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“Look at me,” Zee demanded. “The shooter in the woods, the one who tried to kill me and Shale. You’re saying that was Grady, and only Grady?”
“It wasn’t a sanctioned kill.” His lips twisted in a mocking smile. “He might have had an accomplice, but nobody will admit to it... and he’s beyond your reach now, isn’t he?”
Frustration and anger vied for dominance inside her, the wolf straining at the leash of her control. “What is it you want? What does HU want? Humans First?”
“Your death.” He leaned forward as he spoke, head angled in a way that told her he wanted her to touch him again, even as he spoke of her annihilation, even as she still gripped his throat, his life in her hand.
She forced herself to let him go because if she didn’t, she might not be able to stop herself.
“You want another war.”
“Yes. In time.” That beatific smile stayed in place as he rested his head against the tree at his back. “But first, we want to watch you destroy each other. Like the Greylock pack nearly did. Animals are easy to manipulate. Like Royal Graves. All we had to do was have a few in his pack whisper rumors and he became paranoid; he wasn’t as strong as his father, that others wanted him dead so they could be in charge.”
“Even here in Durham, right in the heart of the biggest pack in America, where everybody thinks the former Prime was so loved by his people, we found those we could manipulate.” His eyes twinkled and he pressed his finger to his lips, giggling madly. “Weak-minded fools like Grady, his daddy... They’re so open to manipulation. Give them a little money, they’ll sell out a friend in a heartbeat. Give them enough money, they’d sell their own mamas. But even those who think themselves loyal can be manipulated, if you do it right.”
He frowned, shaking his head. Eyes falling from Zee’s, Ball murmured, “I shouldn’t let you get in my head. We knew it could happen... even told her... ”
“Told who?” Zee cupped his chin. She’d felt... something when he looked away. A lessening of the connection between them, she supposed. She could think of no other way to describe it. The otherness in her swelled up again and she watched his gaze fog once more. “Who else have you spoken to? What was this about? Grady? Jameson Whelan?”
Ball’s brow furrowed, then smoothed as she smiled and stroked his cheek. “No. It was... you. We told one of the Appalachia wolves about you. That you were half-Fae, one of the succubus things that twist a man all up inside. Are you doing that to me?”
“What do you think?”
“I think I should kill you.” With that befuddled, entranced look on his face, he rubbed his cheek against her hand. “But I don’t want to. I want to worship you, fuck you, make you mine forever. Can I do that?”
Niko’s growl tore out of his chest, deep and resonant, like the distant sound of thunder.
Ball’s gaze jerked from hers. Zee slipped her hand from his cheek to his chin, guided his eyes back to her.
“Look at me,” she cajoled. “Look at me... Who is this wolf you told? And how many others are there?”
He only sighed and pressed his cheek more firmly into her touch though.
“Terrence!”
“Can I keep you?” he whispered, awe in every word. He gazed at her adoringly. “Your eyes... Your eyes are so pretty.”
“He’s Fae-drunk.”
The soft words came from Etan.
The words were unknown to Zee but the bleary, fogged look on Ball’s face was pretty self-explanatory. She fought the urge to swear, then swung out, before anybody else could react, clipping Ball on the chin. His head smacked into the tree behind him once, then he slumped over, unconscious.
Rising, she turned and looked at Niko.
“We can’t kill him. Not yet.”
Power rippled in the air as he shifted, fur melting away as muscles broke and reformed, the massive hybrid form of wolf melded with cat yielding to Niko’s human body.
His vivid blue eyes were the last to change, the wild green and gold glowing with the fury of his twin beasts. As the blue swallowed up the last spark of gold, he closed his eyes.
A shudder rippled through him as he lifted his face to the sky. A sound that belonged to cat, wolf and man and yet none of them tore out of this throat, so riddled with rage, everything around them went silent. Even the people gathered around them, Niko’s men and women and Zee’s brothers, froze, none of them breathing for several long seconds.
None were surprised though, by the words he spoke.
“No.” He strode to Zee, shoved a hand into her hair and hauled her to him for a kiss. When he broke away, it was to press his brow to hers. “We can’t kill him. Yet.”
