Chapter 10
Brick
Madi. Oh, fate, my brave sweet little mate. I shift to human form and catch her up in my arms.
Get her inside. Quick. Fuck.
Billy and the others have finished off the red-eyed wolves. They flank me as I fold Madi close to my chest and run into the chalet.
“In here,” an old Austrian shifter says, throwing the door open wide for my bloodied pack.
I hunch and run through the living room, past grand windows showcasing the glorious mountain range. I need to get Madi somewhere private, safe.
I hear Billy getting rid of the chalet owner, asking him to spread word that “hunt the human” is no game. Thank fuck. I don’t need to involve other packs in this shit.
Madi’s eyes are closed, her black lashes fanned out on her pale cheeks.
“Madison. Madi. Wake up. Look at me, sweetheart. I need to know you’re okay.” I readjust my hold, and she whimpers, flinching. “Baby, it’s me.”
Her cracked lips part. “Brick?” she whispers. Her eyelashes flutter, but she looks dazed. I cup her face, careful to avoid smearing blood all over her. Her skin is so cold. “I’m here. You’re with me.” I hold her closer. “Stay with me, Madi.”
Madi’s eyes open and try to focus on me. “Are you okay?” she croaks.
I want to howl, my wolf still frantic. “Oh, baby. I can’t believe I let this happen to you. I never should have left you.”
I need to warm her up. How? Light a fire? Run a bath?
I go to find a bath. “What the ever-loving fuck happened out there?” I bellow as I carry her down a hallway. I kick open a bathroom door and step inside.
“Adalwulf bastards,” Nickel says. I hear him and my other pack brothers moving in quickly, securing the chalet, assessing resources.
“Odin must have lost his ever-loving mind,” Vance calls from another room. I hear the sound of curtains yanking closed. “He’s asking for war, and it’s a war he won’t win. He sacrificed most of his best wolves today. Fuck–I’d heard he’s sick in the head, but this crossed all lines.”
“It’s the witchery.” Billy’s stomping this way. “The old crone is long past her death date. She’s sucked the life and sanity out of Odin. It warped him.”
My fingers tremble as I turn Madi’s face one way and the other to see where the blood is coming from. “How did this happen? They outright kidnapped my mate and dropped her in the middle of the Pack Games!”
I want to kill every one of those red-eyed fuckers all over again.
“Alpha.” Billy follows me into the bathroom, and I snarl at him. He stops short, but I keep my teeth bared.
I don’t trust anyone right now. Not with Madi.
The Adalwulfs tried to kill my mate.
Madi shudders and lets out a softly pained gasp.
Billy steps back, angling his head. “Alpha, you’re hurting her.”
I look down. He’s right, I’m holding her too close. The scent of her blood is driving my wolf mad. I need to strip her down and see where she’s wounded.
She blinks at me, shivering. Blood trickles from her temple down her cheek where a twig grazed her. If she was a shifter, that shallow cut would be healed by now.
But she’s human. And I have no idea what the fuck to do.
I kick the hot water knob on with my boot, too enraged and protective to put Madi down even for a moment.
Then I whirl to face my pack brothers who now crowd the doorway. “Would somebody please tell me what the fuck happened on the island?” I roar. Sully knew about a security glitch. “Did Sully know something happened and didn’t fucking tell me?” I point a finger at all of them. “Did any of you know that my mate had been kidnapped?”
Vance and Nickel draw back as if I’d struck them. These are the men I normally trust with my life. But right now I don’t know who I can trust. Who fucked me over. None of them wanted me to mate Madi.
“We knew nothing,” Jake answers first.
“I swear it,” Billy says.
“On my life,” Nickel chimes in.
“I’ll try Sully now, but I’m sure he didn’t know either.” Billy pulls his cell phone from his pocket and hits a button.
“I will tear out the throat of anyone who played a part in this.” I pin each of them in turn with a murderous glare.
“We’re not the enemy, Alpha.” Billy pockets his phone, shaking his head, apparently not reaching Sully. “We’re here. We have your back–as always.”
I recognize the truth in his words, but my wolf is still out for blood. “I need to know how they found Madi. And how they breached our security on the island,” I bark. “And I need reports from all pack security. Was anyone else hit? In the Berkshires, in New York?”
“Yes, Alpha.”
They start murmuring about setting a guard. We’re still in unknown territory, reliant on an ally’s goodwill. I don’t like it.
“Call in reinforcements. More Adalwulfs might still be out there–” Billy is saying when Madi shivers. I kick the door shut in their faces, so I can tend to her in privacy.
“Count the bodies,” I shout through the door, quickly but carefully removing Madi’s clothes. “Document it. But keep it under wraps for now.” I can’t announce to my pack that our rivals kidnapped my mate and tried to get her killed when I haven’t even told them I have a mate.
“Yes, Alpha,” Vance answers.
I sit on the side of the tub, cradling Madi against my chest.
I work carefully. Madi is in shock, her lashes fluttering open and closed.
“You’ve got me,” she murmurs.
“I’ve got you. Here.” I strip off her flimsy sundress. There are scratches on her face, and the palms of her hands are torn. Her feet are bare but somehow not bleeding. Her calves and knees are bruised and chapped from the cold. Her right ankle is bright red and a little puffy.
I tease a twig from her hair. The rock in her engagement ring flashes on her bloodied, battered hand.
“Fuck, Madi.” I press my forehead against the back of her hand. “Fuck.”
“It”s ok.”
Why is she comforting me?
“No. It’s not.” I don’t know if I’ll ever be okay again. Knowing my fragile, human mate could be taken from me at any time will forever haunt me.
I lift her into the tub, arranging her body in front of mine. The water turns red from the blood and mud on my body. “You’re going to be okay, just stay with me baby. We can’t warm you up too quickly.”
She whimpers, shrinking from the water even though I kept the temperature tepid. “Your heat makes my skin burn.”
My heart thunders against Madi’s back. After a few moments, her breath grows stronger. Her skin warms. I sense the life force returning to her body.
“I’m okay.” She sits up, rallying like we’re still at battle.
“It’s okay. It’s over. You’re safe now.”
She moves to stand up, though, so I lift her with my hands at her waist. She climbs out of the tub, still favoring her right leg.
“Your ankle,” I gesture at it. “You need to see a doctor.”
“It can wait.” She dries off like she has somewhere to go.
I climb out and drain the tub. “Madi…look at me.”
When she turns, she’s completely composed. She’s the same efficient, self-possessed assistant who walked into my office, turned my world on its head, and ripped my heart from my chest. There’s no sign of trauma. Only massive determination.
She hands me a towel.
I still want to tear the world apart for trying to take her from me, but she truly appears to be okay. Scraped and bruised but not dying. “I need you, Madi.”
It’s not what I meant to say–not at all. In fact, it’s not something an alpha should ever say–at least not the way my father led. But it’s the honest truth. I need Madi with a desperation that’s still driving me mad. I nearly lost her out there, and my wolf won’t quiet until I’ve claimed her again, thoroughly.
It’s definitely not the right thing to say when Madi must still be fuming over me coming to the Pack Games and leaving her on that island.
But for some reason, she doesn’t show any anger or resistance. “I’m here. I’m yours.” She drops her towel and steps forward.
My body collides with hers before my brain even gives it the order to move. I snatch her up in my arms to keep her weight off her hurt ankle. I pin her against the wall, kissing the fuck out of her mouth, sucking down her neck, cupping and squeezing one breast.
“I need you.” Again, I didn’t mean to speak, but the words rasp from my throat. I just let go and go with it. “I need you so fucking much.”
Her legs wrap around my waist, and then I’m carrying her out of the bathroom, oblivious to whether we’ll be seen. My brain cells have all taken a dive south of my waist, and my dick is clearly in control right now.
I find a bedroom and kick the door shut. I’m ravenous. I toss Madi into the center of the bed and climb over her, spreading her legs and feasting like a starved man. I squeeze and knead her ass, lifting it so her core is easy to lick, suck, and penetrate with my tongue.
Madi’s voice bleeds through her panting. Her whimpers and cries of pleasure drive me even faster to madness.
“Now, Brick,” she orders.
I don’t know what she means, but there’s nothing I won’t do to satisfy her. I drop her hips back onto the bed and climb over her.
She spreads her knees wide, tipping her entrance up for me. Clearly this is what she needs from me.
“You want me inside you, beautiful?”
“Yes,” she moans. “Now.” She cups her own breasts, squeezing them, looking every inch like a sex goddess.
One swift snap of my hips, and I bury my cock inside my beautiful mate.
She cries out, and I freeze, afraid I hurt her, but then she begins moving her hips to meet mine. Moving them with determination, like she needs more.
“Is this what you need, Madi?” I ease back and slam in home again.
She cries out again, her eyes rolling back in her head. “Yes,” she cries.
“You need a good, hard fucking?” I pick up my speed, delivering deep, hard, steady thrusts.
“Yes, Brick.”
Something about hearing my name on her lips drives me fucking mad. I let out a wolf-like snarl and drop to one hand beside her head, pumping faster now, like fucking her is my job. My living. My purpose in life.
“Madi…Madi…beautiful Madi,” I chant, desperate to see her come.
The room is hot. It’s spinning. I somehow sense the moon shining on us, blessing our union.
Right. Because Madison is my mate.
“Madi.”
“Brick.” Her nails dig into my shoulders. “I love you.”
My breath catches. My balls draw up tight, and then I come so hard I forget where my body stops and where hers begins. I come so hard, I must scald her with the hot ribbons of my release.
Madi comes, too, her mouth open on a silent cry, her internal muscles working my cock, squeezing every last drop of cum from it.
I let out a broken-sounding groan as I lower my body onto hers, kissing along her ear, her hairline, across the bridge of her nose, and finally mating my mouth with hers.
It’s true, she’s broken me. I’m nothing of the man I was before I met her. Before I mated her.
I knew she was my weakness, but I suddenly understand that it’s not because she’s human. It’s not because mating her may mean losing the pack. It’s because she cracked me open. Showed me what life looks like with love in it. With a female I can trust and depend on. One who has my back as much as I have hers.
She made me vulnerable in so many ways. I’m wracked by the fear of losing her, of her being harmed by my enemies. But most of all, I’m just vulnerable to receiving her love.
If her love declarations during sex are real. I notice she hasn’t said she loves me except when in the throes of an orgasm.
I need to know that what she feels is real because if it is–nothing will ever be the same.
* * *
Madi
Brick rolls us onto our sides, his arms tightly wrapped around me, our bodies still connected intimately.
“Thank you,” he breathes against my neck.
“I love you,” I repeat.
Brick relaxes.
It’s true. All this time, I was holding back, trying to defend myself against love. I was afraid of getting hurt by Brick. Except newsflash–he’s already hurt me. He probably will again. That is the nature of loving someone. It isn’t always butterflies and sex on a beach.
It’s time to admit I’m all-in with Brick.
But we can’t go on as we are. I’m not going to stay Brick’s dirty little secret. So he’ll need to figure that out if he wants to keep me. But that conversation can wait until later. Right now, I have questions.
“Were those wolves from the Adalwulf pack?”
“Yes.” Brick holds me closer, as if one of them might barge in and snatch me away right now.
“Why did they have demon eyes?”
Brick growls. “Witchery. My father discovered that Odin drugs his enforcers to make them big, vicious, and stupid. The side effects are the red eyes.”
“Oh. Crazy.”
He eases back, so he can see my face. “Tell me what happened. They came to the island?”
“Yes.” I gasp and sit up. “Your mom! They nearly killed her. She fought to protect me.”
Brick stiffens. “My mom was there?”
“Yes.” I hold his gaze. “I sent for her. I needed to understand your world.”
He stabs his fingers through his hair. “That explains how they found you.”
“It wasn’t because she told them. She defended me. Brick–they were going to cut off her head with a machete!”
Some of the color drains from Brick’s face. “What?”
“That’s what I’m telling you. She was going to die to protect me. Ariadne showed us to the safe room, but your mom stayed out to fight. The only reason they got to me is because I opened the door–against her wishes–to keep them from killing her.”
Brick’s chest dips, like that news hit like a blow. “You’re sure she’s alive?”
I blink. God, I hope so. “They left her when I came out. She was badly hurt but still breathing.”
Brick rolls out of the bed. I rise, still hobbling, but my ankle feels like I only wrenched it. The pain isn’t as bad as it would be if it were sprained. Brick yanks the bedspread off and wraps it around me. He opens the door and pads out, naked. “What’s happening?” he demands.
“We have Sully on a video conference. We found clothes for both of you.” Jake offers him a pile of neatly folded clothing.
Brick ignores the clothing, so I stay at his side in my bedspread cloak. We find the kitchen where Billy, Jake and Vance huddle around a laptop, speaking to Sully on a bulky black laptop. “My mom was on the island.” He approaches the screen, and everyone falls away.
Sully bows his head. “Yes, Alpha. She’s with a shifter healer in Corfu. Forteen broken bones in her body, including four ribs.”
I cringe into Brick’s side. Jake cusses softly. That could be fatal for a human, and even with shifter healing speeding, it sounds painful.
Tears spear my eyes. “Will she be okay?”
“Yes,” Sully answers. “But it may take a few weeks for her to fully recover.”
“What happened?” Brick growls.
“The island is now on lockdown, secure. But we were hit hard. They blocked all internet and satellite signals before their attack. They somehow got a hold of our “all clear” code, and sent it a few minutes late. That alerted us that something was wrong, but by then, it was too late.”
“And the rest of the pack?”
“No reports of attack anywhere else, only the island or your location. But there, Odin didn’t hold anything back.” He bows his head lower. “I failed you, Alpha. I swore on my life I’d keep your holdings safe, and now it is forfeit.” He angles his head, showing his throat.
I hold my breath. Brick wouldn’t punish Sully for this, would he?
Brick glares at the screen, his fists clench. Everyone else is frozen for a long moment, waiting for him to speak.
“No.” Brick’s shoulders slump. “It wasn’t your fault.”
Billy cuts in quickly, “No one could’ve guessed that Odin would’ve–”
“The fault was mine. I never should’ve left my mate.”
The wolves in the room jolt as if electrocuted. They stare at Brick.
Brick’s head is bowed. His powerful body is naked but beaten-down, like a warrior who lost a battle.
“You can’t blame yourself for everything,” I cut in. “It sounds like the Adalwulfs did something reckless.” I don’t know all the details. I need more information. But more than that, I need to ease the defeated expression on Brick’s face.
“Yes, Madi, I can. I never should’ve left you.”
I bite my lip. He’s right. But no one could’ve predicted this.
“Do you think my mother was behind the attack?” he asks quietly.
“She was not.” I attempt to use that cutting authority in my voice that Brick wields. “I called her to come to me. She tried to keep me in the safe room and would have died if I hadn’t come out.”
Billy ignores me and continues to look at Brick.
There’s anguish in Brick’s eyes, likely the same anguish he’s held since the day his father died. It must be horrific to not know if you can trust your own mother.
“If Odin’s really lost his mind and is making some kind of last-ditch attempt to take you down, it stands to reason he would be willing to kill his own sister if she stood in his way,” Vance muses.
“The seeress might have foretold her alliance with Madi,” Jake offers.
“She predicted Madi would be your–” Billy stops short at Brick’s glare.
“His what?” I ask.
Billy shakes his head. “Nevermind. It’s just a rumor they spread to try to weaken our pack.”
“What was the rumor?” I attempt to use that authoritative voice again. I’m the alpha’s mate, not their goddamn assistant anymore. They should answer my questions.
Billy looks to Brick, who is frowning.
“Problems can’t be solved without the facts,” I say.
The air charges when still no one answers me. That’s when I lose patience. “Okay.” I turn to walk out of the kitchen. “I’m leaving.”
No one follows when I walk into the bedroom. I hear their voices continue the discussion the moment I walk out. My limp spoils my dramatic exit, but that’s fine. I’m not throwing a tantrum. I’m done here.
I’m not done with Brick. I understand he and I are inextricably entwined until the day he dies. But this doesn’t work for me. I’m not available for being hidden like a dirty secret or being relegated to lower status. I’m not interested in the kind of marriage or partnership his parents had.
He has a lot to figure out.
So do I.
Like what I’m going to do for a career now.
I put on the clothes Jake handed me. The outfit is clearly resort-bought loungewear–probably from the spa area. The buttery-soft fabric in pale peach feels good against my cold-burned skin.
I don’t have anything I own here–not a scrap of clothing, not my cell phone to call Aubrey, not a credit card to buy myself a plane ticket home.
I hate feeling so dependent on Brick.
I need ice for my ankle, and I don’t even want to ask for that. I slip on the pair of warm woolen socks that came with the loungewear set and make my way back out to the kitchen where the guys are still all gathered.
Brick looks like he’s aged ten years in the last few weeks. Tension lines tug his brows together and his lips downward. He catches my gaze, and I see conflict and regret swim in his dark eyes.
When he holds an arm out to me, I step into his embrace, allowing him to pull me close and draw in my scent. I wait until my scent relaxes him before I drop my bomb.
“I need to go home.”
* * *
Brick
I’m not surprised by Madi’s statement, but it guts me. Of course, she wants to go home. She was just kidnapped and dropped on ice to be hunted by packs of brazen wolves. And that was after I left her alone on an island, so I could pretend to look for a mate.
Right now, I’m just grateful she’s allowing me to hold her.
“Get the jet here,” I order Jake.
“The jet is already en route with all of Madi’s things. Touchdown in twenty minutes,” Jake replies.
“Someone get a doctor,” I bark.
“No doctor,” Madi corrects, her voice firm. “I just need ice for my ankle.”
Billy disappears and reappears with a bottle of water, a protein bar, and a first aid kit.
I stand by, helpless, as my mate takes care of her own medical care. She squeezes the instant ice pack until it activates and secures it around her ankle with stretchy blue wrap.
“It’s just like Grey’s Anatomy,” Vance whispers to Jake.
“I want the plane refueled and prepared to fly us back to New York. What about my mom?” I ask Vance. “When can she be moved?”
“She has her own jet in Greece waiting to take her home as soon as she feels able.”
“Will she be safe in Manhattan?” Nickel asks. “I mean, if they were really going to kill her on the island, will she now be considered a defector? She may need your protection, Brick.”
I feel Billy bristling. His instinct is always to protect me from threats. But maybe that’s just so he can maintain his position as most important to me. Maybe he’s threatened by Madi and my mom, and that’s why he puts wedges between us.
Fuck. I don’t know what to think anymore.
About my mom. About how to handle my mating to Madison. About how to keep this pack together and ensure my family’s legacy isn’t destroyed by Odin Adalwulf.
Madi looks up at me. She trusts my mom. And my mom supposedly nearly sacrificed her life to keep Madi safe. But if I’ve been wrong about my mom all these years…
The pain of it all blasts through my chest like a javelin to the heart.
I never dealt with this shit emotionally. I had to shut down all feelings to just survive.
My father was murdered, and my mother–a woman I deeply loved who’d taken on an almost mythical position in our lives because we only saw her on weekends–poisoned him. I couldn’t think about her. Cutting her out of my life was the only measure I managed to take.
It was my first year at Yale, and I had to focus on keeping the pack. I had to recover from the financial hit and show massive leadership, so my pack members wouldn’t leave.
Luckily, their rage over my father’s murder put them firmly behind me, despite my young age and the loss of the bulk of our fortune. With the help of Billy, Nickel, Vance, Sully, Jake and Eagle, I founded Moon Co, and we made billions.
That should have ensured their loyalty forever, but the Adalwulfs are dastardly. They sow rumors and discontent everywhere they can.
If I make a mistake about my mother again, the pack won’t recover.
I won’t recover.
Then again, if I’ve wrongfully shut out the second most important female in my life… The thought sickens me.
“Tell her–” I stop and clear the rust from my throat. “Tell her to come to my building in Manhattan. She’s under my protection now.”
I see the flash of warning in Billy’s gaze, and he opens his mouth but seems to think better of saying anything because he closes it again.
“Yes, Alpha,” Vance says.
The doorbell rings, and Jake leaves and returns with stacked boxes of pizza. He hands me a box. “For your mate.”
“I know it seems outlandish, but humans have hands, too.” Madi deadpans, winning a smile from him.
“Male wolves like to feed their mates. It’s a provide and protect thing,” he explains.
“Humans used to do that too,” Madi says. She’s using her cool, businesslike voice. “–in medieval times.”
There’s a chorus of oohs and chuckles, like the ones Madi earned that first day when she handed Billy his ass for trying to stump her on the drinks. The mood in the room lightens. Some of the pressure in my chest lifts.
There’s something about my mate being on top of her game that both calms me and turns me on. Thinking of her as this weak link, this fragile human who I can barely protect had me and my wolf going mad again. But here Madi is, reminding me she isn’t to be trifled with. She was just used as a pawn in a war, was kidnapped, had her life threatened and nearly suffered–for a second time–hypothermia, but here she is cool, calm, and collected. Facing off with me and the most powerful wolves in Manhattan without blinking an eye.
I fucking love her for it.
I cradle her face and pull it against my chest, so I can drop a kiss on her forehead then pull out a chair at the table. “Make room for my mate.”