by Cane, Laken
I marked him, because he was mine. God, he tasted good.
Then I yelped when he buried one hand in my hair and yanked my head back, baring my throat, then lifted me and turned so that my back was against the wall. I thought he would mark the side of my neck, then, but he ran his lips over my chest and to my breast, and he bit me there. Hard.
He marked me as I’d marked him, claiming me as I’d claimed him, and the fire from that mark rivaled the pain from Avis’s dark magic—but only for a second. It turned fast to pleasure as it raced through my body and straight to my wolf, and she screamed with a savage joy as her alpha gave her what she needed. She belonged to him now. She had everything she’d ever wanted. Her freedom, and her alpha.
For a second her joy overwhelmed me and when I pulled myself out of the drunken pool of ecstasy in which she floated, I was on my back on the bed, and Jared was on top of me.
We didn’t talk, but there were sounds. Grunts, yips, sighs, moans, and groans, yes. Sometimes he murmured my name in a way that made me clench my thighs, and once, he gave a husky laugh when I squealed and pulled his hair when he held me down and plied his tongue with such enthusiasm that I thought I might die.
In the end, he won the “who’s more alpha” argument, because truthfully, he was physically stronger than me. But by then, I didn’t really care. He made me feel too good to care. I had a feeling he didn’t really care either. Not then.
“Tell me,” he murmured, thrusting inside me, slowly, deeply, smoothly. His arms trapped mine and his hands held my wrists, his big body heavy and hot atop me.
I wanted him fast and hard, but he held me down and wouldn’t let me move, and I had to take what he gave me. “Fuck you,” I said, panting. I arched my back and tried to slam my pelvis against his, but I was as ineffectual against him as a pup against her alpha.
He dipped his tongue into my mouth, then nipped my lips before lifting his face. “Kait,” he whispered. “Kait.”
His voice was dark and held things that made my heart full. I stared up into his eyes, at his need, his alpha need, and I wanted to give in to him. I wanted to submit to him. I wanted to be everything he wanted me to be.
But I clenched around him as tightly as I could and when he groaned and lowered his forehead against mine, breathing into my mouth, almost kissing me, I whispered, “Tell me, Alpha.”
I could feel him smiling against my lips. “I belong to you,” he said. “I am yours, Wolf.”
My breath whooshed out of me, and for a second, I couldn’t do anything but freeze beneath him. I couldn’t say a word.
“Someday,” he told me, “you will understand that giving yourself to me doesn’t mean losing who you are. You don’t need to be afraid, Kait. Not of me.”
Then he released my wrists, pushed his hands beneath me, and took me with him as he flipped to his back. He didn’t slide out of me, though, and when I sat on top of him, he stared up at me, his eyes glittering in the semidarkness. “Fuck me how you want to fuck me,” he said.
I did.
He filled up every part of me, and though I still held some of myself back, I didn’t take my stare away from his the entire time he was inside me. Not once. I couldn’t say what he wanted to hear, though. Not yet.
Not yet.
But maybe I showed him.
And afterward, I curled up in his arms, facing him, and pressed my tired, spent, aching body against his. I wrapped my arms around him, as he did me, and I slept. A woman couldn’t do that if she didn’t trust a man.
A few hours later I woke up to find that neither one of us had changed position. He was awake, as well. His arm was surely asleep because I’d been lying on it for so long, but he made no move to pull it out from under me.
“Hey,” I said.
“Yeah?”
“We’ll be all right.” It was the best I could do.
“Yeah.” And there was a smile in his voice.
I got off his arm and lay across his chest, resting my chin on my folded arms as I gazed at his face. Somehow, he seemed different to me. Just a little, but different.
“Why are you frowning?” he asked.
“You seem different to me.” I hesitated. “Something’s different.”
He pushed a strand of my hair behind me year. “Maybe it’s you.”
Suddenly and for no good reason fear blasted me so hard that I gasped, jerking away from him and sitting up, a hand to my chest. “God,” I whispered.
He sat up, his stare sharp. “What is it?”
“I don’t know,” I told him, and my voice was full of tears. “Something’s wrong, Jared.”
He was already out of bed, yanking on his pants, then stepping into his boots, not even bothering with a shirt as he ran for the door. “Get dressed,” he said, but at the door, he stopped, strode back to where I stood trembling at the foot of the bed, and grabbed my shoulders. He kissed me hard, his fingers bruising my flesh, and then he turned and was gone.
For a few seconds, I was too tired, too hurt, too everything to actually move.
“Something bad is coming, Kait. I guess you know that.”
“Let it come. Worse things will be waiting when it gets here.”
I ran to my room, cleaned up as fast as I could, and dressed. I put on my badass along with my clothes. I couldn’t let fear rule me. I wouldn’t.
Something bad had arrived. I would be waiting.
And I would be something worse.
Chapter Twenty-Three
It wasn’t the vampires that came to Shadowfield—of course it wasn’t. It was still daylight, though the cold skies were overcast and the day was dim, the vampires would be sleeping. Maybe a few odd test vampires had attempted to brave the sun, but we never saw them, not that day.
It was the humans who came to Shadowfield, but it was the vampires who sent them.
They snuck in and stood in a line with their guns, and they shot everything that moved—man, woman, or child.
They shot the wolves.
It didn’t matter that they shot us. They didn’t shoot us with silver and though they would hurt us, they wouldn’t kill us, the bastards. Not most of us, anyway. But there were humans among us.
Zach. Joe. Lucy.
“They found us,” I whispered. It was every wolf’s nightmare. I allowed myself to grieve for five seconds before I put my sorrow away, and then, there was only rage.
I strode toward the humans, navigating the people who’d fallen in the startlingly abrupt carnage. Though all wolves were born with an innate sense of self preservation and would never, ever shift in front of humans, some of them were so badly damaged that if they didn’t soon shift, they might never completely heal.
There must have been around thirty humans, mostly men, dressed in leather and draped with belts and guns, and I understood their fear and their anger, truly I did, but I could have happily killed them all, and would have, had my mother not intercepted me. She saw the blank killing rage on my face, and she knew me. She knew what I would do.
Jared, Eli, and all his warriors stood before the crowd of humans, their hands empty, attempting to talk with them, despite the danger of the guns. Zach stood with them, which froze my heart, because he would die from a gunshot.
Then Joe and Lucy ran across a yard and straight for the humans, like they could stop them. Like the humans wouldn’t kill them simply because they were alike. “No,” I screamed. “Get the fuck away. Lucy, inside!”
I should have spent more time with her. That’s what I kept thinking.
“Kait,” my mother yelled, ramming me from the side. “No, baby. Do not let them see you.” She put her arms around my waist and held on for dear life, even as I attempted to free myself from her grip. My mother was strong, and I was her kid. She wasn’t letting me go, not easily.
I spotted her guy as he hurried toward his alpha. He saw my mother, hesitated, undecided, so I helped him make up his mind. “Nigel,” I called, and he would not mistake the command in my voice. “Ge
t her.”
She was not stronger than he was, and though she might not forgive him and he had to know that, he took her away from me. Dr. Hayes and his nurse hurried across the grounds, both of them carrying medical bags.
It was so surreal that I could almost believe I was dreaming, had not the blood been so red and the gunshots so loud.
Jared turned and saw me coming, and he held up a hand to stop me. To tell me to stay where I was, where it was safer, because even though I was a wolf, I was his wolf, and he would not see me hurt.
The humans were calming down—maybe because their violence had not been met with violence, and even though he was a wolf’s alpha, he was still an alpha, and they subconsciously responded to his quiet command. A powerful enough alpha could make it so a human wanted to obey him.
Also, the wolves didn’t scream or shift or do anything else the mob of humans expected werewolves to do.
I was ten yards away from the alpha when one of the humans lifted his gun and shot him. Shot him in the back of the head, the son of a bitch. I didn’t scream, either, because wolves did not scream in front of humans. We went about our suffering quietly, and we killed them just as quietly.
Lucy screamed, though, and her voice was the catalyst to restart the hysteria in the terrified humans. One of them turned his gun on her, and it was like time slowed down. Just as it had in the club.
And just as it had in the club, my power exploded inside me, stronger than ever. Out of control. Huge, red, and dirty. Kait the woman didn’t really want to kill a human. Kait the psycho wanted to kill them all—and she was in charge now. My demon blade was suddenly in my hand, and I went after the humans.
I killed the man who pointed his gun at Lucy, just as his finger was tightening on the trigger. I killed the man who shot my alpha, as well. I ripped the rifle from the man who aimed it at me even as he scrambled away, and I killed the man who attempted to empty his handgun into my body.
The rest of them scattered, a screaming mass of terrified assholes, and they ran. Some of them dropped their guns in their rush. I let them go, but I felt the pounding of doom in my chest. More humans would come. The police would come. Men were dead.
And I had killed them.
Shadowfield was done.
Joe strode to me and took my blood-spattered face between his palms. “Kait,” he said. “Kait. Come back.”
I wasn’t sure what he meant until I lifted my hand to push him away and saw only fur. Silver, white, and blue fur, and lethal black claws. Low growls floated from my mouth, and I realized I was a wolf. But I was a woman, as well. And God only knew what else. I was power, and magic, and beast, and woman.
“Come back,” he murmured. “Jared needs you, honey.”
“They shot us,” I whispered, and I was back. I was horrified, devastated, and terrified. What the fuck had I done?
I shoved my bloody blade into its sheath and dropped to my knees beside the alpha. The doctor was already working over him, and warriors surrounded him. Eli cradled Jared’s destroyed head in his lap, and when he looked up at me, his eyes were too wide, too horrified.
Whoever had shot Jared had shot him with silver.
They’d targeted him specifically.
“Ben,” I said to the doctor. “Fix him.”
“He needs to shift, Kait,” he said, as all the pack who were able gathered around us. He leaned close to me and hissed, “He will die if he does not shift. Hell, he may die if he does shift, but if he’s to have a chance, he has to shift now.”
“Wyatt,” Eli yelled, and in the next second, Wyatt stood at his side.
“Tell me what you need.”
“Get Adam Thorne. Force him to come with you. He can save Jared.”
I was horrified. “What? No! You can’t bring the Stone Moon alpha to Shadowfield. He won’t save any of us. He will kill the alpha and take you all as his wolves. Don’t be fucking stupid, Eli.”
But the doctor agreed with Eli. “He’s Jared’s only chance. The alpha can pull Jared’s wolf and force his shift. He will die, Kait.”
“And Adam Thorne will make him die faster.” I took Jared from his beta, cradling his head on my legs. “I will call his wolf.”
For a second, there was only silence.
Then, “The fuck you will,” Eli growled. “Only an alpha can bring another alpha’s wolf, and you are…” He hesitated, leaned closer, then pushed his nose against my throat.
I didn’t try to stop him. He smelled his alpha on me. Jared’s mark would be clear to any wolf who tried to catch my scent. But there was something else, as well. I didn’t keep up the walls that might have hidden me—walls that came as naturally as breathing. I didn’t hide from him, and he caught my alpha scent.
“Alpha,” he breathed. “No wonder Jared has been so fucked up lately.” He stood. “Move them back,” he told his men. He glanced at me. “Do you mind if they know?”
I thought about it for a few seconds. “No,” I said, then raised my voice. “But somebody get my mother.”
“I’m here,” she said, and two wolves parted to let her pass. There was something in her eyes. She’d seen me talking to invisible people before, and she thought I was a little crazy. She wouldn’t believe I was an alpha until she saw it.
Jared had freed my wolf. He’d yanked her out and let her run, and heal, and be. And I was about to return the favor, even if I wasn’t quite sure how to do it. And maybe I couldn’t have done it, alpha or not, before I’d joined with him. Now, though…
I leaned forward and touched my lips to his cheek, his forehead, and finally, his lips. He was still as death, and I was grateful he was unconscious. Had he been awake, he would have been in agony as the silver rushed through him. If he’d been anyone but an alpha, he would have likely already been dead.
“Save our alpha,” someone begged, her voice high and thin. They’d all been traumatized this day, and it was unlikely things would get better for them.
“Shhh,” someone admonished.
She fell into silence and no one else made a sound. I could feel their bated breath, their disbelief, their hopeful doubt. I also felt their resentment, though it was fading. They were slowly forgetting that I had been sired by the most hated of all wolves—a traitor. They were forgetting that I was an outsider, a person who’d belonged to an enemy pack. If I saved their alpha, they would surely forgive me anything.
“Jared,” I whispered, and I closed my eyes and plunged inside him, deeper and deeper until finally, I touched his wolf. And just that suddenly, I knew what to do. I felt what to do.
I grabbed his captive wolf, and I brought it snarling and snapping into the world. I felt his power, while I was there. I was overwhelmed by it, scorched by it, and scarred by it. But I was also…proud. He was mine. My alpha.
And when I came back, I saw something incredible. Something unbelievable.
I hadn’t just brought Jared’s wolf. I’d brought all their wolves.
Chapter Twenty-Four
The alpha nosed me gently, then licked a tear from my face. Or maybe he was only after the blood. I brushed my fingers over the wound at the back of his head. “Run, Alpha,” I murmured. “Heal.”
He wheeled around and staggered away, his wolves, howling and yipping and full of joy, at his side. They would forget, for a little while, the horror of the humans.
“Lucy,” I said, my voice raw but calm. “Call the detective.” I stood and dusted off my pants, trying not to look at the men I’d killed. There was work to do.
“First,” she said, more rattled than I’d ever seen her, “I’d like a hug.”
I pulled her small body into my arms. “Get packed, Luce. We’re going home.” At least she was. I was probably going to prison. But the promise made her happy, and she hurried off to call Rick, pack up whatever items she’d brought to Shadowfield, and get Ash. I was thankful beyond words that she’d left him at the inn instead of bringing him outside with her.
“Joe, call the mayor and then
get Max over here.”
“Why Max?” Joe asked, his hand on my shoulder.
I shook my head. “I don’t know,” I told him. “I just need to see him.”
“I’m on it, boss. But the mayor is going to kick my ass.” He went to stand by the bodies of the humans while he made his calls.
I looked at Zach. “Are you okay?”
“Fucking vampires,” he said. “And fucking November.”
“Why?” I asked him. “Avis and her crew sent the humans. They planted shit in those humans’ minds. It had nothing to do with November.”
He lifted an eyebrow but there was something careful in his eyes. I was different to him now. I understood. I was also different to myself.
“Didn’t you see their eyes?” he asked. “Every human here today had demons in their eyes. The humans were in there, somewhere, but they were sharing space with demons, Kait.”
I sucked in a breath, both shocked and hopeful. And suddenly, I did remember, vaguely, seeing the shine of red in dull human stares. I’d been too locked in crazy mode to consider it at the time. “Are you saying the demons are somehow…working with the vampires?”
“Yeah. That’s what I’m saying.”
“Uh, Kait?” Joe called. “Could you come here for a minute?”
His voice was so deliberately casual that both Zach and I hurried to him. “What now?” I asked, but when I reached his side, I saw what had caused him such shock.
The humans I’d cut with my blade were not dead. They were stirring, and their deep, lethal cuts from where I’d slashed them with my blade were knitting. One of the men opened his eyes and groaned, but there was no red shine to his confused gaze.
“How?” I murmured. “How did I do this?” But the longer I thought about it, the surer I was. If I had completely shifted and let my wolf attack the humans, they’d be dead. But I had used my demon blade, and it had gone after the demons inside them. They’d expired. I knew they’d ceased to exist, because if I’d sent them back to hell, I’d have seen their spirits leaving the bodies, the way they’d left the couple whose baby had been held by demons.