Aimee was still shaken by her encounter with Fang as she sat beside Wren's bed. In his tigard form, he lay on his side without moving.
"What happened?"
He blinked twice before he answered. "I took the trash out and they were waiting for me."
"What did you do to them?"
"Nothing. I think they were waiting for any one of us to come out. I was just the poor asshole dumb enough to be there. . . . Sadly enough, I ignored their rampant stupidity until Stone kicked me in the back. Then it was on."
She stroked his soft fur. As typical, the wolves had been looking for a fight. "I'm so sorry, Wren."
He covered her hand with one large paw. "Don't be. The gods only know what they'd have done had it been you or Cherise or one of the other females. I'm just pissed off I can't control my powers enough to give them the fight they should have had."
She smiled at him as Marvin, his pet monkey, jumped up on the bed to chatter by his pillow. When Wren didn't move, Marvin leaned forward to hug his large tigard head and stroke one of his pointed ears. Now, that had to be the cutest thing she'd seen in a long time.
"I'll let you rest. If you need anything, call."
"Thanks."
Aimee crossed the room and was careful not to shut the door too hard. Wren hated sharp sounds. She wasn't sure if it was from his acute hearing or something bad from his childhood. Either way, she wasn't about to upset him after what he'd been through.
As she neared the stairs, she met her mother who was coming up them with a stern glower.
"Is something wrong?"
Maman curled her lip. "That stupid tigard. I need to ask him why he attacked those wolves."
Aimee was aghast at the accusation. "He didn't. They attacked him."
"So say you and probably him too, but the wolves have a different tale and there are more of them willing to swear to it."
"They're lying."
Maman made a sound of supreme aggravation. "And you would take Wren's word?"
"You won't?"
"No." Maman glared at Wren's door. "He's unnatural. Everything about him, right down to that filthy monkey he keeps."
Then what was Aimee? A Katagari bear who became Arcadian at puberty. One with the tracking powers of a goddess who was currently attracted only to a wolf. You didn't get more unnatural than that.
Which was why she couldn't tell her mother the truth about herself. Yes, her mother loved her, but her mother was an animal and their instincts were to kill anything that was different.
"Whatever Wren is, Maman, he's not a liar. Stone and his group on the other hand . . . when have they ever been honest?"
"They have sent over an emissary. If I fail to give them Wren, they will go before the Omegrion and say that I'm harboring a danger to all lycanthropes. Have you any idea what could happen? We could lose our license and our home."
"Then give them Stone back. That's all his father wants anyway. Tell them Wren will be disciplined by us."
"And you rule here, since when?"
Aimee tilted her head down in respect to her mother. "Forgive me for overstepping my bounds. I would just hate to see an innocent punished while the filth of the universe is allowed to dance away freely, especially since they would have jumped any of us who'd been in that alley and that includes you or me."
Her mother's look hardened. "My instincts are to throw Wren to them. He attracts trouble, and we don't need him here. I don't want him here." She let out a long sigh. "However, he was brought to us by Savitar himself." Savitar was the one in charge of the Omegrion. The one being no one crossed or questioned. Ever. "So the human side of me recognizes a degree of leverage so long as I protect him. I will try your way, ma petite. But if it fails, he will go to them. No matter what you say."
And I'll go with him to protect him. Aimee didn't say that out loud. Her mother couldn't stand for anyone to question or contradict her-it was the nature of the beast. This was Nicolette's den and they were all subject to her final rule.
"Thank you, Maman."
Her mother inclined her head to her before she reversed direction to descend the stairs.
Aimee followed after her, wondering what was going on in Eli's mind. For years they'd had trouble with that insufferably arrogant jerk and his scouts. But then nothing his clan did had ever made sense to her.
Still, there was a tingle in the back of her mind as if warning her this wasn't his random lunacy. There was something more to what was going on.
Something sinister.
Stone glared at Dev as the filthy bear opened the cage they'd thrown him into. At least he'd finally stopped changing forms. "I take it you've finally come to your senses."
Dev laughed. "If that were true, I'd be hauling you and that cage out to the swamp to feed you to the gators. Unfortunately, your daddy sent over someone to claim you."
Expecting it to be Darrel, he was surprised when Dev opened the door and Varyk stood there in all his savage glory. Tall, ruthless, and pissed, Varyk had shoulder-length brown hair and eyes that were so blue they were piercing and glacial. A derisive smirk was permanently chiseled on his handsome face. And his tough stance always said he was looking for someone to gut.
Stone swallowed as a chill went down his spine. Varyk was only marginally sane. . . .
And that was on his best day.
By the angry glower on Varyk's face, this wasn't one of those better days.
What the hell was his father thinking by sending him here?
Personally, Stone would rather stay in his cage than spend even a second in this man's presence. "Where's my father?"
Varyk growled low in his throat. "You don't speak, boy. Maybe never again." He grabbed him roughly by the neck and shoved him at the door. He turned back toward Dev. "Where's the one who attacked him? I was to escort him back as well."
The bear shook his head in a brazen denial that Stone had to admire. It took guts to annoy someone like Varyk. "No can do. Wren stays here."
"Not what I was told."
Dev flashed him a taunting grin that Stone would respect if it wasn't such a suicidal move on the bear's part. "Well, I just told you."
Varyk gave him an arch stare. "And you don't matter to me, table scrap."
"That feeling is entirely mutual, bear bait. Hell, I don't even acknowledge you as being here. So get out and take your trash with you."
Varyk's deadly gaze turned brittle. "You really don't want to take that tone with me."
Dev crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, I do have several others we can choose from. Contemptuous. Angry. Snide. Aggravated. How about I just settle on extreme sarcasm and we call it even?"
"I want the tigard."
"And I want you to leave. Guess who's going to win this argument? And in case you're even denser than you appear, it's not you."
Varyk seized him by the shirt. "Are you calling me out?"
"I'm calling you slow. Not out." Dev knocked his hands away from him. "Now I suggest you leave. Quickly before I decide that I don't really need to live here anymore."
Varyk lowered his head as if about to attack Dev. Stone held his breath. Varyk was unstable at best. One never knew what he'd do and if he attacked here . . .
They were screwed.
Varyk looked past Dev to the upstairs area. "There will come a time and a place when you won't be as lucky as you are tonight."
Dev laughed evilly. "Come get some anytime you miss your mama and need your ass spanked."
Varyk growled the sound of a wolf on the verge of ripping out a throat. Instead of beating Dev, he turned on Stone and grabbed him by the arm to haul him out of Peltier House.
"Do you mind?" Stone snapped as soon as they were on the street. "I'm not your girlfriend."
Varyk grabbed him by the throat in a crushing grip. "Exactly. I have no reason to not slap you down or kill you." He squeezed hard before he let go.
Coughing to clear his throat, Stone glared at him. "What is your problem?"
"My problem is that I had to suffer the stench of those animals to save your spoiled-rotten ass. I'm not your father and there's no genetic coding between us to make me want to save you ever again. Tread carefully, boy. Next time I'll leave you there."
"What about my father?"
Varyk didn't respond as he walked down the street and disappeared into the night.
Stone straightened his jacket with a sharp tug. "Yeah, you keep walking, punk. You ever touch me like that again and I'll beat you down." Of course he didn't say that loud enough for the werewolf to hear him. He wasn't completely stupid.
Looking back over his shoulder, he glared at Sanctuary. "Your days are numbered, bears."
And so were the ones for the Katagaria wolves. His father had no idea they were in town. But Stone was going to make sure he was enlightened immediately.
Then they would rain hell wrath down on the whole lot of them.
Fang lay in his wolf's form, sleeping on a soft grassy bed. But even while he dozed, he was alert to everything around him. He'd been that way since he was a pup. More to the point, he'd had to be that way since he was a pup. Even though he and Vane were the sons of their patria's Regis, they were subjected to the worst from not only their father, but from those under his direct command, such as Stefan.
Their father blamed them for the fact that their Arcadian mother had refused to complete the mating ritual with him. Her rejection had rendered Markus impotent and hostile.
And her refusal to keep her Katagaria children had made them a target.
So when Anya came near, he jumped awake, ready to fight.
Anya lowered herself to the ground. "It's just me, Fang."
He turned human and held his hand out toward her nose. "Sorry, baby. I didn't know."
She came forward to lick his fingers before she lay down beside him and rested her head on his thigh.
He stroked the fur around her ears. "Is something wrong?"
"I couldn't sleep. Orian is out on patrol and I didn't want to be alone."
"Where's Vane?"
"I'm not sure. He's not in his den or camp. I haven't seen him in a while. Have you?"
"He was off helping that Dark-Hunter who lives in the swamp. Talon. I assumed he'd be back by now." Dark-Hunters were immortal warriors who fought for the goddess Artemis. They hunted down the Were-Hunters' cousins, the Apollites, and killed them whenever they turned Daimon and started preying on human souls to live.
It was rare for Dark-Hunters and Were-Hunters to mix, but not impossible, and over the centuries, Fang and Vane had made friends with a number of them.
Anya sighed heavily. "That's the Dark-Hunter you two fought for the other night, isn't it?"
"Yeah, Talon and Acheron." Acheron was the leader of the Dark-Hunters and a longtime friend of Vane's.
"I wish the two of you would leave them alone. Every time a Were-Hunter mixes with one of them something bad happens."
"Ah, don't worry. It was actually fun. Besides there's a lot of Daimon crap going down and the Dark-Hunters have agreed to help us protect you guys should something happen."
"So say you, but I don't trust them."
"Neither do I, but I do trust Vane and you should too. He would never do anything to cause harm to us or to the pack."
She looked away shamefaced.
Fang felt guilty about making her feel that way. However, she shouldn't be questioning their elder. Vane would die if anything happened to them.
To think he'd caused it . . .
Vane would never get over that. And yet as Fang sat stroking his sister's ear, he had a bad feeling. He couldn't define it. It hovered in the back of his mind like a specter that wanted his blood.
It's just the concern for Anya.
Was it? Or could it be a premonition? He'd never been particularly precognitive.
But . . .
He wouldn't think about it. Anya was safe. He was here to protect her and Vane would be back as soon as he could. Nothing would change. She'd have her puppies here where their old enemies wouldn't be looking for them. Then once their young were old enough to travel, they'd move again.
That was the way of things. And nothing was going to change. He was going to make sure of it.
Fang snapped awake at a sharp cry of alarm. In his wolf's form, he was lying beside his sister who'd also come awake at the sound.
"Stay here," he projected to her. "I'll go check it out." He pushed himself up on his paws and trotted over to the main camp where a group of wolves were gathered.
Two were bleeding profusely.
Keegan's older brother, Liam, held his bloody paw up to keep from putting weight on it. His light brown fur was coated in blood. "It was an ambush. We're lucky any of us made it out."
Markus, also in wolf form, glared at him. "Who?"
"Arcadian wolves. They had a trap set for us."
Markus cursed. "Where's the rest of your tessera?"
"I don't know. Orian told us to come back and warn all of you."
Markus cast his gaze around the pack. "Gather our forces! I want every able-bodied male."
Fang turned human to confront his father. "You can't. What if this is a trap meant to call us away from our women and leave them unprotected?" He looked around at the wolves. "Remember what happened before? How many women and pups did we lose to Arcadian slaughter?"
Markus snapped at him.
But Fang saw the indecision in the other's eyes.
William moved forward. "I think Fang might be right. Some of us should stay behind. Just in case."
Markus's eyes glowed in the darkness. He hated to be questioned. "Fine. Fang and the rest of you women can stay behind. I hunt."
The pack divided in half.
Liam limped over to Fang. "I don't know about you, but I damn sure don't feel like a woman."
Fang laughed. "Ignore the impotent wonder. So what exactly happened?"
"We were horsing around, hunting after small fowl for practice. One minute we were chasing through the marsh and the next Orian was hit with a Taser, then someone opened fire on us with guns. We lost Agarian immediately with a bullet to his head." Liam looked down at his own injury. "I got caught on the paw, but it only nicked me."
Which was why he couldn't use his magick. When they were wounded, their magick was unpredictable and unstable. When used, it could do any number of unwanted things.
Suddenly, Anya cried out.
Turning back into a wolf, Fang ran for her. He reached her in record time. She lay on the ground, writhing.
Terrified, he nosed at her neck. "Anya?"
She was sobbing uncontrollably.
Was she in labor already? Fang exchanged a baffled look with Liam who came up behind them. "What is it?"
"Orian . . ."
"What about him?"
Anya pawed at the ground as if in utter agony. "He's dead."
Fang tried to soothe her. "No, he was hit with a Taser."
She shook her head in denial. "No, he's dead. I know it. I can feel it."
"You're just pregnant and upset."
She gave him a look so hostile and agonized that it shook him to his soul. "We're bonded mates, Fang. He's dead. I can feel it."
Fang couldn't breathe as those words tore through him. Bonded . . .
When two Were-Hunters bonded together, they melded their life forces into one. It was an act of ultimate love and loyalty that meant when one of them died, they both died.
The only exception being if the woman was pregnant. Then her life was elongated, but only until the babies were born. Once the last one was safely delivered, the mother would join her mate in eternity.
Anya was going to die.
Fang struggled to breathe as those words slammed into him with talons that dug so deep into his soul that it was all he could do to remain standing. "Why would you do such a thing?"
She lunged at him, biting him hard. "I loved him, you stupid idiot. Why else?" She howled, a baleful, haunting sound. The cry of a wolf in utter agony.
Leaning his head back, he joined her and let loose his own pain.
His sister was going to die. . . . And there was nothing he could do.
Anya broke off to continue crying. "How can he be dead? How?"
But Fang didn't hear her words. All he could do was see her dead and limp. See her pups as they looked to him for stories of a mother they'd never know.
How could this be?
They would be just like him. They would have that hole deep inside them that nothing ever filled. The question of what it would have been like to be loved. To have a mother who cared for them and nursed them.
Turning human, he pulled her into his arms and held her as his own tears brimmed. "I won't leave them alone, Anya. Ever. They will want for nothing."
Except you and their father.
Those words choked him and succeeded in breaching his control. Against his will, his tears flowed. Embarrassed, he hid his face against her neck and held her for everything he was worth. It wasn't supposed to be like this. His brother and sister were the only constants in his life.
They were his only solace.
And now to lose one . . . it was more than he could stand.
He held her close, rocking her for hours, unaware of anything else. It was only when Vane returned at dawn that he realized how much time had elapsed.
Vane approached them slowly. "What's wrong?"
Fang grappled with a way to tell him gently. Anya was asleep now, but there was no such solace where he was concerned. He tightened his fist in her white fur and decided there was no way to sugar-coat the truth that would shatter Vane the same way it'd shattered him. "Did you know Anya had bonded with Orian?"
Vane curled his lip as if he found the idea as repugnant as Fang had. "Why would she have done that?"
"She said she loved him."
Vane went stiff all over. "You spoke in the past tense."
Fang took a deep breath and braced himself for Vane's reaction. Gods, how he wished he wasn't the one who had to tell him. "He died tonight."
Vane let fly a curse so foul, Fang was dumbfounded by it. Normally his brother was much more circumspect. But he understood completely. He mirrored the same emotions.
Vane sank down on his knees beside them and put one hand on Anya. When he met Fang's gaze, Fang saw all the agonized pain inside his brother's eyes that he held in his own heart.
"What are we going to do?"
Fang shook his head. "We're going to have to watch her die."
Vane looked away. It was as if he couldn't face it any more than Fang could. "What happened?"
"A group of Arcadians attacked them and Orian was killed during the fight. What else? Stupid fucking wolf. He should have been here with Anya and not out carousing with his friends."
Vane glanced around the den as if looking for the shadows to come to life and chase them down. "Did they track the rest back here?"
"I don't know. I didn't ask that question. Markus and a group of others went after them."
"And?"
"They haven't returned."
Those words had barely left his lips before the others loped slowly into camp. Some were bloody and limping. But none seemed to be missing.
"Stay with Anya." Vane went to check with them.
Fang didn't move until his brother returned with a steely look on his face. "What?"
"It's the group of Arcadians Acheron warned us about. Somehow they found out we're here and their Sentinels are out for our blood."
That was the story of their lives. No matter where they went, the Arcadians found them and attacked them. Why couldn't their human brethren just leave them alone?
Because the Fates are three psycho bitches bent on completely annihilating your species.
Now his sister would pay the ultimate price for a curse none of them had wanted or deserved. Life was so unfair. But as Acheron said so many times, deserving had nothing to do with anything. Life just was.
Vane sat down beside him. "You look like shit. Why don't you go get some rest?"
"I can't sleep."
"You need to sleep. You're not doing anyone any good if you're too tired to function."
Yeah, but how could he find peace tonight? There was nothing except this sick lump in his stomach that made him want to vomit.
How he wished he could go back twenty-four hours and be oblivious to this future. . . .
Vane gently pushed him. "I have Anya. Go rest. If nothing else, turn wolf for a while."
Fang nodded glumly before he relinquished her over, even though all he wanted to do was hold on to her for as long as he could. But Vane was right. He needed some time in his true form.
And he needed to find some kind of comfort for himself. Something to numb the pain if only for one tiny nanosecond.
Aimee came awake with a start as pain sliced through her. It was the same sensation she had whenever Wren or one of her brothers was threatened.
Only this time, it was for Fang. She could sense him as if he were in the room right beside her.
And it was the same dread feeling in her chest. The same urgency to locate him immediately and make sure everything was all right.
What had happened?
Closing her eyes, she found him. He was lying on his stomach in his wolf's form. He didn't appear to be injured and yet something about him seemed to be broken. Hurt.
Before she even realized what she'd done, she materialized beside him . . . still in her nightgown.
"Fang?"
Fang froze at the soft sound of Aimee's voice. Opening his eyes, he saw her kneeling beside him. "What are you doing here?"
"I-I don't know. I just sensed that you needed someone."
Scowling, he wanted to tell her to leave. To get as far away from him as she could.
Until she placed one gentle hand on his neck.
Fang had always hated to be touched there. Not even Anya could stroke him while he was in his wolf's form. He couldn't stand it.
Yet Aimee's touch soothed him. She ran her hand through his fur, to his ear that she gently rubbed between two fingers. Before he could stop himself, he inched closer to her.
"What happened?"
He choked as he thought of Anya. "My sister's bond-mate died last night."
"Your sister who's burdened?"
He nodded.
"Oh, sweetie . . . I'm so sorry."
Sorry . . . that was a worthless word no doubt uttered out of habit. He hated for people to say that when they had no idea what it really meant. No idea of the pain that was burning deep inside him at a loss he would soon bear that no amount of comfort could alleviate or even dull. How could he go on without his sister here? "You have your family. You have no idea what-"
"That's not true," she said, tightening her grip on him. "I've lost two brothers and one of their mates. I know exactly how much it stings and how it aches. I know the anguish that no amount of time heals. There's not a day that goes by that I don't remember them and how they died. So don't take that tone with me, buster. I won't tolerate it."
Fang turned human and pulled her into his arms. "I'm sorry, Aimee. I didn't know."
Aimee tightened her grip on him as she bit back the tears she always felt whenever she remembered Bastien and Gilbert.
Worse, they'd died because of her. Because she'd shared her powers with them and shown them the location of their enemies. They'd gone after them to protect her. The guilt of it. The sorrow . . . there were times even now when it was more than she could bear.
Still, life went on, every aching agonized beat of it.
"It's okay," she whispered, but she didn't mean that. It was never okay to lose the ones you loved. Life was brutal, harsh, and cold. She knew that better than most.
Her mother's bipolar mood swings were proof of that. While Maman welcomed and protected anyone who was loyal to their house, she was just as quick to kill any she suspected of treachery-hence her unnatural hatred for Wren.
And she was so unforgiving. While Maman loved her, Aimee saw in her mother's eyes the blame that she still had for Aimee even though she'd only been a cub at the time of their deaths.
Aimee sighed. "As Wren so often says, sooner or later life victimizes us all."
"Wren?"
"The tigard you helped me to save. He has a terribly jaded view of most things, but in this I think he's right. We are victims."
Fang shook his head. "I refuse to be a victim. Ever . . . but I can't believe I'm going to lose her and that there's nothing I can do to stop it."
"At least you have time to say good-bye. My brothers were gone in an instant. There was no time for anything, not even grieving."
Fang paused as he realized how much she was comforting him. They were sharing their pain and . . .
What are you doing?
He was reaching out to her and he had no idea why. He didn't trust anyone, especially not strangers. He spurned comfort and always had.
Yet he didn't want to leave her. He wanted to stay like this for a while. To have her stroke him and soothe the pain inside his heart.
Aimee pulled back from his embrace to look at something on the ground. She bent forward and pulled up the scrap of fabric that Stefan had ripped off one of the attacking Arcadians. He'd carried it back for their inspection and Vane had brought it over to him earlier to look at. Unfortunately, the scent was so contaminated, it was worthless for them to even try and use it to track them down.
She frowned intently as she studied it.
He duplicated her scowl. "What is it?"
"I know this patch. It's from a tessera uniform."
His heart stopped beating. "What do you mean, you know this?"
Aimee closed her eyes to use her powers as images played through her head. She could see the wolves fighting, hear them snarling and tearing. See the Arcadians attacking them. But one face was clearer than the others.
It was a face she knew all too well.
"It's Stone's."
Fang tilted his head. "Stone? Why do I know that name?"
"He was the wolf you fought behind Sanctuary."
Fang's breath left him as if she'd hit him hard in the solar plexus. "What?"
"He was the wolf-"
"No." Fang shook his head in disbelief as those words shredded his soul. What had he done?
"Dear gods . . . I'm the one who killed my sister."