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CHAPTER 5

“What is it?” Cillumn demanded when she stumbled backward. He grabbed her elbow, steadying her. She tried to pull from him, but his grip held true, and he pulled her closer until his large arms wrapped around her torso, binding her. “Lis, tell me what it is.”

Sensations flooded her. The gut twisting worry and anger mixed with the burning heat from his embrace. She didn't want such things, she needed space and focus and this Lord had done nothing but ruin her plans since she woke him up.

“Let go,” she demanded.

“Not in this state, no,” he looked down at her.

She hated the wave of tingles that rose in her stomach, and the way her gaze kept drifting to his, despite her efforts otherwise. She hated the urge to spring up and mash her lips to his. Never before had she dealt with desire on this level. She hated it. How did women manage to keep their wits about them when their bodies flung wild emotions and impulses everywhere? And dammit she still wanted to kiss him, his amber eyes flashing with concern, and maybe a little something more.

So she did what any sensible girl would do. She headbutted him.

“Ahhh!”

His grip loosened and she twisted. If she could just make it to the door she would be free. It would only take a few hours to run back to the Shifter encampment. Hopefully she wouldn't be too late.

It wasn't to be. Cillumn's grip had loosened, but he did not release her. And he recovered quickly, grabbing a fistful of her hair and wrenching her head backward to prevent such a calamity from reoccurring.

“Difficult, violent woman. You have spent enough of the night insulting and abusing me,” he growled. “Tell me what has caused this uproar now, or I will give your lips something better to do.”

Holy Six.

She should have been insulted, the insinuation was clear. Sadly, her body was an idiot. And knowing that he was imagining her lips left it weak as a newborn pup. Her gaze kept drifting toward his face, which frustrated her farther. She did not want to mate. Not in this situation, and definitely not with a dragon...maybe not ever. The idea had occurred to her, in the past, that living a life on her own, unmated was probably the easiest option. And now was not the time for reconsidering that.

“My mother,” she breathed at last. “She has another,” she jerked her chin to the side, indicating Scet and his glyph. “It belonged to my sister before she disappeared. He gave it to her, to mark their future joining. I knew he was a dung eating sack of waste when he wouldn't help me search for her.”

Bakkus, and he had insisted that the search party had done all they could. But a man in love would not give up so easily. She tried to tell the others, but only ended up insulting everyone. For hadn't they given up so easily as well? The result being she was the only one determined to do more than a cursory search and sitting and waiting.

The Alpha might not want to risk the pack's security by scouring the forest for a few missing wolves, especially since each missing member had wandered far out of bounds before they were taken. But this was her sister. And she would never give up.

“Someone gave this symbol to your sister?” Scet asked. Cillumn's grip on her hair slackened and she turned to the Shifter.

“A Shifter from another pack, come seeking a mate. He gave it to her as a promise that he had chosen her, as soon as he had the Alpha's permission. He took a long time getting it, too...I don't think he ever meant to.”

“And this man...,” Scet began.

“Bakkus, and lets not call him something so kind as a man.”

“This...Bakkus. He is still with the pack?”

“Yes, until I get back there and tear his throat out. Adda did not deserve that kind of betrayal. She loved everyone, and now she is gone.” She spoke around the lump in her throat. Dear, kind-hearted Adda. “And, by the Six, I am going to make sure he pays.”

“Hold, she-devil,” Cillumn interrupted, pulling her back toward him as she tried to squirm away once more. Determined to see her words through. “Scet, you do not recognize this name? He is not one from Illaise's pack?”

Scet shook his head. “Without a scent, I cannot be sure. Names are easily changed. Who would know the difference should he stroll in and call himself something new?”

He still crouched near the bed, the glyph dangling from his fingertips, rubbing the chain thoughtfully. “I do find it too much of a coincidence that the same marking was given to your sister before she disappeared. This glyph was meant for Grim, deceiver and betrayer of the delegation. A deal with Kurath for Firestriker's life.” Cillumn twitched. “A trade with a high cost that ended up taking his life, anyway. I hate to suggest bad news woman, but are you sure your sister is still alive?”

“Positive,” she nodded, and then remembered Cillumn still had hold of her hair, only now his fingers wove within the locks and massaged gently. She narrowed her eyes in his direction, but he didn't even seem to realize he was doing it. She pulled away, and this time he let her go. “We share a bond,” she told the Shifter, once she was free and thinking straight.

Something strained crossed his features. Bonds, or links as they were sometimes called, were often reserved for mated pairs, and required a mating nip and the subsequent healing saliva of the mate to form. But sometimes, between those with a strong and lifetime connection, a weaker version could appear. She and Adda had such a bond. She could sense, easily, that she still lived, and was relatively uninjured. She was scared, though, and hungry, and Lis was desperate to find her and rescue her before her condition got any worse.

“I do not understand, then,” Scet muttered. “Why brutally murder Grim, not that the bastard didn't deserve it, but not the others bearing the mark? Was there any sign where your sister disappeared?”

“Quatori, several of them. It is why the pack gave up so quickly; it is assumed she is dead. They think I am just distraught and delusional, but there was no blood, and I know she is still out there.”

“These are dark things, Bloodbriar. Groups of Quatori. Quatori that show restraint and organization. Not good things at all, for either of our people. And it gets worse. Before his death, Kurath mentioned a master, some higher power above him, and that master is tied to this,” he dangled the glyph.

Lis didn't like where the conversation was going. In her mind all she had to do was find and rescue Adda and her world would go back to normal...well, as normal as a Shifter from an expelled pack could be. These men were speaking as though her normal was nothing but a fading dream, an imaginary place that didn't exist to begin with.

She closed her eyes. Was it possible that her world had changed so much in a single night? No, she corrected. The night was hardly begun; it had been only a few hours, five maybe since she decided to wake the dragon. So what had changed?

Nothing except her ignorance, and it was time to stop acting the fool. One impulsive decision had led to far too many consequences, the chaos expanding exponentially. She needed to take control.

But taking control with a Dragon Lord in the equation was difficult, and the Shifter didn't seem any more inclined to give her freedom. So far, fighting hadn't worked, and demanding hadn't worked. Logically she needed a different strategy.

Cillumn's face was unreadable. Was he capable of sympathizing with another's point of view? Or would he simply trample over her needs in favor of his own? Had she been anywhere else, where her answer, her survival didn't depend upon him, she wouldn't give her plan a chance. But here she was, and it was the only option she had. She needed him.

She straightened, disliking that thought, but unable to shake it once it occurred to her.

“I need your help,” she announced, trying hard not to grit her teeth at the admonition. “You don't owe it to me, I know my pack was in the wrong to keep you. But your people don't even know you're alive. Their lives will not likely change in the next few days if it takes you that long to return. The fate of my pack...”

She could feel her face tightening as she spoke. Cillumn's expression hadn't changed and she had no indication of whether he heard her plea with understanding or indifference. Scet was no help, either. He simply stood and studied their interaction with mild interest…and she thought she was the strange Shifter.

“Please,” she muttered, hating having to beg. “They might be wrong, but they are my family.”


Cillumn watched Lis as she made her request, fascinated by features that weren't hardened in stubborn anger. His nose still stung like the cursed under realm, but in this moment, he could forgive her for the injury. Her gaze rested upon the floor of the hut, but even still, even with the faded light of the hearth, he could pick out the shards of green and blue that mixed with riveting turbulence, seeming one moment to be closer to blue, just to switch and spark green at him when she spit her vehemence. Eyes one might easily get lost in when she was soft, as she was at the moment.

He had already weighed the options of proceeding to the Aerie versus heading back to her pack's location. He was relieved to hear that the delegation had survived, the traitors found out. And such a conclusion assuaged his fears and allowed him to consider her proposition.

Indeed, he had already made the decision, so he shouldn't torture her so by forcing her hand, yet here was a completely different woman than the angry, spiteful Shifter he had experienced. Here he had a glimpse of her vulnerability, as well as her courage—for weren't people most courageous when admitting their weaknesses? And he couldn't help but be impressed with her determination.

A woman like that would keep a man's interest long after the lust settled into deeper emotions. And he had a feeling if she ever settled her desire upon one man, she would fight to the death for him. Like the she-wolf that she was.

He hadn't forgotten the magnificent creature she had morphed into. And rather than putting him off because of her race, he found himself longing to tame her, to earn her trust. To be worthy of it.

But that was not something he could do if he let her have her head. She would push him out, keep him at a distance. No, if he wanted a chance, then he had to bind her to him for long enough to get beneath her carefully constructed walls, to charm the woman—as opposed to who she was trying to be.

“What will you offer me in return?”

It was almost amusing the way she choked upon her indignation, the color rising to her face. Oh, asking this of him must truly try her. But if he had his way, he would be asking a lot more from her in the very near future.

“What do you mean what do I offer? Haven't I already said I have nothing? Haven't I already asked...or is that not enough for you?”

No. Not nearly enough.

“If I were to come with you, I would be forgoing my own people in order to help yours.” He stepped forward, ensuring he was in her personal space. He wouldn't touch her, never without her consent, but damned to the six hells if he wouldn't use his power as a Lord for every advantage he could get. The Six knew he needed advantages. “I demand compensation.”

“You want sex?”

She said the word with such distaste that he frowned, as if she had never found the idea appealing...or she found the idea of sex with him unappealing. But no, he hadn't mistaken the lust in her gaze earlier. He filed the idea that she had not had a pleasant coupling away for later dissection.

“Nothing so detestful,” he smiled wryly at her. “Simply a guarantee that, once we have the glyph safely away from your pack, you will return willingly with me to my Aerie, to report to my Archon.”

She peered at him like some strange specimen she was trying to place. “And what of my sister? None of this changes the fact that I have to find her.”

Cillumn nodded. “I have already agreed to help you with that, once my task is done.”

She blinked. “Why?”

“I have said I would; I am a man of my word, Lis.” It was only partially true. There was more to aiding her than honor, though that, in itself, might have compelled him.

It was the desperate tenacity with which she fought to find her sister. He knew that feeling, it was one that had haunted him his entire life. If he could help her, if he did everything possible to save her sister, it might make up for his inability to discover his own history, his failure to fill the large black hole where his own family should be. Maybe it would somehow ease the consuming loneliness that plagued him, and the fear that he wasn't enough.

Yes. He would help her, because he needed to know he had the power to do so.

She watched him, suspicious, but after a long moment, she nodded, accepting his words.

“Then, gentlemen, I believe we need a plan.”

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