***
Five minutes later Sam caught up with Nicole. She woofed as she approached. Nicole stopped running and looked over her shoulder.
“Sam?”
Sam woofed again.
“Decided to run?”
Sam growled, curling up her lips. She knew what Nicole was insinuating.
Nicole laughed. “Come on, sis. Let’s go.” She spun on her heels and jumped back into a ground-eating pace. Even on four legs, Sam had to work to keep up with Nicole’s stride.
She was so sick of running, but this mating hung over her head like a shroud. Since high school she’d tried to evade her parents’ questions about a mate. She’d thrown herself into medical school hoping to land an internship in another country and just magically disappear into the jungle somewhere so she could have her own life. Now here she was. The hunt was tonight, and she had a one-in-four shot at a seminormal life—as normal as a werewolf’s life could ever really be. Mostly she just wanted a mate who would see her as a partner and not just an asset that gave him a higher seat on the noble council.
Chapter Seven
“Samantha!” Renata Demakis shouted out the door Sam had disappeared through. “Samantha! Come back this instant.”
Chase sighed and hung back while the other three males left the kitchen. He followed them quietly to the dining room, surprised when they disappeared quickly around a corner.
He walked through the large opening. Without warning, their steel fingers gripped both his arms, twisting them back. Freak’n hell! The men shoved him against a wall and the blond stalked up to his face. Chase growled. A fist flew out, striking hard against his side. The air whooshed out of his lungs and he coughed.
Another hit and another rained down on his face and chest. The sickening crack of a rib sent blinding pain through his body. He twisted against the two men holding him, but they only pressed him harder against the wall. Shit!
A well-aimed punch to the face had busted open his brow, and warm blood flowed down over his eyes, blurring his vision.
“You don’t belong here, outsider. Demakis blood belongs to the nobility. You are nothing,” one of the men hissed into his ear.
Through the confusion he caught sight of Renata Demakis standing across the room.
Goddamned bitch is just watching! Smiling?
“Leave Samantha to her own kind,” the blond added. “She’ll be better off without you.”
“You’re a fucking idiot.” Chase coughed and spit blood onto the marble floor. “I’m not leaving her. You’ll have to kill me.”
“That will happen tonight if you show up for the hunt.”
“I have the same right to fight for her that you do.” Chase snarled and struggled again against the two men. They didn’t relent. Fighting them tonight was not going to be a walk in the park. They might not be soldiers, but they were strong.
Two young female voices echoed through the dining room. “Mom!” They sounded familiar. The twins. “Make them stop. Sam is going to go ballistic!”
“Go back to your rooms. This will be over soon.”
“Fuck that!” the twins shouted together.
Footsteps thudded closer on the hardwood floor. “You are all fucking stupid assholes!” one of the twins yelled.
Chase squinted through the blood. Sam’s little sister Hallie was making a stand. Her voice was as cold as the business end of a sniper rifle.
“She might have given you a chance tonight if you’d won fair and square, but you are all seriously fucked now. She’ll kill you…slowly.”
“Go back to your room, little girl. Your mother already told you to leave.” Henry loomed over Hallie, but the young spitfire stood her ground.
She lowered her voice to a whisper. “You touch a hair on my head and my father will castrate you and then slice you into little pieces.”
Henry stopped moving.
Chase laughed and then coughed. God, everything hurt.
“Let. Him. Go.” She lowered her voice even more.
Blood rushed back into his arms when the two men released their hold. He clutched his side. Henry had broken at least one of his ribs. Chase sunk to the floor as the three men moved off and followed Sam’s mother out of the dining room.
“Tess!” Hallie called to her sister.
More footsteps approached. Chase tried to look up, but both eyes were swollen shut. The twins small hands feathered across his face. Whimpers of empathy and hisses of anger followed most of their movements.
“Come on, let’s get you up to your room,” Hallie coaxed and lifted one of his arms around her shoulder. Her sister mirrored, and with one twin under each arm he managed to stand again.
“You shouldn’t have interfered, girls,” he whispered.
“Hogwash! Mom was interfering. She put them up to it. Plus, they wouldn’t have ever touched me.”
“We felt the house shudder when they slammed you against the wall and knew it was either Mom and Sam at it again or Mom had gotten the boys to gang up on you,” Tess added.
“Mom would never have tried this if Dad hadn’t gone back to the casino last night to deal with a security issue,” said Hallie.
They worked together fluidly to guide him up the grand staircase. Despite their small frames, their werewolf DNA made the twins exceptionally strong. They weren’t even breathing hard by the time they deposited him onto the bed in his guest room.
He reached out and grabbed Hallie’s wrist. “Don’t let Sam do anything stupid. I’ll be fine by tonight. I just need to rest.”
“Sure you will G.I. Joe.” Hallie patted his hand, trying to reassure him. “We’ll keep an eye on her.”
“Nicole won’t let her do anything, Chase,” Tess added.
A faucet turned on across the room, and moments later a cool washcloth bathed his face. He winced when it touched the open cut on his forehead.
“Thank you.”
“You’re welcome, big guy. Just be sure to win tonight, okay? If you don’t, we’ll never see Sam again,” said Hallie.
Her resolute sigh sounded so defeated. Chase opened his eyes and looked up into the faces of two very concerned sisters. “Why do you say that?” he asked.
“She’ll run.” They answered together.
***
Sam trotted behind Nicole to the kitchen door, her padded feet silent on the sidewalk. She caught her clothes in her mouth from the ground and waited. She wasn’t getting naked on the front lawn again.
Nicole grinned and opened the door.
The scent of blood assailed her nostrils.
Chase’s blood! What have they done?
She dropped her clothes and scurried between Nicole’s legs, tearing through the kitchen to the dining room. The floor had been cleaned and bleached, but the scent still remained.
Her angry snarl silenced the room. She turned to the table. The three men sat silently alongside her mother, who was seated at the head of the table.
No Chase.
“He could be upstairs.”
Sure.
Renata took a sip from her glass and met Sam’s gaze.
“Why are you playing wolf in the house? You know I don’t like the shedding.”
Sam barked and then magic rippled across her body.
“You must really hate me!” she screamed and walked toward her mother. “Why? Because I don’t want to be like you? I don’t get it, Mom.” She whirled to face the three open-mouthed men. “I hope you’re happy with yourselves for acting like a pack of hyenas!”
Hurt and embarrassment registered on their faces. Good!
All three were unsuccessfully attempting to avert their eyes. It finally dawned on Sam that she was standing in the middle of the dining room buck naked. Well, damn. Her hand fisted and she snarled again. “You can all go to hell tonight.”
“Samantha. Go to your room.” Sam sucked in a breath. Her father’s voice echoed through doorway behind her. She nodded her head and hurried out, having no desire to stay in his pre
sence, especially in her current state of undress.
She nearly collided with Nicole as she dashed around the corner to the stairwell. “Crap, Nicole!”
Nicole grabbed her hand and pulled her up the stairs. “Way to go, sis. You shed in the house and flashed the entire family, including the contenders for your hunt. Chase is going to be pissed he missed it.”
“Where is Chase?”
“In his room.” Nicole pushed her into her bedroom and then closed the door behind them both. “Find some clothes. I’m tired of looking at your boobs.”
Sam scoffed. She stepped into her closet and found a red sports bra top and another pair of yoga pants. “Better?” She asked as she emerged from the walk-in.
Her sister nodded. “Come on. We need to check on Chase. Hallie texted that he’s awake.”
“The twins are with him?”
Nicole grunted. “They didn’t want to chance the boys ganging up on him again. Apparently they did a pretty good number on him.”
“Freak’n assholes.”
“I agree. I kinda thought they were nice to start off, but now I’m totally with you. They can all go to hell.”
Sam ran down the maze of hallways to the guest wing. She opened the door of the guest room her father had given Chase and slipped inside with Nicole.
Her breath caught in her throat at the sight of Chase’s swollen face. “I’ll kill them.” She whirled to plow back down the hallway, but Nicole snaked an arm around her waist, halting her progress. “Let go!”
“Sis. You can’t make this better by attacking them.”
“The hell I can’t.” Sam screamed. “They were just going to kill him.” Tears burned in her eyes, and she struggled against her sister’s firm hold. Tess and Hallie came forward and helped Nicole drag her to the couch on the far side of the room. Sobs shook her body, leaving her gasping for air.
I’ll leave.
“No you won’t.”
I will! I’ll just disappear into some third world country and be a doctor.
“What about Chase?”
It’s not fair. I told you it wasn’t fair to involve him!
“He’s our mate, Samantha Talia Demakis. He will fight for us.”
And if he dies?
“Then we can leave.”
A fresh onslaught of tears poured from her eyes. How could her wolf expect her to go on if Chase died? She felt the pull to be near him when he was close. What would it feel like to be mated? What would it feel like to lose that connection?
“I can’t!” she spoke aloud.
“Sam.” His gravelly voice carried across the room, silencing her sobs.
She relaxed almost instantly, and her sisters released her.
“Chase, I’m so sorry.” Sam bounded across the room and climbed up next to him on the bed. One of his eyes was completely swollen shut. The other wasn’t much better. A large cut flamed across the middle of his forehead. His jaw was swathed in ugly purple bruises, and his bottom lip was swollen and busted.
He reached up and brushed his fingertips along her cheek. She closed her eyes and inhaled his scent. The nearness of his body soothed her anger like a healing salve. It would be so hard to leave him, but it was the right choice.
His fingers came together cupped her face. She gripped his hand and leaned into the caress, kissing his palm.
“Shhhh. Sam, I’m going to be fine.” He took a deep breath. “I’ll be sore tonight, but I’ve been worse.”
“I can’t believe they attacked you in the house. I never would have—”
“Sam.”
She could barely see his eyes, but his voice calmed her frayed nerves. How was he so calm? Why wasn’t he flipping out? “It’s my fault.”
“No. It’s their fault, not yours. They chose to behave dishonorably.”
“I should never have asked this of you.” She hung her head, and warm tears ran again down her cheeks.
“You were meant to be mine. I would die for you, Sam.”
“That’s just it!” Sam wailed. “I don’t want you to die for me.”
“Sam!” he bellowed through an unpleasant cough.
Sam flew from the bed and made it to the door before her sisters could block her. She tore down the hall, tears blinding her. Her younger sisters called out from the doorway. She was comforted knowing they would stay with Chase. Nicole’s footsteps thudded down the hall, coming closer each second. A quick sleeve across the face cleared her vision, and she turned.
“I’m leaving, Nicole. I can’t stay and watch them kill him.”
“You can’t go, Sammi.” Tears poured from her sister’s eyes. Mascara ran, leaving dark sorrowful trails along Nicole’s pale cheeks. Sam knew her own face bore the same marks. “If you go, we’ll never see you again. You’ll be banished. Sammi, don’t leave us.” Nicole’s pleading tore her heart. She hadn’t heard her sister call her Sammi in a very long time.
“I can’t watch him die, Nicole. They’ll kill him tonight. You know they will.”
“You can’t be sure.”
“Look what they did this morning. In our own house! In the presence of our mother!”
Nicole sobbed. “I don’t want to lose you.”
“I know.”
The sound of a door slamming caught Sam’s attention. Booted footsteps advanced up the front stairs.
Nicole’s eyes widened. “Hurry. Use the kitchen stairs.”
Sam hugged Nicole and then fled down the back hallway. She paused for a second above the stairwell and listened. Nothing. One foot at a time, she descended silently and crept across the kitchen to the back door. If she could get to the garage without anyone seeing her, escape might be possible.
Sam closed the kitchen door gently behind her. She whirled to run and slammed into a hard body. A quick step backward trapped her against the door. Brendan, her father’s bodyguard, loomed above her.
She dodged his first lunge, but a second attempt to slither past him ended with his arms wrapped tightly around her waist.
“Brendan! Let me go!”
“Sorry, Miss Samantha. Your father gave me strict instructions, and letting you go was not one of them.”
Sam kicked and squirmed, but his steely grip only tightened. She didn’t have a chance against a wolf of Brendan’s age or skill. “I have to go. Brendan, I have to go. Let me go.”
Her father’s voice bellowed across the driveway. “No.”
Brendan turned. Sam shuddered at the hateful look darkening her father’s face. He pulled a syringe from his pocket.
No fucking way!
Chapter Eight
Chase groaned. His body ached like it had been hit by a Humvee. The ribs felt better though, and all the superficial cuts were healed over.
“You have to get up now. We waited as long as we could to wake you.”
He glanced up and saw both twins standing at the foot of the guest bed. Their faces were grim.
“Where’s Sam?”
“The ceremony is about to start. We have to get you downstairs,” Hallie stated.
It irked him that she ignored his question. “Where’s Sam?” he asked again.
“She will be there,” Tess answered as she walked to the side of the bed.
Chase took Tess’s offered arm and stood, grinding his teeth through the pain.
“How are your ribs? Have you healed enough?” asked Tess.
“I’ll be fine. Let’s just get going.” He straightened, stretched, and followed the twins out of the bedroom and down the hall to the left. A few minutes later they emerged into the large kitchen. Instead of going out the back door to the garages, the girls led him through several rooms to the main living area and out onto a candlelit patio.
The three other males looked particularly irritated with his presence, but Chase didn’t give a fuck what they thought.
Thought a few punches could knock me out of the game, did you? Freak’n assholes. Just wait till I get my teeth in you.
“Correction. Our t
eeth.”
Chase chuckled. Yes, our teeth.
“Mr. Michaels. I—” Sam’s father turned away from Chase and snarled at the other three men. All three cringed. “You dared to attack a guest in my home?” His voice boomed across the patio, as loud as any drill sergeant Chase had ever met. “Are you trying to get sent home in disgrace? My daughter would be thrilled to have this hunt canceled. She doesn’t want any of you. After seeing your handiwork, I’m not so sure I do either.”
“Mr. Demakis we—”
“Save it.” Sam’s father hissed at the male named Henry who had attempted to speak.
Henry was the one Chase wanted to have major words with also. The asshole hadn’t been willing to fight him like a man. He’d had the other two hold his arms behind his back.
“Calm down,” his wolf whispered. “We have to focus on the hunt.”
I know.
“Good.”
“Will you still be participating in the hunt, Mr. Michaels?”
“Yes, sir.” Chase stepped up to stand with the three other men. His neck prickled, and he ground his teeth as the urge to tear them limb from limb coursed through his body.
“Very good.”
A door latch clicked behind him. Chase turned and held his breath. Sam walked slowly behind her mother. Nicole was holding one of her arms, steadying her. Sam’s face was streaked with tears. He met her mother’s dark glare and held his head high.
This family had major issues. But didn’t everybody?
Renata smiled and shook her head, tossing her long brown hair over her shoulder. He could only imagine the pathetic picture he was projecting right now. A passing glance in the living room mirror had said it all. Even though his body was healing rapidly, his face still showed every ugly purple welt and bruise. Tough shit. He’d been through worse than this in the army. He flashed a subtle smile in Renata’s direction and was quite satisfied with her irritated scoff.
Chasing Sam: Vegas Mates Book 1 Page 6
