Page 14 of Delivered to My Beasts (Mail-Order Matings #22)

Imogen

Despite Duke’s experiences in town and everything he had overheard, nobody had said they knew where to find me. They said an awful lot of terrible things about me, and Mateo was looking, apparently, but as long as he didn’t have a location or names, I should be safe here.

I was so glad Duke had not stayed to confront Mateo.

No matter how big and strong he was, I kept going back to the number of people the wolf would have had at his disposal.

He might not be alpha yet, but that didn’t matter.

The younger males in the pack would follow him anywhere.

Jerks though they might be, they could be an ugly mob when aroused.

I’d seen them in action once when my father wanted to get rid of a troublemaker several years back.

Father’s instructions were to escort the male off the lands and tell him not to come back, but they had taken things much further than that.

I knew because I’d hidden in the bushes and watched what happened.

The “troublemaker” was a man who everyone thought might be the next alpha, but probably sooner than Father was ready for.

He’d headed off a possible challenge by having him removed while he was still young.

But after a mob of six jumped him at the edge of the pack lands and beat him to a bloody pulp who staggered away down the road, I ran home to tell my father what happened.

I expected him to call in the perpetrators and punish them for what they’d done.

Maybe send someone to help the injured man.

After all, he’d grown up here and was a member of the pack until just this moment.

But Father didn’t do any of those things. He sent me to my room and told me not to get in the way of important matters that I couldn’t understand.

Every time I remembered something about the pack and my father, I was shocked at how long it took me to recognize what an untenable situation I’d been in.

How poorly I’d been treated. Mother was kind, but she’d been gone a long time, and my sister and I were just so much chattel.

Once I was stable and knew for sure where I’d be on any given day in the future, I’d be looking for her.

I couldn’t have done that while still in the pack because she wouldn’t have thanked me if someone else there knew where she was. But I’d missed her something awful.

Drying my hands on a kitchen towel, I stepped out the back door to take a breath of fresh air.

The mountain air had a particular sweetness I couldn’t get enough of, and I spent as much time outside as I could.

The guys told me it would be very chilly soon, so I really wanted to take advantage of the lovely fall weather.

From inside the house, I could hear their voices as they went about their evening.

Jax and Crew had gotten out a chess board, and they were setting up the pieces and arguing about who got which color.

But not mean arguing, like I’d experienced growing up.

No, they were joking and getting Duke to break the tie vote, which of course he wasn’t about to do.

“I’m not getting in the middle of this,” he said. “You two are just going to play for a few minutes then one of you will get mad and flip the board.”

I leaned against the screen door as the argument went on, shaking my head. I was going to have to go in there and break it up in a minute, but not because they would hurt one another but just because I could.

And it felt good to have the power that came with respect.

“All right! I’m coming in, and nobody better be tossing game pieces when I get—” My words were cut off by the hand that clamped over my mouth. A hand that really could use some soap and water.

“Don’t say another word,” Mateo hissed. “Unless you want your throat slit.” He took a few steps toward the edge of the porch. “You’re coming with me. I paid for you.” He dragged me across the yard, heading for the woods. Once at the tree line, he eased his hand off my lips. “Remember, quiet.”

How long had I been a doormat that he thought I’d just go along with being kidnapped? Without raising my voice? I sucked in a breath, prepared to scream, but before the first notes emerged, I heard an entirely different sound.

A triple growl.

Instead of screaming, I drove my heel into Mateo’s instep and my elbow into his throat.

He gargled and loosened his grip just enough for me to drop to the ground and roll away from him.

Stopping by a stump, I watched three massive bears approach my ex from the direction of the house.

They closed in, rose on their hind legs, and roared.

A smart man would have turned and run, but Mateo was anything but a smart man. He shifted, as if his wolf could take on three bears many times his size. I stood up and looked around.

“Why did you come alone?” I demanded, though he could not answer in his current form. “Could it be that no one would come? That the Beasts are too scary for your little betas. And how did you even find us here?”

The wolf turned in a circle, trying to keep all three bears in sight, and he might be managing that but he couldn’t stop them.

He had his hips low to the ground as he turned, hind legs trembling, tail low.

Then he snarled and I thought he was going to try to bite one of them, but Crew swiped out with a paw and the wolf yelped.

And shifted. A naked man hunched on the ground with the bear’s claw mark bleeding on his back. “Stop! Don’t hurt me!”

One blow and he caved? This was the male who wanted power but was prepared to buy a mate rather than have an honest challenge.

“You’re such a sad little man.” I approached him, not in the least afraid. “If you move, I’ll have one of them slit your throat with a claw.” I wouldn’t, but it was fair enough after he’d said the same thing to me. “I want to know how you found me.”

He sneered, but that faded when Duke took a threatening step closer, massive paw thudding on the earth. “The car.”

“What do you mean the car?” I gasped. “You have a tracker in the car? Every time I used it…you were tracking me?”

“I don’t want to answer that.”

“Then why did it take so long for you to come here?”

“The signal was so weak, I just managed to get enough of it.”

“And why are you alone?”

“Because nobody would come. They say I’m too weak to hold onto my female. It’s your fault.”

I snorted. Not very attractive but an honest reaction. “I should just let my mates eat you and save the trouble.”

“That’s true? The Beasts are cannibals?”

I studied my nails. I needed a manicure.

“The Beasts are not cannibals.” Waiting for him to let out a breath of relief, I then added, “That would mean they ate their own kind. Bears. I don’t know about wolves who threaten their mates.

Now, go, but if you come back, I think I can speak for my mates and say that it will not go well for you. ”

He ran.

We let him go.

Coward would not be back. He’d lost his support in the pack and probably would be thrown out of there, too. But he was not my problem anymore.