The Alpha Emperor’s Resurrection

46: Saga

Felix called my name from the bedroom, and I wrapped my legs tightly around Caius’ waist so he couldn’t leave me. He smiled, and stroked my hair.

"Are you trying to cause a fight, Lupa? Because that is exactly what will happen if that man comes looking for you and finds you like this."

"Aren't I worth fighting for?"

"It would not be a fair fight," he responded blankly.

He was still hard, and I noticed him close his eyes for a moment when I pressed closer to him.

"You've fought human men before, surely?"

"I try not to get into physical fights over beautiful, manipulative women; I am especially careful not to get into fights while I'm inside those beautiful, manipulative women."

His tone was playful, but his grip tightened on my hips, and I could feel the tension building between us.

Tracing my fingers over his chest, I smiled as his eyes darkened with desire; he leaned closer, his lips brushing mine as I whispered a command for him to carry on.

He kissed me deeply, and I felt a flash of the urges that were driving him; the aching hunger for me that I was acutely aware of without experiencing it so viscerally.

It was exhilarating, and his physical sensations entwined with my own so exquisitely that I was completely lost in the moment.

Felix called my name from the top of the stairs, but when I looked away from Caius he thrust hard against me, making me forget everything but the feel of his body against mine.

"You're going to be mine," he growled against my skin. "I will do what it takes to call myself your Mate; I swear it."

I moaned in response, and he pressed his hand over my mouth to silence me as he moved urgently.

Caius kept his hand over my mouth when he came, removing it only when Felix called my name again more urgently, so I could respond before he reached the kitchen and found me with another man between my legs.

He stepped away, and adjusted himself as I got down from the kitchen counter and started to make another cup of coffee.

"Have you heard from anyone since they left last night? I can't get hold of your brother, and Scott left his phone in the hotel yesterday. I don't even know which hospital to contact and the others are blowing my phone up right now - we're supposed to be at the airport in two hours, Saga."

I glanced over my shoulder to look at Felix; he didn't seem concerned while he was in my bed, but there was no need to call him out for that and he was worried enough that he didn't notice the fact that Caius was sizing him up.

"Does Aurelia have a way of contacting you?" I asked, and he immediately lost all interest in Felix.

"Does he think something has happened to her? Is something wrong?"

Felix raised one of his eyebrows at me when Caius responded to my question in Latin; as if he had doubted that I was telling him the truth about my admittedly rather unusual situation.

"Felix needs to leave soon," I explained slowly in English so they would both understand that I was not going to be serving as a translator. "Robin and Aurelia took his friend to get help; Felix hasn't been able to contact them this morning, and he's worried. I thought you might have a way of contacting Aurelia to ask her what is happening."

"I don't, but if she is missing, I need to find her. You need to help me look for her."

"I don't think she's missing, Caius; I think she is probably sat in a waiting room while the doctors deal with Scott. They were going to the hospital - that is the safest possible place for her to be."

"I would agree with you if Talia hadn't left the way she did last night. I'm not happy about the fact Aurelia is missing; I want you to help me look for her. Even if nothing has happened, she needs to know she isn't alone - I want her to know we're here for her."

"She isn't alone - she's with my brother, and he is capable of protecting her."

"Of course; he is capable of protecting her, he is just not willing to commit to her, and she needs to know she has at least one reliable person in her life who can keep her and the baby safe."

"Please don't lecture me about commitment as if it is anything whatsoever to do with me. He loves Aurelia, he is devoted to her, but thanks to you and Talia he doesn't think he deserves her, and he is scared that he isn't enough for her. You should understand exactly why he hasn't made anything official between them, Caius; he thinks he needs to prove himself before he can ask her to settle for him."

Caius let out a deep sigh and ran his fingers through his hair, clearly frustrated by the situation but unwilling to argue with me in front of Felix.

"Can't either of you track them or something?"

"We're werewolves, Felix, not bloodhounds."

As if I didn't have powers far beyond those of a dog; something Felix was well aware of, but he blushed and apologized despite that.

"I'm sorry, you just... do you have to be looking at someone to read their mind? Or in a certain radius?"

I sighed, and realized that Felix was really more concerned than he had been willing to admit. It was about more than getting to the airport, too - he was worried about the others.

"I'm sorry, Felix. I can't expect you to understand. There are a lot of things around here - the chemicals in the pool, the blood..."

The fact that Caius still smelled faintly of Talia even though we had just slept together, the fact that Felix still smelled like me, the fact that Caius was now flooded by adrenaline and it was making his scent particularly appealing to me...

"There is no need to apologize. I'm sorry if I said the wrong thing, I'm just worried. I don't know what to tell the others, and I don't blame you for what happened, but if Scott is injured he's not going to let this drop."

"I'm going to need your help with this, Lupa."

It was almost a relief that Caius interrupted Felix, except that Felix had definitely started to think about why I had been downstairs for so long, and he was looking at me with his brow furrowed.

"Lupa? Is that another one of those titles like Alpha? Are you all planning to settle here?"

I groaned, and shot Caius a warning glance because he was smirking.

"It's a silly nickname Caius has for me. Lupa isn't a title, it's just the Latin word for a female wolf."

I didn't feel a need to explain any further than that; there was no need for Felix to know that the term was generally reserved for women of a less than virtuous nature.

Caius called me his w***e, his little b***h, his slut, because Talia had referred to me by all of those names, and by no small cultural coincidence they were all terms for a female wolf.

"I thought that she-wolf was an insult? You were furious about it when I called you that."

Caius coughed in a poor attempt at covering his amusement.

"I really don't think now is the time for a language lesson, Felix. It might be better if I book you a taxi back to the city until we know what is happening with Scott."

He didn't argue, but by the time I had managed to find my phone there was no need for me to make the call.

"Everybody is fine," I announced confidently as soon as the car was parked outside, as if I had any idea what the hell was going on.

Felix seemed to relax, but Caius looked at me skeptically; he wasn't convinced that everything was okay, and honestly, neither was I.

I could smell Scott's stale blood, which meant that the hospital had not cleaned him up; I would not have been concerned by that if it wasn't for the fact I could smell my brother's blood, too.

"Aurelia..." Caius muttered his daughter's name under his breath and, for the first time, I truly saw him as her father.

He thundered down the stairs without a second thought and I wondered if he knew something that I didn't; I didn't want to seem as if I was chasing after him, but I needed to know that was happening so I went back downstairs, hovering at the foot of the staircase and hoping that nothing serious had happened.

"Daddy," Aurelia called in Latin as soon as she had opened the door; as if Felix needed any more evidence that we really were telling the truth. She ran into Caius' arms, and he cradled her protectively against his chest as he looked outside to see what was happening.

"Did somebody try to hurt you, Infantula? Is everything OK?"

"We're fine," Aurelia murmured against him, "but..."

But whatever she said after that made no sense to me, and I was more interested in the state Robin was in than translating a private conversation on my phone.

"Robin, what is going on?" Felix brushed past me, knocking me clumsily because despite everything I might as well have been invisible to him.

My brother saw me, though - his eyes were fixed on mine and clouded by a darkness that made me shudder. He looked disheveled and he had Scott slung over his shoulder as he approached the staircase.

My heart was pounding and my throat was tight, but Robin wasn't about to say anything and he carried Scott upstairs without talking to me.

I followed him, half expecting him to snap at me when I watched him put Scott down on the bed that had been Aurelia's.

"I don't know what he did. I don't care what he did. Whatever happened is irrelevant; when you attacked him he must have hit his head or something - he seemed OK, but he lost consciousness on the way to the hospital and Aurelia thinks he has internal bleeding."

I swallowed an uncomfortable lump in my throat and moved awkwardly closer to the bed so I could look at Scott.

"You aren't taking him to hospital?" Felix pushed past me again and I wanted to scream. "Why won't you help him, Robin? He doesn't know what you are, you can't let him die."

I pitied Felix. He looked like a lost child, and he had finally realized that the world he idolized was brutal.

"It was too late for that," Robin murmured, pulling open the drawer of the little night-stand and retrieving a half finished packet of cigarettes that Aurelia had confiscated from him weeks ago.

He struck a match with his thumb, and lit the cigarette before opening the door to the balcony and going out to stand in the morning sun.

"Saga?" Felix looked at me, as if I wasn't in the dark.

I shook my head and looked away, because I couldn't tell him the truth: that I was just as confused as he was.