Page 40 of Tamed Wolf

I’m calling for backup as fast as I can, sending out a red alert with a location, slipping into the training that dad’s spent so many years pushing into us.

This is the very reason we have wolf hierarchies, why alphas are needed. To keep little bitch wolves like these in line. The wolves that think they’re better than even the most basic of decencies.

Once Brooks has Lark in his arms, all bets are off for the three grown-ass adult wolves in the room with us. In this moment, it really doesn’t matter that Camden’s our friend, or that her ex-mates have any redeeming qualities hidden deep,deepin their black hearts, all that matters is that my wolf sees the she-wolf he wants, damaged at their hands. All of them are complicit in this.

I see the moment they realize they’ve stepped in it, the moment it crosses their brains that they’re not in charge here after all. This might be their club, but it’s our pack, and we don’t drug people to get our desired outcome.

“We can do this two ways. One, you play along and get in that fucking cage you forced the most perfect goddess-blessed woman in, likely countless times, and I keep you in there until I feel like letting you out. Two, you fight me on this and I sink my teeth into your soft necks. I can promise you it’s not going to be as fun as you think it is. For you anyway. I think I’ll take great joy in it.”

“Why?” one of the idiots asks. Literally don’t even care to know their names. “What’s so godsdamned special about her, huh? She’s just another piece of ass. What the hell do you see in her to make you go this crazy on us? We’re good, contributing members of our pack. We pay our dues; we respect the alpha. We don’t cause no trouble ever.”

“I’m sorry, you consider forcing someone that was supposed to be your mate into a contract to stay in her son's lifeno trouble? You consider making her sleep in a place made for actual dogs to be an okay thing? You think she doesn’t deserve all the fucking respect you could muster up in your stupid little brain? No.

“I haven’t heard much about you yet, but I’ve heard enough to know what I need to know. You’re trash. You could have been the highest contributing citizens in our entire pack, but the second you decided that that woman wasn’t worth your time and you rejected her, and the moment you started threatening custody of her child if she didn’t do what you wanted, the second you decided to blame her for some of your bullshit, was the second you became the lowest piece of filth.

“So, no. You aren’t ‘good contributing members of our pack’, because good contributing members of our pack respect their mates. I had to sentence my own mate to death. You think I’m going to be lenient with you pieces of shit? You got another thing coming to you. Get in the cage or give me blood.”

“Dads? What is he talking about?”

“Camden, we’ll deal with you later, too. There’s no way you’re innocent in this when she told me you were partially responsible for taking her tips. There may be some messed up pack laws, but it doesn’t mean you have to make it harder on her. And Camden, if your mom has a broken rib, you can thank the two assholes standing next to you. We would never hurt a woman like that. Especially notthatwoman.”

While Brooks gently carries Lark out of the cage, I can see Camden rethinking many of his life decisions. He can do that on his own time. I extend my hand, asking for the keys to the cage from Brooks, waiting for them to crawl in there and get scrunched up together before slamming it shut and locking them in. “Any of you bozos have extra keys on you? You lie to me, I promise you’re not going to like what happens.”

One of the guys pulls a key ring out of his pocket and I snatch the entire thing from him. “Now, I’m going to go tend to Lark. I’ve got backup coming. Any of you so much as think about putting a pinky outside of that damn cage, I’m cutting it off. You get me?” I wait until the smell of fear permeates the dank room before I follow my brother, and while Lark has somewhat responded to him in my absence, she’s not nearly as alert as she should be.

“We need to get her to a healer. I don’t know what the hell they gave her, but she’s not well.” Brooks has her laid out with his shirt balled up under her head, and her eyes are almost completely dilated as she stares around.

She sits up slightly when I get on the other side of her, grabbing onto the hem of my pants, but her voice is very thready when she uses it. “Don’t belong here. Why are you here? You want another dance? Just— just give me a minute,” she says as her eyelids flutter, and then she’s back to staring out into space.

“I’m gonna go see if I can figure out what the hell they gave her,” I tell Brooks before bending down and pressing a firm kiss to Lark’s forehead.

All three of them look kind of funny scrunched up in a cage that should realistically only hold one person, and this improves my mood the tiniest bit. “Why is she like that?” I demand. “What did you give her?”

The idiot mates don’t say anything, but Camden does speak up. “She’s been in and out of her heat all week, I’m sorry we had to lock her up. She’s not herself and I don’t know if it’s because she won’t allow herself to give in to the heat or what, but she’s been unresponsive like this all day.”

I shake my head. “She’s on something. She smells different. What did you do?” I stare right down at the two I’m ready to chop up into bits.

“They said it was safe,” one of them says.

“Gods, what are you talking about? Dad, you gave her something? Tell me you’re not responsible for this.”

“Camden, from here on out, let’s just assume every bad thing that’s been done to your mom is because of them. Better think real quick about switching your loyalty there, buddy. What did you give her? Do not make me ask you again. You can already bet that whatever you dosed her with is coming your way soon.”

The one that seems slightly more amenable to helping us stretches his leg far enough out in front of him to pull something from his pocket. He hands me a case with a few small syringes in it. “Might have given her too much. It was just supposed to kick start her heat so she’d want us again. I thought if we could just start over, everything would be all right this time, you know? I didn’t really mean to hurt her.”

I get down close in front of him so I’m on his level. “Let me guess; just like you didn’t mean to break a rib?” I see the admission in his eyes when he looks at me, so I shove my hand between the bars and snap two of his ribs for good measure. He starts immediately crying like a little bitch, making me want to break more of them. “You better hope this is reversible, or you’re joining my dead mate sooner than you think.”

I go back in to see Lark, and this time she’s slightly more coherent, sitting up on Brooks’ lap. She’s drooling a little bit, and she’s still flopsy, but her eyes try to track my movement as I approach her.

“They give you anything helpful?” I can tell by his tone he’s not expecting much.

“Yeah. I’m going to call the healer and get him ready for her. I’ll tell you what they said in a bit, I don’t think I want to discuss this in front of her in case it triggers her or something.”

“Okay, that makes sense. Might as well call Beckett too, let him know what’s up. He’ll want to know.”

“Yeah, I’m on that.”

Because I don’t like leaving them alone too long, I step back into the other room while I call up our healer, explaining to him what’s going on, and he promises me he’s going to have a bed ready as soon as we can get her there. Alpha house has all the best equipment for situations like this, and I know he’ll get her sorted out if it’s at all possible.

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