Aphrodite's Hunt

by Blackstream, Jennifer

  “Byron seemed to join with Rhianne without much thought,” Sorin pointed out.

  “Byron’s hatred for vampires is stronger than any other emotion or thought that he has. He would have joined with anyone if it meant keeping you out.” She laughed mirthlessly. “And now he has the added bonus of getting the chance to kill you in the challenge circle.”

  “Gia—”

  “How could you not know all this?” Gia exploded. “You were a werewolf, for Artemis’ sake, how could you think you could just become my mate for a challenge fight and then walk away?”

  “It was not like that in my country,” Sorin responded hotly, anger beginning to make a comeback under her insulting tone. “In my pack, being alpha was not so guaranteed. If another male wished to become alpha, he challenged the current alpha, whether he was part of a mated pair or not. If the challenger won, he could keep the same female or choose another. The same was said for the female alpha, if another female wanted to be alpha she issued a challenge.”

  “So the alpha who wasn’t challenged just had to stand by and watch while a fight went on to determine who was their new mate?”

  The horror in her voice spoke of a romanticism Sorin hadn’t expected. He almost smiled.

  “No. If an alpha wished to fight in his mate’s place, he had that option. Obviously, that usually discouraged female challengers.” He tilted his head. “Though I had one alpha who enjoyed watching his mate fight challenge fights. He felt it kept her from getting lazy.”

  “He sounds like an ass.”

  Sorin shrugged. “Our pack was very strong under his rule.”

  “So you think it’s better to have a mated pair that’s strong than to have a mated pair that is in love?”

  Again, the hint of vulnerability in her voice nearly undid him. Still, he couldn’t lie to her.

  “Yes.”

  She couldn’t have looked more crushed if the entire sky had collapsed on top of her. Before he realized what he was doing, Sorin stepped forward, holding his arms out to her. She held up a hand and stepped away from him.

  “No. Don’t touch me.” She dropped her hand. “You’re right. I’ve failed my pack long enough. Their safety matters more than my happiness.” She turned away. “I will meet you here tomorrow at sundown.”

  His wolf reared its head, scrabbling to stop Gia from leaving. The sensation nearly bowed Sorin’s back and he actually took a step forward.

  “Gia, come back to my home with me.”

  She didn’t even look back. “I’ll sleep in the woods.”

  “What if Rhianne decides to eliminate you before the fight? She must know she has a strong chance of losing.”

  Gia paused. “She won’t try anything. Byron would know she had a hand in it and he would kill her.” She glanced over her shoulder. “That’s the problem with taking a mate who’s stronger than you.”

  Sorin just stood there as she disappeared into the forest. He stared down at the tatters of her clothing on the grass around him. The scraps seemed symbolic somehow, as if he’d torn them away to reveal the vulnerable woman underneath. He’d hurt her somehow, hurt her in a way he didn’t understand.

  “She’s in love with you.”

  The new voice startled Sorin out of his confusion and he whipped around to find Claudiu standing a few yards away, his body partially hidden by a large tree. He wasn’t sure if the fallen lycaeon was deliberately using the tree to shield himself or not, but either way Sorin was furious that he hadn’t noticed his arrival.

  “If you have come for a re-match you are in luck,” Sorin snarled, baring his fangs. “I am in precisely the right mood for it.”

  Claudiu tilted his head to the side, his pale hair looking almost white in the moonlight. It fell over his eye and Sorin couldn’t help but wonder again how the man managed to see where he was going.

  “Gia’s mother was a lupa, you know.”

  The scent of Claudiu’s fear rode the night air, but his face didn’t betray the emotion whatsoever. Despite the emotional turmoil feeding his rising temper, Sorin had to respect Claudiu’s façade of calm.

  “It is too bad then that your foolishness has cost Gia the honor of carrying on that family tradition.” A rush of satisfaction soothed his frustration. It was nice to be sparring verbally instead of physically for once. Somehow it just seemed more gentlemanly.

  As he’d intended, Claudiu’s eyes tightened at the corners and he looked at the ground. Like a wolf spotting a wounded deer, Sorin pressed on.

  “Gia carried you like a pup for how long? A decade?” He took a step closer to Claudiu, straightening his spine as much as he could as he looked down at the taller man. “You sullied her name with your pack, betrayed her with her rival, and publicly humiliated her when she needed you most. Did it never even occur to you that when Rhianne proclaimed that Gia was no longer lupa, you could have taken her back?”

  Claudiu’ s face shot up and Sorin was shocked at the fury burning in his eyes.

  “She wouldn’t have taken me back.” He straightened up, all traces of fear gone from his scent. Sorin stared in amazement as the cowering werewolf glared at him with the force of a vengeful deity. “She’s in love with you. Don’t you get that you pompous corpse? She loves you. Aphrodite herself brought you two together and she wouldn’t have gone back to me even to save her position.” He shook his head and laughed, a cold bitter sound. “Gia would rather be a lone wolf than take another man as her mate now.”

  “She does not seems so enamored of me now.”

  Claudiu rolled his eyes. “What woman wants to hear that a man is drawn to her against his will? You practically told her you came back because no matter how hard you fought you couldn’t stay away. You made being with her sound like an obligation, like it was all Aphrodite’s doing.”

  Sorin’s head swam with what Claudiu was saying. The image of Gia’s rage as she stalked away from him filled his mind’s eye, contradicting Claudiu’s claim. Part of him didn’t want it to be true. Love was a curse, not a blessing. Passion was the quickest way to weaken a man’s control. Still . . .

  “Aphrodite has not brought us together,” Sorin said quietly. “Gia locked herself away with me. I was the only one for Aphrodite to bond her to.”

  Claudiu’s eyes widened and he stepped back, looking expectantly at the sky. Sorin frowned.

  “What?”

  “You really are an idiot. You just said, out loud, that it’s possible to hide from Aphrodite.”

  The way he said it imbued the phrase with a disturbing weight. Sorin shifted uncomfortably, not sure why he was suddenly nervous.

  “I’m surprised Aphrodite hasn’t convinced Zeus to fry your ass where you stand already,” Claudiu muttered.

  “You mentioned that Gia’s mother was lupa,” Sorin said out loud, trying to distract himself from his growing unease. “Was that just an informative tidbit or did you have a purpose for mentioning it?”

  “Gia’s father died when she was very young. Both he and her mother had been good alphas and their pack loved them. After he died, Gia’s mother continued as lupa unchallenged. She raised Gia to be like her, a kind leader who wasn’t afraid to fight.”

  “She did excellent work,” Sorin murmured.

  Claudiu nodded. “They were very close.” He shook his head, a sadness weighing in his eyes. “Then one day Gia’s mom took a mate. I don’t know if she’d just grown lonely or what, but Gia was devastated.”

  Sorin frowned. “Gia did not like the man her mother chose?”

  “Gia was eleven years old. She was used to having her mother to herself. It wouldn’t have mattered who her mother chose, it was going to take time for her to accept anyone into her little family unit.”

  “Understandable,” Sorin acquiesced.

  “Yes, but unacceptable in a werewolf pack. You see, her stepfather was also her lycaeon.”

  Comprehension dawned on Sorin. His heart went out to the eleven-year old Gia. “I see.”

  “Y
eah.” Claudiu shrugged. “Gia’s stepfather wasn’t a bad person, he just had very firm ideas about how the pack should be run. At that point, Gia viewed anything he did differently as an insult to her mother. Unfortunately, anytime she so much as made a face at her step-father, her mother and everyone else in the pack came down on her with orders to respect her lycaeon. No one gave her the room she needed to adjust to having a new father—to them he was lycaeon and that’s all that mattered. It pissed Gia off.” He smiled. “We went to high school together. She used to talk to me all the time about how someday she would be lupa and no one would ever be able to control her life again.”

  “That’s how you got her to take you for her lycaeon. You were the only one who listened to her ‘treasonous’ complaints.” All the pieces of the puzzle that was Gia seemed to fall into place. Sorin stared at Claudiu, both impressed and outraged by his manipulation of the situation.

  “We dated for a while in high school, but then my family moved and I went with them. When I came back, we picked up where we left off.”

  “And you convinced her to take you as lycaeon even though you knew you didn’t have the necessary strengths,” Sorin accused, the embers of his anger burning anew.

  Claudiu glared at him, defiance shining in his eyes. “It was a symbiotic relationship. I wanted a position where I didn’t have to worry about being beaten into submission and Gia wanted a mate who wouldn’t try to dominate her. We were happy.”

  “Then why did you stray?” The question burned in Sorin’s mind like a star, torturing him with its incomprehensibility. How could anyone betray Gia like that? How could any woman tempt him away?

  For a moment he didn’t think Claudiu would answer. The blond man stared at him with the decision warring in his eyes. Finally his shoulders slumped.

  “It’s not as easy as you’d think. I thought it would be enough to be called lycaeon and do a lot of the things lycaeons do. Lead hunts, eat first at a kill, have other wolves drop into submissive postures when I’m around . . . I thought that would be enough.” He rubbed a hand over his face. “But it was all empty. No one respected me, not really. Everyone knew I wasn’t powerful enough to be lycaeon, that I was basically a kept man. After a while it got to me.”

  He looked away as if too embarrassed to meet Sorin’s eyes. “Rhianne was always talking about how smart I am. She’d tell me what a crime it was that Gia didn’t listen to my ideas, how great a leader I could be if Gia would stop holding me back.” Finally he raised his eyes to Sorin’s face. “I felt more like a man with her than I had with Gia in a long time.”

  As angry as he was at the chaos Claudiu had brought down on Gia, and himself, Sorin couldn’t help the flare of empathy that rose inside him. Brains without physical strength would not get one far in the world of werewolves. There had to be someone stronger to help.

  He opened his mouth to say something, but Claudiu held up a hand. “I don’t want your pity. That’s not why I’m here.”

  “Then why are you here?”

  “Because Gia deserves to be happy. That means you, so listen up.”

  Sorin raised his eyebrows at the command, but remained silent.

  “Gia needs someone who needs her. If you act like you’re strong enough without her, or worse, that you’re stronger than her, she’ll never let you see her vulnerable side. And she needs someone to show that vulnerable side to. We all do.”

  “It does not seem as though having a weak mate served her very well in the past,” Sorin observed.

  “That’s because the whole pack saw my weakness.” His voice grew strained, but he didn’t flinch. “You need to make sure Gia sees your weakness, but the rest of the pack can only see strength. Just like Gia does.” He took a deep breath. “I don’t know what your issues are, man, but you need to get over it. You’ll never find anyone like Gia.”

  “What if I don’t want anyone?” The words escaped his mouth before he could stop them. He stared at Claudiu, helpless to take it back.

  Claudiu just shook his head, the corner of his mouth lifting in a half smile.

  “Well that’s just not true, is it?”

  He turned to leave.

  “Claudiu,” Sorin called.

  “Yeah?” he asked, turning his head back.

  “You are not as foolish as I previously believed.”

  Claudiu smiled. “I was lycaeon for over a decade and I can’t fight worth a shit. How stupid could I be?”

  Chapter 15

  Gia closed her eyes and took a deep breath, nodding with satisfaction when her chest didn’t hitch with the remnants of her earlier bout of crying. The sun’s last rays trailed over the sky, leaving a chill in their wake that matched the growing cold in her heart. Sorin would be here any minute.

  Sorin. The echo of his name in her head nearly brought the tears back. Curse him for that moment. That one glorious moment in her cabin when he’d invited her into the challenge and she’d let herself believe the offer had been so much more. For a short precious while, she’d given in to the bond Aphrodite had forged between them. The world had never felt so right.

  Her eyes burned as her chest constricted. She hadn’t even known she wanted it until she had it. And now it was gone, just the same. She was alone.

  Her mind danced over the details, gleefully tormenting her with her own stupidity. If they won the challenge, the rules dictated they live together for a year, barring expulsion from the pack. She didn’t think she could make it a year. It would be too much to bear, living with him as a mated pair and knowing he wanted to leave. She gritted her teeth, forcing the ice of indifference through her veins. Let him leave. They could start planning his expulsion after they won the challenge.

  One step at a time.

  “Good evening.”

  His voice caressed her like a hand, raising gooseflesh on her arms. Memories pricked her brain, reminding her of how her name sounded on his tongue, cried out in the heat of passion. Her steely façade wavered.

  “Are you ready?” she said out loud, trying to drown out her own thoughts.

  “I am.” Sorin watched her with a strange look in his eyes. His gaze flitted around her face and his nostrils flared as if he was scenting her. “You have been crying,” he said softly. “Perhaps I should ask if you are ready?”

  “Of course I’m ready,” she retorted coolly. “Let’s go.”

  She didn’t wait for his response, instead turning away and stalking off to the east. The challenge circle was only a mile away, it wouldn’t be long until the moment of truth arrived. Perhaps she worried for nothing.

  An image of Byron’s face, his eyes burning with hatred roared into her mind. Her steps faltered. What if Sorin lost?

  Her feet planted themselves on the ground as her mind spun with the new possibility. Strange that it had never occurred to her. Sorin had fought so well during the Hunt, the perfect warrior swift and deadly. But Byron . . .

  “Gia?”

  Sorin’s voice turned her head before her mind could finish its thought. She stared at Sorin without seeing him, her mind busy supplying her with all sorts of horrifying images. Byron was one of the best fighters her pack had to offer. A former soldier, he had the skills to go with his brawn. He wouldn’t be so easily beaten as Marco.

  “Gia, are you all right?”

  A stab of iron guilt cracked her icy exterior. She blinked and shook her head.

  “Sorin, you don’t have to do this.”

  Sorin raised his eyebrows. “I beg your pardon?”

  “You don’t have to fight.” She took a step closer, her brain still spinning with all the macabre possibilities. “This is all my fault, you shouldn’t have to pay the price for my mistake.”

  “Gia, what are you talking about?” Sorin frowned. “I cost you your position, I am honor-bound to—”

  “You don’t have to die for it!”

  Her voice broke on the last word and she had to scramble to keep her emotions from spilling out of the crack in her calm.
He stared at her like she’d lost her mind and she reached deep inside her for a handful of anger. Glaring at him, she poked a finger into his chest.

  “You’ve already said you don’t want to be my mate,” she ground out. “You don’t want to be lycaeon. Why should you get in the challenge circle and risk true death for some stupid misguided sense of honor?”

  “First of all, I am not certain your Byron can kill—”

  “He could rip your head clean off of your shoulders! Can you survive that?”

  “My beast is calmer in your presence.”