2. Samuel

Chapter 2

Samuel

H e needed to find his mate or he was going to lose everything, and Samuel hadn't come this far to lose .

"I can handle it, I promise," Rune crooned, his hands wrapped around the hell-forged bars of his prison. "Let me out, Sammy."

He stared at his third and wished he could believe him.

"Sammy, let me out of this fucking cage!" Rune snarled, slamming his whole body into the hell-forged iron to no avail. All it accomplished was the shattering of bones. " Please , Alpha. Let me out."

Ancient instincts pulsed through him, but Samuel ignored them and tried not to focus too hard on the crippling pain in his heart as he watched the man he loved fall to pieces in front of him.

The last fucking thing on this planet he wanted was a mate, but it might be the only thing to save Rune from this madness.

"Sammy…" he sang, grabbing the bars again as his shattered bones healed, leaning back like a kid on the playground to make his bright red hair swing behind him. "I won't kill everyone…just a few of them."

"No."

"Okaaaaaay, what about a little torture then? It always gets the tongue wagging." Rune gave him a feral grin, his green eyes sparkling.

That was the most disturbing part of these breakdowns.

Not a single fucking sign of his tiger showed in Rune's eyes.

They shouldn't have taken that job, but he'd owed the raven a blood debt.

What's done was done.

"Torture?" Rune asked, sounding hopeful as he pressed his face against the tight bars, the silver collar around his neck sizzling against his skin. "You like torture, don't you, Sammy?"

"You can torture me, but no one else," he conceded, reaching up to loosen his tie.

"Inadvisable," Mylo murmured.

Samuel slid his gaze to the side as he pulled off his tie, watching as Mylo pushed his enchanted glasses up his nose, eyes on the tablet in his hand. For a tiger, his second was pretty slim, but he was just as tall as Samuel with broad shoulders.

Every inch of his skin was covered in scars or ink, hidden by the pristine suit he wore. It did nothing to cover up the back of his hands or his neck though, or the surgical slice across his face. Silver glinted on Mylo's fingers, burning through his tattoos and skin just like the collar around Rune's throat.

"And why is that inadvisable?" he asked, seeing the single, fraying thread that was the only thing keeping Mylo together.

Samuel unbuttoned his shirt as Rune snarled at Mylo like he hadn't just been cuddling with him on the couch this morning. "You're just jealous, you prick."

The glare on his glasses made it impossible to see Mylo's eyes, all Samuel could see was the feral grin spreading across his face like a nightmare. "I am jealous," he admitted, chuckling as he tapped something on the tablet. "Maybe I want you to torture me instead."

"Oh." Rune's nasty expression disappeared, and he looked thoughtful as he considered the second of their pride. "Let me out and I'll make you scream, Mylo. Come ooooon…let me out…you know you want to."

The tablet cracked and glass shattered, tinkling on the floor in a sweet melody that had Samuel back in that place where this kind of thing was a regular occurrence – expected even.

If anyone found out about this, he wouldn't just lose his position on the Council of Paranormals. No, they'd be exterminated .

Samuel couldn't let that happen.

He set a hand on Mylo's shoulder when the other tiger started to drift toward Rune's cage like he was being called by a siren. "I have a better idea."

Both tigers turned toward him, absolutely ravenous.

"Play with each other," he said, gently taking the broken tablet out of Mylo's hands. "But no irreparable damage."

Rune groaned like a disappointed child, but Mylo took his glasses off and handed them over.

"Whatever we want?"

"Nothing that will leave a permanent mark." Samuel tossed the broken tablet over his shoulder and tucked those enchanted glasses in his pocket before pulling Mylo closer. "If you stay in that cage and play nice together, I'll reward you."

Their eyes finally gleamed gold.

"Really?" Rune asked, releasing the bars and taking a hesitant step back. "You promise?"

"Really," Samuel murmured, his voice gentle and soothing, which made them both shiver.

Only Mylo and Rune knew what that tone meant, and he grabbed Mylo by the back of the neck, eyeing the beast of a man in that stupid cage. Rune took another step back, hands up with a crooked smile on his face.

"You try to escape as I put him in there with you and I won't do it."

Mylo frowned, and Rune tsk ed as he crossed his arms over his chest. He glared at Samuel but leaned against the bars on the other side, as far from the door as he could get.

"No holding back this time?" Mylo asked, his eyes fixed on Rune like the other tiger was the answer to all his problems.

Usually that would be the case, but ever since Rune had started spiraling, Mylo had begun to lose control as well.

The three of them were going to implode if he didn't fix this now .

"I'll fuck you until you bleed," Samuel promised, his grip on that strong neck tightening against his will. "Rune?"

Gold eyes flashed at him as he set his hand on the sensor, letting it scan his palm.

"You know what I want."

"Will you behave?"

Rune licked his lips. "You'll make it hurt?"

"Enough to make you come." His hand hovered over the keypad as he waited.

"You'll come back, Sammy?"

"I won't abandon you." It took everything he had not to lose control, but the moment he did would be the end of everything he'd built – the end of everything he loved. "I'll come back as soon as I make a call. Play nice with each other until then. Remember, your bodies belong to me ."

A trickle of his alpha voice slipped out at that reminder, and he couldn't stop himself from baring his teeth in challenge.

"Yes, Alpha." Rune's eyes dropped to the floor and Samuel tapped in his personal code, yanking the door open as soon as the sound of the mechanism ended.

Shoving Mylo inside, he slammed the door closed and held it until it locked, bracing himself for impact as Rune lost control and slammed into the hell-forged iron like a rabid beast, snarling at him in mindless fury.

His eyes closed as he buried down all those instincts that were bred into him. The tiger inside paced anxiously as the sounds in the cage shifted to snarls when Mylo and Rune started going after each other, still human.

For now.

Other, deadlier instincts threatened to rise, and he buried down the wicked smile he could feel threatening to take over his face.

The violence on the air was familiar and something dark settled down deep inside with a purr when blood hit the air.

Unraveling after years of healing and it was his fault.

Now he had to fix this before the three of them destroyed what they'd sworn to protect.

Releasing the hell-forged iron was more difficult than he'd ever let on. Samuel unbuttoned his shirt halfway down and stretched his head from one side to the other. The silver on his necklace burned into his skin, as did the rings on his right hand.

He cracked one knuckle at a time as he rebuilt those mental walls between the man he'd chosen to become and the man he used to be until the melodic screams disappeared behind silver walls choked by roses adorned with venomous thorns.

Mylo had Rune pinned to the floor by his throat, grinning down at the massive shithead with a manic gleam in his golden eyes. At some point he'd lost everything but his pants, giant claw marks across his chest healing already.

Replacing that ink would be a soothing task and some of the craving for pain died down at the promise he'd get it later.

Mylo grabbed Rune by the jaw through his mouth and tried to rip it off, but the bigger tiger threw him across the cage into the bars. Bone cracked and Mylo laughed, ruffling his blond hair out of the slicked-back look he usually preferred.

"Remember who you belong to," Samuel reminded them before tucking his hands in his pockets to hide the black claws that had appeared against his will.

Then he turned on his heel and headed for the stairs that would lead him out of this hellhole into a world that saw him only as the man he'd become.

Nothing more. Nothing less.

It was difficult not to crush his phone as he pulled it out of his pocket, selecting the contact he'd hoped he'd never have to call for something like this.

But the universe had never been kind to him.

It barely rang once before the witch answered the phone. "Hello, Alpha."

"Morgan." The main floor of his spacious house was dark, but he didn't need lights to see with his tiger's eyes.

It painted everything in silver, thanks to all the windows letting the moonlight in.

"It's late," she murmured in that sleepy, sex-soaked voice that got so many people all twisted up over her.

Samuel fucking hated it. The sound had always made his goddamn skin crawl, but that wasn't her fault. She just sounded like someone he used to know when she did that.

"I'd appreciate it if you could drop the theatrics, Morgan."

A sigh. "You're crankier than usual."

Thank all the gods she sounded irritated instead of seductive. "I'm in a bit of a bind."

"Then call Selene," Morgan spat. "She's your new favorite witch, isn't she?"

He picked up a vase and threw it against the wall, the sound of glass shattering settling some of his rage.

"I don't have a favorite," he purred, stepping on the glass just to hear it crunch under his feet. "If I had to pick, I'd say maybe Jessica James is my favorite. She's just so…"

" Chaotic ," Morgan supplied. She chuckled then and he imagined her shaking her head at him. "You hate chaos."

"I do." Keeping everything orderly was the only way to keep that psycho buried down deep.

"Then why her?"

"I have a thing for cowboys." He stopped at the wall that was nothing but glass, staring out at the forest surrounding the house he had up in Northern California. It was too dangerous to be anywhere near San Francisco right now. "How is she?"

"Busy." He could hear the sound of Morgan tapping her nails on the table through the phone as she thought.

"Any day now, Morgan. I have things to do." He didn't dare check the security footage just yet.

Samuel had to trust that his second and third respected the monster he hid from the rest of the world enough not to disobey him, because the alpha magic wouldn't always work on them.

"How bad is it?"

His fist went through the bulletproof glass before he could stop himself, and the entire wall shattered. Winter wind whipped around him, whispering sweet promises of salvation in a language he didn't understand.

It was pointless to ask the strongest seer to ever exist how she could possibly know what he kept so vigilantly hidden from the rest of the world.

"If I tell you, will you keep my secrets?" he asked, his voice deceptively calm as he watched the lacerations across his knuckles heal. The pain barely even registered and he bit back a disappointed sigh.

"I have my own reasons for keeping your secrets," Morgan admitted, her tone sharp. "No one will learn it from me."

He dropped his hand and considered the forest that towered over his house and land, the trees like dark sentinels keeping his orderly world separate from the chaos he buried down over and over and over…

"I'm going to lose them."

Mylo and Rune.

His salvation.

"I had to collar and cage him tonight," Samuel explained, feeling comforted by the bone-chilling breeze that kissed his bare skin, ruffling the shirt playfully. "With silver and hell-forged iron, and it still might not be enough."

Silence hung between them, but surprisingly, it didn't make his fury rise.

"This is the third time in the last week," he admitted, dropping his voice so the winter wind would rip away his words and carry them back to those trees he couldn't tear his gaze away from.

It almost felt like they were watching him.

"Now it's affecting Mylo."

"And you?"

Bloodlust roared through him as he thought about all the ways he could reward those two when he went down there and all the ways he could punish them if they disobeyed.

"It's manageable." Samuel tugged on the necklaces around his neck that always burned as an endless reminder. The charms tinkled against each other, telling him those two were still alive – that there wasn't a single fae within a hundred miles of him, and his pride was safe.

For now.

"You cannot fall," Morgan murmured, something in her voice making that bloodlust die like a fire being smothered by a foam extinguisher.

"And why is that?" he snapped, releasing the necklace. The sting when it bounced against his chest became dull when the familiar ache settled against his skin in an endless cycle of burning and healing that kept him grounded.

" You are vital to so many things ," Morgan whispered, her voice suddenly not one, but thousands. " This world will crumble if you do ."

He rolled his eyes but said nothing.

"Don't you dare roll your eyes at me," she snapped, her voice suddenly back to normal.

Samuel sighed, remembering why he avoided her despite the fact that she'd been one of his since she was nothing but a small child and he a brand-new alpha.

Whatever god had chosen to put Morgan on this earth had a sick sense of humor, and the worst part of that thought was he knew she would wholeheartedly agree.

"What do you need?" Morgan asked, suddenly sounding exhausted. "Whatever it is, I'll make it happen."

"A dangerous promise," he purred, a splinter of that psycho deep inside him slipping out. "I taught you better than that, didn't I?"

Old habits were hard to kill.

"You could collar and cage me, and I'd let you," Morgan whispered. "That's how badly I need you to be a part of this fragile foundation. Your strength and tenacity are…priceless."

His monster purred and Samuel considered how lovely a silver collar would look on her neck. She would be so pretty kneeling in a matching cage. Maybe he could find a diamond the same color as her eyes…

"I'm not enough to hold them together," he told her, waving those destructive thoughts away like they were nothing more than smoke. "I've tried for over a year now. It's held while I've searched for her, but our bond is fraying. We need the final piece. It might be the only thing that can save them."

"Your mate?"

Their mate, not his.

Samuel eyed the black nail polish on his fingers, relieved to see the claws were gone, knowing she could see more than any witch had the fucking right to.

"It's funny. Shifters are so enamored with the idea of fated mates, and yet you're disgusted by it." Morgan chuckled, but it wasn't mean-spirited. "I like that about you, Alpha."

"Fate is a fickle bitch," he muttered, spinning the ring on his thumb over and over. "Fate ruined my life once. It can do it again."

"Oh, I promise it will," Morgan said, her voice seductive once more like she fucking knew how much it repulsed him. "I can find your pretty little mate for you, Sammy, but will you be able to handle her?"

"I won't kill her."

Another throaty chuckle sent spiders crawling across his skin and into his ears. The sensation made him want to rip his fucking skin off. "Maybe not, but she's not going to give you the same promise."

A mate that wanted to kill him?

Despite himself, Samuel found that interesting. If nothing else, it meant she wasn't a weak little princess who would see them as her knights in shining armor.

So many saw shifters as their fairy-tale promise when it was never that fucking easy, and when it was…

His lip curled in a silent snarl at the thought.

"Alpha…" Morgan's voice shifted again and she almost sounded…nervous. "If I find her for you, I need you to promise me something."

Those deadly instincts rose up to choke him and the only thing he could think of to say was, "Is she fae?"

A huff of a laugh. "No."

Relief had him taking a step outside so he could feel the full brutality of winter. It was bracing and those husky whispers on the wind called to him.

"Then what promise is it you need?"

"She's…different." Morgan sounded like she was chewing on her fingernails again.

"Stop that." Annoyed she was fraying just like the rest of them. "It's why I bought you that ring."

Silver spinning reached him instead and the fragment of his role as a protective father those bastards had managed not to kill settled down.

"I haven't found her for you yet because I was hoping…I was hoping you wouldn't need her," Morgan admitted, her words the frightened confession of a child who only wanted his approval.

He ran his hand through his hair and let a rumble escape him, one he knew would soothe her. Thinking about what could possibly have Morgan this scared…

That was a problem for a different day.

"Come to this house tomorrow and we'll finish our discussion, Morgan. You need some rest."

A long silence followed and then he heard that tiny voice whisper, "‘Kay."

"You can come now if you like, but I wouldn't advise it," he warned. "Wait until the sun rises. His ghosts are harder to see then."

"I'll be there after dawn with a friend of mine," Morgan promised, sounding like that little girl he'd taken in so many years ago. "I can't lose you, Alpha."

Samuel took those words and used them to reinforce his wall, reminding him why he'd chosen to become this . "I will do everything in my power to keep you safe," he promised. "You're mine, witchling…my favorite."

"Don't lie."

The sound of tears choking her was a sharp pain in his chest, almost as excruciating as the pain he felt every time he watched Rune shatter his body against those bars.

"I'm not lying," he rumbled. "Jessica James is a friend, but you are mine , Morgan Acantha Lai Fay. I am the only one who possesses your full name, aren't I?"

"Yes." Morgan audibly swallowed, but her tone became almost teasing. "Names have value, don't they?"

"If you have someone's true name, you own them," Samuel murmured in that soothing tone, memories slamming against his mental wall as he rolled his shoulders back, feeling the weight of all those names pressing against his skin like they were trying to get out. "Which means you're mine , sweet witch. Come home, and we'll talk about what has you so scared."

"‘Kay…" Morgan took a deep breath, and Samuel felt a little more stable as the silver on her thumb settled into the same pulsing rhythm as the one on his. "You should get back down there, or Mylo is going to kill Rune."

Before he could say anything, the call ended and there was nothing but static in his ear.

The urge to throw his phone against the wall to hear it shatter almost won, but he turned and set it gently on the console table as he passed.

All he had to do was get them through this night, then the promise of a mate would distract them enough from the horrors widening the cracks of who they'd built out of rubble and ashes – creating new pathways their monsters would use to claw through and destroy everything .

When he stepped down into the basement, Samuel slipped his shirt off and rolled his shoulders back, exposing all the names he'd collected over the years that only a handful could even read.

"Now, who wants to play with me?" his monster crooned, cackling at the flash of fear and lust in two pairs of golden eyes. "I'm feeling a little left out, you see."

Mylo grinned, Rune's bloody jaw in one hand. "Then come over here and punish me, Alpha."