Reaper Undone (Deadside Reapers Book 5) Page 2
She closes her eyes and nods. “I’ll get my things.”
She heads to the lift, and I turn my back on her, relief loosening the knots in my shoulders. Fuck, I’ve been dreading this moment since the day I laid eyes on Fee in the club that first time. A feisty woman I thought was human putting my Loup in their place. There’d been a spark even then. I’d known that my time with Vi was limited, because when I’d stood toe to toe with Fee, I’d felt the need to claim. Something I’d never felt with Vi, something I hadn’t felt with anyone. I’d known back then I’d have to hurt Vi one day soon.
Dean catches my eye from across the room. He nods slightly to let me know I’m doing the right thing. That this is the best move for the pack. Thing is, it’s also what I want.
I want Fee, and she’s on her way to me right now, and Vi turning up today is just bad timing. I look to the main entrance. Fee will be walking through those doors any moment.
“Vi knew this day might come,” Dean says, joining me in the kitchen. He pours himself a mug of coffee and then tops up mine. “You’re making the right choice.”
I give him a wry smile. “There is no choice, Dean.”
Dean tucks in his chin. “Yeah. You and Fee were made for each other. Her wolf and yours…it’s fate.”
My lip curls. “Tell that to the fucking cosmos.”
“I don’t understand how Hunter can be her fated mate.”
“I don’t understand it either.” My brother is dark and wicked, and Fee…Fee is neither of those things. “Hunter will claim her because he can. Because he believes she belongs to him, and Hunter doesn’t share.”
“Fee’s in love with the Dominus,” Dean says, as if reading my mind.
Jealousy stirs in my veins, but I tamp it down.
Dean is watching me, narrow-eyed. “How will you handle that?”
I swig from my cup, allowing the green-eyed beast to calm the fuck down. I know Fee. I know what she needs and what she wants, and I know what I need to give her to make her happy, and that…That fucking matters to me.
“I don’t own her. She’s a Dominus as well as an alpha Loup, and if I have to share her heart, then I will.”
Dean nods and sips his coffee. “You may not be fated mates, but your wolves have an affinity to each other, and you’re a damn better match for her than Hunter.”
I know this. Have known it for a while now, and given time, I’ll prove it to Fee. I glance at my watch. “Where is she? She should be here by now.”
“You’re nervous.”
“I’m the fucking alpha. I don’t get nervous.” I take a gulp of my coffee; it’s dark and sweet, just the way I like it. “Where the fuck is she?”
The lift returns with Vi just as my phone buzzes. Fee? I look at the caller ID. “Azazel?”
Dean’s brows shoot up. “You think the big guy has convinced her otherwise?”
“Azazel won’t do that. He wants to keep Fee away from Hunter.” I answer the call. “Hello?”
“Grayson, Fee’s been kidnapped,” Azazel says bluntly.
I freeze, my brain trying to decide if I’ve heard him right.
“I interrogated the taxi driver,” Azazel continues quickly. “He got a call from dispatch telling him he had a fugitive in his cab and ordering him to a location where he was told the police would intercept. When they got there, he says the fugitive tried to attack him, so he bolted. I asked him if he saw anyone in the vicinity. He gave me a description of a man he passed on his dash away from the taxi. Dark hair, dark eyes, tanned skin. Movie star looks.”
“Hunter.”
“It has to be. Mal and I are on the way to Eldrick’s now. Maybe he can give us a clue as to where Hunter might have taken her.”
Hunter has Fee, and I can feel the vein in my temple throbbing. “How long till the heat?”
“Less than a week,” Azazel says.
Fuck. “Listen, Eldrick isn’t what he seems. We acquired a new recruit at the culling, an ex-member of the Rising Pack. It turns out Eldrick plans to take over all of Necro and push the other packs out. He has Hunter working for him, and they’ve garnered support from rogue packs all over the country. He’s building an army. I’ve spent the past two weeks trying to undo some of his work, but Azazel…If Hunter has Fee, I don’t think Eldrick is innocent in it.”
“Dammit, of course…Fee mated to Hunter will give Eldrick’s pack power.”
“Yes. Enough to put his plan into motion. If Hunter completes the mating with Fee, then Necro as we know it will come to an end.”
Azazel curses.
“Play it safe. Don’t let on you know, and get permission to search Rising Pack territory. I’ll get my Loup on the ground now. I need something with her scent on it.”
A female voice pipes up in the background.
“Cora will drop something off,” Azazel says. “I’ll call you in a bit.”
He hangs up.
“What the hell?” Dean says. He’s heard it all with his Loup hearing. “I’ll get a search mobilized as soon as we have Fee’s scent.”
I sense my Loup around me stop what they’re doing, ears pricking up as they’re alerted to my shift in mood. I take measured breaths to rein in the panic and rage.
Hunter has Fee.
Hunter has my mate.
Fuck, where did that surge of possessiveness come from?
“Grayson?” Vi places a hand on my shoulder. “Is everything okay?”
“Hunter’s taken Fee.” My tone is even, businesslike. I’m impressed with my self-control.
“What?” She visibly pales. “Are you sure it’s him? I mean, it could be Dread or…Or those hooded figures?”
“Azazel confirmed it. He’s off to speak to Eldrick now. We’ll find them.”
I marvel at the confidence in my tone even as my heart is battering against my ribs, and my body aches to tear out of the house and into the streets to hunt for Fee.
Dean tuts. “I don’t understand how Hunter could know Fee was headed here to mate with you.” His brows pinch together. “How did he even know where she was?”
He was probably stalking her.
“I want to help,” Vi says. “Whatever you need.”
Guilt claws at me. She’s a good woman, an honorable woman. “Thank you, Vi. Really.”
She smiles. “Fee’s a friend. I care about her.”
“Do you?” a female voice demands.
Cora stands in the doorway, clutching an item of clothing.
She saunters in, and the Loup standing about the place close in on her, as if drawn to her. There’s an energy beating off her. Power, rage, and indignation. I can taste it.
“Do you care about her, Vi?” Cora asks again.
I catch the scent of fear wafting off Vi, but she masks it quickly and stands taller.
“What are you insinuating?” she asks.
Cora’s smile is thin and dangerous. “You knew Fee was going to go ask Grayson to mate with her. You knew two weeks ago.”
She knew? “Vi?”
Vi makes a sound of exasperation. “So what? I knew. I just hoped she’d change her mind, so it’s still a shock.” She gives me a shaky smile.
I want to believe her. I’ve known her for a long time. We’re friends, lovers, confidants, but there’s something in her eyes that sets alarm bells ringing inside me.
“Azazel can’t connect with her,” Cora says. “We think her reaper power must be muted somehow, or she’d have used her scythe to escape by now.”
“Hunter has access to a witch,” Vi says. “You know that.” She looks from Cora to me, and I catch a whiff of desperation.
Cora is close now, only a meter away from me and Vi. She places Fee’s top on the kitchen island, and I recognize it as the one Fee wore on our fake clubbing date. A fist squeezes my heart. She’d looked beautiful that night.
“Yes. Hunter has access to a witch,” Cora says. “That witch could have blocked off Fee’s reaper power somehow, no dispute. But you see, Fee and I have a special connection. I can always find her wherever she is. Because I’m her tulpa. She created me.”
What the fuck?
Cora’s expression hardens. “And only a handful of people know that. Azazel, Mal, Conah, and…you.” She winks out, and then she’s right in front of me, her hand around Vi’s throat. “I warned you. I fucking warned you if you hurt her, I’d make you pay, didn’t I?”
I act on instinct, grabbing Cora’s wrists to pry her off Vi.
She doesn’t make it easy. Fuck, she’s strong, but Dean is there to wrap his arms around her waist and pull her away.
Cora’s chest heaves, her eyes lethal daggers. “You bitch,” she says. “You selfish fucking bitch. He doesn’t even love you.”
Vi stares at me, hands clutching at her throat, eyes welling with tears. What does she want me to say, for fucksake? She betrayed me. Still, anger wars with pity, leaving me torn between punching a hole in the wall or pulling her to me for comfort.
Pity wins.
She must see it on my face because she lets out a strangled sob. “Don’t look at me like that.”
My Loup surround us, their displeasure a palpable force as their glowing eyes fix on Vi.
“You need to leave now, witch,” Bastian says.
Vi looks to me. “Grayson?”
I stare coolly at her. “I respected you, Vi. I cared about you. You were more than a lover. You were my friend. But by handing Fee to Hunter, you’ve put the fate of the Regency Pack in jeopardy. You leave me no choice but to exile you from my territory.”
She stares at me. “After everything we’ve been through?”
We had an arrangement. A purely physical one, but somewhere along the way, she fell in love with me. I should have stopped it. I didn’t. “I take part of the blame, Vi. I should have put an end to our relationship as soon as your heart became involved, and mine didn’t. It was unfair.”
She shakes her head slowly. “No…Don’t…” She squeezes her eyes closed. “This is on me. I don’t know what came over me. As soon as I did it, I regretted it. I tried to call Fee, but she didn’t pick up, and then…Then it was too late.” She tears her gaze from me and implores Cora. “Please, you have to give me a chance to fix this. You have to let me help. This pack…it means too much to me. I didn’t know about Eldrick’s plan, I didn’t think.”
The alpha in me wants to say no, to make her leave, but the friend in me accepts that I owe her one more chance.
She exhales in relief, reading my face even before I utter the words.
“You can stay and help but, Vi, if Hunter claims Fee, or if he hurts her, then any connection you and I ever had will be severed.”
She’s quick to nod and accept the terms, but the grunts and growls of dissent around me tell me my Loup aren’t happy about this.
Fee’s found a place in their hearts in a way that Vi never could, and if she doesn’t come back to us untainted, then exile will be the only thing keeping Vi safe.
Chapter Three
Mal
Azazel’s about to lose his shit. He’s barely holding it together, and now this trumped-up Loup receptionist is plucking at his last nerve. The vein in Az’s temple looks fit to explode, and I’m right there with him.
“Call up and tell Eldrick Azazel is here. Do it. Now,” Azazel orders.
“Like I said,” the receptionist replies, “Eldrick isn’t taking unscheduled visitors today.”
Fee is gone, and every second counts, and my usually controlled Dominus brother is standing at the lip of a precipice.
Azazel lunges across the desk and grabs the receptionist’s lapels. “Make the fucking call!”
Oh, shit. No longer on the edge. Rage stirs inside me, wanting out, but I tamp down on it. Right now, I need to hold my shit together and haul Azazel back.
The Loup is blinking up at Az with the first glimmer of doubt on his face as he realizes that being a Loup in his own territory isn’t going to protect him from Azazel’s wrath today.
I grip Azazel’s shoulder. “Az, let him go.”
Azazel’s grip tightens on the now frightened Loup whose hand is inching across the desk, probably headed for an alarm.
“Az! Not fucking helping here.”
The last thing we needed was to get on the wrong side of Eldrick and his pack. This place was crawling with Loup eager to give a Dominus a beat-down. If Grayson’s confirmation is true, then Eldrick is in on Fee’s disappearance. We need to play the nice guys to have the opportunity to interrogate him and hope he lets something slip. Pissing him off by attacking his Loup is not the way forward.
Azazel comes to his senses and releases the Loup.
I slip between Az and the receptionist counter. “Listen”—I glance at the Loup’s name tag—“Jeffery. I’m sorry about Azazel. He takes his job very seriously, and this is a matter of life and death that concerns Eldrick’s daughter. Your alpha will want to see us.”
Jeffery shoots Azazel an annoyed glance and then picks up the phone. “Maybe lead with that next time,” he mutters.
Azazel growls, and I grab his bicep. “Calm the fuck down. You can’t do this if you let your emotions get in the way.”
He clenches his jaw, nostrils flaring. “How can you be so fucking calm?”
He has no idea how hard this is. “Because calm is the only thing that’ll help us save Fee. I have no choice but to keep my shit together.”
“He’ll see you now,” Jeffery says.
Azazel gives him a final glare for good measure, and then we’re striding across the foyer to the special lift reserved for Eldrick’s guests.
Eldrick meets us at the lift. “What’s happened? What’s wrong with Fee?”
He looks genuinely worried. Either he’s a fantastic actor or he is, in fact, genuinely worried.
“Hunter’s taken her by force,” Azazel says.
“What?” Eldrick’s lip curls in contempt. “I warned him if he laid a hand on her…” He strides away toward the door to his penthouse suite.
We follow him into opulence to find Larson lounging on the sofa, clutching a glass of whiskey. The beta doesn’t even bat an eye at our presence.
The man is older than Hunter by a decade and should have been in line for the alpha spot, but for some reason, Eldrick chose Hunter. It doesn’t seem to bother Larson, though. He seems perfectly at home on the leather couch with his crystal-cut glass filled with expensive whiskey.
“Hunter took Fee by force,” Eldrick informs Larson.
“I warned you,” Larson says. “I warned you that Hunter was a loose cannon.”
Eldrick shakes his head. “He has my daughter, Lar. This is not the time for I told you so.” Eldrick picks his glass off the table and drains it. “I thought maybe with time Fee would come around, that she’d discover the spark that makes Hunter her mate.”
“Fated mate,” Azazel says. “Hunter is her fated mate.”
Eldrick exhales sharply. “She didn’t say.”
“It doesn’t change the fact that he’s not what she wants.”
“Yes, but it explains Hunter’s crazy behavior of late.” He runs a hand through his hair in agitation. “The heat is painful for a female, physically, and if left unsatisfied, it can kill, but for a male, it’s mental torture.”
“Are you excusing his behavior?” Azazel asks incredulously.
Eldrick looks stunned. “No. No, of course not. I’m just attempting to rationalize it, to understand...He could have come to me. Told me. Maybe I could have mediated for them. But kidnapping her? Why such a rash move?”
His confusion reeks of sincerity.
I glance at Azazel, wondering if he’ll fill the Loup in. When he doesn’t, I step in. “Fee was on her way to mate with Grayson. She wanted to quell the heat so she wouldn’t be forced to complete the mating with Hunter.”
“Oh…I see. She chose his brother.” Something passes across his face, and if I knew him better, I might be able to decipher it correctly, because surely it can’t be what I think it is. Surely it can’t be sympathy?
“Yes,” Azazel says. “Fee chose Grayson, and Hunter took her.”
Eldrick’s expression hardens. “There is no excuse for his actions. He acted against me when he kidnapped my daughter. The alpha’s daughter.” He looks to Larson. “Larson, old friend…”
“I’ll send out scouts,” Larson says, setting his glass down and standing. “We’ll find him.”
Eldrick nods, and Larson leaves.
The alpha turns to us. “Find her before he completes the mating. If she doesn’t want him, forcing her into this will crush her and wreck their bond, twisting it into something dark and destructive. Hunter doesn’t realize the damage he could do to them both.”
This isn’t the face of a man who’s an accomplice. There is genuine distress in his eyes.
“Do what you need to,” he says. “I’ll get you the keys to Hunter’s room. Larson will scour our territory. Hunter can’t have gone far. I need to get out there and help with the search.”
“You didn’t know about this?” Azazel asks, blatantly.
Eldrick stares at him, horrified, and then the horror turns to anger. “I understand why you’d ask that. You don’t know me. Yes. It would benefit my pack to have my daughter join it, but not by force. Never by force. I loved her mother with all my heart, and I lost the chance to be a father to Fee, but I have her back now, and I intend to spend the rest of my years making her happy. Hunter may be her fated mate, but I want her to decide whether to accept that fate.”
I want to ask him about the rogue packs, about his plan to bring them together and take over Necro, but Loup business isn’t Dominus business, and Grayson has asked us not to make Eldrick aware of what he knows. Still, my gut tells me that this man isn’t capable of such duplicity.
Azazel places a hand on Eldrick’s shoulder, and I know he sees the truth too. Eldrick isn’t a liar. Eldrick is a man concerned for his daughter.
We leave Eldrick to mount a search of his own and step into the lift.
I press the button for the ground floor. “What do you think?”
“I think he’s innocent,” Azazel says.
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