CHAPTER FIVE
–Naya–
THOUGH I FELT more repulsed by the moment at what I’d gotten myself into by sleeping with Niall, I still managed to sip my red wine and discreetly eye Bain’s giant black wolf when he sat close enough in the living room to let me know he kept an eye on me. My anger at him had come and gone since he’d stalked down the hallway toward Niall, and I didn’t know why.
Given even more revelations, I feared that my anger might grow again.
How so? Because my grand plan to ruin Niall's pack was impossible now. I was tied to him, no matter what. Destined to follow him back in time over a thousand years only to crave him more and more the longer Bain was around us.
And that was a damn good reason to be mad at Bain.
It didn’t matter that he didn’t know Niall would have total control over my wolf if I slept with him or that it would give him control over the fate of Bain’s pack.
My inner beast still blamed Bain above all others.
Moreover, my inner beast blamed him for not stopping it before it got this far. Even if it had been my own delusions in the terror of the moment, I felt like he should have found a way to stop Niall from biting me to begin with. Because he had been there in some odd way, hadn’t he? Why else would I have seen his eyes and felt him close?
Why would I have become so aroused despite my fear?
Whether I would feel duty-bound to Niall’s wolf was yet to be seen. It sounded crazy because the last thing I had felt so far was loyalty to the bastard, and I prayed it stayed that way.
When Tréan and Niall came to an agreement that I had no say in, I’d finally had enough. I might be low on the power rung in this room, but I knew this world. I had lived it, climbing the ranks of corporate real estate. It was a dog-eat-dog world and even harder to navigate if you were a woman, but I had held my own and climbed to the top.
So, I finally said what I should have before I allowed anyone to start making deals with my life as if I weren’t in the room.
“Wishing everyone the best,”
I muttered sarcastically, downing the rest of my wine in one long swallow. “But I’m not going—”
“Yes, you are,”
Tréan said sternly, surprising me when he stood, gestured that Niall control the situation, and told us to follow him. “Now.”
Though I was tempted to tell Niall to screw off, something had shifted between us because when he stood, and his wolven eyes dared me to defy him, my inner beast backed down, and I hated the feeling. Loathed it. But there it was, forcing me to become a puppet on his string. He didn’t bother helping me with my coat but tossed it at me and made a flippant gesture to remain ahead of him as we followed the others outside.
While I sensed Niall’s control over me growing like a cancer, I was still acutely aware of Bain’s wolf. How his reddish gold eyes tracked my every move. How he stalked me in a way only I understood because he had done it in my dreams and nightmares.
Then, he had done it in erotic flashes of smoky gray eyes and hot breath against my neck when no one was there. In gentle caresses made of fantasies and desires born of secret needs. Of bound wrists, blindfolds, and someone bold enough to accept my need for control.
Someone capable of calming my fear of losing control until I gave in.
Tréan stopped and looked from the sizeable bodyguards falling in around Niall back to the man who felt like my captor in more ways than one. “Should I assume you all wish to travel back?”
“We do.”
Niall nodded once. “I go nowhere without my higher-ranking pack members.”
“So be it.”
Tréan’s gaze swept over them before landing on Niall again, fully aware they were packing. “You must leave your guns here.”
He shook his head. “They cannot travel back to an era before they were invented. You’ll be provided as many blades as you like and the means to carry them.”
Niall shook his head, too, and frowned. “We won’t be traveling anywhere without weapons in hand.”
“Nor would I in your position.”
Tréan gestured at Adlin. “That’s why my uncle will provide them here and now, plus the knowledge of how to use them via magic. ‘Twill be instantaneous.”
When Niall kept shaking his head, Tréan’s gold wolven eyes flared, and he made things clear.
“If you travel back to my era with guns, there is every chance you will cease to exist.”
He explained the nuances of time travel. “Bringing guns to a time hundreds of years before they existed could change the course of history.”
Niall eyed him and weighed his options before he finally nodded at Adlin. “Fine. Manifest the blades and teach us how to use them, and then we’ll hand over our guns.”
I was impressed when Adlin provided a pile of medieval blades, including swords, daggers, axes, and, from the looks of them, small maces.
“Take what you like.”
Adlin chanted under his breath. “The moment your hand makes contact with them, you will know how to use them and use them well.”
“How do we know we won’t drop dead when we touch them?”
one of Niall’s guys asked.
“Because if one of us dies, we fight here and now,”
Niall grunted, eyeing the weapons curiously. “If we fight, chances are Adlin alone will defeat us, and I’ll die. I die, Naya dies, and nobody wants that.”
Confident enough not to have one of his lackeys risk it first, Niall crouched and picked up one of the more lethal-looking swords before he inhaled deeply, clearly soaking up the knowledge to use it, and nodded. “They’re safe.”
After handing over his multiple guns, Niall ordered his men to do the same.
“Just one more thing.”
When Adlin flicked his wrist, they were redressed in medieval attire, complete with sheathes for their weapons. “So that you blend in.”
Adlin had dressed me in something similar to Kaia, but it was more of a dark chocolate brown rather than black, and it wasn’t too bad. It wasn’t great, but better than I expected for the medieval period, from perfect-fitting linen pants, boots tall enough to sheath a blade in, a leather tunic belted at the waist, and a fur cloak.
I sensed rather than saw Bain’s reaction to my new attire, but I didn’t dare look his way. Not when it could make Niall jealous. I might have had my ups and downs when it came to my midnight stranger, but I would never unleash Niall on him. I had seen what he was capable of when he was jealous of me, and it was brutal.
“This way.”
Tréan urged us to follow him before walking straight at the old oak tree in front of the house, only to vanish.
“Follow me.”
Kaia stopped at the tree and perked her eyebrow at Niall and his men. “Unless you're too afraid and a bunch of cowards like I’ve always thought you were?”
When Kaia vanished in Tréan’s wake, followed by Bain’s wolf, Niall seemed to think his deal might be getting away from him because he grabbed my wrist and yanked me after him. We walked toward the oak one second, and my ears popped like the pressure was off before seconds later, one reality shifted into another, and we emerged into a blustery, cold forest.
I tried to get my bearings when I discovered the house gone but had trouble. It felt too different here. The scent of sea salt on the wind was fresher than in Boston, and the air crisper. Then, there was the darkness, cut only by dim moonlight beyond a thick woodland canopy. It felt cloying and dangerous like my nightmares, swamping me in memories and fear until everything stilled inside me like it had in the foyer back in the Colonial when Bain's black wolf had melted out of the darkness.
Only this time, he was no wolf.
This time, he was my midnight stranger melting out of the darkness and my knees weakened at the sight of him. That had never happened to me before, or the lightheaded feeling—like walking on thin air—I experienced next, followed by a heavy throbbing ache between my thighs. Who could blame me, though?
Bain was even taller than Niall, with broader shoulders and a strong, muscular body. His longish ebony hair was pulled back, revealing chiseled, masculine bearded features. Then there were his thickly lashed dark, smoky, dangerous gray eyes when they locked on me.
Owned me.
Turned me into something made of lustful nightmares and heart-pounding dreams. Of sweaty, tangled limbs and waking in twisted sheets mid-climax.
“Naya,”
he murmured, his deep voice sending shivers of awareness through me even though his lips never moved. He had spoken to me, though. I was certain of it. Spoken with the same husky voice that murmured into my ear late at night when no one was looking. When darkness came, and my heart raced. When my fear turned to pleasure, and I arched into a phantom touch.
Not surprisingly, Niall tensed when Bain joined us. If he wasn’t imposing enough with his wide shoulders and muscles straining against his black leather tunic, the massive battle axe strapped to his back certainly was. When his eyes narrowed on my captor, and he spoke aloud, an Irish lilt obvious now, his voice as deliciously deep as it had been in my dreams and his manner confident, the throbbing between my thighs spiked that much more.
“Now we will see who she chooses in the end.”
Bain's dark eyes swept over Niall with contempt. “I would guess you have already lost a battle you thought you won.”
Niall flinched for the first time ever before he went to grab me, no doubt to taunt Bain as he had in the living room, only for the Irish warrior to move so fast I barely caught it. One blink, Niall was going for me, and the next, Bain’s axe was against Niall's throat, and his back slammed against a tree.
“Break your word to Tréan and touch her again,”
Bain ground out, digging the deadly metal deeper as he came nose to nose with Niall, venom dripping from every word, “and I will make your life hell before I dismember you piece by piece.”
Always a sucker for a badass alpha personality, I nearly groaned with approval until a strange, unwanted jolt of fear shot through me, and I shook my head, fearing for Niall’s life when days ago, I would have been fine with castrating him myself. But not now, thanks to my inner beast’s loyalty to its mate and alpha, however shitty a person he was.
Undoubtedly sensing my distress, a small, predictably smug smile curled Niall’s lips, and he kept his eyes locked with Bain’s. “Kill me, kill her.”
He shrugged. “Up to you, Bain.”
His smile grew more taunting, and his words bold, given his current position. “But we both know she doesn’t want you to, don’t we?”
He licked his lips, dickhead to the core. “We both know her inner pup is getting wet for me at this very moment, terrified you’ll hurt me before I have a chance to bend her over again and—”
“Enough,”
Tréan bit out before Niall said something Bain couldn’t back down from. “’Tis best we get to the protection of my castle so I can arrange a meeting with Tadc. Wolves other than Tadc’s pack roam this forest, and all would consider Naya a bigger prize than you, Niall. You could easily lose your bargaining chip before you have a chance to make a deal.”
Bain leaned closer and narrowed his eyes even more, growling at Niall in warning before he listened to Tréan and pulled away. My monster maker rolled his shoulders as if shrugging off Bain’s roughness and nodded once at Tréan in compliance.
To be expected, as we followed Tréan, Niall fell in beside me, and his men surrounded us in a way I had seen them do repeatedly. Only now, they were in medieval attire, carrying blades instead of guns. Yet somehow, despite their typical tough facades, I had a feeling Tréan and Bain could take them down.
Speaking of people taking down Niall and his men, it occurred to me Uncle Connor still thought our plan was in place. So, what would happen now Niall and his top men had vanished? And where had Storm been? I didn’t have the chance to ask Kaia before Niall showed up.
“Adlin tucked Storm away somewhere safe,”
Kaia said, surprising me when she came across in my mind like Bain had earlier. “And yes, I’m speaking to you telepathically. That’s something we can do now. Just think about what it is you want to say in your mind as if you were saying it aloud, and it should come through. Niall won’t catch it now that we’re on Wolves of Ossary territory. Your thoughts should be blocked from him when you’re talking to higher-level wolves like me, Tréan, and Bain…as long as we don’t let your Renegade wolf bond too much with Niall.”
It was odd hearing her in my head. Not bad, just different. So I did as she asked, wondering if it would work. “Is Storm okay? What about Uncle Connor?”
I thought about what she had just said and bit back a frown so Niall didn’t wonder why my expression changed. “What’s the plan to keep me from bonding too much with Niall, anyway, because it’s happening faster than I’d like, and I hate it.”
“I can imagine,”
Kaia replied. “Storm’s fine, just laying low and staying off Niall’s radar for now. Adlin will fill Uncle Conner in on everything when he shows up because I now know what you were up to.”
I felt her frustration with me. “I know your intentions were good, and you were trying to free us from Niall’s hold, but it was a dangerous thing to do.”
She paused before continuing. “As to our plan to keep you from bonding with Niall? Something tells me you won’t like it. Or who knows? Maybe, in the end, you'll like it a lot more than you thought you might.”