Page 272 of Rage

I glance up, and Garrett is glaring at me just as Acton waltzes into the room.

His nostrils flare as he senses my fear, and there’s a flash of fang before the last brother in the pack appears to finally read the room.

Taking a deep breath, I close my phone and let my gaze land on each of the brothers, settling last on Hurst. “The Calldrene Shifter Blood Bank.”

Chapter Two

Ivy

To say the men of the Forrester pack took my news in stride would be the understatement of the century. And unfortunately, to my great displeasure, Garrett did not put me out of my misery. Although, my grocery shopping detour to the Calldrene Shifter Blood Bank last week may have put the final nail in my coffin.

“Fuck this! Why do we have to let her go? She’s close to a heat, I can smell it on her,” Garrett screams, lifting his beer and flinging it across the room.

It smashes against the wall, and I flinch, trying my hardest to keep from curling up in a ball in front of them. I’ve shown these men enough weakness and now, when I want to cower in fear, I’m realizing I have no reason to.

They aren’t going to hurt me anymore.

“She’s not our mate,” Hurst says in a matter-of-fact tone. “And we don’t have the drugs to make her that, so we have to let her go.”

“We don’t have to,” Acton pipes in, leaning against the wall as he watches me.

He’s always fucking watching me. Learning all the things that bother me, that scare me, that hurt me. Fucking psychopath.

“They might not want her once they find out she’s a mutt.”

Fuck.

Acton is right, and my stomach sinks. His lip curls up as he tilts his head to the side, examining my body language.

“Mutt or not, we clearly weren’t expecting this, and CSBB says she needs to call back to schedule a time to go in,” Hurst explains.

“So we don’t let her call,” Garrett replies with a shrug. “Simple as that. She’s allowed to change her mind about it.”

Hurst shakes his head. “You understand they would have called her mates tonight as well, right? They wouldn’t have called her if she didn’t have a match. So some wolf out there, or maybe even another pack, just found out their fated mate is alive and kicking. You think they won’t come looking for her?” Hurst turns his attention back to me. “Tell me, Ivy, did you give that organization all your information?”

A lump forms in my throat, making it feel like I might just choke on my own spit. I nod.

“Where you live?” he questions. I nod again. “Right,” he answers, disappointment apparent on his face.

Garrett lets out a deep growl and lunges for me. My instincts kick in, and I tug my knees up, throwing my elbows and forearms in front of my face to protect myself as much as I can. Pain lances through my back with the sharp movement. I brace for impact, but it never comes.

“You can’t touch her!” Hurst yells, and I blink my eyes open, peering through the barricade of limbs in front of me.

Hurst is holding Garrett by the back of his neck, a blade pressed to his jugular.

“How much did you hurt her yesterday?” he asks his brothers.

Garrett shoves at him, scowling at me as he walks away. “I barely touched her,” he grumbles.

He’s not wrong. Garrett was too drunk to do much last night, preferring to fuck the girl he brought home in front of me, making sure I knew that he thought I was disgusting as he put his cigarette out on my shoulder while he pounded into the girl. She was clearly in pain and not interested in the way he tried to force his knot as far as he could into her, but she was a human and in no position to fight back.

“What about you?” Hursts asks, turning his attention to Acton.

He shrugs, blond hair falling in his eyes. “I just played with her, normal weekend routine.”

“Fuck,” Hurst seethes, running a hand through his hair. “Fuck!”

The normal weekend routine consists of Acton picking a new activity to try and torture me. He thinks that if he scares me or hurts me enough, maybe I’ll shift into a wolf and not stay the pathetic human they all view me as. And each week, when it doesn’t work, he reopens the wounds on my back, carving MUTT into the space between my hips with his favorite blade.

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