Fated Hearts (Echoes of Darkness Prequel)

15

Logan

B lood flies as my fist connects with the jaw of one of the assholes that attacked Ava last night. The one with the switchblade that dared press it against her throat, cutting into her silky skin. I swore he would pay for that, and that’s exactly what I’m doing, collecting my debt. Ava’s debt.

“P-p-please,” Chad begs again on a whimper as a fresh trickle of piss drips from the inside of his pants onto the cement floor, making my nose turn at the strong ammonia smell. Even his name is asshole-ish. He is tied down to a chair next to the other two dipshits that dared touch Ava. They are passed out, as I already finished with them earlier. I let out all my frustration and channel my rage as I pummel Chad until I feel Kaiden’s hand on my shoulder.

“Any more, and you’ll kill him,” Kaiden says, his fingers flexing in an attempt to stop me.

I shake off his hand and turn my head toward Malik, sweat dotting my forehead and running down in rivulets between my shoulder blades. I’ve been at this for hours and still haven’t gotten my fill. “Again,” I rumble through clenched teeth, my breathing ragged.

Malik’s gaze flits to me from his position at the long table where all the torture instruments are laid out. His finger tests the sharpness of a knife by pressing it into the blade. As if wallowing in boredom, he drops the knife, stalks forward, and pushes me out of the way. He places his hand on top of Chad’s head and heals the bastard, black magic thickening the air and swirling in Malik’s veins. Chad’s skin pieces back together under my gaze, and the wheezing breath he lets out, probably from his ribs being cracked and piercing a lung, quiets.

Kaiden heaves out a deep sigh. “I have some things I need to take care of. You can find me in my office if you need anything. Don’t let him kill any of them. I don’t want to deal with that shit,” he says the last part to Malik as he ambles to the door and leaves me alone with the warlock.

We’re in the basement of Kaiden’s building. Yeah, the fucker owns a whole damn building. Scratch that. He owns almost half the city. We normally use the basement for dark creatures that break the rules of the Obsidian Conclave, and we even have cages set up for them at my right, all empty now, like some sort of a makeshift prison. But Kaiden made an exception for me, and brought the three human douchebags here right after the attack so they can learn their lesson before we hand them over to the police. The chief won’t question the state we bring them in as long as they’re alive. Kaiden keeps him happy with how much money he funnels into his pockets. In return, he turns a blind eye whenever we need it.

I’ve been beating the shit out of them for hours, bringing them to death’s door, and then letting Malik heal them so I can start all over again. I let Chad watch me take care of his friends. I’m sure watching his friends being beaten to death over and over again was a torture in its own, the anticipation of what’s to come. I made sure none of them will be able to use their hands ever again for daring to lay a single finger on Ava.

Malik finishes healing Chad. He steps away, making room for me. I can’t stop the sadistic smile that stretches over my face. And I don’t even want to. Being a wolf shifter, especially an Alpha, is no walk in the park. But there are moments, just like now, when I can revel in my power. It took years of arduous training to fully master and control my transformation. I take advantage of that self-inflicted discipline and allow the fur to pierce the skin on my hands slowly as my nails take the shape of deadly claws. Without wasting a second, I unleash the wrath trashing beneath my skin like a hurricane on Chad. He wines and cries like a baby—music to my ears.

I slash into every sensitive spot on Chad’s body without the risk of killing him. After I finish with that, I ask Malik to hand me a knife. Some would say it’s an art form to cut someone’s fingers while eliciting as much pain as possible. You see, the key is to put the perfect amount of pressure on the ligaments without completely severing the nerves. Oh, and to also take your time while you dig out the fingernails. I do just that. One by one, ten fingers smack the floor with a wet thwack, followed by bellowing screams that echo off the cavernous walls. He passes out for the hundredth time, and this time, I don’t wake him. My wolf seems to have gotten his revenge.

“Are we finally done?” Malik asks, arching an eyebrow at me. “I’m hungry.”

“Yeah,” I respond, catching the towel he throws at me. I pat my sweaty forehead and then wipe the knife on the same cloth. I drop the knife in its spot on top of the worktable, since Kaiden can be borderline anal about this sort of thing. He likes everything neat and well-organized—even his torture chambers. Especially his torture chambers. After I chuck the dirty towel in the bin under the table, I stride to the sink near the door to wash my bloody hands. I hiss as soon as the water makes contact with the raw skin on my knuckles, but I don’t mind. I’m going to heal pretty quickly—one of the other perks of being an Alpha.

Malik takes out his phone and calls someone, probably Alex, a wolf shifter from my pack that works as security for Kaiden, to come pick up the three assholes and deliver them to the police. “I thought out of all of us, you were the most level-headed. I guess I was wrong,” he says, canting his head to the side. A frown mars his forehead while he studies me with newfound scrutiny, as if equally surprised and impressed by my actions. He steps next to me, pockets his phone, and flicks his gaze to my swollen knuckles. “Do you want me to heal you?”

“No,” I answer without offering any explanation as to why. My wolf demands I don’t let him heal me, needing the reminder of the blood spilled today.

“Did something happen between you and Ava? You took her home and came here wearing the same clothes as yesterday, so I assume you stayed the night.”

I huff in annoyance. “Nothing happened.”

“Cut the shit, Logan. I know when you’re lying. Something must have happened. Otherwise, you wouldn’t have come here with that shitty attitude, and enough bloodthirst to drain the Red Sea dry.”

I narrow my eyes at him. He’s worse than my sister about pestering me until I give him what he wants, which really says something. “We kissed, and I almost fucked her. If Kaiden didn’t call me…”

“You feel guilty about it,” he says, reading me like an open book.

I press the heels of my palms into my eyes. “Of course, I feel guilty. I fucking betrayed my fated mate. I shouldn’t have stayed the night, but I wanted to make sure she was okay. It’s just, from the moment I saw Ava for the first time, I’ve felt this gravitational force pulling me to her. Hell, I almost killed these bastards last night without a second thought of what would happen to me and my pack. And my wolf is going absolutely insane for her, but I don’t understand why. She’s just a human.”

Malik folds his arms in front of his chest. “Are you sure she’s human? From what Chad said, she only had to punch him once to destroy the whole side of his face. He looked as if he pissed off Emily, and she is almost as powerful as you.”

“Of course, I’m fucking sure she’s human. I would have scented her immediately and known if she wasn’t. She’s also had a heart transplant, for fuck’s sake. I saw her take anti-rejection medication this morning. Dark creatures don’t need heart transplants. Humans do.”

We both exit the basement and get into the elevator after Malik does a simple spell that rids the three assholes of the ability to talk about what happened here today, but the memories will still haunt them. I would say forever, but I’m not that generous. The rules say I can’t kill a human, but nothing is stopping me from paying off a few inmates to do it for me. Malik gets out on the ground floor, mumbling something about food and snapping me out of my thoughts. I continue riding in the elevator to the thirty-ninth floor.

Since he owns the building, Kaiden gave us each an apartment on the same floor that we can use however we like. Dominic and Malik live in them, whereas I use my house in the national park for the obvious reason of being my pack’s Alpha. Still, the apartment is useful whenever I come to the city with business concerning the Conclave.

Unlocking the door and ambling to the bathroom, I stop in front of the large mirror above the marble countertops. I barely recognize myself. Blood covers every available inch of my body, my face and hair caked with it. Up until last night, I’ve never questioned my moral compass. Respecting the Conclave rules and not killing humans didn’t seem so hard before. But the moment I saw them hurting Ava through the window of the bar, I wanted to tear their hearts out of their chests and cut them to pieces using my bare teeth.

I used to think Kaiden was crazy for following Iris everywhere, but I haven’t been able to stay away since I first saw Ava at the Shabby Shotglass. I’ve found my way to her every night and watched her from the shadows through the bar’s window, or from the side street of her apartment building, which gave me a perfect look through her bedroom window.

After patrolling our community’s borders with my pack and ensuring everything was all right last night—which took longer than usual as I had to make a rotating schedule for the wolves and vampires—I drove to the city to see her. I thought I’d missed her, but then she ran inside, and the three scumbags attacked her. I almost shifted in that moment, my wolf demanding me to let him out to protect Ava. I was a second away from losing control, which hasn’t happened since I was a kid. I wanted to kill them and then bathe in their blood like a sick fuck.

Peeling off the blood-soaked clothes, I step into the shower and close my eyes, letting the water rain down on me. It doesn’t take long before my mind decides to torture me with the images of Ava in my lap and me feasting on her lips like a starved man. I instantly get hard when I remember the moans and tiny whimpers that escaped her luscious lips. I fist my cock and slide my fingers up and down furiously over my shaft, thinking about her creamy skin and heavenly body. I almost lost it when I saw her wearing those tiny shorts, showcasing her perfect thighs. Fuck me, those goddamn thighs haunt my every waking moment. I want to sink my teeth into them and chase the pain away with my tongue. Have them thrown over my shoulders as I worship her for hours on end. My balls tighten, and I come so fast it’s embarrassing.

Raw guilt claws at my insides so viciously I bang my fist into the shower wall, leaving a deep dent in the tiles. Since I dreamed about my fated mate for the first time five years ago, I’ve stopped sleeping around, and I hadn’t even kissed anyone until the moment I kissed Ava.

It took everything I had to walk away and leave her on top of her bed like that. To ignore the feral need to sink into her and claim her as mine. I can’t believe I betrayed my fated mate. From now on, I have to stay away from Ava. I can’t risk getting lost in her again. Even if I don’t find my fated mate, I still have a responsibility toward my pack to give them a Luna. A shifter Luna, not a human. That’s something my pack would never accept. The decision burns through me like acid, but the memory of betraying my fated mate steels my resolve.

I just hope I’ll be strong enough to stay away.