He rounded on her, his lip curled into a sneer. “You think I don’t know that?”
“Apparently, you don’t,” she shot back. “It’s been twenty years. You need to let her go.”
“Since when did you become the expert on dead mates?”
Maybe she should have taken that beer. “I’m not an expert on that, but I know what it’s like to lose someone you loved.” She stepped closer to him, instinctively wanting to comfort him somehow. “And I promise, life is so much better when you decide it’s time to move on and forgive yourself.”
“I can’t.” He took a swig from the bottle. “I won’t, and you have no right to ask me to forget her. She was a part of my life that I won’t get back.”
Stubborn man. “I’m not asking you to forget her or even to replace her. I’m asking you to move on.” Move on with me.
“You ask too much,” he snapped.
Her chest constricted painfully. Yes, she was human, a human who hadn’t even figured out her own place in the world yet, but the one thing she did know was that she wanted to find that place with Riker. She’d hopedhe’d want to take that journey with her, b ut now doubt hung like a black cloud over her head.
She stared at him, searching for a crack in the hard shell he’d put up around himself for no reason she could discern. But there was nothing to find. Maybe she’d contaminated more than just his bedroom. Maybe she’d fouled his world, too.
“I guess there’s nothing left to say.” Hoping he couldn’t sense how much she was hurting, she turned to leave.
Riker cursed, and in a heartbeat, she found herself pushed up against the door, his hands on her shoulders.
“You aren’t leaving,” he growled. Funny, not long ago she’d have been frightened out of her skull by his fierceness, but now she knew he wouldn’t harm her. At least, not physically.
“Yes, I am,” she said, meeting his hard stare with one of her own. “You can’t have us both, Riker. I won’t be the other woman.”
His hand slipped around to the back of her neck in a gentle yet possessive grip she wished she could believe he meant. “You’re not.”
Anger flared, bright and hot. “Then what am I?
A standin? A consolation prize?” Her eyes started to burn, and she prayed she wouldn’t cry. She needed to be strong. Stronger than she’d ever been, perhaps.
“Maybe it’s selfish of me, but I need to be number one. I won’t take a backseat to a mate who left you.”
His upper lip curled, baring his fangs. “She didn’t leave me. She died.”
“She killed herself!” she shouted, desperate to get her point across. “She made a choice to leave you.”
Riker recoiled at Nicole’s harsh words, but she couldn’t let herself regret saying them. God help her, she wasn’t judging Terese, couldn’t imagine what the poor female had gone through. But Riker needed to let go of his guilt over how she lived and forgive himself for her death.
“Your family killed her!” he yelled back. He pushed away and, in a great sweep of his arm, sent the bottle of beer flying across the room and crashing into the wall. “Your family drove her to it. They raped and murdered her, and then they took an innocent child and abused him, too.” He jabbed his finger at her, and his voice went low, dark, like something straight out of hell. “And if you hadn’t raised the alarm that day—”
The pain in her chest became a searing agony.
How had he found out about that? “And that’s what it comes down to, doesn’t it?” she croaked. “No matter what I do, you’ll never get past what my family did, and you’ll never forgive me for being born a Martin.”
Not that he didn’t have reason to hate her family.
Hell, she had reason. But she wasn’t a part of that family anymore, and if Riker couldn’t see that, there was nothing she could do to change his mind.
“I’m sorry for everything that’s happened to you, Terese, and Bastien. I’m sorry for everything Daedalus has done to your entire race, and I wish I could do more.” She opened the door. “I don’t know what
Hunter has planned for my future, but I hope you’ll stand up for me. I like it here, and I think I can con— tribute to the clan.”
She got out of there as fast as she could, and she wasn’t at all surprised that Riker didn’t come after her.
• • • • • •
Son of a bitch!
Riker banged his head against the door and stood there, forehead to the wood, hand on the doorknob.
What was wrong with him?
He shoved away from the door and stared at the broken glass scattered around his quarters. Shit. He’d never had a hair trigger, had prided himself on his control. But ever since he met Nicole, his emotions had been erratic, and he couldn’t seem to get it together.
He thought he could deal with Nicole’s family background, but Bastien’s revelation that Nicole had been
the one to raise the alarm that ended in Terese’s death was the tipping point.
And then he’d come home to find her in the bedroom. Terese had been the only female ever in the room, and having Nicole there felt like a betrayal. How could
Nicole ask him to move on, and not only move on but do it with the very person responsible for Terese’s death?
Logically, he knew it was stupid to blame Nicole for everything her family had done. But dammit, he’d wanted to strike back at the Martins for so long, and now one of them was right here . . . and he’d slept with her. He’d kissed her, fed from her, and been intimate with her.
The one person on the planet he should have stayed as far away from as possible.
A crumpled wad of paper lay on the floor near the door. He swiped it up, and his heart jerked violently when he realized what it was.
I made you something. Nicole had called to him from the bedroom, her sing-song voice so full of eagerness.
She’d fashioned an origami vampire for him as a gift.
And he’d not only dashed her happiness, which he knew she’d had far too little of, but he’d compounded his idiocy by once again blaming her for everything bad under the sun.
You f**king ass**le. You took the best thing that’s happened to you in years and turned it into a bag of dicks.
He had to make it up to her. He had to pull his head out of his ass and make things right.
Riker started after her, but as he reached for the doorknob, his phone beeped, an urgent text from Hunter.
ShadowSpawn knows Neriya is dead. They’re on their way with a war party.
Riker hit the hallway at a dead run. He didn’t think his boots even hit the floor as he charged to Hunter’s chamber, where the other senior warriors were gathering, along with the two dozen lieutenants who operated under them. Hunter was standing at the head of the oblong table, his posture unyielding, his expression grave.
“Sit,” Hunter commanded, as soon as the last senior, Baddon, entered. “Where’s Myne?” He shot a pointed look at Riker, and Riker gave him the usual response.
“He’s with Bastien. If he got your text, he’ll be here as soon as he can.” Myne had a tendency to ignore
Hunter, but even he wouldn’t shrug this off.
Hunter remained standing while everyone else took a seat. “As I said in my message, ShadowSpawn is on the way. One of our scouting parties spotted them before being engaged by ShadowSpawn forward scouts. They killed Wolfgang, and Tena barely made it back. She’s in the infirmary, but her injuries are serious. Grant’s doing all he can.”
The f**kers had killed Wolf? Shit. The warrior had been one of their best archers, and his loss would be felt for a long time. Tena wasn’t a physically powerful fighter, but she was wiry and fast, with an uncanny ability to navigate tree branches like a lemur. The two of them had partnered for patrols for three years, and while they hadn’t been romantically involved, they’d been close. Tena was going to be devastated by Wolfgang’s death.
“Send Nicole to help Grant,” Riker said. “Her knowledge of our physiology could be an asset.”
Hunter jerked his head at Takis, who was seated next to his partner, Aiden. “Message Grant with Riker’s suggestion.” As Takis whipped out his cell from his jacket pocket, Hunter addressed the room once more.
“Before Tena passed out, she said one of the ShadowSpawn warriors taunted her with the coming deaths or capture of our entire clan as punishment for letting Neriya die.”
“Wait,” Riker cut in. “How did they know about Neriya?”
“That’s what I want to know,” Hunter growled.
“They either have a friend inside Daedalus, which seems unlikely, or they have a friend inside MoonBound.” He raked his gaze over each warrior. “If the
spy is within our clan, his head will grace the center of our table for a year and a day, and his body will be fed to the animals.”
Everyone nodded. If anything, Hunter’s punishment for a traitor sounded light.
“What about Lucy?” Riker asked. “Is she with the war party?”
“Unknown,” Hunter replied. “But what is known is that we’re out of time. We all put up dozens of options for how to deal with ShadowSpawn, but we’re down to the wire. We have to arm everyone of fighting age and get the children to our secondary location.”
“If we have a member sympathetic to ShadowSpawn, they could know where our secondary location is,” Riker said. “Hell, they could have an ambush waiting there.”
“If you have a better idea, I’m all ears.”
Aiden stood. “I have an idea. We fight to the end.
We can’t let them take any of us alive, or they’ll make slavery in a human household look like a vacation.”
An uncomfortable silence fell as the reality of the situation sank in. Yes, they would fight. And they might even believe they could win. But even if they did win, it would inevitably cost them lives. So much death and blood between vampire clans when it should be the humans they were battling.
Takis tugged Aiden’s arm until he sat. “We can send the children and those who can’t fight on the run.
Even if the location of our vehicles is compromised by a spy, they can flee—”
“To where?” Taggart said. “The forest is full of hunters and VAST, and even if they get past the humans, they’ll be out in the open until they can make it
to a friendly clan.”
“And there’s no guarantee any clan will take them in,” Hunter said, echoing Riker’s thoughts. Any of the plans they’d come up with over the last few days would have at least given them a chance, no matter how minute.
But if the clan had been compromised, all bets were off. katina cursed. “We should never have borrowed
Neriya. Things were already tense between our clans.
This was the excuse they needed to engage us.”
Tense was an understatement. Riker’s mating to Terese had been the spark that ignited the smoldering fire. And once again, because of him, because he’d failed to save Neriya, another spark had started a firestorm.
This was his fault. He’d been so full of anger since the day he’d turned into a vampire that nothing mattered but sticking it to the enemy. Any enemy, human
or vampire. He’d been reckless with not only his life,
but the lives of everyone around him. Nicole had said
something similar, and she’d been right.
And now, MoonBound was going to end up like
the clan depicted in the bloody battle scene in the painting behind Hunter. Extinct.
Riker inhaled sharply as a thought whacked him upside the head. If he’d started all of this, he could end it.
Hunter turned to Riker. “What is it?”
Damn him. How did he do that? “I know how to end this. It sucks, but it’s probably the only shot we have to prevent war.” He stood, meeting his chief’s steady gaze with one of his own. “kars has been gunning for me since the day I mated Terese and humiliated him. I’ll offer my life as payment for Neriya’s.”
The room exploded in curses and “Screw thats” and “No ways.” Only Hunter kept silent, and Riker knew the male was searching his brain for a counter— argument.
But Riker knew there wasn’t one. Hunter had to know that, too.
“And if kars doesn’t take you in trade?”
“He will.”
“You do this,” Baddon said, his voice as bleak as a graveyard at midnight, “and you’re a dead man.”
“If I don’t do this, then we’re all dead.” Riker turned back to Hunter. “I’m going to need your word that Bastien will be taken care of.”
“Of course,” Hunter said.
“And no one harms Nicole.” He locked his sights on every warrior in the room, one by one. “You will all treat her like a clan mate. Can I count on you?”
Everyone nodded. Including Hunter.
“Then let’s get this over with.”
Taggart grabbed his arm. “There’s got to be another way.”
Riker clapped Tag on the shoulder. “If there is, you can get me out of there. I’ll try to stay alive until you do.”
“That’s not funny, man,” Baddon growled. “Not f**king funny.”
All eyes latched onto Riker, and too many of them were red-rimmed. A few guys were shaking their heads, cursing. He had to get out of here.
“Let’s rethink—”
Riker cut Hunter off. “I’m ready. Alpha Mike Foxtrot.” Adios, Mother Fuckers, as his sniper buddies used to say. Said to friends, it meant good luck, but Riker figured his luck had run out. Best to go before anyone got sappy.