Page 12 of Knight’s Absolution

He ground his teeth, squeezing his eyes shut as it came again, this time stronger. It was like she was there with him now, a shadow pressed against his side. His cock hardened as that familiar craving for her pumped through him like it had back then. A craving that would never, could never be satisfied.

Gunner used to like fucking, a lot—females, males, goddamn orgies, it hadn’t mattered. It was just sex. A release. He couldn’t do it anymore. He didn’t want anyone else. He only wanted one female, his female, and he could never have her.

It wasn’t even about the sex. It was a craving deeper than that, so much deeper. He saw it with his brothers and their mates. They only had to look at each other to communicate what they wanted, how they felt, and the longer they were together, the stronger it got.

Gunner could think of so many times Kryos would suddenly stop what he was doing and go to Meredith as if she’d just called his name. He’d said he just knew she needed him.

It didn’t matter what for.

He just knew.

Gunner had wanted that, more than anything. He wanted his female with a deep unwavering longing that physically hurt. Rocco was the only male who understood the feeling.

Not that Gunner had shared what happened to him with his brother. Rocco had enough to deal with as it was.

Another wave of longing hit him hard, making his muscles twitch and his limbs weak. He cursed and quickly ran the soap over his body, ignoring the ache of his neglected cock, and shut off the water.

She was dead. Gone forever. He’d feel her if she was still out there. And somehow, he had to learn to live with the unbearable grief of it.

He dried off, dressed, and got the hell out of his apartment. In his head was not somewhere he needed to be right then.

Grace came running out of her and Chaos’s apartment down the hall as he walked out. All color had drained from her face, and she was visibly shaking. The female was a warrior, not much scared her. But right now, she was close to freaking the fuck out.

“Grace,” Gunner called.

She was already pushing through the door into the stairwell, flying up the stairs. Gunner followed quickly. He caught up to her just as she ran into the control room, and unsurprising, Chaos was already striding toward her, face etched with worry.

“What is it, angel?”

“It’s her,” Grace said, voice shaking as she pulled out her phone, handing it to her mate. “Someone just texted me from her number.”

Chaos scanned the phone.

“What’s going on?” Gunner moved in.

Grace glanced up at him. “It’s from her phone, the female who helped me escape that warehouse. It’s been months. God, I thought she was dead.”

After letting them know where to find the abducted demi, she’d blocked Grace’s number and Grace had been worried about the female ever since, even going as far as getting her crew to keep an eye out for her, to ask around and see if anyone knew her.

There’d been nothing. Until now.

“She messaged you?”

Grace shook her head. “Someone else.”

Chaos was frowning and held the phone up for Gunner to read.

Goth Girl: She needs you. You owe her.

A screenshot of GPS coordinates was underneath.

Gunner frowned at it. “I’ve been here.”

Grace was in his face in an instant. “What? When?”

Something seriously fucked up was going on. “About a month ago, Roc and I followed a couple of leathren to a vacant lot. We’ve been watching the place ever since.” He pointed at the screen. “Right here.” He’d told Chaos about it at the time. They’d decided to patrol the area regularly. He glanced up at Chaos. “I’ve seen nothing else in all these weeks.”

Chaos cursed. The fact that the little goth female was somehow involved with whatever was going on at that location meant something a whole fuck of a lot bigger was going on.