Their Runaway Mate (10 page)

*****

Anna continued to replay everything in her head repeatedly, as she sped down the highway, but it still didn’t make any sense how he’d turned on her like that.

She had just arrived to the office at the end of Drew’s conversation with Cheryl, and had heard him tell her sister they were going to lock them both in prison. She burst through the door to stop him from hurting her sister, but when she entered and saw the evil smile Cheryl wore on her face, she knew that Cheryl had been up to something horrible.

She asked Cheryl what she was really doing there, but Drew cut her interrogation short by accusing her of being a part of her sister’s schemes, and telling her he should have listened to Carter about humans not being trustworthy. His accusations hurt, but not worse than the look of disgust and hate in his eyes, and the fact that he said he couldn’t stand to look at her, and couldn’t wait to be rid of her.

Anna wiped the tears that were blurring her eyes away so she could see the road in front of her, knowing that she should slow down, but also wanting to get as far away from there as possible.

She suddenly realized they might have had the car chipped with a tracking device, in case she ever lost it, or they wanted to catch her when she ran, like now. She didn’t have any other way of transportation and what money she had was tied up in her savings account. She didn’t want to use credit or debit cards for anything, in case they tried to find her that way.

Anna would have to go to her bank, and then figure out a way to get out of that area without the car, before Drew and Carter caught up to her. She knew she wasn’t an accomplice to her sister’s activities, but getting Drew and Carter to believe that, especially with their hatred and distrust in humans, was not going to happen.

She raced into town, where she stopped at her bank and pulled out everything in her savings, which happened to be just over ten thousand dollars. She hadn’t wanted to be paid so much for working for Drew and Carter, mainly because they paid for everything else and gave her a place to live, but they’d insisted on paying her. Therefore, she’d put it all in a savings account, which she kept in case they decided they were done with her and threw her out, like right now.

While she was waiting to receive her money, the bank teller had asked her if she was going on a trip, and that gave her the idea to go to the airport and take a plane out of there. She could leave the car in long-term parking with the keys inside, and take the first available flight out of Washington before they even caught up with her.

After she left the bank, she drove out of town toward Spokane, Washington, which was a three-hour drive from Yakima. She still had no idea where she would go once she reached the airport, and would miss the beautiful, scenic mountains of Yakima, but she knew if she stayed put, she’d likely be imprisoned for something she had no part in, and by the two men she had fallen in love with.

Chapter
Eight

Drew picked up Anna’s sister, Cheryl, and held her by her shoulders, making her walk toward the front door of his house. He was determined to get Anna back and punish her for her crimes, and for breaking his heart, but first he had to take care of the filthy creature he was with.

Just as they neared the door Carter came in, followed by three of their Pack guards. Does he already know what is going on? Drew thought.

“We’ve got your little friends down in our prison cell, Cheryl,” Carter smiled at her, but it looked more like a sneer.

So they had known. Drew’s heart broke just a little bit more for his mate, considering he was probably going through the same hurt for Anna’s betrayal.

Carter looked at Drew and asked, “Where’s Anna?”

“She escaped,” Drew, growled. “This one attacked me, and let Anna get away.”

Carter’s look of confusion scared him a bit, “She escaped? What do you mean she escaped?”

A lump of uncertainty rose up in Drew’s throat making his voice croak when he responded. “I found this one rifling through our stuff in the office trying to find our plans. She admitted that she and Anna were spies for the Rogue Pack we’ve been trying to exterminate, and they were sent here to retrieve our plans and help their pack sneak in.”

Carter growled and looked at Cheryl, “You told him that Anna was helping you?”

She laughed, humorlessly, and the lump of uncertainty grew, “Oh yeah, and he believed me. You should have seen the look on her pretty, little face when he told her he couldn’t stand the look of her, and she was nothing but a filthy human. It was priceless. I always hated my sister because she always got everything. Now, she has nothing and she’s humiliated, now she’s probably as scared as I had always been when our father beat me or came into our room to rape me.”

A chill ran down Drew’s spine and he could no longer bring himself to touch the woman. He pushed her toward the three guards and commanded, “Take her to the prison and lock her with the rest of the scum. If I look at her a minute longer, I will kill her.”

She laughed again as she was flung into the guards arms, “You mean like when you told Anna if she didn’t come quietly, you would hate to have her filthy human blood on your clothes?”

Tears burned the back of Drew’s eyes as he whispered, “What have I done?”

Carter wasn’t paying attention to him though, he was yelling at Cheryl, “Your sister tried to protect you when you were growing up. I saw how much she loved you, when you came here bleeding all over my floor from your fake beating. She was ready to punish whoever had done it to you.”

She sneered at him, “I hate my sister. My parents always treated her better than me and she always got the good stuff. I mean look at you two; she has an Alpha for a mate, as well as the Beta. My mate is some lowly servant to our Alpha, too incompetent to even hide and not get caught, while I took care of getting them the plans our Alpha wanted.”

It was Carter’s turn to laugh, “It wasn’t your mate who got caught, Cheryl. It was you. I heard your conversation with him this morning, while you were hiding away in the kitchen. You led us straight to him and his buddies.”

Cheryl growled and snapped at Carter, but the guards had a hold of her, so she didn’t even get near him.

“Take her away. I’m tired of looking at her, and I have bigger problems than her right now.” Carter said, turning back to Drew.

Drew saw the anger in his eyes directed toward him and felt like baring his throat to him. He didn’t care if Carter would have ripped his throat out. He’d already had his heart ripped out with the knowledge that he chased away his beloved mate because of someone else’s lies.

The guards dragged Cheryl out of the house, and Carter followed but stayed on the porch outside, looking away from Drew. Drew knew that he was having a hard time with the fact that Drew had let their mate leave, and he wanted to beg his forgiveness, so he followed him out to the porch.

“Her car is gone,” Carter sighed. “At least we had it chipped. We should be able to find her easily with that.”

Drew just nodded as he felt the tears rolling down his face. Carter looked at him, and then looked away again.

“I don’t understand Drew,” Carter stated. “All this time you’ve been telling me I should trust her, and now it’s you who pushed her away because you didn’t trust her enough to realize that bitch was lying.”

“I’m so sorry,” Drew whispered. “She is Anna’s sister and I…It’s no excuse. You’re right; I shouldn’t have listened to that woman. I don’t deserve Anna.”

Carter turned abruptly toward Drew at the last part of his statement. “Bullshit. Anna is our mate, and you are just as worthy of her as I am.”

“I told her that she wasn’t worthy of our mating claim,” Drew said as he cast his eyes to the ground, unable to look Carter in the face.

He felt Carter’s finger touch his chin and Carter forced him to look him in the eyes. “Anna is an understanding woman. She will forgive you for what you said. We’re just going to have to grovel a bit.”

Drew suddenly needed to feel Carter’s lips on his and his arms around Drew’s body, comforting him, but he didn’t feel like he was even worthy of Carter’s forgiveness for what he’d done.

“I don’t deserve you either,” Drew said with disgust in his voice at himself.

Carter immediately wrapped his arms around Drew and held him against him tightly, “Don’t say that. I love you, no matter what, and we will get her back and get past this.”

Drew just laid his head on Carter’s shoulder, “I hope so.”

Carter grabbed Drew by his hair and pulled him away from his shoulder to look him in the eyes again, “We will.”

Carter’s lips crashed down on Drew’s in a punishing kiss, and Drew could do nothing but submit to his assault. He let Carter’s tongue invade his mouth, and kissed him back with all the love and passion he had.

Just when things were going the way Drew had wanted them to, he is the one to mess it all up. He’d hurt Anna and lost her all in one foul swoop, and still didn’t feel that he was worthy of her forgiveness.

Drew pulled away from the kiss as more sadness flooded his body. He placed his head back on Carter’s shoulder and just closed his eyes off to the world.

I’m so sorry, Anna. Please come back to us.

Chapter
Nine

Anna could barely feel the hard seat underneath her numb body as she waited for her connecting flight to New York. She had rushed to the airport and taken the first flight out of Washington, which happened to be New York, with a layover in Las Vegas. Now she sat in an air-conditioned terminal at McCarran International Airport, waiting for her flight for New York.

She still didn’t know what she’d do when she got there, or where she would go. She didn’t have any family to go to, and the only friend she’d really made while in school was Drew.

Just thinking of Drew as her friend made the tears well up in her eyes again. No, Drew wasn’t her friend. A friend didn’t just believe awful lies about you, and turn on you like he had. Of course, Anna didn’t have anything to compare that to, considering she’d never had a real friend.

She squeezed her eyes shut to push back the tears. She wasn’t going to cry over him anymore. He had asked her to trust him, but he had never trusted her in return. Now she would never trust anyone ever again. She was literally numb all over, emotionally and physically.

“You running away too?” a woman’s voice broke through Anna’s thoughts, and she opened her eyes to look at the one who spoke.

A beautiful, lithe woman sat next to her, just smiling sweetly, while she looked Anna over as if to assess her. Her hair was a reddish blonde and her eyes were a shocking green color, making it almost hard to look her in the eyes.

“I ran away once too,” the woman continued, just smiling at Anna. “I ended up here.”

“I’m not ending up here. I am just waiting for my connecting flight to New York.” Anna finally replied.

“Do you think that’s wise?” The woman asked, making Anna look at her in confusion. “I mean if you are running away, whoever, or whatever you are running away from might figure out where you’re heading, and meet you there.”

Anna hadn’t thought of that. She had thought the airport wouldn’t be able to give out her information to Carter and Drew, but now she wasn’t so sure. They did seem to have connections all over the place.

“I have nowhere else to go.” Anna croaked out.

The woman stood and put out her hand, “Then come with me. I have the best place to hide out, while you get your stuff in order.”

Anna looked at her hand as if it were a serpent about to bite her. She had just been done telling herself she would never trust someone ever again, and now this woman shows up asking her to come with her.

“Look,” the woman dropped her hand. “I’m not some evil bad guy that is going to harm you, and take everything you have, if that’s what you’re thinking.”

Suddenly, the woman plopped back down in her seat and leaned in close to Anna’s ear, “The truth is, I can smell wolf on you, and considering you’re human, I know that’s who you must be running from. Wolves are pretty well knit together, and whomever you are running from might already have connections in New York waiting for you to get off your flight. I can get you away from them and protect you until things are all clear.”

Anna jumped up and started to walk briskly away from the woman, but the woman got up and followed her. She looked around her, but soon found she had nowhere to run, and that her connecting flight wouldn’t be available for hours.

The woman clasped Anna on the shoulder, pulling her to stop in her tracks and turn toward her.

“Listen, I’m not going to hurt you,” she exclaimed. “I’ve just been where you’ve been and want to help you.”

“Why? Why would you want to help me?” Anna snapped. “You don’t even know me and don’t even tell me to trust you because I don’t trust anyone anymore.”

The woman’s face suddenly looked sad, “I’m sorry for what ever happened to you. I just know what it’s like to be afraid and on the run and wanted to help.”

“So what, you come to the airport every day and look for runaways, offer to help them, and take them in?” Anna’s voice was rising, but she didn’t care who heard her.

The woman’s head shook, “No, nothing like that. I was on the flight with you from Spokane and watched you cry all the way here. My heart broke for you and I knew I needed to help you.”

Anna suddenly felt like a heel for what she said.

“Look, I did this all wrong. My name is Alyssa Montgomery,” the woman stuck her hand out for Anna to shake it. “I own a restaurant slash motel just outside of Vegas and would really like it if you came to stay with me and my mates while you got things sorted out for you.”

Anna shook her hand, but she looked at the woman suspiciously, “I still don’t understand why you would want to help.”

“I told you, I have been where you are now,” Alyssa huffed out. “If you come back with me to my place, I will be happy to tell you my story.”

Anna had just sworn she would never trust anyone ever again, but for some reason she found herself believing Alyssa. “I don’t know. Every wolf I have met so far hates humans. What makes you so different? And why shouldn’t I believe that you would just take me back to them too?”

“Because, one of my mates are human too, and we had to run from our Pack when they wouldn’t accept us.” Alyssa shocked Anna with her confession, but Anna could see the look of sincerity in the other woman’s eyes and knew she was telling the truth.

“Okay, fine, I’ll go with you,” Anna said. “But if you’re lying to me, I am to the point where I will make you pay in blood.”

The woman just chuckled as she guided Anna through the airport to the front of the building. “Something tells me we’re going to be great friends. Once you tell me your name.”

“My first name is Anna,” Anna smirked. “But you won’t get my last name until I know I can really trust you.”

Alyssa just nodded, “Fair enough.”

They pushed through the glass sliding doors of the airport and a large gust of hot wind hit Anna in the face, pushing the air from her lungs. Alyssa just smiled at her and kept on walking.

“Welcome to Nevada, Anna,” Alyssa chuckled. “You aren’t in Washington anymore.”