Page 48 of Vicious Wolf Mate

I blink my eyes open, expecting to see bright light bulbs. I’m met with the blue hue of the night. I squint my eyes so they can adapt to the sudden darkness.

“McKenna!” Mace says as he kneels over me. “Are you okay? Does anything hurt?”

I grunt. “I feel like shit. My head’s killing me.”

“We’ll get you pain meds as soon as we can. We just need to get out of here.”

“Where am I?”

He sits me up. I lean against his shoulder, feeling the soreness even worse in my body. I hold my head on the spot where it throbs the most.

“We’re at a creepy abandoned house. We were able to escape,” Mace explains.

I look around the crumbling house. I recognize Drario standing by what’s supposed to be the window. Jax sits next to me. From the doorway, I recognize Gnash’s figure.

“How did you get out of there? Dave and his goons—”

“They’re not important right now. We should go somewhere safe where you can heal,” Mace says.

“I have some things to talk to Mckenna about,” Gnash says from the door.

“About what?” I ask.

He comes closer. Mace outstretches his arm between us. Stopping Gnash from getting too close to me.

The latter’s unfazed. “What do you know about Operation Oxytocin?”

Ah, it’s about that. I try to stand up but my ass is killing me. I move to face Gnash while still being held by Mace.

“It’s a human mating thing they came up with. Why?”

He shakes his head. “No. It’s mind control. I overheard the guards in the cell.they want to turn all humans against shifters and take over the world.”

“What?” we all respond.

I shake my head. “That can’t be right. Dave said it was to imitate the bond between shifters in humans.”

Gnash scornfully shrugs. “Yeah, well, he lied to you. Though it was obvious to you by now that he’s fucked in the head.”

I know that. He’s shown time and time again he’d do anything to force me to be with him. It's clear, though, that his interest is to benefit humans only.

“It still doesn’t make sense. Why would Insignys try to work with shifters if that’s their end goal?”

“I don’t know. That’s all I managed to hear from them. It doesn’t make sense to me either.”

Mace turns to Drario. “You see you asshole? You bootlicked Insignys and for what? They were gonna kill you anyway.”

Drario growls. “That doesn’t change a fucking thing. It’s about your fucking morals and respect for the clans. Apparently it’s non-fucking-existent.”

“Don’t get high and mighty with me. Did you forget what you did to Mckenna? Wolf shifters aren’t supposed to attack women or children!”

“Between. Wolves!”

Gnash steps up to Drario. Making him back up. The latter doesn’t care in the slightest and shoves him too.

All the yelling makes my headache worse. The nape of my neck stings so much that I have to lower my head. I pat Mace’s chest so he’d stop arguing.

“What the hell are you gonna do?,” Drario mocks Gnash.

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