Chapter 35
Cat
Kane shredded my jacket in mere seconds. When he paused to unzip his pants, I scrabbled backward. My hand brushed up against something hard and rough under my fingers. A weapon? Yes. The best kind.
Discretely seizing upon the baseball-sized rock, I concealed it in my hand and waited for the right moment to strike. Kane straddled my hips and tore open the front of my shirt. Screaming in earnest, I began to try to buck him off of me, but his weight held me firmly in place.
“Even better than I imagined,” Kane said greedily.
He leaned forward, his fingers trailed through the plump divide of my ample cleavage, and it took all of my strength not to fight back. When his attention became fixated on the heaving mounds, I brought the stone smashing down onto his head.
Kane might be one of the strongest creatures alive, but even his skull was no match against stone. Immediately, the ware’s skin split and began gushing a torrent of thick, stinking blood.
Rearing back with a roar, I used the momentum of his momentary stun to shove him sideways off of me. Kane’s eyes flashed almost as red as his gushing wound. “Bitch! You’re going to pay for that!” he threatened, as he began to swipe the offensive liquid pouring into his eyes.
I only had a split second to act. Summoning what little energy I had left, I hucked my makeshift weapon directly at his face.
This close, and blinded by the blood as he was, my missile struck its target dead center.
I didn’t take any time to savor the surge of satisfaction I felt when the evil bastard howled in pain.
Seizing my moment, I crawled on hands and knees toward the mouth of the cave. I wasn’t sure where I was going, but I sure as hell wasn’t staying here. With a surge of adrenaline that awoke my sluggish body, I broke free of my earthen prison. Then, I ran.
My legs began their wild descent back down the mountainside with a will and drive of their own. I knew I could never hope to outrun Kane, but maybe I could hide from him. Fit into some crevasse he couldn’t?
It was unlikely, but I had to at least try. More desperate than I’ve ever been in my entire life, my lungs expanded to accept the oxygen that was flooding my body and fueling my desperately pumping leg muscles.
“Where are you going, Kitty Cat?” Kane shouted into the dark night. His sing-song voice caused gooseflesh to erupt along my legs and arms. “Do you want me to chase you? I’ll chase you, my little morsel. Hunting is my favorite sport.”
The insane ware sounded as though he’d like nothing better than to run me to ground like some defenseless prey. In fact, I could hear him behind me now, his laughter carrying on the wind.
But I wasn’t playing a game. I was running for my life. Because of my newfound strength, I was strong and fast. Within minutes, I was able to run all the way back to the ravine.
Damn it! My venom fogged brain had forgotten all about the impossible impediment, but I was sure Kane hadn’t. In fact, I was sure he was just letting me tire myself out by running back to it. His earlier laughter only assured me of his devious intent.
My heart thudded in my chest. I was never going to make it. I couldn’t jump that great distance and we both knew it. My “escape” attempt had just been a game for him. A source of entertainment. And once he caught me, he’d make me pay for my insolence.
Well, I was about to wipe that smile off of the demented shifter’s face. I wasn’t waiting around for him to find me. I was going for it. I was going to jump.
Gauging the distance and what I needed to do, I backed up, got a running start, and lunged high into the air. For the second time tonight, I experienced the sheer weightlessness of flying, and a sense of awe and wonder came over me.
The moment my feet landed on terra firma, I let out a whoop of joy. I’d done it! I’d fucking done it! I’d cleared the ravine and was safely on the other side.
Lifting my head, I caught a faint hint of something wonderful. Someone.
Ace!
His scent was so close it felt as though I could reach out and touch him. It was the most beautiful thing I’d ever scented, and immediately my fear abated. I was safe because he was near.
I heard, then felt, a whoosh of movement behind me. Before I could even process what was happening, Kane was beside me, enveloping my quivering body in his steely embrace.
“You can’t run from me, silly omega,” he purred, as the smell of his blood fouled my nostrils and smeared disgustingly against my skin.
“That was very unexpected what you just did, bad girl. Jumping that distance as a newly turned wolf was very naughty of you, but that’s why I need you as my mate.
You’re strong. A survivor, like me. Together, our children will be unstoppable.
Our pack will have power no one else has ever dreamed of before. ”
Kicking him like a mule, I began to thrash against his loathsome hold. “Get off of me! I’ll never mate with you. I despise you, Kane! Do you hear me! I despise you! You fucking monster!”
His embrace coiled like a python around my chest, clamping my back to his front. “You’ll change your tune after I give you my knot, Cat. Soon, you’ll be begging me for it in every one of your tight, needy holes!”
That’s when he appeared. “Ace!” I screamed, as my mate’s haunting grey gaze emerged from the darkness and collided with mine.
“Kane!” My mate bellowed. “How many times do I have to say it? This fight is between us! Leave Cat out of this!”
“I don’t think I will,” Kane countered, licking the bite wounds he’d so recently given me, sending Ace into a snarling fit of rage. “She tastes like pure sex and victory, Night Stalker. My favorite flavor.”
Ace growled and bared his teeth. “You foul motherfucker! How dare you bite her. She’s a mated ware. What you’ve done is a violation of our very nature. Even a mongrel like you must know that!”
Holding me in front of him as a shield against Ace’s wrath Kane flashed a garish smile. “You’re nature, not mine. I’m not weak like you, Ace. I don’t let anything hold me back from what I want; I simply take it. A claimed omega is no exception.”
“There’s no way you’re leaving this place with her,” Ace yelled into the wind. “I won’t let you. My pack won’t let you. Cat has made her choice. She revealed herself to me. In the end, it’s always an omega’s choice.”
I realized then that Ace was right. It had always been my choice who I ended up with.
Since the first time we met, I’d been drawn inexorably to the dark, beautiful biker.
I’d known he was mine, made for me. I’d felt the blazing connection between us like a tangible thing, an unbreakable tether anchoring one to the other.
Kane couldn’t change that. Ace was my rock, my heart. My soul mate.
Snarling, the Alpha beside me banded his arms around me even tighter and I struggled to breathe.
“She’s mine. I’ve marked her! She has my venom flowing through her veins now, not yours, Night Stalker!” He argued like a child over a toy he’d stolen and wanted to keep.
“Then fight me for her. Prove yourself worthy of the omega, Kane,” Ace taunted. “If you think you are ware enough to kill me, I welcome you to try.”
I could practically hear the gears in Kane’s head turning as he considered his options.
He and I both knew Ace would prevail if the two men fought, but the devious shifter was the sort to cheat to swing those odds in his own favor.
Right now, he was angling for a way to do that so that he could kill Ace and walk away with his omega “prize”.
“As soon as I turn my back, Mad Dog will be at my throat,” Kane argued, inching backward ever so slightly.
“He will honor whatever pact we make,” Ace stoically returned. “Whoever survives is worthy of the omega. Do you agree, Cat?”
All eyes were on me now. I could feel Ace inside my mind then. He was urging me to trust him. To trust in the pack to keep me safe, no matter what.
My voice trembled as I tightly bobbed my head up and down. “Yes, I agree. I will willingly be the mate of whoever survives this fight.” Which I knew, deep down, could only be Ace. The only real alpha between the pair of them.
Kane struggled with the terms but finally seemed to accept them when he lowered his head and whispered into my ear, “Til death do us part,” before startling me by biting my neck and delivering a shot of venom so strong I momentarily blanked out.
Suddenly, Kane was no longer supporting me.
I was weightless and careening backward toward the ravine.
I had a sickening moment of revelation then.
Kane hadn’t been agreeing to fight Ace fairly.
He was doing what he’d always done: taking the cowards way out.
Like that day on the hillside, he was casting me toward danger to create a diversion so he could save himself.
The only problem was, this time, I wasn’t going to just break a bone or two by falling. This time, I would absolutely break my neck, shatter my body. The chasm was far too deep. The only sure thing that rested at the bottom was my demise.
The plan worked exactly as Kane had wanted it to. He dashed toward the woods as everyone was watching me. In the distance, I heard Ace scream my name. Then, I was tilting backward, into the yawning maw of the ravine as Ace and Mad Dog tried to reach me before the dark void swallowed me whole.
“Cat! No!” Ace screamed, as he raced toward me.
Even in my drugged-out haze, I could tell that he was too far away and wasn’t going to reach me in time. Then, the strangest thing happened. It was like I was hovering on an invisible cloud in midair.
“Hurry, Nathan!” Kierston shouted from the treeline, her concentration so fixed on me I could see her shaking even from a distance. “I can’t hold her for long. Go stop Kane!”