Mated (Dark Ties Book 2)

by A. Vers

  Some of it wants to bubble up. To spill out. But I know I can’t let it.

  “Get here fast,” I say instead and end the call.

  Running headlong across the open field, my sneakers are soundless, light. A few tendrils of mist surrounds my body out of my peripheral. I ignore them. Or try to.

  There will be time enough later to sort through my marvel and my fear. To beg Tanner to help me understand this new change.

  But right now I just need him to stay alive long enough for the cavalry to arrive.

  It takes minutes to get across the open field. I barrel into the long rec hall and slide over the tile. “Callus!” I scream.

  A dark head peers out of an office off the hall. Callus’ sunglasses fall to the floor with the rapid movement, but he barely acknowledges them. His brows knit as he takes in my appearance. “Nisha—”

  “Attack on Silver Rock,” I say fast. His eyes bug at my words. “Daisy and Tanner went after the cat down by the ciorcal.”

  “Shit.” He takes off at a dead run toward me, already ripping at his shirt to pull it off. His body is velvet covered muscle. Not as sculpted at Tanner and not as tan. But no one could ever call Callus weak or unattractive.

  He dissolves misstep, just like T. Man one minute, large black cat the next. Where Tanner’s fur is sleek midnight, like oil, Callus sports soft ebony rosettes amidst the charcoal hue of his flanks. His dark mouth opens on a roar. The sound spears through my veins, calling, just like Tanner’s does. Beckoning me to join him. To hunt.

  I shiver as something soft and warm rolls through the center of my body.

  Callus sprints past, and keeps going out into the afternoon with another deep throated howl.

  All around me doors fly wide and people scramble.

  I dive back out the door and watch as the pack flows from human to beast. Some transitions take minutes. Others are done and over within a matter of a few heartbeats. But they all stream down toward the ravine, trailing Callus as his hair raising calls continue to fill the warm afternoon.

  Several of the young children crowd nearby, not an ounce of worry on their features.

  I miss the blind faith of that age. Miss the concept that the adults will deliver you from every bad thing. That they can keep you safe. Now I know better.

  The beast has come back to Silver Rock twice in twenty-four hours. In flagrant disregard to the pack, Callus, and even Tanner.

  Whoever is under that deadly set of claws has no regard for life. Be it human, shifter, or otherwise. And now Tanner and Daisy are out there taking the thing on on their own.

  Another rub of something almost warm rolls through my insides. I would call it fur, but the sensation is alien. Odd. It sends shivers down my spine and I huddle over. My arms wind around my body, holding tight as the wind picks up high in the trees.

  “Stay safe, you idiots,” I breathe, eyes fixed on the distant horizon. “You and I still have a lot to talk about.”

  Chapter 19

  Tanner

  I dive through the trees, uncaring as the thin branches and pointed brambles dig into my flanks. A low lying bunch of thorned vines scrapes over my snout until I drop lower and slink through the narrow opening they make.

  Every thundering beat of my heart echoes in the power of my paws on the Earth. The full moon is near and with every minute that it draws closer, the magick of the land calls me like a siren’s song. I can feel every animal, every shifter now acres behind me.

  In the air above, the rich almost sickening scent of brimstone tells me that Caine is fucking keeping pace despite my telling him to remain with Nisha.

  My heart skips in my chest.

  Did she follow us?

  No.

  If I strain hard enough, I can pick her out from the small dots of life far behind me. My relief is profound, and not something I understand. So I shove it down to ignore some more later.

  Far ahead, the high pitched yowls of another large cat trickles back on the wind. Every hair on my body rises and my teeth bare.

  “T?” Caine’s voice is muffled, and fading quickly as a trace of true skin hunger makes me salivate.

  The fucker is on my land. Mine. The cat inside me howls in agreement, forcing my second form faster until the world blurs. I sail over another shallow ditch and skid on the dry leaves along the other side. My head whips up and down the bank, scenting and sorting the fragrances of Silver Rock now mixed with an almost foul chemical odor. I sneeze.

  Something heavy and hot barrels into me with a wash of red light.

  Caine and I roll along the bank in a mess of his human limbs and my fur. I snap my teeth an inch from his shoulder, but come up short as his blood scents the air in a wash of spice and citrus. I pull back, scuttling away.

  Did I—

  He groans amidst the pine needles, one hand already reaching to pull a stocky tranquilizer style dart from his skin. The little needle glints in the light through the trees as he comes up on his knees to stand, anger written in his features. He tosses it to the side and turns to me. His eyes widen. “T!”

  I drop low and something whistles overhead to embed in a nearby tree trunk. The tufted end of the little barb tells me all I need to know.

  Another dart.

  How many of those fucking things do they have?

  Whirling, I take in the shadowy figure of a large man with almost dead black eyes. Behind him, Daisy’s wolf form is a blur as she battles a familiar expanse of tawny rosettes.

  The man raises the rifle again, aiming for Caine.

  I do the only thing I can think of.

  I leap over the distance, sinking my teeth into his arm and wrenching. His blood fills my mouth like sludge. I fall back, hacking. His blood cloys and sticks on my tongue, bitter and rancid to my heightened palate.

  Wrong.

  The stock of his gun slams into my temple, dropping me to the forest floor with the force of a fucking tank as he takes off like a bullet into the trees.

  I shake my head hard as my ears ring.

  A snarl twists the air and there is an audible pop. Daisy’s howl rips through me and I scramble to my feet as the fucking earth continues to sway with every move I make.

  Her russet form hobbles across from me, front foreleg raised and limp. The rogue shifter darts in again, his teeth bared.

  I leap, crashing into his side and sending us both rolling into the leaves.

  The faint scent of chemicals rise from him again. It burns my nose.

  His front paws press into my chest and scratch down, trying to find purchase despite my fur. I latch my teeth onto the side of his skull and grind them together. He never makes a sound.

  The cat twists from my grip, wrenching and leaving thick clumps of tawny fur between my teeth.

  I stalk him, lowering my body between my shoulder blades. He swipes out with a paw. It narrowly misses the side of my head. I pounce and sink teeth into the thick muscle of his neck before wrenching us both over.

  Blood trickles into my maw, hot and thick. But just as wrong as the man’s.

  I pull back.

  The cat twists over me, his head dipping and snaring the sensitive skin of my underbelly. He clamps down and pain tears through my middle. I roar.

  My paws press into him, heaving and scratching at his lean form.

  “Shit.”

  My head whips over as Ruin, Gage, Lilah, and Horan barrel through the trees. Both vampires hiss audibly, dropping into a defensive stance. Gage’s hands are wreathed in emerald fire, and Horan’s sword is aloft in his grasp.

  But no one gets the chance to attack.

  Red light flows over the ground around us.

  I look over as burst after burst of ruby fire sails into the cat’s body. Caine draws back, his face flowing into lines of pure un-adultered rage. The energy in his hand builds and builds. My fur raises on end.

  He fires the blast and it takes the cat clear off his feet, slamming him into a tree yards away. The shifter crashes to the floor
and stays there.

  I lay on my back, stomach bleeding and breath sawing through my nose, and shift in a rush of bone cracking, nauseating pain. Too many shifts too close together always leaves me feeling like shit afterward. And with my injuries, this time is no different.

  My head falls back to the ground.

  Shit.

  Gage appears out of my peripheral, his emerald eyes brilliant in the low light. “T?”

  I wave him off. “I’ll heal.”

  He claps a hand under my back and helps ease me to my feet. I peer around at the others.

  Lilah’s eyes spin with gold light as she walks slowly closer to the demon that just saved my ass. Again. “Caine?”

  Even I have to admit, there is something darker about the demon now. More deadly. He peers at her from solid red eyes with no pupils visible.

  Ruin slams his arm across Lilah’s body, keeping her back. “Don’t.” His own midnight gaze has turned to small suns in the dimness beneath the trees.

  Caine’s jaw tightens, and I know he wants to say something. And in his current mind state, that would be a bad fucking idea.

  Limping over, I snare him by the shoulder, not really holding him back. More like keeping his focus. “Easy,” I mutter to the demon. “Until we know what was in those darts … You don’t want to hurt Lilah, right?” I hate playing on his one weakness. But if he will listen to anyone, it’s her.

  He looks past me, and some of the anger fades fast. “No. No, I don’t.”

  I nod, squeezing a bit. “Good man. Why don’t you have Gage give you the once over? Just so we can clear you?”

  His jaw flexes, but he turns around and walks several feet into the trees. “Come on, fire Fae,” he calls to Gage, using the same jab he has always used for the Fae warrior lighting up like a damn firefly. “I want out of the blasted trees and into some air conditioning.”

  Gage makes a sound of agreement or maybe disgust. Together, him and Horan follow the demon at an even pace and soon the little glowing orb trails after them.

  I watch them go.

  “Hey, T. This one of yours?”

  I spin.

  Ruin is crouched over Daisy’s fallen form.

  Shit.

  I run.

  Sliding in the leaves and earthen debris, I wind up on my ass beside her. She slowly trickles back to human in a wash of dark mist and retreating fur.

  Her arm is broken badly and her leg too. The skin is shredded and already stained red. She will have to have the bones reset and fast or they will heal all kinds of fucking wrong.

  I start to reach for her when my eyes dip just past her fallen form.

  Feet away, partially hidden in the shadows, is the dead form of a large black cat.

  I glance at the other down shifter and swear in a fluent stream.

  Not one. But two rogues.

  Damn it.

  I slip my hand into Daisy’s matted and sweaty hair. “D?” Her eyes flutter, meeting mine.

  She grimaces. “Fucking cat.” Her expression slackens and she goes limp.

  Shit.

  I climb to my feet and scoop her small frame up in my arms. The motion pulls at my torn midsection, but I grit my teeth and ignore the pain. “Hold on, D. I got you.”

  It’s only as we pass the tree that I remember the dart embedded in the trunk. I stop walking and the vamps follow my gaze.

  Lilah gasps. “Is that—”

  I look at Ruin as the first bay from Callus reaches my ears.

  Ruin nods gruffly, grabs the darts, and pockets them before the pack ever clears the trees around us.

  I peer at the dead cats and then at the wolves as they stalk out from under the low branches. “Don’t burn the bodies until I get back,” I say, pouring my alpha command into every word. “There was a man too. One with a rifle. Track him and detain him. No killing.”

  A familiar dark cat steps to the front of the pack, his teeth bared. I raise a brow at Callus. “And if your Alpha doesn’t like it, he knows where to find me.”

  I jerk my chin at Ruin and we start walking, leaving Callus to snarl if he wants. Right now, I have two friends to get to the nearest hospital.

  Chapter 20

  Tanner

  “She should be fine,” Doc Wallace says to me. I peer behind her at Daisy’s sleeping form.

  “Oh I don’t doubt it,” I mutter. But it’s still hard to see such a strong woman reduced to such a small frame in the narrow hospital bed.

  The Doc chuckles. “You have this thing with bringing me hurt female shifters.”

  My head turns.

  Her eyes are luminescent with power. As the full moon grows more prominent, every shifter—alpha or otherwise—will begin to react to it. I had hoped Daisy would be clear to leave before then. But judging by the bags of fluid they are pumping into her, they plan on keeping her sedated through the full moon to heal.

  But considering how the fox doctor is looking at me, she wants a little full moon action of her own.

  I clear my throat. She is pretty enough. But the only female I want under me this full moon … Well, maybe I shouldn’t even fucking think about that one. Even though my body is more than willing.

  Coming out of the woods to find Nisha pacing like a tigress in a cage, her lean, graceful frame tracking through the grass barefoot and wild …

  She’s down the hall with Lilah and the team. And holding it together pretty well. Blaming herself, I know, for Daisy protecting her. She will realize soon enough that alphas are like that with the pack.

  We protect our own.

  “I really appreciate you taking such good care of both of them,” I say to the good doctor. “They both mean a lot to me.”

  Wallace’s expression closes off for a moment before she wipes it carefully clean. “Of course. It’s my job.” She dips her head and walks off.

  My sigh is tremulous. It’s the first time in years I’ve fucking turned down any proposition. And from one of the kin … on the night of the full moon …

  I have to be losing my gods-damn mind.

  The hallway is quiet as I step several doors down. Knocking once, I slip inside.

  Nisha is no longer in the room, but judging by the strength of her scent, she left only moments before.

  “Well, it’s definitely the return of the devil’s drug,” Gage quips as he and Ruin examine the near empty dart vials from Silver Rock. A thin, glasslike bit of Brightex still clouds the ends, but even without that trace, I would know what it is anywhere.

  Caine, whose shoulder is swathed in bandages, grimaces. “I resemble that remark,” he says from his place on a narrow hospital bed. There is no hint of his normal cynicism in his tone. Just the same razor’s edge he has had since the forest.

  Lilah rubs his back in small circles, her ice blue eyes worried as we all wait for any sign that the darts are having any further effect.

  Horan remains opposite the demon and new vampire, his sword held aloft and a current of heavenly fire glowing from his eyes. As much as he dislikes Caine for what he is, in the event the demon goes bonkers, the Fallen angel may actually have a bit of remorse if he is the one to take the demon down.

  “Whatever they were using,” Gage begins, “is an old batch.”

  I stand up a little straighter. “Low shelf life?” I can’t stop the note of hope in my voice.

  He scoffs. “Hard to say, but judging by Caine not hulking out on us, I’m going to say we should be okay.”

  I’m not the only one who exhales.

  “We need to check the two clowns that jumped your lady friend,” Ruin says to me, beginning to pace now that the main threat is over.

  “As long as Callus doesn’t act like an idiot,” I mutter, “they will have both bodies placed in the cold room until we get back.”

  “Which should buy us a little time,” Ruin agrees.

  “I would like to run some tests on the sample that’s left,” Gage adds. “I may be able to identify some tracers in comparison to the
batch back home. If we have a match, we could have already nailed our supplier.”

  We all glance at Lilah, but she just juts her chin out in defiance. It’s why she fits in with the team so well. She has attitude. Lots of it.

  “Lilah and I will go with Gage to check the sample,” Ruin advises. “Horan, I want you to accompany Tanner and Caine back to Silver Rock.”

  Ruin peers across the room at the demon. “If you’re good?” he asks Caine.

  Caine pushes from the table and stands without assistance. Though Lilah hovers near but not quite touching. Just in case. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

  I walk over and clap him on the shoulder. “Good. I need you back at full health by tomorrow night.”

  His ruby eyes glimmer. “You going to play a little slap and tickle, cat?”

  “Goddess I hope so.” My lips curve into a broad smile.

  He laughs, and the sound is pure Sin. Lust flows through the room in a tangible cloud and Lilah makes a small sound. We all shift. It’s like having a private lap dance in a group with your friends. Doable, but hard to concentrate past.

  I shiver. “Shit.”

  Ruin nods out of my peripheral.

  “Seems our demon friend took an upswing in power instead of going batshit crazy,” Gage says hoarsely into the tension.

  “How hard is it going to be for you to watch my back like this?” I croak.

  Caine smirks. “As hard as I want to make it.”

  My cock responds against my will, throbbing and aching.

  “Damn it,” Ruin grunts. His eyes bleed to gold before locking onto Lilah with the single-minded focus of a bonded male.

  Caine begins to turn and I slam both hands onto his face, keeping his gaze on me. “Right here, bud. Keep that gorgeous fucking red gaze fixed here.”

  “Aww,” he teases. “You think my eyes are pretty?”

  I snort. “Yeah I do. And so are you, idiot. Now tone it down.”

  The demon rolls his eyes and the effect is dizzying. “Fine. But you guys are no fun.”

  My fingers tighten. “You will be on pack land tonight, Caine. And again tomorrow. As the full moon grows fucking bigger, you will be in the middle of a world made of sinuous bodies, fur, and slick flesh.” He trembles, gaze widening. “Shifters can be a lot of fun. Raw. Wild. But I need you to focus now and shove all this,” I motion around us, “down in that fucking little Pandora’s orb of yours so I don’t fuck Nisha out in the hall.”