“What’s he doing now?” Heather whispered.

“You know he can still hear you, right?” Crina asked with a small smile.

“That’s not the point. The point is I feel safer if I whisper,” Heather said, still whispering.

Kara stood behind Heather who was sitting next to Stella on the ground, leaning back against the large fallen tree trunk they’d been using as a bench. Crina stood behind Stella, her eyes narrowed. They’d been watching Gustavo for the past couple of days. He would go from anxious, when he wasn’t communicating with Anna through their bond, to near uncontrollable rage, when he was communicating with her. He wouldn’t tell them exactly what was going on with her, but Kara got the feeling Anna was experiencing excruciating pain because Gustavo would sometimes double over in pain himself. It was heart wrenching to watch.

Adam was on constant alert, and she didn’t know the last time he had slept. He was at least eating each time the pixies brought them food, so he was getting sustenance, if not rest.

“Are you concerned about Adam?” she asked Crina.

Crina looked at her mate, and Kara saw in the wolf’s eyes the love she felt for him. “He says he’s fine. I have to trust him for now. If at any point I get the feeling that he’s going to collapse, I’ll knock him out while you three distract him.”

“I heard that,” Adam called out, obviously not feeling the same need to whisper that Heather felt.

“I wasn’t trying to keep it from you. Just remember that I will do it if I must,” Crina said back.

Gustavo suddenly roared, sounding more like a lion than a wolf. Heather stood up straighter and took a step back when the enraged wolf pulled a large tree from the ground and threw it into the forest. He was breathing hard, and his fingers protruded with claws. When he turned to face them, the look in his eyes was like looking into the face of death.

Kara wouldn’t lie. She was terrified. Crina moved so fast she barely saw her until the she wolf was standing in a crouch in front of the three girls. She growled back at Gustavo in warning. Gustavo took a step toward her but froze when Adam spoke.

“That would be the wrong move to make, old man. Lay a claw on my mate and I will zap your ass.”

Kara looked over at Adam, and her eye’s widened. He had two large balls of light pulsing in his hands. He tossed one up and caught it as if he was simply tossing a baseball. His lips were set in a severe line, and his eyes were honed in on Gustavo like a heat-seeking missile. Kara could see in those eyes he wasn’t bluffing. He would throw whatever magic he was holding in his hands.

“If you need to take out some of that anger, then take it out on someone who is your equal,” the fae coaxed. “Taking it out on a female just proves you’re a pansy.”

“Adam.” Crina growled. “Shut up.”

“Sorry, pussy cat, can’t do that,” Adam said in a teasing voice, though his face was still deadly serious.

“Don’t call me pussy cat, you overgrown toddler,” she snapped back.

“That’s not what you were calling me the last time we laid in our bed,” he taunted.

“Do you really think now is the time to be joking?”

He shrugged. “If I’m going to die, what better to occupy my thoughts than my feisty mate rolling around in the sheets with me?”

Crina groaned and stood from her crouch. “You’re seriously messed up in the head, my crazy love.”

Gustavo turned and fully faced Adam, taking a step toward the fae, and Kara felt her heartbeat speed up. Gustavo wasn’t going to back down this time. It was written all over his face and obvious in the way he was stalking Adam. He was going to attack. If he killed Adam, then that meant Crina would die, too. Kara’s hands began to shake, and she clasped them together to keep them still.

“Are we going to do this, or are you going to stare at me all night?” Adam asked.

“You are either brave or stupid.” Gustavo grunted, his voice sounded animalistic. His eyes were glowing brighter than she’d ever seen them, and that was when she realized Gustavo’s wolf was in complete control. That couldn’t be good, not when he was in his current state of mind.

“I’ve been called both,” Adam said as he began to move, circling with Gustavo like two fighters in a ring. “And both have applied to me at one time or another. Fighting you wouldn’t be one of the stupid times though, because when I stomp your ass, I’ll have major bragging rights against the wolves, no offense pussy cat.” Adam winked at his mate.

The minute he looked away from the wolf, Gustavo lunged. Kara, along with the other girls, gasped. Adam was fast. He launched one of those balls of light, and it hit Gustavo square in the chest. The Alpha wolf flew back, smacking violently against a large tree trunk. But the wolf was on his feet in an instant. That blow should have broken something, several somethings, but Gustavo moved as if he’d been hit with a pillow. How was Adam going to be able to beat such a formidable opponent? What would happen to them if he lost?

Kara bit her bottom lip as the fear of being faced with Gustavo’s wrath, with no protector to stand between them, assaulted her. He would rip them to shreds.

Adam continued to throw magic at Gustavo, but each time a bolt of energy landed, the wolf rose unfazed. Adam jumped over his opponent and landed on his feet behind him. Gustavo whipped around, his arm swinging out, and his claws raked across Adam’s chest.

Crina snarled and started to move, but Adam held up his hand and suddenly she froze. “ADAM!” She roared at him. “Release me!”

“Not a chance, babe, not a chance,” he said as he kicked Gustavo’s knee, causing the wolf to stumble. Gustavo’s fist connected with Adam’s jaw as he righted himself. Adam backed up a few steps, jumping on the balls of his feet. He moved his jaw side to side and smiled. “Is that all you’ve got, dog?”

“Crina, your mate has a death wish,” Heather said, no longer whispering. “Or he’s just into pain.”

“Second option, Helen,” Adam called out as he pressed his hand to Gustavo’s chest. Gustavo backed up quickly as he snapped his teeth at Adam.

“What did you just do?” Crina asked.

“Nothing detrimental,” Adam said nonchalantly. “He just won’t be able to phase into his wolf form for a bit. If I let him phase, his wolf might not ever let the man back in control. At least right now, there’s still a chance that he isn’t completely feral.”

“Okay, so what’s your definition of completely feral,” Stella asked. “Because he’s looking pretty damn feral with the foaming at the mouth and incoherent speech and stuff. Just saying.”

“Naw, he’s just needing an outlet for his anger at his lack of ability to protect his female. Once he wears himself out, he’ll chill,” Adam explained as he jumped back just as Gustavo swiped at him then swept his leg out and brought Adam down to the ground.

Kara watched in awe as Adam just continued to move, never slowing down, rolling and flinging himself into the air doing a back flip over Gustavo. When he landed, he had a dagger in both hands. He wielded them, doing tricks with them, spinning them in his hands as if they were simply an extension of himself.

“Adam,” Crina practically whined.

“Hey, it’s only fair that I give him a few scratches for the ones he’s given me.”

And he did. Over the course of the next two hours, Kara and the others watched as Adam and Gustavo fought. Neither seemed to tire. Just when Kara was beginning to worry that they’d never stop, Gustavo fell to his knees, and his eyes became unfocused.

“Anna.” He breathed out, all of the fight rushing out of him in a huge breath. “Anna.” Her name was a prayer on his lips. It was spoken with such affection, love, and need that it brought tears to Kara’s eyes.

“Damn,” Heather said. “I can’t even see him, but just hearing the way he’s saying her name is making me ache for her.”

Adam put his daggers away, and Crina was finally able to move. She flew at him, instead of wrapping her arms around him like Kara thought she would, reared her arm back, and punched her mate in the face.

“Now that was awesome,” Stella laughed.

“What?” Heather asked. “What happened?”

“Crina just punched her man in the face. Not a girly slap. I’m talking jerked his head to the side she hit him so hard,” Stella told her.

Adam’s head turned back slowly. A grin so sexy that Kara’s stomach clenched was stretched across his face as he looked at his glowering mate.

“Foreplay, pussy cat,” Adam crooned and waggled his eyebrows at her. “I never knew you were a voyeur. You should have told me.”

Stella waved Kara over. “Come sit down, Kare Bear. This is about to get good.”

Kara was still suffering from the aftershocks of the fear she’d felt while Adam and Gustavo had fought, but she forced her legs to move. She made her way around the log and sat on the ground next to Stella.

“I expect a play-by-play,” Heather said.

When Stella didn’t say anything, Kara inwardly groaned as she spoke up. “Adam is looking at Crina like he’s about to devour her.”

Heather smiled. “Devouring is good.”

“Now he’s circling her,” Kara continued. “Crina looks like she’s going to claw his eyes out. And Adam looks like he would get turned on no matter how she touched him, violently or otherwise, just as long as she touches him.”

Stella turned to look at Kara. “You’re good at this.”

“What?” Kara asked.

It was Heather who answered. “At describing sexual tension.”

Kara didn’t know what to say to that, so she looked back at the couple who was now pacing each other the way Adam and Gustavo had just done. “They’re circling one another. Crina’s eyes are glowing and OOOOOHHHH,” Kara called out at the same time Stella said the exact same thing.

“What? What happened? Spit it out,” Heather said, practically bouncing where she sat.

“Crina just swiped out a clawed hand across Adam’s face,” Kara said.

“EWW,” Stella said.

“Gross,” Kara added. “He just swiped a finger across the scratches and licked the blood from his finger as he winked at her.”

“You know I like it when your wolf comes out to play, pussy cat,” Adam taunted his mate.

“I don’t like it when you use your magic on me.” She growled at him. “You know that.”

“That’s not entirely true, babe. I’m pretty sure, if I’m remembering correctly, which I am, that the last time I used my magic on you”—he paused and grinned big— “pun intended. The last time I used my magic on you, your exact words were—”

“ADAM.” Crina took a step toward him.

“Your exact words were, ‘If you stop, I’ll gut you.’”

Kara’s mouth dropped open, and Stella covered hers with her hand.

“That must have been some good magic,” Heather said and then whistled. “Maybe I should try and find me a fae male for a consort.”

For just a second, Crina turned her attention from her mate to the girls. “Please, please, I’m begging you, say that in front of your mate”—she paused and then gave her own grin—“while my mate is near him.”

Adam’s grin dropped. “Pussy cat, that’s just cruel.”

Kara tried really hard but couldn’t stop the laughter. She clamped her lips closed as her shoulders shook and slapped her hand over her mouth.

Stella was doing the same thing.

It was just so hilarious watching Crina growl at her mate while he teased her about their sex life right in front of them. The man had no shame.

Adam and Crina’s heads snapped to the right at the same time when Gustavo moved. He stood, turned his back on all of them, and disappeared into the cover of the forest.

Adam looked at his mate. “This isn’t over,” he said and then headed into the woods to, no doubt, keep an eye on the unpredictable Alpha wolf.

“Well, that was fun,” Heather said with a sigh as she leaned back against the log.

“You have a very twisted idea of fun.” Kara breathed out as she wiped the tears of laughter that had gathered in her eyes.

Heather chuckled. “Yeah, well, when you’ve been blind all your life, you get your kicks where you can. Now…” She clapped her hands together and then rubbed them. “Crina, I think it’s high time we had a girl pow wow and you tell us exactly what kind of magic your man was using on you that made you willing to gut him if he stopped.”

* * *

Anna didn’t know how long it had been since she had passed out from the pain. And she couldn’t accurately say how long she and Jewel had been at the mercy of the vampire. She had no idea how many times her skin had been carved on by the fae blade; she’d lost count some time ago. All she knew was pain. And the only time she was distracted from her pain, other than when she lost consciousness, was when she was connected to her mate.

She blinked several times and felt again what must have woken her. Rage like she’d never known flooded her body. She had the sudden urge to kill anything and anyone who dared get too close to her. Her mind was clouded with a haze of violence as the roar of a beast filled her ears. Gustavo. His fury came through the bond like a tidal wave and overwhelmed her. She shook her head, attempting to clear her mind enough to separate his feelings from her own, but Gustavo’s wrath was all consuming. She didn’t understand where it was coming from. What had set him off? When she’d pulled back from his mind the last time, she’d opened the bond enough for him to speak to her. He’d been frustrated but not enraged. Angry, yes, but not out of control. This was something entirely different.

“Gustavo?” She reached for him, but he didn’t respond. He was focused on something else. She could feel his concentration. She didn’t know what to do, but she knew their connection was powerful. She’d felt him touch her hair and skin even though he was only thinking of doing it. Maybe she could do the same and draw him back to her.

Anna pictured the man she remembered from her dream when she’d met him for the first time. He was breathtakingly beautiful. She imagined her fingers running over his face, tracing his regal cheek bones, then across his brow, smoothing the frown from his face. She blew on his face gently and smiled at his surprised eyes. “Come back to me,” she whispered. “Come be with me.”

“Anna.” He breathed out her name as if it was the most precious word he’d ever used. “Anna.”

“I’m here. I need you here with me,” she told him, hoping she would be able to draw him back away from the brink of destruction, where she knew he was headed.

“Are you alright?” he asked, his deep voice a caress to her tired mind.

“I am now. What happened, Gustavo? Why are you so angry?”

“Do you know what I would give to hold you in this instance?” he asked her, ignoring her questions. “Anything.” He answered his own question. “I would give up anything, walk away from anyone, pay any price, sacrifice everything, if I could simply touch you right this minute. I want to know what you smell like. I want to know what your lips taste like. I want to know what you feel like. Most of all, Anna, I want to love you. I want to take away all of your pain and wrap you in the protection of my arms.”

Anna couldn’t breathe. She’d never had anyone say anything to her like that before. She’d certainly never felt the truth in those words through the emotions that Gustavo was so freely sharing with her. She gasped when she felt Gustavo’s hand graze the skin of her stomach. She wanted to recoil, to hide from him. She didn’t want him to see how Volcan had marked her. But his touch continued to whisper across her skin. Then she felt his breath replace his hand, and his lips pressed against the tender flesh of her stomach, right where the carving was located.

“I would take this away for you,” he said gently as she felt another kiss against her.

Tears gathered in her eyes. She hadn’t wanted him to see that her body had been marked, violated. Knowing and seeing, those were two very different things.

“How did you find out?” she asked him, her breath shuddering from both his touch and her own sorrow. She’d told him that she and Jewel were having something carved into their skin, but she hadn’t wanted him to ever see it, even if she didn’t know what it said. She didn’t have a clue how she’d hide it once they eventually met, and they would, but she’d planned on figuring out a way to do it.

“When you sleep, your mind is relaxed. I give you your privacy, Anna, but this time your soul reached for me while you slept. I couldn’t deny you. So I entered your mind, and your soul shared your memories with me. I saw through your eyes what has been happening to you. I wasn’t prepared for how it would affect me or my wolf. To know what you’ve been enduring while I’ve been able to do nothing is eating me alive. I lost it. My wolf took over, and I couldn’t stop him from lashing out. Adam happened to be an easy target.”

“Please tell me you didn’t kill him,” she begged.

“He’s a formidable opponent. I gave him a few scratches, and he returned the favor. He is otherwise uninjured.”

“And you?”

“I am as I’ve never been before, helpless.”

The brokenness in his confession was heartbreaking. “Gustavo, you have helped me. You’ve given me strength and comforted me. You’ve shared yourself with me. I don’t know if I would be able to endure this with my sanity intact if you hadn’t been with me. Please, believe me when I tell you that you have saved me.”

“You wouldn’t think that if you knew what it said,” he told her, and she felt him run a finger across the marks again.

“What?” she asked.

“It’s written in Ancient Greek.”

Anna didn’t know if she really wanted the answer to the next question, but that didn’t stop her from asking, “And what does it say?”

She felt his pain through the bond and felt his arms wrap around her and his face press to her stomach. The feeling was so intense she actually looked down to see if he was really with her, even though she knew he wasn’t.

He spoke the words in their original language before he translated. “It says ‘Tainted’ and then has the letter V using the Ancient Greek lettering.”

Anna felt like she was going to be sick. Volcan had branded them with a reminder of what he’d done to them. He’d taken their pure gypsy-healer blood and defiled it, tainted it. “He said he was using an enchanted blade. What does that mean?”

“It means it’s a fae blade. It’s the only kind of blade that can cause a scar on a supernatural being. No magic can heal it.”

“So it will be there forever?” she asked, her voice a near whisper. Her eyes closed as tears fell. She wept quietly for the loss of a form of innocence. She hated knowing that Volcan’s mark would be on her body, along with Gustavo’s. It was like a slap in the face to the mate bond. She’d heard Sally talk about the markings of true mates and how sacred and private they were. Now her body wouldn’t bear only her mate’s markings. Volcan had robbed her of something pure.

“Criña,” Gustavo called gently to her. “I’m so sorry this has happened to you, but it doesn’t change how incredibly proud I am to know that you will wear my markings. Nothing can taint what the Great Luna has blessed. Not even Volcan. I can’t wait to see my markings on you.”

Anna could feel the truth in his words. It was strange to be able to discern someone’s true motivation, but in a moment where she doubted everything, she was so thankful for their bond. She could feel Gustavo’s adoration, unwavering devotion, and love, and that chased all doubt away.

“Are you alright now?” she asked him.

“I am in control, but no, mí amõr, I will not be alright until you are with me. But you have tamed the beast for now.”

* * *

Gustavo wanted to strip off his clothes and phase, but he knew better than to let his wolf take over in his current state of mind. He also didn’t know if Adam’s magic would still keep him from phasing. It had been very wise of him to keep Gustavo in his human skin. If he’d been able to phase, he didn’t know if he’d have been able to regain control. As it was, only Anna calling out to him had caused the fight between the two males to end.

“You need to rest, Criña,” he said. “I can feel how exhausted you are. Please rest.”

“I will if you promise not to flip your lid again.”

“Flip my lid?” He chuckled. “I forget sometimes how young you are.”

“I’m not jail bait,” she teased.

“Thank goodness for small mercies. Rest, mí amõr.”

“Stay in my mind.”

“It would be my honor,” he told her, meaning it with every breath. She was giving him permission to keep their bond fully open. The trust the action evidenced nearly drove him to his knees. It was an incredibly intimate thing to share a mental link with another person. To know that they could see in your mind and feel what you feel was humbling and scary.

“Te necesito, Gustavo.” The words were nearly a whisper as he felt her drift off to sleep. She’d spoken Spanish to him. She’d told him she needed him. It was precious and, if he was being honest, incredibly sexy. One day, he’d tell her that.

“Thank you for distracting me from attacking your mate,” he said as he turned to face Adam. He’d known the fae had been following him, but then he also knew that Adam hadn’t been trying to conceal himself.

“She could hold her own, but damn if that true mate bond doesn’t just make me crazy at the idea of her in danger,” Adam said. “Which is also why I understand why you lost it. I get it, but you need to let me know when it gets so bad that your wolf is ready to lash out at a female.”

“I didn’t know he was to that point. Mostly he felt like she was challenging him. Being so agitated, it wouldn’t let go,” Gustavo explained but knew it was no excuse. He truly hadn’t thought he was so far gone that he’d attack a female.

“How is she?” Adam asked.

“She’s hurt,” he said, his voice low as he tried to hold in the emotions that were threatening to pour out of him. “But she’s alive. And Jewel is, too, though their situation is dire. They are both being tortured by a vampire that Volcan commands.”

“What?” Adam asked, sounding as though the air had been knocked out of him. “A vampire? Torturing them? No wonder you lost it. I’m surprised you’ve held it together this long.”

“I knew about the torture, but I didn’t know exactly what it was. She’s very ashamed of it so I will not share what it is, but it’s bad. And I am going to rip Volcan’s beating heart from his chest. After I break every bone in his body.” Gustavo’s wolf was salivating at the thought of ripping apart the man who was hurting his mate.

“You’ll have a pack of wolves and a fae lining up to help,” Adam said and then growled as he threw a ball of magic at a tree. “We’ve got to get out of here!”

“I agree,” Gustavo rumbled. “But I don’t know how to make that happen.”

“What the—” Adam said as he froze.

Gustavo turned to face him, but then his eyes shot skyward as thunder and lightning shook the realm. “What’s going on?”

“This isn’t just your run-of-the-mill storm,” Adam yelled over the wind that had picked up and was now whipping through the trees, causing them to sway violently. “There’s magic at work. Come on.” He waved for Gustavo to follow. “We need to get back to the females.”

They’d not gone very far and were back with the ladies within a few moments. When they rushed back into the clearing, they found all four females in a huddle, the three healers each had their head in their hands, their eyes closed tightly as if they were in great pain.

“What it is wrong?” Gustavo asked.

“When the storm began, all three of them grabbed their heads and started moaning,” Crina explained.

Adam walked over and patted Kara’s arm. “Kara, can you tell me what’s going on?”

She opened her eyes but didn’t let go of her head. “I can feel him, his worry, and anger. It’s like boiling water being poured into my mind.”

“I concur with her analysis,” Heather ground out through clinched teeth.

“Why did it start with the storm?” Stella asked.

“The storm is laced with magic,” Adam said. He closed his eyes and held up his hands. He began to mutter under his breath in a language Gustavo didn’t recognize. Light began to glow around the fae but was gone as quickly as it had appeared. “It’s dark magic. But there’s something else in it I don’t understand.”

“You think Volcan is doing this?” Crina asked her mate.

“I don’t know,” Adam asked. “But they’re powerful, whoever it is. I’m talking more-powerful-than-Perizada powerful.”

“Whoa,” Crina said with wide eyes.

There was a huge boom causing all of them to duck, as if they were expecting the sky to fall in on them, but the storm just continued, and then it began to rain.

“You guys ready to go, or do you just want to stand here and admire Thad’s wonder?”

Gustavo and the five others with him turned to find Elle standing there with her hands on her hips, her pink hair thrown up in a messy bun, and a relieved smile on her face.

“Never thought I’d say this Adam, but you are a sight for sore eyes,” she said.

Adam smiled the biggest smile he had in days. “Back at ya, comrade. And did you say Thad? As in the djinn?”

“Yes, and let’s not get into it right now. He’s a whole other level of weirdness,” she said with a sigh. “Well, let’s go.” Elle held out her arms. “My mate is getting antsy with me out of his sight.”

“You don’t have to tell us twice,” Heather said as she, Stella, and Kara made their way over to the fae. Gustavo strode over and wrapped a hand around her small arm as his heart pounded in his chest. They were getting out, which meant he could start his search for his mate. Finally. Finally he could do something other than sitting around wishing he could touch her, see her, smell her, and taste her. “I’m coming for you, Criña.”