Page 51

CAMDEN

We found a small cave at the base of a mountain, and shifted back once we’d made sure it was empty, exhausted and spent.

“What happened?”

Elias asked.

Kian was visibly shaken, his shadows flickering on and off until they finally petered out entirely. His hands were covered in blood, and he stared at them as he spoke.

“I was inside one of the homes. A guard came by for a surprise inspection. I took him down, but…”

“First time?” I asked.

He nodded wordlessly, his face even paler than its usual shade of alabaster.

Poor kid. I mussed up his hair a bit. “Well, what did you find out?”

“You wanna give him a minute to collect himself?”

Archer huffed, putting a hand on Kian’s shoulder. “You got yourself out. You did well.”

My pack mate had really grown protective of our little bloodsucker. I arched an eyebrow, amused at his mother henning, as Kian took a deep breath and spoke up. “Thanks, I-I’m good. Really.”

We all sat down and he went over everything the beta shifter had told him.

“Alphas are somewhere else, huh? That confirms what the pixie mentioned.” I said.

“Yes, they’re all drafted into military camps.”

Nolan crossed his arms and sighed. “We should probably avoid them, then. Who knows how loyal they are?”

Or how fucked up they were. Kian had told us the beta shifters weren’t allowed to make packs, that probably applied to the alphas, too. Bonded alphas were loyal to their pack before all else, which made them shitty soldiers for a dictator.

But an alpha without a pack was just a walking powder keg of aggression and combativeness, looking for a spark so he could explode. They weren’t going to be a very easy group to talk to.

“Well, the pixies covered our trail, right? We don’t necessarily need to find a group to blend into,”

Julian said.

And then his stomach growled.

I rubbed my hand through my beard, feeling a little hungry myself. “We need someone who can show us the ins and outs of the place. The last thing I want to do is die because we ate the wrong fucking berry. How pathetic would that be?”

“Very,”

Elias snorted.

Okay, so alphas were probably robots, betas were in prison, and omegas were prostitutes and concubines. There were other types of fae in this world, but would they even want to help us?

Kian looked up. “We could try to look for the vampyrs.”

“There are still vampyrs?”

Archer asked. “I thought the pixies said they were dead.”

“The beta said there are rumors they might be hiding up in these mountains. It might be worth trying to find them.”

Were vampyrs seriously our best bet? This place just kept getting weirder.

“Did you get a sense that vampyrs and shifters here have any bad blood?”

Nolan asked. “Pun intended.”

Kian lifted the corner of his mouth slightly. “Good one. And no, the shifter I spoke with was a little scared, but not hostile. After the initial shock he was actually very forthcoming and hospitable.”

That was comforting, but if the vampyrs had been in hiding for so long, who knew if they’d trust any outsiders, period. But wouldn’t they need at least a steady food supply to survive as well?

“Hey, you all can’t drink each other’s blood, right?”

“That’s right,”

Kian confirmed. “So they can’t be completely isolated. We’d have the best luck searching near small villages of other fae where they can find females for their servaglios.”

Archer got up and stretched, looking towards the entrance of the cave. “It’s too bad we don’t have a map, but we’ll have better luck traveling and searching as wolves. Perhaps eating, too. We can search for some prey along the way.”

I wasn’t looking forward to hunting here, but I definitely needed to eat something soon if we were going to keep up this pace.

Speaking of…

“Hey, kid, how about you? Do you need to feed?”

He looked up at me, his eyes widening in surprise. All that magic he’d used, coupled with the rushed escape, would have used a lot of his energy. I didn’t know much about vamps, but I assumed he had to be depleted in one way or another.

“I… I could use a top off, but…”

I shoved my wrist in his face. “Don’t think about it, just take what you need.”

Archer shot me a knowing look, and I shrugged. “Whatever, it’ll be worse if he slows us down from exhaustion.”

He held up his hands. “I didn’t say anything.”

Kian took my wrist gingerly, his eyes darting towards mine briefly before he shut them tightly and his fangs descended, piercing the skin with a quick bite.

I flinched slightly from the prick of pain at first, but then an entirely different feeling flooded my veins.

“Oh… oh shit…”

Dammit, it was a really inconvenient time to be naked.

Elias barked out a laugh, covering his mouth and then turning away as he got the chuckles out of his system. Nolan just shook his head and smiled, while Julian whistled and walked away, pretending like he couldn’t see anything.

Archer, meanwhile, was annoyingly smug.

“You don’t have something smart to say?”

I growled, wrenching my wrist back from the vamp once he’d taken his last pull and detached his fangs.

“Why would I? It’s well documented that vampyr saliva has aphrodisiac properties. I’m simply surprised you weren’t better prepared for the side effects.”

The color had returned to Kian’s cheeks, from both my blood and his own embarrassment. “I’m sorry, I can’t really control that.”

“It’s fine!”

I snapped. Hopefully the erection would go away once I’d shifted. “All right, let’s roll out.”