by Cynthia Eden
“And when you come for my throat…” His fingers brushed back her hair. “Hell, maybe I won’t even fight you.”
Because he didn’t know who had wronged her more. Him…or his brother.
***
Another time, another place. The memories were coming faster now as the blood pushed her to see more. Learn more.
The pounding of the surf hit her ears even as the scent of the ocean filled her nose. She paced—no, Jamie paced—inside a small beach house. A man sat before him, bound hand and foot to a chair.
The man’s blond hair fell over his eyes, but then Jamie said, “Witch, we can do this two ways. I can kill you now, or you can help me.” His hands lifted and claws glinted in the dying light. “We can both work together to take out Latham, and you can keep living.”
Witch? The man’s head rose. Brian Hennessey stared back at her. Pain froze her heart. Jamie had been working with Brain? With the witch who’d bound her?
Blood dripped from Brian’s busted bottom lip. “You can’t…stop him. He’s too strong.” Then Brian laughed. “He’s gonna take…over every pack…no stopping…”
Jamie kicked the chair and Brian fell backward, slamming into the wooden floor. “He’s strong because you gave him magic. You think I didn’t hear the story about the vampires you slaughtered? About the Blood Queen that you’re holding and slowly draining?” His lips curled in disgust. “I know you’re giving her blood to my brother. That’s why he’s so powerful.”
And for an instant, the fast flood of memories were hers, not Jamie’s. Iona remembered the prick of a needle in her arm. The slow suction as her blood drained away. Again and again and again as the years rolled away…
Her dark past vanished, and there was only Jamie once more.
“When we take his vamp away, he’ll get weak.” Jamie crouched over Sean and put his claws to the witch’s throat. “Tell me how to find her, and I’ll make sure to cut off his little blood supply. Because it’s her, right? Not just any vamp…her. I know she’s old, powerful—”
“M-magic.” Blood oozed from Brian’s throat when Jamie’s claws broke the skin. “Not just a vamp…the Blood Queen is part witch, too. Get her blood, get the power. Latham has the power.”
“Because you helped him!” Fury rolled in Jamie’s voice. “You backed the wrong brother. But you can regret that while you’re burning in hell.” His claws sank deeper into Brian’s throat.
Brian shook his head, seemingly frantic at the promise of death he must have seen in Jamie’s eyes.
Jamie’s claws lifted once more. He attacked.
More blood flowed.
The witch broke. “Th-there’s a way…end the curse…you can…can control her…”
Iona wanted to close her eyes. Wanted to slap her hands over her ears. But this wasn’t her body, and Jamie’s hands—they were too busy slicing into Sean.
“Then you tell me that way. Tell me how to control the Blood Queen, and you can help me to kill Latham.”
***
“My father was alpha,” Jamie said the words, knowing she probably couldn’t hear him—not while she was locked in blood memories—but still needing to speak. “I was his second son. Latham…he was my half-brother. Hell, I didn’t even know about the guy for the first ten years of my life. He just…showed up one day. His mother had never…she’d never joined the pack. That’s why his last name’s Gentry.”
Latham Gentry. The fucking wolf that had destroyed his world. “He’d been in America, had grown up there.” And, later, it would be Latham who convinced the pack that they needed to move across the pond and start fresh in the United States.
“I was a kid when Latham showed up, and Latham—hell, he was a fully mature wolf. He was also a sadistic prick.” Jamie shook his head. “Only back then, nobody but me ever seemed to see the evil that burned in him.” His fingers were laced with hers. “I tried to tell my father. He wouldn’t listen. He was too damn happy to have a strong, new wolf in the pack—a wolf with his blood.”
He’s fucking crazy. How many times had Jamie said those exact words to his father over the years? He’d seen the evil in Latham. Why hadn’t the others?
“The years passed. I could see that Latham was growing darker, more dangerous. I could also tell that he was positioning himself to be alpha.” The hell, no. “I had to leave the pack. I knew…I knew I’d never be able to swear allegiance to Latham.” His parents had been furious. Jamie’s father had disowned him, still refusing to see what Latham was. He said I was jealous. Bitter.
Their father had learned the truth for far too long.
“When I left, Sean came with me.” Sean had been his best friend for as long as he could remember. Orphaned, Sean had always been treated as the runt of the pack when they were kids. But Jamie hadn’t let the others ever hurt Sean. He’d fought plenty of battles for his friend until Sean had finally grown big enough to fight back.
When they’d left the only life they’d ever known, Sean had said, “It’s time for me to have your back.” Sean could be a smart-ass, but the guy was loyal. True through blood and bone.
They’d gone out, ready to start a whole new life.
But…something had happened. “Maybe it was you,” Jamie whispered to her. “There was talk that Latham had become obsessed with a vampire. That he wanted her for his mate, but she…she turned away from him.”
Smart choice.
“The years passed, and Latham just started to grow stronger. Crazier.” This was his shame. Jamie hadn’t returned to the pack then, despite the stories he’d heard. My father told me if I left, not to return. So he’d stayed away, thinking his father would finally see Latham for what he was—thinking that his father would stop the other wolf.
“But when my parents realized the truth about Latham and tried to fight back, he killed them.” The memory was a knife in his heart. “I came back—too late—and found their bodies.”
He’d never forget the sight. He’d heard tales of more bloodshed in the O’Connell pack. Tales of torture and death, and he hadn’t been able to stay away a moment longer.
“Latham tried to kill me, too, but vampire blood—your blood—saved me.” His breath rushed out on a rough sigh. “Didn’t thank you for that, did I? No, instead, I just went right ahead with my plans. I wanted revenge. I wanted Latham taken out, and I didn’t care who stood in my way.”
He leaned over her. “I fucking care now.”
And he heard the faintest of rustles in the hallway. Footsteps. Someone closing in.
He brushed his lips over hers. “I care now,” he said again, and went to face the threat coming for them.
***
“Are you sure about this?” Sean demanded as he glanced around at the two dead bodies that littered the ground. The dead werewolves were slowly shifting back into their human forms.
Jamie straightened his shoulders. She could feel the determination coursing through his veins. “The Blood Queen is inside.”
And he’d just defeated a small army in order to get to her.
Sean grabbed his arm. “How do you even know the witch is telling the truth? That whole story about waking her could be a bunch of BS. We might get in there and just find Latham waiting to gut us.”
Jamie glanced at him. “Brian burned himself out casting the spell for Latham, and he understands…my brother hates weakness. It’s only a matter of time before Latham kills Brian. The witch knows it, even if he can’t see his death coming.”
Sean frowned. “Can’t ‘see’ it? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Witches can see much in this world, and beyond it. Brian saw how to trap the Blood Queen, and he set the spell so that only a werewolf alpha could free her.”
“An alpha like you?”
Jamie nodded. Then they were running down a hallway. Attacking more wolves. Killing their own kind.
As Jamie gazed around, searching for more enemies, Iona realized that she knew this place.
Her pri
son.
Jamie stopped before a too-familiar metal door. “I’ll wake her, and she’ll be my weapon.”
She didn’t want to hear—
“If she wants to keep living,” Jamie said as he lifted his claw-tipped hand toward that door, “then she’ll need my blood. So she’ll do what I want.”
And she knew…He was just like Latham. Not caring what happened to her. Not giving a shit at all.
Maybe he deserved the same death as his brother.
Then Jamie and Sean were inside the room. Jamie inhaled the scent of the ocean. Saw the wispy curtains. Saw the body lying in the bed. So still.
Dead.
Jamie’s stare locked on her prone form. Sean grabbed him again. “This is a bad idea. There’s a reason she’s under, man. The woman is evil.”
No, she wasn’t. Sure, she’d done bad things, but only to those who’d come after her. She’d never hurt an innocent. Iona didn’t care what the twisted lies claimed about her.
Only Jamie didn’t think she looked evil. She was in his head, and she knew that he thought she looked…beautiful.
Insane man. She looked like a corpse.
“Go outside,” Jamie ordered Sean. “Guard the door, just in case…”
“In case the crazy bitch gets loose and kills you?”
She felt his annoyance. “In case we’ve been tracked. I don’t want anyone stopping me. Not until I put the bond in place.”
Bond. The word trembled through her.
Jamie cut his wrist. It was so strange to watch as he put his wrist—his blood—to her mouth. He tried to force her to drink. Frustration churned within him when her eyes didn’t open. “Maybe you are dead.”
Then she saw her own eyes open. “I’m not dead…” A weak, raspy voice. Her voice. “But you are.”
***
Jamie yanked open the door and put his claws at the werewolf’s throat. Sean froze with his hands up in the air. Then he demanded, “Fuck me, man, is that how you answer a door?”
“It is when I smell Latham’s scent.” And his brother’s scent was definitely on Sean. Jamie grabbed the guy and hauled him inside. “Want to tell me what the hell is happening?”
Sean swallowed. “He’s coming for you.” His gaze darted to the bed. “For her.”
That had been the plan. Before.
“You’ve changed your mind, haven’t you?” Sean charged. He shoved away from Jamie. “Dammit, I knew this would happen. I saw the way you were looking at her in that bar. When she said she was gonna drink from me…shit, you went postal.”
Postal? Huh. Jamie had thought that he’d held onto his control pretty well. All things considered. He had remembered that Sean was his best friend. So he hadn’t shoved his claws into Sean’s side.
“She was the big secret weapon.” Sean marched around the bed. “You were supposed to use her, not fall for her.” Sean’s gaze drifted from Iona’s still body back up to Jamie. “I guess you are more like your brother than you want to think.”
In an instant, Jamie had his friend against the wall, and his claws were out. “Don’t.” There were some lines that he wouldn’t even let Sean cross.
“Don’t what?” Sean demanded, not backing down at all. “I trusted you. I gave you my loyalty, my life. Latham’s a twisted freak, but he managed to walk the thin sanity line until he met her. Your brother couldn’t have her, and he went batshit. If she wasn’t his, then she was nobody’s. He locked her up and—”
Jamie’s fist and claws drove into the wall as his fury erupted. “He was always batshit! I saw it from the moment he came to the pack. He’d get off on torturing the weak. Hell, he almost killed you when you were only six.” But Jamie had stopped him. He’d always had to stop him. Story of my life. “You don’t remember, but I do. How the hell do you think you became an orphan? He was the one to kill your parents. He was the one who came after you. I told my father. I told him, but no one would believe me. Why would a wolf attack his own kind?”
Sean stared at him with stunned eyes.
“Because he’s a demented psychopath,” Jamie said, answering his own question as he yanked his claws out of the wall and stepped back. “And I am nothing like him.” He turned away from Sean and glanced over at the bed.
Iona’s eyes were open. She was sitting up in bed. Staring at him. Shit.
“You want her just as much as he does,” Sean said from behind him, but the werewolf’s voice shook with pain and sorrow.
I shouldn’t have told him like that. Sean deserved better. To him, Sean was his brother, not Latham.
“Remember your big plan?” Sean said and now he was getting angry. So Jamie wasn’t really surprised when the guy said—right in front of Iona—that, “Part of that plan was that I’d let Latham find me. I’d offer him a deal. Tell him that you’d trade her for peace.”
Jamie’s eyes were on Iona. “That was just a lie to bring him out. To get him to face me. I wasn’t going to make a deal.” I wouldn’t trade you. He’d thought to defeat Latham, not to actually give Iona to the bastard.
She just stared back at him. He couldn’t read a single emotion on her face or in her eyes.
“I held up my part of the agreement,” Sean snapped. “I went to him. Found him while he was torturing some human named Greg. I told Latham, and now he’s coming to meet you. Latham sent me to deliver a message. He wants you and the vamp to meet him at her old compound, at midnight.”
The plan had been to draw out Latham. To force him to face-off against Jamie. Only…Jamie had planned to be riding high off the rush that came from Iona’s powerful blood. Finally, a fair fight between the brothers. He’d planned to drink and drink from her.
Then use her to distract his brother so that he could go in for the kill.
I can’t. Because what if he was wrong? What if he wasn’t strong enough? And if Latham got to Iona…
Iona cut her gaze to Sean. She studied him a moment, then gave a curt nod. “We meet at midnight.”
No. Jamie hurried toward her. He leaned over the bed and had to fight to keep his hands off Iona. Don’t touch her when your claws are out. You can hurt her. “I’ll go after him myself. You don’t need—”
“I was supposed to be the instrument of your vengeance.” She pushed from the bed. Walked right by him. “And now you don’t want to use me?”
The blood memories. So she had gotten them all while she slept. No more hiding. His shoulders stiffened. “You know.”
Her burning gaze touched on him and said that she did.
“Good,” he told her and meant it. “Because I don’t want any more lies or secrets between us. I was an idiot then. I didn’t know you, and I thought—I thought who you were didn’t matter.” But she’d gotten under his skin. Into his very blood and soul. “You matter,” he said, the words too simple.
A furrow appeared between her eyes. “You expect me to believe—”
He hated that he had an avid audience watching his every word. Jeez, could Sean not give them some privacy for an instant? “I expect you to believe that I was an idiot. I was bent only on getting my own justice, and I didn’t realize the cost to you.”
Her breath seemed to come faster. Her eyes blazed. “You tied us together. For me to live, I’ll have to keep taking your blood.”
Shame burned through him. “I’m sorry, I—”
She waved away his apology with an angry swipe of her hand. “And you think I’d just let you waltz out there and face Latham alone? If he kills you, I’m dead, too.”
He realized the enormity of just what he’d done to her. Like an apology was gonna cut it. “I don’t plan on dying. I’ll kill him, and when this is over…”
“What? We’ll stay together, because you’ve bound us?”
He shook his head. “I’ll give you as much blood as you need, anytime you want it. You don’t have to stay with me. You can…” He stopped and cleared his throat. I want her with me. But he wanted her happiness more. “You can go anywhere you want,” Ja
mie forced himself to say, “do anything you want, and I’ll make sure the blood is always sent to you.” He’d be her personal donor, for as long as she wanted.
Forever.
She closed in on him and put her hand on his chest. Right over the heart that just seemed to beat only for her now. “And what about you? If you don’t get my blood, you won’t be the all powerful werewolf that you so desperately want to be.”
“He also won’t live forever without your blood,” Sean pointed out as he crept closer to them. His voice was controlled now, but Jamie knew the control was an act. I’m sorry, Sean. He’d kept the secret about Sean’s parents for too long. But if he’d told Sean the truth back then, the guy would have gone after Latham.
And gotten killed.
Sean was just a foot away now. Shoulders up. Head back. Eyes too determined. “All my research showed—”
Iona’s head jerked toward him. “Research? What research?”
Sean’s face reddened. “There’s…ah…a few mated werewolf and vampire couples these days. When they share blood, they stop aging. We even found one couple that had been together for seventy years, and the werewolf doesn’t look a day over twenty-five.”
Iona’s gaze came back to Jamie. So much suspicion in that gaze. He hated that look. I want her trust.
She didn’t appear to be in the mood to give it to him.
“So as long as you have my blood, you get to live forever, huh? I’m betting your brother,” Iona said the word like the curse it was, “knew all this, too. That’s why he just wouldn’t take my hell, no for an answer when he asked me to mate with him.”
“I’m killing him…” Latham would never touch her again.
“No, I’ll do that. I can fight my own battles, and pick my own mate.”
A mate that isn’t you. He knew exactly what she meant. His fingers lifted. Curled around the hand that she still had pressed over his heart. “It isn’t just your battle. He took my family.”
“Mine fuckin’, too,” Sean snarled.
Jamie flinched.