Year of the Dragon (Changeling Sisters Book 3) (6 page)

I was starting to think this vacation was my best idea yet. It had certainly been a popular one. But the easy decisions usually were.

Rafael raised a hand to the server for another round.

“Citlalli!” My friend from Thailand, the werenaga named Thaksin, gestured unabashedly for me to join their table. He thought for a moment, and then said, “Come!”

Our relationship consisted mostly of one word sentences in our respective languages. However, because of Eve, the spirit world in which all creatures could be understood as they wished, I knew he had a wife and two daughters back home, and for vacation they all liked to take midnight dives to the bottom of Emerald Cave, at which time, Thaksin assured me, “the sharks were much more active.”

With Bae trailing cautiously behind, I took a seat between Kaelan and Thaksin. Unfortunately, that meant I got to stare across the table at Rafael’s sun-kissed skin, his messy brown hair, and his lean, muscular shoulders, which were currently being massaged by a petite goshawk woman named Miao. Every time she laughed, a twinkling wind chime sound, the men flushed and had the tendency to knock over makgeolli bowls.

Not a word about the encounter in my apartment. Of finding me frothing and writhing on the ground as Wolf in broad daylight. I vaguely remembered seeing Rafael that day through a shifting kaleidoscope of color that mixed up his expressions. One of his faces had reddened with anger when he’d demanded my return, but the other had been broken-hearted. I wasn’t sure which one was real.

My eye bore into his forehead, but he didn’t look back. That was it, then. All of those words. Dipped and splashed in guilt.

I scowled and found more mud in my ear.

“You are Citlalli, the new leader of the wolves!” Miao exclaimed, extending a prim hand. “It is funny, isn’t it? An American girl leading wolves in South Korea?”

“She must be providing them with weapons,” another goshawk joked, and the pair laughed.

All of the “wolves,” deliberately didn’t look at each other. It would be stupid to let the other Were tribes know how estranged the pack was at present. Our story was that there were minor problems “adjusting,” to the new leadership, but few were buying it. No wonder so many goshawks were sticking around. Xu Xiang, leader of the International Were Council, would want to know how deep the problem went.

I have to get the pack back together as soon as possible
. I wiggled anxiously in my seat. I’d seen separation in a family before—my family. It was bitter and ugly and led to a divorce that left all of us shocked at the monsters we could become. None of us had trusted the other. What we had trusted was silence, and when that silence went on for too long, many of us almost lost our lives to it. Now my father drank and rarely answered my calls. My smart older sister Daniella had no idea I was a wolf, and oh, that man Mami had cheated with that resulted in Raina’s birth? A shapeshifting dragon. My brother Miguel had barely survived a life of drugs and gangs to come here, and my eldest sister, dearest Mari, had died at the hands of vampyres.

At least now I knew she was at peace.

I’d blamed Mami for the divorce, for the silence. For losing Mari. Now I was responsible for a family. I would not let us crash and burn.

“What is your agenda, pack leader?” Miao was asking. “Will you go after the vampyre princes who hurt your sisters?”

I knew very well who had put those words in her mouth. I glared at Rafael, but he seemed to find everything else in the tent interesting except for me.

“The pack’s agenda is one of peace,” I said loudly. “This war has gone on for half a century. I have photos, Miao, of all the werewolves lost in the struggle.” I remembered all too well the haunting black-and-white photograph that Alpha Jaehoon had shown me from the Korean War. He had been the only one left from it. Jaehoon had been trying to teach me to stop thinking about only myself. I wouldn’t let him down. It already hurt when I looked at photos of our current pack and saw faces that weren’t around anymore.

“We have begun by sending emissary monks from Peomeosa Temple into the countryside,” I continued confidently. “Daegu, Gyeongju, Mokpo… The Korean War scattered the pack, so who knows how many werewolves are out there, lost with no pack, believing themselves the only one of their kind? We will work together with Peomeosa Temple to find them. We will bring them home here, to Seoul.”

“And while we’re at it, China can rest assured that the Seoul werewolves will
also
be looking for any signs of the exiled vampyre princes,” Rafael spoke suddenly, his razor-sharp intensity burying the words into my heart like a knife. “After all, it would be foolish to underestimate the threat they present just because their Mummy’s gone.”

He looked calmly at me. “I can take Jeju Island with Kaelan. What do you say…Alpha?”

That did it. I knew what I’d promised Raina, but my mind reeled at Rafael’s blunt subversion of authority. Wolf came to life in a bundle of snarls, leaving the door open for Demon…whose cold, taut anger caused my skin to crackle ever so slightly.

I should have known. How often had I seen Rafael talk back to Jaehoon, his own creator? I’d laughed it off then because Rafael and I had been on the same team. Now I wondered how Jaehoon had ever held back.

I had to get out of here, or else Demon would take over again. Miao looked at the wisps of smoke curling from my fingernails curiously. That was the last thing I needed reported back to Xiang: Not only was the pack in shambles, but the “Alpha” was a dangerous Triad whose mind could fall apart at any second.

Kaelan raised his bowl. “No talk of missions tonight. Let’s make a toast to Ae Cha. She would have killed in the obstacle course. You boys with me?”

Everyone raised their bowls solemnly. I fell into the background, unobserved and forgotten, as the men turned to talk of other things. The women headed to the makeshift dance floor. Even Bae was engaged in a deep conversation about “tire rotators,” from what I could make out. I dragged my Alpha tail out the back of the tent. A hurt little girl.

A kitchen boy handed me a bottle of makgeolli. The alcohol was flowing faster than water tonight. I gulped it down greedily on the beach, and Wolf and Demon finally faded into a dark shadow staining the back of my mind.

Musical laughter and thudding footsteps echoed amongst the beach reeds. Hot pain scalded the back of my throat: Rafael and Miao. Clad in little more than swimsuits. He was holding her; she was laughing, throwing back her head as he twirled her beneath a sea of stars.

I clumsily tried to get to my feet and fell. Both Weres heard, of course. Miao grabbed Rafael’s face and tried to turn him back to her.

“Why worry? It is only some drunk. The beach will have many of them.”

“You should go back to your friends.” Rafael stood rigid and alert. I shivered as the wind rustled across my skin, carrying my scent back to him. “I want to be alone tonight.”

Miao rolled her eyes. “They were right about you. You break the hearts of many women, two in your own pack. Good riddance.”

Rafael said nothing. She left him gazing out at the black sea.

I crawled with as much dignity as I could back toward the tents. Then a hand, warm and gentle, touched my shoulder.

“Citlalli?”

I still shivered when he said my name.

Rafael swished the near-empty bottle with a slight smile. “Haven’t gotten any better at drinking, I see.”

“You haven’t gotten any better with women.”

His face darkened with anger.

“Go home. Shouldn’t you be with your sister? The one who’s afraid of the night?” He kicked at the sand, and I saw his Wolf flash in his eyes. “The one you stopped the war for?”

“Shouldn’t you be hunting Khyber?” I snapped. “Instead of destroying the pack your creator worked so hard to keep?”

“Yeah,” Rafael growled through white lips, “Jaehoon was my creator. Not yours. Don’t think you get a free pass on this, just because you’re a Triad. Why the hell did he choose you over
me
?”

Our wolves lunged at each other. I hit him hard across the jaw first, but then my vision went blurry with tears. I was so angry with him. For making me—and then abandoning me when I needed him most.

I didn’t see him hit me back, but then I was knocked head-over-heels into the sand bank. Rafael charged in. My legs lashed out in defense, catching him in the groin. He winced; I sprang on him in a frenzy of bared teeth and scratching fingers, seeking his eyes. I pounded my elbow into the soft spot on his temple.

His head slumped. I hesitated. Had I gone too far?

Suddenly, in one lightning-swift move, Rafael flipped me over and then pinned me, burying my face in the sand. I gasped for breath.
Faker.

His entire weight crushed me beneath him, and I clawed the sand in frustration. Why could I never beat him? He’d once told me it was a creator thing: Rafael had made me and then taught me, so he could read my muscle movements. He could catch the slightest flash of fear in my eye—and act on it.

I felt his fingers slide through my black curls. Rafael’s breath was hot on the back of my neck as he leaned in. I could feel my entire body shaking as his lips brushed my ear:

“I am hunting. Khyber is tethered to this life. He will never die while tied to his life partner, the ones the Dark Spirits cursed to suffer along with him…”

His fingers twined around my bathing suit straps. My mouth went dry.

Rafael fell down next to me, hiding his face in his hands. “You! Why did they choose you?”

I reached for him tentatively. “Rafael—”

My fingers skimmed his, only to disappear into his fist as he yanked me toward him. I thudded against his bare chest, feeling the heat of his skin set mine on fire. For a moment, we stared at each other in amazement, as if surprised that we would ever find ourselves in this position again. Then a shadow of his face chased away the stars.

He kissed me forcefully, rolling me over so he could prowl across my body. His fingers caressed the sensitive skin of my neck, my shoulders, and then the V-line of my chest. I gasped as he teasingly stroked my breasts through the lacey fabric of my swimsuit. Rafael flashed a dangerous grin before he leaned in, his jagged brown hair tickling my nose.

Wolf growled in approval. My lower hand braced itself against the tattoo of a compass inked out across his lean abs as his warm hands slid beneath the straps of my bikini top, and then lower. I arched up to brush his lips with mine, suddenly hungry. Our teeth and tongues tangled together until we were panting, and still, I wanted more.

He pulled away suddenly. I blinked to keep him in focus.

“You kiss differently now.”

“Well, it’s been a while…” My fingers ran over the taut, scarred muscle of his upper chest and then tugged at the strings of his board shorts.

“Sure, I guess.” He ran a hand through his hair. “But I remember exactly… Who else have you been kissing?”

“Would you like to hear the full list?” Demon asked, unabashed of Her conquests. I shoved Her away and reached for Rafael.

“I—I really don’t remember—”

“I missed my chance, didn’t I?” Rafael shoved himself to his feet. “It wasn’t just kissing.”

My face burned. “
That
was all you were interested in?”

“Seriously, Citlalli? I could get sex anywhere, and from much more experienced—”

“Fuck you.”

Rafael raised his hands. “Look, I know there’s a lot of shit going on with us politically right now. But I meant what I said back in the winter cottage, that night of the last Were War battle. Lunar New Year. Do you even remember what I said?”

I stared back at him suspiciously.
I said things, too.

“I’m not the type of guy who makes false declarations of love, or whatever.” Rafael glared off darkly. “I’ve always been honest with you. You
knew
where I stood about Khyber. You knew where I stood about everything, and I still do. Especially with where I stand about you.”

I snorted, struggling to stand as well. “Okay. Let me tell you where that is. You are standing away from me. And your back is turned.”

“You know what to do to change that,” he retorted just as hotly. We glowered at one other, each daring the other to back down.

“Citlalli?” a softer feminine voice interrupted us. We turned to see Yu Li’s thin silhouette illuminated by the moon. She was hugging a willow-patterned robe around herself.

“Bae said he see you go to beach.” Her words came out in a stumble.

“Yu Li…” Rafael brushed sand from his board shorts and looked back and forth between us. I felt stupid and drunk.

“Thank you for looking after the Alpha, Rafael
-ssi
,” Yu Li said in a dangerously calm voice. “I will see her home now.”

I didn’t see him leave. I remembered our harsh breathing in the darkness, and then I saw our hotel up ahead, flickering with cranky neon lights.

“Citlalli,” Yu Li said slowly, “I know this isn’t my place to say this. But I think you should know: You must be very careful, with Rafael.”

“He seemed open tonight, Yu Li!” I forged ahead excitedly. “Receptive. I think he’ll come back to us—”

“Back to you,” she cut me off bluntly. “That’s what he wants you to think. I’m worried, Citlalli, that Rafael will pretend to have feelings for you…to take over the pack.”

Immediate protests welled up only to fall back down with a thud. I was beginning to creep beyond the makgeolli haze, and the stars brightened with clarity. It seemed surreal that I had really been sprawled out on that moonlit beach, making out with Rafael and feeling his long, lithe body push against mine while his hands touched me with such longing…

“Why do you care, Yu Li?” I opted for boredom. “He’s your ex-boyfriend. Shouldn’t you be wishing both of us the worst?”

“Yes. In the past, I have greatly disliked you.” Shock of the century. “However, I agree with you about ending the Were War. Too much blood has been shed, and we wolves are too few. The Lady of Eve will return balance to the spirit world. Also, if I am going to be dating your older brother, then that makes you my sister. And I am your
unni
.”