The kidnappers had shifted their target from Lily’s back to Carol’s when he rushed to Lily. There was no way to cover every weak spot. He was only one man. There was only so much he could do. Still, he felt the weight of the consequences. He put a human woman before his pack.
Would Dante be angry with him? He didn’t care. Lily had needed him, and he’d done what his heart told him to do. Carol had survived months with these monsters. She would survive this, too. This time, she would have help on the way. She wouldn’t be alone.
“You have to leave.” Lily didn’t say it like a question. It was a statement that fell flat, heavy with disappointment.
He couldn’t argue with it, either. He couldn’t make any promises, because he didn’t know what was going to happen. He could die by the hands of these kidnappers. Or… he could lose control. Without Dante around to grab him again, Rodrigo didn’t know what he would do. If he found that Carol was dead and his mission had failed, the beast would rip its way out of him again.
Lily reached up and touched his cheek. His heart surged into his throat. Reaching up, he covered her hand with his and pressed it tighter to his face. They were bound, the two of them. She was a part of his soul.
“Come back to me when you’re done.” She said it as a command. Not a request.
All Rodrigo could do was drag in a shaky breath and nod. He didn’t realize how scared he would be. When he accepted this mission, he had nothing to lose. It was just him and his broken beast. Now, he knew what it meant to love. To be loved.
He needed to fight for that. He needed to make sure he came back to her.
She pulled her hand away. He almost cried out at the lack of her warmth, but she pulled a keychain from her pocket and removed a key from the mess. Pressing it into his hand, she met his gaze with her own, watery eyes.
“That’s a key to the building. Come back to me.”
“I should tell you I broke the building door last night.”
She laughed. The sound gave him hope. He would hear it again. There was no force in the world that could stop him from getting back to Lily.
Unable to say goodbye, he stole a kiss and turned away before his heart could anchor him to that spot.
Chapter Seventeen
Rodrigo tucked the key into a safe place inside his truck before marching into the bar and grabbing one of the surly wolf shifters. The man barked a protest, but Rodrigo served a glare that quickly shut him up.
“You don’t have to hunt with me, but you’re going to help me track someone.”
The wolf shifter looked at Rodrigo with apprehension.
“Do I need to call Dante? I think he will agree with me.”
The wolf shifter grunted and straightened himself. The threat of calling the alpha was enough because the shifter left and promptly returned as a too large wolf with charcoal fur. The wolf eyed Rodrigo with what could only be a resentful glare. It was hard to tell in the face of a wolf.
“We need to track Carol’s scent.” He led the wolf upstairs to the open apartment.
He grabbed a hoodie and held it up to the wolf’s nose. The wolf sneezed and shook his head. Rodrigo barely noticed. His thoughts were with Lily again. He wanted to ask Dante to keep an eye on her, or at least send someone who could. He didn’t know if his alpha would allow it, though. Rodrigo had already failed him once.
Failed Carol.
Once the wolf was satisfied, he bounded back downstairs. Rodrigo paused and tried to capture the scent as well. Aside from Carol, he could smell something else in the apartment. It burned his nose. There was something familiar about it, like he’d smelled it in the past few hours, yet he couldn’t quite place it.
So much had happened in the past few days. His life had been turned upside down again, but in the best way this time. He’d found a mate. Rodrigo told himself he was going to make it through this night. He was going to get back to Lily, his little bookworm.
His gut clenched, realizing there was a chance Carol wouldn’t make it home.
No.
He wouldn’t allow it.
Everyone was going to be alright. Rodrigo wasn’t the failure he thought himself to be. He could control his beast. He could serve his pack. He could love Lily the way she deserved.
Chapter Eighteen
The wolf shifter led Rodrigo right back to the shed. He should have known everything would lead here. With more than one kidnapper in town, Rodrigo hadn’t wanted to take chances. Following Carol’s scent was the more fool-proof option. If she’d been hiding somewhere else, the trail would have led them to her and not the hands of their enemies.
But it turns out the trail had led them to both. He’d hoped that Carol had just gotten sick of the pack. That while Rodrigo wasn’t around, she’d yearned for quiet and left in search of it. The shed ahead made his gut twist.
He glanced around, trying to make sure he wasn’t going to get flanked again. His guard had been down that night, and it had cost him. As much as he wanted to ask the wolf shifter to stick around, this wasn’t the guy’s job. It was Rodrigo’s.
A new scent wafted toward him on the wind. He spun toward it only for his mind to process who it was.
“Van?”
The blonde shifter waved the wolf away. The wolf happily sped off, apparently relieved to be dismissed. Rodrigo slowly turned back to his friend, apprehensive. How had Van followed them? He didn’t want his friend to turn against them, but he couldn’t help wondering.
“I’m going to make those assholes pay.”
Rodrigo’s shoulders relaxed a little. The vehemence in Van’s voice was believable. It sang through the air like flying knives searching for targets. He nodded to Van, but Van’s gaze was on the shed ahead. His nose twitched as he took in the scent.
The air was acrid and bitter.
“How many of us have they caught and dragged in there? It’s just a shed, but it fills the space like something much larger.”
“Looming. Looming is the word you’re looking for,” Rodrigo filled in.
“Not all of us managed to get a college degree,” Van quipped.
“I never had the chance to finish mine.” The change had promptly cut that off about two semesters before graduation.
They were procrastinating. Rodrigo’s skin prickled from the charged air. Every step closer made his beast stronger. The creature inside him rose with a roar. Defiance and anger burned inside him. He tried to master it, but fear made the beast wild.
They could do this. Van was at his side. He wasn’t alone. His pack would always be at his side. Just like he promised to be at theirs. The wolf shifter might not be prepared to take on the monsters hidden inside this shed, but with the help of Dante’s second in command, Rodrigo could stop them. At least, that was what he hoped.
There was only one way to find out, and they were running out of time. As they inched toward the foreboding shed, he thought of Lily. He hoped her day was going better than his. He hadn’t even bothered to ask if she had the day off. Was she at work, surrounded by friends? He hoped so.
He hoped she wasn’t alone.
***
Lily sighed and sunk into her couch. Bullfrog joined her, drooling across her leg. She’d held onto the hope that Rodrigo would be around all day. That she could spend her free time basking in his presence, perhaps falling into bed together. Without clothes.
Instead, she was whittling away the hours while watching reruns of an old sitcom. She knew every line, and her iced latte had melted into a watered-down mess. Not what she wanted from her day.
She glanced down at Bullfrog. “I could take you to work and show you off to my friends.”
Bullfrog lifted his head. She took his silly grin as an agreement. Chucking off her soiled sweats, she pulled on a pair of high-waisted capris and a white tee with a diagonal rainbow across the chest, an eighties tee that she’d found in a thrift store. Before leaving, she affixed the bow tie to Bullfrog’s collar.
She still couldn’t believe how
much the dog liked Rodrigo. Every human in town could tell when a shifter walked by. There was an animal aura around them that commanded their attention and made most humans want to run in the other direction. That wasn’t counting Vivian.
Yet, Bullfrog seemed blind to it. He’d slept all night, nestled in the space behind Rodrigo’s knees. It was a strange and wondrous sight that made Lily smile just thinking about it.
She went to open the door and startled when she found Brock on the other side. He was poised with his hand in the air, like he’d been about to knock. She leaned back, apprehensive. Her heart hammered in her ears. This wasn’t right, her gut screamed.
They were done. She wasn’t going to play his games anymore. No matter how terrifying it felt to be with Rodrigo, she knew it was right. That was how a relationship was supposed to feel.
But there wasn’t a hit of apology on Brock’s face. Not even a touch of kindness. His lips were set in a grim line as he reached for her. She jumped away from him. Bullfrog growled and snapped. She saw Brock pull his foot back. Before he could kick her dog, she shoved him. Brock crashed into the hall wall outside her door.
“What do you think you’re doing?” She snapped at him.
Screw this, she thought. She moved to slam the door in his face. He caught it, shoving his arm through the door before it could close. Fear was ice in her veins. She grabbed Bullfrog from the floor and backed away. This wasn’t the man she’d been with for six years. Never before had she seen this side of him.
“I will call the cops if you don’t leave,” she threatened.
Brock shook his head. “This isn’t like you. Just sit down and be quiet like you used to. Let me do what I need to do.”
“What? No way!”
He shook his head. “Don’t force my hand. I don’t want to actually hurt you, Lily. I still have feelings for you and doing this hurts me. Can’t you see that? Could you stop hurting me?”
She grabbed the first thing she could reach and threw it at him. It happened to be her leftover iced coffee. The brown liquid splashed over his face and ran down the front of his shirt. He paused and huffed an exhausted sigh.
“Oh, shit.” An epiphany hit her. “Oh, shit. Shit. Shit.”
She scrambled for the nearby window and the fire escape outside it. Brock wasn’t here because of the way they’d treated him the night before. He was there because he was helping the kidnappers in town. Lily was Rodrigo’s weak spot now. He’d told her the kidnappers had threatened her once before.
With Bullfrog in one arm, she struggled to open the window. Brock’s angry stomping footfalls caught up to her. Panicked, she fought against the window. Finally, it cracked open. She slid her fingers under and hoisted it high, but it was too late.
Brock grabbed her by the back of her shirt. He didn’t yank or pull. He just held her in place.
“Sit down. I don’t want to do this. My parents will pull my tuition payments if I don’t at least make this believable.”
His parents? So, Brock was just a pawn? Lily laughed. He shot her a deathly glare, but she couldn’t stop herself. She’d thought he was knee deep in whatever the kidnappers were up to, but her ex was only a pawn that was being used because he couldn’t afford his own tuition payments.
Slowly, dread set in. His words took shape. The kidnappers were not some faceless enemies in her nightmares. They were his parents.
People she knew. People she’d had dinner with.
Which meant she knew where they were keeping the shifters they took. She very well could have been in their house while they had a shifter trapped somewhere. All the coffee she drank threatened to come back up. She pressed her hand over her mouth and fought it back down.
Brock held his cell phone to his ear. He tapped his foot as it rang. She watched him, wondering what she ever saw in him. He was prissy and rude. It’d been easy to ignore his flaws just to say she had a boyfriend, but looking back, she realized it hadn’t been worth it.
“You were such a waste of time,” she said.
His head jerked toward her. The phone was still ringing. It went to voicemail while Brock glared at her. Rodrigo’s familiar voice rattled off the request to leave a message. He’d been trying to call Rodrigo off.
Lily shook her head and leaned back in her seat. Bullfrog growled on her lap.
“That mongrel should be put down. When this is over, I’m telling animal control that it bit me. You won’t get to keep him when this is all said and done.”
She got up and approached him. Without thinking, she slapped him. Her hand burned, but it was satisfying. The shape of her small palm rose on his cheek as she stared him down. He was stunned. She’d never acted like this before, never had the courage to actually stand up for herself.
She was done with it. Brock wasn’t going to hurt her. He didn’t have the balls to lay a hand on her. “Get out of my apartment. Go tell your parents that I’m not going to be a pawn.”
His lip slowly curled.
She scoffed. “Don’t act like you’re suddenly going to grow a pair. You might have the personality of a lemon, but you can’t hurt anyone, and you know it.”
Bullfrog continued to growl behind her. The small dog was more intimidating than her ex.
“You get a little bit of dick from a shifter and you suddenly think you’re hot stuff?”
At first, the wording bothered her. Then she digested it and nodded. “Yeah, he tells me that I’m hot. Unlike you.”
She grabbed him by the shoulders and turned him around. He was so shocked by her sudden behavior that he didn’t say anything. He just let her shove him out of the apartment. She locked the door behind him before he could even argue, but she stared down at the two meager locks and frowned.
She groaned, knowing that she wasn’t safe alone. If someone wanted to treat her like collateral, she would be vulnerable on her own. Her fingers curled into a fist against the door. Bullfrog leaned into her calf. She looked down at the dog.
“I said I was going to go show you off. Didn’t I?”
Lily didn’t want to leave yet. Brock would be right outside. She waited a half hour for him to grow bored and leave. It gave her time to think.
The truck that nearly hit her hadn’t been one that she recognized. If the people kidnapping shifters were Brock’s parents, like she thought, then that meant they had the truck stored somewhere else. She and Brock had been together for six years. Over the course of that time, she would have seen that truck if it came anywhere near his parent’s house.
But it never had.
She felt like the heroine of an action romance now. Rodrigo needed to know what she’d found out. A bit of guilt tried to grab ahold of her. She should have seen the signs, should have been able to tell Rodrigo about Brock’s parents earlier.
She shook her head. No. It wasn’t her fault. She had been trapped in a dull life, numb to everything around her because of the way Brock had treated her. Seeing him cheating on her had been the first time she felt anything.
Anything at all.
As she glanced at the street below, scanning for Brock, she pulled her phone out and tried to call Rodrigo. He’d answered almost immediately when she thought she was being followed. She hoped he would do the same now. But the phone only rang. It rang and rang until it went to voicemail.
She chewed on the inside of her cheek until the taste of blood touched her tongue.
Chapter Nineteen
Van tore the shed door from its hinges. Rodrigo stood at attention, waiting for someone to attack them the way he’d been attacked. No hook ever came. No voices laughed at them. The interior of the shed was dark. Rodrigo blinked, unsure if what he was seeing.
At first, it looked like a bunch of boxes. Just regular containers. There was a bike in the corner and boxes labeled X-Mas. This smelled like the right place, but it looked all wrong. Carol should have been here.
Van growled near him. He stomped forward and began throwing boxes around, as if he’d find her under th
e storage containers.
Rodrigo sniffed the air, but it smelled the same. Carol had been here recently. The problem was that she wasn’t there anymore. He reached out and put a hand on Van’s shoulder.
“She’s not here,” he told his friend.
Van shoved him off with a growl. Rodrigo scowled when Van threw himself back into his search. There wasn’t much Rodrigo could do to stop his friend, so he rocked back on his heels while Van destroyed the shed. Storage containers cracked and spilled their contents.
Rodrigo’s stomach plummeted when he saw the sweater hanging in the back of the shed. At first, he thought it was a person, quickly realizing it didn’t have legs or a head. It was just a sweater, but as he stepped closer, Carol’s scent grew stronger. He cursed under his breath.
It was a decoy.
He grabbed Van’s shoulder and yanked the man out of the shed. Van growled and threw him off. Rodrigo’s senses were on high alert. His heart raced, and his ears strained to hear if this was a trap.
“What was that about?” Van snarled.
“She’s not here. We should have seen that the moment we opened that door.”
“If she’s not here, then why does it smell like her?” Van’s voice was steadily growing into a roar.
Rodrigo was annoyed, but every second that passed brought him clarity. Had this been Lily, he would have already lost himself to the beast. His control was so fresh, a fragile thing when his mate was concerned. The fact that Van was still in human form showed just how much control the man had.
Rodrigo pointed out the sweater hanging in the back. Van’s growl turned into a sad groan. The man’s disappointment was palpable. Rodrigo did his best to assure him they would find Carol, but on the inside, he was wondering where they could look now.
They’d tracked her scent through town with one of the pack’s wolf shifters. The wolves had the best noses of all their pack. If the wolf had brought them here, they might not be able to find Carol.
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