by Kali Argent
Footsteps approached, quiet but swift, and if not for his supernatural hearing, he might have missed them. Pausing in the act of reaching for his pack, Nikolai raised his hands, palms forward, and turned slowly to face the entrance of the hotel.
“State your name,” a hard, masculine voice commanded from the shadows.
“Nikolai Diavolos. I’m here on behalf of Captain Cameron Dresden.”
A long silence followed, then, “Search him and get everyone back inside.”
Two guards patted him down, searched every crevice of his motorcycle, and dug through his pack. They took the dagger strapped to his ankle, and the one on his belt, but he’d expected it and didn’t protest. If everything went according to plan, he’d have them back before sunrise.
“Clear,” one of the soldiers announced. “Let’s move.”
As a unit, they surrounded him, marching him through a smaller door to the left of the main entrance. Down dark corridors and up winding staircases, they moved with an impressive efficiency. Their steps were light, their eyes alert, and when they exited the stairwell into another dimly lit hallway, they fanned out, three in one direction, two in another, each disappearing into different rooms.
“You’re a fool to come here alone,” the male who’d first spoken to him said, leading him past several doors to a conference room at the end of the corridor. “We’ve lost three guards in the past week to raiders, and another two to Ravagers.”
Nikolai hadn’t seen any raiders, and the last pack of Ravagers he’d encountered had been nearly thirty miles outside the city. It did, however, offer a possible explanation as to what had happened to the previous envoy Captain Dresden had sent to Kansas City.
“We need your help.”
The male paused just inside the conference room, shook his head, then continued to a plain, metal desk illuminated by a single lamp. “Captain Luca Moretti.” He didn’t offer his hand, but instead, motioned for Nikolai to sit in one of the straight, wooden chairs. “What do you think I can help you with exactly?”
Quick but thorough, Nikolai outlined the situation. He spoke of the carnage being perpetrated by the St. Louis pack of werewolves, the Revenant guards who had gone missing in the city, the three who had attempted to reach Kansas City, and ended with the capture of his friends.
“I’m sorry to hear that.” Leaning his hip on the desk, Luca crossed his arms over his chest, straining his black T-shirt. “In one way or another, we’ve all lost someone, though.”
Eyes the color of bitter chocolate stared straight through Nikolai, unfocused and unseeing. He couldn’t help but wonder who the captain had lost to put that look on his face. He also questioned how a human male had risen to the rank of captain in the first place. Only Coalition soldiers were assigned ranks, not Revenant guards, and the ARC certainly didn’t welcome humans onto their payroll.
“We currently have seventy-two refugees here, and more coming in every week. We can only move them in groups of ten or so at a time. I have guards coming and going, and on any given day, there are maybe thirty actually on the premises.” Captain Moretti sighed. “There are women and children here. Some are sick, some too old to even walk. I can’t leave them unprotected to go stick my nose into werewolf business.”
“Respectfully, Captain, this is everyone’s business. There are seventy-two refugees here, you said?” Rising from his chair, Nikolai poured his building anger into every word. “How many do you think might be here if those werewolves hadn’t slaughtered them? Double? Triple?”
“I get what you’re saying, but I can’t spare enough soldiers to launch that kind of operation just to save your friends.”
Fisting his hands at his sides, Nikolai inhaled deeply through his nose, releasing the breath through his parted lips. “I’m well aware that my friends could already be dead.” He hadn’t wanted to accept it, but it was the hard reality. “I’m asking for your help because it’s the right thing to do, because protecting those who can’t protect themselves is what the Revenant does, it’s the foundation it was built on.”
They stared at each other while the clock on the far wall counted the seconds, the rhythmic ticking ominous in the silence that stretched between them.
“I can spare ten guards.”
“Twenty,” Nikolai countered.
Luca considered him. “How many are coming from Valley Falls?”
“Twelve, maybe less.” Like Luca, Cameron couldn’t leave his city completely unprotected.
“How many wolves?”
“Sixty at last count, but that’s including the females and pups.”
“Dead or alive?”
It took Nikolai a moment to work out what the captain meant by the question. “Many will die, but I’d rather not slaughter innocents. That makes us no better than them.”
Luca bobbed his head a few times, his long, dark hair swaying over the tops of his shoulders. “Agreed.” Pushing away from the desk, he stood tall and rested his hands on his hips. “With the addition of the guards from Valley Falls, ten will be enough.”
It was half of what Cameron had required, but Nikolai knew it was the best offer he’d get. “Deal.”
They shook, then Luca rounded the desk to drop into a creaking, wheeled computer chair. “I’m assuming you have a plan.”
“I do.”
Pushing aside a stack of papers, a few pens, and a crayon scribbling clearly done by a child, the captain revealed a map with strips of colored paper taped to different points across the surface. “Good, then let’s get started.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
The evening before the full moon brought with it clear skies and howling winds. Fresh, pristine snow covered the glass roof, reflecting the starlight and bathing the room in an ethereal radiance. Wrapped in a thin, threadbare blanket, Thea huddled against her mate in one of the stiff hammocks, desperately trying to fend off the bitter cold.
“Damn it, female!” Rhys hissed and jerked away, cursing her frozen hands.
“I can’t help it. I’m freezing, and you’re like a freaking furnace.”
“I know, angel. Come here.” Sighing, he gathered her close and tucked her head under his chin, shivering when she splayed her icy fingers across his chest. “Better?”
“Much.” Snuggling deeper into his arms, she turned her head to kiss the side of his neck. “Thank you.”
The previous three weeks had passed with an alarming swiftness, the days and nights blurring together into one endless nightmare. The time between full moons, however, had not been uneventful.
Proving the alpha knew no end to his cruelty, he’d formulated a series of entertaining events for the pack, all starring his unwilling prisoners. The third night after they’d been moved to the new enclosure, they’d been escorted to the café near the pond by a group of enforcers, all far too jovial to mean anything good.
Once there, Alpha Chase had led the females onto a narrow platform and directed them to dance to the most horrendous club music. When they’d refused, enforces had pumped volts through the shock collars on the males until Thea, Roux, and Deidra had no choice but to cooperate. It had been humiliating, dancing to the sounds of catcalls and the occasional growls from the males in their group, but at least the alpha allowed them to remained dressed.
The following week, the pack grew bored once again, and they’d been summoned to a grassy knoll adjacent to the biggest bird cage Thea had ever seen. The first round of snow had melted by then, leaving the ground cold and soggy. There, the males had been forced to undress and fight each other until they’d crawled away in a bloody mess of broken bones and open wounds.
Zerrik and Brody still weren’t speaking to each other.
Still, no one had endured more abuse than Rhys. For reasons Thea couldn’t comprehend, Alpha Chase had a huge hard-on for her mate that just wouldn’t stop. Partly, she thought it had to do with Kara, the alpha’s daughter. She’d made it no secret that she wanted Rhys, and she’d even hinted that she could return him t
o the fold. Somehow, Thea didn’t think Kara’s daddy liked that idea very much.
Rhys had been made to clean the tiger enclosure with the big cats still inside it. A few days later, Alpha Chase had wanted him to demonstrate to the new enforcers how quickly werewolves healed by stabbing himself in the leg and slicing open his arm repeatedly. The lacerations had healed quickly, but it had taken him two full days to recover from the puncture wounds.
She had no idea how he’d lived through that month after month without losing his mind, but it solidified Rhys Lockwood as the strongest person she’d ever known.
Three new captives had joined them the previous day, but they didn’t say much, and they mostly kept to themselves, cowering together near the viewing windows. The human male appeared to be there leader, a thin, older man with thinning gray hair and a pockmarked face. He stood almost as tall as Lynk, towering over the rest of them, but his height made him appear lanky and malnourished rather than intimidating.
His fingers were twisted with arthritis, and he walked with a pronounce limp that generated from his left hip, but he never asked for help. The females with him, both humans as well, bore a striking resemblance to the man, only much younger and more frightened. They all had the same sea-green eyes, the same lean build, and the same angular features with high cheekbones and narrow chins.
They hadn’t revealed their names, or much about themselves at all, but Thea guessed they were related, possibly a father and his daughters, and it broke her heart. The male was too old, his body too fragile, and the women didn’t look like they could fight their way out of a kindergarten classroom.
Of course, they were distrusting of all Gemini. It didn’t matter that Thea, Rhys, and the other paranormals had been tossed into a cage with them. The group watched the rest of them with wariness. They only spoke to Roux and Brody, and even then, they said very little. Thea didn’t blame them. In their positions, she’d probably feel the same way. Hell, she still didn’t fully trust werewolves in the general sense, and she was mated to one.
“Right on schedule,” Thea mumbled when the steel door creaked open and three enforcers entered the enclosure. “At least it’ll be warm where we’re going.”
No one argued or tried to resist when the wolves lined them up and marched them through the dark, narrow corridor, past the storage room where they kept the extra clothes, and out into the snow. The cold stung Thea’s cheeks, her bare arms, and within minutes of walking, her feet had started to ache and burn.
“We’re almost there.” Without missing a stride, Rhys lifted her into his arms, cradling her to the warmth of his body. “Hang in there, angel.”
The Revenant watched out for each other, took care of each other, but at the end of the day, they all had their assignments. Zerrik was her best friend and her mentor, but even he had been trained to put the needs of many above the desires of the few. Her parents had loved her, but maybe not as much as they loved each other. She didn’t hold that against them, either, but that meant no one had ever put her first, not until Rhys.
He’d stabbed himself over and over, not because he feared what the alpha would do to him, but because he’d worried for her safety. When the enforcers brought food to their cage, Rhys always made sure she had enough to eat, even if that meant he didn’t, despite her many protests. He’d been manipulated, beaten, humiliated and broken. Yet, instead of demanding that the world owed him something, he gave until he had nothing left to give.
It made it so easy to love him.
Still, she’d hesitated to speak the words aloud, irrationally fearful that if she gave voice to her emotions, the universe would find some way to take it all away. Living moment to moment, never knowing if the next day would be her last, a part of her argued that she should tell Rhys how she felt before it was too late. A bigger, louder voice rejected the idea. It felt too much like a dying declaration, too much like saying goodbye.
The enforcers led them through the same routine as the previous Gathering, removing their collars so that they could shower. Only the two new females in the group seemed to be bothered by the abundance of nudity, though Deke did growl and snarl as she tried to cover Roux from straying eyes. Rhys had chosen to express his territorial instincts in a different way, sharing the same showerhead with Thea while he rubbed against her, covering her in his scent, much to the discomfort of everyone in the bathroom.
Then they’d been led to the small room with the stone fireplace to dress, the clothes similar to the ones they’d been given for the first Gathering. Charcoal slacks hung over the chairs for the males, though no shirts had been provided this time. Instead of crimson, like the previous dresses, the females’ gowns shimmered in the light cast by the fire in shades of the palest gold.
“This really looks terrible with my skin tone,” Roux commented, shimmying into the tight, strapless dress and wrinkling her nose when it fell down past her ankles to brush against the floor. “That’s going to be a problem.”
Thea’s dress fit better than the last, hugging her curves without crushing the breath from her lungs. Even Deidra’s dress fit her well, though it stopped several inches above her ankles.
“How in the bloody hell am I supposed fight in this?” The she-wolf bent at the waist, testing the strength of the stitching, gripped the hem in both hands, and ripped the fabric up her right leg to her thigh. “There. That’s better.”
The enforcers returned, reattaching their collars before leading them out of the cabin and across the parking lot. With fewer clothes to protect her from the icy winds, Thea crossed her arms, rubbing her hands over her skin as she shivered so violently her teeth clacked together.
Rhys offered to carry her again, but settled for curling an arm around her shoulders when she shook her head. It wasn’t likely to get warmer any time soon, and if the pack held the Gallows outdoors this time, she needed to get used to the cold.
The café had been decorated in a traditional fall theme, with pumpkins scattered throughout he room, bales of hay stacked against the walls, and strings of soft, amber lights. Three buffet-style tables had been arranged at the back of the café, covered in orange tablecloths and topped with silver serving dishes that displayed every one of Thea’s favorite Thanksgiving foods.
When she entered the building, a female werewolf with kind eyes and a gentle smile pressed a warm, porcelain mug into her hand. “This will help fight the chill. I hope you like pumpkin.”
The rich aroma of freshly brewed coffee filled her nose, and Thea closed her eyes, groaning as she inhaled deeply. It tasted better than it smelled—quality ground coffee mixed with hints of pumpkin, nutmeg, and just a dash of cream. Seeing her reaction, the others quickly accepted their own mugs from the female’s tray, all except the new arrivals who regarded their surroundings with suspicion.
“There’s no violence at the Gathering,” Thea told them, but she kept her distance. “You’re safe here. No one will hurt you, and they’re certainly not going to poison you.” There wouldn’t be any entertainment value in that. “Eat. I know you’re hungry.”
The old man glared at her and said nothing. With a hand on each of the females’ shoulders, he turned them away from the rest of the group and led them across the room to a shadowy corner where they sat on hay bales, silently watching the festivities.
Thea sighed.
“They’ve made their choice, angel.” Bending, Rhys brushed a kiss across the side of her neck. “You can’t force them.”
“I know. That doesn’t mean I have to like it.”
Soft, refined, almost elegant, a familiar voice reached her ears, and she jerked upright, searching the room.
“…didn’t permit them to live, of course, but I doubt anyone will miss them.”
“The only good Hunter is a dead Hunter,” Alpha Chase agreed, laughing openly as he clapped the male vampire on the shoulder. “Follow me, Your Highness, and I’ll give you a preview of your options.”
“Where did—ow!” Thea frowned and r
eached down to rub at her ankle where Deke had kicked her.
“Quiet,” he hissed.
She wasn’t an idiot, and she hadn’t been going to out Nikolai Diavolos to the entire fucking pack. Granted, she still didn’t know how she felt about the male, but he had risked life, limb, and the wrath of his father to help them escape Trinity Grove. Considering he was dressed in a tailored suit with a drink in his hand and no collar around his neck, she’d kind of gathered he wasn’t there against his will.
If he was there to rescue them, she hoped to hell he’d brought backup.
“Good evening,” Alpha Chase greeted them. “I see you’re enjoying the pumpkin lattes. Kara thought they’d make a good addition to the menu.”
Thea didn’t gag at his falsely pleasant tone, but it was a close call.
“This is Prince Nikolai Diavolos. He’s in the market for a new blood slave, and one of you lucky kids will have the opportunity to fill that role.”
“Exciting,” Thea muttered under her breath. “Please, excuse me while I try to contain my joy.”
Alpha Chase turned his steely gaze on her and growled. “Manners, kitten.”
Nikolai’s hair fell in golden sheets that framed his face, the ends brushing over the crimson handkerchief in his left breast pocket. He surveyed them one by one, as if browsing for his favorite wine. Every once in a while, the overhead lights would glint off the gold flecks in his brown eyes, creating the illusion of inner glow, and Thea was struck by his strange and ethereal beauty. He didn’t even look real, and he definitely stood out from the crowd of werewolves.
“I like this one.” One corner of his mouth quirked upward in a half grin. “She’s a fighter.”
Nikolai’s gaze bore into hers when he spoke, his eyes flashing with warning.
“Oh, they’re fighters.” Grinning, Alpha Chase swept his hand out to encompass all of them in his statement. “Any one of these would be a good choice.”
“Well,” Thea interrupted, “those of us still alive after the Gallows. I’m doubting a dead blood slave would interest you.”
