by Cara Adams
What else? What other possibilities were there? This was the best place for their BDSM scenes, but he needed to do something that she wasn’t expecting, not the same old spanking or whatever. And whatever he did had to be the perfect introduction into BDSM for Sloan. This scene needed to be extra special.
At the back of the shed was a tractor that they must have used to mow the grass in the days before they had a ride-on mower. It still had a trailer hitch and the lawn mower attachment was leaning up against the wall behind it. Being a mechanic, machinery fascinated Keir, so he wandered over for a closer look. The key was still in the ignition, which really wasn’t a good idea, but he supposed the shed was locked at night, and the tractor wasn’t the kind of thing anyone could hide if they tried to steal it.
As he looked at it, Keir suddenly wondered if people could have sex sitting on it. The engine likely would be rumbling, which would add a rather exciting vibration to the action, and the seat was quite wide and solid, plus it was upholstered so should be comfortable.
“Hey! What do you think you’re doing?”
Keir looked up and at the door, expecting to have to explain himself to a member of the maintenance crew, but the voice must have come from outside.
“Hey! You!”
Jarrah was already heading outside and Sloan and Keir ran after him, wondering what was happening. Someone wasn’t happy, that was for sure. A man in one of the Konference Kabins T-shirts and heavy work boots was chasing two other men. The man immediately in front of him turned round and punched the worker in the head, who dropped to the ground.
Keir ducked back into the shed, and ran to the tractor. “I hope you’re used regularly,” he said to the machine as he turned the ignition key. It fired up immediately so he jumped on the seat, found the park brake, and began inching his way forward out of the shed. He turned neatly in the direction of the running men, then floored the gas pedal. The tractor went surprisingly fast. Maybe ten miles an hour, and plenty faster than the running men.
Jarrah heard him coming and stopped, holding his arms out. “Jump on,” yelled Keir slowing a bit, but not wanting to lose much time.
Jarrah understood and began running again, jumping on the step and grabbing hold of the dashboard as he ran.
“Hang on tight,” said Keir, stomping on the gas pedal again.
They passed the maintenance man still lying on the ground. Sloan was with him and had turned him into the recovery position.
“Sloan is on his cell phone getting help,” said Jarrah looking behind them. “Well, at least he’d better be getting help, not ordering a pizza.”
“Get ready to jump off and stop this man. We can ask why the maintenance man wants him later.”
“If I get arrested, I expect you to post bail,” threatened Jarrah.
Keir grinned. He didn’t have time to do anything more as he drove as close as he dared beside the two men running fast for the fence line. They had to be bad guys. Good guys wouldn’t be running away.
Jarrah launched himself from his hazardous perch on the side of the tractor, and Keir turned it sharply in front of the first running man. The man skidded to a stop then headed toward the back of the property at a fast pace. Keir had to make a wider turning circle than the man, but the man still didn’t have much of a lead on him, and Keir soon caught up again, this time driving right in front of him, causing him to stop so fast he fell over. That was good enough for Keir. He pulled on the park brake, snatched the ignition key and shoved it in his pocket, then jumped on top of the man who was down. It seemed a bit unfair, but he wasn’t taking any chances.
The man wiggled and bucked furiously, his hand trying to reach the pocket of his jeans. Keir wondered if he had a weapon so grabbed hold of the man’s wrist and wrenched his arm up his back, getting him in a tight hold. He dug his opposite knee into the man’s back and then he went still, but Keir wasn’t planning to let go any time soon.
“Damn shame I didn’t bring my handcuffs with me. They’d be really useful about now.”
“You’re a cop?” The man’s voice was almost a screech.
“Oh, much, much worse than that. I’m a Dom in the BDSM scene, and I don’t play by your sort of rules at all.”
All the fight left the body underneath him. Keir turned his head and saw Jarrah was having to work much harder to control his man. Jarrah was on top, but the man’s legs were flying everywhere and Jarrah was having to duck and weave to stay in position.
Once again Keir wished he’d had handcuffs, or rope, or chains. Or even zip ties. Anything that would have let him restrain this man so he could help Jarrah.
Chapter Five
Logic told Jarrah the man kicking and punching at him had to be a werewolf shape-shifter who’d gotten onto the property illegally. Passion, however, had him wondering if the man was an octopus shape-shifter. Legs and arms attacked him from every conceivable direction all at once, and he was beginning to wish he’d driven the fucking tractor and let Keir do the jumping off and attacking stuff.
It was only the thought that this man and his friends might hurt Jill that kept him in the battle. No one was going to hurt or even to frighten his precious perfect mate. Especially when he knew she was close to agreeing to marry them.
Jarrah used his extra length to force his foot down hard on the man’s ankle, stopping him from kicking that leg. Once he’d gotten one ankle held to the ground he was able to angle his body over the other’s man’s torso a bit better. Still dodging blows, he dug his knee into the man’s leg, then forced the man’s second leg to the ground and held it there with his weight pressed down into his own two feet.
Well, fuck. Who’d have guessed? The man only had two legs after all.
Finally, with the attacker’s lower half under his control it was easy to stop the last of his wiggling and punching. The man was almost flat to the ground now and his free arm, his only free limb, couldn’t do any damage to Jarrah anymore. Once again Jarrah used his superior length to press his chest down over the man’s shoulders, forcing his attacker’s face into the grass.
“What the fuck did you think you were doing?” asked Jarrah.
“You might have stopped me, but the rest of my pack will have succeeded. We’ll have our women by now. They’ll be halfway home already and there’s nothing you can do about it.”
Unless they had a private plane standing by, the man had just given away some vital information. He came from a pack not too far away from here. Jarrah determined to tell the security people as soon as they arrived. Which reminded him, where was the fucking cavalry? Cautiously Jarrah twisted his head around.
The maintenance man was sitting up now, holding his head and looking ill. Sloan was maybe twenty feet away, but he must have returned to the shed because he had a coil of rope over one shoulder and a bag in his other hand. Awesome!
“Tie his feet before I climb off him,” Jarrah called out.
Sloan nodded and efficiently tied rope around the captive’s feet, then stood back as Jarrah kneeled up, keeping his hands on the man’s wrists. Sloan’s second length of rope secured the attacker’s wrists, and a third length wrapped around his waist and his arms, completely disabled him.
Jarrah pushed him to the ground, face first, and said “Wait here.”
By the time Sloan had helped Keir to tie up his captive a couple of security guards had arrived on a golf cart.
“What the fuck is going on? Who are these people?” asked Jarrah.
“Are the women safe?” added Sloan and Jarrah blushed. Fuck yes. That should have been his first question, too. What if something had happened to Jill?
“All the women are being escorted to the ballroom. Likely they’re there already. Now let’s get these gentlemen locked up nice and cozy in a cell and you can join your friends in the ballroom.”
Jarrah helped Sloan haul the maintenance man to his feet and sit him in the golf cart. “A paramedic will check you over,” said one of the security guards gently.
“Hell of a headache,” mumbled the maintenance man.
He did look very pale, but his eyes seemed okay and Jarrah thought maybe he didn’t have a concussion or a cracked skull.
The golf cart moved at a steady pace back to the main building, but Jarrah didn’t mind hurrying. Actually, he wanted to hurry. He needed to see Jill, to hold her hand, to reassure himself that she was safe and well. Which didn’t mean he wouldn’t have liked a few answers from these two men, but he knew better than to question them himself. He didn’t want to do anything that a lawyer could say prevented them from being tried or “perverted the cause of justice” or whatever it was they said on the movies. Although what could the attackers be charged with? They hadn’t broken in. They hadn’t stolen anything. It wasn’t even attempted abduction because there was no one there for them to abduct. Nope, they’d be free and clear with a finger wagged at them is all.
When he, Sloan, and Keir reached the main building, one of the security guards noted their registration numbers down, but Jarrah was beginning to think nothing would come of it. These men had done nothing much wrong—well, nothing that could be proved anyway—so it wasn’t like there’d ever be a court case or anything.
There were a few men waiting to be scanned into the ballroom, but no women anywhere. “I guess the women are already inside,” he said to Keir.
“Everyone seems to be very cool and calm, so I suppose it was stopped in time. Although that attacker did say other men from his pack were here. But if they’d been successful, I think we’d be able to tell,” replied Keir.
As soon as they were allowed inside the ballroom, Jarrah started looking for Jill. And there she was, sitting at one of the big round tables from the dinner last night with a group of women, talking, drinking coffee, and eating pastries.
Every part of him wanted to race across to her, pull her into his arms, and kiss her senseless, but he was sure she wouldn’t appreciate that. He noticed Keir inching closer to her though and stayed by Keir’s side. Sloan was standing against the wall where he could watch Jill. It seemed like a good idea to Jarrah so he joined the other man.
Two of the event organizers explained that security were checking the property to ensure there were no more uninvited guests around, and that soon there’d be extra sports and games organized out on the grass in front of the building. Jarrah wasn’t interested. He needed to touch Jill to reassure himself she was perfectly all right.
Up until now the women had always been checked in and out of buildings and events first, even if they arrived with a group including men. But this time the men were all released first, and Jarrah and Sloan stood beside Keir and a lot of other men, all waiting for their woman to be scanned out of the ballroom. As soon as Jill appeared, he and Keir drew her to their side, Sloan right there with them.
Keir said, “Are you okay? Do you need anything?”
“I’m fine and the only thing I need is the three hours of sleep I’ve missed. I’m going back to bed. But thanks for your concern.”
“We’ll walk you back to your cabin,” said Sloan, as Jarrah turned her gently toward the path to the cabins.
“What time can we meet you for lunch?” asked Keir, when they reached her cabin.
“Four hours after I go to bed. Goodnight.”
Jarrah stood and watched her enter her cabin, then turned to the others and laughed. “Our mate is not a morning person.”
“Apparently not. But she did say thank you, so it’s all good. Besides, four hours gives me plenty of time to plan the right scene. Our first as a foursome. But in our cabin, nowhere else. I couldn’t bear to place her in any danger.
“Fuck no,” said Sloan.
“And tonight we get her to say yes to us. To all of us,” clarified Keir.
Jarrah just stared at Keir. “I like the idea, but I don’t know how you’re going to make it happen. You must have noticed that as well as not being a morning person, she’s also a tad determined.”
“For every lock, there’s a key. Tonight’s scene will be the key to unlock our perfect mate.”
Keir sounded confident. Jarrah just hoped he was also right. He looked over at Sloan who also appeared somewhat doubtful.
* * * *
Harry Harrison, head of security for the DADISP, had been ready to rip someone a new asshole for failing in their job. But everyone had been where they were supposed to be and no one had been negligent.
“So how the fucking hell did they breach the fence line?” he asked, aware he sounded even grumpier than normal. He paced the grass where his people were gathered. The police had taken away the six intruders, and the Alpha had sent fifty more men who were currently practically shoulder to shoulder guarding the perimeter.
“We’ll know when Jayden and Tegan finish watching the security footage from the CCTVs,” said Bianca.
Harry didn’t want to scream at her. She’d done her very best to ensure the DADISP was a success. And he trusted his mates to watch that footage until they’d gleaned every possible clue from it, but it didn’t stop him being angry.
“One of the men at the maintenance shed said his pack wasn’t far away,” one of the security guards reminded him.
“That’s right. What did Jarrah say he said? Something about them being halfway home already? That means their pack must be close by.”
“I’ll get Josie checking that. She knows all the packs, and we took photographs of all the men we captured,” said Bianca.
Harry grumbled and stomped, but realistically there was nothing else they could do until they had some leads to follow from the security cameras. Always assuming the fucking cameras gave them some fucking leads.
“Okay, you can all go back to your regular shifts. I want to see that footage myself.”
Harry hurried right down the very back of the property to the cabin Josie Smith had insisted on taking, even though the women were supposed to be in the cabins close to the main building. Josie was watching the footage along with Jayden and Tegan, all of them intent on the TV monitor. Silently Harry stood behind them. The background was dark although there was just enough light to see the images on the screen. Which were of nothing, just the fence and the hedge, and occasionally a security guard on patrol. He timed the patrols and they were all accurate to the schedule he’d set, which was a complicated one. He didn’t believe in a patrol every fifteen minutes or anything predictable. His schedule had foot and werewolf runners, leaving at different times, and sometimes overtaking each other, but the fence was never unpatrolled in any one place for more than fifteen minutes.
And right in one of those gaps a group of men wearing dark clothing raced to the fence and used each other’s help to climb over. One man stayed on the outside.
Josie froze the camera on that man, then started altering the contrast, the depth, enlarging the picture, gradually making it brighter, sharper, bigger, until the man’s face was as good an image as they would be able to get.
“I’ve met him. He’s not from my pack, but I’ve met him,” said Josie.
She got off her chair and began pacing the cabin. It wasn’t a very big area and pacing didn’t work very well, especially with the four of them already in it. But Harry knew how she felt. He liked to pace when he was thinking as well.
He pulled out his cell phone. “Let me get one person from each of the packs here and we’ll see if he’s from any of these packs. At the very least it’ll mean we’ve eliminated a whole lot of packs. Most of the nearby packs are represented here, I think, so there’s a very good chance we’ll nail him,” said Harry.
“No. We don’t want every wolf in Ohio knowing who it is. Some of them could be his friends,” said Josie glaring at him.
“But we need to know who he is. That’s more important than secrecy. He’s still on the outside, remember. He could be launching a second attack right about now,” argued Harry, feeling his face start to flame and the anger rise in him again.
Besides, he was a bear not a wolf. No wolf wo
uld ever argue with Josie but as a bear he could, despite the fact he got a lot of his work from the Alpha. And he was the security expert, not her.
“I’ve met him. I know I’ve met him. His name will come to me. Shut up and let me think.”
There was total silence in the cabin for maybe five minutes, then the door opened again and Zedekiah walked in. Josie took one look at him and said, “Get out. You are never to come in here, ever.”
“I want to look at the tapes. If there are people to identify, I may be able to do it.”
Harry had never seen such fury on Josie’s face before. Usually she was the one person who never raised her voice no matter what shit was hitting the fan. She’d gotten it bad for the Alpha’s son, that was for sure.
“It’s not one of your friends from Europe. It’s a local man. And I know I’ve seen him somewhere,” said Josie.
“How do you know he’s local?”
“One of the men we captured made the mistake of telling a wolf that his pack wasn’t far away,” said Harry.
“That doesn’t mean anything. He might have just meant they were standing by with a bus to drive the women they captured to the nearest airport,” scoffed Zedekiah.
“You don’t know what you’re talking about. This discussion is none of your business. Now get out of my cabin right now.” Josie’s voice was colder than ice now. Harry blinked at the change in her from fiery heat a moment ago to bone-chilling cold now.
He watched Zedekiah’s lips thin, his eyes narrow, and his nostrils flare. Then the man left the cabin. Even Harry felt that all the air in the room left with him and he had to force himself to open his mouth and take a breath.
Josie pulled out her cell phone and hit the speed dial. Harry had to strain to hear what she whispered into it. “The man in the footage is Cinnabar Rudd. He used to be in Jasper’s pack. Likely you remember Jasper told him to leave after Cinnabar caused a lot of trouble there. I know we kept records as to where he went and that will be the pack which did this.”