The Bringer of Wrath

by A. E. Via

  “H-how…” Bell swallowed, working his throat a few times. His voice was getting stronger the more he tried to use it.

  “It’s been a long time since we’ve been like this. The three of us working together. Not since I was a teenager. Not since I blamed Wrath for killing my mother. I was wrong. Wolf and I were both wrong. Wrath had done what we couldn’t do back then, made a tough decision that cost some lives, but saved many. And instead of thanking him, we made him pay the price for those we lost by shutting him out. Locking him away. Away from my heart and soul—the two things Wrath needs in order to be decent. With nothing to touch his human side, he’ll wreak havoc wherever he goes. He’s not bad, only misunderstood.” Alek was speaking to Wrath while he lingered so close to Alek, as well as explaining what this all meant to their mate.

  It was time Wrath heard him say those words out loud because Alek was sure the demigod could already feel it inside his heart. He was wide open to both of his beasts. There’d be no more rebuking who they were. Alek was ready to fully embrace the gifts he’d been given and would fulfill his role in the prophesy the best way they could. Going through this experience—saving Bell together—had been an eye opener for them, a game changer. There was a long moment when nothing was said… only the mixing of feelings.

  Then Wrath finally responded by returning the same regretful emotions to him. He’d wished things had gone differently as well. Wrath said, in a somber tone, it’s not always possible to save them all, Alek. I’m sorry too.

  Feeling they were in a good headspace, Alek was ready to get to his task. He gave Bell a little time to process what he was witnessing. It wasn’t every day a person met one of the demigods. Alek decided he’d start with himself. He ran his hands all over his arms and chest with one of the bars of soap. He did it slowly while Bell eyed him with interest.

  “A-Alek?”

  Alek nodded, inching closer, wanting to hold Bell, bury his face behind his ear and nibble on him there. But right now the most important thing was Bell’s continuous healing, then accepting who his fated truly was.

  “It’s me, Bell. You still don’t appear convinced. Do you want me to prove it?” Alek smiled.

  Bell shifted, resting one arm on the rocks, the other he lazily ran back and forth over the water’s surface. Bell coughed a couple of times then croaked, “H-how can you?”

  “Easy.” Alek grabbed the fragrant soap. He laid it on the back of Bell’s neck, rubbing it in slow, soothing circles. Bell moaned prettily for him. “I can tell you something Wrath, or Wolf would know.”

  Bell’s brow creased, and Alek couldn’t resist leaning in and gently kissing the spot.

  “You feel so …w-warm, just like before,” Bell whispered. “B-but, your eyes are different.”

  “I am different now. I can control the heat.” Alek moved the rag along Bell’s chest. “I used to fear it. But I don’t anymore.”

  “Tell me the p-proof,” Bell challenged.

  Alek loved the way Bell’s head fell to the side when Alek leaned in to give the sensitive flesh over his mark a good cleaning. “Okay.” Alek said, amused. “When you and Wick were young you used to sneak into the Widow Bradley’s wild berry farm—not to eat them—just so you’d smell like the sweet perfume the fruit left all over you.” Alek stared into Bell’s eyes. “You said I reminded you of that adventure. I smelled wild, sweet, and a little bit dangerous.”

  Bell’s eyes glazed over as his smile broadened, a hint of fang peeking out from under his full top lip. “How’d you…?”

  “That night you arrived, when Wolf first bit you, he ran away embarrassed, burying himself deep inside me, leaving me to deal with the backlash. I was humiliated, to say the least. I wanted to crawl into a cave and hide in shame. Worst part is it happened in front of everyone. There was no more hiding, my façade was exposed. All the years I’d worn a mask of stability and strength when I was actually a huge mess of confusion inside. My disguise had been ripped off, but Justice wouldn’t allow me to run, too. He made me go to you and apologize. But before I had to take that walk of shame I heard you make that quiet confession to Wick, and it gave me that last ounce of courage I needed to come face you. I was scared shitless that you hated me already.”

  Bell knew that it was Alek speaking. He smiled faintly, remembering how shocked and shaken Alek had been after the whole ordeal that fateful night. Bell stared deeper into Alek’s mesmerizing eyes. An ocean of blue surrounded by electrifying reds and oranges. So beautiful. This was his mate. Now all the pieces of the puzzle were there and aligning, allowing him to see the entire picture.

  “Believe me now?”

  “I do,” Bell whispered. His throat still felt sore, but it was getting better. Starving for blood was like swallowing fiberglass.

  “So, can I finish cleaning you now?” Alek smirked.

  Bell nodded, spreading his arms and resting them against the warm stones. He leaned his head back and tried to put all the negative thoughts of the feud to the back of his mind and focus on the healing Alek was providing. The water was so tranquil and relaxing, it was as if he had his very own hot tub in the secluded forest during an English winter. It was amazing to watch Alek’s strong body ignite the way it had, to feel the effects of his heat on the bank where he’d sat. His beloved had controlled a god’s power right there before him. A feat never seen before in their lifetime.

  “I can’t believe he’s really in there.” He was sure Alek could hear the wonder in his weak voice. “Wrath. He’s not…”

  Alek lovingly went about his job of cleaning him and conversing as if he hadn’t just done something spectacular. “Yeah, I know. He’s not supposed to be here on Earth. He’s been confined to the Underworld for like ever. But, the Mother—in her grand design—saw fit to remove him and place him right here.” Alek lifted Bell’s hand and laid it in the middle of his chest. “And when she did, she made us one, but… we rebelled.”

  “But why’d the Mother choose Wrath?” Bell asked, softly stroking the wet tuft of hair in the center of Alek’s pecs.

  Alek looked at the sky as if he was praying for the answer to Bell’s question. “To assist in the prophesy. To keep the Mother’s shifters safe from the ultimate threat.”

  “From being conquered?”

  Alek’s mouth was in a tight line when he replied stiffly, “Yes. My father was the great conqueror. Our lineage comes from the first dawn wolf, the original shifter. Descendants of conquerors. But, when my mother died, my father all but faded into a shell of a man. His wolf, once so powerful the ground shook when he ran, became severely depressed. No one had dared challenge him during his reign, but no one wanted to, either. He was adored by all the packs. There was no discord among us and we thrived from one coast to the other. Then in a matter of minutes, it all changed.”

  Bell could see the anguish all over Alek’s handsome face. He’d listen intently to learn about his beloved, but if he had to stop—because it became too much—he wouldn’t press him.

  “We were all visiting with another prominent pack in the Cherokee Forest that was celebrating something… I don’t know—a true-mating maybe—I can’t really remember. But we’d been on a run that night, my father leading about fifty of us, when suddenly we were ambushed by hunters. It felt like they appeared out of nowhere. We think their camouflage clothing must’ve been sprayed with some kind of chemical or natural pheromones, because we didn’t smell them until it was too late. We defended hard, trying to protect the women and pups. What seemed like hours of fighting for our lives probably only lasted ten minutes. I was fighting alongside Justice when I saw my mother leap in front of a bullet for him.” Alek took a deep breath. His hands were still moving over Bell’s body, but he was hardly paying attention to the bathing, riveted to the story of the Volkov history.

  “She didn’t go down though, she kept brawling. Kept going, despite the devastating shot to her stomach, sacrificing herself for her kids, urging all of us to run instead of staying to fig
ht with the adults. Justice and my father had run over to get Taleb, who’d been hit by one of the ATVs the hunters were driving, and knocked unconscious. But, I couldn’t leave my mother on her own. She was injured and I knew she needed to get to our healer fast. She was leaving a trail of blood behind her, but she kept snapping at me to run. Farica was hiding behind a tree waiting for me when hunters crept up on her. My mom tried to go after her but got struck by a vehicle and knocked over the side of the cliff… and I dove for her.

  “Oh, Alek.” Bell caressed his rough cheek. Alek’s blue eyes were hazy and he was staring straight ahead, not focused on anything, as if he was watching the story he was telling play out like a horror film in his mind.

  “I was hurting everywhere. I’d been hit several times myself and I think one of my legs had been broken. I thought my chest was going to cave in at the pain in my sides from the broken ribs. But, I still dove for her. She shifted from her wolf, holding onto my hand just long enough to tell me she loved me…” Alek choked on the last sentence. His throat worked up and down as if he was dislodging something massive there.

  “Hey, shhh. It’s okay. You don’t have to do this now if…”

  “No. I do. You need to know why I am who I am. And that it wasn’t Wrath’s fault.” Alek set the rag beside them and started using his hands on Bell’s shoulders, again letting the movement lure him back to his tale. “She said that I was going to do great things. But, when she opened her hand to let go, I clutched on harder. I was screaming for help because my arm was giving out, and the hunters had tranquilized Farica and were dragging her away, since her young wolf couldn’t fight yet. My mom yelled at me to save my sister. ‘Go! Save her Alek, you’ll need her’, she’d told me but I didn’t listen to her instructions. I was too conflicted and I couldn’t budge. I became paralyzed while the others waited impatiently inside for me to make the choice. I wanted to save my mom. Wolf kept pulling on me to shift and fight and then Wrath was tugging for me to save Farica and ourselves, because I was slowly going over the edge too. I was watching my baby sister be manhandled and kidnapped yet I held my mother’s battered body suspended over a cliff of sharp rocks and I couldn’t decide who to let die and who to save. So Wrath did it for me.”

  Bell’s mouth fell open.

  “Wrath exploded to the surface, and the first thing he did was wrench my hand away from my mother, letting her body fall. He tore us apart. Pulling Wolf out of the connection too. And when he did…” Alek shook his head. “I realized the pain I’d been feeling from my injuries had been nothing compared to losing them. I don’t know… I think I disappeared inside, and he and Wolf fought off the rest of the hunters. My hate was strong. As Wrath fought to try to protect the rest of the pack, I sent him my worst thoughts of him. I drowned him with hate and it affected the control of his flames.”

  Bell eased his other arm around Alek’s neck, his fingertips curling into his wet hair. He wished he were strong enough to knead at the tension and strain bulging in Alek’s thick shoulders, but he wasn’t, so he’d have to be okay with the light rubs.

  “Some of the pack members got in the crossfire… and were burned to death. Friends that we’d known all of our lives. My father’s only brother, as well.” Alek dropped his head. “A few shifters saw what Wrath had done, and most of them couldn’t handle it. Shifters all over the country were devastated at what happened to the Alpha Zenith and his family. Shifters had to mourn their loved ones, their lost mates, while the one who killed them was roaming free in the forest around them. When Wrath released the surface and I came to out of a thick fog of darkness, I was treated like a pariah. Even though I didn’t know what’d happened, and why everything was burned to the ground around me, they still saw me as a more dangerous threat than the hunters. A man with a rogue wolf, and a descendant of Hades inside him.”

  “I’m sorry,” Bell whispered. He wanted to say so much more, but his throat was scratchy, causing him to turn and cough in the other direction.

  “Here.” Alek reached over his head into the tote bag and retrieved a bottle of water. After he assisted Bell with drinking a quarter of the bottle, he started slowly, “Me too. I wished I’d stuck up for Wrath but I didn’t. I let our people take Wolf’s name and shame it. He was named the destroyer of conquerors by the Mother, and after what happened, most of them were convinced I’d abused the power, to take down my own pack. Stories ran rampant and I was shunned … we, were shunned.”

  “Did they ever learn the truth?”

  “No, none of them stuck around long enough. My dad left quickly after my mother’s death. He lives alone in a small house in Fort Severn, Ontario. Justice became the new AZ, and declared we rebuild, but moved us to the safety of the White Forest Mountains. Out of the couple hundred shifters that’d survived… nine came with us to start again.”

  “Only nine?” Bell frowned.

  Alek nodded. He gently rested his forehead against Bell’s as if he were tired. He exhaled and paused for a long moment, perhaps gathering himself. “That’s it. They respected Justice and submitted to his leadership, but none of them wanted to stay in our pack, and they damn sure didn’t want to live around me. And I can’t say I blamed them. Matter of fact, I didn’t really say much of anything the following few years. Just tried to help out as much as I could and appear harmless so my siblings didn’t walk on eggshells around me. I also didn’t want the few pack members we still had to run off, too.”

  “You have a great honor. To protect. To abolish any who try to conquer your people.” Bell kept his sentences short, trying not to completely lose what little voice he possessed. But gods, he had so much he needed to say. Bell was just able to lean in and press his damp lips to Alek’s cheek. “That shouldn’t have been your first test. To make that kind of choice so young. And things went wrong. Yes, you have the entity of a demigod in you but you are still human, Alek.”

  “You don’t think I was weak for not making the choice?”

  Bell shook his head, hoping his eyes reflected just how not true he thought that was.

  “Now.” Bell took Alek’s hand and slowly wove their fingers together, bringing their combined fists up their chests. “You have me. We won’t fail anymore.”

  Alek held him around his waist, burying his face under Bell’s nest of wet hair. Alek’s embrace, his erratic heartbeat told him he was relieved and excited that Bell had heard his story and still wanted him. Oh, he wanted him more than anything—flaws and all. And maybe this was why Bell had to experience this disastrous blow to his pride—to humble himself enough to understand that even the bravest men make mistakes, and the toughest warriors can fall and need help back up. Bell had gotten the help he needed when he’d fallen. Alek hadn’t. For years, he’d struggled alone.

  Bell stared into his beloved’s eyes and swore that he never would again. “There are many people who call themselves conquerors.” Bell was starting to get winded but he had to inform his mate of one more thing, “And Alessandro Giuliani is one of them.”

  “You spoke to him?” Alek’s eyes widened, and he was no longer slouching from the weight of his reflections, but fully alert and wondering how much information his mate had on his new enemy—his arch nemesis.

  “Yes. He said a lot… before he put my sword through my stomach.”

  Wolf bristled. Wrath growled loudly, swearing retribution. Alek was with his god. But, he wasn’t about to interrogate Bell right now. He’d already digested a lot of information and his words were coming farther apart. While Alek was selfishly enjoying Bell’s hushed inserts he’d made throughout his story, Alek knew he needed to get some rest. His questions could wait a few hours. His mate was still healing.

  Alek moved Bell to another part of the alcove where the water wasn’t as high so he could clean his lower body. They didn’t say anything else while Alek prepared the cloth with more soap and began to wash his lower back. Bell arched towards him and Alek returned the affection with his warmth.

  “Sssgoo
d,” Bell moaned, when Alek rubbed steadily over one of his ass cheeks.

  Alek smiled against the side of Bell’s face. “You like that, hmmm?”

  “Yesss.”

  Alek chuckled, loving the way Bell’s body vibrated despite his sleepiness. He gently cupped Bell’s other smooth, round cheek and pulled it to one side opening him up. He heard him take a sharp inhale before releasing a warm gust of breath against Alek’s neck. He kept telling himself he was just cleaning Bell, not trying to cop a feel. However, his eyes fell closed and he hugged Bell closer, his body naturally responding. He soon tossed the rag and began using his bare hands to rub the thick bar of soap over Bell’s soft skin, working up a nice lather.

  Bell eyes were closed, his head resting on Alek’s shoulder. Shallow, panting breaths slipped from his parted lips, making sweet sounds in Alek’s ear. His cock got harder and his gums burned to drop his canines, the more pliant Bell became under his touch. His hands were so slippery it wouldn’t have taken but a slight nudge and he’d have his finger buried inside his mate. Alek refused. Not until Bell was one hundred percent. When Bell’s ass was clean enough for him to eat off, he moved his hands up to his head, working some of the foamy suds into the tangles in his hair. He held Bell around his waist with one hand, and with the other he took the conditioner and poured some throughout the long inky-black tresses. Bell made the loudest groans when he massaged the conditioner into his scalp. Soon Bell’s long hair was softened enough to work the tangles free.

  “Where’d you learn this?” Bell whispered.

  “I have a baby sister, remember. And since I was a big-ole mama’s boy, I used to sit on the floor in the living room and watch her while she did Farica’s hair. She’d tell her all these wild stories and I’d be pretending to read a comic book all the while paying attention to everything she did and every word she said.”

  After many, many strokes with the hair brush, Bell’s hair looked like it was supposed to. Alek surveyed his work, feeling proud. Bell’s hair lay slick and sexily against his head, not a single tangle to be found. “There.” Alek kissed Bell on his temple. “All done.”