A primes passion, p.3
A Prime's Passion, page 3
“Perhaps you should try talking to him then.” He dragged his eyes from Liam’s face—away from the green eyes that reminded him too much of Zee’s. “Tell him to hold on for the rest of your family, long enough for your brothers and sister to get here, say their goodbyes.”
Liam’s gaze swung back to his. This time, there was no attempt to challenge Nikolai’s dominance but the rage burned hot and bright and sharp as a blade. “It won’t break any of their hearts if they don’t make it back here, except maybe Zee. She’s probably soft-hearted enough to still love him although I don’t know why in the fuck you think she can come anyway.”
“Watch your mouth, pup,” Nikolai growled, not even attempting to control it.
“I’m so sorry, Prime.” Liam sneered at him, derision in every word.
The urge to lash out was strong, but the hurt, the loss and pain and agony in the boy’s eyes whispered and spoke to one of Niko’s deeper instincts, the part that was created to care for the young, the weak, the lost.
“Why can’t she come?” he asked stiffly. “If it’s money or a job—”
“What in the fuck do you mean, why can’t she come?” Liam’s voice cracked as he interrupted, half-shouting. He crossed the empty space with Therian speed and ferocity. When he snarled, he showed teeth that had started to lengthen and sharpen, revealing the first hint of the wolf that lay under Liam’s skin. “You fucking kicked her out of Appalachia! If she even tries to come back, any of your people can kill her for daring to disobey, you fucking bastard. She’s an outcast and will be treated like one.”
“Liam!”
The harsh growl from the doorway didn’t even penetrate the hot, thudding rush of blood crashing through Niko’s veins, roaring in his ears. He shot out a hand, grabbing Liam by the front of the shirt.
“That’s bullshit. She’s pack—Jameson took care of that,” he bit off, fighting the overwhelming rage that swamped him at even the thought of Zee being harmed.
“No.” Liam laughed and the sound was bitter and ugly, the scorn it held like acid on an open wound. “She’s not. She was never accepted into Appalachia. She’s been fucking alone for more than a decade, you motherfucking, pathetic, cowardly dickhead.”
In the next instant, Liam was jerked back.
Niko snarled at the tall, lean blonde who’d snatched the boy from his grasp. Hannah Johannsen, one of his seconds, had Liam pinned under her, a clawed hand up and poised to strike.
Boone had his hand around her wrist and it was, Nikolai knew, the only reason Liam wasn’t bloodied and battered.
“Don’t,” Boone said, his voice stark and hard, deadly.
“He insulted our Prime, challenged his authority, his leadership, his strength,” Hannah said, her body trembling with rage. “He might be young, but he’s no longer a child.”
“Get up, Hannah,” Nikolai said, his own rage nearly choking him. But there was also confusion. Liam hadn’t lied.
“Prime?” Hannah whispered, shifting slightly to glance at him.
In that split second, Alison lunged from where she’d been standing at the door and she’d grabbed the boy under the arms, hauling him away from Hannah, while Boone continued to grip the more dominant female’s wrist in an iron fist, not yielding.
“Hannah, you’re dismissed,” Niko said in a gritty voice. “Go home and collect your gear. You’re taking over patrol on the southern boundary. You’re on duty at the perimeter there until you’re advised otherwise.”
Hannah’s big blue eyes widened. “Sir, I—”
“Now.” Niko still stared at the boy as he spoke, head spinning, gut churning.
Without another word, Hannah left. Once she was gone, he shifted his gaze to Boone. “Take Alison and go.”
Boone hesitated, mouth tight. His eyes moved toward Liam and he canted his head to the side.
The act of resistance was accepted, but only because Niko knew what drove it. Boone was driven by the same innate need to protect and he saw Liam as too young and vulnerable.
“I’m not going to do anything other than talk,” Niko said quietly, forcing himself to look from the young man, who, while still teetering on the threshold of true adulthood, had told him something nobody else had ever dared. “I won’t harm him.”
Boone shifted, once more drawing Niko’s gaze. The unanswered question in his friend’s eyes brought an unfamiliar feeling to Niko and it took a moment to identify it.
Shame.
“You have my word, as Prime,” he said quietly, looking from Boone to Alison, then finally back to Liam.
Liam made another derisive sound but Niko said nothing. It was clear, now more than ever, that he’d done nothing to earn the trust of this young packmate.
His father’s voice rose once more to haunt him.
You must care for all under my aegis, Nikolai.
He will be defined by how he protects and guides all under his care, not just those who have his favor.
He’d done a fucking lousy job in caring for this boy who watched him with angry, shuttered, wounded eyes while his father lay dying on the bed just a few feet away.
Boone moved over to the teenager and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Can you control yourself, kid?”
“I’m fine,” he said in a calm voice that belied the rage he’d shown to Niko.
But, Niko realized, that rage was for him, and only him.
Moments later, they were alone, with only Samuel Day’s dying body to keep witness.
Crossing his arms over his chest, Niko stared Liam down.
But Liam didn’t look away. His eyes, as green as his sister’s, flashed hot and bright with anger and distrust. The distrust stung. He’d never had one of his own look at him like that, as if they couldn’t trust him.
But he’d done nothing to earn this trust and there was nothing he could do or say in that moment that would allow him to ease the pain he sensed within the pup.
“The Day family was accepted into Appalachia years ago by my father. Why do you think that didn’t extend to your sister?” Niko asked, his voice remote.
Liam gave a slow, almost lazy blink and shook his head.
“You have no fucking clue,” Liam said, voice again full of that sulky anger.
Niko said nothing.
“You told her to leave and never return,” Liam said pointedly.
Again, Niko felt that strange, unnatural sensation—shame.
She betrayed us.
“Jameson accepted the Day—”
Liam cut him off, a reckless show of disrespect for his Prime, and it was clear Liam was aware—he simply didn’t care. Closing the distance between them, he jutted his chin up at Niko. “When in the hell did your father go find her to offer her that protection? When did he recant your repudiation?”
Niko’s heart lurched hard against his chest. Once. Twice.
“You made a public statement of intent, told your entire pack you wanted to marry her... and she said yes,” Liam snarled. “My father’s protection ceased to extend to her the minute that happened. It doesn’t matter that you decided to change your mind for fuck-all knows why not even an hour later. You’d claimed her, as yours. Then you cast her out. In order for your father’s acceptance to extend to her, either Sam would have had to take her back under his protection or she’d have to appeal to your father.”
Niko sucked in a harsh breath.
“Zee... ” His chest cracked at that moment, ugly and bitter pain spilling out, but he ignored it. “Did your father refuse her?”
“No.” Liam shook his head, his green eyes, so like Zee’s, haunted and dark. “She never reached out. She just left. She ran and she ran and she ran. Nobody even knew where she went for more than two years.”
A band constricted around Niko’s chest, cutting off his flow of air, stifling his ability to think, see, hear.
“When did she connect back to her old pack?”
Liam didn’t speak.
Niko shot out a hand and grabbed the boy by the back of the neck, hauling him in close as he snarled, “When?”
“Zee has no pack—she’d rather die than become part of Greylock, so she’s alone. She’s been alone the past ten years.” Liam’s eyes went dull. “Because of you. I can’t even feel my sister anymore, Prime. I didn’t even know she was alive until I got Saint to talk to me—it took him two years to find her, you bastard. Two years with all of us wondering if she lived or died. I haven’t seen her since she ran. And all of it is because of you.”
Just that simply, Nikolai felt the very earth underneath him tremble, then collapse.
Chapter Three
“You should probably leave,” one of the Atargarians murmured to the tall, attractive black man who’d been all but wrapped around Zee Day just seconds earlier.
He cracked his neck and rubbed his jaw, then glanced over at the pale, trembling woman. She huddled on the floor, doubled over as if in the worst pain imaginable. “I don’t know if that’s a good idea.”
The Zee he saw curling in on herself, as if to hide, was a far cry from the hot, sweet thing he’d been cuddling up to only moments earlier. While Duke knew he’d be mincemeat if the Atargarians made a move on him as a united front, he didn’t feel right walking away from a woman who was obviously suffering.
A slender woman with skin as dark as his own separated herself from the others and approached. “We’ll take care of this, of her. It’s what we do.”
“Yeah?” His mouth twisted in a dismissive smirk. “Doesn’t look like that from here.”
“Well, then.” She gave him a cool look. “Then maybe you should hang around.”
Duke narrowed his eyes but before he could push for more info or move in to talk to Zee, a hush fell over the crowd. It gave him a chance to assess the situation and he took in the big, thickly built man who stood out like a sore thumb. Long, dark brown hair that fell in a sleek curtain to his shoulders, a face that was too fucking pretty to belong to a man and eyes the same color of blue as the little flowers that had decorated his mother’s favorite china towered over many of the others in the bar.
The big guy even had a few inches on Duke and at six feet three, Duke was not a small man. The other guy was built like a fucking tank, though, and Duke would have bruises to show it.
Save for the smiling bartender who’d been subtly teasing Zee when they thought he wasn’t paying attention, nobody in the entire building looked like they could hold their own against the newcomer.
The bartender, Donner, had his body between Zee and the other guy—Therian, Duke’s instincts whispered. A split second later, he pegged the man as a wolf, although he was damn far from home, a couple of hundred miles, easy. The only wolf pack of note for several hundred miles in any direction were the Wolves of Greylock, out near the Appalachian Trail.
Not all Therians lived in packs or dens, but most wolves did.
Everything he’d ever learned about Therian wolves indicated they didn’t do well separated from the pack.
Zee trembled again, her body all but spasming with the force of the tremors. Her nostrils flared as if catching the scent of something.
Fuck. He’d known she was Pretern—had thought she was some sort of Fae, hadn’t pegged her as a wolf. She didn’t put off quite that vibe, and why would a wolf be holed up in some Atargarian pub, so clearly part of the group?
A bad feeling settled in his gut but he didn’t have time to think things through any further as a coldly beautiful voice shattered the tense silence.
“Colby Winters, I hope like hell you have a good reason for causing trouble in my territory.”
The crowd separated to allow passage to a tall, trim black woman with skin that looked smooth and silken, a warm, burnished brown and eyes of a cool, clear blue that appeared to glow. Those eyes were living ice as she locked them on the Therian male who stood apart from all the others in the bar.
The man she’d called Colby a good six or eight inches taller than the woman. But he paled at the sight of her.
Duke bit the inside of his cheek to keep from smiling or drawing attention to himself in any way.
“Niko’s a fr—”
The sexy, lithe goddess with the unearthly blue eyes moved. It was like liquid lightning.
That was when Duke realized he knew who—and what—the woman was.
Meridia Blue. The Regnar of this territory—there was no word in the English language that fully described a Regnar. She was both princess and alpha, daughter of the Prime of the Atlantic Ocean, executioner when the need arose and basically somebody you did not want angry with you.
The speed of her attack was unlike anything Duke had ever seen.
And she smiled through it all. As she took the bigger man to the ground and shoved her booted foot to his neck, Duke studied her exquisite profile and found himself transfixed by the curve of her lips.
“Let me finish for you,” Meridia Blue purred, her voice haunting and pure, so beautiful and frightening, everybody in the building flinched. “You were about to say friend.”
Certain rules of engagement came into play when a Therian passed into lands controlled by others, ally or not. And while Meridia, the daughter of a Prime and next in line to rule, was an ally of the Therians, she was first and foremost a protector of those she called her own.
Colby stared at her, his gaze just off-center enough to make it clear he understood who was the biggest—and strongest—bitch here, not just in this room, but in this town, in this region. Even Colby’s acknowledged alpha, Phoenix, understood that.
Meridia was beyond him.
Her lids drooped low and she swayed lower with a grace not even a Therian possessed, hovering just a breath from his face.
“Let me tell you who is my friend. She’s cowering on the floor behind one of my strongest men, almost in shock, Colby Winters. Now... you, being a big, strong Therian wolf should be able to figure out just why she’s having that reaction.” She reached up and gave Colby’s cheek a quick, hard pat.
To his credit, he didn’t flinch.
But Meridia saw that her words had struck home and he hissed in a vicious breath.
“This is the last time one of that mangy wolf’s miserable sycophants will interfere in another’s life, Colby. At least... if the sycophant wants to leave my territory alive.” She smiled sweetly. “I think you’ll pass the message on, won’t you?”
Before he could speak, she shot out a hand and gripped his jaw, squeezing so tight the bones ground together under her fingers. “You are no longer welcome in any land belonging to the Atlantic Atargarians, Colby Winters. You’ve got one hour to remove yourself.”
She rose then. Every protective instinct inside her demanded she tend to her friend, she kept her focus on Colby.
He was silent as he rose to his feet, despite his injuries, linking his hands behind him as he lowered his head respectfully.
“I must give her a message,” he said in a stilted voice.
“No. You mustn’t,” Meridia replied.
His Adam’s apple bobbed, his body twitching in response to his need to get away from her. Meridia could feel how badly he wanted to get away and it was almost enough to take the edge of her anger.
Almost.
Because Colby didn’t turn away. Instead, he closed his eyes, then forced himself once more to meet her gaze. “It’s about her family. Phoenix sent me. He knew she wouldn’t want to see him.”
Meridia’s lip curled at the sound of that name but she gave the man a short, curt nod. “Do not move from this spot. Do not speak to her or look at her until I give permission and then you may only deliver the message.”
Colby’s lids lowered, then he bowed his head in acknowledgment, shoulders a rigid line.
She moved around Donner, stroking a hand down his arm in a gesture that was both thankful and understanding.
They loved Zee here. Unlike the miserable fucks in her pack, in her family.
Meridia cut the thought off, because she couldn’t help Zee if she let herself give in to the rage, even a little.
Hunkering down in front of Zee, she hauled the woman in for a tight, fierce hug. “Donner, have Chassy clear the bar. The Therian can stay—and live—for a few more moments.”
Briefly, Meridia glanced at the male human who still hadn’t relaxed his oddly protective stance where he stood, just a few feet away. Angling her head toward him, she looked at her second and added in a low, liquid language unknown to any of those outside the ocean they called home, “And find out who he is. If he’s solid, then he’s welcome in our territory. He has balls and a heart.”
He proved as much when he resisted Chassy’s first attempts to get him to leave, although he did go, reluctantly, after Chassy said, “The Regnar will care for Zee. She’s our family.”
“I’ll be back to check on her,” he said.
“You’re welcome to,” Meridia told him, although there was grief in her as she said it. Any chance Zee might have had with this strong, determined man was gone. She’d never look at him without remembering her humiliation at the hands of Niko Whelan. Again. No, he hadn’t been here to do it himself, but Niko was the reason this had happened. Again.
Meridia wished, for once, that she was more like her father, that her rage could be as icy as the ocean’s heart. But she had too much of her mother in her and her rage was pure fire.
Taut moments passed in silence once they were alone, just Donner, Chassy, Colby and the trembling Therian wolf Meridia clutched tight against her heart.
“Zee.”
One hand came up and gripped Meridia’s bicep. “It hurts, Meri. Like it’s eating me alive inside. It’s never been this bad.”
One night, several years back, Zee had finally confided to Meridia, told her why she was a wolf alone even though everything about her screamed of a need for family, for a pack.
Meridia had been subtly shoving men she knew were strong enough for Zee ever since, but Zee rebuffed each and every one. When Meridia called her on it just months ago, Zee had said softly, “The one time I went on a date with an Atargarian, a Therian coyote saw us. There was a fight. I’ll never be responsible for that again, Meri. Ever. If you push it, I’ll leave.”
