by Leia Stone
Astra cleared her throat. “Demi Calloway and Sawyer Hudson, do you both wish to take the other as your lawful spouse and true mate?” Her voice was thick with emotion.
“I do,” Sawyer and I said in unison.
Astra nodded, pulling a folded piece of parchment from the top of her book. I had seen Sawyer handing it to her earlier and knew the curse was about to be tested.
Bring it on.
“Then I test this curse on the Hudson family,” Astra said loudly for all surrounding us to hear, “and declare you both as man and wife. Sawyer, you may kiss your bride.” Astra folded the paper and looked at us expectantly.
My heart hammered in my ears as the smell of hot wires filtered through the air.
Magic.
Sawyer’s face lit up with an orangish glow as his skin seemed to radiate like the sun. I could feel the heat from here as he leaned into me. Did he fear kissing me? Testing this curse? Or did he know as assuredly that I did that my love for him was true?
As if in answer to my internal question, he reached up with confidence and grasped the sides of my face, pulling my mouth to meet his. Our lips touched and the searing heat of Sawyer’s skin pierced right through me, sending an electric jolt down my spine and into my toes. There was a popping noise, and then everything went black.
“Demi!” Sawyer shook me as I peered up at him from the ground. A high-pitched whine rang in my ears as I shook my head. Sawyer’s skin was covered in black soot like he’d been burned.
“Were we bombed?” I looked around, but everyone else seemed fine. In fact, they were all staring at us with furrowed brows.
Oh God. The curse.
“Are you dead?” I queried. Had I somehow killed us both?
Sawyer hauled me up to a standing position and glared at one of the defector witches, who had stepped over to help us.
“What happened?” he growled. “She loves me. I know it. Our love is true.”
The witch sniffed the air and at the same time I smelled it too. Sulphur and … something sour like curdled milk.
“Broken curse…” the witch mumbled.
“What?” Sawyer pressed her.
She shook her head. “I know that smell. It’s the smell of a broken curse.”
Sawyer and I looked at each other, dumbfounded. Was breaking the curse even an option?
He must have clued Sage in, because she didn’t look confused about why we were talking about curses.
“Of course!” Sage snapped her fingers. “A city wolf Alpha just married a half Paladin. Surely that would break a curse meant to tear apart our two packs?”
Astra threw her arms up to the sky. “Praise the Father!” she yelled, and in that moment a tiny sprinkle of rain fell from the sky. At first I thought she’d spit on me with her yelling, but slowly, a misty rain started to fall over us.
Sawyer grinned and then laughed. “It’s broken? Our children won’t have to worry?” His arms came around me and then I was hauled into the air as he spun me in a circle. Who knew that our love would be strong enough to break a centuries-old curse?
The warriors erupted into quiet cheers, and for a second I forgot about the war, about the fact that in a little while I needed to go away and leave Sawyer. Instead, I just let this be my wedding day and I reveled in the happiness of this moment.
Then a bomb went off. Literally. The air cracked with a loud boom as the ground shook, and Sawyer tucked me into him, throwing his body over mine protectively. A nearby tree ripped from the ground just outside the fence as light flared in the small space and clods of dirt were thrown into our group.
They missed hitting us. The witches’ fence seemed to have held, but I wasn’t going to bank on it a second time.
“We need to move!” Dreadlocks screamed, and everyone scrambled, running into the building and coming out with duffle bags and equipment.
Sage tossed her bouquet on the ground and picked up a gun as the captain stepped over to Sawyer’s side. Rab and Astra and the men I had brought fanned out behind me, waiting for my direction.
“Sir,” the captain said, “I think it’s time to initiate plan B. They are on us and we’ve lost too many men.”
Sawyer frowned. “I’m not ready to give up, hand them our territory, our homes, our farms on a silver platter.”
The captain looked at me. “Maybe if she were to give herself up, we could—”
“Shut up!” Sawyer launched forward and clasped his hand around the dude’s mouth.
I frowned. What the hell was he doing, and what did the guy mean give myself up? Sawyer was the one wanted for murder. Sawyer was the one who started this whole war.
The soldiers nearest them stepped in to break them apart, prying Sawyer off of the captain. “At least tell her!” the captain yelled. “Tell her this is all because of her. That she could stop it.”
Sawyer’s eyes narrowed just as mine widened. “You’re relieved of duty, Captain. Get the fuck out of my face and into a bunker.”
The man looked shocked. “Sir?”
“Go,” Sawyer growled, pelts of fur rolling down his neck.
“What the hell is he talking about, Sawyer?” I yanked on my new husband’s shirt and forced him to look at me.
I felt it then, between us, a deep dark secret he’d been keeping from me. It was thick and heavy and hidden deep within him.
“Sawyer, you tell me right now. I will not start our marriage off on lies,” I growled at my mate.
He nodded, swallowing hard. “The others have formed the Magical Creatures Coalition. They will stop the war if I give into their demand. Just one demand.”
Chills ran the length of my arms. “What’s their demand?”
His gaze looked at my feet then, unable to meet my eyes.
“Sawyer, what are they demanding?”
He shook his head like he couldn’t speak.
“You,” Sage said suddenly, and a wave of dizziness crashed into me.
“Me?”
Sawyer looked up from the ground and I came face to face with his wolf. Yellow glowing eyes stared back at me from behind his thick lashes. “This whole murder trial about Vicon was to get me out of the picture. They want your power, Demi. They want to bottle and sell what you have and become invincible, unkillable, the Fountain of Youth, whatever you want to call it. They want it.”
Me?
They wanted me…
I’d known that the vampire queen wanted my power. I guess the fey too, but … to start a war over it… “All of them? Why?”
Sawyer’s eyes flashed back to their searing blue. “Yes all of them, and because, Demi…” He inhaled through his nose. “…you’re like a drug. Do you remember that first time we kissed? The vibrating?”
I nodded, remembering when he’d backed me up against the wall in the hallway of the Fine Arts building.
Sawyer swallowed hard, chewing at his lip nervously. “I took a bit of your power then, unknowingly. I was so strong, so fast after that kiss, I felt … invincible. Every time we have been close after that, I’ve had to be very careful not to…”
Horror ripped through me at his words. He took my power? He had to be careful not to what? Drain me like a vampire!?
“Not to?” I needed to hear him say it.
“Not to consume your essence, not to take from you.”
My mind was spinning, this entire war … wasn’t over Sawyer killing Vicon … it was over me.
It was … sick and wrong and … I couldn’t let all of these people die because of me. I couldn’t let buildings burn and our people lose everything they had over one person.
“I’ll go,” I told him. “Give myself up, and later, when our army is stronger, you can get me back.”
“No!” Sawyer growled as fur rippled from his neck to his arms.
The Paladin people would have to wait. I couldn’t let thousands die because I refused to give myself up. “Sawyer, I will not be known for this. I will not be a coward. I will do what is right,” I sai
d boldly, tipping my chin high.
He looked at someone behind me and nodded quickly, and then I felt two strong arms pin my wrists behind my back. “Sorry, love,” Eugene breathed in my ear.
Panic flooded my system as I realized Sawyer would never let me turn myself in.
“Sawyer! Be reasonable. This entire city will fall! I will not have blood on my hands,” I wept.
I jerked against Eugene as he started to drag me backward. It was not lost on me that this was probably my karma for having Sawyer held against his will while I left.
“It will be on my hands,” Sawyer growled, “and this entire city will fall before I let one hair on your head be harmed. Demi, you can’t let them have your power or we will be dealing with a whole new monster altogether.” He rushed forward and kissed me chastely before backing away. “I love you. Go back to the Paladin lands where you are safe. They won’t look for you there.”
The shock that rushed through my system then was too much and I felt my wolf come to the surface. “Sawyer, no! Just let me—”
Something pricked the side of my neck and I turned to follow the direction it came from.
Rab.
He was holding a fucking blow dart. But instead of looking malicious or greedy, he looked brokenhearted. “I will make sure she gets back to Paladin Village, and I will send every spare man I have to help you win the war,” Rab told Sawyer, and placed his fist over his chest.
Dizziness took hold of me, the trees started to blur behind him, and it felt like I had suddenly been thrown into a washing machine.
“No! I can’t!” I screamed, but it was warbled like I was talking underwater.
“Thank you. That would be much appreciated,” Sawyer told Rab. His voice was so deep it made me laugh. I giggled in a low whale-like tone, and then sagged in Eugene’s arms as I lost consciousness.
I came to with a foggy memory of what had transpired. Why was I being carried and why was the person carrying me running? Then it hit me.
Sawyer. The war. It was all my fault.
“No, take me back!” My voice croaked as I pounded on Eugene’s back. My ribcage slammed into his shoulder with each step he took. He had me in a fireman hold and was running so fast I felt dizzy. A loud bang ripped throughout the space and I jerked my head back to see Sage and Walsh running behind Eugene through the dense forest. Their arms were outstretched as they shot into the darkened trees with sleek black guns. Bursts of light fired from the muzzles as adrenaline rushed through my system and I felt more alert. Arrows rained down around us, sticking into the wet ground with thunks as Rab and his men created a tight circle around me.
“Astra!” I yelped, my eyes scanning for the young girl.
“I’m here, Alpha!” she said to my right, running balls-out, her short-cropped hair bouncing behind her. Rab put a horn of some type to his lips and blew, loudly.
The deep horn resonated inside my body. My entire head felt like it was going to explode.
Another horn responded off in the distance and Rab yelped out in relief.
‘War horn. The village will be ready to defend against the oncoming attack,’ Astra told me as they ran.
My head was still foggy, but it was clear that someone was chasing us. Vampires didn’t use bows and arrows, so it must be fey or Ithaki. I was just wondering which when an ultrasonic pitch slammed into my ears and Eugene stumbled.
That was a fey calling card, and if it was bows and arrows, my guess was dark fey or Ithaki. Or both.
“Put me down, I can run,” I told Eugene, and he obliged, letting me fall to my feet before he covered his ears.
Without a second thought, I let my wolf free. I wasn’t going to let this fey weaken our group and then take us out one by one. No way.
My wolf was semitransparent one second and then solid the next. ‘Find the screamer and rip their throat out,’ I told her.
“Rab! Cover my wolf!” I then barked to the Paladin leader, screaming so that my voice could be heard over the shrill noise.
We’d stopped, and everyone covered their ears as the trees rustled and my legs went weak with the effects of the fey noise weapon. My brain felt like it was being put into a blender.
I winced as I watched my wolf take off into the trees and Rab and his men ran with her, shooting arrows left and right. I blinked, and then I was looking out from her perspective. My wolf, she smelled him.
Ithaki. Fey-warlock. A deadly combination.
My wolf’s head was low to the ground, ears flattened as she locked in on where the noise was coming from. Cutting to the right, she took off faster than Rab and his boys could follow. Trees passed in dark blurs as her paws pounded the damp, packed earth. As she neared the fey Ithaki, my entire head felt like it was going to explode both in human and wolf form. He was hiding behind a thick tree trunk, and my wolf howled as she leapt. The ear splitting ultrasonic sound cut off with a yelp as her teeth sank into his neck.
I snapped my attention back to my human form and the half dozen warriors surrounding me. “Be ready for anything,” I told them. My wolf had just taken out the Ithaki’s precious brain melting sonic howler; there would be repercussions. The trees rustled as a blur of a figure zoomed toward us.
Vampire Ithaki.
I rushed forward, using my own freaky super speed, and met the figure halfway. We crashed into each other and I suddenly came face to face with a snarling male. His ears were pointed like a fey’s but his teeth distended like a vampire’s. It was freaky and he needed to die immediately. With a furious growl, I made a fist and slammed it into his throat until I heard the crunching of bone.
I followed up with a knee to the groin as his wrist snaked out and grasped me by the throat. Rage flooded through me. I could simultaneously feel my wolf ripping into the Ithaki fey as I felt this vampire try to kill me.
Enough is enough.
We had too many wars going on, and I still had to go into the Dark Woods and prove myself as a Paladin alpha. There was no time for this bullshit. Reeling my head back, I headbutted his nose with surprising force. The sharp crack splintered the air and my head throbbed. But the move worked; he let up on my windpipe, so I went for the kill. Reaching up, I took his head into my hands and cradled his jaw with my fingers. One swift crack to the left and I snapped his neck. He fell to the ground in a heap.
I’d heard stories about vampires reawakening after a broken neck or bad accident. I wasn’t leaving that to chance. Sage appeared on my right just in time; she came down hard on the center of his chest with a silver stake. The hollow thud made chills rush up my spine as his skin started to crumble into black ash.
My wolf trotted over to me, looking pleased with her kill, and the sound of the Ithakis’ retreating footsteps was music to my ears.
“Well done.” Rab appraised the dead vampire and I noticed his spear was dripping with purple Ithaki blood.
I frowned. “They’ll be back with more I’m sure.”
How had things gotten so bad so fast? This was one hell of a honeymoon.
“Come on.” Rab, Eugene, and Walsh tucked Astra in the center of their little circle next to me and we jogged the rest of the way to the Paladin Village.
Using our imprint, I felt for my mate, weaving my energy into Sawyer as my wolf jogged alongside me. I sensed he was busy and in danger. Spikes of anger, confusion, and fear weaved from him and then seeped into me.
Not a good time to check in…
As we neared the trail of lights that led to the Paladin Village, Rab pulled the horn to his lips and blew two short bursts. Immediately, two short bursts were returned. We came out of the thick trees and my eyes widened at the sight before me. The entire wall of the village was filled with Paladin warriors. Male, female, young, old. They crouched on the edge of the wall wearing blue face paint and menacing scowls. They held daggers, spears, and arrows that gleamed with a sickly green poison tip.
Pride swelled in my chest, and I couldn’t help the grin that spread across my face. The Pal
adin people were like one cohesive unit, ready to defend their land at all costs.
I didn’t know Run … I didn’t even get to know Red, but in a way I felt like I did know them. Through these people I got to know them, and it was going to be an honor to serve as their alpha—assuming that was something I was “found worthy” to do.
As if she heard my thoughts, Astra slipped her hand into mine. “I will prepare the alpha trial ceremony. You will leave at first light to the Dark Woods.”
I’d considered turning myself in to the vampires for half a second but that wasn’t a guarantee to stop the war and it would still leave a huge problem here with no one to fix it. I gulped as nerves filtered through me, but then I saw the fierce determination and courage of the Paladin people crouched on the wall, ready to defend their land and their families, and I swallowed my fear down. “It would be my honor.”
Some things were bigger than you and that was scary. What if I died out in the Dark Woods? What if I took five years to get back here and Sawyer remarried? There were so many what ifs that my head swam, but I focused on the only ones I wanted to. What if I made it in and out quickly, what if I saved an entire race of people and their land? What if I became a worthy alpha of the Paladin people? Those what ifs circled my head all night until I fell asleep.
I was awoken by the smell of smoke. The scent of sage hit my nostrils, making my eyes fly open. Astra was walking around my room in the guest house fanning the smoke over everything. I inhaled. Something sickeningly sweet and earthy was mixed with the sage. I groaned as the last remnants of sleep left me. Astra ignored me, mumbling prayers lightly under her breath.
“What is that?” I peered at the small gray marble bowl she held. It was still dark out, the sun barely coming up as a faint glow filtered through the curtains.
“Sage and frankincense,” she said quickly before going back to mumbling her prayers.
“Knock, knock.” Rab’s voice came from the hallway, and I held my arms over my braless chest. I was wearing a thin white t-shirt and not ready for company.