He found Ember easily enough and even laughed at the fact that Phaedro had named his tiny bar Erebus, after the god of darkness. The old man certainly had a sense of humor. Phaedro's line was descended of old nobility vampires and had pledged fealty to the Arkos clan in exchange for protection—and freedom. People born of the original blood were not vampires at birth—they remained human so long as they did not choose to turn. Phaedro had chosen to remain human and to marry a beautiful human girl who'd stolen his heart when he was 17 years old. His daughters were born with the same genetic potential for immortality and preternatural strength and abilities as their father but would remain human if they did not choose to be turned.
Kai knew there was a strong chance that Ember knew nothing about her heritage and an even stronger chance that she’d want nothing to do with vampires once she learned the truth.
He sighed heavily as he made his way back to the Jeep he’d rented. He knew that he was constantly being hunted by New Dawn and their mercenaries and Aksel had only confirmed what he already knew—that they’d followed him to Devil’s Folly early this morning. They were in town and if they were half as good as they thought they were, they’d have figured out who Kai was looking for. Phaedro had hidden fairly well, but had never bothered to assume a new identity or to cover his tracks.
Kai cast a glance over his shoulder at Ember’s cabin, searching the darkness around it one last time for any perceived danger. It was still clear and the tiny cameras he’d installed around the perimeter would help him keep watch over her while she slept.
He still wasn’t sure what he was going to do now—there was no way he could have a mate right now with New Dawn hunting vampires down with surprisingly deadly accuracy. His clan needed him to be a strong leader and having a new mate would only weaken him.
No, he’d lead the hunters away from Devil’s Folly and fight the war they seemed so intent on bringing to his family. Then if he survived, and only then, would he return and convince Ember to take her place at his side.
Pulling away from the secluded cabin, the all-terrain tires crunched on the gravel as he sped down the winding mountain road. He was lost in thought, remembering the swell of Ember’s gorgeous breasts against the tight black t-shirt she was wearing the night before. He’d trailed her from afar as she drove in to work that morning and stopped by a small grocery store for a bag of limes. Gods, but she was something else. Tall for a woman, though she’d still only come up to his chin if they stood face to face, with a round, plump ass and those beautiful tits she wasn’t ashamed to flaunt in her small t-shirts.
She was something else. More than he’d bargained for, that’s for sure. Watching her from afar, Kai’s mate had blown him away with her raw beauty and no shit-taking attitude. If he didn’t know better, he could almost believe that he’d be in danger of falling head over heels crazy for a girl like that.
Kai scrubbed a hand over his face and blew out a frustrated breath. He needed to focus on something other than the filthy fantasies involving Ember and some silk scarves that were forming in his mind at a furious pace.
Once he’d made it down the treacherous mountain road, Kai turned onto the state highway and headed for his hotel room in the next town. It would take him about twenty minutes to reach it with no cars on the road.
He was nearly halfway there when all hell broke loose.
A flash of light ripped through the pitch black night beside the driver’s window, temporarily blinding him. The front end of his Jeep smashed into something solid and the deploying air back hit his torso so hard, it knocked the wind out of him.
His eyesight was swimming as he struggled to focus. Loud footsteps crunched up beside the window. Seconds later the glass smashed into pieces. Kai blinked furiously to regain his vision but before he could get himself unbuckled, something sharp and painful stabbed him through the neck.
No.
He’d failed.
Beside him, a deep voice spoke into a static-y Walkie Talkie.
"Mitchell, we found it," the voice said. "Yes, sir. It's incapacitated. We'll deliver it shortly."
Kai’s vision swam violently as he struggled to stay awake, but it was a losing battle. Seconds later, the world went dark as Kai’s forehead hit the steering wheel a second time.
Chapter Three
“Kinda late, isn’t it Ember?”
She gave J.D. a sheepish grin and handed the bearded old man a twenty. He harped on her for not getting gas during daylight hours each time she came in after closing for a tank of gas—which was more often than she cared to admit.
“Ain’t right, a young woman like you gallivanting all over the county by yourself at this ungodly hour. You need to settle yourself down and get a man to protect you.”
Ember snorted.
“Easy, J.D.,” she teased. “Don’t try to marry me off to the first taker, will you? I’m actually pretty good at taking care of myself.”
The old man grumbled but shot her an endearing wink.
“Still now,” he said as Ember turned to go. “You be careful out there. Night is full of weirdos and all sorts of dangerous things.”
If only Ember had heeded his warning.
With the gas in the tank, Ember dashed to the ladies’ room, regretting that last bottle of water she’d chugged at last call. With a quick swipe at her washed hands with a paper towel, she stepped back out into the darkness of the side of the service station and made for her truck. Voices that hadn’t been there when she went in made her stop.
She recognized one in particular and the pit of her stomach dropped in warning.
It was Buzz Cut.
He and his two comrades were standing beside a huge, all-black Tahoe with tinted windows. They were parked near the air-fill station and hadn’t noticed Ember yet. She pressed against the brick building and did her best to mold into the shadows. Ember held her breath and listened.
“…the woman didn’t seem to know anything,” Buzz Cut was saying. “But we’re pretty sure Arkos is coming by this way. The boys have a trap set and we’ll bring him to you shackled and subdued, Mr. Scala.”
The backseat window was rolled down and Ember caught sight of who the goons were speaking to. The man had long dark hair that fell past his ears and a strong jawline. His skin was tanned and his eyes intense. He was handsome in a way, but Ember caught definite bad vibes rolling off him.
“Don’t fail me, Mitchell,” he growled at the idiot she had dubbed Buzz Cut at her bar. “You won’t like the consequences if you do.”
Whoever Arkos was, they seemed to be closing in on him. Poor sucker. They looked like they didn’t mess around. Maybe whenever they caught this guy, they’d all leave Devil’s Folly for good.
The sooner the better, the gnawing sensation in her gut told her.
Ember was finally able to let out the breath she’d been holding when the Tahoe squealed out of the parking lot and the goon squad returned to their sedan, following behind.
Back on the highway headed toward home, Ember got lost in the music for a few blissful moments. Just a few more miles and she’d be safe in her bed, the memories of tonight and all her bravado distant memories.
Headlights up ahead caught her attention. Two cars had parked haphazardly behind a Jeep, which had found itself wedged into a tree off the side of the road.
Pity. It’d been a beautiful Jeep from what she could see in the wash of headlights. As she approached, Ember took in the two dark sedans and the pieces clicked into place.
This was the trap set for whoever this Arkos was.
Ember slowed her truck without realizing it and took in the scene further.
Two men in dark clothing, more of Scala’s goons she presumed, struggled as they tried to move a massive form from the Jeep. The unconscious man was huge—well over six feet tall and broad like a linebacker. She couldn’t see his face well, but saw that dark hair swept over his eyes and dark stubble dotted his jaw.
A new sensation stabbed her in the
chest—different from the fear she’d felt when she witnessed Scala and his henchmen at the gas station. This one was fluttery and squeezing all at the same time, and the longer she looked at the man being dragged away to what was most likely his death, the stronger this phantom pull got.
Without meaning to, Ember had pulled her truck to a stop a short distance from the sedans and watched, her knuckles turning white as she gripped the steering wheel.
Time slowed to a crawl and the seconds ticked by as Ember’s brain raced to come up with what she was going to do now that the goons had spotted her. There were three in total and all of them were now squinting into her headlights.
She’d be a fool to think they weren’t all armed to the teeth. She had seconds to make a decision.
The goon who wasn’t currently dragging the Arkos man from the car reached a hand inside his jacket.
Three…
The other two unceremoniously dropped Arkos to the ground and looked toward the third man.
Two…
In seconds, they were reaching for their own weapons.
One…
Ember flicked the emergency lights on her dash and immediately the blue warning lights she had installed her first summer as a paramedic with the local volunteer rescue squad blazed on—two on the roof and two in the dashboard. They were blue, the county’s chosen color for volunteer paramedics, but she hoped these three might mistake her for a state trooper.
A second flick of her wrist and the turn of a dial and the world’s loudest, most obnoxious alarm sounded from the amplifier on the roof. The alarm, meant to be used so other search teams and para-rescue groups could find her, was ear-splitting and Ember prayed it did the trick.
The highway was relatively secluded, but there was a housing development not far from the road. In moments, they’d be awake and flipping on lights to investigate what the hell had woken them up so rudely.
The men looked at each other and Ember read the panic in the faces. And just because she had guardian angels looking out for her it seemed, she glanced in her rearview mirror and saw a couple pairs of headlights cresting the horizon behind her.
Total coincidence, but the goon squad just might think it was backup.
Ember chewed her lower lip and felt the sweat beading her forehead.
Seconds later, the bluff worked and the three men dashed for the sedans, leaving Arkos in a heap on the ground. Tires peeled out against the concrete and flew down the highway.
She pulled up closer to the Jeep and threw her truck in park, knowing she didn’t have much time. She ran to the unconscious man and rolled him onto his back, and checked his neck for a pulse. She let out a quick sigh of relief when she felt a weak one.
Ember gently pushed the black hair from his eyes and studied his face.
He was a god, she decided right then and there.
A dark curtain of black lashes laid against his chiseled, tan cheek. His nose was smooth and straight and his lips—have mercy, his lips were full and slightly parted as he breathed.
“Holy crap,” Ember muttered to herself as she leaned over him. “You’re beautiful.”
He made a noise then and Ember sat back quickly in surprise. His eyelids fluttered open, but he didn’t seem to be awake. A noise rattled in his throat, but he made no sense.
“Listen, mister,” Ember said, leaning back toward him. “You obviously are in a shit storm of trouble and I don’t think we have much time until your friends come back. We need to get you in my truck, but I sure as hell can’t carry you. You’ve got to help me a little, okay?”
He groaned then, the sound was a little clearer than the gurgling he’d just done. Maybe he was coming out of it little by little.
“Okay, I’m going to try to sit you up and get you on your feet,” she said, grasping his hands in hers. They were warm, electric. She didn’t miss the shock of energy between them when their hands touched.
Ember pulled and pulled and finally had him in a sitting position, but only as long as she kept a hold of his shoulder. She leaned in close and tried her best to ignore the spicy, masculine scent that flooded her senses. He smelled like spice and smoke and her heart rate and heat level responded instantly.
“What the hell?” She muttered, confused by her own reaction. Doing her best to ignore the fact that her traitorous body was acting like a hormonal teenager, she yanked against the man in an attempt to budge him. He didn’t move.
“Mister,” she hissed in his ear. “You need to help me a little here or we’re both goners. Your friends are most definitely going to come back really, really soon and we need to go now!”
He groaned again, but this time as she pulled, she felt a little give in his weight.
Oh thank goodness, she thought in relief. Maybe they’d get out of this jam alive after all. They struggled together until he was on his feet and staggering toward her truck.
“Almost there,” she whispered, straining under the sheer weight of him. She fumbled with the door handle and nearly toppled when the man started to go limp again. “Not yet, not yet, not yet!”
At last, the door popped open and she shoved the man into the passenger’s seat, albeit awkwardly. Reaching between his knees, Ember could have sworn she felt her cheeks flush as she reached for the release latch in an effort to give him more leg room. She was precariously close to this stranger and found it hard to concentrate, despite the fact that there were armed men likely headed their way.
With the man securely tangled and shoved into the truck, Ember leaned against the door and closed it before racing toward the driver’s side.
Jamming the truck in gear and racing back onto the highway, she headed toward the most secluded and safe place she could think of—her tiny cabin on the top of Bald Mountain Pass.
She cast a quick glance at the sleeping man beside her, a gentle buzz spreading through her belly.
“You better be worth the trouble, mister,” she whispered into the darkness.
Chapter Four
His head was split into two and the universe hadn’t even had the decency to properly kill him.
At least that’s what Kai assumed and he slowly came awake and acclimated himself to the sounds around him without opening his eyes. Somewhere in the distance, an annoying bird chirped an obvious morning song. He hated birds. Not too far away from him, there was the sound of metal banging and water running.
And her.
From where he laid with his eyes closed, Kai could here Ember humming a song under her breath—a sweet, melodious sound that instantly had him hard and twitching in his pants.
Shit.
What the hell had happened?
He didn't move right away and peeled one eye open and then the other, taking in the surroundings. It was a small living room and he was twisted over the top of a too-small sofa, his legs, and feet hanging off the end.
The memories returned in a wave—the drive followed by the blinding flash of light, the crash, the stab of the needle in his neck, the descent into darkness. And Ember’s voice. He remembered thinking he was dreaming when he heard her sweet voice talking to him, calling him mister of all things.
Kai didn’t remember anything after that and he had no idea how she’d managed to get them both out of harm’s way and into her cabin. He knew it was hers—the air around him was charged with her unique sweet scent.
His canines lengthened at her proximity and he warred with his body to control itself before he scared this woman half out of her mind.
“Can I get you anything?” Ember asked from the doorway. Kai jerked into a sitting position and ran his hand through his hair. She smiled nervously. “Your breathing was different. I knew you were awake.”
“Watching me sleep?” His voice was raw and ragged and his mind still swam at his attempt at humor. Whatever they’d hit him with was still in his system.
“Yeah, well, I didn’t know if you were going to try to murder me when you came out of it, so I haven’t slept yet. Sorta keepin
g vigil, I guess. You can tell yourself it’s because I was worried you wouldn’t make it if you want to.”
From where Kai sat, he heard the subtle quickening of her heartbeat and could pick up the traces of fear she was emitting. And yet she stood there attempting to crack jokes at him.
Ember Terzi was something else.
“Did they see you?” Kai grew serious as the ramifications of Ember inserting herself into the fray became clear.
He didn’t have to explain what he meant. Ember shook her head.
“I don’t think so. Maybe the truck’s outline and the fact that I have lights and a speaker system that can shatter windows from 500 yards, but they didn’t see me before they took off.”
As she spoke, Kai took the opportunity to study her face. This was the closest that he’d been to his genaíka—his mate—since finding her.
Ember had mahogany hair that fell in loose waves to the middle of her back and from the smell of her, she'd just showered. Her eyes were a luminescent light gray and she had her father's olive complexion. Perfect, lush pink lips that she licked nervously nearly undid him.
In her black running shorts and a gray tank top, the swell of her curves was even more apparent than when she wore those ass-hugging jeans. Her nipples pushed through the fabric of her shirt and Kai had to bite back a groan and look away before his groin sprang back to life again.
Kai was at a loss for what to do next. He’d had every intention of leaving town and drawing the New Dawn scum with him, but now that Ember might possibly be involved, his plans needed to change.
“Why did you get involved?” He didn’t want to ask it, but he had to know. How had she known where to find him and what had compelled her to get involved in the dealings of strangers?
Bonded to the Alpha Wolf: Paranormal Bad Boy Werewolf Interracial BBW BWWM Witch Romance Page 13