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  “Jaeden, please refrain from making her panic,” Reuben snapped and moved around to the back of them. “I’m going to slide you gently from under Caia. Before I do so, are you hurt?”

  “Like you give a crap.”

  “Jaeden!” he warned.

  “No! I’m fine, all right, I’m fine. Just … help.”

  Tears streamed down Caia’s cheeks as her shoulder throbbed with each movement underneath her, but she was proud of herself for not screaming out loud again. That was until Jaeden’s feet slid out from under her, and Caia hit the ground with a jolt. The blinding, white pain induced an earth-shattering scream.

  “CAIA!” The roar of rage came from Lucien.

  “Oh gods,” she whimpered. “Someone better go tell him I’m all right.”

  Jaeden’s face hovered over her. It was ashen as she glanced from Caia’s face to her wound. “Vanne’s doing that. He fought the magik who runs the center. It wasn’t much of a fight. He’s got her unlocking the Council members and then they’ll get Lucien and Ryder out.”

  The thought of Lucien finding her like this sent her heart thudding. “No, no, no. Help me up.” She grabbed hold of Jaeden’s collar, choking the girl down toward her. “He can’t see me like this. I have to change.”

  Jae gently unpeeled her fingers and abruptly Caia’s panic took over at the pinched look on her face. “What?”

  “Cy, you can’t change.” Jae shook her head. “There’s …” She gestured vaguely to her shoulder with a look of horror. “There’s too much damage—no, don’t look!” She grabbed Caia’s chin and turned it away.

  Too much damage. All of a sudden, she was scared. As scared as she was the night the daemon had ripped her belly open. She felt her breathing pick up and was sure she was about to hyperventilate.

  “Caia …” Now Jaeden looked panicked. She was knocked out of the way by an irritated Reuben. He grasped Caia’s face in his cold fingers.

  “Caia, look at me.” His black eyes took hold of hers, and she felt herself inextricably pulled into them. She actually felt her whole body diving languidly into those black pools and swimming right alongside him somewhere warm and sparkling. “Good, Caia. You’re going to be fine. We just need to get you bandaged up before you can change.”

  She felt herself nodding, but the truth was, she didn’t care about her shoulder anymore.

  Swimming with Reuben was nice.

  10

  The Fear That Feeds on Love

  An unshakable rage poured out of Lucien’s pores like smoke. A pale-faced Ryder watched him warily as they listened for the next noise from outside their cell. The sound of a faint commotion had been going on for a while—they’d already heard a door crash open and the growl of a lykan. Then a girl screamed, and Lucien and Ryder had looked at each other in horrified surprise. Was that Caia? And then the female magik who guarded them shot past their cell, her face readied for battle. It had barely been two seconds before her body flew past the cell again, followed by a bristling Vanne.

  The girl screamed again, and they heard Jaeden’s voice. Ryder forgot himself and rushed toward the Plexiglas. Lucien grabbed him just in time, but he hadn’t let go of his shirt, his fist clenched in anxiety around the material. A howl of agony shook his last vestige of control.

  “CAIA!” he roared, and then it was Ryder who was pushing him back, having a difficult time of it too. Lucien didn’t care; he had to get to her, no matter what. He shoved Ryder off and strode to the cell door but the idiot was on him again. They started grappling.

  “Stop it,” a cool voice commanded, and they both whipped around to see Vanne. He clutched a terrified guard.

  “What is going on?” Lucien spat.

  “We’re taking the Center back. Marita has flown the nest.” His dead eyes sparked with hatred.

  Lucien put aside enough of his worry to ask, “You’re in on this?”

  He nodded stiffly and pushed the magik against the Plexiglas. “Blair, free them.”

  As Blair worked, Vanne looked back up at Lucien and Ryder. “I’ve been working against Marita for a long time. Everything will be explained to you later.”

  “Caia?” Lucien asked anxiously.

  Vanne nodded. “She’ll be fine, but she’s badly hurt.”

  The energy on the Plexiglas buzzed like a broken fluorescent light and then disappeared. Blair’s fingers shook as she hurried to open the door with a swipe card. As soon as it sprang open, Lucien rushed past and turned to his right. A large crowd was gathered at the entryway surrounding something … or someone.

  “The Council and their families,” Vanne explained the crowd as he strode past him, still holding on to the witch. “Now we need to rescue the children from the labs.”

  Lucien wasn’t even listening. Ryder gripped his shoulder in comfort and the two of them took off after Vanne.

  “Ladies and gentlemen, you are needed upstairs where you can bring that riot back under control. Penelope, we would be grateful for your help with Caia once you’re done.”

  She nodded, throwing Caia a sympathetic look.

  “Marita is gone, then?” one of the Council members asked.

  Marita’s husband—ex-husband?—nodded and ushered them all quickly out of the door. The sight they left sent Lucien’s heart plummeting to his stomach. His sister, in wolf form, sat rigidly, her eyes glued to Reuben who hovered over someone lying on the floor.

  “Ryder!” Jaeden flew from her crouched position and launched herself into Ryder’s arms. Lucien brushed past them as they kissed, and his nose told him what he had feared.

  “What the fu—” He grabbed hold of the vampyre and dragged him out of the way. Reuben hissed at being manhandled but stood back, allowing him access.

  Caia lay on the ground, her T-shirt and jeans soaked with blood—his nose told him it wasn’t hers, thank the gods—but as his eyes swept the rest of her, his stomach flipped. Her shoulder had been turned into a chew toy. Bone and muscle clearly visible. Blood, her blood, spread on the floor around her. His eyes met hers. She smiled. She actually smiled. “Lucien.”

  He dropped to his knees and grabbed her hand in his. “Holy—” he choked. She was so pale. “I can’t leave you alone for a second.”

  She made to shake her head but hissed in pain at the movement. “Nope. I guess you can’t.” And then she grinned at him again. “I missed you.”

  “I missed you too,” he whispered hoarsely. And although she was wounded, he was so glad she was here, that nothing fatally bad had happened to her. He desperately wanted to know where she’d disappeared to. Why was Vanne working for them? What did Reuben have to do with it all? But instead, he croaked, “I love you.”

  “Love you too.”

  He whipped around to look at the vampyre. “What’s happening? Can we get her up?”

  Reuben nodded. “I had her under mesmerism. It stops her from feeling the pain. I’ll need to be the one to take her up to the infirmary so I can hold her mesmerized.”

  The thought of some other guy’s arm around Caia sent his back up. “No,” he growled.

  “Lucien,” Jaeden snapped, unlocking herself from Ryder’s embrace. “Let him take her to the frickin’ infirmary or I’ll stab you next.”

  He raised an eyebrow at her. Had everybody completely forgotten he was Alpha? “What did you say?” he asked quietly, dangerously. Sudden realization dawned on her face, and Jaeden curled back into Ryder protectively.

  His friend eased closer. “Come on,” Ryder pleaded. “Just let the guy do this. If you carry her, her shoulder will hurt the whole way.”

  Lucien glanced back at Caia. She’d gotten even paler. “Please,” she whispered weakly.

  That was all it took. He nodded jerkily and let Reuben take the reins.

  Lucien concentrated on watching the gentle rise and fall of Caia’s chest. He sighed. He was never going to get used to this feeling. Even when she was right there in front of him, he worried about her. Her lids fluttered in her sleep, an
d he hoped to the gods she wasn’t having nightmares. What she needed right now was a dreamless sleep to help heal the shoulder that had been ripped open.

  At present, she was lying beside him in a huge bed in one of the suites a council member used while she stayed at the Center. Penelope Argyros. She was a kind woman and seemed fond of Caia. Vanne had brought the magik straight to the infirmary, and she’d used some herbs and magik to seal Caia’s wound. She had then insisted they use her suite while the Council and Vanne brought the Center to order.

  While Caia was being treated, Lucien questioned Vanne on what the hell was going on. He now knew all about Reuben—the slick bastard—and how Vanne and Saffron had been working for the vampyre all these years. Vanne had been placed as Marita’s husband. He had done his duty. He hadn’t loved Marita, but he’d respected and admired her. Then the years passed and he’d grown to dislike the secretive, pretentious, callous shrew she was turning into. After discovering what she’d been planning with the labs, and especially now that Marion was dead, Lucien could see hatred for the Head of the Coven blazing in Vanne’s eyes.

  The warlock had gone on to tell Lucien about persuading Alistair MacLachlan of the truth, how they’d had to wait thirty minutes before they believed it was really Vanne in their home telling them that Marita was experimenting upon lykan and vampyre children, and that she had imprisoned the Council. After that, it had been pretty easy to persuade them to rescue the Council and the kids. According to Caia, Vanne said the Council members’ families didn’t need persuading. They were waiting for them at the gymnasium when they arrived.

  Lucien shook his head. This time last year, he’d thought his biggest worry was what Caia and Irini’s return was going to do to his pack. With Caia being part Midnight, he hadn’t known whether she would be dangerous to them all. A troublemaker? And then there was the thought of being tied to someone you didn’t know for the rest of your life. Never in a million years would he have suspected that Caia’s arrival would turn his entire world upside down, the Daylight and Midnight Covens now sharing the same purpose: to see the Head of the Daylight Coven destroyed. He sighed again. Crap, all he ever did these days was cock his head and sigh wearily.

  He brushed Caia’s hair back her face and thanked the gods she was still here. Every day his gut twisted with panic that today might be the last day he ever saw her again.

  “Stupid son of a bitch,” he whispered. Why couldn’t he have fallen in love with someone simple and uncomplicated? Someone like Rose—Rose who had joined his pack in the fight without question when she saw Phoebe fighting off a vampyre from the Center.

  But it wasn’t Rose who ran through his veins as if she were part of his blood.

  “Why are you a stupid son of a bitch?” Caia mumbled. He smiled as her eyes fluttered open.

  “Hey, you,” he whispered back and leaned over to press a soft kiss on her lips. She smelled like Caia, damp earth of the wolf and the vanilla scent of a magik.

  “My shoulder feels better.” She twisted to have a look at it. She wore a nightdress, as the clothes she’d been wearing were so drenched in blood, one of the witches had insisted on incinerating them with her fire magik. Her shoulder was in one piece again, although the scar was still healing. “Hmm, nice … dress.”

  She wrinkled her nose, and Lucien chuckled. Getting Caia into anything remotely feminine was like asking the moon to be the sun. In fact, this was probably only the third time he’d seen her in something that wasn’t jeans or shorts.

  “I like it,” he purred, tugging at one of the straps.

  She laughed and reached up for him, her lithe arms wrapping around his neck and pulling him down to her. He went more than willingly, cuddling her into him and breathing deeply of her, reassuring him she was okay.

  “I was so worried about you,” she whispered in his ear, and he felt himself laughing. “What?” she asked, pulling back, a cute frown wrinkling the bridge of her nose.

  “You were worried about me?” He shook her gently. “Of the two of us, who disappeared from whom? And who had her shoulder ripped open? Oh, and I heard about Marita’s attack.” His voice rose as he continued on. “Apparently you were set on fire and drowned from the inside out?” He knew his tone would annoy her and wasn’t surprised when she wriggled out of his hold and eased herself into a sitting position. She was so easy to read. She hated being vulnerable to anyone, and it bothered her that she was with him.

  “Lucien, do I have to remind you that this is a war? I’m going to get hurt now and then.”

  He shrugged and turned away. “I’m just saying it would be nice for once to be waking up in bed next to you for a reason other than you having just come under attack.”

  “We have … you know …” She blushed, and he struggled not to smile. “You know … there have been times—” She stopped, watching his expression, her eyes narrowing as realization dawned on her. “You enjoy tormenting me, don’t you?”

  “I’ve just never met a lykan as shy about sex as you, that’s all.” He smiled and then gave a bark of laughter as her expression turned mulish.

  “That’s what every woman wants to hear. My boyfriend finds me amusing in bed … not sexy … amusing. Shy? Wow. Hot.”

  All this talk of sex … He took a deep breath, trying to regain some control. But he leaned into her anyway, his lips inches from hers. “Your mate,” he corrected her hoarsely. “Not boyfriend. Mate. And I find your shyness refreshing. I find it even more so when it completely goes out the window when you’re in my bed.”

  He felt her breath shudder against his lips, and that was it. His control snapped. Her hair slipped through his fingers as he clasped a hand behind her head and pressed her mouth to his gently. She groaned and kissed him back, and when he felt her tongue against his own, he growled, kissing her harder.

  “Lucien,” she whimpered against his lips, and he knew what she wanted. He held her face between his hands, gazing into huge eyes that were, at the moment, glazed with lust.

  He trembled with indecision. And then an eruption of laughter from the other side of the door brought him back to reality.

  “We can’t.” He shuddered and pulled back. “You need to rest that shoulder … and we have company.”

  She gazed at the door, a moue of disappointment touching her lips. “I hear that.” And then her eyes widened. “For Gaia’s sake! I didn’t even ask what happened. The Center?”

  11

  Trigger

  Jaeden snuggled deeper into Ryder on the sofa, breathing him in deeply. She felt his arm tighten around her but his gaze never left the television. They were Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, and the boy wizard was presently pissing off Jim Broadbent’s character.

  “Badly done, Harry,” Magnus muttered, and Jae hid a snicker in Ryder’s chest. He felt it and squeezed her. He was telling her to quit it. You did not make fun of Magnus when he was watching the Harry Potter movies.

  “Do you think Caia is awake?” Rose asked from her spot on the other sofa next to Alexa.

  “Ssh,” Magnus hushed without looking at her. Jaeden, however, turned to look at her sharply, her gaze narrowing on the wolf. Jaeden knew from what Caia had told her, Rose was Lucien’s ex-girlfriend. The lykan was watching the double doors to the bedroom and had been ever since Lucien had closed them behind himself and Caia. Jae did not like the possessive look in Rose’s eyes when she watched Lucien … and she watched him all the time.

  When the fighting had stopped, Rose made her way to the infirmary to see Lucien. Jaeden had watched her face when she realized Lucien and Caia were no longer ignoring their mating. Hatred for an unconscious Caia seared in her eyes. But no one else seemed to notice, Jae mused. Hmm, didn’t matter. She noticed. And she was going to be sure to keep an eye on Rose from now on.

  She thought about the state of the Center outside of this suite. The Council had been amazing. They’d taken control in a matter of minutes, their combined power washing over the Center and stopping
everyone in their tracks. They ordered everyone into one of the large reception halls and explained the truth about Marita and the labs downstairs. When Christian and Lucia, along with a couple of magiks, came out of the altar with the kids in question, the supernaturals could smell the truth in the air and see it on the faces of the traumatized children. Those supernaturals who wished to leave were asked to do so; those who trusted the Council could remain and help place protective spells around the Center to keep Marita out.

  After the revelations about the labs, though, there were only a few who left. Unfortunately, the kids had to stay to answer the Council’s questions so they could uncover exactly what had been done to them, especially since the lab techs had fled at the first sign of trouble. The children’s families were being brought in, however, to be with them during the questioning.

  As for the Pack Errante kids in Christian and Lucia’s charge, Alfred promised to question them that night so they could return with the pack in the morning. Jaela was too young to be questioned. Thank goddess. Jaeden had been relieved to feel little Jaela in her arms. Jae had cried and blubbered over her family for a minute before the events of the last few days seemed to be forgotten. Thankfully, Jaela was young enough for this to become a distant memory.

  A lump of anguish lodged in Jae’s throat as she thought of Sunday, Ivan, and Kerianna. Unfortunately, she couldn’t say the same for them. It was going to take them some time to get over what they’d endured. Damn it. She tensed, and Ryder turned to look at her sharply. She shook her head and rested it against his shoulder again. She was just so mad. They were too young! They shouldn’t have had to go through what she had! And thank the gods it had only been a mild version of it.

  The day they hunted Marita would be the day Jaeden took a turn tearing into her. The witch was going down! Because of her, they had traumatized kids on their hands. One of the MacLachlans had been killed alongside two of the Council’s family members fighting with them. Word had also reached them that Desi, one of the Travelers who Caia had befriended, was injured fighting on their side. Jae’s own brother had been wounded, but he’d changed and healed himself. It hadn’t stopped Lucia fluttering around him and Jaela like an overcaffeinated mother hen.