Authors: Olivia Arran
I couldn’t even begin to understand the mating bond, and didn’t know if I really wanted to. All the men here had recently found their mates. Except for Cole, and Gregg—who had lost his mate a long time ago. The ones who had
seemed
happy. They were definitely acting like smug sons of bitches, strutting around with a definite air of
just-been-fucked-and-it’s-better-than-winning-the-lottery
attitude. Now, I wouldn’t mind some of
that
, for sure.
“The drugs?”
“Middle shack.”
“With Bert?” James asked, double-checking.
I nodded. I didn’t waste words and everyone knew that, and were used to me by now. I didn’t see the point; it wasn’t like I had anything interesting to share anyway. At least, nothing that anyone wanted to hear about.
My life dealt in shadows and death. Not what the guys wanted to hear about when they were relaxing, just shooting the shit and stuff.
A low rumble of chatter had started up among the group, the voices rising as everyone tried to decide who was doing what.
I raised an eyebrow at James, waiting. “We need to go soon.” I hesitated, wondering whether to mention what I had just overheard. Was it really relevant to the mission?
“Go on,” Gregg, the wolf Councilmember and Amanda’s dad, prompted, his blue eyes piercing the dim light. It was Gregg who I really worked for. He
had recruited me away from the human organization I had grown up with and brought me back to the shifter world. He had recognized the ruthlessness inside of me and had put me to work for the Council, and had found me a place at James’ side, at the Colstone Pack.
“I overheard one of the women. She was talking to the guard and she mentioned something about tonight not being
her
night.”
“So we can assume that Bert, or one of the other men, might be on the move later? Is that your read?” Gregg asked, sighing heavily when I nodded. “We need to go now, James. While we know their positions.” He pulled a phone out his pocket and flicked it open. “I’ll call the other team, have them standing by at your order.”
James surveyed the group, and I could see his mind working over the problem. Who to send where and how to split the team. I could only hope he gave me a real challenge and gave me a chance at Bert. My fingers itched to take the bastard down.
“Macey, I want you to take Jason and Cole and go get the children. Oliver, you go get the women. Sean, you’ll stay with our mates, and make sure they’re protected at all times. Tarq will run the perimeter, make sure no one sneaks up on us. Gregg and I will go straight for Bert. Understood?” At the last word he drew himself up to his full height, his power licking out over the group, reminding us exactly who the Alpha was.
Nodding, Gregg moved away slightly, calling the second team we had in place ready to take over Sunclaw farther down the mountain.
Sean was shaking his head, a furious look on his face, while his mate, Lisa, scowled at James. “You really think he’s going to stay back here while you go after his dad?” she muttered, her hand stroking Sean’s arm in an attempt to soothe him.
This was a man who had a major problem with his wolf. He’d only just started to accept what he called
the beast.
I inwardly shook my head. James was playing with fire. If anyone should feel like he had a right to accompany James—it was Sean.
“That’s why I thought it might be best for Sean
not
to be the one to do this,” James explained, a pained expression on his face as he faced his Beta.
“He’s my dad, therefore my problem,” Sean growled, his eyes flashing liquid gold, his wolf peeking out.
“Back down, Sean. Control him.” James’ voice was low but carried the weight of his power. Then he sighed, the sound of someone feeling the heavy burden of leadership. “If you feel like you can handle it, then I don’t want to stand in your way. But”—he held out a hand—“we take him alive. He has to stand trial before the Council for his crimes. I want everyone in the shifter world to know what happens to those in charge who break the law. He can’t disappear quietly—his crimes have to be listed and put on trial.”
Sean’s eyes flashed back to brown, his jaw relaxing at James’ words. He slapped his friend and Alpha on the shoulder in acceptance.
Now, this was all great. Brotherly love and all that—but didn’t we have a mission to accomplish? I’d been feeling twitchy ever since I’d turned my back on the camp, and that uneasy feeling was only growing stronger.
“Didn’t think you’d get to party without me, did you?” a voice called out from above, surprising the shit out of me. And nothing surprised me.
“Luis!” Lisa called out, “What are you doing here?”
A lithe-limbed body dropped from the tree, landing on silent feet. Luis—Lisa’s twin brother. Grabbing her in a full body hug, he mock whispered, “I just missed you, sis. You know that!” Letting her go, he surveyed the group, his dark almond-shaped eyes dancing with amusement. Eyes coming back to rest on Sean, he murmured out of the corner of his mouth, “Your mate is looking
fine
as always, sis.”
Grinning, Sean punched him lightly on the shoulder before pulling him into a back-slapping hug. “Always good to have you here, Luis.”
“Agreed,” James added. “That solves the problem of who is going to look after the women—”
“What am I? Chopped liver?” Amanda piped up, a scowl on her perfect face.
If this mission had been limited to just the Alpha and his lieutenants, we would have been in there already, getting stuff done. But, no. We
had
to bring everyone along. Something I had protested and then been shut down. I hadn’t the slightest idea why they wouldn’t have been safe back at the packhouse. Seemed to me that the men had been stripped of their ability to say
no
to their mates, giving in to their every little demand.
I huffed, searching the clear night sky for patience. If it were me, I would have told my mate to stay home. And she would have done it.
“Amanda’s an Alpha, she can look after the women,” I snapped out, impatience finally getting the better of me.
“You always talk sense, Oliver,” Amanda replied, puckering up and blowing me a kiss.
Tarq growled, shooting me a dirty look—as if it were
my
fault—and pulled her to him, stealing the kiss from her lips in a display that left her gasping.
James cleared his throat, tendrils of his power demanding immediate attention. “This is the last time I’ll agree to change the plan. Anyone not happy after this, tough. Luis—you go with Oliver to rescue the women.”
Fine by me, so long as we actually got a move on. Like tonight, before the sun comes up. My fingers twitched as James finished issuing orders, and Sean, Tarq, and Cole stripped off to shift.
Why was everyone moving so slow? Like we had all the time in the world?
When the mated guys grabbed their women, each kissing them with a passion that made me want to close my eyes and stick my fingers in my ears, I finally lost it, stomping off to the edge of the clearing.
“Sucks, doesn’t it?” Cole said in a low voice from behind me. “I mean, I don’t begrudge them their happiness, but man, I don’t need to see it to know what I’m missing.”
“I just don’t need to see it period,” I ground out.
“You don’t want
that
?” His tone was full of disbelief.
“It’s not that I
don’t
want it. I just don’t care.”
“Man, that’s harsh. But that’s you. I mean, imagine if you
did
find your mate? You’d have to actually
talk
to her!” he chuckled, the sound loud in the silence of the forest.
I let him laugh, knowing he didn’t mean anything by it. He was only speaking the truth—what
would
I have to say to a mate? Years of training had short-circuited my ability to make small talk and created a mental block when it came to expressing things. Like feelings. I shuddered, visualizing how that would go if I ever had the chance. From what I had figured out by watching others, my ability to feel things was…impaired. Probably from the training too. Which was fine by me. It all looked too fucking complicated. My teeth grated together, and I tugged the band from my hair, scraping it back and retying it at my neck.
Finally, James gave the word and we moved out, predators stalking through the forest, each with prey in sight.
***
Oliver
In small groups, the team split off, circling around to their designated target.
An owl hooted deep in the forest, breaking the blanket of silence that had fallen. It was quiet—
too
quiet for my liking.
Signaling Luis, I broke away from the side of the large house, slipping up behind the guard and, in a movement so ingrained it was like riding a bike, snapped his neck.
Not a sound had escaped his lips, the takedown textbook-perfect. My old instructor would have been proud. Sliding him silently to the ground, I kept my eyes peeled, just in case I had missed another guard.
Luis crept up the steps, his eyebrows wriggling in a comical fashion as he eyed the incapacitated guard. “You don’t waste any time, bro. A bit handy aren’t we?” he whispered, before flicking his eyes to the door in silent question.
“I’ll go in first, you keep watch out here. I’ll signal you if it’s clear.”
Grateful that Luis just nodded before leaping up to crouch on the overhanging roof, I was about to shoulder down the door, but pulled up at the last second. I reached out a hand. I wonder if—? The handle gave easily, the door sliding open with a faint click.
Nope.
Not locked.
Inching the door a fraction wider, I eased into the room, taking a moment to let my eyes adjust to the soft glow from the lamp in the corner. I was standing in an old rustic-style kitchen, with scarred wood counters and a roughly tiled floor. Though shabby and worn, the room had a well-loved feel to it, not a crumb or speck of dirt in sight.
And those
were
flowers in the window, I noted, eying the artfully arranged bunch of wildflowers. Someone had tried their hardest to brighten up an otherwise dismal room.
Shaking my head, I moved away from the door, creeping through the room toward what looked to be the only exit and what must be the rest of the house.
A low scratching noise reached my ears, the sound accompanied by a melodic humming, husky and light.
Peering around the corner, my eyes nearly fell out of my head.
A woman was kneeling on the floor with her back to me, her ass high in the air, swaying in time as she hummed and scrubbed the floor. Clad in a pair of tight jeans with the pockets ripped off and threads hanging, her top inched up and down as she reached in a sweeping circular motion, revealing smooth, lickable-looking skin.
I blinked, my eyes riveted.
Fuck!
That ass! Generously heart-shaped and perfectly plump, it jiggled under the denim, begging to be touched.
“You can quit leering at me,” she called over her shoulder in a low voice, not pausing in her task. “You know Bert won’t like it. Remember the last time he caught you?”
Of course!
She was human. She couldn’t smell me and therefore thought I
was the guard.
Rage shot through me as what she had just said sunk in. That asshole had liked to leer at her? A defenseless woman?
It didn’t escape my attention that I’d been doing exactly the same thing. The difference was I wasn’t planning on doing anything about it.
Searching my head for the best way to approach her, I eventually gave up. I’d already accepted that I wasn’t any good at small talk so it was probably better to take the direct approach. Probably.
I took a step forward, wishing not for the first time that I had been sent to deal with Bert. Give me a fight to the death over dealing with a woman any day.
She paused, her spine stiffening.
I spread my hands in the universal sign of
I come in peace.
The last thing she needed to see when she turned around was my ugly mug, at least I could
try
and look non-threatening.
She glanced over her shoulder and it was as if it were happening in slow motion. A glimpse of brown eyes shielded by thick dark hair, the curve of a cheek, an intake of breath as her eyes widened in fear. Then she opened her mouth, sucking in a deep breath—
CHAPTER THREE
Ana
The prickling feeling at the back of my neck grew, intruding on the only solitude I got in this house. If Ted was going to push his luck again, I didn’t know what I was going to do. Bert was unreliable at best, and I dreaded the day he decided to hand me over to his men and removed his protection.
After all, I hadn’t gotten pregnant again since…
I squeezed my eyes shut against the tears that were always there, just under the surface. I wasn’t going there. Not now, not here. Maybe one day when I finally managed to escape. Then I could grieve.