by R. A. Boyd
Simon rubbed the side of his head and his neck. “You claimed yet, woman?” he asked Cass, green eyes glowing like a firefly’s behind.
Cass shook her head, sniffing herself again. The scent she’d smelled a few moments ago was dissipating. “No. Not yet.”
“She’s going to be part of the Alpha Triad, dumbass,” Aiden said, smiling. “She’s stronger.”
Simon glanced up at Jax who was still looking down on him. “I like you better now. Least you ain’t some weak human.”
Cass blew out a laugh and shook her head. “That’s what makes you like me.” She looked back and forth between Jax and Damon and said, “Not cool. I’m the reason other shifters want to bring a war to your door and you don’t tell me. How am I supposed to…”
A slow, soft hiss sounded through the room and everyone looked around. In an arch of rain, water begins to pour down from the sprinkler system above them.
“What the hell?” Jax said from behind her. “Is something burning?”
They all looked up and started moving around, but once their clothes and skin became saturated with the falling water, all but Cass fell to the ground and started writhing in pain. Grunts and groans filled the room, and the picture of their bodies rolling around and trying to climb toward the door would forever be etched in her brain.
“What’s happening?” Cass said, fear clouding her voice. “Jax. Damon. Audra…”
Most of them were out cold. What was she supposed to do?
“Cass,” Simon said. His voice was a harsh whisper. His eyes were rolled back so far she could barely see the beautiful green. “Run.” And with that, he was out cold.
She couldn’t run. She couldn’t leave them. Fuck that, she wouldn’t leave them! Terror and fear choked her senses and she stood rooted in the spot before she could make herself move. The sprinkler unit! It had to be in the back somewhere or in a basement if they had one. She had to shut it down.
Her hair was now sticking to her face, and as she quickly walked toward the back she heard Teague screaming and it brought her attention back to the monitor. It looked as if parts of the screen were blacking out.
“It’s got to be Heaven’s Flame. It’s a trap, Cass! Get the fuck out of there and hide. I’m coming!”
She had to turn off the sprinklers first. As she started running toward the kitchen area, a furred form came striding toward her. Cass could tell it was a person with fur over their body. Maybe that’s why none of the clan had known they were in the building. She didn’t know whether to brace herself for the oncoming attack or to run away from it.
The last thing they would expect was for her to run toward them. Cass bent her knees to center herself and then started running toward the fur covered bastard that had incapacitated her people. Silver eyes flashed at her and then turned the pitch of midnight. It was a shifter.
The war that Teague and Damon had spoken of had come to the home of the Ghost shifters.
Shifters were stronger than humans. Cass didn’t stand a chance, but she wouldn’t make it easy on him. She ran at him, and as the force of a freight train collided with her body all the air that Cass had in her lungs puffed out and she yelped in pain. With a slosh of wet carpet and clothes, Cass fell back onto the floor.
“Dang-it!” she shouted.
When she looked up at the man who now hovered over her, shoulders trim and thin, and a long nose peaking from beyond the fur, Cass was enraged. Could she make him cower just like she had the others a few minutes ago?
She’d give it a try. She threw every ounce of emotion at him that she could, the anger, the fear, the pain in her butt from falling on the floor, but the only thing she could feel rushing from her body was fear. Cass wanted to scare him, wanted to exert her dominance, but she didn’t have it in her. Not right now. She was afraid. For herself. For the people lying unconscious on the floor behind her.
Cass looked up at the shifter as his eyes watched her in annoyance, and that annoyed her. She was more than just some troublesome fly that this douchebag would look at with no concern whatsoever.
Cass jumped up, slipped back down on the slippery floor, and then finally made it to a standing position. She lunged at the man and starting punching and slapping and scratching. And it was getting her nowhere.
With a deep voice as easy as if he were relaxing in a hot tub he said, “Just come on with me, now. Make it easier.”
“Over your dead body.”
Cass drew her foot back and kicked the man right in his goody-sack.
His eyes crossed and he fell down to his knees, the carpet and fur squelching around him. But Cass knew the truth. That wasn’t going to keep him down for long. He was going to catch up to her and take her. She leaned forward and dug her hand under the headpiece of the fur and snatched out a handful of his silver blond hair.
With a roar of pain he kicked out at her, but he missed.
And then she ran. But as she ran she started sprinkling bits of hair on the people she passed. Fur-boy may kidnap or kill her, but the ghost shifter clan would know exactly who did it.
Triumph filled her chest, but just as Cass made it to the door and grabbed the knob a force from behind her took hold of her hair and slammed her backward. Her scalp screamed and she could feel her hair strands coming out at the root. She still fought.
“We can do this all day, lady. But we don’t have the time,” he said, calm as ever.
When Cass turned around to face him, his fist connected with her jaw. There was a flash of pain that wracked its way through her face and all the way down to her toes. And then, she was out.
Chapter 9
A voice sounded and broke through the fog that held Damon under. “Come on, man. Time to get your woman.”
Damon could feel his naked body being drug through the snow and gravel. Blood. His blood. He could smell it covering the ground as someone moved him from inside the community hall and into the open air. The gravel and salt that lined the ground trailed against his bare skin. It was more of an itch than anything. His skin would heal from the rips and tears.
“If my tits could freeze off I’d be in trouble,” Audra said from somewhere far off to his left.
It was as if someone had shoved sand into his eyes and mouth, and his body struggled to fully wake up. Damon rolled over from his back and onto his hands and knees, and when he could finally take a good look around he saw most of his clan members waking up from the same deep slumber. The sound of Jax moaning swung his attention to the door of the hall.
Teague was inside using a curved blade to cut off Jax’s clothes, and when he finished he dragged the Alpha of the outside, leaving a trail of blood and skin in his wake.
Cass! Where the fuck was she? As the weight of Heaven’s Flame knocked him into dreamland he had heard her. She was fighting and cursing, and the sound of her hitting at her kidnapper and landing ineffective blows would haunt his mind.
A snarl vibrated his chest and ripped up his throat. The sound echoed through the trees and off the nearby mountains. For the first time since after the Great Flood, it felt as if his beast would shred its way through his body. He welcomed that feeling.
“Wake up, Jax,” he yelled, walking toward him and Teague. “One of the packs have Cass. God damn-it!” he yelled.
He didn’t know what to do. He wanted to kill and shred and murder, but the best he could do right now was squat helplessly in the middle of the snow. How would they even start trying to find her? Damon ran his hands through his hair and linked his fingers behind his head. He’d never felt fear before. He’d been an angel of the Lord, a huge fucking saber-tooth cat that ate dinosaurs, and now he was a damn near indestructible ghost shifter that not even the craziest of shifters would approach.
But now, terror coursed through his veins. It swirled through him like a dark liquid that had his heart trying to beat out of his chest. What if they kill her? No. Whoever took her wouldn’t do that. If they wanted her dead they would have left her body there amid th
e sleeping bodies of their clan.
He needed to hurt something. Make it suffer just as much as he was suffering right now. No. He could hurt someone later. Now, he had to find his mate before… Before what?
“Fuck that,” Damon said, standing up and focusing his gaze on his clan. “We’ll gut every single pack until they turn her over. And she better be in one fucking, peaceful piece!” He yelled as if willing every shifter in existence to heed him.
This wasn’t Damon. He was angry. Pissed. He wanted to kill everything, even the fucking bird that flew overhead. Nope. He was usually rational. He was the one to bring a level head to the group. He had to calm himself or his rage would work its way through the entire clan and propel them into a murderous rage.
“Get dressed,” Jax’s voice said from behind him. “How the fuck did someone get Heaven’s Flame into water? Into the sprinkler system?” He started walking toward the house but turned back to Damon.
“And why the fuck are we naked?” Simon bellowed, trailing behind Jax. “Audra’s worried about her tits. What about my sack? It looks small.”
With a snap of latex, Teague took off a pair of blue gloves and plucked them into the hall. “I couldn’t move you. That shit was like lead on your clothes for me. It was either cut them off or leave you there to dry.” He dug in his pocket, and with a quirk of his lips that made Damon want to punch his fucking face in, he pulled out what looked to be thin, silver threads. “Your woman is smart. She got a handful of the one who took her. They may have been covered in deer fur and piss, but that was a raven shifter. She covered you guys in the fuck-faces hair.”
“That’s my sister,” Audra squealed. She jumped up and down and clapped, and then quickly walked to her house. “I’m putting on my sexy, red, ass-kicker boots, ‘cause I’ve got asses to kick!”
Teague held up the strands of hair and gave them to Jax.
Jax bent closer to the shimmery blond hair and sniffed. “Brennon from the Gold Wing Clan. Raven shifter. Low level. Everyone,” he said, already walking toward his and Damon’s house. “Be ready in five minutes. We’re heading over to their Alpha’s house.”
“They probably won’t be there,” Jace said, finally speaking up. In the light of the afternoon sun, his blue eyes flashed between the roiling darkness of storm clouds and back to that of a clear ocean. “Even if the Gold Wing Alpha, Dean is his name, had the balls to do something like this to us you know they’d take her somewhere else.”
Fear made people do crazy things. Dean could be scared shitless of what the ghost shifters could become once they completed their Alpha Triad. They had been peaceful during their time here on Earth. Not now. The shifters were about to find out what the ghosts were capable of.
Jax’s voice rang out and pulled Damon from his thoughts. “Damon. Get your shit together. I can feel your rage from here. We need clear heads for this.”
Damon’s eyes cut to Jax, and for a quick second he thought about jumping on his Alpha and breaking his jaw, dislocate a few joints, and then leave him to slowly heal as he went to find their mate. Wrath was Damon’s only friend right now. If he allowed himself to feel anything other than that he would be on his knees, hoping and praying that the Creator would keep her safe.
What if this was part of their punishment? Find the perfect woman, fall in love with her, and then have her taken away from them. No. That wasn’t going to happen. He closed his eyes and said a silent prayer. One for Cass and one for himself. He had to figure this shit out or he’d lose it.
“Damon,” Jax said, and when he opened his eyes his Alpha was standing right in front of him. He gripped Damon’s shoulder and gave him a firm shake. “They won’t kill her. She’s not going to be taken away from us. Do you understand? I know what you’re thinking, and that’s not going to happen. Not to her and not to us.” Jax took a deep breath and looked at Damon with something akin to regret. “I’m Alpha but you, Omega, are the strength of this clan. I haven’t been able to bear this burden with you in all this time, but maybe you can draw strength from me. She’s okay. Keep it together until we find her, and then we go fucking ape shit on who took her.”
Chapter 10
“There’s only eight of them. What the fuck can they do?”
“Did you clear this with dad?”
The man scoffed and made a deep phlegmy sound in his throat. “Fuck no. This is me showing initiative. This’ll pull me up the ranks and make sure I’ll be next in line for at least third.” He sucked his teeth and then made a clicking noise with his tongue. “Look. I did what I did to keep them from claiming her. It’s better this way till I figure out what to do.”
The raspy voice of the man who had hit her in the face so hard she saw bolts of lightning crashing through her vision roused Cass from her sleep. Her head hurt so bad she couldn’t even lift her chin from her chest. She wanted to talk but the fear of what her face would feel like after that butthole had almost ripped her jaw off made her keep her mouth shut. Someone had tied her hands behind her back, and the sticky feel against her wrists let her know they’d used tape. With her head still down, Cass fluttered her eyes open to get a look at where she was.
She knew it was a basement. The dank scent alone let her know that. And even though they were inside it was chilly. Grey cement floors ran all around her, four brick beams stood from floor to ceiling as if holding up the old hardwood ceiling. Despite the boulder that was rolling around her brain, Cass lifted her head to see who was in the room with her.
Fur-man. That son of a whore was jabbing his fingers toward a young man who had his back to her. A shake in her kidnapper’s voice made Cass more concerned than him bringing her here. Keeping her away from Jax and Damon so they couldn’t claim her was one thing, but he sounded nervous. Scared. Unsure of what he’d done but committed to seeing this through. That made him dangerous.
She’d heard that same shaking novelty in her voice when she’d slapped the nurse who told her not worry about Andrew. That woman should have thanked her lucky stars that Cass was more concerned about her husband dying in front of her than giving in to her instinct. Cass would have broken every bone in that witches body if she’d had the strength, and hearing it now in the man’s voice worried her.
“They will look for her. You can’t just—” A loud crack echoed through the room and the boy talking let out a mumbled cry.
“I can do what the fuck I want! This is me taking the lead. Hell, this may make me a contender for second. And if that doesn’t work, well, there are enough of us to start our own pack. You said you wanted to help, so help. We’ve got bears, wolves, and a boar. We outnumber the ghosts. They don’t even know where we are.”
If her will was enough, Cass would make sure the ghost shifters knew exactly who was behind this and made them all pay in blood.
Pay in blood? Cass didn’t think thoughts like that, but right now with her hands tied behind her back while she sat in the most uncomfortable chair ever freaking made, she wanted them to suffer.
Cass focused her eyes as the men shifted to look at her. Fur-man pointed at the boy’s face as if silently telling him that he’d hit him again if he wanted to. The boy stood with his hand gently rubbing his cheek. Neil. It was Neil from the grocery store. He’d been slapped so hard that blood dripped from his nose. When Fur-man realized she watching her, he stopped talking and walked toward her.
“I’m sorry I hit you,” he said, deep voice leveler than it had been when he was talking to Neil. “No man should ever hit a woman. Everything’ll be square once we figure out what to do with you. You already know Neil here so I’ll let him stay here with you so you won’t be alone. We got a man posted at the door at the top of the steps. If she needs something,” he said, looking at Neil, “just give a holler. Water, bathroom break. Just say the word. I’ll be back. Gotta get this deer piss off me before the others get here.”
He gave Neil a severe look and then walked off, and the boy’s eyes trailed behind him. Anger, regret, revenge. Cass
could see all those emotions flashing in his gaze as he watched douchebag.
Neil shifted from one foot to the other and then went to stand by one of the brick columns. He was doing everything in his power not to look at Cass.
“Neil. Can I have some water, please?”
Cass had about zero seconds to get Neil on her side. She thought he was friendly yesterday when he’d offer to let his dad drive her home in the falling snow. But now, he was part of this. Part of the group of shifters that sought to keep her from her mates. Part of the group of shifters that had threatened to bring a war to them. Sure, she was okay when she was just a plain old human who greeted him at the market. Now she was a threat.
“Why’d you do it, Neil?” How she wished she had a piece of paper and a pencil so she could write instead of speak. With every word she spoke Cass’s jaw seemed to unhinge and hinge with each passing syllable. But she couldn’t keep quiet. Not when he was looking at her with such guilt. “Are they going to kill me? Is that what you want, Neil?”
He shook his head and looked up toward the stairs as if wishing he could escape from her questions. When he looked back to her his eyes were crinkled at the sides and he pursed his lips. He hadn’t meant for this to happen. “No. I don’t want you hurt. I just told everyone that they’d found you.” He moved away from his standing spot and walked behind her, opening a cooler with a soft pop and then closing with a poof. Neil came to stand in front of her holding a bottle of water. He untwisted the cap and held the bottle to her mouth as she tipped her head back. “I thought it was a good thing. They’ve been waiting for you. My dad is going to be so mad at me.”
The mention of his father seemed to ignite him. He flushed red and took a deep, shaking breath. He was here by default. But when her mates got here, which she was hoping and praying they would very soon, they were going to kill everyone. She knew that deep in her bones. She’d do the same for them.