by Helen Scott
“I won’t leave. I won’t let you hurt her. Please, let me try to talk to her.” She lowered her gaze while she spoke so she was watching his mouth, giving the illusion of submitting without ever doing so.
“I can get answers out of her.”
“I know you can, but gentler methods may get more answers out of her than violent ones.” She traced her hand down his arm, letting her fingers skim over his bare skin before twining them with his. “Please, trust me.”
“You have five minutes. Then it’s my turn and you can go wait outside, or I will take you outside.”
“Deal.”
She was beyond pissed at him, and she knew he could tell, but his anger was overriding everything else. As much as he wanted to beat the snot out of this woman who had abducted him, Valentina knew he wanted answers more. He needed to know why they had chosen him, why he had been turned.
Slowly, she moved around the other alpha, trying her best not to kick him in the ass as she wanted to, toward the woman, sitting on the floor in front of the cage, opposite where she was sitting.
“So, I’m sure you heard that little exchange. I need you to cooperate with me, please,” Valentina said, letting the desperation show in her eyes. “Why did you pick Elijah?”
“Who?”
She nodded toward the other alpha. “Why did you pick him?”
“It’s not us who picks. It’s the serum. All we did was go to a different bar every night and try to dose as many people as we could. People who reacted to the drug we brought back to Malcolm. People who didn’t, we left.”
“So, it was just the fact that he reacted to what you put in his drink? That’s the only reason you took him? You had no idea who he was otherwise?”
“No . . . why? He didn’t seem like anyone important.”
“What’s the drug?”
“I don’t know. Malcolm just gives it to us and expects us to come back with at least one person every night.”
“Can you tell me anything about him?”
“No, what I do is just for a paycheck. I try not to pay attention to what goes on.” Shame colored the woman’s cheeks as she wrapped her arms around her knees.
The room was filled with the stench of fear and anger, and Valentina just wanted this to be over. “Do you have any way of contacting him? Or for him to contact you?”
“Just a pager. It tells me which bar to go to and when to come back here.”
“A pager? Where is it?” Valentina didn’t think anyone still used them, but maybe the good doctor was trying to keep things low tech for a reason.
“It was on my belt, but I think it flew off when we were fighting.”
Valentina stood. “Thank you.”
Elijah was already looking for the device, and she joined him in the search. When a roar of frustration sounded behind her, adrenaline spiked through her body.
“It’s broken,” he growled as he turned to face her with a crumpled piece of plastic in his hand.
“Anthony might be able to fix it. He’s really good with this stuff.”
Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. Elijah’s face darkened even further, and just as she knew they were about to find out who really was top dog, or cat, as it were, footsteps clattered on the stairs.
Liam’s scent reached her before she saw him.
“What’s wrong?” she said, bolting out of the room toward the doctor.
“Two other cars pulled in as I was getting out. Four guys total.”
“Shit. Here, Dante is this way,” she said, grabbing Liam’s hand and dragging him toward the last prisoner, the one she absolutely could not leave behind. “He needs to be at least partially sedated. His cat is currently running the show more than he is.”
“Good thing I brought this with me, then, isn’t it?” Liam waggled his emergency kit in his hand.
“I love you for that.” Valentina squeezed his shoulder as they went into the room with the panther. “Dante, this is Liam. He’s going to help get you out of here. More guards have arrived, so I have to go stall them, but I promise you I won’t leave without you.”
The man nodded at her once before focusing his eyes on Liam. She knew they would be fine, but she hated leaving Liam in a potentially dangerous situation. If she didn’t, though, it would get a whole lot more dangerous, so she left, running through the door and up the stairs.
At the top, she froze, assessing the intruders. They were trained, much more so than the female guard in the cage, but they weren’t supernatural. She thanked the elders for small mercies. They spread out, surrounding the building, before they converged on one point, clearly checking to make sure there was no one else on the property. If they had seen Liam exit the car, then they might assume it was just him here alone, since Valentina’s car was parked up the street in the forest preserve’s lot. They didn’t look like the types to make assumptions, though.
A shrill scream sounded from the basement, and all of them whipped their heads around before the sound was abruptly cut off. She had no choice but to shift. Her jaguar would give her the stealth, speed, and strength needed to take down four assailants. Calling her cat forth, she let her body morph and change, allowing her cat control and letting her know who the bad guys were.
Silently, she slipped out the door, moving around the vehicle to the man furthest from the entrance. He was tall, muscular, and probably either a cop or ex-military, judging by the way he moved, but the military never trained for shifters. Faster than the eye could track, she bolted from her hiding spot, launching herself at the guard when he was within reach. Her jaws clamped around his shoulder as she sailed over him and pulled him with her.
Gunfire cracked in the quiet evening. The surprise was over, at least for now. If Elijah decided to join her, then that would be surprise number two, but he was probably too focused on his prisoner and his revenge.
The man struggled in her jaw, and though a fist connected with her side a few times, when she clamped down, she felt his blood spray in her mouth, and her human side backed off a little more. She heard the bone crunch and the man gurgle as blood gushed from his shoulder.
Before she could think, her cat took off, making a break for the next man, dodging and weaving to avoid the bullets as she made her way closer. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Liam peeking through the gaping doorway, and she urged her cat to distract everyone so that Liam could escape, hopefully with Dante in tow.
She ran forward and body checked both men closest to the door before looping around the third man. All of them were trying to track her movements. She could almost feel the guns being trained on her, but with the parked cars and other sundry items, she was able to move from hiding spot to hiding spot as only a flash of fur. When she peeked around the corner of the filing cabinet that she was hunkered down by, she made eye contact with Liam and nodded at him, letting him know that now was the time to move before she exploded into action.
Leaping behind one of the mercenaries, she bit into his leg, tearing out the tendons of his knee before clamping down on the hand that held the gun. All eyes were on her as she danced around, trying to avoid the gunfire, using the man she had between her teeth as a shield. Her ears tracked the movement from the door, and she listened as a car door opened and closed, followed by a second one shortly thereafter. There was nothing she could do to mask the start of the engine, but if she roared at the right time, it might at least distract them.
Her ears pricked as she heard the engine begin to turn over, and she let loose the loudest roar she could. The scream was so violent that it left her gasping for breath when she was done, but it had worked, and the men had been too distracted to worry about the car. It was only when Liam had moved the car that they turned. Her packmate gunned it out of the parking lot, and all three men were firing at the car as it disappeared.
The sound of metal shredding reached her ears, and she knew that at least two of the bullets had made contact with the car. She just hoped that they had missed L
iam and Dante. When the men rounded on her, she bolted toward the next closest enemy. The man whose knees she had broken wasn’t too much of a concern. He was bleeding out, and if he didn’t stop moving around, that would only happen faster. The other two men were the problem.
The man she had lunged toward had spun out of her reach. It resulted in a nasty fall, and she’d heard the crunch of bone that let her know not everything was in the same shape it had been a moment ago. Yet, he was valiantly getting up. Her anger was sharp as a whip inside her, and most of it was directed toward Elijah. If he had been helping her, they could have taken all three remaining men out without much fuss and been on their way, but instead, she was stuck playing cat and mouse with them.
A bullet grazed her when she didn’t get behind cover fast enough, and the wound burned. It was right over her shoulder, and she knew that if she didn’t get it seen to soon, she would have a nasty scar because of it. It didn’t help that every time she took a step, the skin felt as though it was being pulled open.
Valentina was losing her patience, and she was going to pay for it in bullet wounds if she wasn’t careful. As she reined in her impulses, she looked around for a place to move where she could attack as they walked by. There weren’t many options aside from circling around to the other side of the car, but from what she could tell of their movements, the men were splitting up and trying to surround her anyway.
She would need to make a break for it if she wanted to avoid looking down the barrel of a gun. When she rounded the corner of the vehicle, she had no choice but to expose herself as she sought a hiding spot that wasn’t quickly becoming surrounded.
A crack sounded, and pain exploded in the same shoulder that had been grazed before. She felt her body go down, hitting the ground with a thud that only made the pain intensify. Darkness swam at the edges of her vision, and the last thing she saw before it overwhelmed her was a man pointing a gun at her.
Chapter 21
Valentina’s body was heavy as she woke up, her limbs feeling like lead when she tried to move. The smells of the room were familiar, and they comforted her galloping heart. When she opened her eyes and saw the medical room, she understood why. Liam had turned it into a Valentina paradise. Her favorite candles were burning, there was a fresh pot of coffee brewing, and the lights were dim, allowing the dancing flames to illuminate the corners of the room. The piece de resistance was the bowl of soup by the bed. Steam rose from the creamy surface, and she knew without tasting it that it was her favorite—spicy butternut squash soup.
Her body ached, and her shoulder felt the worst, the dull pain throbbing through her chest. She pushed herself up into a sitting position and grabbed the glass of water next to the soup. As soon as she had finished drinking, there was a soft knock at the door.
Quickly, she looked down to make sure she was clothed before calling out, “Come in.” Her voice was scratchy and barely able to get above a whisper.
Liam appeared in the doorway, making sure it closed behind him with a soft click. “Alpha, I’m glad you’re awake.”
“Thanks. What happened?” she asked, the details remaining fuzzy in her mind.
“You were shot with multiple silver bullets coated in wolfsbane. Elijah brought you home, and I removed them as fast as possible, but I’m afraid it wasn’t fast enough to prevent scarring.”
She dismissed his concern with a wave of her hand. “I don’t care about a scar. Thank you for caring for me, for saving me.” His words about Elijah reminded her that he hadn’t been there, that she had been fighting alone. It wasn’t unusual, but she had been hoping that the strange bond they had formed with each other would have him standing by her side.
“You should eat and gather your strength. After all, you have a lot of new shifters waiting for you to tell them what comes next.”
The image of the people in the cages swam in her mind. They would need more care than she or her pack could give. What they needed was a well-established pack with a strong, stable structure they could ease into and learn from. Her pack, as much as she loved it, was too freewheeling for newbies. Especially a newbie alpha. The thought soured in her stomach.
“Liam, is Elijah still here?”
The doctor nodded while he looked her shoulder over, making sure everything had healed properly.
“How long was I out?”
“A few hours. Enough time for our guests to get cleaned up and have a decent meal.”
“Good,” she said, thankful that it gave her a little time to think while she ate her soup. “Liam, could you bring as many spare pieces of clothing to the dining room as you can find?”
“Sure thing, boss.”
After Liam left, she allowed herself to feel all the emotions she was holding back. All the frustration and fear, the worry and anger, everything filled her briefly before she moved on. She needed to be clear-headed and focused, but she knew she couldn’t bury her feelings without suffering the consequences later.
An hour or so later, she made her way to the house proper. Of course, Elijah was the first person she saw. Thankfully, he was too busy eating and didn’t notice her, so she could move away without him noticing.
Kinsley and Liana were the next of her packmates she ran into. Both of them hugged her hard when they saw her.
“Glad you’re okay, boss,” Kinsley said quietly as she reluctantly released Valentina from her hold.
“Me too.” She smiled at her friend. “Can you two start gathering our guests up? I’d like to speak with them.”
They both nodded and hurried off while she made her way to the great room. Valentina stood with her arms folded, looking out the window over the land she had worked so hard to attain. How many people could she reasonably support on the estate? How many shifters?
Sure, people could live throughout the territory if they wanted, but only once she was sure they had control. Harper and Domino could move out. The couple had only been staying at the estate while their mating bond settled down. Asher and Liam could technically move out, but having a medical professional on-site was necessary if the last week was any indication. As for everyone else? They needed the reassurance of the pack surrounding them. Her single packmates needed the sensation of family that the pack provided, whether their animals lived in packs or not. Shifters were not exactly the same as their wild counterparts. They needed more.
Voices began to filter in behind her, and she turned, dropping her hands to her sides so she didn’t seem standoffish. The group grew as she waited, and nerves fluttered in her belly. Elijah was standing in the back corner, and she couldn’t bring herself to look at him.
When the rest of the pack appeared and she received nods from everyone, letting her know that everyone was present, she loudly cleared her throat. The already quiet chatter died down to nothing. She looked around, making eye contact with everyone except Elijah before she began. The only person missing was Dante, but that was probably for the best.
“I’m glad you all made it safe and sound. I know things were a little wild back there, so allow me to reintroduce myself. I’m Valentina, alpha of the Midnight pack. First, I would like you to know that what happened to you is not something the shifter community condones. If any of you have any information about the man running that place, the doctor, please see me. Now, as for what happens from here on out, first, I need to figure out what your animals are. If you know, that’s great. We can talk about it. If you don’t, then I can help you shift so we can figure it out together. This is important because I need to get you in touch with the right pack.”
“But my life is here . . .” a man in the crowd called out.
“I know, and I want you to stay here if possible so you can go back to your life. However, first you need to learn control. You wouldn’t want to attack a loved one or a coworker, would you? There are more packs in the Chicago area than you might think. Also, if you were a shifter before all this happened, then please come speak with me when we are done. Second, I would lik
e to document what happened to each of you. We have our own courts and judicial system, so it’s important I get as much information as possible. My packmates will help with this task. Each of you will speak with one of them—you may choose who—and relay what happened. They will document it on their phones, and then you will speak to me about your animal. In the meantime, continue resting, eating, whatever you so choose.”
Each of her packmates retreated to a corner of the room, followed by one or two of the newcomers. Valentina waited off to the side while the others milled around, unsure what to do. After a moment, Elijah appeared in front of her, and her stomach twisted into knots.
“Can we talk?” he asked quietly.
“Not now. I need to be available as soon as they are ready.”
Anger filled the air around them. The bitter tang of it was cloying, and she had to force herself not to take a step back just to gain some distance from it.
“Well, is there anything I can help with?”
“Not right now. My pack is handling everything.” She knew she was being cold, but she’d been shot, and it was partially his fault for not being there.
His gaze narrowed on her for a moment before he turned and walked away, taking her heart with him.
Chapter 22
Elijah didn’t know what to make of Valentina’s cold shoulder routine. Was she just toying with him this whole time? She didn’t seem the type, but then traditionally, he had bad taste in women. Just because she wasn’t blonde or submissive outside of the bedroom didn’t mean she was magically going to be different from the other women he had dated. He sighed and went to his room to grab a pair of shorts. If there was nothing he could do to help, then he could at least work out some of his frustration.
After finding the gym he had seen when he’d had the initial tour of the house, Elijah spent the better part of two hours lifting weights and running until his skin was slick with sweat and his muscles were starting to protest. He’d never been able to run so fast or lift so much before, and he was thankful that the gym was equipped with heavier weights so that he actually felt like he was getting a workout.
