Aphrodite's Hunt (18 page)

“What in the name of Apollo is going on in here?”

The new voice coming from the direction of the doorway wrenched Gia’s attention away from the floundering wolf. The sight of the blond man standing in the doorway shocked her to her core. His hair hung to his eyelashes, close to obstructing his view. At five foot ten, he stood a little taller than Sorin, but leaner. The suspicious scowl on his face made him look younger than he was. Gia’s heart constricted.

“Claudiu,” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”

Before Claudiu could answer, Sorin’s human side erupted from the wolf’s body in one of the fastest changes Gia had ever seen. She heard the stomach-turning sound of bones cracking and turned just in time to see Sorin’s human face explode from the wolf’s muzzle. It was a violent change, one that usually only came when a change was forced with no mercy. Gia knew first hand how painful it was and she covered her mouth with her hand to muffle a cry of sympathy.

Sorin’s rage vibrated the air around him, no doubt fueled by the rush of physical agony. Gia half expected to catch fire the instant he turned his blazing eyes to her. Her wolf raised its hackles.

“Have you no sense of decency whatsoever, you evil creature of carnal sins?” He screamed the words at her, nearly deafening her in his fury. “Is there no scrap of human in that skull? No trace of womanly modesty? Are we all to tear the civility from our bodies and run naked like heathens?”

“Zeus’ lightening, they’re just clothes,” Claudiu muttered.

Sorin whipped around to face Claudiu. “They are not just clothes!” he howled. “They are symbolic! Clothing separates men from beasts, it makes us a society worthy of more than food and sex! Would you have us run around like the beast who overtakes us on the night of the full moon, dancing like wanton witches at a sabbat?”

“Don’t scream at me,” Claudiu snapped. “
I’m
wearing clothes.”

Sorin blinked as if only now registering Claudiu’s presence. Gia held her breath as he seemed to struggle for coherent thought. His eyes ran up and down Claudiu’s body before coming to a halt at his face.

“Who are you?” he asked finally.

“I’m Claudiu.”

Sorin frowned. His face twisted and his eyebrows furrowed as he seemed to struggle with the abrupt change in circumstances. “You are here for Gia.”

Claudiu nodded.

“And yet you are not preparing to fight me.” Sorin tilted his head. He looked like a hawk who’d just spotted a curiously brave little mouse. “And you are not in the least bit afraid of me.”

“Of course not. I know you’re part of the plan.”

“What plan?”

Gia’s mind echoed Sorin’s question. She’d never told Claudiu of her plan, she hadn’t had the chance. Even if she had managed to find a way to tell him her idea, it would have constituted cheating the Hunt and she’d be in violation of her pack’s laws. Hiding behind a vampire could be seen as making it more difficult for males to get to her, in essence raising the bar for potential mates, but giving one male information to give him an edge over the others was cheating, pure and simple.

Now wasn’t the time to ask Claudiu how he’d discovered her location, or how he knew Sorin was part of her plan. Right now she had to concentrate on deterring Sorin from the violence she could feel brewing in the air around them.

“Sorin, leave him alone. It was my plan, not his.”

“What plan?” Sorin repeated.

Claudiu never got the chance to answer. Sorin’s face froze and he straightened like a puppet on strings. He turned his eyes to Gia and the blossoming fury in his green depths made her step back as her wolf sensed impending danger.

“Oh, Gia, what have you done?” he whispered.

“Sorin—”

“You wanted to cheat Aphrodite’s Hunt.” He pointed at Claudiu, his eyes never leaving hers. “He has the confidence of a man who has already won, a man who does not have to fight. Where does that confidence come from?”

“I’m her mate,” Claudiu spoke up. The hesitant tone in his voice suggested he’d finally picked up on the danger of the situation he’d wandered into.

Sorin turned to him, his movements so slow Gia wondered if he was afraid of what he’d do if he moved too fast.

“She does not have a mate. She is the subject of Aphrodite’s Hunt, her mate will be the one who fought for her and won.”

Claudiu frowned, seeming to have finally realized the vampire was not completely behind the plan. “Rhianne said you were helping us.”

Gia’s beast bristled at Claudiu’s mention of the woman he’d betrayed her with. A thousand questions swarmed her mind, but one stood out from the others.

“How did Rhianne know where I am?” Gia demanded.

Claudiu frowned. “She tracked you down. She said she overheard you talking with the vampire and told me if I came here on the last night, I could pretend to fight the vampire so the pack would finally respect me as lycaeon.”

Every word out of Claudiu’s mouth seemed sounded farther and farther away as horror clouded Gia’s mind. Rhianne was one of the Furies, the punishers of the pack. When Gia had smelled her all over Claudiu, she’d suspected the other woman was trying to take her place as lupa, but she never would have thought her capable of this kind of cruelty. She had to have known Sorin wouldn’t throw the fight. Claudiu could have been killed.

It was still a possibility. Panic flared to life inside her as she glanced at Sorin’s face. Pain and anger rolled off of him in waves and the air crackled with the emotions he wasn’t voicing. A sick feeling permeated her stomach.

“Sorin, don’t hurt him.”

That got his attention. Sorin stared at her. “Do not hurt him?” he repeated incredulously. “This man intends to be your mate, lycaeon of your pack, and yet you beg me not to hurt him?” He swiveled his head to Claudiu. “What hold do you have on this woman that she would lower her standards so?”

Claudiu glared at him, his brown eyes flashing. “We’re in love.”

Sorin moved like a flash of dark lightening. Gia screamed, her chains jerking taunt as she fought to stop him, straining toward Claudiu. Sorin’s hand closed around her former mate’s neck. Claudiu’s eyes widened as Sorin lifted him off the ground. His hands grabbed the vampire’s fingers, trying to pry them off his neck so he could breathe.

Panic bubbled up in her chest as she watched Claudiu’s face turn blue.

“Sorin, stop!”

The sick sound of flesh hitting the wall sent a chill down her spine as Sorin hurled Claudiu across the room. The slender man collapsed to the floor, choking as he struggled to pull air back into his lungs past his damaged throat.

“You brought me into this ritual, Gia,” Sorin ground out. “You made me part of this, you made me want you. Now you expect me to stand here and let this pathetic excuse for a werewolf come in and take what I have fought for, what I have
earned
.” He shook his head slowly. “I think not.”

“What the fuck do you think you’re going to accomplish here? You don’t even want me, you arrogant prick!” Inspiration struck and she clung to it like a lifeline. “Why not just let him take your place in the Hunt?”

Sorin froze. He stared into her eyes, but he didn’t seem to see her. Gia’s heart pounded so hard she was certain it would break through the wall of her chest and fall bleeding to the ground. She held her breath as she waited for his reaction. Deep down she knew her beast wouldn’t submit to Claudiu, wouldn’t allow him to replace the mate standing before her, but perhaps Sorin wouldn’t know that. Perhaps his desperation to be free of the Hunt would be enough to make him step aside.

Strange emotions passed over Sorin’s face. His eyebrows furrowed as if trying to figure something out, the corners of his mouth tightening in displeasure. Finally his eyes lit up and he turned away from her.

“I cannot step aside. I am a gentleman and I have given my word to protect you until the three nights of the full moon pass.” His voice grew harder and more confident, though he didn’t turn to look at her. “Unlike the lupa of the Red Water clan, I can put my duties above my own desires.”

She had to be imagining things. That hesitation in his eyes before he turned, the flicker of pain . . . she could have sworn the thought of letting Claudiu have her upset him. Was it possible that when push came to shove, Sorin was not as ready to be rid of her as he claimed?

Gia didn’t take the time to analyze her emotions. There was no time for that. Claudiu was struggling to his feet, but he didn’t stand a chance against the advancing vampire. Taking all the energy she had left, she threw it into her change.

The manacles crashed to the floor in a cacophony of metal as her legs shrank to the slender paws of her wolf, easily slipping from her bonds. As soon as the last bit of fur flowed over her flesh, she pivoted and leapt into the air toward Sorin.

He whipped around just as she collided with his body, carrying them both to the floor. She snapped her jaws in his face, counting on his instincts to make him to turn away to avoid her sharp teeth. Before he could recover from his surprise, she darted her head down, clamping her jaws on his shoulder. She shook her head, her stomach rolling as he screamed in agony. She couldn’t let him hurt Claudiu. Whatever else he was to her, Claudiu was pack and as lupa she could not stand by and let him be hurt.

Sorin’s hands scrabbled at her jaws, trying to pry her off of him. Steeling herself against the emotions eating her from the inside out, she dug at his belly with her claws, inflicting as much damage as she could without getting too close to his heart. She didn’t want him following her, but she didn’t want him to die in truth either.

Her sharp claws shredded his flesh as her mouth held him in place. His teeth clenched together as if he couldn’t even speak through the pain. When she finally opened her mouth and leapt off of him, he didn’t look at her. He just curled in on his wounds his long black hair, finally free of its tie, lying about him like a dark curtain. Fighting the urge to vomit, she shed her wolf form and stumbled to her human feet.

“Claudiu, let’s g—”

A weight smacking into her back cut her off and she grunted as the floor rushed up to meet her. Shocked and disoriented, she barely had time to get her hands out before her palms slammed into the cold stone. Anger burned along her veins as she started to look behind her.

“What the f—”

Claudiu’s head blocked her view of their bodies. Before she could speak, something probed between her legs. Her eyes widened and fury exploded like a bomb inside her as she felt him shove his cock into her pussy, taking advantage of her body’s arousal for Sorin. Disgust drove her body back at the wet feel of his body plunging into hers and she had to strangle the urge to tear Claudiu’s head from his body.

“WHAT THE FUCK?”

Claudiu grunted as she whipped her elbow back and slammed it into his nose. The sharp copper scent of blood filled the air and her body jerked as he pulled out of her. Fury sizzled in her brain so hot she could barely think. With a roar she reared up, throwing Claudiu to the floor.

“What the hell, Gia?” Claudiu sputtered. “I can smell him on you! If you had sex with him, we have to have sex or he’ll be lycaeon!”

She whirled around, so furious she couldn’t speak for a moment. Slowly, his words pierced the fog of her fury and she struggled to drag in several deep breaths. It was hard to keep her eyes averted from Sorin’s injured form and the vampire showed no signs of trying to get up. She shook her head, suddenly desperate to be anywhere but here.

“Fine, whatever, let’s just go.”

“But we didn’t—”

“It was enough, I said let’s go!”

She didn’t want to think about the sickening feeling in her stomach when she thought of Sorin. She didn’t want to think about how horribly wrong it had felt when Claudiu shoved himself inside her. She didn’t want to think about the fact that the man bleeding on the floor seemed like a better mate than the man coming home with her. Gia fought the tears burning behind her eyes. She didn’t want to think.

Agony radiated from the gaping wounds in Sorin’s belly. A rancid scent filled the air, alerting him to the fact that his intestines had been perforated. The pain was excruciating, but it paled in comparison to the torture of the wild emotions eating his mind.