Chapter Thirteen
Valerie appeared in the middle of a lush living room. Huge chandeliers hung overhead. Ming vases were strategically positioned around the room. The rug beneath her was so thick and deep her feet sank into it. And right there, sitting on the couch and staring at her as if she had two heads—
“Luke!” His name emerged from her as a sigh of relief. Valerie surged forward and hugged him. “I am so happy to see your bad self right now.”
But…
He didn’t hug her back. In fact, he stiffened. His hands flew up, and he pushed her away. Then he stared at her as if he’d never seen her in his very long life.
Oh, damn. Her luck could not be this bad. No way. No way on… “You’re not Luke.”
Luke Thorne. The Lord of the Dark. All around badass and the guy who happened to owe her a long list of favors.
The man on the couch shook his head. He looked like Luke. Same dark hair. Same incredible sex appeal. Same intense, golden eyes. Same drop-dead gorgeous features.
But…
“Dammit, you’re the other one.” Valerie bounded across the room because she wanted to put some serious space between them. “What are you doing here? Luke will kill you when he finds out that you’re in his house.”
“Right…about that…” The guy slowly stood as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. “Guessing you’ve been out of touch for a while? Not exactly communicating frequently with my brother?”
Brother. Another nail in her coffin. But she’d already worked this part out. “You’re Leo.” And she was in trouble. Luke Thorne was the all-powerful being who ruled over the so-called “bad” paranormals, but his twin brother—the guy who was standing right in front of her—Leo was the Lord of the Light. Ruler of all the goody-two-shoes and annoyingly perky paranormals.
“Guilty,” he confessed.
“What are you doing here?” All of her fine plans were going up into smoke. “I need Luke. He owes me.”
Leo’s brows lifted. “Does he? Good luck getting him to pay up.”
“Where. Is. Luke?”
Leo pointed up.
“He’s upstairs?” Relief crashed through her. “Why didn’t you just say that crap to begin with? No need for stupid games.” She whirled and hurried for the stairs.
“He’s way, way up.”
Leo’s words stopped her.
“We switched places.”
She spun back to face him. “This is not some Disney movie. You do not trade places.”
His lips twitched. “We did. Sorry.”
No, no, no.
“Guessing you’re…um, bad, right?”
She seethed.
Then a woman came strolling in. An absolutely beautiful woman who seemed to crackle with power. She took one look at Valerie and stopped cold, her blue eyes widening. “Oh, shit.”
“Mora.” Valerie said the woman’s name like the curse that it was. Only Mora wasn’t the woman’s real name. Her real name—that would be Fate. As in…the Fate. The all-knowing, ever-powerful, ancient Fate. “What are you doing with him? That’s not Luke!”
Leo caught Mora’s hand. Brought it to his lips. Kissed her wrist.
And nearly made Valerie gag.
“I know.” Mora’s cheeks flushed. “Leo and I are, um—”
“We’re a thing,” Leo announced.
Valerie shook her head. There was only one response to give in this particular situation. “I’m so sorry,” she told the other woman.
Leo stiffened.
Mora’s lips curled. “I’ve almost missed you, witch.” Her dark hair slid over her shoulders.
“Yes, everyone misses me. I am unforgettable and amazing and your worst nightmare all in one.” She rushed to Mora and ignored Leo. She had no use for him. “Where is Luke? I need him, like, pronto.”
Mora lifted her eyes to the ceiling.
“Do not say up,” Valerie snapped.
But then…then she heard something. A rumble? Thunder? And the doors of the house—gloriously elaborate French doors—suddenly flew back. Curtains swirled in the air. The wind shoved through the house, making her stagger.
“Are you doing that?” Mora asked her.
If only.
They all rushed toward the now open French doors. The wind was stronger. Wind that was coming from the force of two giant dragon wings.
“I’ll be damned,” Leo whispered. “You don’t see that every day.”
The dragon landed. Smoke billowed around him.
“This is why I needed Luke,” Valerie muttered. Time for her to disappear. She lifted her hands, but—
Griffin appeared. He’d just done the fastest transformation she’d ever seen in her life. Someone had gotten great control of his beast. He should thank her for that. The guy walked—naked as the day he’d been born—out of the billowing smoke. His jaw was locked tight, tension coated his hard muscles, and his glittering gaze pinned Valerie in place.
“Mated,” Mora pronounced with an air of satisfaction. “The beast and his wicked queen.”
Valerie shot the woman a death glare. “Tell me that isn’t some forever vision you just had. Because I came here in order for the Lord of the Dark to break the mating.”
“No!” Griffin’s snarl.
“Even death can’t break the mating.” Mora’s voice had turned distant. Her eyes flared with power. “He’s with you until your last breath and beyond.”
Hardly reassuring.
“Even when you die,” Mora continued, the words coming faster, “even—”
Griffin grabbed Valerie’s hand and yanked her toward him. “She’s not dying!”
“So says the man who was hired to kill me!” Valerie glared at him.
He glared back harder. “You will not die.”
“Shifter, you are getting on my nerves.”
Mora cleared her throat. “Is that because he’s also getting into your heart?”
Valerie gasped. She spun toward the other woman. “You know I don’t have a heart!”
But Mora just smiled. “Everyone has a heart. Some of those hearts are just a wee bit…small. You know, like the Grinch.”
She did not know. “Change my fate.”
Now Leo stepped in front of Mora. “I don’t like the tone you’re using with her.”
“And I don’t like the fact that you’re here, talking to me, when Luke is the one I want!”
Griffin growled.
She would not find his growls sexy. Not anymore. Her fingers wiggled toward him. Sparks flew. Clothes covered his hot nakedness. “Stop growling at me.”
“You will not want another man. We are mates, we are—”
Valerie narrowed her eyes at him. “Stop being crazy. Luke is the Lord of the Dark. The guy who should have been able to sever this stupid bond.”
Leo coughed. “Um, he was the Lord of the Dark. I’m sort of…in charge of the bad things now.”
For a moment, Valerie couldn’t breathe. Not at all. Then she sucked in a deep, desperate gulp of air. “We are so screwed.” No, she was screwed.
“Maybe.” Leo coughed again. “I’m still trying to figure this shit out, but if you told me your problem…uh, you are obviously something bad…then I think I might can…help?” He sounded so uncertain with all of his little pauses.
She gave Griffin another glower. Then she faced off with Leo. “Obviously,” she drew out the word, “I am bad. The baddest. I’m Valerie Storm.”
Leo’s eyes flared in recognition.
“And my problem? It’s him.” Valerie jerked her thumb toward Griffin. “My mate is also the assassin who was hired to kill me.”
Leo’s jaw dropped as he cut his eyes toward Griffin. “You want to kill your mate? But you’re a shifter. I can tell. I can smell the beasts on you and—”
“I don’t want to kill her,” Griffin rasped.
“So says the man who keeps witch poison at his home. Who does that?” She nodded. “There was an attempt on my life. Right under his nose. I’m supposed to buy he didn’t have anything to do with that? I’m supposed to trust this liar?”
Griffin’s hand closed around her shoulder. “I had nothing to do with the attempt on your life.” His voice was gruff. “When I saw you on the ground…Rio was covering you. I couldn’t tell if you were hurt or not.”
She slanted a glance back at him.
“I couldn’t tell if you lived.” He swallowed. “The world…it got very dark for me.”
“Big deal. The world is always dark for me.” Welcome to my paradise.
“I feared.” He pulled her closer. “I don’t fear anything.”
“You should fear me,” Leo pointed out. “I’m the ruler of the bad things, and—”
Griffin looked at the other man. Just looked.
Mora tapped Leo’s shoulder. “He doesn’t fall under your domain.”
Leo was staring at Griffin in confusion. “Why the hell not?”
“Because parts of him are good, and parts of him are bad. He carries three beasts inside.” Her eyes were glowing again. “And those beasts may one day rip him apart. They may make him choose a side—good or bad. Bad or good. But for now…now they just want…” She blinked. Focused on Valerie. “Her. He wants her.”
Her day was getting better and better. “I don’t have time for this. I have too many enemies and a world to take over. It doesn’t just rule itself, you know?” She jerked away from Griffin. Wiggled her fingers. “I’m out of—”
“No.”
Her brows rose. “Excuse me?”
His hand locked around her wrist. “You don’t leave me.”
She laughed. “I do anything I want.”
“I’m your mate. Where you go, I go.”
Precious. She leaned in close to him, and, her voice a lethal whisper, Valerie told him, “You could’ve had something. Something absolutely spectacular. Something others would have killed to possess.” Her gaze cut into him. “You could’ve had me. But you lied to me. You tricked me. I won’t make the same mistake with you again.”
His hold tightened on her. “Like you didn’t lie? Didn’t trick me?”
“That’s the thing. I didn’t.” Her smile hurt. “I should have learned from my previous mistakes. You won’t be hurting me again.”
His face went slack with surprise and his grip loosened. “I hurt—”
Her fingers wiggled. She left him. Left before the bastard could see that he’d made her cry. Pain was good, though. Pain would give her more strength.
And she’d need that strength for the battles ahead.
Someone was taking out her allies. The team she’d carefully assembled. Two were dead. That left…
Only one more witch on my side. A somewhat reckless witch named Calliope Briggs. Valerie had to find her, fast. Before someone took Calliope out of the equation.
***
Valerie had left him, again. And before she’d left…had those been tears in her eyes?
Griffin rolled back his shoulders, pulling up his beast, ready to hunt and—
“Uh, yeah…” Leo cleared his throat. “I don’t think she wants to be with you, buddy. Probably want to give her a little bit of space.”
Griffin turned his head so that he was staring at the Lord of the Dark. Yes, he knew who the bastard was. He kept tabs on both Leo and Luke. The two brothers—identical twins—had recently switched places, courtesy, he suspected of Fate.
Fate gave him a weak smile. “Valerie seemed really pissed.”
“No.” Griffin shook his head. “She was hurt. There’s a difference.”
“Not for her,” Fate argued. But, wait, she went by the less glamorous name of Mora now. He’d have to remember that.
Griffin rubbed his chest. His heart seemed to ache again. “It was just a job that I took. She was a menace.”
“Was?” Leo latched onto that word. “Past tense? Has the evil witch suddenly changed her ways?”
No, he didn’t think she had.
“Or maybe…” Leo continued carefully. “You’ve just realized that things aren’t always black and white.”
His chest ached more.
“If that’s the case, then join the club.” Leo lifted his hands. “How the hell do you think I wound up here?”
Mora rubbed her lover’s arm. “Valerie has a lot of enemies in the world. They are closing in on her.” Her stare didn’t leave Griffin’s face. “Will you let her face them alone?”
They should be clear on this. “Anyone who wants to hurt my mate will have to go through me first.” And she would only be hurt over his dead body.
Mora’s smile became absolutely brilliant. “That’s what I thought. But I worried because, you know, you’re still here. And Valerie is—um, wherever the hell she wants to be.”
Every instinct he had screamed for Griffin to give chase. Instead, he squared his shoulders and held the gaze of the new Lord of the Dark. “Who are the ones after Valerie?”
“The witch council, of course.” It was Mora who answered. “You were there when they tried to burn her. You were there when they banished her. What do you think they’ll do when they learn she’s back? Against their orders? The only punishment can possibly be death.”
“She’s my mate. They wouldn’t dare.” He had an alliance with them. Didn’t he?
“Why don’t you go find out why Valerie hates them all so much? Learn the story of her pain. Because Valerie’s pain…” Mora winced. “She is so not going to like me telling you this. But we do go back forever, so I know her secrets.”
He took a step toward Mora.
Leo stiffened.
“Pain fuels Valerie.” Mora’s voice was sad. “She was supposed to be the most powerful witch to walk the earth. The ruler of them all. That’s what I saw when I first met her. That is the fate that should have waited for Valerie.”
“Instead she became the one they all want dead?”
Leo cleared his throat. “She does have a long history of death and dismemberment. I’m still getting caught up on all the back stories for my new…paranormals, but Valerie, let’s just say she’s at the top of my danger list. From what I can tell, though, Luke was protecting her for some reason. Letting her get away with crimes that he would have killed others for committing.”
Griffin’s brow furrowed.
“Oh, that’s just because they used to be lovers.” Mora waved that bit away. “Luke probably had a soft spot for her—”
Rage. Jealousy. Raw fury. “She ran to her ex-lover?” Valerie had dropped him in the ocean and then taken off to find her ex? And if the two brothers hadn’t switched places, fuck, she would have found Luke Thorne. Would the bastard have severed her mating bond with Griffin?
“She had him wrapped around her little wiggling finger,” Mora added, eyes gleaming.
Griffin roared. He shot into the sky as his dragon’s wings ripped from his back.
***
Leo watched as the king of shifters flew away. “I’m not sure you should have mentioned Valerie’s past with my brother.” The shifter’s wings were covered in scales. And the fellow had been pissed. “I think you might have pushed him over the edge.”
Mora just laughed. “Griffin needed to be pushed.”
Leo wasn’t so sure. “Did you see his face? Killing fury is the way I’d describe his emotional state.”
Her fingers stroked down his arm. “If he’s going to fight with Valerie, if he’s going to be strong enough to handle her, then he needs some fury. He needs to understand exactly what he’s fighting to protect.”
Leo glanced down at her. His Fate. If anyone tried to take her from him, he’d fight like hell. There was nothing he wouldn’t do. No line he wouldn’t cross.
He’d trade his very soul to keep her safe.
“I just hope he understands before it’s too late.” Sadness flashed in her eyes. “Because time is running out. Death is tired of waiting.”