Rage, pain, and frustration swirled like an angry wind inside her. Part of her wanted to deny his accusations, to justify her actions. How dare he judge her? She had a right to control her own life, to have a say in who she spread her legs for. Who the hell was he to sit in judgment on her?
He’s not wrong.
A parade of wolves flowed through her mind. Each one was a new wolf she’d had to train, a new hand she’d had to hold as they fought to maintain their humanity in the face of the change. She’d held them while they cried, supported them while they screamed, and born the brunt of their misplaced anger when they fought it. She knew better than anyone what kind of chaos enveloped a new wolf.
Guilt closed its jaws around her heart and she closed her eyes as she fought the pain. Sorin was right. She’d abandoned her duties as lupa, thrown away her claim to the position’s respect. She’d torn his beast out and left him to deal with it alone—worse, she’d left him to deal with a beast locked in the grip of Aphrodite.
Grasping the ragged ends of her control, she slowly shoved her own pain and anger deeper inside her. There would be time for that later. Right now, she had amends to make.
The memory of last night’s happiness tortured her like an embarrassing home movie. It played over and over in her head, taunting her with the sensation of her dopey smiles and the sounds of her breathy voice as she practically giggled in Sorin’s arms. She wasn’t lupa of the Red Water clan—she was Aphrodite’s bitch.
“You’re right,” she whispered. “Whether or not these feelings between us are a gift or not, I was wrong to go about it like I did. I forgot my duties and that was selfish.” She ran a hand through her hair. “I don’t have to tell you that Aphrodite’s Hunt can be a little disorienting. I hope you’ll forgive me.”
Sorin stared at her with suspicion plain on his face. “Your apology is very droll, but I still have no intention of unchaining you.”
It would have been nice to have a little rage to throw back at that comment, but Gia just didn’t have the will for it. The happiness she’d felt last night that had come as such a welcome surprise to her was now more of an embarrassment than a gift. It was hard to hold onto her dignity enough to be angry under the combined weight of that embarrassment and her own guilt over letting Sorin suffer through the feelings of the Hunt ignorant and alone.
“Keeping me chained up here won’t help you. I’m the one who did this to you, please let me make things right. Come back to my pack with me. I can help you learn true control over your wolf.”
“Do you truly think phrasing it differently will fool me?” Sorin scoffed. “You think I am so ignorant that I would release my prisoner only to walk into her own camp—surrounded by her soldiers?”
“You’ll be free to leave whenever you want. I only want to help you.” A vice closed tighter and tighter around her chest the more she spoke. Having him with her would be torture. Even now, with all the emotional turmoil and cutting words, her body ached for him. She hadn’t wanted to find a new mate, but she had. He stood right in front of her, strong and sure. And he didn’t want her. “Just let me try to make things right, Sorin,” she said softly, hating the threat of tears in her voice. “No strings attached. You have my word.”
“I have seen no evidence that your word is worth anything.”
A flicker of anger flared to life beneath her self-loathing, but she shoved it down. He had a right to be angry.
“It’s all I have to give.”
“No. Release me from the magic and I will rebuild my life myself.”
Frustration clenched her teeth. “I told you, I can’t do anything about that.”
“Then you will remain chained up until it wears off or until Grigore can use his alchemy to defeat it.”
“It’s not magic, you arrogant prick! It’s—”
The word caught in her throat and a burning blush set fire to her cheeks. Embarrassed and angry with herself and with Sorin, she turned away.
“Please, finish,” Sorin said softly.
She grit her teeth, desperately trying to ignore the mocking tone in his voice.
“It is love? Is that what you were going to say?”
The blush burned hotter until she was sure her cheeks would turn black. Humiliation nearly brought tears to her eyes.
A hand on her cheek made her heart leap into her throat and she whipped around just in time to see Sorin lean in for a kiss. Too shocked to react, she held perfectly still as his lips brushed hers.
Electricity crackled between them as their lips slid over one another. The delicate sensuality seemed such a contrast to their surroundings, so out of place in all the stone and metal. Gia’s head spun as his tongue probed her mouth and she parted her lips with a sigh.
His tongue swirled over hers, sending a fresh rush of wet heat between her legs. Her heart soared from the pit it had been cast into, given wings by the joy of his touch. His harsh words and hateful accusation were all but forgotten in the passion he called to life inside her. Caught up in the moment, she forgot the finer points of French-kissing a vampire.
She gasped as she nicked her tongue on his fang. His arms shot around her waist, crushing her to his chest as he poured himself into the kiss with renewed fervor. Her beast danced inside her, brushing against the front of her body as if trying to get closer to the wolf inside Sorin. She moaned and raised her arms around his neck to hold on as sensations rolled like heavy waves over her body.
Suddenly her pulled away from her, breaking the kiss, but not pulling back far enough to tear her arms from around his neck. Disoriented by the pleasure of his kiss, she could only blink at him as she struggled to pull her thoughts together. Sorin stared down into her face, his green eyes alight with hunger—for blood or sex, she wasn’t sure.
“This is not love,” he whispered harshly. “This is sex magic. I crave you like a drug, there is no free will.”
He licked her blood off his lip, anger showing in the tightening of his eyes. His body trembled beneath her hands and she didn’t need to read his mind to know he was fighting off the urge to throw her to the ground and bury his cock and his fangs inside her. The thought sent a thrill between her legs even as the anger shining in his eyes sent a wave of fear down her spine.
“If I am still in such a poor state when the full moon is over, you will remain here in these chains,” he choked. “One way or another, I will free myself of this enslavement.” He shook her once, hard. “Only a beast would think this carnal obsession is love.”
His tireless mockery of her tender feelings stretched her temper until it snapped. Frustration and shame sharpened her anger to a fine point and she brandished it like the weapon it was. Pulling her lips back in a snarl, she grabbed his head between her hands and used her mind to reach deep into his body until she “felt” the fur of his wolf. With a vicious tug, she ripped the beast from his body.
Sorin fell to the ground with an animalistic cry. The fury and despair in that one sound stabbed at Gia’s heart, but it couldn’t pierce the armor of anger that had grown up in her own defense. She’d apologized and he mocked her. She’d offered to make amends and he’d scorned her attempts. She’d held out an olive branch and he’d snatched it away and beaten her with it.
Cold anger applied its icy grip to her heated flesh, cooling her arousal if only slightly. He’d called her a beast. It was time he faced his own.
His clothes shredded under the scrabbling legs of his wolf and he fell to the floor in his attempt to free himself from what had once been his gentleman’s armor. The tattered clothing fell like tangible pieces of his calm façade. They didn’t belong on him anyway.
“What in the name of Apollo is going on in here?”
The new voice coming from the direction of the doorway wrenched Gia’s attention away from the floundering wolf. The sight of the blond man standing in the doorway shocked her to her core. His hair hung to his eyelashes, close to obstructing his view. At five foot ten, he stood a little taller tha
n Sorin, but leaner. The suspicious scowl on his face made him look younger than he was. Gia’s heart constricted.
“Claudiu,” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”
Before Claudiu could answer, Sorin’s human side erupted from the wolf’s body in one of the fastest changes Gia had ever seen. She heard the stomach-turning sound of bones cracking and turned just in time to see Sorin’s human face explode from the wolf’s muzzle. It was a violent change, one that usually only came when a change was forced with no mercy. Gia knew first hand how painful it was and she covered her mouth with her hand to muffle a cry of sympathy.
Sorin’s rage vibrated the air around him, no doubt fueled by the rush of physical agony. Gia half expected to catch fire the instant he turned his blazing eyes to her. Her wolf raised its hackles.
“Have you no sense of decency whatsoever, you evil creature of carnal sins?” He screamed the words at her, nearly deafening her in his fury. “Is there no scrap of human in that skull? No trace of womanly modesty? Are we all to tear the civility from our bodies and run naked like heathens?”
“Zeus’ lightening, they’re just clothes,” Claudiu muttered.
Sorin whipped around to face Claudiu. “They are not just clothes!” he howled. “They are symbolic! Clothing separates men from beasts, it makes us a society worthy of more than food and sex! Would you have us run around like the beast who overtakes us on the night of the full moon, dancing like wanton witches at a sabbat?”
“Don’t scream at me,” Claudiu snapped. “I’m wearing clothes.”
Sorin blinked as if only now registering Claudiu’s presence. Gia held her breath as he seemed to struggle for coherent thought. His eyes ran up and down Claudiu’s body before coming to a halt at his face.
“Who are you?” he asked finally.
“I’m Claudiu.”
Sorin frowned. His face twisted and his eyebrows furrowed as he seemed to struggle with the abrupt change in circumstances. “You are here for Gia.”
Claudiu nodded.
“And yet you are not preparing to fight me.” Sorin tilted his head. He looked like a hawk who’d just spotted a curiously brave little mouse. “And you are not in the least bit afraid of me.”
“Of course not. I know you’re part of the plan.”
“What plan?”
Gia’s mind echoed Sorin’s question. She’d never told Claudiu of her plan, she hadn’t had the chance. Even if she had managed to find a way to tell him her idea, it would have constituted cheating the Hunt and she’d be in violation of her pack’s laws. Hiding behind a vampire could be seen as making it more difficult for males to get to her, in essence raising the bar for potential mates, but giving one male information to give him an edge over the others was cheating, pure and simple.
Now wasn’t the time to ask Claudiu how he’d discovered her location, or how he knew Sorin was part of her plan. Right now she had to concentrate on deterring Sorin from the violence she could feel brewing in the air around them.
“Sorin, leave him alone. It was my plan, not his.”
“What plan?” Sorin repeated.
Claudiu never got the chance to answer. Sorin’s face froze and he straightened like a puppet on strings. He turned his eyes to Gia and the blossoming fury in his green depths made her step back as her wolf sensed impending danger.
“Oh, Gia, what have you done?” he whispered.
“Sorin—”
“You wanted to cheat Aphrodite’s Hunt.” He pointed at Claudiu, his eyes never leaving hers. “He has the confidence of a man who has already won, a man who does not have to fight. Where does that confidence come from?”
“I’m her mate,” Claudiu spoke up. The hesitant tone in his voice suggested he’d finally picked up on the danger of the situation he’d wandered into.
Sorin turned to him, his movements so slow Gia wondered if he was afraid of what he’d do if he moved too fast.
“She does not have a mate. She is the subject of Aphrodite’s Hunt, her mate will be the one who fought for her and won.”
Claudiu frowned, seeming to have finally realized the vampire was not completely behind the plan. “Rhianne said you were helping us.”
Gia’s beast bristled at Claudiu’s mention of the woman he’d betrayed her with. A thousand questions swarmed her mind, but one stood out from the others.
“How did Rhianne know where I am?” Gia demanded.
Claudiu frowned. “She tracked you down. She said she overheard you talking with the vampire and told me if I came here on the last night, I could pretend to fight the vampire so the pack would finally respect me as lycaeon.”
Every word out of Claudiu’s mouth seemed sounded farther and farther away as horror clouded Gia’s mind. Rhianne was one of the Furies, the punishers of the pack. When Gia had smelled her all over Claudiu, she’d suspected the other woman was trying to take her place as lupa, but she never would have thought her capable of this kind of cruelty. She had to have known Sorin wouldn’t throw the fight. Claudiu could have been killed.
It was still a possibility. Panic flared to life inside her as she glanced at Sorin’s face. Pain and anger rolled off of him in waves and the air crackled with the emotions he wasn’t voicing. A sick feeling permeated her stomach.
“Sorin, don’t hurt him.”
That got his attention. Sorin stared at her. “Do not hurt him?” he repeated incredulously. “This man intends to be your mate, lycaeon of your pack, and yet you beg me not to hurt him?” He swiveled his head to Claudiu. “What hold do you have on this woman that she would lower her standards so?”
Claudiu glared at him, his brown eyes flashing. “We’re in love.”
Sorin moved like a flash of dark lightening. Gia screamed, her chains jerking taunt as she fought to stop him, straining toward Claudiu. Sorin’s hand closed around her former mate’s neck. Claudiu’s eyes widened as Sorin lifted him off the ground. His hands grabbed the vampire’s fingers, trying to pry them off his neck so he could breathe.
Panic bubbled up in her chest as she watched Claudiu’s face turn blue.
“Sorin, stop!”
The sick sound of flesh hitting the wall sent a chill down her spine as Sorin hurled Claudiu across the room. The slender man collapsed to the floor, choking as he struggled to pull air back into his lungs past his damaged throat.
“You brought me into this ritual, Gia,” Sorin ground out. “You made me part of this, you made me want you. Now you expect me to stand here and let this pathetic excuse for a werewolf come in and take what I have fought for, what I have earned.” He shook his head slowly. “I think not.”
“What the fuck do you think you’re going to accomplish here? You don’t even want me, you arrogant prick!” Inspiration struck and she clung to it like a lifeline. “Why not just let him take your place in the Hunt?”
Sorin froze. He stared into her eyes, but he didn’t seem to see her. Gia’s heart pounded so hard she was certain it would break through the wall of her chest and fall bleeding to the ground. She held her breath as she waited for his reaction. Deep down she knew her beast wouldn’t submit to Claudiu, wouldn’t allow him to replace the mate standing before her, but perhaps Sorin wouldn’t know that. Perhaps his desperation to be free of the Hunt would be enough to make him step aside.
Strange emotions passed over Sorin’s face. His eyebrows furrowed as if trying to figure something out, the corners of his mouth tightening in displeasure. Finally his eyes lit up and he turned away from her.
“I cannot step aside. I am a gentleman and I have given my word to protect you until the three nights of the full moon pass.” His voice grew harder and more confident, though he didn’t turn to look at her. “Unlike the lupa of the Red Water clan, I can put my duties above my own desires.”
She had to be imagining things. That hesitation in his eyes before he turned, the flicker of pain . . . she could have sworn the thought of letting Claudiu have her upset him. Was it possible that when push came to
shove, Sorin was not as ready to be rid of her as he claimed?
Gia didn’t take the time to analyze her emotions. There was no time for that. Claudiu was struggling to his feet, but he didn’t stand a chance against the advancing vampire. Taking all the energy she had left, she threw it into her change.
The manacles crashed to the floor in a cacophony of metal as her legs shrank to the slender paws of her wolf, easily slipping from her bonds. As soon as the last bit of fur flowed over her flesh, she pivoted and leapt into the air toward Sorin.
He whipped around just as she collided with his body, carrying them both to the floor. She snapped her jaws in his face, counting on his instincts to make him to turn away to avoid her sharp teeth. Before he could recover from his surprise, she darted her head down, clamping her jaws on his shoulder. She shook her head, her stomach rolling as he screamed in agony. She couldn’t let him hurt Claudiu. Whatever else he was to her, Claudiu was pack and as lupa she could not stand by and let him be hurt.
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