Mated By Fate by Christa Wick

Chapter Thirty

Three black vanstraveled winding country roads, the Appalachian Mountain Range that sheltered the clan's land all around them. Packed into the middle van, Esme continued casting for Denver's location.

There were five male shifters in the van, four in each of the others. Only the drivers were fully clothed. The others wore nothing but loose spandex briefs, their bodies in varying degrees of transformation. Seth sat next to Esme, human enough but for a heavier than usual dusting of body hair and a wolfish point on his ears.

Fidgeting with his rifle's modified stock, Seth growled lightly "If you weren't his mate, you wouldn't be able to locate him this easily."

Esme's hands stopped moving over the map as she glared at Seth. She didn't need the reminder that Denver was her mate. The hard knock of her heart inside her rib cage had reminded her every half-second of the last hour.

She also didn't want to remember that the last thing her mate had heard from her lips was that she hated him. He'd been reckless to leave the safety of the clan alone. Guilt that she'd triggered such recklessness weighed her down—clouded her mind and dulled her powers when she needed to wield their keenest edge.

The driver turned a sharp corner too fast and sent Esme bouncing. Her head hit the side of the van, its metal wall ringing with the impact. At the same time, a fist plowed into her face. Her head snapped forward, her vision dancing until she realized she wasn't looking at the van's interior or through her own eyes.

She was looking through Denver's.

"Stop hurting him," she whispered.

A syringe appeared in front of her face, a man's head just beyond it. Slowly, Denver's gaze focused and she saw Quentin, the Hunter who had tortured her and Lana.

Blood smeared Quentin's mouth, but there was no sign of injury. He looked more like he had finished snacking on barbecue ribs. The impression was confirmed when he licked the blood from his lips to reveal unmarked skin.

"Your taste is familiar, wolf."

Quentin's tongue darted out again to catch a stray drop. His eyes rolled back in his head. "That little hint of honey and ginger. Where and when was that?"

A leer stretched across his face, turning it into a Halloween mask of sadistic hate. "Oh yes, those two! Quite a set of fighters. Mother and father each an alpha's alpha. What a treat to find them living away from the clan."

Quentin pressed the plunger just a fraction. Something that looked like quicksilver squirted from the syringe’s tip. "Hunted your little ass for days after I found that escape tunnel they popped you into. You would have been a marvelous specimen to add to my power grid."

Quentin pulled back for a second, almost as if he admired the wolf he was torturing. "What were you, five?"

Receiving no answer, he pushed against Denver's chest. A network of raised black veins stood stark against the wolf's flesh, their color the same as the tattoos that marked his flesh. Quentin trailed the needle's tip down Denver's belly, the metal scraping a trail of blood as it moved. "Still have a clean spot here," Quentin laughed as he tugged at the jeans to reveal the lower abdominal muscles.

Quentin pushed the needle in. His thumb lightly caressed the plunger, the pressure too faint to inject the liquid into Denver. When the Hunter lifted his head, Esme felt like he could see her.

A curl of his lip told her she was right. "I've been waiting for you, witch. Hurry, or you'll miss watching him die before I drain you."

Another lurch of the van and Esme lost the vision—or Quentin cut the signal. She couldn't be sure which had happened. She turned to Seth, one hand clutching at his arm.

"Quentin is there and he knows we're coming. He wants us to come."

"Where?" Seth shoved an electronic tablet at her. The screen displayed a satellite capture of the mill from Google maps.

She pointed to the center of the building. Her finger tracked right, to the east end. She tapped the screen. "Guards here." She tracked back across the screen to the opposite end of the building. "And here. Two each. Those are what I can read. Others could be cloaked."

"Cloaked? You mean like the charms we use?"

Esme shrugged, the casual gesture faked to avoid Seth seeing the questions ricocheting inside her head. She had taught Lana to work the new charms and, together, they had taught the latents being welcomed into the clan.

Could one of those women be a plant? The artifact made no mention of male latents—but what if there were? That would explain the Hunters. And what if they had sisters—or otherwise recruited female latents?

"Show me again!"

Seth's bark drew Esme back to the moment. She drew a circle where she had first indicated Denver's position.

"Quentin is with him." Along the south wall, she traced another line. "Two more behind Denver, along the wall."

Seth gave a grim nod and radioed the lead van. "Take out the west corner—smash it to pieces."

Another press on the radio's call button and he told the driver of the third van to take out the east corner. Constructed of wood and over two hundred years old, the mill's walls wouldn't stand up to the reinforced vans. Reaching up, Seth switched off the interior light then leaned forward and opened the panel separating the van's cargo area from the driver.

"Hit it just enough to break the wall. Denver's about six feet beyond that," he told the wolf driving, then he pushed Esme into Cade's arms. "Whatever happens, keep her safe. I don't care how many of us you have to leave behind."

Esme jerked her head in Cade's direction, her gaze glowing as she pushed her energy at him in a silent plea for him to disobey Seth. She needed Denver safe more than she needed to draw her next breath, but no one should sacrifice their life or another's for her.

"Don't look at me like that," Cade rumbled, forcing Esme to face away from him. "It was your powers that brought life back to the clan. We're not losing you again."

Seth cinched an arm around Esme's waist, his form shifting until he was no longer human. His other hand curled around one of the inside support bars.

"Brace!" Seth shouted.

Esme had half a second to let the warning sink in before she saw the south wall of the mill coming up fast. Her hand shot upward to join Cade's along the bar as her other hand pressed flat against the van's roof.

In front of them, the wall disintegrated.

"Holy shit!” she screamed.

Seth was out of the van before the dust settled, rifle up and firing. Unslinging his weapon, Cade pushed Esme behind him. The impact of the vehicles or an intentional act by a Hunter had taken out the mill’s lights, preventing her from seeing anything other than muzzle flashes beyond the van's interior. Her ears told her men were dying—maybe half a dozen human males pleading and screaming in pain as the wolves ran them down.

Esme wanted the Hunters torn limb from limb for what they'd done—to Denver, to Lana and her sister, to countless unnamed victims.

"Kill them and get the witch!"

His location hidden, Quentin's voice came from all around as a fresh wave of Hunters surged from beneath tarps that concealed underground passages, their numbers at least twice that of the dying men they were replacing.

She looked to the area where Denver should be and saw a sack of flesh and bones strapped to an upright board. For a heart wrenching moment, she thought she had been duped by Quentin again—that her vision of Denver in this location was no more than this monstrosity. Then, just beyond it, she saw her mate, tied down, purple black veins and capillaries glowing beneath his skin from whatever poison Quentin had injected him with.

"I'm sorry," Esme whispered, one finger stroking the back of Cade's neck.

He dropped to the van's floor, his body fighting to get up as a bubble of witch light surrounded him. Esme skirted the bubble, shot another one forward and stepped into it.

Wolves and Hunters looked up from their fighting at the display of raw magic.

The Hunters stared a few seconds too long.

The shifters stayed focus, their hands and teeth busy breaking bones and cleaving flesh.

Death filled Esme's nostrils as she ran toward Denver. She pushed the bubble ahead of her to wrap around his body. Reaching him, she stopped to assess the battle.

Cade glared from where she had him trapped. A flick of a neuron within her mind and the protection surrounding him disappeared. He jumped from the van to join the fray. Before he could land the first blow, witch light consumed his opponent's head.

Bolts of more witch light flew, bending around the shifters to pierce their enemies' skulls.

In a matter of seconds, the last of the Hunters were dead.

And Quentin was nowhere to be found.

Esme kept the bubble holding her and Denver intact despite the battle looking like it was over.

"Let us in," Seth barked.

Esme expanded the bubble then moved outside it so Seth and Cade could free and carry Denver. She looked at the figure she had seen lashed to the ladder. Just a head, neck, and trunk. The head's vague features faintly resembled Quentin.

"It looks like a damn jellyfish," Cade said, his throat twisting in disgust.

"It's a golem," Esme answered, extending an inquisitive finger toward it. "One of the Hunters must have acted as Quentin's arms in the vision I saw."

"Don't," Seth ordered before she made contact. "No one is touching another damn thing in this place! Now make this fucking bubble move or drop it so we can get your mate into a van."

Nodding, shock dulling her senses, Esme turned and propelled the layer of witch light surrounding the three shifters toward the nearest van.

She followed them inside the vehicle. The back doors slammed shut and then the side door, everyone lurching as the driver threw the vehicle into reverse.

With the van moving, Esme kneeled on the floor in front of Denver. Seth and Cade held him across their laps. His upper body bare, she could see the network of bulging black veins. They moved in an obscene writhing pattern over his stomach and chest, crawling up his neck and along his shoulders. It reminded her of the spell she'd cast to keep Denver out of her home and the way his body had reacted when he obstinately tried to enter.

"Quentin injected him with something far worse than datura. Did we get a sample?" she asked.

Seth grunted before answering.

"What part of no one touching another damn thing in there did you miss?"

Her eyes flicked up, a flash of power sizzling in her pupils, then flicked down to her inert mate. He hovered at the edge of death.

Catching Cade's gaze, she nodded at the radio hooked to his belt.

"I need my mother at the nearest border house." She paused then rattled off the names of three latents she'd spent the last few weeks training. "Bring Tavi, Nadine, and Philia, too."

Cade looked at Seth, Seth nodded back.

"Radio Jory, tell him to bring those latents to Eckels' place stat!" His gaze finally softening, Seth patted Esme's hand. "Lana and your mother are already there."

She shook her head and whispered. "You should have kept your mate at the meeting hall."

Seth pointed at Denver. "We can argue about it later. Right now, I can feel him fading fast."

Esme nodded, tears sliding down her cheeks as she leaned over Denver's chest, her palm directly over his heart. She stroked his hair, used the caress to tilt his head back. His lips parted from the gentle force. Esme sucked a deep breath in, sealed her mouth against his and slowly blew.

Her magic flowed into his lungs, seeped into the blackish blood to be exhaled as soot through his pores. She drew another breath, blew again, the pattern repeating until—sometime before the van reached Eckels' cabin—she blacked out.