Kane (8 page)

He bit into the soft skin on her nape, and a
gasp caught in her throat. She released it on a moan, leaning into
his embrace and tugging his shirt free. Running her hands up under
it, she stroked his skin. Started a fire raging in his veins. By
unspoken mutual agreement, they broke apart and hurried to strip
all their clothes off.

When they came back together, her skin was
hot, and the hand he pushed between her legs came away wet. He
brought a finger to his mouth to taste her. Perfect. His. He wanted
to finesse her, drive her high like he’d done last night, but his
need was too great. He spun her around and pulled her back up
against his chest. Reaching around her, he palmed her breasts,
their lush fullness spilling into his hands, the nipples hardening
under his caress.

As he kneaded them, pinched them into hard
tips, she ground her pelvis back against him, spreading her legs a
little so his cock slid between them. The scent of her arousal grew
heavy in the night air, and it drove the wolf side of his nature.
He couldn’t hold back anymore. Pushing her to ground, he positioned
her on all fours and moved in behind her. She thrust back against
him, impatient, demanding. He chuckled, but didn’t comply. He ran a
hand down her back, from the nape of her neck to her ass. Soft,
gentle, commanding. He doubted she’d understand how beautiful he
found her like this, how much it appealed to the wolf in him, how
submissive it was. He reached a hand between them, found her clit
and rubbed it, pinched it when she groaned and shoved against him
again.

“God, Kane.
Now
.”

She trembled in the beginning of an orgasm.
Yes, now
. He entered her in one long stroke, grimacing and
forcing his own orgasm down as she clamped around him, her
contractions threatening to make him come before he was ready. It
was a losing battle, and he pounded into her, let go and came with
a growl of possession.
Mine
.

They collapsed in a heap, breath soughing in
and out of their lungs. She rolled to her side, giving him her
back, and he slung an arm over her waist, drawing her closer. After
a few minutes she dropped off to sleep, but he lay awake a long
time, starring into the night.

He was drifting off when she began mumbling
in her sleep, thrashing around. He whispered nonsense to her, ran a
soothing hand up and down her arm, and she finally settled. But he
was left disturbed. What plagued her in the night? Memories of her
parents? Her bounties? At least now he had a good idea why she
never slept with him. She’d see nightmares as a weakness, something
he could use against her. And she was right.

* * * * *

They traveled three more days before they
reached the outskirts of the old city. The tension level in the
group ratcheted up about fifty notches. Responding to the increased
anxiety, Calista pulled one of her pistols and rested it across her
lap. She wanted it in easy reach if she needed it fast.

Night was falling when Sebastian, in tiger
form, led them off the road into the ruins. They set up camp in a
burned out barn and since they could see campfires spotting the
hills around them, decided to risk one of their own. She wasn’t
sure that was such a great idea, but she wasn’t turning away hot
food after the last couple of days of dried road rations.

They were settling in for the night when the
attack came. She had to give it to the weres. They were fast.
Everyone spun into action, rising from where the lay or sat. She’d
been sitting next to Kane, talking quietly, and they rose as one,
turning back-to-back and squaring off.

The enemy came at them with blades. Was that
because they weren’t any better armed or had they been told to take
them alive? She didn’t have time to ponder it as a man rushed her.
She ducked low and thrust her knife arm up in a wide arc as she
rose, hitting him across the neck. She ignored the spurting blood
and turned to face the next threat, adrenalin pumping through her
veins.

They came too fast, too many of them. She
couldn’t get to her guns, and she saw Mathias and Sebastian also
fighting at each other’s backs working their way around the fire.
When they were close, Kane yelled to his brother.

“You have to get Calista out of here!”

“Like hell he will,” she growled back.

A man rushed her, and she kicked out,
catching him in the groin. It gave her just enough time and
maneuvering room to draw a revolver, and she fired it at the next
man, hitting him square between the eyes.

“Nice shot.” Mathias grinned when he reached
her side.

“Switch places,” Kane ordered. “Mathias, you
two work your way out. Sebastian and I will create a
diversion.”

She ground her back teeth, gun in one hand
knife in the other and faced reality. Odds were better than even
that one or all of them were going to die here tonight. She’d be
damned if Kane did it alone, without her at his back. A sense of
peace settled over her, something she’d been working around to the
last few days finally coalescing into clear thought.

“You are such an ass, Kane, if you really
think I’m leaving you out here. Even if two of us could fight
free.”

“Damn it, Calista. I need you
safe
.
When I give the signal, you go.”

“Fuck you. I love you and I’m not running
away.”

He growled. “You’re timing stinks,
woman.”

She grinned and fired at a man rushing Kane,
who now stood next to her. “Oh, I thought it was pretty good.”

“Mathias, drag her by the hair if you have
to.”

“Be ready to run, Calista,” Mathias said.

Everything in her screamed no, but she didn’t
respond, too busy trying to stay alive.

“Now, Sebastian,” Kane yelled and both men
shifted.

Fast, without stripping first, but the
clothes didn’t encumber them. They were on the attack before anyone
noticed. Panic set in, mayhem followed. Mathias grabbed her arm and
dragged her straight through the melee. She struggled as they went,
craning her head to see over her shoulder. Terrified for Kane and
the reticent weretiger she’d come to respect. One of the men got a
lucky strike at the tiger, slicing him down the side, and she
screamed, struggling to free herself from Mathias’s grip, wanting
to go back and help.

It was no use. He outweighed her by at least
eighty pounds, had the superior strength of a werewolf and had
honed it to a fine edge. He got her to where the horses were
hobbled and threw her over the back of one, while leaping onto
another. He took both reigns and they were off. It was all she
could do to straighten herself and not fall off.

They rode for an hour, twisting into the old
ruins but steering clear of any lights. Finally, he called a halt,
and they dismounted, checking to see which supplies they’d gotten
away with. She reloaded her revolver, double checking to make sure
the other had six shots.

“You know he wants me to take you home,”
Mathias said softly. The night was silent. Too quiet.

She stilled.
No way.
“And you know I
won’t go.”

“And why is that little human? What’s it to
you?”

The voice came from the brush in front of
her, and the vampire who’d helped Izzy earlier stepped into the
clearing. Alec.

“I won’t leave my sister,” she answered. “I
won’t leave Kane and Sebastian.”

He held her gaze, and she looked back
steadily, trying to pour all her resolve into it. She was
not
going off without them. All of them. Finally, he nodded,
and she released a pent up sigh of relief.

“We need a plan, then,” he said and her
relief was even greater. They had help, the best kind probably. A
vampire.

CHAPTER FIVE

Kane paced the small cell, glancing worriedly
over at Sebastian every few minutes. The weretiger wasn’t healing
as fast as he should. The cut down his abdomen still oozed blood,
and Kane was afraid infection might set in. That was rare among his
kind, but under these conditions, where they couldn’t flush the
wound out and clean it, it could happen.

If he knew Calista, she was already planning
a rescue attempt, and if she did, he’d tan her hide when he got her
home. Not to mention Mathias. He and Sebastian needed to escape on
their own, before anymore of his people were put at risk.

When Sebastian had gone down, he’d leapt to
his defense, and the attackers overwhelmed them both. They’d
surrendered and gone quietly. As long as Tobias’ men were kept busy
with them, Calista had a chance to get free. They’d been brought
into the inner city, to a large, walled compound. A house sat in
the middle with several buildings surrounding it. An armory and
barracks, Kane guessed. The building they were taken to had been
set up as a small jail, with two cells. The back wall and side wall
of the cell they were in was wood, with iron bars separating them
from the next cell and the main room on the front side. The door
was locked, the guard was gone, and the idiot had left the keys on
a hook by the door. The question was, how was he going to get to
them? For the first time in his life, he saw the use for snake
shifters. He stretched his arm through the bars again, knowing it
was futile. The keys were several feet out of reach. Banging his
head against the bars, he let his hand drop to wrap in a white
knuckled grip around them.
Fuck!

“That helping much?” Sebastian asked.

“No.”

“Want to talk about it?”

No, he didn’t want to talk about what Calista
had said to him out there, didn’t want to know about it. Wished
like hell she could take it back. Mostly. He was also pleased. Even
if he couldn’t allow himself to love her back, he wanted her to
love him. He knew how crazy that was, how hypocritical, but it was
hard to care when he remembered her saying the words. His heart
raced all over again, and his cock rose in response.

He paced around the cell, forced himself to
face reality. He’d tried to hold back, to keep from fully bonding
with her until she was ready and he’d tried like hell to keep his
heart out of it. He hadn’t succeeded on either count. He wasn’t
sure what he was going to do when he got out of this mess, but
letting her go wasn’t an option. Neither was letting her back out
of what had to have been a heat of the moment declaration. But the
fear…the fear was almost crippling.

“How did you do it?” he asked softly, almost
whispering. “How did you go on when Karen died?”

He felt awful for asking and lowered his head
in shame, but he was desperate for insight. He didn’t expect
Sebastian to answer and was so surprised when he did that he stood
and turned around to face him.

“For awhile, it was just a minute at a time.
Then an hour, then a day. I would have given in, but the pack
needed me.” He shrugged, as if apologizing for what they both knew
was Kane’s shortcoming. His voice was quiet, subdued when he
continued. “I wouldn’t go back and undo it. I wouldn’t give up the
time I did have with her. Don’t make that mistake, Kane. Take what
life gives you and make the most of it while you can.”

Kane took a steadying breath, wondering if he
could do that, wondering if he could withstand the same kind of
loss.

Sebastian chuckled. “I know what you’re
thinking, and I’ve watched you with her for how long now? Two
years? It’s too late to go back. You’ve already bonded with her…you
already love her,” he added in a whisper that held an edge of
pain.

Kane’s heart constricted, in fear and
something else he refused to name. He only nodded in response.
After taking a minute to compose himself, he changed the subject.
“Where do you think they’re keeping Isadora?”

Sebastian stood, holding a hand against his
side and looked out the cell’s window. The wound was finally
starting to knit together. He jerked his head. “In the main house,
I bet.”

Kane moved to stand next to him. They studied
the house in silence, and a dark shadow darted by. They exchanged a
quick look and took up positions next to it, not in a clear line of
sight of whoever was out there. The shadow didn’t move like Calista
or Mathias. He’d seen them in action enough to recognize them. This
was an unexpected element, but maybe they’d be able to make their
escape while the stranger was distracting the house.

Then there was a loud
boom
and one of
the other buildings caught fire. After a few seconds it exploded,
fiery debris flying through the roof like fireworks. Men ran across
the yard, yelling questions to each other, and confusion reigned.
The door of their building flew open, and both men whirled around
to face whatever danger approached.

Relief flooded him when Calista and Mathias
came in, but the relief was quickly replaced by fury. He’d told
them to leave, damn it. Neither one could take orders worth a damn.
She walked in and looked him up and down. He didn’t bother to hide
his feelings. He wanted her to understand how much trouble she was
in. She paused under the look for a minute, then seemed to collect
herself, shake it off, and grabbed the keys from the hook while
Mathias kept watch at the door. She wasn’t hasty, but she moved
with speed. Her hands trembled a little as she turned the key.

“There they are,” Mathias said from the open
doorway. “Let’s move.”

Kane exited the cell, held the door open for
Sebastian who limped out behind him. “Who?”

“Alec and Izzy,” Calista bit out. “Can we get
out of here?”

He grabbed her, pulled her hard against him
and kissed her. Firm, possessive, furious. Proud. Shoving all his
conflicting emotions away, he released her and nodded,
concentrating on getting them all out alive.

“Let’s go,” Kane said.

Calista reached into the bag slung over her
back and started passing out weapons—revolvers and knives. When
everyone was armed, Mathias looped an arm around Sebastian’s waist
and helped him through the door. Kane and Calista brought up the
rear.