Haven City Series Books 7-9: Alpha's Gamble (Haven City Series #7), Alpha Enchanted (Haven City Series #8), Alpha's Cage (Haven City Series #9)

by Zoe Perdita

  It wasn’t as comfortable as the couch, but at least it was easier to clean up.

  “Fourteen years ago. I doubt you can still do it,” Ari said, face pinched in pain, but he didn’t argue further. Just slumped on the counter and blinked his impossibly green eyes.

  Felan forced a smile. “Amy and the other pups gave me plenty of practice.”

  Ari looked at him, incredulous, but held out the little swab that numbed skin nonetheless.

  Felan washed his hands before he applied it.

  The stitches went in easily enough. Ari flinched through every single one, but Felan couldn’t blame him. He knew what they felt like and, alpha or not, he admitted they stung.

  With the wound sealed and cleaned, he took Ari back to the couch (and put a towel on it to prevent more bloodstains), and got the herbs off his balcony. He’d keep a small garden of them since they met, just in case Ari needed extras. It came in handy a few times over the years.

  Now most of all.

  “I gave you that planter. You kept it all this time?” Ari asked and slumped against the cushions. His cheeks were pale, but his breath was steady and his heartbeat was strong. He looked like he needed juice and something to eat.

  Felan would work on that next.

  He looked at the faded blue pot with the flowers painted on the sides. “Did you think I’d get rid of it?”

  That he got rid of anything Ari left behind? He bit back that part. It would just remind Ari that he knew they were mates when the healer didn’t believe it. Not anymore.

  “I—I guess not,” Ari admitted and watched as Felan snipped the proper herbs and crushed them into a gooey green mess that smelled sharply astringent and clean.

  “Do these go directly on the wound?”

  Ari nodded. “Then put clean bandages on it and tape it shut. It enhances healing and soothes pain.”

  Felan lathered it on nice and thick. “Do you prescribe this to all your patients?”

  “If they need it, usually. Why? Do you think I’m holding out on certain ones?” Ari bit out, the same old argumentative tone in his voice.

  It was more reassuring than Felan wanted to admit. “Nothing like that. Would you use it on me?”

  “Of course. In fact, that cut on your leg could use some. Clean it first. Is that—did you get hit with something silver while you were shifted?” Ari said and struggled to sit upright.

  Felan took a sharp breath and pushed Ari back. “Rest. I’ll fix you something to eat and then I’ll—” he stumbled before he finished that sentence, and caught himself on the back of the couch. If his apartment wasn’t so small, he would’ve crumpled on the floor instead.

  “Felan!” Ari cried, his voice laced with concern that the alpha told himself wasn’t real. Wasn’t meant for him, but from the look on Ari’s face, how wide and worried his eyes were, perhaps Felan was wrong.

  “Not fair,” he managed and stood up straight. “You can’t give me that look and tell me we’re not mates, that this doesn’t mean anything. That I should stay away from you.”

  Ari frowned, fingers gingerly prodding the wound on Felan’s leg. “That what doesn’t mean anything?”

  Ari had to know what Felan meant, but he was being purposefully obtuse about it. He’d done that ever since they first met, and Felan never thought he’d learn to appreciate it until now.

  “This,” he said, as he felt the silver sapping his energy. If it was going to happen, he might as well get what he wanted—what the alpha needed—one more time. Felan sunk to his knees, wrapped his hands around Ari’s cheeks and pressed their lips together, kissing his mate as deeply as his wound would allow, before the weariness claimed him.

  “Cage, you—” Ari’s voice faded, and Felan smiled.

  Kian’s hands wrapped around Ari’s chest, the bones poking through at the joints. A skeletal smile graced what was left of his lips.

  Mine.

  He’s mine.

  Kian’s voice sounded like the wind over old bones.

  Felan woke with a start.

  Glanced around the room, which was out of focus.

  He scrambled to make sense of what had happened.

  Shake off the nightmare.

  Ari was injured.

  Maybe dead, and he’d let himself pass out for a kiss. If that wasn’t thinking with his dick, he didn’t know what was. Well, maybe it was tired of playing second fiddle to his brain.

  However, as consciousness crept over him, he realized his leg only ached dully, a background kind of pain, and blankets covered him. His head rested on top of a pillow too, which obviously hadn’t been the case originally. He didn’t keep pillows on the ground, and that’s where he was presently.

  Felan blinked. Noticed his glasses on the coffee table and put them on.

  Ari was curled on the couch, drooling out of the left side of his mouth, which drooped into the cushions.

  Alive.

  Ari was alive.

  An empty plate and cup sat on the coffee table as well, proof of Ari’s meal. At least the healer took care of himself as well as taking care of Felan.

  He didn’t have to touch his leg to know the healer had tended to his wounds. No matter how Ari felt about him, no way he’d let Felan get ill if he could prevent it. Something about the healer’s code.

  Still, Felan smiled. Ari might’ve been compelled to fix the gash in the alpha’s leg, but he didn’t have to get a pillow and blankets. That was all Ari’s doing, for whatever reason.

  Felan knew he shouldn’t get his hopes up since they’d been crushed before, but this felt different. The alpha whined, and Felan let it, for once.

  Ari blinked a few moments later. His sharp green eyes landed on Felan first thing, and his expression went from sleepy to focused in a matter of seconds.

  “How do you feel?” he asked and sat up gingerly.

  “I should ask you the same thing,” Felan said and smiled. Ari hadn’t even asked why he’d been in his wolf form, or how he’d gotten a wound from a silver weapon. Well, all things considered, hunters was really the only answer. But why the hell had hunters come after him?

  “Shut up. You’re the one with an injury that could turn deadly in a matter of hours, and you didn’t bother to let me know about it. You’re lucky I was strong enough to take care of it myself. I couldn’t even get you to the bed without ripping my stitches, so you had to stay on the floor.”

  “That’s fine. What about the kiss?” Felan asked and brushed his fingers up Ari’s leg. He must’ve stripped down to his boxers while Felan was out. How unfortunate he wasn’t awake to appreciate it.

  Ari flushed. “What? Why is that important? We have—shit. It’s almost five a.m.. I need to move.”

  Felan sat up and let his expression sober. “Move where? Not to mention, you never told me how you ended up with a stab wound last night. What happened?”

  Ari clutched his side and peered out the sliding glass balcony door, one of the only windows in the apartment. Not the best place, Felan had to admit, but he was trying to save all the money he could to retire early and focus on his research over teaching. Especially when he couldn’t be honest with most of his students about the things that inhabited their world.

  “You’re in danger because of me,” Ari said, his voice hollow. “I—Hunters are looking for the Demon's Sword, and they’re willing to go after people I know. At least, I think they are. I’m guessing you met a hunter last night too?”

  Felan nodded and sat up, ignoring the pinch to his leg. “Is that who stabbed you?”

  Ari nodded and told his tale, though Felan guessed it was the abbreviated version of events. His fists curled in the blankets, and his jaw clenched. He should’ve been there to protect Ari. Prevent this from happening. But if he’d tried, he’d have been going against Ari’s wishes.

  There was no way to win.

  He took a breath and let the scholarly side of his brain take over. “The ghost lantern killed them?”

  Ari nodded
, nose wrinkled. “I think. It’s not like I stuck around to see the bodies since I was too busy trying to escape. But it sounded like it worked. Whoever it hit screamed like they were dying. Painfully.”

  Good, the alpha thought, lips raised into a snarl. “And you think the hunter who came after me was connected with this group that’s after the sword?”

  “They were at my house, so yes! I didn’t know where else to go, but this whole fiasco has already put you in danger, and who knows who else. I—shit. I have to call Seth back. I was talking to him in the cab last night and my phone cut out. Weird that they haven’t tried to get a hold of you though.”

  Felan frowned. “Maybe they have. I left my cell with my clothes at the school.”

  And of course he’d gotten rid of his landline when Amy pointed out how useless it was since he was hardly even home to answer it.

  Ari frowned and looked out of the balcony doors again. “You live in a shitty side of town. I can’t tell if these are just normal people who live around here, or they’re hunters.”

  Felan limped over, ignoring Ari’s glare as he did, and peeked out. His eyes stung, and his stomach growled, but his mate was more important than his bodily needs. “The guy in green is local, the one in the black leather however—”

  Ari stiffened. “I know that guy. He was at the Montgomery estate sale, and he was hanging outside my shop yesterday. His partner came in and asked if I got a sword at the estate. Margaret said he was angry after I bought out the room and left. I—I have to go.”

  “I’m going with you,” Felan said, hand gripping Ari’s shoulder. The alpha told him to lean in for another kiss, and he did, letting his hands squeeze the bones under Ari’s flesh and his mouth brush the healer’s lips with enough heat to set his toes on fire.

  Ari moaned, his mouth eager and just as needy as Felan’s own.

  “What the hell was that for?” Ari breathed, cheeks a delightful shade of crimson.

  “I can’t help it sometimes,” Felan admitted and gave him a smirk.

  “At least you didn’t blame it on adrenaline. If you really want to come along, you have to take it easy. We need to get your phone back and then go to the police. Maybe swing by my house and see what they did to the place,” Ari said, his voice tightened at the last part. He didn’t know if it had something to do with Ari’s possessions or Kian’s spirit, and he wasn’t about to ask when things were finally getting better between them.

  “Good. But what are you going to wear?” Felan asked, looking at Ari’s navy boxers and raising an eyebrow.

  “Lend me something,” Ari said, mouth twisted into a frown that Felan knew all too well. He decided not to kiss it off Ari’s lips this time.

  And he kept any jokes about their difference in size to himself as well.

  Felan fished in the back of his drawers and pulled out an old T-shirt and a pair of pants that he’d worn when he was younger and, admittedly, slimmer. They were still too long for Ari, but the healer rolled them up at the hem and only grimaced slightly.

  “Why are all shifters so big?”

  Felan shrugged. “Those cats are small. I think, and I’ve never done the research so I’m just going on what I’ve observed over the years, that the size of the animal in questions denotes the size of the shifter’s human form. The smaller the animal; the smaller the human shape.”

  Ari nodded. “Makes sense. Don’t lie. You’ve thought about writing a paper like that, haven’t you?”

  Felan pushed up his glasses. “I’m not a biologist. Just a history professor.”

  The look in Ari’s eyes changed, and he considered Felan carefully. “Okay, professor. Did you find out anything more about the sword?”

  The hackles on the back of the alpha’s neck rose. He cast another glance into the parking lot, but the man with the leather jacket was gone. “I’ll tell you on the way. We need to do more digging, and I know just the place.”

  Together, they slunk down the stairs and peered around the parking lot.

  “Do you smell him?” Ari breathed.

  Felan frowned. “I don’t know what he smells like.”

  “How about leather? Can you smell that?”

  The alpha took a deep sniff of the air. The vague hint of leather came from the left—leather and the cool scent of magic mingled with it. “He’s a magic user of some kind. Water. Maybe ice. To the left.”

  Ari bared his teeth. Nodded. “Run for it?”

  The alpha inside told him that was the coward’s way out. He should face the man, and possibly, get blasted with some kind of magic. Maybe the healer had a point. “To my car. Go!”

  Ari scampered in front of him, and Felan turned to see if he could spot the man.

  There!

  He stood behind a hydrangea, draped in shadow, and his eyes widened. “Hey!” he cried after them.

  Felan didn’t stop. He climbed into the car and turned the key.

  It rumbled to life, and Ari snorted.

  “Some get away car. What’s the gas mileage on this thing?”

  “Thirty per gallon in the city. More on the highway. And shut up. I know what kind of car you drive, Goldie,” Felan said as his car peeled as quickly as it would go out of the parking lot.

  In the rearview mirror, he saw the man in leather climb on a motorcycle as a group of men surrounded him—men the alpha didn’t recognize.

  He let out a breath when they didn’t follow.

  It was a Saturday, so Haven University’s campus was even emptier than it was in the middle of the week. The warmth of the day before had been eaten up by a summer downpour that cooled everything off and made all the plants take on a bright green glow that reminded him of Ari more than ever. It smelled clean and damp, and almost entirely covered the scent of silver from the night before.

  However, as they neared the library, Felan caught in on the air. He slowed, pointing at the door he’d fled from, and felt the alpha grumble in his chest. Now that he knew who these hunters were, he regretted not at least taking a nip out of the one that went after him. It could’ve been a non-fatal nip, after all.

  The librarian on duty, Kathy, nodded as they walked in. “Did I leave my glasses downstairs last night? It was pretty late when I got out of here,” Felan said and put on that smile that seemed to work the best with her. Amy always said it made him look like an absentminded professor.

  “I haven’t checked out the lower stacks today. Too busy up here. If so, you’d better get them before Joe goes through tonight.”

  As they moved down the stairs, Ari snorted. “Flirting with the librarian?”

  “I wasn’t flirting. It’s called being pleasant. You should try it some time. Did it make you jealous?” Felan asked and smirked at him from below.

  Ari narrowed his eyes and didn’t answer.

  That had to be a good sign since he could’ve just said ‘no’ and been done with it.

  Felan found his glasses where he’d left them, but his clothes and phone were gone.

  The alpha growled. “Why the hell would they take my phone and clothes?”

  Ari shook his head, eyes scanning the stacks. Then he paled and his eyes widened. “If they have your phone, they have all the contact information for your pack, right? Dammit!”

  Felan’s chest seized, and he nodded. Why hadn’t he upgraded his phone ages ago? Amy always got after him for having such an old one. It wasn’t password protected at all. Anyone could open it and find all the important people in his life.

  Chest throbbing, Felan made a quick stop to use the library’s phone to warn his beta about the possibility of hunters and for everyone to be on their guard. When Kathy raised an eyebrow, he gave her a small grin that felt more like a grimace. “It’s a game we’re playing. One of those online things.”

  “Oh, well, good luck.”

  At least his pack hadn’t seen any hunters yet, and the reason for the ones at Ari’s house the night before were due to the pack member who was on guard falling asleep at his
post. At least he wasn’t injured, but Felan was going to have to have a long talk with them about safety precautions. He also asked that his beta get a hold of Amy and let her know, just in case the hunters spread the word worldwide. The chance was small, but he was the alpha and had to do everything possible to protect them.

  Just like he had to protect Ari, even if Ari didn’t realize it.

  The same way Ari wanted to protect him, even if he wouldn’t admit it.

  “Where to now?” Ari asked.

  Felan smirked, though it felt strained on his cheeks. “Like I said, we do more digging.”

  “You are a dog,” Ari muttered, but it wasn’t laced with his usual scorn.

  The alpha chuckled.

  Most shadow folk didn’t know about the library at the Mercer Mansion. The land had belonged to the Haven City Park Service for so long, and been integrated into Forest Park and the adjoining Rose Garden, that it was thought of as a strictly human place.

  That couldn’t be farther from the truth. The Mercer family were magic, though they hadn’t been part of the old families and they died out at the turn of the twentieth century, which is probably why most shadow folk forgot about them.

  “What are we doing here? We can’t take time to sightsee,” Ari grumbled and stared up at the towering structure, made of huge white granite stones.

  “We aren’t sightseeing. This is the place we should’ve looked first. If there’s information on the sword, it’ll be here.”

  Ari’s expression twisted between interested and skeptical. “Does that mean the hunters might be here too?”

  “We weren’t followed, and I seriously doubt hunters know about this place. You didn’t even know about it.”

  “I know all about the Mercer Mansion,” Ari said and followed Felan toward the entrance.

  The alpha cut around the back and pointed down a set of stairs that led to an unmarked door. It looked like an entrance to the basement, perhaps the wine cellar, but it was so much more. “Granted. But did you know about this?”

  “The basement. Wow,” Ari deadpanned, but his eyes narrowed all the same. “Why didn’t you tell me about this place if it’s so interesting?”