Page 24 of Betrayed Mate (Rejected Fate Trilogy #1)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

T he warmth increased to a blaze within the coldness that had taken over where all the pack links had been. My breath caught, and I gripped my chest.

Ryker’s head snapped in my direction. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing.” I inhaled raggedly. “It’s the opposite. I sense Briar.” Tears burned my eyes, but then blurred lights hit them, followed by a honk. My pulse quickened. “Ryker!”

The vehicle jerked to the right, tires squealing. My head hit the window, causing my right ear to ring. Then the vehicle leveled out.

“Dammit, I’m sorry.” Ryker pulled to the side of the road and parked. “Are you hurt?” The color of his irises seemed to twinkle in the moonlight, and my mind muddied.

I touched the side of my head, not concerned in the least. “I’m fine.” I patted my chest again and smiled. “I feel Briar, but we need to get back on the road and not lose sight of the Shae alpha.” I tried to link with my sister, but the connection was still muted, like she was asleep.

“Is she okay?” He touched my hand, causing a jolt to crash between us.

“I…I don’t know.” I could try to wake her, but I didn’t want to since I wasn’t sure what sort of situation she was in. If she was being tortured and had been injured, waking her up would only make things worse. “But we’re getting close.” Pressure released in my chest, and tears ran down my cheeks.

He nodded and squeezed my hand. “That’s good. It means you were right about where you felt her connection coming from.”

I bit my lip. I’d needed to hear those words even if he hadn’t been sure about my sense. I hated that I wanted to lean into him and breathe in his scent, looking for comfort.

I didn’t deserve comfort, not with Briar in whatever sort of predicament she was in. And I had to remember what Ryker was capable of. I’d heard the stories and had seen him torture Simon firsthand. I pulled my hand away and placed it back into my lap.

A frown tugged at his lips, but he placed his hands back on the steering wheel and pulled back onto the road. He took the next curve expertly, going a little too fast, but we needed to catch up to Bruce. “The guys are pretty confident about where they’re keeping her if she’s on their pack land. We’ll get her free tonight.”

My back straightened. “When did you hear from them?” I tried to keep my voice level and wrung my hands to calm my frustration at not being kept informed, the anxious energy of needing to see my sister flaring.

“Right before you gasped like something was wrong. None of the packs were guarding their lands as expected, and the three of them shifted and covered themselves in mud so they wouldn’t be easily scented. There’s some sort of small building on the back of the Shae pack territory with two people keeping watch on it.”

“Small building?” I gnawed on my cheek. “Like a cell or something?” A shiver ran down my spine.

“They aren’t sure.” He reached over like he might go for my hand, but he hesitated. "They just noticed it and are keeping watch until we arrive.”

My hand moved toward his, but I stopped myself. “You don’t have to pretend to like or be concerned about me anymore. We’ve left the alphas.”

He grimaced, replacing his hand on the steering wheel. “It wasn’t pretending, Rebel.”

“Oh, then what was it?” I turned toward him, hoping he’d insult me. I needed a reminder of why I shouldn’t be attracted to him. “Right. It was acting…a game to make the other shifters uncomfortable while enjoying being the one with something to hold over them for once.”

“It’d be easier for both of us if it were any of those things.” His jaw clenched, and he gritted out, “But we both know that what happened back there has been brewing for a while. Hell, every morning, we wake up tangled around each other.”

My head spun. Of everything I’d expected him to say, that was definitely not on the list. “You’re hot—so what?” I crossed my arms, needing to restrain them in case they tried to do something stupid.

“If it were just about looks, there wouldn’t be a problem between us right now.” His nostrils flared, and he tightened his grip on the wheel.

Luckily, Bruce’s black truck came into view again, giving me a reason to change focus and not dwell on what Ryker had just said.

No matter what I felt for him, the two of us could never be together. He tortured people and refused to listen to anyone else. I shouldn’t be wasting any time justifying why Ryker and I couldn’t be together.

Briar was my priority and deserved all my attention.

My fingers dug into my chest again. I was still reacclimating to the warmth of Briar’s link after the sensation of icicles for so long. “What sort of shape do you think she’ll be in?” My heart sank.

The rigidness of his face smoothed, and he blew out a breath. “I have no clue, but I can promise that, as long as her heart is beating, we’ll get her out of there.”

My bottom lip trembled, so I bit down on it. I didn’t have time for fear or weakness, especially with my thoughts around him . “I can’t lose her. Not again.” A tear rolled down my cheek, and my chest felt like it would rend in two. I shivered once again.

The Shae alpha’s truck slowed and turned right onto the road that led to the pack neighborhood.

“Good. He didn’t notice us.” Ryker let out a breath and turned left, away from their territory line, into the dirt cutoff. He drove down the bumpy road a little way, jostling me everywhere.

“Where the hell are we going?” I rasped, placing my hands on the front console, trying to remain in place.

“I’m going to park where the other three did. They gave me the coordinates.” He continued on the road. It became a little choppier, but after a few seconds, it leveled out, and we reached the three other vehicles the guys had borrowed from the vampires.

Ryker stopped the SUV and cut the engine, and the world once again fell silent. The cold vibration down my spine hadn’t vanished, and something seemed more off than ever.

He opened his door, but I couldn’t get myself to move. Something hung in the air around me like a warning, and the chill that ran through me seemed to freeze even more. Something about this situation didn’t feel right, but I had no clue why.

Nothing seemed amiss.

Was paranoia getting the best of me again?

“Are you coming?” Ryker arched a brow, and his irises glistened. My wolf wanted to respond to him.

“Yeah.” I shook my head, trying to clear it. “Sorry. I’m getting a weird feeling again.”

“The guys checked out the area. All three of them got together again before they shifted to scout things out.” His eyes glowed, linking with them. After a few seconds, he continued, “And they’re fine now. They’re still waiting for us in the same spot, and nothing has changed on their end. If I thought there was a threat, I’d tell you.”

For some reason, I trusted him, and I hated myself for it. “Okay.” I blew out a breath, trying to ignore the way my wolf shrank back a little. Something similar to humidity clung to my skin. I exhaled and got out of the vehicle, letting my feet hit the ground as softly as I could in case someone might hear me.

I glanced around the woods, noting that there wasn’t even a hint of an animal for miles. “It’s quiet out here.”

“Well, if they have a witch helping them, there’s no telling what sort of magic they have.” He walked around to his trunk and nodded in the direction of the Shae pack’s territory line. This part of the woods was public land, which was probably how they knew about this spot, assuming they’d been observing the packs while trying to figure out who’d killed the royals and their pack.

I fell into step with him, and the two of us walked quickly toward the main road that divided the public forest lands from pack territory. My eyes scanned the trees for signs of a threat.

With each step I took, the pressure on my skin seemed to intensify. I glanced over my shoulder, searching for whatever it was, and Ryker stilled.

“Fuck,” he hissed and took my hand, dragging me in the very direction my senses were screaming not to go.

“Stop,” I snarled, trying to fight him. I looked across the road. “What’s going on—” Adrenaline pumped through me. This was about to get worse than I ever could have imagined.

The Shae alpha and at least fifty of his pack members stood across the street, blocking us from entering their territory.

“Fuck, he must have noticed us.” Ryker’s grip tightened on mine. “I stayed over a hundred yards behind him the entire time, and he doesn’t know this vehicle.”

“Maybe he saw us when we almost wrecked,” I muttered, barely able to make out Ryker’s words.

“Don’t flatter yourself.” Bruce rolled his eyes. “I already knew you suspected me before I left the meeting. Had I known that Ember had lived, I wouldn’t have kept Briar here at all. I don’t need any pack drama.”

A sour taste filled my mouth. “Says the person who’s keeping my sister hostage.”

“Would you have rather I’d let her die?” Bruce wrinkled his nose. “I didn’t want the death of a fellow wolf shifter on my conscience, but at the same time, I couldn’t let a strange wolf run loose so she could try to claim the throne and ruin us all.”

“It doesn’t seem like you have a problem with threatening us, with all your shifters here facing two of us down.” Ryker tensed, and the sheen covered his irises once more.

Bruce gestured to us and rasped, “You’re sneaking onto my land, and Ryker has been tied to every location where a massacre has happened. Do you think I’m going to stand here and willingly put my pack at risk?”

“We just got here, and there are only two of us,” Ryker replied, edging in front of me.

“You don’t think we noticed the strange wolf who’s been here since before the meeting or the two who joined him since then?” The Shae alpha arched a brow.

My legs almost gave out. They knew about Xander, Gage, and Kendric.

When Ryker stilled to the point of becoming a statue, I had no doubt what was going on.

“Let my pack members go,” Ryker snarled.

“You come on my lands and command me to let go of three men who’ve been spying on my pack?” Bruce cracked his knuckles. “Not a chance in hell. I won’t allow you to do to my pack what you’ve done to all the others. Did you really think we wouldn’t keep a constant watch over our territory, knowing that if anyone found out Briar was alive, it would cause chaos?”

“We’ve already told people that we didn’t kill our pack, Ember’s, or anyone else’s.” Ryker’s hands clenched at his side. “You’re allied with the pack that’s behind it all.”

The Shae alpha tipped his head back. “And who would that be?”

“The Blackwood pack.” I pivoted in front of Ryker as I spoke, tired of him trying to protect me. My sister was here, and Ryker’s pack was in danger. I’d be damned if I remained hidden when there were people who didn’t deserve to be harmed at risk. “I saw them during the attack on my pack, and there was no one else with them.”

Silence descended among us. Then a shifter who had to be in his thirties whispered, “There’s no smell of a lie.”

“I’m aware of that.” Bruce scowled and tilted his head as he examined me. “Then why didn’t you tell me about it at the meeting tonight?”

“Because I didn’t want to risk my sister being harmed, and we wanted to make the Blackwoods and whoever was working with them uncomfortable.” This song and dance needed to end. I wanted my sister safe and sound with me. “And we determined that it was you.”

He shook his head. “I’m not working with the Blackwoods—”

His words were cut off by a bloodcurdling howl.