Shadow Soldier (28 page)

Brody drove, with Lynk riding shotgun, while Deke and Roux secured themselves in the back of the enclosed trailer. Even though they mostly stuck to highways, it wasn’t a smooth ride, and Deke made a mental note to punch Brody in the face when they arrived.

“What happens if people don’t want to go with us?” Roux asked, swaying forward when the truck began to slow. “Do we just leave them?”

“We can’t force them to go, kitten.” Handing his flashlight over to Roux, Deke banged on the front end of the box trailer. “Why are we stopping?”

He heard one of the cab doors open and close, then a moment later, the back door on the trailer rolled up, spilling in yellow light from the streetlamps. Nodding for Roux to follow, Deke exited the van, jumping the three feet to the gravel of the grocer parking lot before turning to help his mate down.

“Brody, what the fuck? We’re supposed to be on the other side of town.”

“I know,” the guy answered, joining them at the back of the truck. “I think you need to see this, though.”

Deke didn’t need to see, but he followed Brody to the front of the cab anyway. He could smell the smoke on the air, mingled with the scent of blood and decay. His sensitive hearing picked up the faint crackle of flames, and the hum of downed power lines.

“Oh, my god,” Roux breathed, coming to stand beside him. “We’re too late.”

An eerie orange glow lit the sky over the city, tinged with a haze of gray smoke. The fires hadn’t been burning long, maybe a couple of hours, which somehow made their failure even more devastating.

“What do you think?” Brody asked. “Ravagers or Wardens?”

“Ravagers,” Lynk answered immediately, pointing the northeast. “The Wardens wouldn’t have burned down the estate.”

“Do you think the king survived?” Linking his fingers together, Brody rested his hands on the top of his head. “Does it make me a dick to hope he didn’t?”

Deke shook his head. “I don’t know if he survived or not, but I’m right there with you. Let the sadistic prick burn.”

Ignoring them, Roux took a couple of steps toward the burning city. “Maybe some people made it out, or maybe they hid.”

Roux’s optimism made Deke love her that much more, but he couldn’t share in her faith. The townspeople had no weapons, no vehicles, and no way to call for help. Even if some had taken to the woods, Ravagers would have tracked them down before they ever reached safety.

Wrapping his arms around her shoulders, he tucked his mate against his side and kissed the top of her head. “I’m sorry, kitten. There’s nothing more we can do here.”

“We have to try,” she insisted.

“We’ll do it.” Lynk jerked his thumb at Brody. “We’ll stay, search for survivors.”

Brody bobbed his head in agreement. “Don’t worry, Roux, if anyone survived, we’ll find them and catch up with you in a couple of days.”

“Take the van,” Lynk insisted. “We’ll move faster on foot.”

Moving away from Deke’s side, Roux crossed her arms over her breasts and scowled. “How will you get to St. Louis?”

Brody just laughed at her. “Roux, relax. It’s not like we haven’t done this before.” Stepping forward, he grabbed her shoulders, pulling her into a tight hug. “Stop worrying. You’ll see us again.”

They argued for several more minutes before Deke finally agreed that they’d all stay, spend the night at his place, and search the city come daylight. Lynk snorted at his willingness to accommodate his mate, but Deke didn’t care what the shifter thought of him.

He didn’t feel right about leaving when there could be survivors in town. Plus, with four of them, the search wouldn’t take more than a couple of hours, and they could be on the road before noon. Plus, Roux was right. They’d lost too many of their own already, and he couldn’t stomach the thought of losing anyone else when he could prevent it.

Silent tears streaked down Roux’s cheeks as he drove through the remains of the city. Staring out her window, she wiped roughly at her eyes and sniffed.

“It feels like everything is falling apart,” she confessed when they reached their driveway. “Everyone’s gone.”

Thankfully, the entire street had been untouched by the destruction, and Deke breathed a sigh of relief as he cut the engine. “Not everyone.” He reached across the bench seat to squeeze her hand. “We’ll see Cade and the others again,” he vowed with more certainty than he felt.

And every part of him prayed he’d be able to keep that promise.

* * * *

Even with the Lynk and Brody sleeping down the hall, the once welcoming two-bedroom home felt barren, lonely. Deke continued to reassure her that they’d see their friends again, that everything would be okay, but Roux couldn’t shake the feeling that things would get worse before they got better.

The next stop of
their journey across the country would land them on the outskirts of werewolf-controlled territory. Roux didn’t look forward to venturing into the notorious Demon Alley, but she disliked her friends traveling there alone even more.

“We shouldn’t have split up,” she said for what felt like the thousandth time.

She was driving herself crazy with worry, and she knew Deke must have reached his limit hours ago. Still, he never lost his patience with her.

“Maybe you’re right,” he answered as he crawled into their bed, probably for the last time. “It’s done now, though, and we can’t go back. Take a deep breath, Roux. With any luck, we’ll see Cade and the rest tomorrow.”

Slipping under the blankets, Roux snuggled up next to her mate and rested her head on his chest. The steady rhythm of his heartbeat calmed her, soothed some of her anxiety, and she smiled against his warm skin.

“Deke?”

“Yes, kitten?”

“Thank you for loving me.”

Rolling her onto her back, Deke hovered over her, insinuating himself between her thighs. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. So, believe when I say it’s no chore to love you. It’s my privilege.”

“I love you, too, Deke. I’m just worried.”

“I know, kitten. So am I, but we’ll get through this just like we do everything else. Together.” He rubbed their cheeks together, then nipped at her bottom lip. “Now, quiet that beautiful brain of yours and let me take care of you for a little while.”

Their lips met in a slow, tender kiss that spread warmth throughout Roux’s body. Curling her arms and legs around her mate, she pulled him closer, trying her best to suspend them in that one perfect moment where their troubles didn’t exist.

Deke’s hands mapped her body, caressing her sensitive skin beneath her shirt and teasing the swell of her breasts. Without hurry or urgency, they undressed each other, peeling away one layer at a time in between kisses until they rested skin to warm skin.

His soft lips skimmed down the length of her throat and across her collarbones, stoking the embers that burned in her belly. When his skillful mouth found her nipple, sucking the hard bud between his teeth to flick his tongue across the tip, Roux moaned into his hair as slick heat drenched her pussy.

Deke took his time, exploring her body with a thoroughness that left her breathless. When the need finally became too much for both of them, he positioned the head of his swollen cock at her entrance and pushed inside, filling and stretching her. Still, the usual frantic urgency never came, and they made slow, lazy love, coming together in slow glides and languid kisses.

Eventually, their tempo increased, the need for release to great to ignore. When Roux’s climax struck, it stole her breath, hurling her over the edge, and Deke followed, tumbling into the abyss with her.

Blinking open her eyes, she found her mate staring down at her with a strange smile on his lips. “What?”

“Mine,” he whispered, his voice cracking on the single word.

She’d never had anyone to call her own, never anyone she wanted for more than a night. With Deke, everything had changed…she had changed. Sometimes, her love for him overwhelmed her, almost to the point of pain, but she wouldn’t trade it for anything.

A long road, likely filled with more struggles and more loss, stretched out before them, but she’d be right there to fight by his side. The world had ended, and they’d still found each other. This time would be no different. As Deke had said, they’d figure it out together.

Individually, they were strong, but when they worked as a team, they were unstoppable.

Linking her fingers together behind her mate’s neck, she pulled him into another kiss filled with everything in her heart that she couldn’t bring herself to say. When they broke apart, and he smiled down at her, she could think of only one word—a single word filled with a thousand promises.

“Mine.”

Stepping out of the SUV at the Revenant compound in St. Louis, Corporal Thea Mendez pulled her handgun from its holster and disengaged the safety. Her boots crunched against the debris littering the parking lot of the converted truck stop, her footfalls echoing eerily through the early morning.

“Are you sure this is the place?” Cade exited from the driver’s side door—motioning for Abby to stay put—and rounded the front of the SUV to join Thea.

“This is the place,” Zerrik confirmed, appearing on her right with the map Captain Collins had given them before they’d left Pittsburgh. “This doesn’t feel right. Where is everyone?”

There should have been Revenant guards to greet them, yet when Thea sniffed at the air, she didn’t scent anyone except the members of her party. The front door of the rest stop hung from a single hinge. The large windows had been shattered, the pieces of glass strewn over the ground, glinting in the sunlight. Tall weeds grew from the cracks in the pavement, giving their surroundings an air of abandonment.

She agreed with Zerrik that something felt off about the place, but then again, she’d thought the same thing about the bunker in Pittsburgh. From the outside, the warehouse had appeared unremarkable, and it made sense that a truck stop on the side of the highway would be no different.

“Should we check it out?” she asked.

Pulling his own gun from its holster, Zerrik glanced at Cade and then back to the SUV. “Stay with Abby, but keep your eyes open. If you see anything, don’t be selfish. Share.” Once he had Cade’s agreement, he turned back to Thea. “Ready?”

Thea chambered a round into her 9mm, stared into the darkness beyond the broken windows, and nodded.

“Let’s go.”

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Born with a silver tongue and a pen in her hand, Kali spends her days sleeping (she's part vampire) and her nights crafting scandalous romances with larger-than-life heroes.

Self-proclaimed patron goddess of reclusiveness, Kali currently resides in the Midwest with her oddly supportive family and tragically misunderstood cat. 

Seriously, though, the cat is evil.

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