7. Luka

7

LUKA

I 'm wearing my favorite Armani suit, but instead of it making me feel sexy and powerful, I feel trapped. The silk shirt might as well be sandpaper on my skin. The tie is suffocating and the wool too constricting. Underneath my own discomfort, I can't shake the feeling that something isn't right.

The party is a two-for, to celebrate Jarik's ascension as Alpha of Alphas as well as the birth of his son. All the factions have been invited.

"Brother," I say as I make my way to where Jarik and Mercy are standing.

Mercy is wearing a lovely navy gown that fits her luscious body like a glove. Strapped to her chest, with matching fabric, little Noa is looking around with wide blue eyes. His hair is blond like his mama's and so fine that he still looks bald.

"You look lovely, sister," I say, dropping a kiss to her plump cheek.

Her smile falls away. "Luka, what's the matter?" she asks with a slight frown. My sister-in-law misses nothing.

"Nothing at all," I assure her, flashing her my usual grin. The way she cocks her head, I know that she's not fooled, but before she can say anything there is a commotion and we all turn to watch as the vampire faction arrives.

I can't stop the hitch in my breath when I catch sight of Isabelle. She's dressed in her signature shade of blood and dripping with diamonds. My heart clenches at how beautiful she looks as well as the subtle droop in her shoulders and the way her smile never reaches her eyes. Something is off.

"Jarik," I warn him without taking my eyes from her.

My brother scents the air and nods. "They are up to something."

I'm not sure if her hearing picks up our soft words, or if my presence simply captures her attention, but her head snaps to the side and our eyes lock. For the briefest moment, she looks panicked. Her amber eyes flare and she pales under her expertly applied make-up. It's only a flash before she lifts her chin and purposely looks away.

Putting himself in front of Mercy, Jarik watches the vampires make their way across the ballroom towards us. Alaric, the faction alpha, and his mate Lysandra are at the front, followed by Isabelle, with the rest of the faction trailing behind.

"Alaric," Jarik greets the vampire alpha, holding the taller alpha's eyes in a show of dominance.

"Alpha," the vampire alpha greets Jarik in return. He dips his chin but refuses to drop to a knee as is the custom.

Alaric's obvious disobedience doesn't escape Jarik's notice, but his eyes slide to his side where he greets the alpha's mate. "Lysandra," he nods to her before looking behind them. "Isabelle."

The females curtsy, Isabelle dropping low as is customary, while her mother merely bobs before stepping to the side and motioning to her daughter, "Alpha, you've met Isabelle."

I watch, stunned, as Isabelle strides right up to Jarik and takes hold of his hands before leaning in to place a kiss on one cheek, then the other.

"It's always a pleasure, Alpha," she greets him in a sultry voice that makes my cock jump and my beast snarl.

Before I think, I'm moving toward her with my hand out. My beast is growling with the intention of pulling her away so that her body is pressed to mine and not my brother's, when suddenly the vampire faction moves. Like a choreographed dance they split. Adrenaline floods my veins as half of them move to cut off my route to Izzy. The other half of the faction is making their way for Mercy, and I realize what is about to happen. If they separate my brother from his mate, his beast will fall into a rage and no one will be safe from the wrath that will be unleashed.

But before I can shove my way through the vampires, Isabelle moves faster.

"And you are Mercy?" Her voice is no less seductive as she suddenly steps around Jarik to reach past him to Mercy. "And your adorable son."

Noa looks up at her with wide blue eyes. No doubt stunned by her beauty. You and me both, little dude, I can't help thinking. Mercy, on the other hand, is looking at Isabelle with narrowed eyes filled with unease.

"You know exactly who I am. Just like I know exactly who you are," Mercy says softly, but with a bite.

I watch as Isabelle's features settle from the openly fake politeness back to her usual sneer. With vampire speed, her hand snaps out to circle Mercy's wrist.

"Shit!" I hiss under my breath, surging forward, only to be stopped by the impenetrable wall of vampires. I don't know what Isabelle is planning but knowing her, it can't be good. I wouldn't have thought that she would harm Mercy or Noa, but suddenly I'm not sure what to think with her. Everything I thought I knew about her seems to be a lie.

"Isabelle, don't!" I warn.

With her hand wrapped around Mercy's wrist, Isabelle hesitates. Then she steels her face and pulls her out from behind Jarik and into her arms.

All hell breaks loose.

Jarik roars as his beast comes surging out thinking his mate and son are being threatened. Tattered cloth flutters around him as he lunges for Isabelle. The vampires take the same moment to make their move and surround him.

I rush forward when the wall that was blocking moves in on Jarik, at the same time Isabelle spins and thrusts Mercy at me. I capture my sister-in-law, tucking her and my nephew against me, just as Jarik's beast lunges for Isabelle, his dripping jaw open and roaring. My heart clenches and I reach for her but she's too far.

"No!" I shout.

Just before he reaches her, she traces away and Jarik skids into the wall hard enough to make the whole building shudder. The ballroom is quickly dissolving into chaos. Most of the factions are fleeing, while some stand frozen to watch the shit-show unfolding around them.

I sag against Mercy with relief when Isabelle reappears safely on the other side of the room. Jarik's beast is still riled as he pivots, looking for her before his sights fall on the vampire coven circling him.

"Luka, what's happening?" Mercy shouts over Jarik's roars.

I shake my head as I turn her so that Noa is pressed between us. The sounds of his son's distressed cries are fueling Jarik's beast's rage as he takes in each calculated movement by the circling vampire coven.

What are they thinking? Jarik's beast will strike first and ask for forgiveness later. The way the vampires are provoking him, this battle is going to end up being a massacre.

I need to get to Isabelle. My own beast is howling and fighting to join my brother so that we can protect our mate. It's taking all my strength to hold him back, to protect Mercy and my nephew.

"Luka, let me go!" Mercy begs me over the cacophony of the vampire's shouts and Jarik's roars.

"I can't," I shout back. Not yet, because a group of vampires have broken off and are closing in on us. Across the room, another group is flanking Isabelle while her mother is trying to pull her toward Jarik.

My beast growls as the matriarch drags our mate towards danger while the rest of the coven presses in around us. Their eyes are locked on Mercy and the air is saturated with the scent of malice.

"Luka, let me go!" Mercy shouts again. "Please, let me go to him!"

"Mercy, he's in a rage! His beast—" His beast slashes through a line of vampires, sending bodies and limbs flying.

"His beast needs me!" she argues as she struggles in my arms. "He'll never hurt me or Noa."

I glance over at Jarik's beast and my blood turns cold. He caught sight of Isabelle and he's crouching down, ready to attack. When he lunges, I let go of Mercy.

The moment she leaves my arms, my beast bursts out of me. The vampires standing between us fall under a single swipe of my craws, clearing the way for her to run to her mate.

"Jarik!" Mercy screams.

Jarik's beast freezes in mid stride and his huge dark head snaps to the side. His eyes glow gold and he swerves, faster than something so big should be able to, straight to his mate.

She flings herself at Jarik who wraps her in his arms. My beast laughs at my relief that Mercy was right, and Jarik's beast would truly never hurt her.

Never hurt mate, he snorts in my mind.

I'm only allowed a moment before a female's pissed off scream grabs my attention.

"You stupid bitch!" Lysandra's scream echoes through the ballroom. My head snaps to where the irate female has her hand wrapped around a fist full of Izzy's hair. "You had one task, and you couldn't?—"

Her tirade is suddenly cut off by an arrow protruding from the center of her chest. Her chin drops and she looks down at the blood slicked shaft with surprise. Isabelle's mouth falls open in horror as she falls backward and scuttles away.

Lysandra lifts a hand up to gingerly touch the arrow's sharp point.

"God's, I've been wanting to stake you for so long you hateful bitch!" Yesenia says as she comes up beside her, holding a recurve bow and quiver filled with more arrows.

"What have you done!" Alaric cries as he pushes through the fray to where his mate has sunk to her knees.

A deathly silence falls over the room and the vampires that had, moments ago, been circling, quickly fall back. I search the room for my brother and Mercy, only to realize that they have disappeared as well. Slowly, my beast retreats and I'm left standing in my shredded suit.

Lysandra is breathing with sharp, shallow pants as she collapses against her mate's chest. Before our eyes, her skin turns to the color of gray clay.

"No. Lys, no!" Alaric sobs, cradling her in his arms even as she crumbles into a pile of soft ash. When she's nothing but dust, he snaps his head to Isabelle.

"You!" he shouts, lunging to his feet and stalking towards her. "This is all your fault."

Shaking off my shock at what's just happened, I move to Isabelle's side, putting myself between her and her irate sire.

"You were meant for one thing. One fucking thing , and instead you betray me and your entire faction! You ungrateful slut—" Alaric freezes when Yesenia steps in behind him. She's much shorter, but it's obvious that she has another arrow nocked and pressed to his back, just over his heart.

"That's enough," she says quietly. "Although I really hope you give me a reason to send you straight to hell, to be with your mate."

"This is a coven matter," Alaric snaps without taking his eyes from Isabelle, "It doesn't concern anyone but me and my daughter. Now unhand me, so we may leave and handle this elsewhere."

The way Isabelle stiffens behind me makes me realize there is more behind his words than she's told me. Seeing the interaction with her parents, it's not hard to guess at what has really been going on.

"Isabelle is my mate," I tell the vampire alpha. "She is not some errant child you can bring to heel with a snap of your fingers."

"Luka, don't," she whispers at my back even as her fingers clutch at my tattered jacket.

I ignore her. This ends now.

"She is not a means to your power trip. She is not your pawn," I'm speaking to Alaric, but my words are also meant for Isabelle. "And even though she's my mate, that doesn't give me any kind of power over her. It gives her my protection. My strength." I turn so I can look at her and softly add, "And my love."

Alaric scoffs and I bring my attention back to him. "Do you deny that you tried to use her to gain access to the Alpha? That you were willing to take out our Alpha's mated female and son and put Isabelle in her place?"

Alaric's eyes narrow on me and I know that my guess is correct. There are gasps all around the room and Yesenia presses the arrow deeper into Alaric's back, making him hiss.

"Those are brazen assumptions," he scoffs.

"Yes. That's exactly what he planned," Isabelle says, stepping out from behind me to stand at my side.

My heart swells with pride and when I look over at her I can't hold back my smile. She's not paying me any attention though. Her eyes are narrowed and glaring at her father.

"He and my mother threatened me with a lifetime of torture, if I did not follow through with their plans to put me at Jarik's side."

More rumbling echoes through the ballroom. It doesn't escape my notice that the vampire faction that is left is slinking deeper into the shadows.

"Before Jarik, they pushed me on Marcus. Before Marcus, it was Petar, and so on."

My stomach sours. "You were still a kit when Petar was Alpha," I mutter. The sad look she turns on me is enough to want to put Yesenia's arrow through Alaric myself.

"Your father didn't want me, for obvious reasons, but I was punished severely for my failure." Isabelle's voice is soft, her words only meant for my ears.

My head snaps to Yesenia who is watching me. I nod.

She steps back and without any hesitation lets the arrow fly straight through where Alaric's heart would be, if he had one.