Conquering Theana (4 page)

And
they shared a mate.

"Rafael,"
Gregori said, a thought occurring to him. "Our blood-bond," he said
then. They had never thought what problems may come from bonding the way they
did,
exchanging so much blood between each other, but maybe
this could be one.

"God,
I never thought of this."
Rafeael
said.

"Theana
is indeed one of our mates, and the bond makes her both of ours. Our blood is
shared."

"Mates
don't necessarily go with brothers," Rafael said then.

"We
are more than that. We share the
same
blood, not genes."

"Then
she's ours. Both of ours," Rafael argued.

"No,
she's one of ours, and the bond makes her—" Gregori began.

"No.
It doesn't matter. She's
ours
. We are not separate. We have never had
rank between us, my friend, and you know that. You know as well as I do you
could be alpha of any pack other than ours. You are not just a beta. When will
you realize you are an alpha potential now?"

"I'm
not in the mood for this conversation. Are you trying to get rid of me?"
Gregori returned.

"No.
What I'm saying, my
friend,
is that I know you. You
will feel like the lower ranked wolf if we try to make this work, as if you are
beneath us. You know better than that. She is ours, and we will claim her.
Might be fun," Rafael said, a grin spreading on his face. Gregori sighed. Put
that way, maybe he was coming across as a little petulant.

"We've
shared before."

"But
this will be so much...better," Rafael stated and clapped him on the
shoulder. "We know who she is so we'll find her. Business first and then
we'll proceed to pleasure. We will find her," Rafael repeated.

Gregori
grew serious at the thought of their business there today. Theana had taken his
mind off it for a time, but now he had to deal with this, at his alpha's side,
before they could make a move elsewhere. It seemed there had been some attacks,
mild though they were, on shifters outside of Seurri walls. One such attack had
happened here, in this hotel, and Gregori had been sent on a fact finding
mission. What he’d found wasn't reassuring.

"The
shifter was shot, with a silver bullet. Someone knew what they were doing. His
reflexes saved him from the bullet hitting his heart, but if he hadn't gotten
to help he'd have bled out. Silver still kicks our asses." Gregori said.

"Clan?"

"He
was from the
Udolph
clan. Supposedly he'd been here
for a
SeurCon
for the Seurri West soccer team."

One
of the ways that Seurri brought in money was their professional athletic teams.
Shifters could take more hits, deal more damage, and humans loved it. They
watched the teams with almost rapt fascination. Each sport, from basketball to
football, soccer, and baseball, had teams that represented each point of the
city. Seven teams per sport, and plenty of shifters blowing off steam. S-SPAN,
the television channel for sports out of Seurri, was a top paid channel, even
in the human world, and the athletes were stars. While it helped the overall
image of the shifters living among humans, it also made some of those men
targets. They were in the public eye, traveled outside of Seurri walls for
photo-ops, conferences, and interviews. While humans could travel into Seurri,
most chose not to. It made them feel safe, even if the idea was idiotic, to
have a shifter in their safe zone. He supposed it was a good thing that they
didn't think about the fact that even an omega could rip the room up to shreds
before they could blink.
Poor things.

"Why
would they invite just him?" Rafael asked then.

"They
didn't. The whole team was invited. Half could make it, did the
SeurCon
, and then left. He lingered to have some fun.
That's how they caught him. This hotel is only miles from Seurri. He would have
thought he was safer here."

"Which
also means his date for the night was probably human," Rafael growled.

"Probably,"
Gregori answered.

Human
mixing with shifters was inevitable, but they tried to keep it to a minimum.
After having a few women cry rape, after a shifter wouldn't keep her or take
care of her, they'd faced some prosecution in the early years. No use stoking
the humans to a useless war. They were uneasy enough. As a solution to the
problem Rafael had signed the bill to ban human sexual relationships with a
shifter, unless that human woman was willing to be brought into their fold.
Non-disclosure agreements had to be signed, accommodations made for the human,
and their life changed in that instant. Many shifters weren't interested in
doing that for a screw, and Rafael hadn't exactly outlawed relations with
humans entirely, so everyone was happy. It was just a few that bucked the
system every once and a while. Obviously someone had found a loophole to hurt
one of them, and he was sure there would be many more shifters who would stop
their clandestine meets after this story.

"Then
he deserved what he got," Rafael spat, turning to leave the hotel.

"There
are other alphas here, waiting to hear what we want to do, and there is also
the matter of a silver bullet. Royce may have been in the wrong wanting to have
a human in his bed for the night, but she shot him with a silver bullet. Means
she had intention and deliberation. This wasn't accidental. We can't ignore
that, even if the pup deserved what he got," Gregori added, not moving
from his spot.

"Fine,"
Rafael said, swinging around. He went into the elevator, Gregori on his heels,
and Gregori pressed the button for the third floor. When the doors closed
Rafael groaned, but Gregori was too lost in the smell of his mate, in the
memories of what they had done in here to look at him.

"I
smell her, taste her desire," Rafael said, his voice raw and throbbing
with power. Gregori forced himself to look at his alpha, and now the second man
for his mate.

"She
tastes like the finest wine dipped in gold. I've never went up in flames for a
woman like that. We have to have her."

"Agreed,"
Rafael said
,
his eyes still closed as his nostrils
flared. Gregori knew he was taking their mate's scent deep into his lungs, so
that he could find her anywhere. Gregori had done the same thing.

"She
smells so fucking good," Rafael groaned as the elevator doors slid open.
For a moment both men just stood there.

"We'll
find a way to make this work. We've done everything together. We can do this,"
Rafael said, finally opening his eyes, and the blue of his eyes looked like it
was on fire.

"Agreed,"
Gregori said, forcing
himself
to step outside of the
elevator.

The
two strolled down the hallway, quiet, until they reached room 305, where the
shifter was attacked. Inside were the alphas of several clans. Gregori grabbed
the doorknob first and opened the door. He walked through, scanning the faces
and the area before he stepped back to allow his alpha through. Walter, Isaac,
and Camden—all alphas of Seurri—were there. Camden turned to them when they
came in. He looked as if he were about to say something, and then his nostrils
flared, anger seeping into his features.

"You
touched what's mine," he shouted at Rafael, his canines sliding into view
as he bunched his fists.

"What
the hell?"
Walter, alpha of
Dolphus
,
asked, his salt and pepper eyebrows rising marginally.
He looks like Theana
, Gregori thought
then. He could see where she got her features from.

"They
touched what's mine," Camden roared, pointing at Rafael. He was big. Not
nearly as big as Rafael, but made for battle. The Convel clan was the muscle of
the shifters, and their bodies showed it. Camden, all blond hair and blue eyes,
was raring for a fight.

"Theana,"
Gregori whispered to Rafael, and Camden's gaze swung to him.

"She's
mine.
My mate.
Her father gave her to me."

"I
did not give her to you, boy. I told you that you could try," Walter said.
He may not have protected his daughter in the way Rafael would have liked, but
he still was an alpha.

"And
I agreed that she would be my mate.
That simple.
I am
telling Rafael, that she is mine. I will not have my woman trifled with,"
Camden argued. Gregori felt his body harden, his wolf pushing forward to rip
apart any man who would delude himself into thinking that Theana wasn't free to
be with whomever she chose as far as nature ordered. She had mates, and Camden
wasn’t it.

"She
is
my
mate!
" Rafael roared and leapt. He was there one
minute, and the next he wasn't. Gregori followed suit when Camden's beta moved
to protect his alpha. Their bodies slammed together in mid-air, and the sound
of flesh slapping was loud in the small room. Gregori grasped the man by the
neck, knowing he was stronger, knowing he could break him, and knowing he would
to protect his alpha. He clenched his fingers, taking the man's air from him
and tossed him into the wall. He crouched at his alpha's side, growling, as
Rafael and Camden locked arms. Rafael struck, lightning fast, and bit Camden on
the shoulder. The whimper of Camden’s wolf permeated the air.

"Submit,"
Rafael
growled,
all the power of being the top alpha
in his voice. Every shifter here, even the alphas, couldn't fight the
compulsion in his voice. Camden tried. He struggled, trying to rip Rafael away,
but Rafael held hard. He bit down harder, and Gregori could hear bone crunch.

"Submit,"
Rafael bellowed and Camden went slack, albeit with murder in his eyes. Gregori
stood behind his alpha, ready to go on the attack.

"Tell
him, Gregori," Rafael commanded.

"She
is
our
mate. Your chances with her are over. Don't come near her, or you
will deal with us," Gregori said.

"But
she's mine, I know it," Camden answered, calmer.

"She
obviously doesn't feel the same way. You had the chance to make her yours, you
didn't, and now she has her mates."

"Mates?"
Walter stated.

"Yes.
Mates," Gregori answered.

"Interesting,”
Walter said.

"We
will speak on it later," Gregori said, not wanting to talk about the
blood-bonding in front of Camden. Camden may have wanted Theana, but he
couldn't have her now. It didn't mean he may not want to make trouble for them
later, being ass-hurt and all. They'd explain to her father, however, that it
was possible for his daughter to have two mates. Either way, his daughter would
be moved up in the world.

"Why
not tell us now?" Camden sneered.

"Because I don't answer to you.
You answer to me. Let
it be known now that I have found my alpha bitch. She is protected, whether we
are bonded or not. Any move against her I will see as an act of war,"
Rafael said, finally letting Camden slide from his teeth. Camden's body began
healing immediately, but the blood was still evident on his shoulder to show
his ordeal.

"A
little drastic, don't you think?" Isaac, alpha of
Udolph
,
said, speaking for the first time.

"Not
at all," Rafael said, staring at Camden.
"Now
that's out of the way.
What else do we know about this attack?"

"Not
much. The woman took a shot at him, missed, and fled the scene. She wasn't
followed because my wolf was too busy trying to get to safety and get the bullet
removed. Burned like a son of a bitch he said," Isaac stated.

"Where
is the woman? Have you tracked her?" Rafael asked Camden. For a moment the
wolf didn't answer.

"I
will slay you, here and now, and fold your pack within my own. Trust me on
this.
Losing a woman, when she is not your mate to take,
should not make you less of an alpha.
Act like one." Rafael's
censure whipped through the air. It was a compliment to Camden's strength that
he didn't flinch. His eyes narrowed and he swallowed, so he wasn't untouched.

Gregori
wondered at the pain in the other wolf's eyes. The way he was acting...something
was off. Camden, though hot-headed, normally wouldn't challenge Gregori, let
alone Rafael. Camden took the security of the packs close to heart. Hell, Camden
had ripped the pack from his own brother's demented hands to protect his wolves,
a feat Gregori could appreciate. Camden was greatly respected, an alpha through
and through, but a good person. His reaction to Theana was more than just a
woman he wanted for a time. Gregori would have to look into it later.

"We
have someone tracking her now. We think we got her scent, and we'll pull her
in," Camden answered, dragging Gregori from his thoughts.

"I
want her brought to me when you find her," Rafael said.

"In good condition?"
Camden asked, lifting a brow. Gregori wouldn't
doubt that Camden would have one of the few females in his pack rough the
shooter up, if he was allowed. Hurting a shifter was the fastest way to get on
Camden's shit list.