Candy: Book 5 of the Lord Emperor Vampire Saga
folder
Vampire › Slash - Male/Male
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
47
Views:
19,156
Reviews:
551
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
1
Category:
Vampire › Slash - Male/Male
Rating:
Adult ++
Chapters:
47
Views:
19,156
Reviews:
551
Recommended:
0
Currently Reading:
1
Disclaimer:
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance of characters to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. The Author holds exclusive rights to this work. Unauthorized duplication is prohibited.
Little Deadly
Greetings this April 14,2008
If you read the notifications in AFF, the rants/journals section of originals will be deleted pretty damned quick so I took the bull by the tail and moved
"How do you write?? Are you kidding me!!!" over to the HUMOR section.
Why? Individuals have contacted me and found my tongue in cheekiness a valuable resource. *huh? blink blink* Yeah, I know, me too. Some chapters have been translated into another language. Again. *blink blink* It has over 3000 hits and over 150 reviews/comments/suggestions which I feel shouldn't be lost to the ether just because the powers that be at AFF want to streamline the machine. Sooo, kats and kittans, come on over to "HUMOUR" once in a while.
This thing is as close to a blog as I am going to get.
TOODLES NOODLES.
Kiix
Q: why is this posting here? Apparently you cannot add to rants already...or it could be just me. (big sigh)
_____________________________________
On another note: I have been remiss on passing out the kudos and praises to the LOYAL and TRUE. I have no good excuse for messing up. My brains are scattered all over the place with Lycans and weretigers coming to ahead. I will get to everyone. I am actually very touched that the LOYAL have taken the time to give me advice and their opinions regarding the LYCAN question I blindsided myself with. So big mauh's all around.
(insert list here) *reminder to myself*
___________________________________
Oh, I now have a mailing list. If you would like notification of updates and other crap I might decide to send out, drop me a line at kiix@hotmail.com with KIIX ME in the subject line.
Ciao 4 now
Oh, and as always ENJOY!
Chapter 199: Little Deadly
I toppled like a redwood. Potyr grabbed at me but ended up getting crushed beneath this new Alpha form of mine. Azrael was out. Apparently there was a physical and spiritual draw when flipping between wolf and Alpha and our regular quad-eriffic Vampire.
However, it was all in the will.
Manu and Baojai rolled Vampire me off of Potyr and I stared up at the dark hewn rafters of the high ceiling of the throne room. “High Alpha!”
“Skell.” I groaned outloud announcing myself to the team. I was starving. Not for blood. MacDonalds and multiple transmutations did not go well together. Vladimir leaned forward and looked me in the greens then moved closer angling his head so I could get a good purchase with my fangs on his neck. I reached up and deflected his offer. It was nice knowing that I had people around me that were willing to give it up to keep me from going all primeval on their asses from a full blown blood starvation. They forgot, I used to function at this low level all the time. I was a shit disturber then...and judging from Hennessey’s face when big brother taunted him, I took after Azrael. “No...food. The tank is empty.”
Bruce gestured from us to follow him. I barely kept back an eep as I got swept up off the floor like so much lint. Sang Kyu. What is it with this body? Marcus tosses Azrael over his shoulder every chance he can get. Armor carries Xavier everywhere. Father...well if he and Sex ever got out of bed, I don’t doubt that he would have Sex up in his wings. Even Lanny liked to lift me off my feet.
I could feel the eyes of our competitors watching us as we disappeared. We had about a half an hour to get everything settled and vertical. Whatever credibility Azrael had garnered from the female Alphas presentation of the 11th litter basically got tossed when he fainted...still. I was proud of him. The other two brothers had been traumatized by the Lycan attack. Britta’s final act would not have gone over well with them. My brother was a little trooper.
Bruce lead us to the door of, apparently was a large closet. We all shuffled around and settled down with me bare assed naked in the middle of nattily dressed Imperials. How the hell did that happen? Before any of us could really start plotting, planning or taking my lunch order the door swung inward and in marched two more Lycan...female. Kay – who was the head honcho-ess and a female pup. I would have said that it was her kid but...aren’t Alphas pupless? I mean, physically they could have pups but when they challenged for and won a seat on an Alpha Pack or THE Alpha Pack didn’t they give up their name? The female pup was a mini carbon copy of Kay. Just the males were forbidden? There was so much I didn’t, er, we –the brotherhood, didn’t know.
Haley never told us.
I firmed my jaw. Based on what Britta had told Azrael, Haley knew his future, or lack thereof. He knew finding me, Hashmalliam would lead to his death. Was that why he and Lanny were so palsy? I always felt like the interloper when they would get together and have ‘high tea’. I was always invited and encouraged to join in but that really wasn’t my thing. Lanny and Haley were friends long before I showed up out of the maw of Orel Wessel. I gave them their space. As it was, I lost the opportunity to really know the multicoloured Lycan.
“High Alpha.” I glanced up to find Kay looking down at my finery. Sang Kyu swept my hair forward covering the unmentionables since there was a pup in the room. “We have the honor of giving you First Meal. Queeny, give High Alpha the tray.”
The little girl, little, she must have been about thirty or so, because the look she was giving me was not one of an innocent little pup. I counted myself lucky that we were packed in this place like sardines because someone had the ear ripping look in their eyes. Holy moly, so it begins again. A female Lycan wanted to join the harem, and she probably wasn’t the only one.
She removed the dome of the tray and the whole of the six foot room was filled with roasted meat; beef, pork, chicken, venison. The aroma just filled my head and made my stomach growl like a hungry kitten. I opened my mouth and drooled all down the front of my chest.
Manu burst out in a snicker.
I. Don’t. Drool.
I wiped at the wet spot on my chest.
Vladimir the Lycan Pack leader intercepted the little pup and took the tray from her hands. I knew the history of him and Claudia. I also knew that he came to cover Xavier from more than half a world away. That misguided Lycan Love had been a little testy for a while but he was now the picture of what loyal to his life mate – my wife should be. Our wife. I wiped my hand down my face. This was confusing and I was a part of it.
“Our Mother has spoken of you often, High Alpha.” Vladimir passed the meat tray over to Baojia who handed it to Manu who ended up setting it on my thighs. Kay gave me an arched eyebrow that seemed to say, ‘pity.’ “While her words were not the most flattering most of the time, they are essentially true.”
“So, you find me a cheeky bastard too?” Well, I guess I was. Here I am buck naked except for a smile and a tray in a closet full of adult male Alpha Lycan.
“Prince Azrael! You will address the Female Pack Leader with respect as her position dictates.” Bruce bellowed. Everyone winced since this was just so confined a space.
Kay turned placing herself between me and the big black Lycan. “Bruce. You have distinguished yourself as a capable and efficient seneschal these past twenty five years, but now with the Great Mother’s passing, you are just a footnote in the history of the pack. Your voice holds no authority.”
The Lycan paled at the Female Leader’s words. I might not know that much about Lycan culture and its inner political workings but even a newborn pup, which technically I was, knew someone had just been kicked to the curb. That was harsh. I wouldn’t say that the former seneschal shrunk in size but the force of his personality just...faded.
Kay turned back to me. “When this day is over, High Alpha, you will need to choose your court wisely.” Her eyes widened.
I frowned.
Her eyes flicked to the left.
I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. I had no idea what she was doing. She flicked her eyes off to the left again. “There are a number of Lycan who would come forward and pledge to serve you, but it would be wise to take the counsel of someone who has a stellar reputation and is above reproach.”
Vladimir stepped up and mouthed “Bruce.”
Duh. Gees, I still miss the subtleties of what goes on around me sometimes. I’m still the straightforward brother. Azrael thought he was, but he could dance mazes around me. “Bruce, you want to work for me?”
“I’m a beggar at no Lycan’s table.”
“That’s good, since I’m not a Lycan.”
The stopped whatever else Bruce was going to splutter. “You inform me about what I have to do. You rein me in if I’m buggering up. You call me on the carpet regarding matters of protocol. That sound like something you can handle, or do you want to slink off into the woods?”
“You are making grand assumptions, High Alpha.”
“Yea, or Nay. Go with your gut.”
“I serve the Bloodline of Britta Dennings.”
“So you’re my Lycan Hades.”
All the Imperials just turned and looked at me.
“To be compared to such an Ancient is a greater honor than I can bear.”
“Whatever....so I’m taking this to be a yea.”
Bruce tried to get into the Alpha bow but we were backed in here like those old black and white movies with the Marx brothers. Manu handed me a venison sandwich. I picked it up and tore into like a...well Lycan. I was starving. The rest of the crew began to pick at the meat tray. The door swung open again.
“Everybody out!”
Ping stood in the doorway. I had never seen her so...distraught. Then again, she had just lost someone important in her life...if not her world. “NOW!”
The Imperials ducked out of the room with all the grace of pups after a bunny. Bruce sauntered out a little more dignified but then again, how the hell could I look anything but a mess with my only covering to modesty was a tray of meat.
“You were supposed to keep Haley safe. That was the only reason I let him out of my sight. He was supposed to be safe with you...” Ping rushed forward. I knocked the tray over and scrambled to my feet. I had know idea what she was going to do. She was family but she was also a grieving widow and she was an Alpha Family who felt strong enough and was secure enough to leave her position in the Eastern Pack to basically stand on her own in a strange land.
I waited to see what she would do. Her arms wrapped around my naked chest and she squeezed me as hard as she could. I was a sad honor she bestowed upon me. She had to be strong for her puppies. She had to show nothing in the face of the pack that she would secure for her daughter. Ping Saitou gave me her tears of pain and sorrow. I wrapped my arms around her slight frame and held her tight to me. She shook with the force of her pain.
“Why did it have to be now? I wanted more time with him. I tried to protect him.”
That stuck out. Why did it have to be now? “Haley knew he was going to die?”
“The night I came to claim him, he told me that our time together would be short. He also told me that he had sworn the oath of Zsigmond. Skell, tell me you got his killer.” Ping rubbed her snotty nose on my chest. I lifted my hand and cradled her head gently.
“That is not my job. Azrael is taking care of business.”
Ping patted my ass then seemed to realize that I was naked. “You so take after your brothers in so many different ways.” She stepped back and wiped at her eyes. “What are you guys doing shoved in a closet?”
Oh, the irony. I showed Ping the fading bite marks. “Technically Azrael is now your Uncle.”
“Britta bit you?”
“11th Litter.”
“You’re a wolf?”
Kay spoke up from the back of the closet, “Princess, Skell was it? He is a pure white Alpha. Britta has named Azrael, High Alpha in Haley’s stead. He will enter the trails to win the throne.”
“The only reason Azrael is entering the trials is to get to Hennessey.”
Ping’s eyes narrowed and turned a dangerous feral gold. “Hennessey...he killed my Haley?”
Kay nodded. “Britta has declared Richard Hennessey a traitor, but he claimed the throne before any of the others. High Alpha is still on the hunt which you can now assist him with. Princess, are you still nursing your latest litter?”
Uh?
Ping turned towards me. “Is your blood burning?”
“I’m hungry. I don’t need blood.”
“When Eliza bit Sigmund when he was nine, he did turn to a pup. He never did get his first feed. That is why he collapsed after his first Alpha change. His wolf was magically bound over all these years but he has not been stabilized.”
Stabilized?
Kay and Ping were having a conversation way over my head that I had a distinct feeling I wouldn’t like where it was going. “How would it be best done?”
“If he liked the opposite gender, I would say in this form, but it probably wouldn’t freak him out as much if you did it as wolves.”
“Did what?” I narrowed my own gaze at the two females. One was taller than me, the other only came up to my shoulder but if it came down to it, I think they could both come close to handing me my ass.
Ping wiped at her face brushing the tears dry. “Your first feed will ease the hunger you are feeling. You could finish that whole tray and you will still be hungry so you will take your fill...of me.” She flipped her head back and lifted a delicate paw to my face. “It is an honour to do this for you Skell. Haley would have approved.”
“What do you mean, first feed?”
I wasn’t following the tour group. My face must have been puzzled because Ping wrapped her hand in my hair by my ear and tugged me down towards her. “You will drink the milk of a Lycan.” I popped back upright. Ping was left holding some strands of white hair as I backed away. I had a feeling that this milk did not come from the fridge in a cardboard carton.
Not much can stun me into stillness. This was one of those moments. I just watched...stupidly as Ping began to open her blouse. This was not happening. Tell me this was not happening. “WAIT!” Two sets of feral glowing eyes met mine. Gees, I wasn’t challenging mothers...well that wasn’t the intention. Come Skell, you’ve endured worse...I just can’t recall it right now. “Turning into a wolf took too much out of this body...”
Naked as the day I was born, I lowered myself to my knees. “How much do I need?”
Ping stepped up and stroked the top of my head and pet behind my ears. “Until you are full. Think of this as my contribution to hounding my mate’s killer. You can pretend I am Lanny.”
I opened my eyes and gave the raven haired beauty a wry smile. “I am sorry, Princess but I don’t think Sex could pretend that much. Just tell me if I’m doing this wrong.”
“You’ve never been a breast man.” Ping opened her shirt. Considering she was one hundred and something she wasn’t wearing a bra and based on the current confides of beauty, she didn’t need one. “I’m not going to break, Skell.” She wrapped a hand around the back of my head and pulled me up to her milk laden breast.
I occupied my mind with something else. The consistency of first feed was like those red cans of condensed milk from the kitchen. Hans had made it his mission in life to find my food preferences. I really didn’t care what was put in front of me. Food was fuel. Gas me up and go. That wasn’t to stick with the German master chef. We discovered over the months and years that I don’t like spicy food...or to be accurate this body doesn’t like spicy foods – aside from suicide chicken wings....which I didn’t understand. The other thing we discovered, the kitchen and I is that I have the biggest sweet tooth of all the brothers combined. I would eat anything that had sweet, sweet sugar in it. Hans would let me taste him once in a while...he didn’t like it, or he tried not show that I scared him but he tasted like baked Alaska. I think he made me Crème Brule just to keep my fangs to myself.
The Female Alphas were right. The hollow pit of hunger that was in the middle of my stomach was now gone. I kept my eyes closed as I sat back and licked at my lips. I know I had just suckled off of the teat of my puppy charges, mother, I really didn’t want to acknowledge it just yet.
“I’m decent again, Skell.” I opened my eyes and instinctively caught the bundle of leather that was flying towards me. “Maybe you should get some clothes on too.”
My fighting leathers. I caught the bundle but my daggers fell to the floor. I picked up on and slipped it out of its sheath. The metal gleamed dully in the overhead light of the closet.
“Bruce should have informed you that no foreign material can be used in the trials.” Kay cautioned.
I gathered my long strands of hair up in my left hand at the base of my neck. “Princess Ping, Xavier and Sex are in mourning. Azrael will be when his task is done. I did not know Haley was well as the others but I know that, that little Pup affected their lives. He was their...our little brother.” I cut my hair off at the base of my neck. “When your Prince is returned to the stars...send this small offering with him.”
Ping’s hand trembled as she reached out for our pale white hair. “Promise me that Hennessey was die.”
“Azrael has already given that coward his challenge. It will be done, little sister. If it takes us all, we will not fail.”
Ping gestured me back down to her arms. I lowered my head and she wrapped her arms around my neck. “Accept this in the way it is meant, Lord Skell.” Ping ripped into the shell of my ear with her fangs. HOLY!!!
“You are now claimed.” She stepped back and wiped my blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. “There will be no more pre-pubescent females sniffing around you hoping to be the next High Consort. This is my thanks for giving Haley one last night of joy. I wished it would have been with me, but it is fitting. You brought him into my life. You saw him out. As Britta has said, “KJegyelem nelkul.” Be it by the Blood Emperor, the High Alpha or by Hashmalliam. Let me wash away my sorrow in the blood of my enemy.”
I lowered myself down to my knees and hunched up my shoulders, dropping my head down to the wooden floor. “I will, my sister.”
“Time is of the essence, High Alpha.” Kay looked down at her watch. That struck me as such a mundane kind of thing in this midst of all this drama.
I shook out my gear and pulled on a pair of boxers then some socks. These fighting leathers were mine. Each of us brothers had their own. The style and the cut were basically the same but the color was different. Xavier had leathers that were a dull flat reddish brown – the color of dried blood. Sex had metallic blue – the same color he wore when he took back the position of First from Father. Azrael was black. Mine. Mine was camouflage greys – coal black, slate grey, shark grey, and a touch of sliver. It probably should have been Azrael’s colours, but my ass had been naked long enough today. I slipped into my leather pants and yanked a grey ribbed tank down. It felt strange not to have the extra weight of my hair on my shoulders.
My ear throbbed.
“If you leave the trace of a scar, Skell, it will mean the same thing.”
I lifted my hand and placed it over my ear. The blue light of healing tinted the walls of the closet for a moment and then I realized the pain was gone...and my extra long hair was back. Damn it. I forgot that the Healing Light liked the Lord Emperor’s to have extra long hair. Ping set my Docs in front of me. She still held the original hank of hair I had cut off. “I have your sentiment and actions, Skell. Thank you.”
“This is Azrael’s gig. Only if he fails, do I step in.”
Kay queried. “Why is that?”
She seemed to be taking the multiple High Alphas in stride. Then again, she was Britta the Elders’ Alpha Leader. She would have been privy to all of the grousing and bad names the Lycan Den Mother would have called us over the years. “I am Hashmalliam.”
I couldn’t deny it. I had Endellion and for an enchanted sword, er katana she was a talkative thing. A bloody thirsty, well soul thirsty thing. Coming from the tender care of Orel Wessel, if I had been alone, Endellion and I would have gotten along like gangbusters. Azrael called me Little Deadly and in truth, that is all I was. I was death, a pale bringer of oblivion to any one, human, animal or blood; but, that was before reuniting with the brotherhood; before red eyes and blueberry goodness came and gentled my anger and pain. I still was the ‘shortest distance is a straight line’ kind of brother. That is the Orel Wessel legacy that still remains.
“I carry out my objective, regardless of who or what is in the way. Richard Hennessey is sitting on the throne right now. If I were going to carry out justice, I would have just killed him as soon as his identity was verified. Nothing would stop me. Not the trials, not the fact that the Female Alphas stood between my objective or that the coward hides behind five Alpha Males. I would destroy anything that gets in my way.”
Kay looked shocked.
I zipped up my jacket. “That is why Azrael will be carrying this out. I would sooner phoenix and burn this place to the ground to get to Hennessey. I have no patience when it comes to vengeance.”
The heartburn that was making it difficult to concentrate eased by degrees. The Lycan milk in my stomach warmed me and calmed me at the same time. I was feeling stronger by the second.
“Sit, Skell. We will set warbraids in your hair.” Ping sniffed a bit still but moved to my side.
“I am sorry for your loss, Ping.”
“Haley would say farewell to me everyday. When he came back to me at the end of the day, we would have such a reunion. He lived every day like it was his last. This way, we have crammed in more than just our twenty years that we did have.”
“You will have vengenace, Den Mother Ping. This I will swear to you.”
I got a kiss to my temple and was handed another meat filled sandwich. “Refuel. There will be no time once the trials start.”
I ate as Ping took up one side and Kay took up the other and they both began to yank on my hair. Oww. Owwww. /Azrael!/
/What the hell happened?/
/You fainted. Apparently we should have taken something that deactivates the Lycan bite about, let’s say, forty-five years ago. Britta’s second bite reactivated everything twofold and it took too much effort to wolf it then to Alpha./
/I feel different./
/We’re deactivated. Are you ready?/
/Yeah.../ It’s rather nasty to come back to the world and find yourself chewing something you didn’t put into your mouth. I pulled my hand back and found a roast beef sandwich half devoured. There was a coating in my mouth...
/Oh, by the way Angel of Death, you’re now married to Ping./
/What?!!/ My hand flew up to my left ear. There was a notch missing. What the hell. I shifted and looked at Ping’s sad face. “I’m sorry...”
She looked up from braiding my hair and caught my eye squarely. “I want you to mindfuck Richard Hennessey hard, Angel of Death. I want him screaming and choking on his own blood then I want you to heal him and do it again. If you could, I would have you do it thirteen times for the number of hearts he has broken this morning.”
“Ours is broken too...”
“I know, Azrael. That is why I leave the Alphas and the magician to your wrath. Everyone who was involved with my husband’s death will be judged. That I leave to you, 11th Littermate.”
There was a bang on the door and then Bruce stuck his head in. He looked relieved that everyone was in one piece and seemed to be getting along. His eyes widened as he looked at my exposed left ear but nothing showed in his voice. “High Alpha, Kay, Ping, it’s time.”
I stuffed the rest of the sandwich in my mouth and climbed back to my feet. Humph, I was in Skell’s leathers. I should be grateful I wasn’t Sexy’s glittering blue. I had two white braids hanging down in front of my ears. The rest of the mass was pulled back to the nape of my neck and loosely braided down to my ass. The back of the leather jacket had wing vents. Since Skell’s wings were metal, these vents were a little longer than what I was used to. I would have to make sure not to expose my back much. I rolled my shoulders and cracked my neck right and left. I felt good.
I also felt naked without my blades. Ping had gathered them up from the floor and held them against her stomach. My Glocks didn’t make an appearance. Still, as long as it was from the body, it was considered fair game. I was good to go.
Shades of the training arena challenges going on here. Pups and Lycans not vying for the throne lined the halls outside of the closet waiting for Britta’s last litter pup to come into view. Apparently my passing out and getting dragged to the closet didn’t harm my reputation. I was flanked by Kay and Ping. Bruce took up the back as Vlad and the Imperials made a wedge in front of me and we started back down the hall to the throne room.
YIP. Yip. Yip.
/Eleven. Eleven. Eleven./
I knew that you never can make a second first impression but I know damned well that we made an damned good impression on the assembly of Lycan out in the open air arena. The Imperials had fallen back behind Bruce and they were still all in their business men suits looking every inch the Male Alpha Pack of the Blood Emperor. I had Britta’s Female Alpha pack at my side. I had Britta’s seneschal behind my right shoulder. Ping, Britta’s chosen Den Mother was standing in front of me.
“Let the trials begin!”
Alright. I jumped up slightly onto my toes. Let’s dance.
Then all hell broke loose.
* * *
yes, yes, I'm evil....I'm working on it....
If you read the notifications in AFF, the rants/journals section of originals will be deleted pretty damned quick so I took the bull by the tail and moved
"How do you write?? Are you kidding me!!!" over to the HUMOR section.
Why? Individuals have contacted me and found my tongue in cheekiness a valuable resource. *huh? blink blink* Yeah, I know, me too. Some chapters have been translated into another language. Again. *blink blink* It has over 3000 hits and over 150 reviews/comments/suggestions which I feel shouldn't be lost to the ether just because the powers that be at AFF want to streamline the machine. Sooo, kats and kittans, come on over to "HUMOUR" once in a while.
This thing is as close to a blog as I am going to get.
TOODLES NOODLES.
Kiix
Q: why is this posting here? Apparently you cannot add to rants already...or it could be just me. (big sigh)
_____________________________________
On another note: I have been remiss on passing out the kudos and praises to the LOYAL and TRUE. I have no good excuse for messing up. My brains are scattered all over the place with Lycans and weretigers coming to ahead. I will get to everyone. I am actually very touched that the LOYAL have taken the time to give me advice and their opinions regarding the LYCAN question I blindsided myself with. So big mauh's all around.
(insert list here) *reminder to myself*
___________________________________
Oh, I now have a mailing list. If you would like notification of updates and other crap I might decide to send out, drop me a line at kiix@hotmail.com with KIIX ME in the subject line.
Ciao 4 now
Oh, and as always ENJOY!
Chapter 199: Little Deadly
I toppled like a redwood. Potyr grabbed at me but ended up getting crushed beneath this new Alpha form of mine. Azrael was out. Apparently there was a physical and spiritual draw when flipping between wolf and Alpha and our regular quad-eriffic Vampire.
However, it was all in the will.
Manu and Baojai rolled Vampire me off of Potyr and I stared up at the dark hewn rafters of the high ceiling of the throne room. “High Alpha!”
“Skell.” I groaned outloud announcing myself to the team. I was starving. Not for blood. MacDonalds and multiple transmutations did not go well together. Vladimir leaned forward and looked me in the greens then moved closer angling his head so I could get a good purchase with my fangs on his neck. I reached up and deflected his offer. It was nice knowing that I had people around me that were willing to give it up to keep me from going all primeval on their asses from a full blown blood starvation. They forgot, I used to function at this low level all the time. I was a shit disturber then...and judging from Hennessey’s face when big brother taunted him, I took after Azrael. “No...food. The tank is empty.”
Bruce gestured from us to follow him. I barely kept back an eep as I got swept up off the floor like so much lint. Sang Kyu. What is it with this body? Marcus tosses Azrael over his shoulder every chance he can get. Armor carries Xavier everywhere. Father...well if he and Sex ever got out of bed, I don’t doubt that he would have Sex up in his wings. Even Lanny liked to lift me off my feet.
I could feel the eyes of our competitors watching us as we disappeared. We had about a half an hour to get everything settled and vertical. Whatever credibility Azrael had garnered from the female Alphas presentation of the 11th litter basically got tossed when he fainted...still. I was proud of him. The other two brothers had been traumatized by the Lycan attack. Britta’s final act would not have gone over well with them. My brother was a little trooper.
Bruce lead us to the door of, apparently was a large closet. We all shuffled around and settled down with me bare assed naked in the middle of nattily dressed Imperials. How the hell did that happen? Before any of us could really start plotting, planning or taking my lunch order the door swung inward and in marched two more Lycan...female. Kay – who was the head honcho-ess and a female pup. I would have said that it was her kid but...aren’t Alphas pupless? I mean, physically they could have pups but when they challenged for and won a seat on an Alpha Pack or THE Alpha Pack didn’t they give up their name? The female pup was a mini carbon copy of Kay. Just the males were forbidden? There was so much I didn’t, er, we –the brotherhood, didn’t know.
Haley never told us.
I firmed my jaw. Based on what Britta had told Azrael, Haley knew his future, or lack thereof. He knew finding me, Hashmalliam would lead to his death. Was that why he and Lanny were so palsy? I always felt like the interloper when they would get together and have ‘high tea’. I was always invited and encouraged to join in but that really wasn’t my thing. Lanny and Haley were friends long before I showed up out of the maw of Orel Wessel. I gave them their space. As it was, I lost the opportunity to really know the multicoloured Lycan.
“High Alpha.” I glanced up to find Kay looking down at my finery. Sang Kyu swept my hair forward covering the unmentionables since there was a pup in the room. “We have the honor of giving you First Meal. Queeny, give High Alpha the tray.”
The little girl, little, she must have been about thirty or so, because the look she was giving me was not one of an innocent little pup. I counted myself lucky that we were packed in this place like sardines because someone had the ear ripping look in their eyes. Holy moly, so it begins again. A female Lycan wanted to join the harem, and she probably wasn’t the only one.
She removed the dome of the tray and the whole of the six foot room was filled with roasted meat; beef, pork, chicken, venison. The aroma just filled my head and made my stomach growl like a hungry kitten. I opened my mouth and drooled all down the front of my chest.
Manu burst out in a snicker.
I. Don’t. Drool.
I wiped at the wet spot on my chest.
Vladimir the Lycan Pack leader intercepted the little pup and took the tray from her hands. I knew the history of him and Claudia. I also knew that he came to cover Xavier from more than half a world away. That misguided Lycan Love had been a little testy for a while but he was now the picture of what loyal to his life mate – my wife should be. Our wife. I wiped my hand down my face. This was confusing and I was a part of it.
“Our Mother has spoken of you often, High Alpha.” Vladimir passed the meat tray over to Baojia who handed it to Manu who ended up setting it on my thighs. Kay gave me an arched eyebrow that seemed to say, ‘pity.’ “While her words were not the most flattering most of the time, they are essentially true.”
“So, you find me a cheeky bastard too?” Well, I guess I was. Here I am buck naked except for a smile and a tray in a closet full of adult male Alpha Lycan.
“Prince Azrael! You will address the Female Pack Leader with respect as her position dictates.” Bruce bellowed. Everyone winced since this was just so confined a space.
Kay turned placing herself between me and the big black Lycan. “Bruce. You have distinguished yourself as a capable and efficient seneschal these past twenty five years, but now with the Great Mother’s passing, you are just a footnote in the history of the pack. Your voice holds no authority.”
The Lycan paled at the Female Leader’s words. I might not know that much about Lycan culture and its inner political workings but even a newborn pup, which technically I was, knew someone had just been kicked to the curb. That was harsh. I wouldn’t say that the former seneschal shrunk in size but the force of his personality just...faded.
Kay turned back to me. “When this day is over, High Alpha, you will need to choose your court wisely.” Her eyes widened.
I frowned.
Her eyes flicked to the left.
I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. I had no idea what she was doing. She flicked her eyes off to the left again. “There are a number of Lycan who would come forward and pledge to serve you, but it would be wise to take the counsel of someone who has a stellar reputation and is above reproach.”
Vladimir stepped up and mouthed “Bruce.”
Duh. Gees, I still miss the subtleties of what goes on around me sometimes. I’m still the straightforward brother. Azrael thought he was, but he could dance mazes around me. “Bruce, you want to work for me?”
“I’m a beggar at no Lycan’s table.”
“That’s good, since I’m not a Lycan.”
The stopped whatever else Bruce was going to splutter. “You inform me about what I have to do. You rein me in if I’m buggering up. You call me on the carpet regarding matters of protocol. That sound like something you can handle, or do you want to slink off into the woods?”
“You are making grand assumptions, High Alpha.”
“Yea, or Nay. Go with your gut.”
“I serve the Bloodline of Britta Dennings.”
“So you’re my Lycan Hades.”
All the Imperials just turned and looked at me.
“To be compared to such an Ancient is a greater honor than I can bear.”
“Whatever....so I’m taking this to be a yea.”
Bruce tried to get into the Alpha bow but we were backed in here like those old black and white movies with the Marx brothers. Manu handed me a venison sandwich. I picked it up and tore into like a...well Lycan. I was starving. The rest of the crew began to pick at the meat tray. The door swung open again.
“Everybody out!”
Ping stood in the doorway. I had never seen her so...distraught. Then again, she had just lost someone important in her life...if not her world. “NOW!”
The Imperials ducked out of the room with all the grace of pups after a bunny. Bruce sauntered out a little more dignified but then again, how the hell could I look anything but a mess with my only covering to modesty was a tray of meat.
“You were supposed to keep Haley safe. That was the only reason I let him out of my sight. He was supposed to be safe with you...” Ping rushed forward. I knocked the tray over and scrambled to my feet. I had know idea what she was going to do. She was family but she was also a grieving widow and she was an Alpha Family who felt strong enough and was secure enough to leave her position in the Eastern Pack to basically stand on her own in a strange land.
I waited to see what she would do. Her arms wrapped around my naked chest and she squeezed me as hard as she could. I was a sad honor she bestowed upon me. She had to be strong for her puppies. She had to show nothing in the face of the pack that she would secure for her daughter. Ping Saitou gave me her tears of pain and sorrow. I wrapped my arms around her slight frame and held her tight to me. She shook with the force of her pain.
“Why did it have to be now? I wanted more time with him. I tried to protect him.”
That stuck out. Why did it have to be now? “Haley knew he was going to die?”
“The night I came to claim him, he told me that our time together would be short. He also told me that he had sworn the oath of Zsigmond. Skell, tell me you got his killer.” Ping rubbed her snotty nose on my chest. I lifted my hand and cradled her head gently.
“That is not my job. Azrael is taking care of business.”
Ping patted my ass then seemed to realize that I was naked. “You so take after your brothers in so many different ways.” She stepped back and wiped at her eyes. “What are you guys doing shoved in a closet?”
Oh, the irony. I showed Ping the fading bite marks. “Technically Azrael is now your Uncle.”
“Britta bit you?”
“11th Litter.”
“You’re a wolf?”
Kay spoke up from the back of the closet, “Princess, Skell was it? He is a pure white Alpha. Britta has named Azrael, High Alpha in Haley’s stead. He will enter the trails to win the throne.”
“The only reason Azrael is entering the trials is to get to Hennessey.”
Ping’s eyes narrowed and turned a dangerous feral gold. “Hennessey...he killed my Haley?”
Kay nodded. “Britta has declared Richard Hennessey a traitor, but he claimed the throne before any of the others. High Alpha is still on the hunt which you can now assist him with. Princess, are you still nursing your latest litter?”
Uh?
Ping turned towards me. “Is your blood burning?”
“I’m hungry. I don’t need blood.”
“When Eliza bit Sigmund when he was nine, he did turn to a pup. He never did get his first feed. That is why he collapsed after his first Alpha change. His wolf was magically bound over all these years but he has not been stabilized.”
Stabilized?
Kay and Ping were having a conversation way over my head that I had a distinct feeling I wouldn’t like where it was going. “How would it be best done?”
“If he liked the opposite gender, I would say in this form, but it probably wouldn’t freak him out as much if you did it as wolves.”
“Did what?” I narrowed my own gaze at the two females. One was taller than me, the other only came up to my shoulder but if it came down to it, I think they could both come close to handing me my ass.
Ping wiped at her face brushing the tears dry. “Your first feed will ease the hunger you are feeling. You could finish that whole tray and you will still be hungry so you will take your fill...of me.” She flipped her head back and lifted a delicate paw to my face. “It is an honour to do this for you Skell. Haley would have approved.”
“What do you mean, first feed?”
I wasn’t following the tour group. My face must have been puzzled because Ping wrapped her hand in my hair by my ear and tugged me down towards her. “You will drink the milk of a Lycan.” I popped back upright. Ping was left holding some strands of white hair as I backed away. I had a feeling that this milk did not come from the fridge in a cardboard carton.
Not much can stun me into stillness. This was one of those moments. I just watched...stupidly as Ping began to open her blouse. This was not happening. Tell me this was not happening. “WAIT!” Two sets of feral glowing eyes met mine. Gees, I wasn’t challenging mothers...well that wasn’t the intention. Come Skell, you’ve endured worse...I just can’t recall it right now. “Turning into a wolf took too much out of this body...”
Naked as the day I was born, I lowered myself to my knees. “How much do I need?”
Ping stepped up and stroked the top of my head and pet behind my ears. “Until you are full. Think of this as my contribution to hounding my mate’s killer. You can pretend I am Lanny.”
I opened my eyes and gave the raven haired beauty a wry smile. “I am sorry, Princess but I don’t think Sex could pretend that much. Just tell me if I’m doing this wrong.”
“You’ve never been a breast man.” Ping opened her shirt. Considering she was one hundred and something she wasn’t wearing a bra and based on the current confides of beauty, she didn’t need one. “I’m not going to break, Skell.” She wrapped a hand around the back of my head and pulled me up to her milk laden breast.
I occupied my mind with something else. The consistency of first feed was like those red cans of condensed milk from the kitchen. Hans had made it his mission in life to find my food preferences. I really didn’t care what was put in front of me. Food was fuel. Gas me up and go. That wasn’t to stick with the German master chef. We discovered over the months and years that I don’t like spicy food...or to be accurate this body doesn’t like spicy foods – aside from suicide chicken wings....which I didn’t understand. The other thing we discovered, the kitchen and I is that I have the biggest sweet tooth of all the brothers combined. I would eat anything that had sweet, sweet sugar in it. Hans would let me taste him once in a while...he didn’t like it, or he tried not show that I scared him but he tasted like baked Alaska. I think he made me Crème Brule just to keep my fangs to myself.
The Female Alphas were right. The hollow pit of hunger that was in the middle of my stomach was now gone. I kept my eyes closed as I sat back and licked at my lips. I know I had just suckled off of the teat of my puppy charges, mother, I really didn’t want to acknowledge it just yet.
“I’m decent again, Skell.” I opened my eyes and instinctively caught the bundle of leather that was flying towards me. “Maybe you should get some clothes on too.”
My fighting leathers. I caught the bundle but my daggers fell to the floor. I picked up on and slipped it out of its sheath. The metal gleamed dully in the overhead light of the closet.
“Bruce should have informed you that no foreign material can be used in the trials.” Kay cautioned.
I gathered my long strands of hair up in my left hand at the base of my neck. “Princess Ping, Xavier and Sex are in mourning. Azrael will be when his task is done. I did not know Haley was well as the others but I know that, that little Pup affected their lives. He was their...our little brother.” I cut my hair off at the base of my neck. “When your Prince is returned to the stars...send this small offering with him.”
Ping’s hand trembled as she reached out for our pale white hair. “Promise me that Hennessey was die.”
“Azrael has already given that coward his challenge. It will be done, little sister. If it takes us all, we will not fail.”
Ping gestured me back down to her arms. I lowered my head and she wrapped her arms around my neck. “Accept this in the way it is meant, Lord Skell.” Ping ripped into the shell of my ear with her fangs. HOLY!!!
“You are now claimed.” She stepped back and wiped my blood from her mouth with the back of her hand. “There will be no more pre-pubescent females sniffing around you hoping to be the next High Consort. This is my thanks for giving Haley one last night of joy. I wished it would have been with me, but it is fitting. You brought him into my life. You saw him out. As Britta has said, “KJegyelem nelkul.” Be it by the Blood Emperor, the High Alpha or by Hashmalliam. Let me wash away my sorrow in the blood of my enemy.”
I lowered myself down to my knees and hunched up my shoulders, dropping my head down to the wooden floor. “I will, my sister.”
“Time is of the essence, High Alpha.” Kay looked down at her watch. That struck me as such a mundane kind of thing in this midst of all this drama.
I shook out my gear and pulled on a pair of boxers then some socks. These fighting leathers were mine. Each of us brothers had their own. The style and the cut were basically the same but the color was different. Xavier had leathers that were a dull flat reddish brown – the color of dried blood. Sex had metallic blue – the same color he wore when he took back the position of First from Father. Azrael was black. Mine. Mine was camouflage greys – coal black, slate grey, shark grey, and a touch of sliver. It probably should have been Azrael’s colours, but my ass had been naked long enough today. I slipped into my leather pants and yanked a grey ribbed tank down. It felt strange not to have the extra weight of my hair on my shoulders.
My ear throbbed.
“If you leave the trace of a scar, Skell, it will mean the same thing.”
I lifted my hand and placed it over my ear. The blue light of healing tinted the walls of the closet for a moment and then I realized the pain was gone...and my extra long hair was back. Damn it. I forgot that the Healing Light liked the Lord Emperor’s to have extra long hair. Ping set my Docs in front of me. She still held the original hank of hair I had cut off. “I have your sentiment and actions, Skell. Thank you.”
“This is Azrael’s gig. Only if he fails, do I step in.”
Kay queried. “Why is that?”
She seemed to be taking the multiple High Alphas in stride. Then again, she was Britta the Elders’ Alpha Leader. She would have been privy to all of the grousing and bad names the Lycan Den Mother would have called us over the years. “I am Hashmalliam.”
I couldn’t deny it. I had Endellion and for an enchanted sword, er katana she was a talkative thing. A bloody thirsty, well soul thirsty thing. Coming from the tender care of Orel Wessel, if I had been alone, Endellion and I would have gotten along like gangbusters. Azrael called me Little Deadly and in truth, that is all I was. I was death, a pale bringer of oblivion to any one, human, animal or blood; but, that was before reuniting with the brotherhood; before red eyes and blueberry goodness came and gentled my anger and pain. I still was the ‘shortest distance is a straight line’ kind of brother. That is the Orel Wessel legacy that still remains.
“I carry out my objective, regardless of who or what is in the way. Richard Hennessey is sitting on the throne right now. If I were going to carry out justice, I would have just killed him as soon as his identity was verified. Nothing would stop me. Not the trials, not the fact that the Female Alphas stood between my objective or that the coward hides behind five Alpha Males. I would destroy anything that gets in my way.”
Kay looked shocked.
I zipped up my jacket. “That is why Azrael will be carrying this out. I would sooner phoenix and burn this place to the ground to get to Hennessey. I have no patience when it comes to vengeance.”
The heartburn that was making it difficult to concentrate eased by degrees. The Lycan milk in my stomach warmed me and calmed me at the same time. I was feeling stronger by the second.
“Sit, Skell. We will set warbraids in your hair.” Ping sniffed a bit still but moved to my side.
“I am sorry for your loss, Ping.”
“Haley would say farewell to me everyday. When he came back to me at the end of the day, we would have such a reunion. He lived every day like it was his last. This way, we have crammed in more than just our twenty years that we did have.”
“You will have vengenace, Den Mother Ping. This I will swear to you.”
I got a kiss to my temple and was handed another meat filled sandwich. “Refuel. There will be no time once the trials start.”
I ate as Ping took up one side and Kay took up the other and they both began to yank on my hair. Oww. Owwww. /Azrael!/
/What the hell happened?/
/You fainted. Apparently we should have taken something that deactivates the Lycan bite about, let’s say, forty-five years ago. Britta’s second bite reactivated everything twofold and it took too much effort to wolf it then to Alpha./
/I feel different./
/We’re deactivated. Are you ready?/
/Yeah.../ It’s rather nasty to come back to the world and find yourself chewing something you didn’t put into your mouth. I pulled my hand back and found a roast beef sandwich half devoured. There was a coating in my mouth...
/Oh, by the way Angel of Death, you’re now married to Ping./
/What?!!/ My hand flew up to my left ear. There was a notch missing. What the hell. I shifted and looked at Ping’s sad face. “I’m sorry...”
She looked up from braiding my hair and caught my eye squarely. “I want you to mindfuck Richard Hennessey hard, Angel of Death. I want him screaming and choking on his own blood then I want you to heal him and do it again. If you could, I would have you do it thirteen times for the number of hearts he has broken this morning.”
“Ours is broken too...”
“I know, Azrael. That is why I leave the Alphas and the magician to your wrath. Everyone who was involved with my husband’s death will be judged. That I leave to you, 11th Littermate.”
There was a bang on the door and then Bruce stuck his head in. He looked relieved that everyone was in one piece and seemed to be getting along. His eyes widened as he looked at my exposed left ear but nothing showed in his voice. “High Alpha, Kay, Ping, it’s time.”
I stuffed the rest of the sandwich in my mouth and climbed back to my feet. Humph, I was in Skell’s leathers. I should be grateful I wasn’t Sexy’s glittering blue. I had two white braids hanging down in front of my ears. The rest of the mass was pulled back to the nape of my neck and loosely braided down to my ass. The back of the leather jacket had wing vents. Since Skell’s wings were metal, these vents were a little longer than what I was used to. I would have to make sure not to expose my back much. I rolled my shoulders and cracked my neck right and left. I felt good.
I also felt naked without my blades. Ping had gathered them up from the floor and held them against her stomach. My Glocks didn’t make an appearance. Still, as long as it was from the body, it was considered fair game. I was good to go.
Shades of the training arena challenges going on here. Pups and Lycans not vying for the throne lined the halls outside of the closet waiting for Britta’s last litter pup to come into view. Apparently my passing out and getting dragged to the closet didn’t harm my reputation. I was flanked by Kay and Ping. Bruce took up the back as Vlad and the Imperials made a wedge in front of me and we started back down the hall to the throne room.
YIP. Yip. Yip.
/Eleven. Eleven. Eleven./
I knew that you never can make a second first impression but I know damned well that we made an damned good impression on the assembly of Lycan out in the open air arena. The Imperials had fallen back behind Bruce and they were still all in their business men suits looking every inch the Male Alpha Pack of the Blood Emperor. I had Britta’s Female Alpha pack at my side. I had Britta’s seneschal behind my right shoulder. Ping, Britta’s chosen Den Mother was standing in front of me.
“Let the trials begin!”
Alright. I jumped up slightly onto my toes. Let’s dance.
Then all hell broke loose.
* * *
yes, yes, I'm evil....I'm working on it....