RaleighPointRescueSue
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RALEIGH POINT-RESCUE
Victoria Sue
Erotic Paranormal Romance
Secret Cravings Publishing
www.secretcravingspublishing.com
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A Secret Cravings Publishing Book
Erotic Romance
Raleigh Point-Rescue
Copyright © 2014 Victoria Sue
E-book ISBN: 978-1-63105-373-3
First E-book Publication: November 2014
Cover design by Dawné Dominique
Edited by Larriane Barnard
Proofread by Sarah Biggs
All cover art and logo copyright © 2014 by Secret Cravings Publishing
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All characters and events in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons living or dead is strictly coincidental.
PUBLISHER
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www.secretcravingspublishing.com
Dedication
Thank you to all my wonderful family, especially my dad, who always bought his little girl big books.
The Cravings Ebook Club
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RALEIGH POINT-RESCUE
Victoria Sue
Copyright © 2014
Chapter One
Mac grinned at his mom as he strode through the playroom to grab his mail. Half-buried in clothes of every size, she quickly sorted them into piles. Although, to be fair, they’d had kids of just about every size come through the doors at Raleigh Point in the last fourteen years.
Familiar pride tugged at him.
His mom smiled back as she disappeared with an armful. The phone rang in the office, and he swiped it up, wondering where his brothers were. “Yeah?”
A laugh came down the line—Brett. “Only you, Mac, only you. Your mom could never get you to answer the phone properly.”
Mac grinned, remembering all the times his mom had scolded him for not saying Raleigh Point like some girly secretary.
“So how’s it going? Thought you two were all loved up on your honeymoon.” He nearly growled, thinking there was too much of all that nonsense around here lately.
Brett laughed. “We are, but I got a call, and I wondered if you could handle it? We can’t get back for at least two days.”
Mac sat down. It had to be an emergency, as originally, they would have been away another month.
“What’s going on?”
“I got a call from Dr. Michaels over in Springfield. He was brought in for a consult on a girl. Well, woman actually. She’s twenty. Schizophrenia.”
Dr. Michaels was a human psychiatrist, but he was mated to a shifter, a panther. They were two of the trusted contacts who kept their eyes open for shifter kids in the system that might need a home.
“Schizophrenia? But that doesn’t make sense.” Mac knew full well human diseases never affected shifters.
“Yeah, we know. Definitely a wolf shifter. Apparently she’s always been in care—no family—judged too unstable to be living in anything but a secure psychiatric facility.” Brett paused. �
��Thing is Mac, Dr. Michaels’ wife thinks she’s an alpha female.”
Mac gasped. “An alpha female? I didn’t think they still existed. And it’s never been picked up on?” He mentally kicked himself. Of course, it hadn’t.
“No, poor kid’s been on anti-psychotic meds since she was twelve.”
How the hell? Mac shook his head, clenching his fists. Female wolves didn’t shift until they mated, but still. “I thought alpha females were like pack royalty because they’re so rare. How’d this happen?”
“What do you know about alpha females, Mac?”
He groaned. This was turning into his most favorite conversation, not.
“Is this multiple choice, Brett? `Cause—”
“Okay, so not my favorite topic either, but Dr. Michaels told me alpha females need to bond with an alpha male, usually their father, when they first start their menstrual cycle. Obviously, they’re not claimed or mated, but they go seriously insane if not. Rages, like off the charts.”
“What’s she saying? Did he talk to her? Does she—”
“Mac, you know as much as I do. She’s been shuffled around the system since she was a baby.” Mac could hear a rustle of papers. “Yeah, massive mood swings. Very violent.”
Mac wondered if a couple of his ex-girlfriends had been undiscovered alpha females.
“This is serious, Mac.”
Hell. “You adding reading minds to your resume?”
“I don’t need it with you, but I bet Riley’s laughing about now.”
Mac smiled. His brother Riley wasn’t exactly a mind reader, but as a gifted healer and empath, he was as good as one.
“Deemed unsuitable for anything other than a locked psychiatric facility,” Brett read out. “Dr. Michaels was especially concerned about the level of medication, and he’s instructed it to be reduced.”
Mac shook his head, and then realized Brett couldn’t see him. “Human drugs don’t work the same on shifters. They’d had to have given her big doses.” He glanced at his watch. “You want me to go get her first thing tomorrow?”
“Actually, I want your ass out there now. Dr. Michaels kicked up a storm, and I think he’s worried they may try and move her. Their new place is across state lines. Could be awkward.”
“I’ll be there today.” Mac grimly jotted down brief details and hung up.
His mom walked into the office. Her hair was black like theirs, but he could now count the gray that he and his brothers were no doubt responsible for. Blue-gray eyes were surrounded by laughter lines. He hoped they were responsible for those as well.
“Emergency? Do you need us to stay?”
“Nah, Mom, we’ve got it covered. You go get ready.” Mac smiled at her as she left the room. Their dad had surprised her with a short cruise, and they were leaving that afternoon. First vacation on their own in nearly thirty years, and they were all determined that nothing would spoil it. The three-year-old twin bear shifters they’d had for the last two years had just been successfully placed. Raleigh Point only housed seven-year-old Jamie and eleven-year-old Alex at the moment, and they could handle them.
Just then, the door opened, and his brothers entered. Zack had to duck. They were all huge. Both he and Riley were six feet four inches, but Zack was even bigger. Everyone always thought he and Riley were the twins, not Zack and Riley. Zack looked like their dad. He even had the same crooked nose, but Mac could see his mom in Riley. At twenty-eight, they were older than him by two years.
“Zack, I need a ride.”
Zack’s eyes rose questioningly. “What’s up, Mac, an emergency? Your latest date broke a nail?”
Mac ignored that. Okay, so he dated a lot, and yeah, they were usually high maintenance, but as long as they were as good in bed as they looked out of it, who cared? “Yeah, Brett just called.” He quickly gave them a run down on their new arrival.
Riley interrupted. “How did Dr. Michaels manage to get her released to us, though? I mean, she’s an adult. Twenty’s a bit old for a group home.”
“I don’t know.” Mac shrugged. “To be honest, I don’t care, so long as they did.”
“Well, Cassie’s finished college except for her exams, and Brett’s gonna be back soon. We haven’t much going on since the Western Bank contract was wrapped up.”
Mac nodded. His brothers ran a computer security firm. Riley was the computer geek behind the initial planning, and Zack, a licensed helicopter pilot, flew all over supervising installation work.
Riley looked at his twin. “I’ll run Mom and Dad to the airport.”
Zack nodded. “Come on then.”
Mac checked all his IDs before following Zack out. He briefly fingered his F.B.I. one and sighed. He had a feeling he was going to need it today. He only got asked to track missing people for them sometimes. He wasn’t an actual agent, and he didn’t do any James Bond shit, but whatever, it came in useful. Even if he just wanted to impress girlfriends with broken nails.
* * * *
Mac stared out the window at the toy scenery below. His phone vibrated, and he returned a call he had missed from Brett as they were setting off.
“Zack says we’ll be at Lennox airfield in about thirty minutes.”
“Don’t bother. Zack’s cleared for Springfield itself. He’ll be getting instructions through right about now. There’s a small private airfield there, closer to where you are now probably.”
Zack was talking to someone via his headset, and the helicopter veered slightly.
“There’ll be a car waiting. Dr. Michaels has some pull, and if he didn’t have an emergency patient himself to deal with, he’d be down there shaking things up.”
The short silence that followed was deafening. “Brett, what aren’t you telling me?”
“The place is bad, Mac. Some hangover from a bad Hitchcock movie. Mostly closed down, just a few elderly they are transferring. No idea what our girl’s doing there, and I have no idea what state she’s in. Dr. Michaels only saw her by chance when he was consulting on another patient. Think they were ready to throw away the key on this one.”
“But how, Brett? This isn’t the 1800s.”
“Yeah, I know, but I think she’s just slipped through the cracks. No family to complain, and I wanted to warn you about the bitch in charge. Complete piece of work. We’re only giving them a few minutes’ notice of your arrival and the transfer deliberately, so they can’t do anything.”
“Christ, Brett, what the hell they gonna do?” Mac asked, wondering if Brett wasn’t being a bit too dramatic.
“Just giving you a heads up. Let me know when you land.”
“Anytime now.” The helicopter lowered down almost perfectly next to the black car waiting for them.
“Okay, calling them now. Make sure you get to her pronto, Mac.”
Mac rang off and looked at Zack as he cut the engine. “That was Brett. He’s ringing through our authorization now. He didn’t want to give them prior warning, and apparently, we’ve got to get the girl quick.”
Zack nodded. “Mac, if I hadn’t been there on some of the pick-ups we’ve done, I wouldn’t have believed what some sick people are capable of.”
Mac relayed to him what Brett had told him.
Zack looked around the empty airfield. “Sorry, but I can’t just leave it here. I’m going to have to wait until you get back.”
Mac nodded, wishing he had thought to bring Cassie with him, but he shrugged. Okay then.
After flashing his ID a few times at various gates, he found himself shown into a small office. The mousy guy, who’d told him to wait, hadn’t impressed Mac one bit. He smelled of stale cigarettes and beer, and the surroundings were creeping the shit out of him. Hell, the place looked like it should have been shut down fifty years ago. Peeling, stained walls and floors weren’t agreeing with his shifter sense of smell at all. Disinfectant he expected, and that would have been bad enough, but this place took Hitchcock to a whole other level. He half-expected a film crew to walk by.
A thin, fiftyish woman walked into the office. “Mr. Knight?” she asked, looking at the papers in her hand. “This is most irregular. We’ve only just received the transfer orders for Miss Butler, and she isn’t ready. It would be better if you made an appointment for tomorrow.”
“No, I’m sorry. I have my transport waiting. I’m afraid we have to go immediately.”
“Well, yes,” the woman flushed, frowning.
Mac could smell the unease grow in her and wondered if Brett hadn’t been exaggerating how quickly they needed to get her after all.
“I’m sorry, but I will have to make some phone calls to verify these orders. Miss Butler was due to be transferred today to our new facility.” A brittle smile striving for sympathy cracked the heavily made-up face. “She is a really desperate case, and we feel she needs a higher degree of monitoring.”
Just as Mac opened his mouth to demand he be taken to Miss Butler’s room immediately, a piercing scream rent the air, and every hair on the back of his neck stood up. Cursing himself for not taking Brett’s warning seriously enough, he took off in the direction of the scream.
Heart hammering, his nostrils flared. More powerful than the stench of unwashed bodies and moldy furnishings, he smelled bleach, panic, and worst of all, fear.
Charging through a door, he processed the god-awful scene in two seconds. Two big, fat burly guys—looking more at home in a concentration camp than a hospital—were struggling to hold a female down on the bed—ridiculous given their size. Another woman, either a nurse or a doctor holding a syringe, was fighting with the girl who was trying to avoid the needle. Mac’s nose barely registered the nurse as some type of shifter.