Chapter 22
twenty-two
BLAIR
Izzy was surrounded completely by huge vampires as Damian pulled me to the front of the group with him. Though he looked calm and collected, his grip on my hand was iron, and he pulled out a length of rope.
“You’re not actually going to tie me to you, right?” I whispered.
“I am. If one of these wolves tries to grab you, they’re going to be in for a surprise.” He slid the rope through one of my belt loops, then one of his, and tied a complex knot.
I sighed, but didn’t argue.
If a wolf tried to grab me, I was going to be glad for his paranoia.
There were wolves everywhere when we reached the hallway that led into the neutral territory.
Wolves in lines.
Wolves in crowds.
Wolves whispering excitedly.
Wolves wrestling and pummeling each other off to the side of the room.
I imagined being mated to one of them, surrounded by the furry beasts constantly, and shuddered.
Yeah, I liked vampires. Give me fangs and bloodlust, and I was golden.
Then again, there was only one set of fangs I wanted near me.
I bit my lip, glancing sideways at Damian as we stepped toward the mass of werewolves.
“Move,” he said to them. His voice was calm, but he stopped and waited for them to obey.
There was something in his tone that warned them not to ignore him.
One of them glanced over, and his face went white when he saw us. Whispers and yelps rolled through the hallway as the crowd parted immediately.
“It shouldn’t turn me on that they’re so afraid of you,” I murmured to Damian, as we resumed walking and made our way down the hall.
“Why not?” He lifted an eyebrow at me, and though he didn’t smile, I saw the humor in his eyes.
We made our way through multiple hallways before we finally stepped into what had to have been the largest room I’d ever seen.
My eyes met Curtis’s partway across the room—and he looked furious.
“Don’t let him see you flinch,” Damian said, slowly lifting our intertwined hands so he could kiss the back of my palm.
My gaze left Curt’s for a moment, and when I looked back at the werewolf, I saw the fury in his face and movements.
He’d been watching us. That was why Damian kissed my hand.
“Is riling him up really a good idea?” I asked.
“The more furious he is, the more erratic his movements will be, and Porter is anything but erratic in his current condition.”
“He didn’t seem all that calm and collected in the hallway.”
“You’ll see. He won’t lose.” Damian sounded more sure of that than I felt, so I nodded.
A simple metal fence had been set up in the center of the monstrous room, creating a cage of sorts that separated Porter and Curtis from the rest of us. There was a guy standing between them with a microphone in his hand, but he was covering the top as he yelled something to someone behind him.
Porter didn’t look in our direction when we found our place just outside the cage, stopping between Bane and Talon.
Our group of vampires was right behind us, with Izzy tucked probably uncomfortably between them.
Bleachers rose around the room, but I tried to ignore the insane noise of the pack of werewolves throughout it.
“Did you arrange this?” Bane called out, looking at me and Damian.
“We would never even consider that,” Damian lied, his lips curving upward wickedly.
Bane laughed, and when I looked to my other side, Talon was grinning too.
None of them would be disappointed when Curtis was gone.
…assuming Porter didn’t lose.
“Is Kai in the fae realm right now?” Damian asked.
“Yep. He’s going to be annoyed he missed this,” Bane yelled back.
A few more minutes passed as wolves poured into the room.
“This is the ballroom,” Damian said into my ear. “I throw a party here with all the other leaders every year, masquerade-style.”
I lifted my face toward his, and he ducked so I could speak into his ear. “If that’s your way of inviting me, I’m going to have to pass.”
He grinned. “It wasn’t an invitation. You’re going with me if I have to drag your ass there myself.”
I laughed, and he kissed my cheek playfully.
The announcer cleared his throat, and the loud noise carried through the room.
Damian pulled me closer, tucking me between him and the cage.
The announcer’s voice boomed when he called into the microphone, “Everyone, shut up!”
The words were far from elegant, but they got the job done as the entire room quieted over the next handful of minutes.
“Let’s not waste time,” the guy barked. “We’re here for a challenge!”
The crowd roared so loudly, I resisted the urge to cover my ears.
Damian chuckled when I winced, his chest rumbling against my back. “Glad I’m not a wolf?” His voice was playful, but he was right.
Very right.
I belonged with the vampires.
I suppose that was what fate was trying to tell me when it made me his blood mate. On second thought, maybe I should’ve realized it sooner.
“Challenging our beloved alpha, we have Porter Jenkins, the heir to the throne who left us behind two centuries ago,” the announcer added.
The crowd roared louder.
I wasn’t sure if they were out for Porter’s blood, or if they wanted him to win.
Maybe some of both.
“As you know, this is a fight to the death. Last one alive takes the pack. Are we ready?”
More deafening cries flooded the room.
My fingers wrapped around the bars separating us from the wolves as the announcer finally said, “GO!”
The fight began so fast, I jerked backward a little.
I’d been trained as a kid, but was clearly not prepared for a real fight between two of the strongest men alive.
Their fur tore through their skin as they lunged for each other’s throats, shifting into their massive wolf forms. Porter’s fur was the same reddish-brown color as his hair, and Curt’s was blond, so it was easy to tell them apart.
Porter rolled at the last minute, raking his claws through Curtis’s belly as Curt sliced through his back.
They landed on the tile and circled each other slowly.
My heart pounded as they sized each other up.
Curtis snapped his teeth toward Porter’s throat.
Porter went for Curt’s leg, and I heard the crack as he broke the bone.
Curtis used the moment to tear into Porter’s shoulder, and though Porter rolled to the side, he couldn’t avoid the deep gash.
Both of them bled as they circled each other again, a little more warily.
Though Curtis limped a little, Porter’s shoulder didn’t look good at all.
My body was so tense, I could barely breathe.
If Curtis won, we were screwed.
And Izzy…
Holy shit.
Izzy would have a mate bond with a dead man.
She’d be alone, for life.
I wanted to look back at her, to see how she was doing, but didn’t let myself look away from the fight. I couldn’t miss anything. Not when everything was on the line.
Curtis lunged again, and Porter dodged, tearing into his flank.
When Curtis went for his throat, clearly getting angry, Porter shifted back to his skin and rolled. He took Curtis’s wolf down with an iron, human arm around his throat.
As one, the crowd seemed to take a breath.
Curtis snarled, his arms and legs flailing violently as he shifted back too. He grabbed Porter’s hair and arms, but Porter seemed to have complete control.
Curt’s movements grew weaker, and Porter finally said something into his ear.
Curtis howled—but a moment in, a snapping noise reverberated through the air, and the beastly sound cut off abruptly.
Gasps echoed around us.
Damian let out a relieved breath against my ear.
And then, in an instant, the crowd was roaring.
Porter shoved Curtis’s body to the side and stood up, his clothes torn in the shift and abandoned on the tile floor somewhere behind him.
The crowd was screaming for him, making my ears ring with the noise, but his gaze was fixed on me and Damian.
I glanced behind us, at the vampires who had parted to reveal my sister, and realized it wasn’t us he was staring at.
He crossed the distance between us and climbed over the fence, dropping to the ground like it was nothing before he strode past us and grabbed Izzy.
She looked taken aback as he lifted her fist toward the ceiling, roaring his victory as his voice joined everyone else’s.
The crowd grew deafening, but my gaze was fixed on my sister as her new mate pumped her fist twice—then sank his teeth into her shoulder.
My lips parted as shock filled her expression.
He released Izzy as fast as he’d bitten her, then tossed her over his shoulder and strode out of the room.
The wolves parted for him without hesitation or command, their cheers still filling the room after he was gone.
They started flooding out, but we stayed where we were.
There was no way we were breaking through the wave of wolves without a fight, and no need to start one.
The noise subsided over the next few minutes as the excitement faded and the crowd finally started to thin out.
Damian’s hands were still on my hips. “He bit her in front of the crowd,” I said, still almost as shocked as Izzy had been. It had surprised me when Damian bit me in front of his people, but he was a vampire , so I at least knew it was a possibility.
My sisters and I didn’t know enough about the other kinds of magical beings to consider that wolf shifters might bite their mates too.
“Wolves do that. The public claiming thing is big for them,” he said, his lips brushing my ear.
“She’s going to be pissed at him.”
“It only gets worse from there, so something tells me she’s going to be pissed at him often.”
“Almost like I am at you?” I nudged his abdomen with my elbow, a little playfully.
“Nah, you only pretend to be angry at me these days to get me hard.”
“Oh, do I?”
“Yup.” He kissed me, pulling me against him so I could feel his erection. “And it works.”
I laughed, and he kissed me again, a little longer.
“If that was one of her sisters, I’m going to kill you,” Talon grumbled, smacking Damian on the shoulder good-naturedly. “I still need a siren.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Damian said with a shrug. “But if you need the rest of us to help, you know we’ve got your back.”
“It’s not something you bastards can help with. It has to be a siren. An unmated one.”
“Well, if we had any unmated sirens—which we still don’t—we wouldn’t just give them out , remember? They would be people, with feelings. And a lack of desire to be handed to a large, terrifying dragon shifter,” I said.
Talon cracked a reluctant grin. “I’ll take the compliment, at least.”
“Don’t go smiling at my female,” Damian chided, though his expression told me he knew we weren’t flirting.
The four of us made our way through the rest of the crowd when there was enough space to get out.
“We’ll have to call a meeting in a few days, after Porter has some time to settle things with the pack,” Damian said as we went.
The other guys agreed, and after trading goodbyes , we headed back to our wing of the Manor with our vampy entourage.
Damian captured my hand, slipping his fingers between mine. Something about it felt ridiculously right.
“I hope Izzy’s okay,” I said, and he squeezed my hand.
“Porter won’t hurt her.”
I smiled. “I’m more worried that she’ll hurt him . But she needs people more than she realizes.”
“One thing the wolves aren’t lacking is people. And physical contact.”
I laughed. “They’re going to drive her crazy. But maybe it’ll be good for her.”
“Here’s hoping.”
Damian pulled me closer as Egan and the rest of our guards headed off in their own directions. My sisters were waiting just beyond the security gate, and descended immediately.
After I explained—in bloody, gruesome detail—everything that happened, they were satisfied.
A little sad, and just as shocked as I’d been about Izzy being bitten by her arranged mate in front of his new pack, but satisfied.
We all headed to the dining room, but Damian and I hung at the back of the crowd.
“I never taught you about your second job,” he remarked.
“No, you didn’t.”
“What do you say we sneak off to our room and bribe one of the kitchen workers to bring us something to eat? I can teach you, or we can watch a movie…” he trailed off, flashing me a grin.
“Hey, you guys are coming to the pool movie night, right?” Zora called over her shoulder.
“I forgot that was tonight,” I admitted.
“We can do dinner and the pool,” Damian said easily.
He was clearly backing down from what he wanted, to keep the peace. And not to keep the peace with my sisters—to keep the peace with me .
But we were mates.
Despite all of my very pointed intentions, real mates. Not just fuck buddies.
And if I’d been the one who didn’t want to socialize that night, Damian would’ve taken my side without question.
It was time for me to start doing the same.
“We’re going to stay in and do some work tonight,” I called back.
“Is that the code word for sex now?” Clementine teased. It was a little half-hearted, but I knew she was just sad about Izzy leaving. Though I didn’t want to leave her to deal with that alone, she had Avery and Zora. Damian only had me.
And though he wasn’t struggling with Izzy’s departure, he still deserved to have someone there for him.
Besides all of that…
Well, I wanted to hang out with him.
I wanted to spend time with him.
And we needed to have a conversation about the serious things I’d been avoiding talking about.
So yeah, it was a “work” night.
“I’ll admit to nothing. Have fun at dinner!” I yelled to them, as they disappeared around the corner.
Damian led me down the hallway that would take us to our elevator, and we slipped inside together.
“You didn’t want to hang out with your sisters?” he asked, pulling my chest to his as he leaned up against the elevator’s back wall.
“I wanted to hang out with you,” I said simply.
His immediate reaction was surprise—and then a slow grin that stretched across his face, lighting up his eyes in a way that told me I’d made the right choice.
He kissed me slowly, and sweetly.
The elevator dinged too soon, and he released my mouth long enough to call out, “Wait for the next one.”
Laughter broke out behind me, but when Damian recaptured my mouth, I ignored it.
Some things were just that good.