Page 29 of Eternal Light (Fated in the Stars #5)

The pool is beautifully lit up at night with fairy lights in the trees, and a warm summer breeze cools Luca’s cheeks while being outside finally warms his cold toes.

Carnell is still by the pool, and this time, he’s in his swim trunks.

Luca can’t help but blanch at the picture of his father-in-law’s scrawny ding-a-ling in the tiniest white swim trunks he’s ever seen.

He’s oiled himself up (at night?) and now his wrinkled, bony torso looks like a sun-dried tomato steeped in olive oil. He’s wearing a slimy smile on his face, which makes the whole thing more disturbing.

“Austin and Luca. Please, join me for a midnight snack.”

There are glasses of lemonade and a tray of sandwiches.

Luca’s tummy growls, but Luca ain’t no fool. What if it’s drugged or poisoned?

No, thank you .

“We’d like to leave.” Nix isn’t asking. He’s pushed Luca behind him, and Luca notices that he’s turned his scent off again to hide their babies.

Picking up his crystal glass of lemonade, Carnell pulls the lemon off the edge and sucks it into his mouth.

He doesn’t flinch at the sour fruit and instead pops the whole thing into his mouth, chewing the fruit, peel and all.

Once he’s done, he smiles with a shake of his head. “Absolutely not. My plans require your cooperation and…attendance. I hope you won’t hold your previous pack alpha’s death against me.”

Whaaaaat?

Does Carnell still think Jay is dead?

He squeezes Nix’s hand to show he heard that, too, and he remembers the grief he’d felt in that parking lot.

How untethered he’d felt.

It’s not a stretch to let his sad mocha scent flow out over the lanai. Carnell raises his nose and takes a deep breath of Luca’s grief.

“I think we can all agree that Gideon is the true leader of your pack. He’ll soon have you both under better control. Of course, the other alphas will have to go. No sense in letting usurpers within the pack stab you in the back. Betas are much more…amenable. Don’t you think?”

He sits, finally, and manspreads, his wrinkly man-de-lier oozing out the leg holes.

Luca flinches again at how gross he is. It’s enough to make him want to hurl, even without the BBS.

Saying amenable like that makes it sound demeaning and dirty.

Who does he think he’s talking about?

Luca can vouch for himself and Leo when he says there have never been less amenable betas. Leo would argue a point with Jay until the alpha finally saw the light, and Luca has been known to be contrary for fun. Fuck you very much.

Nix takes a single step forward, claws out and fangs down, before growling, “Tell me why I shouldn’t kill you right now, for killing my mate and for your demeaning words.”

There’s no doubt that Nix is threatening his father-in-law.

Carnell is on his feet and up in Nix’s face in the next breath.

He’s fast for an old guy, but Nix doesn’t flinch.

That’s okay; Luca flinches enough for the both of them.

Carnell’s rancid olive scent carries a tinge of scorched oil, while droplets of spittle dot his narrow lips. He bares surprisingly sharp fangs in a threatening scowl.

“You will show me respect, omega. My son has obviously failed to teach you the proper amount of deference to show your superiors and your alpha.”

Abruptly, he smiles and takes a step back.

“Dawson mentioned you were a handful on occasion. But I instructed him on how to best bring you to heel.”

Carnell chuckles as if considering an amusing memory.

“Still, my first son wasn’t as bright as I could have hoped. Entirely his whore of a mother’s fault. Gullible, really. All that biting in vain. It worked, though, to keep him hopeful, and you…subdued. I’m sure you remember it well?”

His son?

Oh shit. All the biting Hayes had done to Nix had been Carnell’s idea. All the torture had been Carnell’s idea .

Gideon. Oh, Goddess, this will break his soulmate’s heart.

This makes the nausea from his BBS and the rage so much worse. Luca’s scent turns into burnt coffee, and he’s out from behind Nix, intent on murder before he takes a single breath.

It’s only Nix catching him with both hands on his arms that saves him from an embarrassing physical or magical beat-down.

It wouldn’t matter, though. Luca would gladly go down in flames for the chance to give Carnell a fatal throat punch.

“Luca,” Nix says.

Luca ignores his mate, kicking out and snarling, “Disgusting pig . ”

Laughing, Withers appears in their periphery so he can reach a glass of lemonade and drink it in a single gulp.

“Sooooo sassy , ” he says before booping Luca on the nose with his icy finger.

There’s a rush of cold that starts in his head and sets up shop at the top of his spine, but Luca still snaps his fangs to warn him off.

Carnell just laughs and bites into an egg-salad sandwich. A clump of egg catches in the few hairs that he’d missed shaving around his mouth.

“And where would you be if Dawson hadn’t somehow lost that pendant? Still locked in a closet, starving to death, surely. Ah, well, perhaps I should have turned you myself, Austin Rena.

“You turning out to be an omega certainly was unexpected. I was angry at first, as I hadn’t seen that coming. I don’t like surprises, and I was certainly surprised to hear that your dead alpha managed to turn you into—”

“Blah blah blah. You still haven’t told me why I shouldn’t rip your throat out,” Nix interrupts, his grip on Luca’s arm not letting up a single iota. Maybe he isn’t quite sure Luca has control of his temper yet.

Good call.

“Not interested in story-time, or a walk down memory lane?”

Sighing, Carnell sticks the rest of his sandwich into his mouth and drinks another sip of lemonade before burping loudly.

“Let’s just say you could try to hurt me, omega, but you seem to care for Luca, and as I expect Allistair prefers you alive, I promise that everything you do to me, Aleksander will make sure your little beta feels tenfold. Aleksander, where are we with that spell?”

“Just finished up. Yum…my favorite. ”

He salutes them with two fingers before grabbing a sandwich for himself. The rare beef inside has made the bread pink, and he shoves the whole thing into his mouth so he can chew with his mouth open, smiling all the while.

“Ooh ooh,” he says excitedly, “what do you say, let’s test it out.”

He can feel it more clearly the moment Withers says it.

That icy dread from before is sitting like a cloud in the back of his mind.

He’s not sure he would have noticed it unless they’d pointed it out, because it feels like just another layer of his anxiety.

It’s horrifying to imagine there is something foreign in his brain like a magical parasite, feeding off his life force and rendering his pack’s most dangerous weapon impotent. Luca wants to tear at his hair and scream for Withers to take it out, take it out, take it out !

Carnell claps like a child at a birthday party and picks up the knife beside his plate.

“Interested in testing your strength against Aleksander’s magical skills? No?”

He laughs when they both simply stare back at him—Luca in horror and Nix in rage. “No fun at all.”

“What are you going to do with us?” Nix asks with pure, venomous restraint.

“Well, Austin. I think you’ll be my guests until I can remove the remaining threats to Allistair’s dominion. Then we will celebrate…publicly at the party where I welcome my son back into the fold. Connall! Where are you, you lazy ass?!”

Carnell calls, and Connall materializes out of nowhere.

“Yes, sir?”

“Show our guests to their room. Only our moderate best for my son’s concubine and his enforcer. Aleksander will supervise.”

“Goody,” Withers murmurs.

They follow Connall to the edge of the patio, but Carnell calls them back.

“Austin?”

Nix doesn’t give him the respect of turning and acknowledging him.

“Boy, there are worse things than what Dawson has learned at his father’s knee, and Aleksander is an expert. Be good, hmmm? Oh, and…enjoy.”

Aleksander giggles at the macabre praise.

Luca’s heart starts pounding at the threat. While Nix has never, ever told them the specifics about his time with Hayes, Luca remembers Nix’s night terrors and his injuries clearly.

He squeezes Nix’s hand, but his mate has already shut down, eyes straight forward, preparing for what Luca can only dread.

Connall leads them slowly upstairs to the back of the house overlooking the garage and driveway.

“That’ll do, Connall. I can take it from here. I have a bit of unfinished business with Rhodes’s bitches.”

Connall stops cold in the doorway and hesitates before opening the door and moving through the bedroom and into the adjoining bathroom.

“There are towels and clean clothes for you in there. I’ll be back with something for you to eat in fifteen minutes.”

The butler emphasizes the last bit like he’s trying to tell them something.

Luca can’t believe that he’d thought Connall would be their savior.

“Fifteen minutes isn’t near enough. Make it an hour…unless you’d like to watch?”

Ew.

Connall smiles but leaves them. “Fifteen minutes,” he says again before closing the door.

“Bastard,” Luca mutters under his breath.

“He is a bit, yeah. But Carnell likes him—or loathes him—which is sort of the same thing. The bastard smiles every time he looks at him. I think it’s because they’re related or some shit. Makes him feel good to boss Connall around.”

He sits on the edge of the bed, leaning back on his hands with his thighs spread.

“All of Carnell’s people were someone. Dude loves knowing a doctor cleans his toilets or that the previous son of the Ambassador to Mexico mows his lawn. Fucking king complex. Now, let’s see what’s under that hideous t-shirt, little novice.”

Luca laughs—there is absolutely no way Nix is going to give in to this hideous asshole. He’s claimed and loved, and he’s theirs.

But Withers is already palming the front of his shorts, and for the umpteenth time today, Luca thinks he might puke.