Page 44 of Mated To The Vikens

Chapter Ten

Sophia

I was a pawn. Dorn, the fucker, wanted me dead because I’d accidentally seen too much. I was the loose thread that was ruining his carefully hidden life as a member of the VSS. This entire fucked-up situation was just like what happened back home with the Corellis. They’d given me no choice but to smuggle for them. I knew their faces, knew their crimes—my crimes—and could put them all away.

To keep me from identifying them, I’d been the one turned in to the FBI, the one who’d been caught red-handed, found guilty and sentenced to prison. Not them. It didn’t matter that I’d been innocent of everything but wanting to save my mother’s life. Once I’d taken the money for my mother’s medical treatment, they’d owned me. Used me. And when my mother was gone, they’d held my own life, my freedom, the lives of my cousins over my head. I’d taken the money to save my mother, not realizing that I’d sold my soul in the process.

And so I had done whatever they wanted me to do. Smuggle. Lie. Again and again. Until I was caught. Then I was tossed away, convicted.

I realized, with Dorn’s space gun at my head, that if I’d stayed on Earth, I’d most likely be dead. Even in jail, my knowledge would have been a liability to the Corellis. Surely they had someone on the inside who would have been able to kill me. To eliminate the threat.

Just as Dorn was doing now. Once I was dead, and Gunnar with me, Dorn was a free man.

I could feel the tension vibrating from Dorn’s body. The energy coming from him made me think of a wild animal, hurt and cornered. Desperate. Willing to gnaw off its own foot to escape the trap.

“Say goodbye,” he hissed.

I took one last look at Gunnar, his face handsome, even etched with anger and fear. He was perfect, everything I wanted in a mate. In one of my mates. I held his gaze as I felt the pistol pressed into my forehead, resolved to what I must do. I had to save him at any cost. If I could buy Gunnar a few seconds, that would be all he needed to reach Dorn, to stop him.

“Gunnar,” I said, my voice shaky. “I…I love you.”

Dorn laughed. “So perfect.”

I held my breath as I knew the shot would come at any moment. I was out of time.

Gunnar jumped toward us as I rammed my elbow into Dorn’s gut and slammed my heel down on his instep.

“Cunt!” Dorn yelled at me as I slammed my head back into his chin as hard as I could and fought his hold on the pistol. I wrapped my hands around his large wrist and put every ounce of strength I had into shoving the gun away from my head.

The weapon fired. The strange light blasted right past my face and hit the wall of the building closest to us. Across the street, people screamed and scrambled to get away.

I wrenched free of Dorn’s hold just as Gunnar reached me, throwing me to the ground under his massive frame. He covered me as I heard another shot fire, hitting the ground inches from Gunnar’s head.

“Gunnar!” I screamed his name and tried to get him off me as I heard another strange buzzing sound.

Gunnar tensed at the sound. “Fuck, stay down!”

More afraid of the urgency in Gunnar’s command, I huddled as he rose to charge Dorn.

I rolled onto my side as Gunnar charged our enemy. He was within a few steps. Dorn lifted the gun he had and aimed at my mate with a look of pure malice twisting his features into a cruel mask of hatred.

An odd blasting sound, then a weird sizzle shocked me motionless. I flinched after seeing Gunnar’s eyes widen, afraid he’d been shot. I tightened every muscle in my body, assessing the situation as I rolled onto my hands and knees to rush Dorn. I would not let my mate die at the hands of someone so vile, so corrupt. Gunnar deserved so much better than that.

Dorn’s hold on his gun slackened, then fell away, the gun clattering on the hard ground at his feet. I blinked in confusion as I watched him slump to the ground. Confused, I looked up and discovered half of his face gone, a gruesome and charred mess of bone and flesh and exposed brain made me moan. I rolled onto my side, gagging, the contents of my stomach churned and spewed as I closed my eyes, the image of his death burned onto my retinas until I could not escape the sight.

Gunnar launched himself at me. Faster than I could process, Gunnar lifted me and sprinted around the corner, away from Dorn. Gunnar pressed me against the wall of the nearest building, blocking my body with his own.

“What…happened?” I asked, my brain confused, my heart pumping.

“Sniper,” Gunnar bit out.

He looked over his shoulder, pressed his communication device. “Get down here. Now. We’ve got a sniper shooting at Sophia.”

“On our way.” Erik’s voice came through the speaker on Gunnar’s wrist, his calm assurance helped me breathe. Erik must have ended the call because Gunnar didn’t speak further.

“Don’t move,” he said when I tried to wiggle away. The wall was unforgiving against my back, Gunnar’s hard body unyielding at my front. “Someone’s fucking shooting!”

Anyone left on the street had fled before, but the single shot and the dead body ensured everyone stayed away.

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