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

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. Once 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