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“It is better to stand and fight.
If you run, you’ll only die tired.”
-A Viking Saying-
DOMINIC
This is the first time I see my cousin in human form. He’s blonde like me, but with lifeless brown eyes and a mean sneer. His body is built, but jagged scars cross his naked chest. He’s wearing a pair of jeans, faded and ripped like they’ve seen better days, and he’s barefoot.
“Who’s your pretty lady?”
I shift to cover Luz halfway with my body. His smirk at my knee-jerk reaction tells me that’s exactly what he wanted. But rather than get distracted by it, I notice his yellowed teeth and hollow cheeks.
His hair in shoulder-length, dirty and covered with leaves. And there’s a scent off him...
“Picked up a habit, cousin?” My retort seems to hit a nerve as one hand clenches in a fist. But he releases it, sneering instead.
“And if I did?”
His chaotic attitude is not reassuring and I’m regretting bringing Luz here. “What does a wolf get out of drugs, anyway?”
“Why don’t you see for yourself?” He jerks his head towards me, and I tense, expecting the creatures behind me to move.
Instead, I hear Lucrezia yelp and whirl around. One wolf morphed to human and has her in his grip. Damned freaking concentration and impaired abilities. And damn this full moon. I’m about to lunge at him, but he pushes her neck to the side and bares his long canines.
My feet are rooted to the ground, unsure what I’m witnessing until my cousin moves in my periphery. “Easy, Vlad. Human necks are so very fragile. Let’s not upset our visitors just yet.” To me, he says, “I bet you thought our eating of hearts was only for show, didn’t you?”
“No.” My eyes are on Luz the entire time, willing her to be strong, and I read only determination in her expression and trust that I’ll get her out of this. Brave girl. I try to be worthy of her faith, keeping my voice strong and holding my fury at bay. “I thought you were a bunch of psychos in it for the thrill.”
Radu growls, and Vlad’s grip tightens on Luz. “Watch yourself, cousin. Unless you want your human to suffer.”
I glare at him for a moment, before turning back to Luz. “She’s my mate, you stupid bastard. Can’t you smell it on her? You’re harming my claimed mate. You know what the punishment is for that, in any pack.”
Radu laughs, and it’s long, hard and brittle. It stops in a coughing fit, then he straightens. “None of those rules apply to us. We are superior in every way, cousin. The hearts ensure this by increasing our natural abilities, including strength. They also affect the venom in our canines, turning it into an acid. That’s how it was so easy to dispose of those wolves that attacked you.”
“Why did you let me go, in that case?”
Radu snorts. “It wasn’t because I was sentimental, believe me. I thought if I showed you some good faith, your curiosity would get the best of you and you would return to the fold.” His glare settles on Luz. “Evidently, I was wrong and your loyalty is elsewhere. So before anything else, we must remedy that.”
Vlad moves his mouth closer to Luz’s neck, and every muscle in my body is ready to snap. “Enough! Leave her be. What do you want, Radu?” I turn to face him, forcing my fists to unclench.
He recognizes the effort and a swift, victorious gleam passes through his gaze before he nods to another wolf. It skulks near me and drops a pouch at my feet. I bend over and pick it up, hesitating to open it. I can feel what’s it in it, but don’t understand the purpose.
“You want me to shoot myself up with drugs?” Sure enough, when I tear open the pouch a clean syringe falls out, along with a vial of an amber liquid.
Radu grins at my confusion. “Yes.”
“Will you at least tell me why?”
“See, that’s your problem. You think there’s a reason to this whole thing, a plan. But there’s none, cousin. I want you to shoot yourself up with drugs because I want to see you lose control. It pleases me to wreak havoc on someone’s life.”
He smirks, darting a glance to Luz. “And once you’re high enough, maybe you’ll consent to sharing.”
My wolf has had enough, and it tears through my consciousness before I can decide it. I shift mid-way a lunge, and it’s my claws that land on Radu’s chest, digging in and drawing blood. We grapple, rolling on the ground until someone hurtles into me and sends me flying.
I shake off the hit and turn to face them, not noticing the wolf in human form creeping up behind me.
“Dominic!”
Luz’s scream has me turn, in time to see the needle jab into me. It drops to the ground, empty. I shake my head, but my vision narrows, going blurry and out of focus.
“We could have done this the easy way.” Radu is kneeling next to me now, and I must be on the ground but don’t know how I got like that.
My breathing is shaky, and every movement of my chest feels like lifting weights. Yet euphoria is spreading through my veins, a sense of invincibility... A desire to ravage. I move my head, my eyes zeroing in on Luz—and the precious organ hidden deep within her chest.
I can hear her heartbeat, loud and clear. Its power calls to me, my mouth salivating for it. Radu bends over me, his putrid scent overpowering my senses.
“You want her heart. Take it. Take it and join us, embrace your full nature, holding nothing back. There is more power here than you can guess, cousin.”
I want to shake my head, I want to say no. But for once, I am not in control, the full moon contributing to the fog in my head. And I know now why Radu wanted me high for this—my senses are dulled, and the darkness of the vrykolakas is calling out like a siren.
The problem is, I’m not sure I can resist it.
Lucrezia
I don’t know how it all went wrong, but we miscalculated at some point. Held tightly by a naked, smelly human-wolf who’s about to dig his teeth into me is not my idea of fun, and I want to escape him and help Dom.
They shot him up with something, some kind of drug, and now he’s lying down and looking at me. But what scares me is his eyes are no longer blue like they were, but the yellow is gaining on it. And for a second, I almost think I see a flash of red through them.
We need the pack to help get us out of this mess... We need someone.
Guys! I don’t know if it’ll work, I’m no wolf. But I try to think of Tristan, Finn and Lucas, closing my eyes and picturing their faces in my head. We need help. Please!
A slap on my cheek has me blink, startled. Radu is now standing before me, glaring at me and baring his teeth. “What the hell are you doing?”
I might miss what he’s talking about, but damn my cheek stings! I raise my hand to cradle it, and taste blood on my lip. It’s then I realize the guy holding me has now backed away, and I’m free.
“Answer my question, human.”
Radu’s eyes are cold when I raise my gaze to his, trying not to gag at his scent. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
Unfortunately, my attitude seems to piss him off more. He grabs me by the shoulders, shaking me hard enough to make my teeth rattle. “Who were you calling out to?”
Calling out? My eyes widen, but I mask my surprise at my success. If he heard me, then maybe the guys did, too. If so, we need time... I glance at Dom, who’s now struggling to get to his feet.
Radu lets go of me with a disgusted snort, and turns to Dom. “She’s all yours, cousin. I like breaking my women in, but this one’s too much trouble.”
I glare at his back, picturing running my fist through his thick skull. A growl draws my attention back to Dom. He’s standing up now, albeit on staggering paws. And he’s taking a few steps towards me. But his eyes...
Dom, what did they do to you?
There’s no blue left. They’re full yellow, with a rim of red, much like the rest of the creatures. Even his claws seem to have elongated, as did his canines. And he’s walking towards me like I’m his next meal.
Shit.
I glance around, searching for something I might use as a weapon, if only until I can break through to him. But the vrykolakas have closed in, and Radu is watching with a satisfied smirk.
Despite the change in my boyfriend, I refuse to fear him. I remember Ileana’s words, how she’d been so sure I could bring him back from the brink of darkness. I glance up at the moon, full and shining on us.
Really wish this relationship came with an instruction manual.
Dom is almost upon me now, and judging by the way his muscles tense, he’s getting ready to pounce. Then clouds shift over the moon, covering it. Radu raises an annoyed glance up to the sky, the only indication that it's something significant.
I focus back on Dom, and he’s faltering in his step. He blinks, and the blue returns to his gaze. Then his explanation rings in my ears, making me gasp. The moon! It must be screwing with his head, encouraging the primal part of him, and the drugs aren’t helping.
“Dom?” My whisper makes him tilt his head, and I try to rein in my excitement. “Dom, you have to fight this, please!”
A gust of wind picks up and everything is brighter again, the moon no longer covered. The yellow returns to his eyes, and I know I lost my one chance to get through to him.
In the next breath, Dom pounces towards me. I have a moment of clarity and shift my stance, grabbing his head mid-way and using his momentum to flip him. He lands on his back with a thud, and I throw all my weight on him.
In this form, flattened on his back, Dom is as long as he is in human form. He jerks against me, struggling, but the drugs in his system make him weaker, dimming his strength and capacity to fight.
I thank my lucky stars for that small blessing. “Dominic, please!” My whispers are urgent in his ear. “You need to snap out of this.”
Dominic
It’s like I’m in a badly lighted alleyway, with a light flickering on and off. On, and all I want to do is rip my mate’s heart out of her chest and consume it. Off, and I see her face, hear her pleas, and want to struggle against this impulse with all my might.
The drug in my system is wearing off, not that I’m sure it’s a good thing. This time, when I come to, Lucrezia’s on top of me, her scent filling my nostrils.
Flashes of what we shared mere hours earlier run through my head, warming my heart and dispelling the fog that seems to have consumed me.
But before I can intervene, Radu yanks her off me. He throws her in the arms of one of his acolytes, jabbing a finger towards her and yelling. I can’t make out his words at first, but catch the end.
“If you fuck this up for me, you’ll regret it, bitch!”
A snarl erupts from my throat, my wolf protesting his mistreatment of our girl.
“I’ll kill him before I let you corrupt him!” Luz spits in his face, and Radu loses it.
He swings his hand back to hit her, and I see red. Despite the dizziness and the ground moving under my paws unsteadily, I lunge towards him, hitting his back and sprawling atop it. My claws dig in it, drawing blood. Out of the corner of my eye, I catch Luz elbowing the guy holding her and releasing herself.
I step off Radu, joining her side and morphing back into human form. I pull her in my arms, inhaling her scent. “Lucrezia...”
She shivers in my arms, and at first I think it’s because she wants me off her. But then her hands wrap around my neck, pulling me closer and burying her head in my neck. “I thought I’d lost you!”
My grip tightens on her. “Never.”
“How touching. But I’m not done with you yet, cousin.”
I pull back enough to look at Radu, not dropping my hand off Luz. “Leave these parts while you still can, cousin. You cannot win this fight.”
He sneers and is about to say something when growls surround us. I scan the surroundings as the creatures move closer to their leader, not noticing anything at first. Glowing eyes pop out of the shadows, and I recognize the large wolf at their head.
“Jared.”
It’s pretty evident what he’s here for, judging by the number of wolves with him. It’s the entire pack, clustered together in pairs. Luz’s grip tightens on my hand, and I squeeze back.
Yeah, I know. This keeps getting better by the second.
I pull her to my chest in a one-armed hug, using the opportunity to whisper in her ear. “I have to morph again. Do you still have your knife?” She nods against me. “Good. Try to get the hell out of here at the earliest opportunity.”
“I’m not leaving you!”
“Luz...” Her gaze is stubborn when it meets mine, and I sigh, knowing I can’t deter her. “Try to play them off against each other. Jab the knife in the eyes or near the ears, they’re more sensitive there.”
Her swift agreement makes my heart swell with pride. Though I blame myself for getting her in this situation, I know I never would have been able to return without her presence to ground me. Ileana was right all along.
I let her go and take my wolf form, placing myself in front of her. What are you doing here, Jared?
What’s it look like? Vengeance. Your fuckers killed a third of my men, Aiden included.
You’ve got half of that right. I jerk my head towards the creatures watching us with interest—and hunger. I bet our hearts would make great candidates for snacks. They killed your wolves, all right. But they’re not mine.
Jared snorts, not believing me. What does it matter? You’ll all die tonight, your redhead included.
Without bothering with more threats, Jared throws his head back and howls. It must be the signal the pack is waiting on, because they lunge forward with ferocious snarls, two against each creature.
Jared moves towards me and Radu, the intent to kill shining in his eyes. Movement on the periphery grabs my attention, and I catch Luz stabbing the hand of one wolf in human form that tried to grab her. The guy pulls back with a hissed curse, and she follows up the attack with a kick to the groin that leaves him crawling away on the ground.
Then she turns, scanning her surroundings for the next threat. My wolf roars his approval, loud enough to make her smile.
Using my distraction to his advantage, Jared slams into my side, and we roll on the ground. He comes up on top, snarling. Your death will be sweet.
I was not involved, you fool!
Too bad. I see his jaws move towards my neck and cord my feet, pushing against his belly. He’s in a position to dominate, but I’m stronger. I throw him off me and before he can attack again, another wolf jumps between us.
I recognize Tristan’s colors, and his voice comes in my head. You okay, meu amigo?
Yes. I glance around, not noticing Finn or Lucas. How did you know?
We all heard Luz’s call. Finn and Lucas are just slower.
Her what?
Tristan throws me a look. Lucrezia was able to tap into our pack link. Must be due to her connection with you, or whatever. Does it matter? She called, we came. And we don’t have time for this, Dom. Go after your cousin, I’ll handle the rest.
It’s only then I notice Radu took off, and it seems half of his creatures followed him. I hesitate to leave Luz alone, especially after what she just survived. As if sensing it, she glances up from the last wolf she wrestled to the ground. “GO! I’ll be fine.”
I take a hesitant step towards her, but she shakes her head and points to the path Radu disappeared on. It’s then I know exactly why Ileana wanted me to have Luz with me. To bring me back from the edge, but also to push me forward to finish this.
With one jump, I move past Tristan. Watch over her.
Go do what you have to do. I got your back, and hers.
Lucrezia
I could have cried in relief when Tristan showed up. At first I thought he was another wolf, but then he turns and I recognized the soft chocolate eyes. When he joined Dom’s side, I knew he was an ally.
It’s about time! Between Jared and his wolves, and Radu and his crazies, the clearing we’re in is filling up.
Dom listens to us and goes chasing after Radu. There is no way he can get them all to leave unless he takes the alpha position away from Radu. I shiver, hoping this doesn’t mean he must turn vrykolakas to be worthy.
As the thought strikes me, I pause. Ileana said he needed me... I bite my lip, glancing around for Tristan. He’s fighting two wolves, and with little thought for my safety I jump in the fray, knife in hand.
Tristan nudges me with his muzzle, presumably to push me away, but I don’t listen and instead kick the wolf to his right to get his attention. There's a manic gleam in his eyes when he whirls to face me, jaws wide open for a bite, and jumps.
I duck under, jabbing the knife upwards. A spurt of blood shoots out and catches me in the face. I grimace, wiping my face on the sleeve of my jacket. The wolf is crawling away to a bush, disappearing within.
Tristan smacks the wolf closest to him about, then turns back to me. He meets my gaze and looks behind me. A quick glance over my shoulder confirms he’s pointing to the path Dom disappeared through.
“You think I should follow him?”
He nods, but I hesitate. Sure, Tristan is strong and a wolf, and yes, the vrykolakas are mostly engaged in fights with Jared’s wolves. But I don’t like leaving him alone without backup.
Tristan decides for me, pushing me towards the path again. “All right, I’m going! But howl if you need help.”
He rolls his eyes and turns his back to me, leaving me standing at the edge of the clearing. With one last glance around, I turn tail and head down, hoping I can find Dom.
Though I’m no wolf, I try to keep my footsteps as silent as possible. There’s no telling what else is hiding in these woods, and I’d rather not find out. The fresh coat of snow makes it easy to follow Dom’s tracks, overlapping Radu’s.
At one particular crossing, I stop and frown. There are a lot of tracks, and my worry for Dom increases. Can he really win against Radu, especially if he doesn’t fight fair? And what if he shoots him up with some other drugs?
I quicken my step, not watching where I’m going. I pass through some bushes, grappling for support and my foot slips on something. Next thing I know, I’m sliding down, down, and down. My butt hits a root poking out of the snow, and it breaks my fall but also makes me sprawl everywhere.
By the time I get back up, wiping at my face to dust the snow, my clothes are wet and my jeans are clinging to my feet. Shivers run down my spine, but that’s not what worries me. My knife, my only real weapon in this fight, is gone.
Too late to go back.
Determined, I dust myself up and move around another bend. This time, I can see a cave—and a dark wolf heading towards it. I recognize the white stripe on his back.
Dom stops before the cave, tilting his head as if listening to something. Then he enters it, disappearing from my view. I strain my ears, trying to hear what’s going on. The uneasy silence has me edgy, twitching on my feet.
The rational part of my brain tries to tell me I’m human, with many weaknesses. But my heart, tangled with Dom’s, is only worried at losing him. So when I hear snarls within, I straighten my stance and take a few steps closer. Those self-defense lessons should come in handy right about now.
“Not so fast, human.”