The All Encompassing: Shifter MC Novel (Pureblood Predator MC Book 1) (48 page)

“You’re not insane,” the woman says, leaning closer so I can see her broken arm. “You lived blind for a long time. Learning to see is difficult. Frightening. But you
will
learn. Now. Grip my wrist firmly with both hands and pull toward you. Slow. Steady. But firm, please.”

I reach out and hold the woman’s wrist, too stunned to speak.
 

“Now. Do it now.”

I pull.
 

The woman grimaces. I soften my grip on her wrist.
 

“No, no,” she says, “keep pulling…almost there…”

There’s a quiet grinding sound, then a slight pop as the bone moves into alignment.
 

The woman’s face relaxes.
 

“Good,” she says, unwinding a crimson scarf from around her neck “Now: tie this around my arm. I should be able to fly.”

“Fly?” I say with a laugh. “Of course. You can fly. Why the fuck not? Hey. I’d like to shit gold bricks. Can I do that?”

The woman gives me a patient look that’s infuriating and soothing all at once. “Give your animal time,” she says quietly. “I think you’ll be quite pleased with what you’re capable of.”

“Like passing through RV’s instead of being flattened by them? Can I do that?”

“Yes.”

“Shitballs,” I say, very quietly.
 

There’s nothing but certainty in the woman’s gold-speckled green eyes.
 

My breath catches in my lungs. Something the woman said just then—
 

“My…animal?” I ask, not certain I want an answer.

She smiles. “Give it time, Lily. That’s all I can say.”

“You’re the bird that attacked that…thing?” I ask without really meaning to. “The golden eagle? Star?”

The woman lifts her hands, palm out, and says, “Yes. It’s me. Apologies for frightening you the other day. At Connor’s? Sometimes my animal gets the best of me.” Star lifts her head and sniffs the wind and her eyes narrow a tiny bit. “I need to leave now.”

“Why?” I ask, suddenly terrified of being alone.

“Because I shouldn’t be here…” Fear flickers over Star’s face. “If he knew…”

“If who knew?”

Star purses her lips. “Thank you for setting the bone—”

Then she stands and I scramble to my feet alongside her. I’m so tired I could sleep for days, and there’s a hollowness in me where my old life used to live. It wasn’t much of a life. But it was mine. I had…control. Or so I thought.
 

Star turns her back without saying goodbye, runs down the road a short distance, leaps into the air and transforms into the beautiful golden eagle that crashed into me at Connor’s.
 

The eagle climbs above the trees, swoops into a ravine and vanishes.

I watch the sky, hoping she’ll return.
 

Then the hiss and pop of Aaron’s burning motorbike reminds me where I am.

I walk to Aaron’s side, bend down, cradle his head in my arms, then check his pulse. He’s alive, but barely. The wound on his neck is…healing. Like closing up right before my eyes. I hold him to me, and a few moments later he groans and stirs. There’s no blue-white light, but I wonder: Did I revive him? Or did he simply wake up?

It’s not a question I want an answer to.

“Sorry about your bike,” I say, nodding at the flaming wreck of metal and plastic.

Aaron looks at me, then at the bike, and gives me a pained smile. Even when he’s broken up and bleeding he’s beautiful. The bite mark on my neck. I’d forgotten about it. But now it begins stinging again.
 

“Fuck it,” Aaron says, lifting his fingers to my cheek. “Bikes can be replaced. You can’t.” Then he puts his hand to his forehead and winces. “That was one mean-assed puppy dog. Definitely not house trained.”

I break into a grin. The crazy bastard.
 

“Did you see her?” I ask.

“Who?”

He didn’t. Good. For some reason I don’t want him to know about Star yet. I want to keep that secret to myself for a little while. “Nevermind.”

Aaron looks at me strangely, tries to sit up, fails, collapses back into my arms. “Big bad biker’s not quite ready to get out of bed,” he says with a rueful laugh.

“That’s fine,” I say quietly. “I kind of like holding you.”
 

I
TASTED
THE
bear-man’s blood and knew I was not alone.

Sometimes that’s all hope is: the knowledge we are not alone.

Anik scents us to Sedna’s lair. Her door slides open to reveal a cave littered knee-high with chewed bones. The half-consumed, decomposing bodies of her former lovers are piled around her throne.
 

Anik races into the room. I try and read him, but my packmate’s lost to me.
 

Alone with her.
 

The door slides closed. Dread chills my flesh.

“Welcome, my love,” Sedna says. “You’re generosity knows no bounds.”

Anik rushes for her, arms wide. He sees what she wants him to see. Believes what she wants him to believe.

It wasn’t a mistake, their bringing me here. It was a test. Anik helped me connect with my true soul. I’ve revealed myself to them now. They’ll never let us live.
 

Sedna Mistress of Hell sits on a plush armchair. Her body is a desiccated corpse with blackened skin. Her fingers are missing, her face has been shorn of flesh, and her body is decorated with necklaces and charms and bracelets of body parts. Yellowed jaws hold multiple rows of teeth.
 

As Anik runs to her an evil breeze circles the room, rustling the bones at my feet. The sound of the bones clicking and rattling in that foul wind makes my skin itch and crawl. Then the bones rise around me, skeletal hands reaching up to grip my ankles in a strong, lifeless grip. I close my eyes and try to summon the swarm, but nothing happens.
 

She’s robbed me of what lives inside.
 

 
“Unleash him,” I scream at Anik. “Let him free!”

Anik turns and stares at me. His face is blank, his eyes solid black. Bones rustle and rise, stirred by the wind, skeletal hands pinning me to the floor. I should never have come here. It was her wish. I should have fled alone.
 

“Remember the sun,” I say to Anik. “Remember the sun glinting cool on the cool blue ice. Remember the name the truth of what you are.”

“She’s a rather tiresome nag, isn’t she, my love?” Sedna says, turning her hideous skinless face in my direction. “I can only imagine the poison she’s poured in your innocent ears.”

“Have I displeased you?” Anik says. His voice is distant, unrecognizable.
 

“Not at all,” Sedna says. “In fact I am very pleased. The pale girl is slight, but her heart beats warm and strong. You’ve brought me a
feast
.”
 

A skeletal hand crawls up my leg, over my chest, caresses my jugular vein, then clamps around my throat, cutting my breath and silencing me.

“There. That’s better, Sedna says, smiling. “Perhaps the wretched little insect would like to watch? Is that agreeable to you, Anik? Shall we permit your packmate to watch you fuck me?”

“Please yes,” Anik whispers. “I have…may I offer you…a small gift?”

“I’m charmed, as always,” Sedna says, lifting the finger necklace from her neck. “Another little piece of you, perhaps?”

“Yes.” Anik lifts his hand, offers Sedna his severed thumb. “I’m sorry I can’t offer more.”
 

Sedna’s eyes widen in delight. “It’s lovely, Anik. What a thoughtful man you are.” She studies him, opens her legs, allowing him to see her. Anik staggers a step closer. “Tell me what you want,” Sedna whispers as she threads Anik’s thumb onto her necklace.
 

“You. Always and forever. Only you.”

Sedna places the necklace over her head. It settles on the countless necklaces underneath. Then she points to me and pouts. “But perhaps I’ve changed my mind, love. Perhaps I don’t desire her to see us. Perhaps I require…you prove your love and loyalty. A show of sacrifice, if you will.”

Anik turns to me. His face twists in fury.
 

“The trespasser,” he says, snarling.

“Yes,” Sedna answers. “Will you do that for me? Will you prove your loyalty?”

Anik looks at me, then at his uninjured hand. “Of course. I knew the moment the bitch arrived she must die. She upset our balance. I was afraid…afraid I nearly lost you.”

A pair of black wings unfurl from behind Sedna and settle over Anik.

“You will never lose me,” Sedna says. “I’m yours forever.” The hooked claws on Sedna’s wings dig into Anik’s back and lift him off the floor. His skin stretches with an awful tearing sound.
 

I close my eyes. The bones at my feet rattle in the unnatural wind.

The thought of death no longer frightens me. But the thought of failing the All Encompassing does.
 

The skeletal hand gripping my throat loosens, only for a moment, while Sedna busies herself with Anik. But it’s enough for me to drop a single ant from my mouth. The ant plops into the bones and vanishes, then makes his way toward Sedna, staying low and invisible in the rustling bones.

The ant crawls over through the rotting corpses piled around Sedna. There’s a horrible sucking sound coming from behind her wings. She’s feasting on Anik’s good spirit. Draining the life from him. Anik’s naked body, suspended in midair, quivers and shakes as Sedna consumes him.

The ant climbs to Sedna’s throne. I see through its eyes. The fractured image of Sedna’s razor stiletto. The ant marches up her stiletto, onto the soft, rotten flesh of her arch, rubs its mandibles together greedily, and bites into her.
 

Sedna flings Anik from her wings, leaps from her throne and screeches at me. The skeletal hand at my throat clamps down, strangling me.

“You silly little whore,” Sedna shrieks as the wind increases, becomes a tornado whipping around the lair, stirring the bones from their slumber. “You stupid. Wretched. Silly. Whore!”
 

The hand at my throat clamps still harder, its sharp fingers digging into my neck. Oh Guardians give me strength—

I try and tear the hand from my throat but the bones rise over me, pinning my arms to my sides, swallowing me whole.

Then I hear a deafening roar and look at Anik. Only it isn’t Anik. It’s a massive polar bear, his fur shining brilliant white, three black eyes in his head gleaming.

Sedna sees the bear too. Her sneering smile falters.

The bear roars at Sedna, lowers his head, and charges.
 

The Mistress of Hell flaps her leathery wings and launches at the enraged bear. Their collision sends bones flying across the room.
 

The cavern begins trembling.
 

Dust and stones fall from the ceiling.
 

Sedna wraps the bear in her leathery wings as he plows into her. His long, razor-sharp claws cut into her belly. She screams as the bear opens her midsection. A cloud of choking grey dust pours from her corpse, covering the bear’s face and filling the room. He rears back, swatting at the dust, moaning in pain, then swipes at her again. Sedna leaps back, the wound in her belly healing almost instantly.

The bear paws at his face, blinking and moaning.
 

The dust has blinded him.

Sedna’s foul dust settles over me. I hold my breath, waiting for the familiar burn of my lungs crying for air, and when I can no longer stand it I inhale.

The dust tastes of ash and ancient rot.

“You fucking fool,” Sedna seethes at the bewildered bear. “I could have saved you. Freed you. Taken this filthy animal from you forever.”
 

The bear charges again, but he seems slow. Weak.

“You chose her,” Sedna cries, easily sidestepping the bear’s charge and gesturing to me. “
Her
? The pale little whore? Over me? You betrayed me. They always betray me.”

My lungs are on fire, like when I nearly drowned in the night ocean. The skeleton hands are wrenching at my flesh, trying to tear the skin from my bones. She’s too strong in her lair, and I realize we’ve made a terrible mistake.

“Am I beautiful to you, Anik?” Sedna coos. “Do you still want me?”

The bear hesitates, rolls his great head from side to side, uncertain.
 

Sedna walks to him, gesturing with her hands, mesmerizing the beast with her words. “Return to me, my love,” she says. “Don’t leave me alone here. Not again. Please. I’ve been betrayed. Hurt. You know this! Don’t forsake me like they did.”

The bear lowers onto his rump. The cavern stops shaking.
 

An ancient silence fills Sedna’s lair.
 

She’s turning him.

Sedna continues stepping toward the bear, her leather wings fluttering behind her, and when she’s in arm’s reach the bear snatches her in his arms and pulls her close and squeezes. Sedna shrieks and sinks her snapping black teeth into the bear’s neck, but still he holds her, crushing her in his powerful arms.
 

Sedna’s brittle old bones begin to snap. She pounds on the bear’s back, saws her teeth into him, drowning in his red blood. The bear moans in pain, its eyes bulging madly, but he fights off the pain and holds her, digs his claws into her back.
 

The skeletal hands holding me fall away as the strength of Sedna’s sorcery is weakens, and suddenly I’m free. I open my mouth and scream, unleashing a black cloud of biting flies. They swarm around Sedna’s head as the bear continues crushing her. The flies bite the rotten flesh from Sedna’s face, silencing her screams.
 

The great bear twists his claws into Sedna’s side, nearly cutting her in half, while the biting flies begin eating away at her bones. She twitches and smacks at the bear, her wings fluttering uselessly, then the bear throws Sedna to the ground, lifts his head up and roars so loud the noise sends stones showering around us.