by Lisa Oliver
“I asked him to get it for you,” Steel said gruffly. “Can’t have you starving when we have a rescue mission to mount.”
Roger nodded his thanks and although his stomach churned at the words ‘rescue mission’ he knew Steel was right. His wolf needed sustenance, even if he was having a hard time swallowing. He hoed into the food, barely paying any attention to Steel and Levi who were now tangled up in each other on the couch. Although the two men had been mated for a while, it seemed their attraction for each other hadn’t waned any.
His plate was just about empty when Pearson and Dante came into the room and Roger hurriedly swallowed down the last few mouthfuls, eager to hear what Steel had to say. Steel was a legend when it came to computer prowess and Roger knew that if the man had wanted, he could have taken over Roger’s job in a heartbeat. But Steel preferred to run his own company and although he was head of security for the club, it was another wolf Kyle, who had become head enforcer for the pack.
Roger had often wondered if Kyle had got his promotion because he was mated to a cat shifter assassin. Teric used to work for the Shifter Council and had met Kyle when on a job. Roger had almost died laughing when he’d found out who Kyle’s true mate was. The man had spent years talking about the sweet little sub mate he would have. What he got was Teric – small, pretty and totally lethal both as a human and in his animal form. Roger wasn’t at all surprised to see the two men following Pearson and Dante into the room. He was surprised to see Ace and Devin coming in though – damn, he was going to need a bigger office.
The contrasts between Ace and Devin were huge. Ace was one of the largest men in the room, while Devin was only five foot eight, with the build of a dancer and the most vibrant violet eyes Roger had ever seen. But Roger wasn’t fooled by those sweet looks, or the man’s submissive nature. Devin was a vampire and in his shifted form no wolf could take him. He was massive.
Pearson perched himself on the edge of Roger’s desk and looked at Steel. “Okay, spill it. How bad is it?”
“The good news is that Cam isn’t being held at a wolf pack,” Steel said abruptly and Pearson blew out a sigh of relief while the other men in the room relaxed a little. If Cam had been taken into another pack, there was no telling what sort of abuse he might have gone through because of his Omega status. It could also cause potential problems if anyone from the Washington pack tried to get him back, especially with Cam being a rare Omega. At least a human wouldn’t know about Cam’s wolf side, they would just see a submissive man. That could be both a blessing and a curse in terms of rescuing him, though.
“The bad news is that he is being held, from all accounts against his will, but in a human BDSM club just outside of New York. From what we can see, he’s never allowed to leave the club, which will make access difficult.”
“You’ve seen him? Is he okay? Is he hurt?” Roger was so totally relieved his boy was still alive. But he was also angry that someone else had found his mate first, someone else had found out where Cam was. Roger wanted to be the one to find him and rescue him – How the hell had Steel even managed to find Cam, when he so clearly couldn’t? And, okay. Roger shut those thoughts down. The how really wasn’t important right now. Steel knew where Cam was and in a few moments so would Roger.
Steel shuffled his feet and looked at his mate. Roger couldn’t remember the last time the big man had ever looked so uncomfortable. But Levi must have said something through their mind link because Steel spoke up.
“He’s alive, yes, but…” Steel trailed off. Levi looked at his mate and then over to Roger. “Steel sent Cam’s picture to all of our operatives and it was another shifter that remembered seeing your boy at the human club. As soon as he knew we were looking for him, Hugh, our operative went back to the club to suss out the situation. He managed to get close to Cam, enough to see that the boy appeared relatively unhurt, but as soon as Cam scented Hugh he went into panic mode. Hugh backed away to try and give the boy some space, hoping he would calm down. His Master dragged Cam off to the back rooms to be punished. Hugh didn’t want to leave him there, but given Cam’s reaction to his scent, he didn’t think it would do the situation any good trying to get him out right then and there. So he reported the situation back to us.”
“But surely we can just go into this club place and get him out,” Roger said, his own wolf rising to the surface. His mate was being held by a man and god knows what was happening to his young boy now, especially if he was being punished. Every instinct in Roger’s body screamed at him to go out, kill the man who dared to put a finger on his boy and then bring the young Omega home where he belonged.
“I don’t think Cam’s going to come willingly,” Pearson said. “He’s clearly got issues with other shifters, if he panicked at Hugh’s scent, and that might mean he’ll need to be sedated just to transport him. We can’t risk getting into trouble with human authorities.”
“There’s more,” Steel said, and Roger could see that Levi was now sitting on the man’s lap, his arms around Steel’s neck and his head on Steel’s huge chest. “The boy has been abused repeatedly. His back is covered in old scars, heaps of them according to what Hugh could see. The other thing Hugh noticed is that he could barely sense Cam’s wolf, which would explain the scars. He got the impression that Cam hadn’t shifted in years.”
“But wouldn’t that mean his wolf is dying?” Teric said with a frown on his face. “I mean we have to shift, to keep us strong, and our connection with our animal spirit healthy. If Cam hasn’t shifted in what…”
“He was banished from his home pack six years ago, just before his sixteenth birthday,” Roger said, his gut twisting again at the thought. Fuck, Roger wondered if he could ever forgive himself for leaving Cam like he did.
“And he’s been with his current Master for four years, since he turned eighteen,” Steel said, looking at his notes. “So he probably hasn’t shifted in at least four years, possibly six if he got beaten when he first shifted. He’s probably stayed away from wolves since then.”
The men in the room fell silent as they considered the news. Omega wolves were rare, very rare and they were nearly always born female. For Cam to be both male and Omega meant that he was automatically gay. He wouldn’t have the strength of character to be the dominant one in a relationship with a female, human or otherwise. But after not shifting for so long?
“How the hell is he still alive?” It was Teric who voiced what Roger, and probably everyone else in the room was thinking. It wasn’t just Cam’s Omega status that was the problem. His lack of shifting was a real concern. In any type of shifter the bond between human and animal spirit had to be strong for them both to stay healthy. If the human side rejected the animal spirit, or lived in such a way that was against the code of morals the animal spirit lived by, then the animal spirit did eventually lose hope and die. When that happened the human side usually lost their mind and died shortly thereafter. The bond between human and animal was at its strongest when the human and shifter spirit coexisted and respected each other’s needs.
“The wolf spirit is still there,” Steel said. “Hugh felt it, although it’s apparently really weak. He said it was almost as though when Cam’s wolf scented Hugh, he tried to reach out for him and that was when Cam panicked. So Hugh backed off.”
“He did the right thing,” Pearson said. “If Cam had shifted in a human club there is no idea what would have happened. Cam might not have a strong control on his shift if he hasn’t done it for a while and his wolf is desperate for help. All the more reason for us to be careful when we go in and get him. Was Hugh able to find out if Cam is ever left on his own at all, or where he lives?”
“Hugh did some scouting around the other subs at the club when Cam got dragged off. Seems the Master, Donoghue, has four permanent subs of which Cam is longest serving one. Donoghue’s a sadistic asshole by all accounts and none of the house subs want to play with him, even though he owns the club. The four boys are kept in individual rooms in a
n apartment above the club and are locked in when they are not needed to service the Master or his friends.”
“Four subs? That’s a bit excessive even for a sadist? Is this guy some major control freak or what?” Devin spoke up for the first time. Roger remembered that the vampire used to work at a human club as a professional sub before he met Ace. Mind you, Roger was thinking the same thing. Most Masters who took on permanent subs might have one or two, but four suggested this Donoghue had some cruel appetites. Then Roger remembered something else that Steel had said and sat forward leaning on his desk with his elbows.
“Is there any chance that this Donoghue would share Cam with me, if I went in there? Perhaps Cam would feel calmer if his wolf recognized me and we could find a back way out of the club?”
But Steel shook his head. “No. That’s what Hugh thought when he first realized that Cam needed to be rescued. But the house sub he was talking to said that Donoghue only shared his boys with a select group of friends who all shared his same interests. Apparently he is really cagey about letting the boys out of his control and he doesn’t trust anyone new. Getting that trust would take too long.”
Roger slumped back in his chair. He didn’t know what to think. On the one hand he was thrilled that Cam was alive even if he was in a rough situation. But the human element and Cam’s apparent fear of other shifters made any extraction really difficult. It might have even been better if Cam had been held by shifters. Roger could go in and challenge the boy’s Master, win Cam in a mating challenge and bring him home with him. He couldn’t take the pack with him, because that would be considered an act of aggression in itself, but Roger didn’t doubt his ability to win a challenge for his mate. But that wasn’t an option.
The human world didn’t understand the ideas of shifters or mates, challenges or rights, and Roger knew there was no way he could go in and hope his mating scent did the trick. Donoghue wouldn’t understand or accept it, even if Cam did. A collared boy, and Roger was assuming that Cam was collared if he was a permanent sub, could not be approached by any other Master, especially from another club. It just wasn’t done. If Roger did something like that, it could cause more problems for Cam, especially if this Donoghue thought that Cam was looking for a way out of his control.
And to top it all off, they were all running out of time. If Cam’s wolf was dying then Roger had to get to him – had to get him to a place where he could shift safely, before the boy died. Cam, without his wolf spirit honestly wouldn’t survive, even with a mate. Hell, Roger wasn’t even sure if they could mate if Cam’s wolf was dead. While the act of mating was sexual, the connection between two people who were mates was all done on a spiritual level – animal to animal.
“So it looks like we are going to have to do a good old fashioned break in.” Pearson’s voice punctured Roger’s thoughts. “Steel, we’re going to need blueprints of the place, security details and an idea on what sort of time would be the best to break in undetected. We need escape routes planned, vehicles, and information on local authorities in the area who might try to intercede. I don’t want any one of us having to spend a night in human cells for breaking and entering, kidnapping or anything else the police might come up with.”
“Already got it sorted, Alpha,” Levi said with a smile, and Roger could see the smaller man was holding up a sheaf of papers. “We can go in later tonight if you want to. It’s only like, two hours from here.”
Roger let out the breath he didn’t know he was holding. He knew he hadn’t been a lot of help in any of this, and it was his mate that his pack was prepared to rescue. But that was one of the reasons Roger had been so pleased to find Pearson’s pack. Not only was the pack run from a BDSM club, which suited Roger’s own need to dominate, but when one pack member had trouble, everyone chipped into help. There was nothing comparable to a pack bond in the human world, and Roger had never been so thankful that he was a shifter, than he was right now.
In the space of a couple of hours, the plan had been made. Members of the pack would go in and get Cam out. Apparently Ace and Devin were going to the club, while it was open, as a committed pair, along with Kyle and Teric. They weren’t going to approach Cam at all – there was no point in upsetting the boy until they were ready to get him out. But they could see if anything was any different to the blueprints that Steel had, and they could pass back information to Roger and the others. Every little piece of information was gold, if the mission was going to be successful.
Chapter Three
Cameron Slater moaned softly as he tried to turn slightly on the hard pallet he was lying face down on. The wooden pallet was covered in nothing but a worn blanket and while the sores on his back made him glad that nothing was covering his skin, Cam was cold, hungry and frightened beyond belief. His freaking wolf was getting too hard to control, and Cam didn’t dare sleep in case he shifted, although his body cried out for it.
He had noticed a big, strong man in the club earlier the night before. There was just something about a shifter that stood out especially in a room full of humans and the big guy was no exception. Tall, built and moving with a grace and sense of power that had humans automatically moving out of his way. Cam had immediately focused his eyes on the floor. He knew only too well how big Alpha type wolf shifters treated a male Omega wolf, and he prayed to the Fates that this one shifter wouldn’t notice him in the crowd.
But when the Alpha type had got closer, Cam realized he’d been scented. The wolf shifter was probably curious as to why Cam was submitting to a human male and Cam knew he couldn’t hide that fact. His collar and leash, and the fact that he was kneeling naked on the floor, while his Master held the leash in a negligent hand above him were dead giveaways.
Then Cam felt a tingle in his limbs and his teeth grow bigger in his mouth and he realized that his wolf spirit, who he’d been sure up until that minute had died and left him, was actually trying to get out – make a connection with another of his kind, and Cam lost it. He panicked. Much to his Master’s disgust. Donoghue hated it when his evening was interrupted. For the first time in a long time Cam gladly accepted the cuttings and the beating that followed because his wolf cowered under that type of treatment. There was no way he would try and come out when Cam’s body was in so much pain.
But that was then, and now, more than twenty four hours later, his wolf was getting pissed. He had caught the scent of another shifter and he wanted out. He wanted no part of the collar, leash or the lifestyle that Cam had been forced into just four years before. To the wolf, another shifter spelled freedom and he was getting pushy in his efforts to get Cam to change forms. Cam felt sorry for his animal spirit, but he held firm in staying human. Didn’t his poor creature realize how badly Omega wolves were treated by a pack – especially a male one? Cam was keeping the wolf hidden for his own good – for both of their sakes.
A noise sounded by the door, but Cam didn’t bother to lift his head. Donoghue was an asshole of the highest order, but he wouldn’t come near Cam for at least another couple of days. Cam was in too much pain, and had lost too much blood to be any use to his Master until he’d healed. Hell, he doubted if he could move at all. One day Cam knew that Donoghue would go too far and that he would die on his pallet on the grubby floor. As tears filled his eyes, Cam figured that day couldn’t come soon enough. His life sucked on so many levels and he was so over it.
Born to be a wolf shifter, free to run the forests and be one with nature, Cam had shifted just once in his life. He’d been in his Alpha’s office when it happened, getting into trouble for stealing food again. He felt the change come over him, and at first his Alpha had been encouraging. But Cam had just moments to enjoy the feeling of being at one with his wolf spirit before the first blow came, followed by dozens more. Cam didn’t understand why he was being beaten but between his Alpha’s growls he’d caught the words Omega and faggot and he knew enough. He should have been glad that the Alpha had bothered to throw him some clothes as he drove him out to
the edge of the pack territory. It would be hard passing as a regular human if he was wondering the streets naked.
Cam had never felt what it was like to run in the trees, feel the dirt beneath his paws and the wind ruffling his fur. He didn’t know how to chase a rabbit, to drink from a stream or enjoy any of the other aspects that came naturally to normal shifters – ones who weren’t the lowest in pack hierarchy and gay to boot. From that day forward he refused his wolf’s efforts to shift no matter how badly he’d been hurt, or how desperate he became. By the time Donoghue had found him, Cam had been living on the streets of New York for two years after a kindly truck driver had dropped him off, and Cam was too broken at that stage to resist the charms of the man who would become his Master. Hell, at the time, Cam didn’t even know what the term meant. He knew now.
Cam heard more noises outside of his door and then the sound of some voices whispering, but he still didn’t move. There wasn’t any point. Cam knew that no one would come for him. He was only ever allowed out of his room when his Master wanted to parade him in front of his mean friends or he wanted to do a scene with him. Donoghue loved the fact that Cam had taken to submissive training so quickly. The arrogant man never understood that by the time Donoghue had found him, Cam had been so desperate for a meal he would have jumped through hoops of fire just to get something to eat. He’d spent his whole life hungry.
The squeak of his door hinges warned Cam that someone had come into his room and he tried to get up and into his Master’s preferred position despite the fact his body was betraying him. He was so weak, and his back was raw and still bloodied and Cam fell with a slump against the pallet again. It was official. He was useless and now, surely Donoghue would finish him off. His eyes filled with tears but no matter what he did, he couldn’t move. He just prayed his end came quickly.