Hell on Wheels (Faetal Attraction #1)

She’s a Badass

Knock knock knock.

“Open up, Wheels.”

Silence is the answer, and I rest my forehead on the door. Rebel Kelly is my best friend in the world, but sometimes, he’s a fucking moron. He knows that backing Rogue into a corner never gets him results, yet he did exactly that downstairs. How he hasn’t worked out the truth, I don’t know, except he’s so damn busy pretending he hasn’t been in love with her for years that it’s damaged his brain. The clueless fool didn’t once stop to think about the fact that his beloved stepsister hasn’t been with anyone since the attack but us. Even before that, she’d broken things off with Winnie months ago.

Exactly who did he think she’d mated with?

“Head up ass,” I mutter as I try to figure out how I’m going to get her to open the door without resorting to knocking it down. It was hard enough to get the lion to allow Rebel to live when he made our mate upset; now she’s denying us the duty of caring for her. The beast roars inside of me and I clench my fists to fight a shift I don’t want. “Calm, calm…”

The door flies open, and I tumble inside with a yelp of surprise. So much for the stalking predator within , I think as I look up at the furious Fae glaring down at me. With an eye roll, she steps around my tangled limbs and slams it closed, pointing her fingers at the locks until they clink closed.

“That’s handy,” I offer as I lean on my elbow. “You could be a badass thief if you wanted.”

Throwing her hands in the air, Rogue stomps over to the bed and sits on the edge. “This is not a joke, Archie. What the hell are we going to do? Rebel will not let up, and I’m going to lose my shit one of these times. I’ll throw it in his face and ruin all of your friendships.”

That’s what she’s worried about? The truth is so much worse than that.

“You will not ruin anything,” I reply as I finally roll to my feet. “In fact, I’d say you’re missing the point completely with our problems.”

Her eyes narrow and she lifts her hand to flip me off. “Am I? Enlighten me, please , oh wise one.”

“First,” I say as I hold a finger up. “There’s the damn meeting. Why do they want you? Who asked for it and who demanded a Guardian, specifically, you. Second, how in the ass reaming fuck did they know you’d mated with any of us? Third, how did they know you’d be here and not at your place? And last, but certainly not least, how the hell are four mated males of varying species, all heirs to their families’ lines, going to stop themselves from killing your idiot brother when he cannot keep his trap shut?”

That stops her in her tracks. Her mouth opens, then shuts as she blinks. I’ve seen this look before when she’s on the boards; Rogue is taking the input I provided and running it through strategies in a blink so she can formulate a response. Unfortunately, she can’t throw an elbow or form a jammer line to fix these problems. They’re big, real, and have drastic consequences for all of us. More importantly, they’re all coming to a head right now and there’s nothing we can do to stop it.

“I guess I got too caught up in my anger at his bossy bullshit to think about that,” she mutters as her posture wilts.

Holy shit. Rogue never admits to being wrong this easily.

Walking over, I drop down beside her and pull her into my arms. My lion damn near purrs at that, and I smile ruefully. If I had any doubt that this spelled the end of my playboy hockey god days, that just cinched it. The beast inside of me has never quieted down on his own in the entire time I’ve been alive. Just touching this girl made all the fury disappear like mist. She snuggles into my shoulder—another surprise—and I press a kiss to her head.

“Not surprising. No one on this planet can piss you off as much as Reb, and vice versa.” I ponder for a moment, chuckling as I add, “It’s your Kryptonite and his. Both of you have been honed into well-trained weapons by the Council to serve as Guardians. You think in four-dimensional chess—unless it’s about one another. When it comes to dealing with each other, neither of you has perspective.”

Her hand thumps my thigh half-heartedly. “Stop making so much sense or I’ll think you’re pod-Archie. This kind of logic usually comes from Javi or Damon.”

I shrug and squeeze her tighter. “Perhaps I’m maturing now that I’m all mated and shit.”

Her snort of laughter leads to shaking laughter, and it makes me smile in delight. I’d followed her, hoping to help her burn off her rage, and it’s working—without using my more lascivious talents. I don’t know if I’m more surprised, or she is, but I can feel her amusement rolling through the bond between us. “Archie, I didn’t even know you knew words as big as lascivious.”

Wait. What?

Frowning, I lift her head and look into her eyes. “I didn’t say that out loud, Wheels.”

“Shit,” she whispers as it hits her. “I can slip into your mind. Shit. Shit. This is bad.”

Before I can agree with her, a portal opens up in the corner and the twins come strolling through it. Neither of them looks even remotely contrite about entering without permission and when Wheels doesn’t scold them, I realize they’ve been doing it more than I know. She’s accepted it as their method of entry at this point. A growl echoes in my chest as I give both of them dirty looks.

“Calm down, kitty cat,” Angelo says with a smirk. “Princess doesn’t get mad that we sneak into her room and you shouldn’t, either.”

“Somehow, that doesn’t make me feel any better,” I retort drily. “Where’s Javi? Did you leave him with the snarling idiot?”

Damon shakes his head. “Javi is finishing up downstairs. Rebel stormed out when Angelo told him to show you some fucking respect. He wasn’t ready for his bullshit to be thrown back in his face, it seems.”

Rogue and I both just gape at them for a minute. Finally, Angelo shrugs and walks over to the dresser, playing with the girly shit Rogue has scattered over it. I look at Damon, who gives me a crooked grin as he watches his brother. When no one speaks for several minutes, Rogue pulls out of my arms and stands, looking at us.

“This is what I mean. You’re all fighting.”

“Correction: Rebel is fighting with all of us,” Angelo says as his wings pop out and flex behind him. “By his own choice, he ran off to zoom about in his car rather than face the consequences of his actions. It’s something we have all allowed him to do for far too long. He needs to learn to deal with shit like a goddamned adult or he’s going to miss out.”

My lips curve up as Rogue looks at the demon in confusion. She’s missing his meaning because she, too, has her head squarely up her ass with Rebel. The two of them are going to be the death of us until they finally figure out what their real problem is. Normally, I’d enjoy the show, but given the absolute dogshit mess surrounding our little clan, we don’t have time for their thickheadedness.

“Don’t look so confused, Wheels. Angelo is only pointing out a truth, everyone, but you two have known for years. It’s usually fun to watch, but with the more pressing issues afoot…”

Rogue shakes her head and gives us a disbelieving expression. “You guys think his piss poor behavior is partly my fault?”

For the love of Mufasa and the damned rest of the savannah…

“He means the two of you have a Louis Vuitton matching luggage set full of baggage to work out and you’ve been ignoring it. If we’re going to survive an Appalachian without bloodshed, we have to be a united front. You and Rebel don’t have a choice but to work out your shit.” Angelo turns around and pins her with his gaze. His intensity is making me want to back down a little, and I realize he’s slipped into that Dom shit he does.

Our girl shivers a little, but she doesn’t back down. Instead, she leaves a trail of floral scented arousal as she stomps over and gets in his face. “You don’t get to tell me who to make nice with. That’s never going to be how I work, Angelo. Play is for the bedroom—put the D away when we’re not naked.”

“Sound advice,” Damon mutters to himself, and I snort.

Blinking as something occurs to me, I raise my hand. “If you’re done whipping them around, I have a question.”

All three of them look at me with raised brows and I have to bite my lip to keep from laughing. Shifters, fae, and demons are so very different; it’s never been more obvious than this moment. Even the placid, submissive Damon is ready to go to war with me for interrupting.

“If your dad is going to be at the meeting, we’re going to either hide this from him or tell him. But if we tell him, it’s going to get back to one of my dads and probably Javi’s parents. They run in the same circles when it comes to rich people's shit. Graciela and Odhran won’t know unless they’re told by someone, so that’s not a concern, but someone is gonna spill to Reb.”

“Luca,” Angelo and Damon say in unison. “Fuck.”

“Before the box, we had options and time to break it to everyone. Now we don’t. Plus, we haven’t even started looking at the damn riddle,” I say with a smug grin. I rarely get to be the brains in the operation and I’m savoring it for every second.

The blue-haired Fae buries her face in her palms, muffling a small scream of frustration. When she gets it out of her system, she sighs heavily. “As much as I hate to admit this, I have to defer to you guys. My parents don’t give a fuck unless it’s about Rebel, so I have zero experience breaking big news like this without causing a war.”

That’s when a knock sounds at the door and we all jump. Rogue walks over and calls out, “No, thanks. We’ve already got one. It’s very nice.”

A snicker is followed by Javi’s voice. “What do you mean, you already have a grail?”

We might be insane, but we definitely understand one another—maybe this was destined.

She giggles and flicks her fingers to disengage whatever magic she put on the locks before letting the phoenix in. “You’re my favorite because of that.”

“Hey!” The twins look infuriated as they cross their arms over their chests. “No fair.”

Lounging on the bed, I shrug when she looks at me. “I’m happy to be here. I’ll earn favorite someday.”

“Damn,” she mutters. “Now I’m reconsidering because you didn’t act like a tool. What the hell am I going to do if you all learn to behave?”

“Buy a lottery ticket,” Javi says as he pecks a kiss on her cheek. “However, I might have a suggestion about our protocol situation. We need to figure out the riddle first, though, so we have a finite time frame.”

Angelo and Damon reach out to take the paper Javi salvaged from the pile, but he yanks it out of their grasp. Shaking his head, he looks at all of us before walking over to sit on the bed. Rogue grins at him, following suit to scramble up into the middle of the huge mattress and sit cross-legged. The twins roll their eyes and join us, looking grumpy as hell that the phoenix is taking charge.

“Okay, boys. Who’s ready to solve a mystery?”

Jinkies, Daphne.