Chapter 5

Nathan looked down at Dana's still form and seethed. Her naked flesh was covered in bruises, scratches, and welts. Even more astonishing, her captors had feared her enough to wrap her body in links upon burning links of silver. He dropped to his knees, and ignoring the sizzling pain, he grasped the silver chain and pulled it apart as easily as snapping thread. Her skin was chafed red and blistered where it had touched her, and he boiled with anger.

I'm going to kill them slowly and painfully. He'd reserve a painful punishment for the dirty miscreants-those who still lived, that was-who'd dared touch the woman he'd claimed as his when still only a boy. Never mind she'd run from him. Dana was, and always would be, his.

His beta appeared in the doorway and whistled as his keen gaze took in her state. "Holy fuck. What kind of sick bastards treat a woman like that?"

The kind who need to die twice. Nathan couldn't speak. He couldn't. Anger and grief over her condition choked him. He sniffed her, the stench of her pain and blood heavy enough to pull his wolf to the surface to growl at the insult done to his woman. But relief tinged his emotions, as he didn't find any traces of rape. Thank God. Healing her body would be easy given her lycanthrope blood.

Healing emotional trauma would have been a lot harder.

He scooped her up, her weight like nothing in his arms. He winced as her face spasmed into a grimace as he unwillingly caused her pain, but he had no choice. He couldn't leave her lying there for the amount of time she'd need to heal.

He cradled her to his chest, wishing he had a blanket to cover her as he strode past his beta, who had joined him in freeing Dana, along with several others from the pack.

John sucked in a breath as he got a closer look at her. "Damn. They beat the living crap out of her."

"Gee, I hadn't noticed," Nathan replied through gritted teeth. "Status report."

"Eleven of the bastards are dead, but the leader and several others got away. We saw evidence of others living here, women too, but they appear to be gone."

Nathan turned a cold gaze onto his beta. "I want the cowards found and brought back to me-alive. Especially the leader." He had plans for the bastard, painful plans.

"Eddie and Joe are already tracking them."

"Good. Let's get her home." Nathan emerged from the cellar of the dwelling in which they'd found her imprisoned. In the light of the fires burning as his men set the makeshift compound alight, Dana appeared even frailer, her injuries more glaringly bright. Nathan breathed deep of the vengeance he'd wrought. The scent of carnage hung in the air, a miasma of violence that would serve as warning, hopefully, that his pack meant business. Touch my woman, and face the consequences.

It mattered not that he hadn't officially marked her or that she'd fled him so long ago. She is mine. How she'd managed to evade for so long not only him but also the scores of other Lycans hot on her trail was a mystery. Her scent shone like a bright beacon that drove him wild with an urge to possess her, to mark and claim her. And claim you I will, willing or not. I won't let you leave me again.

The growl of his Jeep as it approached made him hug her to him tighter. Kody was at the wheel, and with a flourish, he swung it into the gravel drive and leaned over to open the passenger door, flashing a white-toothed grin.

"I see you caught the runaway. Awesome." His smile faltered as he caught a glimpse of her. "What the fuck did they do to her?"

Nathan just growled.

John replied, "Apparently, they mistook her for a punching bag. Ignore Nathan. He's just bent 'cause she fainted when she saw him. Can't say as I blame her. That's one ugly-ass mug he's got."

If Nathan's cargo hadn't meant more than his pride, he'd have punched his best friend's lights out. As it was, he made a mental note to do so later.

Kody, usually the jovial one, didn't reply to the banter. It seemed he couldn't tear his green eyes from her unconscious form. "Is she going to be okay?"

"She will be," Nathan replied-she has to be.

John opened the rear passenger door and hopped in before holding out his arms to take Dana. Nathan just glared at him. No one would touch her until he'd made her irrevocably his. He wouldn't take any more chances.

John snorted. "You can't get in while holding her, man. You might end up hurting her more. She's not going anywhere, and I'm not going to steal her. Tell your beast to take a pill."

Nathan sighed. His rational side understood John was right, but he still found it hard to hand her over, even for the few seconds it took to clamber into the backseat and get her back. He didn't like the keen interest both his friends showed in her. Sharing Dana wasn't a part of his new plan, not knowing what he did about her.

Her face contorted for a moment in pain at the shuffle as they got situated, and Nathan's rage bubbled up all over again. If only I'd caught up to her sooner, this would have never happened. "Get the syringe," he barked.

"She's gonna be pissed if you dope her," John remarked as he leaned over the seat to grab the med kit in the back.

"She's going to be pissed no matter what once she wakes up. I'd rather that not happen until we've made it back to the compound." He left unsaid, where running away will be a lot harder now since we beefed up security.

John rummaged in the kit until he located the needle filled with a tranquilizer, a must for the times they needed to bring in a wild rogue for questioning or, in this case, a reluctant female.

"Go ahead." Nathan watched as John pricked her shoulder and depressed the plunger. At the sharp prick, Dana's eyes shot open, wild with anger and pain.

"You bastard," she spat. "I'm gonna-gonnaÉ" Her voice trailed off as the heavy-duty tranq put her back to sleep, a deep one that she wouldn't wake from until he had her right where he wanted her-in his house and in his bed.

John handed him a blanket as Kody took off with spinning tires. Nathan tucked it around her as best he could, uncaring of his own nudity. John managed with some contorting to get into his tracksuit and waved Nathan's at him.

"Come on, man. Hand her back over for a second and get your bare ass covered. No one wants to see your dick. Besides, I want to get our deposit back on this baby from the rental place. I don't need your ass sweat stinking it up and costing us extra."

John's humor pulled a smile from Nathan, and he handed his precious burden over to his beta, only long enough to pull on his own clothing. He had to admit he did feel a little better clothed. He also took an extra moment to get his boots on. Dressed, he held out his arms, and John, with a wry smile at his impatience, handed Dana back. Nathan settled her into his arms and finally relaxed enough to look at her and past the bruises marring her skin.

She'd changed in the last twelve years, matured. She'd let her hair grow out, and it tumbled about her in a messy golden wave. Her skin, the parts unmarked by violence, was lightly tanned and just as soft as he remembered, he found, when he traced a finger across the curve of her cheek to lips still plump and full. She'd lost the softness of youth, just like he had, but he didn't mind the toned muscles he'd noticed in her arms or the flat ridges of her stomach. A life on the run spent in defense mode would make anyone hard. He'd soon see to it that she regained the soft life she deserved.

He stroked her hair with a gentleness his friends would look askance at. He'd been anything but gentle these last couple of years. He hadn't had a choice. With the Lycan population explosion across the country, and the increase in rogues, survival was for the fittest only. As pack alpha, he'd fought to get his position, fought his own father, as a matter of fact, who refused to face the fact that the world had changed and they needed to change with it. But that had been only the beginning of his battles. He'd invested time, sweat, and money into making their compound secure, in making life for his pack a better one.

Yet, in everything he'd done, he'd never forgotten his primary purpose-find Dana and make her his.

To have her so close to him again, even pissed off and injured, completed something in him. She represented the missing puzzle piece in his life, and he'd never let her go again. Even better, he'd do his best to make sure she never wanted to leave.

If she didn't kill him first.