by Hettie Ivers
“No?” Gabriel cocked one brow. “So he’s never harmed you?” he questioned, sounding unabashedly dubious. “How interesting. I suppose he’s never intimidated or threatened you either?”
The howling was nearly continuous now, and growing louder. My wolf was getting restless. She wanted Alex.
“No. I mean … yes, but … oh, fuck, just stop it already!” I yanked my hands from his. “I know what you’re doing, and it’s not going to work, okay?”
“What am I doing, Milena?”
“You’re trying to—to turn me against Alex,” I accused, spinning on my heel to turn away from his piercing blue gaze. “Trying to convince me you’re the good guy and he’s the bad guy that I need saving from.”
Gabriel was off the ground and standing in front of me again a millisecond later, his hands now gripping my shoulders. “Now why would I try to save you from your kidnapper who has never harmed, threatened, or intimidated you?”
“You don’t understand,” I shot back rather lamely in retort. “It’s … complicated?” Fuck, he’d managed to reduce me to speaking in questions. Always a bad sign.
“Yes, I do understand that being emotionally distraught and traumatized to the point of believing you’ve actually fallen in love with your own captor and tormentor is complicated, Milena,” he appraised, his voice kind and gentle, despite the fact that he was basically spelling it out that I was a shell-shocked moron swimming in a sea of my own denial.
What if he was right? My heart plummeted.
“I want to help you to understand it, if you’ll let me?”
I met his gaze and found gorgeous blue eyes replete with genuine concern. Eyes that begged to just let him rescue me from Alex … and from myself, apparently.
Was I really so fractured inside by my recent experiences? I evaluated the overwhelming evidence. I’d been steadfastly doubting my own brother’s judgment where the Salvatella and Reinoso packs were concerned, despite Raul’s superior breadth of experience and history with them both, in favor of siding with the family who had held me prisoner and terrorized me.
“No.” I averted my eyes. “You’re wrong. I know how it must look, but it’s not … that. And I’m not—not falling in love with anyone.”
“Then give your brother the benefit of the doubt and give my family a chance?” he implored, cupping the side of my face and angling it up toward his. “Spend some time with us before you draw such rigid conclusions. I have a small home in Puerto Iguazú. It’s just across the border of Brazil into Argentina, much closer than the one Raul spoke of in Bariloche, although I’d love to show you that one as well sometime.” His smile was so endearing in its excitement, the tenuous hope in his eyes too infectious to squash.
Why wasn’t I supposed to trust him again?
“Will you think about it, please?” he beseeched. “I give you my word that no one will harm you or hold you there against your will.”
I found myself nodding tentatively in agreement, rationalizing it was mostly just to get him to stop looking into my soul like he was presently doing. Those captivating eyes made my head spin. I didn’t know what to think or believe anymore. And I needed space from him to think about it.
Fuck, why couldn’t I just wake up? It occurred to me that Alex’s howling had ceased, but I couldn’t recall when it had stopped.
Gabriel grinned broadly. “Thank you, Milena.” He leaned forward and pressed soft lips to my forehead, and from directly behind me came a low, menacing growl.
Gabriel raised his head from mine. Pure shock and apprehension reflected in his eyes when they looked over my head to seek the source of the growling.
CHAPTER ELEVEN
I knew without looking that it was Alex, because my wolf was doing a virtual happy dance. And as confused as I was as to how Alex had known and managed to get inside of my mind and my dream that quickly when he’d been otherwise preoccupied in Brazil, my thoughts and emotions were already somehow clearer than they’d been a moment ago, and I found that I was beyond elated to see him as I spun around.
“I understand you’d like to die, Gabriel?” Alex was standing no more than ten feet away, clad in shorts, his hands on his hips and his livid golden eyes shooting fire and brimstone at Gabriel. His muscles appeared to be vibrating, his entire body teeming with faintly suppressed tension. But despite how positively terrifying he looked, I ran straight to him the moment his feral eyes slid from Gabriel’s to mine and he extended his hand in my direction.
“We were only talking, Alex,” Gabriel calmly attempted to explain as I was crushed against Alex’s chest.
The air was squeezed out of me as his arms banded around my rib cage and lifted me off the ground. When he set me back down, his hands were everywhere at once, skimming familiarly up and down my frame, as if checking for injury, before capturing my face for his scenting and inspection.
“I’m fine. I’m okay,” I reassured him, my voice coming out strangely breathless, slightly hoarse. “It’s true, we just talked. I’m fine. I just want to wake up now,” I relayed in a rush. “Will you wake me up, please?” I entreated, hoping beyond hope to convince him so that we could bail the fuck out now and avoid what was sure to be a major Alpha confrontation. “Please, Alex?” My blue eyes begged his golden ones. “I couldn’t make myself wake up.”
But it was already too late, because another vicious, bloodthirsty growl reverberated through the forest space to my left. Raul.
Seriously? What kind of shitty unfair timing was that? After leaving me all alone with Gabriel for what had felt like a brutally uncomfortable frickin’ lifetime, now he comes back?
“It’s the shitty unfair timing that comes with Gabriel calling him back to protect his gutless dead ass,” Alex muttered matter-of-factly in response to my unspoken thought.
“You’re the one who’ll be dead soon, Alex,” Raul rumbled, his voice so deep and gravelly, he barely sounded human, much less like my brother.
And he scarcely looked human as I turned to find him trembling with a homicidal rage that made Alex’s demeanor a moment ago appear chipper by comparison. Oh, fuuck. Clearly, the run hadn’t done anything to ease his tension.
“Raul—” I began.
“No,” he barked, turning the full force of his unprecedented, incendiary fury at me. “Don’t you fucking say anything, Miles! Because I swear to God, if you dare speak even one word in that monster’s defense—”
“Hey kids! Sorry I’m late,” Alcaeus announced from the tree line to Alex’s left, swaggering over buck-naked like he owned my dream space. “Couldn’t decide on what to wear.” He was casually noshing on an apple like he hadn’t a care in the world.
I was too distressed to even expend energy freaking out over his giant dong on full display. Because I couldn’t banish the force of the venomous, loathsome death glare I’d never imagined in this lifetime that I’d ever see on my brother’s face weighing down on me now.
“But then I figured”—Alcaeus sauntered over to where Alex and I stood—“if we’re gonna play ‘whose dick is bigger?’ I might as well put it all out there.” He shrugged one shoulder. “So now that that’s settled, I suggest we all go back to our own minds and leave Milena’s in peace to dream about her poorly repressed sexual attraction for yours truly.” He grinned and wagged his eyebrows at me.
“Alcaeus.” Gabriel chortled amiably, stepping forward and crossing his arms casually across his chest. “So nice of you to show up to help restrain your rabid baby brother. And you know, I had wondered over the years whether you in fact possessed any balls at all for the way you’ve allowed Alex to ride roughshod over the laws and principles you and your father so arduously crafted, reducing your once highly esteemed clan to the barbaric, unscrupulous gang of ruthless criminals it is today.”
“Ouch!” Alcaeus winced, placing his free hand over his heart. “You are definitely getting better, Gabie baby. That was almost a fourth-grader insult right there. Only promise you’ll show mercy and not hack
my Facebook page next, ’kay? ’Cause I spent a fuck lotta time setting that shit up just the way I like it.”
“Get your motherfucking paws off my sister!” Raul bellowed at Alex, prompting me to realize I’d unconsciously squeezed closer into Alex’s side at some point since Alcaeus’s grand entrance, and Alex’s arms were now around me, his fingers dragging up and down my spine.
I stiffened and tried to pull away, but Alex wouldn’t permit it. Instead, he growled back at my brother, “Can’t you see you’re breaking her heart?”
“I said, get your fucking hands off her!” Raul roared at a decibel that shook my dream forest.
“Quit being an asshole to her, and I’ll think about it!” Alex thundered back.
God help me, this entire dream was a disaster.
Raul’s wild eyes were incredulous. “I’m her goddamn brother!” he proclaimed, pounding his fist to his chest.
“Ah, you know …” Alcaeus calmly suggested, “I think you two should probably take this fight outside of Milena’s head.”
“Exactly,” Alex hissed at Raul. “You’re her brother! And you just left her all alone with a fucking Machiavellian emotional rapist who scared and confused the hell out of her and blocked her from waking up so she couldn’t escape him. What were you thinking, trusting that empathic creeper alone with your sister?”
Gabriel looked as if he was about to interject in his own defense, but then thought better of it.
Raul’s mouth fell ajar. I cringed.
“Are you for fucking real? And you expect that I should trust you with her? After everything you did to me? You’ve only brainwashed her into trusting you! She doesn’t know any better. But I sure as fuck do.”
“Raul! S’up?” Alcaeus shouted in belated greeting to my fuming brother, who ignored him entirely, appearing only to have murderous eyes for Alex. “Wolf looks good on you, man. And its obvious Gabie has been going all out using his touchy-feely skills to help you calm your new and heightened emotions and animal instincts,” he assessed with a quirked brow and a low whistle that was all sarcasm.
“Way to go there, Gabie baby.” Alcaeus tossed his apple core over his shoulder before giving Gabriel an exaggerated wink and a “thumbs up” gesture. “Keep up the good work and you might just turn him into a mindless, enraged killing machine yet. I’m sure that’s just what Joaquin would’ve wanted too, right? Such a stand-up good guy, that Gabie. Don’t you think so, Milena?”
“I just want to wake up now,” I whispered, my eyes frozen on my brother’s unrecognizable face. I was losing him all over again. Only this time, it wasn’t Mateus who was taking him from me. And it hurt worse. Alex was right. My heart was breaking.
I felt like a helpless little nine-year-old girl all over again, hiding at the top of the staircase, listening to my mom and Mateus arguing. But my mom wasn’t here to shake her pointer finger and give Gabriel Salvatella the dressing-down he deserved. It was up to me now to fight for the only family I had left.
“Works for me,” Alcaeus enthusiastically agreed, slapping his palms together. “Gabie, always a treat. Do be sure to give me a jingle and let me know when you’ll be dropping by to demand Milena?” He threw Raul a finger wave and the thumb-and-pinky “call me” hand gesture.
“Wait!” I heard myself protest aloud as I disengaged from Alex’s embrace. “I need a word with Gabriel before we leave. Alone.”
“No,” Alex immediately objected.
“That’s a bad idea,” Alcaeus concurred. “We’re done here, Milena.”
“I’m not asking permission,” I flatly informed them both.
They shared a look. Gabriel appeared pleased with himself, barely concealing a smirk.
“Milena—” Alex began, his eyes suppliant.
“I need to do this. Alone,” I reiterated. Because I wasn’t a little girl anymore.
And because my she-wolf was demanding it.
Alex studied me for a spell. “Fine,” he reluctantly agreed. “But we’re not leaving without you. We’ll wait right here.”
I nodded. I hadn’t actually meant for them to leave my dream space when I’d demanded to speak with Gabriel alone. Now that Alex’s presence had cleared my head, I just wanted to face my fears and stand up to Gabriel on my own.
Because I wasn’t simply some innocent damsel in distress caught amid the crosshairs of a blood feud between two rival packs. My family’s blood had been a part of this feud far longer than Alex’s had. In fact, the search for my Joaquin blood was the only reason Alex’s family had been dragged into this fray in the first place.
And that same blood was vibrating now. Virtually singing. It was a song of vengeance. An ancient yearning to deliver an insurmountable measure of violence and pain that was long, long overdue. For the first time, the realization that this was more my fight than it had ever been meant to be Alex’s settled into my bones as my feet carried me across the forest floor, away from the safety of Alex’s arms and into the battle that would no doubt define my life from this moment onward.
I felt Raul’s disapproving eyes scowling at me the whole way, and I prayed my mother’s memory might give me strength, even as I prepared to blatantly disobey her dying wish.
This was my fight. Mine! Raul was my family to defend. The fact that Alex had been persecuted since the day he was born and his parents murdered by these assholes because of my family’s feud just made me that much more incensed.
It wasn’t right. It wasn’t fair. And I wasn’t going to let the little girl in me cower atop the staircase and let it slide. I wasn’t about to run away from this fight like I knew my mother would have wanted. Because for the first time, I had an internal ally greater than myself. And I could feel clearly now what it was meant for—understood exactly what it wanted.
On its own, left unhindered, Joaquin’s blood thirsted for unadulterated retribution in its most primal form. But when palliated by my own Caro blood, and by my Morales blood—the blood of Hector and Sofia—it was tempered into a craving to deliver simply that which I myself had always yearned for: justice.
“I shall look forward to our next meeting, Milena,” Gabriel drawled as I approached him.
I was sure he would. “That makes one of us,” I told him dryly.
His brow shot up, but his features remained otherwise composed. “I see. I regret to learn Alex’s influence over you extends further than your brother and I had suspected.”
“And I regret to learn you apparently haven’t learned anything from a century of your ancestors’ backstabbing lunacy, unmitigated greed, and betrayal,” I fired back.
“I’ve just learned enforcer Milena gives me a chubby,” Alcaeus whisper-shouted from far behind me.
“Gabriel, I realize you believe the Reinoso pack, and Alex in particular, have done a great number of wrongs to your family, broken multiple laws, and treated your pack unjustly. But understand this: if any harm befalls my brother, I swear upon my life that I will wipe every last Salvatella in existence off the face of this earth. Using your own ancestors’ magic,” I inserted for good measure. “I won’t hesitate to break every law known to your kind if I have to. And you will wish it had been Alex who ended you.”
His lips curled into a smile that was pure admiration. He looked positively delighted. “Is that so?”
I frowned and nodded slowly, his casual, amused reaction undermining my confidence somewhat. But I was not to be deterred, even as my heart threatened to pound its way out of my chest.
“Yes. It is. You see, I’ve never been the type to use big Alphas to handle my dirty work.”
Gabriel’s smile broadened until a deep chuckle escaped him.
Smug bastard.
“Laugh all you want. I assure you, your uncle Joaquin would absolutely approve of his blood magic being utilized for such a purpose. Because right now, I’m the only thing standing between his blood curse exacting far, far worse.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
“Forgive me, Milena; I promise I’m n
ot laughing at you,” Gabriel averred, stepping closer. “I am simply enjoying your righteous courage. I find myself in awe of your fearlessness, your very noble intentions to protect your brother’s life at all cost.” But he frowned in earnest then, regarding me as if I were some sad, misguided creature he pitied instead. “Though surely you can appreciate what an especially curious paradox it all is, considering you are the one being held prisoner?”
Alcaeus snorted. “Thanks for clarifying the condescending element to your mocking laughter.”
“Your fear of me is unfounded,” Gabriel continued, ignoring Alcaeus’s commentary as he addressed me alone. “I wouldn’t think of harming a hair on your head.”
I tasted no lie in this declaration. Curiously, my wolf sensed something else entirely. Fear? No, surely not?
“I’d just as soon perish before I’d ever raise an injurious hand to you.” With that proclamation, Gabriel did raise his hand to me, adding, “Or your brother, of course.”
As elegant fingertips grazed the side of my face and his brilliant blue eyes projected a sincerity and depth of understanding I found myself struggling to deny, briefly I wondered how I’d wound up so close to him again—and why I’d been so desperate just moments before to get away? Crap. How did he do that?
He really wouldn’t hurt me. Not directly, at least. Somehow I knew this to be truth. And yet, not—because there was another piece to this truth that I was missing.
“You and I are meant to be allies, not enemies, Milena.”
I blinked and smacked his hand away, breaking the spell taking hold just as Alex and Alcaeus rushed to flank me on either side. Raul bolted forward as well, but to guard Gabriel’s back, not mine, I noted with no small sting of resentment.
Gabriel had the audacity to frown in false concern as Alex and Raul recommenced growling at one another. But Alex drew me behind his back and promptly steered me away before things had a chance to escalate.
We were leaving. Thank God! I was beyond eager to wake up already. Anxious to evict everyone from my subconscious and escape from this nightmare.