Alpha Mine (The Alpha Council Chronicles) (31 page)

He shook away the thought. He wouldn’t ask anyone to do that. He didn’t want to really forget Kat. He didn’t want to lose her completely, the way she lost him.

He put his head in his hands when tears clouded his vision. One lone tear escaped down his cheek and hit the table with a splash. He wiped off his cheek ruthlessly. He did
not
cry. Fates be damned, how that woman had changed him.

Marcus strolled silently into the room, crossing to take a seat across from him.

Stephan’s chest tightened while at the same time his throat constricted. The longer he thought about Kat, the harder he found it to breathe. The weight of her loss sat heavy on his chest. He wanted fiercely to see her once again and struggled with whether or not to go see her.

“Stephan,” Marcus said quietly.

The warrior raised his head to look at the younger male wearily. “Yes, Marcus, what do you want?”

“I just wanted to see how you are, check on you.” Marcus looked almost as forlorn as he felt. “I miss Kat.”

Marcus rested his head in the palm of his hand.

“I do too.” Stephan’s shoulders slumped, mirroring Marcus’ somber demeanor. “But we have discussed this, and we agreed it is best that she is no longer with us. Being a part of our world without being a vampire is dangerous. She is safe at the ranch. We cannot be selfish and put her in danger by keeping her with us.”

“Maybe we should go see her,” offered Marcus looking hopeful.

“I had the same thought, but wouldn’t that make our loss all the more deep?”

“I don’t know. I guess it could.” After drawing a long pensive breath, Marcus continued. “Sometimes I think seeing her, knowing she is happy, might make it better.”

“Yeah,” Stephan agreed. “I’ve thought that too, but I’m not sure I could leave if I were to go and see her. I don’t think I could stand to let her go a second time.”

When Kat had been with him, each new day felt full of promise. Each night Kat brought a smile to his face. Each evening he’d been kissed by the woman he loved, adored.

After centuries of being alone he’d finally found someone who he wanted to spend the rest of his long life with. Each evening he awoke next to her, watched her eyes flutter awake, and then she’d smiled at him and stroke his face lovingly. It had been the most wonderful experience in all the centuries of his life and surely nothing again would ever be as amazing. Stephan shook the painful memories away, not wanting to remember.

And yet… unable to forget.

Stephan and Marcus stood in unison, and retired to the living room, each lost in his thoughts of Katrina. The phone rang, startling them from their reverie. Being the closest to the phone, Marcus answered it. Stephan watched Marcus hold the phone in his tightly clutched hand. Marcus’ pale pallor went ghostly white, his jaw slack. Stephan looked at him with alarm. “What is it?” he demanded.

When Marcus did not answer quickly enough, Stephan used their mindlink to find the information he sought. Alexander had just informed Marcus that Kat was missing.

In a flash, Stephan grabbed the phone away from Marcus, and held it to his ear. “What happened?” he barked into the receiver.

“I received a phone call from Rusty. There was a fire at the ranch and in all of the commotion, Kat seems to have disappeared.” Alex’s voice sounded unbelievably calm. But then, were the conversation about anyone else, Stephan supposed his voice would have been as steady. But they did not speak of someone else. It was his Katrina who had disappeared and Stephan’s emotions at the news were beyond erratic.

“What do you mean disappeared?” Stephan demanded, his hand cranking down on the receiver.

Alex cleared his throat. “They have checked the ranch and even gone into the surrounding woods on horseback, but she is nowhere to be found. I’m sorry, Stephan, but they couldn’t find her anywhere.”

Silence hung in the air thick as smoke. Stephan slowly hung up the phone, stunned. His mouth gaped open; worry flooded his system with endorphins.

“What are we going to do?” Marcus brought Stephan’s focus back to the penthouse.

“We’re going to find her, that’s what we are going to do. And I have a good idea where to start.”

“Where’s that?”

“Gage!” they exclaimed in unison.

Stephan stormed toward the gym with Marcus in tow. He pushed against one of the mirrored walls. It gave way, revealing a weapons room that would make any museum proud. Lined against the walls were numerous guns, knives, swords, and even a cross bow.

“Load up. We’re going to go get her.”

Marcus obeyed, grabbing the cross bow first. He slung it onto his shoulder and rounded on Stephan. “Wait, there are only two of us and Gage’s place is well guarded. We’ll need backup.”

Stephan slowed but continued to load weapons onto his body, a knife in his front pocket, a gun in the waistband of his pants. He acknowledged Marcus’ statement with a nod and said simply, “Call the Alphas.”

Chapter 36

A shiver of unease crept up Katrina’s spine when the vehicle slowed to a stop. The trunk opened, and she was dragged out by a hulk of a man. His meaty hands wrapped around her arm in a bruising grip, and he jerked her forward. When she stumbled, he wrenched her arm with enough force she feared he may have pulled it from the socket, but her cry of pain did nothing to ease his grip. He led her into a house, up a set of stairs, and brought her to stop in a bedroom in front of a blond man and another large man dressed entirely in black. The fact she stood alone in a bedroom with three kidnappers, at their mercy, did not escape her notice. Her heart beat wildly in her chest.

“What do you want with me?” she asked with more bravado than she felt.

The blond gripped her chin painfully, forcing her to look at him. “I want you to use your mindlink to contact Stephan and bring him here.”

“Who is Stephan?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, girl. Playing dumb makes me angry and things get very unpleasant when I get angry.”

With a slight nod from the blond, the man dressed in black stepped forward. In a movement too quick for Kat to register, he raised his arm and brought the back of his hand down against her cheek causing her head to whip to the side. As she righted her head, she could feel the sting of the hit and taste the blood on her lips. The pain brought awareness that she had been hit. In her shock, she didn’t take the time to examine that it had happened in an instant, so fast she hadn’t seen it coming.

“Contact Stephan,” the blond repeated through clenched teeth.

“I don’t know who you are talking about. You have to believe me. I don’t know any Stephan.” Kat pleaded for him to see reason, searched his eyes.

“Trace,” he said, nodding once toward the big guy.

He reared back, this time slow enough for Kat to register what was to come. Kat winced and struggled against the strong hands around her arms to no avail. Trace stepped forward and hit Kat in her nose, breaking it. As blood tricked down over her lips, he mumbled, “That’s for breaking my nose, bitch.”

The males’ nostrils flared when the coppery perfume of her blood permeated the air. A distinct buzz of excitement filled the room as the men reacted to her injury. Her fear rose to a new level, blocking a little of the pain.

Kat looked over at the blond, tears stinging her eyes. “I don’t know any Stephan,” she repeated, her voice small with trepidation.

The man in charge smiled an evil grin and nodded again.

“As you wish, Gage.” This time Trace’s fist landed in her stomach causing a whoosh of air to escape her lungs and she doubled over as much as the goon holding her would allow.

“Since this is going to get messy,” Gage motioned with a wave of his hand toward a spot of blood on the bedroom carpet, “perhaps we should move into the bathroom.”

“That would make for easy clean up,” agreed the brute holding her.

Katrina struggled against her captors, but they shuffled her into the master bath easily. The man holding her released her and she lost her bearings. A painful crunch sounded when the cold, unforgiving tile bit into her knees. Gage reached down and fisted a handful of her hair, drew her head back, forced her to look up at him.

“Contact Stephan, call him to you. Tell him you are in trouble, and he must come now.”

Kat gulped for air—the smoke from the stable and the hit to her solar plexus, a one-two punch that made breathing difficult.

“I told…you. I…don’t know…who you are…talking about,” Katrina stammered between painful breaths.

“I’m talking about your vampire boyfriend,” Gage spit out.

“Vampire?” Kat whispered. “There’s no such thing.”

Gage’s rage contorted his face. He nodded again to Trace who delivered another blow.

A steady turn-taking sequence took place—Gage asked a question, Trace delivered the pain. And time came to a crawl. She thought she heard somewhere that when the human body was injured, the mind shut off and the person went unconscious. She had even heard of people mentally going “somewhere else” when being tortured, but for Kat, such a blessed fate would not be.

Aware of every blow, cut, and break, she longed to slip into unconsciousness. When it didn’t come, she began to long instead for death, anything that would allow her to escape the pain her kidnappers inflicted.

During the few moments when the men were not hurting her, she hoped she was having a horrible nightmare that she would wake from sooner rather than later. Her hopes died as each short break was followed by more demands and suffering. She watched through the slits in her swollen eyes as her captors smiled while they inflected their pain.

This can’t go on forever,
thought Kat as she longed for the respite that never came.

Chapter 37

When Michael entered the weapons room, he realized all the other Alphas had already arrived. No doubt they materialized there while he’d been instructed to drive his rented SUV. Stephan said something about wanting to use his car to rescue the woman.
Whatever
. All Michael knew was that the extra time it took to drive over to the penthouse meant he would be the last one to have his pick of weapons.

He glanced around the room, noting his fellow Alphas arming themselves. They were all adorned in clothing similar to what he wore, a black turtle neck tucked into black cargo pants, and heavy dark combat boots. And those with long hair tied it back in a thong.

They each chose weapons to place on their bodies. Most of the ammo and weapons were coated in titanium, the only metal deadly to vampires. Nicholai favored the titanium knives, while Vladimir preferred nine millimeters, but also took a dagger. Demetri grabbed a titanium-coated sword and slung it over his back after grabbing a .45 which he tucked into his waistband. Alex chambered a titanium round in his semi auto, then grabbed a switchblade to strap on his calf.

Marcus slung the crossbow over his shoulder and turned, eyes locking with Michael’s. He watched Michael choose his weapons for the evening.

In the time it took for the Alphas to arrive and choose their weapons, Stephan devised a basic plan to get Katrina back. With his fellow warriors standing around him, he briefed them.

“When we get to the compound, we’ll take out the perimeter guards first. Then we’ll break into two teams, one going in the front, the other going in through the back of Lucio’s place. Once inside…”

Michael’s thoughts drifted off as Stephan spoke. He began putting everything together; Lucio’s house, his visit, how the girl he took to the ranch fit into Stephan’s life. What he had said to Gage played in his mind, and he realized that he was partially responsible for Katrina’s kidnapping.

A look of consternation crossed his face briefly, but he quickly steeled his features. If Stephan learned he’d spoken to Gage, Michael was sure the Alpha leader would blame this entire mess on him. In reality, the fault for the woman’s kidnapping lay with Stephan. Had Stephan bothered to tell him more information before sending him to deposit Kat at the ranch, he would not have said anything to Gage.
Yes, Stephan is the one responsible for this mess,
Michael thought as he crossed his arms over his chest.

Having discussed the rough attack plan, the Alphas all loaded into the Michael’s SUV. Though it claimed to have seating for eight, it was a tight squeeze for the seven large males. “Maybe we should take two vehicles,” Michael suggested.

“No,” Stephan said. “We need time together to finesse our attack strategy.”

Michael cranked down on the steering wheel, his knuckles going white. He had always thought he should be the leader of the Alphas. He didn’t need Stephan dictating to him. He turned the key, wishing once, just once, Stephan would take one of his suggestions.

Demetri spoke first as they got underway. “Do you know for sure where Kat is?”

“I believe with every fiber of my being that she is with Gage. But I can find her through my blood,” Stephan answered.

When Michael glanced over at Marcus from the driver’s seat and raised a questioning brow, Marcus explained, “Kat has drunk from Stephan a couple of times, so he can sense her presence through his blood. He can find her anywhere now.”

Michael nodded his understanding.

****

Stephan glanced around the vehicle at his fellow Alphas with pride. He trusted them, cared for them like family. Confident they would have his back as he would have theirs, he listened while Nicholai reminded them that the humans might still be in the house since the hunt had never taken place. Alex and Nicholai agreed that they would look for the humans while the other Alphas took out the remaining guards, leaving Marcus and Stephan to find and free Katrina.

The closer they got to Gage’s house, the stronger Stephan could feel Kat’s presence. It bolstered his confidence that they would find her once they got into the house. He only hoped they would get there in time.

They parked a half a mile away from Lucio’s home and silently ran the short distance to the property. Once at the compound, they found three guards walking the perimeter. They waited, lying prone on the ground, as the guards walked the predictable pattern around the house. When only one guard was visible, Marcus rose to one knee and fired his bow, sending a titanium arrow through the heart of the guard, killing him instantly. The fletching quivered as he fell to the ground. Michael ran over and pulled the dead male back to where the Alphas waited so the other guards would not see the body on their next sweep of the area.