Fire of the Wolf [The Gray Pack] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) (22 page)

“I can’t explain right now. Can I please just come to your place?”

“Of course, come on over. I’ll get out the ice cream, and we can talk.” Caroline was so relieved that she smiled at Tina’s easy acceptance.

“That sounds great. I should be there in the next half an hour. I’m having a friend drop me off. See you soon.” She hung up and turned to Liam.

“Thank you. I know you don’t understand, but thank you for helping me,” she said to him quietly.

“Well, you’re welcome. I will always be there to help you if you need it. Do you want to tell me what happened?” His eyes darted between her and the road in front of him.

“No. I can’t talk about it yet. It hurts too much.” He nodded as if he expected that answer, and they rode silence for a little while. She let her mind go through the last few days and feel all of the pain, and all of the happiness she had experienced in such a short amount of time. Liam fidgeted in the silence, and she turned her attention to him to keep herself from thinking about the twins.

“Liam, why don’t you have a mate?” she asked him, breaking the tense silence, and watching him for his reaction.

He took a huge sigh, and she could see the pain and grief on his face when he started to explain. “I was married about five years ago to a woman that I met at a bar. Roxy was a sexy little number that I took home with me on the first night and married in Vegas a couple of weeks later. We found out quickly that we had mistaken lust for love, but by that point she was pregnant. Wolves are raised to honor our commitments, so I stayed. For three years I tolerated her cheating on me, and humiliating me in front of my friends and family because she had given me the greatest gift ever. My daughter, Daphne.”

“That’s the name on your tattoo! I wondered…” Caroline bit her tongue when she realized she had interrupted his story. With a nod of her head, she urged him to continue.

“Daphne was perfect. She was wolf, but I hadn’t explained it all to Roxy. I came home after a full moon run with the pack one weekend to find my daughter in her crib wearing a dirty diaper and crying her heart out. My
wife
was passed out in the arms of another man in our bed. I took Daphne with me and filed for divorce and full custody. Unfortunately, the courts tend to favor mothers, and having no proof of Roxy’s infidelity, the judge granted her residential custody. She came to pick her up, and I thought I was going to die. We argued, and Roxy tore out of the driveway with my perfect child in the back seat. That was the last time I saw her alive.” Tears in his eyes, he stared out at the black night, and Caroline knew he was reliving his pain. She put her hand on his arm to comfort him. “They spun out of control on the highway, and the car rolled. Daphne was killed instantly, and Roxy died on the way to the hospital. I died that day, too.”

“I’m so sorry for your pain, Liam. I can’t imagine the grief you must feel for your child. I don’t understand, though? I thought when wolves mated that if one mate dies the other usually dies, too,” she said in confusion. He smiled grimly and gave a sharp, angry laugh.

“I never mated Roxy. I was young and didn’t want to wait around hoping to stumble over my soul mate someday. Roxy never even knew I was a werewolf. I could never bring myself to share that part of me with her. It was convenient that I had to go away for twenty-four-hour shifts at the firehouse regularly. I let her believe I was at work when there was a full moon so that I could join the pack for a run. I hid the most important part of me, because I was afraid she would reject it.” He sounded angry at his youthful fears, but Caroline could understand his reasons. She had hidden so much from Devin and Damon for almost the same reasons and look where it had gotten her.

“Caroline? They love you. You know that, right? They would do anything for you. Do they know where you are?”

“No, but they know I have left. And they know why. Love isn’t always enough, Liam.” She turned back away from him, hoping he would drop the subject.

“I don’t think you should be alone.”

“I won’t be. Tina will be with me.” Her chin jutted out, and her tone dared him to challenge her.

“Barton Diego doesn’t know you have left the Gray Pack, and he is still looking for you. Please let me call the guys, or at least let me stay with you so that you are protected? You are my Alpha’s mate, and I can’t let anything happen to you. I’ve sworn to protect you,” he pleaded with her.

“Thank you, but that’s not necessary, Liam. I will be fine, and I want you to promise me you will not call the guys. I have left all of that behind me, and chalked it up to a lapse in judgment. I’m going to get my life back on track. Tina will let me stay with her while I look for a new place, and I can go back to work. I need my normal life back.” Her arms were crossed across her chest, and her body language was belligerent now. He shook his head and drove the rest of the way to town in silence.

* * * *

As Liam pulled into the driveway of Tina’s house, Caroline turned to him. He watched her cautiously, seeing the pain and sadness that swamped her.

“Can you please do me one more favor, Liam?” she whispered with her hand on the truck door handle.

“Anything for you, princess.” He smiled gently at her, hoping it would relax her.

“Can you let me know occasionally that Devin and Damon are okay? I love them so much, but I can’t be with them. I won’t be able to contact them without it hurting, but I need to know that they are okay every now and then.” She was staring off into space at some unknown spot, and Liam clenched his eyes shut.

“Oh fuck, Caroline! What have you done? Please let me call the guys,” he asked as he dropped his forehead down onto his steering wheel. Devin was going to kill him, and then Damon was going to kill him again! She wasn’t just running away for a little bit of space, she was running away for good.

“Please? Just do me this one favor?” she pleaded with him. “Thank you for sharing your past with me, and for being there for me when I needed help. I couldn’t ask for a better friend.” And then when he didn’t respond, she jumped from the truck and ran inside the house.

Liam threw the truck in reverse and headed back to the den, intending on finding Devin and Damon as quickly as possible to explain. As he reached the end of the block, he slammed on the brakes.

Fuck this, he thought. I’m not leaving her here unprotected. He parked the truck at a convenience store about two blocks away from Tina’s, and braced himself before he called Devin and Damon.

“Where is she?” Devin’s voice growled into the phone.

“She’s okay, Dev. What the hell did you guys do to her? She had me take her to her friend, Tina’s, and she wouldn’t tell me what was going on. She just said that she couldn’t be what you needed, and that she needed her other life back. What’s going on?” he said.

“We’re on our way.” Devin’s words were sharp and short, and he hung up without any explanation to Liam.

Hanging up, he went back to watch the house until his Alpha could get there to collect his missing mate. He hoped that Devin wouldn’t blame him for this whole thing. All he did was try to help Caroline. As he reached the spot where he and Caroline had talked in the driveway, he caught an amazing scent that sent his libido skyrocketing. He knew instinctively that this scent belonged to his mate, and his eyes darted, looking for the woman it came from. As he turned toward the small house, following the delicious smell, he got a whiff of another wolf.

Barton! The thought flashed through his brain as he connected the smell with the same one that he had found in the vandalized house yesterday. His eyes flew to the front window of Tina’s house, which now had the curtains drawn. They had been open just a few moments ago when he had dropped Caroline off. His wolf rose to the challenge, and he had to concentrate to keep himself from changing and storming the house. His gut told him that Barton was in the house with Tina, Caroline, and apparently his mate, but he also knew that he couldn’t protect them and fight him without backup.

He pulled his phone out and called Devin back. He had to hold his phone away from his ear as he heard the painful howl break from Devin’s throat. Then he stuck it back in his pocket to wait.

Caroline’s heart was beating so fast she was afraid she would have a heart attack. Her captor was finishing tying her ankles to the dining room chair just like he had already done with her wrists. Tina sat a few feet away on the other side of the dining room table, restrained in the same fashion. Caroline’s head throbbed, as she tried to remember the sequence of events prior to her waking up in this chair.

She had flown into the house blinded by tears and anxious to put more distance between her and the wolves. She had slammed through the front door calling Tina’s name, and turned toward the living room expecting to find her friend waiting to comfort her. She smelled a sour smell, and then when Tina wasn’t waiting for her in the living room, she realized that something was wrong. She turned toward the kitchen, but she was too late. Her attacker knocked her out with a quick hit to the back of her head, and when she came to, she was already half-bound to the chair.

“Well, well, well. You’re back with us again.” As the man finished tying her up, he stood up in front of her, and used his thumb and finger to roughly pull her chin upward. Her eyes met his, and she grimaced. He was a dirty-looking man who she knew was the same age as Devin, but looked to be in his late forties. He had several days’ worth of beard growth on his face, and he was stocky, and soft but not really fat. He just wasn’t as muscular as the men of the Gray Pack. His hair was light brown with faint gray streaks through it, and his eyes were so dark brown they were almost black. Right now they were glaring at her with anger and hatred. His clothing stunk, and Caroline knew without a doubt that this must be Barton Diego.

“He will find you, Barton, and when he does he will kill you.” She said it so matter-of-factly that it seemed to catch him off guard. Then he smiled an evil grin at her, making her stomach summersault with nausea.

“So, you know who I am, huh? Good, at least you will know my name well enough to scream it when I fuck their smell off of you.” He licked his thin lips and growled low in his throat as she blanched with disgust. “Nasty smell of Gray all over you. Wonder how he will feel when he finds the leftover pieces of you with my scent all over them.

She forced herself to calm her breathing and try to think clearly. She had to find a way to get her and Tina out of this mess. There was no way in hell she was going to let him rape and kill them without a hell of a fight.
Damn it, why did I leave the den? Devin and Damon told me I was in danger, and I ran away because I was scared. Why didn’t I let Liam stay? Now what am I going to do?
She watched him as he moved to the front window and peeked out around the curtains.

“He will be here soon,” she said, keeping her voice intentionally calm, and trying to throw his confidence. She was hoping he would believe her, and run away to keep from getting caught.

“Whatever, I heard you and your human friend talking on the phone. You left him, and he doesn’t know where you are yet. Even if he figures it out quickly, he will just barely arrive in time to hear your screams. Don’t worry, pretty girl, I will let you watch when I kill him, or maybe I will let him watch while I kill you.” He moved back to her side and gripped her hair in his hand, pulling hard to make her look at him. “Don’t fuck with me, pretty girl. I wonder if I should start with your friend, that way I can show you what I have planned for you. You know what they say, anticipation always makes it better. If your boyfriend doesn’t get here soon, he will miss out on all of the fun!”

As he spoke, he had moved over to Tina and ran his hand over her breasts, and up the side of her face. Tina paled and shuddered. Caroline had never felt the urge to kill someone in her life until now, and watching him threaten her closest friend broke her control.

“
No
! Leave her alone, Barton,” she yelled at him. “Let her go, and I will do anything you want. She doesn’t know anything about this. Devin won’t come for her, but he will come for me. He doesn’t even know where I am right now. Let her go and find him so that he will hurry here to rescue me. Then you can finish this stupid challenge.”

She could smell Tina’s terror, and she desperately wished she could talk to her for a moment. She had been bound with the same rope as Caroline, but Caroline noticed that Tina’s bonds were much looser. Barton must have been rushing to tie her up so that he was ready when Caroline had arrived. She wondered how he had known where to find her? She had to keep him distracted and talking to give herself time to figure out how to escape.

“You will do whatever I want anyways, so what difference does it make? This way I get a two for one deal.” He was eyeballing Tina now, and that pissed Caroline off.

“I’m impressed that you were able to locate me. I didn’t even know I was coming here until thirty minutes ago. How did you know where to find me?” she asked, and it caused Barton to turn and look at her cautiously.

He took a moment considering her question, and then he answered with a laugh. “It was a lucky break for me that I was able to chat with a friend of yours from the hospital. Carter was his name. He was very willing to give up your friend Tina’s name so that your concerned ‘uncle’ could find out where you went and help you. Then it was just a matter of a quick internet search to locate her home. She and I were just going to play for a bit until she shared her knowledge of your current location, but right before I hit her I heard her on the phone telling you to come on over. Imagine my surprise that you were just going to throw yourself into my arms. It was too perfect. So here we are!” He clapped his hands together with his last statement, laughing and seeming very pleased with himself.

“You have what you wanted, Barton. You have me at your mercy. Let her go.” She was determined to at least protect Tina from this deviant, whatever the cost to herself.