“I’m going after her.”
“No, you’re not.”
Darien turned to his brother and shoved him. He went flying back against a tree. “Yes, I am.”
“She isn’t yours, Darien. That man has a right to her. If you go and try to steal her off his land, he’ll have justification to kill you.”
“If it’s a challenge he wants, then that’s what I’ll do. I cannot leave her there. I can’t let her go.”
Vane stilled then slowly straightened from his slouch against the tree. He stalked to his brother, grabbed his face in his hands growling, “I know you have it in you. Do this because you love her, Darien. Or you will lose her forever.” He clapped Darien close and hugged him fiercely, then spun around and left.
Darien’s mind was spinning. Love. Did he love her? He didn’t have time to stop and think, to debate such a complicated topic. His beast drove him now, primitive and raw. He knew only a few things in that moment. That Cassie was his woman, and that he was going to tear Daniel’s throat out for touching her.
He didn’t know if he was doing the right thing. He seemed to have spent most of his life making terrible choices; he just hoped this one wasn’t.
He followed the cold male scent that lingered with the beautiful scent of his woman. He would find her, just don’t let him be too late again.
His feet pounding into the ground, his heart a loud beat in his ears, he heard only the harsh sound of his breathing. As one mile turned into two and three, he realized that he would do anything to get Cassie back with him, and he was going to spend the rest of his life with her at his side.
It was as if his beast had been waiting for this moment to speak its mind, to voice its thoughts. How he’d ever, even for a second, thought he could let her be with another man. It was impossible. She was his. He growled into the night and ran harder, faster. She was his.
Chapter 15
Daniel dragged her through the crowd of his clan. They laughed at her, taunted her with cruel names, while some gave her apologetic glances. The faces swam by one another then blended until she didn’t know who was laughing and who was taunting. Her face throbbed and burned where he’d hit her, she no longer knew if it was the alcohol that was making the world spin out of control or if her brain was still shaking from the hit.
She recognized the big open lawn Daniel had brought her to—his house. Daniel’s clan congregated around a huge bonfire that flickered into the night, casted shadows along sharp grinning faces. A wooden post was sticking straight out of the ground near it.
“We have our soon-to-be queen back, ladies and gentlemen!” Daniel announced grandly. The clan applauded and cheered. Cassie knew she was completely sober now. The tears were dried up. She was left now with only resolution. She was done. It was all over now.
Daniel tossed her over to the guards, and they grabbed her roughly, dragged her kicking legs over to that pole. Never had anything so simple terrified her before. They pulled her arms behind her while the crowd cheered on, and then her arms were tied roughly behind the pole. One guard held her up straight so the other one could tie her feet with a thick yellow rope. Humiliation and fear consumed her.
They tied her wrists together with rough, hard movements that bit the rope into her soft skin. Her hands started fighting against the rope anyways until she, felt her skin breaking. Only then did she stop, hanging her head in defeat.
Daniel paced around the fire. “Tonight is a great night for our people. Not only will you have a new queen, but I will finally have my mate.”
Cassie’s stomach lurched and bile rose up her throat. She swallowed it back down.
Daniel stopped in front of her. His smile had her cringing away from him, standing as far against the wooden post as she could get.
He grabbed her face in two hands then slammed his mouth down on hers. Cassie did the first thing she thought to, and opened her mouth and bit him. He pulled back with a hiss then landed a wide, open-palmed slap against her cheek.
The crowd grew quiet around her, watching her and Daniel with weary eyes.
“Take her clothes off,” he ordered to the guards. They didn’t hesitate. They pulled out knifes and started cutting at her shirt and pants. She gritted her teeth and swore to herself not to cry. Be strong.
“As if that would stop me from cutting the dog out of you.” His cruel words were a shock even to her. A reminder just how low he was.
Once again donning a smile for the crowd, he said, “Come on everyone, turn on the music. Tonight is a night for celebration. She has come back to us. To celebrate this fantastic occasion, I shall mate with your queen here for all eyes to see.”
Cassie paled. Her nakedness in front of the crowed was disgusting, humiliating enough. But he was going to...
She shuddered and lifted her chin. He would not best her this night or any others. Free me, her eyes dared, glowing with anger.
“I will kill you,” she said in a quavering, powerful voice. Daniel spun to her and grinned as his eyes trailed down her body.
“Then I will lock you up and ensure that you never have that chance, my darling Cassandra.” Cassie leveled a hard gaze at him. She would not go out without a fight. She would fight for herself, and she would fight for Darien. Because she loved him so much that the thought of never seeing him again was like acid burning over her heart. She couldn’t do it. She couldn’t live like that.
“Untie me and let me fight for my freedom.” Daniel held his side as a loud laugh bellowed out of him. He stalked close to her, still chuckling. He pushed his body hard against hers. She kept her body still but couldn’t stop from twitching when suddenly his voice was in her ear.
“Your freedom has never been in your hands, Cassandra. It’s been in mine since you were only a wee thing. Do you want to know how startled your father looked when I stabbed him in the heart?”
Cassie jerked and looked at him with disbelieving eyes. His were wild and wide, his expression evil with insanity.
“My father committed suicide, because he missed my mother too much.” Her words were weak and soft even to her own ears.
He gripped her chin in a bruising grip and kissed her hard. When she opened her mouth to bite him again, he pulled back with a delighted chuckle. “Your father never committed suicide, Cassandra. He loved you too much for that, no matter how much he missed your stupid mother. No, I killed him.”
There was no stopping the sudden, horrible pain that stabbed through her heart like a stake. Tears filled her eyes. For so long, she’d thought....
“Why?” she asked hoarsely.
His mouth fell into a flat line. “Besides the fact that I hated him? He always had everything I wanted. The beautiful wife, the good daughter...it should have been mine. Didn’t your father ever tell you that she was with me first?”
Cassie shook her head side to side in his grip, tears falling loosely down her cheeks. Her mother died that night. Pieces started pulling together like a puzzle.
“Did you...kill her too?” He pulled back and looked at her with dead, vacant eyes. He did. He didn’t need to say it. Cassie tore her head away from him and bellowed her grief to the night. Cries shook through her. A part of her realized the clan had quieted, the music stopped, and everyone was looking at her curiously.
In that moment, she wanted to kill them all. She wanted to rip Daniel’s heart out for killing her parents, for destroying the family she should have had, and she wanted to burn his useless clan for standing by and doing nothing.
She thought of her father, of the pictures he’d shown her of her mother. That’s where she’d gotten her red hair from, her father had said. You have my eyes, and your mom’s hair. You’re the most beautiful girl in the world, doll. Those were his last words to her on the night he’d died. He’d tucked her into bed, kissed her on the forehead, and left.