A bullet flew through the air like a ghost. No loud bang accompanied the blood that flooded my vision. But it wasn't me who went down. Aubry fell to the floor; Bodie had sniped her from the back room before she could kill me.
I should have felt relief.
I didn’t.
My stomach twisted as I saw her writhe in pain, watched her blood gush from the wound.
At least he hadn't made it a fatal shot. I'd seen him shoot the eye out of a target from a mile away, so if he hit her wing joint instead of something more vital, then it was damn well intentional.
Aubry quickly rolled across the floor and stood back up. Legs wide and ready to move, she held one arm up protecting her face, the other arm swiveling her gun between Drake and me. Tears streamed down her cheeks, and she gritted her teeth so hard I thought they might shatter. But she still planned to fight.
Jesus fuck, she had tenacity.
Drake charged her, letting his head and tail shift into dragon form. His black tail swept forward, the spiked end lashing out at Aubry. But even though she was injured, she was fast. She ducked his tail and shot his foot.
"Fuck!" He tipped forward and face planted on the floor. I ran to check on him, but he shoved me away. "Slow her down!" he shouted.
I turned just in time to see her disappear out the kitchen and into the living room. I ran forward and shoved the door open. A moment later, another quiet shot tore through the air, ripping through her calf muscle like fucking butter. She fell.
But it felt like I was the one who’d taken the bullet when a sob escaped her throat and her chin quivered, as she dragged herself across the carpet. The scent of her blood, that warm iron tang, made my stomach churn.
Oh, Princess, why are you doing this to me?
I was sick. A nervous fucking wreck for her. I needed to end this before she took any more damage, or worse, ended up dead. Apparently, I was softer than I’d thought. Something was wrong with me. I couldn’t even handle an enemy—the woman who’d killed El Fuego, my fucking friend—getting hurt. Not if she cried.
"I'm sorry, Princess," I muttered before rearing back with my fist and jabbing the side of her head to knock her out. Her pretty brown eyes rolled shut and she slumped to the floor.
I wanted to vomit. They called me a warlord, but this? This wasn't who I was at all.
Drake came up beside me and patted my shoulder with a smile. "Nice hit, Goldie."
Bodie strode into the living room carrying a long gray case that I knew was full of various weapons. His light green eyes gleamed like fire in the early morning sunlight. "Holy shit! We did it. We captured a fae royal!"
Yeah. We'd done it, alright.
Now, what the fuck were we going to do with her?
7
Aubry
I came to with a single thought: I was gonna get out of this—and then torch these motherfuckers’ feet, so that they couldn’t run. Then I was gonna melt all the plastic in the room so their damn shifter noses were in agony while I slowly, painfully, killed them.
"I’m gonna nail you—" My threat trailed off as someone moved my body and iron chains slid along my skin. My teeth clenched involuntarily. The chain wrapped again and again and again, like a constricting snake. I writhed, trying to relieve my skin from the burn where the fucking evil iron touched it.
My movement backfired and just allowed the pain to spread more. I nearly blacked out. Again. I moaned.
"Stop moving," E-Ethan the giant lying shifter scum, tried to use a kind voice on me.
It hurt so badly I couldn’t even spit at him. And that was saying something. I knew pain. I loved pain, craved it even. But this? It was too damn much.
The chains weren’t pure iron, otherwise my flesh would have burned off completely, but there was enough that my skin was immediately covered in horrid welts. The chains snaked up and down my torso and around my arms before I heard a lock click behind my back and smash into my tailbone.
Fuck.
I could hardly move. It made me feel claustrophobic. Which made no sense. But I felt as wrapped up and trapped as if I’d been shoved six feet under in a coffin. The pain devoured my rational thought; it made me see things.
Darkness. Shadows. Shifters. Nightmare things.
I faded in and out of consciousness, only barely aware as I was picked up by Sasquatch and transported in a car somewhere. Monster, I thought at E-Ethan, before I passed out.
When a bump made my head hit the car window and I found myself awake again, I tried not to let myself slip back under. I listened quietly for a minute, but the only sound other than the car and the air conditioner was breathing. These guys didn’t speak.
We made a sharp turn, which triggered my training. I knew, as a kidnapping victim, that I should try to take note of my surroundings. I knew I should try to make a mental map of where we were going.
These guys hadn’t even attempted to kill me. I didn’t know if that was because they’d realized I had used a lethal protection tablet on myself while I was flying around, inspecting the exterior of the building, or because they wanted me alive. But they’d shot me in the shoulder. And that asshole hadn’t looked surprised—like he’d missed my heart. He must have been aiming for the shoulder then. They wanted me alive. For a reason.
I forced my eyelids open. They’d put a blindfold on me. Of course. These shifters might be criminals. But The Shadow was no amateur. And that’s who the dragon was. The moment his tail had come out to whip me, I’d known. We didn’t have his human photo on file at MP, but the word on the street that The Shadow was a dragon shifter had filtered up to us. And there weren’t many dragons left.
I nearly screamed as I bent my head to my shoulder and swiped, nudging the blindfold—but causing the chains to slide across my back. It made me feel like I’d fallen backward into a pit of lava. It took all I had to breathe through that pain and keep moving.
Finally, I uncovered the tiniest sliver of vision by my right cheek.
Slowly, trying not to draw attention to myself, I leaned back in my seat and lifted my head. It was morning and light was threading through the buildings like a surfer through the waves. But the sun was behind the brick facades, throwing them into shadow. So, we were moving east. I tried to make out what area of the city we were in. Not Rodeo Drive, I could tell that much. But specifics? Good luck. That was, until I saw a mural on the side of a brick building.
The mural was peeling, but still distinguishable. It was of a solemn-faced Native American woman, staring defiantly out at the road, challenging those who walked by to ignore her and her pain.
Indian Alley.
One of the most famous alleys in Skid Row.
I didn’t smile as I lowered my head, though part of me wanted to. That info was only useful if we stopped driving soon. If we didn’t, I’d need to look again.
The car trundled over a pothole and I fell into the brute sitting next to me. I could feel my dress slide down and expose the top of my cleavage.
Some fucker chuckled. I didn’t know which one.
Just wait, I thought. Just you wait until I get out of here, Muscles. I hurt so badly I couldn’t even come up with a real insult. I couldn’t right myself and spent the rest of the ride tipped over against the giant that I’d hoped would pillage me earlier. I hated the fact that his wide chest was a perfect pillow.
The car stopped not long after and someone grabbed me. Based on the size of his hands, I figured it was E-Ethan the liar who carried me down the stairs.
"She’s in bad shape," he muttered.
"Her own fault."
I recognized the voice of the green-eyed man. The one who had an aura of cold around him. The one who’d shot me. He was nearly as frightening as The Shadow. I didn’t get why E-Ethan was with them.
But lackeys weren’t always the brightest crayons in the box. He wasn’t a good actor. Maybe he was stupid, too. I hadn’t gotten that impression. But, maybe he was the weak link.
When he turned sideways and
started down yet another set of stairs, this last one descending into darkness, my chains moved yet again. I sucked in air through my teeth. I had to breathe through the pain, but it was hard not to fucking pant.
I didn’t even realize I was sobbing until he set me gently down on a concrete floor.
"Shh, sweetheart, almost done." E-Ethan deserved a punch in the mouth for calling me that.
I heard some steps shuffle, like people entering. I wasn’t sure.
I was rolled onto my stomach and I tensed, expecting all kinds of horrid things. But all I felt was a bite in the back of my arm, an injection from a needle.
The pain lessened and my head sagged forward onto the cool tile floor. They must have given me Elixir. Nothing else worked that fast to counteract the pain, though not the damage, of iron. My eyelashes fluttered.
I felt rough hands at my ass and my throat dried out. But the hands only lifted the lock, dragging my arms up behind me. A distinctive click told me the lock had released.
But whatever was in that Elixir was heady, good shit. I passed out before I felt them remove the chains.
When I came to, for the zillionth time, my throat was parched and every part of my body ached.
I felt something swipe softly across my neck and I stiffened. Someone was crouched over me. The shifter with dark skin and pale yellow-green eyes stared down at me. The asshole who’d shot me.
Immediately, I went into fight mode. I grabbed onto his wrists and lifted my legs to my torso. Then I kicked out, hitting him right in the chest with my feet. I shoved at his hands, but I was too weak to do the move properly—fucking iron—and he ended up falling forward onto me.
We grappled on the ground. I tried to bite his ear, but his forearm pressed against my neck.
So, instead, I wrapped a thigh around his torso, shoved his face toward my chest, and smacked my palm against his ear. I rolled us sideways so that I ended up on top. My eyes flashed with fire and so did my pussy when he dug his fingers into my arms and forced them to my sides.
He thought that would stop me? Stupid furry fuck.
I jerked forward and smashed my head into his and as I did, his lips dragged across my cheek.
Light burst behind my eyelids and red spots dotted my vision. But I also felt something else.
Something impossible.
My hands reached up to cradle my pounding skull as I skittered backward.
The dickwad shifter I’d been fighting propped himself up on an elbow. His green eyes found mine. And it was like I’d been sucked into a whirlpool.
My heart thumped hard.
With longing.
Holy fuck.
"What the hell did you do to me?" I snarled, scrambling up to my knees and finally taking in my surroundings. I was in a cell. From the looks of things, it was a cell underground. No windows. The hallway outside was walled in dirt. But everything paled in comparison to the feeling in my chest.
It was like faeries flying and sirens singing and mage magic swirling around me all at once.
"What the hell spell is this?" My voice came out as a rasp.
Green-eyes stared at me like I’d just slapped him. His face looked shocked, mouth hanging open in utter disbelief. It took a few seconds before he collected himself enough to speak. "I… brought you water."
"Is that how you drugged me?"
"I didn’t drug—"
"Bullshit." I cringed when yelling made my skull feel like it was split in two. I closed my eyes and waited for the nausea to pass. When I opened my eyes, the stupid shifter was right in front of me, holding a water bottle to my lips.
"Drink," he said softly.
This close, his lips grabbed all of my attention. They were thick, his bottom lip the kind that was perfect for biting. Heat flared in my chest and traveled down my spine. It hovered between my thighs.
I saw his nostrils twitch. He closed his eyes and tilted his head back, a small smile on his lips. Then his eyes flew open and he shook his head once, as if jolting back to reality and telling himself no. Damn it. Could he smell my arousal?
No! This wasn’t happening. It was a trick. There was magic involved.
"You evil bastard," I cursed.
"Yes," he agreed, his face solemn. "I’m a wolf-shifter who's killed more people than you’ve probably ever met."
He gave me a smile that I thought was meant to scare me. It didn’t.
"How did you do this?" I gestured between us.
I hadn’t wanted to drink the bastard’s water, but my throat was too freaking dry. I grabbed the bottle and took a swig. Whatever spell he’d cast to make me horny—and therefore, potentially more compliant—was already done. But what the Big Bad Wolf didn’t know was that this little girl had already strayed from the path. My tastes were so deep into the dark woods that they’d scare even him.
"Me? You did this," he growled. I could hear the edge of the wolf in his voice. His animal was close to the surface. Either he was just as pissed or just as horny as I was. Or both.
I backed away from him. That was a mistake. My wings, already damaged, smacked into the iron bars of the cell. I screeched and fell forward. He grabbed onto me and dragged me over to the cot in the corner, placing me on it more gently than I expected him to.
But then he grabbed my jaw. And his grip was hard. Just how I liked it.
Damn it.
"Don’t touch me!" I snarled, furious that my body was responding to him. "And reverse this damn spell, whatever it is."
"It’s not my spell, you magic-stick-loving hussy. Who’d you pay to get a spell this strong, huh?" His hands were back on me, shoving my chest down so I couldn’t rise, and turning my head so that I had to look into his eyes.
I noticed flecks of gold in his irises, swirling inside the green.
I tried to shoot fire at him, but my power didn’t work. I was too hurt. Too drained. "I’m going to kill you," I spat at him.
"Not if I kill you first." His teeth started to elongate.
A sick, twisted part of me wondered what it would feel like to have those teeth nip at my throat.
My panties grew wet.
Above me, my captor howled at the ceiling. When his face turned back down to look at me, his eyes had gone from green to golden. His irises had turned into slits.
And I was panting.
But not from fear. My nipples pebbled. My sex ached. And even though my body was utterly wrecked and ruined, my pulse throbbed for his touch.
His hand on my chest slid down to cup my breast through my torn dress.
Yes.
But another voice sounded and Wolf Man shoved away from me faster than a toddler touching a hot stove.
"What’s all the damn yelling about, Bodie?" E-Ethan asked from outside the cell. His forehead wrinkled as he glanced between the two of us.
Bodie. That was his name.
My chest gave a little thrum of satisfaction, which I tried to suppress. But Bodie’s golden eyes glanced my way and I knew he’d registered the change in my pulse. Stupid shifter hearing.
"Somehow, this bitch paid some mage to create a fake mate bond," Bodie said.
"You did that!" I rasped.
Bodie backed away from me. "Let me out of here," he demanded at the closed door of my cell.
"A fake mate bond…" E-Ethan really did seem slow on the uptake. "I don’t think that’s possible."
"It is!" we both yelled in unison.
It wasn’t funny.
But E-Ethan laughed.
"Fuck you, Goldilocks. Let me out." Bodie said.
E-Ethan let him out of the cell and closed it with a clank behind him. Bodie walked away and I heard their hushed voices as they ascended the stairs.
My heart gave a little pout when Bodie didn’t even glance back my way. If I could have, I would have punched my heart in the tit. Stupid organ. Couldn’t tell magic from reality.
Once they were gone, I scrambled off the cot and across the cell to grab that bottle of water. I chugged it like
I hadn’t had water for a year. Then I glanced down the earthen hallway outside my cell. It petered out into darkness before I could see stairs.
I glanced toward the floor where I’d woken up and saw a little pile of bandages and a tube of Neosporin. I looked down at my arms and realized Bodie had been trying to fix me up.
I shoved down my heart, which started thumping happily like a dog’s tail hitting the floor when master got home. No. No way. There was no way in hell I’d just felt a mate bond with a fucking shifter.
8
Aubry
Pain flooded my head and my whole body ached. It was like I was drowning in it.
I carefully cracked a bleary eye open and the dingy little room swam as I struggled to focus.
Where the hell am I?
My heart raced and suddenly all the memories came rushing back to me. A trap at the apartment I’d traced. A fight with shifters. A car ride in agonizing pain. Iron everywhere, my skin burning so maddeningly I passed out. Waking up in a cell. A mate bond with the wolfish asshole…
Fuck.
How much time had passed? Days? Weeks? I barely remembered the food and drink they’d set inside my cell, the bathroom breaks, the questions, the shots of Elixir they’d given me to keep me complacent.
My wings fluttered and helped steady me as I sat up on the cot I’d been lying on. I blinked and fluttered them again. No pain. Glancing over my shoulder, I was terrified to find my wing had almost entirely healed. A tiny scar was all that remained of the nasty tear that had grounded me. That could only mean one thing—I’d been here for entirely too long.
Shit.
Fear crept down my spine at the idea I might have been here for weeks. I wondered what Trite thought. My heart clenched a little, thinking about how worried he would be. Then I wondered what my parents thought. We weren’t close, but still. They were my parents. My throat dried up as I worried that I might be hard to find. Would anyone associate E-Ethan with my disappearance? Or would they think I’d crawled under a rock after the Mage Council had chewed my ass? Was anyone even looking for me?
Fae Captive (The Mage Shifter War Book 1) Page 7
