Lady in Black (Drekinn Book 6)

by Jana Leigh

  “You mean you want to come with us?” Kade said slowly.

  Hope bit her lip. “No, I mean I want you to let me go. I will take Gio and Mak with me, we will scope out the situation.”

  Kade frowned and looked at his sister. “No.”

  “Listen, I know you are the Alpha, and you are strong, but seriously, I have more power than you do right now. I have more resources,” Hope said softly.

  In the shifting world, what she had just said could have been taken as a challenge for leadership. Telling an Alpha you are more powerful than them could be construed as a challenge, something Hope would never do, especially to her brother. She knew she wasn’t destined to be the Alpha, her mates weren’t as well, they had another purpose in the Pack—they just didn’t know it yet.

  Calli sucked in a breath and looked at Hope, her gaze hurt, she looked like Hope had betrayed her somehow. That was so not what she wanted, her gaze shifted to her brother who was staring at her intently.

  “Kade, I am not challenging you in anyway. That is not the issue, I know it sounds like I don’t believe in you or trust you, but that is not what I am saying. You are the Alpha, you are important to the pack. Putting you in danger by going into an unknown situation is not wise,” Hope said and Kade leaned back.

  Mak gripped her leg and Gio grabbed her hand. They knew what she was trying to say. They also knew she was right, no matter what the others thought, strategically sending their leader into an unknown situation was foolhardy.

  Rissa spoke up, “We are the Betas, if that is the reason you do not think the Alphas should go, then their next in line should. We could go as well and do the same thing.”

  “You are pregnant,” Simon said softly.

  “That doesn’t mean I am a wimp,” Rissa argued.

  “I realize that, but we already decided that Calli, Cherri, and you were going to be in the background of the rescue because of that. I respect what you can do, and I respect your position. But you are pregnant, and it is important to me that you stay healthy,” Simon said.

  “I hate it when you are reasonable,” Rissa grumbled.

  “Hope,” Kade said and her gaze went to her brother. “First, we will try to call one more time, if no one answers, you and your mates have one hour to pop in, determine the situation, and come back. If something happens to you, I will reign hell down on anyone who took you away from me now that I have found you again, are we clear?”

  They all felt his Alpha power radiate out of him, it was stronger, like a lot stronger, and Calli even leaned back and grinned.

  “I know why the weird light went into us last night,” she almost sang and Kade looked at her confused. “Your Alpha woo woo, is like on crack right now. No shit, you just became all growly and I swear to God, if anyone else would have been in this room, they would have fallen to their knees with the power you just put out. So fucking cool. Piss me off so I can see if I am strong like that too.”

  *****

  “Shit,” Sabrina said and stared at her phone. It was dead, and she knew for a fact by now, they were ready to send out the troops to find her and Trina. Not that it would be a bad thing at this point. They were currently sitting in the jail of Drake with the mayor of the town ordering their detention until it was proven who they were. Yeah, kinda turned into a clusterfuck when they had gone to the mayor and asked questions. He had become suspicious and Trina had not been diplomatic by calling him a dumb muther fucker for challenging their ancestry.

  “I just need to make one phone call. I swear it will clear everything up. Like everything. My Alpha will be able to explain this,” Sabrina tried once again to explain to the man.

  “Sorry,” the mayor said. “Until your blood test comes back you stay right where you are at.”

  “Okay, explain to me once again how taking our blood is going to prove anything?” Sabrina asked.

  The man looked up from the magazine he was reading and grinned. “That is none of your business, missy. Right now, you better worry about if they come back and you are an Ulfer.”

  “Then we can sort this out right now,” Hope said from behind the man and Sabrina grinned. Finally, the cavalry had arrived.

  The mayor jumped up quickly and went to reach for his gun. The one that Sabrina already knew held special bullets. Gio was too fast, he moved and grabbed the weapon and looked at the man.

  “Not a good idea,” Gio whispered.

  The mayor blustered and then said, “Listen, I don’t know who the hell you are but let me tell you something. I am not alone, and the people of this town are not going to…”

  Hope rolled her eyes and then said, “Just listen, and then if you want to call your friends you can.”

  The mayor stopped and looked at her, he folded his arms over his big barrel chest and said, “Go ahead.”

  “My name is Hope Gevaudan,” she announced and the mayor sucked in a breath and whispered.

  “Prove it.”

  Hope grinned and held up her hand, a light appeared and the man stared at it intently. She turned her hand a little and the light moved, danced, and then swirled around until a wolf appeared. The mayor sucked in another breath and then she heard him whisper.

  “Cami.”

  Hope smiled, she hadn’t known who the wolf was that she had been thinking of, but hearing her mother’s name, it made her happy, she was still with her in spirit, watching over her.

  Chapter Ten

  “Seriously?” Kade said to Hope when they returned.

  “Yeah, he said it was mom’s wolf,” Hope said with a smile.

  “Well, I hope that means they are watching out for us,” Kade said grimly. “Now that people are on their way to Colorado, we are going to begin the assault. You and your mates need to get your things and we need to move. The activity, although cloaked, could still be noticed, by someone. We don’t have a lot of time to get the people out of the facility and back here so we can leave.”

  Hope nodded and then looked at Kade for a second more. “Do you think we will find Stephan soon. I can’t believe they separated us.”

  Kade pressed his lips together and then looked at Hope and pulled her into a hug. “You know why they did it. I have one memory that stands out and it is not hazy at all. Our parents waking us up in the middle of the night, it had to be when they were sending us to safety. I remember Mom telling us how much she loved us, and that we would understand when we got older why they were doing what they were doing. She kissed me on the cheek and whispered in my ear. ‘You are going to be the Alpha, Stephan will be a powerful Enforcer, and Hope will be the key to win any war you face. Remember that, you are family and family always will find each other.’”

  Hope felt tears in her eyes, “But he’s not here.”

  “He will be. I can feel it. He will be,” Kade said and kissed her on the forehead. “Let’s get this done, get out of here, and go home.”

  *****

  The facility was heavily guarded. Just like they had suspected, they increased guards by more than half. So instead of two guards walking the parameter there were five, and each of them took a different path while they roamed. They also had fences installed, how they did it so fast, none of them would ever know, nor did they care. The only thing they cared about was that it was electrified, which meant if one of them touched it, they would be cooked.

  Another change was the SUV, which had been carrying Roarke’s daughter, was still there, as in she was still in the facility. Now this didn’t bother Kade, what did bother him was that Calli, Rissa, and Cherri were all hell bent on capturing her and torturing her. Not to get information, nope, they wanted to make the woman hurt, and weren’t shy in expressing their opinion on the subject, no matter how reasonable their mates tried to speak to them. It was personal for the ladies, and no one could blame them.

  The group was strategically placed, and Hope had discovered that she not only could speak to them in their minds but she could also share the gift so they were all able to communic
ate without saying a word out loud. This worked in their favor of course, although Kade was questioning the fact that Hope had given Calli, Kiki, Cherri, and Rissa the ability because currently they were trash talking the outfit the Ulfer were wearing.

  ‘My God it is like they are little combat wannabes. Look at the guy by the gate, he is like a twig, he looks ridiculous in that outfit, like he stole it from his dad to wear and look cool in.’ Rissa laughed.

  ‘I know, and the one to the left, he needs to run a few laps, then maybe his stomach wouldn’t be hanging over his belt like that.’ Cherri giggled.

  ‘Let’s not even comment on the chick at the back. I am pretty sure she took hormone pills, I mean Hope is buff and it looks good on her. This chick looks like Barbie on steroids and is not attractive—like at all,’ Calli sneered.

  ‘Can we cut the play by play of what the guards are wearing and possibly get to the point of the whole mission, which is getting our ass into the facility and saving the prisoners,’ Kade sighed.

  ‘Hey, you made us sit back here and watch, giving us a stupid job of surveillance in order to make sure none of you were caught off guard. It is not my fault if we are bored and have nothing to do,’ Calli snapped and Kade rolled his eyes.

  “You mated with her,” Hope muttered to her brother whom she was standing right next to.

  “Yeah, I know,” Kade sighed and then grinned at his sister. It was good to have her back, he only wished Stephan were here too. They were triplets, and knowing this now, Kade understood why he had felt incomplete for his whole life.

  ‘Simon,’ Kade said softly in his head. ‘How about the south side, is there any way we can get in there?’

  ‘I can take down the gate if I can get a distraction, the box is right here,’ Simon said.

  ‘Ohhhhh,’ Rissa said. ‘Electricity, honey, are you sure I can’t come and help you?’

  ‘No,’ Simon snapped. ‘I am not having my kid shocked before he is even out of the womb.’

  ‘But you know how much I love to play with electricity.’

  ‘Yeah, I do, which is why you are staying there, damn it,’ Simon said and Kade shook his head.

  ‘How long do you need the distraction for?’ Kade said.

  ‘About ten minutes, I will need to reroute the current so they don’t realize the gates aren’t live.’

  ‘Okay,’ Kade said and turned to his sister. She was the only one they hadn’t put out a poster on with wanted Dead or Alive. So she would be the only one to create the distraction. ‘You are up.’

  ‘Fuck, hang on,’ Hope said and left in the blink of an eye.

  ‘Everyone, stand down until I tell you,’ Kade said.

  There were mumbles of agreement and they waited. After a few minutes, Hope stumbled out of the tree line, staggering to hold herself up. Kade narrowed his eyes and wondered what the fuck his sister was doing. She was supposed to be pretending to be a hiker that was lost. But as he narrowed his eyes he saw that she had changed some of the plan, that change being her shirt was torn, her pants filthy with dirt and leaves clinging to them. She also had blood dripping from her nose, and her eye looked like she had a good shiner coming on, and her right arm looked like it was hanging at her side at an odd angle. What the fuck?

  ‘What the hell happened to Hope?’ Gio snapped in his head.

  ‘She looks like she was attacked,’ Mak growled and Kade went to answer that he had no clue what was going on when his mates began to talk.

  “We did it.” Calli laughed. “Hope asked us last night if we would help. Since we didn’t know if we needed a distraction or not at the time, she wanted to be prepared. We figured as a lost hiker they would just tell her to go away. But for a wounded woman running out of the forest looking like she had been attacked, they would open the gate.”

  “And?” Gio snapped.

  “So she popped over here before going out and told us to beat the shit out of her fast,” Rissa said. “We did, it was kinda fun, although I must say, she is fucking built like a brick shit house, my hand could be broken from hitting her in the ribs.”

  “Seriously?” Gio said softly, not at all happy his mate had done this without telling them. They would have offered to go instead, they would have had someone put on fake blood in order to draw attention, but not their stubborn mate. Nope, she had to take it upon herself to actually get herself beat up in order to create the distraction.

  “She is good.” Cherri laughed as they watched Hope fall to the ground in a heap and reach out a hand to the man standing at the gate and cry out weakly.

  “Help.”

  The guard looked torn as to what to do. Gio and Mak were the closest to the front gate and could hear their mate’s pitifully call out once again to the guard.

  “Please help,” she said and then her head fell to the ground, appearing as if she had passed out.

  The guard hesitated once again but then walked to the gate and picked up the phone and called someone. Moments later several of the guards from other areas were jogging to the gate, when they arrived the first guard pushed a button, which activated the gate opening.

  Four men exited the facility grounds and went to where Hope was laying. One of them rolled her over gently and looked her over. Hope whimpered a little and Mak gritted his teeth, she wasn’t faking that, her shoulder must really be hurting. Damn that woman.

  One of the guards called over his shoulder for them to get a medic from inside the facility and Kade tensed for a moment then said in his head.

  ‘Simon, go, you have the time.’

  ‘You got it,’ Simon said and they all waited and watched.

  The four guards were now surrounding Hope and the guard at the gate looked hesitant about leaving, but was staring at Hope intently. Their focus was completely distracted.

  A woman ran from the front of the facility to the gate. Kade held his breath as he looked at her. He could hear her from where he was positioned.

  “What happened?” she said briskly while sinking into a crouch next to Hope.

  “I don’t know,” one of the men said. “She stumbled out of the woods looking like this.”

  “Ma’am?” the woman said and Hope moaned.

  “Can you hear me?” the woman said and Hope answered quietly.

  “Yes.”

  “What happened?” the woman said.

  “In the woods, I was hiking, and got a little turned around. Saw a few other hikers and went to ask them if they had a map. They were helpful enough but then they wanted payment for helping. They grabbed me, I fought and got away, but not before they got in a few good hits,” Hope cried.

  ‘Damn, she deserves an award for that performance.’ Calli laughed in Kade’s head.

  ‘She does,’ Rissa agreed.

  ‘I am taking points off for not having tears, I dislocated that shoulder, damn it, it has to hurt like a bitch, if they looked at her close enough, she isn’t crying, but all in all, a good play,’ Cherri commented.

  “Let’s get her into the facility where I can examine her better,” the woman said and Kade sucked in a breath, they hadn’t planned this part.

  ‘Everyone, hold, they are taking Hope inside,’ Kade said in his head.

  They all watched as two of the men lifted Hope up and carried her right through the gate.

  ‘Let’s let her get inside before we move. Maybe with her in there, she will be able to find the captives ahead of time before we enter. That way this could be faster and same valuable time,’ Kade said.

  ‘Or she will be captive herself if this doesn’t work,’ Mak growled and Gio nodded in frustration.

  They watched their mate disappear in the building and everyone sat and watched.

  ‘The current is down on the gate,’ Simon reported and Kade breathed a sigh of relief. They shouldn’t notice it for a while, and by then, they should be in and out.

  ‘Hope?’ Kade said softly to his sister. She didn’t answer.

  ‘Hope?’ he said again and she stil
l didn’t answer.

  ‘Goddammit, HOPE!’ Mak snapped loudly and finally Hope said.

  ‘Shut it, I can’t focus and listen to you at the same time. They brought me into a room on the main floor. There is a computer in the corner. I am going to try to get into it. On the screen, shows a map of the facility with little camera feeds in boxes scattered. It has to be the captives,’ Hope said. ‘Gimme a few before you all move so I can get a better idea where everyone is.’

  ‘Fine,’ Kade said and he heard his mate chuckle in his head.

  Minutes passed and Kade and the others became impatient, they wanted to move fast, and this waiting around was fucking annoying.

  Finally, Hope said, ‘Okay, there are five floors going down. The main floor is the research area; there are rooms they do the testing in. I don’t understand all of the numbers and shit to see what they are trying to find out. The captives are on the second floor, below that, it looks like barracks, meeting rooms, and several other guest suites.’

  ‘So you see all the captives?’ Kade asked.

  Hope frowned and stared at the screen counting. ‘Uh no, I count thirteen,’ she said and then moved the curser around until she found the three remaining. ‘Shit, the bottom level is high security locked steel rooms. There are two down there, I can see them, and they are in bad shape.’

  Kade swore, that was going to make it harder, once they took the second floor the other floor should be locked, and he didn’t want to leave two there in order to be subjected to the wrath of Rebekka.

  ‘Can you get down there before we come in and get them out?’ Kade asked and he heard both Gio and Mak growl, yes, he was putting their mate in danger, but she was his sister too, damn it, and no matter if he liked it or not, right now she had the upper hand.

  ‘Yep,’ Hope replied. ‘The chick already gave me a sedative, she thinks it knocked me out, I overheard them say they would wait until they finished their daily routine and then they would come back to me. By the looks of it, their daily routine is bringing out the captives one by one to be tested.’