He snapped his mouth closed.
“You know this is wrong, Donal. Deep down, you know you shouldn’t—”
“What I know is that we’re predestined mates.” He paced as he began to rant—going on about how people so often blinded themselves to the truth and how plain fruitless it was to fight fate.
Blair didn’t properly take in the words, her focus instead on taking stock of herself. Some of her strength had returned, but not enough for her to overpower him. As Finley had pointed out, he was one tough mother. If Blair pounced, he’d soon subdue her and then she’d be back in the crate.
Finley would help her try to take him down, of course, but Blair knew his style; knew what he’d do—go right for her injuries to further weaken the feline. It seemed more logical and less risky to keep him talking. Which was something he was doing plenty of at that moment.
More than happy to let him waste time, Blair remained still and silent. She took a moment to tune into Luke’s emotions via their bond. His panic wasn’t quite as electric. Determination and anger were his most dominant emotions. She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but he felt closer than he did before.
Probably her imagination.
Still, he couldn’t be too far away now, could he? Five minutes had to have gone by, at the very least. Maybe even more. It was hard to tell.
Donal stopped pacing and turned toward her. “You’re not listening to me, are you?”
“Of course I am.”
He snorted. “Time to leave. We’ll talk more in the van.”
Her pulse jumped as he took a step toward her. “I’m not her,” Blair blurted out.
He halted, his brows pulled together. “What?”
“Alayna. The woman you once almost imprinted on.”
His expression iced over. “Where did you hear that name?”
“I’m not her,” Blair repeated.
“Well of course you’re not her.”
“But I remind you of her.”
He scoffed. “You’re nothing like her. She was weak. Spineless. You’re the opposite. You’re my equal. You’ll make a perfect Beta female.”
And that was when Blair realized … “All these years that you gave me advice and training on being a Beta wasn’t really to prepare me for life at the Olympus Pride. No, you did it because you’d convinced yourself that you and I would be the Beta pair of the Sylvan Pack.”
“That was always the plan. We both knew that you would never mate with Devereaux. But we also knew that if I’d declared my intentions, Noelle would have lost her mind. She might have paraded all those young male bush dogs in front of you, but she didn’t want you to mate any of them early on in life. She only wanted you to date them. She wasn’t ready to let you go. She’s still not ready, but she’ll just have to deal with it.”
“You truly think that you can take me to Sylvan Pack territory and that everyone will just accept we’re now together?” It wouldn’t surprise her. He was off his rocker.
Donal hesitated. “You’re not ready for that. You and I need some … quality time alone first. I’ve prepared a home for you. I’ll spend as much time with you there as I can. Once you fully accept and admit that you’re mine, once the mating bond is complete, I’ll take you back to our territory.”
Wait, he intended to jail her somewhere and not free her until he’d brainwashed her into thinking that they were mates? Oh, he was high. “That’s not gonna happen.”
“You’ll only have to stay there for as long as it takes for you to—you know what? We can talk about this later. Let’s move.”
Not likely. “Your plan has zero potential, Donal. Even if you did manage to imprison me somewhere, it wouldn’t last long. Everyone will be searching for me.”
“They’ll never find you.”
“Sure they will. They already suspect you.”
“I have plans to make Gabriel take the fall.”
Blair would have pointed out that Finley had seen Donal and would describe him to others, but that might inspire him to go hunt her down before she could “get help.” It was better to keep him talking. “Gabriel take the fall?” she echoed.
“Yes. It won’t be difficult to make him … disappear. Everyone will then instantly believe that he took you.” Donal cleared his throat. “I won’t enjoy using him as a scapegoat—the boy’s been through enough. Not that he isn’t better off without his parents.”
Her scalp prickled. There was something about the way he’d said the latter words, something that made her instincts scream. “You killed them, didn’t you?”
A muscle in Donal’s cheek jumped. “I never intended to kill her,” he insisted, defensive. “I only meant to shoot Warrick. I wouldn’t have hurt Milly, not for the world. But she wouldn’t stop trying to protect him. And after I shot him, she lunged at me to grab the gun and … it just went off.”