by Yule, S. K.
“Since you are an ancient,” Galen growled, “you are aware that it is highly unusual for one to commit such heinous acts on potential mates, or any human for that matter. You have the wrong man.”
“Why did you run then?”
“Because I don’t answer to anyone. Especially for things I did not do. Last I checked, we didn’t have a ruler. I’m not under anyone’s command. Therefore, you have no right to hunt me.”
“We have the right to hunt anyone who we believe harms potential mates.”
“As I’ve said, you’re barking up the wrong tree here. Leave, and we’ll call this a misunderstanding. A six-month-long pain-in-the-ass misunderstanding.”
The man shook his head.
Galen didn’t figure it would be as easy as that. “I’m at a disadvantage. Seems you know a lot about me, yet I know nothing about you.”
“My name is Brent Falls. I run Sanctuary along with several others in Michigan.”
“I’ve heard of Sanctuary.” That solidified any doubt he may have had about who was responsible for this mess. Terrance was going to die when he got a hold of him. “Well, Brent, as I’ve said, you have wasted a lot of time and manpower chasing after something that isn’t there. I would appreciate it if you would leave me and cease your chase now.”
“Can’t do that.” Brent sniffed the air.
Galen’s blood ran cold.
“You keeping her hostage?” Brent snarled.
Galen growled low in warning. “Do not think to touch her. If you do, I promise I will do my best to kill you all.”
“Bring her out so we can see that she is unharmed,” Brent said.
“No offense, but I don’t know you or any of your little buddies. I’m not risking her.”
“We aren’t leaving until this is settled.”
“Then I guess it’s going to get bloody, because as far as I’m concerned, it’s settled now,” Galen answered.
Suddenly, the attack came from behind as he’d expected. He twisted, but was a millisecond too slow, and the big wolf knocked him to the ground. He leapt up into a crouch and knocked the wolf sideways when it made another go at him. That’s when things got real nasty.
Brent partially shifted and rushed him with the other two wolves hot on his heels. Galen twisted from his grasp, but was unable to fully recover before one of the other wolves slammed into him from the side. Galen went down hard on his hands and knees, and before he could recover, he was jumped from every direction.
Galen punched, tore, and bit at his attackers. Fur flew, blood spattered, and grunts—a lot of his own—rent the calm night for what seemed like hours. Although, in reality, it had been only a few minutes since the fight ensued, Galen’s body began to tire. He was holding his own, but he was heavily outnumbered. If there had been even one fewer of them, he’d have a shot, but he was determined to give them as good as he got. He wouldn’t go down without ripping a few chunks of ass to take as a souvenir.
Galen’s ribs were battered until he thought every last one had to be cracked, and it was getting hard for him to breathe. Finally, he was thrown to the ground facedown. A knee was planted firmly in the middle of his back, and his arms were wrenched behind him. Fury beat at him, and he waited for the last bit of adrenaline he had left to rush him.
“I didn’t want it to go down this way. You are an asset to our species, Galen. Can’t you see that we need to confirm that she is okay and ask you some questions to clear this up?”
Galen hoped Brent’s ragged breaths meant that he was in as much pain as he was. “The only thing I can see is that you’ve been chasing me for some fucked-up bullshit lies that I’m assuming some little asshole named Terrance told you to get back at me. I don’t know any of you. She’s my mate. I’m not exposing her to the people who have been chasing me for no reason for six months. If you’ll go to those lengths over something some idiot rogue pup told you—one I sent to you, no less—what else might you do?” He spat the last words out with as much venom as he could muster without wasting the building adrenaline.
“She’s your mate?” Brent murmured. “Of course. That makes sense why all of a sudden you would stand up to us after all of these months. We won’t hurt her. To tell you the truth, I suspected Terrance was full of shit pretty much from the beginning, but you have to understand my point of view. Even if there was a tiny chance he was telling the truth, I had no choice but to track you down and deal with it.”
“No. You did have a choice. You knew from the start I was an ancient. You knew the odds were stacked well against what Terrance was saying about me. You are not the fucking law, Brent. Neither is Sanctuary. You overstepped your bounds this time. You had no solid proof to do what you did to me,” Galen said vehemently. “I am not exposing my mate to you. I was in the process of explaining what I was when you interrupted. She’s probably scared to death, and I am not scaring her even more by subjecting her to you assholes. So tell me. Is this going to end in bloodshed and death, or will you admit you made a mistake and walk away?”
“Can we at least talk?” Brent asked.
Galen spit some blood out onto the ground. “Aren’t we a little past talking?” he said sarcastically.
“Please. Let’s clear this mess up once and for all.” Brent’s tone sounded sincere.
Galen gritted his teeth. He didn’t owe these fuckers anything, but if he could end this shit here and now by talking to them, he would. He’d do it to keep Myka safe. He’d do it for the chance of being able to stay with her and Patrick without the constant threat of looming danger.
“Fine. But know that I’m doing this for her. If I hadn’t met my mate, shit would be going down real different right about now. You planning on letting me up for this little chat?”
“Give me your word you won’t run?” Brent said.
Galen laughed. “Seriously? And I say I promise and you just let me up?”
“Pretty much,” Brent said. “Besides, I think we’ve all had enough of beating the shit out of one another for the night, don’t you?”
“Your choice. Not mine.” When Brent sighed heavily, Galen gave in. “I won’t run. Now let me the fuck up because I’m going to be completely honest and let you know that my last bit of adrenaline is almost charged and ready to go.”
Surprisingly, Brent immediately let him go. Although Galen wasn’t doing a very good job of getting up. He rolled around for a second or two before he found a way to get off the dirt without screaming in protest of his broken body. Blood oozed from more than one place through his ripped shirt and jeans. As soon as he had enough strength back, he’d shift and heal himself. Come on, fucking adrenaline.
“You and your boys get dressed and meet me in the barn. We’ll have a nice little chat, and you can all be on your way,” Galen said as he limped to the barn. He smirked in satisfaction when he saw the others weren’t in much better shape than he was.
Brent looked over his shoulder. “Lorent? Can you please retrieve our clothing and bring it to the barn?”
The big gray wolf to Brent’s left turned and loped toward the tree line. The remaining two wolves shifted into human form. One had golden blond hair and was about the same size as Brent, and the other had pale blond hair and was nearly the size of Galen.
Galen let his fangs and claws recede only moments before Brent and the other three men came inside. All now had jeans and T-shirts on, but no shoes. Unlike his, their clothes weren’t shredded.
“This is Raze.” Brent pointed to the darker blond. “That’s Knox.” He pointed to the big motherfucker. “And that’s Lorent.” He jerked his head toward the black-haired and youngest-looking one amongst them who’d gone to retrieve their clothes.
Galen sighed and rotated his shoulders, trying to get the bunched muscles to relax, but he only accomplished making his ribs scream in agony.
“Can we get this shit over with? No offense, but I’m really sick of every one of you bastards. Actually, take all of the offense you want,” Galen sai
d through gritted teeth.
“Six months ago, Terrance showed up at Sanctuary beat to hell so bad he couldn’t shift. He was weak and crawled up to my door before passing out. After a couple of days, he was strong enough to shift and heal. He told us you were responsible. That you’d tried to kill him because he caught you raping and torturing a potential mate. Said you enjoyed it, had done it for years. Told him if he didn’t join you, you’d kill him.”
“Really? And it didn’t strike you odd that a rogue was telling this story? Or that an ancient couldn’t finish the job of killing off an inexperienced pup?”
“I doubted his story pretty much from the start. He said he was lucky, that you were distracted, and he made a run for it before you could finish killing him. We had no choice but to follow up. There’s never been a time when an ancient was known to go rogue,” Brent said.
“Exactly. So why would I?” Galen asked.
“You have to understand that while it was unlikely, if there was even a slight chance it was true, we couldn’t ignore it. You do understand the huge ramifications a rogue ancient could have? The possibilities are endless, from recruiting other rogues to waging an all-out war. Our species is already in danger of dying out.”
“We didn’t have a choice,” Knox said.
“I suppose, but this shit ends tonight. I’m no threat to any potential mate. I’m no threat to anyone unless cornered. I think I’ve more than proved that over the last six months. I’m the one who sent Terrance to you. He was the one torturing women. If he had reached the rape part, he would have never gotten to you alive. I guarantee it. I made it very clear to him that if he didn’t make it to Sanctuary, I would personally take care of him myself. It was too coincidental that you guys were on my ass so soon after I sent him. He better hope I never get my hands on him,” Galen muttered.
“Good thing we left him in the woods.” Lorent chuckled.
A cold foreboding slid through Galen at Lorent’s words and immediately numbed him to the pain he had been feeling only a second before. “You brought him with you? He is here now? He is within reach of my mate?” Galen snarled.
“Take it easy. He’s a safe distance,” Brent tried to assure him.
Suddenly an eerie quiet settled over the place, and a scent hit Galen so hard it felt as if he’d been sucker-punched. Terrance wasn’t a safe distance away. Terrance was here. Galen walked to Brent and stood toe-to-toe with the man.
“If he hurts Myka, I will hold you personally responsible.”
Before he could get another word out, a high-pitched scream tore through the still night.
Chapter Eleven
“Well, well, well. What have we here?”
Myka froze. She should have stayed in the bathroom, but she’d been trying to get to the phone. She’d desperately wanted to call Patrick and talk to him in case something happened to her. She had at least wanted to tell him that she loved him.
She turned slowly, keeping the iron poker concealed behind her leg. She was petrified beyond explanation, but her survival instinct was strong and hard at work probing her brain for solutions on how to get away from the threat she now faced.
Where was Galen? Had the wolves hurt him? Was he dead? She ignored the pain that sliced through her chest. He was not dead. She, on the other hand, could very well end up that way if she didn’t keep her head on straight. She edged toward the kitchen door slowly. Luckily, her intruder wasn’t between her and the door. She fought every urge to run for it. Something told her that would be the biggest mistake she could ever make. She remembered Galen telling her to walk slowly to the house before the wolves had appeared.
He’d sensed the danger before she had. Earlier, she’d disobeyed Galen and had run like hell to the house. This time, the threat was a whole lot closer. This time, she needed to heed Galen’s warning about going slow. The man standing in front of her had the same edge to him that Galen carried, only less refined. This man’s edge was feral, dominating, intruding . . . scary as shit.
He was a predator, and didn’t predators love it when their prey was scared? When their prey ran? Her heart pounded, pumping fresh adrenaline through her veins with each thump. This could not be happening. Werewolves? Men turning into monsters? None of this could be real. Yet she’d seen it with her own eyes.
“Such a pretty little thing,” the intruder said. He took a step closer and sniffed at the air. “Mmm. And you smell so fucking good too. Made for us you were.”
“I wasn’t made for anyone. Get out of my house, please,” she said softly.
He laughed. “I don’t think so. I think you are my ticket out of here, sweetheart.”
“How do you mean?”
“I mean that if I save you, those angry lycans out there have to believe my story about Galen. Then they’ll kill him.”
“What story?” She desperately wanted to keep him talking. If he was talking, he was keeping a distance. If he was talking, she could continue edging toward the door. If he was talking, he would be distracted, and she might have a chance to escape.
He was big. Not as big as Galen, but big. And he was completely naked. Funny how she hadn’t noticed that until now. She’d been too focused on a plan of escape. Why in the hell was he naked? Several reasons flooded her mind and scared her even more, if that was even possible.
“Enough!” he snarled.
He was on her before she could react. She screamed, tried to break the hold he had on her arm—the one holding the now-useless fire poker. He was ridiculously strong, and her struggles were futile. He dragged her toward the front door.
When they entered the yard, they were suddenly surrounded by five men. One of them was Galen. Her eyes widened when she saw that he was black and blue and covered in blood and dirt from head to toe.
“Let her go, Terrance,” Galen growled.
“Looks like you got a good start on him.” Terrance eyed Galen’s wounds. “Why haven’t you killed him?” he asked the dark-haired man. “He had her locked up in the house. She’s a potential mate. Galen was using her.”
“No! He was not!” Myka protested. “He never hurt me.”
“Shut up!” Terrance screamed. “She doesn’t know what she’s saying. She’s been traumatized.”
“We all know you’ve been lying this whole time. Pretty much figured it out from the start. However, we had an obligation to investigate what you said before taking action.”
“Brent, man. You saw how beat to hell I was when I arrived at Sanctuary. It’s because I caught him raping that woman.”
“I would never rape a woman. I would never hurt any woman.” Galen spit the words at Terrance. “And I beat your ass because that’s exactly what you were attempting to do. Had you accomplished the act, you wouldn’t be standing here today. Do you think an ancient couldn’t finish the job of killing a young pup like you? And how was it that you were beaten so badly you couldn’t change to heal, yet you could make the two-day trip to Sanctuary? You are the biggest idiot in the world.”
“No! I was too weak to shift.” Terrance pounded his palm against his forehead several times. “No!”
“Let her go,” Galen said again.
Terrance laughed. The sound sent chills down Myka’s spine. “Why? So you can kill me? I don’t think so.”
“I will kill you whether you let her go or not. Your life is at its end, and you have no one to blame but yourself. You put your hands on my mate,” Galen said menacingly.
She gasped when long claws slightly curled from his fingertips, fangs grew from his mouth, and his eyes glowed bright. Her brain could barely process that what she was seeing was real. Then his words whispered through her brain. She was Galen’s mate? What the hell did that mean?
“No,” Brent said quietly. “You still haven’t hurt anyone. If you let her go, you can come back to Sanctuary with us. You can be reformed. It’s your only option other than death.”
“I’m not going back to that ridiculous place!” Terrance yelled in fury.
“You are not my master. I don’t serve you. I don’t live by your rules. I’m free. I’m a predator. I can do whatever I like when I like.”
“Not if it includes hurting people,” the black-haired man said. “I used to be a rogue, Terrance. I’ve seen horrible things. It isn’t right. There is so much more out there than violence. I’ve reformed. You can too. We need you. Our race is dying out.”
“No! Now get away from me, or I’ll kill her!”
When Terrance adjusted his hold on her, Myka’s instincts took over. She stomped down on his foot, and when he yelped, she spun and drove the fire poker into his thigh. But when she turned to run, his hand shot out, and fingers curled into her hair. Tears sprang to her eyes when she slammed backward onto the hard ground with such force the wind was knocked from her lungs.
Her vision blurred, and she could hear Galen’s scream of fury. When she struggled to sit up, teeth clamped hard over her shoulder. She cried out as the razor-sharp points pierced her skin and muscle. The burn of the bite seared through her, and she felt nauseous. But as quickly as the pain had started, she was freed, and the sounds of Terrance’s screams grew fainter and fainter as he was dragged away.
“Myka? Angel? Are you okay?”
Galen’s voice penetrated her foggy mind, and she looked up into his beautiful face. Tears freely ran down his cheeks, and she was sure she’d never seen anything more beautiful than this glorious man weeping. But then it hit her. What could possibly make Galen cry?
“Am I dying?” She must have blacked out for a moment because she had no recollection of Galen picking her up and cradling her against his big chest while he sat on the ground.
“You are not dying.”
He was warm and smelled good. And damned if he wasn’t completely naked now. How had that happened? She squinted to look at him closer. He was still dirty and had smears of blood on him, but she didn’t see any bruises or wounds. Had she been so distraught that she’d imagined his injuries? Imagined his torn clothing? She wanted to close her eyes and snuggle against him and forget about everything that had just happened. Forget about the nightmare she had just lived.