Chapter 39
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
GARRETT
“He’s your what?” I’m not sure I heard the male correctly.
“Ronin was my fiancé.” Her voice comes out small, as if she’s afraid to speak up. I don’t know if it’s shock, fear because she’s in the presence of a bunch of white wolves—Drake included—or because this male who says she belongs to him has some type of legitimate hold on her, other than mere words.
“Still your fiancé,” Ronin corrects her. “Which is why you’re coming with me.”
“She’s not going anywhere,” I say, but then my female—at least I thought she was—pushes away from me.
“I don’t belong to either of you, so stop talking about me as if I’m a piece of meat.”
“You’re welcome to stay here, female,” Drake pipes in, a huge grin on his face.
“This is not the time or place,” Hayden interrupts, scolding all of us.
“Quiet, Hayden.” Drake casually leans back against a tree. “This is the most fun I’ve had in a while.”
“You need to get out more,” Hayden says dryly.
“This isn’t a game,” I say to Angel, a growl riding my words. A growl that should be for the asshole shifter who thinks she belongs to him. Fuck, my growl comes out aimed at her instead. “Ignore my wolf, but don’t ignore what this male has done to you.”
“You don’t understand,” she says, her focus solely on me.
“He kidnapped you, Angel. Why do I have to keep repeating that fact?” I cup her face, tilting it gently to see the scrapes there, the ones that match her shoulder. “Look at what he did to you. That’s not something a male does to his female.”
“I didn’t touch her. She jumped out of a moving car on the highway.”
“What? Angel, tell me that’s not true. You could have been killed.”
“You told me to do whatever it takes to survive.”
“Did he threaten you?”
She shakes her head. “He planned on keeping me from ever seeing you again.”
I swallow, not sure what to say to that.
Just picturing her jumping out of a moving car has me reeling. I never should have encouraged her to work in supplies, where she’d have to leave the safety of the pack.
Not seeing Angel, not touching her…. Fuck, nothing short of a bullet to my brain would destroy me more than losing her.
My wolf retreats deeper inside me. He’s finally accepting what I’ve known for some time.
I can’t put her under glass on a shelf, hidden from the world, where she’d be safe.
My Angel needs shifters around her. A pack.
It’s the fear I’ve had since I rescued her… being with me would isolate her. Keeping her close would ensure her safety but destroy her spirit. It’s a no-win situation.
“I think we need to continue your training. Risk and threat assessment. How not to give in to impulse and fear.”
She winces. Ass that I am, I’m scolding her, and not in private either.
I run a finger down her cheek, carefully avoiding the scrapes. “I’m sorry. Just don’t… don’t do that again. I will always find you, my Angel, no matter how long it takes. But risking your life… there’s no coming back from death.”
“The dog has a point,” Ronin says.
“Don’t call him that,” Angel snaps.
“I said retriever, Idahoan mutt,” Drake cuts in. “Are you shifters up north hard of hearing? That would explain how your pack fell so easily.”
“You know nothing of my pack,” Ronin shouts at Drake.
“I know they’re hurting for brains and strength if they sent you and one other to retrieve a single female and you couldn’t even manage that.” Drake glances at Hayden. “Ask my brother about weakness. He should have been alpha here and now he’s second for a lesser pack.”
Hayden doesn’t say anything, merely wears that frown that hasn’t left his face since we crossed into Novak territory.
Earlier even. I never realized how hard it would be for him to return here.
And he did it for Angel… for me. I have a flicker of sympathy for Ronin, trying to keep what’s left of his pack together, trying to reclaim the female he thinks is his.
“What the fuck is the matter with you?” I address Ronin. “You fucking kidnapped her, put her in that position of risking her life.”
“She wouldn’t come with us on her own.”
“You should have respected her wishes. No, of course you wouldn’t. You don’t care about her, not as anything more than being a female to claim.”
“You know nothing about me or our pack, which is where she belongs.”
“That’s up to her.” I look at Angel. “You don’t have to decide today. This is your life, your choice.”
Ronin’s glare lands fully on Garrett. “Wrong as can be, dog.”
My wolf holds me back from marching forward and grabbing the obnoxious prick by his throat. Angel’s shaking. She’s the priority here.
“She decides,” I state succinctly, throwing a growl in to let the fucker know I won’t tolerate him pressuring her.
“Angelina,” Hayden says, calmly, “Garrett’s right.
This is your choice. You’re welcome to return with us to Damien’s pack, or leave with Ronin.
” He glances at his brother. “Fuck, I can’t believe I’m saying this…
or I can arrange for Drake’s people to get you settled somewhere else, far from here. He has a wide network of shifters.”
Drake’s eyes shine as a grin crosses his face. “It’ll cost you, Hayden.”
“It always does,” Hayden replies, with annoyance.
“I…don’t know where to go. I’m not ready to return to my old pack. But I don’t want to be cut off from them either.”
“Lina, don’t let these shifters warp your mind more than they already have. If you don’t return with me now, you’ll never have another chance. You’ll never see your friends or cousins—”
“Cousins?” Angel’s voice cracks. “I thought my entire family was dead. Who survived?”
The prick’s mouth curls at the end. “I’ve said too much already.”
“You can’t just tease me with that fact and not tell me.”
“That’s exactly what he’s doing,” I jump in. “You can’t believe a thing he says.”
Ronin ignores me, his eyes locking onto her. “Come home, Lina. See your family and pack. Return to those who know and love you.”
“Why can’t you share the location with me? Just me? I’d never tell anyone, if that’s what it takes. I wouldn’t risk my family.”
“And I can’t risk these assholes finding us. You’re either one of us… or one of them.”
“You’d really cut her off?” I ask, in disbelief.
“We’re not your enemy,” Hayden says.
“Until the WSSO captures one of your shifters and he gives up our location to save himself or his own pack.”
Angel approaches Ronin, a softness to her I haven’t seen in a while. My insides knot as it looks like she’s made her choice. I don’t know how to stop this, to keep her from leaving with him. I would never force her to stay where she doesn’t want to be, but… I love her. I can’t lose her.
Her hips sway as she walks toward him. For a moment, I think she’s going to rise up on her toes and kiss him. I force my clenched hands behind me, to keep my claws from emerging.
Ronin’s gaze drags over her, taking in every sway as his body eases and a grin surfaces. The fucker throws me a look that says, ‘she’s mine, asshole.’
My stomach drops as my wolf bites me, objecting to him, to this whole fucking mess. He doesn’t push me to move, to pull her behind my body where she’ll be safe. She’s made her position quite clear.
“These so-called assholes,” Angel begins, her softness quickly turning cold.
“…rescued me from the WSSO when they could have easily abandoned me. They risked their lives for me and then they invited me into their pack, and welcomed me as if I belonged. I doubt that was easy for them, considering what I’d been doing for the WSSO. ”
“What precisely was she doing?” Drake asks.
“Don’t answer that,” Hayden cautions.
“They used me to lure other shifters,” she answers Drake, with no fear.
Drake’s face grows serious for the first time. “A new tactic. I want to know more.”
“That’s all we know at this point,” Hayden says. “They’d position her in the middle of the woods and wait for males shifters to investigate her scent. We nearly walked into the trap ourselves, but she warned us off.”
“As I told Damien, they had guns trained on you, but orders not to engage groups of shifters. Only lone wolves, shifters that no one would miss. And if I didn’t do precisely as they said, I’d receive the first bullet.”
“That the reason we don’t go out in small numbers any more. None of us…” Hayden glares at me. “We don’t know how or why they pick the locations they do, but using a female to lure males has been working for them, until Garrett rescued Angel. It’s possible they’ve found another female by now.”
“How did your team or these lone shifters fail to smell the humans if they were so close?” Drake asks.
“We’re still working on that. We’ll share any intel as we get it.”
“Novak,” Ronin addresses Drake. “I’ll share the intel my pack has gathered if you allow me to leave here with my female.”
“What intel could you possibly have? You’re from a dead pack.”
“Enough of us survived the WSSO attack. After we burned our dead, we sent scouts out to search for missing shifters, like Angelina. We thought she was lost to us, but eventually we heard rumors of a shifter matching her description luring lone wolves for the WSSO. Recently, we learned of a breech and escape from the facility where she was held. Since then, the number of shifters disappearing declined. We figured she was the one who escaped. The trail led south, to southwest Colorado.”
“Wait….” Angel holds up both hands as she shakes her head. “When precisely did you find out where I was?”
“Our scouts located you six weeks after the raid on our pack.”
“Ten months? You’ve known for over ten months where I was… and you never tried to rescue me?”
“The facility was too secure. We couldn’t risk losing more shifters.”
“Couldn’t risk losing more…” Angel’s voice falls off. As her eyes find me. I want to hold her, but she’s shaking her head, backing away from everyone, looking as lost as when I first found her.
Her gaze drifts from me to Ronin. “Did you at least try?”
“No.”