Now Kaden had to make his.
Bastian swung his elbow towards Kaden’s chin, but Kaden blocked the blow. In a flash, Kaden used the block swing to force his brother to turn around.
He didn’t hesitate to render the next punch on Bastian’s upper back. It wasn’t the power behind the punch that mattered, it was the placement. A hard blow at just the right spot in the spinal column above the fifth thoracic vertebrae.
Bastian landed hard as if he’d dropped dead on the ice. His face was turned to the side. His breaths were shallow and wet.
Now that Kaden had a moment to catch his breath, he closed his eyes. As a physician, he’d never harmed another in this manner.
Being the cruel bastard he was, Bastian laughed. “Do you think incapacitating me like this will work? I’ll heal in a week or two.” His eyes formed slits. “Every time you turn your back on me, I will be there waiting for the opportunity to kill you.”
A dead silence fell over the pack. He sensed their shock from Bastian’s words.
Kaden said a prayer.
Then he hunched over his brother and snapped his neck.
His brother moved no more. Shock among the pack turned to horror. When Naomi cried out, he stumbled as if someone had struck him again.
“I’m so sorry,” he whispered again and again. He collapsed to sit beside Bastian and placed his hand on Bastian’s back.
You did what you had to do.
This was how Bastian wanted things to end.
If he had killed you, what would have become of the pack? What would have happened to Cyn and Zach?
But no matter how many times he told himself these facts, it did nothing to lessen the pain. It did nothing to stop him from squeezing his eyes shut as anguish crushed his lungs until he could hardly breathe.
Every fight ended like this, but the loss of his brother still seemed unreal.
***
Cyn slowly blinked.
That was about all she could do. All that existed was the fog she drifted within and whatever was on the other side in the real world.
Glass broke, interrupting the quiet. Next came the hard crunch of wood breaking into many pieces. The muffled sound of a silencer going off.
And then silence.
Silence, along with pain during her moments of wakefulness, were an all too familiar companion during the long hours she lay in bed.
But fear grew in her gut as well. Something had gone wrong. Horribly wrong.
A familiar yawn reached her ears. Was the door opening?
The footsteps across the worn hardwood floor got closer until they were right by the bed.
No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t so much as move a muscle. She tried to beg, even curse, but her mouth refused to function. She tried to do anything to lift the fog enveloping her. Her intuition, which had never failed her, rang off horrific alarms in her head, but there was nothing she could do.
Someone was leaning close. Their fingertip ran along her jaw to her pulse point. They leaned closer. They were so close, they could cut her throat if they wanted.
Eva? Bastian?
“Cynthia…” the voice said her name through clenched teeth. Bitterness rolled through each syllable.
“How could you?” She knew the voice. She could’ve been in a coffin ten feet under the earth and she’d know that voice above all others.
“You stink like they do,” the man said. “If Zach would’ve turned up dead, you’d be joining him right now.” He chuckled. “Thanks to Zach’s technology addict ways, tracking him down was all too easy. Now I can rescue you.”
She wanted to gasp out his name. Do anything to stop what was about to happen. But her muscles had no substance, and the single blink she managed revealed a murky sight: a familiar face with lips curled into a dark smile.
The McGinnis reunion had come to pass.
Ty McGinnis had found them.
Chapter 12
Night had fallen by the time the pack buried Bastian in the woods not far from the lake. As Kaden added the final layer of dirt, it seemed as if Bastian wasn’t truly dead and his body wasn’t laid to rest.
“I’ve been gone long enough,” Kaden said quietly to Rhys. He’d only left Cyn’s side for less than two hours, but he was uneasy the whole time.
He was only a mile away before he saw that the door to the cabin was missing.
The inside was dark. Not a single light illuminated the inside. His whole body tightened with fear as he broke into a hard run.
With each step, he told himself, she’s there. She’s fine.
He bounded through the door into the living room. The couch, along with the sofa mattress, had been turned. Kaden gaped as he checked the room.
There was blood on the floor, but it wasn’t Cyn’s.
He stooped and inhaled. The blood belonged to Zach.
Kaden searched under the overturned table and found Zach lying on his stomach. His breath was uneven, but his heartbeat was strong.
The rest of the house was silent.
His body ached all over from his wounds, but the pain faded away as his panic rose.
The bedroom is empty. The bedroom is empty.
But he still ran into the room. He had to see with his eyes.
The room was empty as he’d suspected.
Not a single drop of her blood was on the floor or the bed. She hadn’t been harmed. Yet.
A new scent was here. A human who smelled like Zach, yet wasn’t Zach. A blood relation. Anger settled into his stomach and blossomed into a growing rage that filled his vision with red. The wolf within him bristled until he couldn’t suppress his fury anymore. He smashed his fist through the thick door. The blow knocked the door off two hinges, but he didn’t care.
A hunter had taken Cyn.
That person knew who she was.
But that hunter had no idea that he had just snatched a newly born werewolf.
The End of Part 4
This story is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead is purely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 Shawntelle Madison
Version 1.2
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without prior written permission of the author.
Chapter 1
Not all of the boxes of shells Kaden crammed into a duffle bag made it. Several scattered across the ground. His grip crushed a few of them. As much as he tried to hold his temper in check, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was very wrong and, if he dawdled, he wouldn’t reach Cyn in time to help her. So far, he’d packed his bag, patched up Zach, and was now outside in the cold stuffing ammunition into a bag.
If he had to face the entire Red clan to get Cyn back, he’d do it.
And what about the pack? The thought circled his head over and over again but pushing the concern away was easy. Countless times, he’d chosen the pack over her. Time after time, he’d done what was necessary and returned to find that Cyn was safe. But not this time.
His luck had run out.
He had to choose her this time, and he wouldn’t fail her like he did Bastian. Just thinking about his brother added further to the ache in his gut.
He hadn’t eaten since this morning. After fighting Bastian and getting beat up, he could barely stand.
If he had to crawl to Cyn, he’d do it. He still had money, and he’d use every resource he had to reach her.
Someone approached him from behind.
“I saw from across the lake that you were fixing your front door,” Rhys said. “What’s going on?”
“It’s not good. Cyn’s brother Ty tracked Zach somehow and that man barreled in here while I was tied up with...” He couldn’t say his br
other’s name because if he said it, the agony inside of him would worsen.
“Is the other human still alive?”
“Zach’s pretty hurt, but he’s fine.” When Kaden had left him in the cabin, Zach had been as mad as a pit of vipers left to bite their own tails.
Rhys glanced at the duffle bag Kaden held. “How long until you leave?”
His brother didn’t question his decision, and for that, he was grateful. “As soon as I finish loading my supplies, I’m driving down there.”
“I’ll get my things, too.”
“No, you’re staying here,” Kaden said. “You need to tell the others what happened and keep things under control.” He sighed. “This is my fight. I made the decision to accept Cyn into the pack.”
Rhys appeared uncertain. He was always the thinker who’d do anything for his own. “Of course, Kaden.”
From behind them, Kaden caught the sounds of shuffled steps. He cringed. He’d hoped to be gone before Zach tried to get up.
He’d failed.
Kaden moved faster and headed to the car to dump the gear.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Zach barked. He clutched his stomach, but each of his steps was sure.
“I’m leaving you here to recover,” Kaden replied.
Rhys nodded to him. “Do you want me to carry him back into the cabin?”
“He has a gun,” Kaden said with a chuckle. “I doubt you’d want to try.”
By the time Kaden shut the trunk, Zach had slid into the passenger seat with a curse.
“I guess you’re not going alone then,” Rhys remarked.
“I guess not,” Kaden said.
Rhys placed a hand on his shoulder. “Be careful. You’re not in the best shape right now either.”
In more ways than one. But if Ty planned to take her back to where the Red clan was settled in Vancouver, he had a few hours on the road, so he could recover.
By the time Kaden got into the driver’s seat, Zach had popped a few pills from a bottle he’d pulled from his pocket. Aspirin. Based on his injuries, he would need more than that.
The road leaving the lake was bumpy with gravel, but Zach endured it with silence. Until they reached the highway.
“Head to the airport in Prince George,” Zach whispered.
“Why? If they made any stops at the gas stations along the way, I might be able to track them.”
“He’s taking her back to Vancouver. There aren’t any Red clan safe houses this far north. He will have to take her straight to our territory.”
“And from there?”
Zach sighed. “That will be the next problem for us to face when we get there. For now, we need to buy time. Once we get to the airport, I can secure private transport to Vancouver.”
“How much pain are you in?” Kaden had asked the question earlier, but Zach ignored him. Asking again seemed wise.
Zach smirked. “Not as much pain as Ty will be in once I wrap my fingers around his throat.”
***
After searching Cyn’s apartment in downtown Vancouver, Kaden’s frustration grew. “How many more places do we need to check?” Kaden asked Zach.
Not a single thing had been touched in the one-bedroom condo in the False Creek neighborhood. Compared to the cabin, she’d lived a comfortable life in a high rise. Seeing her personal effects bothered him the most. He tried to tear away thoughts that she might be hurt, but he couldn’t.
“All of them,” Zach bit out.
Before checking her apartment, Zach had stalked into the Red clan headquarters in East Vancouver, then they checked the marina, and now Zach seemed as frustrated as Kaden was.
“There are a few hunters Ty trusts with his life,” Zach grunted. “We’ll check those places first before we try the last place he’d go.”
“Where’s that?” Kaden asked.
Zach snorted. “There’s no way he’ll take her back to our parents’ house. The place is a closed-off location, but it’s a rookie move. Ty’s too smart for that.”
Chapter 2
The first thing Cyn wanted to hear when she woke up for the first time as a werewolf was Kaden’s voice. Like all the other mornings, she wanted him to wrap his arms around her and pull her closer to his warm chest. He’d rain kisses along the nape of her neck.
But, for some strange reason, while she lay in bed trying to shake off the last bit of sleep, a fly kept her company. The pesky insect buzzed at her ears. The sound was deafening as it dive-bombed down to her ear, only to buzz as it flew away. The fourth time that little bastard landed on her hairline and danced along her roots. Every twitch and jerk of its wings registered in high definition sound: thwap thwap thwap.
So she waved her hand to make it go away. Her hand moved so fast, she clocked herself in the head with her open palm.
Oh, the pain. I just smacked the shit out of myself, she thought with a grimace.
Her right eye socket throbbed, and the skin along her cheek sang. What kind of fool slaps their own face in the morning? She opened her eyes a bit.
Then blinked.
She wasn’t in the cabin on the lake.
Instantly awake, she shot up in the bed and glanced around.
She was home.
Not her old apartment in Vancouver, or the old cabin she had shared with Kaden before the attack from the Cerulean hunting clan, but her parents’ home before they’d died.
Her old bedroom in this house hadn’t changed much since she’d last been here a few years ago. The old dresser, which had survived three moves over the years, still tilted slightly to the right. Knicks and pokes, which she hadn’t seen before, covered the old piece of furniture. A jewelry box, her mom’s old one, sat on top. She still remembered the tinny tune the box played: Moon River.
There was so much to see now. Light from the mid-morning sun peeked through the lavender curtains and lit the corners of the room. The old wallpaper, which should’ve been white with purple violets, was now a bit yellowed. A fine layer of dust covered everything.
As acute as her senses had become, what bothered her most were the sounds coming from outside the room. Breathing sounds. If she focused and closed her eyes, she could almost hear the steady inhale and exhale. Beyond that, she heard the hum of the fridge.
Then a new sound: a chair scraping against the floor.
The sounds of footsteps grew louder. The unsettling feeling in her stomach worsened. Someone was coming.
The door opened and Ty came in. His face was unreadable.
Her heart sank and a sour feeling crept up the back of her throat. She forced herself to speak.
“What am I doing here?” she managed.
Ty was shorter than Zach, but he made up for the lack of height with his thicker build. Where Zach had speed, Ty had strength. He didn’t have gray eyes or black hair like their mom. Flickers of their dad shined in his hazel eyes and dark brown hair.
He was dressed in jeans and a black My Chemical Romance T-shirt, but the casual clothes didn’t fool her. Ty always carried a weapon.
“Ty takes this wolf hunter thing a little too seriously,” Zach said once while they were drinking during happy hour. “I once stumbled in on him while he was on the crapper. Dude had a machete while he was reading War and Peace.”
Cyn had laughed at the time, picturing her brother anticipating an attack while reading in the loo.
Right now, the joke wasn’t so funny.
Ty was a talented hunter.
His gaze swept over her face. “You look better.”
He also had an uncanny intuition.
Think, Cyn. There were tells. And werewolves gave them away eighty percent of the time: smooth movements, the slight flare of the nostrils when a scent passed through their nose.
Cyn averted her gaze from his eyes and slumped her head forward.
“My head hurts pretty bad...You never answered my question, Ty.”
She pushed her hands through her hair, wrestling to grasp onto memories of her
symptoms that no longer existed. Weakness in the limbs, pain in the joints.
“Perhaps I should ask you first why I found you and Zach in a werewolf camp in the middle of nowhere.”
She groaned and settled on the edge of the bed. Taking things slowly, she added a twitch to her right hand. Stretched her wrists. After a few doses of chemo, her wrists hurt when she tried to use them.
“It’s a long story. I’m not sure you want to hear the details,” she said.
He crossed his arms. “Oh, this I gotta hear.”
Cyn frowned. The house was deathly quiet. What she wouldn’t give to hear another person in the house. Maybe the sounds of Zach snoring. Had Ty kidnapped him, too?
“Just get Z, and we’ll explain everything.”
Ty’s face remained impassive. “He spoke when I broke into the cabin. There’s nothing else I needed to hear from him.”
Oh, shitty shit. Cyn’s heart sped up and hammered against her ribs hard enough to hurt. To hide her anxiety, she took a deep breath. “Is he back at the lake?”
“Oh, I left his ass back there. Especially after he had the nerve to pull a gun on me.” Ty took another step toward her. She caught his scent. The acidic smell of his sweat mingling with the aftershave he wore. Was he afraid? She’d never smelled fear before, but something told her Ty didn’t trust her.
“You two have kept secrets for a while now, and the moment he disappeared off the map for a long time, I got curious.”
Cyn made a rude noise. Time to turn the tide so she could get some space. “So now you care?” Slowly she stood and added a cringe. Nothing snapped in her knees, but she made a show of it. “I distinctly remember the day I came here after spending a long weekend of chemo, and you left right after I arrived.”
His eyes formed slits. “Don’t you dare throw that in my face. I came a few times.”
Cyn chuffed. “I guess I missed out on your company while I was delirious from my chemical cocktails.”
Keep moving, get to the living room where there’s a phone. Slow, jerky steps. She ambled to the dresser to find socks. Her feet used to always be cold in the morning. Her pink fuzzy socks were still in the top drawer.
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