by Maia Dylan
“Xanthe, it’s me!” Rowena stepped into Lotions and Potions. Now that she had made the decision to commit to her men long term and allow them to claim her—and yeah just thinking about that made all her girly parts quiver in excitement—she wanted to make sure it was a night to remember. And that started with one of Xanthe’s bath bombs and lotion in the vanilla honeysuckle scent that she had made for her.
She looked around the shop, breathing in the intoxicating scents of all of Xanthe’s creations in the store. Everything smelled delicious, despite the fact that nothing could actually be eaten. She looked behind the counter and frowned when she noticed that Xanthe wasn’t standing there. “Xanthe?” she called, guessing she was out back working on one of her creations.
“C–coming, Rowena, just give me a minute!” Xanthe called but there was something in her voice that sounded really off to Rowena, and she started to get a prickling sensation at the back of her neck. A few moments later and Xanthe walked out from the back room, and as soon as she saw her, Rowena knew that something was wrong. Very, very wrong. She was pale, her skin ashen, and there was a frantic panic in her eyes that Rowena had seen before. Every damn time she had helped a woman who had been terrorized by a man. Shit.
“Hey, Xanthe!” she called out overly loudly and not allowing the tension to show in her voice. Are you OK? she mouthed. “I’m looking for one of those beautiful vanilla bath bombs you made for me last time.” Xanthe shook her head slightly and looked purposely down and to the right. OK, so whoever was scaring the bejesus out of her was in the back room, down low.
“You’re in luck.” Xanthe’s tone was the complete opposite of her mannerisms. She was upbeat and normal, and Rowena got the feeling she’d done this type of purposeful happy deception before. “I made some just yesterday afternoon.” Xanthe looked down again and mouthed, Baxter. Rowena closed her eyes for a brief moment and nodded to say she understood. The bastard had found her, and she shouldn’t feel as surprised as she did. “You’ll find some on the back shelf.”
Rowena was about to ask another innocuous question while her mind whirled at a thousand miles an hour trying to think of a way out of this, but was interrupted by the bell over the door sounding the entry of another innocent into this clusterfuck of a situation. “Rowena? Xanthe? I figured I’d find you both here.” Oh fuck, Angel. Things had just gone from bad to monumentally screwed in the span of a few seconds.
“Angel! I told you I was only going to be a minute. You should be resting! That baby is due any day now.” Rowena turned and looked straight at Angel, who was sweating and looked like she’d just run a half marathon. She needed to get Angel out of this room, and she had a surefire way, she just hoped that she remembered what it meant and what the plan was then. “You know that baby’s got the kick of a quarterback and he’ll make you pay for moving around.” Angel lost all color, and Rowena knew that the message was received. Go. Get help, she mouthed.
“Y–you’re right, I don’t know what I was thinking.” Angel suddenly flinched forward and grasped her stomach which Rowena noticed had tightened visibly. Holy fuck! She was in labor.
“Just head on home and get your feet up, Angel. I’ll grab you something nice.” Rowena noticed that her voice was slightly edged with panic and she heard a noise from behind her that sounded suspiciously like Xanthe whimpering, but she couldn’t stop now. She had to get Angel out, so she opened the door and hustled Angel out onto the porch. Then she turned back and didn’t have to fake the shock on her face. Baxter stood behind Xanthe with a hand wrapped around her neck. And by hand, she meant furry, huge paw with claws that looked like they could do some serious damage.
Rowena was suddenly swamped by fear. Baxter was a shifter of some kind, and judging by the size of his hand, whatever he eventually shifted into was huge! But fear wasn’t going to get her and Xanthe out of this. She just had to hold on long enough for Angel to get back to their house and raise the alarm. Rowena reached for her inner ice shield.
“Martin Baxter”—she had her doctor voice on—“you’ve come all this way and waited a long time to get me alone. So why don’t we leave Xanthe here and you and I go out back and talk?” She reached behind her and flicked the lock on the door, not wanting anyone to walk in inadvertently.
“That is true, bitch.” Baxter snarled in her direction and Rowena shivered at the insane hatred in his voice. “I have waited for twelve fucking years to finish off what we started that day. I rid the earth of a lying, cheating bitch of a whore and because of you and those fucking Enforcers, I’ve spent the last twelve years of my life in a fucking prison for it.” Baxter was screaming at her now, and he seemed to be…swelling. He was getting bigger the angrier he got.
Xanthe whimpered and Rowena spared her a glance and noticed that there was blood streaming down the side of her neck. In his rage the bastard had squeezed his furry fist and pierced her skin with his bloody claw. “Martin! Martin!” Rowena moved toward the back entrance of the store, hoping to distract him enough that he would let Xanthe go. “Come on, Baxter!” The ice had slipped and her voice was more hot rage than anything else. “I’m the one you want, not her. So let’s leave her here and you come outside with me and we’ll talk about it.”
She was close to the door and Baxter had not taken his crazed eyes from her. She was just about to reach out and open the door when Baxter suddenly threw Xanthe across the room. Rowena screamed her name as she watched her crash through the display stand nearest the counter and then to the floor. Rowena went to run to her, but Baxter was on her too fast. He grabbed her with his right hand and backhanded her with his left. Her head snapped hard to the right and white-hot pain ripped through her cheek.
She would have collapsed to the floor, but he held her up. “I’ve wanted to pay you back for all those lovely things you said about me in those parole hearings.” Despite the ringing in her ears and her rapidly swelling face, Rowena’s fear ebbed as she filled with rage when she noticed Xanthe hadn’t moved, and there was a serious amount of blood on the floor around her.
“Fuck you, Baxter,” she snapped, struggling to pull free. “This whole town is filled with wolf shifters and all of them are coming for your sorry ass! There is nowhere you can hide from them!” She managed to pull free but held her ground, breathing heavily.
“I encountered two wolf”—he spat the word, his voice filled with contempt—“shifters just outside, but they won’t be bothering us anytime soon.” Rowena felt her heart stutter. Kyle and Grant. Oh, God, please let them be OK. “And I hide from no one. Besides, I think this is my lucky day! If you’ve found sanctuary in a town filled with shifters, then those Enforcer fuckers mustn’t be too far away. I reckon if I take you, and keep you alive long enough for them to follow your screams, then I can kill two stool pigeons with one stone!” He threw his head back to laugh manically at his own joke and Rowena made a break for the door.
She never made it. He grabbed her by the hair and then plowed his fist into her stomach. Gagging, she fell forward, but she didn’t hit the floor. She was wrenched into the air and thrown over Baxter’s shoulder. Then Baxter was running with her outside, and into the forest. Rowena expected a cry or some type of alarm to sound to signal that they had been spotted, but nothing came. Then Baxter was moving swiftly farther into the forest, his strength and speed unnatural. But then he was a shifter, and Rowena had a feeling that she was going to be able to confirm what type of animal he shifted into very soon.
Chapter 9
Luke couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong. He felt a prickling at the back of his neck that had him looking around for danger, but nothing was there. He was heading back to Rowena’s with everything they needed to finish off the café counter area, and Wyatt and Chase were not far behind him, the commercial coffee machine all wrapped up tight in the back of their truck.
“I have a really funny feeling that something is wrong, and my fucking wolf is pacing like you wouldn’t believe.” He still hadn
’t been able to shake the feeling that something had happened, and the closer he got to Rowena’s the more intense the feeling became.
“I’m not getting anything, Luke.” Wyatt came back first. “Chase is shaking his head, too.” Luke knew that something was wrong now. He slammed his foot down on the accelerator and was minutes away from Rowena’s home when the bottom fell out of his world.
“Wyatt, Luke, Chase!” Ty’s voice boomed down from their alpha link. “Get back to Rowena’s! Fucking Baxter has been here.” Luke felt a red rage rip through him that was personified by the fact that his brothers were feeling the same damn thing, and it was echoing down their link. Luke slammed on the brakes and rocked to a halt just outside Rowena’s shop. He used every cell of his enhanced speed to get inside, ripping the door from its hinges.
He came to a stop and scented the air. There was absolutely nothing here that shouldn’t be. Baxter hadn’t been in the house. He heard a truck slam to a halt outside and knew his brothers had arrived, but then a scream split the air from the rear of the house and Luke sprinted for the back door. It wasn’t Rowena—that was Angel and she was in pain.
He leapt down the back stairs in a single leap, then saw her on the ground about thirty feet from the house, and there was a man leaning over her. He ran toward them with a roar and was about to slam into the fucker when he realized he knew him. It was Noah Carter and he was hurt. Blood flowed freely from a number of wounds, including what looked like bullet wounds to his side and back and claw marks down his neck and right side. He pulled up short and dropped onto the ground beside them.
“Angel! What the hell—” Angel suddenly threw her head back and screamed.
“Breathe through it, Angel.” Noah coached her as he held her hand and Luke realized she was in labor. Less than a minute later, Wyatt and Chase crashed to the ground beside him. They waited while Angel panted through the contraction and then she collapsed against the ground.
“Baxter, he’s got Rowena,” she panted through gritted teeth, dragging air into her lungs. “She used the panic word, and I saw the fear on Xanthe’s face. He had Xanthe and took Rowena when she walked in. I heard someone crashing down the steps and into the forest shortly after I got out here, but I didn’t get much farther than here. Oh God, here comes another one!” She leaned up and Noah propped himself behind her shoulder, taking her weight for her.
“Baxter’s a bear shifter.” Noah reached around and gripped Angel’s hand so she had something to bear down on. “I thought I had him just outside of Grey River but the fucker set an ambush for me. By the time I came to and got out, he was already here. He took out Kyle and Grant, but both of them are alive, just hurt pretty badly. I left them back there about one hundred feet or so from the edge of the property when I heard Angel scream. Chris, Ty, and Trent are on their way now.”
“We’re here, brother.” Chris’s voice came from behind them as the three men barreled into the yard. Chris fell beside Angel, who sobbed and held out her hand toward him. Luke jumped up to make room for him and turned to Ty and Trent, noticing that Ty had a slightly unfocused look on his face for a brief moment and then it cleared.
“OK, Cassadee is going to contact Rowena and see if she can’t tell us where she is. You guys come with me. Let’s get to Grant and Kyle and see if we can’t find that fucker’s scent,” Ty ordered as he ran into the forest with Wyatt, Luke, Chase, and Trent at his heels, heading toward where Noah had indicated he had found Kyle and Grant.
They spotted them lying on the forest floor, and were about to drop to the ground to check on them when two figures walked out of the forest. Two huge men, dressed all in black, armed to the teeth, and so damn silent Luke hadn’t heard anything until they were right in front of them.
“Hunter Reed and Dane Smith, I presume?” Ty spoke quietly, dominance in his words, but it had no effect on the two men. Whatever they hell they were, they were dominant as all fuck.
“Jamieson.” Luke recognized the voice as Hunter Reed. “We tracked him and thought we had him surrounded but the slippery fucker got past two shifters who used to be Enforcers.”
“Used to be? You brought has-beens to track this fucker?” Wyatt snarled and stepped into Hunter’s personal space, but Reed didn’t even flinch.
“They were current Enforcers until they failed. Now they’re not,” the one called Dane answered. “And you had better back the fuck up off my partner there, now. Because I won’t ask so nicely next time.” Luke saw his eyes flash amber. It reminded him of Cassadee’s, but darker.
“You three just dial back on the goddamn testosterone because we have too much work to fucking do right now without a fucking pissing contest taking place between you!” Trent snapped as he pushed Wyatt and Hunter apart a little. Both nodded at each other and Luke figured all was forgiven. His need to find their mate was now reaching critical.
“Ty, we gotta go. He has our mate.” Chase’s voice was edged with rage and fear. Luke knew exactly what he was feeling.
“Go,” Ty snarled. “You find him, you let us know where you are, and we’ll get there as fast as we can.” Luke didn’t think that he would be able to hold himself back from going in there and getting Rowena the fuck away from that crazy bastard. “That fucker just took out three of my pack—he’s strong and we have never taken on a bear before. We are strong alone but stronger together and you will fucking wait for us to back you up, am I clear?”
Ty’s dominance filled the air, and Luke tilted his head to acknowledge his alpha. He saw Wyatt gritting his teeth, hesitating for a moment before he followed suit. Ty must have sensed the hesitation. “Wyatt, if you get there and he is hurting your mate, then go in there and rip the bastard to shreds, but you know as well as I do that the more wolves we have there, the more likely we are to get everyone out safe. That’s all I’m saying.”
“It makes sense, Ty.” Wyatt’s voice was garbled, which was a sure sign his wolf was close to the surface. “But if he is hurting her, then I guarantee nothing.” Ty acknowledged that with a nod, and Luke knew that if it were Faith, he couldn’t stop himself from getting to her either.
Ty turned to Hunter and Dane. “Could you two help us get Kyle and Grant back to the doc and then we’ll all take up the chase?” Luke never stopped to see what their answer was, for he and his brothers started sprinting into the forest.
Over the first rise, they paused for a moment and scented the air. Within seconds they had it. The wild scent of bear that was wrapped around the vanilla and honeysuckle they knew was their mate. All three of them roared in anger and shifted in seconds, and then they were running as wolves through the forest, flying over the ground, making very little noise.
“When we find them, our first priority is to get Rowena away from Baxter,” Wyatt’s spoke down their link, and Luke could feel the barely restrained anger that flowed through him.
“You two fight faster than me.” Luke knew that had cost Chase a lot to say, but he and Wyatt were faster than him in a fight. “You distract Baxter, and I’ll get her out. Once she’s safe, I’ll come back.”
“No, Chase,” Luke responded. “No matter what, you stay with our mate. If things go well, then we will come to you, but if things don’t go well…” Luke didn’t finish that thought, because there was no need. Both his brothers knew how that thought ended and both agreed that they would not leave their mate unprotected ever again. They had thought she was safe in her own home and that there were enough of them in the forest surrounding the house and a whole fucking team of Enforcers tracking him. But their assumptions might well cost them everything.
They had left her only a couple of hours ago, with a kiss good-bye and the knowledge that she wanted them to claim her, and now she was in the hands of a fucking madman who wanted to hurt her, so if— no, when they got her away from Baxter, they were never leaving her alone again for a very long time. Perhaps never!
* * * *
Rowena pressed herself against the back wall of the cave Bax
ter had brought her to, trying to fade into the darkness. Stupid really, considering that Baxter was a shifter and could probably see in the dark. He had run with her over his shoulder for what seemed like ages, and she had absolutely no idea where she was or how she was going to get out of here.
He had thrown her down as soon as they got to the cave and Rowena was fairly certain she’d dislocated her shoulder when she fell. She had screamed in pain and Baxter had laughed with glee, the sadistic son of a bitch. When the pain had subsided enough to breathe again without having to fight the urge to vomit, she looked up and saw that Baxter moved to stand just outside the cave entrance, watching out over the forest, waiting for those who would come for her, and she knew they would come eventually.
Wyatt, Luke, and Chase must be going crazy! Tears sprung at the thought of her three men. It was not lost on her that if they had mated already, she would have been able to talk with them telepathically. She might not be able to share enough information for them to come get her, but even hearing their voices would have been a blessing.
“Rowena.” She flinched when a voice came into her head, one that was familiar. Baxter spun at her movement and growled in her direction, his eyes black with almost no white showing and tufts of fur erupted from the skin on his hands and face. Oh shit! She looked down and away, doing everything she could to show him he was in no danger from her. After a few seconds, he made a deep chuffing noise and turned back to watching the forest.
“It’s OK, sweets, it’s me, Cassadee.” Rowena closed her eyes. Was she dreaming this? “It’s not a dream, Rowena, it really is me. You remember me telling you about how fucked up my father was? Well, the experiments gave me the ability to project into people’s minds as well. I’ll tell you all about it on our next girls night, but first things first, your men are safe, and they are coming for you, Rowena.” Rowena bit her lip to stop the sob of relief and need that threatened to escape. “We just need to know where you are. They are following your scent, but it is getting harder to follow. Is there anything you can tell us about where you are?”