Forever Is Not Enough [Council Enforcers 2] (Siren Publishing Classic) Read online

  “Just fight it a little while longer. I’m trying to find a way to get you out of here,” she whispered as she injected him.

  Relief flooded his body. His mate was trying to help him. She wasn’t betraying him. The last thing he saw before everything went black was a pair of large violet eyes swimming with tears staring back at him.

  Chapter 2

  Jacqueline Percival hung her head to hide the tears streaming down her face as she slowly closed the door to the room. She had no idea who the man being held captive inside was, but her heart literally hurt every time she had to walk away from him. The guilt of what she was doing to him weighed heavily on her chest and threatened to steal her breath. Unfortunately, she had no choice but to obey her father even if she didn’t agree with the man. He was beyond cruel, and to disobey him meant pain and suffering even for his own daughter.

  Wiping the tears away, Jacqueline took a deep breath to gather her composure before heading back to the lab. She didn’t want any of her father’s mindless minions to see her upset. They wouldn’t hesitate to run and tattle to her father, and then she would have to explain herself. That was a conversation she wanted to avoid at all cost. There was no lying to her father, and there was no way she would be able to tell him she was crying because she felt some strange emotional pull to one of his prisoners. That would be an immediate death sentence for the man, and she couldn’t live with that.

  “Did you give it to him?”

  Jacqueline jumped when she heard her father’s voice as she entered the lab. He had caught her off guard, and that was a bad thing. She swallowed the lump in her throat before speaking. “Yes, Father. I did as you asked. He passed out as soon as I injected him.”

  “Hmm,” her father said as he slowly strolled around the room.

  Oh God. Does suspect something? She shoved her hand into her lab coat and gripped the syringe she’d just used on the prisoner. The slim plastic tube slid against her wet palm, reminding her of what she had just done. Had she just signed her own death warrant?

  “And how did the prisoner react to this latest round of treatments?” her father asked as he fondled a few sheets of paper on her desk before perching himself on it.

  Jacqueline took a moment to gather her thoughts before answering. “He’s strong. He is fighting the drugs, but this latest round knocked him out almost immediately. I think he is wearing down.” It was mostly the truth. Her father didn’t need to know that the reason the prisoner had passed out so quickly was because she’d given him a sedative instead of the drug.

  Her father’s face lit up at her news. “Great.” He stood rubbing his palms together. “I want you working around the clock to turn him. Nothing else matters but making him mine. Those council bastards won’t know what hit them when they find out I have one of their precious enforcers in my back pocket.”

  She let out a breath when he passed, only to have it turn into a muffled scream when he gripped her arm, squeezing hard as he leaned down and whispered in her ear.

  “If you mess this up, Jacqueline, I swear I will kill you with my bare hands. That will be after I let my guards have you for a few days. By the time they’re through with you, you will be begging for my hands to wrap around your throat.”

  With that last menacing statement, her father casually strolled out of the room with his hands in his pockets as though he hadn’t just threatened his own daughter with rape and murder just to keep her in line. Jacqueline walked over and slumped into her chair and laid her head on her desk. She balled her fists in her lap to keep them from shaking. Her father was a cruel, brutal man, and she knew she had to get away from him or she would eventually die. She had no doubts the man would follow through on his threats if he felt she was no longer useful to him. She was his daughter, but that meant nothing to Edmund Percival. To him, she was just another tool he had at his disposal in his never-ending quest for power.

  There would be hell to pay when he found out what she had done, but Jacqueline was tired of mindlessly following her father’s orders. She wanted out, and she hoped her way was lying down the hallway in a healing sleep. Along with the sedative she had given him, Jacqueline had added in a few things she had created herself. If all went well, the new drugs she had introduced into his system would attack the rogue drug and force it out of him for the most part. When the man woke, hopefully, he would be back to normal. She had no idea if it would work, but he was her only hope. He was the first shifter that she had ever seen fight the rogue drug. In her book, that meant he was beyond strong. She had created the drug herself and knew it shouldn’t have been possible for him to withstand it. The fact he did it not once, but multiple times, told her everything she needed to know. If there was anyone strong enough to stand up against her father, it would be him.

  Jacqueline just hoped the man didn’t kill her before she could explain herself and ask for his help. Either way she had already started the ball rolling, and there was no turning back. One way or another she was going to be free of her father. She just hoped she was still breathing in the end.

  After setting her timer, Jacqueline started up her computer. She had at least three hours before her possible savior woke up. In the meantime, she grabbed a couple flash drives and set about saving all of her work to them. She also saved the files she had stolen from her father’s computer. She was close to creating an antidote for the rogue drug she had created. It was her way of absolving herself of some of her guilt for having made it in the first place, and she didn’t want to lose any ground by having to start over from scratch. Once all of her files were saved, she set about packing the samples she had already created and whatever else she needed.

  As far as personal belongings, she had nothing but a few changes of clothes, which she quickly packed. Jacqueline’s father had never allowed her to have any material things, telling her they were pointless and trivial. For as long as she could remember, they had lived life on the run, moving from place to place at a moment’s notice. She had to be ready to go when he commanded or suffer his wrath. Needless to say, she became very efficient at deciding what was important and what could be left behind.

  Once she had everything she needed, Jacqueline hid it all behind her filing cabinet, making sure it was out of sight. She doubted her father would pay her another visit, but just in case, she didn’t want to give him any reason to suspect something was going on, and packed bags sitting by the door would be a definite clue.

  Nerves began to creep in once she had everything ready. Jacqueline sat at her desk and took a deep breath. It did nothing to calm her nerves so she took several more until she began to feel the tension leave her shoulders. There was nothing more she could do. It was all a waiting game now, and her future depended on a stranger that she hoped and prayed would help her, instead of killing her, when he woke up.

  * * * *

  “Please…come…please…wake…”

  Ben groaned as he slowly became conscious. His head pounded as though someone had taken a sledgehammer to it. Every muscle in his body screamed in pain when he tried to sit up so he gave up and lay back down, hoping to go back into the blissful state of unconsciousness again.

  “Oh, no you don’t. Come on. Wake up.”

  Ben froze as the soft voice caused memories to come flooding back to him. He was being held captive by his own mate. The pain caused by whatever she kept injecting him with was nothing compared to the pain in his heart at being betrayed by the one person fate had chosen for him. He’d had no idea a heart could literally break until he met his mate.

  Mine.

  Ben stilled, afraid he was imagining things. Pup?

  His wolf let out a weak whimper. Our mate did this?

  Yeah, buddy. She did this. Ben felt his wolf’s pain when the realization hit that their own mate had betrayed them. He had no idea how he was able to get his wolf back, but he was glad. He never wanted to feel the loneliness of not having him there ever again. Don’t worry, pup. I will figure out a way to get
us out of this.

  It would go against everything he believed in, but there was no way he would let his little mate inject him again. He knew what it felt like to be cut off from his wolf, and he would fight tooth and claw to keep that from ever happening again. Ben knew mates were meant to be cherished. Not only that, he believed women and children were meant to be protected and kept safe. Unfortunately, his mate was the enemy. It would kill him to attack her, but she had left him no choice. His wolf whimpered at the thought, but Ben ignored him. He would do whatever he had to do to keep them safe.

  “Please, mister, you have to get—”

  The moment his mate laid her hand on his arm, Ben pounced. Whatever she had been about to say was cut off by his hand around her throat as he leaped off the bed and slammed her into the wall. It took all of his strength to hold her there, but he didn’t show it.

  “Give me one good reason why I shouldn’t just snap your neck right now.” Ben growled to let her know how serious he was as he warred with himself about roughing his mate up. Her face was turning from red to purple as she clawed at his hands, trying to remove them from her throat. It took all of his willpower to not let her go. He could feel his wolf’s displeasure, but he was too weak to put up any kind of protest so it was all up to Ben to decide the next step.

  When a pair of violet eyes looked into his, Ben gasped as a memory of seeing those same eyes swimming with tears invaded his mind. He heard her voice in his head telling him to hold on a little longer. He immediately released his grip on her throat. Their mate had been trying to help them.

  The woman fell to the ground, gasping for air and it killed Ben to know he’d been the one to put the look of fear into his mate’s eyes. His wolf whimpered, too weak to do anything else.

  “Why?” It was the one question Ben desperately wanted to know the answer to. He knew nothing about the woman, but from what he saw, she did not seem like the type to willingly go along with Councilman Percival’s plans to take over the world.

  “I had no choice,” his mate rasped out. “My father would have killed me if I had disobeyed him.”

  The tears streaming down his mate’s face threatened to bring Ben to his knees, but he held on by a thread. He needed answers, and he had a feeling the woman crouched on the floor had them all.

  “Why are you helping me now?”

  His mate opened her mouth a few times to answer, only to close it again before anything came out. When it seemed as though she had finally decided, she answered. “Because you are the only one who has been able to fight the drugs. That makes you unbelievably strong.”

  Ben smelled the scent of his mate’s fear receding as she slowly climbed to her feet before she continued.

  “Everything you need to know about my father and all of his plans are in that bag,” she said, pointing to a bag next to the door. “You are strong enough to stand a chance at escaping this place, and I want you to take me with you.”

  What do you think, pup? Do you think this is some kind of trap?

  Maybe, I just want to go home.

  Ben agreed with his wolf. They had to get out of there, and their mate was offering them a chance to escape.

  “Please. I can’t do this anymore. You saw what he did to me. I’m his daughter and the man didn’t hesitate to use me as a human shield so he could get away.”

  The scent of despair coming from his mate helped Ben to make up his mind. “When we get someplace safe, you have a lot of explaining to do.”

  Not waiting for a response, Ben ignored his mate’s flinch as he reached toward her and gripped her arm. He pulled her over to the door and slung her bag over his shoulder.

  “Before I open this door, I need to know everything about this place. How many guards, exits, anything you think is important to helping us escape.”

  Ben leaned against the door and waited for his little mate to answer. He tried to keep the panic he felt off his face so he didn’t scare her, but he had a feeling he wasn’t very successful. The rush of adrenaline he had felt when he woke up to find his mate standing over him was slowly starting to wear off, and he felt his body starting to shut down again. Each breath seemed to become harder and harder to take, and Ben felt sweat starting to slick his skin. He knew there would be no help coming from his wolf, who could barely manage a whimper, so it was all up to Ben to get them out of wherever they were and someplace safe until he could call his friends in to help.

  “We’re in an underground bunker that my father had built. There is only one known way in or out of here, but my father had several secret escape tunnels built that only he is supposed to know about. There’s one about thirty feet down the hall inside a supply closet. We just need to make it that far, and I can get us out.”

  “What’s the catch? There has to be one because that seems too easy. It you knew all about these escape tunnels, then why haven’t you left already? Why come back for me?” Ben wanted to believe his mate, but nothing he had seen in his line of work as a council enforcer was ever quite that simple. In his experience, just when everyone thought the battle was over, there was always someone hiding around the corner waiting to take their heads off. It was just the way things went.

  Ben watched his mate sigh and hang her head at his question. She began wringing her hands so hard they were turning red, and it took all of his strength to keep from reaching out to hold them. He wanted to comfort his mate and tell her that everything was going to be okay. It was killing him to not put her at ease, but he couldn’t do that. It would be a lie if he did. From what his mate had already told him, she was depending on him to get them out of this situation, and he didn’t know if he had the strength to walk, let alone fight. If they did make it out, they still had to deal with the issue of his mate betraying him and cutting him off from his wolf, so keeping his hands to himself was the easiest decision he had to make at the moment.

  “There are guards out there. I have no idea how many we have to get past. My father just has them roaming. It could be none, or it could be a hundred. What I do know, they are all loyal to my father, and they will try to stop us if they see us.”

  Ben sighed. “What type of weapons do they have?”

  “They don’t have any weapons. My father says that if they can’t fight using tooth and claw then they don’t deserve to be a part of his guard. The real reason, that he would never admit, is that he is a very paranoid man. My father controls through fear rather than loyalty, and he won’t give them any weapons for fear they will turn them on him.”

  From what Ben had learned of the little weasel, he had no doubt that his little mate was right about the man. He ignored the fact that his mate kept calling the man her father. Ben could smell only human on his mate. She was no shifter, so there was no possible way Percival was her father, but he decided to save that conversation for later. At the moment, he needed to focus on them escaping before he lost all his strength completely.

  “Okay, this is how things are going to go. When we walk out of this room, you will stay behind me at all times. You do what I say when I say it, no questions asked, no hesitation. The only thing I need from you is directions.” Ben gripped the front of his mate’s shirt and lifted her until their faces were inches apart. He ignored the spicy scent of cinnamon and the underlying bitter scent of fear. “If you do anything to betray me, I won’t hesitate to kill you.”

  He growled to get his point across before setting his mate back on her feet. It would kill him to do it, but he refused to let his mate betray him again. He would do what he had to do to survive and keep his friends safe. Ben thought of Nico. When one of his best friends and fellow enforcer Mitch had mated, not only had the man gained a mate, but he gained a new cub. After spending time guarding Nico, Ben considered him his nephew. He knew he would do anything to protect the pup, and as long as Percival was alive and trying to carry out his plan of outing all shifters, then no one was safe. If that meant trusting his mate to help him escape, then he would do that for Nico’s sake. O
nce he was free, he would decide how to handle her and her “father.”

  Chapter 3

  Jacqueline tried not to show the fear she was feeling at the moment. She should have been used to being threatened with death. She had heard the threat in some form at least once a day for the majority of her life, but for some reason, when this man said it, it sent fear skating down her spine. She believed the man wouldn’t think twice about following through on his threat.

  “I have no reason to betray you. I want out of here as much as you do.” She stared into the man’s eyes, hoping he saw the truth in hers, and held her breath. Their escape hinged on him believing her. When the man nodded, Jacqueline dropped her eyes and released the breath she had been holding. She had expected to have to put up a fight to convince him to trust her, but it seemed he wanted out just as much, if not more, than she did.

  “Okay. If we are leaving, then we need to go now. We have about an hour before my father is supposed to be back from his meeting and notices I’m gone. We need to be as far away from here as possible before that happens.”

  Jacqueline didn’t wait for him to answer. Instead, she cracked the door open. She let out a sigh of relief when she saw only one guard coming down the hall at the moment. Reaching into her pocket, she gripped the syringe she had hidden before calling him over.

  “Hey, you,” she called out to the guard to get his attention. Jacqueline ignored the growl coming from behind her. “Can you come help me with this guy? I gave him an injection, and he just dropped like a stone. The bastard is too heavy for me to lift to get him back in the bed.”

  She let out a laugh that she was far from feeling while motioning with her hand behind her for her partner in crime to get on the floor. She could only hope he was listening as she opened the door wider and stepped back into the room. She didn’t take her eyes off the guard for a second as he began walking toward her. Once he was in the room and stepped past her, she turned and let out a sigh of relief when she saw that the man had listened and was lying in the middle of the floor.