Kissed by Krista Street
Chapter 3
~ WYATT ~
I paced back and forth on the ruins of Shrouding Estate. The scent of ash and smoke burned my lungs, and coarse rubble skittered over the burned grass every time I took a step.
I’d been sending messages back and forth with Wes for the past sixty minutes, mobilizing more squads and working to procure a seer.
Bavar had been helping, too, but his squad needed to recuperate. The other two squads who’d fought with us were in a similar shape. Two SF members had fallen today, and countless more were injured.
“Major Jamison?”
I whipped around to see a fairy from Squad Nineteen. Soot coated his features, and his suit was torn at the sleeve.
“Nicholas Fitzpatrick is asking for you, sir.”
A growl rumbled in my throat, my wolf on the brink of breaking through his restraints. I was still fuming that Bishop had pulled the vamp to safety. “I have no interest in speaking to that . . . consultant,” I snapped.
The fairy shuffled his feet. “He’s insistent he can help, sir.”
My teeth ground together. “What we need is a seer, not a vamp intent on saving his name or salvaging his career by trying to fix what he did!”
“Sir.” He dipped his head, then scurried away, taking care not to trip over the ruined wing that lay in a wreck of crumbled stone, exploded furniture, and jagged tree branches.
Since Lord Godasara had left, the Shroud Forest had grown quiet once more. Memories of the large trees swinging and fighting against us still seared my mind. I’d never seen anything like it.
But now, the towering trees were still and serene, as if they’d never played a role in the siege. Even the forest’s creatures stayed hidden as though terrified they’d be commanded too.
A glint from something dark flapping in the breeze near the ruined castle caught my eye. I prowled toward it and bent down. A tuft of material was trapped between a block of stone and a shattered wooden picture frame.
I rubbed it between my fingers, then pried it free. It was the same material our SF suits were made of.
Lifting the fabric, I inhaled. The scent of sage filled my senses.
Lex.
His scent clung to the fabric, indicating it had been his suit. A heavy ache filled my chest, and I balled the fabric in my fist.
We’d lost him. Lex had been hit by a binding spell from one of the warlocks, effectively paralyzing him, before the warlock had unleashed a death curse.
I hadn’t seen it happen, but Charlotte had witnessed the entire event.
I hung my head. Charlotte had already returned to SF headquarters at Bavar’s insistence. She’d seen more horrifying events in her first week of active duty than most new members saw in their entire first year.
A lump formed in my throat. Some of the racing panic that had filled my veins since Avery had been taken abated. It wasn’t just my mate who’d been compromised today. Lex and a wolf from Squad Nineteen, not to mention dozens of Fae Guard members, had been killed.
It’d been a bloodbath, but all of the blood had come from our side.
Not only was Lord Godasara still alive, but every single warlock had escaped.
I uncurled my palm, then carefully folded the material from Lex’s suit before slipping it into my pocket. Even though Lex’s body had already been recovered, I would give the material to Wes, in case the family wanted it. If not, I would add it to the pile to be burned as was protocol following a bloody battle.
I inhaled, my breath stuttering. It was a dark day for the Supernatural Forces. We’d lost two members who had been with us for years. Two brothers had fallen today.
My ears pricked when the sound of quiet footsteps came from behind me. Given his scent, I knew who it was before he spoke.
“Nicholas is emphatic that he has useful information,” Bavar said quietly. “You need to talk to him.”
Fury rose in my gut, like a raging inferno that threatened to destroy everything in its path. “I won’t speak to him. He’s the reason my mate was taken!”
Bavar crossed his arms. “How so?”
“He compelled her and fogged her mind. She would have been more aware, even able to fight if he hadn’t done that.”
“It’s still not definitive that Nicholas was to blame for her condition.”
I snarled. “According to who? Him? What’s he still doing here anyway? He should be gone.”
“He refused to leave.” Bavar’s heavy sigh followed, and I finally looked at my friend—really looked at him.
Bavar’s orange hair was streaked with dirt and soot. And for once, he actually appeared his age. Tired lines streaked from the corners of his eyes, and pain was evident in his features.
Guilt hit me. He’d lost a squad member today. One of his men had fallen. He didn’t need my shit on top of it.
“I’m sorry.” I tore a hand through my hair. “I don’t mean to take it out on you. With Avery gone, I’m losing my mind.” I ripped at my hair. “I’m sorry, friend.”
Some of the weariness lifted from Bavar’s features. “I know, and we’ll find her.” He tapped his fingers on his thigh, then opened his mouth before closing it.
“What is it?”
Bavar sighed again. “You know, Nicholas is insistent that he didn’t compel your mate.”
I locked my jaw, forcing myself to take another deep breath, but a growl still vibrated up my throat because Nicholas had bitten my mate. Touched her. Fed from her. Under normal circumstances, I would have killed him for that. I almost had.
“And you believe him?” I bit out.
Bavar placed a hand on his dagger’s hilt. “I do. You need to hear him out. I think he’s innocent.”
Innocent. I scoffed. I’d heard that line from Nicholas before.
Irritation flashed in Bavar’s gaze, and in a blur his hand shot out, gripping my forearm as he reappeared beside me. He squeezed, effectively capturing my attention.
“You need to stop being a wolf right now, Wyatt, and return to being a commander. I know you’re looking for someone to blame, someone to take revenge upon, but Nicholas said Marnee drugged them, and I believe him because she’s gone.” He loosened his grip, if only a little.
“Gone? What do you mean, she’s gone?”
“We can’t find her. The last time Marnee was seen was near the Jeulic wing.”
“Is she dead?”
“No. Her tracking signal picked up an hour after the battle. It registered her location along with her vital signs. Her heart was still pumping, and she was three miles out. All of that was recorded after the elf and his warlocks disappeared, so we know she survived the fight.”
“She abandoned her squad?”
Tight lines formed around Bavar’s mouth when his lips thinned. “It appears so.”
I curled my fingers into my palms. I was brimming for a fight even though we’d just finished a battle, but I reined in my temper. “Marnee actually left her squad.” I said it more to myself than to Bavar, but only because that was unheard of in the SF.
“From what I can gather, yes, which means Nicholas’s accusation could be true. We both know she’s been acting unusual on this assignment, that she’s due for a soak, and we also both know she was jealous of what you and Avery share. Given her previous odd behavior, her jealous antics, and now this—abandoning her squad—his accusation isn’t that far-fetched. I think he’s telling the truth.”
“Motherfucker,” I whispered as my wolf snarled inside me, but just as quickly, I suppressed his anger.
Bavar was right. I needed to control my wolf nature and return to being a cool-headed commander. I took a deep breath, then another.
Ever since Avery had been taken, I’d been letting my emotions get the better of me, but she’d been gone for two hours. Every minute that passed decreased our chances of finding her.
But that didn’t excuse my behavior. I’d allowed my wolf’s need for revenge to cloud my judgment. I was acting irrationally, and that wouldn’t help me find my mate.
“Okay,” I finally said. “I’ll hear him out.”
Bavar’s shoulders relaxed, his death grip releasing on my arm. He beckoned for me to follow him.
We carefully traipsed over the wreckage. A few times, Bavar cast sorrowful glances at the ruined castle. For hundreds of years, this estate had stood against wars and sieges. Until today.
“I’m sorry about your family’s home.”
Bavar inclined his head. “My mother will not be happy, but quite frankly, I don’t give a damn about the castle. We lost two lives today, and we didn’t protect your mate. That’s what matters.”
I dipped my head in agreement. Every fiber in my body was focused on Avery and Avery alone, but she wasn’t the only victim of this siege.
Every time we lost someone in the SF, we all mourned. Even though there were thousands of members in our elite organization, who didn’t necessarily know one another, we were still brothers and sisters.
We were bound by duty—a duty that had called to all of us. We knew death was a risk when we took our vows to save and protect, and every time we woke up and donned our SF suits, we all knew that day could be our last.
But some days, that reality was starker than others.
“Has Wes told their families?” I asked when we rounded the Daphnis wing. I didn’t envy Wes’s job. He personally delivered the news to the family of each fallen member.
“He’s going to hold off until tomorrow. He wants to make sure we have a plan in place to rescue Avery. Although, I imagine the families may already know since news has broken out in the capital about this battle. Twice, Lex’s comm device has activated with calls from home. His wife has been trying to reach him.”
“Shit,” I muttered. “Do they have kids?”
“One. A boy, aged three.”
My heart sank. “I hope Wes gets there soon, so they’re not left wondering.”
“Me too, brother.”
“And I hope he tells his widow that we’ll avenge Lex’s death.”
Bavar’s jaw locked, and a flash of retribution shone in his gaze. “Yes,” was all he replied, but that one word said it all.
My nostrils flared when we rounded another wing and Nicholas’s vampire stench carried toward me on the breeze.
Every muscle in my body tensed when I set eyes on him.
He sat beside Terry in the sun, both seated atop boulders of broken stone. The trees around the estate had all fallen. Patches of bright sunlight now hit the ground.
Terry and Nicholas engaged in quiet discussion, and their soft words drifted to me.
“Tell me again what happened after you drank the beverage,” she prodded.
Nicholas shook his head. Streaks of blood-matted hair hung across his forehead. It was his blood that coated the strands, after I’d beaten the shit out of him.
My fingers curled into my palms when images of him feeding off Avery again clouded my mind.
“We both felt the effects after we’d had a few drinks,” he said quietly. “Avery said she began feeling dizzy, and I felt funny too. That’s when I knew we’d been drugged.”
Bavar and I stopped, letting them finish their conversation. I devoured every word, taking deep breaths the entire time. I needed to stay calm.
When finished, Terry lifted her eyes to mine and then Bavar’s. Nicholas’s shoulders grew rigid, and he slowly turned to face us with an apprehensive expression.
He’d already healed from the beating I’d given him. The only evidence of my ferocious attack lay in the dried blood caking his face, hair, and body.
I’d nearly torn him limb from limb. If Bishop hadn’t stopped me, I would have, and I wouldn’t have regretted it.
Because seeing him atop my mate, between her soft thighs, while he feasted on her neck, had born a rage inside me that I’d never experienced before. And that rage had only flamed hotter when I’d heard her moaning and seen her writhing at his touch.
In that singular moment, my wolf hadn’t cared that Avery still hadn’t fully accepted us as her mate. In his mind, she was ours, and all he’d seen was another male grinding against her, wanting to claim her.
To my wolf, that had sealed Nicholas’s fate. He would die.
Bishop had stopped me, but the pain evoked from seeing them together . . . so much fucking pain.
Because the truth was that unless the day came that Avery firmly told me our mating was never going to happen, which would force me to release my desire to claim her—to walk away from her—I would always view her as mine.
Slamming a hand through my hair, I looked away from Nicholas’s carefully blank expression.
Terry finally stood and broke the silence. “I think he’s telling the truth, commanders. We haven’t retrieved the thermos that holds the drink he and Avery shared, but my gut is telling me he’s being truthful.”
“Can his blood be tested?” I asked curtly. “For this supposed drug?”
Terry shook her head, and a flash of pain filled her eyes.
I cursed inwardly, berating myself for being so insensitive. It would have been Lex’s job to test Nicholas for drugs, but Lex was gone.
Terry cleared her throat as a veiled mask descended over her features, her expression clearing. “As a vamp, he would have metabolized any drugs by now anyway. No trace would be left, so testing is pointless.”
I nodded. “Of course.”
“We’ll find the thermos eventually and test the drink,” Bavar added. “But right now, digging through the rubble for a thermos isn’t a priority.”
“No, it’s not,” I agreed. “Finding my mate is.”
“There’s another reason that I think he’s telling the truth.” Terry’s eyes flashed daggers. “Why would Marnee disappear if she hadn’t done anything wrong?”
Bavar and I shared a contemplative look. Terry’s logic was solid. To have Marnee abandon her squad, especially after her bizarre behavior during the past few days, did paint her in a bad light. She very well could have drugged Nicholas and Avery, hoping the exact situation that had occurred would happen.
Because if we hadn’t lost the battle, and instead I’d returned to the cell later than I did, to tell them of our victory, I could have walked in on Nicholas fucking my mate.
My breath sucked in.
Even if Avery had been drugged, even if Nicholas wasn’t to blame, I would have murdered him.
“Terry’s right about me being innocent, Wyatt.” Nicholas’s clipped comment snapped my attention to him.
My jaw locked as my gaze swept between Nicholas, Terry, and Bavar. I stepped closer to the vampire and inhaled, scenting for traces of deceit. I found none.
Still, I couldn’t stop myself when I grabbed him by the lapels of his shirt. I hauled him clear off the ground until he was eye to eye with me.
He didn’t try to fight. Not once.
I searched his eyes, his expression, his scent—I searched everything for a hint of trickery.
But all I found was remorse, and for a moment, the rage inside me faltered.
“I didn’t mean to touch her, Wyatt. You can choose to believe me or not, but that’s the truth. Just like it’s the truth that I never raped or intentionally harmed your little sister.”
My nostrils flared when he spoke of Lassa, my fingers curling more around his shirt.
For years, I’d carried burning fury inside me for the vamp. Even though the courts ruled that he’d never raped my sister, which I eventually agreed with, he’d still taken her virginity and seduced her. Lassa had only been sixteen. She’d still been a child. And Nicholas was old enough to know better than to believe everything a young woman told him.
But as a vamp, all he’d seen was an attractive female and easy sex.
He’d taken advantage of her adolescent flirting.
And that was what I’d carried with me, was what had made me hate him . . . until recently. I’d finally started to forgive him and had been ready to move on.
And now this.
“If it wasn’t for the thrall she was under, this wouldn’t have happened.” I growled and gave him a rough shake. “Avery would have been able to fight back, and maybe that would have been enough for her to break free of him.”
Nicholas still dangled from my hands, not even trying to physically defend himself. “Maybe that’s true. Maybe if she hadn’t been drugged she could have broken free from Lord Godasara, but your anger is misplaced. I didn’t drug her, and I didn’t compel her. I am not to blame for her fogged state. What you witnessed wasn’t my thrall. It was the effects of a potent aphrodisiac.”
A fire lit behind the vampire’s eyes, and I scented his rising anger, finally sparking to life. “It was that siren who drugged us. She gave me the food and drink, telling me that it’d been packed for Avery and me in case we were stuck in that room for days. If anyone should be angry here, it’s me. I’m a victim of her malicious actions, too, not just your mate. And furthermore, if you’re looking for someone to blame, how about yourself? You wouldn’t let Avery fight. You guilt-tripped her into going into that room with me. If she’d never been there, she wouldn’t have drunk the drugged beverage. She would have been clear-headed enough to fight back. You play a part in this too, Wyatt. It’s not all on me.”
I abruptly released him, stumbling back. My chest heaved as his accusations cut deep. You play a part in this too.
For a moment, stunned silence surrounded us. Bavar and Terry stood motionless.
My wolf snarled inside me, begging me to rip Nicholas’s head off, as my human mind sorted through his comments at lightning speed.
You wouldn’t let Avery fight. You guilt-tripped her into going into that room with me. If she’d never been there, she wouldn’t have drunk the drugged beverage. She would have been clear-headed enough to fight back.
Gods.
He was right.
Absolutely right.
I hadn’t wanted her to fight even though she carried that great power. I hadn’t wanted her anywhere near the battle. But she’d wanted to be there.
And what if, for once, I’d suppressed my instinct to protect her and didn’t beg her to stay out of harm’s way? Nicholas was right. She was strong, so very strong.
Yet I hadn’t allowed her to fight.
Fuck. I speared my fingers through my hair, balling the strands in clumps.
I wasn’t blameless, far from it. But Nicholas had still bitten my mate and drunk from her.
I squeezed my eyes shut, the rage inside me threatening to return. As much as my human mind was trying to rationalize and accept that I was as much to blame for Avery’s fate as anyone else, my wolf’s was feeling anything but rational.
All he saw was another male on top of our mate right before she’d been abducted.
His mournful howl rose within me, and I knew when I opened my eyes that my irises were glowing.
Nicholas took an abrupt step back.
But it wasn’t just Nicholas my anger was focused on. I shouldn’t have forced Avery to do anything. I shouldn’t have locked her in that room.
I dropped my chin, forcing down my wolf’s anger as I struggled with the bitter feelings blazing through my soul.
I finally looked up, meeting his trepid expression. Our gazes locked and held. An eternity seemed to stretch between us. I took a deep breath, then another, before finally saying in a stiff voice, “If it’s true that you didn’t compel my mate, then I’m sorry for what was done to you.”
Bavar’s eyes popped, as Terry’s mouth dropped open.
But I kept my wolf in check and didn’t succumb to his bloodlust. No. It was time I faced some hard truths.
I wasn’t blameless in this, but perhaps Nicholas was.
I waited for the vamp to respond, but my reaction had apparently robbed everyone of speech since neither Nicholas, Bavar, or Terry replied.
I gritted my teeth together. “I may be a wolf, but my human side is stronger than most wolves. I’m not a beast. My wolf doesn’t control me. And if you remember, I fought my wolf nature for three months while Avery was my new recruit. For three months, I pushed her away even though all I wanted to do was keep her at my side.” I grumbled. “So you can all stop looking so surprised that I’m capable of being rational.”
Bavar at last snapped his eyes back to normal. “Nobody thinks you’re irrational, Wyatt. We’ve all worked with you long enough to know that you’re level-headed to a fault, but you’re also a mated male werewolf now, and well . . .” He held his hands up in surrender. “We all know what happens to a male wolf’s mind when that occurs. Rationality isn’t always a bonded wolf’s strong point, not where his mate is concerned.”
My lips thinned. “Well, I’m going to prove you wrong.” I eyed Nicholas carefully. “Bavar said you can help regarding Avery?”
Nicholas straightened, then brushed at his shirt. The image was almost laughable, since we were all covered in blood, dust, and grime, but I also knew he was still grappling with my rational response. Hell, only a few hours ago, I’d tried to tear his throat out.
Nicholas finally finished tidying his attire. “Possibly. I’m fairly certain that I read somewhere in the scrolls about Lord Godasara’s favorite dwelling, but I can’t remember the exact location. I’ll need to return to the library to find it since I can’t help but wonder if that’s where he’s taken her.”
My heart pounded as hope surged through me. “Do you think he’d still use the same dwelling that he did thousands of years ago?”
Nicholas shrugged. “Honestly, I don’t know, but right now, unless the seer is able to give us a firm location for where Avery’s located, it’s all we have to go on.”
“And there’s no guarantee the seer will be able to locate Avery at all,” Bavar added.
“How long until she arrives?” I asked Bavar.
“Within the hour. She was dealing with a case that couldn’t be left unfinished, but that gives you an hour to travel to the library and back.”
“Do we have portal keys?”
Bavar pulled a handful from his pocket. “More than enough. My uncle sent more.”
Terry’s eyes widened at the treasure in Bavar’s palm and for good reason. Portal keys were precious and hard to come by, but Bavar was a royal. He had access to wealth we couldn’t even contemplate.
My jaw locked. “In that case, Nicholas, we leave now.”
