“God. Oh God, Derek.” He whirled in her vision and her body weaved on the step.
“Paige!” he shouted, but his voice came from far away. She shook her head. “Move.” He grabbed her elbow and plowed them up the stairs. The top seemed so distant.
There was another deafening round behind them as they reached the door. Paige reached for the handle but met nothing but air. She tried again with the same result. The knob kept moving and her hands, they seemed so small. She put one to her face and turned it. Why was it so small?
She flinched when Derek hit the door with his shoulder, throwing it open with a loud bang. They fell through the opening together, Derek landing with a groan and she on top of him. His face blurred and her tongue felt thick.
“Paige,” he barked. “Are you hit?”
Why did he keep yelling at her? She tried to swallow, but her throat was dry. The world shifted and suddenly she found herself looking up at a swirl of colors. Derek sat up next to her and her ears rang with another sonic boom.
Blackness edged her vision.
“Derek?”
“Don’t move, baby.”
She already was moving. Around and around like she was riding a carousel. Her arm flopped to the ground.
“Derek?” Had she even spoken aloud? No response. The black crept ever closer. Where had he gone?
“Hello, Paige.” The snarling voice was the last thing she heard.
Son of a bitch, he hurt. His breath wheezed in and out of his lungs like a bellows. He gritted his teeth against the pain tearing his right side apart and fought his way down the stairs, tripping near the bottom and stumbling out of the stairwell, almost falling flat on his face before gaining his footing. A flood of people had exited the reception room, no doubt brought out by the gunshots fired.
A commotion at the end of the hall diverted his attention. There was a scuffle, a series of shouts and growls. Two wolves joined the fray, their snarls and snapping of teeth telling Derek that the prey had been brought down.
“Shit.”
Derek sluggishly turned his head. Eli stared at him, his face a mirror of surprise.
“Fuck, Derek. You’re hit.”
“Paige.” He lifted his arm to point and hissed when pain radiated through him.
“Oh my God. Derek.” His sister brushed by Eli and ran to him. Her hands came out to touch him but stopped a hairsbreadth away. “What happened?” she shrieked.
Her eyes glossed over. Derek swallowed. He didn’t know what had happened. One minute they’d been walking up the steps, the next he’d heard the unmistakable sound of a silenced handgun. There’d been a sharp pinch on his upper back and shoulder, and when he’d looked down, red had already been spreading there.
Instinct had made him push Paige out of the way. There’d been another shot, another pinch on his side and Paige, well, Paige hadn’t moved.
Even when he fell to the ground with her, she lay there, stunned. He’d yelled her name. Nothing. Half afraid the shooter would either keep coming or go after the other guests, Derek had quickly checked her for wounds. Seeing nothing but his own blood marring her dress, he’d had to leave her to go after the shooter.
“We got him,” someone yelled. Sounded like Caelan, but there was a rushing, buzzing sound in his ears.
The floor swam beneath him. A chorus of vicious curses and yowls went up.
“Paige,” he muttered again and tried to point once more. The pain made his stomach roll. Sweat trickled down his temples.
“We’ll get her, Der. Ambulance is on its way. Sit down.” Eli’s hand landed on the forearm of Derek’s good hand.
“No.” He couldn’t leave her up there.
“I’m going, Derek. I’ll go sit with her.” Nikki’s frightened face floated before his eyes. “Oh God. Where’s my mom? Eli, he’s going into shock or something.”
“Go,” Derek snapped at his sister. Why were they worried about him when Paige lay up there at the top, vulnerable?
“Derek?” He recognized his mother’s panicked voice
“Dad. Mom. Stay with him. He’s hurt,” Nikki pleaded.
Derek sank to the floor that graciously rushed up to meet him.
“Shit.” Eli grunted as he caught Derek’s weight.
Instead of the whack he expected to his head, Derek felt himself lowered. He tasted blood. Had he bitten his tongue?
“Paige,” he murmured.
“She’ll be fine, Derek.” His mom again, scared. Terrified.
Eli came over the top of him, into his wavering line of view. “They managed to catch the weasel before he got to the door, Derek. They got him, I swear. He won’t be able to do this again. She’s safe.”
“No.” He shook his head. There was someone else. Wasn’t there? Were they sure it had been Tucker all along? There’d been no fingerprints on the heart, no scent marker. Tucker hadn’t touched the jewelry. She hadn’t smelled him on it. She would have known it was from him, with or without fingerprints, right? He couldn’t mask his scent. Could he?
“Eli!” Nikki’s terror-filled scream made Derek’s heart skip a beat.
She reappeared from the stairs at a run. Derek couldn’t see her, but he could hear her.
“She’s not there—Paige is not there!”
Chapter Ten
Paige burrowed her head deeper into the pillow. She missed Derek’s heat and wondered why he’d gotten out of bed so early. Her mouth felt fuzzy, like she’d eaten a cotton ball or had too much to drink the night before.
Had she? Had she had anything? No. Not with the baby. She remembered dancing and eating and music. She remembered sitting with Derek and watching the kids playing in their finest attire, having fun, laughing.
Now her head ached as if squeezed in a vise. When she tried to move, her body protested. She did not remember participating in enough physical activity to make every muscle she possessed hate her.
“You’re awake.”
Her eyes popped open. That had not been Derek’s voice. Instead it was…
“Don’t try and pretend, Paige. I already see those baby blues.”
Damn. She racked her brain, trying to think why he’d be in her house at this time of day. Was it Monday? Was she late for work?
No. No way had she missed an entire day. She twisted in the bed, squinting at the bright light flooding the room. The cool sheets slid across her skin, revealing her state of undress. Her eyes focused while she tucked the sheet under her arms.
Oh God. This wasn’t her room.
“Where am I?” Anger bubbled up from deep in her gut. He’d brought her here, taken her clothes off and…what had he done with Derek?
Abject terror took over the anger.
“Craig? It was you all this time?”
He smiled. She’d seen the same smile on him a hundred times. This time it turned into a snarl.
“Of course it was me. But you didn’t get it, did you? All my flowers and notes meant nothing. It took me forever to find you, and when I finally did, you ignored me like yesterday’s trash.” He stalked to the bed, an imposing force over her nude body.
“I have news for you, wolf. You’re mine now.” Teeth poked out from behind his lips. Teeth she hadn’t known he had, had never suspected him of having.
“How did you do it?” she rasped.
“Your father once promised you to me—did you know that?” he asked, ignoring her.
Paige blinked.
He threw his head back and howled. “Of course not.” His hands fisted at his sides. “I should have known from the beginning he’d never give you up.” His lip curled. “Took me a long time to figure out the only way to get you was to make them go away.”
Her heart thudded and her throat closed. Any second now she would throw up. The contents of her stomach curdled their way to the surface. “
He wouldn’t offer me to you. He had a mate. Loved her unconditionally and wanted the same for me. He wouldn’t promise me to anyone,” she repeated.
“He was indebted to my father. Owed him a lot of money my father had given him as a business loan, not that I guess you know about that either. I was old enough to understand though, and I stepped in with an idea. In lieu of some of the money, your father promised he’d give you to me. Instead, he ran like the fucking coward he was.
“Took me a long time to track you down and by then you’d grown into the beautiful woman you are today. And I knew I had to have you, mate or not.” He shrugged. “Decided if I ever did find my mate, I’d keep you both. But your dear old man wouldn’t listen to reason.”
“What did you do?” She didn’t try to keep the venom from her tone.
He laughed, then sobered. “What I had to do. They should have known better than to stray so far from a pack. Your father wasn’t man enough to tell his woman how things were going to be.”
“You son of a bitch.”
“You think that now. Soon you’ll be eating out of my hand.” His fingers stroked her calf, hidden beneath the sheet, and somehow she managed not to flinch away.
“Where’s Derek?” If he’d killed her mate, she’d rip him to shreds and feed him his eyeballs.
He shrugged. “Dead, I s’pose. It was really quite nice of Tucker to help me out. The man’s not very bright, is he? Going after your fuck buddy in a jealous fit of rage and shooting him up in front of his own pack? Definitely not the brightest bulb. It’s a wonder your prime didn’t flay his throat wide open right there in the church.”
Paige swallowed. She wouldn’t believe in Derek’s death because she didn’t feel him gone. If he were, she would know. Her mate still lived. He would come for her. And oh God, she hoped he wasn’t hurt too bad. The whole thing came back to her. The stairs, the strange pops, the blood on Derek’s chest.
Another wave of nausea built in her belly.
“I knew they hadn’t told you about me and thought for sure you’d need a friend when your poor-excuses-for-mates parents were finally gone.”
Her nails became razor-sharp claws. She curled them into loose fists to hide them. No sense in tipping him off to her anger. If she hung on, made him keep talking, maybe he’d relax. And then she’d pounce. Literally. She could be on him before he shifted.
She smelled it on him now, his wolf half. How he’d masked his scent, she didn’t know, didn’t care. She had to worry about getting out first.
“But no. You didn’t hang around long enough for anyone to console you. You disappeared,” he growled, leaning over and nearly touching her nose with his. “When I finally found you, again, I befriended you so you could see how nice I could be before claiming you. And what did you do? You dismissed me and later threw my gifts back in my face.” His accusation ended in a hiss.
Paige forced herself not to back away. “I thought they were from Tucker.” She lifted her chin. Anything to get him to believe her. “Tucker wasn’t my mate. I knew he wasn’t, but he insisted he was. He said the flowers were from him. He scared me,” she said pathetically and sniffed.
If he believed her little show, then he was just as dim as Tucker.
“I’m sorry I didn’t know you back then,” she continued, pouring it on a little thicker.
“I’m sorry too. But all’s right now. You’re here, with me, and we can be together now. As soon as you get rid of that whelp you’re carrying, anyway.” He straightened up and headed for the door. “The doc’ll be here soon to help you out of your little predicament.” His grin was evil.
Paige bolted for the bathroom on the opposite side of the room and violently retched into the toilet. His sadistic laugh followed him out the door. A definitive click told her he’d locked her in. She smoothed a hand over her abdomen. She had to find a way out.
Derek shoved past Caelan and out the door of the hospital room they’d forced him to stay in. The man knew better than to try and stop him. As did Eli, who’d brought clothes for him to change into.
Paige had disappeared completely. There’d been no trace of her and no word. Her cell phone was shut off so they couldn’t track her whereabouts even if she’d used it, which she hadn’t. And now he knew the reason she’d been so tired after dinner. Caelan had gone looking after Derek convinced him she’d not been acting right, and discovered her tea had been drugged.
Tucker hadn’t played a part in her disappearance. The ass, holding his own despite the brutal takedown he’d received, had been just as shocked by her absence as everyone else. Hell, the man had cried when confronted. Stupid, demented motherfucker for trying to kill Derek, yes, but able to pull off something like this, no.
“Please tell me you talked to her coworkers,” Derek snapped. His shoulder and side hurt like a son of a bitch, but the two wounds weren’t going to prevent him from finding his mate. One had been a straight through-and-through and the other more a scratch than a bullet wound. Drugs had numbed much of the pain anyway. In a few hours he’d be hurting like the devil and he’d have to take more, but not enough to dull it completely. He had to be clearheaded to do her any good.
“We can’t get a hold of either of the men,” Caelan said, following him down the hall. “Been trying since it happened. Tracy went ballistic, wanted to know what she could do to help. I told her to keep trying to get either Ryan or Craig and call us back the second she heard from one or the other.”
Shit. Paige could be a hundred miles away by now. More if a plane had been involved. He might never find her. Never see her again. Or their baby. He stopped in the middle of the hall and swallowed hard past the lump in his throat. He’d hadn’t felt this helpless since Nikki had been attacked.
Derek dragged his thoughts off despair. “How do we get out of this fucking place?”
“This way.”
They hopped on an elevator that took an eternity to reach the lobby, and disembarked just as Caelan’s phone rang. “Graham.”
Derek paced impatiently and raked his left hand through his hair. The sling he wore to support his right arm scratched his neck, already rubbing a raw spot.
It didn’t come close to rivaling the rawness attacking his heart.
Caelan’s gaze met his, menace filling his eyes. He flipped the phone shut. “Let’s go.”
Derek wasted no time following his boss to his car.
“You touch me with that filthy thing and you die.”
He snorted. “I have a hard time believing you could take me down.”
“Maybe not, but I’ll sure as hell put up a fight and you won’t come out of it unscathed.”
“Young lady, I am a professional. I would not think of hurting you.”
She jerked her gaze toward the sleazeball who’d come into the room with him. “Only a quack would make a house call for an abortion.”
His eyes widened, then narrowed to thin slits. The syringe he held in his hand wavered. “You’ll have to hold her down if you want this done.”
“That will not be necessary, will it, Paige?” Craig’s attempt at a soothing tone grated on her nerves.
“If you think I’m going to lie down and roll over for you, you’re delusional.”
He shook his head slowly as if disappointed in her. “Paige, Paige, Paige. You don’t get it yet, do you?” His eyes took on the characteristic glow of a shifter about to go wolf. “You are mine and the only pup you’ll carry in your belly is mine.” Spittle shot from his mouth, but instead of scaring her the way he no doubt intended, it pissed her off.
He smoothed a nonexistent wrinkle from his shirt. “Now get on the bed so we can get this over with and on with our lives. Together.”
“You know this isn’t how it works, Craig. Mates know each other by scent.”
“Your father promised you to me.”
“He couldn’t ha
ve. He, more than anyone, knew how mates are found. He married his mate. My mother.” Her heart pounded in fear, sadness and not a small amount of confusion.
“He gave you to me, then changed his mind. That’s when they had their little ‘accident’. He tried to keep you from me. Said he was going to leave with you because he didn’t want his baby being saddled with someone when she might find her real mate.”
“You’re crazy.”
“I’m not. I just want what’s mine. There’s nothing that says wolves can’t mate with another wolf without recognizing them. Lots of wolves do it. If we didn’t fucking mate randomly, there’s a great chance none of us ever would!” Spit shot from his mouth as he finished in full shout.
“What about the fact that I’ve already found mine?”
“A fucking human. Not worthy of comingling with our superior DNA. Time to come to me.”
She didn’t comply but stood stock still in the center of the room, giving her options of where to run. She could back away from him, but that would show weakness and also back her against a wall, leaving her less maneuverability.
“Now,” he barked.
She raised an eyebrow. “For someone trying to woo me to his side, you’re not doing a very good job.” To hell with not taunting him. The man wasn’t playing with a full deck.
He inhaled, standing to his full height, and his jaw ticked. “I will only ask nicely one more time for you to do this on your own.”
She snorted. “Nicely? Then what? You’ll jump me, possibly injure me, take away my baby and then expect me to play your docile wife?”
“Not wife. Mate. You’re my mate.”
“Derek is my mate.”
He roared and lunged at her, a red haze of hatred filling his features. There was a yelp from the doctor as he jumped out of the way. Paige waited on the balls of her feet until the last possible second. Before he could close his arms around her, she dropped and rolled, rebounding to her feet as he stumbled across the room.
Ultimatum: Graham Pack Mates, Book 3 Page 21