She was shocked, but she shouldn’t have been. He was caught between being a leader and commanding a mission or being her mate with concerns for her well-being.
“Are you kidding me? This is all part of my mission, and I’m not stopping until it’s all complete. Now don’t waste time, Corporal. I’m under your command and will do as you say, but don’t coddle me. Remember my experience, and my will and promise to these people of Merker pack. I will reunite all of them who are alive. Tonight we’re bringing home their families.”
He exhaled, totally uneasy about her decision, but then nodded and they headed on their way.
* * * *
“We need a plan to entice them. We can’t just attack and slaughter them all, Ruko,” Dunly said to him.
“Why not?” Ruko asked, seething from where he stood sharpening the blade of the dagger he held.
“It isn’t smart. We need a strategic plan of action to snag Luna, then get her to the airport and into Italy and to the tunnels. That isn’t going to be easy with all those damn alphas from Saint pack and Keuric pack. Our intel says other small packs are joining theirs. This isn’t good at all. Not for our mission, which is to grab Luna.”
“I wish we could just kill her. How am I supposed to stand around and show respect to the woman who killed my brother?”
“You must because we are loyal to Costaldo, and he is our master and Alpha.”
“That’s easy for you to say, Dunly. It wasn’t your brother she killed.”
“Perhaps when we grab her you can release some of your frustrations and anger on her without scarring her so Costaldo doesn’t flip out.”
Ruko gave an evil smirk to Dunly. “Promise me some alone time with her on the plane.”
“You can’t fuck her.”
Ruko growled low and then dropped the blade onto the table and leaned back in the chair. “Are you certain? I would love to beat her down, restrain her, and show her where her place is as a woman. Costaldo will have her chained up for quite some time. It will be a little introduction.”
“Costaldo will be angry, and you see how obsessed he has become with her.”
“For her royal status.”
“More than that. Let’s make a plan, and you make your own to relieve your desire to cause her death, and instead cause her pain, but pain that heals eventually.”
“Fine. How long will it take to get to where the rest of Merker pack is being held?”
“Not long. Twenty minutes tops. I’m in contact with the team of security there.”
“Good. I can’t wait to kill them all. That will bring the rage out in Luna, bring her defenses down, and then open her up to be taken forever. I can’t wait to sink my teeth into that woman.”
“Remember not to scar her, or fuck her.”
“I’ll try my hardest, but no promises, Dunly. If it weren’t for Costaldo’s needs and wants, the woman would be fair game.”
Chapter Seven
When they arrived on the scene, it was dark and quiet. Viper and his brothers remained alongside Lodge, Corporal, Toby, and Luna.
“We break into small groups. Surround the perimeter as soon as we greet our first team,” Corporal said.
Luna looked at her cell phone.
“They know we’re here. Avi is by the building still. Looks like she found a great spot to bust into.”
“We’ll go meet her. Send us the location,” Viper said, and Luna gave them the location.
“We take the front, the rest the sides and back. Let’s split up into equal groups. Ready?” Corporal asked, and that was it. They headed out.
Viper, Bider, and Scor slowly made their way toward the building and a side door with bushes and trees that hid Avi. He could barely make her out—she was petite, hair pulled back in a baseball cap, and as he got closer, he stopped, inhaled, and felt his wolf stir.
“Viper. Oh fuck, seriously?” Scor whispered, but Bider got to her, grabbed her tight, and pulled her into hiding. He inhaled against her neck, and she grabbed onto his jacket.
“By the gods, no way,” she whispered.
“Fucking seriously? Now?” Viper said but stared at her. At the beauty of their mate. Big brown eyes, long dirty-blonde hair, petite, too. She was a pixie, he thought. Their breathing grew rapid, and he thought of tasting her and kissing her and claiming her, but then came the voice, the command through his ear mic.
“Let me know when you’re in position, and we’ll raid the place,” Corporal said to them.
Viper pulled her against the wall, cupped her cheek, and inhaled.
“I don’t want you in there. Don’t disappear on us either. Your friends have the habit of denying their mates when they meet.”
She shook her head. “I’m not denying anything, but I have a job to do, too, Alpha,” she whispered, but her voice cracked. She was trying to be tough, but he felt she knew that he was superior.
He had a thousand questions for her. Who was she? What pack did she belong to? What was she doing here? But then came the order. He gripped her hip. “Be safe.”
“You, too,” she replied, and then they moved into position with her between Scor and Bider as Viper kicked the door open and initiated the beginning of the raid.
* * * *
Avi was in shock. Somehow, she moved into position and began to fire her weapon and then fight against the evil soldiers holding prisoners against their will. She could decipher friend from foe as more members of Saint pack, Keuric pack, and even soldiers from the group Luna was part of fought their way through the place.
As she separated from them and searched an additional hallway with Luna and Gathin, men came out of the doorways and back entrance and attacked. She turned when Gathin yelled for them to run, and as she ran with Luna, she glanced back behind her. Someone grabbed her arm and yanked her hard. She fell onto the floor, a needle stuck into her neck, and everything went dark.
* * * *
Luna fired her weapon several times and was preparing to shift when Gathin told her there was help needed upstairs. She looked to the large room behind her and the fights between wolves, including her men, before Gathin yelled to her again. She ran up the stairs, prepared for whatever the scene would be, and as she kicked open the door, there was a whole other floor filled with cages. Wolves from Merker pack were banging on them, trying to get free and to fight against their attackers. She drew her weapon and began to fire at the wolves coming to stop her. When she was done, she reached for the keys and began to unlock the cages. The others who were free helped, and then they all ran from the room. “Keuric and Saint packs are helping you to escape. Fight with them!” she yelled. She was pulled into the crowd of wolves, women, children, and men. She grabbed onto one child who fell so he wouldn’t be trampled, and the mother held a baby in her arms and gripped onto Luna’s waist. Luna locked gazes with Gathin as they came to the bottom floor, pushed through the exit door, and ran into the darkness of the night and the woods. Some shifted to their wolf forms. Others were too weak and hurried along. She handed the other child to its mother when she heard a cry for help.
Luna ran through the trees. She heard the roar too late and tumbled to the ground, got slammed onto her back. A strike to her face sent blood from her split lip. It happened so fast. The blows to her body, the stick of a needle to her neck. She roared and her eyes landed on the half-shifted wolf above her. Ruko. No! By the gods, no!
Luna! Luna! In her head she heard Toby’s voice, then Corporal’s and Lodge’s.
She begged her mind to let them hear her. “The woods. Rucko, Costaldo’s soldier, struck me with a needle. I’m losing focus. Help.” Rucko struck her again and again, and her body went weak. She could barely strike back as he lifted her up and threw her onto his shoulder as if she weighed nothing at all. His hand on her ass, he carried her away. The darkness of the woods was the last sight she saw before she blacked out.
“Where is she? Where the hell is she?” Corporal yelled as he, Toby, Lodge, and other soldiers l
ooked for Luna.
“I can smell her scent and that of Goshey pack,” Toby said. He bent down to the forest floor. He swiped his finger along the ground, and Corporal saw the blood on his finger. Toby inhaled. “Luna’s. She’s hurt and bleeding.”
“They die. Get everyone on top of this now. Our mate has been taken.”
“She was in my sights only moments before. It was that stampede of people. The Merker pack that were freed. Luna was right there with them, carrying a child, and then we were attacked and fighting off more men. I failed her,” Gathin stated and ran his fingers through his hair.
“We failed her. We never should have let her out of our sights. Costaldo Goshey is going to die, and so are the men who took our mate,” Toby stated.
“Avi? Have any of you seen Avi?” Viper asked, looking angry and frantic.
“No, she went toward the basement with the others when a set of rogues attacked us in the hallway leading to the stairs. She and Luna were separated,” Loot stated.
“Fuck. Scor saw and smelled her blood on the floor in one of the rooms, as well as a used syringe on the floor,” Bider said.
“They must have taken Avi, too. Maybe they’re together,” Corporal said.
“No, it wasn’t Goshey pack we smelled. It was rogue, mixed with an unknown pack,” Bider said.
“An unknown pack. Could it be someone connected to the one causing all this mess and massacre of were packs?” Lodge asked.
“It’s something to look into. We’ll organize teams to search. I want everyone on top of this. We must find Luna. Her life is in danger, and the future of her pack and ours, as well,” Corporal stated.
“Avi is our mate, Corporal,” Viper said, shocking everyone.
“When?” Lodge asked.
“Tonight, as we met her outside of the side entrance,” Scor told them. Corporal was angry and growing angrier at the second.
“Find your mate. Grab whatever you need,” Corporal said to them, and they nodded and then headed off.
“We must find out where they took Luna,” Lodge said.
“If it’s Costaldo Goshey, then he would be in Italy. That’s where they’re going to take her. To him,” Ronan said.
“We can’t let them get that far. We need to move and now.” Toby started dishing out orders as to who would do what, but Corporal thought about Luna and how she spoke to them through a link he didn’t realize they shared. Had she heard them that night when they spoke about her effect on them, and how much they instantly cared? She had still been holding back on her emotions and the true connection they felt. Then when she was in danger, a danger she never should have been in, she called to them, through their connection that only true mates could share.
“If you can hear me, mate, we’re coming for you. We will find you and end this once and for all.”
* * * *
“This is just our luck. Get smacked in the face right outside the door to a mission and meet our mate, only for her to be abducted by some rogue asshole wolves,” Scor said to Viper as they stood in the woods without a clue or a lead to who took Avi or where.
“You realize that we’re suffering like those wolves we’ve had to help and watch suffer all these years, due to some group destroying the rules and regulations of weres everywhere. We’re in the middle of the shit here. Our mate was taken from us, just as Luna was taken from our cousins, and I want to know why her?” Viper asked.
“We’ll figure it out. Let’s talk to her friends and to whomever can assist us. Without any leads, I’m afraid all we can do is sit and wait and hope that she’s with Luna,” Bider added.
“Bider.”
They turned around and saw Puello and Ross. They were being followed by two other women and a few men.
“Avi, is it true that she has been taken?” Puello asked him.
He nodded and then looked at his brothers.
“No, this can’t be happening. She’s done so much for Keuric and Saint packs,” the other woman said.
“These are her friends, Loki and Alusia. They were the ones who discovered this place with Avi and their friend Kurtis,” Ross said. Viper, Bider, and Scor looked them over.
“What was her role in all of this? Where does she come from? Who is her pack? Does she have family? How long has she lived in Texas, or doesn’t she?” Viper asked. Her friends scrunched their eyes at him.
“She’s our mate. We realized tonight when we met her for the first time,” Viper said.
“By the gods, this is crazy,” Alusia stated.
Loki bowed her head. “Alphas, we all serve Saint and Keuric packs along with Avi. We don’t belong to any packs. Our families were destroyed over the years and split up into Knoll and Shay packs. We chose not to follow. Our job, issued by the Circle, was to protect and watch over Alexandra. Avi was to assist with locating the abducted wolves and their families to help reunite them. She works with Alyssa to pursue this. Tonight she came across this building and called it in. She risked her life to go inside first to do recon,” Alusia told them.
“Does she have enemies, any packs wanting to hurt her or kill her?” Scor asked.
“Alpha, she is a warrior fighting and killing rogues. Surely her enemies match yours and your cousins’. We are all protectors of Keuric pack and Saint pack.”
“Without any leads, or even any hunches as to who is responsible for all this terror and destruction of were packs, we’ve got nothing to go by. Our mate is gone, and we don’t have a clue as to where we can start looking for her,” he said to them.
“The only place would be with Luna. Perhaps they were both taken and are together,” Kurtis suggested.
Bider looked at his brothers. “We don’t have much choice. Let’s go with them to fight to save their mate and hope that Avi is with Luna, or we lost our mate before we even had the chance to get to know her.”
Chapter Eight
Costaldo stared at her battered body. At first he was so angry to see what Ruko had done to her, but he understood that the wolf needed to seek his revenge for her killing Rucko’s brother, Lurke. She moaned in her sleep—she wouldn’t be able to shift to heal or to fight any of them, thanks to Delia. He eased his palm along her almost fully naked body. A body he knew would be fit for a king, with curves in all the right places. Abundant breasts poured from the white lace top. Her panties, thin, barely covering her pussy, enticed his wolf to take a taste, and her skin was unmarked except for the bruising and those damn bites. He was too late in being her first lover ever. The sight of the bite marks on her shoulder indicating she was mated to the three Keuric pack Alphas made him see red. They would never see her again. Their time together was short and the mating process incomplete, so perhaps Delia was right and there was still time to stop it.
“She will be yours, Costaldo. There is time, and with these sedatives, and with the poison running through her veins from the spell I put on her, she will not succeed in fighting being mated to you. Do as I say. Give her only a short period of time to heal from the bruising, and then take from her body. Fill her with your seed. Impregnate her with child, and there’ll be no returning her to Keuric pack. She will have to remain as your mate, as you’ll be the father of her child. She will put her loyalty to the way of the wolf first and foremost,” Delia said to him, and then closed up her purple velvet purse of potions and other things and left him alone with Luna.
The sound of her slow breathing, with a quiet moan here and there, made him continue to watch her. He would learn every inch of this body. She was finally here, in his bed, in his possession, and nothing would stand in the way of completing this bonding and securing the power over Luna and all of Limorte pack.
“My precious Luna. I’ve made some mistakes along the way and should have taken you sooner, but didn’t. I’ll make up for that now. You’ll learn your place quickly, and the people will honor us as their leaders of Limorte pack.”
* * * *
Luna heard what Costaldo was saying. She also heard the witc
h’s advice and felt the poison, the control over her body and mind the witch now had. Could she read her thoughts? Could the witch stop Luna from asking for help? She wondered as she listened to Costaldo express his desires for her, as well as his plans. So he had been at this for quite some time. Was there a way to defeat him and to find out where her mother and brother were if they were alive?
When she felt his mouth on her neck, she tightened. “Ah, so you are awake and just pretending, mate,” he said to her. She’d been busted. Couldn’t pretend to be unconscious any longer. She blinked her eyes open. He licked his lips.
“Luna,” he said to her. The room spun. Her head rolled to the side, and she moaned.
“I don’t feel right,” she whispered.
“You’ll get used to it, mate,” he said, cupping her cheeks and tilting her face up toward him. Those dark eyes, that black hair with a dusting of gray. An expression of pleasure and satisfaction filled his face. “Too long, Luna. It’s been too long,” he said and lowered to press his lips to hers.
He took her lips, plunged his tongue into her mouth, and she couldn’t stop him. She felt his hand slide to her breast and cup the mound, and when she went to move, she couldn’t. Her body like cement was stuck to the bed. Tears instantly flowed from her eyes. He must have tasted the salty essence, because he released her lips, scrunched his eyes together, and stared at her.
“I can’t move,” she whispered, and fought not to sob.
“Ahh, for good reason. I can’t have you shifting and causing more trouble. Until I know that you accept your destiny here with me, I will keep your body restrained. Don’t worry. You won’t need to do much but just lie there as I make you completely mine.”
“No. No, I don’t want this. I have mates already.”
“You don’t have any mates. That was in the past. That’s in the states. Here in Italy you have me, and together we will rule the Limorte pack.”
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