The Lost Mate
31 Collect

Lillian

At some point during the night, Wulfric had grown satisfied with the amount of misery he had inflicted, so after another quick feeding, he left me to collapse on the floor in the corner of his room.

I curled up in a ball as my wolf worked to restore what I had lost, not enough blood to kill me, but enough that I would be weaker for days, unless Wulfric stayed longer and drained more of my reserves. My chores would be difficult since it wasn’t like Montgomery would let me go lighter because of it. I only hoped Wulfric would leave again at nightfall. I loathed his extended stays.

My dreams were uneasy and fleeting, and it was was an unfamiliar sound that pulled me from them around dawn, likely somewhere in the halls beyond Wulfric’s rooms.

I cautiously peeked around until I spotted him, sitting and reading a newspaper at the counter, drinking something from a mug, maybe blood, maybe coffee with bourbon, if he was following his usual habits. The way he went about his business like I was just an insignificant object in the room when I wasn’t of interest to him was normal. I wasn’t complaining since it was far better to be ignored than tormented.

He didn’t look at me, and he also didn’t seem to have heard whatever it was that had disturbed me. I’d either imagined it, or it had been too faint for vampiric ears, even on one as old as he.

I tested my limbs and pushed myself up into a sitting position.

“Lillian?”

I jerked in surprise at the sound of my mate’s worried voice in my head, and my quick movement drew the vampire’s attention.

“My lord,” I said, lowering my head in respect. Usually he let me go to work without trouble in the mornings, unless he was feeling particularly malicious.

I didn’t dare respond to Max when Wulfric’s attention was so firmly focused on me. Wulfric had displayed a deep understanding of werewolves in the past, and I wouldn’t put it past him to be able to recognize the unfocused expression of mind linking.

I couldn’t afford for Max to be caught.

“Good morning,” he said with a smile that showed those horrible fangs that had been in my neck only hours before. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yes. Very deeply.”

“Lillian, where are you?” Max’s fear was in his voice.

I lowered my head again, pretending to be respectful, but mostly I didn’t want the vampire to see my eyes. “I can’t talk now!”

Wulfric set down his paper and stood up. He walked over and nudged me with his foot. I gritted my teeth and pasted on my best compliant smile.

“You don’t have to answer, but we found your father, and he’s leading us to a vampire’s room. I can smell you, but faintly. Is that where you are? Wulfric, he calls him? If it is, we’ll be there soon.”

Would he stay away if I asked him to? No, not if he believed I was here. Also, my dad wouldn’t believe me if I said that I wasn’t. He likely has seen Wulfric come in through security or on the entry logs. He knew that the vampire specifically liked to torture me, even though I’d tried to hide that fact from my dad at first to protect him.

But the biggest question was why was my father risking Jonas’s safety on some risky escape attempt?

I didn’t respond to Wulfric’s kick to my side. “You can’t interfere because Jonas will get hurt, Max. I don’t care about myself if that’s the cost!”

“Jonas is on his way out already. Will has him.”

My breath caught in my throat. Jonas was gone and safe? With Will? Or was he? “It’s not possible to get out of this forest, it turns you back.”

“Will is an accomplished witch now. He can counter that magic.”

My body sagged with pure relief. My little boy, my Jonas, was away from the vampires’ control? It was too good to be true.

Wulfric took my reaction as a sign of my resignation, and he twisted my face up to examine it. I tried to hide the happiness that began coursing through me at the news.

My baby, free of this nightmare.

I was so overjoyed that I wouldn’t even care much if Wulfric killed me now.

Except that it would hurt Jonas, Max, and my father if I died. So I needed to survive.

The door burst open with a crash as it was kicked in. I couldn’t move my face because Wulfric gripped it more tightly, but I could smell Max, and from the corner of my eye I saw him, my father, and another black wolf burst into the room, snarling with avenging rage.

I probably looked pitiful to all them, especially when Wulfric shoved me backwards with enough force that my head hit the wall, before pulling me to my feet.

Max’s furious growl rang out in the room, along with my father’s. My head spun with the impact.

Wulfric sprinted across the floor to the kitchen with the incredible speed of a vampire, dragging me along with him, and pulled out a gun from a drawer. I watched in horror as he pointed it in the direction of my mate and the others.

“Stop where you are,” he said with a smirk that showed he was somehow enjoying this. “These bullets are coated in silver, designed to kill a mutt, and I am a very good shot. I started practicing long before any of you were born.”

My heart pounded at the danger to my mate, and my father, and even to that unknown wolf. Then he levelled the gun towards the side of my head, pushing the butt painfully into the flesh behind my ear, and my fear solidified on myself. I didn’t want to die, not now, not when I could almost imagine that a real future might be possible again.

“And if you mutts move, she’s the one who’ll pay the price.”

Max paused then, although his growling didn’t stop, even as he shifted to human. “We don’t need to harm you, we just want to take her and leave.”

Wulfric frowned at the wolves he was staring down. “Do you think it’s going to be so easy? I’ve no plans on giving her up.”

“You already sold me to Montgomery,” I pointed out in the most subdued tone I could muster.

“In trust only,” he corrected. “Surely you always knew that? Montgomery would gift you back to me in a heartbeat if I had further use for you. Your life, your death, belongs to me, pretty little mutt. And this may be my last chance to collect. Doesn’t hurt we’ve got the perfect audience, does it?” He shoved the barrel painfully harder against my skull.

I whimpered, but I wasn’t just going to passively die, not when Max was right here and Jonas needed me. Weakened as I was, I wouldn’t have been any match for him in the darkest hours of the night, but now that the sun was up and diminishing his abilities, I had to take a chance.

I went limp and dropped, and pushed his dominant arm up at the same time. The gun blasted so loud my ears rang as it discharged into the ceiling across the room, sprinkling plaster on the floor. I scrambled away, hoping we could all run before he took another shot.

My hopes weren’t realistic.

The sound of another blast made its way through the haze in my ears, and something heavy slammed into me as I was thrown to the floor. The scent of blood, werewolf blood, wild but with the same tangy iron as human, swamped my nose.