The Wolf's Mate Book 2: Linus & The Angel (18 page)

“I thought,” he said, turning around, “that
you would prefer me to burn off the tattoo on your shoulder over
cutting it off with my hunting knife? And then there’s the business
of your marks from your former mate, those will also have to
go.”

Holy shit.

She swallowed hard and opened her mouth, but
words failed to come out. His brow cocked, “Would you rather me cut
them off you? I will, but I’d think a burn would be less
devastating than me slicing a few layers of skin off. If I cut your
skin open with a knife, it’s going to make my wolf go nuts with all
that blood and I might not be able to control what happens after
that. What do you think?”

Finding her voice, she squeaked, “It won’t
change anything, Phoenix. The tattoo is just a part of my history,
it isn’t where my power comes from, and the marks are only a symbol
not the source of love for my mate.”

He moved across the room and climbed up onto
the bed. “I am not an idiot; I know that. I simply do not want to
see them, or ever be reminded of the reason that you left me. I’m
going to get rid of them tonight, and while you recover for a
while, I’m going to fuck that human at least once more before I
kill her, and then you and I will celebrate our first night as
mates, our honeymoon.”

Tears stung and she nearly drowned in the
wave of helplessness that threatened to crash over her. Phoenix had
completely lost his mind. She found some strength, buried deeply
underneath that fresh taste of fear, and said, “You can let Brenda
go. You got me, you got what you wanted. She doesn’t have to
die.”

He grunted and climbed closer to her,
gripping her chin between his fingers. “Of course she has to die.
She knows my face, my name, hell even how to get in touch with me.
She’s very resourceful and on top of that, she’s also pretty evil.
She knew what I’d done to you, and still she called for me,
practically drew a map on how to get to that pack’s lunar meeting
place so I could find you and take you with me. She just didn’t
know that I planned to also take her along for insurance. She’s
outlived her usefulness, though. She’ll be my bachelor party. And
the bonus is that you get a front row seat to how I like to fuck
now. I won’t go so hard on you this first time, but I’ll warm you
up to what I like in time.”

“How did you…how did she find you if no one
knew where you were?”

He shrugged and played with a loose string on
the blanket. “She sent a letter to the address in the DMV file. It
showed up at my old rental house in West Virginia and the guy that
rented it after me sent it to the owner of the house who looked up
my emergency contact and it happened to be my cousin Eddie. You
remember him, don’t you?” He paused until she nodded. Eddie was two
years younger than her and not playing with a full deck of
cards.

“Well, he had instructions to send anything
he got for me to a PO Box up in Canada and to keep his mouth shut.
When I got the letter, I shipped a box of clothes down to a motel
near that pitiful excuse for a wolf pack and then I shifted and
crossed the border. It's why no one knew I came back down to the
states; they were looking for Phoenix Thompson, not a rust colored
wolf. I ran in my shift all the way down to Kentucky. The box was
waiting for me in a room that I’d rented ahead of time and I found
some clothes so I could check into the room and then I met up with
Brenda and began to plan how to get you.”

She sure didn’t like the way he said he found
clothes. It sounded like someone had been killed for their pants.
She shivered and swallowed against the permanent lump in her
throat. Her palms were sweating and her eyes stung with tears.

“So, branding or knife? Ladies choice.”

His face was expectant like a child at
Christmas. She stared in his blue-blue eyes and knew that she’d die
by his hand someday. Maybe not today, but sometime in the future he
would kill her. She’d never faced her own death before.

She hadn’t wanted to give up hope, but in a
short amount of time, Phoenix was going to get rid of the reminders
of what she really was, and then rape and kill Brenda before he
raped her and did who knows what else to her. She didn’t know the
meaning of the word hope anymore when she said, “Burn.”

He nodded, kissed her cheek and climbed off
the bed. As he turned to tend the fire, she worked frantically on
the knot. While he’d been spouting off his insanity, she’d made the
decision to free herself and leave if she could. She was certain
that if she could free herself, if she could get out of the house,
that he wouldn’t kill Brenda and she could get help for both of
them. There was just no way to free both of them, not that she
could see. She didn’t want to be the girl that ran out on someone
who needed help, but if she couldn’t get free then they were both
as good as dead.

She watched him, moving her hand to her
stomach instead of at the knot when he turned back around, rummaged
in a large duffel on the couch, and pulled out a long handled
object that was dark gray like it was made out of iron. It ended in
a small, flat disc. He met her eyes and walked over to her. Running
his finger across the smooth bottom of the circle he said, “I had a
plain brand made especially for this occasion. I’ll heat it red hot
in the fire and it will melt that tattoo off your shoulder in a
blink. A painful blink, but still, pretty damn quick. And as far as
those old marks go, it’s wide enough to cover them, but I’ll
probably have to do it twice to get all four.”

If he was waiting for her approval, she
couldn’t think past what looked like a huge object he was going to
shove into her skin. He waved it at her a little, smiled, and then
walked over to the fire. He angled the end of the brand into the
fire and leaned his free hand against the mantel, seemingly lost in
thought. Again she snapped to careful motion and worked on the
knot. She finally got the tip of her finger underneath one of the
loops and pulled and it slid free. She would have hollered for joy
if it wouldn’t have been the stupidest thing on record.

She saw his muscles tense and she stopped
moving, just seconds before he turned and walked over to the
closet. The door opened and he bent down to pick up Brenda. She
fought him. He had apparently only gagged and bound her wrists not
also her ankles. Karly saw her feet kick out and she screamed
through the gag. He cursed, scrambling to get to her past her
kicks.

The second loop caught on something and her
heart threatened to burst in her chest and she cast a side glance
down to her wrist and saw that it was simply twisted so it wouldn’t
pull free without an opposite twist. Keeping her eyes dead ahead of
her and watching as he grabbed Brenda by the hair on the top of her
head and pulled her screeching in pain to her feet, Karly freed the
last part of the knot. Her wrist moved freely now and she dropped
her hand back to her stomach and watched in horror as he dragged
Brenda bodily to the bed.

He threw her next to Karly and held her
immobile with his hand on her throat while he rummaged around on
the floor for something. Metal rattled and clinked and he pulled
out handcuffs and secured her wrists together, anchoring them high
at the top of the headboard. Her eyes bulged and her face turned
purple and Karly said, “Phoenix, please, she can’t breathe!”

With an annoyed grunt, he released her neck
and secured her ankles to the opposite corners of the bed so she
was spread wide open. Karly had to pull her legs up to make room
for her. She looked away the instant she saw dried blood on her
thighs and fought crying. She steeled herself against the fear and
sorrow and painful finality that came to her, and looked at the
front door. The only way out of the cabin. Phoenix had made the
mistake of not locking the door, clearly trusting that she would be
unable to free herself.

“Do you want to use the bathroom before we
get started?” Phoenix asked her. She panicked for an instant,
knowing he’d see that she had undone the knot.

She spoke without thinking, glad that some
part of her brain was on autopilot. “I’m good, sw-sweetie. A full
bladder during sex makes the orgasms much better.”

His eyes widened and he grinned, “So my sweet
Lynnie has learned some new tricks?”

“It sounds like you have, too.” She smiled,
forcing the shakiness from her voice.

“Okay, brand first and then the human and
then we’ll see where the night takes us.” He leaned over Brenda and
patted her cheek, “You’ll be dead by dawn, bitch. No one plays my
woman for a fool or uses me like you tried to.”

Brenda whimpered, tears staining her dirty
face and her wild look was both apologetic and frantic. Phoenix
smiled at her and then turned and walked to the fireplace. The rope
slipped free with a twist of her hand. The moment he was as far
away from the door as possible and distracted, she raced towards
the front door. Twisting the doorknob, she wrenched the door open
and burst through to the porch. She heard Phoenix’s surprised shout
but was already off the porch and running. Phoenix yelled at her,
just a few steps behind her as she raced out into the dark
woods.

Fear like something alive bit at the back of
her neck like rabid dogs as she ran for her life, blindly, not sure
where she was going or how long she could run without shoes. The
woods were dark; the moon a bare sliver. Branches slapped at her as
she ran. Phoenix yelled for her, calling her name amongst threats
of killing her if she didn’t come back to him immediately and
promises of not punishing her for running away.

“Lynnie, Lynnie. Don’t be like this.” He said
with a sweet, loud voice.

Her pulse thundered in her ears and she
pushed herself faster. If she stopped running, she was as good as
dead.

“You’ll be sorry you ran, little girl.” His
voice was a growl now, angry and demanding.

Linus, Linus! I need you, please!

Darting through trees she could barely see,
Phoenix taunted, “I like a good chase, Lynnie, but we’ve got work
to do. Come back to me now and I’ll forget you tried to leave me
again.”

She stumbled through a clearing and her foot
caught on an above ground root and she tumbled, smashing shoulder
first into a thick tree. She cried out at the sharp, separate pains
as she fell forward. Tears spilled from her eyes as she caught
herself with her good hand on the ground and rolled to her butt.
She backed against a large tree and pressed herself into the
shadows even though she knew it wouldn’t matter. Phoenix would find
her and kill her now. Her ankle throbbed and her shoulder hurt.
Even in the midst of the pain, she wasn’t sorry for herself but for
Linus.

She wished she could leave a note for her
sweet mate, to tell him how much he meant to her, how much she
loved him and how sorry she was that she had let him down. She
sobbed loudly, unable to stop herself, as dead branches crackled
around her and a low, deep growl rumbled in the night air.

This was how her life was going to end.

Chapter 14

He felt her fear like a tangible thing, a
creature twisting and writhing in his belly as he drove. Their
engines cut the quiet night like chainsaws, like birds of prey with
growls of rage, poised to attack. He was running on pure instinct,
talking directly to the beast part of himself so they could find
their mate and bring her home safe. His wolf was so in tune with
his mate that he could feel her on the air, like a compass needle
pointing to north.

The road ended abruptly into woods and he
turned off the bike and got off, running his hands through his hair
and closing his eyes. He let his beast loose further, scenting the
air for her uniquely sweet scent, but couldn’t smell her. He could
feel her though. She was just too far for scent.

“Which way?” Jason asked, coming to stand
next to him. Linus glanced at his alpha and friend. His grandfather
had been wrong. When Linus called Jason in a panic, he was on his
way within minutes, the pack at his back. The pack had met up with
them as they’d headed southwest. Michael had ridden Linus’ bike up
so Linus could use the air to try to scent for her. They were near
the border of Kentucky, south of Cincinnati.

Without opening his eyes, he started walking,
taking a step to the left and entering the woods. “This way.”

He walked slowly at first, going with his
wolf, listening to the sounds of the forest and hoping for a sound
or sign that someone had brought his mate through here. With his
heightened senses, he could see almost as clear as if it were
daytime. Jason instructed several wolves to shift and scout ahead.
Bo said, “Hey, I’m looking at an aerial map of the area here, and
there’s a cabin about a mile this direction.”

Bo was pointing as he looked down at his
smart phone. When he looked up at Linus, there was a raw
seriousness to his friend’s face that he hadn’t ever seen before.
Linus had bare seconds to appreciate his friends and pack mates.
They’d come through for him in ways that he’d never expected but
would be eternally grateful for.

“Linus?” Jason asked, pulling him to a
stop.

“This is the way I feel her, so maybe he took
her there, or maybe they passed by. It’s worth a try.”

Knowing there was at least something in the
middle of the damn woods, he started at a jog and kept his wolf to
the forefront of his brain. A half mile later, he felt a sudden
shiver of fear lodge in his gut. Karly!

With a growl, he started to run at the exact
moment that the scouts started to howl that they were on the trail
of something. His friends, his pack, ran with him, Jason barking
orders and preparing them for anything. He didn’t want to think
what Karly had suffered these hours she’d been gone. He was
desperate to hold her. To see that she was okay.