Chapter 15 #2
“First, I need to know everyone got out safe,” Killian said.
“Yes.” Ash nodded. “We got everyone out. Barely, but Mykel is taking them to a safe location.”
“My mother?” My voice was hoarse and clipped.
“Yes. She’s with Mykel. She is fine.” Ash assured me.
My head lowered in relief.
“How do we find them? Do we know where they went?” Birdie wiped at the drying blood on her hands.
“Right before I went on the mission, I told Mykel of a location. If anything happened to me, I had another safehouse near Csehvár. He would head there.”
“So we catch up with them tomorrow?” Wesley pulled off his soaking jacket.
“Head wherever the fuck you want.” Warwick’s stopped, his eyes glancing at Scorpion. “I’m heading to Ukraine.”
“You found her, didn’t you?” Scorpion’s spine straightened. “I thought I felt it. Did you see her?”
Warwick’s chin dipped in a yes.
“Where is she?”
“All I know is she’s in Ukraine.” Farkas’s voice went even lower. “Tracker was there.”
“What?” Lukas exclaimed. “Tracker? How? Why? How?”
“He was in a Ukraine military uniform. Istvan has to be there.”
“But where exactly is she? Is she okay?” Ash’s concern was written all over his face.
A flash of jealousy burned through me. Warwick, Ash, Killian, and Scorpion all were waiting on a breath.
All for my girl. She was supposed to be mine.
I was the one who held her after her father died, who died when I thought she did on that bridge.
I had always been too scared to cross the line. To tell her how I felt.
To disobey my father.
Now I was too late.
“Tracker was there when I linked with her. She was hiding from him. I couldn’t tell where exactly she was . . . she cut me off too soon. I need to find her now.” Warwick’s muscles were so tense, ready to bolt the moment Gawel found him a motorcycle.
“She was spotted in Ternopil,” Killian stated, jerking everyone’s head to him.
“What?” Warwick rumbled, stomping closer to him.
“Kalaraja. He’s working with Sonya and Andor. He has people out there, and when they realized she wasn’t with us, they went searching. There have been sightings of her. If he knows, others will.”
“Tracker will find her,” Lukas spoke up. “He wasn’t called Tracker for nothing. Mykel had him trained since he was twelve.”
“Great.” Ash rubbed his head.
“To confirm what Scorpion had heard—it’s true. The king and queen have sent their bounty hunters.” Killian swallowed. “To kill her.”
A snarl vibrated the room, Warwick’s frame expanding, magic crackling through him like a dark cloud, taking over every inch.
I felt every ounce of his wrath pound against my skin, my own absorbing it, rolling in it, responding to it. Violence coated my tongue.
“Warwick.” Ash placed his palm on the Wolf’s arm. “Calm down. You can’t help her like this.”
Warwick flicked Ash’s hand off like a fly, his chest heaving with ferocity, his voice barely coming out human. “No one fucking touches my mate.”
Mate.
One word detonated inside my brain. All I saw was red. All I wanted was to kill.
The girl I had grown up with, who every male in this room seemed to be willing to lay their life on the line for.
And I was no different. Brexley was mine.
The girl I had teased and loved. The girl always pushing and testing me.
The woman Farkas swept in and took. Something in me understood what mate meant.
It was beyond any human notion of commitment, marriage, or love.
It was forever.
I hated him before. I wanted to destroy him now.
A roar pierced the air, and I barreled for him, seething with everything I loathed him for.
Reacting faster than I expected, he whirled on me, a fist slamming into my jaw, tossing me back on my ass.
“Caden!” I heard a woman yell, but my brain spun, the embarrassment flipping to a frenzy in a second.
Darkness.
Death.
Power.
Magic.
My body couldn’t handle it, the explosion of sensations, the high of magic.
Nothing in my life had ever come close to the abundance flooding my veins.
The power of my rage was loud. It screamed into my muscles, roared through my blood, and shredded the back of my throat as I leaped for the man, our forms colliding with brutality.
He was my nemesis in every way, but I now had this link to him, one I would never be relieved of, forever punishing me.
My own prison.
I didn’t care if some of my hate should be directed at my father. He did this to me. I had been violated. Demeaned. I wasn’t enough for my dad. Ever.
He turned me into this.
A fae.
I had known the moment I sucked in air back in the lab that something was off. I was no longer human, but an animal like the human zombies my father created. Full of rage and death.
The Caden before was long gone.
“Back off, junior.” Warwick’s knuckles dove into my gut, bending me over. Everyone was watching, but I could feel her eyes on me the most, adding to my humiliation. “I’m warning you.”
“Fuck you, Farkas!” My punch cracked across his cheek, stumbling him back. Not hesitating, I lunged forward, my foot kicking into his leg as I went to punch again.
“Oh, mini me thinks he can take me on?” Warwick spat on the straw, our fight stirring the animals into a frenzy. “Bring it, captain one-pump.” He grinned, blood coloring his saliva, before his punch slammed me back into the post.
“Stop!” Lukas tried to move in, but Ash laid an arm across his chest, his head wagging, telling him no.
“You hate me because of this?” Warwick motioned between us. “How the fuck do you think I feel? I was forced. It’s my essence in your system, ripped from me. I don’t want it with you any more than you do.”
“We finally agree on something.” I swung, striking his kidney, before he darted back, a sardonic smile growing on his face.
“Or is this about Brexley? The fact you didn’t want her until you were already engaged. Safe. Convenient. Just admit it, Markos. You only wanted her when she no longer wanted you.”
“Fuck you!” I punched and weaved, moving in closer. “You know nothing about our history.”
“History,” Warwick repeated. “Not present. Not future. She was never meant for you. I saw that the night you finally kissed her up on the roof of HDF. There was nothing there.”
“What?” I jerked back, feeling blood trailing down my face.
“I was there that night, through our link. Watching two people with no chemistry fumble and grope like pre-teens. It was pathetic.” He smirked.
“And you want to talk about history? Kovacs and I go back far longer than you, douchebag.” His arm went out, crashing into my nose, blood spurting everywhere.
His foot hooked my ankle and flipped me onto my back with a thud in seconds.
He leaned over, his fingers clutching my chin painfully.
“You ever come at me again, I will fucking kill you. This was out of respect for my fucking mate. She still likes you.” He spat with a snarl.
“But don’t challenge me again. You’re nothing but a baby fae in diapers.
And I’m the motherfucking monster.” He let go, growling before he stomped away.
Eyes bored into me, and the embarrassment of getting my ass kicked so easily only fired me up more.
I wasn’t stupid enough to go after him again, but if I didn’t get away, I’d be killing someone else.
I might not be Warwick’s level of legend, but I still had it, and I knew I could easily execute someone.
The soldiers from HDF earlier, some I even recognized, I cut through like butter.
And I loved it.
Scrambling up, a rumble echoed in my chest as I took off up the stairs to the gutted flats above.
There were no walls or much left, but it gave me space away from everyone.
Room for the blistering mortification and rage to expand.
My legs gobbled up the length of the building until my boots rammed into the foundation wall, my fist connecting with it in a loud roar.
Over and over, my knuckles cracked and smacked against the surface, feeling no pain.
Blood smeared as bits of the plaster crumbled down.
I felt so much anger that I wanted to explode.
I had no control over what was happening to me.
Though I felt a dark part was always there, and I reveled in it.
Felt free for the first time in my life.
This only set me off more. The hurt, grief, and rage swallowed me. I was taught all my life to hate fae; they were soulless monsters. Somewhere along the way, my father’s desire to be superior twisted him up so much—brainwashed him—that he turned us into a Frankenstein’s monster version of them.
He turned his own son into something he conditioned me to despise.
Red liquid painted the walls, dripping to the floor, a bellow roaring from me, the sound of my flesh and bone hitting the wall.
“Caden!” My name rang through the room. A tiny figure grabbed for my arm, cracking into the red haze I was in. “Stop!”
I didn’t know if I could. There was so much rage in me, and I couldn’t lessen the pressure inside enough.
“Stop it!” Her voice pierced the veil, her strong grip pulling my fist away from the wall, putting herself in front of the spot before my hand came down on it again.
“Fuck!” My arms jerked back, realizing I almost struck her. “What the hell?” I seethed, my teeth gritting. I saw this tiny woman, her jaw tight, her stance ready to challenge me. Her face was still half blackened from the earlier explosion, cuts and bruises covering her. “I almost hit you.”
“I hit back.” Birdie’s white-blonde hair was up in a high ponytail, still wet from the lake.
I felt an urge to wrap my bleeding hand around it, staining the light locks with my blood.
The need to yank hard on it until she submitted spread like fire through my lungs.
I would never admit each time I looked at her, something deep in me reacted.
It wanted.
Birdie was nothing I normally would ever be attracted to.