Suzie had seen the strength and honesty of the alpha of their future pack. She had told them all that Jace Beckett would provide them with a place to live their lives without fear. She had been determined to guide all of them, especially her mother and her four-year-old brother Mitchell away from Randall’s pack land to finally escape his cruelty.
Drew had kissed Suzie tenderly, leaving her with Carter so he could gather his family and meet them at the small cabin that Suzie had shared with her mother and brother. Both Suzie and Carter felt the intense pain of separation from the third member of their newly formed triad almost immediately.
Drew was their rock. He was the levelheaded one among the three of them. He was the one who calmed Suzie’s fears. He was the one who settled Carter when Carter was filled with anger because of the cruelty of their alpha.
Carter was the emotional one whose temper needed the calming that only Suzie could give him. He and his twin brother Reece had been alone since their mother’s and fathers’ deaths at the hand of rogue wolves, but Carter had always suspected that Alpha Randall had been responsible. He and Reece had seen the way Randall had watched their mother. They had seen him try to touch her or catch her alone and back her into a corner to pin her with his large body. They remembered the way their fathers had fought with Randall, only backing down when the alpha had demanded they submit to him with the threat that he would take their mother for his own.
Suzie’s dream had only strengthened their resolve to leave Randall and his reign of tyranny. Randall’s pack was not a pack of support and pride. It was one of abuse and destruction. Drew and Carter were going to make sure that this pack was no longer their purgatory.
Suzie watched as both men pulled the entire family together to make the plans, pack what little belongings they had, load their trucks, and start their journey to freedom. Her men cared about all of them, but the way they loved her to the very depths of her being was what Suzie found amazing.
Her mates’ unconditional love and acceptance gave her a confidence in herself that she didn’t have with anyone else. Their honest appreciation of her, body and soul, had given her the unwavering support and acceptance she craved to stay her insecurities. She had never thought herself anything but passably attractive. She was five feet six inches tall with blonde hair, had hazel eyes with blue flecks in them that changed to being completely blue when she experienced a dream that showed someone’s destiny to her. She only knew that because her mother told her when she awoke from a dream it was always that way—just as her mother had experienced when she had dreams in her youth. She had a voluptuous figure, full breasts and hips, and long legs. She was not a tiny thing by any means. She was packed with lean muscle from her time running in her wolf form.
She loved shifting and running. She loved running with Carter and Drew. She just plain loved Carter and Drew. And she would do anything she could to keep them safe.
Despite being only twenty-three years old, Carter and Drew had been the leaders of their small group of misfits. These two men who were destined to become healers had taken over the safety of their families. Carter’s twin brother Reece and his triad partner Wade had stepped forward with their strength to ensure that everyone was protected. Drew’s younger brother Nathaniel and Wade’s younger brother Brett were just twenty years old, but they were well on their way of becoming physical powerhouses. They were determined to offer their strength to protect their combined families even though Drew’s mother and fathers feared for them because of their youth. Both young men were triad partners who were destined to be pack enforcers. Suzie has seen it in her dreams and had told Drew and Carter.
Suzie’s dreams had provided all of them with the information they needed to plot their journey to Beckett’s land. It was only a matter of picking up Suzie’s mother and little brother, and they would have been on their way. But Suzie’s gift of dreams had showed her that their alpha and his men would stop them.
As they waited silently for Drew to return with the rest of their family members, Suzie had sensed danger. Her sensitive wolf hearing had picked up the movement of men around them, and she knew it was not going to end well. She had started to run, trying to lead Randall and his men away from the man that she loved, but Carter had raced after her.
Now Carter was suffering because of her. She knew that Alpha Randall wanted her to remain in his pack and act as their pack seer. He would never let her go. She thought she could fight her dream and change its outcome, but she should have known better.
She tried to take calming breaths as the liquid silver burned into her right breast and the silver collar burned into her neck. The pain was unimaginable. Her eyes filled with tears as she watched Carter suffering on the ground next to her. His cheek was bleeding, blocking from her gaze the stubble of beard that she loved to rub her fingers over. He was panting, and she knew he was feeling the same incredible level of pain that she was.
“Carter,” she whispered, reaching out to hold his hand as she turned her head to face him. She waited until his head turned toward her, and he looked at her with eyes that were glazed with pain and fear. “I love you, Mate.”
He smiled slowly and squeezed her hand lightly. “I love you, Mate,” he whispered. “Don’t worry, Suzie Q. Drew will help us.”
“I don’t think so, Carter,” Randall mocked him. “No one is going to help you now.”
He raised his clawed hand and swiped across Carter’s abdomen, ripping open the flesh with four long gouges. Carter bucked beneath the hands of the men holding him down, but they held him steady. When Randall took the open bottle of liquid silver and poured it along each of the wounds, Carter screamed out his agony. Randall’s soft laugh made the torture worse.
“Stop it! I’ll stay with you! Just leave Carter alone!” Suzie’s voice was raw as she screamed the plea.
Randall just laughed, reaching out to drag the nails of his four fingers through the blood and silver that was pooling in Carter’s wounds. “Too late, Susannah,” he told her calmly. “This wolf’s life is now forfeit.”
Suzie struggled to sit up, but Boyd pulled her back down and slammed her to the ground. Her head connected to the packed dirt with a sickening thud. Then she knew no more.
There was a sudden eruption of growls as three wolves raced into the area. The largest, a black wolf, bounded over the men holding Carter down, pushing between the alpha and Suzie. The two other wolves took their place beside Carter, baring their teeth and growling at the men who held him down. Their jaws snapped in warning, saliva flying toward both men as they edged closer to them.
Randall’s men leaned away slightly, fear filling them as they realized that the wolves were Reece and his triad partner Wade. Both Reece and Wade harbored deep hatred for them, and they knew it would take very little provocation for them to attack.
There was a blue swirl of magic around the three wolves, and the human forms of Drew, Reece, and Wade stood before them, each man breathing heavily as anger filled him at the scene before them. Reece and Wade reached out and grabbed the men holding down Carter and threw them effortlessly away from him. Kneeling down, they touched Carter carefully. Carter’s gaze never left Suzie’s unconscious body.
“I’m going to kill you, you bastard!” Reece yelled, standing. He lunged for Randall, reaching out to grab him and tear him apart for what he had done to his brother and his brother’s mate.
Randall reached up and struck out with his clawed hand that was dripping with silver from Carter’s wound. His claw ripped into Reece’s throat.
Reece grabbed for his neck immediately, his voice gurgling as his voice box was injured. Wade grabbed for his triad partner and steadied him as he fell to the ground, reaching out to protect him from another swipe of Randall’s claws. He was fast enough to protect Reece from another attack, but he was unable to move out of the way in time. Randall’s claws opened up deep gashes in his forearm. Wade moaned in agony as the silver that remained on the tips of Randall’s claws burned in
to his muscles.
Drew chose that moment to get closer to Suzie. Boyd stood and blocked the way, but there was nothing that was going to deter Drew from going to their mate. He knelt down beside Suzie and lifted his hand to rest it on her neck to check her pulse. Her heart was beating, but it was erratic. There were burns around her neck from the silver collar that he knew had to be painful against her skin. He looked at the gash on her chest and saw the bubbling of the silver on her right breast. Reaching out, he ripped the bottom of Boyd’s shirt from his body, ignoring the angry growl that Boyd directed it at him.
He took the flannel material and wiped at the gash, dragging as much of the silver out of the wound as he could. He knew he couldn’t eliminate all of the danger. The silver had already begun to seep into the open wound. Suzie moaned slightly and opened her eyes to look up at him. Her eyes were already glazed with fever from the beginning of the silver poisoning.
“My Drew,” she whispered, raising her hand weakly and touching his cheek gently before she lost strength and her hand fell back down to the ground. “I knew you would come. I love you, Mate.”
He bent over her body and kissed her cheek lightly. “I love you, Mate,” he whispered. “We’re getting out of here now, Suzie Q.”
He stood slowly, lifting Suzie into his arms and holding her close against his chest, sensing the moment that she lost consciousness once again. He turned and walked toward Randall, looking at him with determination.
“We’ve had enough of your tyranny,” he told him firmly. “I’m taking my family and leaving your pack.”
Randall smiled and crossed his arms across his chest. “You go on and take your family—they’re useless to me anyway. But Susannah and her family stay here.”
In one quick move, he pulled Suzie from Drew’s arms and flipped her around so that her unconscious body was pressed against his chest as she faced Drew. Lifting his clawed hand, he covered her left breast and dragged his nails through the soft swell beneath her nipple.
Suzie moaned in pain as her skin was ripped open and the residual drops of silver on Randall’s nails invaded her body. Drew took a step forward and growled.
“Touch her again, and I’ll kill you,” he told him, his hands morphing into claws as he stood before the man.
“Let me tell you how this is going to go, Barrett,” Randall told him softly. “You take your family and get off my pack land, and I’ll let Susannah live. I would suggest you leave now. Carter and his brother are nearly dead.”
Drew looked over his shoulder and saw that Carter was bleeding profusely from his wounds. His brother Reece was shaking violently within the arms of his triad partner Wade who was trying to staunch the flow of blood from Reece’s throat.
“Don’t listen to him, Drew,” Carter called out to him weakly. “Suzie can’t stay here.”
“Well, the only other option is for me to kill her now,” Randall told them. “It’s just a matter of how quick.”
The sound of two trucks approaching drew their attention briefly. Drew’s fathers pulled their trucks to a stop next to the open field. The doors of the vehicles opened, and Drew’s mother Samantha, his fathers Jack and Russell, and his younger brother Nathaniel and Nathaniel’s triad partner Brett piled out, rushing to stand beside them.
“What the hell have you done, Randall?” Russell barked out, ripping his shirt off as he knelt down beside Reece and holding the wad of material to Reece’s throat.
“Just getting rid of the trash,” Randall answered, stepping back slightly so Drew would not be able to lunge for Susannah. He assessed the situation and knew that he didn’t have enough wolves to fight Drew’s makeshift family. The only leverage he had was Susannah, and he wasn’t about to give her up.
Jack removed his shirt and knelt beside Carter, pressing it against the young man’s stomach. He knew Carter was suffering. He had seen the way silver poisoned and killed wolves in Randall’s pack—all of them at the alpha’s hand. Being the human in the triad mating with Samantha and Russell, he had often been the only one who could help those wolves injured since the poison held no danger for him.
“Drew, Carter’s in bad shape, son,” he told him quietly.
“How bad, Dad?”
“Pretty bad.”
“Pop, how’s Reece?”
Russell looked at his son and shook his head. “Not good, Drew. We need to get these men out of here so we can help them.”
“Can you shift, Reece?” Drew called to Carter’s brother without taking his eyes off of Suzie.
The sound that Reece emitted was a cross between a growl and a gurgle as he tried to answer Drew. Closing his eyes, Reece called upon his magic to shift, shaking violently as the blue light surrounded him intermittently until the magic took hold and his large, black wolf was called forth.
Russell pulled the wolf into his arms, grateful when Wade took hold of Reece’s lower half and lifted him until they stood with him held carefully between them. They walked slowly toward Russell’s truck, placing him gently in the open bed and climbing up to settle him comfortably among their packed belongings. Wade sat on the floor of the bed, settling Reece’s head carefully on one of the soft suitcases. He covered him with the tarp that had been thrown across their belongings and tucked it securely around his triad partner. Once he was sure Reece would be okay, he would call upon his own magic to shift into his wolf form and heal the ripped flesh of his forearm and fight the silver that was already coursing through his body.
“Randall, you’ve caused enough pain for our family,” Samantha told him, stepping forward.
“Do not get any closer, Mate,” Jack stopped her, placing his hand on her leg to prevent her from getting within striking distance of the alpha.
Samantha looked down at her mate and smiled, loving him for his protective instincts. She reached down and held his hand briefly, squeezing it lightly before releasing it and facing Randall once again.
“We’re leaving,” she told him firmly.
Randall looked down at the woman, thinking carefully about the possible outcomes. “Yes, you’re leaving,” he agreed finally. “But Susannah is staying with me.”
“No!” Carter barked out, trying like hell to get up, but Jack pushed him back down onto the ground.
“Carter, don’t move,” he told him immediately, watching as the shirt he held to his son’s triad partner’s stomach became saturated with his blood.
“Carter, can you shift?” Drew asked him calmly.
After a moment of trying, Carter fell back against Jack’s legs. “No, Drew,” he said finally, his voice weak. Between the blood loss, the silver already in his system, and the silver collar he wore, there was no way he could shift.
“Susannah, wake up and look at your men,” Randall told her roughly, pulling at her hair to bring her head up. “Look at them before I kill them. See what your defiance has brought. Their deaths will be because of you.”
Suzie opened her eyes slowly, seeing Drew standing before her. She reached out her hand and tried to touch him. “No. Don’t hurt them. Drew, take me,” she pleaded.
Drew stepped forward, reaching for their mate, but before he could take her, Randall scored his nail across her abdomen, pulling a scream of agony from her before she passed out from the pain. He lifted the opened bottle of liquid silver and held it up to Drew.
“I can do this all night,” he told Drew calmly. “It’s up to you. Suzie can withstand a good amount of pain and a little more silver. You choose. Walk away with your family and leave Susannah, or watch her die slowly and painfully.”
Drew’s heart pounded against his chest. He couldn’t allow Randall to hurt Suzie any more than she already was. Carter was definitely in bad shape. He had no idea how Reece or Wade were doing. There was no choice, really. He had to do what he could to ensure that Suzie lived.
“I will see that Susannah is taken care of and her wounds are healed,” Randall told them all firmly. “She will be kept safe so that she can guide the
pack with her dreams. The cabin she shares with her mother and brother will remain her home as long as her ability to guide the pack with her dreams continues.” He raised the bottle of liquid silver and started to tip it over the wound on her stomach. “Decide quickly.”
“We will not leave our mate,” Drew told him through clenched teeth, the claws of his morphed hands digging into his palms as he fisted his hands in an effort to calm himself.
Randall tipped Susannah against his body, grabbing for her hair and forcing her head up so Drew could see her face. “Oh, but you will, Barrett. And if you decide to come back to get her, I will kill her mother, then her brother, then her. For each attempt you make, she will suffer more.”
Drew knew of no more difficult decision he had ever had to make in his entire life. If they didn’t leave soon, Carter would die. If they left and came back, Suzie would lose the two members of her family and then her own life. Only leaving would save both his triad partner and their mate.
“We’ll leave,” Drew said finally, his voice shaking slightly.
“No, Drew!” Carter called out to him.
“We have no choice, Carter,” Drew told him softly. “He’ll kill her.”
Randall smiled, stepping back with Susannah hanging limply in his arms. “You’ve got ten minutes to get off my pack land—then I’m sending my enforcers after you.”
Jack motioned to his son Nathaniel and his son’s triad partner Brett. They came to him quickly and helped lift Carter. Between the three of them, they were able to get him into the truck bed so that he lay next to Reece.
Drew took a step toward Suzie, not able to leave without touching her one last time. Randall lifted the bottle with the liquid silver and held it over her stomach. Drew had no doubt in his mind that Randall would use the entire contents of that bottle on their mate.
He stepped back and turned to walk toward his dad’s truck. Climbing up into the bed, he grabbed for the medical emergency kit that was tucked under the pile of boxes that held all of their belongings.
Susannah's Saviors [Beckett's Wolf Pack, Triad Mates 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage and More) Page 6