Chapter 32
James didn’t like the way Chief was watching Alise. Hell, the wolf shifter hadn’t taken his eyes off her. Maybe he wouldn’t mind if it was some kind of simple interested stare, but no. The way Chief was watching Alise was the way a predator watched prey. Fuck, his lip was even ticked up in a snarl that James was sure Chief wasn’t even aware he wore.
“Chieftain,” he greeted, pretending to study the selection of alcohol on the bar near Chief before he snagged a cold bottle of beer and turned to the shifter. “What’s up, man?”
Without preamble, Chief asked with eyes still locked on Alise. “The woman in green, who is she?”
Glancing over his shoulder at Alise, James canted his head. “Green? Would we call that green? Seems more like turquoise or no, wait! Amanda calls it teal. It’s her favorite color.”
“I don’t give a fuck about the color. The woman! Who is she?”
Okay, now he was just being rude.
“Alise.” James answered gruffly. “She’s Alex’s friend. She’s friends with Stoney and Cindy too, so I’d stop mad-dogging her if I were you.”
Chief’s expression didn’t falter. “Cut the shit. I mean who is she?”
Annoyed now, James let his expression morph into a rare frown. “What does that even mean? I told you, her name’s Alise. She’s Alex’s friend. She’s the best maid, or honorary bride, or bride fuck friend, or whatever the shit they call it!”
“She’s human?”
That question had James stilling his beer raised halfway to his lips. “What does that matter?”
“It matters.” Chief shoved up from where he’d been sitting, and James scowled at him.
“Look, Alise is here with me,” he lied. “And I’d appreciate it if…” He didn’t get to finish the sentence.
Beaming a beautiful smile, Alise turned from the lady she’d been talking with. She was so damn beautiful with her dark hair swept up from her neck. James had heard people refer to necks as elegant before and he’d always laughed at how stupid that sounded, but with her gown hanging off one shoulder, soft skin exposed, James realized Alise’s neck was elegant. She was elegant. Her lips were painted a bright red that didn’t match her dress, but damn they drew his attention. Thick, sooty lashes lifted when Alise looked up from the glass of wine in her hand, and when they landed on James, his breath caught in his throat. She smiled at him, and it felt like a donkey kicked him right in the nuts. It was hard to breathe, and like a big goof, he lifted a hand and waved at her like he was some pimple faced dork.
Alise giggled and even from here he could hear the tinkling sound. Blinking once, she slid those beautiful gold eyes to the side, and James knew she’d just noticed Chief. How could she not? The big fucker was still frowning at her like she’d slapped his mama.
The second Alise’s eyes locked on Chief’s, James felt every hair on his body stand on end as the air suddenly grew electrified. Alise gasped, and James could only watch in what felt like slow motion as the glass of wine slipped from Alise’s hands. It took forever to hit the ground, and before it even did, Alise’s beautiful face morphed into one of agony. Her body arched, and she let loose a pain-filled scream.
Beside him, Chief snarled and went down hard.
What the fuck!
Every Sentry at the reception suddenly went on alert. A few rushed Alise, and when their hands touched her, she jerked away and screamed even louder like their touch hurt.
Slowly, James tore his eyes from Alise and looked down at Chief. He had a hand clamped hard at his abdomen and the other planted on the ground. His head was up, his lips peeled back to reveal wicked incisors, and his…his eyes were locked on Alise.
“Get back! Don’t touch her!”
Looking up, James saw Jenny rush Alise. Jenny’s eyes lifted, and she followed Alise’s gaze to where Chief’s eyes were boring into her.
“Shhhhit!” Jenny hissed.
Beside James, he heard Monroe mutter to someone, “Not what I expected, but it’ll do.”
It’ll do? It took all of two seconds for realization to slam home. Stricken! This was the wolf-shifter equivalent of the affliction. Chief was stricken! Alise was Chief’s!
In the space of a breath, something in James broke. Something cold and hard cracked right down his middle and it felt like he was an iceberg that had just split in two, a huge part of him crumbling off and disappearing into the abyss.
Alise is Chief’s!
The realization rocked him so hard, he actually swayed.
***
Alex had been badgering Stoney, making sure she wasn’t upset out being ousted from the board. Stoney assured her everything between them was good. She said she didn’t want to be on the board any longer and was telling Alex, “There’s no point. Monroe pretends to take our advice and then does whatever in the hell he wants in the end.” She shrugged and opened her mouth to continue when Alise screamed.
The sound scared the shit out of Alex, and she startled hard before whipping around. Stoney was already moving toward Alise, but when Alex went to take a step, Recker was there, grabbing her hand.
“You okay?”
“Yes.” She pointed at where Alise was on the ground. “Something’s wrong with Alise!”
“Shit!” Recker breathed, and Alex followed his gaze across the reception area to where James stood next to Chief, who was on a knee and snarling at Alise.
“What? What is it? What’s happening?”
“Stricken,” Recker answered. “It’s like the Walker affliction.”
Alex gasped, “What?” Her head whipped back and forth between Alise and Chief whose gazes were locked on each other. “But… James…”
Alex lifted her eyes from where Chief knelt. They landed on James, and her hand involuntarily flew to her mouth.
The look on James’ face had Alex’s gut-wrenching. Undisguised distress was so fully present on the Walker’s face… No, this wasn’t distress. It was more. This was pure heart-wrenching anguish.
Alex knew James liked Alise. Like really liked Alise, and Alise had liked him too. Staring at James now, Alex realized that James had just had something extremely profound ripped away from him.
Without hesitation, Alex pulled her hand from Recker’s and made her way to James. She passed Chief as he shoved up from the ground and staggered past. Turning she watched him shove people away from Alise before dropping and pulling her onto his lap. Alise’s arms slid around Chief’s neck, and she whimpered. The sound that emitted from Alise one of relief as she pressed her body into Chief’s.
Turning from Alise and Chief, Alex made her way to James. Before she reached him though, he blinked hard and jerked back, tearing his eyes from where Chief held Alise. As he turned, his gaze collided with Alex’s for a moment and held.
Mouthing, ‘I’m so sorry’, Alex gave him the most sympathetic look she could muster. She felt for him, she really did. He was a really great guy, one of Recker’s best friends, and by association, she’d grown to care for him too. Her feet moved quickly, but not quickly enough. Alex never made it to James in time to offer support because his jaw ticked once before he turned and let a shift rip him apart. A great falcon flapped hard and ascended, beating at the air, before being swallowed up by the night.
“James,” Alex breathed, tears flooding her eyes.
Behind Alex, Recker settled his hands on her shoulders, his eyes trained on the sky as he murmured, “He’ll be alright.”
“Did you see his face?” She had. His expression was one of utter devastation, and Alex wasn’t sure if, or how, James would ever recover from losing Alise to someone else. Spinning, she looked up at Recker. “What do you know about Chief?”
Recker’s lips thinned into a grim line. “He’s one of the meanest and strongest wolf shifters I’ve ever met.”
“Mean?” Worry flooded Alex. “What do you mean mean? How mean?”
“Don’t worry.” Recker cupped her chin and grinned softly down at her. “The wolf shifters being stricken is the equivalent of the Walker affliction. He’d cut out his own heart for Alise. She’s safe, siren.”
Glancing over her shoulder, Alex looked up at the sky. “What…what about James?”
Recker pulled her chin back to him. “She wasn’t his. No matter how much he wanted her, no matter if she wanted him. It’s done.”
Foreboding crashed over Alex so damn quickly that she thought she’d drown under the tidal wave.
That could happen to us. That exact thing could happen to us at any time.
She tried to disguise her worry by saying, “She doesn’t even know Chief. She doesn’t want this. She doesn’t want him.”
“She will, siren. She will.” Dropping his hand from her cheek, Recker cupped her neck and lowered his head to stare deeply into her eyes. “Hey…what’s going on?”
“Nothing.”
“Don’t lie to me,” he growled. “Tell me what…”
Before he could even finish the sentence, Alex’s eyes were filled with tears, and she looked down. “That,” she whispered. “That could be us. That could happen to us at any second.” She shook her head and sniffed trying to keep from crying. “That look on James’ face,” she looked up. “That could be me.” When she blinked a tear slipped free, and she watched as understanding dawned on Recker.
“It won’t,” he promised. “I told you.”
“Alise didn’t even know him,” she cut in. “I just watched her wrap her arms around some guy she hasn’t even met. She pressed her body against his like she’s known him forever. I mean, will we be dealing with that level of certainty if it should ever happen? You’re gonna feel the way Chief and Alise just felt. Aren’t you?” She was panicking now as she pulled back from Recker and started pacing, talking to herself. “Oh God, we’re already married. What have we done?”
“Alex!”
Recker followed after her, but she turned and held up her hands to stop him. “Don’t!”
“Alex, calm down,” he commanded. “You’re overreacting.”
“Overreacting?” She sounded hysterical now and was drawing the attention of their guests. “I’m gonna lose you.” Her hands flew up to her temples. “Oh my God! I’m gonna lose you to another woman.” When her head snapped up to his, her eyes crashing into his, they were filled with real fear as tears clogged her throat. “I won’t be able to survive that Recker. I…I can’t….” She backed up a step. “I just…can’t!”
“Hey!” he stared at her long and hard. “You’re not walking away from me, woman. It ain’t happening, so whatever you’ve got churning in that beautiful head of yours can stop right now. Do you hear me, Alex? Stop!”
“It’s not up to you,” Alex moaned reaching down and grabbing the ring he’d given her like she was about to take it off. “It’s not up to either of us.” She looked down as she slid his ring off her finger with a whispered, “I knew it was too good to be true.”
Recker’s hands grabbed her roughly, and when Alex jerked her head up, something happened.
The second her eyes locked on Recker’s a loud high-pitched noise filled the air and then there was a bright flash like someone was standing in front of her taking her picture, but there was no one there, only Recker. The sound and the flash happened in a blink, and then Recker went down hard. He dropped so suddenly that Alex gasped, certain he’d been shot or something because what else could drop a Skin Walker so quickly. Recker writhed on the ground, one hand clamped to his stomach while the other curled into a tight fist. A massive roar left him as his body bowed violently and Alex dropped to her knees and grabbed him.
“Recker! Are you okay?”
Something splattered on his sleeve, and Alex narrowed her eyes at it before looking up. A Walker she remembered only as Remy stood over Recker with a bored look on his face while he shoveled a forkful of what looked like potato salad into his mouth. Speaking around the mouthful of food, Remy remarked casually, “That shit’s painful.”
What? “Jesus, Remy! Help him!” Alex dropped her eyes to a still writhing Recker. She looked up just in time to see Remy lick his spoon.
“Can’t.” He stated plainly. “He’s in it now.”
“In it?” Alex all but shrieked. “In what?”
A grin lifted Remy’s lips as he looked at her then lowered his spoon to bop her lightly on the nose. “The affliction.”
Affliction?
It took a second for Remy’s words to register and when they did, she turned shocked eyes on Recker. “Affliction?”
Recker was looking at her now, eyes locked on hers to intently that she stopped moving. Hell, she stopped breathing. She didn’t even recoil when Recker reached up and ripped his halo from around his neck, the skin there sizzling with the heat of the brand that would forever mar his skin. In the space of a breath, he thrust his halo forward with a snarled, “Mine!”
When the halo locked in place around Alex’s throat, a startled gasp left her seconds before her eyes fluttered closed and everything went black.