by Sarah Blake
“Fuck!” he shouted to nothing and everything. “Fuck.” He looked down at Conner. “She overheard us talking. She thinks we don’t want her.”
“Oh no. Oh God no. It’s all my fault.”
Not wasting another minute, Brax pulled his phone from his pocket. He knew it would be no use ringing any of her friends. She wouldn’t have gone there. When Danny answered, Brax skipped the niceties and jumped straight to the point. “I need you to get every sentinel and soldier of the pack that’s not on patrol and get them to the Alpha house right now. No fucking around, Danny, it’s about Sarah.”
“Shit. I’m on it, Brax. I’ll be there in ten minutes.” The sentinel hung up and Brax started moving. Conner followed him into the office, helping Brax pull out the maps of pack lands. Thirty minutes later, house full of pack soldiers, Brax spoke up, trying to keep the anger running through his body out of his voice.
“Right, I want every one into groups of four. I’m handing maps around and I want everyone to follow whatever direction your groups meant to. It’s simple, group one, head north, two south, three west, and four east. Don’t miss a fucking step. She’s had about a two-hour head start. She’s in a silver Focus. If any of you haven’t met her yet, her scent is all over this house and if you can’t smell it, you shouldn’t fucking be here. If you find anything that could be helpful, ring me or one of the sentinels and don’t fucking move from whatever you’ve found. Move out.” With that, the house emptied.
An hour later, Brax’s phone rang. Noticing it was Liam’s ring tone, he pulled over his SUV, hoping the man had some news. “Liam, tell me you’ve found something.”
“Brax, you need to get over to Hayward Lane, now!” Liam said before hanging up. It took Brax only a second to remember where Hayward Lane was, and to spin his SUV around. It was about an hour and half south of the Alpha’s house. When he finally made it, he hadn’t expected what he found. Paul and Adam, the two wolves wanting to take the twins to prom, were standing naked near the silver Focus. He made his way to the boys as Liam got out of his own car, talking to someone on the phone.
“Alpha,” Paul said. “I know we’re not soldiers or anything, but we heard what was going on and wanted to help. We found Sarah’s car here, driver’s side door open. There’s drops of blood leading from here to about twenty feet ahead then the trace disappears. I’m sorry, Sir.”
Brax saw red. Not only was his mate missing, she was injured. Someone was going to pay, and that someone was Anthony Delargo. He knew without a doubt it was him. The two young men took a step back and he noticed, and their eyes were downcast. Even Liam looked a little uneasy. Brax knew he had to rein his anger in and save it for when he found Anthony. He wouldn’t let himself think of what the dead man might do to Sarah. “Okay, guys, good job. Liam, get on the phone and call—”
“Already done, boss, the search teams are all coming together and meeting here where we will start going over every inch of this road with a fine-toothed comb. But, I have to say, Brax, don’t get any hopes up just yet, the interstate is just two miles at the end of this road. I’ve called Tom and John, they already had their toys packed and are heading over to the Alpha house to help Conner with hacking into wherever is needed, and will get us the videos off the cameras of the section near the entrance to the interstate closest to this road. I’ve also got pack members bringing some cars here as most of the search party was in wolf form. When everyone’s up to date, we can send some scout parties out in the cars, see if they turn anything up.”
“Shit, man, thanks. I owe you one.”
“Don’t mention it. You’d do the same for me.”
“Yeah. I’m gonna head back to the house, see if I can spot anything on those videos, call once everything’s sorted here and I’ll let you know when we get anything at the house.”
Brax ran back to his SUV and broke every speeding law there was. When he made it back home, Tom and John, the pack’s computer experts, were all set up in the office, hacking into God knew where. Brax could tell Conner wasn’t keeping it together too well. The man blamed himself for it all. Brax walked over and pulled the smaller man into his arms. Conner broke down into tears as he did so. “Shh, it’s okay, baby, we’ll get her back okay. I promise,” he told his lover.
Ten minutes later, John told them they were in. Walking over to the three computers that were all linked together, the “toys” as many people called them, Brax watched the surveillance videos of the interstate entrance closest to the spot where they found Sarah’s car. After working out what time frame to watch, it took three viewings before Brax spotted something. “Stop, rewind to that black BMW. There, pause it.” Brax got John to zoom in and sure enough, the car had a Michigan plate. Following behind was a large van with the logo “Clean with Ease” on the side.
“John, run that name through the system, see what comes up while I check that plate,” Tom said. Just a few minutes later, both men had the results. Tom spoke first. “That car belongs to a Mr. Anthony Delargo. That name ring any bells?”
“It rings the bells of a fucking dead man.”
“No known business in Denver or Michigan with that name, boss, looks like the van’s with the car,” John said.
Brax pulled out his phone, ringing Liam while Conner rang Danny. After telling Liam the new information, he said he would pass the word around the groups of scouts he’d already had driving along the interstate.
Another six hours, they finally had another break. Brax and Conner had left Tom and John at the house, looking through videos along the interstate trying to track the car and van. The scouts, Brax and Conner were driving around towns and such north and south of that section of interstate, while one more team drove north on it, and another team south. He was starting to go a little crazy, not being able to find her. His wolf was trying to break free and release the anger by any means necessary. John had finally found the exit the BMW and van had taken and had even managed to track them to a motel. Anthony was one dead fucking smart man. He had pulled off only two exits later, not driven further away as Brax would have done. But then again, he doubted Anthony knew he had one of the largest packs of werewolves in the world after him. Or its well and truly pissed off Alpha.
* * * *
Sarah woke chained to the bed. She smiled, thinking Brax and Conner were up to their usual tricks, when the pain radiating through her body registered and she remembered where she was and with whom. She still couldn’t believe Anthony had found her. She’d been driving for what felt like days when the tears had become too much and she had had to pull over and calm down before she crashed. After ten minutes or so, she felt better enough to continue when a van pulled alongside her car. The driver got out and walked to her door with a map. She rolled down her window to tell him she was new to the area and wouldn’t be able to help when he looked at his map, then at her and said, “Holy shit, found you already.” He dropped the map and before she had a chance to move, he had her door open and was pulling her out the car. The last thing she remembered before he punched her in the face was seeing a photo of herself that was now lying next to the map. When she woke up, she was being dragged from the van and into a cheap and nasty motel. The first thing she saw when the man from the van had chucked her on the bed was Anthony, walking into the room and shutting the door. “Well, well, well, look who we have here,” he said, walking over to her. He punched her in her face, sending her head flying into the mattress. He had just laughed and told her to get up. He dragged her to the floor by her hair and proceeded to kick her sides and her head. She’d rolled into a ball, protecting her head while he shouted how she was a worthless piece of shit and should be honored someone like him would look twice at her fat ass. When he stopped, she’d been stupid enough to look up, to see what was going on. He was waiting for her to do just that. He pulled back his foot and kicked her full force in the ribs before spitting in her face.
And now here she was, tied to the bed, beaten and trapped with a killer. Brax and
Conner probably thought she was still out in the woods, or in the town center and wouldn’t realize she was missing yet. Knowing her men were better off without her, she thought about giving in, letting Anthony kill her. It would be a better life than she would have without Brax and Conner. She was so close to goading him into killing her. But then she thought back to the reports she had read on him. About all the women he had raped. She couldn’t let him win. She couldn’t let him leave this place to go off and attack more innocent women. She vowed to herself she would kill this man whether it was the last thing she ever did.
He walked back into the room from the bathroom, wearing a designer suit, no less.
“Glad to see you awake, little bitch. Do you have any idea how much it’s cost me, chasing your fat ass around the country? Stupid little cunt, did you really believe you’d get away?”
“How’d you find me?” she asked, fear making her voice no more than a whisper.
“Quite simple really. It’s easy to do when you know people. That sounded like one nasty crash you had there by the way. I got to read all about your injuries. Where the fuck did you get your hands on an Aston Martin anyway? Once we had your name flagged, when you were admitted into that hospital, we had mostly everything we needed. But the area that’s covered by that hospital is large and we’ve spent all this fucking time looking for you in backwood town after backwood fucking town.”
Medical records, she thought. That was how he found her. “So you had your men looking through town after town for me? Why go to all that trouble? I thought I made it pretty clear I wasn’t interested.” He slapped her right across the cheek, sending waves of pain rolling through her already injured face.
“You think I’d be interested in your fat ass after all this? Fuck no. Because of you, your father pulled out of our deal. Now I have orders of over one million dollars, but no drugs all because of you. It’s time for you to pay. ”
Over the next few hours, Anthony tortured Sarah, hitting, kicking, spitting at her. Sarah passed out at one point, when he had taken a hammer to her arm, smashing the bones to pieces. He brought her around by tossing a glass of water over her face. Next, he told his men to hold her still while he cut her skin with a knife. She had never felt pain like it in her life. They gagged her mouth with a ripped piece of her top and duct tape. She didn’t know how long she was going to last. If Anthony let his men rape her, she knew she would lose the last bit of her sanity. By the time she remembered about her extra strength thanks to the werewolf genes, it was too late, it was still so new to her that it hadn’t developed into where she could feel it in her. She was too weak from all the abuse to use it. She was seconds away from passing out from the pain and blood loss when the door was kicked in and standing there, like an Avenging Angel, was Brax. Her very own hero had come to save her.
* * * *
The sight Conner found when he got into the motel room almost made him sick. Sarah, his sweet beautiful Angel, was lying sideways on the bed. Anthony stood by the bed, bloody knife in hand while two of his men were sitting next to Sarah. It was clear they had been holding her down while Anthony cut her. Anthony had the nerve to look pissed off at the interruption. He soon changed his mind when he saw the look on Brax’s face. Liam and Danny moved into the room when the two men on the bed made a move to attack. Brax paid no attention to them. On the way to the motel, Brax had warned every member to kill anyone who was involved, but Anthony. No one was to kill the man barring Brax. Liam and Danny made quick work of their tasks, dropping the dead bodies to the floor only seconds after entering the room, ripping their throats from their bodies. Anthony paled at the sight, and then looked at Brax. “Look, man, I don’t know who the fuck you are, but I’m sure we can come to some sort of arrangement. If it’s money, I can give you as much as you want. I’ve got two hundred grand out in my car—”
“You think it’s fucking money I want?” Brax asked in a dangerous tone. “You took what belongs to me. And for that, you will pay.” There were no more words. Brax swallowed the distance in two short steps and ripped the man’s head from his body. He dropped the head before making his way over to Conner who had Sarah in his lap and was removing the tape and gag from her mouth. When she went to talk, Conner put a finger to her mouth. “Shh, it’s okay, baby, it’s over, he’s gone.” Conner couldn’t stand seeing the tears falling down her face. But he’d see her cry a million tears instead of having her suffering as she was now. Her face was covered in blood. When he took her outside, her injuries looked worse in the harsh street lamp. Her right eye was swollen shut, and there was a large cut on her forehead that dropped blood down her obviously broken nose. She had bruises on top of bruises on her cheeks, and her lips were swollen and cut in two places. He could see bruises around her neck, as if someone had tied a rope around it. He felt sick to his stomach knowing he had caused this. If it wasn’t for him she wouldn’t be in this state. He would spend the rest of his life making up for it. Not that there was anything he could ever do that would be enough. Trish met them at the door of the car and did a quick exam. Her left arm was broken and Trish was sure a number of her ribs were as well. She placed her arm in a makeshift sling until they could get her back to the clinic. She stayed with Conner and Sarah in the back of the truck while Brax drove. Conner didn’t know who or how would clean the bodies up and he didn’t care. All that mattered to him was Sarah. Even though she had passed out before leaving the motel room, Conner whispered how sorry he was all the way back.
There was a gurney and full medical team waiting when they arrived at the clinic. They took Sarah straight to the trauma unit. Brax and Conner followed, staying as close as they could without getting in the way of the doctors and nurses helping her. After scans and X-rays, she was taken to surgery. Brax and Conner wore a hole in the floor of the waiting room. Tyler had dropped by three hours after the surgery had started and told them that the bodies, cars, and motel room had all been taken care of. He stayed with them, getting them coffee and keeping away pack members who wanted to offer support. Conner felt bad for turning the pack away when they were trying to help him, but until Sarah was out of surgery, he was too close to the edge and unsure of keeping his wolf from ripping people, even pack, apart in anger. After an eight-hour surgery, Trish came to see them while Sarah was taken to intensive care.
“She was in pretty bad shape. Because she hasn’t had her first shift, the healing ability of her wolf hasn’t been able to help her. I had to fix three internal bleeds caused by her six broken ribs. Her lung was punctured as well. I’ve reset her left arm and we’ve got it in a cast. The knife wounds, I had a good look and they were only deep enough to cut the skin, thankfully nothing deeper. We cleaned them out and stitched them up. As for her face, I had to drain away a buildup of blood around her right eye, but I won’t know until she wakes up if there will be any damage to her sight. I don’t know how, but her nose is the only broken bone on her face. We cleaned and stitched the cut on her forehead too. I’m keeping her sedated for the next twenty-four hours minimum. I’ll send someone to come and get you when they get her settled in the ICU.”
“Thanks, Doc,” Conner said as she left. Brax still hadn’t said a word since leaving the motel. Conner couldn’t look at him. He knew he would see blame and hate on his face and Conner felt them enough already. There would be plenty of time for Brax to hate him later, but right now they had to concentrate on Sarah.
Chapter Twelve
Sarah woke thirty-six hours after her surgery. She felt as bad as she looked and wished she hadn’t taken a peek at herself in the bathroom mirror. Brax and Conner were with her every minute. They swore to her that what she heard between the two was all just a huge misunderstanding. Conner told her what he was feeling and he hated himself for even thinking those thoughts. He also blamed himself for everything that had happened to her. She tried to tell him it was her fault and she should have talked to the men before taking off like that. He wouldn’t listen to her though. Although the
y promised her things between the three of them were fine and everything was in the past, she could see the tension between the men. She knew they were only putting on an act for her sake. Things weren’t going to go back to how they were before all this. It was all her fault. If only she hadn’t come here, if she headed west on her travels instead of east, she wouldn’t have met them and destroyed their relationship. She didn’t know what to do. She couldn’t leave them, her heart wouldn’t survive, and she didn’t want to risk hurting the men more. Feeling exhausted, she decided to think about it later and closed her eyes.
Over the next few weeks, things went from bad to worse. Conner spent most nights asleep in the office, promising that he had simply fallen asleep at his desk. Brax wasn’t much better. He spent his days out of the house. He was gone before she woke and didn’t return till she was asleep. The only way she knew he had come to bed was the imprint of his head on the pillow. She started spending more and more time with Kirstie and the new babies. Two beautiful little boys. It was when she was with Kirstie when her body changed into her wolf for the first time. It was the most magical thing that had ever happened to her. She had been enjoying a cup of coffee with her friend when her skin had started heating up. Taking her cardigan off, she was just about to ask if Kirstie wanted to go and see a movie that evening when a chill had come over her body. Before she had time to tell her friend what was going on, a jolt of electricity had shot through her body, knocking her off her chair and onto the floor. Looking up, she saw Kirstie standing over her with a big smile on her face. “What’s going on?” was what Sarah had asked, but a growl came out instead. When she looked down, she saw two front paws instead of her legs and she realized she had shifted. She was now fully a werewolf. Sarah was shocked at the simpleness of the shift as she had expected pain, bones snapping and fur covering her skin, but none of that had happened which she was grateful for. Kirstie had helped her through the shock, then helped her to change back to human, then back to wolf. Kirstie had taken photos of her in her wolf form. Sarah had spent hours just staring at the raven wolf with bright green eyes. She hadn’t told Brax and Conner that she had changed, only Kirstie, Brian, and Trish knew. She didn’t know why, but she had asked Trish to place her arm into a cast that she could remove when wanted, even though the change had fixed her broken bones. As far as she was aware, Brax and Conner hadn’t spoken one word to each other since she was discharged from the clinic. She didn’t know what to do to fix things between the three of them, even though it was all her fault. She hadn’t had any nightmares yet. She hoped they wouldn’t come. Trish said that talking to her friends about what happened might stop them from coming.
