by Dianna Love
Tess stood up. “What the hell is going on?”
Leonard never slowed and slapped Tess sideways. Her head spun. She shouted and hit the ground.
“Touch her again and die, jackal.”
The thud of bodies being hit hard echoed in the room.
Flipping around, Tess shook off the stars she saw and took in the fight.
The jackal pulled a three-foot-long, half-inch-thick pipe from a holder on his back, then cracked it across Rory’s head, knocking him down.
Tess yelled, “You bastard. He’s chained.”
“Don’t, Tess,” Rory called out, rubbing his head.
The jackal kicked Rory over on his back, catching Rory’s wounded shoulder.
Hissing at the pain, Rory tried to lunge, but he was no match for that miserable coward Leonard who beat a wounded man chained to the ground.
Leonard’s pipe weapon had been sharpened on one end into a tip. Now Tess noticed sharp metal thorns sticking off the outside of the pipe every two inches.
The jackal lifted his pipe and shoved it down through Rory’s abdomen.
Tess fought to keep from throwing up. Every muscle in her body clenched at the brutal attack.
Rory howled in a sound that made her think of a large jungle cat that had been wounded. He gripped the titanium rod and jerked up, then sucked a breath in and stopped, doubled over.
“There you go, you fucking cat,” Leonard chided. “Give me any more trouble before my superiors arrive and the next one goes through your balls. They have plans for you.”
She waited as Leonard walked out, disappearing in the dark tunnel. Once his footfalls silenced, she rushed to Rory. “Oh, shit. What can I do?”
“Nothing,” he gritted out.
“We have to do something or you’ll die.”
He gave a mirthless laugh. “No, they won’t kill me yet. This is titanium. It won’t allow me to heal while it’s in my body. If it stays in long enough, I’d die, but that would be wasting a Ga... shifter. I could rip it out, but I’d need to shift immediately to heal all the new damage I’d cause.”
“That sounds awful, but if you can handle the pain, then do it. I’ll help.”
“No. I can’t heal fast enough to be of any help to you.”
“I’ll watch over you. Just fix yourself. You can leave me and go for help.”
Rory finally took a long look at her. “I can see why Cole chose you. You’d make an excellent mate for him.”
That was flattering, but Rory was still bleeding out of two wounds now.
He said, “Tess, I’m not going to die. I won’t lie. Hurts like a ... son of a gun. But I need you to stay safe as you can until my people show up. Don’t antagonize that jackal. They follow orders, but only to a point.”
“Will your people find us?”
“Eventually. I’m just hoping they find us here, before Leonard’s boss shows up with whatever plans he has or they move us. Or they separate us. None of those are good scenarios.”
Rory didn’t sound like he was trying to unnerve her but only trying to prepare her for potential situations. She appreciated his simple honesty. No trying to convince her all would be well, when it clearly didn’t look possible at the moment.
She was going to have to finally accept that jackals who had traveled to this country to work as mercs could possibly have criminal intent. It went against all she believed in to consign one group with a predetermined evaluation, but from now on she would at least be on her guard.
She shoved loose hair off her face, no doubt still looking like hell, but she couldn’t feel in control with her hair in her eyes. “I hear what you’re saying and I won’t antagonize him. I’m sorry if he did this to you because I yelled at him.”
Rory unleashed a smile and she could see women falling all over themselves to catch this one. He said, “You didn’t cause this. He had already planned to pin me with this pipe before he walked in.”
Tess sat down next to him, trying not to think about how bizarre her life was at the moment.
She was in love with a wolf shifter.
She’d been captured by jackal shifters and locked in the basement of some building.
And she was sitting here carrying on a conversation with a man who might be a jungle cat shifter and had a three-foot pipe driven through his stomach.
Got it.
She murmured, “I have no idea why I’m here.”
“I’ll make an educated guess,” Rory offered.
“Go for it.”
“They plan to use you as bait to bring Cole in, then use you as motivation to make him do what they demand.”
Tess had actually considered that but was hoping they wanted ransom money instead. “But what do they want?”
“We’d like to know, but I’m guessing they might think you and Cole were bonded. If so, it seems as if they’d have plans for both of you, but not to be together. If they know you aren’t bonded, then there are many possibilities, none of which I want to go into.”
She could push him, but she’d rather not think about how awful this could all get and focus on not letting any of those possibilities happen.
Rory pulled in a shallow breath and flinched, then grunted. He said, “It would help to know more about this group so we could get a step ahead of the Black River pack.”
Her ears perked at the mention of that pack. “Is this the same group that has Sammy?”
“Probably. I’m pretty sure Sammy is being set up to take the fall for the couple murdered on their honeymoon.”
“Sammy? He’s the bear shifter SCIS has been hunting?”
“Yes, but Sammy has never harmed a human. He put his life in danger many times to save them.”
“What about the mating curse? Would that make him lose control and kill someone?”
Rory gave her a long look as if surprised she knew about the curse, then explained, “It would if Sammy reached full loss of control. When that happens, the animal takes over and remains in that form until he does something self-destructive or is taken down, which usually happens first.”
Silence trickled along between them for a moment.
Turning to her, Rory asked, “Do you love Cole?”
“What? Why do you ask?”
“Just ... answer,” he ground out, clearly in pain.
Unwilling to make this moment any more difficult on Rory than it was, she gave him the truth. “Yes, I do. I don’t care that he’s a shifter. He’s my Cole.”
“Good. Then you can ... ” He stopped talking and lifted a finger to keep her quiet.
A high-pitched noise deep in the tunnel shattered the quiet.
Rory went into what sounded like a combat tone. “Be quiet and don’t react to anything.”
Tess couldn’t move a muscle out of pure terror.
Chapter 36
Cole followed the tracking signal being sent from the barrette Tess hopefully still wore until the transmission stopped. He ended up thirty miles outside of Spartanburg at a brick building that had once been a manufacturing plant.
At that point, he followed the scent that was driving him close to madness with worry. Tess’s unique scent mixed with sheer terror.
Inside the building, Cole wasted no more than seconds taking out a jackal guarding the stairs.
That’s how he found Tess in this underground room.
Bastards had chained her to the ground.
Gray Wolf roared inside, just as furious as Cole at seeing their mate chained.
One glance at Rory and Cole knew his friend had been staked with titanium. The ones who did this would all die.
Not slowing a step, Cole first reached Tess, who lunged up at him. He grabbed her in a hug, trying to quell her shaking. “Are you hurt?”
“No, but Rory is. He needs to shift.” She started rambling at a rapid pace. “You have to get out. They’re using me for bait. They have people coming.”
“It’s okay, baby.”
“You have to go before they ca
tch you.”
“Screw them,” Cole said. “I’m getting you both out of here with me. Can you stand?”
“Yes.”
She smelled terrified, but her voice held the conviction that made her a woman deserving of all the admiration he felt for her.
When she let go of him to stand on her own, Cole backed up and held his hand out, feeding power down to both of his fists. He reached down and grabbed the thick chain. He channeled his extra Gallize power his into his limbs.
Stretching out the chain, he focused all his energy on the links, which heated as he pulled the chain in opposite directions.
The center link began squealing.
A crack started in the metal and kept opening up until there was a half-inch space.
He dropped the chain, heaving a couple hard breaths. That drained his energy, but with a little luck he’d have all three of them out of there before any other shifters showed up.
Looking at the ankle cuff, he said, “I don’t have time for that right now, baby.”
“How did you ... I mean ... that was insane,” Tess mumbled.
He kissed her quickly. “I’ll explain later. Can you walk with that?”
She snapped out of her moment of shock. “I’m good. What about Rory?”
Cole dropped down next to Rory. “Be ready. This is going to fucking hurt.”
“Your bedside manner sucks. How’d you find us?”
“I put a tracker on her barrette.”
Tess said, “No way.”
Rory frowned. “You trusted her to wear that barrette? Are you kidding—”
Cole grabbed the stake and pulled, ripping flesh and muscle as he did. He could feel it. Bile ran up his throat at what he’d had to do for his friend.
Muscles in Rory’s face and neck were taut when he stretched his head back and bit down, muffling a howl.
Cole told Tess, “Take off Rory’s shirt.”
She dropped down and started unbuttoning while Cole removed his boots and socks.
Rory fumbled, roughly unzipping his jeans, which Cole yanked off.
Tess stood with Rory’s shirt in hand.
When his friend was down to nothing but cotton boxers that would disintegrate easily, Cole said, “Shift. I’ve got your back.”
Rory normally shifted slowly, allowing his animal time to acclimate, or so he said.
Not this time.
Pain must have driven him into an explosive change. One minute a man lay there and, in the next, the largest jaguar Cole was sure Tess had ever seen snarled and huffed under his breath.
“You’re okay,” Cole said, encouraging Rory to stay quiet.
Rory shook the chain off one leg now that his human foot was no longer there to prevent it sliding off. He turned his gaping maw to Tess whose eyes doubled in size. The jaguar had holes in his chest that didn’t line up and were both leaking blood.
Then Rory keeled over, whining as his massive body landed next to the wall where he and Tess had been chained. Shit, Rory weighed too much and was too big in animal form for Cole to carry him out over his shoulder.
How was he going to get Rory and Tess out of here?
The roar of a grizzly raised the hair on Cole’s head.
He turned, sick at what he scented coming toward him.
A ten-foot-tall grizzly standing upright on his hind legs slowly emerged from the dark tunnel.
He’d found Sammy.
Cole searched the bear’s eyes for a sign of his friend. Sammy’s normally warm brown gaze turned a bright amber color when he shifted.
There was too much white around the color of those too-yellow eyes.
No one was home.
Cole’s worst nightmare had come to life.
He was going to have to fight Sammy
Cole had only one way to protect Rory and Tess. He told Tess, “Stay with Rory. Don’t touch him. I trust his jaguar, but he’s in a lot of pain. And don’t leave this corner.”
“What are you going to do?”
The bear stopped in the middle of the room and roared a challenge.
Gray Wolf snarled, ready to answer that challenge.
Cole grunted at the effort of keeping his wolf in hand. He told Tess, “I wish you didn’t have to see this, but that’s Sammy and he may have snapped. If so, the mating curse, magic, drugs or all the above has him and I’m the only one who can stop him.”
He hoped he could back up those words.
It didn’t matter. Cole had no choice. He told Tess, “Back up as far as you can.”
She did as he said, standing against the wall next to Rory’s jaguar that was panting hard for every breath.
Cole called up the change and not a second too late. His wolf was going mad over the need to attack the bear.
Shifting fast was never fun and even more painful with his wolf rushing to the surface. The minute Gray Wolf stood on all four paws, Cole warned him, Don’t shut me out if you want to protect our mate.
We fight.
Yes. We fight to win. Cole hoped there was a sliver of sanity in Gray Wolf. He couldn’t spare a look at Tess. Didn’t want to see the gaze of disbelief on her face. If he died here, he wanted his last vision to be one to take to the grave.
Now, Cole had to convince himself he could defeat a bear twice his size who he’d battled many times before in training that had turned bloody.
Cole had never bested Sammy.
Sammy’s bear unleashed a loud roar and dropped down on all fours, fangs on display.
Gray Wolf slowly moved to one side, circling the bear that turned with him.
Now able to speak to the shifters mind to mind, Cole first told Rory, I know you’re hurting and need to stay animal to heal, but Tess will need you in human form. She might try to help unless you can talk to her.
Rory answered, I can do it.
As Cole got Sammy turned so that the bear’s back was to Tess and Rory, Cole caught a glimpse of the jaguar crawling over to pile himself in front of Tess. Then Rory shifted to human, lying naked on his side with his back to Tess and pain etched in his face.
Cole could never thank his friend enough.
Tess had grabbed Rory’s shirt and was wrapping his wounded shoulder.
Sammy stopped moving and snarled at Gray Wolf.
Wait, Cole told Gray Wolf. The only answer he got was Gray Wolf dropping his head down and the deep rumble of fury vibrating in his throat.
Cole tried reaching Sammy telepathically. It’s me, Cole. I’m here to help you.
Sammy’s words were garbled. No help. Mate ... everyone die.
No, Sammy, Cole said, as his huge wolf continued circling the bear, taking a step in and back. I found Katelyn. She loves you and wants to talk to you. She wants you back.
Cole hoped he was being honest by making that leap based on what Isabella had said.
Six-inch claws extended from Sammy’s massive paws. He argued, No mate. I have no mate.
Cole pleaded, Yes, you can have a mate. She loves you.
Lifting his head, Sammy bellowed a noise to the heavens that sounded as if it had been ripped from his soul.
No dying animal could howl that awful.
When the monstrous bear head lowered back down to look at Gray Wolf continuing to prowl around him, Sammy said, You killed her.
Cole had his first real fear that Katelyn had been harmed. No, Sammy, I would never hurt your mate. I found her for you.
Sammy shook his head. Dead. She’s dead. I saw. Her body ripped by wolf.
Fuck. If the Cadell had killed Katelyn, there was no hope for Sammy.
Cole had always thought he’d save Sammy and go with him to meet the Guardian when the time came.
He’d never planned on killing his best friend.
Gray Wolf roared right back at the grizzly.
Pitting two Gallize shifters against each other was a bad match even if everyone fought fair, but Sammy had lost his sole connection to humanity when he lost his mate.
Chapter 37
Tess did her best to help poor Rory, who had to be in agony. She might not be a shifter, but she’d studied enough to know that he would have been better off staying in his animal form to heal faster.
Her heart had climbed up her throat and threatened to choke her every time Cole’s wolf or the bear snarled.
She whispered, “Shift back, Rory.”
“I can’t. I told Cole I’d be human so I could help you.”
“When did you tell him that?”
“We can speak mind to mind in animal form, but I can’t speak to Gray Wolf in my human form.”
She kept her eyes on the humongous wolf that had once been Cole. Gray Wolf was just that. A stunning, silver-gray wolf that stood head high at her shoulder. He kept circling the bear, making threatening sounds, but neither had attacked yet.
Keeping her eyes on them, she asked, “Are Cole and Sammy talking?”
Rory was taking shallow breaths. “I’m sure Cole is trying to talk Sammy down off the ledge, but that bear is gone.”
“I thought Cole had found Sammy’s fiancée and she could save him.”
“She’d have to be here now and ready to take him as a mate. Sammy might be lost to all of us.”
The grizzly, Sammy, charged.
Gray Wolf backed up on his haunches and launched up at the ferocious bear.
They met in a clash of claws and teeth.
Tess breathed through her mouth to keep from passing out from the heavy odor of fresh blood. Her entire body shook from fear for Cole and Gray Wolf.
She wasn’t squeamish, but she’d never been around this much carnage.
The shirt she’d wrapped around Rory had soaked through. He might bleed out if he couldn’t shift back.
Rory gritted his teeth. “I need to help him.”
“Sammy?”
Shaking his head, he said, “If Cole can’t reach him no one can. They’re best friends.”
Tess wasn’t sure her heart could take any more pain on Cole’s behalf.
Rory said, “There’s no one inside those yellow bear eyes. I need to help Cole fight him. I can’t lose both of them.”
She didn’t want to lose Cole either. “Is there anything we can do?” She flinched at a vicious swipe Sammy’s bear made.
