Sinister Pretty (Alexa O'Brien Huntress Book 11)

by Trina M. Lee

  Up against the kitchen wall, we banged like bunnies. Or wolves, really. Fast, fierce thrusts fed my desire. In Shaz’s embrace, I found a prime source of heady eroticism. I couldn’t help but feast on his testosterone-charged, fight-fueled energy.

  A quickie in the kitchen just wouldn’t be complete without having someone walk in on us. My gaze strayed toward the door when I sensed Arys’s arrival.

  Against my neck Shaz murmured, “I don’t care.”

  Arys entered like the darkness he possessed, slipping inside to linger in the porch where he watched us from beyond the light of the kitchen. Slowly he glided toward us. Apprehension filled me. In response to his approach, Shaz quickened his pace.

  Hunger burned in Arys’s eyes. If he’d hunted earlier, it hadn’t satisfied him. Or perhaps he simply couldn’t resist Shaz and me.

  I watched Arys slip behind Shaz in silent predator mode, stealthy, every move calculated. Anticipation hit me with a spark of electricity. Something good was coming and I couldn’t wait.

  Holding tighter than necessary to Shaz, I locked eyes with Arys. A ravenous creature stared back at me. In the kitchen light, the bruises he wore echoed his black hair and midnight eyes. So I guess that solved the mystery of whom Shaz had been scrapping with.

  It probably shouldn’t have turned me on to discover they’d been fighting right before coming here. But it did. I was curious to see now how this would play out. Arys had clear intentions written all over his face. However, Shaz didn’t always play by Arys’s rules.

  Arys slid a hand into Shaz’s hair, and I bit my lower lip as my white wolf trembled. The power Arys called arced from him to me. With Shaz between us, he became a link in the chain. A scorching wave of lust rolled off him, eliciting small cries from me with each thrust.

  Fingers tightening on that soft platinum hair, Arys wasn’t gentle when he jerked Shaz’s head aside to bare his neck. And he didn’t play nice, making both Shaz and me crazy with anticipation when he made no rush to go for the bite. No, instead he dragged his tongue along the pumping vein in Shaz’s lovely neck.

  I groaned. With the power rising to a ridiculous level, I couldn’t take much more. I drew close to the edge, and I needed Shaz to bleed.

  I knew how Arys liked to play this game: push right to the brink and then let the blood flow. In just minutes he’d taken control though he’d barely done anything. It was all in the intent.

  Shaz’s fingers dug into my hips. He held me like a lifeline, all that kept him grounded to this plane. So close. He was so close.

  “Do it. Do it now.” My breathy whisper didn’t accurately convey my impatience.

  Arys hesitated just a moment, ensuring we were at the peak of agonized and aroused, right where he wanted us. Then fangs pierced flesh and blood spilled.

  A “fuck yeah” slipped from my lips at the moment of release. Arys sighed, and a ragged groan escaped Shaz. In that heartbeat of time and space, with Shaz acting as the conduit between us, the three of us were one entity. And it felt pretty fucking magical.

  My head spun and my ears rang. I could only imagine how Shaz felt. If Arys’s gaping black pupils were any indication, he felt pretty damn fine.

  When my feet were back on the floor and I managed to walk without my knees giving out, I led the way upstairs with a beckoning finger where we all fell into bed together.

  In the early morning hours we laid about, staring absently at the TV while Arys propped himself against the headboard and channel surfed through infomercials and reruns of shows we didn’t watch.

  Finally I asked the question that I already knew the answer to: “Did you guys do that to each other?”

  “Only some of it,” Arys said with a shrug.

  Asking for details might result in hearing something I’d rather not, so instead I snuggled in close to Shaz. I traced a finger lightly over the bruise on his nose. “You guys make me crazy, you know that?”

  “Ditto.” Shaz’s arm tightened around me, and he took a deep breath. “Can I ask you guys something?”

  The way he said it gave me pause. I angled my head to better see his face. For just a second I dreaded what might come out of his mouth.

  “Spit it out, pup,” Arys commanded.

  Shaz hesitated. “How were things between the two of you when I went out of town?”

  “What do you mean exactly?” I asked.

  “Shitty.” Arys jumped in with his opinionated response. “If I recall correctly, she told me she couldn’t handle this anymore. That she needed me to leave her alone. I doubt I need to say it, but that didn’t go over well.”

  I balked at his tone. “Hey, that was a hard time for me.” My next words were for Shaz. “You left, and I was so lost without you. The constant conflict with Arys on top of that, combined with all the shit Lilah pulled… It was enough to make anyone lose it.”

  Arys chuckled and jabbed me with his elbow. “When are you not losing it?”

  “Screw you.” I laughed, considering an elbow jab back at him.

  “Oh, is it my turn?” Arys defended himself with a pillow when my fist sailed toward his face.

  “Don’t be a pig.”

  Ignoring our banter, Shaz sat up partially, his gaze darting between us. “So things were bad?”

  He was working up to something; I could feel it. Nerves twisted in my gut. I didn’t like this. “Yeah,” I said. “It got pretty bad. Why do you ask?”

  Shaz pulled away and dragged himself into a sitting position. His eyes were wide, darting from me to Arys to the blanket in his lap.

  My uneasy feeling grew.

  He sucked in a breath. “When I was away, I had a lot of time to think, and I came to the realization that I have a role to play here, with you both. It wasn’t until recently that I became more sure of what that might be. But it just sounds so crazy.”

  Because I didn’t know what to say as he worked his way up to whatever it was that bothered him, I gave him an awkward leg pat. “Story of our lives.”

  “Go on.” Arys waved a hand, wanting Shaz to hurry up and get to his point.

  “You know how you always call me your anchor?” Shaz waited for my nod before plunging ahead. “There may be some truth to that. I went to see Brogan, hoping she would know something. She didn’t, but we did some digging and uncovered some interesting information.”

  I listened in awestruck wonder as he went on to describe all they’d learned. Shaz was a keystone. A magical anchor created to tie Arys and I together, to patch the two broken pieces that we were. To keep us from self-destructing. That was why Shaz’s absence had caused such havoc between Arys and me. He kept us balanced. Grounded. Anchored.

  Feeling like I’d been kicked in the face, I sat up, trying to sort through what I’d just heard. Someone had orchestrated this. Someone had chosen Shaz to be this anchor for us. Our sanity was tied to him, to his presence, to his very life.

  “Holy shit. I knew it. I fucking knew it.” Nothing else would come out. It was all I could do to process this information. Part of me had known, had always viewed him as my anchor.

  Arys’s calm and cool reaction came as no surprise. He was always so chill when I freaked out. “So who do we think orchestrated this cosmic keystone? Obviously it’s someone who knows how much you mean to Alexa. They purposefully chose you to keep us from destroying each other.”

  Doubt crossed Shaz’s face. “It sounds really fucked up when you say it like that. I keep asking myself if maybe this is all a mistake and I’m just reading too much into what I’ve been sensing.”

  “No, it’s real.” I shook my head vigorously. “I’ve felt it all along. I always thought maybe it’s a wolf thing that kept me anchored to you, but this makes better sense. I think Willow did it.”

  Our wolves were bonded. They had been from the start, long before Arys came to town. I’d mistakenly assumed Shaz grounded me because of the wolf. Never would I have guessed how much more there was to it. And I knew in my soul that Willow had done this.
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  “Well, that would fit.” Arys nodded as he considered it. “If we’re assuming this was done with the intent to help. Although it’s unfortunate that all it does is grant us a postponement of what’s to come. Unless…”

  The wicked expression Arys wore brought my wolf’s defensiveness to the surface. Shaz’s wolf apparently felt the same because there was an audible jump in his heartbeat. In a flat tone he stated, “Not interested.”

  No way would Arys suggest that we turn Shaz without one hell of a fight from me. “Don’t go there, Arys. We already knew we’d end up like the others. Let’s just be glad it won’t get that bad for a while.”

  The bastard laughed in the face of my territorial ire. “Bringing Shaz into our bloodline would be doing him a favor. But hey, no pressure.”

  Shaz’s vicious glare spoke volumes. “Again, no thanks. Not interested.”

  He’d always been clear about where he stood on such things. Shaz would rather die than live as one of us. Much as it pained me to think it, I agreed. It would be better for him to never know the hunger we faced.

  “Never.” I shook my head, refusing to entertain such thoughts. “Shaz is too good to be what we are.”

  Arys took in the pain on my face, the agony in my eyes, and he backed off. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

  CHAPTER FOUR

  “Shaz has uncovered some information about a keystone. I think you owe us some answers.” I hung up before I could start ranting. Willow’s voicemail wasn’t the place to vent my confusion and frustration.

  I hadn’t expected him to answer the phone. Most of the time I didn’t understand why he had one. Willow hadn’t been himself since the night I died. He came around less, and the spark of fun-loving mischief had long since gone out. Although I knew he’d been doing his angelic duty by taking on the darkness meant for me, I couldn’t shake the guilt.

  I just loved him so much. He didn’t deserve to suffer in my place.

  But as much as I adored Willow, it didn’t sit well with me that he’d tied Shaz to us without so much as a heads up. Why? I didn’t doubt for a second that it had been him who’d done it. Lena would have told me if it had been her. And nobody else with the know-how gave enough of a damn about me to do such a thing.

  “Why are you stressing it so much? Shaz has accepted it already.” Arys appeared in the mirror behind me. He leaned in closer to scrutinize his hair before running a hand haphazardly through it, as if it wasn’t bedroom messy enough.

  I dug through my makeup bag for mascara. “He’s been thinking about this for months. It’s just a little shocking. I need some time for it to sink in.”

  Shaz had left a little while ago. After spending the day in my bed, he’d gone home to shower and change before heading into the city to meet Hanna. She and I were meeting tonight.

  “It confirms what I already knew. You need him. He keeps you sane. Literally.” Leaning against the counter, Arys watched me apply the mascara with a careful, steady hand.

  I paused and smirked at him through the mirror. “Did you miss the part about him being the anchor for the both of us? That includes you, Arys. Shaz doesn’t just affect me. He affects you too.”

  “You have no idea.” His playful tone didn’t match his humorless expression.

  Talk about a loaded statement. I wasn’t sure I wanted to go deeper down that rabbit hole. Shaz and Arys had a strange relationship, one I still hadn’t entirely figured out. There were times when they were cool and relaxed around each other and times when they just wanted to tear one another apart. I supposed a magical anchor couldn’t always trump the male rivalry of two fierce predators.

  “Wanna tell me what the hell happened last night?” I tried for a change of subject. “Who were you guys scrapping with?”

  As I finished getting ready to go out, Arys regaled me with a tale of how he’d gone to Doghead in an effort to force Shaz to show the wolves that he’s a badass. Arys’s words, not mine. The result had been a fight that began as the wolves versus Arys but had evolved to become Shaz and Arys versus the rest of the wolves.

  To me it sounded like Arys had gone there to make trouble and succeeded in doing so. I stifled the exasperated sigh that surfaced. “You have to stay away from Doghead,” I scolded with a shake of a blush brush. “I’m meeting Hanna at midnight, and now I have to apologize for your behavior. Again.”

  Doing his best to look offended, Arys scoffed. “You most certainly do not.”

  Blowing my top at him wouldn’t help, but he made it so damn tempting. My thoughts strayed to Shaz and how his absence made the conflict grow. His presence didn’t eliminate our clash of wills and violent outbursts by any means, just subdued them. Arys and I were much worse when alone together.

  “The FPA grabbed Echo, and God only knows who else. They already have Dayne and Owen. We need to work with the wolves more than ever right now. Stay away from Doghead, Arys. I’m not going to tell you again. I’m sick of repeating myself.”

  He meant to unnerve with his silent appraisal, but all it did was stoke the flames of my ire. I braced, ready for a snarky retort or thinly veiled threat.

  “As you wish, my queen,” he said after a long drawn out moment of us staring intently at one another.

  I frowned. “I don’t like that.”

  Arys shrugged, a devilish glimmer in his eyes. “Better get used to it. We are going to reign in this city. If you want to hand out orders and organize alliances, then you’d better be ready to embrace everything that comes with it.”

  “And what’s that? A reigning counterpart running rogue, sabotaging everything I’m working toward?” A hint of a smile curved my lips, but I only half joked.

  Arys chuckled and hooked a finger in the waistband of my pants, dragging me closer. “Hey, if you’re good cop, then someone has to be bad cop.”

  “I’m not sure that’s how this works.” I laughed when he nuzzled my neck, breathing deeply of my scent. Damn him for making me go from livid to lusty in mere seconds.

  “You’re right. I don’t think either of us is good cop. You’re far too unpredictable and more likely to run amok on a killing spree.” He kissed my temple, holding tight so I couldn’t throw a smack at him for such a shitty remark.

  It was certainly tough to refrain from clashing when we enjoyed getting each other so damn riled up.

  I issued an irritated growl that only made him smile. “How many wolves does it take to be considered a killing spree? Three? Ten? Twenty?”

  The mischief dancing in his gaze vanished, and he pushed away from me. Disappearing into the bedroom he said, “I tasted the Doghead Alpha and Shaz last night. Tonight they both still live. Give me a little credit. I’m not entirely mad with bloodlust.”

  “You what now?” Aghast, I stalked into the bedroom after him. “You bit the friggin’ Alpha? Well, that’s fan-fucking-tastic. This meeting will be a shit show.”

  Arys shook his head, feigning judgment. “Listen to your filthy mouth. I fucking love it. To be fair, Hanna took a swing at me with a stake after, so I’d say we’re even.”

  I slapped a palm against my forehead and uttered every dirty word I could think of in one long, drawn-out curse.

  When I finished Arys rewarded me with a dramatic slow clap.

  “You make me crazy,” I muttered before heading downstairs to gather my things.

  Arys followed right behind me. “And you love it.”

  I whirled to face him, trapping him on the landing where the stairs curved around a corner. “I’ll be going to this meeting alone. I want your word that you will stay away from Doghead and any Doghead wolves you may encounter.”

  “You have my word,” he said, surprising me with an easy agreement. “I’m off to see Gabriel anyway. I don’t like to let too much time go by without checking in on him.”

  “Ok, well that I can agree with. I worry about him.”

  Did I ever. Gabriel had struggled with the turn as well. However, he’d been much more low key about
it. Despite coming to us with apologies seeking peace, we had been warned about him, and we couldn’t afford to make any mistakes in trusting the kid.

  Of course, I couldn’t forget that we might not have found our way out of Shya’s house of horrors without Gabriel’s black magic. Everything the demon had taught him had worked in our favor. That night. But a black magic practitioner with the power of Arys’s bloodline couldn’t possibly play it straight for long. At some point Gabriel would show us what he could really do. And we’d be sorry.

  “He’s unpredictable at this stage, but I’m confident he’ll continue to prove himself.” With a hand on my shoulders, Arys guided me down to the kitchen.

  “I wish I was as sure of that as you are.”

  After a goodbye kiss that almost turned into a quickie in the doorway, Arys managed to drag himself away. I felt it deep in my core as the distance between us grew. I marveled at the strength of our bond.

  Though it might not have been the best choice, I opted to go meet Hanna without bleeding anyone first. It could potentially compromise my control, given the right situation. However, even though a feed kept me at full strength, it also brought out the brutality of my dark side and gave me a high that left me walking in a fantasy land. I preferred to be calm and alert. Sane.

  I liked to be early, so by the time Shaz and Hanna arrived at the coffee shop, I’d already had ten minutes to sniff longingly at a vanilla latte. Had to admit I was a tad nervous now that I knew what went on at Doghead the previous evening. If Hanna came in and bitch slapped me, I’d deserve it.

  I felt them walk in. Amid the gentle hum of human energy that filled the place, the two wolves felt like a power surge. They buzzed with a predatory intensity. It felt good, like the sensation that comes from walking into a kitchen that smells like freshly baked cookies. But better. So much better. Maybe I should have stopped for a nip after all.

  Shaz took the seat beside me, and I shoved the latte in front of him. “It’s a vanilla latte. I just wanted to smell it. But it’s making me feel gross now.”