To Mate an Assassin: The Lost Alphars Series, Book 1

by Ceri Grenelle

  “No, Miah. It’s fine. He’s just so sneaky.” She smiled halfheartedly, her gaze lingering on Jeremiah half a second before turning to go back into The Mansion.

  “Let me walk you—”

  “We’re fine, Miah. We’re fine, you keep doin’ what you’re doin’.” They watched her walk about fifteen feet away when Jeremiah shook his head shortly, growling in frustration, and went after her. Cimby could hear them arguing about his needing or not needing to walk her all the way into The Mansion. Well, it was mostly Lottie that argued. Jeremiah just grunted her concerns away.

  She turned to walk back towards The Mansion as well, waving at the trainees. “Until next time, troops,” she called with a nasty smile as they all groaned. Cymbeline chuckled, running her hands through her sweaty hair.

  “You enjoyed demolishing my soldiers, didn’t you?” Kerrick asked with a smarmy grin.

  “Of course. You of all people must recognize what that kind of ego boost can do for you.”

  “Is the Incendiary allowed to have an ego?” he asked perceptively, which really pissed her off, destroying the calm she’d cultivated while kicking the soldiers’ asses. She couldn’t get a hold on her emotions around him, especially after their meeting last night. She’d been heading in a downward spiral since she’d arrived at this hellish mansion.

  “No,” she said, bitterly. “We are slaves, made to please the Alphar in any way.”

  “Cymbeline.” He stopped her with a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I was teasing.”

  Looking up at his face, which clearly showed regret for the words, she said, “Well, I do not like it.”

  “I bet there’s a kind of teasing you do like.”

  She rolled her eyes. Lusty bastard.

  “Not when the teasing is done maliciously or to prove a point.” She looked at him pointedly as he held the door to The Mansion open for her.

  He held her arm again as she moved to pass him, suddenly serious. “That wasn’t my intention. I’m sorry I was an ass last night, but I’m not apologizing for wanting you, and I’m not going to deny that you are my mate.” He pulled her closer to his chest, cupping her cheek and playing with the curly tendrils of hair falling over her ear.

  “You’re an assassin, Cymbeline,” he said as she tried to pull away, fed up with his persistence yet wanting to give in at the same time. “Look at the facts and be honest with yourself.” He shook his head, moved his hand down to hers, entwining their fingers, and pulling her back out the door.

  “That’s it,” he growled, a decision seemed to have been made in his mind.

  “What? Are you kicking me out?” she asked, her voice going a weird high pitch she wasn’t very fond of.

  “We’re getting out of here.”

  “I am tired, Kerrick. I just sparred with the trainees—” Her speech cut off as she neared the gate, the cuffs on her wrists warming and sending a slight buzz through her fingers and arms. “Kerrick, your shock collars are about to shock me!”

  He looked down at the cuffs and grinned. “Ha, no they won’t, I promise.” He stopped about twenty feet from the gate, the buzzing consistent but mellow. It actually felt rather pleasant. “Take your clothes off.”

  “Are you high?” she yelled, crossing her arms over her chest.

  “I’m gonna throw you over the gate if you don’t take your clothes off right this second.”

  “How dare you—”

  “I’m counting down from five.”

  “I will not—”

  “Four.” He touched the cuffs, adjusting them in some way that made them buzz hotter.

  “—stand for this treatment—”

  “Three.”

  “—you demonic—”

  “Two.”

  “—bastard—”

  “One!”

  “—of an ingrate! What the holy fuck!”

  As Kerrick shouted the number one, he grabbed her at her hips and launched her over the gate. Gods, the man was strong. She flew and couldn’t do a damn thing to stop her trajectory. But as she inched closer and closer to the gate, the buzzing in the cuffs intensified until her body was covered in flames. Flames that didn’t burn, they didn’t even touch her skin. But they sure as hell touched her clothes.

  Cimby landed swiftly on the other side of the gate. The cuffs were cool as ice and she was buck-ass naked. She rolled her eyes and stood, hands on hips, refusing to act embarrassed by her nudity. Kerrick stood thirty feet away on the other side of the gate. Laughing his fully clothed ass off at her.

  “C’mon over here, Alphar,” she called to him. “Let me show you just how funny I am when you piss me off!”

  “Shift!” he called to her through his laughter, texting something on his phone.

  “What? You better not be sending a picture message of me to someone!”

  “Shift, we’re gonna go for a run. Blow off some steam.” He closed his phone and tucked it into his jeans. “I was texting Aaron where to find me if there are any urgent issues.”

  While she was thoroughly excited by the prospect of a run there was something she needed to take care of first. “Come here first and then I’ll shift,” she said, deepening the tonality of her voice and adding a husky quality to it. Kerrick stilled, hearing the enticing offer.

  “C’mon,” she said, not needing to shout, knowing all his attention was on her. She quirked one side of her lip up and turned away, walking deeper into the surrounding forest, swinging her hips with just the perfect amount of sway to reel him in. She’d studied this technique from other females in bars around the country when she searched for sexual partners. It was quite effective.

  Cymbeline heard him land with a thud on the outer side of the gate and sensed him silently stalk her. Just as he was about to put his hands on her naked body she turned and grabbed his balls, which were fully on display since he’d also decided to strip. Cymbeline almost lost her trail of concentration as she saw and held his naked testicles. Gods he was a virile specimen. Perfection in every muscle, every cut, hard inch of him.

  But she didn’t falter in her purpose. When she was sure she had his attention she twisted the delicate—and large—testicles, ever so slightly.

  “Ah— Are you kidding—”

  “The next time you want me to shift, ask me to shift and tell me why.” She squeezed harder for a second then abruptly let go, shoving him back a few steps. Or at least she tried, the man was an immovable mountain. “Don’t tell me after you strip me of my clothes, against my will by the fucking way. You are such an irascible asshole I can’t even begin to— Argh!” She stalked away, needing some space from that magnificent body to keep her anger fueled, and yet she couldn’t stop herself from glancing back over her shoulder for half a second to take another look.

  Kerrick massaged his balls in one hand and raised the other in surrender. “I give up, woman, I give up. I’m sorry.” He fell to his knees, looking up at her with what some women called sad, puppy eyes. She thought of them as “twist my balls again because I’m a moron who just happens to be blessed with sexy pouty lips and sexy eyes” eyes.

  She crossed her arms, looking away from him in stereotypical female annoyance. It would not behoove her to admit she was enjoying their repartee. He held out one hand to her and stood, having recovered from her rough grip, the other rested against his heart. “I am sorry, Cymbeline. I was teasing again.”

  She narrowed her eyes at him, unconvinced by his genial behavior. She knew he was more devil than angel, his mischievous nature all too clear. She possibly liked that a tad more than she should.

  “Run with me?” he asked, his hand reaching.

  The moment became heavy, weighted with things unsaid and issues greater than the both of them, issues that needed resolving. She wasn’t for him. Not even the howling of her Wolf within her soul could convince her.

 
“Kerrick—”

  “Don’t think,” he said, stepping forward to kiss her forehead. “Just run with me. Nothing more.”

  She stepped back, letting the Wolf’s presence of mind gain an edge. Her Wolf yipped in joy and pressed the shift upon her body. It wasn’t a painful thing as some humans thought. The shift was a magical phenomenon and shifters were made of magic. To shift was light within the soul and joy within the heart.

  Cymbeline twisted in on herself, a core of warmth spreading from her heart to touch every corner of her body. She looked down and saw her paws, her red and amber fur, and felt completely at home for the first time since she’d arrived at this topsy-turvy circus. Without a backwards glance she forgot everything around her and just ran.

  The dirt was a cloud her paws barely skimmed as her lupine nature dodged between the trees. The grass flying past her legs was cool rain petting her fur. Her Wolf leapt into the air with such joy to be free that she nearly cried. They were whole. Shifted into her Wolf form was the only time Cymbeline felt as if she’d been born to be a shifter not Turned as part of some grand design. She yipped and howled with excitement, completely out of character for her but just so damn fun.

  After a few moments Cymbeline remembered there was someone running beside her. She turned her head and there was Kerrick, in all his Alphar glory. He’d chosen a Wolf for his shifted form, a beautiful and grand gray Wolf with eyes as black as coal. It was the gift of the Alphar, why they were the strongest and most dominant of all the shifters. They were true shifters, not stuck in one animal form but blessed with the ability to change into all of them. An impassioned look of triumph graced his face as he ran beside her and she finally allowed herself to feel it. Shifting into her Wolf form broke down one of the few remaining barriers she had erected to keep the full effect of the mating from influencing her emotions. But she felt it now. He was hers. Undeniably and undoubtedly hers. She would never choose another; never need another. And her faith in him was unwavering. He would always be true, always be there for her no matter how much he teased or joked. She’d never had anyone belong to her like that before, and she never would again.

  Her Wolf opened her maw in a toothy grin and darted to his feet to give him a playful nip before dashing in the opposite direction. A few moments later she tripped over a bump in the ground, too busy staring at her handsome mate. He stopped and nudged her with his cold nose. He wanted to run with her some more and he wasn’t going to leave her behind. She quickly got back to her feet and dashed alongside him.

  Running as a Wolf was one of the few joys in her life as an Incendiary. It represented freedom, endurance, and simplified all the human emotions into something pure and uncluttered by shades of gray. She used to push herself to run when she’d first begun shifting. Treating it as another test her trainers would put her through. She would run for hours, tugging and pulling at her limits, stretching them beyond what anyone thought she could do. It wasn’t until after her first assignment, sitting in the small house she’d been living in at the time, thinking about the rogue she’d just killed, that she stripped down to her skin and for the first time just ran for the hell of it. She ran to honor the man she’d killed. She ran as a pledge to protect the safety of the innocents, not just to do her Alphar’s bidding. She’d run that first night for herself. And she’d never felt more alive.

  Until tonight.

  Kerrick sat with his back against the tree trunk. Cymbeline was on the other side. She’d said she didn’t care if he saw her naked, nudity wasn’t exactly taboo in shifter societies. He told her if he looked at her breasts one more time he would pounce on her. It was hard enough to leave her be when her delectable scent kept wafting his way.

  “It’s just surprising, that’s all,” he said, playing with a broken branch.

  “Why? I’m not just a Wolf, Kerrick.” He loved that she was saying his name now. “There is a human side to me as well.”

  “True, but wolves just don’t climb trees. It’s not natural.” He looked down the length of the tree they were sitting in and grinned in amusement at his mate’s quirk. They sat about thirty feet off the ground, straddling branches and just chatting. He’d never been more at peace.

  “I wasn’t born a Wolf.”

  “I bet you were a hellion as a child. You come off calm and sophisticated. You have the dead-eyed assassin stare down pat. But you swore at me today! You twisted my balls!” He winced, remembering how unpleasant that felt.

  “Your stupid cuffs burned the clothes off my body!” She huffed. “Who would create such disturbed items?”

  “Zach. I can’t wait to tell him they worked.” The deviously minded Magic Tech would be delighted.

  “Wait. Wait. I’m the first person to ever try these damned things? Who is this Zach? Where can I find him?”

  “You’re not killing him, Cymbeline.”

  “Just because I’m a trained and highly skilled assassin does not mean the only reason I want to meet him is to kill him.” Kerrick felt the unfamiliar need to burst out laughing at that ridiculous statement. She was an awful liar.

  “The only reason?” Kerrick asked.

  “I’m merely curious as to how the magic in these cuffs work.”

  “So he’ll teach you how to free yourself and then you’ll kill him.”

  She hesitated for half a second before muttering in a put-upon voice. “You don’t know me.”

  He let himself laugh, chucking the twig down the length of the tree. “But I do, Ms. Kendall. I do. Zach is our IT-slash-Magic genius. Most people just think he works the tech here, but damn, I’ve never met a more magically gifted shifter. The way he can manipulate the magic surpasses the skill of the highest of coven priests. I couldn’t get him to start work here fast enough.”

  She was quiet for a moment before saying, “So, since you’re telling me about him, does this mean I’m allowed to kill him?” Kerrick laughed again, enjoying her odd sense of humor. “So why is he not an Alphar if he has such a gift with magic?”

  “It’s not that sort of magic. The magic of the Alphar passes only through Weres born to unmated Weres. Zach’s parents were both Mages before they were Turned in an attack on their coven.”

  “Shifters attacked their coven?”

  “No, a psychotic Mage spelled a local Coyote pack and forced them to target the coven and their family members. His mother, Daniella, was pregnant with him during the attack, just about a week or two along. She survived the attack, and after a brief stay at The Mansion to adjust to her Coyote soul became alpha of the pack she was adopted into. Daniella is ferocious in guarding her pack and truly an inspiration. You would like her. Although if I ever arranged for a visit so you may meet, Zach might have a conniption.” He smiled thinking of Zach’s embarrassment whenever his mother called the main mansion line to check on him. “That woman loves to torture her son.”

  “What happened to his father?” Cymbeline asked quietly.

  “Didn’t make it,” Kerrick grunted, snapping off another twig that was hanging by a mere thread, the life already gone from the limb.

  “How did she survive if her mate died?”

  “She wasn’t mated, and she was impregnated when she was a Mage, essentially human. We’ll never know if they were true mates in a shifter way.”

  Kerrick fell silent, remembering the dangers Daniella had traversed during her pregnancy. Neither Kerrick nor Aaron had heard of any case when the woman was Turned while pregnant. They hadn’t known if the child would live and if he would be Mage or shifter. “She was so brave during her pregnancy,” he said quietly. “I had been floundering under the pressure of becoming Captain, knowing my time as Alphar was coming. She gave me strength and taught me what real bravery was.”

  “She seems to have done well for herself if she is now an alpha.”

  Kerrick nodded but she couldn’t see it, being on the other side of the tre
e so he elaborated. “It was a strategic placement. We saw she was extremely dominant, she’d been the leader of her coven before the attack. The local Coyote pack’s alpha was getting tired of leading, but had no offspring nor anyone strong enough to challenge him for the spot. We sent her to them and not a month later she took over. That pack is stronger than ever now because of her. The local human communities even look to them for protection. She’s an asset to our society and proof that rising from the ashes is possible. Zach didn’t turn out half bad either.”

  “So his gift for magic isn’t related to shifter magic, it is Mage magic. That shouldn’t be possible. He became a different species once his mother was Turned. That magic should have dissipated with the rest of his Mage DNA.”

  “One would think but our theories on magic aren’t complete, no matter how long we’ve had to hone the craft. In Zach, the Were magic and the Mage magic seems to have combined when he was in the womb and formed a hybrid magic, something we’ve never seen before.” Kerrick grinned, amazed by the way magic can change and evolve much like the humans they evolved from. “I’d like you to meet him, his workshop is a sight to behold. He’ll talk your ear off for hours if you let him but some of it is actually fascinating.”

  “Sounds like you’ve let him talk your ear off a time or two.”

  “I’ve had some sleepless nights here and there since taking the Alphar seat. I can usually count on Zach to be up late, tinkering with an unknown form of magic.” He gathered his legs up on the branch, bracing his arms against his knees. “Tell me something about you, something not having to do with Incendiaries.”

  “You know everything about me.”

  “I have an outline but I would like to fill in the blanks a bit.” He could sense her mind running at a rapid pace, turning over the pros and cons of telling him anything personal about herself. “I’m your Alphar, you’re supposed to give me what I want,” he said jokingly.

  She huffed, sticking her arm out to the side so he could see the obscene gesture she used to display exactly how she felt about that statement.