Page 42 of Bred Mate
“Mister Dulac—why does that name sound familiar? Doesn’t matter.” He dismisses the question as quickly as he asked it. “I don’t know her name. Their courtship was very whirlwind.”
“So Patrick was madly in love with this mystery woman?”
Rainer shifts uncomfortably. He is obviously lying at this point in time, trying to come up with something to say that will not implicate him at what is starting to seem like a very stupid plan to get rid of my fucking mate.
“Alright, I’m going to level with you,” he says. “There’s been a little bitch messing with one of my developments for a while. We thought marrying her off and getting her to settle down would help the situation. My son needed a wife. She needed someone to keep her in check.”
I am trying not to burst from fury. Only the fact that his son is now likely dead is keeping me from bursting out of my skin.
“I am assuming things did not go to plan,” Gray says calmly.
“They did not. She abducted my son, and she’s holding him for ransom.”
I almost burst out laughing, but manage to turn it into a cough. I am so damn proud of Ellie right now. This is the kind of chaos I expect from her. I wonder why I ever worried about her. Of course she’s managed to turn things to her advantage. That’s what she does. She’s uncontrollable.
“She’s holding your son ransom? How do you know?” Gray keeps his tone relatively placid.
“I’ve received this.”
Rainer turns his phone and shows us a video.
There’s a man on the screen, a younger, blonder version of Rainer. He looks bruised up, and maybe even a little gnawedon. HIs lower lip quivers as he speaks, and he keeps shooting terrified glances at the woman behind the camera.
“She’s going to kill me if you don’t give her that forest,” he says, his voice trembling. “She’s a monster. She’s a…”
“Uh uh.”
I hear Ellie’s voice, and I feel a massive surge of relief knowing that she is not only well, but thriving.
I am a little annoyed she hasn’t bothered to call me to let me know she is okay, but I guess she has her hands full. She’s a little busy being that poor asshole’s worst nightmare. She cut him off right before he said she was a wolf, too. He doesn’t know that he’s already dead yet, but he is. You don’t get to know the secret of our kind and stay alive. That’s the fundamental law of our breed.
Gray and I look at one another. I can tell he’s feeling a little bad for this man and his son. He’s soft, that’s the problem with Gray. He’s been getting softer over time, too. We cannot have an ounce of mercy for these men who thought they could take my mate and do whatever they wanted with her.
“I am a monster,” she says, staying off camera. “And if I don’t get what I want, you’ll be getting bits and pieces of this asshole back one body part at a time. You can reach me on this number if you’d like to arrange transfer of ownership.”
The video cuts off.
“Alright,” Gray says. “For starters, you’re going to send that to me. For seconds, I want to establish the facts again. When it comes to hunting someone, details matter.”
Rainer nods, looking pale. He is truly afraid for his son’s life. He should be. If Ellie doesn’t get what she wants, that bloody little asshole is dead. He’s dead anyway, once I find him.
“Who decided the marriage?”
Rainer shifts in his seat again. He doesn’t like this. Knows how bad it makes him look. He tried to force a girl into marriage, and now he’s lost his kid. Serves him right.
“I’ll be honest with you. Her mother decided she’d be less trouble if she was to be married. So we decided to let that happen.”
“Somewhat sounds like she was forced into the situation.”
“She wasn’t forced. She was strongly encouraged.”
“Alright, and then she took your son hostage as a result.”
“Yes.”
“And that’s why you haven’t gone to the police, because you don’t want this getting out. You just want them retrieved. Quietly, with as few witnesses as possible.”
“Exactly,” Rainer says.
