Chapter Seven

Graham placed both hands against the shower wall and let the water run over his lowered head. He watched the water turn from brown to red as the blood washed from his hair and his skin. He was glad he’d decided to check into a hotel and get cleaned up before going to pick up his mate. He smiled to himself at the thought of her, something that had been happening quite frequently over the last two days.

It took far longer to track the rogues than anyone had expected. They were more clever than predicted, covering their scent with numerous types of muds and the scents of other animals. Graham didn’t become the lead warrior in his pack by being a shitty tracker though. They’d finally found the four rogues held up in a cave yesterday morning. Then the torture began.

Graham had to hand it to the little mutts. They were loyal to a fault. He’d killed two of them before realizing how much time had passed. Jensen wasn’t pleased that he’d managed to kill two of his hostages which meant it didn’t take much to convince his alpha to let him go back to his mate. Jensen hauled the remaining two rogues to the pack lands and would let Theo have a go at them… poor bastards. Theo wouldn’t kill them.

After the water had long since turned back to clear, Graham jumped out and dressed as quickly as he could. He knew Catherine would be angry with him. Hell, he was angry with himself. He only hoped that the bond would help smooth out her ragged emotions. She would have to come to understand his role in the pack and that he may have to disappear for a few days at a time. He just hated it had to happen so soon.

He drove to the bar where she worked and parked his black Mustang on the curb across the street. He smoothed a hand over his chest, trying to quell the raging nerves he suddenly felt there. He took a deep breath and walked across the street. Several intoxicated males came stumbling out and he got out of the way just in time to avoid one of them puking on his shoes. He heard a hurried apology before they staggered away. Graham walked into the bar and his eyes immediately scanned the room for her. It took only a moment to find her. It took less than that for his chest to fill with rage.

“Little fucker,” he hissed under his breath.

Graham watched as the security guard he’d warned just two days ago to stay away from his mate, carried her in his arms. Her head was pressed against his chest and his arms were cupping her beneath her knees and back. The guard was speaking frantically with a woman behind the bar who was ushering him into the back of the restaurant. Graham stalked forward, following them. He ignored the other women behind the bar telling him he couldn’t go through the door. As he stepped through he could hear voices, growing louder and louder with concern.

“How much did you give her, Juno? She fucking passed out!” the man yelled.

“I gave her the one glass! She took like two sips!” the woman shrieked.

“Cat? Kitty? Wake up,” the man cooed causing Graham to let out a growl.

He was standing in the doorway of the kitchen now, watching as the two froze on the ground over his mate. The man and woman spun around to face him. The man’s face paled as he realized who had just growled while the woman’s eyes roamed unabashedly down his person. He had to admit she was pretty with pale blonde hair and paler grey eyes. She had a decent enough figure and wore skimpy clothes that showed it off. He thought he recognized her from the Saturdays he would come for dinner. She was okay. She wasn’t even comparable to the woman that was his mate.

“What the fuck is happening here?” Graham asked, stepping forward.

The man edged backward slowly, hands raised. “Look, Dude. It’s not what you think. We were sitting at the bar and…”

Graham caught him by the throat and shoved him against the wall. The man’s eyes rolled upward for a moment as his airway was cut off. “What did I say about touching her? Huh?”

The man clawed at Graham’s hand, trying to get him to let go. He shook his head frantically. He vaguely heard the woman yelling something behind him but his focus was singular. His vision tunneled and his skin itched to shift. Then he felt the cold metal of a gun barrel press against his temple.

“Let him go or I’ll pump six rounds of silver into your dome,” a second male warned.

Graham’s canines extended. His skin hummed and the world around him slowed down. Before either man could blink, Graham knocked the first man’s head against the wall, turned, grabbed the pistol from his head and shoved the second man so hard he flew back ten feet into the oven. Graham walked toward the second man, knowing the first one would be out cold for a few minutes. Without taking his eyes from his target, he disassembled the pistol and unloaded the clip one bullet at a time. He smirked.

“Silver bullets, huh?” Graham asked, eyeing the lead bullets scattered across the kitchen floor.

The second man was sitting up now, propped against the oven. He smiled back and used the back of his arm to wipe blood from his mouth. “Got you to let go of my brother, didn’t it?”

Graham couldn’t help but give him a half smirk. He’d make a fine warrior.

“Hey! Brutes!!” the woman yelled from where his mate still lay passed out. The woman’s hands were on her hips and she looked like a school teacher tired of breaking up schoolyard fights. “Forgetting something?”

The second man stood up and cracked his back. “What happened, Juno?”

Graham walked toward his mate. He dropped to the ground and pulled her into his arms. She sighed at his touch but her body remained limp and her eyes closed. He brushed her hair out of her face and cupped her cheek.

“I don’t know. She was pissed and eating at the bar. I gave her a drink which I swear she only drank half of. I went back to work and the next thing I know, Toma is screaming that she’d fallen off her stool,” Juno explained, hovering over Catherine and Graham on the floor.

“Why was she pissed?” the second man asked. “Maybe someone came on to her and slipped her something and…”

“No, that wasn’t it,” Juno said, anger lacing her words. She tapped her foot and crossed her arms. “Her so-called mate ditched her.”

Graham glanced up at the woman. “I got caught up with business.”

“Business?” the second man asked, laughing. “From someone who has a mate as wily as this one, Bro, come up with a better excuse.”

Graham had a feeling the truth would be even worse. How could he tell his rogue mate that he had spent two days chasing her own kind and torturing them? Graham glanced back down at Catherine and allowed his eyes to take in all of her. She was just as beautiful as he remembered. Dark blonde hair, almost brown flowing in waves past her shoulders. Slightly tanned skin with freckles dotting her face, neck and chest. He wondered if they continued all the way down her body. Was she still wearing that damn contact that covered her rare gift? He carefully lifted her left eyelid and growled.

It wasn’t the brown contact he saw that angered him, it was the black lines etching from her pupils outward. Above his head he heard Juno gasp and the second man cursed. He bent further down and touched his lips to hers. He ran his tongue over the seam of her plush lips and jerked back.

“Wolfsbane,” Graham growled. “She’s been poisoned.”

“Poisoned?!” the younger man, Toma, gasped from his spot by the wall. He’d apparently come-to in the past couple minutes. “Timone, did he just say Wolfsbane?”

“Yeah,” the second man, Timone, answered, keeping his eyes on the limp body in Graham’s arms.

“I drank most of her tequila! Does that mean I’m…”

“Relax, dipshit, you’d look like her if you’d been poisoned too,” Timone argued.

“I need someone to run out to my car. There’s a black duffel bag in the trunk. Bring it to me,” Graham ordered.

“I got it!” Toma exclaimed. Without thinking about it too much, he threw his keys to the young man.

“So… you’re Kitty Cat’s mate, huh?” the woman asked, cocking her hip to study him. Her eyes went to the tattoos running up his exposed forearm and he pulled the sleeve down to cover them.

“Yes, she’s mine,” Graham agreed.

“Well, I’m Juno, her best friend. You have some explaining to do.”

“Not to you,” he answered in a clipped tone, causing her to smile slightly.

“You should have been here. She needs protection,” she added, looking down at her friend with soft eyes.

“Protection from what? Do you know who did this? Do you know where she ran from? Who her old pack was?”

Juno shook her head. “No, she refuses to tell us anything. I picked her up on a highway in Idaho. If anyone asks she says her life started the day she moved to Sterling. But…” Juno looked at Timone.

Timone nodded. “She looks over her shoulder a lot. She’s jumpy. Doesn’t like men touching her. We could guess she’s not running from something, but someone. And she knows he has the power to find her.”

Before Graham could ask further questions the door to the hall slammed and Toma ran into the room holding Graham’s duffel. He put it down next to him. Graham wasted no time. Using his free hand he rummaged around. He ignored the curious looks of the three people as they tried to glimpse what was all in his bag. He found the med kit, undid the tie keeping it together and flung it out across his mate’s body. His fingers ran over each syringe until he found the one he needed. He pulled the cap off with his teeth and jabbed the needle in the meat of her thigh.

Catherine jerked. Her eyes flew open and she took in a sharp breath. Her hands fisted in his t-shirt. He felt the pressure in his chest alleviate as the black veins receded from her eyes. The people around him sighed in relief.

“Graham?” Catherine whispered, her brows furrowed together.

“I’m here,” he responded.

“You’re here,” she said. Catherine raised her hand and he thought she would caress his face. Instead she slapped him… hard. His head whipped to the side in shock and several giggles broke out across the room. He looked down again to find her glaring up at him. “Asshole,” she muttered before her eyelids fluttered closed and her body went limp again. He stared down at her with his mouth gaping. He fought the urge to rub his raw cheek.

“Like I said,” Timone chuckled, breaking the silence. “Wily.”