by Alisa Woods
Lev’s tinny laughter on the phone in Lucas’s hand died away. “Bro? Lucas? Lucas, are you there?” It was just a squeak, but he could make out the words.
Lucas brought the phone back to his ear. “Need your help, Lev.” It was the third time he’d said it, and this time his brother sobered immediately.
“Got my keys. On my way. Where are you in the park?”
“That place you pulled me out…” Lucas swallowed again, the dizziness finally fading. “I’m on that road.”
“Got it. Be there as soon as I can.”
Lev hung up, and Lucas let his phone hand fall again. It would take Lev at least an hour to get there from the city. That would give Lucas time to rest. Or he could get up and run some more and cut a few minutes off the time until he’d be able to go after Mia again.
He glanced at the phone in his hand: or he could call her right now.
He dialed her number. It rang once and went to voice mail.
Dammit. She wasn’t going to take his calls.
Lucas shifted, clamped the phone in his mouth, and started running.
“So, what was the fight about?” Lev asked from the driver’s seat.
Lucas was still buttoning the shirt his brother had brought, but they were already speeding back toward Seattle. “Doesn’t matter.” He’d been wracking his brain to think of where Mia might go: the hotel was the only place that was reasonably safe, and all her stuff was there.
“Considering you pissed her off about something, I’m thinking it probably matters. If you want to actually find her, that is.”
Lucas glared at him. “That’s not funny, Lev.”
“No, it’s not.” Lev returned his glare with sideways looks while watching the road.
Lucas finished with the shirt, then clenched his fist and pressed it against the passenger door next to him. There was no point in telling Lev about their fight—Lucas knew what he was going to say anyway—but it was going to be a long drive if he didn’t.
“She wants to be my mate.” He kept his gaze out the window at the green blur of pine trees whizzing by.
“Ah, shit.” Lev slammed his palm against the steering wheel. “You told her no, didn’t you?”
“She’s better off with someone else.” He glanced at his brother, but his blotched and angry face just drove Lucas to stare back out the window again. “You should know that better than anyone.”
“You are such an idiot!” Lev’s voice had hiked up.
“Exactly my point.” Lucas kept his gaze on the forest. Maybe he would go back there, when this was all through. Once Mia was mated with someone else, he wouldn’t be good company for anyone for a while.
Lev growled and banged his frustration on the steering wheel several more times.
“Easy on the car, Lev,” Lucas said calmly. “We need it in one piece to get Mia back.”
Lev blew out a breath. “The hottest unmated female shifter I’ve seen in years drops into your lap, and you tell her no. You take screwing up to a whole ‘nother level, you know that?”
“She’ll find someone else.” Lucas gritted his teeth. He’d rather finish this conversation than drag it out. “Colin would make a good choice.”
“Colin?” Lev screeched.
“I think they can hear you in Seattle.” Lucas refused to look at him, but his knuckles were cracking from how tightly his fists were clenched.
Lev plowed right past his comment. “I can’t even believe you would say that,” Lev said, disgusted. “You’re an even bigger idiot than I thought. Colin’s an asshole.”
“He’ll keep her safe.”
Lev was quiet for a moment. Then he said, “You really don’t deserve her.”
Lucas turned to him, but his brother’s eyes were fixed on the road. His knuckles were turning white on the steering wheel.
“That’s what I’m saying, Lev.”
“No. That is not what I mean.” Lev threw him a sideways look, then stared at the road again. “She’s smart. She’s kind. She knows what happened to Tila, and she still wants to be with you. You don’t deserve someone that good, bro. But it really doesn’t matter what you deserve. You get me on this? Alphas don’t get what they deserve—they get what they earn.”
“I’m not an alpha.” Lucas gritted his teeth. Damn Lev for making him say that out loud. Never mind that those words had rumbled through his head every day for a year. His wolf was snapping at him for voicing it, too.
Lev took a deep breath. “Did it ever occur to you that she’s your second chance? Your chance to earn back what you lost, what we all lost, with Tila? And that this is it? You’re not going to get another one.”
“Let’s just get her back, Lev.” Lucas restrained himself from punching the car door. Or his brother. “Let’s try the hotel first. If she’s not there, we can try the dorm. Later, when she’s safe, you can both tell me how stupid I am.”
Lev grunted in agreement to that, but at least it shut him up for a while. In fact, they kept an uneasy silence all the way back to the hotel. Except when they got there, she was nowhere to be seen. And her stuff was still there, too.
“Did she have a key to the room?” Lev asked, looking around like he might find her hiding underneath the couch.
“Her purse was in the car,” Lucas said. “And even if she didn’t, she could have gotten one at the front desk.”
Lev fixed him with a skeptical look. “Have you even tried calling her?”
“She’s not taking my calls.”
“How many times did you try?”
Lucas didn’t answer, just clenched his jaw and picked up her coffee cup from that morning. Housekeeping must not have come through, because it still had traces of coffee along the rim where she sipped it.
His brother looked unimpressed with his efforts. “Try again.”
“Fine.” Lucas rumbled a soft growl while he dug out his phone. “But if she doesn’t pick up, we’re heading to the dorm.”
Lucas dialed. It rang twice then picked up. There was no sound on the other end. Lucas’s heart rate kicked up a notch. She was giving him a chance, even if it was a slim one.
“Mia, honey, I’m sorry. All of that came out wrong. Just give me a chance—”
But a male voice cut him off. “You’ve already had more than one chance, Lucas Sparks.”
Lucas gaped. Who the hell was on Mia’s phone?
“Who is this?” he demanded.
“I’ll give you exactly one more chance to save your little human plaything.” The voice was gloating and cold. “Retract your LoopSource bid. I’ll be nice and give you 24 hours. But I can’t guarantee I won’t have fun playing with your favorite toy while you make up your mind.”
Lucas’s body felt like all the blood had been drained from it. He braced himself against the countertop, suddenly dizzy. An image of Tila the way he found her—bloody, broken, a giant fist-sized hole missing in the center—blinded him and suddenly he couldn’t see anything but small rivers of blood pooling on the floor.
“Mia.” It was a ghost of whisper, not meant for the male voice on the other end.
But he heard it. “Such a pretty name, I agree. And I can see why you find her attractive. Yes, I can definitely see that.”
The way he said it… as if he was already touching her with his words… Lucas’s wolf roared back to life. “I will kill you.” It was one long growl of words and anger and frustration as he gripped the phone.
Lev was at his side, hand on his shoulder, but Lucas shoved him away.
The caller on the phone just chuckled in his ear.
Lucas reined in his fury enough to get some intelligible words out. “I want proof she’s alive.”
A sick, mocking humor clung to the man’s voice. “You certainly take your playthings very seriously.” Then it turned darker. “I’ve already sent proof to your alpha. That’s all you’ll get until we close a deal with LoopSource.”
Lucas squeezed the phone so tight he thought it might break under his g
rip.
“You have one day, Lucas.”
The wolf on the other end of the line hung up.
I’ve already sent proof to your alpha.
Mia’s heart sank at those words. The Red wolf who said them—the other wolves called him Mace—had already taken her picture, just minutes ago, using her own phone to send it to Lucas’s father. And now he was taunting Lucas with his words, an evil smirk on his pretty face while he held her hostage in his Bellevue estate. At least, she thought it was his estate. He acted like he owned the place, but she was still sorting out who was who and what possibilities there might be for escape. For her and for Jupiter.
Only she hadn’t seen her roommate yet.
The black car that had been waiting for Mia outside her dorm hadn’t been familiar, but she had recognized the wolf inside. Well, one of them, anyway. He was one of the three wolves who attacked her in the alleyway. The driver had called him Beck, and he was the one who had never shifted, his throat being caught in Lucas’s wolf-form jaws. Beck would have been handsome, except for the sneers and lecherous looks he kept giving her during the twenty minute ride from her dorm, over Lake Washington, and past a series of foliage-shrouded estates in the boomburb of Bellevue. It was where all the super-rich dot-commers lived once they made their millions and billions. The driver took them down a winding, quarter-mile-long driveway, past a sprawling gray-stone and red-wood estate, to a smaller, regular-sized house—one of several they had passed in the compound. By the time they’d gotten out, they were so deep inside the secluded estate surrounded by forest, she didn’t even contemplate screaming for help: no one would hear her.
Inside the house, the other two wolves from the alley had been waiting for her.
“You have one day, Lucas.” The one called Mace hung up the phone—her phone. It had rung before she could demand to see her roommate, who was nowhere to be seen in the expansive, two-story living area. Her house/prison was as luxurious on the inside as the estate was on the outside, with white leather sofas, dark carved-wood chairs, and a roaring gray-stone fireplace.
Mace looked her over with undressing eyes that made Beck’s lecherous looks seem tame. Beck sat uncomfortably close to her on the couch, even though she had edged to the far side. He kept touching her hair with his fingertips and thoroughly creeping her out. The third wolf from the alley leaned against the fireplace stones—he was the one who had leapt from the limo at the SparkTech garage and grabbed her, and he still wore the bruises Lucas gave him for it. Mace was clearly the leader of the three. An ugly smirk sat on his pretty-yet-masculine face, and his cold, dark eyes were already carving her up, like she was a delicious steak he planned to feast upon.
“Well, Mia Fiore, apparently Lucas Sparks has quite a thing for you.” Whatever Lucas said on the phone seemed to double Mace’s pleasure in kidnapping her.
“What did he say?” the bruised wolf by the fireplace asked.
Mace kept his gaze on Mia. “Oh, just that he’d kill me.”
“I don’t get it,” he protested. “She’s just a girl.”
Mace stepped closer to Mia, inspecting her with that penetrating gaze. “I don’t know, Alric. Maybe after screwing his way through the human female population of Seattle, Lucas has finally found one he has a taste for.” He gestured for Mia to stand up. “Let’s take a look at you, Mia Fiore. Maybe we can figure out what Lucas sees in you.”
She was glad to get up and away from Beck, but then she shuddered when he put his hands on her hips and boosted her up from the couch. She stood, teetering, in front of Mace as he raked his gaze over her plain t-shirt and jeans. She’d grabbed Jeeter’s sneakers along with her roommate’s blue-feathered purse as she’d run out of her dorm and into the waiting stretch sedan of the Red pack. Mia tried to put on a brave face under Mace’s scrutiny, but that didn’t stop her hands from shaking where they were clenched next to her.
She was in serious you-might-not-survive-this trouble.
They were all staring at her, including the driver, who had taken up a station at the two-story entranceway by the front door. He was slightly less hulking than the others and was dressed in a white collared shirt, rather than black silk, but the thing that really set him apart was his constant frown. He seemed as disturbed by the situation as she was—or perhaps he was simply worried she might make a run for it. Either way, he seemed separate from the rest, like maybe he didn’t belong with them. Or didn’t usually hang out with them. Or something. He was keeping an eye on the front door, but also the rooms upstairs, which was where Mia guessed they were keeping Jeeter.
If only Mia hadn’t gotten so mad at Lucas and stormed off like a child having a tantrum. So what if he rejected her? It wasn’t like he owed her anything. In fact, she owed him: her life, a couple times over. At least when she was with him, she was safe. It was when she went running off that she seemed to always find the most trouble possible. And now she had put him and SparkTech in a terrible position. And her roommate in danger as well.
Mace twirled his finger, like he wanted her to turn around for his inspection. It was humiliating. She did it anyway. She had gone with them willingly because they had Jupiter. Until her roommate was free, Mia wasn’t going to try anything that might get either of them killed.
By the time she had completed her turn, Mace was licking his bottom lip. “Well, I have to admit Lucas does have good taste.”
It struck her as odd that he seemed so familiar with Lucas. But Red Wolf was a competitor, both in the venture capital business and in the pack business, as Lucas called it—she guessed it made sense they would know as much as possible about each other.
And now Mace had his enemy’s “favorite toy,” as he’d called her.
Which made Mia’s heart seize up with a fluttery panic: she didn’t want to think about the ways Mace might want to “play” with her before releasing her back to Lucas. Assuming she ever got free again. But first she had to get her roommate out of this mess.
“I want to see Jupiter,” Mia demanded, surprising herself with how strong her voice was compared to the shakes running through her.
Mace seemed amused by it, too, throwing a smirk to Beck seated behind her. “Maybe Lucas likes his females feisty.” The other two wolves, Beck and Alric, had a chuckle at that.
“I’m only here because you said you wanted me, not her,” Mia said angrily. “I want to see her. And then I want you to let her go.”
Mace smiled wide at that. “She likes giving orders, too.” He wasn’t even talking to her, in spite of his eyes wandering all over her face and body. From the couch, she could hear Beck chuckle darkly.
Mace glanced at the driver by the front door. “Jak. Bring the roommate out.”
Mia watched him jog up the stairs and disappear. When she looked back to Mace, he was eyeing her like he was trying to figure out which part to taste first.
“I really should thank your friend, what’s her name… Jupiter? If it wasn’t for her, it might have taken us a while to figure out how to lure you away. Next time, you might want to be more careful about uploading pictures of yourself to the internet.”
The selfie. They must have found out Jeeter was her roommate from there. Or somehow known that they were friends enough that Mia would care… and come for her.
The driver—apparently his name was Jak—came back down the stairs with Jupiter in tow. Her roommate was a mess of wide eyes, running mascara, and trembling lips… but she was alive. Mia held in her sigh of relief and waited for Jak to escort Jeeter into the room, a hand at her elbow, guiding her. As soon as her roommate saw Mia, she broke away and threw her arms around her, holding her so hard that Mia nearly choked.
She hugged her back. Jeeter was crying, sobbing really, and didn’t let go. Through her roommate’s mass of red hair, Mia threw hateful glares at Mace, who seemed unconcerned by the whole display.
When Jeeter loosened her grip, Mia pulled back and looked her in the face. “Are you okay?”
Her roommat
e sniffed and nodded quickly, but her mouth was quivering too much for her to speak.
“Did they do anything to you?” Mia asked, with a look for Mace that said, you better not have.
Jeeter shook her head in equally small, quivering movements. Mia was about to hug her again when Mace took a quick step towards them, grabbed a handful of Jeeter’s long hair, and yanked her out of Mia’s grasp.
Jupiter shrieked, then sobbed again, shaking. Mace held her close to his body, head tipped back, as if he was about to take a bite out of her throat.
Mia’s fists clenched again. “Let her go!” It was almost a growl, and her inner wolf was all bristled out, ready to shift and take a bite out of Mace instead.
He smirked. “You’re not the one who gives orders around here, Mia.” Then he mashed his lips against Jupiter’s, devouring her in a forced kiss that made Mia’s whole body jolt. Jeeter squirmed in his hold, but he was too strong for her, holding her fast through the whole thing. It only lasted a second or two, but Mia’s wolf nearly leapt out to stop him. She was only able to rein in her beast at the last moment, when Mace broke the kiss.
Jeeter sobbed.
The hatred Mia felt for the wolf holding her roommate couldn’t have burned any brighter. “You said you would let her go.” Her voice was half-wolf and all-growl. She may have to fight her way out of this. If she did, she was going for Mace’s throat first.
He just shook his head in amusement and looked over Jeeter’s trembling, tear-stained cheeks, like he was imagining more than just forced kisses to come. “I said she wasn’t the one we wanted. But now that we have her, there’s no sense in letting good prey go to waste.”
A chill went through Mia. Dammit. What was with these Red wolves and their sick games? She wanted to lunge at him and claw out his eyes, but she would have to keep her cool if she wanted to find a way out of this for both of them. Besides, if she shifted, that would just expose her as a wolf. Something Mace and his goons didn’t seem to know yet. Apparently Lucas had a lot of human playthings in the past… she would deal with that later. Right now, letting the Red wolves know she was a shifter was a whole different level of danger: the rogue pack in the forest had immediately wanted to claim her, and she could imagine the Red wolves wanting something even worse… if there was something worse. At the moment she didn’t want to picture what that might be.
