Chapter 65 A Vampire’s Obscenity
☽ Bastian ☽
My claws grasped at nothing. So close.
I’d lost her, again.
Only this time, I saw her run toward me. I saw her terror, her plea, and yet I failed her.
A vicious roar tore from me as I wheeled on the bastard leech. He dodged, slippery as an eel.
“WHERE IS SHE?”
“Veilmoor,” he said. “Where she belongs.”
What is the fiend talking about?
My fist spoke for me, catching him on the temple. His head whipped to the side, but he didn’t go down.
Sinew tore, muscles bulging as I shifted into my Lycan form. Nikolai had abducted my mate from my pack, where she should have been safe.
She’d begged me to protect her, expressing her situation with the bloodgem he’d forced upon her chest.
I hadn’t believed her enough…
Her condition flashed in my mind once more—bloody and dirty, wounds still healing. The long silvery mane I was in love with, matted with grime. Her eyes wide with experience of horrors.
Nikolai drew his sword. The glinting metal reflected the ice-cold gaze of my wolf, the heavy fangs in my maw. Power rippled through me, the image of my Lycan beast at the fore.
“You took her!”
I rushed him, deflecting a vicious sword blow.
Sparks flew from the striking of metal and claws.
That was when I knew he was fighting to kill—same as me.
“She came along willingly enough. She wants me. Craves me. You’re the bane in our relationship,” the vampire hissed.
What? Relationship?
I growled at the claim, focusing all my power and rage through a roundhouse jab into his throat.
He stumbled backward, his choking sounds filling me with joy.
Then something struck me.
The vampire wasn’t tracing. I hated that ability of theirs, which made for an uneven fight.
This either meant he was overconfident—or couldn’t trace for some reason.
Yara and Ren stood off to the side. Their eyes trailed us, weapons at the ready, but they let me deal the blows as they watched my back.
I narrowly avoided getting skewered. I knocked my shoulder into Nikolai’s sword arm, grabbing it with a swift wrench.
The limb tore off. The leech grunted in pain.
“You’ll regret ever setting sights on my mate. I’ll pull you apart, piece by piece. Then I’ll storm that fucking crypt of a kingdom you call Veilmoor and raze it to the ground.”
He laughed.
I snarled and sent my foot into his stomach.
The bastard clutched my leg, dragged me to the ground, and lunged for my neck with needle-sharp fangs.
The air whizzed.
An arrow struck Nikolai, the force of it impaling him to the ground.
Gripping the tail one-handed, he cursed. Blood poured down his chin.
I got to my feet, taking a good look at the vampire who’d dared come between a Lycan and his mate.
I turned my face up to the lightening sky. “I would draw this out. But not even your worthless undead flesh burning in the sun would please me more than going after my mate.”
His paper-thin, pale face darkened, contorting with deathly promise.
“I will not rest until I’ve eliminated you, wolf. She is MY Bride. Mine. I will see it so,” he spat.
My jaw tightened even as my lips curled in amusement.
“Is that so? You dare speak such obscenity, you vile creature?”
“I marked her first. Claimed her first. Tasted her first. I’ll endeavor to be her last.”
Heat rushed through my every joint.
Must kill.
Eliminate every threat. Every competition.
I flexed my claws, ready to relieve his body of his head.
“Until we meet again, mutt,” he said, eyes glinting.
Now I laughed, my voice gravelly and beastly to my own ears. “Meet again? Leech, you’re about to cease to exist—”
A shadow appeared in front of me, kicking me back with brutal force.
I slid back a few steps, arms crossed in defense.
I dropped my arms in time to see a female vampire crouch over Nikolai.
She hissed at me, clutching his shoulders.
She meant to trace him. To save him from me.
“Nooo!” I lunged—
Met empty air.
“Fuck!”
I punched the ground again and again, kicking earth until a small crater formed where he’d bled.
My chest heaved with shuddering breaths, my bloodlust in no way waned.
The leech escaped me. And he has my mate.
He’d called her his bride. Gods knew what the sick creature planned to do to my Maeve. If he dared to touch her, force her—
I roared to the brightening sunrise. Curses flew from my lips.
Moments later, I calmed.
My thoughts zeroed in to one mission.
Get her back.
I stood to face Yara and Ren. Both stood not far from me, faces severe.
They didn’t like the idea of their Princess Consort in the clutches of vampires any more than I did.
For some reason, Maeve had assumed Veilmoor wasn’t working with Graves. This act of aggression, kidnapping my mate, had proven otherwise.
They sought to weaken IronWolf from outside and within.
Not on my watch.
My wolf howled within me, aching to get her back.
“Move. We’re going in,” I ordered over my shoulder, striding toward the mountainous boundary between Veilmoor and Blackbridge.
It would take around five days of nonstop, full-throttle running to infiltrate Veilmoor—
“Prince Bastian, we can’t…”
I spun at the grating response. “What?”
“Who will watch Alpha Mordane in your stead?” Yara asked, voice slow, careful.
“Sorin’s presence should modulate his moods. It’ll be a retrieval mission, sharp and easy.”
The days I’d spent without my mate had been torturous. The glimpse I’d gotten spurred me like wildfire through dry grass.
“We can’t take that risk,” Yara insisted. “I’d argue that Sorin’s presence could even worsen it. The alpha banished Sorin for a reason.”
I stalked toward Yara, my fists clenched, wolf at the fore.
“So what would you have me do? Abandon her?!” You saw how she ran toward me! She needs me.” My voice broke at the admission.
But at the same time, I knew, Sorin’s presence had a fifty-fifty chance of working the opposite way I intended.
If Mordane, a Lycan with crimson powers, went feral within a pack of ordinary wolves, he’d slaughter every last one of them.
I shut my eyes tightly, unable to even conceive the thoughts warring in my mind.
Air warped around my arm as I punched the air. My heart clenched, almost to bursting.
Abandon my mate? Or abandon the pack?
“We can make the journey to Veilmoor quietly. We’ll bring her back.”
“You’ll just be putting yourself at risk,” I croaked, dazed by the responsibility.
Sending Yara and Ren into Veilmoor was like sending a ripe, fat pig into a den of wolves.
They’d be torn apart.
I clutched my hair, turning to roar once more at the sky.
Heavy clouds stubbornly clung to the mountain peaks even as the sun pierced down in hot rays.
My mate was abducted, and I couldn’t even go after her.
My heart thudded in my chest.
Failure reared its ugly head.