The Lost Mate

Max

Everything happened between one second and the next. The vampire leveled the gun towards Lillian, some indecipherable expression caught between hatred and longing on his sharp features. My wolf wanted to rip that expression from his face.

I lunged towards the threat, still in my human form, with Nash beside me as a wolf, but we were too late. He pulled the trigger and the blast assaulted my ears, and I looked in horror towards my mate. She was sprawled on the ground, her father’s brown wolf on top of her, blood pouring from his midsection like a river. She scrambled out from underneath him, crying as she worked to put pressure on his wound.

Nash wasn’t as distracted as me, and he lunged for the gun and wrestled it away from the vampire. It hit the floor with a clatter, and I had the presence of mind to kick it across the room before Wulfric had a chance to get it again.

Then, turning my attention back to the threat at hand, I saw him throw Nash with surprising strength. Weren’t vampires supposed to be weaker than werewolves? We all knew they had speed on us, but in theory, we could overpower them. Maybe it was true that they grew in power with age.

I studied his movements, trying to gauge his abilities and find his weakness, as I moved to get closer to Lillian. Nash picked himself up and rejoined me with a low growl. We had the vampire cornered, and he watched us with a cocky amused expression that made my wolf want to recklessly attack.

Then he looked over towards my mate, and I growled. His voice was loud and clear. “I’ve decided to grant you mercy, pretty mutt, since you’ll have to live the rest of your life with your father’s death on your conscience. But don’t fear, I’ll remember this even when your descendents have forgotten.”

Was he threatening Jonas? I growled again, and rushed towards him.

But the vampire was too fast. He smirked, and so fast I could barely follow what happened, he opened the wall, and disappeared inside. I slammed into the hard solid surface as it closed behind him. Magic? A secret passage? I didn’t know. But he was gone. I growled furiously as I tried to figure out a way in with no success.

I cursed, and gave up. Chasing the bastard was not my priority now, no matter how much my wolf wanted to.

“Stand guard,” I ordered Nash, before I rushed over to my mate. In the seconds while my attention had been occupied, her father had shifted back to human, and he looked disturbingly pale. Lillian was holding down a ripped piece of her dress over his wound, trying to stem the blood flow, tears running down as she furiously blinked them away.

“It’s okay, Lillian,” he said. “I’ve been waiting to see your mother again for a long time.”

“Don’t talk like that, Dad...” Her voice trailed off in a hiccupping sob.

I brushed her hands away to took a look at the gushing wound, before I took over putting pressure on it. He was losing blood fast.

“We’ve got to get the silver out,” I said. “Nash, find something we can use to dig it out.”

“No,” Lillian’s father said, his eyes only on his daughter. “I’m just glad that you and Jonas will be free of this place.” He turned his attention to me. “Max, don’t waste time on me. It’s too late. Get her out of here and to safety, like you promised. Tell Hannah I love her.”

I was conflicted, but I nodded as I pulled her up. He closed his eyes. His heart was beating fast, trying to keep up with the lack of blood, but it was only pushing the blood out faster.

“My dad,” she whimpered.

I pulled her next to me. “He wants us to survive for Jonas, and this is our best shot while things are in chaos.”

“Chaos?”

“We’re not the only people here,” I said. She looked back at her father as I pulled her away and out of the room, but she didn’t argue further. Nash followed on our heels. “Can you shift?” I asked her.

She nodded, and burst into the graceful brown wolf I had dreamed of for so long. I did the same, and we dashed through the halls. “What’s the best way out?” I asked her. “The accord vampires are taking down this nest, but there are feral werewolves attacking anything that moves, so the faster we can get out, the better.”

“Out through the front...maybe. They shut down the servants’ entrances at the first sign of trouble.” There was a catch in her voice. “If any slaves are still trapped there, we have to let them out.”

“Let’s see what’s happening.” I wanted to help the other unfortunate prisoners, too, but more than that I wanted to get my mate away from here.

We dashed through the halls, following my mate’s directions. We had to fight ferals a few times, and we encountered more than one group of vampires. It was difficult to tell if they were enemies or allies at first glance. Two turned out to be the queen’s forces, and the last seemed to be guests of the rebel vampire, but they were too busy fleeing to cause us any real difficulty.

Finally, we reached a large hall that smelled like nothing so much as a museum of death. There were several empty stages, and bright lights had been turned on, showing the equipment of the area harshly. A few restrained vampires were being hauled out by other vampires in uniforms. The room appeared secure since there was no more fighting to be seen.

Selfishly, I was mostly relieved that I wouldn’t have to take Lillian through any more fighting. A dour looking vampire passed us several generic grey robes, and the three of us shifted back to human before proceeding further into the huge room.

In a separate but connected area, vampires were releasing the victims my mate had been worried about from cages. Lillian glanced at a pair of nearby vampires and gaped. “I brought those two in. Aren’t they...?”

“They managed to get a few of the forces inside as guests.” Unlike the other vampires who wore uniforms, they were both wearing fancy formal wear, although the female’s blond up-do was half falling out and the male was missing his jacket.

I figured out where it had ended up when a petite fae rushed up to Lillian with a jacket over her skimpy outfit. She grabbed my mate’s hands. “Do you know if Autumn is okay?”

Lillian looked to me. “Did you see a small fae girl?”

Truthfully, all the children besides Jonas had been a blur to me, but I spoke to the female who appeared on the brink of breaking. “We’ve got a pair of witches protecting all the children and moving them to a secure location.”

She nodded, clearly still worried. “One of the witches is fae, and she’ll take good care of your daughter until you’re reunited.”

The female burst into tears and started crying onto Lillian’s shoulder. My mate patted her back.

Nash had been watching the interaction silently, but then he suddenly stiffened and started looking around the room. Before I thought to ask what was the matter, Like a blur, he rushed forward past us, his typical jerking and skulking gone as he began running around the room.

I didn’t waste more time worrying about what he was doing, instead I went to the nearest vampire and told them about Lillian’s father’s condition while she was distracted comforting the fae.

It was surely too late, so I didn’t want to get her hopes up, but we had to try. Guilt hit me, if I had known that the royal forces had already successfully overwhelmed the building we should have ignored his wishes and stayed with him while I sent Nash to find help.

But would Nash have made his way through alone? It was hard to say. Several vampires hurried off to either try to save him or retrieve his remains.

Now, I just wanted to get my mate out of here and get to our child. I was never leaving either of them again. I went back to her, explained where her daughter would be found, and started leading my mate out of the room.

“Who do you think you are to tell me how to run my affairs?” My head snapped over to see a vampire dressed in a tailcoat shouting at the vampires who were restraining him.

“We represent the queen,” one responded with an irritated sigh, “and you’re in violation of the accords, thus risking centuries of peace.”

“Centuries of peace, forced upon us by our oppressors,” he yelled.

“Yeah, yeah, we’re not here to debate politics, Montgomery. You can say it all at your trial.”

He continued yelling. His voice was so loud it almost overshadowed another argument on the far side of the room. Nash was growling at one of the ally vampires, and I hurried over to intervene before he caused Glenshadow future problems. Lillian stuck to my side.

“You can’t keep her locked away!”

“Listen, wolf, we’re not keeping her locked away, we’re—”

“Keeping her locked away!” Nash growled.

“Nash, we’re leaving now,” I told him. I wasn’t sure what he was planning now that the fight was over, but as long as he was associated with my pack, he’d have to listen to me.

“No.” He bristled at my interference, and his growling increased.

“Can I help you?” the weary vampire asked, turning his attention to me. “What’s the problem here?”

“He’s trying to get one of the human victims out, but we need to take them and sort out their statements before we process them back into the human world.”

“Nash, come on, man,” I said, trying to calm him down.

Nash rounded on me with a snarl, the most aggressive I’d ever seen him. I pushed Lillian behind me.

“She’s my mate!”