“Let her go. I want to hear what she has to say.”
Before she knew it, several weapons exploded with flashes of light. Circles of red blossomed in the center of the man’s chest and in the center of his forehead. Another flash had her right upper chest aching, and she looked down. Blood covered the front of her blouse as she started to fall to the floor.
“Leave him, he’s past helping. Let’s get moving. Grab her. We don’t want them healing her. Why let them waste the energy? They’ll need it to take their ship back home when we destroy this place.”
After another bright flash of light, Hope felt disoriented as well as tired. Blood continued to run down her blouse. The sound of material ripping came from her left and she tried to turn her head, but the effort just seemed too much.
Hope groaned when someone pressed against her bleeding wound. It hurt like hell. She would have told them so, but her mouth didn’t cooperate when she tried to open it to tell them.
“Where are we, Maman Amelie?” Fleur asked her stepmother. Hope could hear the worry in her voice, but she couldn’t even open her eyes to try and make the teenager feel better by letting her know she would be okay. At least she hoped everything would be all right.
“I don’t know.” Hope heard the clack of heels against a hard, metallic-sounding floor. “I think we have been taken to another oubliette.” Amelie seemed upset, though it sounded as though she tried to suppress her fears, if the cheerful sound of her voice was any indication. “It looks like a very large and empty storeroom.”
With the glimpse that Hope got just before she crumpled to the floor, she would guess it was some sort of warehouse.
“It is another one of their odd ships, Maman. See the strange walls and how there is no door?”
No door? Hope tried to sit up to get a look around, but she couldn’t move. In fact, she grew weaker by the moment. It felt as though her will to live leaked out through the hole in her chest. After another minute, she could no longer feel, could no longer hear. She floated on a sea of darkness, her body numb and her mind blessedly quiet.
A baby whimpered and someone, presumably Dana, cooed to it. She couldn’t tell. Hope was probably lucky she still had enough sense to make out most of what went on around her.
One thing stayed uppermost in her mind. If she died today, she would die happy and well loved. She only wished it could have lasted a bit longer.
Chapter Twenty-Two
When the hair on the back of Joran’s neck stood on end, he rushed toward the kitchen. Something was wrong. He could feel it. His heart leapt to his throat when he saw Neblix’s body on the floor, holes in his chest and forehead.
The women were gone and he smelled a female’s blood. A closer inspection told him it was Hope’s. Ripping his shirt off, he threw his head back and howled. The others crashed into the room behind him, Braxton and the alphas doing the same.
“The elitists will die for taking our mate.” He growled the words as he ripped his jeans and boots off. “We may not get them all, but we will get those responsible for our females’ disappearance.”
Shifting into his wolven form, Joran skirted the room, taking in the scent of the males he would personally see made it to the afterlife, if the gods would have them.
Braxton and the others followed suit, quickly removing their clothing so they could shift. “What do they think they can gain by taking the women?”
“They believe taking the women gives them the upper hand in the fight to get the council to listen. They are correct. The council will listen, at least this part of the council will listen,” Maxim Marholt, Chancellor of Taos said as he threw his shirt on the floor.
“You can’t go, Chancellor!” Lorcan stepped forward, laying his hand on the chancellor’s arm. “What would our people do if we lost you and Matteus to these lunatics?” Lorcan waved his hand toward the chancellor’s triad mate.
“What would you do with a chancellor too cowardly to stand up for his decisions?” Maxim scowled. He turned to Matteus. “What do you think, old friend?”
“I think that we need to end this line of the elitist terrorist thinking once and for all. How can we claim a mate with them insisting all humans should die?”
Maxim grinned at Matteus then clapped him on the back. “Just as I thought.” He turned to the rest of the men who stood frowning in disagreement. “Anyone else want to voice their opinions before we go?” He crossed his arms. I’m not sure we’ve wasted enough time yet. Are you?” His right brow rose as though daring someone to bring up another argument with the women in danger.
“Good. Let’s go then.” He stalked to the door, his mate on his heels, and pulled a small headset from his pants pocket before discarding them. He shoved the device in his ear and tilted his head. “Carella?” He paused, obviously listening to someone on the other end. “Scan the planet for the necklace Maxim and I gave Dana upon her and her mates’ nuptials.” He frowned. “What? Where? Transport us up there, as soon as we shift into our midforms.”
It didn’t take long for everyone to shift into their transport form. Suddenly, light flashed around them as Carella beamed them from the Earth’s surface to the interior of a midsized craft built by their people.
“Search the bowels of the ship while we find the bridge. I intend to store this in the boarding bay aboard our ship.” He grinned. “Carella shouldn’t mind the influx of extra energy.”
The chancellor took three men with him as they headed for the bridge. The others spread out in an effort to find the women.
I have a bad feeling, Braxton, Joran said through their mind link. It was Hope who was shot. Her blood covered the floor in that kitchen. What if we don’t—
Stop thinking like that. We’ll find her in time to save her. I have no doubt of it. Braxton was adamant, and it helped Joran keep his emotions under control. They had only known Hope for a few hours, but even now he couldn’t imagine their life without her in it.
Just as they entered the shuttle bay, something launched through the force field that held the oxygen in the compartment. As soon as it cleared what appeared to be minimum blast distance, it detonated. The explosion was so large it rocked the ship as they stood staring with disbelief.
Both Joran and Braxton fell to their knees. “No!” They both half howled the word as they watched the shuttle blast apart and debris fly from where the craft had been in a three-hundred-sixty-degree radius.
Pain exploded in Joran’s chest as he watched the craft’s flames flare to life for a split second as the explosion burned off the oxygen and fuel then grew dark in the coldness of space.
“What was it?” He looked at Braxton. “Two, three seconds maybe to totally extinguish their lives.” His mind raced over what he had seen, what he had hoped had been a nightmare from which he would soon awaken.
Braxton stared out through the transparent field, his mouth slack for a moment before he answered, “What will we do without her?”
A small flame flickered to life in Joran’s gut as he looked at his friend. If the look on Braxton’s face was any indication, he had come to the same conclusion just after asking the question.
Taking a deep breath, Joran steeled himself for the battle to come. If they died today, he vowed that they would at least take Hope’s murderers with them. “We avenge her.”
He spun around, looking for something they could use against their enemies, and smiled. “We need to find the others,” he said as he boarded the remaining shuttle. “We can’t store this ship in Carella’s boarding bay.”
Braxton followed him on board and smiled as Joran began throwing switches. “We’ll have to break up to find them or a communications terminal because we’ll only have about fifteen minutes once we start the overload.”
“I know. I don’t give a damn what happens to us, but we must let the others decide if they want to continue without their mates.” Besides, they needed to give the chancellor and his mate time to get off the craft. Joran looked back at Braxton.
“Ready?”
At Braxton’s nod, Joran pressed the button to fire the shuttle’s laser weapons that he’d set to reject discharge. “Okay. Let’s move it. We only have about fifteen minutes before the weapon system overloads and creates an antimatter explosion. The others will want to be far away when that happens, especially the chancellor.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
“The men will never find us.” Amelie paced the large room. Hope could hear her heels clicking on the floor, the sound growing louder then softer as she paced forward and back.
“Maman Amelie, you should not fret so,” Fleur said as she continued to press against the burning wound in Hope’s chest. “They will find us. Do you forget that Dana is mated?”
Hope wasn’t sure how that was supposed to help them, but Fleur made it seem as though it made a difference.
“They can’t find me if I’m not within a few thousand miles of them.”
Hope opened her eyes long enough to see Dana bite her lip and swipe the tears from her eyes. She looked down at her infant son then kissed the top of his head.
“We can only hope that they figure out that they transported us to a spaceship quickly.” She shivered. “It’s getting cold in here. I’m not sure they have the life support on.”
Tears burned Hope’s eyes as she thought about Braxton and Joran. Why had she fought them so hard? Why didn’t she believe them when they told her that they were from another planet? If she had, perhaps she would have been better prepared for what happened, or at least she might have decided to go ahead and let them mate her. If she had, maybe they would have been too preoccupied to go chasing across the countryside for a couple of murderers.
Hope could feel her blood loss making her weaker. She shivered violently as Fleur continued to press against her wound. She wasn’t sure if the cold she felt was more from her blood loss, or from the ship growing cold as they sat inside talking and using up what little oxygen the elitists left behind for them. One thing was certain. They wouldn’t have left much when they intended to kill them.
Her body rocked back and forth a bit when something jarred the room they were in.
“What was that?” Margaret asked as the movement came again.
The room moved as though they were in a shuttle that had dislodged from its mooring. Hope’s stomach lurched as the feeling of weightlessness washed over her.
“They are jettisoning us out into space, would be my guess,” Hope whispered as the others whimpered. What else could it be? The elitists wanted them dead. What better way to make sure that happened than to lock them in a small craft and send them hurtling through space with no life support? After all, they made it perfectly clear that they thought using energy to keep them alive was a waste.
The room continued to feel weightless as it bobbed about, causing the women to sit down before they fell onto the floor.
“Don’t talk, Hope. Save your strength.” Dana moved closer to peer down into her eyes. “They are here. I can feel them. They will find a way to rescue us before we die.”
Hope could see the faith in Dana’s eyes. If only she had such blind confidence in her men. Perhaps if they had gotten to her before Bob, she could be optimistic. Perhaps she could have believed in the dream instead of living her life filled with despair.
“I hope you’re right,” she whispered and closed her eyes so the other women couldn’t see the utter desolation she knew must show in her expression and give up hope.
A slight tingling accompanied a bright flash that she could see even through her closed eyes. A loud explosion reverberated in her ears as she felt the tingling warmth. “So this is what it feels like to die,” she said softly as the warmth stole over her as though someone had covered her with a heated blanket.
She floated on a cloud of painlessness in a sea of warmth as she lay with her eyes closed and drifted in and out of consciousness. At least she thought she could still consider it being conscious.
Her body continued to tingle as she lay there, her shoulder going numb after feeling a bit ticklish. She wanted to look around herself but couldn’t bring herself to care enough to open her eyes. After the ordeal of the last day or so, Hope wanted nothing more than to rest. Perhaps that was why she accepted her death so readily.
The last day had taken a lot out of her and given her a lot in return. If she had to die, at least she could do it happy, knowing that even if it was for just a short time, that she had the love of two good and hot men. If life had been cruel to her, at least her last couple of days had made up for it.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Braxton ran through the corridors, leaving Joran to head in another direction. They had to find the others as soon as possible. Perhaps they shouldn’t have set the stunner to overload, and perhaps they had no business attempting to kill their enemy, but damn it, their enemy had not hesitated to kill their women.
There was no doubt in his mind that Hope had been on that shuttle as it left the shuttle bay. He felt it in his heart. Every nerve ending, every damned pore in his body felt that explosion. She had been on that ship, and for a split second, Braxton had felt her fear then her inner peace and acceptance of her fate as the shuttle exploded before his eyes.
Pain sliced through him as he worked his way through the ship and to the bridge. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out his watch and looked at it. Only four minutes had passed since they set the stunner to overload. It seemed like so much longer than that.
It was probably a good thing that time seemed to pass so slowly. It would give him time to reach his friends so they could radio Carella and have her transport them all to safety. With all the wolven on board, Braxton was sure it would be impossible for her to differentiate between the elitists and the others.
Another shaft of agony tore through him as he thought of his mate, his and Joran’s hope for the future. If only they had had even a few more days together. Still, though he’d only known her those few short hours, he was certain she was the woman for them. As ridiculous as it sounded, he had fallen head over heels in love with her and, he hoped, she with them, but now he would never know.
At the end of the corridor, the doors of a multilift whooshed open. He hurried through. “Bridge.” Whatever he found there, friend or foe, wouldn’t matter. Either way, in a few short minutes, his misery would end and he would have taken at least a portion of his enemies with him. He only wished to get the others off the ship before the stunner exploded and killed them all, the chancellor and his mate among them.
Why hadn’t they thought things through before they’d set that stunner to explode? He ran his fingers through his hair as he paced the small enclosure. No one had the right to endanger the entire group as he and Joran had done. Even with their grief, they should have been able to keep their heads and stop themselves from making such a catastrophic mistake.
Reaching out, he jammed his hand against the emergency stop button. “Return to original departure point.” He had to get back to the shuttle bay and either disarm the stunner or find a way to transport it out into space.
He shook his head, knowing it had been the all-encompassing grief that had allowed he and Joran to make such a huge mistake. The multilift drew to a stop and the doors opened. Across the wide corridor stood a communications terminal mounted on the wall. Braxton rushed to it. He had to warn the others.
He depressed the large, blue talk button. “Nylund to the Bridge.” Braxton hoped the others had already made it there and that he wasn’t giving away the fact that his people were on board before they had a chance to take over the ship.
“Marholt here.”
“Joran and I have made a horrible mistake. Everyone must evacuate. Overwrought by seeing the death of our mate, we set a stunner to overload near the energy pod in one of the shuttles in the shuttle bay. It will explode in less than ten minutes. You must have Carella transport everyone to safety before the inevitable antimatter explosion.”
“Wait one, please.”
&
nbsp; Wait? He just told them the ship would explode in less than ten minutes and he wanted Braxton to wait? He shook his head. Perhaps they all had death wishes. God knew that he and Joran only wished to join their mate. They had waited too long to lose her so soon. It wasn’t any wonder they had lost their minds at the thought of living without her.
“Prepare yourself for transport.”
Without argument, Braxton shifted to his midform. He rested the pad of his clawed finger against the blue button and replied. “Ready, sir.”
“Good. Stand by.”
Like the good soldier he’d been for most of his life, Braxton stood awaiting his next orders. If they transported him to the shuttle bay to remove the threat, at least he would get there faster than if he’d walked. Whatever the chancellor had in store for him, he was ready for it. What did he have to lose?
Braxton embraced the sensation the transporter left as Carella plucked him from one area of the ship to set him down in another. Before his body even coalesced into solid form again, he could hear the whir and beep of the equipment in the medical bay.
“What am I doing here?” he asked in the gravelly voice of his midform.
“Look to your left, General.” The sound of Carella’s voice surrounded him. Disoriented, he shifted back into his human form and turned to his left.
His mouth dropped open at what he saw before him and for the second time in less than an hour, Braxton dropped to his knees at a sight that moved him to tears.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“Thank the Gods!”
Hope heard the exclamation and frowned. That sounded like Braxton’s voice, but how could he be here with her? He wasn’t dead, too. Was he?
With the pain gone, Hope felt numb, but that wore off with every passing second. The floating sensation slowly left her as she felt herself lowered gently onto a hard, flat surface.
Where There is Hope [Taos Wolven Mates 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) Page 11