The Hyena's Hope

by Emilia Hartley

  “Did she say anything else about what happened while she was missing?” Rodrigo pressed, thinking Van and Carol might have shared a few words while he was gone.

  Van’s jaw was tight, his eyes burning hot even in the dark. Van’s beast was close to the surface. When Rodrigo swayed on his feet, he caught the shifting glimmer of his lion’s night sight.

  “I know you want to find her, but you aren’t going to get anywhere if you let the beast lead.”

  Van snarled. “What do you know? Since when have you been able to keep that beast under control?”

  Rodrigo stepped back. His friend’s words stung. His control might not be the best, but he’d come a long way. He was doing better. Couldn’t his friend see that? Van must not have trusted him. That was why Van had tagged along. Why he followed Rodrigo.

  Rodrigo spun away. A growl was on his lips. He could do this. He could help his pack. Carol was counting on him to keep his control. So, he would do it.

  Silence spread between them. Van said nothing. When Rodrigo’s phone vibrated, the gentle hum sounded like a herd of elephants. His heart lurched into his throat, his first thoughts of Lily. He didn’t even stop to see who was calling. He slapped the green button and held it to his ear.

  It was not Lily’s voice on the other end, but that distorted voice again. The line crackled with static before they spoke. “Give up your search, mutt. You’re not going to like what happens when you don’t.”

  His beast surged, angry and roaring inside him. He felt its claws raking along the inside of his skin. It was close to breaking free. He did what he could to pull it back, but the voice on the phone said the one thing that broke him.

  “We have Lily. Go home and we will let her go.”

  The hyena was enraged. Rodrigo clenched his jaw and tried to hold onto his beast. It hurt, like every vertebra in his spine was trying to break free of his flesh. He didn’t know how long he could keep it together.

  There was no other option. He couldn’t give up control. If he did, everything would be lost. He wouldn’t save Carol. Lily would hate him. He knew she would. His mate would not want him to give up. She expected more of him, and so he would be the good person she thought he was.

  The beast agreed. It stopped its fight and slowly stepped back. Rodrigo could breathe again. Nothing like this had ever happened. The creature inside him had never given up a fight like that. In this case, it had agreed with him. All he’d needed to do was be a better person.

  He needed to start living up to his beast’s standards.

  “Put her on the phone,” he demanded.

  There was a moment of hesitation. The phone beeped at him. He pulled it away and saw that there was a voicemail from her number. Relief flooded his system, but it might have been too soon. There was more than one kidnapper. The other could have been calling from her phone.

  Still, he wasn’t convinced they had his mate. “Are you going to do it? Put her on the phone so I know she is alright. Then I’ll leave you alone.”

  Van snarled beside him and reached for the phone. Rodrigo slammed his palm onto Van’s forehead and held the man at an arm’s length, serving him with a stern glare. If the man could just wait a moment.

  When the kidnapper on the phone couldn’t give him Lily, Rodrigo made a decision. He worried it would haunt him, but he hung up. Not a second later, he opened his voicemail. Lily’s voice greeted him, and he sighed. Sounding harried, she told him who the kidnappers were. Rodrigo couldn’t believe it. Not until she told him it was Brock’s parents.

  They were doctors with properties all over town. She didn’t tell him where the properties were. There wasn’t enough time in the voicemail, and she hadn’t called back to leave another. He quickly told Van that he had a lead and dialed Lily’s number to call her back.

  Only, there wasn’t an answer. Her phone went to voicemail after ringing a few times. What good were cellphones when no one answered them?

  His beast squirmed again. The thought of Lily in danger made it uneasy. Rodrigo could feel the beast wanting to gnash its teeth. They had to find Lily. If she wasn’t with the kidnappers, he had no idea where she might be.

  He hung up and turned, setting off. Van quickly caught up to him. He grabbed Rodrigo by his sleeve and dragged him to an abrupt stop.

  “What’s going on? What are you doing?”

  Lily, his beast screamed. He had to find her. She was all that mattered. Everything else could be done after they found Lily.

  No, that wouldn’t work. Rodrigo had to think of everyone. He had to remember himself. He was a protector. For his mate and his pack. He let out a breath through his nose. He wasn’t being irrational, though. If he could find Lily, she might be able to point them in the right direction.

  Then he could make sure she stayed somewhere safe.

  He explained this to Van. The man’s nostrils flared. For a moment, Rodrigo thought Van might fight him. He tensed and waited for the first punch. It never came. Van’s shoulders trembled, and he scanned the street, but he nodded and agreed to follow.

  “I trust you,” Van said. “You will make sure we all make it out of this alive.”

  Rodrigo hoped so. It wasn’t that long ago that he was losing his mind over a miscalculation in his pay. He’d come a long way, but he was still far from perfect. If he wasn’t the kind of person Lily and his pack could rely on, then he would take the first steps toward that tonight.

  Chapter Twenty

  Lily ran down the dark street. It wasn’t a smart idea to be alone, especially in this neighborhood. But when she saw two bulky silhouettes step out from Brock’s parent’s yard, she waved her arms. It could have bene Brock and his father, but she didn’t remember the two men being that large. It had to be Rodrigo and another pack member.

  Hell, she really hoped she was right.

  Before leaving, she told Bullfrog to behave himself. She couldn’t imagine bringing the small dog on a search and rescue mission, but now she really missed the little guy. He’d been her protector more than once already.

  The two figures turned out to be Rodrigo and Van. She ran the rest of the way and launched herself into Rodrigo’s arms. He seemed to be surprised to see her. At first, he didn’t move. He didn’t hug her back, but instead held her at an arm’s length.

  “What are you doing out here?” he snapped.

  Her confidence wavered. “I came to help. You weren’t answering your phone, so I went looking for you.”

  “If we’d been hurt and unable to protect you, you would have walked right into danger. Did you think about that?” He was breathing quickly, chest rising and falling.

  She reached out and laid a hand on his chest. “I’m fine. You’re fine. It worked out.”

  Rodrigo looked like he wanted to argue further, to send her back home, but Van reached out and yanked on Rodrigo’s arm.

  “Can she help?” Van’s words were short. He was panicking, too.

  Oh, that was sweet. He must have loved Carol. Lily grinned, thinking about how Carol had someone frantically searching for her. Then she remembered that this wasn’t a time to grin. She had to remain serious.

  She tried to lead them to the property she thought Brock’s parents were using to keep Carol, but Rodrigo dug in his heels. He told her they were going to shift and stated that she would be returning home. Her jaw tightened.

  “I have been shoved aside too often. You’re not going to make me sit this out.”

  But her argument didn’t work. She didn’t have a car, and neither did the guys. They disappeared around the corner and, moments later, two beasts walked out. One was a lion so pale he looked like the summer moon. The other was her Rodrigo. She would have known him anywhere. His fur was short and clung close to his body. Spots dappled his back.

  He brushed up against her, nudging her palm with his nose. He easily dwarfed her small frame.

  “You’re the king of hyenas,” she whispered reverently.

  Before she could say anything mo
re, the two beasts loped down the street. Belatedly, she realized she shouldn’t have told them where they were going. She should have made them follow her. Instead, she’d given over the address without a second thought and now she was standing alone on the street again.

  Rodrigo was on his way to do something heroic. Before meeting him, she would have thought herself incapable of anything heroic. She was a boring girl. She was too afraid to take chances and had lived with a boring relationship out of fear that nothing would ever be any better. That was hardly true.

  She wasn’t going to leave him to do it on his own. He might have had Van on his side, but they were going up against doctors who clearly knew how to hurt shifters. They were going to need all the help they could get.

  ***

  Brock’s parents were the kidnappers. He couldn’t believe the coincidences, but the pieces started to come together. The weird, familiar smell about the property that bothered him. The way Brock had acted the night before, when Lily claimed she was being stalked.

  The property Lily sent them to turned out to be a small cottage on the bank of a small river. The air was acrid. It stank of sweat and fear, more than the shed had. Rodrigo wondered what the doctors had put in the shed that made it reek that way. What had they done here to cause this smell to permeate everything in the area?

  Rodrigo motioned for Van to go in one direction. He would go in the other. Together they would canvas the outside of the place. They could break the door open when they were sure no one was going to surprise them.

  His heart raced. He hoped Carol was inside, that she was still alive and breathing. He hoped his own mate had returned home. Lily was braver than she thought. He couldn’t believe she’d come out to find him. Leaving her behind hadn’t been the best idea, but it was the only way he could keep her from following them.

  That was what he thought until a car pulled up to the cottage. The lights washed over him and momentarily blinded him. Seconds later, when his vision had cleared, he saw a feminine shape silhouetted in the headlights. The car pulled back and left. But the woman stayed.

  She was climbing the steps. The wind caught her scent and brought it to him, making his body quake.

  Lily.

  She’d followed them. Why? She could have waited for him to come back. He was going to bring everyone home. He was going to prove that he could be the protector he wanted to be. She didn’t need to be here. She shouldn’t have been there.

  Before he realized what he was doing, he was stepping forward. He didn’t stop. He ran forward. The knock on the door echoed through the trees around him.

  “Lily?” The voice was filled with surprise. “What brings you out here? We thought you and Brock split up. If you’re looking for him, you’re welcome to come inside and wait.”

  No, he thought. Don’t go inside!

  She couldn’t read his thoughts. He came around the side of the cottage to see her disappear through the front door. Did she think she could distract them? She’d only managed to deliver herself into the hands of the enemy. He didn’t understand why.

  ***

  Lily worried that she’d made a mistake. It wouldn’t have been her first, but she really thought it might be her last. Mary’s smile was tight, her eyes gleaming. Brock’s mother had always been a bit intense, but this was something else. Mary glanced to her husband. His face was impassive.

  Lily didn’t need to know what they thought. All she needed to do was find the shifter Rodrigo and Van were searching for. If she could find the shifter and set her free, then they could all leave.

  But Lily wasn’t a brave heroine. Once she was inside, she realized her hands were shaking. She couldn’t think of an excuse for visiting. Surely Brock had told his parents that Lily refused to leave with him. What if he’d even told them that she might have an idea of what they were up to?

  Rather belatedly, she realized that Brock had been trying to bring her to exactly where she was standing. He might not have hurt her, but she didn’t know about his parents. His father stepped toward the closet near the hall. He disappeared behind the door while Mary prepared the kettle and put it on the stove.

  The woman chattered away, almost as if she was trying to fill the space and make it seem welcoming. It wasn’t. There were plastic coverings on all the furniture and no signs of life. No cups or plates sitting out. There wasn’t even a television. All she could see was a single laptop.

  A single laptop with a spray of tiny blood droplets on it.

  Her stomach flipped.

  She wanted to turn and run, but she held her ground. She could be the brave heroine that deserved the strong hero. This would not be turned into a mistake. She would make her every move worth it. Then, she would go on and live her happily ever after with Rodrigo.

  She was certainly going to ask him to stay when this was all said and done. Maybe not as her boyfriend yet, but definitely as her beau. They could go steady, whatever that meant.

  “So, what brings you two out to the cottage? Is it a national holiday?”

  Mary turned around with a cup of tea cradled in her hands. She grinned up at Lily. “I didn’t know you had ever been here? Did Brock bring you out to the cottage when he visited?”

  Lily barely hid her grimace. She hadn’t thought of that. She hadn’t thought of much, choosing to act instead.

  She reached for the offered tea, then jerked back. “Oh, I should go to the bathroom. It hit me all of a sudden. The…need to pee.”

  She hadn’t answered Mary’s question, but the woman didn’t seem to care. She pointed down the hall. Brock’s father was gone. A chill crept up Lily’s spine. Her scalp grew tight, but she nodded and walked toward the hall.

  She caught a glimpse of glowing eyes in the window. The hyena glared at her, clearly unhappy. She wanted to wave but refrained. It would have given her away. She couldn’t risk it yet. She didn’t know where they were keeping the third shifter.

  In the bedroom at the end of the hall, just past the bathroom, she heard the sound of metal scraping against the ground. It reminded her of the dogs in the kennel when she got Bullfrog, the sound their claws made on the kennel doors. That was it.

  Lily had moved forward, into a brand-new life. The haze of lust and affection from the night before had worn off, though.

  Her heart jumped into her throat. She braced her hands on the counter and forced herself to breathe. She was right in the middle of the danger zone. Before her were normal bathroom toiletries: toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss picks. A pair of stainless-steel medical scissors sat on the counter, like a blaring alarm that the doctors were up to no good. The shifter they were looking for was just on the other side of that door.

  The bathroom window was narrow, but she pried it open and leaned her head out and hissed Rodrigo’s name. There was a rustle then two beasts entered the rectangle of light on the ground. They looked up at her and she realized they couldn’t talk back. That was actually kind of nice.

  Lily pointed to the right, toward the bedroom where she heard the rustle. “What you’re looking for is in there. I’m going to free her!”

  She didn’t hear anything behind her, but a hand closed around her calf and yanked her. She let out a shriek. Her chin hit the counter before she dropped to the floor. Brock’s father was standing behind her. One hand held a key to the door, the other held thin plastic strips. She recognized them from having to tie all her wires together.

  He was going to bind her hands together.

  All she could say was, “Fuck.”

  Thankfully, her body moved before her brain. She scrambled to her hands and knees and scuttled past the older man. He caught her hair, but she grabbed the medical scissors off the counter and shoved them into her hair, cutting without looking.

  “I always wanted shorter hair.”

  She wasn’t through all of it before his hand fell away. Her heart fluttered with relief. It was momentary because he grabbed her shoulder and spun her around, shoving her into the wall. Th
e man she stood before was no longer her potential father-in-law. He was a monster. His lips were twisted with anger. His hand dripped with blood.

  Had she cut him in her crazed effort to free her hair? If she had, then good! He moved to grab her again. She squealed and ducked, dropping herself to the floor. He grasped empty air above her. This wasn’t how this was supposed to go, she thought.

  “Brock isn’t going to be happy with us if you get hurt, Lily.” His voice was ominous, like there was a thread laced among his words that she couldn’t identify.

  She got to her feet, throwing herself at the closed door and falling through it. Brock’s father didn’t follow her. As she slammed the door behind her, he stood there, shadows obscuring his eyes. With no time to think about what he was doing, she scanned the room. It was filled with medical tools. Another computer stood in the corner, connected to a portable hard drive. Empty kennels stood on the other side of the room. She couldn’t help but wonder if the doctors were torturing for fun or their sick sense of scientific discovery.

  Before her was a kennel cage with a cowering wolf inside. The wolf’s eyes were far too intelligent to be wild. This was the shifter Rodrigo had been looking for. For a moment, she wondered if this was the woman who had interrupted them at the bar.

  Lily glanced at the door. Still, Brock’s father had not followed her. Did he think the shifter would bite her? Was he waiting for Lily to be attacked so he could have a new test subject? Her skin crawled.

  The kennel was threaded with wire. It shone in the light like aluminum, but the wolf inside shied away from it.

  Silver?

  Lily didn’t have time to think about it. Brock’s father was right behind her. She could hear Mary screaming at the other end of the house. Lily grabbed the kennel door and found a lock. For a second, her stomach hit the floor. It was all worthless. She’d put herself in danger for nothing.

  Then she realized this was nothing more than a kennel she could get at any pet store. She cackled and grabbed the plastic bottom. She gave it a yank, pulling away the silver wire wound around the bottom as she did. The wolf inside hopped off the plastic barrier and her feet touched the floor.