“I’ll let them know.” He pulls the phone from his ear and places it in his pocket before giving Cain a grim look. My stomach plummets.
Reaching out, I take Cain’s hand in mine, needing it to centre me. I squeeze it tightly as I wait for Mike to speak.
“That was Theo. The scent stopped at a road just past the bushland.” His eyes drop to the floor as soon as my eyes connect with his. It’s almost as if he can’t bear to look at me.
My eyes drift from Mike to Cain and back again. “What does that mean?” I ask, not wanting to believe what my mind is telling me.
Cain sighs, and Mike lifts his eyes, looking from Cain’s to mine in quick succession. “It means they got into a vehicle. I’m going to go back to the station and access the traffic cameras and see what I can pick up.”
“Wh… what if there aren’t any traffic cameras on that road?” I ask, even though I don’t want to hear the answer.
Mike takes a step backwards before turning towards the front door, completely ignoring my question. “I’ll be back as soon as I’ve got something. Eddie’s on his way to Theo. He’s been known to track vehicles before.”
Cain gives Mike’s back an absent nod, his eyes glazed as he’s obviously lost in his thoughts.
I glance around the room, unsure what to do for the best. I can’t give him comforting words because I don’t have them. My eyes roam his body, taking in the strain of his shoulders and clenched fists at his sides. I know he needs to be out there.
“Give me your phone,” I demand, my hand outstretched, waiting for him to give me it.
His head snaps in my direction, confusion etched on his face.
I wiggle my fingers. “Your phone… give me it.”
He frowns, but places it in my palm without question.
Quickly scrolling through his contacts and finding Bel’s number, I press Call. My brows rise in surprise as the sound of a ringing phone comes from the front of our house.
Bel’s voice calls through the fly screen on the front door as the phone call gets rejected. “Hey! Are you after me, Cain?”
“No, it was me. Come on in. We’re in the kitchen.” I hand the phone back to Cain and he gives me a questioning look. I want nothing more than to fall apart in his arms, but I know I need to be calm just for a little while longer because he needs to leave, and he never will if I break. Seeing his eyes flicker as his wolf comes forward, I place my good hand on his shoulder. “You need to be out there. Hunting.” I give him a knowing look. “I might not be a wolf and our bond may be a little burned out right now, but I can see it in your posture and your eyes. You need to find our baby.”
He closes his eyes and his shoulders relax before he speaks in a guttural voice. “Ours.” His eyes open and I know it’s his wolf talking to me. He strides past Bel and out the house without another word.
Fresh tears stream down my face with the bang of the fly screen closing behind him, and I can finally fall apart.
Bel jumps up beside me and wraps an arm around my shoulders. “You did the right thing, Selena. He won’t come back without her.” Reaching behind her, she tears off some kitchen roll and passes it to me.
I dab at my cheeks, wincing at the roughness of it. “That’s what I’m worried about,” I say through the tears that don’t want to stop. My thoughts run wild with what he may be about to face, and it kills me that there’s nothing I can do to help.
Twenty-One
FIERCE FEMALE
Cain
Seeing Selena broken on the ground caused my wolf to jump to the forefront. He pushed me to let him take over. Her terror-filled scream of my name was the only thing that allowed me to hold him back. I was the one she needed in that moment, not my wolf.
The moment she told me to find “our baby” there was no holding him back. I managed to get out the door and under the cover of the vast bush behind our property before he burst free from my skin.
He doesn’t give me the chance to shake away the last tingles of pain before racing through the bushland, following the now familiar scent of the fox. As the scent dies off by the road, I skid to halt and lower my snout, trying to find it again.
Picking up Theo and Eddie’s scent, I turn to see Eddie approach in his wolf form. He drops his snout in submission, releasing a small whine. My wolf recognises the compassion.
“Eddie, see what you can pick up.” Theo’s voice pulls my attention from Eddie. Theo is stepping out of his clothes, folding them and placing them under some thick shrub just off the road. “Time is precious. We need to catch up with that fucking vehicle.” I take a deep breath and try to catch a scent that shouldn’t be here. Walking in a circle, I smell diesel and rubber, making me think he must have left with a skid of tyres in his hurry.
Eddie lets out a howl and runs off down the road, having detected up on something and considering it a lead.
I hesitate, giving Theo a quick glance.
“Go! I’ll catch up.” His shift starts to take over before the last word is out of his mouth, making it sound somewhat garbled.
Chasing down the road after Eddie, Theo’s energy closes in behind me. Eddie slows his pace, and I follow suit as I search our surroundings, spotting a vehicle parked at the side of the road. The hushed sound of a baby crying has my wolf wanting to race forward instantly.
“Cain!” Theo’s commanding tone sounds in my head, stopping me on the spot.
“Olivia,” I say, half explanation, half beg.
Theo steps up in front of Eddie. “We can’t just rush in. We need to be smart.” He stalks towards the van, ears perked up on high alert. Eddie and I flank him, silently following his lead.
“For fuck’s sake. Stop crying.” The fox’s voice comes from the open side door of the transit van. I know Selena told me his name but I can’t remember it right now. Steve…Sam…It was definitely an S name. “I don’t have anything to feed you. You’ll have to wait until Bert and Rachel arrive.”
“He’s alone.” Theo’s words run through my head telling me what I’d already deduced.
Theo slinks up to the opening as Eddie and I stay back. “Olivia’s in a car seat. Let’s draw him out.”
Stalking around the other side of the van, I barge into the side of it hard enough to make it shake.
“What the fuck?” the fox cries out. His feet hit the dirt and I hear his footsteps around the van.
As he steps into view, I pounce, not giving him time to see me. He screams as I sink my teeth into his shoulder. I curse having made the mistake of missing his neck as we both hit the floor.
“He needs to be alive for us to get information from him,” Theo reminds me.
I’m grateful for my silly mistake, when only moments ago I was cursing myself for it. Releasing him, I step away, poising myself and ready to take him down if he runs or starts to shift.
Theo rounds the van on two feet. “You might as well just accept defeat. You’re outnumbered and your pack mates are nowhere in sight.”
The fox’s shoulders slump and his head drops in submission as he gets to his feet, turning his body just enough to have a view of Theo whilst keeping sight of me, too. Clever fox, not to have a wolf at his back.
Eddie steps out from behind the van in a pair of sweats, cradling a swaddled Olivia in his arms. I let out a whimper at the sight of her, and he hooks a thumb over his shoulder. “There’s a pile of sweats in the back of there. It’s a shifter’s van after all.”
Not caring to hear another word and knowing Theo has it in hand if the fox tries anything, I dash around the van and force my shift to be as quick as possible, ignoring the extra pain it brings.
Once in human form, I duck into the van and grab some sweats, pulling them on as I walk back, the hot gravel burning the soles my feet.
Eddie holds Olivia out to me as soon as he catches sight of me.
“Hello, princess. It’s good to have you in my arms again.” I fight back tears as I hug her against my chest. I would never have guessed I could lo
ve a baby so much.
A scuffing sound draws my eyes from Olivia, and I watch as Eddie cable-ties the fox’s arms behind his back. “Found these in the van too, so thanks for that, buddy.” Heavy duty cable ties are another thing shifters tend to keep handy in their vehicle—you never know when you’ll need to restrain an enemy. The largest and buffest cable ties you can buy are strong and won’t break even with the force of a supernatural being behind them.
Theo steps up to them and starts patting the fox down. “Aha! Just what I’m looking for,” he says as he straightens, a phone held in his hand. After tapping the screen a couple of times, he raises the phone to his ear and strides to the other side of the van.
“Billy… yeah, I borrowed a phone. We’re on the road that runs parallel with Cain’s, behind the bushland, and we’re in need of a lift…” He pauses obviously listening as Billy replies. “You’ll need to floor it. We’ve got a couple of foxes incoming and I want to be away before they arrive.”
Theo steps back around the truck wearing a borrowed pair of grey sweats, identical to the ones Eddie and I have on and throws the phone to Eddie. “See if there’s anything useful on there.”
“So, you’re the loser who kicked my ex-wife out on the street… pregnant?” The growl behind that last word is unmissable. My skin ripples as Theo’s anger brushes against it.
The fox glances between me and Theo. “What… y-your… ex—?” he stutters.
“Jesus, mate, there’s no need to stutter.” Theo sighs. “My ex-wife. My brother’s mate. Yes, we keep it in the family. Now we’ve cleared that up… what’s your name?”
“Selena didn’t tell you my name?”
My laughter at the outrage on the fox’s face causes Olivia to let out a little wail.
“Shh, it’s all right, princess. Daddy has you,” I soothe, watching her little eyes stare straight at me.
Theo’s growl catches my attention, and I lift my eyes to see him shoving the fox on the ground. “Don’t even think about it.”
“He ain’t her daddy. I am,” he says, venom practically dripping from his words.
Theo’s fist snaps out and connects with his jaw. I smirk at the sickening crunch I hear from across the road and can’t help but wonder if Theo’s fist is as damaged as the fox’s face seems to be? If the scream of pain the fox is letting out is anything to go by.
“Well, he can’t say you didn’t fucking warn him.” Eddie pelts the phone through the vans open window as he heads my way. “The dude’s name is Stu. That’s the name he signs at the end of his texts anyway. I emailed myself the addresses in his maps history so we can check them out later.”
“Good wor—” Theo stops midsentence as the sound of a vehicle approaching reaches our ears.
We all spin to look in the direction of the incoming 4x4 as it screams towards us.
I tense, ready to flee with Olivia if it’s Stu’s pack mates.
I catch sight of Eddie’s shoulders relaxing as his eyes fall back on our prisoner. “I’d recognise that Pajero anywhere. I’ve been telling Billy he needs a new exhaust for months.”
Grabbing the car seat out of the van, I strap Olivia in as the others bundle our prisoner into the back.
“I’ll sit here.” Eddie gestures to one of the folded-up seats in the rear of the car. “I can make sure Stu doesn’t try anything silly.”
As we drive in the opposite direction of our house, I straighten in the back seat as I lean forward to peer through the windscreen. “Where the hell are we going?”
“My place. It’s the safest place for Olivia. Stu’s pack—”
“It’s a fucking skulk not a pack,” Stu interrupts. There’s a thud from the back and a grunt, which leaves me to assume Eddie kicked him or something equally as painful.
“Fine. Stu’s skulk won’t attack the pack house,” Theo announces. “Not without knowing how many of us could be there.”
I stroke Olivia’s little hand and she grips onto my fingers. “Selena….”
“Will be at the house when we get there. I called Bel on my way to picking you guys up,” Billy says, as we turn down the private road that leads to Theo’s.
I’m just lifting Olivia out of the car seat as the front door bangs open. Turning, I tense ready for impact as I see Selena running at us full pelt.
“Livie… is she okay?” Selena asks, coming to a steady stop beside me and peering at Olivia as she worries at her lip.
“She’s perfectly fine. Just had a little adventure.”
A commotion at the back of the 4x4 breaks out, catching Selena’s attention before I get the chance to offer Olivia over.
“Is that them? The person who took her?” Evidently deciding she’s correct in her assumption, she marches to the culprit.
I follow behind and spot Stu on the floor, clearly having been rolled out the back by Eddie, who is now jumping down himself and not caring about the dust cloud he kicks up in Stu’s face as he lands.
“Stu?” she screeches.
Seeing her good hand fisted at her side has me quickly passing the baby off to Eddie. “Take Liv.”
“You fucking son of a bitch.” She gives him a swift kick in the side. Stu lets out a grunt, and she kicks him again. “You took my baby. You don’t even fucking want her, yet you have the audacity to take her from me.”
Stu lets out a pained cough. “I told you last time, my alpha wants her.” He flicks his eyes to me as I step in beside Selena, ready to protect her if she needs me. “You know what it’s like. If your alpha orders you to do something, you have no choice.”
Selena steps closer to him, trying to block his view of me as she stares him down. “Don’t expect him to be on your side. He loves her just as much as I do.” My heart jumps in my chest and my back straightens as I stand proud… and somewhat turned on by my mate’s ferocity.
Olivia lets out a wail and Selena turns away from Stu, heading for a flustered Eddie, who’s failing to calm Olivia down.
“You’re lucky my daughter’s needs come first,” she says, giving Stu one last filthy look.
Eddie happily hands Olivia over to Selena, ensuring she has a secure hold before stepping away. “He won’t be thinking himself lucky when we’ve finished with him. I promise you that, Selena.”
Eddie may be a couple of years younger than me, but he sure does have a good head on his shoulders. Olivia is pack and Stu has done wrong by taking her.
He’s going to pay.
Twenty-Two
FACE OFF
Cain
Pushing myself forward to follow Selena into the house, my wolf and I argue with every deliberately slow step I take. He wants to be in on the interrogation of Stu, but I know if I go in there straight away, we won’t get any information out of him because he wants to tear Stu apart. Hell, we both do. Olivia is ours, and Stu should never have touched her.
Mum runs into the hall. “Is she okay? He didn’t hurt her, did he?”
I close the door behind me as I listen to Selena trying to placate my mum. “Olivia’s fine, Trudy. If she was hurt, they would’ve taken her straight to the hospital.”
The door handle snaps off in my hand at the thought of Olivia needing to go to the hospital. Turning around, I find two-sets of stunned eyes on me.
“Are you okay?” Selena asks as she brushes her fingers over my forearm.
I open my mouth to speak, but only a growl leaves my parted lips. I clear my throat and try again. “Sorry. I didn’t realise….” I shake my head, not knowing what to say. I’m not okay, and the only thing that would make me okay isn’t going to help us put a stop to the danger our daughter is in.
“I get it,” Selena says with a nod. “Come on. Let’s go feed our baby.”
Giving her a grateful smile, I allow her lead me to the lounge as I silently thank the heavens I found her. Both of them.
* * *
Twenty minutes later I’m burping Olivia over my shoulder, with Selena sipping a mint tea beside me, when Theo strides
into the room through the French doors.
“I’ve gotta make some calls.” The growl beneath Theo’s words has my wolf on edge as his eyes meet mine. “Meet me in my office in five minutes.” I nod my agreement as I continue to pat Olivia’s back.
Bel watches Theo walk by and out of sight before jumping up off the sofa opposite us and rushing after him.
Selena’s hand squeezes my knee. “Will you place her in her bassinet before you go? Trudy can help me get her out if she cries.”
“Sure,” I say as I stand. I gently place Olivia in the bassinet beside the sofa and wipe at the dribble of milk escaping her puckering lips with a muslin cloth. Leaning over, I press my lips to her forehead, silently promising her that I won’t come back until every threat to her is gone.
A hand slides around my waist as Selena’s energy wraps around me. Turning, I pull her into my arms, tucking her head under my chin.
“Thank you.” The wobble in her voice squeezes at my heart.
I kiss the top of her head. “You don’t need to thank me for anything,” I tell her, meaning every word.
“You brought her back.” She lifts a hand and wipes at her eyes, making me squeeze her a little tighter as I rub her back.
“I’m her father. I wouldn’t have returned without her. She needed to be brought home… where she belongs.”
The French doors slide open and Eddie walks in, a wide grin on his face. “I never thought I’d hear a fox squeal like a pig.”
I give Selena one last kiss on the head before releasing my hold on her. “We best go and see what Theo has planned.”
Eddie rubs his hands together in glee. “We haven’t had a good pack fight in ages.”
Rolling my eyes at his immaturity, I lead the way to Theo’s office, pausing to rap on the closed door before entering.
“It’s safe,” he calls out. Bel’s giggle makes me smile as we step into the room, spotting her curled up on his knee before she jumps off to stand beside his chair.
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