Caught Beast Mate(48)

Two choices. Both shitty. One, maul him down, take a chunk out of him, kill him, and be done with the biggest threat to my mating and my life. He would never give me Sienna. I highly doubted he’d sell her or even let me within a fifty-mile radius of her. To get her, I would have to kill him. Sienna would watch me killing her father. Forgiveness? Not happening. She’d never forgive me. What was more, she’d have nightmares. Two, I could let him shoot me.

“It is you,” he confirmed when I didn’t respond. “Baby girl, go on outside. There’s a horse in the stable. Get on the horse and meet me at marker twelve. So fucking proud of you for marking. So proud.” He fisted his hand and thumped his chest. “And you,” he told me. “I got two big-ass bullets saved up just for you. Carved your name on both of them. Don’t move. You ain’t faster than my twitchy finger.” He paused, and we waited for Sienna to take her leave. I could kill him then. Maybe. Or maybe he was that fast. Still, she wouldn’t forgive me.

“Don’t shoot him, Daddy. He saved my life.”

He glanced at her. I stayed crouched, didn’t use her distraction to take him down. I put my fate in her hands. Whatever she wanted to do with me, I accepted. I accepted it when she tried to kill me, and I’d accept it now. I loved her with my whole heart. If she didn’t want me, I ought to die anyway.

“Get on that horse. Marker twelve. That’s where I’ll meet you. We’re going home.”

“Don’t shoot him. Promise you won’t shoot him.”

“Don’t you worry about him.” To me, he said, “You got my baby girl all worked up for you. You fucked with her head, ha? Took advantage of her? Oh, I’m gonna love this, been fantasizing about it ever since you took her. You went back to Big Bear. Then you went looking for her down at the community. I saw you. We don’t do communities, ’cause assholes like you would wanna come in and buy my kid. No fucking way. It’s me, my girl, and our cat. That’s all we need. You fucked that up, and now, you will pay.”

“I can’t leave him,” Sienna said.

What?

The man glanced outside, then back at me, but he spoke with her. “I got two minutes. It’s now, Sienna, or never. I gotta end him, ’cause he’ll never stop chasing after you. They call it mating. They can’t stop. Gotta shoot the motherfucker, kill him dead.”

Why only two minutes? “You got backup coming?” Was it Men of Earth? I presumed Momma Jo had somehow made contact with Men of Earth. Hell, she could’ve snuck out one of the girls, set her out on a mission to go wherever those men dwelled, told them about the community with only three beasts guarding it. Easy prey.

Sienna stayed.

Her dad didn’t move, though he sweated over his brow and wiped it with the back of his hand.

Above us, dull engine noise sounded. It could only be one thing. One of our pods.

A thud came next. The pod landed hard. Someone jumped off, his feet hard-hitting the sand, then he walked and entered the sanctuary.

More feet followed. I believed a team of beasts surrounded the community.

Whoever it was, his appearance didn’t alarm her dad, and the beast wasn’t in a hurry.

There. A kilted beast came from behind the door and paused, shoulder to shoulder with Sienna’s dad. His blond hair was braided, the end reaching the small of his back. Mayhem.

“You’re late,” Sienna’s dad said. “As am I.”

Mayhem scanned the bodies, his head turning from left to right until he spotted Hasel. A painful, quiet whine sounded from his chest. He stepped over the bodies to reach her then he picked her up and kissed her forehead. Behind me, Sienna cried.

Mayhem walked outside.

A pain-filled cry ripped through the community. Lore was here too.

I answered his cry with my own.





Chapter Twenty-Two





Sienna



The beasts howled all around us, but my dad and I stared at each other. I didn’t know if I cried for Hasel or if I cried happy tears that Daddy had found me. I rushed to him, hugged him tight, and inhaled. Daddy smelled like cheap tobacco and gunpowder. I grabbed a fistful of his T-shirt and cried harder.

He rubbed my back. “It’s okay. Everything’s gonna be fine. We’re going home.”

“I can’t believe you’re here. I hoped I’d see you again, but…” I choked on my tears.

Big brave men didn’t cry, so he kept clearing his throat. He stepped back, moving me with him. Behind me, something thumped. I startled and spun around. Torrent had collapsed. I crouched next to him and grabbed him by one shoulder. I lifted. Nothing. I couldn’t flip him. Gosh, he weighed a ton. When he was thin and underfed, I’d barely dragged him to the community, and now, after he’d regained some of his weight, I couldn’t move him. I tucked my hands under his armpits and pulled. Nothing. Okay, so it wasn’t happening.