An Inconvenient Mate (13 page)

The man had fists like anvils. Not that he was any match for a Breed, but for a woman as delicate and fragile as Isabelle, it would have been like being mauled by a grizzly.

“I’ll take care of it . . .” A piercing phone alarm began emanating from both Rule and Malachi’s phones.

Malachi’s eyes widened as he jerked it from his belt activated the display.

“He has her, Mal.” Emma’s face was already swelling while blood oozed from her nose and split lips. “Ashley’s down . . . Ash . . .” The phone fell.

Malachi was racing for the door the second the words made sense and running the short distance down the hall. He was aware of Rule behind him, shouting orders and pulling in the team being kept on a lower floor. The Martinez family was running behind, the father on the phone now, shouting orders as well as they all raced to Malachi’s room.

Stygian was slamming from the door further up the hall as Malachi made the turn down the wing where his, Ashley and Emma’s rooms were and skidded to a halt at the opened door of his room.

Ashley was down. Valiant, primpy, girly Ashley with her artificially colored locks, her fake nails and girlish innocence. The pride of the coyote packs, and everyone’s little sister.

Emma was beside her, weak, but still valiantly trying to stem the blood pouring from her sister’s chest wound as she sobbed with heartbroken fear.

“Ash . . . Ash please . . . Please don’t leave me, Ash . . .” she was crying, her voice weak, dazed and in shock as Malachi and Rule slid to their knees beside her.

“She won’t wake up, Mal,” Emma whispered, turning her face to him as Rule quickly began assessing the wound and Stygian raced to them with a med-kit.

What the phone display hadn’t shown was the other side of Emma’s head. Her hair was coated with blood, dripping with it as she stared back at him with eyes nearly black with shock.

“We have her, Emma.” Gripping the coyote female’s shoulders he quickly ran his gaze over her as the room began to fill with Breeds. “Where is Isabelle, Emma? Did you see where he took her?” He was screaming at her. Panic and terror were clawing at his guts with razor-sharp talons.

Emma shook her head, obviously trying to fight off the dizzying weakness of her wounds. “He smells like motor oil,” she whispered haltingly. “Isa cried for Ashley, but he hit her because she knocked the gun out of his hand. It’s under the bed. He hit me first, took out Ashley then grabbed Isabelle. Isa took your shirt.” She lifted her gaze to him again. “She’s only wearing your shirt.”

“Let’s move.” Malachi was on his feet, his gaze slicing to the tracker Rule had brought with them.

Braden Arness was one of the best they had, and the woman at his side, his mate, a Navajo empath that could find a fucking needle in a haystack.

Braden grabbed Malachi’s shoulders, but he was expecting it. He stood still, the animal inside him snarling for action as the Breed inhaled the scent just beneath his ear and again at his lower neck.

It was there that the mating scent was strongest during the first stages of the mating heat. It was from there that Braden would have the scent of Malachi’s mate, as well as the scent the shirt would carry.

Releasing him, Braden turned but his mate, Megan, was already hurrying for the door. “I told you something wasn’t right,” she reminded her mate furiously as they headed from the door. “I knew the pain I felt was tied to this. God, Braden, I should have looked further.”

“We’ll find her,” Braden promised. “It’s okay, honey, we’ll find her.”

And Malachi could only pray the tracker was right, because God help him if he lost his mate. Still, the howl that tore from his throat and echoed through the corridors of the hotel was haunting, filled with rage and grief. A coyote’s mate was in danger. God help the bastard responsible because now death was his only option.

Chapter Ten

You held my heart in your hands.
I felt its warmth, its power, and its promise.

“Holden, don’t do this, please.” Fear crawled up Isabelle’s back as she fought the sickening pain caused by the grip he had on her wrists as he dragged her down the stairs with him.

She couldn’t believe this was happening. She couldn’t believe he would have lost his mind to the point that he thought he could shoot one of the few coyote Breed females, and kidnap her and get away with it.

“You’re hurting me, Holden,” she cried as the dagger-like sensations stabbed at her wrists at every point that his flesh touched hers.

“Do you really think I give a fuck, you stupid little whore?” he screamed furiously as he dragged her down another flight of stairs. “You and those fucking bitches up there have just about ruined everything. All you had to do was be your usual stuck-up bitch self and stayed there alone after that Breed left. That was all you had to do.”

He gave another hard jerk at her wrists as though in retaliation for the perceived slight.

The harsh tug as she made that first, stumbling step to a landing caused Isabelle to lose her balance and twist her ankle. She went down hard, fighting to catch herself to lessen the chances of serious injury.

Holden refused to release her wrists as she went down. The lack of support and her inability to hold herself up had her falling down the next step, her hip colliding against the edge painfully.

“Fuck! Keep it up bitch and I’ll leave you to bleed out like I did that whore Breed.”

Isabelle screamed out in pain as he yanked at her wrists at the same time his fingers buried in her hair and used the thick length to jerk her up.

“He’ll kill you!” she screamed out at him, the pain and the humiliation enraging her. “Malachi will kill you, Holden. You know he will. You stupid bastard, you just possibly killed one of the most loved Breed females in the world. There’s no way they’ll let you live.”

She kicked at him, sobbing at the pain as he threw her against the wall before tossing her behind him once again.

“Fuck you, bitch,” he sneered. “He’s not going to kill anyone. He’ll be too busy chasing after you and the rest of them will follow suit. And I’ll be far far away.”

“You can’t run far enough.” She resisted, pulling her weight back and fighting his hold every inch of the way. “You can’t find a hole deep enough to hide in,” she spat in his face. “You’re a dead man walking.”

Ashley wasn’t dead. She had seen the other girl moving, watched her eyes open as Holden dragged her from Malachi’s room to the stairwell in the next wing.

Emma would have contacted Malachi immediately. She wouldn’t have waited. God, she had to be conscious enough to have contacted Malachi.

Where was he?

She stared behind her, looked up, fighting to catch a glimpse of him, to catch a glimpse of anyone that could report the abduction.

“You’re going to make me a hell of a lot of money, bitch.” He laughed at her attempt to break free, the pain shooting through her wrists making her weak.

Dazed from the confusing effect of his touch on her wrists, and the earlier blow to her head that he had used to keep her from escaping the room as Emma and Ashley rushed in, Isabelle found it more difficult to focus by the second.

“You won’t get to spend a penny of it.” She stumbled on the next landing again, crying out brokenly as her knee connected with the unyielding metal beneath her.

“Son of a bitch, what’s your fucking problem!”

The blow to the side of her head was humiliating. Not really hard enough to be disabling, just enough to rattle her senses and draw another hoarse cry from her lips.

Holden laughed, though the sound was filled with mockery and fury.

“If you had just been smart enough not to fight me that night,” he snapped. “All you had to do was lie there and take it like a good little girl and everything would have been fine, Isabelle. I’d have married your stupid little ass, given you a kid or two and life would have been good. I’d have you, your daddy’s ranch, and the respect I deserve. But you had to go fuck a Breed, didn’t you?”

“I would have died before I would have done anything but killed you,” she screamed furiously as the pain became excruciating. “I should have killed you while I had the chance.”

“But you didn’t, did you Isabelle? You let that puke-faced little sister of yours stop you. That was your second mistake.” He was up in her face, nose to nose, his rough features twisted into a monstrous mask of anger. “The first was denying me.”

A heavy, merciless hand gripped her jaw, pushing her head against the wall as he seemed to be trying to push it through the cement.

“Why are you doing this?” Isabelle cried out as he released her jaw.

The next second an openhanded slap knocked her to the side. The grip he still maintained on her wrists was the only thing that kept her from tumbling down the steps as she lost her balance.

She was weak, the pain rushing through her was worse than it should have been. Far worse. But he wouldn’t let go of her. He kept touching her, and for some reason just his touch was like a thousand blades cutting into her flesh.

“Hurts doesn’t it?” he rasped as he began dragging her down the steps again. “They were right about that. It hurts bad enough you can’t even fight me.”

They, who the hell was “they”?

Isabelle shook her head as she fought to make sense of what he was saying.

“What did you do to me?” She could barely breathe, the pain was building so much.

“I didn’t do it, stupid,” he bit out in disgust. “You did it to yourself when you let that dirty coyote knot you. If I’d known you like fucking dogs, slut, I would have brought mine over for a visit.”

Isabelle shook her head, let herself fall against the wall and dragged back on his hold again as she tried trip them both.

He laughed at her efforts.

“Maybe if you’re a good girl the men waiting for you outside will let me fuck you before they start experimenting on you. Like I didn’t know who the hell they were,” he snorted. “Only Council scientists pay that kind of money for a Breed’s fuck, and they only pay that much for a special kind of fuck.” He threw a tight, cold smile over his shoulder. “A mate. Are you his mate, sugar?”

Malachi would kill him.

Holden wouldn’t make it out of the hotel . . .

The thought was heralded by a howl that seemed to echo through the stairwell, sharp and piercing, filled with rage and the promise of retribution.

Malachi was pissed now.

Isabelle collapsed on the step as Holden paused. “I told you,” she breathed out weakly. “He’s not going to let you leave this hotel with me. Let me go, it will give you a head start. It’s the only chance you have.”

“Move your ass.” He jerked at her wrists again, his hold tightening as he tried to move faster down the stairs while Isabelle fought to slow him down.

It seemed to go on forever, but she knew with every step and every level, she knew they were getting closer to the ground floor.

“How did you know?” she whispered painfully as the weight came down too heavy on her ankle and she nearly fell again. “How did anyone know that I was his mate?”

He rounded on her, pushing her back into the wall, his hand wrapped around her throat as he glared down at her. “I would have worshipped you,” he sneered in her face. “I would have given you anything you wanted, but you fucked that Breed instead. Fucked him and let him knot you like a fucking animal.”

“How did you know?” she asked again, fighting to center her thoughts. There was no way she was going to get out of this if she didn’t find a way to fight past the mind-numbing pain that rolled through her in debilitating waves.

“Stupid,” he muttered, his voice lowering to disgust again. “Mating heat has a scent. They still have some Breeds who know their place and they’re always searching for that scent. Malachi Morgan just so happened to have gotten careless with his mate. And now, she’s gone bye bye,” he laughed as he dragged her back to her feet.

“I don’t think so.”

Isabelle looked over Holden’s shoulder as he froze.

The voice was unfamiliar, lazy, almost amused.

Holden jerked around, his hand going to his belt for the weapon Isabelle had managed to knock out of his hand as he shot Ashley. He hadn’t been able to retrieve it.

“Fuck,” he muttered.

Laughter echoed through the stairwell as Isabelle stared down at the strange sight in bemusement.

He had to be a Breed. A tiger Breed of some sort if the two stripes extending parallel across his face were any indication.

“Did you lose your gun, little man?” the stranger drawled as he reach behind his back and drew his own out. “That’s okay, I have mine.”

Holden’s jaw clenched. His fingers wrapped in her hair and as he began to turn to throw Isabelle down the stairs, a shot rang out.

Blood splattered.

Isabelle stood carefully still, her hands now free and pressed flat against the wall as she let her gaze travel to where Holden was sprawled out on the steps at her feet.

His blue eyes were sightless, lifeless as he stared up in blank horror. The side of his head looked as though it had been peeled back, exposing raw meat and the bare white covering of his skull.

He had never been handsome, Isabelle thought, but he looked better dead than alive.

“You okay?”

Her head jerked around.

Somehow, she must have slid down the wall because the stranger was hunkered in front of her as the sound of voices, loud and enraged could be heard above as the pounding of feet moved down the stairs.

Her eyes dropped to the weapon that dangled casually from his fingers as he rested his wrist on his bent knee.

“Are you going to kill me?” She lifted her gaze again and met the emerald brilliance of his. There was an almost feverish glow to them, as though he were ill and in pain.

“No, I’m not going to kill you,” he said gently, the look in his gaze filled with sadness.

The voices were getting closer. She swore she could hear her name being screamed from above.

“Malachi’s coming,” she told him, though she wasn’t certain if it were a warning.