Page 7 of Rival Love

And yet . . .

Selena’s scent filled my nose. I could hear her steady heartbeat in my ears. It was a comforting sound, one that released the tension in most of my body.

Except for one spot.

When she returned, a set of keys jingled in her hands. She fit a key into the bindings on my wrists and made a move to touch them.

“Don’t.” I jerked my hands away from her. “They’re silver. They’ll burn you.” Instead, I shook off the now unlocked restraints, letting them clank to the floor between us.

“That looks terrible.” She surveyed the bloody gouges encircling my wrists then peeked at my back and winced. “But not as terrible as your back. Good Goddess, what is wrong with Vince?”

“We don’t have time for that conversation,” I said. “We need to get out of here.”

“We do. Geo and the others thought I was still the Alpha’s wife so they listened to me, but once they get to Vince, they’ll know the truth.”

The Morelli pack’s Alpha couldn’t even torture me himself. He’d sent a yes-man of his to do it instead. I might have been offended, but then Selena was helping me to my feet, and all my thoughts and senses tuned to her. She was petite, and to lean on her felt weird, as if I might break her or something, but she didn’t falter. Her arm came around my waist as she fit herself under my left arm. She didn’t take a step until I was steady on my feet, which took a couple of moments of us standing in the dimness of the room.

She gestured to my dad, crumpled on the ground. “That’s your father, isn’t it?”

I nodded. “You know who we are?”

“Yes, Archer Sinclaire, I know who you are.” A small smile formed on her full lips that tempted me like none other had before. “I also know that you are Alpha of your pack now.”

I nodded again, too choked up to speak.

Her small hand rubbed a circle on my chest over my heart. The touch soothed my entire body somehow. Like from the inside out.

“It looks as if Vince Morelli has committed grave crimes against both of us, Archer,” Selena said. “What do you say we plan a little payback?”

I met her beautiful brown eyes as she gazed up at me. “I say count me in.”

Chapter Five

Selena

Sinclaire wolves were heavy. After I’d helped Archer out of the spare garage Vince used for truck rebuilds—and torturing his rivals apparently—I went back inside to drag Pearce Sinclaire out as well. Archer was in no shape to help me with his injuries, so I’d used one of Vince’s mechanic’s creepers to roll Pearce out of the garage. It was by no means an honorable way to transport the body of a pack Alpha, but desperate times, you know?

“I’m assuming you and your father don’t have phones on you, right?” I asked as we stood in the alley between Vince’s garage and the storage facility next door.

Archer absently ran his hands over the front and back pockets of his jeans. Jeans that covered long, muscular legs. Now that he was standing upright at what had to be a six-foot-three height and I wasn’t wedged under his arm in support, I got a better look at Archer Sinclaire. Of course I’d seen him before, but never at close proximity and not for any substantial length of time. All I really knew about him was that he was an important member of a rival pack. Not someone for me to mix company with.

Until today.

I still didn’t know a ton about him, but what I felt in his presence told me all I needed to know.

Mine.

It was insane. I’d only just rejected my former mate mere hours ago, and now a bond was forming with a new one?

And with rival pack Alpha Archer Sinclaire?

Absolute madness, but Lunai had granted me the opportunity to become another Alpha’s mate. She’d seen what Vince and Vera had done, had not approved, and had taken pity on me as the victim in this shitty situation.

“You don’t make mistakes,” I’d pointed out to the Moon Goddess.

“And I haven’t yet,” she’d said. “Your mate and your sister made mistakes. I only set up fated mates. I don’t have any control over the other choices wolves make.” She’d given me an appraising eye. “And apparently Vincent Morelli doesn’t know what an amazing gift you were to him. I know someone who will, but you must save him first.”

“Save him?” I’d gestured down to my stolen clothes. “I’m barely saving myself tonight.”