Page 132 of Grim

The Faes would never get their way unless they wanted a war.

And that is why Idris was here. He was powerful. He wanted to overthrow the laws our forefathers had set. No race was above another, but it was well known that if he’d bonded with his mate, he would have become too powerful for even the royals of the council.

And that was why his mate killed herself. Her sacrifice saved us all.

Until now.

He was still alive after all these years.

How?

Another deep chuckle reverberated against the walls of the warehouse. The lights flipped on and fae, vampires, and those we rejected to join our club stood in the corners. They wanted our blood; they wanted revenge. But they had blackened hearts when we first met them. We knew they would never bow to Locke.

And now they were here, bowing to an evil master and daring to defy the council.

“I’m getting a bit bored.” Idris frowned and stood from his chair. He buttoned his suit and walked to the barrier, near my wolf.

Leif snarled, snapping his jaws.

Idris only chuckled, his fangs lengthening and the black sparkle on his cheeks twinkling in the new illumination of light. “As you can see, you are surrounded, little pup.”

Locke growled in annoyance that he was being ignored, a tactic a fae would use against a leader.

“And while you are fighting,” Idris rose to full height, “I’ll be out the door, untouchable. Going to pick up my new little fuck toy.”

Leif snarled and lunged forward, crashing into the barrier. Idris threw his head back with an evil cackle, the impenetrable wall following him as he walked away.

“Idris, I suggest you get back here and stop running like a little pixie,” Locke said coldly.

Idris’s eyes narrowed as he stopped in his tracks. “A pixie, eh? You find me to be a pixie? Tell me, Locke, President of the Iron Fang, how does it feel to be running the largest sect of rogues, soon to be rabids, in all the world?”

Idris’s finger spun, bringing forth a crystal ball displaying images inside it. Inside were the faces of members, our friends, laughing and drinking. Until they weren’t.

Howls of pain, their bodies forced, shifting themselves into feral beings. They were rabid, tearing each other apart. There was no human life left in them. They were savage.

As we watched, Idris smiled while Locke gripped his fists in anger. This was the worst that Idris could show him. Locke’s future if he failed.

But we would not fail. Not with all the hope that my mate would bring. The goddess was on our side, a deity that could sway other gods to help the pathetic souls that relied on them.

Inside the orb, they continued to pull and rip flesh from the bone. Bear destroyed everything in sight and then, at the very end, a human woman none of us recognized appeared. Locke’s jaw dropped, his fingers unclenched from his fists.

An enormous wolf appeared, Leif instantly knew it was Locke. The wolf snarled and charged the woman, who screamed as his fangs bit into her neck. She was being eaten alive by a wolf as black as night with emerald green eyes.

Locke’s eyes widened, his body trembling at the sight.

“This is your future. You know, I harbor premonitions. Everyone in this room knows it. Now, I suggest you take your death now before you destroy a woman you don’t even know. A woman you don’t deserve to know.”

Locke snarled.

“I need you out of my hair. I don’t need you interfering with my work. If you dare to leave this warehouse, I’ll find her,” Idris nodded to the woman, screaming for mercy in the orb. “And I’ll destroy her.”

“His mate, that is his mate,”Leif argued. “Our lives for hers. He will choose her.”

With us still in our wolf form, we could not communicate with Locke. We couldn’t express how Idris would kill her anyway, that he would take her away once we were all dead. Locke’s mind would be clouded.

Before I could nudge him, push him into the decision, we heard the doors to the front of the warehouse burst open. The frigid chill of the wind rushed around us.

A large, black wolf with a blue sheen on their fur entered. A light blue crescent moon decorated her forehead. Long, white fangs shone brightly against the darkness. Their growl was so deep, we all felt the undeniable power escaping them.

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