Grayslake: Furrever Yours(9)

“I doubt she was injured that badly,” Eugene scoffed. “Humans lie all the time.”

“There were bloodstains on the sheets, and security video at the hospital shows one of the nurses carrying her in, completely limp, in his arms.”

“There’s no security videos showing her leaving?”

“No, unfortunately, there are no security cameras in the back lot, which is the last place I scented her,” Knox said. And because of the hospital’s security system, he knew there was only one way she could have gotten out the back – with an employee’s help. He strongly suspected that had been Heather, but he wasn’t handing Heather over to the Northeast Alpha, no matter what.

Eugene let out a heavy sigh. “She was probably unconscious because she’d been drinking, to be honest with you,” the Alpha said. “I am not saying that my son made the best choice with this female, but her pack came to an agreement that she would be my son’s mate, and she will honor that agreement.” Eugene’s son Kevin had left New York and moved to Pennsylvania to start his own pack.

“Her pack came to an agreement…she didn’t?” Knox felt the twist of uneasiness inside him grow.

“She was on board with it one hundred percent.”

If that was the case, why hadn’t Eugene said that in the first place? Knox had the uncomfortable feeling that the Alpha was lying. “And she and her pack benefitted from it financially – they were given additional land from our territory, and a substantial dowry. And then she spent the money and ran off, after rifling through my son’s wallet, because apparently, although she is very attractive and comes from a line of strong Alphas, she is also flighty and unreliable. I am not denying that my son was thinking with his dick when he made this arrangement, but it is an insult to our honor to have her flee this mating, and therefore she will be brought back to our territory to fulfill her duty. Do I make myself clear?”

The Alpha in Knox was starting to get pissed off at Eugene’s tone.

“Why do you even want her back, if she’s not only flighty and unreliable, but a thief and a drunk?” he asked. “What kind of mother would she be to his cubs? Why not just announce that your son has dumped her and have him pick a more suitable mate?”

“Because everyone knows that she ran off, which makes my son’s pack look weak. That will not be tolerated. You will return her. Again – do I make myself clear?”

Knox let out a low, rumbling growl, and was about to tell Eugene to shove it when Clarence grabbed his phone away and turned it off.

“I’m sorry, Alpha,” Clarence said with a respectful bow of his head. “It’s better that he thinks you hung up on him than hear what you were just about to say.”

“Fuck my life,” Knox grumbled.

Couldn’t something for once go his damn way?

For the last year, he’d been achingly in love with a human woman whom he could never mate – because the existence of shifters had to stay a secret. If she knew about shifters, she would either have to agree to be his mate, or be put down.

He’d known from the minute he’d first scented her that she was meant to be his. That was why, when he’d first met her, he’d fled the accident scene as if his fur were on fire. She was human – he couldn’t have her.

He hadn’t been sure if he was delighted or horrified when it had turned out that, by amazing coincidence, she’d moved to his area. Going into the emergency room where she worked was sweet torture. He could see her, scent her – but not touch her.

All he wanted to do was grab her and pull her to him, to tear off her clothes and claim her as his. When he saw other men talking to her, he had to fight with every ounce of strength not to lunge at them and rip their faces off.

The other week he’d seen her holding the hand of a seventy-five-year-old with a broken hip.

Knox had wanted to kill him.

He knew he’d been getting more and more surly over the past year, and he hated it. He didn’t want to be like this.

And now this. There was something fishy going on here with this Margaret Romaine, and he was afraid of what he’d find when he tracked her down. Afraid that he would be faced with the option of handing her over to an abusive mate, or standing up against the Alpha of the entire Northeast – which would mean death at least for him, if not his entire pack.

He rubbed his face wearily with his hands. Heather knew something. She was a terrible liar. He’d have to stop by her house today to talk to her, he realized, but he’d at least let her get some sleep after her overnight shift.