I fight against the restraints, hoping to get away from my new kidnapper.
“I thought I told you to stay where I left you.” The familiar harsh tone to my ears makes my tense body relax immediately.
Axel turns me around, releasing the gag first before getting to work on my restraints.
I lick my dry lips before speaking. “As you can see, I ran into a slight problem.”
Once my hands are free, Axel grabs the side of my face, looking me over for injuries.
“Are you okay? Did he hurt you?” He narrows his eyes in the direction of King and Morana, bringing a small smile to my face.
“I’m no damsel, but I’m really fucking glad to see you.”
Axel gives me a genuine smile, making my heart stutter. He came for me, just like he promised. I feel my smile grow; a giddy energy works its way through me begging for some type of release.
Not thinking about what I’m about to do, I slam my mouth to his, letting all the adrenaline, fear and heartache go into the fevered brush of my lips.
Axel moans as he deepens the kiss. He pushes me back against the crate, leaning into me. Tilting my head, he grinds his hard body into mine, lighting my body on fire.
I lift a leg up, curling it around him, pulling him closer. His thrusts get harder, making me burn in all the right places.
“More.” His breathless voice is thick with desire, sending shivers down my back.
His lips work their way up my neck, making me bite my lip to cover a moan.
Pulling a gasp from me, he bites down on my ear, hard, sending a bolt of heat straight to my core. I feel his smirk as he continues a path back down my neck.
Pulling away, I see more than just lust in his eyes as he stares into mine.
“So fucking beautiful,” he says just before he slams his lips back to mine, with a renewed fever.
I grab the top of his shirt, answering him with every thrust of my tongue, every brush of my lips.
“Come out now and I won’t kill you all… slowly.” King’s creepy voice breaks the spell we’re under, bringing us back to reality.
We freeze in place, realising where we are and what we were about to do.
“Fuck.” Axel bangs his head against the crate wall behind me. Our ragged breathing is the only sound as I try to get my overheated body under control.
“We’re finishing this later.” He looks at me with longing, the promise a vow he will not break.
I nod a reply as he pulls me in the opposite direction of King.
“Let’s get you out of here.”
We make it back to the guys in no time, seeing nothing but destruction and chaos. Metal crates are destroyed and ripped apart. Shifters are laying in pieces around us.
“Baby!” Jax rushes forward, pulling me into a tight hug. “You’re okay?”
I nod, looking around and finding all my guys back in their human forms, each injured and breathless, but alive.
Luka pulls me into him next, holding me like I could disappear any second. Kai drags me out of Luka’s grip, placing a hand on each side of my face as he drops his forehead to mine.
“You’re okay.” His voice is a whisper, a plea and promise to us both. Taking a deep ragged breath, he reluctantly pulls back, searching me over once more for any injuries.
“I’m fine, I promise.” I lift my head, searching for my injured Basilisk, when he steps forward, pulling me into an embrace. Nuzzling my neck, I feel his bunched shoulders ease.
The tension I didn’t realise I was holding drops like a weight off my shoulders.
They’re okay. Everyone is okay.
“We need to get out of here. I overheard them calling in backup and I don’t know about you, but I doubt we can hold them off for much longer,” Jax says as Rion releases me.
“I feel fucking drained. I don’t understand it,” Luka says, frowning as he looks down at his body.
“It’s the bonding,” Rion says. The guys narrow their eyes on him.
“And you couldn’t have told us this before?” Luka fumes.
“It was our only option at the time. I didn’t realise we’d be heading into battle, or I would’ve mentioned it. Usually, a complete bonding leads to a more… intimate occasion.”
The guys look at me with desire-filled eyes.
“Something that will definitely be rectified… very soon,” Rion says giving me one of his lust-filled looks.
A charge of excitement and anticipation spears through the air, igniting a wild need and hunger between us.
I shudder as desire courses through me at the thought.
Soon.
Rion cuts Luka a sharp look. “Besides, I wouldn’t change the outcome for anything.”
Luka’s eyes widen as he whips his head to me. “I didn’t mean I regret it. Just that it would’ve been nice to know.”
Luka steps up to me. “I love the outcome of it. Even if we did push you into it.”
“You didn’t—”
“Can we talk about this later? Maybe when we’re not all surrounded and outnumbered by juiced up shifters and crazy warlocks,” Jax says.
Luka sighs, squeezing my hand and gives me a look, promising me that this conversation isn’t over.
Far from it.
Rion glances around, looking for our best way out. “They have all the entrances blocked.”
“They’re also watching the skies after the little stunt I pulled to get Kiarra away from them,” Axel tells us.
Their eyes veer to me, softening before looking to each other for another way out.
I feel a tingle letting me know it doesn’t matter either way. My time outside is nearly up.
“It’s too late. The potion Jazmyn gave me to counteract the tag for leaving the hotel is almost up. I can feel it.”
The guy’s tense at my comment. A hint of panic bolts through their eyes.
“I have no choice. I have to go back.”
Rion looks down at his watch, cursing as he clenches his jaw. “Fuck!”
“Damn it!”
“We’ll never make it in time,” Kai says, a look of anguish slicing through him.
“No fucking way are you going ten feet near that twisted fuck!” Jax shouts out, his chest rising and falling with each panicked breath.
“There has to be another way? We’re not losing you again,” Luka pleads, thinking one of us might have an answer.
“What happens if you don’t go back?” The guys freeze around me at Axel’s question.
“You said you can’t die?” he pushes.
“That doesn’t mean it won’t hurt!” Axel winces at the bite in Luka’s words.
If a moment of pain was all I had to deal with, then I’d gladly go through it to get away from him. But King was smarter than that. He modified the tracing spell just for me.
“Luka and Axel are both right. I can’t die. At least nothing King has done has worked, and he’s tried everything.”
The guys freeze, their bodies turning rigid as they hang onto my every word.
“It does fucking hurt, every cut, every break, every bruise, but I will heal. The problem is, King knows this. He’s tested and tried everything to find any weakness or loophole, so he came up with something specifically created to keep me in line.”
The threat of bloodshed and violence erupts in the air around us.
“A couple of years ago, I needed medicine for one of Alana’s deep wounds and couldn’t find anything in the hotel nor anyone that would help.
“Leaving the hotel was my only option, no matter the consequences to my body. I still remember King’s delighted face, as he laughed over my curled body, growing weaker as I died over and over, only to regenerate and do it all over again.
“He let it go on for days, maybe weeks, before giving me the antidote.
“I was useless to Alana… Not that it ever really mattered.”
“What?” Kai says, seething, his eyes pulsing a crimson red.
“If I leave the hotel, not only will I die, but it will be on an infinite loop, until King chooses to give me the antidote.”
Kai’s fury springs to life, his hound of hell growling in rage as he looks for a target.
“That sick fuck needs to die. Slowly and painfully!” Jax grits out. The other guys, still lost to their rage, nod their heads in agreement.
“There has to be another way.” Luka pulls at his hair, looking around, hoping to find some sort of answer. But there’s nothing they can do.
The potion was my only way out and just like my last shred of hope, I feel it wither and die in front of me.
My future with the guys turns bleak, leaving me stuck with King as my tormentor.
I just hope I don’t drag the guys down with me.
“Ah, there you are. All back together I see.”
Time for thinking of an escape was up, as King saunters around the corner, his men taking lead to surround us once again.
Except this time, there’s more. A shit load more.
Rion was right, he must have called in back-up.
“Let’s make this easy, shall we? Hand her over and I’ll let the rest of you leave.”
“You’re not getting anywhere near her,” Luka says, holding me tighter.
“Not fucking happening,” Axel grits out, moving closer to me and Luka.
“Never,” Kai says, a streak of flames climbing up his hands.
The guy’s tense around me, ready for the oncoming attack.
With the tilt of King’s head, the warlocks line up, forming a circle, and unleash a ripple of power out around us, knocking us down.
“What the fuck was that?” Jax asks as Kai helps me up.
“Just a little spell to stop any of you from shifting.” King’s chuckle is filled with delight.
The guys freeze.
“Fuck! I can’t shift.” Jax’s wide eyes veer to me in panic.
“Neither can I,” Luka tells us.
“We need to get out of here,” Rion says. Taking my hand, he moves back only to stop when more of King’s men appear and surround us.
I look around and see the army of powerful warlocks and shifters backing King and then back at my guys. They’re exhausted, injured, and now can’t shift to protect themselves.
This isn’t a fight, it’s a massacre. They won’t last long before King’s men tear them apart.
I know what I have to do.
I have to go back… Back to my cage.
“Go.”
One word shocks them silent.
“Not this again, we told you—” Axel’s tone bleeds frustration.
“Listen to me! There are too many of them. None of us are getting out of here.”
At least, not alive.
“Yes, listen to your little mate. None of you are leaving here.” King sneers.
“Fuck you,” Jax roars, knowing how true King’s words are.
“We can’t leave you, not again,” Luka says, pleading with me to trust them. But I can’t lose them. I know what King will do to them. I know how far he will go to get what he wants, and I can’t let that happen. For now, they need to leave. They need to live.
“Well, I can’t lose any of you, and you staying here will just get you all killed. He’s going to kill you all.”
“He can fucking try,” Kai grits out in warning.
“Don’t be stupid. I can’t die!” I plead with them to listen. The stubborn fools. “There are much worse things than death.”
Rion gives me a look, telling me of how much they don’t know. Of what I’m going to go through with, but I can’t think of that right now. I need them alive and safe and far away from here.
“I’m not asking you to say goodbye… just goodbye for now.” I turn, ready to give King my ultimatum, hoping he’ll let them leave if I go quietly, but Kai grabs my arm, stopping me.
“No.”
“Kai—”
“No, Kiarra. I made a promise, and I intend to keep it. If there’s even the slightest chance that we can somehow get you out of here, I’m going to take it. I’ll burn in hell before I let you go back to that monster.”
The guys give me fierce, determined looks, agreeing with everything Kai said.
“Looks like your men have other ideas. I can’t have that now, can I?” King laughs, nodding to his men. Without warning, the shifters closest to us attack. The guys jump out, ready and waiting, not letting any of them get close to me.
It’s too late to see the shots before they hit, knocking each of them down.
My hearts stutters and stops, seeing each of them on the ground.
“No!”
I drop to the ground beside Kai, his eyes wide, but everywhere else is unmoving. Checking his pulse, I relax a little when I feel it, strong and sure.
“Just a little twenty-four-hour paralysing spell, nothing to worry your little mind about.”
I watch on as the guys struggle to move or speak, their faces turning purple from trying.
“I can kill them now, or you can come with us quietly. Your choice.” The guys beg me with their eyes not to go with him, but I can’t let anything happen to them. I love them, have always loved them. If it was between them and me, I would pick them, every time.
“Times up.” King’s lackeys aim at the guys. “What will it be?”
With my mind made up, I take a step toward King.
“I’ll go.”
Once I’m close enough, King grabs me, smirking down at me. Nodding to one of the guards, I feel a small pinch just as the world tilts and shadows cloud my vision.
Before I fall, one of King’s men picks me up, throwing me over his shoulder.
“Kiarraa.”
My head whips up at the sound of Kai’s raw voice.
Kai is moving. How is he moving?
Glancing at King and his smug look, my stomach sinks.
“You fucking lied!” I seethe at King.
“They’re supposed to be out for twenty-four hours. I guess they’re stronger than I assumed. Not that any of that matters now.”
I fight and scratch and kick, but I might as well be fighting against a brick wall. Whatever King gave me makes me feel heavy. My arms drag as I lift it to aim another useless attack against my abductor.
I spot Kai, attempting to move towards me. His slow crawl getting stronger.
“KIARRA!” Kai’s hoarse voice rasps out as he struggles to fight against the paralysing serum. The others are in similar states of struggle against the warlocks immobilising spell.
“Kill them.”
Two words, and my world tilts and spins on its axis. Time stops around me, hearing King’s order like a knife to my heart.
Shaking off the darkness just a little longer, I feel a spike of adrenaline rushing through my veins, pushing me to stay awake.
“No…” My lips feel funny as I slur out the word, trying to lift my head up enough to see Kai and the others. To make sure they’re okay.
“Please… Please…”
King ignores my pleas, as the warlock’s line up shooting another potion, this one more deadly and terrifying.
No. No. NO! NO!
It hits each of the guys in the chest. A black substance spreads across their arms and down their legs.
I push myself to stay awake as I hear them cry out in agony.
“Please, help them. I’ll do anything you ask.” I beg and plead, but King ignores me as his cruel chuckle echoes around me.
“I don’t need your obedience for what I have planned for you.”
I hear their pained grunts as King gets his men to open a portal for us to leave.
Pushing up against the guard’s shoulders on shaky arms, I see each of my mates suffer in pain as they die in front of me.
No!
My tears run freely as I helplessly watch my nightmare come alive.
Jax and Luka convulse, a thick white foam forming at their mouths.
Rion’s scales ripple and rot, turning to ash and falling to the ground.
Axel lets out a tortured roar full of anguish and pain, skin melting off his body like liquid.
Kai stretches out a blackened hand toward me, lines of fire pulsing through them as he reaches out.
Something inside me cracks, splintering throughout my entire body. It ripples outward as a dark ice coils around me, removing every slice of warmth left inside. It continues its path making its way to the last shred of hope deep within.
“Al… ways.”
An icy cold rushes over me as we step into the portal.
Along with Kai’s goodbye, the last remaining part of me shatters into the darkness.
