The last thing Ryanne heard was Duncan’s roar of anger and grief as she was hustled out of the cave to the waterfall. The largest wolf shoved her with his body to the left and she saw a small foot path. Not having a choice, she followed it, blinking away the tears in her eyes so she didn’t slip and tumble out through the curtain of water. She had no idea how far her fall would be, and unlike her father, neither she nor her sister could travel through space without the use of their feet.

  Think. Think.

  Her magic sputtered from her fingers. But there was no way she could take out all four of her guards before she was taken down herself.

  She tried to turn around. Tried to run around them to go back and save Duncan. But each time, she was stopped with their large bodies and nips of their teeth. The last two had drawn blood, and the scent only seemed to excite them more.

  Reasoning with them would do no good, so she didn’t waste the energy. Her father had them well trained.

  Alright, then. She would fight. She would wait until they got to wherever they were going where there was no danger of her falling over a waterfall, and she would fight.

  And she would win.

  She had to. The only other outcome was not acceptable.

  The sun was high in the sky when one of her escorts nipped her on the thigh, making her jump to the side where another one nipped her arm. She’d been trying to reach out to Duncan, to feel him so she would know he was still alive, so it took her a second to realize they wanted her to stop. And another few to comprehend what was happening.

  By this time, Ryanne was bleeding from multiple wounds. As soon as one healed, another was created until most of her body stung with every shift of her clothing. She’d pulled inward, concentrating on her connection with Duncan and not the physical pain she was in. Yet, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t feel him.

  He was cut off from her.

  Ryanne refused to acknowledge what this most likely meant. If her father was in his head, perhaps he’d set up some type of barrier between them so she would believe the worst and it would distract her. After all, that would make her easier to kill, wouldn’t it?

  With effort, she pulled herself back to the here and now, wincing with the pain she was only now feeling. Thomas’s wolves were restless, waiting for the nod to attack from their leader.

  Four wolves against one injured Faerie. The odds were not in her favor. But that was exactly what she was counting on.

  Even though she thought she was prepared, the attack came from nowhere. One second, the wolves were shifting their weight back and forth while the largest one nipped at their haunches and made little sounds, egging them on.

  And then they were on her.

  Blue light flew from her fingers, and she managed to knock away the one in front and to the side before she was slammed into from behind and long, sharp teeth sank into the meat between her shoulder and neck. The only reason she wasn’t immediately beheaded because she had twisted her body around as soon as she felt him hit her.

  Ryanne refused to scream. She absolutely refused to give them that. It would only make it worse for her. And she needed to keep her wits if there was any chance at all of surviving.

  So, she laid still while the wolf on her back chewed on her shoulder. Through her hair, which she’d never put up before she ran, she watched the others pace around her head, waiting for their turn.

  A growl sounded somewhere to her right, and chaos erupted around her. What was going on? Were they fighting amongst themselves?

  The wolf on her back gave her a shake, and she gritted her teeth, pushing aside the pain. He released her and she immediately rolled to her back, feeling a stick dig into her side as she reached out and grabbed each side of the wolf’s head. Blue fire shot into his skull. He barked at her through bloody teeth, sharp cries that eventually got fewer and farther between until his eyes closed and his heavy weight listed to the side.

  Ryanne let his body drop beside her, then sprang to her feet, blue light buzzing around her fingertips.

  The sight that met her eyes was not what she’d expected.

  Two new wolves had joined the fray and were making short work of the three smaller wolves. As she watched, a black wolf—the largest of them all—turned his eerie white-blue eyes on her. He stared at her for a brief second, then tossed his big head and dove back into the fight.

  It was the alpha. Cedric.

  She had no idea who the other wolf was, but she wasn’t going to wait around to find out. Duncan needed her.

  Running full speed, she made it back to him in record time, only slowing after she’d cleared the waterfall. Stepping lightly, she kept her back against the wall, listening for any sounds as she approached the cave.

  But there was nothing. Panic overtook her and she slammed her hand over her mouth to keep from giving away her presence.

  Logic told her she was seeing an empty cave. Her heart told her he was still near.

  Had the prince moved him? Taken him somewhere else?

  Was he…?

  No, she wouldn’t even think it.

  Carefully, she stepped into the light. Her entire body trembling with fear and fatigue, she scanned the room, hoping for a clue. A scuff mark on the rock. Something.

  What she found was far more.

  Duncan kneeled alone in the middle of the room, arms straight out, held in midair by invisible threads. His head was up and his green eyes were wide and dark with terror, his mouth twisted, frozen in a silent scream. Sweat covered his face and neck and dampened the hair on his chest.

  Quickly, she looked around. But her father and sister were nowhere to be seen. Still, she didn’t move, but waited, searching through the connection they shared by blood.

  They weren’t there. Perhaps they knew Cedric had shown up and ran.

  Ryanne ran across the cave to him, fully expecting her father to appear any moment and snatch her away from him. When she finally made it to Duncan—what felt like years later but had been only seconds—she fell to her knees in front of him and took his face in her palms. “Duncan. Duncan, can you hear me?”

  Her only hope was that her father had been in a hurry when he took Duncan’s mind, and she would be able to reach him before it was too late.

  Chapter 22

  Duncan heard a voice far off in the distance. A voice he recognized. He strained to hear it again over the taunts of his tormentors, fighting the bonds that held him. When it faded away, he cried out, unable to think past the pain, knowing he would never hear the voice again.

  And then he did.

  Melodic and sweet, it called to him like the morning song of a bird, awakening something deep inside of him and pulling it upward out of the hell he burned in.

  Claws and teeth tore at his skin as the horrendous things they chanted grew louder in his ears.

  His wolf huddled deep within him, afraid, as hands gripped his cock and balls, rubbing him raw, forcing him to respond as things were done to him. Sick things. Horrendous things. Things he never would’ve thought were possible.

  Duncan felt himself sinking into the terrifying quagmire of his own mind. A very small part of him knew that’s all it was. It was all in his head. But the larger part of him felt everything, suffered everything, and knew he would never escape this hell again.

  Through the haze of noise and heat, something soft touched his jaw and he caught a whiff of primrose.

  But that couldn’t be. There were no flowers here. Only the stench of rotting flesh.

  The voice came to him again. Barely rising above the others. Calling his name. It faded in and out of the growled slurs and foul language, a dapple of sunlight dancing through the tree branches to warm his soul.

  Something soft and wet touched his lips and instinctively he tried to turn his head away. It took him a moment to realize it wasn’t the rough, sandpaper texture of a swollen tongue.

  They were lips, soft and sweet, and they were kissing him.

  Desperate to get away from the repulsive mouths licking and sucking every inch of skin on his body, he forced himself to focus on those lips and those lips alone.

  He knew those lips. Knew that taste.

  His wolf flicked its tail and pricked its ears.

  “Duncan, come back to me. Stay with me. No one else is here. It’s only you and I.”

  “Yer wrong,” he told the sweet voice. His voice caught on a sob. “Yer wrong. I can hear them. I can see them. Och.” The breath he inhaled was ragged. “I can feel them.”

  “No,” the voice whispered against his lips. “No, wolf. It’s only us. You only hear me. You only see me. You only feel me.”

  He tried. Truly, he did.

  “Fight them, Duncan. You need to fight them. I can’t do it for you.”

  For a long time, forever it seemed, he reached for her, only to be torn away and beaten down by fists and claws and repulsive words. His stomach revolted at their touch and tears wet his cheeks. Violated and ashamed, he recoiled from the demons, pulling into himself until he could no longer hear their gravel voices or feel the burn of their tongues and teeth.

  “No! No, Duncan, come back. You have to come back to me or I’ll lose you.” Something soft touched his ear. “And I’m not going to lose you! Do you hear me, wolf? You have to come back.”

  The salty scent of tears filled his nose. So strong he could smell it over the rot. His own? He didn’t know. Something warm and tender touched his chest, and he couldn’t control the cry of pain as it stroked over his raw skin with feather-light touches. But och, he ached so for that touch and did not want it to stop. Not ever. Not even when it traveled down his stomach to his cock.

  “No! No! Dinna touch me!” he cried. But she ignored him, and suddenly that tender touch was wrapped around him, easing the soreness there.

  And then the touch changed. Hot and wet, it stroked him with soft caresses, chasing away everything but the feelings…

  Duncan groaned and closed his eyes. His hands buried themselves in silky curls. A shudder wracked his body as the pain ebbed away to be replaced by pleasure. Cool, damp air caressed his raw skin. He could no longer feel the burn of the hands and teeth and tongues that handled him like something without care or feelings.

  Sweet lips moved up his torso, kissing away the pain and fears. A soft voice whispered loving things in his ear. Sexy things. Things that made him growl with hunger instead of cringe with fear and disgust.

  “Come back to me, Duncan. I need you.”

  Slowly, he opened his eyes to a rainbow of colors that lit up a wee, bonnie face surrounded by a fall of dark curls. “Ryanne?”

  A watery smile was his response. “It’s okay. You’re here with me. It was all in your mind.”

  He wanted to believe her.

  “Do you remember where you are?”

  Aye, he remembered.

  The colors dimmed in her eyes, replaced by worry and fear as they searched his face. “It’s not real, Duncan. None of that was real.”

  “You were there,” he murmured.

  “Yes. I’m sorry. I had to. It was the only way to pull you back.”

  “What did you see?” he asked her. He needed to know how much of that she had witnessed.

  “It doesn’t matter.”

  “It matters tae me.”

  She shook her head. “Tricks of the Fae. Horrifying and repulsive. But that’s all it was. They weren’t really there. Nothing was true except me.”

  He studied the lass in front of him. His hands were still buried in her hair, and when he went to move them to her face, he saw they were trembling. Still, he touched her, wanting to know she was real and this wasn’t some new horror he was experiencing. “I need tae kiss ye.”

  “I need to kiss you, too,” she told him. “I’ve never been so scared, Duncan, as when I walked in here and saw you in the throes of a nightmare created solely by my father. I didn’t know how I was going to pull you out.”

  He didn’t know either, but somehow, she had. And she’d done it by coming into the nightmare with him.

  His wolf prowled restlessly just beneath the surface of his skin, and Duncan growled low in his throat.

  Colors flickered in Ryanne’s eyes. “Kiss me, Duncan. I need to feel you, and I think you need the same.”

  He wanted to, he did. “I dinna trust it, lass. I dinna trust ye are truly here.”

  So, she made the decision for him. Pulling his head down to hers, she took his mouth with a hunger that rivaled anything he had felt in his life or in his dreams.

  With a moan, he took what he needed from her. What was true. The scent of her filled his nose, sweet primrose heavy with the musky notes of her arousal. Her hands stroked him everywhere she could reach with a soft urgency, wiping clean the last remnants of the nightmare he’d been under.

  It was with surprise he realized he was still wearing the jeans he’d carried with him and hastily thrown on before coming into the cave. More proof that what he’d just gone through hadn’t been real.

  Ryanne’s lips left his to move along his jaw and down his throat. He let his head fall back. Everywhere she touched was fire that burned him in the most pleasurable of ways. Duncan didn’t feel the stone beneath the knees or the ache in his muscles, only the burning desire to slide deep inside of her and let the wet heat of her body soothe away the last traces of the prince’s hallucination.

  The heavy shirt she wore was too big and easy for him to work his hands beneath. The feel of her skin was heaven, the weight of her breasts a gift in his palms.

  It wasn’t enough.

  She made an unhappy noise when he forced her to break their connection so he could pull the shirt up and off. He needed to see her.

  But she did him one better.

  Standing up, Ryanne kicked off her boots and tugged down her jeans, leaving everything in a pool of clothing on the rocks.

  He reached out, touched the soft curls between her legs, then grabbed her by the hips and pulled her to his mouth. His fingers held her open as his tongue dove between the satiny folds to find the taste of her. Ryanne gripped his hair, pulling it near from his head as a long moan tore from her throat.

  Och. He’d never tasted anything better than this female.

  Duncan loved her with his mouth until she came on his tongue, and then he did it again, and again, until she trembled in his hands and her legs could barely hold her up.

  Her taste and scent were all over him, completely erasing what had happened before. When she was crying out his name over and over—part plea for him to stop and part begging he never did—he sat back on his heels and yanked her down so she was straddling his lap. Quickly, he pushed his jeans down and gripped his cock with one hand. He was thick and hard for her. “Come onto me, Ryanne. I need tae be inside ye.”

  Hands on his shoulders, she lifted enough so he could line himself up at her entrance. “Now, lass. Take me now.”

  Her eyes on his, she took him into her sweet heat. Her mouth fell open on a gasp as he filled her. She was tight and hot and wet and the best thing Duncan had ever felt.

  “I fear I can no’ last long,” he said through gritted teeth. Not when she felt so good and he needed her so very much.

  Pieces of things best left forgotten tried to penetrate the fog of his lust, and for a moment he froze, lost in the horrors of the past and present.

  She must have known, for suddenly she was there, wrapped around his body in the physical world and with him in his mind in the ethereal one. With whispered words in his head and the clasp of her body around him, she brought him back until it was only her and the pleasure rocketing down his spine and into his balls until he swelled so tight within her he didn’t know how he still fit.

  Pulling her tight to him, Duncan came inside of her with such force his muscles tensed painfully and his wolf tore at his gut.

  When he could speak, he dropped his head to her shoulder. “Dinna move, lass,” he begged her between ragged breaths. “I need a moment.”

  Her arms wrapping around his shoulders was the best thing he’d ever felt. Even more so than the coupling that had just occurred.

  Duncan had never felt the things he was feeling at that very moment. His insides were warm and gooey, and yet at the same time, he felt a near violent possession for this female in his arms. He knew in that moment he would kill anyone who tried to part them.

  He also knew he would never be able to give her as much as she’d given him. “Thank ye,” he whispered. “For pulling me out o’ that place.”

  “I want to do one better,” she told him.

  “What’s that?”

  “I want to try to take it away completely. The memories of those things.”

  Pulling back, he caught her eyes with his. “I do no’ want ye tae do that, although I appreciate th’ thought.”

  She frowned. “You don’t have to be scared. I’ve never done it before, but I’ve never gone there to help someone before, either. And I think I know what to do to help you forget.”

  “I dinna want tae forget, lass. I want tae remember it all.”

  “I don’t understand,” she said after a pause.

  He pushed a wayward curl away from her face. “I dinna want ye tae do it because I don’t ever want tae forget what it is you’ve done for me. I will no’ ever be able tae repay ye, but if ye will let me, I would like tae try.”

  She gave him a strange look and opened her mouth to say something when Duncan heard someone entering the cave. Quickly covering her mouth with his hand, he gave her a tight shake of his head. When he was certain she understood, he lifted her from his lap and handed her her shirt. As she slipped it over her head, he got to his feet and secured his pants.

  Raising his nose, he sniffed the air. Immediately, he relaxed, but still pushed Ryanne behind him to hide her near nakedness. “Och, Cedric! Ye need tae stop doing this!”

  His alpha appeared, and he was as naked as the day he was born, his black hair hanging loose over his shoulders. He took in the situation at a glance and grinned. “It’s no my fault ye both are goin’ at it every time I turn around.” When he neared, he peeked around Duncan’s shoulder to smile at Ryanne. “Excuse my bare arse.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20