"Rage like I've never felt was washing over me in great waves. Mixed with it was need, confusion, desire, and darkness. They aren’t my emotions and yet they are so intense it seems impossible for them not to be. Whoever they belonged to, they were coming, for me. She was sure of it, and with him, death would follow." ~Bethany
Pain radiated down Bethany's thigh along with a trail of blood. Sincaro had been especially brutal in his feeding and had bitten her multiple times, all in areas where there were large veins. He'd only bitten her on her upper thigh a handful of times before. This was the femoral artery, he'd explained to her once. For whatever reason, there were times when he would tell her exactly what he was doing. She was pretty sure he did it to increase her fear—sometimes it worked. Sometimes it just made her angrier.
The barred door to her cell slammed shut. The vampire that had carried her back to her cell turned and walked away without a word, taking the light with him and leaving Bethany in complete darkness.
She was anxious. If her leg didn't hurt so badly, she'd have been up pacing. But as it was, she couldn't walk without causing herself significant pain. So instead, she closed her eyes and attempted to center herself. She needed to figure out what was happening to her.
She didn’t understand what was going, but something was definitely different. Sincaro had sunk his long teeth into her thigh and she’d screamed in agony. In that instant, she'd felt a new presence inside of her. It was as though someone else was in her mind. The presence felt distinctly male. She wasn't sure how she knew it, but she guessed it might have been because of the possessive nature of his thoughts. They had to be his thoughts because they definitely weren't hers.
"Mine," the deep voice growled. It was raw, animalistic, and something inside of her was agreeing with him. No, she tried to tell herself. I am not his. No matter how she tried to convince herself of that fact, however, there was another voice inside of her that disagreed. Somehow this new voice was both hers and yet not hers. And this voice said that she was definitely his.
Bethany leaned her head against the wall behind her. Her body ached from Sincaro’s rough treatment and her mind was a turbulent storm of thoughts and feelings that she couldn't separate. So instead, she just tried to shut it all down. Attempting to ignore the deep voice and the pain, she let exhaustion settle over her and begged for sleep to claim her.
Peri couldn't believe what she was seeing. Drake had lost it. She had really believed that he'd be able to hold on, but the feral look in the eyes of the man/wolf looking back at her told her otherwise.
"What's wrong with him?" Sally asked quietly.
"He's feral," Jen answered before Peri could.
The male stared at them for a few minutes longer before turning back to the manhole and suddenly jumped down into it and disappeared from view.
"How did he find the entrance?" Jacque wondered out loud.
"Maybe it’s because he’s feral?" Jen offered. “The darkness inside of him was probably drawn to it.”
Peri waved them off. "Doesn't really matter at this point. We need to follow him."
"Um, why?" Jacque asked nervously.
"Because he's going to get himself killed," Peri snapped. "And feral or not, the vamps don't get to have him. If he's going to die because he's lost control, then I will be the one to put him down for lying to me. Dumb wolf."
Peri headed to the manhole and held out her hands. The girls grabbed them and she flashed them into the underground. She lit an orb to light the tunnels and saw Drake about a hundred feet ahead of them. "Keep holding onto me," she told them as she continued to flash after the wolf.
Peri was shocked at the vastness of the tunnels. Apparently these vamps had a thing for expansion because these tunnels went deep into the earth. Down and down the girls went as the tunnels funneled them deeper. She lost sight of him for a while and was considering turning back to wait for the others, who she'd released from the spell. But just as she was about to flash them back, they entered into a large chamber.
Peri dropped her arms as she looked around and realized that they were surrounded by cages. Drake was in his wolf form and, before she could call his name, he had slammed his head into one of the cage doors. It flew open and he lunged inside, stopping only inches from a small form sitting at the back of the cage.
Peri was just as shocked as the girls when Drake stepped even closer to the small human and pulled his lips back from his very long fangs. As gently as a wolf with big ass teeth could, he bit into the flesh where her neck and shoulder met. The girl screamed and jumped back pulling herself away from Drake. The possessive flea bag obviously didn't appreciate that because he was now snarling at the female he'd just claimed.
"Did he just do what I think he did?" Jen asked, her voice higher than Peri had ever heard.
"If you're thinking that he bit her in the way of his species when claiming a true mate, then yes, yes he did," Peri said as they continued to watch the wolf.
"What are we going to do?" Sally whispered.
"We're going to not panic," Peri offered.
Jacque scoffed. "Right, okay we'll get right on that whole not panicking thing after we get the feral wolf away from the terrified girl."
"Never thought I'd say this," Jen whispered next. "But did you release our mates and are they on their way?"
Peri nodded. "Yep. I'm sure they will be crashing in momentarily, which means those two need to be gone. If that really is his true mate and he's really feral, he will kill any male who even breathes the same air as her."
"Then let's get this whole rescuing thing under way," Jen said as she took a step toward the cage.
Bethany stared into the silver eyes of the huge—strike that—ginormous wolf less than a foot away from her. His fur was grey with a white undercoat, and she only knew that because he was standing right next to her. His head didn’t look like the beasts from the maze, but he was every bit as big as them. His deep growl rose up, filling the space around her and causing a shiver to run down her spine.
“He won’t hurt you.” Bethany heard a feminine voice from somewhere beyond the wolf. She tried to look around him to see who was speaking but when she shifted, he shifted with her.
“Uh, he sort of already bit me so I’m not feeling reassured,” Bethany called out. “The snarling and sharp teeth say otherwise.”
“Fair assumption, but I promise the bite wasn't because he was trying to hurt you. He was just being friendly," the voice responded.
Another voice spoke up right after. "I imagine, being in her shoes would be quite frightening, even if she knew that he wouldn’t hurt her. The males can be quite intimidating once they go into Tarzan mode and can no longer speak in full sentences.”
Bethany noted that this voice, also female, was different from the first one that spoke. Exactly how many people were down there, and why weren’t they doing something about the wolf growling at her?
“True enough,” a new voice chimed in. “They are pretty scary when they start snarling and foaming at the mouth, not to mention how big they are. But like Jen said, he’d never hurt her. You know he wasn't biting to hurt her.”
“Hello?” Bethany called out. “There is a big, freaking wolf in my face, am I afraid or not?” she asked as the wolf took a small step toward her. His eyes began to glow and her breath caught.
All three voices spoke up at once.
“Not.”
“Afraid.”
“Well…”
Bethany nearly rolled her eyes but stopped herself. She was too afraid to look anywhere but at the beast in front of her. Great, she thought, they can’t even agree on whether she should be scared of the big bad wolf. Wait, who said well? What does well mean?”
“Oh, that would be me. I’m Sally.”
“Okay, Sally, what does well mean?”
“Well means…what are his eyes doing?”
“They’re glowing.”
“Ohhhh,” all three girls said at the same time.
Then a fourth voice chimed in. "Would you three quit with the commentary."
“No, no don't quit with the commentary. Tell me,” Bethany said as her voice rose an octave, “what does 'oh' mean?”
“Basically it means dude man has lost control of his wolf and fluffy is in the driver seat now,” the girl who had been deemed as Jen, according to the voice that wasn’t Sally, said.
Bethany didn’t have any idea what Jen meant. “What man? I don’t see a man.” She was beginning to feel a tad agitated. Why weren’t they helping her? Instead they were talking as though they came upon giant wolves threatening helpless girls all the time.
“Okay, before we dig ourselves any deeper into the rabbit hole, what’s your name?” Jen asked her.
“Bethany.”
“I’m Jen, my three amigos are Sally, Jacque, and Peri. We came to rescue you.”
“You’re doing a bang up job of it,” Bethany said before she could stop herself.
“Nice,” Jen laughed. “Able to be sarcastic in stressful situations. You’re going to fit in just fine,” she said sounding proud.
Bethany once again felt as though the girls were speaking a whole other language.
“So we came to rescue you, but Drake here flipped his lid and thinks you belong to him,” Jacque finished for Jen.
“Drake? Is he your pet?” she asked incredulously.
They laughed and, once Jen finally composed herself, said, “If he were my pet, I’d totally have him neutered.”
The large wolf’s head swung around to look at the girls and his growl got louder. Bethany was able to get her first look at the four girls when he moved his head. Three of them seemed like normal girls, probably about her age—maybe a year or two older. Her eyes widened when they fell on the one with a very large, very pregnant, belly. When they saw her staring at them, they all gave her a smile and wave as if she wasn’t sitting on the floor cowering within chomping distance of a pissed off wolf. The fourth one, well, she definitely didn't look normal. She was beautiful in an unearthly way. Though she looked very young, her eyes were ageless.
“Now, now, Drake,” Jen cooed. “You’re frightening her. It's bad enough that you bit her without her permission." The last part was bit out through gritted teeth.
Drake's snarl only got bigger as he stared them down.
"Oh hell, enough!" the unearthly beauty yelled.
She pointed at Bethany. "You be still." Then she pointed at Drake. "Unless you want a bunch of other males, not to mention vampires, all crawling around your mate, we need to leave—now. I can take you back to the Serbia mansion but you are going to have to be caged. You aren't safe and you know it. You lied to me, Drake. That is not cool. Not. Cool."
Bethany didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The woman was talking to the wolf as though he could understand her. She didn't think things could get any weirder. Until they did.
Suddenly there were huge bodies running into the room from the far right tunnel. They weren't vampires, at least not any that she'd ever seen. And judging by the looks on the girls’ faces, they knew the new additions.
The wolf in front of her tensed and slowly turned his body. He remained crouched over her, only now he was facing the large group on the outside of the cage. The sound of his growls increased and she felt that at any minute he was going to attack. The only one paying any attention was the beautiful woman with the ageless eyes.
The woman cursed under her breath and in the blink of an eye was standing in the cage next to the wolf and her. She reached down and grabbed Bethany's arm and placed the other hand on the wolf and then Bethany was swallowed by darkness.
Peri was pretty sure she'd never been involved in a bigger cluster in all her long life. She'd just witnessed a feral wolf claim his true mate by biting her in his wolf form. Who the hell does that? She wanted to smack Drake upside his head with a concrete wall.
She flashed the pair into the Serbia basement, which was basically a square room containing two very strong cages—put there for just such an emergency. Peri pushed Drake into one of the cages with her power and then slammed the door shut. She held her hand out and spoke in her own language, ensuring that the door couldn't be opened by anyone but her. If she died in the coming battle, Drake was SOL. Too bad, so sad.
Peri let go of Bethany's arm, keeping her on the outside of the cage and a good five feet away from it. "Okay," Peri breathed out. "I don’t have time to walk you through all of this. So here are the cliff notes. That" —she pointed to Drake— "is a werewolf. He can understand everything you say. You should be safe from him because he thinks you're his mate. But, stay away from the cage anyway. You are to stay here until I return. We will not hurt you. Your days feeding the vamps are over. Now, are you going to have a panic attack, or pass out?"
Bethany stared at her with wide eyes. "I don’t think so."
"Good. Oh, one more thing." Peri glanced back at Drake and then to the dormant girl. "If he phases back into a man, under no circumstances are you to let him talk you into biting him. Are we clear?"
"Uh, I'm a hundred percent positive that I won't be biting a werewolf."
Peri laughed. "Yeah, that's what I said too." Peri flashed from the room leaving the pair alone and wondering if she'd done the right thing, not that she'd had a choice. She reappeared back in the underground dungeon where an all-out war had erupted. Only there were no vampires involved, at least not yet.
"ENOUGH!" Vasile’s voice boomed against the walls and a hush fell over the room. The Alpha turned to look at her. He did not look pleased. "When this is all said and done, if we live, we are going to have a long, long discussion on why listening to these three" —he motioned to Jen, Jacque, and Sally— "is detrimental to your health."
Peri flashed him a smile. "Please don't expect me to learn my lesson. That's just way more effort than I'm willing to put in."
Vasile felt his mate’s hand on his arm—smart woman. He was at his breaking point. He took a deep breath and then focused back on the matter at hand. "You three are to stay here." When the girls started to argue, Decebel cut them off.
"Jennifer, enough." His voice was not harsh, but it was firm. "The malice that fills this place is enough to choke a demon. You have to stay here if I'm going to be able to fight. Fane I'm sure feels the same way. And, Sally, if something happens to you while under my protection, Costin will have my head. You've had your adventure. In some jacked up way you even helped. Now please just wait for us."
To Vasile's surprise the girls all nodded.
"Good," Vasile said and then addressed the others. "Alston and Peri will flash back closer to the surface. We are to keep ourselves between the girls and the vampires. If we come across any dormants alive, Peri will flash them here to the girls. Fight smart, fight to kill. Do not prolong the battle by taking your anger out on the vamps. It will only cause unnecessary risks. Am I clear?"
Everyone agreed. He turned to his mate. "Do you think you should stay here with the girls?"
Alina's jaw was tight. "No, I will help look for survivors while you fight. The girls will be fine without me. Decebel has trained Jen well and Sally is not without defenses."
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. This had been hard for his tender mate. Alina loved children. She'd always wanted more, but it hadn't happened. And now they were finding out there were dormant children alive in the world being tortured. It would take a long time for her to heal from this once it was over.
Decebel took Jennifer’s face in his hands and tilted it up so that she was looking at him. She was so damn beautiful, and infuriating. "I love you."
She smiled at him. "Even though I drive you crazy?"
He leaned down and pressed his lips to hers, intending it to be a quick kiss, but she tasted so good and he'd been so worried about her, he deepened it and groaned when he felt her respond to him. Her hands slid under his shirt and pressed into his back. His wolf rumbled his approval at the skin on skin contact. When Decebel pulled away, they were both panting shamelessly.
"Be careful, B," she said softly. "I'd hate to have to save your ass and make you look like a pansy."
He chuckled. "Yes, I'm sure you'd hate that."
"I love you too by the way," she told him, responding to his earlier comment.
Decebel smacked her on her backside just before stepping away. "Behave, female. At least until I return for you."
"I make no promises, fur ball."
Fane placed his hand on his mate’s stomach. "Are you sure you're okay? You seem tense."
Jacque laughed. "Really? I don’t know why I'd be tense. It's not like we found a dormant teenage girl locked in a cage that caused Drake to lose him mind and bite her on the neck."
Fane tapped her on the nose. "There's no need to be smart. I’m just worried about you."
She rose up on her toes and pressed a kiss to his lips. Fane pulled her close, needing to feel her against him, needing to know she was alright.
"I'm fine. You go fight. Come back with your shield or on it and all that jazz."
Fane chuckled. "You and Jennifer watching 300 again?"
"You know how Jen feels about men fighting in capes and Speedos," she teased.
"Take care of yourself and our child. I love you." Fane pressed his forehead to hers and took in a deep breath. He savored her, allowing her touch and scent to comfort the wolf who was demanding to stay with her. Fane knew they had to fight, and they couldn't do that if Jacque was in the middle of the battle.
"I love you back, wolf man."
Costin was pacing the suite he shared with his mate. Titus had fallen asleep watching a cartoon and that had left Costin with his thoughts, and only his thoughts, because his mate was not sharing hers.
"Costin?"
He froze midstep and let out a relieved sigh. "Brown eyes."
"Just wanted to check in with you."
"Why'd you close the bond, Sally mine?"
"I don’t want to argue," she said in the small voice that always wanted to make him slay dragons for her.
"Fine, we'll argue when you get back and I can spank you."
She laughed and he soaked up the sound.
"The group is about to confront the vampires here in Phoenix. Jen, Jacque, and I are going to be safely tucked away from the fight. I thought you'd like to know that. How is Titus?"
Costin loved the way she tried to skip over the whole vampire slaughter that was about to happen by trying to distract him with their son.
"He's sleeping. We've played every game I could find. We’ve read every childrens’ book Jen and Decebel have and played with Thia until she crashed. He's smart, Sally. He's going to be a cunning wolf."
"With you as his dad, I've no doubt." She paused and he could tell she was distracted.
"Everything okay?"
"Yes, it’s just that they're about to go and Jen and Jacque are looking worried. I'm going to see if I can distract them. Love you, kay?"
"I love you, Sally. Be safe. Come back to us."
The bond narrowed, though it didn't close completely. She left her end open just enough that he could feel her, but not really pick up on any of her thoughts or emotions. Costin ran his hands through his hair, uncaring how mussed it was becoming. He was here, and his mate was there—with vampires. He couldn't protect her and something in his gut was screaming at him that she was desperately going to need protection.