His Dark Embrace

by Verika Sloane

  “You look like shit,” Aleck assessed matter-of-factly.

  “What are you doing here?” Shain didn’t wait for a reply, heading to the opening elevator where his brother joined his side.

  Why were people constantly popping up without notice?

  The doors closed before Aleck said, “To check on you.”

  Damn it, he hated how slowly his brother spoke. “What are you? My sponsor? Could’ve called. I’m fine. You didn’t even tell me when you got to town.”

  The floors ticked one by one as the elevator soared to the top. It couldn’t go fast enough. The moment they opened, Shain swept out, taking long, purposeful strides, leaving his brother to trail behind him.

  “I arrived last night, had some business to take care of. Speaking of which, we need to talk.”

  “Incredibly busy. We’ll talk later. Let’s arrange dinner soon.” Go away, damn you, I have things to do.

  His brother was on his back after Shain punched in his code to the door.

  “Your assistant is partly the reason I’m here. He said you sounded frantic when you called. He conveyed serious concern for you. Said you’re canceling appointments, not returning ally calls, dismissing important meetings, and that it’s been going on for weeks. Ever since the alliance was official. That’s not like you. So, no, I’m not going anywhere. You’re not fooling me that you’re fine. In fact, you wouldn’t fool a blind man if your life depended on it.”

  “I’m just hungover and stressed out, goddamn it. Excuse me for being a little unkempt.” He grabbed his decanter and poured a drink. “Stop staring at me like I’m a museum piece.” He threw back the blood-tinged whiskey.

  “It’s not a hangover and we both know it. Why do you look like you haven’t fed?”

  Hell. His brother was right. It’d been a few days since he’d fed from the vein, using blood bags from a clinic instead…he’d just been so focused on seeing Kimber he’d pushed his tank to damn near empty. Which could’ve been the reason Amara had been able to subdue him so easily.

  A piercing pang behind his eyes dropped him to his knees. The delicate crystal slipped from his hand and shattered on the marble floor. He squeezed his head in his hands, clenching his jaw, wishing his brother wasn’t there.

  Gods, it still hurt. Amara’s face blended with Kimber’s, their visages trying to pull apart, then congeal again.

  After a few moments, the pain ebbed. With an unsteady exhale, he laid a hand on the cold marble floor, hoping that was the last of the side effects.

  “Tell me the truth,” Aleck ordered with gentleness, holding his hands behind his back, voice devoid of compassion.

  By the gods, Shain wished he could do that very thing. In terms of friendship, he and his brother didn’t share everything, but they got along just fine, even though they were different in many ways. The foundation of their bond stemmed from mutual respect of each other’s strengths and a sort of dual familial pride their father had instilled in them since birth.

  They were Trevyns. It meant something. Act like it.

  Could he trust his brother? For most things, without question.

  But not with the complete truth. Like Jackson, like Amara, like all other shifters and every vampire in existence, Aleck would have one opinion on the matter and would do his damnedest to keep him from being with Kimber.

  Nevertheless, his brother wasn’t going anywhere without explanation, but straight lying to him didn’t sit well with Shain. Plus, his brother had a knack for seeing deception.

  Well, a half-truth was a good lie.

  He grabbed the decanter and went to sit in the living room, throwing himself on a chair. “Do you remember Amara?”

  A pause. “Yes.” Shain could almost feel Aleck mentally roll his eyes. His brother never really warmed to her, but then again, his brother hardly warmed to anyone.

  “We hadn’t been involved in a long time, and I wanted to make it clear to her we’d never revive our affair. I was too much of a coward to do it before she left for the summer. And then I…met someone else. She, the other woman, means a great deal to me, Aleck. I told Amara we were done. Permanently. She couldn’t accept it.” And now because of it, he might’ve lost the love of his life. His soulmate. He plucked the plug and drank a few gulps.

  “And then?” Aleck prompted.

  His eyes stung from the warm, strong taste. “And then Amara tracked me down, asked for a second chance, and got close enough to poison me.”

  Expressionless, Aleck asked, “Why would she do that?”

  “She thought I was under a spell.”

  “I see. Whatever she poisoned you with, this explains your episode.”

  “And why I look like I crawled out from a pit.” Gods, there were so many other details between those words, and he burned to share them all. But to do so would only open the gate for yet another obstacle, another person to contend with.

  “You’re still feeling the effects,” his brother observed.

  “It’s wearing off.”

  “Don’t assume. You must see a pro immediately.”

  “You’re overreacting. My brain is partly cooked well-done, but I’m functioning.”

  “Just because you’re out of your stupor doesn’t mean the potion isn’t still at work. To make sure it’s truly undone, you need help. And,” he added when Shain was about to argue that he didn’t have time to see a healer, “you need to feed. It’ll give you strength and make your recovery all the faster. Damn. I can’t believe I actually have to tell you these things, Shain. You should know better.”

  “I need to find her first.”

  “Who? Oh, yes. This other woman.”

  This other woman? His brother had drawled the words, as if Kimber was just another lover of no consequence. If only he knew she came with every consequence, and yet Shain still wanted to be with her more than breathe. Of course, Aleck assumed they were discussing a vampiress. It wouldn’t cross his mind in a millennium the woman was anything else.

  Shain’s cell phone buzzed, and he jerked. He set the decanter down and shot up from the chair, taking the phone out of his pants pocket. A text message. There was a chance Kimber had saved his number and would message him from her cell—

  He opened the text. Not from Kimber. Amara.

  If his heart could sink any lower, it’d be in the center of the earth.

  You’ll come back to me. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not this year, but you will. I just know it. Maybe I’ll let you crawl back, if you are on your hands and knees BEGGING—

  He threw the phone on the sofa with a curse. “Gods, why won’t she leave me be?”

  “This is why I don’t screw a woman more than once, let alone for ten years.”

  “Good for you,” Shain barked, running a hand through his hair, pacing. “I just need to talk to her. Explain. She can scream at me all she wants. I just need to talk to her.”

  “Her who?”

  Shain didn’t reply.

  For the first time, Aleck’s eyes squinted in what looked like worry. He cocked his head, frowning. “I’ve never seen you like this.”

  “She’s not just any woman, Aleck. She’s…exceptional. Very important to me.”

  Even now, he couldn’t utter the word “love.” Well, he could to Kimber. Telling his brother seemed to rob it of its value. He’d uttered she was the woman he loved, but he’d never actually told her, “I love you,” and he regretted that with every ounce of him.

  “I take it Amara scared her away?” Aleck asked.

  Swallowing the emotion, Shain nodded.

  “You’ll win her back. If there’s anything I know for a fact about you, brother, it’s that you can get anything you want once your mind is made up.” He paused. “But you need to set your desperation aside and work on yourself first. I’m not just talking about a shower and a shave and a feeding. Your life is in upheaval. If you neglect it much more, you’ll have an even harder time arranging the pieces back together. You need to make things right so
your world is where it should be once you try to win your vampiress back. You can’t let it fall apart. The vultures are always waiting in the trees. Tanaka alliance or no.”

  Shain closed his eyes. His brother was on a roll with his voice of reason tonight.

  If Shain abandoned his duties to find Kimber, and convinced her to come back with him, he could return with too much to handle. Without her, life would be hell, but with her, he could handle hell, as long as he was in control. To let things slip could make his allies snoop and investigate, putting his delicate plan in the red before he could even execute it.

  After all, he knew where to find her when he was ready.

  Tavish, Wisconsin.

  Chapter Thirty-Nine

  A swarm of welcoming shiefs greeted their van as it pulled up to the main house.

  None of her pack sisters knew what the urgency to return home was all about, and Kimber prayed she was right, and that it had nothing to do with her. The others guessed all kinds of reasons, but none even broached that Jackson could be the alpha who’d contacted Amos.

  During the long, uncomfortable ride home, her mind was too disoriented to panic anymore. The heartbreak too deep and great to allow her to worry.

  The group of shiefs smiled, pulling the van doors open even before Lucinda had pulled to a stop, a series of welcomes coming from all directions.

  “You’re home! Did you bring us any food?”

  “Welcome back, sisters. You’ve been missed.”

  “How was the drive? Can’t wait to hear about Atlanta.”

  Kisses and hugs, laughter and questions.

  Other shiyas headed that way to meet them. Alpha Amos was nowhere in sight so far. It was late, and he was probably in bed already.

  Kimber grabbed her duffel and hopped out last. She said a quick hello to her pack brothers and sisters before pushing through the crowd and heading toward her bungalow.

  Smells of chimney smoke and the crisp, cold air did nothing to settle her nerves, but it did make her smile a little. Three young wolves skimmed her legs as they raced by, chasing each other, sprinting into the trees.

  Nya finally woke from her languid state and barked.

  “Yes, Nya. We’re home.”

  Her little bungalow was just as she’d left it, wood floors under a massive rug, farm chic furniture, a palette of light green, gold, and eggshell throughout.

  She smiled when she saw her jade plant had bloomed. Diana had taken care of it in her absence, as promised.

  Finally, her own precious space, instead of the uninspired den she’d called her own for the past three months, sleeping on a cheap futon instead of her plush pillowtop with a goose-down comforter.

  She sighed, leaning on her bedroom doorway. She hadn’t cried over Shain yet, she hadn’t been granted any length of time in privacy to do so. They’d packed the van and trailer, cleaned the rental home in a hurry, and were on the road in less than three hours.

  Her last night with Shain had been doomed, anyway. She would’ve only gotten a few minutes with him before Lucinda would’ve called her back.

  A knock on her screen door startled her.

  God, she couldn’t get more than a few minutes to herself? She’d just been cooped up in a van with six other women for over eighteen hours.

  Is it the alpha?

  Nya told her no.

  Rubbing her sweaty palms on her jeans, she ventured to her front door, preparing herself. The living room lights prevented her from seeing exactly who it was beyond the screen. She flipped on the porch light and saw a tall male figure standing there.

  She inwardly groaned.

  “Kimber?”

  She didn’t recognize his voice. “Yes?”

  He stepped back as she pulled the main door wider and pushed the screen door open.

  Neither did she know his face. He had dark brown, reddish hair that waved on top, was about five-foot-eleven, slender, but all muscle. His nose had been broken once or twice, there was a spattering of freckles on his face for neglecting sunscreen, and he smelled like Irish Spring soap. Attractive, in a hardened bad boy way.

  Then she saw her other bags were around his feet. “Did you bring these? You didn’t have to do that. I was on my way back.”

  “I was happy to do it.” He looked her up and down, as if at a loss for words, stroking blunt fingers around his mouth and chin. “Wow,” he breathed. “I mean, you just, you’re even better—prettier—in person, is all.”

  Sleep-deprived, melancholy, in jeans and a T-shirt with burger juice on it?

  She drew back, not in the mood to be sniffed out by some newbie shief.

  Then it clicked. He could be the one Claudine had mentioned.

  She bent down to retrieve her bags. “You’re very sweet.”

  He remained on her doorstep while she took them to her bedroom.

  “Are you visiting, or have you joined Glacier?” she asked, feeling obligated to offer small talk since he’d carried her luggage to her door.

  “Joined. We were waiting for you all to come back for the official ceremony.” He smiled at her, but there was a strange need in this shifter’s eyes.

  Nya kept alert, already disliking him.

  “Sorry,” Kimber said, hoping his wolf didn’t notice hers wasn’t being very hospitable. “What was your name?”

  “Oh, right. I never said.” He held out his arm to grasp hers. “Hudson.”

  They clasped forearms. “Welcome to the pack,” she said.

  “Thanks. Wanna grab a beer at the main?”

  All I want is to be alone. But she couldn’t tell him that. “I’m pretty exhausted from being on the road. I’m going straight to bed.”

  He seemed disappointed, even took a step forward like he didn’t appreciate being rejected, but then stopped. “Sure. Yeah, of course, you just got back. Let’s do it soon, when you’re settled.”

  She gave him a half-hearted smile, closed and locked both doors, and slid to the floor.

  If you were normal, not desperately in love with a vampire whom you marked, you could have a mate by the end of the year.

  She huffed a dry laugh, dropping her head back and hugging her knees.

  And then she cried.

  Chapter Forty

  Amos demanded her presence at pack headquarters, first thing the next morning. He’d sent his omega, Luke, to fetch her.

  The older shief, with his gray hair tied in a short, low ponytail, told her nothing of what it was about. While they walked the long path, members were looking out their windows in curiosity, as if she was being escorted to her execution.

  Kimber kept her chin high, though her heart thrashed inside her breast.

  Already, she might have to pay the price for her affair with Shain, and she’d pay it with pride. If that was why she was summoned.

  Luke stayed behind her as she climbed the steps into the building where Amos and a few shiefs were gathered in the assembly room, including Lucinda.

  Amos, like all alphas, was built like a tank, with all the unappealing blunt lines and countenance of one. He had dense, dark blonde hair, a full beard, shrewd blue eyes that pierced through even the toughest soul, and forearms bigger than her calves. Proud. Obstinate. Blunt. But also protective, rational, and fair. She prayed the latter traits would shine today.

  The massive, scarred hardwood table with the pack’s emblem branded in it sat on a dais against the far wall, similar to a courtroom setup. It was where they held pack meetings and conducted business with other packs. Big enough for more than a hundred people to convene—and argue, defend, enforce—within.

  Amos stared her down for a moment, as if he could get the answers he needed just by looking at her. Then he sharply gestured for her to come forward and sit across from him at the table. Nya bowed to Amos’ wolf at the same time Kimber bowed her head.

  With that, he ordered, “Sit down, everyone,” to which they all obeyed, while he remained standing.

  She glanced at Lucinda, who sat far a
way from her and avoided meeting Kimber’s gaze.

  The other men sat on either side of Amos like a council. They were, in a way, just that. Each representing a group within the pack: the laborers, the medics, the fighters.

  Nya expressed confidence, fearlessness, and even arrogance, trying to inject Kimber to feel the same. One factor about having a wolf as another personality was sometimes, even though they were literally a part of you, they didn’t agree with your human emotions. Especially the fragile ones that didn’t serve your strength.

  Amos crossed his arms over his chest. “I received a call yesterday from Alpha Jackson Crawford, of the Ironclaw Pack,” he bellowed in the large room.

  Kimber swallowed, holding his gaze. Since Crawford was that devious, then he was devious enough to exaggerate or lie to Amos.

  “Never heard of ’em,” drawled Benny, sitting back, chewing a toothpick.

  “They’re just pups,” Luke exclaimed, who always had the most information about packs outside their own. “New pack in Georgia. They haven’t even claimed territory yet. Seven or eight members. Maybe.”

  “Then why the fuck do we care about some baby alpha calling us?” Benny asked.

  “Right, what’s this about, Amos?” Griff prompted, cracking his knuckles, black eyes sparkling. Leader of the soldiers, always down for a fight, and looked every bit like he’d always win it, Griff seemed a little too eager to battle.

  “I got things to do,” Benny muttered. With a round face that was usually red, sweating, and flushed, he oversaw the laborers, and liked nothing done without him watching.

  Apparently, no one else was in on what the meeting was about, save Amos and Luke.

  Amos’s upper lip curled. “Because he told me something that happened in Atlanta. A story that could shred our world to pieces if anyone found out.”

  Silence.

  He had yet to take his judgmental eyes off her. “Now, the goal of the recruitment mission is to recruit, and there’s no doubt that was accomplished. We have half a dozen shiyas arriving in three days alone that we have to host, then two more groups of six later in the month. Thanks to Lucinda. But it seems Kimber here was too busy romancing two men to really care about that goal.”