Wild and Free

by Kristen Ashley

  And in another quick change, her head jerked back and she cried, “You’re injured!”

  “I’ll heal quickly, pussycat,” he assured her.

  “But—”

  He curved a hand around her jaw, getting closer. “Promise. I’ll heal quickly.”

  She stared into his eyes, must have read the truth behind his promise, nodded, and again collapsed against him, burrowing her face deep in his chest.

  He held her as she wept in his arms, his throat feeling thick, and watched as Hook finally moved away from his friend, his throat convulsing. Hooker grabbed a bloodied tablecloth from an upended table and draped it over Snake.

  Abel’s throat felt thicker.

  “Abel, we must move.”

  He looked up and saw Yuri, covered in blood like the rest of them, looking down at him.

  “We’ve suffered a loss,” Abel told him, which he had to fucking know since the man was dead at his feet.

  “We’ll take the body with us,” Yuri stated. Delilah bucked in his arms at his words and Abel felt his eyes narrow as the snarl ground up his throat.

  “Careful,” he growled.

  A muscle jumped in Yuri’s cheek and he nodded.

  “We must move,” he said, his voice quieter. “We have physicians who can see to your family’s injuries. They’re well-equipped. But it isn’t safe here.”

  Abel glanced around at the carnage of headless vampires and wolves littering Jian-Li’s restaurant, then back to Yuri. “No shit?”

  “No shit,” Yuri returned stiltedly. “So as you can see, we must move.”

  “Your physicians get here and say my family can safely move, we’ll move. Until then, I got a doc comin’ and we’re stayin’ put until I know they’re good.”

  “This—” Yuri started.

  “He says we’re staying, we stay,” Callum entered the conversation. He was back to man, dressed, and moving with Sonia clamped tight to his front.

  “None of their injuries—” Yuri started but stopped when he reared back because Callum bared his teeth, snapped the air in Yuri’s direction, then clipped, “We stay.”

  “We stay, Yuri,” Gregor said, getting close, his go ’round with Lucien obviously over. He was looking down with disheartened eyes to Snake before he took in Delilah and Abel’s family and finally his attention came to Abel. “We have our people on the move. All of them. Including physicians who will be here imminently.” His voice went soft. “And rest assured, we will care for your fallen.”

  He felt Delilah move in his arms and looked down at her to see her wet, grief-stricken face turned up toward Gregor. The sight of it, the heavy weight of her emotion he felt bearing down on him, forced another uncontrollable snarl to roll up his throat.

  He had no idea what she would say, but when she whispered, “Thank you,” that was a surprise. She then looked to him. “I’m okay now but need to go to Dad.” She drew in breath and her fingers tightened in his shirt. “Please let me go to him, honey.”

  He nodded and didn’t hesitate in giving her what she needed. He pulled her up to her feet, bent, and touched his lips to hers. Then he let her go.

  She moved to her father.

  Gregor got closer but stopped when Abel cut his eyes from his mate to the vampire.

  “The Vampire Dominion has a compound about two hundred miles south of here,” Gregor told him. “Considering what’s been happening, it’s been prepared for our occupation. It’s very safe, already guarded, and where we’ll be heading. Once your wounded have been seen to, you must pack what you need, including any weapons you wish to have, and do so in a way where you will be covered for a good deal of time as it’s doubtful we’ll be returning.”

  “You’re serious, right?” Abel asked sarcastically, not about to go any-fucking-where with this fucking guy.

  “Whatever happened that allowed this attack will not happen again,” Gregor assured him, though Abel was far from assured. “But we must get you and the other couples that make The Three to a safe place and do it as soon as possible.”

  Before he could reply, including asking what this fucking Three business was, he heard ambulances and turned his head to the door.

  “Our physicians,” Gregor murmured, and Abel looked back to him. “You must trust us.”

  “And I do that how?” Abel asked. “One of my mate’s family is dead on the fuckin’ floor.”

  “Don’t trust him, trust us,” Callum stated from his side, and Abel looked that way to see Callum still holding Sonia close. Lucien was now there and was also holding a freaked-way-the-fuck-out-looking Leah just as close.

  “It’s where we need to be,” Lucien added.

  Callum leaned toward Abel. “Feel it,” he said quietly. “Abel, you’re fortunate. I know. You have many brothers, as do I. But now, you have two more.”

  He’d already felt it, when he knew they knew this day was going to be a dark one.

  But he knew it more seeing how they held their women. There were men cut and bleeding, needing assistance, but those women, along with Abel’s, had been under threat, a threat that almost took them all.

  So they were not fucking letting go.

  Yeah, he had two more brothers.

  But he also had the ones he’d always had.

  He looked down at the floor to Chen, who Wei was now bending over, putting pressure on his wound with a big square of gauze.

  Chen read his gaze and nodded.

  His eyes moved to Xun, who was in a squat, working with Poncho on Jabber. Xun felt his eyes, lifted his, and nodded.

  “Wei,” Abel called.

  Wei looked up. “We go, brother.”

  Abel looked to Jian-Li, who was working on Moose’s arm, and saw her already looking to him and nodding.

  He finally turned to Hook, who looked uninjured but was still covered with blood and had both his arms wrapped tight around his daughter.

  “We get stitched up, they take care of Snake, and we get…the fuck…outta here,” Hook ground out.

  Only then did Abel turn his eyes to Gregor and declare, “Right. We go.”

  * * * * *

  Abel stood at the window watching the waves pound against the rock below the huge-fucking-ass fortress they’d brought them to.

  On the journey, he rode his bike with Delilah at his back, wishing it was in better circumstances that he had her there for a long road trip, but liking her there all the same.

  The others rode their bikes surrounding them. Chen’s and Jabber’s bikes were ridden by some humans Gregor had assigned to them, seeing as Chen and Jabber had been stabilized on the floor of Jian-Li’s dining room, then transferred to ambulances for what Gregor referred to as their “relocation.”

  Gregor assured him that they were having rooms made up with everything needed so the doctors could continue to care for the men when they arrived.

  Callum and Sonia, Lucien and Leah went back to the hotel to sort their shit, and his family sorted theirs. While they were doing this, a shitload of wolves descended, led by one who introduced himself to Abel as Ryon, cousin to Callum.

  Ryon held his gaze steady and had a scent that was similar to Callum’s, so Abel trusted him and allowed his family to move out while SUVs filled with a cleanup crew of wolves arrived to deal with the bodies.

  He’d also left behind his doc, who he’d mind-controlled. The man was on retainer should they need him and part of that retainer paid for his silence. But what he saw when he charged in and helped Gregor’s doctors with Jabber, no way he’d keep quiet.

  So Abel had quieted him.

  Once they moved out with their protective cavalcade of SUVs led by Ryon, they went to the hotel where they picked up the rest, then headed out to relocate.

  After he was certain the wounded were settled, Abel had left Delilah with her father and Jabber (Jian-Li, Wei, and Xun were in with Chen) and he asked the first person he saw where he could find Gregor.

  He’d been led to this room and told the vampire would “a
ttend him shortly.”

  So he waited at the window, but not patiently.

  The one good thing about this shit was that Gregor had not lied. They rode on a massive fucking compound, a building well back from the front gate and surrounded by a tall, brick fence you couldn’t get through unless you spoke to someone at the gatehouse which held three men (all vampires). At either side were structures that Abel could smell were filled with the same.

  There was also razor wire lining the upper inside of the fence so you couldn’t see it from the outside looking in, but you sure as fuck would catch it if you tried to scale that wall.

  The building itself was mammoth, a long, handsome, three-storied brick front with two wings jutting at wide angles back from its sides.

  Each of them was to have their own room and, he reckoned, half an army could be put up there. Which was what was happening. He sensed it being filled with those arriving, mostly vampires, some wolves.

  He was now in a room on the bottom floor at the far back of the north wing. It was the library, if the walls covered in shelved books was anything to go by.

  Abel sensed Gregor’s approach and turned from the view well before he walked through the door.

  Abel watched the vampire close it behind him, but the instant he turned toward Abel, Abel spoke.

  “You got a shitload of explaining to do.”

  Gregor lifted a hand, nodding and slowly moving into the room. “I understand, Abel. But I’ve requested Lucien and Callum come to us so we can finally share with you all that needs to be shared.”

  “My guess is they already know what those bitches were at the restaurant, so you can start with enlightening me on them while we wait,” he demanded.

  “Those…bitches?” Gregor asked, sounding confused.

  “The ones who formed out of thin air,” Abel explained.

  “Ah,” he murmured, moving further into the room, then stopping. “You mean the wraiths.”

  “The what?”

  “Wraiths,” Gregor repeated. “You see, there are more immortal beings beyond vampires and werewolves. There are wraiths, phantoms, golem, and The Wee.”

  Fabulous.

  “You obviously don’t know this,” Gregor started as he moved to a chest that had a bunch of glasses and finely cut stoppered bottles on it. “But their appearance today was most welcome.”

  “I do know it, seein’ as if they hadn’t shown, we’d all be dead,” Abel returned.

  “No,” Gregor said quietly, making the chest with the bottles but turning to Abel. “That’s not the entire reason. You see, until recently, we did not have their allegiance. They’ve since explained to me that this was withheld for the purpose of them being able to intervene in the likes of what happened today. Knowing plans were being made, plans that were to be carried out, they were paying lip service to our foes. This meant there was a trust established that allowed them to be in the know of things we were not, including their plans to attack today, en masse, after they’d dispatched my scout. Something they did within seconds of his making his all-clear call, giving them the opportunity to be on the move swiftly and take us by surprise.”

  “And they found him how?” Abel asked.

  Gregor shook his head, his expression turning profoundly unhappy. “I don’t know. He was a human. Ex-Special Forces. Exceptionally well-trained at what he did, he was almost like a phantom, except not immortal, so I’m surprised they discovered him.” The vampire turned to the chest, pulled out a stopper from one of the bottles, and poured himself a healthy dose of what Abel smelled was whiskey, doing this while talking. “He leaves behind a two-year-old son, a six-month-old daughter, and a wife he’s been with since high school.”

  Abel’s throat closed.

  Fuck.

  Gregor lifted the bottle Abel’s way. When Abel shook his head, the vampire topped the bottle, grabbed his glass, and turned back to Abel. “He’s a great loss,” he said, sounding like he meant it, before he took a sip of whiskey.

  “Your wraiths couldn’t save him?”

  “If they did, they would have exposed early where their allegiance lay and would not have been able to surprise our enemy, which allowed us to defeat them soundly and deliver to them a number of casualties. I haven’t been able to tell you this, but none of them escaped. The wraiths dispatched them all.”

  Finally, good news.

  “Right, so they couldn’t have given that aid before Snake got his throat torn out?” Abel pushed.

  Gregor’s focus intensified on him. “I understand your anger.”

  “Sorry, you don’t,” Abel bit out. “See, my mate clung tight to my back on my bike, her cheek to my shoulder, and she cried the whole fuckin’ way here. I felt it. I sensed it. I heard it. It’s good my instinct to keep her safe is strong or I woulda crashed that bike, seein’ as her grief cut me that deep. And I liked the guy. Didn’t know him that well, but I liked him mostly because he loved my woman in a way he was willing to die for her. And then he did.”

  “Whatever burial your mate’s people request, we will provide for him,” Gregor replied quietly.

  “That’s appreciated, but my point is, we gotta have a fuckin’ burial.”

  “Abel, we’re at war,” Gregor told him. “This happens. It’s hateful. But it happens.”

  He was not wrong.

  Abel let Snake go, since the man was dead and there was nothing he could do but help his woman and her people mourn him, and he asked, “You wanna explain this war?”

  “Perhaps I should get you that drink you refused while we wait and get into that when Lucien and Callum arrive.”

  “Respect, you’ve held up everything you’ve promised, including getting my people medical attention and bringing us to your fortress.” He threw out a hand. “But I got an injured brother. My woman has a member of her family down too, and she’s fucked up with grief. I need to get to her and not do it after waitin’ for Lucien and Callum to get here.”

  Abel was grateful Gregor immediately inclined his head.

  “Then we’ll begin.”

  And then the asshole began, spouting shit about mates destined not only for each other, but to save humanity from enslavement by the evil supernaturals, who had, for centuries, been wanting to make their play and were now preparing to do that.

  The mates, known as The Sacred Triumvirate, or The Three, specifically three couples who have eloquent understanding of both supernatural and human existence, being prophesied to engage in what was called The Nobel War and save the world.

  Or die fucking trying.

  It took a lot more words for the vampire to share this with Abel, but that was the gist.

  When he was done, Abel snarled, “Are you fuckin’ kidding me?”

  “As I raised Sonia from a child, I love her as my own, and she is as vulnerable to these Prophesies as you and your mate, I wish I were. But I’m not,” Gregor replied.

  He knew both Lucien and Callum were approaching, but that didn’t stop him from stating, “This is totally fucking whacked.”

  “That cannot be argued. But it’s still true,” Gregor told him.

  Jesus.

  “There’s more you need to know,” Gregor kept going. “such as the dreams.” Abel’s body got tight at that, but Gregor didn’t stop. “And added abilities. For instance, today we were outnumbered, my guess, ten to one, and the reason we weren’t bested swiftly is not only because you wisely trained your brothers to handle themselves against the additional speed and strength they’d be facing. Nor was it because Lucien and Callum are both experienced and exceptionally skilled. But because you, as Lucien is, as Callum is, are uncommonly gifted in battle.”

  Abel said nothing.

  Gregor did, guessing, “You trained your brothers because you knew this day would come.”

  “Dreams,” Abel grunted as the door opened and Lucien, followed by Callum, came through.

  They said nothing, but Abel tilted his chin up to them as he caught their eyes.

>   They moved into the room, Lucien looking his way even as he went to an armchair and sat his ass in it, Callum dipping his chin as he moved toward the couch but didn’t sit. Instead, he leaned against it.

  As they settled in, Gregor asked, “Does Delilah dream?”

  “Yeah,” Abel answered.

  “Yours are premonitory,” Gregor noted.

  “Dreamed today. Not the outcome, but dreamed it happened, felt we were gonna lose. Didn’t dream about us getting help,” Abel told him.

  Gregor nodded and Abel had to give it to the guy. His expression shared he got that having that dream really wasn’t all fun and games and living with sensing it might come real was worse.

  Then he prompted, “Delilah’s dreams?”

  “Said she never dreamed anything that happened, but they’ve been frequent since we got together and they fuck her up.”

  “Fuck her up how?” Lucien asked sharply.

  “Get hold of her. Know one was good from the noises she was making, real good,” he said and knew Lucien got him from the vampire’s lip twitch. “Another, not so good, took hold. I couldn’t wake her. She eventually woke, but it was her comin’ out of it, not me making her do it.”

  Lucien’s lips quit twitching as his mouth got tight.

  “Does she recall them?” Gregor asked.

  “No,” Abel answered and looked to Lucien. “Leah?”

  “The same,” he said on a curt nod. “Be vigilant, Abel. Leah’s dreams took such hold, they nearly killed her.”

  “Fuck,” Abel hissed and turned his gaze to Callum. “Sonia?”

  “She had dreams, but they were only the good kind,” Callum told him.

  “Lucky you,” Abel muttered.

  “Don’t allow Delilah to sleep without you close,” Lucien advised, and Abel turned his attention back to him. “My connection with her was the only thing that could keep Leah safe from her dreams.”

  “And you know that’ll work for Delilah, if this same shit is happening to her?” Abel asked.

  Lucien shook his head.

  “With certainty, no. But I would strongly advise taking that precaution.”