by Ariel Marie
* * *
“Why the silly grin?” Katri asked, pulling her horse alongside Bella’s.
“What?” Bella asked, turning to find Katri’s sharp blue eyes focused on her.
Teague and his vampires, Khalid and Gadiel, accompanied Bella and her valkyries for this mission. They were going deep into an undeveloped part of the countryside that would not allow vehicles, leaving them to pursue Rowena on horseback. The sun was beginning to set and she knew that they would soon need to stop to formulate an attack plan.
She glanced back, noticing that the vampires were just as comfortable on horses as she and her valkyries were. Her eyes briefly met Teague’s. His heated gazed caused her to look away quickly. A warm sensation filled her cheeks. She rolled her eyes, recognizing that she was blushing like a schoolgirl.
“Ah... I think I have my answer,” Katri murmured with a small smile.
“I don’t know what you are talking about?” she said, glancing at Katri.
“Haven’t I told you before that you are a terrible liar?” Katri asked with a shake of her head. “Where did you disappear to last night?”
“I just needed some air,” Bella lied, annoyed with Katri’s questioning. “And besides, what I do in my free time is my business.”
She guided her horse away from Katri, not wanting to say anything to her friend that she would regret later. She couldn’t let anyone know that she was no longer a maiden. Her vow to the Gods was that she would always remain pure until the day she died. As her thoughts drifted to last night, she knew that she would never regret what she shared with Teague.
She urged her mount forward to the head of the group, passing Ulrika, Viva, and Saida to ride alongside Kitt.
“How much further should we go before stopping?” she asked.
Kitt was a master tracker and Bella trusted that Kitt could get them close enough to the witch’s cabin without signaling their arrival.
“I would say in about a mile, we should stop. There is a small spring up ahead that would be a perfect spot to make camp and water the horses,” she said, turning her green eyes toward Bella.
Kitt’s flaming red hair was tamed today in a long braid. As if knowing that Bella was looking at her hair, she flipped her braid off her shoulder while looking around.
“We would be close but still be far enough away to remain undetected,” Kitt informed the group.
Bella nodded. They would need the element of surprise to capture the witch. According to their source, Rowena was hidden away from civilization. Her people had apparently found an area that was off the grid. Bella had to give it to them; they chose a great place to hide and most people wouldn’t be able to find them — but the valkyries were not most people.
They made it to the point where Kitt felt would be best to make camp. Breaking into small teams they attended to the horses, set up their small sleeping tents and secured the perimeter. They wouldn’t want anyone surprising them while they slept. After a while, Bella called together to devise a plan for ambushing Rowena early the next morning. Rowena and her witches wouldn’t expect the vampires to attack at first light. All of the vampires had brought chilled bags of blood to assist with their energy in the light of day.
Bella knew of all of the human myths of vampires not being able to tolerate sunlight. A small smile graced her lips as she thought back to her daytime sparring match with Teague, and knew firsthand how untrue those myths were.
“We’ll flush her out,” Gadiel, one of Teague’s vampires said, interrupting Bella’s thoughts. “She won’t get far.”
“Witches are not the best of fighters,” Khalid’s voice rumbled as he crossed his arms across his massive chest.
“Don’t underestimate the enemy,” Saida snapped. “She is backed into a corner; there is no telling what the witch may have up her sleeve.”
“I’m just stating that between valkyries and vampires, Rowena’s witches are no match,” Khalid replied, with a small frown to his face.
“We’ll be careful,” Teague said, looking around at the group. “Rowena will be dealt with.”
“Remember, she is to die by the sword of a valkyrie,” Bella reminded the group. They stood around a crude drawing of the witch’s camp that Kitt had drawn in the ground. “The God Adros has a special place in one of the seven hells for her and it must be a valkyrie to send her there.”
All eyes were on her. She could tell each of her warriors was planning exactly how they would personally kill the witch if they got the chance. She knew each one had their own way of making sure someone died. Given the makeup of her team, the witch’s death would not be quick, or clean.
Chapter Twelve
~Teague~
The sounds of the nighttime surrounded Teague as he had volunteered to take the first watch for the night. There was no way in hell he would be able to sleep right now. Being this close to Bella and unable to touch her or act on any of his feelings was slowly driving him insane. He continued to walk around the perimeter of their camp, checking on the traps that Khalid and Gadiel had set.
He stepped over a hidden tripwire, finding it undisturbed. He leaned his weary frame against a thick tree, feeling every one of his four hundred years. One night with Bella and he knew the bond between them had begun. He could feel it deep down in his soul that she was his mate. And right now, there was not a damn thing he could do about it.
His gums burned as the memory of the night before surfaced. The smell of her, the taste of her, and the sound of her orgasms had his dick harder than he had ever experienced before. He had basically begged her last night to give herself to him.
He had never in all of his years, pleaded for anything in his life. He was Teague Olaru — no woman had ever turned him away before.
Until last night.
It would figure that the one woman Teague would be ready to spend the rest of his life with, would have commitment issues. A heavy sigh released itself from his chest. Just as he went to move away from the tree, a familiar voice stopped him in his tracks.
“It’s a beautiful night, isn’t it?” Bella said, stepping out of the shadows.
He silently cursed himself as he realized he had been so lost in thought that it could have been an enemy coming up on him and he would have never heard them.
“Beautiful,” he replied, unable to take his eyes off her.
It was beautiful tonight, but right now, nothing in the world could hold a candle to Bella’s beauty. The moonlight caressed her skin, showcasing how soft he knew it to be. She glanced at him, catching him staring at her.
“Thank you,” she said softly before looking away.
His eyes greedily took in her leather-covered curves and found her to be the sexist woman alive. Something about a badass female dressed in leather, who could handle a weapon with the trained precision of the deadliest assassin, just turned him on.
“What are you doing here, Bella?” he asked quietly.
“It should be two people on watch,” she pointed out. “Plus, I figured we should talk about last night.”
“What’s there to talk about? I want more than you’re willing to give me,” he said, biting back a sigh.
He was sure his brothers would laugh at him if they could hear him, demanding more from a female. He didn’t want to have this conversation and he sure didn’t want to argue with her. All he wanted was for her under him, naked, screaming his name again with him completing the bond between the two of them.
“Last night, we did things. Amazing things. You’ve showed me how it felt to be loved as a woman,” she said earnestly, coming to stand in front of him, her wide eyes staring up at him. “And I just want to return the favor.”
“What did you have in mind?” he asked, swallowing hard as he felt her fingers pull at his belt buckle. “Bella, no, stop,” he said softly.
He wanted her again, but knew that she deserved better than a rough quickie. She deserved to be in a fancy bed with the finest of sheets, rather than to be taken in
the woods twice.
“Ever since last night,” she began as he brushed her hands away. “I can’t stop thinking about you.”
“You’re always on my mind too,” he murmured, grasping her at the base of her neck and pulled her flush against him. He could feel his cock hardening again, now that her leather encased curvy body leaned into his.
“What did you do to me?” she whispered, as he leaned down, gently brushing his lips across hers. “This cannot be normal.”
“It’s fate, Bella,” he whispered back to her as he gently covered her mouth with his in a tender kiss.
He gently slid his tongue in her mouth as she gasped, tasting her sweetness that he remembered all too well. He could feel her hands slide up his chest and threading her fingers in his hair.
This was what he wanted. He wanted to share intimate moments with his mate when he wanted, come home from a hard night and bask in the wonders of his woman. But first he would have to get said woman to accept him and what was between the two of them.
He pulled back from her, staring down into her wide gray eyes. The full moon providing all the light he needed to see her lust-filled gaze. A small snapping noise caught his attention a few meters away from their location in the woods.
“What the—” Bella started, swinging around, already in attack mode with a blade in her hand. He blinked at first, not even seeing where the blade appeared from.
Twin golden eyes peered through the dense trees near the forest floor. Wolf. A low warning growl could be heard coming from the hidden beast.
“Shit,” he breathed, moving in front of Bella.
The witches must be using wolves to protect them and their hidden camp. Teague could tell with one glance that this wolf was not a shifter. Its eyes were too low to the ground to be a shifter. Shifter wolves tended to be almost three to four times the size of a regular animal.
He and Bella must have wandered off further away from their camp than he had realized. They couldn’t let this wolf make it back to the witches.
“We must not let him warn the witches,” Bella whispered as if reading his mind, just as the wolf took off into the trees. Bella disappeared into the woods in the direction of the wolf.
Teague took off after them, knowing that he would catch the wolf with his vampiric speed. Within seconds, he passed Bella, pushing himself until he was able to tackle the wolf to the ground.
It growled and snapped its ferocious fangs at Teague as it tried to buck him off, causing them to flip over with the wolf landing on top of Teague. His fangs descended as he gripped the wolf around the throat, applying pressure to its windpipe. It continued to snap and growl as it went for Teague’s neck, but he was able to wrestle the wolf back down and get the upper hand again just as Bella burst through the brush.
“Stay back,” he growled around his fangs, as he continued to squeeze the wolf’s throat. The fight began leaving its body slowly as it weakly tried to twist in an attempt to throw Teague off, but was not successful. Teague watched as fear briefly flashed in it’s eyes just as the life began to fade. The wolf’s body slumped to the ground as it took its last breath.
“We need to get rid of the body,” Bella said, looking around with her blade in her hand. He could tell she was in her full valkyrie warrior mode as her eyes seemed to memorize everything about their surroundings.
“I know,” he said, stumbling to stand up. He brushed the dirt and tree leaves from his jeans. “Wolves run in packs. Someone is going to miss him soon. We need to hurry.”
“We can’t leave it here. We have nothing to bury it with,” she said, looking over at him.
“Looks like he’s coming with us,” Teague said grimly.
Chapter Thirteen
~Bella~
They took the dead wolf back to the camp with them to buy them some time. They quickly woke everyone up and updated the group on the mishap with the wolf.
“We go after Rowena now,” Bella said, as she paced in front of the group. The vampires and valkyries waited for her orders. “We don’t have much time to waste.”
“We have underestimated the witch,” Gadiel spoke up. “It was just assumed that she would hide in the woods. If she has wolves as guards, this could be bigger than we expected.”
“No job is too big for a valkyrie,” Ulrika said with her blue eyes blazing. “It doesn’t matter what she has guarding her, we will not fail in killing Rowena.”
“Vampires, are you still in?” Bella asked, looking at the three vampires standing in front of her. Whether or not they continued on with them, the valkyries would move forward in tracking down the black magic witch.
“Of course, we are still in this,” Teague said, stepping forward. “Gadiel is right though. We thought this would be a quick raid. We are just going to have to be more careful now that we know that there may be more to this.”
A shiver went down Bella’s spine as she watched Teague. His piercing blue eyes met hers and she knew he wouldn’t be leaving her side no matter what.
“Let’s move out,” Bella said.
It was time.
* * *
“For someone who is trying to hide, they aren’t doing it well,” Saida whispered from beside Bella, as they peered through the thick trees at the makeshift camp.
A single wood cabin stood in the clearing. There was an unattended fire smoldering in the center of the clearing with no one attending it. Not a soul could be found in the camp. It was too quiet.
“Something’s not right,” Bella murmured. She couldn’t explain the feeling deep down in her gut, but she knew something was off and she always trusted her gut in battle. “This doesn’t feel right.”
“It’s too quiet,” Ulrika muttered from where she kneeled.
“What do you have in mind?” Viva asked. Bella looked around, finding every single one of her warrior’s eyes on her.
“We need to get into that cabin and find out what is in there,” Bella said, shifting slightly. “If she truly had help hiding out here, where is everyone?”
“You’re right,” Kitt agreed, her eyes searching the perimeter for movement. Still nothing.
“The witch isn’t here,” Ulrika said, shaking her head. “I agree with Bella; something’s not right about this place.”
“Look, there are the vamps,” Katri pointed out from her perch in the tree.
Teague, Khalid, and Gadiel appeared on the other side of the clearing. With the full moon at its highest, she had no trouble making out Teague’s muscular form. Even under suboptimal lighting, Bella would have still been able to pick out Teague’s body. She had committed every hard muscular line of his body to memory. Her fingers tingled with the desire to run across his hard abdomen again.
The vampires began moving in sync towards the cabin with Teague in the lead. They had just made it fifty feet when all hell broke loose.
A pack of ravenous wolves burst out of the woods behind the vampires. Twenty to thirty wolves rushed towards them.
A trap.
The valkyries did not hesitate to jump into the fight. They fought flawlessly alongside the vampires.
Bella quickly glanced around the clearing, finding wolves’ bodies lining the ground as she was hit from behind. Growling filled her ear as she crashed to the ground, her sword knocked from her hand. She twisted around to face the large gray wolf bearing down on her, its golden eyes crazed as it snapped at her, trying to go for her neck.
She struggled to reach down with her free hand, trying to find her short blade, sheathed on her hip, while fighting the wolf off with the other one. The wolf’s body jerked as it growled and snapped at her. She grunted as her hand missed the blade, and stretched further before her hand connected with her blade.
Finally!
She thrust the sharp dagger into the wolf’s belly. It let out a deafening screech, as she twisted the blade, feeling a warm substance gush out onto her. She tossed the body to the ground, before standing up to extract her blade from the carcass. She snatched
up her short sword as she took in the chaos around them.
“Teague!” she hollered out as she watched him fight off one wolf while another black one rushed toward him from behind.
Her heart pounded in her chest, as she took off running in his direction, unsure if she would make it on time. Just as the wolf jumped into the air to attack, it came crashing down on the ground with a blade protruding from its skull.
She skittered to a halt, finding Katri standing with her arm still outstretched just as Teague ended the wolf he fought. Katri straightened up to her full height before nodding to Bella and then running off into the melee.
“Bella!” Teague called out as she made it to his side. “Are you all right?” A concerned look filled his eyes when she reached his side.
“I’m okay,” she said, looking around, noticing that the vampires and the valkyries had the situation under control. “We need to get into the cabin.”
“She’s not here,” Teague said, falling in step with her as they trotted up to the cabin.
“I figured,” she said as they reached the stairs of the cabin. “This was a trap. Rowena is a step ahead of us. We need to find her, now.”
Chapter Fourteen
~Teague~
Teague glanced at Bella as they made their way into the unlocked cabin. His heart had just about slowed down to a steady pace. He almost had a heart attack watching her battle the wolves. He knew that she was a valkyrie, one of the deadliest warriors around, but it still didn’t help calm his fear as he witnessed the wolf attack her from behind.
The cabin was an open-concept building with the bare essentials inside. A rundown couch that must be a pull-out bed, a dresser in one corner of the open room, and a small kitchenette on the opposite side of the room made up the furnishings of the cabin. The slight tinge of sulfur lingered in the air.
