Chained by Night

by Larissa Ione

  Relief spread through her. “Thank you,” she said, aware that Hunter’s mercy was out of consideration for Aylin. “What are you going to do about Kars and Tseeveyo? You have to give me up, don’t you?”

  “Fuck, no.” He threw down the controller and took her hands in his. They were so warm and strong, so capable of both fighting and pleasuring. What if she’d found him only to lose him because of what was going on outside MoonBound’s walls? “If I have to hand over MoonBound to Riker and take you halfway around the world to keep you from those bastards, I will.”

  Aylin’s heart fluttered, and warmth spread through her veins. Hunter was willing to give up everything for her. Everything.

  Which was why she wouldn’t let that happen, even if it meant she had to run away by herself. He belonged with his clan, not hiding from both humans and vampires while trying to protect her.

  But she also knew that an imprinted male wasn’t going to just let his female take off without him. And a male like Hunter would chase her to the ends of the earth. Obviously, running away, together or separately, would be a last resort. Hunter would have another plan.

  She brushed her thumbs over his knuckles, still amazed that he’d chosen her. Not just chosen her but dedicated himself to her. “So what are we going to do?”

  “I was going to kick them both off my land, but if they know about your gift, they’re not going to go easily. So I want you to practice handling portals, and I’m going to lay it all out to Kars and Tseeveyo. They should be here any minute.”

  She stared. “That seems a little . . . reckless.”

  His grin was heart-stopping. “Riker said the same thing. He’s a planner. I’m better when I have to think on my feet.” Releasing her, he picked up the controller from the sofa and unpaused the game. “And when I’m kicking virtual ass.”

  She glanced over at the TV screen. “What are you playing?”

  “Grand Theft Auto: Vampire Clans. You get to be a human or a vampire.”

  “And you are . . . ?”

  He winked playfully. “Vampire.”

  “Do you get to kill humans?”

  “Yup.”

  She picked up a controller. “Will you show me?”

  After a brief moment of surprise, Hunter grinned again. “You bet. Come on, let’s steal some cars and whack a few humans.”

  MY QUARTERS. NOW.

  Hunter glanced at Riker’s text . . . and then he did a double-take and stared hard. What the hell could be so urgent?

  “Stay here,” he told Aylin as she sat on his couch, game controller still in her delicate hands. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

  Tucking his phone into his jacket pocket, he hightailed it to the apartment Riker and Nicole shared on the opposite side of the compound.

  The door was open, so he burst inside, no announcement, no polite hello. Nope, he was all about the “What the fuck is going on?”

  Riker’s expression as he stood in the living room amid piles of paperwork, computer printouts, flash drives, and files was bleak. Downright dire.

  “It’s bad.” Riker gestured to the mess. “This is the stuff Nicole stole from Daedalus. She’s been going through it for anything we can leak to the media about Daedalus’s practices.”

  “And?” Hunter prompted, his adrenaline still juicing him, thanks to Riker’s urgent text.

  “And it’s been sitting out for months.” He picked up a file and flipped it open. “Do you remember when I said that Rasha had been gathering intel on our warriors? Remember how I told you she knew things about Myne she couldn’t have known?”

  “Yeah,” Hunter drawled hesitantly, afraid he knew where this was headed, and it wasn’t good. It was as far from good as it could get.

  “Even though it was a long shot, I hoped like hell that ShadowSpawn had a spy inside Daedalus who gave her the info on Myne.” Riker shoved the file at him. “But Nicole found this today. It’s all right here. The surgeries. The experiments. The torture.” Riker’s voice grew strained. “The humans took one of his kidneys while he was still conscious.”

  Hunter’s stomach turned over as he scanned the reports. The shit the humans had done . . . Great Spirit above, it was a wonder the guy was still sane.

  “Hunt, Myne didn’t tell anyone about what happened to him. Someone broke into our apartment, went through these files, and fed this shit to ShadowSpawn. We do have a spy in the clan.”

  Hunter’s stomach stopped turning over, but only so it could plummet to his feet. “Son of a bitch,” he growled. “Son of a fucking bitch!”

  Riker’s hands formed fists at his sides, and his lips peeled back to reveal his long-ass fangs. “I don’t think we can deny it anymore. Someone from MoonBound told ShadowSpawn that we lost their midwife three months ago. And they’ve been giving ShadowSpawn personal information on our warriors.”

  Hunter closed his eyes. “Kars knew I took Aylin to the vortex instead of Rasha, and he gave me some bullshit story about how his scouts saw us, but I knew he was lying. It had to have been the traitor who told him. And it’s a safe bet that whoever this spy is, they also told both ShadowSpawn and NightShade about Aylin’s gift.” Rage, thick and hot, ran through Hunter’s veins like lava. “Which means we can narrow down our suspects to those who were with us when we returned from the portal.”

  Riker nodded. “I understand. I’ll step down from the investigation—”

  “You aren’t a suspect,” Hunter blurted. No way. What spy would have revealed where he’d gotten the information?

  That Riker wasn’t considered a suspect should have been good news, but the guy shook his head sadly. “But several others are.”

  “Katina, Takis, Aiden, Tena, and Baddon,” Hunter said numbly. “One of them betrayed us.”

  The rapid pounding of boots thumped in Hunter’s ears, pulling him out of his shock. Baddon skidded to a halt in the doorway, his face red, a vein at his temple throbbing.

  “What is it?” Hunter barked, his nerves already on edge, and damn how he wanted to kill something right now. The spy would be a good choice.

  As he stared at Baddon, he felt sick, hoping the male wasn’t the one Hunter would have to put down. He would, but damn, he’d hate to lose the fighter.

  He’d hate to lose any of them.

  Baddon held up his hands, which were coated in blood. “I found Katina unconscious in Rasha’s quarters. Someone fucked her up. Bad.”

  “And Rasha?” Hunter ground out.

  “Gone.” Baddon’s hands clenched into fists. “She escaped.”

  WHERE ARE YOU going, warrior?”

  Myne had barely made it to the eastern edge of MoonBound’s border when a silver arrow pierced the ground in front of him. Wrapping his hand around the shaft, he yanked it out of the dirt and looked up at the female crouched in the tree branches overhead. Man, it pissed him off that he never sensed her presence. Never heard her, never smelled her. She could have put that arrow through the top of his skull, and he’d have been dead before the pain hit.

  “I’m taking a fucking vacation.”

  Sabbat, a human bounty hunter, cocked a pale blond eyebrow. “With all these humans swarming the woods?”

  “Maybe I’m hunting them.” He tossed the arrow upward, and she deftly snagged it out of the air.

  “Maybe you’re full of shit.” She cast his duffel a pointed glance that he could see even through the wraparound sunglasses she wore.

  “And maybe,” he suggested, “it’s none of your business. So unless you have a contract out on me, why don’t you let me pass?”

  Her ruby lips curved into a sinister smile. “Today you’re safe. I’m after a city vamp who went bloodlust.” She scowled, losing the evil grin. “Assuming the damned poachers don’t get him first.”

  Myne didn’t give a rat’s ass either way. But if a poacher got in his
way, the poacher was going to die. Sabbat . . . she could live. As far as human hunters went, she didn’t suck. She went after rogues who attracted too much attention to other vampires, the clan in particular, so everyone left her alone. But the day she started pulling the same shit as trophy hunters and poachers was the day someone at MoonBound took her out.

  Won’t be you, asshole. You don’t belong there anymore.

  Guess he never had.

  “Good luck,” he said.

  “Yeah, you, too.” She stood upright on the branch, which looked way too skinny to hold her, her black, foot-forming shoes gripping the wood as if they’d been coated with glue. Her tight camouflage bodysuit shifted color to match the background as she eased along the branch with an unnatural grace. She was like a fucking Predator from the old movies, practically invisible and deadly as fuck.

  Suddenly, Sabbat froze, and Myne wheeled around, trusting her instincts. The scent hit him instantly.

  Rasha.

  She slipped through the trees in silence, her dark clothing concealing her as she moved from shadow to shadow. He’d never seen anyone but Sabbat move as silently as Rasha could.

  “What the fuck?” he growled. “What are you doing here?”

  Frowning, Rasha looked up.

  He followed her gaze, expecting to see Sabbat with a weapon trained on Rasha, but the hunter was gone. The freakishly quiet bitch had disappeared like a ghost, leaving no trace that she’d ever been there.

  “I want to go with you,” Rasha said. “And I could have sworn I saw something up there.”

  “You didn’t, and you can’t. And why in the ever-living realm of fuck would I take you with me?”

  She looked down her dainty nose at him, which was quite the feat, given that she was eight inches shorter. “You need me for the moon fever.”

  Snorting, he wheeled away. “Go back to Hunter. I don’t need him coming after me.”

  “He won’t.” She grabbed his arm and spun him back around. “He’s taking Aylin as a mate.”

  Myne blinked. Holy shit. And holy shit again. “What about the deal with ShadowSpawn?”

  “War, probably. They’re camped outside MoonBound now, along with NightShade.”

  Adrenaline hot-loaded into his veins. “They’re what? Why? Because Hunter tossed you out on your ass?”

  “I don’t know,” she admitted. “But if I go back . . . I might end up mated to Tseeveyo.”

  He laughed. “So that bastard was good enough for your sister but not for you?”

  “It’s not like that,” she ground out.

  “Yeah? Because here’s the thing. Only an asshole leaves their family in danger, and that’s what you’re doing to Aylin, isn’t it? Leaving her to die in a war that MoonBound can’t possibly win.”

  Her mouth fell open. Closed. Opened again.

  “That’s what I thought.” He cursed. “Come on. Changed my mind. You are coming with me.” He bared his fangs. “Willingly or not.”

  A SWEEP OF the compound didn’t turn up a single shred of evidence that Rasha was still inside. According to Katina, who was barely coherent, someone, presumably Rasha, had struck her over the head with something before jamming a blade into her ribs. The next thing Katina knew, she was waking up in the lab, with Nicole and Grant frantically working to stop the bleeding.

  Aylin’s sister or not, if Hunter got hold of Rasha, she was going to be the first in centuries to feel the full brunt of his wrath. He was too worked up right now to give a shit that his father’s influence was surfacing, churning inside him in a caustic brew of fury and betrayal.

  But as pissed as he was at Rasha, she, at least, had an excuse for her behavior; she was the enemy and always had been.

  Somewhere inside MoonBound’s walls, there was another enemy, one who had pretended to be a friend.

  Someone in their midst was a motherfucking spy, and he wished he had time to dig more deeply into their identity. Unfortunately, it was time to meet the other clan chiefs. Riker had wanted him to deal with Kars in private, especially given the fact that Rasha had disappeared, but Hunter had another plan.

  Chaos.

  “ ‘The weakness of our enemy makes our strength,’ ” he’d told Riker. He hoped the old Cherokee saying would hold true.

  The other two clans were volatile, their chiefs arrogant and overconfident. It was a long shot, but if Hunter could exploit those qualities and set the other clans against each other, MoonBound might make it out of this without bloodshed.

  Kars, flanked by the Mohawk-haired Fane and another warrior Hunter didn’t know, emerged from the woods, arriving on time at the meeting spot outside MoonBound’s headquarters. But where was Rasha? Had she not gone to her father? Or maybe she was back at camp while Kars played dumb?

  Tseeveyo came from the opposite direction, two large males also accompanying him. And again, no Rasha.

  Hunter had no doubt that not far away, each chief had a contingent of warriors on standby . . . just as Hunter did. Next to him, Riker tensed. Jaggar flipped a blade into the air, his carefree attitude deceptive. As an ex–CIA operative in his human life, the guy had a lot of tricks up his sleeve.

  Such as the bomb rigged to explode behind the other two chiefs, to be triggered by a single throw of the dagger if needed.

  “Where is my daughter?” Kars barked, and Hunter wondered which one he was talking about.

  Tseeveyo, his hair in twin braids that fell forward over his chest, scowled. “My mate, you mean.”

  “The deal is off.” Kars stepped closer to Hunter, the implication that Hunter had already chosen sides made very clear. At least he now knew this was about Aylin. For now.

  “You can’t do that.” Tseeveyo’s lip curled. “You need my allegiance.”

  So Hunter had been right. Kars was trying to get the tribes aligned under him. How many did he already have?

  “What can I say?” Kars said with a shrug. “A daughter’s love is more important than alliances.”

  Hunter nearly laughed. Not even Tseeveyo could be buying that line of bullshit.

  Tseeveyo rounded on Hunter. “You will give Aylin to me. Hand her over right now, and I’ll pledge my support to you against ShadowSpawn.”

  “Hmm,” Hunter mused. “Let me think on that. Oh, wait. Fuck, no.”

  As Tseeveyo turned several shades of angry purple, Kars grinned. “You’ve made the right choice, Hunter.”

  “So you’re willing to break your deal with Tseeveyo?” Hunter set the trap, and now Kars needed to step into it.

  “I would break any deal to keep my daughter safe and happy.”

  Hunter could practically hear the trap snap shut. “I’m glad to hear that,” he said. “Because Aylin will be safest and happiest here with me. You can have Rasha, since you feel the need to have a daughter with you.”

  Hunter watched Kars closely for any sign that he knew Rasha had escaped from MoonBound, but ShadowSpawn’s chief was concerned with Aylin, his color rising to match Tseeveyo’s.

  “W-we had a deal!” Kars sputtered.

  “Didn’t Tseeveyo just say the same thing?”

  Tseeveyo’s mouth twitched in amusement, but his humor was fleeting. “The female was promised to me.”

  “She is my daughter!” Kars roared. Next to him, Fane tightened his grip on his bow.

  Jaggar’s knife flipping slowed, his concentration becoming more focused.

  “And she will be my mate.” Hunter flashed the imprint mark on his hand.

  Kars and Tseeveyo cursed in tandem, knowing damned well that no imprinted male would allow his female to be taken from him.

  Riker cursed, too, but for a different reason. The two clan chiefs now understood that taking Aylin wouldn’t be a matter of negotiation; it had become a matter of killing Hunter.

  “This,” Kars snarled, “is unacce
ptable.” He thrust his finger at Hunter. “I will see you dead before I allow you to mate with her. Rasha is a far worthier mate—”

  “Then take her back, and let me have the ‘less worthy’ daughter,” Hunter countered smoothly. “Our peace agreement can remain intact, and you’ll have another chance to make an even better political match for Rasha. It’s a win-win.”

  A win-win unless Hunter was right and the two chiefs knew about Aylin’s ability. And on this, Hunter wasn’t wrong.

  Murder blazed in Kars’s eyes. “I will destroy you and your clan down to the last child,” he swore. “You have twenty-four hours to hand Aylin over, or your clan will burn.”

  “And I will be there to dig your bones from the ashes,” Tseeveyo said, hatred dripping from his voice like blood. He turned to Kars. “And yours as well.”

  Kars bared his fangs, and with a vicious snap of his wrist, he sank a blade into the snow between them all. Tseeveyo’s blade landed next to it, and Hunter’s mouth went dry.

  The two enemy clans had just declared war.

  On each other . . . and on MoonBound.

  THE ATMOSPHERE AT MoonBound had gone from warm and welcoming to tense and cold, with a tinge of fear dancing on the edges of the friction.

  Aylin had waited anxiously in Hunter’s chambers for his return from the meeting, and the news he brought had been devastating. Now they were sitting in his battle room, his senior and second-tier warriors gathered around.

  Hunter had insisted that she take a seat next to him, but try as she might, she couldn’t help but feel that this was all her fault. No one had consciously made her feel that way, but she sensed speculating eyes on her, and as battle plans were discussed, she felt more and more guilty.

  Especially given that her sister had seriously injured a MoonBound warrior and left her to bleed out on the floor before fleeing like a coward. And according to Hunter, there was a strong possibility that Rasha hadn’t gone back to ShadowSpawn. So where was she?

  Hunter took Aylin’s hand in his and addressed his clan members. “We have twenty-four hours to give Aylin over to either ShadowSpawn or NightShade, or we face a battle. I want suggestions, no matter how crazy.” His voice deepened with a solid warning, and maybe it was her imagination, but he seemed extra tense, as if anger was churning deep inside his very marrow. “But if anyone suggests that we give Aylin up, they will be very, very sorry.”