The Marked and the Broken Read online

  I sit up and stretch out my arms and my back. I feel run down as fuck, which really shouldn’t surprise me after everything that’s happened in the last few days. I wipe the sleep from my eyes and get up, bouncing from one mattress to another until I’m standing in the doorway that leads to the small attached bathroom. My bag has been left right next to the doorframe, and I silently thank whoever put it there as I dig out a clean set of clothes and my toiletries. I’m in and out of the—thankfully warm—shower in less than ten minutes, and then I’m brushed, magically dried, styled, and ready to go in under fifteen.

  I step out of the room and head down the hall into the kitchen, where I find all of my Chosen leaning against the counters, whisper-growling back and forth.

  “Don’t be a fucking numpty, Knox, this is Vinna and Vinna’s magic we’re talking about,” Sabin chastises.

  “Oh that’s rich coming from you. You did everything you could to keep all of us apart in the beginning because you didn’t trust the situation either.”

  “Yeah, but that was in the beginning. After she marked us, it was like I could feel her intention and the purity in what her magic had done. Don’t sit here and tell me that you didn’t. You’ve always gone on and on about how you knew she was for you, right from the beginning.”

  “So it’s official, you don’t trust me now?” I ask, my calm voice like a cannon in the room amidst all the aggressive whispers.

  Five heads snap in my direction. Torrez keeps his eyes on the floor as he shakes his head. He’s probably been aware of my movements and exactly where I was in the house from the minute I woke up. I wonder how annoying it would be to have sensitive hearing like that and not be able to turn it off like I can. Although, if this is how it’s going to be with my Chosen these days, maybe I should keep my extra hearing on all the time.

  “It’s not you that’s the issue, it’s the situation I don’t trust. I don’t trust them,” Knox defends, his arm gesturing out the window in the direction of wherever Enoch and his coven are right now.

  I throw my head back and release a frustrated yell. “Okay! I fucking get it. You’ve said it a million times! You don’t trust them, which is why you’re pissed at me and acting like an asshole! Can we move the fuck on already?” I ask as I scan the kitchen for food. I need something other than frustration and insecurity in my stomach if we’re going to try and tackle this shit again. Valen tosses me an apple, and I snatch it from the air and practically bite it in half as I continue to scan for more.

  “Bruiser, we’re not pissed at you. We’re pissed about whatever the fuck they did to get those runes,” Bastien tells me.

  “But what if they didn’t do anything? What if this is another case of my magic highjacking others just because it can?” I ask him. “I mean fuck, Bas, it’s not like we have any clue why half the shit that happens around me does, but I thought you all were cool with that.” I swallow down the rest of the apple as we all stare at each other in awkward silence. “You don’t trust them, fine, but if you trust me, then it’s time to Sentinel up and get to fucking work.”

  Bastien shakes his head dismissively, and frustration burns through me.

  “Okay, so you think somehow they stole my magic and marked themselves?”

  “Yes,” Bastien agrees.

  His words send a shiver of unease through me. I know he said something similar on the plane when everyone was fighting, but then that whole getting stabbed thing happened, and I never circled back to what he was accusing. Fuck, could they have forced this somehow? I picture Enoch, Kallan, Becket, and Nash, and try to process if I think they’d be capable of this kind of fucked up violation. But what if it wasn’t even them that did it?

  I struggle to accept that Enoch and his coven could do something so wrong, but I sure as fuck can’t say the same about Elder Cleary or Elder Albrecht. They’d definitely have something to gain if their sons had my power. Then again, if Elder Albrecht knew how to force a marking, wouldn’t he have done it when he had me and Sabin at his mercy? It’s all just more questions I don’t have the answers to, and I shove away the worry and the frustration.

  “Okay, fine,” I announce. “We put this shit aside for now and start to train. If we find out at some point that they somehow stole their markings, then you can kill them.”

  Ryker snorts out a chuckle.

  “We can kill them? Just like that?” Bastien mocks.

  “Yeah, why not?” I shrug. “I don’t distrust them. I think I’ve seen sides to them that you haven’t, but if they forced me to mark them, then it’s a horrible violation. If somehow they’ve figured out how to do that, then it’s on us to make sure it never happens again. Which means we should kill them.”

  “You’re hot when you’re ruthless,” Knox teases, a cheeky smile on his face, and its appearance almost makes me want to cry. Knox has always been supportive no matter what, so to have him distance himself from me the way he and Bastien have, fucking hurts.

  “She’s hot all the time,” Torrez corrects, and the others chuckle and bob their heads in agreement.

  The tension in the room lessens infinitesimally, and I let out a relieved breath. “Okay now that the Enoch issue is on hold until further evidence one way or another surfaces, let’s move on to the Torrez issue,” I announce, and Torrez’s eyebrows drop in confusion, and his body goes stiff.

  “You going to off me too, Witch?” he asks, and even though he’s wearing a smile and has a glint in his eye, I sense the layer of seriousness beneath it all.

  “Of course not, Wolf, I’m talking about whatever the glitch is that put all of our runes on you and none of your runes on us.”

  With that, he starts looking over the others’ hands and then studies his own again. He looks up at me, and before he can put a voice to the question in his gaze, I cut him off.

  “I have no idea what this means or why it happened, so don’t even ask,” I tell him, and he chuckles.

  “Maybe it doesn’t have anything to do with him being a shifter and more to do with the fact that you marked him on purpose. Maybe the process is different when that happens as opposed to what happened with us?” Ryker queries, and I run my gaze over the runes on all of their ring fingers.

  “Maybe. Marking him was not the fun times I was experiencing when all of you got your runes,” I admit, and everyone but Torrez laughs.

  I bring my eyes to Valen’s hazel gaze, and I like the heat that I find there.

  “What do you mean?” Torrez asks, his dark brown stare jumping from one guy in the group to the next, looking for answers.

  I laugh at his needy expression. “I was mid-orgasm when my magic did its thing with them. With you, it was mid-battle, and I thought you were dying.”

  “So you’re saying I need to give you an orgasm in order to solidify the connection?” Torrez asks, his eyes banking with want as he licks his lips.

  “Whoa, that’s not what I meant,” I squeak out as Torrez takes a step toward me.

  “Well, hold on there, Squeaks, maybe he’s onto something with that. You and Valen were intimate, and then we all got our runes. When you have sex with us now, it completes the bond and we inherit your full arsenal. Maybe he does need to be intimate with you in order to kickstart things,” Ryker hypothesizes.

  Torrez takes another step toward me, and I get the distinct feeling that he’s hunting me right now, and I’m not sure how I feel about it. I look to the other guys with help in my eyes as Torrez stalks even closer, but they all seem to be either lost in thought or amused by this development.

  “Um, well, this escalated to a place I did not see coming,” I admit and take an involuntary step back from the prowling shifter that’s closing in on me with his heated stare and the promises of orgasms in that blazing gaze.

  Wait, why am I against this idea? I pause, taking another step back. A satisfied rumble starts in Torrez’s chest.

  “Oh please run, Witch. My wolf loves the chase, and it will take this to a whole other level of
fun.”

  His words and gravelly tone shoot right between my thighs, and I squirm.

  “So you guys are just okay with this?” I ask as I take another slow step back. “We’re just going to go fuck in the other room, and you guys will just be here shooting the shit until we’re done, and that’s not weird at all?”

  They all laugh and seem to be extremely amused over my obvious discomfort.

  “We’ll all watch each other have sex with you when we do our Bonding Ceremony, so no, this isn’t really a big deal,” Sabin waves off casually.

  “Wait! What?” I shout out in panic.

  I momentarily forget about the big bad wolf that’s currently stalking me and take a step toward Sabin so I can shake him and demand he explain what the hell he’s talking about.

  Valen laughs even harder. “We told you about the Bonding Ceremony, didn’t we?”

  “No, you fucking didn’t!”

  “Huh, I could have sworn we did that day at the lake,” he says absently.

  “Squeaks, why do you look so panicked? It’s not like group sex was an issue when Knox and I…you know, became Sentinels,” Ryker tells me, and Knox barks out a laugh.

  I glare at them. “Yeah, I’m not waving my prude flag here, but that’s a big thing to just throw out at a girl without a little warning”—I look at Torrez who’s about two steps away from me now—“and when said girl is potential prey.”

  I don’t hear what Sabin says next, because I grab his shoulder and shove him toward Torrez as I turn around and run. I sprint for the front door, and Sabin’s protest at being used as an obstacle is joined by whoops of encouragement and shouts to run. I fling the door open and bolt out of the house into the cool dark day, or maybe it’s night; I still have no idea what time it is. I push magic into my legs and pump harder, not even bothering to look behind me, because I know Torrez is close. Excitement and adrenaline flash through me, and I can’t tell if I want to best him or get caught.

  I push harder to gain more of a lead and round the corner of the house. I slam into something hard, and it goes flying away from me as I stumble forward, moving too fast to get my feet underneath me. I’m plucked from the air like a dainty little feather and pulled back into a strong muscled chest.

  “Gotchya,” Torrez growls into my ear and then nips at the top of my left shoulder.

  His teeth graze over the runes there, and it sends a heated flash throughout my entire body.

  “No way, I was fouled,” I argue as Torrez’s strong arms wrap around me.

  He steadies me as I struggle to catch my balance, and I simultaneously soak my underwear and try not to rub up against every inch of him that’s currently pressed against me. I look around to see who or what ricocheted off of me and find Aydin getting up and dusting himself off. I point to the ginger giant. “See, I call interference.”

  “Where’s the fire, Little Badass?”

  “No fire, just a hungry wolf,” I tell him as I step out of Torrez’s hold and away from the vibrating laughter in his chest. “Where are you coming from?” I ask in an effort to distract myself from the pressing need of my magic-tainted libido. You’d think I’d be used to the magical pull to solidify the Chosen bond, but nope, I’m not.

  “There’s a barn just past the trees that Silva has set up as a war room with maps of the area and supplies. We were just going over where we need to stake out and the best places to try and get info about Lach and Kee.”

  I look past Aydin’s massive arm. I don’t see the building he’s pointing to, but I do spot its dark brown roof peeking just above the trees. I close the door on my frowning hormones and immediately go into battle prep mode. There’s quite a bit of open space and flat ground back here before the dense tree line begins, and I start working through training scenarios in my mind as Aydin and Torrez chat about something.

  “Have any lamia been spotted nearby? How much do we know about Adriel’s nest size and location?” I ask.

  Aydin lets out a sigh and rubs at the back of his neck. “We don’t know much, unfortunately. The closest lamia spotting was a couple towns over. It seems there are clusters that move in and out of some border towns, near Russia mostly. Lachlan and Keegan were trying to see if there was a pattern to their movements when they were taken.”

  “So how do we know that Adriel even has them?” I ask, as I quickly think through a training schedule and try to see if there’s any other way to get Lachlan and Keegan without things turning into an all-out war we’re not ready for.

  “Because there were spelled signs saying so pinned all over town. When Silva went to look for them after they missed a check in, he found the signs but no hint of Lachlan and Keegan anywhere, and no lamia. Silva, Evrin and I are going to head out and see what we can find. As soon as we have more information, we can start strategizing,” Aydin tells me like he can read exactly where my mind has gone.

  I blow out an exasperated breath and take one more look around before locking eyes with Torrez.

  “We need to train our asses off, and we need to start now.”

  6

  Enoch, Kallan, and Nash walk out onto the patchy grass and hard packed dirt of the yard behind the houses we’re all staying in. I can feel the tension around me rise as they do. I try to shrug it off from where it attempts to cling to my shoulders, but with no luck. Enoch looks around warily until his eyes land on mine, and his mouth tilts up in a smile. Bastien mumbles something as Kallan, Nash, and Enoch move closer, and I elbow him in the side. We haven’t even started to try to train together, and despite my explanations of why we need to train, I’m still worried about what will happen if Bastien and the others refuse to play nice.

  Nash, Kallan, and Enoch stop directly across from my Chosen, and they square off with each other. They’re all puffed up chests, resentful eyes, and anger-clenched jaws, and I can’t help but huff out a sigh. I stand at the head of it all, ignoring the symbolism in my place and theirs, and tap into my inner boss bitch. I can let them go at each other again, or I can take this shit by the short hairs and get all of us to a place that won’t lead to our mass slaughter when things go down with Adriel.

  “We’re here to train,” I shout out into the tension and death stares. “I don’t fucking care how you feel about each other, your history, or any of your reasons for mistrust when we’re out here. All I care about is that each and every one of you has runes, and that makes you an asset and a target.” I look at each of them as I talk, my eyes hard and my words brokering no argument. “Like it or not, Adriel’s coming for us, and it just might take each and every one of us to end him. If we can’t figure out how to work together and watch each other’s backs, then we might as well just hand ourselves over to him now.”

  No one says anything to that, and a few of them drop their eyes away from my steely gaze. Knox meets my stare head-on, and I can practically see the never going to happen in it. My eyes stay fixed on his for a couple of beats, and I communicate a very clear get with the plan or get the fuck out. I look around and quickly map out areas where I’m going to set up teams. Enoch and his coven had me train in a gladiator-like style, but this group needs to learn little things about their runes and what they can do first, so I’m starting with Sentinel baby steps.

  “As much as I’m sure you’re all hoping to magically beat the shit out of each other like you do in paladin training, that’s not going to work for this situation. So instead, I’m going to pair you up based on your natural branch of magic. Enoch and Sabin, you’re together.” Sabin nods and then moves so that he’s standing in front of Enoch. “Kallan, you’re with Valen. Nash with Ryker. Knox and Torrez, and Bastien, you’ll be with me.”

  All of them pair off somewhat reluctantly, but I treat the fact that they did it without arguing as the small victory that it is.

  “Every day, we’re going to work on activating the runes that you have. Once everyone is proficient at that, we’ll start sparring. You will spar only with the weapons or magic that your par
tner has access to. When you’re good enough with those, I will mix up the partners so that everyone gets a chance to work different skills and weapons against different opponents, including me.”

  Some of my Chosen begin to grumble their disagreement, and I shut it down with a slash of my hand through the air.

  “I don’t care if you have issues with fighting your mate or a girl or whatever the excuse is when it comes to facing off with me. This is not up for debate. I can teach you things that you’ll need to know, and I imagine that I can learn plenty from you, too. If it’s not a mortal blow, then deliver it. We have healers, and we don’t have time to pull punches and take things at a leisurely pace. This shit is life and death, so Sentinel up and treat it that way.”

  I pat myself on the back for channeling my inner Braveheart just enough to put a hint of fire in everyone’s eyes but not so much that I’m screaming freedom and looking for something to paint my face blue. I assign each pair to stand in a different area so that they’re spread out but can still hear me call out instructions. Bastien stands to my left as I take in my marked army and try not to feel completely underqualified to lead them.

  “Quickly think through the runes that you have and decide which of those runes you’ll be working to activate first. Those with weapons, I would suggest focusing on one of them. Those of you without weapons yet, focus on an ability,” I instruct before turning to Bastien.

  He’s smirking at me. “I find you very appealing when you’re being bossy,” he tells me, and I laugh.

  “Don’t think buttering me up means I’m going to take it easy on you,” I warn.

  Bastien’s hazel eyes light up with mirth, making him even more gorgeous than he already is. His long wavy dark brown hair is pulled back, accentuating the masculine angles of his face, and his delectable full lips widen even more, putting his straight white teeth on display. “Good thing I like it rough then.”