Cursed by Destiny (WG 3) (26 page)

Misha’s eyes never left mine. He stooped in a crouch and charged. He was fast, but not fast enough. I spun him past me and sent him face-first into a dirty pile of snow. The vampires gasped. Misha rose surprisingly slowly and turned to shoot me a death glare. Slush dripped down his perfect face to stain his white silk shirt.

“Not as fast as you thought, are you, old man?”

The vamps jumped at my words with their mouths covered. Misha seemed oddly amused and laughed. However, it wasn’t a “golly, aren’t you funny?” kind of chuckle. It was more like an evil scientist laugh complete with thunder crackling above us. Like shot from a gun, Misha attacked.

This time he was prepared. He turned his momentum in the opposite direction at the last minute and tried to flip me. I grabbed his hair and we both went down, hard. We wrestled in the snow, digging our feet into the ground for leverage and kicking up dirt. We were soiled and saturated within minutes. It was a mean, dirty, ferocious match. But as mad as we both were, neither of us exchanged blows. We grappled and twisted and even yanked hair, fighting to pin each other.

Large hills of dirt and snow formed every time we shoved and slid across the lawn. Misha was stronger, but I was faster and used all my training against him. I snatched his wrist into a lock. His slippery skin allowed him to break free. He tossed me across the lawn. I landed on my feet, searching for an opening. “What’s the matter, kitten? Too weak to hold an old man?”

I dove across the lawn and
shifted
beneath him. I surfaced in a high leap and snagged him in a choke hold. “You’re calling the wrong cat a kitty, Goldilocks.”

He forced an arm through my hold and yanked hard. I landed on my butt and scrambled to my feet. Misha tackled me before I found my footing and sent us rolling down the small incline. We barreled into the garden and right smack into one of the stone waterfalls. I landed on top and slammed him against the granite slab with the might of my arms. “Nice try, Rapunzel, but you won’t beat me that easy,” I growled.

Misha exposed his incisors and flipped me over, pressing his weight against me. “Our encounter the other night in my bed should tell you I am all male. Or need I remind you?”

I shoved him off me and
shifted
him down, burying him up to his neck. Misha’s face deepened to purple as he thrashed about. “
This is how you choose to treat me after all I have done for you!
”

I staggered back. Being the mature gal I was, I pointed an accusing finger at him. “You started it!”

Misha broke through the frozen ground and sloshed to me. “No,
you
did. I merely elucidated that your actions are severely misguided.”

He encircled my waist, but I hooked his leg with mine and twisted. We fell and rolled back, all the way to the guesthouse. The minute Misha hit the side of the house I released him and hurried back. The snow fell hard. It felt good against my heated skin. Again, we faced each other.

“You’re wrong about Aric. He’s not going
lone
. I won’t let him.”

Misha grabbed me in a painful arm lock. “And why is that?”

I twisted and flipped, grabbing his neck in a scissor hold with my legs and bringing him down with the brunt of my weight. “Because I love him, damn it. It would hurt him to leave his pack.”

He entwined his arm in between my legs and broke free. “I know. You’ve made it clear that it’s
him
you love.”

We were a few feet from each other, trying to catch our breaths. I paused to take in his face once my brain listened to what he had to say.
Really
listened. Misha was angry—furious even, but there was something else. Not resentment. Not bitterness. Not even arrogance. No. Misha was . . .
heartbroken
. His brows curved as if he was in agony, and the creases in the corners of his eyes expressed his lack of sleep and torment.

I threw my hands in the air. “Is that what this tantrum is about, Misha? You think I don’t love you?”

He took a step toward me. “What are you saying?”

Mud dripped down our panting faces and our drenched clothes clung to our forms. Misha continued to frown, but his pained expression had softened. I wiped my face and gradually ambled toward him. My shoulders dropped with a heavy sigh and I shook my head. Without giving it much thought, I extended my hand and touched his cheek. Slowly, he covered it with his palm. “I do love you, Misha,” I said softly. “It’s just not in the way that you want me to.” The frown erased from his features and the familiar tenderness returned. “I don’t want to lose you. But if you’re expecting more than my friendship, I have to walk away.”

Horrible screaming interrupted before he could answer. Virginia broke away from the crowd of vampires and rushed me. Misha yanked me behind him.

The gleam in Virginia’s eyes bordered on psychotic. She lunged at Misha and clawed at his chest. I gasped, knowing it was me whose skin she wished to rip apart. Maria and Agnes yanked her from him, hissing and snarling through their fangs.

“Take her away,” Misha ordered. His voice remained strangely calm, but his stare stayed on Virginia as if encountering another preternatural. Maria and Agnes lifted Virginia with ease as she sobbed and kicked all the way back to the main house.

I watched her go, disturbed by her volatile response. If she hadn’t been obsessed before, she certainly was then. Misha took my hand and led me to the front door of the guesthouse. More yelling echoed from the house. We turned to find Kuan Jang Nim Chang racing barefoot through the mess we’d made of the garden, wearing nothing more than his gi to protect him from the heavy snowfall. He smiled wide and waved the broken leg from the kitchen table at us. He jabbered on in Korean before finally pointing and motioning me toward the dojang. He then practically skipped toward the building while I blinked back at him like the nutcase he was.

I turned to Misha. He wiped some of the muck off the back of my hand and kissed the tips of my knuckles. “Chang hopes that you will stay. I hope that as well. Now, if you will excuse me, I must take my Metamucil.”

As I watched Misha march through the mounds of destroyed landscaping, I wondered if I should just leave. I’d already hurt him once. And I knew more pain was yet to come. I just didn’t know I’d receive the brunt of it.

CHAPTER 21

“Shit. You’re staying?” Taran asked.

I dodged the electrically charged balls Kuan Jang Nim Chang launched at me, shifting right, then left, then dropping into a split. “I don’t know. I’m not sure what to do.”

Shayna’s sleek black ponytail whipped back and forth as she watched Chang and his bouncing balls. “Dude, what the heck are those things anyway? They look like they have little lightning bolts in them.”

“Oh!” my sisters yelled when one hit me.

A shock ran up my spine and my hair sizzled. I hadn’t rolled fast enough.
Damn it
. I groaned and flopped into a kneeling position. “As a matter of fact, they do have little lightning bolts in them.”

Kuan Jang Nim Chang fired a string of rapid Korean before laughing hysterically.

My eyes narrowed. “I am so trying!”

“You understood what he said?” Emme asked.

“Not a word.” I stood and tried to beat down my hair. It didn’t work. “He laughs more when I mess up. I think it’s his way of saying, ‘If you’d try harder, you wouldn’t get hurt.’”

“Do you think the little man will mind if I try?”

I couldn’t face Shayna directly. Chang continued to fling his balls, all the while inspiring me with comments like, “Tribe coming. Faster. They eat you. They kill you. You die like dog not tigress.”

Heaven forbid he stop his oh-so-fun training session just so I could engage in conversation with my sisters. “Shayna, that’s not a good idea. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“No worries. I have werewolf blood pumping through my veins.” She flexed her string bean arms. “See? I’m just as tough as you are now.”

That made me smile. “Is that right?”

“I sure am! Plus, it looks like fun.”

Was she kidding? “Fun? Did you say ‘fun’? Okay, Shayna, be my guest.”

“Um, I don’t think you should let her do this,” Emme warned.

Taran flashed a wicked grin. “Aw, hell. I think you should. It might knock her off that high horse she’s been straddling.”

•   •   •

It took us less than seven minutes to return to the guesthouse. Shayna zinged, zapped, and pa-chinged the entire walk back. Snot ran down her nose like a leaky faucet and her once pin-straight black hair stood out like a large Afro. “Whaaaat the heckkkkk isss wrrrronng with that maaann?” she asked.

Taran and I led her to the kitchen using the rubber gloves Hank had scrounged up. He assured us Shayna would be fine in another hour or so. His reassurance did little to ease my guilt. I never should have turned her over to Kuan Jang Nim Chang’s evil clutches.

“. . . and then heeeeeee jjjjussst laughed annnddd pppointed.”

“I know, Shayna. I know. I’m so sorry.”

“So what the hell are you going to do about the whole Misha situation?” Taran asked.

I shrugged. “Part of me wants to move back home and just commute to train.”

“So, damn it, why don’t you? Gemini texted me earlier to say Aric’s calling in a favor. The local witch bitches are supposed to place a new ward around our house in case anything nasty shows up. I think it’s similar to the one Ying-Ying put on your car—strong enough to keep things out until help arrives.”

Emme shook her head. “What if help is delayed like last time? Celia can’t take on a Tribemaster by herself.”

Taran rammed her fists on her hips. “She doesn’t have to, Emme. We’ll stay there with her and keep each other safe.”

“Wwweeee can’t—the wolves wannnt usss to stay at the Dennnn.”

Taran huffed. “Damn it, Shayna. I hate the Den. It’s not our home. The only reason I’m there is to be with Gemini, but now he’s gone. We’re not under the Elders’ rule. They can’t make us stay.”

I thought about it. “Why don’t we compromise? While the wolves are away, we’ll stay at the house. When they’re back, you guys return with them to the Den and I’ll stay with Misha.”

“Or Aric?” Taran asked smiling. “I bet that’s another reason he had Genevieve ward the house. So you two can have your own safe little love nest.”

I bit my bottom lip nervously. “So long as we don’t get caught.”

Taran’s smile turned wickedly curious. She circled me, very much in the way I did a steak. “Speaking of getting caught, where were you exactly when you got it on with him?”

I averted my eyes. “You know where we were. We were at the Den.”

Taran arched a brow. “Celia. You’ve been away from that wolf for months. Don’t play off your hot and beastly hump-hump like some kind of cute romantic interlude. Tell us
exactly
what happened!”

My cheeks instantly heated. “Taran, I told you what happened. I was upset and Aric found me. We kissed and got a little carried away.”

Taran smirked. “That’s not good enough. Spill deets, Celia.”

My jaw dropped open. “And why exactly should I do that?”

“Cannnnn IIIIII hhhhhhavvve ssssommme wa-water?”

“No, you’ll just electrocute yourself,” Taran said, then turned back to me. “Shit, Celia. You don’t know what you and Aric have put us through. The least you can do is give us a little dirt.”

“Celia doesn’t have to tell us anything,” Emme said quietly.

Although Emme had insinuated my privacy should be respected, the anticipation brightening her green irises and the flush to her fair skin told me she was dying to hear every last little detail. I groaned. “What do you want to know?”

Taran grabbed my arm and shook it. “For one, where the hell were you? Did you go back to his quarters?”

“Um, no. His dates were there.”

“Were yyyyouuu innnn his cccarrrr?”

“No.”

Taran shook me harder, her excitement building. “Did you go back to his office? Damn, that’s hot. I seduced Gemini in there once. Just don’t tell Aric.”

“Ah, no. We weren’t in his office.”

“Jjjusttt tttttellll usssss, ddduuuudddde.”

I let out a defeated sigh. “It was in a large garden a few blocks away from the main building.”

My already pink cheeks burned when I saw their stunned faces. Taran threw herself on top of me and hugged me warmly. “I’m so proud of you, Ceel.”

Emme seemed confused. “But there’s no place to sit or anything.”

“Emmmmeeee’s rrrright. Hhhow ddddid you . . . ?”

Taran gasped; being the adventurous sort, she had figured it out. “You, like, did it standing up, didn’t you, you little hussy?”

My face dropped into my hands and I nodded. When I glimpsed up, Emme’s face was redder than mine. “Oh, my,” she said. “You really did get carried away.”

“Can we talk about something else now?”

Taran continued to smile wickedly. “I can’t think of a damn thing I would like to discuss more.”

“I can,” Emme said quietly. Something in her demeanor had changed. And I could tell by the way her sadness seemed to overtake her petite stature that it had nothing to do with me or Aric. “I’m breaking up with Liam when he gets back.”

“Wwwhhhyyy?”

Tears streamed down her face. I put my arm around her, only to have her tears run faster. “Liam finally admitted to me that I’m not his mate.”

Emme swallowed hard as she took in our astonishment. “He’s the best man to ever come into my life. But I’ll never be the best thing in his.”

“Buttttttt he lovessss youuuuu.”

“It’s not enough,” Emme whispered through her sorrow. “Shayna, you and Koda are mates. No one else will ever mean what you mean to each other. Liam can’t make me that same promise.” She lowered her chin. “Just like he can’t promise he won’t leave me if he finds his destined match.”

I brushed her hair back from her face, struggling to find words that could comfort her. “Maybe you are and he just hasn’t realized your connection.”

“Don’t bullshit her, Celia.” Taran’s words were harsh, yet her tone carried a softness and a strong sense of comprehension. “Gemini knew I was his. Just like Koda realized what Shayna meant to him following their first night together.” She walked toward the door as if retreating, but turned back and faced me, her expression strangely bruised. “Aric is risking heaven and earth to be with you—regardless of how it affects the freaking
world
. Don’t you think Emme deserves that, too, rather than someone who can’t promise he won’t dump her?
Weres
need their mates, Ceel.” She rubbed her eyes. “Gem’s made that clear more than once.”