by N J Adel
A dark flick I’d seen before struck his steel gaze. “About him?”
“Yes,” I whispered inaudibly.
“Fuck.” He was fuming.
“What is this all about?” This couldn’t be jealousy. We only hooked up once. I never mentioned anything about dating him, exclusively or otherwise. “Why was Damien touching me the first thing you assumed?”
“Damien?” he scoffed. “Do you need me to drive you to the hospital?”
“No. I can take care of myself. Now, answer me. Did he do it before? To someone you know?”
He spun and headed to the door. “I have to go.”
“To Rena?” I dared.
He stopped short and his heels raced back to me. “How did you know that name?”
Fuck, piss and shit. That backfired fast. To explain, I had to tell him about Alec. Well done, Belle.
I twisted my lips and glowered at the floor. “Answer my questions first.”
“You want to know everything? Fine. Come with me.”
CHAPTER 23
KAYDEN
Alec paced from one tree to another like a caged wolf. His rambling didn’t make any sense. Belle, that little thing, had supposedly flown out of her place at lightning speed and had enough strength to drag this bull into her building with the same speed.
“This can’t be. I think the bear claws are messing with your head with their venom,” I said. “You need me to suck that out for you?”
“You’re not listening! The fucker bit her!” he howled, his eyes glowing with the beast’s golden flames. “She’s turning.”
“The bloodsucker is a lot of things, stupid ain’t one of them. He would never deliver her to the devil on a silver plate like that. He couldn’t have turned her, Alec.”
“I saw the marks on her neck!” His clothes ripped off him as he half-shifted, claws, fangs and wolf hair on.
“You sure they were the vamp’s? I mean, you bit her, too. It could be your old bite or he did just the same. A love bite.” My phone chimed in my pocket. I got it out and saw it was Asher calling.
In all honesty, I thought Alec was exaggerating, having another the parasite stole her from me moment, but Bloodsucker Fucker blinking on the screen on the same day got me worried.
“Asher is calling.” I glanced up at my brother, who dashed at me, and took the call. “Kayden.”
“We have to meet. Beast Clearing. I’ll be there in thirty minutes. Belle is coming with me,” Asher said.
I took a deep breath, watching Alec consumed by anger, fully shifting now. “We’re already there.”
Hanging up, I rubbed my twin’s wolf head. “Asher is bringing your girl here, and we’ll figure this out. Looks like you’re going to tell her everything you wanted to this morning and couldn’t after all.”
CHAPTER 24
KAYDEN
An engine died right before the hiking trail. Must have been Asher parking his car at the nearest spot to here. It wasn’t easy to find this place through the woods. The clearing of the willow tree, also known as Beast Clearing. As it was famous for being a place where big wolves and bears liked to chill, very few were eager to explore the area or go off their hiking trails to find Beast Clearing.
Where we hung out, held our pack meetings, let out steam, and where the devil’s deal had been made right under the willow tree.
Leaves and twigs rattled. One heartbeat raced in my direction, the smell of fear tagging along. Lots of it.
On the other side of the woods, Alec’s beast heart was rumbling. I’d told him to go for a run and vent so he would come back in his human form when she arrived.
And I remained in the middle. Waiting. Being the Alpha.
What was the charm about this position? Why would an entire pack fight for it? From where I stood, it had zero glamour, only burden after burden.
The Alpha couldn’t go after what they wanted. They went after what was best for the pack and its members. The Alpha couldn’t behave the way they wanted. Couldn’t feel the way they wanted. Control the anger. Control the fear. Control the desire.
Control the heart.
A gust of wind spiraled from the right. I turned, and Belle was on Asher’s back, arriving in a blur.
He put her down and held her staggering body. “Where’s Alec?”
“Running,” I uttered.
“How the hell did you do that?” Belle asked in a whisper, dazed.
I rolled my eyes at the leech. “Did you bother to explain anything before you went all Twilight on her?”
“I didn’t have time.” He kept rubbing her arms, and I pictured ripping his off his shoulders.
“Explain what?” She was sobbing now, her eyes darting between us, then examining my shirtless body. “Why are you half-naked…in the woods?” Her stare flicked at Asher. “Why did you bring me here? This is abduction.” She nodded frantically.” Yes. This is what abduction looks like.”
It took me a moment to realize what this must have looked to her. “Oh, no no no! Belle, no one here is going to hurt you. I…I was swimming at the creek. Alec will finish running, take a dip and come here, too, so we can talk. Only talk.”
“Then fucking talk!” she yelled and twisted at Asher. “How could you run this fast?”
He waved a hand aimlessly, his mouth parting for a second as if trying to find the right words, and then he just shrugged. “I’m a vampire.”
She scrunched her nose like she’d smelled a fart. “Seriously, Joshua? Is this your idea of a joke after this day I’ve been through?”
“He’s not joking, Belle,” I said.
“Yeah, and you’re a werewolf. Ha ha. Very funny. The next thing you’ll tell me I’m that Rena woman’s doubleganger,” she mocked. “Yeah, I’ve seen all the movies, watched all the shows and read all the books.”
“Reincarnation,” I mumbled.
A scowl ruined her beautiful face. “Excuse me?”
“You’re a reincarnation, not a doubleganger,” I explained. “Rena gets reborn every fifty years. You’re the same person, not a double.”
“Ah…okay. Whatever you say, Wolf.” She made a face and glared at Asher. “I don’t know what the FUCK is wrong with you,” her glare shifted to me, “or you, but thanks for the entertainment, boys.” She backed away and spun, heading out of the clearing. “By the way, vampires don’t wear glasses. They don’t need them. I’m outta here. I have a nail to remove.”
The leech blurred and blocked her way. “You can’t leave. You need to know the truth.”
She gasped. “Stop doing that. What the hell are you?”
“I already told you.” He removed his glasses. His eyes dilated into black holes, and his disgusting fangs protruded under his lips.
She yelped, staggering back, almost falling down.
He pulled back his human mask and shoved the glasses in his pocket. “I didn’t mean to scare you. I never wanted you to see me like that until you’d made your choice, but I had to so you would believe me.”
“What fucking choice?” she demanded incredulously.
“Please sit down so we can tell you the whole story.” Asher brought a folded piece of paper out of his pocket and gave it to her. She flinched at first, but then she snatched it out his grip and unfolded it.
“That’s me,” she gasped again.
“This is Rena,” he said.
The woman who started it all.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, a beautiful woman named Rena met a man named Alec. They fell in love. They were happy. Until a demon tore them apart. A vampire who claimed he loved her, too, and stole her away.
They didn’t know Alec had a demon inside him as well. A beast that wouldn’t be silenced. One horrific night, when everyone was drowning in their Halloween festivities, the beast roamed and found his mate in the arms of the vampire.
The two beasts fought over her, both sinking their fangs in her for a vicious claim.
Rena’s unaccepting body couldn’t take it and gave. N
ot turning into either monsters, she bled out in both their arms.
Desperate, the two beasts sought a witch for help. “Bring her back to life, and we will do anything,” they had said.
The witch told them Rena came from a cursed bloodline, and she belonged to the devil now that she was dead. If they wanted to bring her back, they had to make a deal with him.
My brother and Asher shook hands with the devil that night, only to relive this tragedy every fifty years.
When Rena had to come back to life and choose a clan, then a mate by Halloween night.
Or else…
Of course, as they both perched down on the grass and wildflowers, the vampire was telling Belle the story from his side, where Alec was the one who stole Rena from him, not the other way around.
Alec’s wolf breaths huffed closer. Then the unmistakable bone shattering pelted my ears. His bare feet chomped the way from the forest to the clearing. “Don’t believe a word he says. You’ve always been mine right from the start.”
Asher jumped up. “Back off, Mutt. She loved me first. She just didn’t tell you.”
They pounced on each other and fought as humans. I didn’t give a shit. I’d seen it a hundred times before. My concern was Belle. Her head jerked from one direction to another. She was silent the whole time, her heart skipping a beat after a beat, her eyes wide yet vacant.
She was in shock.
I examined her neck from where I stood. The two holes a vampire would crack were there, faded, almost healed, and so was Alec’s mark.
They both had bitten her, and if Alec’s story about this morning was true, then Belle was turning for real.
I folded my arms across my chest. “Would you stop fighting already? I’d like to know why you called for this meeting, Asher? And why you’re expediting things like that, dumping everything on her all at once?”
“Yeah, why now, Parasite?” Alec punched the vampire’s chest. “Because you fucking turned her!”
Asher replied with a shove on both my brother’s shoulders. “It’s your dumb ass who bit her first. I had to give her my venom to neutralize yours.”
“What?” I questioned.
“You told me she wasn’t turning that day, but she was. The hunger, the sex drive, the mark that hadn’t faded, all details you’ve failed to notice while I have. Unlike you, I was saving her. Like always.” Asher squared his shoulders, adjusting the sleeves of his suit jacket. “Belle is not turning, you idiots. She has both our venoms in her blood, giving her a hint of our powers for a short while until her blood is clean. Just like drugs.”
The bloodsucker could be right. And until her blood is clean, if Belle didn’t feed on blood, she wouldn’t turn into a vampire. And if she didn’t kill anyone—yeah, that was what it took to trigger the beast—she wouldn’t turn into a shifter either.
“Is that why you’re here? To show us what a fucking hero you are?” Alec scoffed. “What a way to do it, Leech, traumatizing an innocent woman like that.”
“I called for this meeting because Damien Pattison finger fucked Belle!” Asher exploded.
“What the fuck? He’s not allowed to touch her. Doesn’t that break the deal as well, make him lose his claim on her forever?” I exclaimed.
The vampire clenched his fangs. “Practically, he didn’t touch her. The devil went into her subconscious. He fucking made her like it.”
My brother growled and howled and rumbled. Then he writhed and shifted into an angry wolf.
Instantly, my stare went to Belle. Her body became rigid, her lemur eyes on. A choked scream ripped through her chest, barely muffled behind her hand.
I saw the scene from her eyes for a moment. All she was seeing was a giant terror of fangs and claws and fur standing a few inches from where she sat. Then she screamed and screamed, collapsing onto the dirt.
“Isabella!”
Alec shifted back in a split-second. “Belle!”
I held a hand up, stopping them from running to her. “Damn it.” I strode to her limp body and bent my ear to her chest. “She passed out. I’ll take her home. Neither of you is allowed to touch her, to even see her until all this is sorted out.”
CHAPTER 25
BELLE
Was it another daydream? A daynightmare was more like it. Vampires, werewolves and a devil after my cursed blood? I’d got to stop reading those books.
I opened my eyes to find myself tucked in my bed, and golden eyes glowing at me in the dark.
No no nonono. It wasn’t a daynightmare. I was in one. Living it to the very core.
Panic surged through my legs. I stumbled over the bed as I darted out of it, feet tangling in the loose sheets, screaming as I fell. “The fuck?!”
“Belle!”
In a flash, I picked myself up, darted to the bathroom and locked myself in there.
“Belle, wait. It’s just me, Kayden.” His voice came muffled behind the bathroom door.
“Go away. You’re not real.”
“Uh… Hate to disappoint you, Professor, but I am.”
“You can’t be.” I seriously needed psychiatric help. But even if I went to therapy, what would I say? Monsters were real. They’d lock me up.
“Except that I am real. Alec, Asher and Pattison are, too,” he said.
I crumbled to the cold tiles, my back against the door, terrified I’d been fucked up so badly I couldn’t tell what was real anymore. I didn’t know what was worse, my imagining supernatural beasts or for them to be real.
“Listen, Belle, I know you’re afraid. You have every right,” he said, his voice low and soothing—and right behind me, as if he was crouching next to the door at my level. “But you can choose to stick to what you’ve been taught in science books, ignore the truth and live with the irrevocable consequences…or you can open up your mind to accept there’s another world out there so you can save yourself from a destiny worse than death.”
Hot tears streamed down my face. I bent my knees up to my chest and buried my head between them. My mind raced, trying to make it all fit.
Maybe it did. All my unfathomed attraction to them, the need, the hunger, theirs and mine. That old connection I couldn’t explain.
And their sizes and strength, their eyes, the way they spoke, their obsession with my smell and details, the bites, and the fucking eyes…
All the clues I’d chosen to ignore I just happened to be at the club where you celebrated your birthday. I guessed you liked cinnamon tea. I noticed you pressed your thumbnail.
The blackout.
What happened at Damien’s office.
No. It couldn’t be true. How could I wrap my head around this madness?
“How did you get in my apartment, Kayden? How did I get in my apartment?”
“You passed out when you saw my brother’s beast and the bloodsucker’s fangs. I took you home and let us in using your keys.”
“Of course.”
“I’m never going to hurt you, Belle. I’m here to look after you. The pack will look after you.”
I knew that before he’d said it—more proof it was all real. My question was nothing but a useless evasion. I couldn’t run anymore. I had to face my destiny. Whatever that was.
Hesitantly, I rose and cracked open the door. Kayden was standing with his hands braced on either side of the doorframe, his huge body blocking the path out of the bathroom as if making sure I wouldn’t dart past him.
“You’re hurting bad right now. I can feel that pain, can smell the hopelessness and the fear coming off you. And what’s hurting and scaring you isn’t an enemy I can offset. It’s us.” His gaze searched my face through the door’s narrow opening. “But you’re safe, Belle. I would do anything to prove it to you, just name it.”
“I know you won’t hurt me.”
His face lit with a smile. “That’s a good start. Would you please come out? The curious teacher in you wouldn’t just meekly accept what she’d seen. You have all kinds of questions, and I’d be delighted to
answer them.”
I swung the door wider and stepped out. He cradled my face in his hands and gave me a hug. He was still shirtless, and I still had hungry wolf venom in my blood. I needed to end this embrace.
It wasn’t an easy task, though. He looked exactly like Alec, equally steamy, and the idea of having sex with twins was a huge turn on for me. I felt his arms and back before I slightly drew away, but he was faster ending the hug.
He cleared his throat as I switched on the lights in the living room. Then he waited for me to sit before he helped himself to my kitchen and returned with a glass of water.
“Here.” He gave it to me and took a seat. “What’s the first thing you need to know?”
“Is it true what Joshua said? That I wouldn’t turn?”
“Most likely. A wolf bite expedites vitalities in the body, causing excessive hunger, body growth, uncontrolled sex drive, anger issues, but a vampire’s does the opposite. It numbs you, slows everything down, preserves you the way you are until you’re literally dead. The two venoms work against each other, neutralizing the effects.”
I loved the scientific explanations, the effort he exerted to make them. He cared enough to ease my mind the only way it could be eased.
“Unless…you complete the process,” he added.
My breath strangled in my throat. “By drinking blood?”
He nodded. “Or killing a human.”
My grip shook around the glass. I let the cold water soothe my dread a little.
Leaning forward, he held my shoulder. “I know what you’re thinking, but I can assure you it’s not so bad to turn into a shifter. The beast can be tamed.”
“The beast, as in the humongous wolf I saw Alec become at the clearing? No, thanks.”
He chuckled. “You won’t be so reluctant when you try knotting.”
My jaw fell, and heat assaulted my face. “Are you referring to…”
“Yes. It’s much fucking hotter in reality than in the books you read.”