The three fae males laughed. “You expect us to be afraid of your females? Are you so weak that you need your women to fight your battles for you?”

  Adam busted out into his own raucous round of laughter, which caused the wolves to grin.

  Fane noted the confusion on their prisoners’ faces. His own lips turned up slightly. “We don’t hide behind our mates.” His wolf rose to the surface. “But they are a bit more bloodthirsty than we are. Occasionally, we like to indulge them.”

  Decebel nodded. “Makes them easier to live with.”

  “That’s the truth,” Costin agreed. “Even Sally likes a good bloodbath now and again.”

  They all laughed at this, as Sally was the least likely to cause any bloodshed. But everyone knew if someone she loved was in danger, all bets were off.

  Lucian cleared his throat. “Did I not mention that Perizada is my female?”

  At this news, the three prisoner’s faces paled. Even though they might not know she still lived, apparently in death she still struck terror into her enemies.

  “Let’s give them time to think about it,” Fane said. “We can check on them later. If they’re still not willing to talk, we’ll let the girls have some fun. It might make them forgive us for earlier.”

  “Oh, yes!” Adam put a fist in the air. “Crina nearly bit me this morning when we had our little talk about attacking Alston’s stronghold. I was worried I’d be sleeping outside again. But this”—he pointed at the prisoners—”will totally get me out of the doghouse.”

  Fane shook his head as he marched out of the dungeon. “Where are you, Luna?” Fane reached out to his mate.

  “Busy,” she replied. Fane’s eyes narrowed at the terseness of her voice.

  “Make yourself unbusy. I need you.” Fane knew it wasn’t fair of him to use those three words. Of everything he could say to her, those words almost always made her come to him.

  “Too bad, wolf-man.”

  Fane’s feet stopped, and he frowned. The others walked past him before stopping to turn and give him a pointed look.

  “Let me guess,” Wadim said. “She’s busy?”

  Fane nodded.

  “That’s funny,” said Costin. “Sally said the same thing.”

  “So did Jennifer.” Decebel frowned.

  “Bethany’s seething,” Drake said. “She doesn’t want me to come to her, but I’ll be damned if I am not going to check on her.”

  “Just make sure you go in low,” Decebel offered. “If she’s been hanging out with Jen, then she’s definitely going to throw something at you.”

  “Noted.” Drake continued forward.

  Fane and the others looked at Lucian, waiting for his reaction.

  Lucian chuckled. “What can I say? I’ve learned not to leave my mate wondering what I’m up to. You guys will learn. But by the looks of how it’s been going for you all, it will be a painful lesson.”

  Fane looked at the others still standing with him. “Bring your mates to my office,” he said, speaking of the room they currently used as a meeting place. “If they argue, tell them it’s a command from their alpha, not a request from their friend.”

  Chapter

  Two

  “Someone once said that all life is precious. That loud blaring sound you just heard was my BS meter going off. If all life is precious, then why do such horrible things happen to supposedly ‘precious’ people? And why do so many ‘precious’ lives end before they even have a chance to begin?” ~Kara

  “Are we going to die?” Lizzy sat with her head down, running her fingertips over the rough shingles of the rooftop.

  Kara was staring out at the lights scattered throughout the city, trying to keep from glancing over at Lizzy. Kara knew if she turned and saw the fear in the girl’s eyes, she might lose it for good. One of them had to be strong. Someone had to keep it together. Kara’s heart beat heavily in her chest as she fisted her hands to help control the shaking. Drying sweat chilled her body despite the warm evening. Slowly, her breathing began to return to normal. “I will not let anything happen to you, Liz.” Kara tried to put every ounce of bravery she could muster into the words, but they still sounded empty to her ears. Though Lizzy was only six months younger than Kara, her innocent nature often made the girl seem childlike, and Kara had become a protective older sister of sorts.

  Lizzy wiped leftover tears from her face and sniffled, as strands of her waist length, blonde hair stuck to her wet cheeks. “Sometimes I want to die.”

  Kara sucked in a breath and turned to take the girl’s face in her hands. “Don’t say that.” She shook her head and bit back the tears that wanted to flow from her eyes. “You have a long life to live, so much to do and see.”

  “I don’t want to live in a world where there are bad people like him.” Lizzy swallowed hard as she wrapped her arms around her knees she’d pulled up to her chest. “I’m just a kid. I’m just—” She choked on her words. Lizzy’s head tilted from side to side as her chin rested on her arms. “He shouldn’t have done that, Kara.” She cried, her smaller body trembling again. “He shouldn’t have done that.”

  Kara wrapped her arms around the girl. “You’re right, Lizzy-girl. He shouldn’t have done that. Never. Go ahead and cry now. Cry it all out.” Kara patted her friend’s back and then ran a hand down her blonde hair. “Cry all you need to. I won’t let you go.”

  And she did. Lizzy cried for so long Kara feared the girl would become dehydrated. Kara tucked Lizzy tightly against her side, feeling the moisture of the girl’s tears soak her shirt. She rocked Lizzy and sang her songs, hoping to somehow calm the girl. In the end, she gave up and just cried with her. They sat like that for hours, crying and clutching one another. Kara cried for the loss of innocence that Lizzy suffered. She cried because she hadn’t been there to stop the atrocious act. She cried because there was a part of Lizzy that would forever be wounded because of one man’s evil.

  “Make it go away, Kara,” Lizzy said softly through her hiccupping tears. “Make it so that I never met Mr. Jerry.”

  Bile rose in Kara’s throat at the mention of Lizzy’s foster keeper. She wasn’t about to call the man a foster father. Nothing about him was fatherly. Not that Kara actually had any experience with what a father should be. But she was certain he wasn’t supposed to touch a child inappropriately. Kara knew a father should be a protector, not a predator. Men like Jerry Hammons needed to be strung up by their man parts and beat with a baseball bat. That was Kara’s opinion, anyway. “If I could, I would make it go away in a second,” she said. “I would fix it all, Lizzy.”

  Suddenly Kara looked down. Lizzy was no longer in her arms, and she was no longer sitting on a roof. Now she stood in a living room that smelled of stale cigarette smoke and sweat. A torn and faded sofa rested along a wall, its floral decoration stained. An upturned coffee table sat in the middle of the room, one of its legs broken. Kara’s hands felt sticky and warm. She lifted them and saw they were covered in blood. Kara heard screaming and turned to see a woman stumbling through the door. She was wild-eyed, and it looked as if her stringy hair hadn’t seen a comb in months.

  “What have you done?” the woman yelled at Kara. She was staring at the ground at Kara’s feet.

  Kara looked down and saw the bloody body of a large man lying on his back. His chest did not rise and fall with his breath, and his eyelids didn’t so much as twitch under the lids. His skin was gray, and blood trickled from his mouth, nose, and ears. Kara blinked and looked at her hands again. Now she was holding a baseball bat covered in blood.

  “You killed him,” the woman screeched.

  She had killed him. Why had she done it? She glanced around the filthy room again until her eyes landed on something else. A smaller body lay on the floor, its skinny legs poking out from behind the couch. Kara dropped the bat and ran to the body. She kneeled next to it. “Lizzy,” Kara tried to say. But her stomach rolled violently, and only a strangled groan escaped. The girl lay face down, blood pooling around her head. Her eyes stared vacantly at the dirty carpet. Kara reached out a trembling hand and placed her fingers on her young friend’s neck. There was no pulse. She’d known there wouldn’t be. And that was why she’d killed the dead man. Jerry Hammons had beaten Lizzy to death, and Kara had returned the favor. She hoped he was burning in hell for what he’d done.

  Kara rolled out of the bed and dashed to the bathroom, a hand held over her mouth. The images from her dream filled her mind, and she could still smell the metallic scent of blood and feel the rough, dirty carpet beneath her knees. She barely made it to the toilet before the contents of her stomach made itself known. She felt Nick’s presence through their bond before she felt him gather her hair away from her face.

  “This isn’t just morning sickness.” Nick’s deep voice filled the space. She didn’t have time to respond before she vomited again.

  “Ugh.” Kara groaned and took the towel he held out to her. She wiped her mouth and leaned on the edge of the commode, then pressed her forehead to her arm, forcing her breathing to slow. She was still nauseous, but for the moment, nothing threatened to come up. Nick was right. Her nausea wasn’t coming from morning sickness. It was from memories.

  Nick took the towel from her and tossed it in the dirty clothes basket. Gently, he took her shoulders and eased her back into a sitting position. He filled a glass with water and held it to her lips, tilting it slowly so she could take a small sip. When he seemed satisfied she was going to keep the water down, Nick carefully helped her up and walked her back to their bed before tucking her in. Then he climbed in beside her and propped himself up on his elbow so that he was leaning over her. He ran a finger down her cheek as she stared up at him. Kara felt the questions in his mind and sensed his worry and need to help her. But she didn’t know how he could.

  For a few minutes, Nick did nothing but softly touch her face and stare at her. Finally, he asked, “Who is Lizzy?” She knew he could have simply peered in her mind and taken the information, but it was obvious he understood this was a memory that shouldn’t be taken lightly. She appreciated his patience as he waited for her to answer.

  Kara sighed, reached up, and ran her hand over his shaved head. She loved the way the stubble felt against her palm. Often, Nick would close his eyes and lean into her touch as if he craved it.

  “I do crave it,” he said, picking up on her thought. “I also crave for you to share parts of your life with me, sweetheart. Who is Lizzy, and why do thoughts of her make you sick?

  Several moments ticked by in silence. Finally, Kara spoke. “She was someone I’d forced myself to forget. And I don’t know why I’m thinking of her now.” Maybe that wasn’t completely true. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that her long-buried memories of the girl she’d once killed for had been reawakened by recent events. She and Lizzy had always shared a bond, but now Kara could relate even more than she ever had before.

  “When did you know her?” He shifted closer so that his chest pressed against the side of her shoulder. “In your memories, she doesn’t look much younger than you are now.”

  She nodded at him. “That’s because she wasn’t. The dream you picked up on in my thoughts is actually a memory. It happened about a year before Peri found me.”

  Nick’s brow drew low. “So about three years ago then?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Do you want to tell me about her?”

  Kara started to say no but bit back the instinctual response. Opening up to people wasn’t her strong suit, and it wasn’t something she’d ever made it a habit of doing. She knew that was a remnant of being raised in the system. Trust was more valuable than gold when you were a kid in the foster system. It was something she was still learning to give to those she loved. Even though Nick had proven himself over and over again, she was still guilty of waiting for the other shoe to drop.

  He waited patiently, his finger running over her forehead, down her cheek, and across her chin, over and over. His touch eased her frayed nerves and helped her relax enough to finally speak.

  “Lizzy was a girl I met in foster care. One of the very, very few friends I had,” Kara explained. “Not just a friend, but someone I trusted with my life. And she trusted me with hers.” Kara shifted her legs restlessly under the blankets. She wanted to stand and move. She couldn’t help but feel vulnerable laying there while Nick looked at her expectantly. Vulnerability was a feeling Kara had felt all too often in her life, and she didn’t like it one bit. Exposed things got hurt or worse. She had to protect herself at all costs, and that meant no vulnerability.

  “I protect you now.” Nick’s voice was firm. He gripped her chin and turned her face to him. “I failed before. I won’t ever again.”

  She started to tell him he wasn’t to blame, but he shook his head at her, and so she swallowed the words. “Lizzy and I went to school together,” she continued. “But we never lived in the same foster home. I think we both saw a reflection of ourselves in each other.” Kara thought back to the first time they’d ever spoken, and her lips turned up. “One day I noticed she didn’t eat in the cafeteria with the other students, just like me.” Kara smiled wryly. “I also noticed that some days she didn’t have lunch. So, one day I offered her some of mine. She didn’t appreciate that too much.” Kara laughed.

  Nick frowned. “Why not?”

  “She said she wasn’t a charity case. You see, Lizzy was a proud heifer. So, I told her she could accept the food and not starve or go hungry like a fool.”

  “Wow.” Nick chuckled. “Sounds like you made a good first impression.”

  Kara grinned. “I must have because from that time on, whenever we could, we hung out. She was an outlet I didn’t realize I needed, and we grew very close. She was younger and smaller, so I acted like a de facto older sister. I was her protector … except on the day she needed me most. That day I wasn’t there.” Kara’s palms began to sweat. Bile threatened to send her running to the bathroom again, but she swallowed it down.

  “It wasn’t your fault.”

  “Says the male who thinks it was his fault I was abducted,” she said wryly.

  His finger paused on her face where he’d continued to gently trace her skin. “It’s different. I’m your mate. It’s my privilege and duty to make sure you are always taken care of and kept safe.”

  “We can agree to disagree.” Kara shrugged and then she continued, “On this particular day, I was off from work, but they asked me to come in because some other employees had called in sick. Lizzy and I were supposed to hang out at the park until the two people—a husband and wife—she lived with went to work. They both worked night shifts.” Kara fisted the sheets and shook her head. “I knew what kinds of things happened if she spent any time alone with the man, Jerry.” Kara bit out his name and wished that she could beat him all over again. “He liked underaged girls. He was a sick bastard. It had taken Lizzy quite a while before she told me what he’d done to her. From then on, I tried to make sure that she didn’t have to go home before they were gone.”

  “What about his wife?” Nick asked, his brow drawn down low and his jaw clenched tightly. “Didn’t she care?”

  Kara laughed, but the sound was humorless. “She was just as sick as her husband. She’d watch what he did. They were the lowest kind of filth.

  “Even though I wasn’t there, Lizzy waited by herself to go home. Apparently she hadn’t waited long enough. I’m not sure why, but Jerry must’ve gotten sick of her avoiding him. Maybe he’d called in to work or gotten fired, who knows, but this time when Lizzy got home, he was still there. So Lizzy called me at work for help. Her voice—” Kara sucked in a sharp breath as she remembered the sound. “She sounded terrified. I told my boss I had to leave. I didn’t even give a reason, just grabbed my stuff and ran out. I didn’t have a car, so I was on foot. I don’t think I’ve ever run so fast in my life.” Suddenly feeling too hot, Kara pushed the covers away and sat up. She pulled her legs up and wrapped her arms around them. Then she began to rock, a self-soothing gesture she hadn’t done in a very long time. “When I got there, I was terrified of what I would walk in on, but I didn’t stop when I reached the front door. I dropped my bag on the porch and hit the door at a run. It flew open and banged against the wall, but no one noticed. The door was never locked. The idiots were too drunk to think about locking it.

  “I rushed into the living room, and he, he—” Kara stuttered, and her breathing sped up. The images ran through her mind like a movie. She could almost smell the stench of the house. “He was on top of her. He was—dammit!” Tears ran down Kara’s cheeks, and she hastily wiped them away.

  “You don’t have to say it.” Nick sat up and put his arms around her, enveloping her in his warmth.

  “I remembered Lizzy told me he kept a bat by the door. They had all sorts of unsavory characters that came and went, and sometimes Jerry had to chase off the ones in search of drugs or money he owed them.” Kara saw herself pick up the bat in her mind’s eye. She remembered turning back to the man who was lying on top of her friend. “I don’t know how I had the strength to do what I did.” Kara sucked in a shuddering breath. “I stepped over to him. He was clothed, but his pants were loose, and I could see a part of his pale, fat lower back and the top of his butt.” Kara held up a hand and made a retching sound in her throat. She pressed her palms hard to her eyes.

  “We can stop, baby,” said Nick. “You don’t have to relive this.”

  “No.” Kara’s voice was hoarse. She shook her head. “I need to get this out.” A few moments went by, and she took another breath before swallowing hard. “Okay, I’m good. He still hadn’t noticed me. He was too busy—” Kara stopped and clenched her fists until her knuckles turned white, just as she had clenched the bat so tightly three years ago. She shook her head and continued. “Lizzy wasn’t moving. She wasn’t making a noise. She was just so … still. As I stood there, every ounce of rage that lived inside of me—not just for what Lizzy endured but from my own experiences as well— exploded out of me. I screamed and brought down the bat as hard as I could. I was aiming for the back of his head, but I missed and ended up hitting the back of his neck and part of his shoulder. To this day, I don’t know how I missed his head.”