by Hettie Ivers
I came as he shot his hot load deep inside of me, filling me to bursting.
“That’s my game, baby,” he panted, collapsing over me, arms braced on either side of my face as he kissed every inch of it.
My mind was wrecked, my body a warm mass of sweaty spent muscles.
Deliriously, I scolded him for coming inside of me again, grumbling pregnancy concerns and letting him know I wasn’t even remotely ready for parenthood. He laughed and admitted he was more than ready to see me swollen with his child, but that he’d been using a contraception spell just the same.
Oh. Impressive. I told him he was an overbearing, but considerate mate.
He tucked me into his side and threaded his fingers through my hair. I heard him saying something about me needing extra rest, because tomorrow would be an important day. Something about a change coming? But in my languid state, it all sounded like Portuguese to me.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
I awoke refreshed and well-rested, feeling better physically than I’d felt since … well … ever. Until my eyes landed on my alarm clock and I saw that it was nearly five p.m.
I’d slept the entire day away?
I bolted upright. Why hadn’t anyone thought to wake me? Judging from the familiar male voices I heard bickering one level below, it sounded like some fairly lively discussions were in progress in my living room. Typical. I quickly washed and dressed in jeans and a T-shirt, then went to investigate whatever major decisions involving my life they might be plotting without my knowledge this time.
As I approached the top of the staircase, my footsteps slowed, then stopped. Old habits died hard. I envisioned my mother looking down on me shaking her head.
“None of this matters,” Alex was arguing. “Gabriel’s powers are nothing compared to mine. If she betrays us, we’ll simply take the situation by force.”
“Jussara won’t betray us,” came Alcaeus’s defensive retort. “Trust me. She’s ultimately on our side in this.”
“Famous last words,” Kai said. “Need we remind you she already has betrayed us? Several times now?”
“Alex, it does matter,” Remy refuted. “Regardless of whatever brute magic force you may wield, Gabriel unequivocally has the upper hand in this. You read and manipulate minds. You bend physical elements to your whim. Gabriel reads and harvests emotions. Bends emotions. He twists and bends wills to his own better than anyone we’ve known.”
“I can read emotions as well as he can!”
“Because you’ve been allowing yourself to indulge in reading Milena’s for a week now?” Remy mocked. “Congratulations on decrypting the labyrinthine emotions of a she-wolf in heat, Alex. No doubt that challenge has prepared you to go head-to-head with Gabriel in a battle of emotional intelligence where all of our lives are potentially at stake.” I heard the sound of cabinets opening and slamming shut. “God, help me, why is there no fucking wine in this house?”
“Remy makes a point,” Alcaeus acceded. “Check the dining room, Remy. I had a case delivered.”
“Thank fuck.”
“That fool is no threat to me or to Milena.”
“Alex, he’ll keep trying to confuse her,” Remy persisted, ignoring his younger brother’s rising ire. “Use her own feelings against her until her emotions are so jumbled her thoughts and memories become warped as well. Just as he’s done with Raul.”
The truth of Remy’s words stung. I bristled internally at his damning prediction as I listened to the sounds of glasses clinking and a wine bottle being uncorked.
“Stop trying to scare her. I will handle Gabriel,” Alex said. “I will decimate any Salvatella who dares attempt to harm Milena in any manner. Including Raul.”
His last words were spoken in a low voice. A heaviness settled in the pit of my belly.
“Look, as much as I’d love to carve a piece out of that kid myself right now, I can’t allow you to kill Raul,” Alcaeus said. “Under no circumstances may Raul be harmed.”
“Agreed,” Remy upheld. “Raul has to be the guilty innocent, don’t you think? The oracle foretold that the ascension of the next vessel would unleash enough discord and controversy to incite a vicious feud between the strongest of our species. But it would be the untimely death of a guilty innocent caught between two rival packs that ultimately sparked a great war between those opposing factions.”
“A stolen eye no number of wrong eyes would make right,” Kai recounted impassively, as if quoting from scripture. “The unforgivable sacrifice destined to unearth a wrath so black as to obliterate light. Ushering forth the war of the century, the rise of a blind warrior, and the dawn of a decade without light.”
Chills blanketed my skin. A decade without light?
“In what sense of the word has Raul ever been innocent?” Alex huffed, ignoring Kai’s cryptic rambling as if he’d merely recited a nursery rhyme that Alex had heard countless times before. “Raul is not the prophesied sacrifice. He couldn’t possibly be.”
“Who else is there?” Remy argued. “If he’s being manipulated by Gabriel as much as we suspect, then he’s partially innocent. Yet we also know how fallible and deceitful he was before this recent defection. It fits perfectly. He’s part guilty, part innocent.”
Alex snorted. “More guilty than innocent.”
“Eh … probably,” Alcaeus acknowledged with annoying nonchalance. “Get over it. We can’t chance killing him, and that’s final.”
“Who said I wanted to kill Raul?” Alex objected. “I may have an immeasurable longing to do him tremendous harm, but I have no intention of upsetting Milena or going against her wishes where Raul is concerned.”
“Very gallant and romantic of you, Alex.” Remy’s drawl was facetious. “However does Milena stand it? I will concede, though, it is hard to think of Raul’s death as an unforgivable sacrifice. There’s a piece to all of this that doesn’t fit.”
“Possibly …” Alcaeus mused. “On the one hand, it would make more sense if the unforgivable sacrifice were Milena.” A loud growl erupted from Alex at Alcaeus’s callous reflection on my potential demise. “But then I have a hard time imagining Milena as guilty of anything”—he proceeded to ponder aloud, unfazed by Alex’s reaction—“’cept maybe giving all of us blue balls for the past week.”
“Hear hear!” Remy lauded. “I’ll drink to that.”
My eyes rolled heavenward in the shadow of the stairway. Their combined ages put their life experience at over a millennium. Proof positive the male species never actually matured, no matter how long they aged.
As Alex continued to growl and unleash profanity at the room over their laughter, Alcaeus added, “And her snooping skills are rather naughty as well.”
Say what? Did he just—?
“Milena’s the vessel,” Kai stated. “Which makes her a savior.”
“But saviors are often sacrificed,” Alcaeus pointed out.
“True,” Kai concurred.
“Not mine!” Alex thundered. “And I will happily disembowel the next idiot who dares suggest she might be the prophesied sacrifice.”
Alcaeus chuckled. “She is most definitely your savior, little brother. And we all owe her a thank-you for that.” His tone became markedly more solemn as he commented, “Whether she’ll be able to save herself from Weenie Gabe is the real question.”
“Don’t be ludicrous; Gabriel will never sink his claws into Milena the way he has her brother,” Alex avowed. “The two are polar opposites. It’s difficult to fathom how they’re even related. Milena’s mind and heart are light-years stronger than Raul’s ever were.”
“Yes, but are they stronger than Maribel’s?” Kai challenged.
Ugh! Seriously? Her again?
“Gabriel succeeded in confusing and baiting Maribel to her own ruin,” Kai’s voice continued. “And Maribel didn’t make mistakes. Ever.”
“Only takes one,” Alcaeus mumbled so softly I almost didn’t catch it.
“A valid, if inconvenient, truth,” Remy
asserted somberly. “Kai’s right. Milena’s status as vessel doesn’t preclude her from being targeted or sacrificed. Besides, prophecies are quite often misconstrued, sometimes entirely mistaken. Let’s not forget it was once well-prophesied in Argentinian werelock circles that the final destruction of the Salvatella pack would come at Maribel’s hand.”
“We assumed it would be by Maribel’s hand,” Alex corrected. “Based on our own biased interpretations of the prophecy.”
“Kinda like the assumptions we’re all making right now?” Alcaeus reflected humorously.
“Maribel’s abilities were flawless,” Kai maintained. “Milena hasn’t even had time to figure hers out yet. We haven’t fully figured them out. She won’t stand a chance against Gabriel if he manages to gain enough momentum with her through Raul’s influence.”
Kai’s words flayed me on so many levels. Because I knew he didn’t say them to be hurtful; he simply spoke the truth as he saw it. My heart pounded with renewed trepidation.
“Milena is not Maribel, Kai,” Alex admonished stiffly. “As I am not you.”
After a charged silence, Kai responded, “Why don’t you spell it out, Alpha? I know how well you enjoy sitting in judgment of my relationship with Maribel.”
“All I’m saying is that you disquieted Maribel’s mind and emotions more so than Gabriel Salvatella ever did.”
A bark of laughter came from Kai. “So I killed Maribel then? She died saving your ass from the Salvatellas and somehow you’ve assuaged your guilty conscience over the years by determining that was my fault? Un-fucking-believable.”
“You insisted upon perfection in all things, and yet you despised it in your own mate,” Alex rebuked.
“The things you’re ignorant of could fill a black hole matched only by the size of your Alpha ego.”
“Soo … we should probably get back on topic—” Alcaeus attempted to intervene.
“Nothing she ever did was good enough for you,” Alex said. “You faulted her for the very excellence and perfection the rest of us revered her for.”
“I wanted her to be herself.”
“You were a moody bastard of a mate who she never felt she could please.”
“You didn’t fucking know her!”
“You only wish I hadn’t known her,” Alex taunted.
Ouch. Once more, I, too, fervently wished that Alex had never known Maribel. He had obviously loved her dearly, as protective as he still was of her.
“The fuck you knew her,” Kai scorned. “You saw what everyone else saw. The perfect image she sought to show the world. You never saw how tormented she was beneath the surface, deep down … on the inside.”
“I saw how tormented she was on the outside,” Alex indicted. “By you.”
A low, reproving whistle cut the tension surfeiting my small house. Had to have been Alcaeus. No one else would be so cavalier amidst so serious a confrontation.
“Alex.” Remy sighed with something akin to parental impatience, when I’d fully anticipated Kai’s roar of outrage to shake the rafters next. “Clearly you did not know Maribel. Her emotions were outrageously complicated. Maribel wasn’t simply dark and tormented on the inside; the girl craved darkness. Moreover, I’d swear that darkness craved her. No doubt your black heart and stunted emotional wherewithal was what initially attracted her to you—knowing you’d never in a century figure her out the way someone like Kai did at first sight,” he slighted. “Their relationship was complex, their sexual relationship exquisitely so. Christ, this is all just further evidence that you’re ill-equipped to protect Milena from Gabriel.”
Perfect Maribel had craved darkness?
“Look, let’s everyone just simmer down. While I’d prefer to be cautious,” Alcaeus said, “my hunch is that Milena is not the sacrifice. We all know Gabe and Nuriel’s ultimate endgame is the Rogue.”
“And Milena as vessel is the key to the Rogue,” Remy inserted.
“So we believe,” Alcaeus acknowledged. “But whether she’s the key to finding the Rogue or to destroying it, that we don’t yet know.”
“Finding.” It was Alex who spoke. “Definitely finding.”
“Why can’t she be both?” Remy proposed.
“She’s too sweet and empathetic,” Alex said. “She’s more likely to pity the Rogue than slaughter it.”
“What if the abomination was charging at her?” Remy debated. “Her wolf’s survival instincts would kick in then.”
“And her blood curse?” Kai interjected. “Suppose it’s Milena’s blood curse that unearths a wrath so black as to obliterate light? What if she’s the one destined to become the blind warrior?”
“Milena’s not the type to succumb to darkness,” Alcaeus said. “The way she’s been able to manage the malevolent emotions linked to Joaquin’s blood curse is proof of that. ’Sides, it would negate everything we’ve come to believe about vessels.”
“She’s a vessel with a flawed blood curse,” Kai pointed out.
“I’m with Kai,” Remy concurred. “That curse is flawed. No one can control a ricochet effect.”
“I will control it.”
“You’re a fool if you actually believe that, Alex,” Remy disparaged.
“Milena, honey, it’s easier to hear from down here!” Alcaeus called to me. “And we poured a glass of wine for you. Come down and join us already.”
My cheeks heated. Busted. Had they all known I was listening in the entire time?
Stabbing shaky fingers through my hair and squaring my shoulders, I marched down the stairs and took the offensive.
“You need to stop discussing me and making decisions for me behind my back,” I scolded the living room of werelocks upon entry. “All of you. It’s not okay.”
“I completely agree,” Alex said, arising from his seat upon the stone hearth. He smiled and extended his hand to me when my steps faltered, beckoning me closer.
“You do?” My tone lost some of its previous rancor as I melted at the adoring expression on his face. When I didn’t move to join him, he came for me, crossing the room to where I stood gazing back at him like an imbecile, a goofy grin erupting on my face.
“Yes. I do.”
“Ugh!” Remy gagged with displeasure. “Alex in love has gone from being hilarious to nauseating. This is so unfair.”
“You knew I was listening?” I asked Alex. He smiled. Didn’t deny it. “Why didn’t anyone let me know sooner?”
“You’re cute when you think you’re being deviant.” He raised my hand to his lips.
I rolled my eyes, brushing off his charm. “I need to be told things, Alex. I feel like everyone is constantly planning my life without me and keeping secrets from me. I’m done with always being the one left in the dark.”
He nodded. “We’ll tell you anything you wish to know.”
I swallowed my shock at his earnest countenance. Really? My eyes narrowed. “Just like that? You’re just going to tell me whatever I want to know?”
He shrugged. “Of course.”
“What’s the catch?” I shook my head. “Why now?”
“Because now Alex is one hundred percent pussy-whipped,” Alcaeus supplied with a big grin. “And because we’re also fairly confident that you’re not in danger of being used as another Luiza.”
“Why not? What’s changed?”
“Your blood curse, for one,” Kai said.
“What changed with my blood curse? What did you mean by ricochet effect? When is someone going to explain this Rogue situation to me already?” I fired off every burning question that popped into my head at once.
Remy approached and pressed a full glass of red wine into my free hand. “Here. You’ll need this.”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Remy was right. For the next half hour, I sat next to Alex on the sofa as they relayed how it was that my blood curse had actually counterattacked Alessandra the other night when she’d tried to hit me with a simple sleeping spell in the kitchen.
As t
hey explained it, it did seem plausible. I remembered the way she’d looked at me and laughed right after I’d brained her with the frying pan, as if it’d been a joke to her. But then she’d slumped to the ground moments later, out cold.
It was amid her laughter that she’d apparently cast a benign sleeping spell on me in order to knock me out and give Alex the space she’d felt he needed. But rather than merely knock her out in kind, my blood curse had taken it a step further, counterattacking her magic at its source in a rather vicious manner, rendering her virtually powerless for days to follow.
The overriding presumption seemed to be that Joaquin had intended for the “fated one” who would house the heart of the blood curse to be protected at all cost. They suspected he’d conjured a protection spell attached to the curse that was meant to react like a boomerang effect.
But somehow the spell had warped and deviated over time, creating what was now more of a ricochet effect, as some of the werewolves standing guard outside of Alex’s kitchen had been impacted as well, their individual injuries random, varying by degree and intensity.
“Joaquin was quite skilled at manipulating physical elements, the same way that Alex is,” Remy explained, “but his greater power was sourced largely from harvesting and manipulating emotions—much like his nephew, Gabriel. However, because he was in a rather unstable emotional state when he conjured your blood curse, we seem to be dealing with a protection spell on steroids, fueled not only by your emotions and the spirit of Joaquin’s emotions, but also those of the many ancestors that the heart of the curse stole magic from throughout the past century and a half.”
“If you’ll recall,” Alcaeus chimed in, “Joaquin’s family expected to absorb his magic once he’d passed. But the opposite happened, and his family’s powers were diminished upon his death—the curse proceeding to leech power from every living generation of Salvatella, no matter how far removed.”