Mazy stood tall, her beautiful cherry hair long and loose like I loved it. The straight strands cascaded down her shoulder. Tucked under Mazy’s arm was a shorter version of herself. So similar, yet different. Mazy’s molten brown eyes looked red in the right light. The other girl’s eyes were gray, making her immediately seem older than her youthful face. She appeared to be in her late teens, and Mazy looked a little younger than she did now. Not so many worry lines around her lips, or eyes.
The other girl in the picture’s hair was a shade darker than Mazy’s, but they shared the same nimble jawline, same nose and lips. It was obvious they were related. And fuck, the rhino had seen the picture. Who was this girl to Mazy, and where was she now?
I stuffed the frame in the bag, knowing that I would have to research my mate a little more. It didn’t sit well that I barely knew the woman who was mine. After grabbing more articles of clothing, I decided to leave the rhino behind. At this point, all that was important to Mazy was coming with me. There was a pile of clothes with her purse next to the coffee table that had her freshest scent; I snagged those too before heading out.
I started down the stairs of her apartment building, digging through her purse and pulled out her phone. It didn’t even have a password to unlock the phone, and I sighed heavily. Mazy. She was apparently a little too trusting. I scrolled through her phone, trying to decipher the mystery of the woman in the picture with her. She was the key to finding Mazy now, I felt it in my bones.
The problem was that Mazy had run, and she had escaped in her animal form from her discarded clothes as a clue. It meant she could be anywhere. Her animal was much smaller than mine, cunning, and right now I’d assume desperate. She would go where she felt secure or where she would feel needed.
Mazy would also be naked when she shifted back, which led me to believe she might go to a friend’s or she would try for the club. She was the assistant manager there, and I knew Dominic was edging close to promoting her to full-time manager. She wouldn’t stay there, though. No. So the hunt would begin.
***
The duffle pack, my borrowed sweatpants, and flannel of Mazy’s all smelled like her. It was torture on the drive back to my apartment. I couldn’t get away from her scent and it was dragging me into its heady depths. Though the mystery around my mate had thickened, it didn’t dampen my desire for her—my desperate need to make her mine in every way possible. And fuck it, what I wouldn’t do to be owned by her; her sharp little canines biting into the soft skin at the base of my neck. A wave of desire flashed through me.
If I didn’t stop thinking with my dick soon, I would crash, and then we would both be in a whole hell of amount of trouble. Shifter healing was fast, but it wasn’t a miracle worker. A small break in the bones could take hours to heal, a serious break could take days, even a couple weeks.
The drive back was as quick as I could make it. I dropped my bike off and headed across the street. I had to check up on my programs, and then I would have to begin my research on Mazy and the mystery woman in her picture.
Once inside of my building, I headed up to the apartment and dropped off Mazy’s things. I grabbed my own clothes; dark jeans and a black shirt. The mirror I passed showed purple bruising on my jaw; it would heal in a couple hours. The cut above my eye even started to look better. Fucker had almost hit the hole where my eyebrow piercing sat. I had the hole done with silver, which halted the healing process in shifters. I tucked a new piece in and walked downstairs to my main hub.
The programs were still running, still needing a bit more time. The whole interlude with the rhino had taken an hour. An hour of Mazy missing, out there with more potential bounty hunters and mercenaries on her tail.
Chapter 7
Mazy
The trip to the facility took longer than I wanted. To keep my scent scattered and ensure that any people who were following me were confused, I changed busses a couple of times. If it was really Asher, there was no point because he was probably waiting at Mallory’s side for me to arrive. I still didn’t believe it was him. It was wrong for me to think the shady shifter wouldn’t go against his word, but my mongoose begrudgingly trusted him. And she was even more protective of Mallory than I was. If that was even possible.
My flip-flops clacked loudly against the tile floors, and I wished that I could take them off and walk barefooted through the halls so I wouldn’t disturb anyone. The sandals barely constituted as shoes in the first place. I kept moving forward, though, and held those thoughts in.
The lobby looked more like a hotel lobby. The front was a wall of windows with fake plants lining the edges, giving the place the illusion of a little more life. Fake pieces of plant felt fitting for this place. The front desk where people could check in stood off to the side and was empty. The facility was always open, but it wouldn’t shock me that the front desk girl either had to go the bathroom or rushed off to get some food. It was easier this way; then I didn’t have to explain to the girl the pact I made with some of the other workers here.
Through the lobby, I walked to the back elevator, keeping my head down. The nurses passed quietly but quickly, always in a rush to save lives. The doctors moved a little slower next to their counterparts, exhaustion weighing heavily on many of their shoulders as I passed by them. Dark circles under their eyes seemed to be part of the dress code, and I fit in perfectly. My limbs felt heavy with the weight of recent events dragging me down. The elevator dinged and stuttered to a stop. I closed my eyes, holding back the small bout of nausea that curled my stomach.
I hated elevators. Normally, I would have opted for the stairs, but I didn’t think I would be able to climb up four sets of stairs. The building was a branch of the hospital and housed the psych ward, the short term memory hall, rehabilitation patients, and coma patients. Mallory was on the fourth floor, the highest.
The lights in the hallway were still on, even this late in the night. I don’t think I had ever seen the lights off in the main walkways in this place. It wasn’t visiting hours, but the nurses turned a blind eye to me once I told them the situation at work. As long as I didn’t disturb any of the other patients and was very quiet, I could visit. I had been doing this for the last six months when Mallory’s health took a turn for the worse.
I walked as quietly as I could to her room. The door was shut, and I slowly turned the knob. Every time I turned the knob, I had a moment of hope that when I walked in she would finally wake up. It was a stupid hope, and I knew it wouldn’t happen. Instead, the room remained quiet aside from the machines that worked constantly to keep Mallory comfortable and alive.
“Hey, baby sister,” I whispered as I shut the door behind me. I could see easily in the dark and walked over to the side of her bed. Her cheeks used to be round with life, plump and adorable. She would hate me if she heard me call her that. She was four years younger than me, and she would be turning twenty-one this year. She should be getting prepared for a big party to get super drunk off of shots, but instead she was here.
But at least she was safe. The only scents that surrounded her were the normal ones of the different nurses and doctors who watched over her. Mallory was a latent. Her animal never emerged. And it wouldn’t unless she met her mate. Under her current condition, that was going to be impossible.
The people here took very good care of her. Her hair looked freshly washed, and even with all the tubes and constant streams of synthetic food pumping through her, her skin didn’t look sickly pale. Just her natural light hue. Her hair was a shade darker than mine, and I was always envious of it. She had inherited our father’s silver eyes. Whether she would take after our mother, like me, or our father in her animal might be a mystery we would never solve. I didn’t care if she ever shifted. All I wanted was my sister back.
My parents and Mallory had been in a car accident almost two years ago. Unfortunately, our parents had passed and Mallory had awoken from the trauma, but the following months had been difficult for her. She had been in
and out of surgeries until she became stable. She had always been an old soul in my opinion, but she was still very young at heart and never knew a life outside of my parents. I had moved out when I turned eighteen, went to college, and started my own life. She remained at home and commuted to school. Not to say I didn’t love our parents as much as she did, because I did, but I knew how to live without them, or rather barely survive.
Mallory had nothing else. The blow hit her even harder because she didn’t have her animal. I think she hoped one day she would find her mate and be able to finally show our parents the animal that was suppressed inside of her. Either way, Mallory’s health had been turning back around. She been doing better until she had another accident. The car accident had been so bad that both her legs broke, one in multiple places, and the other was less severe but still broken. She’d been in physical therapy and hadn’t waited for her physical therapist and tried to walk on her own. She’d fallen and hit her head hard enough to jar old injuries. It domino effected on her.
Asher was already in the picture at this point, and I had to add more to my loan. He knew about my business, as he made it his business. It scared me to know that he had that much power over me. I didn’t have many friends, none really other than the people at the club because after losing my parents, Mallory had become my top priority. The thought never occurred to me until now that maybe Asher was the cause of her second accident.
Fear swelled in my gut. He wouldn’t do that, would he? And then he would send a goon after me? Nothing seemed to be adding up, and he wasn’t here, no unknowns were here. But it calmed me knowing that she was still safe.
As much as I wanted to sit in the chair next to her bed and catch up on a few hours of sleep before I had to face the day, I couldn’t afford to have someone find me here and use Mallory against me. The only people who knew about her were me, Asher, and distant relatives who had cut all ties after my parents mated.
The less people that knew about her right now the better. I would have to use the remainder of my money to find a cheap hotel to hide in while I got a burner phone to call Asher and figure out my next move.
I stepped a little closer to Mallory and took her hand in mine.
“Please wake up soon, little sister.” Leaning forward, I pressed a light kiss on her forehead. “You’re all I have.”
“Not anymore.”
My heart jumped into my throat. I had been so caught up in my own thoughts and in being with Mallory that I didn’t smell him coming, or even hear him. His scent drifted in, a mix of the salty ocean breeze and the heady scent of a masculine spice that was all him.
“How did you find me, Lucas?” The heart that had been in my throat seconds before dropped deep into my stomach. Was he here for me, too? Had Asher called in bigger guns? Oh gods … would Lucas really take me in? Maybe he didn’t feel the draw of our mating like I did. But I couldn’t stop to think of the night he snuck into the guest room in his house and how he slept next to me. I remembered the burn of his erection through my night shirt. Gods, how I wanted to feel more of it. Immediately I felt guilty for having a mate when my sister—who really did need hers now more than ever—might never meet her mate.
“I will always find you, Mazy.” His voice halted like there was more he wanted to say, but he swallowed the words down. I turned around, fearful that he was here to take me away.
“Who sent you?”
“Nobody sent me, Mazy. I came to you.”
“But why?”
He raised his pierced brow at me like it was obvious.
“You’re mon cher. My mate.”
“You knew?”
“Merde, of course I knew. I’ve always known.”
His response left me breathless. Anger and lust were at battle inside of me. But disbelief that this conversation was finally happening took the lead. I looked over my shoulder at my sister, who was still lost in her own mind, unable to break free from her prison.
“I can’t talk about this right now, Lucas.”
Why did he pick right now to have this conversation?
“It’s the middle of the night.”
“Yes.”
“My sister is in a coma behind us.”
“Yes.”
“Why now, Lucas?”
“You have a bounty on your head, which I suspect you are aware of, otherwise you wouldn’t be here right now or running around the city so late at night.”
My head started to spin. I had a bounty on my head. I had thought simply that Asher had hired the one goon, but this wasn’t his style. Nausea rolled in my stomach as I thought of the men that would come after me. Not only me but … Mallory.
“You came to tell me that you want to recognize our mating because I have a bounty on my head?” I asked, still trying to wrap my head around the fact I had a bounty out for my death.
“Yes and no.”
My top lip lifted in a confusing look. Had he lost his damned mind?
“I don’t really think this is the time to have this conversation.”
I had to come up with a plan. I couldn’t move Mallory, that was out of the question. But …
“Do mercenaries or bounty hunters usually go after family members?”
“No.”
I nodded and started to pace the small room.
“What happened to her?” Lucas asked, staying close to the entrance. I appreciated that he didn’t move closer; though my animal knew him and claimed him as hers, she still was wary of him being near Mallory. Lucas didn’t know her; he wasn’t really mine yet either.
“Car accident that led to head trauma, which put her in a coma.”
“I’m sorry, Mazy.”
“It’s fine. She’ll get better.” She will. Even if I have to start bringing men in here who might be her mate just to jumpstart her animal. I knew, I just knew that if I could get her animal side to awaken that she could heal and beat whatever it was inside of her that held her back.
At this point, most people would have probably considered taking their loved ones off the machines, allowing them to slip away. I couldn’t do that. Not when I knew there was a chance. But I had to keep her alive. If bounty hunters and mercenaries would stay away from her then there really was only one option. I would have to leave her for now. Until I could find out who had put a bounty on my head and … oh gods. I couldn’t kill someone. Could I?
My gaze drifted back to my sister, who looked far too small on the bed. For her, I thought I would be able to do it. I could give Lucas, a badass brawler of a bear, a black eye without a second thought. I wasn’t scared of many things but … taking a life? That was a new ballgame.
“What are you thinking so hard about?” Lucas’s smooth, Cajun accent fluttered the butterflies in my stomach. A lightbulb went on.
“I’d like to contract you.” I twisted on my heel so that I faced him.
Lucas’s brows were pinched together, and his lips were tight. With a watchful eye, he took a step forward, crossing his sizable arms across his chest. “Excuse me?”
“I would like to hire you to not only protect me but to kill someone for me.”
He let out a humorous laugh that sent chills down my spine. I had never seen Lucas this way; he was normally the lighthearted flirt out of their group. The laugh belonged to a different man than the one that I thought I knew. But really, how much did I know about the man? My mongoose claimed him as hers; she wanted to press her forehead against his, nuzzle her temple against his. She had many affectionate ideas about him.
“I will pay you.”
“You will not.” Lucas took another step forward, dropping his arms to his side. Suddenly the space between us felt too slim. Too close. He was all consuming. I peeked up at him, feeling the nerves in my muscles. This was a foolish idea.
“I have to keep her safe. This is the only way. Please.”
He stood only centimeters from me, but he didn’t touch me. His heat pressed deliciously close, and my insides melted thinking of th
e kiss he had given me hours ago. I couldn’t believe it had just been hours. I was tall, but he was huge. I tipped my head back to look at him.
“There is another way, mon cher.”
“How?” Gods, why was my voice so breathless?
“Agree to be my mate. Let me be yours, and you can be mine. We will figure this out together.”
“I’m not in this for a one night type of thing, Lucas. I know how you are. I will pay you.” I took a step back, feeling the shame of my words creeping up my neck. I hated that he didn’t even look marginally offended. Lucas was a risk I was too scared to take at the moment.
“Fine, contract me. But, by the end of this contract, we will be mated. Because I promise you, Mazy, you’re my mate.”
Chapter 8
Lucas
I assumed she meant for her words to hurt me. She wasn’t incorrect. Mazy would be just the type of woman I would go after. She was strong-willed, feisty, and willing to fight for what she believed in. On top of all those things, she was absolutely stunning.
“Say your good-byes, you won’t be able to see her for a while. I don’t want to keep you separated, but it’s for the best.”
Mazy nodded, her eyes misting over as she turned to her younger sister. Mazy didn’t have to tell me anything about her sister, I’d done my research before coming over. It broke my heart that Mazy had lost all her family besides her sister who was now in a coma. What I didn’t know was how Mazy had been paying for her care before she started at Lucky’s. Lucky’s had not been an openly shifter bar until Dominic took it over, and I didn’t know if she worked there beforehand, but from the records I pulled, she had only been working at Lucky’s for about ten months.
The time would come when I would ask her where the money for her sister’s health care came from, but right now she needed a moment. I honestly didn’t know how long she’d be parted from her sister. The program to trace where her bounty came from was still working. It kept finding ghosts in the system—fake accounts that led to dead ends, but I would eventually find the right one. Meanwhile, I’d run the program to remove her bounty. But it didn’t mean that others had stopped looking for her. They might have been on her trail before I could get it down, and not all mercenaries stopped because the name disappeared. Sometimes the prize at the end was a little too good to give up.
Contracted: Mercenary Shifters (Mercenaries for Hire Book 3) Page 4