The high fae shrugged. “Why? He either cares or he doesn’t.”
Maxim forgot to breathe. It was real.Shewas real. His mate was waiting for him somewhere right now. The dreams, the pull… All of it was real.
His daze broke when Perizada turned on her heel, her mate doing the same, clearly expecting Maxim to follow. Snapping back to himself, he leapt after the pair. He felt Alexsey a step behind him. He didn’t bother to tell his beta to stay behind. Alexsey would be in charge while the alpha was gone, but Maxim must know more.
Perizada and Lucian strode ahead at a brisk pace, forcing Maxim into a near jog to keep up as he peppered the fae with urgent questions.
“Her name?”
“Alice,” Perizada answered without slowing.
The name wrapped around Maxim’s mind, both foreign and intimately familiar. He pressed for more. “How did she come to be with a vampire?” He spat the last word like a curse.
Peri said nothing at first. She and Lucian only forged ahead. They finally stopped when they reached the parking lot of a pub. “I can only tell you what our Creator has shared. Her father works for the American government. She wasn’t given a choice. Cain, the vampire king, is working with the human government to build an army of hybrids.” Perizada’s tone remained flippant, despite the shocking information she was sharing.
“That’s why the vampires are hunting down dormants?” Maxim asked as comprehension dawned.
“Yes,” Lucian answered. “Cain has captured many. To our knowledge, he’s only managed to makeonehybrid.”
“Turns out your mate’s blood was the key ingredient to making it happen,” Perizada continued.
Maxim’s wolf perked up even more. “Why is her blood necessary?”
“Because she’s a gypsy healer.” Perizada’s words were a tad gentler, but it still felt like he’d been punched in the gut.
His mate was a healer. “By the goddess,” he muttered as he rested his hands on his hips. “And she’s in the clutches of the vampire king?” The words came out in a growl as his fur rippled across his skin before he got his beast under control.
“‘In the clutches’ isn’t exactly how I would describe her predicament.” Perizada hesitated. She pushed her long, white-blonde hair over her shoulder as she glanced at Lucian.
“What does that mean?” Maxim wasn’t really sure if he wanted the answer.
“I don’t know details,” Peri began, “but the other healers that are currently keeping her tethered to this world have told me that she and Cain have a connection.”
“She has aconnectionto a vampire? How the hell does a gypsy healer have a connection to a vampire?” Maxim’s breathing was harsh as his hands fisted at his sides.
“She was bitten by a vampire named Claude. Fane is currently hunting that son of a leech, but afterward, Cain saved her life by giving Alice his blood. Sothatis most likely what has caused this romantic interest.”
Maxim’s heart pounded painfully in his chest. “Romantic?” What the actual hell? He let out a slew of cuss words in his native tongue as he ran a hand through his shoulder-length hair. “I’d thought my mate must have died. It’s been so long. I’ve been fighting the damn darkness for so long. And now I find out that she’s shacked up with a vampire?” Rage simmered beneath his skin at the idea of his mate enthralled with a leech. His wolf snarled and strained against its bonds.
Lucian must have sensed the turbulence in Maxim as he speared Maxim with glowing wolf eyes until the wolf reluctantly quieted, and he dropped his gaze.
“The girl did not choose her path,” the fae said. “At least not in the beginning. She wasn’t given a choice in the matter of helping Cain. And again, I only know what I’ve been told. She found out what she was once she started working for Cain. Before that, she didn’t even know of the supernatural world. Then she got kicked in her lady parts again by Claude. Cain came to her rescue. “So, perhaps—Perizada raised a hand—“she’s got Stockholm Syndrome. Whatever it is, it won’t matter in a day or so because she will be dead. Is that what you want, Maxim Rurik?” Her brow rose as she narrowed her eyes. “Do you want a chance to figure things out with her, the one female the Great Luna made for you, or do you want her to die, which will then eventually make you go feral? At which point, my mate will hunt you to put you down like a mangy dog. Because those are your choices.”
Maxim inhaled slowly, mastering his roiling emotions through sheer force of will. “Where is she?”
“Area 51,” Lucian answered. “The government’s not-so-secret bunker.”
“How do you know that she’s ill?”
“The gypsy healers have the ability to communicate with one another using their own bond,” Perizada explained. “Right now, there’s six of them using their light to keep her body from killing itself because of the foreign blood in her system. Their essences are with her, not their physical forms.
“We haven’t yet been able to breach Cain’s defenses. He still has fae on his payroll, and they’ve got a barrier around the perimeter. No flashing in,” the high fae told him, shutting down his demand for her to take him to Alice right that second.
Maxim growled. “How am I supposed to help her if I can’t get to her?”
“We’re still working that part out,” Lucian said. “Now that you know of her…”
“I’ve been feeling the pull for a while and having dreams of her,” Maxim told the other wolf. “And there was a shadowed man as well.”
