Southern Shifters: Bearing the Ink (Kindle Worlds Novella) (Black & White Book 3) by Lissa Matthews Page A

She was furious, feeling threatened, and scared out of her mind “Let her go.”
    “Not until I get my son.”
    Bex stepped off the porch and wondered what the hell she was doing. Behind her, heavy footfalls echoed. Gus. There’s no way he’d let her near the Mayor without being right there with her. “He’s not being held against his will. He came here on his own.”
    “I don’t believe you. He wouldn’t want anything to do with you, with any of you. You’re the reason he’s like this now. You’re the reason his life, my life was ruined. No, I don’t believe you.”
    “It’s true, Dad. Let Maxine go. This doesn’t concern her.”
    The Mayor’s face fell, sadness entering his gaze as it settled on Beck, somewhere on the porch. Bex focused on Maxine, willing the she-wolf to do something, willing her to begin easing away. But with each step Bex took, the Mayor tightened his hold, drawing wincing pain from the helpless and battered woman.
    “Dad…”
    “Beckham.”
    “Let her go. She’s not part of this.”
    “They’re all part of this. All of them. She’s one of them. Did you know that? She’s one of them. Like that other dog.”
    “She’s taken good care of me.”
    “She’s been using us, using her benevolence to gain information, to spy. For them.”
    “And you’ve been using me. All these years, you’ve been using me to kill, to maim. To hunt.”
    “Avenging you.”
    “No, Dad. That was handled years ago. It’s a vendetta now.”
    “You,” the Mayor hissed, “turned my son against me. You’ll pay for this. I’ll make a trade. The nurse, for you.”
    “Deal.”
    “No! Bex…”
    “You won’t get far with me, but if you’ll let her go, you can have me for as long as they’ll let you get away with it.”
    “Bex…” Beck’s voice reached her, filled with uncertainty and fear. A feeling unfurled inside her, unusual and not exactly unwelcome. She wanted to reassure him that she was all right, but she didn’t know if she could pull it off without giving her own fear away.
    “You’ll be dead before anyone can catch us.”
    “You willing to bet your life on that, old man?” Michael stepped into sight from the other side of the SUV, which raised more questions.
    “Your mother should’ve killed you when she had the chance.”
    Bex’s heart nearly stopped beating in her chest. “What?” She asked, but didn’t want the answer.
    “You don’t know, do you? Figures. Once again, I have to clean up someone else’s mess.” The Mayor sighed, shook his head, annoyed. “I paid her to have the pregnancy terminated. She was there, on the table, but turned coward at the last minute. She threw my money back at me. She said there was still a chance you could be my granddaughter, my son’s daughter, and she wouldn’t do it.”
    “How could you?” Beck asked, his sadness carrying across the distance from the porch to his father. There was no
    “I was trying to protect you, Beckham. Don’t you see that? I was trying to protect you from seeing and hearing about and knowing the spawn of that creature was living.”
    “She is part mine. Look at her. I didn’t believe it either, but look at her…”
    “He’s off his rocker, man.”
    “Can we kill him and be done with it?”
    “That makes us no better than him if we do.”
    “Y’all may be fine to leave him breathing, but I’m not. He killed one of mine and injured two others.”
    The voices swirled from behind her. Blake. Luke. Martin. Others. She felt sick, broken. She’d never known chaos. She’d lived a very boring, quiet, unassuming life. She’d give almost anything to return to those times.
    Almost anything…
    “How many full blood animals have you killed thinking they were something different?”
    “Plenty. Survival of the fittest. Killing your kind though? That’s also about survival and if you kill me, that doesn't change anything. There are others. A network. You can't stop it.”
    “I can sure as hell have fun