by Kali Argent
Cade was hers.
“I…” He’d carried her to the car and held her against him in the back seat. She couldn’t picture it clearly, but bits and pieces were returning. “I remember.”
“That’s good.” His smile was electric, and it transformed his entire face into something too beautiful to look at.
Mackenna ducked her head. “Where am I?”
“Technically, we’re in a hospital about forty miles outside of Denver. It was abandoned after the Purge, and the Revenant took it over as a safe house.”
The name sounded vaguely remember, but if he’d told her who or what the Revenant was, she couldn’t remember. “What does that mean? What is the Revenant?”
The crowd that had gathered for her meltdown had started to disperse, though a few still lingered nearby. They kept to themselves, and they didn’t try to approach, so she did her best to ignore them and focus on Cade.
“Come on, let’s get you back to your room, and I’ll try to explain as much as I can.” He held his hand out, his palm turned up in offering. “You’re bleeding, Mack. We need to get that looked at.”
Blood smeared the inside of her arm where she’d violently removed her IV. The bandages on her hands and feet had also come unraveled during her dash for freedom. While the skin had started to heal, the appendages were still a mess of burned, oozing skin.
“I don’t…” She turned her palms outward to show him the damage. “You probably don’t want to touch this.”
“It’s not going to bother me, but it might feel like shit for you.” Instead of taking her hands, he looped his fingers around her slender arm and helped her to her feet that way. “Steady,” he murmured, wrapping an arm around her when she swayed. “Are you good?”
As much as she wanted to snuggle into him and soak up his warmth, she didn’t dare. He might be her mate, chosen for her by some higher power she couldn’t begin to comprehend, but he was also human. She didn’t know if he felt the way she did, or if he could sense the growing connection between them, and the last thing she wanted to do was scare him.
Scared humans were dangerous humans.
“I’m okay.”
“Hey, Cade.” A petite female with long, raven locks and the biggest, greenest eyes Mackenna had ever seen bounced up to them. “Do you want me to come tell you when the others return?”
Mackenna didn’t know who the female spoke of or where these mysterious people would return from. What she did know was that the stranger, with her full breasts and smooth, fair skin, stood too damn close to Cade for her liking.
“Yeah, I want to know.” His gaze darted between them. “Mack, this is Roux Jennings. Roux, this is Mackenna.” He arched an eyebrow. “Sorry, I don’t know your last name.”
“Wade,” she answered reluctantly. Could that be used against her? She didn’t think so, but then again, nothing made much sense right then.
“Nice to meet you,” Roux said, and she sounded as though she meant it. “I wish it was under better circumstances. I look forward to getting to know you once you’re feeling up to socializing.”
She sounded like she meant that, too, and though past experience said she shouldn’t, Mackenna believed her. She even offered the female a tentative smile. That was, until Roux reached out to touch Cade’s arm while saying her goodbyes.
Baring her fangs, Mackenna growled threateningly, her eyes transfixed on Cade’s arm. “Mine.”
Everyone froze. Time stood still. Then, very slowly, Roux removed her hand and took a step back. Now that the perceived threat had been neutralized, Mackenna wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Not only had she just alienated a possible ally, but that wasn’t how she’d intended to break the news to Cade.
So, the last thing she expected was for Roux to start laughing.
“Oh,” the female practically sang, “this is going to be fun.” Then, she turned and bounced away, cackling like crazy the entire way down the hall.
“I’m sorry,” Mackenna blurted. “I didn’t mean to growl at her.”
“She deserves to be growled at.” Cade carded his fingers through his dark, shaggy hair. “I guess we can just add that to the list of shit we need to talk about.”
“I don’t expect anything.” She wanted to make that very clear. “I mean, I know that humans don’t have mates. So, I don’t—”
“Shh, easy.”
Mackenna braced for a blow when he lifted his hand toward her face, but he just brushed her hair back, his touch as light and soft as a butterfly’s wings.
“We can talk about everything once we get you back to bed, okay?”
“Okay.” Because she couldn’t stop herself, she had to ask, “You’re not a Hunter?”
His expression turned stormy, but the arm around her shoulders remained gentle. “There aren’t any Hunters here. These are good people. You can trust them.”
Nodding, Mackenna took a step at his urging but nearly collapsed when the pain in her foot shot straight up her leg. Damn it, her body really needed to get its act together and heal already.
“I’ve got you.” Hooking an arm behind her knees, Cade lifted her easily and cradled her to his chest. “Is this okay?”
Again, Mackenna nodded.
The doctor met them outside the door Mackenna had fled from, her expression approving. “Get her in the bed, please.”
It didn’t seem possible that someone so big could be so gentle, but Cade handled her like spun glass as he lowered her onto the mattress. Then, he adjusted the bed so that she could sit up comfortably, and he even arranged her pillows behind her for added comfort. He was so sweet, so attentive. Still, she couldn’t help but notice that he looked confused by the entire process, as if he didn’t quite understand why he was doing those things.
When she reached for the blanket, he stopped her with a hand on her wrist. “We’re going to have to rebandage your feet.”
“Oh, right.” Damn, she hated being cold.
Apparently, the thought was written all over her face, because after studying her for a moment, he pulled the blanket off the bed and draped it over her shoulders, tucking it around her until only the lower half of her legs remained visible. “Better?”
Grateful, she smiled up at him. “Much. Thank you.” Movement at his shoulder drew her attention, and she met the doctor’s gaze with a contrite grin. “Sorry about earlier.”
Dr. Lancaster laughed. “You’re not the first person to growl at me, and I highly doubt you’ll be the last. Now, let me look you over and change those bandages. Then, we can talk about getting you something to eat.”
Backing away to give the doctor room to maneuver, Cade stood careful watch from the corner of the room. She liked that he didn’t seem in a hurry to go anywhere. With him there, she felt safe, and that was something she hadn’t experienced in such a long time.
She just hoped he’d still want to stay after they’d had their talk.
Chapter Four
Not once in his nearly thirty-six years of life had Cade ever thought he’d be pulled between two women. Granted, this wasn’t a romance novel kind of love triangle, but he still felt divided allegiances.
He’d made a promise to protect Abby. That promise might have only been to himself, and perhaps his motivations had been selfish, but still, he’d promised. Yet, choosing to stay behind with Mackenna at the safe house while the rest of the team traveled on to the shifter camp had been the easiest decision he’d ever made.
Mackenna was a stranger who had quite literally stumbled into his path. At the time, he hadn’t even known her last name. There’d been something about her, though, something that triggered a protective instinct he’d thought had been burned out of him long ago.
Sure, he felt protective of Abby, and he’d always be a defender of the innocent, but it wasn’t the same with Mackenna. With her, he needed her to be safe, to be happy, to be…whole. When he’d found her in the middle of the highway, naked, bleeding, and terrified, he’d wanted to lay waste to ev
eryone who’d had a hand in her suffering.
When they’d arrived at the safe house, that should have been the end of the road for him. He’d played the hero, rescued her, and delivered her securely into the hands of people who could actually help her. Seeing her lying in that bed, though, hearing the doctor extrapolate on her list of injuries, he hadn’t been able to leave her. He couldn’t have walked away if he’d wanted.
So, he’d stayed, hoping that eventually, it would all make sense. Then, she’d called him hers, and while it was an explanation of sorts, it honestly created more questions than it answered.
“So,” Mackenna said, “you wanted to talk?”
Her wounds had been tended to, and the doctor had left. They’d been alone for several minutes now, and while he’d positioned himself on the edge of her bed for their conversation, he didn’t know where to start.
The beginning would obviously be a good place, but where exactly was that? “You know about the Purge?”
Her brow furrowed as she nodded. “A lot of humans were dying. They said it was some kind of virus, but no one knew what was happening.”
The basics were correct, but the Purge had been so much more than that. He’d found the beginning.
“Well, it wasn’t exactly a virus. It was a manmade biological weapon meant to target the paranormal population.”
Her expression became strained, deepening the valley between her eyes. “Someone did this on purpose?”
“They did. Something went wrong, though. It caused some adverse reactions in the Gemini, but it didn’t kill them.”
“How many?” She spoke quietly, barely on the edge of hearing.
Hoping he’d interpreted her question correctly, he answered, “About ninety percent of the human population worldwide.”
Her eyes fluttered closed briefly, but the tears he’d expected didn’t come. “What about the Gemini? You said something happened to them. Adverse reactions.”
Cade frowned. He couldn’t begin to imagine where she’d been this whole time that she hadn’t at least heard rumors. “Vampires burn in the sun.” They didn’t catch on fire or turn to ash, but it was still dangerous. “Shifters struggle with their change. I guess it takes longer, and it’s pretty painful. Werewolves got it the worst.”
She would already know that the werewolves could no longer shift at all. Whatever magic governed them still dictated they change on the full moon, but the PN2 virus inhibited that change. Hours of bones breaking, mending, and breaking again as an unending battled raged within them had driven many of them mad.
“The pain from not being able to shift caused a lot of werewolves to go feral,” he added, trying to cover as much information as he could. “We call them Ravagers.”
Mackenna stilled, her pale skin turned ashy as the blood drained from her face, and the light faded from her eyes. She stared into the distance, but he could only guess as to what she saw. Maybe she was remembering those painful nights of being huddled on the ground while her body fought to do what it no longer could.
“Hey, don’t worry. If you haven’t gone Ravager yet, it’s not likely that you will.”
“No, right.” She visibly shook herself, but the smile she offered him didn’t quite reach her eyes. “It’s just unsettling, you know?” Sinking back into the pillows, she rolled her head to the side to stare up at him. “Tell me about the Revenant.”
As Cade had heard it, the Revenant had existed long before the Purge. The fact that she knew nothing about them was probably a good thing, though. It meant she’d led an easy life, a happy one that hadn’t required intervention just to keep her alive.
“The Revenant is mostly other Gemini, though a few humans have joined the ranks in recent years.” Technically, he could probably consider himself a member, even if he’d never officially pledged his alliance to the cause. “They’re just a group that helps people. They rescue them from bad situations, right the wrongs of the world. They protect those who can’t protect themselves.”
Her smile had a little more warmth to it this time. “That sounds nice.”
As much as he wanted to keep that look on her face, to give her just a few more minutes of peace, he couldn’t put it off any longer. “I know this is hard, but I have to ask. What happened to you?”
For a long time, he thought she wouldn’t answer. She didn’t owe him anything, not even an explanation, but he couldn’t help her if he didn’t know what she’d been through. He also suspected that there were more like her, others being held against their will, and they needed someone to give a damn about them, too.
Even six months ago, Cade wouldn’t have been that guy. Back then, he’d been all about number one. So full of rage and self-loathing, he’d been no good to anyone, not even the small band of survivors who had elected him their unofficial leader. He’d hated having so many people depend on him, and in the end, he’d failed them all.
“It was a few days after everyone started getting sick,” Mackenna said, pulling him from his morbid spiral. “I was trying to get back to my hometown in Nevada, but I blew a tire, so I called this local towing company. The guy that showed up was kind of twitchy, but I didn’t think much of it.” She lifted one shoulder toward her ear, but it didn’t come off as casual as she’d probably intended. “I guess he drugged me with something, and when I woke up, I was naked on the floor of a cage.”
Cade’s stomach twisted, and his mouth flooded with saliva. “And you said it was Hunters who took you?”
She dipped her head.
The flame of unease in his gut ignited into a wave white-hot anger. He had no tolerance for anyone who inflicted suffering on others for sport. Hunters might technically be human, but that didn’t stop them from being monsters. Every member of the Revenant had been affected in some way by these fanatics, and from the stories he’d heard, their cruelty knew no bounds.
There had been a time when Cade had despised everything and everyone linked to the paranormal world, when he’d actively wished for their demise. Even in his darkest moments, however, he would have never hurt a child. He would have never hunted down and slaughtered innocents.
“And that’s where you’ve been this entire time?” Hunters were efficient killers, but he’d never heard of them holding anyone prisoner, especially not for two fucking years.
Mackenna caught the corner of her lower lip between her teeth and nodded again.
“Were there others?”
“Yes. Most of them didn’t last long.”
“Do you know how many?”
“Maybe ten or twelve?” Her nose wrinkled, and her eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure. It was always changing, and the Hunters didn’t keep us together except on the full moon. I rarely saw the same faces twice.”
He was almost afraid to ask. “What happened on the full moon?”
“The Wild Hunt.”
Yep, he was definitely going to regret this. “And what is the Wild Hunt?”
“Every full moon, they’d let us loose in the woods to train new recruits in how to track and kill Gemini. Most of us didn’t make it to morning.”
The world had become a brutal place, and he’d honestly thought nothing could surprise him anymore. He’d been wrong. “How did they keep you from escaping?”
“Drugs. Shock collars.” She stroked the bandage on her neck absently. “They chipped us like animals so they could track us if we ever did manage to make it out of the forest.”
He wanted to reach out and offer some small measure of comfort, but he didn’t know if his touch would be welcome. Furthermore, he couldn’t work out if the desire to console her came from his own motivations or whatever magical connection was drawing them together.
Eventually, he settled on placing his hand over hers where it rested on the mattress. Aware of her injuries, he kept the pressure light and studied her for any signs of discomfort. Mackenna didn’t react to the contact, but a little of the tension seemed to ease from her body.
“You’re doing gre
at,” he praised. “Just a couple of more questions, okay?”
She gave him the ghost of a grin. “Okay.”
“How did you escape?”
“One of the new recruits forgot to lock my cell.” Her eyebrows drew together, and she shook her head. “He was…nice to me.”
Cade understood the confusion. What she described sounded like more than simple carelessness. A guard wouldn’t just forget to lock a cell, especially not when his prisoner could easily kill him if she escaped. Showing her compassion didn’t necessarily mean he’d left the cell door unlocked on purpose, but it was interesting, another piece to add to the puzzle.
“The burns?” He stroked his thumb over the back of her bandaged hand.
“I had to climb out through the smokestack of an incinerator.”
“Jesus Christ.”
The Marine Corps had provided him with the basic skills needed to survive in this new world, but contrary to popular belief, he’d never been to war. He’d been stationed at a logistics base in Georgia when everything had gone to shit, and he’d spent most of his days writing computer code. When the small group of survivors he’d met along the way had heard he was former military, they’d all assumed he was some decorated war hero.
He hadn’t corrected them.
Even when Roux had brought up him mumbling about insurgents in his sleep, he’d just grunted and let her go on believing the lie. He’d been too much of a coward to confess that he’d been dreaming about their own small band of rebels. In his vision, the Coalition had been referring to them as insurgents, right before they’d executed them all.
It was a nightmare he still experienced frequently.
Every answer Mackenna gave him just brought up more questions. Add to that, they still hadn’t discussed what him being her mate entailed. The exhaustion on her face, however, held him back. The conversation was clearly taking a toll, and he’d already demanded so much of her.
She needed to rest and recover. She needed to heal. At least for the moment, the rest could wait.
