Her Brother, Her Mate

“You asked for me?” I said mockingly.

“You!?” she hisses, “You are the one? The gamma’s daughter?”

“The one and only,” I stated, twirling the cattle rod around in my hand.

“You killed him. You killed my love,” her screechy, hissy voice carries so much venom it makes me smile in amusement.

“I certainly had a hand in it, yes. Or a snout….around his head.”

Her ear-piercing scream makes Alpha Jared cringe, holding his head, but I fight the urge to react, standing before her defiantly, with a cocky smile on my face.

“Jeez, it’s nothing to lose your head over,” I muttered, angering her further, making her flail around in the shackles. Her chalky skin hisses with the movement but she doesn’t react to that pain.

“Your b***d will be mine. I will relish the agony being slowly drained gives you,” she hisses.

“Kinky. So, should I continue where those men left off or would you like to go ahead and tell me who the 3rd vampire was that was with you?”

“I will tell you nothing. I just wanted to lay eyes on the one I would obliterate to take revenge for the death of our lord. For the death of my love. Your father destroyed our Northern coven. The least I can do is destroy his daughter.”

“What?” I asked, confused. My father destroyed her Northern coven? What northern coven? Did she mean Alpha Jared? No, she asked for the gamma’s daughter. My dad hasn’t been up to Canada in years, so she can’t mean him.

Gamma’s daughter….I’m not the only gamma’s daughter here. It’s not me she wants, but Courtney.

“What brought you down here from the North?” I probed, nonchalantly walking back to the table with the different instruments. I picked up a pair of pliers and the blow torch.

“I tell you nothing,” she hisses again.

I nodded, lighting the blow torch and running it across the long pliers.

“What are you doing?” Alpha Jared tightens his eyes at my actions.

“Interrogating,” I mutter, focused on the pliers so I don’t burn myself.

“She said she wasn’t going to say anything else. You are not yet an adult and you’re a woman. You can’t torture prisoners.”

I huffed, turning to face him with the pliers and blowtorch still in my hands, “I know what I’m doing.”

He glares back, “Irrelevant. It’s not your place.”

“Okay, here.” I handed him the tools in my hand. “I’ll just stand back here for moral support. Go get her, sport,” I muttered sarcastically.

He takes the instruments to the table and sets them down, then picks back up the silver-laced whip. Of course, he picks the instrument that gives him the most distance from the prisoner. Wouldn’t want more b***d to get under his nails.

Alpha Jared stands behind the hissing woman, then rains down 3 lashes on her back, causing her to shriek and cry out in agony. When he stops, he comes around to stand in front of her.

“What Northern coven are you from?” he asks in a hard voice.

“I tell you nothing,” she hisses once again. He shrugs, nodding at her in a cocky, arrogant way, then goes back behind her, raining 4 more lashes on her exposed skin. The smell of rotten b***d and burning flesh fills the room and I fight the urge to gag. Rogue vampire b***d is the most repulsive stench I have ever smelled. It’s like decaying corpses, infection and hot garbage all in one.

Once again, Alpha Jared comes back to face her panting, deranged face.

“Are there others like you here in Miami?”

“I tell you nothing!” she shouts.

He goes back and whips her again. This time, she thrashes so violently, she almost swings her body hard enough to knock him off his feet. He huffs in exasperation, then sets his whip on the table and picks up a cloth to wipe his hands.

“We’re done here,” he states, urging me to walk out the door.

“We didn’t get her to say anything, though,” I argued.

“Tony and I were in here for hours and it’s the same thing. I’m not going to waste my time any longer. We’re surrendering her to Queen Aisling’s soldiers in a few hours. Any further torture and she will be impossible to transfer.”

“She asked for me, though. If you let me, I could get her to talk,” I gripped at him, not wanting to give up.

“I told you that it is not your place,” he commanded in a hard voice, giving me no room to argue.

I grumble a curse he chooses to ignore, then look back at the woman one last time. Her red, bruised eyes are fixed on me, like she’s studying my profile, committing it to memory. I can faintly detect a smirk as she watches me leave, but her mouth is still so mangled it’s hard to tell.

When we’re out of the cell, I turn and start yelling at Alpha Jared.

“Why am I not allowed to interrogate her? You’re letting her go when she has made it clear that I’m her target!”

“She said she was after the gamma’s daughter who destroyed her Northern coven. We are almost as far south as you can get and neither I nor Thomas have been to the north in years. She was just talking nonsense. You couldn’t get anything more than we did,” he tells me coldly.

“I’m not the gamma’s daughter she was referring to! She was talking about my cousin. I guarantee she has a grudge against Gamma Nathan and wants to kill Courtney to avenge ‘her lord’ or whatever she said. She not only thinks I’m Courtney, she knows I killed her mate and am the reason she was captured. Don’t you think that gives me the right to get as much information out of her as I can?”

“She is after Courtney?” my dad asked in confusion.

I nodded, “She said something about her northern coven being destroyed.”

“Nathan took out a rogue coven several months ago,” he informs us. “Let’s get back to the packhouse and we can ask him about it.”

“I have plans,” Alpha Jared tells us.

“Good. You aren’t invited,” I glared at him. He huffs in minor annoyance but just shakes his head and walks off.

“Am I invited?” Beta Anthony asks, trying to lighten the mood.

“Sure. You can join us for dinner. We’re grilling,” dad tells him.

When we got back to the packhouse, I texted Parker and let him know I was home. He was knocking at my door half a minute later.

“Were you waiting for me?” I laughed, letting him in.

“Maybe,” he smirks, giving me a brief hug and kissing my cheek. The feeling from his touch,and his soft lips on my cheek send heat and faint sparks across my skin, and I cling tighter to him unintentionally.

“You smell off. Where were you?” he asks, sniffing me.

“Down in the basement of the guard building. That rogue vamp was asking for me,” I told him.

“For you? Why?”

“I think she wanted to see Courtney. She kept asking for the gamma’s daughter, but didn’t specify me exactly.” I tell Parker about my suspicions about Uncle Nathan taking out her coven in the north, and he agrees that’s probably what it is about.

“Your dad is such a prick,” I mutter, stripping so I can take a shower. Parker follows me to the bathroom, and though I can feel his eyes on me, he doesn’t comment about me stripping in front of him. I turned on the shower, then turned to face him as I waited for the water to heat up. “He wouldn’t let me do anything besides ask her a few questions.”

He shrugs, leaning back against the bathroom counter. “You know as well as I do that he doesn’t think women should be warriors. My grandma was one, and I think he resented her for putting her work over him. He thinks she-wolves should stay home and be devoted to their mate.”Content (C) Nôv/elDra/ma.Org.

“Do you feel that way,” I tightened my eyes as I stared at him.

He smiles and shakes his head, “I think it’s sexy knowing you can kick my a*s. I want you to be able to handle yourself in any situation.”

“Good,” I smirked at him.

I showered quickly, trying to ignore the fact that Parker was watching me as we continued to chat. Nudity is something I’ve always been comfortable with, but for some reason I’m feeling self-conscious as Parker’s eyes trail over my body. He doesn’t say anything inappropriate, or try to touch me, but I can see the desire in his eyes when I glance over, and it’s making my own start to build. Washing my body, my skin feels strangely sensitized and I have to concentrate extra hard to not react to the sensation.

“Did you hear me?” Parker’s voice broke my concentration.

“Huh?” I glanced over at him, cutting the water off and wrapping a towel around my body.

“I asked what you’re doing tonight?”

“Oh,” I bite my l*p and look up at him as I exit the shower. “We’re grilling fish my uncle caught with Casey and Courtney.” I step in front of him and offer him a shy smile as he pushes a wet tendril out of my face. “Want to come?”