Page 75

MARLOWE

The smell of magic, terror, and burnt flesh greeted us as we approached the haven.

“Haven”

my ass—it was a fucking prison.

A part of the wall was crumbling down, the damage appearing recent, and around a dozen bodies, all beta shifters, hung outside the front gates. Their faces had been mutilated so badly, even their own mothers wouldn’t have recognized them.

Bile and anger rose up through me, and Ezra placed a calming hand on my shoulder.

“We’ll avenge their deaths, don’t you worry.”

From what we could see, the king’s fae army had already arrived and the active rebellion was over. The betas, predictably, had lost. And the soldiers looked pleased as hell with themselves about it, too, as they laughed and tortured the defeated shifters.

I couldn’t wait to wipe those smug smiles off their faces.

Multiple whips cracked through the air, accompanied by tortured screaming and wails.

“Quiet, dog, or I’ll add another ten lashes!”

My hands twitched at my side, and I took a quick peek at my brother. “In all your time here, have you ever…”

“Done anything like this?”

I looked at him sternly. I appreciated that he was coming to terms with the atrocities he’d committed while under the king’s thrall, but even he’d admitted his own complicity in some of the worst of it.

“Never,”

he whispered. “I can’t say I was never asked to punish someone, but aside from…”

“Mom and Dad?”

He swallowed. “Yeah, aside from them, I’ve never killed anyone.”

“Dude, I personally saw you kill twenty vamps and the Conclave,”

Cam snapped. “Don’t lie to Marlowe.”

Ezra’s nostrils flared in annoyance, clearly unused to being chastised by another alpha. “I meant innocent people. The vamps and the Conclave had it coming. No offense,”

he added, looking at Kian.

Kian shrugged. “None taken. Those guys were assholes.”

Did Kian know the vamps who’d attacked us? How small was the vampyr world compared to the shifter one? Maiingan Hollow had around thirteen thousand shifters, and I knew of at least two other similar shifter communities in the U.S., but around the world, I didn’t have a clue.

Those were questions for later Marlowe to ask Archer, though. For now, we needed to concentrate on decreasing the fae population by at least one.

And speak of the devil.

He rode on his alderbeast up to the haven at a slow gait, coldly inspecting the executed shifters with the alpha army behind him. I swallowed nervously when I saw a dozen cages at the back, each holding a snarling Berserker.

The fae guards said something, but from this distance we couldn’t hear any words, only the laughs from him and another guard at the end, who poked the leg of one of the shifters with his sword.

“Can we attack now?”

I asked through gritted teeth, my magic itching to be released.

We all looked at each other, the gravity and stakes of the situation sinking in. My anger slowly turned to fear at losing my pack again, because if Alaroth got his hands on them, I doubted they’d survive.

Cam stepped to my side and cupped my face in his large hands, turning it towards him and resting his forehead on mine. “It goes against every single one of my instincts to send you out there to fight,”

he grumbled. “It’s my job to protect you, and I have the power to do just that more than ever before.”

“I know,”

I whispered, blinking away the tears. “Trust me, I don’t necessarily want to be out there either. But I might be the only one who can stop him.”

He sighed, pulling me into his chest. “My ego isn’t so big that I can’t agree with you there. But I won’t risk your life or the packs’, or hell, even the vamp’s, if things take a turn. So, if I get even a whiff that things aren’t going our way, you better fucking believe I’ll be ordering a hasty retreat with you tucked safely in my arms. You got that?”

“Yes, alpha,”

I said with a small chuckle.

He growled a reply, giving me one last kiss on the top of my head before letting me go so I could hug the rest of the pack before we started our attack.

I headed towards Julian first. “Think you can punch out a couple of those fae assholes?”

He grinned widely, giving me a big kiss. “Yes, ma’am. I fully intend to be the first male to have knocked out four different species of people.”

Too bad he wouldn’t be able to add that to his resume. I gave him one last peck on the cheek before moving onto Nolan.

His cocky yet charming self-confidence had been obliterated in the wake of the arrival of the Conclave and their decision to “redistribute”

me to their own pack, and I absolutely hated how much blame he placed on his shoulders for his mistake with the handkerchief.

“Nolan,”

I said, bringing his hand up so I could rest my palm against his. The tops of his fingers curled over mine, and then he wrapped his arms around me, breathing me in deeply.

“I’ve been awful. I should have listened when you told me the kind of male you needed me to be, and…”

“Shh,”

I whispered, running my hands down his back. “You have listened. I’ve seen you trying. And none of this is your fault, you hear me? When we get back to Maiingan Hollow, I want to meet with you and Megan about some ideas I have to make the town a friendlier, more inclusive place for betas, omegas, and females. Does that work for you?”

He took in a shuddering breath. “I would love nothing more.”

After a big kiss, I made my way to Archer.

“Professor,” I teased.

He gave me a cheeky smile in return. “Ms. Linden.”

I shivered. The deepness of his teacher voice really did something to me, but we couldn’t afford to get distracted by sex now.

Right?

“Your strategy is a good one,”

he said placing one hand on my cheek and using the other to run his fingers through my hair. “Remember that Kian can’t hear through the bond, so you’ll need to communicate with him out loud.”

“Got it. And keep everyone on the ground out of too much trouble for me, will you?”

His lips touched mine, and I melted in his embrace.

“Always.”

Lastly I sidled up to Elias. His green eyes sparkled, and his bergamot and pepper scent brought me back to that first day we met, flirting over pancakes in a cheap diner.

Who would have guessed my dad’s death would have led to this?

“Hey, California,”

he smiled, bringing me in for a hug. I was a puddle in his arms, breathing him in and wishing we were still in Wisconsin, wrapped up in the nest he’d decorated for me, drinking a cup of tea.

Each relationship I had with my alphas was special, and I loved how attentive Elias had been from the start.

I couldn’t imagine my life without any one of them.

“Be safe, okay?”

“You’re asking me?”

he replied. He chuckled and shook his head. “I’m with Cam on this one. The second things get hairy, we’re pulling you out, because none of this means anything if you don’t make it out alive. Got it?”

I gave him a smile. Elias was actually on Cam’s side for once. I couldn’t help but wonder if it had anything to do with Cam becoming “supreme alpha,”

or whatever they were calling it. But it was funny to think of him as the leader of anything, because we all knew who really ran the show here.

“Got it, alpha,”

I said with a wink.

He pinched my bottom, and I yelped in surprise. “Brat. We’ll see how many spanks that cheek gets you when we’re home.”

I gave him a big kiss, running my fingers through his wavy blonde hair. “I’m looking forward to it.”

I took a step back, inspecting my pack one more time before turning around to face Ezra and Kian. Wasabi slinked up beside me, rubbing her head along my hip.

“Are we ready?”

I asked. Everyone nodded their heads, until Cam put up a hand to pause us and turned towards Kian.

“Wait—kid, do you, um…”

Kian’s cheeks blushed, and he rubbed the back of his neck with his hand. “Oh, ah…yeah, it couldn’t hurt. The magic uses a lot of my energy.”

Nolan burst out laughing and I looked around confused. “What’s so funny?”

Elias smirked. “Kian fed from Cam yesterday and gave him a massive boner.”

My eyes widened and I turned my head slowly towards Cam, who was trying his hardest not to seem flustered. “Well, that’s inconvenient,”

I said slowly.

“Being dead is inconvenient!”

he snapped.

I flattened my lips, keeping the impending chuckle at bay while Cam ran his hand over his head in frustration. “The whole plan is depending on his magic, right? He needs the energy!”

Ezra shook his head and took a step back. “Don’t look at me.”

The rest of the pack also averted their gaze

I sighed, sticking my wrist in Kian’s face. “Just take it from me then, at least I won’t have to worry about my dick getting in the way while fighting.”

Kian’s eyes widened and he checked wordlessly with Cam for permission.

“Hey!”

I snapped, bringing his attention back to me. “I don’t need anyone’s permission to offer my blood. It’s mine to give, not theirs.”

He swallowed nervously. “No, I get that. But they’re the ones who warned me that they’d rip my throat out if I drank from you.”

I gasped and whipped my head around. “What the hell, guys?”

Cam growled a challenge, but it didn’t deter my glare. “We’d just met the guy and found out his dad was the one who’d attacked you. Sorry if we were being a little suspicious of his intentions.”

My expression softened. Of course they’d have been worried about a vampyr volunteering to look for me. I probably would have made the same threats in their shoes.

I blamed my knee-jerk reaction on the heightened tension of the situation, and took a deep, calming breath. “You’re right Cam, I’m sorry. But surely you won’t hurt him if I ‘top him off,’ right?”

He sighed. “Fine, just be quick about it. And don’t get any fucking ideas, vamp!”

“Um, it might help everyone involved if one of you redirected her attention.”

“What does that mean?”

Julian asked, tilting his head.

Archer rolled his eyes, clearly annoyed that he was the only one who’d understood Kian’s suggestion. He stomped towards me, taking my face in his hands and kissing me the second Kian’s mouth struck.

I flinched from the initial pain and then…

Holy hell.

It felt like someone had managed to liquefy an orgasm and then injected it straight into my veins. My core was on fire, and I wrapped my arm around Archer’s waist and pulled him flush against me, rubbing against him in desperate need of friction to relieve the building ache.

His tongue slid along the seam of my lips and I opened for him, moaning into the kiss. His sea salt and jasmine scent intensified, and I felt the slick begin to drip down my thighs.

Was this what my heat was like? I didn’t have any clear memories from my first one, but right now I couldn’t think of anything else other than Archer fucking me hard, right now.

Oh god, could his bite have actually triggered my heat?

Kian breathed in deeply and then withdrew his fangs with a gasp, wiping his mouth and taking several steps back.

“Shit,”

he coughed.

The bulge in his pants was unmistakable, as were the raging hard-ons the rest of my pack was now sporting.

Ezra was immune at least, thank god. He crossed his arms and huffed. “Well, that was dumb.”

My arm was still wrapped tightly around Archer, and he looked at me through hooded eyes, his pupils blown. “I’m ashamed I didn’t see this coming.”

“Ba dum, tss,”

Ezra added, laughing to himself.

I ignored my brother and bit my lip, running a finger down Archer’s sculpted chest. “All the more reason to get this wrapped up quickly, hm?”

The desperate need was receding, but the lingering heat I felt for my very hot alphas remained, as it always did. I really couldn’t wait until we were back home.

“Alright, boys, let’s do this.”