“Well, we live longer lives.”
She grimaced. “That’s an upside, how?”
Pain flashed in his eyes again and she sighed. Damn, she was getting tired of causing him pain. Why didn’t she just keep her big mouth shut? She thought of what her adoptive mother had told her years before. If you can’t say something nice... Fine, she would somehow manage to keep her mouth shut then.
“When mates genuinely love each other, a longer life can be a bonus. They can have many children if that is their wish or they can have none, spending their years loving each other until they pass on, together. When mates are truly bound to one another, one mate does not survive the passing of the other.” He gave her an unreadable look. “Dimitri’s mate is bound to him as a human. If she dies, he will die with her, or if he should pass over, she will die with him. Either way, we could lose them both in a few decades. If she were one of us, and they were truly bound, their life forces would be bound together and, therefore, they would still die together. But only after living a long, long life together as well.”
Carly digested this new bit of information. She wouldn’t live past his death? The thought alarmed her for a split second until she realized she didn’t want to live without him. She glanced up to meet his eyes.
“And you think that the human mates will choose to become were-beings?”
“Yes, Carly, I do. Not all of them hate us the way you seem to. Most of them truly love their mates and want our longevity. I wish I could say the same for you.” Bastien spun around and slammed through the door.
“Crap.” Carly ran her hands through her mussed hair. Why could she never seem to say the right thing? “Hmmmm, Carly, let’s see. Do you think he could be upset because you practically called his people, and him, monsters?”
BASTIEN COULDN’T LEAVE Carly’s room fast enough. He felt a murderous rage at the people who had done this to her. They should have given her a choice. Such a major life’s decision should never have been taken out of her hands.
He knew she blamed him. He couldn’t fault her for it either. Had she not been working for him, she would still be human. Bastien couldn’t help but be thankful that their combined needs had brought them together. He loved her with everything in him. He just wished she could say the same. She felt affection for him at the least, yet he wanted more. He needed more. He could only hope that she would come to love him over time. Otherwise, they were in for a very burdensome relationship.
“Is she eating?” Dimitri asked when he entered the kitchen.
Bastien shrugged. “I hope so.”
“She’ll come around, Bastien. She just needs time.”
“Well, we’ve certainly got plenty of that.” Now that they were bound, their lives had grown considerably longer.
“Yes, you do and that’s where you two are the lucky ones.”
Bastien gave Dimitri a speculative look. “Did you talk with Charity?”
“Yes.” Dimitri sighed. “She wants to think about it.”
“At least she didn’t refuse the offer outright.”
“No, she didn’t. Just the fact that she’s thinking about it gives me doubts.”
He continued at Bastien’s puzzled look. “You don’t understand. We have discussed our situation many times over the last few years and she has always voiced the desire to become one of us so neither of us would outlive the other. Why else would she suddenly need to think about it?”
Bastien chuckled. “Dimitri, you should know this already. When you talked of the possibility before, it was nothing more than a dream. A wish. Now that it has the potential of becoming a reality, of course she wants to think about it. The decision she is faced with is not a light one. This decision will be forever. I would worry if she didn’t need to think about it.”
“So, you think she will decide to accept the serum?”
Bastien’s smile faded. “Does she truly love you?”
Dimitri nodded. “I like to think so.”
“If she truly loves you, her desire to live a longer life with you will outweigh the rest.”
“Love conquers all?”
Bastien spun around at the sound of Carly’s voice. “Something like that.”
She stood in the doorway with her hands stuck in her back pockets and chewing her lip. “I can see where you would think that. Would you care to see proof?” Running the rest of the way into the room, she threw herself into his arms. “I do love you, Bastien. What I feel for you outweighs everything.”
Wrapping his arms around her, Bastien closed his eyes and thanked God.
“This gives me hope,” Dimitri said with a smile as he left the room, closing the door behind him.
“I’m sorry, Bastien. It’s just been so—”
“Shh, baby. Don’t worry about it. Well get everything worked out somehow.”
The phone rang.
Bastien pulled free from Carly’s embrace, kissing her forehead. “I have to get this, honey. It’s probably Luke.” He squeezed her hand before pulling his phone from his pocket. “Sinclair.”
“Hey there, Cuz. I have that info you wanted.”
“Were there any references to the serum, any formulas?”
“I will not ask why you want to know again, Bastien.”
Bastien sighed. “I don’t want to tell you over the phone. What if your phone is tapped?”
“If it’s tapped, then I’d better get the hell out of here because they know I have their records. I’m burning these damn things and getting the hell out of Dodge.”
“Don’t—” Luke hung up the phone before Bastien could stop him. “Damn it!”
“Do you really think someone could have tapped his phone?”
Bastien shrugged. “I hope not. I have no way of knowing and I didn’t want to take the chance. If it is tapped, it wouldn’t take much to link to the GPS on my phone.” He turned it off, just in case, but if someone had tapped Luke’s phone, it was probably already too late.
Carly looked through the French-doors, over the well-groomed lawn and into the woods.
“What if we changed to wolves? Could they find us then?”
Bastien shook his head. “Not likely. They probably wouldn’t be able to find us until we shifted back. Our wolf selves would be faster and stealthy. There’s only one drawback.”
“What?”
“You can’t control when you change, honey. That would make you one hell of a target out there.” Yeah, one hell of a naked target. Uh-uh no way.
Carly cleared her throat and met his gaze. “That’s why you two should go and leave me here. It’s not you they’re after anyway.”
“I’m not about to trade your safety for mine, Carly,” he said, shaking his head, his expression grim. “Besides, they wouldn’t be after you if it weren’t for us in the first place.”
Dimitri spoke up behind them from the doorway. “Let’s get a move on if you think they’ve got a lock on our location. You both can be selfless somewhere else, where it’s safe.”
“If they know we’re here,” Bastien said, then paused, “then they know about you, Dimitri.”
The other man gave a curt nod. “Yes, I know this. But they will have a difficult time procuring my mate and child if that is their desire,” he said with a grin. “She is safe with her parents. Why do you think I would send her there instead of into hiding?”
Chapter Twenty-nine
“How can her parents protect her better than her mate?”
Dimitri raised his brow. “I did not say they could protect her better, but I would say they could do it just as well.” Then he grinned. “Her parents know what I am. They also know I would die for her. Her father and two of her four brothers are Army Rangers. If the three of them can’t protect her, no one can.”
Carly looked between the two men. “You guys scare me with the kind of people you know.”
They left the house after gathering their things and a few supplies and set off cross-country on horseback, heading for the Wisconsin border.
<
br /> Bastien pulled his cell phone from his shirt pocket and turned it on. Something told him he needed to call Luke and call him right now. After unlocking the screen, he checked the signal-bar and frowned.
“Damn! If I’m going to call Luke back, I’d better do it before we lose signal.”
“I thought that thing was a satellite cell phone,” Dimtiri grumbled as he dismounted to check his mount’s cinch strap. He walked over to Carly, pushed her leg aside and checked hers as well.
Bastien tilted his head back, squinting up at the afternoon sky. “It is, but they don’t guarantee that it’ll work everywhere.” He punched a few buttons and put the phone to his ear.
Luke picked up after the third ring. “Hello.” He sounded wary.
“Luke, it’s Bastien.”
“Where in the hell have you been? I’ve been calling the house for the last three hours.”
“We took your advice and got the hell out of there. You did say they could have your phone tapped. Did you just expect us to sit there and wait for them to show up?”
“Of course not, I was just worried. I’m glad you’re safe. Have you heard from Marcus or any of the others?”
Bastien shook his head, then added, “No. This is a new phone. I didn’t get a chance to pass out the number yet.”
“That’s probably a good thing.”
Luke sighed and Bastien got the feeling that something had gone horribly wrong.
“They’ve got your father again, Bastien, and your sister.”
It felt like someone had just punched him in the gut. “What?” He needed that repeated because he was sure he hadn’t understood his cousin. How did these people always know where to find them?
“You heard me right. They want to trade them for your mate.”
“Absolutely not.”
“I know how you feel, Cuz, but—”
“You have no idea how I feel and until you do, I don’t want to hear you even suggest—”
“I do know how you feel, Bastien,” Luke said interrupting, “because they took my mate with them as well.”
“Your mate?” Bastien closed his eyes. If what Luke was saying was true, how could he trade the safety of one woman for another, even if she was his mate? He couldn’t and he knew it.
“Yes,” Luke snapped. “My mate. Remember that little blonde scientist they had locked in the cell? Well, she’s my mate. What do you think the odds are of finding your mate in a secret underground laboratory just after she’d been turned to a werewolf?” He laughed mirthlessly. “Pretty damned astronomical odds to my way of thinking.”
Bastien ran his fingers through his hair and sighed. “Shit, Luke, it sounds like something I’d watch on a science fiction channel on cable.”
“Yeah, well I’m living it. I didn’t even realize it until I went to see your sister and father before I left. How could I be so stupid just leaving her there like that? I should have brought her with me. I left her there because I thought she would be safer there with them. We have to get them back, Bastien, so get your asses back here. We need some kind of plan.”
“Where do you want to meet?”
“Do you remember that place we used to go to when we were teenagers?” There was a short pause on the other end of the line, then Luke continued when Bastien didn’t answer. “You remember, the place where you and Candice Oberchuke lost your virginity.”
Bastien choked. “You knew about that?”
Luke chuckled. “Of course, Cuz. I know a lot of things. Like I know I don’t want you and your mate around any of my computer equipment.”
“Shut up about that and don’t you dare say anything about it to—”
“Don’t worry. Your secret is safe with me. Just get there ASAP.”
Bastien closed his phone and looked over at the other two. “We have to go back.”
“Back? Are you friggin’ crazy? We can’t go back!” Carly said in a near panic.
“We have to, Carly. They have my sister, my father and Luke’s mate.”
“Oh, God,” Carly whispered, her eyes filling with tears. “We’ll never get away from them and even if we do, they’ll keep us running for the rest of our lives.”
Dimitri turned his back and let out a long string of curses in his own language. Turning his horse around, he led them back the way they came.
IT TOOK TWO DAYS TO reach their destination, a secluded lake on the eastern side of the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. They found a clearing about one-hundred feet from the lake, made camp and waited to hear from Luke.
“You never gave him your number, Bastien. How do you expect him to call?” Dimitri asked as he threw another log on the fire.
“I didn’t want to waste time and since his cell has caller ID there was no real reason to.”
“That makes sense, I suppose,” Dimitri said, nodding grudgingly. “I guess you’re right. We can’t afford to waste any more time. The sooner we’re done with this, the faster we can all get back to leading normal lives.”
Bastien’s phone rang. “Hello.”
“Where the hell are you, Damn it?”
Bastien frowned. “Right where I said I would be. Where the hell are you?”
“I’m out on this Godforsaken lake, pretending to fish. You know how much I hate this shit. I figured we couldn’t take any chances and a lone-wolf,” he said with a forced laugh, “out here would raise some eyebrows unless he was fishing or doing something as equally boring.” He paused. “I still don’t see you.”
“You will in a minute,” Bastien said, running through the trees to the water’s edge. He waved to the lone figure in the rowboat floating near the center of the lake. His legs were resting on the side of the boat, his fishing pole dangling over the edge. “Can you see me now?”
“Shit, Cuz, you sound like a damned TV commercial.”
“Well, it’s better than sounding like a pissed off son-of-a-bitch.”
“Hey, I’ve got a reason to be pissed, damn it!”
“We all do. Those bastards are hunting every one of us. Now get your ass over here. We don’t have all damned day.” He closed his phone, waiting on the bank as Luke rowed the boat to shore.
“What’s going on with the others?” Bastien asked, wading into the water to pull the boat onto the sandy beach.
“They’ve gone into hiding,” Luke said with a sigh. “At least most of them have anyway.”
“And those who haven’t?”
“Everyone is waiting for someone to step up and take the lead, since Jake, his family and his beta are all out of town. They all went to some other country for business.” He laughed mirthlessly. “It’s funny. They all wanted to be alpha when they thought Jake would refuse it, but there doesn’t seem to be a leader amongst them now.”
“So they sent you to find me?”
“Don’t look at me. I offered to take the lead. They wouldn’t have it. They want you. I guess they figure if you can run a multi-million-dollar corporation, you can run a successful rescue operation.”
“What do you think?” Bastien needed to know. The last thing he needed was for his cousin to slip into his habit of arguing every point with him. Things wouldn’t go well if he did. “I can’t be a part of this operation if it has no clear chain of command. Either you agree with things or you don’t and we go our separate ways.”
“This is my mate we’re talking about, Bastien. Though I can be a royal pain in the ass most times, even I know you’re her best chance.”
“You’ll follow me without question?”
Luke nodded. “Yes, and anyone who wants to give you trouble will answer to me.”
Bastien nodded his agreement. “Good. We will establish a clear chain of command until Jake returns and takes over. Dimitri will be my right hand and you’ll be his.”
“You got it, Cuz. Now let’s go make some plans to get our people out of whatever shithole they’ve taken them to.”
THE FOUR OF THEM SAT around the campfire, eating the MREs Dimitri had pa
cked into their gear.
“These aren’t bad,” Luke said, shoveling the contents of his makeshift dish into his mouth.
Carly curled her lip and pushed hers aside. “I don’t like it, it’s disgusting.”
Luke reached for hers. “Do you mind?”
Shaking her head, she waved her arm toward her meal. “Absolutely not. Go ahead, be my guest.”
Luke took a bite and closed his eyes. He may as well have been eating ambrosia. “Oh, man, this is good. I can’t imagine why you don’t like this. This is great ravioli.”
Carly made a face as she read the package. “Except it’s meatloaf, genius.”
Luke looked down at the half-eaten package and shrugged. “It still tastes good.”
Carly snorted. “Figures. Just like a dog. Do you pee on every bush you pass, too?”
Luke grinned with his mouth full of food. “Not since I was housebroken.”
“Stop it, you two.” Bastien gave them both a fierce look. “We all have to get along if we’re going to pull this off.” His gaze practically shot daggers at Dimitri who just sat on his log grinning at them all like an idiot. “And you’re not helping a bit, you big horse’s ass.”
Dimitri must have spied the gravity of Bastien’s expression. He immediately sobered. “How do you propose to find out where they are?”
Bastien looked to Luke. “Well?”
His cousin cleared his throat and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. “Well, I managed to get my hands on some very sensitive material they thought they had encrypted.” He flashed a grin. “Hard drives are very informative if you know how to retrieve protected information. I can even retrieve some files on a drive that has been formatted, as long as nothing else has been written to the drive or if it hasn’t been erased using a magnet. All things they didn’t have the time to do.”
He sat back, grinning wide at the expressions on their faces. “Let me explain. People who do illegal or secret things, tend to wipe a drive and reformat so the info is lost forever.”
Dimitri raised his brow. “You can retrieve such information?”
Embracing Carly Page 14
