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“In other words, you died hundreds of years ago.”
‘While technically correct, my way of saying it sounds so much better, don’t you think? In any event, the power within you will come to the fore now that you are wolf, but there will be those who will try to steal it from you.’
There was a low, growling sound as a large arctic wolf appeared in the corner of her mind’s eye. It crouched low, its tail wagging back and forth slowly.
“Hello, pretty,” Salem said, kneeling down and reaching out with a sense of utter delight, amazement, and accomplishment then standing back up as she remembered the wolf was only in her head and not here in the bathroom.
Her brain barely had time to register the cool rush of air from the bedroom into the bath as the door opened slowly. Her wolf growled and snapped its jaws.
‘Watch out,’ cried her ancestor.
Someone wrapped his arm over her mouth, muffling her cry. Salem grasped Cullen’s razor as she bit down into his arm, drawing blood. She reached back with the razor, slashing his face before using it on the arm that was holding her. Before she could inflict much damage, whoever it was jabbed a needle in her neck. She spit blood from her mouth and bit down again as the darkness descended.
They —both the witch and the wolf—had tried to warn her, but their warnings had come too late.
CHAPTER 20
CULLEN
Cullen’s wolf was highly agitated. He could see the great beast in his mind’s eye, prowling back and forth. He kept trying to focus on what Colby was saying, but his attention kept returning to Salem. At first, he thought it was lust—pure and simple—but after Colby had to redirect his attention for the second time, Cullen realized it wasn’t that. He was missing Salem, but in a totally different way. He reached out down the bonding link, worried that he might feel her strength waning or that she was still feeling the effects of the transition. Instead, what he found was nothing. Absolutely nothing. It was as if the link had gone dead.
Leaving Colby without a word, he made his way from his study to the stairs and down the hall to their room, picking up speed with every pace until he sprinted down the last bit of hallway to throw the door open. The pool of blood staining the floor was his worst nightmare realized. She’d been taken or killed. Neither was good.
“Cullen what the hell is the matter with… oh shit,” growled Colby, who had followed after him.
“Where’s the prisoner? The one we thought might be a plant?” snarled Cullen. “If he’s harmed her, I’ll tear him limb from limb.”
“We don’t know that he’s a plant or that he had anything to do with it,” reasoned Colby, but Cullen was in no mood to be reasoned with.
“Shaw!” he bellowed.
“Alpha?” answered his beta, joining them. “What happened? Where is Salem?”
“Where’s that damn badger shifter?”
“Unsure,” answered Shaw.
“Find him,” growled Cullen. Shaw left, and Cullen turned to Colby. “He’s got her.”
“You don’t know that,” argued Colby.
“Don’t I?” snapped Cullen. “I knew I should have locked that bastard in chains. How did he get her out of here, and where the hell has he taken her?”
“What about your bonding link? Can you feel her down the link?”
Cullen shook his head, but still, his mind searched for her. “Nothing; but I don’t believe she’s dead. I know there’s a lot of blood, but I just think that if her life had been extinguished, I would know.”
Colby placed his hand on Cullen’s shoulder. “I believe that as well.”
Cullen knocked away Colby’s hand. He wasn’t in need of a friend; he was in need of his fated mate. Closing his eyes, he called upon his wolf to search the link for her. The thread was tenuous, and all he felt was darkness, but there was no cold finality of death.
“She isn’t dead. Neither my wolf nor I can feel her end. She must have been drugged.”
“Why would he take her? Why would she be important enough for him to blow his cover?”
Cullen looked around. “The Celestial Key. They took it as well.”
“You don’t know that.”
