“Not this.”
He shrugged. “I have nothing but time, love. I can be patient when I need to be, and you’re worth waiting for.” He pulled a vial from his pocket and strode over to her. Ludcarab squatted down in front of her. His masculine scent, unfortunately not unpleasant, flowed over her. It was becoming familiar. Yet another thing that pissed her off. “You know the drill.” He held out the vial to her.
Kara didn’t want to take it. Everything inside of her screamed at her to knock it from his hand and tell him to jump off the highest mountain. But, way down deep, in a tiny dark place, there was a miniscule amount of hope. She wondered. Maybe … just maybe … that potion, whatever it was, could make her fertile again. If it did, and Nick found her, then perhaps they would be able to have children together. Could there be anything on earth better than bearing Nick’s child?
She was a fool. Kara knew it, and yet she watched as her hand reached out for the vial, uncorked it, and then held it to her lips. In one quick motion, she tilted her head back, letting the smooth liquid slide down her throat. There was a tingling sensation, as always, and then her stomach warmed. The warmth continued to move lower until she felt it deep in her gut. She hated that her mind always pictured something similar to what her own magic could do when knitting bone and marrow back together. It was as if she could actually see the potion healing whatever it was inside of her that prevented her from getting pregnant. The idea fed her delusion, and she hated herself for it.
After a minute of simply staring at her, the elf king took the vial and then rose. He turned and walked out of the room without another word just like he did every day. Only this time, he spoke over his shoulder, “Don’t worry about the room, lovely Kara. I’ll have it taken care of. Again.”
“I’m sorry, Nick,” she whispered into the empty room as tears ran down her cheeks. She felt like she was betraying him by drinking the potion Ludcarab offered. “I should be stronger.” She slammed the back of her head against the wall. Then she gripped her hair with her hands. “I should be so much stronger than this.”
ChapterOne
“I’ve spent my life waiting to love you. My arms have waited to hold you. My lips have longed to taste you. And, finally, you were in my grasp … but for a breath. Now, you’re gone. I will search for you. I will search until I find you, until my body gives out, or until my life is snuffed out by my enemy.” ~Nick
Nick knew he and his wolf needed sleep. Though he understood his body needed rest in order to function, resting felt like such a waste of time when his true mate was being held captive by the Order. He did not know what was happening to her. His mind kept conjuring the worst. But he really had no idea what the worst was. The reality could actually be even more horrible than whatever he could imagine.
He stared up at the night sky, the hot air from his lungs letting out puffs of smoke as Nick breathed into the frosty night air. From the grounds of the Colorado compound, the stars lit up the darkness like city lights. Nick had been offered a bed inside, just like everyone else, but being inside felt stifling. His wolf didn’t want to be enclosed behind walls. It wanted to be out in the open, where he could see his enemy coming.Ifthey were coming. Unfortunately, he’d seen neither hide nor hair of the Order’s members. Nick would give anything for an all-out battle right now, if only to distract himself from thoughts of his missing mate.
He forced his heavy lids to stay open and let his mind think about the past two weeks, searching for any mistake they might have made or clue they might have missed. The first night of the hunt, they’d gone directly to the Order’s destroyed compound. It was well after midnight, and all the human authorities, reporters, and curious on-lookers had mostly gone. Elle and Adam had masked their presence, so the straggler humans hadn’t seen them. The horror of what Nick had seen was still fresh in his mind as he drifted back to that night.
“Bloody hell.” Drayden stared down at the massive crater in the ground where several large warehouses had once stood.
“Peri did this?” The horror in Decebel’s voice mirrored Nick’s own feelings.
“Is there any chance Kara could have been here?” Nick asked through a constricted throat. He wasn’t sure if he really wanted to know the answer. No one replied for several seconds.
Then Fane finally spoke up. “I don’t think so. Your bond may not be complete, but the connection is still there, enough that you would know if she was gone.”
Then why can’t I feel her? Hear her? Sense her presence somehow?Nick wanted to snap at the alpha, but he knew that would bring him no closer to his Kara.
“Did you two know Peri was this powerful?” Dillon asked Elle and Adam as he pointed to the devastation.
Adam snorted, though no humor filled his eyes. “All those times she warned you about her power, and you ask us that?”
“With Peri, it was hard to know how much was smoke and mirrors,” the Colorado alpha answered.
“Well, now you know,” Elle replied softly.
“The wolves will phase.” Fane’s eyes glowed brightly with his wolf. “Smell everything within a ten-mile radius of this area. Thalion, Cyn, Elle, and Adam”—he looked at the elf prince and the three fae— “if you could check the actual site.” He motioned down the hill. “You all can detect magic better than us. It’s likely Peri’s spell obliterated the magical signatures of anyone else who might have been present. Still, check and see if you can sense anyone or anything.”
An hour later, Nick heard his alpha’s howl—a signal call. He bolted toward Drayden who was three miles away. He reached the alpha within minutes. When Nick was within fifty feet, he smelled her.His mate.
“She was here,” he said the moment he phased. Nick walked back and forth, trying to determine how much area Kara’s scent covered. It led in one direction for a hundred yards or so, but then returned to the original spot where Drayden had first smelled her.
“Alston was here,” Adam said as he and Elle appeared next to them. “I can feel his magic. He was definitely with her.”
Nick snarled, cursed, and clenched his fists. It took everything in him, and a command from Drayden, to calm his wolf. The beast wanted to fly to their mate, it just didn’t know which way to go.
“And he isn’t the only thing I smell,” Fane said. “There’s an elf…”
“Ludcarab most likely,” Adam said.
“…and a vampire,” continued Fane.
“Cain.” Decebel spat out the word.
The sound coming from Nick, though being formed by a man’s mouth, wasn’t anything human vocal cords could have produced. It sounded like a growl, whimper, and howl all rolled into one. Drayden gripped his shoulder, letting his claws sink in slightly. He looked directly into Nick’s eyes. “Wewillfind her.”
