Darren approached the two Deidrick men. "Mason, I'm going to look for Dani. I know we aren't supposed to be protecting her, but she has been missing too long for my liking. She is too precious to lose again."
"You don't know anything about her," Chase mumbled on his way past Darren. He had to find her now.
"She is a friend of mine. I've spent more time with her than you and your sorry-ass ex-buddy combined. I taught her to shoot a gun, to defend herself hand-to-hand, and drive a car like she stole it if she was ever being chased. What have you done besides hurt the girl? You don't need to answer, because I already know you haven't done shit. So don't question my motives!" Darren growled.
"Well, why don't you tell us how you really feel, Darren?" Mason stepped between them. "I am always breaking up a fight over that girl. I can't wait for the rest of the guys to get in on the fun."
"What do you mean?" Darren groused.
"Oh, you didn't hear? Danielle is a single girl again, and every man in a twenty-mile radius has been informed that our own little supervamp is accepting applications for a mate. Brandi thinks she is a matchmaker of a sort. Maybe we should all fan out and find her. She could have a line of applicants by now," Mason joked. Chase glared at his father. He could not believe he'd just told Darren, who was known to want Danielle, that she was single. Darren went to search the lower level of the mansion.
"Why did you tell him that?" Chase asked his father, annoyed.
"He was her warrior. Why do you care? I didn't see you trying to comfort her. If you won't do it, there are plenty of guys who will." Mason hit him low.
"I'm going to check upstairs. Maybe she is in her room." Chase ground his teeth.
At the top of the stairs, he checked several guest rooms, until he found the one containing Danielle's belongings and her delicious scent, but no Danielle.
He checked the upstairs library, which was empty, and had a sickening thought that she could be in Van's room. Begrudgingly, he knocked on the door.
Van answered, looking disheveled. He indeed did have a female in his room. Chase inhaled deeply, ready to pounce if it smelled the slightest bit like his Lovely. It didn't.
"Forgive the disturbance, Van. Have you seen Danielle?" he asked politely, since he knew she wasn't in his room.
"No, but I'm flattered you thought to check my room. She doesn't seem the type to fall into bed quickly. I'll need to work on her. A challenge is always fun, isn't it? I believe she'll be worth the fight." Van paused half a second, as it dawned on him that this was the last place Chase would look, so she must have really been missing. He buttoned up his pants and asked in a much more serious tone, "When was she last seen?"
Chase was just trying not to kill the bastard. "She is not one of your throwaway girlfriends, Van. Stay away from her."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Whatever. Trust me. I wouldn't throw that one away. How long has she been missing, and who is looking for her?" he asked again.
"No one has seen her in about thirty minutes. Darren is searching the first floor, and I have searched this floor."
"Has anyone called the gate to see if she left?" He went to the phone by his bed and rang the gatehouse to question the guards. "She hasn't left the grounds. No one has left the party the through the gates yet." Van took off on his task, and Chase went toward the rear stairwell that he and Dani had followed Brandi up earlier that evening.
On the way past, Chase tried the door to the room Kayden and Sam had occupied earlier, but it was locked. Why hadn't he checked that room first? She was probably still holed up in there. The adjoining bathroom door was still open. Relief washed over him when her scent hit him hard and he heard her whimpering cry.
"Lovely, are you still in here? Let me walk you to your room." He stopped with a jolt, and his relief was washed away by overwhelming grief at the scene in the room. Blood. Danielle's blood and Kayden's, mixed.
It couldn't be. Kayden didn't deserve her. How could he have talked her into it? She was way too smart for that.
His father's words echoed in his head again. "The point is, she may be willing to do anything to stop her pain. I know the two of you have not been bonded, but the connection she feels with you is as strong as any bond I've ever witnessed. … If she bonds to Kayden, she will forever be bonded to him, but her true heart belongs to you."
Kayden and Dani were on the bed together, their hands bound. He held her and murmured to her, while she cried on his shoulder. There was a blade on the bed, and Kayden had blood running down his chin and on his hand. He was inadvertently rubbing the blood down Danielle's back as he stroked her gently. Why were they crying? Was their brand-new bond so strong and overwhelming already? Every chance Chase had with the only girl he ever loved, the only girl he ever wanted for his own, was shattered, because he'd walked away and left her to fend for herself with the only man who'd bothered to stand by her. Again, Kayden had been there when Chase wasn't. This time, Chase would pay with his very heart and to the depth of his soul.
"What have you done to her? Why is she crying?" Chase held on to the doorjamb to keep himself from going to her.
"Get out, Chase! You drove her to this! She is not ready to deal with you or anyone else yet! Leave!" Kayden continued to pet her, and she cried louder.
The shouting brought Mason in through the open bathroom door to investigate. He looked for Chase to tell him Danielle's car was still on the grounds. Mason looked as stunned as Chase felt at the scene he found.
"Chase, you need to leave the room. You're intruding on their private ceremony. Move it, now," his father demanded.
"Mason. Mason, please help me. Please, Mason," she whimpered, and leaned away from Kayden. Kayden's cut was already healing, but Dani continued to bleed down her face, neck, and chest.
Kayden's shirt was covered. "I do love you, Dani." His bottom lip quivered. "You know I do. Don't do this. Maybe I just need some time to adjust."
Mason moved to the bed, and Dani fell back to lean against him, trying to put distance between her and Kayden. She rolled toward Chase but didn't open her eyes. Chase was finally able to look up again, and what he saw made no sense. Her face was not the face of a happy new bride but a mask of despair. Mason untangled the couple's hands. He looked at Kayden.
"She told you." It wasn't a question but a statement.
Kayden answered anyway. "Yes. How do you know?"
"I suppose she would have told you had she wanted you to know. If you value her at all, you will keep your mouth shut." Mason had her hand free and used the bloody blade to remove the fabric from her wrist.
"Mason," Dani sobbed. That was all she could manage.
Once she was free, he scooped her up like a baby. Her beautiful hair was matted with blood down one side, and it hung almost to Mason's knees.
He looked angrily at Kayden. "Look what you gave away. How could she possibly not be enough for you? You're both fools," Mason told Kayden and Chase. He carried her out of the room. In the hall, he passed Van, Gage, and Debbie.
"Holy shit! Is she hurt?" Van rushed forward.
"Back off, Stafford, this isn't your business. Gage, go help your boy, he's in the room I just came from. Debbie, my sweet, help me with Danielle. She'll need a woman's touch." Debbie followed him dutifully and shut the door behind them when they entered Dani's guest room.
Chase was still on his knees by the bathroom door when something hit the carpet in front of him. He picked it up. It was a beautiful, blood-covered ring. Kayden had planned ahead and changed his mind at the last minute. He'd been a kiss away from forever, and he'd turned her down. Dragging himself from the floor, Chase approached Kayden, who was locked in a thousand-yard stare. He held out the ring for him to take.
"What could possibly have been so bad that you would refuse to be her mate? I thought you loved her?" Chase asked quietly, with honest curiosity.
"I was just thinking that very same thing." Kayden continued to cry, and the combined blood and tears soaking his chest would stain his heart forever.
"I don't want to go. Please, don't make me go." Why must Debbie and Mason torture her? It hadn't even been a week since the botched bonding. "I get into trouble every time I go out in public. Do you want to see that again? I thought you loved me."
"Of course we love you. That is why we want you to have some fun and stop hiding from life. I can't understand how hard this all must be for you, but life goes on, and you are too precious not to live every second to the fullest," Debbie replied. They looked at each other's reflection in the mirror, while Debbie used an iron to place huge ringlet curls in Dani's hair.