dangerous alliances

Laziel Brahm

I tore my hands away from Mara’s body like it was scalding hot, closing in on the wiry-framed doctor before he had the time to say ‘Open wide.’

“Laz—” Ronan warned in vain as I slammed the man into the pristine white walls, gripping the lapel of his collar so tightly that his face turned blue.

“What the fuck did you just say?” My voice was too low to have been human, and my wolf’s energy tingled along my neck and back where its fur morphed in and out of my skin.

His square-rimmed glasses bounced off the hooked top of his nose before he raised his hands, panting loudly.

“Enough, Laz. Let the man speak.” Dante’s deadpan growl made the hairs on the back of my neck stand and I turned to see his blue eyes had brightened visibly, enough that they were almost luminescent.

I shoved the doctor away from me, gritting my teeth and circling back to the metal bed where the red-haired woman was breathing softly.

Her beautiful porcelain face was strained, her neatly arched brows furrowed over her cute straight nose.

I resisted the urge to brush my lips over her hair, wondering if it was about time to take myself out back and take a bullet between the eyes.

“The poison is a specific type of nightshade stronger than the regular wolfsbane, Your Highnesses,” Strauss panted, and I reeled back my wolf, realizing it was getting harder and harder for me to reign it in.

Was this because of what happened with Eddie? 

Heat stung my face when I realized the Alpha was still watching me, his hooded blue eyes flickering back to the doctor a second after I met his eyes.

He suspected me…suspected something. 

Damn it, Laziel why can't you just be fucking normal for one fucking night?

My body felt hot…too hot, and the doctor’s monotonous rasp drifted in and out of focus like static in my ears.

“…whoever did this…wanted her to die immediately. I think…Your mate is in grave danger, Your Highness—” Straus finished, the weight of his words making the temperature in the room drop until I was sure I would get frostbite.

“Mate? That's funny, isn't it? Because we never claimed Mara as our mate. Hell, if she had any sense she would run as far away from us as she can after this. Its no place for a wolfless woman,” I deadpanned, making Ronan flash me a sharp look.

“Enough.” 

Well, lookie there...it appeared the wench had grown on the big bad white wolf too.

“Fucks sake!” I heaved an exasperated sigh, brushing my claws through my hair and catching the irritated look on my face in the small bedside glass.

My bronze eyes were lined with kohl, but the red threads of exhaustion and bloodlust still lingered in the whites of my eyes.

I looked like a wild beast. Perfect.

“I might not mate her, boys, but its our duty to protect her until she can leave Infinity Fortress to somewhere safer,” Dante growled, and my brows drew together instinctively.

Until HE mated her? Why the fuck did he get to decide her fate alone?

“And If I don't want her to leave? You're not the only one who felt the freaking mate bond, Dante. You can't just decide whether we want her or not for the rest of us,” I barked, bit the Alpha only watched me like I had suddenly started speaking fucking Dutch.

“I’m the only one that matters, and I will not share my mate.” He breathed with an air of finality that madee stagger back with a slackened jaw.

“Un-fucking-believable—” I gaspedC before a harsh, dark chuckle passed through my lips and I threw my head back to laugh, the sound sloshing around in my ears like carriage motor oil.

If Dante Milburn wasn't the most self-absorbed prick on Athena’s green earth, then I would hack my balls off and become a bloody eunuch.

“Why don't you make sure Winters is alright, Brahm? Milburn and I will handle the council and inquisition,” Ronan growled meaningfully, his face holding none of the detached lightness it had before the doctor opened his big fat mouth.

Was he going to let the big old boss do this too? 

My knuckles tightened on the metallic handrail of Mara’s bed before I glanced down at her, noting the soft swell of her breast and the way the duvet had molded around her shapely hips.

Dante's lips firmed when my gaze locked on his, but I could sense the undercurrent of rage that seeped from him the way ice seeped from a closed door.

He was good at that. 

Where Ronan’s rage was a desert of nothingness, Dante had enough ice in his darkness to drown all of hell and freeze the fiery pits over.

He was the one wolf it would be suicidal to cross, so I ground my jaw and nodded my acceptance.

If there was anyone I would love to get my claws around their neck, it was Winters. 

A thing like that…losing a hand was worth the shot.

Wolves chattered in the busy fortress square when I pushed my way through the mess of carriages and cabbage barrows.

The clang of plates and the doughy scent of freshly baked bread seeped from the royal kitchens. 

The soft yellow lights playing through the many windows of the kitchen tower revealed the red-uniformed maids bustling about the lavish kitchen interiors, cutting and sprucing and smacking each other.

“Lazzy? Is that you?” A woman’s voice called out to me from the shadows before I turned to make out the glowing orange tip of a cigar.

Smoke from her bright red lips curled out from the shadows before she stepped into the faint silvery halo of the moon hanging glumly in the night sky.

Selene Willows. Damn it all to fucking hell and back.

I could feel the hard lines of my expressionless face sour instantly when she fluttered thick black lashes at me, reaching out just before I pulled away.

“What do you want, Willows? I'm busy right now—” 

A muscle ticked in her jaw when my harsh words spread between us and I shouldered past her, hopping onto one of the many cobblestone paths and wishing I knew the kind of magic to make myself disappear.

“Goodness, Lazzy, at least pretend you're happy to see me! The party was rough for me too, you know?” She cursed, jogging to keep up with my brisk pace before I felt her hands circle around my arm tightly.

“Selene—” I ground through gritted teeth, pausing when she stepped in front of me to stop myself from knocking her over.

I realized the second I heard whispers buzzing in my ears that it was a mistake.

Something dark and slick crawled upy spine when she tugged me into a shadowed alcove, rising on her tiptoes to press a kiss to my lips.

“Enough!” I hissed, breaking away from her and letting the cold lick at my back when I staggered back.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” my voice was downright animalistic now, with none of the strained politeness it held earlier.

“I miss you Lazzy, come on! All anyone has cared about since I've been here is that fucking whore. I need you too—” She muttered and I froze, my eyes narrowing to slits when I closed the distance between us so fast that she stumbled back and fear flashed through her eyes. 

“You better not have had anything to do with Mara’s condition, Selene,” I warned, wagging my finger in her face before she batted it away angrily, sharp violet eyes narrowing on my face.

“Mara? For moon’s sake, Lazzy! She's nothing! Alright? You think you could have what we had with her? No one will ever treat you the way I treated you baby…we were so good together, it doesn't have to end this way—” the black-haired woman cooed, rising on her tiptoes to cup her hands around my cheeks.

“But it has, Selene. It did. Don't you understand? The way you betrayed me…there can never be anything between us even in our next life,” I said slowly, drawing out the words and hoping somehow it would get through to her thick skull.

I had never been the best at saying exactly what it was I was feeling especially when I’d been hurt in the past.

The Confessor’s seductive smirk withered away as she took her hands from mine, clutching them to her chest as she staggered back.

“I would leave the Fortress if I were you. There’s no place here for a confessor,” I breathed, watching tears pool in her eyes.

“What? So I'm only a basket needed when there’s waste? Some villain you can put the blame on the next time any of you are too cowardly to cross-examine your mates yourselves?”

“Watch yourself!”

“You’re a fucking asshole, you know that? Laz? Well joke’s on you, because the Alpha has just asked me to say back at the castle, and there’s nothing you or you puny little band of misfits can do to stop me,” she snapped, whipping her long choppy black hair over her shoulders.

Dante let her stay? 

Had he completely lost every modicum of common sense there was to lose?

Did he care about no one but himself and his stupid fucking power?

“Listen to me, Selene. You might think you have a leg up now, but Milburn isn't like me, alright? The Alpha’s gonna drain you of your powers and then throw you out to the dogs if you make even one mistake,” I preached, but the woman gutted her chin defensively instead, her eyes flashing in challenge.

“Then I guess I better not make any. Good night, Laziel. You know where to find me,” She whispered viciously, leaving me to the silence when her footfalls faded.

 “Curses,” I muttered under my breath, sinking my fist into the stone wall.

First it was this bullshit with the commander, and now Selene was staying?

Could a good wolf not catch a good night’s rest after a hard day’s torture?

I pushed myself away from the slick stone walls of the alley when a glint of something on the floor caught my eye.

The wan light of midnight and the oscillating halo of the search lights bathed the human-shaped lump that sharpened in my view when I narrowed my eyes.

Was that a body?

I inhaled sharply, my claws reaching out to pull on the heavy rug before the moisture drained from my mouth when I watched it unravel.

This was no place for a maiden to be sleeping. What the hell was she doing?

“Miss?” I hissed, leaning down to peer at the freakishly white face when the overwhelming scent of dried blood made me snap my head back.

The darkness rushed into the corners of my eyes like a tidal wave before I forced it back, keeling over to rake the air in through my nose.

Blood always made the poison from The Darkness worse. 

Fuck, even I couldn't stand to inhale the metallic scent too long or it would drive me crazy!

“Seven hells, who could have done this?” I hissed, recognizing Mabel’s glassy eyes when the wind knocked the flap back and she stared up at me…unblinking…motionless…dead.

My gaze traced over the large slits that ripped into the woman’s stiff, tall body.

As if she had been hacked to death with a machete.

Why would the killer dump her here for anyone to find?

She was the last lead in our case for Mara with Edna still missing.

“Oh, Dante…you are not gonna like this,” I hissed, digging a cigar pack from my pockets and flicking the light on with shaky hands, my vessels bursting and relaxing as the nicotine flooded my system.

Think, Laziel…fucking THINK!

Yes…there was no excusing the fact that Mabel the maid had been violently murdered.