Taken by Passion: King of Hearts (Wonderland Book 1) (22 page)

She stopped by the fountain and watched water droplets sparkle in the waning sunlight. She closed her eyes and absorbed the feel of air against her naked skin, smells of flowers in the rainbow gardens, sounds of water splashing in the fountain, the rustling of tree leaves, and the soft chirrup of birds.

When she opened her eyes, Alice realized she was facing the very place where she had woken all those weeks ago. A strong urge came over her, drawing her toward the spot. The crystals dangled from her taut nipples and the fine silver chain attached to her collar swayed against her hips as she started toward the location where she had landed in this wonderland.

Jarronn had never explained how she came to be here, even when she asked. It was one of those things that she was expected to accept, she supposed. The old Alice would have fretted and worried about it, but the new Alice had turned over all control of her concerns to Jarronn. He would protect her and care for her, and in turn she would please him.

Alice came to a stop beneath the tree where she had found herself in this wonderland. She tilted her head to look up at the trees. Had she just fallen through some kind of cosmic pudding tunnel to land here? A freak happening?

Her thoughts automatically turned to her twin, and as always Alice’s heart twisted with longing for Alexi. On Earth Alice would have been missing something like six or more weeks now, and she wondered how Alexi was taking it. Likely, not well. If there was ever a person who had to be in total control, it was Alexi. It would be difficult for her to not have any idea where Alice had gone or how to find her, or even if she
could
be found.

A cold, harsh wind shoved against Alice and she braced her hand against the glossy trunk of the tree. The feathery blue leaves blew wildly above her, and several swirled to the ground in the force of the wind.

Are you ready to go home, Alice?
a vaguely familiar feminine voice said in Alice’s mind.

She jerked her head up and her skin went cold when she saw a pure white tiger, one with no stripes, maybe twenty feet away. Something in Alice’s gut told her this was a weretigress and that she had just spoken in Alice’s mind like Jarronn did when he was a tiger.

The tigress was a bit smaller than Jarronn and his brothers, but something about this beast was far more frightening than when Alice had first seen Jarronn as a tiger.

As it—she—approached, Alice braced her hand against the tree and tried to figure out what she should do if the tigress attacked.

I’m here to help you,
the familiar feminine voice said in Alice’s mind.
Don’t be frightened, Alice.

Before she had time to process those statements, the weretigress shape-shifted and it was Alice’s nightmare come to life.

Mikaela. The kings’ sister.

The woman gave a tolerant smile. Her wheat-blonde hair was piled up on her head and she again wore a black catsuit that partially exposed her breasts and the paw print tattoo around her navel. “You may call me
Mistress
Mikaela. I’ve come to assist.”

Goose bumps prickled along Alice’s skin as she stared at the Queen of Malachad, the traitorous sister.

Like hell she’d refer to this woman as
Mistress.
“I don’t need help from you.” Alice raised her chin and clenched her fists at her sides.

With a shake of her head Mikaela held out her hand, and her black whip appeared. Apparently her ability to shape-shift and her powers were identical to those of Jarronn and the other kings.

“No, not identical,” the woman said as she toyed with her whip. “I am far more powerful than my brothers. I can even send you back to San Francisco, safe and sound.”

Too many things pounded into Alice at once. The woman had read her mind, she’d more or less claimed to be Jarronn’s sister, and she’d stated she could send Alice home.

Mikaela took another step forward and Alice forced herself to keep her ground.

“Do you not know how you got here?” Mikaela asked, arching a sculpted brow. When Alice didn’t answer, the woman smirked. “Of course Jarronn didn’t tell you that he intentionally brought you to Tarok, did he?”

Alice clenched her hands tighter. “Go away. Now.”

With a caustic laugh, Mikaela snapped her whip. “Such blind obedience to a man who merely needs you to serve as a breeder for his cubs.”

Alice’s thoughts whirled, but she refused to doubt the man she loved. She had absolute faith and trust in Jarronn and she knew that no matter what else might occur or what had happened in the past, he loved her as much as she loved him.

“Foolish one. He cares for nothing but the continuation of his people.” Mikaela tilted her head as she studied Alice, as though trying to read more deeply into her mind. “Your sister, on the other hand, is terribly worried about you.”

“I’ve had enough,” Alice said in a calm but forceful tone. “I want you to leave.”

Mikaela snarled and snapped her whip. The crack met Alice’s ears a second before she felt the cruel sting on her thigh. One glance showed blood pouring down Alice’s leg, and her gut clenched with fear. This was not like Jarronn’s loving swats. No, this woman was brutal and vicious. It wasn’t a wonder that the kings’ considered her long gone from them.

“You’re an ugly, fat bitch, Alice O’Brien.” Mikaela cracked her whip again, and pain seared Alice’s other thigh as the whip sliced through her flesh. “Jarronn is using you. Why would he settle for someone like you when he could have anyone he wants?”

The pain nearly drove Alice to the ground. But this time she could clearly see what Mikaela was attempting to do and there was no way she was going to let this woman have any power over her.

“I don’t have time for you.” Tears flowed down her cheeks from the pain in her thighs. Despite the agony that made it difficult to walk, Alice turned her back on the woman.

Mikaela shrieked and the whip cracked in the air behind Alice. Blinding pain tore across her back, wrenching through her, and she stumbled to her knees. She tried to get up, but another lash across her back sent her sprawling face down on the grassy slope beneath the very same tree she’d landed under all those weeks ago.

*

The four brothers had spent the evening hours mapping out a battle plan when Jarronn felt the slice of a whip across his thigh. Karn, Darronn, and Ty all cut their gazes to Jarronn, and he knew they’d felt the lash, too.

Alice.

Without a single word, the four kings shifted into tigers. They bounded toward the rainbow gardens at a speed that would be dizzying to a mere human.

Jarronn’s heart pounded with fear for his woman, his gut tight, as he tore through the jungle and felt the second lash. The pain from the first had opened up the mind-bond between Alice and the brothers and he knew it was Mikaela who had dealt the blow.

Rage surged through him, hot and blinding. He would break the bitch’s neck for harming Alice.

When the third lash fell, a far more vicious slice across the back, Jarronn was determined to tear Mikaela’s throat out. They were just below the rise leading to the fountain when the fourth lash sliced open Alice’s lower back and Jarronn decided he would claw out the bitch’s heart while she was still alive and then shred her throat.

As they crested the rise, he saw Mikaela raise her whip to strike Alice again. Jarronn let loose a roar that likely shook the leaves in every tree in his realm. Mikaela’s expression was one of fury.

She whirled, shifted into a tiger, and bounded into the jungle.

I will kill you for what you have done to Alice!
Jarronn shouted at Mikaela in thought-words as he tore after her.

Mikaela’s mental laugh drove his fury nearly beyond rational thought. He had to focus to keep his mental clarity as he honed in on the sorceress. He didn’t think of her as his sister any longer. She was nothing more than an evil being that deserve to be extinguished.

With the strength of his mind-command he ordered Kalina to attend to Alice and to help protect her. Kalina would be able to surround Alice with a ward strong enough to ward off any of Mikaela’s attempts to penetrate Alice’s mind. Mikaela was magically powerful and could still find a way to harm Alice.

Jarronn closed the distance between himself and Mikaela. He had almost reached her when at least a dozen weretiger
bakirs
attacked him and his brothers from all sides.

Jarronn had been single-minded, so enraged, that he had been careless and hadn’t thought that Mikaela may have brought
bakir
reinforcements.

A male
bakir
, with glowing gold eyes and such broad black stripes that his coat was virtually black, slammed into Jarronn. Even as the tiger hit Jarronn, he recognized the
bakir
as Mikaela’s first in command, Giri.

The impact sent Jarronn rolling onto his side, the enemy rolling with him. With his element of surprise, the black tiger landed on top. Giri roared and his fangs closed in on Jarronn’s throat.

Giri had the element of surprise, strength, and he had mind-magic. He used his magic to attempt to enter Jarronn’s consciousness, only to hit the impenetrable wall that guarded Jarronn’s mind.

Jarronn’s own strength, power, and magic was unmatched by the black tiger. Jarronn flung the
bakir
off, raking his claws across Giri’s eye and snout.

The black tiger shrieked with pain and tumbled back. Jarronn had time to roll to his feet. He snarled as he crouched to leap at Giri, who had ended on his feet. The black tiger’s face was bloody from the depth of the wound from Jarronn’s retaliation, and one of Giri’s eyes was closed, clearly injured, too.

Just as Jarronn bunched his muscles to leap at Giri, the
bakir
spun and bounded into the jungle.

With his injuries, it was clear Giri knew he would be at a severe disadvantage with Jarronn at this time.

Jarronn swung his gaze toward Alice and saw that Kalina attended to her at this very moment and had erected a mind-spell barrier around the two of them.

He roared and started to go after Giri. Jarronn had the presence of mind to know that at this moment his brothers needed him more. Multiple
bakirs
attacked the three brothers who fought with kingly pride and determination.

Three orange and black weretiger
bakirs
already lay on the ground, gutted or their throats gaping as blood pooled around their heads and chests.

Three dead, yet his brothers fought off seven more
bakirs.
The brothers’ white and black coats were stained with blood, either their own or the blood of their enemies.

Yes, Jarronn would have to let Mikaela and Giri escape. He could not leave while his brothers were outnumbered. Jarronn took out his fury on remaining weretigers as he aided his brothers.

Jarronn used his mind-magic to confuse two
bakirs
by breaking into each one’s consciousness and ordering them to stop fighting
.
Jarronn ripped out the throat of one of the huge males with his fangs. Blood gushed into his mouth and sprayed his fur.

He whirled on the other weretiger and swung his powerful foreleg. With one swipe of his massive paw, and the force of his fury, Jarronn snapped the
bakir’s
neck When he twisted to take on more
bakirs
he found his brothers had efficiently eliminated the remaining five.

Claw marks and blood marred each king’s fur, their jaws coated in blood. They would have to take care of each other and get themselves to healers, or bring the healers to them.

All that mattered now was Alice.

Without waiting to see how his brothers had fared, Jarronn whirled and headed to his mate. He shifted, once again a man, as he approached Kalina and Alice at a run, his heart thundering against his ribs. When he had first arrived in the clearing, he had sensed his future queen was injured, but not mortally. But he could not stand the thought of the pain Mikaela had inflicted upon his mate.

Alice lay facedown on the grass. Kalina dropped her wardings for Jarronn, but did not glance up from her task as she applied salve with magical healing properties to Alice’s wounds. One slash of the whip had already closed from Kalina’s ministrations, and the skin that had once been flayed open was now only a vivid red stripe of skin with drying blood across her back. The second wound closed, healing from the salve as he watched.

The fury Jarronn felt in his chest did not ebb as he reached his woman. Mikaela could have killed Alice. His gut grew tighter as he realized he should never have allowed Alice to leave the castle alone. It was his fault that such pain had been inflicted upon his future queen.

Her body had sustained severe injuries, but had her mind been damaged by Mikaela’s mind-spells, too?

He gently turned Alice onto her back after Kalina finished treating the once gaping wound on her back.

A growl rose in his throat as he saw the injuries to her thighs that still bled freely. Grass that had been beneath her was bloodied from the wounds.

Jarronn’s body shook with renewed raged. He forced himself to calm as he took the jar of salve from Kalina and administered it to Alice’s remaining wounds. Gently he applied the salve and forced himself to calm.

“Alice.” He spoke her name softly as the first thigh wound began to close beneath his fingers. Blood still coated her skin, but that would be washed away when her injuries were treated. She did not answer him as he tended to the second wound.

His heart rose to his throat as he looked at her face. Her features were unmarred with pain or concern, her hair spread in a white-blonde fan around her head.

Hope that her mind remained intact turned into confidence that it was true. If Mikaela had injured her mind, Alice would have had a tortured and pained expression. Instead, she smiled in her sleep.

And Jarronn wept.

*

Callused fingers gently stroked Alice’s face as she slept, and she snuggled into the touch. Soothing and loving, the soft caress continued, slowly drawing her out of her dreamworld. Warm breath feathered across her lips and she inhaled the rich scent of spice, sandalwood, and man.