Was there no escape from all this cold?
“Don’t gulp it all down or you’ll be sick,” the man called Xalicur scolded. Something about his voice sent a coil of heat licking through her body. The sensation made her recoil from him, and he frowned.
When the glass was taken away, her head felt a little lighter.
“Where am I?” she croaked to whoever would answer.
“Far away,” Oricus answered.
Her eyes searched the three men. Their names floated from her mind like smoke. There was a behemoth man, with long dark hair. Ras—something. The one with tattoos was… What was his name again?
And the one who had spoken…she couldn’t quite recall it back to memory, but it felt important.
The fourth man with sheared blond hair and greenish grey eyes were similar to the others. As if they were related.
Brothers.
Arian’s brothers.
Arian.
Arian!
She screamed down the bond, but it was as if it no longer existed. She felt through her mind, frantically searching for the cord that linked her to her bonded. Her mate.
The first blond man—Oricus—gave a cruel laugh. “Well, at least we know it’s working.”
Her head shot up. “What did you do to me?” she shouted.
He smiled before glancing up, then nodded to someone behind her.
Her head fell forward, the world slipping away yet again.
Harlow lifted her head. Horrible consuming cold wracked her body in violent shivers, and her teeth chattered uncontrollably.
Rex knelt in front of her.
The dark, dingy space reeked of mildew and human waste. Was it hers? Her stomach churned violently.
“Rex, help me.” Her mouth was so dry.
His arctic blue eyes were sad. “This will help, Har. Just hang on for me, baby. We’ll be together like we were meant to be.” Baby? Since when did he call her that?
Whatever they were doing to her made her wish she was dead. She was freezing to death. Her skin was pink, looking almost sunburned.
“What are you talking about, Rex? What is this?”
He seemed to consider his words carefully. “You’re very sick, Harlow. I’m trying to fix it. But you have to fight. Can you do that for me, baby?” He cupped her face, but his eyes held something wild in them.
She shook her head. “I’m dying, Rex. Whatever they’re doing to me… It’s killing me.”
Rex shook his head adamantly. “No, this will make you better.” His grip on her face tightened until it began to hurt. She winced, but still he didn’t let go.
Finally, she shook him off and he blinked rapidly, as if coming back to himself.
“Arian,” she whispered. A prayer and a warning. He would find her. He would come for her.
Rex’s gaze darkened.
“Arian can’t save you here.” He stood, all traces of kindness evaporating. “I’m flushing out your blood to get rid of Arian’s bond to you and replacing it with a mixture of mine and the clan’s. You’ll belong to all of us if you survive the transformation.”
She let out a strangled cry. “What?! No! Why?”
Her face exploded with pain—she realized Rex had slapped her. A tang of copper reached her tongue.
“If this works, you’ll still have your magic, like me. But you’ll undergo the transformation to become one of the Blrochni. And Arian will have no claim to you. You will be my Marked. You were always meant to be mine.”
Harlow couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe.
“Have you wondered why Oricus and the rest of them aren’t beasts anymore, Harlow? It’s been almost a month. Arian hasn’t come for you.” He grabbed her chin and forced her to look at him. “You’ll forget all about him and then you’ll belong to us. And that disgusting traitor will die by your hand.
“When you wake up, you’ll be one of us.”
Arian
The club was packed tonight. A woman dressed in a navy twenties fringe dress wailed her slow tune about lost love or some shit. Her golden hair was plastered to her head in swirls and curls, her plump lips blood red.
Arian could feel her eyes on him as her voice took on a feline purr. If the night ended the way he hoped, he’d be sure to find her again and take her to his apartment. See those plump red lips wrapped around his cock and those sparkling blue eyes looking up at him. Worshipping him.
His cock twitched at the idea.
He made his way through the crowds of people, all dressed to look like a picture straight out of the twenties. It was one of his favorite time periods, which is why he had themed the nightclub to that era.
Women sparkled and shimmered while they drank only the finest wines and liquors; men smoked cigars and zeroed in on the females they wanted to bang for the night. Fat tendrils of smoke twisted lazily toward the high ceiling.
The room was as thick with lust as it was with music, laughter and smoke. A heady combination for someone like Arian. And yet, he only had one thing on his mind.
He spotted Oricus at a round table in the back, the booth filled with half-dressed females. Some kissed and fondled each other; others tried to stroke him. But they all longed for his attention. Eager, stupid cunts smelling the money and the power on him the same way they did with Arian.
When he stopped in front of the table, several women looked up. Dazzling smiles flashed all around, but he ignored them.
“Brother,” Arian said, trying to keep his tone even.
Oricus ignored him, and Arian discovered from a blonde head bobbing up and down in his brother’s lap that he would be of no use to Arian unless he got his brother alone. Oricus’s cunning grey eyes took him in, seemingly unaffected by the woman slurping noisily between his legs.
“Listen, skanks, this guy isn’t going to spend a dime on you, nor even look in your direction when he’s done with you. So I suggest you clear out and find someone more likely to remember your name in twenty minutes.”
That got almost all of them to snap their gazes to Arian.
He let his eyes flash gold and his canines lengthen. “Go,” he snarled, his voice halfway between beast and man.
Even the blonde uncorked her mouth from his brother’s cock with an audible pop. The girls hurriedly fled the booth.
Oricus didn’t even bother to put his damn dick away, instead flashing Arian a lazy grin. “Aw, Brother, you’ve scared away all my pussy.”
He drew in a deep breath to keep from launching his fist through my brother’s arrogant face. “I’m sure you can find more when our business is concluded.”
Oricus scoffed. “Business. What business could you and I possibly have?”
“For starters, you come to my club to seduce women that you sell off to sick fucks. You know I won’t allow that bullshit here. And secondly, you owe me thirteen million dollars for the shipment of weapons you stole, and another two hundred million for the shipment of drugs you burned in the middle of the fucking ocean,” he growled. “And put your Fisher-Price dick away, you piece of shit.”
Oricus raised a golden brow as he took a long sip of his bourbon, then zipped up his trousers. “I’m not here to abduct women, Brother. Sometimes I just like to fuck them.” He smirked. “And why would you assume I had anything to do with your less-than-careful dealings?”
Arian’s beast prickled beneath his skin, but he wouldn’t let Oricus see anything other than his indifference. “You’re just the kind of vindictive scum to get back at me for what I did.”
Oricus swallowed the last of his drink then slammed the glass down—proof Arian had gotten under his skin. “You mean when you cost me six billion dollars?” He stood, his eyes flashing silver. “Is that what you’re referring to, Brother? Or perhaps the fact that you ripped out my mate’s throat and burned her body? How about how you split our family apart by deciding for all of us that we should no longer exist?” His form stretched slightly as he fought to
keep his beast under control. “Tell me, Dominicus, are you still seeking a witch to unmake us all?”
There was a family he had been secretly watching. A little girl who had so far shown no manifestation of magic. And the mother, whose womb was swollen with a new babe. Every time he saw the woman, he felt a tug, so faint he couldn’t be sure if it was magic or the longing to have what that family had.
“You know it’s time, Brother. Neither of our worlds was meant to contain monsters like us.”
Oricus laughed. Coldly. Cruelly. “Worlds like ours were made for us to conquer. Just remember that it was you that declared war, rodnav bret.” Arian stilled at the sound of their native language. The word brother.
He walked out from behind the wide table, fastening his suit jacket. Oricus stopped beside him, looking out over the packed nightclub. “There’s something coming, I can feel it. Something that will bring even you to your knees.”
He looked at his brother with cool indifference, though Arian’s mind raced at his words. Oricus gave him one last smirk before leaving Arian to his thoughts.
There was something. A tense silence that came before a storm. He could feel it in his chest. A longing for something, but he didn’t know what. No amount of women satisfied the ache that had been intensifying the past few months.
Now, even the busty singer who cooed into the microphone set his teeth on edge. Arian thought he was the only one that felt the buildup of energy in the air. But whatever it was, Oricus could feel it too.
His head throbbed as he spun and headed for the exit. The cool night air did little to dispel the ache growing between his eyes.
Another painful throb pulsed, making him wince.
Then, like a spear to his chest, pain exploded inside him and he fell to the damp pavement. Arian hissed in a pained breath as a cord snapped tight behind his ribs. He knew what it was in the core of his being.
No, this can’t be true.
He clawed at his chest, nails elongating. He paid no attention to the shredded fabric and flesh now oozing blood.
But still the sensation did not ease. Instead it pulled him to his feet. Like a hook deep inside him, it reeled him into the one who cast it.
A Soul Mark.
My mate.
Arian’s howl of pain was entirely human when he jerked awake. He hadn’t even realized he’d fallen asleep. Elentis and Prodepheus rubbed the sleep from their eyes as they shot upright from the chairs they had obviously dozed off in.
“Why the fuck did you let me fall asleep?” He pushed up from his desk to pace, running a hand through his unwashed mess of hair.
“Brother, you haven’t slept in weeks. None of us have,” Elentis said, watching him pace. They both looked as bad as Arian felt.
“And until my mate is safely returned to me, sleep is a goddamn waste of time!” he thundered, slamming his fists on the desk. Hard enough to make the solid oak groan, but not enough to break it.
Atop it were photos, maps, and every document that he’d thought was even remotely related to where Harlow might be held.
Prodepheus scrubbed a hand down his unshaven face. “I understand your agony, Brother. You know that I understand better than anyone.”
His harsh tone made Arian’s spine go rigid. Prody did know. He’d watched his mate marry another man, have his children. Watched her grow old, then die.
“The bond is so faint I can barely sense it. It’s as if she’s not truly at the end of it anymore.” Arian closed his eyes as he drew in a breath, but froze when her face invaded his mind. Her body arching into his touch, her face alight with pleasure.
He groaned back the wretched noise that clawed through his chest. “Kuzukah, how you haunt me,” he said in a whisper, though he knew his brothers could hear him.
They were all silent a moment, then Elentis said quietly, “Until the connection is severed, she is still alive.”
Arian ignored him. Something was wrong with their bond. It had been blocked the moment she was taken from him. But it grew weaker each day and he knew time was running out. Whatever they were doing to her, she was suffering. Knowing his brother, Oricus would want to sever the bond between Arian and Harlow, but as far as he knew there was no way of doing so without killing one of them. He had to get to her before Oricus killed her. And now he knew for certain that that damned bartender was working with him.
He had magic too. And he shared in their curse. Although not in the traditional sense. He’d been able to transform back into a man during the lunar cycle. Something else then?
I should have killed the bastard when I had the chance. Another growl ripped from him. Arian reluctantly opening his eyes and letting the image of his mate disappear.
“Where is Zeph and Brom?”
Elentis sighed heavily, combing back his golden hair with his fingers. “Still you-know-where, I imagine. Cleaning up the mess you made. And Olivia’s still with Maribelle.” He leaned forward. “You need to tell her. She’ll find out sooner or later that Harlow’s missing.”
A pang of something like remorse bloomed inside him. But truly he was already too full of pain for any more to take root. If anything, his guilt from slaughtering an entire city and from the fact Harlow had been taken came from the way he imagined her sapphire blue eyes filled with shock and sadness.
“And Fredrik, Josirus, and Nox are in Russia…” Arian murmured, more to himself than anyone else. The three of them would scour every last inch of that wasteland before moving on. He had returned to the US only because something inside him wondered if his ruthless, cunning brother would keep his mate right under his nose.
Every minute was spent searching all of his territories, his legal properties and illegal holdings. Elentis and Prodepheus helped with searching Canada and Mexico. Zeph and Brom would comb Scondelade. But Oricus was nowhere to be found.
“It’s time to move on,” Arian said. “She’s not here.”
The door of the hotel room chimed, making his brows furrow. Prodepheus stood and strode toward the door. Arian paused, several feet away, tasting the tang of magic in the air. Elentis and Prodepheus both stilled, sensing it too.
With a hand on the knob, Prodepheus slid a gun from inside his suit jacket. Then he pulled the door open. A lanky boy, perhaps twenty years old, in a bellhop uniform stood in the doorway. In one hand he held an envelope and in the other, a wickedly sharp knife. He stared straight at Arian, his eyes cloudy and blank.
“Oricus sends his best to his brothers,” the boy said in a monotone voice as he offered the envelope.
Prodepheus lifted the gun, aiming at the boy’s forehead, but he didn’t flinch, or seem aware of the gun at all. Elentis tentatively took the envelope that had a bulge in the center of it, and sniffed it, his eyes widening. He inspected the blank side, then offered it to Arian.
He took it, feeling a tremble in his hand as the scent wafted up to him. With a glance back at the boy, Arian watched—too stunned to react—when he slid the knife across his throat, spraying them with his hot blood.
Prodepheus caught the boy as he fell, silent, accepting death. Though Arian’s stomach twisted with the desire to drink the offered meal, he couldn’t, knowing that his brother had spelled the child to take his own life.
A cruel mockery of his hunger.
With a hard swallow Arian tore into the envelope, pulling out the vial filled with blood. Harlow’s blood. His mouth watered and his canines lengthened. The letter attached, he unfolded, to distract himself from the need to down the contents of the vial. If he knew his brother, then there would be an odorless poison mixed with the blood that would knock Arian down for days, possibly weeks, which was time he didn’t have to waste.
The air left his lungs in a whoosh as he hurriedly read the words penned onto the note.
Brother,
Not to worry, your mate is quite safe. And beautiful too, wouldn’t you agree? I’m certain those lips will be put to great use soon. When my
message reaches you, you will undoubtedly feel the connection to her break soon after. I will grant you the kindness of warning you against trying to find her. We have cleansed her blood of you and replaced it with a mixture that will turn her into one of us. She will be automatically bonded to all of my clan. And we all intend to Mark her once she has forgotten you even exist, thanks to Rex’s magic. Your mate is ours. Your eternal suffering will never end now, Brother.
I’ll be sure to give her your regards,
Oricus
His body shook uncontrollably as the message balled in his fist.
Then he felt it.
Every molecule of his being split in half as he was ripped apart. His scream of agony was silent, but his mind was filled with her screams.
Then silence.
Acknowledgements
This story went through a lot of twists and turns, a lot of starts and stops. I threw the whole manuscript in the bin at one point. But my husband encouraged me to get it back out even though it nearly ruined my life to do so. My early readers encouraged me to stick with it, and I’m so glad I did. This was one of the most stressful stories to write, and consequently, I believe it is one of my best works.
So thank you to Ava, Natalie, Amber and all the rest of my fearless, devoted friends who encouraged me and made this story possible. Thank you, ARC readers, betas, and anyone who makes it through to the end to read this. I appreciate you.
To my family, though you will hopefully never know this book made it to publication, thanks for pushing me to chase my dreams.
My fellow authors, thank you for your continued inspiration, for your kind support. Your words are carved in my soul and they make me who I am each day.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Raven Woodward is an American author holed up on an island in the South Pacific with her husband and children. When she’s not creating swoony villains and tortured heroes, she enjoys escaping onto the beach with a book and a mai tai.
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