Chapter 2
Chapter two
Kyren
Ice tinkled in my glass. I lifted the tumbler to my lips, wincing at the sharp, bitter sting of alcohol as it hit my tongue. My eyes bored into the fire crackling in the fireplace before me. My black leather armchair sat too close to the fire, making my usually cool skin warm.
The heat reminded me of the war. The hot sun beat down on us as we marched through the battlefields. Our hats barely did anything to keep us from taking the brunt of the sun’s painful rays.
Shots rang out too close to each other, making our ears ring. The shouts and cries of men fighting and dying were a morbid background theme to the carnage around me.
My best friend, Carlos, begged me to help him, but he was too far away. If I took the chance to save him, then I could get hit by the crossing fire. I remembered battling with the decision for what seemed like hours. It’d only been mere moments.
Without announcing my intention, I’d run across the battleground, dodging and weaving between bodies, ducking at oncoming fire. My heartbeat pulsed in my ears like a battle roar, encouraging me to save him, save him, save him.
I never made it to him.
My body twitched in my seat as I resisted the urge to touch the long since healed places I’d been hit.
The bullets had ripped through my skin as if it was mere paper. A hot, searing pain spread across my chest and shoulder. By the time I’d fallen, I’d become numb. I knew now that I’d gone into shock. My world had closed in around me, darkening at the edges.
My fingers tightened on my glass. The clear surface fractured under the pressure of my fingers. I forced them to relax and blew out a breath. I didn’t require oxygen to live, but either by habit or some other reason, it still helped calm me.
I hadn’t thought of my death in decades. Why today? I asked myself, but I knew why.
Shoving to my feet, I stalked over to the fireplace, leaning my arm on the mantel as I stared into the fire.
Jaquelynn. Jack. Mi amore.
Well… not anymore. Or perhaps she had never been mine. Just a cruel trick of fate that led me to think I found someone that complemented the bond Tate and I had.
I rubbed my hand down my face, my teeth clenched.
My sire, Kleon, would roll over in his grave had he known I’d betrayed him on such a profound level. Not just falling for the enemy but bedding her, defending her, claiming her. I should have ripped the Durand brat’s throat out the moment I met her.
Not that I’d known who she was at the time.
No. I snorted a laugh.
Jaquelynn had been quite thorough with her deception. She had even been able to fool me and my shadows.
Said shadows swirled around my feet, anxious to be near her. I forced them to still. I wouldn’t give in to this weakness. She was the enemy, the very person responsible for my sire’s death.
Sure, she didn’t swing the sword, but it was because of her that Kleon was no longer in this world. She was everything that I hated. The spawn of the Durands, those self-righteous vampires who thought that we should acclimate to the human world or perish.
No doubt they were being manipulated by the human woman they shared between the six of them. Everything that had happened leading up to Kleon’s death had been her fault.
Now her daughter was making even bigger waves than the mother. Getting me all tangled up and thinking maybe the Durands were right.
No. Not me. I wouldn’t become her pawn.
“Here you are.”
I didn’t turn to greet the werewolf’s exasperated voice. The couch creaked, letting me know that my blood-bonded servant and lover had taken a seat.
Very few vampires ever bond with werewolves. Our kinds were enemies because of some squabble or another centuries ago. Except Tate’s pack.
The Mountain Ridge Clan.
Kleon had introduced me to their pack a long time ago.
He hadn’t seen the point of fighting over past ancestors’ mistakes when we could be stronger together.
He had bonded to every alpha wolf for the last four centuries.
Unfortunately, either because of their nature or ours, Kleon outlived them all.
Then I outlived him.
The pack had come to me, requesting that I keep my sire’s tradition alive. That was when I met Tate.
He was the son of the current alpha at the time, next in line to lead. His happy-go-lucky attitude was more suited for a lesser-ranking wolf than the next alpha. Still, I had grown fond of him and his teasing ways. Finding his positive nature easily pulled me out of my brooding moods.
Our relationship had started out as a tentative friendship. Then, when we blood bonded, it became… more. Much more. Tate was like the other half of my heart and, without him, I didn’t know how I could survive.
For a long time, I thought he was the only person I ever needed. Until her.
“What are you doing here, mi lobo?” I inquired, sliding my gaze from the fire to the dark-skinned wolf. Almost a foot taller than me, he dwarfed the couch, his long legs sprawling out over the end.
Tate’s tongue flicked over the hoop in his lip. “Looking for you, of course.”
I scoffed, turning back to the fire, not believing him for a moment. “Well, you found me.”
The weight of his stare pressed into my back. I knew what he wanted, and I didn’t want to hear it. It was taking everything I had to stay where I was and not go running back to the academy… back to her.
“I can see that,” Tate drolled on. “You’re doing a bang-up job pretending to be a statue there. They should give you an award.”
I rolled my eyes, refusing to give in to his teasing as my gaze shifted to where he lounged.
“Are you going to spend the entire semester hiding in this apartment?” Tate laced his fingers behind his head, his dark braids falling between his fingers.
“I’m not hiding,” I snapped, baring my fangs at him.
Not even slightly put off by my display, Tate chuckled. “Could have fooled me.”
I grunted in response, then cleared my throat, forcing my voice to calm. “I’m simply keeping myself out of a hazardous position.”
The couch leather squeaked as he shoved off it. His long legs ate up the distance between us. His hand almost touched mine on the mantel.
“You spent so many years bitching about the Durands and what you’d do to their little brat, and now you’re hiding from her?” He cocked his head, peering down at me. “I didn’t realize you were such a coward.”
I set my glass down hard before turning on him. I snarled and lashed my fist out at him.
Tate laughed and dodged me, locking his arm around mine, pulling me closer to his chest. “Admit it. You’re not mad at her, your ego is bruised. Just kiss and make up already.”
My fingers curled into his shirt, pulling his face down to mine. “She lied to me. She lied to us! The fact that you’re not pissed is remarkable.”
“Shocked? Yes.” His hand cupped the back of mine, pressing our foreheads together. “Upset? More so for you than anything.” His gaze softened. “But I love her, Kyren. And I know you love her, too.”
I opened my mouth to deny it, but Tate didn’t give me the chance. He smacked his lips against mine in a quick, chaste kiss.
“Are you really going to let your hatred for her family get in the way? Is your need for revenge worth losing her?”
I shoved my hands against his chest with a growl. “Leave me alone. You don’t understand.”
“I’ll never just leave you alone,” Tate replied solemnly, then gave me a deprecating smile. “You’re stuck with me, remember?”
Guilt ate at me.
Our blood bond made it so that I could feel Tate’s emotions, and the despair mixed with his insecurity was hitting me like a freight train.
It wasn’t Tate’s fault that Jaquelynn lied to us.
That everything I thought I knew about her and myself had come into question.
And yet he was an easy target to vent my frustrations on.
That wasn’t fair.
I softened my expression, letting my hands lift to cup his face. “Mi lobo, I’m sorry. You know you are everything to me. I’m… just…” I blew out a breath and shook my head. “I don’t know what I am. I need time. Space.”
Hurt punctuated through our bond.
“Not from you,” I added quickly. “From her. From them.”
Tate nodded, clasping my hands with his larger ones. “I love you, Kyren. You know that. But I love her too, and I don’t want to lose her.”
I huffed a laugh and shook my head. “I don’t know how you think that’s going to work. If she will have you, then I won’t stand in your way.” I dropped my hands from his face and twisted back toward the fire. The betrayal and heartache stung more than it had a few minutes ago.
I waited for Tate to leave me to my brooding, but he didn’t do so right away.
My head turned toward him just as his fingers tangled in my ebony hair, yanking my head back and devouring my mouth.
His tongue pulled on mine, scraping his teeth against my lip before biting down on it, the coppery taste of my blood filling our mouths.
For once, I let him take the lead, taking what he needed from me until he had his fill.
I half-expected him to escalate the kiss into more.
Tate was a wolf and a touch-craving person, and he had used sex as a way to be emotionally close to me.
Especially since, while I could feel his emotions, he couldn’t feel mine, something that I knew frustrated him beyond measure.
Instead, Tate held me close, pressing his front to mine. Not once grinding against me or trying to get my clothes off. His restraint would have been worrying had I not known the reasoning behind his sudden attack.
When he released me, his breathing heavy, his eyes dark with desire, I licked my lips. “Feel better?”
Tate smirked and shook his head. “No. Not really.”
I inclined my head in understanding. “You'd best get going. You’re going to miss lunch, and we know how you get when you’re hungry.”
Giving me a lopsided grin, Tate tugged on my lip ring. “Sure you don’t want to come with me? Your absence is starting to make the other vampires talk.”
“And when have I ever cared about them?” I picked my glass up from the mantel and swallowed a mouthful.
“Well… never, but I’m sure our girl’s reveal will cause all sorts of drama.” He paused, his voice growing serious. “And plenty of supernaturals besides you would love to hit the Durands where it hurts the most.”
The liquid became hard to swallow. The visceral need to appear at the academy and defend her pressed hard on my very bones. I might be angry, I might not want her anymore, but she was still mine. No one else would get to touch her as long as I lived. Not if I had anything to say about it.
“Watch her,” was all I said in return, not looking to see if Tate nodded or not before the sounds of him leaving the apartment drifted from my ears.
My eyes burned as I stared into the fire, its flames twisting and turning into a familiar feminine form that had me draining my glass and turning my back on it.
Yes, Kleon would be turning over in his grave if he could peek into my heart just now, and I struggled to even care.