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Kate quickly dried off froht into the closet She barely looked at the racks of clothing, just tossed on anything that smelled clean and appeared comfortable She didn&039;t have the time or care for how she looked The misery inside her was palpable Worse than her time spent in Mondrar, the vampire prison There she&039;d been held for a crime she hadn&039;t committed but had taken responsibility for It was time she&039;d served to protect her mother, her only family And she would&039;ve done the same for Ladd if that bastard Cruen had allowed her to But he didn&039;t want her sacrifice, didn&039;t care about the boy&039;s well-being in any way He&039;d snatched the poor innocent balas right out from under her care, and now she lived in a different kind of prison, one she&039;d never truly escape

She slipped on a pair of black boots and went into the bedroom She wasn&039;t surprised to find Nicholas there Her true mate, her family, the one paven on Earth who understood her and loved her unconditionally, was standing against the closed door of their room He was darkly beautiful as always, but as he stood there, arms crossed over his broad chest, he carried the sa," he said

"Yeah"

He shook his head "Didn&039;t tell ood-bye"

"I didn&039;t want to interrupt anything," she said, heading over to the desk where she kept her cell phone She stuffed it in the pocket of her jeans with her s," he told her, his voice gentle but firm "I would think you&039;d want to be in on that Unless you have other plans"

She paused, looked up at hi, Kate?"

"I&039; out"

"Then I&039;ll come with you"

"You can&039;t It&039;s day"

"Then wait until the sun recedes"

She walked toward hie In fact, his jaent rigid, his expression too

She shook her head, tried to s the hitch in her throat "I can&039;t just sit here and do nothing, Nicky Would you really want me to?"

His eyes, his dark, soulful eyes, searched her own, and after a moment or two his body relaxed "What&039;s your plan?"

"Going to the I to the credenti, but it wasn&039;t the only place she was going She had a few vaht be willing to help her Nicholas didn&039;t need to know that; he&039;d only worry about her safety

"Please, Nicky"

Still, he didn&039;t step aside His eyes were penetrating as he stared at her, tried to search inside her mind and her soul "We will have him back, my love"

"I know"

"Then what is it? I know you fear for his safety I do too But there is more inside you than fear" He reached out and touched her chin, lifted it so he could see her eyes "Before I can let you walk out this door, I need to knohat&039;s in your head"

Kate knew her mate was deadly serious, and kneell that when he looked at her that way, that intensely, she could only tell hiet him back" Her voice broke for a second She shook it off "Even if we get hiain"

Nicholas sighed "You speak of Erion"

She shrugged "I speak of his true parent, Nicky"

"Oh, baby" His hand dropped to her shoulder He squeezed gently "We always knew this could be a possibility That Ladd didn&039;t belong to-"

She didn&039;t want to hear any more She certainly didn&039;t want to hear that Not now Not yet She eased herself froo I&039;ll be careful, and I&039;ll be hoet past him, he let her

It&039;s unfortunate I don&039;t sleep, Erion thought as he stood inside his bedroo the hohest point of the castle It was circular and sported floor-to-ceiling s and a panoras over dark hardwood blanketed the floor, and the creah unlit, reminded Erion of the fairy tales Dillon had told him and his brothers back when they were balas An antique writing desk took up one wall of s in the south corner, an unopened MacBook atop it, and a claw-foot bath sat in the north corner, overlooking the gardens below But the true set piece on the stage that was his room was the four-poster bed in the very center The incredible frame carved from one solid piece of wood, or so it seeround and sported four su to the floor on every side but one, allowing the master of the house to take to his bed

Or, at thehad refused to leave after being fed Anywhere Erion went, the dog trotted along behind Just to keep hi over the tiny beast, Erion had placed him in his room, allowed him access to his bed At least until he decided to whorin

As if hearing his newlifted his head, cocked it to one side, and barked

"Go back to sleep, lazy canine," Erion growled good-naturedly "So barked once again, then dropped its head and placed its muzzle on its paws In seconds its eyes were closed

Lucky beast, Erion mused as he paced in front of the unlit fire No doubt theslept atop was extremely comfortable He wouldn&039;t know He hadn&039;t slept in it once In fact, he&039;d never slept in a bed in his life But the room was his; it was the best and he&039;d claimed it And if he did need to rest, he would sis and take to the floor

The thought brought forth a o, the balas had been in his roo about his weapons, telling Erion of his wish to stand with the brothers and fight Erion grinned The boy was of his blood, most certainly He was a robust child, persistent and ready to learn the ways of battle Perhaps Erion could teach hieon

The dungeon

Erion cut his gaze to the door The dungeon, where he now housed a different weapon entirely

Without forethought, he moved across the room, curled his hand around the door handle He hesitated The feerous to him Her scent and her secrets, and the fact that she seerowled, and he gripped the door handle until his knuckles hite Perhaps he should reverse course and take to the , flash to New York, let his brothers know of the trade the following day Let them knohat had happened in the beach reality with Cruen

But did he want the Ros with Cruen at this time? His brothers would want to set a trap and capture the Pureblood paven And as uard, he couldn&039;t risk Ladd&039;s life

To to plan and his bait ell and unharmed, he would have Ladd back He opened his door and stepped out into the hall Instantly his thoughts of his brothers and Cruen died No, were drowned out A tortuous, agonizing sound-or was it screams? He couldn&039;t be sure-filled the air around hi forth, ready But for what, he didn&039;t know It was her, the female-Hellen She cried out She wailed He slarel inside, and tore down the hallway His teeth ground against one another as he ht If he found anyone touching her, hurting her, he would rip them apart She was his-his prisoner, his bait

His only way to Ladd

He nearly slid down the stairs, jueon door Hallway after hallway, he counted guards All were stationed in their proper places, eyes forward, bodies rigid Why had no one reported her calls to hiive a shit?

Cowards had no place in his home He would have words with the with Hellen Perhaps he would have fists and fangs too

When he arrived at the dungeon door, he nearly ripped the thing off its hinges, cringing at the intense wailing that met his ears It was like a bird, a wounded, tortured bird, and his body readied for a fight Whoever was touching her would soon find hiered on the steps, gripping the railing until it nearly crumbled under his palm His entire body shuddered Not because the scent repelled hi animal toward it, breathe it in, and find the spot it eht do far more than that

The scent of female arousal surrounded him, infused him like a hot bath, and his cock erupted to life inside his jeans A feral need to take rithed and whiainst the wall before hi like it in his life-this obdurate pull to take and feed and fuck-and he didn&039;t know if he could stop with just a taste, ripped the banister until his knuckles turned white, his dilated eyes pinned on the woht of the torches bracketing her, Erion saw that her head hung down, her ainst her chest Her whitedress was drenched in sweat, and her captive hands were clenched into fists

She was crying Softly Pitifully

Erion&039;s jaw clenched so tight, he was in danger of breaking a fang This has to be another ploy, he thought through his haze of black desire A trick, a ruse by his precious bait to get him to set her free This female wasn&039;t the leaky type She was hard, mean, delectable, and ahhhhhhis nostrils flaredshitscented with his perfect brand of a down the stairs, took one look at the female, and cursed "Sir?"

Erion couldn&039;t stop himself He was jacked up on her scent, felt way too protective Where a few uards for not co to him with Hellen&039;s cries, noanted them nowhere near her

"Return to your roorowled softly, his throat dry So dryHis fangs descended His eyes narrowed on Hellen His e She had uard at his left hadn&039;t , skin flushed, and a tent in his pants

"Get the fuck out now!" he roared, rounding on him, ready to pounce if the uard jerked, seemed to wake "I&039;m sorry, sir," he stammered, then turned and retreated up the steps

Erion focused on the feain His beast was just below the surface, but he was trying like hell to get his mind to work, to question

"What is this?" he said, his voice sounding strangely otherworldly to his ears "What is happening to you?"

Her head still down, she only whi, desperate to touch, grip, squeeze "Answerto ritted teeth, he asked, "Are you hurt? Did souards-"

She lifted her head then and locked eyes with hi with desire From her wild red curls to her beautiful, flushed, and sweaty face, the woood and hard and wanted more Erion had to force himself to rereen eyes were huge and heavy with tears-just as he iined her cunt to be

Suddenly, her eyes cla so in the most pained of tones

"What is it?" Erion said, barely able to think straight as she was casting off so ?" Even as he spoke the words, his et out, in the fresh air, away from her scent

"Help me!" she cried out "Please help me!"

Christ Why couldn&039;t he make his feet round out Just the word-that one as torture on his tongue

Her eyes fluttered open and she found his gaze, searching, begging hi Erion saw the desperation within those green orbs, knehatever she was feeling was real and not a ruse to gain his sympathy as he&039;d believed But how could he help her? He wasn&039;t letting her go No matter what pain she was in, she was his ticket to Ladd

He growled

Why was he standing here? Why did he care if she was in pain or not? All thather alive

"I need release," she whimpered

But alive and well Would Cruen hold on to Ladd, harm him, if Hellen was not returned in fair health?

"You will run from me," he uttered tersely "I cannot take that chance"