“The moment she’s captured or put down, all hint of being bosom buddies is over. No more of this ‘enemy of my enemy is my friend’ tripe.”
“Precisely.” Shock looked as if the negotiation amused him.
“I still say this idea is barking mad.” Anka couldn’t hold her silence any longer. “Mathias will stab you in the back.”
“Not if we stab him first.” Bram smiled, then directed his attention back to Shock. “So, once he’s agreed to all the terms, have him contact me for a meeting. We’ll swap information and make a plan.”
Shock gently nudged Anka off his lap and rose to his considerable height, scraping huge palms down his leather-clad thighs. “Am I done being your errand boy for the day?”
“I think so, yes.”
“Good. Then fuck off. Anka?”
He held out a hand, as if he expected her to go with him. Lucan looked away. He couldn’t stand to see Shock touch her in any way.
And because he’d been stupid enough to think it, Shock smirked and wrapped a meaty arm around Anka’s tiny waist, dragging her body against his, then lowering his head for a noisy kiss. She struggled, pushed, but Lucan closed his eyes. Every muscle in his body tensed with the need to save her, but the fucking image of Shock’s mouth on hers had burned into his brain. How could he help a woman who refused to be saved?
Suddenly, Shock growled, then turned an accusing stare down on her. “Not happening, Anka.”
“You might control my body, but you will never control my wants,” she said softly.
Then she cast a gaze in Lucan’s direction. In that split second, he saw a lifetime of longing before she looked away. Lucan’s heart sped up. A sweet flush reddened Anka’s cheeks, and he’d give anything to know what she’d thought about him that had shoved Shock away.
With a growl, the big wizard in leather pushed away from the wall and headed for the door, leaving Anka behind. Lucan knew he should leave well enough alone. He and Shock would never be friends. Even the thought made him laugh. But he wouldn’t let a golden opportunity to needle the bastard go by.
He followed Shock out of the room, holding Bram at bay with a raised palm. Reluctantly, Bram backed away with a roll of his eyes.
“What is it?” Shock turned and confronted him. “You’re itching to say something and even trying to mask your thoughts. If you weren’t as inconsequential as the stains on your knickers and you were actually worth the effort, I’d dig into your head, but I’m fucking tired of your delusions about taking Anka from me—as if you can even begin to give her what she needs. So spill out whatever you’re dying to tell me.”
“I’ll give her everything she needs.”
Shock threw back his head and laughed, the sound cutting and caustic. “You’re going to tie her down? Take a flogger to that perfect little arse? Leave welts where there was only smooth skin? Never. Your delusional rubbish otherwise is only a joke. If you care about her, you’ll see that you can’t help her now and shove off.”
When Shock turned to leave the house and teleport away, Lucan grabbed his arm, fingers gripping harshly. “I’m man enough to give her what she craves, as well as the love she deserves. You’re too emotionally stunted to help her there. I’m putting you on notice. I had her for over a century. I’ll have her again.”
When Lucan returned to Bram’s office, the sight before him made him stop dead in the doorway. His best friend gripped his former mate by the shoulders, looking deeply into her eyes as he talked softly to her. Bram was mated himself. Though his little human Emma had left hours after he’d taken her, that made her no less Bram’s. And he was no less hers. So Lucan wondered what the hell was this touchy-feely conversation with his former mate about?
Shoving down his jealousy, he cleared his throat. “Am I interrupting?”
Anka jumped guiltily, then spun to face him. “No. Bram had a question. I’d planned to return to the training room and wait for you.”
Maybe, but when Lucan looked over her head to Bram’s face, he saw something different. Not lust or any romantic interest. Speculation. Something was up here.
“No more today,” Bram said. “Lucan and I have unfinished business. Return tomorrow.”
She whirled back to the Doomsday Brethren’s leader. “I need this training time. I won’t be any good to you if I can’t be ready for the next battle and I—”
“And all of this will be absolutely worthless if we’re not ready for what’s to come.”
Bram wanted to talk to him. Lucan got it now. He nodded to Anka. “Tomorrow morning early, love. I’ll set aside the entire day so we can continue working.”
Anka’s lips pressed together mutinously, and she looked ready to argue. Damn, he’d rather gather her against him, make those lips soften under his, take her home and lay her down in the bed they’d shared for a century…
“Lucan?” Bram snapped.
He returned to the here and now. “Yes?”
“We’re leaving now. Let’s go.”
“Of course.” But Anka stood close, looking at him like she wanted to stay, confide in him… Then her expression closed up, and she nodded. “Tomorrow, then.”
Before he could say another word, she exited the room and teleported away from the manor.
“What is the matter with you?” he demanded of Bram.
“You two will have time to make eyes at one another tomorrow. Today…something is wrong with her. Did you notice?”
No way to miss her tense, defensive behavior earlier. “The moment Shock arrived—”
“She froze up before then. When we started talking about the requirements to get our hands on Morganna’s killing potion.”
Lucan swallowed, feeling like a heel. God, she’d been completely traumatized, and he’d been too jealous and angry to see how badly she needed comfort. “The talk of Mathias, of working with him… That must terrify her.”
Bram winced. “And no wonder why. I don’t know precisely what he did to Anka, but we can all guess.”
Indeed. And Lucan had lain awake night after night for months, castigating himself for failing to recognize the danger to her, for allowing her to be brutalized, for not coming to her rescue when she needed him. “We must shelter her from him. Whatever it takes.”
Bram’s face tightened. “She wants to be a warrior. I don’t like that any of us have to deal with the violent scum, but it comes with the territory.”
Lucan wanted to refute him, but couldn’t. “So you were…comforting her?”
“You can’t think I’m looking to shag her?”
“Not exactly, no. But you two looked far cozier than I’ve ever seen.”
Bram nodded. “Trying to read her mind. You know I have to touch her to do that.”
Of course. He’d forgotten. “Anything?”
Regretfully, he shook his head. “Such a thick layer of ice. An even thicker one of fear. She knew what I was about and blocked me at every turn. Living with Shock has taught her more than a few tricks about shielding her thoughts.”
Naturally. But that didn’t make the stab in his heart easier to take. “I’ve got to figure out how to read her in my way, dissolve her barriers, persuade her to tell me what she fears and how I can help.”
“Good luck. Shall we go banshee hunting?”
The question surprised Lucan. “Now?”
“I’d rather find the washerwoman and have her in my back pocket before Mathias does. We must control as much of this equation as possible if we want to banish Morganna and be alive at the end.”
“You’re right.” And he had to get his head out of his longing for Anka and back into the war if he wanted to remain standing at the end and keep his former mate safe. “Any idea where to find one?”
“None at all. They like remote villages by bodies of water. We’ll scout a few and hope we find something. But we must get our hands on a banshee fast or we’re fucked.”
Chapter Seven
Anka entered the manor the next morning, dressed again in her leathers, boots, and figure-hugging tank, hoping her severe braid and severe expression hid her utter nervousness. Another day alone with Lucan loomed, smelling his scent, longing for him—and desperately trying to hide it. Another day of wondering what would happen next in her quest to repay Mathias for all he’d taken from her.
Rolling over to find Shock blessedly gone, she’d showered alone and arrived under Bram’s roof early. To her surprise, Lucan already waited.
Their gazes connected the second she entered the room, and she felt the jolt all the way through her, a tug on her body, a ping in her brain, a squeeze on her heart.
“Good morning.” Somehow she managed to sound calm and collected.
“Morning. I’d planned training today, but the larger issue of the war calls again. Bram wants to see everyone in his office now.” He crossed the room, looking more hesitant than she could ever remember. And concerned. “I argued against this. I want you to know that. Lean on me, if you need. I’m here for you.”
The gravity in his tone set alarm bells ringing in her head. “What the devil is going on?”
Lucan’s face tightened. “The devil is an apt way to put it. Mathias has come to negotiate.”
“Here?” At Lucan’s nod, she backed away, eyes widening with panic. “Now?”
Of course she knew that Bram planned to talk with the bastard, use him as a temporary ally, but she never imagined actually sharing the same roof with him again. God, she wasn’t ready for that. Bloody hell, she couldn’t breathe.
Lucan closed the distance between them and grabbed her in his arms, pressing her face to his solid chest and kissing the top of her head. The cold terror that had iced her veins just moments ago began to thaw with him so near.
“Whatever’s passed between us, whatever you believe, I may have failed you before, but I will never let him hurt you again, I swear.” Lucan grabbed her face and stared deep into her eyes.
Helplessly, she stared back, wishing she could just lose herself here. But that was impossible. She had to stand on her own two feet from now on.
Gently, she eased away. Lucan’s speech was mere words. Mathias had not only hurt her, he had changed her. Irrevocably. Knowing that only a few closed doors separated them, panic became an icy fire under her skin, urging her to run. The months fell away, and she was in the home she’d shared with Lucan again, in their bedroom, eating a bowl of soup and curled up with a book when she felt a disturbance in the protections around the house. Instead of teleporting out, she’d climbed from bed to investigate…and been surrounded immediately, Mathias leading the pack with his fingers digging painfully into her arm as he smiled widely into her frightened face. He’d taken great delight as he’d torn her robe away with his hands and described in detail every way he planned to desecrate her. It hadn’t taken him long to do exactly as promised.
“Anka.” Lucan’s concerned voice crashed through her memories. “Come back here, love.”
She blinked up into his beloved face. His strong grasp, the tender command in his expression. He meant to keep her safe.
“W-why?”
“He claims he’s agreed to Bram’s terms and is here to talk. Shock came with him.”
And again, Lucan’s very tone asked how the hell she could live with a man who consorted with her tormentor. She didn’t have an answer except to say that Shock had always protected her, from the time she’d been a child. After she’d been freed from Mathias’s grasp, she’d gravitated to Shock in her stunned, terrorized state. He was the one person she knew could help. By the time she’d remembered Lucan and their love…well, knowing that she’d run to Shock, given him her trust and her body, how could she expect her former mate to forgive that? To take damaged goods? To understand who she’d become after forcing herself to rise from the ashes of her mental funeral pyre?
And now, she could never expect him to accept the glaring omissions she’d kept to herself during their century together. If the truth about her bloodline ever came out, God how he would loathe her.
“Why do I have to be in the same room with him?” Her stomach knotted so tightly at the thought of looking into Mathias’s icy eyes again and remembering all the horror.
Lucan paused a very long time. “At any point, we might all be going into battle together to dispense with Morganna. We have to put the war against Mathias on hold to protect magickind from exposure. We need him for now.”
She gasped, then bit her lip. None of this should surprise her, and she was reacting too emotionally. They shared a common goal for the moment. Her own personal vendetta would have to wait until they’d ridded magickind of the evil witch’s threat. Besides, she might learn something about Mathias’s weaknesses if she fought beside him now.