Capturing Caroline (2 page)

“Did I skip
that part? Yes, the Lycaon are shifters, mostly to the form of dire
wolf but sometimes to other birds and beasts.”

“And I am…part
Lycaon?” She rocked back on her heels, trying desperately to absorb
that.

“Our fertility
rates are low and we produce many more males than females. It’s a
result of the genetic engineering; we suspect. There is a magical
component to the fertility of the Lycaon, as well, that we call the
mating bond. It links most compatible males and females, no matter
where they may be, and draws them together. If a mate is beyond the
veil separating our realities, it pulls that mate through.” He
paused. “That’s what happened to you.”

“B-but…
whoa.
Just whoa...if I’m part Lycaon, what about my
sisters? What about—”

“Kaitlyn and
Paige are here, mated, and doing very well.” He said the words
softly, carefully. “Kaitlyn is a hawk shifter, strong of heart and
sharp of eye. She is mated to Rafian and Lucas. Paige is a dire
wolf shifter, happy with her mates, Jarek and Kaiden.”

The strength
went out of Caroline’s body. She fell back with relief and curled
up into a ball on the floor, sob after sob racking her body. After
all this time she knew her sisters were okay.

“Caroline?”
came Torrent’s voice. “Are you all right?”

The sobs eased
away and she rested boneless on the floor for several moments.
Finally, she pushed up, wiping the tears from her eyes. “Why didn’t
you tell me sooner?” Her voice came out harsh and unforgiving. “I
sat in here for God only knows how many days and
you said
nothing about my sisters.
How could you?”

“I’m sorry. I
should have told you. It was wrong. I didn’t say anything because
telling you about your sisters would have forced me to tell you
about us.” He paused. “I know what my fate is to be and…now I fear
it may be yours as well.”

“What do you
mean?”

“I am
prophesied to die in this war and I believe my death will come
soon. Like I said, I’d hoped it would happen before you were
brought over—”

“But here I
am.” Her voice sounded dismal to her own ears.

“Yes.”

They were quiet
for several moments. Finally, Caroline forced her thoughts away
from her likely bleak future. “What did you mean when you said
Kaitlyn and Paige have
mates?
”

“Exactly that.
Most women here have two mates, not one. Sometimes even three. It
depends on how many men that woman is perfectly suited for.”

“And…me?”

Torrent
remained silent for several moments, and when he finally spoke, he
sounded tortured. “You and I are rare exceptions. You and I are
only suited for each other.”

“So, basically
you’re telling me I found my soul mate mere moments before both our
deaths. Awesome.”

“I won’t let
them hurt you.” His voice came out a protective snarl.

She pressed
herself as close as she could to the bars. “You don’t have a
choice, Torrent, and you know it.”

Torrent said
nothing for several moments, then he reached up and touched her
cheek. “I can’t even see you in this darkness, but I know you’re a
part of me. I can feel it.”

It was the most
romantic thing anyone had ever said to her. Her throat clogged and
she blinked away tears. “Do you want to know what I look like? I
have dark hair and eyes—”

“You’re
beautiful in every way. I don’t need to see your face to know
that.”

She swallowed
hard and reached into the darkness, placing her hands on his cheeks
and feeling the curves and ridges of his face like a blind person.
Maybe it was the situation, the danger, the darkness, whatever, all
Caroline knew was that no matter how crazy his story sounded, she
wanted to believe it. Her voice came out soft and full of
tenderness. “I wish I could know you, Torrent.”

He made a low
sound of anguish. A heartbeat later the scrape of the cell door
opening scoured their eardrums. The guards coming to take Torrent
somewhere? Cold fear gripped her heart.

What if this
was the end? What if they were going to execute him?

She gripped his
hand. “No. It can’t happen,” she whispered to herself. She wasn’t
sure about this whole soul mate thing, but she knew one thing:
Torrent was a special man and she had deep feelings for him. No way
could she let him go.

Not now.
Not
ever.

“
It
won’t,
” Torrent snarled. He pulled away from her faster than
lightning. A roar, a crash, and two muffled yelps of terror filled
the darkness. Silence for three heartbeats. Then the sound of
jingling keys met her ears and a scrape of shoes on the corridor
floor. A key turned in the lock of her door and it swung open
slowly. She threw her arms up, even the dim light of the corridor
blinding her. She blinked, unable to make out anything.

A hand gripped
her and pulled her to her feet. “We’re getting out of here,”
Torrent growled near her ear. “I have no idea how, but we’re doing
it. I deny that prophecy in your name.”

He pulled her
into the light of the corridor. She squinted her eyes shut, her
pupils on fire after so long in the dark. The light seemed not to
affect Torrent at all. She yelped in surprise as he hefted her over
his shoulder and began to run down the hallway.

The sounds of
an alarm blared suddenly, making her jerk and twist in his grasp.
Her eyes were slowly beginning to adjust to the light, but
everything was bright, bleary and bouncing as she joggled up and
down on his massive shoulder. She could make out the vague forms of
guards at the end of the corridor, however, closing fast.

“Torrent!” She
cried in alarm.

“They’re in
front, too.”

Awesome, they
were trapped.

Torrent stopped
and dropped her gently to her feet. Blinking, she looked up into
his face for the first time and could see him.
Holy flipping
Adonis from Heaven
, he was the most beautiful piece of manhood
she’d ever seen. He had short dark hair, a strong, handsome face
and blue-gray eyes.

His body was
simply…
guh
. Massive and muscled.

He pulled a
long glowing baton from where he’d secured it at his belt. She
recognized it as a Magica weapon. He must have taken it from one of
the guards he’d jumped. He tossed it to her. “I have no idea how
they work, but I know if you hit someone with one, it hurts.”

Good enough for
her. “But don’t you need one?”

His teeth
flashed in a feral smile. “No.”

She stood back
to back with him and tried not to vomit up her moldy bread and
tepid water as the guards barreled down the corridor toward them
from both directions. She was an office worker, not a fighter. How
the hell was she going to manage this? Especially after the abuse
her body had taken in the last week of her imprisonment. All she
was fit for was the fetal position.

Too late to
worry about any of that. Their pounding boots brought them closer
and closer, their mouths open with the feral screams of the
terrified. They were still running toward them, but now they looked
scared…. Were they frightened of her? A low growl issued from
behind her. What a second…..

She whirled and
confronted a huge wolf. It was silver and had silky fur, its body
powerfully corded with muscle. She screamed a staggered back a
step. This was Torrent in dire wolf form.
Oh. My. God!

Torrent lunged
at her and she screamed again, diving away from him and hitting the
wall, the baton falling from her fingers. Flattened against the
corridor, she watched Torrent roar at the guards who had been only
a breath’s space from her a moment ago. The guards quailed, eyes
wide, staggering back, their reluctant bravado clearly failing
them. But they were closing in on the other side too. Surely
Torrent couldn’t fight off all of them.

At the exact
moment that realization bloomed, a guard managed to strike
Torrent’s haunch with one of the wicked batons. Torrent roared in
pain and anguish.

“No!” she
cried. “
Bastards!
” Caroline groped for her fallen baton and
struck out at the nearest guard, crashing him over the head with
every ounce of her energy. The man looked stupidly stunned for a
moment, then fell over.

Torrent flipped
one of the guards about ten feet down the hallway, then swung his
massive head toward her. His big wolf eyes locked gazes with hers
for a moment and suddenly she just knew what he wanted—he wanted
her to climb on his back. He roared at the guards near her again
and they fell back, allowing her a moment to leap onto his back.
Abused as her body was, she was all adrenaline right now. Terror
had a way of doing that to a person.

Clutching the
baton in one hand, she flattened herself against his silky back as
Torrent lunged forward, jumping over the heads of the clutch of
guards attacking them. Then he whirled and gave a massive, spittle
spewing roar that made them all quake in their black polished
boots.

Collectively,
they cowered backward. One turned, dropped his baton and ran in the
other direction. The others hesitated, then surged forward, finding
their courage.

Torrent turned
and bounded down the hallway, away from them. He pushed through the
doors at the end of the corridor and up a dimly lit flight of
stairs. Behind them the guards yelled, giving chase, emboldened by
Torrent’s flight. He pushed through double doors at the top of the
stairs and skidded on slick marble floor into the middle of a huge,
bright foyer thronged with people dressed like pilgrims.

This place just
got weirder and weirder.

Silence
.

Everyone in the
foyer stared at them, motionless, stunned. Then the screaming
started and the running. Apparently seeing a dirty, starving woman
atop a giant wolf was cause for sheer pandemonium.

Unfortunately,
not all the people were running away from them. There were more
guards with batons and they looked braver than the ones
downstairs.

“Uh. We better
go!” she yelled at Torrent.

Torrent lunged
forward, nearly knocking Caroline off his back. He bounded toward
the front doors while guards took swipes at his haunches with their
weapons. One of them grazed his side and Torrent jolted with pain.
The shock radiated through his massive body and into her, gathering
between her teeth and flavoring her tongue with metal.

Torrent burst
through the doors, turned and ran down the street, gathering speed
to a flat out run. Buildings and surprised people blurred past them
faster and faster. Forced to let the baton she clutched clatter to
the street, she gripped his fur two-handed, lay down against his
back and held on for dear life. Clearly his plan was to outrun the
guards. Caroline thought it was the best plan ever.

Torrent skidded
around corners and jumped objects in the street. All she could do
was grip him with her legs, curl her fingers into his fur, close
her eyes, and hope like hell they’d make it through this.

Finally,
Torrent slowed and she opened her eyes to look around. He’d run
them right out of the city. Now they were in the forest with the
skyline rising behind them. He trotted ever farther into the trees
as twilight descended, sometimes finding long stretches of stream
to run along, concealing their tracks, presumably. Of course, it
seemed the Magica possessed abilities and powers that the Lycaon
didn’t. Maybe there were nonphysical ways they could be
tracked.

They traveled
well into the night. Caroline drowsed on his back, exhausted and
hungry, nearly toppling off him several times. Finally Torrent
deemed it safe to stop. She slid from his back and stumbled to a
tree. She desperately needed food and sleep.

“We’re within
Lycaon boundaries now. We should be safe.”

She looked up
to find Torrent had shifted back to human…full, glorious,
naked
human male.

Quickly, she
jerked her gaze away. He was gorgeous, but she was not in the mood
to ogle. “
Should
be safe?”

“We can eat,
sleep a little. Then we’ll continue home.”

His
home. She sank down at the base of a tree and closed her eyes.
She’d give anything for her apartment, her soft bed, the food in
her refrigerator. Would she ever see that place again?

There was too
much here to process. She just wanted to go to sleep, to escape
everything.

“Torrent? Eat
what? There’s no food.” She opened her eyes but he was gone.
Shivering, closed her eyes again. It was strange how much she
trusted him. She simply knew he’d be back. The heavy hands of sleep
dragged her under despite the chill in the air.

She woke to the
sound of a crackling fire and the delightful scent of cooking meat.
Torrent sat at the opposite side of the campfire.

The warmth
reached out and touched her skin through the tattered, filthy
prison dress she wore and she salivated at the scent of whatever
was currently roasting over the fire. Though, as hungry as she was,
she wanted to escape back into sleep. Maybe when she woke it all
this would have been just a crazy dream. A girl could hope. Her
gaze met Torrent’s over the fire, his face partially obscured by
the smoke.

Torrent removed
the meat smoking over the fire, set a portion of it on a wide leaf,
then walked over and handed it to her. He’d tied a skirt of leaves
around his waist to hide his nakedness, and she was grateful. “Eat
something.”

She pushed it
back at him. “You should have it. You just expended a huge amount
of energy.”

“I already
ate.”

“Oh.” Of
course. He’d likely hunted in dire wolf form. She accepted the
food. “Thank you.”

She took a
bite, letting the hot, salty meat fill her mouth and groaned. It
was the best thing she’d ever tasted.