"What was that?"
Fang debated telling her. The demon in him wanted to turn the tigard loose on Nicolette and let him kill the bear. It would solve a lot of their problems.
But in the end, Nicolette was her mother and she loved her. That alone made the nondemon parts of him win the fight. "It's Wren. I think he's after your mom."
Aimee gasped as she looked up at Fang. "You have to stop him."
Now?
Was she out of her mind?
He looked down at her bare breasts that were pressed against his chest. The only thing she wore was a thin pair of pink panties. Panties he'd intended to pull off with his teeth before he licked her until she was begging him for mercy.
But she'd already gone dry on him.
Even more sexually frustrated than he'd been before, he growled. "Let them eat him."
"Fang!"
"All right. I'm going." Flashing a pair of jeans on his body, he left the bed and damned the tigard with every step he took. At this point Wren would be lucky if he didn't kill him.
Fang cracked open the door.
In tiger form, Wren was stalking through the upstairs of Sanctuary. It was obvious he was on a hunt.
"Shit," Fang breathed as he realized the tigard was in fact heading straight for Nicolette's room.
As soon as he heard Fang's curse, Wren turned and crouched low as if ready to attack.
Fang had to stop himself from scoffing at the action. Like he could stand up to Fang. "Get your ass in here," Fang snapped. "Now!"
Wren started away from him, which didn't help his mood at all. If he wasn't going to listen to him, Fang was going to rip him to shreds.
Aimee rushed to his side to peep out the door around him. "Listen to him, Wren. Please."
The tigard froze at Aimee's voice. Hoping she wasn't still naked, Fang glanced over his shoulder and realized that one side of her face was red and her lips were swollen from their play. But at least she was dressed.
Before any of them moved, another door opened. Aimee dashed out of sight as her younger brother Etienne froze in his doorway. Tall and blond like the rest of his brothers, the bear was only a few decades older than Wren, but he didn't appear any older in human form.
He instantly flashed to his bear form.
Fang cursed under his breath. "There's no fighting in Sanctuary," he said between clenched teeth, closing his door to protect Aimee as he moved to stand between them. "You both know the eirini laws that govern us."
"He is marked, wolf. Stand down."
Fang paused at the sound of Papa Bear's deep voice. Normally the bear was easygoing and jovial. But this tone was all business and all lethal.
Wren flashed himself to human form to confront the famed Papa Bear. "I did nothing wrong. This is bullshit and all of you know it."
"You've gone mad," Papa Bear said. "You've threatened my cubs and my mate."
Fang had to keep himself silent. Hell, they all threatened the cubs. He'd called Dev an asshole on his way up and had threatened to beat him down.
But obviously Papa Bear wasn't about to cut Wren any slack.
Wren narrowed his gaze at the bear. "No, I haven't. But you can tell your bitch that I'm here for her now."
Papa Bear ran at him.
Fang put himself between them and caught Papa as he lunged. The bear was strong, but the demon inside Fang gave him the ability to hold the bear back and keep him from killing Wren.
Roaring in frustration, Papa knocked Fang aside with one hell of a paw punch and went for Wren.
Wren flashed to tiger form and launched himself at Papa who transformed instantly to a bear. He caught the larger bear about the throat as Etienne attacked him from the back. Wren hissed as Etienne threw him against the wall and laid one leg open with his huge claw.
Dazed, Wren sprang back to his feet only to have his wounded leg buckle.
Fang was trying to rejoin, but his shoulder had been ripped open and blood was pouring down his side. Gah, it hurt and burned.
The bears reared before they started toward Wren. They'd only taken two steps when a bright light flashed in the hallway.
Wren backed up, ready to fight, only to pause as he saw Vane and Fury in the hallway now.
In human form, Vane took one look at Fang's bleeding shoulder and growled low in his throat. "Aubert? Have you lost your mind?"
Papa Bear, or Aubert as he was really named, flashed back to human while Etienne remained a bear. "He is marked for death. We took you in, wolf, when you had nothing. Is this how you repay us?"
Vane's eyes were blazing. "No, Aubert. I haven't forgotten my debt to you or Nicolette. But I will not stand by and see this happen to an innocent. Wren has no clan to back him. Therefore I offer him mine."
Fang was stunned as he heard those words. Was Vane out of his mind? To offer shelter to someone wanted by the Omegrion was suicide.
Papa Bear was every bit as incredulous. "You would back him against the Omegrion's decree?"
Vane didn't hesitate with his answer. His face was grim and deadly. "You damn straight."
Fang looked past Wren's shoulder and felt the blood drain from his face as he saw Aimee's intent in her eyes. "Don't you dare get into this," he mentally projected to Aimee.
As usual, she didn't listen. "No!"
They all turned to see Aimee in the middle of the hallway behind them. Only Wren and Fang knew whose room she'd been inside.
She swallowed as she looked from her father to Fang. "Papa, please. Don't do this. This is wrong and you know it. Wren poses no threat to us."
"Are you insane, daughter? He's here to kill your mother."
More doors were opening now. More animals were coming out to investigate the disturbance. This was looking worse and worse for Wren.
"You'll never make it out of here alive," Papa Bear said in warning. "None of you."
Fang looked at Aimee. "What the hell are we going to do?"
"Take me hostage."
That sucker-punched him. "What?"
"You heard me, Fang. We've got to get Wren out of here before they kill him."
"If I do that, I'll be banned from here. Forever."
Tears glistened in her eyes. "I know, baby. I know. But if Wren dies, I won't be able to forgive myself. Please help him."
Fang wanted to scream. She was asking too much of him. And yet when he looked at Wren who was so young . . . and innocent, he knew she was right.
They couldn't let the kid die. And more to the point, now that Vane and Fury were here trying to protect him, they'd be killed too. He had to protect his brothers at all cost even though the demon inside him was laughing at the prospect of watching them die.
Damn it!
A heartbeat later, Fang grabbed her into his arms, manifested a knife in his hand, then held it threateningly to her throat. The irony of this wasn't lost on him. He was about to lose her the same way he'd met her.
"Don't you dare follow us," he warned her family. "I'll kill her if you do." Fang turned to look at the three of them. "Fury, Vane, get Wren out of here."
Wren started to protest, but before he could, Vane grabbed him by the neck and flashed him from the hallway.
Fang leaned his head against hers and wanted to weep at what they were doing. Using his powers, he tracked his brothers and flashed the two of them into a dark room with no windows.
The only light came from two dim lamps on two tables at opposite ends of the room. The modern furnishings were chic and hightech, not to mention the walls were made of dark gray steel.
This was a boat.
Fang had barely realized that before Aimee turned in his arms and hugged him close.
Vane cursed. "Have you two lost your friggin' minds? Between you and the tiger, we're so screwed."
"No, you're not." Wren tried to flash himself back to Sanctuary. "What the hell?"
"I've got you locked down," Vane said.
Wren knew better than to go after Vane-the wolf was too powerful to take down-but by the look on his face, it was obvious the tigard wanted to try. "Lift it."
Vane shook his head. "No. I didn't just jeopardize my entire clan to see you commit suicide."
"This isn't your fight."
"Yes, it is. I'm not going to sit by and watch an innocent die because some asshole got greedy."
Wren scoffed at Vane's heroism. "Well, thank you, Mr. Altruist, but the tiger doesn't want your help. So sod off."
Someone started clapping.
Fang, still holding Aimee to his side, saw the Dark-Hunter Jean-Luc entering the room from a door on his right. A pirate in his human life, the immortal vampire slayer still retained much of his old look.
With a small gold hoop flashing in his left earlobe, he was dressed all in black in a pair of leather pants, a silk button-down shirt, and biker boots. His long, straight black hair was pulled back into a sleek queue that emphasized the sharp angles of his face. His eyes were so dark that not even the pupils were discernable and those eyes were dancing with amusement. "Nicely put, tiger."
"Shut up, lapdog, this isn't your fight either."
Jean-Luc sucked his breath in sharply at the insult. "Boy, you better counsel that tongue before you find yourself without it."
Wren took a step toward him, then froze as the human he'd been making time with came through the door behind the pirate. The relief on her face was more than obvious.
The human rushed to Wren's side and threw her arms around him. "I'm so glad they got to you before it was too late. You weren't really going to do something stupid, were you?"
"Oh, no, hon, we were too late," Fury said snidely. "Tiger boy done pissed down the wrong honey tree and got all the bees, or in this case bears, going wild."
Fury glanced to Fang then to Aimee. "Then again, knowing the bears, they'll be gunning for wolf before tiger. Good move, Fang. Making off with their only daughter. Real swift. You know chocolate is lethal to our kind. I'm thinking if you want to commit suicide, that's the much less painful way to go about it."
"Knock it off, Fury," Vane said, moving over to where Fang and Aimee were standing. "We have to send her back. Now."
Fang contemplated the death and burial of Fury. Brother or not, that wolf still got on his nerves, but Vane was right. "I know."
Tears glistened in Aimee's eyes and they tore him apart as he ached to kiss them away. "I don't want to leave."
Those words shredded his resolve.
Vane looked as sick as Fang felt. "And I thought my relationship with Bride was doomed. Damn it, people and animals, this shit sucks."
Fang couldn't agree more.
Fury snorted. "You're the leader, Vane. Lead."
Vane looked up at the ceiling and sighed. "If I had any brains at all, which obviously I don't, I would never have gotten involved in this. I would hand my brother and Wren over to the bears and just take my wife and go find a nice, quiet place to raise our children."
He swept them all with an irritated glare. "But obviously, I am truly the dumbest man on the planet."
Jean-Luc pulled a long, thin stiletto out of his boot and offered it to Vane. "Here, mon ami. Either for you or for them. One cut and all your problems are solved, eh?"
"Don't tempt me." Vane growled low in his throat as he surveyed the lot of them. "Wren, listen close, 'cause, buddy, your chances are running slim. You kill Nicolette and you're dead. There's no way back from that."
Wren scoffed at him. "There's no way back from an execution order. Period."
Shaking his head in denial, Fury stepped forward. "You weren't there when the vote came down. The council was divided on the order."
Wren frowned. "What are you saying?"
"That you have a shot at redemption," Vane said, "but not if you kill Nicolette for vengeance."
Wren hesitated as if he were inwardly debating.
Vane sighed. "You give the council proof that you're innocent of killing your parents and Savitar will rescind the Omegrion's order."
Wren scowled at him. "What the fuck are you talking about? They're trying to kill me because I'm dating Maggie."
Fury made a sound of disgust. "What are you, stupid? Your dating the human is only the catalyst for why Mama Lo tossed your ass out. The death warrant is because you murdered your parents."
"Says who?"
"Your cousin Zack."
Wren clenched his jaw shut as if he wanted to kill something. The demon inside Fang knew for a fact the tigard was innocent. And outraged. Not that he could blame him in the least.
But that only pissed him off. Had Wren kept his ass with Maggie and away from Sanctuary, Fang wouldn't be forced to abandon Aimee.
Damn that selfish bastard.
"We can help you, Wren," Vane said calmly. "But you have to trust us."
Wren sneered. "I'm not putting my faith or life in anyone's hands. All that ever got me was screwed and my ass is currently sore from it."
Fury curled his lip in repugnance. "Nice imagery there, tiger. Graphic. Ever think of writing children's books?"
Fang popped his brother lightly in the back of his head.
"Ow!" Fury snapped, rubbing the spot where he'd been hit. He glared at Fang.
Fang looked at Vane. "Was I this annoying before my attack?"
Vane didn't hesitate. "Yes, and you still are most of the time. And we have now gotten off topic."
"There's nothing to discuss," Wren said irritably. "You can't keep me here forever, wolf. Putting me on a boat was a nice trick to keep them off my scent, but it won't take them long to figure out where I am. All you've done is drag the Dark-Hunters into our fight and knowing Acheron, I'm sure he won't be amused by this."
Wren paused to let out a tired sigh. "They'll be coming for me and we all know they won't stop. I would rather face them on my own terms than have them attack me on theirs."
Wren headed for the door.
As he passed by Jean-Luc, the Dark-Hunter grabbed him. Before Wren could react, the pirate tranked him.
Infuriated, he growled and changed, but before he could do anything more than that, he collapsed to the floor.
The human's face blanched. "What did you do?"
"Tranked him."
Fury scratched his head as he looked down at Wren's unconscious tigard form. "He's going to be seriously pissed off when he wakes up."
"No doubt," Jean-Luc concurred. "Therefore I suggest we keep him under at least for a day or two until he can heal and you can plan out what it is he needs to do."
Vane looked less than convinced. "Yeah, but if he doesn't listen-"
"Come up with your plan," Maggie said, "and I'll make sure he listens to it."
Fury laughed at her. "Don't be so cocky, human. Wren isn't the kind of beast you manipulate."
Aimee shook her head at him as she exchanged a knowing look with Fang. "No, Fury, you're wrong. With her, Wren is different."
Fury moved over and took Maggie's hand into his. He turned it over to see her palm. "They're not mates."
Aimee looked at Fang and her heart pounded. She loved him with every part of herself. "You don't have to be mated to care deeply for someone. I think Wren will listen to her."
"All we can do is try." Vane moved closer to Wren. "Lend us a hand, guys."
Aimee pulled Maggie aside as the men picked Wren's tigard form up and carried him down the narrow hallway to a lush bedroom.
"Do you really think there's any way Wren can prove his innocence?" Maggie asked Vane as he covered Wren with a blanket.
"I don't know. Hell, I'm not even sure he didn't kill his parents. His cousin made one hell of an argument to the council."
Aimee had to fight the urge to shove Fang's hardheaded brother. Now she knew where Fang got it from. "He didn't kill them. I was there when they brought him in. He was too traumatized by it. He sat in a corner for three weeks solid with his arms around himself, just rocking back and forth whenever he was in human form. As a tigard, leopard or tiger, he stayed coiled up."
Vane frowned. "Was he wounded when he was brought to you?"
Aimee hesitated at the question. Vane wanted to know if he'd been in a fight with his parents. Honestly, he'd looked like hell. But she didn't want them to know that because she knew in her heart and with her Aristos powers that Wren was completely innocent. "He was a little scuffed up."
Vane looked skeptical. "A little or a lot?"
"Okay, a lot," Aimee admitted reluctantly. "But had he been in a fight with two full-grown Katagaria, he would have been a lot more injured than what he was."
"Unless he poisoned them," Fury said. "Zack didn't really say how he'd killed them."
Maggie stepped forward. "I still don't believe it. It's not in him."
Fury let out a mocking laugh. "Yeah, and you are delusional. Babe, news flash, with the exception of you and the pirate, we're all animals here. And we all have a killer's instinct."
Yes, but they killed to protect and for food. They didn't kill for profit.
Aimee sighed as she looked wistfully at Wren's unconscious form. "He did have a really hard time in puberty. He couldn't maintain his forms and he did have extremely violent outbursts over minor things."
Vane arched one brow. "Such as?"
"Well, the first night he was working in the kitchen, Dev startled him and Wren cut Dev's throat with the knife he had in his hands. Luckily Dev pulled back fast enough that it was only a small wound, but had his reflexes been slower or if Dev had been human, it could have been fatal."
Fang still knew the truth. Thanks to Thorn and his "gifts," he had no doubt about what happened. "That doesn't mean he killed his parents."
Jean-Luc made a noise of disagreement. "It's rather damning. Normal people don't do things like that."
Maybe not in the pirate's world, but Fang knew what it was like to be feral. It'd taken him a long time after Aimee had dragged him out of hell before he'd stopped having night terrors. Before he'd stopped striking out at people in a panicked frenzy. But for Aimee, he'd still be like that. "No, but someone who's been severely attacked and who was powerless to stop it would do it."
Fury shook his head. "I don't know, brother. I think you're projecting what happened to you onto Wren."
No, he wasn't, but he couldn't tell them about his powers or the fact that he'd sold his soul.
Maggie looked at Aimee. "When was the last time Wren ever attacked anyone without them attacking him first?"
Aimee didn't hesitate with her answer. "Just that one time with Dev, but like I said, he was scared and shaking when it happened."
Maggie nodded. "That's what I thought. Wren is innocent in this. He told me that his parents killed each other and I believe him. Now we just need to put our heads together and think of some way to prove it."
But Fang knew that was easier said than done.
Leaving them alone to discuss the details, he pulled Aimee out of the room and into the narrow hallway.
"What have we done, Aim?"
Aimee reached up to brush his hair back from his face. She could cry over this night. How she wished she could turn back time and just be with Fang in her room again.
But she couldn't.
"Let me go back and see if I can keep them from pursuing Wren."
"I still say fuck them. Let's leave. . . ."
Her family would hunt them down to the ends of the world.
Aimee touched her lips to his whiskered cheek as she placed her locket in his hand. "I will find a way to be with you, Fang. I swear it."
Fang nodded, even though he didn't believe a word she spoke. It had been hopeless before.
Now . . . this was good-bye forever and he knew it.
