by Sara Summers
“What’s okay, Cam?” I didn’t want to ask, but I had to know.
“Josh.” When he looked at me, there was no emotion in his eyes. He may as well have been dead.
Anything involving Josh was just… bad. I was definitely screwed.
So, I ran. I sprinted for the door, but as soon as I stepped outside, I’d stepped into the arms of one of Josh’s goons.
Foreign muscles wrapped around me, trapping me. I opened my mouth and screamed as loudly as I could; it was the most basic trick in the book, but it was in the book for a reason. It was my best chance in Cam’s apartment complex.
A door opened down the hall.
“Call 911!” I shrieked at the person.
Josh’s goon shoved me back into the apartment, and I landed on my butt hard.
“Idiot.” The goon growled.
“Believe me, I know.” I snapped, getting up quickly. The guy already had too many advantages in this fight, and I refused to give him another one by cowering below him. “My soulmate knows where I am and he’s on his way here.” I spoke rapidly, my hands forming fists at my sides. “Ask Cameron, we’re back together. He’s bringing me dinner, and he’s bigger than you guys and he’s not on drugs, and he’s got seven brothers just as big as he is. He already beat up Josh once, and he’ll do it again.”
Sure, I stretched the truth, but it was necessary.
A second goon stepped in, ignoring my frantic words. The needle in his hand didn’t bode well for me or my future.
“He can follow me wherever you take me.” I rushed, in full-blown panic at that point.
“We won’t keep you long.” The first goon sneered.
The second one stabbed the needle into my neck, and I shut my eyes as the rush of unnatural calm swept through me. The dose was strong—too strong—and I nodded off there and then.
RHETT
I gasped, grabbing my chest at the pain that stabbed my heart. Shifters could feel it when their soulmates were close to death, and there was only one thing that kind of pain could mean.
Kina was dying.
But she was on the move, so I had to pay attention to the roads. If I could get to her, maybe I could do something. Call an ambulance, help her somehow. I’d decided to act on the bad feeling in my gut and show up early with the food just in case, and it turned out that idea gave me a chance to save my soulmate.
I called Zane first, since he was living in Edge Valley, and told him where I was and which direction she was headed. Then, I called my mom. She’d tell the rest of my brothers, and they’d be on the road too, but they wouldn’t catch us. It was a miracle I’d decided to follow my gut and go over there sooner rather than later, even if I hadn’t caught up to her yet.
The pain wasn’t excruciating, but it lingered and that told me she was still alive. That gave me hope, and I pressed down harder on the gas pedal.
She stopped for a few minutes, and I drove even faster. As I drove, I prayed, begging the Creator to keep her alive. Kina and I had lost so much time, and I couldn’t lose her so soon after getting her back. It would kill me.
Soon after she stopped, she was moving again and I was following her again, a little closer. The pain in my chest faded, which meant she was fine. If she was gone, it would’ve gotten much worse and my Kina-finder would’ve gone dark.
I followed her for twenty minutes. Only a little behind, I pulled into what looked like an abandoned gas station and slammed on the brakes.
Jumping out of the car, I stalked over to the tiny store with boarded up windows, banging on the door with my fist. I’d take down as many druggies and dealers as I had to for my soulmate—I’d do whatever it took to get her back.
The guy who answered the door was my height, about 6 feet, with blonde hair and blue eyes. I didn’t ask questions.
Instead, I slammed my fist into his nose and shoved him out of my way. Another guy swung at me and I ducked his fist, taking one from Kina’s book and kneeing him in the balls so hard I winced.
If he hadn’t taken my soulmate from me, maybe I would’ve felt bad.
“Where is she?” I snarled.
“Hands up, soulmate.” Another guy drawled.
I spun, ready to tackle him until I saw the gun pointed at my head. I didn’t have to ask who he was. Josh. The dealer and douche supreme, and the very guy I’d nearly killed when I found him a few minutes away from raping my soulmate the first day I met her.
He’d been in the hospital for a month after the first time we met, so I didn’t imagine he had many positive feelings toward me.
“Where is she?”
“It doesn’t matter, you’ll be out of the picture soon enough. Grab the shovel.” Josh gestured with his gun to a shovel leaning against the wall. She told me when we met that he’d always been a little obsessed with her, but this was a new level.
Getting shot in the head wouldn’t get me any closer to Kina, so I did as he said. At least if he was with me, he wasn’t with her, and my backup would be pulling up any minute.
As we stepped out of the ancient gas station, a blonde girl in a tiny dress jumped off a sleek black motorcycle. She launched through the air, shifting into a massive black panther before landing smoothly on two feet.
Lyssie Ellison—Evans, now. She’d always liked to move fast.
Panther-Lyssie snarled and stepped closer, her threat clear.
“Did you bother looking up what town you were set up in, Josh?” My voice was dry and angry, and for the first time, I wished I shifted into another animal. Our giant otters were predators in the lakes and oceans, but we didn’t strike fear the way panthers or lions did.
Isla and Zane were next, two truck-sized grizzlies hauling faster than you’d ever expect something their size to move.
And finally, a pair of wolves, brown and black, with heads that came up nearly to my chest. The brown one was Emma Lush, previously Burgandeau, with her soulmate Logan.
“Tell me where my soulmate is.” I ordered, now that the majority was on my side.
“Passed out on the floor of the bathroom.” Josh whimpered, his eyes moving from the panther to the wolves to the grizzlies, like he wasn’t sure which one he should be more afraid of.
The shifters would keep an eye on him, so I ran inside and pushed through the door to the ladies bathroom. Kina was passed out on the floor, just as he said. I scooped her up into my arms carefully, pressing my fingers to the inside of her wrist to feel her pulse and lowering my ear toward her mouth. Though I could still track her, I needed physical evidence that she was fine.
A breath of relief filled me when I felt her pulse and her breath against the side of my face. I pulled her closer and was on my way out when a hand wrapped around my bicep. I spun around, but the guy’s hands were in the air when I did.
“I’m a cop.” He whispered. “We need more proof than her.” He nodded toward Kina. “Her testimony is unreliable given her past, we need something more concrete. I wasn’t there when she was injected, so I can’t witness to that, and they could still spin this. We need an admission of guilt.”
I growled at him. He wanted me to prolong this, while my soulmate was unconscious and possibly in critical condition?
“He’ll come back for both of you if you don’t.”
I bobbed my head jerkily before storming out of the gas station.
“What did you do to her?” I demanded. It wasn’t hard to act pissed, considering I wanted to rip his head from his body.
“Gave her what she wanted. Heroin.” Josh was pale, only glancing at me for a second before looking back to the grizzlies. I guess he’d decided they were the biggest threat.
Something told me that wasn’t a good enough admission for the police.
“Why is she unconscious?” I pushed.
“Because she took a little too much.” He smirked, just a little, before looking back to the grizzlies. “I told her it wasn’t safe, but you know how addicts are. They always need more.”
Another s
narl tore through me, and the other shifters echoed the noise.
His smirk disappeared, but he clearly knew how to talk his way out. If the cops needed something concrete, I’d give it to them.
“Isla.” I commanded, stepping over to the grizzlies. Gently, I placed Kina down beside the grizzly, who was now poised protectively over my tiny soulmate.
With her safe, I stalked toward the drug dealer.
“Do you remember how we met the first time? Four and a half years ago?” My voice was cold as ice. Josh might not admit to injecting Kina without her permission, but the scumbag would flaunt the attempted rape like it was a million dollars.
“With me pinning your soulmate to the wall, her shirt on the floor and her pants about to follow?” his smirk was back, nearly a full-blown grin.
“Do you know how old she was?” I barely contained my rage.
“The tiniest sixteen-year-old I’d ever met. She wanted me so bad she was shaking.”
Lyssie took a predatory step toward him, and I held my hand out. I needed him to keep talking, even if every word that left his mouth made me want to kill him even more.
“Is that why you gave her the drugs and abducted her? Hoping you’d get another chance, since I ruined the first one?”
“I injected her and dragged her here because she thinks she’s better than me. We bounced around the same foster homes but she decided she was better because some shifter came and saved her. She was a priss, and—“
Loud police sirens filled the air, and a swarm of officers came out from behind the trees. I’d been so preoccupied with everything happening that I hadn’t even noticed them, but the fact that the other shifters remained calm told me they had known.
“Put your hands up!” One of the cops ordered.
Josh’s eyes flashed with fury. Rather than dropping the gun, he swung it toward me and pulled the trigger.
I dropped to the ground, but it was too late. Pain blossomed in my shoulder and my vision blurred red.
The cops had him on the ground in an instant, and a few more were on the ground beside me.
“I’m fine. Help Kina.” My voice strained, my hand lifting to my shoulder. Another hand was already there, putting pressure on the wound.
“Your soulmate is already being loaded into an ambulance.” A woman’s voice promised. I couldn’t focus on much, the pain was so intense. “You’re going to be okay, alright?”
“Just keep her safe.” I urged.
The next while was a blur of pain and blood, until they gave me some drugs and everything faded.
KINA
I woke up in a hospital. Kennedy was sleeping in a chair beside my bed with Stetson, Beck, and Calvin sprawled out and tangled up on a couch against the wall. Another couch was beside it with Rhett’s four other siblings, and Grant was asleep in what had to be the most uncomfortable armchair in the world.
When I turned my head and saw my soulmate lying on a bed a few feet from mine, I nearly had a panic attack.
“Hey, he’s fine.” Isla surged toward me, plopping down on the edge of my bed and wrapping her arms tightly around me. She wore a pair of oversized sweats and a t-shirt that most definitely wasn’t hers, and I’d say there was about a zero percent chance she was wearing a bra.
“What happened?” I croaked. My throat was dry and the rest of me hurt just about everywhere.
“Josh injected you. Rhett chased him down and called the rest of us to come help, and he rescued you. He was shot in the shoulder in the process, and just got out of surgery about an hour ago. It was a long surgery and there were a few issues, but they say he’ll be alright.”
I let out a shaky breath and looked down at my trembling fingers.
“You’re in withdrawal again. Rhett felt you almost die—the dose Josh gave you nearly killed you, but you pulled through. When the ambulance got you, they gave you something to cancel out the rest of the drugs.” She explained.
Numb. I felt numb. And so crappy.
“They said Rhett will probably never be a great basketball player after the injury, but he will recover fully.” Isla added.
“Rhett hates basketball.” I said, absentmindedly.
Isla cracked a smile.
“There she is, our Realy McReal.” She squeezed me tighter. “There are a bunch of people who want to see you, but they can wait until you’re ready.”
“Um, okay.” I nodded, swallowing a lump in my throat. “The Rorans are asleep though.”
“Your family would want to know you’re awake. Zane will get them up.” Isla glanced over her shoulder, and her exhausted-looking soulmate crossed the room. He started with Kennedy, which was a wise choice.
My soulmate’s mom, the only mother I’d ever had, rushed over and sat on the other side of my bed. She smiled softly, pushing my hair behind my ear.
That was the beginning of the longest day of my life.
Rhett woke up twenty-six minutes later, as I was puking. He tried to get out of bed immediately, to come hold my hair or whatever, the adorable idiot. Stetson had to physically hold him down while the other brothers tried to figure out how to roll his bed closer to mine, and then a yelling match broke out when they were too slow and had to call for a nurse to come show them how.
The nurse seemed a little overwhelmed by them, and I didn’t blame her. They were my brothers and I was too.
Of course, after Rhett wouldn’t stop touching me to make sure I was okay and nearly undid all of the doctors’ hard work fixing him, the nurse had to come back and show them how to move him away from me. That pissed him off, but he was on so many drugs he got over it fast.
I’d puked out all of my guts an hour after waking up, so I agreed to a few visitors. The first ones Zane and Isla brought in were some people I vaguely knew in high school—Lyssie Ellison, whose married name I didn’t know, and Emma Lush. She’d been a Burgandeau when I knew her, but I’d seen her in a few movies with her soulmate since then. They were crazy famous and super rich, and wolf shifters so that was cool.
I guess they were some of the only people Rhett knew in Edge Valley, so they’d rushed to follow Rhett and Zane and everyone, coming in as backup and saving the day. We made small talk for a few minutes before they went to their respective homes and the next wave came in.
The next few hours, mine and Rhett’s room was a revolving door. He slept through the majority of the visitors, dozing in and out, but considering he’d gotten shot and had surgery I figured he deserved all the sleep he wanted.
I greeted people I knew from high school and a zillion of Kennedy’s friends that I’d only met in passing. They hugged me like I was their niece, and considering that Rhett’s brothers called them “Aunt,” maybe I was.
It didn’t matter; I thanked them all for visiting whether I knew them or not. It was nice of them to care. Honestly, I’d thought Kennedy was the only person who did care. Maybe I was right, maybe they’d all only shown up for Rhett, but it didn’t feel like that was true.
It felt like they cared.
Especially the ones who brought cookies and brownies.
The Roran boys pushed and prodded me, handed me puke buckets, and forced me to eat ice chips and saltines with so much vigor that Rhett would’ve been proud if he’d hadn’t been so drugged up. Tears stung my eyes every time I looked over at the man who meant everything to me, but then one of the boys would say something so stupid I had to snort and push him away.
And then puke, of course, because that’s withdrawal for ya.
Before Rhett picked me up from jail I’d felt like for the most part, I was alone. Sitting in that hospital as dozens of people came in and out just to hug me and pat Rhett’s hand, while his brothers teased each other and were warned over and over again to behave by their parents, our visitors, and the nurses, I didn’t feel alone.
I just felt loved.
Maybe I’d been loved from a distance while Rhett and I were apart. Maybe they’d wanted to reach out but hadn’t known what to say. May
be they hoped I’d be the one to do the reaching. Maybe they hadn’t been actively talking to me and making an effort, but that didn’t mean they didn’t care.
I had felt so alone for so long, but I wasn’t alone. I hadn’t been alone since the day Rhett rescued me from Josh and dragged me to a town full of shifters.
And I’d never be alone again.
A police officer came in toward the end of the day, and my eyebrows lifted when I saw him.
“Susan?”
“Officer Susan.” He corrected, wiggling his name badge with a grin.
“I thought you didn’t care about our neighborhood friendly drug dealer.”
“I was undercover, Miss Roran. I couldn’t exactly tell you that we’d be following you, watching for signs of Josh Marler because he was obsessed with you and your soulmate, could I?”
I stared at him, long and hard before I finally said,
“Sorry I hated you, Susan. But for the record, you could’ve at least led me to a bathroom outside of my holding cell.”
He chuckled.
“I’ll keep that in mind. Have a good day, Kina.”
He stuck his hands in his pockets and walked away, leaving me with the people I loved. Maybe he’d known what he was doing when he forced me to leave with Rhett after all.
EPILOGUE- 6 MONTHS LATER
RHETT
“Are you ready, Realy?” Isla whispered.
Kina’s eyes flashed, and a sly smile lifted her lips. We were in the backyard of mine and Kina’s new house, having a barbeque with my family and some friends. Our house was only three away from Isla and Zane’s, a fact that Isla loved and brought up every time we saw them.
“Are you, Perky?”
“Do I even want to know what you guys may or may not be ready for?” Zane checked, leaning up against the wall with his arms folded.
“You do.” I promised, grinning from ear to ear. I hadn’t stopped grinning in weeks, and probably wouldn’t for a good while longer.