Alcaeus
When a text message came in on Avery’s phone addressed to “Chaos” from Raul, thanking me for my many “love notes” and telling me to get my ass to a specified address in San Francisco because Avery’s life was in danger, I thanked all that was holy, even as I feared the worst.
Kai, Remy, and I teleported to the restaurant to find patrons in a panic over humans who were in critical condition, and to see my mate, Avery—who was sandwiched in between Raul and Weenie Gabe on a bench seat at a back table of the restaurant—with Gabriel’s hand wrapped around her throat.
“Who is she? What happened to her scent?” Gabriel growled at Raul. “Why are they here unless she’s someone important?”
I was a blink away from shifting as I rushed to her—human witnesses be damned—when Raul beat me to it, roaring in anger as he lost his skin to his wolf form while simultaneously throwing a blast of magic at Gabe that knocked him off of Avery and onto the floor.
“Holy shit,” Remy muttered beside me.
Raul regained his human form and conjured new clothing onto himself so quickly I might’ve questioned later whether or not I’d actually seen him shift at all if Remy hadn’t been standing next to me at the time to corroborate it.
I had Avery in my arms a second later. “You’re okay, you’re okay,” I told her. Her hands were holding her throat, and she was coughing and gasping for air. “Let me see, honey. It’s okay. Get Kai,” I ordered Remy as I carried Avery away from Raul and Gabe.
“Kai’s a little busy with a head injury right now.”
“My husband’s not breathing! Where’s the ambulance?” an older woman was squealing behind me.
“I got it,” Remy announced, rushing off to help.
“Where the hell did that come from?” Gabriel demanded of Raul in a low, angry voice. “You’ve been concealing more powers from me now, too? On top of everything else? Don’t think I don’t know you’ve been forming alliances behind my—”
“You threatened my woman!” Raul thundered back. “And she just became my fiancé tonight,” Raul proclaimed, pointing his finger at Avery in my arms. “I have protective instincts that are beyond my ability to control where she’s concerned.”
What? Raul’s words carried the scent of truth. As I looked at Avery’s hands around her neck, I saw for the first time the enormous diamond engagement ring she was wearing.
“You said you just met her,” Gabe countered.
They were both dead as far as I was concerned.
I stopped listening to their bickering as Avery ceased coughing and swallowed experimentally, wincing as she did so. “I’m okay,” she said in a hoarse whisper. “I’m fine. Put me down.”
Hell, no, was that happening. She smelled terrified and distressed. And like Raul.
But she still smelled like me, too—although it was faint. Avery was mine. She had marked me. Nothing Raul said and no ring on her finger changed that fact.
I bent my head and kissed her forehead, then her eyes, and then all over her face. Her arms reached up around my neck and her fingers sank into my hair, pulling me closer as my lips claimed hers at last.
She claimed mine right back, drawing my tongue deep into her mouth as she moaned and squirmed in my arms and curled against me, yanking on the roots of my hair to draw me closer. The scent of her arousal hit me, calming my wolf’s pressing need to kill Raul and Gabriel.
Cheers erupted all around us. I thought they were for me and Avery at first, until I realized that Remy had successfully cleared the elderly man’s windpipe when I heard wheezing noises and his wife sob, “You saved him. Thank you! Oh, dear Lord, thank you.”
“Anytime, ma’am,” Remy responded.
“Then why is your fiancé kissing Alcaeus?” Weenie Gabe’s voice further grated the haze of my Avery bubble.
“Because we’re fighting over her,” Raul returned. “Obviously. You saw me kissing her ten minutes ago when you came in. She’s confused.”
My mouth froze against Avery’s at the truth I heard in Raul’s words.
Unlike his sister, Milena, Raul had always been an excellent liar. He’d learned early on back when he’d been a human pack member with us how to bob and weave and dance around truths, knowing the wolves around him would scent his lies. Raul’s powers had obviously grown considerably over the years if he was able to disobey his Alpha, Gabriel, to the point of openly attacking him in defense of Avery’s life. While it was possible he’d also learned from Gabriel how to mask the scent of his lies—as many of us werelocks could manage to do on occasion, depending on the lie—I had a bad feeling he was telling the truth about kissing Avery.
It was confirmed when Avery started to shake in my arms and moved to hide her face against my neck, barely smothering a snort as her body was racked by a sudden attack of giggles.
I felt Lessa try to tap my mind, and I forcefully blocked her. God, my sister had the worst timing. I’d been trying to tap Lessa’s mind for the past hour, and I’d been blocked. I’d stopped trying when she’d finally shot me a frantic, cryptic message through our mind connection to leave her alone because she needed all of her focus for a crisis she was managing.
Avery had quickly gotten her ill-timed fit of amusement under control, when I turned to Raul and Gabriel and declared, “She’s not confused, Raul. Avery marked me. We’re mates. You have no claim on her.”
“Who the hell’s Avery?” Gabe asked, setting Avery’s body shaking anew against my chest as she buried her face in my shoulder.
“Avery is Cynthia’s other name, but she prefers that I know her as Cynthia,” Raul had the gall to say to his own Alpha. Once again not a lie, although not quite the truth.
Another round of applause and cheering erupted throughout the restaurant as Kai declared the woman with the head injury to be in stable condition.
“She should still go to the hospital for monitoring,” Kai told them. “Make sure an ambulance is on its way.”
The restaurant staff was thanking Kai, and someone started to ask him what had been in the intravenous push he’d given the woman, but Kai ignored everyone, striding straight over to me and announcing, “We’re leaving.” He glared at Raul. “It’s your mess to clean up from here. See that you do.”
“Wait.” Avery pushed away from my chest, trying to wriggle down, out of my arms. I held fast. “Chaos, stop; let me down. I’ll go with you, I promise.” Instinctively, my arms tightened around her, despite her reassuring words. “For serious, I want to go with you. But not if you don’t let me down this minute.”
Reluctantly, I set her on her feet. But I refused to allow her to move outside the circle of my arms as she turned to face Raul and Gabriel.
She raised her chin, smoothed her hair back, and righted her clothing. “Raul, pumpkin, you know I like you. But I realized tonight after your boss with the chlorine-shock eyes attempted to strangle me that he’s clearly stressed about that big account you two are closing this week. I think you need to head to the office to work on that with him asap.”
Raul covered his mouth with his fist and nodded, while Gabriel’s “chlorine-shock” eyes glowed blue fire, directing such unmasked violence at my mate that I yanked her closer, pressing her back flush against my front, and barely restrained myself from moving her behind me to shield her from the evil intent in his creepy glare.
“Sooo …” Avery proceeded, unperturbed—either oblivious or uncaring as to what nature of monster she was taunting. “I’m just gonna hold onto this ring for a little while longer while I consider your offer, mmkay?” She held her left hand up and wiggled her fingers, showing off the offensive rock Raul had apparently gifted her. “’Cause I think I might need to fuck this one”—she jerked her thumb back at me—“a few more times before the Final Rose Ceremony.”