...I can’t believe I fell for it. I was such a fool, and now I’m afraid I’ll have to pay the price. I never should have trusted him. Adrien, my son, if you ever read these words I hope you will act on the knowledge wiser than I did. I’m so sorry, my son. I’m afraid it’s already too late for me.
Listen, please, there is a bear in the tribe, eager, ambitious. His name is Harris Demarion. If anything happens to me, he’s the one behind it. He wants to be leader of the tribe but has no idea what it means. He’s mad and power hungry and I have to do whatever I can to protect our people. I love you, Adrien, and I’m sorry. So, so sorry…
The words trailed off and smudged too much at the end for her to make out anything else, but what she had was enough. More than enough. The knowledge that the crazy old man who had tried to ruin her life and tear her away from her mate was the same one who had plotted to have Adrien’s father killed burned through her. She had to tell Adrien. He had to know!
Morgan turned to head down the stairs to the bar to show him the journal when the front door suddenly opened. She opened her mouth to speak, to tell Adrien what she had discovered but the words froze in her throat before she could get them out.
A large, grim looking man stepped into the apartment. He was definitely not Adrien. With a shriek she turned to try and flee but she only got a step before a blinding pain exploded against the back of her head, and her world went black.
Chapter 6
Adrien swept up the stairs two at a time. He had wrapped things up at the bar as quickly as he could because all he had been able to think about the entire time was getting back to Morgan. He couldn’t stand to be apart from her, and there was an itch at the back of his neck telling him that she needed him.
He made it to front door of his apartment and stalled when he saw that the front door was swinging open. Adrien cursed out loud as he barged through the open door, panic flooding his system as he looked around and saw no sign of Morgan. Fear threatened to choke him as he saw the spots of blood that were already drying on his hard wood floor and he cried out at the sight. No. This couldn’t be happening. She had to be alright. He refused to allow anything else.
With a roar of anger, he spun on his heels, slamming his fist into the nearest wall. The impact rattled through him but gave him a moment of clarity as the pain in his hand interrupted the pain stabbing through his heart at the thought of Morgan hurt, or maybe worse. No, I can’t think like that, he reminded himself trying to shake off the horrible thought.
With a grimace, he shook his hand, not even feeling the numbing pain anymore as his emotions threatened to overwhelm him again. Suddenly, the animal inside him roared out his own rage, shocking Adrien at the ferocity of the feeling crashing through him. It was as if his bear half was trying to break free, the only thought in its head was to find whoever had done this and get Morgan back.
And then just as quickly he and the bear were on exactly the same page. Hope flooded through him because he realized something important, something vital. He could still feel the bond. Where Morgan was, he could still feel her, twined around his soul. And he would do whatever he could to get her back safe and sound in his arms.
That very same hope warred with hopelessness as he he looked around the small apartment for any more clues. Anything else that would lead him back to her, to who hurt her. Because he had now doubt that someone had broken in with the intention of kidnapping and hurting Morgan. What he didn’t understand is why.
He tracked the trails of blood but they stopped at the door as if someone had picked her up and carried her the rest of the way. So that eliminated most women. A thoughts struck him and he froze. Unless it was a bear. A female from his clan would be more than capable of lifting Morgan, or of hurting her.
His thoughts caught on that and a face flashed in his mind. Sera. She had threatened Morgan, she had a motive to do this because she insanely believed that if Morgan was out of the way than he would mate with her. He shook his head. It still didn’t seem quite right. Sera was a lot of things, but at the end of the day she wouldn’t get her hands dirty. At heart, she was truly a coward.
Adrien tried to calm himself, taking deep breaths of the air to try and clear his head so he could think, so he could anything but picture her in pain, being beaten or worse.
“Fuck!” He growled, letting his head drop despairingly into his hands. He stood there like that for a long moment, just letting it eat at him before he firmed his resolve.
“Please,” He called out softly to the animal still raging inside him, “Help me, please.” Adrien stilled then, and for the first time in his life every part of him seemed to merge together into one being, neither man nor beast. His senses were suddenly heightened, the world illuminated by scent and sound and as he walked with the legs of a man he could feel the bear’s strength seeping through him. It was one of the most magical things he had ever felt, so at one within himself. But it was marred by the stabbing pain of knowing that Morgan was in trouble.
Without wasting anymore time, Adrien sniffed at the air, moving around the space until he found the spot where it was most intense. Foremost was the scent of Morgan, her fear acrid and bitter in his nose. He shook it off, focusing deeper. And there it was!
The smell he had been looking for. His eyes drifted close and a growl hissed past his lips as he inhaled, breathing all of its evil into his lungs, tasting the darkness like oil coating his mouth. He coughed, choking on it, but when he opened his eyes a second later he knew exactly who had taken her. He remembered that scent. A hard smell, with a bitter sharp edge of insanity and depravity. And it belonged to Harris’ right hand man, Theo. That meant that Harris was involved, even thought it still didn’t make sense to him. But he didn’t care. He just needed his mate back. And he would do anything he had to make that happen.
Frantic with panic and fear, but also riding the hard edge of determination, Adrien stormed back outside. As he ran towards his jeep he was already dialing the number on his cell phone.
“Come on, Come on Grant. Pick up the god damn phone!” He growled the words as he threw the key in the ignition, turned over the engine until it roared to life, and then peeled out of the driveway at breakneck speeds.
The other end continued to ring as Fisher didn’t answer the phone and he left a growled message that he hoped was discernable. He told Grant everything that had happened with Morgan being taken and possibly injured, he told him that he knew who it was behind the attack. Theo, and right behind him was that mad man Harris.
He took off drove down the familiar roads, not even thinking about where he was going as his instincts road him, pushing him onward, pushing him to save his mate. The one thing he did focus on was the bond. That magical, mysterious thing that connected them, that bound their life forces together.
Adrien focused as hard as he could, drawing every ounce of strength and warmth and comfort and love, pushing it through the bond and hoping that she could feel it. Because even if she could only feel a tiny part of his love for her, then it would be enough to give her strength. It would be enough. It had to be.
He wouldn’t allow any other option. She just had to be alright. The image crept like black, choking smoke into her mind of her injured, of her dead and he pushed it away as forcefully as he could. He couldn’t’ let himself think like that or he would just breakdown then and there on the side of the road. And he knew that she needed him to be strong. She needed him to save her. And that was exactly what he was going to do.
The winding path soon left the buildings and houses of the town and he pressed his foot to the gas pedal, speeding around forested turns and sharp curves, heedless of his own safety. He only had one thought, one goal. He had to find his mate, and he had to protect her. That had become his only mission in life. Because he realized then, without her, his life was meaningless. She was all of the joy and laughter and love in his world and if she was gone…
He shook off the thought, trying only to focus on the miles o
f road the jeep was steadily eating up. But it wasn’t fast enough. He knew he had to get there soon. He knew, somehow, that he didn’t have much time.
Chapter 7
When Morgan woke her world was still nothing but black. Darkness and pain. There was another jolt that sent her crashing into the carpeted wall of whatever she was enclosed in and it helped to clear her fuzzy brain a bit. She blinked rapidly, trying to clear the spots that shattered like points of light in front of her eyes and finally just gave up and closed them again.
She felt out with her fingers first, tentatively, and gasped as she felt along the small space she was crammed into. Her knees were pushed up into her chest, her neck bent at an odd angle that did nothing to alleviate the pounding pain that stabbed repeatedly through her head.
Morgan tried to remember what had happened, how exactly she had come to be locked in what seemed to be the back of a trunk but as she tried the pain throbbing in her head exploded like a shower of fireworks and she cried out as the car hit another bump. It was bigger this time and she flew up, bounced around like a rag doll by the poor shocks in the car
“Ooouch.” She hissed the word through gritted teeth as she finally landed, fully feeling every bruise and sore spot on her body, of which there was a lot. She didn’t know how long they had been driving or how long she had been unconscious, but she was suddenly glad she hadn’t been away for most of it.
Just then the car began to slow and her heart rate directly increased until they finally stopped moving. Morgan tried to catch her breath, to calm herself. She had to get out of there. She had to try and escape because somehow she knew that whoever had knocked her over the head and taken her had no intention of letting her go.
Panic spiked to full on terror as she heard the driver’s side door open, then slam shut with a heavy thud. Morgan tried to think, tried to breath but could do neither as the slow, steady footsteps made their way towards the back of the car. Towards her!
With a jolt, she did the only thing that she could think of to try and survive long enough to escape. Morgan squeezed her eyes shut tight, trying to calm her panting breaths and racing heart and pretended to still be knocked out. Hopefully whoever it was who had kidnapped her wouldn’t be looking at her all that closely because they would be sure to see the pulse beating madly at her throat. It took every ounce of willpower to make her body go limp and just as the door was opened and she knew it wouldn’t work, knew she wouldn’t be able to keep up the act, a wave of the most powerful love and strength flowed through her.
She didn’t understand it, or know where it came from but she turned all of her attention to that feeling, focusing only on that and it wrapped around her like a warm cocoon, offering her the strength she needed to survive.
The trunk popped open with a rusty squeaking sound and she could feel the cold, disinterested touch of her kidnapper as he reached in and none too gently dragged her out and threw her over his shoulder. Morgan just barely bit back the scream of pain as he jostled against ribs that felt cracked by the tumultuous car ride. She swore she felt blood in her mouth but again, focused only on the wave of love that kept flooding her body like a beacon from heaven.
Cautiously, she cracked open one eye to get a look at her surroundings and the familiarity of it hit her. She had been here before. That first night that Adrien had asked her to be his pretend fiancé. It seemed like ages ago when they driven out here to the large wooden building to have dinner with his people. When they walked out into the clearing where the Choosing ceremony took place.
The sense of déjà vu gave her chills but she made sure to remain boneless as the man carried her like a sack of potatoes inside the building. She barely had a chance to look around inside before she was tossed heedlessly in the corner, the hard wood of the floor boards making her once again want to cry out at the pain. She wasn’t sure which was worse now the ache in her ribs or the one that kept on pounding relentlessly at the back of her head.
She kept her eyes closed, but that didn’t stop her from instantly recognizing the voice of the second man who was there.
“Why the hell did you bring that whore here, Theo? What were you thinking, you idiot!” Harris voice ricocheted through her and she clenched her jaw as fear threatened to overwhelm her at the venom he was spitting at the other one. The one who had kidnapped her. Theo.
“She’s your problem now, sire,” Theo’s word dripped with hatred, “I’m done doing your dirty work. It’s time to get your own hands bloody.”
As they continued to argue, their voiced getting louder and louder, Morgan had a sudden epiphany. Now was her chance! While they were distracted with each other, she could make her escape. Morgan didn’t give herself another moment to think about her plan. Well, she couldn’t exactly call it a plan. Mostly, it was run. And that’s what she did.
Morgan leapt up from her spot of the floor, grasping at her bruised ribs as the pain of movement shot through her and aimed her body towards where she thought was the door. Her hope faltered as she saw it was shut, and then died completely at the huge dead bolt barring any chance of her escape. She cried out then as she tripped, tumbling forward from the impact of the shove from behind.
The agony from the fall drowned her, and darkness edged in the corners of her vision as the world doubled and then tripled before finally returning to normal. Except that nothing was normal. She had been hit over the head and kidnapped, thrown in the trunk of a car and taken to the middle of the woods with two madmen. And now she was going to die.
She could feel it in her heart, in her bones. Morgan could see it in the deranged light shining in Harris’ eyes as he stood over her, a long, wicked looking knife in his hands.
“Afraid of getting blood on my hands, am I?” He hissed out the words and spittle flew in an arc around him. She knew he was speaking to the other one and her heart stopped in her chest. She knew he would never let the other man get away with challenging him. She could see it in the crazed expression on his lined and haggard face.
A sudden sound froze them all and before she could even allow herself to hope the lock on the door was blown clear apart and the door slammed open to reveal the one man her heart had hoped for the most. Adrien!
Theo ran towards him but Adrien’s rage and fear for Morgan fueled his strength and after one massive blow to the jaw the other man slumped bonelessly to the floor.
Morgan would have cheered except that Harris had grabbed her shirt, hauling her up to use as a human shield. She froze as she felt the sharp tip of the knife bite into the skin at her neck. Shit. This was not good.
Adrien stopped moving as well as he took in the precarious situation in a single glance.
“Harris, put the knife down. It’s over. If you give yourself up now I won’t kill you. Just let Morgan go.”
“No! She ruined everything! Everything would have been fine if not for this bitch.” Harris shook her and Morgan barely held back a whimper of pain. But overriding all of the fear and agony, a flame of anger was starting to grow.
“No, Harris, you’re wrong. I never would have mated with Sera. Even if I had never met Morgan.” Adrien tried to make Harris understand, but the man was beyond unstable, no longer living in reality.
“I don’t believe you! It’s her fault, all her– AHH!” Morgan almost grinned at Harris yell of pain as she simultaneously threw back her elbow and stomped on the top of his foot. She wasted no time rushing over to Adrien’s side, hiding behind him as relief threatened to bring her to her knees. Her mate was there. Everything was going to be alright.
She looked up just in time to see Harris take off for the doors that Adrien had just busted through and Adrien wasn’t far behind him. There was no way he was going to get away for this. But they had only made it a few feet before they realized that Harris wasn’t going anywhere.
Just outside the lodge stood almost every member of the Long Pines tribe. And they looked pissed. Adrien’s friend Grant stood forward, taking the lead and his voice
echoed out through the trees as he spoke.
“Harris Demarion! We strip you of your title as tribe leader. You no longer have our respect, or our permission to rule. You have twisted everything that a leader should be into something horrible and evil. You are here by banished from this tribe, and any others!” A gasp went through the crowd standing around him and Harris cried out as if struck.
“No! no, you can’t do that. You don’t have the authority.” Harris spit out the words, and he had never looked more insane as he whipped from side to side. But there was no mercy to be found in the people he should have been leading, instead of trying to dictate over.
Morgan glanced down as a warm hand touched hers, then followed it up to the most beautiful face she had ever seen. Her mate. He held out his arms and she went into the unquestioning. Finally, she was safe. Finally, she was exactly where she belonged.
Epilogue
Eight months later
“No. No really, I insist. Thank you for your kind words, Mrs. Coopers, but I really can’t accept–.” Adrien bit off the words through clenched teeth but she didn’t hear him. Intentionally, he was sure. He propped his cell phone between neck and shoulder as his attention wandered. He had heard everything she had to say more than once already.
He stared down at the large desk in front of him, the same desk he could so vividly remember his father working at when he was just a cub. He looked around the office. His now, no longer his father’s, but still the memories haunted him. And still, he held them close to his heart, especially since he had moved into the house he had grown up in. The very house his father had raised him in. Turns out that throwing over an insane, dictatorial leader was all he’d had to do to get accepted back into the tribe all those long years.
Adrien shook his head at the tinge of bitterness that still remained, even after eight months had past since the truth had all come tumbling out. That whole time he had felt so alone, so cut off from the rest of his clan, and really it had all been lies and rumors perpetrated by that whack job, Harris. Well, he was gone now, though there was little consolation in that.
BAD BOY ROMANCE: DIESEL: Contemporary Bad Boy Biker MC Romance (Box Set) (New Adult Sports Romance Short Stories Boxset) Page 71