by Emma Dawn
Chapter Fifteen
I don’t know how long I slept, only that as I woke, my body had an instant craving for being touched, to be held. I arched upward, sitting upright in a single smooth motion. The rough sheet covering me slid off my upper body and pooled at my waist. Naked from the waist up, the cool breeze made my skin prickle and my nipples harden.
Taking in the room, I noted the hanging dried herbs and flowers, the tinkling of seashells hanging on thin strings that could be sinew, the smell of incense and the crackling of a fire. I looked at my shoulder where Malcom had bitten me.
The wound was healed; the scars, though, were bright pink and still angry-looking, running outward like a sunburst. I ran a finger over them, marveling at the speed of how it had closed.
Unless...was it possible that I’d been asleep for weeks? Would the queen have forgotten about me, or maybe even just have let me go?
“Feeling better?” The grumbling voice turned me around.
An old man with white hair that stretched to his lap in tight dreadlocks stared at me. His dark eyes reminded me of a raven, or a crow, the solid black glittering and full of intelligence. He was covered in a light brown fur robe over his shoulders, a twisted staff in his one hand.
“You saved my life.” I pulled the sheet up to cover my breasts.
“I did. And you don’t have to bother covering up. I’ve seen it all.” He waggled his eyebrows at me.
I laughed softly. “I’m sure you have. Still, give me the pretense of being modest.”
“Ha, this from the woman who has finally tamed the final five.”
I blinked a few times, his words settling in. “Tell me what you know of them, of the situation I’m in. They are bound by secrets and rules. I’m thinking you aren’t.”
He grinned at me, perfect white teeth flashing. “Yes, you would make a far better queen than Terra. I see it in your heart. And that wicked sharp mind of yours.” He bobbed his head. “I’ll tell you what I can, and I’m going to teach you how to block that Preacher boy from your mind while we’re at it. You might need to keep him out at some point.”
“That Preacher boy saved my life,” I pointed out. “If he had not known my thoughts, I would not be alive.”
The old man snorted. “But you might have gotten away fully if he hadn’t realized you wished to save them by escaping.”
He had a point that I conceded with a tip of my head in his direction. “Tell me what you can, old fart.”
A barking laugh escaped him, and when I say barking, I mean, I looked around for the dog in the room, then finally back to him. It was one thing to acknowledge Havoc for what he was in my mind. “You’re a,” shit, I could not believe I was going to say this out loud, “werewolf?”
“You seem shocked, you who has been living with vampires the last few days.” He snorted, and shook his head at me which produced a tinkling noise. Beads woven into the long ends of his hair clanked together, producing the sound I’d previously thought was the sea shells on strings.
I shrugged. “I’m not and I am. I mean, I’ve lived in these worlds inside my head for so long, it seems strange to have them playing out in front of me in real time. They were always real to a degree, I suppose, but one does not expect to suddenly walk out their door and into a fairy tale.”
He watched me closely. “You feel this is a fairy tale?”
A sigh slid from me. “I do not expect a happy ending.”
He grinned. “Well, maybe I can help with that. Let me tell you of the vampires, and just what you’ve been caught up in, my young princess.”
“I’m no princess.”
His grin never slipped. “You are. And hopefully we can see you made into a queen.”
With a shifting of his weight, he settled back into his chair and set his staff in front of him. With the tip, he drew in the loose soil of the earth at his feet.
I slid from the table, wrapped the sheet around my body and went to my knees in front of him to watch. The swirls in the soil condensed and grew into images, and scenes that matched the words he spoke.
“The previous queen, Lillianna, was as good a queen as the vampires had ever had. Out of all the hives, she was the fairest, and showed great kindness to all her men. She reached out to our pack, and we created a beneficial tie with them. We protected the borders, and when we had need of help with the humans, the vampires aided us. Then the hundred-year trial came upon us. A young, violent girl of just eighteen claimed her consort, and killed Lillianna.”
I held up a hand, stopping him. “Is there always a fight for the throne every hundred years?”
“Yes. It isn’t just law, but a way of keeping the bloodlines clean and strong. But Lillianna had been willing to step down if she thought the new queen would be good to her hive. Something which is acceptable. She would have taken her chosen consort and lived out her life as long as she wished in peace. She should not have been killed. It was not her time, and everyone here knew it.”
He sighed. “As it was, Terra killed her instead. She wanted no one to gainsay her rule. Since then, she has been on a rampage, alienating her hive from our pack, and doing all she could to take over other hives. Now here we are at the cusp of a new queen,” he looked at me. “Terra has killed the other four women who were brought before her. You are our last hope to stop her, and save not only the vampires, but our pack from her wrath as well.”
I leaned back and drew a slow breath. “I am not strong enough. I couldn’t even stand up to Malcom.” I waved a hand at the sunburst scar on my shoulder.
“Bah, you do not know that. Besides, you are not alone. You have your fist.” He held up his one hand and ticked off his fingers. “Five men with you at the center,” he closed the fingers into a tight fist to emphasize his words. “You are stronger together than any of you realize.”
A tiny burst of hope opened in my chest. “How long do I have before I must face her?”
“Twenty-four hours, give or take.” He made a wobbling motion with his hand. “You are their hope, Ally. Will you try to win?”
I closed my eyes. “My sister Dominique. Someone needs to tell her what happened to me...if I fail.”
“It will be done.”
“And what about Cassie?”
He grinned wide. “Ah, well, her story is not over yet. I believe she has a role to play in our world too.”
My eyes narrowed. “Don’t you dare hurt her.”
He continued to grin. “I would not hurt her for all the power in the world. She is like you, a woman unaware of her potential to change the world around her. I like her. She’s spicy. And you were right, she has a mean right hook, according to Havoc.”
Laughter tickled up my throat. “Yeah, that she does.” I rubbed a hand over my face. “Do you have any other advice?”
“To block the Preacher from your mind, you must only say these words: From my mind, I cast thee.”
I blinked. “Seems too easy.”
He shrugged. “A great deal of magic is simpler than you might want to believe.”
I stood, wobbled a little, and grabbed the edge of the bed. “Okay, so I have to kill Terra the Twat. That will solve all the problems?”
“She cheats in her fights. It is how she beat Lillianna.”
I groaned. “Of course she does, the twats always cheat. Damn it.” I rubbed my face again.
There was quiet except for the crackling of the fire for a solid minute before he spoke again.
“You could call on the spirit of Lillianna to help you win.”
I turned and looked at him. “What?”
“Lillianna was a great fighter, and only lost to Terra because she cheated. If you allowed Lillianna’s spirit to join with yours you might have a chance.”
“Yeah, but what does that entail? Chicken blood and dancing naked beneath the moon?”
He gave another of his barking laughs. “Hardly.” He stood and brushed past me to a work table on the far side of the room. “Here, take this, drink
it right before the fight.”
He held out a flask to me. The bottle was tiny, and would fit in the palm of my hand. I did not reach for it. “What is it?”
“Essence of Lillianna. If you are meant to be the new hive queen, you will be able to accept her spirit into your body. The fluid in this,” he shook the flask, “will open that conduit. I’ve been saving it, hoping that I could help change the direction of the hive. She left it with me, when she saw that Terra would be taking her place.”
I took the flask gingerly. “So there aren’t really bits and pieces of her in here?”
“No.” He chuckled. “Though perhaps it would be more believable if that was the case.”
There was a soft shuffle at the door and then a firm rap of knuckles on the wood. The old man grunted. “Your men are not patient when it comes to you.”
I thought about how each of them had struggled to last in bed with me. “That’s an understatement.”
The knock came again. The old werewolf shuffled to the door and swung it open. A blast of winter curled in, snow in the air, and a brilliant white haze behind the man in the doorway.
King stepped in, his arms full of material that I could only guess was a dress. A deep red dress with masses of crinoline skirts. It spilled over his arms and trailed on the floor.
“Allianna, are you well?” His green eyes were full of concern, and I wanted nothing more than to throw myself at him, to have his gentle touch soothe away the last of the aches in my body and the lingering fear in my heart.
I nodded, my eyes welling up. I hadn’t even noticed the old werewolf slipping out but suddenly King and I were alone.
“I didn’t...I was just trying to...” I struggled with the words because an apology wouldn’t be sincere. I wasn’t sorry I’d tried to save them, not for a single second.
He stepped close to me and put the dress on the bed so he could wrap his arms around me. “Don’t. We know why you did it. You are the first to fight for us, to truly try and save all of us. For that...we will die for and with you if we must.”
I frowned up at him. “What do you mean, the first?”
His jaw ticked. “I thought Ralph explained everything we could not?”
“Ralph?”
The door burst back open and the old werewolf grunted. “Yes, Ralph. It’s a shit name but I didn’t give it to myself. That one last bit, I forgot to tell you. There are no other fists remaining with competing girls for the queen’s position. Only one. Which means four other girls bedded these big boys and tried to take the throne.”
My heart tightened. “But there...the queen kills not only the woman who faces her, but her consort too.”
King nodded. “There were nine brothers to start. Two fists.”
I gasped, understanding flowing through me and making me ache for them. “That is why Spartan was so angry I was there. You’ve already lost four brothers?”
“Yes.” King’s hands smoothed down my back. “He thought another of us would die, and then we would be reduced to four, or worse, we would all be killed.”
“That was not Lillianna’s rule, was it?”
He shook his head. “Terra put that rule in place because she hates us. We were Lillianna’s favored sons, and we have stood in Terra’s way time and again, because we could resist her ability to control us. We have done what we could to stop her. This is her punishment for us, to force us to watch each other die.”
I pressed my forehead against his chest, hurt and understanding in equal measure filling me. I was not special to them. They had done the same thing with each woman. I was nothing more than their last chance at survival. I let a slow breath out, and with it I pushed away the jealousy.
More was at stake than my feelings of hurt, than my feeling of inadequacy. Lives and futures were at stake, and I was not a child to let my own insecurities get the better of me.
“I should get dressed then. Though why this monstrosity?”
“You are going to be seen by the wolves, and you must do so in the expected garb of a princess of the hive.”
My jaw ticked. First time I’d been called princess was by King, but now it felt...like an arrow instead of an endearment.
King didn’t seem to pick up on my shift in emotions, or if he did, he said nothing. His hands were sure and quick as he helped me step into the voluminously long dress. The corset of the dress peaked above each breast, and dipped low between them like exaggerated mountains. The material of the corset was glittering red scales that overlapped and hugged my curves tightly. From just below my waist, the skirts fanned outward into a huge sweep. Shorter at the front so I wouldn’t trip over my own feet, the skirt made up for it at the back with what had to be close to fifteen feet of train.
I touched the dress. “Can we not just leave? We are free of the hive, why can’t we just go?”
“The queen knows we are here. If we do not return, she will send her guards after us and slaughter us all where we stand.”
So much for that idea. I tried another direction, anger snapping through me.
“A bit ridiculous for walking back to the hive, isn’t it?” I arched an eyebrow at King. Did he love the other girls? Did he miss them? Was he hurt when they died or was he happy?
He frowned and brushed a hand over my forehead. “I wish I could read your mind like Preacher. I see questions and worries in your eyes like storm clouds hovering.”
He bent forward and tried to kiss me. I turned my head, so he grazed my cheek instead of my lips.
“Allianna?” He whispered my name and it tugged at me like nothing else could. I shook my head, my hair cascading over my bare shoulders and upper back.
“I can’t, King. Not right now.”
“Of course.” He gave me a half-bow and I wasn’t sure if he was mocking me, and that hurt me all over again. Damn this entire situation.
He helped me with thigh-high boots that encased my legs in the softest of red leathers. The interior was lined in thick white fur that would keep me warm.
I swallowed all my trepidation and spoke before I lost my nerve. “I want to speak to the wolves before we leave.”
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” He shook his head. “They don’t like us all that much right now.”
I stiffened my spine. “None of this has been a good idea, but it is where we are and I am doing all I can to make this right.”
He bowed his head and it took all I had not to run my fingers through it, and tug him toward me.
“As you wish.” He held the door open and I walked into the brilliant white snow to get my first glimpse of the new world that waited for me.
Chapter Sixteen
The bright white of new snow dusting the ground and trees around us dazzled my eyes after the darkness of Ralph’s healing room.
Ralph the werewolf healer. The words were too funny in my stressed-out state and I had to stifle a nervous giggle.
The urge to laugh faded as I took in the scene around me. We were at one end of a clearing ringed with huge trees, and within that circle stood people—or maybe a more accurate term would be werewolves. More than one of them had the look of Havoc when he’d been chained in the hive. Their hulking bodies, thick fur, and open jaws making their stance clear. They were not all happy that we were here.
Celt, Wick, Spartan and Preacher waited for me off to the left. They shared a look with King who shook his head. I held my head high.
“Who is the leader here?” I asked the question loudly, so my voice carried. I knew damn well it was Havoc, but this had the feeling of something that needed to be dealt with carefully. With the proper procedure.
To my absolute and total relief, Havoc stepped forward.
“I am the Alpha of the Windrun Pack.”
Shoulders and back straight, I strode toward him, feeling the weight of all the eyes in the clearing on us. Like out of one of my books, I had a feeling this would not only be ceremonial, but also binding.
I gathered my words,
as if I were to write them for the dialogue of my heroine. Words had power, and they were my greatest asset and strength.
“I am the last supplicant for the hive’s throne.” I looked him in the eye. “The current queen rules from treachery and fear. Will you align yourself with me in ensuring she no longer rules?”
Havoc’s eyes narrowed. “You would have us pit our strength against hers for your benefit?”
I shook my head. “I would have you fight for your future, as I fight for mine.”
There was a shuffling of feet. Havoc looked around the clearing at his people. Above us, the snow began to fall once more, landing in my hair and on my bare shoulders though I barely felt the cold.
“No,” Havoc said, “you must face this alone and prove your worth. If you become the new queen, I will gladly bind our pack to your hive once more.”
Anger slashed through me, but it was driven by fear and loss of hope. I turned from Havoc, understanding that what he did, he did to protect his pack, and started walking. The werewolves on the edge of the clearing parted for me, allowing me to pass.
The snow was not deep and so while my skirts trailed out behind me, they did not slow me. I knew that at some point, the five vampire men would catch up to me. And if they did not, I would just keep on walking.
In the snow in New England? The question was my own, and I knew the answer. I would die of exposure if the temperature continued to drop. I stopped in my tracks and waited for them.
Wick reached me first. “What is wrong, Allianna?”
I spun to him, staring at him as I considered all the things I could say to answer that. “Seriously? You are wondering what’s wrong? Do you want the full list or an abbreviated version?”
His lips tightened, anger snapping through his dark eyes. “You think you are the only one concerned about the outcome of tomorrow?”
I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from saying anything more. “I have to prepare for a fight. If you’ll excuse me, I don’t know the way back to the hive.”
Preacher caught up to us then, though I realized they were hanging back on purpose. “You no longer want to leave with us? To have the six of us run away together?”