“Such a waste!” Sharon spat out blood and a tooth on Pami’s face. Blood squirted from the dying elf’s chest as if she were a fountain just turned on. “You could’ve been great. You know that? If you would’ve just listened to me.”
A door appeared not far from the four of us and Pami’s eyes rolled back in her head. I swallowed hard. I knew enough from Lero to know that at one time Vallis thought she was his friend. Pami didn’t stick around to say anything to us and when her door swung open there was no one there to greet her. No relatives, no mate, no nothing. I’ve seen through doors before. Usually, there is something cheery or nature like on the other side. Hers was pitch black but she held her head high and stepped through anyway.
“Shit!”my wolf swore into my thoughts.“How much you want to bet that we’re next?”
We probably were but it sounded like the shebear wanted me alive. Sharon didn’t turn on me and Vallis. She plopped down on her butt on the lake’s rocky shore and took a vape out of her pocket. She hit it hard and offered it to me. I shook my head.
“No, thanks.”
“Suit yourself. You don’t have to worry about me, you know that, right? Everyone runs around acting like I’m crazy but I’m not. I’m not killing indiscriminately even.”
“Uh….” I didn’t know what to say. I should try to kill her, right? End her now? Only I wasn’t sure I could. I wasn’t sure she wouldn’t outsmart me and kill Vallis. As long as he was unconscious she had a bargaining chip. Even if she wouldn’t kill me apparently she had no qualms with helping Pami sacrifice him. I prayed to every ancestor I had that I wasn’t signing the death warrant of Baby Andy in the future by not at least trying to kill her now.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to get it,” she laughed and hit the vape again. The air filled with the scent of strawberry ice cream from her little puffing machine. “I will have all the power I want, Mori. One day, I think you’ll even help me. I can see it already. You’re tired of being kicked around. You’re tired of feeling like your paws are tied every which way you turn. You’re mad that you can’t kill me right now because too many people are counting on you and none of them give a damn that you’re still heartbroken because of that missed connection. It’s always about what Good Ole Mori can do for everyone else. I get it. I was there. Venal was a selfish child. As soon as he crawled out of my womb he was greedy and demanding. The thing is, Mori, it’ll stay like that as long as you let it. If you don’t start throwing some of that weight around you’re going to always be at the bottom of the ladder.” Sharon hit the vape again. “Like let me make you an offer. You heard what I told her. You’re my back up plan if something happens to Andy. I really needed one after killing Venal in a rare moment of rage.”
Rare my ass but I wasn’t about to argue with her. The longer she talked the more time Vallis had to rest before we made our escape.
“What offer? I’m not related to you.”
“Your mate is. Yeah, that Grim Howler shirt wearing dude? That’s my son too. His carrier ran off before he was ever born and I only found out recently. Don’t bother with the how but it’s true. So, I could tell you where he is right this second. Just kill that bear for me and I’ll tell you.”
“Uh… Why do you want Vallis dead?” I asked, ignoring everything she said about my mate. It was lies, right? She was a liar who just wanted me on her side, and I wasn’t about to be her pawn.
“I don’t,” she shrugged and puffed again. “I just want you to prove that you’re worth my son. That you will do whatever it takes to meet him and have his baby. That baby will be very important to me if anything happens to Andy or perhaps I can’t get my hands on him. He’ll be the sacrifice instead. It’s really a small price to pay. You do know that you’re not going to meet your true-mate in this lifetime, right? That’s what Dern’s trying to change?”
My wolf tensed to pounce but the noise of the water changed. Something was sliding through it but I couldn’t see what because out here near the water on this sunny day Sharon Claudis was practically a fog machine on the side of her body Wess had frozen the night she killed her own son.
I saw the tip of a boat. Was it the one Pami had tied Vallis to and where had Finn’s ghostly ass run off to? Then I smelled them. It was Colton, Ivan, and my sire! My heart leapt into my lungs and stole my air. She had every reason to keep me alive but not them!
“Oh, don’t look like that. I know if I kill them you’ll never help me, Mori. I’m not crazy. So, I best be going,” she said, shoving her vape into her pocket and pushing herself upright.I never saw the sword coming. Through the fog there was no sunlight to glint off it’s edges. No way to spot the woman who moved stealthily through it all. I didn’t see it until its sharp metallic point poked out of Sharon Claudis’s back. She let out a grunt of surprise and then a roar. She shifted despite the spicket of blood running from her body. The other woman in her swaying skirts grunted as I threw myself back over Vallis. He grunted under me and opened one big eye. I caught the briefest glimpse of the woman’s face. It was Annila! I knew she was tracking Sharon but never imagined she’d actually catch up to her. I started to rise to my feet. I needed to help Annila! An arm clutched around my waist. I drew my knee forward ready to strike the shin of my captor with the sole of my foot when my sire’s scent surrounded me. He didn’t pull me away but held me in place. Ivan and Colton appeared on either side of us and started tending to Vallis.
“We’ve got to help her!” I shouted but my wolf knew.
My inner beast knew that this wasn’t merely a bear and a dragon fighting. It wasn’t just two alphas. It was a shebear and a dragoness and alpha/omega meant nothing right now. They were fighting over young that was yet to be born and young that each of them wanted to lay claim to for very different reasons. There was no getting in between them. No getting near them. They wouldn’t even see us now. Annila screeched and both women hit the floor. Slowly, the fog cleared but someone was still screaming and howling. Me. It was me screaming.
“Mori,” Annila’s soft voice broke free from the fog. She laid pinned to the ground with her own sword. Sharon dead next to her. My sire didn’t let go of me until Ivan gave the shebear several hard kicks to ensure she was dead.
I walked, stumbling over rocks and my own feet to collapse on my knees next to my friend. I thought about how angry I was that I wasn’t hired to wake her up. About how she nearly blew me up trying to kill Sharon. I held her bloody hand to my chest and smoothed her thick hair away from her face. She’d survived cancer and everything else only to die on this crappy, little island so far from her home and her family. Poor, poor Annila. Why did Sharon have to fuck up so many lives? Why did Annila have to bring a draconic weapon to kill a shebear? It didn’t matter because my sire took one look at the prone dragoness and shook his head. Annila wasn’t going to make it.
“Get my egg to Nic. Tell him I love him. Make sure he knows that she won’t come bothering him again,” she said, staring into the void, a stream of blood running from both corners of her mouth. “My egg, Mori. You take it.” The last sentence came from behind me. I stood on legs that forgot their elven heritage and shook like leaves. Annila was beautiful in a light blue gown, and she spun in circles as if to show it off. I wondered when in her long life she’d worn it but there were more pressing matters to discuss as two doors appeared on the island.
Sharon was greeted by an angry woman I once saw burst into Dern’s kitchen. The woman dragged Sharon through with a strength the newly dead shebear couldn’t resist.
When words failed me with Annila, it was my sire who stepped forward and kissed her forehead. She smiled at him and some of the weight of life disappeared from her dead face.
“I’ll make sure the egg gets to Nic,” my sire whispered to her and she shook her head.
“Let Mori take it. He needs a job or else he’ll sit around and dwell on all of this. He’s like you that way. He needs a job and this is an important one.”
“Thank you for tipping me off when you heard about where she might be. This was worth it. All of it,” she said, looking down at her corpse. “My hatchling won’t remember me, but they’ll grow up without worrying that their crazy--- without worrying about that bitch trying to sacrifice them so she can eat their magic.”
“Colton!” Dad called and I thought for the first time in my life my sire was going to send me away for being an omega.
“Yeah? He’s stable! We have him in the boat!” Colton called back.
“Come bring Mori some water. He needs to go with you. Take him to Bane too. Make sure he let’s Bane look at him,” he said and then looked at me. “I have her. I’m going to hang back and talk to her about some final arrangements. Then I’ll meet up with you all. You need to stay with Vallis. See this through until the end. Be there when Lero shows up. Vallis is alive but they’re going to need support.”
I nodded and took the water bottle my brother opened and offered to me. I gulped it down, only then realizing how thirsty I was.
