Page 11 of Ruthlessly Mated (Shared Mates #2)

K ita

Port Denhome is burning.

I am rumbling along in my truck as the flames really start to lick the sky.

It started even sooner than I thought. A few minutes on either side and I might not have been able to get to my cargo truck.

It’s not the one they impounded. It’s the one next to it.

The one they ignored because Cyril is an idiot and repeats what he’s told.

I don’t come into any port unprepared. I didn’t expect to be waylaid by three massive shifters and made their mate, but you’ve got to adjust to circumstances. Conroy made this easy by deciding to be an overbearing asshole.

I hope Damon got out, but I have a feeling that Damon does just fine in hot situations. Tailor? I don’t know about him. He seemed nice, but then were any of them really nice if they weren’t going to deal with Conroy?

Alexander will have dealt with him. I wish I could have seen it. The moment that Conroy realized sometimes there’s an even bigger authoritarian bully in the world. It would have been so fucking perfect.

The flames light up the sky, bright sparks here and there followed by distant booms as fuel reserves catch fire and detonate. God. Alexander is really going to raze the whole place to the ground. That’s going to cause absolute chaos in the smuggling underground. The industry will adapt and adjust.

This is a night that will go down in infamy. People aren’t going to be talking about me getting my ass beat over the table anymore. They’re going to talk about how the whole fucking place went up a day later.

My mates are dead, I am sure of it.

Oh, well.

Easy come, easy go. I’ll be single for the rest of my life, I suppose, if they were my fated mates. Maybe I got knocked up last night. Maybe I’ll have a couple of pups and raise them to be as much of a criminal as I am. Or maybe I’ll never get pregnant at all and just live life as I see fit.

Right now, I am more worried about Alexander’s trackers.

He’s not going to content himself with blowing up a port.

He will have people looking for me. He already knows he has missed me.

The saving grace here is that the men who loaded my cargo aren’t there anymore.

Everybody had gotten the hell out of there—except my mates.

I feel another one of those inconvenient pangs of guilt. I tell myself I didn’t owe them anything, that they took me against my will and got themselves involved in something they should never have gotten involved in. I tried to warn them, sort of.

Right now, I have to worry about myself.

I have to stay under the radar, not draw any unnecessary attention.

I’ve got to fit in with the world I’m in.

This southern part of the Northern Island is pretty sparse in terms of civilization and law, so I’ve got that going for me.

There’s a main road that runs right up the length of the place, splitting off to my destination: Eclipse City, several thousand miles ahead.

My plan is to blend in like a long-haul trucker. Fortunately, the shipping container attached to the flatbed is as nondescript as it gets. Rusty, yellow, marked as selling Fish Offal in faded green lettering.

As for me, I am going to have to dye my hair again. Bleach it, I guess. Cover the tattoos. Remove the piercing. Maybe it’s time to start dressing like a proper lady. Or a guy. Hm. A mask?

I’m thinking about my disguise as the smell of burning oil starts to taint the air.

Either the truck’s engine has a problem or the wind is blowing the smell of the destruction at the port this far away.

It’s not far enough for my liking. I want to be out of smell range.

I want to be so far away that the last twenty-four hours feel like a bad dream, not something that really happened.

Clunk!

There’s a sound on the outside of the cab. I glance in the rearview mirror, but it’s filthy as hell and all I can see is a faint smear on the body of the cab. A second later, it doesn’t matter, because the door’s been ripped open and Damon is climbing into the seat next to me.

My jaw drops. I’m not even mad.

“Fuck, that is impressive!”

He smirks at me and lights a cigarette. Smoking is disgusting, but in this moment it’s the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.

“Did the others make it out?” If Conroy comes in the roof vent, I am going to be pissed. Not that I want him dead. I just don’t want him in my fucking truck. He can walk, for all I care.

He gives a small shrug.

The fact that he effectively doesn’t talk means that he’s not asking questions. That’s good. Questions are usually judgments waiting to happen.

“I like you. You’re my favorite. And the fact that you’re here indicates that you listen too. That’s a good thing. Might keep you alive.”

He smirks again as he inhales, as if he expected that response.

“Compared to Conroy, you’re…” I don’t even know how to finish the sentence. I also don’t like the way it pulses between my legs when I so much as think that asshole’s name. I’ve heard of enemies to lovers, but this is just enemies to enemies who fuck.

Assuming he’s still alive.

We drive in silence for another thirty seconds or so. I think about Conroy. I think about Tailor. I see the port burning in the rear view when I check my mirrors out of good driving habit.

Damon’s presence here is making something very fucking apparent. I’m not leaving the idea of two people behind. I’m leaving two very real, very alive, very connected mates behind. And I’m leaving them to burn. And that makes me, well, it makes me about the worst person in this or any other world.

“Fuck,” I curse as I apply the brake.

“ Fuck ,” I swear even more loudly as I start cranking the steering wheel around and dropping gears.

“God fucking dammit!” I keep swearing as I turn the truck back toward the burning port. “I do not know why I am doing this. This is the dumbest thing I have ever fucking done. You talked me into it.”

Damon lifts a brow at me, but says nothing.

Of course he didn’t talk me into it. I’m doing this for my own conscience, which is crazy because five minutes ago I would have said I didn’t have one.

Conroy

Tailor passed out not long after the torture started. The vampire wasn’t careful enough. Didn’t know how to make sure not to exceed his limits. He bit him. Bled him. Hurt him, and he did it all in front of me so I’d have the benefit of seeing it and being afraid of it happening to me.

What this asshole doesn’t know is that I am not afraid of anything. Not pain. Not death. Not fucking anything.

“The girl is mine. She owes me her pain,” the foul creature hisses, jangling chains of silver threateningly in my face. “But I will take yours in kind before I get hers.”

She’s not his. I didn’t smell so much as a hint of death on her. Girls who fuck vampires always have a little hint of rot about them. She was as pristine and feral as it gets. I claimed her virgin flesh and I know it.

“She’s not yours.”

“What makes you say that, animal? Because you humped her? Rutted her like the feral beast you are? Did you even ask her if she wanted to be mated? Or did you just feel animal lust for a young virgin wolf shifter and fill her with your seed whether she wanted it or not?”

I look over at Tailor. I hope he’s not hurt too badly. I’ve stayed conscious, because I know if I don’t they’ll rouse him if I pass out. This vamp came with silver daggers, silver clamps, and silver electrodes. He knows how to use all of them.

He is enjoying torturing me. Slowly. And of course, painfully. There is blood in my eyes, making my vision hazy. I have taken all manner of damage, most of which I am blocking out through force of will.

“You want details? Why? You want to jerk off while I tell you how I fucked her? Most of the port saw. If you hadn’t set the place on fire, you’d have had tapes to watch. You could have seen me fuck her for the first time. Could have seen her bred the way she deserved to be bred.”

The side of my head explodes with the blow from the vampire’s fist. He pulls his punch enough to ensure his hand doesn’t go right through my skull. This guy is being careful. It must suck, to be able to hurt people and not ever be able to hurt them to nearly the limit of your abilities.

“I bet you prefer hitting vampires,” I grunt as my head rings.

“I do, actually.”

“Yes. Of course. You can hit them harder.”

“Exactly. It’s a pity I’m going to torture you to death. You seem like a more entertaining creature than the obsequious rat who barely tolerated even a hint of pain. But I think he will be a better scent hound for the girl. More obedient. You don’t have a submissive bone in your body.”

“I don’t.”

“You would have made a good general in my army,” he says. “But I would have had you killed too, I think. Too much of a tactical threat.”

“Do you want to suck my dick, or…”

Bam! Another hard blow jolts me in the other direction.

“I am going to enjoy killing you,” Alexander says. “You’re lucky I am in a hurry, or I would be drawing this out for weeks. Now tell me where she went.”

“I’ve told you a hundred times. I don’t know where she went. She ran away. We fucked once. Well, twice. She hated us, especially me, and she was gone before you got here. She was tipped off the same way everyone else was. News of your ship travels fast.”

“But you mated her. You have the bond.”

“It’s not like a vampire thing. The bond doesn’t tell me where she is. The bond doesn’t mean anything at all if she doesn’t want it to mean something. It’s a connection, not a tool.”

Alexander kneels in front of me, pressing a silver dagger into my gut, piercing the skin, threatening to take an organ. I have no doubt that he would slit me open to prove a point. He is hoping I will prove to be useful before he does that.

“If I wanted to, I could force you into your wolf form and make you hunt her down, and if you did not, I could torture you until you die like a dog. Your friend is already well on his way.”