Chapter Fourteen
Marcus
I couldn’t feel the grounding earth beneath my paws or the whipping of the wind through my fur. Even the warmth of the Goddess had deserted me. All I had was the weight of Joanna on my back. She held onto my fur, her strong legs wrapped around me as I sprinted further from the mansion.
Silas and the others had made it to the lake’s edge when a phone rang. Latoya’s friend, Heather, fished the phone out of her knee-high boots. It’d been her luna on the other line, and before Heather said a word, the luna’s piercing wail rattled us all.
Her mate was dead.
Silas had snatched the phone from Heather’s shaking hands. He demanded answers. Brody had only been missing for a few minutes.
The alpha of the rogues looked around at his wolves, and their faces revealed everything he didn’t want to admit: It’d been more than a few minutes.
The luna persisted. Brody was dead, and she’d felt the moment he’d taken his last breath.
The rogues began to panic, trying to remember all of Brody’s favorite places at the estate. Where he liked to drink, smoke, fuck. Then they split up and went looking for their brother.
And I went looking for Joanna.
I slowed to a stop when the low roar of traffic echoed from a nearby highway, lowering myself to the ground and allowing Joanna to slide off my back.
She waited until I lifted my head to throw my bloody clothes down at my feet.
I closed my eyes as if I was about to shift. But instead, I listened. I sorted through the sounds of rubber against the pavement, of trees dancing in the wind, of the cicadas singing their nightly melody… until I found it.
A faint flutter. The most beautiful sound I’d ever heard in my entire life.
My gaze shot up to find Joanna’s face. But it was devoid of all emotion.
I turned my back to the hunter and shifted into my human form, the world quieting around me. Stealing a quick glance down at my chest, I released a silent sigh of relief.
“Are they gone?” Joanna asked, as if she could read my mind. It was the first thing she’d said to me since leaving the mansion.
I pulled on my jeans before inching around to face her, afraid—because I knew exactly what she was asking me.
“Silas said you weren’t feeling well… What did you do to make the black veins appear?” Anger now swirled in the depths of her eyes, so the smile that appeared on her face turned my throat dry. “I’ll tell you what started mine.”
She dishonored the bond?
A sharp pain radiated from my chest. I clenched my fists as I glanced up at the Moon for strength as I told her the truth.
“Joanna,” I began with a sigh. “They chose you to be a part of Silas’s family.
” I stooped and removed my tank top from the pile of leaves.
Staring at a piece of skull stuck to the fabric, I continued, “Silas would’ve Bitten you whether you wanted it or not. And I didn’t care.”
I looked up and kept my hands at my sides as I took a step forward.
“No,” I corrected, “the truth is that I wanted him to do it.” I raked my hand through my hair, wanting to yank out every strand. “Because I can’t do it. Not when I know you don’t want this. But I promise I would never have let him near you again after that.”
Joanna shook her head as if trying to shake my words from her memory. She’d been toying with the bracelet on her wrist whilst listening to my confession, and with a roll of her eyes, she tossed it to the ground.
She loosened her shoulders as her aura burst free, crackling like electricity across her skin. Goddess, she was—
“A rogue Bit a human, and the girl was excited to make the change.” She gave a nonchalant shrug. “So, I killed her.” She smirked. “Because you’re all monsters.”
My wolf barked in confusion. I tossed the tank top back on the ground and held up my hands as I continued to close the gap between us. “You don’t mean that, Joanna. I know you don’t. You care about me. And what about your sister?”
Joanna’s cold eyes hadn’t left mine. “I’ve been replaying a conversation I overheard earlier in my head… I think Latoya suspected Silas would want to turn me. What do you think, Marcus?”
When I didn’t respond, she nodded her head.
“That would’ve been something to mention about four days ago, right?”
“Joanna—”
“And she’s not the only one who forgot to share something important. But maybe I’m wrong—Tell me you don’t know…” She paused, her breaths quickening in the seconds it took for me to take another step closer. “Do you know, Marcus?”
I froze in my tracks, my blood running cold. “Know what, Joanna?” I asked, my quiet voice swallowed by the wind.
“Am I your fated mate, Blackwood?”
The howl of my wolf resonated deep within my core. Ours.
I frowned. “I never asked for any of this.”
“Am I?”
“Am I?” I echoed stubbornly.
Joanna tilted her head, her mouth dropping open.
“Am I the father?”
She stiffened but said nothing as she balled her hands into fists. She kicked a pinecone by her foot, sending it hurtling toward me. As I swatted it, she lunged for me—intent burning in her eyes, venom weeping from her battle cry.
She swung, her fist colliding hard with my cheek. I leaped back, shaking the spots from my vision.
“Joanna, stop—”
She continued to attack. I held up my arms, shielding myself, when I saw her pick up a stick from the ground. She twirled the stick around, swinging it like it was an extension of her. She landed a blow on my elbow, shooting shockwaves down my arm.
She wanted the kill.
She had the speed and the strength; but thank the Goddess she had no silver to use against me.
I hissed, trying to shake the pain from my arm when Joanna leaped into the air, swinging the branch down for my head. I blocked it with my forearm and grabbed her by the neck. She struggled and tried to swing again.
“Enough,” I roared, wrenching the branch from her hands and flinging it away.
I released her, and instead of landing on her feet, she hit the ground with a thud, wheezing as if the air had been knocked out of her.
“What the fuck?” I scrambled to my knees as guilt pulled my chest taut. “I’m sorry,” I pleaded, my shaking hands hovering above her.
She squirmed and released a muffled groan as she curled into fetal position.
“Joanna, are you alright?” I turned her over, and my face blanched.
Visible through her mesh top, black veins branched across her brown skin. They pulsed with a vengeance. There was nothing I could do to ease her pain. I pulled her onto my lap, cradling her close as her silent tears wet my chest.
Ours.
I scanned the trees in front of us. We couldn’t stay here. We needed to catch a ride into the city.
Ours.
I looked down at Joanna’s pained face. She was so fucking perfect. Her eyes were squeezed shut, but I was on fire and breathing so hard that she would’ve felt my head lowering.
I kissed her. And the numbness melted away. I felt the warmth of her lips—could taste the salt in her tears. Could feel the Goddess smile down on us as Joanna’s tongue slid into my mouth. The way her fingers tangled in my hair.
Everything else blurred into the night.
She was all that mattered.
I pulled back, causing Joanna’s hand to drop from my head. Looking down at her, all the sudden feelings metastasized until their weight settled in my chest. “I need you,” I whispered.
Joanna opened her eyes slowly, before biting down on her bottom lip and struggling to rise. She managed to climb to her feet with my help. She stood hunched over, until she took a deep breath and straightened despite the pain. “I…” she began.
I waited, eager for her next words.
“Joanna Sullivan…”
But knew, at that moment, they wouldn’t be the words I’d hoped for.
“Reject you, Marcus Blackwood, as my mate.”
All the air left my lungs.
Then came the first pang of pain—dull, like a bear poking me in the side.
“Is that all I have to do, Marcus?”
The second one was more of the same. What just happened?
“Marcus,” Joanna demanded, shifting her footing. “Is it done?”
I stood there, too stunned to breathe. Joanna was only an arm’s length away, but she was further from my grasp than she’d ever been.
And by the third brutal stab of rejection… fire ripped through my body, setting every nerve ablaze. I grabbed at my chest, trying to stop my heart from slamming against my ribcage. But it hammered on, as if it wanted to break itself apart.
A chilling darkness wrapped around me as grief clouded my senses.
My body convulsed from the sudden cold, and I staggered to the tree behind me.
With my back against its trunk, I waited for the tremors to stop.
Then I turned and rested my forehead against the tree and begged my wolf to stop yowling in agony.
It was going to be okay. I would handle this.
The cries quieted to a whimper, and I pushed off the tree trunk. I dragged my hand down my face and opened my eyes to harrowing disappointment.
Joanna was gone.
With labored breaths, I patted the pockets of my jeans. The cloner was gone, too.
I collapsed to the ground, one hand cradling my head, the other pounding at my aching heart.
How could I have been so stupid?
I struggled to pull my cellphone from my pocket. My hands shook and my vision went in and out, but by the grace of the fucking sadistic Goddess, I found her listing in my call log.
The phone rang and rang, but Joanna never picked up.
I typed out a message. Joanna, I’m sorry. I should have told you the moment I found out.
I braced myself against the tree while staring at the phone screen. Nine minutes later, the delivered status changed to read.
And still, five minutes later, there was no reply.
My fingers flew over the keyboard. Joanna. You’re angry, I get that. But we need to talk.
Read.
I slammed my fist into the tree, pieces of bark flying as I pulled my hand free. My bloody knuckles burned, and I was grateful for a new sensation to rival the pain lingering in my chest.
I typed out my last message. Blood dripped onto the screen as I battled with whether to send it. But as I glanced around conflicted, my eyes found my sweater where it still lay on the ground—emitting the hunter’s intoxicating scent.
I pressed send and hurled the phone against a boulder.
“Oh dear.”
I spun around, surprised to see Latoya standing a few feet behind me. Even more so, that Silas was walking up behind her.
Shit. I didn’t sense their approach.
“Did you fuck it up, Mucus?” The blood covering Latoya’s pants glistened in the moonlight.
Her red-stained sneakers dangled in one of her hands.
Her locs were now free atop her head, and she twirled one around her finger as she teased, “You look like shit. Did my sister dump your sexy ass?” I wasn’t sure when it happened, but her scent had gone from intoxicating to noxious.
I held my breath and flexed my burning fingers, glancing at Silas as he stood at her side.
“Don’t worry, he knows,” Latoya declared. “He even knows about my little niece or nephew.”
I growled. “You traitorous bitch.”
She marched forward but was stopped by Silas’s hand. Latoya glanced at him and frowned, but she didn’t move.
My body tensed as Silas ambled toward the sweater. “Toya was smart enough to tell me with the others gone.” He swiped it up from the ground and brought it to his nose. “They might’ve been hard to calm.”
My wolf stirred as Silas closed his eyes and indulged in Joanna’s scent.
“What is it about the Sullivan sisters?” he asked, his voice low and contemplative.
He faced me with a smirk. “Besides the fact that yours is a hunter and has magic?” he exclaimed, looking to Latoya for confirmation.
“That masking spell is something else. I can’t smell her on you at all.
To think, I was going to fuck another man’s—”
“Stop!” I yelled. I’d taken a step forward but dropped to my knees.
Silas strode over to me with his hands in his pockets, my sweater slung over his shoulder. “She did a number on you. Your poor wolf must be devastated.” He pulled a hand from his pocket. His fingers elongated as he shifted it to its wolf-form and kneeled before me. “Let’s check.”
Silas’s sudden grasp around my throat forced my hands to scrabble at his forearms. I strained, pulling back, but his claws pierced my skin—locking our connection in place.
He studied me as I struggled, listening to the way my heart raced. He smirked as the glow of my wolf’s gaze reflected in his eyes, and in response tightened his grip, baiting the beast.
But we knew I couldn’t shift.
My head was pounding. My muscles were getting heavy. My vision blurred.
Silas shoved me to the ground, leaving me gasping for air. He shifted his hand back to normal and shook his head in disappointment.
“The human broke you,” he snarled. “A fucking alpha.”
He sprung to his feet and stared down at me with a mix of pity and disgust burning in his eyes. He crossed his arms and sighed.
“You should know that you don’t have to worry about Brody. I know how it looks, but I don’t bring humans here to mock them. They’re either chosen to join my pack or they’re sacrificed.”
I scoffed, still trying to catch my breath as I rose to my feet.
“Brody had no right trying to keep Joanna for himself. He died because he was greedy.”
Keep Joanna? My gaze shot to Latoya. She smiled at me innocently.
Silas threw my sweater at my bare chest. “I want the hunter in my family,” he declared. “She’s obviously powerful, and there’s a reason the Goddess chose her to be your mate. There’s a reason I was the one who saved her sister… There’s a reason she’s carrying your heir.”
I dropped my gaze, ashamed of how closely my wolf was now paying attention.
“I’ll be the bad guy, Marcus. That’s what you want, isn’t it? For someone else to be the monster?”
“How do we know my child will survive her change?” I rasped.
Silas sighed. “That’s the tricky part, and the answer is we don’t… I can wait until she delivers… but something tells me she has the means to disappear. So, she’ll have to be confined until the baby is born. Then I’ll give her the Bite, and you two can be reunited.”
I paled. “Are you saying I can’t be with her for months?” I demanded, my wolf howling in anguish within.
He shrugged. “You can. But I’d advise against it if you want to play the hero—storming the castle, saving the princess… She’ll be angry, of course. But that anger is going to make her so fucking strong. Plus, she’ll have Latoya. She’ll have you and your child. She’ll come around.”
“It’s impossible. We have a pact. I can’t betray—”
“The way she obviously betrayed you?” Latoya scoffed, placing a hand on Silas’s shoulder.
Silas raised an arm to caress her cheek. “She rejected you, Marcus.” His hand slid down to her neck, and she winced when his fingers brushed along the edges of a fresh bruise. “The bonds are broken.”