Except she was married to one of the strongest Prime Alphas ever known.
If Callum couldn’t keep Bryn safe, then no one was safe from Faegan.
“How do I know that you’ll keep your word?”Donnel asked.
“I let you both leave.I didn’t have to do that—I could’ve had you killed back then once Callum wiped Frannie’s memory.But I let your plan play out and, surprisingly, it worked.You helped me then, and you’ll help me now.”
Donnel winced, another sting of guilt that he’d sacrificed that woman for a chance to be free and save the woman he’d truly loved.Although when Donnel proposed she could become the Pack Alpha’s mate, she’d eagerly agreed.She hadn’t exactly been a romantic back then, and he might have exaggerated how her standard of living would suddenly improve.
Not that she’d remember any of those circumstances, but his guilt remained.
“But you keep sending people after us,” Donnel said.
“More accurately, I keep sending them afteryou, yes, and you keep killing them.I doubt you have enough money to pay for people to do that on your behalf.The reason I’ve been sending people after you is to deliver this offer.Had you let any of them tell you that, you could’ve saved us both a lot of trouble.”
Donnel thought that was bullshit, but he let the silence lie between them for a long, uncomfortable moment.
“I don’t trust you,” Donnel repeated.
“I know you don’t.My youngest, Ben, is dead.His mother hasn’t caught again yet despite my best efforts.Our pack needs female shifters for breeding who can catch.Neither of my sons has yet produced any shifter pups at all.”
“It’s not like you can breed with your own sister.”
“That’s not the point.I want that baby.Get Bryn for me,” Faegan continued.“I’ll take care of Callum.”
“I’ll see what I can do.”
“Do better than that, brother.According to my man, the new curtains your ‘wife’ put up last week look rather fetching.”
Donnel thought his heart might actually stop.“Leave her alone,” he whispered.“Didn’t you do enough?You got what you wanted.”
“Write down this number.”Faegan recited it.“When you arrange the time and place, call that number and give the person who answers the phone the details.Meet with Bryn, then walk away and don’t look back.That’s all you have to do.I have no further use for you orher.The only reason I kept tabs on you was for this purpose, because I knew you’d eventually help me find Bryn.Do this for me, and you will finally be free.Mostly because you’ll no longer have anything of worth to me to wring from you, and it’ll be pointless to pursue you.”
Donnel closed his eyes and let his head hang.“Again, how can I trust you?”
“You can’t.I have much larger plans in the works than even your scheming brain can comprehend.I’m talking on a global scale.I have new business partners, and we’re taking things in a different direction.”
Donnel felt sick.“And whatever that direction is requires women who can give birth to shifters?”
“Shifterwomen,” Faegan emphasized.“And shifter men.Charles Bleacke and Trevor Clarke and the rest of those soft-hearted plonkers will no longer look down their snouts at me once we take over.Arrange the meeting and call that number.If you don’t do it within the next four weeks, I will have you both killed.Oh, and I knew you’d likely kill at least some of the men I sent, so I sent men I wanted out of my way, hoping you’d off them.You did me a favor, brother.Had you been caught, I would’ve sent an attorney to represent you with a plea bargain.”Another cackle.“But the sharpshooters I’ll send after you if you don’t do this?You’ll never see them coming.And I’ll make sure they killherbefore they kill you—and that you witness it.”
Faegan hung up on him.
Donnel’s hand trembled as he laid the hotel room receiver back into the cradle.He’d told his mate he had to travel to Detroit for a business trip.Donnel had sent Faegan a telegram that he’d call him tonight.The long-distance charge would be astronomical, but worth it.
Except…
Well, if Faegan really knew where they lived, and it appeared he did, moving would likely not work.It’d only be a matter of time before he caught up with them again, and Donnel didn’t have Faegan’s financial resources.He’d walked away from his inheritance to finally have the woman he loved back in his arms, and while he’d stashed plenty away and made more since, it was still a pittance compared to Faegan’s worth.
Donnel wanted to throw his head back and howl with incandescent rage, but he was wasting time and he knew it.
He picked up the phone and placed another long-distance call, his stomach threatening to upend as he waited for the call to connect.
A woman answered.“Hello?”
“How’s my little sister?”
He didn’t blame Bryn for sounding wary.“What do you want, Donnel?”Like him, she’d Americanized her accent decades earlier.
