The thought of giving her to another male enrages the beast, and he’s getting harder to control as time grows near. I know where the Mages are now. Larissa told me where to find them, and how to kill them, but there are only a small portion of them in Washington State. They are scattered all over creation—hiding from us like worms beneath the soil. She made me give her my word that neither Adam nor Syn would be aware of what was going on until this local threat had been removed.
Syn looks fierce and beautiful with the warrior’s woad, the blue simulating delicate and intricate tattooing on her face. Her hair tied up behind her head framing her face as she lowers it into a fighting pose. The beast wants her now; he wants her to scream for him, and watch as her eyes light up with desire. I growl at him, uncaring that others watch me as I do so. This isn’t the time or place for our dick to get hard, she’s in real danger.
He stiffens.
The beast inside goes wild as she taps the line and places herself in harm’s way.
A male sifts in, but he’s only a scout. He was there that day. He participated in that atrocity, but he is not the one she wants.
She stands perfectly still, calmly waiting for him to strike, and when his smile registers the Goddess of war in front of him, he does. She’s faster. She moves with unmatched skill and speed, her blades are almost invisible, moving in perfect harmony as they hit their mark.
She smiles and kicks the body of the Fae still standing in front of her, and it crumples as the head rolls off the body from where her blades cut through muscle, tendon, and bone as if they were no more substantial than butter to a hot knife.
My cock grows hard as she turns and prepares for more to come. Fuck! I hate battle wood. The beast is pacing; he wants inside the shield she has erected. He could get inside her shield, easily. He knows it; he’s claimed her mentally and physically, but to do so would out us to all that were watching.
He wants to kill Adam and take his place, but fate is a fickle bitch and has plans that not even I can overcome. Not for her or for the beast that prowls inside of me. He taunts me that this will not come to pass, that he has done the ultimate stacking of the deck in our favor. For the life of me, I don’t know what he means, and, stubborn beast that he is, he won’t tell me more.
“Fuck, she’s outnumbered!” Adam shouts as he watches four more Fae that were there that day surround Syn.
Her eyes meet mine, and I shake my head. She can allow us inside at any time she chooses, and yet she doesn’t plan to. I can read it in her beautiful eyes; they say this is her battle alone. That I have to give her this chance. “Z, the tall one in front of her, he’s the one from her childhood memories?” I ask my second in command.
“Yes, but he’s not the one who killed them. He’s not Light Fae either. Assassin for hire maybe?”
“Alden, remove this fucking shield, now!” I growl, trying to contain the beast that is now rattling inside of my chest. My men sense him. They close ranks. Their own beasts strain for release as mine demands to be allowed into the fray to protect her. She’s outnumbered, and she knows it.
“I can’t, Ryder. You, Adam, and I have all tried to take down her shields before. She is the only one who can do so, and she can determine who can pass through it. She will not fail; she’s a born warrior. Just be ready when she drops it, because, if she does, it means she’s in trouble,” Alden says, watching her with fatherly pride. That fucking Warlock knew she was going to do this. Shit!
“And if they sift her out before she can drop the shield, and kill her, Warlock…could you live with yourself then?”
“She needs this. She needs the closure. As do I. If you interfere, she would never forgive you,” the Warlock says, as if I’d give her a fucking choice.
“If she dies…” I warn with murder dripping from my fangs that have now filled my mouth.
“She won’t. In all my time on this earth, I have never seen a fiercer fighter, or a more driven need to avenge the death of someone they loved, than her own. She’s the daughter of my heart, Ryder; the only one who has given me joy in this life.”
“Do you plan to tell her that you made a deal with my Demon to bring Larissa out of the shadows for one night?” I said to the Warlock, never taking my eyes away from Syn. Alden watches with me as she gets into position to face down the monsters of her past.
“She does not need to be told. It doesn’t matter what I do, Ryder. I’m an old man. She has eternity now. She needed this, and I knew it was only a matter of time before she closed this chapter in her life to start a new one. She needed to say goodbye to Larissa, as did Adam. I needed to see those responsible for killing my sister dead, before I could join her in death. The Guild made a decision; I’m being replaced.”