The dark swirls around me like an oppressive, heavy cloak, and I stand motionless, aware of bodies close behind me as we wait in the unearthly still. The sound of labored breathing suppressed snarls and growls as my flank of wolves grows to stand in a uniformed mass of protection.
“Lorey.” The familiar voice, followed by a swoop and gentle thud as my mate lands beside me in perfect poise. Appearing as if by magic. His hand skims the back of my hair with delicate precision and a show of affection, and he takes a second to focus everything on me with a pause as he checks me over. Appearing from beyond the veil of shadows and trees, I’m instantly calmer, relieved at his presence. Less afraid when he’s by my side.
“Where have you been?” I whisper at him under my breath, not giving him a second to talk or question me. My eyes are still fixed on the emptiness as I await Jasper’s reappearance. The vampires have all fallen back, leaving us out here as though standing on a stage and waiting on the curtain to rise. It’s a freakish still in the storm, and a feeling that has me on edge, drowning in my senses as my ability to sense the vampires overpowers me. They’re still close enough to make me antsy. My heart’s pounding through my chest with the heaviness of my anxiety, trying not to fidget as we wait for the appearance of the man who can end this tonight.
“Fighting, trying to keep the valley wolves alive. There are so many of them and so few of us.” He shifts around me, eyes all over my body as he checks for anything untoward once more, not satisfied with his first appraisal. Always protective, always caring, and then places his palm on the small of my back and pulls me to his side, so our bodies touch.
I throw a look up at him and can already tell by his scrapes and mud-slick body that’ he’s been having a rough time in the valley. His wounds are slow to heal due to the frequency, so he’s covered in marks and abrasions. His hair is messy, his eyes still glowing amber while in human form, and I can feel the adrenaline pumping through him like hot lava.
“Have we lost many?” I try to keep my tone inaudible to the nearby wolves as my mate glances back at them, instantly uncomfortable, and shifts on his feet. His reluctance to answer is obvious.
“Hmmm.” It’s a short and empty reply, but it speaks volumes to me. He knows it will ruin the morale of the ones closest, and word would spread fast that many have died already. I don’t want to know how many are gone either; I don’t think I can handle seeing Varro if I know how many lives have been pointlessly lost tonight. I would hate him before I could even talk to him, and it would color everything that came from my mouth. I push it away as best I can and try to focus on the here and now.
“Where’s Meadow and the subs?” I change the topic and scan the dark again, yet the only faces I see are those who were already here, patiently waiting. In the back of my mind, I wonder where Juan is. He merged into the mess after the imprinting, and he’s nowhere to be seen. Not that I care, as he has nowhere to run, and I am quietly confident that once Varro decides to pinpoint him, then he will be caught quickly. We no longer need to protect him, so everything has changed. Juan can try and escape this night, but fate brought us together for this reason.
“Split up, spread thin. They are some of our best, so they went where needed. Without being able to link, I can’t be sure.”
My gut sinks and flips, and I’m suddenly deflated and even more scared because we have no contact with our most trusted. This is a mess. Our pack is disorganized without our ability to link, and judging by Colton’s labored breathing, his gifts and strength are fading the longer we are out here. Objectively, I know that we will lose if we keep going with this fight. We never imagined it could even get this way.
“Carmen?” Colton flicks his glance to my side, devoid of her and only flanked by my guards. She swore to him to protect me, yet his furrowed brow and icy glare tell me he isn’t pleased she’s absent.
“Busy trying to disarm the sound for us, where I told her to go.” I nod towards the house, yet Colton’s head stops as he scans the faces to my left. His eyes suddenly come to rest on something of interest that sparks a facial response, blinking in shock and then something warmer as his muscles relax, and I spot a hint of a smile.
I turn around and catch Sierra propping Radar up on her shoulder, her fingers tracing his face to make sure he’s recovering, and the look of utter adoration cannot be missed. Radar has his arm around her shoulder possessively, in a way that screams ‘mine,’ and Colton isn’t slow on the uptake. He nods in their direction, looking for clarification, but I can only shake my head for now and cast him a glance that means ‘later.’ I don’t want to recount that story or talk; I am barely keeping my body in check as nerves eat away at me. Colton falls back into line with me, sighing with an agreement, and fixes his eyes back on the empty space before us.
My palms are clammy, my heart rate elevating, and my legs turning to Jell-O the longer we wait here. It’s a form of torture to wait on the unknown to play out.
Leyanne disappeared with Jasper to summon Varro and left us standing here in this deafening anticipation. I know word would have traveled to surrounding wolves, mouth to mouth, that I was waiting here to meet with him, so I know that’s why Colton appeared. He would have questioned the sudden retreat of those foul creatures and heard I was standing alone awaiting him. True to his nature, he came to me in a flash.
“You’re okay, though? No harm, no one touched you? You aren’t tired, dizzy, needing to lay down?” Colton brings his attention back to me, scanning me with that quick eye and I nod at him, completely distracted. I know he knew the answer to that the second he landed beside me, but he still has to ask. His eyes and emotional sensors are all over me because he knows mentally I am all over the place concerning Varro. He’s trying to fill the silence in the only way he knows.
“Hmmm…… I’m just sick of waiting. It’s been fifteen minutes. Where are they?”
“Right here!” The husky and powerful voice jolts me with the unexpectedness of it, and I flinch, caught in Colton’s arm as he pushes me slightly behind him and faces the direction in which it came.
It’s not Jasper or any voice I have ever heard, and my blood runs cold at the sheer sound. Strange, yet there’s something familiar in it, like a forgotten feeling.
I clench my fists and try to cool the instant booming rapid thuds of my heart, legs finally losing all sense of solidity as my entire body turns cold and light. Fear gripping my stomach in both wariness and yet anticipation. I take a deep breath and remind myself this is what I am here for.
The tall and terrifying figure seems to move from the darkness towards me fluidly, only the horrifying glow of dark red eyes visible at first and locked on my face as he seems to grow larger with his progress towards me. I am rooted to the spot, held captive by that eerie gaze, and even Colton stiffens and bristles with this intimidating aura. It’s obvious this is not a normal vampire, and we can taste his power sparking the air around us.
“Varro?” I ask with a timid shake of my voice, sounding feeble because he caught me off guard, but I inhale slowly to cool my nerves. Knowing I should show him no weakness. I am the Luna; I need to remember that.
“Father might be a more appropriate title…. given that’s what I am to you.” His smooth and low voice is like honey on a warm cake, and despite myself, there’s something almost comforting about it when he adds that little, tiny pinch of charm. I push it down and remind myself of the decades of carnage at his hands, even if his reason is tangled up with me.
“I have never known you as such, and as you’re currently killing my family. I am a little reluctant to acknowledge it.” I bristle. My mood accelerating from fear to anger in a flash.
“No further. Stay there if you want to talk.” Colton cuts in, moving fully between us as the gap closes, and I am shielded with a strong arm behind his back, catching my wrist and holding me still. He starts to shift as claws elongate and his body bulks, fighting his wolf to stay in control.
“You think I’ll hurt her?” Varro fully comes into the moonlight glow in the center of the clearing, exposing a slender yet handsome face that could be mistaken for a human if it were not for his elongated and pronounced teeth and those devil eyes that match mine effortlessly.
“I don’t know what you want, but I’m taking no chances. She’s my mate…. you won’t get anywhere near her without my say-so.” Colton is fired up and ready to battle, but Varro smiles, a disarming and smooth change to his face. Softening his angular features to take that hint of demon away. His teeth recede enough to stay within his lips, but those eyes glow brighter.
“She’s my child,… one I thought I lost and yet now stands before me. I want a chance to know her….. To see if her mother left anything of herself within her. I came here to find a resolution to our issues.” Effortless, sophisticated, oozing charm, and I finally understand why the old books told us that Vampires could dazzle humans with their charisma. It’s the first time I have seen a hint of it. It doesn’t work on other supernaturals, though. Especially not ones who are half-bloods like me.
“Colton, I’m okay.” This is going nowhere fast, and with my mate standing between us with all hackles up, this isn’t going to be resolved anytime soon. “He won’t hurt me.” I gently prod him in between the shoulder blades to stand down as my security guard.
“You have a bone to pick with our pack, and we get it. We do. This isn’t the way to resolve your feelings. Alora doesn’t want this, and it won’t bring you any kind of peace. Fighting here, killing each other, it won’t get you what you want.” Colton is still adamant he won’t back down, so instead of arguing, I slide myself in front of him and hold his arm instead. Making it clear I want to do this myself. I love his need to lead, but my voice is needed in this.
“Who says it won’t? Who says that taking down an entire bloodline in revenge won’t satisfy some of us?” Jasper’s voice filters through from behind Varro and appears at his side. Eyes ambering out as his inner wolf grows restless. His stance is hostile, his piercing gaze gleaming bright with rage, and I can taste so much pain pulsating this way from my brother. It’s almost like an overwhelming downpour coming at me from above.
“Jasper…. Do you think this will bring mom and dad back? Do they all need to die to fix that scar in your heart? What about me? Do you not care what it does to me?” I know this is futile, but I’m not ready to give up on my brother. There’s enough conflict inside of him to make me believe I still have a chance to help him through this darkness. I know his heart, who he was. He was never bad, never a killer, and all of this is pain and loneliness that’s eaten away at him for a decade. He needs to heal.
“I know nothing but pain and misery from their loss. Dad would want me to avenge our family. Mom would never lay down and let it go. She was a warrior. How can I just forget them?” He turns away, eyes glistening as tears make a show, and despite his angry words, my emotions are hit with an agonizing sad pang. My brother is in agony, and now we’re here, ready to do what he’s wanted for a decade; his heart is wavering. I can feel his confusion, even if his words contradict that. He wants so badly to do something for their memory, even if he knows they wouldn’t want this for us deep down.
“Enough… I didn’t come to listen to bickering. I was offered a solution, and I want to hear it.” Varro impatiently snaps, bringing my brother to heel with his tone. He snaps all our attention back to him, and I must let go of my brother’s emotions for now.
“I want this to end tonight. The root of all of this is Juan Santo. He’s here, among us. You want someone to blame. Then it’s him and his greed. We won’t stop you. His thirst for power over a pack and his acts of murder, his actions that kept me a prisoner for a decade. I have as much reason to hate him as you do. So please, don’t see this as some sort of weak compromise. This is as much for me as it is for you.” I let go of my mate and bring myself up tall and proud, matching Varro’s stance. Words finding their strength and reminding myself that I can do this. My hatred for Juan is as strong as theirs. I need them to understand that.