“Right,” Ian scoffed. “I’m sure that name’s real. Matt, what the fuck are we going to do? Holding someone else’s mate’s against every pack law there is. We’ll have to hand him over, and the second we do you’re fucked.”
“We’re not handing him over,” Matthew said with absolute finality.
“That’s not your call,” the female councilor said. Her voice was lighter than I’d expected, but it held authority. I had to swivel my head awkwardly to look at her. “You’ve been temporarily removed as pack leader. Your reinstatement is conditional on your getting back to normal, Matthew. And that won’t happen as long as this…individual is here.”
“We’ve been over this,” Nate said, looking up from his phone. He sounded exhausted, like they’d maybe been over it ten or twenty times. He held up a hand, ticking off points on his fingers as he went on. “Matthew can’t be separated from him or he gets sick and dies. If ‘Arik’ dies, so does Matthew. We can’t get the spell off without the caster’s assistance, so the manacles would need to come off if we want to break the spell. And we can’t trust Arik to take off the spell once the manacles come off, so that’s out too.”
“Which means we’re not handing him over,” Ian put in, sounding so passive-aggressively helpful that I nearly snickered despite everything.
Ian slipped his arm around Nate’s shoulders, a clear sign that his mate spoke for him, too, and the council could stuff it. Gods, what would it be like to have someone have my back the way Ian had Nate’s? Of course, Matthew had set me on his lap and wasn’t letting go, and wasn’t planning to give me to Parker, either. That was worth something.
“Believe me,” Matthew growled, “if I had the choice, I’d throw him out the door stark naked and into his mate’s waiting, probably violent arms this second, and let them make each other’s lives miserable.” Or not. “But that’s not possible. Jennifer, Paul, we need options. Oh, and by the way,” he added, “this asshole isn’t Arik’s mate. He’s lying about that.” Matthew’s arm tightened painfully around my ribs. “So I think it’s time for Arik to tell us why he’s lying, and why he’s here.”
Nate snorted. “Arik, or this alpha? Because I’d love to know why either of them is here and lying.”
“Right now, just why the alpha’s here and what his angle is,” Matthew said.
He’d been drumming the fingers of his free hand on the arm of the chair, but he lifted his hand and took my chin in a firm grip, wrenching my head around so that I had no choice but to look him in the eyes.
I kept my face neutral by force of will, but he was holding me tightly enough to really hurt. I’d have bruises if he didn’t let go soon. There wasn’t a trace of mercy in his expression; he meant it, and given the short timeline before Parker showed up — well, I didn’t have much leeway.
And any goodwill I might’ve bought by telling him about Parker sooner wasn’t on the table anymore.
“Parker tried to mate me,” I said. “He bit me. But shamans have some control over whether a mating bite takes. And needless to say, I fought it off.” Matthew’s eyes glowed, and he was holding me so hard I was fighting not to squirm. “I didn’t want him to, and I hadn’t done anything to him or his pack,” I went on quickly, hoping to pacify him and get him on my side, at least a little bit. Gods, if he ended up siding with Parker I’d be so fucked. “He forced me because he wanted a shaman under his control.”
“How did he force you?” Nate asked. I couldn’t turn my head, but I peered at him out of the corner of my eye. His face was twisted with something like…concern? Sympathy? Whatever it was, it had the corners of his lips turned down and his eyes all soft. What the ever-loving fuck? “I mean, did he have you in chains like these? Or — how?”
“He borrowed a powerful shaman from an allied pack,” I said, my throat tight. “The fucker took me unawares and bound me with magic. And he watched while Parker mated me.”
He’d been jerking off while he watched, too, but that detail was too humiliating to share. Telling them the barest facts of it was bad enough. I didn’t have much shame left, but that had been…a low point.
Matthew’s fingers dug into my jaw, and I yelped in pain as his claws sprouted out, piercing me for a second before he whipped his hand away. I lurched back, rubbing at my chin. Matthew was growling low in his throat, and his eyes had gone completely golden-orange. His canines were extended just past his upper lip.
“We are not handing him over,” Matthew said, and his voice vibrated with an alpha pack leader’s command. “We’re going to meet him at the border and tell him he has no claim. If he insists, we’re going to demand an independent shaman to verify the mating bond, and stall for time until Arik can fill us in on his pack’s strengths, weaknesses, and alliances. Anything to add?”
In spite of the stinging pain in my jaw, and the discomfort of how he was holding me hard enough to make my ribs creak, and the general awfulness of my situation, my cock went half-hard in seconds. I hated alphas. They always walked all over everyone, taking what they wanted and pissing on everything, sometimes literally.
But I’d never wanted to kiss someone so much in my life, alpha or not. Matthew was defending me. Defending. Me. And maybe it was self-serving, but…he was defending me. It had to be a trick. It had to be fake, somehow. He’d just said he’d throw me out naked and let Parker take me if he could.
But he wasn’t, and I felt like I’d been rappelling down a mountain and someone had cut my ropes. He was just assuming I’d tell them what they needed to know, acting like we were in this together. I didn’t have a blueprint for this.
The other councilor, Paul, cleared his throat and spoke for the first time, startling me out of my slack-jawed confusion. “We need a witness. It can’t be his word against ours. And any aggression must be on his side, or we’re fucked if a pack mediator gets involved.”
Matthew nodded, and Ian said, “Nate, I hate to say this, but maybe you should call that asshole vamp. He’s the closest thing to a local supernatural authority we’ve got.”
Nate got up from the table, already busy with his phone. “I’ll ask him if Dor can bring him directly to the turn-off from the main road and meet us there. And extra plus side, Dor can fuck them up if they try anything.”
He stepped away from the table and out of the room, his phone at his ear. Ian gazed after him like an abandoned puppy. Gods, I hated happy couples. Especially when they kept me chained in basements, but also just on principle.
“Any further comments?” Matthew asked, in a tone that clearly said, You won’t have any further comments if you know what’s good for you.
It was Jennifer’s turn to clear her throat. What was with these two? Did they do everything in tandem? “You’re still not in charge, Matthew. It might be the best way to proceed for now, but the council is going to take point —”
“No, the fuck you are,” Matthew said, cutting her off without hesitation. “I appreciate what you’ve done while I’ve been out of my mind. And I know I’ll need to rebuild some trust with the council. But if I’m not in front of this, we’re going to look weaker than we already do. And you know it.”
Matthew stared them down unblinkingly, and I twisted my head around to watch their reactions. After a beat they both ducked their chins. They were submitting.
I let out a breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding in. My erection hadn’t gone anywhere. If anything, it was a little bigger. I shifted in Matthew’s hold, turning my body so they couldn’t see it as they rose and left the room, grumbling at each other about what they were going to tell the rest of the council.
Which left me, Matthew, Ian, and my hard-on. Not awkward and fucked-up at all.
Ian pulled his phone out of his pocket and glanced at it. “We have twenty-nine minutes until the hour’s up, and we have to assume he’ll be early to throw us off our game. We need to head out.”
“Give us a minute,” Matthew said. His arm around me didn’t loosen at all.
“Ma
tt, we need to —”
“One minute.” And there was that commanding voice again.
Ian sighed, frowned, and strode out of the dining room, slamming the door to the hallway shut behind him. What a prick.
Seconds ticked by. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Matthew’s face. Instead, I stared at Ian’s empty chair.
Matthew reached up and took hold of my jaw again, and I winced. “That was an accident,” he said. “Let me take a look at it.”
Gently but inexorably, he turned my face toward his. His eyes were still bright, but dark blue was starting to bleed through the gold. He stroked his fingers over the puncture wounds, frowning.
“Why aren’t you healing?” he demanded. “These should be closed.”
I wordlessly held up my arms in answer, showing him the manacles. Matthew’s lips pressed into a flat line, but he didn’t seem to have more to say, either.
“We need to go,” I said.
“Anything you can tell me before we do? This…Parker.” Matthew said his name with an inflection I couldn’t quite interpret, but I did notice his fangs seemed to lengthen slightly. “Anything helpful. Anything quick and helpful,” he amended.
Usually I’d have prevaricated — but this wasn’t business as usual. “He has a large pack, but he’s constantly having border skirmishes with another pack near him and with a colony of feral gnomes on the other side. So he’s stretched a little thin, no matter how much he postures. He probably expects you to just hand me over without an argument, since he’s claiming he’s my mate.”
“Anything about him specifically? Other than that he’s a dead man walking.”
A chill went down my spine at his tone, which was venomous and murderous and coldly resolved. Not just a chill, but something like a thrill, too. This was a side of Matthew I’d never seen, that I wouldn’t have thought he had.
And fuck me, but I really, really liked it. Had I always hated alphas for acting like this simply because it’d always been directed at me, instead of on my behalf? Was I that much of a hypocrite?
Probably.
I squirmed a little in his lap, drawing out a muffled grunt. I wasn’t going to bother pointing out that Matthew’s pack council wasn’t aware of, or on board with, the kill-Parker plan. That was fine with me.
“He’s arrogant and has a temper, but he’s not stupid. If you goad him too obviously, he won’t fall for it.” Matthew nodded, clearly absorbing that and adding it to his planning. I thought about it a little more. This was one case where I wasn’t going to try to withhold information. Matthew had already heard the part I would’ve liked to conceal. Knowing that he knew how Parker had used and violated me made me sick, in ways I didn’t want to analyze. And I wanted Parker dead, preferably with a lot of pain and maiming and shrieking and spouts of blood, nearly as much as I wanted these fucking manacles off. “He’s always suspicious that his pack enforcers are scheming to take over as pack leader. The only one he trusts completely is his second, Tyler. If you can find some way to sow doubt there, you’ve got Parker by the balls, and his whole pack would fall apart.”
That had been my back-up plan, if I hadn’t been able to escape as quickly as I hoped. Tyler was, if anything, worse than Parker: a sadistic bully without Parker’s admittedly shrewd and charismatic leadership to back it up. Watching them rip each other to shreds had been one of my fantasies. I’d have done it, too, but it would’ve meant spending longer as Parker’s ‘mate.’ Not happening.
“Good,” Matthew said, and stood abruptly, tipping me off of his lap and steadying me with a hand around my arm as I nearly fell across the table. “Then let’s go.”
He towed me out of the room just as Ian slammed the door open, frowning and muttering about how short we were on time.
We stepped out of the front door of the pack house a moment later, and I stopped, stunned by the fresh air and the feeling of sunshine on my face. It was the first time I’d been outside since my capture, and I hadn’t realized how heavily the lack of it had been weighing on me.
The sun. Oh, the sun. Stretching out, rolling onto my back and letting my belly grow warm and cozy, the breeze ruffling my fur…but I had these fucking cuffs on, and that was impossible. It was a beautiful day, though, even in my human form. Pine-scented eddies of cool air wafted past my nose, carrying tantalizing hints of running water and rabbits and wildflowers. Springtime was my favorite season, with all the daffodils and soft green grass and baby birds — which I didn’t even eat, thank you very much. I knew that probably made me a secret wuss, but fuck it. It wasn’t like anyone was going to find out about it.
“Can we move it along?” Ian said, sounding exasperated, with an undertone of anxiety I couldn’t help empathizing with. “We have to meet them at the border. If they get past it and into the territory, we can’t hide the fact that we had a battle here a few nights ago and how badly prepared we are for another one. They’ll know how fucking weak we are in two seconds.”
I didn’t see a waiting car, so I wasn’t sure how we were going to get there in time anyway — but then I jumped as a weird black vertical slash in the air appeared out of nowhere and widened quickly into a rectangle. The black-clad mage who’d helped capture me stepped out of it, as I watched in gaping shock.
I’d never seen magic like that. What the fuck was he? I couldn’t tell by his scent — and then it hit me. He didn’t have one. I could see him, and I knew I could hear him if he spoke, but if I’d been blindfolded and he’d remained silent I’d never have known he was there.
“Nate’s already at the meeting point,” the mage said. Dor, they’d called him? “If you would, gentlemen.” He stood to the side and gestured at the opening, which looked like it led to some kind of depthless void. Light didn’t enter it or escape it.
Matthew tugged me along, and I dragged my feet without even meaning to.
But a second later we were there, and Matthew wrapped his arm around my shoulders and pulled me through willy-nilly. With the manacles on, it didn’t feel like anything at all, but I wondered if I’d have had a different experience with my magical senses.
In a split second we emerged on the other side, and I was shaking my head, disoriented, as we stepped into a grove of redwoods by the side of the dirt and gravel access road into the Armitage territory. The small two-lane highway the road branched off of was barely visible a hundred yards or so away, the asphalt showing dully through the tree branches. Ian stepped out behind us, followed by Dor, and the opening vanished.
Ian moved to join Nate as if drawn on a string, wrapping an arm around his waist and nuzzling his hair like they’d been separated for days instead of a few minutes. A few feet closer to the road, Jennifer and Paul stood in a small circle with another middle-aged were, probably another councilor, talking quietly enough that I couldn’t make out what they were saying. They were flanked by a pair of big, tall, dangerous-looking guys in leather jackets who looked like they based their fashion sense on trying to copy Ian. Idiots. I dismissed them instantly, as I knew Parker would. If Parker had come looking for serious trouble, they wouldn’t be any use. And if he hadn’t, it wasn’t like they’d impress him much. Parker’s pack was heavy on muscle.
There was one more person there: the vampire, Charlie Fenwick. He’d been in the fight the other night, and Adam, the Kimball shaman, had shown me his picture before that so I’d know who he was. It was hard to believe he wielded any real power or authority; he looked like someone’s freckle-faced teenage kid, and the blue hoodie and jeans he was wearing didn’t help. And checkered high-top Converse, gods help us all. Dor moved to his side immediately, taking up a station at his shoulder and leaning casually against a tree.
If Parker hadn’t done his research, he’d dismiss Fenwick instantly, too. I wondered what he’d think of Dor. The sword on his back was intimidating, but it was also so long and so heavy-looking that it didn’t seem possible anyone could wield it effectively. Would Parker think it was an affectation, a showy piece tha
t wouldn’t do much in a real fight?
If so, he was in for a rude awakening. I’d seen for myself what Dor could do with that sword. Imagining Parker impaled on the pointy end of it gave me a glow that warmed me more than the sunlight.
The sound of a car engine — no, several car engines, fuck, that meant Parker had come in force after all — sent the whole scattered group into action. Matthew’s iron grip on my arm meant I went with him as he took up his position right in the center of the access road. The councilors stood on his other side, which left Ian and Nate next to me. Fenwick and Dor exchanged a few quiet words and then sauntered to the side of the road, keeping themselves separate and sending a clear message: they were here as observers only. As I watched them, they…faded? What was I looking at? They were still there, but if you didn’t know it your eyes would pass right over them.
Fuck. So much for Nate’s hope that they’d be useful.
And then I couldn’t look at them anymore, because three huge black SUVs made the turn onto the access road and stopped about twenty feet from us.
The doors of two of the SUVs opened, and out stepped a whole gang of Parker’s weres, looking like they were spoiling for a fight.
Then the third SUV spilled out its passengers: all Kimballs, grinning like they’d won the lottery.
Double fuck.
Chapter 7
Enemies New and Old
Parker led the way, his usual swagger and smirk very much in place. He was objectively handsome, in a blond-and-stacked kind of way, but he was also such a stereotypical alpha douchebag, with his big black motorcycle boots and t-shirt with the cutoff sleeves. Not to mention the forced mating thing. Seeing him again, after months of trying to forget him, I was almost shivering with the desire to flay his flesh from his bones and watch him die screaming. Flanking him were Tyler and four more of his enforcers, with several more behind them, all of them dressed like Parker-clones.
And the Kimballs were right behind them: Bill Kimball, Sam’s younger brother, and Bill’s son Colin, along with two more weres I didn’t know by name but had seen in passing while I was living in the Kimball territory.
Captive Mate (Mismatched Mates Book 2) Page 6
