CHAPTER THREE
– KAREV –
“Thank fuck everything is handled,” Sevrin states.
I nod and take a breath before I reply when the mouthwatering scent hits me again.
My head turns to the door and I narrow my eyes.
Where the fuck is it coming from? I fill my lungs again, letting me know the scent is still here.
Strong, heady, and fucking delicious. There’s no one here except Sevrin and I. Yet, I feel watched.
“Do you smell that?” I ask, keeping my eyes pinned on the door.
Sevrin sniffs the air. “Don’t smell anything out of the ordinary. You?”
I glance at my prez. “You don’t smell waffles, lemon sugar cookies, or something along those lines?”
The fucker snorts. “Sounds to me like you’re hungry.”
There’s no chance to reply when Levan, our road captain and a shark shifter, bursts through the door. “Prez, VP, you guys gotta come see this shit.”
We jump up and follow Levan who rushes out of the clubhouse. A handful of brothers are standing in the parking lot, and the first thing I notice is a pile of crimson gore lying at their feet.
“What the fuck is that?” Sevrin rumbles from beside me, voicing my very thought.
Stepping closer, I notice the bones and know, “It’s a female’s body.”
Shock, our enforcer, frowns. “How the hell can you tell from the pile of gore and bones?”
I look at Shock and point at the pile. “Female parts are smoother and smaller, males are more robust and heavier. The pelvis for a female is wider and shallower.”
“Childbirth,” Shock murmurs, making me nod.
Focusing back on the pile, I inhale and filter the air. “Blondie. She came out of the clubhouse when I got here, the other sweetbutt was with her. These are only Blondie’s remains. Croc, go inside and check the cameras.”
Croc nods and rushes inside.
A female voice draws our attention. “What’s going on?”
Cassia, Sevrin’s old lady, walks out of the clubhouse and is holding their son in her arms.
Sevrin curses and says, “Go back inside, Cassia.”
I glance at Sevrin and grunt, “Take her inside yourself. The rest of you, go with Prez. I’ll clean up here and be there in a few minutes so we can hopefully see who the fuck did this.”
Sevrin nods and jogs in the direction of Cassia to take their son from her hands and take both of them inside. The rest follow and I wait a moment to glance around and make sure I’m alone. Inhaling, I catch a whiff of waffles and lemon cookies...baked shit that makes my damn mouth water.
Ignoring the way my body reacts, I let the hellhound inside me take hold and embrace the shift.
Everything is blurry for a fragment of a second before my vision is enhanced in threefold.
A growl rumbles through me when the delicious scent becomes a longing to fuck.
Forcing myself to shake it off, I dig my nails into the dirt and inhale to activate the hellfire within my body.
A sea of flames erupts from my three mouths and with it incinerates the pile of what once was Blondie into ashes. Shifting back, I watch the wind carry away the ash and leave the parking lot without a trace of blood or bones.
I release a sigh and when I fill my lungs again the scent of baked goods is overwhelming. Fucking insane. A soft touch on my forearm makes electricity shoot up my arm, but when I glance down there’s nothing.
Yet, it feels as if someone is standing right next to me. The thought of what happened in Calvania’s office with his daughter appearing out of nowhere pops into my head. Motherfucker. I first smelled the mouthwatering scent outside of his home.
Without thinking I reach out and am shocked to grab ahold of something. Insane since there isn’t anything in my grip. Yet, I can feel I’m holding something.
“Show yourself,” I snarl.
I can feel a touch on my chest. The exact same jolt of electricity as I felt on my forearm before I’m shoved back. It catches me off guard and I have to take a step back to catch myself. Instantly the scent is gone.
“VP, you gotta see this,” Croc bellows from the doorway.
Gritting my teeth, I glance once more in every direction and go inside the clubhouse. Everyone is standing around the laptop where we can watch the camera feed.
Triton looks at me and snorts. “Did you get some on you?” When I frown he points at me. “There’s a red smudge on your cut and on your forearm.”
I glance down but don’t see shit.
Thank fuck I’m not the only one when Sevrin says, “What are you talking about?”
Triton, who is a triva descendant and a master of witchcraft, frowns. He walks toward me and leans in when I catch the mouthwatering smell again.
“Do you smell that?” I ask.
Triton is still glancing at my cut where there’s nothing to see and mutters, “Please, no fart jokes when I’m standing this close to you.”
I smack the fucker on the back of his head. “No, you idiot. I’ve been smelling something mouthwatering and...”
His head whips up. “Makes your cock hard and no one else can smell it?”
I give a tight nod. His eyes go wide and then he’s spreading his fingers, making cups of his hands as he lets fire crackle in between.
The scent abruptly disappears. “It’s gone.”
Triton grinds his teeth. “Thought so. Someone was here with us. I don’t know who or what but it has the ability to cloak itself, making him or herself invisible.”
“A fury?” I question.
Triton raises one of his eyebrows in question. “Among others a fury has the ability to make herself invisible, yes. Why do you ask?”
“Can a fury do that shit to a body we found in the parking lot?” I grit through my teeth.
“Definitely,” Sevrin states. “Mind telling me why the fuck you think a fury did this? Especially since Calvania wanted you to marry one of his daughters. Daughters who happen to be furies?”
I rub the back of my neck and stare at my boots. “I have no damn clue, man. All I know is that the deal is off. I walked out of his house and when I got on my bike that’s when the mouthwatering scent hit me. I didn’t think much of it and then...”
Sevrin interrupts me, “You asked me about smelling something when we were in church earlier.”
“Guys,” Triton grunts.
Keeping my attention on my prez, I grunt, “Which means that person was with us in motherfucking church.”
“Hearing everything we said,” Sevrin rumbles.
“Guys,” Triton tries again.
I nod and Sevrin continues, “We need a way to secure the clubhouse, and banish anyone who doesn’t belong here. Triton, you...”
“Finally,” Triton grits. “Listen, I’ve been trying to tell you guys that I think Karev is marked. Can any one of you see the red smudge on his cut and on his forearm?”
I glance down again and don’t see any red smudges. When I look at all my other brothers, they’re all shaking their heads.
“What the fuck do you mean I’m marked?” I snap and rub over my cut, trying to get rid of whatever that fucker is seeing, even if I can’t see shit.
Triton snorts. “You can’t get rid of her essence, VP.”
Her essence. Essence? Fucking hell.
His words suddenly make sense. “Are you sayin’ my fated mate marked me?”
The thin red line of little things happening from Calvania’s to where I’m standing right now fall into place.
“Fuck,” I roar and point a finger in Triton’s direction. “You need to do something. It’s a fucking fury and I’m pretty sure it’s not the one Calvania wanted me to marry. That one didn’t carry the same scent.”
“Did you see the one Calvania wanted you to marry?” Stingray asks.
I nod. “She appeared in a puff of black smoke, snarling and angry as fuck.”
“Sounds like he wanted you to marry the angry one. I’ve read that furies are born as triplets. Three sisters where one fuels on anger, another is an avenger of murder, and...the one I think is your mate is the jealous one,” Triton states.
“Fuuuuuck, that totally makes sense.” Levan whistles low. “The way Blondie touched you? The second she was alone in the parking lot she went into the air and came back as ground beef.”
I rub a hand over my face. “I don’t need this fucking shit.”
Hushed voices make me drop my hand and I glare at my brothers who fall silent and are all staring at me.
“What?” I snap.
My brothers stay silent while Cassia says, “I’m pretty sure Sevrin and I are the prime example of the fact that you can’t fight the inevitable.”
A hellhound mating with a fury. Insane. An arranged marriage to one isn’t the same thing because the chemistry would be off-balance.
Fated mates? A whole different ballgame because magic happens when the mating takes place.
A connection and sharing of abilities where one completes the other.
It’s a power match the world isn’t ready for.