by Lynn Hagen
They were blaming changelings, and Rick had to find a way to prove that it was all a setup. He just wasn’t sure how. He still couldn’t find a way to prove his own innocence in the four deaths he was being blamed for.
Things seemed to be mounting, and Rick felt like he was already losing before the war had even begun.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Kraven hung up the phone, his fingers lingering as he stared at the far wall. He wasn’t ignorant enough to think that the Death Squad wouldn’t come after his kind sooner or later. He was promised immunity, but Kraven was no fool. Right now the Death Squad’s focus was on the changelings, and that was where he planned on keeping it.
He would do whatever it took to keep the heat off of them, even sacrifice the werewolf alpha. He hadn’t sent the Mãos da Morte after the human to kill him. Kraven had sent them so he could find out the location of Dorian Campbell and Enrique Marcelo—the two men at the top of the Death Squad’s list.
Picking the phone back up, he dialed, waiting for Tyson to answer. The alpha of the werehyenas was a pain in the ass to deal with, his arrogance knowing no bounds, but he came in handy at times.
“Master Kraven. What can I do for you?” Tyson’s voice was falsely sweet, making Kraven grind his back molars.
His voice kept back the disliking of the foul creature. “I know where Enrique and his human are hiding.”
Tyson laughed, and the sound grated on Kraven’s nerves. Once this was all over, he was going to kill the irritating bastard. “Do tell.”
And Kraven did.
Rick watched as Miguel loaded the last of the bags into the back of the SUV. They were heading out, their next location already mapped out. He couldn’t believe they were heading to Kansas. He knew no one would think to look there, but it was so far away from his pack that Rick worried about them. Nate was capable of taking charge while he was gone.
But Rick still worried.
“So are we really going to travel around the country, trying to get the entire changeling population to help us fight?” Miguel asked. “I’ve never really been away from home before, until now that is.”
Rick placed his arm around Miguel’s slim shoulders, drawing him in. He could still hear the pain in the juvenile’s voice. It hurt Rick as well. He had loved Miguel’s mother like a sister, and respected Miguel’s father like his very own. It was truly a tragic loss that would reverberate through the pack for years to come. “That’s the plan. And along the way, we are going to try and gather proof that the killings were not carried out by changelings.” He mussed Miguel’s thick brown hair.
Rick closed the hatch, smiling when Miguel climbed into the backseat. Even though he knew why Dorian protested them being here, he was glad for the additional help. They had a lot of territory to cover, and would run into changelings that were not known for their even temper or hospitality.
But Rick was on a mission, a journey to find as many recruits as possible. And having Miguel and Benito, if only as Dorian’s bodyguards, was a relief.
“Did you let Ross know we were leaving?” Dorian asked as he and Benito walked out of the farmhouse, closing the back door behind them.
“He knows we are heading out today.” Rick waited until everyone was in the SUV before sliding into the front seat. He strapped himself in and started the motor. Dorian leaned forward, placing Rick’s Smith & Wesson in the glove box.
As well as Dorian had handled himself with the Mãos da Morte, Rick was still going to have to take him out and let him get plenty more practice. He had come close to shooting Benito last night. It was a chance Rick wasn’t willing to take again. But Rick hadn’t said anything to Dorian. The man had protected them the best he could, and Rick wasn’t going to take away from Dorian’s feeling of defending them.
Even if they hadn’t needed it.
It scared the shit out of Rick to think of Dorian in any kind of harm’s way, but he knew he was going to have to trust Dorian to not get himself killed. Dorian settled back, leaning more on his right side.
The human’s shoulder still hurt. If he were changeling, it would be healed by now. But Dorian had been adamant about staying human. It was a boundary Rick would respect. They were mated. For him, that was good enough, although a small part of him still knew that Dorian would look beautiful as a werewolf.
He pulled away from the farmhouse, heading out onto the country road. It was going to take them roughly twenty-four hours to get to Kansas if they drove straight through. But Rick wasn’t going to drive straight through, and he wasn’t going to be traveling on the main highways either. He figured two to three days and they should be there.
But it just might take longer if he found changelings along the way. He had to convince as many nonhumans as possible to join him. He had a feeling that when things got really down and dirty, the humans weren’t going to hold back, and neither was Rick.
Of course he was going to try and minimize the loss as much as possible. There were hundreds of thousands of changelings, but Rick knew he wasn’t going to be lucky enough to get the entire changeling population to fight.
He steered his truck toward the road he needed and settled back. It was going to be a long ride.
Freedman mobilized his team, heading out to a location that had been called in to the captain. He was told that Enrique Marcelo, along with Dorian Campbell was holding up at a small farmhouse close by, and with two other changelings.
As much as Freedman didn’t want to do this, he knew he had no choice. There was no backing out of this mission. He was in it until the very end. But that didn’t mean he couldn’t save as many lives as possible.
When they reached the location, Freedman had to make sure he was first man in. He had to make sure no one was killed, and he had to make sure Enrique and the others got away.
All while looking like he wasn’t helping them.
“I don’t like this,” Henderson whispered close to his ear. “We shouldn’t be hunting down people like savage dogs.”
Freedman had shared the information he had gathered with Henderson. The man was like a brother to him. He knew he could trust the guy. The others, Freedman wasn’t so sure about. Baker had made a comment earlier about wanting to see the inside of a changeling’s brain.
The excitement in Baker’s eyes worried him. The man was determined to kill every single name on their extermination list. His gut twisted at the idea that anyone enjoyed taking a life.
He did his job.
Killed the enemy in order to keep America safe.
But again, the thought of this being a coldblooded murder chased through his mind.
As they neared the location, a quietness settled inside of Freedman. He knew what he had to do, and he knew who the true enemies were.
God help him, but the ones he should fear the most were sitting in the backseat of the black SUV he was driving, gearing up and becoming excited about the impending kills.
“How well have you covered our asses?” Vice Admiral Harrington asked. “If the Death Squad finds out that the orders did not come from the president, the shit will hit the fan, and I’m not taking the fall for this.”
Captain O’Hanlon nodded as he tucked the file that was deemed classified under his arm. Little did Harrington know that O’Hanlon had put measures into place just in case this did fall apart. He was not going to be the fall guy. If this was blown wide open, Vice Admiral Harrington, along with Admiral James, were going to be doing plenty of time.
“Our part in this has been covered extensively. It will take years for them to dig through the paperwork to even come close to our names.” Not true. If the president ordered an investigation, Harrington and James’s names would be flagged within hours.
It was good to have the right connections. O’Hanlon walked out of Harrington’s office, feeling very confident that he couldn’t be connected in any way to the slaughtering of changelings.
But first he had to make sure that Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Freedma
n took care of Enrique Marcelo. O’Hanlon’s intel on Marcelo made the man out to be a very dangerous creature. From what he had gathered from others, the werewolf alpha was the key to all of this. The man was powerful enough in the changeling world to bring the plans to a screeching halt.
This he could not risk.
But O’Hanlon knew things other didn’t and there was no way he was going to let Enrique live.
If the Death Squad couldn’t take Marcelo down, O’Hanlon had a backup plan. Master Kraven Rubinsky was more than willing to step in and kill the alpha for him. He wasn’t sure what the vampire had against Marcelo, but Rubinsky seemed very eager to do his civic duty.
It also helped that O’Hanlon had promised that the vampires would stay off of the list if they fully cooperated with this mission.
It was a promise O’Hanlon didn’t plan on keeping. They were creatures against nature, all of them. Every last nonhuman in existence was a freak of nature. And he, along with the Vice Admiral and Admiral, planned on eradicating every last one of those monsters.
Nate flashed his headlights twice when he saw Sasha get out of his car. The leopard alpha quickly closed the distance and then slipped into the passenger’s seat of Nate’s Yukon.
“I was being tailed, but I lost them,” Sasha said as he pulled the envelope out of the inside pocket in his jacket. “Our inside source on the police force finally managed to get his hands on some evidence that is so damn disturbing that it makes me want to grab my leap and head into the mountains.”
Nate’s hands tensed on the steering wheel. He knew it was going to be bad, but from the worried look in Sasha’s eyes, it was worse than he had thought. Sasha hid his feelings well, always playful, hardly serious, although Nate knew the man was as lethal as Rick.
“What did you find out?” Nate asked.
Sasha placed the envelope on the console and blew out a long breath. “Get that envelope to Rick as quickly as you can. If the information is accurate, we are in deep shit.”
Nate started to grab the envelope, to see with his own two eyes what had Sasha so rattled, but the leopard placed his hand on Nate’s arm, stopping him. “Don’t. Give it to Rick sealed. If you want to know, just ask.” Sasha’s kelly-green eyes shimmered in the interior of the truck, making Nate swallow.
His life was confusing as hell. There was no doubt about that. It was as complicated as complicated could get. Not only did Nate crave Selene like nobody’s business, but he had been attracted to Sasha for years now and didn’t know what to do about it.
If he could do anything about it.
The man was a wereleopard alpha, strong, confident, and powerful. Nate was as close to confessing to the man how he felt as he was to telling Selene he wanted her.
He bit back the quiet moan that threatened to escape his lips at Sasha’s warm hand on his skin. Nate pushed the lust as far down as he could so Sasha wouldn’t scent it. “Tell me,” Nate said, managing to keep his voice neutral and hiding his innermost desires.
Sasha began to talk, but his hand remained on Nate’s arm. The small, innocent touch threatened to expose Nate’s desires. He pulled his arm back, removing Sasha’s strong and firm hand.
“We already know that Rick and Dorian didn’t kill those changelings.”
Nate nodded.
“The detective who was killed, the one working on the murder case, well, he was involved in the killing of all three boys. It seems whoever hired Detective Spinford wanted to silence him. The informant is still working at getting us some more details, but he became hesitant when he said that he found paperwork buried in the captain’s desk drawer that pointed this whole debauched mess in the direction of the White House.”
“The President of the United States is in on this?” Nate gasped.
Sasha shook his head, his long blond hair almost fanning out around him. Nate wanted to grab a handful of those silky strands and see if they were as soft as they looked.
“I’m not sure what to believe right now. Everything is going to hell in a handbasket and for once, I’m unsure of what to do. This is so out of my depth that I’m wondering if we can win.”
Nate was shocked that the leopard alpha was confessing to him a weakness he felt. No alpha did that. They always had to appear strong, powerful, and fully capable of handling any situation, no matter the crisis.
But here, in the dark interior of his truck, with only the moonlight to show him just how beautiful Sasha’s cat eyes truly were, he felt as if the alpha were giving a piece of himself to Nate.
“We’ll get through this,” Nate said, his throat going slightly dry as he stared at Sasha’s full lips. The urge to kiss them was overwhelming.
Sasha blinked and then leaned back, as if coming out of some sort of spell. “We? What we? I am a cat, you are a dog. There is no we. Just get Rick the envelope as quickly as possible.”
And just that quick, Sasha was gone. Had the alpha been talking about the impending fight, or about something on a much more personal level? Nate blew out a frustrated breath as he started the Yukon and pulled away.
His life was about as difficult as it could get.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Dorian stood under the shower, his palms flat against the wall as he let the hot spray of water soak into his muscles. That had been one long-ass trip. Never before had he sat in a vehicle that long, and his muscles were cramping.
Even his butt was numb.
Miguel and Benito were in the room next door. They had tried to argue with Rick to share the same room as he and Dorian, but Rick wasn’t having it. They settled on a room that had an adjoining door.
That was as good as those two were going to get. Thankfully, Dorian could lock the adjoining door and keep the two out. The whole trip, Miguel kept reaching over Dorian’s seat and rubbing his hand in Dorian’s hair. Benito reached around Dorian’s seat, resting a hand on Dorian’s arm.
He was really trying his best to understand the changeling’s need for touch, but fuck if those two weren’t driving him batty. Dorian was pretty damn sure he hadn’t been handled that much as a baby!
Miguel and Benito had to be on some kind of cruel mission to see who could make Dorian crack first.
Dorian screamed and spun around when a hand landed on his shoulder. He spun around so fast that he lost his balance, falling straight for the porcelain tub below. Only the strong arms that caught him stopped him from knocking himself unconscious. And then he screamed again when the shampoo in his hair had slid into his eyes, stinging the crap out of them.
“Get your head under the spray,” Rick said as he guided Dorian to the stream of water. “What the hell did you scream for?”
Dorian wiped at his eyes, trying his best to get the shampoo out. They were burning so badly that he wanted to scratch his eyes out. “Because you come in here doing the Norman Bates thing.”
Rick chuckled. The sound slid down Dorian’s body and headed straight for his cock. It seemed the more time he spent around Rick, the more addicted Dorian became to everything about the man. His laughs, his moans, his touch, even his growling, raspy werewolf voice were becoming an intricate part of Dorian’s life.
“I didn’t have a knife in my hand, gatito.”
“You still did the whole shower scene,” Dorian complained as he finally was able to open his eyes. They still burned, but he wasn’t ready to gouge them out anymore.
“I just came in here to see if you needed your back washed.”
That was when Dorian noticed Rick was completely naked, and so damn hard that the head of his cock was an angry purple color. Dorian stood there, mesmerized by the hard sinewy muscles that encased Rick’s thighs. There wasn’t an ounce of fat anywhere on the man’s body.
His eyes slowly began to rise, taking in the slim waist, the very erotic V on either side of the man’s groin, and an abdomen that proudly displayed not a six-pack, but eight very gorgeous muscles.
Rick stood as if he prided himself on his well-honed body, sha
melessly displaying his male physique for Dorian to take in.
“I take it you like what you see?” Rick asked as his large hand slid down his stomach and his grey eyes lowered until he was staring directly at Dorian’s full-blown erection.
“And then some,” Dorian admitted as he licked his lower lip. There was a passionate gleam in Rick’s light-grey eyes that told Dorian exactly what the man was thinking. Or at least what he wanted.
Rick stepped into the tub, closing the curtain behind him. He pulled Dorian close, turning him away from the spray. “Any time you want me, all you have to do is touch me, and I’m all yours, gatito.”
Dorian shivered.
Rick slid his tongue up Dorian’s ear, slowly moving him back, trapping Dorian against the shower wall, one of Rick’s hands on either side of his head. “My cock is yours to have, whenever or wherever you want to feel it.” Dorian groaned at the thickness he heard in Rick’s voice.
“Make love to me, Rick.” Dorian slid his arms around Rick’s wet shoulders, letting his fingers play in the man’s short hair. Rick nuzzled his neck, one of his hands lowering to tweak and pull at Dorian’s nipple.
Desire swept through Dorian, his cock becoming impossibly harder for Rick.
“Not tonight, Rick. Please don’t tease me tonight.”
Rick’s hand moved lower, his lithe and powerful fingers wrapping around Dorian’s cock.
He hissed at how good Rick’s hand felt stroking his shaft, bringing him close even with only a hand job. The man had wonderful, glorious hands and he knew how to use them. Rick gave one last tug before releasing Dorian’s pulsating flesh. “Wrap your legs around me, gatito. I want to feel you riding my cock.”
Dorian jumped up, Rick caught him around his sides, steadying him as Dorian wrapped his legs around Rick’s tanned waist. He instantly felt the head of Rick’s cock tapping at his hole. “I think your dick has a homing beacon to my ass.”
Rick’s undiluted laughter was rich and warm. “I think you are right.”