Chapter 79 - Reclaimed

"Kai?" Rae called his name like it was a question, but the pulse she felt through their bond answered it. She squeezed him tightly. "Are you really here?" she asked.

Rae pulled out of their hug and looked up at him to reassure herself that it wasn't a dream.

Kai cupped the side of her face with his hand and looked down at her. “I’m here,” he said softly in response.

She looked different from when he last saw her in person, with her long raven hair cascading down her face. There were a million things that he wanted to say to her, but still high on adrenaline from his fight and unsure of the full situation, he didn’t feel comfortable enough to fully drop his guard.

"Are you hurt?" he ran his thumb over her face as he quickly tried to assess her. She had a small cut above her eyebrow, and a decent sized bruise was starting to form on her cheek. She winced as he touched it.

"I'm okay." She tried her best to convince him but he could sense she was still a bit shaken. He could see red finger marks starting to appear on her neck, where her attacker had attempted to choke her. Kai's eyes turned black as he took in the sight. He tried and failed to suppress an incensed growl. He knew that she needed comforting more than anything else, but he couldn't help it. He was annoyed that it took him so long to find her, and even more annoyed to find that she was on her own when he did find her.

*'Where the fuck is Gabriel?'* he questioned himself. He couldn't understand why Mya and Gabriel had been so desperate to take her from him, to then expose her to danger.

At that moment Arrow came bolting up the stairs. "All clear downstairs. Are you both alright?" he glanced quickly at Rae. Even though she looked slightly different, it wasn’t hard for him to recognise her. He could scent Kai on her where their scents had started to mix. He smiled briefly at her, seeing that overall she appeared to be in relatively good shape. Kai on the other hand, with his black eyes, looked like he was keen to spill more blood before he would be settle.

"Let's get you out of here." Kai said through gritted teeth. He held on to her wrist then started leading her down the hallway towards the stairs. Rae stopped suddenly as she pulled her wrist out of Kai's hands.

"No, we can't leave yet! Mya...Gabriel. They're here."

"They're okay" Arrow interrupted. "They're both unconscious, but alive. Looks like someone drugged them. With some pretty heavy stuff too. I don’t think they’ll be waking up for a while."

Kai lanced his fingers around Rae's arm to encourage her to follow him. He was still on high alert and was keen to get her out of there incase more people decided to show up.

"I have a car out front. Let's go. Arrow will follow up with them."

Rae was reluctant to leave without Gabriel and Mya. "I think I'll hold back and wait for them in that case."

"No. We're leaving now," he said assertively.

"But Kai!"

"They'll be fine," Arrow interrupted, seeing an argument was very quickly brewing. "I have a doctor and another vehicle coming. As soon as it gets here, we'll follow you. We won't be far behind you." He gave her a tight smile to try and calm her.

Rae sighed but gave in. "Okay. Thanks Arrow. Be careful with Mya, she's not well." Arrow gave her a small nod, as Rae allowed Kai to continue leading her out towards the back of the inn.

---------

Rae and Kai were now driving alone, in silence, along a dark road. Kai had briefly told her that he was taking her back to the manor house in Valley Banes pack territory, where he had originally taken her, after she was kidnapped. Other than that, he hadn't said much else.

After being apart from him for so long, this wasn't how she thought their reunion would go. His eyes kept flicking from blue to black like he was having an inner battle. She had initially attributed his bristling anger to still being amped up from his fight with that shifter, but his silence with her had her second guessing.

"Talk to me," she said, breaking the silence. She couldn't work out if he was mad at her. He had correctly guessed who she really was, before she even knew herself. Perhaps he thought that she had deliberately kept her true identity from him, or was angry that she had chosen to stay away after Gabriel and Mya came for her.

Instead of answering her, Kai gritted his teeth then squeezed the gear stick. His knuckles started to turn white from the tension.

"Say something. Are you upset with me?"

Kai raised an eyebrow at her in surprise. *'Why on earth would she think that?'* he thought. *'If anything, it should be you who's was angry at me?'* he continued to monologue internally. Angry that it took him so long to work out who she really was. Angry that he stood in silence in a cupboard and did nothing when her family was slaughtered. As he scanned her face, he could see the troubled look in her emerald green eyes. He was awash of emotion, but more than anything else, he was just overwhelmed to see that she was safe. His mate was there, in his car. Realising that his silence was the cause of her anxiety, his stern looking mask broke in seconds.

"It's not you that I'm upset with," he said in a pained soft response.

"What's wrong then?"

"If I was five minutes later than I had been, I.." he exhaled deeply in an effort to try and calm himself. “I don’t even want to imagine.”

Rae's mouth formed an o as she worked out his anger was in relation to her safety. She could feel his feelings of guilt and anger through their bond.

"I'm alright."

"What the hell were Gabriel and Mya doing? Why were you on your own?" His eyes turned black this time and stayed black as he became angry again.

"This isn't their fault Kai," Rae chimed back.

"Like hell it isn't! They took you from me, forcefully separated us and for what? To just leave you on your own, like easy fucking pickings for someone to come and attack you!”

*'Easy pickings?!'* Rae roared internally. He was talking about her like she was a defenceless baby bird left alone in a nest. Whilst her attacker may have started to get the upper hand in their fight, she'd given him as good as she had gotten.

Rae stared back at the road ahead. "Pull over," she said, in a clipped response to Kai.

"What?" Kai asked confused.

"Pull over!" Rae repeated a bit more forcefully this time. Some of her dominant energy ebbed out in frustration.

Kai looked at her with his mouth slightly agape. Whilst her stubbornness was as he remembered, there was now some serious force behind her words. It reminded him of when she confronted him when he tried to drag her out of the brothel. The dominant energy coming off her now compared to then was several times stronger. It had the full force of someone with royal blood in their veins.

"I can't stop here," he said in an attempt to dismiss her request. In reality, Kai could, but he didn't feel comfortable stopping until they got to the manor house. It wasn't far and he was determined to keep going.

Unhappy with his response, Rae started pulling at the car door handle, causing it to suddenly jerk open.

"Woah! What are you doing?!” Kai slowed down the car then pulled over to the side of the road. As soon as the car came to a stop, she was up and out. She marched out in to the dark brush on the side of the road.

Kai blinked in confusion as he stared at the now empty passenger seat and her marching off in to the darkness.

"Rae!" Kai jumped out of the driver side and chased after her. He didn't have a clue what the hell was going on, but he needed to get her back in the car. As he reached out and grabbed her arm, Rae stopped abruptly as she turned around to face him. Her eyes were jet black with rage.

"I swear Kaiden! If you go back to treating me like a baby bird, I'm going to lose my shit! Do you remember what you said to me? In my mind? That we were both going to fight? Well that's what I intend to do, so stop treating me like I’m made of glass! I'm nowhere near as fragile as you make me out to be."

Rae continued shouting but all of the words she was saying seemed to fade in to nothing. In her furious state, Kai couldn’t help but be captivated her. She was like a violent storm, both beautiful and scary at the same time. He stood in silence as his eyes were drawn to her full lips as she spoke. This was the fiery girl, no the fiery woman he had fallen in love with. He stared at her like she was some magnificent mythical creature that had been brought back from the dead. He couldn't stop a small appreciative smile from creeping up on to his lips. This strong, powerful and sexy woman was his mate.

"Are you listening to me Kaiden?!" Rae asked, confused by his mixed expression.

Kai slowly walked over to her. A hint of black flashed across his eyes but there was no anger behind them. As Rae tried to back up a step, he snaked one arm around her waist to keep her still. "Kai?" Rae asked confused.

He slipped her shirt over her shoulder to expose more of her collar, then tipped her head to the side.

She opened her mouth to say something else, but all that came out was a gasp as she felt the warmth of his tongue gently licking his claiming mark on her neck. This little act had her and her wolf placated and purring like a kitten in seconds.

With his canine's now protruding, the desire to reaffirm his claim on her was too strong to fight, and he sunk his teeth in to her delicate flesh, re-opening the claiming mark he had left on her previously.

Rae moaned loudly as his bite ignited a warmth down below. Kai hummed in to her neck as her moan sparked his own arousal.

He could feel her getting heavy in his arms as her legs started to tremble with pleasure. Content with his reapplied mark, he withdrew his teeth and then claimed her mouth with a searing kiss. His hand slid smoothly down the curves of her frame as he reacquainted himself with her body. Satisfied, he released her lips. They were now red and full after his hungry kiss.

"You couldn't look any sexier than you do right now," he whispered in to her ear. He growled softly in to her neck as he took in her scent. It took everything in him to not strip her and fuck her senseless in the woods. To make up for all the lost time that they should have been doing exactly that, since they first claimed each other, but he wouldn't feel fully at ease until he got her back to the house.

Rae slowly opened her eyes. Her eyelids were heavy like she was coming out of a hypnotic trance.

"What you said just now, you're right, I'm sorry," he said with a more serious tone in his voice. He pulled Rae in to his chest. He wasn't just sorry for implying that she was weak, he knew that she wasn't. He was also sorry for not doing something, anything, when her family was slaughtered. Even though he was a child then, the guilt had been eating at him for years.

Rae didn't say a word, she could feel his guilt. She knew that this feeling was more than about what had happened in the inn. She knew it was deeper than that. She was riding each wave of emotion with him, through their bond. In her mind, he had nothing to apologise for. She was grateful, more than anything, that the little boy she loved survived.

Rae slipped her hands under Kai's top and then wrapped them round his back. The skin to skin contact soothed both her and her wolf. She smoothed her hands round the base of his back then rested them on the waistband of his trousers. As her hands settled at the top of his ass, she was reminded of them making love back at his apartment and her clawing at his back.

The instant re-ignition of her arousal hit Kai senses like he was crashing in to a brick wall. Kai growled back in response. His feelings of guilt swiftly put to one side for a moment. It was such a small touch but it was intimate enough to cause days of suppressed sexual desire for each other to come flooding back again in an instant.

"I need to be inside of you" Kai said darkly. He meant to say it to himself, but the heat of the moment caused him to say it out loud.

Kai bent down and swooped her up and over his shoulder.

"Kai!" Rae called out in pleasant surprise.

"If you're done with the lecture and all is forgiven, let's get you to the house so we can *really* catch up with each other," he said seductively. He swatted her on the ass causing her to cry out again as he led her back to the car.