A low growl issued from a few yards away, and Phoenix reluctantly broke away from Mena’s lips so that he could glare at an extremely seething Ace. His face resembled the color of a beet, and his fingers were clenched tightly into fists at his sides. What didn’t the guy get about sharing? Did he not understand the concept of dating, too? Mena was just as much his as she was Ace’s, but from how little she’d reacted to his kiss and his early arrival, he wasn’t one hundred percent sure about that any longer. Getting her alone now was almost as imperative as getting her to show him some sort of emotion.
Glancing down, he realized that she had her eyes closed and was as stiff as a board in his arms.
A knock sounded from the door a few feet behind Phoenix, and he braced for it to open and the sunlight to pour in, incinerating him where he stood, but a tall guy, with long dark hair and a goatee walked over to see what the new arrival wanted.
When Phoenix turned his head to look at Mena again, her eyes were studying him, like she didn’t really know him anymore.
Phoenix frowned. “We need to talk, Mena.”
“I agree, but—” she started, but got cut off.
“Hey, man,” the tall, dark and dangerous-looking guy said. “I need to open the door to let Clay in. Would you mind stepping over to that corner for a sec? The sunlight can’t touch you over there.”
Phoenix nodded as he gripped Mena’s hand in his and led her to the darkest corner of the room. He wasn’t about to let her go. She came willingly, but her hand was limp in his. Ace’s growls grew louder as he took just as many steps toward the corner as Phoenix had. The Alpha hadn’t been this protective over her back in Montgomery.
Phoenix’s eyes narrowed on Ace. “Somebody had better put a leash on that cat, before I teach him some manners. He already has one lesson coming from me: on how to treat a lady.”
Ace swiftly turned away and brought his hands up to the top of his head then linked his fingers together as he huffed and puffed his frustration out through his nose. Phoenix took a wild guess that Mena had asked him not to start anything with him. That was a pity.
“Ace,” Tall, Dark and Dangerous hissed. “Chill the fuck out, man. He’s not going to try and fuck her with all of us in the room with them. C’mon in, Clay.”
The door opened just enough for a guy of average height and an athletic build to slip through. A full-sleeved tattooed arm reached up to push the door closed. His brown eyes cut over to look at Phoenix first, and then they found Ace. Ace’s fury didn’t let up. If anything, the guy grew even more agitated as he fixed those unseeing, amber eyes on the guy. “Thanks, Slade. Rainey was wondering how much longer they had to stay down in the basement with the dead guys.”
“Shouldn’t be too much longer,” Slade said. “I’m sure this will all be cleared up and taken care of soon.”
So, Tall, Dark and Dangerous is Ace’s Beta, Phoenix thought. Interesting. At least one of the leaders has a good head on his shoulders.
Mena held up a vial with pink liquid in it between her and Phoenix. “You need to drink this,” she said quietly.
Phoenix’s mouth pulled to one side. “Why, so he can kill me and I’ll be out of your lives forever? You’re not exactly hiding the fact that you aren’t happy to see me.”
“He’s not going to touch you, Phoenix,” she said shortly. “Just drink it.”
Phoenix took the vial from her and put it in his pocket. “Then I’ll drink it after I get back home.”
“I want you to drink it now,” she said.
“Why the rush? If nobody’s going to kill me, then it shouldn’t matter when I take it.”
“She wants you to drink it now,” Ace growled out, through a clenched jaw, “because if you touch me, she’s going to kick your ass, and she doesn’t want Roel and Alex to get a beat-down, too. Believe me, I don’t want her defending me anymore than you do, but she’s hard-headed and won’t listen to me. She listens to no one. If I had it my way, it would just be you, me and our fists in here. We’ve both got a score to settle, you and I, and for completely different reasons.” Ace swallowed as his unfocused eyes settled on her. The pain of knowing she was standing so close to Phoenix, instead of him, was evident in their depths.
That’s when it clicked with Phoenix, why Ace was acting so protective of her. She’d had sex with him. Inhaling deeply through his nostrils, he knew it to be true. He could smell Ace’s scent on her. He’d marked her.
Phoenix grimaced as a fierce tightness grew in his chest cavity. Why had he not thought about what the consequences of two bonded shifters having sex would be, before he’d encouraged her to do it? It was more than obvious that the bond was significantly stronger now. It was Phoenix’s fault that she was untouchable to him. He’d practically handed her to Ace on a golden platter. There would be no sharing, and there would be no dating, not where he was concerned anyway. He felt the rage mingling with despair rise up in his gut, roiling together, making a swirly mess of his insides.
He did have one last card to play. Had the Alpha been completely honest with her? She knew Mena could read his thoughts and see his memories, and vice versa, but had he managed to keep his deepest, darkest secret from her?
“Mena—” Phoenix started, but she took a step back and lowered her head.
“Please don’t call me that, Phoenix. My name is Andromeda or Andra now.”
“You can call her Andromeda,” Ace said. “The name Andra is reserved for her pack, my pride… and me.”
“Are you serious, Mena?” Heath said.
Mena turned to look at the shocked faces of Heath, Tracy, Heather and Brad. Phoenix recognized the lift of her chin and defiant spark in her eyes. He knew it all too well. “I’m not that weak woman any—”
Brad took a step forward. “So what if you’re not weak anymore? We’re happy for you.” A touch of anger filled the expression on his normally calm and clueless face. “You’ve changed. People change all the time. They don’t change their names just because they change their ways.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry. I prefer Mena over Andra. Mena is who we fell in love with and accepted as our Alpha. You’ve definitely changed, but I’m not sure it was for the best.”
“Brad!” Heather whisper-shouted as she grabbed his arm and jerked him beside her. “Sorry, Andra,” she said, with a sheepish smile toward Mena, but her Alpha’s narrowed gaze was still locked on Brad.
“It doesn’t matter what you prefer,” Mena bit out. “Like it or not, I’m giving you a direct order to call me Andra.”
Phoenix blew out a weighted breath, thinking this was even worse than he’d originally thought. “Andromeda,” he said, wanting to draw her attention back to him, and away from the four extremely confused members of her pack. “May we talk in private? I have something I’d like to say.”
“Then say it, Phoenix,” she snapped. “Anything you have to say in private would be shortly known by everyone here. I hide nothing from my pack, pride or Ace.”
“You may not hide anything from them or Ace, but would Ace hide something from you?” Phoenix retorted. “I don’t want to lose you, but I feel like I already have and you haven’t even given me a chance to fight for you.”
She let out a long sigh. “There’s nothing to fight for. I know I must have had feelings for you before, but I don’t remember having them. I have memories of everything we went through together, but the emotions I felt for you are missing now. I’m sorry, Phoenix. I don’t want to waste anymore of your time. There’s no reason for you to be here. The girl you loved is gone.”
Fuck, that hurt. “It’s the bond doing that to you. Can’t you see that? All I need is a little more time and I will find a witch good enough—”
“No!” Andra shouted. “I don’t want to get rid of the bond—”
Phoenix’s eyes widened. “Only yesterday, you did!”
“That was before…” Her gaze drifted over to Ace, and she nodded once, as if making an internal decision, or perhaps she was having a con
versation with him in her head. Phoenix didn’t know. It didn’t matter much now, because he had a bad feeling she was about to confirm what he already knew. “That was before I fell in love with Ace.”
Phoenix’s breath caught in his throat, and he reached up with his hand to cover his mouth as he shook his head. He felt the hot pricks in his eyes before his vision clouded over. He’d known this outcome was a possibility, and he thought he was prepared for it. But nothing on earth could have ever prepared him for a broken heart. Nothing. “No, Mena,” he whispered.
“Stop calling me that!” she screamed at Phoenix as she backed her way over to Ace and found his hand with hers, and then linked their fingers together. They both inhaled and exhaled together.
The bond had to be destroyed before she would see reason. He had to make her see that. “Let me find a way to reverse the bond, and if you still love him, I’ll let you go. I will leave you alone and never bother you again. I promise. You know I don’t break my promises, Me—Andra. Just let me do that. Give me time before you commit to him. I know there has to be someone strong enough to do it.”
Clay cleared his throat, and Phoenix looked over to see him looking down at the floor. He coughed and waved his hand in the air. “Sorry. You’re choking me up over here, man. I hate that you’re losing her.”
Phoenix shook his head and shifted his gaze back to Mena, but Ace’s fury that was directed at Clay caught his attention first. Phoenix’s head turned back just in time to see Clay slip out the door and close it quietly behind him.
Ignoring the sudden tension in the room, Phoenix rubbed his hands over his face as he let out a defeated breath. “I just want you to be happy. I love you, and you once loved me. Yesterday! Yesterday, you loved me, Mena! If I thought the feelings you have for Ace were real and that you have really fallen out of love with me, I would walk away, but I don’t believe that. Prove it to me. Let me find a witch to reverse the bond.”
She shook her head. “I’m happy, Phoenix. Believe that. You can go back home.”
Phoenix huffed. “I didn’t want to have to do this, but you’re leaving me no choice, since you won’t even try… How much do you know about Justice?”
Even without taking his eyes off Mena, he could see the Alpha lion stiffen and hear his sharp inhale.
“She told you to go back home,” Ace said sternly.
Phoenix smirked. “She isn’t my Alpha. I answer to no one.”
Mena shrugged. “I know enough,” she said, but her eyes cast down. “He’s Alpha over the Louisville, Kentucky pack and he’s Ace’s cousin. Ace wants to train me, because he thinks Justice will want to challenge me someday.”
Phoenix chortled menacingly. “Oh, he definitely wants to challenge you.” He threw his hand out toward Ace. “And this asshole knew he’d want to before he even bonded with you. Since you formed an alliance with me and my vampires, Ace thought he would have a better chance of defeating Justice, so that he could take over his pack. It didn’t matter to Ace if Justice killed you, just so long as his headcount grew and he acquired what his cousin had.”
Mena blinked a few times, and then looked over at Ace. “You were training me so that I could fight him?”
“Some of that might have been my original plan, but he’s twisting it,” Ace said. “Justice has never been able to challenge me, nor I him. I was training you because I didn’t want you to get hurt. I was training you because I wanted to challenge him. I love you, Andra. I would never let him touch you—”
She ripped her hand from his. “But you didn’t love me before you made the decision to bond with me. You were different then. Now, you’ve put my pack and Phoenix’s clan in danger. Why would you think that is okay? I love them like family, Ace. My first decision as an Alpha was to stop a war, not start a new one!”
Ace grinned and took her hand again, pulling her close. “Andra, I swear that nothing will happen to anyone you care about. I was only training you as a precaution. I am the only one Justice cares about hurting.”
Mena frowned. “That doesn’t make me feel any better.”
A cell phone chimed, but Phoenix didn’t take his eyes from Ace’s face. The guy was lying; he could feel it in his gut.
“Son of a bitch!” Heath shouted, and every head in the room turned to look at him.
“What is it?” Tracy said, and Heath handed her the cell phone with a trembling hand. After a few seconds, she gasped. “Oh, God, help us,” she cried, and her tear-filled eyes looked up to Phoenix as Heath kicked a low table against a wall, shattering it on contact.
Phoenix’s blood began to race through his veins, but he couldn’t make his feet move to go get the phone from her. He knew it was bad news by their reactions alone. “Just tell me,” he said, barely above a whisper. He didn’t want to hear what she had to say, though. Getting back in the coffin and having someone weld it shut for all eternity sounded like a better plan than hearing what that text said.
“What does it say, Tracy?” Brad said.
“Tracy?” Mena said, and Tracy’s sobering expression moved to look at her Alpha, even though huge tears were rolling down her face at this point. “What does the text say?”
“Roel has been trying to contact the three of you. Something happened at the compound.”
“The moonrising wolf?” Heather asked, her voice going up an octave as fear laced her tone.
Tracy shook her head. “Not exactly,” she said, and then walked across the room and placed the cell phone in Phoenix’s hand.
Phoenix squeezed it until it cracked under the pressure, and then he inhaled and looked down at the words written on the screen.
I’ve been trying to get hold of Phoenix, Mena and Ace, but nobody is answering their fucking phones. Justice raided the compound. The moonrising wolf was his, and was used as a way to find the vampire’s lair, since all Alphas can sense the location of their pack members. He was going to kill all of us here as a message to Ace, but I fought him and Jess shocked him into unconsciousness with a cattle prod. He and two of his pack members are locked in the silver cells now, but his men killed a few vamps. There was nothing we could do. Tell Phoenix I’m sorry. They almost took Lea, and Jaxon is dead. I made sure the cell doors and the compound were secure before we left. They’re shutting the doors on the airplane now, so you won’t be able to reach me until we land in Vegas. I’m bringing Peanut and Lea with me. Tell that fucking lion he’s got an ass whooping coming from me! ~Roel
A bright shade of red colored Phoenix’s vision and, before he knew what he was doing, he’d already erased the distance between him and Ace. Mena was too stunned to react in time, and that was good, because Phoenix didn’t want there to be any interference between his fist and Ace’s jaw.
The crack of bone against bone echoed throughout the room, and then Phoenix looked down at Ace on the floor, working his jaw back and forth with his hand. Damn, he hadn’t broken it. Maybe Roel would, because he was certain Mena wouldn’t let him get another punch in without showing her hairy side.
“Phoenix!” Mena shouted. “What the hell—”
He handed her the cell phone, and then went and crawled back in the casket to grieve both the loss of one of his oldest friends and the only woman who could ever make him turn into his father.
Admitting that was one thorny-ass pill to swallow. It felt like there were fucking razorblades in his throat and an elephant crammed in his ribcage. He was amazed that being heartbroken actually physically hurt. It sucked ass. He should have known better than to fall in love with her. What pissed him off the most was that he did know better. Guess he got caught up in carpe diem and listened to his heart for once, instead of his head. He wouldn’t make that mistake again. At least he’d gotten to punch the asshole who’d stolen her from him. If he had anything to do with it, that wouldn’t be the last lick he got in before he left. But for now, he couldn’t even look at her, without wanting to choke some sense into her.
Maybe he’d get lucky and someone would b
urn the house down, with him in it. He had no idea why people put themselves through this sort of torture more than once. Some did it over and over. Love was the most wonderful and horrible thing he had experienced in almost nine hundred years.
It was stupid as fuck to fall in love. Just as he imagined it would be. You’re a stupid fucking fool, Phoenix. But as much as he wanted to regret loving her, he just couldn’t make himself do it.
Chapter 43
Friday, February 6th 2015 4:46 p.m. CST
Montgomery, Alabama
Roel
This is bound to be the longest six hours of my life, Roel thought as he tilted his head to one side, and then the other, self-adjusting the discs in his neck. The aligning of his spine did little to comfort him, since Lea was a tense mess on his left and Peanut was a huge ball of nerves on his right.
They’d had to settle for coach, since the soonest flight he could book to Las Vegas, Nevada left twenty-three minutes after he locked the doors of Phoenix’s compound. They’d barely made it through check-in on time to board. But they were here… in coach… with absolutely no personal space what-so-ever. Yea for screaming babies and body odor!
He’d managed to get Lea into a bathroom and get her washed up. She hadn’t even blinked when he’d changed her out of the bloody clothes and into something clean and comfortable. There hadn’t been time to give her a shower, but he did wash the blood from her skin with a cloth and soap.
At this point, he didn’t know what to do for her. She hadn’t said a word or even agreed to come with him. Roel had just told her what to do and where to go and she’d done it, without questioning why or asking him where they were going. Her identification had been easy enough to find, and he’d thrown enough of his and her clothes in a duffle bag for a two-day stay.
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