Chapter 493: Bury you both under

Zoe pursed her lips, trying to steady herself. "I’m always strong, you know that. I’ll wait right here for you to come get me, and once I’m back, I’ll treat you to the best meal you’ve ever had, and design you a very limited-edition suit, made just for you and no one else." She told him, feeling her racing heart ease slightly now that she was certain at least one person in the world knew exactly where she was, blissfully unaware of everything that was about to unfold.

Matt smiled despite himself, his fingers tightening around the phone as he realized that even after all these years, this troublesome little woman they had helped raise from childhood still meant more to him than he often let himself admit. "I’ll hold you to every word of that. And make it green, while you’re at it."

Zoe made a disgusted face at that, wrinkling her nose. "Ew, green? I honestly can’t believe you still like that color after all this time, you are such a boring person, Matt, truly. Maybe that’s exactly why Mrs. Right still hasn’t found you yet."

"I don’t need a Mrs. Right in my life when I’ve already got a troublesome little brat who goes out of her way just to annoy me half the time, and her equally exhausting brother who somehow manages to keep the rest of my life plenty busy on his own."

He said, climbing back into his car and signaling sharply to his men to turn the convoy around, they would head straight back now, to gather Sebastian and as many fighting men as they could possibly assemble, before returning to bring her home safely.

Still, even with all of that urgency pressing on him, he found he didn’t want to be the one to end the call first, wanting instead to keep that thin thread of connection to her alive for as long as the conversation could possibly last.

Zoe pursed her lips again, looking down at her own fingers as they picked absently at a loose thread on the hem of her dress. "Don’t hang up yet, Matt, please. I don’t get any signal at all in the room they’ve put me in, so I might not get another chance to call you again for a while."

Matt didn’t hesitate for even a second. "I won’t hang up, I promise you that. Just keep talking to me."

Zoe bite the inside of her cheek as she was suddenly out of words to talk about. "I don’t know what to say now..."

Matt smiled, "That’s okay, tell me about anything at all, tell me how many men he’s got stationed there with him."

"I honestly can’t say for certain, there are so many of them, more than I expected, and he has weapons on hand that I’ve genuinely never seen in my entire life. And he—" Zoe didn’t get the chance to finish her sentence before the phone was suddenly snatched clean out of her hands, and she spun around to find Nick standing there, smiling down at her with a coldness that chilled her to the bone, as he brought the phone up to his own ear to address Matt directly.

"Well, well, if it isn’t the Alpha’s loyal little pet dog, the one who feasts on his master’s leftover bones like some pathetic, spineless fool with nothing better to do. Tsk, tsk. Calling my dear cousin behind my back now, are we?" He taunted, a wide grin spreading across his face, and on the other end of the line, Matt’s grip tightened dangerously around the steering wheel.

"You absolute bastard. You’ve got some nerve running your mouth like that, at least I’m not some pathetic piece of shit scrabbling desperately for attention by forcing someone to stay somewhere against their will." Matt shot back without missing a beat, and his words landed exactly where they were meant to, striking true, Nick’s grin fell away instantly, replaced by a dark, simmering scowl.

"I never really had anything personal against you before today, Matteo, truly. But you’ve just gone and dug yourself a very deep grave with that mouth of yours, and I promise you, I will have your blood for it." Nick vowed coldly, and Matt let out a sharp snort of derision in response.

"We’ll see whose blood ends up soaking into the ground, in the end. And mark my words, you will pay in full for every single ounce of pain you’ve put Zoe through years ago by shooting her." Matt swore darkly, feeling a rage toward this one particular man that he could honestly say he’d rarely felt toward anyone else in his life, and Nick only laughed harder at the threat, clearly unbothered.

"I’m not Javier, some spineless fool who doesn’t know how to properly use his own brain. By the way, since you already know exactly where she is now, make absolutely sure that when you decide to come, you bring that fucker Sebastian along with you as well, so I can finish the both of you off together, once and for all. Killing two birds with one stone, I’ll bury you both under my own soil, as a lovely little housewarming gift to my brand new pack."

Nick added, still grinning ear to ear. "Oh, and one more thing, do tell my darling Luna that I love her dearly, and that very, very soon, she’ll be coming to live here with me permanently."

With that final, taunting word, Nick ended the call abruptly, before the bastard on the other end could get so much as another syllable in to insult him further, not that it would have mattered anyway, when the man stood absolutely no chance against someone who wielded the full power of a Supreme Alpha in his hands.

He had been genuinely furious to catch Zoe making secret calls behind his back through the CCTV cameras scattered around the property, but in the end, she had only gone and made things easier for him. Her brother would come looking for her now without a shadow of a doubt, and when he did, Nick would end him for good, along with his loyal, foul-mouthed Beta, once and for all.

Nick patted Zoe’s head, "That’s why I say we will work together just fine, cousin, just like we have always been doing. Do you want to take a walk around?"