Alex staggered back into the stone wall of the basement, staring at me with wide eyes.
“Did you tell her to go to Red Fang Pub?” I repeated, pushing the words through my gritted teeth.
He’d sent my mate onto Gideon Drake’sprivateland. The Luna of another pack could never step foot on another Alpha’s land without permission.
“I-I don’t know if she went,” he choked out. “Why are you reacting this way?”
“Release me,” I bellowed, but he was already up the stairs, as he did every time he sensed my dominance swell. He ran in an effort not to have me order him.
“Alex!” My breathing was ragged and disjointed. All I could think about was my little mate in the hands of that low-life cretin.
I rammed my foot into the foundation chain embedded in cement. A long gash opened down my ankle, but the pieces of stone finally crumbled. Crouched beside it, I grabbed the blood-slicked metal and used all my strength to push and pull. The slight wiggle became greater with each rocking move. Even withagony slicing into every one of my movements, I wouldn’t stop. She was walking into a fucking trap.
Drake would use her to get to me. He wanted me to show up so he’d have a reason to fuck me over . . . and he would succeed, because I would break pack law.
The consequences could mean my life, or my pack, but I couldn’t leave her vulnerable.
Sheer will fueled me.
I leveled another kick at the hitch embedded in the stone.
Another gash opened at the bottom of my foot, but I kicked again.
Pieces of rubble fell off, and with it came a chunk out of the wall, along with the foundation of the chain. Sweat and blood coated my limbs, but I wound the chain around my hand and tossed the remnant metal over my shoulder. My shoulders heaved, and adrenaline pulsed through my veins. With wide strides, I burst up the stairs until I shoved through the second door, coming out into Alex’s kitchen.
He leaned against the island, a spoon halfway to his mouth.
“Shit,” he croaked, and the spoon clattered on the tile, splattering the cereal around it, and he took off at a sprint.
I could have caught him, but I went for the drawer in the kitchen where he always kept his keys.
Blood plinked onto the floor, leaving a trail of it as I walked.
I yanked open the drawer.
My phone sat in the drawer, too. I grabbed the slim key and twisted it in the left cuff. It popped open, and I undid the right cuff in the same way. I tossed the chains with a loud clatter.
I pushed my wolf forward, and nothing happened. Fucking Bane. There was no choice but to drive.
Where did Alex’s put his car keys? I rifled through various drawers, not finding them.
“Fuck,” I spat, slamming one of the drawers. I was wasting time. Cutting across the forest would be the quickest way to get to Drake’s land.
My feet slapped on the hardwood floor, and I exited through the back of Alex’s house.
It’d been a few days since I’d been unable to shift, but the heat of the shift simmered under my skin, telling me the Bane would be soon out of my system.
I breathed in deeply, trying to rein in the unmitigated rage. I had wasted days in that basement away from my mate. Alex would be punished for that.
Josephine kept slipping out of my fucking hands, and I couldn’t stand it. Every moment was torture.
Regardless of what she wanted, I would keep her, but even without giving her a choice, I didn’t want her silence. I couldn’t lose the sweet female I’d held in my arms, who always craved my touch.
Her anger had to abate.It had to.
I would finally return her to where she belonged, by my side, under our roof, and I would use whatever skills I had to get her to soften.
Even if I had to fuck her into submission.
