Fae Unchained (The Mage Shifter War Book 2) Read online

  They’d been yelling, but I waited until their shouts turned to murmurs, then calmed into silence. Like ripples in a pond, all the sound in the room faded away as they stared at me.

  I looked at Corey, a middle-aged shifter sporting a crooked nose and a bleach-white smile. He was Bodie’s beta and handled most of the day-to-day shit that Bodie couldn’t be bothered with. He jabbed a finger at Aubry. "What the fuck is that wasp doing here?"

  Easton took a predatory step toward him. "Watch it. That’s my mate. And Bodie’s."

  Every eye in the room widened in shock. Then the head-shaking and whispering started.

  "If you’re all finished texting TMZ the fucking news, I’d like to talk," I said irritably.

  That shut the gossips right the fuck up. I waited until all of them had submitted, even Corey, my gaze pinning him until his eyes touched the floor at my feet, bowing to me.

  Then, I spoke.

  "The Mage Council attacked us directly. We will attack them, make no mistake. We will go for the throat." A cheer started to go up around the expansive room, but I held up a hand to stop it. My eyes settled on Corey again, ensuring that the freckle-faced fuck was watching me. "But anyone who makes a move before I say go will have hell to pay."

  "You can’t do that!" Corey hissed. "Drake, we can’t sit on our hands!"

  "They killed my son!" Ernesto, a hedgehog shifter in the back of the room yelled. His face was raw, broken like an egg, and tears oozed from his eyes like yolk.

  Grumbles started up again, but I spoke over them, letting my dragon wings sprout from my back as I did. "I have no intention of sitting on our damn hands."

  My wings spread out wide on either side of me, forcing the nearest shifters to take a step back, directing the momentum of the crowd to move as I saw fit.

  "I’ve been after these mage shits for years," I continued. "But I will not let you walk up to their doors and get shot down like vermin. Don’t think they won’t. The fuckers wouldn’t even bat an eyelash. We can’t attack them straight on—that’s suicide. We will attack. I’m working on a plan as we speak. And I’ve called in back up from New York."

  That shut everyone up.

  New York was a hot spot for mage-shifter skirmishes. And the shifter community there was as deep-rooted and well-connected as any human mafia. With them coming to our aid, we were already in a much better position than we had been, and this shifter mob damn well knew it.

  "For now, you take these weapons. You protect you and yours. You move your families to secure locations. And I’ll be in contact with every alpha in L.A. to coordinate our battle plan."

  Every head in the room nodded, as the sour smell of fear receded, and determination took its place.

  "Rest assured," I said in conclusion. "Today’s attack was just the beginning, but ours will be the end. We will be their end."

  A roar of approval met my ears and washed over me. I sent out a wave of alpha power and everyone bowed their heads, even Easton, who should have been alpha of his own fucking clan. But the weirdo had always deferred to me. Only one person in the warehouse didn’t bow.

  Aubry.

  Her chocolate eyes stayed glued to mine in a way that made my stomach tighten and my throat grow hot. Even though she wasn’t a shifter, I was surprised that she could hold my gaze when I released the alpha magic. It was so potent, most other magical creatures—even sirens and pixies—couldn’t look at me. The only ones capable of standing up to alphas were their…

  No.

  Horror washed through me like acid. I broke eye contact first, the only time I’d done so since I was twelve. My heart hammered frantically in my chest, but I did my best to appear calm on the outside.

  Ignoring Aubry’s confused look, I turned to smile at Easton. "Want to break open the boxes, Goldilocks? We’ve got presents for everyone."

  "Sure thing, Santa." Easton walked over and ripped open a crate with his bare hands.

  "Two lines," I shouted. "One for those who know how to fire a gun, and one for those who don’t."

  Betas kept the shifters under control as they came up one by one to get weapons for every adult in their household. Easton opened crate after crate of the guns he’d made specifically for shifter use, ones that could be magically fired even in animal form.

  Corey stepped in and started explaining how to shoot a gun to the line of people who didn’t understand. Even the wasp—yeah, I was back to calling her that—joined in on the tutorial. She did a half decent job of it, though the whole "proper stance" shit was bullshit. In a battle, there was no such thing. Still, she was better at it than Corey.

  We handed out several hundred weapons over the next few hours, as a near constant stream of shifters seemed to come inside. We didn’t stop until Easton turned around and said, "We’re out," and I was forced to tell a disappointed line of shifters to come back the next day.

  The shifters trudged outside, with the exception of Easton and the wasp, and I sagged against the side of an open crate.

  I hadn’t slept the night before—none of us had. The shit show had just gone from Union Station to the museum to Ninth Street School to the warehouse in the blink of an eye. The adrenaline I’d been running on finally gave out and I felt like I was about to crash.

  But I couldn’t. I needed to slam an energy drink and keep on keeping on.

  I looked at Easton. "I need you to go to location fifteen and grab the weapons there. Bring them here for tomorrow’s distribution."

  "Fifteen? How many locations do you have?" the wasp asked.

  I didn’t answer, just waited until Easton nodded his acceptance of my order. But then he said, "Larry told me to tell you he’s nearly out."

  I sighed and nodded in return, staring at the floor.

  I knew that. Larry was our only full mage and he had a very limited number of potions. That was part of why I had to keep going. I had to figure this out. I had to come up with a way to attack the mages, and I had to do it without his help.

  It was gonna be a bloodbath.

  "What’s wrong?" The wasp glanced between Easton and me, batting those long, dark eyelashes.

  "Larry’s out of potions." Easton answered, walking over to her.

  I turned away. I couldn’t handle looking at her. At them. Not with the way my stomach was churning… I could just picture Goldilocks putting his arm around her. The two of them snuggled in close.

  My dragon gave a little whine inside my chest, and I covered it with a cough. I pulled my wings in swiftly and shifted to full human, letting him know exactly what I thought of his opinion. Fuck off, firebreather, I told him.

  I was so shocked to feel a small hand on my arm that I physically jumped at the contact. I turned to see Aubry, her tiny fingers digging into my skin as my whole body lit up with her touch. Desire coursed through me, burning a path all the way down to my half-hard dick.

  I immediately used guilt to knock out my unwarranted attraction. I was a bad guy; I didn’t deserve to feel light and warmth. And anyway, Aubry was taken—by both of my pack mates. And if that somehow wasn't enough, then as soon as I told her what I’d done to her father, she was going to hate me.

  Forever.

  Her soft brown eyes flickered under the cheap warehouse fluorescents as she stared up at me, completely oblivious to my internal turmoil. "I know where we can get more potions to replenish Larry’s stores."

  My eyebrow shot up. So did my heart rate. "Yeah, where?"

  Then she uttered a sentence I never thought would spill from her plush lips. "We can break into the precinct."

  7

  Aubry

  I stared impassively at the building before me—the place I’d considered my true home until just a few weeks ago—as I prepared to rob it.

  My, how times had changed.

  The downtown Mage Police precinct gleamed in the dull evening light. The glass windows were tinted, so we couldn't see the bustling chaos inside, but I knew it was just about time for a shift change. And in
those precious minutes of case handoffs and small talk, final bathroom breaks and putting lunches into the fridge... we'd have a shot.

  I licked my lips, feeling better and more myself than I had in weeks. Because I finally felt like I knew what I was doing. I was finally in charge of a mission. The fact that it was the opposite of everything I'd ever done before didn't matter—the high, the familiar rush of blood through my ears, did.

  "Move out to the left," I directed the Easton and Drake quietly. "We need to go in through the back door."

  We circled the edge of the parking lot, eyes casually on the brick building next to the station, as if that's where we were headed. Palm trees swayed overhead, and the smell of a taco cart drifted down the street, making my stomach growl. We'd eaten before coming here, but that had been our first meal of the day and my body was feeling it.

  I heard Easton moan next to me. "Tacos," he said dreamily.

  Drake, of course, was all business. "Don't you need a keycard to get in?"

  "Yup." I moved forward without giving him further explanation.

  The dragon growled behind me. "You didn't say that before, Aubry."

  I loved the way he said my name when he was angry. Maybe it was because he was usually so damn stoic and controlled. Getting him riled up was quickly becoming a favorite pastime of mine.

  "You want me to spell out every damn step for you, Guerra?" I taunted. "What is this, preschool? Do I need to pull your pants down so you can piss too?"

  Easton chuckled and I flashed him a saucy grin, saying, "Guess the gecko doesn't like having a taste of his own medicine."

  "Guess not." My blond bear winked at me.

  "That is not what I—" Drake started to protest.

  "That is exactly what you do," Easton interjected. "Bark orders without explanations."

  "Shh," I hushed the pair, delighted to cut Drake off before he could respond. He'd have to just sit there and stew on his retorts. We were too close to the building to keep bantering.

  I raised a brow at Drake. "I need you to shift your hand and use your claws to pop some tires."

  I pointed at a car that was parked near the edge of the lot. It was a private car... Aaron's car. And if there was anything that siren loved as much as Tee, it was his car. I didn't know how he'd afforded it. Police salary definitely wasn't enough to cover the sleek Audi, but he'd gotten it anyway. And he'd gotten all the stupid bells and whistles on it. Including some dumb app that alerted him of everything. Including tire pressure. I’d been bored to tears the day he’d tried to show me how it all worked. But now, his tech addiction was going to come in handy.

  Drake's brows lowered as if I’d given him the shittiest assignment ever. "Really?"

  "Yup," I said with a grin. "Do it quick, because then we have to bust ass."

  He grumbled and walked over to the car I’d indicated. His hand turned into a black scaled claw and he shoved a long nail into the tire. When he pulled it out, a slow hiss leaked into the air.

  "Now move," I directed, dodging behind cars and hurrying toward the back door.

  The three of us scurried through the lot before posting up behind a dumpster near the back door. I held my breath, not even wanting to think about how bad the smell was for the guys. Like rotten sewage. I glanced at my watch.

  Drake leaned forward and started to whisper, "What the fuck—"

  I cut him off by simply holding up a hand.

  Less than a minute later, Aaron burst through the door, eyes searching for his precious ride. He looked like shit, and suddenly, my guilt amped up. I knew he was probably there day and night using every department resource to search for Tee, but she'd been moved so often I doubted he'd be able to track her. And if she really was in a coma… well, I had no idea how that might affect their mate bond magic.

  Aaron strode forward to check on his car and as soon as he was far enough away, I spread my wings and flew, grabbing onto the door a millisecond before it latched. I landed and waved the guys over just as Aaron's "Fucking shit!" traveled through the parking lot.

  We soundlessly slipped inside.

  The back hallway was dark, because the cops really only used it to come in and out. It had a service closet for the janitors, and a door to the weapons room full of Sleep grenade Potions, guns, Lethal Protection Potions, and all kinds of delicious goodies. But walking through that doorway wouldn't be as easy as the first.

  "If Aaron comes back in, knock him out. Do not kill him," I glanced back and forth between both the guys as I led my crew to the storage closet.

  Easton immediately nodded. Drake just stared.

  "Drake?" I waited mid-hallway and put a hand on my hip. I was not gonna fucking back down on this.

  The dragon glared at me and released some strange scent into the air. It smelled like a damned air-freshener. Sweet apple cider or some shit. He’d done it in the warehouse too, which was weird as fuck. I had no idea what that meant but my damn nipples puckered every time he did it.

  "Stop fucking distracting me with sex hormones," I growled.

  Drake's eyes widened.

  Easton's jaw dropped and he glanced between us. "Sex hormones?"

  "Agree," I demanded, focusing on the dragon’s angry blue eyes and furrowed black brows. "Now. Or I'm not fucking doing it."

  Drake's teeth sharpened and ground together as he held my gaze. "Fine."

  "Good," I said in the syrupy sweet tone of victory. "Wait here. I’ll be right back."

  I turned on my heel, then let glamour wash over my body as I transformed into Tee’s husband, uniform and all. I shot up in height and my arms hung down like thick logs—I felt like an ape.

  Immediately, I had to fight the urge to scratch—it was maddening, right from the start. I loosened my walk and threw back my shoulders the way Aaron normally did. Then I pushed through the hallway door into the precinct lobby and walked through the busy room straight toward Shelly's desk.

  Shelly was the world's dumbest administrator. She'd had her job since before Jesus was born, so nobody had the heart to fire her. But the old pixie puttered around the office, making delicious-as-dishwater coffee and misfiling paperwork because, even with her glasses, she couldn't tell the difference between an ‘E’ and an ‘F’ anymore.

  "Shelly, I lost my keys," I groaned, in typical Aaron fashion. "I locked them in my car."

  "Oh, dear!" Shelly blinked up at me sympathetically from where she sat, six inches tall, in the middle of her desk. A Post It note the size of her torso sat on her lap and she was in the middle of painstakingly writing a note.

  I waited. But she didn't say anything else. My smile grew a little strained. "Can I borrow your keys for a sec?"

  Her brow furrowed. "But, how will that help you get your keys?"

  I swallowed a sigh. "You have a skeleton key, don't you?"

  For some unknown reason, back in the day, someone, somewhere had entrusted a mage-spelled key to Shelly. It could unlock just about anything.

  "Oh, yes! I forgot." She set aside her note and fluttered to the edge of her desk. Then she bent over to yank at the top drawer. Unlike Tee, Shelly rarely used Growth Potion to get larger. She claimed it gave her hoo-ha a rash, a fact that HR had to come talk to her about. Shelly was from an era before 'work-appropriate' conversations were a thing. I didn’t know what Tee’s excuse was.

  She dug through the drawer, pulling out pens nearly as tall as she was, chewing gum, and other office detritus. I had to work hard not to tap my foot and just yank the drawer out of her desk, walking off with the whole damn thing. I did glance at the overhead clock. Aaron would be back inside any minute.

  Finally, she held up the gleaming silver key.

  I had to force myself not to snatch it right out of her tiny hand and accidentally end up flinging her petite body across the office. "Thanks! I'll be right back!"

  My heart swelled as big as a bullfrog with each beat as I made my way back across the office. An itch traveled up my spine like a shiver and I had to think
of something else to keep my mind off of the annoying sensation.

  Drake's face popped into my head.

  No.

  I shoved it away and pulled up Bodie's face instead. I hoped my shifter assassin was safe.

  The last time he'd gone on a mission, he'd been hunting down Trite, too. He hadn't found him then. Should I be hopeful Bodie wouldn’t find his target this time either? Or should I secretly hope Trite got taken out? Because, I wasn't gonna lie, after the day I'd had with those kids and their grieving parents... I was kinda pulling for the latter.

  Yes, a huge piece of my heart broke to even think the words in my head, but an even bigger chunk of my heart broke for those innocent children, robbed of their lives and their futures all because of a crazed mage with a grudge. Drake killing Trite's parents was an accident—I wasn't sure why, but I truly believed that. Maybe it was the haunted look on Drake’s face when he’d first admitted it. Or the fact that Trite had never told me his parents were murdered. The fact that my best friend kept the murder a secret, when typically, mages were all about blaming shifters for everything, spoke volumes. Triton had never talked to me about it, never gotten it off his chest. Instead, he’d allowed it to fester deep inside until it corrupted him right to his core.

  I strode through the lobby door and back into the hallway where Easton and Drake stood over a motionless Aaron. I lurched into a sprint as panic filled my lungs. Had they killed him? Even after I made them swear they wouldn't?

  "Relax, Sweetheart," Easton cooed with a grin as he hefted the male siren up. "He's just knocked out."

  One deep breath later, I nodded and led them over to the storage room door, which had been painted again and again, the same shitty shade of battleship gray. There were two locks on the old metal rectangle. One was a high-tech laser scanner for special Mage Police ID cards. And one for the old-fashioned skeleton key I'd just thrust into the lock. With a slow twist, the lock popped. And because it was Shelly’s key, and the pixie couldn’t carry both a keycard and her skeleton key in her small form, the light on the laser scanner automatically turned green. The heavy door creaked open like a piece of rusty playground equipment, and we scuttled inside, locking it behind us.