by Lia Davis
When he lunged for her, she’d already begun the process of teleportation. She flashed to the outside of the cell and slammed the door into place, clicking the lock and palming the key the idiot left behind.
Garrick roared and slammed into the bars. Gwen let out a squeak and rushed over to Ash’s cell and unlocked it. By the time she stepped out, Garrick had shifted into a very large and scary as all Hades black dragon. The cell no longer contained him. By the size of him, neither would the room they were in.
Ash grabbed her hand and tugged her through the room that Gwen could now tell was some kind of lab and computer center. “Wait!”
Gwen pulled her hand free from Ash’s and rushed to a desk with a laptop and several files and devices on it. Ash was at her side in a flash, picking up objects and stuffing them inside a backpack. Gwen didn’t know where the woman got the bag, but she really didn’t care. She was relieved for her quick thinking.
Ash shoved the bag at her and the building they were in shook, large pieces of the ceiling raining around them.
“The place is going to cave in. Take this and run.” Ash pointed to an exit behind Gwen.
Shaking her head, Gwen said, “Not without you.”
“You have to. Don’t worry about me. Now go.”
Before Gwen realized what Ash had done, she was being pulled through time and space and materialized outside the building seconds before it collapsed into a pile of stone and dust.
“Ash!” Gwen fell to her knees with the backpack pressed to her chest, tears streaming down her face.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Markus landed in a large field about fifteen miles west of Serenity Cove, folded his wings into his back and shifted to his human form. Scanning the area, he couldn’t see anything for miles. A growl rumbled through his chest and he fisted his hands.
Where the fuck was Gwen?
Ty landed beside him and remained in dragon form. His red and gold scales shimmered in the setting sunlight. He blew out a breath through his noise, drawing Markus’s attention. I don’t smell either of the females.
“Me either.” Markus was beyond the point of rational thought. His mate was missing and it was his fault for allowing her to go on the mission.
As soon as the thought formed, he regretted it. She wasn’t a prisoner and he couldn’t keep her from doing anything. If he told her no, she’d have gone in anyway. “I’m going to try to track her through the mating bond again.”
Ty turned in the opposite direction, giving Markus room to search for the connection to his mate. Apparently, they had to be within a certain proximity in order to connect. The lack of connection was driving his dragon insane.
Ash was right. Dragons did go insane when they lost a mate. He didn’t doubt that the human was dragged under with the beast.
Taking a deep breath, he closed his eyes, and sent out his senses, searching out as far as he could. On his second pass of the area, he felt it. Gwen’s pain. Not physical, but emotional.
“I got them,” Markus shouted and took off in a run toward the west.
Overhead, Ty followed about twenty feet off the ground. There’s a group of trees and a building ten yards ahead. Dude, the building looks like it collapsed or something. I’m going ahead to take a closer look.
Dread cut through his heart and all he could think about was Gwen trapped inside the ruins of a building. Although he knew she wasn’t dead because of their bond, but he couldn’t tell if she was hurt due to the amount of emotions flooding the link to her as he got closer.
Finally, he reached the grouping of trees and pushed his legs faster. When he saw the torn down building, he skidded to a stop, chest rising and falling as his heart pounded in his head. Ty squatted down next to Gwen, his hand out. Shaking her head, she cried into her hands.
Markus walked over and lifted her into his arms, cradling her to his chest.
Instantly, her arms wrapped around him. “Ash didn’t make it. She wouldn’t leave with me.”
“Shh.” He spared a look at Ty, who was now standing, glaring at the ruins with murder in his gaze. “Ty, let’s go, man. She’s immortal, remember.”
Without a word, his brother turned, ran, and shifted into his dragon. Markus let Ty go, because if his guess was right, then Ash was Ty’s mate. He needed the time it took to fly home to clear his head.
Markus spotted a backpack on the ground where Gwen had dropped it and picked it up before teleporting them to the mansion. Markus carried Gwen through the front door and straight to his study while sending out a telepathic message to his brothers to meet him there. Setting her on the sofa, he positioned the pillow that she threw at him a couple of nights before under her head.
Tears filled her sky blue eyes as she stared at him. “We have to search the ruins for her. I have to know…”
Brushing a strand of hair from her face, he said, “Ash is immortal. A building collapsing would not kill her.”
She held his gaze for several moments as if she was trying to let it all soak in. Finally she nodded. “She teleported me out right before the building collapsed.”
“Why did it fall in?”
“Garrick.” A shiver passed through her before she continued. “He tried to inject me with some serum. Ash panicked and told him not to. Ash said it had a binding agent in it. When he opened my cell and came inside with me, I teleported outside and closed him in.”
“That’s good. What’s in the backpack?”
Glancing to the bag in his hand, she smiled a little. “Ash stuffed things in there. I’m not sure what’s all in there.”
Zavier, Drake, Seth, and Elle entered the study. Elle rushed over to Gwen. Markus stepped aside to allow the females some time while he took Zavier the bag. “See what you can get from the contents of this.”
Z opened the bag and a wide grin spread across his face. “This is nice. There’s a laptop, files, jump drives, disks. Oh man, I’m in techno-heaven.”
Markus shook his head and glanced back at Gwen. His heart ached from the lack of contact with her. He needed to get her alone, soon, to make sure she was truly okay.
Turning back to his brothers, he filled them in on what happened to the building, Ash, and Gwen. “Ty didn’t take the fact that Ash didn’t make it out of the building well. I don’t expect him back anytime soon.”
Zavier and Drake nodded. Seth cursed low. “The sorry ass stubborn male will be searching for her.”
Markus agreed. They’d all noticed how much the female got under Ty’s skin. He couldn’t seem to leave her alone, always watching and waiting. For what, Markus had no clue. His only guess was they were mates and both denied it.
The air around them shifted from calm to electric, then Ares materialized next to him. “War,” Markus muttered, really not wanting to talk with the god at the moment.
Ares rolled his eyes. “I only came to tell you that Garrick is wounded, badly, but he is still alive.”
Markus jerked his gaze to his father. “Aren’t we feeling like sharing for once? Why are you telling us this?”
Ares stepped closer to him, coming nose-to-nose with him. “Because when he heals, he’s going to want revenge on every one of you, including Ashlynn.”
Markus raised a brow. “The female lives?”
Ares backed off to move around the room. “I’m not at liberty to say.”
Markus took that as a yes and as the gods were using the redhead minor goddess more than as a spy. She had another reason for being there and they weren’t finished with her.
Too tired to think and needing to feel his mate under him, Markus stalked toward Gwen. He held out his hand, she smiled, and took it. Tugging her to her feet, he glance at Elle. “Do you mind if I steal your sister for the next twenty-four hours or so?”
Elle shook her head. “No. You two need time together.” Standing, she kissed him on the cheek. “Thank you for making sure she came back home.” Then she left the room.
Gwen cupped his face and kissed him. He
wrapped his arms around her and teleported them to his…no, their room. Smiling, he laid her down on the bed. “I know what it is to love someone so much that it hurts to be without them.”
Surprise lit up her eyes. “Do you?”
He nodded. “I love you. I can’t ever let you do anything like you did today. It drove my dragon and I insane to think of the ways I could have lost you.”
It came out more demanding then he intended, but she didn’t flinch or draw away from him. Her eyes began to water as she held his gaze and said, “I love you, too. And I don’t plan on doing anything like that again. Just promise me one thing.”
“What?”
“If the day ever comes that you do capture Garrick, I want to be there to see him go down.”
Markus’s smile widened and his heart warmed. “Deal.”
Taking his face in her hands, she pulled him to her. Nipping at his lower lip, she said, “Make love to me and make me forget about your evil brother.”
His dragon growled in approval inside his head. Dipping his head, he bit her lower lip and tugged. “Anything for my mate.”
Epilogue
Ash lay on her mother’s bed, wishing the goddess would hurry. She ached everywhere, not to mention it hurt like fuck to breathe. Her ribs and lungs took the worst of it. In her concern for getting Gwen out of the building and away from Garrick, Ash had failed to hear him approach from behind until the dagger jammed into her back, puncturing a lung. She broke a couple of ribs when the bastard knocked her across the room.
Then the building caved in.
Artemis eased down on the bed and smoothed her hair from her face. “No one can ever know I rescued you.”
“Of course, Mother.”
The goddess opened an amber-colored jar and dipped out a creamy salve, then spread it over her ribs. “The terms for your mission were that I not interfere, no matter what.”
Ash sighed and lifted her hand weakly. “I know, Mother. That was why I didn’t summon you.”
“And what would you have done if I hadn’t shown up?” Artemis met her stare and frowned.
“Survived. After I passed out and healed myself.”
Her mother rolled her eyes and replaced the cap on the jar. “Garrick is injured.” A smile lifted her lips. “You almost killed him with the god bolt you threw at him. It hit his heart, you know.”
Ash smiled and would have laughed if it didn’t hurt so much. She never got the chance to hit Garrick with her power, but she understood what her mother was saying. Artemis had hit Garrick and most likely made him think it was Ash.
“What about the mission?” Ash asked.
“You will stay here and heal then go back to your dragon and pass judgment.”
Dread rippled through her. Ash hadn’t even come close to completing her true mission. If she failed at proving Ty’s innocence it would kill what humanity was left inside her to bring him in to be sentenced to death by the gods.
However, she was a servant of the gods and would do her job.
“Yes, Mother. I won’t let you down.”
The End
Coming next in the Sons of War world:
Ashes of War
A Thank you from Fated Desires
Thank you so much for reading War’s Passion! We’re so happy that you had a chance to look into the paranormal world of Sons of War. We do hope if you liked this, that you would please leave a review from where you purchased this or on another platform. Not only does a review spread the word to other readers, they let us know if you’d like to see more stories like this from us. Lia loves to hear from readers and talks to them when she can. You can reach her through her website and through her Facebook and Twitter accounts. You guys are the reason we get to do what we do and we thank you.
If you are looking for more stories like these, you don’t have to wait much longer! Lia is cooking up new works in this series and a few others. Also, we have a few new authors coming that will be sure to whet your appetite.
If you’d like to know more about Fated Desires, check out our website or email us at [email protected].
About the Author
Lia Davis is a mother to two young adults and two very special kitties, a wife to her soul mate, a paranormal romance author, and co-owner to Fated Desires Publishing, LLC. She and her family live in Northeast Florida battling hurricanes and very humid summers. But it’s her home and she loves it!
An accounting major, Lia has always been a dreamer with a very activity imagination. The wheels in her head never stop. She ventured into the world of writing and publishing in 2008 and loves it more than she imagined. Writing is stress reliever that allows her to go off in her corner of the house and enter into another world that she created, leaving real life where it belongs.
Her favorite things are spending time with family, traveling, reading, writing, chocolate, coffee, nature and hanging out with her kitties.
http://www.authorliadavis.com/
Also from this Author
Now Available
Ashwood Falls
Winter Eve
A Tiger’s Claim
A Mating Dance
Surrendering to the Alpha
Ever After
Divided Loyalties
The Divinities
Death’s Storm
Coming Soon
Ashwood Falls
Misguided Path
Sons of War
Ashes of War
Pleasures of the Heart
Business Pleasures
Did you enjoy this selection? Why not try another romance from Fated Desires?
From the Ashwood Falls series by Lia Davis
Divided Loyalties
Chapter One
Something didn’t ring right with Christa Baker as she sat in the conference room listening to the new leader of Shield rattling on about rogue shifters. He said they were growing in numbers, yet he hadn’t provided any physical proof. Sure a few humans had gone missing, most of whom were homeless, and according the police, their disappearances weren’t that unusual.
She failed to see his point because shifters were born, not created. So why would they need to kidnap humans?
Her new boss had gone on and on for the last several weeks about an increase in shifter sightings. Again, no proof. Christa had checked.
She could pull up anything from the Internet. Social networks like Facebook and YouTube were the best places to look for the weird and unusual.
There hadn’t been a human attack by a shifter since she’d killed the beast in her home eight years ago. It had been her first encounter with what she now knew was called a mutant, a half-animal, half-human creature with no regard for life—its own or others’.
However, Vance Miller believed a civil war was raging among the breeds that had spilled over into the human world. There was something he’d left out, something bigger than he wanted her and the others in Shield to believe. So what if the shifters were at war with one another and killing themselves? Was it the mutants? If so, then they deserved what they got. They’d created the damned creatures; they could all go to hell as far as she cared.
It wasn’t Shield’s place to get involved in the shifters’ civil war. Shield was a human-run group of rebels that went above the law to protect mankind from the were-kind or shifters, as they liked to be called. She didn’t care what they called themselves as long as they left the humans alone. So far, in the eight years she’d been with Shield, the shifters had. However, there was the occasional mishap—like the mating-gone-wrong situation her sister had suffered.
Mary didn’t have the chance to run when her mate turned on her in a fit of jealous rage. Or at least that’s what Christa believed happened. Her niece and nephew, fraternal twins Brenna and Bryce, had been only eight at the time and thankfully not at home to witness how their mother died.
However, Christa had been the one to ID the body.
From that day forward, Christa had fought for Shield to protect
humans from the shifter races.
Up until a few months ago, Shield hadn’t attacked innocents or started wars between the shifters, but then Vance had stepped in as the new leader of Shield. He’d changed the way the others thought, more like manipulated them into believing his load of bullshit. She wasn’t sure how he’d done it, but the others just bowed down to him and believed every lie out of his mouth.
How could they be so blind to his cause?
Then again, the other soldiers couldn’t detect a shifter like she could. Sure, they all had training to know what to look for. Eye color was the biggie. Most shifters had an unusual coloring, and when they were challenged or provoked, their eyes seemed to glow. Plus the pupils were reflective like the animal that lived within.
Christa had lived with two shifters for the last seven years. She’d been there when Brenna and Bryce shifted for the first time. She’d also helped them control their wolves, thanks to the information her sister had shared with her when she was alive.
“My sources tell me that the rise in shifter attacks points to a hybrid Pack of wolves and leopards called Ashwood Falls,” Vance said then tapped on the table to get her attention.
She met his gaze and held it until he looked away, but not before she caught the flashing shift of color in his irises. Satisfied she wasn’t being paranoid about what he was, she asked, “How trustworthy is this source? Why haven’t we heard about attacks from our police contacts? It should be all over the Internet.”
Vance set his jaw and turned away from them to study the map on the wall. “The shifters are very good at hiding these things from humans. You, of all people, should know that, Christa.”