Chapter 13 - Alex
Something was wrong. Something had felt wrong ever since Harper had left for her so-called break… Five hours ago. Zephyr had requested a group meeting after we visited the grocery store, and as much as I’d wanted to ditch to find Harper, I knew I had to honor my duty. The more I found out about demons, the better prepared I would be to protect her.
Besides, I knew I could return to her house later.
But something had been bothering me all afternoon about her absence. It was like a thought that escaped me, a word on the tip of my tongue, something just out of reach. I was on edge, jumping at every movement.
Hector had dug out a tracker that flagged up demon energy. We were finishing pinning locations on the map of where demon attacks had taken place, and where the main places in town were most vulnerable—our villa, Harper’s cottage, Greta’s store, the bars—but I couldn’t figure out why they were there. Chance? Opportunity? I didn’t know much about the older woman who had supported Harper through her moving here, but I knew a little more about her granddaughter, who talked as much as Zephyr did.
A hockey game was playing in the background. Zephyr complained because he kept losing track of the puck on-screen, and Frazer was trying to teach him the rules of the game who was who. Sweeney said that if a shifter ever joined the local team, then the opponents would be fucked.
Hector threatened to turn off the TV—until he called out my name.
The tracker’s screen was shoved into my face, and my stomach dropped. There. A large, growing patch of energy. Right over Harper’s house.
“Where are the triplets?” I demanded. Hector had us coded via our DNA into the tracker using some weird tech processes that I didn’t understand, but by giving it that shifter information, I was able to know the triplets’ location. Not Harper’s, as a human, but my children, at least.
“They’re… Also at the cottage, Alex.”
I didn’t hear the rest of his sentence—something about a swarm —before I was lurching from my seat and out of the door.
“Alex!” Zephyr yelled, before I could shift, he grabbed the back of my collar. I snarled and shoved him off, towering over him by a few inches. “Alex—wait, stop. Just think about it. Wait for us, yes? We’re a team. Harper has her knife, she can protect herself while we get ready.”
“We don’t have time to wait around for that,” I hissed, smacking his arm away from where he held my wrist in a tight grip.
“I respect you, but—”
“No buts,” I growled. “When you find out you have children that are being attacked by demons, how about I tell you to wait and hang around? I’m going, Zeph. Be ready in a second or join me after.”
His eyes bored into mine, golden and off-putting in that way of his.
I shook him off, growled another warning, and then tore off towards Harper’s cottage. Seconds later, Zeph and Frazer were flanking me. Zephyr tossed me one of his knives, and they both shifted. I wanted the use of my hands.
Within minutes, we were skidding towards Harper’s cottage. The door was wide open, and the worst sight awaited me. Greta, knocked to the floor, trying to help Harper, who was being pulled through a portal. Tears streamed down her face as her hand stretched out for anything to grab onto. The demon had been clever, snatching her up in a space without enough furniture to cling onto.
“Greta!” Harper yelled. “Greta, please !” Her pleas for help rang out, and I didn’t think. I grabbed the knife and hurled it in a fine, straight line, right for the demon’s chest.
“Harper!” I shouted. “Watch out!”
Before I could see if the knife found its mark, Frazer, in wolf form, shoved his way through the door. I ran after him while Zephyr took the back of the cottage. My knife was clattered to the floor, the portal Harper had been caught in disappeared. Flecks of stardust coated her bare legs—such a pretty essence of a portal for such horrible creatures.
Scorch marks lined her floor.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?” I kneeled before her, grasping her face. She was pale and trembling, but she shook her head. Her eyes flicked to the door behind me. “The triplets?”
I looked around for them.
“They’re safe,” she gasped. “They’re warded in their room. I didn’t want to shut them in, but it was the only way to keep them safe. Nothing can get in, portal or otherwise.”
“Okay,” I said. I pressed my forehead to hers briefly. “Okay.”
“She has a shield around her now,” Greta told me, finally mustering the strength to get to her feet. Her own face looked pale, a stark contrast from the sun-warmed face I had seen that morning.
“Greta, are you okay?” Harper asked quietly.
The older woman nodded, leaning against the wall.
“Alex, watch out!” Harper cried. I sensed the demon knife aimed at the back of my head. I whipped around, catching it in mid-air, and hurled it back at the demon, who leaped back into its portal.
Soon, Hector arrived, in human form, followed by Sweeney and Johnson.
“Hi, Harper,” Hector said. “Lot of demon energy right here. Don’t worry—”
“Not the time to be technical, Hec!” I yelled. “Let's sweep the area.”
“There was one that opened right there.” With a shaking finger, Harper pointed up at the ceiling above the sofa where I had slept. I took a minute to realize she was wearing my t-shirt. Then, I forced myself to refocus.
“We’ll check it out. Sweeney, Johnson, one of you join Fray, the other go with Zeph. He’s out back.” The two wolves broke off, far too big for the house, but if they could at least draw the demons away from the house itself, then I could continue protecting them from the inside and secure the cottage.
“Hector,” I said. “Keep an eye on that energy tracker. We need the demons outside.”
“On it,” he said, and dashed off. Soon four wolves stood at the back of the cottage, staring down one large portal that opened, parallel to their ranking line.
A swarm, I thought. A swarm of demons .
They poured out, and I pushed Harper towards Greta. I eyed the older woman. “Keep her safe. If you can, wrap a shield around the cottage.”
And then I launched myself out of the door, closing it behind me. A roar built in my throat as I shifted. Beside me, Hector put his tracker down and shifted as well. They had dared entered my mate’s home—my children’s home . I saw red, let it envelope me, a protective shield to get done what needed to be done.
My claws elongated. I stepped forward, my team falling into formation behind me.
The demons lined up, all their horrific, hollow faces gazing back at us. The air crackled, burning asphalt filled the air, and knives were drawn.
I lunged.
***
Staggering back into the house, I could only mutter for Harper.
She was there, her arms around me. There was a gash in my side from a demon knife, and although I’d stopped bleeding, it hurt like a bitch. Whatever hellish magic they had on those blades was awful. Harper’s face filled my vision.
“Are you happy now?” she asked me, her voice softer than I’d heard it in years. That was the voice that had filled my dreams. “You got to protect us.” Did I imagine that her hand brushed down my face? It felt so real, and I groaned, leaning into her touch. She held me up as good as she could, but I felt my body weakening. My knees gave out, and I muttered her name, a warning, right as we tumbled down.
I had enough strength to turn us around, so I took the brunt of the fall, with her lying on top of me.
“You’re not pulling away,” I pointed out, my voice weak. I was just tired, just tired, I just needed to rest my body for a moment while it fought the demon magic.
“How could I?” Harper asked, and I was sure I was imagining it. “You protected me without hesitation, Alex. Alex?”
Were my eyes slipping closed?
“Greta!” she called. Fingertips ran over my face, Harper trying to coax me back into focus. Then, more hands were on my face, firmer this time. My skin warmed beneath those hands. I tried to keep my eyes open— focus on your children, Alex. Focus on Harper. Stay awake; you’ve suffered worse .
“It’s not a deep wound,” I heard Greta saying. “But he’ll be okay. I just need to cleanse it.”
“That sounds painful,” I muttered.
“It’ll only feel like having some ice-cold water enter your system,” she assured me. I groaned when the air hit my waist, right where a thick layer of skin covered my ribs. A hand slipped into mine: Harper. I held it tightly as the icy sensation hit me, and I muffled noises of pain behind clenched teeth.
It was over in minutes, and when Greta stood back, my vision cleared, my body fighting for its strength again. I cursed as I sat up.
“Alex?” Harper asked, her voice small. She looked worried—genuinely worried.
I mustered a smile. “Worried about me, Harpie?”
She snorted. “You haven’t called me that in a long time.”
“Never stuck,” I mumbled. “I wanted to know the nicknames you liked.”
“Just Harper is good,” she told me.
I met her eyes, leaning my head back against the sofa, where I had been put without quite remembering anyone moving me. “You know what name I want to call you.”
Mate.
She smiled tightly. “Just in name, remember?”
I nodded. “Just in name.”
I will never settle for only that . She can’t keep denying me of bonding with my mate.
Her hand touched my forehead. “How do you feel?”
It was then that I noticed Greta had gone. “Where is…”
“All gone,” she said. “Your friend, Hector, said all the demons had been dispatched, so I thanked them and sent them home to rest. Zephyr looked a little pissed off.”
“Yeah,” I laughed. “He’s good, but he really wanted this vacation. Six months in the desert will do that to you.”
“Maybe you should stop playing hero and let them actually rest. Let the island handle itself. It always has done.”
“Didn’t look like it was being handled,” I muttered, slowly gaining my strength back.
Harper rolled her eyes. “Thank you, Alex.”
“Anytime. Except the stabbing. That isn’t anytime.”
She laughed, and I loved that I caused that. I had missed that sound. I thumbed the sleeve of my t-shirt she wore. “You put it on.”
“I don’t remember doing it,” she said. “Too sleepy.”
I pulled her towards me, and she let me. Her thighs parted, sliding over my lap. Her eyes were wide, and I could feel the tension in her body, as if she was holding herself back. Why wouldn’t she give in? Why wouldn’t she let me want her? Why wouldn’t she let herself want me?
All I saw were those beautiful green eyes, framed by pale eyelashes that she blinked slowly at me. I didn’t look away, but neither did she. I leaned in closer, my eyes never leaving hers. In them, a war collides—want and resistance, hate and love, desire and rejection.
Our mouths were inches apart, and I took her face in my hands, when a shout and bang on a door went up. It was muted, a small fist hitting wood.
Harper gasped and scrambled off me.
That protective urge in me snapped back into place. “I’ll go.”
“No, wait—”
“Harper, please,” I said. “I’m part of them too.”
Before she could deny me again, I rushed to the door, opened it, and found three children huddled together in an oversized pink armchair.
“There were more big dogs.” The one I knew to be Hallie, thanks to photographs around the cottage, spoke. Her eyes cut to the window.
“A dog?” I asked Harper, looking over my shoulder. “You let them believe I’m a dog ? I’m sure they know what a wolf is.”
“Hallie, do you remember the story of the little pigs? The three of them?”
“Oh!” Hallie cried. “And the big bad wolf? He was bad .”
“See!” Marie said. “The wolf is the bad one.”
I shook my head and walked into the room, aware of Harper watching my every move.
“Hey,” I said, kneeling before the armchair they had crammed themselves in protectively. “In this story, the wolves are the good guys. They were fighting the bad guys.”
Joseph blinked at me, his eyes wide. “The bad guys? Like the shark villain on TV?”
I glanced back at Harper. She nodded. Turning back to the triplets, I nodded. They were all so beautiful, so innocent. “Yeah, exactly like the bad shark.”
“Did the good wolf eat the shark?” Hallie gasped.
I laughed. “Yeah, why not?”
Hallie laughed, clapping her hands in delight.
I caught Harper’s eye, trying to understand what she thought as she gazed at me.