by Marcy Jacks
This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t happening. This wasn’t happening.
“Shut up!” yelled one of the hunters, and a hard pain smacked Craig in the back of the head. At first he thought he’d been shot as well, but no, he’d just been struck with the butt of one of their guns.
It was enough to make him be quiet, however. Nothing like a little pain to make him stop panicking.
Unfortunately, that just left Craig to stare down at the body of his mate.
He was in a nightmare. They had just been making love not one minute ago, and Edward was a powerful werewolf shifter who had incredible powers that even he couldn’t explain. He couldn’t just die like this.
“Oohwee! That was insane!” one of the hunters singsonged. “Christ, I never saw a shifter do that before. Did you see the way it glowed? What kind do you think he was?”
“Maybe a luna shifter? Their alphas are supposed to have rare powers.”
“Yeah, he’d have to be for that little sack of shit to be pregnant,” replied the second hunter, and there was a tinge of disgust in his voice. The man barely tried to hide what he thought of another man being pregnant, let alone gay.
“What the fuck is wrong with you both? You just killed him,” Craig said, and he couldn’t stop crying. His voice was shaking and tears were streaming down his face that he couldn’t seem to stop. He wasn’t sobbing or anything like that, at least he was managing to keep control of his voice, but he couldn’t stop crying over Edward.
All that they were…Everything that had happened in the short amount of time that they knew each other, not to mention their history…was just gone. Craig almost wanted to die with him. It was like discovering that soul mates really existed, and then he finally met his own, just to have the man ripped away within an hour of meeting him.
One of the hunters got down on one knee beside Craig, and then grabbed him roughly by the hair before yanking his head back. “Your freak mate there killed a couple of my associates. Granted, I didn’t much like them, but they were still human beings and they didn’t deserve to die.”
Yes, they did, but Craig knew better than to say that out loud when the man above him was speaking like this, especially when the big silver knife came into view.
“You and your kind,” the man said, spitting out the your kind part, “don’t know anything about the value of human life, do you?”
“I am human,” Craig said.
He didn’t care if he was a werewolf. He could be a leprechaun for all it mattered, he was still human.
The hunter with the scarred face let his eyes wander down to Craig’s belly. “Yeah right,” he said, and Craig got the impression that the guy was purposely being a jerk about it.
He wasn’t sure why he expected anything less from a couple of men who would track him and Edward down when they’d spent two hours in some trucker’s cab just to get here and keep their trail off the roads.
How did they find this place?
Craig stared down at his mate’s body, and he no longer cared. He just wanted these guys dead for what they’d done to Edward.
“So, what do we do with them now?” asked one hunter.
It seemed that the man with the long red slash down his face had become the leader after the other older hunter had been killed, and he looked around Craig’s bedroom with interest.
“It stinks like sex in here, so we’re going to get out of this room, but I think we’ll stay for a while.”
“We will?”
“There’s electricity, I bet the water’s hot, and this guy has some food in his fridge. Why not live it up for a couple of days? We can see if that alpha there is alive, and if he is then we’ll have to be careful with him. After what he did, he’s a little too powerful for me to be comfortable leaving to his own devices.”
“So what do we do?”
“We’ll keep the omega alive. The alpha won’t fight us as much if we have a bargaining chip. We wait and see if we can get him in that fancy wolf form of his, and then we see how much his pelt will sell for with the vampires.”
Vampires? There were vampires in the world, too?
Craig was still reeling from that when he was grabbed roughly by the arms and hoisted to his feet.
“Let go of me!” he yelled, struggling to get away, and he got punched in the jaw for that one.
The man with the scarred face came forward and grabbed Craig by the chin, and after being punched, it hurt worse than anything.
“We put up with enough of your shit now, you little freak,” the man said, and then he pointed to the gaping wound with dried blood that ran all the way from his forehead, across his nose, and to his left cheek.
It so needed stitches, and the scar he got was going to be a thousand times worse because he wasn’t going to a doctor.
“I got this because of you and your queer boyfriend over there, so don’t you think that just because I want you alive means that I have to keep you all nice and cozy,” he said, and just to prove his point, he punched Craig again.
That actually made white stars flash in front of his face, and he tasted blood in his mouth.
White stars weren’t the only thing that flashed in front of his eyes. He also saw himself, choking on his own blood as he was being massacred by that mob. He saw it as clearly as though it hadn’t happened in a previous life, but in this one.
Fear nearly paralyzed him, and he couldn’t move.
“I asked you if you understood me, werewolf?” Scarface asked.
Craig nodded his head. “I do. I understand,” he said, and it was pathetic how small his voice sounded. He might as well have squeaked the words.
Scarface nodded. “Good,” he said, and then he pointed at his friend. “You, get him up on the bed, tie him down, and make sure there’s enough wolf’s bane and silver around to keep him down.”
Craig wanted to fight back. He hated that he was so weak, but there was nothing he could do as he watched the hunter, who handled Edward about as gently as though he thought he was dealing with a sack of potatoes, lift the man’s bloody body up and toss him onto the bed that Craig and he had been sharing not ten minutes ago.
If they thought he was alive, then that was all that mattered. Edward had said that werewolves had healing powers. That was a good thing. That meant he had a chance.
Craig only wished he could stay in the room with him, but he was led away, pushed and shoved carelessly by men who would as soon kill him to sell his skin, as they would do so to a chicken.
Chapter Twelve
Edward was speaking with Alistair again, only he didn’t know what he was saying. His words were coming out of his mouth like the slurs of a drunk, and it took him a moment to even realize that it was Alistair he was speaking with.
That was when he laughed.
Alistair did not seem amused by this turn of events.
“Edward! Come to your senses! You were poisoned!”
“I feel like I’ve had too much bad ale,” Edward said.
But even too much bad ale didn’t stop him from feeling the hard backhanded slap to his face.
It was enough to shock him back to awareness. The world no longer turned beneath his feet, and he could clearly see the anger that was on his brother’s face. “Did you feel that?”
“Yes, and what the bloody hell was it for?”
“To get your wits about you! You’ve been poisoned, you fool!”
Edward had to think about that, and memories of what happened and why he was where he was came flooding back to him.
The gunshot to his face and chest, Craig screaming his name, and then nothing else at all.
Fear lanced through him. “I have to go back. I must return for him!” Edward said.
Alistair put his hands on Edward’s shoulders. “Wake up, and go back to him, brother, and you make every man pay for what they did to you.”
“I will,” Edward said, and there was a sudden fire burning in his belly that could not be contained once it wa
s lit. He felt his brother infusing him with some of his power while he had his hands on Edward’s shoulders.
“I wish I could be there to help you,” Alistair said, and his eyes were glowing a bright red as the fires of his soul danced up and around him.
“You will be,” Edward said, feeling that same fire burning inside of him.
He woke up, abruptly and gasping for breath, but he was alert and out of the bed quickly and silently, searching for any one of the men who’d come into this house to harm his mate.
Neither was in sight. He was alone, and his blood was staining the bed that he’d mated with Craig on. They hadn’t even bothered to bandage his wounds, but there was wolf’s bane and silver coins surrounding the mattress.
Edward could hear the voices of the hunters outside his door, as well as smell the food that was cooking.
They sounded merry as they enjoyed the hospitality of their captive.
Edward looked down at his body, and he touched his skin. Despite the wolf’s bane, and the silver, he was completely healed. The little metal pellets were likely still inside of his skin.
He touched his face next, and he winced at the bumps that were there. Not scars, but his skin had grown over where he’d been shot.
He went to the mirror and saw the difference. He looked like a man who was struck with the plague. One lump was near enough to his eye that he had trouble keeping it open.
He couldn’t have that. He would need to see for when he battled those men outside.
He sharpened one of his nails into a claw and quickly began to cut open the skin and push out the tiny metal balls, catching them before they could drop and make noise on the wooden dresser.
Edward’s skin healed, faster than usual, and almost too fast for him to clear his face of the bullets. He left the ones inside his chest and shoulders alone. They didn’t seem to be harming anything anyway, and he couldn’t even tell they were there.
Edward decided to keep the pellets. He might be able to use them for something, so he curled his hand around them and went to the window. He didn’t make a sound as he opened it and climbed out, and he was equally silent when he began moving to the front of the house.
He peered into the window, and he saw how the men were making Craig cook for them. Craig appeared miserable, and there was no light in his eyes, like he was dead as the hunters chatted and drank.
There was only a small bruise on his face, but for it to be there for however long Edward was unconscious could only mean that it was much deeper when he’d first gotten it.
Those men had hit him, hard enough to bruise, and now Craig looked as though he was walking around without his soul. Edward was going to cut their hands off first for that, and then kill them slowly after.
Craig held the hot frying pan in hand, and he tilted it to the side, putting bacon on the plates of the hunters, and Edward hated seeing him so broken.
Craig threw the frying pan into the face of one of the hunters so quickly that even Edward hadn’t seen it coming, and he couldn’t help but smile wide as the hunter screamed and grabbed at his face, right before he rushed to a sink and turned the tap to splash water on himself and get the hot grease off of him.
Unfortunately, that just angered the other hunter, the scarred one.
He was quick as he reached for Craig, so quick that even as Craig ran, he caught him.
He caught him and was dragging Craig to the hot stove, and he was trying with all his might to push Craig’s face down onto the red element, and Craig was just barely managing to hold himself above it.
Edward had to act while their backs were turned.
“You really think we’d let you get away with that, you fucking bitch!”
He opened the door fast enough and quiet enough that he didn’t make a sound. Edward grabbed on to back of the scarred man’s head. His hair was short, so it wasn’t like he could get a grip on it, but his touch did startle the man enough that he released Craig, allowing him to slip free and get away from the burning stove.
That was when Edward slammed the scarred man’s face down onto the red element.
He didn’t hold the man in place, it was just a quick strike, but it was enough to have the wretched fool screaming and flying away from it, forgetting all about Craig and his friend.
That was when the other man, the one Craig had burned with the hot grease, flew at him with a knife he pulled from the sink.
“Edward!” Craig screamed, but Edward already saw him and didn’t need the warning. He wasn’t as fast as he thought he would be, however, and the knife slashed down the side of his arm as the man attacked.
Edward hissed from the pain, but he had no time to dwell on it, or even to make sure he was healing properly as the hunter just continued to come forward, slicing at him and pushing Edward back.
The man certainly wanted to kill him all right, and he wasn’t wasting any words about it either.
“Edward!” Craig yelled, and there was a crash of breaking ceramic behind him.
The man with the scarred face abruptly dropped to the ground, and there were broken pieces of one of the heavy plates around his bleeding head.
He’d been trying to sneak up on Edward with another knife, and Edward’s beautiful, smart, and brave mate had defended him.
The man had best pray he was dead, or else Edward was going to show him no mercy.
He turned around to face his enemy again. It was a mistake to give the man his back for so long, and it would normally have cost him his life in any other situation, but luckily, the foolish hunter had been just as shocked by this new turn of events as he stared down at his scarred companion, who may or may not be dead.
Edward stared at him, and he growled, allowing the energy in his body to come forth. Red and green flames surrounded his body, his brother’s power along with his own, and even though the hunter stayed in his crouching position, ready to attack, he didn’t try to lunge again.
Edward could almost hear the man’s thoughts with how loud they were. He was clearly taking stock of his own injuries, the grease burn on his face, as well as the fact that he was now outnumbered.
Edward would not have Craig fight with him, but the man had held his own nicely enough. Edward also liked to think that he counted for two men with his own strength and powers as well.
“I surrender,” the hunter said, but he didn’t drop the kitchen knife. He slowly started to circle around Edward, which Edward only allowed because he was still in between the hunter and Craig.
“Aren’t you going to take your friend?” Craig asked.
The hunter’s eyes briefly flickered down to the other man’s body, and now there was a pool of blood slowly expanding on the white tiled floor behind the scarred man’s head.
“I think you already took care of that for me,” said the other hunter.
“I don’t know who you are, boy,” Edward said, and he narrowed his eyes at the man, wanting so badly to throw one of his brother’s fireballs at him. “But if you ever return here, if I ever catch your scent near my mate, this property, or even the town, I will hunt you down and I will keep you alive long enough for you to watch as I rip you to pieces.”
The hunter didn’t seem sufficiently frightened enough by that threat, so Edward growled and showed his teeth. He welcomed the green glow as it came from his body, the fire-like flame dancing over his skin as his claws lengthened from his fingernails. His fur started to grow in through his pores, and his body began to get taller, which tended to happen right before he fell on all fours, hands and feet becoming heavy paws that he would need to chase down prey.
The hunter didn’t wait for Edward to finish shifting. He turned tail and ran out of the cabin, much faster and louder than when Edward had entered it. The glass door damn near came off of its hinges, and the glass itself shattered into a thousand pieces.
Edward probably should have killed him, but he didn’t want to get back into old habits. He’d turned into a monster after Craig had bee
n taken from him, and Edward didn’t want to start killing defeated men.
It was only after the hunter had gone did Edward hear the loud thumping that was in the room. He looked to his mate, and Craig had gone as pale as the white tile beneath him as he sank down onto his ass, staring at the bloody corpse on his floor.
There was no question about it now. That man was most definitely dead.
“Craig,” Edward said, and he stepped over the body, neatly avoiding the sharp pieces of the ceramic plait and rushing to his mate.
“You’re okay,” Craig said, and he latched his hands on to Edward’s shoulders. “You’re okay.”
“I am,” Edward said, and he pulled his mate closer for a hug, and Craig damn near vanished in his arms for how small he was.
Edward had to let his body shrink back down to its normal size, but even then, he was still so much bigger than the man he was holding on to.
Craig was shaking, the poor soul. “It’s all right, love. Everything will be well. You are not hurt and the pup is safe,” Edward said, and he put his hand over Craig’s stomach, feeling the small life that was inside.
“You’re okay. You’re okay. You’re okay,” Craig said, and he repeated those words over and over again as he clutched to Edward’s chest. He wasn’t crying, but his body was trembling quite roughly.
Edward was feeling pretty similar to his mate at the moment, and while he wasn’t saying those words, they were rushing through his brain.
He hadn’t been too late this time. He hadn’t arrived after the worst had been done, just to see the aftermath, and Craig was still here. Now it was just a matter of making sure that he stayed here, stayed safe and alive.
Edward turned back to the body on the floor. The pool of dark blood was larger than ever, and Craig was staring right at it as it came toward them.
“Craig, look at me. Look at me!” Edward said, and he had to shake his mate’s shoulders a little just to get a response out of the man.
Craig jumped a little, but his red-brown eyes did finally turn to look at Edward and not the body.