Chapter 6
CHAPTER SIX
The moment Ranulf heard the two words Contained and Safe inside his head, he knew the agonizing time of having to listen to the gloating Wallis’s threats was finally over.
He would be forever grateful to Sephie for doing as he had asked when she closed her eyes and kept them closed.
He didn’t want her to see any of what was about to happen.
The two of them needed to be completely alone, and not under any sort of threat, when he explained who and what he was and what she now meant to him.
Her unquestioning compliance now allowed Ranulf to snuff out the candles with just a thought before he moved forward with preternatural speed. Neither of which Wallis had any chance of reacting to until it was too late.
Unlike Wallis, Ranulf had enhanced dragon vision, allowing him to see in the dark.
A stroke of his long talons across the fragile skin of Wallis’s wrist, and the hand holding the controller with the button set to detonate the dynamite in the inn was no longer attached to Wallis’s arm.
He was tempted to do the same to the other wrist, detaching the hand that had dared to touch his mate’s hair minutes ago.
He might still do that later, but for now, he restrained himself.
But he did enjoy hearing Wallis’s shocked gasp after he had reignited the candles and the man was able to see his own dismembered hand lying on the tiled floor. The scream that immediately followed was music to Ranulf’s ears.
He watched with satisfaction as the man immediately released Sephie to use his other hand to attempt to stem the flow of blood from the stump at the end of his arm.
“You bastard!” he accused when the blood kept pumping through his fingers. “You fucking—”
Ranulf had cut off Wallis’s flow of curses by placing his blood-wet talons around the other man’s throat. “Keep your eyes closed,” he growled at Sephie when he sensed she was about to give in to her curiosity and open them.
Her lips thinned indignantly in a show of irritation at his order, but thankfully, she still did as he asked.
Seconds later, Ranulf applied pressure to the strategic points in Wallis’s neck, and the man was rendered unconscious. Ranulf then dragged Wallis over to the open doorway and handed the dragon hunter off to his brothers waiting outside.
Lachlan took the detonator and put it in his pocket, while Hunter retrieved the severed hand and then incinerated away any evidence of blood on the floor, before the two of them silently departed.
Once they were outside, Lachlan grasped Wallis’s coat collar and easily pulled the still unconscious man across the snow-covered ground behind him.
None of them was willing to touch any more of the murdering bastard than they needed to be able to carry out the rest of their plan.
Ranulf knew his brothers would be taking Wallis to Drake House and securing him there. The exact method of his death, as he had brought deliberate harm to all of them in one way or another, would be decided later.
They had come up with this plan earlier today after Hunter and Lachlan, having sensed Ranulf’s deepening distress in regard to his mate, had listened to his explanation of what was happening and then shared that situation with their mates.
Zoey and Belle had insisted they all must assist in saving Sephie and her family before disposing of Edgar Wallis once and for all.
Mates, Ranulf had realized, could be bloodthirsty creatures when the people they loved were threatened.
Much to Zoey’s and Belle’s annoyance, Hunter and Lachlan had suggested they remain at Drake House until the worst of this situation was over.
A brief conversation later, and the two women were instead accompanying their mates to the village inn to release Sephie’s parents while Ranulf kept Wallis’s attention occupied inside the church.
Since learning of its existence, Ranulf had also warned his brothers through their mental link of the necessity of disabling the dynamite in the inn before doing anything else.
After that, Ranulf had only been waiting for his brothers to let him know that the Malcolms were safe and the dynamite was contained.
The moment he had heard those two reassuring words through their familial link, Ranulf had asked Sephie to close her eyes.
It had all gone exactly as they wanted it to. Allowing Ranulf to check to make sure there was no evidence left anywhere, on the floor tiles or otherwise, before he invited Sephie to “open your eyes.”
* * *
The first thing Sephie realized when she raised her eyelids and instinctively turned to face the danger in the room, namely Edgar Wallis, was that he was no longer standing behind her.
Nor, after a quick glance, could she see him anywhere else in the shadows created by the half-dozen lit candles inside the church.
She was a little wary still about assuming his disappearance was a good thing. As far as she could tell, the detonator was also missing.
“What happened while my eyes were closed?” she prompted cautiously.
“I would hardly have asked you to close them if I then intended to answer that question in any detail,” Ranulf chided gently.
“Why can I detect the metallic smell of blood and something burning?”
“Another of the things we will discuss later.”
“Will we?”
“Yes,” he confirmed gruffly. “And when we do, I will tell you everything you want to know.”
She raised her brows. “Does that ‘everything’ include the strange references Wallis made to beasts and monsters awakening and what you are, with emphasis on the you?”
“If you wish me to, yes.” Ranulf nodded. “But all you really need to know for now is that your parents are safe. That they are free, and Belle and Zoey have taken them to the warmth and hospitality of Drake House.”
He lightly placed a hand against her cheek so that he could carefully remove the tape from over her mouth. His touch was very gentle against her bruised cheek and swollen lip.
Sephie was sure she could see those silver flames dancing in his eyes again as the intensity of his gaze deepened the moment those injuries were revealed in full.
She just as quickly realized it was probably caused by the candlelight.
Although, if that were the case, wouldn’t those reflective flames in Ranulf’s eyes give off a golden glow rather than a silver one?
She—
Ranulf’s growl distracted her. “Wallis will pay for daring to touch you,” he assured grimly as he moved to stand behind her. He unfastened the rope tying her wrists together at the base of her spine.
Sephie’s cheek and lip hurt, and her wrists were sore from being tied, but… “I’m only interested in my parents’ safety.”
“Wallis and the dynamite have both been neutralized. Even as we speak, he is being contained within our home.”
She eyed Ranulf warily. “What does that mean?”
He tilted his head. “What does a castle usually have beneath its foundations?”
Sephie thought for a moment before her brow cleared. “Dungeons?”
“Exactly.”
Her eyes widened. “Your brothers have locked Wallis in the castle dungeons?”
“Yes.”
“Is it cold down there?”
“Very.”
“Good,” she said with relish.
Ranulf smiled at her vehemence. “The only reason I wasted any time conversing with Wallis earlier was to keep him occupied until my brothers had successfully disarmed the dynamite and released your parents. I was then free to disarm and secure him.”
“But how did you know when— He really can’t hurt any of us again?” She decided this was more important than knowing the details of how that had come about.
For now…
She wanted many more answers later, but right now, she just needed her parents to be safe.
“He will never hurt anyone again,” Ranulf bit out. His gaze lowered to her bruised cheek and what she could feel was a swollen lip. “He hit you?”
She grimaced. “Punched me, actually.”
Ranulf’s jaw tightened. “Then I will ensure he receives that exact same treatment from me.”
“What will happen to him then— You know what?” She gave a dismissive grimace.
“I really don’t care what happens to him.
I’m just grateful to you and your family for saving all of us.
” Sephie launched herself across the space separating them to entwine her arms securely about his neck.
“Thank you! Thank you!” she gushed in gratitude before pressing her lips against his.
Ranulf initially froze, no doubt at the unexpectedness of her throwing herself at him. But he soon got on board with it, his strong arms moving about her waist and easily lifting her off her feet as he deepened the kiss.
Sephie instinctively wrapped her legs about Ranulf’s waist, immediately able to feel the hard length of his arousal pressing against the heat between her legs.
The very long length of his arousal!
Not that Sephie had anything to compare it with, but she was sure the eight or nine inches pressing against her was larger than average.
All perfectly in proportion, she reminded herself, before once again losing herself to the hunger of their heated kisses.
* * *
Ranulf wanted nothing more than to keep on kissing Sephie, to do more than kiss her.
But Wallis’s deliberate cruelty to her and her family had ensured Sephie had been under severe stress all day.
As a consequence, Ranulf needed to see to the comfort of his mate before he did anything else.
For instance, holding her in his arms had allowed him to know how cold she was in only the cream Aran-knit sweater and fitted jeans.
Much as it grieved him to do so, he lifted his head and broke the kiss.
But he kept his arms around Sephie’s waist, unable to release her completely.
“We will return to Drake House now so you can see for yourself that your parents are safe and well.” He tilted his head as Lachlan spoke to him through their link.
“They have availed themselves of the bathroom, enjoyed a cup of tea, and are now both wrapped up warm and sitting in front of the fire, eating bowls of stew and fresh bread.”
“How— Again, never mind.” She gave a dismissive wave of her hand. “I don’t care how all of this came about, only that it did.”
Ranulf knew that was how she felt right now. But no doubt once the shock had worn off and she had been totally reassured as to her parents’ welfare, she would want answers to the many questions floating around inside her head.
Ranulf sincerely hoped that once Sephie asked those questions and he had answered her truthfully, she wouldn’t run away screaming.
Although he somehow couldn’t imagine his beautiful and brave mate ever running away screaming from anything or anyone.
He hoped he wouldn’t be the first.