The Mate Mistake(The Woolven Secret 3)(53)

"I actually came to you both for a reason. There's no reason to panic, but--"

"It's starting, isn't it?" Belle blurted around her bite of cookie. It was actually one of the most delicious things she'd ever put in her mouth, and she could tell her body would not only be able to process it, but it actually did nourish her. This woman was a genius.

"Yes. You should go ahead and finish your tea, but then come in behind the walls. We need to talk strategy. Oh, look. Ondrej is making another pass around Aphelion." She pointed up.

Belle saw her first real, live dragon.

Then three more followed. One of them looked as if it had been fashioned from solid gold. She gasped. "They're so beautiful."

"And deadly as fuck," Eleanor said. "Their Alpha fire will burn almost anything. So I've been working in my laboratory and keying some spells and potions to protect you. You'll have a distinct advantage if you can walk through dragonfire."

Her stomach knotted in it on itself, and a prickling awareness skittered up her back like a hundred spiders. She tried to brush it off as only fear, but it was more than that. It was a sense of foreboding that seemed as solid as any of them sitting there. It had a place at the table.

Something evil, truly evil, was coming.

Eleanor looked up and their eyes met at the same time. The witch had felt it, too. She didn't know if she found that comforting or terrifying.

"It's close. We should get behind the walls."

Belle swallowed hard. There was so much she still wanted to say, so much she wanted to ask, but it all got stuck on her tongue like a tough piece of gristle.

"Don't be afraid of yourself, child. I believe Parker gave you a piece of truth. Your monster is beautiful."

"You heard that?" Her eyebrows shot up.

Eleanor laughed. "No, he told me what you're struggling with. And, please don't be upset. He was looking for my advice for how to best help you."

"I'm not angry." Her issues were probably obvious to all of them, anyway.

"What you did in St. Louis was--"

"An atrocity," she interrupted. "But I'd do it again."

"As I expect you would. Human morality doesn't apply to us. When the Big Bad comes for those you love, we are capable of awful horrors. And it's best that the we don't let the Big Bad forget that. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, I always say."

Black clouds began to gather overhead and lightning crackled around Westwood's fingers. "They've come for my boys. For my little loves. Do you think for one minute I would hesitate to unleash all the power of hell on anyone who tried to trespass here?" Westwood's voice was suddenly deeper and echoed with the power of the ages. It rattled the trees as the wind picked up in a fury. "Do you think I wouldn't burn their bones from the inside out and laugh while they roast alive? And do you think I will lose one bit of sleep over them? Their screams will be music I dance to on the sunny morning after."

Her words brought something dark and dangerous to life inside Belle. The monster that she'd thought lived in her blood was awake, and she was hungry.

"Yes, that's it. Come forth. Come stand with me, and we'll defend our home."

Randi was equally affected and Belle watched as the warrior form overtook the pregnant woman. It was a thing of graceful beauty, horrible in its power, but awe-inspiring, too.

She was all predator now, with a giant gaping maw filled with razor teeth dripping with venom.

And yet, in her eyes, beneath that primal hunger, just like with Parker, she saw the essence of who she'd come to know as Randi.

That was when Belle knew it was time to surrender.

They were coming for everyone and everything she loved. They were going to take this from her, and the monster she was wouldn't allow it. Wouldn't sacrifice herself or those she loved for any idea of what was right and wrong.

What was right was using her gifts, her power, to protect.

And woe be unto any who crossed them.

She surrendered to the blood hunger, she allowed the rage inside of her to boil over, to bring her own magic crackling to her fingertips as her fangs descended.

Blood was in the air.

It had been all along, but she'd trained herself not to smell it. Not to hunt.

Her fingers had turned to claws and, as she looked down at her hands, she saw that her skin had blanched from sun-kissed and brown to a sickly pale color. She opened her mouth and roared.

It wasn't the roar of a werewolf. It was the roar of a full-blooded Asakku calling her murder to join the hunt.

The land around Aphelion would be stained with blood this day. Long after the walls of the place itself had crumbled dust, the stories of those who died here would be whispered of in the darkness.





Chapter 16