Moonlit Rescue (7 page)

“Right.” He discarded her concerns and took what he wanted, exactly like he took her.

His one word said everything. She struggled out of his arms. The water turned frigid, but she didn’t care. This was too critical. She may love him, but that did not mean she would let him take her again without loving her in return. “I’m not your mate.” Her teeth chattered, and she wrapped her arms around herself.

“I beg to differ.” Vale reached for her.

“You don’t love me.” Her body quaked with uncontrollable shaking as she backed away.

Vale moved forward. “Love doesn’t exist. I…”

She waited, but his voice trailed off. “I want to go home.” He wouldn’t say the words because he didn’t mean them. While she admired his honesty, she couldn’t accept it.

“Your home is where I am.” He came closer.

“No.” She held her hand out, stopping him.

“What do I need to do?” He trudged after her, arms raised. “Would you have preferred I did my job and kill you like they wanted?”

“I am not your reward for saving me.” She hung her head down and squeezed her eyes shut in an attempt to force the fantasy Vale had created out of her mind. “Maybe it would have been better if you would have left me alone.” With the truth out, she put her hand over her mouth and ran to shore. She struggled to get her clothes on her soaked and frozen body. Once she managed, she turned expecting to find Vale.

He wasn’t there.

For the one who said he would always be there, he was gone. She didn’t know why she was so shocked. She always got left in the end.

The lake stood empty and silent, the way she wanted her life. Over the last few days, she started allowing herself to believe she had found her place with Vale. She didn’t even admit it to herself until this moment. With the lake in front of her, both her heart and her mind knew the dream had shattered, leaving her in the same place she started.

Alone.

The sensation of being out in the open by herself took her by surprise and she spun around. Once more, she looked back at the water and found nothing. No Vale.

She ran. Ran fast, away from the lake, away from the cabin, away from her troubles. Tears blurred her vision to the point where she collided with a tree. She fell onto the soft, leaf-covered ground, curling her knees up to her chest, too spent to cry, move or care.

An unexpected searing pain radiating from her scalp made her realize something was pulling her up by her hair. She kicked her feet, trying to regain her footing. “Vale!” At her outburst, her mouth was covered and she was dragged until her back met with something hard and unmoving. For once, her instinct spoke volumes. With wild, uncoordinated movements, she tried to free herself until her wrists were trapped behind her back and she was forced to her knees.

“So you’re the woman he wants.” The voice was coarse, scraping against her ears. “Did he really think I wouldn’t find you? I could smell you a hundred miles away.”

Her abductor turned her and she froze. She was captured by a silver creature, more human than the scout, but more animal than Vale. “Xander.”

“You are a smart one.” Xander pressed his paw to her face. “Or incredibly stupid.”

“Let me go.” She’d stepped right into his trap the second she let her guard down.

He jabbed his claw into the crook of her neck. “I’ll wait to kill you.”

Her world disappeared into nothing.

****

Vale dove under the water. After everything, the ring, his pledge, she still doubted him. Her wall remained in perfect condition, leaving him on the other side. He needed to prove his point, and using a reed as a makeshift snorkel, he waited under the water.

In no hurry, he stayed submerged making sure not to move and create any ripples. He was at a loss as to how to make her believe in him. He wouldn’t say he loved her when he didn’t even believe in love. He wouldn’t be the one to lie to her or disappoint her. What they felt was instinct, a primal need to be together.

His foot grazed a rock, and he contemplated picking it up for her. Before he bent down, he stopped. Something was off, but the water dampened his senses. He sprung to the surface, turning toward the vacant shore. Right now she should be splashing about and calling for him. “Kira!”

Silence and his own innate intuition answered him. He swam to shore, hoping he was wrong, but the second he made it to land, he knew, and the hairs on the back of his neck stood at attention. “Kira?” He smelled her terror, causing his knees to buckle. “No!” Xander had taken her. His stench was everywhere. His half-brother found them because he let his guard down. No wonder he wasn’t a leader. He couldn’t even protect his own mate.

With no time for pity, he forced himself to act. Heart pumping and muscles tensing, he readied himself for what was sure to take place. He sprinted toward the cabin, reliving how he’d failed his mate, just like his father failed his mother. He wanted to share the world with her, see her smile, work with her and never be apart. Without her by his side to make a life, he had no life.

“I love her.” At last the word took on meaning. It wasn’t only instinct, but a deeper connection. Just like kissing, love came from a different side of him, but it was real.

Vengeance and panic merged throughout his body, and he rushed to the cabin to get his weapons. “I swear I will find you and tell you.” He glanced up at the nearly full moon, praying he got the chance.

****

A smooth rolling motion woke Kira, but she stayed still, peeking out through her eyelashes.

An ethereal silver-blue light flooded the car. Inside the vehicle, she counted four wolf-creatures and outside she was met with a strange off-balance city. Buildings of both ultra-modern and old-fashioned architecture lined the street. She guessed she was down below in the pack’s underground city, completely surrounded by the same element that sealed her fate with Vale.

Love, regret and longing filled her chest, strangling her heart at the thought of him. Her love for him happened fast, but it existed, as real as if it had taken years to mature.

She bit the side of her mouth, holding back a scream when the light dimmed and they drove into a tunnel. She didn’t know where they were taking her or if Vale would come for her. Her heart tried to wipe away any doubts her mind had regarding whether he would rescue her. “How long do you think it will it take for him to show up?” one of the males asked.

“About as long as it will take him to realize she was gone. Fool thought I wouldn’t find him in his little hideaway. One threat to my father’s old aide told me everything. His human side makes him stupid.”

“You killed your father’s aide,” the male said.

“I’m going to do the same to him, but first, I’m going to make him search.” Xander’s cold, soulless laugh filled the vehicle. “He thinks she’s his mate, and they were going to live happily ever after.”

Everyone chuckled and she squeezed her eyes shut, trapping her tears. Vale would find her, she had no doubt. Only her belief in him came too late.

Once again, Vale would risk his life to save her. It wasn’t instinct that drove him to her, it was love, a deliberate move made because he wanted her. Maybe he couldn’t say he loved her, but for once, she needed to listen to her inner voice. Vale’s actions said more than his words.

The car came to a stop. Xander drug her out and slung her over his shoulder. They went through a series of corridors, bringing her into a large, empty room with rough, jagged walls making the space feel as if it were carved right into the stone. If there were chains or cages, or possibly a fire-breathing dragon, she would have thought she was in a dungeon.

Xander dropped her in the corner, and with no point in pretending she was unconscious, she stared at him. There was an array of werewolves around her, ranging from the more wolf-like scouts who personified what she imagined when she thought of werewolves, to the beastly upright and speaking ruling class and a few of the middle class varieties in between. Vale, her elegant male with the sculpted, angular face and silver skin, didn’t seem as if he could be related to these creatures.

“Ah, so she joins us.” Xander paced in front of her, the pound of his heavy strides echoing off the stone walls.

She primed herself to act, waiting for Xander to make his move. No way would she sit motionless, a damsel in distress in the dungeon waiting for her silver knight. She would fight for herself and for Vale. When Xander stopped and bent down on his haunches in front of her, she kicked, hitting nothing but a solid mass.

Xander caught her foot, pulling her toward him. “We have a feisty one.”

“Ah!” Her head hit the ground, but she forced herself to keep her eyes open and stay alert.

He moved over her, sticking his face into hers. “I didn’t know my brother liked it that way.”

She thought she would vomit when she caught a whiff of his foul breath. Rotten meat mixed with something she didn’t dare describe filled her nose. She moved her knee up between them. “Oh, God.”

“Not down here. Try again.” His fangs shined in dim light. “Watch your movements, little human, one slip and you won’t own that leg anymore.”

“Vale.” His name naturally left her lips. She knew he had to be here or close, and though she couldn’t smell him or sense him as he did her, she wished she could.

“Not yet,” he said. “But soon, this place absolutely stinks of him.”

Three of the wolves surrounded her and even more scouts. They used her as bait to get Vale here, and she had to believe he could overcome them all to save her.
She had to believe.
“He will kill all of you.”

He moved closer and sniffed her. “How long did it take for him to have you?”

Chills coursed through her.

“My guess is less than a day.” He took her hand, held it up and touched her ring.

Her ring turned to liquid, falling to droplets and disappearing into the rock. The only item she had from Vale vanished like it never existed.

“No!” She managed to turn and rubbed her hands along the floor only to find nothing but the splash of her own tears. She swallowed, refusing to cry or break down in front of this monster. These creatures knew everything down to the fact that Vale was near. She had to do something to throw them off their guard.

“Humans are so gullible.” He stood and turned to the rest. “Even my half-wit, half-brother could convince her to conspire against us!”

“I didn’t know you were here. I only wanted to learn about the element.” She pushed herself up. Maybe she could reason with him.

“I only wanted to learn about the element,” Xander mimicked her voice.

She got up on her knees and looked at the floor once more in search of her ring. “That’s the truth. I want nothing from you.”

“You miss your mate and his pledge.” His voice mocked her and he grabbed her face. “Maybe you shouldn’t settle for second best. Look at me.”

She kept her focus just beyond him.

“I told you to look at me.” Xander moved into her field of vision and his eyes began to glow.

Vale’s beautiful face flashed in her mind. She remembered when he put her into a trance to calm her and prove he was real. Strength found her. She would remain in control. She shut her eyes so as to not fall under any spell, and spit right in his face “Get away from me!”

“And you call us animals.” He struck her across the face, his claws ripping her skin. “I wouldn’t soil myself with a useless human.”

Her flesh burned, searing hot where he sliced her. The pain radiated through her body. Her blood droplets made an abstract pattern on the silver floor.

“But I will teach you about my world.” He picked her up by her hair and shoved her against the wall.

“No!” She resisted, lashing out with her arms and legs, but he managed to clasp her wrists above her head. The rock melted around her hands, oozing between her fingers and hardening, leaving her dangling, her toes barely able to touch the ground. She hung her head back, resting it on the jagged wall. How would she get out of this? She couldn’t even move her fingers.

“I’m the only one who can free you now.” His breath scraped across her ear. “Pretty soon you’ll be begging for only the best.” Before he backed away, he dug his claws deep into her stomach. “Let’s see how well humans do with healing.”

She cried out as blood seeped from her middle down her legs, soaking her pants. The only way she could break through the agony was to try to focus on every moment she had with Vale. She inhaled, taking her time exhaling, breathing through the pain, but all she wanted to do was close her eyes and disappear.

She willed herself to stay conscious. Vale would not find her dead.
She was his mate
.

****

Vale shoved a knife into his waistband, checked the other three he strapped on, and prepared himself to land right in the center of a trap. If Xander wasn’t luring him to the pack, he would have either found Kira’s body on the bank of the lake, or he wouldn’t have gotten this far without a fight. The only formality Xander missed was to send him an engraved invitation.

After hiding in a chamber, he climbed into a passageway high above the caves where he could take his time. No doubt Xander counted on the fact he would act in haste.

His connection and his love for Kira allowed him to sense her before he saw her. His arms went weak. The metallic taste of the blood she’d shed settled in the back of his throat. Yes, she was alive, but she was injured.