Hard for you, p.10
Hard for You, page 10
There was no more banging.
She held Buster, her heart breaking. “Please … don’t leave. Please.”
She had taken her eyes off him for just a second, and something had bitten him. Not Rascal. Something else had.
Amelia held her dog tighter, praying he would live. Sobbing for him to live.
Life wasn’t fucking fair. None of this was fair.
She held him, thinking about everything that had not been fair to her.
Her parents had always complained about her. Telling her constantly that she was weird and not normal. The pack treating her like a freaking leper. Wolfe, now that one hurt even more.
He believed she was a liar.
Her? A liar? That one was just too much for her to bear.
She was not a liar. Would never be a liar. She had never found a reason to lie in her life. She couldn’t even do it growing up. Lying wasn’t something she was capable of doing.
Amelia didn’t know when she fell asleep, but time had passed because when she next woke up, Amelia was alone, and the sun was streaming in through her window.
She jerked up, panicked, and then she looked in wonder as she saw Buster licking at his paw.
“Buster!” She crawled toward him and saw his tail wagging from side to side. “Oh, my, you precious boy.” She pressed kisses against his head, rubbing her face in his fur. “Don’t ever scare me like that again. I don’t think I can handle it.”
Tears fell from her eyes. She was so happy. Her dog was alive.
He’d made it. Amelia didn’t think it was possible, but he had.
She kissed his fur again, and getting to her feet, she rushed to the cupboard and pulled out some of her dog food. After making both Buster and Rascal some food, she moved back toward them and sat down, presenting them both with a bowl.
Rascal nuzzled his food, eating it the best way he could, as Buster did the same, but he chewed his food.
“You’re both good boys. Good dogs. Good boys.”
But whatever had been out there was still out there.
Amelia went to her phone after giving both dogs a rub. She dialed Val’s number. She had never called him, not once.
“Amelia, are you okay?”
“Yeah, er, I have some errands to run. I don’t suppose you could come over and watch Buster and Rascal for me?”
“You want me to dog sit?” he asked.
“Yes, just Buster and Rascal. I … I would usually leave them alone, you know, but I … don’t want to.”
“I get it. I’ll be right over.”
She thanked him and hung up, staring at her dogs.
Looking down at her sweatpants and top, she wondered if she should shower, or change. Where she was going, it didn’t matter how badly she stunk.
Buster was safe and well. He was out of the woods.
Val didn’t take long to get to her house. Less than twenty minutes.
She opened the apartment door to him and he just stared at her.
“Amelia?”
“It’s fine. I’m fine.” She stepped out of the way, giving him room to enter. Her apartment, like always, was immaculate.
Even focusing on Buster’s health, she’d kept her place clean. She, however, stunk.
“Amelia, what is going on?”
“I just need to run some errands. I’ll be back soon. I would normally leave them, you know, on their own, as they’re house trained, and they’re good, but … with everything.”
“I saw what they’ve written downstairs, on the doors and windows,” Val said.
She forced a smile to her lips as she stared at him. “Yeah, I’ve seen it too.” Painted on her door were the words liar and whore. Not the nicest of words.
Tears filled her eyes, and Val took a step toward her. “Are you okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, I’m fine. Totally fine. I’ve just got a few things I need to do is all.” She nodded. “And I don’t want to leave them on their own. I know that … dogs are quite difficult. It will only be for a short time. I promise.”
“Amelia, stop,” he said. “I’ll take care of them. It will be a pleasure to take care of them.”
“Oh, thank you.” She nibbled on her lip. “I, er, I didn’t lie.”
“What?”
“In case you were wondering. I didn’t lie. I promise. I would never lie.” She swiped at the tears that fell down her cheeks. This was so embarrassing.
“I know you wouldn’t lie.”
“Well, just in case you were wondering. The whole pack seems to think that I’m lying.”
Val put his hands on her shoulders. “Not the whole pack.”
“Yeah, just you.” She nodded. “It’s fine. It is perfectly fine.” Glancing back to her dogs, she looked at Buster and Rascal and knew she couldn’t stay. “I better go and run my errands.” She forced a smile to her lips and then left him alone.
Amelia didn’t bother with a jacket or anything.
In her sweatpants and a hoodie, she stepped out of her apartment building. There was no one around.
She turned toward her building, and there in white and yellow, the words liar, faker, and whore were all scrawled across the window.
More tears built, and she wiped them away.
This was … this was hard. Painful even.
Her throat felt thick.
No, this was worse because she knew Wolfe believed it. At the thought of Wolfe, she had no choice but to clutch her chest. The pain was real.
Buster.
Think about Buster.
No one believed her, but she knew something had bitten Buster. Rascal hadn’t. He couldn’t, so that meant while she’d been too busy focusing on Wolfe and his accusations, someone or something bit her dog, and now she was going to head back to where they were to find it.
Amelia didn’t have a clue what she was going to do when she did eventually find it, but either way, she was going to make sure it never hurt her dog again.
She started in the location where she first saw that figure. That stupid figure. She hadn’t been making that up.
Stepping into the thick bushes, she looked around. There were no footprints or discernable tracks to suggest anything had been near her home.
After taking a deep breath, she couldn’t smell anything either. She lifted up and looked around—nothing.
This was her first track, and next, she started to walk in the direction of where her dogs took off it.
One foot in front of the other, taking her time. Moving. Inhaling. Whenever she heard any sounds she couldn’t analyze straight away, she paused and listened.
Nothing.
“I’m not leaving this damn forest until I know what the fuck is going on.”
Chapter Eleven
Wolfe missed Amelia.
He hadn’t gone to see her, but he knew the pack was filling up with rumors and gossip. He’d already seen that her apartment building had been vandalized.
Which pissed him off.
He hadn’t seen Amelia though.
Nor Boyan and Enzo.
Running fingers through his hair, he stared down at the second whiskey bottle of the day.
“You know, if it doesn’t work the first time, you kind of have to call it quits,” Rocco said.
“Yeah, I think it sucks that we can never get drunk.” He swallowed the last quarter of a bottle and placed it on the table.
“You’re hurting.”
“Nah, I’m not hurting.”
“You pissed off about Amelia?” Rocco asked.
Wolfe glared at him. “There’s nothing between Amelia and me.”
“Sure,” Rocco said. “And the sun doesn’t shine in the morning or set at night.” He rolled his eyes.
“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“What is the problem with being with her, exactly?” Rocco asked.
“Besides the fact she’s a liar?” Wolfe asked.
Rocco shrugged. “Say she didn’t lie. What is wrong with wanting to be with her? She’s a beautiful woman. A member of the pack.”
“She’s weak.”
“And we all know how Wolfe values strength,” Draco said, taking a seat at the table.
“I don’t recall inviting you.”
“You didn’t invite Rocco either, but seeing as I’ve seen you drink nothing but whiskey, I figured you needed a wake-up call.” Draco placed a large mug of coffee on the table. “Made it myself.”
“You put spit in it?” he asked.
“Nope. Hopefully something that will help you to wake up and get your head out of your ass.”
“Fuck you,” Wolfe said, picking the coffee up and taking a sip. It was good.
“So, come on,” Rocco said. “What is the big deal, anyway?”
“Wolfe doesn’t like anyone weak. I imagine Amelia was a good fuck, and I bet she was the virgin he wanted to know all those questions about.”
He gritted his teeth. Talking to his club brothers about that had been a big, fat, fucking mistake. One he didn’t intend to make again, or ever.
“Amelia was a virgin?” Rocco asked.
“Yeah, you can tell from the tic right next to his eye. He’s thinking about killing me right now. Probably is turned on by it as well. He wants to see me completely dead, so fucking dead.” Draco chuckled.
“What happened to you being all silent?” Wolfe asked.
“Let me ask you something, Wolfe. If your girl is such a fucking liar, why did you believe she was a virgin?” Draco asked.
“Because she was.”
“She could have been faking it.”
“Amelia wasn’t faking it.”
Draco tutted. “She’ll lie about seeing a figure in the forest but not about being a virgin. Come on, pull the other one. Wolves cannot remain celibate for long. We’re not wired that way. Amelia had to have been screwing someone else.”
“Stop it.”
Wolfe felt his animal rising up. The need to protect and to own overwhelmed him.
“I wonder who it was she screwed first. I bet she was having all kinds of laughs at his expense. My money is on Val. She’s close to Val. Imagine that, Wolfe. Another man’s hands all over her body, touching her, filling her up.”
Wolfe lost it. He grabbed Draco by the lapel of his leather cut and threw him across the room.
“I said enough!”
Wolfe didn’t even know who he was. The growl that left him didn’t sound like him.
Draco had hit the wall, and from the impact, it had dented it. Draco laughed. He fucking laughed as if it was nothing more than a big joke, and that pissed him off even more.
This wasn’t a game. He wasn’t playing around.
Draco stood up. “What’s the matter, Wolfe? Is it too much for you to imagine that she is with someone else right now? Trying to lie her way into their pants, or is that what you’ve got to tell yourself to stay away?”
Wolfe glared at him. “I don’t know why you’re fucking doing this, Draco, but enough already.”
“Enough? You think this is enough.” Draco took a step toward him. “You believe Amelia is weak. Too weak for someone like you to have her. How can someone be that weak and lie like that, huh? Did she have an accomplice? Come on, Draco.”
“What is your fucking problem?” Wolfe asked.
Draco had been avoiding him for the past couple of days. The brother wouldn’t even look at him.
All of a sudden, Wolfe was on the floor as Draco had landed a single blow to his face, and then he picked him up, throwing him across the room.
Draco had been fast. No hesitation. Anger rushed through him.
This time, as Draco ran toward him, Wolfe was ready.
He kicked out, sending Draco back as he got to his feet.
Once he was steady, he faced him. “What the fuck is this?” Wolfe asked.
Draco didn’t answer.
Tables were destroyed, as was half of the bar, before Alpha came in and stepped between them.
Wolfe was bleeding from his nose, and his shoulder was dislocated. His eye was swollen, but it wouldn’t take long for him to heal back.
Draco just kept on glaring at him.
The bar looked a mess. The brothers stood back, watching.
“What is the fucking meaning of this?” Alpha asked.
“Ask Draco!” Wolfe spat blood on the floor. He was more than ready to go two, three, or fucking fifty rounds.
Alpha turned his head to Draco.
The brother had been unstable for many years. He’d go through his brooding phases, and then come out fighting. Wolfe had never seen him like this. Staring at Draco, the brother looked … betrayed.
“You have no right!” Draco yelled.
Wolfe froze.
“Do you have any idea what it’s like? To spend hours alone? To wish she was back right here with me? To have known that kind of love and to know I’m not going to get it again? My chance is gone. Died at the hands of fucking humans!” Draco growled.
“But you, you have a chance. I saw the way you were with Amelia. How excited you were to go and see her.” He shook his head. “And you think she lied. You think she did all of this, for what? For what means? For you? For a man who was too fucking embarrassed to hold her freaking hand! You have a chance to be happy, and you consider her too weak for you. You should be ashamed of yourself. Me, I’d give anything to have mine back. Anything, but instead, I’ve got to sit around watching you drink whiskey as if it is such a big fucking deal to have a woman who is not as strong as you.”
“Amelia is strong,” Val said.
Wolfe had been so focused on Draco, he hadn’t even heard Val come into the clubhouse. He stood by the doorway with Buster and Rascal at his feet. The dogs were sniffing like crazy.
“What?” Wolfe asked.
“I know for a fact that Amelia is not weak. She is strong, probably one of the strongest women in the pack. She can defend herself if the need calls for it. She knows what to do. The difference between her and the others is she doesn’t see a reason to do it.” Val sighed. “She’s not here then?”
“Who isn’t here?” Wolfe asked.
“Amelia?”
“Why would Amelia be here?”
“She called me yesterday. Asked me to look after her dogs. She would have left them alone, but from what I can tell, she’s been getting harassed by the pack, and we all know what the pack thinks of her dogs.” Val clicked his tongue. “She hasn’t returned home. I think … I think she’s gone into the forest.”
“To clear her name?” Draco asked.
“No. I don’t think she cares about that.” Val looked down at the dogs. “I think she’s gone into the forest to find what bit Buster.”
“Rascal bit him,” Wolfe said.
Val snorted. “Seriously?”
“Yeah, Rascal looked rather sheepish—”
He stopped as Val crouched down and asked Rascal to smile. As the dog showed off his teeth, Wolfe realized that dog couldn’t have bit Buster.
“As you can see, Rascal can’t bite Buster. Whatever bit him is still out there.” Val turned toward him. “And seeing as you think Amelia is a liar, that would mean the only one to bite Buster would have been her, right?”
Wolfe stared at Val.
“Only, I’m guessing she was with you the whole time. Which means…”
“There’s something in the forest,” Wolfe said.
And Amelia hadn’t returned home.
Wolfe didn’t wait for any instruction. He took off, rushing out of the clubhouse, past the parking lot, and heading into the forest. Within seconds, he shed his clothes, split his skin, and brought forward his wolf.
Amelia hadn’t been lying.
He’d been wrong.
****
Amelia groaned, reaching for the back of her head.
What the hell was wrong with her?
Putting her hand on the floor, she became aware of concrete beneath her hand. She quickly opened her eyes to take in her surroundings.
Bars.
A cage.
What the fuck?
She had been locked in a cage.
“Ah, I see you’re awake.”
Amelia looked toward the door, and there was the vet.
“Doctor Milton,” she said. “What’s going on?”
He laughed. Milton just laughed.
The sound wasn’t natural but on the verge of hysterics.
Amelia went to stand up, but cried out.
Looking down, she saw her leg had been broken.
What the fuck had happened?
She didn’t remember breaking her leg.
Milton stepped toward the bars. “I’m sorry, but I had to take precautions. I couldn’t risk you trying to run or even worse, attacking me.”
“I have no idea what is going on here, Milton,” she said.
“It’s still Doctor Milton.” He held a gun in his hand.
Amelia frowned at it. “You’re going to kill me?”
“Actually, I don’t want to kill you, but I would like some answers.”
In all the times she had visited Doctor Milton, not once had she thought of him as evil.
She inhaled and frowned. All this time, Milton smelled like a human.
This time, he didn’t. There was no human smell on him.
He fired the gun, only, to her surprise, it didn’t send out metal bullets.
Amelia screamed as the wooden bullet embedded in her shoulder. The pain was instant, and with the force of the shot, she collapsed to the floor, cupping her shoulder.
“But I am going to hurt you a little bit. It will help me to understand, actually. I know metal bullets are a lot more painful, but wooden ones, they’re easier to heal around.”
“You broke my leg, and now you’re shooting at me.”
“I know what you are,” Milton said, screaming the words. “I know you’re a wolf, or a shifter. You’re going to tell me how to get rid of it.”
Perspiration dotted her forehead. “How to get rid of what?” Now that she was fully awake, Amelia couldn’t quite understand.
Her leg was broken, and she was going to need to heal it, otherwise, her body was going to heal with it in the wrong place, which would then mean it would have to be rebroken to fix it.
That wasn’t pleasant. No, that was even more painful. Even for a wolf.
