Bleacke Blessings (Bleacke Shifters #10)

Chapter 1

Chapter One

Then

Donnel

“Did anyone follow you?” he asked when she materialized from out of the thick darkness. The new moon and the soupy mist tonight would help obscure them, muffling sounds, reducing sight even for shifters.

She slipped into his arms, kissing him. “No. Everyone was asleep.”

His heart raced every time she was in his arms.

It always did, even when just setting eyes upon her.

His mate.

He’d never felt about anyone the way he felt about her. She eclipsed all others in his heart and soul—and always would.

“Will you run away with me, then, love?” he whispered.

A soft sigh escaped her. “But what about…him?”

“Sod him,” he said. “We don’t need him. We can go wherever we want and start over.”

“But my parents? My family? If we all leave…” She looked into his eyes. “They will not leave. If I tell them I’m leaving, they’ll stop me. They’ll tell him. Then what will he do to all of us?”

“We don’t tell anyone,” Donnel insisted. “We leave, and we can make it look like something happened. A fishing accident, perhaps. They won’t even know we’re still alive!”

“But what will you do?” she asked. “We won’t have money.”

“I have enough to tide us over for a long time, and I can work with my hands,” he said. “I can provide for us. We could even travel to America. Please, come with me. We’ll finally be free of him! Claim me, and we can leave tonight.”

He’d been trying to convince her to leave with him for eight days, ever since they’d met and recognized their mate bond. Agony ate at his soul every time he had to say goodbye to her, and he knew she felt the same way.

But her fear of Faegan was even stronger than his own. Despite his father being the previous Pack Alpha, she was a shifter and he wasn’t. Donnel hadn’t approached his older brother about her because Donnel already knew Faegan’s answer—he’d want to mate her off to someone else, to another shifter.

Because all Faegan cared about was money. That, and that their pack matings be between shifters. He didn’t care who non-shifters mated with as long as they weren’t humans.

Or other shifters.

And Donnel didn’t know how much longer he could keep this a secret from his brother.

She cupped his face in her hands. “Donnel, I’m scared,” she whispered. “Yes, I feel a mate bond with you. But I don’t know if I can walk away from my family.”

He wished Hamish were here. If he was, Donnel knew he could convince him to help them run. Hamish hated their older brother as much as Donnel and their sister, Bryn, did. Bryn was in London with another cousin.

If both of his siblings were there, both of them Alpha shifters, he knew he could talk them into helping him finish Faegan off for good.

“At least claim me, love,” he begged, and not for the first time.

She pressed her forehead to his. “And it would destroy me to lose you. Even more than it already will.”

His heart sank. “Come with me to London. We can lose ourselves in the city, yet still be close enough that we can sneak back to visit your family.”

She wouldn’t meet his gaze. “They’ll still tell him, if he asks if I left. Then all it will take is one visit for them to alert him. And I couldn’t bear it if he harmed you.” She met his gaze again, the tears in her eyes destroying him.

“I can defend myself against him.”

“And then his loyalists will kill you and take revenge on my family.” She shook her head. “No. I cannot have that stain upon my soul.”

He pulled her tightly against him, burying his face in her hair. “And if he should die by other means?” he asked. “What then? Would you finally be with me?”

“He isn’t worth your soul, Don.” She tightly wrapped her arms around him. “Please, let us just be together for now, in the ways we can. Perhaps he will ignore us altogether.”

“Can I eventually talk you into leaving?” Although he already knew her answer.

“If my entire family would walk away from the pack, yes. But my father will not do that, and my mother would never leave him. They were loyal to your father, you know that.”

They spent less than an hour together, by his reckoning, before she felt she needed to return lest her absence be noted.

He walked with her as far as she would let him, which was not far from the path to her family’s small cottage on the pittance of acreage Faegan allowed them for themselves.

Then he slowly made his way home, already trying to formulate a plan to kill his older brother.

He was a rancid boil of a man. Donnel suspected he might have had a hand in their father’s death last year. It wouldn’t shock him in the least, and even Hamish had speculated as much to him and Bryn when their brother wasn’t around.

Donnel wandered the countryside, reluctant to return home and eventually knowing he needed to. If for no other reason than he was hungry and exhausted.

And felt sick at heart.

What he didn’t expect, however, was to find Faegan awake and sitting in front of the fire in the living room with a glass of scotch in hand.

“There you are,” Faegan said, his sourly slick tone seeping under the edges of Donnel’s soul and sickening him. “About time you returned home.”

“I didn’t realize I had a curfew.” Donnel walked into the living room. “I am an adult, after all.”

Faegan stood and approached. “You should have a curfew. Carrying on in secret with a shifter bitch the way you are.”

Donnel’s heart froze. “What do you mean?”

“I can smell her on you. And your lips are swollen from kisses. Unless you’ve been puckering up to some sow’s asshole, it adds up.”

“Fuck you.” Donnel tried to push past him, but Faegan stepped in his way.

“You don’t get to mate with a shifter bitch,” Faegan growled. “I told you that when I took over from Father.”

“He would’ve let me.”

Faegan sneered. “But he’s not here, is he?”

“No,” Donnel gritted out through his teeth. “He’s not.” Donnel had his suspicions about that, too, but kept them to himself.

“And I’m the Pack Alpha. Unless you’re saying you wish to challenge me?”

Donnel glared at him, his fists clenching, but he knew he couldn’t take Faegan in a remotely fair fight. Faegan wouldn’t hesitate to shift and rip his throat out before Donnel could even turn to run.

Outside, Donnel heard a coach and what sounded like a two-horse team roll up.

But it was the cruel smile on Faegan’s face that truly chilled him.

“Ah, there she is,” Faegan said.

“There’s who?”

Faegan had started walking toward the front door. “My new mate.”

“What?”

Faegan turned and glared. “Thank you for finding her for me. From the first time I scented her on you, I suspected she was just what I was looking for.”

“No!” Donnel ran toward Faegan, but Faegan pulled a dagger.

“Is she worth dying over?” Faegan asked as he drained his glass and set it on the hall table. “Give me a reason not to slit your throat. Hamish isn’t here to protect you, and neither is Bryn. Have to admit, the timing worked out perfectly.”

Donnel heard the crunch of gravel and footsteps approaching. Before they could knock, however, Faegan opened the door. From where Donnel stood, he couldn’t see outside.

Then they walked in. Faegan flashed Donnel a smarmy grin. “Right this way, please.”

Hyacinth, looking terrified and still wearing the clothes she’d worn when he’d seen her—and his scent still upon her—entered the hall.

She’d been crying, her eyes red and nose puffy.

An older man Donnel assumed was her father followed, carrying a small, battered satchel, and two of Faegan’s men brought up the rear.

“Ah, Eldwin,” Faegan said. “Did she give you much trouble?”

“None, sir.” The man glared at her. “Thank ye for not punishin’ her for her wanderin’ eye.” He pointed at Donnel. “We’d be havin’ serious words had ye sullied her.”

Donnel started to storm over, but Faegan’s men grabbed him while Faegan smiled and Hyacinth begged them not to hurt him, which broke Donnel’s heart even more.

Faegan stroked the backs of his fingers down Hyacinth’s cheek.

“You’ll do, girl. I never believed in mate bonds anyway.

Useless, weak emotions.” He pulled a leather pouch from his pocket.

From the way it jingled when he handed it to Eldwin, Donnel knew it contained a considerable amount of coin. “Good doing business with you, sir.”

“And the property?” Eldwin asked.

“My man will be over in the morning to give you the deed to the new property and house. I already have someone ready to take over your old one.”

The man nodded and tipped his hat to Faegan. “Much obliged, sir.”

“No worries. Do you need a lift home?”

“No, sir. I’ll walk.” He wagged a finger at Hyacinth. “Behave yerself, girl, and mind yer place. Yer damned lucky to be matin’ with the Pack Alpha.”

Donnel shouted and struggled, but Faegan’s men, both shifters, had him securely pinned.

Eldwin jabbed that same finger at Donnel. “Yer lucky I don’t rip yer throat out meself when he offered to let me.”

He left.

Faegan looked at Hyacinth. “Let’s go, girl. It’s your wedding night.”

“No!” Donnel screamed. “You bloody bastard!”

In a flash, Faegan was in front of him, the knife pressed against Donnel’s throat.

Hyacinth screamed, pulling on Faegan’s arm. “No! Please don’t hurt him!”

Faegan’s cold grin finished icing over Donnel’s soul. “Then do you submit to me as your mate?”

More tears ran down her face. “Please, let him go! Don’t harm him! Let him live, and I’ll submit!”

“Hyacinth, no!” Donnel yelled.

Faegan grabbed her, one arm across her throat and the other hand pressing the knife along her cheek. “Maybe I should blind her, hmm? Bitch doesn’t need eyes to breed. Then I never have to worry about her straying, do I?”

“No!” Donnel screamed as Hyacinth squeezed her eyes shut and tried to shrink from the metal blade. “Don’t hurt her, you bastard!”