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He was aware the other alphas were staring at him like he was nuts. Hell, to them it probably looked like Eric had just curled up and was crooking his arms out with nothing in them.

Everything would make sense and be okay again once Ivan’s soul came back into his rightful body. That crystal be damned, Eric was the real thing tying Ivan to this world.

“Come on, baby. I know you can hear me. Come back to me.  Come back.”

For the first minute, there was no response, and then Ivan twitched in Eric’s arms. He moaned and weakly opened his eyes.

Those red orbs were blurry as shit. He squinted up at Eric’s face.

“Oh, damn,” he muttered.

Eric laughed.

“What? What is it?” Eli demanded, looking down into Eric’s arms and squinting, trying to force himself to see what he could not see.

“Nothing,” Eric said, making a fist and bringing it down hard on the pink crystal. He ignored the burning in his hand when he inadvertently touched the silver chain, but he took great satisfaction in the pink glass shattering.

Eric opened himself up both mentally and spiritually, allowing  Ivan the ability to enter back into his body now that he was free of the chain that had bound him.

Ivan disappeared, vanishing inside of the body that Eric was hosting. He felt a slight twitch inside of himself when Ivan attempted to take over the driver’s seat, as well as the confusion that followed

on the heels of it when Eric refused to budge.

“Can’t let you take over just yet,”
 
Eric told him inside of his head.

“
Still daylight outside, and I’m thinking the only reason why this body  isn’t burning up is because I’m controlling it.”

He could sense the way Ivan seemed to shrivel up in fear. Being  outside of his body for so long must have thrown off his senses.

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Otherwise he would’ve noticed right away the fact that the sun was still up.

“Oh,”
 
was his only reply.

“He’s inside me, now,” Eric said. “He’s safe.”

A loud shriek disrupted their quiet reunion. Deacon had rushed out of the pool of water, and he’d grabbed Opal around the waist during the confusion. He was dragging her toward the deep end of the

water.

He looked to the sky and began calling out, “Mighty gods! Hear me! I offer you the soul of this medium as your new sacrifice!”

Opal shrieked long and loud before Deacon dumped her under the water and held her head down.

“Shouldn’t we do something to stop this?” Isaac asked.

“Let him kill the bitch,” Eric snarled, recalling the way Opal had  tried to light Ivan’s body on fire.

“What if he summons something we don’t want to deal with?” Eli  asked.

Deacon was no spiritual man, so he kind of doubted that his sacrifice would mean shit to the gods.

But then as Opal’s thrashing became more and weak, the water seemed to glow even brighter, coming almost alive.

Then it did come alive. Those same spirits who had been picking at Ivan’s soul were now closer to the surface of the water. Because

that was where Opal’s body was? Hard to tell considering Eric didn’t  know shit about any of this.

“Something’s coming,”
 
Ivan said inside of their now-shared mind.

“What?”

“He’s summoned something! Something is here!”

Deacon was laughing hysterically now. He looked like one of the

insane villains not seen outside of old cartoons and B horror movies.

“Yes! Yes! That’s it! I call to the spirits of Romulus and Remus!

Take me as your vessel! Punish my enemies for their thefts!”

Deacon pointed a finger at James as he said this, and that seemed

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to be the cue everyone was waiting for. As one, the pack seemed to  come to the general decision that this could not go on, especially  when Deacon was planning on attacking their leader.

Everyone rushed into the water to charge him. The water pulled  up from the pond and pushed them all away. It was like a giant hand  had slapped the pond, creating a wave that couldn’t be broken  through.

Eric coughed water out of his lungs.

“Eric! Are you all right?”
 
Ivan asked from the inside of his head.  Eric felt Ivan’s worry covering him like a blanket.

“Peachy,” he said. He wouldn’t bother pointing out to Ivan that  since he was still in his body, any injury or discomfort he felt was  being heaped upon Ivan.

Ivan had had enough to deal with without having that slapped onto  his plate. Eric was going to have to be more careful the next time he  tried blindly charging into battle.

The rest of the alphas all had the same problem with choking on  the water they’d just inhaled, and when that was finished and  everyone looked up at the mess they were going to have to deal with,  nobody breathed.

Eric couldn’t decide if Deacon was standing on the water’s  surface, or if he was standing on the backs of the hundreds of spirits  who were still just beneath the surface. Either way, it was fucking  creepy. Opal was dead at his feet, but she was floating face down in  the water, drowned, and being gently tugged to and fro by the spirits  who were not lifting Deacon above the water. Kind of like the way  some children used sticks to play with dead frogs still floating in  ponds and streams. It seemed that, since she was now dead, the body  was useless for them to even attempt to take possession of.

“I am never going near that water again,”
 
Ivan said.

Eric silently agreed.

“Jesus Christ! I used to swim in that water!” Isaac said, his

horrified tone mirroring what Eric and Ivan had just thought, and Eric

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knew that the rest of his pack could also see the hundreds of dead  spirits floating around in the water.

The strangest sight was Deacon himself. The man was glowing a  light-blue color. He reminded Eric of one of the night-lights he and  Eli had once had in their shared bedroom when they were just pups.

His back was hunched, and Eric could hardly blame him  considering the weight in muscle he was likely now carrying.  Deacon’s body had doubled its muscle weight. At least. His shoulders  were massive. He was the poster boy for steroids. Everything on him  was built and tight. The already-tight T-shirt he’d been wearing was  now shredded around his shoulders.

He lifted his face and stood straight, and holy hell, even his features were different. Similar, but still different. His cheekbones

almost appeared a little higher, his brows were definitely heavier, and  his hair was longer, touching his shoulders now. His eyes glowed red,  but it wasn’t the same red that was found in vampires’ eyes. No. This  was something else entirely.

That something was realized when it twitched behind him, and  Eric noticed the tail. A long wolf tail, gray and shaggy, was behind  Deacon’s body. It was attached to him, as though being in the in  between of a transformation was supposed to be normal.

Deacon chuckled, more of that evil scientist kind of thing. He  clenched and unclenched his massive fists. The tips of his fingers  were black, and his nails were now pointed in thick, arching claws.  When he smiled, his fangs were revealed.

He stepped forward on the water then looked down at his hands.  His grin widened, and he glared up at James.

“I have been chosen!” he shouted. “I had to kill the sister of my  mate to do it, but Romulus and Remus chose me!”

More of that shaggy gray hair sprouted along Deacon’s skin, and if anything, he seemed to get even bigger.

“Eric, is this normal for a werewolf?”
 
Ivan asked.

“No, baby, it’s not.”

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“I’m gonna kill you now, James. Nice and slow. Then I will claim  your pack as my own, and then I’m going to take Tristan as my own.”

“Why would he want Tristan?”
 
Ivan asked.

Right, he didn’t know that story.

Isaac stepped forward and pointed the barrel of his Glock at  Deacon’s face, and then he fired.

The bang was loud. Eric didn’t expect it to be for some reason.  Maybe it was because he was so close to the gunfire.

He wasn’t the only one to grab at his ears to shield them, however.  Pretty much the whole group of alphas yelled in pain and clutched at their ears.

No one could give Isaac shit for it, considering Deacon was threatening his mate.

Deacon’s head was thrown back as though he’d been punched in the forehead. Or a metal bullet had made impact at over a thousand meters per second.

“You got him!” Mick hooted.

For a split second, Eric nearly let his guard down with the happiness he felt, too, but then Deacon straightened, his black grin never leaving his face.

A couple of drops of blood trailed down his face from the long scratch travelling on the left side of his forehead, but other than that there was no sign he’d even been shot.

“That’s impossible,” Isaac said. “That was a silver bullet.”

Christ. If silver bullets couldn’t be counted on to kill him, then

what could? The bullet hadn’t even penetrated his skull. It just struck  him, cutting the skin and then changing trajectory.

Eric could make jokes about having a hard head, but that would be  way too much.

“You cannot kill me,” Deacon said, stepping forward, slowly  walking toward the edge of the pond.

As one, Eric and the rest of the alphas took a hesitant step back.

“I will kill all of you and take your omegas. I will make a new

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pack. I am a god!”

James stepped forward. “I’ll fight you to the death first!” he  snarled, his scarred face twisting in a rage.

“He’ll die!”
 
Ivan yelled.

Eric knew this, and so did the other alphas, but it was the leader’s  duty to accept all challenges to his position. James had no choice but  to fight.

“Eric?”
 
Ivan asked when he did not respond.

If Deacon really was possessed by Romulus or Remus or both,  then Eric needed to find a way to help his alpha and get Ivan back to  safety, all without giving up possession of this body or running away.

There was nothing he could think of doing that would allow him  to stay and fight and keep Ivan from being hurt.

“Eric?” It was Eli who spoke this time.

Eric looked into his brother’s eyes, and he didn’t like the  understanding and pain he saw there. It was humiliating and did not  bode well for what his brother was about to say.

“You’re sharing your mate’s body. You need to get out of here.  You can’t fight without getting him hurt.”

Everything screamed inside of Eric for him to stay, but this body  did not belong to him. He could get Ivan killed if he stayed.

“Don’t leave!”
 
Ivan yelled.

“He’s right,” said Mick. “You did what you were supposed to do.  Now you need to go. Warn the others about what’s coming so they  can get ready in case we lose.”

“Tristan especially,” Isaac said, still pointing his Glock at  Deacon’s smiling face. “When you get back and start running, you  make sure to take him with you.”

“I will hunt him down eventually,” Deacon taunted, touching his  fingers to his lips. “I’ve already tasted his skin and his blood. He  bears my mark. I will find him.”

“Shut up!” Isaac yelled, firing off another shot. This one landed  smack dab in the middle of Deacon’s chest.

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He stumbled back a bit, but did not fall over and die. The bullet

did burn him though, as was proven when Deacon hissed and reached  for the small red hole that had been punched into his chest.

A tiny wisp of smoke curled out from the wound because of the  silver, and Deacon clenched his teeth as he dug his long fingernails  into the wound and pulled out the silver bullet. He flicked it into the  water and glared at Isaac.

“Never mind James. You will be the first to die,” Deacon said,

advancing angrily on Isaac.

In sheer desperation, Isaac emptied his entire clip on Deacon. He  reloaded and did it again, and yet Deacon still came forward, barely a  hiccup in his stride as he advanced.

When Isaac was done with bullets, he pulled his knife from out of  his boot and got into a fighting position.

Eric saw the rest happening in slow motion. Mick, James, and Eli  all started to charge at Deacon in an attempt to keep him away from  their friend.

Another blast of water from the pond shot them into the air and pushed them back, soaking everyone.