Undeniable (Undeniable series) (13 page)

Beau

The graceful rise
and fall of her chest proves that she is alive. Her steady beating heart concurs, fueling life back into me. I shouldn’t have fed from her. She was already weakened by this place and needed every ounce of strength. For the coming days will be hell on all of us and she needs to be strong.

I think that is why they put her in this room with me, to disparage us. To make me feel this new d
isgust I feel. I have always fed off of humans and other supernatural’s never caring how it affected them or the people around them. Yes, sometimes I got carried away taking a sip more than they could give and practically handing them to their death. Some gave to me freely while most of the others didn’t. Never in those times did I feel the way I do now. I was so close from taking the extra sip of life she didn’t have to give.

S
he is strong and already I can sense her body repairing itself rapidly. The steady beating of her heart is getting stronger and stronger with every beat. But that does not take this pain away from me. At the same time I’m overjoyed having her in the same room with me and elated to have her warm body in my arms. I won’t waste this moment with sleep and will instead use every second rememorizing her face.

Her
skin is such a lovely shade and is tented with a slight blush upon her cheeks. My fingers run through her golden hair entranced by the texture of it. The soft strands dance between my fingers as they move down her back.

The sound of the small latch at the bottom of the door opening
grabs my attention as a warm tray of food is pushed through. The smell of it fills the room and soon after I can hear the growl of Gemma stomach even in sleep. I debate for a moment in my head if I should wake her or not. Another growl makes my decision as I gently shake her whispering her name in her ear.

Her eyes a normally light blue are now dark
er in color, but when she smiles at me the painful thoughts dashing through my head disappear. “Are you hungry?” I ask already knowing the answer and she nods.

S
he sits up while I go to the tray that is still very warm and quickly examine it. I noticed when she came in she faintly smelled of some sort of drug, but it was fading. When I drank from her I could taste the remaining drug that had little effect on me. 

Noting t
hat it was safe I brought the tray to her lap and watched as she ate. Every once in a while she would look up to me with a funny look on her face that makes me smile and fall in love with her just that much more.

She eats more than I would have thought she could eat
, almost clearing her tray that had enough food for two. I watch her knowing she is thinking of something when a sexy grin comes across her lips. Placing the tray by the door she walks towards me swinging her hips as the blush returns to her cheeks. I smile at her innocents as she looks down for just a second before she comes back onto the small bed and straddles me. Leaning down she lays worshiping kisses over each of my eyes, then my cheeks, and down to the corner of my lips. By then I can’t handle it anymore and take control kissing her eager lips. She moans against my lips sending a mix of hopeful sensations to course through me.

I pull back from her. “We will get out of here
,” I say with a promising kiss. “We will be together,” I add knowing that there is nothing holding us back anymore. They all know, which is my fault. I just couldn’t stand the sight of anyone harming her. Now everyone here knows that I care for her and when she freely gave me her blood they know she cares for me as well.

With so many things changing a war is imminent and the only thing I’m unsure about is how soon. In all of my life, which has been a very long time, I’ve never seen supernatural
beings work together. We have always fought alone in our own groups even when we fought for the same thing. For example, shifters and vampires have always fought hunters but we never worked together in doing so. 

She leans down nipping at my neck receiving
the attention from both me and my cock immediately. I can feel her lips curl up into a smile at her small victory and I think I might want to take back that innocent comment.

~*~

My heart feels like it has been ripped in two. They came and took her from me hours ago to a room not far from here. Her screams can be heard from even down the hall and I know she has to be in a great amount of pain. My hands fist in my hair for about the millionth time as I pace. There is nothing I can do to help her and it’s literally killing me.

A hunter
has been pacing the hall and always pauses by my room, but keeps pacing. Looking out the small unbreakable window on my door, I watch as he pauses again the moment he steps in front of my door. His features are so similar to Gemma’s and her brothers’ that if I had to guess, this is her father. Their dirty blonde hair is the same color, their eyes the same, and even their ears are the same shape.

I chance it hoping that he can hear me. “Help her.”

His eyes widen for just a moment and then grief fills them. “I can’t,” he says so low that I can’t hear it but see his lips say it.

“
You’re just going to let them continue torturing her?” I ask my voice filled with disgust for this weak man in front of me. He might look like her, but he is nothing like her. “You’re pathetic,” I hiss out and the grief that filled his eyes turn to anger.

He punches in the code to my door and the collar around my neck beeps as I’m pulled back into the wall. I can feel the wall behind me as he enters
the room pulling at a small device that he points at the camera in the room. The small light that is always red shuts off and we are alone.

“You think you
know everything, but you don’t.” He says coming as close as he can to me without me being able to touch him. His anger is clear to see but just as quickly as it came it’s gone. “I’m doing everything I can to help them, but there is only so much I can do.”

“
You’re their father,” I hiss out.

He moves over to the small bed collapsing onto it like all the energy in him is gone.
“I can’t give myself away, not yet anyways. It wouldn’t do either of them much good and Tristan is testing every male looking for their father. I don’t really know what he will do when he knows that I’m their father.” He says and I just have to shake my head at his cowardice.

“You don’t think it hurts me to hear there screams. To know that I’m letting both of them down and their mother. They are the only thing I
have left of her,” he places his hands over his face.

“I don’t know much about their mother,” I say asking without having to really ask for information about her.

“There mother,
Seraphina, meant everything to me and when the news of her death came to me I lost all hope. I just assumed the child we conceived was dead as well. Never did I once think that there were twins and that they still lived. Hybrid children always die.”

“The last time I saw Seraphina she told me that she was pregn
ant. She was so worried and scared. It took a lot of promises to get her to calm down and at the time I really hoped that I could fulfill them. I promised her that everything would be alright and that as soon as I could I would get everything together for us to leave. My plan was to get as far away from everything that I could get us. I knew all about Thomas, their pack master, feelings for her and their relationship before. She told me everything from the beginning.” He says rubbing the back of his head.

“Go on.
” I encourage wanting to know as much as I could.

He takes a deep breath. “We had orders to co
mpletely destroy this pack that had finally gotten down in numbers. Only about thirty of them were left and there was almost a hundred of us, so it was supposed to be easy. I guess it was for the main part, but my group was ambushed and soon I was the only one left. This reddish brown wolf jumped me tossing me to the ground and in the process bit a good chuck of my leg. I was able to retrieve my knife, but as I pointed it at the beast I found I couldn’t harm the shifter. Never had that happened to me, never had I second guessed myself, and by the time I put the knives down she took off. She could have killed me ten times before I moved another inch, but she didn’t. After when I asked her about it she said it was because she tasted my blood and knew for a fact that I was her mate.”

“Anyway, it was a few days before I saw her again and this time she wasn’t a wolf. She stood in the center of my room with nothing but a
lab coat covering her. In that moment before she even told me anything I knew I was in love. Her eyes were so beautiful the way they would change from this chocolate brown to glowing amber. That night they were dancing in between those two colors like a kaleidoscope,” he pauses thinking back. “It was indescribable the amount of pain I felt when she left the following morning promising to return as soon as she could.”

“We spent the next si
x months in our little cloud not doing a very good job at keeping our relationship a secret. It really shouldn’t have surprised me the way it did when she didn’t come back. I didn’t know what to do and hope that Thomas would keep her safe somehow. It was a lot to hope for but she couldn’t die. She was everything to me.” I can see the pain in his eyes and wondered what I would do if the situation was reversed.

“About a year later I heard of her death and just assumed that
the child had died long before that.” He says looking down and I wish I could see the expression on his face. It would give me another clue.

“
What happened to her?” I ask.

“I don’t know. After the last time I spoke to her it was like she dropped off the face of the earth. I used all my resources to find anything on her and I came up
empty handed,” he says exhausted. “If I knew that she had given birth to our children I would have come for them, the three of them.”  

Shouts from the hall end our conversation as he silently leave
s before anymore can be said. The wall releases the invisible hold it has over me and I make my way to the door.

“These results mean nothing!” Tristan yells.

“We are sorry sir, we just need more time with both of them,” a man with a shaky voice answers.

“I know they have more to offer then just the ability to shift and if you don’t figure it out,” he pauses making a creepy sound. “Then I’ll end you, you got me.”

A mixture of yes sir’s followed by Tristan’s shoes hitting the now silent hall and Gemma never returns.

Riley

“What do you mean they won’t trade?” I demand slamming my fi
st across the desk and in the process spilling coffee everywhere.

“This is a hard time to make deals Riley
. You know that better than anybody else.” Pack master says calmingly wiping off the ice coffee that split onto his lap.

It has been
twenty two days since both Gemma and Marcus were taken by hunters and with each passing day my rage escalates. Another game has already gone by while the next is right around the corner. Ezra has already dropped out of the games, saying that I’m going feral. That is one possibility and would help ease my mind if I could answer at least one thing going on in my life.

I find myself spending a lot of time in between our rooms and our spot out in the woods. It’s the only place I feel connected with her and that she will be back. That I will get her back. All I have to do is either kill
Thaddeus or just win a few more games. Killing him will save time.

Pack master
, Thomas, is always telling me how that if I win then I will have the power to get her back. His word fuels me when I’m feeling down, inspire me to do whatever I need to do to win this. For her. When I get her back we will be mated like she said she would if I won.
Yes, see everything will be fine.
My inner voice gives me pep talks several times a day when I’m nearing a breaking point.

~*~

The days go by fast as I use every bit of strength I have to better myself, but the nights are what haunt me. My mind runs wild with ideas of her and what they may be doing to her and her brother. I know they are still alive, Thomas has promised me that, but more than that is unknown.

Tonight has been a tough one for me so I’m lying on her bed in her room. Nothing has been touched and left just the way she had it before she was taken from me. I
breathe in her scent in this room, but it’s already fading with time making it seem as if she was never here. My nose runs along the side of her pillow as I take in as much of the calming aroma as I can.

I need as much sleep as I can get tonight for tomorrow is the third game and I need to end this. I need to accept my place as pack master and I need to get my girl. I need this intolerable ache in my chest to be gone so that I can breathe again.
I need to go back to the way it was when she was in my arms. I just need a lot.

In the morning I feel slightly rested
, but more than that I feel ready. Just feeling near her has prepared me for what is going to happen today. The walls are lined with shifters as I make my way to the car that will take me to the last game. It’s very early and I know that they have gotten up early to see us off for maybe the last time. Not one of them looks saddened and just shouts out encouraging words making me feel like a boxer about to enter the ring.

I see Thaddeus at the end of the hall and nod to him in a very sportsmanly like way. Though the thoughts in my head are far from the idea of him making it back to this pack today. He tilt
s his head back to me then reaches for his mate hand pulling her close as he kisses her like a starving man. Turning my sights away from the ache of seeing that I find Thomas. He smiles a knowing smile over to me as he gestures for me to following him outside.

I give one last wave to what will soon be my pack
and head out. The door close behind me cutting out the noise from inside the building. “You know what you have to do today?” He asks and I give a nod. “Gemma needs you. You’re the only one who can help her,” he pause for a moment. “It might be too late”

All the rage
mixes with my fears and I want to take my hand to his throat and crush it. I can feel my body trying to shift and I breathe hard trying to rein myself back in. My vision is so clear as I stare at him. For a moment I can see he is frighten by me and it makes me feel better. Closing my eyes I get complete control back over my body, even though my fury is just below the surface.

Getting into the car that will take me to our third game I try and let my inner voice so
oth my throbbing head.
I will have her in my arms soon and everything will be okay. This storm within me will be appeased by her presence.

I don’t know where this car is taking me or what the game will be
, but I know that I have the mind set to win. Relaxing into my seat I just let time escape me and quickly the car is at its destination. “Good luck sir,” the driver says as I exit to see what looks like a waste land. We are very close to our pack lands, but not in the area with the beautiful trees. Half destroyed buildings make the area look like the leftover of a battle.

I take in everything mentally making a map as I wait for instruction
s. Thaddeus’s car soon pulls up and his game face is on. We wait only for a moment before Thomas comes to stand in the middle of us with the human man. He is apparently part of a team that creates each game and they are the only ones who know what it will be. The human hands over the folder then quickly enters a waiting car that takes off. Dust surrounds us momentarily as Thomas opens the folder.

His eyes read over it once before he speaks. “You have ten minutes to find a position inside these wall
s. Once the ten minutes are up you will be searching for two objects. One of each belong to both of you and is very valuable to each. Thaddeus your object taken was your wife’s ring. Riley yours was something that belonged to Gemma,” and at the sound of her name I growl. How dare he touch anything that belongs to her. “It’s the only photo left of her mother. You must find both objects by this time tomorrow. These objects are hidden within these walls, but they are not the only things. With the help of witches, mystical creatures have been formed to attack and kill. You have twenty four hours before either can come outside these walls. The first ring of the bell will signal the starting time followed in ten minutes with the second ring. The last bell will ring tomorrow letting you know that you may exit but if you leave before you will be killed. Are we clear?” He ask looking at neither of us.

“Yes,” Thaddeus replies.

I take a moment waiting until he looks at me. “Crystal,” I say and the first ring sounds.

We watch each other for a moment before running off into different directions. As I run through the old damaged streets and mostly
demolished buildings I try to see as much as I can. Making mental notes of both good places to defend and other places that might contain the objects we are looking for. Thaddeus is nowhere in sight and I assume he is doing the same as me. There is a reason he was chosen for these games and I know he is skilled in both combat and strategy. He was one of my teachers like he was for many.

Before I know it the second bell rings when I’m in the middle of the street. The ground beneath me shakes as a dark magical fog engulfs everything in sight. I back up against the nearest crumbling wall holding my breath as it passes. Monstrous snarls erupt across the land shaking buildings and making others fall all together.

Staying near the wall I look for anything that can be used as a weapon, but only find pieces of broken building. An alarming chill runs through me as my wolf has come aware of something approaching us. Making sure my back is covered I let my wolf enhance my senses.

In the distance I see a demon like creature emerge from an
alley and onto the street. It skin looks burnt with patches of what looks like scales that you would find on a crocodile. Looking over it I notice it doesn’t seem to have any physical weapons on it, but that doesn’t mean much. It could probably do anything.

Standing on two legs its cat like eyes scan the streets looking for me. Sniffing the air it lets out a small screech then looks right into my direction.
Clutching the steel pipe in my hands I make myself known to the demon who eyes light up at the sight of me. It mouth even makes a slight smile showing its grotesque teeth that each have pointed tips.

With each step I take closer to it, it also take a step towards me. When we are mere
ly a few feet from each other then I notice how much taller it is compared to me. It’s at least eight feet high, but it just shows me a weakness it will have.

I make the first move striking it in the knees with all my might
bring the demon onto its damage knees. Its face is now at my eye level and I take the opportunity to hit it across the face. Taking the broken jagged end of pipe I stab it into its chest making thick reddish/brownish fluid that must be it blood come oozing out.

Taking back my only weapon I leave the demon there to die as I
search for the objects. The ring could be anywhere and will be the hardest to find. It might even be buried by now and all I can hope is that Thaddeus scent is still on it.

~*~

By night fall I have found the photo of Gemma’s mother in the second story of a very unstable building. Also by this point I have killed many unknown creatures. They are all different with all sorts of abilities. My arms will probably never grow hair back on them again when I shielded my face from a fire attack. That has been the worst of my injuries so I’m still surviving. As far as Thaddeus, I haven’t even scented him let alone seen him thus far. It makes me wonder if he has already found the ring, which would make since it does belong to him.

With more than half the tim
e off the clock I take a chance, planning to hunt Thaddeus down. I know what I have to do if he has it and I know what I need to do if he doesn’t.

Taking a moment for my body to heal itself I stay in my wolf form and go to a good spot I
had found earlier. It is easy to defend but also keeps me very well hidden from anything that might come by.

My eyes go to the photo of Gemma’s mother and for the first time I notice the dress. It looks so much like the dress Gemma wore at the hunt and now I know why she was upset about ruining it. That will be one
of the first things I will buy for her.

Thinking about the future reenergizes me, giving me my second wind.
Looking down at my arms I can see the sensitive skin completely healed and hair trying to grow back. My eyes go up to the sky next noting the time and then I’m off again.

All my senses are on high alert as I wait for anything to assist me in locating Thaddeus. I move quietly through the debris when I hear a fight going on near me. Hoping it is not another fight between those monstrous creatures I chance a look.

There, fighting for his life, is Thaddeus with a creature I had yet to encounter. Its fur seems to be cover in waxy material that is damaging when it comes into contact with Thaddeus’s skin.

Quickly I let my eye
s roam over the wounds that cover Thaddeus. A chain around his neck has the ring I need and I know what I must do. Not wanting to fight two battles I sit back hidden from them as they continue. 

It take
s longer than I thought it would, but soon Thaddeus ends the cries of the creature with a swift crack of its neck. His hands smoke at the contact with the creature’s fur. I watch him as he looks up and takes a big breath in. Deciding to take advantage of this moment I step out into the open where he can see me. “Took you long enough,” I mock and his green eyes glow brightly.

“I should have known you were hiding,” he says like he is talking to a boy. I smile even though on the inside I can barely contr
ol myself. “I assume you have the picture and now you want this,” he says lifting the chain off his chest allowing me to see it. “Well you know what you have to do to have it.” And just like that we are at each other.

It’s all happening so fast that it opens itself to opportunities on both sides. Are moves are flawed as we just shamelessly go for anything that might be a kill shot. Parts of his skin are sloughing off and new skin is already trying to grow back from the previous attack. A painful blow to the side of my head has me backing away for a moment, but he keeps at me. Hitti
ng me over and over again wherever he can hit me. My vision becomes obscure and there is a painful ringing in my ears as I try my best to escape.

“Running away already?” He taunts me. “I just need you to tell me where you put the picture. I want to hear it as your last words.”

Taking off I try to get a moment were my body can try and heal itself again. I just need to be able to see and I can fight again. Closing my eyes I can hear him continue to talk. “You know what I’m going to do with that picture once this is over?” He says and I can tell he is close again. “I’m going to burn it and send its remains to Gemma as a token of your failure.”

My rage that is always so close to the surface is pushed to
o far as I jump out to finish him. It takes a few attempts, but soon I have him pinned beneath me. I pull the chain around his neck breaking it in the process. A million things pass through my mind at that moment as to what to say but I’m still too angry. I couldn’t form a word to speak even if I wanted to. Taking his head into my hands I promptly snap his neck watching as his body jerks in its aftershocks.

Gripping the ring I look down at my hand
s as if they had done this act of killing a man alone. Giving myself a moment I go back to the spot I rested before to retrieve the photo. I look up to the sky again noting the time. In a few hours I will be released from these walls. Things have changed, I have changed, and now everything is about to change.