by Raand, L. L.
“We have to warn Jody,” Drake said. “We are allies, and she must be given the choice to join us, or at the very least alert her father to prepare to defend their Dominion.”
“Yes,” Sylvan said. “I’ll advise her—”
A knock sounded at the door, and Niki called, “Permission to speak to the Alpha.”
Sylvan said, “Enter.”
Niki strode in, dressed in regulation black BDUs. Power radiated from her in waves and the glitter in her eyes said she too had already found her mate. She bowed her head sharply. “Alpha. Prima. Forgive the intrusion. Torren is downstairs and wishes to see you.”
“Send her up,” Sylvan said.
“One minute, if I might,” Niki said, her gaze shifting to Drake.
“Go ahead,” Sylvan said.
“Sophia told me about the blood tests.”
“I asked her father to look at our blood,” Drake said to Sylvan and Niki both. “It’s necessary for the good of us all, and we’ve delayed long enough.”
“I understand.” Niki straightened, her chin lifting. “Sophia explained that to me and I agree. This is about the results. I don’t care what they show. But if there’s something wrong—”
“Sophia deserves to know,” Drake said.
Niki snarled. “I won’t have her hurt.”
Sylvan rumbled a warning at Niki’s challenging tone, but Drake slid her hand behind Sylvan’s neck and stroked her softly. “Niki, Sophia is ours to protect as well as yours. And I believe what we find will allow her to live fully, as she should.”
“No matter what it shows, we will be mated,” Niki said, her tone a notch less challenging.
“As you should be,” Drake said.
“Trust Drake.” Sylvan slid Drake from her lap, rose, and took clothes from an armoire next to the door. She pulled on black fatigue pants and a T-shirt. “Send Torren up.”
“Yes, Alpha.” Niki saluted.
“Then see to the soldiers. We’re not yet done this night.”
Niki smiled. “Yes, Alpha.”
Torren entered as Niki left. She wore the same black BDUs as Niki, but Niki was a blade, honed and gleaming. Torren was as elegant as an arrow, impossible to follow and just as deadly.
“Have you found her?” Sylvan asked.
“Yes. As I suspected, the cat who attacked her carried her a few miles and waited for transport. She’s at Nocturne.”
“Then we will free her.” Sylvan’s growl reverberated through headquarters and stretched out into the Compound and beyond.
The call to battle was a fire in the blood of every wolf, and the air filled with answering howls.
*
Francesca rode Michel with their legs intertwined and raked her nails across Michel’s chest, scoring her breasts with razor-thin slashes of flame. The two Weres in bed with them were barely conscious. Francesca had fed repeatedly from both throughout the last hour to keep her sexual potency at its peak. The wolf lay splayed out on his back, his penis curled limply against his thigh, rivulets of blood drying on his chest and belly where he had not yet healed from Francesca’s teeth. Dru, still awake, panted fitfully by Francesca’s side, her thighs and belly slick with her repeated emissions as Francesca fed from her neck and groin.
Michel was caught in the web of Francesca’s sexual thrall, but what had once brought pleasure now delivered only pain. Her clitoris was tense and aching, but she had not fed or climaxed and could not pretend otherwise. Francesca came for the fourth time and fell on Michel with a cry, her mouth hot against Michel’s throat. She ground her swollen, demanding sex against Michel and ordered, “I want you to fuck me, and I want you to come when you do it.”
An image of Katya being held naked in a cell filled Michel with fury as raging as the need burning through her. Francesca would never let Michel go until she had what she demanded—Michel’s submission, and until Michel was free, she could not help Katya.
“Whatever my mistress desires.” Michel rolled onto Francesca, held her down with a hand pressed between her breasts, and filled her with a single hard thrust. She straddled Francesca’s thigh, the pressure against her tense, throbbing flesh an unbearable ache. While she stroked Francesca’s clitoris with each deep plunge, Francesca’s blazing blue eyes transformed into burning pools of deepest crimson.
When Francesca’s clitoris turned to stone beneath her fingers, Michel struck the male’s throat swiftly, drinking deeply of his rich blood. The taste was ash against her tongue. Francesca glowed with power, and a pulse of sexual thrall struck Michel with such force her sex exploded. The orgasm was more pain than pleasure, and she doubled over with a hoarse cry. As she moaned, she heard Francesca laugh.
When Francesca finally reached for the champagne from the bucket beside the bed, Michel sat up, took the bottle from her, and poured them each a glass. She tapped her flute to Francesca’s.
“To your continued success.”
“Oh, darling,” Francesca murmured, watching Michel as she sipped, “to our victory.”
“Yes.” Michel set the flute aside and stood. “And if we are to remain victorious, I should see to our friends upstairs.”
“Mmm, yes.” Francesca stroked Dru’s abdomen, drawing her nails through the thick pelt. “Don’t be long.”
“I’ll hurry.” Michel turned back at the door long enough to see Francesca slip between Dru’s muscular thighs and slide her incisors into the femoral vein. The image of Francesca’s hips undulating as she climaxed with every swallow followed her into the dark hallway.
Chapter Twenty-six
Katya crouched on the narrow platform bolted to the rock wall of her cell, her back against the cold, rough stone. Icy droplets of water seeped from the deep underground foundation and trickled down her bare back. Judging the distance to the iron bars that made up one side of her cage, she leaned forward and gripped the edge of the shelf. She coiled her legs beneath her, poised to spring. She was fast, and she was certain she could cover the ten feet before whoever came through that door next had a chance to reach her. Faster even than the Vampire bitch who had tormented her with images of unbearable pleasure until her glands had filled and her sex had pulsed on the brink of erupting.
Her lip curled, thinking of Francesca’s delight in exciting her. She wasn’t nearly as incapacitated by sex frenzy as the Vampire believed. She’d experienced the same torture many times over when her previous captors had tormented her with need so fierce she would have begged for release if they hadn’t stimulated her until she ejaculated for them. This time she knew her tormentor, and she wasn’t drugged. This time when the thrall consumed her and her body craved the ultimate release, she knew she was being forced. She had not welcomed the pleasure, had fought against it, and she would not forget who had compelled her. Francesca. Somehow, she would kill her or die trying.
She would not be a prisoner again. She would have only one chance, and she might die before she could make a killing strike, but just knowing she would try kept her wolf from going completely mad. The dungeon was meant to contain Vampires, and the cell had no windows. She didn’t know how long she’d been unconscious before awakening in the dark. Didn’t know if it was day or night. She wasn’t even sure if she was alone. Once, she thought she heard a low moan, of pain or pleasure she wasn’t certain, but the sound disappeared so quickly, as if choked off in midgroan, she couldn’t place the direction. The iron bars held no silver, but the Vampire Regent had been right—even with all her strength, she could not budge them. Francesca was wrong about Sylvan, though. The Alpha would be able to breach them. Except the Alpha did not know where she was. The Alpha was in battle somewhere to the north and might not know for many days she was missing, and even then would not know where to look for her. If Sylvan knew, she would come. Katya had waited during her first imprisonment, believing then as she did now that eventually the Alpha would come for her. If she knew. If the war did not escalate. If the Alpha was not wounded in battle, or worse.
This tim
e she could not wait. Her wolf was frenzied at being caged and Katya could not hold back the need to shift for long. Once freed, her wolf would fight. She knew no other way, but if she lost, as surely she would, at least she would die with honor.
The shadows moved and a shape appeared before the bars of her cage. Her thighs tensed and her vision honed. She let her wolf rise. Her only hope was to strike the throat and incapacitate the Vampire long enough to reach the hall. Then she might find a way to freedom. A growl reverberated soundlessly in her chest, and her pelt erupted down the center of her naked body.
“Do you trust me so little?” Michel murmured as she stepped close to the bars.
“It’s not you I distrust.” Katya trembled, her canines elongated, her fingers claw-tipped. So close now. So close to freedom. “The one with you.”
“I am alone, and it is not yet time to release your wolf.”
Katya shivered, struggling not to shift. She stared across the divide between them, searching for the part of herself that knew this voice, this flesh, this heartbeat that pulsed in time with her own. With a shuddering breath, she leapt down and across the stone floor worn smooth by the bodies that had lain on it over the centuries. She stood opposite Michel, only the thickness of iron separating them. “Why am I here?”
Michel reached through the bars and cupped Katya’s face. “Francesca is bored and has decided to play games. She wants the escaped Fae returned and thinks your Alpha will want you back badly enough to exchange the Fae for you.”
Michel’s hand was warm. She’d fed, and with feeding came sex. “What did she do to you?”
“Nothing she hasn’t done thousands of times before. Nothing that matters.” Michel stroked Katya’s neck along her pulse line. “I would free you now, but you would not get far, even with me by your side. We must wait until after dawn when Francesca’s forces are fewer and otherwise occupied. Will you trust me?”
“Why are you doing this?” Katya kissed Michel’s palm and pressed it to her face. “Francesca will kill you if you defy her. If she tries to negotiate with the Alpha, the Alpha will come for me. But if Francesca knows you tried to help me, she will destroy you no matter what happens.”
“She will destroy me sooner or later anyhow.” Michel smiled fleetingly. “You would not be here if she did not know what you mean to me. She could have taken any wolf, but she chose you. I have dared take my affections elsewhere, and she cannot allow that from one in my position.”
“I’m sorry,” Katya whispered. “I would never have endangered you—”
“You did not ask me to come to you in the labs.” Michel’s hand gentled on Katya’s throat, her fingers as light as a kiss. “You did not ask me to drink of you. And when I hungered for you, you did not bid me come to you. I came because you are more to me than life.”
Katya reached through the bars and gripped Michel’s arm. “Then do what must be done to stay alive.”
“Are you so sure your Alpha will come once she knows you are here?”
“Yes,” Katya said instantly. “She will.”
“And me? Do you have such faith in me?”
“You’re here now.”
“I love you.”
A wave of power struck Katya so hard she trembled on the verge of shifting. She leaned against the bars and took a deep breath. “I love you. I don’t want you to risk yourself for me, but I will not give her the chance to touch me if she comes in here again.”
“I will not let her touch you,” Michel said. “No one will touch you again except me.”
“Feed from whomever you must. Fuck that Vampire bitch if you must.” Katya caressed Michel’s face. “But no one will touch you the way it matters except me. Promise.”
Michel kissed Katya’s fingers. Her eyes flared red for an instant as hunger and desire roared through her. “I will do what I must, but I will take no others. When your Alpha comes, I will find you. If she does not come, I will free you. Once you are free, in time you will be strong enough that I will need no others, even for sustenance.”
Katya’s wolf slowed her frantic pace and sighed deeply. Katya traced a line of red down the center of Michel’s throat, a reminder to her Vampire of where she belonged. “Then stay alive, Senechal, and I will do the same.”
“Your trust will be my shield.”
“Promise me,” Katya said, “if fighting breaks out you will find a way to free me. I will not die in this cage.”
“I promise.” Michel’s smile was grim. “And I do not think you’ll have long to wait. Francesca hungers for blood.”
*
“I’d still feel better if you at least carried a rifle,” Drake said, tucking her black T-shirt into her trousers.
Sylvan regarded her with a raised eyebrow as she tied the knife sheath to her thigh. “You doubt my skill, Prima?”
“Never.” Drake checked the magazine on the rifle Niki had delivered to her a few moments before and stood it next to the door. “But I am armed, and Niki and the centuri all have handguns.”
“I am the Alpha. I lead with tooth and claw and blade.” Sylvan smiled, a cold arrogant twist of her beautiful mouth. “Every wolf who follows me has faith that I will destroy all in my path. And anyone who stands in my way will have a second’s uncertainty when they see me coming. That is my advantage.”
“I would prefer you have more than a second’s advantage.” Drake gripped Sylvan’s shoulders and jerked her close. Once they walked outside they would have no chance for private words. Even now she could not voice all she felt—all she feared. Sylvan already knew of her love, words she need not speak now, and she could not burden her with fears that must remain unspoken. Sylvan was powerful, but she needed more than physical might when she went into battle. She needed to believe she could not fail. She needed the trust of every wolf she led to battle, but most of all, she needed her mate’s faith. “Two seconds would be better.”
Sylvan cupped Drake’s jaw. “I am faster than any Were and as fast as most Vampires. I can clear a path between armed opponents with my blade before anyone else could shoot them.”
“As long as you can kill them before they can shoot at you.” Drake kissed her. She’d meant it to be only a swift reminder of all Sylvan was to her, and she to Sylvan, but the taste and scent of her mate stirred a need so great she deepened the kiss until enemies and treachery and the war to come faded away. “I love you.”
“I will not fall today,” Sylvan murmured against Drake’s mouth. “I have young to teach and new wolves in New Hampshire to safeguard. And a mate to satisfy when the fighting is done.”
“I’ll hold you to that promise,” Drake said.
“Promise me instead that you will stay back with Sophia to tend the wounded. We need medics as much as fighters today.”
Drake knew what Sylvan was asking. That she let Sylvan fight while she remained safe. Every instinct cried out in protest.
“Drake?”
Once given, she could not break her word. “If you are injured, I will come. Then and only then will I leave the rear.”
“Agreed.”
“If gunfire breaks out and fighting spills into the street, we’ll have human police involved.”
“If we’re lucky,” Sylvan said, “we’ll be able to immobilize Francesca’s guards quickly and contain the fight inside.”
“Do you think she will have fortified the club?”
“She has one of my wolves.” Sylvan pressed her palm between Drake’s shoulder blades as they walked outside together. “She will expect retaliation, so we must expect to be met with force.”
Four Rovers idled in the Compound, surrounded by squads of warriors. Niki waited at the first, Callan at the second, Max at the third, and Dasha and Sophia at the last. Torren and Misha strode across the yard from the opposite direction and stopped next to Niki. Dawn was less than an hour away.
Sylvan signaled her warriors to gather around. “We’ll reach Nocturne just after dawn. If we meet resistance, you may unle
ash your wolves, and you may strike to kill.”
“Yes, Alpha,” everyone replied.
Sylvan met each soldier’s gaze and the yard shimmered with power. “You will follow me, and I will lead you to victory. Today we fight to free one of our own, and we will leave no one behind.”
“Yes, Alpha!”
Sylvan swung up onto the running board of the Rover, her shadow streaking across the fire-lit Compound and seeming to climb into the forest beyond. “Then let us go and free our Packmate.”
The Compound filled with howls, and the warriors piled into the Rovers.
Sylvan sat in the front. Niki got behind the wheel, and Drake, Misha, and Torren crowded into the rear seat while other soldiers climbed into the back compartment. Niki swung the Rover out along the same track they had taken earlier, and the others fell in behind her.
“Take the quickest route south to the river,” Sylvan said.
“How far will we go by vehicle?” Niki asked.
“All the way to the doors of Nocturne.”
Niki grinned. “Yes, Alpha.”
“If we strike just after dawn,” Sylvan said, “the club will be clear of the Risen and Francesca’s guards will be feeding. She makes them wait all night. They’ll be distracted, possibly even lost in bloodlust. We’ll have a chance to immobilize them, but we still have to get into the lair.”
“And your plan for that?” Drake asked.
“We’ll have to take at least one guard alive and force them to open the security locks.”
“I can help you there,” Torren said.
“How?” Sylvan asked.
Torren smiled. “The guard will open it for one of Francesca’s inner circle.”
“Even if we’re fortunate enough to capture one, we can’t be sure they’ll cooperate. They might be willing to sacrifice themselves to protect Francesca’s lair.”