"That wouldn't happen."
He laughed, but it wasn't meant to be cruel. "Now who's being a kid?"
She pulled away from him, angry now, and put her back to him. "Rowan, I promised we’d wait for her."
"Erin … we can try, but I think she's found the person she wants to be with. I think maybe we should respect her choice and move on. Besides, we have other matters to discuss."
At the tone in his voice, she turned and faced him. "What matters?"
"You know what, Erin. It's time for you to step up, to take over."
"Bullshit!" She advanced on him, shoving him. "You're just lazy."
He moved back a step but smirked knowingly. He needed a shave, and his beard was growing in silver, not red. Usually, she didn't notice because he shaved regularly, but Rowan was getting older. "Come on, Erin. I'm slowing down, and you know it."
"Say that again, and I'll punch you in the balls." This time she smiled.
"It's true, and we both know it. Been true for some time now. I'm fifty-six years old, Erin. More than twice your age. These days, I feel every single year."
"Bullshit. You're a canny old wolf. You're at the top of your game."
He placed his palm tenderly on her cheek. "I'm so sorry, Erin. I had always thought Lewis..."
At the mention of their dead brother, loss and sorrow filled his eyes. Lewis, the rock of the family. Her own eyes watered. Lewis's death had changed everything. A part of her must have known that. She walked away from Rowan, climbed out of the stream. "Casey's older," she said softly, her back to Rowan.
He laughed, and despite the fact he was laughing at her, she laughed as well. "Come on. I love Casey desperately, but he's not—and never will be—the leader this family needs. We keep Casey around to break shit and fly helicopters." He sighed, shaking his head. "And don't even think about pushing this off on Jay. That kid's a lover not a fighter."
And he was right. Jay was far too sweet to make the hard decisions Rowan made, the decisions she knew she could make. "I don't want to be in charge," she said simply.
"No leader worth a damn ever does—not when they understand the price—but that's why it can only be you."
"I ... this is too much right now."
"Okay, we don't have to make any decisions today. Let's grab the others and make our way back to the bunker. We can think about what we're going to do after the full moon cycle."
"What ... what do you want to do?"
"We can give Angie a few more days, a week, no more. If she’s not here in a week, she’s not coming. We respect her choice. The pack comes first."
"What does that even mean?"
He wrapped an arm around her shoulder and squeezed her. "If I knew that, it'd be much easier being the boss."
He led her back to their brothers, her thoughts consumed by worry for Jay and Tavi, and Angie and Tec … and for herself and her brothers.
Casey stepped out of the trees, raising his muscular arms high over his head as he stretched and yawned, everything dangling in the breeze. "Hey, is there coffee?"
Erin sighed.
Chapter 13
The early-morning sunlight warmed Angie as she lay with her cheek against Tec's chest, feeling it rise and fall with his breaths. She felt wonderful but a bit sore down there. It had been a long, long time since the last time, and they had both been greedy in their need. Still, it was a lovely soreness, one she didn't regret. His breathing altered, and she knew he was awake. She trailed her fingers over his chest and then kissed his nipple.
"You can't possibly want to go again?" he asked in a husky, disbelieving voice.
She grinned. "Do you?"
"Give me a few minutes. I'm older than you."
"You're older than everyone." He was so warm and felt so perfect beneath her. She had been uncharacteristically aggressive last night. She had never instigated sex before, but she didn't want to be passive with Tec. Besides, she hadn't just wanted sex but needed it. And she was certain he had as well. God only knew he had given her the best lovemaking of her life—far better than Nathan or anyone else. She could live with a bit of soreness.
And she did want to do it again.
She climbed up his chest and kissed him. He gripped her shoulders and crushed her against him. When he finished kissing her, long minutes later, she sighed in contentment, amazed at how turned on she was, every bit of her body charged with electricity. "Is it always like this with you?"
"I think it's the dragon-bond."
"You don't know?" She stared at him in surprise.
He took her left hand, opened her fingers, and then held his own dragon-marked palm against hers. She shivered in excitement, her pulse quickening. "No one knows. We are the only two people on the planet to share this gift. Dragons are creatures of magic. Quetzalcoatl has linked us, placing part of his magic into us. At least that's what I think has happened."
"Is that why ... is that why I was such a slut? Why I crawled naked into your bed? Are you saying it's magic?"
He gripped her hand, squeezing her fingers together, his eyes suddenly hard. "Don't say that! Don’t ever say that. I think—and I admit I'm guessing—I think the bond intensifies emotions, emotions that were already present. I was attracted to you the moment I saw you. I've always wanted to be with you like this. But since the bond, that need is much more magnified. If you hadn't crawled into my bed, I'd have crawled into yours."
"I tried to kiss you on the beach, but you walked away from me." She heard the hurt in her voice, felt her face heat with the admission.
He barked in laughter, his green eyes shining with amusement. "I didn't just walk away from you. If I hadn't left, I'd have ripped your clothes from you and ravished you right there—and not given a damn who saw. Hell, I'd have fought anyone who tried to stop me, and your friends probably would have tried. That's dangerous. We're dangerous."
She rubbed her thigh against his cock, pretending it had only been an accident. She grinned mischievously. "I like being dangerous with you. It feels good to be ravished by you." She kissed his neck, biting the skin softly.
He groaned with need, and his erection grew hard once more. He pushed her away from him and sat up, putting his back to her. "You're killing me."
She wrapped her arms around his neck from behind, pushed her breasts against his back, and held him, her face against the back of his neck. "I can't stay away from you. I've wanted you as well since the first time I saw you, but I don't do this sort of thing, not like this. I feel like ... like, like I'll die without you. It's crazy. I barely know you, but I'm so fucking turned on by you."
He turned quickly, far quicker than she would have thought possible, and caught her in his arms, pulling her against him. He was so strong, so powerful, she couldn't have broken free if she tried—and she didn't want to try. "You have a dirty mouth," he said, and then crushed her lips against his.
When he finally stopped kissing her, she sighed, sitting in his lap now, her arm around his neck, her cheek against his shoulder. "You're a pretty good kisser for an old dude."
He snorted, laughing with his eyes. "You make me feel like I'm seventeen."
"Okay," she said, inhaling deeply and pulling away from him, standing up and pulling on the robe the elf woman had left for her last night and tying the belt around her waist. "We need to change the subject before I jump your bones again—and there are things we have to talk about."
He sat up, drawing the sheet over his waist, and nodded. "Ask."
She sat cross-legged facing him at the end of the bed. If she wasn't touching him or kissing him, maybe she could keep her mind on the matter at hand. "Tell me about that bunker under the mountain. Tell me about your master and his Black Pool. And tell me about the god-damned Awakening."
He grimaced, a shudder coursing through him. "You've earned the right."
"You knew about the Awakening, didn't you? You knew it was coming?"
"Yes."
Such a simple word, so easy to say yet
so powerful. "You knew the dragons would break the world, that all those people, billions of people, were going to die?"
"Yes, but not just me. There were others that knew. And it was the only way to save anyone. I hated it as much as you do, but it was necessary."
"The U.S. government knew as well, didn't they?"
He opened his mouth, then closed it again, his face reflecting his uncertainty. "It was more ... complex than that. Some knew, but not everything, only pieces. And even fewer knew that the Awakening was coming, knew what would follow when my master and the other great dragons broke the Fey Sleep, awakening humanity to the magic the Fey had hidden from them."
"Project Grendel?"
"The existence of my master and the other dragons. Long before A-Day, the great dragons saw the end of the world coming. I told you before that dragons are creatures of magic. Some can see the future, at least parts of it, but it's often confusing and hard for them to make sense of. And seeing the future alters it. Nothing becomes certain."
"The dragons were seers?"
"Yes, but not all of them. My master's gift of prophesy was limited, but he saw the end of the world in a nuclear firestorm long before tensions with North Korea became so unstable. Everything, all life, was going to end, that much was clear. So the four great dragons decided to break the Fey Sleep and plunge the world into another dark age."
"But not Itzpapalotl and Tezcatlipoca, the Twin Deaths?"
"Never those two. Dragons war among themselves as much as humans do. And those two were always the most powerful, especially Itzpapalotl. Only her sire Memnog is stronger. The other four dragons hid from them, knowing if they revealed themselves, the Twin Deaths would strike."
"But they did reveal themselves. They appeared over Mount Fuji. Just before the power grids fell."
"And stopped nuclear war. And in doing so, the dragons made themselves vulnerable to the Twin Deaths. And they paid the ultimate price. They died saving us from ourselves."
"But the rest of the world ..."
"Still lives. It was a hard decision, but the right one. Trust me, it wasn't something my master chose lightly. The dragons postponed their plans for as long as they could. Quetzalcoatl sent me out to prepare humanity, or at least part of it, the part that lived in southern California."
"I don't understand."
"Project Grendel."
"You brought the government to Mount Laguna?"
"I did. Slowly, and only those my master felt could be trusted, the most powerful, those who controlled special resources, resources that would be needed to rebuild the world. I brought them to the mountain, and my master dominated their minds before sending them out again to prepare."
"Did he ... did he do that to me, dominate my mind?"
He shook his head. "No. His bond is something much different."
"Why dominate the others, then? What was he trying to do?"
"To prepare humanity for the Awakening. Humanity's ability to wage nuclear war needed to be stopped, but my master didn't want to destroy our species. He wanted us ready to rise after. That's what Project Grendel was really about, about preparing for the end of the world. It was a vast operation to stockpile resources, weapons, and the best warriors to use them."
"Oh my God," she whispered. "The Home Guard Bunker, Marshal's Bunker. My father's Bunker."
"The U.S. Armed Forces Electro Magnetic Vulnerability Assessment Facility." He leaned forward, placing his hands on her knees. "Did you really never wonder why there was so much equipment stored within that bunker? All those vehicles, the state-of-the-art Shrike helicopters, the radios, the supplies—even a cadre of Special Forces soldiers to use them? When the lights went out, Marshal was ready to act. And that's also why the Seagraves were there."
"I ... what? How could you know about the Seagraves?"
"That the werewolf gene ran in their family? My master knew about them; I don’t know how. But he knew that once the Fey Sleep was broken, the gene would reassert itself. My master instructed Marshal to see that the Seagrave brothers, the ones that were in the military, were all transferred to his unit prior to A-Day. In the days that followed, Marshal didn't just have working weapons, electronics, vehicles, and aircraft, but also a family of werewolf soldiers to use them."
"That's ... that's crazy."
"No, what's crazy is believing that a single naval officer commanding a small underground electronic testing facility just happened to have all the resources and men he'd need to rebuild society."
"And your bunker? All that testing gear, the weapons and supplies, the two Blackhawk helicopters?"
"A backup. Project Grendel was the U.S. government's plan to rebuild after the Awakening. But the aftermath of A-Day was much worse than even we expected. All the nation-states fragmented and fell into chaos, including the US. In the span of years, every nation on the planet turned into small fiefdoms controlled by local warlords. Marshal's influence was limited to the western coast, what you now call the Commonwealth of Cascadia."
She stared at him, her thoughts racing. Marshal knew? If so, did that mean her father knew as well? "You did a shit job preparing to rebuild the world."
He nodded, his eyes filled with guilt. "We weren't prepared for our enemies, the Twin Deaths and the Tzitzime. They somehow knew that the other four dragons would break the Fey Sleep and, in secret, had long prepared for it. When the Awakening came, the Twin Deaths were ready. They slaughtered three of the dragons. Only my master escaped. Rebuilding humanity became nearly impossible alone, but the Twin Deaths oversaw the rise of the Aztalan Empire, and it grew so much faster than the other fiefdoms. Now, the greatest military force in the world is the Aztalan Empire, and with my master dead, I don't think they can be stopped."
"Well," she whispered, a weight settling on her heart, "you certainly know how to kill the mood."
Chapter 14
Feeling like a teenaged girl, Angie spent the day with Tec, strolling about the Fey enclave, slowly getting to know one another better. The Fey, particularly the elves, were preparing for war, but Tec seemed to have recovered completely. The elves' magic had healed Tec’s body, but Angie had helped feed his strength. She felt alive when around him, more … alive than she had ever been. They belonged together, and when they made love—as they did several more times that day—their coupling energized them. And the sex... oh, God, the toe-curling sex just got better and better. She couldn't keep her hands off him.
She clung to his powerful arm now as they strolled through an elven garden, the air fragrant with roses. Tec told her of his childhood, his abusive father, a powerful Mexican landowner, and his mother, a poor peasant girl who still carried the blood of the Teotihuacan people. His father never married his mother, of course, and had hid Tec’s true lineage from him, but he learned the truth when he was fifteen—just before he changed for the first time into a were-jaguar. For her part, Angie spoke of Char and growing up in the Fresno Enclave, of living among the Fey.
He wrapped an arm across her shoulders, drew her in tight against him. "And your parents?"
"Barely remember them, just ... flashes of faces now and then. We lived on a naval base in southern California"—she smiled—"far from water, and my father worked with Marshal in his bunker. They were close, I remember that much, best friends. I was very young on A-Day. I remember ... I remember being sick. I was in a hospital, I think. I remember Marshal bringing me to Char but ... well, everything before that is ... gone. I think maybe Char did … something."
He watched her face, his eyes filled with concern. "That doesn't sound right."
She shrugged. "It's okay. I’m sure she was helping. I'm a source mage. I'm different from the other mages, and Char knew that. And after the Shade King bonded with me, Char’s magic helped me cope with my condition, but it must have also stirred up my memories."
"Now it really doesn't sound right."
Concern blazed in his eyes, and she reached up, turned his face toward her, and kissed him. "It
's okay, don't worry. I'm fine."
Later, after dinner, they returned to the guest chambers and made love again. He fell into a deep, satisfied sleep beside her, but his breathing soon took on a jungle cat's purring once again, his powerful chest rumbling. It should have frightened her but instead put her at ease. She placed her cheek on his chest and fell asleep.
Angie dreamed.
She walked through the same elven gardens she and Tec had visited earlier that day, only now it was night, and the gardens were dark and quiet. She saw the occasional elf, but usually just for a moment, and then the elf was gone, winking out of existence. Sometimes, she heard laughter and voices, but the noise always drifted away like smoke.
A part of her knew this was a dream, but she was happy. She was happy and safe and loved. It was more than enough, and a far more pleasant dream than she had become accustomed to.
Her clothing kept changing. One moment she wore the camouflaged combat fatigues of a Home Guard mage, then she wore a long gauze-thin nightgown, her feet bare on the grassy soil. The moon was full and bright, and she gazed up at it for long moments. When she looked down again, she was wearing a barely there short dress that would be more appropriate on a nymph, thigh-high, transparent, very low cut in the bosom, but it made her feel sexy. She spun in place, her long hair swishing about her. Tec would like her in this outfit.
Tec. Her lover.
A thrill of excitement coursed through her, and her skin glowed silver under the moonlight. She felt wonderful, blissful. Happier than she had … well, ever.
The air turned cold so fast it came as a shock, like walking into the Home Guard Bunker’s massive freezer. She wrapped her arms about her and shivered, staring in confusion at the foot of fog now on the ground. Something felt wrong. Her chest tightened as she turned in place, scanning the darkness. The moon was gone, covered by thick clouds.
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