Dev's Mate (Shifters on the run Book 2)

by Serena Simpson

  “You need clothes. You’re welcome.”

  He was dressed in jeans and a tee, but he still couldn’t move.

  “They took her. You could have stopped them from taking her.”

  “They took who?”

  “They took my…my.” The words choked in his throat. “Let me go I have to find her. They will hurt her, maybe even kill her.”

  “Who did they take Dev?”

  “Who the hell are you and why didn’t you help?”

  “Who did they take Dev.” His gray eyes sparked, and there was lightning jumping from the ends of his hair.

  “They took my mate!” His voice came out in a scream even as the shield let him go making him fall on his ass.

  “They took your mate. Was that so hard?”

  Hell yeah, it was. He wasn’t supposed to have a mate, and he knew it. Animals like him didn’t get to have someone they loved more than life, and then Rissa came into his life. She was his mate.

  He stood up and began stalking away. “Where am I? Do you know where they are taking her and what’s the best way to get there?”

  “You’re in a safe place for shifters to shift.”

  “This place wasn’t so safe for Rissa.”

  “I might have needed to force your hand. Sometimes your goodness as your mate likes to call it can hinder you.”

  He opened his mouth.

  “Later, you need to go after your mate.”

  He was standing on the side of the highway. The male that took them to the forest was no longer there. He began to run down the road until a black Jeep pulled in front of him. Lore was in the driver’s seat.

  “What the hell is going on?”

  “Not now they have Rissa. They took her in a copter, and I don’t know where they are headed.”

  He pulled out into traffic and increased their speed until they caught up with a bright red four door truck. Then he dropped back far enough to keep the truck in sight but not let on that they were following it.

  “A copter stopped in the middle of a field, and we just happened to be there to see them load a body into a red truck and pull off.”

  “How?”

  “That freak that took the two of you. He pointed us in the right direction.”

  He could still see the lightning flowing through his hair. “Let’s not call him names until we know more about him.”

  They trailed the truck until it took the off ramp. Then they hung back and took the same ramp after several vehicles went in front of them.

  “I wish we could get close enough to attach a tracker.”

  “We can’t take the chance.”

  “I know I would never put Rissa’s life in danger. I just want to make sure we don’t lose them.”

  “We won’t lose them,” Lore assured him.

  They followed them to a motel that was busy.

  “We have to wait until darkness falls before we can get her.”

  “We get her now!”

  “Dev, do you see that family with the young child the father is walking? Do you want to make them collateral damage?”

  Of course not, but Rissa was in there and could be suffering anything at the hands of her captors.

  “Why did they transfer her instead of just taking her to their base?”

  “Ben, when you go fishing what do you need?”

  “Besides a rod, bait.” His eyes narrowed as he thought about them using Rissa as bait to capture Dev.

  “They want you.”

  “They want all of us, but right now I’ll do.”

  “They won’t touch her yet.” Lore’s voice was low, and the growl he was holding in could be heard. “They’ll want most of the guest to either be asleep or settled in for the night before they begin to have their fun.”

  The door to the room where they were holding her opened and two men stepped out. The smile on their faces as they looked back at the room sent a cold shiver up Dev’s back.

  “Ben.” Lore murmured his name, and he slipped out the Jeep. He was wearing a cap pulled down to his eyes. The brim was casting shadows over his face. The tee he had on was dirty, along with the jeans he was wearing and the steel toed constructions boots. He looked like he was returning to the motel after a long, hard day of work.

  He took a seat in the booth and addressed the waitress as sugar when she came to take his order. She took one good look at his face and played along. The two he followed relaxed when they realized the waitress knew him and began to talk amongst themselves.

  When she walked away, he got a good look at them. Who would he kill first? He wanted to laugh Rissa wasn’t his female, but he would die before he let them hurt her.

  They got up and left when their food was delivered. He didn’t worry because he knew Lore would be there. He waited for his order having made sure he got enough for Rissa to eat later.

  He slipped into the front seat before he turned around and handed Dev food.

  “Eat Dev, you know the rule.”

  He picked up his food as he watched the sun sink over the hill. Soon he would go after his mate.

  Chapter Thirteen

  She felt groggy while her head felt like it was filled with cotton. Her eyes tried to open, but it was the voices around her that made her keep them shut. The images of running with a big massive brown bear came back to her, Dev. Image after image poured in until she was caught in a net. She could still hear his roar of anger as they took her away and then darkness. They must have drugged her, no wonder she felt like death warmed over.

  “I know you're awake.” A hand cracked her upside her jaw.

  He would die for that, but for now, she would play nice. Her eyes opened slowly to show the white walls of another motel room. This one had too many men in it for her comfort. She tried to open her mouth to say something but the duct tape was efficient at making sure she didn’t say a word.

  “I’m going to take this off your mouth. One scream, one holler and I promise I will blow your brains out and never look back.”

  She believed him. What was he doing here? Lore and Ben hurt him enough that he still had a cast on, but that didn’t seem to matter. There was nothing but hatred in his eyes. The tape was ripped off her mouth, but she refused to whimper because it would give them pleasure.

  “Why am I here?” The sound of her voice was low and hoarse. Her throat was dry, she needed water, but they didn’t seem to be inclined to give her any.

  “Mostly for our pleasure, but you're also bait. In a day or two, your new friend will track you down, I doubt he will want you, not that it matters. We will have him in custody, and then we won’t need you anymore.”

  “Why?” Her throat hurt every time she pushed a word through it. “Water.”

  He walked over to the table and picked up a bottle from what she thought was a bucket of ice. Walking over to her, he twisted the cap off and placed it to his lips tilting his head back, he drained it. The others in the room laughed. When he was done he tilted the bottle next to her and allowed several drops to run down her cheeks.

  She vibrated with a rage that she wasn’t going to be able to keep in check when she was finally free. Now that she was closer to being one with her animal they both knew she was going to kill him. There came a time in life, or at least in her life when she no longer wanted to be the victim.

  “The government and the military put a lot of time and energy into turning the men you were with into animals. They have plans for them and want them back. Once they have them, each of them will regret having made a run for it.”

  She turned her head to look at the white walls. There wasn’t much she could see because of how she was tied up. There was the bed underneath her. Unfortunately, she wasn’t sure it was clean. The smell of half eaten food assaulted her nose and made her stomach groan. She was hungry, but it wasn’t a surprise. There was no way she could run and play in her animal form and not wake up starving.

  Her teeth tugged on her bottom lip as she tried to raise her head.
She needed to find a safe place to hide when Dev got here so he wouldn’t be concerned about her while he tore these men apart. The desire to spit over the word men almost made her laugh, almost.

  “You’re in the military what about your oath to serve and protect?”

  “We have new orders, and they say you're ours.”

  So, they had taken the most deranged men they had and sent them after her. There was no way out of the chains they wrapped around her hands and ankles. There was enough slack in the ankle chains for her to take a step.

  “I have to go to the bathroom.”

  “Go ahead baby, defile yourself.” That came from one of the men in the back of the room that hadn’t spoken yet.

  “You’re a sick fuck.”

  “I am.”

  “I want her first,” Mark stated, he was in a cast because of her.

  “I don’t care because I want her ass. Anyone else that want’s it can have it after me.”

  The speaker from the back of the room came to stand behind her running his hands down her body twisting her nipples. She tried to keep the pain off her face because he got off on pain. She knew all about men like him.

  “Who’s going to keep watch?” Mark demanded as he moved to take off his pants. “I think we need to give her some slack in the chain around her legs.”

  “We don’t need anyone to watch the door we have two days before they drop the first clue about where she is being held. Too bad I don’t think you’ll make it that long.” He turned her over on her stomach and slapped her ass before he laughed.

  “Nice and firm I like that.”

  “Don’t you have anything to say?”

  The fourth guy was deep in the shadows of the room, and she couldn’t see him. Now that he spoke she knew there were four men in the room. The first was Mark, the guy that tried to kidnap her earlier and still hadn’t learned his lesson. The second was the man beating her ass. The third was the depraved son of a …

  “What is there to say? I’m simply getting my last looks before you die.”

  “Your freak of a boyfriend can’t help you,” Mark told her.

  “Enough talking, carry on.” This came from the man in the shadows.

  Her face was pushed into a pillow making her fight to breathe while she felt someone bite her on her back. Please, she prayed, let me pass out.

  *~*~*~*

  Ben sent a short picture of the bathroom window being open. They couldn’t talk to each other, but they were linked. They could send brief pictures and at times even a word or a sentence.

  Dev sent him back a picture of him and Lore surrounding the door. On the count of three that would be marked with a strident bird whistle, they would go in.

  He looked up at Lore and nodded as he began his silent countdown. They both gave the bird call increasing the volume on it before they kicked the door in.

  The scene in front of Dev was one that would haunt him for years to come. Rissa was being held between two men as she fought with everything she had. Her hands and feet were chained making it almost impossible to fight, but she still tried. One had his hand around her neck choking her while the other was trying to rape her.

  Dev’s eyesight flipped to black allowing him to only focus on the three men in the room. One of the men screamed as Dev’s hand went around his neck. He picked him up and threw him against the nearest wall. Then he reached for Mark, but Ben already had him. Lore had the other man. He rushed around them and picked up Rissa who had fallen to the floor and was trying to roll under the bed.

  The minute she felt hands on her she started fighting back she wasn’t going to accept that it was her fate to be abused, she would always fight back. There was a low murmur around her, she finally realized it was Dev trying to calm her down. Her body relaxed, and her head dropped. She didn’t want him to see the tears she was sure were going to flow.

  “Hands in the air.” The man Dev threw against the wall had recovered enough to pick up a gun. “Stand up.”

  He laughed as Lore and Ben stood. Dev stood placing him within arm’s reach.

  “You didn’t think you could come in here and hurt me, did you?”

  Their eyes glanced to the two men on the floor who were either unconscious or dead and then back at him.

  “What’s your name son?”

  “I’m not your damn son. My name is Jim you’ll be hearing a lot of it since I’m the guy that captured you.”

  “Dev,” Lore said in a bored voice.

  His nails became claws that he swiped across Jim’s mid-section. He fell to the floor clutching his stomach.

  “See if you can find the keys to these chains.” He pulled his shirt over his head then place in on Rissa.

  He picked her up and sat on the bed with her in his arms. She rocked a little back and forth not saying anything.

  “Rissa?”

  She rocked more a little faster this time.

  “She’s in shock.” Lore handed him the keys to the chains.

  He unchained her wrists rubbing each one to bring back the feeling to her hands, then he tried to lay her down to unchain her ankles. The sound she made had him picking her up and placing her back on his lap.

  “Lore, would you?”

  He took the keys and bent in front of her to take the chains off. Then he warmed his hands before rubbing her ankles to get her circulation flowing again.

  Standing he laid a hand on her arm. “You’re strong Rissa, don’t let these monsters win.”

  Dev placed her arms in the tee, then continued to rub her body trying to bring back a feeling of warmth and security.

  That’s what they were, monsters. When she first woke up, Dr. Baker and the rest called her a monster. They told her no one would ever love her. That didn’t scare her because she never experienced love outside of her aunt and uncle, but being a monster did scare her. When she walked down the street, she was always afraid she would attack someone’s child because that’s what monsters did.

  It would be funny if it weren’t so painful, but she wasn’t the monster. The men who made her, who came after her with intentions of hurting her they were the real monsters. The funny part, no one ever saw the monster in the people that looked like them, only in the people who looked different. She was as different as it got no matter what they thought she wasn’t the monster.

  “Rissa, I’m going to take you outside to the Jeep.” He held her close before looking up to see Lore looking at him. “What do we need to do here?”

  “He’s dead, good riddance.” He kicked the man with his intestines hanging out. “The other two are still alive. Should we kill them or let them go.”

  “Kill them.” He didn’t want them coming after Rissa again, and he didn’t want them living with the knowledge that they hurt her.

  “No.” Her voice came out in a harsh whisper. “If we kill them then we become monsters like them. We’re not monsters.” Her head fell to Dev’s chest as she waited to see what he would do.

  “Why don’t you give them to me?” The room was thrown into a heavy silence.

  “Are you going to kill them?”

  “Who the hell are you?” Lore asked, his voice was angry and once again he could move.

  “My name is Talon. Believe it or not, I’m here to help you. I won’t kill them because your mate asked me not to.” He disappeared taking the three men with him as well as any sign that the room had ever been occupied.

  Dev carried Rissa to the Jeep.

  Chapter Fourteen

  She awoke to the scent of male animals surrounding her. Breathing in deeply she allowed Dev’s name to come out as a sigh. He was holding her tightly against his chest while her body was curled up on him.

  A few breaths passed before she allowed his name to emerge from her lips loud enough for him to hear it.

  “I know your awake love. You don’t have to talk before you’re ready.”

  She nodded her head while trying to burrow further into his arms. It was the sigh that
left her lips that made her look up. The memory of what happened wasn’t going to just disappear, not until she dealt with it.

  “Hi,” She smiled up at him feeling proud that her lips weren’t shaking.

  He looked down at her, and all she could see was the blame on his face.

  “Stop it, this wasn’t your fault. I don’t know how they found me, but I know they weren’t going to stop until they did. What matters here is that you kept your word.”

  “What?”

  “Your word to find me.”

  “I didn’t kill them all, just one.”

  He killed for her. Where was her horror, her disgust? Her animal approved and considered him a worthy mate. Mate, the word that she had been trying to avoid. It made her feel like an animal to think in those terms. The word mate suggested permanence, she was trying to get her animal to cozy up to the word boyfriend, but she ignored her.

  “You protected me, just like you said you would.”

  “Did they…”

  “No, they hit me some, nothing I couldn’t take. What happened to them?”

  “Talon, I still don’t know what he is, took the man I killed and the other two. The room was pristine when he left.”

  “What about the fourth guy?”

  “Fourth guy?”

  Lore pulled over to the side of the road causing her to look out the window. The sun was beginning to rise over the horizon. They had driven all night while she slept in Dev’s arms.

  “What fourth guy?”

  “He was sitting in the back of the room deep in the shadows. I couldn’t sense he was there I thought it was only the three of them until he spoke.”

  “What did he sound like?”

  She allowed her mind to go back. At the time, she hadn’t been paying attention, but her animal was, and she replayed every word and note of his voice.

  “His voice sounded cultured like he was a high-ranking officer from one of those high society families. His tone was clipped like he was here to see what was going to happen not listen to them talk back and forth. He wanted them to get on with abusing me.”

  “Peterson.” Dev’s voice shook with fury.