My Forever (19 page)

“Shhh. Give it a minute. You’ll feel better. Just try to relax.”

The pain gradually eased and with it the last of his reserves. “
Lucas?”
There was no response. It felt as though a wide chasm had replaced what had once been the vibrant thread of their connection. Not even the ever-present thrum of his lover’s emotions was discernible. He wanted to rip away and demand to know where his Master was but exhaustion took his will and pulled him under. He fell asleep to the quiet whispers of the woman and man beside him.

Sometime later, a loud booming noise jerked him awake and he sat up in time to see the same two men who had manhandled him throw a young man into the room. The woman beside him launched herself at the huddled form that shied away from her touch. Eyes blazing with fury, she stood and looked defiantly at the bald-headed man Kyle could now see standing behind what must be his guards.

“What are you doing to him?” she spat out.

The two burly men parted to allow Baldy through. “Nothing he can’t put an end to. He knows what’s expected of him, and he knows what will keep happening if he doesn’t start cooperating.”

Those words incited dread such as he hadn’t known since Craig. The woman, however, was undeterred.

“You sick bastards! You’ll kill him if you keep this up.”

“I don’t get paid to deliver corpses, but I will take away his eating privileges if you don’t shut up right now. I will not be ridiculed by a human.” Baldy paused to give her a chance to defy him but she wisely bit her tongue. “Good girl.” He left with the guards trailing behind him.

The woman unleashed her fury as soon as the lock clicked into place. Flinging herself against the door, she pounded and shouted a string of invectives that would have made a stone-cold biker blush. When her futile tirade finally came to an end, she turned to the boy still huddled on the ground and made her way cautiously over to him.

“Jules…”

The man cast a baleful glance at her then clambered stiffly to his feet. His knees gave out almost immediately but when the woman moved to help, he shrugged her off. On all fours, he crawled to one side of the room, away from everyone else, and sat hunched to the side, taking care to keep his back from touching the wall. The older man who had aided Kyle earlier came up behind the woman and put a placating hand on her shoulder.

“He’ll talk when he’s ready, Amy. Give him some time.”

“We don’t have time. They’re going to sell us soon and we’ll probably never see each other again.” In a voice drenched with unshed tears, she begged, “Jules, please. Don’t shut me out.”

When there was no response, she sighed and let her friend guide her back to the group. Kyle caught the flash of longing Jules sent to the retreating pair between the locks of dirty pale hair shrouding his face. He knew that look of defeated hope. That awkwardly angled posture meant to reduce pain along the backside. Kyle saw himself in every rigid line of the young man’s body. There was no mistaking the tenuous mask Jules used to hide the torment of his abuse.

How many times had he blown off Lucas’ concern during his employment with the man in resentment and frustration? It was a defence mechanism that he’d hated but one that had been necessary to keep from crumbling under the strain of despair.

Amy took the blanket they’d been using and laid it at Jules’ feet without a word. Kyle found himself fixed by a scrutinising stare as Amy sat in front of him. Underneath the film of grime on her face and hands, she really was a beautiful young woman. Her long, raven-coloured hair curled around a pixie face that was luminescent in comparison. Despite her callous demeanour, large doe eyes and a heart-shaped mouth made it hard not to trust her.

“Feeling better?” At Kyle’s nod, she asked, “What’s your name?”

“Kyle.”

“I’m Amy. This is Todd,” she gestured to the man who had helped him earlier then went down the list of names for the seven other people occupying the room. “And that there is Jules. He’s not big into talking anymore but he’s a good guy. So how did they catch you?”

Kyle hesitated on his answer. She deserved the truth from him, but he didn’t think now was the best time to admit that he was bonded to a man who belonged to the same species as the ones who were holding them captive.

“They took my Master. I was out with a friend when they caught us, too.”

“Your Master?”

He allowed the love and pride for his mate to replace the anguish over their lost connection. Lucas was too valuable to the Mackaeo for them to kill. Though their bond was somehow broken, Kyle refused to entertain the idea that it was permanent.

“My Dom,” he said, smiling.

Amy’s lips formed a perfect O but she didn’t comment on it further. “Jules and I met each other on the streets about four months ago. I agreed to teach him how to break into houses and cars for money.” She laughed half-heartedly. “He wasn’t any good at it but we were a great team. Jules could sell a dream vacation to a dying man so he met with the buyers and I stole the loot.”

Her voice quieted with her next words. “They grabbed me one night when I was lifting the radio out of a Beemer. Jules was out of sight at the end of the block keeping a lookout. They were so strong I knew I didn’t have a chance. I screamed at Jules to run but he’s as stubborn as I am. He wouldn’t leave me. We were the first to arrive here three weeks ago. Funny thing is…they were after me but this whole time they’ve been more interested in him.” The three of them glanced at the lone figure of the beaten man.

“What do you think they want from him?”

“I don’t know. He hasn’t spoken a word since the first time they dragged him out of this room.”

A shiver raised the fine hairs on the back of his neck. If his experiences with Craig were anything to go on, Kyle could imagine what Jules was hiding from Amy. Sometimes it was better to protect friends from the truth when there was nothing they could do to help.

“Why did they bring you here?”

The look passed between the woman and Todd did nothing to alleviate his foreboding. “We’re to be sold as slaves. They didn’t tell you?”

His thoughts careened down a path he’d hoped never to travel again. It seemed a divine prank that he should be rescued from a lifetime of slavery only to be thrust back into it after finding real love. Looking at Jules, a reflection of himself as a slave to Craig’s maniacal demands, he knew he couldn’t survive another round.

Death, however, was not an option. If he allowed himself to waste away, he would be sacrificing not only his life, but the piece of Lucas’ soul intertwined with his. They would both die for his failure to hold on until Lucas came for him. Or Bastian. Kyle’s very presence here had to mean that Bastian had heeded his warning and kept his power under wraps—or they would still be on the run trying to figure out a way to break his mate free.

He had to have faith. Lucas was the most powerful man he’d ever met, and Bastian was too much of an asshole to let the Mackaeo get away with outsmarting him and taking the two men he loved. Kyle willed his terror to shrink in the face of his newfound confidence. Bastian would find him and ‘port them all to safety. He was as certain of it as the love he held for both of his Doms.

His elated grin made Amy and Todd frown and scoot back as though his impulsive spark of insanity might be contagious. It wouldn’t be easy to explain to them that not all Mackaeo, or Tsielen for that matter, were a threat. Looking around at the room of lost souls waiting to be sold, he knew they needed to hear that there was hope. Especially one in particular.

Leaving the pair to stare at him perplexedly, he walked over to Jules, who watched him approach warily. Kyle sat beside him a few feet away. Kyle guessed him to be around the age of eighteen or nineteen, though his small, willowy frame had made him appear younger at first. His features were soft yet gaunt, with dark bags under his light blue eyes. Limp hair hung down to his slim chest and the same flimsy rags Kyle had been dressed in revealed pale skin marred by a collection of bruises and welts, both old and new.

Still, the man was stunning. The challenging look in his eyes brought sudden clarity to Kyle. They were training Jules—just as Craig had once trained him to abandon his independence and accept his boyfriend’s authoritarian rule. The fact that they concentrated on breaking Jules instead of the rest of the flock could only mean that he’d already been sold and that his new owner wanted him docile and pliant.

The thought made Kyle sick but he pushed his revulsion aside. “I was a slave once. I thought my boyfriend loved me but all he really wanted was someone to control. He took everything from me, and when that wasn’t enough, he punished me for it. I knew he would kill me eventually but I couldn’t escape. For five years I lived in hell until I met the man who saved me.”

Ignoring Jules’ scowl, he continued. “Lucas used his power to find me after my boyfriend Craig had kidnapped me. By rescuing me, he sacrificed everything in his life. He showed me that I didn’t have to be afraid anymore, and I’ve been in love with him ever since.”

“What do you mean ‘his power’?”

Kyle paused, unsure of how much to divulge about their captors. Then again, if they were all sold into slavery before Bastian could find them, didn’t they deserve to know the truth behind the men who had kidnapped them? Keeping his gaze on Jules, he replied, “He is Tsielen, part of the same species that kidnapped all of you. More specifically, he once belonged to the Mackaeo—a group of Tsielen who are assigned to police their kind because they each possess a power. The same group that is holding us now.”

A collective gasp swept the room and he braced himself for the rebuke he knew was coming.

“And you love him? What kind of twisted, masochistic freak are you?”

Kyle frowned. It wasn’t Amy’s reaction over his admission of love for a man associated with their captors that surprised him. That had been expected. It was her utter lack of a reaction to the knowledge that they were being held by nonhumans that made him hesitate. Did Connor and his men have so much confidence in their control of the slave trade that they were willing to share the secret of their people with the humans they’d stolen? Looking around at the others and seeing only revulsion on their faces instead of fear, he realised that must be the case.

“The men who are selling us make up only a portion of the Mackaeo. They’re going against the laws of their people and their Queen just to make a fast buck. When they gave Lucas an ultimatum to join them or die, he ran. He couldn’t bring himself to harm humans and go against the beliefs of the majority of Tsielen. It took him four years to get this renegade pack of Mackaeo off his trail. Then he gave up his quiet life of retirement just to save me. Once they detected the power he used to rescue me, they started to hunt for us.”

Turning so that Jules knew that what came next was aimed at him, he said, “When Tsielen fall in love, they give a part of their souls to their lover. I hold a piece of Lucas’ soul, and he holds a part of mine. We became soul mates. He did everything he could to keep me safe.”

“If he loves you so much then why are you here?”

Kyle didn’t let Amy’s snide scepticism get to him. She had ample reason to doubt his words. “I don’t know. Something went wrong, but it’s because he loves me that I know we’ll get out of here. All of us.”

Amy snorted, though her voice took on a decidedly less derisive tone. “And just how is that supposed to happen?”

“Bastian. He’s Lucas’ best friend and he loves me, too. He has the ability to teleport as well but our captors don’t know that. He’ll be able to find me, and when he does he’ll take us all away from here. You’ll see.” Okay, that sounded lame even to him, but the strength of his conviction sparked a glimmer of hope in the faces of the dispirited bunch around him. It was evident in their doubtful expressions. They wanted him to prove his words as much as he wanted them to believe.

It would take time, he knew. They just had to survive until then. Several minutes later, he was rewarded when Jules picked up the blanket at his feet and, fluffing it out, extended a corner in offering. Jules kept his gaze downcast but Kyle smiled his gratitude anyway. Together they sat in shared warmth and companionable silence, awaiting whatever was in store for them next.

Chapter Eleven

Time was measured by the hunger pangs in his belly. Being no stranger to starvation, he judged that they were being fed once a day. The meals consisted of an unidentifiable substance which only redeeming value lay in its tastelessness. At the second arrival of food delivered by Baldy’s guards, though, they didn’t leave right away as they had the last time. Instead, they passed around the bowls then marched straight for Jules.

The young man flung aside the blanket they shared and stood with his hands clenched at his sides. Kyle jumped up as well, unable to sit by while they dragged his new friend off for more torture and degradation.

“Leave him alone. He hasn’t even eaten yet.”

His outburst took the men by surprise for a moment. Then both guards laughed uproariously and continued their advance. As one of them reached out for Jules’ trembling form, Kyle snatched at his arm but was backhanded before anyone could react. Skidding to a halt several feet away, he heard Amy’s angry yell and felt fingers brush along his busted lip. Expecting to see her when he raised his lids, he was shocked to find Jules’ beseeching eyes staring down at him.