Claiming Their Royal Mate: Part One (6 page)

D
aylight had peeked
through the curtains by the time they’d settled into bed—and Daniella suspected the sun had been out for a couple of hours already. She was dead tired, and after agreeing with Owen that sleeping in his apartment—now un-lockable, thanks to his prime—wasn’t the best idea, they wandered over to her place to pass out. Even though her bed was queen-sized, Owen seemed to take up all the space. Luckily, he was more than willing to hold her—keeping her tucked against his body while they slept.

But when she woke, the bed beside her was empty. Still slightly warm to the touch, but empty. And night had fallen.

She blinked, searching the darkness for him. For half a second she thought it might have all been a strangely vivid dream, and her stomach dropped. Then she sat up to get a better view of the room, and her whole body ached with a mostly-pleasant pain. Her breasts were heavy and sore. And while she was a tiny bit sore between her legs—it had been a long time since she’d had sex, and never with a man as well-endowed as Owen—she could feel a different ache there as well.

The heat had calmed, but it wasn’t gone.

“Owen,” she called, keeping her voice pitched low for a reason she couldn’t name. Instinct, maybe. Or heck, likely just unreasonable fear. Her world had changed, shifted in ways she still didn’t understand, and it was no wonder she didn’t have her feet back under her yet.

“Owen?” she tried again, shoving the covers off. She hurried to her dresser and pulled on a pair of loose, cotton shorts she used to sleep in, and a black camisole. Even the soft cotton and loose material teased her nipples, brushed her most unsatisfyingly between her legs.

She sighed. Maybe Owen would be up for another round. A nice, slow,
gentle
round. Just as soon as she found him.

Just the thought of the man who had been her friend, then her enemy, and finally her lover made her press her thighs together to try to relieve the sudden ache. He was so gentle with her, so loving. Yet, all man. All tiger—not that she was ready to consider that fact too closely quite yet.

The kitchen was quiet as well, and no lights had been turned on in the apartment. Of course, that wasn’t exactly unusual given the amount of light that seeped through her curtains even when they were closed. Even now, when it was dark out, because of the streetlights surrounding the building.

Besides, for all she knew, Owen might be able to see in the dark like the cat he was. She grinned at the thought. It was hard to imagine—not that Owen didn’t have a little beast in him, but she’d never have guessed the wildness lurking in him would be greater than that of any other virile, masculine man.

Erick, on the other hand…

The weretiger prime was more beast than man, if she didn’t miss her guess. Something dark lurked in his eyes, and unlike Owen, he felt…different. Like he was a monster who just looked like a man.

Her sex clenched and she bit her lip. No. No way she found that attractive. It was just the heat. That’s it. She just needed to find Owen and he’d take care of the heat issue, stat. And she could forget about his weirdly alluring prime.

Where the heck was he?

Maybe he’d gone to his apartment, for clothes. Or food. That was likely, since she wasn’t sure she had anything edible other than ketchup in her fridge.

But wouldn’t he hear her if he was only a thin apartment wall away, calling for him? Heck, he’d heard her tiny little “Ow” in the shower after she’d pinched herself. The man—weretiger—had crazy good ears.

Telling herself that the heavy pit in her stomach was silly, she squared her shoulders and opened the door to her apartment. Nothing jumped out at her when she stepped into the quiet hall, nor did anything seem amiss in Owen’s apartment.

Except for the fact that he wasn’t there.

“Chill out,” she muttered to herself. “He wouldn’t just up and leave you.”

Great, now you’re talking to yourself.
She shook her head.

Maybe he’d gone to the store. Yes, that made sense. She had no food. He was normally stocked up, but maybe he didn’t have whatever he’d want to feed a hungry woman in heat. Heck, pregnant women ate weird shit all the time. Yeah, she wasn’t pregnant, but being in heat had to wreak all sorts of insanity on the hormones. Any second now, she’d want peanut butter and pickle sandwiches.

“Check on the car, dummy,” she muttered again, then cursed under her breath. Owen was really going to think she’d gone off the deep end if he left her alone for a few minutes and she was already conversing with herself.

After taking a second to grab a pair of slip-on shoes she kept by her front door, she headed for the back of the building, which was where Owen always parked his little pickup.

She rounded the corner to the side of the building where he parked his truck. The roar warned her before she could even make out the shapes beneath the streetlights.

Too late.

The three men circling Owen didn’t look like anything scary at first glance. Two were nearly Owen’s six foot height, though both were a bit slimmer. The other was much smaller, almost waif-like and definitely not an inch over five-six.

But it was Owen’s reaction to them that made fear spike in her chest. He watched them warily, trying to keep them in his line of sight as they circled. Blood seeped from a new gash under his left eye, and he was avoiding putting weight on his right leg. She’d thought he’d been beat up after fighting Erick, but he’d looked damn good compared to how he looked now.

The other men didn’t look much better. One was bleeding steadily from his nose, and the shorter one’s neck had a large gash. The third she couldn’t make out as well; he stood in the shadows. But the way he stood appeared off, like he favored one side.

But none of that was what halted her in her tracks. Owen’s shifted face did that.

She bit back a gasp, but it was too late. The slight man turned his head to look at her. Something about the way he moved was off somehow—wrong. Almost robotic. He smiled at her, revealing long fangs, and she knew.

Vampire.

Holy crap.

“Run, Daniella!” Owen’s voice cut through her shock, and she met his desperate gaze. “Run!” he commanded in a loud roar that barely came out as an understandable word. He waved an arm, a gesture for her to leave, and her eyes locked on the fur and claws that had taken the place of his human hands.

Run, he’d said. But there were three of them—what if Owen needed her help?

Owen knocked the larger vampire onto the ground with a full-body kick that didn’t look humanly possible—and probably wasn’t—and was reaching for the second vampire. If she stayed against his wishes and one of them grabbed her, she could ruin everything. Owen would never forgive her. Worse, Owen would never forgive himself if she got herself killed. And she didn’t know how to shift, or if she could yet. How much help would one practically human woman be against vampires?

With a painful ache pressing against her chest and bile crawling its way up her throat, she ran. Adrenaline pumped through her body, making her move so fast she felt like she was flying. She ran without thinking. Without looking around. With the almost debilitating fear that she was being chased. When she couldn’t run anymore, she paused to lean against a tree, daring a look back. Nothing.

Heart pounding in her ears, her vision went fuzzy, and she fell to her hands and knees, struggling to breathe around the panic.

You’re not being chased. Breathe. Just breathe. Owen can’t be far behind you, and he’ll totally make fun of you if running makes you pass out.

Owen wouldn’t dare, she didn’t think, but the thought kept her breathing, and after what felt like an hour of gasping for breath and fearfully watching for a vampire to suddenly appear behind her, she managed to calm down. Her whole body still shook, but she managed to get back to her feet.

How far had she come? The area didn’t look super familiar, and judging by the direction she’d come, and what she knew of that was close by, she’d had to have run more than two miles.

Sheesh. Who knew a vampire was all it took to get her to run? Should have found one a few years ago. The pounds would have melted off.

The sun peeked over the horizon. Did sunlight kill vampires, or was that just a myth? If only she’d had more time to talk about all this with Owen, she might have actually had a chance to ask some useful questions about this hidden world she would have never guessed existed.

Of course, if she hadn’t been so busy jumping him the whole time…

“Dammit, Owen,” she muttered. “Did you have to wait until the last second to tell me what I am?” If he’d started this conversation with her a year ago, she’d know if it was safe to go back or not. She might have had some skills to fight. At least, she would have known what to do when faced with freaking vampires.

Yeah, berate the guy who could have just been killed protecting you. That’s nice.

The world spun at the thought. No. No way. Owen was fine. If he’d needed help, he wouldn’t have told her to run.

Except, of course, he would have.

Dread filled her, and she watched the way she’d come anxiously, willing Owen to appear. But he didn’t.

He’d be pissed if she showed back up and he was still fighting those vampires, but if something happened to him and she could have helped, even a little…

She had to go back.

Daylight was making its way free, but Denver wasn’t New York City, and cabs didn’t just wander the streets—not in this part of town, especially. No pay phones, either. She’d just have to truck it back.

Her body objected, but she pushed on, making it to a half-jog, half-speedwalking pace. Ten minutes later, things started looking familiar. And less than ten minutes after that, she saw her apartment in the distance. Maybe she hadn’t run as far as she’d thought.

Finding a sudden flood of energy at the sight of her building, she broke into a run, heading for the parking lot where she’d seen Owen. At the last second, she changed her mind and altered course, heading into her building instead. A five-second 9-1-1 call to say men were fighting in the parking lot, and she headed outside, clutching a butcher knife.

Police couldn’t hurt, right? They’d do a damn sight better than she would against vampires, she was sure of that much. And the advantage of help was worth the potential risk of getting to the parking lot a few seconds too late, a mantra she repeated in her head as she ran.

She forced in a deep breath, then crept out the back door and made her way out to the parking lot.

Empty.

Sure, there were cars there, but no people. Definitely no vampires that she could see. But also, no Owen.

Dammit.
She looked anxiously at his truck, but it was still where he always parked it. A sour feeling in her stomach and panic making her breath come fast, she walked through the whole area, not seeing anything out of place, save for some dark streaking on the asphalt—blood—that no doubt had come from the fight.

Tears burned behind her eyelids and she furiously blinked them back. No time to cry now. Had to find Owen.

Maybe he’d gotten away, was looking for her even as she searched for him?

But somehow, she knew that wasn’t true. Her gut, tight with worry and fear, said Owen wasn’t okay.

Making another sweep of the area where they’d fought, she kept her butcher knife tightly in her grip at her side. Hopelessness trying to strangle her in its grip, she got down onto her hands and knees, looking under nearby cars, swallowing the sobs that threatened to break free.

She couldn’t cry right now. Then she’d be even more useless to Owen.

Morning sunlight reflected off of something under a nearby Ford compact, and after a glance behind her to ensure she was still alone, she wiggled under the car to grab it. A cell phone.

Owen’s cell phone—or the same model, at least.

Bile crawled up her throat. The phone’s screen was crushed, and the body of it was in only slightly better shape. It hadn’t been dropped, it had been smashed. Under someone’s boot, she would guess.

Gripping the phone so hard that it bit into her hand, she stared at the broken screen.

What the hell was she supposed to do now?

W
hen Evie loses
her way in the woods during a terrible storm, she is determined not to die. But snow and darkness close in and all seems lost—until a stranger finds her. Warm and safe at his cabin, she can’t help notice how sexy her rescuer is, and things go from warm to scorching hot.

B
ut Nicolas lives alone
on the mountain for a reason. And his secrets may be more dangerous to Evie than the cold.

B
roken Prime is currently
available on
Amazon
, or continue reading for an excerpt.

E
vie Lane refused
to die at twenty-one.

Panic pushed her pace to a jog, but though the whited-out landscape flew by faster, nothing looked familiar. Snow continued to fall, and she cursed loudly, blinking back tears that threatened to burn their way down her cheeks.

So stupid to tell the others to go ahead on their snowshoe trek. The sun had been out, the cabin smoke clearly visible in the sky, and she hadn’t realized there was zero cell service to be found. If she’d done what she’d said, taken a few pictures and caught up with her friends a little ways down the trail, things would have been fine. But she’d gotten distracted. Found a few shots she couldn’t resist. Decided to wait a little longer until the sun was perfect in the sky, providing just the right angle to the light.

And then the sun disappeared.

The storm rolled in so quickly, she’d barely noticed the first cloud on the horizon before the entire sky blotted out. She’d trudged on, even as snow started to fall, in the same direction the other girls had gone. When it got too dark to really see where she was going, she’d relied on their trail in the snow. Then the fresh snow piled high so fast that the trail disappeared, and she wasn’t even sure she was headed the right direction.

She forced a deep breath, then shivered violently. The air was cold, and her feet colder. She’d lost a glove at some point when she was still taking pictures, and her pocket didn’t seem to do much to keep out the chill.

Exhaustion seeped into her as she slowed to a walk.

“Help!” she yelled—or tried to. Her voice was wispy and thin after hours of calling out for her friends.

She crumpled in front of a tree and leaned against the solid wood, putting her face between her knees.

So tired.

The angry howl of the wind around her seemed to insulate her from the world, and for a while, time stood still. Regret filled her. She should have listened to her parents, gone with them to Europe. Might have been stressful, watching them try not to fight in front of her the whole time, but it would have been safe. Heck, she could have stayed at the dorm, used her break to study.

She’d wanted an adventure.

“Hey. Hey?”

Someone shook her, dragging her back into reality. She opened her eyes. The area around her was almost as dark as the one behind her eyelids. But she could make out a form, large and human-shaped, kneeling in front of her.

“I’m going to pick you up. Take you somewhere warm.”

Her mind moved slowly, and it took a few moments before she comprehended his words. But before she could nod in reply, the man had swept her into his arms and was moving. And either her perception was really messed up because of the cold and her freezing state, or the man moved
fast
.

C
heck out Broken
Prime on
Amazon
.