He had chosen well for his second in command. “Yes. Definitely keep it off the gossip line. She’s helping with a case and was kidnapped from my home in broad daylight. There will be justice. No one takes someone under my protection without facing the consequences.”
As he spoke, he saw Kamiakin’s pupils dilate as well as smelled the whiff of fear. Good. Not that he wanted his lieutenant afraid, but if he sounded that serious about it, Kamiakin would make sure the rest of the pack mobilized.
“What else do we know? Anything?”
“Whoever did this is also involved with the murders of the woman of our pack.” Nolan filled Kamiakin in on the trap which had been set up for him the last time he had tracked the killers into the forest and how Alex had saved him.
“Shit, cousin,” his second in command said, falling back on familial ties. “If she’s caught by her pack, she’ll be torn to shreds. They’ll take it as disloyalty, and I know what they do to their pack members who’re disloyal. Remember my sister? They killed her mate because he aligned himself with her rather than one of the females in his own pack. It was a horrible death. I helped her bury him.” The worried look on his face did not help Nolan.
“I remember. We have to get Alex back. She’s their healer, so even if they’ve discovered the truth of her secret, she might get leniency.”
“I don’t think I’d like their brand of leniency,” Kamiakin mumbled. “Any ideas where they might have taken her?”
The feelings of anguish ripped through him like a hot knife cuts butter. “I don’t know, but I’m going to find her.” Already the beast is fighting to get out. “As soon as I’ve filed an official missing persons report with the sheriff, we’ll have an emergency meeting of our security detail and anyone who’s good at tracking.”
***
A sheriff’s vehicle pulled into the driveway. The sheriff got out, and met Kamiakin who escorted him through the house, verbally noting the broken door as they walked in but also finding the destroyed kitchen door. He wrote up an initial report, and then called it in, asking for a forensic team to be sent out.
“We’ll take care of this, Detective,” the sheriff started. “But if she’s gone more than twenty-four hours, the FBI will have to be called in, as you already know.”
Yeah, he knew. It was why he did not care who took over jurisdiction now. Plus, he hoped to find her by then. “Thanks, Sheriff. I appreciate the help.”
The sheriff left with the caution to stay out of the house until the forensic team could check for fingerprints and take pictures of the broken doors. Nolan barely heard him. He fought his beast to stay down as the anger at her disappearance and the obviously violent bent of the men who took her riled him. He controlled his beast because he was the ulfric. But as the ulfric, his beast would also avenge his mate’s kidnapping. As soon as the sheriff left, he went to Kamiakin. “Call in the werecats, preferably Sherona’s shadow,” he said, referring to the group of cats under Sherona’s leadership. “Ask for any who’ll help. Warn them I’ll not have any infighting but will owe favors to anyone who helps track down the kidnapping of one under my protection.”
“Sir? Owing the cats a favor is huge.”
Not to mention complicated with how the power structure of the werejaguars and wereleopards respective shadows worked, but Nolan would deal with that later. “Do it. It should be enough that she was under my protection. Also, someone in our midst is helping them. I don’t know who besides you, Darren, and Joseph knew about the meeting, but it wasn’t planned on my part.”
“Sir, don’t kill me for saying this, but could Alex have arranged it?”
He really hated it when his cousin pulled out the formalities, but it was part of the rank. “No. She wouldn’t have. And there wasn’t time. She’s been gone since almost the moment I left,” he said, the grief threatening to spill out.
“Okay. I’ll call the cats in. Where do you want us to meet?”
“Here. The smell is still here. Ask them to hurry before any more officials walk through my house.”
“What if the ones holding her realize who she is to you?”
“That’s what I’m afraid of, more so than the repercussion of the pack finding out I withheld it from them. The kidnappers would have leverage I don’t even want to think about right now.”
“What if…” Kamiakin began slowly, as if working things out aloud. “They already know and that’s why she’s been taken?”
“Then they’ve declared war.”
Chapter Six
Alex woke up feeling groggy and nauseated. Someone has been experimenting with drugs on werekind was her first thought. Her second one was, where did they hide the bathroom? She was uncomfortably aware of how full her bladder had become.
She looked around her. She was lying on a cold, concrete floor atop old musty hay that smelled like a herd of cows had used it for bedding.
She tried to move, but her hands were tied in front of her, and a length of rope attached them to her bound feet.
Her wolf tried to panic. To be restrained this way was as disgusting as being caged. Most weres preferred to chew off a limb, so her captors had made sure she could not reach her appendages with a good enough angle to do any serious damage.
Her mother’s idea of protecting Alex from the rest of the pack by hiding her daughter’s ability was beginning to backfire horribly. Her wrists itched with the need to be free, and she longed to chew through the ropes, and her arms if necessary even though her mind told her it would be futile. The urge clawed at her, causing her to start to panic. She breathed deep trying to calm herself. There is no need to panic. I can probably break the bonds if I shifted, but it may permanently hurt my hands. Still, her wolf screamed to be free regardless of the physical cost.
Before she risked that and any other repercussions from being found out as a shape-shifter, she had to get her bearings. Is anyone around? Where am I? She couldn’t see or hear anything, but the scent was off. She could smell something underneath the musty floor and her sweat. Figuring even a normal human would struggle to get out of their bonds, she pulled on the ropes and try to get her hands free.
The movement only made her need for a restroom worse. Her feet were bound but not as tightly as her hands. She decided her captors had really underestimated her. Even the dumbest of people could reach and untie ropes, with their hands tied.
She struggled with the knots on her feet until her fingers were bloody. She took back her negative thoughts about dumb people. All she had accomplished besides making her hands bloody was to increase the pressure on her bladder. She sniffed carefully, trying to identify the smell that caused her to believe it was unsafe to shift.
With her brain still groggy from whatever drug they had stuck into her, she could not place it. But her instincts were telling her to do nothing to attract its attention. She had enough stress with her feelings of loss over not being in contact with her mate and didn’t need the extra pressure of being muddled.
Tension rose within her, her need for her mate growing the longer she was awake. Finally, biting her lip nervously, she gave in to the urge and reached out to Nolan.
“Alex?” She heard his voice in her head and cried, her nose plugging up and the tears running into her mouth. Good thing she did not have to talk out loud.
“Nolan! I’m tied up. Boris and another of my pack, Jason, kidnapped me from your house!”
“I know, Alex. I know you’ve been kidnapped. I already went home. I have my pack and the cats looking for you. I’ll deal with who took you later. Right now, I need to find you. Do you know where you are?”
“No,” she said, hoping the panic was not obvious in her reply. “I’ve been drugged.”
“Drugged?” His shock mirrored her own earlier astonishment when they had stuck her with the needle.
“Yes. Obviously Roxy has been working with someone outside our pack. My mother and I are the only healers. My mother would never give them something which might be used to
harm me.”
“What’s your mother’s name? Maybe she’ll have an idea where they could be keeping you.”
“It’s Heather George. She lives out on the restricted lands though. You can’t always reach her by phone. My purse should still be at your house. Her number’s in my phone.”
“Okay. Your purse is with one of us. We’ll keep looking. But please, don’t lose contact with me again. What do you see?”
Being unable to reach him was not going to happen at all if she could help it. Her stomach churned just thinking about it. Or maybe it was the knockout drug they’d given her. “I’m tied up hand and foot, but I’m in an old barn. There’s still hay here, and I can smell the animals. But there’s something else here. Something my foggy mind has identified as dangerous.”
“You’re tied up?” Nolan’s voice cracked with fury. A furor she knew wasn’t aimed at her.
“Yes. I’ve tried to untie my feet, but the ropes are coarse and cut my hands.”
“You’re bleeding.” This time it was not a question but rather a statement. Behind the declaration, she heard the threat to Boris and Jason.
“Please hurry. I can’t change or they might find me out. I’m only protected from Boris’s more physical threats because he abhors non-weres even if they’re the offspring of a were. If he finds out I’ve hidden my shape-shifting abilities, he’ll—” She left the rest of the thought alone. She tried to think of something else so Nolan wouldn’t find it in her head.
“I’m going to quit talking right now,” he said.
Panic started to well again. She was used to taking care of herself. This need for him made her feel wimpy, not to mention helpless. It didn’t change her feelings, though.
“But I’m still here. Just call out if you need me. I need to talk to the others and let them know to beware of the drug that works on our kind.”
“Okay,” she said. What else could she say? He was doing his best. More than his best if he had called in the cats. Surprisingly, the werecats were the best trackers around.
“We’ll find you, Alex, my mate. I promise.”
She hugged his promise to herself, not knowing how much longer she could hold out against the fear caused by the unknown. But she was determined she would not shift unless absolutely necessary. It could be a trap for her, not Nolan, as she had assumed.
It still made no sense that they would kidnap her. No one knew she was his mate, except that police officer at the station, and she knew he was not talking. Boris had no reason to lock her up like this, not that he needed one.
But Boris did, she realized suddenly. If he knew she was helping investigate the murders he was responsible for, he would be willing to do anything to her. And kidnapping her pulled Nolan’s attention away from the murders.
That meant someone at the police station either told Boris or told someone else who had told him. Again she dismissed the officer who’d sat in the room with her. He’d been too glad to be able to claim his mate and have offspring to have gone running to telephone someone. The woman who had given her dirty looks crossed her mind, but her instincts told her it was more personal and not related to the case. No, it had to be someone with a beef with Nolan. Otherwise, who cared if he brought in a medical person to look at the case?
She knew it wasn’t why he had taken her with him to the precinct house but maybe the other officers thought it was. She hated intrigue, was not cut out for it.
A sharp pain brought her attention back to her wrists. Without thinking, she had tried to get out of her bonds again, and the rough rope cut deeper into her wrists this time.
Taking a slow, full breath, she almost choked as her throat tried to close up in fear. No, I can do it. I can wait. Nolan is coming. It became a mantra. Nolan is coming with help. Boris won’t hurt me or my mate.
Instinctively, she jerked her head up at the sound of a chain clinking. Someone was unlocking a pad lock on the door. Even if she had broken her bonds, she would never have gotten out. The sick feeling in her gut twisted. In a short span of time, she had gone from the healer of her pack to someone who could barely stand to be a pawn in a game she feared would turn deadly.
She strained to hear a sign of who was coming in, but the rapid beat of her heart thundered through her eardrums, effectively drowning out most sounds. She sniffed the air. Boris. She frowned as she caught whiff of another scent. Mom?
A scant second after the realization hit, Boris shoved Heather through the door ahead of him.
“Take care of her, then, bitch. We don’t want her sick to the point of death before we’re through with her.”
“Mom!” She didn’t want to believe her mother was a part of this. But she knew the techniques Boris used to convince the unwilling.
“Alex!” her mother cried out. She winced as Heather lifted Alex’s wrists and examined them. Then she watched in silent glee as her mother took Boris to task for tying her up.
“You fool! I told you she holds the instincts of a were, if not the changing abilities. Here’s your proof!”
Alex cringed and tried to scoot back as Boris came closer, but her mother held her sore wrists in place.
“She’s nearly cut herself to the bone trying to get out of her bonds. She can’t stand being tied up anymore than any of our kind can. Give me a knife.”
Boris’s laugh chilled Alex completely. It had to have affected her mother as well, but she did not show it. Heather had had years of dealing with him to learn the best way to react.
“Sure, I’m going to hand you a knife,” he mocked. “Would you like that with or without fries?” He laughed again.
“I’d like it with you stepping back after handing it to me,” her mother snapped. “You’ve put my daughter through enough. Give me something to cut her free with now. Or I’ll tell her your secret.” Her voice had hardened into a threatening tone. Alex hadn’t heard her use a tone this harsh since Alex nearly got herself killed as a kid and her mother had verbally skinned her alive for her disobedience.
“You wouldn’t dare,” he growled out.
“I would, and you know it. The same safeguards I have in place for me apply to her as well. You better hope her name isn’t released on the news.” The taunt earned her a slap from Boris, but he looked shaken.
He pulled out a pocketknife and handed it to Heather. “Here,” he said snidely. “Not like I can’t best you even with that puny human tool.”
Her mother’s eyes met hers, then, and Alex saw the raw anger and hatred in them before they softened. After this was over, Alex would have to ask what the history was between her and Boris. For now, she was grateful for whatever hold her mother had over him. When Heather finished cutting all the ropes, Alex was able to breathe freely for the first time since waking up. She held her hands still as moving them caused excruciating pain.
“Mom, what are you doing here?”
“Taking care of you. He told me you were hurt. He didn’t tell me he was the cause.”
“Heather,” Boris said threateningly.
“Boris.” she snapped back. “You dared to cause harm to my daughter, the pack healer, and now you’re threatening me? Even Roxy won’t be able to protect you if the pack finds out you’ve been harming the healer and the healer’s only replacement.”
Boris took a step back. Her mother was right. If the pack found out Boris had hurt the healer, even if it was inadvertently, things could get nasty, and he knew it.
“Stand down, healer. I brought you here to make sure she was okay after waking up from the serum. How was I to know she would fight the bonds so hard? She’s not a true were,” he finished in disgust.
“If she’s not a true were, then why did you give her the serum instead of something else? That serum is only supposed to be for severely injured weres who needed to be carried out from a hunting ground by other weres. To reduce the pain of the injured werewolves as they traveled, not used for kidnapping.”
Alex let out a small gasp. It was her mom? Of course.
She had lamented often enough that there was not a good way to operate on weres because their metabolisms broke down the anesthesia too fast.
“How’d Boris get the drugs, Mom? Why did you give it to him?” Even though she knew her mother would not have willingly given the drug to Boris if she knew what he planned with it, Alex still felt betrayed.
“Alexandria Marie George! I’ll not have you speak to me that way. But to answer your question, I gave them a vial so they could administer it out on the hunt if someone was seriously injured and had to be carried out, not to kidnap other weres.”
Alex was disappointed. Her mother had intentionally misunderstood her question. Alex knew what the drugs were for since she’d hear it already a minute ago; she wanted to know why Boris had his dirty paws on them. Rather than push her mom for answers, Alex watched the byplay between Boris and her mom.
Boris growled. “As lupa, Roxy has the right to use it as she chooses. You are not of high enough rank to question what she does with it.”
“As healer, I have special rank even among our feral pack.”
Boris growled low at her words. “I’ll show you feral, healer.”
“And I’ll welcome it,” Heather replied fiercely.
Alex knew her eyebrows must be in her hairline by now, but she had never seen her mother so ready to do violence. Alex had gotten her sense of peace and a love of all that was beautiful and non-violent from her mother. Despite living in a feral pack, she had been taught better. But now, her mother looked ready to kill Boris with no regrets.
“There’s no time for this. We have to get her out of here before the werecats find us.”
Heather gasped, and Alex was glad she had distracted him. Her own surprise was not as forthcoming as her mother’s was; rather, she was worried. There was at least one traitor within Nolan’s pack. This sealed it. How else would Boris know about the cats so quickly? The regular police channels would not have known. Therefore, it couldn’t have been the same person who had told Boris she’d started working with the cops.
The Ulfic's Mate Page 6