Chapter Fifteen
The SUV containing the bulk of Jean-Michel’s men were now in route to the private airport. The men at the airport had reported that the plane was being readied for takeoff. Jean-Michel’s instructions were to contain the men who had Darby and to avoid killing them if at all possible. But regardless, that plane was not to leave and Darby’s safety was to be their primary concern.
* * *
The van pulled into the private airport. Darby kept expecting to feel afraid or concerned, but she wasn’t. She knew Jean-Michel and her pack were coming for her. She had yet to be able to sense his presence, but she knew it wouldn’t be long. She knew she would fight them tooth and nail before she got on that plane.
They pulled out on the tarmac and rolled up to the plane. There didn’t seem to be anyone moving around, but none of the idiots in the van seemed to notice. Darby forced herself to stay relaxed but vigilant. The van came to a stop and the doors were opened. She was taken out of the van and they started toward the plane.
As they got closer to the stairway into the plane, Darby waited for fear or panic to overtake her. It didn’t. Instead what she felt was Jean-Michel’s soothing presence. He was here; he had come for her. She never doubted that he would, but it felt good nonetheless to feel him so close.
Jed bounded up the steps into the plane, only to come flying back out and tumbling down them, followed by men Darby recognized as belonging to her pack. It had been Jake who had punched Jed in the face. Darby knew because he was rubbing his fist. The men surrounding her reached for concealed weapons.
“Not a good idea, boys. Jean-Michel would prefer you not be harmed. But he’s a very flexible kind of guy. As long as Darby isn’t hurt, you may yet live to see the end of the day.” He spotted the red mark on her face from Jed’s earlier slap. “Darby? Are you all right, mistress?”
She touched her cheek. “This? I’m fine. I think you did far more damage to Jed’s face than he did to mine.”
Two of her pack mates descended the stairs and grabbed Jed before he could do anything. The other men who had been holding her let go of her arms and tried to become very small. The anger and violence bubbling beneath the surface was palpable. Darby approached Jed and smiled.
“Your life isn’t worth spit,” said Darby as she spat in his face.
“Mistress,” Jake said, “please get away from him. Jean-Michel won’t want you standing in the middle of all of this.”
“Jake, what have I told you about formal titles. If you’re are going to refer to my mate as Jean-Michel, you’d best start referring to me as Darby.” She walked calmly away from the men who had been holding her captive. She heard the other SUV pull up and saw her mate exit the vehicle.
“Darby, beloved, are you all right?” he said, joining her. The red mark on her face did not go unnoticed. He touched it gently and turned to Jake. “Who?”
“The one with the broken nose and Darby’s spit on him. She just informed him his life was not worth spit.”
“She would be correct.” He kissed her gently. “Did any of the rest of them harm you in any way?”
“No, Jean-Michel. I’m fine. The other girls are all fine, right? Jackson got them to safety?”
“Yes. He was very upset that you sent him away. I assured him he did the right thing.”
“I’m surprised you got here so fast.”
“Lily hit her cell phone’s panic button the minute these bastards entered the nail salon. Forgive me for not ensuring both your and Megan’s phones had the application installed. It will be done as soon as we get home.”
Darby watched Jed as the realization hit him that by striking her, he had sealed his own death warrant. She smiled and kissed Jean-Michel. “I’d like to speak to you about what you’re planning to do in response to this attack on our pack.”
“That one,” Jean-Michel said, pointing to Jed, “and the bastard whose mark I removed from your body will die. I will not allow them to live.”
“I sort of figured that. But the rest of these idiots are just that—idiots who haven’t a clue as to who they were following or why.”
“You think I should let them go?”
“Not exactly. I’m thinking we take their plane back and raid the farm. There are two women there who, like me, were brought in against their will. One is wolf-born, the other human, who was turned without her consent. I would ask you to offer them your protection until they can figure out what they want to do.”
“And?”
“I was hoping after you killed Bobby, because I’m pretty sure he’s a dead man walking,” Jean-Michel nodded, “that you’d burn that farm to the ground and let the rest shift for themselves. It won’t be easy for any of them to find a pack that would have them. And life is not very nice to lone wolves.”
“Again, my mate, you show such great courage and heart. How am I to deny you what you ask?”
“I’m sure you could find a way. I just think you’re still riding on the buzz from the number of times you knotted me in the past few days.” She grinned at him before kissing him again.
He chuckled. “You are a most naughty mate. Perhaps I need to take you home and knot you again to remind you who is your alpha.”
She wound her arms around him. “I have no need for a reminder as I am quite clear about to whom it is that I am mated. However, I wouldn’t mind spending a significant amount of time in our bed tied to you.”
“Darby, you can’t just let him kill me,” pleaded Jed.
Before the words had barely left his mouth, JD had produced a scimitar dagger and cut the man’s throat.
“He was mine to kill,” growled Jean-Michel.
“No, the bastard who was Darby’s mate is yours. This was his beta and was mine. You forget your mate offered her safety to ensure the safety of my mate.”
Jean-Michel thought for a moment. “I can see the reasoning behind that. We’ll need to dispose of the body.”
“We can fly out over the ocean and just drop him into it. That’s what we did with the Serbs—only we weighted them down and took them out on the boat,” said Darby in a cheerful and helpful tone.
Jean-Michel laughed. “My mate is so helpful, n’est pas?”
His men joined in his laughter and watched as the men who had been holding Darby began to pee on themselves and plead for their lives.
Jean-Michel watched them with disgust. “These men are pathetic. Are you sure you don’t want them disposed of in the same way?”
“No, they aren’t worth the trouble. Just wipe out their farm so that they have nothing. I’ll bet I can transfer all the money from the account to you. Then you could use that as a dowry of sorts for Maryann and Heather. We should drag them back with us to the farm. After you kill Bobby, although I think I have the better claim on both his life and Jed’s, they can watch you torch the place and leave with the girls. Maybe we could have our plane pick us up?”
Peter, Lily’s mate, chimed in. “She has an excellent plan, Jean-Michel. And who knows, maybe given some time to recover from what must have been a horrible ordeal, one or both of these girls will find someone within our own ranks.”
JD looked to their alpha. “He makes a good point, Jean-Michel. Other than a better claim to kill their alpha—which by the way, Darby, is complete bullshit—I think your mate has an excellent plan.”
“Peter, why don’t you take Darby back to the plantation and see to your mate. I don’t want the stress of this afternoon to jeopardize her pregnancy.”
Darby interrupted him. “Jean-Michel, no. I need to go. Heather and Maryann will never come with you willingly unless I’m there.”
“In case it’s missed your notice, I have become quite adept at bringing home little girls who don’t want to be brought.”
“Please, Jean-Michel. It would make it easier for them. If I subordinate my claim to yours to kill Bobby?”
“And you admit that you should have allowed me to kill him to begin with.”
She smiled. “Yes, Jean-Michel.”
JD snorted and the rest of the pack grinned. “I’m not quite sure which of you has the other wrapped around his or her little finger.”
* * *
After they bound and gagged the remaining members of Darby’s former pack, the plane took off and headed out over open water; it dipped below radar and Jed’s body, which had been weighted down, was tossed out the door. Watching the men who had once called him beta watch as his body was so casually disposed of gave Darby great satisfaction. They were now terrorized and she might have felt sorry for them except for the fact that she had spent several years in their company beaten and terrorized on a daily basis.
The plane landed on a long-abandoned airstrip. The pilot of the plane was himself a lone wolf and had informed Jean-Michel that should his services ever be needed, the New Orleans pack could count on him and his discretion.
Darby was happy to see Jackson get off the plane. Jean-Michel explained to her that he served as both driver and pilot. He greeted her warmly and brought the good wishes of the rest of the pack to her.
Jean-Michel dispersed his men and quickly had the farmhouse surrounded and the two women separated from the males of the pack. The women were brought out first. Both were overjoyed to see Darby and ran to embrace her.
“Bobby said he was bringing you back,” whispered Heather. “He is furious with you for leaving, for the beat-down you gave him a couple of years back and for now being with this pack.”
Darby smiled. “Bobby is, as ever, full of shit. Heather and Maryann, allow me the pleasure of introducing you to my mate, Jean-Michel Gautier, alpha of the New Orleans pack. My beloved, this is Heather and Maryann, the only bright spots in the darkness that was my existence here. I can’t tell you the number of times they nursed me back from the brink of death even though I didn’t want them to.”
Jean-Michel kissed each of their hands, noting to himself how rough and callused they were from hard work—much more than those of the men of this place. “If my Darby is here because of you then I owe you a debt I can never repay.”
The men were brought out and forced to their knees. Darby took Bobby’s cell phone and called the local bank arranging for the money to be transferred immediately to the plantation’s account.
“You can’t just come in here, steal my woman and all my money. I’m going to take you before the Council,” said Bobby as he got to his feet.
His one show of bravado quickly faded when Jean-Michel turned to look at him, his eyes blazing.
“You will take no one any place. Before the sun sets, you will be dead. You will die knowing that my mate was never yours. You may have possessed and abused her body, but she never belonged to you. You never knew the sweetness of her surrender or the heat of her passion. I have already informed the Council that by invading my city and kidnapping my mate that I would see you dead. I invited the Council to try to raise those packs that they could to try to stop me… they declined my invitation. You have a choice; I can kill you where you stand or you can challenge me to combat in either wolf or human form. If you choose the former, which I really hope you don’t, I will end your miserable existence quickly and relatively painlessly. Choose to fight and I will enjoy tearing you limb from limb and offering your entrails to my mate to burn.”
“Wait. Darby, you can’t let him kill me.”
“Oh, I didn’t want to, Bobby, but he didn’t want me to mess up my fifty-dollar manicure to do it myself.” She glanced down nonchalantly at her nails. “Damn, one of my nails has smudged.”
“Do not fret, beloved,” Jean-Michel said as he nuzzled her neck and wrapped his arm around her waist. “I’ll get you another manicure.” He turned back toward Bobby, whose face had lost all of its coloring. “Choose.”
“Jean-Michel?”
“Yes, my beloved?”
“Could you just kill him and be done with it. I’d like to get Maryann and Heather back to the plantation and I’m starving. I can’t wait to see what Claudine has prepared for supper.”
“Would that please you to see him die quickly?”
“I don’t particularly care how he dies as long as he’s dead. But I am hungry and I’d like to get the girls home and settled.”
“As you wish.” In the blink of an eye, Jean-Michel produced a scimitar dagger and neatly severed Bobby’s jugular vein. He was dead before he hit the ground. “Put the body in the farmhouse and set this place on fire. Cut the others loose and let’s get the ladies back to the plane.” Jean-Michel turned to the women. “Is there anything you wish to take with you? You will be provided with all that you need once we are home.”
Both women shook their heads. Before Darby could reach out to them, JD and Peter introduced themselves, took them by the hand, and led them toward the plane. Heather, who was being led away by JD, looked back at Darby.
Darby smiled. “He’s fine, Heather. JD is our beta and mated to one of my friends from Bae Diogel. He’s a good man, although I’d prefer if you kept my opinion of him to yourself.” Heather giggled as Darby had intended her to do. “Sweetheart, before we leave, can you get each of those two bastards to sign some sort of release so we don’t have to jump through all kinds of hoops to get their pairings dissolved?”
“It would be easier to kill them.”
“Yes, I know, but messier. You’d be happy to sign, wouldn’t you, boys?”
Both men nodded vehemently. Jean-Michel put something down on paper and had each man sign in his own blood. The house and out buildings were torched and the men cut loose. Jean-Michel led his people back to the plane.
Darby giggled. “Signing in blood? That was a bit much, don’t you think?”
Jean-Michel smiled. “Perhaps, but when those men speak of what happened here today, others may think twice before attacking us or treating their women badly. Before you even ask, I will not see them rushed into anything. I think they have suffered almost as much as you. We will let them heal. They will have our protection and no one, unless called to them as a fated mate, will have them without their wholehearted consent.”
“You do know I adore you, don’t you?”
“You’ve mentioned it a time or two but usually when tied to me or at the height of our passion. My fragile male ego may have to hear it more often than that.”
She laughed out loud. “There is nothing fragile about your ego, but I will endeavor to tell you so often you get sick of hearing it.”
“That, my beloved, would never happen.”
He wrapped his arm around her and headed for the plane to take them home.