by Sadie Hart
Please let her still be alive.
***
Sawyer fiddled with her seatbelt, her hands shaking. She didn’t even know where to begin. But Lennox had been right. She’d already fallen too much in love with Rift to walk away, and he’d found the loophole Sawyer had been craving. “You teamed with my brothers,” she said softly into the dark confines of the car.
“Your father tried to put me in witness protection, though I’m beginning to think it wasn’t just your dad.”
“It was me.” The confession came soft. “It was the only way I could come up with a way to keep you and Kinsey safe.”
Her concern had been more for Kinsey than Rift, though. Rift had done just fine on his own for years, but Kinsey had deserved more than a rogue life. She lifted her gaze to Rift’s. “I never pegged you for a pride male.”
The snort that came from him was fast and sharp. “I’ve never been a pride male. But I’d never been a father, either, or found a woman I wanted to keep.”
Sawyer felt the meaning in those last words, an intense connection that stretched between them. Two hearts bonded together, despite the fact that she’d tried to walk away.
Rubbing her face, Sawyer glanced out the window. There was no better place to begin than the beginning. “Did you ever hear of Caesar Torres? The Hound that went rogue, killed a bunch of people, and tried to pin it on lions?”
“I heard about it. It was on the news. Boulder Pride was his target.”
Sawyer shook her head. “Not originally. Just my half-brother. Kanon. Lennox, the woman with the baby you saw? She was the Hound sent to bring Kanon in for beating up a Hound. He and his partner talked her into listening to his side of the story. Turned out, he was innocent. Being set up.
“Then people started dying and Lennox went on the run with them. When they landed in Colorado, Torres widened his target area from one Reyes to all of us.”
Rift stayed quiet, and she could feel his gaze on her, even if she couldn’t bring herself to look at him. Most lions hated Hounds. Would he understand where she was coming from? What she’d done? Why she’d left?
“He took Rulon first and tortured him. Dad told all of us to stay inside, locked up tight, but when Gilly ran outside, I went after her.”
A harsh sound slipped between his teeth and Sawyer couldn’t help but peek. She could see the fear simmering in his eyes, the anger. She gave him a small half smile.
“I didn’t get hurt. He took us, but he already had captured Lennox and a friend of hers. Lennox had managed to get loose, and she protected us, helped us get away. In the end, even though Torres had been a friend and her alpha, he tried to kill her. My half-brother’s partner ended up killing him to save the woman they loved. But Lennox was the one who saved me, and Brandt was the one who had her back. That day, Shifter Town Enforcement saved our lives.”
“It explains the odd friendship your family has with them.”
Mace chuckled from the front seat and Sawyer shook her head. “Not quite. I walked away from that day knowing two things. One, that I’d always considered STE corrupt. Worthless. They didn’t help us. And now one of their own had gone rogue? And he could have ripped us all apart?” Sawyer shook her head. “Two, that they’d saved my life and my family.”
Rift linked his fingers with hers. “They are still largely corrupt.”
“Yeah. But some of us are working on changing that.”
She felt him go still, heard the slight change in his breathing. His brows furrowed, curious. “Us?”
“I submitted my application to the Shifter Town Academy shortly after Torres’s death. Lennox and Brandt helped me get in.” She lifted her chin a notch. “I made it through.”
Rift started to shake his head, a million questions in his eyes. She knew it had to be hard to wrap his head around. It was hard for anyone to understand.
Cutter gave an amused chuckle from the driver’s seat. “My sister the Hound. The only feline who likes to play with the dogs.”
“In the doghouse of all doghouses,” Mace chimed in.
Rift stared at her, but he didn’t let go of her hand. “Sawyer?”
She let her pride ease into her voice because she refused to be ashamed of this. She was changing things. Even if sometimes she felt like she was betraying her people, too. “First non-dog-shifter to become a Hound. And a lioness at that.”
His started to shake his head and Sawyer centered herself in the coil of magick inside her. Hound magick, granted to her by a witch when she’d graduated. She felt it stir, the energy swirling under her skin. Her lioness hated the magick, it wasn’t natural. Shifters and witches didn’t necessarily mix. If they mated—which was rare—their children were either one or the other. Never both, never blended. A witch had to place the magick inside a Hound, link it to their soul, their essence.
She felt her hair lift around her face, felt the wild spiral of energy around her. Rift paled slightly. “Shit.”
The magick faded. “Enforcement doesn’t advertise that they’re letting other shifters into their ranks. We’re handy for under cover work.”
She winced a little at that. It always felt a little like she was betraying her own kind, but she wanted to help them and the best way to do that was to get Shifter Town Enforcement on their side. And by being one of them, she could do just that.
“So Cane Creek—”
Sawyer nodded and squeezed his hand, not wanting to let go. “I was under cover there. My boss down there, Beckett, he is an ass. I had to beg to go under in that pride. But the lionesses there were rarely seen in public, and when they were seen, they looked like they’d been beaten. I was convinced something was out of whack.”
Rift leaned back into his seat, looking more than a little dumbfounded, so Sawyer blazed on, hoping it wouldn’t be too overwhelming
“I was right. They’re brutal with their women, but Beckett didn’t care. I was trying to build a case to push through somewhere else, anywhere, when I stumbled on Kinsey. I’d already befriended Jenna. Then Dougal found out about her, and I’d seen what he does to the lionesses. He beats them, rapes them, burns them. He likes inflicting pain. I didn’t want to find out what he’d do to Kinsey.”
“Especially if he knew she was mine.”
“Oh, yeah. Lennox told me that story. If he blames you for his sister—”
“He does.”
“Then Kinsey didn’t stand a chance. So I took her and ran.”
Rift’s arm twitched under her hand but he didn’t pull away. Still, somehow, he hadn’t pulled back from her. “So you’ve been a Hound this whole time?” His voice was tinged with disbelief. Sawyer fought the urge to wince. She would not be ashamed of this.
“Yeah. I called Lennox as soon as I could, filled her in. Right from the beginning I knew the Retrieval program was your best option. For Kinsey. But taking a girl from her mother, a cub from her pride...Lennox had to pull a lot of strings. But I couldn’t do witness protection with you.”
“So you left.”
Yeah. She’d walked away, leaving behind the shattered pieces of her heart.
***
Rift sat there reeling. She was a Hound. A fucking Hound. He’d seen her magick, felt it. He looked at Mace, but both her brothers were calmly looking at the road. Doing their best to give the two of them privacy in spite of the small confines of the car.
So much of it made sense, though. The secret she’d been keeping...it was there, right in front of him. And the reason she’d held back, resisted? Then walked away? Oh yeah, it burned now.
She’d known all along she’d be handing him over to the Hounds. She could have been handing him over to a silver bullet. He was an unregistered rogue, illegal.
“I didn’t trust you and Kinsey with just anyone,” Sawyer whispered, as if she could tell exactly what he was thinking. Fuck, but she was spot on. “I only trusted Lennox.”
“The woman who’d saved you. If anything you owed her, not the other way around.”
/> “Lennox is a friend. She was my first boss. She pushed me through the Academy, and her pack was the first one to let me in. By the time I transferred to Beckett’s pack in Texas, I had a pack I could rely on. Trust. Lennox is mated to two lions. Her daughter is a lion-shifter. She’s always had my back.”
A Hound—a ridgeback at that—mated to two lions? He hadn’t seen that one coming. Rift glanced at Sawyer. “If you had all that in her pack, why leave?”
“Serial killer targeting lions in Texas. I was an asset Enforcement definitely needed to on the ground. It was only supposed to be temporary, but after that case, I had to help Cane Creek.”
Rift let it all sink in. It was more information than he knew what to do with, but there was one fact he couldn’t deny. He loved Sawyer. Had loved her back when all he’d known was that she was keeping something from him. Back before he’d known she was a Reyes.
That love hadn’t changed.
He didn’t know how he felt about loving a Hound, but there was no denying the fact that he was completely and completely in love with Sawyer.
Rift lifted their joined hands to his lips and kissed her knuckles.
He couldn’t bring himself to say anything else, but the flicker of a smile he saw on her face when his lips touched her skin calmed him. Soon, he’d find the words to pull them through this. But right now he was too fried to do anything but hold on to her and make sure he didn’t let her go.
Chapter Eighteen
“Go suck yourself!”
Tavis cocked his head as he listened to the scuffle in the hall, followed by Sans’ short yelp and several nasty expletives. He couldn’t help but smile. Dougal’s pet goons getting told off by a child. He shook his head, entertained. Tavis leaned against the wall and listened to the hisses and screeches as Sans no doubt struggled to drag the thirteen-year-old cub down the hall. It was almost pathetic sounding.
No. He took that back. It was most definitely pathetic, but pretty damn amusing, too.
Sans let out another slew of curses and Tavis shook his head. Dougal had wanted the girl moved out to the cabin so that even if Rift showed up with the Hounds—and there was that possibility—they wouldn’t have any proof that the girl was here.
The car was long gone, and Dougal had the women scrubbing down the house to wipe away any scent the kid might have dragged in.
Part of him admired Kinsey’s strength. Even kidnapped and dragged home to die, the girl fought like a hellcat. But it didn’t change what was going to happen to her. Tavis steeled himself against the inevitable.
Rift Callahan had killed their sister.
It was only fair that Slade men took his daughter from him.
An eye for an eye.
Tavis gave a satisfied rumble and peeked down the hall. Another bout of screeches and roars sounded from the hall and Tavis rubbed his head. How a grown man have so much trouble handling a child was beyond him...
Still, he snorted cynically and headed toward the sounds. Sans had the wiry teenage girl pinned beneath him on the floor, but the Tavis saw tawny fur bleed out over her skin as she wrestled herself around in his grip to swipe claws down Sans’ shoulder.
That would explain the bright red welts all over his face and forearms. Sans let out another roar, and had whipped a hand back, claws sprouting from his fingertips, when Tavis snarled. Sans froze.
They had to keep Kinsey alive. For now.
If she wasn’t, they’d have no bait. No lure.
Rift would ask to hear his daughter’s voice before walking onto Cane Creek territory again. He’d want proof.
Damn proof.
“Sans,” Tavis growled, lunging forward to catch the other man’s wrist just in case.
Kinsey tore free of Sans, and Tavis lunged to catch her, his fingers burying in the thick gold of her fur. She spun to strike at him and Tavis tossed her into the wall. Not hard enough to kill her, just daze her.
She slumped to the carpet, then looked ready to barrel at him for round two, when Sans kicked out. His boot connected with her stomach. The cat flinched and hunched against the wall. Tavis growled. “You can use a little force, but we need her alive. Dead won’t get us her father. You understand that?”
Sans bared his teeth at Tavis, but he ignored him.
Instead, he glanced at Kinsey still huddled on the floor in her lion form. “Shift,” he snapped out.
When she curled her lips back to bare teeth, Tavis glanced at Sans, eyebrow arched. The other male lifted his leg for another kick and the girl flinched. “Shift,” Tavis repeated, his patience wearing thin.
But unlike Sans, he wasn’t willing to stand around playing games.
His brother had sent him out here to do a job.
Still, she hesitated. The little bitch had some mega britches. Stupid, but hell, britches nonetheless. With a jerk of his body, Sans lashed out. His boot crashed into her ribs twice before she struck. Her claws sank into Sans’s leg. Blood seeped through the thick denim. Shit.
Tavis lurched forward and pried her off, slamming Kinsey back into the wall. With his hand wrapped in the scruff of her neck, he hauled her into the air. “Shift, or I’ll let him rip you apart, little girl. We only need you able to talk. I don’t care if you bleed first or not.”
He let her drop to the ground, where she crumpled in a heap. “Now, Kinsey. Or we’ll see what my brother has in store for your mother. I’d just hate to see what would happen to her, now wouldn’t you?”
Her ears flicked back and Kinsey shifted. A golden cub transformed back into a blue-haired girl. She huddled against the wall, her knees pressed to her chest. She had a bruise against her left cheek, her face swollen. She was lucky that was all she had.
The crestfallen twist to her face told him he’d won that round, though. Tavis smiled. “Good girl.”
He caught her arm and dragged her to her feet. “Get the chair,” Tavis snapped at Sans.
“He’ll kill you. You and Dougal,” she whispered, and Tavis paused to study the defiance blazing in her eyes.
Oh, he needed to break that.
“Nah, child. Better men than your father have tried.”
Sans shoved the folding chair behind her and Tavis slammed her down into it. He twisted her arms behind her back so Sans could tie her to the chair. She jerked her chin up, fighting to the very end. Proud.
Tavis cupped her chin, hard enough to watch her blink back tears, and smiled. She jerked her gaze to something just past his shoulder, but it only made her startle when he leaned closer to whisper in her ear.
“I’m going to love watching as my brother kills you all. The only person you have even a rat’s ass in hell of saving? Your sweet momma, girl. And that’s just because my brother loves torturing her. But hey, at least this way? You’ll save someone.”
Tavis stood and left the child to her tears.
***
“Did you get the girl settled?” Dougal didn’t even look at his brother as he asked the question. If Tavis hadn’t been able to get it done, then his brother really was useless.
“Of course I did.”
“Then shower. I don’t want you smelling like her.”
“Have you heard from Rift?” There was anger in his brother’s voice when he asked the question, a quiet fury that echoed through Dougal. Finally they would have their revenge.
That bastard had lured their sister into his car, gotten her drunk, made her seem like a slut. Then when he’d gotten in accident, he’d walked away without a scratch.
Dougal curled his hands into fists and felt the prick of claws against his palms. He felt the skin tear as he bore down on his own flesh. He was going to rip Rift Callahan apart, shred skin from bone. After he tore out the man’s heart while it was still beating.
He just had to make sure the lion wised up and started playing fair.
“No. But he’s coming.”
“Any idea if he hopped a plane?”
Interestingly enough, no. He hadn’t thought of Rift as the type
of man to patiently drive across country to save his daughter, but, according to Dougal’s sources, he hadn’t touched his bank account. Hadn’t purchased a plane ticket.
The first niggling doubt wormed up his spine. What if he didn’t come after all? Would he really leave his daughter to this fate?
Dougal grunted. It would be his fault, then, when she wound up dead.
Even if she didn’t mean a damn thing to Rift, Dougal saw no reason to keep her alive. If Rift wasn’t here in a few days, then Kinsey would find herself gasping for air in a pine box.
He turned and eyed his phone, half tempted to call. To make sure Rift was on his way. But no. If the man had really involved the Hounds, it was too risky to have conversations with him now. Dougal needed to be the picture of innocence. At least until an unregistered rogue arrived on his territory and tried to batter his way inside.
After that he was simply defending his home.
And if a little girl ended up in a ravine a few states over? Well, who was Dougal Slade to say who’d done it?
Chapter Nineteen
The white glow of the plane loomed in the darkness under a blanket of Colorado stars, and Rift found himself staring up at the jet that would whisk them away to Texas. Their one shot at saving his daughter. Dougal and Tavis wouldn’t know when he was coming, let alone that he traveled with a pack of Hounds and two pride males all his own.
And this was all crazy.
He shook his head, numb.
Who’d have thought that he’d ever accept the help of either? Then Sawyer stepped out onto the runway, her head bent in conversation with Brandt, the Hound in charge. It was all because of her, he realized. Not just because she’d found his daughter.
But because Sawyer welcomed help, wanted to change the world, and that was part of why Rift found himself loving her.
Mason and Cutter headed for the plane and Rift found himself automatically falling in behind them.