Page 2 of Emerald Flame
She didn’t answer right away. He couldn’t see her, but he could feel her nerves.Something’s not right, Warren. I’ve felt it for hours.
He repressed a sigh. He agreed with her. I know what you mean. So, maybe you should take off. I don’t want you caught in the crossfire if things go south.
No, thanks. I’m here to stay.
Kiara, seriously. I need you to leave, get yourself to safety for Christ’s sake.
Not gonna happen. I’m sticking this one out.Definitely stubborn.
He smiled.Thought I was the only one with a death wish.
That’s the last thing you have, Warren. I know the truth about you.
There it was again, her insistence she knew him. He ground his molars in quiet protest.I’m getting out of the SUV.
I’ve moved toward the rear. You’re good to go.
As he opened the door, he felt more needles, this time along both arms, a similar sensation to getting a tattoo, though not as painful. He rubbed his arms like he had a chill, but this was no chill.
He looked up into the night sky. A storm was coming. He could see a line of clouds piling in from the north. The summer monsoon season was on the city of Phoenix, and would be through August.
His scalp felt odd as though narrow lines of electricity ran over his skin. His long blond hair would begin to move around his shoulders as the storm got closer. It had happened before. Something about his wolf had started connecting with thunderstorms, another mystery of hisalterexistence in Five Bridges. He’d asked around, but no one had heard of the phenomenon. It seemed to be peculiar to him.
Her voice pierced his head once more.Is your storm coming?
‘His’ storm. That’s what she’d started calling it.
He had only one answer.Yes.
~ ~ ~
Kiara tried to understand how she’d gotten here, standing near the rear bumper of Alpha Warren’s Border Patrol SUV, all but stalking him.
Except she wasn’t. She had a connection to him she didn’t yet understand. But whatever it was, she knew her role in his life was critical to the future of Savage Territory and possibly even Five Bridges.
She didn’t like being analterwitch, but fate or destiny or the gods, orwhatever, had sent her here. So, she would do all she could to serve her new world.
Warren was her role model. He laid down his life for not just his pack, but every wolf in Savage, every night. The least she could do, given the present threat, was to help make sure he stayed alive.
She gave voice to her biggest concern.Do you think Julio intends to move against you? As in, tonight?Julio was an ambitious man who worked for the cartels. She’d seen him a few times. He was a big man, almost as tall as Warren and well-muscled. He wore his long black hair in a multitude of braids with small silver and blue beads as accents throughout.
She watched Warren take a long look around, beyond the street to the strip center opposite, the buildings next door, the parking lot. He took in every detail, his gaze scanning intently.I think he’s been working up to it.
In recent months, Julio had taken over two packs, assassinating their alphas. He’d gotten the deed done so fast, neither Warren nor Alpha Fergus had known about it until it was too late. Julio had forged the bond swiftly and ended the possibility of an intervention. Once a pack acknowledged its leader, the relationship was sacrosanct unless the alpha died, dissolved the bond or was supplanted in a dominance battle. None of these seemed likely to occur in the near future.
See anything unusual?She asked. She fixed her gaze to him as he kept looking.
Nothing.A distant flash of lightning lit up his face. His scars looked like a patchwork of silvery rivers. She bore similar scars on her chest from a recent abduction by a dark witch. She’d been tortured for three weeks with a flesh-consuming poisoned paste. She would have died if her friend Maeve and her bonded wolf-mate, Braden, hadn’t rescued her.
Maybe that was part of the reason Kiara was here. She’d been given a second chance and she wanted to be sure she used her time and power as wisely as possible.
Dark forces were moving in Five Bridges and not just in Savage Territory. Each of the territories that made up their confined world was under siege. The cartels that produced and sold a variety of flame drugs kept working to solidify their power. Anyone standing in their way got mowed down.
The three main cartels running drugs in and out of Five Bridges had ramped up their operations. Sex trafficking was at an all-time high. But there was a third element that had her more concerned than anything else. The flame drugs andalterserum that had created the fivealterspecies, had unleashed more preternatural power than anyone yet understood. Warren, with his bizarre storm-related abilities was a perfect example. If his powers were rising, and to a similar degree, her own, what otheralterspecies were also increasing in power. Not everyone was good, like Warren. In fact, it seemed the other way around.
She even suspected Julio may not have acted alone. If he’d had assistance in taking over the packs, who was helping him?
With her gaze still settled on Warren, she wasn’t surprised when the ends of his hair started lifting into the air and flowing in waves. She’d seen this happen twice before. Once when a storm approached like the winds now picking up from the north. The other time had been just two days ago, though there hadn’t been a cloud in the sky. Instead, he’d been on patrol and had been duking it out with a wolf high on emerald flame.
