by Larissa Ione
And a baby that would tie her to a male who clearly didn’t want to be bound to her in any way.
She’d be happy, though. She’d always wanted children, even if she hadn’t thought it would really happen. Not with her work schedule. Not when the only men she ever met were Daedalus employees.
Fane’s skin at the injection site darkened . . . and turned silver.
“Positive,” she rasped, and then cut off Kars’s shout of jubilation by adding, “I’m pregnant.”
In the sudden silence, she gave herself a moment to recover, but she wasn’t going to freak out. There was time for that later. Right now, she had to push ahead and get the hell out of here.
“That’s five.” She eyed the door. “I kept my end of the bargain. Now it’s time for you to keep yours.”
Kars came at her like a bull, backing her against the table holding the equipment and supplies she’d brought with her.
“You aren’t going anywhere.”
Anxiety and despair formed a lump in her throat and left her barely able to speak. “The deal was for five pregnant females. Five are pregnant.”
“Not five of our females,” he roared. “The deal is off. We’re keeping you and your child.”
“What?” She shoved against him. “You can’t do that!”
“I can do whatever I want.” His hand clamped around her throat. “You’re ours now.” His nasty sneer radiated malevolence. “Aylin, why don’t you help our newest clan member make herself comfortable in her new home?”
THERE WAS NO freaking way Nicole was staying in this hellhole. No way she was going through pregnancy and childbirth in what amounted to a den of wild animals. Of course, childbirth would be dangerous whether she was here or at MoonBound, but the thought of these creatures providing care was unacceptable. And what if she died but the baby survived?
She shuddered at the idea of her child growing up all alone with these monsters.
The second Kars and his merry band of assholes left, she started to plot. By the time she and Aylin were halfway to the cell Fane had assigned her to, she’d formulated a plan to escape. Unfortunately, it involved tricking Aylin, the one person who had been kind to Nicole.
But she had to get out of here. She’d do anything to protect her child, even if that meant betraying Aylin.
“Are you okay?” Aylin asked as they approached the row of cells that unmated females called home. They were nicer than the “guest” quarters Nicole had been assigned to before, but that wasn’t saying much. A cot, a blanket, a pillow, and a wooden box for belongings didn’t make for a homey environment.
“I’ll be fine.” Her stomach growled, and the sound vibrated through the dank, tight passage.
“You should visit the feeding room,” Aylin said, and Nicole grew nauseated.
The feeding room was full of humans who volunteered to live at the compound to feed anyone who came to them, but Nicole had no desire to feed from anyone but Riker. She’d have to learn to feed from humans eventually, but for now, she was fine with packaged blood.
“I’ll pass.” She planned to be out of here in about five minutes, anyway.
Aylin pushed open Nicole’s cell door. “I don’t blame you. If I could hunt, I would.”
“Your father doesn’t let you?”
Aylin’s blond hair swooshed around her waist as she shook her head. “I’m not strong enough. He’s afraid I could be captured by another clan and held for ransom or something.”
“Forgive me, but your father is an ass.”
Aylin laughed. “That’s the general consensus.”
Nicole wondered why, if everyone disliked Kars, the clan didn’t overthrow him. Not that it was any of her business. She liked Aylin, though, and hated not only what she was about to do, but that she had to leave her here with her bastard of a father.
“I’m sorry, Aylin,” Nicole said softly.
She frowned. “For what?”
Nicole took a deep, bracing breath. “For this.” She shoved Aylin into the cell and slammed the door shut, engaging the lock. The disappointment in the female’s expression devastated her. “I had to. I’m so sorry, but I have to get out of here.”
“I know.” Aylin’s tone was sad, but she smiled. “I’d hoped you wouldn’t do it, but I expected it.” Her smile grew mischievous. “I also expect you to let me out and let me help.”
Taken aback, Nicole blurted, “Why would you want to help me?”
A muscle ticked in Aylin’s jaw, and her eyes glinted with defiance. “I might not be a warrior or a hunter, but that doesn’t mean I’m useless. I can do more than mend clothes and wash ale mugs.” She reached through the bars, lightning quick, and took Nicole’s hand. Her nails bit into her skin but didn’t break it. “I don’t get the chance to do anything important very often, so I take opportunities as they come. I can get you out of here.”
Breaking out of Aylin’s grip, Nicole weighed her answer, which seemed genuine. But could Nicole bet not just her life but that of her unborn baby on a ShadowSpawn female’s word? “I like you, Aylin, but—”
“But I’m the enemy, and you can’t trust me,” Aylin finished. “I know. But if you don’t, you won’t get out of here. I promise you that. And once you’re caught, I guarantee you’ll never get another chance to get out.” She wrapped her hands around the iron bars and leaned in. “I understand why you don’t trust me, but we’re not all bad people.”
Not long ago, Nicole had said something similar to Riker about humans. And she’d learned the same about his people.
She looked around at the cells that doubled as private quarters and weighed the risks of living here permanently versus escape. There was no question. She had to get out of here, and if Aylin could help, she had to take that risk. After all, even if this was a trick, how much worse could her treatment get?
An image of Riker, beaten and bleeding in the dungeon, popped into her head, and okay, it could get worse. But babies were precious to this clan—any clan, really—and while she didn’t doubt she’d be treated badly, she doubted they’d actually harm her.
At least, not until the baby was born.
Freshly spurred more by the fear of what would become of her child than what would become of her, she flipped open the locking mechanism on the cell door.
“Okay,” she said to Aylin. “Let’s get out of here.”
RIKER COULDN’T STAND this. He’d been hanging out in the MoonBound camp for a full day, and now, with the afternoon sun starting to duck behind the mountains, they still hadn’t heard if Nicole’s pregnancy plan had been successful. Shouldn’t ShadowSpawn have brought a message by now?
He’d suggested that everyone else head back to headquarters, but every warrior, including Hunter, looked at him like he was a fucking idiot.
“One of ours is in trouble,” Hunter said. “Until we know her status, we stay.”
For the first couple of years after being turned, Riker had missed the military. Oh, he hadn’t missed being human or being betrayed by the very military he’d dedicated his life to, but he’d definitely missed the camaraderie, the brotherhood that had tied his squad together.
He’d gotten that brotherhood back when he’d accepted his place with MoonBound. Hunter’s words just now reminded him of what he had. And what he stood to lose if something happened to Nicole.
After twenty years of feeling empty, Riker had started to feel whole again, and it was all thanks to her. Even if they couldn’t work out a relationship, he needed her in his life. He needed her to be back at MoonBound, safe, and to be there for Bastien.
He looked down at the crude map he’d drawn with a stick into the damp forest floor near the fire pit. Shallow holes indicated low-lying areas between MoonBound’s camp and ShadowSpawn’s headquarters. Small stones represented trees or bluffs where MoonBound’s archers had been stationed. High ground favorable to MoonBound in a battle was marked by an X, and scout positions were assigned an O.
There were too few of everyt
hing.
“I’m going to patrol,” Riker said, to no one in particular. Hunter, Takis, and Aiden were out hunting, Myne was MIA, and Jaggar was checking on the scouts he’d assigned to monitor the area to the southeast, where ShadowSpawn was located. Only Baddon, Katina, and half a dozen of their warriors were hanging around camp, and none of them was paying attention to him.
Their poker game was apparently a life-or-death situation.
He took off toward the southeast and made it about half a mile before Myne appeared, dressed from head to toe in black and silent as an owl dropping from a tree.
“How the fuck do you do that?” Riker asked.
Myne remained in the crouch he’d landed in. “I was born awesome.”
“You were born a dick.” Riker glared. “Where have you been?”
“I’ve been around.” He stood slowly, but he didn’t stop staring toward the east. “Didn’t feel like listening to Hunter’s bullshit.”
“What happened between you two, anyway?” Riker asked him the same question every so often, always got the same answer.
Weapons clinked as Myne shrugged. “Just don’t like him.”
Yep, same answer. There was more to the story, Riker was sure, but as usual, the guy didn’t want to talk about it. “Hey, ah . . . I wanted to thank you.” His face heated. There really was nothing more uncomfortable than two dudes getting sappy.
“For what?”
“For taking care of Bastien.” He forced his jaw to unlock for the rest, because as grateful as Riker was to Myne, he couldn’t completely get rid of his envy over Myne being there for Nicole. In Riker’s bed. “And for helping Nicole through her change.”
Finally, Myne’s gaze met Riker’s. “Nothing happened.”
“I know.”
“Yeah? Do you also know you’re a fucking idiot?”
Okaaay. “Is that a trick question?”
Myne blew out a frustrated breath and turned away again. “You need to mate her.”
“That decision is up to her.”
“Then make her choose you, because if you don’t make her yours, someone else will.”
Riker went taut. “Meaning?”
“Dumbass,” Myne snapped. “Not me. I’ll never see her as anything but yours. But there are a lot of unmated males in the clan, and she’s . . .”
“Special. I know.”
Myne pivoted, very slowly. “Do you also know someone’s coming? Two people. Females or young males.”
Shit. Riker reached for a dagger as Myne palmed his twin swords out of the sheaths on his back. He heard the sound of two sets of feet pounding on the forest floor, and then, coming up fast, the rumble of dozens more feet.
He saw Nicole before she saw him. She was running, but the female with her, Aylin, he was sure, was slowing her down. He and Myne bolted toward them at a dead run. Nicole finally saw him, but as she screamed his name, she and Aylin were swarmed by ShadowSpawn warriors.
Rage shattered Riker’s ability to think about anything but protecting Nicole. Bellowing with fury, he launched a blade, catching one of the enemy warriors in the throat. The guy went down hard, but three more replaced him. An arrow shot past Riker’s head. He ducked another as he raced toward the enemy line.
In the space of five seconds, he and Myne were engaged in battle, outnumbered, and balls-deep in trouble.
Nicole shouted his name, but it was barely out of her mouth when Aylin’s scream rang out. He couldn’t see the females, couldn’t help them, not when he was fighting five guys at once. He dodged and spun between the enemies, burying a dagger in one belly and then spinning and slashing chests and throats on the return. Blood spurted, some of it his as he took more than his share of damage.
A blow to the head made him see double, and as he wobbled on his axis, something sliced open his shoulder and sent him spinning into a tree. As a hatchet came at his head, he hit the ground and rolled. He hunched down behind a stump to avoid another blow, and the hatchet sank into the tree with a dull thud that could have belonged to Riker’s skull.
As the hatchet wielder yanked the blade free of the wood, Riker exploded to his feet and threw a double tap to the male’s face, followed by a roundhouse kick to his gut. The guy dropped, but there were ten more warriors to take his place.
Suddenly, war cries filled the air, and in an instant, all but two of the ShadowSpawn males scattered, their focus on fresh targets.
Hunter and the rest of MoonBound’s warriors had arrived.
New energy hummed through Riker’s bones. He welcomed the adrenaline rush, welcomed the smell of blood, pain, and fear that fueled his desire to rip apart the males who were manhandling Nicole. Battle lust reduced him to a weapon of pure power as he fought his way toward the last place he’d seen Nicole, cutting through ShadowSpawn’s warriors with a dagger and throwing stars.
He caught sight of Nicole as she struggled against two males who were dragging her away from the battle. He roared her name and hurtled over a fallen ShadowSpawn warrior, but as he landed, he took a blunt-force blow to his kidney. The impact made him stagger, and pain made him grunt in agony, but he kept going, never taking his eyes off Nicole.
She cursed viciously and sank her fangs deep into one of the warriors’ biceps. He yelled as she shook her head like a dog with a rabbit, ripping his flesh from his bone. The other male with them brought his arm back, hand balled into a fist. Before it landed on Nicole’s jaw, Riker hit the guy from behind and brought him down in a tangle of limbs.
Riker took a solid punch to the face, but the other male was no match for Riker’s fangs. He sank them deep into the guy’s throat, clamped down hard, and tore the bastard’s carotid artery out of his neck.
“Rike—!”
At Nicole’s cutoff scream, Riker half scrambled, half spun off the spasming body of the dying vampire in time to see Kars, his fist tangled in Nicole’s hair.
ShadowSpawn’s unholy leader shoved her to her knees and jammed a dagger against her throat. “Lay down your weapons!” he shouted. “Or the bitch dies.”
NICOLE SWALLOWED AGAINST the feel of the cold blade pressed into the soft spot that bisected her jaw and her jugular vein. The sting told her it had cut into her skin, and the hatred in Riker’s eyes told her he knew it as well.
Hunter stalked toward them, his bare upper body a mass of cuts, his knuckles shredded. As his boots crunched dead leaves and fallen branches, she wondered how hard it was for him to avoid looking at the dead and wounded lying in pools of blood on the ground as he passed. She hadn’t even known most of them, but the sight tore at her. She couldn’t imagine what it must be doing to him.
“What the fuck is the meaning of this?” Hunter’s voice was distorted, warped with something disturbing. Malevolent, even. Crimson streaks cut through the black in his eyes, and Nicole shrank back, somehow more afraid of whatever was inside Hunter than of the knife at her throat. “We had a deal.”
Kars snarled. “And we kept our end of the bargain.” He yanked on Nicole’s hair, hauling her to her feet next to him. “This bitch did not.”
Face twisted in an expression that promised pain, Riker lunged at Kars. Fane intercepted, tackling Riker from the flank and slamming them both to the ground. Fantasies of dropping a boric-acid bomb on top of the ShadowSpawn bastard went through Nicole’s head.
Please don’t fight them, Riker. She caught his eye as he struggled with Fane. Please. If he got hurt—or worse—while trying to save her, she’d never forgive herself.
He read her, thank God, and eased his palm off the dagger he’d been about to draw from the leg pocket of his military fatigue pants. As he raised his hands, she watched to make sure he didn’t go for one of the weapons he’d have concealed under his black sweater.
“She gave us only four pregnancies, and then she used my daughter to help her escape.” Kars tugged again, this time so viciously that her eyes watered. Where was Aylin, anyway? Aylin had kept her word, and Nicole owed her more than she could possib
ly repay. “Nicole brought this war down on you. Not me.” He signaled to his men. “Kill them all.”
Oh, Jesus. “Wait!” she screamed. “We know the treatment works. I’ll give you more next month—”
“Yes, you will.” He signaled again, but this time, Hunter shouted for a halt to the killing.
“Stop!” He raised both hands, fingers splayed in a gesture she didn’t recognize but was of clear importance to Kars. “Nuh-hun esu . . . vedi.”
Silence fell on the forest. Even the insects and birds held to an eerie truce, and all eyes went to Hunter. But Kars alone seemed to understand what Hunter had said. Tension crackled in the air like the moment before lightning struck, and Nicole swore she smelled ozone.
Kars spoke, his voice low but threaded with an electric undercurrent. “Estaltias en flori esu. Vedi ak’nya.”
Nicole glanced at Riker, but his barely discernible shrug told her he had no idea what was going on, either. Hunter didn’t make a move. Not for a long time. When he finally did, it was to incline his head in a slow nod of acceptance. But acceptance of what?
The two clan leaders spoke more in the language only they seemed to know. The tone of their conversation varied from calm to angry, and twice she thought battle would break out again. After what seemed like forever, the red streaks faded from Hunter’s eyes, and Kars stepped away from her. Both chiefs signaled to their warriors.
As the two parties sheathed their weapons, she grabbed Kars’s thick arm. “Where’s Aylin? What have you done to her?”
His smile was chilling as he shoved her away. “She’s not your concern.”
Riker reached her as Kars stormed off, leaving his warriors to collect their injured and dead.
“Nicole.” Riker choked out her name as he folded her into his arms and crushed her against him so hard she oofed. “Thank God. Oh, thank God.”
She hugged him tight, never so glad to see anyone in her life. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
“For what?”
“For this.” She squeezed her eyes closed against all the blood, death, and misery. How many had died today? How many would suffer in agony as they healed? “It’s all my fault. If I hadn’t tried to escape—”