Marked: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Thrice Cursed Mage Book 2) by J. A. Cipriano

hers before I realized I was doing it.
    “Mac, I want you to tell me. It’s important.” Her arms snaked up around my shoulders and she pulled me down close. “Please,” she added, her warm breath caressing my lips.
    “You’ll think less of me,” I replied. Her lips were so close to mine, I almost couldn’t think straight. “And I don’t want you to think less of me.”
    She kissed me, pressing her lips against mine. My walls came down, crashing to the ground around me before I could stop them. The only thing in me was the sudden need to kiss her. I pulled her close, crushing her body against mine. She broke away, pulling us apart.
    “Tell me, Mac.” She took a step back and swallowed hard. Her cheeks were flushed and the way she looked at me, made my heart nearly stop. “Please.”
    I turned away from her because there was no way I could do this with her looking at me. “He has your brother, Ricky. When we get to Pierce, unless he’s the dumbest motherfucker on Earth, he is going to play us against each other. He may not be dangling your brother over a shark tank, but he’ll use your brother against us. He will try to turn you against me. It will happen. I wanted you to think I was just helping you out of the goodness of my heart so we wouldn’t wind up in a prisoner’s dilemma.” I hit the wall with my fist. “At first I was using you, it’s true, but at some point it changed. I also didn’t want you to think I was such a horrible person.”
    “Mac, I was using you too. I’m an Alpha. It’s what we do,” Ricky said, and I felt her fingers wrap around my hand. She was so close to me, I could feel heat radiating off of her in waves. “But I don’t understand how not knowing about your family changes things?”
    “Because I can’t walk away, Ricky. You can. He can offer you a deal. Maybe he’ll say something like ‘you and your friend leave right now and I’ll give you your brother.’ You can take said deal. I cannot. If you didn’t know, you wouldn’t try to stop me from ending him. Now, you will know I can’t take that deal since the only way this ends well for me is with Pierce dead.” I took a deep breath and turned around to look at her. She was biting her lip, but at the same time, she hadn’t let go of my hand. “And don’t try to tell me I mean more to you than your brother does. I wouldn’t believe you even if I hadn’t thrown your friend out of a twenty-story window.”
    Ricky stared at me for a long time. “You make a good point,” she said finally and there was a note of sadness in her voice. “But you do not know Pierce Ambrose like I do. He won’t make deals. It is not our way. He will take what he wants because if he doesn’t, he is not fit to be Alpha.”
    “Then why is your brother not already dead?” I asked, taking my chance to drive my point home even though the only thing I wanted to do was kiss her again.
    “That is the same question I’ve been asking myself since the day of the summit.” Ricky shook her head and took a step away from me. “All our seconds went in and none came out. I know my brother isn’t dead because I can still feel him through the bond of our pack, but he’s in trouble, and I must get him out.” She met my eyes. “At any cost.”
    “My point exactly.” I smiled at her as best I could. “So, how about you tell me how to find Mr. Ambrose, and I go rearrange his face with my fist?” I held up my bandaged right arm. “It’s what I’m good at.”
    “I can’t tell you where he is exactly since he never stays in one place very long, but I know where we can find someone who knows, but I’m warning you now, they won’t like you.” She stepped away from me and began rummaging in a black duffel bag on the bed.
    “If I had a nickel for every time I met someone who didn’t like me, I’d be sitting on a beach collecting twenty percent while drinking Mai Tais.” I made my way over to her as she stood up and offered me two jet