Through the Veil (2 page)

Chapter Two

Reggie didn’t know how long she’d been running when she
first heard the song. It was beautiful though she couldn’t make out the words.
They seemed to be in a language that she wasn’t familiar with. All she knew was
that someone was either singing it or playing it and if she could just find
that person she might find help.

There was something comforting about the song, as if safety
would be given if she just followed where it led her. She wondered vaguely if
they had given her more than the sleeping drug. Or maybe it was just the pain
that was now radiating from her feet up and through her entire body. She knew
that they were bruised, torn and bloody from the scratches they bore. But she couldn’t
afford to stop until she found help or at the very least a safe place to hide.

She kept running until she saw the fog rising from the
ground. It grew thicker until it was like a veil separating her from the path
behind her. She floundered forward, hands out in hopes of preventing herself
from running into something. She prayed she wasn’t heading toward a ledge and
serious injury or death if she fell. But just as suddenly as it appeared the
veil of fog seemed to lift.

It was as if by disappearing as suddenly as it had appeared,
it lifted a covering or screen from her eyes. The forest around her seemed
brighter, more colorful and alive than it had been before. She heard the
trickle of a waterfall and headed in that direction. The song had stopped and though
that should worry her she felt as if she were safe now. It was hard to explain
even to herself, but she felt as though she was where she was supposed to be.

She came upon the pool of water and sighed in appreciation.
It was in a lush garden oasis surrounded by rich green bushes and flowers. The
water she had heard was from a waterfall that fed the pool from above. It
wasn’t very big but appeared deep enough to swim in. Reggie wanted nothing more
than to strip and jump in, washing off all that had been done to her and all
that could have been done to her, still would be if she hadn’t managed to
escape.

She made her way down the path that led to the pool and
stood at the bank, just looking into the clear water. She dipped her foot in
and sighed as the water seemed to ease the burn in her foot. She ripped at the
material in her hurry to lift it up and over her head, just wanting to rid
herself of what they had put on her. She sat on the edge, dangling both legs
into the pool, and felt the caress of the water on them.

It was as she imagined a lover’s hands would feel, warming
and stroking over her skin. She slid all the way into the water, letting it
embrace her as she slipped fully beneath its surface. It held her, making her
body come alive everywhere it touched her. With a gasp she surfaced, inhaling
deep breaths of air into her lungs. Her hands rubbed over her body, trying to
soothe the burn she felt now.

Her entire body was alive and churning with desire. The more
she moved in the water the higher the burn seemed to go. She swam quickly over
to a rock that rested just beneath the fall of water. Hopping up, she leaned
back on it, spreading her thighs so that the water fell onto her body like a
million tiny hands stroking her flesh. It was so good and yet still it wasn’t
enough. One hand moved down between her thighs while the other played with her
breasts and nipples. She wondered if this was due to some drug that they had
given her in preparation for her wedding night that had just kicked in.

Whatever it was she would probably jump the first thing that
came upon her if her body didn’t settle down. For a woman who had never known a
lover’s touch she certainly craved it now. She rubbed her thumb over her turgid
clit and felt the flood of juice from her pussy as she orgasmed. But it wasn’t
enough. She needed more, a deeper touch, something to fill her clenching
channel.

She leaned her head back and closed her eyes as her fingers
moved in and out of her pussy. She held her pussy lips open with one hand so
that the water continued caressing her clit while she fucked herself with the
fingers of the other hand. She needed more. Her eyes flew open and, gazing up,
she saw two men at the top of the path she had taken down. They just stood
there, watching her as if they couldn’t believe that she was there.

They didn’t look like anyone she had seen in the camp where
her mother had tricked her into going. They wore nothing but brown pants that
might be leather or something similar. She couldn’t really tell from where she
was. They had long hair, just past their shoulders, whereas all the men she had
seen in the camp had worn military-short hair. The color appeared to change as
they moved in the sunlight. Brown, then blond, then red, and she realized as
they moved down the path and closer to her that it held all of those colors.

They were big, easily taller than her five-foot-five-inch
frame, with broad shoulders and well-formed arms. Hair spread across their
chests and then tapered into a thin line that trailed down their six-pack abs
to disappear into the band of their pants, where very noticeable bulges showed.
She licked her lips as they squatted by the edge of the water and looked at
her.

Chocolate. That was the warm color of their eyes. She licked
her lips again and arched her breasts up into the water’s caress and wished it
was their hands on her. She had no idea why she suddenly wanted these two men,
but she did. Both of them. She had just run from one man, hoping to escape his
touch on her body and now here she was craving the touch of another. Not just
one but two. What was wrong with her?

“You need to get out of the pool,” one of them said and his
voice was deep and seductive like a verbal caress to her senses.

“I can’t,” she whispered.

“The need will only get stronger the longer you stay in the
water,” the other one said and though his voice wasn’t as deep it was just as
stimulating.

“They drugged me,” she said. “I must still be drugged.”

“They?” the first one again. “I promise you that what you
are feeling is from the waters of the bridal pool.”

“Bridal pool?” she asked, gasping as the sexual desire raged
through her body.

“The pool that you are in is the bridal pool,” the second
one spoke. “It is used strictly by our women to wash in prior to forming a
mating bond.”

“Oh God,” she moaned. It seemed that she had left one cult
behind only to find herself in another one. A mating bond? Her body was on fire
and she was finding it hard to fight against the pull she felt to leave the
water and join them on the banks.

“Are you saying that you do not know of the pool? That you
are not promised in a mating bond?” She was beyond knowing which of them was
speaking now. Need burned thick and strong through her, making it hard to focus
on anything but her body.

“No,” she moaned.

“But it is forbidden to be here unless you are to bond,” one
of them said.

“Who are you?” she asked.

“I am Jamison Ballard,” the one with the deep voice said.
“And this is my brother Taggart. What is your name?”

“Reggie,” she breathed out.

“Such a harsh name for such a beautiful woman,” Taggart
said.

She chose to ignore that. After the past day she was damned
if she wanted to be called Regina by anyone again. “Where am I?”

“You are in the valley,” Jamison spoke softly. “White
Valley.”

“I’ve never heard of White Valley,” she said. She hadn’t
spent much time at the national park and even less once she hit her teen years.
Still, growing up, she’d never heard anyone mention a place called White
Valley.

“Only those worthy can enter the valley,” Taggart told her.

Great. It was some other type of cult. When did they start
popping up around her hometown? She hadn’t heard of any before she left and she
hadn’t really been gone that long.

“You must come out of the water,” Jamison said.

“Come get me,” she said instead, not feeling up to moving
just yet. She was struggling to think as it was. She needed to work on a plan
to get her out of this new mess. But this time her body was fighting her.
Instead of the revulsion of earlier she was craving their touch, which made no
sense whatsoever. She didn’t know them or anything about this valley they
called home.

“It is forbidden for men to enter the sacred waters of the
bridal pool, Reggie,” Taggart said.

“You must come to us,” Jamison added in that deep seductive
voice of his. “We can help to ease you.”

“Ease me,” she repeated, knowing that he meant they would
take care of the physical need rampaging through her body. It made no sense and
yet she suddenly didn’t care. She wanted to give in to the desire, wanted to
feel them against her, inside her. There would be time enough later to figure
out where she was, when her mind could focus on more than her body’s need. At
least she hoped there would be. Surely the flames of desire couldn’t stay this
intense for too much longer.

“I hurt,” she breathed as she slipped back into the water
and moved toward them. “I ache.”

“It is the water,” Jamison assured her. “It prepares you to
mate, making the desire for touch so powerful that it cannot be denied.”

“Yes,” she agreed as she reached the bank. Taggart held a
hand out to her and she took it. He pulled her easily from the water and she
found herself naked between the two brothers. “Touch me,” she pleaded, wanting
nothing more than to feel their hands on her. Jamison was right, she couldn’t
fight the desire surging through her.

“Our hands are tied until you say the words,” Taggart said.

“What words?” she demanded. “What do you need me to say?” At
this point she would say anything if it would help alleviate the painful desire
she felt.

“You must choose us as your mates,” Jamison stated softly.
“You must say the words that will allow us to claim you and begin the bond as
mates.”

Mates? Claim? There was something wrong about that but she
couldn’t seem to focus on that right now. “Yes, yes,” she cried, her hands
massaging her aching breasts. “I choose you.”

Jamison and Taggart both chuckled. “You must say the bonding
words,” Taggart said.

Words came to her, filling her mind, and it was as if a
voice whispered them to her, the voice she had followed here, the one who sang
the song. “I choose Jamison and Taggart Ballard as my mates.”

Jamison and Taggart had been waiting all their adult lives
to hear those words. They were the most beautiful words that a man could hear.
Bonding words that assured a man that a woman chose him to form her life bond
with. For in their valley the weres mated for life, only death could separate
them.

Just this morning they had awoken to the message that Lynx
wanted to see them. No one kept the old wolf waiting so Jamison and Taggart had
hurried to see what he needed of them. What they had heard had been hard to
believe.

“The fairy queen has begun issuing a mating call,” Lynx told
them. “This morning the rest of the village will see the truth of that when
Dimitri and Sebastian Cordova officially introduce their new mate Dakota.”

“It is true!” Taggart exclaimed but Jamison had remained
silent.

“It is true,” Lynx nodded. “The fairy queen issues the call
through song and only those worthy will hear and be allowed to cross beyond the
veil and enter White Valley.”

“How is that possible?” Jamison asked. “I thought it was
impossible to cross the veil since so many left long ago?”

“All things are possible if the queen decides so,” Lynx
replied but something in his eyes made Jamison wonder. “The thing you must
understand is that the women who come from the other side live in a different
world, one where they are no longer treated as the treasures that they are.
They often work harder and longer than any man. They are sometimes discarded
and left by those who they trusted to care for them.”

“How could any man do that?” Taggart demanded. Women were to
be cherished and protected above all else.