Fear the Heart (Werelock Evolution Book 2) (9 page)

My chest tightened at his words and I hesitated a moment. But my blood was thrumming louder than the discomfort pulling in my chest. So when Alex came charging back into the room, dusting off drywall and other debris from his person, I sent him straight through another wall.

Alessandra shrieked. Remy emitted a surprised burst of laughter. His laughter abruptly abated, however, when I threw him through a wall as well.

I didn’t know how I was doing it. I wasn’t even thinking anymore, only feeling my way. And all I felt was my blood’s insurmountable need for vengeance.

“Christ,” Kai exhaled, his wide eyes appraising me with renewed fascination and esteem.

I was standing now. I didn’t remember standing. I didn’t recall throwing Alcaeus’ desk on its side either.

“Milena!” Alcaeus drew my attention from Alex’s guilt-stricken face. Alex had unwisely raced back into the room for more abuse, along with Remy.

“Raul transformed over the course of a week,” Alcaeus stressed. “We all agree it wasn’t right for him to shift unassisted. But understand, the pain he suffered would have been nothing compared to what you experienced in the gardens earlier, because his change wasn’t unnaturally accelerated, as yours was.”

On some level, Alcaeus’ explanation was reassuring to me for Raul’s sake. But it did little to calm the ancient fury boiling my blood. I blasted that anger at Alex again, and watched his unbreakable supernatural form tear faster and harder through the wall than it had the previous two times.

My she-wolf whined in protest. My stomach churned with apprehension. As satisfying as it was to unleash my outrage on Alex, I was undeniably conflicted, because another part of me didn’t relish hurting him at all. And I was relieved when he immediately returned to the room unscathed, his anguished countenance once more seeking my consideration.

“Milena, I understand you’re upset,” Alcaeus reasoned, ever so slowly approaching me, “but you could hurt yourself if you don’t stop this. I don’t want to have to stop you by force,” he very delicately, albeit clearly threatened.

“I don’t want to stop!” I yelled at him. “Keep your calming mojo away from me!”

“Milena?” Kai implored, his eyes cautiously engaging mine. “We don’t know if Alex would have been able to control Raul’s shift anyway. We don’t know if even Alcaeus would have been able to assist him. The blood trust Joaquin warned Alcaeus of was likely already broken at that point with Raul.”

“Agreed,” Kaleb’s deep, unaccented voice startled me by suddenly joining the conversation—and by taking a solid position on something for once.

I swiveled my head to find him standing beside me, his pretty-boy face reflective. He cleared his throat. “I’m of the opinion Raul knew exactly what he was doing. He didn’t want our help. He bore the change without complaint. Which is how it managed to escape the attention of every guard at Salvador who interacted with him that no one was controlling his shift.”

Remy’s eyes narrowed. “He knew?”

“Yes. I have reason to believe Raul knew to some extent what his emerging werelock blood was loaded with,” Kaleb boldly informed the room. “And so he also knew better than to tip us off to his impending powers in advance, knowing we’d have been well equipped and prepared for his resistance then, greatly reducing his chance of escape.”

“Liar,” I breathed heatedly, shaking my head in denial, renewed hatred surging through my veins.
How dare he throw my brother under the bus like that when he wasn’t here to defend himself?

“Raul played Alex,” Kaleb asserted, his expression frank and unflinching. “He played all of us. The proof is in the security surveillance footage of him throughout the week. He barely appears to even be suffering discomfort.”

“
Liar!
” I yelled it this time, focusing all my unreserved hostility on Kaleb, who seconds later collided headfirst with Alcaeus’ grand bookshelf.

“Milena, please?” Alcaeus appealed, his tall, intimidating form swiftly advancing in my direction now. “I’m asking you one last time to calm down and stop this before I’m forced to stop you myself,” he cautioned in a tone that caused me to shrink back slightly and reevaluate my reckless course of action.

“Leave her alone!” Alex interceded, placing himself between Alcaeus and me, as if to shield me from his brother.

“Alex, I’m not going to hurt her,” Alcaeus bristled. “I’m trying to keep her from hurting herself.”

“I know, but this is partly the blood curse, Al. I can feel it. It’s distorting her emotions. You can’t expect her to control something she doesn’t even understand. Something
we
barely understand.”

Alex’s bizarre justification on my behalf left me speechless. As did his next words.

“She needs to release it. Let her work out her rage on me,” he suggested, tilting his head and giving me a rueful, lopsided smile. “I don’t mind.”

My brows fused. Was he for real?

My racing emotions stalled. What was I doing letting my anger overrule my common sense? I was surrounded by six supernatural freaks who were all as old as dirt and knew full well how to brandish their impressive powers against me. I was grossly outclassed and outnumbered. Just because I’d thrown three of them around so far without suffering any retaliatory consequences didn’t mean they would humor my tantrum indefinitely.

“Go on,” Alex prompted softly, taking a small step closer. “Throw me again,” he encouraged, his voice a velvet whisper. “It’s okay, I promise.”

I stumbled back a step, the mad adrenaline rush that had fueled my actions thus far rapidly waning, deserting me like a faithless friend. Leaving me feeling more vulnerable than ever.

I realized my heart was sprinting, my hands shaking. I was struggling to breathe. My eyes darted wildly around the study as they took in all the destruction I’d managed in a scant few minutes. The concerned, wary faces staring back at me throughout the room proved equally disconcerting.

I took another step back, mumbling a general apology before stubbornly rambling that they were all wrong, that Raul hadn’t wanted this. That they had no right to lay the blame on him for the torture they’d so callously inflicted.

“You’re right,” Alex readily acceded, advancing another deceptively casual step in my direction. His head was bowed, his posture distinctly nonthreatening. “It’s entirely my fault. And I accept full blame, Milena. Please, feel free to mete out punishment to me,” he offered.

I stood mystified. Frightfully stumped. In my peripheral vision I noted a tearful Alessandra making her “aw” face again, and my cheeks flamed.

I wanted to flay Alex. My wolf wanted to run to him for comfort. And I was sure in that moment Alex would have gladly allowed either to assuage his own guilt. I wasn’t ready to give him that satisfaction. Turning stiffly, I returned to my chair.

The loathsome tension was alleviated somewhat when Kai and Remy humorously voiced their ardent approval of Alex’s proposal, and Alcaeus joined in, urging me to indulge myself, and granting me permission to punch Alex’s head through every wall in his home.

Though I felt considerably more subdued, as Kaleb approached to reclaim his seat next to mine, a growl unwittingly rolled past my clenched teeth. Kai took notice, and after he subtly, silently gestured to Kaleb, the irksome American relinquished his seat to Kai, who came to sit beside me. I gave him a weary half smile of gratitude, and he mouthed, “You okay?”

I leaned closer in order to whisper the fear at the forefront of my thoughts, willing my voice not to crack. I could feel myself unraveling. I had to unleash my distress to someone, and Kai seemed like the best candidate in the room.

“What’s going to happen to Raul? If he reaches the Salvatellas?”

Before Kai could reply, Alessandra swooped in and encroached upon our private conversation. “We’re going to do everything in our power to rescue Raul from the Salvatellas.” She looked to Alex and Alcaeus. “Isn’t that right?”

Stupid me. Nothing was private in a house full of supernatural eavesdroppers.

“Without question,” Alex instantly chimed in from where he stood, staring fixedly at me.

“May I sit with you?” Alessandra asked with a shy smile as she settled in next to me on the oversized chair.

I was too physically and emotionally drained from my paranormal outburst to fight her suddenly infectious, motherly nature, and eventually I allowed her to embrace me and run her fingers through my hair while the meeting of supernatural minds resumed. Alex went back to his seat but persisted in watching over me, worry etched in his features.

My dimwitted she-wolf wanted it to be him comforting us rather than his sister. Briefly, I closed my eyes in a vain attempt to block out Alex’s presence in the room, but that only served to make his scent stronger.

I listened as impassively as possible while Alcaeus revealed the supposed “facts” of how my brother had betrayed the Reinoso pack. Alcaeus confirmed what Guadalupe had intimated, that Alex had been livid upon discovering Raul’s relationship with Alessandra, believing that Raul was merely using his sister to further his own agenda.

As punishment he’d decreed that Raul immediately be restationed in Nepal, reassigned to what Raul considered a far less important and interesting project than the one in the Americas that he had been actively involved in for the greater part of five years. Alcaeus referred to the project in the Americas as the “Rogue Mission.”

Alex’s audacious interference in his sister’s love life had, naturally, infuriated Raul. According to Alcaeus, Raul had flat out refused to relocate to Nepal, unwilling to be separated from Alessandra. But following a particularly nasty confrontation during which Alex apparently attempted to force Raul’s obedience through compulsion—only to discover just how enduring Raul’s mind resistance was—Alessandra intervened and begged Raul not to push Alex’s wrath any further, advising him to go to Nepal and wait it out until Alex cooled off.

Though Alessandra’s actions were hardly surprising to me now—after witnessing firsthand her dysfunctional relationship with Alex—I could only imagine the outrage and betrayal my brother must have felt when she ultimately took her little brother’s side over his. Allegedly, Raul then accepted his fate and agreed to leave for Nepal within the week, but not before informing Alessandra that they were through.

Two days later, Raul vanished without a word to anyone. Within three weeks’ time, his location was discovered when Gabriel Salvatella made contact with Alex, informing him Raul had come to him seeking to join his pack and tendering privileged Reinoso security intel in exchange for Gabriel’s protection. Gabriel offered to deliver Raul back into Reinoso custody, professing some sort of noble intentions related to his desire to maintain the fragile truce that had only in recent decades been sustained between their packs. But before Raul could be returned, he somehow managed to escape from the Salvatellas’ hold and make a run for it.

Alcaeus admitted that this particular part of the story remained a mystery, as they were hard-pressed to believe Raul could have so easily escaped. The suspicion was that Gabriel had permitted Raul’s escape, or even freed him outright, and through his supreme powers of manipulation and persuasion, implanted within Raul’s consciousness a false memory whereby he had escaped of his own devices, knowing Alex was likely to scrutinize Raul’s mind for every detail of his time with the Salvatella pack.

A little less than two weeks ago, nearly three months after Raul purportedly escaped from the Salvatellas, Kaleb’s men apprehended him in Fortaleza and brought him to Salvador. Alex had taken it upon himself to personally interrogate Raul before sentencing him to a traitor’s fate.

Contrary to Kai’s earlier assertion, Alcaeus insisted Alessandra had, in fact, pleaded with Alex continuously to spare Raul’s life, and said it was only because of Alessandra’s great attachment to Raul that he believed Alex had ultimately chosen to turn rather than execute him, as the law of their pack dictated for his crime of treason.

I listened, willing my expression to remain blank and biting my tongue when I would have loved to question or voice objection. I was grudgingly forced to acknowledge portions of the story were plausible, certain reactive actions fitting of what I knew of Raul’s willful tendencies.
But I would believe none of it until I heard Raul’s side.

And some things simply didn’t fit. Asshole that he may have been, there was no way Mateus hadn’t warned Raul at least to some degree about the Salvatella pack. So if Raul had known the potential danger and sought Gabriel’s help regardless, possibly it reflected just how miserable and mistreated he’d been as a human member of the Reinoso pack. But, alternatively, I couldn’t help but wonder if they were wrong to assume Raul had sought Gabriel in the first place. Though it only bred more questions and more potential holes in the story Alcaeus had relayed, what if Raul had been targeted and kidnapped by the Salvatellas instead?

If Gabriel was capable of implanting within Raul what they suspected to be a false memory of his escape, what was to stop Gabriel from implanting within Raul a false memory of the entire interaction he’d had with the Salvatella pack? After all, they’d targeted Luiza as a human servant of the Reinoso household. And while they’d failed in their attempt to slay Alex through Luiza, they’d still managed to take out a powerful Alpha and his mate. If a strategy worked once …

“I want to see the video footage!” I heard myself demand aloud, interrupting Alcaeus, who had been voicing his concerns about the Rogue Mission being compromised due to Raul’s defection, fearing critical information would now be shared with the Salvatella clan. Alcaeus, along with everyone else, looked confused by my outburst.

“The Salvador security surveillance footage,” I elucidated, raising my head from where it had been resting atop Alessandra’s shoulder.

“Milena …” Alcaeus hesitated, “I don’t think that’s such a good idea, honey. It’s rather violent … and I don’t know if you’d want to see Raul—”

“No … no, not that footage,” I clarified, feeling the blood drain from my face as I tried not to contemplate what horrors might be contained in that particular footage, which I never wanted to view.