You have to get out of there now.
But he could feel her stubbornness through the connection. This is the perfect way to catch them and stop them once and for all. I could find their base of operations, and—
No!
He could feel the rest of the guys echo his sentiment, all of them yelling at once, leaving a weird, painful echo in his head.
When Annora remained stubbornly silent, fear carved open his chest until he couldn’t breathe.
Xander’s gruff voice filled his head. If you go, they will take one look at Loulou and kill her outright.
Annora’s heartbeat stopped, her resolve wavered, and he wanted to cheer.
Hold on. We’re almost there. Camden’s voice brooked no argument. Ghost. Now!
He nearly dropped to his knees when he felt a tug from the darkness she loved so much.
Then he watched Annora and Loulou hit the road and roll.
He pushed his body for more, then dropped to the ground, skidding to a stop next to Annora, Lionel only a second behind him. Frightened out of his mind, he gently turned her over and cradled her in his arms, the rest of the world ceasing to exist. “Annora?”
* * *
Annora groaned as she hit the ground and rolled, trying to protect Loulou as much as possible. Dirt and gravel bit into her skin, ripping flesh, destroying her beautiful new outfit, the bite of pain allowing her to cling to consciousness as she struggled against the dark oblivion of the drug.
Then Logan was there, cradling her close, his shattered eyes pleading.
She’d never before had anyone look at her like she was their whole world. While part of her liked it, it was also terrifying.
“You look like hell,” she croaked. Although in truth, despite the cuts and bruises that were already healing, he looked beautiful. “You came for me.”
“Always. I’ll always come for you.” He pulled her close, tucking her against his chest until her ribs protested. Then she heard the sounds of metal crunching against metal and turned to see a large SUV plow the car off the road.
The doors of the SUV flew open. Camden burst out of the driver’s side, his stride quickly closing the distance between the vehicles, murder darkening his face. Xander emerged from the passenger door, the tails of his long coat rippling behind him like a badass of old, looking ready to tear people apart with his bare hands.
The car reversed, the engine screaming, the tires squealing as the car shot back toward them. Logan tensed, ready to drag her out of danger, when a massive form launched out of the trees and landed with a thump between them, the road cracking in protest under the impact.
It was Mason…but it wasn’t. He was completely in his troll form and nearly twice his normal awe-inspiring size. His tattoos were darker, stretching down his back and spine, crawling over his shoulder as they worked their way down his chest almost like they were an integral part of him. They were actually etched into him, and she suspected they weren’t really tattoos at all.
She wanted to scream at him to watch out when he lifted his massive fists and brought them down on the back of the car, flattening it to the ground so hard and fast, a wheel popped off and rolled away into the darkness.
Then Xander strode toward the driver’s side of the vehicle, reached out with both hands, and ripped the door clear off its hinges with nothing more than a grunt of annoyance. When the first wolf launched himself at him, he simply sidestepped, then kicked out, sending the man flying backwards…right at Mason.
The troll caught the wolf midair, flipped him upside down and piledrove him right into the ground. Xander didn’t wait for the next wolf to attack, but reached inside the vehicle, hauled him out, and proceeded to beat the living crap out of him, not even noticing the punches and kicks he took in return.
Camden had no such problem. It only took one simple touch and both of his guys hit the ground, and he didn’t look pleased at their easy capitulations. He kicked one of the guys in the ribs, then bent down and pounded the other guy a few times for good measure, his bloodlust not appeased in the least.
Xander got to his feet, reached into the vehicle and plucked the ferret out, settling the little guy on his shoulder.
Then the guys turned and walked toward her.
Mason reached her first. He knelt in front of her, but hesitated to touch her, gently brushing the backs of his fingers along her cheek. Annora caught his hand, not in the least bit intimidated by his size. His face was a little too wide, the crown of horns around his skull more pronounced, his hair even wilder. And she loved it. “Thank you for coming for me.”
“Always.” He swept her up onto his lap, snuggling her close, the deep timber of his voice resonating through her.
Then Xander was there, snatching her from Mason. He gently set her on her feet, holding her away from him until he could scan her from head to toe, stopping and noting every bruise and scrape. His teal eyes burned, and the white tips of his hair seemed to stand on end. His grip tightened on her arms, the pain actually grounding her.
Funny enough, the ferret mimicked his moves exactly, the little critter looking a little worse for wear.
She reached out, placing her hand on his chest, the beat of his heart thundering under her palm. “Secure the prisoners. We need to question them.”
He blinked for a few seconds, then the tension seeped out of him, and he nodded. He leaned forward, kissing her forehead, lingering for a moment, before he set her aside. He carefully lifted the ferret off his shoulder and placed the little guy in her palms.
She bowed her head, noting the little guy’s injuries and clucked her tongue in reprimand. “Go back to the others, you little scamp. Rest. Get better.”
The ferret glanced at the men scattered across the road. Only when he was convinced they were out of commission, did he reluctantly obey. He leapt off her palms, vanishing in a puff of black particles before he hit the ground.
Then there was Camden. Even in the dim light, he seemed to shimmer, his hair almost fully iridescent. Lines were etched into his skin as his beast edged forward, his vivid green eyes glowing florescent. He didn’t come to her. He would never come to her. So instead she went to him and wrapped her arms around him.
He stiffened, but couldn’t seem to make himself pull away. After a minute, the hard surface of his skin eased, and he leaned down, resting his cheek on the top of her head. “I thought we lost you.”
She shook her head, pulling away to look up at him. “You should’ve let me go. I could’ve held out until you came to get me. Nothing they could do could be worse than what I’ve been through with my uncle.”
“And you would’ve never forgiven yourself if anything happened to Loulou.” He scowled down at her, his fingers slipping into her hair until the strands were knotted into his fists. “You’re not indestructible. You’re not even trained properly. You have no right being on this case.”
Annora reached up and smacked him on the back of the head.
His mouth dropped open, and he frowned down at her incredulously.
“Stop acting like a boyfriend, save it for later until after we’re home. You’re the team leader. I am in no way a normal shifter. I could have handled myself. And don’t even mention Loulou.” She stuck her finger in his face, so annoyed she wanted to smack him again. “If it had been any of the guys, you would’ve let them go, trusting them to get the job done while protecting her with their lives.” She waited for him to deny it, but he gave her the courtesy of the truth when he said nothing. “Now let’s get answers. I could really use a shower.”
He studied her for a moment longer, his grip tightening in protest before he reluctantly released her and strode off to join the others. Mason joined them after picking up the vehicle and hefting it off the road like a small suitcase, while Xander and Camden took the unconscious wolves and began tossing them haphazardly into the back of their SUV.
Annora turned toward where Lionel still held Loulou. He’d pulled her off the road, so they were bot
h under the streetlamp. She approached slowly, sensing the wolf was ready to burst out of his skin. She stopped ten feet away, then crouched. “Is she okay?”
When he gazed over at her, pure wolf looked back, his eyes nearly a feral yellow. It took him a moment to remember how to speak. “It was you, wasn’t it? You somehow pulled her through the trunk.”
Annora just nodded.
He tightened his hold on his Loulou, as if Annora might try to take her away, and her throat ached at the gesture. “I would never hurt her.”
It took a full minute before he unbent enough to nod. “Maybe not, but danger lingers around you wherever you go. She’ll never be safe with you near. People will always come for you, craving the power you wield.”
Pain slashed through her heart, the wounding much deeper than any physical injury.
Because he was right.
He looked down at the blond hair spilled over his arm, then he carefully lifted Loulou like she was beyond precious. He stopped next to Annora, finally looking her in the eye. “Thank you for saving her. Most wouldn’t have bothered.”
“But?”
He looked off into the darkness. “I wouldn’t have reached her in time. What happens next time, if neither of us can get to her before it’s too late?”
The thought gutted her, and she swallowed past the lump in her throat. “Then you will both have to make a choice and decide what my friendship means to you. I will abide by whatever you decide.” Gosh, it hurt to say the words, and she let the pain wash through her. “The drugs should wear off by morning—faster, if you can get her to shift.”
Then she turned and headed toward the guys, unable to watch Loulou and her wolf walk out of her life.
To her surprise, Terrance dragged himself out of the darkness, battered and bruised, cradling his arm, his leg bent at a wrong angle. When she would’ve gone to him, he waved her off, his smile more of a wince. “Go. I’ll be fine. I’ll call the pack to come get me.” He nodded to the unconscious wolves piled haphazardly in the back of the SUV. “You’ll want to take them and be gone before the pack arrives.”
She took the friendly advice as the warning it was and headed back toward the others.
And stopped in surprise when Logan stood waiting in the middle of the road. Without a word, he opened his arms and pulled her close, the warmth of him almost burning against the chill that seemed to have invaded her soul.
What if Lionel was right?
Was she too dangerous to handle?
A smack to the back of her head took her by surprise, and she lurched back to see Camden and the guys glaring down at her.
Camden shook a finger at her. “Same rules apply to you. You don’t have time to be a girl. You’re an alpha with a job. Act like it.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it when she realized he was right. “Okay. What’s next?”
Camden pulled the keys out of his pocket and headed back toward the SUV. “Now we turn these fuckers over to Director Greenwood and get answers.”
The rest of the guys followed, while Xander fell into step beside her. “We’ll teach you how to be an alpha and control your gifts so you won’t accidently hurt yourself or anyone else.” Xander didn’t look at her as they walked, his jacket rippling behind him as if it caught a wind she couldn’t feel.
She asked the question that worried her most. “Will it be enough?”
“Not always.” He shrugged, then reached out and grabbed her chin. “But that’s why you have us. Two alphas are almost unstoppable. You’ve bound five of us together. It’s unheard of. People will come for us—some to test us, some to join us, some to destroy us. You’re still growing, but you’ll become the strongest of us…you just need to stand firm.”
Her breath caught at his offhanded description of their future.
There was no doubt or hesitation.
To him, they were a pack.
And they were becoming her everything.
Determination to do better—be better—hardened her resolve. No way in hell was she going to let anything or anyone take them away from her, not when she’d just found them.
* * *
They pulled up to a small mansion at the edge of the campus. Xander had called ahead, so Rufus was waiting for them outside as they climbed out of the SUV.
He took one look at the guys, then he saw her, and his face softened slightly. “Boys, put the prisoners out back.”
The guys each grabbed one of the bodies and disappeared around the side of the house.
“You okay?” Rufus’s voice was gruff, but kind. “The guys treating you right?”
“I’m fine.” She brushed off her injuries as an annoyance and lifted her chin defiantly. “How long have you known the truth about me?”
His bushy brows lifted in surprise, but he answered promptly. “From the moment you walked in my door.” He waved a hand when she opened her mouth to blast him. “I didn’t know who or what you were, only that you were something special. I wasn’t sure just how extraordinary until you stood up to a pack of wolves without a lick of fear. I always intended to send you here, but I needed to figure out a way to bring up the subject without sending you running. While the attack wasn’t the way I would’ve chosen to introduce you into our world, it worked.”
Some of the steam left her, and she cocked her head as she studied him. “Why did you pair me with the guys? You knew, didn’t you?”
“That you’re mates? I suspected, but it wasn’t until I saw you together that I knew.” He shrugged. “You belong here. You’re needed more than you’ll ever know.”
Seeing him dressed in khakis and a buttoned-down shirt, she didn’t know how she could ever have mistaken him for anyone but a person of power. “I’m sure you’ve noticed that your guys are different from the others…different, like you.
“You needed something to fight for, needed something to live for. You—the guys—you’re all damaged. But you have a spark in you that burns brighter than anyone else I know. The guys needed to be exposed to that spark, needed a reason to do more than just survive.”
“They’re damaged like me.” She absently played with the tips of her hair.
“No, not really. They were close to breaking—until you came along. Because of you, they’re healing. Becoming stronger.” Rufus tipped his head toward the side of the house, inviting her to walk with him. “You were different. You were never broken. You just needed the chance to heal, a chance to learn how to live. They give that to you.”
When they rounded the house, the last thing she expected to find was an innocent-looking shed. That was until he opened the door and came to a stop in front of an impenetrable vault of some type. He punched a few numbers into the keypad, and the doors opened in a rush of air. Inside, the four guys stood guard over the wolves who had tried to abduct her.
Two benches rested on either side of the room. One contained rows of weapons, familiar tools she knew intimately. They were used for torture, and their faint smell of despair and blood still tainted the air. On the other bench were half a dozen empty vials. Even from the distance, she could see a faint florescent blue glow clinging to the sides of the glass.
“They were jacked up on those drugs, weren’t they?” Annora spoke mostly to herself. “That’s why they were so strong.”
Logan snorted. “It makes them believe they’re invincible.”
“Can you wake them up?” Xander didn’t look at her as he asked, but rubbed his hand along his jaw, as if trying to decide how to take apart the wolves in a way that would ensure the most pain.
“I’m not sure.” Annora hesitated, shrugging one shoulder. “Maybe.”
Mason had resumed his human form, the pair of sweats he wore were stretched tight, leaving her to gawk at muscle after muscle. He didn’t bother trying to find a shirt—nothing in the bins would fit—which left his gorgeous tattoos on display. He calmly held out his hand for her, and she had to unglue her tongue from the top of her mouth.
The th
ought of bringing him into the afterworld with her left her guts churning. “You’re sure?”
He only raised a brow in challenge, and she hesitantly accepted his hand, his grip firm, engulfing hers completely. The warmth of him seeped into her cold fingers, and he tucked her closer, offering his body heat, the smell of pine and copper easing her worries.
The guys were right.
She needed to stop being afraid.
If she wanted any hope of being free of her birth family and protecting her guys, she needed to learn everything about her past…including who was stalking her in the afterworld, and why.
“Let’s do this.” Darkness stirred within her, then exploded outward. It wasn’t like she disappeared, it was more like the world around her was swallowed and replaced with a new existence. The lights dimmed, and the room darkened into a shadowy blue that resembled a nasty bruise.
The normal comfort she took from being in the afterworld was absent. She was too worried to relax and allow herself to enjoy the soft current that brushed against her in welcome.
Almost reluctantly, she turned to look for the guys…and breathed a sigh of relief to see they looked relatively normal. Instead of the black tar that clung to some who ended up in the afterworld, they appeared to glow…like her.
The guys were right…they were tethered together.
Whatever allowed her to travel to this realm now seemed to protect them. Relief made her lightheaded.
With a gentle push, she shoved everyone else out of the afterworld.
Knowing she couldn’t hurt her guys sent her heart soaring, and she grinned up at Mason.
His tattoos shimmered like they were made of a liquid metal, the afterworld seeming to enhance him, instead of stealing the life from him like the other people who visited this realm.
Mason didn’t seem to notice her stare, his attention glued on the four prisoners. “What the fuck is wrong with them?”
Her abductors were still unconscious, their pale skin bleached white. Black tar leaked from their eyes, ears and noses, even dripped out of their mouths. She had no doubt that when they woke their eyes would be pure black. Black veins throbbed under their skin, shimmering a faint blue from the drugs they ingested.
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