by Rosko, Mandy
The woman, who Derek thought was the mate, looked back at Derek, but then followed after him. So did Jax, leaving Katie and Joey there with Derek, as if he wanted anyone around him right now.
“Are you all right? I can bring you something for your throat?” Katie tried putting her hand on his shoulder. Derek shrugged it away.
Joey limped in front of him. “We won’t let him near you again.”
Derek growled at the man. “You’re not going to do shit against him, and you know it.”
Joey winced. “I’m sorry. He’s my alpha.”
“Whatever.” Derek didn’t care that he wasn’t being fair. He didn’t care that this guy lived here. He was pissed off. He wanted out of this place, and he wanted to go home.
“Will both of you just leave me alone?”
“You shouldn’t be alone right now,” Katie said, and Derek damn near lost his mind.
“What do you care? What do either of you care? You’re with him. This is your pack, and I’m the enemy. I’m the one who lives with the people that ganged up on you, remember that?”
He didn’t say anything else because he didn’t want to entirely throw it in her face what happened, but that didn’t stop Katie from slapping him hard across the cheek. She pointed a finger at him. “You don’t ever get to mention that to me.”
Derek didn’t say anything. He didn’t look at her either. There was nothing to say, and nothing he could do that would make up for how fucked up his life was.
He could still hardly believe it, that his own pack had been involved in something as terrible as…that.
And his dad knew about it, too.
He was associated with a bunch of low lives. He lived with them, fought, and ate with them. He wasn’t them, but he figured if he were in Garret’s shoes, he’d want to kill him, too.
“I didn’t do anything wrong,” Derek said, and he was going to die on this hill. “I’m not a rapist. I’m not a killer. My dad isn’t either.”
“Your father is definitely a killer at the very least,” Joey said.
Derek growled at him.
Katie stood. “We’ll leave you alone, but we will come back if it looks like Garret is about to go off the deep end. If you’re absolutely sure there’s nothing else you know—”
“There’s not! All right?” Derek rushed to his feet. Joey stepped between him and Katie, as though he would defend her. It was enough to make Joey laugh.
“Seriously?”
“We’re both omegas. We’re evenly matched.”
“Yeah right, you’re out of your fucking mind if you think I can’t take you—”
Joey punched him in the face.
Derek fell back against the wall, stunned at the strength behind the hit.
“You’re wearing silver, don’t forget.”
Derek wasn’t going to forget it. He glared at the other man, his eyes still burning, and for some reason, Joey looked at him as though he was the one in pain.
“We should leave him alone,” Katie said, looking back at Derek. “We’ll check on you in an hour if we don’t hear anything from your father.”
In that moment, as they walked out and left him, Derek didn’t care if they heard anything or not. He almost wanted Garret to come down here and try finishing him off. At least then Derek would get his chance to dig his claws into the man’s eyes.
His father could abandon him, and Garret could kill him, but if that alpha prick ever got close enough again, Derek knew better than to try getting his wrists off. He would blind the man before Garret killed him.
Of course, that was a small comfort when he was alone with his thoughts, throat pulsing with heat and pain.
9
They found a car. A shitty-looking car that looked as though it was barely winning the war against the rust eating away at the sides of the thing. There was no telling what the bottom looked like, but Dennis was willing to bet it couldn’t be much better.
“Is it safe?” Anna asked.
Normally, he wouldn’t even think of putting her in a vehicle like this, but he had to do what he had to do.
“It will get us where we need to go. We won’t be in it for long.”
He hoped the owner didn’t have anywhere they needed to be in the morning. No one drove a car like this if they could help it. Dennis knew he sure as hell didn’t, but a rusty piece of shit that still got him where he needed to go was a valuable piece of shit.
If he got out of this alive, he’d have to make it up to the owner for breaking his driver’s side window with his fist and helping himself to the vehicle.
He unlocked the passenger door for Anna, sweeping broken glass that had flown onto her seat off it with his hand.
“You’ll cut yourself.”
“It will heal.”
She was quiet, waiting for him to get in.
There were only a few small, square houses around here. They were on the outskirts of an old miner’s town. The properties around here weren’t much, but at least the people had housing.
Dennis had scrimped and saved as much as he could, hoping one day to have a small home like these. He’d hoped to raise his son there when Garret turned them away again, but he hadn’t been able to pull together the funds even for one of these homes, and Derek’s childhood came and went in a scruffy pack where no child should have ever been.
How the hell did he hope to give Anna anything even close to what she was accustomed to?
“Dennis, hurry.”
“All right.”
He got all the glass off the seat, ignored the sting in his hand, and sat down. It was an old car. He hadn’t picked it because it was the only one, but because he could pop open the spot just under the wheel and get at the wires he needed.
He sliced the right ones with his claws and got to work.
“Oh shit, Dennis.”
“What?”
He looked away from what he was doing, half expecting to see Carl or Wallace there, ready for more.
He didn’t. It was a dog. A black lab.
Even if it didn’t belong to the owner, if the thing started barking, it would give him away in an instant.
The dog looked at him, and Dennis looked back. He let a little of his wolf out, a thick growl rumbling up from his chest and through his throat. His sight changed, becoming sharper, and he knew the dog would see the eyes of the wolf.
It backed off a step, a soft whine escaping it, but that wasn’t enough for the wolf.
Dennis snapped his teeth at the creature, and the dog took its cue, running away from the larger, stronger predator.
Dennis put the wolf back inside where it belonged. He started the engine, shut the door, and stopped short when he looked at Anna.
“What?”
She smiled at him. “That was so sweet. You let him off with a warning.”
Dennis snorted at her bad attempt at a joke. “Yeah, yeah.”
He started the engine, pulling away from the homes, making sure none of the lights turned on in his rearview mirror as he drove away.
The muffler definitely needed a change. It was a small miracle he didn’t wake the entire neighborhood.
“Do you have to do this?” Anna asked.
Dennis grit his teeth. “You know I do.”
Anna nodded, but she stared down at her hands, as though they were getting ready to go to his execution.
“It’s already passed the time I said I would be back. We don’t have a phone to call your brother. I cannot sit back and take chances with Derek. I know he’s not yours and you don’t care—”
“I never said I don’t care!” Anna’s wide, horrified eyes threw him a little.
Dennis rolled his eyes. “You don’t have to act like that. He’s not your son; you’re young and mated… I get why you would prioritize me over him.”
“I wasn’t doing that. I wasn’t trying to do that.”
“Well, either way, this is happening.”
He could sense the sudden rush in Anna’s
heartbeat. He felt the heat of her body increasing, and the way she struggled to take in a breath.
The telltale signs of someone who was fighting not to cry.
He wanted to reach out to her, to comfort her, but he knew that would make it worse.
So he kept his hands to himself.
“I have to do this, Anna. He’s my boy.” He debated finishing the sentence before he did. “You’ll understand when you’ve got kids.”
From the corner of his eye, he noted the way she looked at him.
He waited for her to say it, to ask why he thought she wouldn’t be having his kids, but she didn’t.
Somehow, that seemed so much worse.
“I understand why you would want to do this—”
“No, you don’t.” He shot that down as fast as possible.
“But I do! I get it! He’s your son!”
“Then you won’t fight me on this, will you?”
He took his eyes away from the road just in time to watch as her lips pressed together. He was getting her angry, and he was starting not to care.
“You want to get him out of there. I can help you. I can work with Garret.”
“Your brother is going to think I raped you the second he sees me and he’s going to try to put his claws through my eyes and rip my throat out with his teeth.”
“I won’t let him do that either.”
“You’re not going to have a choice.”
“So you’re just going to let my brother kill you?”
“Not until I see Derek running out of there, no.”
He felt the hitch in her breath, the way she gasped, and he knew he’d done something that hurt her. He didn’t know why it hurt her, or why it was such a big deal. It was the truth.
He would die for his son. He would go to hell for his son. He would do those things for Anna, too, but she wasn’t the one being held captive by a lunatic. Her brother was the lunatic. He wouldn’t hurt her.
Dennis would never hand her over if he thought for one second Garret was that sort of male.
She would understand. Not right now. She probably hated him right now, but she would understand one day.
He hoped he lived to see that day.
“Do me a favor?”
“What?”
He wished she didn’t sound as though she was the one on the chopping block. He didn’t want her feeling that way about this.
“When you see Derek—”
“Dennis!”
Dennis snapped his attention back to the road. He slammed on the breaks. Thank God Anna was wearing her seat belt; the tires screamed, but he came to a stop, and the high beams lit up Laurence’s body, bloody, angry.
He was in his wolfman shape, his hackles making him look as though he had a massive mohawk down his body.
“Dennis,” Anna whispered.
He put the car in reverse and slammed on the gas.
The wolf gave chase.
10
The wolf chased them. Anna watched it coming, her hands gripping the dash as those eyes pierced her.
“Dennis.”
“I see him. I see him.”
Dennis had his arm stretched out onto her seat. He looked back behind him, making sure he wasn’t about to hit anything.
Occasionally, he turned his gaze to the front, as though seeing how much distance he’d put between the truck and Laurence.
Which wasn’t much.
Anna could only look at his teeth, at the blood around his mouth, and the way the wolf creature charged at them.
He barely looked like a wolf, and he definitely didn’t look like a man. He looked like something from a horror show, and as much as Dennis made the tires shriek, he couldn’t seem to put any distance between Laurence and them.
“He’s getting closer.”
Dennis said nothing.
“He’s going to catch us. Can’t you go any faster?”
“I don’t want to flip the truck.”
What was he talking about? There was a monster coming for them right now. Flipping the truck was the least of their worries.
But then she understood when Dennis did speed up, just a little. One glance behind her told her why. The road had straightened out. There weren’t so many twists and turns anymore, freeing him to step on the gas.
Which he did.
Anna looked out the front windshield again, something releasing inside her chest as she noted the distance between her and Laurence.
She could breathe again. It still didn’t feel great, the thumping pain of her heart unclenching was still there, but she’d rather that than the alternative.
“Hold on, baby.”
Dennis spun the wheel. The tires shrieked again. Anna found herself struggling to keep her head from smashing into the window as Dennis spun the truck around.
Oh. Well, that also explained why he’d been worried about flipping the truck.
Anna looked behind her as Dennis floored it. The tires squealed again before finally getting some traction, but it still took two seconds too long before they were on the move again.
For those terrifying seconds, it looked as though Laurence was catching up.
Then he faded into the distance.
Anna let her neck fall against the back of the seat, exhaling a hard breath. Only then did she notice how much she was sweating through her clothes.
“Oh my God, that…was the worst.”
Dennis gripped the wheel. Anna frowned at the sight of his claws.
“Dennis, I think he’s gone now. He can’t catch up to us like this, can he?”
Dennis shook his head. “Not unless he knows an insane shortcut, but how the fuck did he…” Dennis trailed off. Fur sprouted in around his face, through the pores on his arms, and those claws seemed to get a lot longer, more pointed, and meaner.
“Are we still in danger?”
“No.”
She glared at him. He said that way too fast, but in the state he was in now, throwing it in his face didn’t seem like the best move.
Much as she wanted to do just that.
“Are you able to fight?”
Anna shook her head. “You know I can’t.”
“No, that’s not what I’m getting at.” Dennis remained fixed on the road ahead. His teeth looked to be getting longer in his mouth. “Are you able to fight if you have to? I know your brother made a little princess out of you.”
Anna clenched her hands on her knees.
“But I need to know that you won’t freeze up. Can you get your claws out if you need to?”
“I thought you wanted me to run away?”
“I do want you to run away, but if Laurence or Wallace, or Carl, or fuck it, anyone else from my old pack comes sniffing around, if they get you, do you know what to do?”
“I knew how to handle you.”
He looked at her. The red in his eyes froze her. “This isn’t a game. Don’t play with me. Tell me you can fight for your life if you have to.”
Anna swallowed. “I can, and I did. I held my own pretty well when I was stuck in your weird little base.”
“That was different.” Dennis shook his head and went back to glaring at the road in front of him. “I was never going to hurt you. You could have sassed me all day long if you really wanted to and no one would have touched you. I don’t know what Laurence wants to do, and I don’t trust Wallace and Carl under his command.”
Anna didn’t like hearing that. She’d thought she’d handled herself bravely when she’d been Dennis’ captive. Though, if she was honest with herself, she’d felt almost from the first moment that there was no real danger in being under his command.
It really had been the others Anna had been wary of, but even they hardly made her fret over her safety because Dennis had been in command.
Now that he wasn’t… Anna shivered.
God, what a child she’d been. She was a grown woman, and she’d been putting herself in unnecessary danger, playing with the patience of a group of p
eople who wanted to hurt her brother.
Now there was nothing to hold them back, and she realized how lucky she’d been.
“What should I do if they catch me?”
Dennis glanced at her. His claws slowly sank back into his fingers, his fur sinking into his pores, and his teeth returning to normal.
His eyes stayed that deep shade of red, however.
“Go for the eyes.”
“What?”
“Didn’t your brother ever teach you that? Go for the eyes. One of the easiest ways to get an attacker to let you go.”
“Well, yeah, Garret always told me something like that.”
“Well I don’t know how exactly he said it, but I'm serious. Even if someone has a chokehold on you. You have no idea how often people grab at the wrists or arms of someone who’s choking them out when they could just go for the eyes.”
“What if I were to knee him in the balls?”
She was pretty sure there had been no women in Dennis’ pack, so she assumed whoever would be choking her would be a man.
Dennis shook his head. “You’d be shocked at how often that doesn’t work. Guys protect their dicks more than you might think. They’d see the attack coming from a mile away. Just go for the eyes. You’ve got some decent nails on you, and then there are your claws. Don’t try slashing at any skin, arms, punching, or kicking. Eyes first and foremost should be your main focus. Got it?”
“Well, yeah, I guess so. Aren’t there other pressure points I should know about?”
Dennis shook his head. “I don’t have time to give you a full lesson right now, and I don’t want to risk that it’s too much information right before we’re possibly attacked. Just remember to get your claws out if you can, and even if you can’t do it in the heat of the moment, the eyes. Remember to go for the eyes.”
That sounded simple enough. Anna wanted to know more, and not for the first time since this all started, she wished Garret had taught her more about defending herself, that he didn’t coddler her, and that she hadn’t let him coddle her.
Dennis was right. Anna was a little princess. She didn’t want to admit it, but Christ, her bed back home had a canopy on it.
“All right. I’ll do what I can. So what’s the plan?”