Free Claiming His Fate by Ellis Leigh

lead weight settled into my gut. 
    “This is my fault.”
    Numbers didn’t respond, but Gates’ head jerked up. I didn’t give him a chance to question me.
    “I left Pup to take care of my mate, but I never checked in with him to see why he’d left her alone. I was too caught up in”—I waved my hand around, searching for the right words—“lust. I fucking failed him.”
    Gates snorted and shook his head. “The mating pull is more than lust, Rebel. It’s a connection not easily ignored or severed. If you want to place blame, you should look right at me. I knew he failed his assignment, and I had the opportunity to look for him, but I didn’t. I chose to clear the club instead. I put the humans in front of my own club brother.”
    “I’m just glad you two pulled your heads out of your asses and came looking for us.” Numbers frowned, but his eyes glinted with mischief. “I was starting to feel like a fucking Popsicle in there.”
    I chuckled. “We’re a couple of sorry fucks, you know that, Gates?”
    “I do.” Gates nodded and straightened the tubing a bit. “But at least your sorry ass found his mate. I’ve waited near four hundred years and still haven’t found mine.”
    I opened my mouth to respond, but Scab and Shadow came bursting into the kitchen. 
    “The basement’s empty, boss.”
    “Good. As soon as Pup is well enough to travel, we’re taking him and the girl to the Fields. Blaze’s Cleaners can come back and deal with whatever the fuck is going on here.”
    “The girl’s gone,” Shadow said.
    My blood ran cold as I turned to face him. 
    “The basement's empty, Reb. No humans, no wolves. Nada.”
    I heard Gates curse before my wolf exploded in my mind, leaving little of the man behind. I was a roaring, slobbering beast as my body transformed from one being to another. There would be no slow shift, no easing into my wolf form. Hatred fueled my change, and that shit burned deep and fast. Bones and limbs reformed almost instantly until I stood on four paws.
    “Rebel.” Scab blocked the door. The only way out. The only way to my mate. My growl deepened and the hair over my shoulders stood on end as I answered his challenge. 
    “I'll stay human until we get outside, and then we'll search as a group, brother. We need to find her and get Pup the fuck out of here.”
    He moved out from in front of the door and I took off. My paws padded across the floor, my claws clicking on the tiles. I kept my nose to the ground as I followed Charlotte's trail through the back hallway. When I reached the door to the changing room, I charged through it. The resulting crash echoed in the tiled space as pieces of wood flew in every direction.
    There. Her scent was concentrated near a particular locker. It must be hers. But on the air I also smelled her fear and the scent of another wolf. One I recognized. The brawny motherfucker with the blood on his hands. His scent mixed with Charlotte's and moved across the room to a fire door along the back wall of the building. Scab opened the door for me before I attempted to break through the steel slab. I darted across the parking lot. Scab and Shadow soon followed, the three of us racing through the night in wolf form. 
    Heading straight for the woods behind the club. 
    Heading straight for my mate and the man who’d stolen her from me.

 
     
     
    NINE
     
    Cherry
    Stay calm, think fast, and don't let them take you anywhere.
    The words from the vast number of self-defense classes I'd taken ran through my mind. I knew I was breaking the third rule by not fighting harder to stay in the club, but there wasn’t much I could do when I’d been thrown over his shoulder like a sack of vegetables. Once on my feet, I still didn’t run away. I figured as long as we didn't get in a car, I was relatively easy to find. I stomped my way through the trees, leaving as much of a path as possible. All anyone had to do was pay attention, realize I wasn’t where I was