by E A Price
She flicked through the reports on the drug. The test subjects had shown few side effects and the drug had an incredibly high success rate. She felt a swell of disappointment. “I can’t see any problems. The tests were done in the normal way and were approved by the FDA. The drug produced varying degrees of success, yada, yada, yada.”
Jackson cursed under his breath. “There’s nothing there, get out Carly.”
“Just give me a few more minutes.” Carly began opening random documents determined to find something. Anything.
“Get out Carly. Now.” He rumbled.
Carly gasped. “Oh my god...”
“What? What is it?” His wolf jumped around anxiously. “Fucking hell! Answer me Carly or I am coming in!”
“Shit I can’t... ooof...”
Jackson heard some scuffling, a few loud screams and then silence.
“Carly? Carly? Carly baby answer me damnit?!”
Jackson froze as the sound of heavy breathing tingled by a slight whistle sound echoed down the line. Fuck it was the elephant. “We have your girlfriend. We’ll be in touch.” The phone clicked off.
Chapter Fifteen
Jackson and his wolf howled and he tore into the lobby of Ryntech. Noah almost fell off his seat in surprise at seeing an enraged six foot two wolf shifter charging at him.
To Noah’s credit although terrified of the wolf he stood his ground and his voice didn’t waver once. His fox puffed out his chest prepared to take on the bigger shifter. “You can’t go back there.”
Jackson’s eyes blazed amber as his claws flexed. “Carly’s in danger.” He roared gruffly.
“What?!”
“Carly’s in danger!” He bellowed. “Where’s her desk?”
Noah hesitated for a second before relenting. “This way.”
The young fox raced away making for the stairs, running up two at a time with Jackson trailing behind. Jackson wheezed and coughed trying to keep up with the sprightly fox. He really needed to stop smoking. The young fox was starting to make him look bad. His wolf grumbled. He didn’t like the idea that Carly might compare the two of them and prefer the younger, apparently fitter male.
When they reached her desk it was to find the chair overturned and the computer smashed on the floor. Jackson scented her blood, a couple of drips were on the floor. His wolf paced uneasily. Icy cold fear shot through his body as his heart pounded frantically. Oh god Carly!
Jackson scented the air confirming that it was the men who set Carlton’s house on fire. He grabbed the white fox’s collar. “Who do those scents belong to?” He yelled.
Noah sniffed before wrinkling his nose distastefully. The men weren’t exactly well acquainted with showers. “They belong to the CEO’s personal security team. Bunch of psychos.” He winced realising that the men had taken Carly. “I’m sorry...”
“How would they get her out of here?”
Noah’s eyes lit up. “Through the back, the loading bay entrance. Come on!” He slipped out of Jackson’s grasp and sprinted to the stairwell. Jackson chased after him.
Noah jumped down whole staircases. He was as graceful as a leaping gazelle! Jackson tried to copy him. He was as graceful as an army tank.
The fox called for him to hurry up. They made it to the loading entrance just in time to see the goon squad shoving Carly into a black SUV and driving off. Jackson leapt in the air and shifted, his paws pounded the ground as he ran after them but it was hopeless. They lost him after two blocks.
The wolf slowed and whined piteously. They had his mate. His mate was in danger. How could he have let her go in there by himself?! He stupidly put her in danger and for what? Why hadn’t he just run away with her when she suggested it? The thought that he may never see her again was unendurable. He had to get her back, he just had to.
Vaguely he was aware of Noah walking up to him carrying the shreds of Jackson’s clothes and his discarded cell phone. The wolf growled and bared his fangs. If this boy had just allowed him to go with her...
Noah cast his eyes down. “I’m sorry, I had no idea she was in danger... I never would have let her back there if I’d known...”
The wolf wasn’t entirely appeased but he acknowledged the white fox wasn’t to blame. Groaning Jackson’s muscles rippled as he shifted to his human form. He grunted curtly.
Noah shifted from foot to foot. “You’re not really her cousin are you?”
Jackson gave him an unpleasant look but before he could say anything his phone buzzed. Snatching it from Noah’s hand he found a text message. His heart almost stopped beating. It was a picture of Carly; there was a gag in her mouth and her eyes were wide with terror. His huge frame trembled as he struggled to control his fury.
The phone rang in his hand. He fumbled trying to answer. “Hello, hello!”
The deep voice of the elephant vibrated down the line.
Jackson snarled. “If you fucking hurt her I will rip your fucking throat out!”
The elephant breathed in and out a few times, nose whistling, completely unimpressed. ‘Bring the flashdrive to Ryntech within two hours. When you arrive call this number and further instructions will be given. Come alone and don’t even bother trying to go to the cops. You fail to follow instructions and your cute little fox is dead meat.” The line went dead abruptly.
Noah whistled. “Fuck!” With his sensitive shifter hearing he heard every word. “What are we going to do?”
Jackson scowled at the ‘we’ part. “Go back to Ryntech kid.” He sneered.
The white fox shook his head vigorously. “No, Carly’s my friend, and it’s my fault she got taken.”
Grudgingly Jackson told him it wasn’t his fault. It was Jackson’s fault all the way. But the fox wouldn’t hear of it. “What should we do?” Asked the young man eagerly.
“I need to see that flashdrive.” He said grimly.
Chapter Sixteen
Carly’s head was pounding. Like there was a ton of bricks being poured on it. Hmmmm, that was a familiar feeling.
She licked her dry lips and gasped as pain shot through her mouth. Gingerly she poked her tongue over her lip. It was swollen and she tasted blood.
It all came back to her in a rush. She’d been looking at the reports on Erectoplus and then someone had grabbed her from behind. She mentally kicked herself for being too engrossed to sense their presence. Her fox felt horifically guilty.
As the large hands painfully squeezed her she identified the scent of her attacker. It was the foul smelling jaguar from Carlton’s house. She wriggled and squirmed, she was as slippery as an eel. The jaguar screamed at her to hold still. Yeah right!
He loosened his grip and she slid out of his grasp, spinning round she gave a hard kick to his crotch. The fleshy looking jaguar immediately let out a loud ‘aieeeeee’ sound and clutched his balls as his face turned puce.
Carly turned to run only to be met with the solid chest of the nasal elephant shifter. Out of the frying pan... The guy must have been over seven feet tall. She craned her neck upwards to see a malicious smile on his weather beaten face. She opened her mouth to scream and the jaguar pulled her back and slapped her across the mouth with a meaty hand. Then darkness.
Ugh that was some damn slap! She’d heal, it would just take a little while.
She was lying on a damp floor in a dark, musty smelling room. Oh god where had they taken her? She scooted up into a sitting position and pulled her knees to her chest.
Carly should have listened to Jackson. She shouldn’t have gone in alone. She felt a twinge at the thought of never seeing him again. She should have told him that she thought he was her mate. But she had been too chicken, she had assumed a man like him wouldn’t want to be tied to a silly, chubby fox like her. Now she’d never know.
Her fox yowled. The wolf would find them. He would track them down. Carly wanted to believe that so much and yet she was niggled by doubts. Jackson was good, but he wasn’t psychic. She could be anywhere in the city, hell for all s
he knew they could have taken her away from the city! It was like looking for a needle in a big pile of identical looking needles. She wanted to cry and scream.
Carly thought back to the documents she’d found right before the jaguar found her. Erectoplus was a great drug, a miracle drug even, unless you happened to be a wolf shifter. In line with the CoS (Council of Supernaturals) regulations the drug had to be tested on a cross section of all supernatural beings. Which meant witches, vampires and a variety of shifters.
Everything was going swimmingly until it came to the wolf shifters. Ryntech found a willing pair of mated wolf shifters to try the drug. At first everything appeared to be normal. In a controlled environment the mated pair became highly aroused and began copulating. Carly had quickly glossed through the description of the mating, and painstakingly avoided looking at the photos.
But after about ten minutes a change had overtaken the male wolf. During intense arousal male wolves partially shift, allowing their claws, fangs and eyes to change. Carly could attest to how hot-blooded male wolves were, her sex fluttered just remembering the pure passion she had witnessed in Jackson’s eyes. However it did not turn out so well for this couple...
When the male’s wolf pushed forward he lost control. His eyes turned red, and fur started growing all over his body. His limbs twisted as he tried to shift, he ended up half man and half wolf. It was fascinatingly grotesqe. The man had started frothing at the mouth and unable to contain his rage had attaked his mate, killing her instantly and then attacked two lab technicians and three security guards. Out of the six people only one survived. The wolf man was killed before he could make it out of the lab.
The discovery of this information had horrified Carly, but not half as much as the second test, the third or the fourth... Ryntech could not find a reason why the drug should have affected the wolf in such a way and so kept bringing in more test subjects. All with the same results.
But instead of doing more research Ryntech had decided to go ahead and market the drug. They were burying the knowledge of what had happened to the wolves. In accordance with CoS guidelines the company only had to do trials with a few different species of shifters, they were not obligated to test it out on all species.
As such according to a memo sent out by the company CEO Teresa Pratchett, or TP, to the members of the board they were going ahead with the drug. TP noted that they could not know for sure that it was the drug that had caused the reaction in the wolves. Yeah right. Wolves were dangerous and aggressive shiters and any irrational or violent behaviour was down to the individual wolf and was not their concern. Apprently none of the board members were wolves.
Carly was sickened. They were knowingly selling a drug that could cause bouts of murderous rage! Her heart went out to Carlton. He had been trying to prevent a potential slaughter and had been murdered for his trouble. Any doubts she may have had about Carlton’s death were now solidly dismissed. Either TP had killed him or she had hired someone to do it. Most likely the latter.
Carly jumped as the door to the room was flung open. She blinked into the bright light streaming through past the huge dark figure. She sniffed and then gagged a little. It was the jaguar. He sure did wear some pungent cologne.
Her eyes adjusted to see the look of pure rage on his face. He limped toward her wincing a little. Apparently he was still smarting from her well aimed kick. Good.
Her fox snarled and Carly bared her teeth as he roughly pulled her to her feet. Instinctively her claws pushed out and she slapped him, leaving thin slices on his cheek. He roared as blood trickled out of them. He lifted his hand to strike her.
“Enough!” Came a frosty female voice behind him.
He faltered as a smidge of fear darted over his features. Breathing heavily he let go of Carly causing her to stumble backwards. He muttered lowly and walked away folding his arms huffily.
“Cuff her to the chair.” Ordered the female voice.
The overhead light was swicthed on and Carly found herself facing a severe looking woman in a business suit. Teresa Pratchett. TP. The elephant loomed behind her before stalking toward Carly. Surprisingly gently he put her in a chair and handcuffed her.
Carly’s wrists tingled. The cuffs must have silver in them to prevent her from trying to shift. For some reason shifters found silver toxic.
In killer five inch heels Carly wouldn’t even dream of wearing TP stood six feet tall. She was rake thin but exuded an air of power and dominance that would make even the beefiest shifter pause for thought. Shame she wasn’t a dominatrix really. Carly almost giggled at her inappropriate thought but managed to catch herself. Her fox yowled in disapproval, this was no time for jokes.
Carly was surprised to realise that TP was a jackal shifter. Not that she had anything against jackals but in general the species was untrustworthy and unambitious. They tended towards blue collar crime like robbing liquor stores. They usually weren’t very successful either. To find a jackal in such a high level job was unusual.
A cold smile spread across the jackal’s thin lips. “Thank you Carly. Here we were thinking of ways to find you and you came directly to us! Really Carly you have been a model employee right up until the last.”
TP opened her mouth and showed a huge amount of gleaming white, sharp teeth. She really did have too many for her mouth.
A surge of courage rushed through Carly. Her heart was beating a mile a minute, and undoubtedly all the shifters had realised that, but she didn’t care. If they really were going to kill her then she at least deserved answers. “Why are you doing this?”
The jackal clucked her tongue. “Don’t take me for an idiot. I know you’ve seen the files. Carlton was threatening to go the press with the truth about what Erectoplus does to wolf shifters. We’re talking about millions of dollars. It would have ruined the company, it would have ruined me!”
“But people are going to get hurt!” Carly cried in exasperation
TP licked her thin lips. “Not people. Wolves. No great loss.”
Carly felt her heart constrict thinking of her own wolf. “Why me?”
TP sighed impatiently. “It wasn’t supposed to be you. But the night Carlton drove you home we had just finished a little business meeting. After our meeting ended Carlton became scared for some reason and when he saw you working late he latched onto you. He seemed to think he would be safe in your company. He was wrong. It’s unfortunate for you. You were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. We had planned on pinning it all on Carlton’s boyfriend.”
In spite of everything that piqued Carly’s interest. “Carlton was gay?”
The two male shifters stood still as statues as TP barked with laughter. “Of course! Why do you think you always saw him and Harper Smith together.”
“I thought they were friends.” Carly said lamely.
TP groaned, the fox really was an idiot. “They were lovers you fool. But then Harper found out that Carlton cheated on him with that toad Simon from research.” She wasn’t kidding either, Simon really was a toad shifter.
Carly’s eyes went wide. “No way!”
The jackal gave her a superior look. “Harper was pretty damn angry and started sending Carlton e-mail threats saying that he would kill him. Apparently Carlton had borrowed a substantial amount of money from Harper and after they broke up he refused to give it back. So after we found those e-mails naturally Harper was going to be the fall guy. But then Carlton got all nervous and we were afriad of what he was going to tell you so we had to act quickly.”
“How did you do it?” Carly asked in a small voice, unsure as to whether she really did want to know.
TP shrugged. “Easy.” She motioned to the huge elephant shifter and the sour looking jaguar. “Bruno and Hector followed you and spiked your drinks. When you were both out for the count they strangled him and left the two of you at your apartment. Simple really.”
Yes, killing a man was child’s play really... “Then we just made an anonymous tip to
the cops. From then on it was easy. We forged a few death threats and of course Harper was easily presuaded to make that statement about you. We just had to threaten to reveal his own threats against Carlton. Plus Joanne was easy to persuade, the woman’s a drunk. We had a video of her having sex with the copy room guy. Threatened with losing her job, health insurance, pension and her husband she soon caved.”
Carly shook her head sadly as her fox whined. The jackal made ruining her life sound so easy. A stray tear rolled down her cheek. The jaguar Hector snorted at her weakness.
TP cleared her throat. “As much as I’m enjoying our girl talk we have business to attend to. Your boyfriend will be here soon and we need to make sure he sees you alive.”
Hope bloomed in Carly’s chest. The fox yipped in happiness. Their mate was coming for them.
TP laughed horribly. “I wouldn’t get so excited if I were you. He’ll be dead before you even get to simper all over him.”
Carly paled. Oh no Jackson was walking into a trap. He was going to get killed trying to save her. How could she live with herself if that happened?
“Don’t worry though, you won’t be mourning him for long. I promised that when we were done with you Hector could play with you.”
Carly trembled as Hector’s lips curved maliciously. Crap on a cracker.
Chapter Seventeen
Jackson stood outside Ryntech. He clutched his phone so tightly he almost crushed it. His wolf simmered with rage. They’d had the flashdrive containing the evidence the whole fucking time! There was never any need for them to come to Ryntech. And now Carly was in danger...
If they touch her... He shook violently suppressing his inner beast. He had to bide his time. Carly was more important than his desire for revenge. He needed to make sure she was safe. Then came the revenge part.
His phone chirruped. He rushed to answer. “Hello!”
A chilly female voice echoed down the line. “Hello Mr Carr.”
“How do you know my name?” Demanded Jackson.
