Chapter 29
A
fter a night of rifling through cemeteries and getting sick over the remains of butchered corpses and heavy demon activity, Jinx drove home to face the music, even though it was barely dawn.
He knew damned well what the witch felt. Knew that Stray did as well, by literal osmosis. What he didn’t know was how to deal with it without telling the rest of the Dires what a fucking mess he’d caused.
They had too much else to worry about—he wasn’t putting another thing on their heads. He’d deal with purgatory himself.
Rifter was, of course, waiting for him in the kitchen, arms crossed, his alpha wolf flag flying high. But Jinx was in no mood for any of his shit, king or no king.
“Where were you?”
“Hunting,” Jinx told him.
“I told you not to go out alone,” Rifter said, and yes, the wolf had, right after Kate’s meltdown.
Because if there’s something evil she’s seeing, it could be a premonition
, Rifter had lectured.
Now Rifter narrowed his eyes. “Jinx, what’s the goddamned problem?”
And that’s when he fucking lost it, because he couldn’t stand here and look his king, his friend, in the eye and keep lying to him. So he did what he knew would get him the hell out of the spotlight. “Right—forgot I’m
evil
Jinx. Maybe I shouldn’t be allowed to do anything alone. Maybe I should be chained inside the house with Harm.”
“Don’t give him ideas,” Vice said, coming up behind Rifter.
Jinx knew Rifter’s wolf was not responding well to the challenge, and Vice’s silent question—
Why the hell are you baiting him?
—hung in the air.
Since his mating, the dynamic was changing. Rifter had always been alpha, but this was beyond.
The other Dires were handling it, because it was Rifter. But now Jinx was too pissed to care that he was challenging the alpha. And on some level, he realized he might be doing this purposely as well. That riling Rifter to the point of no return would give Jinx the freedom he needed.
“You’ve got to get the fuck off my back, king. I’m doing this for you—for Gwen. For all of us. So you need to stay put and let me do my damned job without questioning me every time I leave this house, got it?”
Rifter’s wolf growled. “You don’t tell me what to do, wolf.”
“Guess what, King Rifter? I’m telling you.”
“Why are you pushing me?” Rift’s eyes had already turned; the air held the chill of an impending Dire fight.
Jinx knew a newly mated alpha king was not to be challenged if you wanted to keep your head on your body. And he definitely needed his head, but he needed to get the hell out of this house more, before Kate had another crazy vision and figured out what he was dealing with. Hell, Stray might’ve already read his mind, but Jinx hoped he was too caught up with his witch to read too much into Jinx’s tension.
Jinx was pulling a tiger by the toes—wasn’t smart, wouldn’t be pretty, but he pressed on. “Because I’m tired of you making shit decisions for this pack.”
The growl ripped from Rift’s throat. Jinx’s own Brother Wolf was confused, was used to bucking the alpha king occasionally, but never this hard.
“Jinx, stand down,” Rifter warned one final time.
“Fuck off,” he replied, and the fight happened in a blur, the mated alpha far more unpredictable than Jinx had expected.
It had been a long time since he’d seen one of them up close and personal. Everything was raw, right on the surface. It was almost like dealing with a newly shifted Dire, except a mated alpha had complete control over his fighting abilities and that made him even more deadly and unpredictable.
Jinx barely held him off, still ended up with deep, bloody scratches down his neck that would scar and cracked ribs that would heal before the night was over.
He’d given as good as he’d gotten, but Rifter was too amped up to care. The only thing that stopped them from coming as close to killing each other as they possibly could was Vice’s Brother Wolf, who jumped in and nearly decimated them both.
And still Rifter kept coming for him. Jinx watched the white wolf shift into his tattooed Dire brother in order to hold Rifter at bay. With Vice’s pull, he and Rifter both shifted back as well, and Vice was saying, “Rift, come on—tone it down.”
Jinx should’ve let it go then, could’ve walked away with his scratches and his dignity, but he knew he’d have to push it to get the results necessary for him to keep his secret.
He lurched forward, past Vice, put his finger close enough to Rifter’s face for the wolf to bite it off, and managed, “I’ll be goddamned if I’m going to walk around here, subject to your scrutiny. I’m not following special rules because you all trust some crazy witch over your own brothers.”
He couldn’t stop himself, figured this was how Vice must feel all the time. But the suspicion in his brothers’ eyes was too much to take. Obviously, he’d gotten careless, allowed his own charm in the form of the prayer to work against him, something Rogue would probably have warned him about, if he weren’t being held unconscious by a fucking hag mare.
“You get the fuck out of this house—and you don’t come back until I invite you.” Rifter’s words roared, shook the walls of the house. Everything seemed to stop then, including Jinx’s heart for a brief second before it began the familiar, fast beat of the wolf’s again.
“Fuck you and your house, King Rifter,” he spat.
“Jinx, get out—now,” Vice told him, his voice low, his eyes turned lupine, his body shaking.
This was probably harder on Vice than anyone, and Jinx felt another pang of guilt stab him squarely in the chest. It was what finally made him turn and leave the house with nothing but the clothes on his back.
You got what you wanted.
It was still like a knife to the gut. Brother Wolf wasn’t happy, wanted to run back and make peace with the king, despite the fact that there wasn’t a submissive bone in Jinx’s body.
All those alphas under the same roof . . . Shit, it wasn’t the first time they’d split, but it wasn’t the right time for it.
This wasn’t the right time to be connected to purgatory, either. Asking for help would make things worse—he’d figure it out himself. Because if he’d been able to push his king, the one he’d ceded to centuries earlier, there was something evil inside of him, like the witch had seen.
Seb could be manipulating him somehow. Jinx had considered that, but he didn’t feel that pull. Besides, he’d already cast a spell to protect the rest of them from a mare spell, even though none of them could ever be pulled in that deeply. Rogue had been because of his connection to the spirit world—he walked a very thin line between life and death.
Thankfully, the rest of the Dires wouldn’t find themselves enslaved that way, but who knew what else Seb had in store for them.
* * *
Gwen had watched the fight from the safety of the next room, struggling the entire time not to let Sister Wolf out. And her wolf wanted out bad. But fighting with the men wasn’t going to do anything except get her hurt. This was a show of testosterone that ended badly and it was only once Jinx slammed down the stairs and left the Dire property alone on his Harley that she let herself react.
“You can’t let him go alone like that.”
Rifter had been watching Jinx’s bike roar down the driveway. He turned to her in a flash. “Enough. It’s done.”
“We’re all in danger and we need to stay together,” she protested, and Rifter growled at her. “You did not just growl at me, did you?”
He had and he did it again.
Vice took her shoulder and pulled her back a little. “Gwen, it’s an alpha thing. Newly mated male kings are . . . well, let’s just say, it’s not the time to question his decisions.”
And as pissed as she was, Sister Wolf was strangely aroused by Rifter’s commands and his attempts at domination—of both her and the entire pack. She didn’t know if Vice’s proximity was adding to her feelings, but Vice’s canines were elongated, his eyes changed to lupine, like Rifter’s.
Come to think of it . . .
She touched her tongue to her teeth and found herself in the same predicament. If she looked at her eyes in the mirror, she knew wolf’s eyes would greet her back.
“Jinx will be fine. Staying here now is not an option,” Rifter repeated.
“I would think you’d make an exception,” she started, but quickly stopped. Obviously, Rifter knew it wasn’t the best time, but if he was having trouble controlling himself, it might actually be in all their best interests for Jinx to be on the outside.
“He’ll handle himself,” Vice promised. “He’ll stay at the apartments. No one’s going to know where he is. Might give us an upper hand to have someone on the outside if there comes a time we can’t leave. I’ll call to check in on him in a few.”
He left and Gwen realized this was probably harder on Vice than anyone. She turned back to Rifter.
“The building’s not spelled.”
“If he’s careful, no one will know he’s there,” Rifter said.
“Hopefully it’s not permanent.”
“That’s up to me,” Rifter said, giving no indication either way.
Gwen felt a surge of desire run through her, which was odd, considering her anger. But the wolf part of her was growing stronger on a daily basis and surged in appreciation of her alpha and his ways. And he knew—the bastard knew how conflicted she was and how turned on, and his eyes changed to lupine.
“I want to hate you for doing this,” she told him.
“Pack law,” he murmured before nipping her neck. “King’s rule.”
“Doesn’t the queen get a say?”
“You’ve had yours,” he reminded her. “But right now Brother Wolf’s not handling resistance.”
She’d seen it happening over the past week, but she’d been so buried in her own wolf things that she didn’t stop to think it had to do with their mating. “This will pass?”
“Eventually.” Rifter yanked her closer. “Stop questioning me.”
The alpha authority in his tone infuriated her, but it excited her more. “And if I don’t?”
“You will, little wolf.”
Any guise of polite behavior was gone, vanished as if Rifter let the facade go completely. He pinned her to the ground and she knew she’d pushed too hard one time too many.
She would pay now. But the funny thing was, she didn’t think she’d mind it, especially not when his thigh pressed her sex, holding her open. He ripped her top open with his canines and she felt the pleasure surge through her.
“I’m going to take you, right here and now.”
“Do I have a say?”
“You have the next two seconds to say no. Otherwise, I’ll keep your mouth occupied.”
She yielded to him, pulse racing.
If he’d ever been civilized, any trace of it was completely gone, replaced by his raw physicality that threatened to consume her.
She would let it.
Rifter grabbed her, stripped her pants down with efficiency and tore his own as well. He entered her before she could draw another breath, holding her to him with one arm as he stood with her and propped her ass against the nearest table. And then he took her with a force that overwhelmed her. It was nothing like mating sex, which had been a wild thing on its own. No, this time Rifter had complete control and there was no pain for him involved, only pleasure, an intent on proving himself alpha to her.
And he did. Every time he rocked into her, her womb contracted and the orgasms were fast and furious. She couldn’t recover in between as Rifter showed his dominance and she accepted it gratefully, crying out her king’s name in the process of complete surrender.
* * *
Afterward, Gwen and Rifter remained splayed on the floor of the living room, covered by a blanket Rifter pulled from the couch.
Gwen blushed as she realized how loud she’d been—and how exposed.
“You’re never going to stop blushing, are you?” Rifter asked, and he didn’t look unhappy about it in the least.
“We’re just so out in the open.”
“Everyone stayed away, Gwen. They know better.”
Every wolf except Jinx knew better. And she couldn’t let it go, despite Rifter’s warning. She only hoped the sex had mellowed the newly mated alpha male syndrome he had going on.
“Maybe Kate’s splitting you up on purpose,” Gwen pointed out. “What if she’s smarter than we think about all of this? She’s been working with Shimmin for years.”
“Shimmin sent a Were to attack her—to control her,” Rifter countered. “When that didn’t work, he got her a job to keep an eye on her and her powers. They didn’t think they’d need her. They just didn’t want us to have her.”
“I don’t like my family being separated.” Rifter might be alpha, but Gwen’s mother alpha instincts were shining through, along with the human desire for family.
“I’m not taking them away, Gwen. It’s—”
“Pack law.” She pushed away from him. He studied the Sister Wolf glyph on her back, almost as beautiful as her wolf form.
He knew what she was really worried about. What if Jinx really was evil? If the weretrappers found a way to turn the Dires . . . would the Elders help?
Would they care? From what she’d seen of the hierarchy who ruled both the Dires and the Weres, she didn’t think so.
“We need him here,” Gwen said.
“Not now,” Rifter told her.
“Because of Kate, or because he defied you?” she asked.
“The latter.”
The wolf part of her understood that immediately. The human side that hated to see these wolves separated for any reason, didn’t. “He belongs here.”
“I can’t expect you to understand.”
“We have limited time. Seb is gearing up the army again for the blue moon and you’re kicking him out when we need to work together—now more than ever.”
Rifter’s fists unclenched. “As much as I needed him to go, Jinx wanted to go more.”
“Why?”
“I guess we’ll find out. But I think it’s best he’s working from the outside, and the key is that he’s still working for us. That much I know. Eye on the prize.” Rifter paced, but his stance, his voice, were strong.
He was right. Gwen mentally calculated the number of wolves on their side. Liam, in particular, was amassing a great deal of respect with both the Manhattan packs and the others across the country as well. That put their numbers up substantially, but going up against the ghost army . . . well, all of it was risky.