What’s wrong with her? What did she expect from him? That she’d spout her love for him and he was supposed to forget about the past and mate with her right there. God dammit, she’d be a good mate too. He couldn’t deny that, even his beast agreed.

His mind flashed with the image of her holding a small baby with a full head of dark, Kategan hair. He held his breath, the image seemed so real. He could easily see her kissing the baby with that big beautiful smile of hers. He roared, turning and slammed his fist into the wall. The wood crack and splintered, bloodied his hand.

He’d protect her from Daniel and see to it that she got her happy life with a good male. He just couldn’t be that man for her.

A rapid knock at the front door had him flinging it open. It wasn’t the face he was hoping to see though. He recognized the hard look on Vane’s face.

“We got a problem.” His gut tightened so hard that his heart restricted in his chest, it was a wonder he could still breathe.

“What happened to her?” A part of him already knew. Could feel the wrongness of the situation. His beast was whipping its tail back and forth in agitation and crying out in pain.

“She left.”

“What do you mean she left?” he growled, his beast garbling his words.

“She climbed out the bathroom window, tackled Mike at his post, and ran off into the woods.”

Darien was already walking past him. He’d get her back if it were the last thing he did. Vane grabbed his arm.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m going after her.”

“She doesn’t seem to want to be around you.”

“Fuck off, Vane. She’s drunk and hurting.” Because of me, he thought. “She doesn’t need to be alone right now.”

Vane shook his head and softly said, “And can you give her what she needs.” Darien’s chest expanded and slowly he exhaled.

“Yeah, I could at one point in my life. But now, Vane? I’m not so sure.” It was the truth, which was startled the hell out of him.

Darien started on a run back to Vane’s house. He knew her scent as good as his own. He’d track her down, kiss her for scaring the shit out of him, and then carry her back to his cabin. Vane’s feet pounded next to his.

“I’m coming with you.” Darien’s head snapped towards his.

“Why?”

“Because she might not want to come back with you,” Vane said simply. Vane was right, and the thought was like taking a knife to the heart. God dammit. He was such a fucked up asshole. He had to apologize. He had to get her back. He...cared for her.

He ran around the back of Vane’s cabin and looked up at the bathroom window.

“Jesus that’s at least a twenty foot drop.” Vane nodded grimly then pointed out to the forest. “Mike said he was on post there when she tackled him, asked him not to tell you that she was leaving.”

“She was trying to get away from me.” He froze. The realization ripped a burning hole in his chest. It was his duty, his honor to protect her, and yet all he’d done was drive her away, possibly into danger.

He took off running. He caught her scent easily—flowery and fresh. Lovely just like her. He opened up his scenes and followed the scent like a tracking hound.

He leaped over a particularly large fallen tree and came to a hard stop. He walked past the spot just behind the tree, but the scent wasn’t there. It lingered only here in this one area. An entirely new fear swept through him.

He took in the area like it was a crime scene. She’d tripped over the tree and skidded along the dirt. The earth was shoved like someone had slid hard against it. Dropping down on his knees, he felt his breath whoosh out of him at the sight of three single drops of blood.

His hand was shaking as he touched them. He brought them to his nose and sniffed. It was hers.

“Do you smell that?”

“She was here,” Darien said. “This is her blood.”

“That’s not what I mean.” Darien looked up at his brother. Vane looked around the perimeter of the forest. “It’s vampire.”

“Of course it smells like her, Vane.” He growled the words, anger suffusing his words. He didn’t have time for this shit. He was losing minutes already. Guilt overwhelmed him, eating away at him.

“God dammit, Darien, get over here and stop thinking. Use your fucking senses.” Darien growled but came over. The scent struck him so fast, it was like a blow to the face. His head snapped to the left.

“Another vampire. It’s got to be him. He took her.” An incredible force filled Darien, so powerful, so tremendous that his beast tightened against his skin, and his eyes glowed in the night. He took my woman, was his only thought.

“I’m going after her.”

“No, you’re not.”

Darien turned to his brother and shoved him. He went flying back against a tree. “Yes, I am.”

“She isn’t yours, Darien. That man has a right to her. If you go and try to steal her off his land, he’ll have justification to kill you.”

“If it’s a challenge he wants, then that’s what I’ll do. I cannot leave her there. I can’t let her go.”

Vane stilled then slowly straightened from his slouch against the tree. He stalked to his brother, grabbed his face in his hands growling, “I know you have it in you. Do this because you love her, Darien. Or you will lose her forever.” He clapped Darien close and hugged him fiercely, then spun around and left.

Darien’s mind was spinning. Love. Did he love her? He didn’t have time to stop and think, to debate such a complicated topic. His beast drove him now, primitive and raw. He knew only a few things in that moment. That Cassie was his woman, and that he was going to tear Daniel’s throat out for touching her.

He didn’t know if he was doing the right thing. He seemed to have spent most of his life making terrible choices; he just hoped this one wasn’t.

He followed the cold male scent that lingered with the beautiful scent of his woman. He would find her, just don’t let him be too late again.

His feet pounding into the ground, his heart a loud beat in his ears, he heard only the harsh sound of his breathing. As one mile turned into two and three, he realized that he would do anything to get Cassie back with him, and he was going to spend the rest of his life with her at his side.

It was as if his beast had been waiting for this moment to speak its mind, to voice its thoughts. How he’d ever, even for a second, thought he could let her be with another man. It was impossible. She was his. He growled into the night and ran harder, faster. She was his.

Chapter 15

Daniel dragged her through the crowd of his clan. They laughed at her, taunted her with cruel names, while some gave her apologetic glances. The faces swam by one another then blended until she didn’t know who was laughing and who was taunting. Her face throbbed and burned where he’d hit her, she no longer knew if it was the alcohol that was making the world spin out of control or if her brain was still shaking from the hit.

She recognized the big open lawn Daniel had brought her to—his house. Daniel’s clan congregated around a huge bonfire that flickered into the night, casted shadows along sharp grinning faces. A wooden post was sticking straight out of the ground near it.

“We have our soon-to-be queen back, ladies and gentlemen!” Daniel announced grandly. The clan applauded and cheered. Cassie knew she was completely sober now. The tears were dried up. She was left now with only resolution. She was done. It was all over now.

Daniel tossed her over to the guards, and they grabbed her roughly, dragged her kicking legs over to that pole. Never had anything so simple terrified her before. They pulled her arms behind her while the crowd cheered on, and then her arms were tied roughly behind the pole. One guard held her up straight so the other one could tie her feet with a thick yellow rope. Humiliation and fear consumed her.