. As she reached the middle, she saw Reaper far to the left of King on the wall.
Crouched down, he scanned the crowd, ever alert. He looked magnificent. Truly and utterly so. Just like the warrior he was. She needed to talk to him, to make things right. To apologize for the way she hadn’t acknowledged what was between them. That wasn’t how mates acted, and even if she’d been stunned by the mating manifestation…he deserved better than her response to her Alpha.
Hell, this was on her. As she stared at Reaper, she felt fire building inside her and looked away, not wanting the manifestation to start—because that would definitely scare the humans.
She wished she could talk to him right now and tell him what he meant to her—that she would live wherever he wanted. While she loved her clan and she still needed to get to know Reaper more, everything she knew, she liked.
More than liked.
She was on the hook for this male and it wasn’t changing. Her dragon side was in full agreement too. He’d shown her exactly who he was. And once again he was down here watching over humans when he didn’t have to.
She continued to scan the crowd for familiar faces and look for any potential danger. Justus was on the edge of it, and a whole lot of King’s wolves were interspersed throughout the throng of humans. They were blending in well, ready to regulate the crowd if need be.
She glanced back over at Reaper and found him watching her intently.
He stood, his movements quick, his amber eyes pinned on hers. It was impossible to read his mood as he stared at her. Not taking his gaze off her, he reached into his pocket. When he pulled out a phone, she realized he was going to text her.
Sure enough she pulled her own phone out of her pocket, half listening to King explaining to everyone that they would be much safer inside their own homes.
Her phone buzzed. You shouldn’t be here.
She frowned and texted back. Why not?
It’s not safe.
She snorted to herself, but didn’t respond. Hello, she was a dragon. Maybe she needed to get that tattooed on herself.
Go back to the mansion, he texted.
Oh, no. Anger flared inside her at his order, spreading out like a wildfire. Instead of responding, she shoved her phone back into her pocket and gave him a challenging stare. She’d been with one male who had tried to run her life, to tell her what to do. She wanted a future with Reaper but she wouldn’t be with a male who tried to order her around. If he was truly worried, she would take precautions. But she was a dragon shifter and wo
uldn’t deny who she was. If something happened here, she was going to help. She might feel bad about what she’d said, but that didn’t matter. He better learn right now that she was literally never going to walk away from bad situations just because there might be danger.
“How the hell can we trust you?” a human to her right shouted out to whatever King had just said.
“Am I giving you a reason not to?” Frustration rolled off King now, his patience clearly running thin as his tone changed from patient to arrogant ruler in an instant. The real King was out now. The one who, she was fairly certain, was going to make a damn fine leader. “Where are these allegedly murdered humans? No one knows of anyone who has been killed or gone missing, do they?” He paused, waiting as silence spread, the crowd going still. “Why? Because it’s all fucking lies. Someone wants the city to burn, to fall. I’m not going to let that happen. Neither will my pack or my allies.” He pointed at Reaper, then Justus. “And I’ve shown you with my actions exactly what this place means to me.” He slammed a fist against his chest once, his eyes ice blue and bright. “You can believe rumors without any basis in truth or you can use your damn heads.”
She snorted at his rough words. There would be no sugarcoating or political-like speeches from this wolf. No way. He showed the world exactly who he was. A good male.
“Pretty inspiring,” a familiar voice said next to her.
Blinking, she was startled when she turned and found one of Reaper’s acquaintances next to her. He moved as quietly as Reaper did. Which made sense since he was an ancient too.
“He certainly is,” she murmured. She glanced over at the wall but saw that Reaper wasn’t there anymore.
The male reached out a hand toward her shoulder and she frowned, wondering what the hell he was doing, when she felt the pinch of something sink into her neck.
It happened so quickly she couldn’t react, couldn’t even move as pain exploded inside her, burning up her nerve endings. She tried to cry out but her throat wouldn’t work. Realization dawned as her entire body went into paralysis.