by A. Mashburn
“You’re okay,” she said softly as she raised her hand. The massive gray wolf closed his eyes under her touch. “Thank you for protecting me.” If she wasn’t mistaken in her befuddled state, she could have sworn he acknowledged her gratitude with a bow of his large head.
A loud huff drew her attention back to the winged wolf as he began to stalk towards her. He was at least a head taller than Beast, but what really caught her attention was the oddly familiar turquoise of his eyes… and the head of the rogue he placed at her feet.
The sound of snapping echoed through the forest as she watched as his body morphed into that of a very muscular man, Nicoli?
Her heart rate quickened, and the shadows around her eyes consumed her. The last thing she saw before she completely blacked out was the haunting, glowing turquoise eyes of the man she originally came in to save.
The moment Gretchen lost consciousness, Jade shifted then turned and glared at Nicoli. “Fuck Nic, are you shitting me? You just shifted in front of her. Are you out of your mind?”
“I—”
Jade cut his brother off, “No, Nic, no. I cannot describe the level of screwed up this is. I follow the scent of a rogue and find the one female I thought was dead. I thought she was dead, Nic. And here you come flying through the air to her side, and if that’s not enough, you deliver the decapitated head to her feet like she’s supposed to know what that means, and then, then, you shift. What in the actual fuck?” Jade roared, pacing.
“Are you finished?” Nicoli asked.
Jade glared at his brother. “No, I’m not. Archer didn’t recognize her scent at first—then it hit us when she collapsed. I don’t understand what is happening. She didn’t recognize Archer, Nic—how can she not recognize us? And how in the hell are you so calm?”
“She will be okay, Jade; she was meant for this. I mean shit, she’s one of us, you know that.”
“But it’s clear she doesn’t know that you dumbass.” The animosity dripped from Jade’s voice.
Nicoli stared in shock at the spectacle Jade was making of himself. “It had to be done eventually.”
“You could have eased her into it,” Jade insisted, as he continued wearing a hole in the grass.
“And how pray tell, would you have had me do that?”
Jade gaped at him, unable to understand what was going on his brother’s thick head. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe not leaping out to help with your wings on? Or hell, not shifting right in front of her? Or wait, I got it, how about not delivering a decapitated head to her fucking feet. Goddess you are such a nitwit.”
“Wow, man, I haven’t seen you this unhinged in a while,” Nicoli retorted.
Jade sighed and rubbed his face. “Cut the shit, Nic. It’s been years. You’ve known she was alive. You’ve been with her. I thought she was dead in the raids. I thought you were dead in the raids until the other night. What the fuck, Nicci? Really, what the fuck?”
“Your rogues slaughtered everyone, Jade, everyone they found. You started a war that still rages on within all our kind and you expected her parents to what? Welcome either of you with open arms?”
Jade stiffened and glared at Nicoli. “You don’t know what you’re talking about, Nic. You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“I have kept her safe since she was a child. I’m her guardian. I will continue to keep her safe.” He walked up to Jade, inches from his nose. “From anyone, even you.”
“Me? Why in Goddess name would I hurt her? She was supposed to be mine. What a great job you’ve done protecting her, by the way, she almost shifted in a fucking alleyway and it’s obvious that something happened to her memories—what did you do?”
Nicoli glared at Jade. “And that, brother, is where you’ve got things twisted. She was promised to one of our pack’s princes, not to anyone specific. She was promised to one of us. And because of you, she’s missed out on over a decade of training. She had to go into hiding. She doesn’t even know who she is, let alone what she is. All this bullshit is because of some nonexistent feud you and Jayce made up in your fucked up minds. Also, not that it’s any of your Goddess damned business, but I’ll enlighten you anyway. Her Pterolycus has been bound. She can’t shift or shouldn’t be able to.”
Fury burned behind Jade’s green gaze. “You bound her? Do you have any idea what that does to someone?”
“It kept her safe from the both of you for this long.”
“Fucking wonderful. Gretchen was never in any danger from me, brother, and you damned well know it.” The rage in his eyes was palpable as he glared at Nicoli.
“Can you say the same for our brother, Jade? Do you think she would have been safe from him had we stayed?”
“Fuck, Nic—” he swore again, as he paced. “You don’t know the half of it.” Jade ran his hands through his hair.
“You can’t say the same for Jayce, can you?” Nicoli pressed.
“Jayce knows now that there is a female here, near our territory. He doesn’t know who she is because you got her away quick enough before. No one got a good enough look at her to give him a description. We may not be so lucky next time. If the binding fails—you need to keep her away from him while I do clean up on my end. I can’t keep him from tracking her; you know this.”
“And how does our dear brother fare, eh?” Nicoli asked with a glint in his eye.
“He’s fucking pissed, what do you think? The other sentinels told him you were there and got away with the female and I—” He looked down at Gretchen, still unconscious on the ground, and turned away as he scrubbed his hand down his face.
When he turned, Nicoli saw the raw, red welts and scabs across Jade’s broad back. Not a single piece of skin was clear from the slashes that crisscrossed each other. “What the hell happened to your back?”
“Nic, leave it.”
“That’s why the rogue got the best of you, isn’t it?”
“Nicci, I said leave it. What are we going to do with her, now?”
“You know as well as I do, Jayce can’t get his paws on her. But you’re right, she almost shifted in the alley and it almost broke the binding. I have to figure something out. I don’t know what happened or why it’s weakening,” Nicoli admitted to his brother.
“Maybe she’s just too strong. She’s what, twenty now? Over two years since she should’ve shifted. You couldn’t have thought you could hide her forever, Nic.” Jade shook his head.
“Again, this never would have happened if it wasn’t for—”
“Fuck Nicoli, what did you expect me to do? Turn my back on him as you did? I couldn’t do that; he’s our brother.”
“He’s no brother of mine, and until I saw you with her today, I thought I’d lost you, too. But, today, with her, I saw a glimpse of the male you once were. I’ve never understood your actions that day. It was so unlike you. Why did you slaughter their clan?” Nicoli pressed. “Why start a war, Jade?”
Jade’s eyes hardened. “And like I said brother, you know nothing. And I don’t have time to explain everything, even if I wanted to. Get her the fuck out of town, Nic. If she stays, I can’t guarantee her safety.” With that, Jade shifted into his gray wolf, looked at Gretchen once more and disappeared into the forest.
Chapter Five
Gretchen stirred, gradually returning to awareness with the calming smell of lemon and pine in her nose. With her eyes closed, she felt strong arms around her and had a slight realization that she should have been scared. However, another voice was inside her mind telling her she was safe within the arms that held her. As she snuggled closer to the heat of the bare chest her face was against, she fell back to sleep.
Nicoli scooped Gretchen into his arms for the second time in as many days and allowed himself to shift partially. He carried her through the sky towards his apartment. This should be interesting, he thought as she burrowed deeper into his chest. Our mate is beautiful, Nicoli, Xander said.
She is not our mate, Nicoli reminded him.
She is, and you know it as well as I do, Xander insisted.
How can you possibly know that when her other half has yet to be awakened?
Xander growled, she is bound, not gone, Nicoli. When she is freed, she will be pissed at everyone who has lied to and hurt her female. She will want revenge on whoever it was who bound her and rendered her incapable of keeping Gretchen safe.
She will understand eventually; she must. In his heart Nicoli prayed to the Moon Goddess that was a true statement.
Nicoli looked down again at her restful form and knew it was wishful thinking. If he and Xander had learned anything about this female during the many years they’ve watched over her, she was a firecracker. If you were too close when she went off, you were liable to get burnt.
Nicoli felt Gretchen shift slightly in his arms, and the last thing he needed was for her to awaken while they flew above ground. He landed softly upon the rooftop and cradled her closely as he went down the fire escape to his window. Goddess knew the last thing he needed was his nosey ass neighbors to see him as he walked through the front door with a comatose woman in his arms. He shook his head and once again wondered how the hell this would work when she finally awoke.
As he saw it, he had two options. Be honest with her and tell her what she wanted to know or give her the public news version of the truth—just enough details to make it seem okay and send her on her way.
Nicoli laid her upon his bed and waited as he thought about the life they may have had if his brothers hadn’t started a war to try and assert their power over the tiny Princess. He lit a cigarette and wondered, not for the first time, how to go about this. He decided he would give her a choice, a choice he shouldn’t even be offering.
If after knowing the truth, she wanted to move forward and go back home, he would need to have her memories and her shifter side unbound. That part wouldn’t be so hard. However, she would have to be the one to make the choice between the life she has become accustomed to and worked so hard for or to leave that world behind and rejoin the one that she was born to lead.
If she made the decision to keep the life she had, he would leave her as she was, rebind her and let her live her life, thus keeping her safe. If that would make her happy, fuck the rest of the world, he would do everything in his power to make it happen. He shook his head and paced the floor, knowing she wouldn’t take the easy way out. Although, he’d do his best to support her choice, it wasn’t an option he could offer her forever.
He wandered to the bathroom for a washcloth and warm water and returned to her side. She truly was a beauty with her red hair loose behind her, high cheekbones, and luscious lips; even the freckles that danced across the bridge of her nose and onto her cheeks added to her appeal.
Hours later she began to stir, again. Nicoli knelt beside her and touched her face gently with the back of his hand. A crease formed between his brows at the heat that rose from her skin and the sweat upon her brow. She groaned as she grimaced in pain and Nicoli noticed the subtle change in her scent. He watched her intently as her hands curled into fists and her lips parted, another groan rose from deep within her. As she curled onto her side, he could see goosebumps rise across her skin. Her body shook and her teeth began to chatter.
Shit, Nicoli thought as her scent flared and assaulted his senses as though the change was trying to take her. He placed the now cool, damp washcloth on her forehead, in an effort to break the fever.
As the cloth touched her forehead her eyes flipped open and pools of green, blue and gold bore into him as if she could see into his soul. He sat enrapt by the luminescent beauty as her face morphed into a mask of fury and a spine-chilling growl erupted from her throat.
“Gretchen?” Nicoli sat back and raised his hands, palms out, in the universal gesture for, I mean you no harm. It did nothing to quell the rage he saw before him now. Her eyes, once a beautiful swirl of color, now morphed into flames as he saw the fury that burned within.
“Gretchen, listen to me—”
“No,” she roared and reared back on the bed, placing her body on all fours. He could see the sharp point of her wolf’s canines jutting out as she screamed her pain and frustration. “You dared to bind me. We trusted you, and you bound me, the only one who could truly keep her safe.”
So, this wasn’t Gretchen speaking to him now, it’s Genesis.
“Do you have any idea how painful it is not to shift, to be restrained in the dark recesses of her mind, to watch as she was in pain and be able to do nothing?” She swiped her now clawed hands at him with such venom, such anger; he almost missed the immense amount of pain that swirled among the inferno shining through those flaming orbs.
It’s my mate, Xander roared in his mind. Let me speak with her. Nicoli, she will listen to me. Please, she is in pain and is scared, she has been tortured because of the binding. Xander practically begged him.
Xander’s appeal had been unnecessary, however, because Nicoli knew he was right. He relinquished a bit of control as his Pterolycus counterpart surged forward. She is not our mate Xander, remember that, Nicoli reminded him.
Xander growled angrily in their shared mind and took control.
“My Love,” Xander whispered, “my beautiful mate. Genesis, please listen to me.”
Genesis stopped, stunned, and stilled. Xander could hear her heart racing and saw the many emotions in her eyes as they began to swirl out of control, snuffing the flames like rain dousing a forest fire, quickly and completely.
“Mate?” she spoke and cocked her head to the side.
“Oh, Love—” He reached out to her, and she skidded back across the bed and fell to the floor.
“No, you did this to us. You did this to me.” She began to sob.
“Love, you need to listen, please.” Xander begged her with his eyes and slowly walked around the bed, as he crouched low about two feet away from her. He approached slowly as if he had been approaching a wild animal, which in some ways he was. Genesis had been caged for over a decade, unable to shift into her true form. It was not uncommon for a bound wolf to become a mindless feral beast. Yet, as Xander took in the female in front of him, he knew, his Genesis was anything but. She was scared, yes, but she was still his mate.
“Please, we never wanted to hurt you. I swear on my honor as a warrior, on the soul the Goddess provided me with; we would never hurt you if there were any other way to keep you both safe.”
“But you took me from her. You made her forget.” Tears flowed freely down her cheeks.
“Do you remember the war, Love?” Xander asked cautiously. “I know it has been a long time but try to think for me. Recall that day your mother gave the two of you to us; why did it happen?”
She stopped, and the sobbing slowed as her brows furrowed together in concentration.
“Xander?” she asked as recognition lit up her tear-streaked face. Xander gave her a lopsided smile that had her leaping into the air and landing promptly into his arms. “Oh, Xander. Oh, my Goddess,” she gasped as she grabbed his face with her hands.
Xander—Nicoli scolded. Stop this; you know we cannot.
No, you cannot because you choose not to. My mate is in front of me, and I choose not to deny her. Xander used all his might to push Nicoli’s presence down. He would not take her today, but he would be damned if he wasn’t going to comfort his mate now after all this time. With his female’s arms wrapped around him, he held her tightly and used everything in his power to provide the comfort she needed.
“Xander, it’s all my fault. I should have never made my presence known to your brothers’. She was only seven years old, and I had been with her for so long already. I only wanted to protect you. I didn’t know that this would happen, but it’s all my fault.” She began to sob again into his chest.
“Oh, Love, no, no. You were both young; she loved you then and she will again.”
“She did, and I betrayed her. She will hate me. It’s because of me that she lost everything and everyone she lov
ed.” She paused as her eyes widened in horror. “Wait, mother and father? Where are they? What happened?” She looked in Xander’s eyes, and he saw the deep blue pools of sorrow that reflected in her tears.
“There is much that needs to be explained, Love,” he said to her as he stroked the side of her face.
“But…” She closed her eyes and another tear trailed down her flushed cheek. “I caused her more pain by forcing myself here. I was just so angry.”
“Aye, you did Aingeal.” He cupped her cheek in his large hand and frowned at the heat that radiated from her. “You are burning up. The binding is still in place and it’s causing her and you much unease.”
She scoffed, “I don’t want to go back to the darkness, Xander.”
“I know Genesis, but you must. Just for a time.”
“You will find a way to break the binding?” she asked, as she peered up at him hopefully.
His eyes clouded over. Nicoli…
Yes, my friend, I know what must be done, but it will not be easy for her, Gretchen has to choose this life.
Xander looked into the eyes of his love, stroked her face, and placed his lips over hers. She responded instantly, her lips moved in sync against his and her hands traveled up his muscled chest.
Xander, stop this, now. Nicoli roared in their shared mind. When Xander ignored the command and kept tenderly kissing Genesis, he heard Nicoli’s voice echo, Fucking bastard.
Xander grinned against her lips. “Oh Álainn, I will find a way.”
She broke the kiss and gazed up at him with love in her eyes. “Thank you, Xander.” She rose on her tiptoes and kissed him again. Xander chuckled lightly in his mind as he allowed Nicoli to have control mid-kiss, for he knew that his Genesis had retreated as well.