Bloodright (8 page)

He nodded.
Thank you.

Falon leaned against the wall and crossed her arms over her chest.
I didn’t dress for you.

Of course you didn’t.

He dragged his eyes from her and turned back to his pack that was now focused solely on Falon. In a drastic shift, their mood went from excited and hopeful to agitated and wary. Not anxiousness for the coming matings or for the hunt, this anxiety was altogether different. What had just happened?

“What is it?” he asked no one specifically.

He was met with downcast eyes and shaking heads. Something was wrong. He looked back at Falon, who had not moved, but knew by the rigid set of her spine she detected the change as well.

There was no love lost between Falon and his pack. Though they had been loyal once to Rafael, their loyalty now lay firmly with Lucien. That Falon was the marked chosen one of his enemy did not sit well with the pack. It was something Lucien had not considered when he had agreed to accept Falon as his chosen one.

“There have never been secrets here,” Lucien said, angry his pack refused to look at him with Falon in the room. “Speak!”

When they remained silent, he looked to Talia, who stood off to the side. “What are they afraid to say to me?”

Talia looked over at Falon, then moved into the gathered pack to stand in front of Lucien. “They fear she may carry Rafael’s child.”

Talia’s words stunned Lucien. He felt as if he had been a mule kicked in the gut. He had never considered since Falon and Rafael had traded marks that she could indeed be pregnant with Rafael’s child. He snarled and turned to Falon, who stood proud and defiant before them all.

“Do you?” Lucien demanded, striding toward her but stopping before he came too close. He was afraid of her answer and what he might do.

Her cheeks pinkened. Her body trembled. “I am not pregnant.”

“How sure are you?”

“Sure enough that I would have killed you or any Lycan who tried to keep my child from his father.”

“Always standing up for my brother. How do you expect Mondragon to accept you as their alpha when you cannot even look at them?”

“I did not choose to be here, Lucien.” Falon looked at the gathered pack. “Any more than they chose to have me here.”

She stepped down off the last step and strode toward him. “In fact, Lucien, you have been the one who has fueled the blood feud for the last sixteen years. You have refused all attempts by your brother and the council to breech the divide.
You
have held both packs hostage to your bloodlust for vengeance.” She stopped several feet from him and demanded, “Is it even remotely possible, Lucien, that your beloved chosen one
was
a Slayer? Is it even remotely possible that your brother who loved you above all others acted not only to protect the pack but to protect you?”

“She was
not
a Slayer,” he defended. “I would have known it. Sensed it, felt it every time I fucked her! What she
was
, was the one thing that belonged to
me
.” Lucien jabbed his index finger into his chest. “The one thing Rafael could not have! So he took her from me! Just as he took everything else.”

The pack stirred, Lucien’s righteous anger transferring to them.

Falon looked around to them as they tightened around her and Lucien. “Why didn’t you take another mate before now? You still would have had the satisfaction of revenge by destroying Rafael’s mate that you so desperately wanted.”

“Because until you, there were none worthy enough to stand beside me.”

Falon’s eyes widened, the golden flecks in them pulsing. Lucien smiled a bitter smile and ran his knuckles across her bottom lip. “And now that I have you, I will not let you go.”

“So I am your prisoner.”

“You are my chosen one.”

“There is no difference.”

“One day you will see that there is.”

You will force yourself on me again?

I did not force you. You wanted what I wanted.

Not with my heart, Lucien. There is a difference!

I have said I will not touch you again unless you ask it of me.

Let me go.

I cannot.

You
will
not.

Emotion roiled in Lucien’s chest. He could not,
would
not let her go. She would run to his brother, and he would be left with nothing. His heart thudded like an engine against his chest. If he had to have her unwilling as opposed to gone from him forever he would insist she stay.

And she would grow to hate him more than she already did. Could he live with that? Could his pack? Hatred and distrust was not a foundation on which to build a dynasty. But he could not stomach her with his brother or any other man, when he wanted her for himself.

He stared at Falon’s beautiful, defiant face. Could she come to care for him enough to accept him and his pack? The answer became painfully clear. Not if he forced her to stay.

Swiping his hand across his chin, Lucien looked at his pack. They regarded him as they always had, with complete trust. A trust he did not altogether deserve. Falon was right; he should have taken a mate long before now. Just as his brother refused for his own reasons, and Lucien his, they had both let the packs down in the most basic of ways. To thrive they needed to reproduce. The blood feud had prevented it.

Keeping Falon here against her will with the rising just two months away would cause discord with his pack. Having her here against her will would distract Lucien from what he needed to do: destroy Slayers. Keeping her here against her will was not the act of a true alpha. It was the act of a coward. In that instant of clarity, the hope for his future that had swelled only moments before crashed down around him.

As pack leader, it was expected he do what was best for the pack, not for himself. And what was best for his pack was an alpha whose chosen one was in for the count.

Lucien took a leap of faith and threw the dice. He pointed to the large double metal doors leading to the enclosed yard and beyond. “You are not a prisoner here.” He stood still, staring at the door. If she chose to walk past him and out the door, he would not go after her. His pride would never allow it. But nor would he allow her to go to his brother.

Her eyes widened. “I am free to go? And never return?”

“Go anywhere, except to my brother, and I will not stand in your way.”

You are bluffing.

Lucien shook his head.
I will not force you to stay.

What game do you play, Lucien?

No games. If I force you to stay here, you will grow to hate me more than you do now. But more important, Mondragon cannot thrive under an alpha who does not place their well-being above his or her own.

Falon gasped at his honest words. He watched the wheels turn in her head. His vengeance aside, he wanted her to stay because he wanted her for himself. He wanted—argh! He would not make a spectacle of himself. He would not force her to stay here, any more than he would force her to mark him. She was a wild and free spirit, one that would dry up and die if corralled. Giving her her head was key to lassoing her power. It was also crucial to the survival of his pack.

Lucien strode to the heavy metal doors and yanked them open. Sunlight flooded the large room. It was imperative to his pack that if Falon chose to stay, they understood she stayed of her own choice, not because she was being forced. Otherwise, they would have no confidence in her and would always question her loyalty as well as her authority. And that was not something Lucien could allow. Either she was in or she was out.

Falon took a step toward Lucien. His heart thudded dully in his chest. She took another step and another, her focus on the open doors. The pack parted as she passed through them. She kept her chin high, refusing to look at them almost as if she saw the want in their eyes for her to choose them, because if she chose to stay with Lucien, she also chose them. And they desperately wanted to unite, as a true pack should. She stopped at the door and looked out. She looked up at Lucien, then looked back to his pack and stepped through the threshold.

The pack moved in behind him, straining to watch her next move.

“Open the gates,” she commanded.

Lucien pressed the main switch to the left of the doors. The tall metal gates jolted, then rolled back. Falon strode toward them, not once looking back. When she cleared the gates to the outside world, she stopped.

Lucien’s stomach did a slow, aching roll. He and the pack held their breaths. When she took another step away from them, Lucien’s stomach dropped. She took several more steps away from the compound.

“Lucien,” Talia whispered. “Bring her back.”

He shook his head. “No.”

“You must! If the Slayers or the Vipers get ahold of her, we are doomed.”

“I will kill any man who lays one finger on her.”

Falon turned then. Almost fifty yards separated them, but Lucien could see the flare of her nostrils, hear the thud of her heart against her chest, see the indecision in her eyes. It was clear she was torn. But why? There was no love between them or her and his pack. Why did she hesitate? Was it because she still mourned the loss of his brother? In his own way, Lucien mourned as she. He mourned the loss of the love and closeness they shared despite the constant rivalry. They shared the same blood, the same womb, the love of the same mother and father, and yet they were bitter enemies. He wanted to ease the ache in her heart but could not bring himself to give her the one thing she wanted most.

FALON TURNED AWAY from Mondragon. Inhaling deeply she beheld what lay before her. Freedom. Civilization. Unlike Vulkasin, whose compound was a hidden fortress buried deep in the depths of the Sierras, Mondragon hid in plain sight. The compound was a warehouse nestled against the beginning swell of the Sierras at the edge of a bustling town. Probably Folsom. To the north was Rafael. Here Mondragon. And all around her, Vipers and Slayers.

Fear of the unknown skittered along her spine. What would happen to Lucien if she continued to walk away? To Mondragon? To the brothers? One night, not so very long ago, when she was just as confused and afraid as she was now, she had come to the realization that if there was ever going to be peace between the brothers, she would be the only one to broker it. She felt that now, stronger than ever. Lucien was the key. It was reason enough for someone else to stay, but for Falon, what stayed her step was Rafael. How ironic, that for him she would choose to stay for Mondragon. Rafa had sacrificed their love for her life. The noblest of all sacrifices. She would not desecrate such an honorable act by walking away.

The sound of the metal gates jerking to life pulled her out of her thoughts. Her stomach lurched against her rib cage. She turned to the closing gates and Lucien standing stalwart behind them at the doors to the clubhouse.

Never had a man infuriated her as he did. She wanted to slap him for his insensitiveness. He was his own worst enemy. Stubborn, vindictive, and in pain. She could see it in his eyes every time he spoke of his brother. She shivered as she remembered his passionate taking of her just an hour before. Her body warmed, wanting more of him. She hated herself for it, but—at least they had that.

As the gates clanked shut, Falon’s closed heart did the opposite. It cracked open. She would not abandon Lucien. Nor would she abandon Mondragon. She cracked a smile as she envisioned throwing herself on the sword, the martyr of all martyrs. But there was honor in that. And it was what Rafael would want her to do.

“I have no choice but to stay,” Falon softly said, stepping toward the closed gates.

“So I am your default?” Anger flickered through Lucien’s words.

She understood it. Her own anger that fate had torn her from the arms of the man she loved and set her down here was no less than Lucien’s feeling that he was sloppy seconds.

“I will honor Rafael’s sacrifice with my own.”

Angrily Lucien strode toward her; he pulled the gates apart just enough for her to step through. “So now you are a martyr?”

“You gave me a choice, Lucien. Stay or go. I choose to stay here. Isn’t that what you want?”

“Not because you’re throwing yourself on a sword!”

“You expect too much from me! I cannot just turn my feelings off and on!”

He shoved his hands into his pockets and paced in front of her, then abruptly stopped and stared hard at her. The turmoil in his eyes was devastating. He was a proud man desperate to put his pack back together. He wanted her to stay for more than his pack; she could see it in his eyes. Vengeance or not, he wanted her for himself. Falon shivered at the realization that she, too, despite her love for Rafael, wanted a part of Lucien for herself. What part she did not know. If she stayed, it would reveal itself. And that terrified her. She was emotional ground beef as it was. She could not take much more. “I’ll give you a week to sift through your emotions, Falon,” Lucien said softly. Falon nodded and slipped through the gates. Then he said, “The seven days are conditional.”

Her head snapped back and she looked up into his blazing eyes. Angry, angry Lucien. Would he ever smile?

“Of course there are conditions, Lucien; there always are with you.”

“During your seven days, so as not to alarm the pack, you will stay by my side and retire with me each night and at least act like you are content to be my chosen one.”

Frustrated she put her hands on her hips. How could she sort her feelings if she was stuck to him like glue? And was she expected to have sex with him? Sex muddied the water. “I will not lay with you.”

“You
will
lie beside me each night
in my bed
; what happens between us will be up to you.”

“And then what? At the end of the week if I don’t throw myself at you, you kick me out?” She blinked back the sudden sting of tears. Dear God, this man could make her so angry and feel so vulnerable in one single breath. And vulnerable she felt. She had nowhere to go. No one to talk to. No friends, no family. Before she discovered what she was, it wasn’t a big deal, but becoming a part of Vulkasin had been the first time in her life she had a sense of family. It had been ripped from her arms. And while she didn’t feel that same sense of family with Mondragon, for all his anger and hatred for the man she loved, she understood what drove Lucien and did not fear him. Outside of these gates, despite her powers, she would wander aimlessly like the gray souls in her dreams. Her desire to belong was too strong for that. She wanted to be with her kind.