Pain shot up into her shoulders from lying in the same position for so long.
She couldn’t stop the moan that slipped from her throat.
“Can you sit up?” The gentle tone of the elderly man’s voice belied his angry disposition.
Piper opened her eyes, wincing as she moved to sit up and lean against the wall behind her.
She brought her hands around front and rubbed at the raw skin of her wrists. “Who are you?”
“Name’s Isaac Foster. Are you hurt?”
Ethan’s paternal grandfather, Piper realized with a start. “You mean besides the obvious?”
“Eric has always been hotheaded. Once the doctor has checked you over, I’ll see to it that you’re returned safely home.”
Piper glanced at the door. “And my friend, Rhonda? Is she okay?”
Isaac shrugged. “I know nothing about your friend.”
Nausea rolled through Piper. “You have to let Rhonda go. Please. She’s never done anything to any of you.”
“There is no Rhonda here.” Isaac stood and moved over to the side of the bed.
Piper shrank back as he reached for her shirt and pulled it from her shoulder. He then in turn checked the other side. “He hasn’t marked you. That’s interesting.”
“Marked me?” Deciding the old man must be daft, Piper yanked her shirt free from his hold and bounded off the mattress.
She ran for the door, only to slide down in terror as a giant animal came racing down the hall straight toward her.
A scream trapped in her throat.
Scrambling back into the room on her ass and hands, Piper’s gaze stayed glued to the beast now snarling in her face.
“Leave her be!” Isaac snapped, instantly moving between her and Satan himself. “Go!”
With one last terrifying growl, the giant beast slinked away, disappearing back the way he’d come.
Piper jumped to her feet and rushed back to her makeshift bed on the floor. “W-what was that?”
Isaac tilted his head. “You really don’t know, do you?”
“It looked like a wolf to me,” Piper rushed out, attempting to breathe around the fear closing her throat.
The old man ignored her. “How far along are you?”
Piper couldn’t take her gaze off the doorway long enough to comprehend Foster’s words.
He repeated the question. “How far along are you?”
She pulled her focus off the door, peered up at him, and narrowed her eyes. “How would you know anything about that?”
He didn’t answer, instead asked, “Does Ethan know about the child you carry?”
“Why are you so interested in my child?”
The old man shrugged. “I have my reasons.”
“I’m not telling you anything until you show me that my friend is okay.”
Meandering toward the door, Isaac spoke without turning back. “Do not try to escape. There are a lot more wolves on the property than simply the one in the hall. And they have zero qualms about tearing you to shreds.”
The door closed behind him.
Chapter Thirty-One
Ethan arrived home approximately ten minutes later.
He’d ridden with the air conditioner on wide open, hoping to aid in cooling down his fevered flesh.
The elevator ride felt like an eternity, slow and grueling. He emerged inside the foyer of his penthouse and bolted up the stairs to his bedroom.
Ethan’s teeth shot down, his body bowing in a partial shift. If he didn’t get ahold of himself, his wolf would take control. And that wouldn’t help anyone. Especially Piper.
Dropping to his knees in the middle of the floor, Ethan attempted to breathe through his rage. He’d never had to fight his beast as hard as he fought him in that moment.
The wolf inside him had every right to want blood. Ethan wanted blood as well. But running off in a fury of fur was not the way to go about it.
He forced himself to calm enough to get back to his feet and then stumbled forward into his closet.
Ethan yanked open the door that housed his cash and pulled a lever along the top. The shelves swung outward to reveal a cache of weapons in the back.
Freeing several different handguns, Ethan tucked them into the waistband of his pants and snagged the proper ammunition.
“Boss?” Billy called, running up the stairs.
Ethan began loading the weapons. “In here.”
“What are you doing?” Billy rounded the corner, sounding out of breath.
Ethan had to unclench his teeth to speak. “I’m going after my mate. Where are Samuel and Gene?”
“Downstairs. I managed to wake them on the way over. They’ll have a hell of a headache but they will live.”
Ethan absently nodded, shouldering past Billy to get to his dresser in the bedroom. He yanked the bottom drawer open, took out a pair of jeans, and then snagged a T-shirt. “Call the pack. Have everyone meet at my grandfather’s place within the hour.”
Without waiting for confirmation, Ethan donned a pair of dark sunglasses and stormed back down the stairs. He barely spared Samuel and Gene a glance before stepping into the elevator.
Once in the lobby, Ethan straightened his suit jacket, careful to keep his weapons hidden and handed the valet a twenty-dollar bill to bring his car around.
Grateful for the dark sunglasses, Ethan could feel the fever burning in his eyes, knew they glowed behind the shaded lenses.
The valet arrived with Ethan’s car less than two minutes later. “Here you go, sir. Have a great day.”
Ethan merely nodded, not trusting his voice. He slid behind the wheel and closed the car door.
It took enormous effort not to floor the gas, so great was his rage. But he somehow managed.
His cell phone buzzed in his pocket minutes after he hit the freeway. He snatched it up. “Yeah?”
Billy’s voice came over the line. “I sent out a mass text to everyone to meet at Wallace’s place. I’m on my way there now. I also informed them to come armed.”
“Thank you, Billy. What about Piper’s friend?”
“I moved her to Piper’s bed. If she has as much sedative in her system as Samuel and Gene had, then she will probably sleep for several more hours. Their shifter blood is the only reason I was able to wake them when I did.”
Ethan thanked Billy once again. He disconnected the call, laid his phone on the center console, and drove to his grandfather’s house with one thing on the brain…saving Piper.
* * * *
“How long has she been missing?” Wallace demanded, approaching Ethan’s car as he slid to a stop in the driveway.
Ethan climbed out and slammed the door shut. “I don’t know. It’s been over three hours since she last messaged me. If I had to guess, I’d say at least two hours.”
Wallace pinched the bridge of his nose. “Enough time to take her back to Tampa.”
“This changes everything,” Ethan bit out. “My initial plan to negotiate with the Fosters and end this feud once and for all is no longer on the table. No negotiating. No deals. I want him dead, and everyone in his pack as well.”
“All of them?”
“Piper’s pregnant,” Ethan snarled, the fury inside him, a living thing. “If she’s been harmed? Yes, they all die.”
Wallace slowly lowered his hand, the irises of his eyes changing color. “I’m coming with you.”
Ethan knew better than to argue with his grandfather. He would do the same if he were in Wallace’s shoes.
He simply nodded, clapped the older man on the shoulder, and strode off toward the house. There was much to do and very little time to do it in.
Ethan’s pack members began to show up within the next twenty minutes. Some rolled up in vehicles while others preferred to shift and run in on foot.
“They’re angry,” Wallace pointed out, staring out the window of his old farmhouse.
Ethan moved toward the front door. “Good. I need them angry. I’ve never b
een more furious in all my life.”
Kicking the screen door open, Ethan vaulted over the porch railing, landing lithely on his feet before the anxious crowd. “As you all know by now, Isaac Foster has taken my mate.”
Pissed-off murmurs quickly flew through the crowd.
Ethan held up a hand for silence. “What you don’t know, something I have only come to learn of an hour ago, is that Piper carries my child.”
Waiting for the cries of shock to die down to a minimal buzz, Ethan continued. “If one hair on Piper’s head has been harmed, everyone in Foster’s pack dies. Do you understand? Leave no one alive.”
“When do we leave?” Samuel called out, his eyes still bloodshot from the sedative he’d been shot with.
Ethan met Samuel’s red-rimmed gaze. “We leave now. There will be no element of surprise. Foster will know by now that my mate is pregnant. He will also know that I’ll waste no time on plotting and planning. He’ll be expecting me.”
“We are with you,” Samuel responded, eliciting a roar of agreement from the crowd.
Ethan scanned the furious faces of his pack members. There wasn’t a shifter in attendance who wouldn’t willingly die for their alpha. They were his family…his pack.
Jerking his chin toward the vehicles, Ethan commanded, “Let’s go to war.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Piper’s stomach growled in hunger. She hadn’t eaten since the bowl of cereal she’d had earlier that morning. And judging from the cracks between the boards on the window, it was now after dark.
Why had the Fosters taken her? And what did they want with her? Were they using her to hurt Ethan in some way? It didn’t make sense.
Ethan had to be worried sick about her by now.
Pushing from the bed, Piper tiptoed across the room and pressed her ear against the door.
A snarling sound came from the hall, telling her that the giant wolf she’d seen earlier had sensed her approach.
“Mr. Foster?” she called out, hoping to be heard by someone. Anyone.
When no answer came, she tried again. “Isaac?”
The door suddenly opened, forcing Piper to jump back.
Eric stepped into the room, closing the door behind him.
Piper took another step back. “Where is Isaac?”
“You’re not dealing with my father. You’re dealing with me.”
Inching her way across the room, Piper decided to keep Eric talking until Isaac returned. “Why do you have me here? I’ve never done anything to you or your family.”
“Your very existence threatens my family, Piper Hollister.”
“Explain,” she demanded, lifting her chin.
Eric rushed across the room and backhanded her across the cheek.
Piper bit back a cry, the copper taste of blood filling her mouth.
“Don’t ever speak to me in that tone again. You will show me the respect that I deserve, or I’ll cut your throat here and now. Understood?”
Piper gave a weak nod. It took everything she had not to spit in his face. Her cheek throbbed in pain, but she’d be damned if she’d let him know that.
“It would seem that dear old Ethan neglected to enlighten you about our kind before he knocked you up. You’re really not my enemy in any of this, Miss Hollister. But that child you carry is. And I’m afraid that I can’t allow it to live.”
Tears sprang to Piper eyes against her will. Terror rolled through her, quickly followed by nausea.
She swallowed it back. Barely. “You— You would hurt an innocent baby? What kind of a monster are you?”
“The kind that nightmares are made of.” He ripped open his shirt and tossed it onto the bed.
Piper backed up until her shoulders hit the wall, her gaze darting to the closed door across the room.
Eric stepped out of his pants and shoes until he stood before her in his underwear.
He was going to rape her? Piper opened her mouth to scream, only to cry out in terror and disbelief as Eric’s teeth began to elongate.
His bones rolled beneath his skin, followed by a popping noise and hair sprouting on his arms.
Piper’s legs shook so bad, her knees gave out and she fell to the floor in a heap of horror.
A howl rent the air, echoing off the walls of the small room to settle in Piper’s terrified mind.
She stared in disbelief and more than a little fear as a large gray wolf stood in the place where Eric had just been.
Panic took hold, choking her in its intensity. She surged to her feet and ran for the door. Forgotten was the giant beast in the hallway or the threat of more wolves on the grounds. Piper only saw the one, and she’d be damned if she’d stay there and let him rip her to shreds.
The door opened before she reached it, and a pissed-off Isaac stood in the opening. He quickly stepped in front of her, his gaze locked on the wolf in front of him. “Stop this, Eric!”
Piper huddled behind the old man, staring at the gray wolf over his shoulder. As much as she couldn’t seem to wrap her mind around what she’d just witnessed, she knew without a doubt that the wolf in front of her was Eric Foster.
The sickening sound of bones began to pop once more. The wolf reared up, his head falling back in what appeared to be agony, until a very disgusting, very naked Eric stood in its place.
“What the hell was that?” Piper whispered, still clinging to the back of the old man’s shirt.
Isaac half turned, pointing toward the door. “Get out of here, Eric. And do not come back.”
Snatching up his clothes with jerky movements, Eric strode to the door, a look that could only be described as hatred shining from his eyes.
He stopped in the hallway, narrowing his gaze at Piper once more. “This is far from over.”
Isaac shut the door and motioned for Piper to sit in the kitchen chair perched next to her makeshift bed.
Piper’s legs shook so bad she wasn’t sure she’d make it without collapsing. “Tell me what the hell that was!”
The old man waited for her to sit before answering, “It’s called shapeshifting. We’re wolf shifters, Piper. As is Ethan, and the unborn babe you carry in your womb.”
Piper shook her head, her hand held up for him to stop. “Bullshit. There’s no such thing as shapeshifters, vampires, or any of that other nonsense.” Yet the evidence of that very thing had stood before her less than a minute ago.
“It’s true, Miss Hollister.”
Her mind went back to the first date she’d had with Ethan. The glow of his eyes she’d assumed to be from the candlelight.
A myriad of memories began filtering through her at once. Ethan’s deep growls when he took her from behind. The rumbling in his chest when he became excited. The subtle way he attempted to hide his eyes from her during sex. “How can it be?”
Isaac lifted a hand toward her before dropping it back to his side. “Ethan is the alpha of the Sorrento pack as was his grandfather before him.”
“And you?” Piper interjected, trying to comprehend it all. “You’re one of these shapeshifters too?”
The old man nodded. “I’m the alpha of the Kenwood pack. Ethan was the only heir of my eldest son, Darren. After Darren’s death, Ethan’s mother and her father poisoned his mind against me.”
Running a hand through his thinning hair, Isaac continued. “I’ll admit, Darren had his faults, but he was the oldest, the first in line to become alpha after me. And when I’d heard about Ruth’s pregnancy, I’d hoped to have a grandson to someday take my place as alpha.”
Piper pushed to her feet, unable to sit a second longer. “I— Wait. You’re honestly telling me that Ethan Seaborn is a shapeshifter?”
With her heart pounding hard enough to feel it in her temples, Piper leaned back against the wall, resting her palms on her knees. “This is unbelievable.”
Reality quickly sank in. She lifted a hand to her abdomen. “My baby is going to one of those things I just saw in here a few minutes ago?”
; “It’s not as bad as you’re imagining, Miss Hollister. Eric should have never shifted in front of you the way he did. I’m—”
“Stop it!” Piper snapped, effectively cutting off his insane explanation. “I want to go home. Just take me the hell home.”
A sadness entered the old man’s eyes. “I’m afraid I can’t do that now. You know too much. I can’t risk you going to the authorities about us.”
Piper’s mouth fell open. “And tell them what? That you’re freaks of nature, and oh yeah, I’m carrying one of them inside my body? They would lock me up for the rest of my life.”
“I’m sorry, Miss Hollister. This is the way it has to be. At least until the babe is born.”
“And then what?” Piper cried, throwing up her hands. “What happens after the baby is born? You kill me?”
He ignored her question. “I’m sure you’re hungry. I’ll have some food sent to you shortly.”
“I don’t want your food, Norman Bates! I want to go home.”
“You must eat,” he insisted, tugging on the door. “You have to keep up your strength. You are eating for two now.”
“Please,” Piper whispered, willing to try anything. “Just let me go. I swear I won’t say a word about this to anyone.”
The door clicked shut behind him.
Piper collapsed back in the chair, dropping her face into her sweaty palms.
Her life had been forever changed in one day, and no matter how much she wanted to deny it, Ethan seemed to be at the center of it all.
Lifting her head, she placed a hand over her unborn child, and her heart cracked. No matter what she’d seen in that room, no matter what Ethan was or wasn’t, Piper already loved the baby forming inside her, and she would do everything in her power to keep it safe. Even if she had to kill to make that happen.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Ethan glanced in his rearview mirror at the convoy following close behind him on the interstate. They would arrive in Kenwood territory in the next few minutes.
He took the next exit, turning left onto a clay road that led to an orange grove beyond.
Climbing from his car, Ethan waited until everyone had arrived before motioning them forward. “Foster’s compound is approximately a mile through this grove. We go in the rest of the way on foot.”
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