by Terra Wolf
I had heard of true mates when shifters became known to humans. I always thought the idea was romantic. That there was a true love for shifters out there.
Now that Lincoln told me that I was his true mate, I believed him. I never felt a connection like I had with Lincoln with anyone else.
I couldn’t wait for it to be morning so I could see him again. I was determined that I would confess my feelings to him. I wanted him to know I was falling in love with him.
With the smile still stretched on my face, I made my way to my bed when there was a sudden crash in the room. I squealed from shock and looked up to find that my window was shattered. My hands were on my heart, my shoulders were heaving and as I looked at the floor, I saw the brick.
Chapter 16
Lincoln
I crashed on to the couch in the living room, feeling lightheaded and wide awake. Being with Charlotte again had woken something up in me. I felt alive. Like I could do anything.
Whatever dared to stand in my way, between Charlotte and my future; I was going to crush it into nothingness with my bare hands. Nothing was going to stop me from making that woman happy.
The mother of my child.
My true mate.
I sat on the couch, staring up at the ceiling and dreaming about Charlotte’s naked body in my arms.
The crash came out of nowhere, the sound was ringing with a buzz in my ears. It sounded like glass smashing into a million pieces, and it came from upstairs. I heard it clearly as if I was in the room.
I jumped off the couch, and felt my bear shift underneath my skin. I ran up the stairs to Charlotte’s room, knowing right away that was where the sound came from.
I kicked the door open and found her crouched on the floor beside her bed. I ran over to the open window, where the curtain was billowing in the breeze. The glass pane was missing, but I saw nothing there. I turned back towards her.
“Hey, are you okay, princess?” I asked, as I rushed to her side. She was crouched on the carpet, with her knees up to her chin, tears flooding down her cheeks.
“I came up here and within minutes, someone threw a brick.”
“A brick? What brick? What did you see?” I asked, kneeling down in front of her.
“I didn’t see anything. I don’t know who did it. I just saw the brick,” she said.
There was a brick beside her and a note was taped to it. Keeping my eyes on Charlotte, I read the note.
Your dad should have stopped when we told him to. And now we’re coming to get you.
I looked up at Charlotte. She had her face turned away from me. She was rocking back and forth, her arms wrapped tightly around her legs. I had never seen her this frightened before.
“Hey, it’s going to be okay. I’m here now…” I said and reached for her. She fell into my arms, pressing her cheek to my chest as she cried.
“Why is this happening to us, Lincoln. Why won’t dad just stop the construction?” she cried.
“What construction are you talking about?”
“There is a project that he is working on. Called, The Eagle Project.” I heard some things in the news about The Eagle Project but I never put much thought to it.
“In order to build the new condos,” she continued. “They have to kick out the current residents. Who happen to be shifters. And while some of them were fine accepting a payment that my dad offered. Others weren’t.”
I wasn’t expecting this. When I convinced Andrew to give our clan this job, I didn’t think there was any real danger involved, other than a few empty threats which was commonplace in a business like his. But this attack on Charlotte changed everything.
This note and brick was proof that my clan and I were needed. I had made the right decision by coming here.
“I’m going to find the guys who did this and they’re going to pay for this,” I said and stroked her hair.
“Charlotte!”
We both heard Andrew’s voice outside and footsteps approaching the room. She hurriedly pulled away from me, just as the door opened.
I was still crouched on the carpet, close to Charlotte, but we were not touching anymore.
Andrew threw open the door and rushed in, behind him was his wife, clutching a robe tightly around herself.
“What the hell is going on?” Andrew yelled, staring at his daughter and then at me.
“I heard the crash and came up here to check on Ms. Williams,” I said. Slowly, I stood up and stepped away from Charlotte.
This was not how I wanted Andrew to find out, not on a night like this when Charlotte’s safety was threatened.
Mrs. Williams went to her daughter, throwing her arms around Charlotte. Andrew remained standing over her, glaring at me.
“What did you see? What happened?” he asked me.
I looked over at the window.
“Someone threw a brick in. There was a note taped to it,” I explained.
While Charlotte remained in her mother’s embrace, Andrew picked up the brick and read the note.
“Those bastards!” he said under his breath.
“Daddy!” Charlotte said.
I went to the window and looked out. I used my powerful sense of hearing and sight but was nothing there.
“I’m going to check the perimeter and make sure we don’t have any trespassers on the property,” I said.
Mrs. Williams was staring at me with fear in her eyes. Now that I saw the family together, I could see how very different they all were from me. Charlotte was right when she said she belonged to a different world. Now I knew what she meant by never having been with a man like me before.
“Yes, you should do that, thank you, Lincoln,” Andrew said. He walked with me to the bedroom door.
I was just about to step outside when he stopped me.
“Lincoln, I am grateful to you for being here,” he said.
I looked over his shoulder at Charlotte, who was still huddled on the floor with her mother.
“It’s no problem, Mr. Williams. I’m just doing my job,” I told him. Andrew looked even more worried now than he did before.
“I need you to keep an eye on Charlotte. My daughter is the most important thing in the world to me. I want you to personally safeguard her.”
I nodded.
Then Andrew shut the door, so he could go and console his daughter too. I walked away, rushing out of the house so I could make the rounds of the premises.
The fact that Charlotte’s life could actually be in danger was just now hitting me. I was glad I was here. I was glad I’d spoken to Andrew and convinced him to hire us.
I could see now that Charlotte was close to her parents. Even though she was pregnant out of wedlock, and things might have been difficult in their family lately—the truth was that her parents loved her more than anything. I just needed Andrew to see that I felt the same way about his daughter too.
Chapter 17
Charlotte
I woke up the next morning early, barely having been able to sleep at all. After the incident with the brick, I couldn’t fall asleep again. Mom and dad had stayed with me in the room for some time, trying to calm me down, but all I could think about was my baby and its safety.
What if the brick had hit me?
What if I was seriously injured? My child could have been injured too.
“Andrew, you need to tell the police about this, please,” mom pleaded with dad, but he refused to listen to her.
“If I tell the police about this, the media is going to surround our house. We’ll be in the news and that is exactly what these guys want. They want to manipulate me out of the Eagle project, and I’m not going to let them!”
My parents argued for some time, while I sat there listening to them, clutching my belly. Of course, this all turned into the Eagle Project, rather than my safety. Eventually, I told them that I wanted to sleep, but I couldn’t sleep in my room.
So, I went to the spare bedroom beside mine and locked the door and laid down. Kno
wing that Lincoln was in the house was some relief, at least I could shut my eyes.
In the morning now, when I looked out the window of the spare room, I saw that our grounds were swarmed with guys that had the same power surrounding them that Lincoln did. Lincoln had called for reinforcements clearly. These guys had surrounded the house. The sight brought a smile to my face.
Lincoln was doing everything he could to avoid another incident. Now I was definitely going to be safe. He had made sure that nobody came close to the house.
I stroked my belly and walked back to the bed.
“Your dad is going to take care of us,” I cooed to my stomach as I lay down. I wasn’t feeling very well this morning and I figured it had something to do with the lack of sleep.
I decided to try and fall asleep again, just for a few hours. Knowing that Lincoln was close by, that he and his friends were keeping a steady watch on the house—would help me sleep better I thought.
I shut my eyes, with a smile on my face. Remembering the way Lincoln had held me last night. How worried and protective he was when the brick crashed through my window. It felt good to know that I would always have a guy like Lincoln watching over me and my baby.
I had my eyes shut when I felt a hand press down on my mouth. I shrieked, trying to jump out of the bed but another hand pressed down on my shoulders, keeping me pinned to the bed.
I struggled, trying to get free, to turn over and see who was doing this to me. But then I realized there was chloroform in the rag that was pressed to my nose and mouth. Very quickly, I could feel myself beginning to drift away.
Chapter 18
Lincoln
Ford, Jackson, Grant and I were standing in the garden, looking up at the house. After the brick came in through Charlotte’s window, I’d checked the premises and then called the clan. I definitely needed help. This house was too big to keep a lookout by myself.
They arrived within half an hour, and then we called for reinforcements soon after.
Since then, there were twelve of us from the clan and we’d spread ourselves out around the grounds.
“Where’s the family now?” Grant asked me. I’d just completed another round around the house and its border. Everything seemed to be under control for now.
“They’re inside. I think the only thing we can do right now is keep them inside the house and defend the perimeter. At least till we’ve figured out who’s behind this,” I replied. The others nodded.
Ford was smoking a cigarette and he pulled it out from his mouth, puffing smoke into our faces.
“But we do know who it is, right? The guys who don’t want the Eagle Project to go through?” he said.
Andrew had already filled me on the possible reason behind the threats.
“Yes, but he doesn’t know exactly who these guys are. We will have to find that out ourselves. So, we better start looking,” I answered.
“On it,” Jackson said and pulled out his phone.
The only way we could get anywhere close to the bottom of this thing was by putting our contacts to work.
“I think the family is going to wake up soon. It’s nearly eight,” I said and looked at my watch. “I’m going in and checking on them.”
While I walked away from the group, I considered telling my friends about my relationship with Charlotte and the fact that we were going to have a baby together soon. But I didn’t want to do it yet, not until Charlotte had a chance to talk to her parents about it.
For now, I wanted to go and check on her before her parents woke up.
In the house, Bertha was cleaning up around the kitchen when I walked past her. I took the stairs up to the hallway and couldn’t hear a sound. Hopefully Andrew and his wife were still asleep.
I made my way to Charlotte’s bedroom and when I pushed open the door, I saw she wasn’t inside. With my brows crossed, I opened the door to the spare room beside hers. The bed looked like it had been slept in, but the room was empty.
“Fuck.” I growled. I opened a few more doors along the hallway, and Charlotte wasn’t in any of them.
“Charlotte!” I shouted her name, hoping she was here somewhere in the house.
The door to the master bedroom opened and Andrew stuck his head out.
“What’s going on?” he asked, looking at me with fear in his eyes.
“Your daughter’s missing,” I said to him. I was doing everything I could not to shift right there.
Chapter 19
Charlotte
When I came to, I realized I was in an apartment. I wasn’t in my own house anymore. For a few moments, I was confused about what had happened and I tried to move. That was when I realized that I wasn’t lying down, I was sitting propped up on a chair, with my hands tied behind my back.
I screamed, as loudly as I could. Memories of what had happened came rushing back to me. I’d seen Lincoln in the gardens through the window in the spare room, then I’d returned to bed smiling. I’d tried to fall asleep, but then there was a hand over my mouth. A rag with chloroform. Then nothing.
Blank.
How long had I been unconscious?
I tried to move but my feet were tied too. I was still in the silk slip I’d gone to bed in, the one Lincoln had removed from my body before he made love to me. I screamed again, and this time I felt someone moving behind me. I screamed louder and a face appeared.
A tall man was standing over me, with his eyes narrowed. He just stood there, watching me scream.
“Cut that out!” he yelled and before I could do or say anything else, he’d slapped me across my face. I was jerked to the side, nearly toppling over with the chair. But the man had caught hold of the arms in time and he pulled the chair back straight again.
“Please…please don’t hurt me. I’m pregnant!” I screamed.
He stood over me, with his narrowed bloodshot eyes. He looked like he was a shifter. Not the same kind as Lincoln, but I could sense the power coming off of him.
“If you want to keep your baby safe, you’re going to have to do exactly what I say. Do you understand?” he said.
He’d brought his face dangerously close to mine. Close enough for me to smell the stale alcohol on his breath.
“Are you going to do as I say or not?” he raged again and I nodded.
I would have agreed to anything to keep my baby safe.
“What do I have to do?” I asked. I watched as he straightened up, pulling a burn-phone out of his pocket.
“You’re going to speak to your father, convince him that he needs to save you,” he hissed.
“What do you want from us?” I sobbed.
“I don’t have to explain anything to you! I want to speak to your father and unless he does what I tell him to do, you and your baby are dead.”
I couldn’t stop crying. I could feel the plastic ties around my wrists and ankles digging into my flesh. I tried to even my breathing, to calm down and just think, but I couldn’t. I was expecting the worst to happen. I was expecting to die.
He dialed a number on his phone and then put it on speaker. It rang out for a few rings and then I heard a “hello”. It was dad’s voice.
“Dad! Dad I’m here. A man’s abducted me!” I screamed.
The man glared at me, but it looked like it was exactly what he wanted me to say.
“Charlotte? Oh my God, honey, where are you?” dad sounded like he was on the verge of crying.
The man drew the phone closer to himself now and walked away from me, to the end of the room.
“Dad! Dad!” I screamed.
“So now you know I have your daughter and she’s alive,” the man spoke into the phone.
“Where is she? Who are you?” I could hear dad ask.
“You really think I’m going to just tell you where she is? No. I need hundred thousand dollars in cash for that kind of information,” he continued and there was a snigger in his voice.
“Okay, yes, whatever you want,” I heard dad agree.
I
couldn’t stop crying. I just wanted to hear Lincoln’s voice again. I needed to know he was coming for me.
“If you want to see your daughter again. If you want your grandchild to be safe, you’re going to bring the money to Pioneer Women’s Park tomorrow morning. Ten. Sharp. I’m not going to wait around for your sleazy ass to get there.”
“Yes, okay, I’ll be there. Just don’t hurt her, don’t hurt my daughter.” Dad was pleading with him.
“And you better be alone motherfucker,” the man growled and he hung up the phone.
My throat felt chaffed from all the screaming and shouting I had done. I felt like I couldn’t even breathe anymore. My vision was blurred from the tears in my eyes. I tried to blink the tears away.
He slid the phone back in his pocket and turned to me again.
“Lets see how much your dad really loves you,” he remarked.
“Why are you doing this?” I hissed at him. I’d stopped struggling against the ties by now. I knew I wasn’t going anywhere.
“I’m sick of men like your father—rich fat fucks who don’t give a shit about shifters—running this town. We have always been here, but now that we are in the open he feels that he has the right to control us. He’s taken away my home and he believes a bit of his pocket change is going to keep me happy. I want him to know that my life is worth more. I want him to know what it feels like to lose something that’s important to him.”
He snarled as he spoke. Just the sight of him was making me sick. I was afraid of what he would do to me. If he was even going to stick to his end of the bargain.
“Please just let me go and I promise I’ll convince my father to stop the building project. You can have your home back, I promise,” I said.
Suddenly, he broke into a laugh and threw his head back.
“Think it’s a little late for that, girl,” he said and just as suddenly, the smile dropped from his face.
“It’s time your dad paid what he owes me.”
Chapter 20
Lincoln
“He’s hung up on me,” Andrew exclaimed and put the phone down.