Page 34 of Possessive Mate

“Would you stop being such a hard-ass with him?” Elena glowered at him. It was difficult. The pain in her head was growing by the second now. She wasn’t sure she would be able to hold on to her consciousness much longer. “Why are you being like that with him, anyway? I’ve seen you give new omegas a hard time before, but this takes the cake.”

“I don’t like the way he’s been sniffing around you,” Eddie snarled.

Elena bit back laughter. “You’re kidding me? He hasn’t been sniffing around me!”

Elena thought for a second of the night they’d shared together. Sure, they’d had sex then, but there had been no sniffing around each other, either before or after. In fact, he had been avoiding her like the plague ever since that night, and it pained her to think on it now. What if they had missed out on what little time they could have shared together before all of this blew up in their faces?

“Besides,” she continued when Eddie said nothing, just glowered at her. “Even if he was? What’s the big deal? He’s your packmate. Surely, I’d be better off with him than someone like Jason.”

Her throat constricted to say the name. She hated to talk of him like that, or at all, for that matter, but she had a point.

Eddie rolled his eyes. “I always liked Jason.”

“Stop with the bullshit!” she bit back at him. “You never liked Jason.”

Eddie smirked at that, and if she hadn’t been bound, she might have hit him.

“He was a bit of a tool,” Eddie shrugged. “But I tolerated him for your sake.”

Without thinking, Elena growled, “You shouldn’t speak ill of the dead like that.”

The shock on Eddie’s face was immediate. He rested back on his heels, staring at her, open-mouthed.

“Elena, what the fuck happened?” he demanded, his voice choking. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

The lump in Elena’s throat grew larger, harder. There was a lot she hadn’t told him, including the fact she had miscarried her mate’s child. That was something she never intended to tell anyone who didn’t already know. Enough people had been pained by that knowledge.

Shaking her head, she bit her lip for a second before she answered, “It’s too painful to talk about.”

She was saved by any further questions as Hanson appeared suddenly over the edge of the hayloft, hopping down just as before. This time he carried with him a pair of huge bolt cutters.

“Are you guys done with all your chin-wagging, because it’s time we got the hell out of here,” Hanson said. If he had heard anything of their conversation, he certainly didn’t mention it.

Instead, he handed the bolt cutters to Eddie, and quick as a flash removed his t-shirt.

“What the hell are you—” Eddie began, but before he could finish, Eddie crouched down beside Elena and wrapped his t-shirt around the chains so that he could hold onto them.

“Would you quit your staring and get cutting?” Hanson snapped back at him.

Elena tried her damnedest not to look, she truly did, but Hanson’s physique was too beautiful not to be admired. He was muscle upon muscle, his chest, shoulders and arms all tensed as he held the chains as taut as possible for Eddie to cut through. Elena bit her lip as she fought the urge to run her fingers through the blonde-red hair that covered his pecs.

She had felt that hair tickling her, felt that muscle rippling against her as he had made love to her. She had smelled the sweat that they created together as they writhed in pure ecstasy. And though she was weak as hell, her heart skipped a beat, a thrill rushing through her. In fact, it was just the thing she needed to keep hold of her consciousness just a little while longer.

The sight of him distracted her so that before she knew it, she was freed, flopping to one side as it turned out the chains had been the only things holding her up.

Before she knew what was happening, she was plucked up into huge, strong muscular arms that held her tightly to an exceptionally bare chest. Again, her heart raced. The smell of him was intoxicating. It made her blood roar in her veins, and though it would take some time for the silver burns to heal, she felt just a little stronger.

“Let’s get you out of here,” Hanson whispered in her ear.

“Give her here,” Eddie argued, and he appeared opposite Hanson. She was suddenly the only thing between them, and from the look in her brother’s eyes, that was the only thing stopping him from lunging at Hanson.

“Eddie, we don’t have time for this,” Hanson ground out, and Elena saw the way his jaw clenched.

“She is my sister,” Eddie said, never blinking as he levelled his eyes with Hanson’s. “I should be the one to carry her out of here.”

Hanson’s arms tightened around her, and she knew from sensing him there was no way in hell he was going to let her go. The she-wolf inside her howled with triumph. The fact he was finally sticking up for himself against her brother made her own heart soar.

“Every second counts, Eddie,” Hanson said, meeting Eddie’s gaze unflinchingly. “Do you want to be the one to fuck this up because you couldn’t just let me carry her?”

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