The Hyena's Hope

by Emilia Hartley

  Rodrigo thought it sounded a bit like Van was protesting the truth. There was an attraction between the two. Rodrigo had noticed the way Carol stiffened when Van was around. If Rodrigo had been new to the pack, he might have suspected that Van had something to do with Carol’s disappearance. Having perhaps fumbled into a mate of his own, Rodrigo could see the signs.

  Van wasn’t the bad guy in this situation, just a fool who didn’t know how to deal with his feelings in the face of his love’s trauma. Which Rodrigo couldn’t fault him for. Whatever friendship Rodrigo once had with Carol had faded and vanished while she was gone. Their easy comradery was nowhere to be found. It meant that her secrets, her troubles, were kept behind a stone wall.

  Van grabbed a lime and tossed it in his hands before chucking it back into the paper bag. “Are you close to figuring out who took Carol?”

  A growl rumbled in his chest. He reached for his shoulder and rubbed the long-gone wound. He’d told Dante and Van about how close he’d come, about the battle of wills. All he had was a scent and a voice. It wasn’t enough to go on. He could go back to the shed, but it felt like a trap. One that he’d walked through once already. There could be more there, but Rodrigo needed more to go on.

  “I’m working on it.” Rodrigo turned to go back inside.

  He was supposed to pull more information out of Carol, but he didn’t want to pressure her. He didn’t want to watch her squirm and deflect his questions. It was uncomfortable for both of them. From time to time, he could see the icy wall of fear slide over her eyes. All he ever did was force her to relive those months.

  He wanted to run to Lily, but the way was blocked by threats. He’d been checking on her, making sure no one had hurt her, but the distance between them was painful. He couldn’t stand more than a long glance without feeling his heart rip in half. The tear was slow and painful, turning his knuckles white on the steering wheel of his truck.

  Lily was safe, though. She would be on her way to work, or the coffee shop by now. On payday he went down to the coffee shop and bought a gift certificate from them, but the superintendent at her building had refused to tell him which mailbox belonged to Lily. The folded certificate was burning a hole in his pocket, begging him to hand it to her personally.

  Not yet.

  Not until he finished this job and she was safe. Until everyone was safe.

  If Rodrigo couldn’t stop this kidnapper, then he would be of no use to anyone. He would fail not only his pack, but the woman he wanted to call his mate.

  Instead of bothering either, he decided to peruse public records. The small record building in town was dim and monitored by a man with thick glasses. The man barely looked up. Instead of access to hundreds of physical files, there was a series of computers. He raised a brow and turned back to the man with the thick glasses.

  “Everything is digital now,” the man said with a shrug. “You could have accessed whatever you needed from a personal computer.”

  Rodrigo sighed and dropped into a chair that was a bit too small for his large frame. He plugged the address of the house with the shed into the search bar. His stomach dropped when the program brought up a small corporation. The land was owned by a local medical business, Trostland Care.

  He tried to figure out who owned Trostland Care, but it was a shared business between a handful of doctors. He could visit each and every doctor, but how long would that take? Did Rodrigo have that kind of time?

  He didn’t know.

  Chapter Fifteen

  Lily hadn’t heard from Rodrigo in days. She’d tried to call him, but none of her calls had gotten through. She thought what they’d shared in the bar basement had meant something. That despite all she’d heard him say to someone over the phone, that he actually felt something for her. His words didn’t match his actions.

  Turns out, she was very confused.

  Was this that fabled hook-up culture she’d heard so much about? It wasn’t like they’d even hooked up. There had been steam and lots of desire, but they definitely didn’t hook-up. So, it only stood to further confuse her when Rodrigo refused to answer any of her calls.

  That was how she found herself in the pet store. She looked at the adoptable animals behind the glass window and wondered which would love her the most and which would chew on her vintage shoes. The puppies all barked and leapt at their kennel doors, each a different adorable mutt mix.

  The store clerk approached and offered to let Lily into the kennel to play with the adoptable dogs. While the clerk described where each puppy had been found, Lily glanced at her phone like Rodrigo would suddenly reply to her messages.

  He wouldn’t.

  She needed to come to terms with that. It took great effort to put her phone back, but she managed it. When she looked up, a frog-eyed English Bulldog mix grinned up at her. Its tongue lolled out of the corner of its mouth and a string of drool slunk toward the floor below.

  “What’s his name?”

  “His previous owners named him Bullfrog,” the clerk said with no small amount of disappointment. “Though I can see where they got it from.”

  Lily grinned. He was a goofy looking dog and when she knelt to unlock the kennel door, he leapt out at her and curled into her arms. He clearly had lots of love to give.

  “Is he missing teeth?” Lily asked as she tried to open his muzzle.

  The clerk nodded. “He had to have three pulled before he came to us. Two grew in crooked while the third had rotted due to unchecked cavities.”

  Lily turned to Bullfrog. “You can try all you want to chew on my shoes. You’ll never destroy any of them.”

  Bullfrog let out a croaky bark. Lily couldn’t help but laugh. She cradled the dog close to her chest. His warmth filled the lonely ache in her chest by a little. It was better than nothing. It was also better than sleeping alone every night.

  After signing all the papers to adopt Bullfrog and buying an inordinate amount of dog accessories—including a collection of dog clothing—she took him home. The apartment wasn’t huge by any means. It was barely a studio, her bed hidden behind a folding screen, but Bullfrog adamantly investigated every square inch before struggling to climb atop the couch with her.

  Again, Lily checked her phone. The little light in the corner blinked green and her heart jumped with excitement. The only notifications were from Brock, though. He’d sent another million messages, all asking her to come back to him.

  She set the phone down and tried to ignore his pleas. It was getting harder and harder. There was a life she’d had with Brock. Their future had been easily predicted. All it needed was a few changes, a little bit of fine tuning. If she could run those new needs by him, then maybe they could fix what she’d thrown away.

  Had she ended it too quickly?

  Her coworkers assured her leaving him was the right thing to do, but now that Lily was well and truly alone, she couldn’t help but rethink every decision she’d made recently. The only good one seemed to be Bullfrog. That was until he leapt off the couch and pranced to a corner of the apartment to pee.

  She jumped off the couch and ran after him.

  Moments later, they were both outside. Bullfrog sniffed every patch of grass and every bush but didn’t do his business.

  “Don’t tell me you’re fine now,” she grumbled.

  The sound of an engine slowly rumbling down the street made her spine tingle. She glanced over her shoulder, brows low as she scanned the street. There was a single truck, old and beat up. Ice splashed in her gut. It was the same truck that had nearly run her over a few days ago.

  She couldn’t see beyond the windshield. The setting sun was glinting off the glass and cast a glare so bright she had to look away. Her stomach churned. She gave Bullfrog a tug and scurried back to her apartment where she locked the door behind her.

  There was no putting her finger on what it was that bothered her, but a sense of unease settled over her. She crept up to the window, expecting the truck to be gone, but it was st
ill outside. It lingered in a parking spot outside her building.

  Without thinking, she lurched for her phone. She could have called the cops, but they wouldn’t do anything without reason. The truck scared her, but she couldn’t figure out why. The driver hadn’t done anything.

  Yet.

  It felt wrong. She couldn’t shake the idea that the person had been watching her. She tried to shrug it off, but the thought clung to her like a ghost. Rodrigo hadn’t answered any of her calls. Not since he disappeared from her life.

  She didn’t want to call Brock, but she didn’t know who else to turn to. Vivian was feisty, but Lily wanted a man who could be fairly intimidating. Her floor manager was a bit soft and had a gentle smile. He would never frighten anyone away. Brock, on the other hand, had mastered the male version of resting bitch face.

  Oh, she wished she could call Rodrigo, but she didn’t know if there was time. Her hand shook and adrenaline began to chill her veins. The phone rang in her hands.

  And rang. And rang.

  Brock’s voice mail picked up. She rambled off something about being nervous and needing company. She might have mentioned being followed, but her thoughts were too jumbled to remember what she’d just rattled off.

  She dialed a different number without thinking. It rang in her ear while she stepped up to the window again. The truck was gone. She glimpsed it speeding down the street, running the red light at the intersection.

  A groggy voice answered on the other end. “Lily? I can’t do this right now.”

  “I think someone is stalking me,” she blurted.

  ***

  Rodrigo’s blood froze. He’d been in the middle of stalking the kidnapper. The form in front of him belonged to the guy who’d attacked him the week before. He was sure of it. The phantom hook dug through his shoulder again, reminding him of the pain he’d endured in their last encounter.

  The figure stepped out of sight, around a corner. Lily’s panicked breathing filled his ear. He could hear the soft whisper of her curtains as they fell back into place.

  “I’ll be right there,” he said without another moment of hesitation.

  He was so close to the kidnapper. All he needed to do was shift and take him, but the sound of Lily’s fear pulled him in the other direction. It overrode all logical thought. The mission would have to wait. He was already running toward her apartment building.

  Outside, something felt off. He looked up and down the street again, trying to figure out what it was that was bothering him. His skin crawled like someone was touching the back of his neck. He glanced back to see if the kidnapper had turned and followed him, but no one stood on the street anywhere.

  His stomach churned. He was so close to the kidnapper. There would be a price to pay for taking him down. The kidnapper had already told him that.

  He lurched toward the building door, not once stopping to think about the lock. He pulled and it didn’t move. He could have called her and waited for her to open the door, but his beast urged him forward. There was no time to waste. Lily would not get hurt because of him.

  He yanked the door and the frame bent. The lock didn’t break, but with the frame bent he was able to open it and slip inside. He spared a thought to hope there were no cameras. The cost of that door was going to come out of his pocket. It was a better price to pay than the one the kidnapper promised.

  If Lily got hurt because of him…If she was dead…

  His beast roared.

  He skidded to a halt outside her door, tempted to break it open too. Before he could even reach it, the door flew open. Lily leapt out and into his arms. She wrapped them around his neck and he, in turn, held her tight. This close, he could hear her ragged breathing.

  She jumped back, wringing her hands. He missed the feel of her against his body already. The urge to pull her back into his arms nearly overwhelmed his sense. If she needed space, then she needed space. He needed to know that she was okay, though.

  “I’m sorry I called you. I saw…There was…I feel like I overreacted now that you’re here,” she said in a quick torrent.

  He shook his head and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. There weren’t enough locks on the door to make him happy. A human could break through this door with enough effort. He scowled at it before turning back to her.

  She gestured to the window. “I glanced outside and that truck, the one that nearly hit me a couple weeks ago, was back. It coasted down the road before circling back around. It could have just been a pizza delivery boy. My upstairs neighbor doesn’t know how to cook for himself. I’m just being paranoid because I’m alone.”

  A small black and white creature walked up to him. The dog—that was what he assumed it was despite the smushed face and bug-eyes—sat on its haunches and studied Rodrigo. He didn’t know what to do. Small animals were sometimes afraid of shifters. He’d heard stories of cats who lived with dragon shifters, but cats were a strange breed of stupidly fearless.

  Dogs, on the other hand, didn’t much care for anyone.

  This creature must have deemed Rodrigo okay because it stood, shook itself, and pranced back to the couch where it leapt onto the cushion and laid back down to sleep. Rodrigo pointed at the dog.

  “When did you get that?”

  Lily paused, confused for a brief moment. “Oh, Bullfrog? I adopted him today.”

  Rodrigo watched the dog as he walked past, fully expecting the dog to leap up and start barking at the invasion of privacy. Bullfrog just kept on sleeping. What a strange dog.

  “You said the truck that almost hit you was outside?”

  A chill clawed its way up his spine. That was the same day he’d found Carol in an alley. He swallowed past the lump forming in his throat and reached for the nearby curtain as if the truck would still be outside. It wasn’t.

  Did that mean there were two kidnappers? He’d only encountered the one that night outside the shed. The man had brought a hook down on Rodrigo’s shoulder and tried to drag him into the shed. It’d hurt more than the attack that changed him. Especially when he fought against the human’s strength.

  Rodrigo was strong enough to resist, but the pain had nearly overwhelmed him. Had he passed out that night, he would be in the kidnapper’s hands. He knew it.

  “You look like you know something,” Lily said, stepping back. Her hands shook at her sides.

  Rodrigo hated that he was the cause of her fear. He tried to take her hands in his, to calm them, but she jerked back. This was what he feared. Not just her safety, but that look of terror and accusation in her eyes. She was in danger because of him. And she knew it.

  She blamed him.

  He couldn’t bear the pain of it. He turned away and stalked toward the window. His gut clenched. Fire burned in his throat. He wished he was a dragon so he could spew it on his enemies. Instead, he was nothing more than a hyena shifter. All he had were claws and teeth. It didn’t feel like enough. He didn’t know how to balance everything in his life.

  He'd thought telling Lily the truth before would have been pointless. She would have hated him sooner had he told her what was going on. But she deserved to know. He gripped the curtain in his hand, hearing the stitches begin to tear, before letting it go. His willfulness had put Lily in danger. He’d thought he was doing her a favor by keeping her in the dark, but all he’d done was put her in the way of danger.

  Her fear was his fault. Her safety was in his hands.

  And he could have lost her because of his ignorance.

  “Do you remember the howl the day the truck nearly hit you?” He explained what happened, bit by bit, stopping to explain when she was confused. In the end, her face was pale white.

  She stumbled over to a chair and collapsed in it, her eyes on the floor. “So, that’s where the phone number went after you bought me the book. It’s my fault the kidnapper had it at all.”

  Rodrigo fell to his knees before her. “No. None of this is your fault.”

  Her lips were a thi
n, flat line. She didn’t believe it. Blame had been turned inward like a dagger. He refused to let her cut herself down with this.

  “You are not to blame for the actions of others. When someone else does something, it is not because you weren’t looking. It is not because you let it happen. The other person is to blame for what they did.”

  His words seemed to have some effect, loosening the grim set of her lips, but he could see she wasn’t fully convinced. When she spoke, her voice was small. It made her seem fragile, and that small fact nearly broke him.

  “You would have caught the person responsible by now if not for me.”

  The fire in his throat earlier burned hotter. It was out of control, consuming him from the inside out. He had a million words for her, but they all bunched up in his throat and choked him. Her pain was real and on the surface for all to see. He wanted to wash it away, to ease the guilt trying to pull her beneath the waves of shame.

  “They used me against you. I’m so sorry.”

  Rodrigo pulled himself together. He found the right thing to say, swallowed down the rest, and opened his mouth. The door slammed open before he could speak. Already, he was on his feet. He was at the door before anyone else could move, his hand around a man’s throat.

  Only when his rage cleared did he realize he was holding Lily’s ex by his throat. The temptation to hold the man a bit longer lingered, but he put the man down.

  Brock stumbled back, eyes wide and clearly panicked. Rodrigo turned to Lily, ready to ask why her ex had just burst in.

  Lily just threw her hands in the air. “You haven’t been answering any of my calls or messages. I understand why now, but you need to realize that I was alone and needed someone.”

  He turned a growl on Brock. Maybe if he was intimidating enough, the man would run away. Instead, Brock fixed the front of his shirt and turned a glare on Rodrigo. Had Brock been a shifter, he would have issued a challenge right then and there. The human didn’t know what he was doing, meeting Rodrigo’s gaze like that.

  It bristled Rodrigo. As did the way Brock swept into the apartment like he’d never left and approached Lily. The man’s concern for her was clearly faked. He reached for her, as if to pull her into an embrace, and Rodrigo issued a warning growl.