Alpha Prime: Shiftily Ever After(53)

“Fine. I’ll stand with you, then,” Tina said. “I’m taking you to him now.”

“You shouldn’t,” Dakota said tiredly. “This isn’t your fight. It’s okay. He may come around when he sees me.”

“Why don’t you want to kill him?” Tina demanded, her voice rising to a shrill whine. “You’re willing to forgive him after he tried to force you to marry a gross pig like Roy? Even after you saw him naked in bed with scratches all over his body?”

Dakota went still.

“How did you know about the scratches?”

Tina snorted in annoyance.

“You told me about them. Wouldn’t shut up about them.”

She stepped on the gas, whipping around the curvy mountain roads.

“Whoa, watch it,” Dakota yelled. “And no, I didn’t. I absolutely never told you about them.”

“After everything I’ve done for you, risking my life to help you escape, you’re calling me a liar?” Tina wailed.

“Figures,” Maureen said bitterly. “Ingrate.”

Dakota stifled a flare of anger and scowled at the back of Tina’s head. “If you’re claiming that I told you about the scratches, then yes, you’re a liar.”

Tina pulled onto a straight stretch of road and sped up even more. “Then you showed me the picture. I don’t know, that was weeks ago.”

“I never showed you the picture or told you,” Dakota protested. “And why are you in such a hurry? Where are we even going? Slow down!”

Tina didn’t answer her.

“Where did you get a car from so quickly?” Dakota asked. That should have occurred to her before she climbed in.

Tina and Maureen just stared ahead, silent now.

“You were the one who took the picture,” Dakota said as they sped down the road. “You had sex with my fiancé and sent me the picture. That’s why you wanted me to leave town. Because you wanted Roy for yourself.”

“For all the good it did me,” Tina snarled. “I figured he’d come to his senses after you left town, but he’s already sniffing after some other rich bitch. I guess I was good enough to screw but not good enough to marry. All he wanted was to marry somebody else with money.”

“You idiot, I could have told you that,” Dakota said furiously.

Then light dawned on her. “You knew that Jamie Roberts was coming up here to death-challenge the Alpha Prime, didn’t you? You sent me up here thinking I’d be killed.”

Tina let out a harsh, braying laugh. “Jamie actually came to me and asked me to help her escape. Hilarious, isn’t it?”

Her mother joined her in laughter.

“You should have been a standup comedienne,” Dakota said coldly. “Where is Jamie Roberts now?”

“Six feet under. Where you’ll be soon.”

Tina came to a curve in the road and stopped.

“Ludwik’s going to marry me,” she bragged. “All I had to do was promise to deliver you to him. I’ll finally be with the kind of man I deserve. An Alpha Prime.”

Dakota scrambled out of the car. Tina and Maureen climbed out too.

“When did you even meet him?” Dakota asked, stalling for time, trying to figure out what to do next.

“When you called your dad yesterday, I found out about it and called Ludwik. We had a nice little chat. Your dad flew me out here with the rest of the pack; he didn’t know I’d be the death of you. And now I’m going to be an Alpha Prime’s mate.”

“He’s hideous, did you know that?” Dakota’s stomach lurched at the thought of anyone being with Ludwik.

“You stupid bitch. Who cares?” Tina shrieked. “I’ll be rich! And powerful! I’ll hunt down everybody who ever made fun of me for having holes in my clothes, and my mate will tear their throats out while I watch!” Tina’s eyes gleamed with madness. Maureen grinned, a hideous rictus, and nodded eagerly. Tina truly was her mother’s daughter.

Dakota could smell dozens of shifters, and they were closing in on them fast, racing through the trees. Her heart hammered in her chest. She would shift and fight to the death. She wouldn’t run; she wouldn’t give them the satisfaction.

“After all these years,” Maureen said, her tone gloating. “After everything we’ve sacrificed. Your daddy’s going to be sorry he didn’t marry me when he had the chance, because we’re going to make him watch you die before we kill him.”

“My father, marry you? Why the hell would he ever have married you?” Dakota stared at Maureen in bewilderment.

“Because I got your mother out of the way with that ‘car accident’.” Maureen made air quotes as she said it. “And then I let him know I was available to him. And he turned me down, again and again, because he was soooo sad his bitch wife was dead, even though I’m a million times prettier than that fat whore ever was.”