Slip of Fate (Werelock Evolution Book 1)

by Hettie Ivers

  I hadn’t a clue what he’d meant by that proclamation, but I was pretty sure any small chance I’d had of surviving the night had just evaporated.

  “This … can’t be happening,” Alessandra stammered cryptically. “You’re … human … you’re Raul’s sister … ”

  “Fuck me sideways!” I heard Alcaeus’ voice buoyantly exclaim. “No wonder she smells so good and I feel so protective.”

  My eyes darted to where Alcaeus stood just a few feet from Alex. He was grinning from ear to ear like a man who’d just won the lottery. Earlier he’d wanted to save me from Alex. And now, right as I was about to be murdered in cold blood, he looked ready to celebrate.

  “Well, isn’t this just a juicy slice of poetic justice?” He chuckled heartily, slapping a thoroughly unamused Alex on the back.

  “Alex, please meet Raul’s little sister and my new best friend, Milena,” Alcaeus introduced with a flourish.

  “She’s injured,” he added happily to the otherwise silent, tension-saturated room. “Head trauma,” he informed the incensed-looking Alex with glee. “You might want to get right on that, in fact, because Remy and I weren’t able to get her to cooperate long enough to heal it.”

  “Alcaeus, please stop?” Remy’s distressed voice implored. He was standing on the other side of the room. He didn’t seem to find the situation as funny as Alcaeus did. “This is not the time to antagonize him. Think of Milena.”

  My eyes darted back and forth across the room from Remy to Alcaeus to Alex. Remy was right. Whatever Alcaeus was doing seemed to be exacerbating the situation and escalating Alex’s level of ire. His face was flushed and he’d begun growling at the mention of Remy and Alcaeus’ failed attempt to heal my head injury. But Alcaeus waved off Remy’s warning.

  “I mean, sure,” Alcaeus broadcast to the room as he absorbed Alex’s every strained reaction with relish, “she enjoyed me licking her inner thighs all right, and she most definitely enjoyed Remy kissing her,” he said with a mischievous wink in Remy’s direction, “but in general she doesn’t much care for warlocks creeping around inside her head. Isn’t that right, my dear?” He looked to me for confirmation.

  I shook my head in bewilderment. Alessandra was now swearing like a sailor next to me. Alex hadn’t ceased growling; his unearthly yellow eyes raked over me as he fisted his hair and his whole body shook with barely suppressed fury—the personification of a geyser ready to blow.

  “Alex, please?” Remy beseeched, “I beg you, please don’t hurt her. None of this is her fault. Take your anger out on me.”

  Alcaeus snorted. “He’s not going to hurt her. He might be a stubborn, bitter asshole, but he’s never been stupid.”

  I didn’t know what the deuce was happening or what they were talking about. All I knew was that Alex had begun cursing a blue streak and yanking at his tie until he’d torn it to shreds in frustration from his neck. He’d just managed to shrug out of his fancy tuxedo jacket when suddenly with an angry roar he burst from his own skin before my very eyes!

  Buttons went flying and expensive-looking fabric was torn to shreds as an enormous, viciously snarling black and grey wolf took the place of the enraged man faster than I could blink.

  Werewolf!

  Almost all the other occupants in the room parted and backed away, bowing their heads in deference to the beast and affording him greater space as with hackles raised he took his first horrifying step forward in my direction.

  My mouth fell open and I instinctively took a miniscule step backward. Alessandra’s hand shot out and captured my wrist.

  “No! Don’t move,” she warned.

  The beast increased his growling and snarling the moment she grabbed me, prompting Alessandra to swear and release my wrist.

  “Don’t make any sudden movement,” she cautioned, speaking slowly and clearly, her voice never rising above a whisper as she began to sidestep away from me.

  “And no matter what, do … not … run,” she stressed. “When he comes at you, don’t panic, okay? Please, please, listen to me, Milena?” she appealed. “Alex won’t hurt you; just let him scent you.”

  She didn’t want me to run from him? Wouldn’t hurt me?

  He’d just announced to the whole fucking room I was dead meat next!

  Not only had he freely claimed credit for the murder of the only family member I had left, but I’d just witnessed him crush a man’s throat with his bare hand after heartlessly denying Felix’s dying request to spare his son’s life.

  What’s more, now that the room had cleared, I noted that Felix’s compadres seemed to have suffered even worse fates, as their bodies lay lifeless on the marble floor, their chests torn open and their un-beating, bloody hearts strewn thoughtlessly beside them.

  And now, when Alex was snarling at me in his true monster nature form—that of a vicious, oversized, supernatural killer dog—Alessandra expected I wouldn’t run? If she thought I was going to stick around and let some cross between Cujo and Hannibal Lecter get close enough to sniff and lick my hand, she was out of her goddamned mind.

  I didn’t run. I pivoted on my heel and flew!

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Ignoring the pain that stabbed through my ribs, the shouts of warning, and the cacophony of snarls echoing and bouncing off the travertine hallway walls, I ran like hell. Unthinkingly, I ran straight back in the direction of the sitting room I’d been in before—it wasn’t as if I knew the layout of this cavernous basement of horrors, so I chose the only familiar course I had available.

  But I underestimated the velocity a supernatural monster was capable of.

  I’d scarcely turned the corner and he was snarling and snapping at my heels. I shrieked and half-fell to the ground as I felt his fur graze my arm when he brushed past me at lightning speed.

  I looked up to find him standing on four legs in all of his horror movie glory not more than two feet in front of me, blocking my path. More voices filled the hallway behind me, yelling orders at me to calm down and not run. I didn’t dare swivel my head away from the beast in front of me to pay them heed.

  I stood transfixed as the enormous, unholy wolf creature prowled closer, then commenced circling me, all the while his yellow feral eyes boring through me as if they were seeing clear to the back of my head. I back-stepped in place clumsily on quivering limbs as he tightened his circle around me.

  He was so huge he was almost to my eye level standing on four legs. And he was so hot; his body radiated heat like a virtual furnace encircling me. But perhaps more overwhelming than his heat, and the intensity of his golden stare, was his smell.

  His scent was not one I’d anticipated. It wasn’t like that of a dog at all. It was rich and earthy, with a slight element that was spicy like cinnamon, but also sweet like vanilla … though neither of those scents seemed adequately comparable to do his justice.

  There was something deeper and inherently appealing to his aroma that I couldn’t quite place. And despite my profound state of terror, I found myself inhaling distractedly again and again, trying to discern what it was about him that smelled so familiar, yet foreign.

  How anomalous and ironic that the supernatural Cujo about to maul me to shreds should smell like a side of pure heaven?

  I absorbed his essence greedily into my lungs until I stumble-tripped backwards, my rear colliding with the hard marble floor. I yelped and then hissed at the agony that pierced my ribs as he growled above me.

  My head spun from the sudden change in equilibrium, and my entire body began shaking with stress and trepidation as he encroached upon me and commenced scenting me right back. Enormous front paws padded down onto either side of me, trapping me beneath him as his snout grazed over my crown, ghosted down the side of my head, and then pressed into the juncture of my neck.

  My heart was beating so fast I was sure if it kept its pace I’d at least be lucky enough to die from coronary failure before he got to bite my head from my shoulders.

  I gasped and recoiled as
he began snuffling audibly against my neck, his cool snout nudging its way beneath the curtain of brown hair covering my shoulder. I continued to lower myself farther down to the ground in an attempt to get away from him until I was propped up on my elbows.

  He followed me down, crouching over me onto his bent forelegs until he was close enough that the fur of his underbelly brushed up against and warmed my bare legs and arms. My facial features had tensed and scrunched up in anticipation of an imminent attack. I peeked surreptitiously through squinted eyes as his huge muzzle came to loom over my face.

  Intelligent yellow eyes regarded me. Holy shit, his jaw was mammoth!

  It was all too much. I could feel my adrenaline deserting me as it felt like all the blood drained from my face. Spots formed in my vision, and my head suddenly felt too heavy to hold up. I knew I was going down.

  Rather than meet with hard marble floor, though, as my elbows gave out beneath me, my head dropped like a dead weight into a sturdy, awaiting open palm. Another warm palm joined to frame the side of my face.

  My eyes fluttered open and darted around in alarm. Through my slightly obscured vision and weakening senses I was able to discern a very human-looking, very naked, Alex, hovering above me.

  He was propped up on his elbows, his big body stretched out over mine, the palm of his left hand cradling the back of my head with ease. The fingertips of his right hand brushed tentatively against my cheek before sliding to the pulse point on my neck.

  It was so hard to keep my eyelids open, much less maintain any focus to my vision, but it looked like he was scowling at me. And his still-feral yellow eyes appeared to be darting back and forth between mine, as if comparing the eyeballs.

  “Kai!” Alex’s rich, booming bass startled me, and I flinched reflexively. “Shh—you’ll be okay soon,” he said, frowning down at me. “No more movement until then.”

  I’d no idea what he’d meant by that, but it sounded as if he was reprimanding me for flinching. Footsteps from down the hallway had followed his call for Kai, and soon another male figure was leaning over me.

  “It seems I’ve found the source of my headache,” Alex informed the newcomer, his narrowed eyes still regarding me with what seemed to be obvious irritation. “Let’s get this over with as fast as possible.”

  Kai replied in another language, and Alex responded in kind. I was pretty sure it was Portuguese. I was starting to pick up on some familiar words and nuances now.

  As I was trying to guess what the words meant, I felt my left arm being drawn straight out and away from my body, palm up, and then a rubber band-like tourniquet being tied around my bicep. Out of the corner of my eye I saw Kai preparing a large, syringe-type apparatus attached to a long needle.

  I’d never liked needles. And I’d no idea what sort of lethal injection they might be preparing for me. I tried to pull my arm back. Only it wouldn’t budge. With horrified fascination I realized neither Kai nor Alex was holding it either. I tried to turn my head to see better and realized I couldn’t turn my head!

  I knew I was weak, but this was something different altogether. I could feel everything, and yet I was somehow paralyzed! I made a panicked, gurgling noise in my throat as I struggled for the words to voice my fear aloud.

  “You’re not paralyzed,” Alex answered my unspoken question. “You’ll move again when I decide you can.” His tone was arrogant—rife with pure disdain—as if he deemed me a supreme moron for failing to grasp these facts already. “Stay quiet or I’ll immobilize your vocal chords next.”

  “Alex, please don’t be like this with her,” Alessandra’s voice petitioned on my behalf from somewhere behind me. “She didn’t ask for this any more than you did. Don’t take out your anger for Raul and Mateus on her. She doesn’t even know anything about us. She—”

  “You’re dismissed, Alessandra!”

  I heard Alessandra’s heels clicking away just as a needle pierced the large vein at the midpoint of my left arm, and I started crying despite my better intentions.

  Why was this happening to me? Who were these freaks, and why did the one freak who had seemed to give a whit what happened to me have to be sent away now? Why was she taking orders from her evil little brother in the first place?

  “Don’t be such a baby; it’s only a small needle,” Alex scolded, heaping insult to my pain and humiliation.

  I tried my best to stifle the flow of tears and not make any noises, knowing he might disable my ability to emote next by engendering facial muscle paralysis. He was the complete and total embodiment of the worst sort of villain imaginable. I only prayed I could stay conscious and keep focused enough to block him from entering my mind.

  To my chagrin, he chuckled darkly and dipped his head to the crook of my neck. “Listen, little human girl”—his warm, smooth cheek brushed against my own for the briefest moment as he inhaled—“I’m already so far inside your mind I’ve shut down your reflexes and I’m controlling your heart rate.”

  My stomach churned. I tried to swallow past the lump in my throat. He was already inside? And he had been hearing all of my private thoughts?

  “Mm-hmm,” he hummed with a clear measure of sick amusement as his nose sniffed and grazed against the shell of my ear. “So you might want to start thinking nicer things about me,” he whispered ominously. “Because I’m the one who’s going to fix the swelling in your fragile head. Resist me like you did my brothers, and I’ll show you the sort of monster I can be. Understand?”

  I felt myself going numb with terror. If he hadn’t been controlling my heart rate, it might’ve exploded from sheer panic. My mind spun out of control, searching madly for any plausible escape route, only to go vacant as acceptance of my dire situation settled over me like a wet blanket.

  “Good girl. This won’t have to hurt at all if you can behave yourself.”

  I closed my eyes and willed myself to shut down and disassociate from what was happening to me as I felt the familiar sensations of tingling down my neck and spine that I’d experienced with Remy and Alcaeus. There was a mild buzzing in my head and slight pressure at the back of my skull.

  Kai’s voice sounded kind as he politely informed me that he was the house doctor and that he was administering their very best medicine for my sort of ailment through an intravenous push. He asked me to please let him know if I felt any discomfort during the process.

  Discomfort? Did I feel any discomfort? I was for all intents and purposes temporarily paralyzed while my brother’s deranged, supernatural murderer was tinkering with my brain and listening in on my personal thoughts!

  I was being forced to endure his incongruously divine scent assaulting my olfactory as I felt the overwhelming heat from his naked body hovering menacingly over me. And while the prospect of rape topped my list of worst personal fears, I was almost sure now no manner of physical violation could be worse than the internal one I was already being subjected to.

  “Don’t worry,” Alex huffed at my crown, “you aren’t exactly my type. And I’ve invaded far more interesting and titillating minds, so don’t flatter yourself that I’m paying attention to your trivial, inane thoughts.”

  “Chrissakes, Alex!” Remy blustered from somewhere to my left. “You’re only going to hurt yourself the more you try to hurt her. Quit being such an ass about this.”

  “Fuck off, Remy! No one asked you.”

  I bit my lip to stifle a sob as so many emotions welled up in me upon hearing the sound of Remy’s concerned voice following Alex’s spiteful tongue-lashing. How I wished now I hadn’t fought Remy so much before.

  As disconcerting as it had been having Remy enter my mind, and as much as I still didn’t fully understand or trust his intentions toward me, his seemed a damn sight more humane than Alex’s were. I knew I’d give anything to go back in time and let it be Remy healing my head from the inside now through whatever dark magic these brothers seemed to have at their employ.

  In spite of everything, I was forced to acknowled
ge that my head was feeling a lot better, and overall, my thoughts were becoming more lucid. I could feel tingles spreading over my rib cage now, more strongly than they had when Remy and Alcaeus had been attending to me, and I assumed Alex had moved on to healing my broken ribs.

  A warming sensation suffused my midsection and then extended throughout my entire body. Unconsciously, I recalled the arousing, fluttering sensations that had accompanied that warmth before when Remy’s mouth had been affixed to my neck and Alcaeus’ tongue had been licking at my bruised knees.

  I felt Alex’s strong hands twitch and stiffen where they held and palpated my head. Then there was a subtle yet perceptible shift in the activity inside my mind right before my thoughts started flying and scattering wildly like a tossed deck of cards.

  I gasped and protested as my thoughts began racing faster than I could keep track. It was as if I’d lost all control over them as I felt Alex begin flipping through my memories at whirlwind speed.

  “No,” I cried out. “Stop! Please don’t!”

  He paid me no heed, though, as he rifled through the events of the past several hours, at first focusing in on my interactions with Remy and Alcaeus with rapt interest and then moving on to my private moments of personal hell at the hands of Felix.

  He was going so fast it was overwhelming for both my brain and my psyche, as the memories were linked to an intricate myriad of emotional responses that flared to the surface and stung me like little live wires as he trampled through my memory bank. I burned with shame all over again at the recollection of Felix’s hands on me, and I cried in desperation and fear as Alex paused upon my memories in the van.

  I was sobbing and begging for him to stop long before he honed in on my memories of Raul. I heard Remy and Alcaeus pleading with him on my behalf as well. But he only snapped at them to back off and warned me to stop wailing and behave. So I bit my tongue and tried to will myself to lose consciousness just to gain some measure of reprieve.

  Though I wasn’t privy to his thoughts or reactions to my memories other than the occasional grunt or snarl as he rummaged through them, I felt like the profoundest of idiots as he sifted through the recent memories of how I’d come to search for Raul in São Paulo. Remembering all the inquiries I’d made during the past seven months, all the dead-end emails and calls I’d placed to every old contact number and email address I’d ever had for Raul and then all the ones I’d gotten through the private investigative services I’d paid for.