by Shea Balik
Forest figured those willing to pay the Cadre off got what they deserved if they thought the members of the Cadre would honor any agreement. Talon becoming Alpha was the only hope the Latin Territory had. The man was almost as scary as Alek Rykov.
“Talon thought he could catch me by watching me?” Raptor sneered, getting close enough that Forest could smell the alcohol on the man’s breath. “Just to be sure he understands that I’m better than he is, I think I’ll send you back piece by piece.” Raptor’s eyes gleamed with glee at the thought.
“If you’re better than him, why are you the one hiding?” Shit. Forest really needed to learn to keep his snarky comments to himself.
Instead of the anger Forest had expected, Raptor gave him a cold, evil smile before his hand struck Forest in the throat. Choking, Forest desperately tried to force air into his damaged airway. For minutes he knelt there, Raptor still gripping his hair tightly. When he couldn’t get air past his damaged esophagus, Forest knew he was about to die.
Black spots swam in front of his eyes as his fingers clawed at his throat in a hopeless attempt to force himself to start breathing once more. Unable to continue to hold himself up, he tilted sideways. Forest swore his hair was nearly ripped out of his head from Raptor’s unrelenting grip.
“Shit, boss. I think you killed him,” one of Raptor’s men said.
The fiery pain in his scalp suddenly went away when Raptor released him. Darkness descended as Forest slumped to the ground. Regret filled him for fighting with Blade when his mate was only pushing Forest so he’d be able to defend himself against people like Raptor.
Instead of being a hothead, Forest should have listened to his mate. Clearly, as he lay there on the hard, unforgiving cement unable to breath, Forest wasn’t ready to join Talon’s ranks, just as his mate had thought. Now he’d never be able to tell Blade he was sorry.
Chapter 13
“What the fuck do you mean Forest isn’t here?” Blade yelled at Rune.
Rune blanched at Blade’s rage as he sat there looking at his friend. Tears swam in Rune’s big brown eyes, and Blade felt like a heel. After arriving at the abandoned house they were staying in and not finding Forest, something in Blade told him his mate was in trouble.
Seeing Rune in the surveillance room he practically pounced on his friend to ask if he’d seen Forest. It wasn’t Rune’s fault he didn’t know where Blade’s mate was, but Blade yelled anyway. Each second that passed, his anxiety rose until he exploded.
“What the hell are you yelling at Rune for?” Talon asked from the door.
Clearly Blade was a mess because Talon went from yelling to concern when he wasn’t answering his leader. “Blade, come on man, you’re scaring me. What’s wrong?”
His panther roared inside him, and Blade couldn’t stop his body from shaking in fear. There was no doubt in his mind, Forest was in trouble. He had to find his mate or Blade was afraid he’d never see him again.
Pain ripped through his face, and he looked at Talon in disbelief. Blade’s mate was in trouble, and his friend just hit him. As much as he wanted to hit the man back, finding Forest was first.
“Blade talk to me. What’s wrong?” Talon’s voice was low and reassuring allowing Blade to calm enough to say the words he’d hadn’t wanted to speak.
“Forest is in trouble,” he said. Tears immediately sprang to his eyes as he thought about never seeing his mate again. He couldn’t let that happen.
Talon told Rune to locate Forest’s earpiece before turning back to Blade. “What kind of trouble?”
Blade shook his head. “I don’t know.” It sounded lame to say he had a feeling, but Blade knew it was the truth. “I can’t explain it, but I know something’s wrong.”
Thankfully Talon didn’t grill him further. He seemed to take what Blade said at face value. Speaking into his COBI unit, Talon called everyone back to the house except for Evan and Hunter who were patrolling the area around the bunker.
While they waited, Talon asked Rune if he’d found Forest’s earpiece. “Sort of,” Rune said meekly as if afraid to say more.
Blade wanted to snap at the man, but he ground his teeth as he let Talon deal with Rune.
“What is it, Rune?” Talon asked.
Rune’s gaze went to Blade for just a second, but Blade could see the fear in his eyes. “I was able to track his last location. It’s an alley about five miles from here.”
His hands clenched into fists to stop himself from grabbing Rune out of that chair and shaking the man until he spit out whatever he wasn’t saying. As much as he loved Rune, the man could be infuriating at times.
Sensing how close Blade was to snapping, Talon said, “Rune you are torturing Blade. This is his mate we’re trying to find. You need to tell us everything.”
Red flooded Rune’s face, but at least he got it out. “For fifteen minutes, Forest’s pulse skyrocketed, and by the fast movement during that time I would guess he was running. Five minutes after entering the alley, his breathing stopped.”
Blade didn’t hear anything else Rune had to say as the roar of his panther filled his ears. He couldn’t breathe as he thought of his mate needing him, and Blade wasn’t there to protect him. He’d failed Forest.
Distantly, he heard Rune say the earpiece was destroyed moments later, but none of that mattered. All that mattered was he was never going to see those emerald green eyes spitting fire at him as Forest demanded Blade stop calling him “pup.” The name fit Forest so well Blade found himself using the endearment often, even though he’d promised to try and stop.
Never again would he be able to kiss the softest, sweetest lips he’d ever felt, or wrap his hands in that silky hair. Why hadn’t he just listened to Forest at the dojo? Maybe his mate wouldn’t have run out if he’d just told him how proud he was at how fast Forest was learning.
Vaguely, he heard the voice of the others as they came back. Once more his heart broke as he listened to Talon repeat how Forest had stopped breathing. He gasped in pain. The loss of his mate was too much for him to handle.
A howl of rage filled the air until his throat was raw. Arms enveloped him as his friends who were more like brothers held him. Blade didn’t want their comfort, he wanted his mate.
Without Forest, life didn’t have meaning. He may have only known his mate for a few weeks, but Forest had wrapped himself around Blade’s very soul. What good would he be without his heart? Even now he could feel his soul shriveling up, ready to follow his mate in death.
But before he allowed himself that small measure of peace, he had to find who killed Forest and rip him apart piece by piece. Nothing less would satisfy his panther or him, for that matter. He would make sure the man who was responsible stayed alive while he dismembered him, ensuring as much pain as possible before killing him.
He owed his mate revenge. As far as Blade was concerned, there was no doubt Raptor was involved. Ice filled his veins, encasing him in a shell where nothing but rage touched him.
As if sensing the change, his friends pulled back from their group hug to stare at him. “I don’t know how, but Raptor did this,” he told them. “When I find him, there will be nothing left to identify.”
He saw his friends’ looks of concern, but Blade no longer cared. His very reason for living was dead. The only thing that mattered was making Raptor pay.
“Blade, we’ve had eyes on the bunker since he entered. It can’t have been Raptor,” Talon said.
“First of all, we don’t actually know he’s down there. We’re taking the word of a known criminal, an assassin who can be bought. How do we know Raptor didn’t pay him to tell us where he was?” Blade knew if Ernesto had betrayed Forest, there would be one more person on his list to kill. “Second, the only blueprints we have are ones that were made over three hundred years ago. We don’t know if any changes have been made.”
Rune’s fingers were already flying across the computer screen. He was also talking to Zeke in the Northern Territory and th
e Alpha Primus’s computer expert. It was said Zeke had managed to hack into the Alpha’s network, which no one had ever done since Alek had built it.
The rumors were that Alek put Zeke in jail just because he was pissed someone had managed to hack his network. Blade didn’t know if any of it was true, nor did he really care. He just wanted Raptor found.
Hunter’s voice suddenly came online over the COBI system. “Uh, guys, we have a problem.”
Chapter 14
Since Hunter and Evan were out on patrol, they hadn’t been told what was happening. “There’s more than a little trouble. I need you and Evan back here ASAP,” Talon told them.
“Okay, but—” Hunter started to say.
“Now,” Blade ordered when Hunter tried to argue.
Whatever Hunter needed to tell them would have to wait. Nothing came before finding his mate’s killer. The need to get started was all he could think of. Normally he loved planning, but right now he needed to keep moving. Standing still just might lead to him thinking too much.
“I’m going to check out the alley.” He couldn’t say the words “where Forest was killed,” but he didn’t feel it was necessary. Talon would know where he was. Striding to the door, he wasn’t at all surprised when almost the entire team followed him.
Rune stayed behind to coordinate, as he always did during a mission. Not to mention he needed to figure out how Raptor got out of that bunker if he’d ever been there.
On the way, Talon gave Hunter and Evan the coordinates to meet up with them. They parked just across the street from the entrance of the alley. It was only five miles away, so close to the safety of their command center. Tears filled Blade’s eyes for just a moment as he thought of his mate trying to get back to him. He’d been so close.
Quickly blinking back the moisture, Blade strode across the street until he came to the alley his mate had run down just a short time ago. Breathing deeply, Blade could still smell Forest’s unique minty scent. He didn’t stop walking until he came to the wood barrier at the end of the alley.
His mate’s fear was still strong in the air. Closing his eyes, Blade pushed his feelings down as deep as he could. Turning around he saw Talon squatting as he examined a tiny piece of plastic, Forest’s earpiece.
Damn.
He didn’t know if a part him was holding out hope that Rune had been wrong, but seeing that broken earpiece brought reality crashing down around him. Dropping to his knees, he couldn’t stop the tears as they streamed down his face. Great, heaving sobs wracked his body as he knew this was the place his mate died.
Forest had been out in the city alone because of Blade’s stubborn refusal to listen to his mate. How could he have let Forest run out without anyone to protect him? He was just a kid who had already been through so much. Why did he have to die?
Blade just wanted one more chance. Hell, even just a few minutes to tell his mate how much he loved him. How proud he was to have such a wonderful, caring, and strong man as his mate. It was his only true regret that Forest died not knowing how Blade felt about him.
A hand gripped his shoulder in comfort, but otherwise, the others let him cry. He hated that he was this weak. Raptor was out there running free, while Blade’s mate was dead. He should be focusing on finding Raptor, but instead he knelt here crying like a baby. Forest deserved better than this.
Forcing the tears back, he stood up just as Hunter and Evan walked into the alley. Seeing Blade’s tear-stained face, they wisely stayed silent as Talon led them back to the front of the alley to explain the situation. With his shifter hearing, Blade could still hear them but he appreciated Talon’s effort to not repeat what happened in front of him.
“That’s what I was trying to tell you,” Hunter loudly told Talon. “I found a second entrance to the bunker and it looked like someone had dragged a body inside.”
Blade roared at the injustice of his mate’s dead body being dragged like a piece of trash. Wasn’t it bad enough they killed him? What the hell was the point of taking him back to the bunker? Unless they were hoping to buy more time to get out before Talon figure out what had happened to Forest.
His long legs carried him swiftly to where Hunter stood talking to Talon. Grabbing the man by the collar he said, “Let’s go.” Never stopping as he pulled their assassin along until he reached one of the SUVs, Blade threw the man into the driver’s seat and went around to the passenger seat. “Drive.”
Hunter didn’t even hesitate. He just started the SUV and sped off. Talon had just managed to jump in the back as they peeled away. The others took the remaining SUV Hunter and Evan had come in and followed them.
No one spoke as they traveled. They parked out of sight behind a group of buildings near the far side of the old military base. It was just about as far away as they could get from the door they had been watching.
“Is there a reason we’re parking so far away?” Talon asked the question that was on Blade’s mind.
“Because this is where the other entrance is,” Hunter told them. “Or at least I think it is. The tracks are fresh so I know they are using it, but I have no idea if it actually goes down to the bunker.”
No matter what, Blade would find Raptor and destroy the man. Since Forest’s body was down there too, he would make sure his mate got the funeral he deserved once this was all over.
Then he’d be ready to follow his mate. Since paranormals had been created by the Gods, there was never any doubt about their existence. What happened after death was still a mystery. He hoped he’d get to see his mate again, but even if he didn’t, Blade knew he wouldn’t survive without the man. Forest had been his heartbeat.
Kai pulled up next to them and they all got out. As they’d been trained to do, they fanned out in formation. Since Hunter was leading them to the entrance he’d found, he was on point. Wyatt, Kai, and Paytah watched their six, while the others kept their eyes forward.
They were a well-oiled machine, and they swiftly made their way on silent feet to the second entrance. A metal door sealed the entry. The difference between this door and the one at the entrance was this door would be fairly easy to breach.
Paytah, a fire mystic, came forward. The lock was a simple keypad. Once bypassed, the door would open. Fire raced along the man’s arm arching through the air until it reached the keypad. Within seconds it was nothing more than a melted hunk of metal.
Blade grabbed the handle and pulled. His lips lifted just a little as the door opened. As one, Blade and Talon entered the narrow tunnel. Kai, Hunter, and Paytah followed them in while Evan and Wyatt stayed back to guard their exit.
No matter how he tried not to look, Blade’s eyes kept falling on the two track marks left by feet being dragged. It killed him to know they were caused by Forest’s body. Each time his eyes dropped to see them, he thought of another more sadistic way to kill Raptor. Sound carried from further down, stopping them in their tracks.
“Let’s go, boys. I want to be ready to move within the hour,” a voice said.
Talon mouthed, “Raptor.” It had been a long time since Blade had seen, much less talked to Raptor, so he hadn’t recognized his voice. But Talon was the man’s brother. Even though they didn’t speak often, if anyone knew Raptor’s voice it would be Talon.
Each step was taken with precision to ensure their silence. The tunnel turned to the right slightly, giving them their first glimpse at a crude hole had been cut through the bunker Raptor had been using to hide. Yeah, this definitely wouldn’t be on any blueprints. It looked like someone, probably a fire mystic, managed to cut through the thick metal.
The section that had been cut away still lay on the ground before the hole. Not even needing to use hand signals, as the team knew their jobs, each man got into position. Hunter and Kai stood on either side of the opening with their backs to the metal. Paytah stood behind and slightly to the right of Talon and Blade to offer fire cover if necessary, while Wyatt was to the left with his weapon ready.
Just as th
ey were about to make their presence known, Blade’s eyes landed on Forest’s body against the far wall. His hand shot out to stop Talon from going forward. The shock of seeing his mate lying in a heap on the ground shook Blade to the core and he needed a moment to regroup.
He couldn’t stop staring at his mate’s form. For just a second, Blade’s heart sped up as he wanted to go to Forest and pull him into his arms. It almost looked like he was just sleeping. If Blade just kissed those lush lips like he did every morning, Forest would open those dazzling green eyes.
As if in a dream, he watched as those long lashes fluttered open, and those emerald green eyes stared right at Blade. His heart sped up at the sight. He knew he had to be hallucinating, but Blade wasn’t sure if he wanted it to end.
Suddenly, Talon gripped his shoulder hard as he too stared in disbelief at Forest. It was at that moment, when his friend saw what he did, that Blade finally understood what he was seeing was real. Forest was alive.
Chapter 15
The darkness had sucked Forest into its murky depths, refusing to release him. Each time he thought about giving up, letting it drag him deeper into the abyss, an image of Blade would surface in his mind, and Forest would fight harder.
With each step forward, icy tentacles would wrap around him tighter, ensuring he wouldn’t get free. Exhausted, he fought on, determined to get back to his mate. Just when he didn’t think he could possibly go on, the scent of the jungle tickled his senses.
Blade.
He knew his mate was near. There was no way Forest could let death win. Desperate to get back to Blade, Forest fought with everything in him until he felt the tentacles release him, sliding off his body.
For the first time since sinking into the darkness, Forest could breathe easily. The crushing weight in his chest and throat were suddenly gone, allowing him to take a deep breath. The fragrance of the jungle seeped deep, giving him the extra push to lift his eyelids to find Blade staring back at him.
