Page 68 of A Velvet Kiss After Dark

A frightened howl from a shapeshifted young cub rose through the air, quickly followed by others shifting in the pack, squalling back in rising terror.

The hair along the soldier's arms rose on end as his senses heightened. Something unnatural was coming…or was already here.

Guided with speed, the soldier rushed inside the hut and pressed upon the proper hidden mechanism on the bookshelf which revealed a hidden trapdoor elevator. He stepped inside and pressed the button that would take him to the basement level hidden beneath the rudimentary tent.

A cloud of smoke greeted him, and the soldier widened his stance and unholstered his service pistol loaded with ammunition made to kill any source of creature be it supernatural or human.

"Alpha?" cried out the soldier.

The dense cloud of fog obscured his vision, yet he didn't smell the aroma of fire.

"Are you well?"

No answer came.

He proceeded into the back room where the dark witch resided. Shielding his eyes from the acrid cloud which gradually began to force salty tears down his lids, he stood two feet from the witch's door when he saw it was ajar.

Panic burst through him!

"Zeke!" he shouted. It almost seemed as though the cloud of fog, magic, whatever it might be consumed his words, deadening them. For hardly any sound seemed to come out at all.

When no response came, he used his boot to kick open the dark witch's door. It splintered against the frame and all at once he saw a maddening, sickening sight.

Vomit filled his mouth, and all at once he knelt over and spewed the contents from his stomach.

"Alpha?" he said after he'd wiped the spittle onto his sleeve. "Where is she?"

The Alpha of the largest tribe of werewolves in the entire world, the strongest of them all, the most clever, the most devious, the most opined, was strewn nearly naked across the floor with death etched across his pallid face. Meanwhile, black tendrils like snake-like vines pulsed where his veins should be with blackness…and filth. Whatever it was, this demonic magic was killing him or sucking the life from him.

Zeke turned his head toward him the barest of centimeters as if that was all the energy he had left within him to do. His mouth hung agape and blood sat in a thick pool underneath him. It wasn't a word he spoke, but a warning he gave with the merest flick of his pupils to an object behind him. The soldier whipped around with gun aimed. The sudden screech from directly the evil witch came from directly behind him. He didn't hesitate. His gun blasted straight at her in move to protect him and his Alpha.

Hands shaking, the soldier stared into the screeching hysterical face of Zeke's mate, the dark witch, as her black claws tore gouges into his face. The gun went off again and she squealed like a serpent.

A massive object tore him away and he found himself crawling to get away from the banshee demon-woman.

As he glanced behind him, he saw Ezekiel near the door still on his stomach, his body splayed from where he'd shoved him out of the way from the witch's death-grasp. Alpha Zeke had somehow managed to save his life in the knick of time.

"Pretty boys all on a limb. Pretty shame you won't be twins. Now get out of my way there's a party to be had. Not here, nor there, but someplace bare."

Blood crept down Zeke's chin as a determined expression overcame his pain-filled face. A snarl, of all things, is what he gave his mate. "Oh no you don't, mistress."

And, as she moved to snap her fingers, making the soldier wonder if she'd somehow transport herself to some other place, Ezekiel snatched her by the ankle and tugged her so hard, her skull cracked against the stone wall—and out she went like a light.

29

Kane fought the rage that tore through him. She was gone once again. This maddening, deranged woman he so wanted to keep for eternity; this harbinger of doom; this gorgeous goddess from the past.

He'd find her if it's the last thing he did.

A squall tore through the air, beckoning him to search the black night skies. There above he saw dragon riders incoming fast. It was Torpence, the leader of the slave trader village.

Kane pulled forth his weapons, his teeth bared and ready to fight.

He'd end this now, and then he'd find his Tabitha.

30

Tabitha sat cross-legged before the door with the foreign markings on it. It felt like she'd sat here for hours, or perhaps days, for her sense of time was eschew.

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