CHAPTER EIGHT
–Bain–
I HAD NEVER felt the kind of fury I did when Niall carried Naya to the castle chamber Tréan had provided him earlier and nearly took her against her will because of my actions. Had I not carried off that female to rut with, even though it never happened, Naya’s inner beast might not have so readily given into Niall. Might not have come so close to lying with him again and strengthening their bond.
While some might not look at her lying with Niall here in Tréan’s castle as rape because he was her maker and he’d mated with her, I certainly did. I had felt her disgust and frustration at being unable to push him away and say no because her inner beast was beholden to him.
So, I was relieved when they passed out, thanks to Tréan’s magical influence over the drinks they consumed, and I carried Naya out of there. Niall would eventually wake, groggy like he’d drunk too much, and be assured Naya was with Kaia.
From there, keeping her beyond his reach would be tricky, but we had to try.
Not surprisingly, given how drawn to her I was, finally touching Naya and having her in my arms, no matter how briefly, almost brought me to my knees. She weighed next to nothing, yet she overpowered both sides of me with intense need. Her sweet aroma wrapped around me and pulled me closer, making me long to catch the scent of her arousal again. I had never, not once, craved a female as much as I did her.
And certainly not one who belonged to another.
After waiting for her to sleep off Tréan’s magic and watching over her, I knew I would try to free her from Niall until my last dying breath. Knew there was nothing I would not do to see her slumber peacefully with her luxurious sun-kissed dark brown hair fanned out around her beautiful face. I wasn’t sure what part of her I stared at the longest. I only knew every part captivated me. From how her long, thick, dark lashes rested against her soft cheeks to how she rubbed her full, pink lips together every so often and murmured random words, I was enchanted.
Mesmerized.
Unable to pull my gaze away.
Once in a while, her brow furrowed, and she growled, her inner beast there in her dreams before she’d tremble and go still. I wished I could follow her into those dreams and protect her, but they were beyond me, lost to the life she’d led and the hardships she had suffered.
Now, here she was, awake and sitting across a small table from me, wondering what being fated mates meant. Although Tréan’s magic would cause Niall to feel unwell when he woke, he assured me Naya would not suffer the same effects.
“Being fated mates means we are destined to be with one another life after life until the end of time,”
I said, not disliking the words as much as I had before. I certainly didn’t dread the idea of it with her. But then, I hadn’t had her yet, so perhaps my overwhelming need was more sensual than anything else.
Or so I tried to convince myself.
Naya didn’t respond at first but stared at me as if I had lost my mind before she chuckled. “No.”
She shook her head and sipped her wine. “Sorry, but...”
Her eyes narrowed on me. “You can’t be serious?”
“Yet I am.”
I wasn’t sure whether to be offended or relieved by her reaction. My inner beast was undoubtedly offended by how my wolven eyes flared in what almost felt like distress. “Not just that, but our becoming fated mates is...”
I struggled with how to say it. “It isn’t just a means to help us win this war but possibly the only way of escaping Niall’s hold on you and the fate you chose when you ran alone on your second shift, your True Moon Shift, and went Renegade.”
Where her emotions had been abundantly clear on her face moments before, her features were hard to read now as her gaze lingered on me a moment longer. Rather than sip her wine, she drank it in three long gulps, set it down slowly, and eyed the fire.
Where some might have fought against what I just shared, denying it or questioning it, Naya wasn’t that sort. Instead, she inhaled deeply and exhaled slowly as if coping with it. Possibly even accepting it.
“Because I am,”
she said, not softly or timidly but with a level voice. She looked at me again, catching my thoughts as much as I’d begun catching hers. “I decided to run alone during my second shift, knowing how dangerous it could be, but I did it anyway because Kaia and Storm’s lives are worth more to me than anything else.”
She shrugged and nodded once, a warrior in her own right. “Would I have done it if I’d realized it would make me Niall’s? Yes. In a heartbeat. I would do anything to free them from the hell we grew up in.”
Her eyes narrowed again. “As to being your fated mate? I don’t buy into that whole idea because I’m not a one-guy kind of girl, nor do I commit, but again, if it means keeping Kaia and Storm safe, I’ll do whatever it takes.”
Before I could respond, she went on.
“And just so you know, even though I don’t make a habit of explaining my actions to anyone if I don’t deem it necessary, especially if it’s none of their damn business, in this case, I will if it manages to help my cousins somehow.”
Her eyes darkened on me. “I slept with Niall to gain his trust and get close enough to him to access information that would free my cousins from the mafia going forward.”
She stiffened her shoulders against a shiver. “Not because I wanted him. If that were the case, I would have had him years ago.”
Every part of what she’d revealed made me want to end Niall in horrific ways, but I kept it from my face because what was done was done. Would that assuage my inner beast’s feelings of betrayal? I had no idea. The possibility of being fated mates was as new to me as it was to her.
I was about to reply when a rap came at the door, and Tréan and Kaia entered when I telepathically said they could.
“Hey, sweetie.”
Kaia crouched before Naya and looked her over before locking eyes with her, worried about how far Niall had gotten when he’d taken her to his bed earlier. “How are you doing? That asshole hurt you?”
“I’m fine.”
Naya frowned from me to Tréan and Kaia. “Just still hazy on how I got here.”
“Let’s just say Tréan worked some magic on Niall.”
Kaia stood and gestured at the door on the opposite side of the room. “It’s time to go. Hopefully, our plan works, and we can keep you guys one step ahead of him.”
“Right,”
Naya said slowly, looking from one door to the other. “And what does that mean exactly?”
I told Naya before they could answer because she deserved to hear it from me. Yet again, there would be consequences for her actions. Consequences for running alone during her second shift and turning Renegade, then again when she’d chosen to lay with Niall.
Consequences that would, if we were lucky, end with me.
“Because you are Niall’s mate and grow more addicted to his wolf by the moment, we will attempt to wane your inner beast off of him and toward me,”
I revealed. “It has never been done with a Renegade wolf and her maker-turned-mate and alpha. We hope gradually putting distance between you two whilst you and I get closer will free you from his binds and, in turn, Tadc’s.”
“For real?”
The corners of Naya’s mouth twitched with amusement. She looked at all of us with an equally amused expression before her eyebrows shot up. “Oh, wow, you are serious.”
She gestured between the two of us. “So, you think hooking up with Bain will free me from Niall? Make him look the other way?”
She released a dainty snort. “In what world ever?”
“The world of fated mates.”
Tréan looked at Kaia with such affection and confidence it was hard to doubt the concept. “’Tis a more powerful force than anyone realizes.”
“If you say so,”
Naya said, clearly unconvinced, and I didn’t blame her. “While it all sounds plausible enough, I guess, given my inner beast’s reaction to him, how are we supposed to keep Niall close but not too close? He’s got to be wondering where I am already.”
I couldn’t help but wonder what she meant by her wolf’s reaction. Did she mean to me? Because even though I had caught her aroused scent in the forest when she’d first arrived, I didn’t now. Not once since she had awoken.
And I didn’t like it one bit.
I was desperate to breathe it in again, knowing it was for me. That I could slide into her beautiful body at will because she was that ready for me.
“Niall is curious where you are, Naya,”
Tréan confirmed. “But for now, thanks to my powers being enhanced by becoming fated mates with Kaia, I’m able to keep his mind hazy enough that he thinks all is well and you're just off spending time with Kaia.”
He shook his head and looked at me in warning. “But I cannot say how long I’ll be able to keep him in that mindset or how long I can keep his men occupied, so while we have some time, we must make haste.”
“At least that’s something.”
Kaia looked from Naya to me. “Something you both should take advantage of as we move closer to your castle, Bain, while we keep Niall just close enough, Naya’s inner beast doesn’t get too distressed. Hopefully, if this works, her distress will lessen more and more until we can break her from his hold altogether.”
“What exactly do you mean by take advantage?”
Naya glanced from me to Kaia. “Because it sounds an awful lot like you’re asking me to sleep with a perfect stranger in hopes it’ll rip me away from a monster.”
“’Twill not necessarily mean that.”
Tréan headed for the other door. “Fated mates come together in various ways. Laying together might be crucial or simply a beneficial addition.”
He made a come-hither motion to follow him. “Until then, ‘tis best you two head for Bain’s territory with just enough space between Naya and Niall until we know if this will work.”
Although Naya eyed us for a long moment, debating if this was the right move, clearly unsettled about everything she'd just been told, she thankfully ended up following Kaia and Tréan into an underground earthen tunnel leading to my castle.
“I thought I was on your territory already, Bain,”
Naya said, making me that much more aware of her in front of me in our tight confines.
“You somewhat were, as Tréan’s territory covers all three Wolves of Ossary kingdoms,”
I replied, trying not to breathe in her sweet scent. She might not be aroused, but she still smelled perfect. “When Tréan made me and Callum his lesser kings, we were allowed to cover his scent with ours, making it our territory even though ‘tis still somewhat his.”
“Even these tunnels?”
she wondered.
“Even these tunnels.”
“And how does that work exactly?”
she wondered, slightly put off by the idea.
“Through glands in my paws,”
I revealed, fully aware she thought I must have relieved myself everywhere like a dog. “We secrete a scent that is unique to us. If we are strong enough, a true alpha, our mark cannot be overridden.”
She didn’t offer a response but remained silent as we traveled. At least verbally. Her thoughts, however, swirled around me in a blaze of curiosity and tentativeness. Though her human half wondered about me and kept me at arm's length, her inner wolf circled closer, sniffing me out, trying to place my role in its life. Tried to understand why I had been in her dreams, yet she was mated to another.
While that was good and pleased me, that same inner wolf set me on edge and made me work at calming my inner beast because every step that took her further from Niall made it feel me out with more aggression. It wanted to understand why I tried to come between her and her mate. It needed to understand why I wanted to keep her from the wolf to whom it felt loyal.
All in all, it was a strange and dangerous combination.
A treacherous dance I had no choice but to leave to my inner beast as it circled her wolf too, standing its ground the best it could, walking a line between friend and foe. Between us being fated mates yet still trying to claim another’s mate even though she should be mine. There was much left to chance, and I loathed it. I wanted to fight it and steal her away into the darkness until she had no choice but to give in, but I knew better.
It could harm her significantly, cost my pack the war, and all for what?
My certain death and no life with her.
Yet I couldn’t help but imagine what that brief time in between might be like. How it would feel to hold her in my arms and finally kiss her like I had a thousand times in my dreams. To press deep inside her and lose myself in her sweet body.
Let go inside her just once before it was all over.
I swore I would, too.
Just one time.
But I would do it right so she was free at the end. Do it so my pack didn’t suffer and defeated Tadc once and for all. As to Niall? May he suffer not just at my hands but at Tréan’s and maybe even Callum’s for turning Naya, Kaia, and Storm into wolves in the first place. It might have brought them to us, but it was still a terrible curse.
“How are you keeping Niall close?”
Naya wondered, clearly directing her question to Tréan and Kaia. “Because I can’t feel him anymore.”
And may she never again.
Yet still, I knew it was important that she did, at least for now.
“You will feel Niall soon enough, Naya,”
Tréan assured. “He and his men will be led from chamber to chamber in your wake. Under the same magical haze, they will be distracted by women who need never lie with them entirely, just keep them enthralled. ‘Tis harder to know how ‘twill go with your maker, but his men should be manageable enough.”
“You mean it’s harder to know how many women might keep Niall distracted before he realizes something isn’t quite right,”
Naya said, no fool. In more ways than one, it seemed, because she caught on. “Ah,”
she murmured softly. “From his mistress’s type to my type.”
I bit back a growl of anger at Niall for not putting Naya, and only Naya, first. Admittedly, this was an odd thing for me to get frustrated about, as I often enjoyed many women, yet my circumstances weren’t Naya’s—not at all. Though I had to wonder about my inner beast’s reaction to Niall enjoying his mate as well as other females. Would I, as I'd originally thought, do the same if Naya was mine? Something told me no, and while that would have terrified me days ago, it didn’t now.
Rather, when Tréan paused, grew alarmed, and turned back, urging us to move faster onto my territory, I relished the idea of soon belonging to her and her alone, however briefly it might be.