She stepped up to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders, pulling him down against her. He settled his head on her shoulder, slid his arms around her waist, and held her, hating how weak he felt. He wanted to be at the village now, spilling Stellan’s blood as retribution for the things he had done, but it would be suicide. He was in no fit state to fight, not against a male who had bested him before and had come close to killing him.
He had never been so glad that his animal instincts had forced him to survive, to escape with his life from a fight that should have claimed it.
Because he was going to make Stellan suffer for every life he had stolen, every punishment he had ordered and carried out, and every female he had taken against her will.
Cavanaugh was going to tear him to pieces.
“Cavanaugh?” Eloise murmured softly and stroked his hair, smoothing her fingers through it and smoothing out his feelings at the same time, bringing his anger down from a raging boil to a steady simmer in his veins. She pressed a kiss to his cheek and sighed against his skin, the warmth of her breath instantly giving way to the cold.
“I’m good.” He settled his hands on her hips, pulled down a final deep breath to rein in his need to spill blood, and stepped back from her. He lifted his eyes to meet hers, finding them filled with warmth and concern. “I’m sorry about everything.”
“There’s no need to keep saying that.” She brushed the backs of her fingers across his cheek and smiled.
“There is… there’s every need for me to keep saying it… because no matter how many times I say it, it isn’t enough. It won’t be enough until I end this.”
“I know.” She lowered her gaze and her smile fell away.
He cursed her. He hadn’t meant to bring up what would happen when they returned to the village, making her believe that he would take his place as alpha again, leaving her alone once more. What she had said to him about her mother came crashing back down on his shoulders, weighing heavily on his heart, and he sighed as he thought about it.
He should have been there for Eloise. She had been close to her mother, and so had he. He had always felt that she had approved of their match, and he had known she had disapproved when he had taken the position of alpha and had been unable to see Eloise. He had hoped to find her alive and well at the pride, because he had wanted to show her that he was trying to do the right thing.
Cavanaugh looked at Eloise, torn between asking the question burning on the tip of his tongue and remaining silent. He didn’t want to hurt her, but he needed to know.
“Eloise,” he started and then faltered when she looked up at him, right into his eyes. He exhaled hard and released her waist. “Your mother… did Stellan…”
He couldn’t finish that question and the look in her eyes said that he didn’t need to in order for her to understand.
She shook her head and relief beat through him, swift and soothing.
“It was natural causes,” she said and he sent a silent thank you to the gods for granting him that small mercy.
He didn’t know what he would have done if she had said that Stellan had killed her mother, but it would have torn his heart to shreds.
“I should’ve been there.” He looked over his left shoulder, into the distance towards the village.
“She would have liked that.” Eloise’s soft words drew his gaze back to her. There was no anger in them, no hurt, not as there had been when she had told him that her mother had died. She reached out and took his hand, pressing her thumb into his palm, and stared at it. “She still loved you.”
That didn’t make him feel better.
“She went to her grave disappointed with me and believing I had left you alone in the world forever.” He sighed and shook his head, and then twisted her hand in his and toyed with her fingers. Her black thermal gloves blended into his. “I’ve failed so many people.”
“You haven’t failed me.” She placed her free hand against his face, tipped his head up and met his gaze. “You wanted to be free of a role you hated, and you seized the chance the gods gave to you. You didn’t know what would happen. It wasn’t your fault that Stellan turned on his own people.”
“I was thinking only of myself.” He huffed and stepped back, breaking contact between them. “I should have thought of the others. I was their alpha, dammit, and I should have acted like it. Instead I thought only of myself and what I wanted.”
“No.” She grabbed his hand again and held it tightly, her fingers crushing his together, and frowned up at him, her honey-coloured eyes flashing fire. “You didn’t only think of yourself and what you wanted. You thought of me too… you thought of us… you thought of what we wanted.”
Her voice trailed off into a whisper at the end, the strength fading from her eyes at the same time, and she released him and looked down into the valley, turning her profile to him.
Cavanaugh heaved a sigh.
Maybe he had been thinking of both of them, but they were only two out of many, and he still should have placed his pride before his own desires. He had been too quick to seize his chance to escape a life he hated and return to the one he loved.
The one where they were together.
The one he would have with her.
He needed to tell her that she was his mate and that he had no intention of reprising his role as alpha. He needed to tell her everything now, before they were back in the village.
“Eloise—”
A roar cut him off and he spun on his heel, looking along the path behind him, the one that led to the village. Nothing. Snow tumbled over the track. His gaze shot left and his heart froze in his chest before exploding into action.
A large male dressed in white winter gear skidded down the sloping side of the mountain towards him, disturbing the snow and sending it rolling down ahead of him. Two more men followed close behind him. A patrol team from the village.
“Eloise, run.” He pushed her just as the first male reached them, sending her stumbling backwards along the track, towards the edge of the plateau. “Get down the mountain.”
She shook her head and he cut her off with a snarl, flashing his fangs at her, commanding her to obey him. She shot him a wounded look and then turned and ran, her dark pack bouncing with each step.
The brunet male slammed into him, knocking him backwards and sending them both tumbling down the slope towards the valley below. Cavanaugh grappled with the male as they fell, struggling to land his blows and evade the ones the male threw at him as they rolled, bouncing off boulders beneath the snow. He struck one hard and grunted as the air whooshed out of his lungs and his head turned.
He was in no condition to fight, not against three males who were accustomed to the thinner air, but he needed to stop them, at least for a little while.
His gaze sought Eloise as the world twisted and spun around him, and he caught sight of her close to the end of the track where it dropped down onto the plateau. One of the males was going after her. The other was skidding down the slope, following Cavanaugh and his friend.
Cavanaugh hit the valley bottom hard. The male landed on top of him and Cavanaugh grunted as his weight pressed down on his stomach and lungs. He growled and shoved his palm up into the dark-haired male’s face, snapping his head backwards. Before the male could recover, he landed a second blow, smashing his fist into his cheek and sending him falling sideways into the deep snow.
Cavanaugh scrambled onto his feet just as the second male barrelled into him, taking him down again. His pack pressed into his back, bending him at a painful angle beneath the male. He grabbed the blond’s arm and pushed it upwards as he rolled, gaining the upper hand and pinning the male beneath him.
He grinned and punched the blond hard, one after the other, snapping his head right and then left. The scent of blood joined the metallic odour of snow as he slammed his fist into the male’s nose.
Maybe he stood a chance after all.
The brunet grabbed Cavanaugh’s hair as he swun
g another punch at the male beneath him and hauled him backwards, making him miss his target. He growled and reached over behind him, snagging the male’s wrist, and went to throw him over his head.
Eloise shrieked.
Cavanaugh’s head snapped towards her in time to see her crumple onto the snow.
He roared at the male who loomed behind her, his arm still outstretched from the blow he had delivered, and threw the one who stood behind him over his head, sending him crashing down on top of his companion.
Cavanaugh launched to his feet and ran as fast as he could through the snow, determined to reach Eloise. She wasn’t moving. He growled through his emerging fangs and ran harder, his head spinning as his lungs burned and his heart laboured.
His left foot landed hard on the ground beneath him and his knee buckled, sending him face first into the snow. He snarled and struggled back onto his feet, forcing himself to keep going. He lumbered forwards, the world twirling around him.
“Eloise,” he whispered and reached for her. He was close.
The male standing over her turned to face him. A thick rope dangled from his right fist.
Cavanaugh roared at the sight of it.
He wouldn’t let the male lay his filthy hands on his female.
His Eloise.
He staggered forwards and swung a wild blow at the male, who easily dodged his clumsy attempt, and collapsed into the snow beside her. He breathed hard, staring at her pale face and the blood trickling down her left cheek from beneath her hat.
He reached for her.
Pain exploded across the back of his skull.
The world went black.
Chapter 13
Pain burned through Cavanaugh’s body, fiercest in his head and in his arms. He tried to move them in front of him but they didn’t budge. Awareness slowly dawned, understanding that his wrists were shackled behind him. The cold metal bit into his bare skin.
Icy wet froze his left side, from his shoulder down to his feet. They were bare too. The only item of clothing left on him was his trousers and the wetness of them said someone had removed the weatherproof layer, leaving him in only his light grey trousers. His enemy meant to keep him cold, draining the strength from him and making it hard for him to move, his muscles quick to tense and grow fatigued.
He breathed slowly, settling his heart and checking his condition. Based on the fact he could breathe easier and no longer felt weak from the thinner air, he had been out cold for a while, long enough for him to acclimatise to the altitude. Several hours, if not more. How long had he been at the village? He needed to know. The three men couldn’t have carried both him and Eloise to the village before nightfall. It wasn’t possible.
He focused his senses, bringing them slowly back online, using them to check out his surroundings without opening his eyes. A number of people surrounded him, some of their scents familiar. Eloise was there. He wanted to open his eyes and see her, but forced himself to wait. His captors weren’t aware that he was conscious and he had to use that to his advantage.
He could smell the three who had attacked him and Eloise.
And he could smell Stellan.
He couldn’t catch August’s scent. Had Stellan done something to him to keep him away?
Cavanaugh suspected he was in the square in the middle of the village. If the metal ribs pressing into his side were anything to go by, he was caged as well as shackled. Not good.
He placed the three who had attacked him directly ahead of him with Stellan. Two more were there with them. The five lackeys that Eloise had told him about. The two he had fought were strong, but nothing compared with Stellan. Cavanaugh could easily deal with them now that he had acclimatised, even with the cold draining his strength and slowing him down.
He slowly manoeuvred onto his knees, grimacing as the metal shackles holding his wrists behind him settled on his lower back, chilling and burning his bare skin at the same time.
A murmur ran through the crowd.
Cavanaugh opened his eyes, pinning them straight on Stellan where he stood at the edge of the five-foot-high dark stone platform a short distance from him, blue sky and mountaintops as his backdrop. The position of the sun told Cavanaugh that it was late morning but didn’t answer his question about how long he had been in the village.
The black-haired male’s green eyes were on someone else.
He tracked Stellan’s gaze and his stomach plummeted when he saw Eloise.
She lay slumped against a thick wooden post just metres from him in the centre of the square, a rope tightly tied around her wrists, pinning them above her head. She shivered constantly, her teeth chattering, her lips almost blue and her skin red raw as she rested in the compressed snow in only her underwear. Blood tracked down her cheek and smeared across her neck, forming a handprint. Someone had throttled her.
“You fucking bastard.” Cavanaugh launched himself at the bars of his cramped six-foot-square cage, slamming his shoulder into the metal rods with such force that the entire cage shifted forward several inches.
His blood boiled as he attacked the thick bars, kicking them, each blow sending sharp stabbing pain up his leg bones. He turned around to grasp two bars in his hands and braced his bare feet against the bottom of the cage as he heaved forwards, trying to break them.
Stellan chuckled.
Cavanaugh turned on him with a roar that shook the mountains, echoing around them for long after he had finished. He breathed hard, his gaze constantly leaping between Stellan and Eloise.
He needed to escape the damned cage and reach her. His kind could withstand extreme cold, but not for long, and definitely not when they were naked and kneeling in the snow.
“Eloise.” He pressed his forehead against the bars closest to her and kneeled, willing her to hear him. “Eloise.”
She moaned and a frown flickered on her brow.
“Come on, Eloise, Baby,” he murmured, his heart pounding against his ribs. “Let me see you’re okay.”
She grimaced and tried to lift her head, the tangled threads of her damp dark hair falling away from her face as she raised it. Her lips parted, reopening the cut that dashed across her lower one. Her eyes opened and he cursed as they met his. They were haunted again, no longer bright and shining as they had been throughout their journey.
“Let her go,” he snapped at Stellan. “She hasn’t done anything. Let her go.”
Stellan didn’t move. His cold green eyes remained impassive.
“Fuck you.” Cavanaugh bared his fangs at the male and then turned on the people gathered around the square, forming a circle.
Doing nothing but stare at her.
“Help her.” He pinned every single one who dared to look at him with a glare. “Do something. She’ll die if you don’t, dammit. She risked her life to bring me back for your sakes and you do nothing when she needs you?”
Everyone looked away, lowering their gazes to the snow, and some even turned around, looking as if they might leave and head back to one of the many two-storey buildings that formed the village around the square.
How many times had he and Eloise walked through this square together, laughing in the sunshine, admiring the beauty of the village and the mountains that protected it from the outside world?
The elaborate buildings, with their pale stone ground floor and their upper floor with its white panels surrounded by dark carved wood, and topped with a low angled roof were no longer beautiful to him. The mountains that rose beyond them were no longer stunning. The whole place felt cold and desolate, one that had lost its charm for him years ago. It had faded more every day that he’d had to remain apart from Eloise, watching her from a distance.
There was no beauty in this world without her at his side.
Without her smile.
Without her laughter.
Without the way she would look at him with a trace of shyness mixed with affection in her honey-coloured eyes.
Cavanaugh roared and attacked the cage ag
ain, rattling it and tearing a few gasps from the gathered.
“Do something!” He wedged his right shoulder against the bars of his cage and breathed hard, staring at his kin, silently imploring them to do as he asked because he had never asked them to do anything before now, and now he was asking them to save his Eloise. “Please.”
A few exchanged glances and then quickly looked away from him when Stellan growled. They were scared, he could understand that after everything they had been through, but there were many of them and only a few who stood with Stellan. If he could rally them, give them the courage to rise up against Stellan, they could win without his help.
“I’m begging you,” he whispered and looked at Eloise, aching with a need to pull her into his arms and hold her as she stared blankly at him through dull lifeless eyes. “Save her. You don’t need an alpha to lead you… together you’re strong… you can help her.”
He looked back at them. A quiet murmur ran through the crowd, more of them swapping glances now, and he knew the tide was turning. He could inspire them to take up arms and fight for their pride.
“I should have silenced you when I met my men at the edge of the village this morning and they were dragging your worthless unconscious body through the snow, together with your bitch.” Stellan dropped down from the platform and strode towards the cage, the snow crunching beneath his thick leather boots. He was stark black against pure white as he stood before Cavanaugh, his top lip curling to reveal a short fang. “I wanted to make an example of you though. You’ll die today, here, in front of all these people… and when they see their strongest male die like every other male who tried to stand against me… they’ll obey my every command without question, forever.”
Cavanaugh bit back the growl that rumbled up his throat.
He had been wrong. His kin hadn’t gathered out of choice. They had been forced to come and witness his execution.
Stellan stepped back and the blond and brunet males who had fought Cavanaugh leaped off the platform, landing close to him. They strode past their alpha, the blond taking a key from him, and stopped at the door of Cavanaugh’s cage.
Craved by an Alpha Page 12
