by Maia Dylan
Wheeler’s voice sounded exactly the same. Parris scrambled back as fast as she could, using her hands and feet to propel her away from him.
“I’ve certainly missed you.”
Wheeler closed the door and locked it. Parris’s heart began to pound when he started walking toward her.
“I would lie awake at night remembering the little sounds of fear you would make and long to hear them again. And now look at us, reunited again.”
Wheeler leaned down and gripped her shoulders, lifting her straight off the ground. Parris gasped at the strength he exhibited, knowing that this was not the same man she had known before. He was different somehow. He was stronger than he had ever been, and now that she was closer to him, she could see a feral nature within him that she had never seen before. When she made herself lift her eyes and meet his gaze she felt all the blood drain from her face. His eyes flickered between the muddy brown they usually were and an amber that reminded her of a cat. Was he a shifter?
“I have waited nine fucking years to come back for you, little rabbit.” He pulled her closer so that her face was inches from his, and her stomach turned at the fetid smell of his breath. “Nine years of searching for a way to be stronger, to be able to take on any force Drake throws at me. Two years ago I decided to make my move and head back to Drake’s, and what did I find? Nothing. No fucking sign of my little rabbit, and that pissed me off!”
Wheeler threw her sideways, and Parris hit the wall and slid to the floor. Winded, she tried to scramble out of his way as he stepped toward her, but there was nowhere to go. All the training that she’d been given abandoned her as fear filled her completely and she cowered in the corner of the room. Breathing harshly, she yelped when he reached out, grabbed her by her hair, and dragged her behind him as he headed for the bedroom door. Her mind filled with thoughts of what the bastard planned and she contemplated screaming for help, but she dismissed it just as quickly. Xanthe was the only one downstairs, and if she came up, Wheeler could hurt her.
She gritted her teeth against the pain and reached up to grip his wrist in a vain attempt to lessen the pain. She widened her legs, trying to grab onto the furniture they passed. If she could somehow get loose, she might be able to run.
“I have been hiding from that bastard Drake for too fucking long. That bastard needs to understand that he cannot come between me and what’s mine anymore.” Wheeler snarled, and Parris realized he still believed that Drake was alive. “I’m stronger than I have ever been, stronger than that bastard will ever be! He will not take you from me. You are my mate, and as is my right, I am going to claim you as mine so that you will belong to me for all time.”
Panic swelled within Parris. Somehow, he had managed to be changed into a shifter of some sort and was convinced she was his mate. Her heart bled at the realization that if she had mated with Jase and Rhys before now, he would have known she wasn’t his mate, and she could call to them for help without alerting Wheeler.
Parris couldn’t hold in a scream as she was suddenly lifted up off the floor and flung onto the bed. “No! God, please, Wheeler,” Parris begged as she scrambled back on the bed. “Please don’t do this. I’m not yours. I’m not!”
A crazed gleam shone in his eyes as he stared at her, a slow smile forming on his face. “Little rabbit, you have always been mine. I can smell the scent of two fucking wolves who you have allowed to fuck you, and I will have to punish you for that soon. But right now, I am going to fucking take what is mine and claim you as mine!”
Parris yelped as Wheeler moved with a preternatural speed onto the bed. Before she could even draw breath to scream, he had straddled her and ripped her long-sleeved T-shirt in half. Acting with a sense of survival she had never known she possess, she gripped her right hand with her left and swung it as hard as she could across his jaw, hoping to knock him off her.
Despite the fact that his head moved with the strike and he grunted, the blow barely stunned him. “Shit, Parris. I love some fight in my women. It tells me that they like and want it rough, the way I want to give it to them.”
Wheeler threw himself down on her, slamming his mouth painfully into hers and thrusting his tongue into her mouth. Parris gagged at the taste and squirmed to try to get him off her. In desperation, she bit down on his tongue.
“Fuck!” Wheeler roared as he pulled back, blood pouring from his mouth.
Parris turned and spat out the coppery blood that had filled her mouth.
“Why, you little whore! You will give yourself willingly to two fucking men who have no claim over you, but with me, your mate, you fight! I am an alpha, and you will submit to me!”
Parris flinched as he swung his hand back and struck her across the cheek with the back of it. She felt the sharp sting of it, and stars formed in behind her eyelids. If she lost consciousness, then all would be lost. She could feel Wheeler ripping her jeans from her. If she lost consciousness now, everything would be lost. She had only one chance, and even knowing that it would likely kill her, it was better than the alternative.
Pulling every positive, pure, and happy memory she had with her men to the forefront of her mind, Parris reached for every ounce of willpower and courage that she had. Then she pushed through his strengthened shifter shields and into his brain. The pain was unlike anything she had felt before. She screamed as she pushed the compulsion that he couldn’t breathe into his mind. She could feel him fighting the compulsion, but she simply pushed harder.
Several white-hot shards of agony streaked through her skull, and she knew what that meant. The lesions in her brain were rupturing, and she was now hemorrhaging. She felt Wheeler fall away from her, and from the thrashing he was doing beside her, she knew that he was fighting to draw breath. She pushed the compulsion again. She couldn’t hear anything, and she was fairly certain that her vision had gone as well, but still she pressed the compulsion, waiting for the movement on the bed to stop. The only sign that told her Wheeler was still alive.
Knowing what this would mean for her, Parris longed to be able to tell her men one last time that she loved them. Reaching within her, she felt for the weak mating bond that had snapped into place when she met Jase and Rhys. She had never gone looking for it before in fear that it might cause her lesions to bleed, but now she had nothing to lose. Finding it, she pushed a surge of warmth and love along it. She knew it was edged with a bittersweet sorrow for what could no longer ever be, but she figured they would understand why it was there eventually.
She wasn’t sure if she had succeeded in sending them that message or killing Wheeler, not when the convulsions hit and she succumbed to the seizure she was sure would kill her.
* * * *
“Do you think she’ll like the ring? I mean really like it?” Rhys asked as they were crossing the road toward Lotions and Potions.
“God I hope so,” Jase answered. They were a little late meeting Parris for lunch as they had decided to go and pick up an engagement ring. The decision had turned out to be a fairly easy one as he and Rhys both picked the same one. A simply square cut solitaire set in a platinum band. They had then waited for the engraver to finish it, and it was now burning a hole in the front right-hand pocket of his jeans.
Rhys barked a laugh that held a tinge of nerves. “We’re screwed if she doesn’t. I don’t think they’ll take it back now that it’s been engraved.”
Jase also grinned at that as they stepped up the stairs to the porch that led to Xanthe’s shop. The entrance to the apartment was behind the store, but they wanted to check in with Xanthe before they went upstairs. They both knew that Hunter and Dane were still away, and if for any reason they had to leave their mate for any length of time, they would hope their pack would check on her regularly, too.
“Hey, guys!” Xanthe called out from behind the counter as they stepped into the store.
Jase had to blink away the tears that formed from the strong scents in the room. He had no idea how the lion shifters managed to stay for
any length of time in this shop. The sickly strong, sweet scent of flowers, spices, and God knew what else was pretty damn hard for a shifter to take.
“Hi, Xanthe. How are you doing?” Rhys asked as he sniffed subtly, too, obviously affected as much as he was.
Xanthe came around the counter and gave them both a quick hug. “If I had a dollar for everytime a Grey River wolf has asked me that in the past few days, I could probably afford to close the shop!”
Jase grinned and was just about to ask after Hunter and Dane, but was almost dropped to his knees by an intense wave of emotion. “Jesus,” he rasped, gripping the counter for support. The emotion came from down the fledgling bond they shared with Parris. At first he was filled with joy at the intense pulse of love that flooded through him, but then ice filled his veins when he felt the sadness and sense of hopelessness and fear that came with it.
“Parris,” he snarled then spun from the counter. Employing every ounce of his shifter speed and strength, Jase flew up the back stairs that led to Melaina’s apartment. He was vaguely aware that Rhys was right on his heels. Reaching the top of the stairs, he inhaled and caught the scent of another man, a shifter.
Now filled with a rage he could scarcely control, the locked closed door barely made him pause as he stormed into the apartment, leaving the door hanging from one hinge and the door frame in splinters.
“Parris!” he roared as he entered the apartment. His eyes flew widely around the room, and his panic swelled to match his rage when he saw blood splattered on the floor in front of the door and furniture overturned throughout the small room.
Inhaling again, he caught the scent of the shifter and the coppery scent of his mate’s blood. Roaring his anger to the world, recognizing the same sound of unadulterated rage coming from his brother, Jase followed the scents down the hallway, his heart started to beat a little harder when he realized the scent was coming from the back bedroom. Refusing to think about what that might mean, he slid to a halt just inside the room, Rhys stopping at his side. The sight that greeted him had his heart stopping.
His mate lay in the center of the bed. Her shirt had been ripped, and her jeans were stripped to her thighs. Blood flowed from her nose and her ears, and a white foam was coming from her mouth. The seizure had her convulsing so strongly that the bed moved on the floor. Finally the seizure abated, and she slumped against the mattress as he and Rhys leaped to the bed and climbed on either side of her.
“Parris, darlin’, please.”
Rhys’s voice was harsh, and Jase heard the panic in it. He shared that same emotion. Parris was deathly pale behind the blood on her face, and her breathing was so damn shallow, he struggled to hear it at first.
“What do we do, Jase?”
Jase looked around, finding a blanket at the end of the bed he grabbed it and pulled it over her prone body. “I don’t know. Keep her warm, and wait for help.”
Xanthe had shouted she was going for help as soon as they breached the bedroom.
“Parris, sweetness can you hear us? We’re here baby, right beside you where we will always be, my love. Always.” He lifted her cold hand into his and pressed it against his chest.
Ty’s voice came down the link sounding strained. “Jase, Rhys, you need to claim her.”
Jase shared a look with his brother. Biting her and causing her more pain were the last things they wanted to do.
“Chris is on his way, so are Brendan and Cody, but Chris is adamant that you need to claim her. He said he talked to you both about that.”
“Yeah, he did, but she’s hurt, Ty.” Jase sent back. A noise at the door had him looking up, and he saw Rowena and Xanthe both standing there looking into the room. Their faces were filled with sorrow, tears streaming down their cheeks..
“Jase, I swear to you that the best thing to do is to listen to the doctor who has been treating your mate. You need to claim her. Chris said this is your only chance at saving her life, and while you worry about hurting her, she is fucking bleeding out in front of you, so fucking do it! Now!”
Ty’s last word was nothing less than an order. Jase knew those words to be true, called his wolf forward, and felt his canines drop. Not hesitating for a moment more, he leaned into his mate, and struck, biting deeply into the tender flesh where her neck met her shoulder. He knew from the feelings of joy, loss, pain, and panic that flooded the familial link he shared with his brother that he had struck at the same time. After sweeping his tongue across the bite to aid in healing, he pulled back, feeling the mating bond between them snap into place, complete and strong. He wanted to throw his head back and roar at the how right that felt, but when he reached for her down the link, her presence was weak. There was only a whisper of her, an echo, nothing like the phenomenon that was their mate.
He heard footsteps running up the stairs, and he tensed until he recognized the scents of his pack mates. Brendan, Cody, and Chris all charged into the room, and Rhys mirrored his move from the other side.
When his foot collided with something, he looked down. Lying facedown on the floor beside him was the shifter he had scented in the apartment, the one who had come to Grey River with the express purpose of taking his mate from him. His vision blurred with red, and the feral growl rolled continuously from his chest rumbled through the room.
Leaning down, he pulled the body from the floor, the man’s weight nothing compared to his rage. Turning the man to face him, Jase noticed the bluish tinge to his skin and the vacant eyes and knew he had been robbed of the opportunity to rip the fucker to pieces. Roaring his displeasure to the world, he threw the body against the bedroom wall, watching dispassionately as it broke through the plaster and ended up basically embedded in the wall.
“Jase!”
Chris’s yell broke through his haze, and Jase turned to look at him, staring directly at Chris but steadfastly refusing to look at the bed itself. The image of their mate lying prone and dying on the comforter would live with him for the rest of his life, and he certainly did not want to see it again. “If you’ve quite finished throwing that dead fucker around, do you think you could come over here and calm your mate. She’s a little distressed.” Jase huffed out a breath, and his eyes dropped immediately to his mate.
Rhys was kneeling beside the bed at her head, whispering to her, kissing her hand and trying to calm her, but she was looking right at him. She was looking right at him and reaching a shaking hand out to him. Jase felt all his anger, all his fear fall away. He fell to his knees beside the bed with a sob, ignoring the tears that rolled down his face.
“Sweetness,” he rasped as he gripped her hand in his. She sobbed his name, and his heart shattered for her. “I’m here, baby. Rhys and I are here. You’re safe, my love.”
Parris looked into his eyes and then Rhys’s as if to reassure herself that they were there and not going anywhere, then she settled back against the mattress.
Jase heard his pack mates moving about the room, talking softly to themselves, readying to transport his mate to the hospital, but he didn’t take his eyes from Parris. Watching over her as her eyes gently closed, he might have thought that she was asleep, but the tight hold she had on his and Rhys’s hands told a different story.
“You hold tight to us, my love,” Jase whispered down their link. Parris’s smile told him that she heard him. “We aren’t going anywhere.”
“I love that I can talk to you like this,” Parris sent back.
When she never flinched or grimaced, he figured the use of a psychic talent didn’t cause pain like it did before. The claiming bite had given their mate a few unique abilities that only a shifters mate could have. Advanced healing and increased psychic abilities were just a couple of them.
“We do, too, darlin’,” Rhys added.
Chris cleared his throat, and Jase looked over at him, surprised to see a gurney already set up and ready to transport Parris to the ambulance downstairs.
“Let’s get her to the hospital and make sure she’s o
kay. You guys can continue to watch over her there.”
“Damn straight we will,” Jase promised.
Chapter 14
Rhys glanced over at his mate sitting in the passenger seat of his truck. Not for the first time in the last four days since she had been abused by the bastard Wheeler did he sent a prayer of thanks skyward to the gods that she was alive and safe. She grinned at him when she noticed him looking at her and couldn’t help grinning back.
In the time she was in the hospital, they had figured out what had happened to bring Wheeler to Grey River. He had admitted to Parris that he had gone looking for her at the property she had been held in prior to Drake’s death. A property that had been purchased by Aristos and was one of many that he owned under assumed names. In fact, there were a few that he had purchased in Drake’s name even after his death. They believed that Wheeler waited there for Drake to return, not knowing what else to do. His patience paid off when Rafael turned up at with Pepper in the trunk. He must have followed them both here and then simply lay in wait until Parris or Pepper showed up.
Wheeler must have been watching and waiting in town, never leaving his car much from the amount of rubbish and filth that had discovered in it where it was parked across the road from Lotions and Potions. Parris mentioned that she had been looking for them down the street from the upstairs window in the moments before the attack, and Wheeler must have spotted her and made his move.
He and Jase would never forgive themselves for being slightly delayed that day. When they had admitted to Parris that they had been late and then showed her the reason why, they had still been eaten by guilt despite the joy Parris had shown at seeing her engagement ring. No doubt sensing the guilt they felt down their link, their mate had harrumphed and narrowed her eyes at them.