Their Runaway Mate (11 page)

Chapter
Ten

Carter was boiling hot with anger at the way things had become so fucked up in such a short amount of time. Drew had run their mate off because he hadn’t trusted her against some lowlife pup and told her off.

He had thought it wouldn’t be too hard to find her, considering she had taken the car Drew had given her. He had had it chipped when he hadn’t trusted her and once she took off he was glad he had done it. Until he gotten the report from the Pack members he had sent to retrieve her and found out she had left it in a long-term parking garage at the airport and caught a plane to New York.

Now he was stuck trying to get a hold of an ally Pack in New York and requesting they wait for her flight to land and hold her until he could get there and drag her back.

Drew was still beating himself up over what had happened and refused to even look him in the eye. He had decided to take out some of his agitation in the compound prison, interrogating their prisoners, while Carter dealt with searching for their lost mate.

Carter had told Drew that it was his job to interrogate the prisoners and he should be the one looking for Anna, since he lost her, but Drew countered that he would just fuck everything up even more and he still didn’t believe he deserved Anna’s forgiveness. They’d both promised they would never hurt her or push her away, and at the first test of that promise, Drew had failed horribly.

Carter let him go, to sulk, while he tried to retrieve the missing piece of their soul.

The phone rang at his desk, bringing him out of his thoughts, and he picked up quickly hoping it was news on Anna’s where about.

“Carter,” Drew’s voice greeted him on the other end, and disappointment set in, heavy on his chest. “You need to come to the prison. One of the prisoners has something to tell you and I think you would really want to hear it.”

“I’ll be there right away,” Carter replied, and hung up the phone.

*****

The compound prison was small and held only two cells made of steel bars and bare concrete. There were a few benches and a set of bunk beds in both of the cells, just like any ordinary prison.

When Carter entered the room, he saw they had placed all the prisoners, including Anna’s sister, into one cell.

“What’s going on? Why is she in the cell with them?” Carter demanded as soon as he entered.

Drew looked at him, and then looked away quickly, shame and remorse still written all over his face. “She asked to be with her mate. So I had her put in with all of them.”

Why should she get to be with her mate, when I can’t even be with mine? Carter thought as he looked into the cell.

“What did you call me down here for?” He practically growled, looking at the woman who had been the cause for his mate’s disappearance.

“He,” Drew pointed to one of the men, drawing Carter’s attention away from Cheryl and directing it toward a man who looked familiar to him. “Has something to tell you, that you may find interesting.”

“Well,” Carter snarled at the man. “Spit it out then.”

The man just smiled and chuckled to himself, “Nice to see you again, Carter. Life seems to have been good to you…..so far.”

Carter assessed the man, taking in his shaggy blonde hair and deep set brown eyes. His nose appeared to have been broken before and his jaw didn’t sit completely flush, showing signs of being broken as well. He didn’t like the look of evil that lurked in the man’s eyes and couldn’t look at them too long, or he’d reach through the bars and rip them out.

“Do I know you?” Carter grumbled.

The man tsked, “Carter, I can’t believe you wouldn’t remember me. I am the reason you were run out of our village with that dirty, sniveling Alpha of yours.”

“Robert,” Carter whispered as he looked at the man, recognizing the boy his fellow Pack mates had carried into town after they had found him beaten and bloody.

“Good job, old man,” the slime laughed. “I was worried your mind might be slipping in your old age.”

“How?” Carter growled.

“How what? How am I still alive? How am I werewolf?” Robert smirked. “Well, Carter, it was really quite easy, considering your rabid Alpha had a thing for my sister.”

Carter just looked at him, confused, but then recognition hit, “Philip said your father had killed your sister.”

“He did,” Robert grinned, coldly. “But not until she gave birth to the bastard child of that dog.”

Carter found himself lunging for Robert before he realized what he was doing. Reaching through the bars, he grasped the man’s shirt and yanked him forward to slam into the steel. He was ready to rip the man’s head off his shoulders, but felt Drew’s hand land on his shoulder, drawing him out of his rage.

“Carter, stop,” Drew exclaimed. “We need him alive right now.”

Carter no longer cared what information the man had for him, though he just wanted his blood. Drew wrapped his hand around Carter’s where he gripped Robert’s shirt and began to pry his fingers open, slowly.

“Carter,” Drew said soothingly, trying to talk Carter out of his rage. “Please, he has more to tell you that you need to hear.”

Carter pushed Drew away with his shoulder, but let go of Robert as well, sending the other man flying back to fall on his ass.

“Fine,” Carter snapped. “But stay away from me for now, Drew.”

His heart twisted at the look of hurt that flashed through his mate’s eyes, but he didn’t want to end up hurting him if this man pushed him too far.

“This has nothing to do with her,” Carter assured him. “I just don’t want to hurt you if I decide to go after him and kill him.”

Drew nodded, but refused to meet his eyes.

They both looked to Robert who was laughing hysterically now, “Oh, my mate had told me about what she did and how she convinced you to run off your little mate, how sad.”

“Tell me what you want to tell me Robert, before I decide I don’t give a damn and just rip your throat out instead.” Carter sneered, but Robert only sobered enough to continue talking.

“Hmmm, I don’t know if I’m in the mood for story telling right now.” Robert smirked again, but this time Carter didn’t take the bait.

“So be it,” Carter turned from the cell and started to walk to the prison door. “I have better things to do than waste my time with you anyway.”

Just before he reached the door Robert spoke, “Perhaps I am in the mood after all.”

Carter didn’t move from where he stood, instead he just crossed his arms over his chest and stared the other man down. “Then talk.”

Robert tsked, “Not so fast. What’s in it for me if I tell you?”

“I let you live a little longer,” Carter replied.

“Now that doesn’t sound very fair,” Robert said shaking his head. “Maybe we can strike a deal.”

Carter narrowed his eyes, “What kind of a deal?”

“I tell you what I know and you let me and my buddies here go free.”

“No,” Carter answered immediately.

“But what I have to tell you might help you with your fight against my Alpha and the other Rogues.” Robert said, knowing Carter would need all the information he could get on the Rogue pack.

Carter acted as if he was thinking it over, but he already knew he wouldn’t let them go. They would just go back to their Alpha and tell him what they’d found out.

Then he noticed Drew looking at him intently, as if he had something to share. He looked up over at him, expecting him to cast his eyes away again, but this time Drew held his stare. He jerked his head toward the door of the prison, telling Drew to follow and turned back to Robert.

“We will discuss your deal and let you know,” he stated, and then left before Robert could say anything in defense.

Out in the hallway, Carter gave Drew a stern look before speaking.

“What is it?” Carter asked, more abruptly than he should have, but he was too agitated at this point to care.

Drew didn’t seem to notice though, because he answered, “I think we should let them go.”

Carter laughed humorlessly, “Are you kidding me?”

“No,” Drew looked at him seriously. “Listen, if we let them go and have Luca and the boys follow them, we may be able to find out where their stronghold is and where their Alpha is hiding.”

Carter already had a feeling he knew where the Pack’s stronghold was, back in Etna, California, where Carter had been born and lived as a child, but he still didn’t know who the Alpha was and why he was doing all this. He only hoped it wasn’t Philip because he couldn’t bear the thought of killing his former Alpha.

Luca and his brothers were wolves from a Pack that bordered Mexico. They were excellent trackers and could follow someone, shifter, human, or any other type of being, without being noticed at all.

Carter nodded, “Okay, but you will need to inform Luca that he and his brothers will need to be ready as soon as possible.”

Drew just nodded and started toward the door, “That won’t be a problem.”

“Drew?” Carter said, cutting Drew off before he left.

“Yeah?” Drew didn’t even turn around to look at him.

“We will find her again and she will forgive you,” Carter said. “I already have.”

“Yeah, but do I deserve it?” Drew said, and then left, slamming the door behind him before Carter could respond.

Carter sighed heavily, pushing his fingers through his hair, and then turned back to go back into the prison area. Robert was sitting on one of the benches lining the far wall, his eyes closed and his head resting against the wall. His pack mates either lounged on the benches or the bunk beds and none of them looked as if they felt they were being imprisoned.

“Back already, Carter?” Robert smiled without opening his eyes.

“Tell me what you have to tell me Robert and I will let you go tomorrow morning.” Carter needed to give Luca and his brothers’ time to prepare.

“Why Carter, I’m hurt. I would have thought you would want to spend some time catching up and all. We used to be such good friends.” Robert smiled coldly as he opened his eyes and assessed Carter. “Besides, my mate here says you’ve gotten a taste for cock since we last saw each other and I have to admit I’m rather fond of it myself. I would love to show just how fond. That is, of course, if your lover doesn’t mind sharing.”

Bile rose up in Carter’s throat at the thought of sex with the other man. Robert had never been an attractive man and since he had his jaw broken, making it sit at an angle, he looked even less attractive. Besides, the thought of being with anyone other than Drew disgusted him and now that he had found Anna, he would never even consider another woman.

“Just tell me what I want to know, Robert.” Carter spat out.

Robert sighed and rolled his eyes, “Okay fine, be that way. Where was I? Oh yes, my father had my sister killed after she gave birth to the baby, and hoping to gain control of the werewolves in the area, he raised it as his own, and named him Xavier. Actually, he raised him better than his own, father never did half of the things for us as he did for Xavier,” Robert whined until he saw the impatience in Carter’s face and continued his story. “But I digress. He told him that his parents had abandoned him as a pup and my father had saved him from nearly starving to death, and the pup ate it all up. My father taught him to hate other werewolves and when he reached teenage years, he taught him how to hunt them out. Xavier loved it too, he absolutely relished in killing other wolves like him. He even turned all of us boys into werewolves so we could hunt with him. However, when he asked father if he wished to be changed, he said he wished to stay human and refused to be some filthy dog.” Robert’s lip curled back into a snarl on the last words.

“May I remind you, Robert, that you are now a filthy dog,” Carter interrupted, and then relished the look of anger on Robert’s face.

“Do you want me to continue or not?” Robert spat out.

“Do you want to be set free or not?” Carter retorted.

Robert just growled for a second, but then he huffed, “Anyway, father died of old age, but not before he told Xavier that he wanted him to build a Pack and continue on his legacy. Xavier took my father’s words to heart and started to enlist Rogue wolves into his Pack, naming himself Pack Alpha. Then, one day, Philip returned, and after finding out Xavier was his son, tried to talk to him and make him go against our father’s wishes. Xavier still believed Philip and my sister abandoned him, so instead Xavier challenged him to a fight. My brothers and I knew that Philip could still win against Xavier, so we laced Philip’s drinking water with wolf’s bane, knowing it wouldn’t kill him but leave him weaker than normal. It worked pretty well too, after a few minutes when we didn’t think our plan had worked, Philip’s body weakened significantly and Xavier had ripped his throat out.”

Carter could feel his blood beginning to boil again at the news the man sitting in front of him caused his Alpha’s death, but he kept his mouth shut because he wanted to hear the rest.

“However, before Philip died, Xavier found out about Philip’s Pack being attacked and how Philip had to flee the area or die. He also found out that his mother was our sister, instead of some other wolf that my father had him believe it was. We told him that Philip had run away with his lover, you, instead of staying and caring for his mate, and that his mother actually died giving birth to him, our father just didn’t want to tell him because his mother never wanted him to start with. At the time though, you had already built up a pretty large Pack and was much more powerful than Xavier was, so we waited. We waited until we had gotten enough members of our Pack by whatever means necessary, including convincing sniveling little humans that wanted to be changed into wolves and join our pack. I unfortunately, had to be one of them that happened to find my mate, one of the drugged out pieces of trash and am stuck with her now.” Robert said, rolling his eyes skyward.

“Fuck you, Robert,” Cheryl suddenly screamed, lunging for him, only to be dragged off by his other Pack mates.

“Not right now, sweetums,” Robert replied, condescendingly. “Have Ben or James fuck you right now.”

“So what you’re telling me is that your Alpha has built an army of Rogue wolves, with the main motive to kill me.” Carter stated instead of questioned.

Robert just smirked, “My father was so certain he had gotten everyone in that Pack when he had the village turn on you guys. He had no idea that you and Philip had actually gotten away. Philip should have stayed gone and he wouldn’t have died, and now my Alpha won’t quit until he has your head on a spike too, but oh well.”

Carter stared at Robert for a moment, and then looked at the five other smirking, cocky faces in the cell. If they only knew, Carter thought.

“Is that all?” Carter asked.

“Yeah,” Robert nodded.

“Okay, then. We made a deal. Tomorrow morning the guards will come and you guys are free to go back to your Pack.” Carter replied.

Robert eyed him suspiciously, “Just like that?”

Now it was Carter’s turn to smirk, “Yeah, we had a deal, so just like that. Now, if you gentlemen would excuse me, I have more important things to do with my time.”

Carter turned abruptly and strode from the prison room, knowing that Robert’s eyes were still on him and the other man didn’t really believe he’d just let him go. He was right not to trust him, because Carter wasn’t going to let him go. He was going to have Luca and the boys follow him, like Drew said, and then, when he had taken care of this Xavier character, he would take glory in drawing out Robert’s death as torturously and as slowly as possible.