Page 26 of Bred Mate
“That does not look like food,” I say. “But I think you should have it.”
He smiles, pleased. He deserves nice things, even if they’re trash. I’ve become quite fond of this little family. They’re nice people. Ellie has been left with her brothers for a while. I don’t know what happened to the adults that should have been around here, but it’s clear nobody here remembers them enough to miss them.
This feels cozy. And homey.
And then the spotlights hit us.
I don’t know how the people snuck up on us. I guess the smoke of the fire covered their scent until it was too late. They didn’t send the usual small town cops this time. This time, they sent men who know how to track, how to hunt, and probably how to kill.
We are completely surrounded, spotlights and rifles trained on us as heavily armed humans stand ready to gun us down if we make so much as a false move.
“Alright. You lot put your hands up,” a masked officer says. “You’re under arrest for terroristic acts.”
“Sabotage isn’t a terroristic act,” one of the boys says. Tate and Tim sound the same to me sometimes.
“Yes, it is. You have the right to remain silent, though feel free to keep yapping if you’re going to make confessions of that nature,” the officer says, producing plastic cuff ties.
The fuck. We are fucked.
I could shift, but I’d just be shot in six different ways at once, and I’d be risking Ellie and the boys being shot in the crossfire. So I submit to the frankly insulting plastic ties that could not hold my true form for even a second. I see smirks that represent my feelings on the faces of the others, too. We are beasts being contained by human means and we are all very well aware that we will be able to escape at a later time if we want to. It might be harder to get out of a cell, but hell…
The greatest sin a wolf shifter can commit is being discovered by humans, so we won’t be doing that. We’ll hide our true natures and I guess we’ll have to find a way to post bail.
“Ellie!” I hear Connor yell for his big sister. It’s a heartbreaking cry and it makes me want to do something, but there’s no way to protect these four from what’s coming, from what we’ve been inviting this whole time.
“It’s okay!” she calls back from where she’s being pushed against a tree and cuffed by a man whose blood I am going to taste later on. “Just go with them, baby. It’s going to be okay.”
We’re carted off in two separate vans. Me and the boys in one, Ellie in the other. It takes every bit of self-control for me not to burst my way out of these cheap fucking cuffs. I need to be with my mate. I need to protect her. But protecting all of us means not using my power. Goddammit. We should have had a lookout. I should have been more careful. It’s too fucking late now.
We get driven a long way to a bigger town and processed into cells like common criminals. Even Connor, who is too damn young to be housed with criminals, gets put in a cell along with his brothers. They have no ID. No proof of existence.
It’s a fucking mess.
And I know exactly where I’m making my one call.
CHAPTER 7
Karl
“Didn’t expect to have to bail you out of a human jail.” My brother grins at me with an annoyingly smug smile. “Alpha of Louisiana pulled up on a bunch of petty charges. You’re really making the role your own, aren’t you.”
“They were charging us with terrorism. They weren’t that petty,” I say.
“They are now,” he replies.
Gray is looking good. He’s wearing a suit that brings out his eyes, and a shirt that looks like someone else ironed it. He’s always been good at landing on his feet, and he’s doing it better than ever now that he’s marrying an heiress.
“Our father should have left the pack to you,” I say.
“He doesn’t get on with my mate, remember?”
“Right,” I say. Gray’s mate is… well, a singular creature in a lot of ways.
Gray and I walk out of the jail together. I’d say it feels like a triumph, but not really. I didn’t like being caged. Didn’t like having to fight all my instincts. It was good that the boys were with me. Gave me something to protect. Connor was scared, but brave. Kept my mind off the walls that felt like they were closing in.
“If you wanted to buy a forest, all you had to do was ask. Callie and I would have been more than happy to help,” Gray says.
“They don’t want money.”
