by Maia Dylan
Melaina wanted to turn back time and do this all over again. She wanted to talk with them about her plan like they’d asked. They might not have agreed, but she could have lived with that. Couldn’t she? The real question was could she have lived without experiencing the pleasure and connection she’d had with them? Melaina didn’t think so.
Mel closed her eyes briefly and took a deep breath. “I do not regret what happened between us. If you don’t believe anything else, or want to consider our mating…annulled or divorced or whatever, please believe that. I am not ashamed of what we did.”
Kyle snorted in derision. “You could have fooled us, Melaina. There was one hell of a wave of guilt and shame coming down our mating bond, so what the hell else could it have been?”
Melaina nodded. She couldn’t deny that. “You are right about the feelings, but not about the reason for them. You have to understand, I am all that she has. There is no one else for her, no one who can help her. There is just me. I have to get her out.”
Kyle frowned. “You’re talking about Pepper, right? We know that. We’ve been here, looking for you to help you get her out. We want you all living safely in Grey River. You have to know that.”
“It’s not that she doesn’t know that, Kyle. It’s that she doesn’t trust us.” Grant’s voice was edged with sadness. Melaina pressed the heel of her right hand against the sudden ache in her chest.
“I don’t trust anyone,” Melaina whispered, “not with the lives of my sisters.”
Kyle growled as he started to pace the room. “What the hell was tonight about for you, then? I know what it meant to Grant and me, but I would really like to hear what it meant to you.”
Melaina’s gaze dropped to the floor. “Oh, hell no, baby.” The anger in Grant’s tone had her gaze lifting quickly to meet his. “You don’t get to look away and think of what to say. I want to hear it, uncensored, now.” Both men froze, and Melaina started to understand how important her answer would be to them.
“It meant more than I thought,” Melaina found herself answering honestly. “I came here tonight with the express purpose of having sex with you and being claimed by you. I had run the numbers on the options and the probability of success. I knew that there was a very good chance, given that I had felt the mating bond snap into place when I met Grant, that I was your mate and we would be able to complete the claiming. But what I didn’t factor in was how I would feel about it. Feelings are not quantifiable. They just are, and I never factor feelings in when I am calculating the odds of a mission’s success.”
“And what did you feel?” Grant asked quietly.
Melaina exhaled sharply. “Loved. I felt connected and cherished and protected. And they are three things that I have never felt before and it was overwhelming!”
“That’s exactly how you were supposed to feel!” Kyle ran a frustrated hand through his hair, then put his hands on his hips. “What I don’t understand is why, after making love with us—and you can call it having sex as much as you like, Blue Eyes, but what we did on that bed was make love. To each other. Why did you suddenly feel ashamed and guilty? We claimed you as the one woman the fates have deemed us worthy of, claimed you as ours for all time.”
“Because that’s not why I wanted you to claim me,” Melaina blurted out, and both men seemed to jolt in shock. “I needed you to claim me so that once I get Pepper out, I can talk to you telepathically and get you to pick her up. I can’t take a listening device in or a phone or anything like that. Aristos has systems that will pick those up and I’ll be killed before I can get to her.”
Melaina had been shot before. She’d been hit so hard she’d lost three teeth, and she’d taken a knife to her side on an occasion. But none of that, not even the experiments Aristos and his fucking chemists put her through, came anywhere near to being as painful as watching both men’s expressions change to ones of hurt. She’d hurt them, more than she’d care to admit, and that, too, was something she hadn’t factored into her equation.
Kyle’s face became a mask of indifference, and had he not been broadcasting pain down their link, she might have thought it was real. “So for you, our claiming was simply a chess move. A strategic block so that you can protect Pepper by sacrificing two pawns”—he gestured between him and Grant—“and then go after your opponent’s king. Because that’s the endgame here for you, isn’t it, Melaina? Once you have Pepper out of the line of fire, you are going to go after Aristos and not stop until he’s dead.”
Melaina stood still. She couldn’t deny it, and she certainly wasn’t going to defend it. She was Pepper’s last chance, and once Melaina had her out of there, then her last job on this earth would be to kill her own father. Once he was dead, then her sisters would be safe. She had to believe that.
“Holy shit, that’s cold.” Grant shook his head, refusing to look at her. Neither of them could look at her, and the cracks that had started to appear in Melaina’s heart began to bleed.
Kyle shrugged, moving toward the door. “I said earlier that you couldn’t fool us, but it looks like I was wrong. Whatever, I don’t give a shit what you do.” Lie. “You can do what you want, like you always have, and just forget that tonight ever happened.”
Melaina held tightly to her composure, despite the fact that on the inside she was screaming. “I won’t ever forget what happened here tonight. And although I have no right, I am going to ask you anyway. Hell, I’ll beg you. Can—”
“Don’t!” Grant snarled, startling her. “Don’t you fucking dare ask us if we will come for Pepper. It is both absurd and insulting to think we would not come for an innocent woman. Do whatever you have to do, then reach out through our bon…link, and we will come.”
Melaina’s knees almost buckled when Grant refused to use the word bond. Not trusting her voice, she nodded. She needed to get out of here. Once she was in her car, she could release the stranglehold she had on her emotions and give into the tidal wave of tears she felt building within her. She’d only taken one step when both Kyle and Grant tensed and a wave of anger and urgency slammed into her down their bond.
“Shifters?” Grant snarled, his wolf clear in his voice. When he turned to look directly at her, his eyes were blazing blue and they were shocking and stunningly beautiful at the same time. “Your father has fucking shifters working for him. Those traitorous bastards have led him to us.”
Kyle spun toward her, his eyes the same arctic blue as his brother’s. “The Reyes brothers are in trouble. They’re fighting two of the bastards now but managed to get a warning out. It would appear your father has decided not to wait for you to come for him. He’s here. Now. Go to the bathroom and wait for one of us to come and get you.”
And just like that, Melaina’s angst and emotional turmoil fell away. Her breathing calmed and her heart beat normally. This was what she was trained to do. Some might even say born to do. Reaching into her pocket, she pulled out a hair tie and quickly pulled her hair up and out of the way.
Kyle scowled at her as Grant took out his service revolver and moved to the door. “What in the hell are you doing?”
“What I have been trained to do all my life.” She moved forward, running through the layout of the car park behind the door and identifying the places likely to be used as vantage points. “There’s a car parked two doors down. It’s low to the ground, but he’ll have someone there. Across the car park, there’s a room with a direct scope view of this room and the one next door. There will be a sniper there, and you can bet your ass that there are at least four men in the alley that leads off to the left of this room. Why the hell would you choose a room with no real egress points?”
Grant blinked. “Because it had a spa bath.”
Melaina sighed as she stepped up to stand just to the side of Kyle. “Well, it’s grand that you were able to find a room with the amenities that would leave you relaxed, Grant. Who needs a defensible position anyway, hm? I’ve never had a spa bath before.”
“Really?
They are fantastic. Super relaxing,” Grant answered, amusement glittering in his eyes.
“Maybe I should try one out?”
“Look, Grant and I will take care of this,” Kyle ground out. “Just get back in the fucking bathroom and wait for us. Make use of the damn spa bath for all I care, but you are not coming through that door with us.”
Melaina smiled. Despite the fact that there were men on the other side of that door looking to harm them, and the relationship she had with her mates was currently shaky at best, she felt calm. “Kyle, I am a warrior the likes of which you have never encountered. This is all I know. If, once all this shit is over, you want to truly get to know me and try and see if there is something between us, then you will have to deal with the fact that I am not the type of woman to sit at home while the menfolk go off to war.”
Grant snorted. “Hell no, brother, our mate would be standing on the front line, taking out as many of the enemy as she could.”
Melaina grinned. “Exactly! Now, let’s get on with this, shall we?”
Kyle shook his head with a grumble about being ganged up on but stepped forward anyway. He glanced back to make sure both she and Grant were ready, and then he opened the door.
* * * *
Present day…
Melissa struggled against the darkness that held her captive within its depths. It was always the same. When they managed to get her to take the damn sedative, hiding it in her food, in her water, fucking holding her down and slamming it directly into her vein, it was always the same. The journey back through the darkness it invoked always left her feeling heavy. Lethargy would seep into her body, and it would feel like she was trying to move through water.
Shock crashed through her when she felt the unmistakable feeling of someone unbuttoning her pajama top. When she felt the slide of the back of someone’s hands as they opened the top and the cool feel of air across her naked breasts, she whimpered. She tried to move her arms, but only just managed to lift her right hand.
“Shut up, whore,” Weir growled in her ear, and she could smell the whiskey on his breath. “I made sure to give you more sedative than I have before. But not so much that you wouldn’t be aware. I want you to feel everything I am about to do to you.” She felt his hands slide down her chest, squeezing her breasts when he got to them. Hard. Melissa’s skin crawled at the feel of this man’s hands on her.
Weir grabbed her hand and pulled it closer to the side of the bed. She managed to cry out when she felt him rubbing his hard naked arousal against her hand. She felt tears tracking down her cheeks but couldn’t make her body work.
“Fuck, your skin is so fucking soft,” Weir growled. She managed to crack her eyes open slightly and, despite the lack of light in the room, watched in horror when the man lowered his head and took her breast into his mouth. Oh, God, oh, God, please don’t let this be happening. He was going to rape her. While she was lying practically comatose in this fucking bed, he was going to rape her.
She felt the sharp sting as the doctor bit her breast and she managed to cry out again, this time, louder than before. Weir’s mouth left her breast and for a brief moment. She thought perhaps he’d had a burst of conscience and was going away. But then he slapped her hard across the mouth. The taste of her own blood exploded in her mouth and she knew he’d split her lip.
“I told you to shut the fuck up.” Weir was leaning over her so closely that she felt spittle hitting her face. “You are nothing but a fucking experiment. An abomination to the very laws of nature. I am going to fuck you, use you for my own pleasure, and, when I’m done, I will simply fill you full of the medication I’ve been giving you to block your memories. Hopefully, I won’t give you too much and you turn into a vegetable, but even if I do? No one will care.”
Melissa screamed inside her head, watching as the doctor started removing her pajamas completely, the light of crazed lust in his eyes making her stomach turn.
Help me!
A wave of rage and fear washed over her. She didn’t know how, or who, but she knew it was coming from the bond within her. She turned toward it, thinking to hide there and distance herself from what was about to happen. If she simply hid within her own mind, she could pretend it wasn’t happening. The bond seemed to swell within her. This time, the wave held rejection. Not of her, but of what she was thinking of doing. Strength poured into her, and Melissa started to feel the effect of the sedative fade. She wallowed in the additional strength, drawing it into her.
Just as she was about to open her eyes and try to find a way out of this, she heard a name. It was a mere whisper of sound, but she heard it in stereo. Two male voices that had her heart aching, both calling the same name.
“Melaina.”
Chapter Six
One month earlier
Kyle and Grant moved to stand just outside the door that led to their room. Their mate stood just behind their right shoulders. He heard the snarling and growling of the war being waged by the Reyes brothers on the wind. From the sounds of it, it was drawing to a close and the victors would be known soon. Kyle could only hope it would be Tomas and Diego. He stared at the men that surrounded them, his eyes no doubt blazing the arctic blue of his kind. Everything was just as Melaina had predicted. There was a man behind a parked car two doors from their location. A sniper stood watching from the balcony across the car park, and there was a group of men who had just stepped out from the alleyway beside their room.
But there was a large component of the scene she had painted for them that she had missed. An older man with salt-and-pepper hair stood behind two men holding semi-automatic weapons. The shock that had rippled down their bond told Kyle that Melaina had not expected her father to actually be there. Or at least, not that he would have been as out in the open as he was.
Kyle looked back at the man who had effectively tortured his mate all her life and had to fight the urge to turn and simply tear his throat out. “Let me guess, you must be Aristos Christakos.” The man dipped his head and, just as he was about to speak, Kyle talked over him. “No, you don’t have to confirm it. I recognized the stench of narcissistic insanity as soon as I stepped out the door. You’ve pissed off one of the strongest shifter packs in the world, and I have to tell you, Aristos, old man, that was not the smartest move in the world.”
Aristos stepped forward, making a point to move around the guards currently holding their weapons on them. “You must be talking about the Grey River mongrels you seem to associate yourself with. I can assure you, Mr. Snow, I have no reason to fear a group of dogs.” The way he spat the last word at him had Kyle fighting the urge to reach forward and grab the man by the throat.
Grant snorted. “How do you feel about lions? You’ve fucked off a couple of them, too.”
Aristos turned his head to stare impassively at Grant. “If you are referring to those men my youngest daughter has tied herself to, then no, I do not fear either of them. Lions and wolves can be stopped with bullets, and I think you’ll find if you’re hit with enough of them, you will be stopped for good.”
Two large gray wolves stepped out of the shadows, their eyes luminous in the light cast over the car park from the hotel rooms. Both of them had their gazes locked on the old man. Kyle caught the iron scent of blood on the air and knew they were either hurt or covered in the blood of their enemies. He could only hope it was the latter.
“Ah, this would be Tomas and Diego. Guys, this sack of shit is Aristos Christakos and he likes to hurt women and small children.” Kyle turned back to stare at Aristos. “Now, I am sure the men you sent after Tomas and Diego here had weapons, but as you can see, they weren’t stopped either. You’d have to hit us first, and Grant and I would have ripped your throat out first, so no matter what, you die here and now. Not the best impression to make on our new mate, killing her father in front of her, but I think with our girl, she will see it as the loving mating gift it is.”
Finally, something seemed to rock Aristos. His eyes narrowed as
he glared at Melaina and something moved within them. If Kyle hadn’t known any better, he would have said he was looking at a shifter.
“You whore,” Aristos snarled in Melaina’s direction and Kyle growled low in his chest, but the man never even flinched. “You have mated with these dogs? Do you think that you are their bitch now? Well, I am here to tell you, daughter, that you are not their bitch. You are mine. Now get your ass over here so we can put these dogs down.” Kyle stepped forward, intent on putting his fist through the fucker’s face, but stopped when Melaina placed a hand on his arm.
“I think you’ll find, Father,” Melaina spat out, contempt in every syllable, “that I belong to no one, least of all you.” Kyle kept his eyes locked with the man who had threatened and terrorized his mate all her life. As he watched, Aristos’s pupils seemed to dilate, and the air around them turned thick.
“What the hell is going on?” Grant asked down their link, and both turned to look at Melaina and saw her staring at her father, her pupils dilated as well. Kyle could see that she was trembling.
“I’m not sure, but I think our mate and her father are having some kind of telepathic smackdown.” Kyle looked between the two, not knowing what to do or how to help. From the look of strain on his mate’s face, he could tell that, whatever she was doing, it was taking a toll. A quick glance at Aristos and he could see that he was just as focused.
The air pressure seemed to get even heavier, and then Aristos dropped forward with a scream of pain, gripping his head. “Kill the dogs. Kill them!”
And just like that, the tension in the car park broke into violence. Kyle and Grant both sprang forward at the same time, calling their wolves to the surface as they went. Kyle leaped over Aristos and went straight for the two with the semi-automatics, hitting them hard enough to jolt their weapons. Using his teeth and his claws, he dispatched the two men, snarling and growling the entire time.
