She was trying to make a plan, be prepared for what she’d do when they got to wherever they were going. If she attacked Stapkis the minute he parked the car, just went fists and nails and teeth on him before he had a chance to unbuckle his seat belt…
Behind her, Becca stirred. “Ally?” The sleepy little voice set her pulse racing. For a second, she was afraid her control would slip.
“Shh, baby. Go back to sleep.”
But could she catch him by surprise, even with her speed? A Pack Alpha would be faster. Maybe his age would slow him down, though…
“Where’s Daddy?”
“We’ll see Daddy in just a little bit, Becca.”
No matter how many scenarios she envisioned, they all ran into the same problem—Becca. Alone, there would’ve been a half dozen things she could try, up to and including throwing herself out of the moving car, or jumping Stapkis as he drove. Alone, she’d have taken her chances. But she couldn’t do anything that would endanger Becca.
As much as she hated it, she had to bide her time and see what Stapkis would—
“Ally, I want to go home! Take me home!”
“Shh, honey, we’ll be home soon.”
She turned her head toward the backseat but wouldn’t look straight at Becca for fear she’d start crying and upset the girl even more. It made no difference—with that sixth sense small children seemed to have for knowing when an adult was frightened, Baby Girl started crying.
“I told you to keep the kid quiet!”
“Shut up! She’s sick and scared!”
He didn’t slow down as he made a sudden right turn off the highway onto a two-lane blacktop. She’d never ventured this far out of town. The ranch lay sixty miles behind them on the other side of Fremont. They were alone, no traffic or any other sign of life. Apparently someone had paved a road through the trees without bothering to add buildings, cars or people.
There was no time to wonder about it because she suddenly smelled something terrifying.
“Are you changing?” She didn’t want to imagine what would happen if Stapkis changed while he was driving. Would they be ripped to pieces even as they spun out of control?
“What the hell are you talking about?” he snarled.
“I can smell the change on you! You can’t tell you’re doing it?”
His eyes were normal, though—red-rimmed and filled with madness, yes, but the sclera weren’t yellow and the pupils weren’t elongated. And it wasn’t the typical change scent, either. It was lighter, more floral…
“Ally!”
This time, the panic in Becca’s cry made Ally spin around. “Baby? What’s wrong?”
Becca thrashed against the car seat straps, eyes clenched shut, mouth wide open in a silent scream. Ally ripped off her seat belt so she could turn all the way around.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Stapkis shouted.
“Leave me alone! Something’s wrong with her!”
He grabbed her right arm. She jerked it free. The Rover careened across the deserted road, but she ignored Stapkis’ yells and curses as he fought the steering wheel to stop the tires sliding off the blacktop. One arm wrapped around her headrest to keep herself upright, she leaned across the backseat and brushed the hair out of Becca’s face.
“Becca? Breathe! Right now, baby! Breathe!” The child’s face was hot, far hotter than a fever could make it, as hot as…
…as hot as a werewolf’s skin.
Unconsciously, instinctively, she snatched her hand back as she realized the strange, almost-change scent was coming from her little girl. Now it filled the car.
“Ally…” Becca whimpered. Her voice was mutating, stretching. Ally stared in silent shock as the small body began to flex and undulate. She didn’t hear bones popping as when a wolf shifted—these bones were softer, more malleable. The shift was almost silent.
To Ally’s horror and shame, a part of her recoiled. She’d never been entirely comfortable watching her own wolves shift. The sensation of rippling flesh, the sight of sprouting hair, morphing limbs and emerging claws—it was all so alien, so physical.
As she witnessed the unthinkable transformation, the past three months flashed through her mind. How many times Becca had chattered about changing into a kitten, how she wished she could do it on purpose, but she couldn’t, how it only happened sometimes, and not for very long, and it wasn’t scary but sometimes it hurt a little, and…
And then it was over, in far less than the minutes it took the strongest alpha wolf to shift. A tiny black kitten huddled, shivering, in the midst of Becca’s white Winnie the Pooh T-shirt and pink shorts.
The kitten, jet-black like her father—and cousin, and uncle—blinked her bright green eyes and mewled softly.
“Oh, baby,” Ally whispered in awe. For the space of one caught breath, she forgot their mortal danger, wonderstruck at the sight of Becca, a female shifter.
Was she the first? The only? If there were others, why did no one know about them, and why—
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”
Stapkis grabbed her arm again, much harder this time. It felt like it would snap under the pressure of his huge hand.
Ally yelped in pain.
Becca screeched in fright.
Stapkis whipped his head around, saw a cat in the backseat, and hollered, “What the fuck?” He shoved Ally against the passenger window, then reached back to grab Becca.
The kitten yowled again and leapt straight for Stapkis’ head, her claws digging into his scalp and face. He pulled her off and flung her away. Becca went sailing over the backseat. The Rover swerved off the road and bumped down to the gravel shoulder, fishtailing until Stapkis got his hands back on the wheel.
When Ally heard the tiny body hit the rear window, a white hot rage engulfed her. Bracing herself against the passenger door, she gave the werewolf a mighty kick across the jaw. Before he had a chance to recover, she planted another one in his ribs. Once she started kicking, she just couldn’t stop.
Which was unfortunate, because this time when Stapkis let go of the steering wheel and the Rover veered onto the gravel shoulder, it kept going. He was too busy blocking her kicks to regain control of the truck. As he struggled, his foot jammed the accelerator to the floor.
The Rover plunged into the dense brush, spinning and skidding a few feet before the rear end crashed sideways into a pine tree and the back window shattered.
“Run, Becca! Go!” Ally screamed.
Giving Stapkis one last kick to the face, she launched herself across the backseat.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Cade and Michael were in the Lexus before Stapkis reached the end of the street. Michael threw the car into reverse and was about to take off when Cade realized Dec and Dylan weren’t in the backseat.
MacSorley stood motionless on the sidewalk, one arm outstretched toward Dylan. But Dylan wasn’t looking at his uncle.
He was staring at Adnar, who’d appeared from—where? Nowhere. Thin air. The Fae hadn’t been on the sidewalk thirty seconds ago when Cade had leapt across the street and into the car.
Cade jumped out of the car. “Dylan! What are you doing?”
The teenager walked right up to the Fae and said something in a foreign language. Adnar listened for a moment. Then he said something. Dylan’s reply had a strange effect on the Fae. While his stoic expression didn’t alter, at least as far as Cade could tell, something in his posture, his demeanor, changed. If Cade had to guess, he’d have said the Fae appeared surprised.
The Fae raised his head. His eyes met Cade’s, and then Cade was certain. Something Dylan said had shocked him.
Cade reckoned he’d spent hundreds of hours in the past thirty-three years imagining what he’d do if he ever came face-to-face with his father’s killer. In some fantasies he was on two feet, in others, four. No matter what form he was in, every scenario ended with him ripping the bastard’s throat out.
Now, in the glow of
the fading afternoon sunshine, with his mate and his daughter in the hands of one enemy and his nephew inches from another, Cade did…nothing.
Adnar turned and disappeared.
Just like that. There one minute, gone the next.
Dylan elbowed MacSorley out of the way and slid into the backseat. MacSorley climbed in beside him, and Cade got back in the car.
“We’re not gonna wait for him to call, are we?” Michael asked.
“Fuck no. After him.”
They took off. The sedan was a little crowded with four large werewolves.
“What the bloody hell were you thinking?” MacSorley barked at Dylan.
“There he is,” Michael said. “I see the Rover.”
“Yeah, me too,” Cade replied. “Hang back. Keep him in sight, but I don’t want him—”
“I know how to tail someone, Cade.”
Michael was as scared as he was, and Cade loved him for it, so he ignored the insubordination. He dialed the ranch and told Seth to forward all calls straight to his Blackberry. He didn’t say anything about what had just happened.
“All right,” he said as he ended the call. “Just what the fuck was that about, Dylan?”
“I told Adnar that Stapkis kidnapped my little sister, and that we’re Eirny’s grandchildren, and that Eirny’s dead and it’s his fault.”
Silence greeted this announcement.
“What did you do that for?” Cade asked quietly.
“I figured we could use his help, and he owes us. Fae can move faster than wolves, you know. So I thought he could keep up with them until we got there.” He paused for a moment before continuing thoughtfully, “I don’t know if he could fight Stapkis, though.”
“No, he couldn’t,” MacSorley snarled. “They can move faster than wolves, and they have their talents, but high Fae are no stronger than humans. The really old purebreds like Adnar are usually weaklings. He’d be able to make Stapkis believe what he wanted him to. That’s it.”
“Well, I wouldn’t know that, would I? Since you’ve never told me about any of this, Uncle Dec.”
“If he tells Rufus to let the girls go, like he told the cops to release Dylan, Rufus would do it?” Cade asked.
“If the wolf didn’t eat him first, yeah.”
“So, what, this Adnar guy followed us from the ranch?” Michael interjected. “You think he could’ve been there for two days without us knowing it?”
“Shite, I don’t know. I’ve been looking for the wanker for two fucking days and for all I know, he’s been tracking me. Christ. When did I become so fucking useless?”
No one said anything to that. They rode in silence, maintaining a steady distance between themselves and the Rover.
In the rearview, MacSorley put his head back and closed his eyes.
“Dylan, d’you really think Adnar will feel guilty, pup? You don’t think he’ll try to attack one of us, one of the girls?”
“What’s he gonna do? Tell us to waste ourselves or something?”
MacSorley sighed. “No, he couldn’t do that. Only Michael would be susceptible to his talent. And I’m not sure about Michael.”
“What the fuck does that mean?” Michael asked.
“He came here to see Eirny, didn’t he?” Dylan interrupted. “He killed Jakob for her. Why would he try to hurt us?”
MacSorley made a startled sound and opened his eyes. “What? When did he kill Jakob?”
Dylan quickly—and, Cade noted, curtly—told his great-uncle about Jakob Lind’s body and the note accompanying it. The teenager had grown both quieter and more assertive, more confident, in his months on the ranch. Cade liked watching the wolf his nephew was becoming.
“The mad bastard,” said MacSorley, shaking his head. “God, I hate him.”
“He loved my grandmother, though, didn’t he?”
“If you want to call it that. He loved her so much he killed her children’s father.”
“Dec,” Dylan asked calmly, “what’s the deal with our family?”
Cade turned to the backseat again, surprised at the question. MacSorley appeared to take it in stride.
“It’s a long story, pup.”
“I mean the way I can understand languages and Cade can—”
“Yes, I know. I said, it’s a long story. Let’s get the girls back, then we can talk about it.”
“Hey!” Michael interrupted. “He just turned off the highway onto, onto—shit! He turned onto Fourmile!” He banged a hand on the steering wheel.
“Huh?” Cade turned back around. “Why would—God damn it! The son of bitch is squatting at the—”
“—Fourmile Inn,” Michael finished for him.
“Why the fuck didn’t anyone—?”
“I don’t know, Cade!” Michael shouted. “I don’t fucking know!”
“What’s so exciting about the Fourmile Inn, pups?” asked Dec.
“Nothing,” Cade said in disgust. “Just a bed-and-breakfast that closed about ten years ago because no one wanted to stay so far outside town.”
“It’s the only building on Fourmile Road,” Michael added. “If I wanted to hide out and plan an attack on someone I was stalking, that would be a real good place to do it.” He banged the steering wheel again, still cursing and muttering to himself. “I can’t believe we missed that. If we’d looked for the Fae out here, we could’ve—”
“Never mind, it doesn’t matter,” Cade said tightly. “I didn’t think of it either. Just speed up. I don’t care if he knows we’re behind him now.”
Fourmile Road was a literally descriptive name. While a werewolf could see much better than a human, he couldn’t see for a mile. By the time they turned onto the two lane blacktop, there was no other vehicle in sight.
“Faster,” he muttered, and Michael obeyed. Harrowing minutes passed as they flew down the empty road. Hoping to catch a whiff or a sound of the Rover, Cade rolled the window down.
What he heard, and what he didn’t smell, kicked the primitive wolf part of his brain into panic mode. When the change began, he knew he wouldn’t be able to stop it.
He heard Ally screaming for Becca. He heard Stapkis roaring wordless bellows of rage.
He could smell Ally. He could smell Stapkis.
He couldn’t smell Becca.
“Over there!” Michael shouted, pointing to the other side of the road.
The Rover was half on its side, the rear side crunched up against a pine tree, back window shattered, tailgate hanging.
Oh, Christ. Oh, Baby Girl.
The pheromones flooding his body—fear, alarm, aggression—had an immediate effect on the other wolves, who ripped off their seat belts. Dylan and MacSorley slammed against the front seat as Michael threw the Lexus into park. Cade pressed an elbow against his door and fell to the ground, gasping in agony as he struggled out of his clothes. He hadn’t changed involuntarily since his baptism by fire in the Rangers. The change was only painful if you fought it, and he couldn’t help fighting it, even though he knew it was useless.
“Michael,” he panted, “can you keep—? You need to stop, don’t—”
He couldn’t believe how fast he was changing. Less than a minute had passed but speech was almost impossible, the fur was pushing through his skin, his neck was stretching, his shoulder blades popping…
“I can do it, Cade,” Michael, panting heavily, replied from the other side of the car, “but I have to— I need—” Cade heard the effort in his second’s voice, knew how hard Michael was fighting the change.
“Go!” Cade screamed. “Go!”
Not even an alpha as strong as Michael could keep from changing if he was in close proximity to a Pack Alpha involuntarily shifting. Dylan would be changing right now. A beta like MacSorley wouldn’t have a chance…
MacSorley stood staring down at him, still two-footed and impossibly, unbelievably calm. He knelt beside Cade.
“Stop fighting it, pup. You’re almost done. Michael and I will do the thinking. You go
find Stapkis.”
For the first time, Cade was grateful for his uncle’s presence.
Change completed, the wolf raced after his enemy.
Stapkis’ fingers were iron bands around her ankle. She tried to kick, but she couldn’t get any leverage, stretched as she was across the backseat of the Rover, scrabbling furiously at the seat to steady herself.
“Becca! Go!”
The kitten arched her back, hissing and yowling, crouched amid the glass shards covering the floor of the cargo space.
Why wouldn’t she jump?
Stapkis yanked on Ally’s leg to drag her back. She dug her fingernails into the carpet but couldn’t grab hold of anything.
He growled as he pulled her back. She wiggled and kicked and fought as hard as she could, but a second later she was back in the front seat where she'd started.
He let go of her ankle and grabbed her by the hair, yanking her head so she was forced to look up at his mottled face and his crazy, crazy eyes. His breath stank.
“What happened to the kid? What did you do with her?”
Becca was still mewling in the cargo space. Ally had the most insane urge to giggle.
She tugged at his hand, but she couldn't dislodge it. He was pulling her hair so tight her eyes watered. Hoping to buy some time, she went limp. He relaxed his hold and she headbutted him straight in the nose.
It hurt like hell.
It hurt him worse. As the blood gushed, he dropped her head to put a hand to his face.
“You fucking bitch!” he roared.
This time, Becca. Please listen to me this time.
As she shouted for Becca to run, she kicked the passenger door. It went flying, and she with it. Her skull still ringing from the headbutt, she staggered for the first few steps, then ran around to the back of the Rover.
“Becca!”
The kitten sprang out of the cargo hold, sailing over Ally’s shoulder. Becca hit the ground and rolled. Then a streak of black fur disappeared into the trees.
Ally took off in the same direction, running for all she was worth, Stapkis right behind her.
She couldn't outrun a Pack Alpha. She just couldn't.
Yours, Mine and Howls: Werewolves in Love, Book 2 Page 28