Vicki thumped her chest with one fist. “I’m the star of this story. I’m the one who’s goign to kill him. I’m the one who survived what Ronnie is going to do to you, but you won’t.” She nodded when my eyes widened. “Yes, he raped me and will do the same to you. What do you think he’s been doing with the women he kidnapped? Having tea parties?” She gestured to her stomach. “He tore me almost in half, but I healed.”
I shuddered at the idea of Ronnie raping me. The rogue was so massive, he would gut me like a fishing knife, I had no doubt about it. “What about Tonya?” My words still didn’t come out quite right, but I’d progressed from inarticulate groaning to some semblance of speech. Tonya’s name actually sounded pretty clear.
Vicki grimaced. “Tonya? She couldn’t heal. She was weak like you. It takes an alpha to deal with an alpha. You don’t stand a chance.” She pointed to the side. “There’s a tent out there where he keeps the dead bodies. She’s in the pile.”
Pile? I was confused for a moment until I remembered he’d kidnapped women from the Nashville pack. They were all dead? All of them? I couldn’t grasp what that meant, although I knew I was in grave danger. I strained to move again and was rewarded with the ability to raise my arms and flex my knees. My torsos didn’t do much. I was a block of ice, thawing on the edges while the center stayed hard. Still, it was getting better.
“Why are you still here? Why didn’t you run?” Maybe she was in cahoots with Ronnie and Kelsey and just trying to play me for a fool. In her place, I would’ve been long gone.
“It took me this long to heal. I’ve been mostly unconscious the last two days and I couldn’t walk until this morning.”
“It took you that long?”
She nodded. “My body had to knit itself back together from the inside out. That takes time.”
Driven by fear, I focused on my stomach muscles, trying to contract them so I could sit up. I was able to lift my shoulders off the bed, but didn’t have the control to do anything more. With a sigh, I flopped back onto the air mattress and for the first time, I realized it smelled. Of blood and sweat mixed with dirt.
Oh God. Am I laying in her blood?
Vicki watched me try to move. “What happened to you? Are you paralyzed with fear or something?”
I shook my head, pleased to find that I could. “No. Kelsey poisoned me with something. I can’t move and I can’t shift until it wears off. She brought Ronnie up to Huntsville to kill me.” I flashed a weak smile. “You’re not alone in wanting me gone.”
The raven-haired brunette shook her head. “Once I’m done with Ronnie, she’s next.”
“What’s your plan?”
“While he’s on top of you, I’m going to come up from behind and,” she raised the spear and pantomimed stabbing him.
“On top of me?” My jaw dropped. She would let that happen to me?
Vicki shrugged, unimpressed by my reaction. “Yeah. Listen, honey, it’s survival of the fittest right now. Do you really think you’re fit to live anyway?” She lunged with the spear, practicing. “Once he’s dead, I’m going to Huntsville to deal with Kelsey.” She pressed the spear into my chest. “Then I’ll send someone up to find your body. You’re done, Chloe. You’re out of the pack.”
“You’re so sure of yourself, aren’t you?” I tried to sit up again, but my abs wouldn’t contract just yet. They tingled though, so it wouldn’t be long. “When I can finally move again, I am coming for you, Vicki. I’m going to show you what Omega really means.”
“Which is what exactly?” She huffed. “Too stupid not to get caught in a trap by an old flame?”
I narrowed my eyes. “No, strong enough to take you down.”
The sound of thudding footsteps interrupted us followed by an angry growl. Vicki looked grim as she hid her spear behind her back. “Ronnie’s here.”
Just as she finished speaking, a large ham hand flipped back the tent flap and the rogue’s enormous head peered into the tent, snout first. He sniffed, testing the air and when he caught our scents, he stepped inside with a growl so low, it was almost outside of human hearing range.
The tent had been big enough when it was just Vicki and I, but with Ronnie inside, there was barely room to breathe, let alone move. Vicki and I exchanged quick glances. For all her earlier bravado she looked like she was scared shitless. I didn’t feel much better. Especially when he ignored her and focused on me.
He advanced to where I lay on the bed, eyes shining with interest. Grabbing the blanket covering me, he threw it off. Once again, his hands roamed my body, squeezing, testing, seeking what I didn’t know. I did my best to act paralyzed, hoping he would get bored and wander off again.
This time, though, he began ripping off my clothes. The pretty angora sweater I’d put on in anticipation of shopping for my wedding dress, pulled apart with little resistance. He split it down the middle and then yanked it off each arm before pulling it out from under me. The bra went next. I gasped when the elastic rebounded into my skin after he ripped the strap apart.
He split my jeans up the seams and then yanked off the button at the waistband. With a quick pull, the zipper parted and he was able to rip the rest of the denim off me. My underwear, he tore off with just one finger. As it turned out, lace wasn’t much stronger than Kleenex.
Now naked, I shivered on the bed and fought back tears. This was real. This was happening. Oh my God. He stood over me, gaze roaming my skin. I wanted to cringe, but forced myself to hold still.
My resolve crumbled when he parted my legs. His cock rose up hard and impossibly long and thick, like a battering ram. I cast a desperate glance at Vicki, but she wouldn’t meet my eyes. She did silently hoist the spear and edge ever so slowly behind him. Why she was so careful, I didn’t know. Ronnie was so fixated on me, I doubted he would’ve noticed a tornado.
He advanced on me, his weight threatening to pop the air mattress. Vicki stalked him in the shadows, waiting.
I urged her with my eyes to do it already, but she held back. I realized then that she wouldn’t save me, she didn’t care if Ronnie raped me or if I lived or died. She’d meant every word she’d said earlier. Well, so had I.
I roared up and head butted Ronnie with everything I had. He jumped up, clutching his head. It didn’t take him long to recover while I still heard a high-pitched ringing noise in my ears. Even with my shocked senses, I knew I couldn’t stay still. I needed to stand up because staying prone would be a death sentence. I rolled off the air mattress just as he pounced. His nails pricked the air mattress, discharging a loud whoosh of air.
I rolled again when he followed me. I wanted to get my knees under me and then pull myself to my feet, but the head butt had left me a stunned, which, combined with the lingering effects of Kelsey’s shot, was not a good thing.
Lucky for me, Vicki decided to strike. With a harsh yell, she charged Ronnie. The spear caught him in the shoulder. She didn’t do much damage, but did draw blood.
Everyone froze. Ronnie and Vicki stared at the tiny rivulet of blood dripping out of his shoulder while I stared at Vicki. There was a beat and then we were all moving again. Vicki yanked the spear out and tried to nail the rogue alpha again, but he grabbed the spear and broke it in half. Throwing the pieces to the ground, he lunged for her, his hands wrapping around her throat.
She dropped to her knees, making awful choking sounds.
I grabbed what was left of the spear and rose to my feet. Sidling up behind him, I aimed for his heart. Vicki’s eyes met mine, they were wide and full of fear, but they were also losing their light as she became starved for oxygen. She would be unconscious soon, leaving me and Ronnie alone. Call me crazy, but I wasn’t looking forward to any amount of one-on-one time with the rogue alpha.
I took a deep breath and said a silent prayer. Like the head butt, I put everything into my thrust. Vicki was strong and she’d barely broken skin, I was going to have to do better. I just wasn’t sure if I could.
My attempt to off Ronnie went better th
an Vicki’s. The spear slammed into his back, pierced his skin and punched through his ribs. Ronnie reared back with a howl. He tried to turn around to face me, but I jumped up, going air borne as he whirled around and keeping a death grip on the spear. I put all my weight into the jump and the spear slid forward into the organs underneath his ribs. I used the force of my landing to thrust the spear point up in the general direction of his heart. Then I let go and scrambled back.
“Let’s get out of here,” I screamed to Vicki who huddled, paralyzed in the corner. Now was the time to run, while Ronnie was distracted by the splintered wood in his gut. I dashed over to her and grabbed her by the elbow and dragged her out of the tent. Once we were outside, she seemed to come to her senses and quickly shifted into wolf form. She melted into the woods without looking back, which left me to deal with Ronnie on my own as he stormed out of the tent.
It had been a stroke of luck to attack him from behind. I realized this as I watched him try and fail to remove the spear. With it still inside him, he wouldn’t be able to heal. The only problem, I hadn’t killed him and the damage I had done didn’t seem to be slowing him down.
He lunged for me, his claws reaching, wanting to pinch me in his grip. I jumped to the side and evaluated my options.
I wanted to run like Vicki, but a quick check of my wolf showed me that, while she could move now, shifting was still a ways off. The drug was taking longer to leave her system than mine. For once, my human form had the advantage, at least in terms of how fast I cleared medications. The downside? I didn’t think I could outrun the rogue alpha while human. I needed the speed of a wolf.
So running was out. I couldn’t shift and I couldn’t hide. My only option was to fight. Or die trying.
Ronnie growled, punctuating my train of thought with an ominous threat. He squared off in front of me preparing to come at me again. I slowly backed up, unable to think of anything else to do. I didn’t have a weapon and he was taller as well as stronger than me.
I really was going to die. I was sure of it.
He sprang forward once more, a snarl twisting his lips.
With a scream, I scrambled backward until I hit the coarse bark of a tree.
I’d moved fast enough that he’d missed me, but he was already coming at me again.
Just as I slipped behind the tree, praying it would offer some protection, two slender forms darted forward. I turned my head, following the flash of motion and was surprised to see they were wolves. Narrowing my eyes to sharpen my vision, I realized they were Mara and Sara’s parents.
The two wolves yipped a quick greeting to me and then launched a coordinated attack on Ronnie’s legs, aiming for his hamstrings. I wasn’t alone anymore. A flash of hope went through me.
I almost felt sorry for the rogue alpha as he spun in circles in a futile effort to stop the wolves. They were so agile and quick, he never even saw who or what was attacking him. Every time someone snuck up on him from behind, he was outmatched. He may have been big, but he wasn’t a nimble or strategic fighter. For all I knew, maybe the testosterone had stunted his intellect.
While the wolves kept him busy, I decided on my next step. With the wolves’ help I could take Ronnie. Maybe not on strength alone, but on speed and strategy. I would give him a wound no wolf ever came back from. Grabbing a stick thick as my middle finger off the ground, I moved toward him, but he didn’t notice. He’d worked himself into a frothing, slobbering fit of anger as the wolves danced around him, sinking their fangs into his flesh every chance they got. Blood dripped from multiple wounds on his legs, splattering to the ground in a red rain.
Ronnie swatted at them with his hands, as if trying to crush them like flies. I stalked the edges of the action, waiting for my opening. Mara and Sara’s parents barked at me with excitement. I didn’t dare take my eyes of Ronnie to look at them, it took concentration to stay out of the rogue’s reach.
As if tiring of all the running, the two wolves latched onto the back of Ronnie’s knee on some unseen signal. This time they didn’t let go, but clamped down. They were going to tear out the backs of his knees and hamstring him.
Ronnie screamed and when he couldn’t dislodged them with his hands he dropped to the ground, rolling in an effort to shake them off. The wolves yelped and backed off to regroup. This time they attacked him where it would really hurt, the massive dick hanging between his legs.
His howls of pain when their teeth broke the skin made me wince. He tried to wedge his hands into their jaws and force them off, but they held on. When he picked up a rock the size of a grapefruit intent on bashing their heads in, I decided that was as good a time as any to act. No way could I stand by and let Mara and Sara’s parents die like that. It would devastate the girls.
With a harsh battle cry, I came in close and stabbed the stick at his face, aiming for his eye. The first thrust caught him on the cheek bone and slid off. I didn’t even blink as I went for a second strike. I would have to be faster than Ronnie or I would be dead. This time, I got his eye and shoved it through to the soft brain underneath. It took more strength than I would’ve expected to breach his skull, but I did it.
His jaw went slack and his remaining eye wide as I drove the stick home. Once it was in deep, I jacked it up and down and side to side, wanting to be sure to scramble any brains inside. Brain dead wolves don’t heal. They die human quick. Thank God.
Ronnie’s body went slack and he almost deflated a bit as he sank to the ground, looking smaller than he’d been. Mara and Sara’s parents stepped back with a questioning whine.
“I had to do it,” I said to them. “He wasn’t a normal wolf. You know that right?”
They nodded, showing human intelligence for the first time since I’d met them.
“Thanks for your help. I’ll tell Cal and your girls. They’ll be proud of you.”
At that, the wolves howled and then they faded into the forest, going where, only they knew.
“I hope you’ll come back someday,” I called after them. “I’ll watch out for the girls until you do.”
That earned me another howl, one that sounded much further away than it should’ve been. Alone and no longer in imminent danger, I began to register my injuries. My arms ached like I’d been bench pressing a semi carrying an overweight load. Somehow I’d twisted my knee and my body was covered in dozens of small cuts and abrasions.
Yet, despite my injuries, a euphoric satisfaction filled me. All along Vicki had said I was weak. I hadn’t been sure I was strong enough myself. Not until I killed a rogue alpha with my bare hands. I’d done it. Me. The newborn wolf who hadn’t even grown into her full power. My fear that Vicki had been right, that I really was an Omega dissipated. For the first time since I’d changed, I felt sure of myself.
I was the alpha’s mate, damn it and nothing could stop me now.
I threw back my head and howled loud and proud, not caring who heard me. Hell, I wanted to be heard. Let Vicki and Kelsey hear me and tremble to know I was coming for them next. If they were smart, they would start running. They wouldn’t get far with me after them, but let them try.
Before I left the camp, I checked for survivors, hoping against hope for a happy ending for everyone. I found Tonya’s limp body in the tent Vicky had said held the dead. Sure enough, she’d left this world for the next, her stomach split open like rotten fruit. There were three other bodies too, the women from Nashville. All my earlier euphoria deserted me as I faced the sober reality of their deaths.
I said a little prayer for them all, gulping back sobs as I did so. Tonya had almost been a friend, my only one. The loss hurt.
Fighting for control of my emotions, I made sure Ronnie was truly dead by cutting off his head. I used a hunting knife I found in what I assumed was the tent he slept in and sawed and hacked my way through his flesh. I wasn’t squeamish. I’d eaten my share of freshly killed rabbits, their bodies warm and their tiny hearts practically beating against my tongue, but chopping up a human like so mu
ch meat made me queasy. I coped by closing my eyes, holding my breath, and taking lots of breaks to walk into the nearby woods to deeply inhale the scent of pine.
Once I was done, I grabbed Ronnie’s head by the hair and made my way to the nearest road. Without clothes, hiking through the woods would be difficult. My best bet was to run into someone from Hunstville. Luckily, my thinking was sound and a search party found me a few miles into my walk.
A gray Ford pick-up squealed to a stop next to me. I stopped walking, waiting to see who it was.
Todd, one of the bartenders in town, hopped of his truck along with Frank, one of the younger wolves from the pack. “Chloe! You’re alive!”
“Yep. I’m alive.” I held up the head. “He isn’t. Not anymore.”
Todd gave a low whistle. “Damn. That’s the rogue?”
I nodded.
Frank shook his head. “Shit. You kill him, girl?” Frank ran on the edges of Vicki’s social circle and he sounded suspicious. He probably believed all the Omega shit she was spewing.
“Yep.” I stared at Frank until he looked away. “Where’s Jackson?” I needed to smell him, to feel his arms around me. It had been a long fucking day and I wanted my mate.
“Downtown. Vicki came in about an hour ago,” Todd said.
“She seemed to think you was dead,” added Frank.
I shrugged. “She thinks a lot of things that aren’t true.” I shivered as a cold wind brushed over me. “You guys got a blanket?” I wanted to ask them about Kelsey, but that was a sensitive subject. I didn’t want to start any talk, not until I spoke to Jackson and Cal first. If Vicki hadn’t told them about the bitch, I would. If she had, maybe Kelsey had already been dealt with.
“Yeah, yeah. Sorry.” Todd hustled to the back of his truck and pulled out a thick fleece blanket. “Jackson will kill me if you get sick.”
“And what should I do with this?” I lifted the head again, holding the fleece around me with one hand. The guys’ eyes went wide as they took in the severed head.
“I’ve got a box you can use. We’ll stow it in the bed.” Todd dumped some stuff from a plastic milk crate and held it for me as I set the head inside. He stashed it in the pick-up bed and secured it in place with a few bungee cords. “We don’t want it rolling around like a bowling ball.”
The Alpha's Mate (Werewolf Romance) Page 11