With a shake ofmy head, I refuse to participate in their stupid bet. Besides…I have more important things to do. Like resisting the siren call of a curvy brunette with killer thighs andeyes that could put me in a coma at a mere glance my way. Fuck.Stopthinking about her, you idiot!
Kaiden whirls his head toward Malik with a murderous look on his face. “She’s not going to kiss him at all,” he spits like he can’t even conceive that as a possibility. He takes another deep cleansing breath through flared nostrils.
“Can you put a barrier spell on the table so no one can listen in?” Kaiden asks Malik after a few minutes when he finally has his power fully under control, but his eyes are back on Iris. He watches her like a hawk ready to dive and sink its talons into its prey.
Malik circles his hand above his head. A thick black fog of magic swirls into the air before it disappears as quickly as it appeared. It settles like a dome over our booth. “Done.” The spell provides a barrier between us and the other patrons. They know we are at the table, but it prevents them from listening or looking our way unless we want them to.
Kaiden’s eyes snap to mine. “Did you detect any scent on her?” He is referring to the woman who was found murdered earlier in the national park.
I take a sip from my beer and shake my head. A stray curl falls over my eye, and I push at it, annoyed. “Unfortunately, no. Before going to the coroner’s office, the pack circled the border where she was found for hours. Nothing. It’s like he’s a ghost.”
Malik leans forward and rests his hands on the table in front of him. “And the wounds? Was it the same MOas the other victims in the neighboring towns?”
I nod. “The same, complete with the missing heart.”
“Assuming the rogue is male could be a mistake. What if it’s a female behind all of the attacks?” Dominic asks from beside me, arching an eyebrow in my direction.
“The wounds looked too big and deep for a female wolf shifter to have caused them,” I retort.
“Malik, what do you think? Could the rogue be working with awitch or warlock to hide its scent?” Kaiden asks after a few beats of silence, rubbing his stubbled jaw with his hand.
Malik leans back in the booth, and his eyebrows furrow as he mulls it over. “Since dark creatures don’t like to work with each other outside the Conclave, I dismissed this idea when it first popped into my head, but there’s no other explanation, honestly. The rogue couldn’t mask its scent on its own for that long. It needs a masking spell, and that’s black magic territory.”
“Then I want you to go to all the covens you know personally and start asking questions about a possible dark witch helping a rogue,” Kaiden tells the warlock before he turns to me. “Logan, you need to double the patrols. The rogue’s killing too close to the border of your pack; we can’t risk it murdering anyone under the Conclave’s protection. We take care of our own. I have a feeling it’s going to strike again, but I don’t think it’s going to move from Ashville just yet.”
I suck on my teeth. “My men are tired from the endless patrols in the last two months, and until the wedding, the pack will not get stronger.” I’m not happy to admit how vulnerable my pack is right now. As Alpha, I should have done better, but I will wait for her until the very last minute.
Kaiden nods, and his gaze locks with Dominic’s. “Then, Dom, I want you to send some vampires from your den and replace the wolf shifters of the pack on the night shifts, not only on the full moon nights. I’ll open another location for them to feed as much as they want as a reward.” He raises his hand to flag the server as we finish our drinks.
After Tony comes over and takes our order, Kaiden starts speaking again, this time giving us his full attention as his eyes lock with each of us. “There’s also something else I wanted to discuss with you. Malik already knows since he was with me on my last trip to Hell. The mutinies there are getting more violent by the day. Something big is coming. We need to be careful andmonitor very closely all bodies of water where the veil between Hell and the human realm is more vulnerable.”
Dominic crosses his arms in front of his chest, and his forehead crinkles in concern. “Do you think they will attempt to breach the veil?”
Kaiden’s face is even more serious than usual as he nods. “It’s a strong possibility. We knew this day would come with how widely the mutinies have stretched in recent years.”
A salacious smirk spreads on Malik’s face as his eyes fixate near the bar. “Homeboy is getting ballsy.” We all turn to see Iris’s date closing the space between them as he palms her cheek. “C’mon, you idiot, kiss her already,” he says impatiently, staring at his watch.
Kaiden pierces him with a glare that could cut through skin and bone and wipes Malik’s grin off his face efficiently. There is only so much he can fuck around, poking at Kaiden. He is the most patient of us, and he usually ignores Malik’s antics or comments because of how much they’ve endured together. But Malik didn’t pick a good night to talk shit when Kaiden’s patience is already stretched too thin. And, after all, he is the leader of the Obsidian Conclave. There is no being more powerful than him in the human realm at this moment. Everyone thinks he is only an Elite demon, but we know the truth.
“Any news on the Kabal lately?” I ask in an attempt to break the awkward silence that has fallen between us.
Kaiden doesn’t take his eyes off Iris’s table as he answers me, his jaw an iron bar of tension. “I keep getting reports of more and more dark creatures being kidnapped under mysterious circumstances. I think they’re building another prison for their sick experiments.”
I shake my head with anger. “Fuck, I thought that shit was over when we shut down the one beneath the Vatican all thoseyears ago. We killed almost all of their members. Do they never learn?”
Malik laughs bitterly, the sound hollow. “If there’s something those sick fucks will never do is give up torturing what they consider lesser beings.”
He and Kaiden know best. They both have been imprisoned and tortured by the Kabal. It’s how they met. Only Kaiden had been raised as a prisoner since he was a baby under the abuse of his father, who created the organization. He’d always viewed his son as an abomination, a lesser being, and tortured him endlessly until someone broke into the prison where Kaiden and all the dark creatures were being held and set them all free.
Herintoxicating scent wraps around me like silk before she comes into view from behind Tony, the willowy server. Holding a tray with two beers, she approaches our table.Fuck. I tried my best until this moment not to look for her in the crowded bar, only stealing furtive glances here and there, but now my fate’s been sealed and delivered on a round tray with clicking high heels. My muscles twitch with an overwhelming compulsion to stand up and approach her. Gulping, my eyes sail over her perfect curves, and I am hard again.Dammit. This is hardly the time or moment for that.
My gaze is riveted on her as she bends to place one of the beer bottles in front of Malik. Fuck me. The top she is wearing gives me a spectacular view of her perfect, round tits.
Suddenly, Dominic addresses her. “Ava, you work here?”
What. The. Fuck.
My blood boils. He knowshername. Dominic never knows a woman’s name unless he is interested in fucking her or if he already fucked her. My wolf growls dangerously inside my mind. I swallow hard past the irrational pang of jealousy coiling in my chest like a venomous snake, seizing my lungs and squeezing hard.
