Page 18 of Bandit's Bounty

“Not sure, exactly, but Corbin called and we’re meeting him at the old spot,” Cyrus advises. “Seems someone named Brady contacted Raine.”

My blood boils because Ineverliked that fucker for my sister. There’s always been something slimy about him. Not only that, but after they dated for a bit, Raine started pulling away from everyone. Finding out that he was abusive put the cherry on top, however, and put him on my short list of people I wanna destroy.

Her mate should get first dibs,my wolf says.You’d want that if it was Sloane in the same position.

I snarl at his words, even though I know he’s correct. As Raine’s mate, Daneshouldbe allowed the first opportunity to strike out and hurt the fucker who tried to subjugate my sister. Hell, he nearly succeeded. She was so broken when she first came home and she’s just now showing signs of who she normally is which is probably due to finding her mate.

“Coming with you,” I apprise, my words short, clipped, and to the point. Granted, as the clubs VP, I should be by my president’s side no matter what the circumstances are, but just in case he thought he was going by himself, I need to nip that in the bud and voice it out loud, letting him know that’s simplynothappening. Not on my watch.

“Thinking as many as possible need to go along with us, while the women stay here,” he advises. “Turtle, Lucky, Pinto, Spider, and the prospects will stay behind to provide protection for the women, children, and clubhouse. Harmony and Electra are also doing their witchy thing to make sure nothing can penetrate our wards and come onto our property without being detected and us being made aware of it.”

I smirk at his use of ‘witchy thing’ because until his mate came along, he, and like most of us, had a notable aversion with respect to any of the witches due to the problems we’ve had throughout the years with the tainted, blood witches.

Thankfully, between the two clubs collaborating, within our ranks we have elemental witches at our disposal; fire, water, and earth, although each of them also have some other additional gifts bestowed upon them by the goddesses for reasons unknown to us. However, I feel like with all of the new and old threats against us, there are purposes behind those endowments.

“Let’s ride, brothers,” Jabba calls out, then tacking on to his prior statement, saying, “trust your instincts and be mindful that we don’t really know what sort of situation we’re walking into. I feel somewhat confident that Corbin has some of his guys shifting and going in their animal form, so I won’t suggest that we do the same. This isn’t follow the leader. However, if shit goes sideways, do what you gotta do to protect our Pres and VP.”

“Check your ammo first,” Prowler, our SAA, adds.

I nearly roll my eyes at Jabba’s words, simply because both Cyrus and I are more than capable of holding our own when it comes to nuisances. I get what he’s saying, but while we hold the top officer positions, we’re no better than our brothers as far as I’m concerned. Every single brother deserves the same sort of protection as we do. Following behind my brothers, I add a few clips to my pockets, even though if push comes to shove, I’ll shift into my wolf and use my teeth and claws. I am the weapon when in my wolf form. Whereas my instincts are good while in my human form, whenhe’sin charge, I’m like my brothers; deadly.

Chapter Eleven

Bandit

We’re already at the chosen meeting spot when the Spiked Raiders pull up, parking beside us since Corbin and Cyrus felt it was imperative to show this Brady character that neither club will entertain his threats, especially not to any of the women claimed by one of the brothers. I can feel the rage wafting from Dane and briefly wonder if Raine is okay. Well, as okay as she can be considering her ex decided to start playing games.

"I see you’ve decided to come meet with me in person just as I hoped you would," Brady sardonically says to Corbin as he and Dane push their way through the circle of brothers and make it to the front of our group. His voice is amused, although what he finds funny about this entire ordeal is beyond me. Turning slightly, he calls to the woman sitting on the trunk of the car. "Rebecca, come here."

"We're not here to play games with you," Corbin states, crossing his arms over his chest in an impenetrable move. One by one, the rest of us unconsciously follow suit, mimicking his pose, and I don’t miss the slight rumbles and growls emanating from many of my brothers as well as the Spiked Raiders.

"Oh, I'm not here to play games either," Brady declares, causing Dane to growl.

"Easy, brother, not yet," Tucker murmurs to Dane. His mumbling is low enough that only us shifters, with an expansive hearing range, are able to hear him. I suspect Dane is planning something momentous, and while I still want to handle it for my sister’s sake, since Dane’s her fated mate, I’ll provide backup if needed.

"Here you go, baby," Rebecca coos as she brushes herself up against Brady like a tigress in heat. She looks over at Dane and provocatively licks her lips, making me smirk when I see his slight shudder from her suggestive action.

Yeah, that bitch is outta her mind if she thinks Dane will ever choose someone like her. Even I can see she’s trouble with a capital T. Plus, she’s probably unaware that he now has a mate, and anyone with a sense of smell can scent her on him. This indicates to any interested parties that they’ve begun initiating their mate bond, and he’s officially off the market.

Brady takes the tablet from Rebecca then waves her away. “Aha, I see my man is still in place to take out Raine's beautiful mother."

"You don't get your man off my mother, I'll slit your throat here and now," I blurt out, my entire being trembling in rage, stepping closer to the fucker who obviously has a death wish.

"Don't worry, Bandit, he's on her, watching to make sure everything goes according to plan," Brady states, waving a hand nonchalantly through the air while acting like he didn't just get his life threatened by a pissed off shifter. Brady turns his gaze on Dane, saying, "Now, Raine ismyproperty and I want her back where she belongs."

"She no longer concerns you," Dane informs him, narrowing his eyes in Brady’s direction. I can tell he’s barely holding on to his composure, and I have to say that if I was in the same position with Sloane, I suspect I’d feel the same damn way. "Raine is my mate."

“Yes, I’ve been made aware of that fact.” Chuckling, Brady points out something on the tablet screen. "But as you can see, if you look here, it's a contract that clearly states she's mine and has been since before she ever met me."

"The fuck?" I snarl. There’s no fucking way what he’s saying can possibly be true. And even if it is, he’s not laying one finger on her. I’ll slit his throat and feed him to the buzzards before he can blink.

Brady continues talking as though I didn’t say anything at all. Acting indifferent to my vexation. Fucker. "Long ago, and far away, I learned a valuable lesson. That lesson being to take what I want. When I discovered the existence of the supernatural world, I knew I'd stop at nothing to make sure I was more powerful, and I had the ability at my hands to take what I wanted. It's why, when her mother and father wanted to escape their miserable lives, I took advantage of the situation and paid them accordingly. They'd signed her over to me, but before I collected her from where they'd left her for me to grab, she'd already been collected by another. At the time, I was going to use her as a pawn to get what I wanted from the blood witches.However, I reevaluated this plan when I learned who took her in. This part is moot because as you clearly see, I've held ownership of Raine for a very long time. Her parents sold her to me, and now, I want my property back where she belongs."

"How the hell do you own her? You're human. You don't look old enough to have been able to know her parents, let alone arrange this exchange. You'd have had to be four years old when you did this," Cyrus grunts out.

Gotta love my president; he’s fucking smart as hell and it’s obvious that Brady’s not old enough to do what he’s claiming to have done.

"On the contrary, I'm not human. Well, I am, but I'm not. You see, I'm immortal. Made this way after making a deal with a demon,” Brady advises, a smirk on his face.

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