“I’m grateful, Roel.” Phoenix could tell by Roel’s troubled expression that he still blamed himself for Justice attacking the compound. And Ace had been right about that, too. All four men who had been locked behind the silver bars were gone when Phoenix arrived back home, with all locks on the cells and the doors of the house still secure. It was an unsolved mystery that would possibly never be explained now that the bond was nonexistent and Justice had no reason to hurt Mena. Phoenix raised his arm and laid his hand on Roel’s shoulder then made eye contact with the guy. “Stop blaming yourself for everything. None of this was your fault. Mena would agree with me. She chose well when she asked you to be her Beta.”
Roel’s nostrils flared. “She’s not going to remember that she asked me to be her Beta. What if—”
“Don’t worry,” Phoenix said. “I will tell her.”
“Try not to lie to her too much, Phoenix. Mena is going to hate you when she finds out what you did, but I think it will be better for her and everyone, including you, if you will just tell her the truth. She did ask you to find a way to reverse the bond.”
Phoenix frowned. “I don’t want her knowing about him, Roel.”
“Because you’re afraid it will trigger her memory and she will remember that she really loved that asshole?”
Phoenix chuckled, but it was forced. “Yeah. Something like that.”
“I don’t think she really loved him,” Roel said, and Phoenix frowned.
“Well, that makes one of us who believes that.”
Roel sighed. “You’re screwed if that big son of a bitch ever finds out what you and his best friend did to him and Mena, and God help you if he ever remembers that he loved her. You won’t have to worry about what Mena will do to you. I doubt even her whole pack would be able to save your hide from the likes of him.”
“I have weighed my options, Roel. I understand your fear. I have lived in the same fear since I asked Clay to add the ingredient to give them both amnesia to the spell, but the need for her to forget about him completely outweighs the fear of either of them finding out the truth and killing me for what I did.”
Recognition of the truth flickered in Roel’s eyes and he shook his head in bewilderment. “You’d rather die than see her be with him?”
A sad smile was all the answer Roel received as Phoenix slipped back into his room.
Monday, February 9th 2015 9:10 a.m. PST
Las Vegas, Nevada
Ace
Rolling over in bed, I reached out and laid my palm on the empty space beside me. My head shot up before my eyes could fully open, but after they did, I frowned. Chaos let out a whimper from the foot of the bed, but my mind was elsewhere. Fuck, what a dream. I couldn’t remember most of it—or any of it, really—but I could somehow still smell the girl who’d had me so captivated.
Flipping to my back, I stared up at the ceiling and tried to remember the dream, to remember her, but just like most dreams I’d had in the past, the more I tried to remember, the quicker it faded away. It was usually the nightmares that always stuck around. Figures.
Chaos whined again, and I snapped my fingers. “Come here, boy.” When he let out a puff and turned his head away from me, I frowned. Glancing toward the door, I discovered it to be open, so Chaos could come and go as he pleased. Someone would have let him outside if he’d needed to go take a piss. “You okay?” The dog didn’t move. What the hell? It was like he was pissed at me or something.
On a heavy sigh, I grabbed my cell phone off the bedside table and cocked an eyebrow at the white digital letters that lit up on the black screen before I clicked on my home screen. The time didn’t surprise me as much as the date did. I banged it against my palm, thinking the thing might be broken, but if that was the case, it wouldn’t show me the date for the future. Would it? 9:12 a.m. Monday, February 9.
Brushing off the fact that my phone was on crack, I hit the side button on the device and my phone lit up. The image of me kissing a girl on the cheek and the girl smiling back at me was my wall paper. I frowned. Don’t get me wrong, the chick was hot, but I couldn’t remember letting some random girl take a picture of us like that.
Shaking my head, I got out of bed and headed for the bathroom, thinking Slade might know who I screwed before coming home last night. Did I get drunk or what? I didn’t feel hungover. Actually, I felt great. Never in my life had I felt better rested. I made a mental note to ask him about it after I showered.
Monday, February 9th 2015 11:10 a.m. CST
Montgomery, Alabama
Mena
Mena smiled as she opened her eyes to see Phoenix standing in front of the hearth, gazing into the flickering flames of the fire, a brooding expression on his perfectly symmetrical face. The man really was beautiful, even when he was frowning, like he was doing now.
“Why the long face, Mr. Mahoney?” she said, and his head whipped around so fast that it startled her. With widening eyes, she sat up in bed and pulled the sheet up to her neck.
“Mena,” Phoenix said as he rushed to her, causing her heart to pound wildly in her chest.
“This is not normal,” she thought, and took his hand when he reached her. “Phoenix, what’s the matter? You look as though you’ve seen a ghost.”
He breathed a sigh of relief as his head dropped to her lap. “Oh, thank God. We thought we lost you, baby.”
“Lost me?” Mena laughed nervously as she stroked her fingers through his dark, wavy locks. “Wherever did I go, Phoenix?”
There was a long moment of silence that made her skin tingle in anticipation for what was to come. She was just about to question him again, but he finally spoke. “What’s the last thing you remember, Lupacchiotto?”
Mena laughed. “Is this a joke?”
Phoenix shook his head as he stretched out and pulled her to him, tucking her in close to his body and kissing the top of her head before continuing on. “It’s no joke, Mena. After the sisters helped you discover your wolf’s name and you called it out, we threw a celebration here so Rhodes could be accepted by the moon and you could announce who your Beta would be. The compound was attacked by Daryn and some slayers. They took you and—”
Mena gasped as her head shot up from his chest and her whole body began to tremble. “No. That couldn’t have happened—”
Phoenix sighed. “We found you three nights ago, Mena. You were missing for over a week. You had been beaten and you were severely malnourished. When we found you, you had just killed one of the slayers, but you were protecting another—”
Mena closed her eyes, suddenly remembering something she thought had been a dream. A girl with blond hair had tried to help her escape—or she thought she had helped her. The guy—she couldn’t remember anything except how good his blood had tasted on her tongue. The last memory she had of him was of seeing his lifeless eyes staring up at her.
She clamped a hand over her mouth as tears stung her eyes. After a few attempts, she managed to whisper, “I remember very little, but I don’t want to remember any of it. Please don’t try and make me, Phoenix. I don’t know what I went through, but—”
He pulled her back to him and kissed her temple. “Shh… I won’t force you to remember anything. You’re here. You are safe now.”
Releasing a weighted sigh, she wrapped her arm around him and tried to clear her mind of that horrible image of the man she had killed. Think about something else, Mena. Think about something else. She sniffled. “Did anyone else get hurt?”
“A few,” Phoenix said quietly, and Mena inhaled deeply before asking.
“Who?”
“Daryn is dead. I killed him myself. He was a very old mage shifter, and he wanted to use the moonrising wolf inside of you to…” Phoenix sighed. “… Who the hell knows what his plans were? It doesn’t even matter anymore.”
“I never would have guessed that he would do something like that,” she said.
“Neither did anybody else, so don’t beat yourself up about it.”
/>
“Did anyone else get hurt—anyone I care about?”
She heard him swallow and knew that what he was about to say was hard for him to get out. “Jaxon is dead.”
A silent sob suddenly wracked her body at hearing the devastating news that Phoenix had lost his second in command, that she and so many she cared about lost a friend, and it seemed like an eternity before she could force her lungs to draw in a breath. Phoenix turned into her, pulling her even closer, and she buried her face in his chest and fell apart.
Sometime later—it could have been minutes or it could have been hours; time seemed surreal at this point—she lifted her head and wiped under her eyes. “Tell me some good news, please. I don’t think I can stand to hear any more bad news right now.” She sniffed. “Tell me who I chose as my Beta.”
Phoenix smiled down at her. “Who do you think you chose to be your Beta?”
Mena cocked an eyebrow as she sniffled again. “I know I didn’t choose you.”
He feigned hurt feelings. “I thought you loved me.”
She laughed. “I do love you, but I would never make a master vampire Beta over a pack of werewolves. I chose Roel, didn’t I?”
Phoenix grinned as he bent his head, and then he pressed his lips to hers ever so softly. “I will confirm if I can hear you say that again. It feels like it has been a millennium since my ears have heard anything so sweet.”
Mena smiled. “I love you, Phoenix.”
His eyes grew serious as he looked at her. “I never thought I would hear you say that to me again.”
“I’m glad you saved me so that I could tell you again,” she said.
The corner of his lip twitched. “I only did what you asked me to. I never break a promise, and I promised you that you would be happy in the end.”
“And I am,” Mena said, but after a moment, her brow furrowed. “I just feel like something is missing. Maybe I should sell the house.”
Phoenix’s eyebrows popped up in surprise, and then he shrugged. “I think that’s a great idea. You can move in here—”
She sat up, but held onto his hand. “No. I’m getting an apartment. I love you, Phoenix, but I need my space right now. I just don’t need something as big as that house. I need to clear my head and focus on my pack. And I want to—” she beamed, “—I want to open my own dance academy. And I don’t know why, but I have the sudden urge to play the piano. I’ve never played the piano, but I want to buy one and learn to play it. I don’t know,” she rushed out, “maybe this near-death experience has made me realize that I’m not living; I am really only existing. I want to make my mark on the world.”
Phoenix chuckled. “Okay. When do you want to start?”
Mena smiled. “Right now. I want to start right now.”
“You got it, my love.”
“One more thing,” she said.
Phoenix cocked an eyebrow. “Name it.”
“What did I name my wolf?”
His eyes shifted from her, looking down at the necklace he’d given her. “Why don’t you pick a new name,” he suggested. “It can be anything you want. I asked Roel about it, and he said that you could rename your wolf as often as you want. You just have to say ‘I name my wolf’ before you say it.”
“Really?” she said, and felt good that she would finally be able to make a decision on her own as Alpha.
Phoenix nodded. “Give it a try.”
She chewed on her lower lip for a moment, and then she smiled. “I name my wolf Andromeda.” There was a weird, cooling sensation in her eyes after she said it, and then Phoenix’s jaw fell.
Chapter 56
Monday, February 9th 2015 9:48 a.m. PST
Las Vegas, Nevada
Slade
After pushing though the swinging doors and walking into the dining room, Slade’s feet nearly tripped over themselves trying to stop. Ace was seated toward the end of the long table and shoveling in Captain Crunch, with one hand. The other big hand lay on the table in front of him, palm up.
Ace raised his head and his face lit up when Clay walked in behind Slade, mumbling something about the girl vampire that had come with his sister and her mate from that freak island they lived on, but Slade was only hearing about every other word, because Ace was awake… and he was sitting at the dining table… eating… like he hadn’t forgotten almost two weeks of his life.
“Yo, Clay! When did you get into town?” Ace said, and Clay’s words trailed off as his jaw fell slack. “Hey, Slade, will you run by and pick up the alternator for Charlie before noon? I forgot that it came in yesterday, and I need to get it fixed before my date tonight. Chicks dig Charlie.”
“Uh…” Clay said, and Slade turned to give him a this-is-your-fault-don’t-expect-me-to-bail-your-ass-out look. Clay’s face paled, and Slade sighed.
“He’s been here a few days, Ace,” Slade muttered, without saying a word about the alternator that he’d picked up two weeks ago and helped Ace put on Charlie. He grabbed a bowl and a spoon and made his way to the table to join him, forcing his eyes to stay on the task of filling his bowl with cereal and Hiland whole milk instead of looking at the confused expression he knew his Alpha was wearing on his mug. Slade’s eyes shifted to look at the hand Ace still had atop the dining table. “You want to hold my hand or something, brother?”
Without commenting, Ace curled in the fingers on that hand and pulled it back to pet the dog that was sitting beside him.
Clay cleared his throat as he sat in the seat beside Slade and directly across from Ace, but well out of punching distance of the big bastard, unless Ace decided to launch himself across the six-foot-wide table, which Slade totally expected would happen if Ace found out what his best friend did. “Yeah,” Clay muttered. “I’ve been here a few days.”
Slade scooped up a spoonful of puffed berries and stuck it in his mouth, letting Clay take the reins on this one. No way was he voluntarily lying to Ace about any of the shit that had gone down over the last week.
“Well, where the hell was I? Asleep?” Ace said, and then he pounded a fist on the table when ten full seconds had passed without so much as a grunt from Slade or Clay. “Slade?”
Slade glanced up through his dark eyelashes at Ace as he put another spoonful of cereal in his mouth, but he nodded. That wasn’t a lie. Ace had been asleep for the biggest part of Clay’s stay. “Yep,” he said around the food in his mouth.
Ace rubbed his chin as his eyebrows drew in, but he started grinning. “This is a joke, isn’t it?” He chuckled lightly. “I’m not falling for it. Really, Clay, how long have you been here?”
Slade turned his head to see Clay lick his lips nervously. “I’ve been here a few days, Ace. It’s no joke. You’ve been… uh… knocked out.”
“Did someone force me to do LSD or something? Because I don’t remember seeing you before you walked in that door over there,” Ace said as he pointed a finger toward the swinging door.
Clay started talking really fast, and Slade didn’t bother trying to add to the monstrous fuck-up of words that were tumbling out of the guy’s mouth. “We had a concert Friday night and you came with Sinna. Afterward, we had a little party here—nothing big or anything. There were some slayers in the crowd, but nobody knew it until it was too late. A few people got hurt—well, actually only two people got hurt, you and Rogan, but we killed all of the slayers and now you’re awake and fine.” Clay sucked in a deep breath then blew it out in a loud huff as his eyes drifted to look at one of the five centerpieces on the massive dining table. “Everything is fine now.”
Ace was silent as his eyes narrowed on his best friend. “Where’s Rogan?”
“Uh…” Clay shifted in his seat and turned his head to give Slade a nervous glance. It was clear he didn’t want to break this kind of news to Ace.
Slade dropped the spoon in the bowl and pushed what was left of the cereal away from him. With his appetite gone, he huffed in irritation, and then set in to give the best, most honest explanation possi
ble. “Rogan is dead, Ace, but you already knew that. You were the one who came to pick us up after three slayers attacked us in an alley. You’ve lost your memory of the last two weeks. A lot has happened, but I can promise you that you don’t want to know about any of it. Just let it go.”
Ace’s head rotated on his neck as that big chest of his inflated. He ran a hand over his face and scratched above his temple. His hand began to tremble as he laid it back down on the table. After a few seconds, his eyelids raised to reveal glossy, amber-colored eyes. “You just told me that Rogan…” he drew in a deep breath and exhaled slowly before continuing on, “… that one of my pride members, one of my family members, one of my best men, your fucking best friend is dead because someone jumped him in an alley. You also informed me that I lost two weeks of my memory, but didn’t bother giving me an explanation, and you think you have the right to sit there and tell me that I don’t want to know anything about it, to just let it go? Fuck you, Slade! Yeah, motherfucker, I want to know about it!” he roared as he shot to his feet and shoved the forty-foot, solid oak table forward.
Clay and Slade jumped out of their chairs and watched in stunned shock as the table knocked the fifteen chairs on their side of the table to the hardwood floor.
Ace gave them both the hairy eyeball as he huffed and puffed. “Start talking!” he bellowed.
Slade and Clay exchanged looks, and then Clay shook his head as he picked up his chair. “You’re gonna want to sit back down for this.”
Monday, February 9th 2015 10:04 a.m. PST
Las Vegas, Nevada
Ace
I chose not to sit. I needed to stand, because I wanted to be able to get to these fuckers if they started beating around the hairy bush again.
“I’m fine where I am,” I said as I folded my arms over my chest and pegged them both with a hard stare. “And I’m waiting for you two fuck-nuts to tell me what the hell happened to me.” By their expressions, it appeared they didn’t have any intentions of telling me all that I needed to know. Luckily, my position as Alpha didn’t give Slade much choice in the matter. “Slade, I’m giving you a direct order to tell me everything.”
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