From the Shadows (A Shadow Chronicles Novel) (31 page)

I knew she was frowning by the tone of her voice as she replied, “As a matter of fact, yes. I’ve visited there with Tom and Martha a time or two. Why do you need it? What’s happened?”

“I give you my word I’ll explain everything when we get home, but suffice it to say Race and I need to see him. Can you text me the address?” I asked her.

Mom sighed. “All right, Juliette. Please be careful, whatever you’re about to do.”

I tried not to laugh as I glanced at the two wrecked cars I stood near. “Promise, Mom. We’ll be careful. I love you.”

My mother repeated the sentiment and hung up, but I knew I’d only given her something to worry about. And though I knew she would now be tempted to call around to find out what was going on, I also knew my mother respected me too much for that. My having given her my word that I’d explain was good enough for her, though she would wait for my return with nervous anticipation.

True to his word, a team of pretender vampires working for Diarmid Mackenna showed up within minutes after I’d finished talking to my mother. Two were tow truck drivers, which I’d expected, but what raised my eyebrows was the appearance of two expensive-looking sedans and a limousine. I had a feeling that one of the sedans was meant for Race and I so that we could leave town, but I couldn’t figure what the other one was for. The limo’s reason for appearing was soon made clear when the driver got out and opened the back door.

Diarmid
. I should have known
, I thought sourly.

He came to stand beside me as Race and one of the
muscle who’d driven a sedan acknowledged each other silently and then hauled the werewolf off the ground none-too-gently, literally throwing him into the back seat of the car.

“Do whatever you want with him,” Race said darkly. “I honestly don’t give a fuck.”

No
, I told him silently, and stepped forward. “Actually, all you need to do is keep him from using a phone for the next three or four hours. Then you can let him go.”

Race’s head snapped around. “Juliette, what he’s done is inexcusable!” he yelled.

I squared my shoulders and lifted my chin. While I understood my lover’s anger, I wasn’t about to back down—there was no way I’d agree to allowing the vampires to kill our attacker in cold blood, same as I wouldn’t allow him to do it, and he knew that.

“What he’s done, Race, is follow his Alpha’s orders,” I said firmly. “We may not agree with those orders, but the fact remains he had no power to resist them. I don’t like what he’s done any more than you do, but we’re not going to allow our anger to bring us down to the same level as the man who gave those orders.”

“How magnanimously noble of you, Miss Singleton,” Diarmid put in. “Though I daresay if you let him go, his master will simply do what you will not.”

I turned to him, feeling my eyes blaze with fury as I fisted my hands on my hips. “That boy is not to be harmed by you or your men, and once Kevin Tracey is dealt with, he is free to go. Is that understood?”

The vampire looked over my shoulder at a no doubt fuming Race, and an expression came to his countenance I could not quite read. Or maybe I didn’t want to. But when he looked back at me, it was with a conciliatory gaze. “You’re putting a lot of faith in Mr. Covington’s ability to best the werewolf king, but it will be as you wish. We’ll not harm him in any way.”

He then stepped back and gestured toward the waiting limousine. “Your chariot awaits, my
animorphic friends.”

Resisting the urge to scowl at him, I exercised the manners my parents had taught me and said “Thank you.” Race walked (okay, ‘stalked’ would be a better descriptive term) past me to climb through the open door first. Sensing a fight might be on the immediate
horizon, I sighed and moved to follow. As I was reaching for the door to close it, Diarmid placed one hand on the door and the other on the frame, and leaned down to look in at us.

“George has been instructed to take you straight to your destination once you have given him the address. He is human, so you’ll not have to worry about raising their hackles. He will also transport you home when your business is concluded.”

I cleared my throat. “Thank you,” I said hesitantly. “I appreciate your willingness to help us, though the use of your limousine was not necessary. One of the other cars would have sufficed.”

Diarmid
chuckled, once again looking past me at Race for a brief moment, then back at me as he said, “Oh no, my dear. I should think it will come quite in handy. That button there with the white arrows will lower and raise the privacy screen should you require any…privacy. Good luck to you now.”

With a salacious smile he closed the door, and I heard the driver climbing into the front as he did so. Race pushed the button to lower the black plastic panel that divided the front of the luxury vehicle from the passenger compartment.

“What is our destination?” George asked, looking back at us in the rearview mirror.

I pulled out my cell phone and opened the text from my mother, rattling off the address she’d sent me. Once George had acknowledged, Race raised the panel back up again, and then suddenly he was on me, his mouth crushing mine in a kiss meant to devour. Through our bond I sensed a primal need in him—his instincts were demanding that he claim me. The animal spirits that resided within him were crying out for release, and as he couldn’t very well take Kevin Tracey’s head off—at least not right at that moment—the sexual claiming of his mate would have to sate him until he could.

Whether or not I was a willing participant in this particular joining would be of little consequence, for the imperative driving Race to mate was too strong for him to resist. Given my recent experience, for a moment I contemplated resisting—denying him the release he craved out of fear that he might inadvertently hurt me. Though he had been a little rough with me once before, it was nothing compared to what I sensed might happen this time. I also feared that I would begin to flashback as I had our first night back home.

But that moment of hesitation lasted hardly more than a few seconds. I was quite surprised to feel my own animal side rearing her head, seeking as much from Race as he took from me. We came close to literally tearing each other’s clothes off as we struggled to rid ourselves of the hindrance they presented. Almost faster than I could blink, I was on my back and he was inside me, taking me hard and fast. With his mouth he feasted on my breasts; my hands roamed his back, his arms,
his hair—kneading, scratching, and pulling in response to the undeniable need for release that he had awakened in me.

I knew that the mild pain I felt as he
pistoned against me, as he lightly bit the flesh of my breasts, my neck, my jaw, would be worth enduring when that release finally came, as I could feel my body beginning that familiar tightening in my center. But I also knew even as he slammed his velvet steel into me again and again that we weren’t making love—that this wasn’t about pleasure.

It was fucking, pure and simple. Race was pissed and he needed an outlet for his anger.

I wasn’t exactly of a sunny disposition either, so I made sure to give as good as I got. There wasn’t really time to think about precisely
why
we were angry, or the fact that I had suddenly been introduced to a side of myself I’d never known existed—the wanton, wild creature raking her nails down Race’s back, biting his shoulders, his jaw, his lips…she was more animal than human. She was either an aspect of my personality that had heretofore been hidden or she had been birthed of the violence that had been introduced into my life in recent weeks, who might remain for months or be gone tomorrow.

I wasn’t sure if I liked this side of me. Or maybe I was just afraid of the unknown.

I could feel my body preparing for release, the tightness in my core growing stronger. But Race was apparently not ready to let me have it yet, as he suddenly withdrew from me and turned me so that my legs were sticking out in the middle of the limo. He then flipped me so that I was on my stomach and kneed my thighs apart wider. I tried to push up on my elbows but he pushed me back down, crushing my breasts beneath me on the seat. With one hand on my back holding me down, he grabbed my hip with the other, and I gasped loudly as he slammed into me from behind. The hand on my back moved to my hair, which he grabbed a handful of and pulled just tight enough to make me feel it.

Race then did something completely unexpected—continuing to thrust in and out of me, he leaned over my back and nuzzled my shoulder, and then he bit me. My eyes widened in shock and I felt our bond resonate more powerfully in my mind as we became even more intimately connected. I realized then that for Race, this was much more than a bout of angry sex. He was making it clear that this was about possession.
Dominance. And he would accept nothing less than my complete surrender to his control.

He
was the Alpha.

***

As we were dressing, I heard myself say, “You didn’t have to do that. You’ve got nothing to prove to me.”

Race paused in the midst of pulling his shirt over his head and looked at me. “Yeah, I think I did.”

I frowned as he dragged his shirt into place. “What happened to being equal partners in this relationship?” I asked. “I mated with you because we were meant to be together, Race. Not so that you could turn me into a doormat who caters to your every whim.”

He chuckled mirthlessly. “That’s not what I want, Juliette. Nor would I expect you to capitulate to my every demand. But this situation has made me realize a few things.”

Despite my irritation—he’d refused to let me climax until I had caved and declared myself submissive to him—I was curious. I lifted an eyebrow as I turned in the seat to face him. “Like what?” I queried.

Perhaps he sensed my hesitation, for he reached for my hand and brought it to his lips, touching them to the back of it lightly,
then holding it loosely in his lap as he replied. “Jules, I may not know a whole lot about shifter culture, but I’ve been around enough vampires to surmise that we’re probably not entirely different from them. Social structure among vampires is such that the bloodsucker in charge of the coven often has to fight to keep his or her position of power. Part of that entails keeping his subordinates in line.”

I frowned again and tried to pull my hand away. “I’m not your subordinate, Race. I’m your partner—your mate.”

“You might want it to be that way, baby,” he said as his grip on my hand tightened. “And there’s a part of me that wishes it
could
be that way. But something tells me the reality isn’t going to agree with us. I’ve seen enough challenges for authority among the vamps I’ve worked for to know that these wolves are going to expect a lot more from me than a few simple shape changes or punches thrown. Am I right?”

I didn’t want to admit it, but he was. I nodded slowly. “Challenging Kevin in defense of me will be seen as a challenge to his authority over the pack,” I said.

“Precisely my point—not only do I have to prove that I’m stronger than Kevin physically, but I also have to prove that my personality is stronger, or his people aren’t going to recognize my authority over them. I’m supposed to be this all-powerful Beast Master, but what kind of master will I be if I can’t even control my own mate?”

“But Race, I’ve never challenged your authority, real or imagined.”

He sighed. “Yeah, you did. Back in that alley I told Mackenna’s goons they could do whatever they wanted with that wolf who’d chased us, because he brought harm to you and I frankly don’t give a shit what happens to him. You countered that by demanding they not harm him at all.”

I tried not to let the sudden spike of anger I felt take me
over, and replied as calmly as I could, “Which I firmly believe I had every right to demand. You weren’t the only one in that car chase, Race—I was there too. And you may have this newfound insight into shifter culture based on what you’ve observed of vampires, but I still know more about it than you do. I am in no way condoning what that boy did, but as I told you, when an alpha gives a command, a member of the pack has no choice but to obey. He was only doing as he’d been told.”

I tilted my head then. “Answer me this…
Are you wanting to take over the Dayton pack?”

“Not particularly, no. I just want that bastard to pay for what he’s done.”

“Well that’s too bad, because if you challenge Kevin and win, you will make yourself their Alpha. You’ve already recognized that you’ll have to prove more than that you’re physically capable of besting him in a fight, but just doing that will change how they view him. To the wolves, if their Alpha can’t win a simple fistfight, he can’t protect them. And a man who can’t protect them is seen as incapable of properly leading them.”

I sighed. “Believe me,
Race, I want Kevin to answer for what he’s done just as much as you do. But you really need to consider the consequences of your actions if you fight him when we get to Dayton. The pack will become your responsibility—you can’t just pick some beefy looking werewolf and say, ‘You’re the new leader of this pack.’ It doesn’t work that way. One of them would have to challenge you, and there aren’t many who would be brave enough to do that.”

Race snorted derisively. “I thought werewolves were supposed to be a bunch of macho, take-no-bullshit, we’re-better-than-you types.”