Dimitri went down, blood pouring from his stomach. He wouldn’t let go of Brice, the bear’s blood raining over him. The stench was horrible, but Dimitri knew his only chance was to hang on.
Somewhere in the back of his brain, he thought he heard a leopard’s furious cry, one from a very familiar leopard. He must be imagining things. Death throes were making him delirious.
She came hurtling down the hall, past the Shifters who were busy fighting the whirlwind of Cian, followed by a gigantic Bengal tiger.
The leopard sprang from the stone floor, her legs nearly straight, flew over the heads of the Shifters, easily avoiding their swiping claws, and hit all four paws into Brice’s head.
Dimitri quickly let Brice go, scrambling backward as Jaycee ripped into Brice’s face, her cat claws moving too fast for Brice to stop them. Brice howled and batted with his huge paws, but Jaycee was instantly out of his reach, hitting a wall with her back feet and using it to propel her into Brice again.
Dimitri’s Collar quit sparking, letting him draw a sharp breath. His sides hurt where Brice had torn them, but the sight of Jaycee made him feel suddenly stronger.
He gathered strength and charged back in, again locking his jaw around Brice’s throat, while Brice desperately tried to bat Jaycee away.
Meanwhile, there was Tiger. Where the hell he’d come from, Dimitri didn’t know, but at the moment, he didn’t care. Tiger seemed to be busy letting loose all the pent-up rage that stemmed from being locked in a cage most of his life, and the Shifters were terrified of him. Watching usually gentle Tiger put his tiger ears back and do battle with his huge paws, never missing, was seriously scary. No wonder Tiger never fought at the fight club. No one would be courageous enough to ever go back.
One by one, the Shifters managed to flee, until Tiger was alone, roaring down the hall.
The Fae would be coming any second, and they might have tranq rifles and other more nasty weapons. Dimitri and Jaycee needed to finish Brice and get the hell out of there.
Brice at last managed to knock Jaycee out of his way. Instead of running after the other Shifters, he grabbed Dimitri, who still hung on to his throat, put his bear paws around Dimitri’s neck, and began to crush him.
Dimitri was forced to unlock his jaw and release the bear’s throat. He kicked out with his paws, breaking Brice’s hold, and fell, gasping for breath. Then Jaycee was there, landing on Brice’s back and digging in.
Brice ran. He headed for the bowels of the castle, back toward the dungeon, Jaycee on his back gouging out clawfuls of his fur.
Dimitri shifted to human, landing hard on his butt on the stone floor, his breath clogging his throat. “Jaycee!” he croaked.
She sprang straight into the air, releasing Brice, whipped her body around, and came down running. She made a leap at Dimitri and landed on him, shifting to human as they both fell to the stones.
Dimitri was a mass of hurt, he was covered with blood, and he could barely breathe, but who cared? His mate was on top of him, kissing his face, crying his name, crying, period. Jaycee’s tears dripped to his face, salt and sweet, her breasts soft against his chest.
“Mate of my heart,” she sobbed. “Dimitri. I love you, love you, love you, so much.”
“Hey now.” Dimitri smoothed back her tangled hair. “I love you too, Jase.” He stroked her hair again, enjoying the silk of it and the heat of her body against his. His pain began to recede, the touch of a mate healing.
Then he blinked. “Shit, what the hell are you doing here? Tiger? Why the fuck did you let her come?”
Tiger, remaining a tiger, had ceased roaring. Now he turned and stared stoically at Dimitri, offering no explanation.
“I wouldn’t let anyone stop me,” Jaycee said, touching Dimitri’s battered face. “I had to find you. Nothing was going to keep me away.”
Every word was hard, harsh, the tears in her eyes heartbreaking. Dimitri closed his arms around her, breathing her, losing himself in her.
Cian returned from the passage down which Brice had escaped and barked a few urgent words at Dimitri. Tiger shifted to human with a quickness Dimitri envied.
“He says we must go,” Tiger rumbled.
“I figured.” Dimitri started to climb to his feet, his arms full of Jaycee. She helped him stand, and he helped her. They leaned on each other, as they ever had. “You s-speak dokk alfar?” he asked Tiger.
“I know all languages of the Fae.” Tiger said something to Cian, who listened as though amazed Tiger understood his language, then he answered. “He knows the way down,” Tiger translated.
“Good. Let’s g-go.”
Dimitri could barely walk. He didn’t mind so much though, with Jaycee to lean on.
Cian led them through narrow passages that were deserted and very dark, night having fallen outside. A small glow came through isolated arrow slits, but not enough to illuminate the halls. Tiger, who could see perfectly fine in the dark, led the way with Cian.
Jaycee touched Dimitri’s Collar, concern in her eyes. “What the hell?”
“D-don’t ask,” Dimitri said. “When we get home, I’ll have Dylan take it off me. If we c-can get home.”
“We can,” Jaycee said. “I know the way.”
Of course she did. She was his mate, and she was the most amazing woman alive.
“Tiger,” Dimitri said. “I t-take it you were part of the t-team Dylan was sending out to grab Brice?”
“Yes,” Tiger said.
“Dylan’s a smart g-guy.”
“Yes,” Tiger answered.
Dimitri tightened his hold on Jaycee. She said nothing more, but that was fine. Words were superfluous between them, not really needed. With Jaycee, it was never a problem that Dimitri couldn’t always speak smoothly. They understood each other without the need for mindless babbling.
“One thing.” Dimitri had wondered about this since Simeon had dragged Cian in for Dimitri to kill. “The Fae b-bastard who runs this place said that Cian had betrayed and m-murdered Shifters. Tiger, ask him what that’s about.”
And if Cian had killed Shifters, Dimitri would make him pay for it, no matter that the guy had helped him break out of prison.
Tiger began speaking in the harsh-sounding language of the dokk alfar. He kept the questioning short, as was Tiger’s way, and Cian answered as succinctly.
Tiger’s expression turned angry as he listened, which did not bode well for whoever was on the receiving end of the anger. “Shifters led by the high Fae attacked the dokk alfar,” he said, his words tight. “Several Shifters were injured. The dokk alfar took them back to their caves with their wounded and tended them. They are alive.”
Dimitri deflated with some relief. He gave Cian a nod of thanks, which the man returned deferentially.
“We’ll rescue them,” Jaycee said. “But after we take Dimitri to safety.”
Dimitri looked sideways at Jaycee. “We’ll argue about who g-goes on the rescue mission l-later.”
Jaycee just gave him her best we’ll see look. It was an old argument between them, and Dimitri rejoiced that he was with her to have it again.
Cian led them through a door, not to the stairs or tunnels Dimitri expected, but to a lower courtyard, an open space on the side of the citadel. A low wall with more arrow slits encircled it.
Above them rose the sheer sides of the main citadel. Below the wall of this courtyard, jutting rocks led down to a steep slope covered with trees. Dimitri understood the logistics of this parapet—if an enemy managed to climb up the backside of the hill, soldiers would stop them. Even if they didn’t, the attackers would never be able to scale the wall up to the main keep. It was too high and too sheer. The door Cian had led them through could easily be blocked and hidden, and anyway the maze of halls inside would be perfect for ambush by the castle’s inhabitants. And the dungeons were not far, waiting . .
.
Jaycee looked over at the rocky slope. “I can climb this. So can Tiger, I bet. Dimitri?”
Her golden brows were drawn together with worry. She was so sweet. Dimitri kissed her lips.
“Of course I c-can, darlin’. Try to stop me.”
Cian went first. No one agreed to this—he simply vaulted over the lip of the wall and began to descend. Dimitri watched him pick out hand- and footholds with ease and precision.
“Go,” Tiger said. “Go now.”
Dimitri heard them coming as well. Brice’s enraged growls, Simeon’s voice yelling commands in Fae, the soldiers’ pounding footsteps.
“Change to wolf,” Jaycee said to Dimitri. “And pick up your feet.”
Do what? Dimitri was already shifting and couldn’t ask with his mouth. The shift, difficult now, took too long. He was still trying to pull himself into his wolf shape when the Fae charged out the door, pouring onto the open cobbles.
Fortunately, the door was so narrow they could only emerge one at a time. Tiger herded Dimitri and Jaycee toward the wall, turning to defend their escape.
He couldn’t hold off a horde of Fae by himself. Dimitri began to turn back, as unsteady as he was, but Jaycee was in front of him, already leopard. Don’t you dare.
Tiger, becoming his huge, terrifying tiger-beast barked a growl at both of them. Go!
Hope you know what you’re doing, big guy, Dimitri thought, and then he was all the way wolf, running with Jaycee to the wall.
I said, pick up your feet! Jaycee growled. She loomed above him, grabbed the scruff of Dimitri’s neck, and plunged over the wall with him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Dimitri felt his neck fur stretch, the Collar going with it, which made for some serious pain. But Jaycee held him firmly in her jaws, her teeth nowhere near cutting him, as she dragged him down the hill, her agile paws finding the projections to take them safely along.
Dimitri’s mate was rescuing him by carrying him off like she would a cub. The alpha male inside Dimitri should have been offended—if it weren’t so fucking funny.
He heard Tiger roar above. Damn it, they couldn’t leave him. Dimitri started to struggle only to find that he couldn’t. Jaycee’s mouth was firm, and Dimitri hung limply in her grip, unable to move. Jaycee growled deep in her throat—Quit squirming, damn it.
She descended slowly but steadily. Dimitri had no idea how she found the handholds—pawholds—but Jaycee did it without hesitation or clumsiness. She was Feline grace in all its perfection.
A strange, twanging sound made Jaycee flinch. She froze on the rocks, suspending the two of them above the tops of the trees, still a couple hundred feet from the ground.
A tiny rock next to them pinged, then split apart. Next, a wooden shaft with a barbed arrowhead bounced off the side of the cliff and tumbled downward. Archers, shooting at them.
The Fae were famous for their archery. Back when Shifters had been Battle Beasts for the Fae, the archers would clear the way for the Shifters to run in and fight on the field. The best archers could put an arrow through another Fae’s eye at fifty yards. Even the least competent in the squad would be marksmen—they weren’t chosen if they weren’t.
The few arrows increased to more and more. Jaycee twisted this way and that, Dimitri flailing, while arrows flew by. It would be only a matter of time before one of them hit them.
Jaycee yowled. She clamped her jaw quickly closed before she could drop Dimitri, but she slipped. Dimitri saw the arrow sticking out of her back haunch, blood staining her fur. She tried to grab on to the rocks with her claws, but her leg was too weak, and her hold failed.
Dimitri felt his stomach drop as they fell, with Jaycee desperately trying to find footholds and hang on to Dimitri at the same time.
Dimitri drew on all the strength he had left, swung himself in her jaw, and sailed to plant his feet on the nearest boulder. It stuck out of the cliff face at a sharp angle, and was slippery as hell, but with his front paws, and then Jaycee’s coming over his, they might stick here for a while.
They did until the next arrow struck, this time hitting Dimitri’s dangling back leg. He yelped, scrambled, and then they both were falling, nothing to stop them.
I love you, Jaycee.
I love you, Dimitri. Mate of my heart.
The mate bond wrapped them as they fell, body to body.
It hurt very much when two giant hand-paws grabbed Dimitri and hauled him and Jaycee back up every torturous inch to the parapet.
Dimitri landed on his stomach on the flat surface of the courtyard, his leg numb, but the arrow hadn’t gone through the deepest part of it, only the sinews. Jaycee, on the other hand, lay panting on the stones, bleeding from the wound in her back hip.
Tiger stepped back from where he’d dumped them and continued fighting the enraged Fae who surrounded him. The soldiers battered him with swords, knives, and kicks, and the archers threw down their bows and joined in. There was a movement behind Dimitri, and Cian reappeared, returning to help them fight.
Dimitri didn’t see Simeon, but that didn’t mean the man wasn’t around, waiting to spring. He’d likely sent his underlings to wear them down, whereupon he’d wander in and finish them off.
Brice pushed through the fighters. He was bear, bloody, with deep cuts across his face and neck where Jaycee had clawed him. He limped but still moved quickly as he charged across the open space for Jaycee.
Dimitri struggled up as Brice grabbed Jaycee in his grizzly paws, raising her high. Jaycee fought, but she was hurt, slowed, her claws swiping empty air. Brice lifted her higher, then began to squeeze.
Dimitri was on his feet, charging—or trying to. His hind leg didn’t work. But his three other legs did and he propelled himself onward. He leapt . . .
And was brought down abruptly by the Collar, tightening as it bombarded him with electric shocks. Dimitri shook his head, trying to clear his vision, but the shocks kept coming, the Collar designed to prevent him from making the killing blow he planned.
He went down on the cobbles as Jaycee screamed.
Pain stole his vision. All was dark while Dimitri lay groaning, the Collar cutting off his breath and rendering his body one mass of agony.
Dimly, he thought he caught a whiff of smoke, then saw the flicker of flame.
No.
Fire boiled around him, flames crawling on every surface, coming at him to devour him. Dimitri blinked, exerting himself to resolve the stones under him, Jaycee fighting Brice, but all he could see was fire.
It wasn’t real. Dimitri lay on cold stone under a moonlit sky while Fae did their best to slay Tiger, and Brice was killing his mate.
Brice . . .
Dimitri saw him, but a much younger Shifter seemed to be superimposed over him. As Dimitri’s vision cleared, he found himself no longer halfway up a stone castle in Faerie, but in a small trailer house in the middle of nowhere America. The house was aflame, heat searing his lungs, his throat closing up from the smoke. He was a cub, howling hard, calling for his mom and dad.
But they’d died in the first part of the explosion, the tank that heated the trailer going up in flames. The tank had been set alight by a young bear, angry that Dimitri’s mother and father had driven him away.
The grizzly had arrived that night, drunk and angry—apparently he had become fascinated with Dimitri’s mother, a red wolf, at the local roadhouse. When Dimitri’s father had kicked his butt and they’d gone home, Brice had followed.
Brice had rocked their small trailer house until Dimitri had become terrified. Just as his father had morphed to wolf to run outside and deal with the bear, the large tank of fuel had exploded, fire engulfing his father, and his mother, who had been right beside him, joining her mate to help him do battle.
The grizzly had blinked heavily, astonished at what he’d done, then he’d fallen fo
rward into the burning house.
Dimitri the cub scrambled over him and out into the empty air. His heart was breaking, grief consuming him and stealing his reason. He had to get away, run, run, run . . .
But the bear was screaming, being burned alive. Dimitri’s memories began to dim as he turned back, his Shifter instinct spurring him to save the living. The cub in him needed an adult, an alpha, to take care of him, to help him.
He ran as fast as his small legs could move to the trailer, grabbed the bear by the back foot, and dragged him out of the fire. The bear gulped air, rolled to put the flame out of his fur, then rose on shaky legs.
He’d stared at Dimitri with the same dark eyes that had welcomed him as an adult at the bar in New Orleans, and then had tried to kill him.
Memories long suppressed beat through Dimitri’s brain—he saw the bear realize he couldn’t let this little cub tell anyone how he’d stalked Dimitri’s mother and then blown up the trailer, causing her death and that of her mate.
Dimitri had to run. He turned and fled into the woods, his red wolf legs moving in terrified rapidity. He heard Brice following, snarling with fury, but Brice had been too hurt by the fire, too winded by smoke, and had dropped behind.
Dimitri had run until he could run no more, passed out, and woke with no memory of what had happened to him. His cub brain had blotted out the trauma, his adult self reasoned now with clarity. He’d protected himself by cutting off the horror and grief that might have led him to his death. He’d sat where he’d fallen for a long time, until kind human strangers had found him and taken him into their home to tend him.
The memories fell away, and Dimitri was back on the stone courtyard in the land of the Fae, where Brice was busy murdering his mate.
Dimitri rose on stiff legs, the Collar desperately trying to shock him. Brice had taken away Dimitri’s beloved father and mother, and now he was trying to take away Jaycee, his best friend and his mate.