by India Kells
So when he found her deep in the woods, bloodied, with Ian in human form, naked and holding her, he didn’t think, primal instinct taking over. It wasn’t his beta standing before him, it was another male, trying to claim what was his. His witch, his mate.
That very thought didn’t even faze him when he attacked, his vision like a tunnel on Ian.
Asher definitely lost all sense of time and location when he changed from man to wolf, and it was only when he heard a whimper from beneath him and a massive shadow to his right that he released his opponent from his fatal bite.
Heaving, he shook himself, starting to feel his bleeding wounds and aching bones from the confrontation. As he changed back into human form, the transition healed him. Standing over Ian, still laying down submissively, his neck bleeding, Asher turned to see Patricia tentatively coming closer.
The wounded wolf didn’t stir until Asher crouched down to cushion his head. Ian flinched but didn’t escape his touch.
“Change Ian.”
The command was said in a much calmer tone than he felt. Still ignoring Patricia, his posture clearly telling her to steer clear from all this, Asher waited until the swirl of energy shifted Ian from wolf to man. Most wounds had healed, but his body would still feel the effects of their battle.
“Any word before I banish you, Ian?”
The dark-haired man seemed surprised. “Banish me? For what purpose?”
“I can’t maintain the safety of this Sanctuary if you constantly disobey me, and even attack one of our guests.”
Ian gaped, clearly taken aback. “I didn’t attack Valeria!”
Fury had never made him faster, as he grabbed the other man’s throat, pulling him up before pinning him against a tree. “Don’t deny it! I saw the blood, I could even smell you on her! How dare you force yourself on a woman? On my woman!”
Asher knew Ian couldn’t answer as he pressed on his windpipe. And frankly, part of him didn’t care.
“Asher! Stop!” From the back of his mind, he could hear Patricia shouting, but he ignored the bear. He would deal with her later.
“Asher, Ian didn’t do anything. Valeria came back to Sanctuary, and she was vomiting blood. Crying blood too. There was no cut on her. It must be her magic doing this to her.”
The werebear words slowly materialized in his mind, dampening the anger, and he released Ian who fell to his knees, gasping.
“I smelled you all over her. What happened, Ian, why was she bleeding?”
Ian coughed and pushed himself up, rubbing his neck. Asher tried his best to concentrate on the words and push back his emotions when his beta told him about how he found the witch, weak and bleeding, and how she threw himself at him.
“I’m all male, Asher, and, of course, I was tempted. I kissed her, but something was off. She was offering, but as if to block something else, someone else. Then I confronted her about it, and that’s when she told me that what’s between you two, it could never be. That you deserved a family, a pack. And that’s not something that she could offer you. Ever.”
Asher swallowed, his chest tight as Ian continued to talk. Part of him knew that by choosing her, by giving himself to her, body and soul, he would gain as much as he would sacrifice. But he had made up his mind, and now, he had to find her and convince her that it was not necessary to sacrifice them anymore. And that he wasn’t letting her go without a fight, whatever, or whoever, she was now.
“Ian?” Asher had learned from his parents that a good leader had to make amends when wrong. Ian may have crossed lines, but he saw now that keeping him by his side had been the right thing to do. “I’m sorry I attacked you without asking questions. When I saw you with her…”
Ian nodded, and looked at Patricia, who sighed in relief. The beta wolf took a step forward and put a hand on Asher’s shoulder. “No apologies. I had a fault in this, but I also saw how much she cares about you. And your outburst reminded me of a similar incident with my mate.”
Asher nodded and saw the loyalty in the man’s eyes. Patricia whistled.
“Gentlemen, if you’re done with your manly friendship reconciliation, there’s a witch not feeling at the top of her game back at Sanctuary.”
Without a word, Asher changed back into a wolf and raced away, Ian and Patricia on his heels. As he finally exited the forest, he immediately saw his truck missing. Without missing a beat, he leaped and changed into human form just before entering the side door to the kitchen.
The smell of her blood caught him off guard, but apart from the pool on the floor, the trace of her hand on the counter and what he could detect coming from the sink, there wasn’t a lot. But she had bled in the forest. Was she still bleeding?
“Patricia, how was she when you came to get me?”
The werebear shrugged. “For a witch, she appeared okay despite the blood. Not very steady, but she didn’t seem about to flee anywhere. Otherwise, I would have stayed with her.”
Asher looked around and remembered he was naked when he went to pat his back pocket.
“Where did I put my cell phone? I thought I left it on the table when we came back here yesterday.”
Ian walked to the landline and called Asher’s phone. All three of them waited and listened. If anywhere within the building, they would hear it ring, and even vibrate.
“It’s not here anymore. Did you leave it in the truck? Patricia, can you go into Asher’s room and see if his truck keys are there?”
The werebear took off. Ian turned back to Asher. “Any idea why she would have run off?”
The Alpha werewolf racked his hands through his hair, almost pulling it in frustration. “Since we went to see her friend, she’d been acting weird. I could see the wheels turning in her head. And to be honest, it started when she learned her mother and fiancé were still alive.”
“Oh yeah, the fiancé. Well, after all you told me, if she can’t approach her father without revealing herself to the Council, then I guess her next move would be to get some answers from the fiancé.”
Asher couldn’t help the low growl that escaped his throat.
“Steady, Alpha. I don’t know the witch well, but I don’t think she’s trying to find him to rekindle an old flame.”
“She loved him, agreed to marry him. That may still be the case even if she now knows that she’s mixed blood.”
Ian crossed his arms. “Is that a way of saying that we’re not going after her?”
Asher arched an eyebrow. “I’m your Alpha. I beat you once, I can do it again.”
Patricia jogged back into the kitchen now fully dressed. She threw pants and shirts to the men and dangled Asher’s keys.
“If she took your truck, she had enough magic in her to jump-start the engine. I didn’t find your cell phone, so she probably took it. Oh, and also, I made a little detour. I detected her smell going into the basement. In the small bathroom near the cell. She didn’t shower or anything, but I could catch something magical happening there, but fading. It must have happened before she went into the woods.”
Ian frowned at Patricia. “What would she be doing there? What kind of magic?”
“There is a mirror in there. So I suspect she contacted someone.”
“Then why would she go into the forest? Could the person she contacted join her there?”
“Impossible to have gone around the sentinels, and Ian would have smelled or seen him or her when he found Valeria.”
Ian nodded. “I agree. I guess she tried some sort of spell in the forest. Maybe something to test her powers and it backfired on her. It would explain the weakness and the blood.”
“I don’t understand why she would try magic so far away from me. Her friend Sera told me that because of her broken magic, and until she found the cause of it, she should refrain from using it. Or if she did, use it if I’m close by.”
“Why?”
Asher shrugged, unwilling to divulge more information yet. “I don’t know much about witch matters. From what I could
understand, I act as some sort of stabilizer.”
“Well, Asher the Stabilizer, as we’re speaking, the witch is flying away, pun intended.” Patricia smirked.
“I think I should go back to town and speak to Sera.”
Patricia pulled up her phone. “Or you could follow her using the GPS I installed on all of our vehicles three months ago.”
Asher smiled. “I forget how much of a geek you are. And a genius too. Let’s go.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Valeria lost her way a few times before finally remembering which backroad would take her further into the countryside, where the farms turned into woods and the woods into mountains. Teleporting would have taken a lot less time, but after her attempt at locating James at the pond and her leap in the kitchen, there was no way she was using her magic again.
The road became impassable as soon as the trees closed around her. So that was it. About two more miles and she would reach the cabin. And then what? A confrontation with her fiancé? She was powerless but not stupid. Valeria got out of the truck and started walking.
The sun was high now, but the thick canopy of the tall trees prevented but a few fingers of light to reach the mossy ground. The leaves were so colorful, it was as if walking into a cathedral, with endless panes of stained glass projecting colors all around her. Despite the sun, the air was nippy.
Getting her bearings was almost impossible, so she decided to make a wide circle, treading carefully, leaving her mind open in the case she could sense any kind of protective spell.
Valeria had been wandering the woods for the best part of the hour when she heard a muffled scream, followed by a deep moan. Out of instinct, she crouched behind a thick trunk and waited a second. Silence again. As she started to stand up, there was that scream again. A man, his voice distorted by pain.
Slowly, she followed the heart-wrenching sound until she started to recognize landmarks. That big boulder pushing against a tall oak tree was familiar. And if she remembered correctly, a few yards beyond that point, was a small stream. And if Valeria turned right and walked beyond a dense cluster of birch trees, she would see the cabin. However, the screams were coming from the other side, leading away from the structure.
Even though she was quite sure that the man screaming didn’t sound like James, she made her way there. Being silent was tricky, but she found a somewhat safe spot near a small clearing where a man was bound to the ground, each of his limbs stretched by silver chains attached to trees on opposite sides.
Silver meant that the man was either shifter or vampire. And even if the sun was high, it was impossible to know if the man was a vampire or not as bursting into flames was a legend created by humans. The truth was that a vampire was weaker in the sunlight. And as the silver could affect such creature the same way, it was a double whammy.
Three men surrounded the captive, taunting him, and poking at him with sharp spikes. None of the stabs they inflicted were lethal, but blood flowed, increasing his weakness. As the torturers circled, Valeria’s breath hitched as she recognized one of them. James. There he was, alive and well, his face contorted in an evil grin she had never seen on the man before.
“James, we must stop now, if he loses too much blood, he won’t be any good tonight.”
“Too bad, I always wanted to push the boundaries of a vampire and see how long he could survive with little blood. I heard they turn into some sort of corpse, emaciated.”
The other man laughed. “Well, we’ll need to capture another one to test your theory. The team should be here anytime soon to bring him back. In the meantime, come with me. Danny will stand guard in case some bear finds him attractive enough to eat.”
James laughed. “Dead meat? I don’t think so.” And the two men walked away, leaving the one called Danny behind.
Valeria observed the man on the ground, heaving and wild-eyed. She shifted on the ground, rustling fallen leaves and froze. The warlock barely glanced around at the sound, particularly since the wind picked up at the same moment and hid her location. Seemingly reassured that the sound was only caused by the wind, the guard relaxed. But the bound man on the ground locked eyes with her. Vampire. She could now see the fangs. His cheek was slashed, his hair covered with blood and he probably had a broken nose, but the mossy green eyes were steady on her. Assessing.
The wizard walked the small clearing slowly, without any pattern. He wasn’t a trained guard or an Enforcer. Nothing in his demeanor showed any experience. If she had been guarding someone in a tricky area such as a forest, she wouldn’t have walked idly like that.
Looking around, Valeria found a good enough weapon to yield. That thick branch would do if she could get close enough. The trick was to knock him unconscious before he could react and use his powers on her.
Checking again on the captive, she could see that the vampire never glanced away. She moved her branch so he could see it. Slowly, he nodded, as if understanding some sort of code between them. A second later, the vampire started to moan, breathing hard. Immediately, the guard turned to him.
“Shut up! Or I’ll start reopening some of those wounds on you.”
The vampire spat on the warlock, infuriating him even more. As Danny began to kick him, Valeria quickly made her way behind the guard and swung hard. The wood cracked his skull, and the man fell to the ground, very possibly dead.
Dropping the branch, Valeria dropped to her knees beside the bound vampire. Up close, the man was massive. His shirt was torn and bloody, his dark red hair partly matted with blood, but there was nothing soft about him. And the feral look in his eyes, made her hesitate.
“I’m going to remove the silver, but you have to promise not to attack me. Feed on the guard, I don’t care, but I don’t want to fight you. Do we have a deal?”
The deep green shimmered for a moment as he was probably trying to enthrall her. When it didn’t work, he blinked and nodded. “You have my word.”
His word. It may have been weak protection, but she had to accept it. If a coven was on its way, she didn’t have a lot of time to take care of James’s companion, as well as have a serious and overdue discussion with her fiancé, or whoever he had become.
The chain was heavy and very tight, and it took a moment to find the clip holding each end around his wrists and ankles. Valeria tried to remove the chain as gently as possible, but his skin had fused to it, the burn of the silver mangling the skin.
As she threw the last chain a distance, the vampire rose weakly to his feet, fangs bared. Again, he didn’t look away from her and even took a step in her direction, before the warlock on the ground whimpered. Immediately, the green of his eyes turned bright red, and he dove onto the wounded warlock like a starving man.
Valeria decided it was time to go. Leaving the vampire to his feast, she followed the path taken by James and detoured just as she started to see the cabin.
Hidden behind shrubbery, she was glad the wind and rustling leaves hid any noise she could have made. People moved inside the cabin. She could only see shadows and hoped it was only the two men. If she remembered well, the cabin was open plan, so it was possible to enter through one of the windows undetected.
As she was about to move to the cabin, the door opened. The second man was carrying a large box and disappeared away into the woods, toward the path leading to where the cars would usually be parked.
It was now or never, and she sprinted to the door.
James was there, his back to her. “Hey, you forgot that other bag with…”
His voice stopped when he realized it wasn’t his companion coming back inside the cabin. “Valeria.”
It was impossible to decipher what he was thinking; his face was completely devoid of emotion.
“Yeah, it’s me. It seems I’ve come back from the dead. Same as you.”
He blinked. “What are you doing here?”
“That’s your first words to me, after being declared dead, and me disappearing? That’s all you want to tel
l the woman you wished to marry two years ago?”
Very still, James shook his head. “You have no idea what happened during those last two years.”
“I might have a little idea. But why not tell me?”
“Not now, it’s dangerous for you to be here.”
“Why? What are you doing here? And what about the vampire in the woods?”
His blue eyes turned to steel. “It goes beyond anything you could possibly understand.”
“Try me.”
And as she was very tempted to punch an answer out of him, the door opened, his companion returning sooner than she expected. The man gaped, his eyes doing from James to her and back again.
“Lancaster, what’s going on?”
Valeria opened her mouth to answer when she realized that the man was addressing James. James Lancaster? Slowly, she turned back to the man she thought she knew.
“Yeah, James Lancaster, what’s going on?”
And at that moment, she saw it on his face, the calculation. “When you vanished, to ensure the Lancaster dynasty, Lionel asked me to become his rightful heir, and take his name.”
Something clicked in Valeria’s head. “You mean, as I wasn’t there anymore to marry and make you the male heir of the Lancasters. Was that your plan from the start, James? When you befriended me, seduced me, made me fall in love with you enough to agree to marry you, was it your plan all along? Some sort of agreement with my father? Or was it a sweet suggestion from Lionel Lancaster as a solution to his disappointing daughter, who wouldn’t be able to succeed him as Chief Enforcer because she was a mere woman?”
The other man stayed silent, but she knew that by revealing her identity, she was putting herself in danger. And even worse as her powers couldn’t help her anymore.
