Closing my eyes, I breathed deeply, waiting for the current song to end and the opening beats for mine to begin. As soon as I heard the lilting notes, I strode confidently onto the stage with the garnet silk material wrapped around my body. Moving slowly at first and then gaining speed, I used the veil as an extension of myself. It filled the space around me, hiding and revealing my body from the audience’s eyes, the fabric adding dimension to my performance. As the song drew to a close, I tossed the veil into the audience, straight over the lap of the man at table four. Sashaying down the steps, I strolled over to his table, knelt between his legs, and gently tugged on the material until it pooled in his lap.
“Sorry about that. I guess I underestimated my throwing strength. Can I buy you a drink to make up for it?”
He was tall and wiry with dark hair, a little overly long and in need of a cut. His light brown eyes were burning with lust as he looked down at me. When I breathed in, I could smell his arousal underneath the scent of his wolf. Since a human had acted in the initial kidnapping attempt, I’d kind of been expecting another one. Luckily, I hadn’t banked on it and waited to follow through with the mating or else I’d be up shit creek without a paddle right now. At least I could take a small comfort in knowing I hadn’t made Braden and I suffer for nothing.
“I certainly can’t complain about the veil since it brought you to me. You have nothing to make up to me, but I’d love it if you’d join me for a drink anyway.”
He raised one of his hands and held it out for me to take. When I placed my palm in his, he helped me to my feet and waited for me to settle into the chair next to him before calling the waitress over.
“Two glasses of champagne.” Another surprise. It was the last thing I expected this man to order since he was dressed in jeans that had seen better days, scuffed cowboy boots, and a flannel button-down shirt.
“Champagne?”
“This moment deserves to be celebrated, Lia. It isn’t every day a man meets the woman he wants to take as his mate.” His attention shifted from the waitress’s ass to me while he spoke. I wished it hadn’t. All I wanted to do was vomit, but I couldn’t allow him to see my distaste. Hearing the word ‘mate’ coming from him was disgusting, especially since he was the reason I wasn’t mated to Braden yet.
“Mate?” I forced the word past my lips, struggling to keep contempt out of my tone.
He reached toward me and ran his finger lightly over my arm. “I’ve been a little obsessed from the moment I first laid eyes on you dancing up there. What else can it be but the mating bond pulling me to you?”
The goose bumps on my flesh had nothing to do with pleasure and everything to do with the flash of fear racing up my spine. The crazy bastard actually sounded like he meant it. He thought I was his fated mate.
Right when the waitress returned and was placing our glasses on the table, his phone rang. A furious look crossed his face as he glanced down at it. As his finger hovered over the red button to decline the call, I leapt at the distraction it offered. “Please, go ahead and take it. I’d hate to keep you from something important. We’ve got all the time in the world now that you’ve found me.”
His eyes lit in pleasure at the sign of my acceptance. “That, we do,” he murmured softly before waving the waitress away and moving the phone to his ear. “Channing here.”
My heart jolted at the way he answered the call. I’d heard the name Channing before, and recently. As I half listened to his call, my brain raced, trying to place his name. Then, it hit me—Annora’s mom had mated with a man whose last name was Channing. This was the connection we’d been looking for all along. When he disconnected the call with an angry jab of his finger and slammed his phone onto the table, I schooled my features into a look of concern and slid my fingers into the waistband of my panties to grab the tracking device I’d hidden there earlier.
“Anything I can help with?”
His gaze moved from his phone to my face, regret clearly visible in the look he sent my way. “The last thing I want to do is leave right when I’ve finally gotten you to notice me, but something urgent has come up. You’re here again tomorrow night, right?”
“Yes.”
He dropped some cash on the table and stood. “I’ll be back for you then.” He paused to drop a hard kiss to my lips. “Be ready to leave this life behind for your new one as my mate.”
I caught his sleeve and raised up on my tiptoes to whisper in his ear, sliding the tracking device into his back pocket. “I’ll be ready and waiting.”
Chapter 11
Braden
As soon as my phone lit up with the text from Tahlia, I jabbed my finger at the ignition button and jerked the truck onto the road. When I reached down to grab my phone, my dad yanked it from my hand and pulled up the message.
“The last thing we need is for you to kill us both in a car wreck because you’re texting and driving. It’s bad enough you insisted we get this close to the club. A few measly miles is too close for comfort. Anyone could have seen us waiting here, but you’re so goddamn stubborn you refuse to listen to reason.”
“Enough with the muttering. What does her message say?”
“Holy fuck,” he breathed. “The guy’s a relative of the douchebag Annora’s mom chose over me. Same last name and everything.”
“And here I thought my mom was bad for abandoning us. At least she never came back and tried to hurt us.”
“One thing’s for sure, I’ve got shit taste in women. But at least you boys haven’t gone down the same path. Your woman is a goddamn miracle. She managed to slip a tracking device on him and she’s following him now. They’re heading toward the other end of town, so you’d better step on it if you want to catch up with them.”
“I guess it’s a good thing I didn’t listen to you and wait at the safe house like you said we should,” I mumbled.
My dad chuckled darkly. “Didn’t your daddy ever teach you it ain’t right to say I told you so?”
“He was too busy telling me he was right all the time.”
He just shook his head and told me which way to go. After a few minutes passed and we hadn’t caught up to Tahlia, I hit the gas to speed up more.
“Shit!”
I checked the odometer. We were already going ninety, but I bumped it up to a hundred. I had a bad feeling in my gut. “Shit, what? You can’t just swear like that and leave me hanging when Tahlia’s out there without me.”
“He stopped, went into a house about a mile ahead on the right. Tahlia says she heard a gunshot and was going to try to get closer to the house.”
“She damn well better keep her ass in the car until we get there.”
My dad heaved a sigh. “It’s too late. She said she was silencing her phone and for us to haul ass.”
Haul ass is exactly what I did. Only a few minutes later, we pulled up behind her car and leapt from the truck. My dad signaled toward a house a few doors down. I scanned the yard, but didn’t see any sign of Tahlia. As we neared the house, I caught a glimpse of her through the front window. A guy had his arm wrapped around her throat as they faced off against a woman across the room with her back to us. The guy didn’t see me, but Tahlia’s eyes locked with mine for the briefest of moments. They didn’t hold an ounce of fear. Apparently, I was feeling enough of it for the both of us.
With a jerk of my head, I motioned my dad to the back of the house. I wanted us to be able to attack from both sides, but I wasn’t about to wait around for him to get in place. Not when my woman was in trouble. I eased up the steps and slowly twisted the knob on the front door. When I found it unlocked, I nudged it open and slid inside. Tahlia’s attention focused on me and the woman finally noticed. As her head swiveled to look my way, the man’s focus shifted in my direction, too.
“Who the fuck are you?”
I assumed his question was aimed at me, but I couldn’t seem to switch my gaze from Tahlia to him. “Her mate.”
“The fuck you are,” he hisse
d, his arm tightening around her neck as he took a step backwards. “I don’t give a shit what either of you say, she’s mine.”
“I told you we don’t have time for this crap!” the woman shrieked. “Kill her! We can’t take them both on and if she’s really his fated mate, killing her will weaken him enough for us to get away. We’ll find you someone else to mate.”
The bellow of anger following her words echoed throughout the house, but it wasn’t mine. It came from out back and was loud enough to shake the windows. My dad must have encountered some resistance while trying to get into the house. His bellows were the distraction we needed. The guy holding Tahlia shifted to the side and looked over his shoulder. His grip must have loosened just enough because Tahlia was able to wedge her hand underneath his while she kicked back with her foot, nailing him in the knee. He went down with a roar, taking Tahlia to the ground with him. By the time she rolled away from him and I turned back to the woman, she had a gun drawn and aimed in my direction.
“Get out of here!” she yelled at the man. “I’ve got this under control and one of us needs to warn your brother to get out of town.”
I should have seen it sooner. There were some similarities in facial structure to my half-sister, but I finally realized who she was. This was Annora’s mom—the woman who should have been my dad’s mate. My dad, who was going to come through the back door any moment and see her. I didn’t know how he’d react, but I figured it wasn’t going to be good. Lucky for me, the man on the floor leapt to his feet, shifted into his wolf, and headed down the hallway toward the back of the house. It gave me the perfect excuse to get my dad out of here.
“You’ve got another one coming your way!” I warned him before shifting my focus back to Annora’s mom. “Your brother-in-law is as good as dead. His wolf is no match for my dad’s bear.”
“If I were you, I’d worry a little more about what’s going to happen to you two,” she hissed.
“Why should we be worried when it’s the two of us against only one of you?” Tahlia taunted.
“Because I’m the one holding the gun, you idiot!” Her gaze kept jerking between the two of us, the gun still aimed my way. The next time her eyes were on me, Tahlia took advantage and yanked one of her guns from its holster.
“Except now, I’ve got one, too.” Her grip was firm, hands steady, as she aimed her weapon at Annora’s mom.
“You can’t kill me. Not without hurting Carrick.” Her attention shifted from the gun in Tahlia’s hand to me. “You’re his son. You know who I am. I saw the recognition in your eyes. We might not be mated, but the bond is still there. He would be devastated if you killed me.”
I froze, barely able to believe it. She was actually going to try to pull the mate card to get out of this after she turned my dad away all those years ago, never told him about Annora, and treated her like shit her whole life before finally getting involved in whatever plot there was to hurt my sister now. My hesitation was enough for her to try to press her advantage.
“You know what it would do to him. I might not bear his mark, but I’m still his. The same way this woman is supposed to be yours. I can practically feel your connection from here—the pain you felt watching her while my brother-in-law held her against her will. The same would be true for your dad and me if he came in here. You’d see it then, his connection to me.”
My gaze flicked to Tahlia. We weren’t mated yet either, but I knew I’d feel her death to the depth of my soul.
“Your connection to my dad is nothing like mine and hers. She’s a good woman who’s willing to risk her life to protect my family. You’re an evil bitch who neglected and mistreated Annora when you could’ve given her everything with one simple phone call to my dad.”
“I couldn’t do that. If I had, my mate would have known what I’d done.”
“Your mate,” I scoffed. “You picked wrong back then and you’re making it worse now. You’re the ones who are still trying to hurt Annora even after she’s gotten away from you and has a family of her own. If you’d left well enough alone, we wouldn’t be standing here right now.”
Her hands shook as she kept her gun aimed at Tahlia. This standoff needed to end soon, before she accidentally shot her. “You don’t understand. He raised her all those years. Gave her a roof over her head, clothing on her back, and food in her belly. If she would have just gone along with mating the Lyall alpha, none of this would have happened.”
“I don’t know how you can live with yourself, blaming your own daughter for the mess you’ve created. She’s the victim here, not you. Frankly, I’ve had enough of your bullshit. Braden might not be able to kill you, but nothing is stopping me from doing it. Carrick might feel the pain, but I’m betting he’ll relish it if it means his family is safe from the likes of you.” Tahlia didn’t hesitate like I had. Once she was done speaking, she pulled the trigger and shot the woman straight between the eyes. Her body dropped to the floor and Tahlia strode toward me, throwing herself into my arms.
“You shot her.”
“Yeah, I did.” With her face buried in my shirt, her voice was muffled. “What else was I supposed to do? She was a cold-hearted bitch who would have killed both of us without thinking twice. And then she would have gone after her daughter again.”
“But, my dad...” I sighed into her hair as my arms tightened around her at the reminder of how close my mate could have been to her own death tonight.
She leaned her head back and locked her gaze with mine. “Your dad is the one who set the parameters of this mission when it started. Eliminate the threat to your family using whatever means necessary. And she was a threat in more ways than one.”
“Yes, she was,” my dad confirmed. I hadn’t heard him, but he was standing in the middle of the hallway, naked and covered in blood. He must have torn the other man apart. I didn’t see any serious injuries anywhere on him, but I could hear the pain in his voice—emotional pain. He was feeling the loss of his fated mate, regardless of everything she’d done to him and our family.
“I’m sorry,” Tahlia apologized, her gaze to the floor and her head turned, her neck bared to my father. It was a gesture of her respect for him since she wasn’t part of his clan yet and had been following his orders when she’d taken the shot.
“You don’t owe me any apologies, Tahlia. You did what needed to be done. What I’m not sure I would have been able to do to protect my children and grandchild.” He rested his hand on her shoulder for a moment as he walked past us. His grief was etched into the lines on his face as he knelt down next to the body of the woman fate had matched him to so many years ago.
“C’mon,” I urged Tahlia, pulling her with me to the door. My dad needed time alone to come to terms with what had happened tonight. And I needed to be with Tahlia someplace safe, just the two of us again. The man she needed to lure at the club was no longer in the picture and he was the only thing standing in the way of our mating before. Now that he was gone, I wasn’t going to wait any longer. There was only cleanup left to do and loose ends to tie up. My dad was on the council. Once he came to terms with what could have been if his fated mate had been a different kind of woman, I was certain he’d be able to handle what needed to be done until I was ready to come up for air.
Tahlia didn’t resist as I practically dragged her to her car and tossed her inside. “Where are we going?”
“Back to the safe house,” I growled, my free hand heading straight for her leg as I started the engine. I gripped it tightly, never wanting to let her go again. “Where I’m going to make you mine.”
“I’m already yours,” she sighed, her legs parting as my hand crept up her thigh.
“And after tonight, any male who crosses your path will know it.”
Chapter 12
Tahlia
By the time we made it to the safe house, Braden’s fingers had worked their magic and I’d already come twice. When he pulled up in front of the house, I didn’t wait for him to walk around to
my side of the car. Instead, I threw my door open and raced into the house, tearing my shirt off as I headed for the bedroom. My running must have triggered Braden’s instinct to hunt. I heard him roar behind me and then the thundering of his steps as he chased after me. He didn’t need to run too fast since I desperately wanted to be caught by him. I only made it halfway down the hall when he crashed into me, tossing me over his shoulder and stomping into the room.
When he dropped me on the bed, I bounced a couple times. I barely settled on the mattress before his naked body pressed down on mine. He’d used that time wisely apparently, although I didn’t know how the hell he managed to get all his clothes off that quickly.
“Tell me you want this as much as I do,” Braden’s husky voice rasped in my ear. He touched my thigh, tracing his fingers up until he reached my drenched panties. I gasped, making him chuckle darkly. “There’s no use trying to hide it from me. We both know you do.”
My hips rocked forward at his touch. He was right, and I had no interest in hiding what I wanted from Braden. I was aching to be taken by my mate, to finally bear his mark. “Yes!” I hissed out. “Maybe even more than you do.”
His fingers slid lightly along my aroused flesh, barely touching my skin and making me pant for more. “Fuck, you’re even wetter than before. I can’t wait to taste you.”
I practically purred in response to the erotic promise in his words. “You’d like that, wouldn’t you? My tongue licking your pussy, flicking your clit, and sinking as far inside of you as I can until you’re riding my face.”
The hand at my hip tightened as he continued to torment me with soft strokes along my pussy lips all while he whispered all the things he wanted to do to my body. The buildup was exquisite, but still torture. He wasn’t giving us what we both desperately needed. What we’d already been forced to wait too long to give each other. And the look in his eyes was starting to scare me. I saw the same heat building in him, but none of the warmth I’d quickly grown accustomed to seeing each time he took me—none of the tenderness. It was as though he was holding a part of himself back from me just when we’d finally reached the point where we didn’t need to hold anything back again.
Bear It All: McMahon Clan 2 (Fated Mates #5) Page 7