Unbound (10 page)

Why the hell hadn't she seen this coming?

Silvio and her father stood in the living room of Zach's rental house, and Silvio had a gun pointed at Zach's chest. Hatred oozed off him, and the smile on his face was one of pure pleasure. Annabelle knew he planned on killing Zachary and would take great pleasure doing it.

“Zach.” Annabelle's voice shook. Stepping out from behind Zachary, she was more afraid to see the look on his face than anything else. She tried to touch him, but Zach pulled away with disgust and leveled a deadly glare at her. Hands at his sides and his body wound tight, the look on his face was nothing short of furious.
Please, Zachary.
She tried to touch his mind with hers but was met with a wall of silence. “I can explain.”

“No need,” Zachary bit out. The muscles in his jaw flexed, and he shifted his gaze to Silvio and her father before turning those burning orbs back to Annabelle. Zachary's fists clenched at his sides, and his energy buzzed with the pain and fury of her betrayal. He could barely get the words out due to his anger, and she couldn't blame him. “It was a setup. I get it. You figured out that we were destined to be mates and you used it to get close to me so these two assholes can kill me.”

“My daughter will not be your whore,” her father swore. He stepped forward, but Silvio raised his hand, stopping him in his tracks. Snapping his fingers at her, he commanded, “Annabelle, come here!”

“No, Daddy. Can't you see how wrong all of this is?”

“Be quiet, Annabelle.” Her father sliced a nervous glance at Silvio, and sweat covered his balding head. “You have to come back with us.”

“I heard you tell Silvio about my dreams.” Choking on her conflicting emotions, she barely got the words out. “I'm not going back there. You're wrong about them. The Amoveo aren't the monsters Silvio described. I knew that. Deep down, I've always known that, and that's why I left. I knew you wanted to use me to get to them, and I couldn't let you do it…especially after the dreams started.”

Annabelle looked at her father, and her heart broke. The man who'd loved her so dearly, who'd been so sweet and loving, was gone and had been replaced by someone she barely recognized. The loss of her mother had pushed him over the edge into the abyss of anger. It was easier for him to feel hatred and prejudice than loss and grief. She took a deep breath. “I'm not leaving Zachary.”

Zachary's brow furrowed and his mask of fury faltered briefly, which gave her a flicker of hope. Perhaps he could get past his anger long enough to hear her out and give her another chance.

“Relax, Philip. She'll come home with us.” Silvio's dark, hateful stare turned to Annabelle and made her stomach roil. Silvio smirked at her and kept the gun trained on Zach. Annabelle shook her head furiously, but before she could say another word, Silvio cocked the pistol and continued. “I'm impressed you were able to bag one all by yourself, cousin. Although I must say that running off the way you did was ill advised. If it weren't for Grace, we might never have found you.”

“Oh my God,” Annabelle whispered. Nausea swamped her, and for a moment, she feared she was going to faint. The only person she thought she could trust had betrayed her. “
Grace
told you where I was?”

“Did you really think we'd let you work in the city without some kind of security in place?” Silvio's grin widened. “The only reason I allowed you to take that waitressing job was to let you strengthen your gift and get better control over it. I knew that once you had to deal with people all the time, you'd figure out how to manage the visions more effectively. You got stronger, just like I knew you would. Your gift will be a huge asset to the Caedo cause, and it looks as though you've managed to snare this one with ease.” His eyes narrowed and he looked Zachary up and down. “Fucking demons.”

“She sure did. Fucked me and then fucked me over.” Zachary turned his body ever so slightly toward her while keeping his gaze on Silvio. “Well, your little spy here put on one hell of an act.”

“It wasn't an act!” Frustration and outright rage fired through Annabelle from the sting of his words. Tears filled her eyes, and her throat tightened while she struggled to explain herself. She wondered, fleetingly, why Zachary hadn't used his powers to simply disappear. If he was so furious with her and hated her so much, wouldn't he have gone away and saved himself? But he stayed. That gave her hope, and some much-needed bravery.

Annabelle tried once again to touch his mind with hers.
Get
out
of
here
, she pleaded.
Visualize
yourself
anywhere
but
here. I know you probably hate me and think I set you up, but I swear to God I didn't.

“I've had enough of this. Between the travel and paying off the local cops to clean up the mess after we leave, this entire fiasco has cost me a fortune.” Silvio glanced at Philip and jerked his head toward Annabelle. “Get your troublesome daughter so we can get back to civilization. I'll take care of him.”

Annabelle?
Zachary's voice shot into her mind on a growl, and her frightened gaze clapped onto his.
Run
.

What happened next happened in an instant.

Annabelle's father grabbed her arm, yanking her toward him, and when static suddenly crackled in the air, she knew what was happening. Zachary shifted at the same instant Silvio fired the gun, and Annabelle screamed with outrage as the deafening crack echoed through the room.

Annabelle did the only thing she could think of doing. She launched herself away from her father and toward Zachary. A split second later, Silvio fired again. Pain bloomed in her chest, and it felt like her veins were filled with liquid fire. The blinding pain radiated down her torso, and a scream surrounded her. It may have been hers. She wasn't sure of anything except that she was dying.

The pain ebbed as swiftly as it came. Her body went numb, and the cold tile floor beneath her had seemingly vanished, giving her the odd sensation of floating. With the feeling of weightlessness, a smile played at her lips when the sound of a lion's roar rumbled in the distance.

Zachary.
The last image Annabelle saw before tumbling into the dark abyss was a pair of furious amber eyes. As they faded away, she whispered,
Forgive
me
.

***

He'd waited one second too long to make his move.

The moment before that Caedo piece of shit fired the gun again, Zachary shifted into his lion and leaped through the air. He landed on Silvio with bone-cracking force, making the gun fly out of his hands and clatter across the floor. His arms and legs pinned to the ground, the human was dwarfed by Zach's massive size, and the look of surprise on Silvio's face was almost comical. Zachary snarled as he latched his powerful jaws around the bastard's neck and clamped down with a satisfying crunch.

A whimpering sound behind him caught his attention. With a roar, he spun around and crouched low, ready to pounce, but the sight in front of him made his heart stop.

Annabelle was covered in blood, and her weeping father held her limp body in his lap, saying her name over and over again, but there was no response from her.

Pure unadulterated fear filled Zachary at the sight of his mate covered in her own blood. He let out an earth-shattering roar, and in a violent rush of energy, he shifted back to his human form.

“Annabelle!” he shouted. Stumbling toward them, he fell to his knees and sent his energy signature in search of hers. He placed one hand on her forehead and the other over her bloodstained hand lying lifelessly on the tile. “You stubborn woman, what the hell did you do?”

For a tense second, he thought that she was dead. That the universe had played the cruelest trick of all and made him fall in love with her just so she could be taken away. However, through the fog of fear, a familiar gentle tendril of energy filtered through the noise and called to him.

“You have to help her,” Philip wept. The man's shoulders shook as he sobbed and cradled his daughter's wounded body. “Please. I know you can help her. I'm such a fool. Such a stupid, bitter fool.” Tears streaming down his weathered face, he held her head in the crook of his arm and placed a kiss on her forehead. “My baby. I'm so sorry I dragged you into this.” He turned his watery eyes to Zach. “Please. You can kill me if you want. I don't care, just please help my baby girl.”

“I'm way ahead of you, old man.” Zachary picked up Annabelle and cradled her against him. Blood seeped from her chest in frightening amounts, and he prayed Tatiana would be able to work her magic. He stepped back and turned his glowing lion eyes to Philip.

Zachary wanted to rip this guy's head off and eliminate him the same way he had Silvio—but he didn't. Philip was Annabelle's father, and regardless of what he may have done in the past, Zachary would not kill his mate's father.

“You'll never be able to see her again. Do you understand what I'm saying to you? She's now a part of my very own witness protection program. You will tell the other Caedo that I killed Annabelle and Silvio, and then you killed me. Case closed.”

Philip looked dazed but nodded his understanding.

“And one more thing.” A growl rumbled deep in Zachary's chest, and the sound of it made Philip's eyes widen. He winced and tried to push himself farther away, but the wall prevented it. “This is your one free pass. If you or any of the others come looking for Annabelle, me, or any of my people…”

“No more.” Philip held up his hands and shook his head adamantly. “I swear it.”

Zachary.
Annabelle's voice, weak and far away, drifted into his mind.
Forgive
me.

Her body lurched in his arms and fresh blood pumped from the wound in her chest, which elicited a curse from Zachary. Holding her tightly, with her long hair spilling over his arms, he visualized the surgical suite at the prince's ranch in Montana. The scent of antiseptic filled his head as he whispered the ancient words and vanished in a maelstrom of static.

The smell of fresh coffee and the sound of birds chirping seeped through the darkness, pulling Annabelle from the longest sleep of her life. Her eyes fluttered open, and she immediately squinted against the bright, invasive sunlight that streamed through the bank of windows to the right of the bed. She was completely disoriented, and for just a moment, Annabelle thought she was back in California at the Caedo house. She tried to push herself to a sitting position, but pain seared across her chest, and the incident with Silvio came roaring back into focus.

“Good to see you back in the land of the living.” A lovely woman with a wide smile and dark hair swept back into a ponytail stepped in front of the window and pulled the sheer curtains closed. Dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, she came over and helped Annabelle to a sitting position. “Sorry about the sun glare.”

“Zachary?” His name escaped her lips on a hoarse whisper. Her throat felt like sandpaper, and her entire body ached. Annabelle leaned into the mountain of pillows the woman fluffed for her. Her hand went to the bandage on her chest, and tears stung her eyes. “Is he—?”

“He's fine, if a little ornery. I'm Tatiana, by the way.” She poured a glass of water from the white pitcher on the nightstand and handed the glass to Annabelle. “He's downstairs and has just about worn a hole in the floor from pacing around, waiting for you to wake up. I finally kicked him out a little while ago. How are you feeling?”

“Like I got shot.” Annabelle let out a small laugh and winced when a sharp pain shimmied down her left side. She sipped the cool water and closed her eyes as the refreshing liquid coated her parched mouth. “I thought I was a dead woman.”

“You would have been, if Zach hadn't gotten you here when he did.” Tatiana pointed at the bandage that peeked out beneath the edge of the white nightgown Annabelle was wearing. “May I?”

Annabelle sat back and allowed Tatiana to inspect the wound. Grasping the glass tightly, she closed her eyes. Tuning in to her gift, Annabelle pushed through the veil and sought out memories of Tatiana's past.

Tatiana
shifting
into
a
wolf
and
running
alongside
a
tiger. Gunshots. A fire. Flashes of Tatiana in a pool. Naked. With a man who had a scar running down the side of his face. Joy. Peace. Home.

Annabelle shuddered and pulled her mind from the vision. When she opened her eyes, she found Tatiana staring at her with a knowing grin. Annabelle's cheeks heated, and she looked down at the glass in her hands, feeling awkward for having glimpsed such a personal moment. She pushed that aside, because the overall feeling she garnered from the vision was comforting. Tatiana was a good woman with a kind heart, and Annabelle knew she was safe with her.

“To answer the question that is likely lingering in that pretty little head…yes.” Tatiana patted Annabelle's leg and smiled. “I'm Amoveo. Well, I'm a hybrid—half Wolf Clan and half human. You might be one hundred percent human, but based on how you just spaced out, I'm betting you had one of those visions Zachary told us about.”

“Are you a doctor?” She looked past Tatiana and avoided her implied question, feeling embarrassed for peeking into her life like that. Annabelle glanced out the window at the gorgeous scenery. Based on the rolling green fields with horses grazing in the distance, and the mountains looming behind them, they must be at the ranch in Montana. “Is this the prince's ranch?”

“Yup. You, my little Caedo friend, are at the Muldavi ranch. The Muldavis are the royal family, but several of us live here now.” She leaned closer and dropped her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “It's kind of like a compound, but don't tell Dominic I said that.”

“Is he the one with the scar?” Annabelle looked at Tatiana above the rim of her glass while taking another sip of water. “From my vision. He's Tiger Clan?”

“I knew it.” Tatiana pointed at her and laughed. “Yes. That's Dominic, my mate.”

“Why are you being so nice to me?” she asked with more than a little trepidation. “I'm a Caedo. Why would you help me?”

“You're hurt, and I'm a healer. It's what I do. But even if I weren't…you're Zachary's mate, which means you're family. Caedo or not.” Tatiana's expression shifted to one of pure sympathy, and she gave Annabelle's leg a reassuring pat through the blankets. “You are more than your name.”

Annabelle sniffled. “He hates me.”

“Oh please.” Tatiana rolled her eyes. “He'll get over it. Dominic and I did nothing but fight when we first met. I'll let you in on a little secret. Amoveo men are bossy, domineering, and they
hate
being wrong.”

“Yeah.” Annabelle laughed. “I kind of figured that part out.”

“Well, they are also fiercely loyal and devoted to the people they care about.” She blushed and looked out the window for a second. “I didn't want a mate, you know. I was dead set against it and fought the issue tooth and nail.”

“What happened?” Annabelle shifted her position and hung on Tatiana's every word. She needed all the help she could get. “How did you get past it?”

“I fell in love with him.” She rolled her eyes again and chuckled. “It sounds so corny, but it's true. I don't know…maybe you can't fight fate? All I know is that the mate bond is intense, hot, sexy, and can be all-consuming at times. We may not have a choice in our destiny to be brought together, that part I understood right off the bat. The part that took me a while to understand is that we
do
have a choice after that. Fate brought you together, Annabelle, but you and Zachary will choose whether or not to
stay
together.”

“I'm such an idiot,” she murmured. “I feel like such a fool for not taking control of the situation sooner. I should have told him the truth.”

“Yeah, well, the hot sex has a way of fogging our brains and making all of us act like idiots.”

The two women giggled, and the silly exchange made Annabelle feel normal for the first time in years…normal and safe. She'd never felt this comfortable with another person so quickly—other than Zachary.

“Anyway, I'm a veterinarian by trade, but after I hooked up with Dominic, my powers got stronger. I've learned how to speed along the healing process in both people and animals.” Tatiana folded her hands in her lap and a look of empathy covered her face. “You were in pretty bad shape when Zach brought you here, and you'd lost a lot of blood…”

Annabelle's sixth sense went into overdrive. Tatiana oozed with hesitation. There was more she wanted to say, and yet she seemed unwilling to spit it out.

“Tell her the truth, Tatiana,” Zachary's voice cut in from the left, and Annabelle's heart nearly stopped from the deep, sexy sound of it. She'd never been happier to see anyone in her life, and at the same time so totally and completely terrified. He must hate her. “I want Annabelle to know everything. No secrets.” His dark eyes flicked to hers, and his stubble-covered jaw clenched. “We've had enough of those, haven't we?”

Standing in the open doorway, Zachary looked more predatory than ever. Gone were the shorts and T-shirt and the beach bum look. Dressed in black fatigues, a black T-shirt that molded perfectly to his well-sculpted torso, combat boots, and a belt with a gun and at least one dagger that she could see, he looked every bit the soldier and Guardian he'd told her about. He was dangerous, sexy, feral, and still really pissed.

“What's he talking about?” Annabelle gripped the glass tighter and turned to Tatiana. “Is there something you're not telling me?”

“Zach, I don't know if now is the time.” Tatiana rose to her feet and walked around to the end of the bed where Zach now stood. Hands at his sides, he stared Annabelle down with an unreadable expression. “She almost died. Don't be a dick.”

“No. It's okay, Tatiana.” Annabelle placed the glass on the nightstand and pulled the covers over her breasts. Zach's lips tilted at the modest gesture. “Please, just tell me.”

“Shit.” Tatiana let out a sound of frustration. “Listen, if we didn't do what we did, you wouldn't be alive, let alone practically healed by now. That wound will be pain-free and no more than a scar by tonight.” Tatiana folded her arms over her breasts and let out a long breath before turning to face Annabelle. “The only way to save you was to use vampire blood.”

“What are you talking about?” Annabelle's body shivered with cold, and she gaped at the two of them. “
Vampire
blood?
”

“You're not gonna turn into a vamp or anything,” Tatiana added quickly. “Marianna's mate, Pete Castro, is a vampire, and their blood has intense healing properties.”

“There really are vampires?” Annabelle's stomach churned, and for a second, she thought she was going to throw up. “I—I drank blood?”

“No.” Zachary's mouth was set in a tight line. “We keep a few pints of Pete's blood on hand for emergencies such as this. You got it through an IV. Basically, it was a blood transfusion. Pete said there may be some side effects, from either his demon heritage or vamp blood, but he doesn't know what they'll be.”

“
Demon?
” Annabelle swallowed hard and tried to stay focused. “I really might puke.”

“You big jerk!” Tatiana punched Zachary on the arm and shot him a furious look. “You just had to throw that last part in there, didn't you?” She turned to Annabelle, and her tone immediately shifted to one of concern. “Look, you have a lot of catching up to do, and to be honest, so do we. You're Caedo, and by some bizarre twist of fate, you are mated to a pure-blood Amoveo. Having you here on the ranch with us is going to take some getting used to for everyone.”

“She's not staying here,” Zachary said definitively.

“Zach—”

“She's not staying.” Zach kept his intense stare on Annabelle, and her heart squeezed in her chest. “End of discussion.”

“This is crazy.” Tatiana put her hands on her hips and got in Zach's face. “This girl isn't going anywhere right now. So you put your macho Amoveo bullshit on hold for a little while. She's my patient, Zachary.”

“She's
my
mate.” Zach flicked his burning gaze to Tatiana briefly and then back to Annabelle, whose entire body hummed with awareness. The tone of his voice and the look in his eyes were clear. He was claiming her, marking her as his so there was no doubt that Annabelle belonged to him. “She can't stay here, Tati. No one will trust her. As it is, Dominic and William haven't moved from standing guard outside the cabin since we got here. Annabelle is a member of the Caedo family, and even if the others do learn to trust her, we can't be sure her people won't come looking for her eventually.”

“Have you spoken to Richard about this? I'm sure the prince will have a thing or two to say.”

“Yes.” He leveled a serious look in Annabelle's direction. “Your father is supposed to tell the other Caedo that I killed you and Silvio before he killed me, but as we all know, the Caedo can't be trusted.” He straightened his back, and the look on his face broke Annabelle's heart because her worst fear was coming true. Mate or not—he didn't want anything to do with her. “She'll be well enough to travel by tomorrow.”

“What a shit storm,” Tatiana muttered under her breath.

Silence hung in the air between the three of them for several minutes. Annabelle had so many emotions firing through her, she didn't know where to start to identify what they were. Why had he even bothered saving her life?

“Alright, you two obviously need to talk, and I need some coffee.” Tati gave Annabelle a warm smile and leaned on the foot of the bed with both hands. “If you need me, I'll be downstairs. I know you can't telepath with me, but my hearing is awesome, so just give a shout and I'll be here. Don't be a dick, Zachary.” Tati shot him a withering look and pointed at him from the open doorway. “I mean it. If you upset my patient, your ass is grass.”

The door closed behind her with a click that resonated loudly through the silence of the room, and Annabelle quietly waited for Zachary to say something. He didn't. He simply stood at the end of the bed with his arms folded over his chest, staring at Annabelle through glowing amber eyes.

“I thought your eyes only shifted when you got turned on.”

“Or when I'm pissed.” His jaw clenched, and his voice was more like a growl. “Like right now, for example. I'm so fucking angry with you, Annabelle. Why didn't you tell me who you really were? If you had been honest with me, then those assholes wouldn't have had a chance to get to you. I could at least have been prepared instead of fucking ambushed.”

Annabelle met his challenging stare. “When you found me out there on the street, I figured out who and what you were right away. I was afraid to tell you that I was Caedo. Can you blame me? I know how much the Amoveo hate my family.”

“They're killers,” he spat. “That sack of shit, Silvio, was behind the last attack on our people.”

“You took care of that, though, didn't you?” she said quietly. “Looks like the Caedo aren't the only ones capable of killing.”

“I was defending you.” His eyes glowed brightly, and he dropped his hands to his sides. “He was going to kill me, and who knows what the son of a bitch would have done to you when he got you back home. And I
didn't
eliminate your father, even though I wanted nothing more than to eviscerate him for what he put you through.” His tone grew gentler, and his stance relaxed ever so slightly. “I knew killing him would only hurt you.”

“I know. You've been nothing but kind to me from the moment we met.” Her voice quavered, and tears stung her eyes as she let loose all of her pent-up fears. “Everything happened so fast. At first I was afraid of what you'd do to me when you found out I was Caedo. And then…after everything that happened between us. How could I possibly tell you? I was worried you'd hate me, and terrified of seeing that look in your eye—the one you have right now. You hate me, and I don't suppose I can blame you, because you think I betrayed you.”