Forbidden Blood (41 page)

“
I think this meeting is over,” Naya said. She let go of Vaughn’s hand and left the room.

Kenzie tried to follow, but Sawyer held on
to her.

She pivoted in his arms.
“Would you let me go?”

“
Just a sec.” He wasn’t even looking at her. Instead, he was staring across the room.

She glanced behind her to see what he
was looking at. It was Brent. The kid’s attention was at the front of the room, but he turned as if he’d felt their eyes on him. The second his gaze was directed toward them, she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder.

“
Ow
.” She twisted back to Sawyer.

The asshole
had bit her again.

He lifted his head
with a satisfied smirk on his face. “Okay, now, you can go.” He released his hold on her and made his way over to Vaughn and his parents.

He didn
’t look back at her. She was already an afterthought. She curled her lip as she decided she could do the same, and then she hurried after her friend.

“
Naya,” Kenzie said as she got to Vaughn’s car where Naya was waiting, “are you okay?”

Naya spun around with tears on her face.
“I can’t believe they said those things. I am their only child, and I am carrying their grandchildren. But they are treating them like-like…” She trailed off.

“
Like they don’t want to have anything to do with them?” Kenzie asked.

Naya nodded as more tears rolled down her cheeks.

Kenzie put her arms around Naya. “At least you have Vaughn,” she offered.

Naya let out a short laugh.
“Yeah, I guess so.”

Kenzie moved back to look at her.
“Am I missing something? Has Vaughn done something?” she asked, concerned for her friend.

Naya waved her hand.
“No, he’s wonderful. Forget it. Pregnancy hormones. Besides, here he comes.” She did her best to wipe the tears from her eyes.

Kenzie turned around to see Vaughn
, Payton, and their parents walking out. Vaughn’s mother walked up to Naya and wrapped her in a hug, taking Naya completely by surprise.

“
You don’t listen to your parents. These babies have enough grandmother right here. I’ll smother those babes with love,” she told Naya.

“
Uh…thank you, Mrs. Llewelyn.”

“
You call me Lilith, dear.”

Naya produced a small smile.
“Okay, Lilith.”

Vaughn walked up next to Naya, put his arm around her, and pulled her close.

Vaughn’s father stepped forward. “We haven’t been properly introduced. I’m Vance Llewelyn, Alpha of the Minnesota Pride and Vaughn’s father.”

“
Hello, sir.”

“
Vance,” he corrected.

“
Vance.” She gave him a smile, too.

“
Don’t worry, dear. We’ll figure things out. We have a few months left,” Lilith said.

“
She’s right,” his father agreed.

“
Thanks for your support,” Vaughn told them.

Payton gave Naya and Vaughn a double thumbs-up sign from behind her parents
’ backs, and Vaughn rolled his eyes.

Everyone said good-bye, and Kenzie hugged Naya. She knew Naya was upset, b
ut she hoped Naya’s parents were the only reason.

In the meantime, Kenzie needed to go to the gym or buy a bottle of wine
—maybe both. There was a certain male she wanted to cleanse from her brain.

S
TUPID VAMPIRE BITCH!

The cat-shifter slammed his fist on the table. This pregnancy was about to ruin
everything
. He had calculated it all out carefully, and now, he didn’t know what the hell he was going to do. Thanks to the meeting, everyone in the Pride knew Vaughn was a soon-to-be father, and all eyes would be on him and his bitch for a while. Although, without the meeting, the cat-shifter wouldn’t have known what was going on either.

He needed to
seriously rearrange his plans.

The original idea was to have the wolf-shifters abduct Vaughn and Payton from the Llewelyn home to get rid of them, saving Vance for himself. But now
, Vaughn was staying at his apartment in Minneapolis, which was in a much more populated area. Plus, there was the female vampire to consider.

The cat-shifter slumped back into his seat.

Everyone loved the Llewelyns and considered Vance to be a great leader. The cat-shifter fucking hated Vance. Once he’d decided to eliminate Vance, he had known he would also need to get Vaughn out of the picture, seeing as the Pride would expect him to be the next alpha. Then, he’d realized he should get rid of Payton, too. He wouldn’t put it past the Pride to accept Payton as the new alphena and her future mate as the new alpha. And now that Vaughn had impregnated the vampire princess, the Pride might decide to save the position for one of his future children, appointing an alpha-by-proxy until the children were old enough. No, he couldn’t risk losing his chance to be alpha.

He had to kill all of Vance Llewelyn
’s family, including the vamp—all except for Lilith. Once Vance was gone, he would make the alphena his. He planned to lock her in the bedroom and make sure she knew whom she belonged to. He’d wanted to get a piece of that pussy since he was seventeen, and he wasn’t going to wait a minute longer. He might even get a cub from her. He rubbed his hands together at the idea of her belly swelling with his child.

Both times Lilith
had been pregnant, he’d wanted to rip the baby out of her womb. Just knowing it had been Vance’s seed growing in there, instead of his, had made him furious. She was supposed to be his. And once he got rid of Vance, she would be. She would lie down and spread her legs for him even if he had to make her. Eventually, she’d learn to like it, and even if she didn’t, he still would.

At this point, he wasn
’t sure what excited him more—the thought of getting between Lilith’s creamy thighs or offing Vance. He wanted to make the son of a bitch suffer, and just knowing he would be fucking his wife made life sweet. Maybe he’d fuck her before he killed Vance, so he could make Vance watch.

His laughter filled the room. By the time he was done with Vance, he would
be begging for death. He couldn’t wait to reduce that proud man to a sniveling pile of nothing. He adjusted the hard-on in his pants.
One step at a time
, he told himself.

He
picked up the phone to call Dwyer.

“
What?”

“
There was a meeting tonight,” he informed Dwyer.

“
And?”

He gritted his teeth.
The wolf-shifter continued to make things more difficult. “I found out Vaughn is going to keep working for his father, but he’s not planning to move back to the house yet. Plans have changed. You’ll have to grab the stupid vampire, too. I’m not sure when you’ll be able to grab them or Payton.” He sighed. “Damn it, Dwyer, I need them gone, dead and gone.”

“
Isn’t Payton taking classes at the U of M for her master’s degree? Aren’t some of those classes at night?”

“
Yeah. So?”

Dwyer scoffed.
“We could grab her from the campus at night. If we can’t take Vaughn and his female at the same time, Payton’s family might think it’s unrelated to being a Llewelyn. It would throw everyone off their game.”

He gritted his teeth.
Why didn’t I think of that?
“How did you know about Payton?”

“
I do my homework, cat-shifter.”

The fucking
dog
was too smart for his own good. Good thing—

“
By the way, it’s going to cost you double for the vamp.”

“
What?
” the cat-shifter spit out.

“
When we started this, I agreed to get rid of Vance’s spawn, which was fine by me since I have my own agenda. But now, you could potentially bring the wrath of the vampires down on the Pack. The King and Queen might be pussies, but I’ve seen their Guardians. It’s double or nothing, or we can just forget about the vamp.”

The cat-shifter kicked his desk, knocking over his favorite lamp.
Damn it, damn it, damn it
. He briefly considered overlooking the vamp whore and leaving her out of the whole mess.
No, I can’t risk it.

“
Fine,” he said through clenched teeth. “I’ll pay you double.”

He could practically hear the wolf-shifter smile.

“Good. Now, you only have a little over a month to figure out what you want us to do. We’re still out of here when the two months are up, and you’re paying either way,” he said before hanging up.

The cat-shifter jumped from his chair and threw his cell against the wall.

Stupid wolf-shifter
.
Stupid Vance
.
Stupid Vaughn
.
Stupid vampire bitch
.

His chest heaved in and out with the force of his anger. The only calming thought he had was
that this would be over soon and then it would all be his.

Damien came around the corner just as his father ended his phone call. Although wolf hearing wasn
’t as developed as a cat-shifter, it was better than any human, and he’d heard both sides of the conversation. He studied his father. With his white and charcoal gray hair that matched his wolf coat and crystal blue eyes, they actually looked more like brothers than father and son. The slight differences were Damien’s hair was dark gray with less white, and he had three more inches and an extra thirty pounds of muscle on his father.

I
nside though, they were nothing alike.

“
So, we’re into extortion now? And let’s not forget kidnapping and murder,” Damien said to his father’s back.

“
You wouldn’t understand.” Dwyer sighed. “You should have stayed gone, son. Your conscience is only going to get in the way.”

“
What’s to understand? You’re planning on committing several felonies—and for a cat-shifter, no less.”