Huh, now see. This is just bullshit! Wait and hope for a guy to want me? Not in this fucking lifetime, you Neanderthal dickhead. Keeping my expression blank, I shake my head and lower my eyes submissively, hoping it will soothe some of his temper.
“In my pack, the laws have changed to give males the choice,” I say demurely. “My mate rejected me because I am barren, so I was offered to another who does not want young.”
The lie rolls off my tongue easily, compliments of Hannah and her nasty tongue, and I see the man rear back in surprise as if I just said something that is unheard of.
“You are barren? And they did not kill you?”
My shock is clear when he says this, and I hear Gretchen gasp when he leans in to sniff me again. Please do not smell fertile, I beg my womb, knowing that I am due my period in a week and hoping it will help me.
He scowls, somehow I just know it, obviously not sure and looks down at me silently.
“We do not kill females in our pack for being barren. That’s why the Alpha changed the law to give males a choice. Do you kill your females? How do you do it?”
“We will not speak of this,” he snarls, pulling my hair harder.
My cheek is throbbing, and I can feel my nose leaking blood from the blow, but I stay silent and bide my time, the weight of my gun digging heavily into my back.
It’s a small gun that is easily hidden under long layers, something Logan has forced me to do so that I am always carrying. I’m surprised this man didn’t find it—but very thankful—because it means we have a shot—huh, pun not intended—to get away.
Where we are exactly and where we’ll run to is another thing, but at this point it’s one thing at a time.
“Why have you done this? Are you the same people who are hurting the pack? Why? For what purpose?”
“Silence! I am the one who asks the questions.” He growls, slapping me again.
When I lift my head again, I know I am in trouble when he brings over another chair. I’m lifted and shoved onto it roughly before he turns his back and stalks towards a table.
“What—?”
“You will answer my questions, or I will show you how we deal with prisoners where I come from.”
I almost scream when he turns around and shows me a whip. Reason one is obvious; I really do not want him to whip me. Reason two is a belated realization and something that drives me to get up and stumble back desperately, my hand reaching for the gun just as I fall onto Gretchen.
My cowering stance is no act though, and I almost cry when Gretchen takes the gun when the man stalks my way.
“I will not harm you if you tell me what I want to know.”
“Buut, but what if I can’t?”
“You can female, and you will,” he says smugly, grabbing me to throw me to the floor.
Fabric rips when he unsheathes his claws to strip off my t-shirt, and I am so ready for Gretchen to shoot him when he does the same to my shoes and jeans, but the moment is lost when another male, of roughly the same size, steps into the cavern and stands beside her.
Oh shit.
Her eyes glitter with unshed tears when I’m forced to kneel facing her and the whip is stroked over my back.
“Where is Julia Silverton?”
The question is so unexpected my mind goes blank for a second, and then I am screaming when the lash hits my back, burning through my nerves like a knife slash.
“Oh God, please! Please don’t!” Gretchen yells, her tears spilling free when I scream and cry out in pain.
I want to say I am super strong and stoic, but this hurts a lot, and with my broken rib and head I don’t think I can heal anything else. So yeah, I am going to scream like a bitch.
His question registers then, belatedly and I try to order my thoughts. This guy is looking for Jules? But she was here just a few weeks ago when the attacks were in their height and…
And then it all becomes clear. The locations of each attack, as if they were clearing a path straight from the Northern boundary to the Silverton house.
Why no one has seen this, I can’t say, but from the many times Jules drove me around and walked the woods with me I can picture the route. First, the Garrison house, where they beat the man up and left his mate locked in the cellar so that she couldn’t call for help.
I think of the next attacks, in order, and it all becomes a picture as facts bombard me. They were opening up the field so to speak, moving from one house to the other to either clear it or put shifters in the hospital so the path was clear.
They were methodical and precise, and from the preparation I now see, they planned this out very thoroughly.
“I will ask again. Where is Julia Silverton?”
“I don’t know!” I scream, flinching when the expected blow sails through the air only to miss me and hiss against the floor.
“You spoke to her three nights ago.”
“For less than a minute! She was just calling to thank me for the cookies I sent to her mom. That was all!” I lie, knowing exactly where she is but unwilling to give her up.
What’s the use? These men are not going to risk letting us go now that we know what they want, and giving up Julia—who it now seems was sent away for safety—just to save myself some pain is stupid.
I love that girl like a sister, and I will die before I betray her. She saved me once, I can do no less.
My eyes meeting Gretchen’s, I silently communicate how sorry I am if things go bad and grit my teeth when he snarls. I don’t get the whip though. Instead, I feel his boot hit my side, the hard kick making my lungs whoosh out air so that I can only open my mouth in a silent cry of anguish.
“Don’t lie.”
“I…” I pause, gagging on the pain, and cough as air fills my lungs. “I’m not. I don’t see her as much as I used to because her brother is getting married. He was my Fated until he rejected me, and the family is stuck in a bad position.”
This time he clamps a hand over my right shoulder and digs his claws in, the sharp tips piercing through my skin in a white-hot move that makes me scream my throat raw. Blood gushes forth, and I see Gretchen gag before she doubles over and vomits on the lower legs and boots of the guy beside her.
He curses and raises his hand to slap her, but this must be the gem who took me down before because I see him hesitate and then lower his hand, swearing a blue streak.
“Go change. I can handle this.” My captor laughs, the dark chuckle making the other man snarl.
He leaves fast, no doubt hurrying because his sense of smell is as bombarded with the stink as ours are. Some shifters just have weak stomachs, I guess.
Not this one though. No, he just laughs and shakes his head, retracting his claws slowly.
“He is a female that way. Now, I will ask you once more, Mika Blithe. Where is Julia Silverton?”
I gasp, my eyes overflowing so that my tears run down my cheeks and fall from my chin. I need to buy a little time, just a few seconds so that a now glaring Gretchen can shoot this fool and we can run.
I can’t wait too long in case the other one comes back too soon. He’d be on us before we can move. Gretchen nods infinitesimally, and I take my chance, glaring up into the shade-covered eyes of this monster.
“I said I don’t fucking know! What are you, the first deaf shifter, asshole?” I yell.
His anger is swift, and it’s when he turns to slap me that Gretchen acts, whipping the gun from beneath her thigh and taking aim. The shot is like an explosion of sound, and I know how a dog feels on the Fourth of July when it momentarily throws me off balance.
It doesn’t last long, and then I am watching the man’s body slump before he falls in front of me, a pool of blood flowing from beneath him.
“Come on, Gretch.”
We run together, and for once today, my worst fears aren’t proven real because instead of running off a cliff, our feet hit the leave strewn floor of the woods.
I can see the lake in the distance, the big bo
dy of water reflecting the moon that has come out after the rain stopped an hour ago. The lake isn’t near enough to the town for us to make it. I know this, but I keep running anyway, ignoring my ribs, the pain that is trying to overcome me and the lack of oxygen that makes me feel light headed.
“We can’t stop, Meek. He won’t be down for long,” Gretchen pants beside me, her speed making me work to keep up with her.
“We won’t, Gretchen. I swear, I won’t stop until we’re home.”
And I won’t. I won’t let this female, my friend, die out here with her unborn child.
I won’t let her mate suffer, knowing that he couldn’t protect her, and even more than that, I won’t let Jules down by not warning her family about the danger she’s in.
Chapter Fifteen
Bear
Logan curses when we follow the same scent trail all the way down through the trees and out of town, our progress slowing when he stops again to sniff and lets out a frustrated howl.
We’ve been over this trail for the last few hours—over and over again—and it never changes the progress because it stops at the water where the sandy shore meets Lake Whitefish.
We’ve even taken boats out onto the water, our desperation driving us to use every means possible in our search for the women and we found nothing.
Once again, it’s as if these bastards just disappeared, but this time they have two females, one who is pregnant and the other who is mine. When Logan first called me in a panic and told me Gretchen and Mika were gone, I’d raced to his house and told myself that they were just being females and had forgotten the time. Probably out shopping or gossiping.
I told myself that the whole time I followed their scent trail from Logan’s house into the woods and all the way from the edge to a place just over three quarters of the way to my parents’ house.
The trail was so clear it was obvious where they walked and even where Gretchen must have stopped once to take a breather against a tree. Once we reached a tree though, things changed. From there, the trail was filled with the scent of fear, and even following it was hard because Flame was almost insane by then, and Logan and I weren’t doing much better.
I could almost see a picture form in my head of the females standing there and then running, the longer strides that marked the ground telling me clearly that they were running and running fast. That stopped abruptly in a place where the trees are thinner, and the ground opened up a little, the area not as filled with closely spaced trees as the rest of the woods.
There, I scented Mika’s blood. The smell was so strong I went nuts, my body shifting so fast I didn’t even feel the pop of bones or tearing of skin before I was in wolf form.
My wolf was savage then, refusing to listen to me because he knew as well as I did that our female was in trouble, and he was ready to run, track, and search every inch of the woods to find her.
We didn’t though. We can’t, and the more time that goes on, the more out of control I become, fighting with my animal to stay calm so that I can stay in this form and search using my head.
My senses won’t help here, and no matter how wild I feel, wrestling my wolf down so I can think like a human is what I need to do.
“Fuck! It’s the same!” Logan snarls, slamming a fist into the tree beside him.
The force has splinters of wood tearing from the trunk, and I hear the tree groan before Logan hisses and clenches his fist, blood blooming on his split knuckles.
“Where to now?” I ask, my chest tightening because I know how stupid that question is.
We’ve been over this more times than I can count, and we still have nothing. Our Alpha even sent parties out to the other sides of the lake to cover that ground, and we picked up nothing.
No scent.
“Nowhere! Goddammit, there isn’t anywhere else to look. The town is empty, and no matter what anyone else says, I know they didn’t double back to get to any of the accessible roads. Flame and his crew have been over one shore of the lake, and Nick had three others search the other shorelines and well into the trees. Banner even took the mountains and he didn’t find anything. God Bear, what if they’re gone?”
“No! No. We will find them!” I growl, calming my breathing when my wolf snarls.
It hasn’t been easy for the last few hours because he’s angry with me for not being with Mika to protect her, and I can’t say that I am impressed with myself either.
I hate myself right now.
Logan growls, a sound he’s been making since I reached his house and stalks off, back the way we came to no doubt start all over again. I want to hit him and snarl that it’s no fucking use! That we’re wasting time and energy covering the same ground a hundred times. But I don’t.
What choice do we have if there isn’t anywhere else to look? We arrived at the spot where the smell of Mika’s blood and Gretchen’s fear cover the floor, only to find Flame there, on his knees sniffing at the leaves with a whimpering whine.
The male doesn’t bother to acknowledge us, just stays where he’s kneeling, his massive six feet six inches curling into the scent of his mate as his black head rests there in a show of grief so great I feel my knees buckle and pull my feet out from under me.
I can’t go on anymore. I can’t do this, I think, feeling my wolf rise up with a force that is nearly overwhelming. He wants out in the worst way, and I’ve been keeping him leashed because I know if I allow him to do the same thing Logan and I have been doing for hours and he feels the hopelessness, then he’ll go feral.
Now, I don’t care.
If Mika is gone forever and out of my reach, it really doesn’t matter anymore. I may as well lose my mind and go feral. Hopefully, in this case, I’ll be so fucking wild they’ll just shoot me instead of locking me in the cells the way we did Lync.
“Bear, get a handle on your shit, bro. You’re starting to shift.”
I ignore Logan, letting myself go and feeling the power of my animal rise, the sweet power numbing some of the agony tearing through me in a way that brings relief.
If I let him take over, I can fall back and stay there, waiting for the darkness to claim me. Once he knows it’s over, that everything is lost, he’ll stay in the forefront and my conscious mind can retreat into the void where I won’t feel this pain anymore.
“Bear! Goddammit, Bear don’t!” I hear before three hundred and odd pounds land on me, knocking the breath from my lungs.
Logan is on me, his body pinning mine to the ground, and I have the instinctive urge to fight to get him off, my two minds merging for a split second as a battle cry fills me.
I stop it. What’s the fucking use of kicking his ass and winning a challenge when what I want is to be gone, somewhere deep within myself where I can’t feel the pain.
“Bear! Don’t you do that. Don’t let yourself go feral!” he yells, punching me hard enough to crack bone.
My cheek explodes with pain, the bone shattering under the heavy fist as blood spurts from my nose. I relish it, wanting the pain so it can drown out the anguish that I can’t shake, the deep, clawing talons of pain that haven’t left my chest since I scented Mika’s blood.
Oh, my precious mate. My female.
I should have stopped pussy footing around her and claimed her, no matter how angry she was with me or how guilty I felt for the way I’d behaved. If I’d just taken her and said fuck the consequences, she would be in our home right now, sleeping in our bed, and I’d be slavering like an animal trying to let her rest instead of sinking into her hot depths.
It’s all I have wanted since the day I gave into my need and took her, and the more time has dragged on, the harder it’s become to stay away. But I did. I had to. I promised myself that I would make things right with Mika, earn her trust and love, and so that’s what I’ve been trying to do since she rejected me.
An hour after that life-altering lovemaking, I was telling Hannah the truth, that I loved my mate and could no longer lie to myself about it. I told
her that I couldn’t marry her and live my life trying to be the in-control asshole I had become—because without Mika nothing mattered.
I haven’t even claimed my mate or given her my bite yet, and already that urgent and obsessive adoration is there. Most nights, after I get off duty, I go to Logan’s place and just stand outside, watching the house to make sure no one can go near her.
I almost went crazy the first time I saw her in Logan’s bedroom window, laughing at something the ass said. It took hours for me to calm down, and I didn’t sleep one wink until I went in for my shift and saw him there.
The black eye I gave him was all male rage and denied lust for my mate and the hours’ worth of beating on each other hardly scratched the top of my aggression before the fool laughed and admitted that she only sleeps in his room because he’s worried about her being alone with the latest attacks.
I understood that, even if I didn’t like it, and instead focused what energy I had left on two things, rebuilding our home because I don’t want to take her home to a house I shared with Hannah and making sure at least one enforcer patrols Logan’s place during the day when he’s not there.
I’ve had to call in a lot of favors to make sure she’s guarded twenty-four seven, but just knowing she was watched made me feel more secure. Stretching myself thin to redo the house—Dad convinced me not to tear the whole thing down, just get rid of everything inside and redecorate—work, and watch over Mika is worth it though because doing it all gives me hope that I can one day earn her trust and love.
I’ll work and wait for however long it takes to do that—
But you can’t, can you, Bear? Because she’s gone, and you’re never going to see her smile again or feel the tight clasp of her body around you.
I snarl at that voice and feel another piece of me slip away as my wolf gains strength, his slavering desperation to pop free and find Mika making my face go tense, as hair starts sprouting everywhere and my bones go tight, heralding the shift.
“No! Motherfucker—!”
Greyriver Shifters Page 17