by Eva Brandt
I hated myself a little for feeling any kind of pleasure at his touch. But in this case, maybe it was a good thing. For now, it would help me fool him. I’d berate myself for it later, once he was out of my way as a threat.
“That’s it, lovely,” he said as he broke our kiss. “See how easy it is? All you have to do is come with me and you’ll never have to worry about a thing again.”
“O-Okay,” I stammered. “But you have to keep your promise. You have to heal Ulysses.”
“Done,” he replied.
A soft, golden glow surrounded Ulysses’s body. He twitched and let out a pained whine. I clutched Daimon’s shoulder, afraid that he’d lied to me and was torturing Ulysses.
“Relax,” he said. “Healing is always painful. That’s why I can do it in the first place. He’ll be all better in a minute.”
It took less than a minute, but the wait still seemed to drag on forever. As I looked at Ulysses, I held my breath and prayed this wouldn’t be for nothing.
And then, Ulysses stirred and cracked his eyes open. His eyes widened when he saw me in Daimon’s arms. Anger flashed through his gaze, and I could tell he wanted to attack Daimon again. But he didn’t get a chance. The tendrils of gold tightened around him, no longer harmless and soothing.
“There,” Daimon told me. “He’s fine now. Time to go.”
I barely heard him. A different voice echoed in my mind, steadier and stronger than the stone underneath our feet. “Duck, Genny.”
I instinctively listened, tearing myself away from his arms. The next thing I knew, Byron leaped onto Daimon’s back and buried his fangs in his throat.
Daimon staggered under the weight of the wolf and the two of them fell to the floor. Xander joined in, tearing at Daimon’s stomach. But Daimon was too good of a fighter to let the sudden attack thwart him. His power started to pool around him again, angry and vicious.
It was so easy to imagine Byron and Xander as hurt as Ulysses was. I couldn’t bear the thought of my soulmates suffering any longer.
“No!” I cried. “Please! Stop!”
It wasn’t like back at the compound, when I’d lashed out against those undead and destroyed them. I didn’t know how I’d channeled that power at all. This time, the force that erupted out of me was different, a little similar to Ulysses’s aura.
Daimon froze, his magic still bubbling under his skin, but inactive. Byron and Xander loosened their hold on him. Nobody was moving. Nobody even seemed to be breathing.
We all just stared at each other, caught in a web of power I couldn’t understand or control. And maybe things would have gone downhill all over again had Ulysses not joined in.
His aura slid over me, over all of us, and it was just as strong and steady as before. It snapped Daimon out of his trance, but it didn’t make him attack again.
“Don’t forget, lovely, you’re mine,” he said. “You gave yourself to me. That won’t ever change.”
The air around him blurred and there was another flash of magic. In the blink of an eye, he was gone, leaving Xander and Byron lying down on the floor alone.
For a few seconds, I couldn’t believe it. I had been absolutely sure that this time, he would not give up.
I slid down to my knees, in shock. Ulysses knelt by my side and wrapped his arms around me. “It’s going to be okay,” he whispered into my hair. “You’re safe now, Genny.”
I almost wanted to laugh, because he was deliberately ignoring the real problem. Yes, I was safe. Daimon Rossi didn’t actually want to hurt me.
But the same thing could not be said about my soulmates. Daimon would come back eventually. This wasn’t over yet.
* * *
Byron
Earlier
The creature that had dared to attack our pack lands wasn’t a regular demon. I knew that from the moment he dared to cast a spell at us. I didn’t understand why, though, not immediately, not until I spotted the paw marks in the grass.
A shifter-demon hybrid, like Ulysses? Damn it, this was bad. Hybrids were complicated creatures. They carried a heavy burden, since they were often torn between two conflicting natures. Too often, their minds broke because of it.
Ulysses still struggled with his background, but being part of the pack helped him and meant he would never lose control. This other creature was a mystery.
I didn’t fear the hybrid, not exactly, but I knew there was only one thing that could have brought him here. He was after Imogen. The pack lair was guarded, but it might not be enough.
I had a choice. I could stay to hunt down the intruder, or I could go to Imogen’s aid.
The creature took it out of my hands. Instead of hiding like I’d expected him to, he emerged from behind a tree, smirking at us.
“Well, well. If it isn’t the Brooks pack. How are you on this wonderful day? Aren’t you going to welcome me properly?”
He didn’t try to attack us, and that gave me a few seconds to analyze him. He was tall, dark-haired, and slender, and his dark skin and sharp nose betrayed a possible Native American background. He was also not a hybrid, I realized, but a werewolf shaman.
Werewolves weren’t born with the ability to use magic, so shamans were all very easy to recognize. Every shaman, with no exception, was covered in a lot of ritualistic tattoos. The markings served as conduits for their magic, replacements for the channels they hadn’t been born with. This particular one had so many tattoos on his chest and arms that his skin wasn’t even visible anymore. It was probably necessary, since he was dabbling in the Lost Arts.
It made me wary, but it didn’t scare me. He was a threat I had to take out. Imogen was waiting for me, and he was in my way. I would remove him. It was that simple.
Ignoring the danger, I rushed at the shaman. Xander was right by my side. Like me, he realized how serious this was, and he’d stopped focusing on the pack altogether.
It was a good thing that both of us had the same idea, because the shaman had made preparations. A shield blocked our path, and we only realized it when we ran straight into it.
Pain erupted through me, and a bone in my shoulder snapped. But I considered myself fortunate.
If I’d been alone, I would have probably been propelled back. I wasn’t. My strength and momentum combined with Xander’s and cracked the shield.
“Again!” Xander shouted at me.
I followed his command and the others joined us, ramming their bodies into the shield like battering rams. They weren’t as resilient and strong as Xander and me, but every bit helped.
The shaman wasn’t happy with this development. He took a step back and made an unfamiliar gesture with his hands. A glowing symbol appeared in front of him, only to vanish a few seconds later.
I didn’t know what he was doing, but whatever it was, it couldn’t be good. And maybe I’d have tried to avoid him, but that was when I sensed Ulysses cry out for us.
“Xander, we’re in trouble. Help us!”
The words might have been addressed to Xander, but I heard them too. I pushed my body harder, faster, and at the last moment, just before the symbol dissipated, I broke through.
The shaman’s eyes widened. He hadn’t expected that. Good.
To his credit, he had a backup plan. More symbols appeared and his tattoos flashed an ominous red. Crimson arrows manifested in front of him and flew toward us.
But Xander and I were too determined to be stopped so easily. We dodged the projectiles. It was a close call, but my instincts didn’t fail me.
The arrows served a secondary purpose, and they bought the shaman some time to regroup. His body melted into a dark grey wolf and he pressed his paw to the ground.
The earth started to crack. Behind us, several of our pack members yelped in terror.
The abyss beneath us swirled with demonic shadows, threatening to swallow our souls. But Xander and I kept going, just like we had at the vampire compound. The shaman would have to do better than that to scare us, but we didn’t intend to give
him the chance to try.
In mere seconds, we reached him. Xander managed to get a good blow in, raking his claws over the other wolf’s snout. He almost put out an eye in the process, but the shaman avoided that, jerking his head to the side.
The motion left his throat exposed and I took advantage of the opening. I pounced on him and buried my fangs in his throat.
If he hadn’t been magical, I would have killed him in the blink of an eye. But the tattoos provided him with some protection, even when he was in shifter form. I did a lot of damage, but I didn’t kill him.
He panicked and retaliated. His magic blasted us back, scorching our fur. I came very close to being propelled into the dark abyss, but I shifted mid-air and grabbed hold of a tree branch, changing directions at the last moment.
I landed on my feet, ready to engage my opponent again. But there was no one there. The strange shifter had vanished.
I’d have been very angry at not being able to finish off the intruder, but at that moment, I couldn’t care less. With him out of the way, I was free to go find Imogen. And I did exactly that.
“We need to go back,” Xander told the rest of the pack. “The den is under attack.”
He didn’t say that he and I were going on ahead, but he didn’t have to. It was obvious. Even if Imogen hadn’t been there, we would’ve still had to do it. The pups and females needed us.
Trusting the elders to guide the union back, we rushed toward the lair. We found the weaker members of the pack already outside. They must have fled the cave when they’d realized it was under attack.
“Alpha!” Veronica cried the moment she saw Xander. “Your mate is still in there.”
We already knew that, and we didn’t stop to acknowledge her. Time was running out. Ulysses was powerful, but he wouldn’t be able to fight off the demon who’d come to get Imogen.
When we ran into the lair, we immediately sensed the echoes of the demonic magic being used inside. It grew stronger and stronger as we headed deeper into the caverns, toward our chambers.
I half-expected to run into the same shadowy obstacles that had attacked us at the compound, but we didn’t. In fact, at one point, the oppressive sensation of the demon’s power faded away a little. It allowed us to move faster, although I had the horrible feeling it had come at a high cost.
That guess was confirmed seconds later, when we reached our quarters. The guards had already arrived, but they weren’t doing a thing, still paralyzed by the power of the creature. But Imogen had taken a stand in her own way.
Still naked, she was in his embrace, distracting him. I knew how hard it must have been for her to allow it, and I vowed to rip him to pieces for making her go through that again.
“Duck, Genny!” I heard Xander say.
The demon didn’t sense us, although we hadn’t exactly been discreet. But as we attacked, I knew he wouldn’t go down quietly.
As we fell to the floor and ripped into his flesh, I felt the poison of his blood and magic already seeping into me. I wanted to tell my soulmate to take Ulysses and run, but she didn’t. “No!” she shouted. “Please! Stop!”
The three simple words settled over us like an enchantment. The demon stopped trying to fight us. Imogen probably didn’t realize what she was doing, the outburst of power too strong for her to direct it at one person alone. I knew I should be using this opening to kill the demon, but I couldn’t. My beast was leashed by a force far stronger than my own will.
In the end, the whole episode didn’t last more than a minute. The demon fled, and we snapped out of our trance quickly. But his departure left us with a lot of questions and a feeling of helplessness we couldn’t suppress.
Xander shifted first and ushered the guards away. He should have probably gone to see the rest of the pack, but our first duty was to our soulmate. They’d just have to understand.
“She’s not physically injured,” Ulysses said after checking up on Imogen, “but she’s not okay either.”
“I’m fine,” Imogen croaked out. It didn’t sound convincing at all.
“You’re really not,” I replied. Kneeling in front of her, I reached for her hand.
Much to my surprise, Imogen slapped me away and shot to her feet. Her eyes were even wider than before and she looked like she was going to have a panic attack. “Genny, it’s just me. I’m not going to hurt you.”
Tears filled her beautiful green eyes. “You should. After everything I’ve done, I don’t deserve your kindness. I don’t deserve you.”
What was she talking about? What nonsense had that demon gotten into her head?
“Genny… Don’t say that.”
“It’s true,” she replied, clenching her jaw. “Didn’t you hear him?”
“You can’t let that creature get to you, Genny,” Xander said. “He’s just trying to separate us.”
“Yes, but… That doesn’t mean he wasn’t honest.” She took a deep breath, as if bracing herself for something very difficult. “I slept with him. Willingly.”
I stared at her, unable to believe what I was hearing. That was impossible. She’d been a virgin when we’d first had sex, and if he’d touched her after that, we’d have known.
“Genny…”
“He came to me in a dream,” she blurted out, “although I didn’t realize that at the time. I thought it was real. And I… I don’t know what happened. I didn’t mean to…”
The story came out in broken sentences. Apparently, the creature had taken advantage of the moments of privacy we’d given her to haunt her in her sleep. He’d seduced her, and she was blaming herself for it.
There was nothing she could have done about it. I believed that. She perceived her inability to resist him as a betrayal, but I knew things didn’t work that way.
“Genny, it’s not your fault,” I told her. “That’s just the way it is with demons.”
Imogen shook her head viciously. “I should have been stronger.”
Ulysses let out a low sigh. “Listen, beautiful. Sometimes, it doesn’t matter how strong a person is. A demon’s ability to twist minds will always be stronger.” His lips quirked in a small, bitter smile. “Take it from someone who knows. Emotions are playthings in a demon’s hands.”
“That’s not an excuse,” Imogen insisted. “I should have told you sooner. If you’d known about it, you would have been prepared for today.”
“Not everything is your responsibility, Genny,” Xander said. “We knew the demon was still out there and still had an interest in you. We knew there was an intruder nearby. If people got hurt, it wasn’t because of you.”
“But Xander—”
“No buts,” Xander cut her off. “It was our fault too, for not seeing what was going on. But we won’t let that happen to you again, okay? We won’t let him touch you.”
This time, our insistence paid off. When we approached her again, she came to us willingly. And when we carried her off to bed and dried her tears with our kisses, she slowly began to calm down.
We lay back on the bed together and she settled between me and Ulysses, closing her eyes. As I wrapped my arms around her, Xander lay down on Ulysses’s other side. I met his eyes and in his gaze, I saw the same knowledge that echoed in my heart.
We couldn’t wait any longer. Imogen wasn’t prepared for the weight of a bond with three werewolves, but we were running out of time.
We had to claim her, as soon as possible.
Epilogue
Imogen
After everything that had happened during the full moon, I’d thought the pack would reject me for having endangered them. As it turned out, that couldn’t have been further from the truth.
Several of the members of the pack approached me to apologize. “We didn’t realize how serious your situation was,” Veronica explained, sounding a little sheepish. “We’ll tighten our defenses, and the demon won’t be able to reach us here. I’m sure the Alpha will be able to keep you safe.”
I thanked her, although I k
new there were others who weren’t so eager to accept me. The elders, for example, still shot me ugly looks. I’d barely spoken a word to them since my arrival, but they stared at me like I was something they’d scraped off the bottom of their paws.
My soulmates must have realized this as well, because Xander finally put his foot down and decided he wouldn’t allow me to stay away from the pack any longer.
Two nights after Daimon’s attack, a pack-wide celebration was held. Normally, it was supposed to take place during full moon nights, but Xander had delayed everything to make sure their lands were safe.
“I know you’re nervous,” he told me that evening, “but you’re part of the pack now. It’s time for everyone—with no exception—to understand that.”
I was still a little leery, but I obeyed anyway. I’d already made things difficult enough for Xander without continuing to act like I had before.
The celebration was held in a large grove a mile or so away from the lair. By the time Xander and Byron led me there, most of the pack was already present.
I’d been at plenty of similar gatherings with my fellow hunters, so when I walked into the grove, I expected those memories to overwhelm me, to cripple me with the weight of what I’d lost. It didn’t happen.
Oh, it was easy to remember the way I’d sat around the campfire with my siblings, dancing, laughing, telling stories, receiving advice. But everything came to me through a fog, as if it had all happened to someone else, in another lifetime.
My family’s betrayal had cut me so deep that I truly felt like a different person.
Shaking off my musings, I focused on the present, not the past. The pack made it pretty easy, since three quarters of them were naked.
While in the lair, the shifters tended to wear clothes. According to Xander, it was because bonded pairs who lived in the same space needed the assurance that someone else wouldn’t touch their mate. The clothes were a symbol more than anything else. On such nights, the limits the werewolves imposed on one another were set aside, leaving behind only intimacy.