Bound to My Step-brother

Chapter Six

Victor's POV

I paced the empty warehouse. The air stank of wet concrete and old oil. Midnight sat heavy outside the walls. My polished shoes clicked on the floor with every step. I checked my watch again.

The hunters were late. We agreed to meet by 11:30 PM. It's 12AM now. Damn it! I hope they wouldn't disappoint me. Another day with Lila under my roof would kill me.

Anger sat in my gut like hot metal. Tomorrow my son Ryker would stand before the High Council and the pack elders. He would reject that cursed mate bond once and for all. I had planned it for weeks. Once the bond broke, my legacy stayed clean. My power stayed secure. All the loose ends would finally close.

But the real problem was the girl. Lila Monroe. Just her name made my teeth grind. She lived under my roof and it drove me insane. I wanted her gone. Dead would have been cleaner, but dead left questions. I'd run through ten different ways to end her in my head.

Only one kept the blood off my hands.

Ship her out. Far away. To some frozen corner of the map where no one would ever hear her name again. That was the clean solution.

Headlights cut through the dirty windows. A black transport van rolled onto the warehouse floor and stopped hard. Three men stepped out, and strolled inside the warehouse. They smelled of sulfur, dried blood, and silver. Wolf hunters. The kind who didn't ask questions if the money was right.

"What took you so long. You're thirty minutes late."

Titus spread his arms wide. "We're midnight ghosts. Don't blame us."

I watched them come.

Their leader, Titus was tall and broad, taking up space like it belonged to him. Hard face cut open by that deep scar running from left temple down to the jaw. Short gray-streaked hair. Cold gray eyes trying to look like they’d already measured every threat in the room.

A green parrot sat on his right shoulder, bright and stupid. He wore a long black coat over dark tactical gear, silver blades strapped across his chest like he needed the world to notice them. Heavy boots caked with old mud. I almost smiled. The mud told the truth. The blades were just noise.

Titus spoke first. “You'll pay five hundred grand for a clean extraction, Alpha Blackthorn. Tracking a girl..."

"This is the easiest task you can think of."

My eyes flashed amber. “I am paying you to be ghosts. Don't come back after this. And she needs to vanish from this city. Tomorrow night, during the gathering at the hall, the security grid will drop for exactly three minutes. That is your window. The setting is easy, so there's nothing tedious about this task.”

Titus looked like every scarred dog who believed a wound made him important. The parrot was a joke; loud, useless, and completely annoying.

The second one was lean and wiry. Sharp cheekbones. Thin mouth that never quite closed, like he was always about to say something clever and never got there. Dark hair pulled back tight. Pale skin marked with old burns along the neck; ugly, permanent.

He wore short leather jacket over a black shirt. Silver-tipped arrows were in a quiver on his back.

Fingerless gloves. I looked at the burns longer than I needed to. He was a man who had already been damaged and still wore the proof like a story.

He shrugged. “We could just shoot her with a silver-tipped arrow while she stands on the altar. Quick. Quiet. Solves your problem before she can even blink.”

The third was bald and thick. No edges worth respecting. He smiled. “Or we load her into the back of the transport and sell her skin to the magical collectors down south. If that doesn't work...A pretty girl like that will fetch a massive premium on the slave block. She’ll spend the rest of her life in chains, far away from your territory.”

I studied their faces the way I study anything that thinks it can stand in front of me.

Wolf hunters. That was the only part that mattered. The rest; coats, blades, arrows, burns, the f*****g bird, was decoration on men who still answered to someone else.

I felt the dark smile pull at my mouth. “I like both options. Shoot the arrow to create the distraction. Sow chaos among the elders. Then drag her out like cargo, then let the collectors have her. Make it work.”

I tossed the steel briefcase onto the dark mahogany desk next to me. It popped open. Stacks of high bills filled it. "Down payment for the girl’s erasure. No mistake."

Titus nodded. "Rest assured."

That money had solved my problem without my fingers getting stained. The deal was done. They took the money and went into the truck.

***

The next night came too fast.

It was nine o’clock. The Pack hall on the third floor of the mansion was filled with the pack elders. Chandeliers threw gold light across the walls. The elders sat in high-backed chairs lining the walls on either side of my throne.

I kept my face smooth. Composed. Smug. Everything was moving the way I had planned.

Ryker walked in with Lila at his side. Their hands were linked. I almost laughed inside. The boy still clung to the fantasy. Tonight that fantasy would die. They would stand at the center of the hall and reject each other. Exactly as I'd arranged.

The full moon rose heavy outside.

Draven, the pack mage, stepped forward in black robes. His ice-blue eyes locked on the couple. "Speak. Claim the bond or reject it," he demanded.

I waited. Satisfied.

Then Ryker opened his mouth. “I claim her. Lila Monroe is my mate.”

Lila’s chin lifted. She echoed the claim without a second of hesitation. "I claim Ryker Blackthorns as my mate."

My face froze. The smug look cracked and fell away in two seconds. Horror flooded in behind it. For one long moment I thought my heart might stop right there in the seat. The abomination had been declared in front of the entire council. My son had just ruined everything.

I was about to stand up. I opened my mouth to roar.

The lock timeline hit. The door split open. A silver arrow came in from the door. It was meant for Lila’s chest. Exactly as I had ordered. But Ryker pulled her off from that position.

Fuck! she missed it. Another arrow flew in. An elder screamed beside me grabbing his shoulder.

No no. I didn't ask these bastards to shoot any elder.

Another arrow, aimed at Lila flew in.

Ryker moved faster than I expected. His body slammed in front of her. The arrow buried itself deep in his shoulder.

"Ryker!" A scream tore out of my throat.

Pandemonium ripped through the hall.

Screams bounced off the stone. More decoy arrows rained down to scatter the elders. I stood frozen. My plan had backfired in the worst possible way.

My only son and heir was the one collapsing. Silver poison was already spreading through his veins like fire.

Damn it! Why did he take the arrow for her?

Through the smoke and the running bodies I watched the masked hunters rush to the altar. They ripped a screaming Lila out of Ryker’s weakening grip. One of them threw her over a thick shoulder like cargo. They vanished into the escape tunnels.

I was left standing in the ruins of the hall. I had successfully kidn*pped the girl.

But I might have just murdered my own son.