Peata [Eminence Shifters 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Ashley Malkin

  “No way, they fucking adore you,” Melanie said, a broad grin on her face.

  “Yes, they do, don’t they?” Peata whispered.

  “That’s one, Melanie,” came a disembodied male voice.

  Peata watched Melanie’s cheeks blaze. She guessed the voice to be Dane’s. She’d been worried about being here with him without her men as a barrier, but he seemed to be keeping his distance.

  “Are you going to tell me what all the counting is about?” Peata asked, genuinely curious.

  “They don’t like me swearing. They think it’s terribly unladylike. Finn has taken it upon his high-and-mighty Alpha self to punish me each time I do, by spanking me,” Melanie said. She was whispering, but Peata suspected that Dane would still hear her.

  “One for each offence I assume,” Peata said, and she started to laugh. “Why don’t you just stop swearing?”

  “Because Finn is bloody amazing at spanking. I come so hard afterward,” Melanie confessed, as she laughed along with Peata.

  “Two, little one,” Dane’s voice rang out. Peata and Melanie both had to wipe the tears off their cheeks they were laughing so hard.

  Peata felt better after a good laugh. She felt her and Melanie were becoming really good friends. She was a lovely woman.

  They were halfway through their second batch of chocolate-chocolate chip muffins when Melanie ran from the room, her hand over her mouth. Peata could hear her retching violently, even though she had run upstairs somewhere. She could hear Dane murmuring to her in soothing tones.

  Listening to her being sick, Peata wondered if having a baby was worth the morning sickness. Then she imagined what wonderful fathers her men would all make, and she knew she would endure anything to give them that gift.

  Deciding that washing the dirty pans was well within her skill set. Peata rolled up her sleeves and began to fill the sink.

  “About time I caught up with you, Miss O’Donnell. You have led us quite the merry chase,” said Detective Phelps.

  Peata froze. How was he here? Wasn’t he in town, how did he find her? The thoughts whirled through her mind in the instant it took to turn and face him. He had a pistol pointed straight at her.

  “Make a sound and your friends will die,” he whispered. “We need to have a little chat so let’s go somewhere with a little more privacy, shall we?” He motioned her toward the door with his weapon.

  She wouldn’t endanger Melanie or her husband, so she crossed to the door and descended the back stairs. Phelps remained close behind her, the pistol held to the back of her head the entire way.

  “The grey RV,” he said, pushing her toward a car twenty feet away. They had nearly reached the car when a deafening roar rent the air around them. Turning, Peata saw the massive mountain lion leap from the back porch, its jaws wide, its long, sharp teeth flashing in the sunlight.

  Phelps didn’t hesitate. The gunfire still rang in the air when the cat dropped dead to the ground.

  Peata screamed. It ripped from her throat in an anguished wail. Phelps swung the gun at her head, and as it struck her skull she felt an explosion of pain before she was swept into darkness.

  * * * *

  Max drove straight to the sheriff’s station to meet Finn. When he arrived Finn informed him that Officers York and Turner were still being followed. They had shown Peata’s picture to the business owners in town, citing the same story, of her being a murder suspect. At present they were at the diner. Samson had informed them that they were armed, so Hunter was waiting for them to emerge before he and Agent Hanson took them into custody.

  Max and Finn were both anxiously prowling Hunter’s office as Finn’s cell phone rang. Max watched the color drain from Finn’s face as he took the call.

  “Stay there, sweetness, I will send Doc straight out. You know he has a head like granite. He will be fine. Cooper will be on his way. Be calm and remember I love you,” Finn said.

  Max had partially shifted before Finn had ended his call. His claws had torn through the flesh of his fingers and his fangs had dropped. He growled low in his throat, not as a threat to his Alpha, but trying to contain his rage.

  “Someone, Phelps I assume, has taken Peata from my home. Dane has been shot, but is alive. I need to shift to make sure Cooper knows of this. Go, find your mate, I will send Samson and Michael as soon as they get here. Don’t shift in town, Max.”

  “Is Melanie well, Alpha?” As frantic as he was, he needed to know Finn’s tiny mate was not hurt. She had suffered terrible injuries not eight weeks ago.

  Finn clasped him on the shoulder. “Thank you, Max, she is just concerned about Dane and Peata. She is unharmed.”

  Max didn’t remember leaving the sheriff’s office, or the drive to the Frederick farm, only snapping out of his stupor as he pulled up to their house. As he threw open the door of his truck and leapt out, the sweet scent of his mate swamped him. Looking down he saw he was standing in a small pool of her bright blood. He roared in pain and let the shift finally consume him.

  Where she’d been transported to a car, the scent of her blood disappeared. But he was still a hunter. He followed the tire tracks. He would find this creature who had made his mate bleed, and he would kill him slowly.

  “You will not kill him,” Finn commanded. “He is human and will pay for his crimes in their courts. He should be glad he is escaping shifter justice.”

  The command from their Alpha was absolute. Even Calder could not kill the man now.

  * * * *

  Calder and Axel tracked as both men and cats, depending on the terrain. They had exceptional senses, even when not shifted, and relied on these when they had to hunt in the cities and towns. They had not had to shift all morning as their quarry had followed the main road from Grand Springs stopping at each town looking for Peata. Calder had been looking at tire tracks at a gas station in Burnt Creek, the last stop before Eminence, when Axel got the call from Hunter that he had two of the men under surveillance in Eminence.

  Calder was sure that they were following two cars, and one of the cars had not turned down the highway to Eminence, but had gone up the mountain instead. The fact that one of their quarries had not been seen in town yet worried him.

  “I say we follow this other trail,” he said to Axel. “They have it covered in town and we don’t want this guy slipping through the net.”

  “You sure about that second set of tracks?” Axel asked. Calder just nodded in reply. Although his worry for Peata may be clouding his judgment, he remained certain he was right.

  Axel told Hunter they would drive up the trail to a secluded spot and then shift. Following the trail into the mountain would be more efficient as cats. The trail also led into the heart of their pride lands, so they would be hunting on familiar ground.

  They had been running for only a few minutes when Calder’s world fell apart. Dane called out to everyone in the pride that Peata was being held at gunpoint. Then he fell silent.

  “What the fuck?” Axel spat. “Why can’t we hear him, why isn’t he telling us what’s happening.”

  “You know why,” Calder said, his voice icy in its calm.

  “He’s down. Nothing else would’ve stopped him from protecting his own mate, as well as ours.” Calder knew that Peata and Melanie were together, and nothing, except death, would have kept Dane from fighting to keep Melanie safe.

  They changed direction and started running for the Frederick ranch. Calder was fighting a war with his emotions, fear for Peata and burning rage for the man who had her. Both were aiding his speed and he flew through the forest.

  Calder felt it when Max shifted, his burning anger washing through his mind.

  “Dane is alive, Melanie is safe,” Max said, “and I just walked through a pool of our mates blood.”

  Calder’s roar of pain was echoed in his ears by Axel’s and in his mind with Max’s. They were all silenced by their Alpha’s decree. They were not supposed to kill the man who had just taken Calder’s heart and
ripped it from his chest. If she died, Calder knew he would die too. Before that happened he would find a way to break the decree and bathe in the man’s blood.

  “His trail leads north, up the mountain from here. He has her in a car,” Max told them.

  “We have the other two safely in custody,” said Finn. “I have sent Samson and Michael to you. Cooper and Doc are going to Dane and Melanie. Melanie confirmed it was Phelps who took Peata.”

  “Thank God Dane and Melanie are alive. We were tracking him up the mountain from this side before he took her. We’ll get back on his trail. There aren’t that many places he can take her out here,” Axel said, his ferocious anger like a flame in their minds.

  Chapter 24

  Peata woke to pounding pain in her skull. As she opened her eyes, the light penetrated her brain like a knife, and she slammed them closed again.

  “Waking up, I see, Miss O’Donnell,” said a voice that Peata struggled to put a name to. She opened her eyes a sliver and through the piercing brightness saw that she was sitting in a chair. Nausea roiled her insides and she retched violently, the contents of her stomach splashing onto the floor at her feet.

  She tried to swipe at her mouth and found that her arms were bound to her sides. She struggled to stand, but remained firmly restrained in the chair.

  “Feel better now? Ready for our little conversation?” the voice said again. Lifting her head, despite her pain, she saw the sneering face of Detective Craig Phelps. Oh God, now I remember.

  As the sight of Dane’s dead body dropping to the ground replayed in her mind, her heart filled with pain. She was the cause of his death. Dear, sweet Melanie, her new friend with the heart of gold, had lost a husband, a mate. A baby would never know its father. The pain just kept compounding in her heart until she thought it would surely lose its battle and stop beating. A wail of deep sorrow slipped from her lips.

  “Make all the noise you like, bitch. No one will hear us way up here. Now let’s begin. As soon as Turner and York get back I want to leave this shit hole,” he said, pulling his arm back and slapping her hard across the face.

  Peata screamed out in pain and surprise as the chair tipped sideways. She landed heavily on her side but remained securely tied to the chair. He righted the chair immediately and started pacing in front of her.

  None of this made any sense. How had he even found her at Melanie’s? She should have been safe there. Max would never have left her there if they all hadn’t been certain of that fact.

  “How did you find me?” she asked coldly, her face burning from his slap.

  “You weren’t hard to find. People are surprisingly cooperative when the police are seeking a child murderer. A nice young woman in town, Bronwyn was her name, said she sold you some clothes just yesterday, told York exactly where you were. She said it was appalling that people like you were walking around free.”

  Peata couldn’t believe it. That woman had been responsible for Dane’s death, and had put Melanie’s life at risk, just because she was jealous.

  “Who told you about our little operation at the youth center?” he asked, his tone menacing.

  Peata had to stay alive for her men. She didn’t want them to die because of her. But she didn’t know anything about his fucking stupid operation, and she wouldn’t tell him even if she did.

  She saw the blow coming this time, but could do no more than turn her head as his fist flew toward her face. This time her scream was of pure pain as she heard, as well as felt, her cheekbone snap from the force of his blow. The chair tipped and slid along the floor, scraping the other side of her face along the rough wooden floor. She felt blood fill her mouth, and she sputtered around the flow, trying to breathe. The pain in her face had her teetering on the brink of consciousness.

  “This is not a fucking monologue. A conversation means you have to talk as well, Miss O’Donnell.”

  He kicked her in the stomach, not bothering to right the chair as he resumed his pacing.

  She didn’t want to die. She wanted to see her men so badly. She needed them and they needed her. “I’m coming for you, sugar.” Sweet Calder, as she fought to stay awake, she felt as though she could actually hear him.

  * * * *

  Calder had never run this fast in his life. Running as a cat had always been easy, but he was pushing himself so hard that even when shifted his lungs were burning from the effort. But he still pushed himself harder. If he didn’t find Peata alive he would welcome death. But not until those responsible had paid with their lives.

  “You’re not shielding your thoughts, Calder. Finn is going to know you plan on killing this fucker,” Axel said.

  “Only if she is no longer alive. I won’t risk being taken from her as long as she lives. Do you want to live without her?” Calder asked. The tire tracks were leading deeper into their pride lands. Calder knew of only one place that could be considered a dwelling this deep in the forest.

  “Max, could your trail lead to the old hunting shack on Oak Bluff?” Calder asked.

  “Yes. You’re right, there’s nothing else in this direction,” Max replied.

  Calder’s mind was suddenly swamped with thoughts of pain and sorrow, his limbs growing heavy in his despair.

  “What the fuck?” He stopped running and shook himself to try and free himself from the feeling. He saw that Axel had also stopped and was rubbing his head on the ground.

  “Dane is dead?” Max said, his tone confused.

  “That’s it. That’s what I’m feeling too,” Calder said.

  “I’m not fucking dead, but I’m getting tired of getting hit in the head. If this keeps happening I may end up as stupid as Cooper,” Dane said, even his mental voice etched with pain.

  “Who told you he was dead?” Finn asked.

  “No one,” Calder replied. “I just feel sadness over the fact that he is.”

  Calder knew that made little sense as he started running again.

  “I believe you are feeling your mate,” Finn stated, his tone urgent. “When we first connected to Melanie through our bond, we just felt her feelings. We had to push hard for her to hear us speaking.”

  * * * *

  Axel fought through the crushing sorrow and pain, and pushed his limbs into action. They were close to the shack, less than ten minutes. He began to talk to Peata, hearing his brothers doing the same.

  He told her Dane was alive, that they were coming for her, and that he loved her. He told her he would say it to her face as soon as she was wrapped safely in his arms.

  “I want so badly to be in your arms,” came Peata’s quiet reply.

  “Shh…” he shouted over his brothers’ voices. “I heard her.”

  “I don’t want you all to die. You are all so good, so kind. I want to have your babies. You will all be wonderful fathers. Bronwyn is a horrible bitch. She has taken Dane away from Melanie, from his unborn child. If I die, she will have killed all of you too.”

  Peata was talking to herself. She didn’t realize she had connected to them.

  “Peata, we can hear you,” Axel said, his tone harsh in an attempt to get her attention. “Can you tell us where you are?”

  There was only silence in his head now. They all listened as they ran. The feelings of sorrow were replaced by searing pain. Axel knew they were only minutes from her now. She had to hang on.

  “Tell me what that fucker just did to you, sugar, and I promise to repay him tenfold. Then I’ll rip his fucking balls off and use them as a hood ornament,” Calder said, his rage ringing clearly in his tone.

  “I would never say that. I don’t even know what that is. I’m not dreaming am I?” Peata’s voice was soft and hesitant, but she was alive.

  “Yes, honey, like we told you when Calder shifted, remember? Axel prompted her. “Now where are you? Can you describe it for us? We need to find you.”

  “Yes, Axel, I remember. This is cooler than a cell phone. I’m in some run-down hut thing, half the roof is missing, and the floor
is just dirty planks. Please, he hurts me when I don’t answer him. I’m sorry.”

  Calder and Max roared their fury, Axel just ran faster.

  Chapter 25

  Peata flinched as the detective slammed his cell phone down on an old table in the corner of the shack. He had repeatedly tried to contact someone and was royally pissed that they weren’t answering his calls.

  “Why the fuck won’t they answer? We need to finish this and get back to our lives,” he shouted. As he turned she saw that his face was twisted with rage. “Did you tell anyone what you saw?”

  She remained silent, her face and body throbbing with pain from his assault. But she felt hope now, a miracle had happened.

  His futile efforts to contact his friends had given her a respite from his questioning, and his boot. She had retreated into her mind and poured her heart out to her men, fearing she would never see them again. She had told them how sorry she was, how she loved them all so much…and they had heard her.

  She thought Axel’s voice in her head had to be nothing more than a self-fulfilled fantasy. But Calder’s savage fury had convinced her. She had felt his desperation and love for her in her heart as well as her mind. Once she had accepted the faint murmurings as real, they had become shouts, and every cell in her body had sparked with the power of their love for her.

  “Answer me, you meddling bitch,” he said, his boot slamming into her legs.

  She screamed in pain as she slid across the floor, still tied tight to the overturned chair. She slammed against the wall of the shack and darkness took her.

  * * * *

  As Max approached the shack, the scent of Peata’s blood grew thick in the air. He roared, his huge body pulsing with rage.

  “I’m here, baby,” he called to Peata, but didn’t hear her through their link. She screamed, the sound high and agonized. The cry suddenly was silenced by a sickening thud.