“Boss?” Billy called, running up the stairs.
Ethan began loading the weapons. “In here.”
“What are you doing?” Billy rounded the corner, sounding out of breath.
Ethan had to unclench his teeth to speak. “I’m going after my mate. Where are Samuel and Gene?”
“Downstairs. I managed to wake them on the way over. They’ll have a hell of a headache but they will live.”
Ethan absently nodded, shouldering past Billy to get to his dresser in the bedroom. He yanked the bottom drawer open, took out a pair of jeans, and then snagged a T-shirt. “Call the pack. Have everyone meet at my grandfather’s place within the hour.”
Without waiting for confirmation, Ethan donned a pair of dark sunglasses and stormed back down the stairs. He barely spared Samuel and Gene a glance before stepping into the elevator.
Once in the lobby, Ethan straightened his suit jacket, careful to keep his weapons hidden and handed the valet a twenty-dollar bill to bring his car around.
Grateful for the dark sunglasses, Ethan could feel the fever burning in his eyes, knew they glowed behind the shaded lenses.
The valet arrived with Ethan’s car less than two minutes later. “Here you go, sir. Have a great day.”
Ethan merely nodded, not trusting his voice. He slid behind the wheel and closed the car door.
It took enormous effort not to floor the gas, so great was his rage. But he somehow managed.
His cell phone buzzed in his pocket minutes after he hit the freeway. He snatched it up. “Yeah?”
Billy’s voice came over the line. “I sent out a mass text to everyone to meet at Wallace’s place. I’m on my way there now. I also informed them to come armed.”
“Thank you, Billy. What about Piper’s friend?”
“I moved her to Piper’s bed. If she has as much sedative in her system as Samuel and Gene had, then she will probably sleep for several more hours. Their shifter blood is the only reason I was able to wake them when I did.”
Ethan thanked Billy once again. He disconnected the call, laid his phone on the center console, and drove to his grandfather’s house with one thing on the brain…saving Piper.
* * * *
“How long has she been missing?” Wallace demanded, approaching Ethan’s car as he slid to a stop in the driveway.
Ethan climbed out and slammed the door shut. “I don’t know. It’s been over three hours since she last messaged me. If I had to guess, I’d say at least two hours.”
Wallace pinched the bridge of his nose. “Enough time to take her back to Tampa.”
“This changes everything,” Ethan bit out. “My initial plan to negotiate with the Fosters and end this feud once and for all is no longer on the table. No negotiating. No deals. I want him dead, and everyone in his pack as well.”
“All of them?”
“Piper’s pregnant,” Ethan snarled, the fury inside him, a living thing. “If she’s been harmed? Yes, they all die.”
Wallace slowly lowered his hand, the irises of his eyes changing color. “I’m coming with you.”
Ethan knew better than to argue with his grandfather. He would do the same if he were in Wallace’s shoes.
He simply nodded, clapped the older man on the shoulder, and strode off toward the house. There was much to do and very little time to do it in.
Ethan’s pack members began to show up within the next twenty minutes. Some rolled up in vehicles while others preferred to shift and run in on foot.
“They’re angry,” Wallace pointed out, staring out the window of his old farmhouse.
Ethan moved toward the front door. “Good. I need them angry. I’ve never been more furious in all my life.”
Kicking the screen door open, Ethan vaulted over the porch railing, landing lithely on his feet before the anxious crowd. “As you all know by now, Isaac Foster has taken my mate.”
Pissed-off murmurs quickly flew through the crowd.
Ethan held up a hand for silence. “What you don’t know, something I have only come to learn of an hour ago, is that Piper carries my child.”
Waiting for the cries of shock to die down to a minimal buzz, Ethan continued. “If one hair on Piper’s head has been harmed, everyone in Foster’s pack dies. Do you understand? Leave no one alive.”
“When do we leave?” Samuel called out, his eyes still bloodshot from the sedative he’d been shot with.
Ethan met Samuel’s red-rimmed gaze. “We leave now. There will be no element of surprise. Foster will know by now that my mate is pregnant. He will also know that I’ll waste no time on plotting and planning. He’ll be expecting me.”
“We are with you,” Samuel responded, eliciting a roar of agreement from the crowd.
Ethan scanned the furious faces of his pack members. There wasn’t a shifter in attendance who wouldn’t willingly die for their alpha. They were his family…his pack.
Jerking his chin toward the vehicles, Ethan commanded, “Let’s go to war.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Piper’s stomach growled in hunger. She hadn’t eaten since the bowl of cereal she’d had earlier that morning. And judging from the cracks between the boards on the window, it was now after dark.
Why had the Fosters taken her? And what did they want with her? Were they using her to hurt Ethan in some way? It didn’t make sense.
Ethan had to be worried sick about her by now.
Pushing from the bed, Piper tiptoed across the room and pressed her ear against the door.
A snarling sound came from the hall, telling her that the giant wolf she’d seen earlier had sensed her approach.
“Mr. Foster?” she called out, hoping to be heard by someone. Anyone.
When no answer came, she tried again. “Isaac?”
The door suddenly opened, forcing Piper to jump back.
Eric stepped into the room, closing the door behind him.
Piper took another step back. “Where is Isaac?”
“You’re not dealing with my father. You’re dealing with me.”
Inching her way across the room, Piper decided to keep Eric talking until Isaac returned. “Why do you have me here? I’ve never done anything to you or your family.”
“Your very existence threatens my family, Piper Hollister.”
“Explain,” she demanded, lifting her chin.
Eric rushed across the room and backhanded her across the cheek.
Piper bit back a cry, the copper taste of blood filling her mouth.
“Don’t ever speak to me in that tone again. You will show me the respect that I deserve, or I’ll cut your throat here and now. Understood?”
Piper gave a weak nod. It took everything she had not to spit in his face. Her cheek throbbed in pain, but she’d be damned if she’d let him know that.
“It would seem that dear old Ethan neglected to enlighten you about our kind before he knocked you up. You’re really not my enemy in any of this, Miss Hollister. But that child you carry is. And I’m afraid that I can’t allow it to live.”
Tears sprang to Piper eyes against her will. Terror rolled through her, quickly followed by nausea.
She swallowed it back. Barely. “You— You would hurt an innocent baby? What kind of a monster are you?”
“The kind that nightmares are made of.” He ripped open his shirt and tossed it onto the bed.
Piper backed up until her shoulders hit the wall, her gaze darting to the closed door across the room.
Eric stepped out of his pants and shoes until he stood before her in his underwear.
He was going to rape her? Piper opened her mouth to scream, only to cry out in terror and disbelief as Eric’s teeth began to elongate.
His bones rolled beneath his skin, followed by a popping noise and hair sprouting on his arms.
Piper’s legs shook so bad, her knees gave out and she fell to the floor in a heap of horror.
A howl rent the air, echoing off the walls of the small room to settl
e in Piper’s terrified mind.
She stared in disbelief and more than a little fear as a large gray wolf stood in the place where Eric had just been.
Panic took hold, choking her in its intensity. She surged to her feet and ran for the door. Forgotten was the giant beast in the hallway or the threat of more wolves on the grounds. Piper only saw the one, and she’d be damned if she’d stay there and let him rip her to shreds.
The door opened before she reached it, and a pissed-off Isaac stood in the opening. He quickly stepped in front of her, his gaze locked on the wolf in front of him. “Stop this, Eric!”
Piper huddled behind the old man, staring at the gray wolf over his shoulder. As much as she couldn’t seem to wrap her mind around what she’d just witnessed, she knew without a doubt that the wolf in front of her was Eric Foster.
The sickening sound of bones began to pop once more. The wolf reared up, his head falling back in what appeared to be agony, until a very disgusting, very naked Eric stood in its place.
“What the hell was that?” Piper whispered, still clinging to the back of the old man’s shirt.
Isaac half turned, pointing toward the door. “Get out of here, Eric. And do not come back.”
Snatching up his clothes with jerky movements, Eric strode to the door, a look that could only be described as hatred shining from his eyes.
He stopped in the hallway, narrowing his gaze at Piper once more. “This is far from over.”
Isaac shut the door and motioned for Piper to sit in the kitchen chair perched next to her makeshift bed.
Piper’s legs shook so bad she wasn’t sure she’d make it without collapsing. “Tell me what the hell that was!”
The old man waited for her to sit before answering, “It’s called shapeshifting. We’re wolf shifters, Piper. As is Ethan, and the unborn babe you carry in your womb.”
Piper shook her head, her hand held up for him to stop. “Bullshit. There’s no such thing as shapeshifters, vampires, or any of that other nonsense.” Yet the evidence of that very thing had stood before her less than a minute ago.
“It’s true, Miss Hollister.”
Her mind went back to the first date she’d had with Ethan. The glow of his eyes she’d assumed to be from the candlelight.
A myriad of memories began filtering through her at once. Ethan’s deep growls when he took her from behind. The rumbling in his chest when he became excited. The subtle way he attempted to hide his eyes from her during sex. “How can it be?”
Isaac lifted a hand toward her before dropping it back to his side. “Ethan is the alpha of the Sorrento pack as was his grandfather before him.”
“And you?” Piper interjected, trying to comprehend it all. “You’re one of these shapeshifters too?”
The old man nodded. “I’m the alpha of the Kenwood pack. Ethan was the only heir of my eldest son, Darren. After Darren’s death, Ethan’s mother and her father poisoned his mind against me.”
Running a hand through his thinning hair, Isaac continued. “I’ll admit, Darren had his faults, but he was the oldest, the first in line to become alpha after me. And when I’d heard about Ruth’s pregnancy, I’d hoped to have a grandson to someday take my place as alpha.”
Piper pushed to her feet, unable to sit a second longer. “I— Wait. You’re honestly telling me that Ethan Seaborn is a shapeshifter?”
With her heart pounding hard enough to feel it in her temples, Piper leaned back against the wall, resting her palms on her knees. “This is unbelievable.”
Reality quickly sank in. She lifted a hand to her abdomen. “My baby is going to be one of those things I just saw in here a few minutes ago?”
“It’s not as bad as you’re imagining, Miss Hollister. Eric should have never shifted in front of you the way he did. I’m—”
“Stop it!” Piper snapped, effectively cutting off his insane explanation. “I want to go home. Just take me the hell home.”
A sadness entered the old man’s eyes. “I’m afraid I can’t do that now. You know too much. I can’t risk you going to the authorities about us.”
Piper’s mouth fell open. “And tell them what? That you’re freaks of nature, and oh yeah, I’m carrying one of them inside my body? They would lock me up for the rest of my life.”
“I’m sorry, Miss Hollister. This is the way it has to be. At least until the babe is born.”
“And then what?” Piper cried, throwing up her hands. “What happens after the baby is born? You kill me?”
He ignored her question. “I’m sure you’re hungry. I’ll have some food sent to you shortly.”
“I don’t want your food, Norman Bates! I want to go home.”
“You must eat,” he insisted, tugging on the door. “You have to keep up your strength. You are eating for two now.”
“Please,” Piper whispered, willing to try anything. “Just let me go. I swear I won’t say a word about this to anyone.”
The door clicked shut behind him.
Piper collapsed back in the chair, dropping her face into her sweaty palms.
Her life had been forever changed in one day, and no matter how much she wanted to deny it, Ethan seemed to be at the center of it all.
Lifting her head, she placed a hand over her unborn child, and her heart cracked. No matter what she’d seen in that room, no matter what Ethan was or wasn’t, Piper already loved the baby forming inside her, and she would do everything in her power to keep it safe. Even if she had to kill to make that happen.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Ethan glanced in his rearview mirror at the convoy following close behind him on the interstate. They would arrive in Kenwood territory in the next few minutes.
He took the next exit, turning left onto a clay road that led to an orange grove beyond.
Climbing from his car, Ethan waited until everyone had arrived before motioning them forward. “Foster’s compound is approximately a mile through this grove. We go in the rest of the way on foot.”
One of his pack members began removing his shirt, pausing when Ethan shook his head. “I wouldn’t do that, Terry. Shift only if you must. You’ll lose the advantage of your weapons if you go in there in wolf form. And you can bet your ass they’ll be armed to the teeth.”
Terry nodded his agreement. “Let’s go then.”
Ethan sought out his grandfather. “Are you sure you won’t stay here with the vehicles? There’s going to be a lot of weapons firing. If something were to happen to you…”
“I’m coming, Ethan. Whether you approve or not.”
Touching Wallace on the shoulder, Ethan struck out through the groves, his shoes kicking up sand as he ran. Piper was alive and somewhere in that compound. He wasn’t sure how he knew, he only knew that he did.
Shots rang out up ahead as Ethan’s men arrived at the Kenwood border.
The Sorrento pack returned fire, ducking behind trees and boulders along the property’s edge.
The thought of Piper being in the midst of the bullets flying drove Ethan mad with fury.
He hunkered down behind an orange tree next to Gene. “There are approximately twenty shifters on this compound. Half of them are guarding the east side. I’m going around to the south end.”
“Alone?” Gene asked in a surprised tone. “I’ll come with you.”
Ethan shook his head. “I need you to keep them drawing fire. It’s better if I go in alone.”
“They’ll be expecting that,” Gene argued before taking a shot at one of Foster’s men racing across the field.
Ethan quickly ducked as a bullet clipped the side of the tree he hid behind and pulled a handgun from the waistband of his pants. “I know what I’m doing.”
Keeping his head low, Ethan ran back the way he’d come, circling right and skirting the orange groves to the south side of the property.
He spotted two shifters hovering behind some shrubs near a large building while one more stood at the door.
They were decoys, Et
han decided, moving farther south along the fence line.
Several smaller structures were scattered throughout the property in no particular order. Piper would be in one of them.
Moving closer to the fence, Ethan scanned the area for a weakness in their defenses before vaulting over the fence.
Two burly-looking men stepped from a small cabin, opening fire on Ethan as they went.
Ethan dropped to his stomach, firing back with the accuracy of a sniper. Both men fell where they stood.
They were decoys, too, Ethan realized, rolling to his feet and running toward a small cabin with boarded-up windows.
More gunfire erupted from his right, leaving Ethan no choice but to dive behind an old blue car sitting on blocks.
“I knew you would come,” Eric Foster shouted, firing off a shot near Ethan’s leg. “In fact, I’ve been patiently waiting for you to arrive.”
Ethan’s wolf roared to life, rising to the challenge Eric casually tossed at him. “You want me, Foster? Let the girl go. Trade her for me.”
“The girl stays, Seaborn. You, on the other hand, will die.”
Ethan decided to play on Eric’s pride. He knew that the cowardly younger Foster wouldn’t want to appear weak in front of the others.
“You want me, Eric? Put the gun down and fight me. Or are you too much of a coward for that?”
“Get up,” Eric snarled, tossing the gun a few feet in front of him.
Ethan slowly rose to his feet, laying his own weapon on the trunk of the vehicle he stood behind. He skirted the old blue car, unbuttoning his shirt as he went.
“You want the girl?” Eric taunted, watching as Ethan kicked off his shoes. “If she’s so important to you, why haven’t you marked her yet?”
More fury poured through Ethan. “If you’ve touched her, I’ll rip you apart. One limb at a time.”
A manic energy exuded from Eric. He jumped from the porch, shifting before his feet had time to touch the ground. He dove at Ethan in a pile of gray fur and snarling teeth.
Ethan’s wolf exploded from within, hungry and savage, slamming into Eric with all the pent-up fury Ethan had been suppressing since Piper’s disappearance.
Heroes Among Us: A Paranormal Romance Collection Page 31
