Kole’s gaze jerked up, his glowing orange eyes landing on Nico before shifting to Shi. In a snap, Kole was on his feet, charging at Shi. “You bastard,” he growled, in a voice not completely human.
Shi hit the wall with a blast so hard his bones rattled. “You fucking bastard,” Kole said between extended teeth. “If he ignores the King’s orders, he could be severely punished. Now you’ve put him at risk, too.”
“You’re no good to Sarah dead,” Shi ground out a second before Nico yanked Kole away from him.
Nico shoved Kole against the wall, but to Shi’s surprise, he felt no pack magic. Kole roared and to Shi’s shock, and he was pretty sure Nico’s, Kole shoved Nico back and kept going until Nico hit the wall.
“I didn’t want you involved,” Kole growled. “You shouldn’t be here. He shouldn’t have brought you here.”
A spike of magic like nothing Shi had ever felt before blasted through the room, before a blond female appeared behind Kole and pressed her hand to his back. Kole stiffened as if in pain and shock, then dropped to the ground.
***
Kole came awake in a sudden rush of awareness and jerked to a sitting position, his gaze darting around the room to find himself in a bed, with Nico sitting in a chair by his side.
“Welcome back, you bastard,” Nico said. “What the fuck were you thinking not coming to me?”
“What the fuck was Shi thinking bringing you into this?”
“He was thinking that you’re such a pain in the ass no one can fill your shoes but you.”
It was all Kole could do to not fight his way past Nico and go to Sarah. “Where is she?”
“Still in room ten,” Shi said, entering from the hallway.“She says she’s not going anywhere without you and she hasn’t tried to leave.”
Kole’s chest tightened. “You’re sure she’s still there?”
Shi gave a quick nod.
“I kept the pack out of this,” Nico said, drawing Kole’s attention again.
“You brought me back,” Kole said. “You had to-”
“Aylia,” he supplied. “She used her magic.” His lips thinned. “We need to talk about Sarah.”
***
Hours passed and Sarah was climbing the walls with worry over Kole. She couldn’t stay in this room any longer. She cautiously opened the door and found the hallway empty. She had no doubt that there were cameras watching her, but she didn’t care. She just wanted to get to Kole. With her nose and her senses as her guides, she headed the direction of the gym where she and Kole had been earlier. She found the training area empty and enveloped in darkness. She slipped inside and sized up the two exits on the opposite side of the room. One to the offices where she’d traveled through with Kole, and the other to someplace else. That someplace else felt right, and it was where she wanted to be.
She crossed the gym and eased the door open the tiniest bit, noting another long hallway with many doors. She immediately sensed three wolves – Kole and two others – one of which oozed ancient power. Playing it safe, Sarah didn’t dare go any closer for fear of being noticed. Instead, she waited and listened.
“I won’t arrest her,” Kole said. “I won’t let you arrest her. And Shi, damn it, you can bet I’m not done with you.”
“I saved your life,” Shi said. “Don’t expect me to apologize.”
“He was right to call me, Kole,” another man said. “And considering he hates my guts, I’d say you owe him a thank you for putting his personal feelings aside.”
“I don’t hate you,” Shi said softly. “I hate that you were right and acted like an arrogant ass about being right.”
“You wouldn’t listen,” Nico said. “You wouldn’t listen and you were going to end up dead. I couldn’t let that happen anymore than I intend to let it happen to Kole.”
“I don’t need saving,” Kole grumbled. “And I’m not fucking arresting Sarah. You’re as good as blood, Nico, but if you so much as walk her way, I will fight you.”
“No one is asking you to arrest her,” Nico said, “but we have to deal with this now. You can’t take over the pack on the edge of another hormonal meltdown.”
“You think I don’t know that?” Kole demanded. “I’m dealing with this. I’ll deal with it.”
Sarah’s heart lodged in her throat. Kole was supposed to take over the pack? A rush of mixed emotions and thoughts came over her, followed by bitterness and heartache. She’d thought he was holding back, avoiding their mating, to give her a choice. Maybe it was his own choices he was protecting, his fear of losing his role as leader, by bonding with a fugitive.
“What exactly are you planning to do, Kole?” Nico asked.
“Whatever I have to,” Kole said, “and-” He went suddenly silent.
Crap! Sarah thought instantly. He’d sensed she was there. She felt it. Sarah turned and took off running, cursing her high-heeled boots yet again, but not slowing. She crossed the gym and then rushed through the door of the office only to run smack into a hard chest. A shiver of foreboding ran through her and her gaze jerked up to find Derek smiling down at her.
“I made a special trip just for you,“ he said. “I guess you were as eager to see me again as I was you.”
“She walked right into our hands,” Jacob, the wolf Sarah had met in the gym, commented with a laugh.
“My hands,” Derek corrected, “and I’m inclined to have some fun with her.”
Sarah started to fight, but suddenly some sort of net was thrown over her. She struggled wildly, but real panic set in when she smelled explosives. Oh God. No. No. Not again.
“Kole! A bomb! A bomb! It’s Derek! Kole!” she shouted, fighting even as Jacob threw her over his shoulder. Sarah kicked and screamed, and felt a small bit of relief in the sound of some kind of warning siren screaming from the building. Jacob exited the building and she could see Derek’s feet. They were moving away from the warehouse and she had to do something to save the free herself and save everyone inside.
Her purse was strapped across her chest and resting on her hip, but she couldn’t get to it or the knife inside. Thankfully she managed to pull her leg to her chest, and reach the top of her boot. Relief washed over her as she got a grip on the silver blade she’d hidden inside one of them. With an inhaled breath, preparing herself for whatever might come next, she slammed the blade into Jacob’s back. He roared with the pain of the poison and dropped like a rock. Sarah dropped with him, tumbling to the ground, still wrapped up in the damn net
She managed to reach her purse and pull out the knife, and desperately started cutting. She had to get out of here, she had to get to Kole. That was when the warehouse went up in flames and Derek knelt beside her.
“Just like old times. Everyone is dead but you and me. And as a special thanks for being such a thorn in my side, I’m taking you back to the rebels’ headquarters where I can play with you a little while. Pain and pleasure is a heady mix, don’t you agree?”
Chapter Ten
The blast threw Kole across the parking lot, but he didn’t feel the pain. He was on his feet and running toward Derek, who carried Sarah swiftly toward a truck. His teeth still rattled from the impact, and he was bare chested, without shoes or weapons, but he wasn’t about to let any of that stop him. He was ready to fight, beyond ready for Derek to be dead and gone already.
Derek sensed his approach, dropping Sarah and whirling around, but he wasn’t fast enough. Kole launched himself into the air, shifting to wolf and coming down on top of Derek as Sarah tumbled to the ground. Derek tried to shift, rolling with Kole and sinking his teeth into Kole’s shoulder. Kole felt the muscle and bone cracking but he didn’t care. He’d fought through near death injuries many a time. Pain didn’t matter. Sarah mattered and Derek was no match for Kole, a Guardsman who’d outlived and outfought him. Kole sank his fangs into the back of Derek’s neck and shredded flesh and bone. Derek howled in pain and released Kole’s shoulder. Kole shoved the other wolf to his back and ripped his throa
t out. Derek was dead.
Kole rolled off of the dead wolf and landed on his haunches, ready to fight, but found no other enemy. Just Sarah shoving aside the net with a knife in her hand, tears streaming down her face.
Nico and Shi appeared beside her, and knowing she was safe, Kole dropped to his back. The magnitude of the injury to his shoulder struck him and he could feel his lifeblood gushing from the wound. Derek’s bite had gone deep, much too deep.
“Kole,” Sarah cried, dropping to her knees beside him. “Oh God. Help him. Someone help him.”
Kole wanted to tell her he was okay; he wanted to hold her and reassure himself that she was okay, but he couldn’t shift with a wound that would be lethal in human form.
“I’m here,” Alyia said, kneeling beside him, across from Sarah.
She reached for Kole and Sarah grabbed her hand. “Who are you and what are you doing?”
Kole watched Alyia smile.
“Protective mate,” Nico said, dropping to a knee beside Alyia. “I like that in a woman. She’s my mate and she’s a witch that can heal.”
“If you’ll let me,” Aylia said, “I’ll help him.”
Sarah released her. “Yes. Please. I’m sorry. I just-”
“Love him,” Aylia said softly. “I know.”
Loved him? Did Sarah love him? Did Kole dare hope that was true? His gaze went to Sarah, searching for confirmation, but Aylia held her hand over his wound and heat blasted through his body, a sensation of melting without pain. A bright light blinded him.
When the heat vanished, so did the pain, and he immediately shifted back to human. Sarah flung her arms around him.
“I thought you were dead when the building exploded. Oh God, Kole, I thought you were dead just like my family and-”
He kissed her, swallowing her words, tasting her pain, her tears, and vowing to never let her feel these things again. He framed her face with his hands and stared down at her, seeing nothing but her. He didn’t care who was still nearby, or that he was naked in the middle of an explosion. Sirens sounded, closing in on them, reminding them of the past, of her disappearance.
“I’m not letting you go again, Sarah. I can’t. I won’t. We live together, we die together.”
Her hands went to his wrists. “No,” she said, stabbing him in the heart with the rejection. “No. You have to lead the Guard. You have to face the King and you can’t do that with a fugitive.”
Nico knelt beside them. “It’s time to get out of here.” A second later, Kole and Sarah were in the middle of a living room with a high vaulted ceiling and leather furniture. It was a familiar Vegas location that the Guard sometimes used for field operations, and they were alone, with Nico nowhere insight.
“Where are we?” Sarah asked, going stiff in his arms, as she tried to take in their surroundings. “Oh God. I know the smell. We’re in Vegas.”
“Alone and safe,” he said, molding her close. “Alone, Sarah. Derek’s dead.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Finally. I...I thought I’d feel happy.”
“But you don’t?”
Her eyes filled with tears. “No. No I just feel...lost.”
He thumbed away tears. “Why, sweetheart? Why lost?”
“I don’t know what comes next. I don’t know...”
“We come next, Sarah. You and me.”
“I heard, Kole,” she said, trying to push out of his arms. “I heard you talking to Nico and Shi. You’re supposed to take over the Guard. You can’t be with me. I’m still a fugitive.”
“I wasn’t hiding this from you, Sarah. I would have told you. Just like I would have told you that the only thing that’s going to keep me away from you, is you.”
“You didn’t tell me but you were ready to die to avoid mating with me.”
“For you,” he said. “Because I wouldn’t force myself on you when you still blamed me for Derek.”
“I didn’t blame you.”
“You were angry at me. That’s not the way to mate.”
“I’m angry with you now.”
He wrapped her in his arms, and cupped the side of her face. “Because you think I chose to be leader of the pack over you? Well, I don’t. I never would have. Sarah, the King isn’t a fool. He knows no male is all he can be with a mate he’s denied, and he knows I’m the most capable of taking over the pack. I’ll have to fight him, but what will he say if I return mated?”
“He could throw us both in jail.”
He smiled. “We’ll escape. I do know a certain wolf who can pop in and out of a room without detection. Nico is in this now. He has our backs. If we have to, we’ll go roam the world, fighting the rebels on our own.”
She pulled back. “Fighting the rebels?”
“Yes, mate,” he said. “Fighting the rebels.”
“You intend to let me fight?”
“Are you saying you’d listen if I told you not to?”
Her lips curved. “Well no, but you’re-”
He kissed her, the taste of her setting his blood to boil, before he finished her words. “I know. I’m Royal Guard which makes me some evil form of alpha wolf. If you’re going to fight, I told you, I’ll have your back.”
“Fight by my side, then,” she murmured and nipped his lip. “And I never thought you were evil.” Her arms slid around his neck. “But wicked is another story. You are most definitely wicked.”
His cock thickened, and he pressed it between her thighs, lifting her. “I’ll show you wicked.”
“I’m counting on it,” she teased, making his blood pump even hotter and harder than it already was.
Kole carried her up the stairs to a master bedroom where he drew on his willpower, taking his time to lick, and kiss, and tease, every inch of her, he was a wolf about to claim his mate There was no desperation in either of them, just satisfaction and certainty that this was inevitable, it was right.
Long minutes later, Kole leaned against the headboard with Sarah straddling him, their bodies joined. Kole slid his fingers around the back of her neck and kissed her before vowing, “This will be our secret until you’re ready to go back to the Society. Until I know you know I love you enough for us to get through whatever the King throws at us.”
She sucked in a breath. “Love? You love me?”
“Yes, I love you. More than you can know but you will. One day soon, you will. And if I’m lucky, you’ll love me, too.” His teeth extended of their own accord, a reaction to the mating heat, and he leaned down and sunk his teeth into her shoulder, the sweet taste of her blood filling his mouth, the hormones rushing through his body, into hers. She gasped and trembled, and he felt her body clench around his a moment before she sank her teeth into his shoulder.
Time stood still, pleasure consuming them until they seemed to move together, their mouths joining in a kiss, and the wounds on their shoulders healed instantly. In that kiss there was the taste of blood on their lips,and their bond was sealed.
Sarah lifted her wrist and stared at the crescent-shaped moon on her palm, the mating mark, and then cupped his cheek. “I already love you.”
Hours later, Kole stared at the ceiling with Sarah curled to his side, and silently vowed be the man, the wolf, she deserved, for the rest of their lives.
Three weeks later...
Chapter Eleven
Sarah woke to the spicy scent of Kole and coffee. Coffee? She sat up and stretched, realizing Kole was already awake. She smiled. And he was making breakfast. Her alpha wolf cooked. She loved it. He’d made chocolate chip cookies the day before and made her promise to never tell anyone, especially not their pack. Their pack. He’d said their pack. If she hadn’t already been in love with him, she would be now. Which was why it was time to go back to the Society, to let Kole have his future, their future. He’d already asked for a meeting with the King, and she felt how the King’s silence was worrying him more than he vocalized.
She tugged on a robe and headed to the living room, knowing today was the day th
ey’d return to her old life, feeling it in her bones. They had to return, she knew that, but still felt uneasy about it. She had to do this for Kole, put him out of the misery of wondering what came next. Still, she would forever be grateful for these few weeks he’d given her to prepare.
The instant she entered the hallway leading to the kitchen, Sarah felt the power of another presence, intense consuming power. So powerful she could barely breathe, but yet she felt no danger.
She forced a deep inhalation and let it out before continuing into the kitchen, then stopped dead in her tracks at the doorway. To her shock and awe, there sat the King himself at the table, next to Kole. His hair was a pale blue, his eyes a deep glowing amber as they fell on Sarah. He was the very essence of power, a male who looked no more than thirty-five, but was thousands of years old.
She knelt down and bowed. “King.”
He shocked her by standing and coming to her, lifting her to her feet. “I am not your King,” he said. “I am your father.” He went to his knee in front of her. “Forgive me, daughter, for I have wronged you.”
A million thoughts charged through her mind, and her heart felt like it was going to explode from her chest. Anger, pain, confusion collided inside her. Her gaze went to Kole’s, the connection, the only thing that calmed her and slowed her heart and somehow she managed to speak, “I don’t understand,” was all she could say. ”I just...don’t understand how this is possible.”
“How would you?” the King asked. “I have left you in the dark for far too long. Your mother and I had tried to have children, and bore one son, who was killed in battle. When we were finally blessed with another pregnancy, you were born. You became the only girl in our bloodline for centuries, and as such, you were destined, or rather cursed, to be a She-wolf, a rare warrior amongst our kind. It is a destiny of blood and battle, of hunting and being hunted. Your mother was very ill from the birth and we knew she wasn’t going to live. She...” His voice cracked. “Made me promise to hide you, to declare you dead, to protect you. She wanted you to have a kinder life. We both wanted to spare you the blood of battle. We should have known that you would always find your way to the battlefield. It is as much your destiny as your mate.”