Chapter 7
Chapter Seven
Nigel
Charlie squeezes me tight and presses a kiss to my shoulder. “Don’t worry. She’ll never betray us.”
That’s not what I’m worried about. No matter what they say, this is my fault. My responsibility. I’m going to have to fix it somehow.
Outside, Marina says, “Everyone here belongs here except you. You’re unwelcome. Your very presence without permission breaks the long-standing pact between our species.”
“That pact was broken when the hybrid was created, and we’re prepared to pay those damages through the proper channels. In return, he leaves with us.”
My insides seize. “I can’t let someone get hurt because of me,” I whisper to Charlie. “I have to go.”
“No.” His eyes blow wide. “We stay here like Mom ordered. You’ll be safe.”
“Maybe, but what about everyone else? Charlie, I have to.”
“Then I go with you.”
I should argue, but there’s no time. “Come on.”
We head for the doors, but Oaks holds us back. “Marina ordered you to stay put.”
“That was before we knew they’d demand my presence, and technically, she’s not my alpha. Not yet.”
The voices outside grow louder and angrier by the second. I push past Oaks, surprised he allows this, and Charlie follows on my heels. We stumble outside with Oaks and Silvie behind us. The rain has let up, leaving the damp smell of mud in its wake.
I lay eyes on the fiend for the first time.
He’s tall, with hay-blond hair and bushy eyebrows over green eyes and a straight, large nose, which he peers down, expression thick with disdain.
A half dozen of his cronies flank him, power oozing from the group like the greasy slick of an oil spill. I shiver.
“What do you want with me, vampire?” My voice comes much stronger than I’m feeling inside.
“Not much at all.” He spreads his arms and opens his hands. “Only that you join me, as our laws demand.”
“Your laws,” says Marina. “Not ours.”
I like her point. “I don’t even know your name. Why should I go anywhere with you?”
Marina gestures with a tilt of her head, and Slater and Hardy position themselves between us and the threat.
“I’m Everette of the Torvaldson Line.” He bears his fangs. “And that is no way to speak to your elder.”
I quake with fear, but I won’t let it stop me. “Where I come from, one earns respect through actions and wisdom, not time ticked off a calendar.”
He sneers. “Then you have much to learn, hybrid.”
“Don’t call him that,” barks Charlie. “His name is Nigel. And he is a wolf first, vampire second, which makes him at least double better than you.”
My chest warms through the fear. To have a defender like Charlie is a boon greater than I’d dared to hope for. He makes me brave. I straighten my spine and glare at the vampire.
Everette narrows his gaze, burning a line straight for my mate. “Watch what you say, whelp. I won’t tolerate insult lightly.”
“Here’s an idea.” Not sure where this is coming from or if it’ll work, but mouthing off at this asshole is deeply gratifying. “Leave and you won’t have to tolerate it at all.”
Behind me, Oaks snickers a laugh.
Everette turns his chilling stare toward Marina. “You allow them to behave this way to their betters?”
“Funny how you’re so convinced you’re their better.” She smirks.
“Enough,” he says, ice cracking in his voice. “I’m here to claim the hybrid, nothing more. His sire awaits.”
“My sire?”
“The one who turned you.”
I cringe. I never want to see that asshole again.
“Does that mean you’ve caught the rogue vampires?” asks Marina.
“It does, indeed. Caught them, punished them, and brought them back into the fold. Now we need the hybrid they spawned, and we’ll get out of your hair.”
“Never. You can’t have him. He’s mine.”
“He cannot control the bloodlust without the guidance of older vampires. His pack already learned as much.” His glower lands on me with the weight of a thousand stones. “Isn’t that so?”
His words hit like a punch to the gut. He’s right. I attacked them. My own pack. My own family. If it weren’t for their fast reactions and superior fighting skills, I’d have killed the people I love most.
I can’t be trusted.
“He can control it!” Charlie steps forward. “He doesn’t need you for that.”
“Oh really?” Everette’s gaze moves slowly over our number, then settles on Oaks. “Shall we test that theory? Let’s.” A flick of his wrist sends his cronies diving into action.
I freeze. The world spins around me. Marina leaps to defend her pack. Slater and Hardy growl and gnash their teeth. Vampires move so fast I can’t track them, but the coppery smell of spilled blood permeates the air.
A high-pitched yowl. Charlie’s hands digging into my arms, thrusting me out of harm’s way. Mud splashing around our ankles as we’re lost in the fray.
No, no, no. This wasn’t supposed to happen! “Take me! I’ll go with you. Just don’t hurt them!”
Charlie’s grip on me tightens. The battle fades to my periphery. The savory metallic aroma slams my senses.
Blood.
I’m so thirsty.
My fangs throb.
My vision blurs, yet I make out Everette restraining a struggling Oaks, one arm around his middle, the other pinning his head sideways, exposing his throat, already smeared red from a gash behind his ear.
“Do it, youngling. Drain him as you’re meant to.”
“Let him go!” That’s Charlie’s voice, loud next to my ear, and it’s the only thing I can concentrate on to drown out the thirst. “Nigel doesn’t need you, and he doesn’t need Oaks.”
My mouth waters. Everything in me wants to fight my way out of Charlie’s hold and do as the elder commands. I see red. I crave it.
Around me, chaos. My mind, chaos. My body, chaos.
But my mate?
Steady. And murmuring in my ear, “Fight it, Nigel. You control the thirst. It doesn’t control you. When this is over, drink from me. But fight now.”
Cackling laughter pings through the fog of my senses. That vampire assumed he’d get the best of me.
I can’t let that happen.
I swallow the wicked yearning, lean back against Charlie, and gather my wits. “You won’t get away with breaking the pact. Your people signed it, same as ours. Release Oaks and get off our pack’s land.”
“Drink!” Everette jerks Oaks, spilling more blood. No matter how much he struggles, Oaks can’t break free from the vampire’s iron strength.
“I won’t.” I clamp my jaws shut and refuse to give in.
A feral roar erupts from my periphery. A wolf bursts out of nowhere and tackles Everette to the ground.
Oaks rolls away from him, clutching his neck.
Everette lets out a piercing wail, yet more blood thickens the air. The wolf pinning him shifts, and Marina crouches naked over him, claws still buried in the gaping chest wound she’s slashed open.
I stare in awe.
“Get out, or I’ll rip your dead heart right through these broken ribs.” She punches him in the face with her free hand. Bones snap with a sickening pop.
The vampire moans and curls in on himself, defeated.
Marina stands, glowers at the other vampires—some of whom still hold our pack members back—and growls. Somehow it’s even more intimidating through a human mouth than a wolf’s. “Let my people go.”
They obey. Whether it’s because their leader has fallen or because Marina is scarier than a rabid badger when she’s angry, I don’t know, and I don’t care. I’m just glad to see the back of them as they leave, tugging a whimpering Everette along with them.
Charlie drops to his knees next to Oaks. “You okay?”
He grunts an affirmative. “Pride hurts more than my neck. Can’t believe he got the jump on me.”
Marina shifts back to her wolf form to chase the retreating vampires and nip at their heels. Slater and Hardy flank her for good measure.
I kneel next to Charlie. Oaks’s blood is still tempting, but I’m stronger than the thirst, especially with my mate at my side. “Your mother is kind of intense.”
Charlie grins. “Isn’t she?”
Oaks arches his brows. “Not your alpha, my ass. I saw the way you admired her.”
“Caught me.” I grab Charlie’s hand and we take in the aftermath of the struggle. “Is everyone all right?”
“Looks like it,” says Charlie.”
I breathe a sigh of relief.
It’s wild to know my pack wants me back, and crazier still that Charlie’s pack would accept me so readily. Just when I thought I’d never have a home again, now I have two plus a mate to share them with. I catch his gaze and promptly lose myself in those sky-blue eyes.
Charlie ogles me right back.
Oaks huffs and climbs to his feet. “Go on, you two, find a room. Charlie, take the orange and blue cottage. I want the brown one. And don’t be too loud, or I’ll tell your mom.”
“As if she’d care.” Charlie chuckles and yanks on my hand. Together, we head farther into his village—our village—to properly christen our new home. “You hungry?” he asks, eyes on my mouth.
My fangs itch. “Starved.”