The Wolves and the Vipers

Chapter 42 - No Love Lost

I stared at Darren's daughter with growing horror. I'd known Jaden would be looking for her, but I hadn't expected him to abduct her.

"Are you hurt, Lizzie?" Jace asked her.

She picked herself up slowly until she was sat up inside the car. From the way she was eyeing Jace, I knew she recognised him. She knew she was now in the centre of her enemy's pack, alone and defenceless. She shook her head no.

And yet, all that blood... I could see it had come from her neck. There was a set of tooth marks that hadn't really healed, but they had at least stopped bleeding. Jaden had marked her — and I had to assume it had been against her will.

It explained why he thought he was in charge of Riverside now. Tyler had explained the laws to me weeks ago. If you marked a female, you had the right to join her pack. And once you were a member of the pack, you could become the Alpha. He'd killed her father, hunted her down, bitten her and then kidnapped her. And now pack law would make sure he was rewarded.

"Come on out," Jace said quietly. "It's alright. Let's get you inside in the warm."

Jaden had closed the distance while we had been staring at Lizzie, having ignored Alek's warnings. He shoved Jace hard in the chest.

"She's not going anywhere," he snapped. "You should have minded your own business."

Even that little bit of physical contact was enough to make Alek snap at him and Zoe position herself to attack. When you added Kara and me to the equation, with our hackles up and our lips lifted, he was very much surrounded.

Jace was far calmer. He even looked like he might laugh. "Jaden, you are standing on my territory. And so is she. She'll come inside, and you can come with her, or you can be escorted back to Riverside."

He was amicable when he was saying it, so it didn't sound like a threat, but it was. Undoubtedly. Jaden didn't seem to realise that. He'd only heard that he was invited too, and then he'd stopped listening. Almost eager now, he reached down into the car boot and took Lizzie by the arm.

"Fine. But we're not staying long."

I didn't expect him to be gentle with her, but he was. He didn't yank her to her feet, although it would have been easy for him. Instead, he guided her out of the car and stood beside her, his arm wrapped firmly around her. It was almost ... tender. However violent their first encounter had been, they were mates, and he didn't want to hurt her.

And yet Lizzie's face was full of terror. She stood stiffly beside him, every muscle in her body tense, but she stopped short of pushing him away.

We all went inside. I went straight into the wet room to shift back and pull on some clothes at record speed. I had resigned myself to shifting back when I'd first laid eyes on Lizzie. My wolf understood why I would want to help an injured female, even if that female was not from our pack.

When I came back into the main room, I found Jace boiling the kettle. Jaden was stood awkwardly in the middle of the room, still holding Lizzie close. So my first order of business, naturally, was to get her away from him.

"Come upstairs with me," I told her. "We'll get you cleaned up and find you a change of clothes. How does that sound?"

Lizzie didn't make a sound, but she did try and take a step towards me. Jaden's hand on her arm stopped her short. For a long moment, he just held her there, frowning at us, like he was trying to find a reason to refuse.

Now that I was closer to his eyeline, it was easy to see how dark his eyes were. His wolf was taking the lead on this. He didn't seem to have any control over it, and that made him more predictable. His wolf would want to keep Lizzie safe and to keep her close. He wouldn't want Jace near her, let alone any other males. But me? I wasn't a threat.