by Mandy Rosko
The stupid bastard spotted Dane coming before he could push Lois into the back of that SUV. He was forced to drop her as Dane slammed into him.
The shifter roared as Dane pushed his shoulder into the man’s gut. He was trying to shift just as Dane slammed him into a cement pillar. It cracked heavily on impact.
“Stop it! Cut it out! We got what we want.”
That was Dennis. That motherfucker. What was he doing here?
Then Dane knew what had happened, and he couldn’t believe he’d been so stupid.
Lois.
Dane looked away from his opponent, spotting her still shell shocked on the pavement, looking up at him.
Turning away from the asshole he’d been holding up had been a mistake as Dane felt four claws rake hotly down his face and eyes.
He roared, dropping the man he’d been holding.
Dane swiped out at him, yelped when he punched the pillar instead. That probably put another crack in it, and one in a few of his knuckles.
“Dane!”
Lois’s small hands touched his shoulders.
“Stay behind me.”
He was blind with the blood in his eyes. Whenever he tried to open them, all he could see was red.
He just had to keep her behind him. That was all he had to do. Just make sure she stayed behind him and he would be able to keep her safe. He was blind, but he could still fight anyone who got too close.
Lois grabbed his forearms, her grip tight and her voice shrill. “Dane! They’re taking Anna! They have Anna!”
“What?” Dane tried opening his eyes again, stepping away from his mate. He could barely see through the blood, and when he wiped at his eyes, it seemed to make it worse as he opened the wounds on his face even more.
He definitely saw the smile on Dennis’s face, however, as Anna was forced, screaming, into the back of the SUV.
“I was more interested in your girlfriend, but Garret’s sister is better.”
Dane roared and tried to charge at the man. His poor vision made it all too easy for Dennis to crack him in the skull with his fist.
Dane kept to his feet as his head flew back. He reached out and grabbed at Dennis’s throat. The man punched him in the gut before Dane could rip out his trachea.
The whoosh of air leaving his throat was something Dane couldn’t exactly fight back against. He doubled over, blind and wheezing for breath.
“Why do you follow him?” Dennis yelled, sounding like he’d bent over to scream it right in Dane’s ear before his fist came down on the top of his skull.
Dane vaguely heard Lois screaming somewhere behind him. Anna shouted for Dennis to stop, but her voice was muffled in the SUV.
Dane wasn’t going to win this one. Not as blind as he was. He scrambled back, feeling a soft rush of air near his face from Dennis’s fist. Just missed him. Dane pushed himself back to his feet, putting himself between Dennis and Lois.
She was the only one he could save, and only if he stayed on his feet.
It was a struggle.
“We’ve got to go! Dennis! We have to get out of here!”
Dane’s face was covered in blood, but his nose wasn’t clogged with it. He could smell people coming. Probably mall security. As if they could do anything.
Dane opened his eyes again, tried to see through all the red.
Dennis was backing towards the SUV now, still glaring at Dane, or at least Dane thought he was glaring. It was the only thing that made sense.
“Garret will kill you for this, Dennis,” Dane warned. “I’ll help him do it.”
“Fuck you both,” Dennis spat. “I’ll contact Garret when I’m ready to tell him my terms.”
Anna screamed from the back of the SUV. It shook with her struggles. “Dane! Dane!”
Before Dane could second guess his decision to risk Lois by going after Anna, Dennis jumped into the passenger seat. The tires squealed; black smoke and the smell of burned rubber perfumed the air.
When they were gone, Dane’s knees gave out. He hadn’t realized he was on the verge of falling over. He was on his knees, Lois beside him, touching his face, using the fabric of her shirt to wipe away the blood. Security swarmed them almost immediately after the SUV was gone.
Lois was safe. She hadn’t been taken. Dane, and the wild animal inside him, breathed sweet relief knowing that.
But Garret’s sister had been taken. This was why Garret didn’t like it when she left the pack by herself. The very thing he'd spent the last twenty-three years being paranoid about had just happened.
Dane was going to have to send the man another text and explain, right after these idiots in uniform stopped shouting their questions at him.
18
Mall security couldn’t keep them. They weren’t the police, and aside from looking like he’d been in a bloody fight, Dane hadn’t stolen anything or done anything wrong. He was the victim of someone rushing in and beating him up. There had been enough people in the parking garage to give their own statements, but Lois didn’t think enough of them had been paying attention to Lois and Anna to really notice any details.
And they were all gone when Anna was taken, so it wasn’t like Lois had to lie about a kidnapping.
She’d wanted to tell them. She’d wanted the police to come and take statements and do everything they were supposed to do to make this right, but it was Dane’s hand holding hers tightly that stopped her.
She couldn’t tell the police anything about Anna even if she could call for them. What was she going to say? Her friend was a werewolf and had been kidnapped by a rival pack over some strange dispute?
No, that wouldn’t work, and Lois scrambled to get herself and Dane the hell out of there. Anna had the keys to her car, so she had to take Dane’s keys and drive him out of there before someone on security could make the decision to call the cops for her.
Her heart slammed in traffic. Dane was bleeding beside her, his hand on his bloody face as he tried to stop the blood flow.
“We should’ve at least let them look over you.”
“No, I’m healing,” Dane said. “It just looks bad because of all the blood.”
“You’re healing?”
“It’s because you’re here.”
Lois sucked back a hard breath, then her throat closed painfully tight, and she burst into tears as she drove.
Dane didn’t say anything else to her. Maybe because she looked a little over emotional and he didn’t want her to get worse. She was the one driving after all.
She still got the feeling he was looking at her, but Lois didn’t check. Bad enough her eyes were filling up with tears that needed constant wiping away, but she wasn’t about to take her eyes off the road.
She just wanted to get home. She wanted to start this day over again, and when Anna showed up, sad and small in her doorway, she’d say screw the shopping trip, they’d stay in and do their hair and nails and nothing else.
Anna was gone because of her. That realization was a strike in her gut. Lois’s tears came a little thicker.
“You’re shaking.”
She was, but she didn’t say anything back to Dane about it. She didn’t think she could speak with the giant rock clogging her throat right now.
Dane ignored his phone, which rang and beeped the entire drive back to Lois’s apartment. Apparently, he’d texted Garret to tell him what had happened, and was deciding to wait until he was face to face with the man before getting into more details.
Lois didn’t know if that was cruel or better in the long run. Since Dane used to be in the Navy, she figured he knew better what to be done when bad shit happened.
She knew she was also going to have some answering to do to the man. She’d been there. It had been her idea to go out shopping, and now his little sister, his only family, was gone.
What was Dennis going to do to her?
When Lois pulled into the parking lot and saw Garret pacing in one of the visitor spaces next to his Mercedes, she stopped
the car. She couldn’t make it over to her space. She stopped at the sight of him, at his angry, blazing eyes.
She was going to start sobbing again. She couldn’t hold it back.
A firm grip on her shoulder pulled her out of the worst of that depressing haze. She looked at Dane, who stared back at her with open, clear eyes. The wounds on his face were still there, but they really were healing. He looked so damned gruesome with all that blood on his face, though. “Park the car and go inside. I’ll get this settled.”
He got out of the truck. Lois watched him go, part of her going with him, yearning for him to come back and keep comforting her.
There was another younger man with Garret. He wore only a pair of jeans and was bare-chested with no shoes on. Lois hadn’t noticed him when she’d first pulled in, but when he grabbed Garret’s arm just as it was about to fly into Dane’s face, Lois knew what his job was.
She parked the truck, but she did not go inside. She sat in the driver’s seat, watching the exchange through the side mirror. There weren’t many cars around since it was the middle of the workday, which was a good thing. Lois didn’t think Garret wanted anyone seeing the way he threw his fist into the nearest tree.
Then he used both fists, shouting and roaring as he beat the living piss out of the poor oak tree, splintering it and damn near knocking it over.
Lois cringed. She’d lost his sister. The little sister he’d raised after Dennis killed his father.
And Dennis had Anna.
Lois’s bottom lip trembled. She rubbed her face and got out of the truck. She didn’t go back inside. She walked to Garret and Dane and the other shifter, who was staring at his alpha as though waiting for the next instant when he’d have to interfere.
“Garret.”
Dane looked to her. Garret stopped punching the tree, but he was panting for breath. The indents of his fists reminded her that these were powerful people, and so were the bad guys who had taken Anna. Who’d tried to take her, too.
“Lois, you should go inside,” Dane said quietly.
Garret didn’t look away from the tree. He leaned his forehead against it. A choked noise left his throat. Was he crying?
Yes and no. When he turned to look at her, his eyes were bright, but no tears had spilled. With the way his brows were drawn together, his lips pressed into that firm line, he looked beyond pissed. He was furious.
Dane stepped in front of her. “Garret—”
“Get out of my fucking way, you idiot,” Garret snapped. “I’m not going to hurt her. I have more control than you do.”
Dane didn’t react. Lois flinched at the harsh tone. Garret had to be talking about the fight, and when Dane had bitten that boy on the leg, but Dane stepped aside. He continued to stand close, though, which Lois was grateful for.
Garret’s voice was harsh, raspier than sandpaper when he spoke. “What happened?”
Lois swallowed, her throat hurting again, but she forced the words out. “She came to my apartment. I guess she found out some bad news about Jax, and I decided we’d spend some time together. It was my idea to go shopping.” She looked Garret right in his angry golden eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Garret’s lips thinned. He shook his head, hands on his hips as he turned away from her. “Not your fault.”
It sounded like he was saying that because it was the polite thing to say, not because he actually meant it. Considering what had happened and the state he was in now, she couldn’t blame him for not being able to, or not wanting to, think about her feelings.
Her feelings weren’t important. Anna was.
“What’s going to happen?” Lois asked.
Garret continued to pace, glaring down at the pavement, at the tree, and at Dane and her. Lois thought she heard a little growl come from Dane, but she hoped it wasn’t on her behalf. Garret could be as mad at her as he liked. She just didn’t want him to be mad at Dane. This wasn’t his fault. He’d tried to save Anna. She’d been there. She’d seen it.
“What was the make and model of the car?”
“Black Ford SUV, license plates were probably fake, but I got the number.”
Lois was shocked he’d managed that, considering all the fighting and the blood in his eyes.
Right. He was a former Navy Seal. Getting the license plate had probably been his first priority and easy to remember with his training. Lois wasn’t good with cars. The only thing she could have said about it was the color.
Dane listed off everything else he’d heard or noticed while fighting with that one shifter who’d come terrifyingly close to shoving Lois into the back of the dark SUV, including how many there had been, and Dennis’s promise to call soon with his demands.
Garret nodded, his body trembling as though he was barely holding in his rage.
Lois kept expecting him to lose it the same way Dane had done and go all crazy shifter back on the tree. Or them.
“Right. I’m going to find that motherfucker and I’m going to kill him once and for all. I need to get back. Find out what the fuck Jax did to her to make her run away.”
He growled the last part, and Lois jumped in, terrified Garret would start a fight with Jax since he couldn’t with Dane.
“It wasn’t his fault either. Anna had a crush on him and he didn’t return her feelings.”
Garret’s stare was both annoyed and shocked. “What?”
“I…” This seemed like such a private thing to be talking about, but with Anna gone, Lois had to speak up. “Anna told me she saw Jax with Katie. I don’t think Jax knew she was there, but I guess it hurt her feelings. She came to me this morning. I don’t think Jax tried to hurt her. It was an accident.”
“Fucking great,” Garret muttered, shaking his head.
He marched to the Jeep. The other shifter, who’d been staying quiet, didn’t follow after him. He took off his jeans right there in the middle of the parking lot, ran to the Jeep, put them in the back, and then ran in another direction. Lois thought she saw his body change and shift as he went deeper into the trees, becoming a wolf.
She watched him go, winced when the tires of Garret’s Jeep shrieked a similar noise to the one Dennis’s SUV had made when he’d hit Dane with the side of the vehicle.
He pulled out of the parking lot and was gone fast.
Garret had some important things to attend to. He probably wanted to be home, making plans, when Dennis called.
“I need to go with him,” Dane said, his voice calmer, soothing after everything that had just happened.
Lois’s response was instant. “I’ll go with you.”
Dane’s eyes widened. He still looked like he’d just come out of a horror show with all the blood on his face, but aside from all the red, he almost looked normal again. He was healing so fast.
“You should stay here.”
The thought of being alone made Lois inwardly shriek. She shook her head. “N-no. I want to go with you. I don’t want…I can’t be alone right now.”
Dane looked at her, his chest rising and falling with a heavy sigh. “All right. It might help Miranda to have you around I guess.”
“I don’t want to go for Miranda,” Lois said, though it did sound like a comforting thought, being around her friend.
Dane frowned at her.
Lois continued to stare up at him, imploring him to understand when she reached out and took his hand into hers. “I…I don’t want to be alone right now. I want to go with you.”
“I said you could go.”
That wasn’t what she meant, but maybe this wasn’t the right time. Dane might very well know what she meant and was trying to be nice about it. Hell, he might think this was something she was only saying because of what had nearly happened to her. Getting kidnapped and rescued by Dane, again, could be having an impact on her decision making. She couldn’t blame him for thinking this, if it was in fact what was going through his mind.
She dropped his hand. It was good enough he was taking her with him back to tha
t big house where Miranda and the rest of the good shifters lived. Lois was just happy she didn’t have to be alone in her small apartment, wondering whether an evil shifter was about to break down her door and carry her away like they’d done to Anna.
Something in Dane’s voice changed. It softened, was calmer, less irritated, like he was trying to be comforting even as he sounded so tired at the same time. “Get your things. I’ll wait for you.”
19
Lois flew through her apartment, packing up everything she needed to go back with Dane. At least this time she could pack up her things, but she was in such a hurry she almost forgot some basics. Like locking her door behind her.
When she got back downstairs to the parking lot, the sight of Dane waiting for her was a cold wash of relief.
He said he’d wait for her, but part of her desperately feared he would be gone when she arrived, as though he would lose his patience, or decide it really was best if she wasn’t around.
She was the one who’d left in the first place.
The drive back was quiet. Dane didn’t say anything, and Lois didn’t know what to say to him. The rumble of the truck’s engine was the only noise, and whenever Lois couldn’t stop herself from looking at Dane’s face, she noted how the slashes down his skin were already mostly closed. He must have wiped his face with something, because while there was still blood stained on him, he didn’t appear as gory as he had when it had first happened.
When they got back, Lois looked upon the massive house with relief. There had been a time when she’d been desperate to leave, and now she didn’t want to be away.
Miranda wasn’t at the door waiting, but when the truck pulled up, the other woman did run out of the house to greet her.
The sight of one of her friends, still safe and sound, made something crack in Lois’s chest. She jumped out of the passenger side before Dane could put the truck in park. She and Miranda met in a tight hug. The shorter woman almost knocked Lois off her feet. Lois had forgotten about all the strength Miranda had in her body since being turned into a shifter, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was that she was being held by her friend, and that Miranda was here, and safe. Of course she would be, she hadn’t left to go on a random shopping spree with Lois.
