Denied Mate by Roxie Ray
Cal
The night air smelled like a campfire. I burst through the hatch leading from the bunker and out into the woods, then thundered on four paws as best as I could while pain snatched my breath. The echo of Ben’s punches twisted like knots in my muscles and sparked nerves like I’d never felt before. If what Maren had said was true—he’d taken a witch’s brew—it hadn’t just beefed up his muscles and given him strength, it had made him into a pain machine.
Liv had taken off and I had intended to delay Ben long enough for her to get a head start. I hadn’t counted on him slamming me into a wall so hard I couldn’t get my feet beneath me for a solid two minutes. While I wished Maren had at least tried to see where they were headed, I could see why the fae would rather hang back than chase after a muscle-mad alpha wolf.
Besides, it turned out that fae were good at hiding scents, too. Maren’s bunker was deep in the woods to the northwest of Bridgehaven, along trails I figured hadn’t been used by wolf or man for a hell of a long time, going by the lack of markings. Then again, Maren was neither of those things, and I guessed I couldn’t rule out fae being lighter on their feet. I’d tracked the faintest hint of Liv’s scent there but mostly followed my wolf’s intuition when I’d found her apartment empty. I needed to be with her and I just knew where she was.
But now, trying to find where Ben had taken her, I was stumped. My head still felt cloudy. Gauzy, even. Ben must have really rung my bell. Panicked, I followed the first scent I could catch and it led me to a nest of squirrels. Pain lanced through my body with every step and made it impossible to focus. My vision swam. I let out a frustrated whine and shook from head to tail, as if that could fling my problems off. I was determined to find her. The punches Ben had thrown were nothing compared to what I’d do to him when I found them.
Liv… I scratched at the base of a tree I’d passed on my way in and sniffed at the leaves by the base. Nothing. Fuck. He couldn’t have just made her vanish.
“Cal?” Maren’s voice cut through the still, silent night.
I offered a short bark to let her know where I was and went back to sniffing. Now that I was listening for it, I realized her boots barely crunched over fallen twigs and dry leaves. Her shadow was long under the waxing gibbous moon as she stepped out between two big oaks, bundled up in a padded green jacket.
“Oh! Cute wolf.” She hurried over and sunk her fingers into the ruff at the back of my neck like she would a friendly dog. “No sign of them, huh?”
I sighed and flattened my ears, offering a small shake of my head.
She chewed her bottom lip and glanced around at the woods, seeming as lost as I was. I’d rushed out of the bunker, leaving her to clean up and find some weapons, with a promise I’d be back as soon as I found a trail. I guessed she got impatient.
I huffed out a sharp breath and tipped my head, nosing at the duffel bag she had slung over her shoulder.
“Curious, huh?” She laughed lightly and opened up the bag. A pair of shoes, two pots, and a plastic-handled kitchen knife I could tell was blunt just from looking at it. “I hadn’t finished kitting out the bunker before I had to make my move. I thought I’d be using it to keep Liv safe from my family, not hers.”
I sighed and rumbled; we’d just make the best of what we had. I’d been doing that the past fifteen years, and I wasn’t about to stop now. I looked toward town and imagined where I’d take a sister—cousin—if she was threatening my reign as alpha… The bus station to buy her a one-way ticket out of town? No, I was thinking too softly. That would allow Liv to return.
Maren picked a low-hanging oak leaf and started ripping it into tiny pieces. “I mean, if I had my powers, I could have stopped him taking Liv, but I don’t! I just don’t! I had to throw those lamps with my hands. It’s not my fault I’ve been slow to develop, right? I mean, I can seduce with the best of them but those are my only powers right now and—”
I growled, ears flipping back against my head. It made her flinch, startled her like a baby bunny. I took a deep breath and softened my expression. She had done her best; honestly, she might have been more ahead of this than any of us, and we were wolves. We were supposed to be good at sensing shifts in the pack. I exhaled the breath out and shoved my muzzle against her hand.
She opened her mouth as though to argue, then quietly shut it again. “Thank you,” she said, looking back out into the forest.
My eyes twitched and I turned away to hide my guilt. I hadn’t done enough. Not even nearly enough. With one last look at Maren, I started off toward town, figuring Ben probably wasn’t going to drag Liv deeper into the woods. That didn’t make sense, and that was all I had.
Maren chased as quickly as she could and the pots in the duffel clanged as it banged against her hip.
“What if he already…” She swallowed thickly. “You know.”
I growled and offered her a dark side-eye. He hadn’t. I couldn’t say exactly how I knew Liv was still alive. I just did.
We rushed through the woods in relative silence (she really should have thought harder about bringing pots and pans) though I could practically hear Maren struggling to stay quiet. I appreciated the effort, at least. I stayed on high alert for any wolf scent or unusual sound. I could have gone faster without Maren, but I didn’t know if I was going to need her. Fae powers, whatever they were, would have been nice, but the woman had actually managed to hit Ben with at least one lamp (maybe two). She could still be useful. Besides, rushing when I didn’t know where I was going could lead to a wrong turn. I couldn’t dawdle, but I didn’t have time to waste searching out more squirrel nests. Besides, I wanted to save my stamina. I’d need it to find Liv. I’d scour the whole town if I had to.
We broke through the tree line into a moonlit clearing. My head spun with recognition and I caught three distinct scents. Freshly disturbed soil, Bridgehaven’s wolf pack, and my own blood.
Before I could place where we were, Maren pointed down the hill. “My car’s down there.”
Sure enough, a gray hatchback was tucked away in the brush.
I frowned, looking from her tiny hatchback then back the way we came. I looked back up at Maren.
My disbelief must have been written across my face. She scoffed and flexed her muscles, like I’d believe she carried Liv herself. My look of disbelief deepened enough in the moonlight to make her drop the act. “Very slowly. Hooked her under the arms and dragged her through the forest. Masked the scent with forest essence.”
I barely held back a barked laugh. Forest essence? Was that some kind of fancy deodorant, or what?
She rolled her eyes and flicked at her bangs self-consciously. “It’s fae stuff, you wouldn’t get it.” She frowned and looked at her hands. “It sure cost a lot, but it did the job, didn’t it? Covered her scent.”
My ears tipped forward and I tilted my head to one side. If forest essence was something you could buy…
Maren seemed to pick up on my train of thought. She tapped one finger against her lower lip. “If Ben has access to a witch’s brew, he could probably get his hands on fae elixirs too, yeah. There’s a black market for everything.” She tucked her bob behind her ears and then shot me a look like she knew what station my train of thought was barreling towards. “There’s no way to undo forest essence. It’s just a smell, not a spell. Sorry.”
I sighed and airplaned my ears. The wind changed direction and I pressed my face into it, inhaling deeply. The stench of urbanization now lingered on the wind, hiding beneath the earthy forest tones.
Farther down the hill from the car, the town stretched out like a glittering carpet. Bridgehaven. Yeah, it used to be a haven for me when I was a kid. Since my dad died, it had become a hell, and now it was truly ruled by an evil fucker.
“What does Ben care about the most?” Maren was thinking out loud now. After a moment, her hand shot up like she was a kid in class, even though she was answering her own question. “Power.”
But why? Why does he even want to be alpha?I paced, stealing glances over Maren toward the town.
“Hm. Legacy? His dad was—”
I shook my head and barked. Wrong path, I thought. If this wasn’t his real family, that didn’t track.
“Right… Jeff Burns was his uncle.” Maren chewed her lip and tracked me with her eyes. “He was adopted. Not legacy. No prophecy about him, either. At least, as far as I know.” She sighed. “And I know a lot of things.”
I had no idea how true that actually was, so I chose to disregard it. I traced the lit-up roads with my eyes, snagged on the hospital where Ma was, and silently begged my intuition to show me where Liv had been taken.
“He did seem mighty pissed he wasn’t destined to be alpha.” She frowned. “Maybe he wants to feel special?”
My intuition pinged. She was onto something. My thick tail started to sway behind me. I stopped, scanned the streets, and followed the thread. That made sense. Ben was adopted. Maybe he didn’t feel like part of the family? Maybe he felt like he had to feel like he belonged. Like he deserved to belong.
I kept staring out. My vision started to swim. Every major street in Bridgehaven spiraled around the center, concentric circles getting tighter and leading to the rich neighborhood. And the Burns’ glowing mansion sat in the center of it all.
“Lisa.”
We sprinteddown the hill and Maren stopped at her car, but I burned with need to get to the mansion quickly and the thought of driving those concentric circles made me sick. Instead of hopping into Maren’s vehicle, I blasted down the hill and cut through backyards without worrying about exposure. Let the humans see a stray wolf in the middle of the night. Get some hysteria around Bridgehaven for all I cared. Burn the whole fucking thing to the ground.
I pushed my legs faster, harder, and pounded up the streets of Central Bridgehaven. I leaped the brick fence of my childhood home, scrambled through the tight side passage and whipped through the hedges—the start of a secret shortcut Liv and I had created to get to each other’s houses. It was a straight shot up the block and I only stumbled once when the pain in my muscles was too much to bear. Maybe I was too late—
Nope. I wasn’t going to even consider it.
The hedge around the Burns property had long been ripped out and replaced with a wooden fence, but it was easy enough to scramble. I thudded to the other side, barely missing the edge of the pool, and huffed as I lay on my side. My muscles hurt so badly I couldn’t help but whine. Shit, maybe Ben had broken my ribs. Internal bleeding… I closed my eyes as I remembered my mom’s wounds. Had it been his enforcers who’d attacked my mother? Or was it him?
A scream cut through the night and I was back on my feet. I threw myself at the back door, but it wouldn’t budge. Around the front, Maren was pulling up in her car, the headlights shining into the wide front door of the mansion. It had been left open. That wasn’t ominous at all.
I rushed in to find Lisa Burns’ perfectly kept house was trashed. I leapt over a downed table in the hallway, barely missed getting shards of a broken vase stuck in my paws, and chased the rich scent of Liv into the living room.
She was there. Pressed up against the wall, her lips blue and her eyes bulging, with Ben’s hand around her throat. My heart stopped, but my feet didn’t. I snarled with rage and lunged without hesitating. Skin gave way under his pantleg, and a tendon broke with a delicious snap as blood filled my mouth. I tore through cloth and flesh and Ben bellowed with pain.
He dropped Liv to throw me back and I landed hard against the mantle, then bounced onto the side of a toppled sofa. I struggled to stand, but nothing compared to my protective instinct to save Liv. I snarled at the pain in my belly, scrambled to my feet and bared my teeth at Ben.
He was white as the sofa. Liv was slumped where he’d dropped her. Cousin or sister, they were fucking raised together. They were still family!
Now it was beyond personal.
I rolled onto my feet and crouched; I snapped forward like a coiled spring released from its tension. One-hundred and fifty pounds of pissed-off wolf slammed directly into the man’s chest. Adrenaline hummed through my veins. I snapped wildly, saliva dripping onto his face as his meaty hands gripped my fur, barely restraining me from tearing his flesh off. Damn the witch that had brewed up a concoction for him; he shouldn’t have been able to hold me like that.
With a groan, he pushed me away. My claws skittered across the hardwood floor as he got his feet back underneath him. Ben lunged, but the leg I’d mauled earlier didn’t want to play ball. No amount of muscle mass could fix a ripped tendon and he stumbled.
I launched forward to meet him. Again, he caught me by the chest, but the force of my jump pushed us back against the mantle. His skull met the brick with a loud smack; the smell of copper hit my face like a punch. Ben went limp, hands falling away from my thick ruff. I could reach, but it didn’t matter. The damage was done.
Liv gasped behind me, and I spun to check on her.
I hurried over and pressed my muzzle to her face, trying to push her hair away with my wet nose. She stank like fear.
“Cal,” she whimpered. Her makeup was smeared, her bottom lip trembling and her eyes wet with vulnerability. “I’m so fucking glad you’re here, Cal.”
I allowed her to pull me into a hug, and she buried her face into my thick brown fur. She mashed herself against my chest like she could curl up in there and hide. I wished she could. There was a space there big enough for her. Only her. It’d been empty for fifteen years and holding her now was the closest I’d gotten to feeling…complete.
She started to shudder like she was sobbing, but she didn’t make a sound. I tucked my chin over her shoulder and held her tighter, pressed my nose against the top of her head, and breathed in her scent. We were ten years old again, and her mom had snapped at her about setting the table with the wrong napkins. We were eight and she’d been severely scolded for tracking dirt into the bathroom after we’d gone running down the wooded trails. I’d do anything to make her feel better, then and now.
Maren gasped from the doorway, and we slowly peeled apart.
The fae pointed from Ben, to the couch and back again with shock in her eyes. “Are they…”
“Lisa’s dead.” Liv held a stoic expression but the wobble in her voice gave away her grief as she pointed to the couch. “And Ben…”
“He’s out cold, but we have to go before he wakes up.” I finally shifted. Everything hurt as I stood and helped Liv to her feet, stealing a quick glance at the couch where I finally saw it… Lisa’s feet poking out the end. Nausea rolled through me until I looked away and focused on keeping Liv steady.
“He’s bleeding.” Maren stepped closer and wrinkled her nose at Ben. She sighed and tossed her duffel bag on the floor.
“I didn’t get an artery. He just hit his head. I’m sure he has a witch to heal him.” My heart skipped when Liv didn’t let go of my hand, but twined her fingers around mine. “We need to leave. Fast.”
“Where are we going to go? We can’t go back to the bunker, Ben knows about it.” Liv sounded calmer, like touching me made her feel safe.
I frowned. She was right. Our options were seriously limited by places the pack alpha wouldn’t already know about, or have eyes on.
“I’ve got a friend who can get us a place to stay with some other lone wolves.” I’d call Danny. He’d have a place for us.
“I know where we should go.” Maren raised her hand again, classroom style. “It’s a few hours away but we’ll definitely be safe there. But I’ll need to make some calls...”
Liv glanced at me and I nodded. She agreed with a slight hum, and tightened her grip on my hand.
The fae started to dump the weapons out of her duffel. “There’s a motel just out of town—”
I nodded. “I know the one.”
The Three Rivers Motel was known among lone wolves as a good place to hide out. Humans used it for cheap dates and stepping out, so Bridgehaven wolves were almost never found there. They only accepted cash and happily logged fake names on the guest list.
“Good. You two hunker down there for a few hours while I get everything organized.” Maren offered Liv the bag. “Pack this.” Then she looked at me and pointed at the clothes that had fallen out on top of the weapons. “You. Clothes.” It was then I realized she was very carefully, clearly, only looking at my face, and nothing else. She hadn’t just packed shoes. She’d grabbed the clothes I’d stripped out of in the bunker.
Liv laughed coldly and looked toward her bedroom overhead. “There’s nothing of mine left here.”
My heart hurt.
“Okay, don’t worry about it. I’ll swing by the apartment, get us supplies, whatever we need. C’mon, I think the creep is stirring.” Maren shot another disgusted look at Ben. He let out a pained groan but didn’t move. I pulled on clothing as quickly as I could, not bothering to lace my shoes.
We hurried out of the living room without a glance back. Glass crunched between our sneakers and the carpet. I helped Liv over the fallen furniture in the hall. She was still shivering, but the desolate look had vanished from her eyes.
“Wait.” Just before we got to the front door, Liv hesitated in the hallway, her gaze fixed on a picture hanging crooked. She ran her fingers over the glass. It was a picture of her and Jeff Burns, one I hadn’t seen before. The two of them in front of a log cabin looking like best friends. Liv held a fish out proudly, like she’d won the lottery. It was just a tiny sunfish.
She yanked it off the hanger, tucked it under her arm, and slid her hand back in mine. I gave her a reassuring squeeze, and led her out of the mansion.
