Reina's Mate (7 page)

“
Is that what you meant by
fast?” she asked, nuzzling my ear.

I looked over at the clock.

Twenty minutes.

“
Not bad,” I managed,
trying to sound non-chalant.

She laughed, propping herself on her
forearms to look at my face.

“
Not bad, huh?” She
reached between us and stroked my soft cock, making my eyes flutter
shut.

“
Fine. It was amazing.
World changing. I am now your slave. Do with me what you will.” I
flung my arms out to the side dramatically.

Truth was, that wasn't far from how I
actually felt.

She laughed, her eyes on mine. I watched as
they looked down and darkened.

Her fingers came up to rub at the mark she'd
made on my shoulder.

“
I'd apologize for marking
you, but I wouldn't mean it.” Her eyes were dark with a
possessiveness that made me feel tingly all over.

I was so easy when it came to her.

“
I like it,” I said
honestly.

“
Good.” Her smile turned a
little predatory. “I don't want anyone thinking you might be
available.”

I twisted to look down at the clear ring of
teeth marks, along with the other, lighter marks she'd left.

“
I don't think that will
be a problem. I'll make sure to give you a matching mark next time.
Just so everyone's clear that you're taken too.”

She kissed me firmly.

“
I'd like
that.”

We cuddled for a few minutes. But one of the
downsides of being mated to an Alpha and being a Second was that we
couldn't take much time for ourselves.

We were cleaned up and out the door within
fifteen minutes.

After this was all over, I was kidnapping
Reina and we were spending a whole week in bed. I didn't care if I
had to hog tie her.

Chapter 5

Reina

The night was quiet when Griff and I finally
left my cabin.

If I had to guess, I would say Manny would
strike as quickly as possible, while I was still a little shaky in
my Alpha status.

Honestly, I was a little surprised that he
hadn't already.

As if on cue, the alarm sounded, a screech
that was sure to hit all of our sensitive ears.

We both stopped, waiting for the pattern
that would tell us where the breach was.

Northeastern corner.

We sprinted in that direction, keeping pace
with each other.

I heard the sound of others running in the
same direction and hoped people on duty were maintaining their
positions like I told them to.

We were nearing the area that was being
attacked when an orange ball of fire burst in front of us, a wave
of heat exploding out toward us, the trees swaying with the
impact.

“
Fuck!”

A bomb? Did Manny have no honor at all?

We started running faster. I tried not to
think about how many people could have been hurt or killed in that
explosion. We needed to get there as quickly as possible to try to
help the wounded.

The scene was chaotic, bodies strewn about,
fire catching here and there in the dry areas. Luckily it wasn't
too arid this time of year, so we were able to deal with the minor
fires quickly.

The medics showed up soon after with
stretchers, prioritizing the people into those they could help and
those they couldn't.

I went from body to body along with everyone
else, feeling for pulses. When we were done, there were way too
many with sheets covering them and far too few being carried away
in stretchers for further treatment.

The mood was grim as we surveyed the
scene.

Grim and on edge.

Why hadn't he struck us again while we were
distracted and shocked?

I looked over at Griffith. He shook his
head, shrugging his shoulders.

My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it
out to see there was a text from Sofia.

I'm really sorry. I'm turning myself over.
He said he would stop if I did. I can't have any more people on my
conscience.

I stared at the text in disbelief.

Turning, I sprinted in the direction of her
place, hoping I could stop her before she did something so
stupid.

Griff followed behind me, asking me what was
wrong.

I tossed my phone to him, the text still on
the screen as I ran.

“
Shit,” I heard him
breathe behind me.

Didn't she realize that he was just playing
with us? There was no way he would simply take her and go. His
pride had been hurt, his pack disrespected.

I burst out into the small clearing she'd
built a cottage in, the flowers all varying shades of gray in the
moonlight.

The back door was wide open, light spilling
out onto the ground. The house was quiet.

Slowing as I reached the door, I took a deep
breath, turning to follow her scent. It was intertwined with a
lighter one directly on her heels.

I jogged, following the trail into the
trees, my heart in my throat.

I wouldn't put it past Manny to simply kill
her as soon as he got his hands on her.

I followed the trail for a few minutes,
Griffith a silent shadow behind me, when I heard the sound of a
struggle up head.

Abandoning the scent trail, I moved forward
in a burst of speed, heading directly for the sounds.

There.

Sofia and someone much shorter than her were
on the ground.

Bar.

“
Bitch, listen to me! You
think this is going to accomplish anything?”

“
I have to try! Who knows
how many people are already dead?”

I watched Bar manage to push Sofia under her
again. She was shorter, but she had more muscle packed onto that
small frame.

“
Stop and think! He isn't
going to be content keeping you guarded until he has a use for you
anymore! He'll kill you to get at your sister! And then he'll take
his time tearing this pack apart, bit by bit. I've seen him do it
before.”

Sofia turned to look at me as I stepped
closer, going limp as she realized there was no way she'd be able
to escape now.

“
She's right. Don't fall
into this trap. He's fucking with our heads.”

Sadistic motherfucker.

“
How many?”

I looked away, not wanting to answer.

“
Reina! How
many?”

“
Seven,” I grated out,
feeling the grief trying to come up and choke me.
“Seven.”

I saw the blow hit her.

The grief quickly turned to fury.

“
We can't keep waiting
here. Waiting for him to do something. Not if he's abandoning all
honor in this fight. We need to hit him. Hard.”

She was right.

We needed to reevaluate.

“
Did he contact you? Is
that why you were running?”

“
Yes.” She jerked her chin
toward her phone, laying face up a few feet away from
her.

I picked it up, looking through the texts he
sent her.

The last one was from her, telling him that
she was coming.

She was supposed to meet him down by the
road in a few minutes.

“
Griff- get a team
together to go out to the road.” I showed him the text.

He skimmed it and nodded, taking out his
phone while he took off in the direction of the road.

I turned to Bar.

“
Watch her.”

“
Hey!” Sofia said
indignantly.

I ignored her as I turned to follow
Griff.

If we could just get Manny, this could all
be over here and now.

By the time we made it to the meeting point,
we'd missed the time Sofia was supposed to be there.

Griff and I stayed just in the tree line,
crouched down as we slowly scanned the area.

If I was them, I would wait under cover on
the other side of the road. Of course, they might have decided
Sofia had taken too long and left.

I was just starting to think that might be
the case when I saw a slight movement out of the corner of my
eye.

There. Three dark shadows, still and low to
the ground. One of them must have shifted.

I tapped Griff's arm.

He leaned in close to me.

“
Ten,” I breathed into his
ear.

He nodded.

Looking over to the bend in the road not far
away, he made a circling motion. I nodded.

I kept still as he texted the people he'd
recruited to circle around behind the waiting wolves, making sure
to shield the light from the screen so it wouldn't be seen.

We waited, keeping our eyes on those shapes.
They stirred a little a couple of minutes later, probably realizing
something must have gone wrong.

Too late, assholes.

I looked over at Griff and he nodded.

There was a flurry of sound from behind them
that had them whirling.

That was our cue.

We crossed the expanse of the road silently,
the exposed flatness causing the place between my shoulders to
itch.

But we made it to them without being taken
down.

They realized they were outnumbered and
surrounded.

I could see them weighing their options as
they looked around at our group.

There were six of us and three of them. And
none of us looked like light weights.

Come on. Time to surrender.

One of them growled low in his throat.

I braced myself as he sprang directly at
me.

Twisting to avoid the snap of his teeth at
my throat, I grabbed his front legs and flung him behind me. I
heard the snarls and grunts behind me that told me the other two
had followed this one's lead.

He lay there stunned for a moment and I used
the opportunity to pin him down with an arm wrapped around his
thick neck.

“
Yield or die.”

He struggled under me and I pulled my arm
back into his throat harder, cutting off his air.

He bucked some more before finally going
limp.

I looked up to see one wolf laying on the
ground, the stillness of death apparent even in the darkness. The
other had ducked her head submissively.

“
Change.”

I held on as the furry body underneath me
lost it's fur, forming into a muscled young man in his twenties.
His dark eyes were watchful as he took in the scene, his eyes
lingering on the body.

“
Tell your companion the
same.”

He looked at me with hard eyes before
nodding at the wolf.

She changed, revealing a woman about the
same age as him, her eyes anything but submissive, despite her
posture.

She quickly lowered them.

These two were trouble.

“
Restraints.”

Maggie stepped forward with specially
designed thick zip ties, binding the woman's hands behind her
back.

Griff came over to me and did the same to
the man.

“
You two have a choice.
Come over to our side or die. If you choose to join, you will be
quarantined until this fight is over. If you choose to die, we'll
do it now. If you decide to join and betray us later, you'll wish
you'd chosen a quick, clean death.”

Griff's eyes were a little startled as they
met mine.

But I couldn't afford to be soft. Not when
my whole pack was depending on me.

“
You have a minute to
choose. Think carefully.”

“
Death,” the woman said
firmly.

I let out a breath.

“
Are you sure?”

She looked at me derisively, spitting to the
side.

“
I refuse to follow a weak
Alpha.”

I sighed.

What a waste.

I nodded at Maggie.

Claws shot out of her hand and she stepped
forward behind the woman on her knees.

One clean swipe across her throat had her
blood spurting out in an arc in front of her. Her eyes widened in
surprise as she choked.

We watched as she bled out in front of us,
everyone grim faced.

Then she was gone, lying on the ground on
her side where she'd fallen.

I swallowed bile. I couldn't show any hint
of weakness in front of my people or the remaining man.

“
What about you? Do you
want to follow your friend?” Griff asked.

The man looked at the woman lying on the
ground, his eyes calculating.

“
Join.”

I nodded at Griff to haul him away.

There was no way this wouldn't come back to
bite me in the ass. But there was also no way I was killing the guy
needlessly now.

“
Bring the other two for
burial.”

Maggie nodded, gesturing the others to help
her.

I turned and walked away, needing a little
time to myself.

Griffith

I took the man over to the building that
housed safe rooms.

They were usually used for people who were
sick, when the physical safety of others required they were kept
apart.

The change wasn't always kind. A few
succumbed to a sickness of the mind that had them losing their
humanity and becoming wolves in truth. Sometimes they came back out
of it.

Sometimes they didn't.

The rooms were more than adequate for this
job.

Since the guy was naked, at least there was
no need to search him.

“
He needs to be held,” I
told Terrence.

Terrence was a massive bear of a man at six
and a half feet, built like a wrestler with slabs of muscle
covering his heavy frame.

“
Sure thing,” he said in
his deep rumble.

I watched as the man looked all the way up
at him, gulping a little.