Page 62 of The Wolf's Kidnapped Mate

Oh, balls. I’d forgotten about that shit. No wonder Liam was in such a crappy mood. He probably saw the mark and flipped an entire truck about it. That explained the tension.

I frowned. “Not serious?”

Kylie’s eyes widened as she slowly turned to me. “We never talked about it.”

Liam’s nostrils flared. “Aboutwhat?” He pointed at me rigidly. “I told you not to hurt her, man. I told you not to mess with her.”

My jaw clenched. “I didn’t mess with her. I didn’t lay a hand on her without her permission.”

Kylie combed her fingers through her hair, worry lines breaking out on her forehead. The sight made me jump into action without realizing it, tugging her into my arms so I could soothe away her pain. It was such a strange calling, an invisible tug between us that I was helpless to control.

Everyone stared at us. Liam didn’t say a word, though his throat clicked when he swallowed, and his eyes burned a hole right through my forehead.

“You know what? Forget it,” he stated firmly. “Like I said earlier, I’m taking Kylie out of here and you three are staying behind to apprehend Bernadetti.”

I growled. “That wasn’t the plan.”

“Yeah, well, the plan kind of went off in another direction. We’re adjusting to…” He studied his sister’s wet hair, a sense of nostalgia washing through his features that I recognized as pure sibling affection. “We’re adjusting to new facts,” he finished in a low voice.

Kylie huddled into my arms. It was the first time she’d shown any emotion in several hours. My heart was hurting and singing at the same time as I embraced her, nuzzling my face into her wet hair that smelled like fresh roses.

She burrowed her face into my chest. While the shuddering subsided, I sensed her growing confusion. I had a few damn questions myself.

Like, what the hell had I done by biting her neck?

“It’s not serious,” she swore in a low voice. Yet she didn’t sound convinced. “Right, Freddie? It’s not serious. You just did it to protect me.”

“I’ll keep protecting you.” I said it to Kylie, but I was looking at Liam. “I’m not leaving your side. Not until you’re officially safe.”

Liam started to argue but stopped at the sound of distant howls.

Kylie lifted her head and turned to the door. “I knew we wouldn’t be able to shake him for long.”

Liam started motioning silently to the Blondes who were already jumping into action. Once the Blondes grabbed their machetes and guns, Liam turned to me.

He pointed again, eyes as fierce as headlights on a truck coming at me down the highway. “You—” He frowned hard. “We’ll talk about this later.”

Chapter 20 - Kylie

There wasn’t any time for me to argue with my brother. Enemies were about to surround our safe house. By the sound of it, I guessed that the black wolf had gathered more numbers on the way here—or perhaps he had people waiting at his beck and call.

People like Bernadetti were unpredictable. Largely because he had joined the enemy line while his team was stuck in Tehran. He’d gotten mixed up with the underground world, even more underground than the supernatural world, and gone off the map.

Nobody knew where he went. Not until recently. Not until my brother evidently saw fit to use me as bait to drag him out of hiding. With our cabin being closed in by several shifters, we had to work together and get out of this mess.

My only remaining concern was Bernadetti.

As Karla and Cora took watch at either end of the house with their weapons, Liam shifted into his wolf form. I scooted over to the kitchen with Fred who was worriedly staring out the window.

“Do you think he’s out there?” I whispered. “Bernadetti—do you think that’s him waiting for us?”

“I don’t doubt it.”

His worried gaze fell on me. Adoration dripped from his eyes, a horrible mixture of regret and confusion twisting me up inside as I stared right back. This wasn’t the time for trying to think things through. As my brother had said earlier, we would talk later.

Fight now. Talk later.

Fred nodded almost like he understood my thought. And while I wanted to see if it was true, I just didn’t have the time. I had to come up with a good plan to make sure we all survived this mess.

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