by J. L. Wilder
Paisley took the seat next to Hazel and wrapped her arms around her. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” she said. “We were so worried.”
Hazel thought back to what Emmett had told her about none of the Coywolves going looking for her themselves. She believed Paisley had been worried. But she also believed that worry had probably taken the form of sitting around the house and wringing her hands.
But really, how could she blame her friend? Paisley didn’t know how to fight. Paisley’s days were mostly spent doing things like reading, shopping, and giggling at reality TV show contestants. Very human, Emmett would have said. She met his eyes across the table and thought he looked angry. Suddenly, she wasn’t at all sure that having dinner together like this had been a good idea.
Rita ladled warm beef stew into bowls and set them on the table in front of Emmett and Hazel. Hazel watched as Emmett tasted the stew, first doubtfully, then with increasing appetite. Even though she was hungry, she only picked at her own meal. She was too nervous to eat. Everyone was excited to see her now, but what would happen when they learned she was pregnant? What would Matthew say when Emmett asked to stay?
At last, the plates were empty, and Rita got up to clear. Matthew stood too and beckoned to Emmett. “Join me in the living room,” he said, “and we’ll settle our finances.”
Emmett got up to follow Matthew, and Hazel immediately left her seat at the table and went with him. In the hall, when nobody was watching, she rested her hand on the small of his back for just a moment, hoping to settle any nerves he might be having. He hadn’t seemed nervous so far, but he had shown signs of irritation and even anger, and Hazel knew that could be a problem. If he and Matthew started yelling at each other, this wasn’t going to go well.
Matthew took a seat in his armchair in the living room, only then seeming to notice that Hazel was there. “What are you doing here?” he asked her. “This doesn’t concern you.”
“It does, actually,” Emmett said in what Hazel thought was a sufficiently humble tone. “Both of us have something to discuss with you.”
“Nonsense. Hazel, go on back to the kitchen now and help the others with the dishes.”
Once again, his words had the weight of an order. Once again, Hazel felt no compulsion to obey. The authority Matthew had always had over her appeared to be broken.
It was a scary thought. Matthew had always been responsible for her. He had cared for her, raised her, steered her right all her life. There was safety in knowing that your alpha was ultimately responsible for your decisions. Now, she felt untethered. Like her pregnancy, it was an unexpected consequence of her relationship with Emmett. She hadn’t expected to feel so thoroughly cut off from her family.
Matthew was staring at her as if she were an alien. “I told you to go,” he said.
“But Emmett is right,” she said. “We both need to talk to you.”
“It’s an order, Hazel.”
“Matthew—”
His eyes widened, and she saw rage on his face. “You haven’t submitted to him, have you?”
“What’s going on?” Emmett was clearly in the dark.
“She’s not taking orders! What did you do to her?”
“Matthew, can we please just talk?” Hazel asked. “It really isn’t that big a deal.”
“Not that big a deal? He was hired to bring you back to us, not to kidnap you himself!”
Paulie poked his head in. “What’s all the shouting?”
Matthew was on his feet. “He did something,” he said, pointing at Emmett. “She’s not submitting to me anymore.”
Paulie stared at Hazel, wide eyed. “This dirtbag is your alpha now?”
“He’s not a dirtbag,” she said. “And he’s not my alpha either.”
“If your connection to me is broken, it means you have a new alpha.” Matthew turned to Emmett. “Give her an order.”
Emmett shook his head. “I’m not going to do that.”
“This is what you wanted to talk to me about? The fact that you stole from me?”
“Man, she isn’t property.” Emmett raked a hand through his hair. “And no, that’s not what we wanted to talk about. Look, we’re getting sidetracked here.”
“I’ll decide if we’re getting sidetracked,” Matthew snapped. He turned to Paulie. “Get the rest of the family. Get them in here. Now.”
Hazel shivered. She wished Emmett would put an arm around her, but maybe it was for the best that he didn’t. Matthew looked as if he was about to punch him in the nose as it was. She settled for leaning a little further into the space occupied by his body—not close enough to touch, but close enough to draw comfort from the nearness of him.
She had never seen Matthew enraged like this. He had always been kind to her, had always been gentle. Now, she could see that he had never been crossed. If she had defied him, she suspected this side of him would have come out a lot sooner.
And he didn’t even know the worst of what she’d done yet.
Paulie returned. The rest of the pack was trailing behind him. Some, like Paisley, looked anxious. Others looked excited, as if they couldn’t wait to see what their alpha was going to unleash on this outsider.
“You go after my omega,” Matthew said. “At my request, and with the offer of a very generous reward. And instead of bringing her home, you manipulate her. You brainwash her.”
“He didn’t brainwash me,” Hazel said.
“Shut up,” Matthew said.
But this had gone too far. He couldn’t force her to be quiet. Not anymore. “He didn’t do anything to me,” she said. “He was going to bring me back right away, only we had to mislead the Rangers so they wouldn’t follow us back here. And on our way, I... well... I...”
She trailed off, not knowing exactly how to describe what had happened. Everyone was staring at her, clearly waiting for some kind of explanation.
“I’m pregnant,” she said. It came out sounding much more meek and hesitant than she’d hoped. She’d meant to say it defiantly.
“Holy shit,” Paulie breathed.
Matthew stared at them both, a muscle in his jaw twitching. For a long time, he didn’t move or speak. He was enraged, that was easy enough to see. Was there any hope at all that he would let them stay together?
“Rita,” he said, his voice terrifyingly quiet. “Take Hazel out of here, please.”
“I’m not leaving,” she said. “I’m with Emmett now, Matthew. We’re together. We came to tell you because we wanted to belong to your pack. Together. Both of us.”
“Take Hazel out of here,” he repeated as if he hadn't heard her.
Rita’s hand was on her arm. “Come on, Hazel,” she said softly. “You don’t want to be here right now. Let’s go upstairs. We’ll get you out of these grubby clothes and into something nice, how’s that?”
“I like these clothes.” She shook Rita off. “And I’m not leaving.”
Rita made eye contact with Gianna and Paisley. A moment later, the two of them had Hazel by the arms and were dragging her from the room. Hazel dug in her heels and tried not to be moved, but it was no good. The three women together were stronger than she was.
They had just reached the doorway when Paulie picked up his bat.
Hazel understood what was about to happen a split second before it did. “No!” she screamed. Emmett, who had been watching her go, spun around and the bat caught him on the shoulder. He went down hard against the coffee table and bounced to the floor, letting out a cry of pain.
But it was already too late. The male Coywolves descended on Emmett, glee on their faces, pummeling every inch of him they could reach. Hazel heard him letting out grunts and groans, heard the painful sound of punches and kicks meeting their target.
“Stop it!” she screamed. “What are you doing? Stop it!” She strained against Paisley’s and Gianna’s hold. Rita wrapped her arms around Hazel’s torso and held her, but Hazel bucked so wildly that she still almost managed to throw the three of them o
ff.
Matthew, who had not joined in the fight, now walked to the writing desk in the corner and opened one of the drawers. He came up with a pistol in his hand. “Stop,” he said, approaching the mass of bodies in the center of the room.
The fighting stopped immediately. Of course. It had been an order.
Everyone backed off as Matthew approached. He put the barrel of the gun to Emmett’s head and looked up at Hazel. “Should I kill him?”
“No! Please!”
“Then submit to me,” Matthew said.
“I submit! Jesus, I submit!”
Matthew looked down at Emmett. “Now, get out of my house,” he said quietly, “or I will shoot you. And after I do that, I will shoot her.”
Emmett got to his feet. He walked toward the door, but when he reached the doorway, where Hazel stood, he hesitated.
“Go,” she said. She felt as if she were being ripped in half. But she couldn’t stand to see him killed. “Go, now.”
He looked at her for another long moment, and she had the impression he was storing up memories of her for the days ahead. She tried to memorize as much of him as she possibly could too. She could feel her heart trying to shatter, but she held that at bay for now. It would wait. For now, all that mattered was Emmett’s face, which she might never see again.
“Go!” Matthew roared.
Emmett turned and walked out the door, and Hazel watched it slam shut behind him.
“You didn’t have to do that,” Rita said quietly. “You could have let them stay together.”
“He challenged my authority,” Matthew said.
“He fell in love,” Rita said. “They’re children, for God’s sake. They fell in love, Matthew. It happened to us once.”
“She’s not a child,” Matthew said. “She’s an omega. She’s a Cavallon. She’s the most valuable thing we have as a pack. We are not handing her over to some piece of filth off the streets.”
“She’s pregnant,” Paisley said. “She’s going to have his litter.”
“She’s definitely not going to do that,” Matthew said. “She’s our omega, and she’ll have a litter for our pack. Am I the only one who’s managed to remember that this is a Cavallon we’re talking about? Her litter is going to contain the next Cavallon, and we want that person in our family too. Right?” He looked around. “The Cavallon omegas produce strong litters. Large litters. Our family will be huge. Our pack will be dominant. But none of that will happen if we let her mate with some barbarian and the Cavallon line passes to his pack.”
Matthew looked at Hazel now. “I’m sorry,” he said to her. “I know this was harsh. I didn’t mean to be hurtful to you. But you’ll understand, one day, how important it is to keep the Cavallon line in our pack. We can provide for you, and for your children, in a way that a man like that can’t.”
“I love him,” she whispered.
“You think you do. I understand. But you’re young.” He smiled indulgently at her. She couldn’t believe that this was the same man who had been looking at her with such violent rage just a few minutes ago. “I’ve made a decision, though. I’m going to mate you with Paulie. That will be nice, won’t it?”
Paulie. She had grown up with him. They had played together as children. And a few minutes ago, she had watched him hit Emmett with a bat. She didn’t think she’d ever be able to look at him again without wanting to scream.
“What about her pregnancy?” Rita asked.
“We’ll have it terminated,” Matthew said. “These things happen. We forgive you, Hazel, all right?” He looked around at the rest of the pack. “That goes for all of you too. Hazel is going to be welcomed back as one of us. She’ll be forgiven. Understood?”
“Understood,” everyone in the room chorused.
Hazel began to sob.
Chapter Fourteen
EMMETT
He sat on his motorcycle for a long time, staring up at the house, unable to believe what had happened. His shoulder throbbed where the bat had made contact and he wondered idly if it was broken. A few of his ribs felt sore too, and his head was swimming. But none of that seemed to matter.
They had taken Hazel.
Emmett had thought of Matthew as a weak alpha, a bit of a sad sack, worthy only of pity and disdain. He had completely underestimated the man. Matthew wasn’t weak. Matthew was a forceful and charismatic leader. He might not be a physical fighter like Emmett, but he commanded his pack with authority. They were practically his disciples.
It just made it more horrible that he’d done nothing to find Hazel when she’d been kidnapped. He wasn’t a fighter himself, but he had fighters at his disposal. They could have tracked the Savage Rangers. They could have stormed the bunker and tried to rescue their omega. And they’d done nothing!
But Matthew probably wouldn’t have even thought of measures like that, Emmett thought disgustedly. They wouldn’t even have occurred to him. And why not? Because those were animal things to do, and Matthew wasn’t an animal, was he? Oh, no. Far be it from him to connect with the wolf inside, to use the extraordinary abilities he’d been granted. He was the most disgustingly human shifter Emmett had ever met.
Hell, even the way they’d beat him up had been stupid and human. They could have shifted. They could have made it a wolf fight. He could never have fought off that many wolves, even if he’d shifted himself. But no, instead of taking the sensible approach, they’d decided to hit him with a baseball bat. That had hurt, no doubt about it, but if Emmett had wanted to shift in the Coywolves’ living room, he could have quickly gained the upper hand.
But of course, he couldn’t shift there. He couldn’t make it a wolf fight, not with Hazel in the room. Wolf fights were messy, and sometimes, wolves lost control. A bystander could easily get injured. He couldn’t let that happen to her.
He would have liked to think that was Matthew’s hesitation in shifting too, that Matthew had been trying to protect Hazel from harm. But he didn’t trust the other alpha to do that. He won’t keep her safe, Emmett thought, feeling as if he was going to explode out of his skin. He can’t protect her. And she’s carrying our babies—
What was going to happen to their babies?
Emmett couldn’t imagine it would be anything good. Would Matthew terminate Hazel’s pregnancy? Or would he allow the babies to be born and raise them to be members of his pack—weak, sniveling, stupid Coywolves? Either option would be unbearable.
Emmett threw back his head and let out a frustrated cry that was almost a howl.
He saw the curtain at the living room window draw back. A young woman—one of the ones who’d stood and watched as Matthew had ordered him beaten—looked out. Her eyes met his, and she turned to someone behind her and said something.
She was probably letting the Coywolves know that he was still out here. Emmett decided he’d better make himself scarce. For the moment, at least.
He kicked his bike to life and pulled away, even though it tortured him to do it. Leaving Hazel and his children behind went against his very nature. But storming back into the house would gain him nothing. They would do the same thing they’d already done—beat him and throw him out. Only, this time, the beating would be even more savage. And Matthew had a gun...
A gun. What a weak man’s tool. When you had fangs and claws and the strength of the wolf at your disposal, to resort to a gun, of all things! He might as well have hung a sign around his neck proclaiming that he was vulnerable to attack, Emmett thought disgustedly.
The problem was that, of course, he wasn’t vulnerable. Not as long as he had that gun.
So, Emmett would have to find a way to take it from him.
But he was going to need help. He was dramatically outnumbered, not to mention outgunned, and there was no way he could take them on by himself. He was going to need his pack.
If they would even consent to help him.
They would be angry. He had no doubt about that. He had been unbending for years about the rules he’d
made regarding women in the pack. And now, he was going to tell them that he’d impregnated an omega and he needed their help to save her...
I can order them to help me, he thought. I’m the alpha. They’ll have to do it if I tell them to.
He hated the idea of giving that order. Emmett didn’t mind giving orders when they were necessary—that was part of being an alpha. But he had always tried to avoid giving his brothers orders that weren’t for their own good, or for the good of the pack. This would be essentially drafting them into his own private army to achieve a personal goal that had nothing to do with pack health or harmony.
He would do it, though. To save Hazel, he would do it.
But first, he was going to have to find them. And that meant tracking.
He rode back to the outskirts of town, to the field where they’d all been camping together the night the Savage Rangers had caught up with them. Even though he’d already explored this area, it was the only place he could think of to start. And who knew—maybe he’d see something here that he’d missed. Maybe there was still a clue, something time and weather hadn’t worn away, something he could use to find his pack.
Or, hell, maybe they’d come back this way looking for him. That was always possible.
He reached the field, parked his bike, and made his way carefully in among the corn, walking slowly and looking for any sign. He explored the campsite first, but it was completely bare, as if no one had ever been there. The corn that had been bent by their tarp had now resumed its shape. Their footprints in the dirt had been covered by fresh dirt. There was nothing here that Emmett could use to get his bearings, nothing that offered him a clue as to where his pack had gone.
He went to the site of the fight, just a few feet in front of the campsite, and dropped to his knees. The blood he and Hazel had discovered was long dry. A few of the cornstalks were broken, but otherwise, you couldn’t really tell anything had happened here either. This was starting to seem hopeless.
