The Azar Omnibus: The Complete Azar Trilogy (The Azar Trilogy Book 0)

by Grace McGinty

  Tao gracefully went down to one knee, his head bent in supplication, and she let out a small sigh of relief. She knew Tao, knew that while he had brute muscle, he wasn’t a diplomat, or a peacekeeper. Men like Tao thrived during conflict, which is why he made such a great Sentinel.

  Everyone was kneeling now, except one big guy, and Azar’s stomach clenched. He wasn’t a Were she knew, and while he wasn’t as big as Tao, he was at least a head bigger than Aaron, and twice as broad across the chest.

  “I challenge you for Alpha,” the man growled, his voice deep and scratchy, his voice box damaged in some fight long ago judging by the ragged scar across his throat.

  Aaron inclined his head. “So be it. Before we start, we should take a moment to gather the bodies of our fallen kin, and return them to the earth, if that is agreeable with you?”

  The man nodded, and Tao stepped forward to scoop up the body of Anton.

  Aaron pointed to a small copse of giant sequoia trees to one side of the clearing. They didn’t belong there, but someone hundreds of years in past had planted them and now they would stand sentinel over the dead.

  “Anton loved those trees, and he could often be found working through great problems beneath their ancient branches. We will bury them there.”

  And so began the process of collecting the dead and interring them into the ground. Azar stood off to the side, not wanting to interfere with their ritual. Jack had arrived after the fighting had finished, his face crumpled in sadness.

  Jack’s full title was The Green Man, Heart of the Earth, Keeper of Balance, and it was the balance part of that title which ensured that he was incapable of raising a hand in violence unless he thought it would do irrevocable damage to the balance of nature. As such, he was truly immortal, and couldn’t be killed by any weapon of this earth. The only way that Jack would die would be if the Earth died.

  Azar had never stopped to think about how hard it must be for him to see millennia of violence, of death and destruction, and know that he could only stand back and let it happen. He wrapped her in his arms and sighed against her hair, and she let him. She needed this physical contact as much as he did. Their blood sang together, a sad lament about the waste of life. His arms were strong and warm, and the steady thump of his heart against her cheek soothed her raw emotions.

  People had started reemerging from the den; the old, the sick and the mothers. The pups would stay inside the den until all the dead were buried, before coming out for the memorial. Single women were encouraged to fight beside the men, however female wolves with young became the last line of defense before any attackers reached the pups. There was a certain level of wild ferociousness about a mother whose young were threatened. The level of ferociousness you got when there were seven mothers with threatened young would give you nightmares.

  There were mournful tears over the bodies of the fallen, and there was a palpable grief in the air. Azar saw Dotty, the Matriarch of the Sterling Forest Pack, near the mouth of the den, and she walked over, leaving Jack and Lorcan at the edges of the trees.

  “Dotty. I’m so sorry.” Azar bowed her head before the older woman. Dotty looked older and frailer than she had the last time Azar had seen her.

  Dotty nodded in return. “Thank you for coming to our aid. Without Oliver, you and your Fae,” she nodded at Lorcan, “we would all be dead.”

  Azar knew she must be shaken because she rarely ever called Oliver by that name, instead preferring to call him Cable, his given name. She was the only one allowed to do it, a permission she used frequently, especially if she could get a rise out of the Werejaguar. When Azar had called him Cable, just once, he’d threatened to put her over his knee and spank her until she promised never to do it again. Needless to say, she’d promised pretty quickly, although after last night’s dip in the pool, she was beginning to think she should have been more stubborn.

  “Speaking of Oliver, where is he?” Azar had been searching the bodies, half frightened that she’d see a big cat amongst the corpses of the wolves.

  “Cable is inside entertaining the pups while we do what needs to be done.” With another simple nod, the old woman walked away.

  The dead enemy Fae, there hadn’t been many of them, had all disappeared from the battlefield, taken away by Lorcan’s men to be buried and given the proper Fae rites. When she’d asked Lorcan about it, he’d merely shrugged.

  “Enemy in life or not, we are all brothers in death.” And that was that.

  Speaking of death, she searched around the milling people for Donovan. He wasn’t hard to find in the end. The Weres cut a huge path around him, and he stood out like an island in a ferocious sea of grief.

  Azar walked toward him, trying hard not to look into the eyes of the grief-stricken community. She had never been good with overt emotional displays, though she was getting better thanks to Bast and Oliver. Even Jack was helping her get past her general standoffishness.

  However, if there was a person who was the epitome of stand-offish, it was Donovan. He wasn’t a person anyone would ever consider hugging. But today, she was feeling brave. Coming up behind him, she wrapped her arms around his body, holding on even though he didn’t relax into her grip.

  “Okay?”

  He gave a derisive grunt. So, not okay.

  They stood in silence for a little longer, watching the holes being dug, as bodies were placed side by side, each one touching the shoulder of the next, solidarity even in death. Each one was lovingly covered in white linen shrouds. Twenty-five dead, and another thirty were injured, some gravely so. She let her head rest between Donovan’s shoulder blades, the muscles of his back practically vibrating with tension. Finally, a breath whooshed from his lungs and he rocked back against her, his body sagging.

  “Jerry had been with me since The Onyx opened. Did you know that?”

  Azar had the feeling he didn’t really want an answer, or even platitudes. He just needed a sounding board. She shook her head.

  “I couldn’t find any other security to work for me, not Djinn, trolls, no one. Everyone took one look at me and ran the other way.”

  Azar couldn’t say she blamed them. When she’d first met Donovan, she’d nearly peed her pants out of fear. He was a scary guy.

  “And one day in walks Jerry, looks me straight in the eye and tells me he was going to be my head of security. Me, being the dick that I am, told him he could just fuck off. He had just stared me down, laughed and said he’d start the following night. That was almost twenty years ago now.” He was looking at a point on the horizon, that place where memories ran like movie reels. She squeezed him tightly one more time, letting him know that she was here. They were a team now. Then she let go.

  She was walking back towards Jack and Lorcan when something hit her in the back of the knees and she went down like a bag of rocks.

  “Oof!”

  She looked over her shoulder to see Kayla, her very favorite wolf pup, wrapped around her thighs.

  “Azar! I was so afraid, and then they kept us in there so long, and Caleb kept saying not to cry like a baby, but I was frightened and I could hear yelling. Then Mr. Oliver came in as a jaguar, and let us all try and pin him, and everyone forgot that we were supposed to be scared. And now we are allowed to come outside, but everyone is really sad because a bunch of people are dead, but I only have my mommy and she was in the den with me the whole time, but I knew a lot of the wolves and I’m really sad too, but I’m happy to see you and I feel bad that I’m happy.”

  Azar squinted as she tried to take all of that in. She patted the little girl’s pigtailed head.

  “It’ll be fine now. It’s okay to be happy, even on the sad days. But you better catch up with your mom, so you can show your respects.”

  Kayla gave her another tight hug and left, sprinting to catch up with a tall, regal woman, who must have some Native American in her bloodline because she had a dark, wild beauty. Kayla was definitely going to be a clone of the woman in fifteen years.
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  Dusting the dirt off her knees, she walked toward the smiling face of Jack, who had seen her ungraceful face plant into the dirt.

  “I am glad that you have the Black Prince here to watch your back if you can be blindsided by a puppy,” he chuckled.

  Azar made a rude noise. “Where was he when I needed him then, hmm?”

  Jack held out an arm for her to hold, and she slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow. They walked toward the gathering of wolves, near the impromptu cemetery. “Lorcan felt it best if he went and saw to his troops. I promised him that I would call them back immediately if we were in any danger.”

  She looked at him in surprise. “Using telepathy?” She hadn’t known they had that ability.

  Jack shook his head, smirking. “With a cellphone.”

  Well, that was disappointing, and embarrassing.

  She and Jack stood at the back of the crowd, and it struck her that this was the second funeral she’d been to in the space of a week. She had an ugly premonition that unless they did something drastic really soon, these funerals were going to become a weekly occurrence.

  Dotty performed the ceremony, and in an odd blend of Norse traditions, European Christian rites and the ancient rituals of the Native Americans, she committed the fallen warriors’ bodies into the earth, their spirits into the arms of the Valkyrie, and their hearts into the company of their ancient ancestors. Azar had not known that the wolves attributed their lycanthropy to northern European ancestors.

  Finally, after much chanting to which she didn’t know the words, each wolf picked up a handful of dirt and threw it onto the graves.

  Jack stepped forward, and bowed deeply to Dotty. “A gift, if I may?” Dotty nodded her assent, not searching for or desiring the permission of any of the Alpha candidates. She was Matriarch, and that position held its own power.

  He bowed again, and placed one smooth hand on the overturned earth of Anton’s grave. At first, nothing happened. But then Azar noticed that grass, verdant and lush, was beginning to push its way up through the leaf litter of the clearing. Soon, the ground was covered in a thick, green carpet, small purple flowers pressing just through the four inch tall grass. Then, Jack moved his hand, and a small tree sprouted beneath it. Raising his hand upwards, the tree continued to grow, reaching towards Jack’s palm like he was the sun. Upwards and upwards it grew, its small trunk thickening until it was the width of a man’s waist and well over six feet tall. Not yet finished, he put a hand on either side of the trunk, and the tree continued to grow. It wasn’t a sequoia tree, in fact, it didn’t look like a tree that belonged in this forest at all.

  “Is that a yew?” she heard someone whisper, and that seemed right.

  By the time Jack had taken his hands from the tree, it stood well over ten feet tall. Still a young tree, by yew standards anyway, it was strong enough to withstand most of what nature could throw at it.

  Jack cleared his throat. “The yew was worshipped by the ancient druids. It was not just considered the symbol of death, but the transformation of life. It represents rebirth, and the perseverance of all things. This tree will watch over the fallen.” He didn’t raise his voice, but then he didn’t need to. Every person there was held in rapt attention.

  Without further ado, he turned and left the circle.

  The wolves left the small grove too, heading back to the spot where Anton’s body had fallen, sadness replaced by a shimmering energy. There was a power vacuum in their social structure, and nothing could happen until it was fixed.

  It always amazed Azar how people could create a perfect circular ring when there was a fight to be had. She squished her way to the front. As much as the thought of Aaron getting beaten to death terrified and sickened her, she had to see. Oliver appeared beside her, and grabbed her hand, twining his fingers in hers. In support, or possibly to hold her back from leaping into the middle of the fight, she wasn’t sure. Either way, his fingers were warm and reassuring, and she was glad she was pressed into his side.

  Aaron peeled off his shirt, and she could see the healed burn that was the exact shape of her hand. She’d given him the scar cauterizing his wounds so long ago. He hadn’t let them treat the wound, saying he wanted to keep it as a reminder of the brutality of people and the debt he owed to her. He had mentally healed a lot since then, but the handprint remained. The other guy peeled his shirt off too.

  “Will they fight as wolves or men?” she whispered to Oliver, and she felt his lips near her ear, hesitant to break the tense silence that domed the group.

  “As men. Our animals are always a reflection of our human form. A strong human, a strong wolf. But we consider the wolf the stronger of the two forms, so they’ll fight as human. They have to prove they can succeed without the beast to rely on.”

  Hmm, complicated.

  The two opponents circled each other, weighing and measuring. Then, as if by some unheard starter gun, they attacked in a flurry of fists and feet, the heavy thud of knuckles hitting flesh made Azar wince.

  The earthy power that radiated from the two Alpha contenders was thick in the air, and already weaker members of the pack were whimpering and kneeling from the pervasive energy.

  Aaron took a hard elbow to the nose, the crunching sound making her feel a little ill, and he hit the dirt hard. The other guy laid the boot into Aaron’s ribs, grinning like a jack-o-lantern from the teeth that had been knocked out by one of Aaron’s right crosses.

  Another sharp kick, and she heard the crack of a rib. She stepped forward, ready to stop the brutality, but Oliver wrapped a restraining arm around her waist, his fingers digging into her hip even as his thumb stroked the bare skin soothingly.

  Aaron leaned up and punched the other guy in the knee cap. He couldn’t put enough force into it to do any real damage, but it threw the guy back a bit so Aaron could regain his feet.

  Maybe it was being kicked in the ribs a couple of times, or the other dude laughing, but Aaron attacked like a man possessed, although his face was perfectly calm. He kicked out a foot and got the giant in his undamaged knee, and the guy crumpled. Grabbing his opponent by the hair, Aaron threw several hard elbows at the guy’s temple. One more mean right hook to the guy’s cheek and the other Alpha was down on the ground, dazed.

  “Do you submit?” Aaron asked. He didn’t yell, or even raise his voice, but somehow the words reverberated through the crowd. The guy beneath him raised his chin, baring his throat. Aaron put his foot down on the man’s windpipe, and Azar held her breath. She knew he wasn’t a malicious person, but for a second, she thought that Aaron was going to crush the man’s windpipe.

  Instead, he moved his foot away, and put his hand down to help the guy up.

  The defeated wolf shakily rose to his feet, and Aaron put a supportive arm under the guy’s shoulders and they walked out of the circle together. His pack followed behind.

  Chapter 4

  The guards watching the front of the den moved aside as Azar and her group strode up, but they watched them with a guarded expression, their bodies poised for any sudden movement.

  Azar smiled and waved as she walked past, and Jack didn’t seem overly perturbed by their inherent menace. Donovan scowled back, sending out his own waves of malice.

  “It’s like they’ve forgotten that we saved their asses a couple of hours ago,” he grumbled, and she shrugged.

  Once the Alpha challenge had been completed, Oliver had disappeared into the crowd of wolves that headed back toward the den in a wave. Azar and company had merely followed along behind the group. She wanted to talk to Aaron once more before they left, and she was more than ready to leave.

  A woman who she recognized as Kayla’s mother appeared in front of them. “The Alpha would like to speak with you.” The inquiry may have sounded like a request, but the subtext was definitely an order. An Alpha was King amongst the Weres, his orders absolute. It was the only way to maintain order among a group of people who were closer to their animalistic natures tha
n most societies.

  Azar bit her lip to prevent herself from telling the woman to go fuck herself. She didn’t respond well to orders. Instead, Azar merely nodded, and followed along behind the woman. After all, she’d wanted to see Aaron anyway, so she may as well humor the bossy bitch.

  If possible, this den was even more confusing than the one that was hidden in Sterling Forest. For starters, this one was huge, like a giant ant’s nest, with tunnels leading off in every direction every few feet. The ceilings were at least ten feet tall, the walls smooth, shot through with quartz. She ran a hand along the shining smooth surface of the walls. She knew instantly that these tunnels weren’t natural, nor were they dug out by the wolves.

  “What the hell used to live here?” She pictured those huge sandworms from Dune, and she began to feel very nervous.

  “Long before there were people here, other beings made their home amongst the mountains. Things long dead, and I don’t often admit this, but good riddance. Humans are by far my favorite of the Great Mother’s creations.” Jack sounded adorably guilty at playing favorites.

  Azar patted his arm. “Yeah, we like you too, Green Man.” The smile he gifted made her stomach feel like it was full of caffeinated butterflies.

  The woman finally stopped, not too far from the entrance of the dens.

  “I’ll wait out here,” Donovan growled. He wasn’t taking Jerry’s death well. She squeezed his arm. Kayla’s mother gave him a bored look.

  “Whatever.” She pushed open a rudimentary door and ushered Azar and Jack in, closing the door gently behind them.

  Aaron was sprawled on the couch, a cut across his eyebrow still seeping blood. It must have been deep, because while wolves didn’t heal as fast as the Djinn, they did heal significantly faster than humans.

  “Want me to seal that up for you?” She held a finger towards him, the tip alight with a tiny flame. Aaron smiled, but shook his head.