RISE OF THE LYCANS - Mates and Bonds

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“Selena?” I called her name again, but she was either in shock or the blast was ringing in her ears.

My beast snarled with rage, knowing that someone had intentionally tried to hurt our mate. This wasn’t a leaky pipe or faulty appliance or something. It was a bomb intended to kill Selena. Anger burned through me, and the ground shook.

“Don’t bring the building down on us,” Storm warned me through the mind link as we continued down the stairs.

“I’m going to kill the bastard who did this,” I replied, holding my mate tighter in my arms.

We reached the entrance hall and rushed out to the fresh air. I had considered snuffing the fire out, but it would have drawn too much attention. People were pointing to the rooftop of the building, where black smoke was drifting higher and chattering in French. Rex set Grandma down, but I wasn’t about to let Selena go.

Storm pulled on her sunglasses to hide her lycan eyes and scanned the area for potential dangers. Lycan sight was better than military-grade binoculars with inferred vision.

“Flaym needs something to wear,” I told Rex.

“Commando,” he replied with a grin.

“That makes two of us.” Neither of us could offer our pants to Flaym without being naked. I motioned my head down to the bag slung around my mate’s shoulder. “Selena has a robe in her tote.”

Rex reached for the robe and disappeared into the building like he was on a mission to save someone. The fire turned into a low smolder, and I knew Rex was using his element to hold the fire back until the fire trucks started arriving. With any luck, they’d be able to save the rest of the building.

“Sweetheart?” I tried again, and she continued to look around in shock. The sirens were screaming as they turned down the street, and Selena tried to wiggle out of my arms.

“Don’t even think about it,” I told her through the mind link.

“Flaym?” Her voice was filled with worry even though she knew Flaym was fireproof.

“Here he comes.”

He looked ridiculous in Selena’s cherry blossom-covered silk robe, and I knew what Storm had done the moment the wind shifted. Flaym looked like he had been sweeping chimneys.

“You should wear silk more often, Carrots,” Storm laughed, and Selena giggled. I was relieved to hear her giggle, but my beast didn’t like her looking at another male naked. The gathering crowd had also noticed Flaym’s flashing, and a few wide-eyed females even pointed.

“Unless you’re offering free rides on your magic carpet, I suggest you keep your hand on that robe.”

“What? It got hot in there,” Flaym chuckled. “I had to let things cool off.”

Nudity was perfectly normal in the shifter world because we had to shift naked or have our clothing torn to shreds. The human world wasn’t accepting of what they called public indecency, so we quickly made our way to the two waiting cars. Rex, Storm, and Flaym took the first car, and Grandma joined Selena and me in the second.

I couldn’t put her down until I knew she was safe, so I kept her in my arms, seated on my lap.

“Selena…” I kissed her temple, trying to calm myself. “How do you feel?”

“My left ear is still ringing, but I’m okay,” she said with a smile. “Nothing my father can’t help with.”

I considered asking one of the local packs to send their pack doctor, but I also didn’t want others to know my mate was expecting a pup. As of right now, they were all suspects. Selena had lived in Paris for over a year without anything happening, and everything seemed to have changed since the ball.

The heat and problems with the mate bond were one thing, but now we have a demon and the apartment blowing up. Someone had tried to kill my mate and pup. That someone had just signed their death certificate.

“Grandma, are you okay?” Selena asked my grandmother.

“I’m fine, honey,” she replied. “But I’m worried about you.”

“I’m okay… really,” she assured Grandma and relaxed into me.

We reached the Parisian Grand Hotel, where my father and Mateo stood on the sidewalk waiting for us. My father pulled the door open and helped Grandma out. I slipped out next, with Selena still in my arms. Mateo’s anxious-looking face eased a bit when he saw his daughter was safe, and he reached for her. My lycan wasn’t ready to let her go, but he also wanted her father to give her a healing treatment to ensure she was okay.

“Please,” Mateo’s voice pleaded through the mind link. I nodded my head and reluctantly let him scoop her out of my arms.

“Papa,” she said, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Estoy bien,” she assured him she was fine, but the moment we stepped onto the elevator, his eyes turned an icy shade of white, indicating that he was giving her healing energy.

She was right in front of me, and yet I longed to hold her. The elevator came to a stop on the top floor, where everyone was waiting for us. Ranger was holding his mate, who rushed to Selena the moment we stepped off the elevator. She threw her arms around her sister and father, and Paola joined them.

I considered how lucky Mateo and Paola were. Both of their daughters had found their mates within the same pack and would stay at home. They would be involved in every aspect of helping raise future grandpups. Wylder wasn’t as fortunate, but Cynder would be the Luna of a family pack. I had no doubt Wylder would travel back and forth between the packs, and someday… his grandpup would be head of Crescent Castle.

“You smell like smoke,” Sol said through a tear-filled giggle.

“Fire smoke or demon smoke?” Grandma asked.

“What do you mean demon smoke?” My mother sounded alarmed.

“We need showers,” I announced. “Give us thirty minutes, and I’ll fill you in.” I reached for my mate again and carried her to our suite. I was finally alone with her.

“Lukas, I did a full sweep of every room,” Caspian’s voice came through the mind link. “Just keep your curtains closed until we know it’s safe.”

“Thanks,” I linked back and moved into the bathroom with my mate.

I set her down and turned on the shower. She started undressing and kicked her smoke-scented clothing to the side. The nibble and bite marks I had left on her skin earlier were still fresh. I tried to keep my mind off my cock that seemed to have a mind of its own the moment I saw her naked body.

She dipped her curly brown hair under the spray, and I reached for the shampoo. After thorough shampooing, conditioning, and body washing, I could no longer smell the stench of burning smoke.

“I can’t believe my apartment is gone,” she whispered.

“You were getting ready to leave anyway.”

“I know, but I loved that little apartment.”

I reached for her chin and lifted her head. Those sweet brown eyes did me in every time. This little she-wolf was my entire world, and I was never letting her go. “You belong at home with me.”

She nodded. “I know.”

Half an hour later, everyone was packed into my father’s suite. Zane and Zander LaRue remained while the other LaRues were sent home. Zane stood with his arm around Cynder, and Wylder stood beside her with Tymber and Flaym. Demeter and Balthazar were seated on one of the sofas in the small living room portion of the suite with my parents.

Mateo and Paola sat at the table with Sol and Ranger. Caspian was peering out the window through a slip in the curtains, and Grandma rummaged through the mini-fridge with her wet pink hair still haphazardly wrapped in a bath towel.

“Why couldn’t we just meet on the rooftop terrace?” Cynder asked.

“Because there’s a she-demon out there stalking us,” Flaym replied.

“Are you sure it was he or she?” Ranger questioned. “Do demons even have a gender? I mean, technically, they could shapeshift, right?”

“It was a she,” Storm insisted. “I know it was.”

“Did you say she-demon?” Caspian turned to Flaym.

“Well, he didn’t say Great Dane,” Grandma replied.

“What exactly is going on here?” My father nearly thundered, and the room fell silent.

Storm spoke first. She explained how she thought she may have been having visions and how she went with Grandma, Flaym, and Selena to the cemetery. Rex continued by explaining the mist and the cloaked figure that had appeared in the cemetery. Grandma described the figure and insisted it was the same kind of creature they had encountered in Egypt with Balthazar, Zeus, and Xena over two decades ago.

Flaym explained the promise of chocolate soufflés and our lunch outing. He also explained how we returned to the apartment for a few things and what happened when he closed the door.

“You’ve had a busy morning!” Cynder said.

“The news is reporting the fire occurred as a result of the earthquake,” Caspian said. “Maybe it’s a faulty gas line?”

“No.” I shook my head. “The fire happened first, and that wasn’t a gas explosion. It was triggered when the door locked to ensure someone would be killed.”

“That wasn’t a regular earthquake either,” Aunt Demeter said. She also controlled the earth element and could decipher the difference between a tremor caused by elemental control and a real earthquake from below.

“We felt the ground tremble all the way over here,” my father gave me an accusatory look. “There are tunnels under Paris, and an earthquake could be catastrophic.”

“Someone had just tried to kill my mate and pup!” I wasn’t going to defend myself to them. I had every right to be angry. It’s not like the tremble brought down the Parisian Pantheon or something.

“This demon,” Balthazar said as he turned to Grandma. “Dori, are you sure?”

“I’m positive,” she nodded. “You don’t forget that. Storm struck it with lightning, and Rex fired off a ball of fire. She evaporated into mist before either could touch her. It was just like Egypt.”

“Demons can’t freely walk the earth unless some kind of dark magic has summoned them,” Demeter said.

“I know what I saw,” Grandma said with confidence.

“I agree with Grandma,” I added. “There was something supernatural about it.”

“And then we got attacked at the apartment,” Grandma added.

“Could it have been a ball of fire?” Demeter asked. “Maybe the one Rex threw at the demon?”

“Or a rocket launcher or something?” Wylder suggested. “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

“We don’t even know if it was a demon,” my father said. “Père Lachaise is the world’s most visited cemetery. It could have been a weirdo in costume.”

“And the bomb?” I asked.

Flaym nodded his head fervently. “I’m sure the apartment was a bomb.”

“I didn’t sense anything different in the apartment when we picked up the luggage a few days before and packed Selena’s things,” Balthazar said.

“Maybe the explosives were planted after you were there?” Flaym replied.

“Have you checked in with Cyrus?” My father asked.

“Ten minutes ago,” Balthazar replied. “Everything is quiet there.”

“You think someone is after the lycan offspring?” I asked my father.

“Someone tried to take Persephone from the ball when everyone else was distracted.”

“The Darc Alpha and Beta,” Balthazar said with a deadly tone. “I’m not leaving France until I’ve had a chance to sink my claws into them.”

“I could just bury them alive or incinerate them to ash, so no one knows what happened to them, but we need to make sure we have the right Alpha,” my father said.

“We need to be strategic about it. He’s going to claim it was the heat-filled pheromones in the air,” Mateo urged my father. He was my father’s Zeta for a reason.

“She wasn’t in heat, and it wasn’t a free-for-all!” Balthazar snarled. “He just wanted a lycan so he could get his hands on venom when she matured. He’s a dead man!”

“Okay, so we leave the walking corpses alone for right now until you have a chance to figure out who was involved,” Grandma said. “In the meantime, we should hunt down the demon.”

“You’re not hunting down anything,” my father told her.

“Well, I’m not staying trapped in this hotel anymore!” She huffed. “I want to see Sainte-Chapelle before you ship me back to New York and get some holy water from Notre-Dame.”

“Everyone just needs to calm down,” Wylder interrupted. “Now, there’s a couple of things going on here. If the girls were given Estrosine, then someone is behind it. It was probably given to all of you, except it had no effect on Persephone because she’s still underage as a lycan, and Grandma is too old.”

“Watch it!” Grandma warned.

“Sorry,” Wylder smiled sheepishly. “The visions obviously have something to do with Paris, and maybe it’s a warning because another Alpha plotted against our unmated she-wolves. I don’t know what’s happening with the mates and bonds, but something tells me it’s all related.”

“None of the girls were hurt, and they found their mates. Our new grandpup confirms there’s something wrong with the mate bond, and I think we should go home and try to figure that out,” my mother suggested.

I was tempted to run off with my mate and return to the comforts of home, but something told me that the problem wouldn’t go away if we did. Something was happening right here in Paris.

“The Paris authorities will be all over the apartment today,” my father said. “I’ll have Killian use his connections to find out what caused the explosion.”

“And the demon?” Rex asked.

“Demons are creatures of the dark realm. They’re not out walking around in broad daylight,” my father told us.

I wasn’t entirely convinced they couldn’t walk around in broad daylight. If they could shapeshift, then they could shift into human form.

“Storm, what are the visions you’re seeing beside the black mist?” Caspian asked.

“She’s seeing a melting moon, dead people, the doors to hell… and what else?” I turned to Storm.

“Something about a phantom or the opera house,” Flaym said.

“It was a chandelier,” Grandma corrected him, “And a painting of a naked man. Don’t forget the naked man.”

“Storm?” Rex reached for her.

Her body stood ridged, and her eyes turned completely white. She lifted a shaking hand to cover her eyes, but she didn’t make a sound. The whitening of her eyes reminded me of Selena’s father. Mateo had been given a gift from a Goddess that caused his eyes to turn white, and I had no doubt that Storm was also given the gift of sight.

Rex’s eyes glazed over, and I knew he was trying to tap into her vision. Twins were often born with the ability to read each other’s thoughts, just as mates could. This connection went beyond a simple pack link or family mind link. It was formed in the womb. My twin Uncles and triplet cousins could also read each other’s thoughts.

Storm’s eyes returned to their normal blue color, and she looked pale. Her breathing was labored, and she squeezed her eyes closed. My mother wrapped her arms around my sister, who was still silent. I could feel the depletion of her energy, and my beast grew tense.

“Sweetheart?” My father called to her.

“I… I don’t know,” she shook her head and I hoped that Rex had managed to remember it for her.