Leader of the Pack (28 page)

Brinah stood up and met Sarah’s anger head on. “I was in love with my husband. What happened between us is totally different from an alpha lycan adding an additional female to his numbers.”

Sarah’s eyes shifted and swirled with amber as her wolf tried to surface out of loyalty toward Cullen and this ignorant woman’s words against him. “Eistigi liom. I have never seen Cullen Arnauk in love with a woman the way he is with your granddaughter. I had always been given the impression that druids were observant and intelligent. I don’t understand how you can’t see that.”

Brinah stood her ground and waited. She refused to perpetuate this argument. Cullen had yet to prove to Brinah, in any way, that he was in love with Aislinn. Brinah couldn’t believe he’d give her over so easily if he were really in love with her.

Keith was the one who broke the battle of silence. “Do you women think that we can deal with this in the morning? I don’t know about both of you, but I’ve had a long day. Tomorrow promises to be longer. The women agreed without a word, and Brinah was escorted to her bedroom. She thought about looking for Aislinn, but decided to give her some space and find her first thing in the morning. When Aislinn had been a child she had always preferred to be upset by herself. She would come looking for comfort when it was wanted.

* * * *

Cullen went up to his room. He waited for a time, trying to think of what he would say. He lay on his bed feeling how empty it was. If he could fall asleep, he might wake up to find her in his arms and have this evening be just a bad dream. Well, aside from the afternoon in the library. He closed his eyes and smiled painfully as he remembered how it had felt sitting in that chair with her lying on his chest. He could almost hear the soft purr-like sounds she had been making. There was no way he could sleep.

When Aislinn didn’t come up, he started to get nervous. It took some effort but he decided to go looking for her. Keith’s comment about chasing after a woman echoed in his brain again. The longer he was away from Aislinn, the more Cullen’s resolve to let her go was breaking. He was thinking that he should just apologize or tell her it was a misunderstanding. Maybe he should try the truth and say he had thought it would be what she wanted. Then he could ask her to stay with him instead. Depending on how angry she was, maybe he’d beg her to stay.

When Cullen had searched the entire building, including the casino and every other room she had never been in he began to panic. He virtually threw a couple customers out of the elevator and hit the button for the basement.

Cullen stormed into the security suite. There were computers and monitors along all of the walls. One of the monitors was even monitoring the security suite that monitored the casino. That was the room that the human cops saw if they ever needed into the Madadh-Allaidh Saobhaidh surveillance system. This room contained the system that monitored the rest of the building.

Cullen violently pulled the chair out from under the man who was watching the monitors with disinterest. The poor guy landed on his butt on the floor, and then scrambled to bow his head to the angry alpha standing over him.

“Find Aislinn,” Cullen ordered. “I need to know if she’s anywhere in this building. If she isn’t, I need to know when she left.” Then he stood there with his arms crossed, waiting.

It took a second for the lycan to realize that Cullen meant for him to do it instantly. He jumped and fidgeted as he played with buttons and moved cameras and checked monitors. After so much time passed that Cullen was pacing the man said, “I don’t think she’s here General. It’ll take me a little bit to find out when she left.” There was an intimidated tremor to the man’s voice. He knew that was not what Cullen wanted to hear.

Cullen growled menacingly. Fear boiled up in him. He knew she was in danger. He just felt it, and his instincts were rarely wrong. “When you find her, call me immediately.” With that, Cullen stormed out of the room and back to the elevator.

He paced in the elevator as it headed up. He didn’t know what to do. He had no idea where to start looking. It was incredibly late, and everyone was already in bed. She may have just taken off and was fine. He kept trying to reassure himself, but he couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something terribly wrong.

When elevator doors opened on the 13
^th
floor, he stood there a moment looking down the hall. It was mostly empty. The carpet was well worn from all the people in his pack that came and went on this floor. He could hear a television down the hall where all the insomniacs were currently getting their fix of some bad horror flick. He walked down the hall like a zombie. He was the alpha. He was supposed to know what to do.

Chapter 12

The first and greatest punishment of the sinner is the conscience of sin.

-Lucius Annaeus Seneca

Every time Aislinn started to speak during the taxi ride, Ranaild jabbed her with the dagger. It didn’t take long for her to realize that she needed to keep her mouth shut. The taxi driver kept looking in the rearview mirror, concerned. One look from Ranaild and the man would go back to minding his own business.

By the time the taxi pulled up in front of the Tairneach manor, it was nearing dawn. Ranaild had the man stop at the end of the drive just outside the gate. Ranaild got out first. He was tired, and his guard was down. He figured that he was home free at this point. He just couldn’t make himself feel good about it. When Aislinn noticed that Ranaild wasn’t paying attention, she turned and ran after the taxi that was pulling away from the gate.

Without even thinking, Ranaild let his hand fly. The dagger he had been holding all evening hit Aislinn in the back of the thigh. It lodged deep in the muscle and sent searing waves of pain running all the way up her body. Aislinn cried out in pain as she fell to the ground, and tears of anger began to pour down her face as the taxi drove away. She slammed her hands on the ground in frustration. That was it. She didn’t have anything left. Her cries died out and she went limp, resigning herself to her fate. Maybe Rafe was right. Maybe she was destined to be his.

With an emotionless demeanor, Ranaild came over to her. “For what it’s worth, I’m sorry,” he said as he picked her up and threw her over his shoulder. He reached up and pulled the dagger out of her leg. Blood poured from the wound. There was a trace scent of Elise from the blood that had dried on the dagger that mingled with the coppery fresh smell of Aislinn’s blood. The scent reached into Ranaild and reminded him of why he was betraying his pack, his alpha, his friend, and himself. He put the dagger back in the waist of his pants, not bothering to wipe it off. With the blood on his hands now, it didn’t matter that it was on his clothes as well. Then he headed toward the manor. The gate at the end of the drive swung wide without Ranaild having to ask. He was expected.

Aislinn didn’t bother to fight back. The last ounce of fight left in her was lost in the dash for the taxi. After what had happened with Cullen and now this, Aislinn felt drained. She lay over Ranaild’s shoulder like a rag doll and watched the ground pass beneath his feet as he headed through the gate.

* * * *

Rafe sat up in bed and picked up the ringing phone on the night stand. “This better be good.” As the voice answered back, a disgusting smile crept across his lips. “By all means let them in. I’ll be down momentarily.” Rafe jumped out of bed and threw on a black robe and slippers. He hadn’t bothered to rise this early in a long time, but what kind of host would he be if he didn’t greet his guest personally.

Ranaild stood in the front room of the manor. Blood dribbled down Aislinn’s leg and was leaving drops on the white and gray marble floor. He stared at the blood and weighed the odds that Rafe might not release Elise or that Ranaild would get Elise back and not be allowed to leave unharmed. But, even if Elise was given back to him and they were allowed to go, was the price worth it? He felt cold and empty.

Rafe walked into the room. When he saw the blood on Aislinn, he was angered at first. But his features smoothed over as he reminded himself that a leg wound would heal. At least he had her now. “Put her down.”

Ranaild did as he was told too well. Aislinn felt her ass hit the cold marble and winced as the pain in her leg shot up her body again. She was starting to feel strange. She figured that the loss of blood must be making her nauseous and dizzy. She just didn’t think she had lost that much blood. And blood loss didn’t explain the pain in her arms. All her muscles felt tight and her ears were ringing.

“Where’s Elise,” Ranaild said coolly. He had made the decision that if Rafe did anything other than what he had agreed to Ranaild was going to kill him where he stood one way or another.

Rafe smiled at the man. He knew exactly what the lycan was thinking. “Why wouldn’t I hold up my end of the bargain my friend?” he said with that terrible smile playing along his lips. “After all, I wouldn’t want to deprive you of the lifetime of self loathing for what you’ve done.” He was amused. Lycans were so easily manipulated. He leaned over to a large tiger that had a lion’s mane and said something softly to the animal. It trotted off down a hall.

“Now if you don’t mind,” Rafe said, “you can wait in the entry way.” At that, another large cat appeared and ushered Ranaild back toward the front door. Ranaild vaguely noted the number of annoyed looking lycans around the room who were allowing the katta to run their manor. Rafe walked over and knelt down next to Aislinn. Her blue eyes flashed at him and silver mixed with amber swirled in their depths. “You certainly are beautiful when you’re angry,” he said staring into her eyes. He noticed the amber flooding into her eyes and stared with confusion.

Aislinn couldn’t help but be frightened. She did her best to channel that fear into her anger so that Rafe wouldn’t have the pleasure of knowing how much he scared her. But between the pain, the sick feeling, and his eyes boring into her, Aislinn didn’t have the same kind of control over herself as usual. She decided that the best thing she could possibly do is channel all of her remaining energy into blocking Rafe out of her mind. If nothing else she didn’t want him able to use what had happened that night to torment her. She’d rather be raped than that.

When the block came up Rafe’s attention shifted. He didn’t care nearly as much about how she ended up with an additional bloodline, as he cared about whether or not he could control her. Rafe tried to get into her head. He had been frustrated enough when he stopped being able to find her dreams. But having her right in front of him and not being able to get in was pissing him off. He stood up and without thinking, he pulled his hand back and slapped her across the face, sending her sprawling on the floor.

Aislinn was shocked. He was much worse than the last time she had been face to face with him. Something about him was more twisted than before. This was not the man she had originally met. This one wouldn’t have been able to play at nice the way Rafe had been in the beginning. This one was leaning toward insane. She hadn’t even seen the slap coming when he hit her. She lay on the floor. She could feel him trying to get into her head again. She refused to let him.

“You’ve gotten better at this since meeting the lycans. I wouldn’t have thought you could learn so much so quickly and on your own,” his voice shifted strangely from sincere to menacing and angry then back again as he talked. “I’m torn between being annoyed and being impressed. I don’t think you want me to put you through what I’m going to do to you if you continue to hide your mind from me, Aislinn.”

There was a sound in the hallway, and Aislinn looked up to see a disheveled, abused woman barely walking, being led by the arm down the hall. When Ranaild saw her, he had to be held back in the entry way. Rafe knelt down next to Aislinn and spoke softly to her. “Look how weak they are. They are so attached to one another that they’ll sacrifice their lives to be together. They’ll have nowhere to go now. Every time they look at each other, they will know that he betrayed his pack to save her. They’ll spend their lives running away, feeling guilt rack them, and all because lycans have a terribly misplaced idea of loyalty and love.” Rafe stood up and sneered at them. “Pitiful.”

Elise was shoved into Ranaild’s arms and they stood there holding each other. Elise’s sobs could be heard all the way down the hall. The few lycans present could feel the pain that had been caused by what Rafe had done. They all stood uncertain why they were allowing this to happen.

Jenna appeared in the doorway. She was watching the couple and toying with a ring on a chain around her neck. She looked over at Rafe and could see the wheels in his head turning. Before he could change his mind about letting them go, Jenna waved her hand and the pair was ushered out the door.

Aislinn laid her head back down on the marble floor. The cold felt good against her feverish face. She took a couple long breaths and waited. She didn’t know what Rafe intended to do next, but there wasn’t anything she could do about it.

Jenna watched. She knew that Rafe intended to make Aislinn his alpha. Here she was again. She had even allowed herself to be subjected to a mating with the muin bastard, and he was going to throw her aside the minute he didn’t need her any longer. For now his connection with her was keeping the Tairneach accepting of him as alpha. He still needed her a while longer. That would buy her time. She fondled her father’s ring on the chain around her neck, and her eyes fell on one of the larger lycans in the room. He nodded to her submissively and she smiled back.
Not yet,
she thought at him,
but soon.