Ancient Warrior, page 7
Harlow dug her claws into Axel’s forearm, likely not even realizing what she was doing.
“You’re seeing this too, right? I’m not losing my mind?” she whispered.
“Holy shit,” was all he could get out.
Brielle screamed in rage, surprising both of them as she shifted to full-on tiger and launched herself at Aodh—or whoever the hell this was.
Axel and Harlow both lunged after her, with Harlow jumping on her back and tackling her as Aodh turned back to face the three of them.
It wasn’t enough to stop Brielle.
She got free of Harlow and pinned Aodh against the concrete, and Axel was aware that things had gotten very, very quiet around them.
The music was off and people had gone ghost silent. Because if there was one thing supernaturals could sense, it was when blood was about to be spilled. And this wasn’t some random brawl—the threat of violence hung thick in the air.
“Surprised to see me?” Aodh growled on the ground, Brielle’s huge tiger body on top of him.
It said a lot for how strong he was, or maybe how gentle she was actually being, that he wasn’t crushed under her weight.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Harlow snarled, horror, shock and something else etched onto her face as she stared down at the two of them.
“That shirt looks stupid on you,” he snapped.
“Well, here, take it back then, asshole!” Harlow tore it over her head and threw it at his face.
Aaaand that was all it took for Aodh to shove Brielle off him and stand up to his full height of six-foot-plus stupidly tall.
Harlow should look ridiculous in just her boots and underclothing but…nope. She looked hot as hell, and it was clear that Aodh was noticing. Axel stared for a long moment at the male he’d thought was dead, tried to force a word out. Anything. What the hell was happening? He’d seen Harlow kill him, had seen Aodh come at her with that blade. Now the male was just standing in the middle of the road, naked and pissed off.
“So, gonna answer my question? Surprised to see me? How long did you actually search for me?” he snapped, looking between the three of them, his expression a mask of rage.
Um…what? Axel eased forward another step, not wanting to face off with the male, but he would if necessary. He wasn’t dreaming or hallucinating. Nope. This was far too real.
“Look for you? What the hell are you talking about?” Brielle was human now, naked too, her clothes shredded on the ground, and more pissed than he’d ever seen her. “I should rip your head off for the way you hurt my sister!”
Harlow blanched, but Axel stepped forward, the reality of their surroundings setting in. Far too many people were watching. “Maybe we should take this somewhere else and—”
“Not now, Axel!” the three others snapped in unison, as if it was old times.
He scrubbed a hand over his face, shot Christian a worried look. What the hell should he do?
“How would we have looked for you?” Harlow asked, confusion and raw pain tingeing her voice as she stared at Aodh. Her dark eyes were filled with pain as she stared at the male who was supposed to be dead.
The male shoved his shirt back at her. “Put this on.”
Oh, no. No, no, nooooooo. He should know better than to order her around.
Betrayal morphed to anger as she crossed her arms over her chest, pushing up her barely covered breasts. “Nah, I’m good, thanks,” she snapped, ice dripping from her words.
Aodh took a menacing step forward, but everyone froze when a shrill whistle pierced the air and Ace strode up, looking between all of them.
Ace focused on Harlow first. “What’s going on?”
“I honestly don’t know. This bastard,” she jerked an accusing thumb at Aodh, “tried to kill me years ago and I thought I killed him. Then he just showed up—”
“Kill you! What the hell are you talking about?” Aodh demanded. “Are you damaged, female?”
Harlow blinked, taken as off guard as Axel was.
Ace snapped his cold wolf gaze to Aodh. “Stop talking right now. You’re in my Alpha’s territory and I know for a fact you haven’t announced yourself or asked for permission to be here.”
“That’s because I ask for permission from no one,” he practically purred, clearly goading Ace. His hair was cut short, much shorter than it had been years ago, but everything about him was still the same. He wasn’t handsome in any sort of sense, but he was pure power in a huge, muscular package—and right now the amber-orange-eyed dragon was staring at Ace as if he wanted to fight him.
Son of a… Axel moved swiftly, placing himself in between Aodh and Ace, keeping his back to Ace. Because he wasn’t sure what the hell was going on. He looked at his old friend turned enemy, shoved down the emotions wanting to take over. Because the male had once been like a brother to him. “Now is not the time to go all asshole. We’re going somewhere private to deal with…this. Like how the hell you’re alive—and why you tried to kill us! We were like family! And you’re going to behave for ten minutes because you owe us that.” Axel could scent Harlow’s pain and wanted to punch Aodh’s stupid face in for that alone.
“I never tried to kill any of you. And you think I owe you assholes after you left me to rot in that prison?” he sneered, his eyes ice cold.
“Prison? I have no clue what you’re talking about. Truly.” Aodh had turned on them. And Harlow had been forced to defend them. To kill the male she loved. It had all happened so fast, but it had changed their lives forever.
Aodh stared down at him—because yeah, he was actually taller than Axel. “Wait…you’re serious.”
“Yeah, I’m serious. Think you can act semicivilized and not start a street brawl for, hmm, I don’t know, ten minutes?” Since when had Axel turned into the calm one? Ugh.
“You guys can use my place to talk,” Christian said quietly.
“That works for all of us, right?” Axel glared at Aodh even as he kept his back to everyone else. Something was seriously off right now. The scents rolling off Aodh right now were anger, but he also smelled like he was telling the truth.
“Fine,” Aodh finally gritted out. “I know where the pretty vampire lives,” he snapped before he backed up and shifted to his dragon form in a blast of fire and magic, taking to the air in a great whoosh.
Axel shoved out a breath, turned back to the others. And had no idea what the hell to say.
Harlow just stood there, trembling as she stared up at the sky, watching Aodh fly into the distance.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Harlow couldn’t sit as they all stood in Christian’s back patio area. No one else could either as they waited for Ace to return—and she tried not to stare at Aodh, who was just standing there like a statue, his thick arms crossed over his chest.
Seriously, what the hell was going on? She’d killed him.
Killed the male she loved.
Had mourned him. Was still mourning him to an extent. But here he was, denying everything, acting as if they’d abandoned him to some prison instead of the truth.
He wasn’t emanating menace, and her shifter “radar” wasn’t going off that he was about to attack…but she still kept her distance.
Unable to look at him anymore, she glanced over at her sister.
Brielle was back in her tiger form, pacing all around the backyard. Axel had his arms crossed over his chest as he leaned against the railing that encompassed the huge area. All the fancy furniture was unused—and…she was back to looking at Aodh, who hadn’t moved an inch.
Because apparently she was a masochist and couldn’t stop staring at him.
At least someone had given him pants so she wouldn’t be tempted to look at what was between his legs—and salivate. Goddess, something was wrong with her.
Seeing him now, it was like the past had been wiped away. His hair was short instead of the longer, gorgeous dark hair she used to love running her fingers through. But of course it only showed off all the hard angles of his face, making him look even more dangerous. He’d never be called handsome, but he was…powerful. It was the only word she could think of to describe him.
That was what had attracted her in the first place. All that raw, animal power.
Then she remembered him coming at her, blade raised as he tried to stab her. The horror that had punched through her. The shock.
None of it had seemed real, still didn’t.
She’d reacted on instinct, whipping out her own blade, shoving it straight into his chest, hitting his heart more by accident than anything else. Killing the man she’d loved, had wanted to mate. Had…wanted to start a family with. But it had all been gone in an instant.
Poof. Their future gone just like that.
He’d burst into flames, disappearing into ash, shocking her and the others, but it made sense given the type of dragon he was. One who could actually turn into flames.
Far too many emotions surged up and she was barely keeping a lid on any of them. He’d forced her hand to do the unthinkable. Now he was here, standing in front of her and acting angry. As if he had a right to be!
He was the one who’d betrayed them.
She turned away, scrubbed a hand over her face as she tried to banish the memory of stabbing him. It had nearly destroyed her.
If it hadn’t been for the others, she wasn’t sure where she’d be right now. Dead probably. She’d been on a dark path after he’d gone, had gotten into stupid supernatural fights, just trying to pick them all the time to let out her rage and anger.
“That’s right, turn away,” Aodh sneered. “Don’t look at the male you abandoned to that hellhole. The one you claimed to love.”
She spun around, opened her mouth to snap back, but Christian, all calm and elegant, stood in between them, palms raised.
“You’ve all agreed to wait until Ace returns with Everleigh. Clearly something is…” He trailed off as Ace and Everleigh appeared around the side of the house.
Everleigh, a beautiful female with choppy brown hair and glowing olive-hued skin, was a witch with an incredible truthsense magic.
As shifters, they could all scent when someone was lying to a certain extent, but that wasn’t foolproof. Technically nothing was, but Everleigh was basically a walking lie detector. It was an incredible superpower.
Harlow found herself irrationally annoyed by how attractive Everleigh was in that moment—and she genuinely liked the witch. Had never been the jealous type, except when it came to Aodh.
She only ever wanted his eyes on her.
And…okay, they were on her now. Unfortunately, they were filled with rage and bitterness. Which just pissed her off. He was the one who’d turned on them. And she wanted answers, wanted to know why he’d betrayed them all. Money? Something else? They’d never been able to find a reason after… After.
“Glad to see you’re all alive.” Ace’s tone was dry as he looked between them. “Clearly there’s a huge misunderstanding or something, so I’m going to tell you what’s going to happen. You,” he said to Aodh, his jaw tight, “are going to speak with Everleigh, tell her about whatever brought you and your former team to this point.” Ace looked at Harlow and the others. “Then you three will do the same. For the record, I know you’re not a liar, Harlow.” He then shot Aodh a dark look. “So if you think to come into my Alpha’s territory and—”
“Save the threats,” Aodh snapped. “I have nothing to hide.” He had the T-shirt she’d thrown at him tucked neatly under his arm and she wanted to snatch it away from him as much as she wanted to punch the obnoxious look off his face.
Ace took a deep breath, clearly asking the goddess for patience. Then he motioned to Everleigh, who was calm as usual. She had on loose, bohemian-style pants, a flowy top and all sorts of sparkly rings on her fingers.
She motioned toward the seating area with big cushions and the lit firepit. “I think we should all sit first.”
Christian murmured something about grabbing snacks, because of course he did. The male was like the perfect host. Harlow sat in a single lounge chair, only a long glass-topped table separating her and Aodh, who’d also sat in a single chair. Brielle stayed in her tiger form and flopped down next to Harlow by her feet.
Her twin far preferred to be in tiger form when she was angry.
Axel sat next to Everleigh on the couch and Ace stood sentry, arms over his chest as he watched all of them.
“So,” Everleigh started, looking around at all of them. “It’s my understanding that something happened years ago between all of you. Aodh, you seem to think that they left you in a prison—”
“They did!”
She cleared her throat. “No interrupting, please.”
Harlow smirked at him while Everleigh continued.
“And you three say that Harlow killed him?”
Harlow nodded, her throat tight. She lived with it every day, the memory of it burned into her brain.
“So I want to hear everything in your own words,” Everleigh continued. “We’ll start with Harlow since I know you, and I have a good baseline already. Tell me simply, what happened between you two. Just speak your truth.”
Harlow focused on Everleigh instead of Aodh. “We were working on a…job.” She sighed, decided to just be completely honest. “I guess it doesn’t matter anymore if it was classified. We used to do undercover ops for the human government. We were all Marines, but worked for a supernatural division.”
Everleigh nodded, her expression gentle.
“We were hunting down a powerful, ah, witch.” She cleared her throat, wincing slightly as a bit of guilt slid through her. It wasn’t like they’d been hunting a random witch, but one who’d been pure evil.
Everleigh just smiled. “It’s okay.”
“So we were hunting this witch who’d been killing whole families. A serial killer. She’d been targeting military families, which is the only reason we were involved at all. She was targeting families where one member had a high ranking, and we always thought there was more to it. Like she’d been hired by Russia or something similar. But…that doesn’t matter, I guess.”
Harlow shoved out a sigh, looked at Axel, who nodded in support.
Then she turned back to Everleigh. “We’d tracked her into Canada, right across the Montana border actually, to this cabin and…”
She turned to Aodh then, unable to stop herself. She stared into his amber-orange eyes as she remembered his betrayal, how he might as well have cut her heart out that day. She wanted to launch herself at him and claw his face off, demand answers!
“We’d gone down into this basement and Aodh turned on us, attacked me with a knife. He said it wasn’t personal, that this was just business, then struck. Just like that. It was so fast, happened so damn quickly, I just reacted in self-defense.” To her horror, she felt tears pricking her eyes, but she blinked them back. She wouldn’t cry in front of him. “I stabbed him straight through the heart with one of my blades. He burst into flames as he died and…” She couldn’t go on, couldn’t look at him anymore.
Aodh shoved up from his chair. “You never stabbed me! That’s the biggest bunch of crap I’ve—”
“Shut it,” Ace interjected. “It’s not your turn.”
Aodh sat back down but was gritting his teeth hard.
“We lost the witch’s trail after that,” Axel interjected. “But we saved the ashes, still scattered them even if you didn’t deserve it,” he snapped.
Aodh shoved to his feet again, a ball of energy. “That’s bull—”
“You’ll get your turn.” Everleigh’s tone was soft but sharp as she spoke before Ace could this time. “Sit. Down.”
Aodh sat, scowling, so Harlow continued. “After that, we didn’t last much longer in the Corps. We tried to figure out who’d hired Aodh to kill us, if he’d been involved with the witch or what, but we kept hitting dead ends. There’d been no money trail…nothing. Not even a hint of why he’d done it or who he could have been working for. And as Axel said, the trail for the witch we’d been hunting completely died. Eventually our commander shut everything down and we left the Corps.”
Everleigh nodded slowly, then gave Ace a look Harlow couldn’t decipher before she turned to Aodh. “I’m going to ask you a few questions. And they might seem silly but I need you to answer them honestly.”
He nodded, his big body practically vibrating, and Harlow knew he hated sitting in that chair. He’d always been like that, unable to sit still for long, always had to be doing something.
“What is your full name?”
“Aodh of the Eiliason clan.”
From there Everleigh finished getting her “baseline” for his truth, then said, “Okay, I want to hear in the simplest terms what happened between you and Harlow.”
“Well I never stabbed her or tried to stab her,” he snarled, looking at Harlow as if she was deranged. “I would have never tried to hurt you. I’d rather die.”
Harlow wasn’t sure what game he was playing but it smelled like he was telling the truth. Clearly she was wrong though. Had to be. Because if not… Her gut twisted. No. Just no.
He turned back to Everleigh, took a deep breath and seemed to calm a fraction. “Everything she said up until we hit that basement in Canada is true. Until the whole ‘stabbing’ thing,” he muttered, using air quotes. “I would have just burned you to a crisp if I’d wanted to kill you. Which I never would have done,” he added, glancing at her once before focusing on Everleigh again.
Harlow shifted uncomfortably.
“Something pierced my chest.” His tone was darker now. “Certainly not from Harlow. I couldn’t see it, but I could feel it. It was…dark, heavy, is the only way to describe it. And it paralyzed me. As if I’d been shot full of poison. The next thing I knew I was literally buried in an underground prison. I’d shifted to my dragon form but I was trapped, unable to shift back, or transport myself anywhere. I didn’t know it at the time, but over the years I learned that I was underneath the dungeon in the Domincary fae realm. And I figured out that the witch we’d been hunting poisoned me. Whatever she used was fast acting, like a venom. And the bitch got lucky because once it paralyzed me she was able to lock me up, encase me and keep me weak.”
