“Well snap, I was planning on keeping it all to myself because I love being kidnapped by crazy, psycho fae and warlocks.”

“Jacquelyn,” Fane warned.

She started to answer him but suddenly he was gone.

“Fane.” She reached for him like she had a hundred times, but there was nothing.

“I’ve delivered what you asked,” Lorelle said as she walked into the cave where Reyaz had built his home. Though he lived in a cave, it looked like anything but. He had afforded himself every creature comfort; he even had a fire place. It was protected by powerful magic, dark magic that caused chills to crawl up her spine and a whisper in her ear that told her to run as fast and as far as she could. “They are in the dark forest of my realm, just as you instructed. The magic there is too strong for their bonds to work between mates so they will not be able to contact them.”

“What about the fae girl?” Reyaz asked.

“Elle cannot flash; I made sure of it. Although I think my sister might have already bound her powers.”

Reyaz stood from the chair he had occupied. He walked slowly around the room as he held his hands steepled together. His mind wandered to the mates of the females Lorelle had captured for him. He nearly laughed at the thought of their reactions once they realized their females had been taken while they fought the warlocks. But he relished even more the thought of his brother’s pain when he realized that his mate had been taken because he had sent her away, unprotected. He would have to live with the knowledge that his woman had been taken because of his foolishness.

“That will be all,” he told Lorelle absentmindedly.

“Our deal changed when I agreed to this, warlock. I expect you to uphold your end.”

He looked up at her and his lip curled. “You will get what is coming to you. But you will be patient because things that get rushed get ruined.”

“As long as you follow through.”

Reyaz watched as the fae flashed, leaving an empty spot where she had been standing. He stared at the vacant space for several minutes as he considered what his next move should be. So much of his plan had been changed and now he found himself in the possession of not just one mate, but seven, plus an unmated female. One of those mated females just happened to be the mate of the most powerful Alpha in history. For a moment he thought that it was either the stupidest thing he had ever done or the bravest. He figured the answer to that would come if he found himself at the other end of the Alpha’s jaws.

Chapter 15

“Once in a lifetime, someone will grab onto your heart, dig in deep, and grasp with all their might. They will have the power to strengthen it, to crush it, or to keep it beating when it threatens to stop. Once in a lifetime, love will seep into you, filling every empty place, warming every cold spot, and illuminating all the dark spaces that threaten toengulf you. Once in a lifetime, one person will have the ability to bring you back from the edge of insanity just by reminding you that they chose you; that they love you.”  ~Cypher

“Something has got to give,” Peri shouted to Alston.

The battle against the warlocks had been going on for nearly two days. Vasile and Peri had organized a rotation between the fae, elves, and wolves, to fight in waves so that everyone would get a chance at rest. The problem was for every ten warlocks they knocked out, five were waking up. They continued to fight without killing as Vasile had instructed, but frustration levels were running high and exhaustion was beginning to take over.

“CYPHER!” Peri yelled across the trampled battle field. Trees had been knocked over and plants crushed and destroyed as feet and bodies pounded into the ground. She called on her power and drew into her the magic of all the supernatural creatures around her. “How much longer will you fight a battle you cannot win?”

Cypher paused from his fight with Decebel and looked over at her. His eyes burned red with madness and rage. His body was tight with the need to destroy. He stared at the fae who was bathed in light. He felt her goodness pulsating off of her and he wondered why she was fighting him. He hadn’t come here to fight the fae, or the wolves, or the elves for that matter. He had come to kill the trolls.

“Until my enemy comes out from hiding,” he answered calmly. His head whipped back around to Vasile and he pulled the sword back, ready to slash out at the Alpha.

Peri’s hand swung out just as Alston and Adam’s did and they all pushed power into the Warlock King, staying his sword from completing the arc.

“You have no enemy here Cypher, King of the Warlocks. You have been at peace with the trolls for centuries. You have no cause to declare war on them.” The battle around Peri came to a halt as they all began to realize that Cypher was no longer fighting and that there was a powerful, glowing fae in their midst.

“I have every cause! They took the life of one of my own; they murdered her.” The words were right, but there was no passion, no conviction behind them in his voice.

“That crime has been dealt with and the debt paid for by the lives of those who committed the crime. You would not condemn a whole race as evil just for the actions of a few. You agreed to this with the troll King. Why would you change your mind now, especially when you have found your mate? Why go to war now with your mate in danger from your brother?” Peri was trying to get him to think about his actions, to push past this intense desire to destroy and to contemplate why it is he wants to destroy.

Cypher’s eyes flashed briefly to their usual yellow color as he spoke. “Mate,” the word tasted foreign on his tongue, and yet he knew it to be true in his heart. He had a mate.