As soon as her human consciousness was in the forefront and her human form washed over her, she was hit with a tidal wave of memories. All the planning that had gone into their wedding—the seating charts, the chapel, her colors... Things they were going to do together, memories they talked about making. Shame flooded her. How stupid he must’ve thought her with her silly plans.
“What are you doing, Stefan? You know about the bomber.”
He flinched away from her when she changed form. Her nakedness and humanity were somehow more abhorrent to him than her wolf form. “We were supposed to be in and out. Then the wolves came.” His voice was devoid of emotion.
Not that she expected him to have any. He’d lied about everything. Seduced her with cold calculation, inserted himself into her life until she believed a life without him was unthinkable. Even as she tallied his sins, the love she felt for him didn’t diminish. Though she desperately wanted it to. The man she’d fallen for wasn’t real; it was a pretty mask he’d made. Still, her beast roared, Mine.
No, not ours. Not real.
Mine.
“That wasn’t a very good plan, was it?” she said softly. Beth wanted to flee, not just the bomber but everything he made her feel. The pain, the humiliation and that damned torch he’d ignited in her—love. Only, it was so much more than love. It was unquantifiable. It was more and it was less, it was everything and nothing. It was the reason she couldn’t leave him here to die alone.
The beast wouldn’t let her, even if her humanity told her he had it coming.
He stood, knives drawn—frozen. “They told me you were dead.”
“I know.” She reached out to touch his arm, but he jerked away from her like she’d tried to burn him with a hot poker. Beth was struck by the ridiculousness of the situation. He was the one who had betrayed her, but he got to play the injured party. She was so angry with him, but with death looming, it didn’t matter so much.
The sound of the jet rumbled in her ears.
“Do you want to live?” she asked him, her tone still low and soothing. Beth wasn’t ready to give up yet. She didn’t want to die, and even though she wanted to kick him with a brick, she didn’t want him to die either.
One of the uninfected werewolves, obviously an Alpha by his size and bearing, took human shape and approached them. “Bethany, the jet comes. Leave the Gypsy scum.”
“The Gypsy scum freed you. You owe them a debt,” Beth said.
He snarled, muzzle erupting from his face as his beast overcame him.
Stefan immediately shoved her behind him, his grip like a brand on her wrist. Beth put her hand on his shoulder, and once he realized she was touching him, he shrugged her off. It hurt, but Beth was determined. They had only minutes left. She stepped around her would-be protector.
“Konstantin was once the Beta to Luka Stanislav, your Alpha. He still speaks for him and I speak for Konstantin. Help me save the Gypsies and your debt is resolved.” She turned to Stefan. “Drop your silver and you can save all of your men.”
“We do not fear death,” Stefan assured her.
“You owe me a debt, Stefan. You betrayed me. Let us save you and then we can both walk away.” She fought as much for her own life as she did for his.
He looked at her, an unrecognizable expression on his face.
As the seconds ticked by, Beth knew they were reaching the point of no return—where even if he agreed to let her save him, they’d be doomed. She wouldn’t leave him. It didn’t matter to her beast what he’d done, he was still her mate.
She sighed and turned to the other wolf. “Go. You don’t need to die here.”
Beth had already resigned herself to death once; maybe he was just now catching up with her.
The other wolf looked at her, head cocked to the side. “We stand with you.”
“Take my men,” Stefan croaked, and then called the order to stand down.
Beth nodded to the wolf and watched as they bounded away with their passengers. She knew she’d done a good thing. She’d been unable to stop or cure the infection, but saving those lives would have to do.
“What are you doing, Beth?” he asked, sounding tired and dejected.
“Staying with you.”
“Go. You can still make it.” He narrowed his eyes at her.
She shook her head. “No. I can’t. Wolves mate for life. You were my mate when I was turned. You still are. I couldn’t leave you here if I wanted to.”
“But it was a lie.” Incredulity stained his words.
She snarled and pushed at his shoulders with no care for his silver or his weapons. “Don’t you think that’s obvious? I may have been stupid enough to fall in love with a pretty mirage, but I can see the writing on the wall. If I could leave you here, I would, you bastard. It’s what you deserve. I don’t want to die!” she cried and shoved at his shoulders again. “I had dreams, and just because you’re not part of them anymore doesn’t mean they’re gone. I still want a home, a family. I want to help people. I could still have that. But no, you’d rather stay here and rot instead of accepting help from something you hate. The animal doesn’t understand betrayal. It doesn’t understand lying. The human part of me wants to hate you, but the beast won’t let it.” Fear choked her as the roaring of the jet reverberated ever louder in her ears. “So thanks for making that choice for me, too.”
“That’s ironic as hell, isn’t it?” he asked gently.
“Because you kill them? Things like me?”
“Yes.”
“That’s not irony.”
“Then what is it?” His dark eyes searched her face as if he actually didn’t understand.
Tears streamed down her face as a million memories crashed over her in a tsunami. Her first chemistry set, her doctorate, the night when she’d met him. The way he’d touched her, the first time he’d told her he loved her. When he asked her to marry him. It was nothing now—just like her. In about one minute there’d be nothing left of them but ash. None of it mattered. What she wanted, what she’d hoped, even his betrayal. In the endless ocean of time, she was nothing more than a molecule.
“Over.” She shrugged as the F-16 entered the airspace above them and dropped its payload.
Chapter Three
Beth was alive.
Stefan didn’t understand. She’d been infected—turned. She didn’t look sick, and she still had her human consciousness when she changed. All of the beasts at the facility did. He’d never seen that behavior before. That didn’t negate the fact they were brutal dogs, but it did change how he’d deal with them in the future.
Studying her, she still looked human. She looked like the same beautiful woman she’d been the last time he’d seen her, the last time he’d touched her. Except for her eyes—they were electric-blue shining out into the darkness—strangely hypnotic.
I love you, she’d said.
He could admit now he’d mourned her death. But here she was in the warm, living, breathing flesh claiming she couldn’t leave him—even after all he’d done. The guilt from earlier blossomed into something else, something he couldn’t name and didn’t want to give voice to.
As the prince of his people, he had special magic he knew he could use to save himself. He didn’t know if he was strong enough to shield all of his men from the bomb, but he could save himself.
He could save her. She didn’t have to die, not for him.