Page 28 of His Mate By Vengeance

Vin left him clothed, but he knew the wire would cut off blood flow to his extremities in just the right way to leave his skin mottled red and white and alternating between a numbness that would make him panic at the thought he would lose something essential and throbbing agony. He’d removed the man’s shoes, and the razors were slicing down to the bone of several of his fingers and toes, releasing the sharp tang of blood into the air and making Vin’s mouth water despite the fact he couldn’t stand his taste.

The crowning glory was when he passed the wire across his mouth like a horse’s bit, making the corners of his cheeks pull wide and split to bare now-impotent fangs dripping with venom. The same fangs that had destroyed so many lives.

“There. That should do it. Are you comfy, Sugar?” Vin asked with a smile as he stared down at the vampire immobilised and leaking sweat and blood onto the dirty upholstery of the stolen car.

As he slammed the trunk closed, he felt like he was closing a very long chapter of his life. It was an ending and, he hoped, a beginning.

He had a promise to fulfil.

CHAPTER 9: ANGELO

The forest was a blur.Angelo’s paws fell so softly on the leaf matter covering the ground as he ran that he didn’t make a single noise to interrupt the sounds of the surrounding wildlife that was either settling down for the night or awakening, depending on its nature. He’d snuck out at dusk while Luca entertained his cousins in his apartment, leaving the family to bond even though they’d all assured him he should stay.

It had rained earlier in the afternoon and the smells of damp greenery and prey drifted up to his nose in a way that should’ve been enticing. He couldn’t focus on any of it. All he could focus on was the surge and release of his straining muscles as he tried and failed to outrun the chaos of his thoughts and emotions.

Four days.

That’s how long it had been since he’d watched Vin walk out of his home. It was almost as long as he’d known the vampire before he’d left. It shouldn’t have been long enough for Vin to be taking up any of his mental or emotional real estate, but he had it all. Every square inch.

Mate, his wolf growled at him, as if it was all the explanation that was needed.

His animal side wasn’t interested in angsting about something so simple when they could be hunting to provide for Vin. Except Vin didn’t even eat any prey they could take down like this because he was a fucking vampire. Heat flowed through his veins as he remembered the way hecouldfeed his mate. Which made him think of that hot as fuck selfie he hadn’t replied to because he couldn’t look at it to type anything in reply without taking himself in hand.Dammit. That wasn’t helping. He was supposed to be escaping these thoughts.

Pausing his careening progress through the forest in a clearing, Angelo sat back on his haunches and raised his nose to the sky to release a long, mournful howl. He didn’t mean for it to be mournful, didn’t mean for it to shout his loneliness to the world and his pack. He’d just needed to release the tension in the only way he could. His wolf didn’t care about any of that. It just felt. And it didn’t understand why they weren’t chasing after Vin.

From the pack lands around him that their home backed onto, half a dozen wolves responded to his call. He let his howl drift out again into the cool night air until the darkness filled with the harmony of his pack reaffirming their bonds. It would usually have filled him with reassurance that he wasn’t alone in the world, despite the way he held himself back from them. Now all he could wonder was whether one of those howls was from the traitor in their midst.

Knowing the wolves would come and try to find him, he spun in place and raced back toward their housing complex nestled between the city and the wilds of their forest. He couldn’t deal with the pain of searching their familiar golden eyes for betrayal.

As he drew near the buildings of home, his nose twitchedand he skidded inelegantly to a halt. Tilting his head toward the roof of the apartments he usually lived in, he inhaled deeply and was rewarded with the faint trace of mint and fresh blood—his mate was here.

He’d left a pair of sweatpants in the lockers that bordered the forest, and he shifted so fast to retrieve them he just about gave himself whiplash. He barely noticed the crack of muscle and bone as he settled back into his human form, too focussed on the draw of the scent coming from above him.

The sentries gave him searching looks as he jumped up to grab a fire escape ladder when he could’ve just as easily made his way up through the internal stairs. As long as they didn’t follow or raise an alarm, he didn’t give a shit. The complex was built bespoke for shifters and well-maintained, so he didn’t make a sound as he raced up five storeys of ladders to the roof.

When he finally swung himself onto the top of the building, he paused and took in a sight he was struggling to process. He’d been so focussed on Vin’s scent that he’d noticed nothing else. It was a little embarrassing, honestly, because he should at least have noticed the smell of the burning wax from hundreds of softly glowing candles scattered across the roof.

Vin must’ve known where he would come from because there was a clear pathway through the tiny flames from where he stood to where the vampire waited ahead. For some reason, there were no sentries up here tonight, but he didn’t think that would’ve stopped him even if there had been. Angelo stepped forward in a daze, his body aching to touch the man waiting for him. His eyes drank in the stunning silhouette Vin made, his clothes sculpting to his body to reveal it for the work of art it was. The candlelight glinted off his silver eyes in a way that made them appear warmer. Or maybe that was the enraptured look on his face.

A muffled groan from the ground had Angelo looking down and he froze in place at the edge of the wide circle of candles Vin stood within.

“What?” he asked as he took in the bound and bleeding man lying on his back with his feet awkwardly twisted beneath him, laid out like a sacrifice.

Vin didn’t immediately answer the question, stepping around the other vampire to approach Angelo. Vin stopped two paces away, his hand outstretched and inviting Angelo to enter his orbit. He looked down at the hand and then back up into Vin’s eyes. The moment felt heavy with promise. Significant. Everything in him screamed to go to his mate, but he couldn’t make himself take the first step.

Vin tilted his head, understanding in his eyes as if he knew the wariness that was holding Angelo back. Letting anyone close was a recipe for heartbreak, and vampires could not be trusted.

Vin swept his outstretched arm toward the bound man as if that had been his intention all along, and his soft words broke the foundation of Angelo’s world.

“Let me introduce you to our guest, Angel. This is Bane.”

Blood rushed in Angelo’s ears and a growl wrenched from his throat before he could even fully process what Vin had done. What he’d given him.

Bane.

The assassin even his pack’s Alpha had never been able to pin down. The vampire who’d taken his little sister and his parents from him in minutes and left him scarred and broken in more ways than one. The only person he’d everwantedto kill. And Vin had wrapped him up in a bow and placed him at his feet. Well, not exactly a bow.

“Is that razor wire?” he asked, because it was all he could think of to say when he didn’t know how to express just how much this fucking meant to him.

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