Compelled (Shadow Beast Shifters Book 5)

Lucien hadn’t made his way back to me yet. The poor guy was probably searching for Bowley, cursing me out as he did. He’d be pissed when he realized I wasn’t where he’d left me, but hopefully, he’d forgive me soon enough. If the burning under my skin was any indication, I probably wouldn’t be alive that long for him to be mad.

After taking a few seconds to check for any new dangers or creatures—nothing to be seen—I waded into the icy water. The jolt of cold helped me focus, and I made sure not to touch the bottom as I paddled the ten or so feet of calm water. When I crawled out on the other side, I heard an angry growl, and rolling over, I found Lucien standing on the far bank, his eyes black.

There was no sign of Bowley, which made my heart ache. “I had to finish,” I said in a rasp.

Lucien appeared to be doing some deep breathing and counting to ten exercises, but he didn’t approach me. Instead, I got a nod, and then he was gone.

I pulled my broken ass up and stumbled across the finish line, thankful that my last swim had washed off any remaining vomit and cooled me enough to feel fresh as a damn daisy when I collapsed at Carter’s feet.

The master let out a huge roar before he reached down and roughly lifted me from the ground. “What happened here,” he rumbled so loudly it felt like my eardrums were aching. “She smells like tatan root powder.”

Lucien had said the same thing, so we could probably tick that one off as the source of my illness.

Now I just needed to find my betrayer.

Carter was too fired up to notice my reaction as he swung us around, shouting at the other vampires. “This much powder would kill a vampire, let alone a shifter.”

“Ugh,” I groaned, and finally, he slowed his spin and gently placed me on the ground. My legs wobbled but managed to hold me. With a singular focus, I scanned the crowd, looking for an angel-faced bitch.

And there she was, standing off to the side and blinking at me like she couldn’t understand how I was here. Stumbling closer, I dragged my wolf’s energy to the surface, pushing her through the sludge of the powder inside me.

“You’re an evil piece of shit, Hattie,” I said without inflection.

Almost instantly her confused expression was replaced with one of mocking. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.” She sounded like the superficial bitch I’d first met that day in the hall when she’d been checking out Len like he was the last piece of Faerie cock in the world. I should have known that version was the real Hattie and the rest was fake.

It had all been a con. From the moment she’d opened the door and assessed my plain clothes and lack of makeup, she’d known to come at me from the girl-next-door angle.

Feeling like a fucking moron, I forced myself to smile sweetly. “You’ll never take me down this way. Both of the masters now know exactly what you’re like, and they’ll no doubt think twice about taking on a mate as conniving as you.”

She lunged forward but didn’t make it two feet before she was grabbed by Carter, who held her up off the ground. “This is the selected who poisoned you?”

I nodded. “Yep. In my breakfast this morning.”

My stomach swirled at the memory of that food.

Carter’s chest rumbled, his eyes darkening to navy as he threw her to the ground. “Hatilda of House of Jade is eliminated from the competition,” he snapped.

Hattie’s entire cocky demeanor vanished in the next second, and I almost laughed at how fucking confused she looked. “Eliminated? Do you know who my parents are? Master Donovan is my uncle.” Bastard had probably hooked her up with all the inside information.

That entire family was trash and needed to be thrown out.

Another cramp hit me, and I curled forward as the heat grew inside once more. A strong arm wrapped around my body, and I realized Lucien had returned. He gently lifted me into Len’s waiting arms.

“Where were you?” I murmured to the fae, disoriented but trying to piece it all together.

His silver smile was darker than usual. “When you didn’t emerge with the other selected, Lucien and I went looking for you. He saw you crossing the finish line, so he doubled back to let me know you’d been found. Now he will deal with Hattie.”

“You knew about her,” I groaned. “I saw that look on your face this morning.”

Len shook his head. “I didn’t know, but I’ve learned to trust no one. I hoped that Hattie was as legitimate as she appeared to be. I’m sorry I was wrong.”

“Me too,” I sobbed, pressing my burning face against his cool jacket.

Lucien was there then, his hand on my face as he turned me toward him. “Drink this,” he said, handing me a bottle of red liquid.

“I love you,” I croaked, my hand shaking as I lifted the bottle to my lips.

Lucien didn’t react to my declaration—I could have been talking to the blood bottle for all he knew. I wasn’t, but again, he didn’t know that.

I moaned at the first sip, a familiar cherry flavor coating my tongue. I tried not to cry or overthink the fact that he’d gone out of his way to ensure this was his blood. “Drink it all,” he told me. “It’ll give you enough strength to counter the powder until I can get you back home.”

“If you didn’t have a fresh source of Lucien’s blood in your system already,” Len told me, “you’d be dead by now.”

Good to know. “Will this fix me?” I asked, drinking more from the bottle.

“No,” Lucien said in a harsh breath. “But it will slow this final stage until I can get you home and bleed it from you.”

I almost dropped the bottle.

Bleeding me now had an entirely different, very, very sexual connotation, and I started to wonder if Hattie had done me a favor. Hattie, who was still on the ground spluttering and crying, reddish tears tracking down her cheeks as she reminded them that her parents were important master vampires, her uncle was a tier one master, and she was their crowning glory.

“They’ll take all of your heads for this,” she shouted, but no one was paying attention to her. They were all waiting to see what Lucien did next.

He gave me another look, seeming to reassure himself that I was not going to drop dead in the next two minutes, and then he nodded to Len. What that nod meant, I had no idea, but I was no doubt about to find out.

As I drank the last of his blood, Lucien turned away and moved toward Hattie. When he reached her side, he stared down at her with the sort of expression I hoped he’d never send my way. Dark and electric, I could feel the particles in the air charge with his fury. His words were soft, though, without any inflection. “Why did you sabotage Simone?” His power followed that question, and I recognized it intimately.

Compulsion.

Hattie, who had been spouting off about how strong her family was, succumbed to his control in seconds. “I was told that she would be my greatest competition but also the easiest to eliminate.” Her voice was robotic as she answered. “Carter called the selection for her, and you joined in for her. The rest of us are only here because Simone can’t be with both of you, which left one master free.” A brief pause. “I wanted to ensure she didn’t steal either of our eligible masters.”

Lucien’s power ramped up a few notches, and she gasped.

“If she was a favorite,” he murmured, “what made you think you’d get away with it? If your family is strong, then you must be aware that the penalty for pissing off a master is death.”

Hattie snorted. “I expected she would die in the forest and no one would ever know how,” she said. “How is she even alive? I triple dosed her—enough to kill a damn vampire.”

Lucien’s gaze left her for a moment, clashing with mine as we both remembered our little sex session this morning. A session that’d literally saved my life. Maybe Katu was on my side after all.

When Lucien turned back, he appeared done with this line of questioning as he lifted the sobbing vampire in his hands. Before she could make another sound, he ripped her head from her body and tossed it halfway across the damn field.

For a second, silence descended, and then the screams started. The other selected lost their minds, crying and shouting, hiding behind each other as if they would be next.

Julietta started to shout as well, while Carter stood there looking rather pleased, as if he’d been the one to destroy Hattie. Lucien didn’t show any reaction except to drop her headless body at his feet.

“Take this as a warning,” he said into the clearing. “A selection is won on individual strength, not on sabotage.”

He then crossed to Len and me, and the fae didn’t hesitate to hand me over.

We left the field at vampire speed, and somewhere along the way I finally passed out.

My first relief from the pain in hours.