Wounded Bear (Whiteheart Clan Book 2)

by Chloe Peterson

  The Eboncloak alpha got up in a single swift move, clearly irritated that Brooke, acting as Sloane, was speaking to an alpha as though she were above her. Emma would have chuckled if she didn't sense the time for her to talk was nearing. The Eboncloak alpha's forehead had creased in irritation. "What do you want?"

  "I want a personal matter handled before things escalate to an all-out war neither of us wants."

  "And what role do I have to play in that?"

  "You need to call your man, Derek, in to answer for his actions. Then, you need to make sure he never sets foot in Conventon again."

  The Eboncloak alpha drew a sharp breath. "What crime do you accuse Derek of?"

  Brooke took a step back and wrapped an arm around Emma. "The attempted murder of my mate, and the kidnapping of her family."

  The Eboncloak alpha's eyes flew open. "Derek did no such thing," she spat. "You aren't even a dike. That's a Rowan thing. What type of game are you playing?"

  Brooke took two giant steps and drew a dagger, placing it against the Eboncloak alpha's neck. The guards in the room pulled out guns, at the same time Tyler and his men did.

  "Don't ever insult my sister or me," Brooke hissed.

  "Put the blade down." The Eboncloaks voice had a hard edge to it. "I can disarm you, and kill you in a split second."

  Emma's heart thudded against her chest. When Rowan and Brooke had mentioned going into character to be convincing, she hadn't expected this. All it would take was for one idiot to mess up, and there would be bloodshed.

  Brooke cocked her head. "Dragon's have powerful magic. I'll heal. But if you do that, Rowan here will burn you alive in a split second. There's no coming back from that. Dragon's fire is pure."

  The Eboncloak alpha took a step back. "Weapons down, everyone. Let's not get carried away."

  Brooke sheathed her dagger and placed it in the waist of her pants before covering it with her t-shirt. "Emma, why don't you tell Ava what you saw."

  Emma swallowed thickly. Brooke and Rowan had set everything up correctly. Now it was her turn to deliver.

  "I came home to visit my mother and met Derek as he left her house. He said he was her new boyfriend. Something about him seemed off to me, so I followed him.

  "He pulled up to the alley behind Ricco's. I followed him and saw him and two guys beating up a guy. Derek kept talking about how the guy was supposed to get him access to the governor's house, and how pissed off he was that the guy ran away and let him down.

  "So, Derek shifted and killed him. I was in such shock I dropped my phone. That's when he turned around and saw me. I took off, but his men followed me. They chased me out of the restaurant, then—" Emma choked up like she was supposed to and Brooke wrapped an arm around her.

  "As you can see, my mate is pretty upset. Derek's men chased her, but she managed to find her way to me. I sent her to stay with Rowan, but then yesterday morning, my sister got a call from Derek, telling her he'd kidnapped Emma's mother, and that we had twenty-four hours to turn Emma in."

  Brooke took a step forward and pulled her hands behind her back. "As a future female alpha, I respect you, Ava. You've carved out a niche for you and your clan and built a legacy. But, it appears old age is making you a lot more soft handed.

  Your man allowed a human to follow him and witness a murder. Then he proceeded to hunt her down and kidnap her mother, all without breathing a word to you. And now, my mate, who I kept in Conventon because I believed the Eboncloak ran a tight ship, has been traumatized. Her mother, kidnapped. I want Derek to answer for his actions before I change my mind and burn this place down."

  Ava's eyes glowed with a murderous rage that Emma was pretty sure was directed at both Brook and Derek. The older woman smiled, and when she spoke, her voice was laced with false sincerity. "Let me call Derek in. I'm not sure where he is, but he should be here soon. Why don't you have a seat, and we can work this out."

  "No thank you," Brooke said. "I have places to be and don't plan on being here for any interrogations. Call Derek, and tell him 'Emma's here.' That should get him here fast enough. After that, all I want is to land a solid punch on his face, before heading out. I have an important meeting in Falhurst this afternoon. If I take off flying, I should be there on time. I trust you to handle the issue, because if I ever hear of him roaming the streets of Conventon again, then we will have an official problem."

  Brooke smiled sweetly, and Ava lowered her head in agreement. Brooke, the Whiteheart third, had just told the Eboncloak alpha precisely what to do, and the older woman was furious. Her hands shook as she pulled the phone out of her pocket.

  When Derek answered, Ava, said, "Emma's here," before hanging up abruptly. The words were short and clipped, but Emma could hear the rage they carried. She knew then and there that Derek would not be coming after her and her mother ever again.

  Ava, an alpha, had been insulted and forced into action by the second of a more powerful clan, all because of Derek. Ava would do as Brooke, aka Sloane, had asked and the matter would end there for fear of incurring the wrath of the Dragonclaw alpha.

  As the seconds ticked by, hope began to fill Emma's heart.

  We did it, she thought. Ava bought everything we told her. In a matter of minutes, all of this will be nothing but a forgotten nightmare. Now, all she needed, was for Jade and her team to deliver.

  Emma smiled, then quickly caught herself, and wiped the smile off her face. Jade was a fierce fighter. She'd seen her in action. Add the fact that she had half a pride of lions with her, and Emma knew the deal was done.

  I guess it pays to have a shifter girlfriend, she thought. I fucking love you, Jade.

  12

  Jade jumped as the door to the back seat of Mara's truck opened up, and Giselle scrambled in.

  "So, how many are we talking."

  Jade bit her lip and willed her heartbeat to slow down. Giselle hadn't meant to scare her, and there was no point in getting mad at her friend or saying something snarky.

  Jade, sat in Mara's truck parked at the gas station across from Rita's house, keeping watch. She was supposed to find out where Derek's men were in the house and how many of them they were.

  Inhaling, Jade pulled her hand away from the dagger she kept strapped to the waistband of her jeans. "We don't know."

  "What do you mean you don't know?" Giselle hugged. "You've been here for like a good ten minutes. Surely you don't miss your girlfriend so much you can't focus."

  "Enough with the girlfriend comments," Mara said, settling into the driver's seat. "There must be a reason Jade doesn't have an exact number."

  Jade inclined her head. "Thank you, Mara. The reason we don't know how many men are in the house is that the curtains are closed."

  "Oh." The slight blush creeping into Giselle's cheeks tickled Jade on the inside, but she held her laughter in. "Yeah, they were pretty smart on that front. What about you guys? I take it you found no snipers."

  Giselle shook her head. "It's just like we thought. Derek isn't working with the Eboncloak assets and money. Otherwise, he'd have picked a different location for this meet, instead of taking the risk of drawing human and police attention."

  "Good." Jade rested her head against the headrest. "That makes this an easy op. The maximum amount of guys that house could hold is about half a dozen muscle heads. We probably won't need everyone's help today."

  Mara pulled out a packet of Doritos and started snacking. "Sounds good to me. I'm exhausted from the drive alone. You guys go ahead."

  Giselle scoffed. "Really, Mara?"

  "What? I've had a long week with all the custom orders the bakery's been getting, and I'd rather rest up before all the madness continues tomorrow. There’s more to life than getting a good fight in, you know."

  "Yeah, yeah." Giselle rolled her eyes and mouthed the word "loser" to Jade.

  "Mara has a point," Jade said, her voice low. "There is more to life than getting a good fight in. If you love fighting so much, you should try to do
it in an organized environment."

  "What? Like boxing?" Giselle folded her arms. " So that some fat old guy can dictate just how far we go. No thanks."

  Jade sighed, then shut her eyes. There was no point in arguing. Everyone was on their path.

  A few days ago, she would have been raring to jump into a fight and work some tension off. Now, all she could think about was Emma, and how much she wanted to come home to her, which was why Jade continued to focus on deep breathing and picturing a future with Emma. She needed her bear to be as calm as possible.

  There's no way I'm risking anything that will pull me away from her, she thought.

  "Look!" Giselle yelled, pointing at Rita's house.

  The front door opened, and a tall dark-haired man exited. Jade could already tell from the way his feet lightly touched the ground that he was a panther. Derek turned and yelled some instructions, before jumping into his car and speeding off.

  Jade smiled. They were in business. Rowan, Brooke, and Emma had convinced the Eboncloak alpha that Emma was Brooke, aka Sloane's mate, and that he'd unknowingly threatened the second of the top dragon clan.

  "Let's go," Giselle said, hopping out of the car.

  Jade followed her lead and walked to the truck parked next to theirs and tapped on the window. Bryan, Tyler's second nodded when she gave him the go-ahead signal. Their plan was a lot easier to execute than what the other half of the collective team had done. Jade just wanted to make sure that it went off without a hitch so that no harm came to Emma's mother, Rita.

  "It's show time," Giselle said, rubbing her hands together. Jade rolled her eyes but got in line with Bryan and his men. It was time to act.

  The plan was for Giselle to act loud and drunk to draw the attention of the guards. That would give Jade and the other guys the opening to sneak into the backyard and make a surprise attack that way.

  Jade followed Bryan and his men, as they crouched low and walked around the gas station, then crossed the street and used the cover of a few bushes to get into position. Once concealed, she made a false bird sound. That was Giselle's signal to get into character, and boy did she ever.

  Jade slapped a hand over her mouth as Giselle started belting wind beneath my wings at full volume in between shouts of "Rita, where you at?" Jade heard the door to the house open as one of the men came out.

  "Get the fuck out of here," he yelled.

  Giselle continued singing at full voice as she called for Rita.

  "Listen, whacko," the man said. "You've got to get out of here."

  "What's going on?" a lower gruff voice said.

  Jade lifted her hand and signaled for the team to attack. All the guards would be distracted. Bryan raced to the door and ran it through. Jade followed the rest of the guys in, but she didn't' pull her dagger out. There seemed to be only half a dozen or so guys, as she'd suspected.

  Jade quickly rushed past the fighting that was happening in the open plan living room/kitchen and went into the bedrooms. She opened all three doors and found no one. Feeling a wave of anxiety begin to overwhelm her, she placed her hands on her hips and forced herself to focus on Emma's face, but that only made it worse.

  Jade had led the formation of this plan. Okaying things and vetoing others all in the name of minimizing risk by killing two birds with one stone. Now, it seemed she'd gambled far too much. Rita and Ben weren't in the house.

  "Damn it!" Jade yelled, before punching a wall. Her fist throbbed, waking up her bear which clawed to get out Jade pinched the bridge of her nose and shut her eyes.

  Calm down, she told herself. One setback and the old you is clamoring to get out.

  Jade crouched on the floor and let the sounds of bones crunching and men grunting fly right over her head. She needed to think about where Derek could have kept Rita and Ben. He'd told Rowan to come to Rita's house, and he had stayed within waiting for them. Derek didn't have the budget for a vast army. So where were Rita and Ben?

  "Hey," Bryan called, joining her in the hallway. "No sign of them?"

  Jade shook her head and sighed. "I was so sure they'd be here." Bryan held out a hand to her, and she took it, allowing him to help her stand. Jade placed her hands on her hips and huffed. "Derek's a sneaky—"

  "Wait!" Bryan said, his face growing animated. "Do you hear that?"

  Jade held her breath and listened. She heard the faint sound of thumping. It was far too constant and fast to be random noise. Her eyes flew open. "The shed!"

  Jade ran back to the backyard and quickly kicked in the door of the little shed in the corner. There, tied up in a plastic chair, and a sweaty mess was an older blonde-haired woman, with eyes the same shade as Emma's blue eyes. Seated beside her, with several cuts and bruised all over his body, and a blade sticking out of his abdomen, was a dark-haired man, who she assumed was Ben.

  "Oh, my god! What kind of psycho is he?" Jade quickly ran toward Ben, seeing that he was in greater need and placed a hand on his thigh trying to establish a connection. His knee jerked, and he groaned.

  Jade reached for her dagger, and cut off the cloth wrapped around his mouth.

  Ben drew in huge gulps of air. "Careful. I'm pretty sure that blade's close to an organ or something."

  "How long have you been like this?"

  "Only a couple of hours. I started healing last night and almost got us out of here, but then I tripped and alerted them."

  Jade turned to Bryan, who'd untied Rita and was leading her out of the shed. "Any good healers in your clan?"

  Bryan gave a small smile. "You're looking at him."

  Jade turned to face Ben. So, you're a crow with a pure bloodline, huh?"

  "Yeah," Ben grunted, but it's not been much help, under the consistent damage.

  Jade cut the coarse, thick ropes holding Ben, and winced at how red his wrists were. "I'm so sorry you had to go through all of this."

  Ben exhaled. "Don't be. I got sloppy and got caught. I let you guys down."

  "Don't you dare say that. Your being here gave Emma more peace of mind than she's had in a long time. We all make mistakes. Yours just happened to be around a trained assassin." Jade looked at the dagger jutting out of Ben's middle. "Do you want me to pull it out? It'll be a fifteen-minute drive until we get to the rendezvous point. Rowan's a pure dragon. She'll be able to heal you in seconds."

  Ben nodded. "On the count of three. One—"

  Jade yanked the blade out and winced as Ben hollered. She quickly pulled her shirt off and stuffed it into the wound, pressing Ben's hands over it. "Sorry, but it kind of hurts less when you least expect it. That way you don't have time to build up the pain in your mind."

  "You're one twisted lady; you know that?"

  Jade smiled, then helped Ben up. Thankfully the street was mostly empty, but they moved quickly in case. Once she got Ben into the backseat of Mara's truck, she ran around to the other side and got in.

  "Are you okay?" Rita asked from the passenger side. The older woman's fingers trembled as she gripped the back of her seat, to help her turn to face Ben.

  "Don't worry about me, Ms. Rita." Ben took a few ragged breaths. "I'll be fine. Emma's friends are going to get me to a doctor."

  Rita turned to look at Jade and Mara in turn. "You’re Emma's friends?"

  "Yes ma'am," Mara answered, before turning onto the road and speeding off.

  Ben howled as he moved with the sharp turn.

  "Sorry," Mara said.

  "Are you sure you're okay?" Rita asked. "I don't know how anyone could have survived that long with all they were doing to you."

  "Ben's a former soldier," Jade piped up. "He's trained for stuff like this, aren't you Ben?"

  "Mm-hmm."

  "How are you feeling?" Jade asked Rita. "While Ben was worse off, the older woman had seen a lot and probably didn't understand much of it. Ben wouldn't have exposed her to the shifter world, so she had no understanding of why things were happening.

  Rita exhaled. "I'm alright. I don't understand why
Derek would do something like this? We've only been seeing each other for a few weeks. Then he storms into the house, ties me up, and throws me in the shed. Then a few minutes later, Ben comes in, sounding like he's been run over by a truck." Rita went silent for thirty seconds. "It was dark too. So, I didn't even know what time of day it was. And I have a hangover from hell. My head's pounding."

  "If you reach into the glove compartment, you should find some aspirin," Mara offered.

  "Oh, thank you, darling." Rita popped the pills then sighed in relief, leaning into her seat. The older woman quickly jumped up. "Wait. Where's Emma? Is she alright? How did she know what Derek had done?"

  "Jade, you wanna take this?" Mara asked. The older bear shifter was driving awful fast, and Jade understood her need to concentrate. Besides, as Emma's girlfriend, she felt responsible for giving Rita the story they'd agreed on.

  "Sure. Ms. Parker, when Emma came to visit you a couple of weeks ago, she met, Derek, right?"

  The older woman nodded, her brows furrowed. "Yeah. She hated him too. God, she's always right about these men."

  "Well, she decided to follow Derek, and when she did, she saw him murder a man. Emma dropped her phone in shock, and Derek turned around and saw her. You may not know this, but over the past couple of weeks, she's been in Falhurst with us. Derek's been trying to get to her. We sent Ben here to keep an eye on you, but he got caught. That's when Derek tied you both up. We came up with a plan to get Derek punished and get you both to safety. We'll be meeting up with Emma and our other friends in about ten minutes."

  Rita's eyes teared up, and she sniffed as she stared out of the window. "I'm tired of messing her life up."

  Jade scooted to the center of the back seat and placed an arm on Rita's shoulder. "Do you mean that?"

  "Jade," Mara warned.

  "No. I mean it." Rita's wet blue eyes met Jade's, and she repeated the question. "Are you ready for Emma to finally have a normal life? For her to stop worrying about you?"

  "Of course, I am." Rita wiped her nose. I'm not blind, you know. I know how much she's given up for me. I just can't stop. The depression gets too much when I do."