Seth’s heart broke as he realized the depth of the destruction. “Why?” he moaned, bending over to pick up the frame his license was in. The shattered glass tinkled to the floor as the wooden frame fell apart, splintered in several places.
The walk to his office felt like it took forever, but when he finally pushed open the door, it took only one look to bring him to his knees. “No!” he screamed. “No… oh God, please no.”
Ginger, the dog who had been hit by the car, had been brutally gutted. Her blood and innards were smeared everywhere. Seth’s nostrils flared at the strong, sweet smell, causing his stomach to churn with nausea. Her head rested right in front of his chair on his desk. From where he knelt, he could see a piece of white sticking out of her mouth. But he couldn’t move. His eyes wouldn’t look away from the mutilated dog.
“Seth? Seth! What’s wrong?”
Strong hands gripped Seth’s shoulders just as Kasey saw the gory display inside his office. “Holy shit,” he breathed, briefly lost in the horrifying scene that held Seth spellbound. He snapped out of it quickly, though. “Seth? Come on, you shouldn’t be here.”
Seth didn’t respond. He couldn’t do anything but stare. His very livelihood was gone. Right then he wanted to just say to hell with it. To hell with living and the pain that always, always came with it. What had he done so wrong that he could never be happy? “Why?” he finally choked out.
Kasey felt helpless at watching his mate suffer. Rage exploded inside him, and his teeth extended while his eyes blended into his canine pupils. “I don’t know, pup, but I swear to you, as your mate, we will find whoever did this, and I’ll rip them limb from limb. You hear me? It’s a promise.” He pulled Seth close to him and turned his head away, pressing Seth’s face into his broad shoulder.
He felt a shudder wind its way through Seth, and then those slender arms gripped at him tightly. Great, gulping sobs racked Seth’s body as he grieved for the animal, for himself, and for the loss of his clinic.
Kasey saw Chessie standing at the end of the hallway, staring at them curiously but sadly. Instead of commenting, she merely retreated back out of the clinic to wait outside.
Julian came down the hallway a short time later. Seth had managed to calm down by then and just lay there weakly in Kasey’s arms. “No one saw or heard anything last night, Kase. We’ll dust for fingerprints, but with the amount of people that have been through this clinic, it’s going to be almost impossible to pinpoint exactly who did this.”
“What about Seth’s office?” Kasey demanded. “It’s usually just him and me in there. Try there first. And check the cages in the back. The dog came out of one of them.”
Julian nodded before going back to get the kit.
Kasey brushed his fingers through Seth’s hair soothingly. “Come on, Seth. I’ll take you home.”
“No,” Seth protested vehemently. He extricated himself from Kasey and stood, brushing off his slacks. Anger slammed through him, not just at the person who’d done this but at himself. Instead of standing tall and bearing it like he’d been trained to do, he’d allowed his grief to take over. He felt even angrier for believing that if he found a nice, quiet town, then maybe he could have a good life… but he’d been an idiot to even think for a minute he could have peace. Because of his blindness, an innocent animal had paid the price. “I have to call Mr. Sheffield. He has to know the truth.”
Kasey felt bereft when Seth pulled away, but he reluctantly let him. “Seth, I have to be the one to take care of notifying Mr. Sheffield. And you shouldn’t be here until this mess is cleaned up.”
“It’s my clinic,” Seth said, glaring at him. “I have a right to be here.”
A sigh broke from Kasey, but he didn’t argue further. Stubbornly, Seth intended to stay. “Fine, but at least leave this mess to me.”
He’d barely finished speaking when Seth strode forward and snatched the piece of white from the dog’s mouth. It was a folded piece of paper. Kasey frowned. “Seth, don’t. There could be fingerprints on that!”
Seth ignored him and almost tore it opening it. After that, everything became a blur. The paper fell to the floor. Seth felt as if the ground beneath him had become a deep, gaping chasm ready to swallow him up. No. It couldn’t be. Seth wanted to howl, to rail at his fate, but even now, after two years, he hadn’t escaped it. It had just followed him everywhere he’d gone. His eyes were empty, frozen, lifeless when they looked up at Kasey. “Don’t bother with the fingerprints. You won’t find any,” he stated in a flat, emotionless tone.
“What? How do you know that?” Kasey strode forward and snatched up the paper, but there were no words on it. Just a symbol: black paint smudged into a shape similar to a wolf decorated one side. He looked up at Seth. “What is this? How do you know there won’t be any fingerprints?”
“I just do. It doesn’t matter now. I have no choice but to leave. My clinic is destroyed. I can’t afford to repair the extent of the damages. All of my money was tied up in this place. The insurance paperwork hasn’t even been filed yet. I’ve been too busy with everything else to get the forms completed and filed.” Outside, Seth showed no emotion, but panic roiled beneath the surface of his calm exterior. His demons were coming for him, and he didn’t know if he could stop them this time.
“You can’t leave,” Kasey said heatedly. “I’ll help you fix it, Seth. Don’t talk like that.”
Seth shook his head. “No. It will cost too much money.”
Kasey kept insisting, but Seth refused. It wouldn’t be right to take money from him. And besides, if he didn’t leave this place, he’d wind up dead. Either by his own hand or that of the Triad, the group of wolves led by Taggart. The ones who’d made his life a living nightmare for months.
Maybe if they hadn’t been so busy arguing, they would have noticed the man standing in the doorway, but Seth denied Kasey at every turn. “Damn it, Seth. You’re my mate!” Kasey shouted.
“It sounds to me like he doesn’t think so, Sheriff,” a deep, Scotch-roughened voice interjected from the doorway.
Eyes widening, Seth whipped around to find his best friend standing in the doorway. “Nick!” he cried and rushed to him, throwing his arms around him and hugging him tightly. He pulled back to gaze up at the one man who’d always been there for him. “You’re earlier than I expected.”
Nick shrugged one lean, elegant shoulder. “The flight from Japan was only nine hours. I stopped to catch some sleep when I landed in California and then headed straight here on the next flight out.”
With an assessing look on his face, Nick studied the dark-haired Cheyenne still standing at the desk with the paper in between his fingers. Kasey stared back, taking in the man who’d earned Seth’s trust so completely. Nick wasn’t nearly as tall as himself, maybe three or four inches shorter. His body had a lean, wiry build to it but an undeniable strength in the muscles beneath. His nose was wide, not handsome but elegant. A scar sliced through the left eyebrow above those eyes that shimmered the deep green of emeralds. Dark-blond hair was cut short in a neat style that suited his features, outlining his sharp face perfectly. Just then, a familiar yet strange scent assaulted Kasey’s senses. His lips parted as if he were about to say something, but Nick gave an almost imperceptible shake of his head, silencing him more effectively than a shout.
“Want to tell me what happened here?” Nick lifted his hand to wave it uncaringly at the mess decorating Seth’s office.
Seth stiffened and pulled away from Nick, wrapping his arms around his own waist. His eyes had a hunted look in them, a look that spoke of a fear so deeply ingrained that it would never be banished. “Just a cruel joke,” he replied flatly.
Kasey could sense an underlying tension in his mate. He knew Seth wasn’t telling him the whole story. The instant he had a chance to speak with Nick alone, he would demand some kind of answer. He held up the paper for the blond to see it. “They left a calling card.”
Nick’s eyes widened, and he swore softl
y and dangerously. His hand settled on Seth’s shoulder. “It was always a possibility, Seth.”
“No,” Seth denied, shaking his head furiously. “He’s dead, Nick. I refuse to believe he’s still alive.” He hunched in on himself, trying to keep from dropping into a hysterical ball.
Nick sighed and squeezed Seth’s shoulder. “Why don’t you go check on that cute nurse of yours? She looked pretty shaken up.”
Seth gritted his teeth, glaring at Nick. “Don’t.”
Kasey could see some kind of silent war between them. It left him feeling very anxious and angry. His inner wolf sensed competition where his mate was concerned. It took all of his patience, which was very little, mind you, to keep a leash on his canine side. His mate couldn’t sense what he’d picked up on the instant Nick had entered the room. Nick wasn’t human, as Seth believed. Nick was wolf.
“Please don’t,” Seth begged Nick, disturbing Kasey from his thoughts.
“You know I would never hurt you, Seth,” Nick said quietly. “But the sheriff needs to know what’s in his territory and, if he’s telling the truth, the danger to his mate. You know if Taggart’s still alive, the sheriff might be the only one who can protect you from him.”
A wet shine came over Seth’s deep-blue eyes, so turbulent they were almost a stormy gray. Kasey instinctively let out a growl, moving closer to his mate. He hovered protectively around the smaller man, practically crowding Nick out.
Kasey’s stomach wrenched with emotion when Seth unconsciously huddled closer to him. Dark eyes challenged Nick viciously. “Tell me,” he demanded gently.
Something akin to relief flashed through the emerald gaze, and Nick physically relaxed. His shoulders eased down from their tenseness, as if he’d suddenly received an answer he’d been looking for. “Seth, I think you should go check on your nurse, okay?” Nick looked at his friend. “Go.”
Kasey didn’t want to let Seth leave his sight, but somehow he knew whatever Nick was about to tell him would send his mate into the same hysterics as before, or worse. He nudged Seth gently, his hand on his lower back. “I’m sure Chessie could use some reassurance, Seth. We won’t be long.”
Kasey’s eyes followed Seth as he left his office. His hands clenched at his sides as he focused on Nick the instant the door shut behind the slender back of his mate. “I want to know everything.”
Nick leaned against the wall nearest him. His eyes were clear with sincerity. “You might want to have a seat, Sheriff, because as Seth’s mate, what I’m about to tell you might bring you to your knees.”
“So you believe I’m Seth’s mate, then?” Kasey’s gut twisted. If Seth’s past was as bad as he feared, he could only pray he’d be able to control himself. He knew the pain in his mate’s past was what kept Seth from accepting Kasey as his mate.
“I know you are, Sheriff,” Nick said confidently. “Aside from me, only his mate could get that close to Seth. His instinctive reaction to be near you when he’s afraid showed that even more clearly. I can’t believe anything otherwise.”
“How does he not know what you are?” Kasey demanded. “And why haven’t you told him you’re wolf?”
Nick settled his long length into one of the clean desk chairs. He crossed one leg over the other in a careless gesture. “You have to understand that Seth is very special and very rare. Seth is a Rho.”
Kasey’s breath caught as his lips parted in surprise. Seth was a Rho? Rhos were extremely rare and very special indeed. That explained his pup’s ability to heal.
The only things Kasey knew about Rhos were from the stories the elders of his pack had told of their last Rho, who had died over seventy years ago. Rhos were born every 100 years. A pack could go two or three hundred years before they were graced with a Rho again. Rhos were known from birth because they were born in their true wolf form and over the course of the first year of their life slowly shifted to their human shape. It was during their fifth year that the ancestral Mother gifted them with an extraordinary ability. Some of the abilities the elders spoke of included the chance to become a healer like Seth, to take on other forms like those of a coyote or fox. The rarest gift that Kasey knew of was the ability to speak telepathically to more than just one’s mate or pack, including humans.
Rhos were highly coveted by a pack because of their unique gifts, and it was common for members of a pack to break out into fights over the right to claim a Rho as their mate. But only a Rho’s true mate could rightfully claim them. The mating bond with a Rho would not take unless the Rho chose to take another as their life-long partner.
The protective instinct, already prominent when Kasey thought of his mate, increased tenfold. It meant Seth would constantly be in danger until Kasey claimed him. “Go on.”
“Seth’s father knew from the day Seth was born that he would constantly be in danger, and he left our pack in fear of the others becoming violent with the need to claim Seth as their own. Our pack sent me to watch over and help protect Seth from others who would take advantage of him or seek to claim him.”
Kasey interrupted Nick. “Why is it you were able to control yourself around Seth if the others weren’t?”
Nick’s lips twisted in a cynical smile. “I’ll admit it wasn’t easy, but when your Alpha orders you to do something, you can’t exactly say no or go against him. Unless that person is your mate, which Seth was not. After a while, it became manageable and then as simple as breathing air. Seth and I became best friends, and I wouldn’t do anything in the world to change that.”
“Yet he has no idea who you are? You think it’s not going to change anything when he finds out?” Kasey raised an eyebrow at Nick.
Nick grimaced and ran a hand through his hair in frustration. “He knows me. He just doesn’t know that I’m also wolf. Would you like to hear the rest or not, Sheriff?”
Kasey scowled but nodded for Nick to continue.
“Seth’s father taught Seth how to gather his power around him and use it to project a human scent over the stronger one of the wolf. It is how I have kept myself a secret from him, as well. His father preferred Seth believe they were the only ones in the world able to shift, and the Alpha agreed, ordering me not to reveal my wolf side to him. For a time, it left him able to live a relatively normal life. Until three years ago.” Nick’s face became hard with rage, and his lips flattened into a line so thin they almost disappeared.
Bitterness rang out in Nick’s tone as he spoke. “Our pack has never tolerated the existence of the Created ones. They bring danger to us all. Their animal sides are in control more often than not. Because of Seth’s sheltered upbringing, he wasn’t aware of others in the world like him or like the Created. One of them found him. An Alpha of a small pack of the Created called the Triad. There were six of them.”
A sharp swear word cut through the tension in the room. “They figured out Seth is a Rho.” It was a statement, not a question.
Nick nodded, his jaw tightly clenched. “Yes. Taggart found out and, playing on Seth’s lack of knowledge, claimed to be his mate. Overjoyed at finding others like himself, including a man saying he was his mate, Seth believed him and spent the next four months in hell. All of the men in the Triad, including Taggart, had been imprisoned at one point or another for armed robbery, rape, or attempted murder. A friend of mine heard rumors around the neighborhood of their ‘pack’ and eventually word of them having a Rho amongst their numbers. By then I’d been searching for Seth for a couple of weeks, and when I heard that, my blood ran cold.
“They brutalized him. Taggart allowed the entire pack to rape and dominate Seth anytime they wanted. When I finally found him, they had him chained to the wall of the warehouse they inhabited. He was broken, a shattered shell of his former self.” Nick’s nails lengthened and dug into the arms of the chair, puncturing the leather.
Kasey’s heart froze inside his chest, and it took all he had not to howl in rage and pain for his mate. “What happened?” he managed to choke out. His chest felt tight
at the things Seth must have suffered those four months. No wonder his mate didn’t want anything to do with him and didn’t understand the bond between them.
“During an attempt to rescue him, the Triad returned, and some of it is still unclear even now, but somehow a fire started. It spread quickly. It was all I could do to get Seth out before the whole building went up. Taggart and the rest of the Triad were still inside when the building exploded. Or at least, we thought so. Until today.” Nick ran a hand over his suddenly tired face. Dark circles made his eyes stand out starkly against his tan features.
Chasing Seth Page 9