The Alpha's Mate (28 page)

Elizabeth believed him. It sounded just like
something Marshall’s charming rogue of a brother would do; out of
anger or jealousy or just because he thought it would be fun. She
nodded that she understood.

“Now how do I get Creepy Eyes to turn it
off?” she asked.

Chapter 29

Charles looked at her in surprise. “Surely
you don’t mean…?”

“Yes. That creep you were with in the
restaurant,” she said, “And I’ve got news for you, buddy. Whatever
it was you thought you had under control when you left that place?
You don’t.”

“I thought you meant…” She could see him
readjust his thinking. “Calvin Everest? He… to you?”

“Yes. To me. Charles, it was revolting,
repulsive.” He had to understand what this man did to her. He had
to see the kind of man he was dealing with.

“I didn’t know he was unmated again. I didn’t
see… You never showed any reaction… I…”

“I didn’t know what I was. I didn’t know what
was happening to me then. I thought it was me, Charles, I thought
those feelings were coming from me and I was sickened, disgusted
with myself. It made my skin crawl.”

Her voice cracked on the last words. She
could feel herself losing control and she couldn’t let that happen.
After everything else, if she lost control now, she would never get
it back. She reached across the table, grabbed Charles’ glass and
swallowed the last mouthful remaining. It was as he said. The
Applejack was smoother on the tongue, but it still packed a breath
halting wallop when it hit bottom.

“I wouldn’t give that bastard the
satisfaction of seeing how he made me feel,” she said angrily. “And
now I have to tell you the rest of it and you have to tell me what
part you played in it. This has gone beyond the petty little games
you play to annoy your brother. This is deadly, Charles. People
have died.”

She began with her accident, which she still
believed was just that, but now she understood why Marshall would
doubt her story. He wasn’t covering for his wolver’s. He hadn’t
changed any of them that night.

She told him about the horses and the barn
and the wolf that attacked her. And while she told him she saw how
stupid she had been. There were so many things staring her in the
face, said and seen, that she hadn’t questioned.

And when she described finding Max, crumpled
and broken in her yard, and the boot prints she’d thought might be
his, she cried. She couldn’t help it. It wasn’t hysterical sobbing,
but a quiet weeping not only for the torture the girl endured, but
for her own loss of someone she had thought of as a friend.

Charles got up from the table and brought her
a box of tissues, but he didn’t try to comfort her in any other
way.

“It wasn’t me. I couldn’t do that to a
woman.” His eyes begged her to believe.

“I know that,” she said and tapped her chest
over her heart, “In here. But these were your partners, Charles,
your friends.” She spat the words. “They burned a house, a house
with a mother and her children still in it. A boy almost died.”

Charles was shaking his head. “It wasn’t me.
It wasn’t them. The growers, keeping Marshall running in circles,
the little harassments on the top of the mountain. Those were us.
And maybe the fire at Marshall’s.” He looked ashamed. “It got out
of hand, but I took care of it.” He kept shaking his head. “I took
care of it. It wasn’t us.”

“It was, Charles. It was.” She told him about
the women coming to the Home Place and George being shot and the
frightened women and children locked in the church for protection.
“It was them and through them, you.”

“You don’t know that,” he whispered and his
denial would have angered her even more if she hadn’t been
convinced he was trying to persuade himself.

“I do know it,” she said, “Because what
happened to Max almost happened to me.”

His head snapped up and he looked at her in
horror.

“Yes. After you left, Calvin Everest sent his
thugs after me. They used the same tactics they’d used on her and
it was only because of that I made it this far. I recognized them,
both as men and wolves and I’d seen them before at Marshall’s.”

Her whole body was shaking now and her voice
quivered with anger and regret.

“Your brother came. He fought them alone
until Henry got here. Henry should have died. Marshall used the
last of his strength to save him. And that bastard, that monster
you’re in business with, watched the whole thing. I saw him, too.
He’s their Alpha. They couldn’t have changed without him. Just like
at Marshall’s barn.”

“I only wanted what was mine.” Charles looked
broken. “It wasn’t supposed to be this way.”

“How was it supposed to be?” She couldn’t
keep the disgust from her voice.

“This mountain is worth money or it will be
soon. They’re expanding the road on the other side of the mountain,
turning it into a six lane highway. It’s going to open this area up
to development. People will pay good money to own their own little
mountain retreat. I’ve been buying up land on the other side,
little by little, persuading people to sell.”

Elizabeth couldn’t help but wonder just what
kind of persuasion he used, but that wasn’t her current concern.
Rabbit Creek was. “What does that have to do with us?”

Charles smiled, but she didn’t know why. And
then he became serious again. “The top of the mountain has the most
value, the best views, living on top of the world, all that. I only
wanted what I thought of as mine. If we made life uncomfortable
enough, harassed them enough, put them in danger of too much
attention from outsiders and government, the pack would put
pressure on Marshall to sell. He’s not like Everest. He doesn’t
rule with an iron fist. He’d listen to his pack. I didn’t want to
take the mountaintop. I would have bought it.”

He was asking her to see how reasonable he
was. She didn’t.

“How does Calvin Everest fit in?” How ironic
that she’d chosen a name with the same initials. She still thought
of him as Creepy Eyes and had to force herself to use his real
name. It sounded so human and he wasn’t. He wasn’t wolver, either.
He was a monster.

“Calvin was looking for investment
opportunities. He’s been purchasing land, too. He’s got an old beef
with Marshall and the Rabbit Creek pack.” He shrugged. “The deal
suited his needs.”

Elizabeth knew she hadn’t heard the name
before, but something was niggling at the back of her mind. She was
so tired she couldn’t think. She raised her hand to stop Charles
from going on and poured more coffee.

“What was the beef?” she asked after she took
a moment to clear her head and straighten her thoughts.

“He didn’t say. Some slight, somewhere.
Everest doesn’t like to be crossed. It could have been something as
simple as disagreeing with him at a Convocation of the Alphas.”

Convocation? She wanted to ask, but didn’t.
She had her elbows on the table and rested her head in her hands.
It was something about the SUV.

“Where is this Everest from?” she asked. It
shouldn’t matter, but she knew it did.

“Wyoming. Why?”

The license plate. She saw it as she was
leaving the restaurant and it flitted through her mind, as things
often did.
Huh, Gwenna was from Wyoming
.

Gwenna, promised to someone else, had run
away to marry George. It couldn’t be over something like that,
could it? It was over and done with; settled through Pack Law.

“George Hadley’s wife, Gwenna, is from
Wyoming. She ran away from an arranged marriage to come here.
Eugene Begley arranged their meeting.”

“That would be it. Eugene Begley hates the
Double W. He’d take real pleasure in sticking it to them. It has
something to do with an Alpha’s Mate from a long time ago. Calvin’s
had at least three of them, you know. Four, if he’s looking at
you.”

At least? “I thought they couldn’t be
interested in anybody else once they found an Alpha’s Mate?” This
was all too confusing. She was getting her facts mixed up.

“You can if they die,” he said becoming
agitated. “Elizabeth, if he wants you, you’re in danger. He’s not
me. He won’t go away and he’ll have no respect for your choice. He
gets what he wants. He’ll keep after you. You won’t have a
choice.”

“That’s ridiculous. I told you. What he made
me feel is revolting, filthy. I would never give in to that. And he
knew in no uncertain terms how repulsive I found him. I all but
told him so.”

“To a wolver like Everest, that would make
you all the more attractive, like breaking a wild horse. His will
would be stronger than yours. He’d devour you.”

She remembered Red Riding Hood. “This is
barbaric,” she said, the repugnance clear in her voice. “How can
you people live this way?”

She walked to the bedroom, though her legs
wanted to run. She grabbed her suitcase from the closet and began
throwing clothing in it at random. She would not be a volunteer for
her own rape. That’s what it would be. Rape.

“Elizabeth, that’s not how it is for most of
us.” Charles had followed her into the room. “Alpha’s and their
Mates can love each other, do love each other. My mother loved my
father. The original Goodman Mate left her family and country
behind to follow her Alpha to this mountain. It doesn’t have to be
this way.”

“It doesn’t have to be any way,” she snapped.
“I’m going home. There’s no reason for me to stay here now. I’ll
stop long enough to tell Maggie what’s going on and then I’ll be on
my way. None of you will have to worry. I’ll go back to my old life
and never say anything to anyone. I couldn’t. Who’d believe
me?”

“You have to go back to Marshall’s. Stay
where he can protect you until this is over.” Charles was adamant.
“Give me a chance to straighten this out. Give Marshall a
chance…”

“No. Marshall doesn’t need a chance. He never
wanted a Mate. He never really wanted me and neither did the
others. They wanted a Mate for their Alpha, any Mate. Who I am was
never part of the equation. No,” she said again, more to convince
herself than Charles. “I’m leaving this place and there’s nothing
you or anyone else can do about it.” She grabbed another suitcase
from the closet. She couldn’t take it all, but she’d take what she
could; some clothes, her laptop, her useless phone.

Charles was nervously clearing the bed of
bits of glass from the broken picture window, the one from which
she had loved to watch the rising sun. This was her home and she
was being driven from it. What more could they do to shatter her
heart?

“Leave it, Charles, just leave it!” she
cried.

“I can’t,” he said, “Everest will know where
to look for you. I told him that, too. You have to go to
Marshall’s.”

She turned to him in a rage. “No! Didn’t you
hear me? I will not…”

“I’m sorry, Elizabeth. I can’t let you
go.”

She saw a brief flash of movement and tried
to duck. Too late. Pain exploded in her head as she hit the bed and
blackness descended.

Chapter 30

Elizabeth awoke in Marshall’s bed. Marshall
wasn’t in it and by the looks of the undisturbed covers next to
her, he hadn’t been. Good. It would only complicate matters.

She knew how she had gotten here. Well, not
exactly. Her throbbing jaw told her that Charles had, in fact,
socked her and she assumed he was the one who brought her here.
He’d taken matters into his own hands and in a very brutal way, she
might add, but it didn’t mean she’d put up with it. She wasn’t
staying.

Someone had dressed her in her nightgown, so
her suitcase must be here somewhere. She climbed out of bed and
looked about the room. Nothing. She checked the closet which was
filled with Marshall’s clothes, but no suitcase. They’d left her
nothing but her flimsy nightgown.

She stamped her foot in frustration. They
couldn’t make her stay. She was an expert at this game and she
would find a way to leave come hell or high water, even if she had
to do it in her nightgown… she looked down at the flimsy white
cloth …which was transparent.

She climbed back into bed and settled down to
think. The sheets and pillow smelled like Marshall, a deep, earthy
aroma that smelled like the mountain itself. It was the smell of
the very place she wanted to leave and it wasn’t right that it
should feel so comforting. She sighed and it didn’t sound so nearly
frustrated as she intended.

Maybe she should wait here until someone came
and explained what was going on. She could then demand her clothes
and be on her way. She needed to tell them about Creepy Eyes and
the plan for the mountain, unless Charles had already told them.
She hated not knowing. She wasn’t sure how long she’d been out. The
sun streaming in the window made her think of late afternoon.

Charles. He’d hit her. The more she thought
about it, the more enraged she became. How dare he! She’d trusted
him. She’d told him things about Creepy Eyes that she’d told no one
else. Oh, she knew he wasn’t only the charming rogue he pretended
to be. Hadn’t he showed her that when he told her about his plans
for the mountain and what he’d done to the pack, but she thought he
liked her. She never would have dreamed he’d do something like
this.

The door cracked open and Maggie stuck her
head in. “Oh good, you’re awake.”

“He hit me!”

“He surely did. Dropped you off like a sack
of potatoes, too. Boy showed more sense in that than anything he’s
done since coming of age.” She set a tray on the edge of the
bed.

“Maggie! The man hit me! Surely you don’t
condone that?”

“Normally I’d say no, I don’t. But he says
that Calvin Everest wants you and you wouldn’t listen, so’s in this
case, the man did what needed to be done. Now get yourself settled
there. I brung you some supper.”