by T. A. Grey
He took her. He took my mate.
Those were the only two thoughts running rampant as he ran toward the woods. If Will had taken her, then he wouldn’t do it publically. Will would take her through the woods to hide her better. She must have fought. Not even twenty yards out, he found Dan Knight, one of the pack lieutenants behind the shed of his house. He’d been hit with a crowbar over the back of his head, and the wound still oozed with blood.
Gavin knelt down and called Jo. He made the orders then hung up before his brother played twenty questions.
Growling, Gavin threw the crowbar away from Dan.
How could he do this? How could he hurt innocent people? Will was only nineteen years old. He wasn’t a violent kid.
“Help will be here soon,” he promised Dan.
But he couldn’t wait around. Not when his mate was out there in the hands of a psycho.
Gavin raced into the woods, eyes scanning for broken branches, blood, a lock of her hair, anything. He sucked in swift breaths of air to try to catch their scent, but it had vanished just like she had.
Still, he kept searching. He wouldn’t give up. Refused to.
Something dark and ugly had taken hold of him and he knew that if he found Will, he’d kill him. He would not be able to control himself.
Jo’s scent closed in on him and then others. He recognized their faces. Pack lieutenants, family, even his sisters. He spun around in a circle.
“He took her.”
“Who took her?” someone asked.
“Will. He took her.”
“No, it can’t be. Are you certain?”
His eyes leveled on the lieutenant who dared to speak against him. He was in full alpha mode and the man lowered his eyes, muttering an apology.
“Find her. I want him alive.”
The team set off like a pack of bloodhounds on a scent. Gavin did too. One way or another, he was going to find Alicia and bring her home.
Will, on the other hand, had better say his prayers.
CHAPTER 23
Someone’s incessant cursing roused Alicia from sleep. She’d been dreaming of terrible things, one after the other. The first was a replay of the car accident nightmare she’d had, but that dream had morphed into one much more terrifying. She’d been running from a masked killer in Gavin’s home. No matter how hard she fought, kicked, or screamed he was always one step ahead of her. At the end, he caught her.
As her eyes fluttered open, she realized while her nightmares had been scary, reality was much worse. The masked man, Will MacKellen, paced an agitated path, his hands burrowing through his shaggy hair. Cursing and mumbling, the boy made no sense.
Alicia restrained her movements so he wouldn’t notice she was awake. She took stock of her fingers and toes, her face and body. In doing so, she found her hands tied behind her back with rope. The binding was too tight so that even the slightest movement made the rope cut into her skin, pinching it. So much for being poor at tying knots. Apparently Will had been practicing.
Her stomach throbbed from where she’d been kicked but aside from that there was no other noticeable damage to her stomach. Her face, well, that was a whole different matter. Not only did it hurt to blink but the skin felt tight and pinched near her eye and swollen and puffy on the crest of her cheek. Her eye only opened partway and she knew it would look bad when she saw it—if she ever saw it.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” His eyes were wide with panic. His sleeves were pushed up to his elbows and she saw red scratch lines running down his arms. Sweat matted his hair back from his brow. Some drops even ran down his temple to splash on the ground.
Alicia knew the signs of freaking out when she saw it. And Will was freaking the fuck out. As he should be. After what he did, this couldn’t bode well for him. Even she knew Gavin well enough to know he’d want blood for taking her.
She took stock of her environment. Maybe while he was panicking she could make a move. Peering around her, she saw they were in a dilapidated building. Or at least that’s what it looked like. An old warehouse of some kind.
It smelled of rancid water, mildew, and rusted metal. It was dark, but light filtered in from a cave-in in the ceiling. Orange and yellow rust had eaten away at the metal roof creating little areas of light to filter through. Puddles of dirty water, probably the host to that foul odor, lay directly under those gaps.
Massive steel beams held the sagging roof up. Crumpled cardboard boxes sat against a wall. Cigarette butts littered the ground. She could hear the wind stirring outside, pressing against the metal walls. This place looked like a warehouse where a machine shop or something similar might once have been. She might know more about the location if she’d grown up in Oregon. Just her luck, she was states away from a recognizable town. She struggled to think how far away from the MacKellen pack they could she be. God, she hoped not far.
They had to be out of the territory though. There were no run-down warehouses in pack territory. Had he gotten her into a car and driven her here? They could be close to the pack or very far. She couldn’t really tell by the amount of light coming through to say what time of day it was.
Realizing he’d been quiet for several seconds, Alicia carefully looked over her shoulder. Will MacKellen stared straight at her, eyes cold as night.
“You shouldn’t have fought. I didn’t want to hurt you. Now he ain’t never gonna forgive me.”
Moving slowly, she sat up in the most comfortable position she could manage. “What makes you think he’d forgive you anyway? If you hadn’t hit me?”
His jaw tilted up into an arrogant angle. “He doesn’t like to hit women. Neither do I. That’s why I told you to put the knife down. But you wouldn’t.”
Taking a deep breath, she went into calm mode. “I’m sure if we go back, I can explain that everything’s fine. He’ll understand.”
He let out a high-pitched laugh. “Understand? Are you stupid or somethin’? He isn’t going to understand shit. I took his woman.”
“Why, Will? Why’d you do it?” she asked gently.
He rubbed his arms. “Just shut up. It’s not even about you.”
Then it hit her. The attack today, the poison, the car accident. “It was all you, wasn’t it?”
His eyes darted over her, never lingering, as if he couldn’t stand to look at his own handwork. “Huh?”
“You’re the one in that car that hit me and Jo and, and, you work at the butcher. You poisoned the meat for Gavin and me. Why? Why on earth have you done all this? Why do you want to kill me?”
His fingers stabbed through his hair. “I don’t want you dead. I want you gone!” he screamed, face flashing red.
“Why would you want that?”
“Shut the fuck up.” He panted, pacing in restless jerks. She knew she was cornering him.
So she stood and carefully stepped closer. “Why do you want me gone, Will? I haven’t been anything but nice to you. Maybe I never baked you cookies, but I never did anything to hurt you.”
“SHUT THE FUCK UP!”
His words echoed throughout the warehouse in one long wave. And then silence. She took several steps back, discretely looking for an exit. She saw one but it was behind him and far down the lot. With her hands tied behind her back, she wasn’t sure how far she could get before he caught her. She bit her lip as she contemplated it.
“I’m sorry,” he said, sounding hysterical. “I didn’t mean to yell. I just…everything’s fucked up right now, okay.”
“It’s okay. No harm, no foul.”
He eyed her tiredly. “Yeah.”
She tried to reach him another way, show him that it wasn’t too late. “You know…Gavin went looking for you last night. I insisted on going out with him. I love him and I’ve decided to mate with him, if he’ll have me. We searched every inch of the pack for you. He blames himself.”
“Blames himself? He fuckin’ should. That alpha position was mine. He swore he wasn’t going to participate in the challenge. He�
��s a fuckin’ liar. I told everyone I was goin’ to do it, and then he humiliated me. Everyone was there. Everyone saw him push me away and claim my place. Do you have any idea what it’s like to see everyone’s pitying eyes when they look at you? They look at me like I’m some kind of weakling now. No one even wants to talk to me. Especially the girls. They see me as weak now. And it’s all because of him.”
“Gavin’s sorry and he feels guilty for all of it, as he should, like you said. But he loves you, Will. You’re his younger brother and as the eldest he can’t help but feel protective of you. You seem to be very protective, so can’t you try to see how it was impossible for him to let you do that.”
“Nah, nah, what he did was wrong. He needs to let me be a man,” he said.
“Let me ask you something honestly. Do you really think you could have beaten Marcus?”
Will pulled something out of his waistband. Her mouth went dry. It was a knife. He twirled it, catching it by the handle. The kid worked at a butcher’s shop. All she could think was how smoothly he wielded that blade. He had lots of experience.
“You think you got it all figured out. You don’t know shit. See, I’m good with a blade. Real good. I was gonna slip one between Marcus’ ribs as soon as he got on me. I’d slip the blade away again and no one would know the difference. I would have won! But after that shit Gavin pulled…Marcus and I were both angry. We were both wronged on different levels.”
Alicia froze and took a step back, her eyes watching that blade. “What happened then?”
“The whole pack was shit-faced. Even Marcus and I were. We got together and followed Gavin home. Surprised him. Conked him so he wouldn’t come to, and well…” He scrubbed a hand over his face and pressed his palms into his eye sockets. “Well, I let Marcus cut up his face. He said it was payback, a brand, his mark to be permanently left on Gavin. I wanted it. I wanted to see him squirm in pain. He did too, even when he was unconscious. His body jerked and his face scrunched up as Marcus poured salt on it. I let him use my knife.”
The last part he added softly, his eyes watering and tears beginning to flow down his face. “I couldn’t take it back. Couldn’t. Just handed it to him and he started doin’ it. I didn’t know what to say. I had no idea it’d come down to that. I just thought…we’d beat him up…take some anger out on him for what he did.” At that revelation he fell to his knees and started to sob. Great, wracking sobs that shook his entire body.
Alicia seized her chance at escape and sprinted passed him. With her hands tied behind her back the action felt clumsy. Barely a moment later she heard his curse and then booming steps pounded after her. She screamed as she pushed her legs harder. A solid body barreled into her, slamming her to the ground.
Will grabbed her by the hair and started backing her up, his breaths coming hard.
A pained scream tore from her throat as she scrambled to step in time with him. “Stop, stop it!”
“I can’t even trust you,” he said, disgusted.
“Yes, you can, but I just want to go home.”
He dragged her past where they’d been and further into the warehouse, all by her hair. Much farther from her exit. “Home…home. You know, that’s where I’ve been trying to send you this whole time and now you want to go?”
“Yes, I just want to go back to Gavin, please,” she said, her voice breaking into incoherent sobs. The hair in his grip snapped and pulled like yanking grass out of the ground.
“No, no, no! You said you want to go home. And that’s where I want you to go to. Your home isn’t here with us. Your home’s back in your own damned pack.”
She cried softly. “I don’t understand.”
“He needs to hurt for what he did,” he said, crying as well. “For every time they look at me like I’m something to be ashamed of, something to look away from. And I’m gonna make him hurt through you. I saw all that fight in you. Why couldn’t you have just left? That would made this so much easier. He’d be hurtin’ and I wouldn’t have to do this.”
She struggled to fight through the terror gripping her. “I wanted to leave at first, but then I grew to love him.”
He shook her head, wringing a cry from her. “Well you didn’t leave, and now this has been so much harder than I thought it would be. Doesn’t matter. You’re gonna go, one way or the other. He’ll suffer. He’ll feel it then, understand what it’s like.” He was sobbing now with abandon, sniffling from snot.
Sweating with cold fear, Alicia eyes darted all around the warehouse. “W-what do you mean?” For the first time since he’d taken her she knew…he’d kill her right here in this dank warehouse. Tears streamed freely down her face.
A metal boom echoed as he jerked, doing something she couldn’t see. She twisted her head around to try to get a look but he held her tight by her hair. Then something gave way and a metallic sound rang, like spinning a quarter on a smooth surface…only much louder and much bigger. It reminded her…of a sewer grate.
“No! No! No! Don’t do this, Will!” She pulled hard against him, hair tearing in his grasp.
It worked and she broke away, scrambling forward and landing on her knees, crying hysterically. She clumsily stood up and started to run, but he got to her. Wrapping her in a bear hug, he dragged her backward screaming and kicking. She was a fighter but he was the grim reaper sent to put her down. No matter how hard she fought, she was going to lose this battle.
And then they struggled over a black hole in the ground. He pushed and kicked at her, trying to push her in and she fought back. But then, he cheated. One solid punch landed across her already swollen cheek. Pain exploded across her face, stunning her with its power. Everything went foggy. She couldn’t even hold her neck up. Her body sagged.
And then he dropped her into the hole like a sack of trash into a garbage can.
She fell for several breathless seconds before landing in something wet and gooey…something soft. It smelled like earth and stale water. Eyes watering, she squinted up at the hole. The light looked remarkably bright behind his tear-streaked face.
“I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” He kept saying it, like a record on repeat. He kept saying it even as he grabbed the lid to the hole and entombed her.
The light vanished save for a tiny circle in the center of the metal lid. She screamed his name, begged and pleaded and made promises she couldn’t possibly ever hold. And still, there was no answer. No one was there. He’d left her alone in this cold, wet place to die.
She screamed and screamed until her voice turned hoarse. But no one heard her. No one came.
As that tiny light above grew dimmer and dimmer, she fought to free her hands from the binds. The rope was too tight. There was nothing she could do. Her fingertips bled from scratches. Foul-smelling muck covered her hands and clothes.
She’d couldn’t reach the grate so many feet above her head even if she had use of her arms.
Will had placed her in the grave where she’d die.
CHAPTER 24
Twenty hours.
Twenty of the longest hours of his whole fucking life. Alicia had been taken yesterday around 3:30 in the afternoon. Gavin had never been a failure in his life—until now. He couldn’t find her.
Will was still missing. Every available man and woman was searching. They’d long since extended their search outside of the pack into neighboring human areas. No one could find a trace of their scents. Nothing.
It’s like she’d disappeared.
“Why don’t you go back to the house and get some rest, big brother?”
Gavin blinked at Kaity’s request. She didn’t understand. None of them did, except for Hanna. None of them had mates, were in love and had their cherished one taken from them in a violent act. Not one of them.
And Kaity wanted him to go home…to sleep. It took every ounce of willpower inside of him not to scream at her about her stupidity. His hands curled into fists and he clenched them to keep from roaring at her. It wasn’t her fault. She didn’t und
erstand.
So he said nothing and eventually she walked away, leaving him alone. It was so hard to think when everyone was in his face every other minute asking him questions: have you searched here or what about here? Have you eaten anything? Here, eat this.
He wanted to scream at them and lash out but he knew that was just the agony talking. The pain inside him needed an outlet and it took every ounce of his strength not give it an easy out.
Gavin stood in a rush. He needed to move, couldn’t sit still for long. Not when she was out there. His fist clenched until bones snapped and popped.
The situation was made uglier by the fact his own little brother had taken her. This whole time he found himself asking what would he do once he found Will? He could administer pack justice or send him over to the Justicars where he’d likely be found guilty of attempted murders and sent to rot behind bars with other lykaens and vampires.
Could he really do that to his own blood? To the boy he’d watch grow from smiling chubby cheeks into a tall, grinning young man?
He knew the answer which only further cemented his tension. The only question left was: would he administer pack justice or send him to the Justicars? No doubt about it, Will would pay for this. And it would hurt them both.
An idea skittered through his brain. A small thought, one that would probably lead nowhere. Ignoring the looks people gave him, he headed down the hall of the main office building and into the cellar to the jailhouse. The two Graham brothers looked up at him from their separate cells.
Gavin cracked his neck with a cock of his head. “One of you is gonna talk right now. I’ll let you choose who it is.”
They exchanged tense glances. Marcus stood, his handcuffed wrists making the action clumsy. “I’ll talk.”
Gavin’s grin looked like the devil’s. “Harry it is.”
The men had only a moment to panic before Gavin entered Harry’s cell. He grabbed the man’s wrist then linked the cuffs up to a chain that held him in place against the wall.
