Chapter 43 Clandestine
❀ Maeve ❀
Run. Run. Rabbit.
I’d just toed the shore when strong arms wrapped around my middle, wrenching me back.
“Caught you,” Bastian growled in my ear. He rubbed his face into my hair, pressing my body tightly against his.
But not even the tickle of his stubble on my skin could ease the turmoil inside me.
Please don’t scent the vampire. Please.
“Bastian…” I wriggled against him, but he held fast.
“I missed you, mate. Were you about to jump into a freezing stream just now?”
His words made my stomach tighten. Nikolai had told me he’d missed me as well. My eyes teared up.
The fabric of my skirts rustled between us as Bastian turned me around to face him, firm hands heavy on my shoulders.
I bit my lower lip. “I was going to take a dip, it looked tempting.”
“Ah, I don’t recall you being a fan of water.” His light blue gaze bored into mine. “But if you’re keen on learning, I know a place.”
Straight onyx hair fell over his face, his lips curled back in a sweet, doting expression. The moon shone brightly over his tanned face, rays kissing his striking irises and full, dusky lips.
How could I have ever thought to betray this male? One who’d had reason to make my life miserable but instead gave me a chance?
“I’d like that.” I murmured, just as his lips claimed mine in a slow, sultry dance.
The dagger in my skirts weighed down like an anchor. It reminded me of its source, and my shameless duality.
But if I didn’t deserve the heady rush of Bastian’s kiss and the electric gift of Nikolai’s touch, who did?
Capturing my hand, he led me back around the greenhouse and through the front entrance of Ironwolf fortress.
A feeling of peace and even excitement thrummed through me as my lycan prince took me through throngs of pack members. They glanced at us with nods of reverence, and my heart soared.
I could live a good life here, as long as I behaved.
Deep into the fortress, through a low archway hidden with a thick banner, the air grew stale and cold.
“Where are you taking me?” My voice rebounded in soft echoes.
The heat of his palm around mine quickened my breath.
“To a place that will soon become your favorite.”
Throaty and deep, his voice flowed over me with warm decadence. I could already deduce what would befall me in such a place.
No fire lanterns lit up the corridor, but with my enhanced sight I saw he had to lean his head forward, cause of the low ceiling.
He wore clean fighting garb, but his skin was dirty and faintly streaked red in some spots.
Out fighting ferals.
I imagined he’d wiped off the worst of the blood with clothes ruined from his shift and worn a new pair.
We walked in silence for a few moments longer, his breathing hard and fast with what could only be need. Mine were sharp pants riddled with guilt and fear.
The deeper we went, the heavier the air felt.
The low-hanging ceiling opened up suddenly, the roof exploding higher into a wide, high cave. A thermal cave.
My jaw dropped.
All around the walls, bioluminescence glowed blue, green, and pink in clusters.
“Wow…”
He looked down at me with sparkling eyes. “Indeed…”
Further into the cave, the stone was smooth beneath our feet as a crushed walkway. Boulders scattered around the extensive space looked ancient and stark.
Reflected light wiggled over the floor and walls, and I soon saw why.
In the middle of three thick, large stone pillars lay a hot spring. Steam rose off the blue water in a tempting mist.
With a desperate screech, I tore from him, jogging closer to the natural pool.
Without further ado, and for the sake of washing any undetected scents from me, I quickly shed my dress. After making sure to hide the dagger within the billowing fabrics, I waded right into the pool.
My knees nearly bucked at the sensation. The water was as warm as it looked, soothing, and smooth.
I stuck to the knee-high water, then sank to my knees to submerge my head. When I surfaced once more, I took a deep, calming breath.
I’d dunked myself in water. Anything he hadn’t already picked up would wash away. My heart felt freer, and I turned to him—
He was already shedding his clothes.
Gaze glinting, he stepped out of his pants. His hard shaft bobbed as he walked toward the pool.
“What do you think?” His husky voice echoed in the cavern, easing the hairs on my skin.
I swallowed, unable to tear my gaze from his wicked form until he’d waded into a deeper pool ahead of me, and the water covered him up to the chest.
“It’s like a dream.”
And I would know. In all my years I’d never been anywhere else but Blackbridge, a land of perpetual threat and terror.
Something dark seized my chest as I remembered Nikolai’s tale. His family.
“You’ve got that look in your eyes.” Bastian waded closer, muscles rippling across a toned chest.
I looked up at him, his larger-than-life presence overcoming whatever ire I’d just felt.
“What look?”
“The one that says you want my head.” He curled a finger under my chin. “Good thing I have two. And you know which one you’re going to get.” He rumbled.
“Willing to risk it, wolf?” I taunted, rising to my feet until I was looking down at him.
He floated in a deeper pool than I was, his face level with my navel due to the higher platform I stood on.
“Anything, kitten.”
When he curled his arms around my waist and rested his face on my belly, I sighed.
Why couldn’t it just be like this? With no ferals or species wars and missing parents to dampen this swirling peace inside.
Bastian groaned.
I sank down, sitting with my legs dangling into the pool he was in. My face was heated from our position, a very naked him between my very naked thighs.
Running my fingers through his wet hair, I asked, “What is it?”
After another low groan, he murmured against me. “Torn.”
My heart thudded.
Did he mean he was torn between marking me right now or going after the vampire first? I hoped it was the former.
“The feral threat runs rampant. The only way forward is to hunt and kill Graves. With his death, they’ll all fall.”
Oh…
“Is this because he’s their sire?” I sank the pads of my fingers into his shoulders. The muscles were tense and knotted.
I’d heard the life of every vampire was tied to the life of the one who turned them. Kill the sire and the progeny falls.
“Yes.” He confirmed. “Graves manufactures thrice as many as we kill each day. Blackbridge will soon be overrun. Ironwolf will be next.”
Something came to mind.
“Why won’t the Alpha join in the fight? And I’ve noticed you never stay away for long. Is there something else involved?”
He pulled back, palms flat on the stone beside my hips. He stared at me, jaw working. Whatever he saw in my expression made him decide to trust me.
He sighed, then spoke.
“You must have noticed the Alpha is quite unwell.”
I nodded and kept my face straight even as inside, I thought, obviously.
“He has a malady that makes him lose his beast and go feral. There’s only one place in Ironwolf that can hold him in his rages, the Ironkeep. He cannot leave the pack in the event that when he goes feral, he turns on everyone, including his subjects and family.”
I found it interesting that Bastian didn’t tell me the fine details. Like the fact that the Alpha used the amulet to gain crimson vampire powers and that it was what ate away his sanity day by day.
“That’s why he injured you so badly that day? And why you said to avoid him?”
More massaging.
“Yes. As the only other lycan, I have to be within the vicinity to hold him back when it happens.”
So there was a ticking bomb right in the middle of the pack.
Ironwolf fortress was the Alpha’s personal lodgings. It also contained the ceremonial hall for gatherings. Around it were scores of cottages where the pack members lived.
“Is there a cure for his… illness?” I asked, even though I knew all it would take was him taking off the amulet.
Bastian’s brows drew together. “There is, but we haven’t been able to acquire it yet.”
The Alpha didn’t want to relinquish power. Then he would pay for it with his very sanity.
Nikolai hadn’t lied to me. The knowledge lightened my heart.
I drew my hands up to smooth away the deep frown lines on Bastian’s forehead. “Then what are you torn about?”
“The Alpha has ordered me to hunt Graves personally. But I cannot leave the pack unprotected from him. I cannot take you, and I cannot leave you behind.” He said bitterly.
“Oh…”
It was truly a dilemma. I personally wouldn’t want to remain behind in the fortress with a rage-prone crimson lycan.
My mind began to whirl. Now both of my mates were after the same mortal, Maverick Graves. How cunning or hidden could one human man be to evade both the wolves and the vampires hunting him?
I absentmindedly caressed Bastian’s arm while looking off into the distance.
What if when Bastian left to hunt Graves, I could help Nikolai plant runes in the fortress? The Alpha would be unguarded. And Nikolai would take the amulet. I’d make him swear to try destroying the amulet without killing the Alpha.
Two birds with one stone.
“Maeve.”
The harshness of Bastian’s tone brought me back to the present. His features were blank, though I sensed tension radiating from him.
My hands trembled when he grasped them both in his larger, veined ones.
I licked my suddenly parched lips at the incensed look in his eyes. “Yes?”
“My hunt for Nikolai yields no leads.” His voice was low, dark with warning, “And yet, just tonight, you met with him.”
The languid trickling of water filled the cavernous space.
His grip tightened.