CHAPTER 5

Killian's POV

The room smelled of sandalwood, and Mrs. Halloway moved with brutal efficiency, her fingers working through the laces of Rhea's wedding gown until the white silk fell away and pooled on the floor. Rhea lay there in her slip, and her skin was pale under the candlelight, but the look in her eyes said she was still ready to fight.

"Hold her," the healer said.

Malachi stepped forward and sat at the head of the bed, pulling Rhea back against his chest with his arms wrapped around her waist to pin her down. He wasn't using his full strength, but he didn't need to; his weight alone was enough to keep her still.

"Let go of me, Malachi," Rhea said, her voice shaking. "You were always the quiet one. I thought you had a heart."

"That was your first mistake," Malachi said near her ear, burying his face in her hair. "My heart died the day you left, and now I just have hunger."

Rodger was at the foot of the bed with his fingers tracing along her ankle, and he wasn't smirking anymore. Mrs. Halloway dipped her fingers into warm golden oil and began rubbing it into Rhea's collarbones, and the scent of the herbs hit the air thick and cloying. It was a pheromone trigger, an ancient recipe designed to force the body into receptivity whether it wanted to or not.

"Stop," Rhea gasped, her head falling back against Malachi's shoulder as the oil began working. Her skin flushed pink, and I could see her trying to fight it. "Killian, please, this is rape."

I walked to the edge of the bed and looked down at her, feeling the monster inside me clawing to get out. "It's not rape, Rhea, it's the Blood Debt and your body knows the truth even if your mind hates it."

I reached out and dragged my thumb across the mark on her shoulder, and the moment I touched her, her back arched, and a broken moan escaped her lips. The oil was doing its job, and her resistance was melting into something primal.

"See?" I leaned over her until our faces were inches apart. "Your pulse is racing and your scent is changing, you're not fighting me anymore, you're calling to me."

"I hate you," she sobbed, but her hands reached up to clutch at my shirt and pull me down, her eyes glazed with something between agony and want. "I hate what you're doing to me."

"I know," I said, my mouth hovering over hers. "I hate it too, I hate that I'd burn the world just to be the only man who gets to see you like this."

The healer stood and bowed her head. "She is primed, Alpha, the transition is beginning, and her body is ready. Which of you will be first?"

The air in the room turned deadly. Rodger stood with his eyes glowing violet, and Malachi's grip on Rhea tightened, his fangs beginning to descend.

"I brought her back," I said, my voice a warning. "I claim the first night."

"The hell you do," Rodger snapped, stepping toward me. "I'm the one who tracked her down. I lost the most when she left."

"I held her while she cried for ten years," Malachi growled, his voice coming out as a roar. "She is mine."

Rhea looked between the three of us with her breath coming in short, panicked gasps, and the silver in her eyes was spinning like a storm. "You're all monsters," she whispered, her voice gaining strength. "You think you can divide me like property?"

The windows of the master suite shattered inward.

The glass exploded into a thousand pieces, and a heavy silver-weighted net flew through the air, pinning Malachi and Rhea to the bed. Rodger shifted halfway into his wolf form with his bones cracking loud enough to echo.

But it wasn't the Council who came through the broken window.

A man stepped onto the ledge dressed in black tactical gear with a silver crossbow leveled at my heart, and I recognized him immediately. Lucien Varick, the groom Rhea was supposed to marry.

"Get away from my wife," Lucien said.

I laughed, dark and sharp. "She's not your wife yet, and she's currently covered in Blackwood oil, so she belongs to us."

Lucien didn't flinch, and he looked at Rhea struggling under the net with her skin still flushed from the ritual. "Actually, I didn't come to save her; I came to collect the dowry."

He pulled a small remote from his pocket and pressed a button.

The silver collar that had shattered months ago suddenly hummed beneath Rhea's skin, and I realized with horror that the shards hadn't been destroyed; they'd been absorbed into her body.

Rhea let out a scream that shook the foundations of the manor, and her body began to convulse, her skin turning brilliant silver.

"What did you do to her?" I roared, lunging for Lucien.

"I turned her into a bomb, Killian." Lucien jumped back onto the ledge as alarms began to wail through the manor. "If she stays with you, she detonates; if she comes with me, she lives, so choose quickly because you have thirty seconds before the Blackwood estate becomes a crater."

I looked at Rhea, and she was glowing so brightly I couldn't see her face, and the heat coming off her was scorching the bed. Malachi was trying to rip the silver net off with his hands, smoking as the metal burned him, and Rodger was frozen in shock.

"Killian!" Rhea screamed, her hand reaching out through the blinding light.

I didn't think, just dove into the light even as my skin blistered, and I grabbed her and pulled her against my chest. "I've got you," I gasped, even though the energy was tearing through me like knives. "I've got you."

The last thing I heard was the countdown hitting zero.