by Hettie Ivers
Alex snorted. “You don’t know the half of it. The situation is a little more than complicated.”
“Oh, I think I have a pretty fair sense of the situation and what you’re up against.”
When was someone going to explain the situation to me? I still had no idea what I was up against!
“You want to abide by our laws? Let me take Milena under my protection while she recovers and digests everything that’s happened,” Alcaeus proposed. “In the absence of a male blood relative capable of protecting her in this circumstance, by law the task falls to an elder within the pack, which would be me.”
“Ha!” Alex exploded, his eyes flashing amber. “Not a fucking chance! Do you not comprehend what’s happening to me here with every passing fucking minute? My wolf will take your head off if you dare try to cross the threshold with her.”
“Really?” Alcaeus snickered. “You’d kill your own brother over a girl who’s not your mate? A human girl you don’t even want?”
“Fuck you. You don’t understand. It’s my wolf who wants her, not me. I couldn’t give a damn what you do with her or to her.”
“So why are you the one hovering over her with a semi-hard-on still tenting your pants?”
I was going to be sick.
“I won’t allow it,” Remy’s voice interjected from out of nowhere. The space around me was starting to tilt and spin again. Or maybe it was just my head. “You cannot let Alcaeus take her.”
I groaned. They were going to argue over me as if I were property again.
“Piss off, Remy. Who the fuck gave you a say in this?” Alcaeus complained. “You’re neither elder nor her mate. Be helpful and go use your super-touchy-feely skills to comfort Alessandra. I got this,” he emphasized through gritted teeth.
How I wished Alessandra hadn’t been sent away, if for no other reason than the fact that she was the only one of them who hadn’t yet tried to mind-rape me, molest me, or talk down to me like I was an infant. I wasn’t sure I’d feel that much safer with Alcaeus than I did with Alex, but Alcaeus was presently the lesser of two evils.
“Alex, I don’t care if he is an elder. I can sense his lust from down the hallway,” Remy claimed. “He can’t be a suitable protector to her when he still wants to fuck her as badly as he does.”
“Well, of course I want to fuck her! When did I deny it? So do you. So does Alex, even though he won’t admit it. What’s your point?” Alcaeus threw his hands up. “Go away and let me handle this.”
“Not until Alex promises me he won’t turn Milena over to your care,” Remy said, striding into view to stand behind where Alex was kneeling over me. “And not until he reassures Milena that he was bluffing to Felix and that he didn’t kill Raul.”
“Mother of fucking Christ!” Alex bellowed, leaping to his feet in one fluid, swift motion that somehow simultaneously sent Remy careening backward down the hallway and out of sight. And without Alex ever even touching him, near as I could tell!
I heard what sounded like Remy’s body colliding with and cracking a solid surface a moment later.
What did Remy mean? Could it be true? I dared not get my battered hopes up. I was losing sight of what was real anymore.
“I swear to you, Remy,” Alex seethed, his taut muscles rolling and flexing to life with restrained rage as he turned to glare in the direction he’d just thrown his brother. “I will tear your limbs off and beat you senseless with them the next time you fucking dare read my emotions!”
Remy trod back into view, casually dusting broken stone and debris from his clothing. He shrugged at Alex. “I didn’t read your emotions. I read Kai’s. You put an order on me preventing me from reading yours, remember?”
“Is it true?” Alcaeus demanded of Alex. “Raul’s still alive?”
Alex turned from Remy to glare at Alcaeus and then back to me as Kai resurfaced, muttering an apology as he materialized at Alex’s side. Alex cut him off.
“Take her,” he ordered Kai with a nod in my direction. “Put her in my private quarters and start an IV drip. She’s dehydrated and mineral deficient. Keep her comfortable and sedated for the next forty-eight hours until she’s fully healed.” Under his breath he added, “And until I figure out what the fuck to do with her.”
“Raul’s alive?” Alcaeus persisted.
I was grateful he kept asking the question I most wanted answered, because my heart was hammering too fast and too hard for me to breathe, much less speak.
“Answer me!” Alcaeus snarled in aggravation, arising to his feet and crossing his arms over his chest. “What in fuck have you done, Alex?”
Alex’s attention abruptly returned to me, though, and he was crouching over me before I could blink, his fingers seeking the pulse point on my neck.
“Easy there. You need to stay calm for me so you can heal.”
Oddly, my heart rate seemed to slow simply at his suggestion. Or maybe it wasn’t so odd? Damnit!
“Run every blood and DNA test possible,” Alex continued to Kai, still ignoring Alcaeus. He appeared to be studying my pupils again. “I want her entire lineage traced as far back as the beginning of fucking time. Expend whatever means and actions necessary to obtain the information, but do it discreetly. Obviously, she can’t be my mate. Yet there’s some bizarre connection that’s drawing my wolf to her. The sooner we figure out what it is and how to sever it, the better.”
“Agreed.” Kai nodded dutifully.
When Alex arose to stand beside Kai, I realized I hadn’t gotten a very good look at the house doctor before when I’d been immobilized and unable to turn my head. He was tall and well built with dark hair, but his skin was much fairer than the others. He looked to be about Alcaeus’ age—whatever that translated to in freak years. He reminded me of a Clark Kent type, but without the glasses and dorky hair. The sort of guy who was attractive in a way that took its time to sneak up on you.
Alcaeus was still fuming, waiting impatiently for Alex’s attention. “You son of a bitch, you turned him, didn’t you? There’s no other way he could still be alive.”
Whatever Alex had just done to slow my heart rate was making it harder to fight the effects of the medication and to keep my eyes open now, but I glanced back and forth desperately between Remy and Alcaeus while I still could, hoping to find some clue in their expressions as to what the state of my brother’s life and well-being truly was. Alex seemed determined to give nothing away as he resumed his litany of directives.
“No one harms her. No one gets inside her mind, and no one compels her unless her life or physical person are in immediate peril,” he stated, looking pointedly from Remy to Alcaeus. “No one lower ranking than a Beta interacts with or so much as looks at her, even if that means putting your highest ranking Beta in charge of her meal service.”
“Got it. Your orders will be carried out to the letter, my Alpha,” Kai assured.
“You’re not to leave her side tonight for any reason until I personally relieve you of that duty,” Alex continued. “Anyone who ignores or interferes with my orders where she’s concerned is to be swiftly and severely punished to set a precedent.”
“Understood,” Kai concurred with a nod. He bent down and, after removing and rearranging a few of the blankets around me, lifted me off the ground into his arms.
My head was so heavy I couldn’t hold it up, so it rolled back against Kai’s bicep, providing me only a view of the high hallway ceilings above when I very much wanted to see the bickering brothers so that I could keep up with what was going on and figure out what had happened to Raul.
“Clearly you’re not the least bit interested in her,” Alcaeus inserted sarcastically. “Just to be safe, we should probably have our best army of wolves stand watch outside her door while she flosses her teeth, don’t you think?”
“At least,” Remy agreed with a chuckle.
“You think this is fucking amusing for me?” Alex groused. “I get saddled with some fragile human albatross, and all you two
can do is whine and bicker because she’s the one piece of ass in this entire house I won’t allow you to tag-team until I find a cure for this fucking disease my wolf has for her.”
I was definitely going to be sick. I tried in vain to lift my head again. Kai must’ve noticed or sensed what I was after because he rolled his shoulder forward and in doing so shifted my head so that it was at a forty-five-degree angle, my cheek pressed up against the dress shirt covering his chest, affording me a view of the family feud unfolding. It appeared we were the only ones in the hallway now.
“My God, do you really think that’s what this is about? You fucking violated a pact I made with Mateus’ father, Alex!” Alcaeus berated.
“Exactly, I never made that pact with Hector. That was when you were Alpha,” Alex emphasized, “and this is now.”
“It doesn’t matter! We’re still the same pack, and you should have honored it.”
Pack? As in they all turned into killer Cujos?
“We are not the same pack.” Alex’s tone was smug. “I’ve more than doubled our numbers since you were Alpha. And besides,” he said with an arrogant shrug of nonchalance, “I did it for Lessa.”
“Right. For Alessandra?” Alcaeus chuckled humorlessly, then spun on his heel and punched his fist straight into the travertine wall.
I noted with sick fascination that his fist fared better than the wall did, not even sustaining so much as a scratch. Crap. They were indestructible.
“You fucking asshole! You did it for yourself,” Alcaeus accused. “You did it so you could control him. So you could torment him indefinitely if you wanted to. And in doing so control Lessa even more than you already do. You never thought once of her feelings!”
Alex rolled bored eyes at his enraged eldest brother. “Would you prefer that I’d killed him? Because that’s still an option I’m considering for the future.”
If he was considering it for the future, then that meant he was admitting Raul was still alive? My stomach somersaulted with both renewed hope and anxiety.
“No, it is not an option,” Remy readily disagreed. “We can’t allow you to do that to Alessandra or Milena.”
“Not your call to make,” Alex reminded him dispassionately.
“Jesus, we’re trying to fucking help you, Alex,” Alcaeus said. “You’re in over your head.”
“Second-guessing every decision I make because it’s not the one you would have chosen is hardly helpful,” Alex fired back.
“Would you at least just put the girl out of her misery already and let her know Raul’s alive?” Remy requested. “She’s not going to be able to rest peacefully until she hears it from you, no matter how much you drug her.”
He was right. I wasn’t sure I wanted to know how Remy always seemed to understand what I was feeling, but it was definitely true.
“Fine,” Alex sighed. “Back off and give me a minute with her then.”
Remy and Alcaeus retreated a few paces, and Alex stepped closer until he towered over me where I lay in Kai’s arms.
He scanned my features contemplatively before remarking, “Kai will take good care of you.”
I stared vacantly at him, waiting for him to reveal what I so desperately needed to know.
Silence passed between us as he stared back. His nostrils flared and a muscle ticked in his jaw as his fingertips brushed across my cheekbone. Those fingers proceeded to tuck my hair behind my ear, diligently smoothing the strands before Alex seemed to catch himself and remove his hand.
“Yes,” he at last confirmed, his voice devoid of emotion. “Raul’s alive.”
I choked out a sob of relief and crumbled into a blubbering, wheezing, bawling mess. I could scarcely see straight through the flood of tears, but I noted Alex appeared baffled by my response, and almost contrite as he began to dab my face and eyes with the corner of one of the blankets covering me.
His brow furrowed and he shook his head, looking bewildered, and strangely, although I suspected I had to be imagining it … scared?
“You need … to stop, Milena,” he said disjointedly. “You can’t … I can’t … this isn’t …” he trailed off, absently rubbing a hand against his chest and wincing.
He was beginning to look rather horrified now, but I couldn’t stop. I was too overcome with relief and the many other emotions that had been building up inside of me all night long.
“Holy sweet fuck, I think I’m falling in love with this girl,” Alcaeus declared.
“Fuck me,” Alex breathed. His eyes were frantic as they roamed my overly emotive features. “Stop,” he ordered. “Please?”
Remy and Alcaeus commenced sniggering in the background.
Alex’s eyes darted from mine up to Kai’s in abject befuddlement. I felt Kai’s shoulders lift and lower in response against me.
“C’mon, her head injury gave you a headache, Alex,” Remy said, reining in his mirth. “Her more intense feelings are bound to affect you whether you want them to or not.”
“This is pure karmic genius!” Alcaeus chimed in. “I want a front-row seat the week before her period.”
I felt Kai’s chest and stomach start to tremble against me, but Alex shot him a baleful look that quickly quelled his amusement. Kai cleared his throat, coughing and sputtering in an attempt to mask his laughter.
“Listen to me, Milena,” Alex entreated, his expression darkening. “You want to see Raul alive and well again, don’t you?” There was a desperate edge to his tone that caught my attention and made me smother my hysterical sobs as best I could.
I nodded vigorously.
“Good,” he exhaled. “Then I need you to cooperate with me. Will you do that?”
I nodded hesitantly, more than apprehensive about what my “cooperation” might entail, yet knowing full well I’d do anything he asked if it meant protecting my brother’s life and seeing him again.
“I want you to accommodate Kai and submit to whatever physical examinations and tests he needs to perform on you,” Alex expounded.
My frazzled, paranoid mind conjured a worst-case scenario in which I was laid out on a concrete slab in a mad scientist’s laboratory about to have my head cut open with a chainsaw for Kai’s inspection. As I was internally shaking that image off as ludicrous, Alex’s lips quirked at the corners, and then he abruptly burst out laughing.
It was the most shocking of sounds, as it rang out as true, genuine laughter—something I’d not imagined he’d be capable of. The unaffected grin that accompanied it was equally disarming, and I found myself gaping at him in dazed bewilderment, my tears abating. The other occupants in the hallway had gone silent as well.
“No.” Alex’s smile broadened beatifically. “Nothing quite so intrusive or Frankenstein-esque. I assure you, no one in my pack will harm you, Milena.”
He’d reverted from threatening me to saying my name like it was chocolate dessert, momentarily sidetracking me from the fact that he’d clearly snuck inside my head again and was presently in the middle of outlining blackmail terms.
“And I need you to allow me unobstructed access to your mind whenever I determine it’s required.”
I bit my lip to stifle the instant revulsion and impulse to reject this particularly sadistic blackmail condition.
“Look, I know you don’t like it,” he said, his features softening further, “but I promise it won’t hurt if you don’t fight me. Ultimately, it’s for your benefit,” he reasoned, his talented fingers snaking their way into my hair again to seduce my scalp. “I don’t want this connection any more than you do. So whatever useful information I can garner from your memories to help sort this all out, the sooner I can end the ordeal for the both of us.”
I hesitated, remembering how awful it had been before when he’d callously trampled through the memories of my mother.
“I’ll be more careful. I’ll go slower,” he appeased, smiling down at me in a manner that was almost … sweet … for a twisted, diabolical, supernatural serial killer. “I’m in
your head now and I’m not hurting you, am I?”
He wasn’t. In fact, that scalp massage trick he did felt outrageously pleasurable. But it was far too early for me to be suffering Stockholm syndrome. I wasn’t foolish or naïve enough to believe I could trust him not to hurt me again. Neither was I dumb enough to think I had any choice in this whole untenable scenario either.
As charming a display as he might be able to put on, Alex was a consummate criminal, and he’d take and do whatever he wanted regardless. My cooperation would only make the process less irritating and inconvenient for him.
Alex’s smile faded and his fingers slipped from my scalp. The obsidian eyes that beheld me were as cold as his voice. “As long as you can be amenable and not fight me, I’ll let Raul live.”
“Mm … bribery and coercion,” Alcaeus mused glibly, sauntering over to Alex’s side and punching him playfully in the bicep, “the founding tenets of any successful courtship and enduring relationship.”
Remy nodded, coming to stand on the opposite side of Alex. “I knew we should’ve sent him to charm school as a kid, but you thought it’d make him soft.”
Alcaeus shrugged. “Eh, live and learn. Milena, sweetheart, don’t look so distressed,” he said with a warm smile. “Within twenty-five minutes of meeting our mighty Alpha, you’ve managed to land a slap and expose his only known weakness. If he had any sense, he’d be kissing your ass and every other sweet, luscious body part.” He wagged his eyebrows.
Alex’s eyes flew to the ceiling, and he crossed his arms over his chest.
“Alex is a master of physical elements,” Remy imparted blithely. “Disabling motor skills or controlling a heart rate is child’s play to him. He excels at slipping into minds undetected and reading literal thought process. But his ability to read and manipulate emotions remains woefully underdeveloped.”
I wasn’t sure I was following the point they were trying to make.
“Remy’s the ace in the family at maneuvering and controlling the mushy terrain,” Alcaeus said with a head jerk in his stepbrother’s direction. “Historically, Alex’s lack of empathy and his arrested emotional intelligence haven’t really impeded him in his mission to take over the world, though, because … well … he’s never given a fuck about anyone else’s feelings.”