Slip of Fate (Werelock Evolution Book 1) (29 page)

“This is insanity!” Remy declared. “How the fuck can this have happened? How will we slow down her transformation?”

My spinning cranium struggled to grasp the random, confusing, supernatural puzzle pieces floating through the darkness surrounding me as my tears soaked Alex’s bare chest.

Alex was completely blocked out of my head?
And without access to my mind he would be unable to slow down my horrendously painful transformation into a killer
Cujo?
Ostensibly resulting in my unfortunate demise?

Seriously?
These were the cards I’d just been dealt? Was there no justice in the universe? After all the mind-raping bullshit I’d endured since my arrival, the fates chose to block Alex from my head
now?

“I don’t know,” Kai admitted. “I’m sorry. I was afraid this might be the case based on my analysis, but I was hoping I was wrong somehow. There’s … more.” He cleared his throat before continuing. “Unfortunately, it gets worse.”

“Worse?” I squawked. “Are you flipping kidding me?”

I was a blind
Carrie White
who was turning into a dog in less than twenty-four hours, and apparently very likely to die in the process. How could it possibly get any worse?

Regrettably, I knew it could, though—
based on the scent of Kai’s mounting
trepidation.

“Milena has Alpha blood.”

“What?” Alex and Remy exclaimed simultaneously.

My head was pounding.
It felt like my bones were on fire
.

“Whose?”

“From our bloodline?”

Kai cleared his throat again. “No. I ran a trace.
Three times
,” he emphasized, “to be certain its origin. And her were blood is not in any way related or derived from the Reinoso family or extended family bloodlines.”

“Whose fucking blood is it? We’re running out of time!”

“You’re not going to like it, Alex,” Kai cautioned. “And it’s not going to help Milena’s present condition if you get upset.”

“
I’m beyond upset already!
Fucking tell me what bloodline so I know which Alpha I need to threaten or buy a favor from!”

More tense silence ensued. I was frantic to know what was happening, to read the expressions on their faces.
Of all the shitty times to be suffering hysterical blindness or whatever the crappy blood side effect was wrong with me now!
I was about to scream at Kai myself when Remy seemed to put the pieces together from reading Kai’s emotions—or however his brand of interloping voodoo worked.

“Aw, fuck! No? Fuck no … please say it isn’t, Kai?”

“I’m afraid it is. It’s a mutated form of Salvatella Alpha blood she’s generating.”

Remy cursed violently and then commenced growling and spewing what sounded like extremely rancorous—possibly
murderous—
sentiments in French.

A heavy burden of dread settled in my gut.
I couldn’t be a Salvatella
. Alex said nothing; his body was taut, motionless against mine. He didn’t even seem to be breathing.

I’d ceased breathing as well. Although I’d never heard the name Reinoso prior to arriving in Brazil, I had in fact heard the name Salvatella … on
two
memorable occasions. And judging from their reactions, I had a sinking feeling I wasn’t going to like where this revelation was headed.

“I’m sorry,” Kai said. “But it explains why you’re blocked out. Most likely at this stage only Alpha Gabriel Salvatella would be able to slow down and guide her transformation.”

“This is fucking bullshit!” Remy exploded. “Why now? Why is she shifting so damn fast? Having Alpha blood alone wouldn’t cause such a rapid transformation.”

“I’m not certain. But I think somehow Alex’s blood triggered it, or at least exacerbated the rate of cell production.” Kai blew out a lungful of stress-laden air. “God help me, this is going to sound idiotically unscientific, but it’s almost as if Milena’s ancestral Alpha blood is battling for dominance against Alex’s. The faster her body generates Salvatella were blood, the quicker Alex’s donated blood cells die off.”

Alex barked out a loud, bitter laugh that caused my unsteady heart to skip a beat. “Funnily enough,” he remarked with ripe cynicism, “that makes more sense than most of what you’ve said thus far. Poetic justice indeed.”

As before in the little hallway off the kitchen, Alex’s desolation was palpable. Only this time, it was far worse, because I sensed it as if it were my very own. And I was struck by the most oddly desperate, maddening compulsion to do anything I could to console him.

Even now, when I should’ve been more concerned with my own imminent end. Even when I was far from ready to forgive him, a world away from ever even liking him, still, I couldn’t bear the profundity of anguish I knew he carried. It made my foolish heart hurt. And inexplicably, somehow it was a pain far ghastlier than the growing molten fire I felt obliterating my human bones now, despite the strong opiates in my declining system.

“I’m sorry,” I whispered to his chest.

And I was. Maybe he didn’t deserve my compassion. But as my mother had taught me in grade school, often in life the people who seem to least deserve empathy are the ones who need it most.

And fuck it all … I was high on opiates—if only for ten minutes—and in no mood to question my crazy feelings for Alex.

Alex squeezed me tighter. His palm came up to cradle my cheek against his chest as he murmured something in Portuguese to my crown.

“Milena, please don’t?” It was Remy who spoke. “You’re the last one here who should be apologizing to anyone … for anything.”

“I know that name—Salvatella.” I heard myself profess in hazy disbelief as I attempted to both process and ignore my own bizarre emotional reactions to Alex’s unfathomable heartache.

“How?” Remy asked. “From Raul?”

“From my mom. She was being morbidly silly … joking around … at least at first …” I tried to explain through my cotton mouth. “It was after her last surgery …”

The one she never recovered from
.

Alex’s fingers combed through my hair.

“They let me stay overnight with her in her hospital room. She was three sheets to the wind high on painkillers when she announced that she was dying.”

In actuality, she’d announced she was Dorothy, and that her hourglass was empty.

“She started doling out her final words of comically absurd life advice to me. It was all silly random, clichéd stuff. Like don’t bet on horses, and never trust a guy in a bowler hat—that sort of ridiculousness.”

Except for the part about Salvatella.

“What did she say about Salvatella, sweetheart?” Remy prodded.

“She said if I ever encountered anyone named Salvatella, I should be extremely … careful. I shouldn’t divulge any information to them about myself, or my family.”

“Smart mom,” Remy breathed.

“Lot smarter than her son,” Alex muttered in a scathing tone that was in such stark contrast to the gentle manner in which he was stroking my head, it caused me to pause in my tale.

“Go on, baby,” he urged with an apologetic kiss to my crown.

“Did she tell you anything else about them?” Remy prompted.

Yes.
Though oddly, I realized now that the more critical, ominous warning about the Salvatella family was the one I’d accidentally gleaned from Mateus when I was nine.

“No,” I lied. “Just that I should never trust a Salvatella, no matter what. And she said if anyone by that name ever came looking for me, I should run like my life depended on it.”

Alex half-groaned, half-chuckled morosely, his lips pressing again and again to the top of my head. “Shame she never gave Raul that same advice.”

“Why?” I frowned. “What do you mean?”

It was Remy who answered. “Alex, don’t you think it’s time you told her what Raul did to betray our pack?”

Alex drew me closer, but didn’t respond.

“She needs to know,” Remy said. “About the Salvatella pack—why they’re our greatest enemy. We don’t have much time. If we’re going to seek Gabriel’s help in slowing her transformation, she has to understand the danger. She needs to know about how they murdered our mother.”

“Agreed,” Alcaeus’ bass resonated through the garden, bringing with it a smell I would’ve traded my kidney for as the crazy, mutated mutt blood within me commenced vibrating its own happy dance. It was the only thing that could’ve possibly distracted me from the bomb Remy had artlessly dropped.

“She does need to know,” Alcaeus concurred. “But not because we’d ever ask that weenie Gabe for his help.”

That was it.
I needed …
him
. I needed Alcaeus!

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“Alcaeus, she’s a Salvatella,” Alex lamented, his voice replete with hopelessness. “That fucking
weenie
is the only one who might be able to save her now that my blood is essentially destroying her.”

My
blood
needed Alcaeus!
Holy shit, I was tripping on opiates
…

“Ugh, geezus … you want a drink with that martyrdom you’re choking down over there, big Alpha? Remy, how could you have raised such a pussy drama queen?”

“Al, I don’t …” Remy faltered, “I don’t know that you fully grasp what’s happening here.”

“On the contrary.” Alcaeus chuckled, his blessed scent drawing ever closer to me.
And my needy blood.
“As usual, it appears I’m the only one who does grasp what the fuck is happening here. This crazy shitstorm keeps getting better and better, too.”

I inhaled greedily as his scent neared. It was the smell of warmth and comfort and …
home?
Though not the scent of any home I’d actually ever known. My heart, which was already beating too fast to be safe, ticked up another notch.

“I’m glad the impossible irony of my wolf sniffing out and becoming infatuated with the progeny of my greatest enemy has proven so entertaining for you,” Alex groused. “Come to gloat over the hilarious karmic genius of it all?”

“As much as I’d love to,” Alcaeus rejoined jovially, “it so happens not everything is all about you, little brother. How’s my best friend, Milena, doing?”

“She’s running out of time.” It was Kai who cut to the point. “What do you know about what’s happening to her?”

“Well, I know at least a bit of the history behind the werelock blood she’s generating. And I believe I have some sense of its intended purpose.”

“And what is that?” Remy asked.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Alex snorted. “To destroy me, no doubt.”

“Would you quit the histrionics and violin music for five fucking minutes?” Alcaeus derided. “The true irony here is how you can be at once so brilliant and yet remain a virtual idiot.”

Alex released an extended growl. But not in response to Alcaeus’ sharp words, I realized, as his heavenly scent came close enough to me that I could
feel
it … in my blood.

Whoa Nelly!
I sensed his nearness, felt his internal warmth and formidable masculine energy beckoning me now as well. Even as I lay so comfortably intertwined with Alex.

“How would you know its intended purpose?” Kai questioned.

“Well,” Alcaeus replied, “remember that innocent-looking little souvenir I brought back from Asunción in 1869?”

“’Course.”

“Turns out maybe the joke’s been on us all this time.”

“Huh …” was Kai’s non-reply.

“Feel like reliving 1822 with me?” Alcaeus asked.

“You giving me a choice?” Kai quipped.

“Shoot the shit about your old man glory days some other time!” Alex grumbled. “Do you or don’t you know something about Milena’s blood?”

“I’ll explain what I can. But I need to try to slow down her shift first.”

“You? What could you possibly do? Not even I can access her mind at this point.”

“Alex, please?” Kai appealed, sounding inexplicably hopeful and encouraged at the prospect of Alcaeus being able to assist me. “Let him try. There’s no harm in that. He was Alpha once, after all.”

“Not of the Salvatella pack,” Alex grunted dismissively, before growling again as Alcaeus’ scent wafted closer.

“Quit acting so creepy possessive; I only want to talk to her. It’s not like I’m gonna try to slip my dick in her right here and now in front of you.”

“Fuck off before I kill you!” Alex threatened, snarling and gnashing his teeth.

Alcaeus guffawed. “Sorry, Milena,” he apologized to me rather than his brother. “That was a bad joke at my brother’s expense. My apologies if I offended you. How’re you holding up there, sweetheart?”

I breathed deeply, inhaling Alcaeus’ delightful aroma and instinctively gravitating closer to its origin as I attempted to lift my head from Alex’s chest. But Alex’s big palm held steady, imprisoning my cheek against him, where I now heard his heart galloping faster than ever.

“Hurts like a bitch the first time, huh?” Alcaeus commiserated, his voice and magnetic energy almost directly above me. “And that temporary blindness bit that comes with the eyes first shifting is so stupid, right? Totally melodramatic and unnecessary part of the transition if you ask me.”

My blind eyes misted over at his infectious levity. I wanted to laugh and cry at once, afraid to hope he might be able to help me, while I vacillated between the impulse to hug him and a growing compulsion to sniff and lick his whole face.

“Why … why do you smell so good to me?” My voice sounded quiet and strange to my ears beneath the pounding rhythm of Alex’s heart.

“I showered this morning,” he joked, causing me to giggle and then worry my lip when the laughter made my rib cage ache.
The morphine was wearing off.

“Milena, I think I might be able to help slow your transition, but I need your permission to try, okay?”

I nodded as much as Alex’s hold on my head would allow, trying to steal longer whiffs of Alcaeus as inconspicuously as possible.

“You should understand, it’s normal for the process to be quite painful when a human first shifts into a wolf. Historically, only a miniscule percentage of humans ever survived it. Oftentimes, even half-weres born of a werewolf and human union were unable to survive their initial change.”