Page 76

KIAN

Marlowe nodded towards me and I breathed deeply, ignoring my erection, summoning and contorting the magic inside me. I took what I’d learned from the shield the fae had tried to raise along the haven and the invisibility curtain the vampyrs had used around their village to create six bubbles, one for everyone except Wasabi and the twins.

Nolan, Elias, Archer, and Julian sprinted towards the haven, each heading towards one of the four outer walls, while the rest of us followed Marlowe and Ezra to the king.

With each step, the sheer amount of power emanating off the male became clearer and stronger, and my resolve began to falter.

I could hardly breathe, the oppressive weight of it was sitting directly on my chest. How had these two managed to spend any significant amount of time around him without devolving into muttering idiots in pools of their own piss?

No wonder the vampyrs had hidden themselves away so carefully.

His whole being was pure ice and cold, from his pale skin to his silver hair and his aqua eyes. I doubted the male could appear warm even if he’d tried.

Oh Moon, what if I blew this? It almost felt like if the king looked at me, my magic would disappear and Marlowe’s plan would immediately go to shit.

No, I couldn’t be the reason we failed. I had two women I loved back home who I needed to get back to, alive and well. I closed my eyes and imagined their faces instead, the way Jasmin would yell at me for taking so long before smothering me with kisses. How Aisha would tell me I’d lost weight, even though I hadn’t, and immediately begin cooking me some elaborate meal that would put me in a happy food coma until it was time for bed.

Okay, now that was a different distraction I certainly didn’t need at the moment.

Ezra put his hand on Marlowe’s upper arm, tugging her roughly for show once we were in eyesight of the king.

He stilled, dismounting off his weird deer-horse and turning to face us.

“Marlowe…”

he said, his voice low and full of threat.

I nearly began to whimper and cower. How could Marlowe keep her chin so high?

Cam was invisible next to me, but his own power began to leak through, tinged with anger and the need for violence.

Luckily it could pass for Ezra’s once the king was close enough to pick up on it.

We stopped once we were about five feet away, the shifter army sniffing the air in confusion.

Crap, I hadn’t thought that they’d be able to scent me through this bubble. Or was it Cam they were smelling?

I had forgotten to incorporate a scent-blocker in the magic. Dammit, I really was going to be the reason this got fucked.

Please hurry, I begged silently. I knew we didn’t have a bond, but I could still hope Marlowe and Ezra might pick up on my desperation.

“You’ve been a very naughty girl,”

the king said, stepping up to Marlowe. She turned her head to the side but he grabbed her chin forcefully, demanding she look him in the eye. “And you will be punished thoroughly once we return. Ezra?”

He looked up at Marlowe’s brother, his face still cold and unreadable. “Your omega will be returned to you unharmed in a fortnight. Some distance would help you remember not to let yourself get distracted, hm?”

Ezra winced, bringing his hand up to his temple briefly. “Yes, Your Majesty.”

The shield I’d put in his mind must have been slipping, and the king tilted his head as he narrowed his gaze on the hulking alpha. “Everything alright?”

he asked. “Did you run into any…. trouble while you were collecting my beloved? What of her pack?”

“She hadn’t connected with them yet. I caught her just in time.”

“Hmm…”

He began to pace in front of us, his hands behind his back.

How much longer was this going to take? I didn’t know whether this was a result of just his aura or if he purposefully seeped this kind of magic in the air, but I felt terrified. Like my heart might give out at any moment just being in his presence. I still couldn’t believe the twins were immune to this. Was Cam? Was the vryscral? That tiger-snake-dragonfly looked so unbothered it was making me jealous.

“Wouldn’t it have been better if you’d brought the pack with you?”

the king asked, still pacing. “Otherwise, my dear Marlowe may also find herself unduly distracted. My, that seems to be something you two have in common, doesn’t it? Perhaps it’s simply an indication of your shifter blood, hm? Always getting distracted by your baser instincts.”

His tone dripped with malice and disdain, but Marlowe didn’t waver from her spot. She was tougher than she looked, I really had to give it to her.

“That’s rich coming from you,”

she scoffed.

He rushed to her so quickly I could have sworn he’d teleported, grabbing her by the hair and wrenching her head back. Cam growled beside me, and Ezra coughed, covering for the sound.

“Something to say, my future queen?”

“Considering I managed to escape because you were balls deep in Nivardi’s wife, yeah, I think it’s a little hypocritical to call me the distracted one,”

she replied, grimacing from the pain of the king’s grip.

I didn’t know how Cam could stand this. I barely knew the omega and even I was ready to throw down. I’d probably die instantly, but I couldn’t stand back and watch this male hurt her, exerting his physical power over like a fucking coward.

“Is that why you left? Were you jealous?”

He smiled coldly, his canines as sharp and long as mine before a feed.

Marlowe laughed.

Full on, belly-hugging laughed, the king’s face growing angrier by the second.

“Oh, Al, that’s a good one. Do you think after days of watching you cream your pants at the thought of me, and denying you over and over again, that I’d be jealous you’d finally decided to leave me alone?”

She raised herself on her tiptoes, bringing her lips as close to his ear as she could. “I wasn’t jealous. I was ecstatic.”

He lifted his hand, the intention to bring it across her face plain in his cruel expression, but Ezra grabbed his wrist and held it steady. “I would advise against striking my sister.”

Their eyes locked, shock coloring the king’s features. He tried to take his hand back, but Ezra held it firm.

I could hear my heart beating in my chest, my fingers trembling in anticipation of my next move. Could the king hear it, too?

If he could, at least Ezra’s defiance was distracting him. He narrowed his gaze, focusing all his attention on the huge alpha. “Has someone been rooting around in that doggy brain of yours?”

Ezra smiled coolly. “Now, why would you think that, Your Majesty?”

A thick blanket of tension fell over us, and I held my breath out of fear I’d give myself away before it was time.

Any second now…

“Ezra…”

the king said slowly, his wrist still locked in the alpha’s grip. “Let. Go.”

“I’ll let go once you promise not to touch my sister.”

A series of explosions rocked the ground, bringing down large portions of the walls to the haven.

The king sneered, his expression becoming crazed. “Ezra, what have you done?”

Panicked shouts filled the air, and the alpha army readied themselves behind us, waiting for orders as the beta shifters poured out of the gaps the pack had made in their coordinated attack. They ran in all directions, pursued by the fae soldiers who cut them down mercilessly.

“Now!”

Marlowe cried.

I released the magic shrouds from the rest of us, helping Marlowe onto her vryscral and joining her as we took to the skies. Ezra launched himself towards the king, engaging him in hand-to-hand combat while Cam ran to the army.

Even from up high, where Marlowe and I began an onslaught of aerial attacks against the fae, I could hear Cam’s speech and commanding barks, taking control of the king’s shifter soldiers.

“Look at you.”

His voice was raw, edged with the snarl of his beast, barely contained. He spread his arms, gesturing to the males in front of him. “Look at what he has made you.”

I sent a cloud of darkness to bind a fae soldier before he could descend on a fleeing mother with her children, forcing a tendril down his throat to coat his lungs and seize his heart.

“You were born to run. To hunt. To fight as a pack. And yet, he’s caged you like dogs and shackled you in silver. Made you kneel before a male who does not bleed like we do, who does not fight like we do. A male who makes a mockery of our designations, forcing omegas into his bed while denying you the right to form families and packs, to bear pups. And now he sends you to kill your own kind in a war that was never yours to begin with.”

A bow and arrow of light formed in Marlowe’s hands, and from the winged vryscral, she shot down guard after guard with deadly accuracy. Her hair blew wildly behind her, and she looked every bit like Diana, the ancient Roman goddess of the hunt, wild animals, and the moon.

The Moon Goddess incarnate.

“You know what I am. You feel it in your blood, in the pull of your instincts. I am no king’s commander. I am no servant to a throne built on the backs of our kind. I am your alpha.”

His voice sent echoes throughout the air, the dominance powerful enough to cause even me to pause and listen.

“The strongest among you fell to me, because strength is earned, not given. Loyalty is claimed, not commanded. And now you stand at a crossroads.”

The rest of the pack had shifted into wolves. Archer and Nolan led betas to safety, while Julian and Elias stayed behind to attack the soldiers, bringing them down before they could hurt the escaping shifters.

“You can return to your cages. You can lick the boots of a king who will never see you as more than beasts. Or…”

He stopped, letting the silence stretch, thick and heavy. “Or you can fight. Not for him. Not for me. But for us. For our kind, for our brothers and sisters rotting behind these walls. For the right to run free under the moons, the wind in your fur and the earth under your paws.”

A growl started in the ranks, low, rolling through them like thunder. Marlowe directed the vryscral towards the army, watching Cam in awe.

“You were never meant to fight alone. You were never meant to bow.”

His voice and hands rose. “Fight for your freedom, and I will fight beside you. Stand with me, and we will tear down this kingdom that has wronged you—brick by brick, bone by bone.”

The growls swelled into a roar, something old and primal breaking free from the crowd. They were his now.

I smiled to myself.

The king didn’t stand a chance.