He let out an exasperated grunt. Her eyes widened.
“Jace!” she yelled. His hands were beginning to transition. “Don’t stop.”
Ignoring her, he straightened to his full height and snapped, “More people will die, all because I can’t fucking shift.”
“Jace, look at your hands.” Frankie grabbed hold of one wrist and shoved it toward his face.
The air around his fingers and palm vibrated as if it were bending to his will. A slight layer of hair sprouted over his knuckles, before it quickly disappeared.
He met Frankie’s eyes. “Holy shit. Well, that’s progress, at least.”
She smiled, and her grin stretched from ear to ear. Relief filled her. A few more tries and he might be able to do it. But she had to pace him. If he wore himself out, it would never happen, and his frustration was already about to skyrocket.
She cleared her throat. “You can do this. But for now, take a break.”
Jace’s hands fell to his sides. “Thank God.” He walked to the edge of the platform and grabbed a bottle of water. He turned away and chugged the bottle. When he was finished, she watched as he recapped it, then patted his pockets. “Damn it. I left my smokes in my coat. Gotta run to the car.” He set the bottle down and jogged out of the room.
Once he left, she allowed her mind a moment of peace. It had been too long since she’d danced. One hour of the familiar salsa movements and she would feel refreshed. Without thought, she moved her hips in a sensual rhythm, dancing with the confidence that no one was watching her while she daydreamed.
She spun around in a controlled twirl, then stopped mid-spin. Jace was standing on the other side of the platform, his gaze locked onto her. Her eyes widened, and heat burned across her face as she blushed. “Sorry. It’s been a while since I’ve gotten to dance, so I couldn’t help myself.”
He shook his head. “Don’t apologize. I was enjoying watching you.”
The blush on her cheeks deepened, and the heat spread to the lower parts of her body, radiating all the way to her core. She stared down at the platform. With one look, he could make all her resolve melt. She bit her lower lip and tried push away the thought of him sheathing himself inside her. If only she could be with him one more time. But one more time would never be enough. She would always want more.
She fought not to cringe as she thought of their sex-capade in Shane’s apartment. Damn it. She should have found a way to tell him that she’d choked on her words. She’d wanted to tell him not to leave, that she wanted him, but she’d screwed up royally in so many ways. He resented her for numerous reasons now: lying to him, the debacle at Shane’s apartment, not to mention the situation with Alejandro. It was no wonder he’d been so cold, so angry, with her. As frustrating as he could be, how could she not forgive his stupid behavior when her own actions were the cause?
She scrambled to change subjects. “I usually have a partner to dance with.” She sighed. “Alejan—” She started to say Alejandro’s name but caught herself. “Salsa just isn’t as much fun without a partner.”
A smug smile spread across his face. “Okay, you’ve convinced me. I’ll dance with you.”
Her head shot up, and she met his eyes. “You’re kidding, right?”
“I can take a hint when I hear one. You want to dance with me,” he said, and winked.
She placed her hands on her hips. “Quit teasing me. I wasn’t asking you to dance, and you know it.”
He nodded. “Yeah, I know. But why not give it a try anyway?”
She eyed him up and down with a skeptical expression. “You really want to?”
He shrugged and stepped toward her. “Why the hell not? It beats standing here trying to shift and looking like a moron while I’m doing it.”
She paused for a moment. He was right. Why not?
Because it would make her want him again. Because her body would kick into overdrive despite the protests from her brain. Because he would undoubtedly push her away afterward. On the other hand, dancing would help take his mind off his frustration, and that might help him learn to shift more quickly. Before she could change her mind, she walked over and stopped in front of him, staring up into his face.
“Give me your hands,” she said.
He placed his palms in hers, and his touch sent a familiar electric shock pulsing through her body. Every nerve inside her stood on edge. Without prompting, he pulled her close until she was flush against his body. His warmth flooded over her skin, and it took every ounce of self-control she had not to kiss him right there, to ask him to make love to her in the middle of the club. She hated the way her body responded to him so readily.
Focus, Frankie. Stop staring and focus.
“The man normally leads in salsa, but for now, just let me lead you.” She glanced at him again. It was so hard to look away when she was so close. A deep longing burned in her chest as he returned her gaze.
“Step back. Now forward. Now back, and extend your left foot.”
With extreme gentleness, he cradled her in his arms. He was a natural lead, and not even Alejandro’s trained touch could rival how sweetly he held her. His movements were surprisingly polished and smooth. Nothing like the gruff man she knew him to be every time he opened his mouth. He was tender with her now, as he’d been in those rare moments when they were intimate or at those chance times when she’d caught him staring at her.
She bit her lower lip. Dredging up those horrible moments in Shane’s apartment would do her no good. Still, for a brief second she opened her mouth, willing to let her words flow freely, but she quickly snapped her jaw shut. As much as she wanted to tell him the truth, there was no point. Knowing her luck, it would only make things worse.
His hand slid onto her lower back with care, pulling her from her thoughts.
Shit. She didn’t want him to let go. There was no doubt about it—her body wanted him, needed him as badly as she needed air, water, food. And some part of her heart did, too.
But he didn’t want her.
He doesn’t want me.
She looked away and repeated the mantra in her head. He’d flat out told her he didn’t want her, but apparently her libido and, especially, her heart needed more convincing. She would look like a damn fool if she said anything to try to change his mind.
A small grin spread across his lips. “You know...I hate to admit it, but this isn’t so bad.”
She looked up to find him staring down at her, and it seemed as if a fire ignited behind his eyes.
“Especially not when it’s with you.”
His steps slowed, and for several long moments they lingered a hairsbreadth away from moving closer. His intense emerald gaze locked on hers. Handling their situation just wasn’t possible. She couldn’t let this continue.
She pulled away from him. “We should get back to shifting.”
She turned away and folded her arms over her chest, as she tried to hold herself together. If she didn’t stop now, she wouldn’t be able to control herself; she would want him too much to resist. Having him so close but being unable to have him was pure torture. She wasn’t sure how much longer she could take it.
* * *
“I’VE NEVER TORTURED a member of the Fae before, though I’m very excited to play with these iron weapons. It’s fun to experiment.” Robert examined the hot iron poker. “I think this needs more heat, don’t you agree?” He placed the poker tip back into the inferno he’d built. “I’ll get this all warmed up for you.”
The glowing orange metal pulsated in the dim light of the warehouse. The pathetic woman closed her eyelids.
“Open your eyes,” he demanded.
He towered over her as she lay chained to the warehouse floor. The iron shackles around her wrists and ankles slowly peeled away her skin as she shied away from their scalding touch. Oh, how sweet this torture session had been. One of his best yet.
“Now tell me, what is a faerie doing with a pack of werewolves?”
She bit h
er lower lip.
“I said, what are you doing with the werewolves?”
When she still didn’t respond, he carefully nestled the poker against the sensitive skin of her stomach. She writhed as the iron burned another bloody hole into her flesh. The sounds of her screams echoed off the warehouse walls. He savored the sight of the hot iron eating away at her body, the skin peeling back in wavy curls.
He let out a low, feral growl. “Answer my question.”
Gasping for air, she stammered to reply. “I’m just an affiliate. I’m the only faerie in the area, so Frankie let me join the pack to be around other supernaturals.”
A devilish grin spread across his face as he twirled the poker in his hands. “That’s better.”
She gritted her teeth and stared at the weapon, shivering. Her terror got him off. He let the blazing iron linger over her, promising repeated pain if she didn’t cooperate.
He reexamined the tip of the poker. A small piece of burned flesh remained. Perfect. This was coming along nicely. He stoked the fire. “So you know Frankie personally, yet she hasn’t come after you?”
Despite the shackles holding her in place, her hands clenched into fists. He grinned. He would make sure every ounce of fight she had in her was gone before he was through with her.
“Over twenty-four hours, yet she still isn’t here. You must not be very important to her.”
“You’re lucky Frankie isn’t here. She’d rip you to pieces.”
He smiled. “I beg to differ. The last time the bitch and I met, I gave her a lovely beating.”
“You’re a sick freak.”
He ignored her comment as he fiddled with the poker, admiring the glowing end as if it were a rare piece of art. “I guess she hasn’t gotten my message. Perhaps I’ll have to go with a more direct route. If Frankie won’t come for you, I may have to bring her here myself.”
Robert set down the poker and walked toward the exit.
“What do you want with her anyway?” she yelled.
As he reached the door, he turned and grinned. “Isn’t it obvious? I’m not after your packmaster.” He pushed open the exit door. “I want the hunter who’s protecting her.”
* * *
DAVID CHARGED THROUGH the doors of K9’s, ignoring the pain in his leg as his heart pounded in his chest. Despite the cold, sweat poured down his back from the heat of his rage.
Frankie was standing on the platform in the middle of the room, Jace crouching beside her like he was some sort of animal.
“What the hell did you do?” David demanded as he reached the edge of the stage.
Jace looked toward him. “David, what’s up? Are—”
David turned on Frankie as he fought for control. “What did you do? Where is she?”
Jace stood and grabbed David’s shoulder. “Whoa, David. Back off. Where’s who?”
David snarled, a noise that seemed far too animal to belong to him. “Maybe you’d know if you answered your phone. Allsún’s missing, and it’s your fucking fault.” He jabbed a finger at Frankie.
Her eyes widened. “Allsún O’Hare?”
David glared. The anger coursing through him was white-hot. He would murder that bastard Robert. He would tear him limb from limb. He would gouge out Robert’s eyes with his thumbs for even looking at her.
“What happened?” Frankie’s jaw fell open.
“That’s what I want to know.” David stepped toward her. “Why was there a message to you on the wall of her demolished apartment—written in blood?”
All the color drained from Frankie’s face until her skin looked ashen. “I don’t know where she is, David. I had nothing to do with this.”
“I swear, if I find out you caused this, I’ll force you to shift and then skin you for your—”
“David!” Jace grabbed him by the front of his jacket. “Frankie’s been with me the whole time. She didn’t do this. It’s Robert, and you know it. It’s Robert, man. It’s not Frankie’s fault.”
David panted hard, each breath so heavy it strained the leather of his jacket.
“We’ll get her back, David,” Jace promised.
“I’ll call Alejandro. I’ll have him gather the pack. We need to select who’ll go after her—our best fighters. And we’ll need to find out where she’s been taken,” Frankie said. She met David’s eyes. “We will find her, David. Faerie or not, she’s been one of us for a long time.”
“I will not wait around while you decide who is going to save her,” David growled, turning his anger on Jace. He stared down into his fellow hunter’s face. “If it wasn’t for you and your damn werewolf shit, I could go save her myself. But now look at me!” he yelled. “Between my fucking leg and the fact that Damon’s marked us both as traitors, I can’t even fucking save the woman I love, all because I had to try and help your sorry ass.”
If Jace were angry, he didn’t show it. He stepped back, though he clearly wasn’t intimidated. “I know. I shouldn’t have drawn anyone else into this, and I never should have let you fight my battles for me. It’s my fault your leg is fucked to hell and back, and I’d take it back if I could, but I can’t. I promise you I will save her, David. I swear it.” He met David’s gaze head on.
David snarled. “That’s not good enough. We have to do something now. Whether you like it or not, I will not sit around while he has her.”
He turned his back on Jace and began to walk away.
“David, if you go after her now, you’ll get her killed,” Jace said.
David stopped in his tracks but didn’t look over his shoulder. He heard Jace step toward him.
“If you go in there injured like you are, you’re both going to be killed, and how will that solve anything?”
David’s whole body trembled as he fought down the rage growing inside his chest.
Jace placed a hand on his shoulder and squeezed. “I swear to you on my life, I’ll get her back. But you know we can’t go out unprepared.”
David’s hands clenched into fists. Jace was right, and he knew it, but his anger refused to subside. He should have been able to save her. He should have been able to track that fucker down right now, and murder him slowly and painfully. A loud, angry scream sounded in the air, and it took David several seconds to realize it was his own.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
FRANKIE PACED AROUND the platform with her cell phone at her ear. The ringing seemed to echo on a never-ending loop. Finally an automated female voice instructed her to leave a message at the beep.
She growled into the receiver. “Pick up your phone, Alejandro.” She hoped he heard her on his answering machine.
A small beep sounded. “Hello?”
“Allsún O’Hare’s been kidnapped.”
Alejandro cursed under his breath. “Do you want me to assemble everyone?”
“Yes. You know the drill.” Without another word, she hung up the phone, then turned back toward David and Jace. “They’ll be here within forty-five minutes.”
Her heart dropped into the pit of her stomach as she watched David clutch his head and squeeze. She swallowed past the lump in her throat. “I’m sorry, David. Jace is right. We’ll get her back. I swear.”
He circled the platform, swearing and cursing under his breath like a madman. So this was the man Allsún loved. Not long after she’d first encountered the petite, half-blooded faerie and agreed to let her into the Rochester pack as an associate, Allsún had confided in her about how she was running from a relationship, a healthy, good relationship that she was convinced she would destroy.
Frankie thought of Allsún’s face: the sweet smile that rarely left her lips and her pixie attitude. Allsún was a fighter, but when Frankie imagined her in Robert’s clutches, she nearly vomited all over the floor.
The time that passed before the pack assembled stretched on for what seemed like days. With each passing second, the dread in Frankie’s chest built and her sympathy for David deepened.
At one point she leaned up to
Jace’s ear to whisper, “Jace, is he going to be okay?”
They turned together to watch David continuing to pace the room, despite his injured leg, as if he could wear a hole in the ground that would lead him to Allsún.
Jace shrugged. “He’s in love with her. Always has been. He’ll do anything to save her.” He looked Frankie in the eyes. “He won’t be okay until she’s safe again.”
When all of the pack members finally arrived, Frankie stood in the middle of the platform with her head held high but her morale quickly sinking. She should have expected Robert to come after the people who mattered to her and kept a closer eye on her pack members. She should have made sure that even the strongest females were escorted by men or moved in groups. She’d shirked her duties as packmaster, and now Allsún was paying the price.
Once the pack quieted down, she launched headfirst into the problem.
“Allsún O’Hare has been kidnapped.”
A roar of angry conversation erupted among the crowd. She held up her hand to try to silence them.
“We need to move in and locate her, and we need to do it fast. From what we know, she’s been missing since the night of the pack meeting.” She paused to gauge everyone’s reaction. The faces staring back at her were a mixed bag of emotions, but there was one common denominator: they were all eager to retrieve Allsún.
“I know it’s custom to vote on which warrior will save her, but I think this case calls for special circumstances.” She fought hard not to show any sign of weakness. “As we discussed before, Jace is the only one of us who has any possibility of destroying this bastard, because this killer isn’t just a normal werewolf, he’s something else. We’ve already approved Jace to hunt him down, so now let’s approve him to save Allsún in the process.”
Small murmurs cropped up around the room, mostly among her warriors, the highest-ranking males. After briefly conferring with several of them, Alejandro stepped up to the stage.
“If you expect us to let a non-pack member do our job, then he needs to prove himself. He needs to show us that he’s stronger than all our warriors.”
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