Chapter 1
CHAPTER ONE
ORION
The zombie’s grubby fingers clawed at my face, its mouth wide open, rotten teeth ready to give me a skin peel.
I screamed in the dead man’s face. Trapped under his bulk, my arms pinned against my chest after the assbug had crashed into me.
Pixie balls!
I kicked my legs, praying to the stars for a miracle.
“Get off me!”
Teeth so close to my face, the decay on his breath setting my stomach to roil, those fingernails digging into my cheeks, drool dripping from his chin like a leaky faucet.
This was it. The end. After so much time spent running and learning to fight for my life, one stupid mistake undid all that good work.
Why had I gone to investigate that strange noise down the alleyway?
I wriggled and screamed, making too much noise. I heard the shuffle of other feet, the hungry moans of the dead ready for a fae buffet.
“Get off me!” Ha! What a waste of breath. As if this zombie would apologize and roll over at my request.
Crap. Crap. Crap.
Right before he bit my lips off, I managed to free my right arm. I balled my hand into a fist and swung the hardest punch I could deliver. Cracked the zombie in the temple, throwing him off his bite.
Thank the stars!
With my left arm now free, I found the handle of my axe, adrenaline firing me into action.
I screamed again, taking off the zombie’s head with an awkward yet effective slice.
I jumped to my feet, weeping as I ran from the alleyway, not stopping until I found a moment of respite in a small community garden.
Hiding in the overgrown grass, I hunched over and vomited up the packet of crisps I’d had for breakfast, trying to keep my noise down.
You idiot.
You idiot.
You idiot.
You—
I opened my eyes, staring up at a crack in the ceiling.
A dream. A slice of my horrific past come back to haunt me as those apocalypse memories loved to do.
I woke up on my back, greeted by the sight of ugly orange-and-brown décor in the faint light of wind-up lanterns. Now out of the dream, returned to the flat we were hiding in on Dragoon Street, not too far from our fallen sanctuary of Haven.
By the stars, I missed that huge tower of flats. I really believed Haven would be my home for a much longer stretch of time than it was.
Silly me.
The space beside me was empty. We’d been sleeping on the living room floor, two sleeping bags found in an airing cupboard as our mattresses. Before the stupid nightmare, I’d fallen asleep clinging to Miko like a baby monkey, terrified he’d leave me.
With dread in my belly, I sat up, rubbing hazy sleep from my eyes.
“You lasted thirty minutes,” Basil said.
My fae ex-boyfriend sat in the brown armchair, his boots close to my head.
Where was Miko? “Sorry?”
“Sleeping, Orion. You lasted thirty minutes.”
“Oh.” I rubbed my arms, a slight chill in the air. “Have you seen Miko?”
“He went to get some air.”
A burst of panic sharpened my senses, the musty air of the flat closing in on me. Had he left me another goodbye letter? For real this time? No more taking it back?
“Only for some fresh air, Orion,” Basil added. “Don’t worry your pretty head. He hasn’t run away. He’s just outside.”
Relief slammed into me, and I remembered to breathe. “Thank goodness.”
Stars! Someone hand me a stiff drink!
“Are you okay?” he asked.
I nodded, patting at my chest. “Yes, thanks. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, despite these hideous surroundings.”
My lungs were working properly again. “Not the nicest wallpaper, is it?”
“No.” He smiled his handsome smile at me. A smile that once made my knees go weak during my brief infatuation with him.
It was easy to become infatuated with his golden curls, the glisten of his light brown skin, and the allure of those stunning amber eyes flecked with fae glitter. I’d been drunk on Basil, crushing hard on him.
Not anymore. Now he left me empty, my feelings obliterated after I caught him enjoying a ten-man orgy. Then the zombie apocalypse and Miko burned the rest of him out of my system.
For good.
He should’ve been back in Faery, sealed safely away behind the gates. Yet here he was, on a mission to take me home.
I stretched my arms above my head. “I’m going for some air.”
“Of course you are.”
Oh, how I loved his snotty tone.
Basil leaned forward as I got to my feet. “You should get more sleep.”
“I will. Later.”
“You need sleep.”
I need to see Miko. “Later.”
He rolled his eyes, adding nothing.
I started speed-walking toward the front door.
“Orion?”
I paused. “Yes?”
Basil didn’t say anything.
I turned to face him. “What is it?”
He shook his head, waving a dismissive hand. “Nothing. Go see your wolf.”
My wolf…
Done with him, I hurried outside, getting a blast of cold, death-tainted air. The stink of decay was always there, a constant reminder of the world we inhabited.
Fresh air. Ha! What a joke.
Miko leaned against the balcony of the dark walkway outside the flat, the light of a full moon exposing his handsome face as he glanced over his shoulder at me.
“I thought you were sleeping,” he said in deep yet hushed tones.
I shook my head, my skin tingling in response to his yummy baritone.
“Join me?”
I nibbled on my bottom lip. “Can I?”
“Yeah. Course you can.”
I went to him. He opened his big arms for me, wrapping them around my slender body, that protective energy of his on the highest setting. I nestled into his embrace, my spine pressed against his chest, his warm breath tickling the back of my neck.
By the stars, he made my heart sing the brightest, cheesiest ballad.
How easy to slip into this role of fated mate.
How easy things were changing between us, as if we were accepting our roles as bonded mates without a care in the world. Adjusting to it by the hour, any awkwardness between us melting away with each tick of the clock.
My tower of muscle.
My alpha werewolf.
My destined dose of heartbreak.
Real, potent heartbreak.
Stars, that burned like acid.
Miko marched toward death. The key to ending the zombie virus, Dawn, and possibly getting Earth back on track.
Typical. I land myself a hot man and he gets marked for this crap.
Okay, so it was important crap, and I was being selfish. Fine. But it didn’t change the hurt, the rising trepidation over the days to come.
“Are you alright?” he whispered into my left ear, planting a soft kiss on my cheek. “You’re shaking.”
Little tremors of trauma in my fingers were nothing new in this horrible world. “I’m fine.” I gently pushed myself into his warmth, intoxicated by his earthy, spicy scent.
“But not really.”
“You scared me just now,” I replied, my voice barely a whisper. “I thought you’d really left.”
Gone off to fulfill your destiny.
“I’m sorry,” he said. “Just wanted some air.”
“Air is good to want.”
Thank the stars he hadn’t walked away. But what about his impending end? It dangled over his head like a guillotine, a silent assassin ready to destroy everything.
You can’t die.
You can’t leave me.
He kissed me again. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
“It’s fine. I’m fine. Let’s not make this about me.”
“But it is about you,” he said, gently rubbing his chin across the back of my head. “That letter was bullshit. I messed with your head and that’s not fair.”
“You were doing what you thought was right.”
He sighed and removed his arms, moving to stand beside me. The cool, late September air rushed back in, stealing Miko’s warmth away.
“Where’s Daria?”
Our vampire acquaintance had been on first watch for zombies while the pack rested, and for any attacks from Lance Forest.
A nasty werelynx alpha in need of a piano dropped on his head, Lance wanted to be king of some new one true pack. He called it a sanctuary for all, but the assbug clearly craved absolute power.
Ugh.
For him, the loss of humans to the zombie-making Dawn wasn’t an issue. He liked this new world. And because he’d overheard the details about Miko’s apparent fate, he’d definitely want my mate dead to keep things as they were.
Not if I killed the wretched lynx first!
“I relieved her,” Miko answered my question.
“Oh.”
“You don’t have to stand out here with me.” His baritone was such a beautifully rich sound.
“I’d rather be out here than on that floor,” I said.
“It wasn’t very comfortable.”
“Especially without you there.”
I studied my mate’s face, tempted to reach out and stroke his tawny skin, trace my fingers across the stubble peppering his square jawline.
Goodness, what I wouldn’t give right now to take him to bed and run my fingers through his short dark hair. Drown in the dark pools of his eyes before, well, we spoke our feelings with our bodies.
Sex to push the darkness away.
Yes, please!
My belly filled with gooey, romantic warmth.
Miko. My moody alpha. My Mr. Robot. A man I wanted to run into the sunset with.
The more time passed, the more I knew I wanted him, whatever the dramatic circumstances of our bonding. Felt it in my heartbeat, heard it in his.
Felt it in his.
Thump, thump.
Thump, thump.
Two hearts beating as one, the twinned rhythm a constant reminder of our bond.
Thump, thump.
Thump, thump.
“So, so fucked,” Miko said as if to illuminate the true crappiness of our situation.
I didn’t know what to say. My mind spun through a million thoughts a minute, or at least felt like it did. I saw no way out, no counterattack against the words of the oracle.
Trev. My violet-skinned troll friend, fellow newbie to this werewolf pack, and the oracle.
The latter part was hard to digest. How was Trev the oracle? And why?
His devastating words swirled in my head.
“Miko Reyes, you are the first son of the blood giver. Your father’s blood flows in Dawn. He is the maker. The blood of his blood ends Dawn. You are the only blood. You are the first and only son. Give your blood to end this curse. All your blood. Your life for Dawn’s ending.”
Stars. I hated this so much.
I shuffled closer to my mate, pressing my arm against his. “Agreed on the f’d up stuff.”