Undying Hope (14 page)

Mason’s mouth flopped opened and closed several times before his face hardened. “You will not kill me here.”

* * * *

“No,” Donovan agreed. The only indication of the rage flowing through him was the minor tremble in the floor. Keeping his
treòir
from tearing forth to destroy the monster terrorizing his mate had him shaking with the forces at war in his body. There was only so much he could hold back while standing before the man who knowingly abused
his
Haven. The temptation to rip into this man was great, but he couldn’t in front of this many humans. His voice lowered so no one else around them could hear the deadly promise. “You are charged with attempting to steal another male’s lifebond. I find you guilty.” He stepped closer to Mason. His power pulsed around him with leashed fury. “Your sentence is death.” Donovan leaned forward to snarl right in the other man’s face. “I will be coming for you.”

They stood there for a long moment before Mason turned and fled. Even Kyros knew better than to do something in such a public place.

He stood poised and ready for battle, should the other male prove stupid, until he could no longer sense him. All that mattered was keeping Haven away from the deadly meirlock. He connected immediately with Memphis.
“I want Mason tracked and brought to me alive.”

“Aye,”
Memphis responded.
“Brody is already searching for their lair. We thought it might be the Black Rose Mansion, but there are no traces of any meirlock residing there.”

He was quiet for a moment. “
Bring me Mason!”

“Your will be done.”
Then Memphis disconnected.

Donovan turned to assess Bastian’s injury. The bruise would be easily cured with a quick nap or a flick of Riordan’s healing hand. Then he methodically went over every inch of Haven’s body without being intrusive. The fear emanating off her made controlling his
treòir
difficult, but she was uninjured. The best way to keep anything untoward from happening again was to get them all the hell out of here.

“The meirlock needs to be killed!”
Treòir
roared in his mind.

“And we will kill him,”
Donovan promised.
“But we must make them safe before we can go hunting.”

The
treòir
was only just placated. It wanted Haven now. He willed the colossal power back and into the box meant to keep the world safe from the monster he could become if he gave into the desires of his power.

A security guard met him at the door of the mall. “Sir…”

Donovan caught him by the arm and twisted. He shoved up the man’s sleeve to reveal a black rose tattooed on his forearm. “Give Killian a message for me.”

The guard trembled while he tried to yank his arm back. “Go to hell.”

“I’ve already been there. I have no desire to visit again.” He pulled the man in close. He bared his teeth. “Cadeyrn is pissed off at him.”

He let the guard go and shoved him back. The guard scrambled to get out of the way. “The woman—”

“Is no longer his concern.”

He collected both Haven and Bastian, and then he moved them through the sliding glass doors and out onto the cold sidewalk. He didn’t say one word as he opened the back door for Bastian, and then personally made sure Haven was buckled in the front passenger seat before he went around to the driver’s side and got in.

Haven was visibly shaking. “Oh my God. He knows I’m here. Quinn, you have to let me go to him. He’ll—”

“Shh,” he murmured softly as he pulled out into mall traffic. His hand gripped the steering wheel tightly to the point his knuckles turned white. “I know you’re afraid, sweetheart. Mason’s only hope to hurt me is by hurting you.”

“But,” she started to protest and stopped herself. “He will try to come after me again.”

“Probably,” Donovan said. He wasn’t going to lie to her, but he hated knowing how much this was going to screw with her head. Mason had never been overly ambitious for power before he’d turned. Donovan wondered if there might be something else behind this bid to rule the Black Rose. There was an angle here he was missing, and he needed to find out what it was.

“Bastian…” Her voice trailed off as she drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “He can’t be near me. If something happened to him, I’d never forgive myself.”

“I can stay with someone else,” Bastian said from the back seat. “It’s okay. I am not going to think you’re abandoning me.”

Quinn reached over and wrapped his hand around hers. “I will send him to Nadia. He will be safe in the wolf compound.”

* * * *

“Compound?” She knew everything was sending her into a meltdown, but damn it!

“Gated community,” Quinn said. “We call it a compound. Not all Undying live that way, but we are wolves and feel most comfortable in a pack. Everyone has their own space, and yet we are close enough to feel comfortable.”

“But you live in the city,” Haven said. “And in a high rise.”

“I am still, as of the moment, unbonded. My
treòir
can make the unbonded women nervous.”

She tugged at her bottom lip with her teeth as she shifted on the seat. “That’s were Nadia is, right?”

“Yes.”

She brushed hair out of her face and tucked it behind her ear. “All right, how much power are we talking about living there?”

“Two ancient males, an Undying fae, several warriors, and a few youths,” Quinn said. “Liam and Seth, the Adalwolf twins, can be there quickly if called. It is the safest place on the planet—unless Maverick decides to make a bunker under the earth.”

“All right,” Haven said as she blew out a breath. “Bastian can stay there for a while. I…” She ground her teeth together and twisted to see Bastian in the back seat. “You’re sure you’re all right with this?”

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s not like you’d take me on a honeymoon with you. They are Dov’s clan. He says I’ll be okay,” he said while pointing at his temple.

She settled herself back in her seat and reached over to grab Quinn’s hand. She couldn’t imagine having to do any of this by herself. “We’ll do that. He’ll be safe and we can…do what we do.”

Quinn squeezed her hand. “It’s going to be all right. I won’t allow it not to be.”

She believed him and let that calm her. Only yesterday, she had thought she’d run out of options, but they kept opening up for her. Possibly it was wrong to want someone to help her, but she needed to have security in her life. Quinn offered that.

Nikon met them in the garage. He yipped and snapped at Quinn’s hand as he scrambled to get closer to Haven. “
You let Mason get near her! None of you can leave this place again without me. She could have been hurt! She could have been killed!”

Haven reached out a trembling hand. “I’m all right. How is Medea?”

Nikon snorted at her. “
My mate is perfectly well. She was safe with me.”
He rounded on Quinn and snapped at him. “
The meirlock got too close to her.”

Quinn’s brow quirked up. “Careful there, or I am going to think you like her more than me.”

Nikon growled low.
“Her life is a little more fragile than yours, and she won’t go Godzilla on the city if something happens to you.”

“Touché,” Quinn said. “I want to get them inside and settled as quickly as possible. Get the door while Bastian and I start unloading bags.”

Nikon stood there staring at Quinn for a long heartbeat before he went over to the elevator and touched his nose to the call button.

Haven ignored Quinn and helped get the piles of bags into the elevator. It was starting to look like everyone and everything wouldn’t fit, but they managed to squeeze in. Her breasts were mashed up against Quinn’s front as they stood way too close to be comfortable, especially with Bastian in there with them. “You’re doing this on purpose,” she whispered to him.

Quinn only chuckled. “It was all a diabolical plot.”

“You’re impossible,” she said.

“Agreed.” He winked at her as the door opened.

Medea was waiting for everyone. She gave them all a thorough sniff down before she allowed the bags to be carried in. She pranced around Quinn and kept nudging at his hand.

“Are you all right?” Haven asked her as she put the last of the food into the cabinet. Winter did offer the benefit of cold weather. One didn’t have to worry about perishables left in the car when your boyfriend decided you needed mall retail therapy.

“You are worried for your foster cub. Your worry is making me nervous.”

Haven put the last box away, crouched down next to Medea, and lightly petted her head. “He was all I had, and I was the one he depended on. I feel like I am somehow hurting him by handing him off to someone else.”

“He is in safe hands with the Undying fae. Nadia will care well for him, and it is good to expand his pack.”

Haven buried her fingers in Medea’s fur for a moment before standing up to make sure everything was exactly where she wanted it. “I know that logically. It’s the letting go part I’m having trouble with. And what’s an Undying fae?”

“A fae is a powerful creature not unlike an elf, though they have different capabilities and are not as long-lived.”

Haven nodded. “She went through the conversion then, didn’t she? Before she bonded to Riordan?”

“Aye. But she had more difficulty. The fae are closely related to elves. Their bodies must change more before the process is completed.”

Haven was ready to ask another question when Quinn came into the room. She patted the top of Medea’s head. “We’ll talk later. “ Then she went to Quinn. “I guess he’s ready.”

“You can visit him every day if you wish,” Quinn said before wrapping his arms around her.

She held him tight for a long moment. “I know. This is just hard for me.”

“You can go with him and get him settled in,” Quinn offered.

She shook her head and took a step back. “He wants to go on his own, and I need to start letting him.”

“All right, then let’s do this.”

Haven checked Bastian’s backpack to make sure he had everything he could need and then handed it back to him. She gave him a tight hug before everyone filed into the portal room.

Quinn showed both of them how to use a pair of stones to open a portal. “It can only link to other places with the same stones and design,” he explained. “Whereas Memphis can open a portal anywhere to anyplace.”

She gave a wane smiled before she hugged Bastian tight and stepped back from him. “Have fun and remember to call me, all right?”

Bastian bent down and kissed her temple. “You are doing what’s good for both of us. No need to feel guilty.”

She squeezed his hand and sniffled. “Go, before I change my mind.”

Bastian looked at her for a long moment before he stepped through the portal and it closed behind him.

“Quinn!” Her heart plummeted to her feet.

“It works differently than Memphis’s,” Quinn said. “The design is for emergency safety. It only allows one being through at a time.”

She bobbed her head as she walked into him.

His arms enveloped her as the feel of his
treòir
settled around her. Both the man and his power helped her to cope with Bastian growing up.

* * * *

Donovan hung up the phone. He’d transferred all his Undying responsibilities to Sloan of the Pacific Tribe and Darius of the Atlantic Tribe. His dealings with humans had been handed over to his club managers and Wolf until after he was safely bonded. He finally had time to focus all of his attention on Haven.

That was until he got the funny tickle behind his ears he always got right before a lifebond under his roof was about to do something to make his brain hurt.

Wonderful!

His
treòir
always alerted him to the antics of lifebonds before their plans got out of hand. They did the damnedest things in the name of their mate. Only, he hadn’t said or done anything to cause Haven worry.

“You better go check on her,”
the
treòir
said with a slight smug tone Donovan didn’t trust at all. “
Wolf did tell her you might give me up.”

“Shit!” He was out of his leather executive-back chair like a shot. There was no telling what Haven might be capable of doing to preserve the life of her mate.

When he threw the door open, Haven leaped at him. He closed his arms around her.

Before he had any chance to figure out what was happening, her legs wrapped around his waist as her body stretched up along his torso. “Hi. Do you know how badly I wanted to do exactly this when I first saw you last night?” Her arms hooked around his neck. Her body pressed tightly against his.

He groaned as he stumbled forward a step. They slammed into the wall across the hall, his arms absorbing the impact, before Quinn was able to regain his equilibrium. Every neuron in his brain was short-circuiting. For the life of him, he couldn’t find a word to utter that would come out in a coherent stream of consonants and vowels. His only recourse was to growl at her.

She laughed a soft soothing sound. Then her hips shifted to lock against his. Her tight little body shivered as her eyes dilated. “I get the
feeling
you’re happy I did this.”

Blood of Oberon! What the hell had gotten into her? Before he’d sent her upstairs, she’d been skittish of the entire process of bonding, and now… Hell, now he wasn’t sure he cared why she’d suddenly went from cautious and confused to—to—sex kitten.

She lightly nipped at the hollow of his throat.

He wanted to believe this change in her was because she wanted him. It would be so easy to give into the painful desire making his body throb and strain against the fabric of his jeans. But he couldn’t. He used his hips to pin her up against the wall and planted both of his hands on either side of her head. “Haven,” he gritted out. He lowered his head in that familiar way and dragged his mouth along her jaw line. “Why?”

She captured his face with her hands and lightly touched her lips to his. “Live in the moment with me, Quinn.” She gave him a feather light, tantalizing taste of her lips. “Forget the world for a little while.”

“Haven.” Her name came out in a rasp of sound. He used his head to tilt hers back to give him access to her throat. “I love how you smell.” Her soft hair brushed along his forearms, further inflaming his desire. She was intoxicating. Her scent. The feel of her body pressed against his. The purr in her moan as his mouth moved over hers. It should have been easy to give into her desire, if only for a moment, but there were dangers out there. He needed to keep alert. Her life depended on his strength.