Blood at Stake (Warriors of the Krieger Book 2)

by Theresa Hissong

  “I’ll always save you,” he promised, cupping my face. “I’ll always protect you.” His hand was so large that my head felt like a doll’s in his palm.

  “I know,” I whispered.

  “Let Adam or Brock pick you up and take you back to the estate,” he said, kissing me softly. “I’ll be home an hour before sunrise.”

  “Okay,” I smiled. “Be careful and come home to me.”

  “Always,” he promised, and after a lingering kiss, walked out the door.

  Charity had me admitting that I was in love with him, but I wanted him to say it first. I wanted the big warrior to confess his love. I knew he already cared for me by his actions. The fact that he didn’t send me away to break the mating bond had to count for something. Right?

  Most of the night, I sat in my office and worked on the necessary things that needed to be done. Jackson brought me a drink halfway through the night and even the blood and wine mixture didn’t settle my nerves.

  I cleaned up my desk and turned off the lights on my way out to the main club. The doors were already locked. Jackson was helping sweep the floors and security was there to walk the females out to their vehicles. I sent a quick text to Charity asking that she send someone to pick me up at the back of the building.

  I left Jackson to lock up and stepped outside to wait for my ride. The weather was nice, there was no wind and the stillness of the night ended up being my worst enemy.

  Because I didn’t scent the humans who were there to take me. A prick of pain hit my neck, and I reached back to grab at whatever it was. My fingers touched something cold and hard. A dart? An involuntary hiss escaped my lips as I felt a numbing sensation spread throughout my body.

  “Damn!” I spun and tried to run, but the sedative rushed through my system at an alarming speed. I fell to one knee, my vision blurred and I saw them coming for me. Three men in camouflaged clothing, dark paint on their faces, and black caps on their heads raced forward as my body collapsed onto the pavement below me.

  Chapter 14

  Ashby

  Four recruits piled into the back of the Krieger SUV as we were ready to head back to Port Royal. Dragus was satisfied with the new men. Each of them were at different levels in their training.

  Zin, a tall, bulky warrior with a Native American background, was soft spoken and didn’t talk much other than when he was asked a direct question. He was the newest of the recruits and would be starting his first training session next week.

  Dante honestly worried me. My senses picked up that he was dangerous, but I had to trust him being as he was a fully trained Krieger and would be heading up the new classes at the estate in Port Royal. Something about him made me uneasy. His dark brown eyes and even darker hair left his expression unreadable. The male was almost as large as Dragus and that was saying something.

  Kale was a blonde warrior with too many muscles. He had just graduated, and along with Dante, he would be an instructor here in Port Royal. From the slight uplift to the corner of his lip, I assumed he felt more at home by playing pranks on his fellow warriors. Dragus would most likely kick his ass before the end of next week. He had a playful British accent, and I noticed how the women servants drifted in his direction. His hair was the same blonde color as my own, but long enough that he kept it tied at the nape of his neck, and his eyes were such a dark blue, they almost looked black.

  Lastly, Harlow. This male was just as scarred as Rowland, but his demeanor was totally different. The servants avoided him, and the women scurried away when he was near. Harlow’s dark green eyes looked unearthly. Long brown hair was pulled up in the same manner as Dante wore his, and the gnarled, puckered skin of his neck was exposed. It looked as though he’d been mangled by a beast in his human life. He was already marked as a Krieger and had been handpicked by Dragus to be attached to our station in Port Royal.

  “Alright, men,” I announced, but fumbled for words as I rubbed at my heart. “It’s time to…time to head out. Load your…things.” My voice faltered, and my left knee buckled from the pain radiating through my chest.

  “Ashby,” Dragus growled, as he lurched forward to catch me before I fell, righting me back on my feet. “What is it, Krieger?”

  I felt pain, in my legs and arms. My neck…and my chest!

  Lydia was calling out to me through our bond. She was…hurt. Hurting! Pain…Help me! Ashby…please! I need you….find me! Help!

  “Alydian!” I gasped, clutching my chest, my knees finally giving out as I slumped to the ground. Warriors readied for battle around me, but I couldn’t breathe or even speak, feeling my mate in danger. Knives and guns were produced. The others made a protective circle around my body. I lunged forward, knocking two of them out of my way.

  “Grab him!” I heard Dragus order. “In the vehicle! His mate is in danger.”

  The recruits sprang into action, two of them grabbing me under my arms and forcing me inside the vehicle. My eyes bled red, my fangs elongated, and I had death in my mind’s eye. Someone had hurt her.

  That someone was going to die.

  “She’s not at Nights?” Dragus asked.

  “Just drive,” I growled, venom on my tongue. A shot of pain in the crease of my arm caused my body to convulse in my seat. I heard her screaming in my head. “They’re hurting her!”

  “Where?” Dragus demanded. His phone was to his ear as he barked orders to the others back in town. We were thirty minutes away from Port Royal and three hours away from dawn.

  “Outside of the town limits,” I said, trying to feel the pull of my mate. “Shepherd’s Forest to the west…hurry. She’s…she’s dying!”

  As Dragus relayed my message, I closed my eyes and pulled at our connection. This was something that Dragus could do with Charity, but I had yet to connect solidly with Lydia this way. When I’d done it in the past, it was only a few moments at a time. I had to concentrate. I had to pull everything inside me…the magic that kept us alive, and I had to find her.

  “Turn here!” I pointed to a road up ahead.

  “It’s not a road,” Zin said.

  “She’s there,” I snarled. “Turn!”

  I threw my head back and howled when I connected to her. “They’re draining her blood!” An anger built inside me, a foreign feeling of vengeance. I wanted blood…

  “Fuck,” a recruit said from the backseat.

  Finally seeing through her eyes, I called out what I was seeing, “A small hunting cabin…only a table in the middle of the room. They have bags and needles. There are three men…humans. Lydia is helpless. They have her tied down with enchanted chains. Dragus…she’s screaming.”

  “We will save her,” he said, making his way through the forest, cutting the headlights to keep our presence unseen and hopefully unheard.

  “Stop!” I barked. Dragus halted the vehicle at my words. “She’s close.” I tore myself from the vehicle and headed out on foot, moving so quietly my feet didn’t make a sound. My mate was being tortured.

  I stalked through the forest, my skin crawled as I silently moved in the direction of the cabin. The pull on my chest eased with each step, but her fear only increased as the seconds ticked by.

  As I continued the connection with her, I saw the men closing in on the table where she was chained. I couldn’t hear what they said, but from the lustful looks on their faces, they wanted more than just her blood. Lydia’s head thrashed from side to side. Her screams echoed, not only in my head, but into the darkness surrounding us.

  “There!” I pointed to the north of where we were standing. Up ahead, a cabin sat. A small amount of light filtered through the cracks in the side of the planks that made up the walls to the building Lydia was being held prisoner. The moment I heard her clothes tear, my mate scream out in pain, and I scented her blood, the beast that lived inside all warriors burst forth. A mate was being harmed. My mate was in danger.

  I knew not what I did.

  Chapter 15

  Lydia

 
; I woke from being drugged and found myself laying on a wooden table. I hissed when I tried to move. There were chains draped across my wrists and ankles. One was across my bare waist. A needle was in my vein, and blood slowly drained out of my arm and into a bag to my left.

  “She’s awake,” a gravelly voice said.

  “Let me go!” I cursed when I saw my three captors. They were dressed in black, their faces covered with ski masks. I scented the air and recognized none of their scents.

  “We want to play with you, sweetheart,” the second man said, stroking my cheek with the back of his hand before stepping away.

  “Taking my blood will not change you into a vampire, you idiot,” I growled.

  “Ah, see,” the third one laughed. “Our friend here says otherwise. He can make it work.” The man sounded so sure of himself. The problem was…I didn’t know what the second guy was, but I knew he wasn’t quite human. He smelled almost like our friend Kai, a witch. Her scent was super sweet, like a kid’s candy treat. His scent was like a witch, but with a hint of earthy musk. The two scents together wasn’t very pleasant.

  “She’s a beauty, Myles,” the first guy said. “Can we have her before you drain her?” The man laughed and grabbed my shirt, ripping it down the front as the other men gathered around me. The bag attached to my arm hit the ground, and Myles cursed when it began to leak my blood onto the floor. I screamed out in hopes that someone would hear my cries. I couldn’t let these men touch me.

  An unearthly roar sounded from somewhere outside of the cabin. The humans who were hovering over me paused as the sound vibrated the clapboard walls. Dust rained down from the shelves nailed to the flimsy walls. Only I knew what was coming for them.

  “Blood is the essence of our life. Beware how you proceed from here, humans,” I threatened, because I knew my mate was coming, and I knew he smelled my spilled blood.

  The cabin exploded inwardly. I tried to turn my head to keep from being hit with the slivers of wood raining down throughout the small area. The three human males screamed in terror as a blonde warrior tore apart the cabin with his claws. Tears filled my vision as I saw him for the first time since being captured, and what I saw stunned me.

  Ashby had grown in size, his hands turned into claws and the bones on his face reformed into some type of monster. His beautiful skin was stretched taut over his now larger cheekbones. His eyes were a deathly shade of blood; not the yellow of a mated male.

  “Lydia,” Dragus called, causing me to turn away from my mate. “Look at me. Not him, please.” I wondered why Dragus would call out such an odd request, but not come forward to help me out of these restraints. When I went to disobey him and look toward Ashby, I heard another male say, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

  Closing my eyes, I heard the humans screaming and begging for their lives, but the sound cut off, and all I heard were the wet sounds of flesh being sliced by deadly claws. It was then that I knew…I knew my mate was avenging me. I started to shake and cry uncontrollably. Ashby had come. He also had let his beast out.

  “Vatakas,” I whispered in disbelief.

  I’d only heard of this happening in old stories of the Vatakas. A vampire with the ability to shift into a creature who seeks vengeance against those who’d harmed their mates. It was said that they would tear their enemies to pieces and dance on their flesh.

  As the wet sounds and the deathly smell of freshly spilled blood reached my nose, my fangs elongated, and my body convulsed from the need to feed. My chest arched up off of the table, and I moaned as the pain raced through my arms from the enchanted chains draped across my wrists and ankles. The humans had taken most of my blood trying to save it to turn themselves once I was dead. The evidence was nothing more than a splash of red liquid strewn across the floor.

  Dragus watched Ashby as I kept my eyes on my mate’s brother. The other men in the room, who I didn’t recognize, made a semi-circle around the table I was shackled upon, not once trying to free me. When the sounds died, the only thing I could hear was the heavy breathing of the monster that was once my mate. After every inhale, his beast growled with every expelled breath.

  “A…Ashby,” I cried. I’d lost so much blood that I couldn’t even produce tears. My clothes were shredded from the men ripping my blouse and tearing at the waist of my pants. Thankfully, I was still somewhat covered. It was hard to admit, but all I wanted was for my mate to hold me, to tell me everything was going to be okay.

  “You must be quiet, Lydia,” Dragus commanded. “Let him calm.”

  “Krieger,” another voice warned. “You must calm yourself before you touch your mate.”

  The monster’s roar filled the pre-dawn air as Ashby lunged for me, breaking the restraints at my wrists and ankles. The chains did nothing to his hands when he touched them as if they were a thin piece of rope.

  One second I was strapped to the table, the next I was in the arms of a man that was half vampire and half beast. The cool wind rushed by me as he ran us away from the others. Dragus called out for him to stop, but Ashby was not slowing down.

  “Ashby,” I said, lifting my hand to brush against his hardened jaw. When he was far enough away from the others, my mate slumped to his knees, hitting the ground hard enough to make the sound echo in the darkness. His face was covered in my enemy’s blood and there were pink tears that leaked from his bloody eyes. He’d been crying for me while he took those men apart to save me. A sob wrenched free from my chest, and Ashby’s eyes grew wide.

  “Feed,” he growled, pulling my face to his neck. “Feed, my mate!”

  My body was too weak to do it on my own. I couldn’t lift my head enough to strike his vein. Raising his hand, Ashby sliced the claw on his thumb across his neck making the blood pour from the wound. “Feed!”

  When he pressed my face to his neck, I weakly latched onto his vein. The blood hit my tongue, and I moaned from the taste. Ashby, still in his larger form, curled his body around mine protectively, allowing me to drink from him. His blood tasted different…stronger.

  As I fed, he lifted my right arm and licked at the wounds the humans had made on my wrists and the inside of my elbows. The puncture wounds healed almost immediately. Ashby’s chest rumbled with approval.

  Footsteps approached, causing him to roar out a warning. Dragus was a brave man and walked forward, but kept his hands out in front of him.

  “Krieger,” he began. “Your mate is safe. Come back to us.” I noticed how Dragus called him Krieger and not Vatakas. I’m not sure if there was any meaning behind why he did that, but whatever it meant, I felt Ashby stiffen and let out a heavy sigh.

  Ashby panted heavily as his body relaxed, his face returning to normal along with his body. I breathed a sigh of relief when I blinked and he was somewhat normal, but there was something in his eyes that told me his beast was close to the surface.

  “What happened?” he asked, looking confused. “Where am I?” He shook his head from side to side as if he were trying to remove a haze. His eyes widened as he took in my appearance. Strong arms held me tighter against his body.

  “You don’t remember?” Dragus asked, moving a bit closer, but froze when the Vatakas growled a warning.

  “Some of it,” he paused, shaking his head again. He quickly pulled my shirt tighter over my chest. The Nights cotton shirt I wore was ruined and soaked in blood, mine and probably some of the men who held me captive.

  “We will talk about this later,” Dragus said. “Let’s get you and your mate back to the estate.”

  Ashby carried me so that I didn’t have to walk. It was welcomed, because I still did not have the strength to move on my own.

  “You smell like those men,” Ashby snarled, still rubbing his face along my neck trying to transfer his scent to my skin.

  “I know,” I whispered, hating he’d have to live with that scent for a little while longer.

  Inside the SUV, I didn’t protest when he kept me in his lap, pressing me close to his bo
dy. I yawned, feeling dawn approaching. “Tired.”

  “We’re hurrying,” Dragus commented from the front seat.

  “I want to bathe you,” Ashby said, now rubbing his face into my hair. He was attempting to calm his beast. “I have to get their scent off of you.”

  “I know,” I replied. A male mate was protective, but a male Krieger mate was completely unstable when their females were injured, harmed, or even touched by another male.

  Dragus pulled up to the front of Ashby’s home, throwing the locks on the vehicle. I was whisked into the house. He didn’t stop as he reached the bathroom. He turned on the shower and proceeded to rip the remaining clothes from my body. At no time did I speak, because I wasn’t sure what to say.

  “Clean you,” he panted, the Vatakas still present in his voice.

  “Yes, Ashby,” I whispered, stroking his strong jaw. “Please?”

  Hot water blasted my body, and I sighed from the feel of it pouring over my skin. Ashby held me tightly around the waist as he reached for a bar of soap. His erection pressed into the inside of my thigh. I knew he wanted to mark me, and I was going to let him do what he needed to do in order to wash away the scent and the memories.

  “Please, Ashby,” I begged. “Make love to me before the sun rises.”

  A deep rumble sounded from inside him as he tossed the bar of soap onto the ground. He lifted me higher and pushed himself inside in one quick thrust, causing me to gasp from the invasion. There was no work up to our love making…no, this was not making love. This was a marking. There would be no tenderness to what Ashby was doing to my body.

  “Yes,” I hissed.

  “I love you, my mate,” he admitted. “Alydian.”

  “Oh, Ashby,” I smiled, accepting each punishing thrust he gave me. “And I love you.”

  “I’ve wanted to tell you since the morning we woke up mated, but I didn’t know if you were ready.” His thrust betrayed his sweet words. As he spoke, his hips took long, demanding strokes inside my wet flesh. Even with my accelerated healing, I would more than likely still feel this when I came out of my death sleep.