“This is a damn disaster. I thought it’d be a good idea to introduce her to other shifters.” I couldn’t hide my smirk at Alpha Jackson’s grumbles, but my gaze stayed glued to Linne as she stripped out of her clothes. Her scarred back glimmered under the lights of the grand foyer of the pack house. Leaning heavily on the bannister, I clasped my hands together as she flexed her beautiful, raven wings.
“It’s not a disaster. Linne was a slave, Jackson – she was forbidden from talking to anyone ever unless it was a report to her master.” Honestly, I thought it was hilarious that Rachel thought she could use brute force to get the answers that Alpha Jackson had denied everyone. Of course, people wanted to know what happened, but our considerate leader didn’t want them to get agitated.
Which was an entirely accurate worry on his part because this clan was used to being the best. Knowing there was someone in their immediate vicinity that was so incredibly more powerful than them would mess with some minds.
“I’m sure I spared Linne discomfort, but this confrontation won’t do me any good. Either I end up with a bunch of shifters that want her dead, or I end up with a bunch of lazy assholes that grow complacent under those tiny wings of hers.” Grunting absently, I shuffled on my heels as my cock strained against my jeans. Only barely did I managed to process what Alpha Jackson said, too focused on watching Linne’s tits tighten when she arched sharply in a stretch.
“I am curious as to why you believe you can beat me.” Humor laced Linne’s voice, and I clenched my jaw as she wagged her ass in those infuriating booty shorts. She only owned five pairs of jeans – one for each day of the work week. Saliva pooled under my tongue, and she glanced up at me to flush pink. Blood rushed in my ears at the lust that threatened to ignite the air around her and which sparkled brightly in her eyes as they scanned me slowly. Maybe it was from the fight, or maybe it was me; I didn’t care which because at least it was there.
Oh yeah – she felt the fucking bond alright.
“It’s not about beating you – it’s about proving a point. Either you did what you’ve said to have done, or you didn’t. And I, personally, don’t think you have it in you to kill.” The entire clan was gathered, and Rachel’s grave misjudgment bounced off the columns holding up the stairs on either side of the foyer. People lined the balcony of the second floor, and a wave of murmurs, ranging from disbelief to agreement, surged to converge on Alpha Jackson and I. Down on the first floor, Linne cocked her head without looking away from me, and a muscle in my cheek twitched.
She knew – this time, she was able to grasp some slight understanding of the mate bond, and her movements weren’t curious. They were the beginnings of a dance of sexual attraction that was going to fucking kill me. She was exploring that feeling that weighed down her eyelids and parted her lips even as it slithered up my nostrils to seep into the crevices of my brain.
“…You do not fight to prove anything. You fight to win – to kill your enemy or create the circumstances in which someone else can kill them. I have killed innumerable enemies, and if you do not believe me, I have many ways to show you.” Finally tearing her eyes off me, Linne held my attention captive even as hers turned to Rachel. She spoke so confidently, so assuredly, that it was hard to believe that she was the same person that had acted so childish only hours ago. “Your Alpha has requested that I do not kill you. Even he acknowledges how inferior you are. Why is that not enough for you?”
“Linne – ” Speaking up as a wave of animosity flowed like a waterfall over the balconies, I grimaced when Linne’s narrowed eyes met mine. “She’s not going to give you the answers you want.”
“Yes.” Her gaze flickered to Alpha Jackson, and she pursed her lips thinly before addressing him. “I will show you what I did. I do not owe you anything.”
Linne’s sleek, shiny feathers twitched, and my cock ached fiercely as I watched them grow. Easily spanning thirty feet, the wings shimmered just the same way Muss had done, and when they solidified, she stretched them high. The tips reached the balcony railing, but they were too far for me to touch. Clenching my hands into fists, I licked my teeth as shock assaulted my fingertips.
I wonder if I could choose between her ass and her wings.
“Those are impressive…I – ” Cutting Rachel off, Linne tilted her chin with a sharp smirk. She was so incredibly sexy when she was in her element, and it took me a few seconds to get over the way the light played off her feathers.
Flickering to Rachel, my eyes widened slightly as she just stood there, staring with horror into space. Her fingers twitched, cheek spasming, and shoulders tensed, but she couldn’t move any more than that.
And then she started itching her thigh where her fingertips could reach.
“What’s she doing?” My ears barely caught the murmur before Linne flung her arm out in that direction. Whipping over, I couldn’t help but scowl at the stupid expression on my clan-mates’ faces. Twisting to find Alpha Jackson just as out of the loop as me, I turned my gaze back to Linne to find her already staring at me.
“I am not going to kill them.” Slow, serious, Linne’s declaration sent a hard breath from my lungs that I didn’t realize I’d been holding. “This is not bad.”
“What are you showing them?” Gesturing with a sweep of her arm gracefully to the second floor, she blushed bright red before even opening her mouth to answer me. Arching a brow, my scowl lightened some as affection wiggled into my chest.
“The human entertainment.” Only she knew what that meant, but I nodded anyway, and Linne rolled her lips between her teeth before spreading her wings wide. They dominated the foyer, and the shifters around me snapped out of her induced visions to send a thick plume of discomfort and confusion into the air. “Now, I will show you what I did to the wolf shifters.”
All eyes, including my own, turned to Rachel, and tension thrummed just above my head. The eagle shifter was slower than everyone else in recovering, and I pursed my lips together tightly. She must’ve seen something different than the rest of the clan. Holding the bannister, my palms ached slightly from the force as realization slammed into me.
Linne could make anyone see or feel anything, and it didn’t necessarily have to be the same scene. The amount of finesse, the training required even for someone not of this realm, was mind blowing. I wonder how old she is…
Snapped from my thoughts by a shriek, my gaze flew to Rachel as she crumpled to the ground. Holding her abdomen, she banged her forehead against the marble floor twice, and the stench of her blood filtered through the atmosphere to curl my nose hairs. She rolled, writhing as she clutched her belly and red bubbled up from the gash across her head. Her screams echoed around me, and she flopped onto her back to scratch at herself with her sharp, artificial nails.
This wasn’t the same as the other night, though. Rachel wasn’t consumed by pain so fully that she couldn’t try to stop it. She itched and threw herself, desperation leaking from her pores as blood seeped from her self-inflicted wounds.
“As you can see – ” Drawing my attention, Linne gestured calmly to Rachel and spoke above the sound of her pain. “I have warped her senses to think she is in the extreme pain of insects eating her – I understand this is one of your favored methods of torture.”
I couldn’t stop the grin that stretched my lips at how nonchalant Linne was – as if she was just giving a presentation and not ruining someone’s mentality. It was beautiful to behold, and she perked up when her gaze met mine. Triumph blazed from her eyes, and I nodded a bare tilt of my head before the screams suddenly stopped.
“Are you able to mind control people?” Alpha Jackson was the first to speak up into the stunned silence, and Linne shook her head to send her hair whipping across her cheeks. I couldn’t tell if she wanted these shifters to like her, or just to understand that she wouldn’t use her gifts on them unless they did something to deserve it.
Like Rachel’s dumb ass.
“No – no. Even in my realm, it is impossible to control another person’s mind. I can only control senses – eyes, ears, taste, feeling. I can not read your thoughts or memories.” Answering quickly, Linne rolled her shoulders as her wings shrunk once again, and some of the mountainous tension in my own shoulders slithered away. “You have nothing to fear.”
‘Unless you ask for it.’ Muss’s voice was becoming increasingly, irritatingly familiar, and I tore my eyes off Linne as he materialized on the balcony between my forearms. ‘I take back my earlier words. She is not becoming stupid like a human. Why did the female think this would not end disastrously?’
“Because she’s a dumb bitch? I don’t fucking know, bird.” Ruffling his feathers at my grumble, Muss cocked his head as he blinked two of his eyes at me. The sight was unnerving, and my eyelid twitched in agitation before his voice echoed between my ears.
‘You should instruct your superior to kill her. She will not recover from Linne’s treatment, no matter how gentle.’
“Why do you care so much?” Curiosity pulled up my brow, and the bird straightened to snap his beak. His own irritation leaked into my brain, as if the answer should’ve been obvious, and that he thought it was stupid to ask in the first place.
‘Dead enemies are less hassle than living ones, Derek the Lion. If not taken care of, the female will come back to haunt your waking times. I have seen it happen many times, and this is no different.’ Muss’ ominous, wise tone had me rigid all over again, and I swiped my hand through his shimmering body with a slight snarl. ‘Linne knows this. I am sure she agonizes over not being able to destroy the female along with the others. Do not let her childish antics in this world lull you to the fact that she has been trained to kill, with and without magic, since the time she could understand what killing was.’