Moonlit Rescue (2 page)

“This protects my pack’s underground civilization. It provides a shield from the outside world, as well as serving as an energy source. Until your research started, no one had been close to discovering us.” He rolled the molten liquid in his hand. “Now my pack wants you dead. What you perceive as a kidnapping is actually a rescue mission.”

Without warning, he turned his hand over and the liquid fell in a stream to the floor. She reached to save it, salvage it in any way, only to have it slip through her fingers. She collapsed to her knees, watching it pool in the carpet. No way would she allow it to seep into the fetid fibers, but Vale stepped into the mess before she could save any remnants. When he moved, the liquid had rematerialized back into its solid form.

“This is impossible.” She cupped her hands on either side of the stone. “This is what you want to take, not me.”

“I don’t want it. I want to save you.”

No, she didn’t just get stuck with a deranged mammoth magician who fancied himself some otherworldly superhero. She got stuck with a man who wanted to take everything she lived for. She resisted pounding her fist into the floor, reminding herself to keep her wits together. “I don’t need you to save me.” She didn’t need saving by anyone. After being alone most of her life, she turned out just fine.

He joined her on the carpet, scooping the rock back into his huge, silver hand. “Yes, you do.”

“Give it back.” She reached out and swallowed. “Please.”

“Watch.” He balled her stone in both his hands. When he opened them again, it was transformed into a dull lifeless lump resembling clay.

“What are you doing?” she whispered, forgetting herself as she watched him manipulate the stone with expertise.

Without answering, he stretched the rock into a long cylinder, bent it around to make a ring and reached for her.

“How?” He took her hand and placed the mass in the center of her hand. She held her breath, his touch was soft and gentle, not at all what she expected.

Before she closed her fingers, Vale covered her hand with his. When he pulled back, the liquid reappeared, warm and thick, and rippling in her palm.

“What are you?” When he didn’t answer, she gazed up at him. “Tell me.”

“Are you familiar with werewolves?”

She glared at him, sending hate his way without disrupting the precious fluid in her care. “You’re a werewolf?” Maybe he wasn’t a man, or maybe that was just what he wanted her to believe. Werewolves didn’t exist.

“Not precisely, but it’s the closest thing I can think of to help you understand. I don’t howl or turn into a wolf during a full moon as humans believe, but it runs in my blood and I can transform.” He spoke with a calm voice one would use for a young child.

“Humans think we resemble them and turn into wolves, but it is quite the opposite. We take on a human form during the full moon so we may move around and conduct business more freely,” he explained. “I look much more human than my half-brother and the rest of my pack.”

Between the television pounding, the liquefied rock in her hand, and her stomach rebelling, she shut her eyes. “Wait, let me guess, you have more human blood than your half-brother and that’s why you’re not more wolf-like.”

“Yes, I am half-human. That is why Xander, my younger half-brother, is in charge. I’m not a leader and never will be. The only prophecy I have fulfilled is betraying my pack.”

Somehow her life had turned into a bad movie, one where she would tell him the ending. “By rescuing me?”

“Precisely.”

“So I was lucky enough to get the outcast werewolf to protect me from the bigger, badder wolves in your secret underground society?” The silver fluid glistened, giving her answers. Everything he did was a parlor trick. Using the one tool at her disposal, she tossed the liquid right in his face and crawled away, grabbing at the thin carpet to propel herself forward.

“Yes!” Vale caught her leg and dragged her back. “That’s exactly what I am saying! It was my job to bring you to them and I couldn’t do it.”

“I think you were sent to steal my rock because I finally discovered something, and this whole stupid story has been concocted to make me comply.” Caught, she kicked at him, trying to free herself. The rock morphed into small pebbles and scattered across the carpet. “I don’t believe your lies.”

“You will now.” He took her by the shoulders and forced her to look at him.

His golden eyes lured her like before, entrancing her into his spell and everything became calm.

“I told you the truth about me.” His tone was so even and soft, she wanted to sink into his voice. “Right now you are under my command.”

She hung on his every word, not moving, not blinking, even though deep in her mind she knew something was off. One second she was fighting, and the next she was craving the haze.

He pressed two fingers to her temple. “I can see, hear and smell everything around us. There is a tiny ant crawling on the baseboard behind you.

“I can smell the rose scented perfume you put on yesterday morning, but unfortunately it is being ruined by the garbage in the parking lot where someone threw away some cheap Italian take-out.” He moved his face closer, their noses almost touching.

She experienced everything he said down to the acidic marinara sauce burning the back of her throat.

His voice became low, rough and jagged. “My influence is so powerful over you that I could get you to do anything with me, including mate with me if I wanted.”

At the thought of making love to him, her insides flooded with need. Her mouth watered, preparing itself for his lips to meld with hers.

Suddenly, he turned and let go of her.

She fell to the floor. With the trance broken, her desire faded as reality cleared her mind.

“They’ll kill you the first chance they get and I couldn’t let that happen.” He stood above her.

“Why would you care what happens to me as long as your pack is safe?” She crouched down, needing time to process everything. Belief without facts went against her nature. He wanted to kill her and take her property, leaving her with nothing.

“I have chosen you to be my mate.” His answer was final and laced with possession.

Mate
? He chose her to be his mate? Shouldn’t she have a say in the matter? Curling her lip over her teeth, she bit down, pausing as she tried to come up with something rational to say. “You don’t even know me.”

“I know much more than you think.” His voice softened. “We are meant to be together.”

Either he was trying to distract her with more nonsense or he was even crazier than she thought, but insanity or not, no one would claim her.
Her lips parted. She needed answers, but didn’t know which questions to ask, and it didn’t matter. She had to get away. She focused on the door and tensed, letting her energy build. She would run no matter what it took.

“Don’t move.” As if he sensed what she was planning, he jumped in her escape path, holding both his arms out.

“Don’t tell me what to do.” With her first option closed, she scrambled to get up on her feet as she turned the situation over and over in her mind like a stone in a tumbler.

He sniffed at the air, and without warning, picked her up.

“Let me go!” She wouldn’t allow him to take her anywhere else. She pushed against him, trying to kick or hit him with no success.

“Learn to trust me.” He went to the bathroom and deposited her into the cold, empty tub.

She tried to stand and slipped against the sides. “Trust is earned, not taken.”

“Stay there if you want to live.” He turned and left, slamming the door behind him.

She forced herself up and got out of the tub. She wouldn’t trust him, she wouldn’t listen and she’d never be his mate.

****

Vale pressed his back to the bathroom door. A member of his pack had come for them. The stench of one of the many nameless scouts, those bred and trained to kill and fight to the death, permeated the room long before its arrival. Their odor was stronger than any other of his kind.

He crouched down, flexing his muscles, waiting. Kira needed to stay in the bathroom, but his instincts told him she would fight. He’d come to save her, make her his own, and, for the first time in his life, he couldn’t be second best. His savvy little scientist had no clue what she’d started when she unearthed the rock sample from below.

He sensed his enemy outside the door, and knew it came alone. It would be too risky for more than one of them to be out in the daylight before the full moon. Vale’s strategy—act first. Once certain of his next move, he ran across the room, threw the door open, and dragged the huge form inside.

The hood covering the scout’s head fell back, revealing his wolf-like appearance. He growled at Vale, his fangs glowing through his silvery fur, his four large paws planting themselves in the carpet. Without wasting any time, he leapt toward Vale with the full weight of his fury.

Vale held his arms up to shield himself when sharp claws dug into his forearm. He yelled, using the searing pain to gain enough strength to punch the animal in his long snout. The creature fell against a table, crushing it to pieces.

“Traitor.” The scout’s primitive speech betrayed his low rank in the pack. He rose, launching himself at Vale’s neck with his fangs at the ready.

Vale jumped free of the attack, causing the animal to miss his mark and hit the far wall. “None of you will ever get near her!”

“She is dead already.” The creature struggled to get up and stumbled.

“No, you are!” Vale lunged for the intruder, pinning him on his back. He dug his knee into his enemy’s exposed underbelly, and wrapped his arms around his neck. The scout howled as Vale twisted its neck until it snapped, cutting off the sound.

He dropped the beast’s body to the floor. Some rescuer he turned out to be. They were found in less than twenty-four hours. This was why he wasn’t a leader. More from his pack were on the way. For the first time, he doubted his plan. Had he put Kira directly in the path of her own death?

****

Kira never acted on instinct. Her instincts couldn’t be trusted. In fact, trust couldn’t be trusted. Instinct and trust made her believe in people, jobs, life, and over the years these slipped away like a leaf floating down a river. In the end, it became easier to listen only to logic.

She believed when her parents left for a vacation, promising presents and pictures, that they would return. Instead, she received a phone call about a fatal accident. She believed her boyfriend and her best friend were loyal to her. Instead, they had each other and she was the odd one out. She believed her work would be her sanctuary, but rather than a refuge, it was a battlefield where coworkers had done everything to take credit for what wasn’t theirs.

Somehow her intuition was off. However, even with her mind begging her to act, for once she listened to her instinct and stayed in the bathroom, obeying her captor’s demands.

Right when it mattered most, her instinct finally paid off. She heard the low rasp of something other than Vale growl that she was already dead followed by Vale’s threat. On weak legs, she returned to the tub and crouched in the corner, the sounds of bodies crashing together shaking the walls.

There was a low, horrifying howl followed by nothing but the blabbing television that continued to play, and the swooshing of her blood cells through the veins in her ears.

At last, her mind won over her instinct, and she left her hiding spot.

She held the doorknob and waited. Unless every monster out there had magically disappeared, she would open the door to find either her self-proclaimed savior or a killer waiting for her.

Vale stood with blood dripping down his arm hunched over a large wolf-like creature. The animal lay lifeless with its head cocked oddly to one side and tongue hanging out of its mouth. Instinct and intellect reminded her how Vale had told her to believe him.

“Vale!” She screamed his name and ran toward safety, toward Vale. She collided with him and clenched her teeth at how easy it was to go to him.

“It’s all right.” He rubbed her back.

She leaned into him, almost embracing him. It had been a lifetime since she truly touched someone, but she caught herself and stepped back. This wasn’t right.

“I’m here. Nothing will harm you.” He pulled her close again.

“You’re hurt.” Three long gashes trailed down his forearm, deep enough for the blood to pool in them. She needed to focus, but his hard body against hers and his warm, large arms holding her, made her want to sink into him rather than plan her next strategy.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be fine.”

“Please, we need to take care of that.”

“You need to see something first.” He turned her toward the dead animal splayed on the floor.

Worry had taken over her life. Any answers she received only created more questions. “Vale, what is that?”

“It’s a scout from my pack sent to find us,” he said as if he were telling her the weather. “I want you to watch this.”

Though the door and windows were closed, a slight wind blew throughout the room and Vale turned her. She kept her hold on him and watched as the carcass dried out and transformed into a pile of dust. The air stilled, leaving only the clothing intact. “Oh, my God.” She spun back to Vale, giving in for one moment and hiding her face against his chest. Her mind witnessed everything, the animal, the danger, the story. They were all too real.