Fated

  mate, who couldn’t possibly look like she could care less, he told himself that he was here to get answers and not because he wanted to be the one sharing a fucking Hallmark moment with her.

  *-*-*-*

  “I-I can’t feel my legs,” Drew’s Beta, Ryan, a harmless, yet entertaining man said from somewhere across the room.

  Kara didn’t bother looking up or even ask if he was okay since she was still trying to figure things out. She’d thought that eating something would help, but so far all it had done was attract the attention of two annoying werewolves.

  Okay, to be fair, Ryan hadn’t been annoying. He’d simply walked in the kitchen, grabbed a spoon, sat down from across from her and started eating. That was it. He didn’t bother her, ask her what was on her mind, or more importantly, say anything about Drew. For that, she’d allowed him to live when he’d hogged the section abundant with chocolate chips.

  Then he’d shown up and she’d realized that her time for reflection was over, but once again, Drew took her by surprise when he simply removed Ryan rather violently, sat down and joined her for some ice cream. For the first few minutes she’d been on the edge of her chair, waiting for him to say or do something to piss her off and wreck the moment, making the decision to leave the city and try to make it on her own easy, but to her surprise, he hadn’t said or done anything to piss her off.

  Yet.

  But he would. She knew him well enough to know that he was waiting for the perfect moment to irritate the shit out of her. Her nerves were on edge, making every second worse than the last as her anxiety rose even as she prepared several well-deserved comebacks for whatever bullshit that was about to come out of his mouth to piss her off.

  All she had to do was wait for it, she decided, narrowing her eyes on the bastard sitting across from her, eating ice cream like it was no big deal.

  “Oh, God…my poor ass…,” Ryan groaned, letting her know that he’d regained consciousness at some point.

  Instead of asking him if he was okay, because let’s be honest here, she really didn’t care, she focused all of her attention on the man who sat across from her, baring her mark and waiting for the interrogation to start all over again or another rendition of his bullshit rules. So, when he suddenly took one last bite of ice cream, stood up and tossed the spoon in the sink before he left the kitchen without a word, she realized that the devious bastard was up to something, which unfortunately for her, intrigued the hell out of her.

  Damn, werewolf curiosities, she thought with a heavy sigh as she pushed away from the kitchen island and decided to find out just what the bastard was up to.

  “I don’t think that my arm is supposed to be bent this way. Guys?”

  Rolling her eyes, because the man was just too damn soft to be anyone’s Beta, she walked over to the man laying in a tangled mess on the floor, grabbed his obviously dislocated arm and with a few minor jerks, had the arm locked back in the socket.

  She hated to admit this, but she was relieved when he’d finally passed out, because all that screaming and begging for mercy had actually started to give her a headache.

  *-*-*-*

  She was up to something, he decided for the hundredth time that day as he absently played with the keycard in his hand. He just couldn’t figure out what that something was and right now he didn’t have time to figure it out.

  Not only did he need to get his Pack up to New Hampshire tonight, but he also needed to figure out who was trying to move against him first since they were going after Kara to make it happen. Now that they were a marked pair, she was in even more danger.

  So, that meant the first thing that he needed to do was to remove Kara from the equation. Once he had her locked away somewhere safe, he could focus on his Pack. He needed to weed out the troublemakers and send a warning to whoever was trying to take him down, but he wouldn’t be able to do that with Kara in the picture.

  He needed her tucked away safely and as far away from the club and his Pack as humanly possible. She wouldn’t like what he had planned for her, but then again, he really didn’t fucking care. She was his mate whether she liked it or not and it was his job to keep her safe. It was for her own good and sooner or later she would figure it out and just accept that he had her best interests in mind.

  He wasn’t happy being mated, especially since there was a very good chance that he was going to live the rest of his life as a fucking monk, but she was his mate, his responsibility and whether or not she bore him any pups, she was still his, which was why he was going to do whatever he had to in order to keep her safe.

  *-*-*-*

  “I’m sorry, but did you enjoy being able to taste your balls in the back of your throat?” she had to ask him, because she really couldn’t figure out why Drew would do something this stupid.

  He pushed open the door to the brownstone and walked past her. “It’s not what you think,” he said, sounding bored as she stood on the front stoop, glaring at him through silver eyes as her foot twitched with the need to relive her dream, but it was the ache surrounding her mark that stopped her from living out that particular dream, again.

  “It’s not happening, Drew,” she said firmly, in absolutely no mood to play this game with him.

  “Look,” he said, coming back to join her on the front stoop, “I don’t have time to fuck around today. I need to get my Pack up to New Hampshire and I need to know that you’re safe while I’m gone and this is the only way that I can do that.”

  When she went to argue with him, telling him that she would be perfectly fine going to New Hampshire and staying out of his Pack’s way, he said the one word that she’d never expected to pass his lips.

  “Please, Kara. Just stay here so that I can go take care of my Pack without having to worry about you,” he said, suddenly looking absolutely exhausted.

  Normally she would have argued with him, told him off and simply walked away, but it was the please that did her in. Shaking her head, because she really couldn’t believe that she was doing this, she walked into her new prison on her own two feet and simply closed her eyes in defeat when she heard the door shut and lock behind her.

  She really was an idiot, she decided as she looked around the large, old brownstone that she now called home, because she knew without a doubt that she’d just fallen for his bullshit.

  Chapter 13

  New Hampshire

  Laymon Pack Lands

  “Where’s your mate?” Travis, a young pup of twenty, asked with a mocking smile as he tossed his shirt onto the pile along with the rest of the Pack’s clothing.

  “Probably off banging some demon,” Craig, another young pup, said, laughing along with rest of the young pups.

  Ryan sighed heavily as he grabbed Drew by the arm. “Please don’t kill them, because they’re idiots.”

  He shoved his Beta’s hand off his arm and went after the small group of assholes that really needed to learn their place. “I’m just going to maul them a little,” he growled as his eyes shifted silver, his fangs dropped and he allowed his hands to turn into claws.

  “Oh, shit!” one of the pups squeaked with a panicked expression in his eye as he stumbled back.

  Still laughing, his friends followed his panicked gaze and when they saw what was coming for them, they ran, shoving each other out of the way, more than willing to sacrifice each other if it meant living to see another day. They’d crossed their Alpha and they knew that he was going to have to make an example out of one of them and considering his mood, he might just spend the rest of the night hunting each one of them down and making them submit for shits and giggles.

  *-*-*-*

  Boston, MA…

  Two lovely, fun-filled days later…

  In the last brownstone left in Boston

  without electricity or running water.

  She was definitely going to kill him, she decided as she took a sip from the large cup of Mountain Dew that she’d been forced to scavenge for herself down at the
7-Eleven where all the lovely junkies and hookers who couldn’t find work liked to congregate in front of.

  Not that her last run down to the store had been all that bad. She’d been offered a blowjob and a dime bag for two bags of junk food. She wasn’t sure what the price for a blowjob was these days, but something told her that two bags of potato chips, ten candy bars, a box of Twinkies and Snow-Balls, and a microwavable cheeseburger should have been worth a blow job and the dime bag. She’d considered pointing that out, but something about that lovely group that had been sizing her up to see if they could take her down and slit her throat without her making a peep had stopped her from saying anything.

  She’d simply allowed her eyes to flash silver and showed a little fang when the fifty-year-old hooker, who’d initially offered her a blowjob, had started walking towards her with that box cutter. Granted, she probably could have handled that situation a little differently, perhaps she could have just run off after throwing a bag of chips at the woman to distract her, but she really hadn’t been in a fleeing mood. So, instead she’d guaranteed that none of those people would ever bother her again and that she could never return to that particular 7-Eleven.

  Then again, if any of them had psych problems, she could probably count on one or two of them trying to hunt her down so that they could sell their souls to her. Not that she was the type to take advantage of something like that, but if the offer was good, she would at least have to consider playing along.

  For their sake of course…

  Not because it would amuse her to have humans worshipping her or having them at her beck and call because they thought that she was God or a demon or something and she was bored out of her mind. Cause that would be wrong, so very wrong, she told herself even as she sent a wistful glance at the front door, hoping that one of her would-be attackers would knock on the door and offer her their undying love and allegiance.

  She, of course, would clear up any misunderstandings that they may have gotten when she’d flashed them her fangs and silver eyes. Well, she would after they helped her hunt down a comfortable bed, an iPad and a solar charger. Then she would definitely tell them the truth, or at least the version of the truth that wouldn’t get her in trouble.

  God, she was so unbelievably bored.

  She’d been born after the invention of electricity so this whole getting back to her roots thing just wasn’t working for her, she thought idly as she finished taking a sip of her drink and blew a huge dust bunny off one of the many built in bookshelves that lined the walls of every room on this floor. For a second she thought about making another attempt at reading one of the thousands of dust covered books that could be found throughout this large house, but since she’d inadvertently ruined that first edition copy of Huckleberry Finn the other day, she’d been a little nervous about touching any of the books after that.

  For most of the day yesterday, she’d entertained herself by walking around the old brownstone, checking out the old family portraits of Drew’s family until even that grew old. After that she’d looked for hidden passages, interesting things in the attic, but unfortunately all she’d discovered was more ancient books, portraits and more dust bunnies.

  After that disappointing adventure, she’d gone downstairs and checked out the old cells the Pack had once used to keep their members safe during the full moon when they had no choice but to lock themselves up. Most of the chains that had once been used to keep the Pack from doing anything stupid were now covered in dust. The bricks that lined the walls and floors of the cells bore the evidence of bored shifters clawing at the walls and floors, desperate to get out. Most of the bricks were nothing more than cracks, old urine stains, dust and more dust.

  She’d stayed down there for all of five minutes before she’d had enough and went back upstairs, went to the bed that she’d made out of the dusty, moth eaten sheets that were covering the antique furniture and had spent the rest of the night there. Around midnight she’d decided to say the hell with it and shifted so that the dust wouldn’t irritate her human skin.

  Now she was back to killing time and wondering why she just didn’t leave. She should definitely leave, she told herself as she opened up a bag of Cheetos and shoved an artificially flavored orange treat into her mouth with a sigh. She should definitely leave, she kept telling herself, but there was only one problem.

  She really had nowhere to go.

  Well, that wasn’t exactly true. Now thanks to her mating with Drew and the marks that he’d left all over her body, she was welcome onto any of the properties that the Pack owned, including