“Done. Shall we?”
“Take out the males, first. Then round up the females and children. We can sort them out and give them options.”
Aodhan worked silently along with his cousin. When they were finished, sixteen male wolves—including the three guards Aodhan had already dispatched—were either dead or unconscious on the ground. Aodhan bound the surviving males quickly before they awoke. He’d hate to have to kill them if it was unnecessary.
These wolves were young, either newly bitten or under thirty. All of them. Someone was creating a pack through unconventional and unethical means. Lupoiux did not just go around biting others to form a pack. It was far from the Lupoiux way, was incredibly risky, as not all bitten turned, and was exceedingly dangerous as the newly turned were always harder to control.
These wolflings presented no challenge for the two far older warriors. Even though they were of an age with Mallory’s twin, Rand was far more dangerous. Aodhan wondered at the difference. One thing was clear—Matthuin could have escaped easily if he had not been hampered by his female’s presence.
Many of the females and children were crying, frightened of the two dark shadows among them.
Most Lupoiux females could not change into wolf form, but Aodhan did not assume that none of these women could. It was entirely possible that one or two would if they felt threatened enough. “Matthuin, if you are going to offer protection and shelter, now is the time to do it. Your female and mine aren’t all that far away, and there are still the fourteen wolves missing from this pack.”
“These women here. Bind them.” Matthuin indicated the females who were much better dressed than the rest. “Leave them lying in the dirt where they belong.”
Aodhan did, then looked at the females huddled together with their children. “Hello, I am Aodhan Adrastos, High Warrior from Dardanos. We would like to offer you and your children asylum within our family walls until you can decide your futures. Whatever you choose, you have our vow of safety. No male will ever harm you in our keeping. And we have healers who can help those of you who need it.”
The females and their wide-eyed pups were mostly silent, some nodding. One stepped forward and spoke. “We gladly and thankfully take you up on that offer. But how? We have small pups who cannot travel far in the dark and cold.”
“We are not far from transportation. Maybe a fifteen-minute walk. Gather what things you can carry, and we shall begin. Please keep your pups as silent as possible to avoid drawing any more attention our way.”
Aodhan gave them ten minutes, then he started off into the woods. Matthuin took up the rear position, carrying a small boy of about three in his own arms.
They moved quickly.
Aodhan’s skin prickled. Something was telling him his female needed him and quickly.
50
Mallory made it ten minutes away before she had cell signal on the new phone Aodhan had given her.
She called Rand.
He ordered her not to turn around. Ordered her to drive straight to him. Had it not been for the unconscious girl in the seat beside her, Mallory would have ignored his edict and gone back for her vampire and her sister. Instead, she pulled the vehicle to the side of the road to wait for him.
And to study the girl.
She had hair the same blond as Joselyn’s, but it curled more like Jade’s or Cassandra’s. She certainly looked like Jade and Joselyn and most of the female Tanisses. She wasn’t as old as Mallory had first thought. She was most likely younger than Becca, possibly still a teenager, though it was hard to tell under the dirt. She was built like Mickey, slender and delicate. This girl resembled Jade and Mickey a great deal. There was dried blood under her ragged nails.
Mallory ruthlessly pushed down the nausea when the fear that the girl had been raped hit her. The clothes were intact. The jeans were dirty but not torn. But that didn’t mean much.
Mallory forced herself to raise the girl’s filthy sweatshirt slightly. No finger-shaped bruises marred the girl’s stomach. And she wore a bra. A clean one—at least, one not stained with dirt or blood.
Some of Mallory’s fears subsided. But she sat behind the wheel with one hand gripping the cell phone—and the gun Rand had made her put in the glovebox years ago.
The sky darkened around her, and that made it even worse as she waited.
Finally—and it was probably less than twenty minutes—she saw the headlights of half a dozen SUVs. Dardanos Resort was emblazoned across the sides. She opened the door and slammed it shut to keep Maury from escaping. He was as upset as she was and had taken to curling around the injured girl’s stomach. Mallory figured if she was in shock, the cat’s warmth would only help.
Cormac reached Mallory’s side first. She handed the gun to him without a second thought when he reached for it. She knew how to use it, but she didn’t have to like it. “You have to hurry. I’m not sure what’s happening. Aodhan sent me ahead and took my little sister with him.’’
“We got it, female. Tell me what happened.”
Mallory followed him back to his vehicle. He wasn’t going without her. She told him that when he tried to insist.
“We were driving back when I was flagged down by two women. One was my sister. The other was…well…I’m not sure who. Becca said she may be Joselyn and Jade’s sister. She’s been injured. Aodhan put her in the car and told me to get her to Dardanos. He and Becca, my sister, went into the woods to help his cousin Matthuin. Becca had been abducted or something by a pack of Lupoiux.” She hopped into the passenger seat of Cormac’s vehicle after ordering Tajic to the back. The wolf had just appeared out of nowhere and whined at her. “Hurry! You’ll see the van fifteen minutes that way!”
She didn’t even look back at her car. Barlaam had accompanied Cormac, and she knew he would take care of the girl Becca had rescued.
She said nothing as Cormac pushed the SUV over a hundred miles an hour, just yards behind the vehicle Rand drove. If anything, Mallory wished they’d go faster.
Her sister was out there. Her lover.
If something happened to them, him…
“Hurry. Please, hurry.”
“Rest assured, Aodhan and Matthuin can take care of themselves. They have done so for centuries. You do not need to worry.”
“If I don’t need to worry, why are you going twice the legal speed limit?”
Cormac laughed. “Just eager to catch some wolves. I need a new rug for your cousin’s office. And since your brother and uncle aren’t exactly obliging me…”
It took them half as much time to get back to the van as it had taken her to get away from it.
“There! There’s my sister!” Mallory pointed to Becca as Becca rounded the hood of the huge van.
51
The van was close, and Aodhan hoped his sister-in-law had gotten it warm enough. The temperature was dropping fast, and many of these wolf pups had little more than rags covering their undernourished bodies. Many were girls, but a few were males. The sons of the Redd Gothan pack, fathered on unwilling mothers? Poor little creatures, to have such a rough start in the world. Aodhan suppressed his rage when he thought of what many of these females had suffered.
When he remembered how his own female had suffered.
“How much farther?” the redheaded spokeswoman for the Lupoiux females asked, her words almost inaudible. She walked at Aodhan’s side, strong and courageous, another female’s babe in her arms. She too reminded him of his female. “These women have been through a lot. I want to get them safe.”
“You all have. The van is a mile that way, at most.”
“I haven’t been through as much as they have. I’ve just had to watch it. My brother is the current leader of this pack. I’ve not found my mate yet, thank the deities. If I had, they would have just killed him and given me to one of them. They did the same to my twin. She didn’t survive.” Her disgust was clear for him to hear. As was the grief. “They are animals, in the truest sense of the word. I need
your vow that you are not.”
“We are Dardaptoan. We value our females and our children. I can promise you that these souls will find safety and kindness among my people. I give you my word as the head of the House of Adrastos.”
“Why were you in these woods if you are a bloodsucker?”
“My female’s sister. She led me to you, and to her own mate, Matthuin.”
“The Taniss female?”
“Yes.”
“She survives, then.”
“Both do, yes. How did the one come to be with your brother’s pack? The blonde?”
“My brother has been offered a price of a quarter million dollars per Taniss female that he captures or kills. One hundred thousand per male.”
Aodhan couldn’t suppress the hiss that escaped. “Offered by whom?”
“I don’t know. Only my brother and a few of his top curs know. Rumor has it the Taniss family are the prime targets of half the Kinds because of the bounty. It’s a wonder any survive at all.”
A howl split the night, and a few of the females and children gasped. Aodhan shushed them quickly. He and Matthuin could handle fourteen male Lupoiux of the same caliber they’d found at the camp, but the dark and the females and children would hamper their fight. It was best not to risk it.
The girl wolf beside him had tensed as well. “That was my brother. He’s made it back to camp. Hunarr will find me; he always does.”
“Not this time,” a male voice came behind the group.
The girl beside him tensed, ready to flee. Aodhan wrapped a hand around her elbow. “Relax. This is my brother-in-law, Rand, alpha of the Taniss pack. He will not harm you.”
“Well, bloodsucker, you were supposed to take my sister on a harmless romantic picnic today. This is what you call harmless?”
“This is a walk in the park, dog. Where is your sister, and how is it you come to be here? I told her to go to you and stay put.”
“Well, Mallory rarely listens to direct orders. You may need to remember that for future reference. She does what she wants, period. Jareth and I heard you needed a bit of assistance. Rescuing, as it were. From a bunch of women and puppies? I thought better of the man who has vowed to keep my sister safe.”
“Not assistance, but if you were to take these babes and females, that would free me and my cousin Matthuin up for a bit of dog catching. They hurt my new young sister-in-law. I owe them something for that.”
“Your man, Lanze, can take them to the van where my sisters await. I have something to say to these puppies.”
Aodhan agreed. He heard the growl in his brother-in-law’s words. “So Lanze and Cormac are in the woods as well? There are fourteen Redd Gothan wolves in the woods somewhere. I’m not sure what they are doing.”
Cormac appeared at Aodhan’s side, dark and terrifying to the unsuspecting females who did not realize he was there. Aodhan hoped their surprised cries would not give their positions away. “Aodhan, I’ve dispatched two wolves. Naeron waits with your Rajni. And she is getting impatient. Reminds me much of her cousin.”
Phelan was a few steps behind Cormac. “I got one for my collection.” He held up something in the dark that Aodhan assumed to be a pelt. If a piece of skin was cut from a dying Lupoiux, it would turn into a pelt to match the wolf’s fur in life. Some wolf hunters liked to collect the pelts. Phelan was one of them. Phelan had lost a brother and sister-in-law to a Lupoiux attack over a hundred years ago.
“That leaves eleven, then. Come. We need to get back to Mallory and her sister. Seems there is a bounty on every Taniss head. Quarter of a million for the females. One hundred thousand for males.”
His brothers-in-law’s curses were low, but Aodhan had no difficulty hearing them and appreciating the sentiment. It was a blatant death threat against Mallory’s family. It had to be someone with a serious reason to hate all things Taniss.
There were plenty of Kinds with reason to hate the Taniss.
Finding which Kind they were dealing with was going to be the problem.
52
Cormac slowed the SUV to a stop. Mallory jumped out and rushed to her sister’s side, meeting her just as Rand scooped Becca into a hug.
“Becca! Where’s Aodhan? Where is he?”
“He was getting Matt. They’re bringing back all the women and kids that were being kept hostage by those Lupoiux.” Becca clung to Rand for a moment then pulled away. “He told me to start the van and get it warm. Where’s that girl?”
“She’s on her way back to the resort. She’s ok, safe. With Jade’s new…man. He’s taking her to Jade and Joselyn.”
Cormac and Rand and two other Dardaptoans Mallory knew were part of Aodhan’s security team had already disappeared into the woods. A third, Naeron, also one of Aodhan’s men stayed with Mallory, taking up a guarding position in front of her. Tajic stayed at her side, facing the darkness and growling.
“Equa Adrastos?” Naeron caught her attention quietly. He was Equan of his own House and one of Aodhan’s cousins.
“Yes, Naeron?” Mallory kept her arms around her sister as she watched the night around them, waiting for one single sign of Aodhan.
“Maybe you and your sister should get inside the van? The temperature is dropping, and Aodhan will have my head if I let you get the least bit chilled.”
Mallory understood what he wasn’t saying. It would be easier to defend the van in case something happened. But she wasn’t sure she could sit patiently waiting knowing Aodhan was out there somewhere. “We’re ok, Naeron.”
“Still, if your sister is a target of these wolves, they will be relentless in getting her back. Especially if she’s newly mated. They will be able to scent her from miles away.”
There was definitely more he wasn’t saying.
It hadn’t occurred to Mallory that her sister might have been with this Matthuin. But if he was Aodhan’s cousin, he should be Dardaptoan and not Lupoiux. “Becca, just what exactly is this Matthuin?”
It was Naeron who answered the question. “The Equan of the Lycurgus House is half Lupoiux, a quarter Dardaptoan, and a quarter Lothono Druid. He can shift into a wolf and can use quite a bit of the magical arts. He’s a very formidable warrior.”
“So if my sister’s been with him is she his Rajni or a Lupoiux mate? Becca did you sleep with this guy?”
“Mal! That’s private!”
She shot her sister a grin. Becca hadn’t been a virgin like the super-shy Mickey—she’d had a serious boyfriend a few years earlier—but she wasn’t exactly super experienced. And sex was one of the few things that did embarrass her. “You did.”
Naeron shifted, obviously uncomfortable with the question. “That is a question best answered by Equan Lycurgus, as I would only be guessing. I am not Lupoiux.”
Becca growled.
Mallory’s fangs lengthened.
The sound her sister had just made hadn’t been human.
Her sister turned toward the darkness and growled again.
Mallory’s hiss escaped before she could stop it.
53
Mallory took Naeron’s advice and climbed into the warm van. Becca slipped into the passenger seat. Naeron patrolled around the vehicle, Aodhan’s pet wolf moving in tandem with him. The moon was bright enough that Mallory could see Naeron’s shadow each time he passed by her window.
“So he abducted you?” Becca asked the question five minutes after Cormac and the others had taken off into the woods. “Why?”
“Because of Grandfather. He’s a real bastard, Bec. A murderer. He’s hurt a lot of people. Aodhan and the others were bent on revenge, but then he realized we were Rajnis.”
“So he abducted you and just kept you? And you let him?” Skepticism was loud and clear in Becca’s tone. “That doesn’t sound like you.”
“It was more complicated than that. They took Mickey, too. She’s pregnant, by the way. And Rand—he’s been a Lupoiux since we were eight. And now he’s gotten a female Dardaptoan pregnant.”
> “Well. It’s been a busy few weeks around here while I was tramping around the woods with a vampwolfruid.”
If her sister was Lupoiux, Becca could be pregnant now, too. Mallory wasn’t about to mention it. Not until she had more information. And if she was—that was something Becca and this Matt would have to deal with together.
“So why were you with this guy in the woods to begin with? Claudette told me you were with Dad.”
“Nope. I was on my way to the vacation house when my car broke down. Jade had sent a text saying she was going that way, and I was worried about her. Our friend Loren told me that I needed to check on Jade, too. Something had worried her about Jade’s last text to her and Loren couldn’t get away.” Becca told her more.
Mallory felt sick just listening. Her sister had no doubt gone through her own hell, and Mallory hadn’t known. She’d been sure Becca was safe with their father. Had she known, differently, she wouldn’t have been able to do a thing to help. But maybe Aodhan would have. “What?”
“The wolves were scouting out the vacation house. I walked right into them. They bit me. Then Matthuin was there. We stayed in the woods for days, trying to avoid them. But there were a lot of them. We went back in the hills for several days, then headed toward Dardanos. He said we’d get help there. We didn’t make it. They found me again. That’s when I found her. I don’t know where she came from or what her name is. But they said she was a Taniss. And she looks like Jade.” Her sister hiccupped, hinting at what it had been like for her. “At first, I thought she was.”
“You’ve been in the woods for days?”
“Yes. But I didn’t care, Mal. I was with Matt.” Becca’s worry returned to her tone. “He took care of me, and I…”
Stolen By The Warrior Page 19