Eternal Temptation (15 page)

Chapter 13

“Tell us everything that happened,” Sarina said.

Cassie took a deep breath that did nothing to steady her or her wobbly head, and told them everything.

Alison was biting off her fingernails by time she finished and Sarina had grumpily chugged her glass of milk. Vera frowned though, shaking her head.

“My brother’s always been stubborn. I don’t know what it’ll take to make him realize that he does care for you.”

Cassie scoffed. “He doesn’t care. The only thing he cares about with me is that his ‘seed is in my belly’. I never should have had sex with him. Then at least he couldn’t use that as some kind of lame excuse.”

“He’d probably just find some other excuse to use as a crutch,” Sarina said.

“Maybe I should go talk to him,” Vera said thoughtfully. Her words were slurred from the amount of hard lemonades she’d drunk.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

“Don’t.” Cassie shook her head and the room spun a few extra times with the motion. “I heard your brothers going at him before I got there. Looks like they already had the convo with him. Didn’t make a lick of difference. He doesn’t love me. He doesn’t want me. But I love him.” She said that last with such ferocity that the girls all quieted.

“He’ll come around,” Sarina said stoutly. The others didn’t look so hopeful.

“Hey guys, what does ‘lumara’ mean?”

Everyone looked turned to look at her with openmouthed astonishment?

“Did he call you that?” Vera asked with a big grin.

“Well yes, today when we were in the shower. He was still pretty tired. He’d just woken up, but I’ve never heard that word before.”

The Kategan women turned to grin at each other before turning back to Cassie. “It means truemate or bondmate. That’s a special term we use with some we really love, usually our mate,” Alison explained.

Wow. Cassie’s heart leapt at the news. The fact that he called her this didn’t make her feel better though, it made her feel worse. This only gave her more questions. Did he only say it because he was half-asleep? Did he actually mean it? Maybe some part of him did recognize the connection between them like she did.

Cassie wanted to curl up and cry herself to sleep. Her heart was breaking in her chest and the alcohol was only making the pain more depressing. He didn’t love her. He didn’t even want her. He only cared about making sure she wasn’t pregnant. He’d protect her long enough for that, and then go back to brooding in his stupid little cabin.

Cassie perked up at the thought of burning it down. But he’d built it with his own two hands, he’d just build another. If her declaration of love wasn’t enough to turn him around, then nothing she could do work. The thought was like a blow to the heart.

“I’m gonna go use the bathroom,” Cassie mumbled and came to a shaky stand. The room teetered around her and she grabbed onto the back of a chair to steady herself.

“Careful now. When you get back, we’ll trash the male species and make a list of better, hotter guys we can totally set you up with,” Alison chimed.

The girl’s applauded the idea while she escaped to the bathroom. She tossed the lock on the door and went to the sink to toss some cold water on her face. The water felt frigid against her hot cheeks. She blotted her face dry with a hand towel but couldn’t do anything to staunch the flow of fresh tears running down her cheeks.

She glanced out the bathroom window. The drop to the ground was probably about twenty feet. The distance to the forest was about fifty yards. Even now she could see a sentry guard walking along that area.

Her gut clenched with fear and anxiety. She grabbed her stomach. Or maybe she was just going to hurl?

No, she hadn’t drank that much. Okay, maybe she did. She sniffled and went back to the faucet, turning on the water. She checked to make sure it was clear out the window, then she unlocked it and slowly lifted it.

The window made an awful squeak and she winced, pausing. When no one came banging on the door, she lifted it all the way. She glanced down at the drop and swallowed hard. Tossing first one leg out the window, then the other, she took a seat in the window, then jumped down.

The fall went by quickly. Now her heart was pounding hard and fast and loud in her ears. She looked left and right, then focused on the sentry. Using her vampiric speed, she raced across the field to the sentry and tackled him straight to the ground. He moved to attack her, and she stifled her surprise. Well of course he was going to fight her back!

She had no clue how to actually fight a trained warrior like this. Quickly, locking her arms and legs around his big body she looked into his eyes and quickly said, “Please don’t tell anyone. I just want to go. Darien can’t know. Please.” The sentry stopped what was probably going to be a painful attack and relaxed against her.

He looked from her, back to the window that was still open. What seemed like forever later, he finally shook his head and said, “Go but I make no promise. My loyalty is to the Kategans. The first thing I will do is tell Vane. If you want to leave then I suggest you hurry.”

Instead of feeling a burst of happiness at her freedom, she felt overwhelming sadness. She nodded her thanks to the guard and sprinted into the forest.

It was dark and her vision wasn’t the greatest at night. That coupled with the amount of alcohol she’d drank, and she’d pounded them back, had her tripping over tree limbs and her own damned feet.

She kept looking back over her shoulder, panic making her think that at any second she’d see the big lykaen barreling after her. Her heart was tightened with pain, and tears fell faster the further she got from the cabin, from Darien. Soon the tears were cascading down her face.

She tripped over a fallen tree and went flying through the air. Her stomach bottomed out from her like she was falling on a roller coaster. She skidded against the dirt with her landing, scraping her cheek, hands, and legs against the wet dirt floor.

She started to lift herself back up, but collapsed back down with bone-numbing exhaustion. She was pathetic, a miserable weak woman that couldn’t even run.

She smelled him first. Her heart stuttered in her chest and the tears flowed faster.

A big hand grabbed her shoulder and turned her over. His smile was cruel and very happy.

“I told you, I’d get you back, Cassandra.” She saw the fist flying at her but didn’t move. For once in her life, the fresh pain was welcoming. She saw blurry trees before her eyes, and then another hit rocked the other side of her face and she was out.

Chapter 14

Darien slammed the cabin door behind him. It croaked in protest and shuddered at the treatment.

What’s wrong with her? What did she expect from him? That she’d spout her love for him and he was supposed to forget about the past and mate with her right there. God dammit, she’d be a good mate too. He couldn’t deny that, even his beast agreed.

His mind flashed with the image of her holding a small baby with a full head of dark, Kategan hair. He held his breath, the image seemed so real. He could easily see her kissing the baby with that big beautiful smile of hers. He roared, turning and slammed his fist into the wall. The wood crack and splintered, bloodied his hand.

He’d protect her from Daniel and see to it that she got her happy life with a good male. He just couldn’t be that man for her.

A rapid knock at the front door had him flinging it open. It wasn’t the face he was hoping to see though. He recognized the hard look on Vane’s face.

“We got a problem.” His gut tightened so hard that his heart restricted in his chest, it was a wonder he could still breathe.

“What happened to her?” A part of him already knew. Could feel the wrongness of the situation. His beast was whipping its tail back and forth in agitation and crying out in pain.

“She left.”

“What do you mean she left?” he growled, his beast garbling his words.

“She climbed out the bathroom window, tackled Mike at his post, and ran off into the woods.”

Darien was already walking past him. He’d get her back if it were the last thing he did. Vane grabbed his arm.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going after her.”

“She doesn’t seem to want to be around you.”

“Fuck off, Vane. She’s drunk and hurting.” Because of me, he thought. “She doesn’t need to be alone right now.”

Vane shook his head and softly said, “And can you give her what she needs.” Darien’s chest expanded and slowly he exhaled.

“Yeah, I could at one point in my life. But now, Vane? I’m not so sure.” It was the truth, which was startled the hell out of him.

Darien started on a run back to Vane’s house. He knew her scent as good as his own. He’d track her down, kiss her for scaring the shit out of him, and then carry her back to his cabin. Vane’s feet pounded next to his.

“I’m coming with you.” Darien’s head snapped towards his.

“Why?”

“Because she might not want to come back with you,” Vane said simply. Vane was right, and the thought was like taking a knife to the heart. God dammit. He was such a fucked up asshole. He had to apologize. He had to get her back. He...cared for her.

He ran around the back of Vane’s cabin and looked up at the bathroom window.

“Jesus that’s at least a twenty foot drop.” Vane nodded grimly then pointed out to the forest. “Mike said he was on post there when she tackled him, asked him not to tell you that she was leaving.”

“She was trying to get away from me.” He froze. The realization ripped a burning hole in his chest. It was his duty, his honor to protect her, and yet all he’d done was drive her away, possibly into danger.

He took off running. He caught her scent easily—flowery and fresh. Lovely just like her. He opened up his scenes and followed the scent like a tracking hound.

He leaped over a particularly large fallen tree and came to a hard stop. He walked past the spot just behind the tree, but the scent wasn’t there. It lingered only here in this one area. An entirely new fear swept through him.

He took in the area like it was a crime scene. She’d tripped over the tree and skidded along the dirt. The earth was shoved like someone had slid hard against it. Dropping down on his knees, he felt his breath whoosh out of him at the sight of three single drops of blood.

His hand was shaking as he touched them. He brought them to his nose and sniffed. It was hers.

“Do you smell that?”

“She was here,” Darien said. “This is her blood.”

“That’s not what I mean.” Darien looked up at his brother. Vane looked around the perimeter of the forest. “It’s vampire.”

“Of course it smells like her, Vane.” He growled the words, anger suffusing his words. He didn’t have time for this shit. He was losing minutes already. Guilt overwhelmed him, eating away at him.

“God dammit, Darien, get over here and stop thinking. Use your fucking senses.” Darien growled but came over. The scent struck him so fast, it was like a blow to the face. His head snapped to the left.

“Another vampire. It’s got to be him. He took her.” An incredible force filled Darien, so powerful, so tremendous that his beast tightened against his skin, and his eyes glowed in the night. He took my woman, was his only thought.

“I’m going after her.”

“No, you’re not.”

Darien turned to his brother and shoved him. He went flying back against a tree. “Yes, I am.”

“She isn’t yours, Darien. That man has a right to her. If you go and try to steal her off his land, he’ll have justification to kill you.”

“If it’s a challenge he wants, then that’s what I’ll do. I cannot leave her there. I can’t let her go.”

Vane stilled then slowly straightened from his slouch against the tree. He stalked to his brother, grabbed his face in his hands growling, “I know you have it in you. Do this because you love her, Darien. Or you will lose her forever.” He clapped Darien close and hugged him fiercely, then spun around and left.

Darien’s mind was spinning. Love. Did he love her? He didn’t have time to stop and think, to debate such a complicated topic. His beast drove him now, primitive and raw. He knew only a few things in that moment. That Cassie was his woman, and that he was going to tear Daniel’s throat out for touching her.

He didn’t know if he was doing the right thing. He seemed to have spent most of his life making terrible choices; he just hoped this one wasn’t.

He followed the cold male scent that lingered with the beautiful scent of his woman. He would find her, just don’t let him be too late again.

His feet pounding into the ground, his heart a loud beat in his ears, he heard only the harsh sound of his breathing. As one mile turned into two and three, he realized that he would do anything to get Cassie back with him, and he was going to spend the rest of his life with her at his side.

It was as if his beast had been waiting for this moment to speak its mind, to voice its thoughts. How he’d ever, even for a second, thought he could let her be with another man. It was impossible. She was his. He growled into the night and ran harder, faster.
She was his.