“Sure,” the woman agreed, taking her keychain from her purse. She had pepper spray, and held the leather-cased cylinder in her hand. Amaya wasn’t sure if the spray would do anything to her if the woman used it, but with the healing abilities she’d been experiencing, her guess was no. “I’m meeting my friends here in twenty minutes. I have time to walk you over there and back.”
“Oh my god, you are so awesome,” Amaya beamed. “Come on! I don’t want this guy to follow us.” She pretended to look behind her, scanning the crowd. “I don’t see him.”
“Perfect time to get you out of here,” the blonde woman pointed out.
The wolf inside her mind smirked as they took off on foot. This was going to be too easy. “Thank you so much.”
“You’re welcome,” the woman replied, taking her hand. “Let’s stick close. You never know who is out here lurking. I love downtown, but it’s just not safe for a woman to be alone.”
She had no idea.
As they reached the end of the road, Amaya tugged on the woman’s hand. “My car is right there.” She pointed toward an older Buick at the mouth of the alley. She could see the two males waiting in the shadows with her enhanced vision, but the human woman could not. The bigger of the two men smirked and nodded as they approached.
The woman didn’t have time to scream before the bigger one wrapped his arm around her waist, using his other hand to cover her mouth. The woman kicked and fought, but she was no match for the shifter. Amaya’s human heart froze as she caught the fear in the woman’s gaze.
She’d felt that fear far too many times in her previous life. When she started to defend the woman, an automatic response from her human side, the order from the alpha stopped her dead in her tracks.
Change them and feel no remorse.
Amaya’s canines thickened in her mouth, saliva building as she anticipated the bite to bleed out her tainted blood. The two males held the woman down behind a dumpster as she brought her wrist to her mouth. “It’s okay. You’ll be one of us soon.”
The sound of her flesh tearing sent a wave a nausea through her, but she didn’t hesitate. Hesitating would be bad. The males were ordered to keep the females in line. The leader…the alpha to the wolves, knew how weak the women were when it came to harming someone.
The smaller male pinched the woman’s chin, forcing her mouth to open as Amaya slammed her wrist against her, coming around to take the woman into her lap. “Drink it!” Those words were choked out, but she couldn’t stop the order to turn this woman.
As tears streamed down her face, she prayed Landon’s family would find her eventually. Maybe they’d put her out of her misery. Death would be better than the hand she’d been dealt in this life. Death would be welcomed.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered to the female as she began to scream from the change.
Chapter Two
A blood curdling scream echoed far off in the distance as Storm loaded the female he’d apprehended into Kraven’s van. The two males locked gazes before Taze hurried to his side. “Let’s go.”
“I’ll be back to get that one,” Kraven offered as he hopped into the driver’s seat. “Go find her.”
The screams of the females being changed in nasty, dark alleys was a sound they could pick out of a crowd. There was a high-pitched keening to their painful transformation that tore at a Guardian’s heart. Every single time he’d heard it over the past two weeks, his thoughts automatically turned to her.
Now he had the information he’d been dreading…Amaya had already been changed. The screams did not belong to her, and that broke his heart even more knowing she had gone through the change with no drugs to sedate her over the three days it took to convert her into a monster.
Taze and Storm ran with inhuman speed toward the sound. There was no need to hide their identities from the humans, anyway. They were known, and no one was spooked by their abilities anymore.
Drops of rain dotted the dingy sidewalk as the storm approached. He cursed, pushing his legs to run faster. The rain would wash away any scent of the wolves, leaving them blind when tracking them.
Taze’s hand shot out as they turned the corner. His finger touched his lips, telling Storm he’d locked onto a scent. Storm breathed a quiet sigh of relief they hadn’t lost them yet. He couldn’t wait to get his hands on the rogues.
Storm’s eyes glowed amber when the wind shifted and her scent hit him full force as he lifted his nose. It was Amaya…but different.
A vibration started under his feet, or maybe it was his huge body shaking from knowing she was right there…in that alley…with two other males and a human female in the midst of her change.
“Whoa,” Taze warned as Storm moved.
“It’s…her…” Storm choked out. Taze glanced at him after looking toward the alley. His partner didn’t have to ask any questions. With a shift of his face, Storm knew Taze was calling out to their alpha for backup. They needed Lucky, Evie, and Noah there as soon as possible. Hell, as far as he was concerned, they needed the entire pride there to help rescue her.
Slap! “You stupid bitch! Give her more blood!” a male’s voice carried out of the hiding place.
Storm’s beast rumbled inside his chest and his fingertips turned into sharp claws as it pushed at his human skin. His canines thickening when he heard Amaya whimper. His feet moved without being instructed. Taze’s curse behind him was soft as a whisper. There was no stopping him from saving his mate.
Those males had dared to hit her, and he was out for blood. Feral rage consumed him, and there was nothing that would stop him from getting to the female.
If one’s heart could break in half, Storm’s was shattered when his eyes adjusted. Amaya was on her ass and a human female’s body was in her lap with her back against Amaya’s chest. Two males stood over the human, one of them holding Amaya’s wrist to her mouth.
The males didn’t immediately look up, but Storm was able to lock eyes with the woman he’d been searching for since she had disappeared. Her long, reddish-brown hair was a tattered mess around her face. Her eyes glowed a hazy yellow from the presence of her wolf. He didn’t know if she recognized him.
Taze came to his side, quiet as a mouse. They stood at the opening to the alley and waited. The human female had been given too much blood already and there was no way to stop the inevitable.
“The others are two minutes away,” Taze mumbled, cracking his head from side to side. “Let’s do this so you can get her back to the pride.”
Storm started to move, but he froze in place when Amaya’s eyes widened with recognition. A lone tear welled up in her left eye, falling as she mouthed the words, “Help me!”
The bigger of the two males jerked his head up at the sound of Taze and Storm running toward them. He ripped the human female from Amaya’s arms and tucked her close to his body as she writhed and screamed. The werewolf’s human chest did nothing to muffle the sound.
“Amaya, get back!” Storm ordered as he launched himself at the male, knocking him off his feet, but he swooped in, cradling the woman in his arms. Amaya scurried back to the corner of the two buildings, drawing her legs up under her chin to make herself as small as possible.
Taze was fighting the other male, taking him to the ground quick enough to slap a collar around his neck. Within seconds, he had his rogue secured, but Storm was still squaring off with the big motherfucker who’d taken the female.
“I’ve got her!” Evie hollered as her team arrived.
Taze, Lucky, Storm, and Noah made a circle around the one remaining male. Storm tried his hardest not to break away to check on Amaya, leaving the others to take down the wolf. He glanced over at her position and was satisfied enough that she was safe. He didn’t know how her mental capacity was after being ordered by Murdock to find females and change them in the alley, but he was praying she still had some of her humanity left.
“Nope,” his baby brother, Lucky, chuckled as the wolf began to charge. There was n
o need to worry about his brother. Storm had trained the younger Guardian himself. The fight wouldn’t take long. “You can’t run away from this.”
Lucky clotheslined the idiot wolf and followed him to the ground, producing his own collar to subdue the male. Storm only watched for half a second before turning his back. His eyes were only for the female.
“Amaya,” Storm cooed as he approached, holding his hands out in front of him. “I don’t know if you remember me, but I’m Storm Cooper. I am friends with Landon.”
She lifted her nose just the tiniest bit and scented the air. A soft moan escaped her lips. “Why do you smell like home?”
His heart swelled. She had no idea…none at all. With every ounce of patience he had, Storm knelt before her. “We have a lot to discuss, and I will get to that. But first, I need you to trust me. Can you do that?”
“Anything,” she cried, wiping her tears. “He’s controlling me.”
“We know,” he sighed. “Can you get to the van? I’m going to make it stop. I promise.”
She nodded, but her eyes flashed the hazy yellow of her beast. “Storm, it won’t let me go on my own.”
His panther pushed at his skin as her face started to change. Canines formed, but she covered her mouth as the growl from her animal was overpowered by her fearful cry. “It wants to fight you.”
“Evie!” Storm yelled as the female was closing the door on the van. The female Amaya had been feeding her blood to was secured and ready to be transported.
“Oh, God,” Amaya cried. “I’m fighting it, but it wants out.”
“Grab a collar!” Storm panicked, knowing she was about to shift. That piece of shit Murdock had done this to his female, and he was going to make him pay with his life.
Amaya lashed out at the female panther, kicking and resisting as her orders insisted when a collar was strapped around her neck. Don’t let the cats take you. Fight them! Kill them if you must.
“I don’t want to fight you,” Amaya said through gritted teeth as the female panther put handcuffs on her and lowered her gently to the ground. She was trying to force herself to not shift, but her canines were thickening. Whatever was imbedded in that collar hurt. “Knock me out! Do something!”
“Get her in the van!” the blond male, Storm, ordered. His eyes were throwing amber sparks, most likely from his animal. His scent was strong, and she’d come to rely on her senses soon after she’d been changed. Scents were everything to the animal inside her, and it bucked at her skin…demanding she go toward him, but not in a way as to harm.
He scented like…home? Why did that word keep rattling around in her confused mind?
“Storm?” she moaned, looking toward the male panther. His eyes stayed locked on hers even when her nostrils flared from his overpowering scent. She started to say something but the female stepped between them, and when she did, Amaya howled, the animal sound coming from her own human mouth. She wanted to be close to Storm. She wanted him to be the one to carry her away. Him…Storm.
“I need to sedate her first,” the female called out when she knelt beside Amaya. “Don’t shift or this collar will kill you. I need you to fight your animal, please. This is very important. Until we can get you to Talon, you must use all of your strength to fight the control over your mind.”
Amaya yelped as a prick pinched the back of her arm. Her eyes searched the panthers standing around her. Where was he? They’d gathered close as she lay flat on her stomach in the dark alleyway. They’d cuffed her hands behind her back, too. She wasn’t going anywhere despite the command in her head to resist.
Regardless of the orders in her mind, the animal inside her calmed when the panther named Storm approached, kneeling in front of her. It wanted him closer, and the scent he was giving off made her need for his comfort amplify.
“So glad you came for me,” she mumbled when the sedation started to take effect. Just feeling him close gave her peace.
“Amaya, sweetheart,” Storm whispered. Amaya was getting weaker. “I’m going to save you.”
She tried to open her eyes, but they were heavy. Mumbling his name, she gave over to the sedative, praying they’d kill her before she woke again. Because the last thing she wanted to do was fight them. They were the good guys.
“I’m not worth saving,” she tried to say, but everything went black.
“Harold has the female. She’s already sedated. I don’t want Amaya to be around her. She will feel guilty enough.”
Her body jostled enough to bring her out of the dream when she heard a voice she didn’t recognize. Blinking away the fog, she saw the night sky and a flash of dark hair. Her body moved, but her legs weren’t the cause of her forward momentum. Voices were becoming clearer, but whatever they gave her kept her weak and unable to speak.
Shaking her head, she blinked again, gasping when she realized she was being carried and who was carrying her.
“Talon?” She’d only met Landon’s brother-in-law, and the leader of the panthers, once before. “What’s going on? Where am I?”
“You are at our home,” he admitted, keeping his eyes averted from hers as he walked. “There is a lot you must know and a very short amount of time to get you the information. I need you to listen to me.”
“Of course,” she replied as the fog from the sedation started wearing off. Her wolf was quiet for once, and she hoped it didn’t come back to her, demanding she fight them again. “I am myself right now. The monster is quiet.”
“Monster?” Talon paused in his steps, glancing down at her. “You are not a monster.”
“He made me into one,” she cried.
A door opened to a building she’d seen the last time she was at the pride to visit Landon. When they entered, a huge living area with open kitchen sat to her right, but the leader took the stairs up to the second floor where there were several doors up and down a long hallway.
“Where are we?”
“This is the place where we bring the rogues when they are in the process of changing,” he replied and nodded when someone opened a door to one of the rooms. She scented the air and caught Storm’s unique scent as soon as they entered.
“Storm?” she gasped. He was standing next to a bed, his hands fisted at his side. The alpha, Talon, narrowed his eyes on the male for a second before laying her in the bed.
“Storm is here, but if you’re not comfortable with it, he will leave.”
“No!” she barked, covering her mouth at her outburst. She didn’t know why this male stirred her interest. “I mean…he can stay. It’s okay.”
“The sedative we gave you should wake up your beast in the next five to ten minutes, so I am going to make this quick.” The animal was already starting to stir in her mind. Thankfully, her canines were not showing.
“Tell me,” she urged as Talon removed the collar from around her neck. Someone had released her wrists from the restraints while she’d been sedated.
“The male who gave you his blood after your change is a leader of a very dangerous group of rogue shifters,” Talon began, kneeling in front of her when she sat up to throw her legs over the side of the bed. As much as she wanted to just sleep off the sedation, she was rescued and in need of help. “With his blood, he can control you and your actions. He can speak to you in your head and tell you to do the things you’ve been doing. There is no way for you to fight it.”
“I have tried to fight it, but I can’t,” she said as she nodded, wiping a tear from the corner of her eye. “Can you make it stop?”
“I can,” he explained. “When you take the blood of an alpha, the connection to your last alpha will be broken.”
“You want me to drink your blood?” she gasped. Didn’t she already find herself in a mess because of drinking blood in the first place?
“It’s the only way to save you, Amaya,” Storm interrupted.
“You have a choice.” Talon ignored the other male. Amaya tried not to look at him out of the corner of her eye, but she coul
dn’t help but be aware of him. He was huge…much larger than her. And that scent…forest, spices, and…home.
“What is my choice?” she pressed after a hard swallow. Why was her mouth watering?
“We have an alpha in Colorado who is taking the rogues we find and giving them a new life away from the wolf alpha,” Talon offered. “He is a good male and will protect you.”
“What’s my other choice?”
“You are welcome to stay here, at my pride, but you will have to take my blood.” He sighed when she narrowed her eyes at him. “Until you take the blood from my wrist, the wolf inside you will continue to fight us, and if that happens, we will be forced to put you down.” A rumble sounded from Storm’s chest.
“I don’t want to go to Colorado, and I sure as hell don’t want that man in my head anymore,” she admitted, feeling the monster start to stir. “Tell me what I need to do to be myself again. And do it quick. The drugs are wearing off.”
Chapter Three
Storm’s panther was pacing in his mind and barely holding on just under his skin as he watched his alpha score his wrist. There was a sense of urgency in the room, because Amaya’s wolf was starting to react now that the sedative was wearing off.
“Take the blood of my pride and you will be one of us. Refuse and you will die. I will honor your place in my pride and protect you as you will be one of my blood,” Talon vowed as he held his wrist out. The alpha always waited for the shifter to take the blood. He didn’t want anyone to come into the pride who didn’t want to be there.
“This will stop the voices?” Amaya needed clarification, and Storm took a step forward to say something when the door opened behind them, revealing Evie and Hope. He narrowed his eyes. They were here to run with her.
“It will give you back your life,” Talon promised.
Amaya didn’t need any more encouragement. She wrapped her tiny fingers around the alpha’s wrist and brought it to her lips. She squinted her eyes as she drank from his wrist. She didn’t need much, because the moment his blood connected with her body, she jerked back with glowing yellow eyes.
Storm (Rise of the Pride, Book 12) Page 2
