Tallius (Spoils of War #2)

Enemies!

Mira has hated Tallius from the moment she watched the War Gods Beta kill her pack’s own Beta. The War Gods attacked in the night and annihilated her pack, and while Mira has grown a lot since that day—even working her way up to Beta status in her new pack, the Fury—memories of Tallius still haunt her. She’ll have to hide her fear and use every ounce of her newly acquired Beta skills when she’s forced to meet with him at a secluded location to discuss a possible pack alliance.

Tallius knows Mira hates him, and he knows he deserves every ounce of her loathing. She thinks he’s a monster, and maybe he is, but something in him is determined to make her see him in a different light. She’s seen the worst of him and believes that’s all he can be, but she’s wrong, and he’s going to do whatever it takes to prove it to her. Their Alphas ordering them to a mutual meet is the perfect opportunity for him to show Mira that he’s not the monster she remembers.

***

“Alright!” Tallius threw his hands up and muttered quietly, “Why does everything have to be a fight with you?”

“It doesn’t.”

“Yeah”—he plowed a hand through his hair—“it does. From the second you pulled up in your army-green sports car”—lifting his hands he made air quotes around the words army green—“you’ve been nothing but a challenge.” Whipping his head around he narrowed his eyes on the car as his face lit at something. “Wait! Is that why you drive a Challenger?”

“Jesus!” Mira rolled her eyes and turned back for the cabin. “You’re impossible!”

“Mira! Hold up!”

But she didn’t want to hold up. Nope, she wanted to change out of her winter weather gear, get into some traveling clothes, load up her suitcase, and try like hell to get down off this mountain. At this point, she wasn’t even averse to skipping her two weeks at the ski resort and heading straight back to Fury territory.

“Why you dressed like that?” Tallius asked from behind her. “Wait! Were you . . . were you coming to look for me? Were you worried about me?”

His teasing tone pissed her off mostly because she had been worried. She didn’t tell him that though. She didn’t tell him anything. Nope, she just stomped her way ungracefully back to the cabin as her boots slipped on the snow and ice.

Halfway to the cabin, the silence of the mountain was interrupted by a great rumbling noise. At first, she thought it was Tallius grumbling behind her, but the sound was heavier . . . bigger. Stilling, Mira’s head lifted as she strained to listen. Behind her, Tallius’s feet fell silent too.

Mira heard the noise again, and it had an eerie feeling pressing up against her skin. All the fine hairs on her body stood on end as she tried to place the rumbling.

“What the is that?” she snapped as the sound grew louder. It sounded like an army was pounding down the mountain toward them. Head whipping around, Mira pinned Tallius with hard eyes. “Is this an ambush? You set me up!”

Tallius was frowning at up the mountain too. “Please!” he snorted by way of denial, but his eyes suddenly shot to the front of the cabin. The porch swing started rocking, and then the earth started trembling, and the whole cabin started to shake. “What the...