by Quinn Loftis
Elle shook her head at them. “You three will be lucky if you survive the next two weeks.”
Ciro couldn’t agree with her more.
Kara was still staring at the door that had been closed for several minutes. Heather and Stella hadn’t moved either. It was like they were all in shock.
“What in the freaking world just happened?” Heather breathed out. “First, I’ve got you two screaming like bloody idiots, and then I hear males pounding the crap out of each other and then a door slamming. Seriously, ladies, help a blind chick out.”
Kara turned, finally able to move and looked at Heather. “We screamed because we weren’t expecting to watch black tattoos magically begin to crawl across our skin.”
“Wait. What?” she said, her eyes growing wide.
“And it happened to you, too.”
“Again, what?”
“The markings they told us about that match our mate’s,” Kara reminded her. “Well, they’ve made their appearance. Stella’s is on her thigh. Yours is straight across the tops of your shoulders and running behind your neck. And mine starts on the front portion of my bicep, here”—Kara pressed her finger against Heather’s arm—“then runs across the top of my cleavage to the other bicep.” Her towel had been just low enough for the top of the markings to be seen along with their location on her arms.
“What exactly set the guys off?” Stella asked.
“I think the screaming is what caused them to smash the door in, and Sally mentioned something about the markings being very private,” Kara said. “That they would get quite angry if another male saw them. Well, we were standing on display in our towels. I’m thinking that might have been the straw.”
“Kale saw me in a towel?” Heather asked.
“You did hear that you have weird markings on your skin, right?” Stella asked.
Heather waved her off. “I can’t see them. What do I care? What I do care about is that my mate saw me in a towel. How do I look?”
“Like you’re wrapped in a towel,” Kara said dryly.
“Thanks, smart ass,” Heather huffed.
Kara smiled and patted her shoulder. “If he looked anything like Nick looked when he was looking at me, you have nothing to worry about. He thought you were hot.”
“So Nick wanted to devour you?” Heather said with a sly grin.
“Devour, ravish, bite, pretty much all those words describe the look in his wolfy eyes.”
“Ciro had the same look, but then he looked ready to kill immediately afterward,” Stella said as she shivered. “Sorry to say, Heather, but my man knocked your man on his Irish arse.”
Heather laughed. “As long as his Irish arse can still talk in that sexy accent, I’m good.”
“Let’s finish with these showers and pampering,” Kara suggested. “I’m beat, and I have a feeling it’s going to be a long two weeks. We need to get some sleep.”
“Ten bucks says we’ll have wolves knocking at our door tonight,” Heather said as she turned on the shower and stepped in. She pulled the curtain and, once it was closed, laid her towel over the top of the rod.
“How many times do you think Lucian will have to make them leave?” Stella asked.
Kara thought about the determined look she’d seen in Nick’s eyes as he’d stared at her standing in nothing but the towel. “I’m thinking they won’t give up, so there’s no number we can give. They’ll just keep coming back.”
“The next two weeks are going to be interesting,” Heather said, sounding much too chipper about it.
Kara was pretty sure interesting wouldn’t be how they described it once it was over.
Elle found Lucian and her mate sitting in the kitchen after having ensured the three male wolves had done as they were instructed. She started to take a seat, but the normally reserved Sorin wrapped an arm around her waist and pulled her into his lap. She was caught off guard by his atypical behavior.
“You okay?” she asked him.
“Just feeling very thankful that we’re mat`ed, bonded, all of it. I don’t envy those males.”
She chuckled. “Agreed, my love.”
Sorin settled back in the chair and kept one hand on her back, rubbing up and down. She knew now it was more for his comfort than hers, though it did comfort her. Turning her attention back to Lucian, she frowned.
“Where are Adam and Crina? If Adam had been here, he would have been the first one up those stairs when he heard that racket.”
“Adira came to me. She has some concerns about her realm. I sent Adam and Crina to look into it.”
“What kind of concerns?” Elle asked, not knowing if she really wanted the answer.
“She thinks Volcan has used a spell to block the veil to the draheim realm, but even more powerful and darker than he used to block the pixies. Whatever he’s used to fuel it she thinks is leaking into her realm.”
Elle swore. “We take one step forward and fifty back.”
Chapter 14
“I’m going mad. That’s the only way to describe what was going on in my head. I keep seeing the women whose lives I took. They’re pleading with me to give them back their souls. I want to, but I know I can’t. I see my mom’s face and hear her voice. She’s telling me to keep fighting. I want to tell her that it would be so much easier to just give in.” ~ Jewel
Jewel hissed as pain ripped through her stomach when she shifted on the floor. She’d lost count of the number of days she and Anna had been in captivity, enduring the torture that the vampire inflicted. The word carved into her stomach stared up at her, red and angry, with dried blood caked around it. She needed a shower in the worst possible way, and most likely a gallon of antibacterial soap.
She’d warned Anna to quit picking at her wound, otherwise the germs on her hand might give her an infection. It had made Anna laugh. She was pretty sure they were both going mad.
“We’re being held captive by a crazy fae, and you’re worried about infection?” Anna had asked.
Jewel had shrugged. “The alternative would be to admit that we will be dead soon anyway, so I might as well not care.”
Anna had conceded her point.
“How’s Gustavo?” she asked her friend who was lying on her side across from Jewel in the small cell.
“He’s trying to hide it from me, but I’m pretty sure he’s close to being rabid,” Anna answered truthfully, though it sounded like she hated to admit it.
“That’s about how Dalton sounded on the phone the last time we talked. I’ve been turning it off in between conversations, attempting to conserve the battery.” Jewel was dreading when the battery finally did die. She would lose the only connection she had with Dalton. His voice alone was keeping her from slipping into the darkness that was practically choking her. In her mind it whispered to her, crooned at her to do Volcan’s bidding. It was like a snake hissing in her ear, and she couldn’t get it to go away. Only when she spoke with Dalton did it subside.
“I don’t know how much more of this I can take,” Anna whispered. “I feel his evil inside of me.”
“I know what you mean,” Jewel said. “It calls like a lover, telling us the pain will be over if we just give in.”
“Yes,” Anna agreed. “But we can’t.”
Jewel shook her head. “No. We cannot. If we do, Anna…” She turned to her friend and looked her in the eyes. “If we do, we will lose those we love and they will lose us. We have to hold on, five minutes longer.”
“Okay,” Anna agreed. “Five minutes longer. And then five more after that.”
“Exactly,” Jewel whispered as she closed her eyes and fought the tears that wanted to fall. Just five minutes longer, she whispered in her mind.
Dalton stared at his phone and growled, but no matter how much he growled at it, the damn thing didn’t ring. It had been a week since he’d heard from her, and it was driving him crazy. He’d thought about asking Gustavo to ask Anna when he spoke to her through their bond, but he didn’t want to intru
de on their time together. The bond was an intimate thing, especially in the beginning. If he didn’t hear from her in another day, then he would suck it up and ask. Until then, he’d keep growling at his phone and sparing with the other wolves. The three mated ones where always up for a fight and, though Dalton enjoyed releasing his pent-up energy through the exercises, it was almost as satisfying to watch them fight Thad. Over and over again, the djinn put them on their backs. But it seemed to be keeping their wolves in check. He’d heard about their fight on the first night the girls had been back. Lucian had threatened them, and they’d each been very careful to keep their distance from one another.
Dalton envied them that their mates were here, where they could see them and know they were safe, but he absolutely didn’t envy their situation. His wolf would have been chomping at the bit to touch their mate. Lucian would have had to tie him up to keep him from repeatedly attempting it. Then again, he’d already touched Jewel and knew how she felt against him. He knew how her lips tasted and how she smelled when he touched her. Maybe that was why it was easier for them. They hadn’t had those connections with their mates yet.
He shrugged off the thoughts because there was nothing he could do to help them. The large man looked back at his phone. He growled again.
“Stop growling at the damn phone and let’s go for a run,” Dillon said as he walked over to where Dalton sat on the edge of Peri’s porch. His Alpha had asked Elle to return him to his mate earlier that day. Dalton could smell the satisfaction coming off the wolf.
“Good visit?” he asked Dillon.
The Alpha grinned like an idiot. “Best. I miss her like crazy, but she’s holding down the fort and understands I need to be here.”
“You’re only here right now because of me,” Dalton pointed out. There was nothing happening at the moment. They didn’t have a clue how to find Volcan or the girls. The world became a large place when there were three people to be found with no clues as to where to start.
“You’re pack, Dalton, and your mate is in danger. Tanya wouldn’t want me at home with her. I would be a piss poor Alpha if I didn’t take care of my own.”
Dalton stood and stretched. He didn’t say anything. There was nothing that would convince Dillon to go home. And that did make him a good Alpha. He started to strip after glancing around to ensure there were no females about. “Let’s go then. I need to kill something.”
Thirteen days, one hour, and thirty-three minutes, Heather thought after asking Kara the time. That was how long it had been since they’d been back from the pixie realm. In that time period, she’d been stalked like a rabbit by the wolf who was dying to claim her. She could feel it in him. His all-consuming need to mark her and make her his.
Heather shivered. She could smell him. He was close. “I wonder will you be this brave once you can speak to me,” she said, knowing he was listening. They’d had quite a few of these one-sided conversations, and she was pretty sure she’d told him everything under the sun about herself. It was easy to talk when the other person only had one option—to listen.
“I gotta be honest, Kale. Right now, this feels way too much like home. Sitting talking to my Seeing Eye dog trainees. They don’t talk back either. And they’re furry. Though I’ll admit you smell much better.” She grinned as she felt something that she would have classified as an eye roll come through the bond. Gah, she couldn’t wait until he could talk to her. She imagined their verbal sparring would be fun—a form of foreplay. She was still nervous about the fact that she was blind and he probably had never considered that he’d have a blind mate. But, there was nothing she could do about it. He could take her or leave her. But if he left her, she would have to ask Peri to turn him into a turd. The high fae seemed eager to do it to one of the wolves, and he would be a prime candidate if he folded his hand on his own true mate.
She took a deep breath and let it out. Heather didn’t want to let herself go down that rabbit hole. There was no point in thinking about it until she could properly hold a conversation with him.
“Did I tell you about the dog that I trained who farted so much that we debated failing him from the course?” Heather asked.
Kale laid his large wolf head on his paws as he listened to his mate’s voice. He spent much of his time in his wolf form over the past two weeks. It seemed to ease him a bit, and he also was able to get closer to her while he was phased. He assumed this was because they’d made the decision to defy their Alpha while in their human forms. Because of that, perhaps the punishment wasn’t as severe for the wolf.
He laughed, as much as a wolf can laugh, as she told him story after story about her days as a trainer for Seeing Eye dogs. She amazed him. To be able to run her own business, live on her own, and train these amazing animals to help take care of others like herself. It was mind blowing. He hoped she could feel the awe he felt for her through the bond, but he wasn’t sure how much she was getting. He could decipher some of her emotions, but sometimes she’d get a look on her face that he couldn’t understand and knew he wasn’t picking up on whatever she was thinking in that moment.
Though he’d utterly loathed not being able to touch her, or talk back to her, he absolutely loved being in her presence and listening to her. He imagined that, in some twisted way, Lucian had given them each a gift, or perhaps it was more a gift for their mates. Kale wondered if Heather would have been so forthcoming about herself if he could respond. Would she have talked as much if he’d been able to fill part of the conversation? He didn’t know. What he did know was that, for whatever reason, Kale’s inability to speak to her had given Heather the courage to converse freely with him. And he’d soaked in every word.
“Okay, so I’ve been putting this topic off,” she said, drawing his full attention back from his own thoughts. “My past relationships.”
His ears perked up, and he couldn’t help but pull back his lips in a silent snarl as he thought about her with other males.
“I’m getting the distinct impression that you don’t care for this topic, Cabbage Patch.”
The snarl dropped as he huffed and rolled his eyes. She’d given him the stupid nickname because Stella and Kara had kept up the vegetable jokes for so long.
She laughed. “And you care even less for your nickname. Ah, don’t be like that. Getting a nickname in a relationship is a step in the right direction. Like the first time you hold hands or burp in front of each other.”
Kale rolled over onto his side and resigned himself to the fact that she probably wasn’t going to stop calling him Cabbage Patch. Not that he truly cared. She could call him anything she wanted, as long as she agreed to be his.
Nick inched closer to where Kara sat in the tall grass. The breeze was blowing through her hair, and the moon shown down on her lovely face. He, like the other mated wolves, had taken to being in his wolf form when he was around his mate. Kale had mentioned that they could possibly get closer to their mates that way, and he hadn’t had to tell Nick or Ciro twice before they were disrobing and phasing. Nick could also smell her better in his wolf form, though, at times, this just made him ache for her even more.
“I know you saw my markings,” she said, breaking the easy silence.
Nick closed his wolf eyes and pictured those markings in his mind’s eye. She hadn’t spoken about the whole incident, and he’d been dying to know what she was thinking. The only thing he was getting from the bond was confusion.
“I wish I understood why it made you so angry.”
Her voice was soft and unsure. He wanted to clarify everything for her but he couldn’t, not for another twenty-four hours.
Kara let out a sigh. “I grew up in the foster care system, and it made me tough. You have to be in order to survive some of the homes where you wind up. I’ve always considered myself independent and able to handle things. But…” She paused and pulled at a blade of grass. “But I feel so out of my depth here. I love the girls. I’ve never had friends like this. I’ve never had any
one that would have my back, ya know?” She glanced over at him but quickly looked away.
Nick wanted to growl. He wanted her eyes on him. He wanted her to see in his gaze just what he felt for her.
She gasped and pressed her hand over her heart. “You need to tone that down, Fonzie. It feels like my heart is going to beat out of my chest when you get extremely emotional.”
Did she seriously just make a reference to Happy Days? And how did she even know about that show at her age? He understood the comparison. Fonzie was a biker. So was Nick. It was better than being compared to Lassie or Rover, or—Great Luna forbid—Teen Wolf. Fonzie he could handle.
“I wonder why I can feel some of your emotions, and I have your mark, but we can’t speak to each other through the mental link that we’re supposed to have.”
Nick knew the reason was likely because gypsy healers historically never bonded with their true mates before they turned eighteen. So the fact that anything was happening between them while she was under eighteen was confusing to him as well.
Kara continued to rub the place over her heart and, as she did, it tugged the V in her shirt low enough that Nick caught a glimpse of his markings. His own heart sped up, and his wolf rumbled his approval.
In the next instant, Kara was sitting beside him with her hand on his back. She was touching him. The spell allowed her to initiate contact, and she was choosing to touch him. He closed his eyes, and he and his wolf basked in her attention and affection.
“This makes you happy,” she said, giving his fur a playful tug. “Me touching you. It makes you content. I actually feel your wolf calming. I have that effect on you?” She sounded skeptical.
Nick wanted to roar, “Yes.” He wanted her to be sure of his feelings for her. He wanted her to understand that she would never, ever be on her own again. Regardless of whether they could complete the Blood Rites now or a year from now, he would be beside her, right where he belonged.
