Aaron's Kiss Series Boxed Set (Books 1 - 7) (122 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

Airic woke up to the sound of music. Classical music. Bach, she guessed. She moved slowly, felt the wounds opening up all over her body, and a tiny moan escaped her throat. She waited for him to say something to her, hurt her in some way. There was nothing.
There mustn’t be anyone here,
she thought, for surely she hadn’t worked through her punishment schedule yet.

She looked up her arms to her hands and saw that the silver was cutting deeply into her skin. She wondered if she worked hard enough, could she maybe open the vein in her wrist and bleed to death before he came back? But she knew that she wouldn’t do it. Well, at least, not yet. Crying softly, she realized she was a coward. She couldn’t even end her own life.

“Oh now, we can’t have my mate crying now, can we, love? What’s the matter, did you miss me? Well, I’m here now. I just thought I’d give you a little more time napping. Thought it’d make our conversation so much longer this time.” She heard the whip slither across the rock floor of the cave.

“Please, please don’t hurt me anymore. I can’t take it. I hurt so badly, please no more.”
Begging, I’ve been reduced to begging,
she sobbed to herself.

She watched as he moved around to her side. He was running the long strips of leather through his fingers as he walked. He was taunting her; he liked her begging. Had she’d been able to, she would have straightened her spine. Fuck this shit. I either die with dignity, or I die a coward.

“You beg so prettily, sweetheart. Of course, it will do you no good. You’ve made me do this. You’ve brought this all on yourself. I’m only doing what…”

“Fuck you, you slimy piece of shit. I’m not saying another word to you. I will not beg, I will not moan, you will not get any pleasure from what you, you inflict onto me.” She saw it coming, welcomed it as a matter of fact. The fist connected with her mouth so hard it snapped her neck back and opened her lower lip wide. Blood poured from the open wound fresh and hot and poured onto the rock and along a thin seam inside it straight to the earth below.

***

Dominic and Bradley had been going over the maps of the area for nearly six hours. Both were tired beyond anything they could remember for years, but they hadn’t stopped. He knew that Dominic would need to rest soon, as he had been up for over twenty-four hours.

Dominic, Aaron, and Colin, all vampires, had mated with magical beings, and it had afforded them special powers that were unique to each of them. Kyle, Tucker, and Tristan, three other vampire friends, had also mated with extraordinary and magical women as well. The one thing that they all received through their mating was the ability to withstand the sun. Not the hottest part of the day, between two and five, but the rest of the day was theirs. 

“This is base. I need you to go to section seven dash six and search there. There are three other teams along either side of you.” Bradley listened as Scott, one of his pack bodyguards, gave a new location to search for Alastriona.

They had divided up into teams of twenty; ten were to be the main human contacts with radios and the other ten wolves were to search. They had covered a great deal of area and had a lot more to go. Everyone had been working around the clock. He watched as Duncan, the MacManus’ butler friend, came in with another tray of sandwiches and drinks.

“My lord, if you don’t mind my saying so, you look as though you could use a nap.” He took the food offered and set it on his thigh. He had tried to tell him he wasn’t hungry earlier, but Duncan had said the new bride would need him to be strong for her when she returned, that he needed to eat. And he did, not realizing until he’d taken the first bite that he actually was very hungry.

“Duncan, my man, I feel like I could use one too.” He leaned back in the chair again, thought of nothing but Alastriona while staring at nothing at all. The room moved around him, almost through him, but he didn’t take any of it in. It wasn’t until a large, tattooed face appeared in front of him not two inches from him that he realized he was being spoken to.

“Welcome back. Feel better?” Colin. Colin was grinning at him. He watched as the man stood—Christ, he was tall—and walked over to the huge map that had been hung on the front of one of the massive bookshelves in Aaron’s study.

Bradley sat up and looked around. He must have dozed off for a bit. He actually did feel a little better. He stood and stretched. His wolf moved along with him and he felt the first brush of need. The full moon, it was tomorrow night, well, tonight, he thought.

He went to the patio door and opened it wide. With his excellent night vision, he could see some of his pack members moving along the property. They were guarding their alpha; he could sense that from them. Each member of his household had pledged to find his mate, their queen, this morning. And he believed that they would.

“Bradley! They’ve found her, sort of. Pete and Shade are on their way here now to show us on the map where they felt her essences enter the earth.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT

“Her essences? I don’t understand.” Bradley knew he had asked that question at least ten times now, but he was anxious and wanted the women to hurry the fuck up. It was either keep repeating himself, or start howling. He figured this was much better for all concerned.

“I don’t know, Pete said that they had found her essences and that with the maps, they could finally direct us in the correct direction. Sit down, Bradley, before I have to hurt you. You’ve been pacing for the past fifteen minutes and it won’t make them get here any faster.”

He wanted to snarl at Aaron, but he knew he was right. He sat down. Then he popped right back up again and went to the door. He knew it wasn’t them, his wolves would have warned him when a car pulled into the drive, but damn it…

“They are at the gate. If you behave yourself and not rush them, I’ll let you go to the door,” Aaron said to him while he was gripping tightly to his shoulders.

“I’m not a child, stop treating me like one.” But he could feel his heart pounding in his chest in a hard, painful thump.

“Bradley, your canines have been down since Colin told us the women found something. Your hair looks like you’ve been running your…paws through it for days, not just hours. Get a grip, you’re kinda scaring my kids. And you stink. Badly.”

He looked over to where Aaron and Sara’s six-year-old twins were huddled on the couch. They were looking at him like he was going to shift at any moment and eat them alive. He didn’t like that look. He pulled his wolf closer to him and soothed him. He felt him curl around the warmth of his body like a caress. Taking a deep, cleansing breath he looked back at him. “I…I’m sorry Aaron. I need her.”

“Yes, and she’ll need you. The women will need to look over the maps with Scott and Dominic. Go take a shower and put on some fresh clothes. I’m begging you. Actually, we’re all begging you, to take a shower. You smell like a wet dog.”

Smiling stupidly, he took off for the stairs and went up them two at a time. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d showered and shaved. And that was bad. He would shower, but shaving would have to wait.

Bradley went to the bedroom he and Airic had shared so much. He would get her back. Turning on the hot water, he stripped down to his bare skin. He glanced at his mark, the mark that had made him the true alpha.

When the oldest male was born in the Wolff family, he was born with a mark. It was a small wolf foot print about an inch wide and two inches high, just over his heart. When the male pup went through puberty, the mark changed to a deep red and grew another inch each way. Sometimes, like in this generation of Wolffs, the second male child would be born with the same mark. Most times, it didn’t grow, but faded over time, and by the time they reached adulthood, the mark would be completely gone.

David had been born with the same mark as Bradley. When David had reached puberty, like his older brother, his grew as well, but had not changed to the deep red as his brother’s had. David’s had turned a royal blue, marking him as a protector, a wolf pack enforcer.

Bradley leaned in closer to the mirror and studied his mark now. It was different. He looked at his tribal, the one the eldest of the pack had tattooed into his arm when he had taken over the pack and become the alpha. It too had changed. He needed to talk to his grandda, and started to leave the bathroom, but realized that he hadn’t showered yet. He stepped under the spray. He washed his hair and then his body. He leaned his back against the shower stall wall and stood there for a minute. Then he moved under the hot spray for five minutes more, sobbing hard, his heart hurting.

He hurried down the stairs to find the one man he knew would have the answers he needed. Bradley needed the man who meant more to him than any other man on the planet, his grandda, his best buddy.

“Grandda, I need to show you something.” He had dried quickly and dressed in the first thing he found in the drawers.

He had brought clothes over here some time ago because he would shift to wolf before leaving the pack house and run here sometimes late at night. Rather than sit around talking to Aaron in the raw, he’d slowly brought a few sets of clothes over to change into. He had pulled on a pair of sweatpants and a ratty t-shirt with a band on it that he’d heard in maybe college.

His grandda followed him into the large entrance hall. He pulled the shirt over his head and showed him the marks.

His grandda staggered back a few steps and Bradley leaped forward to grab him. He helped him sit down in the large church pew near the door and started fanning him. He had gone so pale that he feared for his life.

“Grandda, let me get Grams. I won’t be but a second, all right? Don’t move.” Bradley started to rise, but the hand on his shoulder stayed him. Looking behind him at the owner. He was surprised to see Mel.

“Ah, so the king is born. Welcome King of all Wolves, Alpha Bradley. I have been waiting for you.” Mel bowed before him.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

The water splashed over her face and arms, waking her. The jerk from the cold water made her nearly moan, but she had remembered her promise to him. She said nothing, made no sound at all.

This was the third, or maybe the fourth time he had woken her this way. The only thing he had succeeded in doing was washing her blood off her. He had given up threatening her and had just been beating her senseless until she passed out again. She knew that he stopped when she was out because he had told her once before that he wasn’t going to waste his time hurting her if she couldn’t feel it.

She did, though. All of it. She was sure that he had broken nearly every rib and her arms and legs. The fact that she could heal quickly was to his advantage in that he could break them again once they healed. But she was getting weaker and weaker, and it was taking her longer and longer to heal each time. Airic was dying, very slowly, she was dying.

“You’ll scream this time, scream and scream. I’ve got a special punishment for you now, my love.”

She watched dispassionately as he walked over to a small fire he had started. She hurt so badly in so many places that even if he set her afire, she wouldn’t know if she’d feel it. He came toward her with a white-hot rod, and even before he told her, she knew he meant to burn her with it.

***

“We’ve found her. We know where she is.”

Bradley looked at Peter and stared at him blankly for several seconds. They found her; they found her, three of the sweetest words he’d ever heard.

“You cannot go, Alpha; you must stay behind and come to her after they find her. It’s important that you heed me in this.”

Mel had to be crazy if she thought he’d wait to go to her. He turned to her to tell her what she could do with her heeding advice.

“Bradley, listen to her. There are things you must do to lead. One of the things you must do to be a great leader is listen. Trust me, son.”

His grandda too? Were they all nuts? Leave her to someone else. “She’s my mate. Their queen, and you want me to stay behind. I don’t fucking think so. I’m going to go to her. And I’m going to bring her home. I’d like to see you try and stop me.” He watched as Peter backed out of the hall and returned to the study.

Mel watched too as Peter left the room, he noticed. Then when she turned back to him, she looked sad. He knew he wasn’t going to like what she said to him. Knew it as surely as he was standing there.

“Peter is a good man, don’t you think? I do. He isn’t a great man, not like you, but a good man.” She sat down beside his grandda.

“Yeah, I suppose. But just so you know, I’m not buying the flattery. So keep it out of this.” He started pacing. It was better than hitting the wall with his fist.

“It isn’t flattery, it’s the truth. He could be a great man, if you’d let him. The Fates have said that he will be a great help to you in the years to come if he becomes the man that his father killed. You have given him the tools to become that man. Now he needs the knowledge that he can and will be him. Are you willing to sacrifice this one thing to him? It is up to you, alpha king. You can decide to go and I will do nothing to stop you. But sometimes, a great leader doesn’t lead, but allows others to lead for him.” He watched as she touched his grandda and saw the change in him immediately. She had healed whatever had made him ill.

He walked to the study without answering her. The Fates. The Fates had given him Alastriona, he had no doubt about that. She had needed the comfort of a laugh, and they had given her the blue house. He needed to give someone else the blue house.

“Dom, I need you to go with Peter, can you do that for me?” Bradley hated this with every fiber of his being. She needed a laugh and he needed her, and that thought alone would get him through this.

“Anything you say, Alpha.”

He took a deep breath. He watched as Peter worked with Dom on how to get to the cave. “Peter, I want you to go with Dom.” He looked at his grandda and then a Mel. She nodded once at him. “I need you to bring my mate back to me and handle your brother.”