The Taming

Seeking Vengeance

Sebastian returned to his library but found Rhyers absent.

Likely in his room. Each knight had their own chamber upstairs for their constant visits.

The castle helps us heal. Bast was thankful for that. He ran a palm over his shoulder and chest, feeling the swell of the scars she'd left.

She nearly gutted me. And it was the first time he consciously appreciated his ability to heal nearly as fast as he was injured.

He wondered at her strange defensive reaction.

There's something about her. Something happened to her...

Someone hurt her.

He flopped backward in his red and gold chair. Watching the dancing of the fire. His book limp in his hand resting on the table.

What to do with her?

He relaxed as much as he was able. Closing his eyes, he felt the tether he had lashed her with. She was pacing her chamber. Still enraged at her foiled attempt at escape. And confused by his reaction to her harming him...And the fact that he'd survived it.

Sebastian! The desperate shriek from his Alpha into his mind, startled him so fiercely he tossed the book and flew to his feet. Running through the foyer and tossing open the castle doors.

"Rhyers! Something has happened!"

He heard the running footsteps of his friend's coming from upstairs and Bast launched himself from the raised foyer outside, never touching the steps to the grand doors. His body twisted and smoothed into shining black fur as he landed in the dirt bailey. Roaring as he headed down from the mountains as hard as he could go.

Giving a feral roar as he reached the meadow nearing Deragan's Manse. Seeing the weather blackened. Clouds blocked the night sky, and the downpour was torrential. Sheets of ice dumping over the land.

Deragan, their Alpha's, rage. A dark portent.

I'm coming, My Friend. Sebastian feared what was happening.

***

Rosewynn Manor, Outside Meadowbrook, Grier Country

DERAGAN

Bast!

He'll hear me. Deragan, their Alpha, was doing his best to reassure himself. Willing to take help from any direction right now.

Sebastian was one of the rare few that could hear the other knights telepathically without the use of their pendants. Which would communicate with them all in range. Making singling out any one knight impossible.

I need you. He cried to Bast.

It was only twenty-maybe thirty minutes before Deragan heard the feral roar answering him from across the meadow.

Get here.

Anastacia, his mate, his eternal lover, was giving up. She was dying in his arms after what the demon had done to her in the night. Draining her soul from her body while he slept the deep, rare sleep of his kind.

She's nothing left to cling to now. He was touching her face reverently. His heart wrenching.

The last vestiges of her strength were fading, and her gaze dimming. With a last shudder she whispered something so faint he couldn't hear it. But he knew, nonetheless.

I'll always know those words...

She blew a last dusky breath and surrendered. Light exploded from her body. The house rippled beneath an onslaught of light and a sound like someone had tapped on a wine glass rising into a boom that coursed over everything. Flowers burst over the fields. Closed buds blossomed then tossed petals out over grass which rose inches in seconds as the light waved over. Weeds bent over and trees tipped. Animals fell briefly as the air was sucked from them as the wave surged over.