by T. S. Joyce
He leapt at her, but she dropped to her belly submissively. Only he didn’t hit her. He sailed right over her and latched onto a vampire that appeared in a puff of black smoke. An ally? He shredded vamps in the same style as Levi, working his way to the heart of the war.
And it hit her as she watched Levi and the wolf massacring the covens of vampires.
This was Rush. He’d come for Levi.
Fuck. Yes.
Grey’s howl lifted in the air. Dean’s wolf bolted into the clearing. Logan and Jason, Brent and Sarah’s wolves charged the war and engaged. The sound of battle was awful. It was screeching and snarling and the sound of ripping.
Above, a mass of bats covered the moon, stealing all light. They swirled above them like a tornado cloud and then slammed to earth so hard the ground shook her right off her feet.
A tall vampire with short red hair and eyes as black as night strode through the masses. Logan jumped at him, but he backhanded him. Logan slammed into a tree and didn’t get up.
The raw, rippling power coming off him made Marissa retch.
Aelred.
And his eyes were on Levi, who was warring in a hill of ashes.
He looked tired now, his torso covered in blood. The vampires backed off him with two simple words from Aelred. “He’s mine.”
Change me back! she cried to her wolf.
And for the first time in her life, the wolf gave the body back in an instant.
If you’re ever near death, call my name.
“Larius!” she screamed.
The wind whipped around them, and a snarl of rage filled the woods.
Aelred’s vampires were focused on the other wolves. Three came for Marissa, and she was overwhelmed, fighting desperately to get to Levi. But no one could get to him to help.
Aelred stopped in front of him, and Levi swayed slightly, still gripping the bloody stake in his hands. His muscles flexed, and his eyes were full of pure rage. So much blood. He had it sprayed across his face now, making his one blue eye look even brighter.
“Marissa, I need you to run,” he uttered, never taking his eyes off Aelred.
“Running won’t do her any good anymore.” Aelred reached out quick as a snake strike for Levi’s throat, but Levi ducked and slashed out with his stake. Aelred barely got out of the way, but his shirt was cut.
Shit. A vampire sank its teeth into her neck. She couldn’t watch their fight and pay attention to her own.
“Aelred!” Larius roared from the shadows. A wave of power knocked the vampires and wolves back.
Marissa went tumbling into a tree and grunted on impact as her air was taken from her.
“We had an agreement,” Larius said.
Aelred didn’t stop fighting, and he and Levi were just a blur of battle right now, an even match.
Desperately, Marissa dragged air into her lungs, but looked down to see why her stomach hurt so bad. A branch protruded from her side. Fuck. With a groan, she pulled it out and stood, swayed, but remained on her feet. She was bleeding badly. Her body was covered in bites. When had those happened?
Chin down, she forced her body to move faster, her focus on Aelred’s blurring body. He disappeared in a haze of purple smoke and then reappeared behind Levi, slammed his fist into his back, and Levi went down.
Kill him, her wolf said.
“Save her!” Levi yelled as he kicked Aelred’s leg and snapped his brittle shin bone. Aelred screamed in pain and rage. “Larius, do it. Take her away!”
Poof. Purple smoke appeared in front of her, and Larius was there. He dragged her against him and yelled, “Stop!” He knelt with her, and time stopped.
She gasped as she looked around the clearing at the frozen war. Logan was lying limp by a tree. Brent and Sarah were warring with a trio of vampires. Rachel’s wolf was under a pile, her eyes terrified as Dean and Wade tried to rip them off her.
Grey and Morgan were here, their pitch black and snow-white wolves midair, sprinting toward Levi and Aelred, but they would be too late. Much too late, because Aelred was bent over Levi’s body with Levi’s bloodied stake aimed straight at his chest. His hand was smoking where it touched the wood. His face was twisted with hatred, but Levi’s eyes were on her. His back was arched against the ground, eyes apologetic. Their story was coming to an end, and there was nothing he could do about it. It broke her heart.
“What have you done?” she asked Larius.
“I can hold it for just a while longer,” Larius whispered, his face strained.
Aelred’s stake lowered an inch.
“No, no, no, no,” Marissa whimpered. “You want to save me?” she asked.
“Yes,” Larius gritted out, his dark hair hanging down over his brow. It shook slightly.
“Then save Levi. I don’t want to exist if he doesn’t.”
“Marissa,” Larius growled, “I can’t fuck with fate.”
“Lariuuuussssss.” A woman’s voice echoed through the woods.
He jerked his attention to a glowing woman standing between two trees.
Aelred’s stake slipped another inch.
“Larius!” Marissa cried.
He gritted his teeth and growled in effort.
“You couldn’t save me,” the woman said in an echoing voice.
“Sable,” Larius ground out, “I’m sorry.”
“I’ve waited for you.” Sable’s whisper whipped around on the wind. “Don’t be sorry. You couldn’t save me from Aelred, but you can save the girl. Come home.”
“Home?” he gritted out, tears streaming down the corners of his eyes.
Sable’s ghost disappeared in a plume of light blue smoke and reappeared next to Marissa. She wore a white flowing dress and, God, she was the spitting image of Marissa. She looked just the same, even down to the freckle pattern on her nose and the curls in her hair that whipped around her face. “Come home to me.”
Aelred’s stake slipped another inch.
“Larius, please,” Marissa begged. Tears streamed down her own face. “I love him.”
And there was a moment of such tenderness in Larius’s eyes before he disappeared in the purple smoke, ripping the branch from her hand so hard she fell forward. Larius appeared between Aelred and Levi, the broken tree limb in his hand positioned right up against Aelred’s heart.
And time killed them both.
Aelred and Larius disappeared in a pile of ashes over Levi.
The screams of the vampires became deafening as one by one, they fell into their own pile of ashes.
Beside her, Sable brushed her cheek, but Marissa just felt a gentle caress, like a breeze on her flesh. “The rebirth of the Silver Wolf Clan wasn’t only about Morgan. Your fate was born hundreds of years ago. I was killed by Aelred because I was trying to protect the Silver Wolves. You’re the guardian of this pack, Marissa. Never forget your importance. This war ends with you.”
Sable smiled and looked at something behind Marissa. Larius stood there, blue and translucent, emotion filling his eyes as he stared in disbelief at Sable. She stood and held out her hands. “Good deeds are rewarded with an afterlife,” she murmured to him. “With me.”
Larius stepped forward to slip his hands into hers, and the second their fingers touched, they faded to nothing.
“Levi?” she called, gripping her side where the branch had gone through her. Werewolf healing was good, but this was a bad injury, and she was scared.
Grey’s wolf reached him, and he Changed in a moment, knelt down over Levi. Why wasn’t he moving from that spot, buried in the ashes of the ancients?
“It’s gonna be okay, Marissa.” Levi’s voice was strained, and he swallowed hard, his Adam’s apple dipping low in his throat.
“Wade, I need a knife,” Grey called out. “He’s got silver in him.”
The pack doctor had already Changed back and ran toward Cassian’s destroyed truck.
Morgan skidded to a stop next to Marissa and started her Change back.
Blood and ashes.
Blood and ashes.
She didn’t feel good. Too woozy.
“Logan’s still breathing,” Rachel yelled out, but she was doing CPR on his wolf so it couldn’t be good. Shadows were darkening her vision, and she blinked hard, desperate to hang on. Wade was sprinting toward Grey with a bottle of water and a long knife.
Sarah was crying.
Brent yelled for Logan to, “Stay with us.”
Rush’s wolf paced back and forth near Levi, eyes never leaving him.
Hold on!
Morgan scrambled toward her, purple wolf eyes never leaving the hole through Marissa’s side. Morgan looked scared.
Blood and ashes.
The ashes of the dead vampires lifted in the breeze like the woods already wanted to get rid of them.
Her vision was getting too dark at the edges. Blurred.
“Levi?” she asked.
“Yeah, babe. Yeah, babe,” he gasped out.
“You stay and I’ll stay. Deal?”
He tried to smile and then nodded his head as Grey and Wade worked over him. “Deal.”
And then everything went dark.
Chapter Thirteen
The funerals were on a Tuesday.
Marissa wore a black dress, a black floppy hat, and black heels. It was raining, and everyone was somber.
Everyone but Logan. “Look, I said I was sorry.”
“You’re an asshole,” Lana growled at him.
“It’s just chickens,” Logan said. “I didn’t mean to eat them. I was a wolf. And they were little.” He cupped his hands and looked at them. “Like little chicken nuggets—”
“They were my friends! You always eat my pets!”
Marissa pursed her lips against a smile and beside her, Levi snorted. He looked at her with wide eyes. Don’t make me laugh, he mouthed.
Morgan sighed and sprinkled a handful of dirt over tiny graves that didn’t even have the chickens in them because Logan had digested them. “Honey, don’t say ‘asshole,’ and I keep telling you that no pet is safe in a pack of werewolves.”
“Chicken nuggets taste good,” Thorne said. The kid always had the boys’ backs.
Lana glared at him, and Thorne stuck his tongue out at her.
“No one is taking this funeral seriously,” Lana muttered.
“Yes, we are,” Jason argued.
“You’re wearing a Hawaiian shirt and flip flops,” Lana snapped.
Touché.
“Look, go easy on us, kid,” Brent pleaded. “How many funerals is this now? And you keep bringing pets here knowing there is a zero percent success rate.”
“Because you all don’t try hard enough.”
“Everything you bring in is delicious, Lana,” Logan pointed out. “Next time, try a pet porcupine is all I’m saying.”
Levi muttered, “I can’t wait to see Logan’s stupid face full of quills.”
Jason and Brent laughed, and even Lana cracked a little smile but wiped it away as fast as she could. There was a big chance she was going to track down a porcupine soon.
Grey was staring at the sky like he was praying for patience. “Can we eat yet?”
“Fine,” Lana muttered, stomping away from the little grave markers. “What are we having?”
“Chicken,” Grey deadpanned.
Lana growled a very human sound and led the way to the house while the rest of them tried their best not to lose their shit laughing.
“What?” Grey asked Morgan, who swatted him as she walked by. “It was Rush’s idea. He’s been marinating it for the barbecue all night. Who am I to turn down barbecue chicken?”
Marissa watched them all trickle toward the house. Rush was up on the porch, watching Levi and her. He was almost silent as a man, but she thought he liked her enough. Levi said he did, at least. Rush lifted a beer in a cheers to them. He looked proud of Levi, like a father would of a son.
“That’s my favorite smile of yours,” Levi murmured. “The one when you are watching the people you love being happy. It makes you happy, too. I can tell.”
“Sable said I was important,” she said. “That’s stuck with me over the last few weeks. She said my fate started hundreds of years ago.”
“I heard her, and I agree.” He turned to her and slipped his hands to her waist. She had a big scar there now from the branch, but it didn’t hurt anymore. It was just another reminder of what she’d survived.
She searched Levi’s striking eyes. “I always thought my fate was to be invisible. But it wasn’t. It was just to be a quiet little bodyguard for the Silver Wolves. For Morgan and the babies.”
“You realize what you did, right?”
“What?”
“Because of you, the two ancients killed each other, and every vampire they made died because of that. Sable couldn’t save the Silver Wolves from the vampires when she was alive.” He rubbed his thumbs in gentle circles at her hips and dipped to her eye level. “But you did. You changed everything. We’re all here because of you. I’m here…because of you. So yeah, I agree with Sable. You are important, but you know what?”
“What?”
He dipped his voice to a whisper. “I always knew that.”
She melted against him, hugged him up tight, and felt his drumming heartbeat pounding strong and steady against her cheek.
She lived and breathed for that sound.
She’d never in a million years called this happening. Her joy was so deep now. Levi was a huge reason for that. His love was unconditional and endless, and hers was the same for him.
They had a life here. A family, a pack, peace, happiness. She’d somehow stumbled on “it all.” All the good stuff.
And most importantly to her, she knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was safe with Levi. She’d watched him war almost to the death to keep her safe, and it had built her unconditional trust and faith in him.
“Marissa?” he murmured, swaying them gently. His tone sounded different, so she looked up at him and frowned. “Yeah?”
He pulled something from his pocket and slipped it onto her finger. It was a simple white gold band. His eyes were so full of adoration as he studied her face. “You stay and I’ll stay. Deal?”
Her face crumpled with emotion as she looked down at the ring again. Her vision blurred with her tears, and she nodded. Those were the words that had kept them both tethered to this world together all those weeks ago in the vampire war.
You stay and I’ll stay.
For always.
“Deal,” she whispered.
Epilogue
Alexis knelt down by the bed and clasped her hands together. In the open doorway, Jonathan Reeves stood, watching his mate with such disappointment in his eyes.
“Dear Jesus,” she prayed primly, “please grant me the power to kill Morgan Crawford someday. Please help me to amend my failure to do it right in the first place. Please let Morgan lose all her hair and for Grey never to get a boner for her ever again. Let her suffer for breaking up the family I had planned on. Let her humor wither, and let her only tell lame jokes that makes both Dallas packs hate to be around her. Let her fall into a well and her body never be found—”
“I can’t believe you do this still,” Jonathan murmured.
“Well the vampires won’t pick up my calls anymore, Jonathan, so this is what I’m reduced to.”
“I thought your hatred would fade over time if I made you happy enough.”
She snorted and twitched her platinum blond hair to the side. “Mighty cocky to think that you could make a woman like me happy.”
Jonathan huffed a breath like she’d stung him.
And Larius could see it there—the genuine hurt in Jonathan’s eyes. How many times had that awful woman hurt this man with her words?
Beside him, Sable shook her head angrily. She hated when adults acted like this. Always had. They’d come to see this infamous Alexis for themselves. Why not? They were ghosts. They had all the time in the world. They’d wanted to
make sure the Silver Wolves were really safe and all the loose ends were tied neatly since Alexis was the last frayed rope that could hang Morgan and the Silver Wolf Clan. That could bring harm to Marissa.
Jonathan tucked his chin to his chest, and his voice shook as he said, “I made a mistake thinking you could love me, didn’t I?”
“All you do is make mistakes. Now…if you don’t like my prayers? Leave. No one asked you to stick around anyway. No one here will miss you. I wouldn’t miss you, or anyone in this stupid fucking pack, if you all just disappeared from the face of the planet. So go on, Jonathan. Disappear.” When she made a shooing motion with her hand, Larius could feel Sable stiffen beside him.
Being a ghost was awesome. These wolves couldn’t even sense them here. Didn’t even know they were being observed in their natural habitat.
Jonathan gritted his teeth and turned, left Alexis alone.
“Finally,” she muttered. “And also please let my stupid mate jump off a cliff and leave me alone forever. And when you’re done with that, please make sure Grey thinks about me every day—every minute of the day—and realizes how much he misses being with someone who truly matches his wolf. Let Morgan feel him drifting apart from her and let her have nightmares of my face as Grey asks me to be his mate—”
“Yeah, that’s enough,” Larius said, solidifying his form.
Alexis startled hard and stood in a rush.
Larius crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the desk. “My wife and I can’t listen to your grating voice anymore.”
“What an obsessive psychopath,” Sable murmured, staring at Alexis like she was a dung beetle. “You really think you have some kind of claim on a man who is perfectly happy with someone else? Do you know how disgusting you are?” God, she was cute when she got protective.
“W-who are you?” Alexis stammered. “Jonathan! Jonathan someone is in our room!”
The front door slammed hard enough to shake the house as Jonathan walked out.
“I don’t think he cares,” Sable told her with a gleeful smile. “If you shit on people long enough, eventually, they’ll get tired of you. Methinks he’s way past tired of you.”