The Wolf's Mate Book 1: Jason & Cadence (22 page)

She took the opportunity of their distraction
to bolt, and she didn’t get two steps before someone landed on her
back and slammed her into the ground. Her shoulder landed on a
large stone and before she could register any pain, she was
wrenched to her feet by her hair. She cried out and got a hand
across her cheek, a hot burn left in its wake.

“Did you think I wouldn’t be watching you?”
Chris spat at her.

She sobbed, “I’m sorry, Chris. Please, let me
go. Don’t do this.”

“Oh, we’re doing this alright.” He fisted his
hand in her hair so tightly that strands pulled free and he planted
his mouth on hers until her teeth cut into her lips and she tasted
blood.

She cried when he broke the kiss and jerked
the front of her shirt open, the buttons flying with ripping
sounds, and yanked it off her shoulders.

Zan protested, “Wait, that’s a mating strap.
Chris, she’s already mated to Jason. You can’t take her, he’ll kill
you! It’s our oldest law.”

Chris’ eyes flashed amber in the firelight
and his fangs elongated as he shoved her backwards into someone’s
arms and said, “Hold her.” With a growl, he leapt on Zan and her
only hope for an ally in the midst of the chaos was screaming in
terror of his own.

Westin purred in her ear, his fingers
tightening on her flesh. “Tonight’s gonna be fun, baby. Chris’ll
fuck you, and then we all will. You’ll be our personal chew toy,
for a new kind of pack. A pack with no rules.” He squeezed her
breast through her corset roughly and she stifled a pained groan.
Terror licked at her again. It was much worse than fending off
Chris. She couldn’t hope to make it through the night against four
more of them. A wolf on the full moon was excitable enough before
and after their shift, but they were acting as if they’d not gotten
a chance to shift. That made them tense and emotional, with a hair
trigger that trended towards violence.

Chris stood after a few minutes of beating on
Zan, who lay in a crumpled, bleeding heap outside the crudely
constructed stone circle.

“Now, darling, first of all, you don’t need
this anymore.” He tore the necklace off and tossed it away. It
arced in the firelight and she felt the loss from around her
neck.

In the middle of a full-blown panic attack,
she couldn’t breathe right or concentrate on anything. Her terror
ratcheted up another notch as he began a convoluted version of the
mating vows.

“Tonight you’re my mate and I’m yours. Does
anyone have anything to say about that?” He jerked on the waistband
of her jeans and the button popped. She whimpered, helpless in
Westin’s tight hold.

“Fucking get to it, man!” One of them yelled
and the others cheered and her blood went cold.

“We’re making our own traditions.” His fangs
extended and she thought he was going to bite her but instead he
sank one fang into his wrist and wiped his blood over her heart and
then his own. Her stomach rolled when the scent of his blood hit
her nose. “You’re mine forever, Cadence.”

As he went for her jeans again, her chest
heaved and she thought her heart would stop completely. Then she
felt something stirring in her mind, a strength that hadn’t
deserted her in the middle of this horror.
Her wolf.
She was
wolf enough to be alpha; she was wolf enough to defeat this lesser
wolf who had gone over the edge of sanity. The zipper lowered
slowly and an idea formed quickly.

“Chris, baby, Chris? Look at me, honey.” She
spoke with as even a tone as she could muster. He had to believe
her.

He looked at her and his eyes were glowing.
“We’re going to make love, Chris. Don’t you want to feel me
completely naked under you? Don’t you want Westin to wait his turn
with the others?” She licked her lips and looked at him.

He blinked and took a few breaths. “That’s
it, baby, take off my shoes, first, so you can get my pants off
right.” She cooed to him.

He knelt in front of her, dropping like a
stone and undid the laces of her hiking boots. Tossing them aside,
he moved his hands up her legs slowly, eagerness on every feature.
Reaching for her jeans again, he growled, “Let her go, Westin. Wait
your turn.”

When Westin didn’t move, Chris growled. “I
said move!”

With a huff, he let her go and she sighed at
the relief in pressure from around her waist. He’d been holding her
like a vise. While he worked her jeans down her legs, she dug back
through her martial arts training and grabbed hold of the half wolf
in her mind so she could use every ounce of power and knowledge
available to her. She would put him down and she would get away
from them. She had no choice.

She stepped free of her jeans, resting her
hands on his shoulders and when he was in just the right place, she
sank her hands into his hair and shoved his head into her knee.
With a crack that echoed like a gunshot, he howled and rolled away
from her and she ran. They didn’t chase her right away, but she was
in socks with no pants and in unfamiliar territory. Plus, it was
night. She relied on her wolf to get her through the woods, but
even she couldn’t navigate someplace she’d never been.

She raced past the cabin, towards what looked
like a road. As she ran, her feet hit things that hurt, but she
pushed past the pain, her eyes trained on the place ahead of her.
She heard the roar of motorcycle engines, and she knew she was done
for if she was caught. The dirt road ended at another road that
stretched in either direction, but there appeared to be nothing but
woods and fields for miles. She cast her eyes up the hill and saw a
guardrail. That meant a road!

Instead of sticking to the road, she started
for the hill. They couldn’t get up the steep hill on their bikes so
they had to climb with her or get to the road another way. Sticks
cut her hands, stones bit into her knees, but she pushed on until
she could grab the bottom of the guardrail as the shouts from below
her grew closer. She pulled herself up and over it, falling to the
ground in front of it with a harsh cry. Something pierced her thigh
and she reached for the pain and found a shard of thick glass like
a beer bottle and tossed it aside. Struggling to get to her feet,
she heard the sound of motorcycles growing closer and she tried to
get back over the guardrail, but her hands were slippery and ached,
and in an instant she was blinded with headlights and she sobbed in
defeat.

Boots stomped towards her and she screamed,
“Please, Chris, no!”

“Sweetheart, it’s me.” Jason’s sweet voice
reached her ears and she lifted her head. “Cades, Cades?”

“Oh Jas.” She lifted her arms to him and he
closed the distance fast, whipping off his jacket to cover her
before standing up with her tight in his arms.

He barked, “Find him! Fucking find all of
them!” Engines roared and then drifted away and a door creaked
open. She felt something soft under her bare legs and she
stiffened.

“It’s alright, Cades,” he soothed, “it’s my
dad’s truck. Callie’s here. They’re going to take you back to my
trailer.”

She grabbed his collar. “Please don’t leave
me, Jas!”

His brow furrowed and he leaned forward and
kissed her on the forehead. “I have to make it safe for you,
sweetheart. I’ll be home soon, I promise. Dad?”

“I’ll get her back to your trailer and take
care of her until you get back, son. You go avenge our alpha.”

She felt herself slipping away from
everything, and Jason’s voice went tinny and distant and then she
was gone.

Chapter 12

Jason had thought the worst thing he had ever
seen was Cadence in the hospital. This topped everything. Bleeding,
bruised, half naked and absolutely terrified. Every instinct in his
body was at war. Half of him didn’t want her out of his sight
because she was in pain and afraid. The other half of him knew that
Chris had to pay. She deserved to feel safe and he would be the one
to give it to her.

His cell beeped and Michael’s breathless
voice said, “We found ‘em, J. One was unconscious by a bonfire, the
other four we chased on the bikes and they’re down by the bonfire
at the cabin now.”

“I’ll be right there.”

He reined in his beast. He couldn’t be
emotional right now; he had to act by the laws of their ancestors.
While there was no leeway for Chris, the others in his rogue posse
were another story. Arriving quickly, he pulled up next to the
cabin and turned off the bike. He saw every male except his father
standing around the bonfire. His highest ranked men each held one
of the rogues, except for the one that was unconscious. All the
Tressel pack females were waiting at the trailer park to stand
guard over their alpha until he could get back to her.

Jake walked over to him as he surveyed the
scene. “Cadence okay?”

“She will be. Listen, Jake,”

“No, wait.” Jake sighed, running his hand
through his graying hair. “Chris is my son and Cadence has been
like a daughter to me. No one deserves to be terrorized the way
that she was. I won’t stand in your way. I know by law that he
deserves death. I wish I could tell you why he went crazy, but I
truthfully don’t know. A month ago I wouldn’t have guessed he had
it in him to be so calculating and cruel. And then for the others
to go along with it, well, it makes me feel like I wasn’t being an
effective alpha. But that’s my baggage. I’ll make the announcement
that I stand down from punishing my own pack members for their
crimes. I can’t stay. You know, that, right?”

Jason nodded, amazed at Jake’s calm
nature.

“The cabin’s yours, for whatever you need.
I’ll make sure that Renee goes to the trailer park to help.”

He and Jake walked together to the stone
circle. Jake turned around. “As alpha of the Garra Pack, I withdraw
my judging hand from this gathering. For crimes against the Tressel
Pack and their alpha female, I give my support to Jason Gerrick,
alpha.” He gave one glance at Chris, called for his pack to head
home, and left without another glance at son.

In all his arrogant posturing, Chris had been
so smug, but seeing his father walk away turned him into a
blubbering child, begging for mercy and calling for Jake. To his
credit, he never turned around, and neither did any of the other
pack members.

Jason walked in front of the men. He wished
he knew why Zan was unconscious. He looked at a couple of the
mid-ranked wolves. “Ben, Tig, take Zan and secure him in the back
of Bo’s truck. I’m not going to punish him until I figure out why
he’s unconscious.”

He turned to the elders who were standing
stoically outside the circle, there for guidance if he needed it.
He appreciated their presence, and wished his father had been able
to stay. But there was no one he trusted more with his woman than
his father. Jason spoke with authority. “They are cast from their
pack at their alpha’s command. They kidnapped an alpha female with
the purpose of at the least watching her be raped by another
alpha.” He had a good guess that they planned more than just
watching.

Lon, one of the elders, took a step forward.
“Alpha, there is only one true path. They must be given to the pack
so they may avenge their alpha female. Only blood will do.”

So the challenge would be issued. The
criminals would be allowed to shift and given a two minute head
start. If they could make it to dawn alive, they were exiled from
the town but given their life. Dawn was four hours away.

Drawing on his wolf for power, he said with a
deadly calm voice, “I, Jason Gerrick, alpha of the Tressel pack,
charge you, Westin, with kidnapping the mated alpha of our pack
with intent to cause her bodily harm. For your crime, you are
challenged for your life. Make it to dawn and your life is yours,
but you are required to leave the state within 48 hours or you
forfeit your life. Have you anything to say?”

Westin, a man that Jason had at one time
looked up to, spit on the ground. “I’d have fucked your little
female until she begged for mercy, so you can stick your challenge
up your ass and go fuck yourself.”

Ignoring the digs, because Westin was clearly
hoping to have a fast end instead of facing the pack in the woods,
Jason moved on and repeated the challenge to Darrin and Quincy.
Darrin said nothing, resigned to his fate. Quincy begged for mercy,
but there was none to be found.

He faced Chris finally, held on his knees by
Michael and Bo. He glared up at Jason but there was nothing human
about him anymore. He’d lost all touch with reality. “Christian, I
sentence you to death, for crimes against the female alpha of our
pack. There will be no dawn reprieve for you, I will hunt you down
and kill you myself. Do you have anything to say?”

He stared up at him and the emptiness was
vast in his eyes.

With a nod, his men set the criminals free
and they struggled to their feet and ran. He was pleased to see
that someone had removed their shoes. It was only fitting that
because Cadence had run without shoes that they would have that
same feeling, at least until they shifted.

Turning to his pack, he met their simmering,
angry gazes. “Tonight we hunt to avenge our alpha!” He lifted his
head to the sky and howled and the hills echoed with the sound.
Clothes dropped and they shifted to their wolf forms and headed
towards their prey.

Michael and Bo followed him as he scented for
Chris and picked him out easily. The wolves had splintered and each
gone in different directions but it wouldn’t matter. Chris had only
stayed in his human form for a few feet and then shifted. No matter
how long it took, Jason would see that Chris never hurt another
person again.

They trailed him for hours. He was fast and
backtracked a lot, crossing over his tracks again and again, but
finally, they caught sight of his dark gray form as he padded along
a soggy creek bed. With a coordination of a group that had hunted
together for years, Bo and Michael split off and attacked Chris
from either side as Jason went for his back. His natural reaction
to seeing the two wolves on either side of him was to back up, and
he ran straight into Jason. They locked jaws around each other’s
necks, the snarls and growls growing louder and louder.