Dario was just ahead of him, Stefan was slightly to the left, and an army of nervous security guards followed behind them. Zane didn’t make it obvious, but he moved slower than he usually did, trying to avoid putting any stress on his left arm. Normally, handcuffs wouldn’t bother him—not that he wore them very often—but these weren’t normal cuffs. Since werewolves were significantly stronger than normal people, Dario had ended up having his men slap what felt like two-inch-thick manacles on him. The damn things were tight as hell and weighed a ton, biting into his wrists and dragging his arms down like an anchor. His injured arm was throbbing like a son of a bitch.
Zane was still trying to hide his discomfort when they walked through a set of huge double doors leading into a theater, complete with more of those damn wall hangings. There were maybe seventy-five vampires there, male and female, ranging in age from young to very, very old, all dressed up like they were going to the opera. Many glanced his way, curiosity in their lifeless, black eyes. At least a dozen men stood guard around the theater perimeter, all of them carrying weapons. Mingling in the crowd were young, attractive men and women in service garb, expressionless and glassy eyed as they carried trays of food and drink.
But everything faded into the background when Zane spotted Alyssa perched uncomfortably on a chair on the dais at the front of the theater. Relief coursed through him when he saw that she wasn’t injured. Dario hadn’t lied about that at least. Zoe and Chloe were up there, too, as well as three other women he recognized as the missing people Alyssa had been looking for. Even his former boss, Randy Curtis, was there.
He barely paid attention to anyone else as Alyssa caught sight of him and jumped to her feet. The guard closest to her grabbed her arm, refusing to let her go anywhere.
Zane’s heart pumped faster, his fangs and claws extending, his hands clenching and unclenching with the desire to tear apart the man holding her. Then he caught sight of the two small puncture wounds on the inside of her left wrist. The muscles of his back began to twist again at the urge to throw himself onto all fours and race across the room to reach her side.
He strode forward, uncaring that Dario was in front of him, but the guards that had been behind him quickly moved to block his path, shoving the barrels of their guns in his face. He knew trying to charge forward was stupid, but with Alyssa in danger, he simply couldn’t think straight.
Zane kicked out with his right leg, sending two of the guards flying. The crowd of vampires hurriedly backed away, no longer curious but fearful as they realized there was a hated werewolf in their midst. Throughout the theater, he heard weapons being locked and loaded, red laser dots appearing all over his chest as the security guards around the room sighted in on him.
He heard Alyssa’s breath hitch in terror. Zane looked up to see her staring at him, panic-stricken, two guards holding her back now. He growled long and low, prepared to do whatever he had to do to get to her.
But just when it looked like he was about to get shot, Dario strode up behind the cluster of antsy guards blocking his way, waving them aside. “Let the mongrel go to his mate. I did promise him I’d let him see her after all. We have time before the ritual begins.”
The human guards didn’t seem to like it, especially the two he’d kicked to the floor, but they obediently stepped aside and let Zane continue on his way to the stage. The men holding Alyssa reluctantly let her go and she jumped down from the dais and ran to meet him. Behind her, Zoe and Chloe made a move to join them, but the two men who’d been holding Alyssa grabbed them. Before Zane could wonder too much about what the hell Alyssa and the other women were doing up there and what this ritual Dario had mentioned was about, she was in front of him, fear and anxiety pouring off her in waves.
“How did they capture you?” she asked softly.
She scanned him up and down like she was checking for injuries before she looked around him to take in the heavy cuffs biting into his wrists. But then her attention quickly moved on, one hand gliding up his injured left arm to caress the scar through the material of his jacket, like she somehow knew it was bothering him. He almost sighed in relief as the pain he’d been experiencing faded immediately. How the hell was she able to do that?
“It’s not like I made it difficult for them,” he said quietly, resisting the urge to lean forward and bury his face in the curve of her neck so he could breathe her all in. “I walked in the front door of the lobby upstairs and gave myself up. I really don’t think they trust me, though. Hence the cuffs.”
For a moment, he thought Alyssa was going to berate him for doing something so damn stupid, but then she sighed, continuing to massage the scar tissue that largely composed his left bicep.
“That was foolish,” she murmured, leaning close to him as if trying to keep the words from being overheard by all the vampires around them. He didn’t know how keen their hearing was, so he wasn’t sure if it mattered or not. “They’re going to use the other women and me in a ritual to turn Stefan into a vampire.”
Fear shot through him. He’d kill every last one of the bloody creatures. “Like hell they are.”
Tears glistened in her eyes. “Why didn’t you stay away, Zane? I wouldn’t have cared what happened to me as long as I knew you were safe.”
His heart pounded at her words even if his head couldn’t make sense of them. “When you walked out of the club, I thought it was because you didn’t want to beThe Onefor me. That you couldn’t deal with the fact that I’m a monster.”
“You aren’t a monster.” Alyssa gently cupped his jaw with her free hand, her eyes pleading. “Zane, we’re standing in a room full of creatures that kidnap innocent humans and feed on their blood while men are pointing weapons at us, ready to let the other women and me die so Stefan can become a vampire. They’re the monsters, not you. Don’t you see? What you are doesn’t make you a monster. It’s what you do. And all you’ve ever done is protect the people you care about.” Tears streaming down her cheeks, she wrapped her arms around him, pressing her face against his chest. “When I look at you, I see the man I love, not a monster.”
Zane buried his face in her beautiful hair, damn close to tears himself. How the hell had fate found him someone so incredibly perfect? She was more than he deserved. He opened his mouth to tell her he loved her, too—more than he’d ever thought possible—but Dario interrupted him.
“While this is all very romantic,” he said dryly, “we have a ritual to perform. I promised you a chance to see your mate. You’ve done so. Time for her to take her place among the anointed.”
As much as he didn’t want to pull away from Alyssa, Zane forced himself to take a step back. Then he turned to face Dario, moving in front of Alyssa as he did so. “Did you really think I was going to let you use Alyssa or any of these women for your bloody damn ritual?”
Dario smirked. “Not really. Fortunately, that doesn’t matter, since the only reason I brought you down here was to see if the coven’s investment in those wolfsbane bullets was worth it.”
Zane charged forward, making sure he kept his body between Alyssa and the vampire when Dario’s hand came out from behind his back with a Sig Sauer .40 caliber.
Zane would have darted to the side so he could avoid the bullets, but he couldn’t do that and protect Alyssa at the same time. So, he ended up taking an entire magazine of large-caliber rounds point-blank in the gut and chest. He only thanked God they were expanding hollow points or some of them would have punched right through him and hit her anyway.
The poison stung, but thanks to the vaccine he’d been inoculated with, it felt nothing like the burning acid he’d experienced when the hunters shot him all those months ago. He went down hard because getting hit with twelve rounds of anything still hurt like a son of a bitch.
Alyssa screamed and dropped to her knees beside him, but he couldn’t pay her as much attention as he would have liked. He was concentrating too hard on not passing out. He barely had enough awareness left to see Dario drag Alyssa away from him, across the room, and up onto the dais to join the other women they intended to sacrifice.
Alyssa fought Dario like crazy, punching, scratching, and kicking the vampire the whole way, but it was no use. Dario was too strong.
Zane strained against the cuffs, but between his useless arm and the multiple bullet holes in his chest and stomach, he couldn’t generate enough force to snap the metal shackles holding him bound no matter how hard he tried.
Up on the dais, Alyssa screamed again.
