He shook his head in disgust. "You arrogant sons of bitches. Oh"-Syn pointed at the white-haired veana-"that goes for the daughters too."
She barely registered his insult. "We want Cruen."
"You and me both," he uttered. "And if I bring him to you?"
She took a breath, touched her face thoughtfully. "Well, then. Bronwyn Kettler, as far as we and any who are controlled by us are concerned, belongs to you."
He fixed her with a challenging stare. "Who the hell else would she belong to?"
"Lucian Roman, of course." Before he had a chance to reply, she lifted her hand and waved it over him. "Now, get to work."
Cruen had felt the surge of power even from the depths of his laboratory belowground. The Breeding Male. It was as if a switch had been turned on, as if the world had colored and beamed, and he instantly walked away from the table and the blood samples he was testing and went over to the four caged ones along the wall.
With his eyes closed and the many strings of his mind unleashed, he locked on to the pair of new lovers in his reality and summoned them home. To him. To their new life.
The fifth cage was ready for Bronwyn Kettler, just as the female was ready for Lucian Roman.
The chants that flowed from his lips were thoughtful and pure, and they needed to be. It was no easy feat summoning Purebloods to an interior location, and even more difficult the deeper into the ground you attempted to call them.
But Cruen let the dark magic flow through him, the darkest of blood magic-it was his greatest ally, and after several moments, he felt the floor below him shift and shudder like an earthquake. He grinned at the surge of power inside and beneath him, then chuckled as the Pureblood tester rats before him held tight to their metal bars and cried out in fear.
His eyes flipped open. He inhaled sharply, expecting to see the shocked pair in the empty cage on the far wall, the large cage-big enough for two. But there was nothing, no one. Fear scuttled through Cruen as the chemical scents of the laboratory suddenly grew thicker, harsher in his nostrils.
He moved to the cage, empty-EMPTY!
A growl escaped his throat, wicked and unearthly. Where were they? Where were his two prize rats?
He slammed his eyes shut. He could not lose them. Lucian's seed was vital to his plan, and the Kettler veana-she had all the genetic information he needed inside that thick brain of hers. He would try again. Then again, if necessary.
Heat suffused his limbs, his organs, and he reached out to the reality and tried to lock on to their scent, their heat patterns-anything...
Fuck!
He growled again, low and deadly. How was this possible? How was it that he felt nothing? It was as if they never were-had never existed-as if they'd been erased from the planet.
He slammed his eyes open and called to his eldest son.
The Beast flashed to his side in under a second, towering over his father like the Pureblood son of a Breeding Male that he was. "You have need of me, Cruen."
Shaking with rage, with bewilderment-with failure-Cruen slammed the bars of the empty cage and commanded, "Take Lycos and find them."
The Beast's diamond eyes flickered with confusion. "They are not here?"
"Do you see them here, Erion?" Cruen said caustically. "My magic has been severed."
As the captive ones behind him fell silent, listening, curious, Erion's voice bordered on wonder. "Someone interferes."
"Someone dares to play with me," Cruen said viciously, pushing away from the cage and quickly heading for his worktable. There, he picked up a syringe. "A dangerous, foolish game."
"Who would make such a grave mistake?" Erion asked.
Cruen cocked his head, pulled back the plunger on the syringe, and said with deadly calm, "I believe I may have the answer."
Erion lifted his chin. "Shall I send Helo to execute this hindrance?"
Cruen's anger turned thoughtful for a moment. "No. The interloper will pay, but not in death." He flicked his chin at his son. "Go now. Time is of the essence. The female will be ready to breed in four days' time. We must have her male ready."
Cruen watched Erion flash, then stalked over to a sleeping Pureblood in one of the smaller cages. Without care or sympathy, he thrust the needle into the paven's throat and withdrew another vial of blood.
Bronwyn landed naked and cold on the only drift of remaining snow outside a massive villa. It took her a second or two to get her bearings, to question where she was and why-and to realize just how exposed she was. It was day and the sun was bright in the blue sky above her, but still she shivered. Not from the cold, but from fear. Lucian was no doubt following her here-wherever this was-at least, that's what she hoped, and as he was the Breeding Male now she wondered plaintively if he was also morphed. In her genetic studies, there had never been a clear answer on the morphing process for Breeding Males-some did, some didn't. But she didn't want to risk it with this one. Unlike Meta for females, morphed pavens couldn't survive in the sun, and if Lucian had undergone the change, the moment he hit the wet spring earth, his flesh would burn.
Completely unconcerned with her nude frame, Bronwyn jumped up and looked for something, anything to cover him. All she needed was a moment, to cover his skin before she could flash them closer to the villa, closer to shelter. But like the island, there was only plant life to be had: leaves and bark, rocks and olive trees. Her gaze slid up to the villa, the massive castle on the hill with its tentacles of vines on the exterior walls, and the windows that looked like eyes. Could she flash there, beg the occupants for a blanket or something and get back before Lucian arrived? Did she want to risk it?
The popping sound that had accompanied her entrance into this world sounded once again, and when she saw Lucian appear nude and writhing in pain on the ground a few feet away, she ran at him and covered him with her body, tried to use her nude frame as a shield. But the paven was fast. In under a second, before she could get to him, he ratcheted up to a standing position and shot out his arms.
For one brief moment, Bronwyn sighed with relief. His skin was the same, beautiful, hard angles, jutting manhood. No sun had harmed him. He wasn't morphed-and she wondered if he ever would be.
But then he opened his mouth and hissed at her and she abandoned all thought, all the questions in her mind.
His eyes huge, his fangs extended, he whispered in an ugly, animal-like voice, "Another step, Princess, and you will face your truest fear-a Breeding Male's pleasure."
Lucian felt the innocence in her expression, perhaps even the beginnings of love, die before his eyes. But there was nothing for it. He was already halfway to hell, his mind shifting in and out of consciousness, his senses looking, searching for prey-female prey as the drive to breed fought for control of his mind.
He hadn't completely turned Breeding Male yet, but the change was coming, and coming fast...
As her gaze moved over him, it took all of his remaining self-control to keep himself from running down the hill and into the woods-away from her and in search of more female flesh.
Goddamn, he was like a mad wolf.
Gripping his belly, his hands clenching and unclenching like claws, he uttered a terse, "I need to get up there, to my brother's."
"That's your brother's house?"
He nodded. "And you need to get to your mate."
Her expression of sadness, of fear, of anxiety fell even further. "I can help. Let me flash you there."
"No."
"Lucian-"
"You can't touch me, damn it!" he snapped, backing up. "Fuck, I've got to get out."
She stepped toward him. "What do you mean?"
Why couldn't she get this? Why did she continue to come at him like she was going to be the one veana in the world to tame the wild beast that raged inside of him?
"I've got to get away," he told her, his skin growing thicker, his muscles getting tenser. "Before I can't control myself any longer. Before this thing, this gene-whatever it is-takes over my sanity completely, and I find and rape any female who has the misfortune to cross my path."
She shook her head, refusing to listen. "You won't."
His eyes drilled into her. "You know I will. You of all people know that."
In his one hundred and twenty-five years, Lucian had felt deep hunger. He'd felt uncontrolled lust. He'd felt impending insanity. He'd felt sorrow and hopelessness come over him in thick waves of fog. But never in his life had he felt them all at once. This wasn't morpho-he was never going through morpho. This was the pain and agony of changing into the Breeding Male.
His gaze dropped, moved over every inch of her exposed skin. Through gritted teeth, he uttered, "Flash up to the house. Tell my brother-tell the guards-to come and fetch me." A low, brutal sound exited his throat. "I fucking despise that anyone must see you this way. But better them than me."
Another lightning rod of pain, just like the one on the island, ricocheted through him. His nostrils flared, his fangs dropped. Pure hell on earth.
He caught her looking at him. Fear, pity, and something else in her eyes-something he didn't want to see ever again. And yet he knew he would, over and over.
A trace of disgust.
His gaze shifted up, past her head. He spotted something, someone, perhaps a guard at the top of the hill. He shouted over the pain ringing in his ears, "Hey! We need some help! Get down here."
But as the male drew closer, Lucian saw that it wasn't an Impure guard. This paven was tall, broad, and moved like a bull charging a canvas of red.
"Lucian, that's not-"
The paven flashed directly in front of them. Lucian heard Bronwyn gasp and utter the words, "It's him. The one who took me. The gemino," before he lost his mind altogether. Suddenly, the Beast reached out for him, tried to get his arm and neck, but Lucian slammed him in the face with his fist. The Beast dropped back, his nose dripping blood, his eyes flashing hate.
The intense amount of new and unexpected strength Lucian possessed surprised him, and he didn't block himself when the paven came at him again.
"No!" Bronwyn screamed, grabbing Lucian out of the imposter's reach and thrusting him against her.
She flashed them away just as the paven called out, "Run and hide, little mice. But I will find you."
In the villa library, Nicholas was hard at work on his laptop. Pissed off at the contact who had been a no-show the night before, he was trying everything he could think of, contacting everyone he knew, to get this guy back on his radar.
He needed answers. Ladd needed answers.
As if his thoughts could actually summon the boy, Ladd Letts, his seven-year-old nephew and ward came running into the room, his eyes wild with excitement, his white hair disheveled as if he'd been at play. The boy had no idea that the mother he'd loved and lost a few weeks ago to the deadly hands of ex-Impure leader Ethan Dare had once unknowingly given herself to Nicholas's twin brother-and Nicky planned to keep it that way for as long as possible.
Kate was following at a brisk pace behind Ladd, but her beautiful face and dark eyes lacked the enthusiasm of the boy. Her expression was heavy with concern.
"We saw them," she said, her tone just as agitated as her expression.
Nicholas put down his BlackBerry and asked, "Who, sweetest one?"
She shook her head, started rambling. "At least I think it was them."
"Oh, it was them!" On the couch now, Ladd jumped up and down, a big grin on his face. "They had no clothes on, Uncle Nicky. It was weird and kinda funny."
Turning from the boy, Nicholas raised his brow at his true mate. "Have the peasants in town been bedding in our hedgerows again?"
Kate lifted her gaze, shook her head. "It was Lucian and Bronwyn."
Jumping to his feet, Nicholas demanded, "What! Where are they now?"
"Gone," Kate began. "I told you, they flashed away. I don't know who it was, but another male approached them, and after a moment they flashed."
Nicholas's words were grave. "Another male?"
"He flashed too."
The toxic scent of fear moved slowly into his nostrils. "Where are the guards now?"
"Two of them were knocked unconscious; the others are checking the perimeter of the grounds," Kate told him, her eyes and expression stronger now. "They're looking for Bronwyn and Lucian-looking for anyone who would want to do them or us harm. But they did try to catch whoever it was. They were nearly on his tail when the threesome flashed."
Nicholas didn't wait for anything else. He crossed the room and left the library. The first servant he encountered he stopped and demanded, "Find Alexander Roman and bring him to me immediately; then round up the guards and send all but four to us."
The servant bowed and was off.
When Nicholas returned to the library, he went straight to Kate and Ladd and asked in the calmest voice he could manage, "Now, tell me again exactly what you saw."