“She’s mine. She’s mine. She’s fucking mine mineminemine.” I shook my head and closed my eyes, a darkness the likes of which I’d never felt claiming me. And I fucking let it. “I’ll slaughter the piece of shit who took her from me.” My voice was low, barely audible. “I'll rip their arms and legs from their worthless body, feast on every drop of blood flowing through their veins.”
Mine. Mine. Mine.
“Well holy fooking shite.”
I opened my eyes, and through the haze of red in my vision and the rush of blood in my ears, I heard Banner’s shocked tone and saw his surprised expression.
“The bastard found his mate.”
I spun and snarled at Banner. I was going to rip that fucker’s throat out too. Banner grinned and lifted a hand, curling his finger and gesturing me forward.
I rushed him and clashed with his body, the momentum propelling us toward the wall, pictures falling to the ground, plaster crumbling under the wallpaper from the force.
The Lycan twisted out of my grip, and before I could stop him, he had a heavy arm banded around my chest. The fact that he was thinking clearly—unlike me—gave him an advantage.
“Be at ease, motherfooker,” he growled by my ear.
“Fuck you,” I said in a distorted growl, the air in the room icy from my rage, the space glowing red from my eyes.
“Think logically; act rationally, ye stubborn, crazy bastard.”
I growled and tried to break free again and again, did a couple of times before Banner had ahold of me once more. If anyone could restrain me, it was this big bastard.
“Even if yer arrogant arse pisses me off more times than no’, I’m here tae help find yer female and Odhran’s. All the Lycans are. Now…” He spun me around and pressed his forearm to my throat, leaning in so we were eye to eye. “Calm the fook down so we can get both of yer females back and level the Assembly.”
I thrashed again, instinct and the primal side of me needing violence and destruction. But with each passing second, I breathed through that rage, knowing what Banner said was true. If I planned on getting Kayla back—because there was no other outcome—I had to be smart. I had to get control and be the emotionless bastard I was known as.
I looked at Odhran, who stood off to the side with a hard, unyielding expression on his face. I swallowed as the last of that bloodthirsty rage left me.
“I understand,” I grated out. “I understand.” I didn’t have to emphasize that I finally understood that hollow, vicious ache in a male’s chest when their female was taken from them, when they felt the most important and vital part of them was ripped away. “Christ, I understand, brother.”
Odhran’s throat bobbed as he swallowed, and he ran a hand over his face. “Fooking hell,” he grumbled out. “Let’s go get our females.”
Dark, deadly solidarity settled in every single molecule that made me who and what I was, growing excited, bloodthirsty. All those things that made me the most dangerous vampire in the world.
“We’ll destroy the fucking world and everyone in it to get our females back.”
Odhran nodded slowly.
Yeah. Yeah, we sure as hell would do just that, and I’d be grinning the entire fucking time.
27
Kayla
I was cold, hungry, and thirsty, and this place was dark and depressing as hell. It also smelled like someone had died at some point, a lingering decay that never left, that seeped into the walls and floor, into the stone forever.
My face throbbed, and I lifted my hand and touched my temple, grimacing at the tender spot, feeling the wound, letting my fingers trail along the blood-crusted skin around it and down to my cheek. The side of my face felt swollen, and I was pretty sure my newest accessory was black-and-blue.
I brought my legs up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, resting my uninjured cheek on my knees and staring out the thick metal bars of this godforsaken cell.
When I’d fully woken up, I’d been confused and groggy, in a hell of a lot of pain, and locked in this shithole. I remembered bits and pieces before waking up here, foggy, distressed flashes of sounds and images. I’d been transported somewhere by aircraft. That much I was positive of. I remembered the sounds of the engines, had so much pressure in my head, and felt my ears popping. But I didn’t think I’d been taken too far away. I didn’t feel like I’d been out for so long that days had passed.
Holy shit, I hope I haven't.
Either way, I knew by now Adryan would know I was gone, and the only saving grace I felt was there was no doubt he was coming for me. Now.
My head throbbed harder, reminding me how shitty I felt. That vampire asshole had hit me hard enough I was pretty sure he rattled my brain.