Wild Rogues (third in lone wolf series)

Chapter Thirty-One

"I'm never going to see them again am I?" Tears filled Abbey's eyes. Marcus growled and leapt to his feet. This was bullshit! He was going to get his mate out of here!

"Sit down, wolf," William warned as the Beta's stiffened and looked their way. "Grange is coming but it won't do any good if you force them to kill you before he can get here."

"And what good will he being here do?" Marcus demanded, sitting back down. "One Alpha against nine? His vote will mean nothing.'

William shook his head, "You'll find that Grange can be pretty persuasive."

"Julian, I want to go home. I want to hug my children. I don't want any of this.. I never should have accepted you and Marcus.... I don't want to leave my children with no one!"

Marcus felt as if a knife had been jabbed through his heart. One look at Julian showed that he felt the same.

"Abbey...." Julian began but Abbey shook his head.

"No, this is all your fault. You knew what killing those two would cause! You knew what mating with me would cause! You knew the risks and yet you took them anyway and you dragged me, and my children, down with you!"

"Those are our pups too," Marcus ground out.

"No, they aren't," Abbey's voice was quiet, barely more than a whisper, but it had the strength to steal the breath from Marcus's lungs.

Fuck, the woman had just gutted him.

(Marcus, she's scared, hurt and missing her children. She doesn't mean it....) Julian assured him.

(Look at her, Julian. She means every word.)

Marcus glanced at Abbey. Her green eyes which had become so vibrant in the last week, looked dead. Her skin was pale and ashen. Blood splattered her cheeks and neck and was soaked into her auburn hair which was lying limp and lifeless. The set of Abbey's shoulders showed nothing but defeat.

"Abbey, help is coming," Julian assured her. "We're going to be just fine and we'll go home tonight and you'll be able to hug the pups and tuck them into bed. You'll sing them their lullibies and in no time this will all just be a distant memory."

Abbey didn't reply but she did scoot her chair back, distancing herself from Julian and Marcus.

Marcus wanted to grab her, shake her, tell her she was wrong... but he couldn't. She wasn't wrong. She was very right.

He and Julian had been selfish and cruel when they'd taken Abbey as a mate without first telling her the risk. Marcus had been too high tempered and protective when he'd killed those men instead of simply scaring them away.

Marcus had lost the respect and trust of his mate and there was no greater punishment that this council could possibly give him.

He sat in his chair, shoulders slumped and simply waited for whatever was going to come to come. While he waited he thought of Tanner and Audrey and how there was a very good chance he'd never again hear them call him daddy.

***

There was not a piece of Abbey that did not ache. Her body, her heart, her soul... they all felt as if they'd been beaten to a pulp. Her body truly had but truly it was her heart and soul that were hurting the most.

Her mates had put her in danger but worse they'd put her children in danger and they'd done so knowingly without telling her the truth.

They had known the hell that murdering Joseph and Jason and mating to her would bring raining down on them and they had done both anyway. She knew they'd done everything they had done with the best of intentions but where had that gotten them?