Mated to the Billionaire Werewolf: BBW Paranormal Bad Boy Billionaire Werewolf Romance (Kingwood Pack Book 3) (7 page)

“Well, if it had killed me, it’s no great issue, is it? According to you, I’ll never be more than a beta anyway and the pack has enough of those.”

Isabella’s face flushed bright red. “That was ill done of me, I apologize. But you aren’t a beta. You haven’t manifested a wolf at all so Alex should have let you go back to your life. You shouldn’t be subject to pack law
or
punishment.”

“Run that by me again?”

“You’re not a wolf if you don’t manifest,” Isabella said softly, her expression concerned. “Alex shouldn’t have punished you like you were.”

The world ground to a halt for Eva. That sneaky, lying fucking asshole. He’d lied to her and had her whipped for disobeying him, all under the guise of protecting her. What kind of man did that? Her back ached in memory of the whipping she shouldn’t have had.

Her jaw set. “Where is Davie?”

Isabella shook her head, backing up, her face pale. “He’ll kill me if he finds out.”

Eva snarled, stepping forward. “Not so fast. You’ll take me to Davie, or I’ll tell Alex you told me all this, and tried to turn me against him. Him.
Your
alpha. I should think that counts as dissent and treason, wouldn’t you?”

The lycan staggered back, and as Eva watched, all fight drained out of her.

“Okay, follow me. But please, for both our sakes, you
have
to be quiet.”

Eva nodded, slipping out the door after the blonde woman. Her heart pounded in her chest as she shut the door behind them, expecting Alex to charge through it at any moment and grab her. Stop their rescue/escape attempt before it even started.

Alex. Her heart ached at the thought of him. She couldn’t believe she’d bought his lies hook, line, and sinker. Did she have idiot written across her forehead or something, because he’d played her from the moment she’d walked into his office just over a week ago. Back then she’d been an independent woman with her life firmly on track. Seven days. That’s all it had taken to reduce her to this… a pathetic creature scared of her own shadow skulking through the darkness.

No, not pathetic, she told herself firmly, following silently on Isabella’s heels as she darted across the open garden. She was a strong woman with a healthy understanding of the obstacles and adversaries between her and what she wanted. Alex was an alpha werewolf, only an idiot would discount him as a threat.

It seemed an infinity before they reached the relative safety of the tree line. Eva breathed a small sigh of relief as the shadows wrapped around her. At least now Alex wouldn’t see them if he should happen to look out of the window.

Please don’t look out of the window,
she prayed silently. If they were lucky, they could find Davie, free him and be off Kingwood land before Alex woke. She’d never have to see him again. And after all the lies he’d told her, if she saw him again in this lifetime it would be too soon.

Liar,
the little voice in the back of her head whispered as her heart ached and something within her, perhaps her soul, whimpered. Head ruled the heart, she told herself firmly, dashing at her eyes with the back of her hand. She wasn’t crying. It was the cold out here that was making her eyes water. Yeah, and if she could make herself believe that…

“Shh, down!” Isabella hissed softly, shoving her against the truck of a tree. “Patrol.”

Eva crouched in the undergrowth behind Isabella. They were a little way off the path, but as she watched, two men materialized out of the darkness to walk toward them. She swallowed, suddenly thankful for the other woman’s more acute senses. She’d have blundered onto the path and been caught in minutes.

At least now they had a chance. As long as the lycans didn’t spot them crouched behind the trees. Thankfully the robe she wore was black so it merged into the shadows, but her legs were so pale they practically glowed in the little moonlight. There was no way anyone looking toward them would miss her. She tried to fold them beneath her without making a sound, but she must have because Isabella whipped her head around and bared her teeth in warning.

Eva stopped moving instantly, eyes closed as she began to pray again. Shivers hit her, the cold breeze that had been pleasant when it reached tendrils into a warm house was less so now she was out in the wild. Resisting the urge to rub her hands up and down her arms in case the movement attracted the attention of the two men walking silently down the path a few feet away. She closed her eyes.

Something made her concentrate on her breathing and her heartbeat, her consciousness reaching inside… where it touched something. Something she hadn’t noticed before. A quietness like a deep pool in the middle of the forest, its surface serene and untainted by ripples. It reached up and enveloped her. Warmth followed and she was no longer cold. Instead, she felt like she was wrapped in her very own fur coat. So real was the feeling that she had to open her eyes and look down to make sure all she wore was the same robe she’d left the house in.

Yeah, definitely the same one.

“Come on, we need to move before they come back.” Taking her hand, Isabella pulled her to her feet and then they were running again.

“I thought you were on guard?” Eva asked, hard pushed to keep up with the woman’s fast pace. “Where did they come from?”

“I was, but we work in shifts. They were from the takeover shift.”

There was no further chance for conversation. They worked their way deeper into the forest. As the trees became more closely packed and the shadows got deeper, Eva’s apprehension grew. She had left the safety of the house and was now in the forest with a female wolf who if not hated her, actively disliked her. How dumb was that?

A bird screeched overhead and she jumped, squeaking. Isabella slowed the pace with a chuckle. “Relax. It’s just a bird. There are some owl shifters in the local area.”

Eva nodded, looking back the way they’d come. She couldn’t see any sign of the house now, but instead of feeling bereft and cut off from civilization, she felt connected to nature in a way she never had before. If she closed her eyes, she could feel everything around her: the branches of the trees swaying gently above her in the breeze, the grass growing under her feet… smell rain in the air and the shampoo Isabella used last. Strawberry. The slight breeze lifted the edge of the robe and ruffled her fur… wait, what?

Her eyes snapped open, bringing her back to reality with a bump. Buildings rose out of the darkness ahead and Isabella’s pace slowed. They looked like garages, but there was no drive wide enough for cars leading up to them. Just the single path through the trees they’d used. Eva frowned, she didn’t remember any mention of garages out here, but the buildings looked new so it was possible they’d been built after she and her family left the estate.

“Who’s there?” A shadow detached itself from the shadows of the buildings and Eva’s heart nearly stopped. There was a guard here as well.

Isabella dropped her hand with a snarl and leaped for the guard. He managed a strangled cry as the female hit him in the middle of the chest and he fell backward. The back of his head hit the wall with a sickening crunch, but that was nothing compared to the wet, meaty sound of fangs tearing through skin as Isabella tore his throat out. Eva looked away, her hand over her mouth. She was going to be sick.

Movement registered in the corner of her eye and she swung around. Davie stepped around the corner. “Hello, Eva.”

She froze. A chill rolled from the top of her head down her spine. She should be pleased to see her brother, but every instinct she had screamed at her to run. A memory of Davie saying the exact same flickered across her mind, but it hadn’t been here. They’d been inside somewhere… Then it was gone and she refocused on Davie.

But not Davie. There was something odd about him. Something off. He was as dirty as she’d expect after being a prisoner of the vampires, then held by the lycans, but it was like the dirt was a layer above his skin, which seemed too smooth, too clean somehow.

He turned to Isabella, who rose to her feet. “You took your time.”

She shrugged, wiping the blood from her mouth.

“Not my fault she was slow on the uptake. Took some convincing.”

Davie sighed. “She never was the sharpest tool in the box.”

Eva looked from one to the other, realizing the situation wasn’t exactly as Isabella had painted it. The sense of wrongness hit so hard it almost stole her breath. What wasn’t she seeing here? What didn’t she know?

“What’s going on? How did you get out Davie?”

The scared act had disappeared and the female lycan shot her a look of hatred and irritation. She turned back to Davie. “Get it over with, then our deal is done.”

Shit. Her instincts howled at her and Eva began to back away. This was wrong, very,
very
wrong. “Do what?”

Before she’d finished her sentence, Davie moved and was behind her. Thin arms with the strength of steel cable caught her in a tight embrace.

“Kill you, sister dearest. And perhaps this time, you’ll fucking stay dead.”

***

Alex jerked awake, going from deep sleep to total consciousness in a heartbeat, his wolf on alert. Something woke him. Everything was dark and silent. Turning his head, he scanned the room. This late at night, it was in almost perfect darkness, but that made no difference. He could see perfectly well. Lycans were nocturnal predators. They might walk and talk human, but they were nothing of the sort.

The same bedroom he’d brought Eva into earlier met his eyes. The feminine décor, the frills on every available surface and more cushions than one person could possibly use in a lifetime the same as always. Nothing was out of place, but the sense of wrongness remained. His wolf paced and snarled within him. Alex frowned. He’d never felt the creature so agitated, but why?

Eva wasn’t in bed next to him. He reached a hand across the sheets. The spot next to him was cool, her scent fading slightly. She’d been out of bed a while.

Taking a breath, he calmed himself. He’d spent so long wanting her, and they’d been through so much shit, that now he finally had her, a certain amount of anxiety about losing her again was natural.

“Eva?” he called out, expecting an answer from the bathroom.

There was no light on, but she never turned the light on at night even if it meant she tripped over anything and everything on her way to the bathroom. Something about not wanting to burn the sleep out of her brain with the light. It was one of the adorable yet frustrating things he loved about her.

She had to be in the bathroom. Any moment now she’d answer him, then emerge to walk across the room with that sexy little hip wiggle of hers. Slide into bed with him…

His wolf snarled and snapped his attention back to reality. Although he knew Eva wasn’t in the bathroom, he still called out again.

“Eva. Are you in there?”

A small breeze fluttered the curtain at the window as if to answer him. The current brought a wolf’s scent. One he knew. Strong. Close. Female.

His lip curled back in a low snarl.

Isabella.

Launching himself out of bed, he was across the room in a heartbeat to check the en suite. He skidded the last few feet, his shoulder slamming into the wooden doorframe.

The en suite was empty.

“Shit.”

He knew Isabella had an issue with him turning Eva, but she wouldn’t actually
do
anything, surely? A laugh broke unbidden from his lips.

Hell
yes,
she would. Isabella was an alpha, just, and she had ideas above her station. She wanted to be the pack alpha female. She’d do anything to achieve that goal. Up to and including removing a rival for his attention. Never mind the fact he had absolutely no interest in the woman and had made that clear on the several attempts she’d made to get into his bed.

The house rushed by in a blur. He hit the kitchen and his bare feet gave way to claws that clacked over the tiles. The back door crashed open and he burst out of the house onto the lawn, massive paws digging into the soft turf. Fully shifted, he paused for a moment to breathe deeply. Two females had been here, then headed for the forest. Throwing his head back, he gave voice to his fury.

The howl ripped through the night air. Deepened and swelled. It was both a declaration that the pack alpha was pissed, and a summons, a command to all wolves within hearing to attend him.

The night filled with answering howls, and as he watched, wolves emerged and raced across the grass toward him from all directions.

Approval and deep visceral pride filled him. This was his pack—his family—and they were his to command. His wolf took over and he ran. Followed the scent of his mate and the lycan who had taken her. Forget the ride of the valkyrie, this was the run of the wolf; death written in fur carried on four paws times a hundred.

God help Isabella if she’d hurt Eva, because they sure wouldn’t. If she’d touched a hair on his mate’s head, her time in this pack was done.

She was a dead wolf walking. He’d make sure of that.

Personally.

Chapter Seven

Eva’s head swam as the clues started to make terrible sense. She looked at Isabella.

“You lied to me. About Alex.”

Isabella laughed, shaking her head. “God, you’re slow. Of course, I lied. How else was I going to get you out here away from him?”

Nausea rose, bile and acid sharp in the back of Eva’s throat. Her body was full of aches, like she was running a fever. Just perfect. Normal people got an adrenaline rush and could lift cars off people. What did she get? The frigging flu. Figured.

“But why?” She couldn’t help the question. What had she ever done to Isabella?

The lycan woman stalked forward, amber eyes fixed on Eva. Her wolf was so close to the surface, fur played peekaboo through the pores of her skin.

“Sorry, honey, it’s nothing personal. Really. There’s only room for one top bitch in this pack and let’s just say, that isn’t going to be you.”

“Alex will kill you for this!” Eva struggled against Davie’s hold, trying to get free, but he held her firm.