Devin

by Dana Archer

  “Lena.” Molly whimpered. “I’m scared. She…I…the car crashed. Now Lena’s hurt! She’s bleeding. So much blood.”

  “Gods, no.” Devin put Molly gently down and ran.

  He flung the door to the employee parking lot open and stopped dead in his tracks. The enforcers, seven Royal bear shifters known for their callousness, were climbing out of their cars.

  Devin let his talons slip free. “Get out of my way.”

  The center male shook his head. “Sorry, can’t do that. Council said you need to be collected for evaluation.” He cracked his knuckles. “We’re here to pick you up.”

  Devin would’ve told them about the letter from the president exonerating him, but Vader slapped a key into his clawed hand.

  “Go, we’ll handle this.”

  Devin didn’t need to be told twice. He jumped on the bike and took off. He only prayed he’d get there in time to save his mate a second time.

  Chapter 39

  The rumble of the motorcycle between Devin’s thighs reverberated through his body, adding to the anxiety tightening his muscles. He passed a car, swerved to miss another, and leaned into the curves when he hit a winding section of the road. Twice, he almost lost control of the bike. He didn’t care or slow down.

  He tightened the leash on his raging cats. No time for a breakdown. His female needed him. He wasn’t going to let her down.

  Lena’s scent drifted on the breeze, tethering him to his heaven. He latched on to it and let it guide him home.

  Gods, please keep her safe.

  Not once in his life had he begged for mercy, not even during those years in the shifter prison’s torture chambers. For Lena, he’d get down on his knees, kiss the goddesses’ feet, do anything if it saved his mate.

  The first whiff of blood twined with Lena’s fragrance stopped his heart. He pushed the bike faster. Black, curved slashes marred the road ahead of him, making the whole nightmare real.

  Devin leapt over the side of the embankment, and the bike skidded out from under him.

  In front of him, a trail of broken branches led to a mangled piece of metal that used to be his car. It lay on its side with the front bent like an accordion and smoke hazing the air around it, much like the dust cloud had around Lena’s sports car the day she became his life, his reason for living.

  He couldn’t lose her.

  He slid the last few feet and ripped off the passenger door. His eyes locked on to the sight of his beautiful female slumped against the driver’s door. One hand was splayed on the window next to her face and the other was bent at an odd angle to her side. Blood covered the body he knew better than his own. He swept his gaze over her and zeroed in on the broken tree limb piercing her stomach.

  He swallowed down the bile. “Lena?”

  She didn’t move.

  “Please, angel, don’t be dead.”

  “Death tasted her, and now it’s hungry. It will fight you for her. That is why her infection has spread so quickly. Death wants to claim her life while it still can.” Verna’s words echoed in Devin’s head. The witch had warned him. Death wanted Lena because Devin had stolen her from it.

  It couldn’t have her. She was his!

  But was he too late? He’d ignored Verna’s ramblings, but witches were wise. Even he’d acknowledged that. He should’ve listened to her, taken extra precautions, done something. He hadn’t.

  Did he fail his mate?

  Fear swept through him, bringing a wave of dizziness. Darkness encroached, threatening to steal the light, his sanity. No! He snapped his teeth together. He couldn’t give in to the madness.

  He closed his eyes and listened. Her heart beat, weak and erratic. She was alive. He still had a chance. The little sliver of hope gave him the strength to fight the blackness. Colors returned. Lena’s face came into focus.

  Devin grabbed the edge of the roof and pulled. He grunted as the metal tore away, the sharp edges cutting into his fingers. He tossed the roof aside and ignored the blood running down his forearms. With a flick of his claw, he cut the seat belt that held Lena into the seat. He hesitated a moment more, not sure what to do.

  He inhaled, needing the soothing balm Lena was to him. With her, he could fight the confusion making his thoughts muddled.

  An acrid stench burned his nose. Gasoline. He had to work fast, get her out before the car exploded. He slipped his hands under her thighs and back, then lifted her out as gently as he could.

  More blood gushed from around the protruding stick. She didn’t cry out in pain. Didn’t acknowledge him. Her head lolled back, the whites of her eyes showing.

  No. Please, goddess, don’t take her.

  Devin carried his true mate, careful not to jar the branch, to a small clearing farther down the hill. With her cradled on his lap, he sliced her shirt to expose the wound. More blood flowed from around the piece of wood. Bubbles. There were bubbles in the liquid.

  “Lena.” He brushed at her dirty cheek where her tears had left a path. It was dry. “Wake up.”

  Devin heard his friends and family scrambling down the hill. Their curses rang out, and he heard a woman crying. Jazz, maybe? He didn’t care. He ignored them and focused on the female who was the center of his universe. He pushed her brown locks back and kissed her cheek.

  “Please, don’t leave me.”

  He stared at her belly where the stick now bisected the claw mark left there. It had to come out except he couldn’t make his hand move, couldn’t bear to cause Lena any more pain.

  Kade laid a hand on his shoulder. Devin met his friend’s eyes.

  “Make it fast.” Kade tilted his head toward the branch. Devin reached for it. Kade grabbed his wrist. “Remember, Lena needs to be awake to understand what’s going on.”

  Devin took a calming breath, gripped the wood close to her skin, and yanked. The wet, sucking sound of the branch pulling free sickened him. Her body jerked. She didn’t wake. Didn’t even groan.

  Panic tightened the noose around his chest. The edges of his vision blurred. The abyss loomed in front of him, threatening to suck him in. He fought the breakdown. His cats prowled restlessly but they lent him strength instead of panicking. The black faded. Lena’s bloody, bruised face filled his vision.

  Kade knelt next to him and held a balled-up shirt to her stomach to stanch the flow.

  “Hurry up. She’s fading.”

  “Open your eyes, Lena.”

  No response.

  Devin shook his head to clear the fuzziness and brushed shaky fingers against her cheek. “Lena! Wake up. I need you.”

  Her eyelids fluttered. The chocolate eyes he loved focused on him. Her lip quivered as she tried to smile. Blood dribbled over her chin. “Devin.”

  He licked his lip and something salty met his tongue. He ignored it and his runny nose.

  There were so many things he wanted to say. What came out wasn’t one of them. “You were supposed to stay home.”

  Her fingers moved. Her hand didn’t.

  “Didn’t mean…hurt…you.”

  He cursed himself for upsetting her. He’d made so many mistakes where his beautiful woman was concerned. For once, he wished he could say the right thing.

  “It’s okay, sweetheart. I have you now, and I’m going to take care of you. You’re going to be okay.”

  She shook her head weakly. “Dying.”

  He stared at her blankly, his words stuck in his throat, and watched her lids close.

  “No! You can’t die.” He tore his wrist with his teeth and pressed it to her lips. “Drink my blood and take my cats. We’ll protect you. No matter how much it hurts, don’t let us go!”

  A shaky breath escaped her lips. His blood ran down her chin.

  “Please, don’t leave me. I love you, Lena. Do you understand? I love you more than I ever thought I could love another. You’re my world, my life, my future. Please don’t make me spend eternity without you.” Devin dipped his head, strands of hair that smelled of coconut and Lena sti
cking to his wet cheeks, and whispered, “I love you. Love you so much.”

  No answer.

  He pushed back the fear, and focused on saving her. He bit her shoulder, reopening the connection to their souls, and surrounded her fading core with his, exactly as he’d done the last time. Instead of giving her a piece of his soul, though, he claimed a piece of her beautiful soul.

  “Devin.” She reached for him with metaphysical arms. “Don’t leave me.”

  “I won’t. I’m yours for eternity. Now drink from me and allow my cats to join with you.”

  Her lips moved against his wrist as she latched on and sucked. His cats leapt from him to her, joining them. Present and future—they’d never be separated.

  Soul-bonding with his true mate was the most wondrous experience he’d ever shared. Her soul was pure and welcoming. She embraced him with open arms despite his flaws. She knew them. With his soul bared to her, she knew his every weakness, every failure, yet her love surrounded him.

  “You’re not a failure, Devin. You’re the most honorable man I’ve ever known, and I’m proud to be your mate.”

  “Do you mean it, sweetheart?”

  “Absolutely, my mate. Now, hold me. My body feels like it’s on fire, and I swear even my fingernails hurt.”

  He chuckled at his mate’s spunk. She was in excruciating pain—his cats shared her agony—but she still managed to make him smile.

  “Okay, I’ve got you.”

  “And I have you. Forever.”

  Epilogue, plus next book preview

  Lena rested her head against Devin’s chest and surveyed the new town park. Children played on the monkey bars. Mothers pushed their kids on the swings and teenagers played basketball in the courts. A walking path with empty flower beds lining it curved lazily through a barren section of ground that would be filled with lush grass and flowers come spring.

  At the end of the stone walkway was a small pond. Weeping willows skirted the edge of the calm water and offered a beautiful backdrop for the wooden gazebo that overlooked the run-down town, her new home.

  On the opposite side of the small city, a new community center was being built in honor of her parents. She and Devin would unveil it in a couple of months, just in time for the holidays. Today, however, the park dedicated to Gwen’s memory had its official opening, and it was bittersweet.

  Lena tugged Devin’s arm tighter around her. “Gwen would’ve loved this. It’s beautiful.”

  He brushed strands of her hair off her shoulder and laid his cheek over her mate bite. “She will love it.”

  Lena sighed, and Devin turned her face toward him with a single finger under her chin.

  “She will love it,” he repeated.

  “Just because her remains weren’t among those found at the plane crash doesn’t mean she’s still alive.”

  “Without a body, I refuse to believe anything else, and she will be found.”

  Lena tried to turn away. He held her in a gentle grip and stared at her until she couldn’t help allowing the determination displayed in his eyes to become hers too.

  “There’s hope, my mate. We won’t give up on her.”

  She gave him the smile she knew he needed. “You’re right, we won’t.”

  Devin bent his head and pressed his lips to hers, a chaste kiss that reached inside her heart and filled it with his love. “With Dante, Vader, and Xander looking for Gwen, chances are they’ll find her soon and get her home in time for the holidays.”

  Lena frowned. She knew Dante and Vader had teamed up and were following a few sketchy leads but…

  “Why did Xander go? Doesn’t he have a pack to run?”

  “Yeah, and they’re not too happy with him at the moment. He’s been gone a lot over the past few months. His twin has been shouldering the responsibility, but Xander feels guilty and won’t sit idly by while others look for Gwen. He thinks if he hadn’t come back to the lodge after finding the empty warehouse he might’ve rescued her before she disappeared.” Devin released her chin and wrapped his arms tighter around her, cocooning her in his embrace. “He gave up on her. Do you understand?”

  Lena snuggled closer and buried her face in the crook of Devin’s neck. “I’m glad you didn’t give up on me. You helped me see our connection, offered me space when I was afraid of it, and picked up the pieces of my heart after my guilt destroyed me.”

  He rested his chin on the top of her head. “And I’m glad you were brave enough to accept me, every flawed inch of me, especially after what I did to you. I’m sorry our meeting had to happen that way. That it took a deadly mistake to bring us together. But you are the best one I’ve ever made. My beautiful mistake.”

  “No. I was your smartest choice.” Lena tipped her head back. “And you are mine.”

  The series continues with Josh

  Read an Excerpt

  Josh Conway leaned against the wall at the far end of the bar. It was his favorite spot for surveying the Black Widow. From here, he had a perfect view of the dance floor and half the booths. The rest of the tables, and the front door, were visible in mirrors he’d had installed after he bought the place from his dad.

  In the five years he’d been in charge, he’d made a lot of changes, all for the better, at least in his opinion. The Black Widow had gone from being a dive to becoming a popular drinking establishment, complete with food, live music, and dancing.

  Yeah, he was proud of the turnaround and attributed the success to having fewer troublemakers hanging around. That meant not only keeping bouncers on the payroll but him being visible to the college kids and locals who wanted to get drunk and start a fight. The regulars knew when they saw him standing here, they weren’t getting away with anything, not the drug deals that used to be commonplace or the harassment of women that had given his family’s business a bad name.

  Josh was counting on his presence in his normal spot being enough to dissuade potentially illegal activities tonight. Even though he made a point of scanning the room, he wasn’t paying attention. His entire focus centered on the verbal fight playing out between Mira and Devin, two of the many shifters who’d become important to Josh over the past couple of months.

  Something big was going down. Josh had no idea what. Since he was human, he didn’t get all the details involving the pride, only the stuff that concerned Megan, the shifter child his deceased brother had adopted and Josh had since become responsible for. Even then, the scraps of information they deemed worthy of sharing were already common knowledge among the shifters.

  This time he wasn’t going to sit around and wait for them to decide to inform him of what was happening. He’d get his answers, even if he had to coerce the information out of them.

  Josh focused on Mira and Devin. Sometimes he could pick up clues by reading their lips, not a skill he excelled at but he’d been improving. Of course Mira chose that moment to stop speaking.

  She pressed her lips into a thin line and stared at Devin. Her twin matched her glare. A minute passed, then another. Neither moved. They wouldn’t either. They’d hold each other’s unblinking gazes until someone intervened. Josh refused to be that person. He’d had enough of their asinine politics and their narrow-minded rules. It was about time he made some of his own. First, though, he needed to know what had all the shifters snapping at each other.

  A slow inspection of the Black Widow’s main bar area showed his ex-girlfriend, Jazz, and Rafe, her shifter mate, swaying in a suggestive dance that bordered on being inappropriate in public.

  Josh took in the drowsy look on Jazz’s face and the lust on Rafe’s and felt nothing. Not a twinge of jealousy. Hard to believe Josh had been adamant about getting back together with her a couple months ago. Of course that was before he met Mira. One glance into her exotic feline eyes and his life had done a one-eighty.

  His gaze drifted to her. He couldn’t help it. Mira acted as a magnet, always pulling his attention back to her.

  People talked about love at first sight a
ll the time. He’d always thought it a line to get a woman naked. Yeah, not anymore. Maybe love was the wrong word for what he felt for Mira. Obsession. Stark need. Unquenchable lust. Those matched his emotions better. Didn’t matter what label he slapped on it. She was the girl his dad had warned him about—the one woman who’d grab his attention and not let him go.

  No truer words had been said. Mira owned him.

  Knowing he wouldn’t get any answers staring at her like some lovesick teenager, he continued his survey of the bar. Among the patrons, he picked out the few wolf shifters who’d become regulars and dismissed them as potential sources of information. When questioned about any of the pride members, they always gave the same answer—talk to Kade. Hard to do when the Alexander pride leader hadn’t been to the bar since the night Lena had almost died.

  Josh turned his attention to the petite human female who’d tamed Devin. Lena sat on one of the stools at the opposite end of the bar, gazing in the direction of her mate. From the distant expression she wore, her mind wasn’t on the silent battle going down several feet away. Unfortunately, Josh could probably guess what had put the haunted look on her girl-next-door face—concern over her sisters, Gwen and Molly.

  Neither the twenty-three-year-old human nor the five-year-old shifter had a great outlook for the future. Both were lost, one to a group of sick men and the other to her own stubbornness.

  He’d never met Gwen, Lena’s biological sister. Molly, Lena’s adopted sister, was his niece in a roundabout way. Megan and Molly were twins, but they’d been separated about a year ago. Whereas Megan had found her way into Josh’s family, Molly had ended up in a medical facility where she was tortured and experimented on. After the tragedy that claimed Gwen, Molly had embraced her lioness form. Weeks later, she still refused to shift back into her human form.