34. Chapter Thirty-Four

Panic clawed at her through the dregs of unconsciousness, jolting her from the dead sleep of her kind. Pure and entirely too potent, disgust and fear bled into her veins like a shot of adrenaline, zinging across her nerves and straightening her spine.

Cortana's senses instantly went on high alert following the visceral alarm clock, but the panic she felt wasn't her own. The fear that quivered through her body didn't originate with her. Feral protectiveness ran parallel to the suffocating sensation, the soul connected to it overcome with strong emotion.

Riaz.

"Don't you see, Alpha? She's pulled the wool over your eyes!"

And Renata.

Stiffening in bed, she inched an eyelid open to peek at the room. It took her a few seconds to fully comprehended the scene taking place before her. Riaz had moved bodily in front of Cortana, his imposing figure blocking her view of the threat at the door.

This close, she could hear the frenetic drum of the she-wolf's heartbeat, wild with determination and despair. Renata had gone off her rocker.

"Let's go into the great hall, Ren," Riaz purred, his deep voice betraying none of the panic that she knew welled below the surface. "We can leave the vampire here until we decide what to do with her."

A jolt of surprise tremored through her limbs, but not at Riaz's words. The alpha was trying to keep Cortana from harm by removing the very unstable threat. The surprise was at his lack of action. Riaz was far stronger than the she-wolf, held more dominance than the meek woman who'd come to confront them in the middle of the day.

"We can't let her go free!" Anguish leaked from Renata's mouth, her crazed voice an octave higher than normal. "What if she hurts someone else?"

A flash of light glinted of a waving object, and Cortana froze where she rested amid the covers.

Gun.

The unhinged wolf had a weapon. That was why Riaz was coaxing her from the room. Glancing at her surroundings, Cortana looked for the most defensible position, but the bathroom was several feet away—and in direct sightline of where Renata was standing.

Depending upon what ammunition the weapon was packing, it'd go through the door in a heartbeat. What was far more important, however, was that she'd never leave Riaz alone to deal with a threat.

"Cortana only came here with the intention of wooing me, Ren." Only her direct line to Riaz's psyche indicated the fallacy of his words. "It's only me she's after."

"She doesn't know your family rejected you, alpha. And she'll do the same to you once she's done—she'll break you and you'll be all alone again!"

Breath strangled in Cortana's throat at the admission. Riaz's family had rejected him? Was that why he reacted so strongly when she lashed out? How long had he been alone after they'd abandoned him?

The piece of his past clicked into place as her mind whirled. Thinking of the strong man before her being wounded and alone, rejected, was a lance to her heart.

Fury awoke at the realization, the visceral emotion quaking within her. Her fangs descended at the thought of her mate being hurt—by her or anyone else. Riaz was hers to care for, hers to love. The fact that he'd been wounded in the past by someone who supposedly loved him shattered her into a thousand pieces.

Riaz shifted uneasily on his feet, and somehow, she knew the alpha was aware she'd awoken. "I won't be alone, Ren. You'll be with me."

Disgust and revulsion turned her stomach, barreling through their unfinalized mating bond with such potency Cortana nearly gagged.

A happy noise escaped from Renata, and in the next moment, a set of hands wrapped around Riaz's waist. "We'll be happy together: I just know it."

Cortana didn't waste any more time.

In one fell swoop, she'd leapt off the bed and landed behind Riaz's turned back, snatching the gun from Renata's grip. The she-wolf screeched, twisting out of the alpha's grip. Upon seeing that the vampire held the gun level with her heart, the other woman slowed, eyes widening with a crazed look that Cortana would remember the rest of her immortal life.

"Stand down, Renata. This doesn't have to end poorly."

The she-wolf was beginning to shake with the urge to shift, her green eyes pools madness. "You've poisoned his mind against me, vampire!"

"Werewolves are immune to suggestion." Cortana inclined her chin. "He fell in love with me—and I fell in love with him because we're meant to be together."

Shifting seamlessly into her tawny-colored wolf, Renata lunged for the vampire's throat. Cortana deftly avoided the attack, using her supernatural speed to sidestep the assault. Rounding, the wolf bared her teeth, a snarl loosening from her throat. Muscles twitching for the next attack, Cortana held up a hand.

"Riaz is my mate, Renata," she growled, sounding much like the wolf she'd fallen head over heels for. "Mine. Not yours. Mine."