Marcus seemed to swell as he planted his feet. "Nobody touches my female."
"Your female, huh? I don't see you claiming her."
Adela made a choking noise in her throat. "I am not your female, Marcus Haught. I am nobody's female!"
Marcus turned a glare on her. "Nobody's female? You share a child with Durant. You belong to him. That's why you won't see any of these guys looking at you. But anyway, I wasn't talking about you."
Becky shrank back as his eyes lit on her. Bile rose in her throat.
"You want me to claim my female? Fine. Guess I will."
He pulled the keys to the cage from his pocket and unlocked it, then dove in and grabbed Becky's arm. She shrieked punching and kicking at him. Adela cried out, clinging to her. She was ripped away and the cage was slammed shut again. Marcus dragged her through the gathered bears. One or two chuckled. The others looked disgusted or didn't watch at all. He pushed her into another room and slammed the door shut.
"No!"
She punched him in the chest but all that did was send pain washing up her arm. The big bear grabbed at her arm, but she managed to wrench away and hit at him again. He grunted, an annoyed look coming to his face. Her chest tightened and burned and she aimed a kick between his legs. He caught her ankle and tipped her back, then caught her just before she fell.
He slammed her into the wall and slapped a hand over her mouth. Adela still shouted in the other room.
"I'm not going to hurt you," he whispered. "I convinced them that Adela is Durant's mate and they'll respect that. But you? You're just a rich non-shifter who clearly didn't do enough research while writing her shifter characters. I'm trying to protect you."
Becky froze. Her heart hammered and her stomach churned but she stopped struggling. If what he was saying was true, then they had a chance to get out of this. Was that why he had come to the house before? He wanted Adela to go with him, had he come to try to get her away before the bears attacked? Her hand throbbed.
"I'm going to let you go now."
Marcus released her. Her first inclination was to just attack him or try to escape but he was still too close to get by him and he'd already proven that her fists did nothing against him.
"What do you want?" she hissed.
"Look, we're not doing this on our own. We were… encouraged by a man named Dwayne Sawyers. Do you know who that is?"'
Bewildered, Becky shook her head.
Marcus ground his teeth for a moment. "Fine. I don't have time to explain it to you. He put us up to kidnapping you and then you and Adela both, to hold for ransom against your publisher and now Durant. But he’s got more up his sleeve, I know it."
"Why are you going along with this instead of just handing him over to the police?"
"I kind of like my body in one piece and not on fire," Marcus said dryly. "Give me Durant's number. If we're all going to get out of this alive then I need to play along for now."
Becky hesitated. Could she trust him? And if she didn't? What was her other option? Sitting around here waiting to die? Or worse. She shuddered and closed her eyes. He was their only hope right now. She gave him the number quickly as he put it in his cellphone.
"Good," he mumbled. "Now scream."
"What?"
"Scream." He pinched her.
She yelped, then screamed. Marcus, his expression grim, nodded his encouragement. She screamed again, only this time he cut her off and knocked over a small table. He tore one sleeve off, which caused her to scream again. She elbowed him in the chest, suddenly afraid that he had been lying to her after all. But he backed up, pinched her again and dialed a number on his phone with one hand.
A landline behind her rang. Marcus let it ring for a couple times before he answered. "Yeah?"
He turned off his phone and Becky heard a dial tone from the landline. He'd called it himself? Why? As an excuse for why he was stopping? She shuddered as she considered him. All she had was his word that he was on their side. Right now it was enough for her to hope, but if it turned out to be not true, what would she do?
"Right away."
He hung up and grabbed her arm. Becky whimpered as he dragged her back out to the main room. One of the bears chuckled but most of them looked angry. One of them grabbed Becky and pulled her away from Marcus before shoving her into the cage beside Adela.
"I didn't sign up for letting women get raped," he growled. "I don't care if you're claiming her or not, you do that again and I'll rip off your head."
Well, it seemed like there was honor among criminals. Becky folded herself into Adela's embrace, shaking hard. She was whimpering and couldn't stop it but at the same time hope raged through her blood. Maybe if the bears started fighting among themselves they would have a chance to escape. The cage could get broken and they could run away.
"We need to go talk to the boss. Snaps his fingers like we're dogs and expects us to do all his dirty work? I say we're entitled to a bigger cut of the pie. Don't you?"
Phil growled. "What about them? You want to leave them alone?"
Marcus cast a cold gaze on the two women. "They're locked up. What can they do?"
After a little more discussion, all the bears left. They all streamed out with Marcus being the last to leave. As soon as the door shut, Adela burst into tears. Her body shook, sobs ripping through her. Becky wrapped her arms around the other woman, trying to soothe her.
"He's Luci's father, isn't he?"
Adela nodded. "I'm so sorry. It's because of me that he…"
She toyed with Becky's ripped sleeve and dissolved in tears again. Becky shook her head urgently. "No. No, he didn't. And he wasn't going to. He just needed to get me alone. He didn't hurt me and he didn't… he didn't do that. Adela, listen. I think he might be on our side."
She snorted. "I thought that once. But he's not on anybody's side but his own. That's the way he's always been and he's never going to change."
"Listen to me. He didn't hurt me."
With a shudder, Adela wiped her eyes. "Well. I'm glad he at least has some sense of morality."
"And he got them to leave us alone." Becky moved to the door but it was locked tight. No amount of jangling the bars would loosen it. After a moment she gave up and looked around. The bars were wide enough that they could put their arms through. If they could get something that they could use to pry the lock off…
"I'd like to be one of your characters right now," Adela said. "They always get out of these scrapes."
Her characters. Of course. Becky patted her head. "Do you have any bobby pins? I learned how to pick locks once while I was writing…"
She trailed off when Adela shook her head. She continued to look around the room desperately. There had to be something in here that they could use. "Think, Rebecca. Think. There's beer bottles, water bottles… Can you make keys by melting down plastic into a lock?"
"How would we melt the plastic?"
Becky slumped back. "We can't just sit here waiting."
"If they're after ransom, Isaias will pay. Whatever it takes."
"I don't think it will be that simple." Becky shivered. "Marcus said something. They didn't get the idea to abduct us on their own. They're working with a man named Dwayne Sawyers."
Adela gasped. Her face blanched, shoulders hunching inwards. She shook her head, her whole body starting to tremble. A ball of dread dropped into Becky's stomach watching her. She maneuvered herself back next to the other woman and squeezed her hands.
"Who is he? Adela? Who is Dwayne Sawyers?"
"If he's involved, we're not getting out of this alive. None of us. Not you and me, not Isaias, not Marcus and the rest of them. He'll make sure we all burn."
"That doesn't tell me who he is." Becky shook her. "This isn't the time to fall apart! We need to get out of here and I need you to stay strong. Please. Don't fall apart on me now. Tell me who Sawyers is."
Adela turned her face away. "He's the devil."
Chapter Twelve
&nbs
p; He couldn't calm Luci, but that was probably because he was such a wreck himself. The baby cried and fussed and no amount of rocking would calm her. Tension radiated from him, and it clearly had an effect on her. She refused her bottle and pacifier and refused to stay bundled in her blankets. The whole time she continued to scream, her face red and tearstained.
Isaias had a hard time not letting his fears overcome him. What was Marcus going to do with Adela and Becky? If this was a ransom, why didn't he just come in, take them all hostage and demand a wire transfer right away? Or was he too afraid of Isaias to do that?
His cellphone rang and Isaias dove for it. Blocked number. He knew he wouldn't be able to hear a thing with Luci screaming in his ears, so he reluctantly took the baby to her bedroom and left her in her crib, closing the door behind him.
"Marcus, if you've hurt them—"
"This isn't Marcus."
The voice sent shivers down Isaias' spine, though he wasn't sure why. It sounded familiar but he couldn’t place it. "Who is this?"
"Forgotten me already, have you?" The man chuckled, though it sounded more triumphant than amused. "Oh, well. I suppose you can't expect to be remembered all the time. It's a shame what happened to your fiancé and housekeeper, isn't it? But then, what can we expect from shifters? Filthy animals, a danger to the normal population. And what they've done with dear Rebecca Lake and Adela Choi is proof of that. They need to be controlled and regulated, and I aim to make sure that happens."
Thick, cold fear slid down Isaias' throat, choking him. He might not have recognized the voice but the words… the words were all too familiar. His hands began to shake as he clutched the phone tighter to his ear. It couldn't be. After all of these years, he couldn't be back.
"Do you know who I am now?"
"Dwayne Sawyers." Isaias managed to choke out.
The man who had locked his family and Adela's in a burning house, murdering them. Their parents had managed to get the two of them out and he had carried Adela away, into the woods, where they had been hunted for two days before the police finally found them and arrested Sawyers. He had been utterly unrepentant about his actions.
"I thought you died in jail," Isaias whispered. Bile scorched his throat. "There was a fire…"
"There was. But I was preserved. When I found myself free, with the world thinking that I was dead, I realized that I had been spared to complete my work. There must be an end put to shifters and if I have to work behind the scenes and prod them into destroying themselves, so be it. It was so easy to convince those bears to steal your women."
"If you hurt them—"
"I will hurt them if you threaten me."
Isaias forced himself to remain silent, breathing hard. His bear clawed at his chest but what could he do? There was no attacking the man who had Becky and Adela's lives in his control. Besides that, he didn't even know where to find Sawyers.
"Are you going to be reasonable?" Sawyers pressed.
"Yes."
The other man chuckled again. "Good. Now, you are going to reveal your true identity to the world. You are going to tell them all how you have been lying to them. And you are going to let everybody know exactly how many entertainment networks you control and tell them that you've been shoving shifter-controlled media down their throats."
Would it destroy all the work he had done? Isaias closed his eyes. He had tried so hard over the years to improve the views non-shifters had of shifters. He had tried equally as hard to stay out of the public eye. There was only so much attention a man could take. No interviews, press conferences, nothing. It had been a costly struggle to get his painful past silenced, to have a little peace in his and Adela's lives.
Becky's safety was worth more than anything else he might have to give up. He would do anything, give up anything, to have her back in his arms. There was no question that he would do as Sawyers demanded. Would it destroy what he had tried to create? No. People were smarter than that. It would fire some aggression towards him, but whatever Sawyers hoped for, he wouldn’t get.
But the dread still swirled in his gut. "And what about Adela?"
"The girl who defiled herself and bore a shifter child?" Sawyers paused for a moment. "See? Even you don't deny that she did."
There was nothing Isaias could say or do that Sawyers wouldn't twist to serve his own purposes and so he remained silent still. The stillness between them stretched on, broken only by the screams from Luci's room which were starting to quiet. Would she ever see her mother again?
Don't think like that.
"The girl will serve as a good reminder about what happens to those that betray our pure heritage to enter into bestiality."
"Please don't hurt her," Isaias whispered, hating that he was begging. "Please. I'll do whatever you want—"
"I want you animals to stop stamping down on my people. Humans are being denied jobs because they are going to shifters."
This being despite the fact that it was legal to fire a shifter just for being a shifter, but non-shifters needed a reason for being fired.
"Our resources are going to fund your drug habits."
The majority of shifters still lived right around the poverty line but received less financial aid from the government compared to non-shifter groups. The rates of drug abuse were higher in non-shifter communities but shifters received harsher sentences for minor infractions.
"I will not let this country be ruled by shifters."
There hadn't been a single shifter elected to a government position in the history of the country. But none of those facts mattered to Sawyers. All he cared about was the fact that shifters were no longer allowing themselves to be hunting targets and demanding rights and protections for themselves. Men like Sawyers, they didn’t care about facts. They just had no way to feel powerful unless they were standing on the backs of others. If shifters weren't their targets, it would be someone else.
"Why me?" he whispered. "Why Adela? Why are you so intent on destroying us?"
"Oh, you know why, Isaias. It all stems back to your mother's duplicity."
A click, then a dial tone. Isaias let his hand drop, heart beating shallowly, bile rising in his throat. He did know why. This was unfinished business. He and Adela had to die for Sawyers' work from all those years ago to be completed. It was personal as well.
Sawyers had wanted Isaias' mother. He had literally stalked her until his father stopped him and had him arrested. Once he got out of jail, he returned with a vengeance. The fact that his mother had chosen a shifter over him had sent him into a murderous rage. It didn't matter that Adela's parents weren't shifters, they were friends with his father and that was enough.
Isaias turned toward Luci's room again, but there was no more noise coming from it. He peeked inside to find that she had cried herself to sleep. Her face was wet with tears and her breathing still hitched but her eyes were closed. He pulled a blanket over her, a cold feeling twisting his stomach.
The doorbell made him jump. Hurriedly wiping his face to get rid of any tears or sweat that the conversation might have brought up, he hurried to answer it. Two men in casual jeans and button-up flannel shirts greeted him.
"Hello." One of them gave him a smile. "My name's detective John Dolls and this is my partner, Xavier Holliday. Can we come in?"
Isaias stared at them.
Dolls leaned on the doorframe. "We received an anonymous tip that there was some… disturbances here. Given the circumstances we were given, we thought it best to not draw too much attention to ourselves. Let us in and we can talk."
Marcus had said no cops. But this was bigger than Marcus, Sawyers was involved. Isaias hesitated only a moment before stepping back to allow them in. If it had just been the kidnapping, maybe he'd have tried to deal with it on his own. Sawyers, however, was as likely to kill Becky even if Isaias did as he said. And Adela? He already planned to kill her.
Isaias couldn't let that happen.
"Thank you," Dolls said, flashing him
a smile as he and his partner stepped in. "So… we received an anonymous tip that your fiancé and housekeeper were kidnapped and you were forbidden from contacting the police."
"Where would you get that information?" The hair on the back of his neck prickled. Were they working with Sawyers?
"Have your fiancé and housekeeper been kidnapped?"
Isaias stared stonily at him.
Dolls and Holliday glanced at once another, then Holliday spoke, "We'll take that as confirmation. We believe that one of the kidnappers may have gotten cold feet and reported it. We need you to tell us exactly what happened."
***
The house was overrun with surveillance equipment. After he explained the situation, Holliday and Dolls had called in another team, who had arrived in plainclothes. The four of them quickly set up systems to track any calls that were made to them and Isaias had called one of his female bear friends to come watch Luci until they got Adela back. In the meantime, he had put out word on his media sites that he was going to make a major announcement.
Even if this turned out in his favor, even if he got Adela and Becky home safe, he might just tell the world about his past. Maybe it was time to face down his demons.
"The important thing when you get the call is to keep them talking," Dolls told him. "We need three minutes to triangulate their position. Got it?"
Isaias nodded. "And if they don't call?"
Dolls and Holliday glanced at each other. "We'll deal with that when the time comes. Stay focused, stay positive. We'll do everything we can to get them home safe."
They didn't have to wait long for the call. Isaias tensed as he answered to hear Marcus' voice.
"I'm going to kill you," he snarled before he could stop himself.
Marcus made a loud yawning noise. "I'm sure you'll want to. But let's be reasonable here, buddy. I have the girls and you have nothing. So let's not get all macho, let's talk about this rationally. Are you willing to do that, bud?"
The Bear Shifter's Virgin Page 7
