by Elaina Jadin
“Come, it’s time.” He makes no haste as he strides down the hallway, and I kick my feet into top gear to keep up with him.
As we take the stairs up to the next floor, a sinking feeling settles in my stomach. Kade’s demeanor is different today, and rather than the usual man stationed at each landing, there are two more posted along each floor.
“What’s going on?” I ask as we near Draven’s office.
Kade doesn’t answer, he simply opens the door and waits for me to go inside. Draven is behind his desk as usual, and Bishop is leaning against the counter at the wet bar. They both look up as we enter, but their eyes slide past me to Kade.
He nods once, and it must be a confirmation or a signal of some kind because Draven rises from his chair and smooths his tie down before retrieving his suit jacket from a hook on the wall. Bishop takes a last sip from the crystal tumbler in his hand and sets it on the counter, then grabs his jacket as well.
Wondering if we’re going somewhere, I appraise Kade anew. He’s not wearing a suit, but he is dressed up more than usual with dark jeans and a black button-down shirt that strains against his biceps. I look down at my gold dress, hoping it’s suitable.
My concerns are nullified a moment later when Kade retrieves the familiar black pillow from a cabinet along the wall. Rather than placing it behind the desk as he did before, he lays it in the middle of an open space on the floor, setting it down almost ceremoniously.
Draven walks over, his eyes blazing into me as he trails his gaze from head to toe and back. His hand cups my chin, his thumbs pressing into my cheeks possessively, the way I love. He studies me for a moment before running his fingers along my jawline and down my neck, making goosebumps break out along my flesh.
I tilt my head, capturing the warmth of his touch against my skin, wanting more. His lips twitch at my movement, but he says nothing. He slowly sweeps my long hair off my shoulder, letting it fall in a straight line down my spine, then he steps back.
“Today marks the end of a week here with us. Have you made a decision as to whether you’re staying for the full thirty days, or leaving now?” His eyes burn into me as he asks, and the tension in his shoulders is apparent.
I draw in a breath, relief coursing through me. That’s what this is about—it’s Decision Day. As I look at Draven, I can’t tell if he’s hoping I’ll answer one way or the other, but I made up my mind long before this moment.
Rolling my shoulders back, I meet his gaze with a steadiness that comes from deep inside me, and I answer with the most confident voice I can muster. “I’d like to stay, sir.”
Perhaps it’s wishful thinking, but I swear a look of relief flashes across Draven’s face. It’s gone as fast as it appeared, though, leaving me to wonder if I imagined it. Bishop’s gaze is unreadable as ever, but Kade has the smallest glimmer of a hungry smile.
“Very well, Fawn. We accept your extension of this arrangement, and all terms remain in effect as previously agreed.” His tone is so business-like that I nearly expect him to produce a contract, a lawyer, and a notary.
But instead, he waves a hand at the pillow with a simple command. “Kneel.”
A contented warmth fills me as I do as he instructs, dropping to my knees on the soft cushion. I’m still theirs, at least for the rest of the month.
Draven’s hand runs over my hair as he crouches beside me, his gaze level with mine. “Listen carefully, Jemma.”
The use of my birth name rather than my nickname makes a knot of worry form in my stomach, and it only twists tighter when I glance at Bishop and Kade. They both have the most serious expressions I’ve ever seen.
I look back to Draven, my heart in my throat. “Yes, Alpha. I’m listening.”
“You may have noticed the extra security this evening,” he begins.
“I did, sir,” I tell him with a nod, both my concern and curiosity ratcheting up by the second.
“We have a meeting tonight, one that has brought a certain group of adversaries to our doorstep. Their arrival is by invitation, but we must still take precautions. You are to remain here, in this office, until we return. Under no circumstances are you to leave this room.” His hand trails down to the back of my neck, and his fingers press into my skin as he rests it there. “Is that understood?”
My answer is full of conviction. “Yes, sir. I’ll wait here for you. For all of you.”
Despite the weight of Draven’s words and the gravity of their expressions, my cheeks ache from keeping a smile off my lips, one that springs from the joy of knowing I’m important to these men, that I’m wanted and protected. Their control is fierce, yet I feel free. In their presence, I am safe. It’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced, and I relish it.
Draven grips the back of my neck and pulls me toward him. I’m rewarded with a soft kiss against my forehead, so gentle it sends butterflies reeling through me.
He stands and moves to the door, the other men following. Bishop sends a lingering glance my way, his bright blue eyes so intense it makes a chill run up my spine. Kade’s look is possessive and fierce, and it heats my skin. Between the three of them, they’ve set off a cacophony of sensations that take flight inside me like a flock of birds soaring into the sky.
As they make their way out, I shift to arrange myself as comfortably as possible on the pillow, settling in to wait for them, my legs bent neatly under me, my hands folded in my lap, my spine straight.
A moment later, the door softly shuts behind them, and I’m alone in the room.
31
Bishop
The three of us stop in the den before heading to the dining room. Our fawn has agreed to stay the rest of the month, which certainly calls for a celebration—one of a most debaucherous nature. But that must wait.
Right now, the Latians are on the way, and I have news to share with my fellow alphas.
As I pull out my phone, Draven pours himself a finger of whiskey and downs it quickly. He’s already reached the limits of his patience, and the assholes haven’t even arrived yet.
Over the last twenty-four hours, we’ve gathered several concerning pieces of information, and none of it is good. Which is why Jemma’s waiting for us in Draven’s office, where she can be more easily guarded, rather than in her room or attending this charade of a dinner with us.
“They’re all slimy fucks, and I know they’re planning something. I can feel it,” Draven rumbles before setting his glass down and turning to me. “What did you need to show us?”
I nod. “They’re indeed planning something, and they believe themselves clever enough to hide it. But it seems we’ve received the key to the puzzle.”
“Yeah? What’s that?” Kade asks. He’s got that hard crease in his brow that means he’s pissed off and ready to kill someone if they breathe too loudly.
Dinner is going to be interesting, indeed.
Tossing my phone onto the red felt surface of the billiards table, I point to the picture I’ve pulled up. “This came in from one of our guys—the one we put in deep cover with that group who does transport—and this shipment caught his eye. He snapped a couple quick photos when it came through earlier this week, but couldn’t get linked up to a secure server until earlier today.”
Kade and Draven lean over the table, studying the picture. Kade’s eyebrows shoot up, and he lets out a whistle. “That’s a lot of fucking firepower.”
“Yes, it is,” I say. “Looks to be about fifty semi-automatic rifles and a hundred thousand rounds of ammunition.”
“Who are the Latians selling to?” Draven’s eyes are narrowed.
Within the province of The Brotherhood, weapons are our territory. We overlook small time deals because they aren’t worth our time, but this would definitely qualify as stepping on our turf—if the Latians were trying to move the merchandise. But the numbers don’t tell the whole story.
“Apparently, they aren’t the sellers. They’re the buyers,” I tell my brethren alphas, and from their expressions, I
know the significance of my words hits them instantly. “And once he saw this, our guy did a little checking—this was the second shipment within the past few weeks.”
Draven draws in a long breath, the muscles in his face so tense that his jaw twitches. “This is why Terrion’s brought in low-level nothings like Bryan—he’s been getting them to run up tabs everywhere they can, and siphoning the cash into weapon acquisitions.”
“Fuck,” Kade breathes out, and he starts pacing around the room. “This is bad. We should have burned their fucking compound to the ground the second we saw Bryan go into their suite.”
Draven picks up my phone, rotating the screen to make the image larger. “This symbol,” he says, pointing at a faint mark on one of the crates. “That’s a lion emblem. The Somha Pride, I believe.”
“Which means mercenaries, yeah?” Kade voices the question, but from the way his shoulders roll, his muscles straining with pent-up aggression, it’s clear he already knows the answer.
The lions are infamous for their so-called package deals. Weapons, and men to fire them. There isn’t any other reason for a wolf pack to be dealing arms with a lion pride.
“There’s no evidence they’ve hired help, but yes, I believe it would be a fair assumption, given the nature of who they’re trading with,” I say, nodding.
“This is a fucking problem,” Draven says, his nose flaring as he draws in a deep breath. His grip on the side of the antique billiards table makes the wood creak, his knuckles white from the force he’s applying.
“They’ve always been a problem,” I answer quietly. I don’t need to remind Draven that I cautioned against mercy. I learned that lesson early on—no mercy, no quarter.
“I suggested a raid on their compound instead of dinner,” Draven says, his expression a canvas of stone and fury, “but this is far beyond that now. Clearly they’re arming themselves for war. Given their hatred for the whole of humankind and the Barons, it’s easy to ascertain who at least two of their targets will be.”
“We should take out the entire pack,” Kade says, his tone is adamant.
Draven and Kade’s eyes meet, the two alphas regarding one another silently. Kade isn’t known to advocate for the genocide of an entire pack, but Terrion is following in his father’s footsteps—like father, like son.
I observe their wordless exchange, noting the battle inside our leader as he contemplates Kade’s words.
A deserving foe receives no mercy from Draven. But his savagery stops short of taking innocent lives, even when it’s the only way. The great cost of collateral damage is what got us in this mess in the first place, with his refusal to eradicate the Latian bloodline, to make them pay the ultimate price for the sins of their alpha.
For all that he is brutal, Draven has a heart.
“I’ll take care of it,” I volunteer, meeting the charge in Draven’s eyes without flinching.
I will do what it takes to ensure the safety of the Barons, no matter how detestable. My soul is already damned beyond redemption, and my humanity has wasted away. I don’t think either of my fellow alphas realize how much more wolf I am than human. Survival of the pack is paramount. As a wolf, I have no hesitation or guilt about that. It’s simply nature’s way.
At length, he gives a terse nod. “Let’s get through this farce of a dinner. Then gather our men and ready for a strike.”
Kade’s hands curl into fists. “Fuck that—I say we go in there and kill Terrion right now.”
“Take a breath, my brother,” I say, meeting Kade’s fiery gaze with a cold stare. “There will be ample time to draw death across the throats of our enemies.”
Like all of us, he is always eager to hunt, but his methods are chaotic and indiscriminate. On the battlefield, he’s the perfect weapon. But we are only on the precipice of combat, not in the midst of it, and now is not the time to tip our hand. We need strategy, not anarchy.
Draven nods. “Bishop is right—we’ve tripled security and brought in extra men to cover this meeting, but the rest of our pack needs time to prepare before we go to war. If we make a move right now, or give away anything that leads them to suspect we’re on to them, they’ll move up their plans before we can rally our pack.”
Kade draws in a deep breath, his lips curled with anger, but he closes his eyes and slowly lets it out. “Fine,” he says with great reluctance. “I’ll play nice during dinner. But only because I know their blood will soon be parting ways from their bodies.”
“The sooner the better,” Draven says, his eyes dark and glittering, like coal being compressed into jagged diamonds. He straightens and tugs his suit jacket into place, then checks his watch. “Time to go greet these assholes.”
“Let the games begin,” I say, pocketing my phone once more as we head to the dining room.
32
Jemma
I don’t know how much time passes, but I must have nodded off. I jerk upright with a start, my eyes heavy and unfocused, when I hear footsteps in the hall. My heart leaps for a moment, thinking my three Alphas have returned, but I don’t detect the sound of Kade’s heavy boots this time.
The hair stands up on the back of my neck as the doorknob rattles, the sound of metal scraping in the lock. A second later the door swings open with a flourish and Bryan walks in, a blonde woman right behind him.
I scramble up from my perch on the pillow, my stomach in my throat. “What the fuck?”
Bryan strolls through the room as if he owns the damn place, his eyes sweeping over me and all the furniture, his head bobbing like a chicken as he takes everything in. As I watch, dumbfounded and flustered, he strolls over to Draven’s desk and props an ass cheek against the edge of it.
The blonde woman is still near the door, and my chest tightens when I recognize her—Sadie, the one who approached Kade at the fight. She lets out a scathing laugh as her eyes land on the black silk cushion on the floor.
“Look,” she says to Bryan, pointing at the pillow, “she’s been waiting like a good little girl for her masters.”
I ignore her and turn to Bryan. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Unlike the other night at the fights, when he trapped me with the wolves, I am not going to shrink away into the corner. His presence feels like an invasion into a world that has become my private domain, and I want him to get the fuck out.
“Draven said I’d find you in here,” he says as he plucks a large glass paperweight off the desk and palms it, hefting its weight in the air. He shifts his gaze back to me with a smirk on his lips. “Did you forget already? I told you I’d be seeing you soon. Today’s the day. I’ve come to take you home.”
I narrow my eyes at him. There’s no way Draven gave Bryan permission to come waltzing into his office. At least, not without a guard escorting him—and something tells me the bitch in the doorway doesn’t qualify.
My hands clench into fists as Bryan drops the paperweight with a loud, careless thunk and begins nosing through a stack of papers. I can’t stand that he’s even in the building, much less in Draven’s office, snooping around and touching stuff.
“Who let you in here?” My heart pounds as I remember all the men Kade and I passed on the way here earlier. Where are they now? Surely they wouldn’t have let Bryan just stroll by.
“I did,” Sadie snaps, hands on her hips. “The Alphas are busy, so I’m helping them out. They’ll thank me later.”
“Bullshit. They wouldn’t have sent you.” I don’t believe for a second that Sadie is operating under the blessing of the alphas. I want to challenge her, to ask where Nio and the other men are, to know why the guys didn’t send one of them to escort Bryan here instead.
She snorts and gives me an eat shit and die look. “You might think you’re all that and a box of chocolates because they took you to the fight, but they were just showing off their latest toy. When they get bored of you, they’ll toss you away, like all the others.”
I cross my arms, my fingers digging into the flesh of m
y skin as I try to resist the urge to punch her right in her big fat mouth. I refuse to let her see me rattled, even if her words do needle into me.
“But when you’re long gone, and they’ve already forgotten your name, I’ll still be here,” she continues. She waves a silver keyring in the air, the gloating sneer on her face downright insufferable. “I have keys to the castle, you might say.”
I glare at her, unable to imagine any of the men giving her a key to this office. But the truth is, I have no idea how things work within the Barons. Kade rebuffed her at the fight, and told her to remember her place, but it’s still clear that, regardless of where her place is, she’s a member of their group, or pack… or whatever they want to call it.
Bryan’s voice cuts through my thoughts, and I snap my attention back to him, a fresh batch of irritation bristling inside me at the sight of him still leaning against Draven’s desk.
“Jemma, wow, look at you.” He crosses his arms, his smirk even bigger than before. His eyes trail up my frame, over my simple gold wrap dress, and pause at the marks on my neck and the limpness of my damp hair. “I’ve never seen an example of the phrase rode hard and put up wet until now.”
My skin crawls under his gaze and indignation bubbles through me, my anger and courage growing as I glare back at him. My hair might not be styled, and my face is unadorned with makeup, but who the hell is he to talk?
His skin is sallow, the stubble on his cheeks and jaw is patchy, and his hair is so greasy it almost looks like he slicked oil through it. I don’t remember him ever looking so unappealing, but maybe he’s always looked like shit and I’m now truly seeing him for the first time.
I stare at him, desperately trying to remember if I ever found him attractive. The answer is a resounding no. I’ve settled, I’ve made do, and I’ve put up with his shit, but I’ve never been drawn to him the way I am to the Alphas. And now, with them to compare him to, the distinction is brutally clear.