Authors: Alicia Nordwell
“So tell me more about the jewel.” Tucker and Stelian were alone in the back cabin of the small private plane he chartered, sharing one of the leather couches. For his first flight, Tucker was being treated to travel in style. It didn’t suppress all his anxiety, but it helped. The long hours traveling overseas made it tedious, after a while. He was glad he wasn’t stuck in some tiny seat surrounded by strangers, though.
“It was rumored to be part of an ancient talisman left behind when a prophet hultan was driven mad by his power. He knew the future, and it was too much for any man. He killed himself, rather than face whatever was inside his mind. When his funeral pyre burned down to ashes, nothing was left—not even bone.
“But where his heart had been was a black stone. The head of the Crugul Pamantului had it set and hung from a chain. But whoever wore the stone had visions. It was deemed too dangerous and split into two parts, each entrusted to a hultan in secret.
“After that, it was lost to legend. This was long, long before my time. Diurapneus’ hultan told him, and he told me. Now I’ve told you. If we get my piece back, it’ll be your job to watch over it, now. That’s how it should be,” he said when Tucker would’ve protested.
“I don’t know if I am up to something like that.” It killed him to admit it, but… “I’m so young, compared to you, to the hultans you knew.”
Stelian pulled Tucker against his side. “That’s something only time will fix. Don’t worry—I don’t expect you to do it all alone. We’re mates now; if I have my way, we won’t be apart ever again.”
Tucker snorted. “Wow,
that
sounds co-dependent and kind of creepy.”
“Get over it.”
“Okay.” Tucker liked needling Stelian to feel his mood shift. Their auras meshed whenever they got close to each other, but Tucker could always feel Stelian inside him. He loved it.
Hours later, knocking on the door separating the back room from the main cabin separated them from a kiss. Tucker refused to do more, knowing how strong lupe senses were, but his cock wasn’t thanking him one bit.
“What?” Stelian growled.
“We’ll be landing in forty-five minutes,” Calos said through the door. He was Stelian’s second-in-command during the mission to the old country. Marevin stayed behind with Grecia to handle the rest of the haitas, while the other betas and five other handpicked Hunters came with them.
“Got it.”
Tucker was sitting on Stelian’s lap, facing him. “Time to risk our lives. Again.”
“Someone has to save the world.”
Tucker fell sideways onto the couch, laughing until his stomach hurt. Part of it could’ve been the manic energy swamping him, his dislike of flying for the first time, and his raging arousal. Most of it was the pure over-the-top drama of Stelian’s comeback.
Stelian poked him in the side. “Get yourself together, man.”
His stomach was aching by the time the giggles finally died down, but only if he didn’t look at Stelian’s scowl.
“Come on. I want to be with the rest of the Hunters when we land.”
“Yes. Wouldn’t want to be late for saving the world.” Tucker dissolved into laughter again. Stelian stalked out of the back room, his expression of disgust covering the sense of wry humor Tucker could feel. Eventually, Tucker calmed down enough he could go take a seat for the landing.
They landed at a private strip, where Stelian had arranged for the rental agency to drop off cars. He and Tucker took the back seat of one SUV while two Hunters sat in front and two behind them. The others took the second vehicle.
Tucker couldn’t see enough. He knew Stelian lived in the mountains of what had been ancient Dacia, but they were in Greece. It wasn’t that far away. He had to wonder how Stelian felt, being so close to the home he’d lived in for so long.
“How long has it been, since you were here?” Did he visit? Was any trace of his mountain home left intact?
“Not for many, many years. Since I left here on a boat for America for the first time. I have my place, and my duty. It doesn’t leave much time for much else,” Stelian said. Once again Tucker was struck by the contrast in how Stelian sounded to how he truly felt. It was a mix of emotions—hard for Tucker to make out—but a bitter sense of homesickness overlaid it all.
That was sad. Tucker could only hope, once they made Acacius understand how very real the danger was and they returned home, that Stelian would make room in his life for Tucker. They didn’t have to spend every waking moment together, but they were mates, and Tucker didn’t want to live with a lupe who had lived so long he’d forgotten how to actually enjoy life. If necessary, he’d remind Stelian just what the phrase holiday meant.
“How are we going to do this?” Tucker asked. He figured Stelian had made plans with his betas before they mated, but for all the talking they’d done, the logistics of how they’d make Acacius listen to them hadn’t factored in.
“You’re going to huff, and puff, and blow his roof down,” Stelian said.
Well, the nursery rhyme reference was lame, but raising a good storm was definitely in Tucker’s wheelhouse. “So I blow down the gates of his house, and then what, he has to believe us?”
“You have a better idea?”
“What if he shoots at us! He said he’d kill us, Stelian. You remember that, right? ‘Cause I remember that real well. How is coming in there, power as our shock and awe, convince him that we’re not out for his piece for ourselves?”
“That’s a lot harder. Acacius is ancient, too. His honor will not allow his guard to shoot us, at least before he confronts me face-to-face. That’s our chance to convince him. He has lupe senses—he’ll know your magic is true, and he’ll know you’re pure. Only someone with evil intent would come into his villa to steal his half, and that would taint your magic.”
“So my innocence is going to save us?” Tucker buried his panic in sarcasm. If he didn’t, he was going to have to make them pull over on the crazy tiny streets lined with cars so he could puke.
“Exactly.”
Tucker shook his head against the seat. He clutched the seatbelt, needing something to hold on to. “If we make it home, we’re going to talk about your plan making skills,” he muttered. Stelian narrowed his eyes at Tucker, but didn’t try to argue.
Yeah. His plan was that flimsy.
They were quiet for a while as they made their way through city streets, following a GPS unit. “Where exactly does Acacius live?”
“My intel has his current den at a large villa in the country. It’ll be another hour or two. You should sleep, if you can. You’ll need all the energy you can get.”
Stelian patted his thigh, indicating for Tucker to rest his head there. If only Tucker could convert sexual frustration into power, he’d never run out. He and Stelian should be on some sort of honeymoon, not facing a lupe who might kill them to stop a crazy man who wanted to take over the world.
“What intel?” Tucker asked as he slid sideways on the seat and rested his head on Stelian’s hard thigh. It wasn’t nearly as comfy as a bundled up coat would be, but had the benefit of smelling spicy, and it let Tucker touch his mate.
“I keep tabs on all the major haitas around the world; we may be far more civilized in this modern era, but there are those ruled by alphas old enough to remember how to conquer—and maybe miss the era when that was the norm.”
“Especially those who hold artifacts?” Tucker added.
Stelian nodded.
“How many things like that are out there?” Tucker picked at the seam on Stelian’s pant leg.
“I don’t know. There are only two other lupes as old as me, other than Acacius. Phell is dead. Talismans and other magic imbued items could’ve been passed down in families, though.”
Tucker fell silent, considering that. He’d grown up knowing about lupes and shifting. He’d never considered it magic—he was a child of the modern age. He’d figured it was a chromosome thing, some alternate added strand of DNA. But knowing what he did now, feeling the power inside him he’d always thought was his wolf spirit… The magic he could do, the things he’d witnessed when the other hultan took Stelian?
Those might have scientific explanations, if they could be studied, but he doubted it.
Stelian ran this fingers over Tucker’s hair, scratching at his scalp. “Stop thinking so hard, relax. We’re going to come out of this just fine.” His confidence, inside and out, was soothing. Tucker closed his eyes and let out a deep breath.
He never did manage to fall asleep again, but the closeness with his mate soothed some of the fear. Stelian hadn’t lived for thousands of years to die just after he found his mate. He wouldn’t risk Tucker either, not if he wasn’t sure of his plan.
They’d left the city behind and were on a curvy country road. “We’re almost there,” Gunther said. His hands were clenched on the steering wheel. Tucker could sense the anticipation the other lupes felt, the way they barely held onto their wolves.
His stomach churned and Tucker began to breathe hard. Stelian’s plan hinged on him, but he’d had a hard time coming up with the power he needed in Phell’s territory.
“You’ll do fine, Tucker.” Stelian squeezed his bicep.
“Fake it ‘til you make it,” he muttered.
“Did you forget you almost brought down Phell’s whole house on our heads?” Calos asked. “Power is not your problem.”
“I was scared and angry. I didn’t do it on purpose.”
“Well I saw you studying that book on the plane. You’re doing your best for our haitas, and we all can see that, Tucker,” Gunther said gruffly. “We trust you, too.”
Tucker wasn’t sure if their vote of confidence made it better or worse. He’d never been good with other’s expectations—then again, no one had ever really cared to think he’d amount to anything, either.
“We’re here.”
Thick stone walls, carpeted with ivy, spread off to either side of a solid gate. “I’m blowing
that
down?”
“One word. Homewrecker.”
Calos smartass comment broke the tension. They all got out and quietly closed the doors. The Hunters surrounded Stelian and Tucker. “Do you think they know we’re here?”
Stelian gestured at one side of the gate with his head. A video surveillance camera was mounted there. “Guaranteed. Guards are probably on the other side.”
“I don’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Just blow the gate open; you don’t have to trumpet down the walls.”
“Oh, like that really happened,” Tucker scoffed.
Stelian shrugged one shoulder.
“You do know I am going to demand you tell me everything you’ve ever seen, right?” Tucker told Stelian as they moved toward the gates. There was an open area off the road that was perfect. Tucker had slipped off his shoes in the car, and one of the Hunters had stuck them into a backpack.
The earth below him felt different than Tucker was used to feeling. The energy was different, slower but deeper. It responded when he pulled at it, sluggish but there. Tucker closed his eyes and took a huge breath, letting it out in a slow rush. He called the wind with each breath, feeling the air pressure change.
His ears popped. Tucker opened his eyes. Dust began to swirl around the Hunters. He tightened the pull, swirling the wind around him, like a twister. A layer of power along his body kept the dust off as the Hunters fell behind him, opening a clear line of sight to those thick, red gates.
It was now or never. Tucker held the magic on a knife edge, letting it build to a critical point and then he shoved it at the gate, right at the seam down the center. The wind pushed through the latch and both the doors flew open, metal screeching in protest. The top hinge on the left side snapped and the gate sagged but didn’t break.
Tucker expected shouting and an attack by the guards sure to be hiding, but there was no one behind the gates waiting for them.
The wind died down. Tucker stumbled, leaning against Stelian He hadn’t realized how hard he was pushing forward with the wind until he let it go. Stelian grabbed him and steadied Tucker, holding him up.
“Where are they?” a Hunter asked. He had his hand on his gun, but had left it holstered. There were always guards at the gates at Stelian’s house.
Stelian inhaled and then growled. “Smell that?” His eyes shifted to yellow and claws erupted from his fingers. “Rot.”
They were too late.
“Let’s go.” Tucker was absorbed back inside the circle, now composed of four guards and four wolves. Stelian’s body changed as they charged into the grounds around the villa, growing taller and wider. Fur erupted from his skin as his face elongated into a short muzzle and his fangs grew long.
Tucker began to pull power. It seemed easier the second time, like the ground wasn’t fighting him as hard. It’d been much harder at Phell’s territory. He had to wonder if that was because it had been the territory of another hultan. The journal he’d been studying had said once their power came in, a hultan’s instruction had become private. The hultans could only live in close proximity because they couldn’t actively influence each other with their power, just manipulate the world around them for attacks, and the elders were stronger than all the students combined.