4. Eye For An Eye
1712 Words
SHADE
Sleeping.
Avery was sleeping and snoring, like… she hadn’t just been kidnapped. Courtney let out her millionth sigh in two hours. She would take every opportunity to show how vehemently she disapproved of this.
“Stop, Court,” I said with a wince, dragging a hand down my face. “You’re getting on my nerves.”
She sighed again. It was her favorite pastime lately, second only to questioning every godsdamned thing I did.
“I don’t know about any of this, Shade.”
I glanced at her through the rearview mirror. Her lips were pursed, arms crossed like she was trying to keep her opinion caged. But when had Courtney ever not spoken her mind?
“She’s not what I expected,” she added after a beat. “Just look at her."
“She’s not supposed to be here for tea and sympathy,” I muttered.
"This doesn't feel like justice, Shade. This is cruel. Here I thought we were better than that.”
I tightened my grip on the steering wheel, jaw clenching. “And I thought you were on my side.”
“I am on your side,” she snapped. “But not when you're letting grief do the thinking. Amelia deserves revenge, but not this mess.”
“She’s a part of it,” I growled. “She is Kylen’s mate, his Luna. She watched as he destroyed another woman."
“Or maybe she didn’t know,” Courtney said. “Did you ever think of that?”
Silence stretched between us. No, I hadn’t, not really, but I didn't have to. I knew the truth.
“She’s not innocent,” I muttered.
“She might not be guilty either.”
I turned to look at the woman we kidnapped. Avery Becker. Mate of Kylen Becker, asshole extraordinaire.
She looked smaller than I expected. Smaller and fragile. Like she would break if you touched her too hard. One wrong word and she’d shatter into pieces that no one could put back together.
I’d imagined Kylen’s mate would be sharp-eyed, sly and cunning, with no heart--she had to be, for everything she had done to Amelia. A spoiled queen playing victim. But the woman sleeping next to me, her brows furrowed even in sleep, her body tight like she was in a fight…
Moonlight slipped through the trees as we drove, casting silver across her face, and something tightened in my chest. Something I didn’t want to name. It was weird, the way my body came alive with her touch, but I wouldn’t… I couldn’t think about it.
I shook it off, I shook my feelings off, even as my wolf paced inside me, restless.
“Did you feel it?” Kai asked, his voice a soft whimper.
“No.”
“You’re lying,” Kai whispered.
“I’m not.”
I shook my head, knowing very well what he was talking about. That spark… when my body moved against her back in the woods, when my co.ck came alive with just a press of her softness and warmth. I wasn’t a s*x-addicted maniac, but this woman… a look in her eyes made me feel different, like I would snap if I couldn’t touch her, couldn’t…
F.uck.
Kai growled low, more disappointed than angry. “There’s something in her that calls to me.”
“Shut up,” I muttered. “She already has a mate and that mate is a f*****g murderer,” I reminded, more to myself than to him. “And she’s not here for anything more than punishment. She’s a tool, Kai. Nothing more. She can’t be anything more.”
I needed to remember the way Amelia was killed and castaway, I needed to remind myself that this woman was a part of that ploy. She was Kylen’s accomplice.
“You keep saying that,” Kai replied, calm now. “But… Courtney’s right,” Kai added. “This is stupid. You want revenge, then take it. Hurt Kylen. Not her.”
I ignored the wolf, trying so hard not to think about the woman next to me… to look at her, to feel things.
Avery let out a long sigh, her arms tightening around herself.
“She looks relieved,” Courtney said quietly, again, like she couldn't stop herself. “Like this—being here, being kidnapped—is better than where she was before.” Courtney’s voice was pensive. “Why was she alone? Why wasn’t she with the pack, celebrating whatever they were celebrating? No one was there, except the guards.”
I didn’t respond, but my thoughts began to race. Courtney was right.
I hadn’t thought about that. Our plan was simple, to take the Luna, but why was the Luna even there when no one else was? And the two guards, was they protecting her or keeping her in the room?
“Maybe Kylen’s an even bigger asshole than we thought,” Courtney murmured. “Think about it, Shade. There was no reason she should be there, when no one was. Maybe she’s innocent in all of this, and…”
That pulled me out of my thoughts.
“You remember what Amelia said, don’t you?” I asked, my body tightening in anger.
Courtney was silent for a beat. “Yeah. I remember.”
“She said the Luna told her that she would get justice and then… locked her in a room,” I continued, eyes fixed on the road ahead.
“Said she knew what was happening, and helped Kylen. They killed the pup together.”
“I remember everything,” Courtney said, her voice a low growl. “Amelia was my friend, but… that woman sleeping next to you?” She nodded toward Avery, her eyebrows pinched together. “She doesn’t look like someone who’d poison a pregnant wolf. Even if the pup was her mate’s.”
“Looks can be deceiving,” I said flatly. “And we can’t second-guess our decision, not after we have come this far. We’re doing this for Marcus,” I said.
“We lost Amelia. And Marcus hasn’t been the same since,” Liam said, his voice low, broken, worried for his mate. “We must do this for Marcus.”
Marcus was the Beta of Duskridge, and Liam’s mate. He was one of my closest friends and I loved him just as much as I loved my brothers.
When he found Amelia’s dead body, it changed him completely. Amelia deserved justice. Kylen took her from us, and this woman… this deceptively innocent-looking woman helped him poison Amelia.
I looked at her again, curled up, asleep like the chaos of her world had finally stopped spinning. Like, for the first time in a long time, she could breathe.
She looked relaxed, relieved, and I…
I shook my head as I parked the car in front of my pack.
“Here we are. There really is no going back,” Courtney said pulling the door open. “You bring her in. I’ll go inform the pack.”
“Okay,” I said as I watched Amelia and Liam walking toward the massive building.
“You… wake up,” I said, turning to look at her. Her lips were parted and she looked like she was dreaming.
Her brown hair was in a mess, but even now… she looked breathtakingly gorgeous.
She stirred in her sleep, but didn’t even move.
I shook her a little, and she grumbled, slapping my hand away with a frown.
“Wake up.”
She jerked up, eyes wide, and the fear in her eyes receded when she met my eyes. Her arms went up, like she was defending herself from something dangerous as her wild green eyes frantically looked around before they fell on me.
“Oh, it’s just you!” Her body went relaxed, and she put her hands down with a sigh.
Just me?
Who did she expect, and if her reaction to her kidnapper was just you, who was the monster she truly feared?
She yawned and stretched, running her fingers through her hair, messing it up further.
“Are we here?” she asked, looking outside the windows. “This place is massive,” she said, opening the door and getting out, like she was here as a guest, and not a a prisoner.
This woman was so f*****g strange, and she was giving me a whiplash.
I got out as she stood there, eyes closed, taking deep breaths.
“Fresh air… it smells heavenly.”
“Let’s go.”
“You know kidnapping is still illegal, right?” she said with a shrug.
“You want to go back?” I asked, studying her face. She went pale, and then gave me another shrug.
“I am hungry. Let’s go.”
She walked ahead, like she was the one who took me here, and not the other way around. Head high, back straight, hips swaying like she hadn’t just been tossed in the back of an SUV two hours ago.
Like she owned this place already.
And Goddess help me, I looked, and I craved, for more than a touch.
My co.ck tightened much to my displeasure.
Her ass filled out those dirty jeans like sin itself. Tight, round, just enough give in her step to make my wolf growl and my jaw clench. She had no business being that damn beautiful, not when she looked like a mess.
“This is going to be interesting,” Kai smirked, voice low in my head, as I rubbed my hand against my tightened co.ck.
What the fu.ck was happening to me?
She turned her head slightly, caught me looking, and smirked like she could see my thoughts... like she knew I was thinking about her body under me, soft and electrice, my co.ck strained against my boxers, my body begging for a taste of her and her pus.sy.
F.uck me. I sounded like a fu.cking pervert.
I looked away first.
By now, I was rethinking the whole thing. She looked too happy to be a kidnapped woman. Too calm. Like we’d delivered her from something worse.
“Shut the f**k up,” I muttered to my wolf.
And I followed her.
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- Writer
