Her eyes met his in a clear challenge. More blood, more death, until we can’t feel anymore, until we can’t feel anything ― not pain, not pleasure, nothing. His wolf felt the effect of the missing bond, the effect of their mate being taken so completely away from them. Only in death could such a thing be possible; there was no other explanation. We will follow her. Alpha will eventually take us down. Images of carnage, of death and chaos, flowed into the man from the wolf. Yes, Dalton agreed as he stalked towards the female who was locked with his gaze. A deep growl rumbled from the huge white wolf as it stepped forward in front of the fae. Mates, his wolf snarled, being reminded of what they no longer had. That was all it took. He lunged, teeth bared, ready to sink them into her neck.
Dalton knew the moment his life was forfeited as he laid in his human form crushed beneath two seething males.
“He bit me! First I had to watch those sick blood suckers flaunt the bodies of little children they’d killed, then I didn’t even get to kill any of the sick blood suckers because he killed them all, and then I was bitten by the same damn wolf that took away my kills.” Perizada practically roared. “He’s dead. He’s worse than dead. Get out of the way, Lucian. Dillon, stay there and die with him if you want; frankly, I don’t give a damn.”
“Perizada,” Lucian’s deep voice rumbled.
“Do not Perizada me,” she snapped at her mate. “That damn wolf lost his shit and attacked me. We all know what that means. He’s feral. He will continue to kill until he’s destroyed.”
“Think about what that means, love,” Lucian said with the patience of a saint. “He is a male that has completed the Blood Rites. If she was dead, then he should be too. Maybe we need to get a little more information on what’s going on before executing a pack mate.”
“Just so you know, I hate it when you are rational and calm.”
“Would you rather I rant and rave?” Lucian asked without any humor in his voice.
“No! That’s my job. It’s your job to be rational and calm so I can have one more thing to be pissed off about. Now, let him up so we can get our answers.”
“We’re going to release you. Do not attack.” Dillon’s voice wrapped around him as the Alpha command took over through the pack magic.
Dalton nodded. They let him go and he slowly sat up. A pair of sweats landed at his feet. He snatched them up, realizing that his Alpha and Lucian were already slipping into their own clothes. He got them on and was reseated in less than a minute. His hands shook and his head pounded as he attempted to keep his wolf in check.
“What happened, Dalton?” Dillon asked as he sat down across from him. His legs were bent in front of him with his forearms resting on his knees. His posture was casual, but he was watching Dalton intently, like a hawk sitting on a limb watching a scurrying mouse.
“My mate is dead.” The words tasted like sandpaper in his mouth. They were four words that he never imagined he would ever have to say.
“I call B.S.,” Peri bit out. “The bond being broken keeps you from knowing if she’s dead. Obviously, if the bond were intact, you’d be dead too and I wouldn’t have to worry about getting my hands dirty with your murder. News flash, flea motel, you aren’t dead. With the bond broken, how can you possibly know that she’s dead?”
Dalton raised his head and looked up at the high fae, who stood with her hands crossed in front of her. Normally, he would have let her insults slide, but he didn’t care if she killed him. “I know it might be hard for your inflated ego to imagine, but perhaps, Perizada of the fae, you do not know everything. She was my mate. The bond was between us. And I felt the absence of it for the past day and a half. But I knew she was still there. I could sense her out there somewhere. But what I feel now is more absolute. The bond isn’t just gone. It’s not like the Blood Rites’ magic has been severed. If that were the case, then the pull between us would still be there. But now there is nothing. My mind knows that she was once mine, but my emotions tell me that there is nothing between us. There’s ― no ache, no desire ― nothing telling me that she’s my other half, not anymore. What could cause that, other than her death? You have an answer for everything, so what’s your answer to that, female?” She didn’t answer, just stood there looking at him like he’d just explained the theory behind quantum physics. “Finally, the all-knowing high fae has been struck dumb.”
“Careful, Beta,” Lucian warned.
When Peri finally spoke she began to pace back and forth in front of them. “What does your wolf feel?”
When Dalton didn’t answer, she stopped in front of him and met his eyes. Her power pulsed in the air causing it to hum with electricity. Then she did something he’d never even knew was possible.
“Speak, wolf!”
She summoned his wolf.
“Perizada,” Dillon growled.
Dalton knew why his Alpha was enraged. This fae, someone who was not his Alpha, not his mate, not even his species, held the ability to call forth his beast. He couldn’t fight the command. It was given as sure as if she was his own Alpha. He felt his wolf take over and the man could only watch. I am as bothered by this as you, he sensed from his wolf. Then the wolf gazed out from the eyes of the human.
“What am I to speak, female?” Dalton’s wolf watched her carefully. He had known she was powerful, but this, this was dangerous.
“How do you feel about the bond being broken between you and Jewel?”
“Little Dove,” he rumbled affectionately. “She is mine.”
“So you don’t think she’s dead?”
He growled. “I do not know. My human initially felt nothing for her. But he is remembering that it’s her, not the bond, that caused his love. We aren’t connected, but that changes nothing. She is mine. I will find her, even if all I find is her body. I will kill anyone who gets in my way.”
Peri stood staring at the beast that had not only bitten her but was now basically letting her and the other two males know that he wasn’t about to submit. She had no doubt that Dalton’s wolf would indeed kill anyone who attempted to keep him from searching for his mate, which would quite certainly lead to his own death ― if not by Dillon’s hand, then by Lucian’s. Damn stubborn wolves, Peri thought to herself. But as she continued to stare at him, she looked past the determination in the wolf’s eyes and saw the pain. He was hurting. Peri didn’t know why it hit her so hard, but like a punch to the chest, the anguish in the beast’s eyes crashed into her.
Dalton had said that Jewel was dead. He felt no pull towards her and she had to admit that it was a pretty convincing argument in favor of her life being indeed snuffed out. But that just wasn’t acceptable to Peri. Healers did not die on her watch. It was something she could not abide, and that wasn’t about to change now just because Volcan, and his crazy-ass self, had stepped into the picture.
Peri turned and looked at her mate who had already started to walk towards her. “I’ll just be a minute.” She flashed just as he lunged for her. Lucian would be pissed at her for leaving him, but she didn’t have time to argue with him. She’d just have to give him an extra long belly scratch later.
“As much as my wolf loves a good belly scratch, he loves knowing your safe even more. When are you going to stop acting as though you aren’t mated?” Lucian’s voice was as patient as ever, but Peri knew he was truly upset with her.
“I was single for thousands of years, wolf. You can’t expect me to suddenly just become Suzy homemaker.”
“You know that is not what I am asking of you. I do not wish to change you. I simply want you to allow me to be by your side. You don’t have to do any of this alone, not anymore.”
Peri appeared in the living room of her home and stood there pinching the bridge of her nose. She seemed to be doing that human-like behavior more and more. She understood what Lucian was asking and it was something she wanted as well. She just didn’t know how to keep from acting without stopping to think about someone else.
“Do what you need
to do, Perizada. I’m not going anywhere and I realize that we have more important things to handle right now. I’m just asking you to attempt to see things from my perspective.”
He slipped from her mind, leaving her alone.
“Not alone, love. Never alone. Just giving you space.”
Peri’s heart clenched painfully in her chest as the love she felt for her wolf threatened to choke her. What she did to deserve a man so patient and loving she didn’t know, but she was unbelievably grateful that the Great Luna had seen fit to put them together. She knew Lucian was right. She needed to make more of an effort to act as a team and less as a lone ranger.
Peri’s attention was drawn from her relationship woes by the sound of a door opening and closing behind her. She turned to see seven very ticked off looking male Canis lupus glaring at her.
“What’s happened now?” Peri wasn’t really sure she wanted to know the answer. What she really wanted to do was tell them to go lick themselves because she had more important things to do than pat their heads and tell them all would be well, but that was before Kale spoke.
“Costin, Gustavo, and the two lasses are gone.” Kale’s Irish accent had grown thick with his irritation.
“Gone? As in gone, gone?” Peri was pretty sure she’d never sounded more like an idiot, but the shock of Kale’s declaration had momentarily, and much to her chagrin for the second time that day, struck her dumb. “Where did they go?”
When none of them answered, Peri narrowed her eyes on them. She met each of their gazes until finally landing on Antonio, Gustavo’s Beta.
“Do you have any idea where they might have gone?” Peri asked him and before he could answer she held up her hand. “And please don’t lie to me. My patience is at an all-time low and it really won’t take much to make me go back on my decision not to turn any wolf who annoys me into a new rug. Why a rug, you ask? Because there is nothing so therapeutic as wiping my feet on the beast dumb enough to not take my threats seriously. Now” ― she waved her hand ― “please answer the question. Do you, Antonio, have any idea where your Alpha might have trotted off to?”
The other males turned to look at the Beta, their face tight with frustration. Antonio shifted and took a subtle step away from the group. Peri realized that the Beta did indeed know something and was a little worried as to how the others were going to react. She reached out her hand and muttered a few words. She nearly laughed at the shocked expressions of the males as their bodies went rigid.
“You can answer the question without fear of them going postal on you, wolf,” Peri told him. “They can’t move, not until I release them.”
“My Alpha is going to kill me,” Antonia breathed out as his shoulders slumped just a little. “Gustavo has been feeling the pull of his true mate. It was getting stronger and he mentioned that he thought that something was amiss with her. He didn’t tell me exactly that he was going to go and try and find her, but I didn’t get the impression that he was going to wait around much longer.”
Peri mentally smacked herself in the forehead. She was pretty sure that the wolves were determined to test her until she finally snapped. “Okay,” she mumbled as she began to pace. “Okay, so Gustavo must have convinced Costin to take him to the Pixie realm, and Sally, being the semi-smart female that she is, took Kara with them so that she wouldn’t be left here with a bunch of unmated males. So the question is, how long have they been gone? If it hasn’t been very long, then they are still in the forest.”
“We realized they were gone a couple of hours ago,” Antonio told her.
So then they were definitely still in the forest. Making her decision, Peri snapped her fingers, causing the gaze of all of the wolves to fall on her. “I’m going to release you. Do not retaliate against Antonio. He has no control of his Alpha and, therefore, is not responsible for Gustavo’s actions. If I find out that you have taken action against the Beta because you’re all pissed off that you didn’t think to go after one of the females yourselves, then I will give you the worst case of jock itch, crabs, and scabies known to man, complete with flea infestation. And I’ll throw in some lice so that no itching bug gets its feelings hurt from being left out.” She waited a few heartbeats letting her threat set in before releasing them from the binding.
“What are you going to do?” Kale asked as he rolled his shoulders. Peri imagined if he’d been in his wolf skin he would have given himself a good shake to rid himself of the effects of her magic.
“Well, I had come to let Costin know that I will be needing all of your help very soon. But seeing as how he has taken his happy butt on a little unauthorized adventure, I will tell you all instead. We attempted to get information on Volcan from the vampires.” Low growls filled the room at the mention of the blood suckers.
“The vampires haven’t crawled out of their holes for a very long time. Why would you think they knew anything?” Nick spoke up. Peri couldn’t help but notice that the usually easy going Beta looked agitated.
“Volcan is powerful and growing stronger. If there are even whispers of this, any and all evil beings, no matter the form, will seek him out. So I am simply following the proverbial trail of wicked, nasty beings. That said, with our first stop we had some complications.”
“What kind of complications?” Drayden, the Canadian Alpha, asked.
“The kind that involves an entire coven being destroyed.” Their eyes widened, but Peri didn’t entertain their curiosity. She didn’t have time to relate the whole Dalton losing his cool story. “I’m going to have to seek out some other source of information to see if I can find some clue, any clue, as to where Volcan might be holed up. Once I have that information, I will need you bloodhounds to be ready to hunt.”
“We will be ready,” Kale spoke for the group though the others nodded in agreement.
Peri gave her own nod in return and began to flash with the intention of going to the forest, but just before she disappeared she felt the residual magic of one of her own. “Dammit, Alston,” she grumbled and changed her destination to the Pixie realm instead. It was apparent to her in that moment that her threats were no longer enough. If she wanted the people under her protection to listen to her, she was going to have to remind them that she was truly capable of the things of which she boasted. Too bad for Costin that he just happened to be the most recent dumb butt to cross her.
Nick stood silently with the rest of the wolves as they stared at the place Peri had just occupied. One by one they dispersed, each of them seemed to be lost in his own thoughts. Nick’s mind was a mess. The minute he’d realized Kara was gone, his wolf had been pacing restlessly inside of him. He was angry. He was angry at Costin, Sally, and Gustavo for thinking they had the right to take her without telling him, them, he amended. He continued to tell himself it was because she was so young that he was worried about her. Sixteen, he told himself for the thousandth time. Regardless of her age, or his lack of understanding, what he felt was not going away. She was young, she was human, and she was a gypsy healer. Kara needed his protection. “No,” he muttered. “She needs our protection. All of us were brought to protect them.” Even as he said the words out loud, his wolf balked. The others don’t give us such concern, the beast told him. He couldn’t deny the wolf’s words. But he wasn’t going to allow himself to even take a step toward the road that his beast wanted to go. She was a kid, plain and simple. He had to look at her as simply a pack mate to protect. She won’t be sixteen forever, his wolf taunted. No, she wouldn’t be, and the fact that he was happy about that made him feel like a slime ball. He didn’t know if Kara was his. She was too young for the bond to form. What he did know was that for whatever reason, he felt it was his job to keep her safe.
He left Perizada’s home and walked out toward the field where he had found her that night months ago. Nick felt close to her when he was there. The sun was beginning to set and the fall air was growing cooler. He walked in a circle, his hand running lazily over the tall grass. Taking deep
breaths, he attempted to cool the burning anger inside. When Kara had been close, it had been bearable to be unsure of her place in his life. But with her out of his reach and the uncertainty of whether or not she was his true mate, he was quickly becoming less and less sufferable.
“Did you know that worrying does absolutely nothing to change the circumstances that cause the worry?”
Nick turned at the sound of her voice and bowed his head. “Great Luna,” he said dropping to one knee. He was immediately reminded of the day he’d watched Kara plead with the goddess to let her take Jewel’s place, and it only deepened the ache inside of him.
“What troubles you, child of mine?” she asked him. Nick could hear the genuine concern in her voice and he was humbled by it.
“I am worried about Kara,” he didn’t elaborate on who Kara was. The Great Luna, after all, was well aware of all of her children — the gypsy healers were no exception. “I’m confused about her as well.”
“You care for her.”
“She’s only sixteen,” he said quickly.
“Seventeen, actually. She had a birthday, but told no one.” The goddess sounded intrigued by Kara’s actions.
Nick’s head rose slightly but he waited until she told him to look at her. “Why? Why would she not tell anyone?”
“Kara’s life has been a challenging one. There has never been a single birthday celebration in her life, not one. To her, it’s just another day.”
The Great Luna watched him intently. He wondered what she saw. “What am I to her?” Nick finally asked. He didn’t know if the goddess would tell him anything but he had to at least ask.
Her eyes softened as she walked over to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “You are whatever she needs you to be. Be it friend, protector, confidante. She will need you, Nickolas, Beta of the Canadian pack. In the days to come as darkness grows, she will need you.”
“Is she mine? Is she my true mate?” Nick had stood up before he even realized what he was doing as he asked the question that had been driving him crazy.