Wild and Free

by Kristen Ashley

  At this point, the camera panned in, broadcasting only the president’s face, which he’d arranged into a mask of concern and determination.

  “I know it’s asking a great deal of the citizens of this great nation, but I urge calm. This faction…who attacked our own in Iowa and others around the world…is few. We, as well as the immortals, are aware of their existence. We are prepared to retaliate. We have more than hope that we will quash any further barbarisms perpetrated by this small, rogue offshoot before they happen. We have weapons to defeat it. And I promise, as your president, as your commander in chief, as a man who knows these races and trusts them, we, with our immortal brothers and sisters, will prevail.”

  The president disappeared and we saw the newscaster.

  Callum, who had the remote, turned the volume down.

  “You think that worked?” Xun asked.

  “Nope,” Moose answered.

  I sighed.

  “Is that true, you guys human?” Wei asked.

  “Propaganda,” Lucien answered. “We were born of magic. However, that likely won’t be accepted very well at this juncture.”

  “I hear that,” I muttered.

  Lucien got up from the arm of the chair that Leah was sitting in, saying, “I’m going to find Gregor, see how things are—”

  He didn’t finish.

  Abel’s head turned to look over the back of the sofa where we were sitting, so mine did too.

  A second later, I saw a blur materialize as Gregor.

  He didn’t waste a second.

  “The mission to take the training camp in Pennsylvania was successful. They’ve detained a goodly number of The True. Our jet is on standby.”

  Everyone was on the move as he spoke.

  And everyone stopped being on the move when, suddenly, Poncho’s auntie materialized beside him.

  Her hair was wild, her face was caked in mud, as were her clothes, she smelled really, super bad, and she was in a serious state, arms waving, mouth moving a mile a minute to spit out words.

  Unfortunately, all of them were Spanish.

  Fortunately, Poncho was with us.

  “Tía, despacio, por favor,” he said.

  She nailed him with a look that I reckoned could pulverize rock, literally, seeing as she was a bruja, then she went on talking.

  It seemed just as fast to me, but apparently it was slower because Poncho was catching it and he started translating.

  “She says you can’t go,” he told us, then listened before telling us more. “She says you must remain here.”

  “Fuck, seriously?” Abel bit off.

  Poncho ignored him and kept translating.

  “She says your work will be done here. She says the fates haven’t decided the outcome. She says the human race will decide the outcome. She says if you leave the security of this compound, which will keep you safe, The True will triumph.”

  Poncho’s auntie quit talking.

  “Our work will be done here?” Leah asked.

  “That’s what she says,” Poncho answered.

  “How can the human race decide the outcome?” I asked. “It would be nearly impossible for them to win against immortals.”

  Poncho turned to his aunt, she said something to him, then he turned to me. “She said this is a test. She said they must pass or they’ll suffer for their failure.”

  “Great, now we got hazy predictions to deal with,” Dad muttered, then said louder, “No offense, tía de Poncho.”

  She shrugged at Dad.

  “There are people in danger if we don’t move,” Callum noted. “Did Josefa see harm come to any others?”

  Poncho again talked to his aunt.

  Then he spoke to Callum. “The next fight, we’ll be there.”

  I shook my head. “How, if we’re here?”

  “No clue. Auntie just said we would,” Poncho told me.

  “Brother,” Jabber began, “a lot’s riding on this. Is the old broad that good at tellin’ the future?” he asked, then looked to Poncho’s aunt and added, “No offense.”

  She skewered him with her eyes.

  “My first wife, she told me the bitch would cheat on me. My second, she told me the bitch would steal from me. My third, she told me the bitch would try to cut me,” Poncho said.

  “Whoa,” Jabber breathed, his eyes getting big. “She’s good.”

  “Yeah, she’s good,” Poncho returned. “Any other questions?”

  “So we sit and wait…more?” Abel asked, pure frustration naked in his tone.

  Poncho’s aunt started talking again.

  Then Poncho started translating again.

  “For you, yes. For her, she has to get started with her protection spells. She says the gringa witches do good work, but what you’re gonna face, you need to pack a punch and she’s gonna give that to you.”

  “Well, tell her to get started,” Dad stated immediately.

  “Uh…does she speak English?” I asked before Poncho could give the order for her to begin.

  “She understands it, doesn’t speak it. Says it fucks with the purity of her magic,” Poncho answered.

  That was interesting.

  “She can get started now, Poncho,” Lucien growled.

  “Right,” Poncho muttered and turned to his aunt.

  “Are you going to take the advice of this witch?” Gregor asked.

  “Well, just to say,” I began, “Poncho’s first wife cheated on him, the second stole from him, and the third totally tried to cut him.”

  “Fabulous,” Abel muttered, dropping his head to study his boots, so I found his hand with mine and held tight.

  “I…” Leah started, and when I looked at her, she was shaking her head. “Well, I feel this is magic, what’s happening, what unites us, what made some of us, what gives us what we have to fight it. So, I figure, someone who knows magic, we should listen to.”

  “I’m concerned about further delays, but I must say, I agree,” Sonia put in.

  Everyone looked to me.

  I kept my eyes on the bruja.

  She had her eyes on me.

  “Keep us safe,” I whispered.

  She nodded and disappeared.

  And again, Abel muttered, “Fabulous.”

  * * * * *

  Gregor

  Later that night, Gregor sat in his office with Callum’s mother, Regan.

  “We’re agreed?” he asked.

  She held his eyes and nodded once.

  “Yes, Gregor. We’re agreed.”

  He grabbed his phone and hit the button, which made the call.

  He put it to his ear.

  The call was answered with, “Is it time?”

  “It’s time. Release them.”

  “It will be done,” the voice said.

  He listened for the disconnect before he drew in a long breath and let it out.

  “They won’t be happy,” he told the desk blotter.

  “They slaughtered entire villages.”

  Regan’s voice was so harsh, coming from a gentle she-wolf such as she, Gregor’s eyes cut to her in surprise.

  “We have no choice,” she finished.

  She was right.

  They had no choice.

  He just hoped, if they survived whatever was to come, The Three would agree.

  * * * * *

  Barb

  “We’re all in?”

  Barb looked around.

  Flo was nodding.

  Jezza looked worried, but she was nodding too.

  Ruby was just staring at her.

  “Ruby?” Barb prompted.

  “Could mean the death of us, our entire coven wiped out, all of this in less than two weeks,” Ruby replied.

  “Could also mean, we don’t do what we can, we don’t help, next month our coven is hiding our magic, serving tea to an immortal, and doing that crap until the day we die,” Barb replied.

  “See your point,” Ruby muttered.

  “So, you’re in?” Barb
pressed.

  Ruby hesitated.

  Then she nodded.

  “Good,” Barb said and turned to the vials filled with fizzing pink liquid that were on the dresser in her bedroom. She passed them around, saying, “I’ll get Aurora’s to her.” Her eyes slid through Flo and Jezza. “You’ll take care of the wolves and the brothers Jin?”

  At their nods, she gave them more vials.

  When she gave Ruby hers, she asked, “You’ll speak to Teona?”

  “Yup,” Ruby answered.

  Barb gave her a second vial.

  In their thoughts, preparing for what was to come, they all went to the blessed instruments sitting on Barb’s bed, chose one, and moved toward the door.

  “See you in your dreams,” Barb called to their departing backs.

  Ruby, the last one out, caught her gaze.

  “See you in your dreams, my beloved sister,” she whispered.

  Then she closed the door.

  The minute she did, Barb went to the bed, made her choice and slipped the blade under her pillow. She would sleep with her hand around the handle.

  Then she did what she very much as a mother did not want to do but had to.

  She left her room to find her daughter.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Pray with Me

  Leah

  Lucien moved his lips and tongue at my neck where I knew the wounds he’d given me but moments before were gone.

  He lay atop me, one arm curved around my back, the fingers of his other hand laced in mine and pressed to the bed at our sides.

  He was still buried deep inside me, unmoving, keeping us connected, giving me much of his weight, his warmth. His fingers tangled in mine, holding so fast that the rings he’d given me as a symbol of everything that was us dug into the base of my fingers.

  He’d also marked me so our hearts were beating as one.

  Beauty.

  As for me, with the one arm I had free and both my legs, I held him tight to me.

  “We’re going to be okay,” I whispered in his ear.

  He lifted his head to look down at me.

  He was troubled.

  I hated to see his face that way. In fact, I wasn’t certain, even with all that had happened, that I’d ever actually seen his face that way.

  The Mighty Vampire Lucien, who was the strongest, fastest, and smartest of his kind, didn’t get troubled.

  I knew he was worried about the fate of humanity.

  I knew he was more worried about the fate of me.

  “We’re going to be okay, darling,” I repeated.

  “I’m almost a millennium old and I’ve only known true happiness since the moment I laid eyes on you at your Selection, doing it knowing you would finally be mine.”

  I felt my eyes start burning and swallowed.

  He dipped his face closer. “I cannot lose you, sweetling.”

  “You won’t lose me,” I promised.

  He pulled his arm from around me to lift his hand to my face. Using his thumb, he traced around my temple, my cheekbone, along the side of my nose, across my lips, his eyes watching, his other hand continuing to hold mine tight.

  Then his gaze caught mine, and at the fire in his, I held my breath.

  “If you are lost to me, I vow to you, I will go down fighting.”

  “Darling,” I breathed.

  “But I will go down,” he continued. “I cannot live without you, Leah. And I will not.”

  “Don’t say that,” I urged quietly but fiercely. “Your children. Isobel. Julian. Your mother—”

  “They’ll understand.”

  I lifted my free hand to his face too, cupping the side, digging the pads of my fingers in.

  “And if I lose you, do you think I shouldn’t go on?”

  “You won’t,” he stated. “Eventually, this world will be deprived of your beauty. Your spirit. Your humor. It’s natural for you to find your end. So you will carry on until that time comes. But I would be sentenced to an eternity without any of that. And I know in my soul I cannot face it.”

  That was beautiful (most of it).

  I still hated it.

  “You made a vow to me,” I reminded him. “Until the sun falls from the sky.”

  “Leah—” he groaned, my name sounding torn from him.

  “You are vampire,” I hissed. “You cannot break your vow.”

  “You’re right, I cannot,” he agreed. Then he devastated me. “Unless I’m forced to do so.”

  Suddenly, I couldn’t abide this conversation.

  “It’s a waste of time to talk about this,” I declared. “We’ll survive. We’ll prevail. We’ll have a family and we’ll live happily ever after.”

  “I do hope you’re correct, sweetheart.”

  I lifted my head off the pillow. “Hope hard, Lucien darling, because that’s what we have. And hope is beautiful. It’s also strong. It will guide us to victory.”

  His eyes burned into mine before he bent his head and took my mouth in a searing kiss.

  When he was done making both our hearts beat faster, he gently slid out. He rolled me to rest on top of him as he reached to turn out the light. Then he moved us to our sides, facing each other, and gathered me close.

  “Sleep, my pet,” he murmured.

  “Only if you do too,” I replied.

  There was a smile in his voice when he said, “I will.”

  I cuddled closer, wrapping my arms tight around him. “Good.”

  “I love you, Leah.”

  I closed my eyes and pressed a kiss to his chest.

  Then I whispered, “I love you too, Mighty Vampire Lucien.”

  It would turn out to be a boon from the fates that the last thing I heard before I fell asleep was my mate chuckling.

  * * * * *

  Sonia

  After they’d finished making love, Sonia sat astride her handsome wolf, his cock still planted inside her, his knees angled, cocooning her, his torso up, his arms around her, big hands moving soothingly along the skin of her back, his face buried in her chest, his chin resting at the vee of her breasts.

  Sonia slid her hand through his hair, her neck bent, lips to the hair on top of his head, allowing him his thoughts even though she knew they were not pleasant.

  He proved her right when he spoke.

  “I lost you once.”

  She pressed her lips to his hair as she cupped the back of his head in both hands.

  “You didn’t,” she whispered.

  “I thought I did. And it was agony.”

  Sonia flinched at the pain behind the truth buried in his words.

  “I know, wolf,” she replied, lifted her head and fisted her hands in his hair, gently tugging it back. As she wanted, his head tilted so she could catch his eyes. “That won’t happen again.”

  “If that witch is right, I understand now why the Oracles have not seen our future. Because it hasn’t been written yet. And our fates are in the hands of humanity. I don’t understand that. I also don’t like it.”

  “Humans have the capacity for a great deal of love. Generosity. Kindness. Hope,” she told him.

  “They also have the capacity for a great deal of hate. Judgment. Envy. Prejudice. And they’ve proven over centuries that they do not handle fear very well,” he returned.

  She slid her hand to his jaw. “This is true, husband, but that’s the stuff that gets all the attention. You’ve lived long but not often close to humans. Trust me, the good stuff happens far more often, but it doesn’t make headlines.”

  “I hope you’re right,” Callum murmured, dipping his chin and kissing her chest.

  Sonia again rested her lips to the top of his head. “I do too. But you’ve lost so much already to the cause of keeping humans safe. I cannot believe that the fates, and more importantly God, would make you lose more.”

  He pulled his face out of her chest and she lifted her head again when he tipped it back.

  “We have babies to make,” she whisp
ered when she caught his eyes, normally an amazing clear blue, but now, with the emotion her king was feeling, a brilliant, breathtaking gold. “Pups to raise.” His hands stopped soothing so he could wrap his arms around her. She dropped her lips to his, moving both her hands to his neck before she stroked his jaw with her thumbs. “An eternity to live and love, my king. That future will not be taken from us.”

  “No,” he growled.

  “I will not lose you,” she declared. “And you will not lose me. Not again.”

  “No,” he repeated his growl.

  “No,” she whispered, tilted her head and slid the tip of her tongue across his generous bottom lip.

  Her husband, her handsome wolf, her king, as ever, accepted the invitation and he kissed her with a ferocity that was both man and beast.

  When he broke the kiss, he lay back, reaching to the light. He turned it off as she pulled the covers up over them.

  As was their wont, they stayed connected.

  Sonia cuddled deep, pressing her forehead into the side of his neck.

  “You know I love you?” he asked into the dark, and Sonia closed her eyes.

  “I do,” she whispered into his skin. “And I love you too, my handsome wolf. With everything I am and everything I’m meant to be. And I know, know,” she said the last fiercely, pressing close, “I’m meant to be a lot.”

  Callum’s arms around her gave her a squeeze. “And I love you the same, baby doll, with everything I am and everything I’m meant to be.”

  She tilted her chin to touch his skin with her lips and then she settled in.

  Callum ran a hand gently up and down her spine.

  Connected, as close as they could get, just as she liked it, as did he, Sonia, Queen of the Werewolves, fell asleep on top of her king.

  * * * * *

  Hook

  Standing outside his daughter’s door, Hooker Johnson hesitated before he lifted his hand and knocked.

  After a few seconds, the door opened a crack and Lilah’s man stood there wearing nothing but jeans.

  Fuck, but the kid was built.

  “Sorry to interrupt, bubba,” he muttered. “But wanna say good night to my little girl.”

  Abel studied Hook’s face, his own holding an expression of understanding, and seeing that, yet again, Hook was relieved that this was the one she’d been yearning for all her life.