The Ritual had begun to enhance her.
Without a doubt, she’d begun to grow stronger.
Even so, she probably wasn’t yet powerful enough to take on a Grizzly shifter, so she grabbed a clean needle and extracted a sample of her own blood, inserting the vial into the same reader she’d used for Richie’s.
When she sat down and looked at the screen again, her jaw dropped open.
She’d just insisted that she was nothing more than a human, but her findings were quickly proving her wrong. Instead of two intertwining DNA strands, there were…
ten.
Four for Roth.
Four for Laird.
Two for her.
Inside her body was a sampling of two men, their Dire Wolf counterparts, and a human woman.
The Ritual really had changed her. Roth and Laird were part of her now, in every way imaginable.
“There it is,” Lothar said, leaning forward to take in the strange sight. “That’s what I want. Exponential power. I want what you have.”
“But this isn’t something I can offer you in one night,” Emma protested. “I can’t just mix up a cocktail for you to drink. Look, if you give me a few weeks…”
Lothar grabbed her again, his grip on her neck tightening, and she stopped talking. “You take me for an idiot,” he said. “I know full well that those shifters gave you their power, and I know how they did it. Now, I can take it from you in the same way, or you can do as I ask.”
“Don’t you fucking threaten me.” She shuddered hard under his touch, her body bracing. “Don’t ever threaten me.”
“You don’t want threats? Then do as you’re told.”
At that, a dark, insidious rage began to rise up inside Emma, unlike anything she’d ever felt. Heat streamed like lava through her veins.
Fuck you! she wanted to scream. Take your sodding hand off me or I’ll kill you.
But instead, she told herself to calm down. She could feel her body’s strength growing, could feel how close she was now.
But she wasn’t quite there yet.
She began typing slowly.
Tap, tap, tap.
“What are you doing?” Lothar asked, the irritation in his voice palpable.
“Coding,” she said, grinding her teeth. “Setting out the genetic map for you. I’ll be quick, I promise.”
He pulled his hand away at last. “Good.”
When she was finished, Emma rose to her feet and strode over to a nearby sample fridge, deliberately wasting time by rifling through its shelves. The tile floor, which had been cold under her feet when she’d entered the lab, felt warm to the touch now. In fact, her whole body felt warmer, somehow, despite the fact that she knew perfectly well that the room’s temperature hadn’t altered.
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.”
Chapter 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.”
Chapter 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 tha
t, 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.”
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