Page 97 of Rogue Wolf

“You promised you’d release him if I turned up.” She fought the urge to glance at Kodiak, scared another look would send her self-preservation and common sense tumbling and crumbling to dust. “So let him go. He’s no use to you.”

The vampire smiled, looked past her to Kodiak. “Hear that pathetic shifter? She thinks you’re useless.”

Kodiak growled and the pain hidden there cut into her deep.

“No,” she said. “I said he’s no use to you.”

“Maybe I changed my mind. Maybe my vampires want to use him as a chew toy, or something for the newest additions to cut their teeth on. And I do mean cut.”

“Let him go.”

“Make me,” Amdis said, holding a hand out to her. “You know you want to try. Here, take my hand.”

Kodiak made another sound like pure pain and misery and she wanted to cry.

“You promised.” It’s all she had and she clung to it. “Or I’ll make sure you don’t survive this.”

Amdis threw back his head and laughed. “You hear that? She’s threatening me. A girl. Human girl who fucks animals like the one here, she’s threatening your king.” He considered her. “And how are you going to do that? With the back up you’re counting on? They’re too busy involved in their own fight. Or they’re dead.”

“Fucker.” Kodiak spat the word and one of the vampire’s tugged hard on the wire making him howl.

“Are you going to rescue him, all alone?”

Amdis motioned to her with his fingers and stared hard, and inside she went dreamy, floaty and she wanted to rip his throat out. It would be so easy to do. All she had to do was grab him, bite—

Something shot through her, like a cry. A command and she scrambled back, Amdis’ hold breaking. He glared past her to Kodiak. “Keep out of it. No one wants you here.”

“Then let him go.”

But the vampire had felt it too, like she’d been hauled back to herself, out of his psychic clutches. And she could almost feel the soothing heated touch of Kodiak, his fingers at her nape, his voice whispering to her to hold on.

And his pain blasted into her and she opened to it, wanting to take it.

Just as suddenly it stopped and she staggered, breathing hard.

What the hell was that? Kodiak. It was Kodiak. It didn’t matter it made no sense, it was. She knew it. It felt as if Tamaska and Kodiak were bound by their own chain, something invisible.

Is this the bond he keeps referring to?

Warmth flowed through the bond, cooling the rage to lay hands on the vampire, giving her hope. She could feel him. And unlike the vampires, it seemed right when Kodiak touched her in a psychic way. He wasn’t in her head, trying to manipulate her thoughts, but it was like he felt what she did, and she felt his pain.

And his strength. It gave her hope.

Despite Kodiak’s weakened state, he was alive. He was there. Tamaska was infused with new strength, and that new strength, he stood only a few feet away.

“Look who I have,” said Amdis, smirking as he shifted focus to Kodiak.

Tamaska gathered her strength and stood, waiting to see how this played out, waiting to see if she could find a weakness, a way to break Kodiak free.

“I see why you want her; she’s pretty, and tasty.” The smirk broadened into an evil grin. “Such a delicious little snack for me. And you brought her here, just by being stupid enough to get caught. The alpha and the snack.”

Kodiak growled. “Let her go. You have me, so do what you want to me. Just let her go.”

“But I really, really want her.” Amdis stepped toward Kodiak, shoes clicking on the polished dance floor. “Rather surprising, isn’t it?”

The rhetorical question hung in the air between what she could see as three powerful forces—Amdis, radiating confidence; Kodiak, bound; and herself—only important because of the opal, but important. And she fought the paralyzing fear that built inside her.

She was more than destiny and unlike anyone else in here, she was human…closer than any of them, anyway. Even Kodiak who grew up in the pack. And she got the feeling after her colleague who’d been turned, that vampires forgot their humanity.

---