Enthralled: Tainted Book Four

21. His Own Special Breed

Rome

I'd just finished reporting to, and getting a report from, Chance when a whiff of something like a desert spice market crossed my nose, and I scanned the room to see what had changed only to see a dark-skinned, black-haired man next to Queen Parvaneh.

"Darius?" I murmured.

I watched his lips move as he frantically gestured to the peri queen, but I couldn't tell what he was saying. I could, however, see that he was very, very stressed, and a bad feeling formed in my gut.

Oh, no. Don't tell me—

The queen grabbed the djinni by his shoulders and shook him before Grey stepped in and asked something, then a wide grin stretched across Darius' face before he disappeared as abruptly as he came.

"What in the world?" I wondered out loud. "I don't like this. Not one bit."

"Don't like what, handsome?" Mira popped up at my elbow, probably intending to scare me or something, but I'd smelled her coming long before Darius showed up. "What did I miss?"

Skimming my eyes over her, I was glad to see she'd done what I'd said and coated herself in armor, although I frowned when I saw her choice of weapon. She carried a massive war hammer in one hand and wore its twin strapped in a holster on her back, and I would have preferred she'd grabbed a bow instead, but I knew my girl. She was strong and stubborn—er, determined—and more than capable of fighting at my side.

Still, I didn't have to like her putting herself in danger.

Then again, she probably doesn't like seeing me put myself in danger, either, I thought.

When she again asked me what was going on, I told her what I'd just seen with Darius, and she gasped.

"Don't you get it? It's happened, Rome! Hubler found out and ordered him to take Gemma to the lab!"

"Then why did he grin and leave again?"

"Not sure about that part. Let's go ask Grey. And hurry before Kerry wakes up!"

Glancing over at the weres again, I saw one wolf—charcoal gray with lighter gray cheeks—was snoozing as he lay on top of Kerry, who was out cold under the mountain of fur. Jax and Gigi were there, chatting with Kon and the weres, so I figured we'd have a little advance notice if he woke up and grew ... agitated.

Taking Mira's hand, I started to walk over to Grey to see what was up when that spicy heat scent returned, closer than before.

Much closer.

Close enough that Kon and all the weres scented it, too, and all our eyes went to where Darius held Samuel Castle in a full nelson a few yards away from where Josef Krall stood.

Unfortunately, the second Kon laid eyes on them, he exploded into motion, sprinting over there and grabbing Castle by the throat before anyone could react.

Meanwhile, the beta weres once more surrounded Luna Posy, and I vaguely heard Gigi and Jax explaining that we needed Castle alive as Angelo and Beta Emerson tried to convince Lanie to go pry her new mate off of the man.

As she bravely approached the incensed half-dragon, the smell of ozone intensified as the air filled with enough static to turn the wolf on top of Kerry into a puffball.

"Papi, we need him alive!" Lanie tried to reason with him, but Kon wasn't having it, bellowing about how Castle kept him chained to a wall for three weeks, and I wondered what that was about.

Then his dragon, Chime Karma, let out a boom that made everyone cover their ears, and Kerry and his new wolf friend leapt up with wide, wild eyes, both ready for battle.