Page 29 of Lycan and Lark
He stared down at her. The intensity in his gaze sharpened as he allowed his wolf to push closer to the surface. Waves of Alpha energy slammed into Aria. Gideon never used his powers on her. His eyes began to glow more brightly as his influence grew. Fear trickled through her as she shrank away from him.
“Yes. You are.” Gideon’s eyes flicked over her shoulder. Aria glanced behind her and found Leah quietly standing there. “We’ll be facilitating a pack exchange. Our member, Jessie, will be trading places with a wolf from one of the Scotland packs. You will be going with them to help transition our member to their new pack, and then bring back the Scottish member who will be joining ours.”
Denial simmered in Aria’s rushing blood. “What the fuck, Gid? I’m not going to fucking Scotland. Are you out of your mind?”
“You’ll go to Scotland and you will stay out of trouble. I obviously can’t trust you here. You’ve given me no choice.”
No choice? Aria pushed at his chest and stomped her feet. It was a childish habit that surfaced near Gideon. She was feeling uncertain, defensive, and completely caught off guard. “Trust? What the fuck are you talking about? I have never broken your trust!”
Gideon let a growl tear free from his chest as anger bubbled violently beneath his calm facade. Aria jumped at the sudden reaction. “What happened when you were taken?”
The floor felt like it had dropped out from beneath her. He knew. Somehow he knew. That fucking coward had found out about Lark and was trying to send her away. She glared at him. “Nothing happened.”
It was a lie, of course. The moment it left her lips Gideon’s demeanor changed. Sadness and betrayal wafted off of him in sickly waves. “You’re leaving. Andhewill never find you again.”
There’s no way this was truly happening. It had to be a bad dream. Any second she would wake up in the cabin, wrapped in Lark’s warm embrace and sugary scent. Gideon turned his face sharply toward Leah. “We’re ready for Romani.”
A fresh, wild panic sent her heart slamming against her ribs. “What? I’m not leaving! I don’t have my stuff. I need time. Gideon!”
“Enough!” He shot out a wave of power and Aria flinched as it struck her square in the chest. She cowered from her brother for the first time ever. “Leah has already packed for you. You will be leaving now.”
Tears pooled in Aria’s eyes. No no no. She couldn’t leave. What about Lark? She had sworn to keep him safe. He needed her help. Romani approached with Jessie in tow. Leah dropped a duffel bag on the floor next to him. Aria’s gaze flicked between Romani and Gideon. “Please.” She hated the desperation that invaded her voice. “Don’t send me away. Please!” Tears streamed down her cheeks as she tried and failed to hold together her last bit of composure. Gideon’s eyes betrayed his turmoil. There was such sadness and uncertainty for a fraction of a moment, before a dark emptiness took root.
“It’s for your own good, Aria. I’ll do anything to keep you safe. Even if I have to keep you safe from yourself this time.”
Aria’s tears slowed as her desperation transformed into a cold hardness that rivaled his. She felt lost, helpless, and full of rage. Gideon was the Alpha. She was physically compelled to do what he said. It was hardwired deep in her lycan DNA. His betrayal stung and her heart burned in her chest. She turned toward Romani, marching forward, and picked up the oversized bag. He hadn’t even trusted her to pack her own things. She whipped her head around once more. “I hate you,” she ground out through clenched teeth. The venom in her words distracted from the overwhelming hopelessness that slowly drowned her.
Gideon nodded at Romani and the complex disappeared around her.
ChapterThirteen
The fan squeaked every third rotation. Aria stared up at it, trying to decide whether she wanted to expend the energy to rip the damn thing out of the ceiling, or just suffer its irritating repetitions. She had locked herself in her room the moment they arrived in Scotland. The bed dipped beneath her body and a well-worn indention forced her to roll to the center of the mattress no matter how many times she moved to the edge.
Her spirit was drained but her mind felt wired. Sleep remained just out of reach as the what-ifs assaulted her brain on a continuous loop. Romani knocked on her door every few hours but she ignored him. Technically Romani could have teleported into her room at any time. She was grateful he didn’t.
She thought about Lark and how he must be feeling. Her heart ached when she envisioned him standing outside the complex, waiting for her to find him for their meeting with Gideon. She had promised to take care of him and to find a way to fix his wolf. How the hell could she do anything from four thousand miles away? He had been let down and taken advantage of for so many years. He must be a mess right now. It left him vulnerable to his wolf. She would find a way back to him and make this right. She prayed he would be okay in the meantime.
* * *
Lark released Gideon’s assistant with a roar of frustration. “Run back to your office and forget this ever happened.”
The assistant took hastened steps out from behind the building, heading toward the complex across the street.
It had been days since Aria vanished from his life. Things had gone haywire the last day he saw her. With the revelation that Gideon’s girlfriend was a Celestial and the massacre of several Collectors in front of everyone attending the fair, it would be a day or so before things settled down. When Aria didn’t show up that afternoon, he blew it off. By that night he began to grow concerned. By the second day he was positive something terrible had happened.
He started systematically questioning everyone he could catch outside the complex’s walls, compelling them to forget the encounter before he released them. He started with drivers, security guards, deliverymen, anyone who had a link to the pack but wasn’t directly in power. When they didn’t reveal anything to him, he moved his way up. Aria’s friends—Laurie, Clove, and Gigi—all left him emptyhanded. Everyone was focused on the recent attack of Gideon’s mate, Dahlia.
Apparently shortly after announcing they were mates, and that she was pregnant with his child, a lycan from outside the pack bit Dahlia. She was in the process of turning and the past few days had been full of everyone’s worry for her and the baby’s safety.
Lark didn’t have time to worry about Gideon and Dahlia. He was focused on his own mate. The lycans were hard to compel and his powers were being stretched to their limit. He ran into a higher-ranking lycan out for a run in the woods, an Australian named Lucas. Lark learned Lucas was in charge of the rescue and recovery teams. That level of power and access to Aria, and Lucas still didn’t know anything useful. “She was out of town,” was all Lark could glean. When he compelled Lucas to forget, he noticed a swirl of magical energy already planted in his mind. Someone else had been playing games in the blond lycan’s head. He filed that info away to look into later.
By the time he released Lucas, Lark’s head was spinning. He teleported back to the cabin, noticing the thick drops of blood that hit the wooden floor as he reemerged. His hand brushed across the warmth streaming from his nose and eyes. That wasn’t a good sign. But the stronger-willed the person, the harder to use his compulsion and he had been fucking with some seriously strong lycans.
Blood trailed behind him as he staggered into the bathroom. His hands fumbled with the water. He slammed shoulder first into the shower wall, and then slid to the floor. The cold water soaked through his clothes. Removing them had seemed too difficult for his heavy arms. The goosebumps on his skin were washed away as the hot water kicked on. Bleary eyes caught sight of diluted red as it swirled toward the drain. He sat there for hours, letting the water wash away his blood and fatigue.
When he finally did crawl from the shower and discard his wet clothes, his wolf was roaring to come out. It didn’t like the amount of magic he had been using. Lark could understand its aggravation. When he put his body in danger, he put his wolf in danger, too. If he died, so did the animal within. It wanted control.
He gripped the edge of his bed as his muscles burned with an intense heat. Bones moved beneath his skin, causing knife-like pain to tear through him. He gritted his teeth. “No.”
