Well, that wasn’t how she’d thought things were going to go down.

Lauren hadn’t known exactly what would happen, but being faced with the werewolf telling bare-faced lies hadn’t been one of them. Now she was climbing into the passenger seat of Nikolai’s car, and her head was spinning. How could this Henry guy not have believed them? She realised he didn’t know her, or Nikolai, and yes, maybe they could have been making things up to get back at Deacon for some reason, but to her it felt like badness oozed off the wolf like pus.

But it would be like arguing with a police officer, and telling him or her to lock up the bad guy just because they said so. She understood there were procedures, but that didn’t make it any less frustrating. She could see it in Nikolai as well, how much he’d wanted to take things into his own hands. His restraint had only made her admire him more, however. She’d watched his internal battle through his body language, and though during a couple of points, she’d thought he was going to lose it—and she wouldn’t have blamed him in the slightest if he had—he’d managed to rein his anger back in.

They pulled out into the traffic and left the club behind them. They drove in silence, each of them lost in thought, trying to process what had just gone down.

Nikolai hadn’t been the only one who’d been furious. Lauren had wanted to join him in smashing Deacon in the face with her fist, especially after what he’d done to her. She’d hated every second of listening to all those lies spilling from his mouth, and she’d barely been able to believe her eyes when she’d seen the wall that had been built to hide the place where she’d been kept. She couldn’t believe the man’s audacity.

And they’d had to leave without the one thing they’d gone there for. The name of the vampire who’d bought her. Where was he? Had he realised she was protected now, and given up? It was a hopeful thought, but she didn’t want to let down her guard.

“What are you thinking?” Nikolai asked as he drove, glancing over at her.

“About the vampire who bought me. Do you think he’s given up?”

“Honestly, I have no idea. I hope so.” His lips pressed together, his nostrils flaring. She could tell something else was playing on his mind.

“What?” she asked.

He shook his head slightly. “I feel like I failed you. It was my first chance to show you what kind of man you have as a Bloodmate, and I did nothing.”

His hands clenched tighter around the steering wheel, and she was worried the circle would bend and twist beneath his grasp.

“You didn’t fail me. You never have. If it wasn’t for you, I’d have been sold by now.”

“It doesn’t feel like enough.”

She reached out and placed her hand on his thigh. She was conscious of the two men sitting in the back seat, but she still wanted to make physical contact with him, feeling the ridges of muscles of his thigh beneath her palm. “I’m safe, Nikolai. We’re together. That’s what’s important.”

He glanced over at her again, and the faintest hint of a smile touched his lips and travelled to his silvery blue eyes. “You’re right. Forgive my maudlin.”

She returned the smile. “You’re forgiven. At least we get to go back to your place now.”

“Our place,” he corrected her. “What’s yours is mine now. You’re my Bloodmate, and that binds us and everything we own.”

Lauren bit her lower lip and glanced away.

“What’s wrong?” he asked her.

“I don’t have anything. I’ve literally nothing to bring to the table. I have a rucksack with a few old clothes back at the hostel where I was staying, and that’s it.”

He looked at her in amusement and shook his head. “I don’t want you for any kind of material things, Lauren. None of that matters.”

“But you have so much. It feels wrong to take that when I haven’t contributed a single thing.”

He shrugged. “What do I care about things? I could live with nothing, if I had to. But there’s one thing I quite literally cannot live without.”

“There is?”

He chuckled. “Yes, you, Lauren. I owe you my sanity. I know it may not feel like you’ve done anything, but you being in my life is worth everything. I’m not sure I’d be here right now if it wasn’t for you.”

She leaned to one side and placed her cheek on his shoulder. In that moment, it didn’t matter that there was a vampire after her or that the werewolf who’d kidnapped her appeared to be getting away with it for the moment. If she had Nikolai by her side, everything would be all right. They could take on the world together—

Suddenly, something hit the car.

Nikolai slammed on the brakes, throwing them forward. The seat belt locked around her chest, compressing the air from her lungs. Her head snapped forward and back, pain searing through her neck. What had happened? Had they hit something? No, it had been more like something had hit them.

Lauren reeled back in horror as she realised she was staring at a pair of legs and feet, standing on the bonnet of the car.

She barely heard Nikolai’s yell of, “Lauren!” when the windscreen shattered into a thousand pieces, glass spraying all over her. Instinctively, she lifted her hands in front of her face to protect herself, but something grabbed her, and the next thing she knew, she was being pulled directly through the gap left by the broken windshield. Hands grappled for her feet, but it had all happened too fast, and she was gone before anyone could do anything.

She was flying through the air, literally flying, held by something ferociously strong. Beneath her were cars, and people, and the buildings of London, but they all appeared as a blur, they were moving so fast. Lauren could barely breathe, the air whipping past her face too fast for her to catch. Her heart raced, thrumming in her chest, and she felt light-headed with panic. She didn’t want to fight whoever was holding her, knowing if they let go she’d fall to her death. And she couldn’t breathe, couldn’t get her chest to inflate, and her lungs felt like they were burning, and the world pulled away at the edges.

And then she was gone.