Fated Hearts (Echoes of Darkness Prequel)

11

Logan

I finally reach the private booth where only Kaiden and Malik are seated.

“Are you possessed or something? You looked like you were about to fuck that girl in the middle of the bar,” Malik chuckles out before taking a hearty sip from the beer bottle he is holding. “She’s hot, but still, I didn’t picture you as much of an exhibitionist. That’s more my thing.”

Kaiden is seated next to him in the black leather booth. A curt nod is the only acknowledgment I receive from him. He is turned slightly with his back to the wall. His gaze is fixated in the direction of the bar, and his silver rings make sharp clinking noises against his whiskey tumbler while he drums his fingers on its side.

“Shut the fuck up, Malik. I’m not in the mood right now,” I snap at him, my jaw locking with anger. “Where’s Dominic?” I ask, pointedly looking at the empty glass of whiskey on the table opposite Kaiden’s vise-like grip, knowing it must be his.

“He got bored and hungry waiting for you, so he stepped out for a quick snack,” Malik replies and places the beer bottle back on the table.

“What crawled up your ass, fuckface?” Dominic’s voice rings from behind me.

I turn around and step to the side so he can sit at the table. He is dressed in one of his Italian designer suits, as per usual, and his features are relaxed. The hunger that always seems present in his eyes dulled down, and the pale hue that usually settles over his bronzed olive skin absent.

“Nothing,” I respond in a clipped tone and sit down next to him, signaling to the server to come take my order. “Since when do we have Conclave meetings someplace other than Kaiden’s penthouse?”

Malik tilts his head toward Kaiden. “Since lover boy here had to drag us with him on one of his stalking sessions. Look toward the bar at one of the high-top tables,” he tells me as he relaxes back with a shit-eating grin.

“I’m not stalking her,” Kaiden says through clenched teeth. The look he throws Malik could level a city to mere ashes.

Dominic snickers. “Oh yeah? Then what are we doing here?”

Tony, the willowy server, blocks my view as he places a beer in front of me and refreshes Dominic’s glass of whiskey so I can’t see what they’re talking about, but I get a feeling I know who this is all about. Even so, I’m allowed a glimpse of the object of Kaiden’s obsession as soon as I thank Tony and he steps aside —a young woman with ebony hair, ivory skin, and pale cerulean eyes surrounded by rings of violet.

She is seated at a high-top table near the bar next to a skinny blond guy who rambles like he is in a race with himself. She looks kind of bored, to be honest. He leans forward, places his hand on Iris’s naked thigh, and slides it a little upward under her dress. If Kaiden was pissed before, he is going to burn this fucking place to the ground any minute now.

I chance a look at him, and crimson streaks take over the bottomless pits of onyx in his eyes, mixing with the flecks of gold, his power thickening the air in the bar as the dim lights flicker above our heads. Still, it’s a good sign if his irises are not completely golden. He comes dangerously close to losing his shit when that happens. The vein on the side of his head looks like it’s about to burst, though.

“Kaiden,” Dominic rumbles in warning before anyone in this bar can notice what is happening.

Kaiden takes a deep breath in, and his power retreats, but it still hangs close to the surface, ready to burst, electrifying the air. I almost choke on the fury seeping out of his pores like noxious fumes. Malik looks at me and Dominic with an arched eyebrow. “Wanna bet that douche tries to kiss Iris in the next ten minutes?” Pouring gasoline over Kaiden’s raging fire is not a good idea, but Malik doesn’t care. He always finds it funny when one of us gets pissed and likes to push our buttons any chance he gets.

“I say twenty minutes.” Dominic slaps a hundred-dollar bill on the table.

Malik takes his wallet out of his leather duster, which is between him and Kaiden, and matches Dominic’s wager. He slides the money on the table before waggling his eyebrows at me. “Logan? What do you say, man?”

With a shake ofmy head, I refuse to participate in their stupid bet. Besides…I have more important things to do. Like resisting the siren call of a curvy brunette with killer thighs andeyes that could put me in a coma at a mere glance my way. Fuck. Stop thinking about her, you idiot!

Kaiden whirls his head toward Malik with a murderous look on his face. “She’s not going to kiss him at all,” he spits like he can’t even conceive that as a possibility. He takes another deep cleansing breath through flared nostrils.

“Can you put a barrier spell on the table so no one can listen in?” Kaiden asks Malik after a few minutes when he finally has his power fully under control, but his eyes are back on Iris. He watches her like a hawk ready to dive and sink its talons into its prey.

Malik circles his hand above his head. A thick black fog of magic swirls into the air before it disappears as quickly as it appeared. It settles like a dome over our booth. “Done.” The spell provides a barrier between us and the other patrons. They know we are at the table, but it prevents them from listening or looking our way unless we want them to.

Kaiden’s eyes snap to mine. “Did you detect any scent on her?” He is referring to the woman who was found murdered earlier in the national park.

I take a sip from my beer and shake my head. A stray curl falls over my eye, and I push at it, annoyed. “Unfortunately, no. Before going to the coroner’s office, the pack circled the border where she was found for hours. Nothing. It’s like he’s a ghost.”

Malik leans forward and rests his hands on the table in front of him. “And the wounds? Was it the same MO as the other victims in the neighboring towns?”

I nod. “The same, complete with the missing heart.”

“Assuming the rogue is male could be a mistake. What if it’s a female behind all of the attacks?” Dominic asks from beside me, arching an eyebrow in my direction.

“The wounds looked too big and deep for a female wolf shifter to have caused them,” I retort.

“Malik, what do you think? Could the rogue be working with a witch or warlock to hide its scent?” Kaiden asks after a few beats of silence, rubbing his stubbled jaw with his hand .

Malik leans back in the booth, and his eyebrows furrow as he mulls it over. “Since dark creatures don’t like to work with each other outside the Conclave, I dismissed this idea when it first popped into my head, but there’s no other explanation, honestly. The rogue couldn’t mask its scent on its own for that long. It needs a masking spell, and that’s black magic territory.”

“Then I want you to go to all the covens you know personally and start asking questions about a possible dark witch helping a rogue,” Kaiden tells the warlock before he turns to me. “Logan, you need to double the patrols. The rogue’s killing too close to the border of your pack; we can’t risk it murdering anyone under the Conclave’s protection. We take care of our own. I have a feeling it’s going to strike again, but I don’t think it’s going to move from Ashville just yet.”

I suck on my teeth. “My men are tired from the endless patrols in the last two months, and until the wedding, the pack will not get stronger.” I’m not happy to admit how vulnerable my pack is right now. As Alpha, I should have done better, but I will wait for her until the very last minute.

Kaiden nods, and his gaze locks with Dominic’s. “Then, Dom, I want you to send some vampires from your den and replace the wolf shifters of the pack on the night shifts, not only on the full moon nights. I’ll open another location for them to feed as much as they want as a reward.” He raises his hand to flag the server as we finish our drinks.

After Tony comes over and takes our order, Kaiden starts speaking again, this time giving us his full attention as his eyes lock with each of us. “There’s also something else I wanted to discuss with you. Malik already knows since he was with me on my last trip to Hell. The mutinies there are getting more violent by the day. Something big is coming. We need to be careful and monitor very closely all bodies of water where the veil between Hell and the human realm is more vulnerable.”

Dominic crosses his arms in front of his chest, and his forehead crinkles in concern. “Do you think they will attempt to breach the veil?”

Kaiden’s face is even more serious than usual as he nods. “It’s a strong possibility. We knew this day would come with how widely the mutinies have stretched in recent years.”

A salacious smirk spreads on Malik’s face as his eyes fixate near the bar. “Homeboy is getting ballsy.” We all turn to see Iris’s date closing the space between them as he palms her cheek. “C’mon, you idiot, kiss her already,” he says impatiently, staring at his watch.

Kaiden pierces him with a glare that could cut through skin and bone and wipes Malik’s grin off his face efficiently. There is only so much he can fuck around, poking at Kaiden. He is the most patient of us, and he usually ignores Malik’s antics or comments because of how much they’ve endured together. But Malik didn’t pick a good night to talk shit when Kaiden’s patience is already stretched too thin. And, after all, he is the leader of the Obsidian Conclave. There is no being more powerful than him in the human realm at this moment. Everyone thinks he is only an Elite demon, but we know the truth.

“Any news on the Kabal lately?” I ask in an attempt to break the awkward silence that has fallen between us.

Kaiden doesn’t take his eyes off Iris’s table as he answers me, his jaw an iron bar of tension. “I keep getting reports of more and more dark creatures being kidnapped under mysterious circumstances. I think they’re building another prison for their sick experiments.”

I shake my head with anger. “Fuck, I thought that shit was over when we shut down the one beneath the Vatican all those years ago. We killed almost all of their members. Do they never learn?”

Malik laughs bitterly, the sound hollow. “If there’s something those sick fucks will never do is give up torturing what they consider lesser beings.”

He and Kaiden know best. They both have been imprisoned and tortured by the Kabal. It’s how they met. Only Kaiden had been raised as a prisoner since he was a baby under the abuse of his father, who created the organization. He’d always viewed his son as an abomination, a lesser being, and tortured him endlessly until someone broke into the prison where Kaiden and all the dark creatures were being held and set them all free.

Her intoxicating scent wraps around me like silk before she comes into view from behind Tony, the willowy server. Holding a tray with two beers, she approaches our table. Fuck . I tried my best until this moment not to look for her in the crowded bar, only stealing furtive glances here and there, but now my fate’s been sealed and delivered on a round tray with clicking high heels. My muscles twitch with an overwhelming compulsion to stand up and approach her. Gulping, my eyes sail over her perfect curves, and I am hard again. Dammit . This is hardly the time or moment for that.

My gaze is riveted on her as she bends to place one of the beer bottles in front of Malik. Fuck me. The top she is wearing gives me a spectacular view of her perfect, round tits.

Suddenly, Dominic addresses her. “Ava, you work here?”

What. The. Fuck.

My blood boils. He knows her name. Dominic never knows a woman’s name unless he is interested in fucking her or if he already fucked her. My wolf growls dangerously inside my mind. I swallow hard past the irrational pang of jealousy coiling in my chest like a venomous snake, seizing my lungs and squeezing hard.

“If I knew, I would have come here more often.” The fucker winks at her, and I want to throat-punch him.

I have to bite the inside of my cheek hard until I feel the taste of copper on my tongue in order to restrain myself from pummeling Dominic into the ground with the fists currently tensed at my sides.

Why is my wolf going crazy over this woman while erasing all of my rational thinking?

Ava clears her throat. “I just started tonight. I’m sorry I didn’t quite catch your name earlier,” she responds, and my heart rate slows down a little because what she said denotes that they only just met and that Dominic hasn’t fucked her yet. But with how he looks at her, he definitely wants to.

“It’s Dominic,” Malik says, and I throw daggers at him with my eyes. A Cheshire cat grin takes over his face. He saw me with Ava earlier, and he can tell I am about to fucking explode. “I’m Malik, that right there is Kaiden.” He points with his thumb at Kaiden, who isn’t paying any attention to us anymore as he looks at Iris. Then Malik juts his chin toward me. “And this angry furball here is Logan.”

Ava turns toward me and takes the bottle from the tray. The moment she bends, she somehow trips, and before I can stabilize her, she knocks her pelvis into the table and spills the contents of the beer bottle all over my lap. “Oh my God!” she blurts in a panicked voice.

I reach for the napkins on the table, but she has already gotten ahold of them and bends over me with an “I’m so sorry” thrown my way. Then all of a sudden, her dainty hand is pressing over my hard-as-steel cock, making it twitch even with the barrier that the napkins provide. The tiny gasp she lets out when she feels me twitch obliterates every rational thought I have. Fuck. The smell of her arousal makes my wolf go crazy. I feel the urge to bend her over the table and pound into her pussy like I need my next breath.

Think Logan. Fucking think. Your mate. You can’t betray her like this!

“Enough,” I snap at her, my voice coming out harsher than I intended as I grab her wrist to stop her from touching me. If she continued, I would have pushed her to the floor and fucked her senseless, not caring that we have an audience. I let go of her wrist abruptly. I can’t stand to touch her anymore. I don’t know what I’ll do next. I can’t control myself.

She smiles sweetly at me even if I just yelled at her. “I’ll bring you a fresh bottle.”

“There’s no need. You’ve done enough. Just leave,” I say with as much coldness as I can muster. It physically hurts me to talk to her like that—my wolf even snarls at me to immediately apologize, but I can’t. If I can’t trust myself to stay away from Ava, I need her to stay away from me. Maybe if I act like a douche, then she will.

Ava winces and straightens at my tone. “I’m so sorry,” she whispers. Her eyes instantly become glassy. “I’ll ask Tony to bring you another, then.” She turns on her heel, and I grip the table, my fingers turning white with the pressure, as I try to physically stop myself—my wolf—from going after her.

Dominic looks at me like I have grown two heads. “What the fuck is wrong with you, man? She’s such a sweet girl. Why would you—”

“I swear to God, Dominic. If you don’t stay away from her, I’m going to fucking stake you,” I growl, wanting to bare my teeth at him.

“Sorry, he doesn’t get out much,” Malik yells at her disappearing back as he throws me a weird look. “What the hell, Logan?”

I snap my jaw shut as my nostrils flare, ready to tear into him. But I don’t get a chance because suddenly, the tumbler in Kaiden’s hand explodes into tiny shards of glass that fly everywhere, the sound like a loaded gun in the silence at our table. Malik’s barrier spell hides it, though, so no one in our vicinity pays us any attention.

“What happened?” Malik asks, alarmed.

We all look at Kaiden as he stands up, his fingers clenching and unclenching at his sides. Red streaks swirl dangerously in his eyes yet again, which give over to burnished gold as his sclera becomes completely white. The ground beneath our feet trembles with his simmering rage.

I glance toward the high-top table near the bar for an answer. Fuck. “That asshole is kissing Iris,” I say grimly.

Kaiden disappears abruptly. One second, he is standing at the table, and the next, he is gone. I am jealous of his ability to disappear and appear like that out of thin air at whim. It can be really handy sometimes.

“Where did he go?” Dominic asks as his eyebrows pull together in concern.

“Probably to blow something up,” Malik replies. “It’s a good thing he left. Otherwise, he would have leveled us all and killed everyone in the bar.” He takes a sip from his beer. “Don’t worry, if Iris is here, he’ll be back in no time.”

Dominic looks at the ridiculously expensive watch around his wrist, a grin spreading over his face. “Twenty minutes and not a minute later,” he says. A glint of triumph shines in his eyes as he winks at Malik and pockets the money. We all have more money than we need, but the stupid fucks always like to make wagers at the most inappropriate moments.

Tony comes by and places another beer on the table, giving me a dirty look as he hands me more napkins. “You’re lucky you’re Emily’s brother. Otherwise, I would have kneed you in the balls for being such an asshole to Ava,” he huffs and walks away.

“He does have a point. You were a dick,” Malik agrees with him.

Well, shit. What can I say to that? They’re right, but how can I explain the visceral attraction I feel toward Ava without sounding like a creep? It’s taking every drop of restraint I possess to not go after her, even as I follow her with my eyes through the bar, serving tables and smiling at customers. I want to gauge every man’s eyes out just for looking at her, and if that’s not insane, then I don’t know what the fuck is at this point. I should probably go home, though I can’t seem to make myself move.

After ten minutes, Kaiden reappears at the table Houdini-style, his eyes having returned to somewhat normal. As I search for Ava in the crowded bar again because I’m a glutton for punishment, I see Iris getting up from the bar stool, heading toward the bathroom hallway.

In the next moment, Kaiden makes Malik scoot over so he can get out of the booth. Then he slices through the crowd, people parting from his way like he is Moses or some shit, and stalks directly to the high-top table to sit down next to Iris’s date. The moment the skinny guy’s eyes land on Kaiden, he balks. I have to give it to him; very few people can act normal at Kaiden’s sight. Aside from the fact that he looks like a mean motherfucker with his whole dark vibe and body covered in tattoos, he also has that special something that reminds people he isn’t human and sits at the top of the food chain.

They shake hands, and I can hear from here the guy’s bones crunching as he whimpers in pain. Kaiden just broke the hand that touched Iris’s thigh. I don’t know what Kaiden says to the poor guy, but he trips over his legs as he gets up from the bar stool in a hurry, almost toppling over. He scurries away like a cockroach and bolts out the door. Kaiden places a few bills on the table, probably covering what they had to drink tonight, and strides back toward our booth with a satisfied smirk on his face as Malik stands to let him back in his seat.