Thrown to the Wolves (Black River Pack Book 3) (3 page)

“Where are we going?”

Although I was careful to speak in a soft tone and a manner that shouldn’t have implied any disrespect, his head whipped to the side so he could level me with a glare. Then he narrowed his eyes, and a mocking smirk tilted his lips before answered.

“To your new mate.”

“Mate?” I repeated, stunned by his reply.

“Yes,” he snapped. “One you’re damn lucky is willing to take you since you’re bear and not wolf.”

“Who?” I asked, barely able to form words since my mind was reeling at the news that he expected me to accept a stranger as my mate.

“The alpha of the Lyall pack.”

Not a stranger, then, but I wished he were. I’d always tried to avoid the fierce wolf, who ruled his pack with an iron fist, when he’d visited because the way he looked at me worried me. There had been a burning lust in his eyes from the first time we’d met. Even though I was only fifteen back then, I’d known he wanted me. The frank carnality in his gaze had been unmistakable, and it’d freaked me the hell out. The fascination he held for me wasn’t mutual, and I’d spent three years hoping I would find my mate so he wouldn’t try to come for me.

I’d heard the rumors about his brutality and knew he was even worse than the man who’d raised me. Wyatt Lyall had lived too long without a mate, and it had made him almost feral. His actions were more wolf than man, and he had no empathy for others. If you crossed him, you did so knowing that your punishment would be vicious. His pack took what they wanted, when they wanted, and from whomever they wanted. They were feared by most, and I never understood why my father was willing to work with them except for the fact that they paid well. He liked to live large and had never figured out a way to do it honestly.

“I won’t take him as my mate,” I whispered softly—but not quietly enough to hide my resistance from my father.

“You will,” he insisted. “Of that I have no doubt because the Lyall alpha won’t accept any other possibility.”

“You’ll really let him force me into a mating I don’t want?” I asked disbelievingly. Even though he’d been horrible to me throughout the years, I couldn’t accept that he would go to these lengths to get me out of his home.

“Yes. Without even blinking an eye,” he confirmed. “Even if I had a choice, I would still make the same decision.”

“A choice?”

“Don’t know why, but that man has been plotting to take you as his mate from the moment he first saw you. Until a few weeks ago, I might have hesitated at forcing you,” he admitted gruffly. “Wyatt forced me into a corner. Lent me so much money that I have no hope of ever paying him back. Made me an offer too good to refuse: I bring you to him and he forgives my debt. All of it.”

“You’re trading me for money?”

He chuckled darkly. “Hell, if he’d waited a few more weeks, I would have handed you over for free. Turned out to be a fucking fantastic deal for me. I guess the joke’s on him.”

His betrayal was hard enough for me to take without knowing how much joy my situation was bringing him. I knew there wasn’t anything I could say to change his mind.

As we drove closer to Lyall territory, my only hope was to do something drastic. Desperate times called for desperate measures, and I’d never been in a more dangerous situation in my life. My father was stronger than I was as man and faster than I was as wolf. He had years of experience fighting in wolf form, whereas I’d shifted only once. Once we reached our destination, I would have no hope of escape. If Wyatt got his hands on me, he’d never let me go, so it was either now or never.

The tree-lined road seemed deserted. We hadn’t passed another car for at least fifteen minutes. When I glanced over at my father, I realized he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt. Many shifters didn’t bother with them because the odds of one of us dying in a car crash were slim. My father was especially arrogant, so he never used one. Since I had always been smaller than other children, my mom had worried about my health, so she’d always made me wear mine. It was a habit that might save my life now.

Glimpsing at the dashboard, I checked to see how fast we were going. My father’s preference for speeding was another factor in my favor—we were going eighty miles per hour. At this rate, it wouldn’t take much for me to cause a crash. Breathing deeply, I gathered my strength and reached out for my bear. It was the first time I’d tried to link with the beast that lived inside me in years, but she responded swiftly by sending a rush of power into my veins. My nails lengthened into claws that pierced my jeans as I flexed my fingers against my legs. With the curve in the road coming up, I knew that the time to act was now.

Moving swiftly, I dug my claws into his leg and shoved it down so his foot pressed onto the accelerator pedal. His roar of pain rang in my ears as his hand gripped my arm to tear me away. When I let him move me, I turned in my seat to grab the wheel with my other hand. Yanking hard, I sent the car hurtling into the trees and braced for the impact.

****

I wasn’t sure how long I’d been knocked out before the sound of footsteps woke me. My breathing was labored, and the pain in my chest meant I’d probably broken a few ribs. As I took stock of the rest of my body, I realized the impact had done more damage than I had expected. If I hadn’t been so weak from my father’s imprisonment over the last few weeks, it might not have been that bad, but having gone so long with barely any food or water had worn me down. Nevertheless, I’d done what I’d had to do to get away from him.

A quick glance around the car told me that my father had fared worse than I had in the crash since his body was sprawled across the hood of the car. Blood dripped from the broken glass of the windshield. With as bad as his condition was, I figured I might have an hour or two head start.

“Hey. You okay?” the stranger whose footsteps had woken me asked from outside the passenger’s door.

He had the look of a wolf—dark hair and eyes paired with a tall frame and an athletic build. There was a jagged scar running along his forehead that should have made him look scary, but the concern in his eyes shone through. When I nodded, he started to walk around the car so he could check on my father.

“No,” I warned. “Leave him.”

“Just wanted to see if he was going to be okay, little girl,” he reassured me.

“No time,” I murmured as I jerked on my seatbelt, frantic to escape the car. “Need to get out of here.”

My desperation must have been obvious, because he opened the door and cut the belt off with a knife he’d pulled from his front pocket. I froze when I saw it, and my eyes didn’t leave the blade until he’d placed it back in his pants.

“I’m not gonna hurt you,” he said, raising his hands in front of him with his palms facing me in a sign of surrender. “I just want to help.”

Although my mom had taught me at an early age not to trust strangers, she’d also walked away knowing that my father was going to hand me over to a madman. I guessed it was time for me to stop following her lead and make my own decisions.

“Thank you for helping me,” I whispered, my stomach heaving as I stepped out of the car.

Pain rolled through my body, and it took everything I had inside me to stop myself from passing out. Even though I was scared to trust anyone, I couldn’t stop myself from leaning heavily against the stranger, who had appeared at the perfect time to lend assistance. I was at the end of my rope, and if I didn’t reach out for help, I was going to fail. Failure right now meant death—or a fate worse than it.

“You’re welcome, sweetie,” he murmured. “I’m glad I’m here to help.”

“But why?” I wondered aloud, unaccustomed to kindness from family, let alone a stranger.

“Well,” he drawled, “I have a daughter. Or had. I haven’t seen her in almost three years now, and I can only hope that, if there was a time she needed help, someone else was there to lend her a hand.”

I looked at him suspiciously, disappointed to hear he was estranged from his daughter after the way the man I had called Father for so many years had so easily discarded me.

“Why haven’t you seen her in so long?”

“Because I trusted the wrong people to keep her safe,” he muttered. “And she paid the price for my mistake.”

He seemed so angry on her behalf, and it made me feel more comfortable. He reminded me of the fathers of the friends I’d had growing up—the ones who treated their daughters like they were precious and should be protected at all costs. Not like the man who had raised me.

“Who did you trust and how did your daughter pay for it?”

“My alpha,” he responded, which wasn’t the answer I’d expected. Wolves were supposed to trust their alphas. It was part of the bond of the pack.
If you can’t trust your leader or your parents, then who can you trust?
“I was injured protecting his son in an ambush. My mate gave her life trying to save his, but neither of them made it. When my alpha should have been watching over my daughter while I healed from wounds that nearly killed me too, he kicked her out of our pack.”

My heart went out to his daughter. I knew what it was like to feel like you were alone in the world with nobody to turn to.

“Why?” I asked. “What did she do?”

He sighed deeply before answering. “I just don’t know,” he said, shaking his head back and forth. “I swear my baby girl would never do anything to betray our pack. She might not have made many close friends growing up because she always kept a wall up around other people, but she was the sweetest girl in the world. When we left for our trip, she was safe and sound in our home. When I finally made it back, she was just gone.”

“Where did she go?”

“That’s the million-dollar question, sweetie,” he replied. "She waited outside of town for a month, most likely hoping I’d come back. Then it was like she’d vanished without a trace. Like she was trying to wipe her slate clean and start fresh. I’ve tried to piece together what happened to her after that, but it hasn’t been easy because our alpha called it a shunning and there wasn’t anyone who was willing to answer my questions and risk his wrath.”

“A shunning?” I gasped. I’d never met anyone who knew a wolf who had been shunned by their pack. It rarely happened because a wolf had to do something heinous to deserve that kind of punishment.

“Yeah. That motherfucking bastard wasn’t happy with kicking her out of the only home she’d ever known on the same day her mom died,” he growled. “Even though he knew I wasn’t going to make it back for months because I’d almost died that day too.”

“Why did she leave before you came back?” I asked, my curiosity piqued enough that it temporarily took my mind off my pain.

“I don’t know,” he answered in a tortured whisper. “I just can’t think of any good reason why she wouldn’t wait for me, and nobody could tell me what made her go after she’d waited so long.”

“And you’ve been searching for her ever since?”

He nodded in response. “She’s my baby girl. I’d move heaven and earth for her.”

That right there, the words I’d have given anything to hear either of my parents say, earned him my trust.

“Not all fathers feel the same,” I replied with a glance at my own, who was still sprawled across the hood of the car. “He was taking me to a dangerous pack to mate with their alpha whether I wanted to or not. I might not be his blood, but he raised me as my own since I was born, and he was ready to literally throw me to the wolves to save his own ass.”

“Motherfucker,” he spit out before he turned to glare at my father. “Come with me. I can’t leave you here to fend for yourself.”

“The wolf who wanted to mate me may look for me,” I warned. “If I come with you, I might put you at risk.”

“I’ve spent years looking for my baby girl. I finally found out where she is, and there’s no way in hell I’m going to go to her knowing I was leaving you out here like this. I wouldn’t be worthy of my daughter if I left you knowing the danger you’re in. Besides which, from what I’ve heard about the pack she mated into, I’ll have plenty of help protecting you.”

My heart soared with hope at his offer. “Are you sure?”

“Damn straight! Elias Reve to the rescue, sweetie.”

Surprised laughter bubbled up in me. This man was willing to put his neck on the line for me in a way my own family would not and he didn’t even know my name.

“I’m Annora Channing.”

Chapter 3

Parker

“I thought you were the best for shit like this?” I asked, the annoyance that rang in my tone coming from the frustration I’d been feeling in the weeks since Eliza shared her dream with me.

“You’re damn lucky I’m willing to help you at all, pup,” Carrick growled into the phone. “If your dream-walker hadn’t said the girl was bear, I wouldn’t have agreed in the first place. But there’s no guarantee she’s right and no way in hell I’m gonna put up with shit from you when I’m doing you a goddamn favor.”

“One I’m paying you well to do,” I countered before taking a deep breath to try to calm the fuck down. Pissing Carrick off wasn’t going to accomplish anything other than possibly alienating him. “Shit, man. Sorry. I don’t mean to take it out on you, but my mate is out there somewhere. She’s in danger and I have no way to find her.”

“I get that, and we’re doing everything we can to find Elias. His daughter saw them together in her dream, so if we can pin him down, then we should be able to locate her too,” he explained. “Last town we traced him to, we were only days behind.”

As I listened to Carrick describe the latest in his search, I jotted down notes in my notebook. Once he was done, I flipped through the pages and searched for something—anything—that would tell me where they were. Then it hit me.

“They’re heading this way,” I murmured in amazement.

“What do you mean?”

“I need to talk to Eliza, but I could swear she’s mentioned a couple of these towns before,” I explained. “And if I’m right, then odds are Elias is tracking his daughter.”

“Call her now,” he ordered. “Get me a list of all the places she stayed in chronological order. If we can figure out where he’s headed, then we can head there next and wait until he shows.”