Total pages in book: 94
Estimated words: 89162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89162 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 446(@200wpm)___ 357(@250wpm)___ 297(@300wpm)
Torus didn’t answer. He kicked the gun out of reach under the bed and went to Molly. Now that all the threats were neutralized, his Rage was clearing and his focus was on his Mate.
“Molly? Sweetheart?” He sank down on the bed beside her, which creaked alarmingly under his weight, and pulled her into his arms. “Are you all right? Did they hurt you? I’m so sorry I didn’t get here earlier!”
“I…I’m okay. Mostly. Please just pull up my bra and help me get my hands untied,” she pleaded.
“Of course.” Torus tugged at the lacy garment and pulled it up to cover her exposed breasts. But before he could do anything about her hands, two humans wearing blue uniforms rushed into the room.
“Police! Everybody hands up!” barked one of them. They had their weapons out and they might have shot Torus just for being there. Luckily, Lone came in right behind them.
“Stop officers—that’s the Kindred warrior I told you about—the one who was trying to find his Mate,” he said quickly, pointing at Torus. “And that’s his Mate,” he added, looking at Molly.
“Who’s this, then?” one of the officers demanded, nodding down at Karen.
Torus was about to answer, but Molly surprised him by taking the lead.
“That’s my coworker—or she was my coworker, before she left the Kindred Mother Ship,” she said, speaking up. “She brought me out here saying she wanted to ‘catch up’—but what she really wanted was to leave me here to be…” She choked for a moment but finally went on. “To be raped and killed.”
“By this guy, I guess?” the officer who had demanded to know who Karen was, nudged Pate’s limp body with the toe of his shoe. “What the fuck happened to him? His head looks like a rotten pumpkin a month after Halloween.”
“He threatened my Mate. He was in the act of attacking her when I came in.” Torus couldn’t quite keep the growl out of his voice. “I stopped him.”
The two officers took a look at him…and then at Molly. She had tear tracks on her face and her blouse had been ripped open. Her hands were still bound behind her back in a way that looked painful.
“Yeah, you stopped him all right,” the first officer said, nodding. “Stopped him for good, I’d say.”
“Hey, isn’t that Mandrew Pate?” the second one asked. He leaned over to get a better look at Pate’s distorted face. “You know, the red pill guy calls himself ‘Big M’ who’s always talking about men’s rights on the Internet?”
“Could be. Hard to tell—looks like somebody crushed his head like a fucking peanut.” The first officer looked at Torus. “I guess that was you?”
“He was attacking my Mate.” This time Torus didn’t even try to keep the growl out of his voice. “His intent was to violate and kill her—I heard him say so before I got to her.”
“That’s exactly what he said—he promised Zach he would…would kill me.” Molly’s voice was trembling now, though Torus could tell she was trying to stay strong. “That’s my ex-husband—Zachary Wyndham,” she added and lifted her chin. “He’s at the Richmond courthouse right now, waiting for a text from Pate to tell him that he…that he did the job and finished me off.”
Even without the TET link, Torus could feel how upset she was. She was trembling against him. He wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her to his side. Molly came willingly and pressed her face to his chest.
“I thought I was going to die,” she said in a small, shaky voice.
“Never, sweetheart.” Torus hugged her fiercely. “Not as long as I’m here to keep you safe!”
“Officers, do you think it might be a good idea to bring everyone back to the courthouse?” Lone suggested in a firm but diplomatic tone. “My Mate, Lizabeth Paige, is their attorney and she tells me that Judge Hudson is waiting for both Torus and Molly to come back and hear the verdict of the case they were both involved in today.”
49
MOLLY
It look a little more explaining but in the end, the two police officers decided that Councilor Paige’s husband’s suggestion made sense. They called an ambulance for Pate’s body and managed to get the still-sobbing Karen up off the floor.
“He was mine! He was supposed to be mine!” she kept saying as one of the officers led her away to the back of the police car.
They wanted to take Torus into custody, but it turned out that Councilor Paige’s husband, Lone, was a lawyer too.
“This is a clear case of Rage, gentlemen,” he said politely but firmly to the two police officers. “Commander Torus is a Kindred warrior—when he saw his Mate was in danger, he went into action and eliminated the threat. The World Court has ruled he can’t be prosecuted for protecting her. You can ask him questions later, but right now Judge Hudson is expecting him in her courtroom.”