Page 33 of Possessive Mate

There, clutching on with his hands, head hanging over the edge, was Eddie. Elena blinked, her eyes just as sore as the rest of her body, unable to believe what she was seeing.

“What the fuck are you playing at?” she hissed up at him, her eyes darting to the barn door, ears straining to listen for the guards outside. She knew they were there. She had heard them laughing away earlier, talking about the stupid bitch they had captured so easily in the woods.

Elena’s stomach had churned with the knowledge that she was that stupid bitch. But when she escaped this place, when she regained her strength, she was sure as hell going to make them regret their laughter.

Nobody threatened her family, nobody threatened her, nobody threatened a child of hers without paying dearly for it.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Eddie whispered, drawing her attention back to him. “We’re here to rescue my baby sister, as usual.”

We’re? Elena thought, but at the very same moment, another head popped over the edge of the hayloft. A mixture of emotions rushed through her all at once. Shock, surprise, excitement.

Why did Hanson have to be so damn handsome? His red-blonde hair glowed in the dappled light that filtered through the age-worn roof. There was copper in his close-cropped beard. And even from this distance, his eyes glowed a brilliant golden-green as if his wolf was seething just beneath the surface.

The she-wolf inside her could sense him. She whimpered and wriggled, trying to escape, but the silver was holding her, too, and she was just as weak as Elena. Growing weaker still by the minute.

“Get out of here!” Elena protested. If she died here, that was her own problem, but if Eddie and Hanson lost their lives because of her, she would never forgive herself. And if Christopher was as easily read as she thought he was, he would make damn sure she lived long enough to regret it. “Christopher might be back here any moment!”

“Good,” Eddie said, swinging down from the hayloft as if it were only a two-foot drop rather than ten. He walked across the barn as if he had not a care in the world and Hanson dropped down behind him.

“You fucking idiots. Go!” Elena hissed under her breath. She craned her neck, listening beyond them for the guards. It was then that she heard voices. This was all going to be over the second those guards came inside. It wasn’t about whether or not Eddie and Hanson could hold their own. It wasn’t about how many they could kill before they were taken down themselves. It was simply a case of numbers. Christopher’s pack was too large. She had heard so many of them already.

“Don’t worry, El, there’s a distraction well underway out there,” Hanson assured her. Elena’s heart raced at the way he called her El, and Eddie shot her a cruel warning look. If she hadn’t been so weak, she might have kicked him as he crouched down before her.

“Keep your mouth shut,” Eddie hissed at the omega, “and look for something to cut these chains with.”

Hanson glowered at him for only a moment before following the order. Elena was sure as hell going to make certain that once she had recovered, these two were going to sit down and have a real heart-to-heart, get everything out in the open and stop being such damn bull-headed pricks.

She had her child to think about now. She wasn’t about to have its uncle and father bickering at every time they even looked at each other.

Child? Uncle? Father? All three of those things made her feel all kinds of strange. The fact that she was already even thinking of the situation like that made her realize one thing for sure—there really was a child growing inside of her. She had felt these maternal instincts before. They had been her first sign that she was even pregnant. She had felt them from the very first weeks, jumping at even the smallest threat to herself and her unborn child.

And look how that had turned out. She felt weak with the idea that anything like that might happen again.

“El, are you alright?” Eddie asked, and it was only then she realized she had closed her eyes, her head lolling to one side. She felt a hand cup her cheek and lift her face. “El, can you hear me?”

“Don’t talk so loud,” she growled at him, forcing her eyes open. “The silver. It’s poisoning me.”

Eddie wasted no time. He reached around her, grabbed hold of the silver chain and tugged, hard.

Elena bit back an agonized scream even as Eddie snatched his hand away. The scent of freshly burned flesh hit her nostrils.

“Idiot,” she barely managed to growl the word.

Hanson returned then while Eddie was clutching his injured hand, blowing on it to take the sting away.

“This place is stripped bare, but there was a shed we passed on the way in,” Hanson said, gesturing over his shoulder. “I think there could be something in there.”

“Then what are you waiting for?” Eddie snarled at him, and through slitted eyes Elena saw the hatred he threw at him in his glare. “Go and find something! I am not leaving my sister!”

This time, Elena did manage the strength to lash out with her foot. She growled at him low in her throat, “Grow up.”

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the grateful look Hanson gave her before he silently headed off to do her brother’s bidding.

The distance that grew between them was painful. It was as if there were an invisible tether holding them together, and the further away he got, the tighter it became, urging her to follow. There was just one problem, the chains. And somehow, they burned even more as he walked away.

Again, she lashed out at her brother with all of the strength she had left. It was very little, and she only managed a glancing blow this time.

“Would you quit doing that?” Eddie demanded, tapping her foot away easily.

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