"Yes."
"Then I leave now."
My blood is pumping. All I can hear is the beat of my own heart and the oily words of the dead witch. All I can smell is evil blood and burning flesh. All I can taste is pure cruelty and a filthy soul.
I need my omega.
"Follow me," the white bruja whispers. She wraps up the barrel in a cloth of white silk and hurries deeper into the shadows of the forest. Only a few hundred feet from the bloodbath in the clearing, she stops at a small cave. "Just walk through, and you'll be with your mate."
Logically it seems foolish in the extreme, but as much as I could feel the evil from the dead witch, I feel nothing from this one.
I walk into the cave, ducking my head. Dizziness assaults me. I feel a tug, a roaring agony that rips through my spine. It only lasts a brief inhale and one long, pained exhale. When I can straighten, all I see are caramel eyes wet with tears, pain, and terror.
---
18 - Two Mates
Matthew
Cassie is ripped off of me just as hot, rancid breath washes over my face.
I hear her scream before my eyes are even open, fingers grasping the air uselessly. Her blond hair tumbles over her face as her body goes flying helplessly. The thunk of her head hitting the drywall makes my scream catch in my throat. "Cass?!"
A heavy knee in my chest prevents me from running to her. Panicked, I look up into Dylan's merciless eyes.
I fight him with everything I have in me. I don't want this. I don't want to keep being Dylan's victim, but worse than that... Goddess, I would let him do whatever he wants if it means that Cassie is OK.
"Get off!" I choke out. I'm desperate to get to my sister.
Dylan sneers at me, backhanding me across the face.
"Mattie," Cassidy croaks from the corner of the room where Dylan threw her. "Mattie..." She is crawling toward me. She's trying to stand but failing, her legs and arms unable to coordinate. Fear ices my veins. She's concussed, bleeding. It's pouring down her face. Goddess, someone help us.
I'd do anything... I'll barter Gio's life too. Where is Gio? It makes me sick, even more hysterical, to think of him lying hurt or worse somewhere, but if anything happens to Cassie, then I don't want to be alive anymore.
"Hold still, Matthew," Dylan spits. Eyes wild, he rips at my clothes with his claws, not caring when the tips snag and tear my skin, too. Streaks of red bloom everywhere he can reach, the stinging pain making my wolf go even more crazy. "You're mine. You fucking little whore."
Sobbing, I buck my hips, scrambling against the sheets that are tangling up my limbs.
"Stop it!" Dylan screams when one of my flailing limbs catches him in the side of the head. "You won't be with that other fucker, Matt." He unzips his jeans and starts to stroke himself.
Who? He slaps me, open-palmed, across one cheek, then the other. My head is ringing. My gut is sour. He struck Cassie so hard... I shouldn't be such a pussy that these slaps make it impossible to fight him off.
He's jerking off onto me again. It doesn't take long before long streams of white cum are coating my belly. I start to gag.
"That male isn't your mate. He reeks of a female, did you know? I see the way you look at him."
Gio? Rique? Does it matter? Dylan has finally snapped, been pushed over the edge. And Cassie...
I'm naked and bleeding, Dylan's fingers at my opening. He's forcing two of them inside, the agony already unbearable, when, between one gut-wrenching heartbeat and the next, he's gone.
Blinking, I stare in horror as the lightest blue eyes I've ever seen meet mine for one heart-stopping moment. A monster swims in front of me. Red. Everywhere on him is red. He drips with it. It's dried in other places, cracking and falling off of his skin. His bronzed, bare, naked skin is painted in death. In his claws, Dylan dangles, alive but completely limp. Where did the blood come from?
With a shake, the monster casually flicks Dylan across the room. A sour, evil scent fills the room. I gag at the stench, my wolf screaming in terror and confusion in my head.
Cassie sobs, holding her hand to her bleeding head as she crawls toward us. "Carmichael," she whispers.
The monster looks at her as if she's something delicious. He rumbles in his chest, "Cassidy. Stay."