by Cecilia Lane
Nolan lifted his snout to the sky and checked the passage of the sun as it dipped toward the horizon. He needed to turn back soon if he wanted to shower before meeting Becca.
He’d worked his shift at the firehouse, but when he stepped across the street to the coffee shop Becca hustled him out the door. She’d missed too much time behind the counter and Faith was having none of her sister leaving early.
Nolan resigned himself to running the enclave border. An unnecessary task with the protector force doing that duty with rotating teams. It gave him something to do and let him burn off some of his bear’s anxious energy.
When he thought about the hell Becca had gone through, he wanted to murder someone. More than a few someones. Every single damn person who sought to eradicate their kind or made excuses for those who took up arms.
And her suffering didn’t start there. Ten years of wandering from job to job, she said while he held her under the stars. It started the moment she left Bearden. He helped shove her on that path because he couldn’t get out of his damn head and support her the way she needed.
Never again. He had a chance to make it right, and he would not pass it up.
That morning, for the first time in years, he pulled out the old jewelry box from deep inside his sock drawer. It hadn’t ripped him up inside to pop it open and stare down at the tiny diamond on a plain gold band. He would give Becca that ring. Maybe not that night, maybe not for another ten weeks, but he was going to put it on her finger and make her his in every way.
He’d had a moment of doubt when she told him everything. To picture his Becca with blood on her hands. He’d wanted to walk away and let it all sink in. Hell, he still had trouble thinking it through without his vision going red and a growl rising from his core.
It wasn’t even that she killed. He understood that. Eat or be eaten, kill or be killed. Leaving someone behind, he got that, too. She thought Jacob was dead. What bothered him was something purely selfish.
She hadn’t trusted him enough to tell him.
Jacob knew. He was there, he saw her thrown into a cage and then taken away. Cole knew because Jacob told the man every single thought that popped into his head. Rylee knew since Cole couldn’t keep a secret from his mate.
But Becca didn’t want to tell him.
Acting on that hurt and shock was where he failed her before. He wasn’t a stupid kid anymore. He had to be a man, not a teenager pretending at one. He had to manage his head better. He needed to push through the uncomfortable parts and be there through it all. He couldn’t just drop in for the good bits. And clearly, she needed someone to have her back.
She still denied being a target of something and he still thought she was wrong. Too much coincidence and danger swirled around her for him to settle.
So he ran the border and searched for any scent that didn’t belong.
Something new filtered through the woods. Fur and something sour, like a spoiled mind.
Nolan growled. He knew that scent. Jacob had followed at a distance from the moment Nolan let his bear take his skin back at his cabin.
He’d evidently decided following was no longer needed.
Nolan would show him just how wrong he was. The man had an unhealthy need to be close to Becca. His mate. The primal side of him wanted to create as much distance between his woman and every unmated male in the enclave. No one would dare even hint about stealing her from him.
Grey flashed between tree trunks. He swung his head one way, then the other trying to track the beast. Jacob was fast. And big.
Not as big as him.
Nolan lumbered forward and whirled into the grey wolf when he ran straight for him. He swiped a paw and missed, just as Jacob pivoted to the side. He ran back through the trees with his tongue lolling out of his mouth.
Nolan growled. The wolf was playing with him.
He turned his back on the mutt and kicked a back paw to show his disgust. Cole would need to talk to the madman and make him understand sneaking around in the woods was a great way to get a chunk taken out of his hide.
He ignored the rustling around him until he passed a twisted cluster of tree trunks. Jacob leaned against one, naked as the day he was born.
“Shift.”
Nolan raised his lips in a snarl. The wolf had no power over him. No one could command him to change except his alpha and he’d be damned before he submitted to a mad dog like Jacob.
Jacob shrugged. “I’ve been asking around about you. I think I pieced together a bit of what happened. Whatever you do, don’t drive Becca away again.”
That got his attention. The sharp growl of his bear cut off as Nolan kicked the beast to the side and let his human half step forward. He shoved a finger toward Jacob even as he stepped into soft workout shorts dragged from a bag he usually carried when he went for a run. Fuck the shirt. He didn’t want to get blood all over it. “I don’t know what you fucking want with her, but I can assure you that you won’t get very far.”
Jacob smiled, but it didn’t touch his eyes. “I have no interest in her like that.”
“Then why are you so concerned about her?”
“She’s the last link to my pack. If she disappears, then I’m the only one who remembers them. And I can’t trust my head.”
The plaintive tone in the other man’s voice curbed Nolan’s urge to tear him apart. No one liked to think about losing their clan, or pack in Jacob’s case. It shredded the mind and turned men into shadows of their former selves. The few that survived generally turned rogue and shunned all shifter society because they couldn’t look at what they lost.
Nolan had no reference for comparison. The closest he came was separation from Becca, and that wasn’t even as bad as if she’d born his mate mark. Even so, he’d been in a dark ten years until she arrived back and gave him light.
He didn’t know how Jacob acted even remotely sane.
He pushed his bear to the back of his mind and let the last of his anger fall away. “I lost her once before. I don’t plan on losing her again.”
A nearby scream cut off anything else he could say. Both of them swung their heads toward the sound. Neither hesitated for a second before taking off.
Jacob shifted between one step and the next, dropping to all fours and shooting ahead of Nolan. Nolan put on a burst of speed. He’d get there faster on two feet than if he stopped to let his bear come forward after shifting so soon.
He followed the streaking grey wolf, dodging branches and tree trunks until they skidded to a stop.
A garish red tent stood in a small clearing. One inhale brought the stench of magic into his lungs. It was strong. Powerful enough to make him woozy without even stepping inside.
The faint smell of smoke lingered underneath the bubbly scent. On closer look, a grey smudge puffed out from the flap.
Jacob lifted his snout and whined at the scent.
Nolan felt at his pockets. Fuck! He’d left everything of importance at home. No phone, no keys, just him, a burning tent, and a dry summer forest all around.
“Go!” He shoved Jacob away from him. “Tell the others!”
He didn’t watch Jacob retreat. He hurried toward the tent. He was a firefighter. He had to make sure no one was inside.
A snapped twig caught his ear before he made it to the tent.
Nolan hurried around the other side and scanned the tree line for anything. A flash of color disappeared around a large trunk.
The noises of a scuffle reached his ears even before he rounded the tree. What he found there knocked the wind out of him and pressed his bear tight against his insides.
Becca’s eyes were wide and pure gold with an imminent shift, but no fur slid through her pores. Cloth stuffed and tied kept her words to a mumble.
Nolan inhaled. No blood. Not Becca’s anyway. Which meant Mara hadn’t shot her full of silver. Her hands were bound behind her back and probably in cuffs that kept her fox chained inside.
He took a step closer and Mara mov
ed her other arm to flash a gun.
“I had to know,” Mara murmured almost apologetically. “I had to know if what she said was true.”
Nolan took a cautious step forward. “Fae magic, right? Can’t trust a thing they say. Put the gun down and we can talk it through. Question her.”
“Not another step!” Mara ordered. Becca winced at the jerk on her hair and forceful press of the gun to her temple. “She won’t be talking. She’s dead.”
The crackle of fire reached his ears. The trail of smoke from the tent had thickened when he glanced toward the clearing. At least the fire hadn’t spread to the surrounding trees yet. There was still time to minimize that threat if Jacob summoned the firehouse fast enough.
Mara tossed something silver at his feet. “Put those on. I can’t have you giving us away before we clear the territory.”
He leaned down slowly and kept his eyes locked on Becca. Her jaw worked but no discernable words made it past the cloth stuffed there. He crouched, dug his hands into the dirt. If she could just jerk out of Mara’s grasp and tumble to the side...
“Put them on now or I blow out her brains!” Mara snapped. She pulled hard enough on Becca’s hair to force her to bend backward.
Nolan reached for the cuffs. The growl spilling out of his chest died down to a faint rumble as the metal snapped around one wrist.
“And the other,” Mara ordered. She stared hard at his hands until the second cuff clicked into place. “Stand. Slowly.”
When he was at his full height, she took a step and jerked her chin. “This way. We don’t have far to go.”
Her eyes were too wide and her breath heaved in her chest. She acted like someone was forcing her to march at gunpoint. He could use that. Maybe talk her out of whatever craziness she had planned. He could make nice long enough to get Becca apart from her.
“You don’t need to do this,” he said quietly. His bear lashed at his insides. His wrists burned where the silver touched him. They were loose enough that he could slip the bonds if he got a clear chance. He eyed the gun Mara switched from the side of Becca’s head to her back. He’d need to move fast if he hoped to save his mate any injury. “No one can trust what a fae says.”
“Do you think I want to do this? Too many lives depend on me.” Mara snapped her mouth shut and glared at him. “Keep quiet.”
True to her word, a van waited at the foot of a short hill. The rough road she’d driven was no better than a woodland trail.
Mara shoved Becca inside, then turned to Nolan. She trained the gun on him and grabbed his hands. She clamped down on both cuffs, ratcheting them tight against his skin. “Now you’re ready. Get in.”
“Not sure I want to go on a joy ride right now.”
Mara shifted the weapon to the side of him and fired. His ears rang with the closeness. Leaves and soil splashed into the air.
“Get. In.”
Teeth grinding together, Nolan slid in next to Becca. Her heart thumped too loud and fast. Fuck, she was slipping into a panic. He had to stop that slide before she was too far gone.
He reached for her thigh and squeezed. “I’m here, sweetheart. You’re not in this alone. I’m going to get you out of here.”
The door closed with a loud thud.
Chapter 22
Becca focused on the feeling of Nolan’s hand. That press against her thigh brought her out of her fear. It was just more evidence of their connection. They were both in danger and facing possible death, but they were doing it together and that soothed her frazzled instincts enough to think through the panic.
They were hurtling down the road when Nolan moved again to tug the scarf out of her mouth. “What happened?”
“Be quiet,” Mara growled.
“I fell for the dumbest trick in the book.” Becca changed the pitch of her voice to mock Mara. “Come help me in the back.” She glared into the rearview mirror and switched back to her normal tone. “Stepped through and bam, she knocked me out cold. I didn’t come to until that fae bitch was sucking on my fingers. Didn’t anyone ever tell you it’s not polite to force your kinks on others?” She aimed a sharp kick to Mara’s seat.
The words had been similar to what they heard from the crone the first time around. Prophecy of death riding into their lives with Becca kicking that particular dead horse forward. Her life was needed to keep others breathing.
It was a bunch of bullshit. The woman had eyes, no matter how cloudy with age they appeared. She’d been removed from Bearden because of the trick she played on Becca and Mara. Of-fucking-course she’d say the exact same words.
“Quiet!” Mara ordered. “I’m not afraid to shoot you.”
The real surprise came when Mara pulled out the gun and demanded more answers than the fae crone could give. Like how to keep her family alive and get them all out of the grasp of hunters. Sadly, the powers of her fortune telling didn’t extend to what was happening right in front of her.
The crone lunged as soon as Mara pulled the gun. Becca tried to make a graceful and hurried exit in the commotion. No skin off her back what happened to either of them. She didn’t want to be caught in the crossfire of magic and fur. She’d barely made it through the tent flap when the gun fired and Mara stalked past her to the van, then returned with a can of gasoline.
“Oh no, Mom’s going to stop the car!” Becca kicked the back of the driver’s seat again. “See, that’s what I don’t believe. If you wanted us dead, you’d already have done so. You need us for something. Where you taking us, Kitty?”
Yeah, she was getting mouthy. And no, she didn’t care. Mara would kill them or she wouldn’t. She’d rather die with an insult on her lips than give in to the fear that boiled nastily in her stomach.
“Becks,” Nolan warned. “Calm down.”
She gave him a withering glare. “Calm down? Calm down! We’re stuck in this fucking van with a homicidal maniac and you want me to calm down? Aren’t you the slightest bit worried where this bitch is taking us?”
“Nowhere good,” Mara muttered. For a brief moment, she had the decency to look conflicted.
Becca scowled. Mara wasn’t the one cuffed and stuffed in the backseat of a van.
Becca straightened when Mara slowed and turned down an unmarked road. They’d left behind major roads hours before. Fine hairs raised all over her body at the first bump of unpaved road. She’d been unconscious for her first trip into a compound run by hunters, but she’d been fully awake when she drove for long, silent miles away from that hell. The lack of neighbors was exactly the same.
Mara drove on for miles more before a cluster of buildings came into view. Paint peeled on all of them, showing varying amounts of wood underneath. The van’s tires crunched along slowly until Mara pulled to a stop in front of the second largest building.
Nolan pushed himself in front of her as soon as Mara hopped out from behind the wheel, but there was no stopping their enemy from unloading them and marching them through the barn doors.
Fear slithered through Becca’s veins. It wasn’t the same one or even half as run down, but the stench inside was forever branded into her memories.
Fear. Rage. Hate. Slavering beasts, some human, some shifted, and others halfway between, ran for the bars of their cages and snapped at them passing down the row.
None touched the bars, and she took a minute to hear why over the noise. The faint buzz underneath the snarls and growled promises to make them suffer gave away the electrified cages.
Hopelessness sank into her bones. She wanted to curl up and shut out the sights and sounds.
Tears would do her no favors. They’d only make the others crazier and her seem weak. She had to be strong if she wanted to survive.
And frankly, she was pissed. She’d already survived hunters once and coated herself in sins to do it. That she’d been tricked, captured, and dragged right back into the hell of her nightmares was just not fair. Fate could suck a big one.
When she glanced over her shoulder, she fou
nd Nolan looking upward. She followed his gaze. The bottom level of the barn packed full cages from one end to the other, yes. But the top level held guards with guns. The end of the row led to a thick set of doors, and above that was a sheet of mirrored glass. Becca guessed anything that truly mattered was locked away tight and gave someone inside a view of the floor below.
Much more sophisticated than her previous captors.
The doors at the end of the row swung open as Mara pulled them to a stop in front of an empty cage. A giant of a man with a scarred and scowling face stomped toward them. He flicked a dismissive glance at her, calmly appraised Nolan, then addressed Mara. “Big Man wants a word.”
“In a minute. I’m getting the new ones—”
The behemoth struck without warning and Mara’s head snapped to the side with the force of the blow. “Now. Or you’ll be in there with them.”
Mara didn’t even have the decency to wish them goodbye before she scurried toward the door the man had exited. Bitch.
A large hand clamped over Becca’s shoulder and prodded her forward. She stumbled inside with Nolan on her heels. The cage door shut with a hard clink that rattled her innards.
“Female. Back up and put your hands through the bars.”
Becca’s hackles rose. She was a person with a name, not what was between her legs. Being relegated to her gender didn’t bode well for the situation. The electrified cages and crazed beasts howling around her didn’t exactly make for a warm welcome. But he was stripping her of everything that might make her sympathetic.
It made her easier to kill.
“Your turn, male.” As soon as the cuffs were off Nolan’s wrists, the man took a step back and waved to the mirrored glass overhead. “Turn it up!”
A high-pitched whine of electricity surrounded them. Her fox was free to step forward, sure, but that buzz hurt their ears. Becca grimaced. No wonder so many of the others looked insane. The noise of it would drive anyone crazy.
Nolan passed a hand near the barrier. The man rolled his eyes. “Don’t be an idiot. I don’t want to clean up the body tonight. Fry your eyeballs out tomorrow if you must.”