Chapter Three
Demon had no clear recollection of how he got out of the cage, or how he came to be standing in the car park three feet from his mate and her tormentor. He had a vague recollection of throwing the wolf over the top of the electric fence, but after that it was a blur. He didn’t really give a fuck how he did it. His focus was completely locked on the wolf with his hands on his mate.
“You think this submissive bitch is your mate?” the asshole answered, shaking the woman slightly. Demon’s beast grunted in anger at the sight of her wince of pain.
“Like I said,” Demon said, his voice garbled as his beast pushed forward, “unless you have a desire to inspect your own intestines up close and real fucking personal, you will let. My. Mate. Go.”
Demon heard the sounds of car doors slamming behind him, but his focus never wavered. He saw his mate glance behind him, and he figured more of this asshole’s friends had just walked up behind him.
The man who now topped his shit list grinned at him, and Demon saw his fingers tightening in the woman’s hair. “This bitch is part of my pack and therefore she belongs to me.”
Demon growled when the bastard used his hold on her to pull her to her feet.
“And I do not share. So, Razorback, I’ll leave you with a few of my men while I take my bitch home.”
Demon grunted as a chain fell over his head and pulled tight around his neck. He lifted his hands to try to pull the metal away from his windpipe, but he was grabbed by multiple hands from behind, holding him still.
“No! Don’t hurt him!” his mate cried out and his beast froze at the concern in her tone. When the asshole reached a partially shifted hand to wrap around her throat, everything within him tensed. Demon growled when he watched a steady stream of blood slide down his woman’s neck from where the bastard pressed a shifted claw into her skin.
“I wouldn’t worry so much about what’s about to happen to the pig.”
His mate flinched when the prick slid his tongue down the side of her neck, tracking the blood and making obscene sounds of pleasure. “If I were you, I would be more concerned about what I am going to do to you once we get back home.”
Demon remained still, watching as his mate was dragged into the truck behind them. He could taste her fear in the air, and for that alone, there would be a river of bloodshed this night. But seeing the apology lingering in her eyes and the hopelessness flashing across her expression, he would make sure her tormentor took a long while to die.
He knew there were five wolf shifters standing behind him, and he flinched as they started to pound on him, taking particular care to hit him where he was already wounded. Demon kept his gaze on the truck until he was dragged to the ground, and they started kicking him. He waited another few moments to ensure the truck was out of view before he swung both legs around in a full circle, moving the wolf pack off him enough so that he could get to his feet.
“Well, lookie here,” the wolf standing directly in front of him drawled. “The Razorback wants to go a round or three. Where was this fight when the bitch was still here? What’s the matter, pig, you don’t want anyone to see you lose a fight?”
Demon turned to look at the mouthy wolf, and grinned, embracing the red-hazed bloodlust of his beast. “I don’t want to scare my mate with the reality of the beast she has been bound to. I figured I’d wait until she was out of sight before I let my boar loose on you assholes, and he bathes in your fucking blood.”
The wolves all frowned. They thought five of them could bring him down? Fuck. No. They should have brought the whole damn pack. When he fought as a man, he was formidable. If they faced his beast, then they’d better pray for a quick death. He was the Razorback Demon, and when it came to being an apex predator, there was no one and nothing higher than he.
Demon threw his head back with a roar as he gave himself over to his beast. In a flash of white pain, and the shimmer of ecstasy that came with a shift, he embraced the change and became his boar. He made his beast promise he would leave at least one of the fuckers alive enough for Demon to question his mate’s whereabouts before they killed him. Then he slipped back and allowed his animal the destruction he had been denied too long.
****
Ana whimpered and shivered as she crouched in the corner of the concrete bunker she’d been pushed into. The cells were located a distance from the main living quarters for the pack, and Ana had always thought that was so no one would be bothered by the screams. It wasn’t the first time Jasper had put her here since he and Ezra had arrived, but it was probably going to be the last. There was no way he would allow Ana to live now, and if the truth be told, if what he had threatened her with on the drive back to their pack lands came to fruition, she didn’t want to survive it. She would rather drift into the arms of her ancestors.
She pressed the palm of her left hand to her chest at the pain that had settled there. Dying would mean not seeing Demon again, and her heart ached at the thought. She had heard of the Razorback Demon, of course, but she would never have thought he would be her mate. She had no idea how a mating between one of the most dominant shifters of their time and a submissive wolf could work. All she knew was the thought of not seeing him again left her feeling bereft.
Ana flinched as the door at the top of the stairs slammed against the concrete wall, and the slow methodical sound of someone descending the stairs had fear spiraling within her. Her heart pounded and her breathing raced as Jasper stepped into view at the bottom of the stairs.
“Ahhh, there’s my timid little submissive.” His voice made her skin crawl and she bit off a whimper of fear. “Don’t hold back those sweet sounds, Ana. You know how much I love to hear them.” Jasper briefly closed his eyes as he inhaled deeply. “They are almost as big a turn on for me as the sweet aroma of your fear. If only I could bottle that shit. I would make a fucking fortune.”
Jasper swaggered over to the door of her cell. “I am really looking forward to tonight. I figure by morning I would have fucked you out of my system, and ready to move on. I reckon there won’t be much left of you, but whatever there is, I have promised the boys they can have at it. Especially the group on their way back now. Your mate didn’t put up much of a fight in the end.”
“H-he’s dead?” she whispered brokenly.
“Of course he’s fucking dead.” Jasper sneered. “What the hell did you think was going to happen? One fucking shifter against five of our strongest wolves was not going to end any other way. Hell, perhaps the fucker welcomed death in the end. Maybe he saw what the Fates had destined for him and figured that was a much better option for him.”
Ana felt tears swell at the thought her mate would rather embrace death than face a future with her. But then again, what did she have to offer him? The slide of metal against metal pulled her from her own thoughts as Jasper slid a key into the lock of her door. She scrambled to her feet as it swung open.
Jasper stepped inside with an evil grin. “You gonna put up a fight, Ana? God, I hope so. There is nothing I love more than a woman who puts up some resistance. You wanna fight, love, then do it well because I am going to love every fucking minute.”
Ana made a vow to herself that, submissive or not, she would not stop fighting. She took a steadying breath as Jasper began to stalk toward her. Her wolf whimpered, urging her to run. But there was nowhere to go. When Jasper was close to her, she felt a sudden rare streak of rebellion slam through her and she slapped him as hard as she could with her right hand.
Jasper’s head whipped to the left and the coppery scent of blood sparked between them. Ana wanted to cheer at the thought she might have hurt him, but when he turned to look at her, Ana saw lust shimmering in his gaze.
“First blood to you, Ana.” Jasper’s voice was thick with arousal. “But I assure you, the last will be to me!”
Ana screamed as Jasper lunged forward, wrapping both hands around her throat. Both froze when a low growling sound came from outside. A sound so chilling it had the hair standing up at the back of her neck.
Shouts of alarm from the men Jasper had no doubt brought with him could be heard, but they soon morphed into screams of panic and pain. All the while the continuous growl of an animal filled with rage could be heard.
Ana couldn’t stop her small smile as she looked up at Jasper. “Perhaps the reports of my mate’s death were, as they say, greatly exaggerated?”
Jasper’s gaze narrowed and his face flushed with anger. This was the first time she had ever said anything to him that wasn’t a stuttered plea.
Ana saw the back hand coming and tried to move with the blow to lessen the impact, but with Jasper’s other hand still wrapped around her throat, there was no escape. The crack of his hand against her cheek echoed in the room and she fell to the side. She slumped on the concrete floor in shock, and felt the warm slide of her own blood down her chin as she watched him stride to the cage door and lock it from the inside.
“He can’t fucking save you, Ana,” Jasper spat. “He—”
The sound of the door upstairs exploding inward shocked them both. Demon stepped into the room a few seconds later. Ana gasped at the sight of him. There were ugly dark bruises forming along both sides of his torso. He was bleeding from at least three gunshot wounds that she could see and his face was a mass of blood and swelling.
“You wanna make a bet on that, wolf?” Demon said in a voice thick with anger as he turned to face the door of the cage. “How about this? You give her to me now, I leave your limbs attached.”
Jasper growled low in this chest and Ana felt the oppressive weight of his dominance fill the room, but Demon didn’t even flinch. “Like I told you, pig, she’s mine. Ezra has decreed that she is mine and I can and will do anything I like to her.”
As if to prove his point, Jasper strode over, pulled back his leg and kicked her hard in the stomach. Ana cried out as she curled in on herself for protection.
“Fuck!” Demon screamed as he gripped the bars of the cage, his entire body swelling with the effort he used trying to pry the bars apart. Over the sounds of her own pained breathing, she heard the grinding noise that meant he’d actually managed to move the bars. “Open this fucking door, dog, or I swear to God I will burn this fucking pack to the motherfucking ground!”
Jasper laughed evilly as he kicked her once more and then moved with supernatural speed to the bars and slammed his fist into Demon’s nose. Ana saw the eruption of blood that accompanied the hit, but Demon never stopped his efforts to bend the bars.
“I’ll let the bitch go, pig, but you can watch me fuck her first.” Jasper sneered as he began to pull off his shirt. “But I warn you, you may not want her when I’m done.”
Demon went ballistic at the cage door, snarling and cursing, and Ana saw his eyes glow red as he suddenly stepped back from the cage.
His gaze met hers, and she thought she saw regret in his eyes. Was he just going to leave? Was Jasper right in his assumption that Demon really didn’t want her as a mate? She was still grappling with that when Demon threw his head back on a roar that shifted into a snarl of rage as he exploded into his boar. The animal was huge. If she were standing, he would be taller than her five-foot-five frame. He was a dark brindle color, and his eyes were a blood red that had her wolf cowering in fear.
Jasper looked at the giant razorback in horror as the boar charged the door of the cage, slamming his huge head into the bars, bending them in the process, his massive tusks reaching through the bars and slicing a deep gash in Jasper’s thigh.
Jasper cried out as he dropped to the ground, sliding back further into the cell, pressing his hands to the wound that bled furiously. Ana remained where she was, the dominance so strong in the small space she wasn’t sure she would be able to stand against it.
The boar moved back, that eerie continuous growl echoing around the room. The volume escalated as the animal dragged its front right hoof through the dirt and then launched itself at the bars which buckled even further. On the next run, the boar would be in the cage with them.
Jasper cursed and he appeared to shimmer before her for a moment, and then a giant gray wolf stood in his place. Blood still dripped steadily from its hind leg. She thought perhaps Jasper would wait and engage the boar when it got into the cage, or perhaps would attempt to evade the massive animal and escape. She realized how naïve she truly was when the wolf’s head turned in her direction. The arctic blue eyes of their kind locking with laser-like intensity on her.
Time slowed to a crawl. She watched the muscles in the wolf’s body tense to launch itself in her direction, and when she turned to the boar, she saw the look of rage in the animal’s eyes as he screamed his displeasure and threw himself toward the cage door at the same time the wolf moved in her direction.
With a calm that belied the danger she was in, she watched as both animals charged. She knew it would be a close race. Either Jasper would reach her first and she would be rushed into the arms of her ancestors, or her mate would get to her in time. She looked past Jasper and stared at her mate as he rushed the cage. Even in this form, he was breathtaking to watch. Ana lifted her arm almost absentmindedly and Jasper’s teeth ripped through the tender skin and flesh of her forearm. She heard the bone snap as the wolf shook her so hard her head slammed back against the concrete wall. Ana took comfort in the fact that the last thing she saw before the darkness claimed her was her mate, charging into the cage like the harbinger of death itself and she knew she would be avenged.