Page 44 of Fangs for the Memories (Budapest Bites #1)

I snap at the front of Grace’s coat as she falls backward. The fabric gives for a second under my jaws, but it holds long enough I can jerk her forward and into my arms.

The Darasz are all dead. This time.

“I’m here, kedves. Where did you think you were going?”

Her teeth chatter wildly, her eyes not focussing on me. I have to get her off this roof and back to pack headquarters where she will, temporarily, be safe.

But the fact the Darasz found her, regardless of whether these ones are dead, mean she is, as I thought, not safe in Budapest.

Grace is not safe because of me. Because I won’t give in to the rogue’s desire to open the vault, and until I can track him down and stake him, she will never be safe.

And staking him means the end of the uneasy truce with the Király vampires. Even if they don’t want to own the rogue, killing a vamp so powerful will send a message.

Perhaps it’s time. My father negotiated the truce, and he only ever wanted an easy life so he could drink palinka and fuck anything which moved.

So many pack matings in those days were not fated. My mother and father being one of them. As soon as I was of age, he left me to protect her, giving up any semblance of being pack alpha until I took the crown from him.

This will not be Grace’s fate. I will always, always protect her.

“Hold on.” I clutch her to me as I shift into were-form and easily clamber down from the rooftop.

In the street, Viktor is waiting with my car. I bundle Grace into it.

“Take her to the airport. I’ll call ahead to make sure the jet is ready,” I tell him.

“Where are you going?” he asks.

“I need to arrange for her passport and other items to be sent on. If the Darasz think they can attack in broad daylight, then she has to leave Budapest now.”

I expect Viktor to argue with me. I want him to argue with me. I want him to tell me not to let her go.

Instead, he nods at my instructions and gets into the car. The door closes and it sweeps away from me.

I fight my wolf’s desire to go after her. It’s more important I deal with the atrocity of the attack on her, as well as arranging for her to return to her homeland.

What this means for me, for us, is anyone’s guess. For now, she has to be protected, and her protection lies outside of the borders of my land.

Because being around me is more dangerous than ever. I might not have started the war, but I’m going to have to finish it.

I reach the apartment through the rapidly falling snow. Having to shift without notice means I have no phone. The second I’m through the doors, I’m in my office and grabbing my spare, barking orders into it like the alpha wolf I am.

The last thing I want is to let Grace go. But it is the only thing I can do.

Once all the arrangements have been made, once everything has been done, I slump at my desk. It’s midday. In another hour, Grace will be nearly halfway to England and a world away from me.

She was my reason for living and now she is my reason to destroy any and all vampires I come across.

My phone chimes and I pick it up. It’s Viktor.

“You sure you want to do this, boss?”

“Is the plane ready?” I fire at him.

“Fueled up and waiting, but Grace doesn’t want to leave,” he says.

“I don’t care. Tie her up if you need to, but she leaves today,” I growl. “Everything she needs will be there in twenty minutes. I have vampires to kill.”

I terminate the call and walk back through my apartment. I can’t say I’ll miss the place. Without Grace in it, it’s nothing.

I have a pack to gather, a new war, and plenty to occupy my mind.

I don’t have to think about her.

I don’t have to miss her.

I don’t have to consider she may never forgive me and may never return.

Not when I hear the low, dangerous snarl of the one creature I’ve been wanting to meet.

“Ferenc Kóbor,” the rogue says.

“You’re in my home.”

“I’ve come for your answer.”

“You know what it is. The vault stays shut.”