Page 16 of Forfeit

“Have a good night, Tony,” Beau said, linking Devin’s arm in his as he aimed for the lobby.

Pausing only to toss a crisp hundred-dollar bill on the hostess stand, Beau led her out into the night.

Standing beneath the awning, surrounded by the soft glow of the strings of white lights, Devin tugged at Beau’s arm. Huffing as he propelled her forward with a hand at her back, she tried again to stop him at the side of the sporty silver car he’d driven.

“What the hell was that about?”

“Nothing to worry your little head about.” Beau shoved Devin into the seat, leaving her to close the door and buckle up as he got in on the other side. “Rey’s right. You shouldn’t get involved.”

“Oh, no! You opened this can of worms, now tell me.”

“I don’t have to do shit, baby.”

Devin jumped as Beau’s phone began to ring. Muttering a curse, he tugged it free of his pocket, seeming to already know who it was. Thumbing the screen, he put it to his ear and murmured a terse greeting. Every line of his body drew taut, arm vibrating with tension as he listened to whoever was on the line. Lip curling, Beau snarled what apparently was an affirmative and stabbed the red icon to end the call.

“What’s wrong,” Devin asked in a strained whisper as Beau revved the engine and peeled out of the parking lot with a squeal of tires.

He wasn’t going back the way they’d come, and as he veered off onto another main street, he seemed to be angling them away from not just home, but the city itself.

“You’ve been summoned.”

He wouldn’t say anything more about it, no matter how many times Devin asked. Giving up, she settled back into the rich leather of the seat and watched the city drop away, replaced by sprawling hills and eventually thick trees. Tension snarled up her spine, fear ratcheting with every mile that hissed under the fast-moving wheels.

Whatever they were moving towards wasn’t going to be good. Devin felt it in the marrow of her bones, her stomach twisting with the foreboding sensation.

It felt like hours had passed before Beau finally turned onto a long gravel drive. A glimmer of memory placed them seconds before the huge mansion began to tower over the hill leading to its front step. Rey had taken her there only the once and left her in the car, but she remembered the man standing at the door now and the malicious presence of the house itself.

“How’s it going, Curtis,” Beau asked as he came around the car to open Devin’s door.

The deep brown of the man’s eyes didn’t waver from Devin as she took Beau’s hand and climbed from the car. His intense scrutiny continued even as she ascended the steps, only falling away as he turned on his heel and threw one side of the great double doors open to admit them. Hard soles of his shoes making barely a sound, he led them deep into the monstrosity to a dimly lit study.

“It’s okay, sweetheart,” Rey said as soon as she breached the entry. She spotted him at once, cleaned and dressed in a crisp button down and slacks since he’d left her.

“This is her?” If a voice could embody the pitch blackness of the abyss and the cold of the dead of winter, his did.

Devin skittered away from the ominous sound, recognition following far behind the instinctual need to get closer to Rey. Two Alphas who were beyond huge barred her way, as monstrous as the dead green eyes of the man who commanded them. Unable to get to the one she needed, Devin retreated until her back met Beau’s front, a last bastion of defense from anything coming up behind her at least.

Rey took a step forward, perhaps only to calm her, but the two men shoved him back. At his low snarl, one applied the heavy breadth of his fist to Rey’s stomach.

“Hey,” Beau shouted, jerking Devin aside to go defend Rey.

“Come here, girl,” Kahler demanded in a growl.

Even with Rey to bolster her defenses, Kahler’s command was a vicious avalanche, a crushing weight that sent Devin crashing to her knees with a strangled cry. Scrambling across the floor, she tried to escape the order stabbing deep into her brain. Denying the icy fingers scraping across her spine that told her to placate the beast rushing towards her.

Rey’s roar was exhilarating. Terrifying. Beautiful and awful as a sickening crack shattered through the room. A shout was cut short and wet, vicious sounds followed. Devin swore she could feel the very earth trembling beneath his racing steps, and she whined low in her throat. Calling to him on a choked sob as the monster reached for her.

Whatever enraged high Rey was riding, he somehow still realized who he was dealing with. Maybe it was Beau’s yell of warning, or the way Kahler stood tall to meet Rey’s anger with his own. Either way, he shifted direction, and grabbed hold of Devin’s ankle to wrench her from beneath Kahler’s shadow.

“Don’t threaten her,” Rey ground out, teeth bared for an instant before he tugged Devin against his legs. Letting her shuffle her way to hide behind him, Rey was a solid wall of flesh and intent.

“You dare defy me?”

“She doesn’t know what you want!”

“Then do it.” Delivered on a growl that stabbed along Devin’s skin in shards of ice, Kahler paced a tight line in front of Rey. “Now, before I change my mind.”

“Come here, sweetheart,” Rey murmured, offering Devin a palm though he would not take his gaze from Kahler.

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