~

 

“You wanna run that by me one more time?” Landon growled.

“It’s the curse…” Zana shrugged her shoulders and took a small step back from her mate. “Down, boy.”

George’s top lip twitched with annoyance. His brain was starting to come back to him, but it felt like a slow process of chiselling away at the alpha wolf inside of him…

“You said that!” Landon growled.

“The watchers have…”

“Wait – watchers?” Dexter asked and Landon sighed.

“Don’t stop her now …” He grumbled a growl, and George growled back. “No offence…” he bit out.

“The watchers are guardians of the fates and legends…” Zana explained and both men looked equally lost…

“Ok, get back to the dragon…” Dexter said.

He felt that the guardians might have been a story all by themselves, and Landon was right – the dragon was the most import thing right then – especially, as she seemed to think that the mythical beast was heading for them.

“Thank you…” Landon grumbled winning his point from Dexter.

“The curse…” she started and Landon groaned. “Says that a twin dies, the true alpha is born, and the dragon awakes…”

“Twin?” Dexter frowned.

“I was a twin…” George said, scowling at the man as if he wasn’t sure if he wanted to take a bite or not.

“Yeah, ok, twin,” Landon tossed a hand towards George. “How do you know that it was that twin?”

“He’s the true alpha…” Zana didn’t get what they didn’t understand.

The talisman proved that it was George. The man’s whole being proved that it was George … hell, even his red eyes proved that it was George, so, where was the uncertainly…?

“Ok…” Landon accepted that – kind of – and moved on. “Given he’s a true alpha, in principle, and given that he killed his twin, fact, what does the curse say, exactly?”

 

~

~

~

 

“What is it?” Connor asked.

“Some sort of legend …” Vicky offered back.

She was more than distracted as she leaned over the book on the large dining room table and read, and re-read the body of text. It was written in Latin, and she hated Latin, picking out the words with a double meanings was always a bugbear of hers … One wrong interpretation could twist the context of the whole piece.

“Let me see…” Connor offered. “This doesn’t look that old.”

“No, it’s faded less than the rest of the pages in the book…” Vicky offered back, lifting a page and looking at the underside. “When did you get this book?”

“I think – twenty or so years – give or take a decade,” Connor offered back.

“So not helpful, darling…” she snorted.

“Time blurs…” Connor shrugged and she frowned back at him. “Until you.”

“Brown nose.”

“You know it.” Connor grinned.

“I know there’s a reason the book made itself known…” she warned him…

“A meeting of the alphas?” He offered back, but he’d already made up his mind to contact each one of them.

“A true alpha…” she muttered to herself. “One twin killing another?” She mused.

“George!” They both said together.

“Unless it’s someone else…” Vicky shrugged.

“Who else has killed a family member recently?” Connor shot back.

He didn’t like it.

He didn’t like warnings from the other side.

He didn’t like that George might be a true alpha, because that threw off the balance on the mountain, and he really didn’t like the idea of a damn dragon.

 

~

~

~

 

Dexter was already on his mobile phone and trying to get a signal. That was his one bugbear about living so high up on the mountain – he was basically cut off from most technology.

“Ok, we need to go to my cabin so I can call around,” Dexter growled.

“What about … him?” Landon nodded his head towards George and the man growled back at him once more.

“He can stick with her…” Dexter motioned towards Zana and the woman raised just one eyebrow.

“Gee, thanks,” she bit out.

“He’s your mate…” Landon chuckled.

“We need to get out of here …” Zana said, looking about her before she turned her attention up towards the sky…

“You seriously think there’s going to be a damn dragon flying in?” Landon couldn’t help but follow her gaze.

“I’d like to hope not, but I’ve been dealing with the watchers shit for a long time, and it always happens, and it always happens just as they say it will.” She offered back.

“And what do they say about this?” Landon asked.

“I’m George…” the man growled to his mate, taking a step to the side to block her view of the alpha, and bringing her full attention right back towards him…

“I’ll have it tattooed on my backside. Property of George…” she bit back, and she could hear the deep chuckle that came from behind him. “It’ll match the burn marks.”

“Name?” George asked.

“Zana…” she shrugged.

“I like it …” George growled. “Zana…”

“Say it three times in a row and you turn into a bat…” she said, her tone dripping with sarcasm.

“Bat?” George gave a small shake of his head.

“Oh, wow…” Zana chuckled.

“He’s not always like that,” Landon assured her.

“Good to hear,” she tossed back.

George knew that he’d been cursed. He just didn’t know exactly how that was supposed to play out.

Not really. Not in the grand scheme of things.

He had known that the last thing that he was ever supposed to do was to kill his brother, but the man just kept forcing the damn issue. Over and over until finally…

He’d snapped…

He wasn’t proud of it.

His brother was screwed up. The man had wanted to trigger the damn curse, believing it would bring him riches, or power, or both…

The man was an idiot.

Well, George had finally ended his brother’s waiting – and now he would pay the price.

Maybe, they all would.

Zana was right. They needed to leave.