Page 19 of Bred Mate (Stalked Mates #2)

K arl

She’s gone.

The trail is so cold there are no leads.

Her brothers don’t know where she went and the cops insist they have no record of her arrest. It’s like she’s a ghost. Tim was adamant Rainer had taken her, but we’ve checked his house and there is no sign of her.

The only thing I learned of any interest was that he’s banging his secretary.

Probably planning to marry her given the amount of wedding planning stuff we found in there.

I want to kill Rainer, but I have no proof he actually had anything to do with this. And, if I kill him, it’s possible that whatever lead he has—if he has one—might just go dead. And that would be one of the greatest tragedies of my life.

So. Again. I find myself being patient. I find myself waiting, watching. But every day that goes by feels like a stab to a vital organ. I didn’t just like Ellie. I bonded with her. I mated her. I demanded she carry my child, for fuck’s sake. Now she, and any baby we might have made, is in the wind.

I wonder if she took the opportunity to escape me and just ran. Sometimes that feels like what must have happened. She realized she lost the forest and just decided to disappear. I failed her. I let her home get destroyed.

It’s been a week.

“Chin up, old man,” Gray says. “She hasn’t been gone that long. We’ll find her.”

“With what leads? She could be anywhere, if she’s even alive.”

“I’ve never met her, but if you like her, I’d say there’s a decent chance she’s the sort who knows how to survive. It’s been a week, Karl. Trust me, they can come back.”

His phone rings.

“Wolf Tracking Services,” he answers. I frown at him slightly. What the hell is going on? What is Wolf Tracking Services?

“I happen to be in the state, so I might be able to make some time in my schedule for your project, Mr. Katsoff.”

I feel my ears prick up. Rainer Katsoff is calling my brother. Why? I knew Gray had tricks, but not ones that make our enemies seek him out. I used to get annoyed when he did things like this. Used to think he was trying to seem smart. Now I know that he is.

“We will see you soon.”

He hangs up. “That was some bait I’ve had in the water for a while. I heard some rumors about Katsoff. Apparently his son is missing. He wants me to try to find him.”

“His son is missing?” I cock my head. “Do you think that’s related to Ellie disappearing?”

“I think it’s a chance to get some more information.”

“How did he find you?”

Gray shrugs. “I targeted some ads to him. He’s taken the bait. Now I go and see him.”

“I want to see him too. I want to hear everything he says.”

“You can wear a wire, but I think it’s best if you don’t go, given you’ve met with him before. We don’t want him to know what’s going on with us. We don’t want him to think we’re related.”

“Is he stupid?”

“No.”

“Then he’s going to know.”

“How would he know?”

“He’s going to know.”

“You just want to come.”

“I do.”

“Is there any chance you could trust me with this?”

“No.”

Gray smirks. “Fine, but if you come, and he clams up, and we don’t get the information, that’s on you.”

“Don’t worry,” I say. “I have a plan.”

“Oh, yeah? What’s the plan?”

“I will fucking beat it out of him.”

Gray smirks, then laughs. “Alright,” he says. “I guess you’re coming with.”

I do agree to at least wear a wide-brimmed hat and keep my head down at first when we get to Rainer’s home.

We’ve been here before, of course. Not that he knows that.

Gray is wearing a suit, and looking official.

I become practically invisible to Rainer immediately because I look like an assistant or a bodyguard or some other kind of grunt.

“Gray Dulac,” he says. “Wolf Tracking Services.”

“You sound like an animal reconnaissance company,” Rainer says, shaking his hand. He leads us into a dining room.

“Most people are animals, sir,” Gray says. That makes Rainer laugh. Nothing like a little misanthropy to lighten the mood and break the ice, I guess.

“My son is missing,” Rainer says, getting right to the point. “He was driving with his fiancée, and they disappeared off the road. The car has been found, but he has not.”

“And the fiancée?”

“I’m less worried about her,” Rainer says. “Mostly due to the fact she is not my son. And the fact that I suspect she has something to do with his disappearance.”

“What is his fiancée’s name?”

“I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“Mister Dulac—why does that name sound familiar? Doesn’t matter.” He dismisses the question as quickly as he asked it. “I don’t know her name. Their courtship was very whirlwind.”

“So Patrick was madly in love with this mystery woman?”

Rainer shifts uncomfortably. He is obviously lying at this point in time, trying to come up with something to say that will not implicate him at what is starting to seem like a very stupid plan to get rid of my fucking mate.

“Alright, I’m going to level with you,” he says. “There’s been a little bitch messing with one of my developments for a while. We thought marrying her off and getting her to settle down would help the situation. My son needed a wife. She needed someone to keep her in check.”

I am trying not to burst from fury. Only the fact that his son is now likely dead is keeping me from bursting out of my skin.

“I am assuming things did not go to plan,” Gray says calmly.

“They did not. She abducted my son, and she’s holding him for ransom.”

I almost burst out laughing, but manage to turn it into a cough. I am so damn proud of Ellie right now. This is the kind of chaos I expect from her. I wonder why I ever worried about her. Of course she’s managed to turn things to her advantage. That’s what she does. She’s uncontrollable.

“She’s holding your son ransom? How do you know?” Gray keeps his tone relatively placid.

“I’ve received this.”

Rainer turns his phone and shows us a video.

There’s a man on the screen, a younger, blonder version of Rainer. He looks bruised up, and maybe even a little gnawed on. HIs lower lip quivers as he speaks, and he keeps shooting terrified glances at the woman behind the camera.

“She’s going to kill me if you don’t give her that forest,” he says, his voice trembling. “She’s a monster. She’s a…”

“Uh uh.”

I hear Ellie’s voice, and I feel a massive surge of relief knowing that she is not only well, but thriving.

I am a little annoyed she hasn’t bothered to call me to let me know she is okay, but I guess she has her hands full.

She’s a little busy being that poor asshole’s worst nightmare.

She cut him off right before he said she was a wolf, too.

He doesn’t know that he’s already dead yet, but he is.

You don’t get to know the secret of our kind and stay alive.

That’s the fundamental law of our breed.

Gray and I look at one another. I can tell he’s feeling a little bad for this man and his son. He’s soft, that’s the problem with Gray. He’s been getting softer over time, too. We cannot have an ounce of mercy for these men who thought they could take my mate and do whatever they wanted with her.

“I am a monster,” she says, staying off camera. “And if I don’t get what I want, you’ll be getting bits and pieces of this asshole back one body part at a time. You can reach me on this number if you’d like to arrange transfer of ownership.”

The video cuts off.

“Alright,” Gray says. “For starters, you’re going to send that to me. For seconds, I want to establish the facts again. When it comes to hunting someone, details matter.”

Rainer nods, looking pale. He is truly afraid for his son’s life. He should be. If Ellie doesn’t get what she wants, that bloody little asshole is dead. He’s dead anyway, once I find him.

“Who decided the marriage?”

Rainer shifts in his seat again. He doesn’t like this. Knows how bad it makes him look. He tried to force a girl into marriage, and now he’s lost his kid. Serves him right.

“I’ll be honest with you. Her mother decided she’d be less trouble if she was to be married. So we decided to let that happen.”

“Somewhat sounds like she was forced into the situation.”

“She wasn’t forced. She was strongly encouraged.”

“Alright, and then she took your son hostage as a result.”

“Yes.”

“And that’s why you haven’t gone to the police, because you don’t want this getting out. You just want them retrieved. Quietly, with as few witnesses as possible.”

“Exactly,” Rainer says.

“And if we get the girl back, and your son back, then perhaps you’d be willing to give up the development?”

“No.” Rainer looks bulldog ferocious. “She gets nothing.”

“Okay,” Gray says. “You know there is one way we certainly retrieve your son without further harm coming to him.”

“What’s that?”

“Giving her what she wants.”

“I didn’t call you to give her what she wants. I want you to hunt her down, and I want you to fucking kill her,” Rainer growls. “I want to erase her from this planet. That little bitch is going to regret the day she messed with me.”

I can’t believe he hasn’t noticed who I am as yet. He just got me arrested, for god’s sake. I’ve been making his life hell for weeks. But men like Rainer don’t see anyone they think is poor. I might as well be Gray’s pet.

“Alright. Well,” Gray says. “I think we can find the body.”

“What do you mean?”

“Women don’t often take prisoners, and when they do, the odds that those prisoners will be released are fairly low. It’s something to keep in mind. A wronged woman is a very dangerous creature.”

“Then kill her,” he says. “I want my son back. I will pay any amount, and do anything to ensure I get him.”

“Except meet her ransom demands.”

“Yes. Except that.”

“Is there anything else I should know?”

“So we’re killing his son, right?”

“I am,” I growl. “He touched my mate. He thought she could be taken advantage of.”

“Seems like she taught him otherwise.”