Claiming Valeria (25 page)

Fury and the worst kind of fear roiled in his gut: hot, black,
urgent. He lurched toward the shore, overshooting his mark and scraping his belly
on the grit and pebbles littering the small strip of land. Fortunately, the shark’s
tough skin protected him. He lost precious seconds changing back to his human form,
but Tiago was right behind him.

And then a sentry shot out of the river, shifting from dolphin
to woman. It was Eliana. “What’s up?” she asked.

“Get Dion,” Rui rapped out. “Or Luis, if you can’t find Dion.
Tell them Petros Okeanos has taken Valeria and Merry prisoner and they’re on this
island somewhere.” Once on the island, they could easily follow his and Tiago’s
scent.

Eliana didn’t waste time with further questions, simply dove
back into the river, changing back to her dolphin a few yards out.

“This way.” Tiago indicated a narrow path through the trees.

Rui set off at a run. Within a few steps, he’d picked up Valeria’s
scent, as strong as if she’d drawn a neon trail, overlaid by Okeanos’s darker masculine
spoor. He didn’t scent Merry, which scared him, but his whole body thrummed with
the need to get to his mate. He raced down the path.

A quarter mile in, they reached a clearing dominated by a tall
pin oak. Rui halted. “She’s here.”

“That’s the dryad’s tree.” Tiago jogged up behind him. “There’s
some kind of door in the trunk that Okeanos and the others use to enter the den,
but I don’t know the secret.”

Rui swore under his breath. He ran his hands over the bark, refusing
to believe he could be this close to Valeria and not be able to help her. When he
couldn’t find even the slightest crack, he slammed his fist against the trunk.

“Open, damn you.”

Nothing happened. He changed his tone. For Valeria, he’d plead.
Hell, if he thought it would help, he’d crawl on his belly through the cold, dark
wastes of Hades.

“Please. I’m begging you. Open for me.”

Still nothing.

He caught a fresh whiff of Valeria, acrid with fear. His chest
constricted.

He slammed his palms against the oak’s ridged trunk. “Let me
in, damn you.”

A bird startled in the branches above and shot into the sky.
The oak’s leaves rustled and he glanced up hopefully, but saw nothing.

“Tell her,” he rasped at Tiago. “Tell the dryad to let us in.”

“I can try—but I haven’t actually met her.”

“I thought you were friends.”

“Not exactly.” The younger man’s expression was sheepish. “She
doesn’t like fada.”

“
Deus
.” Rui dragged a hand over his face. “All right.
Just—do whatever you can.”

“Senhorita?” Tiago cupped his mouth and directed his voice to
the oak’s crown. “We know you’re up there. We’re trying to rescue a friend of ours—a
woman from Rock Run. Please ask your tree to open.”

Rui held his breath, praying the shy forest dweller would help
them. Everything went still, as if the very trees were holding their breath along
with him, but nothing happened.

Tiago tried again. “Please, miss. I swear we mean you no harm.
Just let us inside and as soon as we have our friend, we’ll leave you in peace.”

Still nothing. Rui took a step back, his brain working furiously.
He didn’t have the power to command the tree to open, but Queen Cleia might; she
was a powerful fae. Unfortunately, it could take hours to track her down and bring
her back here.

Meanwhile, Okeanos and his fucking den would have Valeria and
Merry in their power.

He pressed his fists to his face.
Think, damn it.
There
had to be a way to get to them.

Then he heard Valeria scream.

Valeria halted on the bottom step. Four naked men sprawled
on cushions in the dimly lit cave, glasses in hand. The air reeked of wine and lust.

Petros roughly urged her forward, and she lurched the final step
onto the cave floor. She eyed the four men warily.

“Meet Jorge”—Petros indicated a barrel-chested man with hard
brown eyes—“and Benny.” He pointed to a younger man with a long, soulful face.
“They’re originally from Rock Run, but we met a few years ago near Crete. The other
men are from my clan, Orius and Mys.”

She’d heard of Jorge and Benny. Supposedly they were weak, broken
from their time as Cleia’s lovers.

They didn’t seem weak now. These were large, powerful males in
their prime, eyeing her like the unprotected female she was. Both of their primary
animals were dolphins—and anyone who truly knew dolphins knew they were far from
the cute and cuddly mammals portrayed on human TV, that they could be sexually aggressive
to the point of rape.

At Petros’s introduction, Jorge nodded curtly, all the while
watching her from beneath lowered lids. Benny raised his glass in a mocking salute.

Orius and Mys didn’t even deign to acknowledge her, just gazed
at her naked body, their eyes crawling with an unholy lust.

Ordinarily her nudity wouldn’t have bothered her, but these men
made her feel like a slab of meat. She shrank into herself, hunching her shoulders
and squeezing her thighs together. Behind her back, her hands clenched together
so tightly her fingertips went numb.

Petros chuckled. “It won’t be so bad,
glika
.” He stroked
her nape. “You might even like it.”

She hunched even more but didn’t reply. His fingers slid lower,
and she tensed for whatever was coming, but all he did was release her bonds. She
shook out her hands, grateful for that much at least.

But then, what did he have to lose? The doorway had closed behind
them, trapping her in the cave with five large fada males. She wasn’t going anywhere.

Petros crossed to a table by the wall and filled a glass with
wine. “Here. Drink this.”

She took a cautious sniff of the dark red liquid. The wine had
an unpleasant, sickly-sweet odor, and she guessed it had been mixed with some kind
of drug.

She glanced at the other men. They watched her avidly, even Jorge
and Benny.
Bastards.
They must have heard she was Rui’s mate.

She sent Benny a pleading look. “Help me,” she whispered in Portuguese.

He merely lifted a brow.

“They’re with me,” Petros informed her. “All the men here agree
that the old ways should never have been abandoned, starting with the baccha. The
fada are turning into tame little house pets, doing the fae’s bidding. Hell, your
own alpha mated with a fae. And the women, well, they need to be taught their proper
place.”

He raised the glass to the other men. “To Dionysus.”

“To Dionysus,” they returned as one.

They all took a drink, and then Petros brought the glass to her
lips again. “Now drink.”

She took a tentative sip. The wine was cloyingly sweet, with
an undertone of bitterness; it left an unpleasant coat on her tongue.

Petros kept the glass against her lips. “All of it,” he ordered.

A cold bead of sweat trickled down her spine. She stared into
the drugged wine, wishing she dared refuse. But she was outnumbered five to one.

“Drink it,” he said evenly. “Or I’ll whip you bloody—and pour
it down your unconscious throat. The choice is yours.”

She drained the glass, then thrust it back at him with a defiant
tilt of her chin. “Here.”

He took it and placed it on the table. “I can see you require
training on the proper way to speak to your lord and master. We’ll work on that.
But first…” He trailed off, his gaze on her face, obviously waiting for the drug
to take effect.

She glanced at the other men again. They were all sitting upright
now, watching and waiting as well—alert, aggressive predators. Unnerved, she rubbed
her palms over her upper arms.

It started as a not-unpleasant heat in the pit of her stomach.
Then the drug exploded in her brain. She gasped and staggered. Someone gave a huff
of laughter, but she barely heard it as the preparation raced through her veins,
bringing an excruciating awareness of every nerve fiber, every tiny cell.

She dropped to her knees, hands to her head. “What,” she wheezed,
“in
Deus
’s name—did you give me?”

“My own recipe,” Petros informed her. “Don’t fight it. The pain
will soon change, become a sensual agony that only another’s touch can relieve.
You’ll be desperate for a man, any man…like a bitch in heat. What do you think do
Mar will do when he finds you’ve fucked all five of us?”

“
Não
,” Valeria moaned. “You—
filho da puta
.”

“Enough.” Petros grabbed her by the hair and jerked her head
back.

She screamed as the pain knifed through her, magnified a thousand
times. It felt as if her skull was being ripped off.

He eyed her sternly. “I think we need to show you what that mouth
of yours is for.” He released her hair to take his cock in hand and press it to
her lips. “Suck me, woman.”

Still reeling, she didn’t respond quickly enough and he raised
a threatening hand. She sucked in a breath, knowing she couldn’t take another bout
of that agonizing pain. She opened her mouth and took him inside.

To one side of her, Orius and Mys paired off. From the corner
of her eye she could see the larger Orius force the smaller Mys onto all fours,
covering him like a dog. Jorge and Benny closed in on her, stroking, petting…

Already the pain was transmuting into pleasure. Jorge squeezed
her nipples and she moaned with desire, even as tears of humiliation pricked her
eyes. Benny knelt beside her and slapped her ass, and she moaned again as the blow
vibrated in her cunt.

He leaned close to bite her neck, hard enough to make her jerk
with pain, but again the sting was edged with pleasure. “You like that,” he growled,
his breath hot against her nape.

She suppressed a sob as Benny slapped her again, then slid his
hand between her legs. She clenched her thighs on him, ashamed at her need but desperate
for touch there—any touch.

Meanwhile, Petros gripped the back of her head. “Take it,” he
ordered as he rammed his cock against the back of her throat.

She gagged and then caught his rhythm, swallowing in time to
his thrusts so that she wouldn’t suffocate.

It was too intense. The men stroking and pinching and slapping.
The man slamming into her mouth, his scent pungent, overpowering. The drug making
everything an excruciating pleasure/pain. She grasped Petros’s thighs to steady
herself and blinked up at him woozily.

What would he do if she passed out?
The thought seemed
to come from far away.

Suddenly he cursed and jerked himself from her mouth with an
audible pop. The other men jumped away as well and, caught off balance, she fell
to the floor. She curled into a ball, aware someone was whimpering: a sad, desperate
sound. It took her a few seconds to realize it was herself.

A roar echoed through the cavern. She pressed a fist to her mouth
and watched, dazed, as a large, enraged man threw himself at Petros.

She blinked and shook her head. “Rui?”

The oak dryad scowled down at the forest floor. Somehow
the Greek fada had discovered the words that forced her tree to open the passage
to the caves below. She hadn’t liked it but assumed he had Rock Run’s
permission. The bargain was, the local fada left her in peace with her trees and
forest creatures, and in return she allowed them to run free on what she thought
of as her island.

But the Greek shifter hadn’t even had the courtesy to thank her.
Alesia had been raised to treat the fada with caution, so the men had only glimpsed
her once. Her skin had prickled at how the leader had eyed her body, lingering on
her legs, bare beneath a short summer tunic, and then giving her a smile that was
all teeth. After that, she stayed well away from them.

And now they’d brought one of their own females to participate
in their drunken rites—and she wasn’t the first.

Her mother was right; shapeshifters were little better than animals.

But something in her tugged at the sight of the fada female,
forced by the cold-eyed male down into their dark, smelly den. At first she’d assumed
the woman had come willingly, like the ones before her. If the man slapped her around
a little, well, wasn’t that what fada women liked?

But as the woman had passed through on her way down to the cavern,
Alesia had seen her large scared eyes, noted her scratched body and the bruise on
her face.

But what could Alesia do? Like most dryads, she was slim and
on the small side. Her magic was in keeping the land fertile and coaxing things
to grow. She kept nature in balance, assuring the forest and its creatures lived
in harmony.

Those big, coarse fada would squash her like a fly if she interfered
in their fun.

Two more fada males appeared beneath her tree, their breath sawing
in and out of their chests. She recognized the younger one. Underneath that wild
black hair he was kind of cute, with silver-blue eyes and a nice smile, and he’d
had the good manners to offer her a gift of food in return for sharing her island.

But the older one was a big, intimidating man with bulging muscles
and a hard face. At first she assumed he was with the others, but the door didn’t
open for him even when he begged it to.

She cautiously moved a branch aside to study him, curious about
this fada who pleaded. He glanced up and she froze, hardening her skin so that its
texture resembled bark and she blended into the trunk.

He shook his head and pressed his fists to his face in
despair.

And then the woman screamed.

Alesia sucked in a breath and made up her mind. She launched
herself from the oak, landing lightly behind the two men. The older one spun around
with a snarl, drawing himself up to his full height and baring sharp canines at
her.

She held up her hands. “Peace, fada. I’m not here to fight. You
want to get inside, yes?”

He scrutinized her for a tense heartbeat. The younger man said,
“This is the dryad. She can help us, Rui.”

The big man relaxed a fraction. “Yes,” he told her. “I’ll give
you anything—anything you want. Just please help me get to Valeria.”

She waved a dismissive hand. “Just promise me that you’re here
to help the woman, not hurt her.” Something occurred to her. “She’s yours, isn’t
she? This Valeria? Your mate?”

“Yes. Yes, she is. And I swear on everything I hold holy that
I just want to rescue her from those bastards.”

Satisfied, she laid a hand on her oak. “My friend, I beg a favor
of you—that you allow these two fada entrance.” She thought for a second and then
added, “And to please keep the entrance open until this man, Rui, returns with the
woman Valeria.”

The oak was mature—not ancient, but full grown—with little patience
for the foolish doings of the two-legged ones other than its dryad, bound to it
at birth. It muttered grumpily at being disturbed twice—no, three times—in the same
day.

Alesia stroked its sturdy gray trunk. “Please?”

The leaves above rattled in irritation, but the door slid open.
In an instant, Rui was inside and down the steps.

The younger male paused to touch her cheek. Alesia met his silver-blue
eyes and blinked. She had the strange, dizzying sensation of falling
up
—into
a light-filled sky.

“Thank you, Miss—?”

For a moment she forgot her own name. “Alesia,” she blurted.

“Alesia. Well, thanks.” He gave her that easy smile. “My name’s
Tiago. Tiago do Rio.” He hurried after the other man.

Alesia put a hand to her cheek and watched as they disappeared
into the darkness below. The older male must know he was outnumbered, that he could
be rushing to his death, yet he hadn’t hesitated to go to his mate’s rescue. Goddess,
how he must love her. Her heart twisted as she wondered what it would be like to
have a man care for her like that.

She loved her trees, her lush little island, but sometimes it
was lonely. From time to time her needs grew too great and she left to seek out
a lover, but she’d never yet found her mate. Apparently she expected him to somehow
stumble upon her island in the middle of the river. She shook her head at herself,
then lifted to her toes and swung back up into the oak.

Ten feet up, she stopped. Somewhere nearby, the woods stirred.
She seated herself cross-legged on the branch, waiting. A few minutes later, another
fada ran up. An earth shifter, with shiny black hair and golden-brown skin.

He glanced up at her. “With your permission, Miss?”

Resigned, she waved a hand. “Be my guest.” The tree was going
to remain open until the river fada returned with his mate anyway.

The earth shifter darted through the opening.

Alesia settled down to wait. From inside the cavern came the
sounds of aggression. She shook her head. The fada were such a violent race.

Then her skin prickled. Someone was watching her.

She slowly turned her head.

* * *

As Rui reached the bottom of the stars, he was dimly
aware of other people in the cave, all men: two in a corner, fucking; two others
hovering over Valeria. And Tiago had pounded down the steps behind him.

But all he could see was Valeria on her knees before Okeanos,
his cock in her mouth.

The S.O.B. had a tight grip on her head and was forcing her to
take him deep. The two other men had their hands all over her. She shuddered as
if in pain and gave a guttural moan that raised the hair on Rui’s neck.

He didn’t slow as he reached the bottom of the stairs, just leapt
for Okeanos, claws out. Let Valeria startle and bite off the
cabrão
’s dick.

But Okeanos saw him coming in time to shove her away. She gasped
and curled into a ball. Rui’s heart clenched, but he couldn’t stop to comfort her.
He barreled into Okeanos, digging his claws into his torso and knocking him to the
floor.

For a few seconds Rui was on top. He lunged for Okeanos’s jugular
vein, canines at the ready, but the other man threw him off and leapt to his feet,
his chest scoured with bloody marks.

Rui rolled, ignoring the painful jolt to his newly-healed abdomen,
and came back to his feet a moment behind him. They circled each other, sizing one
another up.

“You think you can take me?” Okeanos flung up a hand, palm out,
five fingers extended in a very Greek insult. “Come on then, you
poutanas yie
.”
Rui knew enough Greek to know that meant son of a whore.

He growled and planted his feet in a fighting stance,
preparing to pounce, when suddenly he was enveloped in what felt like a net of cold,
black energy.

“What the fu—” He was trussed from chin to toes, arms pinned
to his body. He snarled and strained against the net. But the harder he fought,
the more it tightened.

Valeria hissed and crawled toward Okeanos. “Fight fair,
you—you
coward
.” She shoved his legs so that he staggered and stumbled
forward.

He caught his balance and turned around, his face so dark that
Rui redoubled his efforts to free himself.

“Did you call me a coward?”

She cringed but held her ground. “
Sim
. Only a coward would
bind a man so he can’t fight.”

Okeanos slapped her across the face.

She jolted and brought a hand to her cheek, her lips tight with
pain. Then her chin jutted out. “Fuck you.”

Rui sucked in his breath. Seeing her being slapped was a
hundred times worse than taking a blow himself. “Valeria,” he said. “No.
Don’t—”

Okeanos jerked her to her feet. “Fuck me?” he asked as he slapped
her again. “Oh yes,
glika
.”

Her head snapped to one side. This time she had the sense to
remain silent, the only sound her jagged breathing.

“Stop it, you bastard. You’re hurting her.” Rui struggled desperately
against the invisible net. It loosened and hope surged in him. Then Okeanos flicked
his fingers in Rui’s directions and the strands tightened again.

Tiago growled and tried to go to Valeria, but Okeanos snarled,
“Take another step and they’re both dead.”

Tiago looked to Rui. He gave a slight shake of his head in reply.
Who knew what a man with Okeanos’s Gift could do? If he said he could kill them
both, it might be true.

The Greek fada returned his attention to Valeria. “You
will
fuck me, I promise you. Whenever or wherever I wish.”

Another hard slap, then another, the harsh sound echoing in the
cave and reverberating in Rui until he was nearly blind with fury.

Valeria tried to cover her face, but Okeanos pulled both arms
behind her back, gripping her wrists in one hand so she couldn’t defend herself.
“You will
beg
to please me,” he gritted. “This is only a taste of what I
can do. The aphrodisiac increases every sensation. If I beat you, the pain alone
might kill you.”

He raised his hand again and something in Valeria seemed to break.
Her face crumpled and she tucked her head into her shoulder.

“No more,” she begged. “Please, I can’t take any more. Goddess,
it hurts.”

One of the blows had cut her lip. The scent of her fresh blood,
coupled with his inability to help her, scoured Rui’s soul like a thousand pieces
of broken glass.

“Damn you, Okeanos. Have mercy—can’t you see she’s in agony?”

Okeanos looked at Rui and, holding his gaze, raised his hand
and gave Valeria another deliberate slap.

Rui snapped. A red haze filled his brain. Maddened, he threw
himself from side to side, straining his muscles until his heart was slamming against
his ribcage. But the invisible net continued to constrict. Tighter…tighter.

He struggled even harder, but the more he fought, the more it
contracted. He fell to his knees, the strands binding his chest so tightly he could
barely breathe, but he fought on, sweat pouring down his face, uncaring of anything
but the need to help his mate.

Then suddenly, the constriction loosened. Rui’s lungs heaved
as he dragged in a breath of much-needed air.

Okeanos snarled. He thrust Valeria from him to concentrate on
Rui.

Yes.

Some instinct told Rui the other man had reached his limit. He
met Okeanos’s gaze defiantly and rose back to his feet, not letting up for a moment,
no longer a rational being but an animal.

And the animal knew this was a fight to the death.

Okeanos’s eyes narrowed. The net tightened again. Rui gritted
his teeth and continued to resist, but he was growing lightheaded from lack of oxygen.
Despair washed over him. Because if he died, Valeria was doomed. Tiago was no match
for five mature fada.

Spots danced in front of his eyes. He swayed on his feet.

“
No
, Rui.” Valeria stumbled toward him, fell to her knees.
She crawled the last few feet, wrapping her arms around his legs. “
Acalme-te
.
You can’t fight it. You have to stop. He’s using dark magic—it
feeds on your struggles.”

He heard her words with some distant part of his brain, but the
animal sensed that wasn’t the whole truth—and both parts of him were willing to
keep fighting until his mate was free, even if it meant his own death.

Behind him, someone else ran lightly down the steps, but he was
concentrating too hard to turn to see who it was. Instead, he went deep into himself,
drawing on the chill gray center that had made him such a good assassin. He planted
his feet on the cavern floor and shot Okeanos a look so cold the other man took
a step back.

“
Sim
,” Rui growled. “You’re the one who’s going to die.”
He pushed back—hard.

Okeanos snarled back, but he’d clearly reached his limit. The
crushing tightness around Rui’s chest loosened. He drew in a breath, then another
one. The lightheadedness eased. He clenched his fists and kept pushing.

Valeria shifted onto her knees, wobbly and yet somehow strong.
He felt her touch through the mate bond, a rush of warmth and love and acceptance,
the last so sweet it almost dropped him back to his own knees.

“I love you,” she said in a low, clear voice, and for one brief
second he let himself savor the joy of hearing the words at last.

And then she was helping him turn the dark magic against Okeanos.
With a shock, he realized she was using her Gift for directing water animals. But
of course; at the heart of every river or sea fada was a water animal.

Wonder filled him. At Valeria’s strength, at the love he felt
pouring into him from her. At the fact that together, the two of them could do what
neither could alone. He fed that wonder into the cold determination.

Okeanos’s face was harsh with strain. Sweat beaded on his forehead.
His two fellow sea fada started for Rui, but the other two men stepped in front
of them.

“Let them fight it out,” one of them said. “This is a mate-duel,
right, Rui?”

That was when Rui realized the two men who’d had their hands
all over Valeria were Jorge and Benny. His breath hissed between his teeth. The
bastards. He’d known Jorge since they were both pups, and he’d helped train the
younger Benny as a warrior.