by Claire Ryann
Ken nodded in solidarity beside him.
"So hey!" their driver was looking in the rear view again, "You think he's gonna like, try to make it look like she was sacrificed in some satanic ritual or some shit?"
Daelan growled a warning as he grabbed the wheel again but the kid's eyes remained locked on the mirror.
Lowell looked at Ken. Ken looked at Rek. Then Rek and Ken both turned to look at Mingan.
"Based on the articles?" Mingan's voice was calm but deep and the wind rushing through the open windows was no competition for his deep bass, "it looks like he'd going to run with the wolf theme."
"Truth is stranger than fiction, fo' sho' " the kid agreed as he slapped at Daelan's hand again and pointed the Cruiser downhill.
"So wait," the kid pulled the gear lever and let the vehicle's engine do the braking while gravity pulled the down the slope toward the faint remnants of an old road, "He wants it to look like she got kidnapped by a bunch of werewolves?"
"More like some sort of wolf cult," Mingan corrected, "Details are fuzzy, I think the tabloids are still making up their story."
The Landcruiser came to a sudden stop as the kid slammed his foot on the brakes hard just before they turned onto the road.
"Fuuuuuhhhhck!" The kid's hands grappled the steering wheel, pulling it hand over hand till to the right as he let off the brake and aimed the vehicle in the uphill direction.
Lowell watched in shock as their driver manipulated the gears and sent them tearing up the forgotten road on the north side of the territory at breakneck speed.
"What the fuck are you doing?" He lunged between the driver and passenger seat, reaching for the steering wheel, "You're going to the wrong way, we have to get to the main road!"
His Alpha was pushing him back in to his seat while Ken yanked on the waistband of his jeans from behind but everyone in the cab was yelling the same thing.
"You guys gotta trust me on this," the kid yelled as he opened the throttle and sent them bouncing to the top of the mountain.
"Stop now!" Now that was Daelan's Alpha voice. Everyone in the vehicle stopped what they were doing and froze. Except the kid at the wheel.
Daelan reached over made a grab for the keys in the ignition.
"DAMMIT DAY!" The kid's hand came down hard on his Alpha's arm, knocking Day back against his seat, the kid pointed through the dusty windshield, his finger mashing against the glass with each move to punctuate his words, "Do you see those fucking tracks? Cuz I do! This road hasn't been use in 12 years, those are new!"
And that was the only reason that the youngest member of the Alpha's team didn't constantly get his muzzle noshed on. Lowell sat forward and peered through the windshield. Everyone squinted at the twin tracks running through the dirt up the hill.
"Two," the kid was pointing out the space where the tracks doubled over themselves on each side.
"Or they went up and came back," Rek said low.
The kid shook his head, "Nah, the tread patterns on both tracks are going in the same direction, see those arrow-shaped patterns? If it was one car going up and coming back down the arrows would be reversed on the top track."
"This is our territory," Daelan had forgotten his issues with the kid and concentrating on the signs of recent travel up the road.
"Yeah," the kid agreed.
"That fucking wolf cult is us, isn't it?" Ken's voice was barely a gasp as understanding settled over everyone in the cab.
"Looks like that's his plan," Rek said.
The road ended in a dead end at the top of one of the shorter peaks. Two blacked out SUVs were parked there but there was no sign of anyone around.
"Got em," the kid called out as he picked up a scent, then the full tail of his wolf was disappearing from sight down a barely visible trail.
Lowell rushed forward, eager to close any distance between them and the men who had his mate, but he stopped short as his Alpha held out his hand to hold him back.
"Slowly," Day cautioned, "in formation."
He knew Day was right. It wasn't just him doing his Alpha thing, he was Alpha for a reason. There were two cars parked at the end of the road, not just the one that had taken Kara away from him. That meant they were outnumbered. They needed to keep their formation tight and go in prepared for an ambush. The only way they had hope of winning was to keep their team together.
Lowell couldn't go rushing in by himself. He had to keep his head or he'd be risking more than just Kara's life.
Lowell took second, following closely behind Daelan with Rek and Ken flanking them and Mingan taking the rear at a short distance. They stayed together and prepared for the worst but they made it to the end of the faint trail without incident and then Lowell walked right into Day's broad back before he realized they were stopping.
"What the....?" Rek's words didn't even begin to fit the scene ahead.
There was a wide open area that ended in an abrupt cliff about 40 feet away. A crudely shaped pentagram had been burned into the earth, probably with a blow torch. At the far end of the pentagram was an altar of sorts, and Kara was behind the big stone slab table, her arms stretched out above her, held with ropes to some sort of-- cross? ish?
She was surrounded by a group of naked men, most of them wearing cheap rubber Halloween wolf masks.
"It looks like they're filming a bad horror movie," Mingan whispered.
"Or porno," Ken added.
Lowell heard his buddies muffle their laughter and he almost joined them. The scene did look ridiculous. Except for Kara tied to the altar-thing. She had managed to split the seam of her wedding dress and plant a heel in one guy's gut and a knee in another guy's groin.
Lowell couldn't help but feel pride surging through him at seeing his woman get in a few good kicks. Kara was a sweet and quiet soul by nature, but she had a fighting spirit. He also couldn't help but appreciate the flash of milky thigh as the seams of her fitted gown gave way.
She really was gorgeous. Even tied to a post. Her body had busted out in frantic movements, her raven hair falling around her face as it worked free of the pins that had held it up. She was thrashing against her bindings and the interest that her movements inspired was inappropriately timed.
It was his wolf being baited by the movements of prey, he recognized the primal response as purely instinctual and the full gravity of Kara's predicament was clear.
"I know," Daelan whispered. When Lowell looked at his own team, he could see the wolf in each on of them focused on the movement of the group ahead. "At least they're too preoccupied with her movements to scent us."
Day's hands made a series of gestures and the team moved forward, keeping their eyes on the idiots crowding Kara.
19
Oh great, more wol-- wait. Kara was having surprising luck with her knees. Probably because the guys groping her were a bunch of naked men at the moment and that made it easier to aim for their soft spots. Errr... well, the spots got surprisingly soft after a knee.
Just when she thought things were about to get even worse, she spied movement along the perimeter of the outer circle. Wolves. Her first thought was that another carload of Anthony's goons had showed up wanting to audition for the movie then she saw a wolf that she knew.
Gray with a lighter underbelly, his fur standing on end making him look twice as big and mad as hell.
Lowell.
Kara's body went slack against the ropes, relief flooding through her. She almost yelled in triumph but a sudden chill caught her attention to the fact that more than just the seams of her dress had given way.
"You biscuit-eating mutt!" Kara had to renew her defense strategy, "That dress cost me twelve hundred dollars!" She had to twist against the ropes to get her knee in that guy's groin. She added a hard heel to his knee when he doubled over and immediately wished she'd kept her shoes on.
Unfortunately, her efforts to get sideways to land that last foot left her with her back turned to her admirers. She felt hands slide around her
waist. She threw her foot backwards, hoping to connect with a knee but he had her pinned against him and was muttering something that she couldn't understand through the rubber mask.
Now that one of them had a solid hold on her, he could turn her so that his buddies had better access to her. She was off balance and losing leverage. Lowell and his friends had better make a move quick or things were going to get dicey.
The guy directly in front of her was suddenly gone. Then the last guy she kicked was out of the game-- permanently it seemed. Kara had a hard time feeling sorry for him. Sounds of growling and snarling came from somewhere closer to the trees and then the guy hanging onto her suddenly let go with the sound of a hard knock immediately followed by a wet slushy noise.
Men and wolves fought all around her. Leaving her pretty much literally hanging while she waited for someone to come cut her down.
She felt something wet on her arm and looked up to see that all her twisting and pulling had given her a hell of a rope burn. Her right wrist was cut up pretty bad and blood was running down her arm. That was really going to hurt when all this adrenaline wore off.
Lowell and his friends had the element of surprise on their side, managing to pick off 4 of the goons before they even knew what hit them. Kara watched another goon collapse in a heap. She wasn't sure if he was dead or not but it didn't look like he was going to be getting back in the fight.
Mingan and Rek were beating the crap out of one guy while Daelan and Kenyon charged after a fleeing wolf into the trees.
Lowell let his friends handle the rest, it was obvious the fight had been won. Lowell looked good. He'd looked good the first time she'd seen him. Hell, he looked good every time she saw him. But right now he was the best thing she'd ever seen in her life as he reached above her and sawed through the ropes with a small pocket knife.
Kara sagged into his arms. She was just so damn glad to see him again, so glad to see all the guys from the pack-- her pack. That adrenaline crash came crushing down on her and suddenly all she could do was cry.
"It's OK now," Lowell murmured over and over against her hair, "It's OK, we're gonna go home." He kissed the top of her head.
She felt Lowell tense. His body spinning, taking her along with it so they were both suddenly facing the other direction. Lowell's arms tightened around her, pulling her against his chest so firmly she couldn't wiggle free to see what had caught his attention.
Then she heard it. The sickening sound of Anthony's voice. She forgot he was back in the car.
Kara closed her eyes tightly and burrowed her head into Lowell's chest. She tried to wish Anthony away. She'd already died once and killed him once to get away from him, looked like they were about to go for the best 2 out of 3.
"Well that was disappointing," Anthony said.
"Yeah well, sorry, but your men were about to kill my mate. I had to do something." Lowell's voice dripped with sarcastic humor but Kara could feel the low rumble of his snarling wolf in his chest.
"No, no, no, they hadn't even gotten to the killing part yet. I told them to have some fun with her first and make sure to play it up for the cameras." Anthony sounded genuinely disappointed.
"So you were making a porno," Ken's voice sounded off to the side of them.
"More like a snuff film," Anthony said it so casually, it sounded like he was brainstorming marketing ideas in a conference room, "and my men were doing a good job of hamming it up for the cameras too, I was really enjoying the show. Even the part where you guys came running in to save the day. I got a pretty good look at at least one shift before the uplink failed."
She could tell Anthony was coming closer. She was still wrapped tightly in Lowell's arms with her face buried against his chest. He hadn't let up his tight grip on her so she could turn around and she wasn't about to argue with that.
Kara felt someone's presence beside them and she cracked an eye open to see who it was. Ken stood shoulder to shoulder with Lowell, his eyes watching whatever Anthony was doing that she couldn't see.
Mingan stood beside Rek several feet on the other side of Ken, both of them as men, remnants of their tuxedos torn and cover in blood.
The last time she'd seen Daelan's white wolf, he and Ken were chasing goons into the woods. Ken was here standing beside them, she wondered where Day was.
"I have to give you bumpkins credit, you certainly managed to ruin my fun for the afternoon. Still, enough footage should have made it onto the servers to work with."
Kara watched the guys within her sight as they stood idly and watched Anthony while he kept talking. She couldn't help but wonder why no one had rushed him yet. Why were they all just standing there gawking at the asshole?
That's when she heard a sharp click.
She saw Ken's body tense, his throat working as he swallowed hard, the veins on his forearms bulging as he clenched his fist at his side.
She felt Lowell's arms pull tightly against her and suddenly she was being shoved behind him. His body blocked hers, his arms apart to hold her behind him.
Oh, that's why, Kara thought as she peeked under Lowell's arm.
Anthony was only about 10 feet away but he had a gun leveled squarely at Lowell's chest.
"It's a .44, you know it's going to go right through you, right?" Anthony's laughed was pure delight at the thought.
The wolves were strong, they had incredibly high pain tolerances and they could recover from pretty much any wound that didn't kill them instantly but they weren't immortal. Kara didn't know if what Anthony said was true or not, she didn't know much about guns other than what she saw on TV, but it wouldn't matter if the bullet couldn't reach her if Lowell was the one that stopped it.
"OK Anthony!" She called out from behind Lowell's back, "Just let them go and I'll come with you."
Lowell's hands reached behind him and clasped on to her, holding her against his back to prevent her from stepping into Anthony's view.
Ken side stepped closer so that his shoulder was touching Lowell's to create a wall of tall, brooding muscle in front of her.
"Just stay put Kara," Lowell's command was a harsh whisper but she could feel the fear in him.
"If I go with you, will you let them go?" Kara raised her voice.
A brutal guffaw was her answer. "Sure, Sweetheart," Anthony called back at her, "I really only need you dead to make the plan work anyway." The lilt to his raised voice fell away instantly as he turned his attention back to Lowell and his pack mates, "The press will take care of you and your pathetic band of feral dogs you call a pack."
"We are the oldest pack on the west coast," Rek spoke up. His voice, as always, was evenly toned but it vibrated with anger.
"I did my homework, thank you," Anthony's voice faded from its position in front of Lowell and moved till he was standing in front of Mingan and Rek within her range of view. "I know how long you've been on this continent. I know who your people are. I know who made you," Anthony's voice lowered to a hiss, "and I know that your pack, as you call it, is just a few tattered families huddled together in that campground you call a den. Your people have been living like wild dogs up in those mountains for centuries. You barely know what the real world is like now. I'm surprised you can even read," Anthony spat out contemptuously.
"My pack, meanwhile, has been fully integrated with the human population since they began colonizing the continent. We have stayed hidden among them while we grew rich and powerful in their world. We may not have your pedigree," he chuckled with his cleverness, "but our family has remained relevant in the new world, while yours has chosen to grow old and impotent."
Anthony chuckled again.
Kara could see Rek's body fighting to hold its wolf back.
Insulting the pack was fighting words for any of the guard, but it was especially dangerous to sneer in the Beta's face like that.
Kara winced and eyed the tree line. Where was Daelan? Maybe it was a good thing he wasn't here to listen to Anthony insult his pack, she'd gotten t
o know their Alpha pretty well over the last year. She wasn't sure he'd have managed to take it as well as these guys.
"So yes, Sugarlumps, if you wanted to come out from behind your mate and his friend there so I don't have to kill them to get to you, that would work into my schedule just fine," Kara saw Anthony casually check his watch, "I was hoping to be in my own country already. As it is, I'm going to have to have someone come retrieve the extra vehicle. Heaven knows I can't risk being connected to this territory."
"You're not going to kill them?" Kara was suspicious, at Anthony's willingness to let the guys go. Especially Lowell. He was being way too agreeable.
"Not if I don't have to, I'm rather looking forward to watching their fate unfold from a distance."
She'd learned so much about herself since beginning the journey toward this moment. The year of researching and training and planning her escape from Anthony, finding Lowell, giving herself to the possibility of a future, discovering the wolves.
Her heart ached with the loss of that future. Knowing that she wouldn't spend another night beside the man she was made for, that she would never feel the untamed passion of the wolf sharing her heartbeat, that the children she'd expected to bring to the pack would never be born.
She'd had just over a year with the man of her dreams. Those months were a gift that she'd never expected to receive, that she once thought she didn't deserve. If that's all the time they had together then it was already more than she'd ever dared hope for.
She was willing to do anything to save her mate as well as protect the men who had become her family-- her pack-- but she wasn't exactly thrilled at the idea of standing in front of a bullet to do it. If this was the cost to save Lowell. She took a deep breath to ground herself. She had to move fast, to keep herself from chickening out, but mostly to make sure she provided a clean shot for the sick bastard before Lowell or one of the other guys could get in the way.
Movement caught the corner of Kara's eye as she took her step. It was little more than a rustle off in the trees. It could easily had been a bird hopping from branch to branch or squirrel running for cover as it sensed the inherent danger of the predators nearby.