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Todos los capítulos de Reclaiming His Mate: Capítulo 41 - Capítulo 50

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41

He nodded and left.“Did he know we were having a meeting?” she asked.“I have no idea.”The three oncoming vehicles pulled in around those belonging to my packmates, flattening the grass and suffusing the air with the acrid stench of exhaust. David emerged from his truck alongside Colt and Catrina. A tall man from one of the cars stepped out with long, shiny blond hair and malevolent dark eyes, dressed in various blacks: denim, leather. Several more people with gaunt faces and pale hair appeared alongside the wolves I recognized from Dalesbloom. Everyone was armed with the PMR-30 handguns that David had retrieved from his latest shipment. David took a stand on the front lawn, looking nicely groomed just for the occasion, with his grey beard trimmed and white dress shirt buttoned beneath a blue tie. “Alpha Gavin,” he boomed, “Dalesbloom has business to settle with you.”My stomach sickened. I glanced at Catrina standing beside David, her face sharp and glacial, scratches on her shoul

42

“Dad?” Even Catrina was oblivious.“What’s he talking about?” asked Colt.“Grandbay’s previous Alphas, Martin and Bria Steele, were slain by Inkscale dragons. I made a deal with Lothair to hide his clan from the Mythguard when it formed three years ago in exchange for weakening Grandbay,” David confessed.Fire hotter than ever before raged inside me. I could barely breathe; it was as if my lungs had filled with smoke and my entire body burned. “It was… you?”David stared firmly at me. “I’m capable of doing far worse, Gavin.”No mate bond could mitigate the fury David woke in me. He had always been working with the dragons. Ever since my parent's death, it was him pulling the strings, him controlling everyone, him scheming to take over the Gunnison area. I thought David cared about me, but I realized then that I was just another pawn to him. Words failed me; in the moment my anger burned hottest, I aimed the rifle at his head. Only the front door crashing open stopped me from firing.“

43

Hearing the ruckus, Muriel swept into the kitchen and, seeing me, wrapped her arms around me with soft reassurance. “Come,” she cooed, “come sit with me. Give them space.”That was all I could do. The last look I shared with Gavin was a fleeting, fiery stare that withered when I turned the corner. In my heart, I felt the tugging of his guilt and sorrow, and I wanted to run right back into the kitchen and console him, but I knew he would only push me away. Despite understanding why, it made me feel as alone as I felt before I had left Hexen Manor.I settled on the couch with Muriel clutching my hands. She spoke gently to me while the others discussed David’s ambush and the truth of his history with Lothair. I tried to eavesdrop, but it was mostly speculation and indignity, until the conversation shifted with the sound of an engine growling down the driveway. My skin turned to ice.“It’s Everett,” said Oslo.What sounded like two vehicles pulled up outside of the pack house. The door op

44

“How do you know?”“Dalesbloom is the largest pack of the three of us. Both of our territories have the resources David needs to keep up his profits. It’s not fucking rocket science, especially since we know now that he’s willing to murder us all,” said Gavin.“Then I’ll deal with it when he makes the threat against Eastpeak,” said Everett.“Why can’t you and the Mythguard do something about it?”Sebastian raised his hands. “The Mythguard are discouraged from interfering with intra-shifter politics. We will act to protect one race from another, but we cannot intervene in the affairs of groups unless one group has demonstrated a distinct threat to both shifters and humans.”“He’s going to kill us!” Gavin shouted.“Acting pre-emptively could severely damage the Mythguard’s standing with other groups,” said Sebastian.“So you’re just going to sit and wait until Dalesbloom murders us, then you’ll step in just in time to prevent Eastpeak from going down?”“You don’t know that’ll happen,” s

45

Oslo lingered, meeting my eyes. His thick eyebrows tucked down with sober concern for me, fatherly in the way he held my stare. “Be careful, Gavin. If they catch you alone, you know they’ll kill you.”“Yeah. I know.” To be honest, that was almost what I was counting on. If they killed me, then maybe… at least… it would motivate the Mythguard to act. It wasn’t a sacrifice I wanted to make, but I was willing to in order to protect my packmates. Sighing, I planted my hand on Oslo’s shoulder too. “I’ll be careful. But if they catch me, I’m taking those fuckers down with me.”A half-smile cracked across Oslo’s mouth. “I wouldn’t expect any less.”We waited until Niko arrived before transforming and taking off into the woods. Going alone could be the worst decision yet, but I was confident that my death would keep the rest of my pack safe. I didn’t think about Billie. I couldn’t. It stung me to imagine what she was feeling, spending the night alone after we had grown so close. It stung wors

46

“I won’t let Catrina hurt her.”His meek response didn’t convince me. He’d never been able to stop Catrina from hurting Billie before. I knew he was lying, and that idea alone sent me over the edge, igniting my anger into another flurry of blows. I pushed Colt down and knelt on his ribs as I punched him again, this time in the cheek. Then I stood and kicked him hard in the stomach. “You slimy piece of shit. You asshole! You’re a fucking snake just like your dad!”Colt coughed and rolled onto his stomach, frantically dragging himself away from me. “Gavin, please,” he rasped.I wasn’t done. I dropped my knee onto Colt’s back, grabbed his head and shoved his face into the dirt. “I should just fucking kill you!” I raged. I could do it. There was nobody here to save him. “Get it through your thick skull that Billie doesn’t want anything to do with you. She hates you, and Cat and David too. She hates what your family did to her.” Every second word, I shoved his head harder until I was sure

47

Relieved though I was to see Gavin alive, my relief was short-lived in place of dread.Gavin turned around and clenched his fists, the veins in his arms bulging. He looked like he hadn’t slept and pale purple bruises blossomed under his right eye. I raised my fingers to the same spot on my cheek, sharing his tenderness. “I ran into Colt,” he said darkly. “He was looking for you.”My heart fluttered. “Why?”“Were you planning to meet up with him?”“N—Not recently.”Gavin’s eyes narrowed. “Not recently?”“We were…” Why was it so hard to speak suddenly? Why did his displeasure feel so, so heavy? “We were going to meet up after I ran from Dalesbloom. But I ended up here instead.”“Meet up to do what?”I stammered. “I—I don’t know, say goodbye? Maybe… he might’ve come with me…”Gavin curled his lip, but instead of snarling at me, he blanched with unspoken revelation. “You were gonna run away together.”My heart soured as I remembered everything Colt and I had said to each other. The promis

48

I pulled my head back and regarded the bloody scene, but all it invoked in me was hunger. Before my Moondream, the savagery would have made me nauseous. Now, I didn’t even think before ripping open my prey and devouring the sweet, succulent flesh on its flank, crunching bones and piercing its dark, slippery organs.I reclined on my stomach to rest and digest when I finished eating. Human thoughts gradually filtered back in, but the hunt afforded me clarity I didn’t have before. Clarity about Colt and Gavin. About my own place in Grandbay, alongside Muriel, facing down my fears.I was strong enough to be a wolf. I would prove to David that I was strong by standing beside Gavin, if Gavin still wanted me. But… I wasn’t going to let Gavin’s anger get the best of either of us anymore. He needed an anchor, a voice of reason, and I knew I could be strong enough to be that too.Chapter 24: GavinI got a taste of my own medicine when Billie took off on her own. While I risked my life patrollin

49

The determination I had seen in Billie before wasn’t just a passing moment of bravery. It always lived inside her, and I saw it coming to fruition before my very eyes. “You want to protect me?”“From your anger.”Unfamiliar emotions welled up in my chest. Being with Billie was unlike the three years I spent with Cat; always on the brink of eruption, doubting myself, relenting to chaos. Billie’s care for me was genuine. She wanted better for me than what I was capable of on my own.“Is that something you’d want too?” she ventured.It was all I’d ever wanted—to feel at peace.I sat up, grazing Billie’s temple with my fingers, caressing her jawline. A short, sharp inhalation on her lips was all that was exchanged before I kissed her, savoring this touch of hers again. “I want that and more,” I said between kisses.Billie’s body relaxed onto the blanket beneath me. Her hands went on the back of my neck, pulling me closer, and I all too readily filled the space between our bodies. “Do you

50

Chapter 25: BillieLast night was the most beautiful evening I’d ever spent with someone. Going on dates wasn’t something I was used to; in high school, I was asked out once by a boy I wasn’t sure I liked and we went to see a movie. Another night we went bowling, but it didn’t pan out after David forbade me from going out with the boy again. He claimed he didn’t like that I spent so much time away from the manor after school. It felt like a small mercy to me because I didn’t think I could be the girlfriend to that boy wanted anyway; I was quiet and nervous and couldn’t make very good conversation. That was the extent of my experience with dates, and I thought it would stay that way. But Gavin showed me what a real date was like, he showed me that I was deserving of that serenity shared with another person, and even after we got back to the apartment and fell asleep, I kept waking up in disbelief that it was actually real.Over the next week, the Grandbay pack had developed a routine t

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