“Where are we going, young wolf?” Adres asked as he was pulled farther into the woods behind Macauley’s cabin. “Don’t you think we should stay around the others?”

“Justice said everything is cool, so no.” Macauley pushed him against the base of a tree. “All that noise and music is getting on my nerves. I just want ten minutes of peace and quiet with you.”

“I will not argue that.” Adres moaned as Macauley went straight for his throat.

“And I thought with all the blood and drinks flowing that maybe you were getting hungry.”

“I’m always hungry for you,” Adres answered before he bit into Macauley’s throat.

“Fuck, you make that feel so good.” Macauley groaned, gripping his ass. “Drink as much as you want.”

Adres loved that his cherished was able to produce more blood than he could possibly consume at once. His pureness presenting him with a new flavor every time. Adres’s eyelids slid shut as essence as sweet as honeysuckle slid down his throat. He could ingest so much that he could get drunk and fall into a slumber. He swallowed one more sizeable gulp before he pulled away and went to his knees. Macauley’s dick was already out and leaking as he took the head between his lips and sucked him down his throat.

Macauley’s voice rang out into the night, neither of them caring who might have been close enough to hear. Besides, they weren’t the only ones making noises now. Adres ignored the sounds around him and focused on making Macauley lose his mind. He loved the heft of his beloved’s cock on his tongue and the way it pulsed and filled his mouth.

Macauley held the back of Adres’s head as he spilled down his throat. He didn’t let a single drop escape as he bathed Macauley’s cock clean with his tongue. He had one arm braced against the hard bark of the tree, gazing down at him and spreading his legs wider as Adres went lower.

He was going on pure instinct now, fueled by his cherished’s come and wanting more. Macauley’s earthy scent and Adres’s bone-deep urge to satisfy his alpha kept him on his knees. He had never drunk from a lover in this way, it being far too intimate and risky if not done properly, but he wanted it more than anything. He wanted the pleasure to be so intense that it left his cherished dazed and trembling. Adres flicked his tongue along the tight vein beneath Macauley’s sac before he sucked it with passion, treating his balls as if they were precious jewels.

Oh fuck, oh fuck, fuck, Macauley chanted as Adres pierced one fang into Macauley’s sac, pushing enough elixir that his thighs shook. The taste was divine and more potent there as he lapped at Macauley’s taint while scarce drops of blood ran down his throat. His own cock was so hard, but he would wait until they were home in their bed, beneath the covers, to quench that hunger.

“You’re gonna make me fucking come again,” Macauley warned, just before Adres released his sac and clamped his mouth around the head to swallow what he had left to give. His lover’s come was like liquid sunshine coating his throat.

He was being positively obscene and smutty, and gods did he love it. Why do you make me do such nasty things, Alpha? A rumble of satisfaction vibrated Adres’s tongue, and he didn’t stop laving Macauley’s thick shaft until he was attempting to pull him to his feet. Adres leaned against his alpha while he righted their clothes.

“I swear if I didn’t have to help with some of the cleanup, I would not go back. We need some real time alone, mate. Like a vacation.”

“I know of the word ‘vacation,’ but it is not something I know how to do.” Adres felt as light-hearted as he’d ever been. A vacation? Interesting. Where would they go? He guessed the skies were the limit. There was nothing he couldn’t do anymore. His mind and soul were free.

When Adres had mentioned love to his old friend, he hadn’t been sure he would get to experience the sentiment in his lifetime. But he was sure the intensity that he felt for his young wolf was indeed… love.

“It sounds as if the party is winding down. Thank heavens. Now we can go home,” Macauley said as they walked back towards the compound. “And we can start to plan our… vacation.”

Macauley was gazing at the faint curve Adres felt on his lips when he heard the faint whistle that propelled him into motion. It only took him a fraction of a second to reach behind him and pull his sword, the blade extending and batting away the two darts that flew towards his beloved. Adres snapped his sword in Macauley’s direction and threw a shield around him as he shifted into his animal.

“Go and warn your pack,” Adres ordered. Whoever had fired at them was already far too close to the compound, and he was concerned that no alarm had been raised.

I will not leave your side.

“I will be fine, you know that.” Adres whistled for his horse. Once Război flashed to his side, he leapt onto his back. “I need to push them further away. They’re too close.” Adres dropped down on the side of Război’s flank as a flurry of darts pelted off him. “Go, now!”

Macauley hesitated a second before he ran off, the poisonous darts being shot at him bouncing off the protective ward. Adres could hear a wave of movement coming in his direction as he summoned energy from his light. His core burned hot as he flung his arm forward, his gale force winds blowing past him and into the woods. Dirt, debris, and shrubbery were hurled across the earth, propelling his enemies farther back as he prepared to charge forward.

Before he could kick Război into motion, horrified screams rang out from the compound as the intruder alarm finally sounded from the Osceola Mountain top. Adres almost dropped his Hwando as a crippling wave of dread and pain enveloped his mind. Macauley! he blared through their link as he flashed towards the compound.

Adres was devastated at what he saw. He had only been gone a moment, but it was long enough for the pack lands to be ambushed.

The ground trembled, and Adres turned at the sound of a snarling black wolf. Adres held the reins in one hand and his weapon in the other, charging towards Wrath just as he tore the body of an assassin in half. His friend was a different kind of fighter in this form but no less deadly.

There is a sorcerer behind this. Wrath’s voice in his mind made his temples pound. Look at the sky.

The lights that once illuminated the courtyard had been burned out, and a dark veil of evil covered the territory, plummeting them into blackness. It was enough to disorient and frighten the shifters, sending them fleeing towards their cabins. Wrath and Belleron fought together while Adres searched for Macauley as more searing dread pierced his heart.

He rode across the grounds, swatting darts out of midair while he shielded some of the enforcers who had made their way to the fight. It wasn’t until he’d rounded the corner to Justice’s cabin that he saw the source of his anguish.

Macauley and Justice were on their hands and knees, crouched over their sister’s lifeless body. It looked as if she’d been struck in her chest with multiple darts as soon as she stepped out of the front door. They had been defenseless. Her betas and guards knelt nearby, crying as they tried to stay out of the line of fire, but not leave their alpha.

Taleb ran over, his guards moving with him as he fell to Farica’s side and yanked the three darts from her body. Justice noticed the moment Adres threw a shield around them as he got to his feet. “We need the pack doctors now!” he hollered.

Adres feared that wasn’t possible.

“Protect the cabins,” Justice told his enforcers as he covered his baby sister’s body with his own.

Adres could feel the devastation in his mate as he brought Farica’s limp hand to his cheek, begging her to keep breathing.

Get her inside, beloved.

Out of the corner of his eye, Adres saw two wolves leap and somersault to avoid the shots flying in their direction as they ran for safety. Adres threw his sword towards the hooded vampires who flashed after them, the blade cutting clear through their bodies before it came back towards him. The leather-bound handle slammed into his palm with so much force that it caused Război to rear up on his hind legs to prevent it from propelling them backwards.

The king had been at his beloved’s side, but the enforcers began to get overrun as more assassins descended from the forest in droves—making their final stand. Wick shifted into his white tiger and attacked two vampires just before they reached where Justice had been standing, their crossbows falling to the ground. Adres searched for the legion amidst the chaos of coven officers protecting their leaders.

He found the king’s elite forces near the blood mobiles, fighting off multiple assassins who were trying to get inside them, most likely to destroy the results of the prophesy.

With the Volkov alphas mentally incapacitated, half the battle was already won.

Fueled by adrenaline, Adres charged forward and used his wards to shield the legion as he blasted a force of his wind at the assassins that knocked them off their feet. Before they could flash away, he shot his sword out again and watched it sail through the air at its targets, severing their heads, their crossbows falling to the ground.

The scent of demon blood invaded his senses, and the light within his sword burned brighter.

“Protect the king’s beloved and his home,” Adres ordered the legion.

“We will stay and guard the mobiles.” Asa and Azriel stood back-to-back with their daggers in their hands. “Our officers will protect the cabins.”

Adres nodded and turned towards the forest, trying to trace the source of the evil. He would need to cut off the head of the snake, or else they would fall. Already multiple shifters and vampires lay on the ground with poison coursing through their systems and killing them slowly.

A pained howl wrenched the air, and Adres spun in time to see Wrath fall to the ground in Belleron’s arms with two darts piercing his hindquarters. Either fight to the end or be killed on the ground beneath his cherished, Belleron leapt to his feet, striking and killing all who surrounded him with his cane-sword, his movements so fast and precise they were a blur. His waist-length onyx hair flew around his face as he swung his blade in powerful strikes, making dark, foul-scented blood spray in arcs across the grass.

Gods help us, Adres prayed. He needed to get to the cowardly sorcerer, wherever he was hiding, while he possessed vampires to do his evil, but he found himself at his friend’s side, shielding him and his mate. The evil looming over their heads was familiar in an unsettling way. He’d combated this kind of wickedness before… and he’d lost years of his life as a result.

He could not lose his young wolf. Not now. Not ever.

Wick appeared at their side and joined in the fight, the three of them surrounding Wrath while he lay prone on the ground.

“Can you use your waves?” Adres gritted out, flashing back and forth between two vampires with blank, unseeing eyes and decaying, pointy sneers as they attacked him from both sides. Their screams were cut short in a gurgle of blood as bone crunched under his blade.

No. It is Aleksei, Wrath answered, his voice laced with pain. He grieves for his sister. He has separated from me, wanting to be by her side.

Adres dropped to one knee and put his hand in Wrath’s dense black fur, his fingers knocking off embers of fire as he felt for his pulse.

I can burn off the poison from the darts, but… Wrath grunted. I cannot project my heat.

La naiba! Adres ducked as a vampire dove towards him from behind. Belleron caught the vile creature in midair with one hand and crushed his throat before he tossed it to the side like garbage. They were beginning to get overwhelmed, and Adres didn’t know how well Asa and Azriel were faring on keeping the assassins from getting to the cabins. He had sworn an oath to protect this pack and to guard Belleron and the king with his life.

Until the end.

He felt his cherished invade his mind and wrap his strength around his, targeting his soul. I am with you, mate.

Adres looked towards the angry sky as he searched for an answer.

Pray to your brothers, Wrath growled. They will feel the distress in your wind. Just as they did when the sorcerer last came for you. But now you have connected your light with the righteous one. Belleron was struck across his back before Wick swiped his massive claw out and tore open the assassin’s chest. Wrath roared in Adres’s mind, searing his thoughts with battle rage. Call for your brothers!

It was their last chance. Adres pulled on his wind with all of his might as he whispered into the steel of his blade, “Horsemen,” and shot his energy in the remaining three cardinal directions.

It was seconds before a blinding light pierced the darkness from the north, south, and east. A whirlwind formed in the sky as three hooded figures on horseback exploded through the veil of evil. Their combined winds enveloped the sorcerer’s wards until it disintegrated and rained over the compound like ashes. The possessed vampires crumpled into heaps of bone and ash, no longer controlled by sorcery.