A Wolf's Pride (53 page)

“
Of course
Ryan. Hurry.”

“
I’ll be there
in a few minutes.”

“
Okay,” she
said, ending the call.

“
Was that him?”
Harry demanded, invading her personal space as he stepped
closer.

“
I don’t want
to talk to you right now dad. I can’t deal with this. You don’t
understand what I’ve been through, what I put my mate through
defending you.”

“
Your mate?” he
hissed.

“
Yes, my
mate.”

“
What’s
happened to you Chloe?” Daniel questioned, creeping up beside
her.

“
Ryan happened
to me and he’s the best thing that’s ever happened to
me.”

“
Angel?” At the
sound of his voice, she turned to face him, smiling as soon as she
saw him. “What happened?” he asked, closing the distance that
separated them as he spoke.

“
You were
right,” she sighed.

“
Is this him
Chloe?” Christian asked, his eyes roaming over Ryan’s frame with
disgust.

“
Yes, does he
look like a monster to you?”

Jonathan’s
gaze locked with Ryan’s amber flecked one, narrowing in anger. “Yes
he does.” He lifted his gun, took aim and fired.

The shot caught
Ryan off guard, his attention so focused on his mate that he hadn’t
noticed the gun until the bullet pierced through his heart. His
heartbeat stuttered, the normally steady beat, wild and
uncontrolled. As the silver bullet ran through him, hurting him
internally as it burned away at his flesh, the words he’d used to
bind Chloe to him drifted through his mind.
You’re mine until my heart stops beating.
He turned to her, horrified.

“
Ryan?” Her
voice trembled in shock. Her hands were clutching her chest, a
bloody wound in the exact same place as his making her cry out in
pain.

He was already
moving, pushing his own pain to the back of his mind he ran for
her.
If I can just get her away from here,
we’ll have a chance. I can heal and when I do, so will she. I can’t
let them kill me. She’ll go with me.

Bullets were
flying all around him as her father and brothers joined in the
melee. He caught one in the leg, his sure step faltering. Another
lodged in his chest, piercing through his lung and making him gasp
for breath.
I only need one lung to get to
her. I’ve got to move quicker.
His heart
faltered as another bullet pierced the vital organ. His heartbeat
stuttered further, fragments of silver from the many bullets that
had pierced his body now being pumped through his blood stream
weakening him further. He gritted his teeth against the pain,
unwilling to allow his enemies to view his weakness but the silver
in his veins had drained him of his strength and he fell to his
knees. Pain racked him but his eyes were drawn irresistibly to
Chloe’s violet gaze. She lay against the ground, her blood soaking
the grass beneath her body. Her eyes were glazed over in pain as
she coughed blood.

“
Chloe,” he
drawled, crawling towards her. He had to reach her, help her
somehow.

“
Keep your
filthy hands to yourself mutt,” Harry snarled, kicking Ryan in the
ribs before taking aim once again. The bullet sunk deep into his
flesh. Chloe screamed, the tormented sound the last thing Ryan
heard before he lost consciousness.

Chapter Forty
Five

The sound of
Chloe’s anguished screams tore through Ryan like a knife, hurting
him more than his own pain though what she felt was only a shadow
of his own, the source of her agony. He lay shackled to a large
table, bound by silver at his wrists and ankles. Though it pained
him, he struggled desperately against his constraints, wincing as
he moved the silver blade lodged within his chest. He winced at the
pain as his blood came into contact with more of the deadly metal
and Chloe screamed in response. Growling, he stilled for a moment,
cursing the instinct on which he was so reliant. He had bound
Chloe’s life to his and each injury that threatened his life she
felt, her body temporarily subject to experience the wound as
though it were her own. Her life, now intimately linked to the
length and duration of his, was in danger because of her family’s
actions.

When he’d
awoken alone in the dark room he was now bound in, escape had been
paramount in his mind. Wolves didn’t do well in captivity. As he’d
struggled for freedom, he quickly came to realise that Chloe’s
family were cruel bastards. It didn’t matter that they weren’t in
the room with him, they were still managing to hurt him despite his
isolation. Along with the silver that tied him to the table, sharp
blades were dotted over his body. The skin around the knives burned
while the blood beneath boiled as soon as it came into contact with
the metal.

It was the
blade embedded in his chest that was causing him the most
difficulty and pain. The tip of the blade had barely pierced the
vital organ but with each beat his heart took to keep him alive, it
pushed him closer to his death. It was this blade that was putting
Chloe’s life at risk and he cursed both it and her family for
making his mate feel pain. He only hoped that their conspicuous
absence meant they were taking care of her. While she couldn’t die
directly from wounds that weren’t truly her own, her body was still
human and there was only so much pain she could take before her
heart gave out from the shock to her system.

The door
opened and Ryan’s body tensed in preparation for the inevitable
confrontation with the room’s newest occupant. The smell was
familiar, reminding him of his mate and he knew in that moment that
despite all of Chloe’s attempts to ensure they didn’t come to
blows, her mate and her father were about to have a very unpleasant
altercation.

Harry walked
into Ryan’s line of sight, his face set in a mask of grim
determination. “So you’re the one who stole my
daughter.”

“
If you mean
Chloe, then yes, I took her. She’s my mate, how could I do anything
different?”

“
Did you bite
her?”

Ryan grinned
remembering the night he’d claimed Chloe. “Yes I did.” He paused
for effect. “Twice.”

“
My daughter is
going to turn into one of you. I’ll be forced to hunt her.” Harry
pushed the blade deeper into Ryan’s heart, growling
angrily.

Pain flooded
him anew but Ryan gritted his teeth against it, allowing only a
small grunt to slip past his lips. A second passed, his beating
heart slowly killing him before Chloe’s desperate scream rent the
air. Ryan roared in response, resuming his struggles to be free
despite the pain he was inflicting upon himself.

“
What did you
do to her? She’s bleeding, suffering from wounds that haven’t been
done to her. Is this part of the transformation process? Can I stop
it? Tell me!”

“
Chloe isn’t
turning into a werewolf,” he snarled. “Do you think I would want
this for her?” His eyes were flooded with amber as his wolf began
struggling for control. His body shifted restlessly against the
restraints, his back arching from the table as his wolf sought to
reach Harry.

If we can just
get free,
it hissed.
I’ll tear his throat out with my teeth.

“
Ryan!”

The sound of
Chloe’s anguished call quickly calmed him, stilling his frantic
attempt to be free. His actions were directly impacting his mate,
he needed to remember that.

“
I’m glad that
you’re willing to admit that you’re a monster, an
abomination.”

“
I wasn’t
talking about that! Look at me. I’m stronger than you, faster than
you, practically immortal, but because of what I am I have a
crucial weakness. Do you think that I’d want Chloe, my mate, to
suffer the same fate as me? To be hunted simply because she’s
alive? To be hunted when the people trying to catch her can hurt
her with jewellery for crying out loud? No. She needs to stay
human, taking the best of me without my weaknesses.”

“
Then what’s
happening to her? You did something to her. Tell me what it is.”
The blade inched closer to his heart. Ryan grunted, resisting the
urge to struggle. Chloe’s life was depending on him. With his
superior hearing he could hear her whimpering, her throat too raw
to scream, her body too weak to even protest the abuse.

The instinct
was moving within him demanding that he do whatever was necessary
to stop her pain. For her he was prepared to beg, to throw away his
pride, his freedom. “Stop,” he moaned softly, “stop hurting me,
you’re only hurting her.”

“
Why would I
believe you? There isn’t anything a man wouldn’t say to escape
pain.”

“
As you keep
reminding me, I’m not completely a man. Pain is nothing to me. I’ve
felt worse in my life, but this pain isn’t just affecting me, it’s
hurting Chloe and I can’t let that continue. If you believe nothing
else then believe this, I’ll never lie if Chloe will suffer because
of it. I bound Chloe to me, tied her life to the duration of
mine.”

“
Why would you
do that?” Harry hissed angrily.

“
My kind live a
very long time but in all our existence we only ever get one mate.
I can’t afford to lose her to death or old age. This wasn’t meant
to happen.”

“
You wolves
really are stupid. Whatever you did to my daughter is slowly
killing her, not saving her.”

No, you’re
killing her,
his wolf snarled, though
outwardly he remained silent.

It shouldn’t
have been like this. The instinct worked to protect his species,
not hurt them and hurting his mate was the equivalent to hurting
him. The pain Chloe felt should have been temporary, lasting only
long enough to let her know her mate was in danger and help should
be called. His life was after all now her life.

“
She doesn’t
need to feel this,” he began. “Your problem is with me, not her.
Don’t make her suffer any more than she already has. The shock
could kill her, is that what you want? To be responsible for your
daughter’s death?”

“
Whatever
happens to Chloe is your fault. If you’d just stayed away from her
then none of this would have happened. I should kill
you.”

“
No!” he
screamed barely resisting the urge to struggle. “If you kill me
then she’ll die.”

“
How
convenient. I can’t hurt you and I can’t kill you. Why am I so
reluctant to believe you, I wonder…”

“
Will you keep
hurting me even though you know it’s hurting Chloe?”

“
I told you, I
don’t believe you.”

Chloe can’t
take any more pain. I have to protect her, shield her from this.
I’ll only be here for another two days at max. I can bear with the
pain for that long. I’m going to have to.

After Erica's
abduction by hunters, Sebastian, Ryan and Tobias had agreed between
themselves that if any of them went missing for more than two days
without a word, the others would track him or their mate. If Erica
had been with the hunters for any longer, they might have killed
her. Two days of being uncooperative might not be call for a wolf’s
execution but the longer time went on, the more likely it was that
the hunters would tire of their captive and dispose of them. Ryan
shuddered to think of what would be done to him but he braced
himself to bear with the pain. He was doing this protect his mate,
the instinct would support him and lend him its
strength.

“
Hurt me, just
don’t hurt her.”

“
I knew you
were lying,” Harry sneered. “Why should what I do to you hurt
Chloe?”

“
What you’re
doing
is
hurting
her. I wasn’t lying when I said that I’d tied her life to
mine.”

“
Stop being
deliberately evasive mutt.” The knife in his chest pierced his
heart further as Harry pushed against the ornate handle. Grunting
against the pain, Ryan’s heart began to flutter wildly in his chest
as panic set in. The new wound had reopened Chloe’s healing injury,
gaining depth and penetration by cutting through vital arteries and
veins. If this continued, she would die of blood loss before he
could reach her. Her fragile human body wasn’t designed to
withstand the pain that his was capable of dealing with. His pain
shouldn’t have lasted this long, she wasn’t meant to have to endure
for so long.

His next
words were rushed, the explanation flying from his lips. “Don’t
hurt anything vital. I tied my life to hers and whatever threatens
my life, she feels. So stop stabbing me in the fucking heart,
you’re killing her.”

Harry’s
expression turned thoughtful and he walked to the door. “Jonathan,
Daniel, bring your sister in here.”

It was a
struggle to slow his heartbeat, the anticipation of seeing his mate
quickening Ryan’s pulse, forcing his heart to pump blood around his
body faster. The mouth watering scent of strawberries drifted to
his nose though the almost overpowering smell of Chloe’s blood
accompanying it made fangs explode in his mouth. He turned his head
to look at her as she was wheeled in on a table similar to the one
he was strapped against. Her skin was unusually pale, almost
completely white from the blood loss she’d sustained. The only
colour he could see on her body was the blood soaked red bandage
wrapped against her chest.