Chapter 47
Abraham
We were halfway to Charlotte when my phone finally rang.
“Huxley. What have you learned?”
His sigh was loud through the phone. “She didn’t have much,” he warned.
“Anything will help. What did she say?”
“She said they hatched this plan together to get you two apart. Peyton was supposed to get you in the deal and Calvin would get Elizabeth.”
I ground my teeth together. “What else?”
“That was about all she said.”
“Huxley, I need you to be sure. Did she say anything else? Maybe something about where Calvin would be going?”
He paused a moment, and I pressed the phone tighter against my ear.
“She made it sound like Calvin wasn’t working alone. That there was someone helping him. She didn’t know who though.”
My mind raced with the possibilities.
Was it Clyde who’d been helping him? Did that mean I had three traitors on my hands instead of two?
Or could it be their father Conrad who was the silent partner? If Calvin really was in Charlotte, there was no way Conrad didn’t know about it. And if he knew about it, he should have put a stop to it.
Unless he’s up to something too.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts. I needed to figure out what to do now. Whether it was smarter to send my men out to look elsewhere, or for everyone to converge on Charlotte.
If Elizabeth wasn’t at my uncle’s compound, it would be a huge waste of time to have my men travel there when they could be looking elsewhere. But, if she was there, we could use all the help we could get. If Conrad was behind this, he might retaliate if we intercede.
I took a deep breath and placed my hand over my stomach. My gut told me that we were on the right track. That every mile that passed us by brought me closer to El. I had to have faith that our connection was strong enough to lead me to her. That our love was more powerful than any distance.
“Thanks, Huxley. I need you and a couple other men to leave as soon as you can and meet me in Charlotte.”
“Where are we going?”
“Meet us at the Charlotte compound.” A thought struck me, and I added, “Make sure you bring Clyde too. And take his phone.”
If he was a part of this, we might as well find out now. And if he wasn’t, he should be there to hear the truth for himself. Either way I didn’t need him alerting Calvin.
I fervently hoped Clyde hadn’t been an accomplice, but I couldn’t rule anything out yet.
I got off the phone with Huxley and the car remained silent. I didn’t need to relay the conversation because they would have all been able to hear it in the quiet enclosed space.
We drove like that the remaining hour to Charlotte as my anxiety rose and my hands clenched the wheel tighter. My worry for El was like an endless ocean that was drowning me. I couldn’t breathe without her.
So, when we pulled up to my uncle’s compound, I was half out of my mind with worry while the rest of me was dead-set and mission oriented.
I drove straight to Conrad’s home and came to a screeching stop right in front of his ostentatious front door. A couple of his enforcers came out to greet us, but I pushed them aside. When they tried to interfere again, they were met with Wes, Wyatt, and Beatrice, and they finally stood down.
I stalked into his house and followed his scent to a door on the second floor. Not bothering to knock, I only just prevented myself from kicking down the door and settled for whipping it open instead.
“Where is she?” My voice was flat and deadly.
Conrad was sitting on the other side of a massive and ornate desk, looking surprised to see me. Except I knew him better than that. He knew exactly why I was here, and I was going to get answers out of him if I had to squeeze them out of his stout frame letter by letter.
“Where is who?” Conrad asked.
I took a step forward and spat between gritted teeth, “Elizabeth. Where did he take her?”
Conrad pursed his lips in mock sympathy. “Lost that mate of yours already, did you?”
I growled and took another step closer. Conrad had the decency to show the tiniest bit of trepidation and it was the only thing keeping me on this side of his desk.
“I’m going to ask you one more time before I completely lose my mind and rip your fucking head from your shoulders. Where. Is. Calvin?”
Conrad jumped to his feet and pointed a meaty finger right at me. “You dare to come into my home and speak to me like that? Who do you think you are? I could have my enforcers in here and subduing you in seconds.”
“Send them.” I took another step toward him and watched his hands twitch. He was nervous.
Good.
“Between me and the wolves I brought, I’m not worried about anything you could dish out,” I said.
Which wasn’t necessarily the truth.
Could I take Conrad? Easily.
But his pack was a lot bigger than ours and he had a lot more enforcers than I did. I was banking on the fact that most of them were asleep and that the rest of my wolves would be here any minute.
“Answer me, Conrad, or things are gonna get ugly for you.”
Conrad’s face turned dark red as he stewed in his predicament. If he gave in and told me where Calvin was, it would be admitting he knew what he was doing and did nothing to stop him.
On the other hand, “If you lie to me or refuse to tell me where they are, I swear to God I’ll kill you and raze this entire community until I have my mate back. That’s a promise.”
Conrad’s fingers twitched, like he wanted to grab for something and for the first time, I wondered if he was armed. But, I was positive I could get the jump on him if he lunged for a weapon.
“Fine. He’s down a dirt road off the street you grew up on. It’s a little stone cottage at the end.”
I didn’t even wait to hear the rest of his explanation. The first few words he’d uttered were enough for me and I was tearing down the stairs before he was done talking.
“Everyone, with me,” I called as I raced through the foyer and out to my truck.
The rest of my wolves were right behind and before the last door was even shut, I was reversing and racing toward my childhood home.
“What did he say?” Beatrice asked.
I clenched my teeth as I spoke. “Says he’s down a dirt road near where we grew up.” I slammed my hand on the steering wheel. “Damn it, he knew this whole time.”
The car was quiet for a while before Bea spoke up again. “You think he knew about all the other women too?”
I shook my head as I took a turn faster than I should, righting the wheels just in time. “I don’t know,” I confessed. “I just need to get to El. We can figure out anything else after that.”
As I sped down the dark suburban streets, I noticed a funny feeling in my stomach. It was warm, and pleasant, and the further we drove, the stronger it got. “We’re close,” I said. I knew that with everything in me.
I could feel her.
I found the dirt road and whipped down it, my truck bumping roughly over the uneven terrain. We drove in silence while the feeling inside me grew, but with it came this anxiety I couldn’t place. This sense of urgency that was pushing me to drive faster, take corners closer, do anything it took to get to her quicker.
Finally, a little house came into view and I slammed the truck into park before jumping out and sprinting to the front door.
What I heard inside turned my blood to ice in my veins.
There was a muffled weeping and the sound of flesh hitting flesh and I knew I’d heard enough. I reared back and kicked the door as hard as I could, instantly breaking the lock and propelling the heavy wood into the wall next to it.
The door slammed back in my face, but I shoved it aside and raced into the house, expecting the absolute worst.
My imagination didn’t disappoint.
El was on the ground in the middle of the floor, curled into a ball with her hands over her head. Above her stood Calvin, shoulders heaving and eyes looking like nothing I’ve ever seen before.
“Get out!” he screamed, and I snapped out of my stupor.
Without thinking, I ran straight at Calvin, tackling him to the floor away from El. His body shook beneath me and the loud cracking of bones prefaced Calvin’s shift. Not wasting any time, I willed my own transformation and seconds later, I was seeing the room through the sharp eyesight of my wolf.
Calvin stood before me, teeth bared and saliva dripping from his jowls. His eyes had a sheen to them I’d never seen before and it sent a chill sweeping down my spine.
This was not my cousin.
This couldn’t be the boy I grew up with.
That boy never would have tried to hurt me like this. That boy never would have killed all those women. He never would have kidnapped my mate and hurt her.
I snuck a glance at El’s prone form, but she was still in the same place I’d seen her last. And she was still. Too still.
My belly clenched with nerves, but I held onto the fact that she had to still be alive. I’d feel it if she weren’t. And as long as she was alive, I could keep breathing.
I took a menacing step toward Calvin. “Why? Why did you do this?”
Calvin growled. “She’s mine. She belongs with me.”
“How can you think that? You know what she means to me. What she is to me. How could you try to break that up?”
He growled louder and snapped his teeth in my direction. “I made her for me and you took her. She was never meant to be yours.”
“But, she is mine.”
I took another step forward, and he inched backward the smallest bit. I was easily twice his size and knew this wouldn’t last long, but even after everything, I didn’t want to fight him. He was my family. At one point, he’d been like a brother. How could I hurt him?
I took another peek at El’s still form and had my answer.
He’d hurt my mate, and I’d do anything to protect her. Even take out a member of my own family.
“Shift back, Calvin. Take your punishment like a man.”
He snapped his teeth in the air again. “You can’t have her! I won’t let you take her!”
Okay, clearly talking was getting us nowhere. If he wanted a fight, my wolf was more than happy to oblige. Having my mate in that kind of danger had doused my anger in a haze of rage.
There was no enemy that I couldn’t eliminate.
So, when Calvin struck first, I returned that move with gusto. I easily moved out of the way of his first strike and reached out to snap my teeth at him. I was aiming for his throat, but I caught his shoulder instead.
He howled in pain and I bit down harder.
“Shift back!” I yelled in his head.
He ignored me and spun around, sinking his teeth into my hamstring and eliciting a howl from me. I easily shook him off, though, and bit down on one of his back legs. The bone gave easily beneath my teeth, and I realized it must have been newly healed. Pride surged through me, making me faster and stronger and deadlier than ever before.
In a flurry of strikes, I swiped at him with my paw over and over before tackling him to the ground again and rolling until he was underneath me.
“Shift. Back!”
“No! I won’t let you take her!”
I had him pinned beneath my weight, knowing he was going nowhere without my consent. A small whimper came from where El was lying, and I knew I needed to wrap this up. My mate needed me, and I needed to help her.
I leaned down and wrapped my jaw around his furry neck, digging my teeth into his flesh in warning. If I wanted to, I could snap his neck, but I wouldn’t. This was still my family. If there was any hope of rehabilitation, I’d take it.
“Shift back, Calvin, now!”
He continued to struggle beneath me, snapping his teeth and scratching at any part of me he could reach.
“I don’t want to hurt you, but I will if I have to.”
Calvin stilled beneath me. “You’ll have to kill me to keep me away from her. She’s mine, and I’ll never let her go.”
A chill raced down my spine at his words. They were said with such clarity, it scared me. How he could have deluded himself into these thoughts was beyond me. As I stood there, with my cousin bleeding beneath me and my teeth in his neck, I had a bad feeling this wasn’t going to end well.
I bit down harder and felt the blood gushing into my mouth. If he didn’t give up soon, he’d leave me no choice.
“Abraham, what are you doing?”
I pulled my teeth from Calvin’s neck and turned to find Clyde and my other enforcers had finally made it. They must have coordinated with someone I’d had with me in order to find this place.
Clyde was standing in the doorway, chest heaving as he watched us with wide wary eyes.
“He’s the killer, man,” Wes said. “Abraham’s been trying to subdue him, but he’s lost his mind. I don’t know how we’ll transport him back to Asheville like this.”
I had an ominous feeling that wouldn’t be necessary.
While my attention was diverted toward Clyde, Calvin found an opening to get free and took it. He bucked his body violently beneath me and shook me off him just enough that he was able to wiggle out. He scampered off, and I scrambled to my feet, finding him again on the other side of El.
“Calvin. Do not touch her.”
He took a step closer, his eyes landing on El’s broken body.
I couldn’t even look at her.
If I started cataloguing all the injuries marring my mate, I knew we wouldn’t all make it out of here alive. My anger was like a living, breathing entity that would not be tamed until the danger to my mate was eliminated.
“I never meant to hurt her. I just wanted to love her,” Calvin said, his voice soft.
“But you did hurt her, Calvin. What were you thinking? What did you do?”
We both turned out heads to find Clyde had shifted and joined our conversation. Good. Maybe he could provide enough of a distraction that I could get between Calvin and El before he hurt her again.
If he laid a single paw on her, I couldn’t be held accountable for what happened after that. I knew Calvin wouldn’t survive it.
“You don’t understand what she did, Clyde. I needed to make it right. I needed to find someone just for me.”
Clyde took a step forward as I inched closer to El.
“Who are you talking about?”
“Sarah,” he wailed in our heads. “She should have accepted me. She never should have tried to run. All I wanted to do was love her, but she wanted to leave me.”
“So, you hurt her,” Clyde said, his voice resigned.
“It was nothing compared to what she did to me,” Calvin cried.
“But Elizabeth isn’t Sarah. Why would you hurt her?”
Calvin’s eyes found El again and my whole body tensed. I swear to God if he touched her again…
“Because she’s perfect. And she’s my fated mate. Isn’t that amazing?”
Clyde shook his head and took another couple of steps closer to us. “She isn’t, brother. She’s not for you.”
Calvin’s eyes turned hard. “She is. I know she is.”
Clyde shook his head again as I took another step toward El. I was close now, just a few more inches and she’d be within my reach.
“Brother, you’re confused. Shift back and we can talk about all this.”
Calvin took a menacing step forward, the hackles on his back rising straight in the air. His eyes flashed dangerously, and I had a really bad feeling about what was going to happen next.
“The time for talking is over. You all need to leave so Elizabeth and I can be together.”
“That’s not gonna happen, Calvin,” I said.
His eyes flashed in my direction and I saw the instant he’d decided his fate. His eyes went from fiery anger to lifeless within seconds.
“I’ll never let you take her,” Calvin warned.
And I believed him.
That’s why, when he went lunging toward El’s body, I was already sailing toward him, our bodies meeting in midair. Thankfully, we landed next to El and not on top of her as we grappled.
Claws and fangs clashed as the fight quickly turned into the deadliest kind of game.
And that was when I knew.
He wouldn’t stop.
Ever.
That left me only one choice.
Calvin bucked me off him again and went racing for El. I jumped to my feet and tore after him, catching him by the throat just as he made it to her. He struggled in my hold as my jaw locked around his jugular.
“Stop struggling, you’re going to kill yourself,” I warned, but he pulled harder.
I was doing my best to not snap his neck while still protecting El. My loyalties warred within me as I tried to figure a way out of this situation.
But, Calvin made that decision for me.
He let his whole body go slack, pulling harder than ever at where my jaw held his neck. I kept my teeth dug into his skin, and all at once, there was a loud snapping sound and Calvin went limp in my mouth.
I immediately dropped his body and stared down at my lifeless cousin as everyone in the room froze.