by Olivia Gayle
“I’m having a hell of a time tracking these emails. Whoever sent them to your boy knew what they were doing; they’ve been routed all over the world, and I can’t get a lock on a single location.”
Marshall was still staring at his phone, his body unmoving. The silence stretched, and Aidan could feel a prickle along the back of his neck. “Dad,” he said carefully, reaching out to touch the other man, only to stop short when green eyes turned on him.
Green, blazing eyes that held little humanity in them.
Oh shit.
Aidan immediately dropped his hand and stepped back, averting his gaze. Marshall’s Beast was close to the surface, and Aidan had no idea what had brought it out. He needed to tread carefully.
“Dude, what’s happening? You there bro?”
His brother’s questions weren’t helping. “Hang on a second, Davis,” Aidan said, keeping his voice low and calm. He stared at the other man’s neck instead of eye-to-eye, watching from periphery as his father slowly came back. Let his father see he was no threat, allow him to get ahold of himself. Maybe later he’d ask what his father had seen, but for now they needed to get into the field.
The Brahm’s eyes went to the picture on his phone, then back to his son. He blinked, and between one second and the next the brightness that had flared before was gone. “We’re heading out there now,” he said in a low voice, stalking to the door.
Marcus and Aidan shared a troubled look, but followed silently behind. Marshall exited the house, moving swiftly down the front stairs, only to pull up short abruptly.
Julian was leaning one hip against Marcus’ car, his arms folded as he watched the three other men leave the building. He pushed off from the car and met them halfway, uncrossing his arms in an unconscious open gesture. “Let me come with you.”
“Go home, Julian.” Marcus moved around the other man, heading for the car, but Julian didn’t give up.
“Look, I know I’m an asshole, and I screwed up earlier. In fact, I’ve been screwing up royally for years now, and I don’t know how to stop that.” He blew out a breath. “But a kid is dead, and I feel responsible. So, I want to help.”
There was a stubborn set to the other man’s jaw, but Aidan could smell the truth in his words. Even Marshall paused, looking back at the werepanther. Julian looked away, obviously not wanting a repeat of earlier. His lips thinned, mouth turning down bitterly. “Please.”
Oh, that must have hurt. Aidan suppressed a grin, finding he quite enjoyed watching the arrogant panther get taken down a notch. Oddly enough, his plea seemed genuine. Aidan was good at smelling lies, and Julian was telling the truth. Even the Brahm seemed to be considering the offer.
“Um, guys.” Davis’ disembodied voice filled the silence. “I think we have a problem.”
At the same time he said that, another line beeped in on the call. Marshall peered down at the phone in his hand. “What happened?”
“An alarm was tripped at the Landry ranch. Don’t know what’s going on though.”
Aidan’s chest squeezed painfully as he felt all the blood rush out of his face. Oh god, his mother and his mate.
Marshall glanced at Aidan, then said, “Davis, keep working, I need to take this call.” He tapped the screen on his phone, then brought it back up to his ear. “Derek, we just got the message ourselves.”
“Eleanor isn’t answering her phone, and I just got a text about the alarm.” Aidan could hear the entire conversation even though he wasn’t holding the phone. Perks of being a shifter. “What the hell is going on?”
“Whatever’s happening with that human and her sister might be bigger than we thought.” Marshall glanced at Aidan, then turned toward the door. “Did you find the place?”
“I followed the girl’s scent all last night to a place out in the woods.”
“Remote location, with three buildings and a helipad?”
Derek paused. “Yes.”
“Okay, go after your mate. We’ll let you know if we find anything ourselves.” He ended the call, then dialed Davis again. “Get me every detail you can about that compound, and see if you can tap into live satellite feed.”
“Yes, sir.”
Marshall looked at Aidan. “If they went after Eleanor,” he said in a low voice, “then they likely have your mate.”
“No shit.” Aidan’s entire body was on fire. He had the insane urge to rip out his father’s throat for making him stay back like this. “If anything happens to her,” he growled, hands fisting by his sides, nails digging into his palms as the bear struggled to get out and find their mate.
“It’s faster if we take our car.” There was no sympathy in Marshall’s gaze, but his words were soft. “We’ll find her, Aidan, I promise.”
Finding her wasn’t what Aidan was worried about. It was what he might find—a human versus rogue shifters never fared well—that terrified him.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
A cool hand smoothed across Ever’s brow. “Come on Ever, please wake up.”
The female voice was familiar, but the haze fogging her brain made it difficult to identify. Ever groaned, trying to pry her eyes open. They felt swollen, almost glued shut, and didn’t want to budge.
“Ever?”
She tried to sit up, only to have pain spasm through her body. Ever gasped out another moan, laying back down and hoping that would help lessen the pain.
Nope.
The girl holding her made a mewling noise, hands running across Ever’s forehead. “I’m so sorry I dragged you into this. I never should have called you.”
Her tongue was stuck to the roof of her mouth. What she wouldn’t give for a drink of water right now. Her body felt like somebody had slugged her with a bat—repeatedly. “S’okay,” she whispered, looking up into her sister’s face.
Sonya had always been the curvier one, with a round face and plump figure. Now, however, she looked gaunt, with dark circles under her eyes. Her hair had grown longer since Ever had seen her, no longer the short bob she remembered, and suddenly Ever could see why the old man Avery had been confused.
Misery lingered in her sister’s eyes, and Ever sought to fix that. “You look like shit,” she said, and managed to get Sonya’s lips to quirk into a quick smile.
“You’re one to talk. Want to sit up?”
Only then did she realize her head was lying on Sonya’s lap. The fear on her sibling’s face tore at Ever’s heart, and she tried to rally, to assure her sister that everything would be all right.
Except that, when she put her hand on the cement floor to push herself up, hellacious pain shot up her entire right side. Her arm gave out, elbow smacking on the hard floor.
If she’d thought it hurt before, now it was excruciating.
“Don’t move!” Her sister’s frantic voice barely pierced the red haze that hovered around Ever. “Please, they…don’t move, okay?”
Shivers started in her chest at the thought, but Ever had to know what happened. Her sister must have read her mind because she propped Ever up so she was sitting. The room spun a bit but she gritted her teeth and surveyed the damage.
Her left arm was covered by a crude shirt bandage, but it was the size of a football and looked lopsided. The jeans around her right leg were shredded so that only tatters remained, and she could see her blood dark across the skin there. Her calf had several punctures, the holes blackened by blood and mud, and she was missing her shoe.
“You ran,” Sonya said, her arms tightening around Ever’s shoulders. “Didn’t you?”
Yes, she’d run. Ever squeezed her eyes shut at the memories. She’d made it through the house and out the front door, but hadn’t gone much further before they were on her. The hyena had taken particular pleasure in throwing her about with its teeth. “I thought they were going to kill me,” she whispered, shivering and clinging to her sister’s arms.
“They try to Change you first, hence all the bite marks.” She sounded miserable as she continued. “I was on
e of the lucky ones, although I didn’t realize it at the time. Most others…most of the ones they tried turning died.”
The pain didn’t go away, but now that Ever knew what to expect, she could deal with it. For the most part, anyway. There was a feverish throbbing behind her eyes, and she could feel the air chill around her clammy arms. She looked around their little room. “Where are we?”
“I don’t know,” Sonya replied softly. “I was unconscious when we got here. They don’t take me out of here except to…”
She trailed off as footsteps sounded outside. Ever could feel her sister shivering against her back, even as the room spun. She clung to Sonya's arm and waited for the steps to recede again. "We'll get out of here," she whispered, "I promise."
Someone wrenched on the handle and then the door swung wide. The man standing there wasn't any of the ones that had taken Ever; he was lean, his dark hair unkempt, but his grin revealed even white teeth. "Aww," he said in a mocking voice, "does the newbie think she'll be rescued? How adorable."
Sonya's shivering grew, but she stared back at the other man fiercely. "Leave her alone, asshole."
The man seemed to enjoy Sonya's anger because his grin widened. "Looks like you need another lesson in humility," he said, then reached forward lightning fast and grabbed her hair.
Ever tried to ward him off, desperately wanting to protect her sister, but he just batted her hand away. Pain shot through her as Ever realized she'd reached out with her broken arm. Her sister was jerked out from under her with a sharp cry, sending Ever crashing back against the cement floor. Her skull cracked into the pavement as the door banged shut again, and she slid back into unconsciousness.
When she came to again, Sonya was back, stroking her hair. A dark bruise had formed on one cheekbone, and Ever lifted a shaky hand to stroke it. "I'm going to kill him," she said, her voice stronger than she felt.
In response, Sonya's arms tightened around Ever. "Get in line."
Some of the tension eased in Ever's chest. "There's the sister I know and love," she murmured, her shakes growing harder. God, she was freezing, as if all the cold in the room was seeping into her bones.
"I've got a few tricks up my sleeve. Watch this." She held her hand out in front of Ever's face. For a moment, nothing happened, then her fingers elongated, the skin growing dark. Her nails also grew thicker, until her sister’s hand resembled a really scary bird talon and less anything human.
Ever stared at it, waiting to feel any shock or surprise, but it seemed those emotions had been bled out of her. Then again, she’d seen the Change before and knew her sister was a newly-formed Shifter, so maybe that was it.
“They’re giving me something that keeps me from doing anything more large scale,” Sonya continued, flexing her hands. “I think I’m slowly getting an immunity to it; they dosed me up maybe a couple hours ago and I can already do this.”
“What happened?” Ever murmured, using her good arm to prop herself upright. That feverish throbbing above her eyes wouldn’t stop, but she blocked it out. “How did you even…” Unable to think of the words, she gestured feebly at her sister, who smiled sadly.
“You’re going to think I’m an idiot.” Sonya’s mouth twisted into a grimace. “One of my coworkers, Emily, had fallen in with this weird-ass crowd. I was certain it was a cult from what she told me, and, don’t laugh, I was curious. Not, like, in the I-wanna-join-because-I-believe kind of way but… Ever, it was a real cult. Stuff like that doesn’t happen to me.”
Ever gave a small laugh that hurt her entire body. “You joined just for the cult experience?”
Sonya shook her head. “I knew you’d think I was an idiot.”
“I don’t think you’re an idiot Sonya, just…next time you want adventure, just ask me okay? There are safer ways out there than a sadistic cult.”
“Like skydiving? Bungee-jumping?”
Ever tried not to laugh, it hurt too much. God, but she’d missed her sister. “So what happened?”
“Emily took me to one of the meetings, and it was so weird. This guy Hendrix kept talking about the goddess Luna and her children, the Chosen breed or something. I didn’t intend to go back, and should have stayed away, but then Emily was missing and I went back to find her.”
“Did you? Find her, I mean?”
“Kind of.” Sonya’s lips compressed into a thin line, and she shook her head. “I snuck onto the grounds, then got chased down by what I thought were guard dogs. By the time I realized what they were, I was already sick with the Change. There were three other girls in the room with me, including Emily. I was the only one who made it.
“Afterwards…” She swallowed, looking away. “After I got past the sickness, it took me two weeks before I actually Changed. By then, I knew to pretend I was with them, that I believed the drivel Hendrix spouted. The night of the full moon after I’d recovered from the bites, they took me out to the woods on some kind of ritual thing. That’s when I Changed for the first time into a wolf. But you have to understand, I was desperate to get away.
“One of the lions, Levi, took an interest in me. When he asked me in a roundabout way if I wanted to get away, at first I denied it. I didn’t know if I could trust him—even now, I’m not sure if that it wasn’t some elaborate set up. But he told me about this Shifter town where I could be safe, and said he’d take care of everything.” She drew in a shaky breath. “So I took a chance, went where and when he told me, and lo and behold there was a car with a map and an envelope of cash.”
“Why didn’t you just call me then? I would have come and gotten you.”
“Everything happened so fast, and I wasn’t sure I should drag you into this. Heck, I’m angry at myself for even calling you in the first place. Anyway, I headed outside of town to meet with this old, crabby guy who was my landlord, and that’s when they found me.”
Seeing inside the dark room was getting more and more difficult. Ever’s eyes kept crossing, the room wavering. “We talked to Mr. Avery, he thought you were with them.”
Sonya laughed bitterly. “Figures. I don’t know how they tracked me, but the minute that old man saw them he started lobbing things at them that exploded. I took the time to get the heck out of dodge, but they were hot on my trail.
“That’s when I found I could be anything I set my mind to, even as small as a mole. I made it into town the next afternoon with no clothes, no phone, and no car. I didn’t know what to do, so I stole some clothes from a laundromat, borrowed some money from the gas station clerk, and called you.”
“And then you were kidnapped?”
“Yeah. They’d seen me Change into different types of animals while I was running away.” Her chin started to quiver. “Some of the “sermons” I’d heard talked about an evil being who could change into anything, kind of like the Devil to this goddess Luna, so I knew it could be bad for me. I just didn’t realize… I’d barely even woken up when they started to, to…”
The misery in her sister’s voice tore at Ever. When Sonya began to sob, Ever threw an arm across her shoulders, holding her without a word while her sister cried. Rage bubbled up, and Ever wished it was her own hands that could turn to claws and rip out every man’s throat in the facility. Squeezing her eyes tight, she laid back down on her sister’s lap, careful to keep her injured arm from bumping anything. “Help is coming,” she murmured. “Aidan…”
Her sister sniffled. “Who’s that?”
How did Ever describe him? She didn’t have the energy to give as detailed an account as Sonya, but two words Ever knew would sum it all up. “My mate.”
It felt right to call him that. Ever closed her eyes and pictured his face; exasperated by her antics, his dry humor, the passion lurking in a pair of amber eyes. Whatever the reason, biological or otherwise, she loved him—Ever knew that—and she knew for dead certain that her bear would come after her.
“Your what?”
Nausea turned Ever’s stomach suddenly, and she tensed at the sharp
pain that accompanied it. “Sonya,” she whispered, “I don’t feel so good.”
Sonya’s grip on her tightened as Ever rolled sideways off the other girl’s legs, vomiting up blood all over the concrete floor.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Driving might be the fastest way, but sitting in a vehicle doing nothing was making Aidan crazy.
The four of them were crammed inside the car, while Marcus drove. Mac had stayed behind to coordinate the operation, and would send backup in the form of more deputies. The men in the car were at least half an hour ahead of anyone else, however, and Aidan planned to have it over before the cavalry arrived.
Davis was on speakerphone, continuing to feed them information. He’d hacked into somewhere official and gotten them real-time satellite imagery of the area, which he patched to the dashboard monitor. Marshall had also set him to work on discovering who all they’d find at the compound and might possibly fight.
“From what I can find, he brought three hyenas, four lions and two bears, all male, with him from Portland. According to credit card tracks, he’s also attracted at least a tiger, another hyena and two panthers. No prey animals, apparently he only rolls hardcore. Boss, I’m finding there’s also been a rash of missing persons reports coinciding with his presence in the various areas, mostly female and all human.”
Aidan’s bear wanted out. A growl came from his throat; his nails darkened as fur sprouted atop his hands. The control he was so proud of was gone; all he wanted was to get his mate back, safe and sound.
Any other option was unthinkable.
Marcus turned down a dirt road, and the ride grew bumpy. Aidan and Julian were jostled around the back, clinging to their respective sides to avoid touching. Aidan knew that if the other man so much as made a single quip, he’d come unglued, but so far Julian had been surprisingly silent.
“Go faster,” he growled at Marcus.
“I can’t. If I do, this car’s going to rattle apart.”
