Andromeda's Reign

by K. S. Haigwood

  “Liar!” I roared.

  Julian held out his arm and my head whipped to see what he was looking at. “Come here, dear.”

  Emily slowly walked from the crowd of people, avoiding eye contact with me.

  “Emily!” I shouted, and jerked against the hold the men had on me. I barely budged them.

  Julian wrapped an arm around my love and kissed her softly on the mouth.

  I heard Andra gasp, and then say, “Oh, no!” but I was too deep into my memory to console her.

  My mind refused to believe she was doing this of her own freewill. “No! Emily, what has he done to you?”

  She still didn’t look at me, but Julian did. “I told you, Jesse. Emily is one of us and she belongs to me.”

  Fighting through my rage and confusion, I blinked several times, desperately trying to figure out what he was telling me. Were they witches? Had they brainwashed her? “What—what do you mean that she is one of you? What are you?”

  Julian grinned. “That’s the best part. Show him what we are, darling.”

  Breathing heavily, I stared in horror as Emily began to undress. As her dress pooled around her ankles, I screamed out, “Fight it, Emily! Don’t let them make you do this!”

  “I’m not making her do anything, Jesse,” Julian said. “She’s loyal to me and my pack. She is my mate. It was so generous of you to save her from the fire. As you can imagine, I was elated when I discovered she had found you and so easily made you fall in love with her. Proposing after only two months…” Julian laughed. “It took me at least six. You were always one to rush things, though. I can’t say that I blame you.” He kissed her bare neck while keeping eye contact with me. Her hand came up to brush over his cheek. “She is quite delicious.”

  I couldn’t wrap my mind around it all. “No, you’ve brainwashed her or something.”

  Julian gave a hearty laugh. “We aren’t witches, my dear cousin. We’re werewolves.”

  My face twisted in disgust. “You don’t honestly think I believe that, do you?”

  Julian gave Emily a glance, and then nodded. A massive white wolf burst from her flesh in the next instant and my knees gave out beneath me. I would have fallen to the floor if it had not been for the two men still holding me.

  “I am the Alpha wolf, Jesse. I have defeated four pack Alphas who dared to challenge me. I have over eight-hundred men and women beneath me. I assume you came here to kill me. Am I right?”

  I had to be dreaming. There was no way this could be real. But if it was, my plans hadn’t changed. Well, one of them had: I wanted Emily dead now, too. Her betrayal burned in my gut like a volcano, coursing molten lava through my veins. “Yes,” I said in response to his question.

  Julian smiled as if he’d known what my answer would be. “I’m happy to inform you that won’t be happening today. But you’ll be happy to know that you won’t be dying today, either.”

  “You’re not turning me into one of you. I’ll never be under your command. I’d kill myself first.”

  “I don’t want you to be one of us, Jesse,” Julian said. “That’s not why I had my men bring you here.”

  “Then why am I here?” I shouted.

  Julian shrugged. “To let you know that you’ll be going to prison soon. Thought I would be nice enough to give you a head’s up, you know, just in case you wanted to run. You see, I couldn’t kill my own parents without someone suspecting me—it’s known by everyone in the city that we didn’t get along—but Father found out my secret and threatened to expose me. I couldn’t let that happen. But I knew you would do it for me if I destroyed a family who actually loved you. And I knew you would come looking for me if I took your precious Emily away from you. You would want to make me hurt just as much as you’re hurting, and then save her.” Julian frowned as he shook his head. “You rushed into things before thinking, like always, cousin. You’ll learn one of these days, maybe… if the cops don’t kill you for the murders of your family and mine first. You see, Emily, in her distraught state, told the police everything—that you went crazy and killed everyone in that club, and that you said you were on your way here to kill your aunt, uncle and cousin and then you were going to kill yourself after you destroyed the monsters they had become.”

  “You’re the monster!”

  Julian smirked. “I don’t deny it.”

  “I’m going to murder you, Julian! You killed my family!”

  “I’m really looking forward to you trying, Jesse, but, like I said, it won’t be today. You have some running to do.”

  “He flung his hand through the air, and then something hard hit me on the back of the head. That’s all I remember about that night,” I said, but didn’t look over at Andra just yet. She had a lot to take in, and I hadn’t even told her the bad part yet, the part she may not forgive me for.

  I felt her move up next to me and take my hand, and then she lay down and put her head on my lap, with her face turned away from me. After a moment, I could tell that she was sobbing. There was no noise, but the gentle shaking of her shoulders and body told me more than any words or sounds could have.

  I sighed as I placed my hand on her arm. “I’ll tell you the rest some other time. You need to rest. Our pride will start to arrive soon.”

  She nodded, so I slipped my arms underneath her and pulled her up next to me. After situating our pillows, I covered her with the duvet and held her close to me.

  My last thought before I drifted off to sleep: I would lose everything I ever loved all over again if only I could make this girl love me.

  Chapter 13

  Thursday, February 5th 2015 6:15 a.m. CST

  An open field somewhere outside of Montgomery, Alabama

  Alex

  “I can’t believe you actually ran over the fucker,” Alex said as he stared down at the limp red werewolf.

  Roel didn’t seem nearly as concerned about the animal as he did the car he was inspecting. “Shit. I busted the radiator when I hit him. My baby isn’t going anywhere without a tow.”

  Alex pointed at the shifter. “We can get a tow, but what are we going to do about him?”

  “The shifter is fine,” Roel snapped. “We’ll just put him in the trunk until we can get the car to a safe location. With his injuries, he’ll be knocked out for a few hours or more.”

  Phoenix crossed his arms over his chest. “What are we going to do about me? We can’t get a tow truck out here and get to safety before the sun comes up. We’re still linked through the Nexus spell. I die, all of you die, remember?”

  Heath’s hands came up to grab the hair on the top of his head as everyone stopped in their tracks to stare dumbstruck at the vampire. “Fuuuck!”

  Alex’s brow rose. “It’ll kill me, too?”

  Phoenix shook his head, but he was still glaring at Roel. “No.”

  “Whew!” Alex let out a breath of relief. This entire wolf-shifter thing was unreal as it was. If Alex was going to die because of these losers, he’d kill them.

  “What are you going to do, Roel?” Phoenix said, without emotion in his tone. “We’re at least twenty miles from the nearest town, not to mention that we’re at least a mile and a half off the main road, with no cell service. The sun comes up in less than fifteen.”

  Roel threw his arms out and lashed out at everyone standing around him. “Why is everyone looking at me to fix this?”

  “You were the one who decided to go bajaing through a field at ninety miles per hour in a Classic Mustang to hit a werewolf,” Heath said, sarcastically. “Super glad everything worked out so well.”

  “And you’re our Beta leader,” Alex said.

  Roel pressed his lips together and glared at Phoenix through his lashes. “What do you want to say?”

  “About what?” Phoenix said.

  “Heath says it’s my fault that we’re stuck. Peanut says I need to come up with something because I’m HWIC, so what do you want to throw at me?”

  Phoenix shrugged. “I’m with
Heath.”

  “If I hadn’t gone after him, he would have gotten away!” Roel shouted. “It could have cost us days searching, and countless more innocent people may have been turned into moonrising wolves before we found him. What should have I done differently? What would any of you have done differently if you’d been behind the wheel?”

  “We could have taken my Escalade for one,” Phoenix said. “It has a special tint on the windows that prevents any UV rays from penetrating. And it’s a four-wheel drive.”

  “That doesn’t really help us now, does it?” Roel cursed as he turned to kick the car’s tire.

  Alex cleared his throat. “No light should get through the trunk, right?”

  Everyone turned to look at him. Roel started smiling. Phoenix shook his head.

  “I’m not getting in the trunk with an unconscious rabid shifter,” Phoenix said.

  Heath and Roel were grinning as they nodded their heads, and then said in unison, “Oh, yes, you are.”

  Phoenix’s eyes widened in disbelief. “You can’t seriously be thinking that this is a good idea. If he wakes up and bites me before I kill him, we’re all as good as dead.”

  Roel started for the back of the car. “Nice try, vampire. We were all there when Mena cured your vamp girl with her blood. This is our only option,” he said, and then popped the trunk as he looked at Phoenix.

  “That still doesn’t solve how we’re going to get the hell out of here,” Phoenix said.

  Alex shrugged. “I’ll shift and run to town. I’ll carry my clothes in my mouth, shift back and put my clothes back on before anyone spots me.”

  Roel nodded. “Sounds good.”

  “Let’s do it,” Heath said.

  Phoenix rolled his eyes. “It’s not even 5:30 a.m. Where are you going to find a tow service open at this hour?”

  Alex grinned. “I’m a cop, remember? I have connections.”

  Phoenix groaned as he glanced at the brightening sky, and then he trudged to the back of Roel’s car. “You’d better run fast if you want your moonrising wolf to be able to tell you who bit him. He opens even one eye and I’ll rip his heart out.”

  Alex began stripping as Heath and Roel went to carry the shifter to the trunk.

  This would only be his second time fully shifting since he’d been bitten, but it hadn’t been so bad the first time. As the last item of clothing fell to the ground, Alex’s hands clenched into tight fists and he called his wolf forward.

  It was a rush like nothing else he had ever experienced before. His muscles stretched, his bones lengthened, the blood raced through his veins, and, from one blink to another, he was standing on four paws. He looked up at Phoenix, noticing that he could see better in the dark as a wolf than he could during the day as a human.

  Phoenix nodded at him as he crawled into the trunk with the shifter. “Hurry the hell up, Rhodes.”

  Alex bent his head down to gather his clothes in his mouth, and then he ran off into the night, toward Montgomery.

  Thursday, February 5th 2015 7:17 a.m. PST

  Las Vegas, Nevada

  Andromeda

  With her eyes still closed, Andra stretched in Ace’s embrace. His arms tightened around her, and then his mouth pressed against hers softly. Her eyes shot open to stare at amused amber ones.

  He chuckled at the shock on her face and loosened his hold on her so that she could sit up. “Sorry,” he said. “I thought I was still dreaming. You let me do that in my dreams… and you enjoy it,” he finished quietly.

  She laughed a little as she tucked the hair behind her ear, and then she turned her head to look at him. One of his arms was casually positioned behind his head while the fingers of his other were caressing her lower back. He was beautiful—ruggedly so, but beautiful nevertheless. “Jesse?”

  His fingers stopped moving as his eyes cast down. “Jesse has been dead since nineteen-fifty-one.”

  She lay back down beside him, and he wrapped his arm around her shoulder, playing with her hair absentmindedly. “Will you finish the story now? I’m sorry I fell apart on you after hearing what Julian did to your family.”

  He smiled. “I would have been worried about your mental state of mind if you hadn’t—” Ace’s phone rang from where it lay on the nightstand. “Hold that thought,” he said, and then reached over to retrieve it. “Yeah? Okay, I’ll be down in a few minutes.” He ended the call and kissed her forehead. “Go take a shower. Everyone has arrived. I’ll come back up to get you after you’ve finished getting ready. Just text me.” Andra watched as he stood and walked to the closet. There was silence for a few beats, and then he appeared in the doorway. “Will you please hang your clothes in my closet?”

  She grinned. “I will if you’ll do something for me in return.”

  His eyebrows rose at that. “The lady wants something,” he said, and then returned to where she sat on his bed. He leaned in, invading her personal space, but stopped before she could frown. “What can I possibly give that will satisfy your wants, Miss?”

  “Apologize to Slade,” she said, hopeful.

  Pressing his lips together, he stood upright and walked back to the closet. “I won’t apologize for something that I am not sorry for.”

  “It was an accident, Ace.”

  “An accident that would not have happened if Slade had been doing his job,” Ace retorted.

  She left the bed and went to the closet door to see that he was changing out of the clothes he’d fallen asleep in. Her cheeks flushed hot as he pulled a pair of jeans up over a perfect bare ass. Focus, Mena! Focus! It’s just an ass. Everybody has one. Some women have two. I, on the other hand, have three. Taking in a deep breath then blowing it out, she said, “He’s sorry and hurting. Can’t you see that?”

  He pulled a black t-shirt over his head before turning around to answer her. Salacious Limerick was written on the front of the shirt, along with a picture of Clay and his band members below it. Her bad mood instantly lifted at seeing his choice of attire for the day and remembering that she was possibly going to meet the group of men tonight. They were Ace’s friends. He had Clay’s number programmed in his phone. She couldn’t wrap her mind around that.

  “I’m Alpha, Andra. I’m sorry it happened. Rogan was a friend of mine, too, but this isn’t about any of that. I can’t let my personal feelings get in the way of how I run my pride. Slade knows he deserved everything I said to him. I’m sure he’s probably wondering why he didn’t get his ass beat or, worse yet, demoted for letting that happen. But I will tell you why, Andra: you. You were there and watching me. Be thankful I only chewed his ass for letting one of my men fall; believe me, he is.”

  She sighed as he walked past her and grabbed his cell from the nightstand.

  “I’m sorry I can’t do what you asked me to, but I would still appreciate it if you would settle in; I don’t want you living out of a suitcase for the next four weeks. I don’t own an iron. One of the girls might have one, but I doubt it. We don’t exactly have nine-to-five jobs here.”

  She nodded. “I’ll hang them up after the meeting.”

  Taking two steps—that would have taken her four—Ace closed the distance between them and framed her face with his hands. He rubbed his thumbs gently over her cheeks as he looked down at her. “The way I handled what happened with Slade is all part of being an Alpha. You’ll understand soon.”

  “I understand why you did it,” she said. “I guess I just have too much heart. I’ve never been anyone’s boss until recently.”

  He snickered. “Being a boss and an Alpha are two totally different things, baby. Being a boss only puts you in charge of people you’ve chosen to work for you, but being an Alpha makes you Queen or King of a tribe of people who have chosen you as their leader. You are much more than a boss. You are royalty.”

  He leaned down and kissed her, but pulled away and smirked before she had a chance to object. “Now that one, I was awake for.” He reached around and popped her on the right butt cheek.<
br />
  She swatted at him, but he jumped out of the way and ran for the door. “Stop stealing kisses from me, Ace.”

  Looking over his shoulder, he winked. “Never.”

  Chapter 14

  Thursday, February 5th 2015 7:26 a.m. PST

  Las Vegas, Nevada

  Ace

  Nothing ever works out quite like you plan it in your head. I’d already had a fucked up week, and explaining to my pride that they would never see Rogan again didn’t help settle my mood any. I had never had any kids of my own—that I knew of—but I could swear the way I felt about losing one of my pride members was comparable to a parent losing a child.

  If I could have done it all over again, I would have tracked those fuckers myself, instead of sending three of my best men. I would have at least gone with them.

  But Andra needed my protection, as well. It was too soon to take her into a brawl. She had frozen up while fighting Daryn and almost got everybody in her pack, Phoenix’s clan, three witches and seven of my pride, including myself, killed. She wasn’t ready, and I couldn’t risk her getting hurt. I doubted I would mentally survive losing her if something ever happened, especially if I was the one who put her in danger in the first place. The impasses were just adding the hell up, weren’t they?

  The living room was large enough to accommodate everyone in my pride, and it was comfortable to boot, so that was where we usually convened anytime we needed to discuss things as a group. The dozen or so who sat on the plush carpeting didn’t mind. Most of them had slept on far worse before I took them in and gave them a place to call home.

  Slade looked up from his phone and stood when I walked into the room, his eyes silently asking one of two things: if we were cool or if I was okay? The answer was yes to the first one, but a massive hell fucking no to the second one. I wasn’t about to let any of them know I was on the verge of losing my shit, though, so I gave him a nod, and he sat back down.