Page 26 of Heart Broken Mate

Did she enjoy every moment of that? The thought sent chills down my spine. I would be wise to be careful with her. Shedoesn’t look like she’s snapped yet, but she might well snap at any time. The stress from the hunt might be getting to her.

The smell of blood and anxiety washed over me suddenly, and I turned around to see Buff rushing at me with a stick. He had abandoned his club and picked up something else. I had let myself be distracted thinking about Hayley and didn’t notice the change in the smell in the air until it was too late.

Well, maybe not too late. Buff wasn’t fast, so I moved out of the way just in time, and his stick missed me just by a couple of inches. He looked tired, but his hate for me was fueling him. It would be hard to subdue him.

He turned around and came at me again. He was taking another.

“Dog!” he yelled at me, his stick, which was bigger than the club he held earlier, swiping at me heavily, going for my head. I moved out of the way and saw an opportunity to attack him but held back. Such a heavy impact could have crushed my skull. I don’t know much about Buff, just that lone wolves always avoided him, so I didn’t know what his strength was. But I could see immediately that he wasn’t fast.

I wanted to wear him out. Show him that he has no chance of going up against me. He hated me as a lone wolf and thought he was of a cleaner heritage than me, but I was his superior, and I would show him that by not attacking him at all.

He was ready for me again, and he yelled, attacking me. He came from the back, and I didn’t even have to bother to turn to duck his attack again. He was tired, and his yells were spurring him, but they were also announcing his position. I turned to face him to find his stick a couple of inches from my face. I grabbed hold of it, and he tried to pry it out of my hand, but he couldn’t.

“Are you tired yet, or do you want to keep at this?” I asked him.

He growled at me and spat in my face. “Low life!” he called me, and I really wanted to kick his butt then. Show him to talk to people with respect, but I didn’t. I pushed him to the ground with his stick. But just as I expected, he stood up again and came for me. I moved left to parry his attack, grabbed him by the hand as he moved past me, and pulled him towards me, my left hand wrapping around his neck, and a sneer formed on my lips as I gripped his neck, but I didn’t choke him.

He went taut with fear and pain. His neck was still raw from his episode with Hayley earlier on.

“You know, attacking me is a terrible way to say thank you,” I told him. “If I hadn’t thrown that log at her, she would have crushed your windpipe, but here you are, attacking me with a stick.”

“You didn’t save me,” he said and spat in my face, squirming to get away from my grip, but that was only causing him to feel the pain even more.

I squeezed his neck some more, and he growled out in pain. “Let the stick go,” I told him.

He looked at me defiantly, and I squeezed even harder. He dropped the stick.

“Good,” I told him. “We are getting somewhere now. You know, I should kill you.”

“But you won’t?” he asked.

“No, I don’t see any reason why I should. I’m hunting for you. But you owe me one, and if you don’t pay me back, then I’ll have a reason to kill you.”

He scoffed, and I could tell he wanted to spit in my face. With my hand wrapped around his neck and the other holding his two hands to the back, he was totally useless, which wasn’t advisable. So, he kept his spit to himself.

“Good decision,” I told him. “Now listen. I want you to keep tracking her. Stay close to her, but never let her get you. She knows I am on her tail because you blabbed, and I don’t want that. I want her to focus on you.”

“The two of you have something together, don’t you?” Buff asked. His voice was raspy, yet he still found a way to get hate into it. “I should have known. A mere dog like you and a bitch like her killing her Alpha. You two are cut from the same cloth.”

This time he spat on my face. So, I squeezed his neck harder. I pushed against him until he hit his back against a tree, and he screamed out in pain. I choked him harder again, and he started to growl, looking to change. I could see what an idiot he was then. He never learns. He tried to change when Hayley strangled him, and it didn’t work. Yet, here he was doing it again.

I let go of his neck and his hands at the same time, and he looked at me, shocked. But he didn’t waste any time attacking me, which was what I wanted. I needed to teach him a lesson.

He extended his claws and swiped at me, but I blocked them and punched him in the belly. He stumbled to the back, colliding with the tree again. I saw the anger return to his face, and his hate took on a new outlook. It was disgust now. He wanted to killme because he thought me an abomination. He pushed against the tree, using it as an anchor, and flew at me.

He had a smile on his face because he thought he had me, but I knew what he was doing. I remained fixed in the same position, and he came. Just as he was about to push his claws into me, I moved out of the way, grabbed him midair, and swung him against the tree again. Chips flew from the bark of the tree, and I thought I heard a bone crack. He fell to the ground, growling in pain. He pushed himself up again.

I have to give it to him. He is resilient. He didn’t attack me immediately. He took a breather. And I just watched him. I wondered how long he was going to keep this up before he realized that he was no match for me and that he was the inferior one here.

He shook his body as though trying to shake the fatigue that was settling in, but then I saw him close his eyes and growl. He was trying to change. That was a very stupid move. I didn’t even have my claws extended and was giving him a whooping. I stepped closer pushed him against the tree. I wasn’t going to give him a chance to change because if he did, I would be forced to change myself as the playing field wouldn’t be even, and all he had to do was get a claw into me. The poison would take care of the rest.

He opened his eyes and looked at me, a sly grin crossing his face. I didn’t care for that. I smacked him in the face, turned him around, and got my hand around his arm. He was still trying to change, and there was only one way to stop that. He tried to get his left arm out of my grip but couldn’t. He turned around, looking to bite me, but I snapped his arm at that moment, breaking it.

He screamed out in pain. Now, he has to heal his broken arm and can’t change that way. I threw him to the ground and knelt beside him.

“Do as I told you, or it will be your neck next.”

I didn’t wait to see his reaction to that. I had gotten my message across, and I was sure he got it. I jumped onto a tree and moved to the top. It was time to resume hunting.

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