“No. You didn’t know what a nihilist fucker he was? He tried to kill me and Antony twice. Antony is going to challenge Ardennes to single combat before the Council. He will win. And he’s going to install Armand as the Ardennes Alpha. His mother was an Ardennes.”
“What do you want me to do?”
“We want your support. Both to second the single combat challenge and to support Armand. We want you to bring your evidence that my father stole the tech and de la Lunas killed the human.”
Blake gave her a long look and she couldn’t read the expression on his face. “Are you sure that’s what you want me to do? Vittorio is your father. You are de la Luna. His punishment, I don’t know what the other packs will decide. We bring it to the table, it’s out of our hands.”
“I know.” She nodded. “I’m no de la Luna. Not anymore, Blake. I’m Rommulus.”
“I’d heard you were engaged to him. But you’ve already mated him?”
She nodded. “I hope you can be happy for me.”
“Most assuredly, little Marchessa. I’m glad to see you happy. I’m sorry that we’re both here under these circumstances.”
“Will you do it? With the Council, I mean?” She took a sip of her espresso.
“I will.”
“When this is over, I’ll meet with your scientists and give them DNA samples and samples of my venom. You’ll want them.”
“Marchessa, did you get hit with the weapon?”
“I did. With an Alpha’s venom in my blood,” she admitted.
“Let me guess, you’ve got an immunity to silver?”
“More than that.” She pulled off one of her black gloves and showed him her fingernails. “My teeth too.”
“That’s fascinating.”
“Yes, I’m sure it is. But the key to silver immunity might be in my blood. I know Woolven always has the best and brightest on their research teams. Going forward, if we can work together, maybe it will be a better example for all the wolf nations.”
“You don’t want anything for this gift?”
She smiled, remembering all the presents she’d demanded from him when they were fucking. “No. Just that you’ll share it with everyone free and clear.”
“On my word, my honor.” He held his hand up to his heart.
She’d never realized how noble he was. He’d always just been some kind of playboy bastard, but he wasn’t. Not any more than she was really a spoiled heiress.
“Everything is as it should be, then.” She held out her hand. “Shake on it.”
He took her hand and gave it a firm shake.
“Thank you. You know how I despise a weak handshake.”
Blake laughed. “That I do. I know how you despise weak anything.”
She’d changed so much since the last time she’d spoken with Blake Woolven. All he could see was the harder side of her. It was something she’d worked so hard to cultivate and now that she had it, she didn’t know if she wanted it.
At least she could admit that she was a fickle bitch.
“Before I forget, there’s another one like me running around. Silver-tipped claws, mouth full of razors and working for Ardennes and Breslin. I think her name is Carolina.”
“I’ll be on the lookout.” He took another sip of his espresso. “Why don’t we kill Breslin again?”
“Because if we know what the head of the snake looks like, we can see where he strikes. If we kill him, they’ll go to ground and six more will pop up in his place.” She thought about Antony’s plan to turn Breslin into what he despised most, but kept it to himself.
“Are you going to see your father while he’s here?”
“No.” She sighed. “At least not from anywhere that isn’t across the table at the Council.”
Blake laughed again. “I bet he didn’t see that coming.”
“He probably should’ve.”
“If the power radiating off of you is any clue, yeah, he should’ve. Antony and Rommulus seem to agree with you. You’re thriving.”
“Or I will be once people stop trying to kill me and members of my pack.”
“I don’t know if that’s something that we ever get a break from.”
“We will. We can choose to. All of us.” She believed that.
“I hope I see it in my lifetime.”
“With you and I on board, and once Luc is removed, Armand will be Alpha. That’s three of the six. It will happen.”
“I’ll count on it then.” Blake stood and dropped some bills on the table. He held out his hand again. “Another shake for old time’s sake?”
She grabbed his hand and shook it. “For old time’s sake.”
He strolled down the walk, and Marchessa finished her espresso.
She texted Antony and Armand.
Woolven’s in.
A separate text from the group arrived from Antony. Good. I’ve got room service and a hard cock waiting for you.
She grinned. That’s on the menu?
Always.
Don’t let it get cold, she typed, teasing him.
Move your ass, wench. I want to do things to it.
She was typing her reply when razor claws slashed into her throat and her whole world went dark.
Again.
When she came to, she felt like her head had been bashed in with a sledgehammer. Her surroundings came into fuzzy view. She was in some kind of warehouse that stank of fish and gasoline.
She’d been bound to a chair and a woman with red hair, and silver teeth and nails peered at her as if she were some distasteful bug.
“You’re the one he chose,” she said.
Thanks for that, Sergeant Obvious. But she knew expressing that sentiment wasn’t going to get her anywhere with the she-bitch who spoke.
Although she knew she was supposed to feel insulted. She didn’t.
“He chose you,” she croaked, hoping to get her talking. Fuck, but her throat felt like she’d gargled with glass.
“I know that,” she snarled.
“So why aren’t you with him, Carolina?”
She bared her teeth. “Do you see what his bite did to me? His bite and Luc’s silver bullet.”
“If Luc had a hand in this, why are you working with him?”
“Oh, he’s going to get his too. He just doesn’t know it yet.”
“You’re working for Breslin.” It wasn’t a question.
“Well, you’re not as dumb as you look. Good for you,” she sneered.
“Did you ever love him?”
“With all my heart.”
“Then why would you try to kill his son? Why would you try to kill him?”
“He wasn’t supposed to go on without me.”
“That’s selfish.” Not that she thought the female would take her word for it.
“That’s the nature of love.”
But it wasn’t. It wasn’t selfish or demanding. It was giving. It was kind. It was generous. It was sacrifice.
She found that the hate that had burned for the woman was nothing more than pity.
“We’re going to fix that today, don’t you worry your empty little blond head.”
“I’m not worried at all, Carolina.”
She sniffed the air. “No, it seems you’re not. Maybe you are as dumb as you look. You should fear me.”
“Why, beta?”
Carolina growled at her.
“You are no Alpha.”At least not like she was.
“No?” The power surged up within her until her blood ran hot with it like molten gold. “Kneel before me.” Her voice reverberated with her strength.
And the other wolf had no choice.
Carolina, snarling and snapping, did as she was bid.
“Release me,” she demanded.
But just as she was about to do so, a man entered the room. Human, high on adrenaline and hatred. He injected Carolina with something and put large headphones on her.
“Now she can’t hear you, devil-bitch.”
“Bre
slin.”
Carolina smiled at her, showing all of her silver razorblade teeth. But Marchessa refused to be afraid.
The man called Breslin nodded. “I see my reputation precedes me.”
“Oh, you mean that you’re a genocidal asshole? Yeah. I got that part.” Her throat was still killing her, but she wasn’t about to let that stop her. Pain was temporary. Pride was forever.
“If you want to call it that.”
“I like honesty, so yeah. I’ll call it that.”
“I can’t wait to get my hands on your Alpha. Seems there’s something rather interesting in his venom. First Carolina and now you. You should know, she liked being one of a kind. She can be again when she kills you.”
Marchessa met his gaze and let her wolf rise. She tore free from her bonds and slashed at the she-wolf, striking long wounds across her cheek. Marchessa bit through the facades over her fangs and spit them out, ready for battle.
So silver obviously wouldn’t kill her, but ripping her head off and burning the body would have to have some impact, one would think.
Breslin was back against the wall, holding up his phone to capture the footage. She couldn’t let him distract her, but she was going to get that phone too.
Carolina pounced, knocking her to the ground, slashing at her face, her throat, her chest.
But Marchessa let it happen. Long enough to rip the headphones off and find that source of her power again. Marchessa dug deep, and said, “Rip your veins open.”
Carolina had no choice but to obey.
She was too beta to fight the power in Marchessa’s voice.
Snapping and snarling as she had before, she sliced into her wrists opening them both to the elbow.
Marchessa had no mercy. She pounced on the bleeding beast, and ripped her throat out, howling with bloody victory and she did. A call to arms to those who’d be searching for her.
Breslin pulled out some kind of weapon, filled with what was obviously some kind of silver compound.
She shifted forms, remembering what Antony had looked like when his wolf had been twisted. She wanted to know if she could control that shape and if she could, she’d use it to inspire terror in the heart of this bastard, the same way he’d terrorized those she loved. Those who belonged to her.
For the fury of an Alpha bitch is terrible to behold.
Breslin fired.
She laughed, her voice as deep as some of the males. Power reverberated in every utterance and shook the walls with the force of it. Marchessa was drunk on it, so full of lightning and thunder she couldn’t wait to strike him down with the ferocity that burned within.
He held up his hands screaming as she advanced on him because he must’ve seen the intent in her eyes, the slavering jaws that snapped toward his throat. He was a hardened warrior who’d taken many wolf lives.
A wolf wouldn’t make him scream.
But knowing he was about to become one?
That might.
She bit him, but left his throat intact, held him there while her venom filled his veins and released him when she was sure he was going to change the next full moon.
Turned werewolves were horrible beasts who often ended up taking their own lives if they weren’t mated. She wanted to see that in him, wanted to know that his hopelessness was absolute. That all that hatred he felt inside, he turned on himself.
This was just.
Armand found her just as she regained her form.
“What did you do?”
“What I had to.”
“The Council…”
“We’ll deal with that tomorrow. We still have this on our plate.” She turned toward Carolina’s body and saw that she’d already begun to heal.
“Fire.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“I think that’s what they had planned for you.” He nodded to where the stench of gasoline was the strongest and she saw several gas cans. Armand grabbed one of the cans and doused Carolina’s body.
He snapped his fingers and a flame was born into the palm of his hand. Armand hurled it at the body and she was incinerated.
“That’s handy. I wish I could do that.”
“It’s new. The silver has given me access to more of my magic.”
“You’re going to be a fierce Alpha, Armand.”
“Will I?” he looked up at her, haunted.
“You will. Your father believes in you. I believe in you.”
“I’ve never met an Alpha female, so I don’t know if this is going to piss you off. But if something should go wrong tomorrow, if Ardennes kills my father, I will always care for you.”
“I’m not insulted, Armand. It’s the nature of family to care for each other. The nature of Alphas to care for all around them.” She hugged him. “Let’s get back to the hotel.”
“Yeah, if I don’t text him soon, he’s going to rip this city apart looking for you.”
“I can’t believe you got him to stay at the hotel.”
“Barely. But because he trusts in your strength.”
Marchessa felt a glow unlike she’d ever known. He believed in her. He didn’t come tearing to her rescue because he trusted she could handle herself. She supposed other females might have liked being the fainting damsels, but not this one. She was proud to stand on her own two, or four, legs.
Her nose felt like she’d been punched again and this time, she might’ve actually taken a hit.
They hailed a taxi back to the hotel and when she knocked on the door, she said, “I lost my key. Is that room service still hot?”
Antony opened the door and yanked her inside the circle of his arms. “I’m okay.”
“Fucking hell, Marchessa.” He seemed to be trying to squeeze the life from her body.
“Can’t breathe.”
“Now you know how I felt. I couldn’t breathe the whole time you were gone when we lost contact and Armand reported you’d been taken.”
She managed to draw in a deep breath when he released her. “You just don’t know what it means to me that you believed in me.”
“I told you I did.”
“I love you,” she blurted.
“And I love you, princess.”
“I have to tell you something.” She didn’t want to, but he deserved to know. Deserved to do with the information what he wanted. The memory of Carolina took nothing away from her. Nothing that was hers, anyway.
“More important than I love you?”
“The same as I love you.” It kind of was. It was putting his needs before hers. If that wasn’t love, she didn’t know what was. “It was her. It was Carolina.”
“Armand told me. He snapped a picture with his phone and sent it.”
“Fuck. I forgot the phone. Damn it.”
“What phone?”
“Breslin recorded me killing Carolina. And recorded me biting him.”
“The Council is going to try to punish you. I think I have Remus on my side. But I never know with my brother.”
“I know what I did… but I couldn’t kill him and I couldn’t let him walk away. What was I supposed to do?”
“Let him walk away.”
“I did. He just walked away as a Turned.”
“I know we talked about this, but I didn’t know then what your bite could do. I thought it would be me doing the biting. He’ll be immune to silver.”
She hadn’t thought about that. “Maybe not.”
“But maybe.” He sighed. “We’ll figure it out together when the time comes. I’m just happy you’re safe.”
“So is that room service still hot?”
“Nope. It’s all kinds of cold. Had to throw it out. But you could order up some more.”
“Take me to bed, Antony.”
“As my Alpha commands.”
Chapter Ten
The Great Council was to convene in the Gelato Ballroom at precisely ten o’clock.
Marchessa found it to be positively savage that anything so important sh
ould begin at such an early hour, especially after she’d spent the night making love to her mate.
What was worse? Calling a room after a dessert and no such dessert being in attendance.
But she found herself waiting in the lobby alone a half an hour before the Council was to begin. Antony, being the perfect mate, had gone to kill her some gelato and bring it back to the cave.
“Marchessa,” a familiar voice called out. “Shouldn’t you be in your room?”
She turned to see her father flanked by Stefan and two goons who weren’t going to be allowed into the Council anyway. Maybe they could go get themselves some gelato.
Marchessa sighed. He was still correcting her. He didn’t seem at all happy to see her. For once, she’d like it if he’d be a father, but she didn’t hold out much hope. She’d seen how Antony was with his son. He was stern. He was hard. But he was loving, too. Armand knew he was loved. He didn’t hesitate to tell his son he loved him. The words came so easily for him, but for her father, it was like untangling barbed wire from a struggling lamb.
“I have a place on the Council.”
Stefan raised his hand to her and Marchessa grabbed his wrist. “Touch me at your peril.”
The other wolf shrunk away from her, forced to look down. This was even better than Cassius or Armand doing it for her. She’d done it herself.
“I’d hoped the stories I heard weren’t true, Marchessa. They say you’re some kind of abomination.”
“Who is this great and terrible ‘they’?” She lifted her chin. “I’m an Alpha female mated to an Alpha male. Is that what you mean?”
“Go back to the room. Stay out of this,” Vittorio warned.
“Why?”
“I don’t want you to get hurt!” he snapped, obviously angry that he’d been forced to show any emotion at all.
“If you’re doing deals with Luc Ardennes, then it’s you who is going to be hurt.”
“You never could just leave things alone, could you?” Vittorio demanded.
“No. I couldn’t.” She shook her head.
Another wave of emotion washed over her, and while she couldn’t stop herself from feeling it, she stopped herself from reacting to it. He’d made his own bed. He’d stolen tech that hurt people. The war with the Woolvens, it had to end.
“You violated the conventions. Run, Marchessa. Ardennes is going to kill you.”
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