by Vivi Andrews
“How did this happen?” she snapped out, without taking her attention off her patient.
It wasn’t looking good for him. The wound in his neck would have killed a human, and even a shifter would be hard pressed to come back from something like that. They’d probably picked this location for the prisoners because it was remote, but without quick access to the infirmary soldier-boy was most likely screwed.
“I-I don’t know,” the other boy stammered, rocking himself as he watched Grace work to save his friend’s life. “I don’t know how she could have gotten a hold of a knife. We were outside—threats come from the outside,” he babbled, gaining momentum now. “We’re trained for external threats! No one told us they would try to kill one another. We didn’t even hear anything. Then she started screaming. The girl was dead, blood everywhere, and the woman was moaning and screaming, covered in blood. Parker thought she was dying so he went to check on her and—” He made a vague gesture with his hands, swallowing with visible effort. “I didn’t know what to do. I had to help Parker, didn’t I?”
Another of the prisoners pressed both hands to a wound in her thigh, watching their attempts to save the guard with large, silent eyes.
“How many escaped?”
The boy looked around, confused, surveying the remaining prisoners who huddled in corners around the room. “Three? Four? I think four. Or it could have been three—”
“Where is Parker’s tranq gun?”
The boy paled, looking around frantically as he folded both hands over his own gun protectively. “I—oh God, I saw him drop it. But it isn’t—the man. The tall one. He took it. When the bloody woman stabbed Parker, she just ran but the first man who followed her stopped to pick something up. It must have been the gun, right?”
He didn’t know. Dominec couldn’t imagine that kind of sloppiness. But then he couldn’t imagine leaving two virtually untrained kids as the only guards for a house full of Organization assholes.
Three had gotten away. Maybe four.
There was no one here to protect her from—the prisoners who remained looked too weak to be threats. He couldn’t help her heal the wounded guard. But hunting, that was something he could do.
The trails were fresh. Three of them—though one was so heavily layered with blood it might have masked another scent. Another had a tinge of sickness to it. One wounded, one sick. The third shot off to his left. Dominec turned in that direction, identifying it as the most likely threat.
He kept his human form—it was too easy to kill as the tiger and Grace wanted these assholes alive, for some inexplicable reason. The going was slower on two feet rather than four, but not by much. The human had a head start, but that wouldn’t help him much. It must have been days since he bathed since the scent was potent enough Dominec didn’t even have to slow to follow it. The fool must be running randomly—he’d changed course twice and was now pointed back toward the heart of the pride, which was doubtless the last place he wanted to be running.
Dominec heard him before he saw him, crashing through the brush. Typical fucking human. He was a tall man and wore one of the Organization’s security uniforms. He had once been muscular and even now still carried more bulk than most of the other prisoners. He moved like a freight train, panting heavily, and Dominec was almost tempted to let him run himself into the ground—but there were at least two other prisoners loose and he didn’t have time to play.
The asshole never saw him coming.
Dominec grabbed a sturdy branch. Moving quick and fast, he overtook the human from behind, striking him once on the back of the head. The man’s momentum carried him forward to crash to the earth on his face. Dominec stood with his branch ready and flipped the man with his foot, ready for him to leap to his feet and fight. Eager for the chance to throw a few punches. But the bastard couldn’t oblige.
Out cold.
From one measly hit.
Humans.
Dominec flipped aside the branch, stripped the man of the tranq gun he’d tucked into his belt and considered the dead weight sprawled on the ground in front of him. Dragging his heavy ass all the way back to the prisoner’s cabin was not high on his wish list, but he hadn’t thought to bring anything to tie the bastard up with so he couldn’t very well leave him here.
Dominec bent, grabbing the man by one wrist and his belt and slung him, as best he could, over his shoulder in a modified fireman’s carry, grunting under the weight.
He hadn’t thought he’d gone that far in pursuit, but with his cargo the trudge back to the prisoner’s cabin seemed to stretch. By the time he got back to the little ravine that housed the cabin, it was a hive of activity. He stopped in a dense part of the woods above the clearing, letting his baggage slide down to the ground as he surveyed the movement below.
Grace was outside, her hands wiped clear of the worst of the blood. She directed the swarming security personnel—most of whom were still too young and green for any sort of responsibility—as she spoke to the Hawk and his pretty pet doctor.
Dominec bent to collect his prize again and take it down to toss at her feet, but before he could do more than grab one meaty wrist, Grace broke away from the Hawk and Dr. Russell, jogging over to greet a pair of newcomers, her face etched with relief.
Kelly and Xander.
He’d heard her call them for backup. Her two ex-lovers. He’d heard how automatic it was for her to reach out to them.
She hadn’t called him for help. Even after last night.
He had failed her before. She might have said it meant nothing to her, but clearly on a deeper level she acknowledged his failure. She knew instinctively that he didn’t deserve her.
But neither did they.
The Hawk took flight and Grace ran into the woods on two feet, already directing half of her young security forces to shift and the other to stay human as they began the search. Thanks to the big bastard’s circling, Dominec had not approached the ravine from the same direction he’d left it, so the trackers raced away from him, completely missing him standing there watching them fan out.
Dr. Russell slipped into the cabin as the rest of the security team raced away, leaving only Xander and Kelly guarding the door.
Xander and Kelly.
The two Grace had called for.
The two she thought were good enough for her. The two she trusted to protect the prisoners. It would be so easy to drop them both. His hand flexed around the tranq gun he didn’t even remember drawing. She deserved to know they would fail her. He needed to prove that he was stronger, faster, better.
Kelly was speaking, saying something flirtatious into his comm device. Xander at least tried to be vigilant, but his eyes were glazed and bruised from lack of sleep.
Xander looked up a moment before the dart hit him in the throat. Kelly never even saw it coming.
Dominec nudged them each with a foot, unsure what to do now—go back for the unconscious prisoner he’d left just beyond the clearing?—when a whisper of sound inside the cabin caught his attention. The door wasn’t quite pulled shut. He nudged it and it creaked ominously open. Dr. Russell looked up from the prisoner with the thigh wound, the expression on her face making it clear he looked exactly like a horror movie villain. Ironic, when her people were the masters of horrors.
“Hello, Doc. Fancy meeting you here.”
The good doctor met his eyes, fear vivid in hers. “Where are Xander and Kelly?”
“I didn’t kill them. They’re just taking a little nap outside.” Everyone was always assuming he was murdering people left and right. Though he supposed Dr. Russell had a right to think that, all things considered.
He pocketed the tranq gun in a show of good faith, giving it a little twirl in an attempt to lighten the mood that obviously fell flat. Rachel sidled away from her patient and he kicked the door shut, moving to crouch in front of her, trying to make
himself a less threatening presence.
“You smell like the bird.”
The doc nodded. “I’m on your side. I helped one hundred and fifty-two shifters escape from the Organization. I got them out.”
“You didn’t get me out.”
No one had gotten him out. All his years in hell and no one had been looking for him. No one had been fighting for him. It wasn’t a condemnation, just a fact.
“No. I didn’t,” she whispered.
His control was slipping. He could feel it happening, his teeth sharpening. The scents of these humans…the same humans who had bent him until he broke.
And he had broken. That was his great secret. He had buckled beneath the force of them. They hadn’t just shattered him, they had mastered him. These people who huddled against the walls and gazed at him, smelling like prey.
“You think I’m crazy?” he asked the good doctor.
“No.”
“I am. I’m a killer.” He smiled, though she cringed from the sight. He tipped his head, letting the light play vividly over his scars. “But I wasn’t always. Your Organization did that.”
“They aren’t mine,” she whispered. “We’re on the same side.”
“So you’ll let me kill these people?” he asked, indicating the prisoners who watched silent as ghosts, still as juicy rabbits. “You won’t stand in my way?”
The doctor trembled. “I can’t do that either.”
Brave little thing. No wonder the Hawk loved her to hell and back. “I can smell your fear.” But she didn’t let it stop her. He could almost admire that.
“I know.”
“Smells good.” She smelled like prey. Like temptation. Like hunger about to be sated.
It would be so easy. Going back to that cold hard place where everything was icy and calm. Where there was no confusion. Where his chest didn’t ache on a daily basis. It was simple being the monster.
It would be so easy.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Grace knew something was wrong as soon as Kelly stopped flirting.
There was a chance he was just pissed at her because of how they’d left things last night, but he’d been downright playful all morning in the car, offering to let her use his body as a pillow if she wanted to nap, and now nothing. Silence.
“Kelly,” she barked into the comm. “Status.”
Empty static crackled back. Grace cursed, waved the rest of her team to continue the search and pivoted, jogging back toward the cabin. “Xander. Status.”
Nothing.
“Fuck fuck fuck.” She turned her jog into a sprint, though her muscles were starting to protest being pushed to the max again so soon after her first race to the cabin. Not to mention the workout she’d given them last night and the sleepless night.
Those assholes better not be fucking around on the job.
They weren’t fucking around. They were unconscious.
Grace cursed. If another of the prisoners had gotten hold of a tranq gun—
She burst into the cabin and drew up short, gaping.
Dominec stood there, casual as anything, watching over the prisoners as if it was the most natural thing in the world as Rachel tended to the wounded Grace hadn’t been able to prioritize.
Which didn’t explain what Kelly and Xander were doing on the ground out front.
“Dominec, what the fuck?”
He gave her a nod and walked past her into the night. Of course he did. The asshole. Why should he explain his completely inexplicable behavior when he was so damn good at just walking the fuck out?
It was beyond tempting to go after him and tackle him to the ground, keep him from walking away, but Rachel was there, slumped against the wall, and the stench of fear was thick in the air. This need was more immediate.
“How did you know?” Rachel gasped.
“Kelly wasn’t responding. He’s a pain in the ass on security detail because he can’t go for five seconds without flirting over the comms, but he’d been silent for almost ten minutes. Figured he had to be unconscious or dead,” Grace said, still glaring out the front door, though she couldn’t see Dominec’s retreat any longer.
“Dominec tranqed him.”
Grace barely stopped herself from snapping at the obviousness of the comment. The question was why Dominec had tranqed him. To get a shot at the prisoners? If so, why hadn’t he done anything? Out of jealousy? If so… “He’s going to be a problem.”
“Wasn’t he always?”
Grace pulled a face and turned to Rachel. “Believe it or not, he was keeping together relatively well before. But ever since the raid where we picked up you, when he went batshit crazy, he’s been chugging the extra special psycho Kool-Aid.” Which wasn’t the whole story and wasn’t entirely fair, but she wasn’t feeling particularly fair at the moment.
“Lucky us,” Rachel grumbled.
“Lucky you.” If he had been going after the prisoners… “How are you still alive, Doc?”
“I reminded him I was on his side.”
“And that worked?” Was he actually going to become a team player now?
“I’m alive, aren’t I? Did you find Madison?”
Madison. Rachel had personal experience with the Organization’s uber bitch who had been hiding her identity among the prisoners by pretending to be a low-level lackey. The same piece of work who had stabbed Parker in the throat and led the escape. Even as Grace had run back to the cabin, she’d kept an ear on the chatter from the tracking party—who were resorting to a grid search since Madison’s trail had dead ended into the lake.
The Hawk might have eyes on her, but he couldn’t wear comms as a bird so she had no way of knowing.
And they still had to find the other three.
She wanted to go after Dominec, to hold him down until he finally told her what the fuck his deal was, but she was a Lone Pine lieutenant and he couldn’t be her top priority now.
Grace brought Rachel up to speed and then reached for her cell to call anyone who wasn’t already assigned a task to come help her get the doc and her patients back to the infirmary.
It was going to be a long night.
“I heard someone tranqed Xander and Kelly. Did you finally get tired of them panting after you and decide to put them out of their misery?”
Grace rubbed at tired eyes and glared at her Alpha. “I’m the funny one. When you try to be funny, it’s just sad.” But she hadn’t felt very funny lately and now was no exception.
Madison was still on the loose. The Hawk was still tracking her, as far as they knew. The other three escaped prisoners had been recaptured—one of whom was found unconscious within throwing distance of the cabin, covered in Dominec’s scent. Which just added to the what the fuck that was surrounding him lately.
The remaining security forces were doing a grid search for Madison—but it would take a while. Lone Pine was huge.
Grace would rather be out in the middle of the search herself, but Roman had called her up to the Alpha’s mansion, sending Kye out in her place—and she couldn’t even argue against that since Kye was fresher and had the best nose in the pride.
“Patch thinks I’m funny,” Roman said, sprawling behind the massive desk he’d inherited from Greg when he took over as Alpha.
“Patch is humoring you.”
“I don’t think she knows how to humor me,” he rumbled. “It’s one of the reasons I need her.” He rocked forward in his chair, bracing his arms on the desk. “Which leads me to the reason I called you up here. You never humor me either. In fact when Patch and I first got together you were the only one who was brave enough to give me shit about it until I did the right thing.”
“Are you sure this is the best time to be talking about your feelings, boss? We kind of have a lot of shit going down right now.”
�
��Which is why I wanted to talk to you now. I need a Second.”
The words were so unexpected—and her brain was so tired—it took her a solid three count before she could make sense of them. “Are you asking me?”
“I was hoping I could just command it to be so, but yeah. I guess I’m asking.”
“But Hugo…”
“Was Greg’s Second. Unofficially. But the pride was smaller then and dealing with a lot less shit, as you put it. I need someone who can speak for me. Like you did with the wolves. And someone who isn’t afraid to tell me when I’m being an ass. Someone who respects Patch and will listen to her as well as to me. And someone who will always put the pride first. Seems to me that’s you.”
Alpha’s Second. She still couldn’t quite wrap her brain around it. The only—completely unwelcome—thought that kept pinging around in her head was that her parents might finally understand that what she was doing was valuable. But she couldn’t take the job just because of that.
She couldn’t think of a single reason not to take it—but she also knew she wasn’t thinking particularly clearly at the moment. “Can I think about it?”
“Yeah. Of course. Take some time to think it over. Just give me your answer by Sunday.”
“Right. And what’s today?”
He grinned at her tone. “Monday.” His eyes flicked to the clock, where it showed past midnight. “Technically Tuesday.”
They’d made it back before Thanksgiving after all. She should touch base with her parents. Talk to Dominec about his latest episode. Check in with Mateo. And the wolves… And…
Her brain shut off in protest.
“You should get some sleep,” Roman said, rising. “But before you go, Patch wanted me to ask you how picking one of your suitors worked out.”
Grace stood as well, making a face. “It wasn’t as cut and dried as I’d hoped. I forgot all men are brain damaged from testosterone poisoning.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“You can’t help it. It’s your curse.”
“You sure you didn’t tranq Kelly and Xander?”
“It was Dominec, actually.”