Lucas raised his head and surveyed his surroundings through the tips of his black hair. Every one of the wolves around him was down except for The Overseer. Alexander Kavanagh, Charlie’s grandfather, was just coming to his feet, his fangs pronounced, his ice blue eyes glowing like fire-lit glaciers. Waves of angry power were rolling off of the man.
Lucas watched as Kavanagh straightened, peered around the grounds, and then blurred toward the sprawled form of his granddaughter, who was laying on the ground several yards from the front steps of the porch.
Daniel Kane, Jessie Graves, and Malcolm Cole pulled themselves up next and Cole joined the Overseer beside Charlie’s slowly waking form. Police chief Daniel and his men surrounded Lily Kane as she slowly rolled over where she’d hit the ground beside the tree line. Lucas pulled his gaze from their forms, stumbled toward the porch steps, and fought his way up them once again. Danny was inside.
His body still ached from his battle with the Akyri and a few of the wounds had opened up again beneath the magical blast. He ignored the pain, got to the top, and shoved through the front door.
Dannai, the Healer, was standing tall and strong beside the kitchen archway, her hands glowing where she had them both pressed to her mid-section. Her kaleidoscope eyes were closed, and she was whispering. She was healing herself.
Lucas had never been struck harder with the inherent strength of the female race than he was in that moment. He’d never been more in awe of a woman as he watched his mate heal her own wounds. In a few moments, her hands ceased to glow and her eyes opened once more. She looked up at him, capturing his gaze in hers. Thunder rumbled outside and a silent understanding passed through the space between them.
“How did you know?” she asked softly.
Lucas leaned against the door frame beside him. He couldn’t help it. Relief flooded his system at Danny’s well-being, and with it came a receding in the flow of his adrenaline. As it left his bloodstream, pain took its place.
“Jason Alberich is a warlock,” he told her. “After I spoke with Malcolm about you, I called the Overseer. Something about the situation wasn’t sitting right with me. I told Kavanagh what…” he trailed off and glanced down at the mark on her arm. His heartbeat sped up at the sight of it gracing her perfect skin. She was his. “What had happened between us,” he continued, “and about the Akyri attack – ”
“The Akyri attack?” Danny asked.
Lucas nodded. “Yes. Sent by Alberich.” He stopped there to allow her to digest this information. He knew it had to be a lot to take in. But the pendant proved him right, all on its own.
“Kavanagh suspected the worst and contacted another coven’s herald. That herald contacted a seer.” He pushed off of the wall and slowly started toward her. To her credit, she didn’t retreat, despite how scary he knew he must look. He’d been threatened and beaten and his marked mate was being hunted by another man. He wasn’t in a good mood.
“Alberich is a very powerful warlock, Danny, and he’s obsessed with you.”
Danny cringed and started to hug herself. Lucas continued toward her. “He was using the pendant to control your power.” He shook his head. “And probably your mind, to some degree. But this goes deeper. There’s more involved than Alberich and his determination where you’re concerned.” He stopped before her, once more towering over her despite her own tall, slim form. With a tenderness that utterly belied the raging need he felt to finish the job then and there and turn her into a made wolf, Lucas cupped her face with his palm and brushed his thumb across her cheek bone. She closed her eyes, shivered beneath his touch, and raised her own right arm to hold his hand there. When she did, he noticed his mark was beginning to glow like star dust.
“He’s made a deal with Gabriel Phelan,” he said.
Danny’s multi-colored eyes flew open, her lips parting with shock. “Charlie!” she gasped. “He’s after Charlie, isn’t he?” At once, her gaze was torn from his as she peered around his tall form for any sign of her close friend. But he knew that Charlie was safe with her mate and Lucas wasn’t done yet. This talk with Danny had long been coming, and every werewolf outside would defend his right to have it with her.
As Danny tried to brush past him, his hand shot out and snaked beneath the edge of her t-shirt. He wrapped his arm around her, spanning his fingers across the taut flesh of her abdomen to pull her to a stop. He wasn’t stupid. She was marked. There was a sexual submission making its way through her body that couldn’t be denied. All it would take was his nearness, his touch, and she would give in to him. He knew it was working when she swayed a little on her feet and the softest of moans escaped her perfect, pouty lips.
“She’s fine,” he told her softly. “She’s with Cole.”
She accepted his answer easily, all hint of resistance fleeing her form. He didn’t let up. He turned into her and pulled her up against him, curling the fingers of his other hand around her neck to gently tilt her head back. She let it drop against his chest, her body trembling beneath his touch.
“How… did you get past Jason’s wards?” she whispered, her eyes once more closed.
Lucas smiled a dark smile. He caught the sweet scent of her arousal and his cock jumped as blood rushed into it. He gazed down at her perfect features where she rested against him, trapped in his embrace, and shook his head. “It was the Overseer,” he told her as his fingers gently caressed her throat, pulling her deeper into him. “The herald Kavanagh contacted told him that the shields the warlock raised were meant to keep out men – any men.”
He chuckled and the sound rumbled through his chest and into Danny. He felt her shiver again, and he responded by moving his hand so that the tips of his fingers brushed the tops of her jeans, edging easily under the denim material. “But get enough strong alphas together, add a little offensive magic, and a shield like that doesn’t stand a chance. One by one, they come crashing down.”
“He’ll know,” she breathed raggedly as her fingernails curled into the tight denim over his the muscles of his thighs.
Her response to him was stark and incredible, and it was awakening the monster inside of Lucas. He bent over her until his lips were beside her ear. “Let him know,” he told her. “Let him come.”
With that, he tightened his grip beneath her chin, tilted her head back further, and claimed her lips with his. He kissed her long and deep and he wasn’t afraid to allow a little of his werewolf power to seep into her through it. Danny was a fighter, and her magic could destroy the both of them if she let it. He wanted her docile. He needed her to listen. And he also couldn’t help it. She was making him nuts.
By the time he finally pulled back, he was painfully hard and had all but forgotten about the threat that lurked all around them. If he could have had it his way, he would have picked her up and taken her to her bedroom. Forget the talk.
But the scent of dark magic still hung heavy in the air – and Phelan was out there somewhere too. So Lucas slowly broke the kiss. “Hear me out, Danny,” he told her, whispering the words across her lips. Her lids were half-closed, revealing just a hint of the starkly colored rainbows in her eyes. “I don’t hate magic. I don’t hate you,” he said. “In fact, I am quite fond of you.” He smiled as he said this, and though his fangs were out, he knew she wouldn’t mind. She was a big girl, well familiar with the ways of werewolves. She was also a clever girl. Without Alberich’s magic messing up her mind, she would be able to think for herself. And in her heart, she knew they were meant to be together. If she hadn’t, she never would have let him mark her. The little witch would have fried him in his boots instead.
“I could so easily learn to love you,” he chuckled. Hell, he was pretty sure he already did. “And I want you to give me that chance. I want you to give us that chance, understand?” Lucas held tight, scorching her with his gaze. He wasn’t going to let her go until she agreed. Maybe he wouldn’t even let go then.
It took a few seconds, but Danny finally nodded. Just a little. “
Yes,” she whispered.
Lucas’s smile broadened, his body thrumming with victory. It felt good. In fact, he could have sworn that his wounds were healing faster now. He barely noticed them any longer, which probably meant they were nearly mended.
“All right then,” he said, the fingers of his hand caressing the smooth, taut skin across her stomach. “We need to get somewhere safe.” He let her go, slowly and reluctantly, and she straightened. When she could, she turned to face him.
Her cheeks were still flushed and her eyes were still shining bright, but she was composing herself, pulling down her shirt and fingering the tiny gold pendant at her throat. “I need to check on Imani and the others,” she said, her voice hoarse with slowly receding desire.
He nodded. She cleared her throat and turned away, heading toward the front door. Lucas took a slow, deep breath and tried to get his body back under control. Then he followed her outside.
Everyone was on their feet now. The lot of werewolves and magic users was gathered a few yards from the front porch. No one was speaking.
When Lucas and Danny appeared at the front door, the Overseer turned and pinned him with a hard look. “We’ll head back to Council headquarters,” he said. His edict brooked no room for argument. Lucas nodded his consent and reached for Danny’s hand.
She let him take it.
*****
Jason’s grip on the edge of the polished mahogany table tightened. He could feel the telltale pulse in his power and knew that the wards he’d placed around Dannai had fallen. But he was trapped here, in this meeting of dark, dangerous minds, and there was no way in hell he was going to show any weakness by letting on that something was troubling him.
As it was, he had no fewer than three separate shields thrown over himself. It was simple self-preservation. In company like this, the weak and the bleeding were picked off and fed upon by the rest. Any chink in the chain link fence of his defenses would be noticed and utilized and he would fall. This high up on the ladder, such a fall hurt. In fact, it was frankly fatal.
Around the expensive table sat six others. Two were warlocks, one of which the dark and dangerous Lucas Caige would surely have been interested in meeting. Three were vampires. The sixth was the Akyri king. Jason made seven.
“I believe one of us would like to adjourn the meeting early,” said one of the vampires. He did nothing to hide his true form here, amongst his peers. His irises glowed red, his teeth were pronounced, and the nails of his hands where he had them calmly intertwined atop the table were long and pointed. “Troubled, Alberich?”
“Always,” Jason replied calmly. He met the vampire’s gaze head-on and unflinchingly.
Several beats of impressive silence passed before the vampire finally smiled.
The Akyri king spoke up next. “No matter,” he said, his voice sounding like an echo in the large stone chamber. “I believe we are finished for now. Are we not?” He glanced at one of the vampires, a man who was seated at the head of the table and whose very presence Jason had to admit was stifling.
The vampire nodded just once. “Meeting adjourned.”
The Akyri king nodded in return and gracefully stood. His dark eyes settled upon each of them one after another. “My queen awaits.”
He turned from the table, offering them all his back. It was an unbelievably gutsy act. Almost every one of them could have benefited from the man’s death. But of course, they did nothing. And the king walked calmly out of the chamber.
Jason’s insides were boiling with impatience. He stood next, pushing his chair away from the table and claiming his full height. With nothing more than a nod toward the others, he called up his transportation magic and left the room in a word and a flash.
When he flashed back into solid form in the front yard of Danny’s two-story house, Gabriel Phelan’s men were waiting for him. Jason glanced at the empty house with irritation, and then turned to regard the werewolves. There were four of them. Their presence felt odd; normally werewolves gave off a nature-like vibration, neutral and wild. But these wolves felt shrouded in something more. It was less chaotic and a lot darker.
“Your boss told me that he could kill Caige,” Jason said, his tone laced with disappointed malice. The shields were down and Danny was gone. To make matters worse, the air reeked of werewolf power and magic. Other covens had been pulled in. That meant that word was now out about Jason being a warlock.
There would be nothing but battles for him from here on in.
“Phelan wants to speak with you,” one of the men said. “He said that you would know where to go.”
Jason felt his gaze heating up as the cold fires inside of him began burning their way to the surface. He needed to release some anger and soon, or he would blow. “Very well,” he said. But before he flashed back out in another show of transportation magic, Jason allowed a bit of his wrath to escape. It raced from Jason’s form in a blue-white trail of fire, licking at the ground as it sped toward a random werewolf.
Jason had no idea who the man was, and he didn’t care. But he felt a bit of relief and satisfaction at seeing the man’s form engulfed in flames before Jason once more flashed away.
*****
Gabriel Phelan was reclined on the leather sofa of Jason’s mansion when Jason popped back into existence. The werewolf was utterly unperturbed by the show of magic. Jason’s ire rose instantly at the obvious invasion that the werewolf’s presence indicated. How Phelan had managed to not only find the mansion, but get in, was beyond the warlock. It was painfully clear to him by now that the man he was dealing with was not to be taken lightly.
“Did you kill them?” Phelan asked just before he took a sip from what appeared to be a glass of water. Jason knew it was Everclear. It was just about the only thing a werewolf could drink if he hoped to glean even the slightest buzz.
Ah, he thought. The werewolves. Phelan was talking about the four wolves who had met him in front of Danny’s house only seconds ago. They had felt strange to him, almost like dark magic, but not quite. It made sense now. “Let me guess,” he said as he made his way to a love seat opposite the alpha and plopped down into it. “You no longer trust them and want to be rid of them.”
Phelan smiled a disarming smile, his blue eyes twinkling in the light of the overhead chandelier and the crackling fire in the hearth. “Something like that.”
“Then I’m glad I only killed one,” Jason admitted. “They’re your problem, not mine.”
Phelan chuckled softly, took another drink from his glass, and then placed the glass on the coffee table before him. The werewolf leaned forward, placing his elbows on his legs and casually clasping his hands before him. “You gave the Healer an artifact that allowed you to extend your magic so that it encompassed her,” he said. It wasn’t a question, but Jason knew that it was more or less meant as one.
He nodded.
Phelan went on. “I want you to do the same for me.”
“You want me to give you a diamond pendant?” Jason asked incredulously. “I really don’t like you that well.”
Phelan’s lips twitched, but whether in amusement or irritation, Jason couldn’t tell.
“I want you to place a shield over me. The same kind the Healer has been using her entire life.”
“A dormancy shield?” Jason asked, cocking his head to one side. “You been hiding something, Phelan?” This was too much fun.
“In fact, I will be,” Phelan replied, obviously refusing to be baited. Instead, he stood and Jason tensed, ready to unleash the barrage of magic that was just about clawing his insides to shreds with the need to be let out.
But Phelan only smiled down at him – and then began to change. At first, it looked as though he were surrounded by water, and the water had begun to warp. But then there was a flash, not unlike the flashes werewolves experienced when transforming into their wolf selves. When the light faded, Gabriel Phelan the alpha werewolf no longer stood before Jason.
Danny did.
Chapter Fourteen: “Mirror, Mirror”
The Council headquarters weren’t small, by any means, but they weren’t set up to house so many different alphas at one time, either. The thing about alpha werewolves was that they couldn’t cross into one another’s territory without permission. Each of the werewolves there would have gladly given permission to the others – but their defenses were up and their powers leaked out of them like faulty electrical wiring.
Every now and then, one of them found it impossible to walk through a certain door or go down a specific hallway. It was beginning to get ridiculous when the Overseer finally told them all to get out, but to take enforcers with them and to stay in constant contact with the council.
Danny had been planning to transport herself and Lucas back to Trinidad, as had Imani, when the Overseer told them that they were in no uncertain terms to waste any of their magic. He swore to them that they would need it. And that boded very ill. The one thing he did ask Danny to do was put back up her dormancy shield. He pulled her aside and told her that she was an incredibly tempting subject for too many werewolves at that moment and that he needed every one of his men to be focused. She was a distraction.
Danny gladly threw the shield back up.
Then the Overseer ordered them all to find rental homes in the area and procure them. Counil headquarters was located just north of Portland, Oregon, in a massive complex overlooking the Pacific. Danny couldn’t have been happier to leave. The atmosphere at headquarters was more tense than she’d ever seen it. Gabriel Phelan had turned up the heat, adding warlocks and who knew what else to the pot. What was brewing was something nasty and Danny wanted out of the kitchen.
A world-wide edict had been issued. The Overseer wanted Phelan brought down. Werewolves were flying in from other countries to tend to the task. Airports were being monitored in case Phelan decided to leave, though they all knew it would do little good. Phelan was a shape shifter as well as a werewolf. Some werewolves possessed special, different abilities – and that was his. He could assume the form of anything or anyone he wanted and wear their scent as well. A more dangerous man they had never come across, and it didn’t look as though he was going to back down until he got what he wanted. What he wanted was Charlie.