Duncan answered immediately, “Teag, where are you? Did they go back the motel?”
“Yeah, they sure did, but they made a little stop along the way and roughed up Mike’s store some. They were also picked up by some really big guy in a shiny suit, driving a rented truck. Any idea who the new guy is?” he asked his brother, hoping he had some clue as to who this new player was.
“I think that might be Ray’s partner in all this. He’s some big shot from back east, and from what I understand, he weighs in at about 350 pounds.”
“Well, it looks like he’s come here personally to check up on Ray. He probably doesn’t trust the little rat as far as he can throw him. Okay, I’m headed back to shift. I want you and Alex over here right away. We need to stop this here and now. The fat fuck already thinks he’ll be taking over the whole town. He told Mike he’d be making weekly payments into their charity fund. This ends tonight.” Teaghen ended the call and headed to the forest.
* * * *
Duncan had had the call on speaker, so Alex heard everything. It seems these guys were playing Ray for everything he was worth. He bet Ray had no idea they were planning on moving in on the town.
“Maisy…” Alex called to the kitchen.
“What can I do for you, honey?” she asked as she wiped her hands on a towel.
“Teaghen’s got them in the motel, so Duncan and I are heading over there now. We’re going to shift before we leave, so our clothes will be in the back room. Can you give Tony a call and let him know that we have additional players involved? I don’t want him caught unaware when he has our mate in his care.” Alex headed for the back door of the diner, already stripping off his shirt as he went. Duncan was right behind him.
Once they were at the back door it only took a matter of minutes for them to finish undressing and shift. It felt real good to be able to let their wolves run again. They hadn’t been able to much in the last couple of weeks with everything going on with Kianna and Ray.
Alex led the way through the tree line that ran behind the building along Main Street. The sun was lower in the sky, so they would be able to use the shadows for cover should they need to.
It only took about ten minutes to travel the back way to the motel. When they arrived, they felt Teaghen right away. Alex sent up a couple of small yips to let his brother know they were there. Within minutes, Teaghen was up on the hill behind the motel with them.
Shifting back to human form, they all sat and watched the motel for any sign of movement.
“Maisy is calling Tony to let him know of our extra visitor. I’m pretty sure Ray is all by himself heading to the ranch. He’s in for a really big surprise if he thinks his sister is going to bow down to him,” Alex said, a smile spreading across his face as he remembered just how strong and capable their mate was.
Alex watched as one of the men came out of the room and got into the truck and headed back toward town. Without a word, Duncan shifted and was following after him. If he was headed for the ranch to give Ray a hand, Duncan would make sure he didn’t get anywhere near Kianna. He had always admired the way Duncan was able to take on his responsibilities but still maintain his fun loving nature. He’d always had difficulty with that. At least until Kianna came back. She seemed to bring out a bit of the little boy in him, and he really liked that. He loved being able to be absolutely open and honest with her and have her love him anyway. And she did love them all, fiercely. He felt Teaghen tap his shoulder and point down at the motel. The big truck was back, and the guy driving got out with what looked like a half dozen or so pizzas. Really…? No wonder their boss was so big.
Duncan shifted when he came up beside his brothers again.
“Absolutely incredible! They bought ten pizzas loaded to the gills.” He laughed and sat back down by Teaghen.
“Anything happen well I was on a pizza run?” he asked, shaking his head.
“Not yet, but I’m sure they’ll wait until it’s dark before making any moves. They don’t seem to want to attract too much attention just yet. I think they’re waiting for Ray to bring Kianna to the big guy.” Alex shivered at the thought of his mate even being the same room with the slimeball.
* * * *
Ray pulled onto the dirt road that led to the ranch. Another few minutes and everything would be good again. Now that his slutty little sister was all alone, he would have no problem convincing her to go back to the motel with him. So what if she arrived a little roughed up. They were just going to use her anyway, so it didn’t really matter what shape she was in when she got there. Pulling up beside his sister’s vehicle, he looked around to see if there was anyone around. Most of the hands had been let go by Kia because they weren’t up to her standards, and the ones that were left were probably out in the back field bringing the last of the cattle closer to the barns. It wasn’t quite dark yet, but it was still dusky enough that he wouldn’t be noticed.
Patting the pocket on his jacket that contained the needle full of tranquilizer, he exited the truck and headed for the house. Stopping on the porch he once again looked around the yard. He had this strange feeling that he was being watched, but he knew that wasn’t possible because there was no one around right now.
Opening the door, he entered and right away noticed Kianna sitting at the table her arms crossed with her head resting on them.
“Well, isn’t that just a pretty sight?” Ray said, lifting the gun in his hand to point it at her.
“What the fuck are you doing here, Ray? Haven’t you done enough damage? You’ve won, big brother. I’m gonna sign the property over to you and head back into the city with my dads. Isn’t that what you wanted?” She was so pissed at having to deal with him she had to watch that she didn’t reach out and punch him in the face.
* * * *
“Maybe if you would have left right away or signed the property over to me before you came here, I would have left you alone. But you just had to come back here and rub my nose in the fact that you owned the ranch, didn’t you?” Ray walked slowly around her to stand where he could see her better.
“It’s too late for that now, you little whore. My boss has seen you and knows that you’ve fucked three men at once, and now he wants his piece. If you thought Bubba was mean, hell, you ain’t seen nothing yet. My boss likes to slice and dice his women. His favorite game is to see how many shallow cuts he can make on her body with his blade before she passes out. He loves to brag that his favorite girl, my mother, actually, lasted for three hours before she passed out. Can you imagine the pain he inflicted on her? Well, don’t worry about it, he’ll be showing you up close and personal soon enough.”
Kianna started to stand, but Ray gestured for her to remain seated. “I’m going to give you a little needle that will make you sleepy so that I don’t have to worry about you fighting too hard.” He smiled and pulled a nasty-looking needle from his shirt pocket.
“Now, if you hold still like a good girl, I won’t have to shoot you in the arm first.”
The minute he stepped close enough, Kianna made her move. Smashing the hand holding the gun, she was able to move it away from her just as it went off. She heard Ray scream when she slammed his arm against the edge of the counter. He dropped to the floor and lay there whining like a little baby. “You broke my fucking arm, you bitch.”
Quickly, Jeff and Sammy were in the kitchen and picking Ray up off the floor and depositing him in the nearest chair.
“What the fuck’s going on here?” Ray sputtered.
“You, big brother, are going to be going away for a very long time. If you want to get any consideration from the government then you’d better do exactly as I tell you to.” For the first time in her life, Kianna felt sorry for her brother. As sick and twisted as he was, she would always wonder that, if he’d been given a loving home to grow up in, would he have turned out so horribly?
“If I don’t bring you back to my boss, it won’t matter what you do to me ‘cause he’ll kill me,” Ray wheezed out
.
Sammy leaned over and spoke softly in Ray’s ear, “Your boss isn’t going to be able to hurt anyone after tonight, Ray. He made a big mistake in thinking he could come in a take over our town. And you, you should have known there was more to what they wanted than just a landing strip.”
“I swear that’s all they asked me to do. They just wanted to be able to keep flying their shipment in and out of here,” Ray said, his eyes wild with the knowledge that he had been duped.
“You need to give us some information, Ray, if you ever expect to see the light of day again.” Kianna leaned forward and gently tapped on his wounded arm. As she watched him cower in pain, she felt almost sick to her stomach.
“I’ll get you fixed up first, big brother, and then you and I are going to have a very long talk.” She went and grabbed the first aid kit she knew Bubba had always kept on hand. He didn’t like having to pay for doctors, so if a bone got broken, he fixed it at home.
Sitting facing Ray, she noticed how he cowered away from her now. She didn’t like that feeling. Gently lifting his arm, she and Sammy splinted it as best they could until they could get him into the hospital. Jeff made a sling and gingerly helped him rest his arm inside it.
“Why are you being so nice to me?” Ray asked quietly.
“I’m not like you, Ray. I was lucky enough to get away before you and Bubba either killed me or broke my spirit. You weren’t as lucky. Bubba broke you a long time ago, and I’m not going to kick you while you’re down, no matter how much you deserve it.” Kianna stood and started a pot of coffee, grabbed a chocolate chip muffin, and set it in front of Ray.
“Eat, and we’ll talk and see just how deep you’re in all this shit.”
Ray looked up at her as if he’d never seen her before. Maybe he hadn’t. Maybe for the first time, he was actually seeing her for the strong woman that she had grown to be.
“Who are the men that you are involved with? And what exactly have they asked you to do?” Jeff sat down across from Ray. Kianna could almost feel the anger coming off of her dad. She’d always known him to be able to control himself in any situation, but she knew he had to exercise all his control not to reach across the table and rip Ray’s throat out. Sammy wasn’t much better, but he made sure he stayed far enough away so his reach was too short.
“Their names are Eddie and Dante DeMarcos, and the big guy is their uncle, Salvatore. They partnered up with Bubba years ago, but when he died, he left them in the lurch, especially when he went and left the ranch to you. At first, I thought if I couldn’t get the ranch, I’d buy another place, and they could just fly in there, but Sal doesn’t like change and is insisting that he still wants to make the drops here. Then when he saw you last week, he decided that instead of killing you, he wanted to keep you, sorta, as a pet. He’d keep you until he got tired of you and then send you to some relatives of his overseas, and they’d sell you to the highest bidder. That’s if you lived long enough. Salvatore is real hard on his woman.”
Before she could stop him, Jeff was up and over the table and had his hands, claws extended, wrapped around Ray’s throat.
“Dad, you have to let him go, or you’re gonna kill him,” she cried, trying to pry his claws from around Ray’s throat.
“He doesn’t deserve to be alive, Kia. He’s like a rabid dog, and he needs to be put down.” Jeff’s voice was becoming more of a growl.
Suddenly, she realized what she needed to do.
“Dad…am I the mate of your alphas?” she asked.
“Yes, my daughter, you are their mate.” His eyes never left Ray’s.
“Then as your alpha’s mate, I order you to release Ray now.” She hated to have to pull rank, but Jeff was past the point of responding to anything other than pack law.
Slowly, she saw his claws recede back into his skin, and Jeff released Ray.
Breathing heavily trying to catch his breath, she knew Ray wanted to ask questions.
“You don’t want to know,” is all the answer she would give him.
* * * *
Teaghen, Duncan, and Alex shifted back into their wolf form and slowly made their way down from the forest hillside to the back deck of the motel.
Since the motel was virtually empty, they weren’t too worried about being seen by humans.
Quietly, they moved along the deck until they were outside the door of the room the three men were in.
Teaghen was aware that, once he shifted, knocked on the door, and they opened it, all hell would break loose. They had to make sure they got them secured quickly because they knew all the men had guns and neither he nor his two brothers wanted to be pulling bullets out of their backside later on.
Before Teaghen got a chance to knock, the door opened, and they went for it. The three men inside the room didn’t know what hit them, and by the time he and his brothers had shifted to human form, all three men were unconscious.
Teaghen tossed both his brothers a couple of T-shirts he found in one of the suitcases. He also found two pairs of jeans and a pair of shorts that they were able to pull on.
“Damn, Teaghen, I thought we were gonna be in big trouble when the door suddenly opened. I never thought, after getting all those pizzas, that they’d be able to move, let alone actually leave the room.” Alex couldn’t hold back the laughter in his voice.
“I think all those pizzas slowed them down some or else they are three of the sloppiest crooks I’ve ever seen. Not one of them had a gun close to him, and it looked like the big guy was gonna have a heart attack when he saw us coming through the door.” Teaghen was stunned at how sloppy they were.
Using the phone in the room, Teaghen called the ranch and told Sammy to send Tony and Duke to come and get them and to bring some clothes with them as well.
“How is Kianna holding up, Sammy?”
Sammy was quiet awhile and then said, “You need to see it to believe it, boss. Let’s just say you should be exceptionally proud of your mate. She knows how to handle herself in any situation, even ones that are quite unusual. But I’ll wait until you get here to fill you in.”
Teaghen hung the phone up.
* * * *
Alex, noticing the odd look of surprise on his brother’s face asked, “What’s up, Teag? Our mate’s all right, isn’t she?”
Alex would worry about her until the day he died. Their mate was headstrong and had probably gotten herself into all kinds of trouble.
“We’ll have to wait until we get back to the ranch, but from the sounds of it, our mate has done us proud.” Teaghen smiled, stepping over the body, which was now bound with rope right along with his two nephews.
Chapter 15
Kianna flew out of the door and into Alex’s arms the moment he got out of the truck. Tony and Duke had come to pick them up along with the three goons and take them back to the ranch.
“Oh, I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said, kissing him all over his face and neck.
“Hell, woman, what about us?” Teaghen said.
“Don’t you worry, baby. I wouldn’t forget any of you.” And she leapt into first Teaghen’s arms and then Duncan’s, giving them each the same kisses that she had bestowed on Alex.
Tony and Duke came around the truck snickering as they headed into the house.
Teaghen picked her up and placed her over his shoulder like a sack of spuds and headed into to kitchen.
“Put me down, you big oaf,” she screeched and laughed at the same time.
Teaghen smacked her ass before lowering her slowly against him, kissing her gently, and sitting her on the counter.
“Well, I see that Ray got some of what’s coming to him,” Alex said as he glared at the man sitting with his arm in a sling.
Tony stepped forward and was about to say something but was suddenly cut off by Jeff.
“I fucked up, alpha,” he said, with a grimace.
“What are you talking about, Jeff? You are one of my most loyal betas. What could you have done that is so bad?�
� Teaghen asked.
“I almost killed, Ray,” Jeff told him.
Teaghen looked at Ray and finally noticed the dark-red marks around his throat along with some very distinctive scratches.
“What do you mean, Jeff?” Alex stepped forward and placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder.
“We need to go into the living room to discuss this, I think, boss,” Sammy said and put his arm around his brother to take him to the next room.
They all followed, curious to find out why Jeff looked like he’d done something horrendous.
Once everyone was seated, Jeff told them exactly what happened. He explained that if it hadn’t been for Kianna’s directive, he would have killed Ray.
“He’s not telling you everything, Teaghen,” Duke, who was usually silent in all situations, spoke up.
“What he failed to mention was the reason he almost lost control of his wolf. Ray was rambling on about this Sal guy and told him exactly what kind of torture would be inflicted on your mate should he get a hold of her. Jeff’s wolf only responded to the threat to his daughter.”
“Is this correct, Sammy? Did you also lose control of your wolf?” Teaghen asked.
“Yes, it’s true, boss. And the only reason I didn’t lose control is because I was further away from him and was able to leave the room for a minute to compose myself. Had I not left, I might have done the exact same thing,” Sammy told them.
“So if Jeff lost control, why is Ray still alive? Stopping one of us when there is a threat to our family is very difficult and somewhat dangerous,” Alex said, looking between all the men.
Kianna and Her Three Alpha Wolves [Featherstone Pack] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) Page 17
