“Oh, for god’s sake, Dante, it’s Meg.”
Dante forced his eyes open. Meg. His brain started to function again. He had been with Meg, and there was a tremendously smelly mountain he’d had to climb and shoot through the eye, and he was married.
“Where’s Kaja?”
He focused, putting all his will into figuring out just how screwed they were. He tried to pull his hands up, but they held tight. His hands were tied behind his back, and his feet were bound as well. He was lying on the floor of a tent. He couldn’t see Meg. Where was Meg?
“I don’t know where Kaja is.”
Dante turned his head up and to the right. Meg had been given the courtesy of a chair. Her worried face stared down at him.
“Just tell me they didn’t kill her.” He couldn’t stand the thought. How long had he been out? What terrible things had been done to Meg and his wife?
The flap to the tent opened, and a shadow fell over Dante. Three mercenaries strode into the room.
“Who is this Kaja?” a cultured British voice asked. There was a snap of his fingers, and Dante felt himself being hauled up to seated position.
That was when Dante saw her. A brown wolf poked her nose through the door and glided in on graceful paws. Lovely, undeniably feminine, and way smarter than he had given her credit for. His Kaja.
“She’s just a girl I was fucking,” Dante said as though it really didn’t matter.
The wolf growled just a bit.
“I don’t think she likes you,” the asshole mercenary said. His hand came up to pet the wolf at his feet.
Dante felt like growling, too. “The feeling isn’t mutual. She’s gorgeous. Where did you find her?”
Kaja sat back on her haunches. Dante fancied he could feel her satisfaction.
“She was at the site of your victory over the ogre,” the man explained. “I thought she was yours.”
The fuckers had hit him with a Taser. He could use that to his advantage. “I don’t really remember much about that fight.”
“That’s a shame. I would really like to hear that tale.” The mercenary turned to Meg and bowed deeply. “Your Highness. My name is Sergeant Major Simon Roan. I lead a small group of vampires who take on all sorts of jobs.”
“We call them mercenaries where I come from,” Meg replied.
“Ah, we have that in common then.” The vampire stood in front of Meg. “Are you feeling all right, Your Highness? I deeply apologize for the bindings. They are made from the finest silk, so they shouldn’t cut your delicate skin. Are you thirsty? I can have my men bring you anything you like.”
“I would like to go home,” Meg stated plainly.
“Alas, that is the one thing I cannot give you. I assure you that you will be treated with the utmost respect while we await your husbands.” Roan took a long breath. “And after the inevitable happens, please know that I will personally ensure your safety. I believe my employer intends to leave you on your own, but I will not allow that to happen.”
“Inevitable?” Meg asked, glancing Dante’s way.
Dante shrugged. “When they execute Beck and Ci.”
Meg laughed, her chest bouncing a little with the effort. She had little tears dripping from the corners of her eyes. Dante had to admit, it was a little funny. Even if they’d brought a small army with them, he didn’t see how this Roan fellow was going to take down Beck Finn.
Dante knew something the rest of the world didn’t know yet. Beck and Cian had come into their powers several months ago. Beck Finn had been born the greatest warrior of his generation. Now he was also a storm lord. With the flick of his hand, he could call on the power of a hurricane. His cousin didn’t have perfect command over his powers yet, but Dante knew he could handle a band of mercenaries.
Meg bit her bottom lip and nodded. “I am very grateful to you, sir. I would rather not have to watch my beloved husbands being executed, if you don’t mind.”
Roan stared down at her and seemed to come to some decision. “I can see I’ve upset you. I apologize, but it is necessary. Trade must flow between our nations.”
His hand came out. It almost touched Meg’s hair.
“Hey,” Dante said. “Her husbands aren’t dead yet, Roan. You have no fucking right.”
The mercenary pulled his hand back immediately. His face was blankly polite. “Of course. I am terribly sorry.”
“Show me your fangs, asshole,” Dante said. He had a very nasty suspicion. If it was true, it might be very bad for Meg—and it might be a tool to use.
Roan growled a little, baring his teeth. It was just as Dante suspected. Roan’s fangs were curved and thin. Unlike a peasant’s, Roan’s fangs were meant to feed, but not kill. Those fangs told Dante everything.
“How the hell did a royal end up as a mercenary?”
Now those blank eyes went black and cold. “Even a royal can fall, Mr. Dellacourt. I believe you’re about to find that out for yourself. I will protect the consort. She is merely a pawn in this game. But you, I will allow my employer to slaughter as he sees fit. You’re everything that is wrong with our system.”
The mercenary got to one knee. He patted it, and Kaja walked obediently to him. His hands slipped into the wolf’s fur.
Now Dante really wanted to slit the fucker’s throat. Dante could see that even in wolf form, Kaja had a slight glow. In human form, she practically had a halo, but in wolf form it was slightly muted. Dante knew to look for it. He doubted that Roan would notice it. It was better that he didn’t. The vampire was obviously hungry for a consort.
The mercenary didn’t move his hands. “I’ll take care of this one, too, Mr. Dellacourt. I have a weakness for the beautiful creatures of this world.”
He stood and walked from the tent, Kaja following.
Though it made him crazy, Dante understood. Kaja could learn a lot in this form. She could figure out what they were planning. She could learn what weapons they had. She could get a lay of the land.
She could run away from him. She could decide that he wasn’t worth the trouble. She could decide that Roan would take better care of her.
Damn it, he wanted to kill that fucker.
“Dante.” Meg pulled him from his fantasy about taking the very fit Simon Roan apart with his bare hands. “What the hell is going on? Why is my captor being so very nice to me even as he talks about killing my husbands?”
“He’s a royal,” Dante replied. If Simon Roan got a look at Kaja in human form, he just might fall at her feet. “You haven’t spent a lot of time in vampire society. Royals treat consorts like they were made of gold.”
“You don’t.”
He shrugged. “Only with you, sweetheart. You’re like my sister now. I don’t treat my sister very well.”
It was true. Ever since the instant he’d seen Kaja, Meg had kind of faded to the background. She was where she should be, relegated to the role of a loved relative.
Kaja had followed Roan.
“She’s playing a game, Dante.” Meg was looking at him with sympathetic eyes.
Was he that transparent? “I know that.”
“No, you don’t. But I know what she’s doing. If she’d wanted to run, she’d be long gone. She’s going to help us. Is this man working with Torin?”
The fight Dante had been so eager for seemed to be coming at him like a steam train. “Yes. There’s a faction on the Vampire plane that wants to make a deal with Torin. The royals are desperate for consorts. We age until the moment we take a consort. You’re kind of our version of the fountain of youth. We’ll still die one day, but as long as we’re taking consort blood, we’ll look damn good when we go, if you know what I mean.”
Meg let her head fall forward. “What would happen to me if they managed to kill Beck and Ci?”
He didn’t even want to think about it. “Right now there would be a riot if you hit the open market. The tournament would be huge and bloody. I don’t think Roan intends to allow that to happen. He fully intends to t
ake you when you’re available. If he gets his fangs into you, no one will question his claim.”
“God, I don’t understand any of this. Not really.” Meg sounded tired, her voice soft and weary.
Meg hadn’t grown up on the linked planes. She’d been born on the Earth plane. It was a difficult plane to travel to. It was very isolated. She didn’t have any real comprehension of how special she was.
She needed to understand the power she had over Roan. “Royals are raised to treat a woman like you with great reverence. If you play your cards right, he’ll take care of you no matter what happens. But you should understand, he’ll have a price for his care. He’ll feed off you, and he’ll definitely want to fuck you.”
Meg shuddered.
“It’s going to be okay,” Dante said. If he’d had hands to do it, he would have put them on her shoulders. “They don’t understand what Beck is. Roan is a royal. He was raised to be very gentle around women like you. Just be sweet, and he won’t let anything happen to you. It shouldn’t be too long before Beck shows up and blows the roof off this place.”
But a lot could happen in a very short amount of time. Roan was a royal, but Dante would bet the rest were peasants. Peasants didn’t have the same worshipful reverence for consorts that royals did. If the rest of Roan’s team decided they could make more by selling Meg, they would. If they gave her to Torin—he didn’t want to think about what would happen to her.
Beck could handle these guys easily, but Beck wasn’t here. Dante was responsible for Meg and for Kaja.
He had to get them away from here.
“Can you move at all?” Dante asked.
He was bound tightly in sonic cuffs. The mercenaries were well equipped. They had all the latest sonic equipment. The swords at their sides could slice through flesh with almost no effort. If they managed to get Beck in hand, they could kill him. Killing Beck would almost certainly kill Cian.
“I have a little room, but it could take me a while.” Meg’s arms moved, struggling against her bonds. They might not be sonic, but the old ways worked, too.
“I can’t get out of these, sweetheart.” He would need the locking sequence. Even if they could get Meg free, Dante couldn’t get out of his cuffs. His mind raced. “If you could make it over here, I might be able to use my teeth to loosen those ties. It’s not exactly how I imagined getting my mouth on you, but it will have to do.”
“Or we could just wait for Kaja to get me out.” Meg nodded toward the front of the tent where Kaja was nosing her way through the flap.
He’d never seen anything as beautiful as that wolf. Kaja would save Meg. There wasn’t any hope for him, but maybe they could get to Beck.
Kaja shifted, her form moving easily from wolf to one gorgeous, naked woman. She stood, her perfectly shaped breasts bouncing slightly as she walked toward Meg. She really was lovely. He might never get her breasts in his mouth. He really should have sucked her little pink nipples last night, but he hadn’t quite managed to get his face out of her pussy.
“Kaja, you need to get Meg out of here.”
She turned her face to him. Her lips curled up softly. For a woman performing what amounted to grand theft consort, she was remarkably calm. “Yes, that was my plan, Dante.”
She moved around to Meg’s back.
Dante wondered how much time they had. If she managed to get his cock out, he could probably get off really fast. It might be his last time. Even a hummer would work.
Meg shook her head at him. “Dante, seriously? What is wrong with you?”
Nothing from what he could tell. Meg was staring at his erection. It was pushing his pants up admirably. Nope. Nothing wrong with that. And his fangs were out. He was fully functional. “She’s naked. You can’t expect me to think about my inevitable death when my wife is walking around with all her pretty pink parts on display. Now, Meg, I really don’t care if you watch or not, but Kaja and I need to say goodbye in the nastiest way I can possibly achieve with my hands and feet tied.”
Meg flexed her hands. “And he calls me a drama queen. I don’t think I like real, actual bondage. There was nothing fun or sexy about that. At least when Beck and Ci tie me up, I get something out of it. This time, I just got a headache. You don’t have time for sex.”
“There is always time for sex. Come on, Kaj. I’ll be really quick.” He knew he sounded jokey, but deep down he really wanted her. Without Meg to keep him in check, Roan was likely to take out his frustration on Dante. He probably wouldn’t come out of this whole, if he came out at all. He wanted her. He wanted that moment with her. He couched it in sarcasm, but he wanted to know what it felt like to really bond with his wife.
“Does the First believe we will flee without him?” Kaja asked, her hands sliding over Meg’s, massaging her wrists back to life.
Now there was an idea…
“He’s not very smart,” Meg replied, ignoring him entirely. “You watched how they put those things on him?”
Kaja smiled brightly. “Of course. Their First did not realize what I am. He allowed me access to many things he should not have. He also fed me some lovely thing called beef jerky. The mercenaries have several pets. They tried to fight me for the jerky, but they fled after I growled. I enjoyed it very much.”
Kaja knew how to get him out of here. His cock could wait. He would rather live. Damn, he’d finally found the thing he’d rather do than have sex. “Oh, lover, I am going to buy you all the jerky you can handle once you get me out of here.”
Kaja knelt behind him and with a few twists, his hands came free. Kaja moved in front of him, but before she could reach to his feet, he caught her. He let his hands sink into her silky mass of hair and drew her close. He let her sweet scent fill his senses. He could hear her pulse, feel the softness of her skin against his.
“Thank you, Kaja.” He pressed his lips to hers.
The smile on her face lit up his whole fucking world. “You are welcome, Dante.”
Kaja knelt back down, and his feet came free. He wasn’t bound anymore, but he had to wonder if he hadn’t just become her prisoner.
Chapter Nine
Kaja turned her face up to the starlit sky. The black night was illuminated with more stars than any wolf could number. The moon was smaller. A pale silvery presence in the sky, this moon was oddly curved. It wasn’t as full and round as the one at home. It did not dominate the sky. The sun, it seemed, held sway here, with the moon only an afterthought.
Kaja heard Meg behind her. She had been working since the moment that Dante had told them it was safe to stop. Kaja had been staring at the forest in wonder.
Everything was different here. There was no snow, and the stars made different patterns in the sky. Water fell from above in a great sheet that flowed into a crystalline pool. She’d never seen anything like it. Dante had called it a waterfall, but Meg had mentioned something called paradise.
She looked out at Dante. He was bathing. He’d shed his clothes almost the instant they had stopped and walked into the pond. She had stayed behind. This wasn’t a tub. This water was deep. Dante had gone under several times, making her heart skip a beat until he resurfaced.
The sounds were different here, too. There was the whoosh of the water as it hit the pond, and the whisper of the wind in the trees. Beneath it all, she could hear something shuffling under the brush behind her. Prey. And yet she found herself more curious than hungry.
Everything about this world made her curious. Especially Dante.
She stared as he emerged from the pool, water dripping from his form. He was so beautiful. His skin was perfect and smooth. Every muscle rippled, from his broad shoulders to his strong thighs. He shook the water off of him. His hair looked different now. It was longer without the “product” he’d spoken of. The water had washed it away leaving only his silky hair behind. It made him look younger with his gold and red hair brushing his ears. Her eyes drifted down. Kaja couldn’t help but look at how his long, thick male part jutted up
. Heavy balls swung below. She wondered what it would feel like to cup them, to run her hands along his…cock. He’d called it a cock.
Her eyes met with his. She had the urge to go to him.
“Whoa!” Meg yelled from behind her. “Dante, I did not need to see that!”
Kaja turned, that odd moment gone, and saw that Meg was hiding her eyes.
“Everyone’s seen it, Meg. I’ve been caught naked by every photographer in the States. This body was named ‘hottest royal bod’ four years in a row. Everyone wants a piece of this.” Dante grinned and motioned up and down, indicating his perfect body.
Meg sounded as though she was sick. “Gross, Dante.”
Kaja bit her lip. Not all things were good in this place. She still didn’t understand half the things Meg and Dante said to each other. She knew the words, but not the intentions behind them. Since that moment when the three of them had snuck from the camp, Kaja had been a bit lost. The words they spoke at each other did not match the tone. They did a lot of a thing they called joking. It involved insulting each other in a manner that would have gotten them outcast from the pack had they been pack members speaking to their betters.
Kaja had almost liked it better when they had been silent, prowling through the forest to get away from the men who had captured them. Dante had ordered her to return to her wolf form after he’d kissed her. That was a moment she’d loved. His mouth had played across hers, lighting up her skin. He’d needed her in that moment.
He did not need her anymore.
They seemed to be safe in this little corner of the forest. Perhaps the time had come to explore on her own. These woods were deep, she sensed. She could lose herself here and never be found.
“Kaja.” Dante’s voice had taken that slightly hard tone he used when he was taking control. That deep tone had Kaja turning her head to focus on him. He was knee-deep in the water. He held his hand out. “Come with me, Kaja. Take off the shirt, and we’ll get you clean before we bed down.”
That was not a good idea. Though her heart raced at the sight of him waiting for her, it would be smarter to leave. He was playing some sort of game with her. He wanted to be with her, but not forever. Wolves mated for life. She never expected she would get a true mate, but even a mistress had a place. She wasn’t sure what Dante believed her place to be. He had signed the important things called papers that made her his, but then talked about where he would place her when their mating was done.