Page 46 of Mated

My aunt comes rushing down what’s left of the path and starts hitting Cain with a dish rag. She’s not shifting herself. She’s just doing the most laughably ineffectual thing possible. Her face is twisted with rage, and her shrieks sound like those of a person who expects to be taken seriously for no apparent reason.

This is the moment I lose the last shred of respect for my aunt, as well as any sense of fear of her. It’s strange to see someone I have always been so completely terrified of reduced to an insignificant nobody.

Cain, of course, does not respond. He is making sure he has Colton’s submission. Every time Colton tries to move, Cain snarls, until Colton gives up and lays there, unmoving, allowed only the occasional pathetic whimper. Cain barely did anything to him. He didn’t have to.

“Let him up! Let him go!”

My aunt tires of flailing her rag and starts kicking Cain instead. My eyes widen, knowing this will not end well. I’m so ashamed of her and of what passes for my family. All she had to do was act halfway sane, but she couldn’t be bothered to try. She’s insane and she’s always been insane. It’s just that I never saw her compared to somebody who was reasonable and rational. She’s always been the queen of my inner world, the demon who haunts my family life. She’s been the beginning and the end of everything, defining the boundaries of my existence.

But now she just looks like an unhinged maniac with no power whatsoever, and I don’t understand why I ever gave her any—besides the fact that she raised me from a baby and made my very survival dependent on pleasing her and agreeing to see the world in all the same ways she saw it.

Cain ignores her kicks. They make no more of an impression on him than a fly would butting against an elephant. First he waited Colton out, and now he is letting her tire herself out. He could easily kill her for this disrespect, but he is patient, and he is letting things run their course for my benefit, I think.

Colton shifts back into his human form and lies cowering in the dirt, covering his face and neck with his hands, shivering from head to toe. Just when I thought things couldn’t get any more pathetic, they do.

Cain allows Colton to scramble out from under him. Colton runs to his mother as fast as he can, bolting past her to hide indoors. I wouldn’t be surprised if he never showed his face again.

“Never speak to me or my son again!” My aunt shrieks the words.

She tries to storm back into the house, but Cain is not having that. He slips back into his human form which means he is now standing stark naked in my aunt’s filthy yard. His clothes have been absolutely shredded, but he doesn’t care. I pick up his cell phone and his wallet, both of which lie in the debris.

“I have some questions, and you will answer them.”

He strides naked into the filthy house I grew up in. I am ashamed of it at the best of times, and this is not the best of times.

“Get out of my house!” my aunt shrieks, flapping the dishcloth at him. “I don’t have to answer any of your questions. I don’t owe you anything at all. If you’ve decided to slum it with my slut niece, that’s your problem.”

There’s a long silence after her poisonous tirade in which I can practically feel Cain calculating his options.

“Did you pick up my phone, Kira?”

I give him the phone, not saying anything. I don’t want to speak in my aunt’s presence. Her description of me was foul, and her energy is bitter and cruel. Cain might be able to protect me fromher physically, but he can’t stop her from saying things that shred me on the inside.

He takes it from me and makes a call. “Bardo. I need a fresh supply of clothing to my location and transport for five.”

“We’re not going anywhere with you,” my aunt hisses. “Colton’s already run.”

“My pack will hunt him down.”

Next thing I know, an empty, faded floral dress is sitting on the kitchen floor, and my aunt is gone, fleeing just as she promised.

“Ruby? Beer!” My uncle’s voice comes from the nearby room. I don’t think he’s aware of what’s going on. He’s as caught in the middle of this as I am. I’ve never felt sorry for him before, but I think I might now. He’s been abandoned by his wife and son, and I know Cain is going to try to get answers, whatever they are, out of him.

“That’s my uncle,” I explain. “He’s sick. He won’t know anything. His brain doesn’t work so well anymore. He drank far too much for far too long.”

“Understood,” Cain says.

He’s very naked, and very, very handsome. Seeing him handle my familial tormentors is about the hottest thing I’ve ever witnessed. He’s protected me against the monsters who lurk in the very core of my psyche. He’s silenced the voice that tells me I’m worth nothing and will never amount to anything.

The sound of helicopter blades beats the air as Bardo comes in on the helicopter to bring Cain clothes and backup. I just know Cain has made a scene in St. Infernus that will be the source of gossip for years to come.

The pilot lands, and the guy who must be called Bardo comes out of the helicopter. He’s the most intimidating guy, next to Cain, that I’ve ever seen. He’s even taller than Cain, and he has the beard of a special forces soldier, not to mention the cool gaze of one. I saw him around at Denholm, but there he was just one of dozens of incredibly good looking, intimidatingly together people. Out here in St. Infernus, he’s an outlier.

He has clothes for Cain. A white shirt, dress pants, socks, and shoes. In a couple minutes, Cain looks every inch the billionaire he is once more.

“There are two wolves on the run, a mature female and a younger male. I want them both captured and brought back to Denholm. See what we can do for the old man in the next room.”

Bardo nods, taking orders without question. There’s something about his bearing, not to mention the confidence Cain seems to have giving the orders, that makes me think this is one of his most trusted pack members.

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