Chapter 27
We appeared in front of a wooden door in an ornate hallway with a burgundy carpet and filigree wallpaper. A sweet scent laced with iron from somewhere inside the room, had fur prickling down the length of my neck. I slammed my boot into the jam, making splinters fly.
Pale-skinned, long brown-haired, with a frilly white shirt, the man sat calmly in a chair in the center of the room. His legs were crossed, a withered book open on his lap as if he were casually reading despite our intrusion. The tell-all scents of thick iron and musk wafted from his skin. Vampire.
“Ah. You must be the wolf,” the vamp said, closing the book and tossing it to a side table.
My lieutenants positioned themselves on my flanks, fists tight, prepared to pounce when commanded.
“And you brought your heathens. How delightful.” The vampire rose, clasping his hands behind his back.
Aurora’s scent intensified, guiding my nose toward a door on the far side of the room. “Where is she?” I roared.
“My, my.” The vampire smiled with a glint of his fangs. “You wolves and your lack of manners. I am Morcant. And you—” He appeared in front of me in less than a blink. “Should leave.”
“Harkin,” Aurora’s muffled voice yelled from behind that same door I spotted.
Fur grew down my neck and onto my cheeks. “Not without Aurora.”
Morcant sighed as if I were a pestering gnat. “So be it. I do hate to get blood on my new floor. Especially shifter blood.” The vampire’s eyes glowed red. “It stinks.”
My claws eased out over my fingernails, my canines growing to razor-sharp points. “Phelan, the door. You two, on me.”
The vampire flashed forward. His movement was lightning fast, but my were sight caught a last-minute glimpse of him leaping above me. Slashing my claws skyward, I grazed one of Morcant’s legs, making droplets of dark blood trickle to the floor. The vampire landed in a crouch, hissing at us.
Claws sliced through the air with ferocious wisps.
The musky scent of vampire blood splattering the floor nourished our inner wolves.
Morcant would flash-speed in one direction.
We’d counter in another. Our claws would glide past him.
He’d land random blows on our limbs, shoulders, or cheeks.
One instant, the vamp had caught Garrick’s arm and sunk his fangs into it.
Kaida threw her boot into Morcant’s chest, making him let go.
Phelan got the door open despite the vampire repeatedly using his magic to re-lock it or slam it shut once he’d cracked it.
He dragged a seated Aurora out on a wooden chair, her arms and legs pinned by some invisible force.
My heart damn near burst through my ribs.
She was safe. Unharmed. When our gazes met, her eyes brightened. She trusted I’d get us out of this.
And I would as soon as her maker was out of the picture.
“Pack,” I yelled. “Now.”
The rest of my shifters flooded from the portal, quickly filling the room.
Morcant scanned the wolves surrounding him before flash-speeding around the space.
In swirls of shadow and smoke, another version of Morcant appeared at the far side of the room, splitting the pack.
I narrowed my eyes, concentrating on the actual vampire as a third version of him materialized.
The shifters became divided amidst the mirages that mimicked Morcant’s actions, making it impossible to tell one from the other.
I knew. I could pick up his stench.
“Focus on that one,” I roared, pointing to him.
With the pack zeroed in on Morcant, I prowled toward Aurora.
Morcant, a fake one, flashed in front of me, slashing its claws toward my abdomen.
I jumped backward, countering with my own claws that sliced through the mirage in wispy tendrils.
I took another step toward my vampire. A member of my pack cried out.
With a pivot on my heel, I reeled as Jessica crumpled to the floor, her palm pressed over a gash wound at her side. Another pack member dropped to their knees, shielding her with his body until the healing properties kicked in.
My spine itched to protect my pack. I turned my gaze to Aurora squirming in the chair, trying to wrench her arms free. My heart, my soul, screamed to protect my mate.
Another pack member screamed. I swiveled just in time to see his body flying into a wall on the other side of the fucking room.
“I can do this all day, alpha wolf,” Morcant taunted. He flash-sped in front of me, swiping his claws at my face, my chest, but I dodged every advance. “What will it be? Your pack or a vampire?”
It wasn’t a vampire. It was Aurora.
Phelan charged. Together we clipped Morcant’s shoulder. Morcant replaced himself with one mirage, and our swings only now met with air.
“Harkin, protect the pack,” Aurora yelled. “I’m fine.”
Kaida battled with one mirage, an agitated snarl coiling from her lungs. “We got this, Alpha. Free your mate.”
My lip drew back, sulphur building in my vision. No. Not yet, were. Not yet.
Morcant was trying to get me to choose. Fuck that. By the end of this, I’d have it all.
“Rory, get up,” I ordered, using my alpha voice.
Aurora blinked and rose from the chair.
Morcant slinked from the shadows, glaring at me before yelling, “Sit down.”
She plopped back with a sneer.
“Rory, come here,” I snarled, seething at the vampire.
While looking at me, Morcant slapped a charging Phelan across the face. “Stay, Aurora.”
My hackles rose to the point of vibrating down my spine. The werewolf wanted to take over, to swat this little vampire fucker through the wall, but I only allowed a sliver through. Enough of its command to roar, “Come to me.”
Aurora shook her head. She pushed to her feet, rushing to my side.
“Aurora, I said stay. Sit back down,” Morcant commanded, but she no longer listened to him.
I couldn’t have been certain it would work, my alpha voice to her shifter side over Morcant’s maker influence. Thank the moon for small miracles.
“It isn’t possible,” the vampire snarled, his eyes glowing such a fierce red that it made the edges of his pale face crimson. “You can’t overshadow me as her sire.”
“It’s like I said, Morcant,” Aurora said, slipping her hand into mine and squeezing. “He’s my mate.”
The air whooshed out of my lungs.
“You knew?” I asked, turning her to face me. Morcant didn’t exist in that moment. His threats, his overall asshole routine, none of it mattered.
Aurora’s face softened, tiny crinkles forming at the corners of her eyes. “So, I’m right, then?”
Despite the danger several feet away from us, I chuckled. “Fucking hells, Rory.”
“Enough of this,” Morcant shrieked.
The vampire sped between us in inky, smoky threads.
Aurora squeezed my hand again before doing her own form of flash-speeding, appearing behind Morcant and kicking him in the ass.
Morcant spun around, striking his claws.
Aurora ducked in time, sliding behind him to land her elbow in his ribs.
Boots thudded and scraped the wooden floor, blood sprayed, grunts and growls echoed off the walls and high ceiling.
Jessica’s wound had fully healed, and she re-joined the battle.
We became a fury of vamps and shifters punching, kicking, clawing, and trying to tear flesh with our sharp teeth.
There was nothing we could do to stop him, and only so long we could keep it up.
Even I, as powerful as I was, had my limits.
It’d been so long since I’d pushed that boundary, I forgot what that was, but didn’t care to risk finding out now.
Aurora’s face fell, her gaze traced on something behind me.
She flash-sped past me, leaping between Morcant and Delilah, who sprawled on the floor with her arms covering her face.
Aurora slammed her palms into Morcant’s chest once, twice, a third time, shoving him away from the female wolf who had threatened her only days ago.
Morcant cackled. “Protecting them now, too, childe? You really are lost.” He lifted a hand toward her throat, but I was already half-way across the room.
My shoulder barreled into Morcant’s side, launching him away. Instead of the satisfying crunch of his bones against a wall, the coward morphed into shadows and re-appeared by Phelan and Garrick.
Aurora offered her hand to hoist Delilah to her feet. “You alright?”
Delilah stared at her for a beat, her fingers trailing over the three fresh slash marks Morcant had given her on her shoulder. “Yeah.” She cleared her throat. “Thank you.”
Aurora gave her a slow nod before she turned to me, yanking my shoulder and whispering, “Keep him busy. I’m going to look for something.”
She didn’t have to elaborate.
It was time to go balls to the wall and end this.
Giving into the werewolf, I stooped, allowing the transformation to start and rip my clothes apart. The quartz vision misted over my eyes, my height growing to monstrous proportions. Morcant’s wide eyes from across the room, staring in disbelief at what I’d become, I would never forget.
“You—” the vampire muttered, raising a pointed nail.
I heaved, my furry arms ready at my sides. Saliva dripped from my jowls. “Me.”
Morcant’s body shook with terror before quickly dissolving into rage. “I don’t care what you are, wolf. You cannot have her.”
He’d become so consumed by this form, so put-off, he lost his concentration on the mirages.
There were too many of us for him to get far.
The vampire made the dangerous mistake of getting too close to me.
I grabbed him out of mid-air, holding him by the throat with my claws and slamming him against a wall.
Morcant gurgled and hissed and raked at my paw.
Ignoring him, the pain a mild sizzle, I pounded him into the wall again.