The Tiger's Innocent Bride: Howls Romance (Sylvan City Alphas Book 1)

by Reina Torres

  The Chief turned toward the Mayor and nodded with a smile.

  “What we’d like to do is create a special division in the department.”

  Maybe Kelly saw the concern pinching at his features, or she had some other insight.

  “We’re not talking about a separate division to police shifters, although, you will likely be called upon to do just that from time to time.”

  Charlie joined in. “It would be hard for me to go up against a shifter. I’m quite fond of going home at night.” He laughed, but there was more than enough truth in his words. A human policeman coming up against almost any species of shifter would have little chance of surviving the exchange.

  “So, what would this entail? How do we even get something like this off the ground?”

  The Chief of Police stood up again and stared Devlin straight in the eye. “It’s already cleared the City Council, when it comes up for a vote in two days, it will be approved. We just need you to agree to be a part of it. Everyone knows who you are, and you’d be the perfect person to spearhead this unit.”

  He turned to look at the Mayor. “You know I’ll have to talk to Paige about this first.”

  The older gentleman smiled at him. “I’m glad you think that way, son. Good to know that my girl is in good hands.” He held out his hand for Devlin to shake.

  As he stepped back, Devlin felt the Chief’s hand land on his shoulder. “It was my son who came up with the idea first.”

  Devlin looked at the Chief. “Your son?”

  “He doesn’t always claim me as his dad, but Forrest, the wolf shifter you helped the other day, is my son. He gets his talent from his mother. He talked about how we needed officers who understand shifters to help police them. You’ll be called on to educate officers to make sure they understand what’s involved with having shape shifters in the open.”

  The Mayor agreed. “We’re planning on calling the unit the S.C.P.S. – the Sylvan City Preternatural Squad. You’re going to feel like you’re under a microscope.”

  Devlin shrugged. “We already were, but it was harder to hide who I was than deal with the results of unintentionally revealing my true nature.”

  “There’s more information in the packet. If Paige has any questions, she can talk to me,” the Mayor smiled at him.

  “We’ll see,” Devlin looked at the clock on the mantle, “but I need to head home to see her. I had to miss the ultrasound today and she’s got the image with her.”

  The Mayor’s expression softened even more. “Then you better get home, son.”

  “Now there’s an order I can follow without an argument.” Devlin picked up the envelope and headed toward the door.

  It wasn’t just her emotions that were on a roller coaster these days. Paige flexed her feet at the stop light, lifting one and then the other so she could keep on the brake.

  She’d just come from Dr. Shigezawa’s office and was excited to bring home the news to Devlin. He’d been unexpectedly held up at work. A six-car pile-up on the bridge off of Sylvan Island meant all hands on deck, so they’d gone ahead and done the ultrasound and the doctor had printed off a good image of the baby. She’d been unconsciously referring to the baby as she since the beginning, so it was going to be great fun to see Devlin’s reaction to the doctor’s evaluation of the images.

  Turning onto the beltway, she paused for a moment to look into her rearview mirror and see the security van that was trailing her. She lifted her hand in a quick wave and saw the hesitant reply.

  Chuckling to herself she waited for the light to change. She knew the security men were good at their jobs and the poor souls had to deal with her odd ways. She listened to them, followed their rules, because besides how thankful she was for them to keep her safe, she didn’t want them hurt either.

  The light changed and after a quick check, she drove through the intersection and into the part of the road where the trees grew thick and blocked a great deal of light from the road. There were only a few more lights before they were home and the road looked nearly empty. The pile-up must have bottled necked the traffic near the main thoroughfare.

  Humming to the song on the radio she let her mind mull over the unsettling events of the last few days. Devlin returned home late from work and the explanation he gave felt odd, stilted.

  The lack of an answer had her feeling off during dinner and it seemed to upset her appetite. Still, when it came time to clear the table, Devlin had taken care of it all, washing the dishes while she settled into a bath.

  By the time the water was tepid, she started to stand, her hand gripping the side of the tub, she managed to get her legs under her, but before she could stand she felt a strong hand take her elbow. Another hand on her hip.

  Before she could figure out what he was doing, Devlin lifted her into his arms and set her down on the mat before him, and took a towel from the shelf.

  The memory of what Devlin had done with that towel had her holding tight to the wheel. Her mate certainly knew how to take her mind off her troubles.

  Thinking on it again reminded her that she hadn’t gotten to the heart of Devlin’s mood the other night. As soon as he returned home she was going to get to the bottom of-

  A loud, sickening crash reached her ears, making her flinch and hunch over to protect her belly. Time seemed to stop and long, heart-stopping moments passed by with deep echoing pulses in her ears. She felt no pain, but the car slowed to a stop, bumping against a side railing.

  She was dazed, but worried about the car following behind her. Paige started to turn but the door beside her was yanked open. Reeling back from the sudden movement and flood of light, Paige pulled away from the door.

  But there was no way to avoid the hands that reached in and pulled her from the car.

  For a moment she hoped that the men holding her were only there to help, but when she turned her head and saw the security vehicle crushed and smoking she cried out.

  A hand closed over her mouth as she struggled against their hands.

  When they didn’t let go and she felt lightheaded from the way his thumb covered over her nose she bit into the hand holding her quiet. She was released for a moment as she tried to shout out a warning to the guards but two dull pulses of sound made the two men slump over in their seats.

  She sagged in the arms holding her, sorrow weighing her down and robbing her knees of any control. “Why?”

  One of the men moved to slap her, but another one stopped him cold. “You mark her up and it’s just going to make him mad.”

  Paige turned to the man who spoke. He seemed to be the one the others listened to. “Who? Who would be mad?”

  The man in the suit gave her a look that made her skin go cold. “Why, your husband, of course.”

  Almost to the front door, the Chief jogged up beside him. “Devlin!”

  Devlin wanted to leave, but this was the Chief. “Yes, sir?”

  “I’d like to invite you and your wife to the house for dinner with my family. We’ll be spending quite a bit of time together getting the squad up and running. It would be a good idea to know each other better. You talk to Paige and let me know which evening works best for you.” The Chief held out his hand and Devlin saw the business card. He took it and noticed a number penned in beneath the printed office phone. “That’s my personal phone number.”

  Everything felt a little off-kilter to Devlin. He’d spent all of his life hiding what he was from others and now, he shook his head, now he had a mate, a cub on the way, friends like himself, and an invitation to the home of the Chief of Police. He was looking for the Mad Hatter to pop up around the corner. “Thank you, Sir. I’ll call you after I speak to Paige.”

  Devlin’s phone rang, and looking down at the screen he saw Paige’s face smiling back at him. “One moment, Chief.” He answered the call and put the phone to his ear. “Hey, babe-”

  “That’s so sweet,” the voice on the other end was male and smug, two things that got his Tiger up on his
feet and pissed off, “but we don’t know each other well enough for pet names.”

  “Where’s my wife?”

  “Oh, she’s here,” the voice taunted him, “and if it hadn’t been for us, she’d be all alone. Those security guards her father hired? Well, they’re off duty, permanently.”

  Fear and rage rang in Devlin’s ears. He was struggling to listen to the voice on the other end of the phone. It was slightly distorted, but there was something familiar about it. Something that made his gut twist tightly in his middle.

  “Give her to me.”

  “That’s not how this works, Officer Kerr.”

  “That’s exactly how this works!” He turned and caught the Chief’s eyes and fear and rage warred in his gaze. The Chief took out his phone, ready to help. “You give me back my mate and you’ll live.”

  “You don’t seem to understand the situation, Officer Kerr. You could have been one of us, and now we’re going to play hardball. You come to work for us and we let your woman live.”

  Devlin seethed into the phone.

  “But,” he heard the edge of laughter in the man’s tone, “if you choose to ignore the generous offer, that’s fine. We’ll wait just enough for your wife to come to term and we’ll have a shifter of our very own to mold into the role we’d planned for you. A precious waste of time, but we’ve waited generations for proof that your kind exist. We’ll just have to wait and see how quickly we can turn the child into a weapon that would make its father proud.”

  His mind awash with conflicting emotions, Devlin’s free hand was balled up into a fist, his claws drawing blood from his palm.

  “You take me!” Devlin’s voice was a roar. “You take me, and you let Paige go right this minute!”

  “If you think we’ll let her go on faith, you don’t know us at all, Officer Kerr.” The way he said the words, it was a cold insult and challenge. “Go home,” the voice barked at him, “go to your dock. Get in your boat and head North. We’ll intercept you and make the trade.”

  “I need to talk to Paige!”

  The call ended, leaving Devlin gasping for breath.

  “Shit.”

  The Chief was still at his side. “Tell me. What’s the plan?”

  “The plan?” Devlin spat out the words, “I get my mate back and feed the leftovers to the vultures.” Dialing up the other shifters he knew in the city, Devlin managed to explain the situation in as few words as possible. He was going to need help. Lots of it.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Paige almost breathed a sigh of relief when she realized that their plan had hit a huge snag. The pile-up that had kept the parkway so empty was still blocking the only road out of Sylvan City and onto the Mainland. The man on Paige’s left groaned. “I need a doctor, damn you.” His hand clasped over his side, he turned inward and glared at the others in turn. “I’m going to bleed out if we don’t get off this rock!”

  “Quit your whining, Dodge.”

  Dodge. Paige tried to hold still. She didn’t want them to realize that they’d made a mistake.

  Clasping his other hand over the wound in his side, he held out his bloody hand, almost under Paige’s nose.

  She readied herself for the roll of her stomach, the tumble of her nerves. Since the night her mother died, blood had made her weak and shook her to the core, but there, with a bloody hand right before her face she felt something she’d never felt before.

  Hunger.

  She wanted to sink her teeth into his flesh and tear. She wanted to hurt him. Kill him.

  The realization made her go cold. Where had that horrible feeling come from? As the two men on either side of her argued, she sat back and placed her hand over her belly. The instinctual movement froze her again, hoping that they wouldn’t take notice.

  And they didn’t, arguing back and forth until the driver put an end to it. Stomping on the gas, he swung the wheel and turned them back onto the opposite direction of the parkway, barely turning any heads as they drove off in the midst of angry honks and shouted epithets at the stall of traffic. They drove until they had to turn inland and avoid the crash site where they’d grabbed her.

  Something twisted inside of her as the smell from the burning SUV pulled into her nose, but it wasn’t fear. No, she felt her baby move and the sensation stole her breath and her fear. She had been focused on surviving before, but now it was a need. A bone deep desperation to save not just her own life, but that of her baby… her cub.

  “Shit.”

  Black Tie beside her glared at the driver. “What now?”

  “We’re low on gas.”

  Even the injured man beside her was pissed, slamming his fist against the back of the driver’s seat. “What the hell?”

  “I had to steal a car, we couldn’t drive the other one.”

  “So, you stole a car without gas?”

  “You can’t see how full the gas tank is when you ‘jack it, asshole.” He scoffed. “At least I didn’t leave them alive.”

  From what Paige could gather one of the security guards had lived long enough to take a couple of shots at their killers, hitting ‘Dodge.’

  “Great,” Dodge swore under his breath, “there’s a gas station on the right, a couple blocks ahead.”

  Black Tie breathed a sigh of relief, sagging back against the seat. “Then let’s get some fucking gas.”

  Paige stilled herself, flattening her hands on the tops of her thighs, looking for any way out of this situation.

  The car pulled into the gas station and the old-fashioned ding-ding of the pressure activated alert brought someone out of the body shop, wiping his hands on a towel. Paige bit her lip and waited for a chance to catch his eye. When the boy looked up toward the driver’s window she caught sight of his face and she let out a soft whimper.

  Bolt, one of Boone Wayland’s boys, was working at the gas station. She didn’t want to involve him in this. She couldn’t stand to be responsible for another person’s death. He walked up to the door and smiled at the driver. “What kind of gas would you like?”

  He leaned on the doorframe. “Buzz off, kid.”

  “Sorry, sir.” Bolt pointed to the sign above the pumps. “We’re full service.”

  Black Tie swore under his breath and glared at Blue Tie through the window. “Just let the little shit do his job so we can get going.”

  Paige prayed that Bolt would just pump their gas and let them go. She wanted to be free, but she just couldn’t imagine what would happen if the young bear tried to stop two armed men. When he walked along the side of the car she turned her face away from the window. If he recognized her, if he showed any kind of reaction to seeing her, she had a feeling the men would shoot him on sight. They’d done worse to trained security men.

  She saw Bolt lift his eyes, but he didn’t seem to realize that anything was wrong. It made her hope that things were going to be okay. That the young man wouldn’t be dragged into her troubles. He opened the cover to the gas tank, started the machine pumping the gas. He took the cash that the driver held out the window and thanked him when the man said to keep the change.

  What was likely only a minute or two later, the lid on the gas tank slapped shut and the car pulled away from the pump.

  Bolt was on the phone before the car was even on the road. Boone picked up a moment after the phone started ringing.

  “I saw Paige.” He gave a quick description of the car, the plate, the men he saw, the blood that he smelled and then he shut up.

  “I’ll relay the information to Devlin and you-”

  “I’m already following them. Track my phone and call when you’re closer.” Bolt stopped at the corner and watched the car speed through a yellow light. He couldn’t run full out, the speed would attract attention from the men if they were paying any attention at all. He wasn’t sure they would look for him, but there’s no way he would take that chance with Paige.

  Cage answered his phone a moment after it started to ring. “Gamble.”

>   “It’s Devlin. Someone took Paige.”

  “Fuck!” Cage’s jaguar broke fangs through his gums. “Who would dare?”

  “Men who tried to recruit me for government work.”

  Cage growled his answer. “I know what that’s like.”

  Devlin filled him in on what they knew. “They want me to get on my boat and head out onto the lake, but one of Boone’s boys said she’s still on island.”

  Cage could hear the stress in Devlin’s voice. “Where do you want us?”

  “Us?”

  Cage faced his back to the wall and looked toward the men who had been sparring in the ring. All of them were shifters, all with hearing sharp enough to have heard the conversation.

  Each of the men met his eyes and nodded in turn. “I’ve got three here and more at the gym. Combat or diversion, you’ve got us. Whatever it takes to get your woman back.”

  “Thanks, Cage.”

  “No need for thanks, we’re not going to be hunted. Not by these fucks.”

  “When I get more information, I’ll be in touch.”

  “I’ll gather the troops.”

  They were sitting in an alley behind a strip bar, sandwiched between the roll-away dumpster and a pile of cardboard boxes soggy and disintegrating from the rain the night before.

  The driver had turned around while he was on the phone, leaving only his back visible from the street. He was on the phone, swearing nearly every other word.

  At one point his gaze flickered up and into Paige’s. “Yeah, we can keep her quiet as long as it takes.” He listened to more from the caller and a slow grin spread like frost across his lips, cracking the dry ruddy skin. “Sure, if it comes to that, we’ve got a place to leave the body.”

  Dodge spoke up, shaking Paige free of her dread for the moment. “Ask him about me, I’m gonna bleed to death if I don’t get off this rock.”