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And to all you lovelies out there that want to fuck the dragon. Go put on some Barry White, grab a glass of whatever you fancy, and read on. This one is for you.
You can’t break someone who found strength within their own destruction. - Unknown
Thank god you’re a phoenix. If your dad saw those injuries, he would have reamed my ass for letting you get hurt—and that’s before he started looking into how it happened. The Movement was almost jeopardized.”
“Everyone made it home in one piece . . . well, mostly. I’m not taking responsibility for Lima’s missing finger. He should have known better than to point at something with fangs.” He wasn’t exactly the brightest crayon in the box, if you know what I’m saying.
Still, something about being out on the night when my power was at its weakest was nerve-racking, also stupid. If anything went wrong, I was about as useful as a human. Slightly faster, resistant to fire, and able to heal from anything—but whatever strength my shifter genes lent me was zilch.
Alexander was the second oldest. He had a tough, no-nonsense demeanor, but he was also the calm and collected one between my father’s preferred sons.
Gavriel was warm and gentle—too gentle for this world or the family we were born into.
He had a formidable shifter form, but his temperament was better suited to, well, me. He was a peacekeeper and knew when to keep his mouth shut.
My eldest brother Ty was another story entirely. Wherever he went, blood followed. Along with sweat, piss, and strewn limbs. There was a reason they called him The Sadist.
“Twenty minutes late. Right on time.” I snorted. It was very much a Ward power play. Dad liked to say that it established dominance. Personally, I thought it just made him look rude.
Spotting the duck shifter floating in the water, I smiled. “Lindsey is in position.”
“Look at her cute little duck butt.” “She’s a duck . . .” “And?” “Mates are weird,” I mumbled, and she huffed a small laugh.
Not when I refused his rejection before he ran off. If I were smart I would have accepted it, letting the bond break. Apparently I was a glutton for punishment in more ways than one.
One cracked his neck, and a chill went down my spine. Tingles spread through my fingertips, and anxiety zipped across my nerve endings. Why watching them elicited that reaction in me, I didn’t know, but it couldn’t be good. The magic beneath my skin felt itchy. Restless. Terrified. My power should be nowhere near the surface. Not tonight.
“They’re not late. They’re making us wait to prove a point,” he said without looking up. “What point is that? That they’re late and wasting our damn time?” I kept my voice low, barely above a whisper, to avoid any nearby shifters from making out our conversation, but I could see my breath in the air. “They’re in control. It’s a power move.” He shrugged, eating another apple slice. “Comparing dick size is no longer considered an acceptable power move, huh?” “They’d lose,” he said with a grin, flicking a seed away. I chuckled. “Whatever they need to do to convince themselves. I just wish they’d
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“Why does everyone say that, anyway? And who the hell cares about virtues? You look around lately? Virtues will get you killed in this world. So will vices, but lust is at least worth a conversation.”
Whatever it was called to my senses, tugging at deeper and baser instincts. The scent of the water became stronger. The taste of the air on my tongue heightened. As an earth fae, I was always in tune with nature, but this was something else entirely. An invisible force pulling me away from this place and in another direction, enticing me.
“I hate dealing with syndicate assholes.” Niall cocked an eyebrow. “Says Adrian Rose, the Prince of Brooklyn.”
The reality was he just wanted to see his mate again, and everything we did was to get him closer to her—including the deal we were making with the shifter don, Phaon Ward.
Me? I wanted the bare minimum. In no particular order: An unrealistic romantic comedy film. Aged whiskey. A good lay. Cake. And to be left alone. Right now? I’d settle for getting the fuck out of here.
Pleasure, my ass. Niall had it out for the Mafia leader more than he had it out for those that had wronged him in his past. His mate was Phaon’s daughter, and he wanted nothing more than to be near her again. The years of separation had significantly strained his power and control. All supernaturals that had mates were pulled to them, but shifters had a connection to an animal—and animal desires ignored logic. I didn’t know how any of it felt. I didn’t have a mate. I’d promised my best friend that I would do anything I could to help him get to her again.
“I didn’t realize he was needed to complete our transaction, Phaon. Are the shifters losing trust in the Roses?” I asked, trying to understand what game he was playing. “Of course not,” Phaon answered with a crooked smile. “That would imply there was trust to begin with.” Touché, motherfucker.
It was mostly calm. A duck floated nearby, moving along with the current. Odd for the time of year, but not unheard of. There would be no reason to give it a second glance, were it not for a brief metallic reflection beneath its feathers. A sense of wariness crept over my body. I kept my mouth shut, scanning the rooftops and shipping containers nearby. Everything felt wrong about tonight.
Get in. Do the deal. Get out. One step closer to his mate. One more mark against Phaon. That is all we needed to accomplish.
The moment I stepped out of the way, the creeping feeling buzzed over my skin, intensifying. An invisible line hooked into me, urging me to turn around. I didn’t know who or what it was, but every fiber in my being demanded I find out. On a rooftop in the distance, I saw her. Hunched down, holding a bow and arrow. As she let that arrow loose, I grabbed Niall. “Time to go.”
“Don’t shift, do you hear me?” I whispered harshly, holding her shoulders. “We don’t need you tearing through Brooklyn in a rage right now.” “They have my fucking mate, Nikki.” “And you are the only known shifter that turns into a saber-toothed tiger. If you out yourself as a member of the militia, they’re coming for your entire family. The kids included. Death would be a gift if Ty got ahold of them.” I hated the truth of the words. I didn’t want to say them, but a harsh reality was needed to keep her in check.
Thoughts of fire and flame ran through my mind. Given my shifted form, I might have had a small fascination with things that went boom.
As I set my aim, one of the two strangers at the meeting turned around. He stared right at me as though I’d lit a beacon and called to him. Even through the dark and the distance, he’d found me. But he didn’t move. Didn’t raise the alarm. He just watched. Maybe he didn’t see me, after all.
Slowly that itch on my skin began to tickle the edge of my thoughts, finding a way to whisper in my head as though it was a real entity, but I couldn’t make out the words. I clapped my hands over my ears like it would stop whatever magic was trying to creep in. Nope. I was noping out of this weirdness.
They were their own sort of territory within the boroughs that no syndicate could control. Instead, rogues and gangs claimed them, which made hitching a ride on one a bit like Russian roulette. I never knew if I’d get robbed or murdered from one stop to the next.
I was a phoenix. Confined places terrified me. Add in small, dark, and dangerous? Yeah, no thanks.
My pursuer caught up. “Fuck,” he growled, crouching down on one knee, breathing through pain as though I had somehow used my powers against him. But I hadn’t. I couldn’t. My power was tied to the sun.
Had it been a good decision to come out on a new moon? Probably not. Did it stop me? Nope. Did I have questionable intelligence? Maybe. It was definitely worth a debate.
“Wait,” he said, getting up. His deep voice sent intense vibrations through me, coating my skin in warmth, making my core constrict. I ran through the doors, then pivoted to see where he was. The answer was right behind me. He stood, chest heaving, looking down at me. His sheer size dwarfed me and I wasn’t just meaning height. He had a good foot over me, but his wide shoulders and thick arms more than hinted at his strong physique. I’d never seen him before, but he definitely wasn’t one of my dad’s soldiers. Or even a shifter for that matter, despite his impressive size. He was fae.
His beauty may have stolen my breath away, but it was the feeling that ran through me that made every part of my body and mind take notice. All the way from the tips of my fingers to the soles of my feet, heat that I’ve only experienced once before grounded me, stealing my ability to move.
The moment his eyes met mine, his pupils dilated, and my breath whooshed out as a whole new reality slammed into me.
Our eyes met once more, before the subway disappeared into the tunnel. My breathing slowed as the train picked up speed, carrying me, and only me, away from Brooklyn. Away from my mate.
Adrian said it was a mistake to even attempt this. That the risk it posed to my beast being discovered outweighed any possible benefit. He wasn’t wrong that it was a high-stake deal. He was just wrong that it wasn’t worth it. She was worth all of it.
“What the hell was that?” I demanded; a growl infused my words, making them sound more animal than man. “You had them. They were within reaching distance. Why didn't you grab them before the door slammed shut?” Adrian didn’t trip over himself with excuses or even attempt to defend his actions. On the contrary, he didn’t respond at all.
His face, which was normally set in a carefree mask, now showed fractured edges of emotion that I’d never seen before. Thirty seconds passed before he finally spoke. The words came out in a deep rasp, as if it took all of his will to pull them from the place that he'd gone. “My mate.” Shock stole my breath for a moment, followed by the closest thing to joy that I could muster. I couldn’t feel it, not really, but I could feel something. To find one's mate was no small thing. It often took years, decades, even centuries. Adrian was young for a fae; only eighty years old.
To be Adrian’s mate, she’d be powerful. No doubt about it. While he liked to play off his abilities, he was far more dangerous than he let people believe, particularly his parents. “I think I would know it was her if I saw her again, but I have no idea how to find her.” Another emotion thickened in his voice. This one I was painfully familiar with. Loss.
She was drugged when we met. Out of her mind with terror. Then grief. Her father sent me away. Told me to become a man that he could respect. One that could take care of his daughter, if I ever wanted a hope of bonding with her.
“She pushed me. She ran. I wouldn’t be so certain she’s going to come looking for me.” “Well, when we have Earth and Emerald under our thumb, we’ll use their resources to look for her. She might run, Adrian, but she won’t be able to hide. Not for long.”
I could think about was his face. My mate. The way he looked at me . . . he was certainly stunned, but he knew it too, right? He seemed like he did. That’s how finding your mate worked.
My mate—my first mate— had rejected me six years ago. Every time I thought about it my heart hurt. Malachi. My best friend. How could you spend your entire childhood with someone, grow with them, love them, and then just reject them when you find out they’re your mate?
Malachi aside, I just didn’t get how I was able to have a second-chance mate when I hadn’t severed the bond with my first. That wasn’t just unusual. It was impossible.
“Common sense,” I answered with a shrug. “And oh, I have these two things called ears that dad encourages me to use. Weird, I know, but they haven’t heard anything about being invited to a single event hosted by any of the Houses in the last twenty something years, so . . . why are we going? You’re not answering my question.”
“So . . . tonight is about a business deal,” I said carefully. A business deal during their election year. Earth and Emerald would be announcing candidates after the solstice celebration. My entire family had been invited. And then it clicked. Closing my eyes, I sighed. “Which one of my brothers is running?” My dad barked a laugh. “You’ve always been so keen,” he said, squeezing my hand and patting it on top. “Alexander is going to join the trials. He'll be making his announcement tonight.”
My father didn't value Gavriel at all. He thought he was too much like our mother. Too soft. Too weak. Dad would never support him being in any position of power. And Ty was a psycho. Which brother had been chosen for this task made sense, but there were still several factors that didn’t.
From what little he’d said, his plan was incredibly flawed and risky. I was surprised. He usually had a much better grasp of risk assessment. This seemed like a foolish grab for more power. “That's where you come in.” Aw, crap. Well that was an ominous response, and I didn’t care for it.
