Skin Walkers Conn (23 page)

Finally after long m
inutes
she opened her eyes.  Nothing had changed.  She was still on her hands and knees.  She looked up at Remy and opened her mouth to pay h
im a snarky, ‘I told you so’, b
ut when she tried to speak nothing came out. 

Remy sm
iled at her.  “See.  You are a
Walker
Aries.  You are
my
Walker
.
”
  His look was one of triumph.

She looked down at her knees, but they were gone.  Furry paws met her eyes and she scrambled backward in horror.  She heard a high-pitched whine when she tried to sob
, only to realize that the sound came from her
.

“Easy,” Remy stood quickly, “It’s alright Aries.  Just think about…”

He didn’t get to finish.  In her panic Aries hit
the small stand next to the wall and a lamp fell next to her shattering on the floor. 

Think about me, think about me, think about me!
  She repeated the words in her mind wanting desperately to change back. 
This c
a
n’t be happening!  It shouldn’t be happening,
I’m not
a
Walker
!
  What
if
I get stuck this way?  How do I change back?  Oh God!  Think about me, think about me, think about me!
 

Her legs kicked out and she felt a
sharp sting
as
a large piece of
broken glass embedded itself into her
thigh
.

“STOP!” Remy ordered lunging for her.

She scrambled away from him, flying forward and when she caught herself as she sprawled on her chest it was with her own
two
hands.  Sitting up quickly she let her eyes dart down her arms
,
legs
,
then her torso and the relief that swamped her at being normal again was quickly washed away when she realized she was completely naked.

She jumped for the couch even as Remy laughed behind her.  Jer
king the throw blanket
that hung over the back of the sofa, she quickly wrapped it around herself and turned to glare at Remy.

“That wasn’t so bad was it?”
             
He was sitting on the floor in the spot by the wall that she’d vaca
ted before he’d lunged for her.  Broken glass from the downed lamp surrounded him and the
small
table she’d hit sat broken on its side
next to him
.

“Yes!  It wa
s bad.”  Tears flooded her eyes at the horrific
realization
of what had just happened to her.

Remy sobered and rose to his feet, his nostrils flared, “Your injured.  Let me see.”

She jerked to stay out of his reach.  Shaky fingers pulled the blanket higher on her thigh and she quickly plucked the large piece of glass from her leg before throwing it at Remy’s chest.  It left a
small smear of
crimson on his white t-shirt.  She turned her face away from him when her tears fell, “I don’t
want to be a
Walker
!”

He didn’t reach for her.  “It’s a blessing Aries.”

Her tear-filled eyes fro
wned up at him, “No.  It’s not!”

His eyes darted from hers to her covered injury.  “I’ll get the first aid kit.”  He walked away and Aries tried to sniff back her tears.

She didn’t want to be a
Walker
, she didn’t want to be different.  Any hop
e she had for a normal life or of ever
escaping these psychotic
Walkers
had just flown out the window.  She was
a freak!  A sob broke free as she lost her battle with holding herself together.  When Remy returned he found her crying on the couch, her face buried in the blanket as sobs wracked her exposed shoulders.

“It’ll be alright Aries,” his voice was a whisper.  He opened the first aid kit and set it on the arm of the couch before he pulled out a wad of cotton balls
.

She peeked up and sat forward ripping the cotton balls out of his hands and tearing back the blanket to hold them to her injured
leg
.
  Because she was sitting in a tight ball, blood ran down her thigh and between her legs. 
“It won’t be alright!”  Her sorrow gave way to anger.  “I’m something I don’t want to be.  By no fault of my own!  I’ve been kidnapped twice in the past few weeks and just when I think I’ve found someone I can trust for the first time in my life, he’s ripped away from me.”  She threw the bloodied cotton balls on the ground and fisted a roll of gauze from the kit.

“You can’t trust Mason.”

“Mason?”  her eyes
saucered
as she stared at him, her hands stilling in their task.  “I’m not talking about Mason.  I don’t give a shit about him.  For the last time, he is
not
my brother!”  A sob tore lose as her eyes dipped to the ball of gauze.  “I’m talking about Conn.”  She looked up, her eyes imploring
as she felt a pang of guilt over having shifted for
the first time with another
Walker
. 
She’d been looking forward to
proving
Conn
wrong when he tried to teach
her to shift.
She hadn’t believed she was a
Walker
, but decided that if she were
she wanted him to be the one that experienced her first time with her. 
Her anger ebbed and sorrow once again took hold as she cried at the prospect of never seeing Conn again.
  Hot tears streamed down her face,
“I want Conn!” 

Chapter
22

Conn
woke slowly.  He stretched and smiled
,
relieved that he’d finally gotten some much needed sleep.  Instantly he thought of Aries and what she’d done for him.  He grew hard at the memory.  The need to mate her again was immediate and he knew she was going to be in a world of hurt once he ate half the contents of his bunker
and replenished his strength
.  He smiled looking forward to the proper claiming
and the prospect of keeping her in his bed for at least the entire next week
.

His eyes scanned the bedroom but she wasn’t there.  Her clothes too were gone.  He shifted partially and
closed his eyes to
inhale deeply wanting simply to smell her and know that she was his.

His eyes slammed open and he was on his feet in an instant.  He scented her, but it was
n’t
the soft feminine fragrance he now knew was hers.  It was the scent of
her overwhelming terror.  He threw the bedroom door open only to discover his bunker in shambles.  Glass and debris littered a trail from his bedroom door down the length of the bunker.  The front door swung open freely and he raced to it. 

Outside, there was no sign of his Aries.  He dashed back to
his room and dressed quickly.  He called through the m
ist
to his team. 
“Aries has been taken from my bunker.”
  He inhaled deeply and because he was still partially shifted he couldn’t control the roar that escaped him. 
“Remy has her! 
Shane
, get to
StoneCrow
see what you can find. 
Ja
mes, get in touch with Mason, h
e
or Amanda should know where to find Remy.  York,
find
Tyce
!
  See if he’s behind this.  Do what you have to do but I fucking want her found
!
  She is mine!  I have claimed her!
”

“Copy!”
James, Shane, and York responded in near unison.
  He heard James squeak,
“Holy shit!”
Then the communication was broken.

Conn snatched up the keys to the jeep and raced out to the vehicle.  He’d follow the tug he felt from his halo.  He’d find Aries if it was the last thing he did.

He climbed in the vehicle hating
to have to ignore his ability to shift and take flight, but when he found Aries—and he wholly intended to—he’d need a way to get her to safety once he murdered Remy McCabe.

As the jeep flew away from
the
bunker,
Conn’s
fingers gripped the steering wheel so tightly he was sure it would snap in two.  His mind
was racing
a mile-a-minute.
How had Remy known where to find
us
?  Why would he take Aries?  Would he hurt her? 
The thought had Conn’s teeth gnashing together so tightly that
the action produced an
instant headache.

He’d never experienced anger like this before, and certainly never over a woman,
but Aries wasn’t like other wome
n.  She wasn’t like anyone he’d ever met in his whole life. 
She was strong and fiercely independent.  She took risks with her own life to save her own life and it was such an outlandish contradiction that he couldn’t help but admire her for it. 

His lips quirked when he remembered how she’d snagged a parachute and rolled out of the helicopter on their first day together.  He was looking forward to teaching her to shift but
trepidat
i
ous
as well.  Hell they could barely contain her now.  Once she learned to shift she’d be unstoppable. 
I can’t wait!

His grin faltered.  What if he didn’t find her in time?  What if Remy hurt her or attempted to claim her.  He’d
never heard of two
Walker
’s gifting their halos to the same angel so he didn’t even know
whether or not it
was
even
possible.  His gut wrenched when he thought of Remy alone with
his
Aries. 

He’d met the Walker only once before and
had
hated the man instantly.  He was the antithesis of Conn.  Rem
y McCabe was a well-known ladies
man.  He was charming, and
debonair, and it was rare that a female ever turned
down his advances
.
  He was a few years younger than Conn, closer to Aries’ age he guessed.  Unlike Conn’s strong, scarr
ed features, Remy’s features were softer, unmarred
. 
All
Walker women were interested in him, and human women threw themselves at his feet.  Conn growled again and wondered if Aries would prefer the dashing pretty-boy over him.
 

***

Remy paced back and forth stopping occasionally to eye the loft where Aries slept. 
She’d been inconsolable over her need for Conn. 
After her break down
Remy
finally calmed her enough to get her to take a shower, eat, then climb in
to
bed.  He had to swear he wouldn’t touch her, and once she’d gotten out of the shower he wasn’t sure he wanted to.  She reeked of Conn when she shouldn’t have.  She’d bathed and his scent should have washed away.  For Conn’s scent to remain that strong she’d have to be wearing his halo.

“Fuck!” Remy shoved an angry hand into his hair
as he flicked his eyes up to
the loft.  He’d taken another
Walker
’s ange
l.  Not just any
Walker
either, she belonged to
Commander Conn
Drago
.  “Fuck!”  He couldn’t stop saying the word, it was the only phrase that seemed to fit
the miserable situation
.  He’d contemplated contacting Conn and relinquishing Aries to him, but th
at’d let Mason off too easily and while he understood Conn’s loss
and resulting anger
more than any other
Walker
ever could, he couldn’t allow Mason to
simply get away with stealing his Amanda.

He stilled when he felt a mental nudge and begrudgingly permitted the communication.

“Are you out of your fucking mind?”
  It was Mason. 
“You stole Conn
Drago’s
angel from his bed?”

“She wasn’t in his bed, and she is my angel.”

“I’ve just been contacted by his team.  He’s going to kill you Remy.  Do you get that?  He’s going to rip you limb from fucking limb.  Return the woman to
StoneCrow
immediately!”

“The woman?”
Remy challenged,
“You mean your sister?  Aries
EnemyHunter
.
  I know she’s the one Mason, I know she’s your sister.
”

“You damn fool! 
You’re so blinded by your hatred of me and your desire to take anything that’s mine that you can’t even see clearly. 
She is not my sister.
”