But then Liam threw up a hand to her mouth to quiet her. “I hear them. Swear I’ll be right here with you the whole time. Please, please stay safe,” he whispered before she heard Courtland and his crew stomp toward them.
Their footsteps crunching in the snow were like the seconds ticking away her freedom.
“Well, look what the fuck we have here,” Courtland sneered when he finally came to stand in front of her. “A goddamn traitor, eh, Liam?”
Liam tightened his grip on her restrained wrists, sending her the signal that he was sorry. She grazed her pinky finger over his before he shoved her hard at Courtland, making her stumble into him. “Told you I’d find the bitch,” he answered gruffly.
Courtland grabbed the length of her hair and yanked her upward until the toes of her shoes just scraped the ground. “Is what the bloodsucker says true?”
She fought the wince of pain and shrugged nonchalantly, as if he wasn’t yanking her scalp off. “What does the bloodsucker say, Courtland?”
Pulling her close, he jammed his moon-shaped face into hers, leaving the full affect of whatever he’d had for lunch under her nose. “He says you’re a fucking traitorous killer, that’s what he says!”
Pinky and some of the other Dogs laughed, right along with Liam, who slapped Courtland on the back. “So you ready to hand her pathetic ass over to Angus? We need to keep it movin’.”
She realized Liam was trying to rush things for her benefit, but Courtland liked terrorizing people too much.
“Fuck no, I’m not ready!” Courtland growled. “I’m not ready because I wanna hear what the fuck she did. I want her to say it to my face.” He tightened his grip on her hair and gave her a good shake, rattling her to the bone.
But Liam chastised him in a tone befitting an adult chastising a dog for taking too much pleasure in gobbling up his new toy. “Easy there, Courtland. Angus isn’t going to want the merchandise if the merchandise is broken.”
Courtland nodded, the greasy strands of his hair sticking to his face. “You’re right.” And then he dropped her on the ground, face first, with no way to protect herself.
Freya face planted in the hard snow with a grunt and one thought. Motherfucker! She was going to tear off his balls with Pinky’s teeth!
But Liam dragged her back upward, his next words to Courtland tight. “Man, I told you, stop fucking with the goods. Is this the way you’re going to do business? It’s no fucking wonder you can’t make a deal. Lay the hell off, Courtland, or I forget how much I want Irish and all those pieces of vampire shit to turn to ashes, say screw it to the idea of choking some blood maker out of Angus, let you do the negotiating, and go the fuck home to my plasma TV and watch a game while some willing whore sucks me off! Now, back up!”
Freya fought to keep her eyes from going wide at how crude Liam was capable of being. But he’d warned her, keeping his integrity and pride intact after dealing with Courtland had been hard. But wow, he’d laid it on pretty thick, making her worry Courtland would catch on.
But Courtland stepped back, jamming a hand into his hair. “Right—right. She just makes me so fucking mad, dude! So fucking mad, I want to pound my fist into her face.” To punctuate his point, he dropped his fist into his palm.
Freya stiffened, fighting, forcing her mind to calm itself when all she wanted to do was launch herself at him and eat his kidneys.
Liam’s voice was clear in her head. Don’t, honey. Don’t react.
“I get it,” Liam soothed. “But let’s not be stupid here, Courtland. Now ask her what you need to in order to clear this shit up and let’s roll.”
Courtland approached her, his eyes hot with his anger, and took a long sniff. “So it’s true, you cunt. You’re a bloodsucker now?”
“Well, I prefer night dweller, but yep. I’m officially off your list of people who need babysitting. I think I’m this big guy’s responsibility now.” She laughed then, because when she’d rehearsed her witty retorts, she’d sounded totally insane. Live and in person sounded even better.
Courtland wound his meaty hand around her throat and squeezed until her eyes almost bulged. “Shut the fuck up, traitor, and tell me how this happened.”
For the first time since she’d been turned, Freya decided breathing was overrated and she was glad she didn’t have to anymore. “Which part do you want to hear first? The part where I’d rather die than be mated to a piece of disgusting, illiterate shit like you? Or the part where I murdered Ethan?”
Liam tightened his grip on her wrists to signal less was more. But he had said to keep Courtland riled up enough to want to see her mutilated by Angus, hadn’t he?
But not enough to make him so angry he behaves rashly and kills you himself, Freya.
Courtland’s lips thinned while puffs of condensation escaped his flared nostrils. He jerked her out of his grip, pushing her back into Liam. “All of it.”
Freya stretched her neck to ease the ache his hand had created. “Huh. Where to start? Okay, so, you chose me as your mate. I felt bad. So very bad, because euuw. Who wants to be mated to you? You smell like a goat, you’re as dumb as a skipping stone, and your breath is reminiscent of Satan’s bowels after a hot bout with the toilet and a bad case of salmonella.”
Courtland’s right hand rose high in the air, the arc of his arm catching the shaft of moonlight between the trees just before he attempted to bring it down across her face.
But Liam was too swift. He yanked her away from Courtland, putting a couple of feet between them in the blink of an eye. “Courtland! Knock it the fuck off. She shows up to Angus bruised and battered and I’ll kill you myself, you fool. I want my revenge, man. Stop fucking around.”
Pinky skittered up behind Courtland and spoke for the first time, his words quick and shifty, much like him. “Yeah, yeah. You know he’s right, Court. We need this shit to go down clean, man! We need some cash since Gannon took a dive into the grave, dude!”
The were cracked his knuckles and puffed his chest out, but he backed off. “Finish, bitch,” he demanded.
Liam nudged her in the back, making her jolt forward even as he squeezed her fingers in his. “Hurry it the hell up, would you? Jesus, women and their mouths. Always damn well running.”
The Dogs and Courtland laughed, lightening the mood.
“Finish, Freya,” Liam urged.
“So anyway, easy choice, right? Die or mate with you. At first I really was just going to kill myself. With that in mind, I got really, really drunk at Ahab’s with Claire in preparation. Then I ditched her ass. But being the smart lawyer I am, I thought of something much less final than death. I took off to the Zone. Hooked up with some almost totally out of it junkie vampire, sunk his teeth into my neck without him batting an eye, and voila—woke up insta-vamp. Gooo, Team Vampire!”
Courtland’s jaw hardened, but he managed to keep himself in check. “And what the fuck did you do to Ethan?”
Freya rolled her eyes as though this entire conversation was boring her to death. “He caught me coming back from the Zone, the stupid mouse. He was going to go whining to you because he smelled vampire on me. So I tore him to shreds and then I hid in the woods while I tried to figure out what I was going to do next—until this flunky asshole found me.”
The air was still for a moment. The sharp wind easing while Courtland and his crew digested her words.
Freya made an effort to hush her mouth in keeping with her agreement to not poke Courtland the bear as Liam used his finger to stroke her palm. His presence behind her, the wall of his chest against her back, kept her focused.
When Courtland finally spoke, his tone was far quieter than she’d have expected he was capable of. But it was eerie and low, sending a shiver along her spine. “You fucked-up bitch. Why the fuck would Angus want the likes of your tainted pussy?”
She bit the inside of her cheek at what she knew was the forthcoming explanation.
Liam scoffed his irritation, his finger against her palm increasing in
soothing strokes. “I told you why—because she’s Claire’s best friend, and you do remember Claire tore his ass up the last time they tangoed, don’t you? Not to mention, she kept him from making a lot of money off the sale of Sarah and Hadley. I figured you wouldn’t want her, now that she’s a bloodsucker, and the clan sure as fuck won’t want her, with the way she tricked someone into turning her. So I offered her up as part of the deal. He gives me the blood; I give him the lying bitch traitor. It’s called negotiations. You know, that thing you said I was so good at? Just doin’ my job, man.”
Courtland’s hooded eyes flashed suspicion. Or at least they looked suspicious, and it left her knees weak. But then he guffawed, slapping Pinky on the back with a hard crack of palm against leather. “Good move, Bloodsucker. You’re smart, asshole. I like that.”
Reaching out to Liam with her mind the way he’d taught her, she asked, Could we get past the bromance portion of this hostage negotiation and move along before we miss that meeting with Angus?
“So are we good now, Courtland?”
Courtland jammed his hands back into the pockets of his jacket and rocked back on the heels of his boots. “There’s just one more thing. Never did get that honeymoon, and I ain’t never had vampire pussy. I want her alone for a couple of minutes, then you can drag her ass off wherever the fuck you want.”
Freya blanched, fighting to keep quiet. They hadn’t factored in enough disgusting pig when they’d hatched this plan.
Liam clenched her wrists tighter and tapped the back of her hand twice. That meant they were going to bail if this got any worse. “We don’t have time for this shit, Courtland. If you make me miss this damn meeting with Angus, I’m going to leave you to do all the negotiations, and if I do that, you’ll fucking be broke in a month. Now quit dickin’ me around. You want the cash the blood brings in or not?”
But Courtland hedged. “Aw, c’mon, man. She’s hot even as a piece-of-shit bloodsucker. I just wanna dip my wick—”
“Courtland Dodd!” someone bellowed from a cluster of trees in the distance.
All stunned eyes swung to the left to watch a chicly dressed shadow, elongated by the moon, saunter from the thick branches.
The shadow of Petra Morrow.
Chapter 17
“Courtland Dodd!”
Courtland’s eyes swung to Petra’s form as she suddenly raced over the surface of the snow to land in front of the were, her eyes blazing.
He sneered at her, his eyes narrowing to tiny slits in his head. “What the fuck are you doing out here?”
In turn, Petra’s eyes were wild, full of more emotions than Freya could count. “I’m here for you, murderer!”
Pinky jumped in front of Petra and gave her a hard shove to the shoulder. “Back off, you crazy bitch. I said back off now! We got important stuff goin’ on here!”
Without batting an eye, Petra pulled something from her coat—something shiny and glistening. She wrapped her arm around Pinky’s neck, swinging her body behind his and wrapping her hand under his chin. No more than half a second had passed before she’d yanked his chin upward, exposing his neck.
And then she ran that shiny thing she’d torn from her pocket right over the expanse of his flesh, hurling him to the ground with a satisfied scream.
Crimson blood spilled from Pinky’s neck, pooling in the snow, leaving a puddle of his life beside him.
Chaos erupted in a matter of seconds, but not before Petra made sure Pinky would never recover. With another howl, she raised her arm high, jamming the knife into the place where his heart beat with another howl before Courtland dragged her from his dead friend.
Latching onto her hair, he hurled her to the ground and began to drag her as she clawed at his hands. “Murderer!” she screamed, her voice raw and hoarse, her booted heels kicking up snow.
Liam reacted, shoving Freya behind him as he stalked after Courtland while the rest of the Dogs took defensive stances. “Let her go!” he roared.
Courtland’s surprise made him drop Petra, who shimmied her way up against a tree trunk, her chest heaving.
But Courtland was angry now. He grabbed Liam by the lapels of his long leather jacket. “She killed my best friend, Bloodsucker!”
“And I’d do it again, you disgusting pig!” Petra screeched, pushing off from the trunk of the tree to lunge for Courtland, but Liam was quicker.
With one hand, he reached out and grabbed her by the waist while driving a shoulder into Courtland’s stomach and knocking him to the ground. “Stop!”
Courtland skittered like a crab, backing away, trying to get his footing. “You motherfucking bitch! I’ll see to it you die—I’ll string you up in the middle of town and slit your throat myself, then I’ll let the pack pass your dead carcass around and fuck you raw!”
Two of the Dogs rushed to help Courtland to his feet when Liam bellowed, “Shut the fuck up, Courtland! Just shut up and let her explain!”
As they hoisted him upward, and just when Freya thought Courtland was preparing to lose his mind, his face changed from ugly rage to crumpled sadness. “Whyyy?” he wailed. “Why did you kill him?”
Petra struggled against Liam’s grip on her. “You filthy, filthy animal! Why? Why would I kill someone you love? Why? Because you executed my husband and my sister!
“My sister and your mate!”
Oh, shit.
* * * *
Liam cocked his head. “His what?”
“His mate!” Petra spat the words like hard nails shooting from her lips. “My sister was mated to Courtland, and when he couldn’t handle her drug abuse anymore, he dumped her in the Zone and left her there to die!”
A warning from Freya rang in his head. We need to signal the Fangs. Shit just got real!
Freya had managed to worm her way out of the restraints Liam had loosely placed around her wrists, but she kept her hands behind her back when she spoke up. “You mean to tell me, this douchebag called me out and he was already mated?”
Petra’s eyes were wide, her face contorted in agony when she shook her head. “No,” she whispered hoarsely, suddenly docile in Liam’s hold, defeat making her limp. “My sister was already dead by then—but that’s why you had to die, Freya. Because Courtland deserves to suffer over and over again just like I have! That’s why I put Seventh Heaven in your drink, so you’d end up bitten and a traitor to the pack. I knew Courtland would never let you live when he found out you were turned. I knew he’d have you killed, and I wanted him to lose something he wanted so badly, to hurt the same way I hurt!”
Liam’s head spun before rage took over. Gripping Petra’s shoulders, he forced her to look at him. “So you drugged Freya and left her to be bitten by just anyone? You were willing to sacrifice her life because she was mated to someone she didn’t even want to mate with? Are you insane?”
Petra shook him off and took a harsh gulp of air, her nostrils flaring, but her words were eerily calm when she spoke to Freya. “Courtland wanted her. He wanted her bad, and that was all that mattered to me! He should never have anything he wants ever again. After you were dead, I wanted him to know he’d killed you because I made it happen, because I was the puppet master, pulling his strings. I wanted him to know he could have had you, and he’d made a huge mistake. I wanted him to see what a fool he is—what a joke he’s become to the entire pack.”
Now Freya gasped, moving closer, stalking her way over the snow toward Petra. “It was you? You did this? I should kill you myself!”
“It was him that made me do it!” she cried out, her words a mournful wail. “Courtland forced my hand! My sister was getting clean after Courtland dumped her in the Zone—clean with the help of my husband, who’s a drug counselor. But Courtland wanted you, Freya. You. He wanted to mate with you so the pack would respect him. As if anyone would ever respect a vile piece of garbage like him!”
Freya’s mouth fell open, and Liam just knew her head was spinning. Oh hell. She understood now. He watched her piece it all
together in her mind just as he had.
Her hands tightened behind her back; her eyes went icy cold when she approached Petra. “He killed your sister so he wouldn’t be bound to her by the council? Because if the council knew she was still alive, they would have made him live up to his vows and that would mean he couldn’t mate with me?” The disbelief in her voice rang out through the trees.
Petra’s head fell back on her shoulders. “Yes!” she sobbed, her shoulders slumping as tears streamed down her face. “When he decided he wanted to mate with you, he went to the Zone and executed her like she was nothing more than some animal going to slaughter! My husband tried to stop him, but Courtland brought his goons with him and they killed them both! Pinky held my husband down. Held him down and slit his throat just like I slit his!”
Liam’s jaw tightened, the air thick with the Dogs’ collective breaths. “How? How do you know all this is true?”
Petra barked a harsh laugh, a puff of cloudy condensation spewing from her mouth. “Because he forgot to check the closet of the clinic, where my husband’s assistant hid. She saw it all, Courtland Dodd! You killed them because you’re a bloodthirsty, pathetic imitation of an alpha! A psychopath—and tonight, you will die!”
“You set me up,” Freya mumbled as though she’d just stumbled out of a dark haze. “It was you who killed Ethan, wasn’t it?”
Petra’s body shook, her knuckles white from clenching her fists. “He knew too much. He saw me put that Seventh Heaven in your drink. He was going to go to Courtland. He would have ruined everything! So I killed him and dumped his body in the woods to keep his fat mouth shut. You were there that night, Freya. You saw it. You tried to save him.”
“Save him?” Freya responded. In the height of this madness, relief flooded her belly. She hadn’t killed Ethan.
Tears fell from Petra’s face as she gasped out an explanation. “You weren’t yourself! But I hid. I watched you try and help him. You kept carrying on about being out for a run to clear your head and then the next minute you were screaming you had to get home. It was like you didn’t even know where you were.”
Outlaw Alpha Page 16
