It was her blood that was changing. Everything inside her, in fact, had changed. Her ears registered the hum of the small fridge like a loud drone, the distant drip of a tap intermingling with the sound to create a strange, crystal clear piece of music.
She turned and looked around the room, only to realize that details had sharpened, colour had turned crisper. She was seeing the world through the eyes of a creature with heightened senses.
She would never be a shifter, but she’d acquired many of their gifts.
As she closed the fridge door, her ears picked up a sound somewhere in the hallway outside the lab. A familiar, wonderful sound that sent her heart into a flurry of excitement.
“What was that?” one of the men hissed.
“What was what?” the other asked.
“I thought I heard something in the corridor.”
Emma turned to look at them, a smug grin on her lips. Almost imperceptibly she sniffed the air. Yes, she thought. That’s the sound of eight very large paws hitting the floor about twenty feet from here.
“I hear another sound entirely,” she said out loud,” drawing the men’s frightened eyes towards her.
“What’s that?” asked Richie, who looked an awful lot like he might soil himself.
“It’s the sound of your hearts beating hard in your chests,” she replied. “The sound of your fear.”
21
When the lab’s door burst open, two enormous Dire Wolves leapt into the room, knocking down the Grizzly shifter guards before they had a chance to shift. Before they could so much as shriek in horror, the men were sprawled on the floor, massive sets of fangs threatening to shred their faces.
Panicked, Lothar darted towards Emma, grabbing her with his left arm as he reached with his right for a scalpel that lay on a nearby table. He pressed it to her neck just hard enough to draw a trickle of blood.
Emma looked towards Roth and Laird, who were frozen in place. Neither of her lovers dared risking her life by making a stupid, impulsive move. Locked in a battle of wills with Lothar, they were at an immediate impasse.
Roth’s head slowly rotated towards Laird, as though their Wolves were communicating something silent and solemn to one another. Delicately, Laird’s Wolf lifted one leg and pressed it to the chest of the man that the Alpha had been guarding. Now he had both Grizzly shifters under his paws, and Roth was free to move.
The Alpha shifted as he advanced slowly, no doubt trying to show Lothar that he wasn’t a threat.
Emma, more overjoyed than she could say to see her two lovers, wanted to breathe a deep sigh of relief. But she could still feel the blade pressing into her skin, harder now, more threatening. She wished she were still holding a needle so that she could reach up and ram it into the bastard’s face. Anything to get him to loosen his grip around her body.
Roth looked at her for a moment, his eyes seeking answers. Are you all right? he seemed to ask.
She gave him the shallowest nod she could muster. Considering that she’d seldom been in this kind of danger, she felt remarkably well.
Roth shifted his gaze to Lothar, holding his hands up, palms forward. “Let her go,” he said softly. “She isn’t any good to you dead, and you know it.”
“Nor to you,” Lothar replied, a malevolent sneer in his voice. “Come to think of it, she would do me far more good than you if her lifeless body were to droop to the ground here. It would be quite a feat to kill the mate of the Alpha of the Trekilling Pack. I would be celebrated among Grizzly shifters near and far. You may have gathered by now that we’re not fond of you and your kind.”
“Ah, but you wouldn’t live long enough to be celebrated,” said Roth. “Not three seconds would pass before I tore your fucking throat out.” His eyes found Emma’s, narrowing, focused, as though he were trying to tell her something. “Three seconds, however, can seem like a long time.”
Emma stared back, confused. She didn’t understand. What was he telling her to do? What on earth could she possibly accomplish in three seconds?
Roth took another step forward. “Three seconds is enough time to lash out. To run. Or, perhaps, to find the animal within one’s self,” Roth continued. “Enough to discover how strong one really is, when pushed to the brink.”
You’ve felt it, haven’t you? his voice said to her mind. You know what lies inside you. Let anger fuel you, or love. Let your strength come to you.
The words penetrated her slowly, their meaning coming clear. It was her rage that had fuelled her earlier, in the moments just before she’d felt her power grow. Her rage that had heated her skin, driven her senses to a heightened acuteness.
Rage might just be the key to fighting off the man who was still pressing a blade to her throat.
“Not a step closer,” Lothar bellowed at Roth, who was still advancing. “Come one more step and I’ll slash her throat open.”
Roth stopped in his tracks, his eyes locked on his mate’s. She looked from him to Laird’s Dire Wolf, who was eyeing her intently. She could feel him inside her, too, wordlessly encouraging her. Feel it, his Wolf’s eyes seemed to say. Use it. Do what you need to do to win this battle.
“Roth,” she said softly, “back off. You shouldn’t be here. You two shouldn’t have come. I want to help the Grizzlies. I want to give them what I have.”
The tiniest trace of a smile slipped over Roth’s lips, but he quickly covered it with a frown. “Emma, I can’t let you help these men,” he said.
“It’s too late. I’ve made my decision. I want you to back away. Do you hear me?”
He nodded, stepping back towards Laird. As he did so, several Dire Wolves appeared in the doorway, their glowing eyes peering into the lab. It’s the pack, thought Emma. The whole pack has come to rescue me.
“Wait,” Roth commanded, holding a hand up to halt them in their tracks. Immediately the Wolves backed away, disappearing into the dark corridor. “No one come in.”
Emma finally felt the blade in Lothar’s hand ease up its pressure on her throat.
“I knew you’d do the right thing,” he said, breathing the words into her ear. “You’re doing the right thing. Good girl.” He dropped the blade to his side, but kept his arm firmly around her. “Now, tell them to leave. Tell them you don’t want to see them again.”
“I don’t want to see you again,” Emma said loudly. “Never, in fact. I never want to see your face again.”
“That’s my girl,” Lothar murmured, his lips so close that they were almost touching her skin. Too fucking close.
She shut her eyes and let the rage overtake her, her body shuddering with violent emotion.
“I was talking to you, bastard,” she snarled, spinning around under his grip, shoving his chest as hard as she could, both hands driving into his body.
Lothar was at least a foot taller than she was and must have outweighed her by a hundred pounds, but he went flying back as though he was nothing more than a couch cushion she’d tossed across the room. His body slammed hard into a metal table top that housed a series of glass containers, the blade in his hand skittering across the floor like a frightened insect.
Emma lunged at him before he could stand, leaping onto the table and pinning him down, her forearm pressed to his neck. She could feel the heat in her face, the rage that flooded her as she stared into his eyes.
“You thought I was weak,” she growled as she pushed down, cutting off his oxygen. “You thought I was too weak to take you on, didn’t you?”
He tried to shake his head but failed miserably.
“I’m not weak,” she said, “I’ll never be weak again.” By now, a smile had crept over her lips. She realized as she spoke that she was saying the words as much to herself as to anyone. She’d been waiting all night for the Dire Wolves to show up and save her. But the truth was, they’d already saved her by granting her this strength. They’d saved her when they’d claimed her. They’d saved her when they’d given her their gifts.
They’d saved her
when they’d invited her into a world that had only ever existed in the deepest reaches of her imagination.
“You saved us too, you know.”
It was Laird’s voice that spoke the words. Slowly, Emma released Lothar from the pressure she was forcing on his neck and stepped back. Two pack members raced up and grabbed the man, securing his arms in their powerful grasp before securing some sort of metal collar around his neck.
“It will keep him from shifting,” said Roth. “He’s no threat now.”
Emma turned to face her two mates, who were standing side by side.
“You said I saved you,” she said, her eyes finding Laird’s. All the rage had slipped away by now. The only thing left inside her was love for these two men of hers.
“Well, yes,” he replied, nodding. “From solitude. From loneliness. From a life without an Emma Danforth. What a miserable existence that would have been.” His trademark sexy grin twitched the corners of his mouth upwards, and he stepped forward, grabbing her by the waist. “You look good, incidentally. Different, but good,” he said.
“Do I?” she asked.
He nodded and pulled her towards the reflective door of a cupboard a few feet away. “You tell us.”
She looked at herself. Her eyes, normally a sort of dark hazel, had gone brighter. Her cheeks were more flushed than usual. But more than that, she looked…strong.
“Maybe it’s just that I feel powerful,” she said. “I feel like nothing can take this life away from me. It’s mine now.”
She spun around and looked about the room. The pack’s Dire Wolf shifters had filled the place, some of them in human form, escorting her three captors away in metal cuffs. Others were in their Wolf forms of all shades: grey, white, orange-red, brown. They were beautiful, every one of them.
“They should find their mates as we’ve done,” Emma said. “Soon.”
Roth slipped a hand onto her back and kissed her on the top of the head. “Why do you say that?” he asked.
“So they can be as happy as we are.”
22
After the three lovers had held onto one another for a time, they pulled apart, each of them reluctant to let go.
“Emma, I’m so sorry,” Roth said quietly, his dark eyes soft as he looked into hers.
“Sorry? For what?”
He smiled, then a laugh sprang out of his chest. “You know, you’re quite right. I was going to say for not seeing them coming. For failing you. I was going to say that we’d never let you come to harm again. But you’re perfectly able to look after yourself now. You don’t even need the likes of us.”
“Well, I think you’re right about the looking after myself bit,” she chuckled. “As for needing you, though, you have no idea. You two are like a heroin addiction. But the good kind, if there is such a thing. I think I might need a hit of the two of you every hour for the rest of my life.”
“Done and done,” said Roth. “That’s a promise.”
“Good,” Emma said, grabbing a broom from one of the lab’s corners. She moved over to the table where she’d so violently shoved Lothar and began to sweep up the broken glass that lay in shards beneath it.
“That was rather impressive,” said Laird, “that manoeuvring of yours. Not to mention your new, ultra-sexy feminine brute strength. Amazing to think you could lift a bus and give me an erection at the same time.”
“It was a bit of a surprise to me, I’ll admit. But you two seemed to know that I had it in me, somehow,” she replied. “I could see it in your eyes.”
Roth nodded. “We began to feel it as we came closer. We could feel your anger on the air. That’s when I knew you’d be fine. Anger’s a pretty powerful motivator, when used well.”
Emma stopped sweeping long enough to pull him close and kiss him on the lips, before turning to look around the lab. “I should keep tidying up in here,” she said. “Meg will be coming in the morning…”
“We have an entire pack of Dire Wolf shifters who are very good at sweeping,” Roth replied. “What use is the title of Alpha if we can’t get them to do a little housework now and then?”
Immediately, Cillian stepped into the room, strode towards Emma and reached his hand out. “Broom, please,” he said with a smile, throwing Roth a quick, good-humoured glare.
Emma handed it over. “Thanks, Cillian with a C,” she replied. “I owe you one.”
“Think nothing of it,” he replied. “I’d like the place to look nice for our friend Meg, anyhow. She’s a very lovely young lady.”
Emma had nearly forgotten that he’d taken Meg to dinner a few nights earlier. “Bloody hell, I can’t believe I haven’t asked—how was your date?” she said.
“It was very nice, though I don’t suppose she remembers much about it,” he replied, winking.
“Oh? Why not?”
“I used an old mind trick at the end of it to help her forget me. She’s lovely and all, but I’m holding out for my true mate.”
“Ah,” said Emma. “I think I understand. Well, as long as she had a good time.”
“She did, and I assure you, I was a perfect gentleman. Just one little kiss at the end.”
Emma laughed. “She’ll never forget that, I’ll bet,” she said.
“Perhaps not.” With that, Cillian began to sweep, and Emma turned back to her lovers.
“I think I’d like to go home to bed,” she said.
“Bed sounds very good,” said Roth as he took her right hand.
Laird chuckled, grabbing her left, and the two men guided her towards the door. “I like bed. But how about a bath first?” he asked. “Your place? I could scrub all your bits. Then scrub them again with my tongue.”
“That sounds splendid,” Emma replied. “Wait, I feel like I should ask: Where exactly are your men taking my kidnappers?”
“Oh, just a little place run by Dragons, hidden away under Hampstead Heath. The Guild will see to it that the fuckers are suitably punished. It’s highly unlikely that they’ll ever set foot in London again.”
“I’m relieved to hear it. If I ever see that bastard Lothar again, it’ll be far too soon.” They’d made their way down the hall a little before Emma spoke again. “So listen, clearly I’ve changed a little,” she said. “What about the two of you?”
Laird shrugged. “Other than the fact that we both seem to be able to feel your thoughts from miles away, nothing much,” he said. “Oh, wait. I do believe my cock has grown several inches. We’ll have to check on that when we get home.”
Emma laughed. “Okay, well, that will definitely take some examining. But seriously, have you felt any changes?”
“Like I said, nothing,” Laird repeated. He stopped walking, halting her in her steps. “Well, except for one thing. It’s a little odd, I’ll admit, and I’m still not…quite…sure…”
He stretched his hand out towards the door that led to the stairwell. Slowly, the handle clicked, and the door pulled open an inch or so before shutting itself again.
“You can make objects move with your mind?” she asked. “Seriously?”
“Well, I haven’t had a lot of practice yet,” he replied. “But I’m rather impressed with myself. To be fair, I once heard a rumour about an ancestor of mine who was capable of the same thing. I’d always wondered if I’d somehow retained the gene.”
“Very impressive,” Emma said. She turned to Roth. “And you? I mean, you spoke to me, somehow, across a great distance. That was rather impressive, too. Anything else?”
“I’m not so gifted as Laird,” he admitted. “No telekinesis for me, I’m afraid.”
“That’s all right,” Emma replied, letting out a happy laugh. “We’re none of us perfect.”
“I suppose,” Roth sighed, but he was smiling as he fixed his eyes on her. Emma looked back, an eyebrow raised curiously, waiting to see what he was going to say. But no words emerged from his mouth. Instead, she nearly collapsed when a fierce jolt of pleasure whipped through her body.
“Hol
y shit, what was that?” she cried out, clenching his hand hard. “What did you just do to me?”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” he asked.
“Yes, I bloody would.”
“Let’s say that my capacity to understand others’ thoughts has increased somewhat,” he replied. “It’s why you and I were able to communicate over such a long distance. It’s also why I now understand exactly how you feel, much as I couldn’t tell you exactly what you’re thinking at any given moment. But it does mean that I have a certain very intimate access to your delightful nerve endings.”
“Blimey, just when I thought you two couldn’t possibly get better in bed, you prove me wrong,” she replied, breathless. She let go of both men’s hands and grabbed them by the fronts of their coats, pulling them hard towards her. She kissed Roth first, then Laird. “If you two don’t take me somewhere and ravage me right now, I’m going to lose my sodding mind.”
“If we must,” said Laird, grabbing her hand again to pull her towards the stairwell. “Come on then, we’ve got a taxi service outside, all set to take us home.”
When the three of them had made their way out to the back of the building, Emma gasped to see that instead of a car, two giant, silver-blue Dragons were waiting for them on the far side of the snow-covered parking lot.
“Those aren’t…” she said, “they can’t be…”
“Our taxis, yes,” Laird replied. “Their names are Minach and Lyre, but I prefer to call them Cab One and Cab Two.”
“I’m about to ride a Dragon home with my two Dire Wolf lovers,” Emma murmured. “What a time to be alive.”
As she climbed onto Minach’s back, she was struck with a thought of how far she’d come in a few days. The woman who’d never thought herself anything more than a dull, geeky, plain woman now felt like a proper goddess. A powerful, highly evolved creature blessed with the most extraordinary lovers any woman could ever ask for.
She didn’t quite know what she’d done to deserve this.
Alpha’s Mate: Dire Wolves of London, Book One Page 15