“Someday soon,” he snarled, “it’ll be like you never existed.” He dropped his jaw open wide and let out the beginning of a grizzly bear’s primal roar. The back of his shirt ripped under the pressure of four hundred extra pounds of muscle.
“If that’s a challenge, I accept.” My whole body tensed in preparation for a wild fight. Behind the alpha bear, others had begun their transformations, though they were somewhat less intimidating. Shifting did nothing to counteract the effects of alcohol.
The alpha was on his hind legs, briefly silhouetted against the pale wash of moonlight spilling across the lot. One great paw arced downward toward me, claws poised to maul. I dashed in to meet him, but before I had the chance to connect, he faltered in his swing. A tortured gasp left his lungs, eyes widened, and he suddenly struggled for breath. A moment later, the shifter alpha crashed to the ground. His eyes bulged from their sockets. I watched the fur thin and gray, giving way once more to skin that now bore a sickly pallor.
“What are you doing to me?” he wheezed. The veins stood out on his neck and forehead.
At his back, his friends had scattered. There was only one figure standing behind him now. Logan’s face betrayed as much as the calm surface of a lake when he withdrew his open palm from the alpha’s back. Two black wings had sprouted from his shoulders, spread wide to help him channel the ethereal forces of life and death that he controlled. He’d driven his energy into the bear shifter, ripping his soul from this life and back again.
Logan’s angel wings blocked out the moon, throwing us all into near pitch darkness.
I couldn’t help but bristle. Hadn’t he seen that I was ready to take the alpha on myself? His little show of appalling power felt like a deliberate slight, a way for him to show that no matter who was technically in charge, he had no real reason to fear me. His grin confirmed it, and my hands curled into balls.
He stepped back, melting away from my sight. My flash of anger passed as quickly as it had arrived. I knelt down to look the bear shifter in the eyes.
“Unless you want to endure that for the rest of your miserable life, I suggest you rethink who’s doing the packing around here. Understand?” The hunting knife at my side sang a cold, one-note melody as I slid it from the sheath. The alpha tracked it with his unfocused gaze. “Or do you need more convincing?”
The tip of the blade found its way underneath his heavily bearded chin, slicing through the forest of silvered hair until its point found skin. The shifter’s jaw clenched visibly. I prodded him, just a little. Enough to smell a fresh trickle of blood.
“You know,” I said thoughtfully, “I’m sober as a mortal judge tonight. But I bet I could get a nice buzz off of you.” It wasn’t a joke. The pungent odor of beer lingered beneath metallic iron. I could almost taste it already.
“You’re a bunch of sick freaks. All of you.”
I chuckled. “Including the ones you work for.”
The alpha grabbed the hilt of the knife and wrenched it away indelicately. He cut himself deeper in the process. A bright, jeweled stream of blood ran down the front of his throat, but he was undeterred. The scent of his alcohol tainted blood filled my nostrils, driving my own hunger, except I had control. My intentions had been to show those in charge back in Seattle that I wasn’t taking their threat lightly and that meant leaving behind a scared tribe.
“Consider your point made,” he growled. “And leave us the fuck alone.”
“I’ll consider my point made, and therefore expect never to see you again.” I straightened up. “Or else I’m afraid things won’t end so diplomatically next time.”
He sneered but said nothing. His tribe had all but abandoned him for the shelter of the dark tree line at the edge of the lot. I stood my ground for as long as it took to see him shamble off into the night. Until I couldn’t smell his thick, boozy blood any longer.
I did, however, smell something else. And then I heard it, the frantic sound of something running. It was too light to be a bear shifter. The lack of a beating pulse was what ultimately gave it away.
I kicked at the air, darting toward the intruder, and dragged him down to the wet earth, no more than a few feet from the end of the asphalt. Ten more yards and he might have made it to safety, but alas. I had overcome him.
“No!” He struggled feebly in my grasp. “Wait!”
“Why?” Adjusting my grip, I hauled him toward the edge of the woods. “You were there in the parking lot, weren’t you? Listening to what was said?”
“Yes.” He attempted to free his arm but succeeded even through dislocating his shoulder. “Ah, God!” His face scrunched up with agony.
“Then you should know I’m all out of mercy.” The trees loomed before us, inescapable. He saw his fate written large upon their silent trunks. “Especially for a rat like you.”
“They’re coming for you,” he said. “And you might think you’re the big dog now, but you are nothing compared to the storm on the horizon. I guess you could call that a warning.”
“Thank you,” I said. “But there is no clemency for traitors.”
I lashed forward, the blade in my hand biting across his chest. I made quick work of destroying his heart.
Twenty minutes later, Logan and I made our way down toward the inlet shore. I wiped the blood off my sleeve as we walked in silence.
I didn’t recall everything from before I had been turned in to a vampire, but I’d grown up in a cold place with snow and storms. It was a hard life. And my father had once said, it was better to stand and fight. By running, you’d only die tired.
That was why I dug my heels in and had no intention of leaving my home. I’d experienced great loss, rebuilt, and lost even more. Including part of myself. That stopped now.
At the intersection in front of the Golden Klondike club, a body lay beneath the traffic light. A bear shifter. Ghastly pale, eyes wide and staring, thanks for Seth’s handywork. An example for the others to see, that they might know what retribution lay ahead. It was a warning they would never heed. I counted on their ignorance.
That was all part of the fun. My plan had been set in motion to eradicate these bastards from my territory.
Chapter 4
Veronica
Arriving at the Anchorage Grand Hotel less than twenty-four hours after Lian had called me in Seattle was a mildly surreal experience. The taxi dropped me off in front of a building whose sharp, modern angles stood in stark contrast to the rugged mountains in the background. If not for the fancy gold, '50s-era script adorning the front of its façade, I might have taken the place for a hospital or a school. Strange place, but I was too tired to complain.
The door to my room—number 502—opened to a surprisingly spacious suite of rooms. Lian had insisted upon these particular accommodations, and as soon as I saw the living room and kitchenette, I began to understand why. The drawers and cupboards had even been stocked with plates and flatware.
I called her five minutes after putting down my stuff. “Hey, it’s me. Just wanted to let you know I made it.”
“Great!” She laughed slightly. “You sound beat. How was the flight?”