by Leia Stone
I frowned. “Wait … what? You just have to marry someone that loves you? Okay … that’s easy. Obviously half the school loves you. I mean, twenty-three is a bit young but—”
He nodded. “A millennium ago, that was actually pretty old, but no, Demi, you don’t understand. If I pick the wrong girl and she likes me for my money or status or whatever, then the curse … it kills my entire family line.”
I froze, shaking my head. “Say what now?”
He released his hands and stood, starting to pace the floor. “This is so fucking awkward.”
I stood, hobbling across the space and stepping in front of him. “No it’s fine, I’m just … processing. So, everyone dies if you marry the wrong girl?”
He nodded. “Every Hudson. My mom, my dad, me, Sage, my uncle. They all drop dead as the curse is unleashed and takes out our line forever.”
“Holy fuck,” I gasped. “That’s seriously awful. And it just goes on forever and ever?”
He nodded. “The alpha’s wife is cursed with only being able to have two sons. My uncle, not being the alpha because he was the youngest, was able to have Sage, but…”
Dawning came over me. I’d put on the questionnaire that I wanted twin girls. “Wow, that’s quite a complex curse.” This ancient witch really thought of everything. Two sons, but you—” I paused, seeing sadness in his face.
“I was a twin actually. My brother was a stillborn.” His voice cracked and my heart broke.
“I’m so sorry.” I took his hand as my mind processed everything he was saying. “So this entire selection, it’s all just so that you can keep your family alive?”
He winced. “When you put it that way it sounds bad … but yes, it’s so that I can find at least one girl who truly loves me. That’s why I kept Meredith around … she was always a safe bet.”
I growled, suddenly jealous. “Meredith doesn’t love you. She’s obsessed with you. There’s a difference.”
His eyes flashed yellow and he pulled me closer to him. “If I don’t find someone who truly loves me to marry me by the end of next year, then my entire family dies.”
I frowned. “So this is your darkness?”
“What?”
“When we first met, I saw a darkness in your soul, a heaviness you carried. This is it.”
He nodded. “I guess it is.”
“Wait, so you don’t have to love the person back?” The wheels started to turn in my head as I realized why he spoke of Meredith. It was clear he didn’t love her, but if she loved him, then he’d still marry her.
He shook his head. “No. But I don’t just want to be loved, I want to be in love.”
This was why he told Sage he was worried about finding someone to love him. He felt pressure to keep his family alive. Damn, that was quite a weight to carry.
I stepped closer to him. “What if you don’t find someone you love? Will you just choose Meredith to be safe?”
A slow grin pulled across his face. “I thought I just covered that, Demi. I’m in love with you.”
The breath whooshed out of me like a kick in the gut. He said it so casually, so sure. I’d never met a man with so much confidence. He knew what he wanted and he didn’t fuck around going after it. That was why his mom was so worried if I was the one. Her life depended on me loving Sawyer back. Loving her son for the guy he was, not the Hudson heir or the alpha’s son.
Good thing she raised a gentleman, because the next six words were the easiest I’d ever said. “I’m in love with you too.” I laughed. “Holy shit, this is insane. I barely know you but I lov—” He crashed into me and captured my mouth in a kiss. My entire stomach did somersaults as he gripped my ass, hauling me onto him so that I was straddling him. My breath was ragged as he feathered my neck with kisses, trailing his tongue along my collarbone, and passion completely took over me. I grinded into him when he nipped my earlobe and heat exploded between my legs.
Sawyer walked us back to the bedroom and lay me gently on the bed, kissing my forehead. “I went mad when I heard you’d been taken.” He leaned down and pulled up my shirt, kissing my stomach. “I nearly killed Walsh for leaving you.” His hand slipped up my shirt, grasped my breast and all rational thought left me.
I should have stuck up for Walsh, who’d probably saved my life by getting help, but I couldn’t think. All I could think about was how badly I needed to be closer to Sawyer. I sat up and Sawyer backed off, watching me as I slowly pulled my shirt up and over my head. He watched me as I gradually unclipped my bra and his eyes went yellow.
With a grin, he grabbed my hands, laying me back down, and pinned them over my head. Slight panic flooded my system and I didn’t understand why. It was in such direct contrast to how I wanted to feel in this moment. When Sawyer placed his mouth over my nipple and sucked, keeping my hands pinned above me, I understood why.
“Let go!” I half shouted, trying to yank my hands free as a flashback hit me.
Sawyer immediately jumped off of me, looking down at me apologetically as I tried to drown out the vision of Vicon Drake pinning my arms above me and biting my breast, drinking from it.
“Shit, did I go too far? I’m sorry I just—”
Tears lined my eyes as I put on my t-shirt and then covered my face with my hands. I’d slept with one guy, Isaac the fey, after my virginity was stolen by rape, and it was so fucking awkward. I was so eager to prove to myself that I was sexually normal after my attack that I just lay there and prayed it would pass quickly. It did.
“I can’t be held down,” I told him, my face still in my hands.
Two warm hands grasped my forearms and peeled them away from my face, until I was staring at yellow eyes. “Did someone hurt you, Demi?” His voice was that scary half wolf growl.
I swallowed hard, releasing a deep sigh. “It’s my turn to tell you something.” I pulled my arms out of his and patted the bed.
His entire body was tense, jaw clenched as he sat next to me. “You can tell me anything. But first, are you okay? Did I hurt you?”
The fact that he was being so sweet just made those half unshed tears pour over. “I’m fine, you didn’t hurt me. This is … an old emotional pain that resurfaced.”
He was silent, still, unreadable other than the yellow eyes that kept peeking out behind his lashes.
It was on the tip of my tongue, but I wasn’t ready, so I just sat there, trying not to think about that night. Other than Raven and my mom and dad, no one knew my story. It was something we all covered up at my request and tried to move on from. Sometimes burying old wounds worked and sometimes they rose up like zombies waking from the dead.
Finally, when I couldn’t take it anymore, I spoke. “When I was fifteen, I went to a party in Vampire City…” I breathed.
His eyebrows rose like that was impossible and I nodded. “My best friend Raven and I snuck out with a vampire girl at Delphi and we went to a party with older guys.”
Those yellow eyes were back as he sat rigid next to me. “What happened?” he growled, but I knew that the anger wasn’t at me, it was at what he knew was about to come out of my mouth in the next sentence.
“I was gang raped by four vampires and left for dead—” I didn’t even finish my sentence before the splitting of seams ripped through the space and Sawyer shifted into his wolf. His clothes tore to tatters as his giant gray wolf landed on all fours and looked up at me with pained yellow eyes. Tears streamed down my face as his wolf leapt up from the ground and nuzzled my neck, placing his paws on my shoulders like a hug.
A soft wolfie hug.
A sob escaped me as I wrapped my arms around his giant furry wolf and held him closely. “I think that’s when my soul split. The cuffs, they kept me human, so I couldn’t fight back.” I tried to breathe to calm myself down, but my throat felt so tight as his wolf draped across my body like a blanket and I held him. “I don’t remember it. I mean I do, but in flashes, the before, a little of the during, and then way after. There was so much blood, three of the four g
uys were killed … it looked like an animal had attacked them, but now…” A cry ripped from my throat. “I think that my wolf somehow broke free and saved my life.” I had held this in for so long that now that it was out, I couldn’t stop the floodgates. “She saved me,” I wept, “and that’s why I am this way, that’s why I’m broken.”
I squeezed his wolf so tightly I was afraid I would break his ribs and reinjure him, but he just lay on top of me like a loyal animal therapy dog or something and let me get it all out. When he realized I was done, he licked the tears from my cheeks and I laughed. “Gross.”
He pushed off of me and started to shift back and I suddenly was nervous about seeing Sawyer in his human form after divulging all that. Telling a soft fluffy wolf your darkest secret was a lot different that a six-foot-six-inch-tall Adonis. Sawyer turned away and I caught a glimpse of his naked butt as he walked into his closet. He returned with basketball shorts and a t-shirt on.
When he reached me, I avoided eye contact as he fell to his knees before me. He was patient, waiting until I looked at him, and when I did I was shocked at the anger I saw in his eyes. I frowned, and he reached out and brushed a finger over my cheek. “Nothing about you is broken.”
The tears were back as I realized I’d waited for a man I loved to hear my story and tell me that.
I just nodded.
“And in the future, I will let you take the lead in the bedroom,” he said, but his words didn’t match his blazing gaze and steel jaw.
“What’s wrong?” I asked, suddenly wondering if he was mad at me.
Sawyer stood. “I’m going to need the name of the guy left alive from that night, Demi.”
My mouth popped open. “What? No wa—”
Sawyer’s chest started to heave up and down, fur running down his arms. “I’m going to need that name, Demi. Now.”
The bossy alpha was back. I stood and so did he as I butted my chest up against his. “My parents filed a complaint with Vampire City, but they said since I was banished I had no protection.”
Sawyer fled from the room and then there was a crashing noise in the living room.
Holy shit, this man had a temper.
I hobbled out to see that he’d kicked the coffee table in half. It lay in a splintered wood pile at his feet. He looked up at me, barely holding on to his humanity. “Demi, I need that name before I go and light the entirety of Vampire City on fire!”
My eyes nearly fell out of my head. “Sawyer, it was six years ago—”
“Name!” He fisted his hands and they shook. I’d seen my father like this once in my life. The night I told him and my mom about my assault. He’d barely been able to keep his wolf inside, even with the cuffs on.
“Fine! It was fucking Vicon Drake, okay!” I screamed, and he went very still.
He raised one eyebrow. “Prince Vicon Drake?”
I nodded once. “I didn’t know that at the time, but yeah.”
They’d gotten Raven so drunk she’d passed out in the basement, but the boys were stupid enough to brag to us all about their rich and powerful families.
“I’m a Drake, I can get away with murder,” he’d said earlier that night after telling me his first name was Vicon. Only later, when my parents had made the formal complaint, did I find out he was prince to the coven that ruled the entire city.
Sawyer grasped me by the arms and leaned in to kiss me chastely. “Call Sage and have her sleep over. I’ll put Eugene on the front door, with the rest of my guys walking the perimeter.”
I shook my head. “What?”
He released me and started to walk to the door, gray fur rolling down his back. When he reached the door, he looked over his shoulder at me with yellow eyes. “I might be gone for a few days. Just go to class, pretend like everything is normal, but sleep at my place with Sage. It’s safest.”
“What are you saying? Where are you going?”
Sawyer’s jaw clenched. “The only person who should have survived that night is you, Demi.” Then he slipped out into the daylight like he didn’t just drop a hint that he was going to attempt to murder Prince Vicon Drake.
Oh fuck. That’s not how I saw that conversation going.
Three days. Sawyer had been MIA for three days. I’d been forced to tell Sage about my attack six years ago, because she was wondering why we were sleeping at Sawyer’s and he was gone. He must have told his parents, because they didn’t issue a missing persons alert; everything was just very quiet. I went to class, I ate lunch. I looked normal on the outside but inside there was a war going on. Where was he? Was he safe? Did he kill Vicon? Or maybe he was just going to mess him up a little, or scare him by leaving dead rabbits on his bed or something. Yeah … but then I remembered when he said that I was the only person who should have survived that night and fuck, I couldn’t sleep very well or eat very much, I just wanted to know he was okay. All I knew was that Walsh was missing too and there was comfort in the fact that he wasn’t alone.
The females on campus were a ball of nerves as well. The day after Sawyer left it was announced that he’d chosen his future mate and wife early, and would be announcing it this weekend at a special ceremony. I hadn’t really put two and two together and realized that by picking me we had to get married … or his entire family would die.
No fucking pressure.
Basically it was just another Wednesday.
I tapped my foot, finally all healed and sans walking boot, as Sage chewed a fingernail.
“He said a few days. It’s been three,” I whispered.
Sage nodded, leaning into the table. “He’s probably staked out where that asshole lives, where he works, stolen a keycard so he can get into his place of residence without breaking in… It’s a lot of work to covertly assassinate vampire royalty.”
My eyes widened and I blinked at her a few times. “You think he really is going to … kill him?”
Sage scoffed. “Only one hundred and fifty percent.”
Okay, okay … that was … I mean, did I want that raping asshole to live and do this to another girl? No. But killing him … it was dangerous and Sawyer was basically royalty too, so if he got caught…
My voice shook: “Why didn’t he just send a team or something?”
Sage raised an eyebrow. “Sawyer is in love with you, Demi. He’s not going to send a team to enact revenge and fight for your honor, he’ll want to do that himself.” She laid a hand over mine. “Besides, his wolf has probably taken over anyway. All rational thought is gone.”
Oh great.
Fuck.
I’d told Sage that he’d confessed his love for me but not about the curse. I also hadn’t told her that I was some freak split shifter. Now that my cuffs were off again, I wondered if my smell, or whatever attracted the vampires to me in the first place, was sending a beacon that said “kidnap me and drain my blood.”
“Holy shit,” Sage whisper-screamed and pointed to the cafeteria door. Walsh and Sawyer had just walked in, backpacks slung around their shoulders like it was just another school day. Sawyer scanned the tables, and when he saw me he broke into a grin and walked over.
My heart thumped in my throat as he casually sat next to me and pulled a tater tot off my plate, popping it into his mouth.
“Uhhh, hey,” I said.
“Hey.” He smiled like he was happy and he hadn’t been missing for three days.
Sage cleared her throat. “So … did you, uh, do that thing?”
Walsh and Sawyer shared a look, both grinning. “We had a wonderfully productive hunting trip, thank you for asking.”
Hunting trip.
Oh my God … he killed Vicon Drake.
The eight a.m. bell dinged and everyone around us stood. Sawyer leaned into my ear and whispered, “He’s never going to hurt you again, Demi. Or anyone else.” Then pulled back and tucked a few strands of blond hair behind my ear. “I’ll see you tonight?”
All I could do was nod. I guess when an alpha werewolf was in love wit
h you, killing your attacker was a normal thing I would have to get used to.
“Nope. I have that surprise for Demi, remember?” Sage widened her eyes at him in a knowing, conspiratorial look.
Sawyer nodded, giving her a smile.
My brows drew together. “What is this surprise?”
Sawyer and Sage shared a look, and knowing smiles, but said nothing.
“It’s just a little something to make you happy. It was supposed to happen the day you went to the waterfall but…”
Yeah, that turned into a shitshow.
“Well … I look forward to said surprise.” Not really, I hated surprises, but if it was from the two of them, I was sure I’d love it.
I stood, and Sawyer leaned down to grab my backpack, handing it to me like a gentlemen. I noticed Meredith and a few others glaring daggers from the table nearby.
“See you … later.” I shifted awkwardly, and half waved to Sawyer.
With a halfcocked smirk, he leaned forward and grabbed the back of my neck, pulling me in for a kiss. I prepared for a light peck, but when I felt the wetness of a tongue, I opened my lips to deepen it, my tongue tangling with his for a moment before he pulled away.
“See you later.” He winked, and then walked away, leaving me the most hated girl in the school.
And I didn’t even care.
Sage and I walked out together and went our separate ways. She went to the security building for her training and I went to the arts building. As I walked, two guards trailed behind me. Quan and Brandon this time.
My mind slowly processed what just happened, the fact that Sawyer killed Vicon.
His words replayed on a loop inside my head and pinged around my soul, settling in my heart.
He’s never going to hurt you again, Demi. Or anyone else.
For the past six years, I never once thought that he could be doing this on the regular. That he would hurt another girl … I assumed since that “wild animal” had murdered three of his friends for raping me, he’d have been scared off. But what if he wasn’t … what if…?
The thought made me sick. I should have pushed harder for him to be arrested, I should have gone to the alpha maybe … but being banished, I had no rights.