They smelled like family.
Even so, the strange sense of menace rolling off the rider had her double-timing her work on the rope. She was rewarded when it finally gave way, freeing her hands to grab hold of Hope’s shoulders and shake her twin. “Wake up!”
Nothing. Hope’s head lolled on her shoulders, rolling with Glory’s movements.
“Shit.” She grabbed hold of Hope under her armpits, ignoring the screaming, red-hot agony in her shoulder, and dragged her twin to the car door. “We’re getting out of here, I promise.”
“No.” Salazar finally managed to get the rider off of him, pointing the gun once more at Glory’s head. “You’re not going anywhere.”
Then his eyes went wide as the rider drove his fingers into the side of his head, claws first. Glory could hear the bone snap as Salazar screamed.
A Puma’s claws weren’t nearly as long as a Bear’s, so Salazar wasn’t killed instantly. He was wounded now, a bleeding Wolf who thought he was defending his mate. So he did what any wounded shifter would do.
He shifted, desperately trying to wriggle free of his clothing. Because he shifted into an animal that was smaller than his human form, he didn’t risk hurting himself by trying to burst through his clothing.
Must be nice. It would have been a hell of a lot easier to fight Salazar back in the shop if she could have changed. Glory redoubled her attempts to cut through the ropes binding her wrists, grunting in satisfaction when she felt them begin to give way.
The familiar-smelling Puma didn’t change. He backed up, making come-hither gestures with his hands, shooting the Wolf the finger when Salazar crouched down in the driver’s seat.
As soon as the fucker was out, Glory would be in. He’d left the keys in the ignition. Glory had no trouble stealing the psycho’s wheels and making her getaway, whether Hope regained consciousness or not. She had to get Hope to Julian, had to—
“Mother pus bucket!” Glory swore, using Cyn’s favorite curse, her vision blurring as she twisted wrong. It pulled at the wound in her shoulder, and pretty stars danced around her head, nearly sending her tumbling into unconsciousness along with her sister.
She had to be more careful, or she and Hope were going to be in bigger trouble than they were now. She healed a little of the damage the bullet had caused, closing the bleeding blood vessels and torn flesh, the moves instinctual. Her Bear guided her, showed her what to do and how to maximize what little energy she had left. And she had precious little. Healing Hope had taken most of it. By the time she was done taking care of her shoulder she was panting, gasping, her vision blurred at the edges. And not all of it was from pain and exhaustion. Her Bear was showing her how to stave off the panic attack that threatened to stop her breath.
The Puma whistled, that sound one used to call a dog to heel, and Glory would have laughed if she wasn’t terrified of the pain. This whole thing was so surreal.
From Salazar’s answering growl, the Wolf was less than amused. He stayed hunkered in the driver’s seat, glaring and baring his teeth at the Puma who was trying to taunt him out of the car. From the way he positioned himself, Glory would swear he was trying to keep Hope safe. He kept his eye on the Puma, his back to Hope, but every now and then he’d snarl at Glory. If Glory didn’t know better, she’d swear he was acting exactly as Ryan had when he’d been protecting her.
But Salazar was not Hope’s mate, no matter what his delusions told him. There was no mingling of their scents, no permanent mark on her body. Cyn smelled of Julian; Tabby, of Alex. Glory was aware how her own scent had mingled with Ryan’s.
Hope smelled like Hope, and nothing else. Ditto with Tito Salazar.
But that didn’t stop the psycho wolf from acting like a mated shifter. He was keeping the Puma from getting too close to Hope while remaining close enough to keep her safe.
The Puma shrugged, reached in his jacket, and pulled out something Glory could barely see. He sauntered back to the car, his stride certain, the object half hidden in the palm of his hand.
Salazar tensed, ready to spring at the Puma who dared come close to them once more. The man in the leather was going to get savaged unless he changed, and Glory wasn’t certain how much more she’d be able to heal. The exhaustion that rode a Bear who’d used his or her powers, the price they had to pay for their gift from the spirits that had made them, was riding her hard.
But if the Puma got hurt trying to save them, Glory would try and heal him. It was the least she could do.
The rider reached the driver’s side of the car.
Salazar pounced, snarling and snapping like the rabid Wolf he was. Glory tensed, certain the Puma was about to get his throat ripped out, high-necked leather jacket or no. Salazar was just that fast.
But the Puma was faster, his hand whipping out and jabbing the object he held into Salazar’s side.
Salazar cried out, a canine yip of pain, his momentum shattered as the Puma used it to pound him into the ground. She saw his thumb press down, and realized he was injecting the Wolf with something.
Salazar began to thrash almost immediately, his body contorting as whatever the Puma had given him killed him so quickly it was over before it really began.
Fuck. A. Duck. No fucking way.
But it had to be. There was no one else she could think of, no one else who would have fucking poison and an injector on him. And they’d scented him at Hope’s run-down motel, but none of them had known why.
“Jamie?”
The helmet swiveled in her direction as the Puma lifted his finger to his helmet in a shushing motion. He turned his attention once more to Salazar and nodded.
Salazar wasn’t breathing. He’d shifted back, a naked human with half-closed eyes and grayish skin.
He was dead.
Jamie—if it was Jamie—backed away from Salazar and the car. He didn’t do anything more. He simply stared into the back seat, at Hope, for a long moment before walking over to his motorcycle.
Glory shivered. If the insane doctor had fixated on Hope, they were in more trouble than anything Salazar had been capable of giving them.
But Jamie’s shoulders weren’t nearly so tense, the sense of menace dulled to a quiet river rather than a raging storm. He was still dangerous, still unstable, but whatever had driven him after Glory and Hope seemed satisfied now.
Glory leapt out of the car, ignoring the body of the man who now lay where the Wolf had been. Salazar deserved to be found naked and dead of whatever Jamie had done to him.
Hope yelled from the backseat, staring at the man in the helmet. “Wait!”
Jamie paused, shuddering violently at the sound of Hope’s voice, but didn’t turn around.
Her sister took a deep, shuddering breath. “Thank you. For saving us.”
For a second, Glory didn’t think he’d respond, but then the helmet briefly dipped before Dr. Jamie Howard got on his cycle and roared out of her life once more.
Hope kept her gaze on him until he disappeared from sight, before collapsing again in the back seat. “Who was that?”
“I’m not sure, but I think it was Dr. Jamie Howard.”
“The one who lost his mate?” Hope’s tone was full of…something. Fear, maybe? Longing?
Glory couldn’t tell. She was too busy trying to get her breathing back under control. “Yeah.” Glory sat in the driver’s seat, her hands shaking as the panic she’d barely allowed herself to feel began to kick in. Her vision was going white around the edges, her breath coming in panting gasps.
She had to get herself under control, or she’d wind up killing both herself and Hope.
Glory reached for her Bear and prayed that what little she knew would be enough to keep her from losing herself in the fear.
Chapter Twenty
Ryan followed the sweet scent of his mate, his head hanging out the window like a dog’s. “There. Down the ramp.”
He tried not to panic as the scent of Jamie Howard mingled with that of Hope, Glory and Salazar.
If Jamie did anything to hurt his mate, there’d be war in Halle, Pennsylvania. Jamie wouldn’t live to see the dawn.
“Julian says Jim is awake.” Gabe hung up his phone, but his eyes were still Puma gold. The sheriff was pissed that Salazar had tricked them, had hurt people under Gabe’s protection. Ryan wasn’t certain which of them wanted Salazar’s blood more. “He’s confused, and asking a lot of questions.”
“Julian called Chloe?”
Gabe nodded as Barney followed the scent of Jamie, Glory and Hope through a small town. Gabe had his badge ready in case the local police decided to pull them over. Technically, he should have called the kidnapping in to state police, but time was of the essence and they didn’t want a crazy shifter set on a bunch of humans. The bite Jim had gotten proved the rogue Wolf couldn’t be trusted not to try to harm or change them, thus endangering them all. Even if Ryan didn’t get to him, Tito Salazar was a marked man. “Chloe’s making her way to the shop as we speak. She’ll try and help Julian explain everything to Jim.”
God, what Jim was about to go through. No one should have their choices taken away like that. But it was too late to do anything now. If Chloe had been there, she could have bitten her mate, given him the mark and changed him into a Fox.
But Chloe hadn’t been, and now Jim would become a Wolf against his will. Chloe had to be heartbroken.
It was just one more reason to rip Salazar apart. No one made Ryan Williams’s baby sister cry.
“Julian used their freaky mind-link to call her to him. She’s on her way.” Gabe was leaning forward, his gaze glued to something outside the front window. “Wait a minute. You see that?”
Barney, driving the car, was also leaning over the steering wheel. “Yup. Looks like they’ve stopped.”
Ryan leaned farther out the window, trying to see what they saw.
A dark car, front and back driver’s side doors open. A body on the blacktop, naked and grotesquely distorted.
A fall of powder-blue hair spilling out of the driver’s seat.
Glory.
Ryan was out of the car before it came to a full stop, running toward his mate, terrified as the scent of blood, her blood, filled him. “Glory!”
Her head snapped up. Her pale blue eyes were glazed, her clothing dripping with her blood. There was a gaping hole in the shoulder of her filmy top.
Fuck. She’d been shot again. His Grizzly roared, wanting to rend, to tear at the son of a bitch who’d harmed his mate.
“Ryan?”
He was growling, his eyes changing to his Bear’s brown, his claws extended in anticipation of ripping through flesh.
But his mate needed him. She was wounded, hurting, terrified and on the verge of one hell of a panic attack. Ryan soothed his Bear, reminded him the body had to be that of Salazar, but his Bear wasn’t ready to listen yet. It wanted revenge for his mate’s suffering, and wouldn’t calm until it knew Glory was safe and whole. “I’m here, sweetheart.” He pulled her the car, cradling her close as she collapsed against him. “I’m here.”
God, he’d almost lost her. The smell of gunpowder on her skin, her clothes, terrified him. Hell, he might have a panic attack right along with her.
She was trembling against him. “Ryan.”
Ryan was still tired from healing Jim, but his mate needed, and he would provide. His Grizzly agreed, and together they danced down the healing spiral, checking her wound and repairing what little damage was left. She’d done very well for someone who hadn’t been formally trained in her gift, leaving little sign of the damage the bullet must have made.
The panic was easier to soothe than he’d thought it would be. She’d begun to calm the moment he took her in his arms.
“I knew you’d come. I waited for you.” The trembling increased as Glory clung to him so tightly he was surprised he could still breathe.
“Good.” He sighed as she snuggled up against him. “Good.” He eased her racing heart, damped down the surge of adrenaline. She relaxed, already easier in his embrace.
“Jamie was here.”
“I know. I smelled him.”
She pressed her face harder against his chest. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Barney checking on Hope while Gabe studied Salazar. “He saved us.”
“How?” Ryan refused to let his mate go, even when Gabe gestured for him to come and check on the dead body. And it was obvious that Salazar was dead. The gray color of his skin alone would have marked him. The knowledge that his mate was safe, healed, and the offender was beyond his reach finally eased the Bear’s rage and the man’s fears. Ryan relaxed, closed his eyes and buried his face in his mate’s curls.
“He followed us, injected Salazar with something when the Wolf shifted and attacked him.”
Shit. “Did he hurt you?” Jamie might have been a friend once, but Ryan had no trouble hurting the Puma if he’d laid one claw on Glory. His mate had been hurt enough to last a lifetime.
“No. He didn’t speak to us, didn’t do anything. Just…assassinated Salazar and left.”
Ryan took a deep breath and let it out as relief flooded through him. “Thank fuck.” He was dizzy from relief, ready to lie down on the blacktop and just hold his mate until the shakes passed.
“He kept staring at Hope. I think she’s the reason he saved us.”
“And then he left you both here alone.” Ryan wasn’t certain what to make of that. If, as he suspected, Hope was Jamie’s second mate, why had the man left them here alone? Ryan would never have been able to walk away from his wounded mate, and it was obvious from Hope’s unconscious state that’s exactly what Jamie had done. He could sense Barney attempting to heal her, felt the touch of his mate on her twin’s wounds. Hope’s condition was worse than Glory’s had been, but it looked like Glory had done everything she could for her sister. Hope was speaking quietly to Barney, possibly telling him everything Glory had just told Ryan.
“He scared the hell out of me at first, but when Salazar was dead, he seemed…calmer, somehow. If that makes any sense whatsoever.” Glory shivered. “I think he’s still cold, still grieving Marie, but maybe he’s finally starting to snap out of it.”
Either that, or the fact that someone had taken his mate from him again had broken him out of his grief-fueled rage. Ryan wouldn’t be sure until he saw the two of them together, but how would he go about bringing Hope, scared of her own shadow, to the psychotic doctor who’d sworn to kill Julian if he ever saw him again? Was Jamie finally starting to heal, or was something more sinister going on?
Ryan sighed. At least their life was never boring.
“Rye?”
“Hmm?”
“I have one more thing to tell you. Something I promised myself I would if I lived long enough.”
“What’s that?” God, she killed him. Just the thought of never seeing her again…
He could understand now why Jamie had broken. If he lived through losing Glory, he’d be a basket case too.
“Love you.”
He stilled, frozen as her muffled words filled him, quieted the fear that had driven him ever since he found she’d been taken from him. Her reluctant, aggravated tone amused the hell out of him. “I love you too, SG.”
She snorted against his shirt, but for once she didn’t argue with him about the nickname. “Good. Now take me home.”
He chuckled as he looked down at his mate. She was smiling up at him, a trembling one, sure, but that cocky, confident grin was peeking out of the fear, dazzling him. “Yes, dear.”
She shook her finger up at him, nearly poking his nose. “Remember those words, Rye. You’ll be saying them a lot.”
“Yes, dear.”
She laughed, and the sun came out from behind the clouds once more.
They were back in Halle, seated on Max and Emma Cannon’s comfy leather sofa, and clutching each other while Ryan, Barney and Gabe filled the Alpha pair in on what had happened. “I want to call Temp and Faith, let them know you’re safe.”
Hope whimpered. “I’m not sure…”
“Dad isn’t in their lives anymore.” At least she hoped so. If that proved to be wrong, if Temp and Faith had fooled her…
No. No, she knew Temp. Her brother would never betray them that way. He’d tried to intervene, to accept the beatings for her. He wouldn’t turn on her, she was sure of it.
Hope took a deep breath. “We have to tell them about us.”
Glory nodded. Ryan had already told her he’d sensed Temp was present when she changed for the first time. Telling Temp about her shifter status, and what it meant for both her and Hope, was the next step. Odds were good the local shifters would insist on changing Temp and Faith as well, for security reasons. She didn’t envy them that. “I know.”
“I want you there when I tell them what happened to me.” Hope took a deep breath. “They really looked for me?”
“Yeah. We really did.”
Hope nodded, her expression turning incredibly fierce. “Then they deserve to know.”
The determination in her twin’s tone was almost scary. “You’re going to be fine. Ryan and I, we’re going to build a house and we want you to live with us.”
“No.” Hope winced. “I can’t. I don’t want to be around—”
“Shifters?” Glory could understand that, even if it hurt.
“Men.” Hope’s tone was so soft, Glory could barely hear her. “I don’t want to be around men.”
“That could be…problematic.” Max Cannon smiled softly at Hope. “Since the Poconos Pack Alpha is male, and so am I.” He took her hand, ignoring when Hope visibly tried to remove it. “But I give you my word, you’ll be safe here. You’re ours now.”
Hope sucked in a breath and shivered hard, but Glory understood what Max was saying. “He means you’re Pride now.”
Max nodded, grimacing. “Sorry. I should have worded that better.”
“Yes, you should have, Lion-O.” Emma settled on the sofa next to Hope with a soft sigh. “But I get it.”
“It’s okay. I feel like…” Hope’s eyes were wide, confused.
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