The fact that Red was still avoiding looking back at her was a problem.

Jolie glanced behind her to Carl, who also averted his gaze, though he still looked angry, and squinty-eyed.

Their silence didn’t speak well for Liam. It meant they knew something she did not, something that was sure as hell to make her panic if either of them said it out loud.

Rocks of ice filled her stomach, and Jolie couldn’t help herself. She flew into a panic.

She yanked and pulled hard on her arm, forgoing being taken gracefully as she shrieked her head off. She had to get to him! She had to stop them! They were going to kill Liam!

She couldn’t break the hold Red had on her wrist. The most she seemed to do was annoy him, even as she threw all of her bodyweight into struggling against him, into pulling away.

He reached back and wrapped his arms around hers, pinning them to her sides. She turned her head and bit down as hard as she could on Red’s bicep as he started to run with her. When a hand came over her mouth, she bit that too. Until she tasted blood.

Red hissed, yanking his hand back. Jolie started to scream again, desperate for anyone to hear her, even if it was just some humans who were taking a hike off the highway. She didn’t care, she just wanted someone to hear her and stop this from happening.

Red and Carl scrambled. Another hand came down on her mouth. This time it was Carl’s, doing his part to keep her calm and quiet while the both of them carted her off as if she was their latest kill.

She bit his hand, too, but he didn’t pull back the way Red had, and when they made it to Red’s truck, her heart sank.

Red threw her into the back. Carl jumped in with her as Red got into the driver’s seat.

Jolie couldn’t stop fighting. She couldn’t stop herself from throwing punches at Carl’s face. She wanted to hurt him as much as possible. She wanted to do permanent damage, scar his face, make him pay for what he was doing to her and make sure he never forgot it for the rest of his life.

The fact that she couldn’t do the sort of damage she desperately wanted to do, that she was so helpless against him as he yanked her into his lap, curling one arm around her middle while his other hand came back up to her mouth, was infuriating enough that she almost cried.

“Bite me again, and I promise you’re not getting back to Dempsey in one piece,” Carl hissed.

Jolie had half a mind to bite him anyway just to see if he was serious about it.

“You’re not going to do jack shit to her,” Red snapped, putting the truck in gear and hitting the gas. They were off the road so it was a bumpy ride. “We’re taking her home and you’re just going to keep her quiet.”

“She bites me and I’ll make her wish she hadn’t,” Carl mumbled, as if to make sure she knew he would do something if she fought him back.

Jolie bit him anyway, enjoying the sound of his scream.

END CHAP 14

Chapter 15

She was brought back to the pack as if she was a runaway teenager.

Some people looked at her, as if they couldn’t help but want to glance at what had become of her, only to swiftly turn their gazes elsewhere when they realized how awkward the situation was.

Jolie glared at the lot of them, searching for anyone’s eyes and daring them all to at least look at her. After a while, no one did. That was fine; it was a short walk through the pack and up the deck stairs of Renzo’s house.

Carl left them as soon as they made it back. It only took two hours of driving. Jolie was upset with herself, even as Red knocked on the front door.

She’d known that she and Liam hadn’t made it that far out on foot, but the fact that it was only a two hour drive?

Her fault. Her fault for not being able to handle the elements when in her wolf form, her fault for not knowing how to hunt and making Liam feel as if he needed to teach her.

It was entirely her fault.

“Jolie, I’m really sorry,” Red said, his voice low. His hand still held her arm tight enough that she wouldn’t be able to get away, but his grip wasn’t as tight as it had been before.

It still felt as if there was an iron shackle on her skin.

The door opened. Renzo was there, not the omega who usually cleaned up after him, and one look at Jolie and jaw tightened.

“Not happy to see me?” Jolie asked.

Renzo rolled his shoulders. His long salt-and-pepper hair was out of its usual ponytail. There were slight bags under his eyes. “Yes, well, you’ve caused a lot of trouble lately. Get in here, the both of you.”

He said it as if Jolie could opt out of that, but Red pushed her inside, staying close to her back, and still holding her as if he thought she was going to bolt at any moment.

She would. The second he let her go, she would leap into action and, if she had to, make a hole through one of the walls in the perfect shape of her body. Old cartoon style.

Renzo brought them to the living room. He pointed to the couch.“Sit.”

Red didn’t move right away. “Do you want me to leave you alone, sir?”

“No, you too,” Renzo said.

Jolie’s brows lifted up high. Okay. What did he want with Red?

Red looked down at her. She could see the glint of panic in his eyes. She even wanted to tell him that she hadn’t told anyone else that he’d paid her and Liam a visit yesterday, but along with giving him away, she supposed he wouldn’t believe her anyway.

If Renzo did know about it, how had he found out?

Red didn’t question his alpha a second time. He just did as he was told, holding much tighter to Jolie’s arm than he had been just a second ago. He walked stiffly, and sat down awkwardly with her.

Jolie was starting to feel sorrier for him in this situation.

Renzo knew. He had to know. And now he was playing with Red.

Renzo grabbed himself a bottle of water from the mini-fridge in the corner. He twisted the cap off, took a leisurely drink, and stared out the window in front of him as the people outside hurried along, either on the way to their jobs, or to get their chores around the pack finished up.

He acted as if he didn’t have a runaway omega and potential traitor in his house.

“I guess Dempsey didn’t come back?” Jolie asked.

If she didn’t say anything then Red’s terror was going to latch onto her like the contagious disease that it was. She wouldn’t be able to stop herself from freaking out if that happened.

Renzo didn’t turn back to look at her. “Not yet. I got a call from him when he finished with Liam.”

Jolie’s heart did a flip, and then landed wrong and broke both of its legs.

From the corner of her eye, she caught the way Red looked at her.

“Finished with him?”

Renzo finally spun around, his smile as pleasant as if they were talking about the vegetable patch outside, instead of insinuating murder.

“Jolie, he was a wild wolf. He has been ever since he killed Dempsey’s father.”

“He was defending his mother,” Jolie said, her fingers digging into her jeans.

“And he had no right to kill Dougal, no matter the circumstances. That is a decision for an alpha to make.”

“A decision you were never going to make, because you’re a coward and the worst alpha to walk the face of the earth.”

He didn’t seem nearly as hurt by her words as she wanted him to be. Renzo just came to sit down in the reading chair across from her and Red on the other side of the glass coffee table. He just…looked at her, his expression confident, sure, and giving away no hints that he thought he’d done a damned thing wrong.

Jolie snapped. “He’s not dead! Liam is alive and he’s coming for me, you asshole! I’ll die before I ever let Dempsey mate with me!”

Once again, the lack of response from Renzo made the frustration and pain seem so much worse. She couldn’t describe it. The anger and hate boiling inside her was unlike anything she’d ever felt before in her life.

She’d never really liked Renzo. After Liam’s parents died and he was exiled, Renzo was just the alpha. Someone who ruled the pack, strict, but didn’t stir things up too much.

Now, she despised him, and God, what she would give to be able to melt his face with her stare right about now.

“Why won’t you just be Dempsey’s mate?”

Jolie blinked. “What?”

“His mate,” Renzo said again. “I understand Liam was your childhood friend—”

“Stop saying was!”

“But Dempsey will be a good alpha one day when I retire. Or when he fights me for it.” Renzo smiled. “I hope he fights me for it, that’s the way of a true man, and even if he doesn’t fight me for control of the pack,” he said, as if not fighting and risking his and Dempsey’s deaths in the process was a terrible thing to consider, “then he would still make a good mate for you. He would give you healthy pups, see to it you were sheltered and fed. I don’t think he would be the type to hit you. At the very least, he wouldn’t do it often.”

“Great,” Jolie deadpanned.

Renzo shook his head. “It’s not a healthy thing for an omega to be so picky in her choice of mate.”

“It’s not my choice and I’m not mating with him!”

For the first time, Renzo finally showed some hint that he was getting annoyed with her attitude.

Jolie yanked her arm away from Red. He let her go. She leaned back on the couch and crossed her arms. “You can’t make me mate with Dempsey.”

“And if Liam is dead?” Renzo asked. “You’ll be alone and destitute. No one will take you in this time around. I’ll see to that.”

She hated him. She hated him so much, but she used that rush of bravery she felt within herself to keep on going, because Liam was absolutely not dead. She just had to wait this out. Wait for him to get here, or for an opening to present itself so she could get out of there.

Liam had been trying to teach her how to hunt for a reason beyond keeping fed. He’d wanted to know she could handle herself if he ever wasn’t around for her.

She had every intention of making him proud.

“Don’t have much of an answer for that one, do you?”

“If Liam is dead, and that’s a big if,” she said, “then I’ll get out of this stupid pack and get a job. You know, like an adult.”

“You won’t be able to leave,” Renzo said. “That’s not for you to decide.”

“Fine, then I’ll just escape when you’re not looking.”

“And I will have you picked up again,” Renzo said. His eyes softened. “Don’t make me force this on you.”

“Make you?” Jolie jumped to her feet. She couldn’t stay sitting when he said such a horrifyingly stupid thing to her. “You’re going to act all sorry while talking about letting Dempsey rape me? Are you kidding? What’s the matter with you?”

“You would be his mate. It would hardly be rape.” He sneered at her. “Don’t accuse me of such despicable things.”

Jolie couldn’t tell if he was purposely missing the point or not, and that was definitely a little worrisome.

“You won’t let me leave, you won’t accept that I’m mated to Liam—”

“Even if you were mated to that wild mutt, he’s dead now, so there’s no point in arguing over it.” Again with that pitying expression, as if he was sorry to be arguing with her over this at all. “Just take the offer for a mate and be done with it. You will be kept comfortable. You will be fed and clothed and protected. I’m tired. I don’t want to have this argument again and again.”

Ah, so that was it. Her answer was right there. He wasn’t sorry for the way he was treating her, he was sorry that he had to go through the trouble at all.

“Can’t Dempsey just find someone else? There’s literally nothing all that special about me.”

“Well, I suppose I could command Red’s sister to mate with Dempsey if you really didn’t want to.”

Jolie tensed. Red choked behind her. She didn’t look back at him.

And Renzo smirked at her, as if to say he finally had her. “Yes, you see? I do have other alternatives.”

“But…” Jolie couldn’t think of what to say just then. She was completely and totally tongue-tied.

Not a good feeling to have when Renzo was looking at her like that.

She recovered. “What the fuck is going on? Are you seriously saying that Dempsey can’t find a mate on his own that you have to force him onto other people?”

Much as she didn’t want to admit it, Dempsey wasn’t an ugly guy. In fact, he was fairly good-looking. He shouldn’t have had any trouble at all finding a mate for himself. It would probably have to be outside of the pack since there were very few women in this one willing to overlook the cruel holier-than-thou attitude he brought to absolutely everything.

“Just you, it seems,” Renzo replied. “I don’t want it to come down to that, and neither does he, but I will arrange to have it done if you insist on fighting me every step of the way.”

Jolie turned back to look at Red. He was still sitting on the couch, his hands on his knees, and his face a pale grey color.

He looked like death.

“Look,” Renzo started, commanding her attention once more. “I don’t know what he sees in you. Personally, if I had been chasing down an omega, whether it was for some tail, or something more long-term, if she had rebuffed me every step of the way, at some point, I would have taken the hint.”

“But not for me.”

“Well, that’s on him, not me,” Renzo replied. He took another swig of his water, then glanced down at the bottle, shaking his head. “I need something stronger than this.” He got to his feet, walking over to the decanter in the glass cabinet. He poured himself a drink.

“So because Dempsey wants me, I get no choice in it? Why can’t you just tell him no?”

“Why can’t you just tell him yes?” Renzo shot back.

That boiling anger rushed up inside her body one more time. Anymore and she was going to fly apart at the seams.

“He likes you. He begged for you for long enough, and he won’t have anyone else.” Renzo looked her in the eyes, his expression still cold, but there was something a little closer to human there now. “I tried to talk him out of it, but he wouldn’t have it. He’s convinced you’re his destined mate, and if that’s the case then I’m not about to get in the way of that.”

“I’m not his destined mate!” Jolie clung to that piece of information. “I’m Liam’s destined mate!”

“Why? Because he told you so?” Renzo snorted. “Please, as if I would take the word of that disease-ridden stray.”

“Stop talking about him like that!” Jolie’s body actually trembled. She couldn’t stop it. Couldn’t stop the hateful energy rushing through her. “He’s not disease-ridden, a mutt, or a stray. He has a pack.”

“Who? You alone?”

Jolie narrowed her eyes. “Yes. That’s all he needs.”

“Uh huh.” Renzo looked anything but impressed. “I’ve tried to be patient with you. Don’t you ever look back on this and try saying that I didn’t, but I’ve made my decision.”

“And I get to make no decision.”

“Stop that. Dempsey is a fine young man and you’re acting as if I was handing you over to Ted Bundy.”

“It’s the fact that you think you can hand me over to anyone at all that bugs me the most.”

“Either way, it’s done,” Renzo insisted. “Liam is gone now. Dempsey confirmed it. You are without a mate and the future alpha of this pack wants you by his side. No more arguments. I’m not going to have the mate of the future alpha behaving like a spoiled brat.”

Jolie barely heard a word after Renzo said confirmed.

The 2nd part of this chap will be uploaded on its own after this, the char limit is too much. Srry :( Thanx for reading! :)