by Sage S Wolf
As if reading my mind, Blake spoke again. “To shift back, all you have to do is picture your human body and focus on being that.”
I nodded and tried to picture what I looked like before as a human. I tried for several minutes and nothing happened until the burning sensation came back and then finally, I felt myself shift. Now I was staring down at my human hands in the mud.
“Can I never do that again?” I asked, exhausted from the whole ordeal, and a little freaked out.
Blake laughed. “I wish I could say yes because that was so bad for you, but now that your lioness is free, she will want to come out a lot. I never even considered it was that damn ring. Something so obvious and simple.”
“Mate.” My lioness purred. I sat back on my heels and looked up at Blake. It was like I was really seeing him for the first time, and he was magnificent. Tall, strong, kind, “mate.” “Blake,” I whispered, reaching out to touch him.
His eyes began to glow. “As much as I want to give in to the look that you’re giving me right now, you still need time to adjust, Kailani.” He placed my clothes into my outstretched hand. “Get dressed before someone comes by and sees what’s mine and I have to kill them.” He was growling again.
It was then that I realized I was completely naked. I let Blake help me to my feet, his touch sending happy tingles through my body. He helped me dress and then we climbed into the Jeep.
“I can’t believe it was the ring." I shook my head in disbelief. "Kavik gave that to me to stop me from shifting. How fucking cruel can one person be?”
Blake placed his hand on my thigh, and I relaxed instantly under his touch. “You still want to leave him be? We can maul him together now.” He winked at me.
I laughed and took his hand in mine, intertwining our fingers. “I want to get out of here as soon as possible so I can start my life with my mate. That sounds just as weird as before, but it feels right. I can feel that you’re mine.”
Blake pulled our hands to his mouth and kissed my knuckles. It did weird things to my insides, but I welcomed it. “That I am, my queen. I’m so glad we’re on the same page now.”
“Me too,” I said, placing our hands back on my thigh. “My aunt is gonna be thrilled about this.”
“Maybe it will help convince her to come home with us. My mom will be thrilled as well. I think she always wanted a daughter.”
“I’ve wanted a mom since I lost mine,” I admitted without meaning to. I looked at Blake. “Does random honesty flying out of your mouth come with being a shifter.”
He nodded. “It does. Why do you think I kept putting my foot in my mouth with you?”
I arched a brow at him. “So you’re honestly a controlling asshole sometimes?” I slapped a hand over my mouth. “That’s not how I meant to say that!”
Blake’s whole body was shaking with laughter. “Now you know how I felt. I don’t want to control you, Kailani. I’ve come to realize that a lot of my controlling urges came from you being scared and my lion wanting to keep you safe in any way possible until you felt safe.”
“I feel safe with you. Yep, done talking now.” I couldn’t stop my feelings from blurting out of my mouth so no more talking.
“I’m glad you feel safe with me, my queen. I will protect you always.”
I could feel the truth in Blake’s words. I wonder… “Tell me a lie.”
“I know what you’re doing. Okay, let me see… I haven’t loved you from the moment I laid eyes on you.”
Lie. He was lying.
“You love me?” I already knew the answer but my lioness wanted to hear the words.
“I do, Kailani. I love you.” He squeezed my hand. “I’ve loved you since the moment you looked up at me in that shed with the fire to survive burning in your eyes. I knew I’d protect you always then. You. Are. Mine.”
With every word I could feel myself opening completely to him. It didn’t matter that I’d just been betrayed in one of the worst ways anymore, or that I’d lost all my money. I was with my mate. The person I was destined to be with forever. The person that would love and care for me always. He would never lie. Never cheat. Never betray. He was my one absolute and I was his. And I knew all of this on instinct because of the animal that was now awake inside my body. She had so much to teach me and I couldn’t wait to learn it all.
“Why do I want to bite you?” I asked. The command to bite Blake was echoing through my head on repeat.
“Because that’s how shifters complete their bonds. We share bites and become one. You’ll be able to sense my emotions better and know when I’m close by.”
“That’s… kinda awesome.” I giggled. I don’t know why I found it amusing.
Suddenly something jumped out in front of the truck.
“Hang on!” Blake yelled. He released my hand and swerved to miss it, causing us to run off the road. Luckily, we were past the cliffs and just ended up in a steep ditch with our airbags exploding into our faces. “Are you okay?” Blake was checking me over with his eyes.
I gave myself a quick mental check. Nothing hurt. “I think I’m okay.” I turned my attention to him. “Are you okay?”
“Yea, I’m-”
Blake’s door was yanked open and he was knocked unconscious before three men began to pull him out.
“Blake!” I screamed, trying to unhook my seatbelt to help him. The fucking thing was jammed. I reached over to grab Blake’s arm, but the three men were too strong. “Leave him alone!” I roared, shocking myself.
The men paused.
“I thought you said her animal was suppressed.” The ugliest of the bunch said to the older… holy fuck. It was Kavik’s dad.
Mr. Haywood glared at me. “She must have taken the ring off. Take him to the truck and I’ll deal with her.” He leaned in with a knife. “Where’s the ring, Kailani? This will go a lot smoother if you put it back on.”
“I threw it off the cliff, just like I’m gonna do to you after I rip your fucking face off!” I snarled. “Let go of my mate and you can live. Maybe.”
Mr. Haywood laughed as a growl started in his chest. “I guess you’ll be getting the same treatment as your aunt and mate then. Come on.” He cut my seatbelt strap before I could fight him off. “Out of the truck we go.”
My door was opened and then everything went dark.
~19~
Blake
I’m not sure if my mate’s voice or the throbbing ache in my shoulders woke me. I was hanging by my wrists, just barely able to touch the ground by standing on my toes.
“Blake! Please wake up!” Kailani’s voice sounded far away but not at the same time.
“Kailani?” I coughed out. My throat was extremely dry. I tried to look around for her, but my vision was blurry.
“Thank goddess you’re awake.” Her voice came from right behind me and I realized she was hanging by her hands too.
“I’m awake. What happened?” The events of the day were all clear until after we crashed in the ditch.
“Kavik’s dad and his asshole friends caused us to crash and then knocked us out. I tried to stop them from taking you, I’m sorry.” Kailani started to cry, and I wished more than anything I could hold her.
“Hush, mate. There was nothing you could have done in your weakened state. I’d rather be taken than see you hurt. We’ll get out of this together, I promise.”
I felt her press tighter against my back as her lioness began to purr. My lion answered with his own.
“They really like each other.” She sniffled. “Can we shift out of these handcuffs? My shoulders and head are killing me.”
I blew out a breath. “I’m afraid not. We can shift if we can convince them to let us down and remove the cuff from our wrists. If we shifted like this, we’d not only hurt our shoulders but probably break our wrists. Any clue where we are?” The room was dark, though my lion could make out enough details to know we were in some kind of factory, and the smell…
“Smells and looks like the fishe
ry to me. I think we’re in one of the old storage rooms at the back of the building.”
“So if I can get us out of here you could lead us back to your aunt’s house?”
Kailani shifted again. “I could, assuming I don’t bleed to death from these fucking cuffs cutting into my wrists.”
“Shit. Here.” I bent my knee. “Step up on my calf and take the weight off your wrists.”
“No, Blake. You’re strung up the same as me and your wrists are bleeding too. You need both feet to keep your full weight off your wrists.”
I bumped her knee with my calf. “Kailani. Don’t argue with me for once and just do what I ask. Please?”
She let out a frustrated sigh. “Fine. But only for a moment to give my wrists and shoulders a break. How will I balance?”
“Just pressed your back harder against mine and pull yourself up with the cuffs as you push up with your leg.”
Kailani’s foot rested on my calf. “Okay. Here goes nothing. On three. One… two…” I locked my knee and braced on my left toes for the extra weight I was going to be holding. Her foot suddenly left my leg. “I can’t.”
“What? Why?”
“You really have to ask? Haven’t you noticed that I’m not exactly skinny?”
“The only thing I’ve noticed is that you are a fucking beautiful goddess and every inch of you deserves to be worshipped. Now, get your fine ass up on my leg!” I growled.
We were gonna work on her self-esteem issues once we got out of this horrible smelling fishery and I killed some wolverines.
She let out a small laugh and placed her foot back on my calf. “You say the nicest things at the worst time.” She pressed against my back harder and slowly pulled herself up to stand on my calf. “You okay?”
“Yep.” I gripped my restraints tighter to help with balance. Neither of us could afford to fall. “Stay there as long as you like.”
“I’ll get down in a minute.”
I shook my head. “Stay.” I put just enough command in my voice to make her lioness listen without startling Kailani.
“Did you just ordered my lioness to stay?”
“I did. I know she’ll listen to me, unlike her stubborn human half.”
“Asshole,” Kailani whispered under her breath.
“Kailani, I can hear you. No need to whisper. And I’m not trying to be an asshole, I just want you to be as comfortable as possible in our situation. Can you feel around up there and see if there is any way to free our wrists?”
“Yea. Hang on.” I tried to look up to see what Kailani was doing. She didn’t need to tell me how fucked we were. “Shit. The handcuffs are padlocked to the chain. We aren’t getting out of here without the keys.”
“No, but I can turn around. Think you can hold yourself up long enough for me to turn around?”
Kailani looked down at me and worried her lip for a moment before answering. “I don’t know how that will help anything.”
“Just trust me,” I said, giving her a small smile.
She reluctantly nodded. “Okay. I think I can hold myself while you turn around.”
“Great. Ready?” She nodded and gripped the chain tighter as I lowered my leg and turned around to face her. “Legs around my waist. You can sit on my thigh.” She was lucky I was so tall that she could sit somewhat comfortably on my thigh.
“Now what?” She asked, looking into my eyes with so much uncertainty. Her lioness was there too.
“Hi.” I would have seemed like a dumb thing to say to an outsider.
Kailani understood and she smiled. “Hi.”
I couldn’t stop myself from lowering my head and kissing her forehead, letting my lips linger. “We’re gonna be alright, my queen. No matter what, we will get through this.”
“I sure hope so.” Her forehead rested against my mouth and I couldn’t resist kissing it again.
“We will.”
“Aren’t you two just the cutest.” A voice said from behind us.
I suddenly regretted turning around. I was too vulnerable this way.
Kailani looked over my shoulder. “Mr. Haywood, why are you doing this?”
Mr. Haywood growled. “You forced me to do this, Kailani. If you’d just stayed gone, we wouldn’t be here right now. You have no one to blame for your mate’s fate but yourself.”
“Bullshit!” I spat, considering turning to face him for a second and then realized that I’d be putting Kailani between us. I wouldn’t do that. “You and your piece of shit son lied to her for years, suppressed her lioness, and then sold her without her against her will. Do you know how many shifter laws you broke through all that? You will die for this.”
“Will I?” Mr. Haywood asked.
I didn’t need to see his face to know he was wearing a smug smile.
“Just let us go, and we’ll never come back. We were planning to take my aunt and leave before you caused us to crash.” Kailani’s voice was shaking with a mixture of anger and fear. My queen was so brave.
“Your aunt is dead.”
Kailani shook her head in disbelief. “You’re lying.” Her voice broke a little on the last word.
My lion began pacing under my skin, a growl sounding from my chest. “Where is Leandra?” I was wishing more and more I could tear this man's face from his skull.
“I’ve already told you. She’s dead.” Kailani started to quietly cry into my shoulder as Mr. Haywood continued to talk. “We stopped by the house first, hoping to catch you there after Jack called us last night to tell us you were in town. You did a good job of installing that new door, by the way, Blake. It took two of us to kick it in. Leandra shifted but her cat is weak, so she was easy to get to submit and shift back. She didn’t want to tell us where you were at first, but we have ways of making women talk.”
A sob ripped out of Kailani as her legs fell from my waist.
“Shut up!” I ordered him. “She’s heard enough.”
The asshole chuckled. “I don’t think she has.” He came around and gripped Kailani’s face roughly, making her look at him.
I began to fight against my restraints. “Let her go.”
“Do you want to know what we did to your aunt to make her give us her precious niece, Kailani?”
Kailani squeezed her eyes shut. “No.”
I slowly lowered my leg, hoping Kailani would catch on and put her feet down in time to catch herself. She did.
“This is your last warning to get your hands off my mate,” I warned, readying myself to grab him with my legs.
“I can do whatever the hell I want to her.” Mr. Haywood snarled, raising his free hand and slapping Kailani across the face causing her to cry out in pain.
“You motherfucker!” I roared, gripping my cuffs tight as I lifted my legs and wrapping them around his neck.
He was only stunned for a moment before he started scratching at my thighs while he gasped for air.
I didn’t see the knife until right before he plunged it into my thigh. I grunted in pain but didn’t release him. If I could just hold him until he passed out, maybe Kailani could find a way to get the key that I hoped he was carrying.
“Blake, let him go!” Kailani begged when he stabbed me again. “Blake!” She was trying to use her leg to help push him away.
My lion was too fucking mad to release him before he was at least passed out. No one hurts our mate.
We struggled for a few more minutes, both of us wearing down. Him from lack of oxygen and me from blood loss from the now six stab wounds in my thighs and my wrists that were freely bleeding from the cuffs cutting in so deep.
Just as Haywood was about to stab me again, the door opened, and two men rushed in.
“Fuck.” One rushed over and managed to pull us apart. They were lucky I was so weak.
Haywood coughed and pointed at me. “He dies first. Make sure the girl watches.” He said before rushing out of the room coughing.
“Let him down, he’s losing too much blood,” Kailani beg
ged, looking at me with glowing eyes.
“Let me down so I can kill you both!” I hissed, doing my best to stay conscious.
“You hear that, Eagle? He’s gonna kill us.” The taller one teased.
My lion decided he would die first.
“I did hear that, Denali. Too bad he looks like he might die before he gets the chance.”
Denali pulled something from his pocket. A knife. This one was bigger than the pocketknife that Mr. Haywood had been stabbing me with.
“Just to make sure,” Denali said and then drove the knife into my side.
“Stop it!” Kailani screamed, trying to kick at Denali.
Eagle grabbed her legs to stop her.
Denali pulled the knife out and I grunted when he stabbed me again.
“Kailani.” I sputtered, blood dribbling from my mouth. “I love-” my vision faded before I could get the words out.
~20~
Kailani
I’d just watched my mate die. That’s all I could think as all the feeling left my body. The man I was destined to spend my life with was dead. His body now lying limp on the concrete floor.
“Let her down.” Someone said. “We can put her in with the other until Kavik gets home. He made his uncle promise to let him take care of the females.”
As soon as my handcuffs were unlocked, I dropped to the ground and pulled Blake’s body into my arms.
“I’m so sorry!” I sobbed, knowing I was the reason he was dead.
He was here because of me. I should have tried harder to make him stay in Montana.
“Come on, let’s go.” Eagle grabbed my arm and yanked me to my feet. “Walk!” He barked, snapping me from my trance.
I tried to yank my arm free. “Fuck you!” I spit at him. My aunt wouldn’t be proud but she might be dead so fuck it.
He gripped me tighter and laughed. “No thanks, sweetheart, I’m not into omegas. Too fertile for my tastes.” He looked over at the other man. “Denali, get the cuffs off the dead one. Alpha will be pissed if we bury another person with them on.”
“On it,” Denali answered.
I tried to get one last look at Blake before I was pulled from the room. His face was pale and lifeless. “I love you too,” I whispered as the door shut behind us.