Cole's Redemption (Alpha Pack #5)(62)

“Shut up.”

Another blow landed on his face, and his jaw began to throb. This time he held silent, but he glared daggers at the rogue, who was enjoying their torment.

“A feisty one, huh? The boss loves the ones who fight.” He smirked. “He’ll have a lot of fun breaking you, for sure. But that will have to wait until he’s dealt with Westfall. Long time comin’, that one. A little revenge served with his evening wine.”

Zan tried to think of the rogue as a caricature. A bad joke that would be gone any second, soon forgotten. But the cackle the creature let out was hair-raising, making goose bumps prickle on his skin. It was the sound of a mind three-quarters gone, reminding him of a hamster trying to run on a broken wheel.

Just then Nick groaned, saving him from forming a response that likely would’ve gotten him hit again. He didn’t want their attention shifted to Nick either, but any hope of putting it off was dashed when Carter Darrow entered the chamber.

Zan’s first thought was that the vampire looked sophisticated. As though he had just finished dinner at the country club with a few wealthy friends. His suit was expensive and well tailored, his shoes no doubt an equally pricy brand. The vampire’s face was chiseled, good-looking for anyone who went for that sort of I’m-too-good-for-you attitude, he supposed—and the rotten f**ker had attitude in spades.

That much was apparent by how he walked and carried himself. Just like on the video feed, he had his head back, so that he appeared to be looking down his nose at you from under his lashes. His ash-blond hair was pulled back into a ponytail, revealing a fresh scratch on his cheek, which ran to his neck.

Zan studied the scar and a plan began to germinate. He just hoped he was able to put it into action.

“I see I have two of you availing yourselves of my hospitality,” he said, his voice oozing with cultured, urbane charm. “A bonus.”

The male had been rogue for more than twenty years. How had he managed to forestall the level of insanity exhibited by his underlings? Or did he simply mask it better? Probably the latter.

“Not by choice,” Zan informed him. “Personally, I’m not happy to be missing another episode of Ghost Hunters.”

Darrow laughed, revealing straight, white teeth. “I think I like you, wolf.”

“Funny. The sentiment isn’t returned at all. No hard feelings.”

“Hmm.” The vampire studied him, crossing his arms casually over his chest. “I think what—or who—you’re really missing is your mate. Nick’s daughter, the prey that should’ve been mine.”

Horror seized his throat and his head began to pound. In that instant, he knew why he’d been kidnapped along with Nick. “How did you know what she is to me?”

“Same way I know everything. I have sources.”

“Who?”

“That’s what I’d like to know,” Nick put in, voice groggy.

“Ah, you’re awake!” Darrow looked pleased about that. “And answers you shall have. It’s the least I can do for you before you die. What would you like to know?”

Nick shot him an incredulous look. “Seriously? Why did you go after my daughter back then? She was just a little girl.”

Darrow shrugged. “She was so pretty, she caught my notice. And I was hungry. I made a bit of a game out of stalking her. It was pure sport.”

Anger and disgust suffused Nick’s expression. “Sport? Hunting children?”

“What’s the big deal? Hunters shoot doves and deer all the time, fix them for the dinner table, and no one blinks. Yes, sport.”

“That’s nowhere near the same thing. That’s monstrous,” the commander spat.

“I didn’t succeed anyhow, but your mate was a nice consolation prize.” He smiled as though in fond memory. “Did you know even as rogues, we can choose to make our bite pleasurable? Bet you thought we lost that ability when we crossed the line, but the truth is, we just don’t bother to use seduction very often.”

“And you’re telling me this because?”

“I made your mate orgasm several times . . . before I killed her.”

If the chains had been any metal but silver, Zan had no doubt Nick would have ripped out of them as though they were made of paper. As it was, he lunged against his bonds and snarled his rage, his wolf so close to the surface it was painful to witness.

While the vamps continued to laugh and taunt Nick, Zan took stock of his own injuries. His back was sore from the blast, and he had a few cuts and scrapes. The most worrying thing was the pressure in his head, building steadily into an awful headache. The stabbing kind where it felt like a knife was twisting in his brain. This was going to be a bad one, like nothing he’d ever experienced, and he knew what it meant.

The blast and blow to his head had hurt him, inside. He was in real trouble.

Somehow, Nick managed to keep the men talking and learn their secrets.

“Why come for me now, after all this time?” he demanded.

“That’s the question, isn’t it?” Darrow casually stepped to a table sitting against one wall, close to Nick, and fingered something lying on it. From his sitting position, Zan couldn’t see what it was. “Come on, Westfall, think. I’m savoring my revenge for your interference in my plans to savor your precious daughter, but do I strike you as the sort who’d go too far out of my way to get it?”