Forsaken (24 page)

"I
haven't forgotten, but I'm not willing to just let Kristin's dream
play itself out and take that kind of pyrrhic victory, not when we
can chart a third course, one that is better than either of the two
she saw."

Tasha
didn't get mad very often, but I could see she was headed that way
right now.

"You
might achieve that third option, but you also might come up with a
fourth option where you still die and James dies, too. James' place
is securing your victory. You can tell Donovan to have an extra batch
of medical supplies nearby. If James' heart isn't pierced then all
you have to worry about is blood loss and possibly re-inflating a
lung. Donovan is more than capable of dealing with both of those,
especially with some advance warning."

"And
what do I do after the victory? James will be down for at least a
week, Isaac and Jasmin will still be a day or two away from being
back to full strength, and I'll be in bad enough shape that a strong
wind would blow me over."

"I'll
call my mother and she'll come up and stand off any challengers for a
week or so until you're back on your feet."

I
shook my head. "If I do that I may as well tell the whole world
that she's dominant to me."

"But
she is, Alec. Even hurt like she is right now she could wipe the
floor with you on your best day. You're good, but without your power
you're simply not in her league."

My
beast surged up with enough force that I lost control of my hands and
they both shifted into hairless replicas of my hybrid form.

"You
don't understand, Tasha. You've always been submissive to her. I can
admit that she's a better fighter than me, but that doesn't mean I
want her to come in and protect me like I'm some kind of child who
got in over my head."

"That's
the point though. You are in over your head. Your whole pack is. You
can see that as well as I can."

"I
will not roll over. If I decide to marry you and join the packs, that
will be one thing. Then it will be my decision. What you're proposing
would be nothing more than me giving up. I will
not
give up."

"What
if I stood in for the next challenge? What would you think of that?
Guest right would permit that, wouldn't it?"

"Yes,
you could stand in, but that's different. I'm dominant to you and we
both know it."

"Fine.
I'll call Mom on the way back to the house and she can send Alexei
and one of the others out here with orders to do whatever I tell
them. They'll stand between you and whoever shows up for however long
it takes for you to either get back in fighting trim or to agree to
the alliance. I'm dominant to them and you're dominant to me. That
would mean you'd be dominant to them as well."

"That's
a hell of a risk to run for you and your mom."

"You're
not leaving me any other choice. I need you to survive and marry me
or I'll end up somebody's whipping girl. It will be even worse for me
than it is right now for Jess. Whoever takes over my pack will always
be after my family's money. That would be bad enough, but even worse
will be the fact that I know what it's like to rule. If you won't
just bend your stiff neck and let my mom come make all of this go
away then this is the only option that guarantees that you'll make it
through this fight and still gives us all a chance to survive the
next one too."

"What
do I do about James? If I make that kind of threat against Dom, he'll
never forgive me."

"After
the fight is over I'll tell him the truth, that it was all my idea.
We'll tell him Kristin had a dream and that this was the only way to
make sure the pack survived the fight. Kristin will back us up and
confirm that you never actually planned on delivering on your threat,
that it was just a mechanism to make sure the fight went down like
her dream told us it needed to."

I
didn't particularly like it, but I found myself nodding. We cut the
picnic short and headed back to the house so she could call her mom
and I could talk to Donovan.

The
challenger arrived only half an hour after we got back to the house
and all too soon I found myself standing on the edge of the sand
again. The challenger had said his name was Richard, which didn't ring
any bells for Tasha or me, but when he shifted he had red fur and
Kristin nodded at me, confirming that it was the hybrid from her
dream.

I
looked around as the pack huddled up and saw exactly what I'd
expected to. Isaac and Jasmin were up and walking around, but they
were both still moving gingerly from our recent run-in with the
werewolves. Jess was a little better off, but she was still the next
best thing to worthless in a fight.

That
just left James and Ash, both of whom looked willing, but James had
no idea what he was up against and Ash probably already knew he was
going to come out of this fight okay. I sighed, flipped open my app,
and moved Ash's name at the top of the list, then James, then me.

The
fight opened exactly like Kristin had foretold. Ash opened up with
three or four shots, all of which were deflected by some kind of
plane of force that materialized just in front of Richard.

A
ripple of stillness swept through the pack at the unexpected
development and then James charged into the ring. The fight moved at
incredible speeds, even for an engagement between two hybrids. James
was in rare form. He almost seemed to be in more than one place at a
time, but it was obvious he was getting frustrated. Time and time
again, his attacks were blocked by the momentary appearance of
Richard's invisible shield.

James
wasn't a very patient fighter at the best of times. I saw the mistake
coming several seconds before he actually made it. Richard left a
bigger than usual hole in his defenses and James stepped in with both
hands, presumably in an effort to make sure that one of them made it
through.

The
shield flashed into existence again, but this time it was at an odd
angle that knocked James' right hand into his left hand. Neither blow
connected solidly, and Richard calmly sank his right hand into James'
chest.

James
dropped to the ground as Richard stepped back and looked at me. Every
single part of me wanted to rush into the fight, but instead I fixed
James with my best poker face.

"Get
back in there and actually do some damage or Dominic is going to pay
for your failure once I finally let her come back home."

It
was like I'd flipped a switch. A wave of power roared out of James,
and for the briefest of seconds I almost thought he was going to turn
and charge me, but instead he rushed Richard with all of the subtlety
of a battering ram. They went down in a blur of limbs and for a
moment James had the better position, but then Richard's gift kicked
in again and suddenly James was taking four hits for every three he
managed to inflict on Richard.

My
beast was prowling at the edge of my control, unhappy that I was
letting this slow demolition derby proceed. The tide was turning
inexorably against James and then suddenly he lost control of
Richard's left hand and it flashed forward and tore into the other
side of James' chest.

I
transformed between steps as I charged into the ring, yelling for
Isaac to get James out and into Donovan's care. My first strike was
blocked by the oddly yielding surface of Richard's shield, but my
second got through and connected with his left arm.

James
had worked him over enough that he was slowing down, but I wasn't at
my best either. I had an edge in speed, and probably endurance too,
but in a protracted fight his ability to deflect a significant
percentage of my blows would go a long ways towards balancing things
out.

I
hit him again with a combination of blows, consciously choosing not
to get my feet involved yet, and again was stopped, but this time it
felt like the barrier gave more than before. Under other
circumstances I would have assumed he was reaching his limits of
being able to use his power and attacked with more force to try and
break through, but given Kristin's dream, I had to assume the give to
his barrier was just a ploy. It was the best explanation for what
Kristin had seen in the first timeline.

I
continued to use fast, mobile attacks to try and slip something
around his defenses. It was a valid strategy, but mostly I just
wanted to keep him moving. A minute later I was bleeding from more
than a dozen minor wounds and a couple that would be serious if the
fight went on for much longer. I was starting to worry that I'd
somehow changed Kristin's version of the future to something worse,
and then suddenly I saw the opening I needed.

Richard
ducked backwards, but he left his right foot a little too far ahead
of him in the process. I seized the opportunity, lunging forward and
sinking one set of talons into his foot as I pushed.

He
twisted as he fell, ensuring that he'd be able to get right back up,
but that exposed his back to me and I latched on with everything I
had. He was strong. Not as strong as the werewolf had been, but
stronger than I was expecting. He spun around with tremendous speed
and I nearly lost my grip on him. I let go with one hand, looking for
another hold, but when I tried to sink my claws back into his
shoulder, the plane of force was there again, stopping me from
getting a new hold.

Richard
twisted away and only the fact that I had a good hold on his legs
with my talons enabled me to not lose control of the situation. He
still tore free of my feet, but the effort brought him to his knees,
and I rode him to the ground, slashing and clawing the entire way
down. A few seconds later I got all five of the major arteries
running through his neck, but not before he managed to spin around
and slice open my stomach from one hip to the opposite set of ribs.

I
rolled away from him, confident he was only seconds away from death
and wanting nothing more than to put some space between us until
he wasn't dangerous anymore. I took a couple of stumbling steps
before I realized that somewhere along the way I'd shifted back into
my human form.

It
wasn't a safe thing to have done. Not yet, not while Richard was
still a threat. I reached for my beast, trying to force myself back
into my hybrid body, but my beast weakly pushed me away.

Darkness closed in around me as I fell to the ground.
Strangely enough, it was Jess who made it to me first.

"Make sure James knows that I wasn't going to hurt Dom. Tasha knows."

Adriana Paige
Upper East Side
Manhattan, New York

"I'm not mad."

"Adri,
honey, just tell me the truth. I know you're mad. You're hurt and
you're disappointed, too. It's okay to just come right out and say
so."

I
was in an untenable position. If I said I wasn't mad or even
disappointed, then my mom would be hurt and claim I hadn't even
wanted to spend Christmas with her. If I blew up and threw a royal
hissy fit because she'd just upended our plans at the last possible
moment, then she'd claim I was selfish and that I didn't appreciate
how hard she worked to put a roof over my head and food on the table.

Things
weren't made any easier by the fact that I didn't really know how I
felt about the change in plans. I'd been looking forward to some time
with Mom, but I hadn't been very excited about finally meeting Russ.
Honestly, I'd pretty much figured something like this would happen,
and the more Mom had assured me that it wouldn't, the more I'd been
positive that it would.

She'd
gotten the call on Christmas Eve. There was a huge show the day after
Christmas in Italy, and the photographer they'd lined up had canceled
at the last minute. It was a new show, so they needed the legitimacy
of a big-name photographer to help make sure it didn't flop.

I
didn't think that justified loading my mom up on one of the latest
Gulfstream jets and flying her over at the drop of a hat, but
apparently the show's backers didn't agree with me. Mom hadn't even
waited five minutes before she'd called them back and accepted the
job. She'd been on the plane less than two hours later.

Today
was Christmas, and I was suffering through a call that was part
apology, part self-justification, and mostly just about her trying to
stay awake long enough to avoid the worst of the jet lag. She was
already starting to bob a little, so I figured I didn't have much
longer. Certainly by noon my time, she'd decide to throw in the towel
and just go to bed.

I
checked the clock on my iPad and nodded to myself. I'd been on the
Skype call for nearly an hour so far and shouldn't have much more
than half an hour left.

"I
don't know what to tell you, Mom. I wanted to spend the day together,
but I'm not mad. It would have been nice, but you already know that
I'm not super keen to meet Russ. How did he take the change in
plans?"

It
was a last-minute stroke of brilliance. In hindsight I actually
couldn't believe I hadn't thought of it sooner. Mom frowned and
shrugged.

"He
wasn't very happy last night when I called him, but he said he would
find another way to spend the evening. I think maybe I went a step
too far this time with him. Honestly, I didn't even think of him when
I took the job. He's such a great catch. I hope I haven't chased him
off."

"Maybe
you should give him a call and apologize again."

"You're
right, honey. I don't know where my mind is lately. I guess I'm more
tired than I realized. I'll talk to you later...not tomorrow or
the next day. I have to work the show. I guess I'll see you when I'm
back there in New York."

"Okay,
Mom. That sounds good. I'll see you then."

I
hung up the call and then stood and stretched. Christmas by yourself
was pretty depressing. The only thing I could think of that might be
worse was maybe New Year's Eve by yourself. The odds were pretty good
that I'd get to experience both this year, so I guessed that meant
I'd be able to settle that question once and for all.