Queen of Death

Chapter 10

"So what's your excuse?" I blurt out before thinking better of it.

"My excuse for what?"

"You and Sol." I look up at Hunter through the mirror, his position unchanged in the doorway. "You're not her mate, you're not an alpha, and yet I know you feel for her as though you are."

Hunter stares sideways off into the distance deep in thought while I selfishly leech onto his emotions hoping they can ease me away from the edge. "What are you really asking, D?"

My head hangs between my shoulders. What am I really asking? How can he love her more than his fated mate? How is their bond as strong as a mate bond? How does he deal with the fact that he's not the only one who loves her, and on the flip side deal with knowing that he's not the only one that she loves?

"None of this makes sense," I breathe aloud to myself.

"Let me ask you this, D. When you and I split a pizza, do you get upset that we are sharing? Are you not satisfied at the end of the meal?" Hunter lets me off the hook, taking pity on me I guess and not making me ask him outright every emotion that goes into loving and sharing Sol.

"Solana is not a pizza. We can't slice her up and pass her around."

"Fair enough. How about we think about it this way? Think of your all time favorite band. Are you going to be upset if we're both at their concert, enjoying their music? Are you going to turn down backstage passes if I have one too?"

It's irritating how much sense he makes sometimes, especially when his explanation is infuriatingly oversimplified like that.

"Backstage passes to what?" Eli asks with amusement. Quickly I attempt to pull myself together. If Eli is here then the rest must be here too or close behind.

"The meeting over already?" I ignore Eli's question and pose one of my own.

"Yeah, but don't worry. Everyone else is in Sol's room. I came over because Hunter said you needed an ice bath and honestly after that little display between the Alphas and the Queen I don't even blame you."

His comment irks me for some reason. He doesn't even know the half of what I'm trying to suppress. Even if he did I don't need him to swoop in and take care of me. I can do that on my own. I've been doing it on my own for decades on end before Tate and I ever met Ace.

"I'm fine Eli. Hunter is making a mountain out of a molehill." Tapping into Eli's standard indifference I manage to subdue my hardon enough to walk out of the bathroom and face my brothers. "See? Don't worry about me. I can manage on my own."

— — —

Ace

"I'll grab the guys," Eli offers, though he's already halfway out the door. Hunter linked us just before we left that Dean was struggling and may need an ice bath. Anyone who had been in that room when the Queen walked back in with fresh marks would have reacted the same exact way. The wolves in our pack are better able to handle a display like that mostly because we grow up seeing it and learning about how powerful the mate bond is.

Our poor draconic brethren haven't had the same upbringing, they rarely have a fated mate. So all that lust and longing gets kicked up every time they see the more graphic of candid interactions between mates.

Tate seemed to be the only one who left that meeting unscathed, or at least that's what I thought until we were finally behind closed doors. He flies towards Solana, wraps her in his arms and wings, effectively cocooning them, and throws them onto her bed before they're both concealed by shadows.

An unusual warmth spreads through my chest at the sight of them, at the feeling of her happiness through our bond. I've worried over the decades about Tate and how much he isolates himself from the pack at times like he doesn't want to allow himself to rely on us. Seeing him with Solana gives me hope that that's changing, that having someone else to care about will help him let go of his irrational need to prove his independence.

Dean has told me about Tate's abandonment issues and his incessant need to prove himself worthy. I've never pushed Tate on it. I give him however wide a berth he needs, making sure to reel him in when I feel like he's beginning to detach.

I could never bring myself to take away the first thing to finally bring Tate back into the pack. Even when that something is a someone, and that someone is my mate. At the end of the day, watching her bring happiness to my brothers is preferable to keeping her to myself and watching my pack fall apart.

Hunter, Eli, and Dean join us in Solana's room, each wearing a unique expression. Hunter is calm and collected, Eli is content but guarded, and Dean is trying too hard to to cover up how flustered he is.

"Pack meeting," I call out to the group but Tate is the only one who really needs to hear it as he is still shadowed with Solana. Before she unveils herself, her lips press against my cheek, immediately sending a rush of heat through my veins.

It's only been a few weeks since we altered our arrangement. Since she's decided to stay because it's what she wants and not because it's what she's being told to do. Being given that choice has freed her and unlocked a more relaxed and almost playful side of her.

Everyone spreads out around the couches and armchairs. She sits down next to Hunter smirking at me like the little vixen that she is knowing full well the effect she has on me and arguably everyone in the Pack.

Hunter whispers in her ear so softly I'm thankful for my Alpha genes that I can hear him warn her to behave herself. Her smirk betrays her intentions to disobey but I toss a look at her that makes her rethink her decision.

"I'll keep this brief because we don't have any time to lose. Every minute that we don't have answers is another minute that Solana is being hunted. We've gone as far as we can through the Underdark in terms of getting information on the facility. The only way to truly know what is going on inside is to be inside."

"We baiting in?" Eli asks like it's a reasonable suggestion.

"As fun as being used as live bait sounds for the hybrids amongst us, that's not a vector we'll be able to easily control going in as blind as we are," Hunter advocates.

"Blind yes, unprepared no." I nod at Hunter and he starts summoning knives, daggers, pistols, and guns of all sizes. He knows everyone's preference. Handguns and pocket knives for Eli, daggers and pistols for Tate, guns for Dean and me with a knife I can stash in my boot.

Weapons are being passed around and tucked into pockets and pants and hidden under our shirts. Out of the corner of my eye I see Solana adjusting her shirt. "What's under your shirt?"

She gives me a wide, wolfish grin. "I'm sure you can use your imagination."

She reveals the custom dagger Hunter made her, twirling it deftly between her fingers before presenting it to me handle first. "Don't bother trying to tell me that I'm not coming because we both know I am," she asserts.

"I wasn't." Lie. "But if you're coming with us then you'll need more than one knife."

She casts me a patronizing grin, purple drips from the roots of her gorgeous white hair staining down to the ends. Her blazing green eyes darken into purple orbs. Nightshade. "The knife is redundant, I assure you."