“Fuck.” I groaned. “Was that really necessary?”
He snarled in return and sat on me before I could get up. “Was it necessary to kill those kids?”
Now, it was my turn to be shocked…
“What are you—” Before I could finish my question, he punched me just beneath my neck. Like really fucking punched me.
Sure, I’d hit him first, but still, I was a little more than shocked by the impact.
Before I could physically respond, his hands covered my throat, but they only squeezed hard enough to keep me pinned. “You’re not my mate. You’re just using magic to trick me.”
He spoke with conviction, but I could see the uncertainty in his cognac eyes that were darkening by the second.
“Listen, psycho stranger. I don’t know who you think I am, but I hardly have any magic.” My words were garbled, and the longer I spoke, the more my vocal cords burned from his touch, but I kept going. “And I wouldn’t hurt a child, let alone multiple of them.”
Flickers of something I didn’t recognize appeared in his eyes, then he blinked several times before finally squeezing them tightly shut. The weight of his body wasn’t leaving my neck, and even though I knew the truth, he seemed to be struggling a little too much with our predicament for me to allow him to keep me in this position.
With my not-mate distracted, I bucked my hips up and punched his kidney before attempting to roll out from under him. “Seriously. What is your problem?” I demanded, ignoring the stabbing pain in my cheek from his previous punch.
He grunted in reply and got up before me. The black boot on his right foot was coming right for my head. Instead of hoping I got out of the way in time, I raised my forearm, blocking the kick, and reaching up with my other hand to press on his knee.
A fun trick I’d learned throughout my years of training.
He winced, trying to stay upright, but there wasn’t a chance in hell of that unless he wanted to risk breaking a bone or two.
With a triumphant smile, I watched as he fell back on his ass. Though, my glee only lasted a mere second before he was scrambling back to his feet.
The flickers I’d seen in his eyes before turned to flames, and I was pretty sure his skin was darkening with every step forward.
I’d sworn this guy was a wolf shifter from first sight, but no shifter I’d ever seen visit the coven could do anything like that.
Thanks to the distraction, he was able to grab a hold of me again. His fingers dug into my biceps, pressing my arms into my sides and forcing me to remain immobile. “Who are you?” he spat.
“Elena. A powerless witch that’s never left this coven,” I answered.
His head shook roughly. “Lies.”
I tried meeting his fiery gaze, but he wouldn’t focus on my stare. “Maybe you can tell me why you wanted to kill me in the first place, and we can answer some of each other’s questions?”
Reasoning with a psychopath didn’t seem like the best solution, but I didn’t see any other way out of this. Sure, thanks to the shitty-but-should-have-been-amazing mate connection between us, he couldn’t kill me, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t hurt me if he wanted to.
And I was more than sure he wanted to.
ATLAS
I’d fucking known better. I should have listened to my instincts. I shouldn’t have taken this job. What was supposed to be a simple snatch, grab, and maybe kill had turned into something more, something I wasn’t sure I could believe.
Normally, it was easy for me to decipher the truth from any lie, but when Elena spoke, my mind felt foggy as it fought between believing what I was told and what she was saying.
The mate bond, if it was even real, was the last thing I needed.
I’d always known the possibility of meeting my mate was there, but I’d hoped that day would never come.
Now, looking everywhere but at Elena’s tempting, cerulean eyes, I tried to reject her again.
“If you accept my rejection, I won’t kill you,” I bargained.
The job didn’t actually require me to take her life, so I wasn’t lying. Though, taking her life had been preferable after seeing the photos of those children.
She scoffed in my face. “Bullshit. You can’t even look me in the eyes when you say that. How about we back up a hot minute and you tell me why the hell you’re here?”
The sincerity of her confusion only served to make matters worse for me.
Nobody knew of my extra ability to tell truth from lie. At least, none who were still alive. Well, aside from D, but he wouldn’t have anything to do with this. I knew that without a single doubt.
And this mate bond… Could it have been fabricated by a powerful enough witch?
I hadn’t thought so, but the more muddled my thoughts became, the more I believed and hoped that might be the case.
I secured her wrist and jerked her toward me. Her chest collided with mine, but I ignored the heat that scorched through me from the contact.
“You don’t get to ask the questions here,” I snarled. “You are my prisoner and nothing more. Keep your mouth shut and this will go a lot easier for the both of us.”
She surprised me when she used her other hand to punch me right in the neck, causing my throat to ache instantly. It was just another thing to add to my confusion. She kept using physical defensive moves instead of magical ones.
Thanks to my shock, she broke free of my hold and began running in the opposite direction, back toward her coven.
With a growl, I lengthened my stride and wrapped both arms around her waist. “I said you’re coming with me. Whatever magic you’re using might prevent me from killing you, but that won’t stop me from taking you where you belong.”
She struggled against me, and once again, I was impressed by her strength. “And where would that be?”
“No Man’s Land. To pay for your crimes.
She went limp in my hold, possibly trying to use dead weight to throw me off again, but that wasn’t going to work with me.“What crimes?” she asked with a heavy sigh when I began walking toward the treeline again.My chest rumbled. My instinct was to answer her question, but I didn’t trust this woman. Not after what I’d seen.With the pull between us, I knew it was better to keep my mouth shut.“Seriously?” she scoffed. “That’s how you’re going to do this? Show up here, accuse me of something heinous you won’t even give me details on, and then stay silent?”Yep. That was exactly how it was going to be.I wasn’t sure if it was because my silence was the best choice for the situation or for myself. There were too many conflicting thoughts, and until I felt more confident about the situation, silence was my friend.Having her pressed against me wasn’t ideal when my body and heart were longing for her only minutes after having met her. A part of me wanted to lift her up until our faces we
My shoulders stiffened, and I reached down without looking at Elena so that I could throw her over my shoulder. I couldn’t wait for her to act like an adult and walk on her own. I needed to get to the Jeep and start the drive back to my house.The trip would require me to sit next to her for sixteen hours while I sped down the interstates toward my cabin’s location in the middle of No Man’s Land.I should have bargained for a fucking portal spell to get us back sooner, but I’d thought she would be a corpse by the time I’d started driving. Not a temptress seated next to me.Maybe I could knock her out and tie her to the back seat.Shit.The only thing appealing about that thought was tying her up.With a loud huff, Elena punched me first in my side, then right at the center of my spine.That shit didn’t feel very good.I pulled her forward and cradled her against my chest, squeezing tightly until she was boxed in against herself.Her sharp eyes glared up at me. “You’re a dick.”I glance
“How far are we walking?” I asked. “Where are we going? Oh, yeah. No Man’s Land, but isn’t that place, like, huge? Are you going to carry me the whole time so that I don’t run away, or do you have a portal spell? I’d make one, but I can’t.”I paused briefly, but he still wasn’t in the mood to chat. Thankfully, I wasn’t easily deterred.“Not that you asked, but I don’t really have any magic,” I said. “I can heal quickly, run faster than most of the witches, and my hearing isn’t too bad, but outside of a few sparks, magic isn’t really my thing. I’ve been told that’s probably why my parents abandoned me. Pretty fucked-up, huh?”His jaw at least tensed at that last bit, confirming he wasn’t completely heartless.“So, Atlas. I’m pretty sure you won’t answer any of my questions, but since you know a little about me, let me pretend I know something about you.” My voice deepened as I pretended that I was him, hoping to further annoy him into conversation. “‘I was an only child. I get my shit
“How do you know that?” I asked. “Was there a sign I missed while I was talking or had my eyes closed? Or have you been here plenty of times before and just know?”His head turned toward me once more. “I’m having a difficult time believing you’re that stupid.”The tone of his words was flat, making it hard for me to decide if I should be offended by his statement or not…“I don’t think I’m stupid,” I said. “Sheltered. Naïve. Inexperienced. All of those, yes. But not stupid when given the opportunity to learn.”Another delicious rumble built from deep inside his chest, but he seemed to be all out of verbal responses.Just when I was ready to go on my next tangent, I caught sight of the Jeep he’d mentioned. There wasn’t a top on it. Just a black roll cage above the navy-blue body.He eyed the front of the vehicle, then the back, before setting me down. His hands grabbed my biceps, positioning me until I was standing in front of him. “Don’t piss me off or I will tie a rope around your wa
ATLASExactly thirty minutes after I’d gotten back into the driver’s seat, Elena cleared her throat while keeping her eyes on the center of the road, which I’d advised her to do so she wouldn’t get sick again. Not because I was being nice, but because we didn’t have time for her weak stomach.“How close was I with ‘Atlas’?” she asked, a bit of glee in her tone and a smile playing on her cherry lips.“Atlas, so not even a little close,” I muttered.Her fingers danced over her knees, and she chanced a glance my way. “What about a last name?”“No.” If she didn’t already know it, she didn’t need to.The fact that she seemed truly inept about all things of the outside world had me second-guessing everything that I was doing. I hated to admit that I was worried the only reason I was questioning anything was because of the bond. The longer she sat next to me, the more it was building.Uncertainty wasn’t something I was familiar with, and I fucking hated it.Had I been sent to kidnap, and pos
The unicorn actually rolled her turquoise eyes while silver energy shimmered over her body. The gaping wound stitched itself back together before she got up on four legs. Elena was up and moving a few steps closer to me as the opal-white unicorn swished her iridescent colored tail back and forth.“Shift,” I demanded.Her head lowered, pointing the tip of her horn at me.“You don’t scare me,” I droned.She made a weird noise, then her body covered with that same silver power. Within the blink of an eye, she was standing on two feet, dressed in black leggings and an oversized, light-pink T-shirt.She glared at me, then moved her still-turquoise eyes to Elena and stepped forward.Before I could stop anything from happening, the unicorn hugged her and squealed. “Oh, I’m so excited to finally meet you!”I had no fucking clue where this glee was coming from, but one thing I knew was that an already fucked situation just got even more complicated.Elena’s arms hung there loosely. “Uh…you, to
I had to turn around before I answered her, because I was tempted to lash out with my darker half. It was the one part of me that I was equally thankful for yet also hated.The demon in me that had come from my father.The curse that had killed my family and left me alone in this godforsaken world.The powers that allowed me to channel my rage by searching for piece-of-shit people who didn’t deserve to continue breathing.She was rubbing her chest so hard that a red spot formed on her skin beneath her fingers.The bond I hadn’t wanted to accept as truth tugged on my emotions, but I stopped myself. I wasn’t the one who was going to console her.I wasn’t the person she needed, even if she wasn’t a magic-stealing murderer.Amy sighed at me. “You’re being ridiculous.”I watched as the unicorn went to Elena and quietly whispered to her. I observed closely how Elena nodded softly, pressing her lips together while her eyes remained wide.Then, I forced my feet to take me back to the jeep. I
“But why me?” I asked.She shrugged and glanced briefly behind us. “You need to know who you are, and I need to save you from something. Outside of that, the details are rather fuzzy. Well, besides knowing we need to go to Fire and Fluorite. That’s where we’ll find more answers.”Atlas was suddenly standing next to me again. “I’m not stepping foot in that cesspool of idiots. Plus, the place is probably burned down by now.”I tilted my head at him. “Why? I thought they were one of the stronger Houses?”“Stupidity sometimes looks a lot like bravery, but that doesn’t make them strong,” Atlas answered gruffly. “The last two leaders were dumb enough to get themselves killed and now there are factions within the House creating a war that’s bound to affect more than just Fire and Fluorite. I’d rather stay out of it.”Amy twirled a lock of midnight-colored hair around her finger. “Well, you’re welcome to stay out of it, but I’m taking Elena there.”Atlas’s fingers wrapped around my wrist, and