A Guardians Passion (21 page)

One thing she was certain of was that there were no cubs in any of the cells. Her thoughts ran immediately to Bryant and Ryant. Freya looked around until she found the one she hoped she wouldn’t.

Seated in the corner of the same cage that held Freya, Melissa was on the floor with her back and head against the stone wall. Her eyes were closed, yet her chest moved evenly, showing that some life remained.

Freya moved from the worried throng of females surrounding her and walked over to the woman she had begun to think of as a friend. As she drew close to Melissa, Freya could already detect the scent of tears that had been spilled.

She crouched beside Melissa and clapped a hand upon her shoulder. Without words, she already knew the cause for the subtle shaking, the sudden hitched breath, and the vacant stare in brown eyes. The two furry troublemakers whom Freya had gotten fond of, whom Melissa held dear, were gone.

Melissa attempted to speak. Her lips moved, but no words came at first. It took a moment, but eventually she found her voice, weary and strained as it was. “Freya, I tried. I fought. So damn hard, I fought. But I…I couldn’t hold on to them! I couldn’t…”

Whatever restraint Freya had managed to preserve dissolved the instant that Melissa began to break down, her sobs mixed with feral growls into a clenched fist that could do nothing. Freya bit her bottom lip, savoring the salt of her own blood as she leaned forward and slammed her fist into the wall. “Shit. We’ll get them back, girl. We
will
get them back. One way or the fucking other, they will pay for this goddamn shit.”

“Freya, I need them. I need my cubs.”

Freya plopped down beside her friend and enfolded Melissa in an embrace. She held tight as the warm body beside her was racked with grief. “I know. I know, Melissa. Things are going to be all right. The others will come. My males, yours. They will not stop until we are safe, and you know it. Those fuckers will pay.” Even as she said the words, however, Freya didn’t have a clue as to the how. The only thing she could count on was that they would be found eventually. Whether everything would be fine was a whole other story. She didn’t know where they were. Asprega could have teleported them one mile away or hundreds. They wanted cubs, but what for, and more importantly, why were asprega and vampires hanging out? Freya needed to know.

Patience had never been her strong suit, and neither was lying low, but she was no fool. The bars were too thick. There were no windows, and even if there were, she would have been too big to fit through one. Praying that Ezra had been successful and reached Fen and Rayne, she knew that they would be on the hunt. Fenris would be nigh berserk. Truly. He would devour every last fucking one of them if he had to. She just had to wait.

“You are responsible. You should have made sure that we were safe!”

Freya raised her head at the accusation and swiftly found the source. A hysterical wolf was standing at the bars separating the cells. She had an accusatory finger pointed at someone at the far end of the adjoining cell.

“Your pack did nothing. Nothing,” the angry woman continued. “We’re going to die, and it’s all because of you and your arrogant fucking pack. All of us, gathered together like a beacon for attack. This is your fault. Where was the security? What good were they?”

Freya came to a stand, having a good idea who the venom was directed at. She went to the bars and saw Helena Sohon gazing coolly back at the woman. Helena didn’t seem to take offense, but she wasn’t cowed either.

Benna rushed to the bars beside the irate woman. Tears in her eyes, Benna was red in the face as she confronted the accusations. “That’s bullshit. What? You think those things that attacked us couldn’t have just waltzed into Topeka and attacked your ranch? Didn’t you see those beasts? Our strongest fighters could barely take them down; your males would have done no better. It didn’t matter if we were together or apart. We were caught by surprise!”

“So what? We should be glad that they have us all in here like a herd of goddamn cattle?” The woman shook her head vigorously. “I’m sorry, but at least we would have had warning if you had gotten snatched first.”

Helena had moved to the bars calmly, regal despite the exhaustion written across her features. She looked as if she had gone toe-to-toe with an asprega. Her usually flawless mane was askew, and a horrible series of gashes were healing across the left side of her face and chest. “What did you say?” Helena asked pointedly. It was most certainly a request for the woman to repeat her words instead of a failure to comprehend.

Freya leaned her head upon the bars and stared at the flustered woman for whom speech had suddenly become difficult. “The bitch said that it would have been better if you got snatched first, rather than her sorry ass.”

The woman turned her fury toward Freya. “Fuck you. I didn’t pay a fortune to be—”

“To be what?” Freya sneered back. “Kidnapped? Terrorized? Caught off fucking guard? None of us did, but do you see us casting blame? It’s perfectly fine if you want to have a pity party, but there is no blame for this shit.”

“What do you know? How the hell—”

“She’s the only one who managed to kill one of those things! That’s who she is, and that’s how she knows.” Another female approached, one Freya recalled as being in the pool during the attack.

Ms. Attitude had no retort as she lowered a gaze that had been so full of fire and challenge only seconds before.

Freya moved in closer. “One of those things. They are called asprega, and Benna was correct. If they really wanted you, they could have gotten your ass on the range, at this party, at Walmart, or the Pentagon. Anywhere. Just one could wipe the floor with your entire pack, so don’t even try that line again. Understood?”

The woman seemed to have gotten the message, especially after Freya told her to go and sit her ass down. Most of the females in the cell with Freya and Benna were on their feet, and only half of the ones in Helena’s enclosure, yet the atmosphere was certainly one of tension and electricity.

Freya waited till the women seemed to calm somewhat before she sat down beside the bars that separated her and Benna from Helena. Gesturing for the Sohon matriarch to do the same, Freya muttered between the gaps of what seemed to be reinforced titanium. Something not even she could budge. “You all right?”

Helena came and sat upon the floor close to Freya. “I’ll be fine,” she said with a sigh.

“What happened in the ballroom?”

Helena shrugged. Her shoulders slumped with her exhaustion, more mental than physical, Freya supposed.

Benna, still standing, arms wrapped around her waist, spoke for her aunt. “One minute we were in the middle of serving the petite mango cheesecakes, and the next, there was explosions, fire everywhere. They appeared, three of those beasts carrying some sort of fire orbs. They grabbed the first of the mothers and vanished, and then three more appeared. Between the fire and beasts…our males, our guards could do nothing against them. They shot them, they tried to tear them to pieces, but the asprega healed so damn fast. There was so much chaos.”

Freya could easily imagine. Despite knowing what type of fiend she was up against, even she had been flustered. She could imagine how out of sorts the others must have been, but still she had to know. “Did you see any vampires?”

“Vampires? No,” Helena muttered as if searching her memory and coming to a definite answer. “I saw nothing but those bastards.”

Freya didn’t like what she heard. The vampires she had seen apparently showed up once the mission was deemed successful. “There were vampires there at the compound. Vampires and asprega are related, fucking offshoots, but they do not run in the same circles at all,” she informed them. “Asprega are more likely to eat a vamp than to socialize with one. They’re not fucking social. Correction, they weren’t,” she added in light of the evening’s events. “Either way, there were three vampires back there. They were working together with the bat boys. And bat boys don’t find our kind tasty at all.”

“You suspect vampires to be the true culprits?” Helena whispered, but with so many keen ears in proximity, trying to prevent eavesdropping would have been impossible anyway.

“Just one,” Freya recalled. “There was one bitch that seemed to be leading them all, including the prime. Asprega exist in packs, and like us, they have a leader. It will be the only one that speaks and is usually the biggest and meanest. The leader was making small talk with one chick, an Asian vamp with green eyes. She sound familiar?”

Helena shook her head.

Despite the heat of several interested gazes upon her, Freya nodded. It didn’t matter one bit if the others heard. She wanted to hear their reactions, see if any of them showed signs of knowing something. She looked up at Benna. “Has there been anything out of the ordinary lately? Threats? Inquiries? Possible vendettas brewing, maybe?”

“No. They dislike us, but they know not to trifle with us anymore.” Of that Helena seemed certain. “This isn’t the sixteenth century. We aren’t beneath their yoke anymore, Freya.”

“Maybe they’re trying to do something about that.”

Benna scoffed at Freya’s suggestion. “Something like attacking us and stealing our cubs?”

Freya closed her eyes and tried to blot out the horrors swimming in her imagination. A blow against the Sohons was as good as declaring that the vamps had grown some balls after all. It was a gauntlet if she had ever seen one. “Yeah. Something just like that.”

* * * *

Several options for escape had been tried and discarded. Digging out through the floor had proven to be impossible with the bottom of the cages being made of the same strong ore compound as the walls. Testing the bars of their cages, even with the strength of several of them pulling at once, their efforts were just as useless. Attacks on the locks that held the cages closed failed as attempts to pick them resulted in jarring electrical shocks to whomever’s claw or hairpin touched it.

While the first five or so hours had been devoted to anger and plans for freedom, time eventually wore down their agitation. Despair caused many to cling to silent prayers. Some had closed their eyes, sleeping to stave off panic, while others stared out blankly, no doubt trying to imagine themselves anywhere but inside a dank, cold cell.

Many of those who were pregnant held or caressed their bellies obsessively. Freya was one of them. She could feel the first wisps of panic brushing against her mind and was angered by them. Helplessness was something new and difficult for her to comprehend. She was a warrior, born and bred to fight. The old her would have been glad to fight the asprega who had captured her, to the death if need be. Anything would have been preferable to capture.

She didn’t possess that right anymore, and it terrified her. Amid blood-splattered plans of tearing asprega apart, of feasting on the dry bones of vampires, and of the spectacular carnage that Fenris and Rayne could wreak, Freya’s thoughts kept returning to her cub. Stirring in her belly, Bun seemed to be just as irate as she was, refusing to be still.

Your fathers will come
, she communicated silently to her child.
We just have to be patient is all
. If nothing more, Freya had to believe that her stay in a cage would be a short one, for something far more dangerous than the asprega and vampires combined was a threat to Bun: her rage, burning like an acetylene torch.

It flared at the sound of high heels clicking against the stone floor.

Through the bars, Freya could see the corridor that she guessed led to the only exit. Through the dim, flickering lights that ran along the ceiling outside of the cell, Freya caught a familiar sight. The Asian vampiress who had been inside the pool room came sauntering fearlessly to the cells in her formfitting dark suit, her pale almond skin glowing. She had come alone.

The vampiress stopped before the cage that held Helena. Her crimson lips pursed, she silently surveyed the sullen wolves within.

“Come on and open the cage, vamp,” Freya growled. “You know you want to.”

“Easy, Freya. They have our cubs,” Benna warned, unable to disguise the contempt in her voice.

The vampiress turned her head, and her cold emerald eyes focused on the petite wolf before moving to Freya. “That’s right. We
do
have your pups, and should you so much as growl again, I will break one of their little necks. Not to mention what will be done to the others. So foam at the mouth by all means, gnash your teeth even, but keep your fucking thoughts to yourselves.”

Freya was paralyzed by an intense desire to pull the vampiress’s limbs off one by one. Many of the other werewolves bristled at the threat as well, with some of them coming to their feet. But none spoke. Not even Freya.

Helena stood as stoic as a queen. “What is it that you want? Why have you done this to us?”

“Yes, what do you want? We have money. Whatever it is you want,” pleaded a mother whose cub was missing as she rushed up to the bars.

The vampiress cocked her head, looking at the desperate mother with narrow eyes. Her crimson smile broadened maniacally before she finally replied. “Pathetic. We want a great deal more than money, puppies.” Smoky shapes formed behind her as two asprega materialized. Snarling and clicking, their lithe forms as taut as bowstrings, they were ready, it seemed, for her command.

“You can offer us nothing that we don’t already have or won’t take by force,” the vampiress mused, her eyes reviewing the captured once more. She used a bloodred nail to point out four females in the cell with Helena. “I want that one, that one, her, and the brunette,” she said as calmly as one selecting groceries. “Such nice specimens. Very nice.”

Freya anticipated the danger immediately, rushing to the other cage. “Stand together,” she yelled. “Bunch up. They can only carry so much. Grab hold of one another!”

Her cries went unheeded in the adjoining cell, the females far too riled to obey her commands. The moment that the first asprega materialized in their cell, they fled from it mindlessly. Instead of moving together, they moved apart, giving the creatures a better chance at retrieving the selected. One of the creatures managed to grab two at once and vanish, while the other grabbed one, disappeared, and then came back for the second. Numb, Freya could only watch the chaos unfold.