Rivals: Episode Three Read online

  I knew it would be a stupid move. There were other shifters in here lurking in the shadows, I already spotted two who were waiting on their haunches to pounce. It was clearly a trap and we needed to hold on to the element of surprise. So I stayed looming above them, waiting for the perfect moment to swoop in and save Kimberly.

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  GAIGE

  I could hear how fast Kimberly’s heart was beating. It sounded like a caged hummingbird, beating out against its confines and trying desperately for a breath of freedom. My fists clenched at my side and the grizzly bear in me roared louder and stronger than ever before. It hurt every nerve cell in my body watching Kimberly go through this much fear. There was an animal inside of me who hated it even more, knowing that his mate was in danger. My muscles felt ready to burst through my clothes in a sign of pure aggression and power. All of my senses were razor sharp and the adrenaline poured through me and threatened an uncontrolled shift.

  There were a few moments in the life of a shifter when they lost complete control and gave in to their primal instincts. These moments usually ended in bloodshed.

  This was about to become one of those moments.

  “I’m surprised it took you this long, to be honest, Gaige. I guess I thought you would be more in a hurry to save someone you “paired” with. You did imprint on her, right?”

  I cocked my head. I felt the anger radiate off of me through every pore.

  “Oh jeez, I haven’t even introduced myself. Here, let me do this right.” The man stepped back and bowed as if he was on the Broadway stage. “My name is Elijah. You don’t really know me, but we are much, much closer than you think. You see, you had sex with a certain vampire, a very beautiful and stunning vampire, who just so happened to have been mine. Now, you may not have known she was taken, but that’s beside the point. I’ve got to release this pent up rage somehow. You know how emotional us shifters get. Sometimes we can’t just control the tiger—or wait, what are you again? Forget it, it doesn’t matter.” He waved it off. “And so, yes, I killed her in a fit of jealous rage and decided to make sure your life was a living hell. But... could you really blame me?”

  It only took a second for the whole picture to come into focus. Everything suddenly made sense. “Ara,” I said, knowing exactly who he was talking about. “You killed her and framed me.”

  “I thought it would be perfect. I could watch while her brother tears you apart limb by limb. That way, I would never have been blamed for your death or Ara’s. It would all look like something had gone wrong between you three. Maximum pain is inflicted with minimum amount of risk for me. Of course, things never go according to plan.”

  A small roar grew from the depth of my chest. “And that’s why you have Kimberly.”

  “Round two, you can say. This one isn’t as clean, though, so I’m thinking I’ll probably end up skipping town after all this is done. Find me another vamp that’s into some shifter fucking to settle down with.” His crooked smile was illuminated by the little light that illuminated the large warehouse. I knew Xavier was somewhere close and I had no doubt he could hear this all. A piece of me was surprised he hadn’t lost control already, hearing Elijah talk about his sister like that. I was inches from snapping.

  “So was it worth it, Gaige? Having sex with her? It’s probably not as good as this one, though.” He grabbed Kimberly’s head, which was drooping down in defeat, and made her look towards me, even though the blindfold was still tied tight around her face. “She’s a whole lot more to love than that dumb skinny bitch of a vampire, I must admit. Why did you go after, Ara? I didn’t think you were into the blood-sucking types.”

  I didn’t want to answer. I felt no obligation to tell Elijah anything and my bear was getting harder and harder to keep down. But I knew that Xavier and Kimberly deserved to hear the answer.

  “I went into Ara’s office looking for legal counsel. Things got out of our control and we had sex. When we were done, she apologized and told me she was going through a rough break-up and I left. Nothing else. I had no idea she was already committed.”

  Elijah sniffed the air. “I smell bullshit.”

  “Think whatever you want, you’ve clearly lost your grip on reality.”

  “She was my mate,” Elijah spat, his tone taking a sudden and vicious turn. “We were meant for each other. She didn’t see it. She thought I was too intense, too passionate. She couldn’t understand.” His face twitched. “I loved her.” His hands, almost as if moving by their own volition, slithered onto Kimberly’s shoulders and up towards her neck.

  “Let her go,” I growled through clenched teeth.

  Elijah looked at me and, once again, his demeanor made a sudden shift. This time it went from someone who was clearly furious to someone who was playing a casual game of Risk. “Oh, of course! Here, Gaige, let me untie these knots. Only since you asked so kindly of course.” And, to my surprise, he actually got down and started undoing Kimberly’s binds. He freed her wrists first and then her ankles and lastly her blindfold. He whipped it off and stepped behind her, his hands back on her shoulders and his eyes on me. His grin was wide and poisonous, eluding to a twisted plan underneath this whole spectacle.

  “There you go, Kimberly. I wouldn’t want you missing out on what’s going to happen anyway.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  KIMBERLY

  Even with the blindfold off, I still had trouble seeing through the tears welling up in my eyes, blocking my vision with huge, wet drops of fear. I blinked away as much as I could and began to adjust to the low light. I couldn’t make out all the details, but we were clearly in a huge, mostly open space. Deep, black shadows lurked around us, with huge pillars holding up more floors above us. Gaige stood feet away from me. His huge, muscular, burly frame was big enough for me to make out even if he was standing in the shadow of a pillar. He stepped forward and was lit by the bare bulbs that hung above us, some flickering on their last legs.

  His face was twisted, angry. It almost scared me, until I rationed the fact that he was here to save me. His rage was directed at the man behind me. Gaige actually came to risk his life and rescue me even though Elijah clearly had something else planned.

  I thought he would come with backup—with Xavier—but Gaige stood by himself. Which was fine because Gaige, as he towered there radiating with anger, was one of the most intimidating men I had ever seen.

  “Go, get up,” Elijah said, prodding me in the back. I was shocked to hear how calm he sounded, even with the display of pure power in front of us. But I didn’t question him. I got up on shaky legs and stumbled forward, tripping on the ground and falling with my hands outstretched. Gaige was there to catch me, his arms coming around me like I was some sort of dumb Disney princess.

  To be honest? At that moment, I would have switched with Cinderella in a heartbeat.

  “Good. And now that you two are together, the real event starts.” I looked up from Gaige’s arms and saw Elijah leap to the side as huge steel rods erupted from the floor around us in loud blasts. I shrunk into Gaige, shocked by the loud and sudden cage that surrounded us.

  Elijah stood on the outside, his arms leaning up on the rods. They were thick and spaced close enough so that even a small girl would have trouble squeezing through. They didn’t reach the ceiling, though, stopping at about the third floor. It was high enough so we couldn’t jump out, effectively trapping us inside.

  “What are you doing?” Gaige asked. I could feel his body vibrate with energy around me.

  “What, this?” He looked around at the rods. “Just some renovations we had done to the place. What a coincidence, you guys seem trapped in there. That’s a shame. Especially since Kimberly is drenched with Ristoral.”

  “What?” I ask, speaking for the first time and surprised that I still had my voice.

  “Oh, I wouldn’t expect you to know. Humans haven’t really discovered everything that makes shifters tick. One of those things happens to be a pheromone named
Ristoral. We don’t know why, but it whips us shifters into quite a fury. So much so, that we tend to forget who, or what, we are.” His twisted smile grew. “And imagine, being stuck with such a monst—oh, sorry.” He put his hands up and stepped back. “My therapist always told me I should be more aware of my surroundings, more sensitive to the situation. Such bullshit.”

  I could hear his words but I was having a hard time making sense of them. Something inside me, maybe my knotted gut, was telling me to run, break free and try to find an exit. But that didn’t make sense. Gaige was here to save me. Why would he hurt me? Because of some chemical I couldn’t even smell?

  No, there was no way.

  “Go,” he growled, low and powerful and proving me wrong. There was a way and it was happening. I looked into his face and saw a bear staring back at me, his animal just seconds from bursting out.

  I got up but fell back onto my knees. “Damn it,” I cried, more out of a defeated frustration now. I pushed up off the dirty floor and ran as fast as I could to the bars, and sure enough, there was no way I was getting through. I was stuck in a prison.

  I turned to face Gaige, but instead of seeing the gruff, powerful man that had come to save me, I saw a grizzly bear that towered above me in a way I thought was impossible. Laws of physics needed to have been broken. I dwarfed him by so much that the whole thing bordered on a terrifying cartoon scene.

  I tried looking for Gaige beneath those dark eyes that stared down at me. And, for a quick second, I knew I saw a glint of recognition, something there that told me I was going to be safe. It was all I needed to know, he would never hurt me.

  Xavier—who at that moment decided to jump down from whatever perch he was waiting on, to my total surprise—did not get that message. He stood in front of me, between Gaige and I, and seemed to have appeared out of thin air. His arms were held out in a defensive stance.

  “Stand down, bear. You do not want to do this. Maintain control.” Xavier stepped closer. It was incredible to me how straight he was standing. Anyone else would have been cowering in fear with a grizzly bear that close to them.

  At that moment, Gaige let out a roar so loud, so earth-shaking, eardrum-shattering, so rib-rattling, that I immediately felt light-headed and achy. I thought it meant him and Xavier were about to fight and end their rivalry once and for all, something I never wanted to be a witness to. But Xavier, thankfully, seemed to have understood another message; Gaige was warning us. His attention wasn’t on us, but behind us. Xavier turned and immediately grabbed me, putting an arm under my legs and another under my shoulders. In one swift and effortless move, Xavier leaped to the third-floor balcony with me in his hands. Underneath us, I heard a loud bang.

  A gunshot.

  Elijah must have been aiming at us.

  “Stay here,” Xavier said, setting me down on the cold floor and leaping back over the balcony, but this time, staying on the outside of the steel bars. I got up from the floor and ran to the railings. I leaned over, as dangerous as that sounds, and got a clear view of what was going on. I needed to make sure Gaige wasn’t shot, that he was ok. Thankfully he wasn’t. Instead Gaige, his grizzly still in control, was running at full force towards the far side of the impromptu jail cell. His full body weight slammed into the bars and shook the whole warehouse. I thought I could see an indent where his mass met the steel, but it was too dark to really tell if he had made a difference.

  Meanwhile, closer below me, Xavier was now feet away from Elijah. His handsome, well-cut features took a predatory turn as he faced my captor.

  “Well, this wasn’t exactly what I was planning,” Elijah said, chuckling nervously towards the end. This guy was a nutjob.

  “You’ve made a grave mistake,” Xavier said. I had the urge to shut my eyes and block out whatever was going to happen next, allowing myself a sliver of hope that I would be able to somehow bury this whole thing in a deep, dark, repressed corner of my memory. But my eyes stayed opened and pinned on Xavier as he lunged forward, arms outstretched, fangs bared.

  Even then, with his otherworldly, dangerous features, he still made for an impressive sight.

  But Elijah was quick. He dropped to his feet, causing Xavier to fly over him and onto a moldy wooden table that splintered in half underneath him. He got up from the rubble to face not Elijah, but instead a huge, royal, dangerously beautiful and ivory white Siberian tiger.

  “Oh god,” I whispered, dreading the outcome I envisioned.

  CHAPTER TEN

  XAVIER

  The tiger raised its lips, baring its massive canines at me, a glob of drool falling from the sharp tip with a splash onto the floor. His paws were the size of my face, ending with life-ending claws that could easily tear me in half. In an instant, I realized I was in a very dangerous position. There was just a solid wall behind me and a deadly tiger in front of me, one that was already poised to strike. I could attempt to speed forward, but all Elijah had to do was hold out a paw and knock me in half.

  That’s when Gaige decided to be useful. I could see him from the corner of my eye as he came running, full speed, towards the bars closest to us. This time, his strategy did the trick. The rods seemed to have been lifted up from their bearings, falling over Gaige and swiping upwards. I was quick enough to dodge the flying rods, but Elijah hadn’t seen Gaige coming. He was caught totally off guard and was catapulted across the room, slamming against the steel rods on the other side.

  “Fuck,” I said, shaking my head. That’s when I hear the growls start bubbling up in the shadows. I focused in and immediately saw the shifters that were here serving as Elijah’s bodyguards.

  He needs new bodyguards.

  I sped towards one of the smaller wolves, catching him by surprise with my speed. Unlike Elijah, who was much stronger and faster, this shifter was much easier to subdue. I grabbed him by the back of his neck and tossed him to the side, knocking him out against one of the steel bars. I turned to see Gaige taking on another shifter.

  As much as it pained me to say, watching Gaige fight was incredibly impressive. For a massive bear, he had a swiftness and grace to his moves. It allowed him to maneuver his way around the back of the other wolf shifter who had come to protect Elijah. This one was bigger, with jet black fur and a saliva-soaked maw, ivory sharp canines ready to cause damage. He was much bigger too.

  And even then, he looked like a pup next to the massive Gaige. The grizzly reared up on his hind legs and let out a soul-moving roar. The ebony wolf—to his credit—did not run with his tail between his legs. I did notice he took a step back, but he still stood defiantly. Gaige met his challenge and swiped down with a massive paw, meeting the wolf’s head with a crack.

  I turned my attention to Elijah. The massive white tiger was getting up from the floor. He looked unstable, like he had been seriously hurt.

  Good.

  This vile scum murdered my sister in a jealous rage and then went on to threaten Kimberly. He needed to suffer in the worst of ways.

  “Having trouble getting up?” I asked, moving closer to the huge tiger. I could see the sinews of his muscle underneath his black striped fur. He was bleeding from a large gash on the left of his chest, coloring the snow white pelt with a deep crimson red, making Elijah look even more menacing. I sped forward and stopped behind the tiger. “We wouldn’t want you missing the big event,” I said, mocking his previous statement. I grabbed him by the tail, eliciting a surprised and angry roar, and used every muscle in my body to throw him up in the air. Gaige, watching it all happen, saw his opportunity and reared up on his hind legs, again towering over the scene. He opened his dangerously large jaw and clamped down on Elijah’s leg just as he was about to fly out of reach. The bear whipped his head the other way and sent Elijah flying through the air, once again.

  It was like we were playing a deadly game of ping pong. Instead of throwing him back, I moved out of the way and let Elijah slam into the bars again, this time hitting his other side. I could hear the cracking of
ribs with the impact as the tiger crumpled to the ground and started to morph back into the pathetic man that started this all. In seconds, the tiger was replaced with a naked, bruised, broken and bleeding man. One of his eyes was swollen shut and the gash across his chest looked even bigger than before.

  “Happy?” Elijah asked, coughing up a glob of blood. “You’ve avenged your sister.”

  “You could have let her live,” I said, stepping closer to the broken mess of a man. “She was trying to live a good life, a decent life.”

  “She lived a lie. The Ara you knew was a lie. Everything she was composed of was lies.” Elijah coughed again, his head drooping down in a sign of weakness. He must have been bleeding out, a pool of dark red forming underneath him. I crossed the space between us in seconds and leaned down, my face inches from his. “It’s over,” I said, looking into those dimming, feral eyes. For a second, I tried to search for what my sister had been attracted to, but I couldn’t find anything. I exposed my fangs and plunged down, breaking the skin of his pale neck.

  It was over.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  KIMBERLY

  The warm water cascaded over me and mixed in with the floral shampoo I had let sit in my long, matted hair. I took a deep breath and let the steam from the hot shower raise up and around me, clouding the glass door and mirrors, giving me a certain sense of comfort. It was weird, coming back to normal life after everything that had happened. Sleeping was a mission, with nightmares constantly waking me up in cold sweats and panicked, strangled gasps. It got a little better once the sun was up, but I still kept looking over my shoulder far too often.