He felt Rena and glanced at the house to see her wielding her fire balls again. His father and Kash raced out to join him as another earth-shaking occurred, followed by a hole opening up in the yard and a slaver appearing.

  He’d never seen anything like the power that was being used by Berolith to get past Rena’s spell. And as far as Luke could tell, Berolith wasn’t anywhere around.

  He was terrifyingly powerful.

  The earthquakes happened so rapidly that Luke lost his balance. He toppled to one side, narrowly missing a slaver’s blade aimed for his heart. He swung his blade up, taking the hand off at the wrist. The male howled in pain and clutched his stump to his chest, backing away.

  Luke rolled to his knees and looked at the house. Rena was sending fireballs into the yard to fight off the slavers, and everyone from inside the house had come out to fight them, including Jenna who stood with Rena on the porch.

  Something caught Luke’s eye and he peered at the edge of the house. He’d seen something there. Hadn’t he?

  He moved forward, his gaze focused entirely on the side of the house, but he didn’t see anything. Was he just exhausted and paranoid?

  He was a few yards from the porch when something shimmered in the air and then a slaver appeared. He threw a net over Rena and she collapsed to the ground with a shriek of pain.

  Rena!

  * * *

  Pain so great she’d never known its equal coursed through Rena like wildfire, licking at every part of her body. A slaver had thrown a net over her, and she’d realized instantly that the net was coated with iron. But it wasn’t just iron, it had some kind of magical boost to it. She couldn’t even touch the net because of the pain. Her strength disappeared swiftly, her vision going dim and her whole body shutting down.

  She was aware of Luke taking off the slaver’s head with a roar of fury, and then kneeling by her.

  “Dad! Dad, help!” he yelled.

  “Luke, pull it off,” Crimson said, his voice tinny and low.

  She knew the net was pulled from her because it ripped her skin and made the pain a hundred times worse.

  And then there was nothing, just darkness and cold, and a deep fear that this was an iron poisoning she wouldn’t be able to recover from.

  Which seemed monstrously unfair, since she’d just gotten Luke in her life.

  She wasn’t supposed to die today, she was supposed to find a way to sneak off with Luke and mate him.

  Fate was a fucking bitch.

  Chapter Nine

  Luke felt Rena slip away, their connection as mates–although weak because they weren’t mated fully–had been tangible before, but now it was gone. He lifted her into his arms and raced into the house, calling for Viscount.

  “What happened?” Viscount demanded.

  Luke set Rena on his sister’s bed. Her body was covered with cuts that were bleeding freely, her skin streaked with fat purple lines indicating the net had been laced with iron and she was poisoned.

  He hadn’t been fast enough. He should’ve been able to stop that bastard from getting close. It wasn’t any comfort at all that he was dead now.

  Viscount murmured to himself as he checked her over. Then he looked at him.

  “You’re truemates?”

  “Yes.”

  “She’s dying, rapidly. The iron in her system is moving so quickly that I can’t chelate it like I normally would.”

  “You have to save her.” Luke choked out the words.

  “I will do my best.” He hurried from the room and returned a moment later with a stone bowl and a leather satchel. He poured powders and liquids into the bowl and mixed them with a spoon. “Hold her up so I can pour this into her mouth. It will absorb whatever it can of the iron. She’ll vomit out what she’s able to expel.”

  Luke lifted her gently and tilted her head back. Her mouth fell open and she let out a trembling breath.

  Viscount poured the contents of the bowl into her mouth. Luke massaged her throat to help her swallow. She didn’t do anything at first, the dark liquid sitting in her open mouth, then she swallowed, choking and coughing, and gasping for breath.

  Luke held her close and grabbed for the blanket to cover her. He had just enough time to pull it over her lap when she threw up violently, the contents black like tar and smelling of sulfur.

  She heaved several times, the black vomit spreading out over the blanket, and then she shuddered with a whimper and went limp in his arms.

  “What’s happening?” he asked as he laid her back on the bed and pulled the blanket off, wrapping the vomit up and setting it aside on the floor.

  “I was afraid this might happen. The chelation didn’t get enough out. The poison is still spreading.”

  Viscount gestured to her skin, the purple lines still moving like it was eating her up from the inside.

  “Luke? What’s going on?” his dad asked from the doorway.

  “She’s, she’s,” he said, choking up.

  “I need to perform a spell,” Viscount said. “Are we safe?”

  “For now, yes,” Crimson said. “The slavers are all dead.”

  “Then let me get to this and I’ll see if I can save your son’s mate.”

  “Do whatever you have to,” Luke said. “Save her, please.”

  Viscount pulled a long wooden box from inside the satchel and opened it. “Hold your hand over your mate, palm up.”

  Luke stretched his hand over his mate. Viscount pulled a thin blade out of the wooden box. It was narrow like a letter opener, with a bone handle. He lifted Rena’s left hand and brought the blade straight down into the center of her palm, twisting and wiggling the blade to form a hole the size of a nickel. Luke was alarmed, but he trusted Viscount to do something to help her, not harm her.

  Viscount took Luke’s hand and did the same thing, stabbing him deep enough to scrape the bones in his hand. He gritted his teeth against the pain and the curses he wanted to let free, and focused on Rena. The healer squeezed his wrist and then released it. Blood dripped from his wound into Rena’s. It seemed like his blood was being absorbed by her body.

  Viscount let go of Luke’s hand and wiped the blood from the blade before putting it away. He took gray powder from a vial and sprinkled it over Rena’s wound, then bandaged it with gauze. He gave Luke a gauze pad and he pressed it to his wound.

  “I performed a type of mating ceremony,” Viscount said when he’d finished bandaging Rena’s hand. “Aside from mating marks, the two of you are fully mated. The sacred blade allowed me to use your blood to heal her.”

  “We’re mated now?” he asked. He searched his feelings and his wolf let out a satisfied sound. Yes, they were mated.

  Holy shit.

  “I had to perform a mating spell,” he said. “Only mating with her truemate would allow her body to heal and reverse the damage done to her.”

  “I didn’t know that was a thing,” Luke said.

  “It’s definitely a thing and it’s called being a blood mate,” a deep voice said from behind him. Luke turned and saw Logan in the doorway with Jenna.

  “It’s true, that’s what happened between me and Logan.” She held up her palm and showed him what looked like a star-shaped scar in the center of her palm. Logan held up his hand, revealing he had one as well.

  “She’ll need about twenty-four hours to heal,” Viscount said.

  “So she’s going to be okay?” Luke asked.

  “Yes,” Viscount nodded.

  “Let me get you something to help clean her up,” Jenna said. She and Logan left, and Luke stared down at his mate. His honest-to-goodness, fully-mated mate.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  The healer nodded and gathered his things. “I’ll check on her later.”

  Luke was so relieved he wanted to cry, even though he hadn’t cried since he was a kid. But his mate was healing and already looking better, the dark lines disappearing slowly.

  Jenna came into the room with a bowl of water, adding a blue oil to it. She handed him a cloth and set the bowl on the nightstand. “The oil will help to clear the traces of iron from her skin and help her heal. I’ll check on you guys later.”

  “Thanks, Jenna.”

  He wrung out the cloth and began to gently wipe her skin, starting at her fingers. He realized he wasn’t alone with his mate, and saw Logan standing at the door.

  “Everything okay?” Luke asked.

  “Yes, but I wanted to give you a warning. Or maybe give you some advice.”

  “Oh-kay?”

  Logan gave him a half smile. “When this happened to Jenna, she was fine for a few days, but she started to develop wolf tendencies. It leaned more toward the physical side of things–she was more physically driven, her emotions were all over the place, and she had a tremendous amount of pain on the full moon. Her body tried to force her to shift even though she’s not a shifter.”

  “I didn’t know that was possible.”

  “No one did,” Logan said. “She didn’t shift of course. Her body isn’t made to. Doc came over to check her out and said she was acting like a caged wolf and a new wolf.”

  A caged wolf was one who wasn’t allowed to shift on the full moon. It was a punishment that would make a wolf go crazy after a while, almost feral. And new wolves, young ones, were unpredictable and often feral in their behavior until they learned to control that part of them.

  “The full moon isn’t for a couple weeks,” Luke said. “What should we do?”

  “Well, you need to mate her appropriately, and then you need to be very active with her ahead of the full moon, I mean you shifting and running around with her in the woods, let her feel what it’s like to hunt and run with the pack. I don’t know if we can fully stop her feelings, and since she’s a sirenfae it might affect her differently, but I just wanted you to know what to look out for. The blood bond is powerful, it’s like truemating on steroids. You’ll be more protective of her, so watch yourself around your unmated friends.”

  “I will, thanks.”

  “After you clean her up, you should rest with her. Being close to you will help her healing.”

  Luke nodded. Logan left the room, shutting the door, and Luke got back to work, cleaning every trace of iron from Rena’s skin. He mentally cursed Berolith and the slavers. The male needed to die.

  “Don’t worry sweetheart,” he said as he finished cleaning her skin. “I’ll take out Berolith one way or another. I want you safe and I want you to be mine.”

  She was breathing deeply in sleep, the dark circles under her eyes were fading and her color was returning as the lines disappeared. The chelation and the bonding spell had done the trick. He wished she was awake so he could talk to her, but he was just damn thankful she was going to be okay.

  He’d always told himself that when he found his mate, he’d be strong enough to keep her and their children safe, but he could admit that he was out of his depth. He was a wulfen and powerful, but Berolith was powerful on a level he’d never seen before. How could he keep her safe when he didn’t know if he was strong enough to fight him and win?

  He sighed deeply and climbed onto the bed. He gently stretched out next to her, trying not to jostle her too much. Resting his hand lightly on her stomach, he closed his eyes and yawned. He was drained, emotionally and physically, but his mind was spinning with how to keep her safe.

  Berolith had to die for that to happen. It would keep Rena and the fae girls safe, the little dragonfae wouldn’t have a death threat hanging over her head anymore. Keeping Rena safe would keep the others safe too, he just had to figure it out.

  His brain spun and he let out a short growl. One way or another, he’d see his female safe, and in his arms forever.

  He didn’t know how it would happen, but it had to. There was no other choice.

  Chapter Ten

  Rena woke with a start, her heart pounding and her body on fire. The last thing she remembered was a slaver tossing a net over her, and then severe pain followed by black nothingness.

  She was aware of Luke right away, his big body next to her on the bed.

  “I’m alive,” she said. Then she cringed at saying something so silly right off the bat. “I mean I know I’m alive, but how did I get in here?”

  He went up on one elbow. “I killed the slaver and got the net off you. Viscount gave you the chelation mixture, but the net was laced so heavily with iron that had been magically altered to harm you even more, that it wasn’t enough to save you.” Luke took her left hand in his gently, and she realized her hand was bandaged.

  She unwound the gauze and was surprised to see a star-sharped, healed scar in the center of her palm.

  “What is this?”

  He lifted his hand and showed her he had an identical scar. “Viscount performed a mating spell between us, mixing my blood into your system to help fight off the iron poisoning. It bound us together as mates, something that my people call blood mates.”

  She hummed and touched the scar. “We’re mated? I thought you guys had to have sex for that to happen.”

  “We do, but what Viscount did to us saved your life and bound us as mates in a way that’s stronger than a traditional mating between truemates. I’ll still ask you officially to be my mate, and the physical part of our relationship can happen whenever we’re ready for it.”

  Something in her growled in agreement and she gasped in surprise.

  “What?” Luke asked.

  “Did you hear that? I just growled.”

  He shook his head. “I didn’t, but I was told that what happened between us could make you feel like a wolf in some ways and that we’ll need to be careful that you’re not overwhelmed by what happened.”

  He told her that she might feel like she needed to shift or be around other pack members, that she might want to insert herself into the pack hierarchy as well, until after the next full moon in a couple weeks.

  She hummed in thought. “I didn’t know that was a thing.”

  “I didn’t either.” He told her about Jenna and Logan going through the same thing when Jenna was abducted and bound in iron. “She cast the mating spell to draw Logan to her and he saved her life, including doing the mating spell in the hospital. You can talk to her about what she went through, but I’m here for you too.”

  She nodded. “I feel kind of gross. Do you mind if I clean up?” Her skin felt tacky and kind of oily, and he explained that he had wiped her skin with an oil and water mixture to remove the traces of iron. “Thanks, that’s really sweet of you. How are my parents?”

  “They’re better, you can go see them. They’re awake but not able to get out of bed yet.”

  “They’re awake?” Rena slipped from the bed and stood, her vision swimming as a bout of vertigo hit her. She gripped the bed to keep upright. “How long was I out of it?”

  “About a day.” He came around to her side and lifted her into his arms. “I’ll take you to see them and then you can clean up. If you need help, let me know.” He waggled his brows suggestively and she grinned.

  In Luke’s bedroom, her parents were awake and propped up with pillows.

  “Oh! You’re awake, thank the ancient fae,” her mother said. Luke set Rena on the edge of the bed, and she leaned in and hugged her parents. Luke disappeared, leaving her alone with her parents.

  Her mom started to cry, and Rena’s eyes stung with tears. It was a miracle all three of them were alive.

  “We heard that you’re mated now,” her father said.

  Rena sat back and wiped at the wetness under her eyes. “Yeah, I just heard that myself.” She showed them the scar on her palm and told them what Luke had said.

  “He asked for our blessing,” her father said, “and your mother and I gave it willingly.”

  Rena’s brows went up.

  Her mom gave her a sad smile. “You thought we’d say no?”

  “Yeah, honestly. Or give a little pushback about it.”

  It wouldn’t have mattered to her in the long run, because she was going to make her own romantic choices regardless of her parents’ wishes.

  “The clan put a lot of pressure on us to get you back with us and hold to the arranged mating. We could’ve said no and stopped hunting you, but they were so insistent. We rely on the matings for security, and your arranged mate had a lot of siblings and friends willing to come to our glen to keep us safe. I was okay with keeping you locked up until you relented because I thought it was the best thing for you. Your mom wasn’t though.”

  Her mom nodded. “Then everything went to Hades, and we were all imprisoned. If we hadn’t been so stubborn, none of this would’ve happened. We’re so sorry you were hurt so many times, and very thankful you have a truemate who cares so deeply for you.”

  “He’ll be a good mate for you,” her dad said. “And whether you choose to live in his realm or ours, you’ll both always have a place to stay.”

  She was definitely shocked, but also relieved. “I don’t know what the future is going to bring, but I honestly don’t feel safe here in our realm. I’d like you to come with me.”

  Her dad shook his head. “Our home is here, but we understand that you don’t feel safe.”

  “I haven’t even talked to Luke about any of that, but I’ll let you know what we decide.”

  She talked to her parents for a few minutes more, learning that while she’d been unconscious, they’d woken up themselves and were healing but not too quickly because the iron dampened their healing abilities. She’d like to toss an iron net over Berolith and see how he liked being weakened like she was.

  “Has anyone heard from Berolith?”

  “Crimson portal-called our clan to let them know what had happened,” her mom said. “My parents told him that Berolith hadn’t come back to our home or shown himself in the glen. They increased patrols and offered to come here to escort us home when we’re well. But I don’t think he’ll come after us again.”

  “Right,” Rena said. She stood and smiled at them. “I’m the one he wants.”