Page 75 of Furever Loyal
“Hey,” Kincaid snarled, stepping forward. “Over here. You will tell me where my mate is.” He snatched the gag from her mouth, the rope ripping hair from her head with it.
“You killed my favorite nephew,” she spat. “I’m not telling you shit.”
“Your favorite nephew was a rogue mage who had killed half a dozen shifters and nearly eighteen humans across Western Europe, lady. He was an evil prick who needed to die before he did something even worse.” Kincaid leaned in close. “Now tell me where my mate is.”
“Go to hell. Why would I give up my only leverage? Let me out of here, and then I’ll tell you where you can find her, once I’m good and safe.”
Kincaid snorted softly. “No, I don’t think that will be happening.”
“Alright then.” Melanie sat back in her chair, looking smug and confident that Kincaid wasn’t going to be able to force her to give him what he so desperately needed.
Balling his hand up into a fist, he prepared to do just that. This wasHaleyhe was talking about. His mate was more important than this stuck-up bitch. Kincaid would do anything for her. Including setting aside his moral code.
“You asked for it,” he snarled, hauling back on his arm.
Melanie just smiled. “We’ll see. You haven’t hit me yet.”
He tried to throw his punch, but his arm didn’t respond. Kincaid had to fight himself, to push through a barrier he’d always told himself he wouldn’t cross. All he had to do was hit her knee and it would shatter. Ligaments would rip and the pain would begin. Kincaid doubted she would be able to withstand more than one blow. Her confidence was rooted in his ability to actually deliver that first strike.
And the longer he hesitated, the more he realized she was right. Growling angrily, he thought of nothing but Haley. Of her gentle nature, her beautiful curved features and long reddish-brown hair. Most importantly, he looked into her eyes, asking those beautiful lightly-tinged brown orbs for permission. To do this for her.
To his surprise, Kaelyn reached out to him, resting a hand on his upraised arm.
“Kincaid,” she said. “It’s okay. You don’t have to do this. Let me.”
He blinked in confusion, but the vision in front of him was shattered as Kaelyn stepped into view. Without waiting for his permission, the Queen of High House Ursa reached down on either side of Melanie, grasped the chair and ripped it free of the bolts that held it to the floor.
Kincaid watched with amused awe as the chair sailed across the circle of light and slammed onto its back somewhere out in the darkness. Metal screeched on pavement and sparks flew as the chair slid to a halt.
Kaelyn stalked forward, and a moment later, a bone snapped. Melanie’s shrill cry filled the air. The impact must have knocked her gag aside.
“Where is she!?” Kaelyn bellowed.
Walking forward, Kincaid’s sharp eyes picked out Kaelyn as she lifted Melanie’s chair and Melanie from the floor by her neck, giving her a shake. Then she dropped the woman. Metal chair legs folded and the chair tilted to the side, slamming the tied-up woman into the ground.
Her head rebounded off the concrete hard enough to make Kincaid wince, but frankly, he didn’t care anymore. So he stayed quiet and watched.
All he wanted was his mate.
36
The fury at her treatment at the hands of the Canis faded slowly from Haley’s mind. It was hours before she stopped thinking of getting back at them, and at Melanie in particular.
She was the last person Haley had expected to see when the bed was flipped over by one of her lackeys. All along, she’d thought that Laurent Canis was after her. After all, hewasthe one who had orchestrated it all. The confidence with which Melanie acted, however, had made her wonder just who had the real power in that relationship?
They hadn’t bothered knocking her unconscious or anything of the sort, but that hadn’t mattered. It was dark outside when they’d taken her and, combined with the tinted windows of the car they’d stuffed her into, Haley had exactly zero idea of her current location. It smelled industrial, so she figured a warehouse or a factory of some sort.
Dust was in the air as well, but an abandoned warehouse or factory wasn’t exactly something Plymouth Falls was lacking. There were many options. Too many.
After her anger fled and she realized the scope of her predicament, Haley began to panic. She was tied up, and, by all accounts, alone. There was no food, no water, and if they forgot about her, she would die in a matter of days. They’d even taped her mouth shut so she couldn’t scream for help.
The situation wasnot good. That was the only rating she could apply to it. Nothopeless, because, somewhere out there, Kincaid was still on the loose, and she knew that as soon as he found out she was missing, he would come after her.
He’s going to raise hell, is what he’s going to do. Nothing is going to stop him from coming to your rescue.
Haley was hoping that was the case, but Kincaid had never really expressed such fierce sentiment about her. Not to her at least. He’d made it clear that he cared. The hatred she knew he must have felt during their first meeting when she’d essentially caused all these problems…that had since faded. There was no denying it. Still…what she had talked about with Dani on the phone was a lot different from that. A lot stronger.
What were the odds that Kincaid felt the same about her? They had to be slim. After all, wouldn’t he have wanted to be with one of his own kind, to create more shifters? That was the biggest hiccup in Haley’s head, one she couldn’t get over. It was also one she hadn’t been able to share with Dani. Haley had to keep this new world she’d been exposed to a secret, and so—despite the positive encouragement from Dani—she’d known that on another level at least, her relationship with Kincaid if it could even be called that, would never last.
