Page 3 of War Games

“None of us asked for this,” she whispered to her mate. “But you cling to responsibility and guilt that went to the grave with her. There was nothing we could change. We tried, Hasan. We tried. We did our very best for her.”

“I could have killed all those werewolves first,” he whispered, his gold eyes glittering queerly in a way she despised to her core, as the wraith reached down and sank claws into his chest instead.

She slapped him, which shocked him and the wraith enough to let her pull an entire coil of chains off him. The claws left his chest.

“That is enough of that,” she said, her menacing tone making him rock back in fear that filled her nose. It would fade. She was never worried about making him too afraid of her. “Don’t think I won’t completely obliterate you if I have to.” The fear grew a little stronger. “Don’t think I won’t turn you to dust if it means protecting everyone else fromthis.” She yanked the chains hard, nearly pulling the wraith over him. “This is killing our family more than anything else, Hasan!”

“I don’t know how to let go,” he said, his voice suddenly rougher, his eyes filled with tears he would never shed in front of his children.

She saw yearning in those tear-bright eyes.

Oh, hewantedto. He wanted to let go so badly. He knew what this wraith was doing. The knowledge was there. He was a smart man. He knew, and he felt powerless.

“I’m sorry. I hurt my daughter,” he said. And then the broken sob, revealing just how powerless he felt under the weight of everything he carried for all of them. “Like he hurt his daughter. I’m so sorry.”

The words made her heart hurt in an incomprehensible way, but it was a pain she could endure. She had endured worse. There was also a measure of guilt in her heart.

He might feel powerless, but that’s why I’m here.

He was spiraling in despair. The wraith was the most recent haunting, but it wasn’t the most powerful. She had accidentally fed the real monster that kept the world dark for her mate. In her rage at the incident in Germany, she had fed an insecurity in him that she had watched him battle for thousands of years. Now, she needed to fix that, taking her sense of ownership over this problem.

“No, not like he hurt his daughter,” she whispered. “I will kill you before you ever hurt one of our daughters the way he hurt me. I will do the same for our sons. I’ll be their protector from your darkest instincts and feelings, the ones you hate in yourself.”

Something in her mate eased, and it was all she needed. She exercised her power in a way she never had in his mind. She changed the world around them. He had already given her permission to do so when he took her to that hut. She boxed the wraith and threw it into the darkness. That would mute the pain and feelings it represented until he could naturally step awayfrom it. Then she found the other monster in the dark, forever watching, forever reminding him. Gold eyes that were previously hidden by the wraith lurking in the darkness. They could have been Jacky’s eyes or Hasan’s.

The cruelty in them made them her father’s eyes. Only he had so much vicious, destructive malice.

“You have no power here. I do,” she whispered over her mate’s shoulder. Her father’s cruel eyes changed as a rumbling snarl echoed around them. She couldn’t dismiss him as she had done the wraith. So, she built the hut once more, forming it around them, blocking the view of that monster. Once again, the hut was a private world away fromhim. Out of her father’s sight, where they could make new memories and discuss their plans for their beautiful future. A place where her power and their love reigned supreme.

“And I will be your protector as well,” she whispered as she kissed him, giving him all the love and power she had loved him with for roughly five thousand years.

She should have expected it but was still stunned as he turned that kiss into something more sexual than she intended. Without the chains, he began to reach for her, but the hut was wavering, the image fighting hard to hold itself together.

Her mate was insatiable. Everyone knew it.

He was also exhausted. She could stay, but he was going into dreams, and those were a different thing altogether to deal with.

“Stop that,” she murmured, now that they were safely in her hut, no chains in sight. “Go to sleep, love.”

His weak protest didn’t even form a word.

With a smile, she saw the scene collapse, and the dreams began. She stepped out, her mind and magic slipping back through the mate bond.

Her eyes opened in her home, staring at the ceiling. If she successfully brought some balance to him, they had a chanceof winning the war to come without losing everything they held dear in the process. She could only wait and see now if she had been able to do enough.

1

CHAPTER ONE

AUGUST 3RD, 2023

“He has them training hard,” Niko muttered as he leaned on the glass beside me.

“He does,” I said with a single nod, the only acknowledgment I would give to my brother, who I didn’t invite into my house. He just showed up and decided to hang out.

I had been watching the daily training session of the werewolves, Heath and Landon leading them through drills, first in their human forms, then their werewolf forms. With the discussion of war, they had all changed their lives to accommodate the new reality. Every single werewolf with a job quit it, with only a couple of exceptions. They wanted to focus on how to protect themselves, each other, and all of their loved ones. Heath was paying them all a wage now, not just for simple pack duties like the guard shift, but full-time employees, making sure all their needs were met while their careers and livelihoods ground to a halt.

He and Landon remained working, but they were business owners and had to fund the pack. Luckily, both had wealth accumulated over the years. So did I, and I made sure Heath knew he could dip into it if the pack’s finances grew tight.Teagan and Dirk were the notable two still working, outside of the Alpha and his second.

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