Page 87 of Hayden's Haven
One of Drake’sguards unzipped the bag only a few inches. “Closer, traitor. You’ll want to see this.”
Hayden bent down as the shifter peeled away the thick vinyl. Mila’s eyes sprang open, filled with terror, her hair bloody and her face badly bruised. His heart nearly gave way from the shock, the realization that she was still alive.
The cloudiness of her eyes cleared as tears slid down her cheeks. Her face quickly morphed to recognition, and then hope as she focused on him. A white cloth had been shoved into her mouth and tied. Her left eye was swollen, and her cheek bruised.
Her eyes locked onto him, pleading, counting on him. It was all he could do to steel himself against showing any emotion. He could not ease her fear or give her the hope she needed. He had to destroy that hope, let her fear go on unchecked, even cause it to mount if he was to save her.
He couldn’t even see if she lay inside naked or clothed. The guard had only unzipped the bag as far as her chin. It was just as well. Hayden swallowed hard. He didn’t want to see, to think about what Drake and his men had done to her. Containing his rage, his fear was taking all the effort he had, especially with how his wolf was clawing at him to be released to kill those who had done this to her.
Hayden couldn’t give in to his wolf, no matter how much he wanted to kill Drake or anyone who had touched her. This was not the time to react, to show that Drake had the one person in his possession that meant more to Hayden than life itself. To let Drake know who he had would give him ultimate control over Hayden and put Mila in even greater danger. Quickly, Hayden schooled his emotions as he pulled his gaze away from his sweet Mila, leaving her alone and terrified.
“H-aa-en!” she screamed through the gag.
She was screaming his name. His beautiful Mila had been beaten and god only knew what else, and he couldn’t touch her or give her the comfort of knowing he wouldn’t abandon her. Even as she cried out his name, tears streaming down her face, he turned away, ignoring her as if she weren’t there, as if she was of no importance to him.
“I see you found the runaway,” Hayden began, not daring to glance back at her, despite her muffled cries and the sound of a guard striking her to be quiet. He didn’t know which of the five guards behind him had struck her. It didn’t matter. They would all be dead in time. Not yet, though. First, he had to get Mila to safety and take care of Drake, once and for all.
“Runaway?” Drake asked, mildly curious, but not convinced of Hayden’s lie.
“I could be wrong. Damien thought she had been kidnapped, even took some guards with him to search for her. A total waste of resources, but I don’t argue with him these days. It’s not worth the aggravation. He does his thing. I do mine. Regardless, as far as she’s concerned, last I heard, she had been flirting with one of her own. A weak shifter. Lars or Larry. I didn’t really pay attention. I’d had some fun with her, sure. But there was no reason to keep her around after I got what I wanted.”
“That’s interesting,” Drake said, which made Hayden wonder what was going on here. Drake didn’t seem to have all the facts. How exactly did he end up with Mila if he hadn’t kidnapped her?
“Is this little show supposed to mean something to me, Drake? A threat that the next body bag is for me? Or have you taken on a new venture, sex trafficking across the border using body bags perhaps?”
“Both good ideas, Hayden. You’ve been wasting your talents over there with Damien. I’ll get back to the female in a minute. After I explain my third option.”
“There is no third option. Your pack won’t stand for you denying a challenge. They’ll turn on you, and I’ll be waiting to hogtie and take you to the DSA. Give yourself up or I challenge and hand you over. The second will be more painful. I guarantee it.”
“Option three, dearbrother,” Drake began in that sing-song voice of his that he used when he knew he’d won, “goes like this. Your enforcer is going to dig up Ravirez’ body. That’ll keep him busy for a short while. In the meantime, just to show my pack and the other packs I deal with that I’ll do whatever it takes to protect them, I’ll reach out to the DSA and give them the HEV material I have on hand, with an apology.”
“An apology won’t bring back all the humans you killed.”
“I won’t be apologizing for that. Where would you get such an idea.. oh, yes, that’s something Damien would do, feed you false information as fits his needs. You see, I’ll be apologizing for the machinations of my older brother, the shifter who’d been declared a traitor for murdering our alpha years ago. I’ll be sure to explain in great detail how after my own pack suffered an outbreak of SEV, killing most of our guards, my brother stole the HEV that we had unintentionally developed while researching the cure and vaccine for the SEV that the WSSO unleased on us. I never did have control over my brother, who used the HEV to kill the population of not one but two towns, then had the audacity to go to the DSA with a fantastic story blaming all the events on me, all in a bid to use the DSA to get rid of me so he—you, my dearbrotherHayden—could take over as alpha ofmypack.”
“Along with this apology, I’ll hand you over. You’ll be quite alive, Hayden. What’s more, you’ll confess to everything I just said.” Drake laughed as he held out his hand and one of his guards handed him a gun. Drake placed the muzzle against Mila’s head. The gag muffled her cries as she clamped her eyes shut and Hayden struggled to keep from shifting.
Without an ounce of empathy, Drake cocked the gun. “Option Three, Hayden. Do everything precisely as I outlined, or your female dies.”
Chapter Nineteen
MILA
Mila had never been so scared as when Vance walked away, leaving her with Travis as if she were a folding chair he was lending a neighbor for a party. Vance had chained her to a metal ring in the wall above the bed. The cuff around her neck had spikes pointed inward. If she shifted, she would impale herself. She couldn’t even sleep except sitting up. She must have nodded off because she woke up when one of the spikes cut into her neck, leaving a superficial wound.
Two shifters were arguing outside. One was Travis. The other voice she didn’t recognize, though it sounded familiar. The cabin door slammed open, and freezing cold air rushed in.
The shifter with dark hair and dark eyes reminded her so much of Hayden, except where Hayden had kind caring eyes and a slight grin when he was relaxed, this shifter had a coldness to him.
Drake.
His eyes roamed over Mila. Her capacity for words had long since left her. She was starting to think there was no escaping these white wolves, just like there had been no escaping Vance for all those months.
“Have Merrick and A.J. bag her. You did well, Travis.”
They stuffed a dirty rag into her mouth, bound her hands behind her, and shoved her into a damn body bag. She nearly threw up from the smell of whateverdeadbody had last been inside.
She didn’t cry or scream. There was no one to hear her except the shifters tasked with disposing of her. By the time they dumped her on the hard snow, her heart was racing so fast she was sure it was going to burst or simply stop. She heard voices, but couldn’t focus on anything beyond the sound of her heart pounding in her ears.
