Through the Ether (Force of Nature Book 5) - Amber Lynn Natusch Page 0,50

even sure that dead-werewolf-power-altered you would be capable of that level of asshatdom—”

“Who is?” he asked playfully. “Don’t stop there, Piper. I need to know all the ways you could eliminate me…you know…for peace of mind.”

“Well,” I replied, tapping my lips with my finger for effect, “I suppose I could turn you to stone. A monument-slash-cautionary tale for the next poor alpha of the city—”

“Immortalized in marble,” he mused as we crammed into the narrow stairwell. “I think I could live with that.”

“But you’d be dead, you see, so…” I sucked in a breath between my teeth. “That’s a real conundrum.”

I slipped out from under his arm and didn’t look back as I led the way downstairs. The din from the kitchen grew louder with every step, but not so loud as to cover up Knox’s burst of laughter. It surrounded me like a warm blanket, and all I wanted to do in that moment was wrap myself inside it and sleep there for weeks. But we didn’t have weeks, or days, or even hours, if Merc’s call with the coven queen about the talismans proved successful. In no time at all, we’d be amassing the troops and launching ourselves into the unknown in a blind attempt to attack the fey royals and hopefully rescue Liam in the process.

There was no time for the lure of comfort and denial, no matter how attractive it might be.

Chapter Eighteen

It quickly became clear that my stomach was in no mood to tolerate food, so I slipped up the butler’s stairs unnoticed and made my way down the hall. I wanted to know how Merc’s call had gone. I needed to know how much time we had left.

My knuckles had barely grazed his door when it eased open. He smiled down at me, but I could see the tension in it; the slight creases around his eyes, the pinch between his brows.

“I’m guessing Sherry isn’t done yet?”

“And you would be correct.” He swung the door open wider, and I stepped inside. The snick of the latch clicked behind me. “Where are the others?”

“The wolves are eating—big surprise, right?”

A true smile overtook his face. “Don’t think my enforcers aren’t doing the same.”

A shiver crept down my spine. “What about you? Don’t you need to feed?”

Silence.

“Eventually.” He did nothing to hide the mischievous look in his dark eyes. “Tell me, Piper, how was Knox when you left him?”

“Good. Really good, actually. Like nothing happened…” When Merc said nothing in response, tension built in my chest. “That’s a good thing, right?”

“Most likely, yes, but we cannot be certain. He is in a precarious position, Piper. I will not lie to you about that. But I think if anyone can hold on and overcome, it is him.”

“I hope so.”

“As do I.”

More silence.

“Listen, Merc…I wanted to thank you for what you did for Knox. How you helped him.”

Merc’s intense gaze pulled away and he stepped deeper into the room, his back to me.

“I didn't do it for you, Piper. I did it because I know what it is like to be him…to not be in control of your mind or body.” He paused near the foot of his bed, still unwilling to face me. “And I did it because he is part of my family now—my pack—and you never abandon your family. Ever.”

“I’m assuming we’re not including your father or my mother in that, right?” I said, doing what I could to cover my emotion-thick voice with humor. “Because he was a total dick, and I’m pretty over Larken at this point.”

He turned to look at me, his eyes full of the intensity I’d come to associate with the vampire king.

“She is not, and never was, your family.”

There was something terrifying and yet exciting about the way he looked at me. The way his anger was so tempered, yet raw and writhing just below the surface. For a fleeting moment, I wondered what he would do to her if he were the one to deliver the killing blow that ended the queen of Faerie—wondered if I would see his notorious madness in the aftermath. If maybe he was right—that he and Knox were not so different.

But I didn’t wonder if I cared.

I already knew I didn’t.

“So what do we do now?” I asked as I walked over to lean my cheek against his chest.

“We wait.”

“And when the wait is over?”

“Then we will do what we must.” I pulled away just enough to look up into his endless dark eyes.