Alpha Mine (The Alpha Council Chronicles) (21 page)

Andrea’s life flashed before his eyes. Memories of her holding court in England and instructing the peasants blurred into his mate touring Europe during the World War and then the memories changed to her designing the garden for their current home with an exuberant smile on her face. The memories so vivid, each came with its own set of smells and sounds that transported Gage back to those times. Happy times that, thanks to their immortality, he thought would never end.

The sound of Trace’s moan pulled Gage from his reverie and back to the present.

He dematerialized down to his mate, and hoisted her off of the sword in one swift motion. Cradling her in his arms, he dropped to his knees. He held her tightly to his chest, brushing one hand down her face. His mind instinctively pushed into hers, needing to feel their connection. He found only a black nothingness, an emptiness that coated his soul in sorrow.

“Andrea…
Andrea
… please no…
no
…” His hand tucked a strand of her hair behind one ear. “Andrea wake up…
please
no… wake up, my dear… please no,
please
!”

Gage begged his heartmate to be well, putting all his love for her behind his pleas, but it was of no use. She would never wake again. Andrea was gone from his world.

The realization tore through his body with a physical pain so great it caused him to collapse over her body. He felt as if his very soul had been ripped from him.

“No! Come back to me!” he roared, so loud the walls of the house shook with his rage, glass shattered. His power surged forward causing the bulbs in the room to explode. Its force knocked Stephan off his feet. Had the bastard not braced himself by throwing his hands behind him the force would have completely leveled him.

Gage glared up at von Haas, allowing his hatred to show in his eyes. Stephan shook his head and had the audacity to look down at him apologetically. “It was an accident. I’m so sorry.”

Gage bared his fangs and hissed at the male. “I will make you pay for this! I swear I will see you pay with all you hold dear!”

Two guards bounded up the stairs toward von Haas as two more ran into the foyer. Before they could reach him, Stephan dematerialized out of the house, leaving only a small puff of smoke in the air.

Gage watched his heartmate’s killer disappear from his sight. Animosity mixed with anguish, when he looked back down into his heartmate’s unseeing eyes, clutching her to his chest. Tears blurred his vision. He lowered his mouth to her hair and began to rock back and forth murmuring, “no, please, no.”

But he knew it was too late. He’d known the minute her life extinguished. He felt it throughout his entire body, in each cell. Now not only was his heartmate gone, but so too his child, the child he waited over three hundred years for. His body went numb, all he felt was the anger and rage that filled him. In an instant his entire future was gone, taken by Stephan von Haas.

The guards silently encircled the couple where they sat in a crumpled heap on the floor. They stood stoically, apparently unsure how to be of assistance to their master. Never before had they seen him broken and tortured.

Trace rose slowly. He limped cautiously, pushing through two of the guards to approach Gage. “Can I take her for you, sir?” he whispered.

“No. No one is going to take her! You cannot take her from me!” Gage embraced her tighter, so tight something snapped under the force of his hug.

Chapter 24

Stephan paced back and forth, as he’d been doing since stepping into his library with Marcus.

“You’re going to wear a path in the carpet if you keep this up,” said Marcus.

“You don’t understand. I didn’t mean to. I really didn’t mean to.”

“I know,” said Marcus quietly. “I know you wouldn’t knowingly hurt a female. It wasn’t your fault. It was Gage’s. He’s the one who tried to get his body guard to kill you.”

“I know, but he’s not going to see it that way. He’s going to want retribution. You should have seen the look in his eyes when he said he would see me pay for her death with everything I hold dear.” And nothing was dearer to him than Katrina. Fear for her safety pressed in, making it hard to breathe.

Katrina stood in the kitchen rinsing the dishes from their first meal and loading them into the dishwasher. After eating, Stephan and Marcus had immediately gone to the library behind closed doors. Even her human senses recognized the tension in the penthouse. It hung thick in the air like wet concrete.

As Kat squeezed a Teflon pan into the back of the rack, the doorbell rang. She opened the door to find Nicholai and a very extremely large burly man on the other side.

“Hello,” said Kat hesitantly as her gaze shifted between the two men.

Nicholai glided fluidly into the foyer when she stepped to the side to allow them to enter. He bent, kissing her on each cheek. His lips were soft and warm.

“Good evening, Katrina,” he greeted, the “R” rolling off his tongue. “Allow me to introduce to you my cousin, Demetri Romanoff.”

Nikko stepped aside and made a grand sweep with his arm. Kat watched Demetri turn sideways and step his thickly muscled physique through the door. Built like a professional wrestler, his shirt stretched tight over his massive chest, giving Kat a very good idea of what lay underneath. His mammoth body boasted wide shoulders and biceps the size of Kat’s thighs. With his tall frame, he looked like he could be a contender for the Mr. Universe title.

The dark silk shirt he wore tightened further against his shoulders when he extended one of his super-sized hands toward Katrina and took her hand with a gentleness she did not expect. He raised her hand to his lips, laying on a quick kiss.

“It is a pleasure to meet you, Katrina,” he said and bent at the waist in a deep bow. “I have heard much about you from my cousin.”

Demetri’s accent, though much more subtle then his cousin’s, allowed Kat to discern he too originated from somewhere in Russia. With his thick body and the way his R’s purred from his mouth, he reminded Kat of a tiger. A big, strong, deadly tiger.

“We were summoned by Stephan. He is here, is he not?” Nicholai looked around the room.

“Yes, he’s here. He and Marcus are up in the library. Follow me.”

After she closed and locked the door, Kat turned and led the men up the stairs to the library. The two vampires followed her silently, reminding her of just how deadly the breed could be.

Answering her knock on the door, Stephan called out, “Come in.”

Marcus opened the library door before she could turn the knob, and she flinched in surprise. He stepped aside so that the men could enter.

“Kitten, you should come in and hear this too. You also need to know what happened last night,” Stephan said quietly, the foreboding thick in his voice.

Katrina settled herself on the arm of the wingback chair where Marcus sat. Nicholai parked himself in the other chair as Demetri took up his stance leaning against the bookcase with his arms crossed. From behind his desk, Stephan relayed the events of the previous evening to the assembly. Kat had the feeling he excluded some of the gorier details, probably to keep from upsetting her. And that was a good thing, she decided, because what he did share made her stomach churn.

When Stephan finished the story, Katrina sat motionless, tears sliding down both cheeks, hand over her mouth. “Oh my god,” was all she choked out around the lump in her throat. “Oh, Stephan, that is so sad. She and the baby both died?”

Stephan nodded solemnly, looking downtrodden. She could tell how much the situation wounded him and wanted to go to him, comfort him, but looking around the room she decided doing so in front of all his fellow warriors was neither the time nor place. “You know this is not your fault. You didn’t mean to hurt the woman.”

Demetri straightened, placing his arms by his sides. “But still this is very bad. The female was his heartmate. There will be hell to pay.”

“I don’t understand.” Kat laid her hand in her lap and looked questioningly at Stephan. “What is a heartmate?”

Stephan met her eyes. “When a male finds his heartmate, they are truly two halves of the same soul. They complete each other. They must be together, be connected mentally and physically. If one is lost the other will be lost as well. Sometimes when one dies, the other chooses to meet the sun or have someone kill him. If the heartmate who is left chooses to remain alive, then he will usually become despondent, lose his mind.”

“You mean heartmates literally can’t live without each other?”

Stephan nodded. “When one finds his heartmate, she becomes his reason for living, Kitten. Without her, he will lose his desire for life. Some will even seek out danger in order to find a way to ease the suffering permanently. As I said, for those who do not die, but are forced to exist without their heartmate to complete them, they go insane from the dismal abyss of depression in which they swim night after long night.”

Katrina shifted in her seat, unease creeping up her spine. “So, when Andrea died, Gage blamed you?”

“It would seem so. Yes.”

“And you apologized then just dematerialized out of his home?” Kat asked hesitantly.

“Yes.” Stephan watched her carefully.

“So,” Kat swallow the lump of fear in her throat, “would it be possible for Gage to materialize into the penthouse to get revenge on you?”

Stephan rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Yes.” He nodded his head. “It would be possible.”

Demetri raised an eyebrow. “You mean you do not have this place fortified with titanium so it is impenetrable? Do you not have at least one room lined?”

Marcus shook his head. “No. We’ve had no need to go to such lengths until now.”

Demetri tsked. “That is a problem. We’ll need to find a way to make this place secure.”

“Maybe not,” suggested Marcus. “I don’t believe Gage knows where Stephan lives. Stephan dematerialized from Gage’s home, so no one could have followed them. And I was very careful, made sure I was not followed when I did the surveillance. So I think we are safe here. I don’t see how Gage could know our location, unless they followed Nicholai.”

Nicholai shook his head. “I do not believe they did. I watched carefully every time I left the house.”

Demetri nodded once in acknowledgement of the statement, but a skeptical look remained on his face.

Stephan looked at Kat, his steady gaze unnerved her. “Would you please excuse us, Kitten? We have some other issues to discuss which are strictly for Alpha ears.”

“Of course.” She stood and hesitated, worrying her lower lip between her teeth as she looked into Stephan’s eyes. Trepidation crept up her spine, and she shivered. “Do you really think we are safe?”

Stephan seemed to steel his features before answering. “You are safe. I would never let anything happen to you.”

Katrina could hear the steely resolve in his hard voice and knew she could trust him, believed he would always protect her. With that one declaration, though he did not say the words aloud, she heard how much he loved her. It calmed her like nothing else could.

Chapter 25

Once Katrina quietly closed the door behind her, Nicholai looked at Stephan, “You know there will be retribution. Gage is not the kind of male who will let this go. The anger he feels at her loss will fuel his revenge.”

“I know,” Stephan acknowledged softly. “We’ll have to do whatever we can to make sure he doesn’t get a chance to take that revenge.”

The four warriors spent the rest of the night discussing possible strategies and trying to guess how Gage might try to get his retribution on Stephan.

Just after dawn, Stephan crawled into bed beside Kat. He looked down on her and contentment filled his soul—the sort of contentment he wanted to last forever. The feel of Kat snuggling next to him stifled the haunting memories of Andrea’s death. He gathered her into his arms, and tucked her against his side. As long as she lay safe in his arms, he could face whatever turmoil might come.

“I need you,” he said, his voice a low masculine rumble of hunger.

Katrina looked up at Stephan from under her long lashes. She loved this strong, proud man. In his arms she felt protected, secure. The fear from earlier receded replaced by wanton desire and love.

She melted against him, her slight curves fitting against his firm body. The evidence of his lust pushed against her soft thigh. His hands were on her, seemingly everywhere all at once. His warm, long fingers caressed her skin as he took her mouth in a deep kiss. Her own hands found sinewy muscles when she ran them along his lean physique.

Their kiss continued, hard demanding, filled with desperation.

Stephan moved atop her, his weight pushing her into the mattress. He bent his head and placed a trail of hot kisses down her jaw, then followed the curve of her collar bone, until he found her generous breasts. There, as if starved, he laid a line of hard kisses and gentle bites between the two mounds. Kat held his head to her breasts while he suckled, drawing her deep into his mouth. She arched fisting her hands in his long silky hair; a few strands escaped tickling her sensitive flesh.

He lavished his attention on both breasts. One he teased with his hot mouth, the other his nimble fingers kneaded. His tongue drew one nipple into a hard peak; he rolled the other between his thumb and forefinger until it too hardened for him.

Katrina’s writhed under his attention, her body surging with waves of pleasure. Stephan drove her need higher, feeding her pleasure, until she thought she might die from the sensations he gave her. A low keening sound filled her ears, sexy, sensual, as sinuous sensations continued to drive through her.

“I need you,” he whispered against one of her taught nipples.

“I need you too. Now. Please,” she demanded trying to raise his head back up to meet her own. He lifted his head and looked at her from between her breasts. He laughed, the sound somewhere between a moan and a chuckle.

Her head dropped back onto her pillow as he rose to cover her body with his own. Her legs fell wide welcoming his hips. He slid inside her in one possessive thrust. Her eyes closed, lashes creating two dark crescents on her cheeks. Into his powerful shoulders her fingers dug, seeking an anchor to the earth. They bit into his flesh. Pleasure consumed her with each hard thrust.