Cursed Vengeance (16 page)

He towered over me. A look of anguish on his face, but need burned bright in his glowing eyes as he stalked toward me. “He’s right. Put me under. I can’t fight this,” he pleaded, even as he reached for me.

I couldn’t think of the damned spell. I was so scared. My back hit the wall as his face changed, his teeth turning to canines.

“Before I hurt you,” he growled.

Squeezing my eyes shut, I whispered the words as his hands slid up my thighs pushing at my dress. He fell to the floor and I stood there, trembling as I stared down at the monster before me.

My heart hammered violently in my chest as I slid down the wall, tears falling down my face. Teeth, claws, his size. Even his face was wolfish. And I didn’t want to think about what Sean promised Dylan would have done. Dylan, who would have—no, he begged me to put him under. He tried to fight whatever the potion did to him. That look in his eyes, though…

Shaking the thoughts off, I tried to think rationally. I needed to lock him up and there was only one room without windows. The basement.

I kicked my shoes off and stood. It took all my strength to drag Dylan down the stairs. Then I knelt beside him and cast the spell one more time for good measure. I was scared to death he’d wake up and I’d panic worse and not be able to stop him. Once the door was locked, I hurried up the stairs and stood in my kitchen, staring at the door.

I managed to get a glass of wine and walk back to the couch, where I curled up, sipping the sweet liquid. Before long I slipped into sleep, but nightmares of Dylan’s beast tormenting me.

Dylan

My head felt like my brain met with jackhammers in the middle of the night. Beneath me it was cold and hard, so unlike the bed in my place. Reaching out, I tried to find Sierra only to be met with more cold. My eyes snapped open.

“Oh, fuck.”

“‘Oh, fuck’ doesn’t even cover it, my friend.”

A quick peek to my left sat Sean, looking tired and worried. Sitting up, I got to my knees.

“Please tell me I didn’t hurt her,” I begged.

He shook his head, but his eyes were sad. “Physically no, but you scared the shit out of her.”

“God dammit!” I slammed my fist into the concrete below, pain radiating up my arm. Of all the things I wanted to do for Sierra, hurting her was not one of them. Jumping to my feet, I started for the stairs, when Sean stepped in front of me.

“Whoa, man. Hold up. Before you go charging up there like a fucking lunatic, let me warn Sierra you’re awake while you put on some clothes.” He pointed to where he was seated. “There’s a bag over by the chair.”

The lead weight in the bottom of my stomach seemed to grow heavier with each word he spoke. He had to warn her about seeing me? Would she want to see me? No matter what, I had to find a way to apologize and make it up to her. I couldn’t live without her. Throwing on clothes, I ran up the stairs.

“Sierra,” I called out, searching the house for her. There were voices coming from the kitchen. In a flash, I was standing in the doorway. “Sierra.”

Her eyes met mine over Sean’s shoulder. The hurt in them shot through me like a silver bullet, searing pain in every part of me.

She shook her head at Sean. “I can’t,” she whispered.

“Sierra.” I took a cautious step forward, not wanting to scare her more than I already had, but needing to hold her in my arms and make up for all I’d done.

Sean stepped in front of me again, pushing me back. “Not right now, Dylan.”

Trying to push past Sean, he held tight. “Please, Sierra,” I begged.

Her eyes filled with tears. “Dylan…I just can’t.” She turned her back on me. It felt like my heart was being ripped from my chest.

With renewed force, I tried to get past Sean.

“I said enough.” Sean’s voice rattled through me, forcing me to stop fighting him.

“Take him home, Sean.” Her voice was empty.

“Let’s go, Dylan.” I had no choice but to go with my Alpha as he led me from the house. “Call me later,” Sean called over his shoulder at Sierra.

Tears blurred my vision as Sean shoved me into the car.

“Motherfucker,” I screamed, throwing my fist into the door of the truck.

“Hey, asshole, don’t break my shit. You’re fixing that,” Sean said, climbing into the driver’s side.

My shoulders slumped as defeat filled me. Sierra didn’t want me. I’d gone too far. “Whatever, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

Sean reached over and clasped me on the shoulder. “Don’t give up yet. She’s a little freaked and needs time to work through it in her head.”

“I’m a monster.” I dropped my head into my hands. “How could I do that to her?”

Sean pulled out of her drive. “It wasn’t you. Those bastards poisoned you, making you go feral. You had no control.”

Raising my head to look at him, I noticed his knuckles were white as he clenched the wheel.

“I could have fought harder.”

“You did. I heard you tell Sierra to put you out. Not everyone is as strong as you and they wouldn’t have been able to fight it off that long. But you did.”

I apologized, but I could see the caution in her eyes and it killed me. We both knew what happened last night wasn’t my fault or her fault, but it didn’t change the fact I scared her and I could do nothing to take away the memory.

“Do you think she’ll ever be ready?”

“She will. Give her time. Now I need you with your head in the game tonight. Can you do that?”

Sean had one chance to prove to the whole pack he was strong enough. With Sierra’s fix, my time wasn’t limited anymore. If I needed to be focused tonight for him, that’s what I would do. It didn’t mean I wouldn’t worry about my problems with Sierra, but I’d deal with them in the morning. The clock on the dash read one in the afternoon. The spell put me out longer than I thought it would when I begged her to cast it. There were only a few hours until the meeting before the hunt.

“Do you think Bradley will really challenge you?”

“He challenged Christian, his sister’s mate. What makes you think he won’t challenge me?”

I rolled my eyes. “You can beat his ass.”

“Yeah, but so could Christian.”

That was true. We’d spent months working with Christian to make sure he could win any challenge. “Not like you. But I guess we’ll have to see what happens tonight.”

“Do you think you can keep it together?”

I thought so, but was I sure? Hell no. Didn’t mean I wasn’t going to try. My best friend needed me, and I could pretty much guess Sierra’s reaction if I let her brother get his ass beat because I couldn’t concentrate. “I’ll try, but it won’t be easy.”

“Trust me. I know it’s hard to be away from your mate.”

That statement brought back a conversation Sierra and I had with Sean a few days ago. “You’ve met her, haven’t you?”

“Met who?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, asshole. I’m already in a shitty mood. My mate wants nothing to do with me and I could really use something to take my mind off of that fact.”

“She does want you.”

I shook my head. The longer I could avoid thinking about Sierra, the better. “That’s not what I asked and you know it.”

“Fine,” he sighed. “Yes, I met her about a year ago.”

“I guess she isn’t a wolf, if she was able to resist the pull.”

“Actually, no. She’s a wolf.” My mind frantically tried to figure out who moved into town within the last year. “Not from our pack,” he amended quickly.

“Why the hell wouldn’t you two seal the bond?” The pull of a mate was strong enough to make two wolves go crazy while their bodies screamed at them to complete the bond.

“Just like you, I didn’t want to mate her only to have her watch me die in a year.”

I couldn’t believe my ears. “But you’re not dead or dying.”

“Yes, but it doesn’t mean it’s over. I let her go, all I can hope is she found someone to love. You know as well as I, not every wolf finds their mate anyway.”

While that was true, when a wolf did find their mate, they didn’t let them go, except in the few instances where the mate was human and couldn’t handle this life. “Forget that bullshit. I can tell you from experience, once you meet her, you’ll never want anyone else and neither will she, especially since she’s a wolf.”

“Whatever,” he snapped. “Can we drop it now?”

“I will if you tell me what she looks like.” Sean should know better than expect me not to push.

“Fine. Blond hair, hazel eyes, about five feet eight.”

“That’s all you going to give me?”

“Yes. You might be my best friend, and my sister’s mate, but there are some things I’m not telling you.”

Without the distraction of worrying about someone else’s problems, my mood plummeted once again. The tension in the car was palpable. Sean didn’t know what to say and I wanted to sit there and drown in my misery. A few minutes outside of town Sean spoke up again.

“Look, I’m taking you to your house to grab a shower. Then we’re going to head into work. We have enough paperwork piled on our desks to keep us busy the rest of the day. Sitting around moping isn’t going to do you any good.”

“Fine.” I forced myself inside the house. If Sean needed me to push past all of the other shit, I’d do it. Whatever happened, until I could deal with Sierra, I didn’t want to talk about it.

After a shower and fresh clothes for both of us, we spent the day overseeing the jobs we currently had, which all seemed to be on track. Sean tried to get me to eat lunch, but with Sierra on my mind I didn’t want anything. By the time dinner came, Sean was all over my ass about eating.

“You can’t skip every meal today. How are you going to have enough energy to hunt or fight if I need you to?” Sean flopped down on the couch in his living room.

I hadn’t really thought about it that way. “All right.” He wasn’t getting any more than that.

Sean ordered a pizza and my stomach dropped. Something so trivial. With so few memories of Sierra it was hard not to focus on things like that. When the food arrived, I forced it down, letting it sit like a brick in my stomach. The whole time we were both silent. Sean, I’m sure, concentrating on the upcoming challenge, while I wondered what Sierra was doing at that moment. I wished I’d told her how I felt. That I loved her from the moment she woke up in my arms at her house. Faint, yet still there, it continued to grow and I hadn’t said a damn thing.

“It’s time,” Sean said, pulling me out of my own head.

We stopped by my house on the way to the clearing to pick up my truck. Parking off to the side, we walked the path that led to our normal meeting spot. Many of the pack had already gathered. Sean stepped into the middle of the circle on the raised dais, which had been there for as long as I could remember.

“Tonight is our first run without Christian. While we mourn his loss and cherish his memory, we need to push on. As Alpha of this pack—”

Bradley stepped out of the trees. “I challenge your claim.”

Exactly as we suspected. Sean didn’t even bat an eye. Bradley’s bruises from the other night had faded. His eyes burned with hatred as his gaze swung between me and Sean. There were no gasps of surprise from the pack when Bradley stated his challenge. Most of them probably assumed it would happen. Explained why everyone was there so early.

Sean stepped forward, arms crossed over his chest, menace radiating from every part of him. “Are you sure you want to do this? Because after the other night, I can guarantee the only way you’re leaving here is being carried out.”

“You can’t beat me.”

Bradley’s claim pulled a laugh from deep within my belly. I should have stifled it, but with all of the fucked up shit that happened in the last two days, I let it all go. Most of the pack turned to stare at me, while Theresa stepped into the middle of the circle. As the former Alpha’s mate, it was her job to oversee any challenges to the new Alpha, at least until the new Alpha had a mate of their own.

“You’re an idiot,” she directed at Bradley. “There’s been a challenge to the new Alpha of the Pine Barrens pack. Sean, do you accept the challenge?”

“You bet your ass I do.” Sean continued to stare at Bradley. No doubt all of the bullshit he pulled over the last week running through his head.

Theresa turned to Bradley, the undercurrent of annoyance clear in her tone. “Bradley, name your second.”

“Luther,” Bradley said without pause.

Luther walked up next to Bradley, looking as stupid as he actually was. “I accept.”

Idiot.

Sean growled. Yep dumbass put himself in for a world of hurt when Bradley lost and the pack united behind Sean. Dipshit was dumb enough to challenge Sean later.

“Sean, name your second,” Theresa said.

“Dylan.”

Oh, fuck. I knew it was coming, but damn. It not only meant I’d be second of the pack when Sean won the challenge, but it was my job to keep anyone from interfering in the challenge, including myself or Luther. Sean had the job before me, but it seemed so different without Christian there. Thoughts of Sierra’s reaction to all this tried to push through, but I forced them back to concentrate.

“Dylan, do you accept?” Theresa pulled me out of my head.

I knew the look in her eyes. She didn’t want to see her friend beat the shit out of her brother, but she knew she had no choice. Bradley called for the challenge and the consequences for that were on him.

“I accept.”

She nodded. “The challenge will continue until one combatant gives up, can no longer fight, or dies.” Theresa winced at the final word.

Sean and Bradley began removing their clothes, followed closely by Luther and myself. Sometimes the only way to prevent an interference was to shift.

Bradley shifted, Sean shortly after. While Sean had always been a fast shifter, the alpha power increased his speed, and he finished before Bradley. Now that Sean finally shifted, I watched the calculation in his movements.

He might be pissed, but he wouldn’t attack first and waste the energy. Being the bigger, stronger wolf had its advantages. I could guarantee once Bradley made the first move that would be the end. And he didn’t disappoint.

Bradley lunged for Sean’s right front paw. Bad move. Sean swiped his left paw across Bradley’s muzzle, snapping his head around. He jumped back away from the attack. The deep gashes bled instantly, dripping on the ground below. It wasn’t enough to stop him. Then again, I knew it wouldn’t be. Bradley came charging in again. In an attempt to knock Sean off his footing, Bradley threw his body toward Sean. He didn’t anticipate Sean’s speed. Most wolves his size were on the slower side. Not Sean.