by Setta Jay
A minute later the ground rocked under her feet. Her ears buzzed from the roar of the explosion while small debris rained down and smoke and flame lifted into the sky. Fire, heat. Nothing big made it to her, but her heart stopped.
Conn? she shouted in the link, and her heart started pounding almost out of her chest. Her parents had been killed in a fiery crash. Her beast wanted to rush in when he didn’t answer.
Isa, tell Bastian to send someone to Conn. There was an explosion. She hoped they knew how to track him, because she had no way of giving directions.
Run then, Dacia.
She snarled through the mental link. Tell him now! Tell him that we’re near one of their enemy Mageia’s demolished homes. She’d never felt so out of her mind, and that was all the information she had to relay. Her beast wanted to run to him, but she didn’t dare get them both blown up. She treaded as lightly as she could toward the debris and flames. The scents screwing with her. Was that what her beast was trying to tell her? She didn’t like the guilt that was like acid licking at her gut, adding to the pain of her racing heart. She never went against her instincts, but she hadn’t trusted them since the minute he’d come in her home. Nose to the ground, she moved further toward the fire. Hoping to hell he wasn’t dead. She may not trust him, but she didn’t want him dead and her animal was howling and crying out for her to get to him.
Her parents had died and she couldn’t stand the idea that he might too because she didn’t get to him in time. Images flooded her mind. Him lying decapitated or burning because she hadn’t trusted what her animal was trying to tell her. Her pace quickened.
Two males and a female appeared not far from her. Jax was one; she didn’t know the others. The one male was huge, the biggest male she’d probably ever seen, with longish blond hair and emerald eyes. He barely spared her a glance as he focused on the fire and getting into it. Power. So much rolled from him. She transformed in front of Jax, who moved to her, and he nodded grimly. “It’s okay, Red, stay here, and let us get him out. If you hit a land mine, Conn’ll have my ass.”
The female was a beautiful blonde in heels and a fifties-style pencil skirt under a lab coat. A doctor for their kind? She snarled, her beast more in the forefront in the last hour than it had ever been. The noise was low; her muscles tightened at the idea of the female going near him. She was shocked, but at that point her damned animal was more in control of her body than she was. She clenched her teeth and battled the possessiveness coming from her beast. Conn obviously needed help, and damn it, he wasn’t hers. Her animal snapped back in her mind.
Jax turned to her, a mirth-filled grin on his gorgeous face. There was a hint of mischief there. How was he not worried? She narrowed her eyes when he spoke. “Sirena will get him healed and conscious, and I promise she won’t feel him up.”
She snarled again. When he grinned, she snapped, “I’m not doing it intentionally, asshole,” defending her snapping, snarling animal showed just how out of sorts she was. She pinched the bridge of her nose and ignored his chuckle, her embarrassment, and the anger and possessiveness that was eating away at her mind. Her eyes tracked the others as they went into the flames. The tension didn’t seem to be getting any better.
Jax moved so fast she never saw him advance before he had a gentle hold on her arm. “Brace yourself, the landing is never fun for newbies.” She felt her body break apart, and then she was nothing more than air one second and whole again the next. She gasped to fill her lungs back with air and fought the dizziness and nausea that hit her hard. She doubled over as her sisters came at her through a balcony door.
She halted their talk with a hand in the air as she breathed, refusing to throw up.
“It’s horrible, but passes quickly,” Mia said as she rubbed Dacia’s back, the small comfort not nearly enough to calm her animal. Isa and Zoe ran their hands in her wet hair to get it out of her face. Family. Conn. She swallowed hard.
She spun on Jax. “Why did you take me away? They hadn’t got him out yet!” she snarled at the big male. Furious that she hadn’t seen if Conn was alive. Her animal needed to fucking see him alive!
“They’re getting him into the infirmary now. You can rest here with your sisters until he’s up.”
“Take me to him!” Her voice was deadly, and she knew her wolf was in her eyes. She wanted to see where he was. Had to. Her sisters had quieted, but still rubbed her arms and back.
“He’s fine. I promise. He’s just unconscious, and they’re telling me through our link that Sirena will have him patched up soon.”
She growled at him and tried for calm. It wasn’t coming; her animal was just too riled. She wouldn’t rest until she saw him, had confirmation he was alive.
Jax ran a hand over his hair and shook his head. A small smile was on his lips when he spoke. “I’ll take you down for one look, but then you come back.”
“We’re going with her,” Isa said in a hard voice. Her sisters were all at her side, trying to comfort her.
“Son of a bitch. Shit, okay. You’ll need to keep her animal level,” Jax growled, and she saw him look at Bastian, who was off to the side. The two males quickly escorted all four females down the stairs into the lower level. She saw the big blond male, and he quirked an eyebrow at Jax.
“Fuck, I didn’t have a choice, Drake. I told her one fucking look and she’s back to the media room to cool her jets.”
“Play nice, wolf, Sirena’s in there to help.” The power and warning in Drake’s words were clear.
The door opened, and she looked in and saw the female standing aside, assessing her. Conn’s skin was burned, and the scent of his blood made her heart stop. Her animal needed more, wanted to rush to him, but Jax held her back, not crushing her arm, but not allowing her entry. Her sisters’ hands were on her, and they were saying something, but her ears were ringing from the explosion and fear. Breathe. She saw his chest move, and finally her animal let her take a breath of her own.
“He’ll be fine,” the blonde said with a small smile.
“Come on, Red. Let her patch him up.” The door shut as she snarled. Jax pulled her away before she could see the female touch Conn. Her sisters were snarling now.
“Let her go!” Mia snapped at Jax.
“And that’s why you’re not allowed to stay down here,” he said, shaking his head and ushering them all ahead of him and up the stairs. Her sisters’ hands were at her back as she fought the need to turn back. “You saw him. He’s alive.” She heard the smile in Jax’s voice. When they got into the media room, she settled as best she could. Her beast was still furious, but not at the same level. Still, it was a battle, the thought of the female touching him almost as bad as him hurting, which was so wrong her mind was having trouble with all of it.
She didn’t even know Conn, but if her wolf had its way, she’d rend that blonde into bite-sized bits topped with tufts of shiny blonde hair. Her beast was more than possessive. She pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to clear her mind of all insane impulses. He was technically fine, breathing, unlike her parents had been by the time her brothers had gotten to them. She rolled her neck. She shouldn’t care if he was fine. She. Didn’t. Know. Him. Her wolf snarled inside her head, and she’d never felt so separated from the animal inside her.
“Are you okay? What happened?” Isa demanded softly as they settled her onto a big leather couch. Isa next to her, and Mia and Zoe on the floor in front of her.
She told her sisters about the walk and then running with him, the Mageia home close to her new town. Told them about the agitation, his giving her a choice, and then finally about her mental link. They all stilled. Processing that huge piece of information in shock. She was connected to him already.
“You’re wearing his shirt?” Isa touched a button, and it set her animal off. The snarl slipped out before she could stop it.
“Sorry,” Dacia said in frustration and embarrassment as her sisters’ mouths gaped. “It’s that he’s hurt, and my damned
wolf thinks he’s hers. You saw how possessive and crazed I was down there.” She shook her head, still reeling.
“Yes, we did. This makes things more complicated. Or maybe less,” Zoe said, eying her, assessing as they all either touched her leg or her hands in comfort, but staying away from his shirt.
“Less?”
“What if everything that’s happening is actually good?” Zoe added and Isa looked at their sister, thoughtful.
“We can hope, but I still want everyone cautious and watchful. It’s all we can do,” Isa said, blowing out a breath. The others nodded and settled in to comfort Dacia.
In Dacia’s mind her sister told her about her brothers. Hagen’s sure he can find a way to free us. He’s so damned arrogant. He has no clue what he’d be up against. He and Jerric are on their way to the States. We told him the Guardians are taking us to Tetartos, and he’s convinced he can do more than we’re doing to get free. Isa sounded pissed at their eldest brother, and she understood.
Zoe might be right. These Guardians don’t trip any of our beasts, at least not in a dangerous way. I think we still need to look for any weakness or anything useful around us. Mia’s animal is still focused on Jax, but if anything, he seems standoffish when he could have taken complete advantage of her. They all could have done anything they wanted to us by now. I think we need to see what we’re getting into in the other Realm. Isa shook her head. Dacia knew she was frustrated, angry that they were all so powerless, and she was likely pissed at their brothers for thinking she wasn’t doing anything. She was the one who’d always been stuck dealing with Hagen’s arrogance. Mainly because she was the oldest in the States, and the rest of them pretty much avoided dealing with him.
“I’m wearing down. Fighting my beast is sapping all my energy at this point.”
“Rest,” Mia said softly and held Dacia’s hand against her cheek.
A huge TV was playing a stupid comedy she knew Zoe liked. Isa pulled off Dacia’s shoes and turned her to lay down with her feet in her eldest sister’s lap. Zoe and Mia settled closer together on the floor, with their heads back, touching Dacia’s arm and hand. Dacia looked off. There was a bar to one side and enough chairs and tables for over a dozen large males.
Her mind was going through everything they knew, and her sisters were trying to calm her with touch as they all attempted to understand what was truly happening. How it would all end. Their brothers raged and demanded they find out where they were being held.
I wouldn’t say even if I knew! I won’t have our entire family taken until I know what we’re getting into, Isa snapped at Hagen.
I’ll take care of everything when I get there, her eldest brother snarled.
You don’t have a damned clue what the hell you’re talking about. They are easily as powerful as Gods, Isa bit out.
Her siblings fought through the link, and she heard Isa sharing the information Bastian had given them about the Realms and the Guardians and what they supposedly did to protect it all. It was a mess of fighting and snapping, and Dacia just couldn’t concentrate on any of it. She didn’t have the strength. Her beast was still upset, and all she could focus on was calming it.
She glanced at Bastian, who had stayed near the door. Jax had left the minute he had them back in the room. She wondered if the other male had gone back to check on Conn. Bastian nodded to her, his dark eyes shining with something… sympathy, maybe. His tanned features and goatee seemed to hide any real expression. He just stood at the doorway with his big arms crossed over his chest and his long black hair pulled tight in a band at the back of his head, seeming relaxed in his guard duty.
Chapter 10
Guardian Compound, Earth Realm
“Where’s Dacia?” Conn asked Jax the second Sirena and Drake left. She’d healed the most severe damage, but that didn’t mean it didn’t still hurt like a bitch. He’d just started getting true lucidity back and needed to get his head straight. The blast had knocked him out cold; his body still felt the impact.
“With her sisters.”
“She didn’t get hurt?” She hadn’t been close. The last thing he remembered was hearing a snick, too low for a mortal’s hearing, but enough that he should have moved a hell of a lot faster. He’d been too damned distracted, focusing more on Dacia than he should have been. His senses had been preoccupied, making sure she stayed back and at the same time wondering if she’d run. Fucking hoping she would.
The bastards had put the device in almost the exact spot Sander had been blasted before. His wolf had smelled the explosives, but he’d dismissed it because of the damned location. Cynthia’s people were too smart for his liking. He wasn’t sure why they’d come back to the site, but he didn’t like it. He wouldn’t have thought they’d add more heavy explosives. Other traps, yes, but that was a hell of a blast. Her people knew just how to screw with them. Last time they’d used perfume and piercing alarms, turning the Guardians enhanced senses against them.
“Your mate was fine, but she was almost to you by the time we got there. She sounded the alarm. Told her sister to tell us to come.” He didn’t like the idea that she’d gotten so damned close. She could have been hurt, but as much as he hated that she’d been in danger, his stomach clenched that his little female had tried to rescue him.
Conn rolled his neck and thought back, processing the rest of what his brother had said. He hadn’t gotten a call out to his brothers? No. He didn’t remember having time to teleport, or had he tried? He couldn’t remember. Dacia had called for help and moved to come for him. He grinned. She could have run. He knew she was unsure of everything he’d told her, but she’d stayed.
Time with her sisters to go over everything he’d told her would probably be a good thing, but, damn, he wanted to go to her. See for himself that she was okay. He really shouldn’t, not yet. Not until he’d checked the cameras, because having her scent in his lungs would make work a pain in the ass. She fucking consumed him.
Jax’s next words stilled him from getting out of the bed. “If she hadn’t been so snarly about Sirena touching you, I would have let her stay here instead of planting her with the crazy-assed she-wolves.” There was amusement in his brother’s eyes, but Conn’s reaction was much different. Fuck, his cock came alive again at the idea of her jealous and snarling. Shit, he wanted to hear that vibration in her throat as she clawed his back and fought to get him inside her.
“She came here?” he growled.
“She demanded to see you were fucking breathing, even after I told her you were. Her animal was right at the surface. She snarled and snapped until I brought her down, but damn, she liked Sirena near you almost less than the sight of you bloodied.” Jax laughed.
That hit him in the gut. His mate was jealous and worried. His lips curved with just how much he fucking liked it. What he didn’t like was the idea of her seeing him hurt, that she’d been scared, but at least her animal would have calmed knowing he was alive.
Ignoring his semi-hard cock, he slid out of the bed and stretched his arms, feeling the pull of the new skin on his back. Jax wouldn’t give a shit about his nudity, and it wasn’t like he’d ever been shy. He checked his arms. Thank fuck he’d had Sirena do the ink with her power, eons ago; it was coming back as the new skin formed. That ink was important to him. It meant something, a reminder. Sirena used the same process when marking the males in a mating ceremony. His chest muscles twitched with the idea of being marked for Dacia. His arms may be covered, along with a good portion of his back, but his chest was sacred territory. A place for his mate’s mark alone, one he spent thousands of years convinced he’d never have, but he’d left it blank. Hoped.
“Should I let her know you’re awake?” Jax said with a sly grin.
The thought of her coming down to see him naked had its upside. He grinned. She’d definitely wanted to see, and he couldn’t fucking wait to coax her into playing with him. Not yet. Neither fully trusted the other yet, and now that her scent was replaced with ash and dir
t he could think more clearly. He needed a second to clean up and get his head straight before continuing their dance. It would have to be enough that she was there and safe. At least for the moment.
“No, man. I need to go to the war room and check my surveillance data from Cynthia’s. Then I’ll find her.” He didn’t want her running scared if he pushed her too fast; he wanted her to enjoy the burn of anticipation and pleasure he’d give her. Her scent had nearly killed him in the woods. He needed to dial it back. Seducing his virginal mate was going to be slow torture, but he knew it’d lead to the best fucking pleasure he’d ever experienced. When he took her innocence, it would take him to another level, and he wanted her with him and wild.
“All right, Drake’s got me and Bastian on shifts babysitting your new fucking sisters. I get to go see if I can track them back to wherever they came from before I’m on watch. Fuck you very much. That little one’s got nightmare written all over her.” Jax’s voice sounded pained as he made for the door. He chuckled at his brother’s dramatics. Not having Dacia’s scent all over him was helping to keep his semi from getting rock hard.
He wondered if she still wore his shirt. She’d clasped onto it so tightly it made his dick pulse. That she hadn’t given it back had pleased both him and his wolf.
He shook off those thoughts and pushed his fingers through his hair, feeling bits of wood and dirt from the explosion.
He used his power to kick on the water in the first shower in the corner of the infirmary and walked in while it was still half cold. He needed to cool the fuck down. It didn’t work well, but when it got to lukewarm, the water started feeling good on his skin and muscles. He’d taken a beating. His head bowed in the stream, and he thought about Dacia even though it was the last fucking thing he needed to do, but she’d already taken over his mind.
