Page 27 of Betrayed Mate

Xander and Gage grimaced but began dragging the vampire toward the Suburban.

They were actually going to obey Ryker’s command.

“You can’t be serious,” I muttered, watching Ryker slam the back door as he went into the house. A part of me wanted to follow him to see what he was up to, but it was for the best that I remained outside, especially after seeing how the one vampire died.

Images of Rosa appeared in my head, and bile churned in my stomach once more. Still, I had one task I could focus on that wouldn’t result in me falling apart again, so I jogged in front of Xander and Gage, blocking their path.

“We don’t have a choice.” Gage lifted a brow. “He’ll alpha-will us if we don’t obey orders. Either way, Simon here ends up in thesame situation. The only difference is whether the two of us also have to deal with Ryker’s annoyance when we try to disobey.”

My breath caught. Dad had used alpha will very sparingly and only used it more frequently since the whole debacle with Reid. In fact, before that, I remembered only one occurrence in my entire lifetime, and that had been when a member of our pack, Steve, had wanted to attack another wolf for taking the woman he wanted to mate with. Dad had decreed that Steve had to obey the woman’s decision, and he’d left our pack shortly after that.

Obviously, Ryker didn’t have an issue using alpha will anytime he wanted to.

“IfIlet him go—” I started.

“It’ll be worse for Simon if you do that.” Gage placed his free hand on my shoulder. “If Ryker believes he knows something, he’ll just hunt him down. His scent would be fresh too.”

“So what? At least he’ll have a chance to escape.” I doubted this poor guy who’d just endured an attack would be willing to tell us anything after Ryker had punched him out.

Xander snorted. “He’s unconscious. There’ll be no escaping. Besides, do you want our help locating your sister?”

Yes. Yes, I did. And they did have a point about the vampire being passed out…

Even though the last thing I wanted to do was help kidnap the man, I made my way to the Suburban and popped the trunk open for them. I refused to tie the vampire up, but I wasn’t angry at Xander and Gage. Their hands were metaphorically tied …unlike the way Simon’s would be soon.

After a few minutes, they had Simon bound and shoved into the trunk with the door closing when Ryker and Kendric came out of the house three doors down. Their expressions were strained, and Kendric had blood on his shirt.

“We’re heading out,” Ryker announced, and all of us climbed into the vehicle.

The stench of blood and vampire had already saturated the Suburban before we pulled out of the driveway. Kendric had his phone out, typing some sort of message, and I sat in the back, glancing over my shoulder to watch Simon’s head bob at each bump.

Even though I knew the answer, I had to hear it from Ryker and Kendric. I swallowed, bracing myself for the truth. “Were there any survivors?”

Somehow the silence felt heavier than if they’d already said the words. Gage looked back at me, the skin around his eyes tight.

I hated it when people treated me like a delicate flower. They just needed to be straight and say the words. “Were they all dead?” I asked again but louder.

Of course, it was Ryker who rasped, “Yes.” The word was deep and heavy with pain that I understood within my own heart. A little bit of my anger toward him ebbed, though I still couldn’t believe what he’d done to the poor, innocent man behind me.

Kendric rubbed his temples. I imagined what he’d seen was worse than my dead pack. Somehow, that knowledge sat bitter on my tongue.

“Raven will be okay, man,” Xander said as he reached over and patted Kendric’s arm. “She’s dealt with loss before.”

“True, but I hate that another of her friends was taken from her.” Kendric dropped the phone into his lap and shook his head. “She’s lost so many people in her life.”

“We all have.” Ryker cleared his throat. “Don’t forget that.”

“None of us have forgotten that, man,” Gage snapped, jerking in Ryker’s direction. “You act as if we aren’t all suffering the same as you, but we are.”

Ryker’s hands tightened on the wheel, his knuckles blanching. “Doesn’t seem like it. None of you are focused on finding the attackers who murdered the royals and our pack after sending us on some bogus mission so we looked like we were either cowards or behind it.”

My breath caught. I hadn’t intended to cause such a harsh atmosphere. Yet the hair on the back of my neck continued to rise, and I glanced behind me to confirm that the vampire was still unconscious.

“We’re driven to find them just as much as you are.” Xander wrinkled his nose. “Just because we’re also worried about others outside our pack doesn’t mean that our goals aren’t aligned.”

“Distractions allow the trail to get colder. We have to be able to move at a moment’s notice.” Ryker shook his head. “We just arrived at the vampires, but the scents might as well have been hours old. We can’t be days behind.”

The other three leaned back in their seats, becoming quiet. My mind reeled as I realized that, even though they were a pack, they weren’t fully united in their objectives. The incident in question clearly had driven a wedge between them instead of bringing them closer together—it seemed tragedy had a funny way of making relationships take an extreme turn for better or worse.

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