Forbidden Alliance: A Werewolf's Tale (Forbidden Alliance Trilogy) (64 page)

“
Why are we arguing about
...I’m yours?” I asked,
cocking an eyebrow
.

He
blushed.
“Have I
not made my
intentions painfully clear by now?” he countered, his eyes going between me and his brother.

Internally
,
I was doing the happy dance.

“Yes and no,” I admitted.
“What exactly are your intentions?” I teased, but I really wanted to know.

Tanis gave me a look. “Bloody hell, Duckie, is this really where you want to have
that
discussion?” he countered.
“
St
anding around with your friends,
pack,
and
me family eavesdropping while they watch us deal with
three
werewolf...assassins?” he said and made a face, then
blindly kicked
the stirring man on the ground in the face, sending him sailing across the
open field we were standing in the middle of
. “Not
to mention
,
me brother
standing here as if he has lost his bloody mind
?
”
He snapped his fingers in front of d’Artagnan’s face. “Hello, is anyone there?” he asked.

“Assassins?” I huffed. “Anything to make me the damn damsel in distress so you can, with a clea
r
conscience, save the day by protecting me with your big vampire muscles.”

He shook his head. “Tone noted,” he said and I smiled wide.

“How long do you think I can hold him up for?” I asked, nearly forgetting that I was choking out a werewolf who was three times older t
han me,
trying to change
the subject since I didn’t want to talk about intentions with the lingering werewolves and vampires
within
hearing distance, let alone, his annoying brother
being right
in front of
us
.

“
G
o home,
d’Artagnan
,” I
groaned
. “This isn’t your fight and you jus
t want to kill shit to kill it, and if you must know, that would be counterproductive to say the least.”

Absently
,
d’Artagnan
nodded and released his hold on
Max
and disappeared in a blur of movement.

“What in bloody hell?” Tanis mumble.

I shrugged. “Your annoying brother is the least of my
concerns at the moment,” I reminded him, and the sound of the gun cocking pulled both of our atten
tion to young werewolf on the ground.

“Next time, just let me brother kill him,” Tanis grumbled.

“Noted,” I dryly agreed.

Intently, I looked into
Max’s
eyes
;
Dad once told me that you
can
judge the character of a person, especially a man, by
simply
looking into their eyes
. And
since
the eyes are the windows of the soul, they hold all our secrets and can tell much about a person.

The gun wildly shaking in his hand stopped
moving around
and his
large brown eyes slowly widened, the pupils dilating and
consumed
the brown with black.

That wasn’t normal either.

“
Max, you
are not a killer,” I informe
d him in a low, seductive voice
.

W
here the hell did that come from?

“I’m not?”
Max
asked
and he lowered the gun
.

“You’re not.
You know this is wrong,” I continued.
“You don’t want to hurt me, or my friend
s
.”

He nodded and
dropped
the gun
to the ground
.

“Go home, Max,” I said and he
absently smiled
, and started to turn wh
en the light reflected off of the
silver pendant around his neck
.

“Stop!” I
snarled
as
my head started spin
and a freezing chill crept across my skin, my
breathing
labored and came out in choked gasps
...

...
“Kaia, you cannot stay in the
area any longer
,
” Toran warned, caressing the little girl’s head
.
“I know some
wolves
, they are my friends, and
they have offered to
keep you safe.”

The little girl huffed, blowing her white bangs out of her eyes
as she watched the ships in the distance raise their sails. When the wind caught them, the black sails blended into the darkened horizon,
leaving
t
he
red circle with a
silver
rectangle
housing
a gold
sunburst
in the center
appear as if they were floating in midair
, and to the young girl’s eyes, it was a glowing beacon of
death which
was constantly
stalking
her.

“All will be well, Kaia,” he assured her.

“I do not understand, Toran, why I
cannot
simply
stay with you. For the past five years you have acte
d as my father, mentor, brother
, guardian,
and friend. I do not understand why that must change,” she argued, her soprano voice carrying along the breeze.

“I am a vampire and you are a werewolf. You need to be with your own kind. They will protect you.”

“But I
do not
want to
leave you
,” she
huffed and
crossed her arms over her chest and stomped her feet. “The war en
ded over a century ago, Toran
, thus t
here is no reason why our two species
cannot peacefully
coexist.
”

“If
it was only that simple, Kaia. They will stop at nothing...” his words trailed off when tear
s
rolled down
her round cheek
s
.

The rol
ling waves rocked the schooner
, and
the salty spray stung Kaia’s large
,
black eyes
,
but she was determined. She glared at Toran, trying to cause him to waiver. “I do not want to go where you are taking me. You cannot make me.”

Toran shook his head
and looked away from her.
“Kaia,
do not do that,” he warned
.

“Give me one
good reason why,” she countered
, her jaw set in determination th
at rivaled those with centuries of life and battle behind them.

He knelt in front of her and forced a smile. “The Aslak nearly killed you a dozen times already. This last time was much too close for comfort.
They nearly succeeded
in taking the crown
and that I cannot permit
to happen...you mean more to me than anything, even the crown
, thus I cannot lose you
.
The only way to hide you until you are ready
to fulfill your destiny
is to keep you with your own kind. I will always be keeping an eye on you, even if you
do not
know I
a
m there.”

More tears
started to well in her eyes but she stubbornly wiped them away. “Who are these people you think can protect me?”

“Dea
r old friends,” he assured her
, but
his overly simplistic answer wasn’t good enough for the angry child. “Reign and Sky are
tribal
leaders, alphas even, and they will raise you and treat you
as
their own.
Many years ago
,
the Gods took from them
a
child, a daughter with raven black hair and eyes the deepest shade of
gray ever found in the eyes of a
child, and with the loss
,
their hearts were
closed. But
the
Gods
would shine upon them and bless them with a son
with eyes that rival the sun
,
thus
you
will not
be alone.”
Softly he caressed her head
then pulled the necklace from under the collar of her dress and
traced
his thumb over the bed of Roman glass.
“
Everything
will be
okay, I promise
...
” his words trailed off as an explosion of light blinded them, the deck under their feet violently shook, and the sudden darkness was accompanied by freezing water that pulled the young child from Toran’s grasp
...

...
“Duckie?” Tanis shook my shoulder and I opened my hand, releasing James.

I looked around confused, struggling to catch my breath.

“What is wrong?”
he
demanded, cupping my face between his hands.
“
By God, you
are freezing.”

Instantly my hand went to my necklace and
my fingers
caressed over the familiar shape.

“What’s wrong with him?” Steffen whispered, motioning towards Max with his chin.

The young man
was standing
there with one foot raised, as if he was frozen in place.

Yahto nuzzled
his head
against
my hip, trying to get my attention, but I couldn’t pull my eyes off of the silver pendant around Max’s neck
; the
rectangle inside a circle
, a sunburst in the middle,
was seemingly glowing under the scare moonlight, a beacon in the darkness
, one that I knew
left nothing but blood
and bodies in its wake
.

I sw
allowed the lump in my throat.

“Kill them,” I said in a voice so cold and detached that it scared me.

I was still shaking by the time we got to Tanis’ house.
I couldn’t believe that I just sente
nced three people to death...
one was barely
my age.
The wolves ran home
after
staining their maws in the blood
I ordered them to shed. T
he v
ampires took care of the bodies. W
ith
merely a glance at
Tanis,
they knew exactly what to do without being told, and then they simply
strolled home
as if it was nothing
.

“Duckie, are you...would
you
care
to talk?” Tanis asked, turning the SUV off.

“No,” I whispered and shook
my head.

“Are you sure?” he pressed.

“No,” I admitted.

H
e unbuckled my seatbelt and pulled me over to his lap and hugged me tight.

“What have I done?” I stammered and started crying.

Tenderly he caressed my head while I sobbed in his arms. I was
rather confident
he thought I was
being
a stupid
,
young girl, but he couldn’t have understood that I had never killed before. Animals—deer, mountain lions, a bear when I was fifteen
that I
stumbled across with Jarvis,
resulting in getting grounded for nearly a year, then there was a
seal on a dare,
a couple raccoons and
rams, and
the yearly
whale on the beach with the
Quileute pack
—were a means to survive,
nothing more and nothing less,
but never had I taken the life of another werewolf. I always turned my nose up at those who would brag about their blood trophies—
Jarvis never took pride in his,
and
unfortunately
they were only collected because of something that involved me—but now, myself,
had
three of them.
..in my mind.