Chapter 29

Chapter Twenty-Nine

I walked down to the front hall in the clothes Didi had delivered to me this morning. I would’ve preferred jeans, but even leather pants were a nice change from the dresses I’d been wearing. The boots felt like heaven. The t-shirt and jacket? I could live with them.

I stopped on the bottom of the steps, where Varic was waiting with a handful of his men. I held out my arms, as if to see if I passed muster.

Varic took me in and nodded. “As much as I appreciate you in a dress, these clothes do have something to be said for them. Plus, I need them to recognize you.”

“You think they’ll recognize me?” I asked.

“Yes. I’m positive of it. There were a couple of shifters from that pack here the night you killed my father.”

Not only was I traveling somewhere unknown with the enemy, but to a place where they already knew I was a threat. This day was just looking better and better.

I nodded and followed them outside, not letting my unease over the situation show. I had one purpose here: gain some trust.

Varic hopped into an ATV and then gestured at the passenger seat.

“You aren’t afraid I’ll kill you?” I asked as I settled in.

“I think you would’ve done it already if you wanted to,” he said, smirking as if he’d figured me out.

I smiled, letting him believe he was right. It was certainly better for me if he thought that, but he had no idea. If I could kill him right now with no repercussions, he’d be dead.

We headed out, and I was happy it was too loud to talk easily. This ride would be long enough as it was. It was going to be a monumental task to pretend I liked him when being anywhere close to him almost made me break out in hives.

A couple hours later, we pulled into a quaint little neighborhood with cottages nestled in the hills. The expressions on the residents’ faces as they saw us mirrored how I was feeling on the inside. They might not have had guns pointed at us, but their eyes glared hot enough without them, and they weren’t even attempting to fake it.

We parked our ATV alongside the other two filled with Varic’s men as someone from this pack approached us.

“Petro is waiting for you in the clubhouse,” the male shifter said.

Varic nodded and then signaled for me to follow him. He walked as if he knew exactly where he was going and had been at this pack many times. Every person we passed on the way gave him a glare and then offered me a slightly muted version. They considered me part of Varic’s pack, and clearly worthy of the same disdain. This trip was turning possible allies into enemies, and I might not even be able to deliver on what Varic wanted anyway.

Petro stood in front of a map on a wall when we walked in. He looked exactly like what I would’ve imagined a Viking of old to appear like.

“Petro,” Varic said.

“Varic.” Petro’s gaze shifted to me, with nothing close to appreciation. “Who’s she ?”

He asked it like I was some slug Varic had plucked out of the muck and dropped in front of him.

“You know exactly who she is,” Varic said. I could hear the smile in his tone.

The way Petro’s eyes narrowed, he had heard of me, and none of it had been good.

Saddest part of this was that I had a feeling I’d have liked Petro under other circumstances. Maybe it was only because he hated Varic, but that was a good sign in my book.

“What did you want to talk about?” Petro asked.

“You know exactly why I’m here. It’s why you were staring at that map.”

“I’m not giving you any more territory. We had an agreement,” Petro said.

“If you don’t give it, I’ll take it. My pack is larger and stronger, and I’ve realized that we just need more space to spread out in.” Varic walked over to the map, grabbed the black marker beneath it, and then drew a circle, carving out a small chunk on the northeast corner of Scotland. “This is your new territory.”

“That’s insane. You might have a large pack, but not twice as large, and you want us cordoned off to less than tenth of the land?”

“You’re lucky I’m giving you that. I don’t have to give you anything. My friend here could finish you in seconds without there even being a fight. No one in your pack will even know what happened to you. So, either take what I’m giving you or you take nothing. I absorb all your lands, and your people.”

The two men were facing off, and I wasn’t sure what I was more afraid of: that Petro would fight and I wouldn’t have any powers to put up a show, or he would fight and I’d accidentally kill a man who surely wasn’t as bad as the one I was supposedly helping.

There was one thing for sure: I wasn’t killing Petro for Varic.

Petro looked my way, his nostrils flaring as if he were trying to gauge my threat level by my smell. All I could do was try to remain calm and pray he’d take the scraps Varic was giving him.

“I don’t know what kind of black magic you’re playing at, but I hope you rot in hell for it,” Petro said.

I was already in hell helping Varic.

I felt the fur of my wolf grazing my hand and then watched as he walked over to Petro.

“I’m not looking to hurt you,” I said. I locked eyes with him, praying he wouldn’t do anything rash. “I think it would be a good thing if we all remained calm. Perhaps take what Varic is offering for a short time and then everyone can discuss it in a month or two?”

I watched my wolf standing beside him. No. Stay calm. We don’t want to kill him. Calm, calm, calm.

My wolf moved its muzzle closer to Petro and did the strangest thing—it licked his hand repeatedly. Petro didn’t move his hand or even glance down, completely unaware of what was happening. But he was visibly relaxing.

A minute or so later, he spoke like he’d just come out of a fog. “I think that’s a good idea.”

Varic looked at Petro and then turned and smiled at me.

“I guess this meeting is done, then,” he said.

Petro did nothing but nod.

We walked out of the clubhouse, and the pack members looked beyond us, seeing Petro moving about the building, looking healthy and alive, then went back to whatever they’d been doing.

Varic’s men stared, waiting for us to join them.

“We’ll be there in a minute.” Varic took my hand, tugging me along with him out of sight.

He had my hand. Could I kill him?

No. Don’t even think of that. It wasn’t like I was even near Kicks. I kill Varic and Kicks might be dead minutes later. There was a reason they sent him out with a group of enemy shifters on these false trips every day. He wouldn’t even know what was coming before he was dead. No, we’d find a way to get out together.

Varic tugged me along until we were on the back side of some sort of garage, out of sight of everyone else. He had his hands on my hips now, steering me backward until I felt a wall at my back.

“I don’t know how you did that in there, but it was amazing.” His voice was filled with awe. My plan seemed to be working, but maybe too well. I’d wanted him to be relaxed, not infatuated.

“Just trying to help.” I kept my back planted to the wall, hoping he didn’t move any closer.

“Do you realize what we could do together? My father always thought Kicks was so special. The way he’d favor him whenever Kicks deigned to come and visit. My father was so blinded by him that he didn’t see I was the strong one. The smart one. The one he should care about the most.” He ran fingers across my cheek as he stared at me. “But you see it, don’t you? You came here with him and yet you know I’m the better man. That’s why you did that back there in the clubhouse.”

He truly believed everything he was saying. I’d given him a few breadcrumbs and he’d somehow built them into a gingerbread house. He wasn’t just a mean son of a bitch, he was delusional, maybe pathologically so.

And I’d use every neurotic part of that twisted brain to my benefit.

“I do. I see it. You’re so much stronger than him.” I put my hands on his chest and then looked down coyly. “But we can’t let Kicks know. I feel bad for him. I want to let him down gently. If he thinks I chose you, he’ll challenge you for sure.” I saw the flicker of anger in his eyes and course corrected. “I know you’d win, but it would be bad for the pack to see brother kill brother. We need to be smart about this. I’ll find a way to end it with Kicks and send him back to Arkansas.”

“That’s good,” he said, his gaze fixated on my lips.

“What about Athena?” I said, looking for a distraction, anything that would keep him from kissing me. “I’m human. I won’t be able to give you shifter babies.”

“Then we keep her around, but you’ll know you’re my number one,” he said. “Athena can give me children, but I want to feel you.”

I wanted to gag on those words, but I couldn’t.I put slight pressure on his chest. “I can’t have your scent on me or Kicks will know.”

His hands caged me in. “I’ll be patient, but I need a taste of you, to know what I’m waiting for.”

He pressed against me, his lips covering mine, and thrust his tongue inside my mouth. It took everything I had not vomit and appear to return some glimpse of interest. It was almost lucky that he had me pressed against the wall so I couldn’t pull away from him, or I might’ve done it in spite of my plan. Every instinct in me said to fight off his advances.

“Varic?” His men were calling.

He leaned back, his voice husky. “I knew you wanted me. Even when we first met and you acted as if you didn’t, I could feel the attraction.”

I nodded, at a loss for words. He was deranged. He thought that I returned his lust.

“Varic, you okay?”one of his men said.

“Some of these guys are like having nursemaids,” Varic said, laughing. “We’re coming,” he called out.

No, not nursemaids. Just not as delusional as he was. Varic might see what he wanted, but not all of his men did.

Aunt Elara hurried over to me as we got back to the estate.Her nostrils flared as she got closer. “Kicks is already back, and you’d better shower or do something.”

I made it to the bedroom, hoping I’d beat Kicks there with enough time, but he was already walking out of the bathroom, fresh from his shower. He stopped a few steps into the room, looking at me and then breathing deeply. I’d hoped to be able to shower and change my clothes before he got back, but it was too late. Kicks had smelled Varic’s scent on me.

He didn’t speak as he walked over to me.

This was bad. I’d hoped to talk to him. Explain things. “I—”

“We either fuck or I kill him. Your choice.”

He was strung so tight that every muscle on his torso looked like it was flexed. His fists were clenched and his breathing seemed staggered, as if holding on to control took everything he had.

I nodded, slipping out of my jacket. That was all the answer he needed, as he shredded my shirt and then made quick work of the rest of my clothing. He lifted me, his mouth covering mine, his rawness undoing me. I thrust my hands in his hair as my need grew as desperate as his.

He walked us into the shower, turning us under the water. He gripped my ass, raising me and then lowering me onto his thick, hard dick, just barely entering me. I could already feel myself stretching around him as he shifted me lower, one slow inch at a time, until he was fully seated inside. His arms were tensed around me, giving me a chance to adjust when all I wanted was him to move before I lost my mind.

“More,” I said, my voice ragged as I clung to his shoulders.

My back hit the cold, tiled wall and he braced me as he withdrew, then pumped back in with one hard thrust, filling me completely until we were like savages. This was more than sex—it was a claiming, each thrust obliterating Varic from my memory.

An intense orgasm ripped through, shattering me. An almost inhuman groan came from Kicks as he pulled his cock out of me.

I clung to him, my legs too weak to stand as the water rained down on us. I held on to him, not wanting to ever let go.

My hair was still dripping wet as I lay almost on top of him in the bed a while later.

“I’ve seen some of the other women around here looking at you,” I said.

He tensed. “And?”

He wasn’t going to like this, but it didn’t matter. It had to be done. “I think it might be a good idea for there to be an appearance of distance between us.”

“Is that what you were doing today? Giving the appearance of distance to Varic? Is that why I could smell him all over you?”

I didn’t say anything immediately. I didn’t know what to say. There was no good way to explain what had happened today.

“I’m not betraying you, no matter how it might look. All I’m trying to do is get us the hell out of here. If I’m guilty of anything, it’s being desperate to do that,” I said.

“When he was close to you, did you even try to kill him?”

I froze for a second. I should’ve expected that question, been prepared for it. “It wasn’t a good time. He had men around. I didn’t think it was the best moment.”

He let out a low sigh, tightening his arms around me. “I really wish you’d tried,” he said, his voice so steeped in disappointment that it was as if he knew how much of an opportunity I’d had.

“It wasn’t the right time,” I said. And it wouldn’t be until Kicks was beside me and we were walking out of here together.

“Pips, people die. It happens. I can accept my death. I don’t need you to protect me.”

I didn’t say a word even as my mind went right back to those dark moments in the pit, when he’d lain dying in my arms. What about then? He hadn’t been able to care for himself then, but I wouldn’t hurt him more by saying it. It didn’t matter if I said it or not. He knew exactly what I was thinking.

“What if I can’t accept it? What about that?” I’d meant to sound tough but my voice cracked.

“I get it, Pips. We all have to do what we feel is right, no matter how much it hurts.”

Those words wouldn’t stop echoing in my mind as I lay there.