“Are you OK?” Sebastian asked quietly, keeping his gaze straight ahead. “You know we could just turn back.”
“Is that what you’ve been thinking for the last two hours, Seb?” she replied, trying not to be snarly. His response was tense silence. “No, I didn’t think so. My bet is that you’ve been playing over and over in your mind Jaeden’s rescue.”
He smirked wryly. “You know me so well.”
“I need to get her back, Sebastian. There is no going back.”
He nodded and let the silence fall between them again.
They couldn’t be too far behind Lucien and the others. Caia breathed in deep relief when they found the Motel the guys had said they would crash at, and sure enough Lucien’s truck sat parked outside a room further down the lot.
Caia got out of the car, her heart pounding. She could hear Sebastian’s beat just as erratically as hers.
“He’s going to kill us,” Sebastian murmured, coming around the car to stand close by her.
“Hasn’t seemed to bother you before.”
They walked slowly towards the room, picking up the others’ scents until they were standing immediately outside room 15. The door flew open before they could even knock and Christian stood staring at them incredulously, before ushering them in without a word.
Caia blinked in the dull darkness of the large motel room with its brown faded curtains closed across all the windows. Aidan sat on one of the twin beds with a matching look of incredulity and horror on his face. Lucien and Ryder were nowhere to be seen, and Caia couldn’t smell either of them nearby.
“What in the Hades are you doing here, Caia?” Aidan jumped up, pulling her further into the room as Christian shut the door. Sebastian clung closely to her and Aidan frowned, sniffing her. His eyes widened and he spluttered at Sebastian, “You didn’t dare.”
Just then the door banged open nearly knocking Christian on his ass. Caia gulped as Lucien strode forward, his eyes on her, blazing with undiluted fury. Her gaze swung past them to Ryder who wore a mixed look of disappointment and sympathy.
“Are you insane?” Lucien’s guttural growl was so animalistic even the other guys flinched back. And then he seemed to catch the scent of the air around him and his silver eyes darkened to almost black. Caia would always be thankful for how quickly Ryder reacted, grabbing Lucien back by the arms and enlisting Christian’s help to restrain him while he writhed and spat and growled, his eyes locked on Sebastian with bloodthirsty intent.
“Why do you smell like him?” Caia flinched back from the snarl. At first she was so taken aback by how uncontrolled Lucien was, truly scared of him for the first time, that she looked around at the others in incomprehension at his question. Sebastian had paled, but stood bravely tense. Caia automatically reached out to ease him by placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. It was a bad move. Lucien struggled harder and almost freed himself before Aidan joined them to hold him back.
“Caia,” Ryder groaned, struggling to hold onto his friend. “He means why do you smell of Sebastian?”
Oh dear goddess, she slumped in relief, understanding now that he had misinterpreted Sebastian’s scent on her. Oh, she flushed, embarrassed at what they were all thinking. They thought she and Sebastian had...
Well... that isn’t insulting in anyway.
“Oh, for goddess sake,” she snapped stepping forward, trying to be unafraid of him. “I’m wearing Sebastian’s shirt that’s all.”
An eruption of disjointed growling followed this.
“He’s asking why?” Ryder snapped, looking truly pissed at her now.
“Because I was bare ass after running wolf-style through the woods to get to his house.”
Lucien snarled some more and looked more than ready to decapitate Sebastian.
Caia threw up her hands. She knew Alpha’s could get pretty protective of their mates but this was just obscene, especially considering she had told him where to stick their mating. “Oh for the love of Gaia, nothing happened!” she cried. “But thanks for the swell opinion.” This was directed at them all, because they had all been thinking the same thing.
Sebastian shrugged, trying to remain cool. “She’s telling the truth. I wouldn’t touch her without her say so.”
Oh such the wrong thing to say. Caia glared at him as Lucien struggled some more. “Sebastian, maybe you should wait outside.”
He nodded and then walked past the three large males not even flinching when Lucien snapped his jaws at his ear. When Sebastian was safely outside and his scent had disappeared, Caia turned to Ryder. “Will you let him go so he and I can speak?”
“I don’t know if that’s...”
He trailed off as Lucien began shuddering in their arms, obviously trying to control his lykan. His breathing began to even out and his eyes became more silver, although no less angry as they glared at her.
“Leave us,” he demanded.
“Lucien, you won’t hurt h-”
“How could you even think I would?”
“You’re just not yourself right now.”
“Leave us.”
The others nodded and quietly left them alone in the motel room. She flinched as Lucien strode by her and began rummaging through a holdall he had with him filled with weapons and clothes. He pulled out a black shirt and threw it at her. “Change.”
His stormy scent infiltrated her olfactory senses and her stomach inappropriately clenched in desire. She blushed, turning away, hoping he couldn’t sense it. Holy Artemis, how could she still want him after that he-man display of outrageousness? She shouldn’t put the shirt on. How dare he tell her what to do!
As if sensing her defiance, Lucien growled and repeated the command.
Um, it may be better at this point to just humor the angry, muscular lykan. Keeping her back to him, Caia drew Sebastian’s shirt over her head and heard Lucien’s intake of breath. She tried not to be pleased at how she affected him, but it must have been a female thing because she couldn’t help but want to wag her tail in smugness. Instead she quickly threw Lucien’s black shirt on which drowned her even more than Sebastian’s had. Turning back to face him, he looked somewhat appeased by her obedience, but still blazing angry.
“And why are you here?” he bit out without any ‘how d’ya do’s’.
She braced herself for war. “To get Jaeden back. We’re coming with you.”
Lucien had a hold of her so quickly he gave her whiplash. “Like Hades you are.”
“You can’t stop me,” she replied calmly.
His face crumpled, losing all anger and filling with desperation. “Caia, I can’t go into this worrying about your safety.”
“You need someone, a magikal someone, in there with you. And I need to do this.”
Lucien shook her none too gently. “It is not your fault they took her.”
“Yes. It. Is.”
“Caia-”
“I’m not arguing this out with you, Lucien. You either let me go with you or I’ll just use my magik to keep you here and go it alone.”
His eyes narrowed dangerously. “You’ve not got that kind of power yet.”
Caia tensed at the challenge and smiled humorlessly. “You wanna bet?” And with that, she drew her focus and energy carefully into seizing a hold of Lucien. He gasped as his hands dropped from her uppers arms and he was pushed back gently with an invisible force. She smiled at his surprise which seemed to infuriate him back to his senses and he made a move towards her, only to bounce back off an invisible barrier between them.
“Caia,” he growled and hit at the barrier.
Her amusement faded as he walked the length of the room trying to escape the shield she had created around him. Marion had taught her this the day she had returned from the Center, and Caia had picked it up with surprising ease. But watching Lucien growl and hiss and spit in his growing failure Caia felt terrible, caging him in. She didn’t want to do this to him.
The barrier disappeared and Lucien had a hold of her again. “Don’t ever do that again,” his hot breath rushed across her face and she closed her eyes not wanting to see any contempt in his eyes.
“Caia look at me,” he demanded.
She shook her head.
“Look at me.”
Slowly her eyes fluttered open. Lucien didn’t look angry at her anymore. Sad. Awed. Scared.
“You’re not disgusted?” she whispered.
He shook his head. “Not happy either, though.”
“I don’t want to do that to you, Lucien, but I will. To protect you, to protect Jaeden, I will.”
She felt him tremble and knew he was trying to remain calm. He definitely didn’t like not getting his own way. He let go of her and dropped down heavily onto one of the beds, his elbows braced on his knees, his head buried in his hands. “Fine,” he snapped.
Caia wanted to rejoice. She had won a battle with him. She would get to be there to see Jaeden out of the clutches of her twisted uncle. She would make sure that Lucien would get home safely, too. And then she could get on with her life. “Before we get Jaeden back, we need to talk.” Quietly she settled into a threadbare armchair in the corner of the room, distancing herself physically from him.
He looked up, his eyes searching. “About what?”
“Us.”
He nodded and exhaled loudly. “Is this about the Center?”
“Partly.”
Unnerved, Caia waited for him to say anything, but he sat their immobile, like stone, so stoic now compared to the writhing animal he had been merely fifteen minutes before.
“I think the air should be honest and clear between us before we attempt to rescue Jaeden.”
“Agreed.” He shifted casually so that he lay across the bed, his back pressed against the headboard. Caia looked away, hot flashbacks scoring across her eyes and bursting into goosebumps up and down her arms. Dammit. It was the whole mating thing, she assured herself, the attraction between them would always be there because of that.
Caia swallowed and managed to look back up at him, annoyed by the mischievous light in his eyes that told her he knew what she was thinking.
“From the beginning, here’s the truth.” She breathed and tried to have the courage to maintain eye contact. “I had a crush on you almost from the start. A huge, embarrassing, adolescent crush.” His lips quirked up smugly and she bristled. “Enough of that.”
He chuckled and shrugged. “The attraction was mutual, believe me.”
Caia didn’t want to hear that. She especially didn’t want to feel elated at the news.
“Anyway,” she tried to sound all business, “You have to think how it was for me, Lucien. I hadn’t really had anyone in my life and now here was the pack. And you. I felt safe with you.”
The quiet vulnerability in her voice was obvious and Lucien shifted, sitting up straighter, more alert. “Good,” was his hoarse reply.
“No. Not good-”
“But-”
“Lucien, please listen,” she growled and then heaved a sigh. “It wasn’t good because I was really devastated when I learned about my mother and father and the Midnights. I was torn up, and not just because of the truth… but because you, my safe place, hid it from me.”