Hartt’s eyes narrowed, holding Harbin immobile and unable to escape what he could feel was coming.
“She’s your fated one.”
Those words seemed to echo around the room forever, each stinging his heart and making him feel the dreaded weight of them. She was his mate, but that wasn’t a good thing.
“I’ve been too close to her. The connection between us is already awakening and that means it’s strong.” Harbin blew out his breath. “If the huntress harms her, I’ll feel it. She’ll use Aya to weaken me.”
“Fuck,” Hartt grunted and dropped his eyes to Aya, and Harbin had to bite his tongue to stop himself from growling and demanding he take his gaze off his mate.
Hell, he had thought that being on the cusp of sexual maturity had been a royal pain in the arse. It was a cakewalk compared with the urges that ran through him every second of every minute that he was close to Aya, a barrage of needs and desires that seemed at odds with each other, tearing him apart from the inside.
Part of him wanted to give her the life she deserved, one without him tainting it, and the rest demanded that he stay with her.
It screamed at him to protect her and claim her as his mate so no other could have her.
“I take it you have a plan?” Hartt said, pulling him back to the room and away from dangerous thoughts of gouging his boss’s eyes out so he couldn’t look at Aya.
Harbin really wanted to nod and say that he had, because he knew there was going to be a fuck-tonne of disappointment in Hartt’s eyes when he told him the truth.
The elf’s expression shifted and it seemed Harbin’s hesitation was all the answer the male had needed.
Hartt sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “We can come up with something. For now, take her to your room and keep her there. I’ll send out a mandate to the guild members that will protect her but it’s best she isn’t left alone.”
Harbin couldn’t agree more.
He intended to stay by her side for the entire duration of her stay. He wouldn’t let her out of his sight. He wouldn’t risk her.
He looked down at her again, his heart heavy as he realised that risking her might be his only option, his best shot at drawing out the witch and the huntress.
Harbin turned away from his boss, heading to the back right corner of the room and the door to the east wing, where his quarters were. He stared down at her the entire time, unable to take his eyes off her or shake the creeping sense that he had no choice this time either.
If he wanted to have his vengeance, he would have to risk Aya.
He would have to place his fated female in danger.
It was the only way.
CHAPTER 15
Spice and snow. It wrapped around her, warming her down to her soul and soothing the ache from her tired limbs. Aya rolled onto her side and curled into the thick blankets, pulling them around her and burrowing deep into them. The scent grew stronger, teasing her senses and making her yearn to see the male the pleasing smell belonged to, but she couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes, not when she was so warm and comfortable.
Her ears twitched as a distant bang sounded, rattling her from her dream.
She fluttered her eyes open but they were hazy, her vision blurred, blending everything together into one sombre mash of colours with a single golden glow in the centre. When the room around her finally came into focus, she shot up in the bed and her eyes darted over everything from the lamp burning on the side table, to the black walls and to the dark ebony dressing table and drawers opposite her near an equally obsidian door on the right side of the small room.
A room that wasn’t hers.
Where was she?
Aya tossed the dark crimson covers aside and leaped from the double bed, heading for the window cut into the thick stone wall to her left.
She stopped dead when she reached it, her eyes widening as she stared at the dark world outside.
She had the sinking feeling that she wasn’t in London anymore.
Black mountains rose in the distance, above crooked roofs tiled with dark grey slates. A gloomy sky filled the space above the town and the range of cragged peaks, nearly as black as them.
Where the hell was she?
Aya paused.
Hell.
Gods, it was all coming back to her now. Harbin had been there on the rooftop. He had saved her from the witches. He had drugged her.
He had brought her to Hell.
Her stomach flipped and she shot to face the door when another bang sounded.
Her heart pounded, thundering against her chest, and she threw a panicked glance around her at the room. It smelled of Harbin, but she could scent others too, and she could sense many moving around the building.
Assassins.
She was in their home, and she had a price on her head, a contract that this guild was meant to fulfil.
She was in danger here.
Her every instinct roared at her to run. She shoved at the sash window but it didn’t move. Her fingers shook as she fumbled with the lock, managed to get it open, and tried again. The window still refused to open. It was sealed shut.
Her breath came quicker, panic setting deep roots in her as she looked across the room to the door that led outside. She had to risk it.
She bolted for the door and had it open in a heartbeat. Her head swung both ways, eyes landing on a black wall to her left where the corridor ended, and a long hallway that seemed to go on forever to her right, lit by wall lamps at intervals. She shoved off and was sprinting barefoot down the corridor a second later, her cream satin slip whipping around her thighs as she passed several corridors shooting off from the one she was running along. She swiftly bolted down one on her left when she sensed someone ahead of her, and took the next right, which only led to another left and left again. A growl curled from her lips. The place was a damned maze. How the hell was she meant to find her way out of it?
There had to be an exit somewhere.
Another bang sounded behind her, sending a shiver down her spine, and she ran harder, taking a sharp right and then left when she hit the main corridor again. She sprinted at full pelt towards a door at the end of the black-walled corridor and slammed her palm into it as she reached it. It flew open and she stumbled into a large room lit by more lamps on the obsidian walls.
Several pairs of eyes landed on her.
Aya jerked to face them and her legs turned to noodles.
Demons.
The four males rose from the black couches surrounding a rather hideous fireplace directly opposite her, their obsidian horns curling forwards as their eyes darkened. As each one stood, her legs weakened a little more. They were massive. All of them stood well over six-six and all of them were bare-chested and packed with muscle.
She couldn’t fight them.
She wasn’t strong enough to tackle one demon, let alone four.
But what she lacked in strength she made up for in agility. She could evade them and escape. A foul-smelling breeze was coming from an archway near the far left corner of the room. Freedom laid that way and it would be hers.
She just had to get past the four demons that were moving out from behind the couches now, coming to block her path.
Aya focused on her body and willed the shift, urging it to come quickly this time. She kept her eyes locked on the biggest demon as it swept through her, gritting her teeth against the sharp fierce pain as her bones distorted, cracking and moulding into new shapes. Her ears rounded as thick silver fur rippled over her skin, and rose up the side of her head at the same time as her cheeks puffed outwards and her nose flattened.
The demon muttered something to his friends and grinned.
Her tail sprouted from the base of her spine and she landed on her four large paws, and wrestled free of her slip to give herself the complete freedom to move as she needed. She lowered her head and snarled at the demon through her fangs. The room brightened as her vision sharpened and she quickly took in each
demon from head to toe, calculating her odds of escape and the best route to take in order to avoid conflict.
The biggest demon advanced.
Aya roared at him but he didn’t even flinch.
He smirked.
The door off to her right bursting open wiped that smirk off his face, capturing his focus and giving her an opportunity she wouldn’t waste.
She launched herself at him.
A strong hand grabbed her by the scruff of her neck and jerked her backwards. Her breath left her in a rush as she was slammed into the black stone floor and she immediately began struggling, snarling and growling as she tried to wrestle free.
“Steady,” Harbin murmured close to her ear, his warm breath tickling her fur and sending an all too pleasant shiver through her.
He moved back as she did as he instructed, going still and breathing slowly to calm her animal instincts to break free and fight to protect herself, and loosened his grip. When she made no move to attack the demon again, he released her and stood.
Aya looked up at him where he towered over her, a vision of menace and lethal grace in his tight black clothing, his silver hair swept back from his face to reveal his icy eyes. They were locked on the demon and his pupils slowly widened. He was hunting the male, waiting for him to dare to make a move, his focus completely on the demon so he couldn’t twitch without Harbin seeing it.
“I thought we made it clear you were to leave her alone?” Harbin said, his tone flat and cold, but holding a note of warning.
He wanted to fight the males.
They wisely backed off, each tossing a black look at Harbin as they went, heading towards the exit to her left. Suddenly, freedom didn’t look so appealing. She didn’t want to run into them again.
Harbin stepped past her, watching them go. When they were out of sight, he turned towards her and hunkered down in front of her.
“You were meant to stay in my quarters.” He huffed and she lowered her gaze, unable to ignore the deeply rooted behaviour that had been branded on her during her upbringing.
Harbin was an elite member of her pride, and she had been taught to never displease any belonging to his bloodline. It was difficult to overcome that instinct, even when she was in Hell, in a guild of assassins, a place he called home and a profession he had chosen.
He had overcome the instincts that had been branded on him, shaking the desire to seek peace over bloodshed. Why couldn’t she do the same after everything that had happened to her?
She edged her eyes back up to his face and found him watching her, his silver eyes softer now, giving her the answer to her question.
She had overcome those instincts, she had shaken their hold. It wasn’t her upbringing in the pride and the rules she had followed there making her want to avoid his steady but warm gaze.
It was her new instincts, the ones that drummed in her blood and said that the male before her was her mate.
Gods, she wished it had been her old instincts that had made her look away when she had seen the anger in his eyes, because she wasn’t sure how to deal with the new ones.
He reached for her and she snarled at him, warning him not to touch her. She couldn’t bear it, not right now. Whenever she was near him, he stripped her of her defences and left her weak. She felt too vulnerable, liable to do something reckless and stupid.
Like kissing him.
She had been an idiot back then, believing that she could win the heart of a male of his status, and she had learned her lesson. She wouldn’t be that stupid again.
He stared at her a moment longer and then slowly rose to his feet. “Come.”
Aya pushed onto her paws and followed him back through the corridors, her mind churning and heart aching as she tried to figure out what she was going to do. It was clear that he expected her to remain in this place, and as much as she wanted to run away from him in order to purge the feelings growing inside her, the hungers that had her eyes lingering on the firm globes of his backside as he prowled the corridor ahead of her, she had no choice but to obey him.
For now.
She couldn’t return home, not when the witches knew where she lived.
She wasn’t even sure she knew how to return home.
She had heard tales of Hell and legends about gates that could transport people to this realm from the mortal one, but she didn’t have a clue whether those stories were real or where to find a gate and how to use it if they were.
She had to bide her time until she had a plan and then she would leave this place.
Harbin held the door to his room for her and she padded past him, her paws silent on the stone floor. She felt his gaze tracking her, lingering and burning into her as he closed the door. The click of the latch sliding into place drove thoughts of running from him and her feelings from her mind and narrowed the world down to the small room.
To him.
He stood there behind her, silent and still, his eyes on her, and the urge that ran through her was dangerous and alluring, and no matter how much she fought it, it was too tempting to deny.
Aya glanced into the small adjoining room to her left. A bathroom. The perfect place for shifting back and finding something to cover herself.
She looked back over her shoulder at Harbin, her breath lodging in her throat as she caught the hunger in his glowing eyes, the same need that coursed through her veins and seized control of her.
She closed her eyes and willed the shift.
The sound of Harbin’s breathing turning heavier filled the tense silence as her bones lengthened, her tail shrank and her ears moved back down as her nose narrowed. The fur covering her body was the last thing to change, disappearing into her bare skin and leaving her standing before Harbin.
Naked.
She wrapped one arm across her breasts and covered her mound with her other hand as she turned her head towards him where he stood behind her, his intense gaze drifting over her body. Heat rippled through her in the wake of it and she swallowed hard before slowly shifting to face him and opening her eyes.
The hunger in his sent a stronger thrill through her.
She had never felt sexy, knew she wasn’t perfect or had the body the mortal world touted as the one all females should aspire to have. She wasn’t thin, but she wasn’t ashamed of her figure. This was who she was, but while she was happy, she had never felt beautiful.
But Harbin’s silvery gaze, the heat that burned in it, made her feel sexy.
It made her feel confident and desired as he crossed the room to her, those hungry eyes gliding down the length of her body and back up again.
It made her feel beautiful.
Even when she felt certain that she shouldn’t fall under his dark spell.
He was an assassin, not the male she had grown up with back at the village, crushing on him from the rear of the classroom.
There was barely a trace of that male in him now.
He was ruthless, dangerous, and always serious, the complete opposite to the wild youth who had always been laughing and seeking out fun.
But gods, that only made him more alluring.
The lethal aura that rolled off him, the air of a powerful male, added to his masculine beauty and spoke to her feminine instincts, weakening her resolve.
Harbin stopped right in front of her, so close she could feel the heat of his body, and stared down into her eyes through ones that held barely leashed desire, before reaching past her. She jumped when he settled a thin blue robe around her shoulders, draping it over her front and covering her.
Aya didn’t take her eyes away from his as she slipped her arms into the sleeves and drew it closed, tying the belt around her waist. His spoke to her, telling her how difficult it had been for him to resist touching her, choosing instead to cover her. It seemed she wasn’t the only one struggling with her new instincts and her old desires.
She had wanted him forty years ago, and she still wanted him now.
She wanted to believe it was the s
ame for him, even when she felt sure that she was only fooling herself, seeing what she wanted to see in his eyes.
He backed off a step, drew down a deep breath, and looked away from her. His eyes roamed back to her barely a second later, dropping from her face to the robe, darkening with hunger again, need that coursed through her blood too. He flashed his fangs on a snarl and paced away from her, placing as much distance as possible between them in the small room.
Perhaps she had pushed too hard, but she had wanted to see what he would do. She had wanted to make him reveal the feelings he hid from her and had wanted to make him see what he had been missing out on all these years because of his actions back at the pride.
Just the thought of what he had done, and the pain he had caused her, tossed a pail of snow on the fire of her desire, killing the flames and allowing her to regain control of herself. She couldn’t let her instincts and the attraction she had always felt towards him rule her now. She had to be strong.
Aya glanced across at Harbin where he had propped himself against the wall, his hands jammed in the pockets of his black jeans and his left leg bent at the knee, the sole of his boot pressing against the black plaster. He stared down at the floor, strands of his wild silver hair caressing his brow, a troubled look on his handsome face.
Gods curse him. He seemed even more handsome now.
“What happened?” She touched the spot on her neck where she recalled feeling the dart sting her.
And his lips caress her.
Had that been real or had she imagined it?
She stared at his mouth, trying to remember whether he really had kissed the spot on her neck. His sensual lips moved in mesmerising ways as he spoke, pulling her firmly back under his spell.
“The night the pride was attacked by Archangel, the charge was led by a single huntress. She got information out of me and used it to locate the pride while it was vulnerable. I discovered last night that she has surfaced and is working with the witch who attacked you.”
“Witches,” she corrected automatically. “There were three.”
He shook his head and finally looked across the room at her, his silver eyes bright and intense. “One witch, but he has the power to make copies of himself. It’s a dark art, lost to most witches, but I’ve come across it before. I’m guessing he’s from the same clan as someone I crossed paths with a few years back on a mission.”
Marked by an Assassin Page 17
