Not-So-Fated Mates

Chapter 42: Faster

Drake POV

“Faster,” he ordered.

Rod sighed. “I’m already going twenty over the speed limit. We’re already tempting fate, and if a cop stops us, it’ll only take us longer to get there.”

“Just do it,” he growled.

Rod rolled his eyes and pressed down the accelerator even more. “Fine, but you’re paying for the ticket.”

“Whatever,” Drake grumbled. He knew Rod was right, but he couldn’t give a damn at the moment. The second Jackson had come rushing in with the news that Layla was missing, his only focus had been getting back to the Howling Moon pack to go find her.

He was still miffed Chelsea hadn’t called sooner. Apparently, from what they could tell, Layla had gone missing not long after they’d briefly talked the night he’d gotten home. Which explained a lot, but he was angry with himself for not checking on her, not listening to his gut feeling, not doing anything to prevent this. He was even angrier at himself for not taking Zach down when he’d had the chance. Of course, her pack still didn’t think that Zach had anything to do with this, that he’d simply been abducted as well, but Drake had no doubt that Zach was part of whatever was going on that Layla had inadvertently gotten tangled up in. They also were hemming and hawing over whether or not the rogue boy was a part of it all, though they at least recognized the fact that he most likely was. But they “didn’t want to pass judgement to soon.” Had this not been about Layla being taken, he probably would’ve laughed at the way Chelsea had said that over the phone. As it was, though, he couldn’t find any humor in the situation.

Damn it! He shouldn’t have left. Or he should have at least had Chelsea keep her in eyesight at all times. He should’ve done something! Instead, here he was, fear gripping his stomach in a tight fist, his leg bouncing in apprehension as he strained for any sight of the area the pack house was in even though he knew they still had about twenty minutes before they got there. He’d run his hands through his hair so many times he’d be surprised if he arrived without a new funky hairdo, but he did it again anyways, not giving a damn about his looks.

He was going to kill anyone and everyone involved in this. While he wasn’t entirely sure what the connection was, something told him the rogues had orchestrated this. There were just too many odd coincidences in the whole damn situation. The way they’d gathered around his territory, conveniently never crossing each other’s paths, as if to draw him away. The way they’d suddenly departed as soon as he’d gotten home. Layla going missing the same night he’d left. It was far too convenient. And, he suspected, it all had something to do with him. Was it possible? Could it be those two in charge of all this?

He hated to think of it, to think of them at all, but he knew how well Gideon did at leading. Once upon a time, he’d looked up to Gideon for that very trait. He’d tried to emulate him, wanting to be like his “friend” who just seemed so approachable. He growled lowly at the thought of his ex-friend and ex-mate. He’d hoped to never see them again, but, if his suspicions were correct, his hopes were about to be dashed, stomped into the ground.

“You think it’s him, don’t you?” Rod’s voice brought Drake back to reality.

“I never said that,” Drake said dismissively.

“No, but I can tell by your look and the way you’re sitting over there growling,” Rod said with a shrug as he watched the road.

“So, what of it?” he snapped.

“I’m just curious as to how all this will play out. Say we find Layla, and we have to confront…them,” he paused, looking over at Drake before turning back to the road. “How is that going to play out?”

“I’ll kill them,” he growled.

Rod scoffed. “Yeah, ‘cause it’s that easy to just up and kill your mate, whether or not she betrayed you.”

“She’s not my mate. She gave that up when she and that rogue f****d me over.”

“I know, but do you seriously think it’ll be that easy?”

“They killed my father. If they are involved in this, they took Layla, and who knows what they are doing to her. Yeah, I think it’ll be pretty easy.” Rod tossed him a skeptical look, and he glared back, despite knowing his gamma had a point. Despite the fact that his words reeked of deceit. Could he kill Jess? Or would he freeze? Worse, would he try to forgive her? As much as it was easy to say he loved Layla more than Jess while being so far away from the latter, what would it be like with her right in front of him? What if she renounced Gideon and everything she’d done, and wanted to come back to him?

At the moment, he felt he could laugh in her face and tell her no, but he knew it would be different when she was right in front of him. Which was one reason the mate bond was f*****g dangerous. It tended to addle a shifter’s brains. He’d seen a few abusive relationships between mates, where the abused would constantly forgive the abuser because of how the mate bond f****d with their head. Honestly, he’d wondered, ever since the betrayal, why shifters were cursed with mates in the first place. It all seemed like nothing but a sadistic joke on the part of whomever or whatever had created them. At least humans got to choose who they mated with. Not that they were very successful, especially these days, but they weren’t forced to love a specific person who could be good or bad, unless they chose to. Shifters didn’t have that choice. It was complete bullshit.

“We’re almost there,” Rod said, nodding toward their turn off.

Drake let out a sigh of relief. Tension had coiled every muscle in his body, so it hadn’t exactly been a comfortable ride, and he was itching to change and find his woman. Right now, he didn’t give a f**k whether it was a good idea for him to be with her, or any of that bullshit that he’d been overthinking for days. All he cared about was finding her, killing those who’d dared take her, and spending the next several days with her wrapped around him until his scent permeated hers so completely that any shifter would scent it and know to whom she belonged to, and that harming a hair on her head would bring the wrath of God upon them.