Fated

by R. L. Mathewson

  “According to this, I’m no longer yours whether he had your permission or not, I’ve been freed,” she said firmly, unable to help the way that her voice trembled. “So now, I’m untouchable and we both know it, so,” she said, getting right into her grandmother’s face and saying the one thing that she’d been dreaming of saying since she was a little girl, hungry, bleeding and terrified that if she closed her eyes she would never be able to open them again, “Fuck. Off.”

  When her grandmother eyes flashed silver, she made sure to flash her own, reminding her grandmother that she was not only free, but that she was her own master. She was an Alpha, something that her grandmother would have had her killed at birth for if she’d known.

  There was a small gasp of surprise from the old bitch, but that was all she heard, because she was done. She wasn’t going to stand there for a beating, another bout of humiliation to entertain her grandmother’s Pack, or to let Drew know just how much his rejection had hurt.

  When her grandmother growled and reached out to grab her by the throat, using an old move that she used to love so much when Kara was a child, Kara caught her hand, squeezed it until she heard bones crack and then continued even after her grandmother had released a howl of pain. The evil bitch dropped to her knees as blood began streaming from her hand and her Pack started growling and snapping at her. Kara still kept her hold on that mangled hand, refusing to let it go, unable to let her go as images from her childhood bombarded her, nearly dropping her to the ground as memories of pain, so much fucking pain tore through her.

  It was only the reminder that Drew was standing there, watching her lose it that had her releasing her grandmother’s hand. Without a word, she stepped past her grandmother, almost daring her to try to do something so that she had the excuse she needed to rip her throat out and kept on walking until she was past all the werewolves growling and snapping at her, desperate to tear her apart for their Alpha.

  She didn’t care.

  Let them do their best, she decided hollowly as she kept walking through the dark woods, having absolutely no idea where she was going and not really caring, because after tonight it wouldn’t really matter now would it?

  Not since her grandmother would probably tear her throat out before morning.

  *-*-*-*

  “Drew? Drew!” he heard his name being yelled, but it was coming in as nothing more than a distant echo as he stood there, staring straight ahead and not really seeing the remains of the massacre that he’d started last night.

  “For fuck’s sake, Drew, get her to stop going for my balls!” Ryan screamed a bit hysterically, but he couldn’t seem to focus on anything, not on the overwhelming scent of blood, the scent of spilled bone marrow, or on the scents of vomit, dirt and death.

  All he could think about was what Kara had said.

  Impure.

  She was an impure.

  Something that he never would have imagined had he lived to be a million and something that he was never going to forget, because that meant-

  His eyes shot silver as his fangs threatened to cut through his clenched jaw. He tried not to think about what it meant, but he couldn’t stop his mind from going back to the day that he’d first met the little pain in the ass. She’d been, angry, underfed…damaged. He’d always assumed that her parents had been killed and her Pack hadn’t wanted to keep on the spoiled, smart mouthed brat, but God had he been wrong.

  “Oh my God! What the hell is wrong with you? Ouch!” Kara’s pained gasp managed to break through the shock that had crippled him since he’d heard the words that changed his world.

  With a vicious snarl, he snapped his head in the direction of the small struggle going on twenty feet away in one of the only spots that wasn’t covered in blood and gore. His eyes narrowed on the men touching his mate, trying to pin her to the ground and he felt the same level of rage build in him that had torn through him last night and had him tearing the ice bitch apart for everything that she’d done to Kara.

  She’d died too soon.

  He’d been filled with rage, so much fucking rage that when the ice bitch’s Pack had turned on him, he’d welcomed their efforts, ripping them each apart more violently than the last one as thoughts of what they might have done to Kara ran through his head. A few of his Pack had joined in and helped, a few of them had been hurt, but none of his people had died, simply because most of them had walked away.

  As of five hours ago, he officially became the most powerful Alpha of the smallest Pack in Boston. It meant that he’d fucked up and that more would be leaving, but he didn’t give a flying fuck because his first responsibility wasn’t to his Pack that drained every fucking ounce of energy from him, but to his mate, who annoyed the shit out of him and demanded, “Drew Specials” at all hours of the night.

  She was the reason why he was put on this earth and right now, she was being touched by other males…

  Without warning, he attacked the males touching his mate, uncaring who they were or that they were trying to stop her from leaving him. The only thing that he cared about was getting their hands off her.

  There was a grunt and a, “Oh, fuck this!” before all the hands that had been holding onto to her were suddenly gone and he had her in his arms. She was cold, trembling and bleeding and if he didn’t get out of there before he could stop himself, he would probably kill what was left of his Pack for touching her.

  Knowing that he couldn’t kill them, not if he was going have any help left in keeping Kara safe, he resisted the urge to tear their throats out. Keeping his arms locked around her, he turned and headed for his truck, needing to get her back home where he could clean her, feed her and keep her protected safely in his arms where she belonged. He knew it was a mistake, that he should get her in the truck, leave town and take her somewhere safe, but he was so damn focused on bringing her home that he wasn’t thinking straight.

  Because the Club was no longer safe and he knew that it wouldn’t be long before they came for him, other Packs claiming revenge for what he’d done to the ice bitch, but really just wanted an excuse to take him down and take what was his. Masters would jump on the chance to wipe shifters out of Boston and take his territory. Last, but definitely not least, the Sentinels, who would execute him quickly to put a stop to a war that might attract too much attention from the humans.

  His Club was definitely the last place that he should be taking her, but he knew that sooner or later they’d find him. He’d rather get it over with now instead of looking over his shoulder for the rest of his life, wondering when his moment was going to come. At least this way he had a chance to fight back, to protect what was his and hopefully secure Kara’s safety before another Pack tried to make an example out of her, because the thought of her going through with that kind of life again was unbearable.

  He would do anything to make sure that she didn’t end up as another Pack’s bitch or a Master’s slave. He’d do absolutely anything to stop that from happening, even if it meant giving everything up, including his own life.

  Chapter 35

  “Get down,” Drew said with a resigned sigh that only confirmed her previous suspicions.

  Drew had lost his goddamn mind.

  Not that she hadn’t figured that out on her own when several of his Pack members, including Mick the traitorous bastard, had hunted her down, tackled her and dragged her back to the scene of the biggest shifter massacre that she’d ever seen.

  Not that she’d seen that many, except for maybe that one time…

  When she’d spotted Drew, still standing in that same spot where he’d let her walk away last night, covered in blood from head to toe and looking as though he had some issues to work out, she hadn’t known what to think. At that point, she’d decided that it would probably be best to escape her captors and once again start heading towards her unknown future since it looked as though Drew had apparently gone crazy. Her captors on the other hand hadn’t been willing to let her go until Drew, in the throe
s of another psychotic breakdown, had come for her.

  At that point she’d tried to make her escape with a little more urgency, but Drew, having completely lost his mind, had grabbed her, carried her off to his truck, tossed her inside and started driving. When she’d finally managed to untangle her blanket from around her legs and sit up, she opened her mouth to ask him what the hell was going on, but then of course all that blood covering him from head to toe and that rather angry expression on his face reminded her that perhaps this was not the best time to have that conversation.

  She figured that since he knew the truth that he was probably going to drive her as far away from his precious Boston as his truck would take them. What she hadn’t expected, and really, after she’d spotted him covered from head to toe in blood, she really should have expected anything, including the fact that he had definitely lost his mind, was for him to bring her back to his club.

  He was driving back to Boston and he was determined to bring her with him, whether she wanted to go or not. If she was going to be honest with herself about this one, she definitely did not want to go back to Boston with a man who’d apparently torn apart an entire Pack with his bare hands. Call her crazy, but that just didn’t sound like a reasonable plan, especially since he had locked cells downstairs and the power to do whatever he wanted to her now that he knew the truth.

  So, she’d made her decision that perhaps it was best if they went their separate ways. When she’d explained that to him, he’d simply continued staring straight ahead, appearing as though he hadn’t heard a single word that she’d said. It was at that point that she realized that if she wanted to ever see daylight again that she needed to test out her stunt skills and find out exactly how much it hurt to jump from a speeding truck.

  Well, since he’d grabbed her before she could fully test that theory out, she was going to have to base her answer on the flattened road kill that she saw briefly before Drew managed to drag her back into the truck and lock the doors to prevent her from making another escape attempt. It probably would have worked if she hadn’t immediately shifted her attention to the back window. Within seconds, she was diving out of the open window, ready to live a life on the run, but unfortunately for her, the size of her ass had caused some problems for her escape plan.

  Drew hadn’t seen it as a problem. In fact, he seemed quite satisfied with knowing that she was stuck with absolutely no way to escape unless she shifted, but since that would cause problems of its own and she really didn’t want to find out what it was like to be cut in two by glass and metal. So, she decided against shifting.

  Drew, on the other hand, had decided that her current situation was the most beneficial one since it meant that her escape attempts were momentarily suspended and her round ass had offered him a comfortable armrest. When he’d shifted her blanket out of the way so that he could casually rub her bare ass cheeks while truckers drove by honking their horns in approval, she had not been amused.

  His amusement had stopped when she’d renewed her escape attempts and somehow managed to shove her large breasts free from her blanket that still covered that part of her body, which had earned quite a few appreciative comments and horn honking that for some reason didn’t seem to please Drew. That’s when he’d pulled over at the rest stop, glared at everyone parked there until they got the hint and left.

  Let’s be honest here, when a large, muscular man completely in the buff, covered in dried blood, had silver eyes and fangs, and growled at everything and everyone until people were running screaming for their lives it wasn’t exactly a surprise that he’d managed to clear the rest stop in less than a minute.

  Then again, it hadn’t exactly surprised her when the State Police had shown up a few minutes later. Since there really was no way to explain to armed police officers about the nudity, blood, fangs and the whole growling thing, Drew had made an executive decision to throw her ass over his shoulder and carry her through the freezing woods while she’d made an executive decision of her very own, one that had her grabbing hold of the first decent sized tree branch above her and pulling herself up to freedom.

  Unfortunately for her, freedom had come at a cost to her bare skin. Apparently frozen bark was not very gentle on human skin. Now, if she had shifted like any sane Alpha would have done, then she could have made her escape without any problems, but since she was top heavy, her blanket had shifted and she now understood the term “rug burn,” at least when it came to her boobs, she was kind of stuck on the branch, squeezing her arms tightly around her breasts and somehow finding the courage not to cry or mutter a few expletive words that would probably convey what she was feeling at the moment.

  *-*-*-*

  “I don’t have all day for this, woman,” he forced himself to say firmly when all he wanted to do was climb that tree, grab his mate and see what damage she’d done to those beautiful breasts that he loved so damn much.

  “Then go,” she bit out, trying to sound brave, trying to sound like she wasn’t on the verge of crying and normally that would make him proud, but after the last twenty-four hours he had to admit that his patience was shot to shit and he really didn’t feel like playing anymore fucking games.

  “Have it your way,” he said with a heavy sigh as he jumped up, grabbed onto the rough branch, pulled himself up, grabbed Kara when she tried to scurry off away, tore the blanket away from her and with a put-out sigh, because it was just part of the job, he leaned down and began to carefully clean her cuts and abrasions with his tongue.

  Several times he had to tell his cock to mind its own fucking business and focus on the job at hand, but the damn thing wouldn’t listen to him. So, he simply ignored it and continued cleaning Kara’s damaged breasts with his tongue, sighing heavily when he came to a particularly bad scrape on the side of her breasts.

  This mate business was really a tedious job, he told himself as he lost himself in those large breasts that he’d thought about way too much over the years. All those years he’d wasted, he realized with a sigh as he moved his tongue over to her nipple and flicked it just to be on the safe side.