Her eyes flicked around, as if she knew something he didn’t. Rhylan trusted his mate, but he still ached to know what had hurt her so much. She’d been inconsolable. He’d paused, only a moment, to search her phone and discovered she’d been talking to Nora.
The woman still had not shown to help them. He didn’t think she would. The first time, she’d been reluctant to help. Why would she try a second time? Something about her family terrified her. Nora did not want to cross her family for whatever reason.
If he had to guess, he would have thought it had something to do with Javier. It seemed that the root of everything lately was that man. Nora had left because she’d been disenchanted with her family and their goals. When Thalia showed up, claiming to want to rescue him, Nora had flipped and run.
What kind of history did Nora and Javier have?
All the while, he made his way toward the back of the barn. His mind worked while he should have been sniffing the air for hunters, while he should have been scouting for signs of a trap. Amazingly, they made it to Javier’s cage, a single lightbulb glowing overhead. It cast a small globe of dim light over the stall intersection.
Javier growled soft and low from within his cage, as if he never quite stopped. Rhylan could not see the beast inside the cage, but the sounds that came from inside were from a creature larger than he’d ever encountered.
No, that wasn’t right.
Only once had he encountered a beast of that size. Rhylan swallowed, panic rising through him. He knew there was no reason to fear. The creature was not here. This was a mission to rescue Thalia’s brother. The two creatures were not one in the same.
At least, that was what Rhylan thought.
A naggingly familiar scent tickled his nose. He shook his head, trying to dispel it and the memory. Over and over he had to remind himself that the creature who’d made him was not there. That beast was long gone from his life. There was little chance he’d ever run into him again. Plus, if that beast was in this barn, he was safely trapped inside one of the silver-lined cages.
Rhylan’s wolf still snarled on instinct. It was on guard, hackles raised in defense. It knew otherwise. The beast was here, and they were headed right toward it. Rhylan was so distracted by the war inside his soul that he didn’t hear the scraping of feet against the dirt floor. The sound was almost imperceptible, the subtle click of a rifle.
Rhylan roared with rage, thoughts of his maker smashed. The dart sang through the air. He heard a small sound of pain before the world stopped spinning. Thalia stumbled, falling toward the locked cage. Her fingers worked quickly at the first few locks, but her body started to sink. The hunters came from every direction, from every dark shadow, rifles leveled at him and his mate. They’d been lied to, tricked into believing one thing only to fall into a trap.
The wolf surged forward, roaring and growling. Rhylan wasn’t about to argue with his beast. It flowed over him, shifting faster than he’d ever seen before. Magic rippled over his fur. Fingers brushed along his skin and power sank into his muscles.
For the first time, there were spirits in the barn. They’d come to help. He hoped they were a sign of better things. That there could be a light at the end of this dark tunnel, a chance for hope and life.
But, the hunters closed in around him. Their darts embedded in the earth around him. He realized the spirits around him made his form waver. It made him harder to hit. They clung to him like a shroud.
From within the shroud, he growled. The hunters hesitated. They’d never seen anything like him, and if he had anything to say, they’d never see anything again. He lunged. A hunter was quick, bring up the butt of his gun. It slammed into Rhylan’s jaw. His head vibrated, pins of pain shooting through his skull.
This wasn’t over. They couldn’t falter. He wouldn’t let his mate die in their hands.
***
Thalia whimpered. Her limbs failed her, collapsing beneath the weight of her body. She needed to move, to run, to push forward. There was only one thing she wanted. Weakly, she reached out. Her arm refused to obey her, growing heavier with each passing second. She needed to fight it. She could fight it.
Her arm wavered, fingers inches from the last sliding bolt, before falling to the ground with a thud. On the other side of the cage, she could hear a low whimper. Her brother’s cries for her turned into howls of rage. The sound promised to tear the barn apart plank by plank.
Thalia tried to smile, tried to be hopeful, but it was starting to look like she’d only fallen for another trap. All around her, more howls filled the space. The trapped shifters woke and gave their voices to the cacophony around them. The sound helped her cling to consciousness while the tranquilizer swamped her system again.
Her fingers curled in the dirt, a product of sheer determination. There was no giving up. Giving up meant a fate worse than death. It meant another weapon the enchantress could use against her brother, it meant failing her brother and she wasn’t going to let that happen.
But, the hunters knew they were there. Had they contacted their mistress? Was her brother’s soul on the line? Thalia knew she couldn’t stop now. First, his body. Then, his soul. They would move the earth to get it back, but they needed to start somewhere.
Her fingers dragged down the sliding locks, numb and unmoving. Thalia let out a strangled sound. She failed. Her body refused to move, not even an inch. Tears fell down her face to drop onto the dusty ground.
What more could she do? Behind her, Rhylan struggled with the hunters. He was outnumbered, four to one. Thalia heard the crunch of the rifle against Rhylan’s bones. Her heart cried out. Strength poured into her body, fueled by rage on behalf of her mate. He fought for her, to save her and her brother. She could not let him die like this.
For he would if no one came to his rescue.
“This isn’t going to end well, guys.” Nora’s voice was soft and casual and wholly unexpected. She glimmered with a power none of them had ever seen before. She was all at once ethereal and haunting.
Thalia’s stomach flopped. Had the witch’s daughter turned on them? Had they been betrayed? Panic lit through Thalia’s body, granting her a small amount of strength. But, Thalia watched Nora’s feet move past her field of vision, moving toward Rhylan and the hunters. The air crackled with energy. Nora sucked it from the very world around them, pulling the breath from Thalia’s lungs.
Her skin tingled and the air felt thin. Thalia drifted further from the situation, the tranquilizer sucking her in. She fought, gripping onto reality, but in the end, it claimed her.
Chapter Eighteen
Rhylan’s skull throbbed, but he didn’t let up. He snarled and leapt. This time, he asked the spirit in the room to push. It shoved at the back of one man’s legs while he hit the man’s chest. The hunter toppled. His head hit the floor with a crack and his eyes rolled back. Rhylan didn’t have time to do triage. He moved onto the next, silently requesting the spirits in the barn to move onto the next target.
He wasn’t even aware of Nora’s presence until she appeared by his side. A crackling whip of energy snapped through the air to smack her cousin in the face. The man flew back and hit the wall of Javier’s cage. She didn’t let up, pushing the hunters back with the force of her power. Rhylan leapt onto the next hunter, his teeth colliding with the metal of the gun as the man held it up in defense.
While he pushed and fought, he told all the spirits to settle onto the last hunter. They held him in place. Confusion flashed across the hunter’s face when he found his feet nailed to the ground and his arms stuck to his sides. Nora saw the opening and she took it. Only once did she glance at the hunter seemingly caught by nothing at all.
In moments, she had the locks thrown open and the door shoved aside. Rhylan faltered when he saw the beast inside. It gave the hunter just enough time to rear back and aim his rifle at Rhylan. Before the hunter could fire, the silver cage crashed open, and the beast flew out of it. Javier crashed into the hunter.
Rhyl
an stumbled and staggered. The spirits whispered to him. His mate needed him. There was no time to focus on the beast he’d just unleashed or the way his scars throbbed at the sight of him. All he could do was fumble toward Thalia. The shift rippled over him, his body breaking and remolding with each haggard step until he had human arms with which he could pull his mate into his arms.
He cradled her with one hand, using the other to yank the tranquilizer dart from her skin. She offered him a sleepy smile before the tranquilizer finally took her. He was impressed that she’d fought it off that long.
All around him, spirits of the earth trembled in the air. Licking his lips, he gave them one last request. He didn’t know if they could fulfill it, but he knew he had to try. He couldn’t leave all these shifters in the hands of the hunters. If he could free them from Cordelia, not only would they be free, but the witch would have significantly less power.
All around him, locks snapped free. It was more than he ever expected. While the hunters were busy with Nora and Javier, shifters slowly slunk from their cages. At first, they glanced around with cautious fear, then, all at once, they stampeded out of the barn.
Relief released the tension in his chest. The feeling of death disappeared, and he could breathe deep again. His head still throbbed, and his scars ached. Rhylan clutched Thalia close to his chest and looked back to Nora and Javier. His mate’s brother was the shifter who changed him.
There was no denying it.
It was funny, he realized, how the world worked. Shakily, he pulled Thalia into both arms and stood.
“Javier!” Nora screamed.
The beast they’d unleashed was wild. His mind seemed half gone, if not completely gone as he snapped and snarled at the hunter trapped beneath him. No blood had been spilt, but it seemed as though the shifter took delight in tormenting the hunter. While Rhylan didn’t blame him, they needed to move.
He moved around Javier. Nora took the other side. As Rhylan knelt in the dirt, Javier’s wide and wild eyes grazed across the unconscious woman in his arms. Javier was flanked by the two women who should have been the most important things in his life: his sister and his mate.
At first, Rhylan didn’t think it would work. Javier seemed too far gone. He reached back toward the spirits, now drifting away because they thought their job done. He might need them once more. Then, Javier’s eyes stuck on Thalia, as if finally recognizing her. Nora surged forward, pulling his face into her grasp and commanding his attention.
Her eyes bore into Javier’s and he slowly came back to himself, as much as the wolf could because he did not shift back. Rhylan watched the creature step off the hunter and follow Nora as she led the way out. He followed, eager to put miles and miles between him and the barn.
“Tell mom I’m not done with her yet,” Nora said at the front door, waiting for Rhylan and Thalia to pass through.
As it slammed shut on her cousins, her shoulders fell, and a shaky breath escaped her. She seemed to deflate, the fight she’d mustered now gone.
“I didn’t expect you to come,” Rhylan confessed.
“I didn’t plan on coming.” She pressed her head against the wooden door.
Behind them, the sun threatened to peek over the horizon, brightening the sky with muted color. Rhylan turned his face toward it and welcomed the new beginnings in his life. The beast at his knees cocked its head as it stared up at them.
He informed the beast that, yes, they did know one another, and yes, they were now family. Together, they marched back toward the lodge. Nora draped her denim jacket over Thalia’s sleeping form. Rhylan’s connection to the spirits of the earth shielded them from the blistering mountain winds and informed them they had not been followed.
The more he communed with the spirits the more he and the wolf fell into balance. It seemed they were a source of information and power that both Rhylan and his wolf trusted. He was grateful for them, for the power they fed him. While he was not in the ER anymore, he could still save people.
Chapter Nineteen
Thalia’s body ached.
She groaned and rolled over, slamming into Rhylan’s back. His scent bloomed in the air and enveloped her in a sense of safety. Wrapping her arms around him and pulling herself tight to his body, she shut her eyes and tried to remember what happened. The day before came back to her in chunks and pieces, slightly fuzzy for some reason.
She’d been hit with another dart. That’d been her own fault, recklessness that had gotten her caught, that had jeopardized the mission. She blamed herself, but Rhylan twisted in her arms, wrapping his around her and snuggling her as if nothing had happened. Whatever she’d done was forgiven in the embrace of his arms. His fingers glided down her bare skin and sent shivers through her body.
“Did you sleep well?” he teased.
“Like I’d been hit with horse tranquilizer,” she replied into the crook of his neck.
The splash of warm breath against his neck made him groan. He grew against her. She rocked her hips, rubbing and teasing despite the aches in her body. She wanted him more than she ached. But, first she needed to know.
“Did we save my brother? Is he free?” Thalia paused, unmoving, unbreathing.
Rhylan growled and nodded, his fingers digging into her skin. He was losing control. His eyes, when he opened them, were a mixture of mahogany and gold. The man and the wolf were in balance. They were in agreement over one thing.
They wanted her.
Happiness lit through her body, relief now that she knew her brother was safe. It pushed her to give in to the exploring hands of her mate, to the nipping kisses he was trailing down her neck. One hand rose to toy with her nipple, making her groan in turn.
But, she wasn’t about to give in that easy. Rhylan would have to work for it.
Thalia rolled out of bed. Her feet touched the floor before she fell back again. Rhylan yanked her onto the bed and rolled over her, careful to balance his own weight. He trapped her between his arms and knees, head dipping to bite the soft skin of her neck. Her back arched.
“You aren’t running from me,” Rhylan and his wolf growled.
“I see you’re getting to know your wolf a bit better.”
“All thanks to you,” he whispered into her skin. His confession made her skin come alive. She gasped and gripped him.
Being with Rhylan was unlike anything else. She couldn’t imagine a life without him, a life where she went through with what her father wanted.
Thoughts of her father was a bucket of cold water over her. She stilled beneath Rhylan, her mate immediately sensing something was wrong. He lifted himself over her so that he could study her eyes.
She gripped his arms, nails biting into his skin.
“What’s wrong? What happened?” Panic lit across his eyes. He searched her for wounds, for the source of her pain.
She pressed her lips together and shook her head. “He can still stop this.”
“Who can stop what? I don’t understand, Thal.”
“Us. My father can still stop us. I don’t know how to fight against my Alpha. Even if Miles goes home to tell him the engagement is off, dad could fight it. He could bind me to someone new.”
Rhylan growled, his wolf flooding his eyes. She knew he would fight for her. Rhylan would cross the continent to take her back, saving her like a trapped princess. But, she wasn’t one to be trapped, to be the damsel in distress. Thalia was done with being helpless. She refused to be anyone’s puppet any longer.
A thought rose through her, like a single balloon rising into the sky. It was there, fleeting and flying away. She reached for it, barely gasping it before she let it out into the world.
“Will you marry me, Rhylan? Will you be not only my mate, but my legally bound husband, too?”
Her proposal took him by surprise. At first, she worried he would panic and say no. It was sudden. They barely knew anything about one another aside from the bond between them. He was jerk and a blackmailer, but he was also a hero
ic spirit and a sweet lover.
Thalia held her breath, waiting for a reply.
“Before I answer, I have a small confession to make.”
Her heart threatened to crack. She felt herself spiraling away from the moment. Her father’s grip on her future, on her neck, tightened until she could barely breathe. Without Rhylan she had nothing. No one stood between her and the future her father was determined to pave for her.
“Your brother is the wolf that changed me.”
That… was not what she’d been expecting. The moment of blind panic paused. She stared up at her mate, mouth half open, with no words to say. What could she say? That she was sorry? It seemed wrong. Did he blame her and her family for what he was? Did he hate Javier and, therefore, her, too?
“So, this is going to be an interesting family, that’s for sure. Does this make me like your brother or something?”
The laugh that burst out of her rang like a bell. Rhylan smiled and nuzzled her neck.
“I mean, as long as I’m not your brother, it’s a yes from me.”
She held him tight, fighting back tears of relief. Rhylan was everything she never thought to ask for. “Does this make me a doctor’s wife?”
Rhylan grunted. “If I ever get my job back. I’ve been away too long and now, I’m bound to a pack in Virginia.”
“You could work here,” she offered. Fangway wasn’t the worst place to live. It was small and simple. Once they pushed the hunters away from town, it could be theirs. It helped that it was far, far away from her home. A place she never wanted to return to.
Rhylan said nothing. He stroked his hard cock against the moisture between her legs. All thoughts were blasted from her mind. All she knew was the sensation between her legs, ebbing and flowing through her like cold waves.
Outcast BoxSet Page 67
