“Yeah, well, things aren’t always what they seem,” Laurel tried to say calmly, slowly pulling out her phone while Dane wasn’t watching and fumbling to unlock it and call Asher. “So that kidnapping this afternoon, that was all a setup?” She tried to keep him talking. Hopefully he would stay distracted.
Dane didn’t take his eyes off the road. “Good call. No, it wasn’t. I planned to have you kidnapped right there, but when I figured out your overeager protector was watching us from all the constant glances you were giving across the street, I knew he would make a scene. So I had to play the hero instead so you would trust me.”
Dammit. Laurel had been so wrong about Dane. If only she could dial the number, she trusted Asher would somehow be able to find her.
Dane continued his thought. “No need to worry, though. I have a place nearby where no one will think to look for you. Not even your precious Asher. Then we’ll lay low until morning and see your father to get the bounty and his blessing. And then after that, it will be just you and me, together forever, like it always was meant to be.”
Laurel had succeeded in unlocking the phone and typing in Asher’s cell number. She kept the phone under her right leg, as far from Dane’s view as possible. She was so close!
But just as she was about to press dial, the phone was whisked from her grip in a split second.
“Ah-ah, no funny business,” Dane said mockingly, tossing the phone out the window. “You don’t want to make your future mate angry, now do you?”
Laurel could hear the phone rattle against the pavement, and then the sound was instantly gone.
Her last chance of anyone finding her was now vanished.
Shit.
9
Asher had no time to waste. If what Lindon had said was true, and Rowan’s sons were some of the most trustworthy, if not difficult, shifters he’d ever met, then Laurel was in danger.
Dammit, Asher, you should have seen this coming. You knew something was off about Dane to start.
But no matter how angry Asher got with himself, it wouldn’t bring Laurel back to him right now.
Thankfully, he’d installed an app on Laurel’s phone when she wasn’t looking not too long ago and had hidden it in an obscure subfolder. The app allowed him to always track her location and even activate the phone in an emergency if it was turned off.
Right now, it was leading him to the middle of Nowheresville in a mostly abandoned part of the city. The kind of area you don’t take loved ones or go out in after dark.
Asher floored the accelerator of his restored ‘73 mustang. After this, he’d need to give it a checkup, but right now, he was just grateful the car had plenty of power to get him where Laurel was with all possible speed.
From the looks of it, her location had stopped moving a couple minutes ago, so maybe they’d stopped somewhere to get gas or grab a bite to eat.
Like there would be any restaurants in this part of the city.
One could hope, though.
He turned onto the block where his phone directed him, only to see the street was completely devoid of vehicles or life in general. He drove down it, slowing as his phone dinged to signify they were in the right place.
Where were they?
A few meters ahead on the pavement, almost in the gutter, Asher saw glass reflecting light in his direction. He stopped the car and hopped out, not taking time to kill the engine. Nobody out here could mess with him. He looked down and picked up what definitely looked like Laurel’s phone. Only now the glass screen was shattered and the body was dented, like it had been thrown against the ground.
Or tossed from a moving vehicle.
Asher jumped back into his car. Thankfully, this part of the city only spanned a few blocks before it ended at the city limits bordering the landfill, so wherever Laurel was, she was probably close.
Hopefully.
All the things Lucas had said pounded in his head to the beat of his heart, which was doing its best to leap out of his chest now. What was Dane planning with Laurel out in a place like this? If he was interested in the bounty, why come out here?
Asher’s foot was lead now, racing and curving down the city blocks, eyes watching for the sight of Dane’s nauseating green convertible. Thankfully, his would be the only one like it in this forsaken place.
When he got his hands on that bastard…
As if an answer to an unsaid prayer, Asher spotted a sliver of the aforementioned car. It was parked behind a rundown, two-story house and sloppily covered with a tarp.
Probably because Dane hadn’t expected Asher to be able to follow her this far.
His funeral.
Asher put the car in neutral and coasted into a spot across the street, throwing it in park and jumping out of the car, taking care to not slam the door. Unlike in the alley the other night, if Laurel were in danger, he’d want the element of surprise.
He jogged up to the house quickly, noting the boarded-up windows and the chipped, almost nonexistent paint on the exterior. Clearly, this wasn’t the kind of place normally inhabited by anyone but thugs or criminals.
As he walked up to the door, two men, both shifters, came around the side and approached him. They looked tough, probably hired muscle, and they were approaching fast.
“Hey, no solicitors allowed,” one said, cracking his knuckles.
“Oh, good,” Asher replied. He rushed at the men and grabbed each by the throat, lifting them off the ground and holding them in the air. “I’d hate to think I wasn’t invited.”
As much as he’d love to smash these guys through the wall, Asher didn’t want to make a scene before he knew Laurel was safe. Discretion being the better part of valor and all that.
The shorter men jerked and squirmed, struggling against Asher’s vise-like grip. But it was no use. Asher was pissed. And the closer he got, the more he could smell the stink of too much cologne that would lead him to the asshole whose face he was about to pummel.
Finally, the struggling stopped, and Asher plopped the unconscious men quietly onto the deck. He walked around the back and looked inside, seeing if he could spot movement.
Nothing.
In that very moment, he heard a shriek from inside the house. It was Laurel, no doubt about it, though he’d never heard her sound so distressed before in his life.
Fuck it. So much for discretion.
Asher rushed to the back door and kicked it open. Rather than swinging wide, it busted off its hinges and flew onto the floor.
“Laurel!” Asher yelled into the dilapidated house.
There was a sound of feet shuffling upstairs, and Asher ran inside, finding the stairs and bounding up them three at a time. There was a door, and Asher reached for it, throwing it open.
Inside was Dane, shirt partly unbuttoned, turning and looking askance at him. In the corner was Laurel. His Laurel, looking terrified and shocked and happy to see him all at the same time.
“Say your prayers, fucker,” Asher swore and charged.
* * *
Laurel couldn’t believe her eyes. She’d almost given up. Struggling against Dane had been no use, his alpha strength was overpowering. But like something from a classic film, her knight had come riding in to save her.
Granted, this knight rode a black mustang and wore dark leather. And looked angrier than a raging wolverine defending its home.
Asher wasted no time and ran directly at her shocked captor, driving Dane completely through the paper-thin wall on the other side of the room. Laurel heard a crash and jumped up to see what had happened. Before the dust could even settle, Dane pushed Asher off and leapt to his feet, squaring off with him.
“So the mongrel decided to try and crash the party,” Dane said, his charming veneer unable to hide the vitriol in his voice. “Just leave, you classless, worthless scum.”
“The only thing that’s going out is your ass, with the rest of the trash in this shitty dump,” Asher spat back. “Laurel, are you okay?” he said, glancing sid
elong at her.
“Yes, I’m fine,” Laurel said, her breath catching.
“Here, take my keys and lock yourself in the ‘Stang while I beat the shit out of this asshole,” he said, pulling out his keys.
Before he could toss them, Dane went on the attack, charging into Asher. Asher put his arms up to block, but Dane was like a raging bull now and wasn’t going to go down quietly.
What Dane lacked in fighting experience, he had in genetics that, by dumb luck, had granted him incredible strength, many times that of a normal shifter.
Asher grunted as Dane pushed him into the ground. Asher countered with several quick blows to the face, giving him space to get up. He threw a knee into Dane’s midsection, which connected with a thud but didn’t move Dane at all.
“So the mongrel thinks it can compete with a purebred?” Dane taunted.
“Fuck off,” Asher swore and looped his arm behind Dane’s neck, trying to pull him into a chokehold. Dane grabbed Asher by his jacket and in one incredible swoop, lifted Asher off the ground and threw him through another adjoining wall into a neighboring room, the sound of cracking wood and crashing drywall resounding through the house.
For a moment, only the sound of dust and debris settling could be heard. Dane, looking smug and satisfied, wiped his hands and strode toward Laurel ominously.
“Sorry for the interruption. You’re coming with me,” he said, reaching for her. Laurel stepped back but realized there was nowhere to run.
Dane was interrupted by a terrible wrenching sound, which made him stop five or so feet from Laurel. He turned in time to face a bathroom sink, old and rusted, flying directly at his face, having come from the direction Asher was last seen. He lifted his arms to protect himself, just in time, as it met him directly, breaking with incredible force and crashing into hundreds of porcelain pieces that scattered all around him.
“Cut the shit talk,” Asher said, stepping out of the bathroom one room over. “And fight already.”
Dane lowered his arms, which were cut and bleeding but otherwise uninjured, and looked to Asher, then back to Laurel. But instead of turning back to Asher, he rushed at Laurel, coming directly at her.
“I’ll claim her before you can stop me.”
Terror rose in Laurel. Dane’s eyes were wild, ferocious. She’d never seen him like this before.
Asher leapt toward Dane and caught him by the shirt collar, mere inches from Laurel, and pulled him back. In an instant, Dane whirled around on Asher, swinging in a wide arc directly at his face.
Laurel braced to hear the sound of Dane’s fist connecting with Asher’s head. When it did, there was the sound of a loud crack that filled the room. But instead of Asher’s jaw being broken or even torn from it’s socket, like she feared could happen with Dane’s incredible strength, Asher stood firm, unaffected by the blow.
Dane pulled his hand back immediately, shrieking and holding his fist with the other. “What the…? How did you…?” From what Laurel could see, Dane’s hand looked badly broken in several places.
“You don’t think you’re the only one with alpha powers, do you, fuck face?” Asher said, glaring at him with rage.
“But you’re just a nobody, a nothing-burger,” Dane spat, nursing his injured hand.
“I may not be a classy SOB like you, but I’m all alpha.” With that, Asher grabbed Dane by his shirt and pulled him forward, driving Dane’s forehead into his own with a head-butt that sent Dane flying backwards across the room.
Dane crashed into the floor and then fumbled to get up, dazed and almost completely out. Asher pulled Dane up off the ground and threw him headfirst out the window, making a deafening noise.
Dane careened out of the house, where he landed on a pile of trash bags in the backyard. Asher looked down at him from the new hole in the house, watching. Dane didn’t move, and Asher huffed with satisfaction.
Laurel’s mind was still spinning from the past few minutes. Without a word, Asher came up to her and embraced her, his huge, warm arms enveloping her and making her feel safe.
“You came for me,” Laurel said into Asher’s shoulder, stifling the tears starting to form at the corners of her eyes.
“Of course I did. You know I always will,” he said, his hands smoothing over her back, calming her.
The words were both reassuring and confusing. The things he’d said earlier in the day still stung.
“Now let’s get you out of here,” he said firmly. “We’ll talk more on the way home.”
They carefully navigated the copious amounts of debris scattered throughout the upper floor of the house, and exited out the back, coming around the house and toward the car. As they did, Asher pulled out his phone and started typing on it with one hand, the other still wrapped around her shoulders, holding her tight.
“Who are you texting?” she asked.
“A friend. His wife knows someone that can take care of this. The Tribunal doesn’t like rogues like Dane running around, so they have a group that handles these things. Or so I’ve been told,” he said offhandedly, putting his phone back in his pocket.
“So what happened back there, when Dane hit you in the face? How did you break his hand instead?”
“Iron skin, or at least that’s what I’ve heard it called. Though I think it’s a shitty name,” Asher grumbled.
“Is that your alpha power?” Laurel asked. She didn’t know that Asher even had one. He was a full-blooded alpha, so it made sense, but he’d never mentioned it.
“Yep, so Dane’s alpha strength just meant he could hurt himself all that more against it. Though it still hurts like hell,” he said, rubbing his cheek. “And I have to focus to do it. It’s not just on all the time.”
“I see,” she said. “You know, that kind of makes sense as thick-skulled as you are.”
He frowned. “Hey…”
She snuggled into him. “Just kidding. Thanks for telling me.”
“No problem,” Asher said. “I figure the least I can do is let my mate know what she’s getting into,” Asher added, turning to her with a wry grin.
“Your what?” Laurel froze in place, her heart stuttering as Asher opened the passenger door for her.
“You heard me. My mate.” He looked her over, making his meaning clear, then closed the door for her and came around to jump in the driver’s seat.
“So are you saying…?”
“I love you, Laurel. I always have. I always will. And I’m sorry it’s taken me so long and so much crap to finally come to grips with it. But I want you to be mine forever, and I want to be yours.”
Asher started the car, and they drove off.
* * *
Laurel couldn’t stop staring at him, bug-eyed. He seemed content to drive away from the scene, down back roads through a forest where there were no lights or cars in sight.
It was so like Asher to drop a bomb like that and then just go on as if nothing had happened.
“Asher?” she asked.
He looked over. “What?”
“Um, mate?”
“Yes,” he said simply.
She couldn’t calm her pulse. She had no idea what Asher was talking about, how he’d done such a complete one-eighty, yet here he was acting like everything was fine. “Um, forgive me for saying so, but I need more information.”
Asher laughed, a gruff sound that resonated through her. “All right. You deserve it I guess.” He sent her a glare. “Although, you did talk to Lucas about me…”
She grinned guiltily. “Some things might have slipped out.”
He ran a hand through his hair. There was a light sheen of sweat on his skin from his fight. She could still remember how heroic he’d been, charging into battle for her, taking out anything in his way. It warmed her like nothing else.
The way he’d protected her had always been the way he cared. It’d been what always confused her when he insisted there was nothing between them. Tonight, there had been nothing conflicted about it. Just her alpha
coming for her.
“Well, it’s good they did slip out, because after you left, Lucas wrestled some sense into me.”
She gave him a sidelong glance. “By that you mean he actually, literally wrestled sense into you.”
“More or less,” Asher admitted. “I guess that’s becoming a thing.” He grinned at her.
She sighed in relief. Things were feeling normal again. “Well, you’re so damned hardheaded… but what happened with Lucas? What did he tell you? About the pack promise?”
Asher winced. “Yeah. I fucked that up. Totally misunderstood. It didn’t occur to me to go to him and clarify, because I thought that would make me seem like that much more of a douche.”
Laurel nodded. “When I talked to him, he made it clear you misunderstood, that that’s not what he meant.”
Asher nodded. “I know.” He gave her a long stare, which was possible because the road was so empty and straight. “I don’t know how to see myself the way you do, Laurel. But I know I did for a moment, earlier today, and I liked it. I liked myself. I felt worthy of you.”
She snorted but felt bad for him. “Asher, you don’t have to be worthy. You just have to be wanted.”
“Am I wanted?” he asked. The vulnerability echoing in his black eyes was haunting.
“Of course you are,” she said firmly. “You know you are. Every time you’ve had me, it hasn’t been enough. Even the first time you kissed me, when you were trying to scare me and show me what alpha males were capable of, all you did was fulfill a long-held fantasy.”
Asher blinked. “Damn. I should have kept going.”
“I thought you weren’t attracted.”
Asher gripped the wheel and growled. “Not attracted? Like hell. It’s been torture trying not to think of you that way. My wolf has been howling for you for a long time, but I thought you were off-limits.” He turned to her. “But Lucas did make me make a new pack promise.”
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