The Dark-Hunters (684 page)

When they did, Fang would flash out before they entered. It was a dangerous game they played.

One that would mean his life if they were caught, but in his mind, it was more than worth it.

He sighed as she stroked the fur at his neck. Nothing in the world felt better than the way she touched him. Her fingers worked magic on his skin and fur.

Leaning down, she rubbed her face in his pelt and gave a tight squeeze. “I missed you.”

Fang turned human and rolled over. Completely naked, he pulled her into his arms to hold her close. “I missed you too.”

Aimee sighed in bliss as his lips touched hers. That tight, ripped body was all she needed in her life. And never was the urge to run away with him stronger than it was tonight.

She only wanted to be with him. Reaching down, she cupped him in her hand and smiled at the way he jerked and sighed.

Fang wanted to stay here like this forever as she trailed her hand down the length of his cock. Though they’d done nothing more than pet, he was fast losing patience with it.

He wanted so much more, but he wasn’t willing to push her into anything, especially given the hatred his parents had borne each other. If they really were mates, then he wanted her to completely accept him without reservation or doubt.

Relaxing on the bed, his demon sense kicked in. There was a slight rustle out in the hallway.

Worried it was one of her brothers, he tilted his head, then cursed.

It was Wren.

And he was here to kill Nicolette.

CHAPTER 23

“What was that?”

Fang debated telling her. The demon in him wanted to turn the tigard loose on Nicolette and let him kill the bear. It would solve a lot of their problems.

But in the end, Nicolette was Aimee’s mother and she loved her. That alone made the non-demon parts of him win the fight. “It’s Wren. I think he’s after your mom.”

Aimee gasped as she looked up at Fang. “You have to stop him.”

Now?

Was she out of her mind?

He looked down at her bare breasts that were pressed against his chest. The only thing she wore was a thin pair of pink panties. Panties he’d intended to pull off with his teeth before he licked her until she was begging him for mercy.

But she’d already gone dry on him.

Even more sexually frustrated than he’d been before, he growled. “Let them eat him.”

“Fang!”

“All right. I’m going.” Flashing a pair of jeans on his body, he left the bed and damned the tigard with every step he took. At this point Wren would be lucky if
he
didn’t kill him.

Fang cracked open the door.

In tiger form, Wren was stalking through the upstairs of Sanctuary. It was obvious he was on a hunt.

“Shit,” Fang breathed as he realized the tigard was in fact heading straight for Nicolette’s room.

As soon as he heard Fang’s curse, Wren turned and crouched low as if ready to attack.

Fang had to stop himself from scoffing at the action. Like he could stand up to Fang. “Get your ass in here,” Fang snapped. “Now!”

Wren started away from him, which didn’t help his mood at all. If he wasn’t going to listen to him, Fang was going to rip him to shreds.

Aimee rushed to his side to peep out the door around him. “Listen to him, Wren. Please.”

The tigard froze at Aimee’s voice. Hoping she wasn’t still naked, Fang glanced over his shoulder and realized that one side of her face was red and her lips were swollen from their play. But at least she was dressed.

Before any of them moved, another door opened. Aimee dashed out of sight as her younger brother Etienne froze in his doorway. Tall and blond like the rest of his brothers, the bear was only a few decades older than Wren, but he didn’t appear any older in human form.

He instantly flashed to his bear form.

Fang cursed under his breath. “There’s no fighting in Sanctuary,” he said between clenched teeth, closing his door to protect Aimee as he moved to stand between them. “You both know the eirini laws that govern us.”

“He is marked, wolf. Stand down.”

Fang paused at the sound of Papa Bear’s deep voice. Normally the bear was easygoing and jovial. But this tone was all business and all lethal.

Wren flashed himself to human form to confront the famed Papa Bear. “I did nothing wrong. This is bullshit and all of you know it.”

“You’ve gone mad,” Papa Bear said. “You’ve threatened my cubs and my mate.”

Fang had to keep himself silent. Hell, they all threatened the cubs. He’d called Dev an asshole on his way up and had threatened to beat him down.

But obviously Papa Bear wasn’t about to cut Wren any slack.

Wren narrowed his gaze at the bear. “No, I haven’t. But you can tell your bitch that I’m here for her now.”

Papa Bear ran at him.

Fang put himself between them and caught Papa as he lunged. The bear was strong, but the demon inside Fang gave him the ability to hold the bear back and keep him from killing Wren.

Roaring in frustration, Papa knocked Fang aside with one hell of a paw punch and went for Wren.

Wren flashed to tiger form and launched himself at Papa who transformed instantly to a bear. He caught the larger bear about the throat as Etienne attacked him from the back. Wren hissed as Etienne threw him against the wall and laid one leg open with his huge claw.

Dazed, Wren sprang back to his feet only to have his wounded leg buckle.

Fang was trying to rejoin, but his shoulder had been ripped open and blood was pouring down his side. Gah, it hurt and burned.

The bears reared before they started toward Wren. They’d only taken two steps when a bright light flashed in the hallway.

Wren backed up, ready to fight, only to pause as he saw Vane and Fury in the hallway now.

In human form, Vane took one look at Fang’s bleeding shoulder and growled low in his throat. “Aubert? Have you lost your mind?”

Papa Bear, or Aubert as he was really named, flashed back to human while Etienne remained a bear. “He is marked for death. We took you in, wolf, when you had nothing. Is this how you repay us?”

Vane’s eyes were blazing. “No, Aubert. I haven’t forgotten my debt to you or Nicolette. But I will not stand by and see this happen to an innocent. Wren has no clan to back him. Therefore I offer him mine.”

Fang was stunned as he heard those words. Was Vane out of his mind? To offer shelter to someone wanted by the Omegrion was suicide.

Papa Bear was every bit as incredulous. “You would back him against the Omegrion’s decree?”

Vane didn’t hesitate with his answer. His face was grim and deadly. “You’re damn straight.”

Fang looked past Wren’s shoulder and felt the blood drain from his face as he saw Aimee’s intent in her eyes.
“Don’t you dare get into this,”
he mentally projected to Aimee.

As usual, she didn’t listen. “No!”

They all turned to see Aimee in the middle of the hallway behind them. Only Wren and Fang knew whose room she’d been inside.

She swallowed as she looked from her father to Fang. “Papa, please. Don’t do this. This is wrong and you know it. Wren poses no threat to us.”

“Are you insane, daughter? He’s here to kill your mother.”

More doors were opening now. More animals were coming out to investigate the disturbance. This was looking worse and worse for Wren.

“You’ll never make it out of here alive,” Papa Bear said in warning. “None of you.”

Fang looked at Aimee.
“What the hell are we going to do?”

“Take me hostage.”

That sucker-punched him.
“What?”

“You heard me, Fang. We’ve got to get Wren out of here before they kill him.”

“If I do that, I’ll be banned from here. Forever.”

Tears glistened in her eyes.
“I know, baby. I know. But if Wren dies, I won’t be able to forgive myself. Please help him.”

Fang wanted to scream. She was asking too much of him. And yet when he looked at Wren who was so young … and innocent, he knew she was right.

They couldn’t let the kid die. And more to the point, now that Vane and Fury were here trying to protect him, they’d be killed too. He had to protect his brothers at all costs even though the demon inside him was laughing at the prospect of watching them die.

Damn it!

A heartbeat later, Fang grabbed her into his arms, manifested a knife in his hand, then held it threateningly to her throat. The irony of this wasn’t lost on him. He was about to lose her the same way he’d met her.

“Don’t you dare follow us,” he warned her family. “I’ll kill her if you do.” Fang turned to look at the three of them. “Fury, Vane, get Wren out of here.”

Wren started to protest, but before he could, Vane grabbed him by the neck and flashed him from the hallway.

Fang leaned his head against hers and wanted to weep at what they were doing. Using his powers, he tracked his brothers and flashed the two of them into a dark room with no windows.

The only light came from two dim lamps on two tables at opposite ends of the room. The modern furnishings were chic and high-tech, not to mention the walls were made of dark gray steel.

This was a boat.

Fang had barely realized that before Aimee turned in his arms and hugged him close.

Vane cursed. “Have you two lost your friggin’ minds? Between you and the tiger, we’re so screwed.”

“No, you’re not.” Wren tried to flash himself back to Sanctuary. “What the hell?”

“I’ve got you locked down,” Vane said.

Wren knew better than to go after Vane—the wolf was too powerful to take down—but by the look on his face, it was obvious the tigard wanted to try. “Lift it.”

Vane shook his head. “No. I didn’t just jeopardize my entire clan to see you commit suicide.”

“This isn’t your fight.”

“Yes, it is. I’m not going to sit by and watch an innocent die because some asshole got greedy.”

Wren scoffed at Vane’s heroism. “Well, thank you, Mr. Altruist, but the tiger doesn’t want your help. So sod off.”

Someone started clapping.

Fang, still holding Aimee to his side, saw the Dark-Hunter Jean-Luc entering the room from a door on his right. A pirate in his human life, the immortal vampire slayer still retained much of his old look.

With a small gold hoop flashing in his left earlobe, he was dressed all in black in a pair of leather pants, a silk button-down shirt, and biker boots. His long, straight black hair was pulled back into a sleek queue that emphasized the sharp angles of his face. His eyes were so dark that not even the pupils were discernable and those eyes were dancing with amusement. “Nicely put, tiger.”

“Shut up, lapdog, this isn’t your fight either.”

Jean-Luc sucked his breath in sharply at the insult. “Boy, you better counsel that tongue before you find yourself without it.”

Wren took a step toward him, then froze as the human he’d been making time with came through the door behind the pirate. The relief on her face was more than obvious.

The human rushed to Wren’s side and threw her arms around him. “I’m so glad they got to you before it was too late. You weren’t really going to do something stupid, were you?”

“Oh, no, hon, we were too late,” Fury said snidely. “Tiger boy done pissed down the wrong honey tree and got all the bees, or in this case bears, going wild.”

Fury glanced to Fang then to Aimee. “Then again, knowing the bears, they’ll be gunning for wolf before tiger. Good move, Fang. Making off with their only daughter. Real swift. You know, chocolate is lethal to our kind. I’m thinking if you want to commit suicide, that’s the much less painful way to go about it.”

“Knock it off, Fury,” Vane said, moving over to where Fang and Aimee were standing. “We have to send her back. Now.”

Fang contemplated the death and burial of Fury. Brother or not, that wolf still got on his nerves, but Vane was right. “I know.”

Tears glistened in Aimee’s eyes and they tore him apart as he ached to kiss them away. “I don’t want to leave.”

Those words shredded his resolve.

Vane looked as sick as Fang felt. “And I thought my relationship with Bride was doomed. Damn it, people and animals, this shit sucks.”

Fang couldn’t agree more.

Fury snorted. “You’re the leader, Vane. Lead.”

Vane looked up at the ceiling and sighed. “If I had any brains at all, which obviously I don’t, I would never have gotten involved in this. I would hand my brother and Wren over to the bears and just take my wife and go find a nice, quiet place to raise our children.”

He swept them all with an irritated glare. “But obviously, I am truly the dumbest man on the planet.”

Jean-Luc pulled a long, thin stiletto out of his boot and offered it to Vane. “Here,
mon ami.
Either for you or for them. One cut and all your problems are solved, eh?”

“Don’t tempt me.” Vane growled low in his throat as he surveyed the lot of them. “Wren, listen close, ’cause, buddy, your chances are running slim. You kill Nicolette and you’re dead. There’s no way back from that.”

Wren scoffed at him. “There’s no way back from an execution order. Period.”

Shaking his head in denial, Fury stepped forward. “You weren’t there when the vote came down. The council was divided on the order.”

Wren frowned. “What are you saying?”

“That you have a shot at redemption,” Vane said, “but not if you kill Nicolette for vengeance.”

Wren hesitated as if he were inwardly debating.

Vane sighed. “You give the council proof that you’re innocent of killing your parents and Savitar will rescind the Omegrion’s order.”

Wren scowled at him. “What the fuck are you talking about? They’re trying to kill me because I’m dating Maggie.”

Fury made a sound of disgust. “What are you, stupid? Your dating the human is only the catalyst for why Mama Lo tossed your ass out. The death warrant is because you murdered your parents.”

“Says who?”

“Your cousin Zack.”

Wren clenched his jaw shut as if he wanted to kill something. The demon inside Fang knew for a fact the tigard was innocent. And outraged. Not that he could blame him in the least.