Page 70

ELIAS

Narrow shafts of sunlight broke through the thick canopy, spotlighting the ground around us.

Marlowe was still fast asleep against Cam’s chest, his arms wrapped tightly around her, in more or less the same position they’d been in once he’d knotted her.

We were back in our human forms now, but the rest of the pack and I had shifted while the two of them slept. With our heightened senses, we could react more quickly to incoming threats as wolves.

I hated that we couldn’t finally relax. Having Marlowe back was everything, and I wanted nothing more than to just bury myself inside her, breathing her in and surrendering to the peace that I’d only ever felt with her in my arms.

But no, we still had her brother and a maniacal fae king to deal with.

I gently brushed Marlowe’s hair from her face. I could hear and smell Kian and the weird creature approaching. They weren’t in a hurry, so I assumed we were still safe.

Getting up to stretch, I found Marlowe’s discarded dress and laid it on top of her. I may have been used to hanging out naked in front of Kian by this point, but I sure as hell wasn’t going to let the vamp get an eyeful of her. Not that I didn’t trust him—he’d kept control of himself remarkably well last night when they’d met. But I didn’t think Marlowe necessarily would appreciate the exposure.

The vryscral, camouflaged at first by the lush, green forest, slinked into our makeshift nest first. She sniffed around us to introduce herself before heading to Marlowe, trilling softly and nudging her hand with her massive head. Marlowe stirred and mumbled to herself, and Cam’s grip on her tightened, neither of them ready to let the other one go yet.

I whistled softly to the beast, and she reluctantly trotted over. “Thank you for saving Marlowe,”

I said to her quietly, scratching behind her strange, tufted ears. A sound resembling a purr resonated from her throat, and Archer came up to watch.

“What a fascinating creature,”

he said, petting her along her flank. “It was flying yesterday, but it seems it’s able to tuck its wings away under its scales when they’re not in use.”

“Marlowe’s going to be pissed she can’t take her back to Earth,”

Nolan chuckled, joining us. “If Mrs. Silvano was shitting bricks over house cats in her yard, imagine what she’d do if she saw this bad boy flying overhead.”

The vryscral flopped on the ground and rolled over, revealing a milky-white belly. Archer gave her a few good pats and then looked up at Kian, who had been watching us silently from the shadows. “I take it you didn’t see anything we should be concerned about?”

The vampyr shook his head. “No, nothing coming this way. Although I did sense a large amount of power heading towards that shifter haven we stopped at.”

“The shifters!”

Marlowe woke with a start, and we all whipped our heads towards her as she scrambled out of Cam’s arms, wrapping her dress around her. “Everyone up, we have to go!”

Cam stretched and yawned. “Babe, what’s the rush?”

She ran behind a tree, the vryscral trotting after her, and emerged a minute later with the dress back on. I hadn’t noticed last night, but the top was completely see-through, and I growled at the thought of her having had to wear that for the fae king. I took a peek at Kian, who was smart and composed enough to keep his eyes up.

I’d really come to respect and almost like the vamp, and I’d been worried Marlowe’s scent might drive him as crazy as it had his dad. But so far, he’d done well.

Thank the Moon he was here to help keep an eye out for us, too. Last night we’d been way too wrapped up in our reunion to keep a proper perimeter. Although, I could only imagine the wrath Cam might be able to summon had we been interrupted.

“The king is taking the alpha army to the shifter haven, he said something about needing to get them back under control. He’s going to kill them, I know it. We have to help!”

Her eyes were wild with fear and desperation, the feelings doubling down on us through the bond.

Julian’s hand ran through his messy hair. “Shit, that was kinda my fault…”

“Hey!”

Cam snapped, causing us all to wince slightly.

I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but something was different about him. He acted more or less the same, but it was as if every action, every word he spoke, carried more weight and gravitas.

Even Marlowe was looking at him strangely. She shivered a little, biting her lip as she released a fresh wave of arousal-tinged perfume. She was hardly the submissive type outside of the bedroom, but I loved how turned on she got when our pack displayed dominance. In moderation, of course.

“None of this is anyone’s fault but that king’s, so don’t you even think about putting any guilt or blame on yourself. Now, we came here to rescue Marlowe,”

Cam said, pointing at her. She returned to his side, putting her hand on his chest and looking up at him with nothing but pure love and adoration in her eyes. He kissed her on the top of her head, wrapping an arm around her tightly. “In that sense, we’ve accomplished our mission…”

“Um,”

Marlowe interrupted, raising her hand. “Technically, Wasabi and I accomplished your mission, but continue.”

Cam rolled his eyes, playfully pinching her ass before speaking again. “Okay, fine, the princess rescued herself. But we can’t really call it a day and go home, because Ezra can still cross over whenever he likes and start this shit all over again.”

Archer nodded along. “And from what Francis told us last night, we can’t close the portals on our own. At least not without the spell and someone willing to do their part on this side, where they’d be stuck forever.”

“And even that’s not a guarantee, because the spell obviously didn’t last,”

Nolan added. “We need to end this, or we’ll never be safe.”

“Nor will the vampyrs,”

Kian said. “I know my people weren’t at the top of your ‘rescue list’ when you came here, but if the king found their secret village, he’d slaughter them all.”

Well, he was right about that—saving vampyrs had been the last thing on my mind when we’d started our search for Marlowe. But going to the vampyr village last night had opened my eyes, forcing me to not only address the prejudices I held against their kind, but also rethink what I wanted in my own life.

Before Marlowe had come around, the assumption in our pack had always been that we’d each eventually get married, having our own little families in our own little houses. But now with an omega, we could have a huge home, filled with all the love I’d been searching for. Not just romantic, but also with my pack mates.

Because as much as I’d fought against it and tried to deny it over the years, justifying my decision to live far away and rarely visit due to our differences, they were my best friends. My brothers. And I wanted a life with them in it—with a few breaks now and then, of course.

None of this was going to be possible, though, if the king wasn’t stopped first.

Magic tingled in the palms of my hands, and I flexed my fingers, itching to let it loose. “What kind of fire power are the alphas working with?” I asked.

We couldn’t not fight. We’d known that the second we’d come to rescue Marlowe. And now with these new powers, I felt strong enough to protect her from whatever was coming.

“Well, I haven’t seen what kind of magic the shifters can do in a battle yet. I’ve only watched them fight with swords and in hand-to-hand combat. They wear silver, though, so I don’t think the king lets them shift. As far as the other fae, I have no idea. Shoot, I should have asked my Starborne cousins what they can do, but I was just so excited to meet them, and I…”

“Wait, back up.”

Julian said. “We heard about the different types of fae, aren’t shifters the other kind? What do you mean you have Starborne cousins?”

“Ah, I’m really getting ahead of myself, and there’s so much to tell you! So first of all, I’m mixed.”

Nolan raised an eyebrow. “Mixed? Since James was a shifter, does that mean your mom was a Starborne fae?”

Marlowe nodded, a small smile appearing on her face. “Yeah, and I got to meet her family. Well, my family, too. They’re… they’re really cool.”

Kian stayed where he was, a little outside of the group, playing with a shadow that crawled up and down his arm like a snake.

Show off.

The vryscral rubbed against her leg, and she scratched her head, her expression turning somber. “Anyway, getting back to the alpha soldiers, there is another type of fighter I’m worried about. Even Ezra couldn’t control them…”

Fear shot through the bond, and we all stepped in closer to protect and comfort her.

“What kind of fighter?”

Nolan asked. “Is it another type of fae, or…?”

Marlowe shook her head, keeping her gaze focused on the vryscral. “No, they’re alphas, too, only the king has done something to their brains. They’re mindless killing machines, and the only thing that stopped them from ripping apart everything in their path was… me.”

Archer cursed under his breath, then looked at me. “Her perfume shall tame the fiercest storms,”

he said, reciting the prophecy. He turned his attention back towards Marlowe. “Are you comfortable leading them?”

Her face paled. “No, I… I don’t know. It seemed like Alaroth wouldn’t even use them unless I was there, so maybe we don’t even have to worry about going up against them at all today. But they nearly killed Ezra, and with me, they tried to… to…”

Cam pulled her into his chest, growling in anger as his hand grabbed the back of her neck protectively. “What do you need from us in this fight?”

he asked. “You know better than we do what we’re up against.”

She fiddled with the large stone on a necklace, pursing her lips as she thought. “I have never planned anything remotely close to a battle in my life, unless you count trying to go shopping at Costco on a Sunday. And as scared as I am, I know the king won’t kill me. So I need to be the one to distract and confront him, because I can’t risk him hurting any of you.”

Cam’s nostrils flared, his anger rushing through the bond, but ultimately he nodded. “Understood.”

“For the record, I absolutely hate this,”

I added. “But I get the logic.”

It fought against every instinct I had as an alpha to protect my omega, but she had magic, too. She wasn’t completely defenseless.

“You still have six other players on the board,”

Archer said. He picked up a stick, drawing out a basic map of the haven. “Where do you want us?”