CaptiveoftheBeast

Chapter 10

The Knights gathered on the dock several miles from the research facility, with the exception of Lucan, who still had plenty of healing to do. As expected, there wasn’t a boat in sight. No one came to or left this island without Walch’s knowledge.

“We all felt it,” Des said, explaining why Rinehart had been paged. “A punch-in-the-gut sudden rush of evil.”

“It has to be Beasts,” Rock added, leaning against the wooden railing next to Des. “And lots of ’em. More than I’ve ever sensed in one place.”

Rinehart grimaced. “Like we weren’t dodging enough of those bastards as it was,” he grumbled, rubbing the tension balling in the back of his neck. “Walch couldn’t convert the remaining humans on the island until they were given a power, so maybe he brought in reinforcements.”

Max’s attention flickered to Rock. “All jokes aside kid, but…you’re young, and I’m older than dirt. I read things differently.” He shrugged, his hands shoved in his jeans pockets. “This felt more like one powerful, malicious presence.”

Des lowered his gaze. “I got the same read as Rock.”

“As far as I’m concerned,” Max said, “it’s one more reason to kick up the pace on this mission. Get these patients off this island before whatever it is gets their hands on their powers.”

“Three days,” Rinehart reasoned, thinking this through logically despite the foreboding circumstances. “I need that long to prepare Laura and her group. We can be gone by sunup Monday morning.”

“Sooner would be better,” Max added. “Have you told Laura what is going on?”

“I was working on it when you paged,” Rinehart said, reminding them that they’d cut short his encounter with Laura. “She’s meeting me here any minute.”

Des snorted and flashed a grin. “She’s a hard sell, R. Better polish your charm.” His humor faded. “We need her on board. Trying to take that group of kids off this island if they see us as the enemy will be a slippery slide I don’t think we want to ride. And we have enough to worry about with Carol. That chick had that deep, soulless look in her eyes. She’s not playing on the right team anymore.”

Rinehart hated the truth of Des’s statement, and his heart was heavy with the thought of telling Laura. “We’ll have to sedate Carol for the extraction and hope she’s not too far gone for Marisol to pull her soul back.” The longer that a Beast controlled a soul, the harder it was to salvage. He eyed Max. “Can you get a message to Jag about all of this?”

“Will do,” Max confirmed. Rinehart’s gaze caught on the distant silhouette of Laura, shoes in hand, hair loose and lifting gently in the wind. Max’s attention followed Rinehart’s, and he added, “Looks like our invitation to leave.” Rinehart didn’t respond immediately. He couldn’t seem to tear his eyes from her. His chest was tight with the reaction he had to seeing Laura. “Watch your back,” Max ordered gruffly, heading down the wooden dock with Rock by his side.

Des lingered. “I know you know this, man, but I have to say it.” The out-of-character seriousness in Des’s voice jolted Rinehart from his trance. He arched a brow at Des. “No matter how she responds to what you tell her,” he said, “no matter how much she might resist, you have to take her under your protection. There’s no time, not after what Max sensed out here tonight. Whatever or whoever it is, we both know this is about Laura and her research. And this isn’t just about her being in danger. This is about the danger that her research represents in the wrong hands.”

Rinehart inhaled a shaky breath, Jag’s words coming back to him. At all costs, he was to keep Laura out of the hands of the Beasts. “I know,” he confirmed, his voice steely edged. “Believe me, Des, I know.”

Des studied him a moment, and then clapped a hand on his back before walking away. Rinehart’s gaze traveled along the wooden dock, over the railing, and latched on to Laura. She stood several feet away in casual conversation with Max and Rock. As the Knights departed, she whirled around to face the docks.

Instantly, their gazes collided, and a punch of emotions hit him smack in the center of his chest. Their bond was inevitable, but their mating was not. Both of them had shown the courage to help others at all costs, and the willingness to sacrifice to protect those in need—to serve the innocent. But there was a need she possessed that he did not—the need to be normal. He’d never been normal, nor would he ever be normal. Nor did he want to be. All his life he’d fought the battles no one else would.

Emotion tightened his chest as he thought of Jag’s orders—orders that could force him to sacrifice his mate in the war against evil.

The injustice of what he faced tortured him, twisted him in knots. He jerked around, stalked down the walkway toward the shadowed end of the wooden dock to the edge of the water.

He was hanging by a string now, barely clinging to his human side. His gaze lifted upward. Surely those higher powers who ruled the Knights knew he couldn’t live through her termination, and certainly not without himself becoming a sacrifice, as well. He ground his teeth. Or was that what they were counting on? Maybe they considered him a lost cause.

The creak of wood behind him told of Laura’s approach. He reached deep, struggled to rein in his emotions, his dark side. Slowly, he sucked in air and beat back his Beast. Damn it, he would not fall to the same darkness he’d been hunting for damn near all his life, no matter how certain the higher powers might be that he would. Nor would he allow Laura to.

This war wasn’t over until it was over. Whatever it took, he’d complete his mission, and he’d fulfill his resolution to save her. And if there had to be a sacrifice in this, it would be him and him alone.

Laura stood at the end of the wooden dock, her shoes left behind in the sand.

Only minutes before, she had been full of bravado and determination. But now that the moment of truth having arrived, she hesitated. Cloaked in shadows, Rinehart stood at the end of the dock, wrapped in a darkness that reached beyond the night. Turbulence rolled off of him as rapidly as the ocean’s waves poured over the shoreline. Even from a distance, he was a big man, his shoulders broad, his waist tapered, his presence forceful. Danger trickled off of him, a second skin, an edge that radiated a willingness to kill. Yet oddly, she felt no risk from him.