“Flexibility is the key.” Eli grinned.
Inside, the vampires were still examining the breeder. Jeers, taunts, and salacious comments echoed toward them. Both Lycans winced at misery in the breeder’s muffled wails. Dane sniffed the air. “What smells so good?”
Eli shrugged. “My new perfume. Seriously, do I care? I’ll freaking kill those monsters for putting her through this. Can’t we just grab her and run?”
A growl rumbled around Dane’s chest as a delicious scent curled around him. Addictive. Compelling. Arousing. Overpowering him and making him dizzy with need.
He wanted to soothe her and comfort her, to carry her burdens for her. His monstrous wolf howled at the sorrow emanating from her. She looked tiny and vulnerable, but he sensed her inner fire. He’d bathe in it, burn in it, just to be near her. For once, he understood why Eli had fallen for a female.
Dane rubbed his chest, surprised by his heart’s hard-rock rhythm. It hurt that his scars made him imperfect and stern. Females preferred Eli’s unblemished cheeks and easygoing ways. Dane wanted to charge like the seventh cavalry, carry the breeder away, and make her his. His monstrous wolf clawed at his chest, wanting out. Breathing in her cotton-candy essence made every part of him growl, Mine.
A hint of muscle lurked beneath her curves. With her white-blonde hair and her eyes like rain-drenched forget-me-nots, she took his breath away. His monstrous wolf prowled inside him, demanding he toss her over his shoulder and run. Even his detached human side needed to get his elf-sized beauty out of there. “I’ll kill any red-eyed freak who tries to screw her.”
Dane’s emotions swamped him, tearing through his self-built walls and leaving him vulnerable. Because of her. When the two nearest vampires turned their red eyes in their direction, they ducked out the hall.
Eli turned to his brother. “If that bloodsucker touches her again, I’ll pull his fucking arm from his socket and stuff it up his arse.”
Fangs bared, Dane growled. “Get in line. If that bastard comes near me, he’s dead.”
Eli grinned. “Vampire, remember? He’s been dead since he turned immortal in his mid-twenties. Besides, shouldn’t you be telling me to rein it in? You’re the stern, sensible one while I’m the heartbreaker who reminds the pack how to have fun.”
Dane stared around the castle, assessing the defenses. The Great Hall opened into this courtyard. Sturdy stone walls ran around the clifftop. No attackers could climb the sheer cliff and scale them. A thick portcullis and guard tower protected the entrance. Breaking in was impossible. Breaking out was a different matter.
Eli grinned at his brother. “So, Mr. Inflexibility, what’s the new plan?”
* * *
Cassie’s chest constricted, and she struggled to breathe. The vampires had sold her to the heavy-handed vampire—Marco—and he planned to brutalize her. Her stomach felt like she’d swallowed a tumble drier. Not that such things worked now the power stations had gone offline. The last thing she wanted was to throw up. Thanks to the gag, she’d choke in her own vomit.
Her new owner—owner, for goodness’ sake—pushed his way to the dais and cupped each of her breasts. Eyes glowing, he squeezed them so hard her legs almost gave way.
Satisfied he’d stamped his authority on her, Marco beckoned the crones over. “Take her back to her cell. Tonight, I’ll wallow in gallons of ale. Tomorrow, I’ll screw her cunt and her arse. If anyone wants to watch me fuck her, it’s one gold a ticket.”
Cassie’s breathing turned fast and shallow. Panic fogged her thoughts. This monster planned to rape her and turn it into a spectator sport. If she’d had a pitchfork, she’d have run him through with it. That or beaned him with her heaviest monkey wrench.
Escape had been impossible, so far. Everything would change once her new owner unfastened her wrists. Given even half a chance, she’d be off and running. Meanwhile, she drowned in degradation and fear.
Even the crones looked shell-shocked as they led her back to her cell. Cassie’s feet dragged, and her head pounded. The auction had shamed and humiliated her—just as the Keeper had intended.
Cassie had never been so glad to see her bare cell. Relief that the auction was over left her shaky and tearful. Only tomorrow would bring fresh horrors. Now the vampires had sold her like a sack of wheat, she thought the crones might loosen her bonds. Even if they didn’t, she’d escape eventually.
Knowing she’d bought her family time to pack up and flee would get her through this—she hoped. Few travelers stumbled on the family’s isolated smallholding. Those who did spoke of a human settlement on the Orkneys. Once she broke out of here, that’s where she was heading. Not that anywhere was safe anymore.
In her heart, she worried she’d never see her family again. She missed the daily laughter and teasing. Losing a limb would be easier than losing her family. Her only consolation was that she hadn’t been taken by werewolves.
Lycans were worse than vampires. Better looking, if the one she’d spotted earlier was anything to go by, but fiercer and deadlier. They terrified every surviving human they met. Travelers claimed werewolves slit a breeder’s throat once she’d given them three babies. It was their radical way to prevent future inbreeding
The crones stood in the doorway, watching their feet rather than Cassie. One finally mumbled, “We can’t release you. The Keeper will have us whipped if we do. I’m sorry, but we don’t even dare remove that gag. Marco’s a monster, but his clan’s rich and well-respected. Your children will have a good future with them.”
Cassie didn’t want Marco anywhere near her or her future children, let alone fathering them.
The second crone wiped Cassie’s tears. “Try to get some sleep. You’ll need your strength to get through the next couple of days.”
Cassie curled up on the bed, her thoughts spinning. Her shoulders ached, and her stomach still churned like a whirlpool. Cold numbed her fingers and toes. Her bottom throbbed where her new owner had walloped it.
Upset by her distress, the crones patted her cheeks and skittered away. Cassie couldn’t blame them for their allegiance to the vampires. The world had changed, and the crones did what they needed to survive.
Before the radios went dead, her family had listened in horror as the world fell apart. Staying alive had become a daily challenge. Thanks to her dad’s engineering skills and the remoteness of their smallholding, her family had fared better than most. And now she could never go home again.
The prevailing wind acted like a shot of ice for the cells in the castle’s rebuilt curtain wall. It rattled the window and froze her bones. The wall hugged the edge of the headland, and the drop to the harbor seemed endless. Shivering, Cassie stared out at gray sky and an even grayer sea. Her view matched her desolate mood.
A few small boats returned to the port before the tide went out too far for them to reach the harbor. The vampires fed their catch to the castle’s humans. It kept them strong enough to feed their vampire masters. It reminded Cassie of the way her family fed their pigs prior to the autumn slaughter.
Chapter Three
Wolf senses on full alert, Dane guarded Eli’s back as they moved around the inner courtyard walls. Earlier, when Eli had delivered the first ale barrels, he’d dumped a rope behind the horse trough. Now he retrieved it and slung it over one shoulder.
Dane had thought his brother’s hormones had gone into hyperdrive—again. Just like they did around any attractive female. This sudden attraction to the breeder fit Eli’s love ‘em and leave ‘em pattern. On their last trip, there’d been a contretemps with the daughter of the Black Cardinal pack’s alpha. Hence their hasty exit from foreign territory.
Their father, alpha of the Dark Moon Prowlers had sent a diplomatic mission to soothe things over. Eli had shrugged his shoulders and taken Sable, his sister’s best friend for dinner. Now he mooned over the breeder.
Rubbing his scarred cheek, Dane sighed. Eli needed the pack’s approval. If the she-wolves melted when Eli flirted with t
hem, so much the better. Eli had been that way since he fucked up when they were serving with the Special Forces team in Afghanistan.
Young and stupid, barely into their immortality, they’d thought they were invincible and enlisted. When a team member triggered an IED, Dane had covered his brother’s body with his own. If Eli had taken a step closer, he’d have been wiped off the planet. Instead, the explosive device left Dane peppered with nails and his right cheek ripped apart by shrapnel.
Sometimes—usually—Dane felt imperfect and flawed. Eli blamed himself of course, but Dane never had. He’d become the sensible one, the pack’s enforcer as well as their troubleshooter. Having seen the breeder, Dane understood Eli’s need to free her. Hell, getting her out of there unmolested mattered more than breathing.
Women always fell for Eli’s easy charm and killer smile, but they took one look at Dane’s scars and turned away. With his damaged face, he’d need to move with a wolf’s tricky cunning to win the breeder’s heart. Living without her wouldn’t be living at all.
They waited until the vampires fell on the fresh ale, all intent on drinking themselves into a stupor. Dane checked out the courtyard and nodded to his brother. As Lycan troubleshooters in a vampire stronghold, they needed to tread carefully.
Even in human form, they were both six-feet-seven inches of bulging muscle. Despite their size, they moved without a whisper of sound as they tracked the breeder. Her sweet scent pervaded the twisting corridors, guiding them to her cell.
When they reached the easternmost point of the curtain wall, they grinned. It overlooked the sea, but it sat atop a one-hundred-foot-high cliff. Eli nodded toward the breeder’s cell. “She’ll be glad to see the back of this place. Since we’re at the easterly point of the clifftop, getting her out should be a breeze.”
Ready to rush to the breeder’s rescue, all guns blazing, Eli stood back, ready to shoulder charge the door. Dane grabbed his arm and hauled him into an alcove. “Someone’s coming.”
A female vampire strode toward them, a tray in her hands. She unlocked Cassie’s door and set it on the floor. “There, human, I’ve done my bit by bringing it. Of course, the Keeper ordered you gagged, so good luck with your dinner.”
Laughing, she closed the door and stalked back down the corridor.
Eyes dark and predatory, Dane’s monstrous wolf snarled and demanded her blood.
Eli’s eyes narrowed into dark gold beads. “Stay back while I kick in the door.”
Dane grabbed him again. “I collected a lock-pick while I organized the second ale delivery. Keep watch while I get to work.”
Eli paced back and forth as he kept a silent guard. “Work faster. You saw how scared she was. We need to get her out of here.”
Finally, Dane stood back. “Got it.”
Like an overeager schoolboy, Eli pushed past him and into the room. Dane followed, pulling the door shut behind them and relocking it from the inside.
The breeder’s eyes widened, and her heartbeat skyrocketed. Behind her gag, she made a muffled, distressed sound.
* * *
Cassie tensed when the door opened. The good-looking guy—make that werewolf—she’d spotted earlier charged into her cell. Smiling, he made a beeline for her. Another man followed on his heels, all stern lips, stiff spine, and pitted cheek. The way he stood—fingers spread over his scars as he watched her—meant the scars bothered him. Considering his Lycan origins, his disfigured cheek was the least of her worries.
Both men shared the same athletic build and piercing amber eyes. The one with scars sported a military buzz cut; otherwise, they could have been identical twins. Make that identical Lycan twins.
When the swaggering, sexy one moved toward her, the other nodded and stood back. The pair of them exuded power and confidence.
She’d never seen such stunning males, but she’d heard stories about werewolves—none of them good. Now she was bound and helpless, locked in a room with them. Thanks to the gag, she couldn’t scream for help.
The long-haired one with the hot smile reached out to her. “I’m Eli, princess, and that’s my brother Dane. We’re here to rescue you.”
She shuffled up the bed and curled her legs beneath her. As much as she hated vampires, werewolves made her innards quake.
The short-haired one, Dane, pulled his brother back. “She’s terrified, you fool.”
Eli brushed Dane’s hand from his arm and slowed his movements. “Don’t worry, princess, we’ll get you out of here. Come here and let me unbuckle that gag.”
He took a step toward her, but she cowered away. Puzzled, he glanced across at his brother. Dane gave the breeder a stare designed to cow her into obedience. “Something tells me she doesn’t want rescuing. Is that right, little human?”
Cassie flattened her spine against the bedhead. Even if she could explain, they wouldn’t understand. Worse, they might hunt down her sisters. Not knowing what to do, she whimpered and dropped her gaze.
Werewolves were all fangs and claws—natural born killers—and this pair homed in on her. Any moment now, they’d shift into crazed monsters that lived to hurt and maim. Heart beating overtime, she closed her eyes and waited for them to strike.
The men exchanged puzzled glances, then Eli shrugged. “We came to collect the breeder and that’s what we’ll do. Sorry, princess, but you’ll have to keep the gag a while longer.”
As he uncoiled the rope he’d hung over his shoulder, Dane tied a slipknot at one end, making a noose. Eyes hard, face set in determined lines, he stalked toward her. “We won’t hurt you, but don’t fight us. I’d hate for my knots to give way when we lower you down the castle’s curtain wall.”
Stomach churning, Cassie whimpered again, but she let Eli help her to feet. He held her for a second too long and breathed deeply. “It’s your perfume. It’s driving me crazy.”
She kicked his shins and ran across the room. Dane blocked her way, tossed the loop of rope over her head then pulled it beneath her bound arms. When he tightened the loop around her chest, she felt like an animal selected for slaughter.
Cassie was sick of crying, sick of the terror eating at her soul. Determined to stay strong, she tried to wriggle free. Her efforts only tightened the noose beneath her armpits. She wanted out of this rebuilt castle so badly she could taste it, but not with werewolves. Never with creatures like them.
Arms bound, gagged and helpless, she couldn’t shout, slap, or punch. Even if she evaded these two Lycans, the scarred one—Dane—had locked the door behind them. All she could do was submit.
She hated that the vampires had left her so vulnerable. Hell, she hated everything about the sadistic bloodsuckers who’d brought her here. They belonged in films or books but after the plagues, they’d emerged from the shadows, cruel overlords who farmed humans for blood.
The first chance Cassie got, she’d be out of here so fast her feet left scorch marks on the flagstones. She’d had a gut feeling that she’d escape the vampires. The werewolves though... Their possessive gaze sent shockwaves of desire shooting through her. Escaping them would be impossible.
Her eyes widened as the werewolves shed their clothes. She should look away, but their movements—and their bare chests—fascinated her the way a snake does a rabbit. Their bodies rippled with golden muscle as if they walked around naked all summer. They were beautiful and deadly, werewolf warriors who feared nothing. By comparison, she was a scaredy-cat mess.
The last few days had seemed like a nightmare. Now, on top of everything, werewolves invaded her cell. Naked ones with twin erections that waved at her. Whatever this pair planned, she didn’t think those twin cocks would fit inside her. Even the brutish vampire who’d won the auction would be better than them.
Eli—the one with the killer smile—shoved their clothes into his rucksack. When she heard their bones pop, Cassie curled in the corner, trying to make herself less of a target. Their limbs thickened and lengthened. Their teeth elongated into fangs and their fingernails grew
into six-inch claws. Their faces grew longer, like killer Alsatian dogs on steroids.
They towered over her, standing well over eight feet tall. Like Popeye after he downed a tin of spinach, their muscles rippled and grew. The few travelers she’d met had called werewolves vicious and savage. And this pair fixated on her.
Eli tossed the rucksack from the window, then tilted his head as if considering the frame. He snapped the bars the way he would pencils then yanked the ends out of the wall. Putting two giant hands—or were they paws—on the wood, he pushed hard. The frame crashed onto the cliff below. The sound of splintering wood and shattering glass echoed toward them.
Nodding in satisfaction, he squeezed his bulk through the hole in the wall and jumped. No one could survive a one-hundred-foot drop. Unable to believe what he’d done, Cassie ran to the window and stared after him. He landed with catlike grace, thrust his arms in the air, and gave Dane a clawed thumbs up.
Dane growled and wrapped the free end of the rope around his waist. Before she could protest, he lifted her onto the window sill. She bucked and fought, terrified of the drop, but bound and gagged, her protests were useless.
Spine stiff and unyielding, Dane cupped her cheek in his hand. His voice came out deeper, more animalistic. Ridiculously masculine, it rumbled around his chest. “You’ve made this hard for yourself, but we won’t hurt you.”
She whimpered again, barely able to think for the terror fogging her thoughts. Ignoring her muffled protests, he pushed her feet over the edge. Sat on the edge of a one-hundred-foot drop, legs dangling, she stiffened and shook her head. Her heart raced so fast she thought it would burst from her chest. His stern body language called her a fool for resisting her rescue, but it felt more like a kidnapping.
The intensity in his gaze told her she was going over the edge come what may. She widened her eyes, silently pleading for him not to do this. He reached out, gave her shoulder a squeeze, and pushed her bottom off the sill.
Taken as Theirs Page 2