1. Voss

1

VOSS

The world stilled when I smelled them. I felt the shift in the earth as it trembled with their rushing footsteps. Their putrid stench filled the air of our compound before I heard the rattling of their dead bones beneath their skin, grinding together like unlubed gears of a fucking truck engine. I smelled them, I heard them, then I felt them. The rush of wind that came with their sprinting wafted across the compound. The trees rustled in the makeshift breeze, luring people out of their homes. The troops gathered as night fell heavily across the compound, creating prime conditions for the walking dead to emerge. I heard Ronyn growling in groupthink as he clocked the edges of the compound from his porch. My eyes sharpened and I watched us become surrounded in the darkness. Vampires, encircling us like fucking vultures.

We’d have to find a new home at this rate.

I shoved my way through the crowd of troops gathering on the northern meadow of our compound. I felt my wolf scratching beneath the surface of my skin. It wanted to eat. It wanted to feast. It wanted to kill. It wanted to destroy. But, I stuffed it down as Ronyn worked his way through the crowd, waiting for that bitch to appear.

I scented that disgusting perfume of hers.

And she sure as fuck wasn’t getting away this time.

“Well, well, well,” that bitch said as she emerged from the woods. Her bones clanked like icy metal against a fucking window. And don’t get me started on her putrid stench. “Look at what the cat dragged in.”

She sashayed out from the shadows of the dark forest night in her crimson red dress with her blonde hair wafting in the breeze that kicked up. Someone in the crowd behind me gagged, causing Ronyn to chuckle alongside me. The sly grin on that bitch’s face fell from her pale skin, and I wanted nothing more than to rip her throat out with my goddamn teeth.

“Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t kill you right now,” I snarled.

But instead of talking to me, the vampire bitch that killed my family peered over my shoulder. “Ah, Special Agent Anna. I’ve been looking for you.”

“Delilah,” Bexley said flatly from behind me.

“The fuck is she doing here?” Ronyn spat.

I peered over my shoulder and pinned Dom with a look as my mate shoved her way through the crowd. Dom stood behind her, wearing that sarcastic little smirk of his, and I wanted nothing more than to toss Bexley over my shoulder and lock her back in my bedroom until this was all said and done. I didn’t give a fuck who this woman was to my mate. I didn’t give a flying goddamn about what Bexley thought she was capable of.

She had no idea what Delilah was actually capable of doing when provoked.

“What do you want, Delilah?” Bexley asked as she worked her way to the front.

I grabbed the back of her shirt and yanked her behind me. “You’ve got a lot of nerve coming here, Delilah.”

The woman with the ice blue eyes and the red dress smiled viciously. “You really are a tricky one to find, I’ll give you that. Not many of my agents spend the kind of time you do surviving.”

Bexley quickly regained her composure and stepped back in front of me. “Whatever you’re doing, you’ll never get away with it.”

Delilah giggled. “I’ve always enjoyed your feistiness, Special Agent. You’ll make a fantastic vampire.”

“You watch your fucking mouth,” Ronyn snarled.

“Over my dead body,” Dom growled from behind us.

I stepped back in front of Bexley. If she thought for one fucking second this was her conversation, she had another think coming. If she didn’t want me protecting her, that was fine by me. But she sure as fuck wasn’t squandering the only opportunity I had to get some answers before I killed the cunt responsible for annihilating my family. My father, I didn’t give a shit about. But, Mom? My best friend?

They didn’t deserve half of what this bitch had done to them.

“Any last words?” I threaten.

Delilah waved her hand in the air dismissively as she continued giggling. “I swear, you shifters are absolutely… pathetic.”

She changed on a dime with that last word, and the vitriol was evident in her voice. Her face soured. Her eyes grew dark. The darker it became, the more that steel blue gaze of hers seemed to glow, and the red shining behind the whites of her eyes made the hairs on the nape of my neck stand on end. These vamps were ready for a fucking firefight.

And we were caught with our fucking pants down.

“What do you want?” Ronyn asked.

Delilah tilted her head. “For starters, you can all die.”

Bexley tried to step around me again, but Ronyn got in her way. “Better watch what you say to us. There are some in this pack that wield sunlight in the palms of our hands.”

Delilah’s grin was positively mischievous. “You’d be dead before it struck any one of us, and you know it. After all, shifters are so easy to kill, with their organs enlarged and on display for our eyes.”

Bexley piped up behind us. “Wait, you have x-ray vision?”

Laughter kicked up from the woods. Disembodied voices floated all around the compound, their laughter hanging in the cooling summer breeze that kicked up around us. I pinned that bitch with a look. If she even thought about taking a step towards my fucking mate, she’d have her goddamn head ripped right from her shoulders.

But then, Delilah’s laughter quickly ceased. “Intrigued, Special Agent Anna? I thought you might be. Like I said, the vampire like would suit you well.”

Dom snarled as he walked up to the other side of me. “A mouthful of juniper would suit you well, too.”

Delilah shrugged and clasped her hands behind her back. “Only temporarily.”

Ronyn’s voice rumbled. “Chopping off your head wouldn’t be temporary.”

Delilah’s face darkened. “You better be careful with those words, commander general. They have a tendency to get your pack into trouble.”

I lunged toward the woman. “You say that shit again?—”

Ronyn stepped in front of me, stopping me from reaching Delilah. He stared me down with that brutal look and I had half a mind to pick him up and throw him halfway to kingdom fucking come.

“Don’t,” Ronyn warned.

Delilah cackled behind him. “Yeah, Voss. I wouldn’t attack the woman who killed your family. You never know when she’ll get a wild hair up her ass to finish the job.”

“What the hell are you doing here, Delilah?” Bexley spat.

I tried to block her from coming to the forefront, but it was Dom who stopped me. He placed a hand on my arm and shook his head, as if he was the one giving the fucking commands. I felt Bexley’s presence shift as she moved in between him and I. She pushed her way to the forefront, leading with that strong, confident voice of hers.

That’s when Dom reached out to me in groupthink. She deserves a chance to speak like you do. You’re not the only one who’s lost something because of this bitch.

I pinned him with a look. One wrong step.

Ronyn scowled. She won’t even get halfway through that step.

I looked over at my commander general. Good.

And as Bexley stood in front of us, I watched Delilah’s eyes light up. Holy fucking hell, Delilah really was here for Bexley.

All of my senses went on high alert as my mate started talking. “I won’t ask again.”

Delilah’s wild smile fell into a cheeky grin. “We miss you at work.”

She shrugged. “I miss Jacob. Shit happens.”

Delilah tsked. “Are you really still upset at that?”

Bexley scoffed. “Upset that we left his body behind overseas when you knew damned good and well that I had time to get him back to that helicopter.”

Delilah giggled. “With the bullets that were whizzing by our heads?”

Bexley tilted her head. “Yep. Especially since I now know you had the capability of getting him to the helicopter.”

Delilah’s grin faltered. “What’s done is done.”

Bexley shook her head. “Not for me it isn’t. And whatever it is that you think you’re doing here, you won’t get it. Whatever cause it is that you think you’re fighting for, I won’t join it.”

Delilah looked Bexley up and down. “Everyone has their currency.”

“And you think you know mine?”

That’s when Delilah looked over at Dom. “Did you have fun with her before I arrived? I smell you on her.”

“Eyes on me,” Bexley commanded.

Delilah kept staring at Dom, though, as I looked over at him myself. “Tell me, does she scream in bed half as hard as she does when she’s crying over dying partners?”

“You stupid cunt,” Bexley growled.

She lunged at the vampire whose ruby red lips matched her impeccably-clean dress.