Page 16 of Captive Mate
Matthew nodded, and Ian said, “Nate, I hate to say this, but maybe you should call that asshole vamp. He’s the closest thing to a local supernatural authority we’ve got.”
Nate got up from the table, already busy with his phone. “I’ll ask him if Dor can bring him directly to the turn-off from the main road and meet us there. And extra plus side, Dor can fuck them up if they try anything.”
He stepped away from the table and out of the room, his phone at his ear. Ian gazed after him like an abandoned puppy. Gods, I hated happy couples. Especially when they kept me chained in basements, but also just on principle.
“Any further comments?” Matthew asked, in a tone that clearly said,You won’t have any further comments if you know what’s good for you.
It was Jennifer’s turn to clear her throat. What was with these two? Did they do everything in tandem? “You’re still not in charge, Matthew. It might be the best way to proceed for now, but the council is going to take point —”
“No, the fuck you are,” Matthew said, cutting her off without hesitation. “I appreciate what you’ve done while I’ve been out of my mind. And I know I’ll need to rebuild some trust with the council. But if I’m not in front of this, we’re going to look weaker than we already do. And you know it.”
Matthew stared them down unblinkingly, and I twisted my head around to watch their reactions. After a beat they both ducked their chins. They were submitting.
I let out a breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding in. My erection hadn’t gone anywhere. If anything, it was a little bigger. I shifted in Matthew’s hold, turning my body so they couldn’t see it as they rose and left the room, grumbling at each other about what they were going to tell the rest of the council.
Which left me, Matthew, Ian, and my hard-on. Not awkward and fucked-up at all.
Ian pulled his phone out of his pocket and glanced at it. “We have twenty-nine minutes until the hour’s up, and we have to assume he’ll be early to throw us off our game. We need to head out.”
“Give us a minute,” Matthew said. His arm around me didn’t loosen at all.
“Matt, we need to —”
“One minute.” And there was that commanding voice again.
Ian sighed, frowned, and strode out of the dining room, slamming the door to the hallway shut behind him. What a prick.
Seconds ticked by. I couldn’t bring myself to look at Matthew’s face. Instead, I stared at Ian’s empty chair.
Matthew reached up and took hold of my jaw again, and I winced. “That was an accident,” he said. “Let me take a look at it.”
Gently but inexorably, he turned my face toward his. His eyes were still bright, but dark blue was starting to bleed through the gold. He stroked his fingers over the puncture wounds, frowning.
“Why aren’t you healing?” he demanded. “These should be closed.”
I wordlessly held up my arms in answer, showing him the manacles. Matthew’s lips pressed into a flat line, but he didn’t seem to have more to say, either.
“We need to go,” I said.
“Anything you can tell me before we do? This…Parker.” Matthew said his name with an inflection I couldn’t quite interpret, but I did notice his fangs seemed to lengthen slightly. “Anything helpful. Anything quick and helpful,” he amended.
Usually I’d have prevaricated — but this wasn’t business as usual. “He has a large pack, but he’s constantly having border skirmishes with another pack near him and with a colony of feral gnomes on the other side. So he’s stretched a little thin, no matter how much he postures. He probably expects you to just hand me over without an argument, since he’s claiming he’s my mate.”
“Anything about him specifically? Other than that he’s a dead man walking.”
A chill went down my spine at his tone, which was venomous and murderous and coldly resolved. Not just a chill, but something like a thrill, too. This was a side of Matthew I’d never seen, that I wouldn’t have thought he had.
And fuck me, but I really, really liked it. Had I always hated alphas for acting like this simply because it’d always been directedatme, instead of on my behalf? Was I that much of a hypocrite?
Probably.
I squirmed a little in his lap, drawing out a muffled grunt. I wasn’t going to bother pointing out that Matthew’s pack council wasn’t aware of, or on board with, the kill-Parker plan. That was fine with me.
“He’s arrogant and has a temper, but he’s not stupid. If you goad him too obviously, he won’t fall for it.” Matthew nodded, clearly absorbing that and adding it to his planning. I thought about it a little more. This was one case where I wasn’t going to try to withhold information. Matthew had already heard the part I would’ve liked to conceal. Knowing that he knew how Parker had used and violated me made me sick, in ways I didn’t want to analyze. And I wanted Parker dead, preferably with a lot of pain and maiming and shrieking and spouts of blood, nearly as much as I wanted these fucking manacles off. “He’s always suspicious that his pack enforcers are scheming to take over as pack leader. The only one he trusts completely is his second, Tyler. If you can find some way to sow doubt there, you’ve got Parker by the balls, and his whole pack would fall apart.”
That had been my back-up plan, if I hadn’t been able to escape as quickly as I hoped. Tyler was, if anything, worse than Parker: a sadistic bully without Parker’s admittedly shrewd and charismatic leadership to back it up. Watching them rip each other to shreds had been one of my fantasies. I’d have done it, too, but it would’ve meant spending longer as Parker’s ‘mate.’ Not happening.
“Good,” Matthew said, and stood abruptly, tipping me off of his lap and steadying me with a hand around my arm as I nearly fell across the table. “Then let’s go.”
