Free Sassy Ever After: Mate of Honor (Kindle Worlds Novella) by Renee George

swore, “Damn him.”
    Her preoccupation with all things Forrest blinded her to the van that pulled up next to the curb, and to the two men who jumped out of the cargo door, snatched her from the sidewalk and yanked her inside.
     

Chapter Eight
    Forrest paced in his bedroom,--the only solace he could find in this God forsaken mansion. He didn’t care what his mother or father thought. The only person whose opinion mattered was Bailey’s. She would be at the wedding tomorrow, that much was a given. Even if she wanted to avoid Forrest, she wouldn’t let her friend down.
    Yes, he would take her aside after the ceremony was over and he would say and do whatever was necessary to win her heart. Bailey Corsac would be his mate, even if he had to give up everything to make it happen.
    His phone rang. Lara Hout? Why was she calling him? He considered ignoring the call, but his soon to be sister-in-law was also one of Bailey’s best friends. She might have some information he could turn to his favor.
    He put the phone to his ear. “Hello?”
    “Forrest!” Lara shouted, her breath quick and frantic. “Oh my God, Forrest.”
    The alarm in her voice raised the hairs on the back of his neck. “What’s wrong? Has something happened to Evan?”
    “Bailey,” she said and choked back a sob. “She’s been taken.”
    “I don’t understand.” His mind raced to make sense out of the nonsense coming from Lara. “Who took her?”
    “I don’t know! I was paying for lunch, and a van pulled up. Two guys grabbed her off the sidewalk. They took off before I could get outside.”
    “Why?”
    “How would I know?” The rise in her voice told him she was on the verge of panic.
    His own heart was pounding his chest. He took a deep breath. Losing his shit now wouldn’t help Bailey. “Where are you?”
    “I’m in town at the Hound’s Tooth Restaurant, just two blocks from the Wolfe’s Den in Blue Creek.”
    “I know where that’s at. Call my brothers and let them know what’s going on.”
    “I called Evan first. He’s on his way here.”
    It irritated Forrest that she’d wasted precious minutes calling Evan. Minutes that would have put him that much closer to tracking Bailey’s kidnappers.
    He fought to hold his temper. “I’ll be right there.”
    ****
    Bailey felt like she’d been playing Road Trip, a game she’d played with Lara when they were teenagers. Each intersection they would flip a coin to determine if they would go right or left. The game had been an adventure every time, never knowing where they would end up by evening.
    This wasn’t quite the same adventure. The men who’d snatched her smelled like wolf, but they wore ski masks, so she had no idea who they were. There were three of them two in the windowless back with her and the driver up front. There was a wire mesh door between them, and she couldn’t see anything but sky and some of the taller buildings.
    “What do you want with me?”
    “Shut up,” one of the men said. They were about the same build as most wolf shifters, broad-shouldered and tall. The guy who’d told her to shut up had brown eyes.
    Could it be the creepo from the rehearsal dinner? Bailey shook her head. Maybe. Maybe not. Lots of people had brown eyes. If she asked him if he was Dale Comfry, she’d probably get a kick to the face.
    The van made a sharp right, throwing her into the metal wall. She cried out as an exposed seam cut into her arm. Brown Eyes slammed her to the floor of the van and put a knee on her back. With her hands and feet bound, she couldn’t brace herself up, and it was hard to breathe. The van stopped suddenly. They couldn’t have been driving more than five or ten minutes. Was this it? Was this where they planned to kill her?
    The cargo door opened. Without a word, the man yanked her up by her shirt and dragged Bailey out of the van and into the back of a building. She screamed, and he brought his other hand around, smacking her face. Pain blossomed