Page 1 of His Mate By Vengeance

CHAPTER 1: ANGELO

Angelo leanedagainst the back wall and let the chaos wash over him as he waited for his pack to tell him what they needed from him. Flecks of dried blood remained on his knuckles, which he hadn’t had time to wash up properly before returning to the pack house. That was the only remaining sign he’d pounded the face of the fucker who’d been stalking one of their packmates into the concrete, though. Shifter healing for the win. His wolf was itching to be let free to run off the lingering aggression, but he’d had to put that on hold for this shitshow.

The flatscreen TV on the wall had been muted so their Alpha, Marco, could make the calls he needed to. Angelo watched the silent screen as emergency services swarmed around a nightclub that was spewing black smoke into the air. If only whoever set the explosion had caught their intended target, Marco wouldn’t need to be on the phone dealing with the arrogant jackass head of the vampire coven.

As much as Angelo wanted to stop whoever had threatened their city and their business with this bomb, he wasn’tall that cut up about them trying to take out the vamp leader. Kyan was a smarmy, white-collar board chair who charmed oblivious humans with his billions, then peddled their blood and flesh in the shadows when they weren’t looking.

“It wasn’t us. You know we don’t deal in silver shrapnel bombs. They’re just as dangerous to shifters as they are to vamps,” Marco growled into the phone, clearly running out of patience. Kyan had kept him on hold for long minutes—the disrespect as blatant as a spit in the face.

Marco didn’t have the call on speaker, but Angelo heard the vampire’s reply regardless, courtesy of his wolf’s sensitive hearing. “Are you, or are you not, in control of every arms deal in this city? If not, I’ll have to expand my business in that direction to prevent any further fuck ups,” Kyan snapped.

Every wolf in the room bared their teeth at the threat. They might have to share a city with the bloodsucking traffickers, but any encroachment in arms dealing was a direct challenge to their territory that they would respond to with lethal force.

“See how long your leeches last if they try,” Marco snarled before hanging up and tossing his phone on his desk hard enough to crack the screen.

His Alpha took a deep breath to get himself under control before turning to the heavily muscled man lounging on the couch next to him—his right-hand man. “Sai. We need to know who planted that bomb and where the fuck it came from. Get on it.”

Silas tilted his chin up in acknowledgment, squeezing Marco’s shoulder in a silent show of support before gesturing for one of their enforcers to follow him as he strode from the room. Both their eyes flashed golden as their wolves moved close to the surface. They were all struggling to control themselves with the tension this attack had caused.

Their pack might not have been the target of the bomb,but by using explosives like that, the attackers had ensured they would be implicated—either as suppliers or for losing control of that supply. They’d be lucky if this didn’t start a war with the vamps like the one that had killed Angelo’s family decades ago.Fucking vamps.They’d take any excuse to kill. It was fundamental to their nature and if Angelo had his way, they’d all be dead or locked away.

As a child, he’d watched the light fade from his sister’s eyes as even her shifter healing failed to fix the exsanguination of every drop of her blood from her body. She’d gasped her last breath as she lay next to the cold, dead bodies of their parents and he still dreamed of the death rattle of her lungs every night. He would never let that happen in front of him again. He hadn’t spoken for an entire year afterward. Hadn’t let anyone close. Could count the number of times he’d laughed since then on the fingers of one hand.

If his Alpha hadn’t taken him in and given him back a purpose through his role as head of security for the pack, he might’ve slid into a slow death behind them. Wolves didn’t do well without touch, without a pack. He was just lucky Marco understood he couldn’t take part in the darker parts of their business—the protection payments, the arms deals that were so grey in their morality they bordered on pitch black.

Angelo wasn’t naïve. He knew what his pack was. How they made their money. But they weren’t without ethics—no innocents killed, no trading in flesh like the fucking leeches—and Angelo operated in the lightest part of their shadow. He protected. And if sometimes the people he was protecting were later taken out by his packmates, that was his Alpha’s prerogative.

Lost in thought as he was, Angelo didn’t notice Marco had answered another call until his stern voice cut through the tense quiet of the room. “Dar, we’re not your fucking babysittingservice. I have enough on my plate tracking down whoever’s behind this. Take care of your own.”

Angelo straightened where he stood as a chill of anxiety slid down his spine. Darius was another vamp, brother to Kyan, but somehow not involved in the coven business—a loner. Angelo didn’t understand that at all. Family—pack—was everything. Although he guessed if his family dealt in human trafficking, he wouldn’t be lending a hand either. Darius and Marco had some relationship he’d never quite figured out. Not friends, not even allies yet, but more than the strangers or enemies they should’ve been. There was a mutual respect there he didn’t understand at all.

The vampire’s voice was smooth and charming as he replied. Dar could talk a shifted wolf into eating vegetables if he put his mind to it. He wielded enough power he could’ve shaped the city into whatever image he liked, but he’d always stuck to the shadows. “Come now. I’ll owe you a favour, Marco. And so will he. Isn’t this what you’ve been waiting for? A chance to undermine my brother’s power base? An in with our kind? This is a beginning for us.”

The hackles of Angelo’s wolf rose in the back of his mind even as a sinking feeling filled his gut with lead. He wished he’d caught the start of this request, so he knew what was at stake and who they were talking about. The way Marco’s flashing gold eyes found and held his across the room said this was about to become a problem for him.

“I have a guy who can keep an eye on him. He can use one of our safe houses for a week. No more. Then he’s on his own,” Marco said.

“Perfect. The safe house alone will suffice. He doesn’t need a minder. Send me the address and I’ll pass it on,” Dar replied.

“He’s a fucking assassin. I’m not letting him loose in mypack lands without a guard. He’ll follow Angelo’s orders, or I’ll deliver him to Kyan myself,” Marco snapped.

Angelo fought to keep his face from showing his feelings as pure, unadulterated rage filled him. He had no idea who exactly this guy was that he would be guarding, but there was no fucking way he’d protect a vampire assassin. Someone just like the man who’d killed his parents and his sister. For all he knew, it could even be the same guy. They’d never found him. The rest of Marco’s conversation faded into static over the throbbing of his heartbeat in his ears and the snarling rage of the wolf inside him fighting to break free.

The next thing he noticed was his Alpha’s face filling his vision. Angelo was big. Like, really big. Six foot three with muscles on his muscles. He had to be to guard people against the kinds of threats his pack dealt with on a daily basis. But there was a reason Marco was the leader of their pack, and his Alpha loomed large and threatening above him.

“Do we have a problem?” he asked, voice too quiet. A warning Angelo would do well to heed.

“Don’t ask this of me,” Angelo pleaded, hating how his voice almost cracked with the emotion he would usually never show. “I can’t guard someone like that.”

The next thing he knew, the back of his skull was cracking against the wall and his Alpha’s fingers were squeezing tight around his throat. Pure dominance crashed over him through the bond every wolf had with their pack’s Alpha. Breathing was impossible and the bruises Marco was leaving would take hours to fade. Stars filled his vision as his consciousness became a tenuous thing.

Marco’s voice was low and dangerous as he spoke. “Angelo, I make many allowances for you, but I will not tolerate a challenge. Are you challenging me?”

Fuck.He should’ve seen the signs. Marco was usually theepitome of control, but every few months, he’d hit a wall. Watching your mate die in front of you would do that to you. Silas would usually anticipate it and take him somewhere to let off some steam before it affected their work—a kink club or the fighting ring. Angelo knew it had been too long because he always accompanied them as their silent protective shadow.

Somehow, Angelo managed to shake his head in a weak response. Marco’s fingers loosened enough for him to form words and he croaked out a rough, “No, Alpha.”

At his capitulation, anger turned to sympathy in Marco’s eyes. Angelo wasn’t sure which was worse.

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