Chapter 22
Damien
Ifeel the moment Lockhart touches her.
My skin burns as if branded, rage exploding through me like wildfire.
Across the crowded club floor, through the sea of writhing bodies and flashing lights, I can see him.
His fingers gripping my mate's chin, forcing her to look at him.
My wolf claws beneath my skin, demanding release, demanding blood.
Mine. Mine. Mine.
She's playing her part perfectly, keeping him distracted, but it's taking everything in me not to tear across this room and rip his fucking throat out with my teeth.
“Easy,” Elias mutters beside me, his hand gripping my shoulder. “Stick to the plan.”
I shrug him off, my attention never leaving the VIP section where my mate sits half-naked in that fucking harness and mesh shirt.
We’d be discussing that later once she’s safe and after I’d pried that fucking outfit off of her with my goddamn teeth.
The leather straps cross her perfect skin, drawing every male eye in the place, including Lockhart's.
His hand moves to her throat now, and I feel my control slipping.
“If he doesn't remove his hand in the next five seconds, I'm going to remove it for him,” I growl. “Permanently.”
“Two more minutes,” Elias says, checking his watch. “That's all we need.”
Two minutes might as well be two years. I can feel Karina reaching for me through our bond, her consciousness brushing against mine like a lifeline.
Lockhart is talking to her, his words making her bristle through our connection.
I want to tear his tongue out along with his hands.
The lights flicker—once, twice. Elias tenses beside me.
“That's not supposed to happen,” he mutters, scanning the room with sudden alertness.
Before I can respond, the power fails. Emergency lights kick on almost immediately, bathing everything in blood-red. I curse under my breath, instinctively reaching for the knife at my belt. This wasn't part of the plan.
“Elias—”
A gunshot cracks through the air, muffled but unmistakable.
Damien! Her plea rips through our connection—thin, desperate, fading.
I’m already moving, shoving bodies aside as I carve a path toward the VIP section.
The emergency lights stutter, then die, plunging the club into chaos.
Screams rise from the humans, but I don’t need light.
My wolf’s sight cuts through the black as if it’s dusk, every sense sharpened by adrenaline and the need to reach her.
The tether between us falters, growing weaker with every heartbeat. Something’s wrong. Terribly wrong.
Karina!
Silence.
A roar tears from my chest, her name ripped free in a sound that shakes the air. Panicked bodies slam against me as the crowd surges for the exits, but I barely register the impacts. My world has shrunk to the void where her presence should be.
“Damien!” Elias shouts somewhere behind me, but I don’t slow. Can’t. My mate is slipping away, and every second drags her further from my reach.
I reach the VIP entrance, my hands finding the door handle. It's locked. I throw my shoulder against it with enough force to splinter the frame, the door exploding inward with a crash that echoes through the mayhem below.
The stench of blood hits me immediately. Gabriel's blood. I can smell it even before my eyes adjust enough to see his motionless form sprawled near the entrance, liquid pooling beneath him.
“Gabriel!” I drop to my knees beside him, pressing my fingers to his throat. There—weak, but there. A pulse. He's alive, barely.
But the couch where Karina sat is empty. The leather still holds her scent, but it's already fading, mixing with something else. Something medicinal and sharp that makes my wolf snarl in recognition.
Sedative.
“Fuck!” I slam my fist into the floor hard enough to crack the concrete beneath the carpet. They drugged her. That's why I can’t feel her.
Elias bursts through the doorway, his phone already at his ear. “Fuck, fuck, fuck! I need a medical team at the VIP section, now. Gabriel's down.”
I'm barely listening, my senses working overtime as I try to catch Karina's scent trail.
Her perfume, her shampoo, the unique musk that marks her as mine—I search for anything that might tell me which way they took her.
But the air is a confusion of smells: Gabriel's blood, spilled alcohol, and overwhelming pheromones.
“Can you tell which way they went?” Elias asks, crouching beside Gabriel and pressing his wadded-up jacket against the wound.
I drop to all fours, my face inches from the carpet as I inhale deeply. There—beneath all of the scents in this room, I catch it. Karina's scent, mixed with Lockhart's, heading toward the back exit. But there's something else. Something that makes my wolf rear back in confusion.
“Saloma,” I growl, the name tasting like poison on my tongue.
Elias's head snaps up with disbelief. “What? My stepmother?”
“Her scent is all over this room.” I rise to my feet, fury coursing through my veins like molten lead. “She was here with Lockhart. She helped him take Karina.”
“That's impossible. Why would my stepmother be here?”
The rage inside me crystallizes into something colder, deadlier. I stare at Elias, my oldest friend, my brother in everything but blood, and for the first time, I see him as a stranger.
“Is it?” I grab him by the throat, slamming him against the wall with enough force to crack the plaster. “Was this your plan all along? Was this what your father wanted in exchange for using his club? My fucking mate?”
Elias's hands claw at my grip. “Damien—I swear—I didn't—”
I tighten my hold, lifting him until his feet barely touch the ground. “Your stepmother's scent is all over this room! She was here with Lockhart. She helped him take Karina!”
“I didn't know,” he chokes out, his face reddening from lack of oxygen. “Damien, you have to believe me.”
Part of me wants to crush his windpipe, to feel something break beneath my hands since I can't reach the people who truly deserve my wrath. But beneath my fury, I smell his terror that can't be faked.
I release him abruptly, and he collapses to his knees, gasping for air.
“If I find out you knew anything about this,” I snarl, looming over him, “I will end your entire bloodline. Starting with you.”
Elias wipes blood from his mouth. “Listen to me, Dom. I had no fucking idea Saloma would be involved. This wasn't the deal.”
“What deal?” I grab him by his shirt collar, hauling him back to his feet. “What exactly did your father and mine arrange behind my back?”
Elias looks away, jaw clenched tight. “I can't tell you. My father...he bound me to silence.”
“Your father bound you?” My laugh cuts sharp and ugly through the tension. “Your Luna helped orchestrate a kidnapping, and you’re worried about a fucking command?”
Elias flinches but holds his ground. “It isn’t just a command. It’s a blood oath. If I break it, I lose everything—my rank, my wolf… maybe even my life.”
I shove him back, disgust twisting in my gut. “So, he strikes a bargain with my father that involve Karina, and you can’t warn me because you swore an oath like some obedient dog?”
“He was never supposed to touch her!” Elias’s voice cracks as his hands tremble, dragging over his shirt to steady himself. “If Saloma’s got her fingers in this, that’s on her. My father wouldn’t risk what he’s built with Hudson. It’s too valuable.”
“What’s so valuable?” I snarl, every word vibrating with the promise of violence.
His gaze flicks to Gabriel’s bloody form on the floor, then back to me, haunted. “You’ll find out soon enough, probably before you kill me. But if you want her alive, focus now. We’ve only got hours before moonrise, and they’ll try to chain her into something she can’t escape.”
A growl rips out of me, low and feral. “They can’t touch her.”
“Damien, you don’t get it—”
I fist his shirtfront and yank him close. “No, you don’t. The tie is already sealed. True. Absolute. The Moon Goddess herself marked it.”
Elias freezes, shock etched across his features. “But that’s not possible. The full moon isn’t until tonight.”
“Tell that to the Moon Goddess,” I snap, shoving him back. “It’s done. Nothing can undo it now.”
“Fuck.” His complexion drains. “If Lockhart tries to force a bond, it won’t matter that she can’t consent.
The attempt alone could kill her. If another male pushes for a bond while yours is already in place, the competing pull could rip Karina apart from the inside.
Her body would reject it violently. Fatally. ”
“How long do we have?” I ask, already moving toward the door.
“Until moonrise. Maybe three hours.” Elias follows me, his footsteps unsteady. “But Dom, if my stepmother helped plan this, she'll have thought of everything. Security, escape routes, backup plans.”
I pause at the doorway, my hand gripping the splintered frame hard enough to draw blood from my palm. “Then it's a good thing I don't plan on giving her or Lockhart time to use them.”
“You can't just storm their territory alone. It's suicide.”
“Watch me.” I step over Gabriel's prone form, my wolf pushing closer to the surface with each passing second. The beast wants blood. Wants to hunt. Wants to tear apart everyone who dared touch what's mine.
“Damien, wait!” Elias grabs my arm, his grip desperate. “You need backup. You need a plan.”
I turn on him, letting him see the predator that lurks beneath my skin. “The plan is simple. I find my mate. I kill everyone who took her. I bring her home.”
“And if you get yourself killed in the process? What happens to her then?”
I don't have an answer that will satisfy him. Truth is, I don't care about the consequences to myself. All that matters is getting to Karina before moonrise.
“They'll take her to neutral ground,” I say, my mind racing through possibilities. “Lockhart's not stupid enough to bring her directly to his territory. He knows I'll come after her.”