by Renee Rose
“Where’s Ben?” she asked as she found her way to the indicated chair.
“He went after Jack.”
That made her even angrier. Clearly, she meant nothing to him—he’d pawned her off on his friend while he went for revenge. It seemed he had only been keeping her around to make the trade with his laptop. She’d been a fool to think he had any feelings for her.
Zolla tore her shirt open at the neckline to expose her shoulder.
“Hey,” she protested. “You could’ve just asked me to take it off. This is the only shirt I have at the moment, you know.”
“Yeah, I’m not going to answer to Ben for having your shirt off,” he muttered.
“Ben has no claim on me,” she said bitterly.
Zolla raised his eyebrows and pursed his lips as if to show he disagreed, but wasn’t going to argue. He inspected the punctures in her skin and then walked to the bathroom where he wet a washcloth in the sink. When he returned, he cleaned the wounds.
She drew a breath. “Why did he do this to me? Is… is this what wolves do when they have sex?”
“No. He marked you. Do you know what that means?”
She shook her head, then stopped, wincing as the pain shot across her trapezius muscle.
“I don’t think he meant to do it, but his instinct probably took over. It means he’s chosen you as his mate. When a shifter male marks his mate, a special secretion coats his teeth. You probably feel a little drugged right now?”
“Yeah,” she said.
“The secretion is embedded in your flesh and his scent remains permanently, telling other wolves you are taken by him.”
A flood of indignation soaked through her. How dare he permanently mark her? She would be scarred for life and he hadn’t even asked first. And then he’d just walked out on her and sent Zolla over like she was some mess someone else had to clean up.
“This is bullshit,” she said, twisting to glare at Zolla, as if it was his fault his pack mate was an asshole. “He just bites a chunk out of my shoulder and then disappears and sends you to clean it up? Can you get his scent out of me, because I am sure as hell not sticking around for this kind of treatment.”
Zolla had leaned in close to inspect the marks under her collarbone. “Ashley… do you always heal this fast?” he asked.
“What do you mean?” She stood up and walked to the bathroom to look in the mirror. The gashes that had been so horrible forty-five minutes before had mostly closed, the bleeding stopped.
“I don’t know,” she said. “Is this fast?”
Zolla waited for her to return. “Yes. Most humans would require multiple stitches and would still be bleeding freely, but your blood has already coagulated and the flesh is sticking together as if this wound were a day old, instead of an hour.”
She touched her shoulder, trying to understand what he was telling her.
“Do you have any shifter blood in the family?”
She gaped at him. “You mean…?” Her mind raced, instantly arriving on Grandma Jane, who had given birth to her dad out of wedlock. It had been a scandalous family secret, and her father had been raised believing Abe Bell, his stepfather, was his real father until he saw his own birth certificate when he went off to college. The line for father had been filled in as ‘unknown.’ He’d confronted his mother and she’d refused to tell him anything, other than that Abe Bell loved him as his own and that was all that mattered.
Had Grandma Jane had a fling with a shifter?
Ashley considered how her father had always bragged that neither he nor his daughters ever got sick. It was true, their mother had her share of colds and flus, but Ashley and Melissa rarely caught anything, and when they did, it was mild in comparison to other people’s.
“Maybe I do heal fast,” she said slowly, remembering times when she or Melissa thought they’d sprained something only to have the swelling and pain be gone by morning. “I think I just always thought I was lucky.”
“It would explain Ben’s fascination with you.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What do you mean?”
He waved his hands as if to ward off her temper. “I didn’t mean any offense by that. You’re gorgeous and smart, anyone can see that, it’s just that alphas don’t usually choose humans as their mates. Biology would demand they choose the strongest or most suitable female for breeding.”
She sniffed, her anger with Ben returning full force.
“Listen… it’s none of my business, but—” He broke off when she whirled to glare at him.
“What?” she demanded.
“Just—don’t be too hard on him. He looked about as miserable as I’ve ever seen him this morning. I don’t think he meant to hurt you and I know he felt terrible about it.”
Some of her anger lessened, which for some reason made her feel weepy. She drew in several breaths to get control. “Well, why in the hell did he leave?”
Zolla shrugged. “I don’t know. My sense is that he carries around a lot of guilt—something to do with Leon’s death. He feels responsible for some reason. And I think hurting someone else he loved just made him tuck tail and run.”
Hearing that Zolla believed Ben loved her made her nose burn. She rubbed it.
“Honestly, Ashley. I know he didn’t mean to hurt you.”
She looked away to hide the emotion in her face.
His phone rang and he answered it. “How’d it go?” He listened for a moment. “Do you need cleanup?”
She strained her ears to hear the other person talking, wondering if it was Ben.
Her question was answered with Zolla’s next reply. “She’s okay. No major arteries, the wounds are healing well… No, she won’t need to see a doctor, unless she wants to.” He raised his eyebrows in question at her and she shook her head. “Okay.” Zolla held out the phone to her. “He wants to talk to you.”
She folded her arms across her chest and shook her head.
Zolla spoke into the phone. “Hey, man, she’s not feeling up to it, yet.” He turned away as if having a private conversation with Ben. “Give her a little time. It was a little shocking for her, that’s all.”
“A little?” she muttered.
Zolla hung up and turned back to her. “He thinks it’s safe for you and Melissa to return home.”
“What happened with Jack?”
“Ben took care of him. He had taken a job at Suma Games and wanted to ruin Stone and steal the code before he left.”
“What did Ben do?”
“He finished it,” he said with a finality that made her shiver. “He thinks it’s safe for you and Melissa to go home now.”
Though it was irrational, disappointment at once again being dissed by Ben sent bile into her throat. “Great,” she said in a strangled voice. “Is Mel still at your place?”
“Yeah, I’ll head back and let her know. Do you want her to call you or anything?”
“Tell her to meet me at my place,” she said, picking up her purse and fishing out the keys.
“Will do,” Zolla said, opening the door and waiting for her to go through it first.
“Thanks,” she said, turning and giving Zolla a hug.
He froze, patting her awkwardly on the back. He cleared his throat. “Uh, no problem. You shouldn’t need to put anything on that bite—no hydrogen peroxide or antibiotic. The serum will protect you from infection. Are you okay to drive or do you still feel drugged?”
“I’m okay to drive,” she said. She felt odd, but the vertigo had worn off. “Is it okay to get it wet? I could use a long shower.”
“Should be fine. Just take it easy today. Put my number in your phone and call me if you have any questions or if you feel worse. Or if you need anything.”
She entered him into her contacts and gave him a weak smile. “Thanks again, Zolla.”
“Yeah. Be kind to your wolf, Ashley. He really is sorry.”
She shrugged. “He has yet to tell me that.” Not that she’d given him the opportunity
.
She was grateful that Zolla didn’t point out that would have been impossible since she’d refused to take Ben’s call. She knew she was being somewhat irrational, but Ben’s abandonment was the clincher in a whole string of emotional shut-outs from the very beginning of their relationship.
She’d had enough. She didn’t know where they’d be going from here, but she was damn sure she wasn’t going to let it continue like this. She couldn’t go on feeling this unsteady. She didn’t give herself to a guy only to have him vanish every time things got intense.
Chapter Ten
That afternoon, Ben sat in his office, the quiet deafening. Zolla had come to consult with Ben’s IT guys to get all the servers back up and running and the security back in place.
His stomach stayed in knots all day thinking about Ashley. The fact that she didn’t take his call provided a fresh source of torture. He tried again several times, but each time it went straight to voicemail, as if she’d shut her phone off or her battery was dead.
He prayed she wasn’t suffering. He had doubts about how well Zolla had cared for her. Maybe he should’ve insisted she be taken into emergency for stitches. Had she been given any painkillers? Would she ever speak to him again?
As he walked out to his car, he tried her again. Once more it went straight to voicemail. He hadn’t left a message the other times, but he made an attempt. “Ashley,” he said. His mind went blank. What the hell did you say in this situation? Was there a Hallmark card for this? I’m sorry I almost tore your throat out, will you be my valentine? Or maybe I’m ready to go to the next step with you… do you mind if I permanently scar your flesh to embed my scent? No, even better, I’d like to endanger you by making sure all my enemies know I care. Hope you don’t mind the scarring.
Damn. He was really the biggest asshat, wasn’t he?
He drew a breath and exhaled. “Please call me. I really need to talk to you. I—I’m sorry, Ashley. I need to see you…” He started to say please call me, but realizing he’d already said that, hit ‘end,’ and rubbed his forehead.
What if she didn’t call? Should he show up at her house? Or wait to see her at work? God, would she even come to work? The thought of running Stone without her left him empty. In less than a week, she had become his everything. Because of her, he wanted to fix Stone, he wanted to man up and be the leader his brother had expected him to be. Leon deserved that. Ashley somehow had woken him up from the stupor he’d been in since his brother’s death.
He got in his car and drove to her house. The lights were on and he could see Ashley and Melissa sitting together on the sofa. He sat with the car idling for a moment, considering. Both women probably had a lot to share with each other. Maybe it was better to let them lick their wounds together without him interrupting.
He put the Mustang back in gear and drove home.
* * *
Turning off her phone when she was angry with Ben for abandoning her rivaled cutting off her nose to spite her face. Probably some part of her wanted to punish him. And maybe the other just wasn’t ready to talk. She needed to sort out her feelings about the whole ‘marking’ thing.
By the time she had told the entire story to Mel, she’d begun to feel the magnitude of it all. It wasn’t just about being shocked over the violence or angry over the abandonment. Ben had forever marked her as his mate. She had to admit her heart did a giddy dance when she realized the implications. She’d been right—he did have a thing for her. A serious thing, by the sounds of it. She didn’t know what it meant to be a wolf’s mate, but if they could work past the walls Ben put up, she sure as hell wanted to give it a try.
She had turned her phone back on before she went to bed, and was satisfied to hear Ben’s message. He’d sounded terrible. She still hadn’t been ready to talk to him, but she felt a lot better. Today, she could face him at work. They would talk and could move forward from there.
She drove in early and found a place in the garage close to the elevator. “Hang on,” she called out as the elevator doors shut on a man she didn’t recognize. She shoved her hand between the doors to open them and slid in. “Thirty-fifth floor, please,” she said.
He pressed the button without looking at her. She took in his shiny shoes first, then his crisp, clean designer business suit. He had dark hair, graying at the temples, and olive skin, darker than Ben’s. His eyes met hers and he wrinkled his nose as he sniffed the air.
She froze at the distinctly wolf-like gesture.
Her tension seemed to be the confirmation he needed because his lips curled into an ugly smile. “You’ve been freshly marked,” he observed in a thick Spanish accent.
She jerked her gaze away and looked up at the illuminated floor numbers above the doors. “I don’t know what you mean.”
In one swift movement, he pulled a gun out of his jacket pocket and pointed it at her. “When the elevator reaches the destination, you will stay on, close the doors, and take it back down to the garage.”
She held her breath, trying to organize her thoughts. Who was this man? Someone from South America… Leon had died in Venezuela. What had Ben told her about it?
The doors opened and the gun disappeared into his jacket pocket, still pointed directly at her. “Close them. Now,” he growled.
She hit the ‘close door’ button. The elevator continued up to Ben’s floor. Please, she prayed, let him be out by Karen’s desk where he would see her standing there with the wolf she presumed was his enemy.
No such luck. The doors slid open to an empty reception area. Karen wasn’t at her desk, and Ben’s door was closed.
“Close the doors and hit P1.”
She hesitated.
“Do it!” he snarled.
She obeyed. “Who are you?”
The shifter’s lip curled. “I am Sandoval.”
She looked at him blankly.
“He has not told you about me?” he asked, sounding offended.
She shrugged, trying to look unconcerned.
“I am the wolf who’s going to make your lover boy pay.”
“What did he do to you?”
The doors slid open in the garage and the nasty wolf shoved her forward, out of the elevator. “Tomás Solís murdered my wife and children.”
She sucked in her breath, the blast of hatred from the man almost palpable. She didn’t know who Tomás Solís was, but she didn’t think it was the right time to ask.
He marched her forward, his fingers on her upper arm digging into her flesh. Two younger men jumped out of a dark car and one of them held the door open for Sandoval. “Get in,” he snapped, shoving her forward.
“Who’s this?” one of the younger men asked. He resembled her captor—perhaps he was his son or nephew.
Sandoval pushed in to sit beside her. “The Solís pup’s mate.”
“What do we want with her?” the other man asked.
“Just drive the car,” Sandoval snapped. “Back to the house.”
The car backed out and sped out of the parking garage. She scanned the cars coming in, thinking she might try to flag down help, but she realized the windows were too tinted for anyone to see her inside.
The older wolf’s son twisted around in the front seat to look at her, and then his father. He said something in Spanish.
The older man said something back, then turned to her, a nasty smile on his face.
“I killed Solís too fast. I should have made him watch while I tortured his pups before his eyes.” He picked up a lock of her hair and twirled it between his fingers. “But now I can rectify that.” His dark eyes glinted. “His son can watch his mate defiled, then killed. And then, when I finish the youngest Solís, my vengeance will be complete.”
Was Ben the youngest Solís?
“I-I’m not actually Ben’s mate. It was a mistake—he didn’t mean to mark me. I’m human.”
“Which makes you all the more fragile.” The man smiled. “Torturing a human is so rewarding.”
; She shuddered.
The car pulled up to a villa-style vacation rental—a self-contained unit, two stories high with a wall surrounding the property.
Terror had seeped in, turning her entire body cold. She took deep breaths, trying to keep her wits. She had her phone. Maybe she could find a way to text Ben or Zolla. Zolla might be able to trace her location.
Sandoval shoved her out of the car and pulled her into the house, sitting her down and taping her ankles to the legs of a chair. He taped her wrists behind her, so tight the wood from the chair dug into her arms. Rummaging in her purse, he pulled out her phone and scrolled through it. “Where is lover boy’s number?” he asked, not seeming to expect an answer. “Ah, here it is.” He hit dial on the number and held it to her ear. “Say hello to him.”
Ben answered on the second ring. “Ashley,” he croaked, sounding relieved. She remembered with a painful twist in her chest that they were at odds, and she hadn’t returned his phone calls. Tears of regret stung her eyes.
“Ben—”
Sandoval took the phone away from her and said something in Spanish.
“Ben, don’t come—it’s a trap,” she yelled.
Sandoval struck her with the back of his hand, slamming her head back. She tasted blood as pain exploded in her mouth, jaw, and neck.
“Don’t come,” she repeated, as Sandoval walked away with the phone, still speaking into it.
* * *
Sandoval had Ashley. Ben’s vision domed, his senses razor-sharp. It took him only three seconds to determine his course of action. He called Zolla as he drove to the address Sandoval had given him.
“Are you crazy?” Zolla demanded. “You can’t go in there alone—you’ll never walk back out. Tell me where and I’ll meet you.”
“No. I’m going alone and unarmed, as instructed. I’m not taking any chances where Ashley’s concerned.” He hung up before Zolla could begin his arguments and pressed his foot down on the gas.
He pulled up at the address and stepped out of the car. For once, his mind was perfectly clear where Ashley was concerned. A strange peace had settled around him like a cloak, giving him a serene sense of power. He walked to the door and knocked.