Alcaeus
It’d been years since Kai and I had scuffled—I mean really tussled. We sparred all the time for sport, but we hadn’t truly fought since we were kids.
I went down fast in human form, then shifted to my wolf form just as Kai’s maw tried to clamp onto my shoulder. When his footing faltered slightly with the shift, I reared up and threw him.
There was a crashing sound as Kai’s canine form flew into the TV console. It should’ve stopped me, knowing that I was destroying Lupe’s most treasured things—her sacred space within the home we’d shared for fifty years. But somehow that realization egged me on, heightening my anger and fueling my need for vengeance.
It was the same vengeance that taunted me daily. Hourly. One I could never quench. Never deliver to the proper source.
I chased a retribution that I would never be able to exact from that undead supernatural cunt of the century who had deliberately, callously targeted and ensnared my Lupe within her warped scheme to skirt the laws of the cosmos.
The fact that Maribel had sacrificed Lupe to save my best friend, and that she’d also arguably “saved” Milena and the rest of us from the flawed Salvatella blood curse in the process, didn’t make her a saint in my book. Nor did it make accepting her actions any easier.
It made her a sick fucking bitch as far as I was concerned.
Because how was I supposed to reconcile the loss of Lupe against the deliverance of Kai? I could never value Lupe’s life above Kai’s. Neither could I hold Kai’s life above Lupe’s.
And it was no accident that Maribel had set it up that way.
No, the scenario was just the sort of fucked-up shit that the Maribel I knew and remembered—in all her demented “genius”—would’ve quietly, proudly contrived. While professing to have no other choice in the matter, of course.
Before I knew it, we’d torn Lupe’s old sofa to shreds. The more we destroyed, the more enraged I became. Rationally, I knew it wasn’t Kai’s fault what Maribel had done in the name of her twisted love for him.
But it was his fault for being too stupid to seize the second chance at life that he’d been given as a result.
We’d destroyed the entire sitting room and crashed through the floor to the living room below before I registered my sister Alessandra’s shrill voice yelling at us to stop. And I only ultimately heard her because her words were accompanied by a blast of magic that pulled Kai’s wolf body and my own apart, as Lessa sent Kai’s body flying through the front bay window of the house.
Lessa rattled off the plans she’d set in motion for tomorrow as she cleaned up the last of the drywall dust and debris that had settled on Kaleb’s altar photos when Kai and I had fallen through the ceiling. The other areas of the room that had been impacted were still a mess, as was the upstairs sitting room.
Kai had yet to return to the house since being thrown from it. It was for the best. He and Lessa hadn’t gotten along very well in the past century.
I felt numb inside as I sat on the couch watching my sister tidy up Jussara’s creepy Kaleb alter when she hadn’t seen cause to clean or straighten up anything else in the living room. I guess I’d known that Kaleb had been one of Lessa’s favorite soldiers—and sometime lover. If I hadn’t realized it before, it was apparent from the way that she was fussing over his photos and relighting his altar candles, just how dear a friend he’d been to her.
Yet Lessa had somehow been able to overlook her friend Maribel’s role in Kaleb’s murder. In fact, she’d more or less led the brigade to canonize Maribel for her brilliance and heroism in defeating Nuriel Salvatella and fixing Milena’s flawed blood curse ten years ago.
I dropped my head in my hands. I’d destroyed Lupe’s sanctuary. There was no salvaging what was left of it. Pack members were on their way to help repair the other damage I’d done to Jussara’s home. But I didn’t know what I was going to tell Jussara about her mom’s beloved sitting room when she got back from Alsace.
“Are you listening?” Lessa asked, snapping her fingers above my bent head to get my attention.
I fucking hated it when she did that. I raised my chin and gave her a hard look in response.
“I need your head in the game, Al.” She planted her hands on her hips. She was wearing another prim blouse and skirt outfit. And her hair was in a weird twist on top of her head.
“I’m listening, damnit.”
Her back straightened. “What did I just say then?” she challenged.
My eyes rolled to the gaping hole in the ceiling above my head. “Kai and I are supposed to meet with the Highlands Ranch pack tomorrow night at the designated bar in Denver,” I told her through clenched teeth. “But I’m to order Kai to stay at the hotel at the last minute and go to the meeting alone.”
She nodded and motioned with her hand for me to continue.
I sighed. “Being the supremely clever bitch that you are, you’ve set the Rogue’s mother up to crash the meeting and attempt to assassinate me. My job is to capture the mom, flee the scene, and then get in touch with you without Kai knowing anything that happened.”
“Perfect. The Rogue’s mother is constantly switching her name and identity, but you’ll be able to recognize her easily enough since she’s a werewolf with no scent. And based on the fact that she’ll be trying to kill you. If there’s any doubt as to her identity, everyone in the Highlands Ranch pack who will be there for the meeting should be able to confirm it. Now let’s talk about the complication.”
“I thought Kai was the complication.”
She made a disgusted face and threw a dismissive hand gesture my way. “Kai’s an inconvenience and a consummate annoyance. He’s not relevant enough to be a complication.”
“Never gonna let that incident go, huh?” I goaded just to razz her. “If it makes you feel better, he can’t get a boner for any woman these days.”
“It has nothing to do with that. And you’ve no room to talk. Look around at the destruction you just caused if you think I’m the only person who has issues with that freak of nature.”
“All right, all right.” I held both palms up. Sheesh, she was touchy. “Bad joke.” Worse timing. “Pray continue.” I mimicked the same hand gesture she’d given me a moment before.
“Look,” she huffed as she proceeded to fiddle with her fancy-weird bow-tie neckline, “the thing is … I—I’m seeing someone new. Who is … um … special to me.”
Huh. “And he has a thing for teachers?”
“What?”
“That why you’re dressed like a teacher?”
She looked down at her outfit with affront. “I am not dressed like a teacher.”
“Well, whatever that look is.” I waved my hand up and down the length of her person. “You’ve been dressing a bit differently than normal.”
“What do you know about the way I normally dress?”
“Aw, come on, I notice stuff.”
She made a “pfft” noise and sank down onto the couch beside me, slumping low against the seat cushions in what was a very uncharacteristic posture for Lessa.
“I’m in love, Al,” she announced in one quick exhalation of breath. “And it’s awful. I don’t know how I’m supposed to act or even dress anymore.” She covered her face with her hands. “I feel like my makeup and hair is never right no matter what I do. I’m exhausted by the whole thing, and it’s only been three weeks.”
My jaw popped open. “You’re shitting me! Who’s the lucky victim?”
Her arm swung out and her fist connected with my face before I could block it. It did nothing to curb the idiot grin of elation I was wearing. Plenty of men had come in and out of Lessa’s life over the past four centuries, but never had I heard her profess to be in love with any of them before.
“Lessa, this is amazing! Why didn’t you tell me sooner?”
She groaned, covering her face with her hands again. “It’s not amazing. It’s a mess. I say stupid things to him all the time. I end up constantly having to erase from his memory the embarrassing things I’ve done and said. But then I can’t always remember the things I’ve erased or which alternate memories I’ve implanted, or which background story I’ve told him about myself—”
“Whoa—back up, sis. I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure you’re walking a short plank to relationship suicide with that level of deception. What are you doing? Who is this guy?”
He had to be a common werewolf if she was able to manipulate his mind that easily. I wasn’t sure how I felt about that. It wasn’t exactly what I’d pictured for Lessa—to the extent I’d ever contemplated a mate for her over the years at all. Lessa had always been a tough one to imagine mated and settled, period.
“You don’t understand. It’s complicated. I’ve been second-guessing myself ever since I met him.”
I went from being elated to pissed. “It sounds like he’s all wrong for you. Who is this loser who’s making you doubt yourself?”
“He’s not a loser. He’s perfect in every way. He’s smart, he works hard, he does things to help other people—to the point of risking his own safety.”
She sounded irritated—almost jealous—about that last part. I liked the idea of this guy less and less.
“Well, I don’t like him for you.”
“And he’s gorgeous,” she proceeded to gush, ignoring my comment entirely. “But he’s that annoyingly natural kind of gorgeous nerd type where you can tell that he kinda-sorta cares but doesn’t really care how he looks, you know? I mean, he’s letting his hair go grey and everything, and it still looks super-hot on him.”
Gross. “Thanks for that detail. The first thing I wondered about was his hair. Is this silver fox of yours wheelchair-bound or can he get around with a cane at least?”
She straightened enough to whack me in the shoulder.
“What?” I balked. “How the fuck old is this geezer? I’m trying to remember at what age normal werewolves go grey, but I can’t recall the last time I actually saw a grey-haired werewolf.”
“He’s human, you idiot.”
“He’s what?” My jaw dropped once more. “You’re fucking with me. Wait—is this about your rivalry with Milena and Alex?”
“What rivalry with Milena and Alex?”
“Oh, come on, Lessa. Why would you go after a human guy? Human men have never been your type.” Aside from her poor lapse of judgment with Raul.
“Well, tell it to my wolf! This wasn’t something I planned on, Al.”
“Wait a minute, are you saying you found your true mate? And he’s human?”
She nodded.
Oh, shit. “You’re positive?”
“Yes.”
“You’re absolutely sure? One hundred percent—”
“Al!”
“That’s awesome,” I proclaimed with a forced smile. “I can’t wait to meet him.”
I knew she knew I was full of shit from the glare she leveled at me.
“Fine. I’m not thrilled about this ‘complication’ of yours. But I’m sure I’ll feel differently after I’ve met him. How old did you say he was again?”
“Forty-eight. And his humanity isn’t the complication.”
“Forty-eight? That’s all?” I heaved a sigh of relief. “Forty-eight’s perfect for you, Lessa.” I grabbed her hands in mine and gave them a squeeze. “I mean, let’s look on the bright side: he’ll always look older than you are despite your three-hundred-and-fifty-year age gap,” I said reassuringly.
She groaned and yanked her hands from my grasp.
Fuck, that was the wrong thing to say. Where was Remy when I needed him? I was terrible at this stuff.
“Have you told anyone but me yet?”
She shook her head, looking like she might cry.
I’d never seen my sister like this. We needed to get a handle on the situation before one of our enemies found out.
“Okay, where is he now?” I stood from the couch. “Let’s do this right away. We can get his werewolf transformation process started before lunchtime.” Best to do it as soon as possible, before my mind ran rampant worrying that the idiot who had shredded my sister’s confidence would die of sudden heart failure or get hit by a bus and inadvertently get her killed via their mate connection.
“Sit down, Al. We can’t turn him yet.”
“Sure we can. There’s no time like the present. C’mon, if we move quickly, we can freeze the aging process before his jowls drop another millimeter.”
“He doesn’t know, Al.”
“That’s okay. We’ll tell him all about it as we’re guiding his first shift.”
“You’re not hearing me. He can’t know yet,” she insisted, her voice rising in panic. “My mate, Wyatt, is the human friend of the Rogue’s mother that I told you about before. That’s the complication. I can’t turn him or reveal who I am without compromising our Rogue mission. But until I do turn him, he’s in near-constant danger because of his affiliation with her.” Her hazel eyes filled with unshed tears. “And when he finds out that I’ve betrayed him in order to capture his friend and her daughter, he might hate me forever and not even accept me as his mate.”
Oh, Jesus. “Are you serious? Your true mate’s named Wyatt?”