Page 8 of Bred Mate (Stalked Mates #2)

E llie

When the sun goes down, I tell my brothers to keep an eye on Karl. I take them aside when I tell them what to do, knowing they’ll listen. They’re excited that we’re finally doing something. Tim especially is keen to keep Karl right where we need him.

“We’re getting close,” I tell them. “Now all I have to do is go and ask for money. Don’t get too close to him, and don’t take your eyes off him. If he moves, don’t shoot him, but make him think you will—not you, Connor. You go in the other house and get some sleep. I don’t want you near that man.”

“I want to guard him,” Connor says, then yawns.

He shouldn’t be mixed up in this. The way Karl looked at me after he looked at the place we live made me feel deeply guilty.

I know that we don’t live well. I know that Connor doesn’t go to school as often as he should.

And I know that the place is filthy. And I know that I’m not doing a good enough job being responsible, and I know that this is fucked up.

Once we own our place, we can start to make it good.

Once we don’t have to live in fear for not having anywhere to be in the next six months, we can settle.

Tim and Tate are both already quite good at fixing things.

Mostly they take things from the other old houses and use them to fix the one we sleep in, but we all need our space and sometimes we spread out through a couple of different places.

I don’t want Connor and Karl in the same place if I’m not here.

I owe my littlest brother my protection.

This is all for them. For our family. I wish I didn’t have to leave them, but Tim is capable of guarding Karl.

He’s a big guy, and Tate’s not much smaller.

Give it a few more years and there will be three of them, guarding the whole thing.

One day, there will be babies again in the forest. There will be life in these trees. There will be a pack again.

“Don’t worry, sis. You got this,” Tim says. “Now go and freak them all the fuck out about what you’ll do if we don’t get what we want.”

I go out, and I take Karl’s car. Can’t call anybody from here, can’t even get online here, but if I drive to the nearest town, Baltair, I’ll get a signal and then I can send the ransom demand. I took Karl’s phone before I left, made sure it was unlocked, and took some numbers.

I ring the one I reckon is likely to get the biggest rise out of him. The one marked ‘Asshole Brother.’

I know who that is; it’s Gray. He’s younger than Karl, but he got a reputation recently for marrying a really rich woman.

There are all kinds of rumors swirling now.

A lot of them are absolutely crazy, and I don’t believe them for a second.

But I do think hitting up the rich side of the family with the news I have their brother captive is a good idea.

“Hello?” I hear a man’s voice. He’s got a slight English accent. Interesting.

“Is this Gray Dulac?”

“It is. But this isn’t my brother,” he says, sounding more curious than anything. I’m guessing Karl doesn’t often put in calls to his little brother. “Who am I talking to?”

“The woman who has your brother.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. Must be hard on you.”

The voice sounds thoroughly amused. He’s missing the point, but of course he is.

“I have your brother, Gray. I have him captive, and I won’t be releasing him until I get paid.”

There’s a pause. Then a question.

“How much do you want?”

“Ten million dollars.”

I don’t know how much I actually need. I should have worked that out first. Ten million dollars sounds like a lot, but maybe it’s not really all that much these days.

“No,” I correct myself, just as he starts to speak. “A hundred million dollars.”

There’s a chuckle.

“What do you need the money for?”

“Buying a forest?”

“A hundred million dollars would get you a nice forest, but I don’t think we’re going to be paying a hundred million for Karl. I might pay you a few hundred thousand to keep him away from us.”

He’s talking to me with a kind of paternal smugness that I don’t really care for.

He doesn’t sound concerned about Karl in the slightest. I realize I probably should have gotten someone who sounded scarier to do this, more male.

He’s not taking me seriously because women don’t shake down men like this often enough.

“Can I get an address, please? Not a P.O. Box. Somewhere I can send packages.”

“Why do you need that?”

I keep my tone perfectly calm as I reply.

“I want to know where to start sending body parts.”

There’s another chuckle, but it’s less amused now. There’s a note of steel in my voice that I think the man of the other end of the phone might actually be starting to respect.

“I don’t know who you are, but I can promise you that taking my brother is going to be one of the biggest mistakes you’ve ever made in your life.

I suggest you get as far away from him as you possibly can.

Now. Because I can assure you, when he gets free—and he will get free—you will be seriously harmed. ”

“He won’t hurt me,” I say.

“Oh, you sound far too confident. So that either means you don’t know him at all, or you know him far better than any woman should ever know Karl. Wait…” He pauses for a moment. “Am I speaking to my brother’s mate?”

“You’re speaking to the woman who is going to send you bits of him one piece at a time until you can assemble him like a Lego set.”

There’s a laugh on the other end of the line. He sounds very amused now. I’ve made a good joke or two, apparently.

“You sound like you suit him,” he says.

“I’m serious. I want money. I need to buy a forest. You have money.”

“Well, sweetheart…”

“Don’t call me sweetheart,” I snap.

“Well, vicious torturer,” he corrects himself. “I’m not giving you money. I am going to give you advice. The same advice I gave you before. Get the hell out of there as fast as you can.”

“I’m not afraid of him.”

“You should be. It’s been nice talking to you. I’m guessing you and I are going to make each other’s acquaintance before long. I have to go now.”

“I’ll call your father next,” I tell him.

“Good luck with that.”

“Wait.”

“Hm?”

“Is it true? Did your father hit him in the face with an axe?”

There’s a much longer pause now. I wonder if Gray knows.

I wonder if he cares. They don’t seem to be particularly sentimental, this family.

If someone had one of my brothers, I’d go absolutely mad getting them back.

I’d pay anything, if I had money. Or I’d kill anyone who dared touch them.

It’s different for these people. They seem to operate entirely independently, like they don’t need or want each other.

“Probably,” he says finally. “I wasn’t there. But I can tell you this, Karl’s been wounded in ways I can’t describe, and most people can’t understand. Which is why I’m telling you for a third time: run away.”

He disconnects the call and I am left in that weird silence that always seems to follow a conversation. The silence that wasn’t there when you started, but seems very heavy once the call is over.

I am caught between wanting to go back to the forest and check in on my brothers, and keeping on asking questions. I still need money, and it’s obvious Gray isn’t going to send me any. So I guess I may as well keep calling.

My next call is to Orion Dulac.

I’m nervous making this call. Orion is a legend.

He’s also already left us at the mercy of developers by selling the forest in the first place, so I need to be especially firm with him now.

I need to put the fear of fucking God into him, so he gives me what I want.

This is starting to get messy in ways I didn’t want.

The phone rings for long enough to make me nervous, then gets answered roughly by an older voice who has absolutely no patience for what is happening.

“Karl?”

“Not Karl,” I say. “Karl’s kidnapper.”

“Oh,” he says. “Sorry, not interested.”

He hangs up.

I call back.

The call doesn’t get answered the second time. Goes to voicemail.

I call a third time.

“What?”

I was going to ask him why he didn’t care about the fact that I took his kid hostage, but I don’t really care why, and that’s not a question that’s going to get me anything. So instead, I ask the one that’s been burning in my brain.

“Why did you hit him with an axe?”

“He was a little shit,” Orion answers roughly. “He deserved it.”

“Looks like you fucked up his eye.”

“He seems to do alright with the one he has.”

“Sure, but I’m planning on carving the good one out and sending it as proof I’ve got him. Do you reckon you’d recognize his eye if I did that?”

“Who the Hades is this?”

“I’m the woman who is going to take fifty million dollars off you to make up for what you did when you sold my home.”

Orion Dulac hangs up on me for a second time.

I don’t call him back. Alright, so, nobody in Karl’s family is going to pay money for him.

My first gambit failed, and now my second one has too.

I start the car and turn it back toward home.

I’m frustrated. Felt like a solid plan taking Karl.

I figured he’d pay up, or someone else would. I guess nobody is coming for him.

I feel a little sad for him to be honest, but the point wasn’t to work him out. It was to get some money, and we’re no closer to that. I’m letting my family down, and I hate it.

I park, and I make the run to the house. It’s deep in the night now, and I’m enjoying the effects of the moon. I make the run in animal form, holding my clothes in my mouth as I go. I like being my animal self. I like the fact it means I don’t really have to think.

When I get back to the house, I dress quickly and go in to check on everything.

And that’s when things go from bad to worse.

The chair I left Karl in is empty. The silver is on the floor. I don’t know where the hell Karl is, but the pit in my stomach and the immediate sense of dread tells me that I’ve fucked up in a way I won’t recover from easily.