Page 58 of Daddy's Mail Order Mate

My head spins and everything goes cold, to the point I almost feel sick. I can feel my anxiety starting to get away from me. Ofcoursehe’d leave right away. Why would he want to be here with me after he’s had his fill? All the affectionate touches and hushed whispers must have just been empty gestures, or me deluding myself that he could somehow care for me in that way. And I know as soon as these thoughts hit me that they’re irrational and just want to take my brain hostage in some ass-backwards effort to keep myself safe, but…

A tear runs down my cheek all the same.

After he had broken my heart, I have spent years building wall after wall around it. I never wanted to let myself be hurt in that way ever again. And all it took was running into him again for me to blunder right back into his arms and let him do the same thing over again.

“Stop it,” I whisper, gripping at my hair in some effort to pull myself out of the lonely downspiral I feel myself falling into. “Stop. Just breathe.”

I brace my way through a few steadying breaths and force my thoughts clear. All I need to do is take care of myself and the baby. This will all get resolved soon, one way or another. But dread just stews in my gut despite my efforts to lock into a practical mentality. The other shoe has never been kind to me when it’s been dropped—why would things work out well now?

Rowan suddenly begins to cry, and I hear it both from the monitor in my hand and the echo of it down the hall. My body’s aches are forgotten as I bolt upright. That little baby is depending on me right now, and that can be my only priority at this moment. Thankfully there’s a big fluffy white bathrobe hanging off a door rack that I’m able to steal and slip on to not just trot into Rowan’s nursery naked.

I’m in the middle of jogging down the hall and tying the robe shut when I hearvoices.

“Shut it up—”

It’s a man’s voice, and not one I readily recognize. A vigilant panic shoots down my spine: there are strangers in the house. Perhaps if the voice hadn’t sounded so dismissive and violent, I could have excused it as maybe there being some sort of Council lackey Thorn had left behind. But every intuitive sense in my body shocks into high alarm at just those few words.

Rowan’s cries grow muffled, and I don’t need to be in the room to know what’s happened. They’re covering his mouth to try and deafen his cries, and likely not being too kind about it. They might just be trying to keep him quiet, but they could also be trying to—

Rageexplodes through my entire body. It is an anger unlike anything I have ever known. In all the injustices I’ve endured and borne witness to, nothing has made me feel so possessed by fury like this. A lone, nearly naked womanshouldbe more careful than this, but I do not hesitate as I close the distance to the nursery door. Two figures stand inside. One is at the crib attempting to pick up a squirming, red-faced Rowan, and the other stands between us.

Then both of them turn to look at me.

I let out a vicious scream and grab the nearest object I can, which just so happens to be a lamp, and throw it at the closest man. He lets out a startled yelp and I use the distraction to race towards the crib; at this point I’m completely locked in a senseless and unshakable tunnel vision that is screaming at me to get the baby at whatever cost.

“HEY!Daniel, where are you?! You were supposed to grab the bitch!”

Just as I’m about to get in arm’s reach of Rowan, the feel arms violently lock in around me. I know I’m taller than the man trying to grab onto me—so in a blind brutality, I swing my elbow back and slam my arm with as much force as I can into the side of his head. I feel the impact before I hear it crack out through the room like a gunshot. His arms slacken around me just enough for me to break free and I launch forward, howling like a banshee.

The man at the crib grapples me, and this close I’m able to recognize him. He’s one of the Portsmill Pack members I’d seen at Elm Wood. So why are they here breaking into Thorn’s house?!

“Don’t hurt her yet, you fucking idiot,” seethes out a chilling voice behind me.

“Layman, I’mtryingnot to,” the man trying to apprehend me answers through grit teeth. At this point I’m trying to kick him between the legs, but he manages to evade my knee. “She’s making it pretty hard! If you’re so damned particular about it, come get her yourself.”

“Do not talk back to me, whelp.”

Layman. Where do I know that name?

James Layman. The troublemaker with the bestial stare.

He pulls me off his man and sends me sprawling down to the floor in one fluid pull of supernatural strength. He and two more men have filtered into the room and crowd around me. I snarl at him and start to push myself back up, but his boot connects with my face and sends me reeling back. Pain erupts on the back of my head as it connects with the floor.

I don’t care if it hurts. As long as I’m awake, as long as I’malive, they aren’t touching that boy.

And with that emotion blazing inside of me, I brace my hands—

Only to see the sole of that boot again collide into my chest and stomp me back onto the floor. Breath drains out of me and I claw at his leg, even though his heavy clothes more than protect him.

This man embodies everything I grew to hate and fear among my kind. He stands over me as though I am dirt beneath his heel, and theloathingin his expression makes me wish I could spit acid to blind his hateful eyes for good.

“Stay down and stop pretending like you’re a proper wolf. I need you alive, you defective whore. For now, anyway. A shame though. I’d love to put you out of everyone’s misery. The world is always made better when you get rid of a waste of pelt like you.”

He’s right. I’m not able to protect Rowan. I’m not able to protectanyone, not with how weak and broken I am. Sorrow begins to spew up around the edges of my fury and the world blurs with tears building in my eyes. Thorn is gone to who knows where. A frail hope sparks in me that maybe he’ll somehow save both of us. But all that does is tear open the wounds of my heart. I once trusted him with all of me when we were young, and he willingly ruined it right before my eyes.

“Get the kid. He’s what we really need to make sure Vata falls in line and releases our people. It’s a tragedy of our kind that people like her can roam free while true wolves like my father and Arthur Gates are chained up in some council holding facility.”

“No,” I choke out.

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