Mated to My Fiancé’s Alpha King Brother

76 Chapter 76

Valerie’s POV 1

My hands shook as I gripped the steering wheel, the cheap plastic hot and slippery with sweat despite the air conditioning blasting at

The highway stretched endlessly ahead, a ribbon of cracked asphalt leading toward the wild territories where civilized wolves

feared to tread.

full power.

*What the hell am I doing?*

The question had been circling through my mind for the past three hours, ever since I’d thrown my designer bags into Gabriel’s beat-up

sedan and peeled out of our driveway like a woman possessed. My face still throbbed from where Sera’s claws had raked across my

cheek, leaving angry red welts that would probably scar. The bitch had actually managed to shift and fight back-something I’d never

seen her do before.

Something was different about her now. Stronger. More dangerous.

I caught my reflection in the rearview mirror and winced. The once-perfect features that had caught Gabriel’s eye were now marred by

three parallel scratches running from my left temple to my jaw. Foundation could only do so much to cover the damage.

That omega freak ruined everything.

A horn blared behind me, jolting me from my self-pity. I’d been driving twenty miles under the speed limit, lost in my spiraling thoughts.

I pressed harder on the accelerator, watching the speedometer climb as the landscape outside grew wilder and more desolate.

The truth was inescapable: I was fucked. Completely and utterly fucked.

Sera would tell Damien everything-about me kidnapping her brat, about trying to sell her to that disgusting old man. And Damien, as

the Alpha King, wouldn’t just let it slide. He had resources I couldn’t even imagine, connections that stretched across every pack

I could hide where his reach wouldn’t eventually

Unless…

the well-maintained roads give way to potholed backwoods paths, the neat suburban developments replaced by dense

was also where people went to disappear.

strained in the silence of the

have? Go back home and wait for Damien’s enforcers to drag me away in chains? Hope

Ha. Fat chance.

functional street light flickered weakly behind me as I drove deeper into the forest, following

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76 Chapter 76

for where I was headed, but I hadn’t exactly

side, their branches scraping against the car’s windows with sounds like fingernails on glass. Every shadow looked like it might contain yellow eyes and bared fangs. My heart hammered against my ribs as the road deteriorated further. forcing me to slow to a crawl to avoid bottoming out

I

just one pair-dozens. They moved parallel to my car, keeping pace but staying just out of sight, like

pedal without conscious thought, bringing the sedan to a shuddering

only sound in the oppressive silence of

time. The yellow

road where the headlights

read about rogues in school, back when we’d studied pack law and territory management. They were wolves who’d been

crimes too severe to forgive-murder, rape, treason. Without the

little more than animals, living by violence and taking what they wanted from anyone too

region who might be interested in what

felt like jelly as I stepped out of the car, the forest floor

you’re watching me,” I called out, my voice cracking embarrassingly. “I’m not here to

answered me from the darkness, followed by another, then another. The sounds seemed to come from

cowered deep inside me, every instinct telling her to

in hopes of

information!” I shouted into the darkness. “Information about the Alpha

growling stopped. The silence that followed was somehow worse than the threats had

stepped

were six of them, all male, all larger than any wolves I’d ever seen. Their eyes were the flat yellow of true predators, and

pulled back to reveal fangs stained with old blood. Their clothes were torn and filthy, hanging in rags from frames that were

muscle than anything else.

of scars, took a step closer. When he