“What happened then?” River asked.
“He found them and killed them himself, before we could learn too much, but it was too late. We had discovered that if you take a babe’s mother then the child has no anchor to that part of him. It is the only way to kill that side. Give the child the shot and let that part of him die. Then we have a new blood source. We anchor the child to us and we have a lion with new blood.”
“You realize that you don’t. Lion has lion, gives you lion… doesn’t give a new line. It waters it down.” Books explained.
“No, but it dilutes it, mixes it.” She explained. “It lengthens the line.”
“So, Line’s daddy decided he’d rather kill his offspring rather than protect them?” Ricky scowled.
“It was easier than killing his Pride. The problem was, he was stolen away from us.” She shrugged. “We had to search for him, but by then he had bonded to an aunt and his wolf was strong, his lion was almost nonexistent. We allowed his father to find them, but somehow the boy survived. Now we need him. he is valuable. Fate smiled on us.”
“You people are sick.” Pie spat.
She looked up at him with hurt in her eyes.
Pie walked out, and the door slammed behind him. In a moment they heard the mournful sound of two wolves in song for their lost brother. Harmony felt for Pie. He’d been sent to protect Line and now he was in danger. It was hard for him to take. It was hard on all of them.
“Tell us how to find Line.” River commanded, and Harmony winced at the power in his voice, but the woman looked sick.
“I... I can’t...I can’t say anything more…” there was a stain on her face and she broke out in a cold sweat that coated her face. “I can’t understand it, I... I just can’t.”
She looked so confused by it that Harmony almost felt sorry for her. Her golden eyes stared toward the door as if she would give anything to escape.
What must it be like not to own your own will?
“We will find you and cut out your heart. The bond will be broken. You will never be safe.”
“Get her out of here.” River demanded.
“It won’t matter. They are coming.”
The woman’s eyes rolled back in her head and she slumped to the floor. No one tried to catch her. Her head bounced and made a sickening thump.
The howls from outside changed and River looked toward Harmony.
“Get her the fuck out of here.” River roared.
Harmony was bustled back into Creed’s truck and this time Pie, Books, and Dice followed her along with several men she didn’t know. Something was wrong. She was in danger. Pie and Books paced, their big paws kicking up dust as they protected Harmony from the threat of whatever was coming.
Something huge landed in the bed of the truck and she turned to see Lucian’s sleek tiger pacing the small space.
“Get the fuck out of my truck!” Creed yelled and was rewarded with a hiss from the monster in the bed of his truck.
“Hold on sweet cheeks. We gotta get your ass somewhere safe. How would you like to spend some quality time at the Full Moon?”
She saw them then, eyes.
“Fucking lions. I hate these bastards.” Creed didn’t slow even when a big golden body stood in the road. He slammed into it and she heard a sickening crunch when the truck bounced over it. She looked back and watched the Howlers firing shot after shot into the blackness that surrounded them, but they couldn’t fight them, not like this. Pie and Books ran beside the truck. She marveled at their speed, their long legs eating up the ground as they guarded her.
Her heart pounded. These men were risking their lives to keep her safe, why would they do that?
Creed looked grim.
“You matter to Line, so you matter to all of us. It’s that simple. It’s family.” Creed said with only a glance in her direction.
Lucian roared from the bed of the truck and Harmony heard his claws ripping into the roof as he climbed on top. In a flash he leapt over the hood and crashed into a mass of golden haired lions.
“Fucker scratched my truck!” Creed shouted, but she knew he was worried less about the truck than surviving.
“What’s happening?” she asked, panicked.
“The little bitch led them right to us and River’s stupid ass brought you right in there like a fucking idiot.”
“I don’t understand.” She was so tired. She felt like she was being dragged under water.
“It was a trap.”
“What’s going on out there?” She searched the night franticly.
“War sweetheart. That’s what’s happening. The lions just declared war on the Howlers and anyone who is allied with them.
“What are we doing?” She wanted to fight. She wanted to do anything to help.
“We are losing sweetheart.” He smiled sadly, but he wasn’t giving up. He swerved and drove faster, but he knew they were losing.
The lions were powerful, and they had more money than any other species. If they were banding together to fight a war, no one would survive.
10
Line forced his eyes open. Everything hurt.
He was chained by his wrists and his toes barely touched the blood-soaked stone floor of his prison.
He’d been moved, the air smelled different here, less musty. He was in their home.
It made rage burn in his belly.
They were so sure they could break him that they had brought him home.
But they weren’t wrong.
He was close to breaking. Only the warmth in his chest kept his heart beating and there were days he almost cursed it.
Death would be such a sweet release, but his heart wouldn’t stop beating so he suffered on.
He was naked, save for a filthy cloth that was tied at his hip and his torturer stood only a few feet away from him, her golden hair perfectly styled and her dress spotless.
“Is he weakening?” Her voice was sharp.
“No. There has been no change. The dog will not let go.”
Her jaw hardened, and Line forced a grim smile.
“How do you like failing bitch? Pussy can’t beat wolf. Just won’t happen.”
She grabbed a riding crop from the table and hit him.
“It has happened, several times. Do you know how I know? I killed them. I killed the mothers and injected the little babies and watched the wolves die.”
She hit him until it no longer hurt, until he no longer cared.
“Find me that bitch!” She screamed and for the first time Line felt fear, not for himself, but for Harmony.
“We tried my queen, but she escaped. She is protected. The whole damned pack protects her and the coyotes too.”
She turned the whip on her servants and hit them until they whimpered.
“Find her. Find a way.” She screamed.
“She is hidden with that coyote bastard. The caves. We cannot get through.”
“There are monsters in those caves, monsters with Lion blood. Find one. Bring me one. I only need one to get to her. Find. A. Way!”
“Line fought his bonds. He had to get free, but he was weak.”
Harmony! They are coming for you. He screamed in his head, but he didn’t know if she heard him. He was so weak he could barely feel her anymore, barely remember the curves of her face.
I can save her.
The words whispered across his mind like a spider crawling through his brain.
He refused in revulsion. He would never agree to allowing that creature to take his body again. It had betrayed him.
I can save her.
It whispered again. Line screamed and wanted to claw at his brain. It repeated it over and over until he begged his torturer to kill him.
Light streamed through the windows followed by darkness and light again and still he could not fall into blissful darkness. Nothing worked.
The woman came back to him and stood. She held something in her hands, but his vision was to blurry to see it.
; “Can you see her?” Her voice was smooth and satisfied.
Fear slammed into him.
Her
Harmony.
He blinked and tried to focus, but the image was blurry. He struggled to see until she came into focus.
She stood on the hill above the caves in a white dress, the wind in her hair and she looked so sad.
His heart broke.
“This was taken last night.” The woman stepped closer. “Just before we took her.”
The woman laughed as Line fought the bonds that held him.
This time darkness did take him, and despair was a companion.
She was gone.
His wolf went silent.
There was nothing left for him.
I am here. Come home to me.
The words caressed his tortured mind. He reached for her and felt his heart warm as she spoke to him.
Come home.
“I can’t.” He wept.
You can. You can. Come home.
He felt a surge of strength and his teeth ached.
“No!” He screamed. He would never submit to that creature.
I can save her.
“Nothing can save her.”
She isn’t gone. I feel her. We can save her. Our mate.
Line gave up. Nothing mattered more than saving Harmony. He felt the pressure on his wrists as they expanded in the cuffs that held him. He felt them give and he fell to the floor, unable to hold himself.
Power surged within him as his massive loin shook himself. He was free.
He threw himself at the doors. Again, and again he threw his massive body against the cell door, but it didn’t give. He heard voices and saw the barrel of the gun in time to avoid the dart that would have knocked him out. If they caught him again he would never be given another chance to escape them.
“Get him under control!” The woman screamed.
Line looked around. The walls were reinforced. The door solid steel, but there were windows. He jumped and pulled himself to the high windows. They were small, but nothing would hold him. He needed out and he needed his mate.
Glass cut into his battered hide, but he forced himself through the window. Lions crowded around him, massive males, and cunning females, all ready to take him down if he made a wrong move.
“Take him, but don’t kill him!” Kirisima screamed.
One male stepped forward and Line fought him. Then another and another until he lost count, lost strength, but he fought. Harmony’s bond burned in his chest as he fought. It was automatic now. He wasn’t thinking, just killing.
He heard a howl...he thought...no... couldn’t be. His wolf was dead, and his pack couldn’t find him.
His legs shook. He swatted another lion, but the force of the attack took him to the ground.
He lay there in the blood-soaked dirt and waited for her to come to him, gloat over her power, but she didn’t come.
He heard a familiar voice, but it was all in his head.
Damn, you are one fucked up son of a bitch. If that fucking lion wags his tail I am giving up.
Line let out a laugh. His head was a screwed-up place if his last thought was of Dice, but it was better than the lions. He loved Dice, his brother, family he had chosen years ago.
Dice was family. Peace. Death was peace.
11
Harmony looked down at the man who lay so motionless on the white sheets. He was so thin and pale. How could this be the man who had left her only a few months earlier?
She ran her fingers over his tortured skin.
“Oh Line. come back to me.” She whispered. She had whispered it over and over for what seemed like weeks, but there had been no change.
“You need rest.” Creed said from the doorway.
“I can’t leave him. I can’t.”
“You need to eat.” He persisted.
“I’m not hungry.” She shot him a look telling him she was tired of his interference.
He ignored her.
“You can’t help him if you’re weak. You need to eat.” He tried.
She rolled her eyes.
She was exhausted, but she couldn’t leave him. She was afraid to take her eyes off of him. She was afraid it was a dream and if she looked away he would disappear like a ghost.
“He isn’t going anywhere.” River said from behind her.
“He looks so frail.” She whispered, unwilling to admit it to anyone else.
“He has a long road. Lots of shit in his head to deal with. Shit I didn’t even know could happen.” River admitted.
“Will he be alright River? Will everything be alright?” Her voice broke.
“That’s up to him, but he’s fought a hard fight to get back. I don’t see him giving up now that he’s here.”
Her heart beat painfully.
“I can’t lose him.” She whispered.
She looked down at her hand where it rested on Line’s. His fingers tightened.
“I’m not going anywhere sweetheart.” He croaked.
Harmony covered her mouth and sobbed.
“You kept me strong.” He said with pride.
“You have to get better.” She whispered.
“Whatever that means.” He was trying to make light of it, but she saw the pain in his face.
“Harmony, I need to talk to him alone.” River said, and she saw the pain in his face and it mirrored Clothesline’s. He was taking some of the pain on himself, so he could talk to the man she loved, so she could.
She didn’t know how she left the room or made the walk down the hall, but she found herself sitting in a chair on the front porch of Line’s house.
“They will never stop.”
Harmony’s eyes jerked to the mousy woman she’d seen the night the lions attacked. She was too tired to move, but there was no fear in her, nothing this woman could really do to her. She felt nothing but rage at what these people had done to the man she loved.
She looked down at her knuckles as they turned white on the chair arms. She wanted to rip this woman apart.
“Get away from me.” She gritted out.
“I won’t hurt you. My name is…”
“I don’t give a damn what your name is. If you come near me, I’ll rip your throat out.” Harmony vowed, and she looked the woman in the eyes to make sure she knew it.
“That would be difficult for you.” The woman said simply, but she was watching Harmony with caution.
“Not as difficult as you think.” Harmony gritted out.
“They will wait until a child is born. Then they will kill you to sever the bond it has with you. Then they will take it and study it.”
Harmony felt her stomach pitch.
“How can you say such things about a child. Have you no soul at all?” Harmony panted as she tried not to throw up at the thought of such a horrible fate.
The woman looked confused. “I was only telling you what they will do. I thought you would like to know. I can’t always tell the things I know. I don’t always feel strong enough. I’m sorry… I thought…”
Tears leaked down her face and she looked like a lost child.
Harmony tried to calm her nerves.
“I don’t understand why you are telling me.” She said.
“So, you can try to stop them. Don’t have any children.” The woman said in a broken voice. “It is a horrible thing. They kill the poor animal inside them and it is always the dominant one. What is left is a submissive and weak thing. They hate them, treat them like slaves…” She met Harmony’s eyes. “It is no life.”
“I am not a shifter. I have no animal.” Harmony said calmly.
“It will not matter. They will still take it. The child of a hybrid and a mixed shifter. I’m not sure it has ever happened or even is possible, but if it is...you can’t do that to a child. It is a horrible life.”
“It happened to you.”
The realization slammed into Harmony. This woman wasn’t gloating, she was giving Harmony a warnin
g, but she’d been so abused that she didn’t really know how to talk to anyone.
The woman’s hands shook so she gripped them in her lap.
“Your man is a lost cause, I’m sure they know that by now. They will kill him if they can, but they will want to wait and watch, see if you will breed.” She gripped her head and screamed in pain as tears streamed down her face. She fell to the porch floor and writhed.
“Run.” she panted. “Run...she is forcing me…”
Harmony didn’t know what to do. She bolted for the door and slammed it as she heard the woman’s clothes rip from her body. Something strong slammed against the door and Harmony screamed.
There were curses behind her and Pie ran out the back door. His wolf hit the ground running and skidded around the house.
There were sounds of battle, but in only seconds, there was nothing and then weeping.
Pie’s wolf paced the yard. He wouldn’t let the woman leave and wouldn’t let anyone approach her. She sat on the floor of the porch, naked and weeping.
It broke Harmony’s heart.
She silently walked into the room she shared with Line and pulled clothes from the drawer and slipped them through the front door.
Pie’s lip lifted in a snarl, but he didn’t come closer.
“Take these.” She said and looked at the woman’s tear streaked face.
“Thank you.”
“What is your name?”
“Nora. I am Nora.” She whispered. “Why are you doing this for me?”
“Probably because she’s tired of looking at your tits. She’s crazy.” Creed sat on the roof of his truck. It was scarred and battered, but he still loved it like a child.
“For heaven’s sake Creed, shut up.” Harmony rolled her eyes. “My name is Harmony. I am Line’s mate. I don’t understand what is going on, but I don’t think you want to hurt anyone.”
“I don’t. She gets in my head… I can’t fight her.” Nora whimpered.
“Looks like you have a bond of your own to break.” Harmony said and closed the door.
She watched out the window as Pie paced.
“You come at me and I’ll make a keychain out of your tiny dick.” Creed shouted as he hopped off his truck and jogged around the house to let himself in.
Harmony sighed. Line was home, but the trouble seemed to be worse than ever. Would she ever be safe and free?
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