Captive By Night: A Dardanos, Co. Taken Collection

by Calle J. Brookes

  Some of Mallory’s fears subsided. But she sat behind the wheel, with one hand gripping the gun she’d taken from the console and the other gripping the cell.

  The sky darkened around her, and that made it even worse as she waited.

  Finally and it was probably less than twenty minutes—she saw the headlights of half a dozen SUVs she recognized as belonging to the Dardanos Resort. She opened the door and slammed it shut to keep the damned cat from escaping. He was as upset as she and had taken to curling around the injured girl’s stomach. Mallory figured if she was in shock, the cat’s warmth would only help.

  Cormac reached Mallory’s side first. She handed the gun to him without a second thought when he reached for it. She knew how to use it, but she didn’t have to like it. “You have to hurry. I’m not sure what’s happening. Aodhan sent me ahead and took my little sister with him.’’

  “We got it, female. Tell me what happened.” Mallory followed him back to his vehicle. He wasn’t going without her.

  “We were driving back when I was flagged down by two women. One was my sister, the other was...well...I’m not sure who. But she’s been injured.

  Aodhan put her in the car and told me to get her to Dardanos. He and Becca, my sister went into the woods to help his cousin Matthuin. Becca had been kidnapped or something by a pack of Lupoiux.” She hopped into the passenger seat of Cormac’s vehicle, after ordering Tajic to the back. “Hurry! You’ll see the van fifteen minutes that way!”

  She didn’t even look back at her car. Barlaam had accompanied Cormac and she knew he would take care of the girl.

  She said nothing as Cormac pushed the SUV over a hundred miles an hour, just yards behind the vehicle Rand drove. If anything, Mallory wished they’d go faster.

  Her sister was out there. Her lover.

  If something happened to them, him...

  “Hurry. Please, hurry.”

  “Rest assured, Aodhan and Matthuin can take care of themselves. They have done so for centuries. You do not need to worry.”

  “If I don’t need to worry why are you going twice the legal speed limit?”

  Cormac laughed. “Just eager to catch some wolves. I need a new rug for your cousin’s office. And since your brother and uncle aren’t obliging...”

  Mallory caught the humor and a laugh escaped. She was finally starting to understand her cousin’s Rajni a bit better. But that didn’t lessen her own sense of worry.

  It took them half as much time to get back to the van as it had taken her to get away from it.

  “There! There’s my sister!” Mallory pointed to Becca as Becca rounded the hood of the huge van.

  Cormac slowed the SUV to a stop. Mallory jumped out and rushed to her sister’s side, meeting her just as Rand scooped Becca into a hug. “Becca! Where’s Aodhan?”

  “He was getting Matt. They’re bringing back all the women and kids that were being kept hostage by those Lupoiux.” Becca clung to Rand for a moment then pulled away. “Your friend told me to start the van and get it warm. Where’s that girl?”

  “She’s on her way back to the resort. She’s ok, safe.”

  Cormac and Rand and two other Dardaptoans Mallory knew were part of Aodhan’s security team started into the woods. A third, Naeron, also one of Aodhan’s men stayed with Mallory, taking up a guarding position in front of her. Tajic stayed at her side, as well.

  “Equa Adrastos?” Naeron addressed her with a reverence Mallory was still not used to.

  “Yes, Naeron?” Mallory kept her arms around her sister as she watched the night around them, waiting for one single sign of Aodhan.

  “Maybe you and your sister should get inside the van? The temperature is dropping, and Equan Adrastos will have my head if I let you get the least bit chilled.”

  Mallory understood what he wasn’t saying. It would be easier to defend the van, in case something happened. But she wasn’t sure she could sit patiently waiting knowing Aodhan was out there somewhere. “We’re ok, Naeron...”

  “Still, if your sister is a target of these wolves, they will be relentless in getting her back. Especially if she’s newly mated.”

  It hadn’t occurred to Mallory that her sister might have been with this Matthuin. But if he was Aodhan’s cousin, wouldn’t he be Dardaptoan? “Becca, just what exactly is this Matthuin?”

  It was Naeron who answered the question. “The Equan of the Lycurgus House is quarter-Lupoiux, Dardaptoan, Druid, and Witch, Equa. He can shift into a wolf and can use quite a bit of the magical arts.”

  “So if my sister’s been with him, is she his Rajni or a Lupoiux mate? Becca, did you sleep with this guy?”

  “Mal! That’s private!”

  “You did.”

  Naeron shifted, obviously uncomfortable with the question. “That is a question best answered by Equan Lycurgus, as I would only be guessing.”

  Chapter Forty-Five

  The van was close, and Aodhan hoped the girl had gotten it warm enough. The temperature was dropping fast, and many of these wolf pups had little more than rags covering their undernourished bodies. Many were girls, but a few were male. The sons of the Redd Gothan pack, fathered on unwilling mothers? Poor little creatures, to have such a rough start in the world. Aodhan suppressed his rage when he thought of what many of these females had suffered.

  When he remembered how his own female had suffered.

  “How much farther?” the spokeswoman for the Lupoiux women asked, her words almost inaudible. She walked at Aodhan’s side, strong and courageous. She too reminded him of his female. “These women have been through a lot. I want to get them safe.”

  “You all have. The van is a mile that way, at most.”

  “I haven’t been through shit. I’ve just had to watch it. My brother is the current leader of this damned pack. I’ve not found my mate yet, thank the deities. If I had, they would have just killed him and given me to one of them.” Her disgust was clear for him to hear. “They are animals, in the truest sense of the word. I need your vow that you are not.”

  “We are Dardaptoan. We value our females and our children. I can promise you that these souls will find safety and kindness amongst my people. I give you my word as the Equa of the House of Adrastos.”

  “Why were you in these woods if you are a blood-sucker?”

  “My female’s sister. She led me to you, and to her own mate Matthuin.”

  “The Taniss female?”

  “Yes.”

  “She survives, then.”

  “Both do, yes. How did the one come to be with your brother’s pack? The blonde?”

  “My brother has been offered a price of a quarter million dollars per Taniss female that he captures or kills. One hundred thousand per male.”

  Aodhan couldn’t suppress the hiss that escaped. “Offered by whom?”

  “I don’t know. Only my brother and a few of his top curs know. Rumor has it the Taniss family are the prime targets of half the Kinds because of the bounty.”

  A howl split the night, and a few of the women and children gasped. Aodhan shushed them quickly. He and Matthuin could handle fourteen male Lupoiux of the same caliber they’d found at the camp, but the dark and the women and children would hamper their fight. It was best not to risk it. But he had half an idea who the wolf howling actually was.

  The girl wolf beside him had tensed, as well. “That was my brother. He’s made it back to camp. Gunarr will find me; he always does.”

  “Not this time.” A male voice came behind the group.

  The girl beside him tensed, ready to flee. Aodhan wrapped a hand around her elbow. “Relax. This is my brother-in-law, Rand, Alpha of the Taniss pack. He will harm you not.”

  “Well, blood-sucker, you were supposed to take my sister on a harmless drive today. This is what you call harmless?”

  “This is a walk in the park, dog. Where is your sister and how is it you come to be here?”

  “Jareth and I heard you needed a bit of assistance. Rescuin
g, as it were. From a bunch of women and puppies? I thought better of the man who has vowed to keep my sister safe.”

  “Not assistance, but if you were to take these children and females, that would free me and my cousin Matthuin up for a bit of dog-catching.”

  “Your man, Lanze, can take them to the van where my sisters await. I have something to say to these puppies.”

  Aodhan agreed. “So Lanze and Cormac are in the woods, as well? There are fourteen Redd Gothan wolves in the woods somewhere. I’m not sure what they are doing.”

  Cormac appeared at Aodhan’s side, dark and terrifying to the unsuspecting women who did not realize he was there. Aodhan hoped their surprised cries would not give their positions away. “Aodhan, I’ve dispatched two wolves. Naeron waits with your Rajni. And she is getting impatient. Reminds me much of her cousin.”

  Phelan was a few steps behind Cormac. “I got one for my collection.” He held up something in the dark that Aodhan assumed to be a pelt. If a piece of skin was cut from a dying Lupoiux, it would turn into a pelt to match the wolf’s fur in life. Some wolf-hunters liked to collect the pelts. Phelan was one of them.

  “That leaves eleven, then. Come. We need to get back to Mallory and her sister. Seems there is a bounty on every Taniss head. A quarter of a million for the females. One hundred thousand for males.”

  His brother-in-law’s curses were low, but Aodhan had no difficulty hearing them and appreciating the sentiment. Who would put such a blatant death threat out against the entire Taniss family? It had to be someone with a serious reason to hate all things Taniss.

  There were plenty of Kinds with reason to hate the Taniss, but which one were they dealing with?

  Chapter Forty-Six

  Mallory took Naeron’s advice and climbed into the warm van. Becca slipped into the passenger seat. Naeron patrolled around the vehicle, the wolf moving in tandem with him. The moon was bright enough that Mallory could see Naeron’s shadow each time he passed by her window.

  “So he kidnapped you?” Becca asked the question five minutes after Cormac and the others had taken off into the woods. “Why?”

  “Because of Grandfather. He’s a real bastard, Bec. He’s hurt a lot of people. Aodhan and the others were bent on revenge, but then he realized we were Rajnis.”

  “So he kidnapped you and just kept you? And you let him?” Skepticism was loud and clear in Becca’s tone. “That doesn’t sound like you.”

  “It was more complicated than that.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  “So why were you with this guy in the woods to begin with? Claudette told me you were with Dad.”

  “Nope. I was on my way to the vacation house when my car broke down. I was walking to the house when two wolves came out of the woods and grabbed me.”

  “What?”

  “The wolves were scouting out the vacation house. I walked right into them. They bit me, then Matthuin was there. We stayed in the woods for days, trying to avoid them. We went back in the hills for several days, then headed toward Dardanos. He said we’d get help there. We didn’t make it.”

  “You’ve been in the woods for days?”

  “Yes. But I didn’t care, Mal. I was with Matt.” Becca’s worry returned to her tone. “He took care of me, and I...”

  “You love him.”

  “Yes.”

  “I understand.” It didn’t make sense, it wasn’t what her brain told her should have happened, but it was the same way she felt about her own mate. “I do.”

  She would have said more but something hit the side of the van, sending it rocking on its chassis. Becca growled, the sound shocking Mallory, even though she herself had released a very Dardaptoan-sounding hiss.

  Tajic began howling, pain and fury clear even for Mallory to hear. Something had attacked the wolf, but what?

  “Becca, stay in the van!”

  “Not a chance!”

  “Becca!” Mallory grabbed for her sister as the shadow she knew to be Naeron went into full on attack mode against other more canine shadows. Lupoiux. “Stay inside!”

  “They’ll kill him if we do! Don’t worry! I can take care of myself!”

  Her sister hopped out of the vehicle and disappeared into the night.

  Mallory cursed, then flipped the headlights of the van on. Hopefully the light would give Naeron and Becca a fighting chance, and would alert Aodhan that she needed him.

  Howls split the night, and Mallory did what she had to do.

  Her baby sister was out there.

  Chapter Forty-Seven

  Aodhan recognized Tajic’s howl and knew his canine friend was hurt. And knew instinctively that his female was in danger. Tajic would not have traveled far from Mallory’s side, not with Aodhan out in the dark woods and unable to protect her. No, Tajic would have taken it upon himself to protect his mistress. “Mallory!”

  He felt Matthuin’s presence and Rand’s as they were mere steps behind him. Aodhan whispered a prayer to the Goddess that they would get to his female and her sister in time.

  He should have kept her and her sister at his side, and sent help back for Matthuin once he’d gotten the two females back to Dardanos. He shouldn’t have risked them to help his cousin.

  He could see the wolves surrounding Naeron, could see his female’s red hair highlighted in the headlights. She fought hard, a round kick to an approaching wolf’s throat sent it tumbling down the embankment before she turned toward another. She battled it back toward Naeron, who dispatched it with the longsword he carried.

  Pride hit him at the cool and skillful way his female defended herself. She was biding her time, protecting.

  He let loose a loud hiss, one designed to warn of his presence. He wanted the wolves to shake from terror. This was a battle he would relish fighting.

  Cormac’s laugh was cold. “Save me a wolf or two, Aodhan. I need a new rug for my female’s office!”

  “Then you’d better pick your pelts now. When I’m finished, there won’t be any of them left.” Aodhan threw the words over his shoulder, his knife already drawn.

  ****

  Mallory heard Aodhan’s call and relief filled her, but she didn’t pause to look for him. Not with the eight or so wolves still surrounding her. She didn’t dare. “Aodhan! The red wolf is my sister! She’s hurt!”

  “Understood, kitten.” His knife sliced through the wolf that was nipping at Mallory, trying to force her back toward the others. “We’re here to help her!”

  Then others were there, men she recognized Cormac, Rand and one she didn’t. Matthuin? She kicked another wolf away from him as he dropped to the ground beside Becca. He lifted her sister in his arms so tenderly Mallory hurt for him. “She’s breathing, but she needs a healer.”

  “Aodhan!” Mallory tried to keep the wolves away when they snapped at Matthuin and her sister. Aodhan ripped one away from her, killing it instantly with his knife. It dropped to the ground as a man. “Please! Hurry!”

  Within three minutes, eight wolves lay dead around them. Mallory didn’t care, all that mattered was getting Becca into one of the vehicles and back to the resort where she could be helped.

  The man Matthuin carried Becca to the nearest SUV and climbed into the back with her. Mallory jumped into the passenger seat as Cormac took the driver’s seat. Aodhan lifted Tajic into the back bay. “Go. Rajni, I’ll be praying to the goddess for your sister! I’ll be right behind you once we get those women and children to safety.”

  He slammed the vehicle door closed, and Cormac hit the gas. Mallory watched Aodhan disappear back into the night.

  Chapter Forty-Eight

  Aodhan studied the dead wolves around him. Phelan had taken pelts from each of them. Phelan knelt beside Naeron, doing a quick field first aid on the slashes in Naeron’s arms. He’d been bitten. The wolves hadn’t cared if they bit him because they’d fully intended to kill him. Would Naeron change? Only time and the moon cycle would tell.

  “How bad are you hurt?”

/>   “Not bad. Your Equa is one exceptional female. I’d hate to get on her bad side. Had she and her sister not aided, it would have been a close fight. Not impossible, but much more difficult. They wanted the females. Badly.”

  “Because of the bounties. Half a million for two of my sisters.” Rand’s growl was understandable. “And three more are out there somewhere.”

  “We need to get back to Lanze and the Lupoiux women and pups. Only three Redd Gothan wolves are left. We can handle them as they come, but Lanze is surrounded by females and children young children, at that.” Aodhan turned toward Naeron as Rand helped him to his feet. “Are you able?”

  “I’m battered a bit, but the day I can’t fight three puny wolflings is the day you needst to kill me.”

  Aodhan had expected as much from the seasoned warrior that was his second-in-command. “Let’s get these women and children back to Dardanos. I needst to be at my female’s side.”

  ****

  Lanze had the females and pups silent, hidden in a gully five hundred feet from where Aodhan had left him. Twelve women and just as many children were huddled together, with Lanze standing guard like the seasoned sentry he was. Aodhan gave the signal he’d long ago developed with his men. Lanze’s posture softened slightly.

  Aodhan stepped closer. “No signs of the three remaining Lupoiux?”

  Lanze laughed coldly. “Just one. His pelt will hang on my wall.”

  “Phelan exhibits the same enthusiasm. He’s collected pelts from all our kills this night.” Aodhan studied the two dozen refugees. “We shall have safe passage from here. Come, a warm vehicle awaits. Then we will travel the short distance to Dardanos, where warm food and even warmer clothing awaits. Only two of these curs remain living.”