by Eliza Gayle
Dean slammed his hand down on the wooden bar. "Then what the hell are we doing here? You should have gone after her. Have you never heard of a damned cell phone? You could have called me and saved us both a shitload of time."
Bhric narrowed his eyes. "I'm just going to ignore your stupid comments from here on out or we're not going to get anywhere."
"Yes, we are." Dean began stripping his clothes. He knew exactly where they were going and how they were getting there.
Bhric grabbed his arm and brought him up short. "I already know where she is and how to get to her. But before you go off half-cocked an—"
"Fuck you. I'm not going to stand here and talk about this. I'm going to go and get—"
"Shut the hell up for two goddamned seconds and let me finish." Bhric's voice boomed through the bar and rattled the windows. "There's something you need to know before we go in there. There's more at stake than just her life."
"No, there isn't. What the hell has gotten into you? Are you so lost you think there's something more important than a mate? What is it? Your stupid clubhouse? Some fuck-all treaty that keeps your ass in line? Or do you just not care about anyone else but yourself anymore?"
His brother glared at him and every ounce of anger and resentment that flowed between them slammed into him. Dean could tell the man was about to explode and it wasn't going to be pretty, but he didn't care. His mate was in trouble and the thought of someone hurting her, or worse, shredded him from the inside out. "Just say it and get it over with. Whatever bullshit you need to say to me to get us out the door, just do it. For Goddess sake, we have to help her."
Bhric gritted his teeth. "It's not just her. You go running out this door without a plan and you'll get them both killed."
"Both? Both who?"
"She's pregnant."
Dean stared at Bhric as if he'd grown two heads. Had he said 'pregnant'? As in baby? Or cub? Blood drained from his head and traveled as far south as it could. Holy fucking shit. "No way," he said.
"Obviously there was a way, dumb ass. You know insert your—"
"Do not finish that sentence or I will rip your throat out."
Bhric smiled. "Guess you remember after all."
Oh hell yeah, he remembered. In vivid Technicolor on a nightly basis. Every time he closed his goddamn eyes he relived it.
And now she'd gone to Bhric and history was repeating itself...
4
Niki strained against the leather straps wrapped around her wrists and gave them another hard yank. She had no idea how long she'd been lying here tied up and alone, but it had been too long. Even one second in captivity was too much as far as she was concerned. She turned her head and surveyed the shithole they'd stuck her in. The makeshift bed they'd strapped her to was nothing more than a stainless steel table with a thin foam mattress that stunk like piss and stale beer. During her struggle to work her way free, she'd felt something wet touch her cheek and she'd been too afraid to look. The choices of what it could be sucked, and confirming a single one of them wouldn't help her roiling stomach.
There wasn't much info in her memory about how she'd been taken other than someone grabbing her from behind and a wet cloth covering her mouth. Fuckers had chloroformed her. Then she'd woken here. Since then, not much of anything. The one jerk who kept her company refused to answer any of her questions, and the man and women who'd come to inspect her said even less. Not that it had taken words to make it perfectly clear what they were after. They'd poked and prodded her, took blood and put a stethoscope to her stomach. The instant the cold metal hit her flesh she went insane. Niki bucked and fought, the cougar fought for control but no matter how much she willed it, her body never shifted. "Sons of bitches," she said, screeching. "You fucking drugged me. Are you crazy?"
After that, when they couldn't settle her down, the weird soundless duo gave up and left the room. Unfortunately, the full force of her rage didn't die down quite so easily. She'd fought for hours until her body gave up. With some time to calm, her brain worked feverishly for a solution. No cavalry would come to save her. She was alone as usual. And until recently she'd preferred things that way.
Because now she had more than herself to think about. A faint pulse of fear worked its way through her mind and Niki snarled. She didn't do afraid and if this is what being pregnant did to a woman, she didn't like it.
The asshole who'd been keeping watch over her snarled right back. "Let it go, bitch. No amount of supernatural strength is going to break those. You're not doing your baby any favors by hurting yourself, you dumb shit."
A red haze of anger filled Niki's vision as the desire to taste this guy's blood grew palpable. His heart beat strong and the pulse in his neck made an easy target. If she could figure out how to get loose. A few strips of animal hide shouldn't have been enough to hold her down. Never mind the chains attached between her wrists and the sides of the bed. Jesus, hell. Strapped down nearly spread eagle on a cheap metal bed in some dump of a warehouse was not how she'd planned to spend her week.
She'd needed a quiet, neutral place to think about how to handle her baby's father, not plot murder. Her mind flooded with memories from her one mistaken night with Dean. She squeezed her eyes tight and tried to will them away. This couldn't happen. The last thing she needed to think about was him. The way he looked at her. Or the way he'd touched her. There'd been something about him that made her ooey and gooey... Until he'd uttered the one word she never, ever, ever wanted to hear from anyone.
Mate.
Stupid son of a bitch. He had to have sensed who she was or what she was. Hadn't anyone told him what cold, heartless bitches her kind were? Getting one of them to settle down long enough to actually end up in a mating relationship would be about as much fun as confining a rabid squirrel.
Niki closed her eyes and took a deep breath. She'd been in tight spots before and she just needed to focus on her predicament and find a way out of this mess. With little knowledge of the facility or even the exact location, she remained at a distinct disadvantage. But eventually they'd have to untie her. In fact...
"I need to go to the bathroom," she said.
"Not my problem."
"C'mon, this is serious." She wiggled her legs and hips to emphasize how badly she needed to go.
The guard watching her moved closer, but stayed well out of reach. "Look, bitch. I don't give one shit about what you need. My job is to make sure you don't move and that's all I'm going to do."
Niki assessed the man glaring down at her. Six feet, probably at least two hundred pounds. Every inch of him from head to toe covered in grime, and a rat's nest of a beard that fell halfway to his chest. The man who'd accompanied the woman to examine her had looked similar to her guard. Unfortunately, the region had more than its fair share of rugged, unclean mountain men, so alone it wasn't enough to tell her where she'd been taken.
She inhaled deeply and sorted through the scents radiating from her captor. The grime and foul body odor hid a lot from other people, but she wasn't other people. The drugs they'd given her were slowly wearing off and many of her extreme senses had returned. Past the sweat, the fried catfish he'd probably eaten for lunch, the tobacco he obviously chain-smoked and the strong scent of pine, there was something else. Something burnt. She wracked her memory for the information she needed. There wasn't an inch of the Blue Ridge Mountains she hadn't crossed, including the entire states of North Carolina and Tennessee.
She sniffed again. Strong Pine. Catfish. Something burnt... It was so damned close.
Somewhere in the process of working through the puzzle, her eyes had slid shut and she'd lost track of the man next to her until the rustle of paper jerked her free of her thoughts.
Oh my God. Paper. Burnt paper. A paper plant.
Her head jerked to the side and she spotted him writing something in a chart near the door. A wolf shifter who smelled like burnt timber and fresh catfish. They were near Counce, Tennessee, which meant this asshole had to belon
g to the Pickwick pack. Fucking great. Strung out supernatural rednecks known as much for using the pot they grew and the meth they cooked as they were for selling it.
How the hell had they found her? And why? Combined she wasn't sure they had enough brain cells left to even figure out how to get to Dark Moon let alone capture her and take her over three hundred miles away. For a hybrid baby they wouldn't give a shit about?
Goddess, none of this made any sense and she was starting to get a headache.
"I really have to go to the bathroom," she said. "Do you have any idea how often a pregnant woman has to pee? If you plan to keep me captive, the least you can do is untie me long enough to take care of business."
The guard snorted. "Do I look stupid? If you think I'm letting you walk anywhere untied, you're out of your mind."
He did look stupid. Backwoods ignorant who thought wearing steel toed boots and carrying a gun somehow made him smarter. Not that she'd say that out loud. "Do whatever you have to. Just let me go to the bathroom." Her final cry seemed to get through. His gaze shifted between her and the door several times as if he contemplated granting her wish. Niki forced tears that embarrassingly hovered close to the surface anyway. Her emotions had been all over the place for a while now and this wasn't helping.
"Jesus Christ." The guard grabbed a handful of white zip-ties from the shelf overhead and stalked toward her. "I suggest you don't test me. Pregnant or not, if you try anything I will knock you the fuck out. Got it?"
Niki nodded her head. Bingo.
She'd behave for now. Instead she focused on her kidnapper's face, imprinting every line and facial feature to memory. Either now or sometime in the future, she'd be the one doing the hunting and she wanted to make sure she remembered every detail before she slit his throat. He released one wrist and rolled her to the side, keeping an unbending grip while he moved her. There was no doubt he outmatched her in ordinary strength, but often it was the element of surprise that gave her the upper hand.
He secured both hands behind her back with the zip-ties and pulled the gun from his waistband before releasing her feet. Niki winced when the ache of stiff muscles protested the sudden movements. My God how long had she been on this table?
"No funny business. I'd hate to have to put a hole where one don't belong." He raised the gun and pointed it toward her head.
Niki clamped her mouth shut to keep the string of vitriol she had in mind for him while shooting him a dirty look. He may have manhandled her off the table but at least she'd been moved. It was much easier to gauge her surroundings while upright. Unfortunately, there wasn't much more too see. Concrete floor, metal walls and one table of medical equipment to her left. She got the sense this kidnapping had not been thought out. If they somehow wanted to take her baby, they would have to keep her locked up for a long time and strapped to a table with no provisions for long term care appeared shortsighted.
Two steps later and the room began to spin a little, the remnants of whatever they drugged her with. As far as she could tell with he-wolf dragging her along, there was only one way out and one way in—the door in front of her.
He marched her from the room into a narrow hallway with another partially ajar door directly across from them. There was literally nothing else to see with more white walls and a corridor void of even a picture hanging on the wall. The only thing she heard were the faint strains of a popular country music song about love lost and the open road echoing through what sounded like a cavernous building.
"Bathroom's in there." He shoved her toward the door and she stumbled, pushing the door the rest of the way open with her head. When she thought she'd crash to the floor, his hard hand grabbed her arm and hauled her back to her feet.
"It's going to be a little difficult to do this without hands."
"Nice try, bitch. But tough luck for you cause I'm not freeing you anymore."
"Then how am I supposed to—"
The guard lunged forward, grabbed her pants and yanked them down.
"What the hell?" she said, now standing in the bathroom door with her pants resting around her ankles.
"Get over it already. If you're pregnant this should be nothing new. You've obviously already been spreading your legs for men so what's one more time."
"You're a pig," she said.
He grabbed a handful of her long blonde hair and pulled her closer. "I've been called worse, but I think we both know it's not pig blood that runs through these veins. You ever had wolf before?" He licked her neck just below her ear and Niki fought to withhold a shiver.
"No and I thank God every day I've never had to stoop so low." She reared back and slammed her head into his face.
"Gaahhhh," he fell back a few steps and released her hair. "Bitch."
She took that moment to whirl around inside the bathroom door and kick it closed, engulfing the room with darkness. While momentarily effective at separating herself from her captor, her feet got tangled in her pants and she fell against the wall face first with her hands fastened behind her back. Pain exploded across the bridge of her nose to match the ache at the back of her head where she'd head butted the jerk holding her.
"Enjoy your five minutes in there. One second longer and I'll drag your ass out here and make you suck my dick to make up for this."
Like hell. "Get that nasty shit anywhere near me and I'll bite it off." Antagonizing a psycho wolf was probably the worst thing she could do at the moment, but common sense failed her at the moment. Slumped against the wall she couldn't believe this had happened to her. A few months ago she'd been at the top of her game. Her life had been simple. Sleep, eat and work. The only thing that had mattered was how well she did her job. Sure she'd had her moments of weakness when she'd get tired of being alone all the time, but one intense night of meaningless sex usually did the trick. Until she'd found the proverbial needle in a haystack.
When the first tear splashed to her cheek, Niki jerked at the sensation. For the love of God what the hell was wrong with her? Crying again? She was in hell and it wasn't just because she stood half naked in a dark bathroom unable to pull up her own pants. At least it smelled sort of clean in here. Bleach and other strong cleansers had a way of wreaking havoc on her senses.
Before Niki could regain her balance and push herself into a standing position, loud growls and hissing sounded from the other side of the door.
"What the hell?" Those were the last words she heard from her guard. Violent growls erupted outside the bathroom. Metal banged loudly. Panic rose inside her.
Nikki twisted her shoulder sideways and used it to push from the wall. She shuffled in the direction of the door and rubbed her face along the wall in search of a light switch. Even cat vision did nothing in the pit of black nothingness of this god-forsaken bathroom.
There were voices now coming from the hallway and she had a sinking feeling her guard's reinforcements had arrived. A loud pop exploded close to her ear. Who the hell was he shooting at?
The acrid scent of gunpowder filled her head and overpowered any other scents that might have given her a clue as to who fought in the hall. So far her search for a light had proven fruitless and her adrenalin spiked alternately hot and cold as she scrambled for another idea. She'd barely gotten a glimpse of the room before she'd slammed the door shut, but there'd been nothing for her to use as leverage to break these zip ties.
A loud yowl sounded and Niki froze. She knew what that sound was. She was no longer alone with a pack of wolves. She pressed her ear to the wall and listened for more. The sound of claws raking across metal screeched across her brain. Her senses revolted against the audio assault as bile rose in her throat. She couldn't take not knowing what happened so close to her.
A guttural scream sounded and the distinctive sound of tearing flesh met her ears. It wasn't difficult to surmise the damage being inflicted outside. Someone or something had just gutted her guard.
Good riddance.
As suddenly as the chaos began, it ended
. The fighting stopped and aside from some harsh breathing, she heard nothing.
"Niki. Where are you?"
She might not be able to smell him but she knew that voice. It had burned itself into her brain after one very long wild night that had resulted in the child she now carried. A lump formed in her throat. How was this possible? She'd done everything she could to evade from his search. Her tracks had been well covered. Yet...
Dean had come for her.
"In here," she whispered.
A sharp growl emanated from him as she imagined his head whipping around at the sound of her voice. He was going to save her and there wasn't a damn thing she could do about it.
The door wrenched open and Niki blinked at the flood of light coming through. "Jesus Christ. Babe, are you all right?"
She stared at him tongue tied and unable to respond. Her chest clenched as she got her first look at him in twelve long weeks and he was even better than she remembered. Broad shoulders filled the doorway as he towered over her. Never in her life had she felt so—so small in someone else's presence. But it was the heady gaze of his dark eyes latched onto hers that kept her locked in place. So much heat. So much anger. And fear?
"You are one hard woman to find."
"Uh huh." It was too hard to form a complete sentence. She'd never thought the day would come when she'd be happy to see him. Oh how wrong she'd been.
"Honey, why are you standing there with your pants down?" An almost smile touched his lips. Maybe in different circumstances they would have laughed.
She twisted to the side and lifted her hands.
"Shit." He pulled a knife from his boot and cut the ties from around her wrists. Her arms dropped and a thousand pins and needles pricked at her skin as the blood rushed back into her hands.