Act of Command

by Mandy M. Roth

  Duke touched his shoulder. “Striker, you saw him lose his shit just seeing the pictures of her. Do you think his head is in the game? We’ll get him back in a body bag if we let him go off half-cocked like this. No. We’ll send him to the location least likely to hold her. It will keep him safe while we find the girl. We’ll get her back here and then they can figure out what, if anything, they are to each other.”

  Striker didn’t like the plan one bit, but Duke was right. Corbin’s state of mind said he’d rush in and get himself killed. Striker had seen Duke, James and even Boomer behave in much the same fashion when they’d found their mates. Reluctantly, he nodded. “Aye, yer right. I do nae like it, but yer right.”

  “Right about what?” asked Malik appearing in the doorway minus Corbin.

  “Where is the captain?” Duke glanced past Malik.

  “I tossed him into the shower. Told him he smelled and needed to cool off and clear his head or he’d be of no help to the girl,” answered Malik.

  Striker eyed Duke. “He thinks we should mislead the captain and send him to the location least likely to be holdin’ the lass.”

  Malik was quiet a few moments before nodded. “I think that would be best. We let him go in as he is now and it will end poorly.”

  “Yeah,” said Duke. “I fucking hate the Corporation.”

  Chapter Seven

  Corbin floored the SUV. The roads were empty this time of night. He was a skilled driver, and with his heightened senses, he took maneuverability to entirely new levels. He didn’t need the headlights to help him see, but he used them all the same. Driving without them tended to scare other drivers.

  The coordinates Duke had given him were loaded into the SUV’s navigation system. Corbin had verified them on an actual map prior to leaving headquarters, as he’d found the nav systems in the vehicles to be less than reliable in the past. He wouldn’t chance being routed in the wrong direction when Mae needed him.

  She needed you two weeks ago, he thought, his emotions running wild. He hated himself for walking away from that campus. For bailing on her. As he thought back to the night of their blind date, he remembered heading back to his vehicle and taking the chickenshit approach to dealing with standing her up. He’d left her a message.

  Another thought occurred to him. In the parking lot he’d seen a black van and men who looking back now, seemed out of place. He gasped. They’d taken Mae. He knew it. Knew they were the ones responsible and knew that he’d ignored them, ignored his inner alarm system because he’d been too busy jacking off to relieve the pain in his cock.

  He’d seen her abductors and he’d done nothing to stop them from taking her.

  “Fuck!”

  His beast was there, on edge, waiting for any opening it could seize to take control. It didn’t understand that Corbin was trying to get to Mae. It wasn’t putting paws to pavement, the wind in its hair as he ran wild and free towards her, therefore, in its mind no progress was being made.

  His cell rang and he grabbed it without looking at who was calling. The moment he heard his mother’s voice, he cringed.

  “Corbin, did you happen to reach Mae?” she asked, worry in her voice. “I managed to get in touch with Ellen and they said they’ve been trying to connect with Mae for days, but that she’s not responding to their messages.”

  He lived the type of life that required him to keep a great number of secrets. This was one. He knew the information would be termed classified, but he didn’t care. “Mother, I need you to keep her parents calm. Can you do that?”

  He didn’t want to be calm. He wanted to rip people’s throats out, but he didn’t need frantic parents getting involved. Not yet.

  His mother gasped. “Something has happened to her, hasn’t it?”

  “Yes.”

  “And you are unable to give me details,” she pointed out, already knowing how his job worked.

  He tensed as emotions slammed into him. For a brief second he felt like the child his mother often treated him as. “Mother, she’s in danger. It’s very bad. I’m going to find her and I’m going to rip apart every motherfucking piece of shit who dared to touch her.”

  He sighed, waiting for his mother to comment on his language. She liked to blame his time in America for his mouth. His mother made a choked sound and he realized she was crying. “I was right, wasn’t I?”

  He didn’t respond because he didn’t understand the question.

  “She sent me a picture of her newest sculpture, Corbin,” she said, growing quiet for a long moment. “When I saw it, I just knew. It’s you, darling. All of you. It’s why I pushed for a blind date. Deep down I knew she’s yours, son. Isn’t she?”

  His gut churned. He wanted to say no and deny everything. After all, denial was what alpha males did best when presented with the reality of mates. “I think so. Yes. She is.”

  His mother gasped and he knew for sure she was crying. “I’ll do what I can to keep Ellen and her husband off this for now. You make this right, Corbin.”

  “I will.”

  “Son?”

  He swallowed hard. “Yes?”

  “Be safe. And if she is yours, don’t let anything stop you from being with her. You rip every one of those bastards apart. Got it?”

  “Yes, Mother.” He hung up, unable to talk more. His emotions were all over the place and he didn’t trust himself. Not after what had happened back at headquarters. When he’d finished gearing up with the men for the mission, he’d feared they’d do something stupid and lock him in a room to keep him from endangering anyone while they went off to try to help Mae. He’d been relieved when they’d all taken a location and handed him one as well.

  Tipping his head, he thought harder on how easily they’d accepted his loss of control and how quickly they’d handed him a location. He was already over an hour from headquarters with only around twenty minutes left to his destination according to the navigational system. His men were a mix of mated and unmated, meaning they were more than familiar with the control issues often suffered by alpha males when their mates were in danger. And they’d always done their best isolate and minimize each other when one of their beasts got out of hand.

  A mix of panic and fury assailed him as the realization of what they’d done washed over him. They’d guided him in the wrong direction on purpose.

  “Bloody fools!” Corbin slammed on the brakes and steered off to the side of the road. No cars were in sight as far as the eye could see in any direction. His headlights were the only light that pierced the darkness as he threw his door open and rushed out, his adrenaline on overdrive. “They sent me off to get me out of the way.”

  He would have done the same thing if roles were reversed. That didn’t mean he liked it one bit. Dragging his hands over his face, Corbin tried to keep his lion caged. His gums burned as his teeth began to change, morphing into the beast. He put his palms on the side of the SUV and shook his head, willing his beast to understand that if he didn’t stay in control, they might never locate Mae.

  “No,” he pushed out from misshapen teeth, making it hard for him to speak.

  His lion reared back and began its version of pacing deep within him. It wanted him to know it was there, at the ready, and if he didn’t handle the matter, the beast would. His teeth returned to normal and he bent his head, closing his eyes, catching his breath and gathering his thoughts.

  His mind went instantly to Mae. On her dark gaze meeting his from across the campus even for the briefest of seconds. He’d felt the connection then, but he hadn’t understood what it was. Who she was.

  He closed his eyes tighter, his chest compressing, worry for her holding him in its firm grip. He shook and kept his head bent, knowing he needed to regain full control before he dare try to find her.

  “Take a deep breath and then go to the location given to you,” he said to himself. “You might get lucky. She may be there.”

  As the words left his mouth the strangest of sensations started de
ep in his gut. The urge to pull out the map he’d brought hit him hard. He obeyed it, going to the passenger side and opening the door, finding the map on the seat. He unfolded it and found his location with ease.

  Help me.

  Corbin tensed and turned in a partial circle, sure his mind had finally broken with the sound of the feminine voice in his head. He narrowed his gaze on his surroundings but saw no signs of life anywhere. He couldn’t smell anything out of the ordinary.

  He traced his finger over the route on the map to the location given to him. If intel was correct, she might be there. As his finger settled on the spot, his gut churned more.

  No. You’re going the wrong way.

  This time, he was sure he’d heard a woman’s voice in his head. He did his best to follow the mental path, but came up empty his first few tries. Panic nearly won out, but hundreds of years of preparation and of being in control helped him to focus. He tried again, retracing the mental trail, following it, reaching out mystically with his mind. At first, he assumed he’d failed again. Then he smelled it.

  Her scent.

  It washed over him, letting him know it was Mae’s voice he’d heard. She’d managed to connect to him mentally. As a mate should be able to.

  Where are you? he returned down the same path, but she didn’t respond.

  His connection to her felt weak and he wondered if she was injured, drugged or both. His lion drew back more, as if sensing Corbin needed to concentrate fully without any interruptions.

  Help me, she repeated, the fear in her voice nearly breaking him then and there.

  Love, where are you? What do you see around you? What do you hear? Any detail you remember can help me find you.

  He’d all but given up hope she’d reply when he felt her connection once more.

  Ships. The horns they blow. I heard them when they first brought me in, but the walls here are thick. I don’t hear it now that I’m inside, she returned softly, her words slightly slurred, and he felt it then on her—she was drugged.

  He wanted to rip apart all who had dared to harm her. First he needed to find her. The coordinates he’d been given weren’t near the water. They were in the opposite direction. She was right. He was going the wrong way. None of the locations his men were headed to were near the water.

  I’m scared, she whispered down the path to him.

  His heart broke. I know, love. I’m coming. Stay strong for me.

  Is it morning yet? she asked, panic in her voice.

  No, he returned. In a few hours.

  She was quiet and he sensed her fear. Come morning they’re going to try to breed me. They’re going to use Brad. He doesn’t want to hurt me. He’s trapped here too. He won’t be able to stop himself and he knows it. Hurry. Please.

  Corbin’s hands ached and he held them out as his shifter side showed itself, claws breaking free from his fingertips. I will kill anyone who touches you!

  Hurry. Please.

  I’m coming. Stay connected to me as long as you can.

  She didn’t reply. He hurried to the driver’s side and had to struggle to get his hands to return to human form so he could drive. Mae!

  She didn’t respond.

  Mae, love!

  Nothing.

  Corbin put the SUV in gear and hit the accelerator, going in the direction he felt she was in, not the one lined out for him in the navigation system. It began to try to correct his route by recalculating the destination. He struck out hard and fast, putting his hand through the dash, shutting it up as he kept going. Kept driving in the direction he now knew Mae to be.

  His lion beat at him, making his head thick, which in turn slowed how fast he could drive. Touching his chest, he did his best to stay the course. She needed him. She didn’t need alpha male bullshit mucking it all up. Corbin hit the comm unit he and all his men wore.

  “She’s not where we thought,” he said, touching it again. “Target is not at coordinates provided. I have a lead on her.”

  There was no response. His beast was riding his body high enough that he ripped his comm from his ear and threw it across the SUV. He’d find her himself. He’d save her. No one would touch her. White-knuckling the wheel, he drove, following the pull deep in his gut, trusting his instincts to lead him to her. He didn’t give up on trying to reach out to her mentally again. She didn’t respond, but that didn’t mean he’d stop making the effort.

  He remembered what Duke had been like when the bloodlust had taken hold of him, leaving him stuck in shifted form as he tried to kill anything that neared him. There had been a moment when Duke had thought Mercy was dead. It had sent him into that crazed state and the only one who had been able to bring him back was Mercy. The stunt, while earning Duke the Asshole of the Week Award that the men playfully gave one another, had scared the team. They’d worried they’d be left no choice but to cage Duke in his wolf form for eternity or to put him down, as he wasn’t safe to others.

  Fear crawled into the back of Corbin’s mind. Would he lose control and need to be caged or killed? Would he go too far? Already he was struggling to stay in command of his own body. He could see himself getting lost to the lion’s emotions, to the lion itself. He knew it then—he’d easily fall over the edge and into the abyss of bloodlust if Mae was harmed.

  The self-revelation wasn’t exactly causing the warm and fuzzies to spread through him. Rather, a newfound sense of panic took hold of him, doing nothing to help his control issues.

  “Get it together, Jones,” he said, glancing in the rearview mirror, instantly noting his eyes were that of his lion’s. “Or this is going to end poorly.”

  Soon, he was able to smell the scents of the ocean, and the pull deep within intensified tenfold. He did a hard right and followed the pull, thrusting the accelerator to the floor as he did. When the feeling within him reached critical mass, Corbin whipped the SUV off the road and into an abandoned lot. Overpasses were close, the street lamps there providing only a small amount of illumination. He could hear the sounds of water and knew he was close to it. He also heard something else, the muffled sounds of men talking. He caught their scent and recognized it. They’d been at the university in the parking lot, near the black van.

  “Can’t believe Caesar sent us out here to do a sweep of the area. I think he’s fucking cracking under Felix’s pressure,” said one man.

  “I think he has the hots for that new number we brought in a couple of weeks back,” replied another man, setting Corbin’s teeth on edge. He held no doubt the man was referencing Mae. Every instinct in him said as much. The smart move would have been to slink away into the darkened area, locate the source of the voices, survey them and then find the best way to Mae.

  Unfortunately, Corbin’s shifter side didn’t give a fuck about doing the smart thing. Lifting his hands, he glanced down as fur coated them once more. His upper arms thickened to the point his shirt tore and split, the sound was one of the last things he made full sense of.

  He charged at the men, and when he came upon them the smell of their fear filled his nostrils, driving him onward. Each was a supernatural in their own right, yet they knew who the alpha was. Nature made sure they caught on to the fact right away. Corbin roared, at one with his beast. He seized hold of one of the men’s throats and lifted him high off the ground. Through partially shifted teeth and mouth, he spoke. “Where is she?

  The man beat at Corbin’s forearm, fighting for air Corbin would not give him. The other man leapt on Corbin’s back as if that would do anything to stop him. All it did was piss him off more. With a quick twist, Corbin flung the man free from his back and tossed the one he’d had by the throat as if he were nothing more than a ragdoll. He turned, focusing on the man nearest him now. This one had flaming red hair, cut close to his head, his beady green gaze narrowed on Corbin. A challenge flickered in the man’s eyes.

  If it was a fight the man was after, it was a fight he’d get. Corbin stalked towards him, closing the gap between them, knowing
he looked like a monster. It took an enormous amount of control to cling to a form that was between man and fully shifted lion. For the moment, it felt as if he could hold the in-between form forever and a day.

  “Where is Mae?” demanded Corbin once more, snapping his jaws at the man.

  The redhead shook his head, holding up his hands before glancing to the side, a calculated smile curving his lips. Pain lanced Corbin’s torso as the man he’d tossed moments before rammed a hunting knife into his side and tore downwards, ripping Corbin open. The wound was deep, but Corbin’s burning desire to find his woman ran deeper.

  Through eyes of the lion, he looked down at the knife sticking out from his side. Reason told him to leave it to avoid blood loss, but reason was no longer guiding his actions. Pure rage was. He plucked the knife free from his body without so much as flinching and stared at the man who had stabbed him. “Bad form. Was that supposed to stop me?”

  The man wet himself.

  They were all cowards.

  Corbin threw the knife at him, hitting him between the eyes. He went down quickly, and Corbin knew he wouldn’t be getting up again. He turned, only to find the redhead had run off.

  Catching the coward’s scent, he gave chase, following the man, the thrill of the hunt exciting his lion more and more. He sprang up and over a dump truck, vaulting it as if it wasn’t even there. As he landed, he caught the redhead’s scent again, this time stronger. Corbin pursued the man. The moment he came around the corner of another truck, he found additional men descending upon him. He made short work of several, but more kept coming.

  They shot him full of darts, and while he knew what that meant—he was on borrowed time before he’d succumb to sleep—his lion didn’t care. It had one focus—get to Mae. It pushed him onward. He fought with the men, slowing little by little as they shot him with more and more darts. Everything around him began to spin as he fell to one knee, still partially shifted.