by R. E. Butler
Nodding, his dad and four males stepped forward. He divvied up duties to the remainder of the pack members, ranging from patrolling around town to alerting the other pack members of the situation.
“Wait. Don’t tell the females.”
Hollis, one of the council members who was in his seventies, arched a gray brow. “Do you think you were betrayed by a female, Alpha?”
“I don’t know, but my gut is telling me that the females should be kept in the dark. Any males that are mated are to keep the news to themselves for now.”
Nodding, the members moved into action and he, the four protectors, and his dad headed for the clinic in town in two vehicles.
Acksel sat in the passenger seat of his dad’s pickup. The protectors were following them in a Jeep. The silence was heavy between him and his dad.
“I’m talking to you as your father right now, Acksel, not as a member of your pack,” his dad said, and Acksel’s chest tightened.
“Alright,” he said, knowing his dad was probably going to say some not-so-nice things about his behavior. Which he couldn’t deny.
But instead of berating him, his dad told him that he was proud of him. Acksel had remained quiet for several moments, unsure of what to say.
“I fucked up,” Acksel said finally. “If I’d just had half an ounce of courage to admit my feelings for Brynn in the first place, she would be by my side and safe and not kidnapped, terrified, and hurt.”
“You stayed away because you believed it would keep her safe. I can’t say I would have done the same thing, but I’m a pretty selfish guy. If I was in your position with your mother, I don’t know if I would have had the strength to walk away.”
Acksel’s hands clenched into fists. “Mia said that I should have changed the laws about the alpha female immediately so that Brynn would have been safe from the females.”
His dad hummed in his throat. “That would only have changed one issue. Regardless of whether Brynn is a wolf or not, clearly Rufus and his friends have been plotting some kind of revenge for the banishment. Even a she-wolf couldn’t go up against three males intent on taking her.” He felt his dad glance at him. “You think female wolves are better at protecting themselves because they’re naturally stronger and faster than humans and can shift. But a female caught off-guard, overwhelmed by three males intent on taking her? It wouldn’t matter if she was a bear shifter. So yes, you made some mistakes, but your heart was in the right place and when the time comes, you can tell Brynn why you walked away and she’ll forgive you.”
Acksel snorted. He highly doubted that Brynn would be so easily forgiving. She probably hated his guts. And if she hadn’t before she’d been kidnapped, then she most certainly would afterwards when she was safe once more.
His dad pulled into the clinic parking lot next to Brynn’s car and the protectors joined them. Acksel circled the car slowly and then squatted down in front of the driver’s door. Leaning forward on his fingertips, he looked under the car and reached for two small objects. One was a cell phone and the other was a package of cinnamon gum. The cell was locked with a code, but he could smell her scent on it and knew it was hers. Either Rufus and his men had kicked it away so she couldn’t be tracked with it, or it had fallen out of her purse. Judging from the gum that was with it, he was guessing it had fallen out when she was grabbed.
Straightening, he put the phone and gum in his pocket.
A woman and man walked out of the clinic and froze. Acksel quickly explained that he was Brynn’s mate and that he believed she had been kidnapped. The woman gasped in alarm but the male’s face tightened in anger. “My name is Dr. Frank Channing and I’m in charge of this practice. I have security cameras all around the building, come with me.”
Within minutes, they were standing around a computer monitor, watching as the doctor located Brynn’s car on one of the cameras and began to forward through the recording.
He slowed down as Brynn left the building. Acksel’s heart ached at seeing her, even on the black and white screen. She tensed suddenly before she reached her car as Rufus and the others stalked behind her. She seemed to realize something was wrong, because she spun and ran right into Rufus. He gripped her throat and Acksel snarled loudly as he watched her being choked into unconsciousness. Taylor pulled a knife from his pocket and cut off a lock of her hair and then nicked her arm, wiping her blood on a piece of paper.
The whole scene took only two minutes, as she slumped to the ground unconscious before Barry tossed her over his shoulder. They walked off-screen and Acksel lowered his head. No clues, just more fury at what had happened to her. He’d imagined that they just snatched her and left. But being choked into unconsciousness must have terrified her.
Dr. Frank looked at Acksel. “What do those men want with Brynn?”
Acksel rubbed at the back of his neck. “She’s my mate and they took her to get to me because I’m alpha of the pack.”
The female doctor snapped, “She said she was all alone. What is this mate bullshit you’re trying to pull?”
Dr. Frank stood quickly and pushed the woman away from Acksel. “Calm down,” he hissed softly, “this isn’t our business.”
“She’s my friend and our employee; that makes it my business and yours, too.”
Dr. Frank looked over his shoulder at Acksel. “You’ll find her and bring her home safely?”
Acksel nodded.
“I wish we could have been more help.”
Acksel waved his hand and the protectors headed out of the room. “I’ll call you when she’s safe, I swear.”
He and his dad left and stood in the parking lot near Brynn’s car. He didn’t want to admit that he had no idea what to do next. He had banished three wolves from the pack and expected them to just heed his warnings that they would die if they came back into town. He had made several mistakes, not only with Brynn but in handling the banished wolves.
First he would see Brynn safe, and then he would make sure that the males died according to pack law so they would never harm another person again. Breaking banishment law was one thing, but they had also taken his woman, and that meant not only did the alpha in him want justice, but the male in him wanted it as well.
He had thought of Brynn as his woman since their night together, but he hadn’t allowed himself to dwell on the thoughts or put them into action in any way outside of his tattoo. There was no hiding his thoughts now. Her abduction had made it clear that he’d wasted what precious time he’d had with her. He would not make that mistake again.
Chapter 9
Brynn gritted her teeth as blood slipped down her leg from where a wolf had raked his sharp fangs across her knee. She was trying hard not to cry in front of the men who had abducted her, but it was getting harder and harder to ignore the stinging in her eyes.
She didn’t know how long she’d been here. She remembered being choked until she passed out and then she’d woken up chained in what appeared to be a basement room. Three of the walls were cement block and the fourth was wallboard and a wooden door. Her arms were stretched over her head, her wrists shackled together, and around her ankles were padlocked chains. Her feet were on the ground, but her shoulders ached and her hands and arms tingled from being forced upright. The wolf had been snapping and biting at her again and again. She’d kicked out whenever he came close, but he was always faster, dodging just out of reach. She’d lost both heels at some point in her attempt to keep him away, and her feet were now numb from the cold cement floor.
Dropping her head back, she looked up at the unfinished ceiling and exposed pipes, wishing she were strong enough to pull down the pipe she was attached to, and take a chunk of the wolf’s hide off with it. But she’d tried unsuccessfully to pull the pipe free. Her wrists were bleeding and swollen from her attempts.
A moan caught in her throat as the wolf bit her ankle, sending pain shivering up her leg. This was how she was going to die — chained up in a basement, bleeding to death from tiny cuts.<
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With a furious scream, she kicked out blindly and was surprised when she connected with the soft side of the wolf. He yelped and she lifted her head to watch him as he growled angrily.
“Fucking knock it off, Taylor,” a man said as he kicked the wolf. “I told you not to hurt her too badly yet.”
Yet. An ominous word if she ever heard one.
Brynn licked her dry lips. She asked the question she’d asked several times already, whenever he or the other man came into the room. Of the three men, this one, that the others called Rufus, appeared to be the one in charge. She thought he looked vaguely familiar, as did the other two, which told her that they were part of Acksel’s pack. Perhaps the ones he had banished that Mia had told her about.
“What do you want from me?”
Rufus looked at her, far enough away she couldn’t kick him. The chains on her ankles didn’t give her much reach.
“Nothing, for now.”
The first time she’d seen him, she had bargained, bribed, begged — anything to get him to let her go. It became clear quickly that he wasn’t going to set her free until something happened. Whatever he was waiting for, though, he wouldn’t tell her.
A woman strode into the room. She was tall and blonde, and would have been pretty if not for the nasty sneer on her face. “They found the note and mobilized the males.”
“Good,” Rufus said. “You have an hour. No permanent damage to her or the pup.”
The woman made a sound of protest. “You said I could kill her.”
“If he won’t step down. When Barry meets him at the Boat House, we’ll see what he has to say when he sees her blood-stained clothing. Get to work.”
“Fine,” the woman hissed. She looked down at the wolf, whose teeth were bared. “You’ve had your fun, Taylor. It’s my turn.”
The wolf made a snorting sound and trotted away as the woman pulled a knife from her pocket and waved it at Brynn tauntingly.
Brynn jerked against the chains. “Why are you doing this? I’m pregnant. Please don’t hurt me or my baby!”
The knife tapped against the top button of Brynn’s blouse and she stilled immediately. With a flick, the button popped off and bounced on the concrete. “I know you’re pregnant, bitch.”
“Why are you doing this?” Brynn repeated as the buttons of her blouse continued to fall to the floor.
“What am I, a cartoon villain?” The woman snorted. “All you need to know is that you made a big mistake getting into bed with that wolf. If you’re lucky, you’ll make it out of here alive. I hope you aren’t lucky.”
Brynn glared at the woman. “Acksel’s going to skin you alive when he finds you.”
For a second, fear flashed in the woman’s eyes, but it was quickly replaced with hatred. “I’d worry about myself if I were you.”
She lifted the knife and it glinted in the overhead light before she swung it down in an arc and sliced through the material of Brynn’s skirt, drawing blood as the blade slid into the flesh of her thigh. Brynn couldn’t hold back anymore as pain swamped her and she screamed.
As the knife slashed through her clothing, cutting her again and again, she thought of Acksel. Even though she hated him for ignoring her, she couldn’t stop herself from worrying about what they were planning to do to him. Stepping down? They must want him to not be alpha anymore. She didn’t really know him that well, but she did know that he wasn’t the sort to just give up something he’d worked so hard for. These wolves were using her as bait. If he did happen to step down to save her life, then he’d probably resent her forever.
Darkness began to edge her vision and her thoughts muddied. She wasn’t sure how long the blonde had been slashing at her clothes, but she stopped screaming after a while, because her voice gave out. The pain was intense and she felt every blow to the center of her being.
As the darkness began to overwhelm her, she thought of her baby, and hoped that they both survived. Closing her eyes, she gave herself over to unconsciousness, hoping that she’d find a way to get home.
Chapter 10
Acksel stood in the shadow of a stand of pine trees and looked at the house. His highest-ranked men, his father, and the protectors stood with him in the shadows. The house looked empty. The windows were dark. But he knew that Brynn was inside, and she wasn’t alone.
A half hour ago Sam had contacted Acksel saying they’d found the scents of Rufus, Barry, and Taylor at the far edge of the woods the pack hunted in on the full moons. There were new and old scents mixed together, which told him that the males had been there more than once since they were banished. And among their scents was the scent of a female. Acksel had arrived on the scene as quickly as possible, and as soon as he scented the female, he knew it was Talia.
He believed that she had been aiding Rufus, feeding them information, and had clearly overheard his chat with Mia, which had lead to Brynn’s capture the night after the full moon. He didn’t know why she was helping them, but he thought it most likely had to do with his rejection of her. Perhaps Rufus had promised her that she would be alpha female when he took over the pack. Talia, like several other females, seemed hungry for the position of alpha female, and he thought it most likely didn’t matter to them who the alpha was, only that they were at his side.
It had taken Ren only a few minutes with his laptop to find Talia’s cell phone signal and track her to her home in town. No one had been able to find Rufus or the others in the several hours that had passed while they looked for Brynn, but Talia had been very easy to track. It must not have occurred to any of them to turn off her phone so she couldn’t be found. Talia probably believed she was safe and that no one would suspect that she was a party to the kidnapping.
Sam slid next to Acksel. Sam had sent one of the protectors in his shifted form to scout the property. The dark gray wolf had blended into the darkness expertly. When he returned, he shifted and shared with Sam what he’d scented.
“Robert said he can scent the three males, Talia, and Brynn. The windows in the basement have been covered so it appeared to be dark, but one of the covers has peeled away some and he could see Taylor in his wolf form.”
Sam cleared his throat uneasily and Acksel tensed. “He can smell Brynn’s blood, Acksel. He couldn’t hear anything, but if it was enough of a scent to come through a closed window. That’s not a good sign.”
Acksel’s hands clenched tightly into fists. Nodding, he struggled to get himself under control.
His dad joined them and put a hand on his shoulder, not to restrain him but to reassure him. Acksel inhaled deeply and cleared his mind. He believed she was alive. Hurt, but alive. He was going to hold onto that belief. Once she was safe and in his arms, he’d allow himself time to rage against the ones that had hurt her and get final justice for her.
Within minutes they had surrounded the small house, staying in the shadows as much as possible so they didn’t give Taylor or anyone else who might be there an opportunity to kill Brynn or escape. It was an hour to midnight. Just minutes earlier, the protectors that Acksel had dispatched to the Boat House said that Barry had shown up and the scent of Brynn’s blood was on him heavily. They were waiting for the word from Acksel that the house was secure before they captured Barry. They didn’t want him to have a chance at alerting anyone in the house that their plan was not working.
As silent as moonlight cutting through the forest, Acksel entered the home. Ren and Sam were ahead of him and three wolves in shifted form took up the rear. The others, including his dad, were outside making sure no one escaped. The house was completely dark save for the light from the basement that showed underneath the closed door.
At Acksel’s signal through his cell, his dad cut the power to the house through the electrical box outside. The light went out in the basement and Talia shouted in alarm as Taylor barked and then growled. But it was already too late.
Acksel didn’t need the lights to find his way to Brynn. He followed the scent of her blood to wher
e it was heaviest, behind a closed door. Kicking the door open, Acksel howled loud enough for his dad to hear him, and the lights flickered back on. Talia stood frozen next to Brynn, whose naked body was covered in blood as she hung from chains attached to the ceiling.
The human side of his brain stalled out at the sight and his wolf took over. Talia had harmed his woman. The bloody knife that tumbled to her feet and rang out as it struck the concrete was testament to her part in it.
Talia screamed as Acksel crossed the room to her in two long strides and grabbed her hands. Squeezing hard and fast, he smiled in smug satisfaction as her bones shattered and she screeched in pain. Red hazed his vision as he grabbed her by the throat and threw her across the room. She hit the wall with a loud thud and crumpled to the floor. He would deal with her later — if she was alive.
Outside the room he heard growling and snarling, but didn’t investigate. His men would handle Taylor. Turning to Brynn, he knelt and snapped the chains around her ankles. They weren’t thick chains, but they were strong enough that she couldn’t break them on her own. Banding one arm around her waist in support, Acksel reached up and broke the chains that had held her arms over her head. Deep purple bruises and cuts marred her wrists. Brynn slumped in his arms, and she exhaled softly in pain as he carefully lifted her into his arms and cradled her close to his chest.
“Dad?” he called, keeping his back to the door so her body was shielded.
His dad appeared at the door. “Yes, son?”
“I need your shirt.”
He heard the sound of fabric rustling and he handed it to Acksel over his shoulder. “Taylor is dead. He attacked when he saw that we’d come for him, and I think he wanted to die now instead of later. Ren alerted the males at the Boat House to take Barry alive for questioning. Rufus isn’t here.”
When Brynn was covered, Acksel turned and said, “Barry will tell us where to find him. Or she will.” He jerked his head back towards Talia.