by Dannika Dark
“I hired Reno to see if Vlad has any contacts in the area,” Prince said, clasping his hands together. “My intent was to uncover any associates who might have taken him in and given him refuge.”
She looked at him with hope glittering in her eyes. “And?”
“He’s not trading in Austin, not unless he’s working under an alias we don’t know about.”
Kat waved her arms, exasperated. “Now what? I looked through all the files and couldn’t find a connection here. Transaction dates and amounts, but no second home and definitely no alias that I could find. Vlad has my sister, and time is of the fucking essence! Why did he just get up in the middle of a bar and drive all the way down to Austin so he could hang out in a shack in the woods? It doesn’t make any sense!”
Prince lowered his head but kept his eyes on her. “We think he’s been holding Alex prisoner. There was wolf hair and fresh blood in the basement, and not from Nadia’s wolf. I’m assuming since you’re twins, her wolf is black, like yours. He probably drives down every so often to feed him. A Shifter can go a long time without food or water, so maybe Vlad left him a few supplies. I thought you would have guessed this?”
Kat shielded her face with one hand, only her mouth visible. “I did. I just needed to hear someone say it out loud to confirm I’m not crazy—that my father’s still alive. That I haven’t been holding out hope all these years in vain.”
Reno cleared his throat and flashed Prince a look, the kind a man gives when he sees a woman in distress. “Well, I’m not completely useless. We don’t have any associates, but I got the names of two local men known to run with him. Not business partners that I can tell, probably just lackeys. It’s the best lead we’ve got.”
Kat discreetly wiped her wet lashes. “And where are his buddies?”
“My guy only knows them by first name, but he gave me a good description. He’s seen them hanging around. I got a feeling Vlad pays them to move the Shifters he’s selling. If he’s got your sister and anyone else, he’ll need help.” Reno stroked his bottom lip with his thumb. “We need to move fast since he might be using their vehicles to transport them out of the city. I don’t think he’ll make a move in the daytime, but I’ll call you the second I get word, so keep your phone on,” he said, turning his attention to Prince.
Kat reached under her shirt, and Prince smirked when he heard the sound of Velcro. She pulled out a miniature pen. “Give me your arm,” she said to Reno.
He stuck out his arm with a bemused expression.
“This is my number, just in case Prince’s battery dies or a moose eats it. Memorize it and then wipe it off. I don’t like my number floating around on paper… or flesh.”
“You got it.”
***
Kat tried to keep herself occupied, but all she could think about was putting a dagger into Vlad’s eye. Prince led her to the media room, but it was awkward sitting amidst a strange pack, especially after Prince introduced her as his lover. That had roused a few curious glances.
Lover was such an old-fashioned term—something only Frenchmen used in the movies. Then again, Prince was Old World European, so to him the word held a significant meaning. She didn’t argue since she couldn’t come up with an acceptable word herself. They weren’t mated, and calling a seven-hundred-year-old alpha her boyfriend seemed unquestionably inappropriate.
Kat headed down to the basement, hoping a shift would settle her nerves and kill some time. But once there, her wolf didn’t want out. So she sat down on a flat rock, pulled up her knees, and rested her chin on top of her folded arms.
Thoughts flitted through her mind. Did Vlad know Nadia was her twin sister, or was he just using her to barter with? Vlad must have realized Prince was a powerful Packmaster who would turn this city upside down to find her, so revenge didn’t seem likely. Kat was certain Vlad wanted something from her father, and he assumed she had it in her possession. But what?
She sat back and circled her fingers across the strap that went over her left shoulder. Would Vlad accept money in exchange for her sister? That left her with hope, but if he had her father, he wasn’t going to let go as easily. Just thinking about her father in captivity, starving to death, made her want to break something. Worse, she’d been in the very house Vlad might have been holding her father in. He could have been right beneath her feet the whole time she was messing around on the stupid computer!
“Ouch!” Kat snapped her hand back and looked at the tip of her finger, rubbing away the sting. It felt similar to static shock, and she looked at the strap to make sure it wasn’t damaged.
After rubbing her finger over the same spot a few times, she didn’t feel anything unusual. Might have been a splinter stuck in the weave. Yet this felt different.
“I’ve been looking for you,” Prince said from across the room. He stalked over the grass and put one foot on the rock where she sat. “What are you doing?”
Kat stripped off her shirt.
“So soon?”
She cut him a sharp glare. “Something’s wrong.”
“That bra looks becoming on you,” he said with smooth satisfaction, looking more handsome than he had a right to. “I’m just disappointed it was Reno who got the first glimpse.”
Kat preferred to be braless because her wolf couldn’t slip out of a bra during the shift when she was wearing the harness. That meant her wolf would be prancing around in a bra, which had happened once in a bar down in El Paso.
She took off the holster and ran the strap between her fingers, turning it over. It was thickly padded on the side that lay against her body, and there were several pouches sewn across the outside.
“My father was the one who customized this for me. He told me to always wear it, and he knows I’m a sentimental person.”
“He did nice work,” Prince said, kneeling down and giving it a closer inspection.
“Yeah, it’s actually comfy.” Kat pulled out the dagger and ran the pointy tip beneath one of the pouches.
“What are you doing, Kat?”
Once she made the cut wide enough, she set down the blade and pushed her pinky finger inside. Within the space was something cool to the touch, so she hooked her finger until she got a grip on it.
Kat slid out a ring and held it in the palm of her hand.
Prince took it between two fingers and examined the ruby stone. “This… this belongs to Vlad. His companions used to joke that someone would cut his throat for the stone, so he often wore it with the stone facing down.”
Kat looked closely at her harness where a pocket had been made to conceal the ring. Her father was clever to have hidden the piece so it wouldn’t be in his possession.
“What was my father doing with Vlad’s ring?”
Prince furrowed his dark brows, his hair neatly pulled back, much to her dismay. “I think it’s infused with magic. In Russia, the Mageri—who uphold the laws for his kind—didn’t exist. Creators held more power and chose human warriors to put their first spark into—strong men who would not only remain loyal to them in order to learn the Mage ways, but who would also protect them as an army of men would a king. But the average Mage is not a Creator, and once granted independence, they go off to wreak whatever havoc they desire.”
“They’re not all bad,” Kat added. “They were smart to form the Mageri early on because it set the tone for the other Breeds to establish some kind of order. Sorry, didn’t mean to interrupt.”
“Men like Vlad created their own law, aligning with others and mirroring the military organizations they saw in the human world. They preyed on weak men and those who didn’t have protection. So you can imagine the number of enemies they made. Certain metals and stones can hold Mage energy, and in those times, they considered these trinkets invaluable.”
“But why a ring instead of a dagger?”
“What could be more innocuous?” He turned the gold band between his fingers, a glint of light reflecting off the edge. “They didn’t have the communicati
on devices we do now to form a black market, so it wasn’t easy to obtain stunners and other weapons infused with magic. In those times, a select few had the rare talent to lock large amounts of energy into metal. A Mage could pull from it for a boost of strength, but I’ve heard stories of some containing dark magic. Most were probably tall tales meant to strike fear about what a Mage could do, but I suspect there was a sliver of truth to some of it.”
“Like what?”
“Knowing what I know now about their gifts, the possibilities of what they can infuse in metals are infinite. What happened that made you notice it?”
She shook her head, trying to remember. “I was just sitting here being pissed off at Vlad. I must have been rubbing my finger along the edge.”
“Did it move?”
She took the ring from him and let the oversized piece swallow her index finger. “No, it felt like a tiny electric shock. Do you think it reacted to my anger?”
“We could test it. Get angry.”
Kat laughed. “Easier said than done.”
He leaned forward with a detached expression, one that made her stomach flutter, but not in a good way. “Think about me taking your sister to bed.”
“Ouch!” Kat flicked her wrist and the ring sailed into the grass.
“Cursed with Mage power,” he whispered, picking it up again.
She rubbed her finger and frowned. “I’ve been angry lots of times while wearing the holster; why didn’t it shock me before?”
“The thick padding on the inside would have protected you from its power. Alex must have inserted a protective layer of special material between your skin and the ring to create a barrier, and I’m assuming you don’t spend much time touching the outer layer. When the gold encircles the finger—like just now—you can access its full power.”
Kat was feeling dizzy from all this Mage talk. “Your old magic confuses me. What would be the benefit of having a ring that shocks a person when they’re mad?”
“For you it might be a shock, but for a Mage, it’s a source of energy that strengthens their abilities. I don’t know; I’m only guessing. Mage magic has always confounded me. If this is what Vlad is searching for, then it must be far more powerful than we can sense.”
“Maybe it’s just sentimental and his Mage daddy gave it to him.”
Prince closed his hand into a tight fist. “If that’s true, then this trinket will be what gives us an advantage. Now that we have what he wants, we can bargain.”
She tried to take it, but Prince moved his arm out of reach and she scowled. “You can’t just give it to him! In the real world, each side is conspiring how to get what they want without giving up what they have. That’s what scares me, Charming. He’s got my father and sister. If I give him this ring, he’s not going to set them free. We have to find him before he flees the city.”
Prince began to slowly unbutton his shirt, stripping out of it and folding it on the grass with the ring on top.
An ancient heat coursed through her veins; her desire for him was insatiable. “What are you up to, Charming?”
“Don’t take off the bra,” he said, slowly unbuttoning her jeans. “Your temper makes me want to feel that fire against me. We need something to do while we’re waiting, and I have an excellent suggestion for how to cool you down.”
Kat threw back her head, his breath skating across her hips and stomach, unraveling her from inside out. “I always did like a man with a plan.”
Chapter 13
After hours of lovemaking, Prince had eagerly wrapped his arms around Kat and placed kisses on her forehead, cheeks, and mouth. This time there had been more tenderness between them, and it enriched their intimacy that much more. While she showered upstairs, he checked with Russell for a status update. There had been no new findings, which made him uneasy as he knew Kat was growing impatient and might slip out to hunt down Vlad by herself.
Uncertain of where the day might take him, he changed into a pair of black pants and a dark grey shirt. Prince’s wardrobe wasn’t just suits, but also long-sleeve cotton shirts and casual dress shirts. He preferred button-ups or a cotton shirt beneath a suit jacket. Today’s choice wasn’t about presentation; he needed to choose clothing that would be practical for chasing and killing an outlaw.
“Make sure you put a good pair of running shoes on your Christmas wish list,” Kat said, glancing down at his leather shoes. She reached up and removed the white towel from her head, shaking out long strands of wet hair. “Now I don’t feel like an exhumed body. I think next time we should use a bed… like normal people.”
Prince stirred with amusement because there was no question, despite her little quips, that Kat liked the wildness of their lovemaking. He watched her open the balcony doors and lean over the railing, sunlight and wind drying her beautiful waves of black hair. A moment later, she sneezed and headed back inside.
“Something’s floating around in the air.”
“Yes, it certainly is,” he mused, watching how she took command of any room she was in. Her absence made Prince consider how vacant his life had been without her. Not just a woman like her, but Kat.
Water soaked through her grey shirt, and she looked between them with a melancholy grin. “We match.” Her smile withered as she sat on his lap, resting her head against his chest. “Do you think we’ll still like each other when this is all over?”
Prince kissed the top of her head. “I think there’s a possibility.”
“We collided in a twist of fate, and maybe the only thing holding us together is your personal interest in finding my father.”
He rested his chin on her head and sighed, his voice falling to a soft murmur. “My personal interest is you.”
“Don’t get me wrong. I like you, Charming. It’s just that I deal with chaos on a daily basis, and sometimes coming off that adrenaline rush is a cold splash of reality.”
“There you go again with that word I loathe.”
“What word?”
Prince tried not to show his distaste for it in his tone. “Like.”
Her giggle tickled his chest. “I don’t know why you have such an aversion to a word that means I feel something positive for you. Don’t you think it would be a little premature for me to say I love you when we only just met?”
“Just met, just met,” he grumbled. “Young wolves play by such different rules, so unwilling to follow their instincts and their hearts. I suppose a man can’t court you unless you know his favorite color or ice cream flavor?”
She sat up, batting away a wet strand of hair that had slipped in front of her face. Her brown eyes were invasive, traveling all the way down to the dark corners of his soul. “First of all, I don’t think you’re an expert in the love department any more than I am. There’s nothing wrong with getting to know someone before making a life-changing decision.”
“Will my favorite song tell you what kind of man I am in a way that making love to you won’t? Will my favorite dessert reveal more about my character than laying down my life for you?”
She worried her bottom lip and lifted her brows. “I see your point, but you’ll have to play along if you’re interested in pursuing me. I’ve never had a man chase me so hard, and it scares me. How do I know I love you if I’ve never loved a man?”
His heart warmed, and he brushed his fingers down her cheek. “You know it’s love when you cannot live without a person, the way you’ve spent years pursuing your father. The way you cannot sleep until you know your sister’s safe. Love is when the thought of losing that very thing is so unbearable that you find it difficult to breathe.”
“And how would you know something like that?” she asked, tilting her head.
His hand slid down and rested over her heart. “Because that’s how I feel about you, Katarina. I’m seasoned enough to know the difference between infatuation and something real. My wolf thirsts for the blood of any man who would harm you, and those are more than words but a promise. Even speaking of it no
w…” He lifted her hand to his jugular so she could feel his pulse quickening.
Kat’s eyes searched his, her hand cupping his neck. “I don’t know if I want someone loving me that hard. I tend to disappoint people. Think about it, Charming. A big-shot Packmaster mated with a bounty hunter doesn’t look so shiny on a piece of paper. The local Council would flip their lids.”
Amusement danced in his eyes and he patted her leg. “I love the way you talk. I’m going to enjoy the conversation I plan to have with Alex about you.”
“That should be interesting. I don’t know if my father would like his best friend dating his daughter. You should see how he scared off the last guy who thought he was good enough to court a Packmaster’s daughter.”
“Did he get out a crossbow?”
A small line appeared between her eyebrows when she frowned. “How did you know that?”
“I know your father, and he’s not an ambivalent man. He’s a good judge of character.”
The door swung open and hit the wall. “Sire!”
Prince flew out of his chair, Kat spinning behind him. “What have I told you about coming in unannounced?”
Russell’s face bloomed red—a mixture of anger and embarrassment as he looked between the two. He lowered his eyes respectfully and stepped back.
“Come in,” Prince said, waving his hand. “What’s changed?”
Russell strode forward, rubbing his temples. “Someone spotted his motor and called it in. I sent Greta to stay on his arse.”
“Good choice,” Prince said as they moved out of the room and down the hall, his long strides forcing Kat to jog to keep up with him. “I want everyone to return home and stay where they are. I won’t be here to command the pack, so I trust you’ll keep an eye on things while I’m away.”
Russell tried to block Prince and ended up walking backward. “Hold up there, sire. It’s a wee bit dangerous for a Packmaster.” He grimaced. “I don’t mean it like that,” he said, smacking himself in the forehead. “Our duty is to protect our leader and follow orders. You’re the general, and without the general, there’s no army.”