by Khloe Wren
“There’s a baseball cap under the seat if you want. Trust me, the knots you’ll get otherwise are not worth the effort.”
Heeding Tilly’s advice, she twisted her hair and tucked it into the cap she pulled from under the seat. The trip back into town didn’t take too long, although, thanks to the wind on her face, she felt calm and ready to do what she had to do to save Rogue—and hopefully Tim—from the consequences of his stupid choices.
She guided Tilly toward her and Tim’s house, and they parked a few houses away so they could sneak up to the house.
“I’m guessing garage over the laundry. So we’ll start there. You ready, Tilly?”
“As I’ll ever be.”
Cammi looked over at Tilly. She could see they were going to be good friends in the future. She really liked Tilly. Cammi felt a pang of sympathy for the woman. Having to confront an ex, when there was so much separating them, would not be fun in the least. With a deep breath, Cammi nodded and jogged around the side of the garage to the door. Feeling like an extra on CSI she plastered herself against the wall and slowly moved her head, so she could glance through the glass panel in the door. As she suspected, Rogue lay in a cage on the floor. The rest of the garage looked empty of life, so she slid her key into the lock and eased the door open. Rogue lifted his head in alarm and whimpered quietly as they entered. Cammi raised a finger to her lips, hopefully conveying the need for silence. Cammi made a beeline for the cage with Tilly half a step behind her. Rogue backed up in the cage allowing her room to swing the trapdoor in. He timidly crawled out as though he didn’t believe what was happening. Cammi slid the cage shut and scooped up the kitten, not wanting to get caught in the house she turned to go back out the door. As she rose to her feet Tilly gasped.
Oh shit. Busted.
“What a lovely surprise. My two favorite girls. What the hell do you think you’re doing?”
Chapter Six
With a groan, Cammi returned to consciousness. Her mind was foggy as she tried to remember what happened. She looked around the darkened room. There was a child’s bed and a double-door wardrobe. The space contained no other furniture, aside from the kitchen chair she was tied to. She tugged her arms but the rope burned her wrists and didn’t show any signs of loosening.
“So help me, Tim, if you don’t cut the bullshit and untie me, you’re going to regret it.”
Tilly’s voice was muffled through the door and went silent after Cammi heard a door slam. Tim. Dammit. He’d taken Rogue and held a knife to the poor cub’s throat until she and Tilly had climbed into his car. He’d then returned Rogue to the small cage before he used those damn pressure points he loved so much to knock her out. She could only assume he’d given Tilly the same treatment. But why? Tim had been like a big brother to her … she’d never have thought him capable of hurting her. Until now.
Cammi’s breath froze in her lungs and her heart pounded in her ears as the door to the room slowly opened.
“Hey Cammi-doll, how you feeling?”
She glared at him, “How do you think I’m feeling? You bloody knocked me out, then tied me to a fucking chair!”
He cocked an eyebrow at her yelled curse, but didn’t say anything as he moved into the room, closing the door behind him. He placed a tray containing a couple of sandwiches and a glass of orange juice on the bed.
“You trust me, right, Cammi-doll? I mean, I’ve never hurt you in all the years you’ve known me.”
“You’ve never hurt me before, but you’ve never kidnapped me either.”
Worried Tim had lost his mind, Cammi kept her voice low and didn’t take her gaze from him.
“I love you like a sister, Cammi-doll. I’d never hurt you.”
“Then why did you take Rogue? Take me and Tilly?”
“Rogue?”
“The kitten you had caged, he’s Luca’s brother, Rogue.”
“Ah, okay. Well, when I saw the kitten down the beach I knew it wasn’t an ordinary house cat. Figured it had to be a shifter. I was hoping the jags would trade me you for it.”
“Now you have me, what did you do with him?”
Tim shrugged his shoulders. “He’s back in the cage in the garage. He’ll be fine.”
Cammi’s stomach dropped, Rogue wouldn’t be okay. He couldn’t shift in that small cage. If he got upset and changed to human he’d seriously injure himself. Maybe even die.
“He’s not safe in that cage, Tim. If he flashes to human he could be really hurt.”
“I’m sure he’s fine, Cammi-doll. The jags will come looking when they realize you and Tilly are gone. Where’s the first place they’re going to check?”
“Your place.”
“There you go. He’s probably been found already. I didn’t realize you cared for the young cat so much. I would have released him to roam if I’d known. I really don’t want to cause you harm.”
Cammi frowned at Tim. He was being overly nice, but had a serious glint in his eyes.
“What are you up to Tim?”
“I’m trying to save you, Cammi.”
“I don’t need saving, Tim. Nate and Luca are my mates. I want to be with them. This is my choice. My life to lead.”
He moved to the tray and picked up the juice before returning to her.
“Here, have a drink. You’ve been here a while now and you need to keep your fluids up.”
He held the glass to her lips and she automatically opened her mouth to drink the cold liquid. He kept tilting the glass until she’d drunk the entire thing.
“That’s a good girl. Feel like a sandwich?”
“I feel like going home, Tim. Let me go, please. This isn’t going to end well if you keep me and Tilly locked up. You’ve already been attacked once, what do you think they’ll do this time? I don’t want you hurt, Tim.”
Tim looked at her with sadness and resignation in his gaze. “If it means you and she are free of them, it’s worth the sacrifice.”
He turned and left the room before Cammi could respond. What the hell was Tim playing at? She went over what he’d said to her. Fuck, he truly thinks we’ve been brainwashed. Her mind began to slow and feel sluggish, her thoughts not processing quite right. Rubbing her tongue over the roof of her mouth she caught a strange taste. One not normally associated with orange juice. Dammit! The bastard drugged me!
As the drug took affect she felt her muscles loosen. Her head fell forward on her neck, stopping only when her chin rested against her chest, the room began to spin so she closed her eyes on a groan. The door opened, creaking, and the sound echoed around her skull bringing another moan from her throat. More clattering sounded and she opened her eyes and looked up through her lashes to see a blurry Tim putting the tray of food on the floor before moving toward her.
“Whz you dun…”
She licked her lips and swallowed against her thick tongue before trying to speak again. Unfortunately it didn’t help. Her words were slurred and odd sounding.
“Shh, Cammi-doll. I’m saving you. Undoing what they did.”
She felt her eyes sting moments before tears slid down her cheeks and dropped onto her shirt. She didn’t want to forget Nate and Luca. They made her whole. A sob broke free as she fought the drug in her system to no avail. Tim moved behind her and cut the bindings on her wrists. A moment of joy burst through her as she tried to move, to run for the door, but it was short lived as she realized whatever he’d given her made her entire body numb and unresponsive.
She had no way to fight as Tim scooped her up and she lay limp like a rag doll in his arms. More tears burned down her face as fear, frustration, and panic filled her fuzzy mind. He laid her out on the bed, arranging her to be comfortable and brushing his fingers over her face, tucking hair behind her ear and wiping her tears.
“It’ll be okay, Cammi-doll. This will only last for a little bit. I’ll always look after you, you know that. I’ll always be here for you. Take care of you. I’ll never hurt you. I’m not violent like the jags. You
don’t have to worry that one day I’ll turn on you. You’ve seen the damage a jaguar can do to a person. You’ll never know for certain that they won’t turn on you one day. But that’s okay. You’re with me, now. I’ll be your big brother. Keep you safe.”
Tim’s words continued on and on. The more he said the more Cammi’s heart broke. After hour upon hour of Tim’s litany, his words began to penetrate into her soul and forced her to see her men in a different light. How could she be sure she’d be safe with them? Would they turn on her? And even if her men didn’t, what about the others? More tears trekked down her cheeks as she slipped into a restless sleep.
****
Luca flashed to his jaguar and roared loud into the night. She was gone! Cammi and Tilly had taken off while he was in with the men. How could she leave him and Nate like that? Only hours after completing the mating. It cut into his soul.
“You three calm the hell down and think about it. Both the girls know Tim, care for him to some degree. They’re not stupid. They know you three will tear him apart for taking Rogue. I dare say, they think they can talk him down and get Rogue out of there.”
Luca absorbed his father’s words as he observed both Nate and Jace pacing in jaguar form, too. His father was right. Cammi taking off wasn’t her abandoning him and Nate, but trying to save Rogue … and Tim. Not that the bastard deserved saving. Nate manned up earlier when they received the news. Staying calm and helping him to see what was important. Now it was his turn to step up. Forcing his mind to slow down, he flashed back to human form.
“Okay. If they took off soon after we started planning, they’ve been gone for about two hours. More than enough time for them to be back here with Rogue.”
His father’s face looked grim. “Yes, I suspect things didn’t go according to their plan. We can’t head into town with you boys in jaguar form. Get your act together so we can go save them all.”
Luca turned on the other two as they paced in jaguar form for a while longer.
“Nate, think it over. She didn’t run from us. She’s trying to save Rogue. Focus on that.”
Within a couple of minutes both Nate and Jace were back to human. They all gathered close to his father as he begun to speak.
“Okay, plan stays the same. Let’s get to Tim’s place. Jace and I will go in through the garage, and Luca and Nate through the back door of the house.”
Luca took the driver’s seat as the others piled into the car. The second the last door shut, he shot off down the driveway and made a beeline for his mate. As he drove up to Tim’s house he saw Tilly’s parked Vitara a few houses down. His gut tightened as a shiver went down his spine.
“I’ve got one hell of a bad feeling about all of this.”
The rest grunted their agreement as he pulled in behind Tilly’s car.
The four of them moved to the property quietly and split up to enter the house as they’d agreed. With his heart pounding and his fingers twitching with the need to shift, Luca used his supernatural strength to turn the knob until the lock broke and the door opened. With Nate on his heels, they moved through the house. Every room was empty with no sign of any struggle or fight. They entered the garage to find his father and Jace kneeling beside Rogue. He was flashing back and forth and whining low. Poor cub was in agony. At his age it wasn’t easy to control his shifts and being locked in such a small cage, he’d been forced to stay in jaguar form for hours. His body was rebelling.
“Dad, the house is clear. There’s no one here.”
His father nodded without removing his gaze from Rogue.
Luca took out his phone and rung his mother, a nurse at the hospital. “Hey Mom, we’ve got Rogue and he’s not good. Can you come over right now? He can’t hold either form.”
“Where are you? At the place Cammi’s been sharing with Tim?”
“Yeah. Dad’s told you what’s going on?”
“He sent me a text half an hour ago explaining what’d happened so far. I’ll be there in ten.”
He locked his phone’s screen and pocketed it.
“Dad, Mom’ll be here in ten minutes.”
He nodded but didn’t say anything.
Jace rose to his feet and paced the garage.
“Do you know where he’d go? C’mon, Jace, you had to have looked into him.”
Nate’s question brought Jace’s attention to him.
“I’m trying to remember. I reckon he had another place. It was new, on the outskirts of town. Tilly told me he’d been building it for them, for after they got married. You think he’d still have it? It’s been five years.”
“He’d still have it. He’s still hung up on Tilly enough to kidnap her. He’d have kept the house he built for her. You remember where it is?”
Luca was trying to not focus on his baby brother still convulsing on the floor in front of his father. His heart ached at the pain his family was suffering, but the panic over what Cammi was going through was foremost in his mind.
“Give me the keys Luca, I’ll get us there.”
“You three will have to go without me. I’m not leaving Rogue.”
Luca went to his Dad and squeezed his shoulder. “Mom will be here any minute now. He’ll be fine. He’s tough for a cub.”
The tears in his father’s eyes tore at him, but he had to go. He followed Nate and Jace out of the garage blinking back his own tears. Rogue might annoy the hell out of him most days, but he was his baby brother and Luca loved him. Tim would pay.
His mother was pulling in as they reached the roadway.
“Dad’s in the garage. We have to go get the girls.”
“Stay safe boys, and bring my new daughter back, along with Tilly. You bring them both back together, with all three of you. You hear?”
“Yes ma’am.”
Luca couldn’t help but give a small smile as all three of them responded at once. He tossed the keys to Jace and hopped in the back seat.
“Let’s do this and get our mates.”
****
Nate stretched his neck and rolled his shoulders. He was fuming that Cammi and Tilly had been taken somewhere. He glanced at the dashboard. Midnight.
“He’s had the girls what? Six hours now.”
“Yeah, something like that. C’mon Jace, get that memory kicking in. There can’t be much of Ceduna we haven’t searched.”
“I know, man. I’m sorry it’s taking so long. I was sure I’d remember how to get there.”
Suddenly the car slowed as Jace peered out the windshield. “Fuck, yeah, now this I remember. It’s down this dirt track. I’m sure of it. About half mile down on the left.”
Nate’s palms were sweaty and his breathing picked up as Jace turned down the road. “Okay, this place has two doors. Front and back. How do you want to go in?”
“We don’t know what he’s got in there, I’d say we stick together.”
“Not sure I agree, Luca,” Jace said. “He’ll be expecting either me, or you two. Not all three. He thinks we’re nothing more than savage animals. I reckon you two come in the back and I’ll go in the front.”
Jace pulled the car off the side of the track near a driveway.
Nate could see the glint of house lights through the trees.
“Just hold up a minute. I’m texting the address to Dad. We’re going to need the police for this, and maybe an ambulance.”
“Fuck the police. Tim is mine.”
“Jace, don’t be stupid, man. I want a piece of him, too, but all that will do is tear you and Tilly apart. Let the police deal with him. He’s kidnapped two women and will be talking crazy about shifters. He’ll get locked up and be out of all our hair. And our precious women will still be talking to us.”
Jace released a frustrated sigh. “Okay, Luca, point taken. C’mon, let’s get this done.”
Nate left the car and flashed before he bound off toward the back of the house in his jaguar form. He landed lightly on the back porch as Luca prowled up the stairs, still in human form. He ope
ned the door and they both silently crept through into the laundry. Nate’s heart pounded and a shiver ran down his spine. Cammi was close, he could sense her. Although, he couldn’t reach her. In his jaguar form he should be able to push his thoughts into her mind. The kitchen was clear, and the lounge room. They met up with Jace in the front room. He was twitching but still in human form. He tilted his head toward the hallway and presumably, the bedrooms. Nate felt his blood heat with rage. If Tim had touched his mate, he was a dead man. He didn’t give a fuck about Luca’s theory of letting the police at him.
The first closed door they approached, Jace reached for the handle as Nate lowered, ready to pounce on anything inside. Jace pushed the door wide to reveal Tilly bound to a chair.
Jace ran to her as Luca searched the room. Nate turned to watch down the hallway. Within moments Luca was back at his side, and Jace sat on the bed with a sobbing Tilly in his arms. He caught Luca’s gaze and, with a nod, they silently moved down the hall to take position at the next door. Sirens suddenly filled the air as the police and ambulance vehicles Luca’s father had called came closer. Before Luca could open the door, it swung in to reveal Tim. With a growl, Nate pounced on him, throwing the man onto his back with Nate’s front paws on his chest and his teeth bared.
“Nate! Get off him and flash back. The cops will be here in a sec and you need to be human.”
With another growl he leapt from Tim and flashed to human, dressing himself in shorts at the same time. Luca pulled Tim from the floor and pushed him against the wall with his arm pinned behind his back.
“Be very grateful we’re not the animals you accuse us of being, Tim, or you’d be a dead man for touching our mate.”
Nate scanned the room. A chair with rope beneath it had him seething. He continued to look around until he found Cammi lying limply on the bed, her eyes open and glazed over.
“Oh fuck. Sugar, what’d he do to you?”
He dropped to his knees beside the bed and stroked her cheek. She flinched away from his touch as fresh tears fell from her eyes. Nate’s hand dropped away from her face as his heart cracked.