She gave his package another hard yank. “What was that? I don’t think your fucking old fart dickweed grandfather could hear you, you lousy prick.”
“I submit! Jesus, please let me go! I submit!”
She looked over at Daniel, who was also laughing. “Well?” she asked him. “Is that good enough?”
He glanced at the other Council members. They all nodded despite laughing, too. “He submits to you. You win. The oath is hereby declared null and void. He’s yours to do with as you choose.”
She grinned, but it wasn’t a look of amusement. Truth be told, it sent a shiver through Ain’s soul. Before he could stop her, she gave one final, wrenching twist of her hand. They all heard Paul’s shriek of pain, accompanied by a faint, sickening pop.
She let go and stood, her right hand now covered with Paul’s blood. “There you go, you little bitch. Next time you cross my path, I’ll feed them to you. If they can even reattach them.” She spit on him. “Go back to your asshat Clan. I sure as fuck don’t want you. And stay the hell away from Mai and the rest of my pack, or I will kill you next time.”
There was a wild look in her eye Ain wasn’t sure how to deal with. She pushed past him and stalked over to Rodolfo Abernathy, who rose from his wheelchair to face her.
She held up her blood-covered hand, grabbed his neckline with her other, then proceeded to wipe his grandson’s blood on his shirt. Her voice took on a deadly growling tone. “If you or your Clan ever bother us again, that will be your blood on my hand, asshole.” She shoved him, hard, back into his chair. One of his men had to grab it to keep it from tipping backward with him in it.
Then she headed for an outdoor spigot on the side of the building to wash the blood off her hands.
Brodey and Cail flanked Ain. “Um, dude?” Brodey softly said to his brother. “I say you just let her chill for a few minutes. I like my ’nads right where they are.”
Cail agreed. “I’ve never seen anyone go that far down into deep Alpha and not shift. Not even you, Ain.”
Despite wanting to go over and hug her, he nodded. “I agree. Let’s let her be until she settles down.”
Elain knelt beside the spigot and grabbed a handful of grass to help scrub the nasty feeling of Paul’s blood off her hands. She wanted to rage, to scream, to cry. Truth be told, she had wanted to punch her fist into Paul’s gut and pull out handful after handful of his intestinal tract, even after he submitted.
But she had a feeling that might have been going a little too far.
She could still hear his keening wails and sobbing drifting from across the field as Abernathy’s men carried him toward the parking lot.
She grimly smiled to herself as she scrubbed. Little fucker thought he could take me on? He’s not even an Alpha. He’s a fucking beta. What the fuck was he thinking?
Elain noticed shadows looming over her from two people who’d walked up behind her. An instant whiff told her it wasn’t her men. She glanced up to see her mom and Mai standing there. Elain offered them a smile. “Hey. What’s up?” She grabbed another handful of grass and continued scrubbing, even though she couldn’t see any blood left on her hands.
Carla put one hand on Elain’s back and used the other to turn off the spigot. “Come on, sweetheart,” she gently said. “Let’s go inside and use the bathroom. There’s soap in there.”
Elain stood and let them escort her inside. It didn’t escape her notice that no one followed them into the building. In the bathroom, Mai locked the door behind them and ran the water until it was warm, then pumped a huge-ass handful of soap into her own palms. Elain put her hands under the water, and the women started scrubbing them for her.
“Thank you, sister,” Mai said, laying her head on Elain’s shoulder.
The tears caught Elain by surprise. She started bawling, not understanding why. Carla got them all rinsed off, grabbed paper towels, dried their hands, then wrapped her arms around both of them. Together, they sank to the floor, Carla rocking Elain and Mai back and forth until the women cried themselves out.
The Lyall men, as well as Micah and Jim, stood nervously waiting outside the bathroom door when the women emerged thirty minutes later. Elain and Mai had washed and dried their faces, blown their noses, and made themselves look reasonably presentable.
“We have an announcement,” Elain told them. “We want to go back to Florida. Home. Right now.”
Carla put her arms around both of the women. “I have a feeling I’m not going back to Spokane anytime soon.”
Liam smiled at that announcement.
Mai nodded. “And I really want to stay in Arcadia, near Elain and her guys,” she said to Micah and Jim. “I want to have a family again. Please?”
Ain smiled. “We’ve already been talking. Micah and Jim are going to build a house near ours, on our property. You can stay with us until it’s ready.”
Mai and Elain both squealed with delight and hugged each other and Carla before hugging their respective men.
“Thank you!” Elain whispered as she engulfed Ain in a hug. “Thank you so, so much for trusting me!”
He held her at arm’s length. “Baby, what do I have to do to convince you that I do trust you?”
“It’s just I know how hard that had to be for you, watching me do that.”
Brodey snorted. “No, it was actually harder on us watching that poor fucker lose his nuts. I wasn’t worried about you. I knew you’d rip him a new one.”
“We just didn’t expect you to do it literally,” Cail added.
She laughed. “I got a little carried away.” She didn’t want to think about how much she’d longed to shift and bathe in Paul’s entrails and blood, just roll around in them until her fur was coated and matted with gore.
She cut off that thought.
“Don’t worry,” Ain said as he draped his arm around her shoulder and steered her toward the exit. “We’re going to buy stainless steel cups to protect us.”
Daniel stopped them. “Not quite so fast,” he said.
“What?” Ain asked.
He smiled at Mai and her men. “We still need to officially recognize the three lovebirds.”
“You’re not going to question the validity of their mating, are you?” Elain challenged.
Daniel snorted. “After that display? Are you out of your freaking mind? If you told me they were three aliens from Venus, I’d agree wholeheartedly with you. I like my nuts right where they are, thank you very much. I’m just glad Callie wasn’t here watching. You might have given her some bad ideas. Oh, and I believe you all need an official recognition ceremony, too.”
Ain slipped up behind her. “Darling, I think you just earned yourself a reputation.”
“Reputation?” Daniel asked, incredulous. “Crap, she just put herself squarely into the legend category. As far as I know, she’s the first wolf to ever hand an Abernathy his nuts. Literally!”
The Clan Council reconvened inside the building. Some of the audience returned. Others, knowing the best part of the show was over, left.
Daniel called Ain, Cail, Brodey, and Elain up to the dais. He smiled at them. “Who claims this woman as their mate?”
Ain nodded. “We do, my brothers and myself.” He put a hand on her shoulder. “Aindreas, Brodey, and Cailean Lyall hereby claim Elain Pardie as our mate and seek Clan recognition.”
Daniel looked out at the gathering. “Does anyone object to this mating?”
Elain couldn’t help but snicker. She couldn’t imagine anyone in their right mind objecting at this point.
Daniel grinned. “The Clan hereby recognizes Elain Pardie as the mate of these men.”