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She was part of great events now. She’d risen out of her simple life of making a living by showing others the future to one of binding herself to the alpha of the Meldorin Pack.
She closed her eyes and in the sanctity of the chapel opened her heart and her mind to the near future, to her place in the Meldorin Pack, to her bond with Grant. She had a job to do, a critical one, that meant as it had from the beginning to help her man stay alive in a world dominated by unworthy creatures like Kryder.
For the first time, the future parted before her without a single twinge of pain. All the muscles down her back were relaxed.
But as she focused on Grant, a wave of dread rolled over her long before the images arrived. She could have retreated, but the time for backing away had passed.
She ordered the future to come to her now.
What arrived was the reason for the dread. She saw Grant bound and bloody, hanging from chains.
She could have shut it down, but she wanted more information.
She rolled the future back, closer to the present.
Within the vision, Kryder shouted. “Where is she? Natalie is mine. Find her. Summon her. Bring her to me or I swear to God you’ll both die before the night is out.”
Grant lifted his face to Kryder and met the monster’s gaze stare for stare. “The real question is why can’t you see her for yourself? But I believe I know why? You’ve lost the power the pack gave you.”
“Much good that same power is doing you.” Kryder lifted his fist and punched Grant with a hard left.
Blood flew in an arc as Grant’s head snapped back and to the side.
Natalie forced herself to keep going. She needed to see where he was. Within the vision, she panned back. The location was unfamiliar, but several of the guards in the room had blue flames climbing their necks and cheeks. She also recognized the blue trimmed black tanks from The Sapphire Club.
The problem was she had no idea where this room was located within the club’s multi-level, underground building.
A simple idea came to her.
~ ~ ~
Grant’s joints were on fire from hanging suspended for hours. Every few minutes, two of Kryder’s guards would pull on his legs until he was howling in agony. Sweat poured down his body in rivers. Blood oozed from a dozen stab wounds and an equal number of bites. Kryder liked to shift and tear chunks of flesh from his body.
“I’ll leave you for now to think about saving your ass. I need Natalie. Even if you die here tonight, Grant, I’ll find her.”
He heard the door shut and breathed a sigh. He was losing blood, a lot of it. He wasn’t sure how much longer he had.
His thoughts turned to Natalie.
He felt like a fool on all fronts. The profound euphoria he’d experienced during the process of becoming alpha to the Meldorin Pack, had blinded him to a host of realities.
Earlier, some time while he’d been showering, his sense of duty toward his wolves had settled within him in a profound way. The problem was, he’d acted as though Natalie had never entered his life, as though she had no value to him. Despite that her assertive nature had given him a clear path plus any number of enhanced abilities, he’d easily shunted her aside in the name of responsibility.
When Kryder had made it clear his goal now was to take possession of Natalie, to make use of her giftedness in commandeering the future, the awful scales had fallen from his eyes. He’d needed Natalie. She’d been instrumental from the beginning. Why had he suddenly behaved as though she had no value on any front?
He considered himself a rational man. But in this situation, he’d behaved irrationally. If for no other reason than the safety of his own hide, he should have kept her close. The question was why he’d reacted as he had? Why had he let her go without a second thought, without even once considering that the loss of her presence and her unique abilities could jeopardize the entire pack?
As blood dripped onto the stone floor beneath him, the truth became a glowing fire within his chest. His damn throat grew tight. Everything became clear in a sudden blaze of light. When he’d left the bed and moved away from the comfort and warmth of her body, he’d been afraid to acknowledge how he felt about her. She’d become the sun in his sunless world and he was as bound to her as though he’d
completed the wolf-bond.
For so long, he’d lived without a woman in his life. He’d told himself the pack must come first. But the reality was simpler: He feared loving and losing another woman the way he’d loved and lost Renee.
With all his heart and in such a short space of time, he’d fallen in love with Natalie, deeply and irrevocably.
He also didn’t think he could have picked a worse time to have figured it out. He wanted nothing more than to reach out to Natalie and draw her back into his world. But the moment he did, he would put her in serious jeopardy. So, he remained silent though he was filled with a longing so profound he could hardly breathe.
Now it was too late. He was hanging in chains in the dungeon of The Sapphire Club. He couldn’t risk contacting Ryan, either. If he did, the pack would come after him and many if not all would die in the attempt to extract him from Kryder’s hidden place of business.
