Things had drastically changed in the hours since Tiana first called. Now I knew why she thought she had to push me away, and a part of me even understood it, but she couldn’t have been more wrong. I wasn’t afraid of her past, or of anyone who might be after her and her family. I would stand against them all for my mate. She was beginning to open up to me, had placed her trust in me, and I was going to prove to her that I was worth it. She and Tara were my future. I wasn’t letting them go.

  We were silent for the most part for the next hour and a half, until my phone vibrated in my pocket. I slid it out to see a number I didn’t recognize. Frowning, I answered shortly, “Taz.”

  “It’s Talia.”

  I’d never gotten Talia’s phone number. I’d told Rian to give her mine if she wanted it, but never asked for hers. I figured if she wanted me to have it, she would give it to me or call me. She hadn’t, but she’d obviously saved mine in her phone. Unless she’d gotten it from my parents. Either way, I was glad to hear her voice.

  “Everything okay?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Do I need to come back there?” I asked, looking for a place to turn around. We were already on the outskirts of Houston, just minutes from the mansion, but it didn’t matter. If she and Tara needed me, I was going to be there.

  “No, Taz, don’t come back. Everything’s fine here.”

  I could hear the worry in her voice, and my cat started to claw at my insides wanting to get to her. “Baby, I can’t help if you don’t tell me what’s wrong.”

  Talia was quiet for a moment, and then she said, “That’s just it, Riordan, I don’t know if anything is wrong. It was just something that Tara said.”

  “The turnoff to the mansion is only a couple of miles away.”

  I nodded to Shadow indicating that I heard, but kept my attention on my mate. “Talia, talk to me.”

  “She said my sister is saved by a bear, and that bear is hers.”

  “A bear?”

  “I think… well, I think Bastian might be my sister’s mate.”

  “Holy shit,” I breathed in surprise, even as I began to slow the SUV down when Shadow held up a hand indicating we were getting close to the road we needed to turn on.

  “Yeah. I’m worried, Riordan. After what Killian Reed did to his family, if Tiana is his mate…”

  “Shit’s going to hit the fan big time,” I finished for her, knowing it was the truth. Bastian was one big ass bear, full of anger at Reed and his followers.

  “I agree. Bastian Kane is one of the kindest, sweetest, most gentle people I know, until you fuck with someone he cares about. First his sister and her family, now this?”

  “We don’t know Reed is the one that has Tiana.”

  “No, we don’t,” Talia agreed, “but it won’t matter if it is Reed or if it’s the assholes who have been chasing us since we were teenagers, Bastian is going to come unglued.” Talia paused, “You have to watch him closely, Riordan. Please. I could be way off base, but if I’m right, all hell is going to break loose.”

  “What you are saying, is it’s going to be a blood bath.”

  “I think so. I tried to call Nitro to warn him, but he isn’t answering.”

  “That’s because he’s already here,” I said, shutting the lights on the SUV off as I turned down the road that would take me closer to the house we were looking for.

  “Shit.”

  “I gotta go, Talia.”

  Pulling off onto a dirt road, I brought the SUV to a stop beside another Night Star issued vehicle. Shadow and Shyla slipped out of the SUV, shutting the doors quietly behind them.

  “Riordan…” Talia paused, then whispered, “I have so much I want to say to you, but now just isn’t the time.”

  My hand tightened on the phone, and I closed my eyes. She was everything to me. I wanted her to know that, but she was right, now wasn’t the time to get into a talk about our feelings. “Me too.”

  “The one thing I want you to know, is that I accept you as my mate, Riordan Kilkenny. I was an idiot to push you away. I know that now. It won’t happen again.”

  I let out the breath that I was holding, a small smile curving my lips. “That’s good, baby, because you are mine, and I’m not letting you go.”

  “Promise?”

  “Hell yeah,” I said gruffly, before pushing open my door and sliding out of the vehicle. “I’ll be home soon.”

  “I’ll be waiting.”

  The promise had my cock stiffening in an instant, as every fucking fantasy I’d had about Talia since I met her ran through my mind. I groaned, ending the call and putting my phone on silent. I shoved it into my pocket, then grabbed my dick and squeezed it, hoping it would get the picture that it wasn’t time to play. It didn’t work.

  Grumbling to myself, I walked over to where Shadow and Shyla stood talking to Nitro and the rest of the team. Jagger handed me an ear comm, and I attached it while I let my gaze rake around the area. My eyes landing on Bastian had my cock deflating quickly as the thought of what the poor bastard was about to go through ran through my mind. I was struggling with whether or not I should warn him, when Nitro growled, “She’s here. They showed up twenty minutes ago.”

  “She was stuffed in the fucking trunk,” Roarke said angrily, shaking his head in disgust. “One of those fuckers hauled her out of it and flung her to the ground. She didn’t fight him, but the son of a bitch kicked her in the stomach anyway.”

  “She tried to crawl away from him, but she didn’t make it far,” Jagger muttered, taking up where Roarke left off. “He grabbed her by her hair, yanked her up until she was standing, and proceeded to drag her into the house.”

  “There are six of them,” Bastian said, as he glared toward the mansion, his hands clenched tightly into fists at his sides. “The one that hurt her is going to die first.”

  “We need at least one of them alive so we can find out who is behind this,” Nitro ordered, eyeing each of them individually.

  “They all die,” I said quietly, “after we have the information we need.”

  “Agreed.” Nitro motioned to the house. “Roarke scouted around earlier. There are three doors. One in the front, one in the back, and one on the south side that looks like a cellar door leading down into what we think is the basement.”

  “Tiana said they were putting her in a dungeon,” Shyla said thoughtfully, “I wonder if that cellar door takes you down to it.”

  “Jagger and I will take the front door and clear the main level. Roarke and Bastian go in the back and take the second floor. The rest of you take the cellar door. I’m placing my bets on it, but we need to take out the enemies above, too.”

  “Bastian comes with me,” I cut in, wanting to keep an eye on the man in case what Talia thought was true. Not only that, but if he really was Tiana’s mate, his scent would calm her when we showed up. After what she’d been through, she was going to need that.

  “This is my fucking mission, and I want him on the back door,” Nitro growled.

  I didn’t back down. Baring my teeth at the head of Night Star, I snarled, “This isn’t a fucking mission. This is my mate’s sister’s life we are talking about, and I want him with me.”

  “Why?” Bastian asked quietly, watching me steadily. His outward demeanor was calm, but I had a feeling he was holding himself tightly in check. “There’s something you aren’t telling us.”

  Gritting my teeth, I glowered at Nitro, then turned to look at Bastian. “Because my daughter says Tiana is saved by a bear. Since you are the only fucking bear in sight, I’m assuming that’s you.”

  “Your daughter?” Nitro asked with a frown.

  “She has visions, the same as her aunt.”

  “Well, shit.”

  “What else?” Bastian demanded, his jaw hardening as he glowered at me.

  I went silent, not sure if I should tell him the rest.

  “Just fucking say it. We’re wasting time here,” Nitro snapped.

  I sighed heavily, shaking my head. “Look, man, we could be way off, but Tara said Tiana is saved by a bear, and that bear is hers. So, we think that Tiana might be your mate, unless she is saved by some other damn bear we don’t know about.”

  Bastian froze, deep growls beginning to rumble through his thick chest. Some of the biggest fucking fangs I’d ever seen appeared in his mouth, and huge claws sprang from his fingertips.

  “Dammit, Bast, you need to calm the fuck down,” Jagger said, stepping close and placing a hand on the grizzly’s shoulder to try to ground him. “We’ll get to the bottom of all of this. Until we do, you need to think with a clear head before you ruin this op and get Tiana killed.”

  When Bastian snarled at him showing him fang, Jagger backed away, raising his hands out in front of him in a placating way. “Jesus, man. Flash those fuckers at someone else.”

  “Stand down, Bastian,” Nitro ordered darkly. “We don’t have time for this.”

  “I go with Taz,” Bastian growled.

  “We don’t even know if that cellar door will get us into the dungeon area,” Roarke cut in. When Bastian turned his anger on him, Roarke raised an eyebrow. “Okay, I’ll take the back myself.”

  “No one goes in alone,” Nitro stated, his eyes flashing angrily. “That’s how Reed got Risa, or did you all forget?”

  “We don’t know that Reed is behind this,” Jagger said, his gaze going to the mansion we were about to infiltrate. There were only two lights on, one upstairs and one on the main level. The rest of the house appeared dark.

  “We don’t know that he isn’t.”

  “I’ll go through the back with Roarke,” Shadow interjected, shaking his head as he turned to walk away. “We can stand around here talking all fucking night, or get in there and get Tiana out. I vote for the second.”

  “Done,” Nitro growled, following him away from the vehicles. “Now, do your jobs and shut the hell up.”

  Silence fell over the entire team as we moved stealthily down the stretch of rock road that led to the mansion. Crossing over to the other side of the road, I was aware of both Bastian and Shyla on my heels as I ran across the large lawn toward the cellar door. I stayed in the shadows under the darkness of the moon, thankful that the early morning light hadn’t broken though yet. We had about an hour before that happened, and I was hoping to be long gone by then.

  “There’s a padlock,” I said, when we got to the door.

  “I got it,” Shyla whispered, coming up beside me. She pulled something out of one of the many pockets running down the sides of her black, leather pants and opened it, then slid something out of it. I raised my head to case the area while she went to work. It took her less than a minute to pick the lock, and then Bastian was lifting the top of the door so that we could go in.

  It was pitch black inside after Bastian lowered the door back down behind us, but thanks to my cat, I had no problems seeing. We went down a flight of stairs, me first, Shyla behind me, Bastian bringing up the rear. When we reached the bottom, I cautiously looked around at the rows of shelves on each side of the dirty, musty room we were in. It looked as if it had been several years since anyone had been down there.

  “Breaching the main level,” Nitro growled through the comms.

  “We’re in,” Roarke replied quietly. “Going upstairs.”

  “In the cellar,” I told them.

  “We want to go through that wall,” Shyla murmured, walking past me to look at the bricks that made up the old cellar. “She’s here, I know it. And we can get to her through this wall, if we can just figure out how.”

  “How do you know?” I asked, moving up beside her to run my hands over the light red brick.

  “Cause this wall is lit up like a fucking Christmas tree,” she muttered, frowning as she squatted down to look at the floor.

  “What?”

  “It’s my gift,” she said, slipping around to my other side. “Whenever I find what I’m looking for, there’s this light. Like a beacon. Tiana is somewhere beyond this wall, if I can just figure out a way through it.”

  “Got it,” Bastian grunted behind them, as he shoved a row of shelves out of the way on a side wall. “There’s a door here.”

  “Well, shit.” Shyla walked over and ran a hand down the wooden edge of the hidden door. “I was looking in the wrong place.”

  Bastian shrugged, his light brown eyes darkening as breathed in deeply. “You’re right. She’s down here, and she’s close.”

  “Bastian?”

  “She’s mine,” he growled, slipping through the door before I could stop him. I followed quickly, Shyla right behind me, but the bear was fast. The bottom level of the mansion was like a damn maze, but Bastian seemed to have no problem knowing where he needed to go. The scent of his mate must have been strong for him.

  “We have an issue,” Shyla reported to the team. “Talia was right, Tiana is Bastian’s mate. He’s gone.”

  Nitro swore darkly. “Bastian, we had to kill the two we ran into. You keep someone down there alive if she isn’t alone. We need intel.”

  A loud roar reached me before I could find Bastian, followed by a woman’s cry of fear. “Shit.”

  “So much for the element of surprise,” Shyla said sarcastically, as she streaked down the hall beside me.

  We turned a corner to find Bastian holding a man up against a wall, one huge hand wrapped around the enemy’s throat, the claws on his other one tearing out the asshole’s heart. Another roar ripped free as Bastian flung the man from him, his face contorted in rage. Turning, he began to stalk toward another man who was holding Tiana against him with his arm around her throat. Tiana’s eyes were wide in fear, her gaze on her mate.

  “Hey, big guy, Nitro wants one of them alive,” Shyla reminded the bear gently. “Why don’t you let me handle this one?”

  “He hurt her,” Bastian snarled, his form seeming to grow even larger than his massive frame already was. “He’s going to die.”

  “Hey, no one said you can’t kill him,” I said, cautiously moving around him to get closer to Tiana. “Just let Nitro talk to him first. Or let Shadow do his voodoo shit.”

  Bastian’s chest heaved, his hands clenching and unclenching at his sides. Tiana’s eyes rounded even more and her hands went up to claw at the arm that was squeezing her breath from her.

  “Bastian!” she gasped, confirming that she knew exactly who the bear was, tears slipping out as her eyes began to flutter close.

  “Come any closer and she’s dead!” the man yelled. “I’ll snap her neck!”

  “Well, that was the wrong thing to say,” Shyla said with a sigh, crossing her arms over her chest and taking a step back. “Sorry, buddy, but I can’t save you now.”

  “What?”

  Bastian was across the room in a flash, his claws slicing through the arm that held Tiana. The man screamed in pain, pulling away from her and scrambling back against the wall. Ignoring him, Bastian gently picked up Tiana as her legs went out from under her. Holding her close to his chest, he turned to me. “He’s all yours.”

  “You sure you don’t want to slice and dice him?” Shyla asked, her hand going to her hip as she cocked an eyebrow at Bastian. “I mean, why stop now? Shadow and Roarke have two others to question. We don’t need this asshole.”

  “Fuck you!” the man hollered, struggling to stay on his feet as he clutched at his bloody arm.

  Bastian didn’t bother answering as he walked past us both.

  Shyla shrugged and motioned toward me. “Guess he’s all yours then, Taz. We don’t need him.”

  Just then, Shadow’s voice broke through the comms. “They work for Killian Reed. He found out about Tiana and Tara and put them next on his list to take out.”

  “That son of a bitch needs to fucking die,” Roarke snarled. “I’m tired of him messing with our team.”

  “Where’s Bastian?” Nitro demanded.

  “He took his mate out of here,” I said, my eyes on the man who had fallen to the floor and was now cowering away from us.

  “Finish it, then,” was the command that came next. Nitro didn’t have to tell me twice.

  “You hurt my mate’s sister,” I snarled through the large fangs that had dropped in my mouth, stalking toward the man as he rested his head against the wall breathing heavily. “You went after my daughter.”

  “They’re fucking animals, just like you. You all deserve everything that’s coming to you,” he sneered, struggling back up to his feet as he glared at me, but I could smell the scent of fear radiating off of him. He was trying to put up a brave front, but was in pain and about to piss his damn pants out of terror.

  I showed no mercy.

  “Wrong answer.”

  Not wasting any time, I gave into my lynx who was pushing at me for revenge, extending my claws and raking them across the bastard’s throat, nearly decapitating him.

  “What are we doing with the bodies?” Shyla asked.

  “Leave them,” Nitro growled. “Let Reed clean up his own mess.”

  7

  TALIA

  I stood by the big picture window in the Kilkenny’s living room watching outside for Riordan to appear. I hadn’t left my spot for almost two hours. Not since he called me to let me know they found my sister and were bringing her home. Not only that, but I’d been right, Bastian was her mate.

  It sounded as if Tiana had been through hell and had the bruises to prove it. Riordan warned me that she passed out during the rescue and hadn’t woken up as of yet. Roarke had some medical training, and he’d done a cursory exam, but only found a lot of bruising and possibly a couple of cracked ribs. Things that would be fine after she shifted a couple of times. Nothing was broken, and there was no sign of a head injury, thank God. So, they thought the reason she wasn’t conscious yet had to be due to the trauma she’d been subjected to.

  “They’ll be here soon,” Rian said, coming into the room and making her way over to stand beside me. “It sounds like Bastian hasn’t left her side.”

  “He won’t until she’s here, under our protection.”

 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9