Roel grabbed her in a hug again. “You’re not alone, Mena. I’ll go to the movies with you. Jurassic World comes out next month. I’ve been dying to see it.”
She laughed as she pushed against his chest. “Okay, but I’m not buying you popcorn or holding you when you get scared of the big dinosaurs.”
Roel winked. “It’s a date.”
Mena grabbed her phone to look at the time. She was supposed to meet Jess to get pedicures at 4 p.m. She still had about thirteen minutes, but she’d done what she came here to do. “I need to get going. I just wanted to stop by for a minute and, you know, apologize. I don’t remember picking you as a Beta, but, if I had it to do all over again, I’d still choose you.”
Relief filled Roel’s expression as his big body relaxed. “I’ve wondered about that. I’m happy you still want me as your Beta, Mena. It means a lot to me.”
She nodded, turned and walked toward the door.
“Hey, Mena…”
Glancing over her shoulder, she said, “Yeah?”
Roel gave her a crooked smile. “Everything is going to work out. I believe that.”
She smiled. “I believe that, too.”
As she walked to her car, she brought up Ace’s number and sent him a text message.
We need to talk about New Orleans. Please call me.
Saturday, May 9th 2015 3:45 p.m. PST
Las Vegas, Nevada
Ace
Slade knocked on the doorjamb of my open bedroom door, but I didn’t look up from the clothes I was shoving in the duffle bag.
“Hey, man,” Slade said. “Are you going on a vacation or something?”
An extended vacation. “You could say that,” I said. “I’m going back on tour with Clay for a few months.”
The sound of me shoving things in the bag was the only noise in the room for a few beats, but I knew Slade had an opinion about me leaving, a negative one. “Were you going to tell us?”
“I’m telling you now.”
Slade’s voice rose in volume. “The move to New Orleans is only four months away, Ace. You need to be here—”
I whipped around and pegged him with a hard stare. “Get off my dick, Slade! I need to be where Clay is in case Mena decides to spread her legs for some other man!”
Slade shook his head slowly. “You don’t know her at all. The only man she would spread her legs for is standing in this room, and that man is not me.”
“Which is why I’m going to cover Clay’s ass, instead of hopping a plane to Alabama!” I drew in a shuddering breath, forcing myself to calm down. “Don’t you get it? If I go anywhere near her, Clay’s going to end up a vampire, and then dead. Not only do I crave her, like a person with diabetes craves cake, but my lion remembers her wolf from before. They are still connected, Slade. The bond may be severed between Mena and me, but our weres are still very much linked. It’s been a constant battle with him from the moment we separated from her in St. Louis. If I go to her, she will give in, and what Phoenix does to Clay will be my fault.”
Slade swore under his breath. “Have you talked to her?”
My phone pinged from the bed, and I picked it up to see that she had sent me another text. I didn’t open it. I never opened any of them. I wasn’t sure how much longer I could keep ignoring her. It was eating at me in a bad way. I wanted to hear her voice. I wanted to see her. I needed to love her. Instead, I shook my head. “No, but I’m sure you have.”
“She’s worried about you,” Slade said.
I snorted. “Yeah, well, if you would have let me die a week ago, she wouldn’t have anything to worry about. All this mess wouldn’t be a nightmare to her right now. She shouldn’t be worried about me. I’m not the one who has to wear a chastity belt for the next sixty-plus years.” I huffed as my eyes shifted down to see Chaos’ sad eyes looking up at me. His mood hadn’t gotten any better than mine had over the last two and a half months. Maybe it was best if Chaos stayed here with the pride. They would take care of him. Then I thought better of it. He already didn’t have Mena. If I left, the pup would die of a broken heart. “C’mon, Chaos. Let’s get out of here.”
Slade stepped in my path. “What about Justice?”
I sighed as I rolled my eyes toward the ceiling. “What about him, Slade? He’s probably dead from silver poisoning by now.”
“He’s missing, Ace,” Slade said, and then continued when my eyes bugged out. “Nobody from his pack has heard from him since he got shot, but Roel said he lost him when Justice jumped into the Mississippi River. What if he isn’t dead? What if he just wants us to think he is? If we’re not protecting Mena from him, he will be able to attack her easier.”
Casually, I ran a hand down my face, desperately trying to play off the fear I was feeling as exhaustion or irritation. “Even if Julian isn’t dead, Mena has proved that she is capable of taking care of herself.” Just saying that made me want to throw up. I knew my cousin’s fighting skills far outweighed those Mena had. But I knew what was at stake with Clay, and I couldn’t drop everything and be her bodyguard, not just on a hunch that Julian wasn’t dead and would try to kill her the first chance he got. I thought of something and voiced it. “Call Roel. Make sure he knows your concern for her. You are both Mena’s betas. Work together to keep her safe.”
“Why don’t you just talk to Clay and tell him what Phoenix did?” Slade pleaded. “You never know; he may be considering immortality, especially with the way he was looking at that Katrista-chick.”
I shook my head. “I’m not putting this on him, Slade. If Clay wants to be a vampire, he will do it all on his own, not because he feels pressured by me. He would resent me for it.” I rested my hands on my hips and stared at the floor a moment, thinking about everything I was giving up by not calling her back or going to Alabama. For the first time in over sixty years, I wanted to be with only one woman. It wasn’t about sex, not with her. She was amazing, and I knew she would make a damn good Alpha. Any fool could see that. But even though I knew, as a man, that I could stay celibate with her until Clay took his dying breath, I also knew that our beasts wouldn’t allow it. “It’s better this way,” I said, and then turned and grabbed the bag off the bed and zipped it up. Shouldering the strap, I looked up at Slade. “Talk to her. Tell her everything you know about shifters. Answer her questions. But don’t fall in love with her.”
Slade jerked back as if I had slapped him. With horrified eyes, he stared at me in shock. “I can’t believe you said—”
“I know how easy it is to love her,” I said. “I’m pretty sure it was that love at first sight bullshit with me, but you can’t… ever. I’m not trying to offend you or threaten you. You’re my friend. I consider you one of my best friends. But Phoenix’s rules don’t only apply to me. If she has sex with anyone, Clay reaps the repercussion. I’d hate to kill you, but I would, Slade. I would.”
“I swear I won’t touch her, Ace,” Slade said in a low voice. “Even if Clay’s life wasn’t at stake, she’s yours. We all know that. I could never do something like that to you.”
I nodded. “The tour ends three days after the move to New Orleans. Maybe I will have something figured out by then. I’m hoping the distance between us will help, but I’m not counting on it.” I paused, and swallowed down the lump that was growing bigger in my throat. I had to get the fuck out of here before I had one of my famous, nightly breakdowns in front of my Beta. “Take care of her.”
“I will,” Slade said as I embraced him in a one-armed hug and gave him a slap to the back before walking out of my bedroom, with Chaos trotting along beside me.
“Hey, Ace…”
Blinking back the moisture in my eyes, I glanced over my shoulder. “Yeah?”
Slade gave me a confident smile. “Everything is going to work out. I believe that.”
I smiled. “I believe that, too. See you soon.”
He dipped his head. “See you soon.”
The End
Look for Vieux Carre Lun
e – Book 3 in the ‘Moonrising’ series to be released in 2017
If you loved Rainey, Déus, Katrista, Clay, Embyr and Zephyr, you can read more about them in the ‘Eternal’ series. Eternal Island is book one.
If you loved the ex-demons - Baddon, Damien and Fallis, you can read more about them in the ‘Save My Soul’ series. Save My Soul is book one.
Thank you for reading Andromeda’s Reign. I hope you enjoyed it. Please return to the site you bought it from and leave an honest review.
A look inside Eternal Illusion
Lost in thought, Abe ran a loving hand over Ariana’s swelling belly, then grinned when she stirred from sleep and blinked lazily up at him. Wrapping his mind around that – not only had she been his wife for over three months, but was also carrying his child – was too much of a dream come true, one he never wanted to wake up from.
“Good afternoon, Mrs. Cambridge. It’s fifteen after one.”
Nuzzling closer to him, Ariana yawned and let her eyes drift shut. “Five more minutes.”
He snickered against her hair and then kissed her forehead. “Take all the time you need, baby, but I have a feeling Becky and Janie will—”
Quick and persistent tapping on the chamber door cut off his words and had him rolling his eyes in irritation.
“—knock on the door soon,” he finished through a clenched jaw, his mood swiftly turning sour at the lack of private time the island’s residents allowed him to have with his wife. “I can kill them, you know. Nobody will find their bodies. I swear it. Did I ever tell you that I’m a shark whisperer?”
Ariana giggled as she pushed against his body, and when he tried to grab her, she threw a pillow in his face and scrambled out of bed.
He fell back to his own pillow, defeated. “We are going on vacation. No cell phones. No knocks on the door—unless it’s room service—and, best of all, no distractions.”
Laughing as she opened the door, Ariana greeted her friends with a hug and took the coffee Janie held out with a sigh and a gracious smile. “I love both of you so much.”
Abe huffed as he glared at them. “You just saw them yesterday. And you don’t need that caffeine; it’s bad for the baby.”
Ariana took a long sip and winced as the heat bit her tongue. “The only thing that’s bad for the baby is my blood pressure going up when his or her father fusses over me too much.”
Abe blanched, and started to throw back the comforter to go to her, but thought better of it once he caught sight of Becky and Janie looking at him. Unlike Ariana, he hadn’t dressed after making love the night before.
He exhaled in relief as he studied the growing smirk on his wife’s face. She was the only one who could, quite literally, drop him to his knees with only a few words. He kept waiting for the spell she had him under to wear off, but with each day that passed, he had only grown more mesmerized by her charm.
Abe raised an eyebrow. “Come here, devil woman.”
“Abe,” Becky said, laughing. “There’s no time—er… take all the time you need, Your Highness,” she said quickly, when his mouth flattened into a thin line and his teal eyes locked on her, daring her to say one… more… word.
He would burn that damn clinic to the ground before he would allow anyone to take even one more minute with her away from him. She already worked too many hours as it was. It had started out being only five, but then had swiftly moved up to six, then seven. He had drawn a line at eight, but, more times than not, Ariana stayed at the clinic up to ten hours, even against his wishes and constant phone calls.
He tore his piercing eyes away from Becky and they softened as he met Ariana’s smile.
She set the cup down and crawled up on the mattress and into his awaiting arms. She stared into his eyes as her fingers brushed back the hair hanging over his ears, reminding him it was time for a trim. That would take all of fifteen minutes, so what would he do with the other four-hundred-sixty-five minutes she would be out of his sight?
He had some ass-chewing to do, that’s what, and he was going to do that first.
“I’ll be back before you know it, Abe,” she said sweetly, almost convincingly, but he knew better; she’d been telling him that every day since she’d started working, and it had never, ever been true.
Even though he knew arguing would get him absolutely nowhere, he still pleaded his case. “Stay here,” he whispered. “Take the day off. I could use a little healing myself.” He grinned devilishly.
The only answer he got was a small smile and a long kiss. Abe wrapped his arms around her and pulled her across his body, rolling with her until she was lying on her back and he was looking down at her beautiful face.
He knew she wouldn’t concede to his wishes today, but that wouldn’t stop him from trying. He had faith that one day she would.
“Sunset, Ariana. Please. I have something I want to show you.”
She laughed. “I just bet you do.”
He tucked a strand of blond hair behind her ear and softly kissed her lips. Lingering a breath away, he spoke so only she could hear. “It’s sort of important and special. It’s been in the works for several years, but it’s almost complete now. I didn’t want to mention it until Roger said you could see it. He sent me a text last night, but you were too exhausted after work, so I didn’t say anything. I don’t think I can keep from telling you what it is until your next day off, so please don’t overwork yourself today, and try to get out of there by eight.” He paused for a moment. “And eat light for supper; I’m taking you out afterward.”
Ariana’s eyes narrowed to thin slits, but there was amusement in them that she couldn’t hide behind her fake anger. “You know how much I hate surprises.”
Abe knew she could have searched his thoughts in one instant, so he quickly rifled through his memory for the lyrics of Mary Had A Little Lamb, just in case. Mindreading was one witchy trait that could be both a blessing and a curse, but thankfully Ariana tried not to use it too often. For that, he was grateful. It was bad enough that he couldn’t keep his hands off his wife for more than five minutes. Keeping his thoughts off her would be downright impossible.
He kissed her quick and moved away, so she could get up and ready for work. The quicker she left, the quicker he could let out his aggression on someone who couldn’t paralyze his vocal chords. “You’ll like this one. I promise it won’t embarrass you.”
“Can we come?” Janie asked, the petite girl nearly jumping up and down at hearing about something new and exciting on the island.
Abe chuckled. “Yeah, you can come. Bring someone, if you like,” he said, knowing that Janie had been spending quite a bit of time lately with Ryan from maintenance, and would more than likely want to bring him along. It was killing Lance to see her with the guy, but since he had been the one who let her go, there wasn’t a whole hell of a lot he could do about it but mope.
“Who else is going?” Becky asked with a sneer.
Abe shrugged nonchalantly, but he knew she was inquiring whether Will, his brother, was going to be there, and possibly be with Katrista, the girl who had flown to the island on the back of a minion from Hell under the orders of Apollyon, the demon who damn near took Ariana away from him in more than one way.
Just thinking about that night made him want to wrap Ariana in the tight cocoon of his arms and never let her out of his sight, but that had been almost three months ago, and they hadn’t seen or heard from the guy since his descent back into Hell. Gloria, their personal guardian angel, was checking in on a regular basis, but she hadn’t sensed any evil hanging around the island, either. It was still a struggle to relax, but Abe knew how Ariana hated to be smothered, so he forced his worry from his features, for her.
“I’m not sure, Becky, but if you think I’m going to tell my brother he can’t go just because you’ll be there, then you don’t know me very well.” He ignored the hurt look in her eyes and slapped Ariana’s butt when she crawled over him to get out of bed. He chuckled when she yelped.
After hearing the shower come on, he looked back to the two girls standing in the middle of his bedroom. “Would the two of you mind leaving? I’m about to go shower with my wife, and Ariana threw my boxers across the room last night.”
He smiled as the two girls immediately avoided eye contact, their faces turning a bright shade of pink in embarrassment at being in the same room with their naked king.
“Go on. Ariana will call you when she’s ready to leave. I can’t promise you’ll be on time for work, so you may want to leave without her.” He stopped and huffed when they only stood there with sullen expressions. “What? She isn’t yours; she’s mine. Go!”
Tripping over their feet, both girls turned and ran for the door.
With a smile on his face, Abe threw back the cover and jogged to the bathroom. He could only see the top of Ariana’s wet head, leaned back into the steamy shower spray, eyes closed as she basked in the warmth of the water. He tiptoed around the tiled wall that separated the shower from the rest of the bathroom, and had her in his arms before she even opened her eyes.
Ariana smiled as he touched his lips to hers, and Abe noticed that he couldn’t fit his body flush to hers any longer, not with his young growing so rapidly within her womb.
He ran one hand over the soft skin of her belly and pulled her mouth to his with his other by the nape of her neck. A low moan escaped her mouth and he drank in the ecstasy like a wino who had just found a forgotten bottle of eighty-year-old wine in the cellar.
She gasped for air when he released her mouth to devour her neck and that little spot below her ear she loved for him to kiss.
“Abe,” she panted. “I’m going to be late for work.”
An approving growl rumbled from his chest as her hands slid down to his hips. “Damn right, you are. I told Becky and Janie to go on without you, that you would be there when you damn well got there.”
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