Territory - Prequel Read Online Free PDF Page A

just confused.  I need time.  I want this to work.’
    Chloe could tell then that Beverly was losing sleep over the whole ordeal. 
    Donnie asked Mace to stay away and he did so begrudgingly.  At first Beverly was thankful, then resentful.  Then it was discovered that Mace hadn’t stayed away at all.  He and Beverly were meeting in secret. 
    Chloe had begged Donnie to let her go, get a divorce, but Donnie refused.  As a result of all the drama, his work began to suffer and the foreman had threatened to let him go.  Finally it all came to a head and Donnie drove out to the Blackbird compound and confronted Mace only to discover Beverly there.  Donnie and Mace fought and Donnie had been injured.  Donnie spent the night in the hospital, Mace spent the night in jail and Beverly spent the night downing sleeping pills and a bottle of vodka. 
    When Chloe drove Donnie home from the hospital late the next night they found Beverly’s body .  She was lying in their bed holding her wedding ring in her hand.  She’d been dead for hours, but it didn’t keep Donnie from trying to resuscitate her. 
    Chloe remembered thinking then and there that nothing in the world could ever be more painful than watching your loved ones suffer.  She’d been wrong.   Losing a loved one after they’d been made to suffer was more heart wrenching than she could have ever possibly imagined.
    Beverly’s body wasn’t even carried from the house before Donnie was gone, hunting down Mace.  No one knew exactly what happened, but the bodies of both men were found the next day.  The county Sheriff believed Donnie had shot Mace and then had been attacked by wolves.  It all sounded too crazy.  There were whispers that the shape shifting Blackbird pack had discovered Mace dead and had torn Donnie apart.  The coroner must have heard the r umors as well, for he assured Chloe and her mother that Donnie had died from wounds sustained from a lone wolf , not a pack .  ‘A lucky shot’ he’d called it, ‘ the one bite ripped through Donnie’s jugular’.
    “Lucky for who ? ”  Chloe had snarled in anguish.
    Thunder again rattled the sky.  The great boom shaking the windows on the house, and Chloe cried all the harder because she knew no one would hear, no one would comfort , and no one would ever know that her heart had been ripped free of her soul.  
    She now knew how Donnie had felt staring at the lifeless body of his beloved wife .  She too wanted revenge.  She wanted one of them to hurt like she hurt, hate as she now hate d , suffer as she suffered.  She’d lost her sister-in-law and her brother.  They’d only lost one. 
    It’s not fair!   She pounded a fist on the table as thunder cracked again.   It felt so good to hit something.  She pounded her fist on the table harder and then kept on pounding until she couldn’t pound anymore.

Chapter 4
    At the Blackbird compound, Dell was having an equally restless night as the new Alpha.  He’d given his pack the last five days to come to terms with the loss of their Alpha.  He knew their sorrow and anger needed time , but he knew now that he needed to act to prevent any of them from seeking revenge.  He’d summoned his pack and given direct orders that no member of the Lott family was to be harmed or treated with animosity.  The pack was to stay away from the Lotts at all cost.  The pack hadn’t taken it well.  The y missed Mace and they wanted closure for their former Alpha’s sake .   Little did they know that not only was Dell keeping the Lott family safe, but his pack as well.  Until he figured out the cause of his attack on Chloe’s doorstep, he didn’t want his pack getting too close to the woman or her mother .
    Dell heaved a great sigh and rolled to his side to stare out the window and into the dreary night.  It was late, but sleep refused to claim him.  Hell, he missed Mace more than any of them ever would. 
    He’d been the quintessential little