Chapter 47
Elodie
Valens was a dark angel, sweeping off the stage with death in his eyes, and he’d never been hotter.
It was shameful, the way I drooled over that seething power.
Shameful, but undeniable the way it called to my wolf’s bloodlust. Pride welled up inside me as I saw how he put himself between Alajos and Jerica, how he didn’t take it too far, but protected her well.
That was a man I wanted at my side. That was a man who understood my life’s work.
Maybe it could be our life’s work.
Suddenly, I was curious about touching that second sword. Rational? No, but… If he was right, if that second sword was meant for me, maybe it wouldn’t be so painful to lose my own.
I shifted my grip on my butterfly sword, the weapon I knew as well as my own limbs. Most of the time, it felt like an extension of myself.
A broadsword would be very different, but I knew how to use one.
I’ll ask him tonight.
It wouldn’t hurt to have all the information. If the sword wouldn’t respond to me, I’d know. That would make moving forward easier, at least, to know for sure.
After Lucien dragged Alajos’s sorry ass off the stage, things devolved away from formality pretty quickly. People arrived for hours in small groups to speak to Kane, Brielle, or both. For all those hours, our pack stayed, holding the space with hypervigilance.
In the end, only a few packs chose to leave.
Kane let them go, and Brielle wished a blessing on each and every one before they left. They harbored no hard feelings, even unto death.
I, on the other hand, found them selfish.
They stood only to gain if we won, and by choosing not to fight with us, they could be the ones who tipped the scales out of our favor.
But I bit my tongue and stood guard, hovering at Brielle’s shoulder as the moon climbed steadily across the sky, as the sea of torches began to gutter out, and finally, the last of the attendees had left the clearing.
Only then did we all tramp back to the castle, bone weary but successful.
The word was out, the mission was spread, and we’d gained the loyalty of so many packs. So many wolves had tears in their eyes as they spoke to Brielle; quite a few had even asked her one-on-one to make an appointment.
Brielle was going to be run off her feet every second of the time left between now and the blood moon.
But from the set of her shoulders, I could see she didn’t mind.
She was a true healer, a trained doctor, and a gifted omega.
She would pour her soul into the packs until she had nothing left to give.
It was our job to make sure she didn’t give too much, and I intended to watch her closely over the coming days.
A sharp pain cut across my midsection, stealing my breath with its intensity. I gritted my teeth to keep it to myself, but I couldn’t take another step until the flaying sensation eased.
Valens’s arm slid around my shoulders in the next second.
Brielle must have heard me hiss despite my efforts to stay silent because she spun, eyes wide—until she saw him holding me up.
“What’s wrong?” She stepped forward, palm raised, despite her own exhaustion.
“Nothing, I’m okay. I’m just due for my next round of meds. It was a longer night than we planned.”
Leigh clucked off to the side, rubbing her belly. “You overdid it, chica. We need to get her to bed,” she said, turning to Bri.
“I will happily go to bed. Galyna’s on hall duty tonight.” I hoped the promise would be enough to convince her not to overexert herself healing me.
“I can still help you take the pain away,” Bri offered again, worry deep in her tired eyes.
“If it’s bad tomorrow morning, I’ll let you. Promise. Tonight I just need to take my meds.” And I meant it. I needed to be sharp to guard her now that the word was well and truly out. We all did.
“That’s understandable. I’m sorry we pushed you so far. Maybe you should take tomorrow off, just rest? We’ve all been pushing to our limits, and the battle hasn’t even started yet.” Brielle ran a hand through her hair, the first hint of her despair leaking through.
That only made me more determined not to leave her side.
“We all just need a good night’s rest and a big fat breakfast. Tonight was draining. Tomorrow will be better.”
She smiled softly at me. “You’re always cheering us up, no matter how dire the circumstances.” She sighed.
“Elodie’s right. To bed with all of us. The rest of the group already went in,” Kane said, scooping Brielle up and chuckling as she squeaked with surprise.
I hadn’t even noticed the others had left—a cardinal sin, being unaware of my surroundings for even a second while on duty—and when Valens scooped me off my feet, I didn’t squeak.
“Fuck! Valens, put me down. I’m on duty.”
“No.”
I woke to the annoying sound of something buzzing. Repeatedly.
My groggy brain realized, finally, that it was my cell phone.
Shit. No one had that number but the pack and the maidens, which meant if it was buzzing in the middle of the night, it was urgent.
I slung my legs over the side of the bed, feeling immensely better after the meds I’d swallowed the second we walked into our bedroom, and the two hours of sleep I’d snatched in Valens’s arms.
The screen lit up, showing multiple texts from Dakota.
Kota: Galyna told me you were exhausted, so I took myself out to the festivities. Feel better!
Kota: One of the Hungarian girls is going to go with me. Just so you don’t worry or anything.
Kota: Some of the males are getting rowdy. Can you take hall duty and send Galyna down?
Kota: You might need to both come. Some of these guys are really drunk and the strip poker has turned risqué. A couple of the females are intoxicated and half naked. I’m going to try to break it up but I need backup.
Kota: Please hurry. One of the drunk girls is Valens’s sister.
The last text had dread souring my stomach. “Shit on a fucking stick. Valens, we’ve gotta roll.”
“What?” He ran his hands over his face. “What time is it? You’re supposed to rest until breakfast. It’s still dark out.”
“Yeah, well, unless you want your drunken sister stirring up shit with strange alphas at strip poker, we’re going to have to burn rubber.”
He spewed an impressive string of curses in English before switching to Hungarian. By the time I’d dragged pants on and the closest T-shirt over my sports bra, he was wearing his own sweats, boots, and storming out the door bare-chested. I snatched up my sword and chased after him.
I didn’t have time to fill Galyna in, so I just hollered for her to read her messages as we raced by.
We ran together through the darkness, as I racked my brain trying to remember what Dakota had said about where the various events were happening.
“I think strip poker’s in the stables,” I told Valens as we sprinted through the nearly empty knights’ hall.
People had apparently decided to really live it up after the gathering earlier, because almost no one was fucking sleeping like a normal person.
We wove through crowds of partiers on the grounds, all of them at least mostly dressed and therefore their own problems for now.
When the stables—a giant stone stable complex with multiple stories that were being used to house a lot of guests since they’d survived the worst of the burning—came into view, the thumping bass music blaring out through the open windows was enough to set my teeth on edge.
As were the highly inappropriate catcalls we could hear over the music.
I skidded to get in front of Valens before he could snatch the door off its hinges. “Let me go in first. Your sister’s in there, and you cannot lose it. I’m a maiden. I’ll kick all their drunken asses out of here. Give me five minutes.”
“You’ve got sixty seconds,” he spat, the veins in his forehead pulsing in a way I’d never seen before as Savannah’s tipsy laugh reached our ears.
Better than I thought I’d get.
I flew through that door, reciting prayers to the Goddess and the maidens who came before me that it wouldn’t be as bad as Dakota had implied it was.
But fuck me sideways, it was worse.
There were at least two separate couples actively fucking in corners, each with a crowd of horny watchers. Alpha pheromones hung so thick in the air that it was choking. I scanned the crowd in a panic, looking for Dakota and Savannah.
I spotted them in the middle of the floor, Savvy with a mostly empty bottle of whiskey lifted overhead, dancing in nothing but heels and red lace.
Shit.
Three separate males had hands on her, and from the discombobulated way she gyrated, I could tell she was far too drunk to make any kind of consensual decisions. Dakota was grappling with a fourth, who looked like he was trying to get in on it.
“Everybody, listen up. This party is over. Put the alcohol down and your clothes on, or I will throw you out on your ass in the cold. Now!” I did my best impression of an alpha bark, despite my beta status.
A commanding tone would usually do for anyone below me in the order and at least thin the herd.
None of the jackasses feeling up Savannah even blinked, but probably about half the crowd did, sending people drunkenly fumbling for clothes and shoes. It wasn’t perfect, but it made a dent in the crowd at least.
I cut a swath through the retreating partiers, praying Valens would give me a little bit longer to deal with his sister before charging in since I’d managed to start an exit, at least.
Something told me she wouldn’t want him to see her like this, no matter how close they were. There were some things you didn’t need your family to witness. This felt like one of those moments.
“Everybody, back off. Now,” I snarled, charging them.
One of them stumbled backward in surprise, saw the wrath in my eyes, and made himself scarce. The other two? Alpha assholes who just smirked.
One of them winked at me and then spun Savannah away from the other, putting himself between us.
“She is too drunk to consent. Let her go right fucking now. Both of you should leave before I have to make you and embarrass you both.”
“Yeah, your little blonde friend tried that. But Savvy here is a good little bitch. She wants what we’re giving her, so you just run along and mind your own business. Let alphas be alphas.”
“Yeah, that’s not going to work for me. Sounds a lot like let boys be boys, and I don’t fuck with that energy. Last chance to leave.”
His eyebrows shot up, and he took a step toward me, surprising me for the half second it would have usually taken me to whip out my sword. The bastard put his hands on my waist, leaning in and pressing his alcohol-drenched lips against mine as I yanked myself back.
My skin crawled, and the urge to vomit rose up almost too strongly to bear. Goddess, my wolf was furious that this bastard alpha had touched me without permission.
But her anger couldn’t touch the furious, masculine roar that shook the damn roof over our heads. My time was up.
One second, the alpha who’d dared kiss me turned his cocky grin in Valens’s direction, and then he disappeared, tackled across the room by over two hundred pounds of pissed-off male wolf.
Shit, shit, shit.
I dove after them.