Wild Hearts (Blood & Judgment #1) (10 page)

“Not…violate,” he says.

“What?” I bark.

He doesn’t answer.

Let’s see how he likes it. I slide my hand underneath his armor and press it roughly to his dick. I fail to stifle a gasp as I feel that he’s rock hard.

Our eyes lock, both of us as surprised as the other.

Oh my God.

Desire burns in his wide-eyed gaze and it’s like a punch in the gut, slamming into me and knocking me off-kilter in an unfamiliar way.

I pull my hand away quickly and he groans.

“Yeah, see how you like being…touched…like that,” I bite at him, needing to save face here big time now, but failing miserably with the breaks in my voice.

He looks as uncomfortable and as out of sorts as I feel. He breaks our strange, intense eye contact and his gaze sweeps down my body. “You are badly injured. You will not be victorious. To take me on is foolish.”

Is he
warning
me? Giving me a way out?

No. Impossible. Wow, maybe it’s not just my body that’s in a state. My mind seems to be playing tricks on me.

I feel movement to my right. Ember. She’s about to make a move.

Cahl tenses. Shit, he’s sensing it too.

Damn, that vamp can move. I barely see the blade. It’s little more than a blur as she comes at him with it.

But his hand shoots out, grabbing her wrist.

I hear a crack and she grunts with the pain, before she shakes it off in the next second. It seems like it’s already healed.

Before I can do anything, his hand to my chest propels me into the opposite wall of the hotel room. I grunt as my back jars painfully against it. As I slump to the floor, I see Cahl throw the knife at Ember. It embeds itself deep in her neck. I guess that’s his payback to her for earlier. Oh fuck. She chokes, stumbling back, as she clutches at her neck. It’s hit an artery. That much is clear from the rapid pulses of blood spewing from her neck. Good thing she’s a vamp, or that’d be an instant death.

As she collapses to her knees, our eyes lock. I see her fear there. Fear for me. Cahl’s advancing on me and she’s afraid he’s going to kill me while I’m in a weakened state like this. Why? Why does she care whether I live or die? Who the hell is she?

His mammoth shadow falls over me and I look up to see him towering above me. His eyes dance with confusion as he takes me in.

“You do not shift, wolf? Why?”

Grunting, I push myself back to my feet, using the wall behind me for support. Urgh. I hate not being at full strength. It’s a real bitch.

“Your kind is stronger in wolf form,” he goes on.

His hand shoots out and he grabs my chin. Shockingly, his touch is actually gentle. He tips my head back, making me look him in the eyes.

“You are not what they told me.”

I glance behind him at Ember and she has the same
what-the-hell-is-this
expression on her face as I do. She’s struggling to pull out the blade. Looks like he drove it really deep.

Cahl releases my chin and steps back, shaking his head to himself. It seems like he’s fighting something and trying to get a grip.

It’s my opportunity to end this.

I roar and pounce at him.

Either I’m slower right now, or he’s faster than the other Ambassadors I’ve come into contact with, because he catches me.

We struggle, each trying to subdue the other. It sends us crashing into the closed bathroom door. The damn thing tears from its hinges at the impact of our combined weight. I hear it smack into the shower wall with a nasty thud as I lose my footing and slip on the stupid tiled floor. Before I know it, I’m on my back on the cold floor with Cahl’s heavy body on top of mine.

Jesus Christ. How much does he weigh?

I realize just how weak I really am when I press my hands to his chest to push him off me and I can’t lift him.

He moves quickly, his hands grabbing my arms and wrenching them above my head. He holds them to the floor with one hand, his grip so powerful and crushing that it has me hissing at him. His legs hold mine subdued.

“That was foolish, wolf.”

“Aria,” I snap. “You asshole. I have a name.”

“Aria,” his deep baritone booms back at me. God, the way it sounds in his mouth is…
stop it!

I’ve had enough of this bullshit.

“Kill me then,” I challenge, as he just stays on top of me, studying me intently for God knows what reason.

“You are
asking
me to kill you?”

I scoff. “Asking? I don’t
ask
for shit, babe. I’m
telling
you.”

He shifts his weight. I see his hand go to the sword at his hip. His fingers slowly close over the handle of the deadly weapon. And then he stills. “You wish for this?”

“It’s kill, or be killed.”
Make your damn move, so I can make mine already.

Something flashes in his eyes then. Something I don’t understand. “Is it?”

“What?”

“Is there not more than…this?” he says, the regret in his voice shocking me to my core.

Before I can get a word out, he does that head-shaking thing again and abruptly climbs off me.

The next thing I know, he’s launching himself through the broken window and disappearing into the night.

“What the—?”

“My sentiments exactly,” Ember says, suddenly in the bathroom doorway.

I growl with agitation and get to my feet slowly. “Jesus, how long does it take a vamp to pull a damn knife outta their neck? It isn’t like you’re gonna bleed out and die from it.”

Her eyes narrow. “It was embedded in my C3 vertebrae, if you must know,
wolf
. Takes me a minute to shake it off. How about you? What exactly were you trying to do? Kill him, or fuck him, huh?”

I glare at her for a second, before turning from her and crossing to the shower. I switch it on and tell her, “I need a damn shower.”

“What? We need to leave.”

“And we will. After I shower.”

“Humph,” she grumbles. “It’s going to take time for me to find another place.”

I eye her as I start stripping off my leather jacket. “I have a place.”

“Where?”

“You’ll see.”

She folds her arms across her chest and strikes a pose. Urgh. Rich bitch vamp. “You’re not going to tell me? You don’t trust me? I saved your life—more than once.”

“It’s been made clear to me recently that saving a life isn’t enough to keep someone’s trust these days.” Speaking of that, I’m gonna track that fucker, Tony, and kill him for his betrayal.

I see her thinking over what I’ve just said, probably trying to gauge her best way to manipulate me in order to change my mind.

She must sense my resolve, because all she actually says is, “Whatever.”

She’s still not leaving the bathroom, though.

I strip off my tank top and reach around to unclasp my bra.

Her eyes widen, going straight to the wolf tattoo over my heart.

“You want a show?”

"Not my type," she growls, pissed at my dismissal. "But I want to keep an eye on you."

She turns and walks out, hovering on the edge of the doorway, grumbling some shit to herself.

I finish stripping off and then I step into the shower. I close my eyes and let the warm water soothe me as much as possible. I just need…I just need a moment to zone out. The last few hours have been intense…for several reasons.

I need to get my shit together. And fast.

And then the vamp and I will talk about why the hell she’s here and why she bothered saving my life back at the compound.

I already know one thing for sure: more trouble is coming my way.

Chapter 10

~Aria~

I heave a tired sigh as I close the door to my new 'bedroom' in our new wolf base, situated deep in the Cormon Mountains. It’s the room at the far end of the second floor corridor, slightly set off from the other rooms. It’s a little perk of being Alpha—a bit more privacy than everyone else.

Bringing a vampire to our new safe house did not go over well with my wolves at all. That age-old hatred between wolves and vampires is still very much alive today. Even with me explaining that Ember had saved their Alpha’s life, they were still incredibly skeptical.

I’ve managed to settle them down for now.

Besides, after my display of power to them outside that biker bar, they know I have the means to protect them, even if this goes sour. If the vampire shows any signs of jeopardizing the safety of my pack, I will kill her in an instant. No hesitation.

But, for now, I need to keep her around.

Her abilities are beyond that of any regular vamp. I witnessed her strength and speed during the battle in the hotel. It’s not hard to put two and two together. She’s like me, I believe.
More
than the rest of her species. And vampire, or not, I could use the backup. Being the first and last line of defense and the
only
one who can take on those Ambassador assholes and live to tell the tale has been taxing, to say the least. Real hell on earth. It never stops. I can never let my guard down. I always have to be at my best and one step ahead of everyone.

I guess the stress of that is what had me making a huge mistake with Tony. I should’ve seen that coming, but I hadn’t. It almost cost me my life. The fact that it put me out of commission for hours was bad enough. If Ember hadn’t been there, what the hell would I have done? Jesus, I messed up.

We need to talk. I’d wanted to on the way over here, but it’d been a hell of a rush to make it here before the sun came up. After airing her complaints about our
pitiful living conditions,
she settled into one of the spare rooms pretty quickly, citing that she was exhausted and needed to rest. I guess, even with her
special
abilities, she still feels the exhausting effects of the sun like any other vamp.

I eye the queen-sized bed in the corner of the simple room. I really should rest, too. My body needs it to finish healing fully. I can’t afford to be in a weakened state any longer.

I walk to the bed, stripping off my disgusting clothes as I go. They’re stained with blood, dirty beyond belief and ripped all over. A gym bag beside the bed catches my attention.
Thank you, Carter.
There will be clean clothes, weapons, toiletries and everything I need in there.

I pull the thin duvet cover back and climb into bed naked. I don’t even have the energy to check for pajamas, or whatever, inside the bag. I just need to rest.

As soon as my head hits the pillow, I’m out.

***

I wake up to darkness and…something else. A presence.

Is someone in my room?

I can’t smell anything. There’s no scent. But I can feel that I’m not alone.

I bolt up in bed, clutching the sheets to my chest.

“Who’s there?” I call out into the darkness, as I fight to adjust my eyes to it.

I’m a wolf. My eyes should be able to adjust instantly. But they aren’t. I can’t see a thing. Oh my God. What’s happening here? I can’t pick up a scent
or
see in the damn dark?

A low growl escapes me and I’m about to call my wolf claws to the surface when a deep, soothing voice utters, “You are not in any danger.”

“Really?” I bite back. “Then show yourself.
Now
.”

I gasp in shock as the foggy darkness dissipates and the intruder is revealed.

He’s standing over by the door in a rigid, ready-for-anything pose. A soldier’s stance if I ever saw one. My eyes wander over him. His brown hair that’s styled in a military crew cut. Those deep, enthralling hazel eyes that have this uncanny ability to hold me captive in a way I’ve never known before. The golden breastplate covering his broad, muscular torso. My gaze dips lower to some sort of kilt-like thing extending to the tops of his thighs. His legs are protected by golden armor and his knee-high boots appear metallic too. But the thing that stands out above all else is that awful Sword of Judgment holstered at his right hip.

Cahl.

Fuck. He’s here to finish the job. How the hell did he find me?

I scramble to wrap the duvet around me to hide my nakedness. That, in itself, is an odd reaction for me. I feel shy about being exposed to him. That’s never been the case for me before. I’ve never been ill at ease with being unclothed.

I hurry off the bed, clutching the duvet tightly to my chest with one hand, while keeping my other free to defend myself with if he makes a sudden move.

I can feel that I’m healed now and back at full strength, so I only need one to take this Ambassador asshole down. That’s pretty cocky, but I know my power. Even though I definitely felt that he was stronger than the other Ambassadors I’ve come into contact with in the past, I know I can still hold my own.