A Guardians Passion (39 page)

Snarling, Freya twisted to protect her belly from blow after sharp-taloned blow raining down on her head, shoulders, and back. The creature in her hold turned and closed her jaws, filled with razor-like teeth, around Freya’s arm.

“Call them away, you fucking cunt! Call them off my child!”

Freya could hear her mother’s voice, but it seemed far away. Her view was obstructed by the bikini-clad behemoths before her, but then just as quickly as the attack began, it was over, and the asprega were backing away from her, their gazes going to their mistress.

The asprega might have been able to teleport, but her mother had moved quickly as well. Geraldine had moved fifty yards. One of the female asprega had been knocked to the floor, and Geraldine was behind Di’Amanda.

Freya hadn’t seen it happen, but everyone, even wolves, seemed to stare ahead in awe as Geraldine brought Di’Amanda to her knees. Her talons were embedded in pale skin just above the collarbone, right up to the knuckles.

The look of terror upon Di’Amanda’s face was priceless, her beauty distorted by disbelief.

“You should have never put your hands on my cub. Never,” Geraldine growled before doing what every wolf in the room might have wished for but didn’t expect to receive so suddenly or violently.

Freya stared, barely believing her eyes as Geraldine pressed her fingers in farther before dragging them upward. Geraldine placed her foot in the center of Di’Amanda’s back and pushed forward while yanking up.

Di’Amanda’s head and neck came apart from the shoulders with a sickening shredding sound, a spray of blood, flesh, and bone that drew gasps from the room as a whole.

“
Djöfulsins helvíti
, Ger!”

Geraldine threw the still living gore of Di’Amanda to the ground with a spit of disgust. “Goddamn vampire scum. You fucked with the wrong cub. The wrong one!”

Freya agreed, eyeing the possibility of collateral damage in the form of two very frightened Sohon captives. Her mother’s rash actions had caused the worst version of a Mexican standoff Freya had ever had the opportunity to be involved in.

The vampires trembled nervously, their gazes flitting back and forth to one another, searching desperately for command. Without its head, the snake of their assault was near useless. Near. The asprega females seemed confused, blinking ignorantly in the loss of their mistress. While the vampires backed off, edging close to the gaping hole in the floor, the asprega didn’t move a muscle, the two holding captives specifically.

Freya glanced at her mother, thankful for the vengeance but worried for the state of the two captives so close to where Di’Amanda’s body lay twitching. She came to her feet, eyes on the two asprega that had just assaulted her. They were standing off, their attention upon the shredded wreck of their mistress. Freya braced herself for whatever impulse freedom might give the creatures. It would not be good, Freya feared, until one of the asprega, the one that had bitten her arm, fell to the ground.

The creature began convulsing, flailing violently. She struggled to breath, gripping her throat as a massage would free her airway. Her lips parted, and thick, dark blood erupted from her mouth. Her eyes rolled to the back of her head as she fought for air that would not come. Within seconds the asprega female went limp.

Freya stood dumbfounded but not entirely by the sudden death of the asprega. The sound of knees hitting the floor proved to be the bigger surprise. The two that had been holding Benna and Kallie had set the girls free. They stepped back and lowered themselves to the ground as well. All the asprega females showed submission.

One of Di’Amanda’s minions stepped up boldly. He held an electronic device in hand and was grinning. The asprega began to wail as their collars lit up. Despite the excruciating pain they must have been in, not one moved. Instead, they looked to Freya in an almost silent prayer.

Geraldine quickly put an end to the would-be second in charge, even as chaos erupted all throughout the room. She snatched the trigger from his hand and did her best to ram it down the vampire’s throat. Without the might of the asprega behind them, the vampires had no choice but to attempt to flee. Unfettered by the impediment of hostages, the wolves roared for vengeance and followed in fast pursuit.

Freya stood back, eyeing her new fan club. The asprega females had moved in close, surrounding her on hands and knees, looking up with reverence and fear that she could only attribute to the death of their sister. Freya understood that the threat had been neutralized. They feared her, and she had a good clue as to why. Large, lost eyes gazed up at her in question even as Bun struggled to get comfortable in her womb.

Fuck if she would be their tyrant, Freya decided. Bending down to the nearest asprega, she reached around its throat and unfastened the collar. It wasn’t difficult, but the females looked to her as if she had just performed magic, gazing at the falling straps and devices as if those had been what held their heads on.

Freya had just released the last of the four collars when the scents of her mates came to her nostrils. She caught sight of Fenris on the far side of the room beside Rayne and Dona, easily dwarfing the other two in his Luna state. A massive tank of a beast, he never looked the same way twice, but as always, he was magnificent to behold.

With her mother, Gaea, Vaegar, and the others off hunting, having followed the vampires as they attempted to escape through the bowels of the mansion, Freya was tired of warring, a state even she never thought would ever occur.

The asprega females cowered about her, fearful and clutching for her legs. Fenris cocked his head at the sight and roared. He plodded forth, the sound of his footsteps in tune with the quaking of the females. He came within six feet.

The biggest of the asprega, reeking of fear, stood up and moved before Freya, taking a defensive stance.

Freya appreciated the gesture but wasn’t ready to see the poor thing torn apart. She grabbed her defender by the arm and pulled her back. Freya moved before her in order to address her male. “Calm the fuck down, alpha! They’re mine,” Freya snapped.

Fenris’s dark blue eyes flitted up to hers in question before Freya dislodged herself from shaking, clammy palms and lethal claws. She made eye contact with each of the asprega females and nodded in unspoken agreement. All the bloodshed, the power plays, and the fighting needed to be put to an end. The girls stood down silently before the largest one—the alpha, Freya took it—spoke the word. “Mi-mistress?”

Freya went over to Fenris and slid her arm around his bowed trunk of a throat. She waved Rayne to her, immediately craving both of their warmth. “Nah,” she replied. “Friend. Freya.”

“M-mother,” the asprega stammered again.

Freya shook her head before burying her exhaustion in the heft of Fenris’s fur, feeling Rayne closing his arms about her. Thoroughly exhausted, she heard Dona’s laughter, a wicked sound.

“Oh, yes, my son. You will most certainly need my help with that one,” he said.

Freya didn’t know whether Dona was talking about her or not but suspected that someone would need to help her with the magic demanding to be fed and restless within her belly. Bun was already proving to be as ruthless as her grandmother and as wild and powerful as her fathers… Freya had to wonder if Odessa would be anything like her at all. Yes, she would definitely need help.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Rayne was exhausted. Physically he was fine, but mentally, he wasn’t sure how much more he could take. He and Fenris had battered Birathan and his clan like rough seas tearing apart a reef. They had left nothing, pounding again and again through flesh that kept trying to heal, through beasts that smiled at gaping wounds, denying any and every attempt at escape. With his metallic skin and claws, Rayne had been the cause for nearly as much destruction as Fenris, both of them drunk from hours upon hours of combat.

Birathan, the only one who knew the true horror of Fenris’s wrath, had not been as fearless as his minions. Despite the strength of Dona’s net, which prevented any of the male asprega from teleporting, he had a secret tunnel to slink away through.

It didn’t matter one ounce to Rayne. With his blood up, it had been his pleasure to hunt the fiend down through the depths of warm rock to volcanic. While Fenris finished up with the last of the underlings, Rayne had given pursuit. There would be no threats to Freya, his alpha, or his unborn daughter. There would be no waiting for Birathan to attempt retaliation. Rayne meant to solve the issue once and for all, and with Birathan too weak to teleport, busy trying to grow back both arms that Fenris had ripped from their sockets, Rayne’s task to retrieve both of the beast’s hearts had been simple. Bloody but simple.

He had expected to arrive back at the mansion to find Freya lounging in the bedroom, welcoming and warm with relief. His intention had been to curl up with her, Fen, and that damnable chocolate wolf, Ezra. The last thing he had hoped to see was debris littering the grounds and to find his alpha female with her war whips back in hand.

And to add insult to injury, she had apparently gained a small clutch of pets. At the claim of “mother,” Rayne eased out of Freya’s tight embrace and glared over at the wide-eyed adoration of the female asprega.

He had a million and one questions, about how his and Dona’s defenses had failed mainly, but the thought that plagued him the most was what Freya intended to do with her new entourage.

Rayne felt Freya’s finger slide beneath his chin. She urged him to face her stern, earthy brown gaze, strong as ever.

“I believe you have something for me?” she inquired.

Rayne caught the same affliction of curiosity that burned in him lighting Fenris’s eyes as his alpha male scrutinized the asprega. That Fenris had not transformed back, his nose wrinkled with agitation, meant that his alpha’s mood easily mirrored his own.

Freya cleared her throat, catching Rayne in contemplation once more.

He gestured to his father, who was carrying the large black sack.

Dona walked over with an outstretched hand, chuckling all the while. His father had warned him that the future would hold surprises, namely Freya. He could almost hear his father saying
I told you so
as he snatched the bag. Rayne turned his back so that the female asprega could not see and showed his prize to Freya. “This is for you.”

Freya looked down and grinned with the slightest of blushes upon her brown skin. She was pleased as a predator would be. The beast had slighted her, wounded her, but she was already rebuilding her pillar of strength.

Rayne got the first kiss, Freya’s hand stealing around the back of his neck to bring him close. She rewarded him with warm, insistent lips and the tease of her tongue upon the underside of his top lip. He sought to get more, always eager to have her rule him, but Freya only gave him enough to have his heart hammering.

She then turned to Fenris and kissed his snout. When she turned back to Rayne, more than just her cheeks were glowing.

She looked inside the bag once more at the silver-coated head of the asprega prime.

“Fenris devoured one of the hearts. My father has the other. I thought that you would like this statuette, but…” He looked at the asprega females, their wide green eyes full of curiosity. No doubt revealing the head of one of their own would have been a bad idea. If the web that Freya had woven around them was truly as reverent as Rayne thought it was, he didn’t want to damage that. He didn’t expect Freya to cock a brow at him.

“But what?” she asked.

He drew the bag closed and flicked his gaze over to the females. “Well? What are you going to do with them? They can’t take their eyes off you.”

“Can you grind your teeth any louder, babe? Gonna try and match Fen for the passive-aggressive award, I suppose?”

Rayne was certain Fenris was thinking the exact same things that he was: they are not coming home with us.

He turned to see the gaping crater in the middle of what had once been the boardroom. “They came in through the middle of the mansion, I suppose?”

“Yeah.”

“The wards were… They were meant for the perimeter, for teleportation.”

Freya clapped a palm upon his cheek. There was no anger or blame coming from her. “Babe, they dug their way inside. It had nothing to do with you.”

If only he could have let himself off so easily. He could not. “I thought that… Fuck. Freya, those creatures could be dangerous.” The asprega females looked harmless enough, eyes dilated by worry beneath cowed lids, but Rayne had only to look around the room to see damage unlikely to have been caused by vampires. “Seriously, and I just think that—”

Freya silenced him with a forefinger to his lips. “Rayne. My Rayne,” she whispered. “Everything is gonna be fine. I’m not Superwoman, and you’re not Superman.” She turned to Fenris and addressed him as well. “You may be the Hulk, but there ain’t no shame in a little help.”

Rayne was just about to ask what Freya meant as Geraldine approached, arms and chest slathered in blood and gore. As stern as granite, Geraldine was still in her man-wolf transformation.

“You all right, girl?”

“Yeah. Thanks, Ma.” Freya kept an arm around Fenris and the other slid about Rayne’s waist. Her loving touch helped somewhat with the sea of inadequacies that he was feeling, but not much. Whatever Dona had to teach him, he needed to know swiftly. Fenris and their cub was one thing, but to add the wild card of a rare species he knew next to nothing about to the mix? Rayne was thoroughly unprepared and wavering on his feet.

Geraldine’s eyes found Rayne’s and lowered knowingly. She seemed to understand the added weight and stress that his pack had just received.

“We got this,” Geraldine stated. “Why don’t you and your boys…and your girls get out of here and chill down for a few? I believe we’ll get a break now.”

“Yeah. I need some fresh air, some rest, and some answers.” Freya said it before Rayne could think to get the words out. She flagged over yet another thorn in Rayne’s side, although a very useful and somewhat appetizing distraction.