Page 126 of Gemini Hunted
Fortunately, we’ve planned a surprise of our own for Cleo.
Lost in the darkness ahead, Lucius’ wolf growls deep in his chest.
Instantly I shoot upward, the soles of my combat boots lifting from the floor, and pan my light ahead like a damn lighthouse. Before me, the ceiling rises and the tunnel widens. Instantly, I recognize the ominous dead-end shaft my little queen and the kraken jumped into. Lucius’ wolf is sniffing along the rim and whining with worry.
My chest tightens quite unpleasantly. My tummy twists with actual fear.
Clinging grimly to my wits, I alight beside the shaft and shine my light down the hole, while my heart thunders as though the unruly organ is trying to burst through my skin.
But there’s nothing to see.
No dead kraken or drowned queen floating heels-up in the well.
My breath rushes out in a hiss of relief.
“It’s quite all right, darling,” I tell Lucius with a show of confidence I’m far from feeling, though I’m never quite certain how well my co-alpha understands spoken words in his shifted form. “Zara and Mordred have surely reached the Vault by now. They’ll have slipped in through the back. She’s a cat burglar, after all. She’s trained for this. She’ll befine.”
I tack that declaration onto the end as reassurance for both of us. Still unconvinced, Lucius’ wolf leans over the edge and crouches, clearly tempted to jump.
Hastily I swoop down next to him and wrap my arms tight around his furry chest. Beneath my hands, his powerful body rumbles with continuous growls.
“Have you forgotten our plan?” I whisper in his tufted ear, which swivels to listen. “You and I and the rest of our mates will swan through the front door, straight into the Vault to crown Zara queen, like the Gemini kings we are.”
Of course, that’s assuming Max and Ronin and Ash and that green menace Xhevith have done their part upstairs.
But there’s no need to stand here in the dark spillingallour secrets.
The wolf peers down the shaft and whines, but at least he doesn’t bite my hand off. I hug his shaggy body, press my face into his ruff, and breathe in the comfort of his familiar wolfish scent.
Not that I need comfort.
My faith in Zara is unshakable and absolute.
And I don’t indulge in wishful thinking. That’s pointless. I’m Zara’s alpha. If she were injured… or worse… I’d know.
Christ, I’ve even bonded with the damn kraken. My bond with him is weaker, it’s still forming. I certainly never meant to give him a mating bite, and that’s a hill I’ll die on.
But surely I’d sense him too… if…
Crouched at the foot of the stairs, the Cajun werewolf rumbles his own guttural growl. I twist around to give the creature a narrow look.
Clearly, while Lucius and I were cuddling, Mallory’s pet monster has sniffed out the path to his own lovers, Draco and McSnicker, who went up those stairs with Neo and Zephyr.
Now the Cajun tilts back his long muzzle in a mournful howl.
That godforsaken lament sends shivers cascading down my spine. The ungodly howl wakes my inner dragon, coiled gravid and sleeping behind my sternum. She stirs and rears like a cobra, hissing with alarm.
Vasili, let us fly! Let us kill. We must protect our eggs!
Oureggs? Merciful fuck.
I do trust those areZara’seggs we’re protecting. (Which makes them also mine.) But there’s no sense to be gotten from my genderqueer dragon when they’re in such a state.
Wings mantle and spread inside my skin. A serpent’s hiss climbs up my throat. Suddenly I’m clinging to my human form by my fingernails.
It’s literally all I can manage not to shift in the tunnel like a damn earthworm.
Lucius joins his voice with the werewolf, both baying at the moon we shifters can sense but not see, through tons of solid rock. Their mingled howl fills the tunnel and rings off the rock. I press my hands to my ears against the din.
