by Riley Storm
“Put the car in park, turn it off and roll down the window,” the voice said, lower in volume but still commanding.
Once again Natalia did as she was told. The car fell silent around her, now an immobile block of metal instead of a high-octane hypercar.
“Is something wrong, officer?” she asked, looking out the window.
“Not at all,” Klebra grinned, sticking his head inside. “In fact, everything is proceeding according to plan.”
She yelped and reached for her purse once again, fear for her life spurring her movements. As fast as she was though, Klebra was faster. His hand wrapped around her throat and squeezed.
“Ack,” she choked out.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” he warned conversationally. “I really wouldn’t.”
“Kfds knws iii nnn ayy kkkk.”
Klebra looked at her funny. “What?”
She tapped at his hand around her neck. He released it slightly, allowing precious air into her lungs.
“I said, Kirell knows I’m on my way back,” she spat, glaring at him. “If you touch me, he’ll know something is up and he’ll come looking.”
Klebra laughed, pulling open the door. He was forced to let go of her neck during this and she tried to turn the car on and reverse out of there, but the shifter was too quick. He snagged her hand before she could hit the ignition button, almost crushing it to pieces in the process.
“Ow!” she protested, the blinding pain bringing unwanted tears to her eyes.
“Stop trying to escape, then,” he growled, irritated. Reaching into the car, he ripped the seatbelt free and then hauled her out.
“Are you going to kill me?” she asked as he shoved her toward one of the SUVs.
“Of course not.” Klebra sighed. “Have I ever done anything to make you think I’m a murdering monster? Our plan is well thought out. Flawless.”
“Our plan?” Natalia seized on that. Maybe she could push Klebra, get him to gloat, to admit who it was he was working with. Kirell would want that information when he came for her.
“My plan,” he corrected, glaring daggers at her as he pushed into the rear seat of the SUV. “Now, do I need to tie you up and dump you in the trunk, or will you behave?”
“I’ll behave.”
Until I see a way to escape.
“Good.” Klebra flung the door closed and headed around to the driver’s seat.
Natalia grabbed the door with one hand and stopped it just before it closed, then smacked her hand on the interior, trying to mimic the sound of it closing as best she could. Klebra was talking to someone else and the incorrect noise didn’t seem to register.
Slipping it open, she got out, pushed it almost closed and dashed for the Bugatti. The Chiron Sport could easily outrun any of these SUVs, if she could just get it in gear and reverse.
The car was there, so close she was reaching for the door handle when strong arms closed around her from the side, lifting her off the ground.
“Gotcha,” a strange voice crowed, squeezing tight enough she found it difficult to breathe.
“I thought you said you would behave?” Klebra asked, his tone tired as he came over to her, clamping her in chains. “You aren’t going anywhere, Natalia. Not until Kirell relinquishes his position.”
She tried not to betray her surprise at this revelation.
“What the hell are you talking about?”
“Quite simple really,” her captor said, taking her from the other man before she could get a glimpse of his face. “I tell Kirell that if he doesn’t give up his seat and turn it over to me, I kill you.”
Natalia breathed slowly. This was bad. Really bad.
“You understand, I take it. I thought you might.” He opened the trunk and threw her inside with little care for her wellbeing.
Her head slammed into the backseat, blurring her vision with tears and stars from the pain, but it didn’t obscure her hearing as Klebra continued.
“I know you two aren’t actually mated. Only an idiot would believe that,” he said with a snarl. “So, it’s quite simple. If Kirell comes to save you, he gives up his position. I win. If he doesn’t, then it’s clear you aren’t his mate. I expose you two as frauds. I win. It’s nothing personal against you, I hope you understand.”
“Fuck you.” She spat at him, the saliva splattering across the black suit jacket he wore.
Klebra looked down, unimpressed. Then he reached into the trunk, grabbed a handful of her shirt and ripped. Half the front came off, exposing her stomach and the center of her bra while he used the material as a napkin, before tossing it back into her face.
“Manners please,” he said as if she’d not done a thing.
Natalia just stared angrily as his eyes explored her bared front with more than a passing hint of interest. The look on his face when he met her stare again sent shivers down her spine, quelling much of her rebellious spirit.
The pure evil and malevolence harbored in him was starting to boil over as he acted completely against the rules.
“You’ll never defeat Kirell,” she called out. “Not on your own. The guards support him, and they’ll rip you to shreds.”
Klebra laughed, and a shadow behind him shivered as someone walked into the wan light provided by the interior lights of the vehicle. She gasped.
“I’m not worried,” her captor said with a grin. “You see, I’m not alone.” Then he shut the trunk, blocking out her view of a face she’d seen before.
She’d seen it… outside Leblanc, the first night she’d gone out with Kirell.
Natalia understood now. She knew what Kirell was up against. He wasn’t just fighting a few disloyal elements inside his own House. That would have been too easy. Klebra must have known that. That’s why he’d gone outside his House, looking for allies, anyone that could help him achieve his goal. And he’d found it.
In House Canis.
38
“Will you knock it off? You’re starting to worry people.”
He looked up to see Klaue leaning against the wall ahead of him, blocking the intersection.
“What are you talking about?”
His senior lieutenant rolled his eyes. “You’ve been pacing the hallways for hours now, Kirell. More than a few people are muttering that you’ve lost your mind, that you’re about to go out of control. You don’t talk to anyone, your head is down and your body language screams, don’t fucking touch or talk to me or I’ll rip your head off and shove it down your throat until you can wink from your asshole. That good enough?”
Kirell had to think that through for a second before he understood what Klaue meant by winking through his…anyway, it didn’t matter. The man was right, he had been a menace to the House.
“I’m sorry,” he muttered, rolling his shoulders to try and relieve some of the tension in them. “But why aren’t you heeding said advice about not talking to me?”
Klaue barked a laugh. “Because I’m the best fighter in the House right now and you know better than that.”
Kirell almost thought about challenging him to that claim but decided against it. He knew better than to make claims he couldn’t back up. Klaue was the best of High House Ursa right now, and he deserved that recognition. Not that Kirell was far behind.
“What’s going on?” his second in command asked, dropping his voice to something friendlier and more private at the same time.
“Just things with Natalia,” he said, matching the other shifter’s tone.
“I thought everything was good there?”
“It’s complicated,” he said with a thin smile. “She stole my car.”
“Which one?”
“The Chiron.” He frowned. “That’s twice now she’s stolen it, I think she might be a car thief.”
“Damn, you let her take the Chiron?”
“Let her?” he scoffed. “I was unconscious in bed. She took the keys. How is that letting her?”
“Minus the fact you let yourself get be
at down, you could have kept the keys safer.”
“I really don’t need your aggravation right now,” he snapped, his stress leaking through. “Sorry. I know you’re just trying to lighten the mood.”
“I can see it’s not working. Do me a favor though, and I’ll leave you alone. Go back to your quarters and wait for her there. Anywhere but the halls, okay? Stop stalking back and forth.”
It wasn’t an order, but a request. Kirell thought about ignoring it, but immediately discarded that idea. Starting a fight between him and Klaue wasn’t the way to earn the loyalty of his men. Especially when they were in the right, such as now.
“I’ll go down to the security office,” he decided. “Start reviewing footage, see if I can’t track down something that’ll prove it was Klebra.”
“You’re positive it was him?”
Kirell just snorted.
“Yeah. Good point.”
Walking forward, he clapped a hand on Klaue’s shoulder. “Thanks.”
The other shifter just nodded respectfully, then they both went their own ways. Kirell stretched his sore and healing muscles as he went, limbering up and getting loose. He didn’t expect to need it, but he would heal faster if he kept his body in motion.
After sleeping or eating most of the day, he was mostly healed, though not at one hundred percent. The beating had been pretty severe, and even his advanced healing only worked so fast. Another day or so would see him ready to take on the world again.
In the meantime, he only had to face Natalia, and that wasn’t something requiring his strength. Not physical strength, at least. Emotional strength was another matter entirely, and something Kirell suspected he would be lacking when he finally came face to face with her again.
It wasn’t until his mind had healed itself enough for coherent thoughts, that he’d come to the realization that the entire time he’d been unconscious, or conscious but not lucid, he’d been thinking of her. Not just sexually either. In fact, mostly non-sexual thoughts filled his head.
She’d stayed with him, stayed at his side for nearly a full day while he recovered. True, she’d been gone when he finally woke up, but a little investigation had shown that she’d left not long before that happened. Having her do that had been a key to unlocking his acceptance that he was excited she’d stayed. That he would have been devastated if she’d just left him completely alone.
That eventually gave way to the dawning understanding that Kirell didn’t just want her around. He needed her around. He’d come to rely on her for strength when he didn’t have it, and for company he hadn’t been aware he craved. She was a shoulder to lean on and a soul to complete his own.
He cared for her, deeper than he’d ever cared for anyone before. That scared him. Terrified him, truthfully, and he suspected admitting it would do the same to her. But he had to; he couldn’t hide it any longer. What had started out as a match made for all the wrong reasons had morphed into something real, something he didn’t want to give up on.
Kirell was going to fight now, but this was a fight unlike any he’d ever been in before. It wasn’t fists and claws, but words and feelings, and this was a battleground on which he was a novice. But inexperienced or not, he wasn’t going to go down without a fight. Natalia was going to listen to what he had to say, no matter what.
After that, she was on her own; he wouldn’t force a thing from her, but she would let him speak. He knew he’d earned that much. The only question he didn’t have an answer to, was how did she feel?
He strode into the security office, glancing at the clock. It was nine-thirty now. Nearly two and a half hours after she said she was sitting down to dinner with Loren. He knew women could talk endlessly, but he’d not had any message or communication with her since.
“Any arrivals?” he asked, plopping himself down into a spare chair. “In the last twenty minutes or so?”
Krave pushed a few buttons, then shook his head. “Nope, nothing, boss. No departures either.”
“Fine.” He started fiddling with the controls.
“What are you doing?”
He glanced at Krave. “Looking up my attack. I want to see if I can trace who it might have been.”
Krave frowned. “We tried already. There are no cameras anywhere near there. Nothing to pick up on who it might have been.”
“Perhaps. Perhaps not. But I have my own suspicions.”
The first thing he did was pull up the video of the storage area. From there, he started back-tracking the guard who had come to him. Everyone who’d arrived on the scene had seen the guard unconscious and proclaimed him innocent, but Kirell wondered otherwise.
The man’s story was flimsy. Apparently, he’d been going by the prison area when he heard noises. After investigating it a bit further, he’d come after Kirell to get his help. Reviewing the cameras, though, showed exactly that. He saw the guard creeping through the prison area, and then disappearing off camera. A few minutes later, he came charging back out, into the storage areas to find Kirell.
How did you know where I was?
He made a mental note to question the guard on that. Who had told him where to find Kirell? That was a big hole in his story that didn’t seem to have been addressed yet.
Setting that to the side, he started looking for Klebra and the two men he knew to be his cronies, trying to track them down as well. After much searching, however, he verified that all three of them had left the house about an hour before the attack.
Of course, there were ways to sneak back in unseen, but he couldn’t prove any of them had done that either. He was at a dead end, his anger growing.
“Has anyone come in through the garage yet?” he snapped.
“No boss,” Krave said politely. “I’ve been keeping an eye on it. Who are we waiting for?”
“Natalia,” he said slowly. “Fine. Where are Klebra and his posse at? I’ll question them until she shows up.”
“They headed out in one of the SUVs like an hour ago,” Krave informed him. He punched a few buttons. “That’s odd.”
“What?” Kirell turned to the screen.
“The GPS says they’re down the road from the main gates. But they left an hour ago. What the hell are they doing?”
A sinking feeling filled Kirell’s stomach. “Pull up the GPS on my Chiron.” He gave Krave the ID number.
All House cars had a GPS tracker installed. If it was turned off, the security office was notified immediately. More than once it had saved a member’s life when others had interfered in the House business.
“It’s outside as well,” Krave said slowly. “I don’t understand.”
Kirell was already on his way out the door, however, because he knew exactly what was going on. That bastard had kidnapped his woman.
He burst through the doors to the parking garage, pausing only long enough to snag the keys to one of the communal House Ursa SUVs. He hit the remote start as he ran toward it, the modified engine revving to life.
Tires screeched on the asphalt as he gunned it forward before the door was closed. His only care was for Natalia, and for getting to her before Klebra escaped.
He pulled out his phone and tried to dial the security office as he sped up the ramp and onto the driveway, but he had an incoming call.
“Hello?” he snarled without even looking at the number.
“Ah, Kirell. How nice of you to be so prompt in answering.”
“Klebra,” he snarled, his foot mashing down the accelerator as he tore up the driveway to the gates like a bat out of hell. The car was shaking as he passed eighty miles an hour, then ninety, barely keeping four tires on the ground through some of the turns. “What have you done?”
“Meet me at the cemetery. One hour. You and Kaelyn will come alone. Do anything wrong, and she dies. It’s that simple, it really is,” Klebra cackled, his voice breaking as he did.
The man is losing his grip on reality.
It was the only situation that made any sense, really. In w
hat world did Klebra think he could get away with this and escape any sort of consequences once it resolved itself? It was insane to think he could just waltz into power after ousting Kirell like this. What the hell was he hoping to achieve?
It doesn’t matter.
One thought—and one thought only—was racing through his mind. Everything else was a distant second to it. He had to save Natalia.
No matter what it took.
39
He moved through the woods like a ghost.
For a man of his size, Kirell knew how to navigate without making a sound. Toes first, slowly, pushing debris aside with careful, gentle movements before he put his weight down. Thankfully the undergrowth was thin here, and the moonlight pierced the canopy overhead in numerous places, giving him plenty of light to move by.
The cemetery was straight ahead. Which meant Natalia was there, waiting for him to come rescue her. He seethed at the knowledge that Klebra had so brazenly kidnapped her, but his training kept that rage bottled up, preventing him from moving in haste.
Klebra wasn’t an idiot. He would have helping hands posted throughout the forest. Watching. Waiting. Kirell was pitting himself against them, betting he could gain the drop on any of them before they even knew he was there.
To the best of his knowledge, none of Klebra’s lackeys were trained soldiers. They could still be deadly in a fight with their strength, of course, but if he engaged in a straight-up fight with any of them, Natalia was dead, regardless of Kirell’s ability to win the fight or not.
Instead, he was going to rely on stealth, conserving his limited strength reserves and hopefully avoiding any outright fighting unless it was absolutely necessary.
Behind him came two squads of his best guards, under the watchful eye of Klaue. They were half a mile or more back, however, to give him time to eliminate the scouts. They were there more as backup than anything, because Kirell had refused to allow his Queen to go in with just him as support.
He’d only been made aware of the fact that Klebra had called the Queen after he was almost at the cemetery. Kaelyn had called Kirell and clued him in to everything. Klebra wasn’t just after Kirell’s position, he’d been told. The insane traitor hoped to blackmail the Queen into supporting him openly.
