2. Victor

Chapter 2

Victor

I readjust her naked form over my shoulder, Fenris modestly fixing the wool blanket he had located from the service station over her nude form for the third time since we started walking. The coolness of her flaxen skin permeates against my bare chest as we make our way through Oak Hollow, toward our estate.

My brothers squabble on either side of me, their voices raising with each step.

“Why are you taking her anywhere, Victor?” Fenris growls, stepping back as he sets the blanket again. “Throw her back on the highway—or just kill her—or let the highway kill her.”

I arch an eyebrow at his crassness. He’s unusually crabby tonight.

“Shame on you! She’s just a prey shifter!” Zane counters, aghast at Fenris’s suggestion.

He casts her a sidelong look, blonde strands falling over her face to obstruct the fine bone structure of her pale cheeks. I’m slightly concerned that she’s already dead, the shock doing her little doe heart in. I’d barely taken a glimpse of her before impulsively slinging her unconscious body over my now-human form, intuitively heading for home in the wake of all the excitement. We didn’t need a crowd forming once the sun came up—not that they wouldn’t go if we ordered them away. All the same, the fewer people who knew about the intruder, the better. A security breach in Oak Hollow is not good gossip.

“We’ll bring her home for now,” I intone. “Wait for her to wake up.”

“But why?” Fenris growls. “She shouldn’t be here. How the hell did she get through the portal? She’s not even an Apex shifter!”

I have no answer for him, but I can’t bring myself to leave the girl lying unconscious at the town’s entrance, even though she had made it through the hidden portal without an explicit invitation from us. That’s more the reason to keep her under lock and key.

“Are you sure you don’t know her?” I demand, whipping my head toward Fenris first. My eyes narrow suspiciously. “You have been known to invite random women here occasionally.”

His cerulean irises darken under the gleam of the moon, his scowl deepening as he folds his arms under his chest defiantly. “I’ve never laid eyes on her in my life. Random or not, I remember the faces of the women I’ve fucked—and she’s not one of them.”

I believe him.

Clutching the deer shifter tighter, I catch a whiff of her sweet scent, the smell of honey and wild lavender catching my nostrils and stirring something primal inside me. As we loop away from the main part of town, up the private road that leads to our gated estate on the outskirts, I arch my neck away and notice the streetlamp overhead flickering wildly as we pass.

That’s odd.

“What about you?” I demand, glancing at our middle brother. “Do you know her?”

Zane raises his hands and stops in place, his golden-green eyes widening in dismay. “You think I invited her here? Didn’t you see the look on her face when she saw us? She had no idea where the hell she was. No way. She stumbled in her accidentally… somehow. Trust me, this one was lost.”

“That’s impossible,” I snap. “Our towns are magically guarded. If she wasn’t invited, she wouldn’t even see the town. You know that as well as I do.”

Our sprawling estate appears on the horizon, the mansion well-lit and waiting on our arrival. One housekeeper pads around the main entrance, and I bark out an order for her to find clothes for the girl. Without questioning me, she rushes off to obey as I trudge up the stairs toward one of the guest rooms.

“You’re going to put her in the guest suite?” Fenris groans in dismay.

I frown. “What the hell else would you like me to do with her?” I ask him.

“I don’t know. She’s not really a guest,” Fenris complains.

“This isn’t medieval times, Fen. We don’t have a dungeon to throw her in,” I remark dryly, kicking open the double doors gently.

“We do have holding cells,” he bites back.

I choose not to respond with words, rolling my eyes instead.

Laying her tenderly in the bed, I’m again overcome with her scent, the intoxicating aroma troubling me as I sit back quickly, half covering her blanketed body with a thick duvet when the housemaid enters.

“Dress her,” I order the servant, ushering my brothers out of the room to give them privacy.

We wait until the maid has finished before returning to the suite, encircling the bed to study her features more closely. She’s achingly lovely, with delicate doll-like features. It feels as though a thick gust of air might break her. A part of me wants to drape my arms around her and hide her from the world in case she cracks.

But maybe that’s why she’s been sent? Because she looks so innocent?

I can’t bring myself to believe that. In some strange way, I feel like I know her, even though, like my brothers, I’m sure I’ve never seen her before. I’m sure I would remember her face. She’s simply too beautiful.

The overhead lights flicker annoyingly, causing Fenris to fiddle with the light switch on the wall.

“Stop it!” I command him, my irritation growing as my nerves fray. I don’t know how to handle this situation, and it’s reminiscent of my early days of leadership.

“It’s not me!” Fenris complains. “There’s something off with the electricity. I bet she’s got something to do with it.”

A low groan emanates from the bed, and we spin around to look at the waking woman, her hand raising to touch her head. “Ow!”

Her eyelids flutter open, and a terrified gasp escapes her rosebud lips, revealing a row of brilliant, white teeth. The lightbulbs in the chandelier fizzle and pop in unison.

Stalking across the room, I pick up a candle and blow into it, igniting a blow of my breath, causing the intruder to whimper from the bed. She curls into a ball, pulling her knees to her chest as she gawks at us.

“I…” she mewls, but doesn’t finish her sentence.

I light another two candles as my brothers peer at the chandelier in confusion before peering back at the woman. I can feel the energy shift in the room, too, but she is my primary concern for the moment.

I need to get her under control, and everything else will settle.

“You what?” I demand coldly. “Who are you?”

“A-Aurora.”

I wait for more than that, folding my arms over my chest as I glower at her. “Where did you come from, Aurora?”

She swallows visibly, her eyes darting over our collective faces, as if she can’t figure out which one of us to look at.

“I asked you a question,” I intone.

“Oklahoma City.”

Glancing over my shoulder, I cast my brothers another look, but they’re just as baffled as me.

“What are you doing here?” I growl. “How did you get through the portal?”

Perplexed, she stares at me, and I realize she has no idea what I’m asking her. “Do you know where you are?”

“Texas,” she mumbles. “Outside of Dallas somewhere. My car ran out of gas, and I was looking for a station?—”

“You’re in Oak Hollow,” I interject flatly.

She falters and nods. “I saw the sign,” she concedes, staring down at her hands. Her doe eyes pop, hands pulling back the blankets to look at the unfamiliar nightgown. “What…?”

She trails off as her head jerks up, and she meets my steely stare.

“The housekeeper put that on you,” Zane tells her reassuringly. “You shifted in a panic and shifted back into your human body after you passed out. We brought you here.”

I give him a scathing look, and he shrugs nonchalantly. “I don’t want her to freak out.”

“Where is here ?” she squeaks, sitting up weakly. “Is this your house?”

“Stay down,” I order her, and she freezes. I don’t see her as a threat, not on her own, but who knows who else she is working with.

“We should have just gotten rid of her,” Fenris mutters under his breath. “This is already more of a hassle than it’s worth.”

Lightning cracks outside and even I jump slightly at the unexpected weather. All our heads whip toward the patio windows overlooking the Juliet balcony, but there’s not a drop of rain in sight. A freak lightning storm plays out in the far distance, cracking surreally like an unfettered plasma ball.

“Fine! Kill me then!” Aurora cries out defiantly, stunning me. Her nervousness abruptly dissipates as she springs up onto her knees, throwing her hands up. “I’m right here. Do it if you’re going to do it!”

A smirk forms on my lips as I study her svelte form, barely hidden beneath the thin material of the nightgown, her fear still palpable despite her bravado.

“Didn’t I tell you to stay down?” I demand, towering over her. She cowers as I advance, losing some of her gusto. Slowly, she slinks down. “How did you get through the magic portal? How did you get into this town?”

She shakes her flaxen tresses, the blonde strands falling over her pale cheeks to hide her face partially. “I honestly don’t know,” she whispers. “I told you. I ran out of gas, and I was walking down the highway, and I just?—”

“Bullshit!” Fenris interjects, advancing on the four-poster bed menacingly. “No one just waltzes through the portal where Apex Alpha’s live. It’s forbidden and protected. Can you just walk into the town where your Apex Alphas live in Oklahoma?”

She shakes her head. “No,” she replies. “I mean, I don’t think so. I’ve never tried. That would be stupid.”

Fenris snorts at her response. “But you thought you’d come here and do it? Because it’s smarter here somehow?”

“I don’t know how I’m here!” she insists, the indignation returning. “I keep telling you, I wasn’t looking for your town!”

“Could it be some kind of anomaly?” Zane suggests from behind us.

Both Fenris and I shoot our sensible, peace-keeping sibling a nasty look.

“Not one I’ve ever heard of in the hundreds of years Apex Alphas have ruled,” I spit back. “Have you?”

Zane relents and stands back, studying Aurora from his place behind us. I refocus my attention on her, my eyes raking over her again. I wish I could shake the budding attraction, her scent still lingering in my nostrils, despite the space between us now.

Thunder booms, and Aurora yelps.

Fenris snorts at her reaction. “Not so brave now, are you, Little Prey?”

She balks at the moniker, and I smirk again. “Please,” she begs, her luminous eyes fixing on me. “Just let me go. I won’t come back here. I keep telling you that I never meant to come here in the first place. I don’t know how else to prove it to you!”

My chest tightens with her impassioned plea, but I can’t now. She has crossed a barrier that she should not have been able to cross. She has no right to be in Oak Hollow, and yet she’s here.

“Victor,” Fenris mutters urgently, nudging me. “We need to get rid of her.”

“I don’t think we should yet,” Zane mumbles, stepping closer. It’s like having an angel and devil on my shoulder.

Aurora’s chin quivers as she stares at me imploringly, waiting for my decision.

“You’re staying,” I determine as both my brothers exhale. Fenris isn’t happy, but Zane is relieved. He doesn’t want any blood on his hands. “You’ll be our prisoner, so don’t try to escape, or you won’t get a second chance. You're already pushing your luck.”

My meaning is unmistakable, and dread replaces the naked fear on Aurora’s fawn-like face. “For how long? When will you let me leave?”

I shrug indifferently and spin around to leave. “For as long as I see fit,” I reply nonchalantly. “Maybe I’ll never let you go. Maybe you’ll be our prisoner forever.”

Fenris snickers, rubbing his hands together like some evil scientist. “How would you like that, Little Prey? Do you know how to mop floors?”

I shoot Fenris a reproving look out of Aurora’s view, but my brother is nonplussed by my silent reprimand. As I reach for the door handle, a vase falls off the mantle in the sitting room and crashes to the floor, for no good reason.

Another smash of thunder emanates through the suite, and we file out quickly.

“She’s throwing off the energy in here,” Fenris snaps as soon as we’re in the hallway and out of Aurora’s earshot. “It’s better to get rid of her before she does some real damage.”

“Not until we know how she got in here,” I insist, noting the relief on Zane’s face. “She might be a plant for someone.”

“That still doesn’t explain how she got in,” Fenris insists. “And if she is a plant, we shouldn’t have her in here. That’s counterintuitive.”

“More the reason to keep her and find out what she knows,” I reply firmly. “Tone it down a notch. Let’s win her over, make her our friend, but we’ll keep her out of pack business, and keep a close eye on her while she stays in the suite. She’ll be more likely to tell us what she knows if she doesn’t see us as the enemy.”

Zane nods enthusiastically, even if Fenris frowns. “I still think we should kill her.”

“Noted,” I sigh. “We’ll call that Plan B. Right now, we have some due diligence to do on this girl. Let’s do some homework and find out who the hell she is.”