21. Ambrose
Chapter 21
Ambrose
L umi’s going to die, and it’s going to be my fault. I know her fate—I know both of our fates—the second I kiss her. And I’m desperate to change our destiny.
There is so much she doesn’t know, so much that I can’t explain to her yet. The only thing I know for sure is that if I don’t get ahold of myself and fast, she’ll die.
I stand on my back deck, sucking in lungfuls of air as I try to cool off after that kiss. I thought kissing her was for the best. I thought she needed to see how our physical connection was different than anything either of us had ever felt before.
Instead, I almost killed her.
Flames dance through my body, and my wolf is burning to be let free. To run. To kill.
I force more air down my throat—more, more, more. And I try to think of anything else, anyone but her. Because if I think about how her soft lips felt pressed to mine, or how she fit perfectly in my hands, or the soft whimpers she made when I touched her, then I won’t be able to stop myself. And she’ll end up dead.
I grip the railing on the deck until my knuckles turn white, and my muscles tremble as I force myself to stay frozen where I stand instead of returning to her. But even with the door shut and Lumi in the basement, I can still hear her. Her shallow breaths and erratic heartbeat are like a siren’s call, begging me to return to her.
I can’t.
I fucking can’t.
We aren’t going to survive until the next full moon. I’m not sure I can survive another minute without returning to her. Without tasting her again. Without claiming her and exploring every seductive part of her.
“Ambrose,” his wicked voice slithers into my head. It’s not like my connection with Lumi that feels warm, like sliding into a second home when I talk to her through our bond. A very seductive, desirable home that I want to fuck until we’ve both lost all control. Nor does it feel like talking to Emeric, which is less talking and more intuitively reading each other’s mind, as we’ve been friends for so long that it’s impossible not to know what the other is thinking.
No, Nyx’s voice in my head is like an invasion that I immediately want to block. It’s only possible because of how strong we both are as alphas, but we can only communicate the most basic of thoughts.
I grip the railing harder. He didn’t leave. He’s still here. It’s the only way he’d be able to communicate with me.
“ Where?” I send the word flying back like a bullet intent on killing him.
“Here,” Nyx says, and images of evergreens fill my head. Despite the vagueness the images would invoke in most people, I know exactly where he is. I know every tree and every landscape of my territory.
I don’t try to speak to him again, and I don’t question whether his summons is a trap or not. The energy flowing through me at the moment makes me stronger than he could ever imagine. Even if he’s set a trap, I have the physical advantage at the moment. I’m going to end this once and for all.
Kill, kill, kill.
The words fly through my head as I leap from my deck, shift in midair, and sprint to him. I’m finally going to kill him. I’m not giving him another chance.
I should thank him, really, because killing him might be the only thing that saves me from killing Lumi.
Blood stops me in my tracks as I run through the village my pack has created. The scent floods my nostrils until it’s all I can inhale.
I slow when I spot the first body—Calix. He’s one of my best fighters, and yet he’s bleeding out on the ground with two puncture marks on his neck. I run to his body, shifting back into my human body.
“Calix! What happened?” I scoop his head, cradling it in my lap.
He starts to open his mouth, but I realize I already know what happened. I don’t need his explanation. I just need him to live.
“You’re going to be okay. I won’t let you die,” I say with the command of an alpha behind the words, ensuring that he doesn’t die while I heal him.
“Go, I’ll heal him and the rest,” Serenai says as she kneels beside Calix.
The rest…I look up and see body after body lining the street. At least a third of my pack lays lifeless, bleeding from vampire wounds. But I can hear their heartbeats. They’re alive.
Whether the vampires didn’t have time to kill them or tried and failed to control them once they took their blood, I don’t know, nor does it really matter.
“Go! I won’t let any of them die,” Serenai says, starting to tend to Calix’s wounds. She’s the best at what she does, so they’ll all be okay. But it still feels wrong to leave my pack when I can help.
Serenai lays her hands on Calix’s wound, while looking up at me. “Make him pay for what he did.”
“I will. I promise.”
And then I shift, my dark fur and muscles forming in less than a second.
Nyx dies for this.
He deserved to die for what he did before, but this…this is the final straw. I won’t let this action go unpunished.
“Nyx!” I scream through the woods as I approach the spot where he told me he was. I don’t bother to shift back into my human form. I know he can hear me, and I’m not here for a conversation. I’m here to kill him.
Nyx barely moves, but I see him there in the shadows—always in the fucking shadows. Standing in his human form, he doesn’t speak. He knows what I’ve discovered. He knows I know what he’s done. And there will be no more talking.
A deep, guttural growl works its way through my body. Every shifter, vampire, or witch in my territory can hear it.
“I told you to leave or die.”
Nyx doesn’t flinch. His blackened eyes lock on me in an unblinking focus. There is no emotion in his features. He’s lost whatever emotions he used to have years ago.
“You can’t kill me, Ambrose.” His voice is bored and unbothered.
“Watch me.” I squat, ready to leap and slash his throat in one jump when I see her—the reason he’s so sure I won’t kill him.
I freeze.
Nyx smirks; his vile, evil grin covering his entire face. “Now that I see I have your attention, let’s talk.”
I shift as my heart sinks. “What do you want?”
“I want collateral. I want insurance that the curse will be broken on the next full moon.”
“It will be.”
Nyx cocks his head, looking at me in his deranged way. “I know it will.”