God, she hated throwing up. The endless morning sickness had made her cry more than once, and Mara wasn’t a crier. Not before she’d gotten pregnant anyway. But now, she welcomed the disgusting sensation.
“Just hang on, Rachel,”she told her daughter.“It’s probably going to get worse before it gets better. But we’re going to find a way out of here.”
* * *
Ten minutes later,her stomach empty and her fiery hitchhiker back in hiding, Mara hoped she hadn’t made a terrible mistake.
“Get up.” Celia’s order echoed from halfway down the corridor, and Mara rose on unsteady legs, unable to resist the practitioner’s command. “Consider this your only warning, elemental. Try something like that again, and you will regret it.”
“I need fresh air,” Mara said softly. “Just for a few minutes. I know I can’t fight you.” She gingerly touched her side where the sigil still burned. “I don’t want to feel that pain ever again. I just want to know my baby will be safe. That she’ll be healthy. And,” she sniffled and swiped at her nose, “I don’t want to die without ever seeing the sun again. Can you understand that?”
“We studied you before we knew your child would be strong enough to create the last element. You are intelligent, yet you take us for fools. I will not let you out of this cell until you are ready to give birth. Ask again, and I will hunt down your mate just so he can watch you die.”
“No! Leave Cade alone. Please!” She lunged for the bars and managed to get one hand through to grab Celia’s arm. “Don’t hurt him.”
“Accept your fate, elemental. And obey.” Celia’s lips curved into a gleeful smile. “Lie down now. Wouldn’t want you falling when the lights go out.”
All the fight left her like someone had stuck a pin in a balloon. She would die, the Thirteen would take her daughter, and she’d never see Cade again. There were no tears. No sadness or outrage. Only resignation. Her life was over.
Darkness surrounded her. The other consciousness locked deep inside screamed at her to fight, but Mara didn’t want to listen. All she wanted to do was sleep.
Chapter Four
Livie
“Where is he?” Livie demanded as she strode into the mansion. When every one of the pack stopped answering their cell phones thirty-six hours ago, Livie had spent twenty minutes snuggling Serena, then headed straight for the airport. She’d broken all kinds of speed records driving to Doolin, and finding Farren’s house deserted and with the back wall half-destroyed had set her off, and she’d been yelling at Shawn over video when Tierney had shown up.
“Livie?” Caitlin ran out of a massive living room with vaulted ceilings and dark tapestries on the walls. “Ya’ came?”
“Of course I did. Mara’s missing and Cade’s not answering my calls. You expected me to stay in fucking Canada?” She dropped her duffel bag on the fancy tile floor so she could hug Caitlin. “You’ve lost weight. Too much. Where’s everyone else?”
“Liam’s patrollin’. Farren and Eli are in their room. Regulus is waitin’ for Ewan to transition, and Peter’s…with his mate.”
“The hell? Where did Peter find a mate in all of this? And when?” If she’d walked in to a vampire orgy, she’d be less surprised. “If he was distracted fighting the Thirteen, I’m going to kick his ass.”
“He wasn’t,” Caitlin assured her.
Tierney nudged the front door shut behind her and headed for the living room with a rolling suitcase. “Did ya’ say Peter found hismate?What the feckin’ hell is in the water around here? I was gone for all of ten hours.”
“She was branded by the Thirteen.” Caitlin ran a hand through her reddish brown locks. “When Peter found her, she was a mile away from the compound we hit. Livie, her wrists and ankles were chained, she can’t see, and I’m not even sure she can talk. I don’t think she’s a threat, but she does need our protection.”
Rolling her eyes, Livie muttered, “We’ll see about that. Have you told Cade?”
Caitlin snorted. “He won’t talk to any of us. Threatened to start runnin’ and not stop until he caught her scent. Regulus has a full gym in the east wing basement, and Cade’s been down there punchin’ everythin’ in sight until he passes out from exhaustion. Then wakes up and starts all over again. It’s good this place is so well insulated. We’ve been takin’ turns bringin’ food to him. Not that he’s eaten anythin’.”
“I’m going down there to see if I can yank his head out of his ass. We need our alpha back so we can find Mara. And when I’m done, I want to talk to this new ‘mate’ of Peter’s. I should have been with you all from the beginning. It’s my job to manage the security for this pack, and since the pup was born, I’ve been shirking my duties. Maternity leave’s over.”
* * *
Caitlin hadn’t been kidding.The large open space at the bottom of a long flight of stairs had everything. A treadmill, a huge rack of free weights larger than any she’d ever seen, a steam room, jacuzzi tub, and three separate heavy bags lined up not too far from the left wall. A fourth had been destroyed, now nothing but a pile of sand on the floor next to ripped leather swinging from a chain overhead.
Sitting in the darkest corner, naked, with his arms around his knees and his head bowed, was her alpha.
Livie marched over to him, barely pausing to grab a black terry cloth robe draped over one of the weight benches. Balling it up, she threw it at him. “Bossman, get up. Now.”
He growled, his wolf flashing in his ice blue eyes, until he focused on her. “Livie? Is that really you?”
“No. A figment of your imagination just hit you in the head with a bathrobe.” She rolled her eyes. “Of course it’s me. Did you expect me to just sit in that fucking apartment in Vancouver doingnothingafter my alpha’s mate—mysisterin every way that counts—was taken? Because if you did, you’re a lot further gone than I thought.”
