“Go. Get them to safety.” A whack to his horse’s rear sent the beast and its precious cargo forward.
He turned his back on their retreating forms and faced the direction of the village where his siblings had fallen. He needed to get to them. Save them. He didn’t know how, but he would.
“I’ll free them. This I vow.”
Laughter carried over the sounds of the night. Dar stepped from the woods, sweaty and looking more crazed than he had minutes before. “Do you now?”
“Yes.” Calan locked his knees and scanned the ground for the dagger he’d dropped. He needed the blade to carry out his promise.
“Thank you for picking your punishment. I had wondered what to do with you.” Dar wiggled his fingers. The dagger lifted from where it had fallen, then flew to Dar’s open hand. He curled his fingers around the hilt and jerked his head in Calan’s direction. A single redcap approached.
The male punched Calan, a move Calan couldn’t avoid. It took all his energy to stand. The wretched torment of his siblings flooded Calan, weakening him. He did the only thing he could. He blocked them. Not soon enough to save himself. The redcap whacked him, again and again. With a final punch to his stomach, Calan toppled backward. The redcap rammed his knee into Calan’s chest, cracking his ribs.
He groaned and rolled. His rubbery muscles wouldn’t allow him to fight. Escape became his goal, not one he wanted, but the last choice left to him.
Dar took Calan’s last option away with a hard kick to Calan’s head. His neck snapped, and death claimed him, leaving him to suffer with the knowledge that he would never know what happened to the baby he’d tried to save.
Calan jerked awake, his heart beating a mile a minute. The familiar surroundings of his cell greeted him, exactly as they had the first time he’d awakened within the solitary chamber.
No, not the same. He’d been chained and alone then. Today he was free of his bonds and in the arms of his savior. Still asleep, Harley held him as tightly as he did her. His breath escaped on a long exhale. A dream. That was what had haunted him, yet it hadn’t been one, not completely. More real than anything he’d experienced in his long life, the memory had left him with a sense of culmination, a circle closing.
He glanced at his mate’s angelic face. She looked nothing like the plain, raven-haired woman he’d attempted to save a millennium ago, nor was Harley the same babe the human had carried and tried to protect. The parallels couldn’t be denied, however. He knew enough about the workings of the gods to realize a correlation might exist between Harley and the long-ago child he’d wanted to protect.
Simply a second chance, perhaps? No matter the reason he and Harley had met, he was glad. She’d given him more in their time together than he’d thought possible.
She’d brought heaven down to him—a beast from Hell.
“And I will save you, my beautiful mate. You will never suffer, not if I can prevent it. This I vow.”
And he would keep his promise, both the one he made to Harley and the one made to his siblings a millennium ago.
Nothing, not Dar or the curse, would stop him.
Chapter Fifteen
Harley breathed a sigh and inched her bottom closer to the hard cock pressed into the seam of her backside. She wiggled against the silken-steel rod and enjoyed the moment for what it was—a first. Not once in all her many sexual encounters had she ever fallen asleep in a man’s arms.
Oh no!
She opened her eyes. Raul’s threat came back to her. Curses whipped through her head. She’d allowed sex with Calan to cloud her mind. Her phone sat charging in her SUV. She’d left it there knowing she wouldn’t get any signal in Calan’s living tomb.
Ian. She had to call Ian. Make sure he was okay. Calan said he would be. His hounds were watching over him. The animals were also on the alert for Raul or any of the other redcaps and sluaghs roaming the country. She believed Calan. Trusted him. She did, but…
I just need to hear Ian’s voice, know for sure.
She moved to get up, but Calan shifted his hips and slid his cock into her core. A gasp escaped her, and a guttural groan of pure pleasure rumbled in his chest. She was wet enough for him. Her anxiety, however, tensed her muscles.
“Ahh, flower, it’s just me.” He pressed a firm hand to her lower belly and rolled his hips, loosening her and sliding all the way in. He nibbled on her shoulder. “No other male will ever wake you this way. Only me.”
A firmer nip accompanied the growled words. She squeaked. The possessive edge to his voice appealed to a part of her she’d never realized she had. She’d thoroughly enjoyed being on the receiving end of Calan’s focused loving.
A low groan resonated along her back. It skipped through her, tightening her nipples and adding to the slow grind of the thick flesh invading her.
“I won’t allow it. Do you understand, my Harley?”
He cupped her breasts. The light strokes of his fingers filled her with a sense of his reverence. He made her feel desirable. The commanding way he touched her as if only he had the right to love her added to the emotion.
“I do, but—”
He linked his arms around her middle and rolled to his back, pulling her with
