Lucan scoffed. "You've done enough, haven't you?"
"Then maybe Rafe or Tess - "
"Mira's where she belongs now," Lucan said, knowingly curt. He wasn't even close to sympathy over the obvious concern Kellan felt for the mate he'd claimed well beyond his rights. "The Order will see that Mira gets all the help we can provide. She's with family now. You have problems of your own to deal with."
Kellan held his gaze. "As long as Mira's safe, my problems mean nothing."
"Do you want to die, son?"
Kellan's response was immediate. "No." Then again, more vehemently. "Hell no. I want to live - with Mira beside me. I didn't realize how much I wanted that until I had her back in my arms again." He blew out a sharp curse. "But it doesn't matter what I want."
"Because of the vision," Lucan said. "Nathan informed me about that earlier too. You and I both know Mira's gift is a powerful thing. Unerring. But with or without that prophesied end hanging over your head, your involvement with rebels - for fuck's sake, your having led them as their commander - has all but tied my hands in this. Ackmeyer's death has been blamed on rebels, rebels under the direction of an outlaw called Bowman. It's given the public a cause to rail against, and they're doing it loudly. They're calling for blood - your blood. When word gets out that you're not only Breed but also a former warrior with the Order? The humans won't be satisfied until they have your head, son. I'll have little choice but to give it to them, or undermine all the strides we've made toward any kind of peace with mankind."
Kellan's steady gaze said he understood the impossible position. "If it comes down to that, I'll be ready to face whatever penalty is required."
Lucan raked a hand through his dark hair. "Shit, Kellan. This sure as fuck isn't how I imagined things would go with you when you first showed up at the Boston compound twenty years ago. Not how I imagined your life heading when you sailed through training with flying colors. Making the call to JUSTIS to come and pick you up tonight isn't going to be easy."
"I appreciate that," Kellan replied soberly. "Before you make that call, Lucan, if I could ask one thing for my crew? Their freedom, if you see fit to grant it to them. Don't turn them over to JUSTIS with me. I take total responsibility for my actions and those of the people under my command."
Lucan inclined his head at the request, feeling more than a little respect for the leader willing to bear the full brunt for those who followed him into battle.>She kept moving, fabric rustling as she pulled a sheet from the bed and wrapped herself inside it. Her bare feet padded softly, carefully, on the wide pine floor as she made her way toward the open French doors. "Who are you talking to out there? Kellan, what's going on?"
And then a misstep. A halting, hitching movement that made Kellan's heart sink like a stone.
He pivoted and flashed to her side, catching her before she could fall. Her small cry of distress went through him, as sharp and unforgiving as an arrow. "Shh," he soothed her. "Shh, I've got you, Mira. It's okay now."
A low growl at Kellan's back made his neck prickle with warning. "Holy hell. It's even worse than I imagined."
"Nathan?" Mira asked, her pale, cloudy eyes searching in the darkness. "Kellan . . . what's Nathan doing here? Tell me what's happening. Kellan . . . ?"
"You goddamn bastard." The Hunter's voice was pure menace, all of it locked on Kellan. "You've fucking blinded her."
Chapter Twenty-Two
"NATHAN, NO!" ALTHOUGH MIRA COULDN'T SEE THE BREED warrior move, she felt the crushing impact of his body as Nathan launched himself at Kellan. In her veins, she felt the echo of each punishing blow of the fists that came down onto Kellan's head and torso.
But the physical pain she experienced through her blood bond was nothing compared with the agony of knowing the two men she cared for so deeply - her two best friends, who'd been as close as brothers to each other at one time - were now engaged in a brutal fight because of her.
And fight was not the right term for what was taking place in front of her. Even though her vision was nothing but blackness and shadows, she could tell that Kellan wasn't even attempting to strike back at Nathan. He fended off the incoming fists, dodged when he could, but threw no punches of his own. He wouldn't fight his friend. Kellan had too much honor for that, despite what Nathan must think of him now.
"Nathan, stop!" Hindered by blindness and the sheet wrapped around her nakedness, Mira scrabbled in frustration, finally laying her hand on the massive form hunched over Kellan on the pine plank floor of the bedroom. She grabbed a fistful of his form-fitting combat shirt and yanked, trying to pull him away. "Nathan, it wasn't Kellan who blinded me. I did it myself. Damn it, listen to me. You have to stop this right now!"
The pummeling slowed, then halted as Nathan's bulk shifted beneath her hold on him. She felt the heat of his gaze on her face and knew that his eyes had to be fully transformed - blazing hot with amber light and rage. His breath was sawing out of him, rough and heavy. Realizing just how furious he was - how deadly violent - Mira understood that Nathan could have killed Kellan then and there if he'd truly meant to. He could have killed him outside a few minutes ago, before she'd even known he was there.
"Let him up, Nathan. Kellan won't ask mercy of you, but I will." She searched for Nathan's face with her free hand, an inelegant movement that made him hiss a dark curse.
"Ah, fuck, Mira. Look what he's done to you."
"No," she said, shaking her head. "No, Kellan hasn't done anything. He tried to help me. He gave me his blood - "
"Jesus Christ." Nathan scoffed. His voice turned away from her then, and she knew he was looking at Kellan. "You wait all this time to come back into her life, only to ruin it by shackling her to you with the blood bond?"
"I love her," Kellan said. Mira heard him coming up off the floor, felt his warmth as he drew close to her. His hands came down light on her shoulders, comforting and strong. "I will always love her, no matter what fate has to say about it." His mouth pressed against her temple, tender and sweet. "I love you, Mira. More than anything else in this world or the next."
She knew that. Deep down, she knew he meant every word. But here he was, shattering her heart.
He was letting go.
"You promised me," she murmured, closing her eyes against the pain. "You said you wouldn't let me go."