Forbidden Claim

by R. L. Kenderson

  “You’ll have to call her now, so she’ll know you’re here.”

  “Oh. Yeah, yeah.” Bram turned and walked away.

  “Sir, is your name Bram?”

  A sense of trepidation came over Bram. He pivoted on his heel. “Yes, it is.”

  “I just saw a note in the computer. Someone left a letter for you. I’ll be right back.” She walked into an office and came back a minute later with an envelope. She showed him the front. “Is this you?”

  He nodded.

  She smiled. “It looks like she knew you were coming after all.”

  Bram wanted to rip the envelope from her hand but restrained himself from making a scene.

  “Good luck, sir,” the female said as she handed it over.

  Bram wasn’t even listening anymore.

  He tore open the envelope as he walked outside to find Larry and Stan.

  He reached them as he pulled out the note inside.

  BRAM—

  IF YOU’RE READING THIS, YOU’RE TOO LATE.

  ISABELLE WANTS NOTHING TO DO WITH YOU. SHE HAS FOUND A GOOD MATE. THEY WERE MARRIED IN VEGAS, AND SHE MIGHT NOW BE PREGNANT WITH HIS CHILD.

  I’M SORRY YOU CAME ALL THE WAY TO LAS VEGAS TO FIND ISABELLE, BUT SHE DOESN’T WANT TO BE FOUND. NOT BY YOU.

  I AM GIVING YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO LEAVE MINNESOTA. YOU NEED TO STAY AWAY FROM MINNEAPOLIS-ST. PAUL MOST OF ALL. IF YOU MAKE YOUR PRESENCE KNOWN, YOU WILL BE TRIED AND PROSECUTED FOR YOUR BEATING OF ISABELLE RAND AND THE HIT-AND-RUN YOU MADE ON HUNTER ESMUND.

  THESE ACTIONS WOULD NOT NORMALLY UNPUNISHED, BUT IF YOU STAY AWAY, WE HAVE ALL AGREED TO TAKE NO FURTHER ACTION TOWARD YOU.

  PLEASE CONSIDER THIS YOUR LAST WARNING.

  —DAMIEN LOWELL

  MINNESOTA PACK ALPHA

  Bram crumpled up the note in his fist, wishing it were Damien Lowell’s head.

  “Ahh!” he screamed out in anger.

  Larry and Stan exchanged looks.

  “Uh…boss? People are looking at you,” Stan said.

  “I don’t fucking care,” he said and slammed the letter on Stan’s chest.

  While Stan and then Larry read it, Bram paced back and forth.

  “What are you going to do?” Larry asked.

  “I don’t know exactly. But I know I need to make them pay.” He stopped and looked at Stan and Larry. “That fucking bitch let some other male service her during her heat.” He jammed his pointer finger into his own chest. “That was my heat to service. She’s my bitch to take. I’m going to kill the motherfucker who put his hands on her. She’s supposed to be pregnant with my baby, so I could take her back to my father.” Bram punched the wall and screamed, “She’s ruined everything!”

  “Boss, I think we should get out of here before someone calls the police,” Stan suggested.

  “Fine.”

  The three walked away from the hotel to find a cab.

  “So, where are we going to go, boss?” Larry asked.

  “Minneapolis.”

  Larry and Stan stopped walking.

  “Uh…but you were just told not to go there. What if they kill you?” Stan replied.

  Bram stopped and turned around. He smiled. “They’re not going to kill me because I’m going to kill them first.” After I cut that fucker’s offspring from that cheating cunt’s belly. Bram would make the guy watch, too. Then, he’d slit the fucker’s throat and fuck Isabelle while her mate bled all over them.

  No one—no one—told Bram Varg what to do. Not even his father.

  Damien Lowell was going to wish he’d never set eyes on Bram because he was going to kill him, his mate, and all his sentinels. It was just too bad the alpha wouldn’t be alive to learn his lesson.

  “DO YOU THINK Bram will stay away?” Isabelle asked Zane.

  He snorted. “Hell no. A guy like that has an ego the size of Europe. There is no way he’s walking away with his tail between his legs. And Damien knows it. The only reason he told Bram that he’d be free if he left Minnesota was because Damien knows Bram won’t do it.” He grabbed her hand. “Does that disappoint you?”

  “To be honest, yes, and no. If I never had to see him again, that would be wonderful. No one would get hurt—more than they already have. But, if he was out there, I’d always wonder if he’d show up out of the blue.” She rubbed her swollen belly. “What if he took my kids out of revenge?”

  Zane squeezed her hand. “I would never let that happen.”

  Isabelle turned and looked out the window of the Suburban. The sights of the Twin Cities passed by them, and she couldn’t help but feel anxious about Bram finding her. The last few days with her heat and being in Las Vegas, she’d felt safe in that little world even though they were just as vulnerable there—actually, more so. It just felt so much more real now that they were back.

  She sighed. If only she could go back and tell him no when he asked her out on a date. Then, none of them would be in this mess.

  “Hey,” Zane said, pulling her attention back to him. “We’ll be at the wolves’ place soon. Besides, there’s no way Bram has flown back yet.”

  Chase leaned forward, on the opposite side of Zane, and said, “Zane’s right. You’ll be safe at our place.”

  “Thanks, Chase.” She looked at Ranulf in the front passenger seat, and he nodded his agreement. She was a little surprised by this. The two males hadn’t hidden their displeasure at her arrival, but now, they seemed to have changed their minds. It felt good to know she had more support.

  “He’s right,” Quentin said from the driver’s seat. “Bram would be a fool to come after you with so many sentinels around.”

  She hoped so, but Bram wasn’t always rational when he was upset.

  A loud snore came from the backseat behind her, and Isabelle looked over her shoulder.

  Reid was leaning back against the seat with his arms spread out. Tegan had her head in his lap and was sleeping.

  “That’s Tegan’s way of saying she agrees,” Reid told her.

  Isabelle smiled at this and relaxed a little.

  When they pulled up to the wolves’ home, everything seemed normal. The outside porch light was on. Lights were on in the house. It didn’t look scary or intimidating or like someone was hiding and waiting for them.

  There were several vehicles in front of the house, telling her the house was full of shifters. Quentin had told them they were having a meeting with the cats, so right now, Isabelle felt extra safe.

  “Tegan, time to get up. We’re here,” Reid said.

  She rubbed her eyes and sat up. “I fell asleep?”

  “You needed it,” Isabelle told her. Isabelle was lucky that her heat had ended, and she’d gotten some sleep before they had to get on a plane.

  “Let’s go in,” Zane said.

  The group of them unloaded themselves from the big SUV and went into the house. Not only were the wolf-shifters and cat-shifters there, but so were some of the vampires, too. The same ones from the last meeting were present either because of their living situation or because of who they were mated to, but Isabelle still felt like they were staring at her.

  She tried to read their faces for outright signs of hate and loathing, but most were unreadable.

  The female vampire mated to the cat-shifter’s son smiled at Isabelle in sympathy.

  The large vampire with the yellow eyes straightened when he saw them. But not because of Isabelle. His eyes were on the couple behind her and Zane.

  When Reid reached them, he said, “Are we going to have a problem?” to the vampire.

  “Nope,” the vampire answered, and Tegan breathed a sigh of relief.

  Isabelle was curious about what that was all about, but it wasn’t any of her business, so she blocked out their conversation.

  She turned her attention to the rest of the group and searched for one person in particular.

  When she spotted Hunter, she immediately went to him. He was leaning against a wall with the leg in a cast crossed over his good le
g, which held all his weight.

  She gasped when she saw him, and Hunter turned to her.

  He’d been talking to someone else and smiling, but all Isabelle saw was the broken leg.

  “I’m so sorry,” she said and started to cry.

  She wasn’t normally one to cry so quickly, but she was emotionally drained, and her hormones were all over the place. Not to mention, she felt horrible about what Bram had done to the vampire.

  Hunter’s eyes widened at her tears, which only made her cry harder.

  She took a deep breath and tried to calm herself down. “Please, tell me if there is anything I can do to help you. It’s all my fault that you were injured. I’m the reason Bram came here.” She held out her wrist. “I know you need blood, and I would be more than happy to feed you.”

  Zane caught up to her then, wrapping an arm around her and growling.

  Hunter held up his hand. “Isabelle, I don’t blame you. It’s not your fault that this guy is an asshole.” He turned to Zane. “I don’t need to feed from her. I’m good, man.” He looked back at Isabelle. “Besides, that’s probably not wise in your condition.” He nodded to her belly where her shirt was fitted around the shape of it.

  Isabelle was about to tell him that she might not be pregnant when Zane spoke up first, “Isa, why don’t we leave the poor male alone?”

  Isabelle went from feeling guilty to annoyed. She turned and gave Zane a dirty look, but he was smiling. She looked back at Hunter, who was also smiling.

  “Isabelle, really, I’m fine. I was at the clinic for only half a day. I’m already recovering. I really don’t want you feeling guilty. That won’t help with my recovery. Okay?”

  She nodded. “Okay.”

  There was a sharp whistle through the crowd, and they all turned to see Damien clapping his hands to get their attention.

  “Welcome back, guys,” Damien said to the Las Vegas crew and waved his hands for them to come forward. “Mission accomplished? You got married?”

  Damien already knew all this, but Isabelle assumed he was asking to make sure everyone else was up-to-date.

  Isabelle and Zane held up their left ring fingers.

  “Congratulations, you two,” Vance said. “Lilith is ready to have a party whenever you are.”

  Damien looked down at Isabelle’s abdomen. “And it looks like another mission was accomplished.”

  “The first part. We’ll have to wait for the results though,” Zane said.

  The crowd laughed, and Isabelle’s face heated. She didn’t want everyone to know their personal business even though she understood why everyone needed to know. When Bram showed up, they couldn’t be blindsided by anything.

  Damien laughed at her red face and pulled her into a hug. “I’m happy for you, Izzy. You deserve a good mate. And I have to say, there is something special about being mated to a cat-shifter.” He looked over at his own mate and smiled.

  Damien let Isabelle go, and she looked at Zane. Damien’s words suddenly made her and Zane’s relationship a reality.

  She knew Zane cared about her. She knew Zane had wanted to mate with her. But did he really want long-term? They’d talked about this being a temporary thing from the beginning even if she ended up pregnant. But did Zane want forever? More importantly, did she want forever?

  Her relationship with Zane should be the least of her worries with Bram breathing down her neck, but again, her hormones were all over the place. Her wolf definitely saw him as hers. Truth be told, her wolf had formed an attachment to Zane’s cat from the beginning. That was why she’d run away, scared. She’d come to help Damien two years ago, not fall in love. It had scared her and made her panic. It had been easier to run away.

  But now…now, she was here with Zane. She was his mate—in shifter law and human law—but would they last? It’d happened so fast. Could they live with each other? Would they get on each other’s nerves?

  And they’d never talked about exclusivity. She was pretty sure that Zane hadn’t been celibate since she last saw him two years ago. Not that she’d expected him to. But would she be enough for him now?

  The thought of him fucking someone else the way he fucked her made her sick to her stomach. She couldn’t handle it. It would be almost worse than all the things Bram had done to her.

  And didn’t that just tell her how she felt about the cat-shifter?

  “Okay, everyone,” Damien said, breaking her out of her thoughts, “Vance and I have a plan to approach this Bram situation.” He looked at Lachlan. “What’s the status on our good friend Bram?”

  Lachlan was sitting on a chair behind Damien with a laptop. “It looks like he bought a ticket to Des Moines, Iowa,” Lachlan said, surprised.

  “He’s trying to throw us off his trail. He knows we tracked him to Vegas, so he knows we can track him back here. How long does it take to drive from Des Moines to here?”

  Lachlan punched in a few keys on his computer. “Four hours, give or take fifteen minutes to a half hour, depending on what route he takes.”

  “Okay, so he’ll be here in the middle of the night, which is prime attacking time. But, in case he decides to wait until morning, we’re going to be sleeping in shifts. We don’t want him waiting until we’re all tired before he strikes.”

  “So, what’s the plan?” Zane asked.

  “Pay attention because I don’t want any details missed or forgotten.”

  BRAM NEVER SHOWED up.

  Not that night or the next night either, and by day three, Zane’s mate was getting restless. As was everyone else, but at least they were able to leave the house. Everyone had thought it best that Isabelle stay inside where she was safest, but something had to give.

  While she was in the shower, Zane rounded up everyone he could to discuss a plan to get Isabelle out of the house before her wolf went insane from confinement. He was hoping to surprise her with a simple picnic outside where she wouldn’t feel so cooped up.

  Everyone agreed, and he went to tell her the good news.

  Zane walked into their bedroom just as she was getting dressed. “Hey, Isa…”

  She was only in her bra and underwear, and Zane lost his train of thought for a moment.

  She turned and looked at him. “Yeah?”

  She was so beautiful to him, and he scanned her body, taking in everything, including her still-expanded stomach. She hadn’t bled yet, but it didn’t mean that she wouldn’t. And he had to wonder, once she bled and Bram was no longer a threat, would she leave?

  They hadn’t discussed anything about their future. Everything seemed to be fine in the now. But he didn’t know if he could handle her leaving him again.

  “Zane?”

  He shook his head and met her eyes. “Yeah?”

  She smiled. “You sounded like you wanted to tell me something.” She grabbed a shirt and pulled it over her head.

  “Oh.” He chuckled at himself for forgetting for a moment when it was his idea. “I thought you’d like to get out for a while today. I was thinking a picnic around lunchtime.”

  Her eyes lit up. “Really?”

  “Really.” He grinned. He wanted to make her that happy all the time.

  She ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. “You have no idea how much this means to me. I’m going crazy.”

  He rubbed her back. “I can tell. That’s why I wanted to do something special for you.”

  She leaned back and grinned at him. “You’re the best.”

  God, he hoped she meant it.

  He kissed her and proceeded to make her forget that lunch wasn’t for a few more hours.

  Despite Zane’s delicious lovemaking that morning, noon couldn’t come fast enough. When it finally came time to leave, she was so focused on getting out of the house that she barely noticed how empty it felt.

  There were still plenty of shifters around, but there were fewer than there had been the last few days. So, when it was only her and Zane getting into the car, she was a little co
nfused.

  “No one is going with us?”

  “I thought you might like it to just be the two of us. We haven’t seen or heard from Bram. I figured a few hours alone might do both of us good.”

  She closed her eyes at the thought. “It sounds heavenly.” Wolves were pack animals, but her human half needed some breathing room after being so closely guarded for so long. She opened her eyes and pointed to the end of the long driveway. “Let’s get out of here.”

  She was a little concerned about Bram, but she put that out of her mind. She needed a break from everything, including worrying.

  They should have probably headed to a public park, but Zane took her to a secluded riverbank with lush green grass and beautiful green trees that were just beginning to bud out in the country. It was still a little cool since it was March outside, but she didn’t care. The crisp breeze was like heaven to her senses.

  Zane spread a blanket out on the grass for them to sit and opened the picnic basket.

  “Where did you find a picnic basket?” she asked with a laugh.

  “From my alphena. She has everything.”

  “And I suppose she’s the one who cooked our meal, too?” At least, that was what Isabelle hoped. She’d tasted Zane’s cooking, and it was not good.

  He laughed as if he knew her thoughts. “Yes, she did.”

  “Suddenly, I’m starving.”

  “You’re funny,” Zane told her.

  “I’ve gotta keep up with you.”

  Zane smiled as he leaned over and kissed her. “You have no trouble keeping up with me.”

  “Well, well, well, isn’t this fucking cozy as hell?”

  Isabelle gasped and froze at the sound of that voice.

  Zane’s jaw clenched as he sat back on the blanket.

  Bram walked closer from his position in the trees with a gun pointed at the two of them.

  She hadn’t had any indication that he was sneaking up on them. He’d been downwind and quiet, but she had always assumed that she’d have some sort of sixth sense when it came to detecting Bram.

  “Do you know how long I’ve been waiting to get you alone, Isabelle? But you just wouldn’t leave that fucking house.”

  “Gee, I wonder why.”