Chapter Thirty-One

Celina

I stop wringing the water from my hair and open my eyes. “Sephtis?” No sooner had I thought those words, I hear a deep growling coming from behind the curtain.

Before I can comprehend my anxiety, I feel an aura so strong that it feels like I’ve just been punched in the gut. I gasp as I grab at my throat, feeling as if it’s choking me. I force myself to stay upright as I refuse to submit. “Chris,” I gasp for help as I force myself to breathe.

“No,” a hard voice growls before something hard slams into me, knocking me into the tiled wall and cracking it. I cry out in pain as I try to shift my hand into my claws. Internal pain hits me just then as I try to force the shift, but I can’t. I cry out again as I try to push the cloaked body away from me. He’s so much stronger than me, and I seem to be cut off from my wolf’s strength.

“Mara, what is happening?” I beg her while I punch the face nearing my neck. “So not happening stranger,” I growl as I jerk my knee up, hitting him in the crotch as I shove him away.

The curtain falls from him as he tries to stand. His white hair is wild while his partially full upper lip is curled in a deep snarl. “Reject your false mate,” he growls, his silver eyes sparking an enraged fire behind his eyes. It is then that I see a deep slash mark on his throat, and an old mate marking on his neck.

“Danny?” I ask him, unsure of what I am seeing, but his silver eyes are so familiar to me.

His eyebrow crinkles, thrown by my response. “Who?”

He doesn’t look like Chris. His hair is white as snow, and his silver eyes are magnetic, drawing attention away from his sharp face. He’s about six-two, so barely above six feet, but he seems to be built just the same as Chris. “You’re not Danny?”

He scoffs, “That pampered lycan prince? No Princess, you killed that pathetic mate of yours a long time ago.” He lifts his neck, showing off the given scar from one of my trademark killing tactics. “You did try to kill me though. I had to force a mate just to survive.”

My blood runs cold at those words, and my eyes instinctively go to his old mark. It’s faded, signaling his mate has long been dead. This tells me two things. One, he’s insane, and two, he will do whatever he has to to survive and reach his goal. I’m in trouble here, especially since I can’t seem to shift.

“Who are you,” I ask, trying to stall. Chris should be ripping this freak apart right now.

“Your future king, and mate,” he tells me as he steps closer to me.

“You’re not now, nor ever will be, my mate.” I snap at him, furious he won’t give me his name. I can’t reject his proposition without his name, and he likely knows that.

“That’s where you’re wrong Princess. If I want to reach my full strength, I have to mate with the strongest female I can find. That’s you so that makes you mine, which in turn makes you my mate.” He steps closer, his eyes flashing as he brings forth his beast’s strength. “Reject that weakling or I’ll break every bone in your body one by one until you do.”

Faking my bravado, I laugh. “You think that’s a threat to give a wolf? Do you even know how we shift, idiot?” Yes Celina, let’s antagonize the crazed rogue in my bathroom. That’s surely going to end well. I try to think of my options, and my only one is to run. I’m weaker and I can’t shift. This does not end well in the beast world. That’s instant omega status. That’s a sobering thought and it makes me realize how truly screwed I am at this moment. Fuck it. I might as well get taken out by an unhinged lycan instead of destroying myself again.

“Do you want to see what I will do to you? Reject your inadequate mate Celina. This is your final warning.” He tells me this while he pushes his aura over me, choking the air out of me as all my instinct begs me to submit. Pride is my only ally as I defiantly growl; challenging him.

That’s enough to make him snap. He lunges for me as he shifts into his beast in his rage. I slam into the wall and cry out in pain as I feel broken tile cutting into my bare back. I claw at his eyes as I try to push him away, his mouth instinctively searching for my neck. He can force a mark, but I still have to accept it. If I reject it, it’ll hurt him-and me-but it won’t be enough to kill him, so he’s free to keep trying. Personally, I’d rather he kill me and try to find a new mate.

“Chris,” I scream as his mouth is less than an inch from my mark. Where the hell is Mara when I need her? I can hear her, talk to her, but I can’t feel her and she’s not speaking to me. What is going on?

“Wrong name sweetheart,” he chuckles when he senses my desperation. I open my mouth to respond but a loud growl cuts me off. Less than a second later the deranged lycan is off of me, followed by the sound of shattering glass.

I fall to my knees as I try to catch my breath. I feel the warm water still running over my body, making me realize I never turned it off or stepped out of the shower. Numbly I turn it off as I look up. There is a broken pane of glass on the glass wall, with blood appearing to be on it. Both Chris and the rogue are missing.

I grimace as I try to stand. My back is bruised and battered, and I’m feeling crushing defeat for the first time in my life. Trembling, I wrap a towel around me and stumble out to the living room to see if the boys are alright. What I see is absolute carnage. Blood is smeared all over my walls and everything, including my kitchen island, is destroyed. Well, there goes that deposit. Ruben and Leroy are on the floor with blood trickling from their heads. Ruben is actively fighting someone. Judging by the four bodies left, I can guess why my brother and Leroy are on the ground.

“Ruben,” I start, distracting the rogue beast for the split second Ruben needed so he can snap his neck.

Ruben’s bronze-colored beast snarls as he turns his head and then instantly softens it. He shifts back to his human form and races over to me. “Celina, are you alright?”

“What happened?” I demand from him, not at all understanding how this occurred.

He touches me gently and pulls some tile from my exposed back. “From what I can tell, they overrode the elevator. I noticed them on the camera next to your car, and by the time Chris and I got Xander and Leroy awake, all five of them were already up here.”

“How did they do that?” I ask him, trying to force tears from my eyes as he pulls out a rather large piece of tile.

“I’m not sure, but they’ve been staking your place out for a while it seems.” He looks over at the bodies. “I’ve seen these same men on the cameras every day, always at different and random times. By the time Xander and I get down there, they’re gone.”

“Who are they?”

He shrugs, “I’ve never seen them before.” He leads me to the broken island and has me sit on the part still standing. “I didn’t notice one get past us, so I guess there was a sixth one hiding in the elevator. He must have slipped past us while we were battling these pathetic things. Are you okay?”

I shake my head. “He tried to bite me and I couldn’t shift to protect myself.”

Ruben stops what he is doing to look at me. “You couldn’t shift?”

I shake my head, deeply disturbed by this. “I don’t even have my wolf’s strength.”

He looks me over as worry hits his eyes, then they instantly relax when his eyes land on my marks. In his relief, he starts laughing hysterically. “Chris marked you, Celina.”

My brow furrows in my confusion while chagrin heats my cheeks. “And?”

“Your wolf is turning into a lycan Cel. Your wolf accepted Rajin, and you accepted Chris, and you both are marked. You can’t shift during that process.”

“Are you kidding me?” I screech, making him flinch away.

“Not so loud Cel,” Ruben whines as he rubs his ears. “And no I’m not. It’s not commonly known since it’s rare when our species mate together, but it does happen. Your wolf is turning into a beast, so all your shifting power is focused on her now.”

I groan as I flinch. Ruben has gone back to cleaning my wounds since it looks like I’m healing the old-fashioned way as well. “How long is it going to take?”

He shrugs. “Who knows? A few weeks, to six months. It depends on how your wolf responds to the change.”

“What,” I whine. “Why so long?” I don’t like that I won’t be able to feel Mara for that long.

“This isn’t some bad teenage flick where the change happens quickly Celina. It’s going to take time. Your wolf is being redesigned, which means a lot of changes are about to take place.”

The elevator dings open at that point, and I hadn’t even noticed it had been called. There is a deep threatening growl that causes us both to freeze and when we look over to it, we see Chris’s beast glaring at Ruben, who is touching my exposed back in the nude. It doesn’t help that he can sense I’m going into heat.

“Relax, I’m just removing the broken tile from your mate’s back.” He nods toward the fallen men. “I had to shift to take care of that last one.”

Chris turns back to his human form and walks over to me. “Are you alright?”

I shake my head and Ruben answers. “She can’t shift Chris.”

“What?” Chris roars while the hair on his arm stands.

“Reign in that beast,” Ruben orders. “You knew this would happen when you marked her.”

Chris scowls, “I forgot about that little detail actually.”

“How do you forget that?” Ruben demands. “I honestly thought that’s why you hadn’t marked her yet. It’s leaving her completely defenseless.”

“That’s not exactly what you think about in the moment,” Chris barks back. He runs his fingers through his hair in his frustration.

“You’re lucky that rogue didn’t kill her,” Ruben snaps back. “She’s as weak as a human now.”

I stiffen at that thought while those two start bickering back and forth. “He didn’t want to kill me…” I say in realization almost silently. I had given him ample reason to, but it was not something he wanted to do. Right now, that play isn’t even in his deck of cards. He could have easily overpowered me and bit me if he wanted to, but he was waiting for me to give in to my defeat and allow him to mark me. He truly is insane and is one of those twisted sickos that get off on power.

“What was that?” Chris asks with his jaw tense.

I look at Chris. “He wanted me to reject you, and let him mark me.”

Chris lets out a vibrating roar of anger at that point as he loses control of his beast. He shifts in less than five seconds and starts panting in his rage. Ruben takes an automatic step back and I boldly jump off the counter.

I reach up and touch his cheek, forcing Rajin to calm down. “It’s okay Rajin. Mara is safe inside of me, and I didn’t allow that lycan to mark me. Your mate is safe.” His eyes land on mine as he tries to calm down, and before I can so much as flinch, I feel his canines sink into my neck. I cry out as I fall into Rajin, losing my footing as he breathes in my scent deeply to try to relax. He’s surprisingly gentle as he catches me as I feel him lose his shift, and I give in to the overwhelming stress my battered body has been through these last few days.