Betrayed Forced Mate - Page 69

Bigby says something, and I realize I can’t hear him over the sound of the helicopter, which is even closer now. We both look up simultaneously to see Zane—Zane, who should be dead—in the pilot’s seat, and—is that Maisie?

My mind goes blank when I see her there, like it can’t possibly be true, but it is her riding in the passenger’s seat. She drops a ladder down to us, and before I can say anything, or protest at all, Bigby hoists me up in the air, forcing me to grab onto the ladder. He waits until I start to climb, my fingers numb and yet somehow pained at the same time from the cold, before he turns back to Byron.

Bigby shouts something at him, and the two of them argue for a moment, screaming back and forth. I wish I could hear them, but the helicopter is too damn loud. When I get to the top of the ladder, Maisie and Percy grab my arms, hauling me inside, and Maisie places a pair of headphones on my head.

Veronica is lying, almost lifelessly, in the back of the helicopter, her head lolled to the side. Percy sits by her side, his hand running over her hair gently.

On the boat, it looks like Bigby is trying to convince Byron to leave the commander, but Byron continues fighting, trying to finish the job.

“Hold on,” Zane says, gritting his teeth as he maneuvers the helicopter lower, even closer to the boat. “That motherfucker,” he says, and we all hear him through the headset. “Doesn’t know when to leave well enough alone.

When Byron gets to his feet, facing Bigby and leaving his back to the commander for a moment, the old man shifts, and my mouth falls open as I watch the transformation.

It’s impossible—but he’s the most enormous, scariest wolf I’ve ever seen. Hulking. Bigger than Bigby. Bigger than Bigby and Aris’s wolves combined. Even from this distance, and through the snow that’s now falling, I can see the gleam of his fangs and the saliva that drips from them. It’s like I can see every single one of his rippling muscles.

I watch, helpless from the skies, as a stack of large crates starts sliding toward Bigby and Byron. The men each react to the opposite problem—Bigby trying to pull Byron away from the commander in his wolf form, and Byron trying to pull Bigby away from the crates.

Byron! I manage to send, whatever fake Zane stuck me with, finally wearing off and opening up my mental channels. Behind you!

Byron twists, and when he sees the commander racing toward him, he and Bigby finally get on the same wavelength, leaping to the side just as the crates slide down, slamming into the commander and smashing him against the wall of the boat.

We all stare, shocked, as Bigby gets to his feet, sliding a bit on the ice before he finds purchase. Byron is limp in his arm, but Bigby makes it to the ladder, just managing to hold on to Byron and the rope at the same time.

It takes effort, but we manage to haul Byron over the side when Bigby gets to the top of the ladder. I’m sobbing and holding him to my body, trying to warm him up while Maisie patches up a cut on his forehead.

“I love you,” I whisper to him, not caring that the others are here. If Byron can hear me, I just want him to hear me say it. To know that it’s true, even if he never says it back. “I love you, I love you, I love you.”

With Bigby in the helicopter, it’s just a bit too crowded, but the tight quarters are good for warmth as we speed back toward Rosecreek, leaving the commander smashed and surely bleeding out in the frigid waters below.

Chapter 31 – Byron

“Uncle Byron,” Bubba says, pointing to my head. “What is that?”

“It’s a boo-boo,” I say, just as Veronica says, “it’s a laceration, honey.”

I straighten up and raise an eyebrow at her.

“What?” she says, as Bubba tries to repeat the word laceration and fails miserably. “He’ll need to learn it someday.”

“He’ll need to learn the word laceration someday?” I ask, laughing. “Why would he ever need to know that word.”

“Because he’s going to be a doctor someday,” Veronica says, leaning down and pinching his cheeks. He squeals and wrestles to get away from her, and she smiles, watching as Araya and Kaila come around the corner, absorbing him into their game of tag.

“I thought we agreed we weren’t going to be cheek-pinchers,” Percy says, appearing behind Veronica and hooking an arm around her neck. She smiles, turning her chin up to meet his, and they instantly melt into their own little bubble.

“I agreed to no such thing,” she murmurs, leaning in for a kiss, and I roll my eyes, turning around. Seeing them being lovey-dovey together may be gross, but it also instantly makes me yearn for Olivia. I find her on the other side of the party, holding a glass of eggnog, which she almost spills several times during the course of her story.

“—way he was that big,” Aris says, shaking his head.

“Bigby?” Olivia says, turning to the man, who clearly wanted to be left out of it. “Come on, man, back me up!”

“Olivia, come on, now—”

“He was bigger than whatever she is describing to you,” I say, standing beside her and nestling her close to me. Next to Aris, Linnea’s eyes shine a little brighter at the sight of it. I can’t wait for the day that people stop being charmed by me and Olivia interacting like a couple, and instead are grossed out by it, like I am with Percy and Veronica. “I almost shit my pants when I saw him.”

“No way!” Aris says, his voice joking, but something hidden deep, deep under the layers there. I study him closely, taking a sip of my eggnog. As the Alpha, it’s his job to keep this pack safe. But he also constantly runs the risk of someone challenging him for the position. It’s how his father fell to Varun. Most packs don’t adhere to the old ways of doing things—that the old Alpha must die in order for the new one to take over—but if a shifter did murder Aris to take his place, it would be difficult to prosecute them, at least within paranormal society.

That means that, if a shifter like the commander showed up here, in his massive wolf form, and Aris couldn’t defeat him, he wouldn’t keep the Alpha position. Also, because Linnea is blood-bonded to him, his children would lose both of their parents, in addition to the pack losing its Alpha.