Chapter 57
Kane re-read the note for the seventh time.
Wolfe, You killed my father. I’ll kill your human daughter if you don’t give yourself over to judgment. My judgment. Come to the place where you took his life. Come alone. If anyone tries to stop us, she dies.
Finn Montgomery The name, Montgomery, meant nothing to Kane, but he’d killed a lot of men in his time. The fact this stranger knew about Bianca raised the hair on the back of his neck. Few people would have any idea he had a connection to her.
Only one pack would have known him when Joslyn was his mate, and if this was a child of one of those men, then the Connor farm was where he’d killed the father. The man died without much of a fight thirty-six years earlier. Kane barely remembered the moment when one of the males escaped and the other died. Another of my sins come back to haunt me.
* * * *
Bianca shook the bars holding her imprisoned in the old barn. She’d been to the farm less than six months ago, and it hadn’t looked like this. Someone had been busy fortifying the derelict building. Not good, not good at all. She shook the bars harder for a minute before giving up.
She’d endured morning sickness all day. This early symptom was kicking her ass. Without water, dehydration was setting in. Sickness was why she’d been in the house instead of doing chores. Law thought she had the flu and sent her to bed. She’d been ill enough to go willingly.
She’d been waiting for the right time to tell Law about the baby, but now she’d probably die before getting the chance. Sorrow made breathing hard. The memory of Law’s battered body tormented her, but she fought to stay present. Any small chance could save her baby’s life. She couldn’t afford the distraction of grief.
My baby. Bianca wasn’t ready for another child—not yet. Chessa just turned fourteen. But the moment Bianca found out she was pregnant she loved this unborn piece of her husband. Putting her hand on her abdomen, she tried not to worry about what it meant to have another child who could be bitten and turn into a werewolf. Would Law insist they do it early? Biting an infant was barbaric in her opinion, but from what she’d been told it was common. The younger the bite happened, the stronger the wolf. Law is a good man. He’d never force the change on his child. Would he?
As the door banged open, she jumped. Her maniac kidnapper came in carrying a wicked-looking machete. Bianca’s entire body tensed. For once she was glad for the bars of the cage, because she wanted the man to stay at a distance.
“Your mate must not love you very much. Leaving you human would be against every instinct inside a wolf if he really cared about you.”
The man had goaded her like this ever since he’d taken her from the farmhouse, but she kept her mouth shut. She wasn’t telling him anything.
Her captor smiled, and the wicked gleam in his eyes sent cold racing down her spine. “Your father must not care who humps you. I can’t believe he allowed this.”
She rolled her eyes. The human who’d raised her had died a long time ago, and her crazy-ass werewolf father, who’d kidnapped her daughter, was dead too. Hope blossomed; this jerk had mixed her up with someone else. Please let me go.
“My father is dead. I don’t know who you think I am, but I swear to you that my father is dead. Let me go, and I won’t tell anyone where you are. Just drop me off somewhere, and I’ll never lead them back here.”
He glared at her. “I have men watching your werewolf daddy. Kane Wolfe is still very much alive, but not for long.”
Bianca’s heart raced painfully. “Kane isn’t my father.”
Her kidnapper’s eyes widened. “You really don’t know?” He slapped his hands together and laughed. “Sorry to break the bad news to you. Your father is a murdering prick. You’re Kane Wolfe’s first-born.”
Bianca looked away. She’d known, deep in her heart, because of his unusual level of interest in her life after her daughter was bitten and survived, proving Bianca was part-werewolf, but she hadn’t wanted to believe her mother had been with someone as twisted as Kane. She closed her eyes. Mom, you were such a caring person. There’s no way.
She shook her head. “You’re wrong.”
“You’ll have the chance to ask him yourself, soon enough.” The kidnapper left.
* * * *
Reylin pushed past Tristian. He tried to hold her back, but she needed to know what was on the other side of the hill.
Blood. So much blood that the sight caused her stomach to clench, and the worst thing she saw was Bianca’s sweater. “Is there a body?”
“No,” Jamison replied. “A lot of blood, but it’s not human or were. Deer, I think. Fuckers are playing with us.”
GO HOME was written in blood on a large chunk of bark propped up against a tree across from the grisly mess. Jamison and Rune exchanged a look.
Rune’s eyes narrowed. “With Law out of commission, Nik is alpha. Let’s ask him what he wants us to do. I won’t endanger Bianca without the alpha’s approval.”
“Nik’s in town, coordinating everything.” Tristian walked up to his brother, shaking the mist from his long hair. “Honestly, I think he’s afraid of leaving Joy alone. Bianca’s kidnapping really set her off, but given her past, I can understand why this triggered her. Hell, she was mated against her will and held captive for a decade by Tobias’s pack. She’s held it together pretty fucking well, until now.”
“We should go on,” Reylin argued. “I’m glad Nik wants to take care of his mate. I love my cousin, but I love Bianca too. There’s no time to waste. We need to catch up. I’m going on, just me. I’ll wait at the old Connor farm, it’s just up ahead. We can’t risk losing the scent, and if it starts raining harder, we will.”
Rune reached out and put his hand on her bicep. “I don’t want you going out there alone. Not with so many strange wolves in our territory.”
She shrugged off his touch and took a step back. “This is on me. All of it, and I’m not going to let Bianca die because I didn’t take a shot. When they started attacking Law, I had a clear aim for the alpha, but I couldn’t pull the trigger. I couldn’t kill someone. Because of my failure, a lot of people died.”
Reylin turned, running. Rune started to go after her. When she glanced back, Tristian had caught up to him, stopping Rune’s pursuit. They argued, and Rune threw a punch, but Tristian blocked his brother’s fist. Thank you, Tristian. He’d always had more empathy than his brother. Rune saw the world as black-and-white, but Tristian could see the gray areas.
I’ll just track up to the farm, she lied to herself. It won’t take them long to find Nik and catch up.