Bad Love: An Alpha's Regret (Leah and Aaron) novel Chapter 222

Chapter 222
The address turns out to be a large abandoned factory.
It’s hard to tell what might have once been made here. The dusty, spider web covered monolithic machines cast strange shadows beyond the meager beam of my flashlight.
Tobin’s appointed time comes and goes, and at first I think by making me wait, it’s probably just another way he’s messing with me.
But when I message Aaron, he doesn’t reply.
I call him, but he doesn’t answer.
I try not to worry as I call James.
He also doesn’t answer.
And now I’m starting to panic.
Why isn’t Tobin here like he said he’d be.
And why the he ll aren’t Aaron and James answering their phones?
I have this bad feeling in my gut that we missed something.
That our plan wasn’t quite as watertight as we intended it to
be.
Just as I am debating whether to wait a bit longer, or leave to go find Aaron, I hear a door bang somewhere toward the opposite end of the factory floor, and then brightness floods. the dark space as the overhead lights are turned on.
|
I begin backing up as I hear multiple footsteps coming toward me-and the scent of many wolves, not just Tobin.
But the footsteps are also coming from behind me, and just as
I think about running, I scent blood.
Aaron’s blood.
My heart trips over itself and then races frantically as I hold my ground, waiting for Tobin to show himself.
What the he ll has happened?
How did Tobin know Aaron even came along, and what the
he ll did he do to my mate?
That last question ignites a protective, blazing fury within me, and it’s all I can do to keep my wolf from shifting us and viciously attacking Tobin the moment we lay eyes on him.
The first thing I see is a menacing group of rogue wolves. /
How has Tobin convinced them to be loyal to him?
They surround me, farthing blocking any means of escape.
A moment later, Tobin finally appears, dragging an injured,
barely conscious Aaron with him.
Aaron is in bad shape.
He’s bleeding from multiple places, and for some reason, he’s not healing or shifting to save himself.
I stay where I am, even though every instinct within me wants
to race over to Aaron, to help him anyway that I can.
“Luna Leah, so nice of you to wait, even though I’m running late.” Tobin leers at me as he tosses Aaron to the ground at his feet.
Tobin is also a mess, but he doesn’t seem to be seriously injured. Not the same way Aaron clearly is.
“Your mate and his men put up quite an invigorating fight,” Tobin continues in a pleasant tone, like we’re discussing the weather, not the fact that my mate is seriously wounded.
“What did you do to him?” I demand, and my voice is a growl,
my wolf pushing up, threatening to explode out of me. She
wants to claw Tobin’s cold eyes from his face.
I’m tempted to let her, but I know Tobin’s men would be on me in a second, and I’m seriously outnumbered.
Where the he ll are the rest of the guys Aaron brought with us?
What’s happened to James…surely they’re not all dead?
“Aaron?” Tobin says, as if he doesn’t even know who I’m referring to. “Oh, I tipped my claws in wolfsbane before I savaged him.”
I didn’t even know such a thing was possible without a wolf making itself sick from handling the poison.
“I’ve built up a tolerance for it, you see,” Tobin continues, and his gaze seems even more feral than usual. “So my enemies can’t use it to harm me.”
Is that part of why his wolf is so primal? Tobin has been self-medicating with poison for who-knows how many years?
“And then,” Tobin continues, picking up one of Aaron’s limp arms to show the cuffs and chains wrapped around his wrists, arms and body. “I had these specially crafted. Pure silver infused with wolfsbane. Nothing else like it exists in the world.
They’re stopping him from healing, shifting, and shortly, they’ll stop him from living.”
Tobin laughs like he’s made some brilliant joke.
“You ba stard!” I scream, my emotions-and my wolf getting the better of me-as I partially shift and lunge toward him.
However, just as I predicted, his men crowd in and stop me
before I can reach him.
Tobin only laughs harder.
Then, while two of his men hold my arms, keeping me immobile, Tobin strolls up to me, his dead-eyes gleaming in a way that makes me sick to my stomach.
He reaches out and touches me, and I think about throwing up on his shoes.
“I always did admire the fight in you, Leah,” he murmurs, leaning closer as his hands roam and my stomach roils. “I never thought I would meet a woman who had an inner wolf as vicious as my own, but I think yours almost is. She has potential, you know, to be even more fierce and deadly.”
“Get away from me!” I snarl, but Tobin isn’t the least deterred.
“When Aaron is dead, if you survive the death of your mating
bond, I’m going to claim you as my own, Leah, whether you
like it or not.”