Why are they doing this to us? Why? she asked.
Trace growled, his eyes on the men as they picked their choice of weapon to begin his torture. You don’t know why you are here?
No, the woman said. They came in the middle of the night, killing my parents and brother. They took me and my little sister, Sari. They put me down here, but I don’t know where Sari is. I haven’t seen her since we got here.
How old is your sister? Trace asked.
Fourteen, the woman responded. Dammit. Trace fought harder against the chains, but there was nothing he could do. He knew why they wanted Sari. He didn’t understand why they were keeping the woman down in The Dungeon, but his sick fuck of a father was keeping Sari because he liked young girls. The woman in the cell looked to be in her twenties. The fourteen year old was what Perez preferred.
“You like the woman, do you?” Titus laughed cruelly, as he walked back over to the table. “Maybe I will let you watch later while I take her.” Trace stiffened right before Titus struck him with the tire iron on the knee, sending excruciating pain in his knee and up his leg. The beating started then, Trace taking blow after crushing blow. He heard the woman’s screams in the background. She was yelling at them, telling them to leave him alone. He did not have the energy to speak to her again and tell her to stop. He just prayed they would not turn their attention to her after they were finished with him.
When the pain was too much, he blocked it out by bringing thoughts of his mate to the surface. His sweet, innocent, beautiful Jade with long blonde locks of hair and dark green eyes. He needed to get back to her. He would withstand whatever pain and agony he had to, so he could return home to his mate. Before he lost consciousness, he could have sworn he heard Jade’s voice, Trace, where are you?
~
Jade lurched into a sitting position on the settee where she was resting. Struggling to erase the fog from her mind, she glanced around to get her bearings. She was sitting on her mother, Angel’s back porch. Jade was still in shock that she had been reunited with her mother after being kidnapped and held by the General for the past twenty years. She could not believe she was finally away from that bastard. Three months ago, Jade had been rescued by RARE from a prison in Arizona where the General held her. Not only was she reunited with her mother when she was rescued, but she also met her mate, Trace. Closing her eyes, Jade pictured Trace. He was so gorgeous. Several inches taller than her slight frame, he was powerfully built with wide shoulders and a stocky build. He had dark, smooth skin, and was sexy as hell. She shuddered as she remembered his dark eyes that seemed to see into her soul. For the first time, Jade had lost sight of the ultimate goal she and her brother, Jinx, were working toward. For a few hours, the only person Jade had been able to think of was Trace. Until he left her, then the screwed up mess of a life she led seeped quickly back into her consciousness.
Frowning, Jade tried to remember her dream. Or had it been a dream? Had it really been Trace? Was he in trouble? The General had pumped Jade full of so many drugs to keep her gifts dormant that she was having trouble distinguishing what was real and what wasn’t. Many of the drugs had been flushed out of her system, but until they were fully gone, there was no way of knowing. Closing her eyes, Jade brought Trace to the forefront of her mind and tried to reach out to him. Finding nothing but emptiness, she sighed deeply. Either her mate was in trouble or her mind was playing tricks on her. Unfortunately, she had no way of knowing which one it was. Rising, she went to find Angel. She had asked her mother several times about Trace, always to be told the same thing. Trace was making it safe for Jade to be with him. He would let Angel know when he was coming back, but he would be back. That did not help Jade now. Not if he was in trouble. But unless she wanted to share her secrets with everyone, she would have to stand down and wait for Trace to return. Since her secrets were not just hers alone, she was forced to stand down. For now, she would just inquire about her mate. But once she had her gifts fully back, she was going hunting. Until then, she would continue to play the sweet, innocent Omega wolf.
Chapter 2
Five months later
Jade quickly ducked low and scrambled to the left, just barely missing the foot aimed at her face. It glanced off her shoulder in a stunning blow. She should have easily blocked it, but her mind was elsewhere. Jade’s mate had left eight months ago and promised to return as soon as he was able to. Not only had Trace not returned, but he had not checked in for over six and a half months. From what Jade knew about mates, they were supposed to love and cherish each other above all else. It was a bonding of souls and it happened fast and hard. Being apart from a mate sucked ass and that was where Jade was right now. Even though she and Trace had not fully bonded yet, Jade was having issues eating and sleeping and her emotions were all over the place. One moment she was crying, and the next she wanted to beat the hell out of something. That was not her. Normally she had tight control over her actions and emotions. She had to; she had secrets to keep and people to protect.
Jade had been taught at a young age to keep a shield in place in her mind, guarding her thoughts and emotions. It was necessary and over time the shield had grown so strong that no one was able to penetrate it. Jade let others see only what she wanted them to see, which was why all of the RARE team members and the White River Wolves assumed she was an Omega wolf. Not only was Jade fine with that assumption, she encouraged it without actually confirming it. Jade was not an Omega wolf. She was so much more.
As Flame struck out again, this time with her fist, Jade decided she’d had enough. She could not keep her mind in the game and needed to be alone. There was no way Flame would stop unless Jade made her, though. Flame had been on a mission for the past seven months. She had been a prisoner of the General’s; a sadistic, evil bastard that had started a breeding program to make the ultimate army of soldiers. The General paired men and women with specific psychic abilities or shifter traits. Flame was not a shifter, but she had other psychic gifts. She had been paired with Gideon, one of the General’s soldiers who raped her repeatedly until she became pregnant. Several months later, during a rescue mission by RARE, Flame lost her unborn son. Even though the baby was conceived under horrible conditions, Flame had learned to love him. Now she made it her life’s mission to hunt down not only Gideon, but also the General and end them. She trained hard, fought hard, and refused to give up.
Grabbing hold of Flame’s fist before it could connect with her face, Jade slipped her hands down and held tightly onto Flame’s wrists. Dropping down quickly onto her ass, Jade stuck her feet in Flame’s stomach and used the power in her legs to flip Flame up and over Jade, landing her on her back. Swinging around, Jade sat on Flame’s chest and shoved her elbow up into Flame’s larynx. “Stand the fuck down,” Jade growled, letting her eyes go wolf and her fangs show. “I’m done.”
Flame’s eyes widened in shock and she slowly nodded. In all their months of training together, not once did Jade show the type of aggression that was radiating from her now. An Omega wolf would never act forceful or hostile. “Where did you learn that move, Jade?” Flame asked in confusion. “Rikki never taught us that.”
Shrugging, Jade stood up and walked to where she had left her coat hanging on the peg by the door. She and Flame were working out daily in the barn on Angel’s land. Jade was living with Angel now, so it was a convenient place for her to work out. Not to mention, it was also a dream gym. It was equipped with cardio machines, a couple of punching bags, mats to spar on, and weights. And it was heated, so even in January it was warm. There was also a shooting range set up on the south side of the barn, and Jade was going to go take full advantage of it now. After pulling on her coat, Jade grabbed the gun and box of bullets she had left on the cabinet next to the door. Shoving the bullets into her coat pocket, she glanced back at Flame. “I’m going to shoot for a while. I’ll catch you later.”
After getting everything set up at the shooting range, Jade loaded her gun. Squinting slightly,
arms held out in front of her in the police stance Rikki had taught her, Jade took aim, lining up the shot. Slowly squeezing the trigger, she unloaded the Glock at the paper target several yards away. When she was done, she put the gun down and reeled in the paper. Not bad, Jade thought as she saw the holes in the circles surrounding the bulls-eye. She had hit exactly where she aimed.
“Good job,” Rikki said sarcastically as she appeared behind Jade. “Now, tell me why you didn’t hit the bulls-eye. After that, you can tell me how you took Flame down the way you did.” Shit, she should have known Rikki had been watching them spar. Taking a deep breath, Jade turned to confront Rikki. Resting her hands on her hips she challenged, “I don’t know what you mean. I did well. All my shots are in the circles.” Eight months ago Jade never would have spoken to anyone the way she was speaking to Rikki. Eight months ago, Jade would have been shoved down in a deep, dark hole with snakes and spiders for daring to say what was on her mind. That was eight months ago, this was now. Before, she was not living. She was surviving. Now, Jade promised herself she would be the person she wanted to be, not what someone else required her to be, as long as she could still keep her deepest secrets. There was no hole to stick her in here and no General to ply her with drugs to dull her senses so she could not fight back. She would never be the helpless woman she was before. She may have to hide her skills and gifts, but she did not have to hide her true personality. Well, not all of the time anyway; only when she felt it beneficial to play the meek, gentle Omega.
Rikki reached out snatching the target. The anger and tension in Rikki rolled off her and Jade cringed at the impressions that hit her fast and hard. Shit, she had let her shield down. Rikki was upset and hurt. It had something to do with a man, a very handsome man. He was tall, dark and muscular with gorgeous brown eyes. He seemed familiar, but the images were rolling by so quickly in her mind, Jade could not grasp who he was. Finally, they slowed down and Jade felt the confusion and despair in Rikki as there was an image of her watching the man being driven away in a SUV, his hand lightly resting on the window.
Turning away from Rikki, Jade calmly squeezed her eyes shut, biting her bottom lip and concentrated on pushing all of the images out of her mind and blocking Rikki’s feelings. Damn, it was getting harder and harder to block everything out. Since RARE rescued Jade from the General, she discovered the pills the scientists filled her with had contained something preventing her from fully using her abilities. Jade had not realized how strong those abilities really were. First of all, she was a very strong empath. Constantly feeling others emotions really sucked; the pain, the despair, the jealousy, the anger. There were so many emotions and when you were bombarded with them constantly, it was very hard to block them out and stay sane.
Jade had also known she was telepathic, but thought she was not a very strong one because she was never able to connect with another person unless they held the connection on their end. Now that all of the medicine she had been forced to take was out of her system, Jade was finding out she was not only telepathic, but what she could do went way beyond just talking to someone else with her mind. Jade also had the ability to connect with others like her mother, Angel, could. She found she could easily connect with anyone around her. She tried not to take advantage of her gift, but if her shields were not firmly in place, sometimes it was hard to block others thoughts.
Finally, Jade’s head cleared and she was able to push Rikki’s thoughts and emotions aside. Calmly, Jade picked up her gun and proceeded to load it. “Dammit, Jade, stop ignoring me. Get pissed, yell, scream, but don’t ignore me.” Rikki held the target in front of Jade. “Stop screwing with me, Jade. Stop hiding who you are and what you can do. You are safe now. The General isn’t here. It is just you and me. Hit the fucking target.”
Swallowing hard, jaw clenched, Jade watched as Rikki attached a new target to the clamp and reeled it back out. “Now, hit the red,” Rikki ordered. “I don’t want to see a bullet hole anywhere else on that target, do you understand me? Hit it!”
Looking Rikki in the eyes, Jade took a deep breath. “How did you know?” she asked softly. Not saying a word, Rikki held up a gloved hand, eyebrows raised. Shit. Rikki had the ability to see the past, present and future with the touch of her hand. She wore gloves to prevent the images from constantly bombarding her. Jade wished she had that option. She had to make sure and keep her shields up, or every thought and emotion would hit her.
Nodding, Jade glanced around to make sure no one was around, then she raised her gun and proceeded to unload it hitting the bulls-eye every single time. Turning back to Rikki she asked, “Are you happy now?”
Quickly reeling the target back in and removing it, Rikki grinned. “Now that’s what I’m talking about! Why hide it, Jade? Why hide from everyone?”
“Because of Jinx,” Jade responded. Placing the gun on the shelf in front of her, she pulled her long blonde hair up in a ponytail securing it with an elastic band she took from around her wrist. Picking up the gun, she proceeded to reload it. “My brother is still with the General. Jinx will do everything in his power to stop him. He taught me how to defend myself. He wanted to make sure I would have a fighting chance if he was able to get me out of there. He could not just take me and run, though. If he did, there wouldn’t be anyone to fight the General from the inside. Now that I am with my mother and RARE, Jinx can do what needs to be done on his end without me being a distraction.”
“That doesn’t make sense to me, Jade.” Rikki protested. “There is no reason to hide who you are. You don’t need to hide your skills. Jinx can take care of himself. He has for the past 24 years. You need to train harder. You need to push yourself and your abilities, so that when it comes time, you can help Jinx take down the General. Because I promise you, we are all going to help and you are going to want to be there.”
“If the General finds out everything I can do, he will hunt me down,” Jade insisted. “If he catches me, I will be his prisoner again and Jinx will become his prisoner, too, because the General will know Jinx is the only one that could have trained me in the things that I know. Jinx has done so much for me, Rikki. I can’t let him get caught.”
“You have been with us for several months, Jade. The General isn’t going to think anyone other than RARE trained you,” Rikki responded. “Now, we are going to go hand to hand and I want to see what you have. None of this girly bullshit you have been pulling.”
“Jinx taught me to fight, Rikki. I have his fighting style. Not many do. The General will know.” Jade hesitated, as she watched Angel, Nico, Phoenix, Jaxson and Ryker coming toward them. They were all training together today, but Jade and Flame had decided to practice together before the others arrived. Now they were close enough to hear Jade and Rikki’s argument. Jade was pissed. How dare Rikki put Jinx in danger? Who the hell did she think she was? Jinx had been there for Jade since they had met 20 years ago. No one else had been there. Not Angel, not her father, just Jinx. And no one would put his life at risk if Jade could help it. Jinx was in enough danger as it was.
“Let’s do this, Jade. Now!” Rikki ground out, jabbing at Jade quickly with her fist. Jade easily blocked it. Laughing, Rikki kicked out with her foot, jabbing Jade in the thigh hard and then jumping back. “Is that it? All you can do is block? You aren’t going to save your brother and take down the General with those moves. Of course, if that is all Jinx taught you, then maybe he will be dead before we can save him anyway.”
Jade saw red. Fuck Rikki. No one was going to get to her brother. In the background, she heard Angel ordering Rikki to stand down, but Jade could not stop herself. Rikki had pushed too hard. Leaping forward, Jade slammed an elbow into Rikki’s mouth, then quickly swept Rikki’s feet out from under her. Rikki landed on her ass but swiftly rolled out of the way and was up and ready to go.
“Both of you stand down now!” Angel ordered as she stopped in front of them. “I don’t know what’s going on here, but you need to back away from each other.”<
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Jade moved in close to Rikki, her hands tightly balled into fists at her side, her body shaking with fury. “Stop hiding,” Rikki snarled. “Show us who you really are.”
Grabbing Rikki by the throat, Jade slammed her up against the barn. Growling low, Jade threatened, “If anything happens to my brother because of you, I will kill you.” The sight of the blood trailing down Rikki’s chin along with the brief glimpse of fear in Rikki’s eyes finally broke through the haze in Jade’s mind. Quickly stepping back, Jade fought to raise her shields and find that inner peace that would make all of her pain and suffering fade once again into the background. Breathing deeply and fighting for that inner calm, Jade slowly backed away from the stunned team. “I need to get away for a while,” she whispered brokenly. “I need to be alone. I’m going for a run.”
Angel nodded silently. “Rikki,” she said after a moment, “we were just coming to get you. Jeremiah called and we are needed on a mission.” Turning to her team she told them, “You are on your own this time. Nico, you are in charge. I trust you to get the job done. I’m staying here with my daughter. She needs me.”
“No,” Jade interrupted Angel. “I need to be alone. I’m sorry, I need time to myself. Go with your team.” When Angel looked like she was going to argue, Jade insisted, “You saw what just happened, Angel. I’m not ready to talk about it, but if I don’t get some time alone someone might get hurt.” Sighing deeply, Jade fought the tears that threatened to break free. “If I need anything, I will call Chase. He will send someone.”
Chase was the Alpha of the White River wolf pack that lived near Boulder, Colorado. He was Angel’s mate, even though both seemed to be fighting the mate bond. He was also raising two little girls RARE had rescued from the same facility where Flame was held. Two little girls Angel wanted to claim as her own, but was unable to. Jade was not sure what was going on between Chase and Angel, but there were several times she had used her abilities to try to calm both when they were together. Jade had the ability to affect emotions occasionally, but it didn’t always work. Chase and Angel were proof of that.
Trace's Temptation (RARE Series, #3) Page 2
