Pride Unleashed (a Wolf's Pride novel, book 2) (29 page)

I steel myself.
“
I don’t know
.
”

“
Pride
—
”

The worry I hear in his voice tugs at my heart
.
Hot emotions erupt inside me
and all I want to do is wrap my arms around him and hold him tight,
sharing
bonds
and intimacies
like we used to do when we were in the woods.
I draw a sharp breath and fight the natural inclination to comfort my mate
, to accept his comfort in return
.

I know Logan is a giver
not a taker, a
boy who would go against his own best interests for his mate.
A
nd while I know he would die for me, he
would never allow me to die for him
.

“I have a new plan
.
Logan
,
” I rush out before I do something stupid, like act on my feelings
and brush my muzzle over his
.
“
A
nd if we want it to work, then you have to win this race and show no empathy toward me
.”

He gives a savage shake of his head, his pewter eyes enraged as he digs his talons into the ground.
His voice is deep, gravelly.
“
You know I can’t do that
.”

I
feel a moment of panic when I see the guard move toward us with the starter gun.
Logan is
a protective alpha, and letting his mate suffer goes
against everything he believes in, everything he’s been taught
.
S
o when I say the next words it’s
for
his own good
.
F
or
the greater good.

Steadying myself,
I jerk my head toward Stone and keep my voice deadpan when I say, “
Maybe you should take a lesson from him.
He’d never mess this up
.”

My words are cold, cruel
, delivering such a
brutal
punch Logan’s head comes up with a start,
and even though
I
don’t want to
hurt
him
, from the
intense
look in his
pewter
eyes, I know
my words
have
cut deep
.

I take a
deep
breath to center myself
and
search for a glimmer of understanding as I
angle my
head
.
“
He’s watching
and
waiting for one of us to give.
If we do, it gives him bargaining power and we can’t allow that to happen.
”

“
What’s your plan
,” he says without looking at me.

“
I
found Gem, Logan.
I found her,”
I hurry
out
and I can feel a sense of relief move through him as the guard takes his position.
“
She told me where I can find the master key.
I
’m going to
get it
tonight, then
we’re all getting out of here
.”

He
turns
to me, his eyes are
troubled yet trusting, but
before I can tell him anymore, the starter gun sounds.
Tuning out those around me, I
hit the ground running and when I notice he’s keeping pace, my insides twist with worry.

But he’s my mate I remind myself, one of the smartest and strongest wolves I know,
which means he’ll
do what I ask of him, even though
it goes against everything he believes in and
he’ll
undoubtedly
hate himself for it
.
Warmth moves through me
as I think about everything he’s done for me so far
.
Logan is an amazing boy, a remarkable mate,
a wolf who has so much respect for life and nature
and I couldn’t be more proud of him.

His
gaze
flicker
s
to mine and
when his warm familiar scent seeps under my fur and wraps around me like a protective blanket,
I s
pot
something
beneath the gray storm brewing in the depth of his eyes
.
Something warm and understanding
and
I know in an instant he
’s
read my thoughts.

Feeling almost embarrassed,
I turn back to the obstacle course and using every ounce of strength I possess
I scale t
he wall, clamp down hard on the thick rope and swing across the
soupy
mud pit
taunting me from
belo
w
.
Just because he’s the alpha, it doesn’t mean I’m going to make this easy for
him
.
I’m certainly not a girl to go down without a fight and
I plan to
challenge him until the end.

We run as equals, b
ut soon Logan takes the lead, his hard streamlined body and long powerful legs pushing past mine as I
slow on the
hur
d
les.
When the cannon sounds in the distance I
think about the master
, my failed plan
.
Even
though he’s a
human
, he’s fully aware of canine behavior and
he knows
that
an alpha would never let his mate go on scraps
.
B
ut I wonder if this win is enough to convince him
that we don’t have a bond
.

That we didn’t mate in Olympic Park.

In no time at all Logan finishes the course, but I come in close behind him.
We pace uneasily and take that time to regulate our breathing.
When I see Mario coming with our clothes, I take that time to shift back to human.

Mario steps up to
Logan first and
slaps a collar around his neck
.
Then without so much as sparing me a
look
,
he
leads him
toward the kitchen
so he can dine of the finest food.

Before
Logan
enters the house,
he
slants his head and
turns piercing blue eyes on me
.
The
distress I see on his face showcases his every emotion
and turns me inside out
.
I
twist away from him and meet Stone’s glance.
There
I see eyes that have
witnessed
so much carnage, so much bloodshed.

Eyes that have seen me
give myself to
another boy.

My heart clenches as my
gaze flips back and forth between the two
and
i
t
dawns on me
that while they’re both a
lphas,
t
hey’re
a
complete
contradiction to each other.

Logan and Stone might be
strong, powerful and fearless in the face of danger
but they h
ave completely different ways of
exerting their dominance
.
One respects my strength and independence, the other wants to be that strength and independence.
Perhaps it’s because one was raised in captivity and one wasn’t.

Either way, I’m not saying one way is right and the other is wrong.
I’m just saying…

Actually, I don’t know what I’m saying.

But I do know that Stone and I counted on each other for survival on the inside,
L
ogan and
I
on the outside.
What will happen between the three of us if we escape?

What will happen i
f we don’t?

I turn my head and give it a mental shake, refusing to go
down that path.
I can only deal with one roadblock at a time and
when I see the master closing the distance between us I know
I need to pull myself together and focus my thoughts. Because right now the only thing I
can
think about is survival.
But as he gets closer, my nape tingles
because I sense a change in him.
His face is hard.
His eyes
are
dark.
But there is a sense of satisfaction rolling through him that is impossible to miss.

What is happening?

Does he know about the missing key?

I usually only see him like this when he’s sending us out on a hunt, or
when he’s about to
pump a wolf with silver
.

I know he’s not about to send me out, which means…

When a
sudden breeze comes out of nowhere and howls around me
, a ba
d
feeling moves into my stomach
.
I sense
that
I might
very well
be at the end of my journey
.

I stand my ground and lift my chin up as
he and Lawrence approach at the same time.
The master’s dark c
ruel eyes move over me, a
slow
careful assessment
that makes my skin crawl
, as Lawrence slaps a collar and chain
around my neck
.

“
Hello
,
Pride.
”

I don’t say anything.
I can’t.
H
is large body dwarfs mine
and
I just glare up at him
, trying
not to choke on his foul cologne
as it pollutes the air and stings my
nose
.

Dressed in his casual attire, my
focus
flickers to his jeans, and I feel a little jolt of hope when I don’t see his master key.
But will I ever get the chance to
steal it
, or will
the master take this moment to
make an example out of me.
He folds his arms across his chest and rocks on his heels.

“There’s been a change of plans.”

My heart
stalls as I wait for him to elaborate, everything in my gut warning
me
something very bad is about to go down.

He slowly angles his head to see me
and I wonder what he’s about to throw at me next
.
He’s smiling but there is no
humor in his eyes or
softness in his words when he says,
“You were right when you said I can’t have two alphas in the courtyard, so I think I need to do
something
a
bout i
t
.
”

My stomach tightens and I feel bile pushing
into
my throat.
I growl and
in response
Lawrence
gives a hard yank on my chain to warn me.

“I need to restore the balance.”
The master
turns away to look at Logan
before he disappears inside.
The
n
he
scrubs his hand over his jaw before he
turns back to me
.
“So what I think I’ll do is pit the two alphas against each other.
A fight to the death.”

As the full weight of his words hi
t
me, I want to
scream
.
I want to protest.

I want to kill.

My heart seizes as I draw a savage breath.
“
No
,” I
cry
out
,
and
acting purely on animal instincts
I
hurl myself at him, but the chain around my neck tightens
and
Lawrence
jerks me back
, his lips twisting in a hard smile
.
I
wail as I l
and on the ground
with a
pounding
thud
.