He was there with me in an instant, gathering me tight into his arms and rocking us both. He ran callused palms down the back of my head and whispered his eternal and undying devotion.
“They think what we’ve done was just a phase, an act of temporary rebellion. But I love you, Scar. I will always love you. Everything, and I mean fucking everything I do in this godsforsaken place is for you and Steven. I vow it to the darkness that binds.”
I hissed, trembling in his arms and staring up at the hard line of his jaw. Tenebris went still inside of me, understanding that he’d taken another unbreakable oath for us.
I closed my eyes but rested my cheek against the warmth of his chest.
“You hurt me,” I admitted.
“Gods above,” he whispered brokenly, peppering my hairline with hard, desperate kisses. “I never, ever wanted to do that to you, Scar. Please believe me. But you have to trust me. You have to.”
I looked up and locked gazes with him.
Truth was stamped on his face. He wasn’t lying to me. Everything he was telling me was the absolute truth, which didn’t make the pain go away, but it did ease a little of my suffering.
“You’re the only goddamn thing in this entire world that can break me, Mercer,” I whispered. “And I think I hate you for it.”
He winced and glanced away, looking shattered and completely broken.
I couldn’t help myself. I pulled his face to mine. Male shifters rarely cried. They were men, too tough for such pussyfied things as tears and hurt feelings. But he was my man, and he let me in where he would never let anyone else.
Tears rolled down his cheeks. I leaned in and gently licked them away. He trembled beneath me as his fingers dug into my hips. Our lips hovered mere inches from each other.
“Don’t ever do it again. I’ll forgive you this once, but only once, Mercer. No matter how much I love you.”
He hugged me so tight that I couldn’t draw a breath, but I didn’t need to, anyway. I rested my cheek against his strong, beating heart and let him hold me until his trembles subsided. Once I felt him calm again, I pulled away, but continued to feather my fingers over his hard, firm skin.
The ginger had done very little damage to him. There were only a few bumps and scrapes, but by morning, they’d be healed, and his skin would be like new.
“Why are you telling me all this anyway? Isn’t it dangerous? Someone might overhear.”
He grabbed my hands and brought my fingers to his mouth, kissing each fingertip, gently scraping his teeth over my skin, making me break out in a wash of need and heat.
We’d just fucked, but I had a feeling that, before the night was through, Mercer would take me again. I’d let him because I wanted him too.
He shook his head. “No. It’s far too dangerous to keep you on castle grounds. They think my attachment to you is just sexual, and they’ll allow me to keep you as my pet so long as I act like the good and proper soldier they want.”
I growled and glowered.
He shook his head, brushing his fingers like soft paint strokes down my cheek. “We know who we are to each other, Scar. And that’s what matters, right?”
He was asking me, not to reassure me, but to reassure himself. He needed to know that I was onboard with this farce and that, if the stakes weren’t so high, if Steven’s life didn’t hang in the balance, I’d say hell no.
I sighed. “Yes,” I whispered. “Yes, Merc.”
His lashes fluttered, and he kissed my forehead for at least two seconds, as though he were branding me, telling me without words that I would always be his. No matter what.
“If this isn’t castle grounds, then where the hell are we?”
“The Campbell has given me permission to keep you and Steven housed in an old, forgotten tunnel system. We’re about a mile away from the castle. This’ll be our home for the next week. I’m sorry it’s not what you’d—”
I covered his mouth with my hand and shook my head. “I could be in a swamp right now, and I wouldn’t care so long as you and Steven were with me. The rest doesn’t fucking matter.”
“Gods, I love you,” he whispered brokenly. “I do, Scar. I really fucking do.”
I blinked, all resistance to him crumbling beneath the weight of his frank stare. Gently, I took his cheeks in my hands and nodded.
“What about spies though, or—”
“No.” He shook his head. “Believe it or not, the Campbell is an honorable man. And it would be far too easy for me or you to find any listening devices. He doesn’t have to keep tabs on me.”
“That just doesn’t make sense to me. Vampires wouldn’t be so laissez-faire with security.”
His strong brows dipped, gathering into a tight vee. “He’s got me by the balls, and he knows it, Scar. I have no choice but to show up and duel so long as he’s got Steven here. You can leave. You can run away from all this so long as you denounce your claim to me, but Steven... he... he...” His words were broken and choked.
I shook my head. “I’ll never leave you guys. Not ever. My word is my bond, you know that. You and Steven are my family, and where you are, that’s where I’ll go.”
He gathered me tight to his body, content just to hold me as I held him, finding our way back to each other after the trials and stresses of the past few nights.
A few minutes later, I heard the click of metal on metal and frowned as I saw him release me from my manacles. I’d forgotten I’d even been wearing them.
Gently, as only a mated wolf could be, he picked up my wrists and tenderly kissed my abraded skin, making me hiss with something other than pain.
He laid me down, straddling my body with his large, warm one. I opened my arms and legs to him, letting him know I was here for whatever he needed from me.
Mercer kissed me for a while, lazily and deeply, tasting my tongue with his own. Building my hunger for him.
My body was pliant, wet, and ready when he finally slid in. His large hand palmed one of my breasts over my still-clothed chest, gently kneading and massaging it.
We’d never had such soft, tender sex before. I’d always thought I would hate the intimacy of it. Hate to hear his sighs and tender words of devotion.
Tenebris trembled inside me, fully awake and wrapped in the pleasure of our man’s body and expert touch.
I arched my spine when he flicked his wrist and used his wolf’s strength to tear right down the heavy fabric of my gown, exposing my breasts. The cool night air caused my nipples to go erect, begging for his touch alone.
“I love you, my silver flower. I fucking love you,” he whispered heatedly. “I’ll keep you safe. I’ll keep you both safe,” he said between delirious kisses that left me feeling light-headed. “No matter what, I’ll always keep you safe. You’re my family. You are mine. And I’ll be damned if anyone takes you away from me.”
Pleasure was mounting in my blood. My skin felt electrified. The warm wash of his breath over my nipples made me feel like I was outside myself, like I was no longer in my body but out of it and only Mercer’s touch and love kept me tethered to this world.
Tenebris sighed, and it spilled off my lips. We were climbing the dark spiral, all of us together.
I ground myself on his cock, wanting all he had to give me. Wanting him never to leave me again. Never have to go into the ring again or have to make the kinds of choices he’d had to make tonight.
But all of that was second to the pleasure he could bring me, and the desperation I felt to keep him always with me, always safe, was fading as I chased the dark edge of madness, that little death that would make our world all right again, even if only for a moment.
I wrapped my arms around his broad waist, dragging my nails down his back and making him mutter incoherent words of adoration and eternal devotion.
The orgasm came just a second later, stealing any sense of intelligence from me, lowering me to the basest desires of touch and need.
Tenebris and I screamed as Mercer roared with rel
ease. His hot seed flooded my channel, turning my bones to mush and my blood to a humming crystal resonance.
When I finally came to, he was kissing my sweaty brow and was still seated tight inside me, though he was softening now.
I blinked and looked at him. Green-blue eyes looked back at me with heart-breaking tenderness.
“I love you,” he said again, and I smiled, brushing a lock of thick blond hair out of his eyes and tucking it behind his ears.
“If you’re trying to butter me up, it’s totally working.”
With a groan, he pressed his cheek to mine for half a second before rolling his weight off me and to the side. Then he was scooping me up into his arms and dragging me on top of him.
“It’s fucking terrifying how much I need you, Scar,” he whispered softly, brushing his fingers down my spine and making me shiver.
“Ditto,” I whispered. “Why did you ignore me in the ring? You acted like you didn’t see me. It killed me, Merc. It fucking killed me.”
He sighed deeply, holding me fast to him. “I know this is hard for you to hear, and even fucking harder for me to say, but to keep you safe out there, I have to pretend that I don’t care. I have to play it their way. I have to, Scar. They can’t see. They can’t know. You’re in enemy territory now, and I don’t have any sway in this goddamn place. If the Alphas call a hunt, there is fuck-all I can do to stop it. But I will take back Silver Creek and—”
I sat up, reclining on my elbow and frowned. “Not her. You won’t take her. You won’t touch her. Not again, you hear me, Mercer? I won’t let—”
With a hungry moan, he leaned forward and stole the rest of the words off my tongue. I sighed.
“I vow it. I won’t ever touch Enora again. I’ll find another way.”
I nodded, shivering softly. “So you’ve got a plan?”
He shivered, and for just a second, a look passed over him that made my soul clench.
“Mercer?” I shook my head. “What’s—”
“Shhh.” He wrapped his hand around my neck and gently brought our foreheads together. “Shhh, Scar. I don’t know what I have, to be honest. I just know that something is guiding me. Leading me.”
“Your wolf?” I breathed.
He blinked. “Yeah, I think so. Whatever it is, it’s instinct, and I know we’ll get through this.”
But I heard what he didn’t say. There was doubt in him. And fear, an endless chasm of it.
I shivered, but he held me so close. We stayed like that until the sun’s call took me in its grip, and I sank into the dark shadows of oblivion.
Chapter 9
Mercer
He knew he was dreaming, but it felt so damn real.
There were trees all around, the thick smell of heather and moss in the air. Stars shone like thousands of winking silver daggers in the sky.
A dark shadow paced him.
He was still in human form, but he was swift, running faster than he’d ever run before, dodging dangling branches, jumping high over ruts and long, corrugated roots rising up from the ground like gnarled fingers.
What was that shadow? And how was it that, no matter where he went, it was always there? Watching. Burning red eyes tracking his every move, not caring that Mercer could see them.
His heart beat a powerful cadence in his chest. Sweat rolled down his naked back. But his breath was even, steady. He could run all night if he needed to.
Then a flash caught his eye.
A streak of gold in the moonlight.
Frowning, Mercer turned to look at the object pacing him on the opposite side of the shadow. The light had turned and was bounding away, moving preternaturally fast.
Something told him to follow, some guiding hand, some instinct. Glancing back at the darkness one last time, he shifted course and followed the light.
The shadow screamed behind him, raging. It rolled swiftly across the land to catch him, but the light was keeping him hidden. The light was showing him a different way, a secret path.
At the next turn Mercer took, the trees were no longer surrounding him. He stood high up on a hill, the moon so full and large that it took up the whole of the sky.
The streak of gold had stopped running so that he could finally make out what it was.
Fifteen paces in front of him stood a magnificent wolf with neon-green eyes.
Instantly, Mercer knew who it was. It was him. His animal self.
The wolf’s keenly intelligent gaze never swerved from Mercer’s own. The wolf was powerful and tall, coming just about to Mercer’s waist. He padded silently forward.
Mercer sniffed, but he’d lost his ability to scent as the wolf. All he smelled was the flower-drenched musk of the warm night.
“What is this place?” Mercer asked softly. He’d never been here before. Nor had he ever been separated from his animal side like this.
He stared into his wolf’s eyes, and his wolf stared back into his own, a strange sensation of belonging—a symbiosis of two like and unlike beings—swept through him, making him feel as if he was looking at his soul and his soul was staring right back at him.
“Is this a dream?”
The wolf didn’t move but spoke inside Mercer’s mind. You know who I am, animal. You and I share one breath, one heart, one mind.
Mercer frowned. “Why have you shown yourself to me this way?”
Animal has forgotten what the man with the bones said. Animal believes he knows truth, but animal knows only what she of the dark blood allows. Her hands are soaked in red, and her sword cries out for more.
Mercer shook his head because little of what the wolf said was making sense. “Is the man with the bones Death?”
The wolf tipped his head once. His soft golden glow was a beacon in the night, a promise of safety and shelter. Mercer felt awed by the beast that was not just a part of himself, but also its own creature. He rubbed at his chest, feeling strangely empty inside without the wolf in him.
“Who is she of the dark blood? Scarlett? Tenebris?”
Mate? No. Mate is beauty. Mate is mine.
The wolf growled, his neon eyes growing brighter, and Mercer didn’t need the wolf inside him to know the wolf growled as a threat to anyone who even thought to hurt her.
She of the dark blood is mate’s Dame.
His brows drew high. “War? War’s here?”
Something that looked like an evil smirk lifted the wolf’s muzzle.
Dark blood is here. But you cannot know more than that.
“Why?” he frowned. “If we can stop her, if I can—”
Animal can do nothing! Wolf growled, taking a threatening step forward, hackles rising as he exposed long, killing fangs at Mercer. Dark blood watches. Always watches. She is shadow in the dark places. She knows all.
A cold chill snaked down Mercer’s spine, and he stared over his shoulder.
Dark blood is not stronger than Wolf in dreams. Dark blood cannot hear us here.
“So then why can’t you tell me? What is she planning? Do you know? Is Scar safe?”
The wolf glanced off into the distance, ears twitching as though he heard a disturbance.
Dark blood reads animal’s thoughts. Not safe for animal to know more. But Wolf must warn animal. Animal must stop what he does. Animal cannot straddle both worlds. Animal must choose right or mate suffers. And Wolf will not allow that to happen.
Again, Wolf took another menacing step forward, vibrating with suppressed fury.
“What are you saying?”
To save mate, animal must die to self, first.
Mercer jerked. “What? What the fuck does that mean? Are you going to let something kill us? Is this—”
Disgust flashed across the wolf’s face. He eyed Mercer like a bug under a microscope. Mercer balled his fists.
“So help me gods, I’ll shackle you, Wolf, before I let even you harm a hair on her head. Don’t tempt me.”
Wolf gave a very canine-sounding grunt-cough of displeasure before shakin
g his head.
Only warning, animal. Choose the correct path, or Wolf will make you.
“You leave her the fuck alone!” He rushed forward, ready to grab the wolf by its pelt and heave it off the hill.
But the beast was gone, its light evaporating like mist over still waters.
War
SHE SHOVED CLARENCE’S door open, her movements jerky and angry. The door banged against the stone wall of the shamed Alpha’s chamber with a jarring crack.
She’d lost sight of the beastly man in the dream woods, and there could be only one reason for that. Mercer was being protected by Death.
That fucking bastard. She’d been expecting his play, but she’d not thought him fool enough to make things so bloody obvious. He was losing his touch if he thought obscuring one conversation would be enough to drive her away from her end game.
A blanket-covered figure shot up, growling, and immediately sank into a crouch, ready to spring at an attacker. The sizzle of power rippled like a dense wave between them. Clarence might have been stripped of his title, but his beast was still plenty powerful.
“Wake up, you fool,” she snarled.
Realizing who it was, Clarence finally settled down. The fur that’d sprouted along his forearms and neck was slowly retracting again.
“War,” he said gravely. “I fucking hate when you do that. Do you have any idea how many people have gotten the jump on me and lived to tell the tale?”
His eyes were bloodshot, and his skin sallow, but there was clarity in his gaze where there’d been none before. The moon fever was broken. The Alpha Council had declared it a miracle.
In truth, Clarence owed it all to War.
Now, he was her lackey in all ways, a disgraced Alpha with hardly any loyal followers behind him. He’d been the perfect mole to infiltrate the castle. Because of his past and who he was, he had unfettered access to the heart of the council and a centuries-old friendship with the current leader and beloved High Alpha, Declan Campbell.
War had been making moves for weeks now, carefully orchestrating and planning to get them to this very moment. She should be crowing. Everything was going according to plan.
The Vampire Went Down to Georgia Page 13