Claiming His Fate (7 page)

I wanted Rebel back beside me. I didn’t know him, had only just met him, but I had the distinct impression he shouldn’t have left me alone. I felt it, a pressure in my chest, a sensation of something pushing against my heart. Something wasn’t right. He should be with me.

I was about to ask where Rebel had gone when a loud roar thundered through the air. Numbers turned toward the door and tilted his head, his focus on the ceiling. His movements were precise and quick, much more animal than man. They made me think of what Rebel had said. 

Wolves.

But that didn't make sense. Men who could change into wolves were the stuff of legend, of horror movies and myth. They weren’t real, and they especially weren’t hanging out in a strip club outside Milwaukee. 

When a sharp, short scream broke the silence, Numbers growled. 

“Stay here.” He gave me a glare then ran out the door. 

I sat on the edge of the bed, my legs shaking and my stomach churning. I wanted to leave. I didn’t know what was going on in the club, yet I wanted to get away from it. But Rebel had told me to stay put. He said he’d come back for me. 

Overhead, something crashed and people shouted, the noise making my decision for me. It was time to move. I swallowed hard and took a deep breath to clear my head. Looking around only intensified my desire to run. The room acted as a trap. If something popped off in the hallway, I'd have no way out. I needed to go, to find a way up the stairs and out of the building. My keys were in my purse, which was in the changing room. I only needed to make it up the stairs and down one hallway, and then I could sneak out the employee entrance. My car was parked right outside the door. If I could just make it outside, I could get out of there. Drive home to my brother.

Rebel would have to find me, if he even meant what he said about coming back. 

Plan in place, I crept to the door. Being careful not to do anything that might catch the attention of people in the hallway, I pulled open the door and peeked out. All clear. I hurried up the stairs with my heart pounding in my ears. Stepping carefully, I kept my footfalls quiet. The stairwell was the worst part of my trip, the area where I couldn’t hide should someone come to the top or bottom. I needed to be quick and silent.

When I reached the upper landing, I pressed my back against the wall and slunk toward the open doorway to the main floor. A quick glance in either direction confirmed I was alone. I could see the changing room door from where I hid in the darkness of the stairwell; I only had twenty feet or so to go. With a deep, stuttering breath, and a mental kick in the ass, I stepped into the hall and strode directly to the changing room. I didn’t pause or look around. That door was my safety zone, my sanctuary. I only needed to get on the other side of it.

Hands shaking as they turned the doorknob, I slipped inside. I leaned against the door for a moment with my eyes closed, taking two deep breaths to calm my racing heart. But it wasn’t the time to celebrate. Locker, keys, car—that’s all I needed to do. With one last deep breath, I rushed to my assigned locker and threw open the metal door. 

“You smell like one of those whores.”

I spun, my heart practically leaping out of my chest. Caleb sat against the opposite wall, hidden behind a double-high rack of lingerie. He glared at me, his eyes hard and his face practically glowing with rage.

“Hey, Caleb.” I swallowed and edged back, pressing my hip against the lockers. “I was just getting my keys so I could head home.”

He growled, deep and rough and not at all as enticing as the noise Rebel made. That sound connected the dots floating around in my head. The way Caleb made me nervous, the fight-or-flight response I felt every time Morris came around, how my hair stood on end when I walked into the room in the basement with all those men—something wasn’t right about them all. The same something that made me wet with desire for Rebel made me terrified of all the others. The growling, the light-colored eyes, and the sharp movements.

My stomach dropped as one word echoed in my mind. Wolves.

“You're not going anywhere.”

A shiver shot up my spine and the top of my head tingled. Not now. Not when I was so close. Fighting my instincts to face the threat and not show weakness, I turned and opened my locker. Every second lasted longer than the one before, every whisper of sound deafening. I nearly cried when my fingers grabbed the leather strap of my purse. Just a few more moments. Almost done. Then I could get the hell away from this craziness and figure out what to do next.

Once I had my bag over my shoulder and my keys in my hand, I turned around. Caleb’s face was mere inches from mine, his body blocking my path to the back door. 

“You whored yourself out for him.”

I lifted my chin and met his gaze. I put every bit of courage into my glare, even as my insides shook with a sense of terror that made my blood run cold. “I'm going home.” 

I moved to step past him, but he grabbed my arm and dragged me into the center of the room. His grip turned painful as I struggled against him. I hit, I kicked, I yelled, all to no avail. Caleb wasn’t letting me go, and I wasn’t strong enough to make him.

“You give me nothing, but those biker wolves show up and you're spreading your legs.” He pulled me against his body and sniffed. “I smell three of them on you. You think they’re stronger than me? That any of them could challenge me and win? I’m the Alpha in this club, but you let three of those fuckers touch you?”

With a speed that took me by surprise, he ducked down and slammed his shoulder into my gut, lifting me with ease. 

“Caleb…stop!”

“No.” He strode across the room and out the employee entrance, running across the near-empty lot. When he reached the tree line at the back of the property, he dropped me to my feet and pushed me forward. “Move it, whore. It's time I get what's mine.”

Rebel

I ran up the stairs with Gates on my heels. 

“Something you want to talk about, boss?”

I chuffed at him, too blissed out from making my mate happy to care about his sarcastic tone.

“That's what I figured.” Gates slowed as we made it to the main room of the club. It was late, well past closing time, and the place was empty. “It'll be sad to see you go, but I'm happy for you. Finding your mate is a cause for celebration.”

I froze. The thought of leaving the club, leaving all my brothers behind, was not one I'd had time to absorb just yet. They were practically my pack, the only family I had, and I wasn't ready to say goodbye. My blood burned in my veins as I pushed those thoughts away and focused on the mission.

“Let's concentrate on finding Pup before we connect the old ball and chain, yeah?”

He snorted. “Sure thing, man.”

We came upon the rest of the guys, minus Pup, just outside the main entrance. 

“What's going on?” I asked without preamble.

Scab was the first to step up. “I have no idea. The humans left at closing time with no issues. Gates forced Morris to shut down the party in the basement around the same time. Morris snuck the wolves and women out through a secondary entrance at the back of the building. The only one we lost track of was the big-ass shifter working behind the bar, otherwise I think everyone…”

He paused, his nose twitching as he tested the air around him. Fuck. I was going to reek of Charlotte. Not that I minded, but I didn't feel like listening to the crap any of the crew was about to throw.

“Numbers is downstairs with the last dancer.” I glared at Scab, daring him to say a word about what he smelled. He smirked and crossed his arms over his chest. “I say we circle the building and move inside until we converge on the room where he's holed up. Then we extricate the last human and start a search for Pup. If he’s not inside, we can hunt through the woods in wolf form.”

Each man yipped in agreement. It’d been a while since our last team hunt, even longer since we’d hunted something as challenging as one of our own. We all loved to run as wolves. Hunting as them was a fucking gift.

“No brother left behind,” Gates growled as we broke into two groups—him leading Shadow and me leading Scab. 

Closing in on the basement room where I’d stashed Charlotte took longer than I would have expected as the club contained multiple secret rooms and connecting passageways. Every door led to more hallways, more doors. It was a veritable maze of come-scented carpet and furniture. The place might as well have been a whorehouse for all the sex happening in it.

Scab and I were clearing the kitchen while Gates and Shadow guarded the basement stairs. I made a turn behind the line-prep area into a short hall that led to a walk-in freezer. Immediately my hair stood on end and my shoulders tensed at something in the air.

“Scab.” I paused and sniffed deeper, trying to uncover the disturbing odor under the overwhelming scent of bleach lingering in the hall.

“What’s up, bro—what the fuck is that?” Scab took a step back, his lip curling over his teeth instinctually.

I shook my head. “No fucking clue. I can’t get past the bleach enough to get a handle on it.”

Scab whistled long and loud, alerting Gates and Shadow we’d found something. Within seconds, the two rushed into the kitchen. 

“Fuck, what is that?” Gates stopped just behind me. Shadow and Scab moved in as well, the four of us creating a wall of shifter. 

“I don’t know,” I said as I took a step toward the freezer. “But I have a feeling it’s behind that door.”

We moved as one, closing in on the large metal door. I growled with every step, letting my wolf crawl to the surface to better track the scent. I was sure my face was shifting, becoming more wolflike and less human, but I didn't care. I needed to know what it was about the space that had set my instincts on fire.

When we reached the freezer, I yanked on the handle and swung the steel door toward me. My knees nearly buckled as the scent of blood swamped us, making each man whimper. But the sight inside the freezer immobilized all of us. 

Pup hung by his ankles in the center of the freezer. He'd been sliced open from neck to pelvis, his blood drained and spreading into a sticky red lake on the floor. Numbers was wrapped around him, holding his weight, staunching the blood flow with his own body.

“Holy fuck.” 

I wasn't sure which man said it, but I knew we all thought the same thing. There weren't many ways to kill a shifter like us. Sure, you could shoot us in the head and we'd probably die just as a human would. Otherwise, we healed fast enough to avoid most forms of death our human counterparts fell prey to. But bloodletting…that was one scenario we couldn't escape from. Without our blood, we couldn't regenerate. And without regeneration, we died. Plain and simple. Whoever did this to Pup knew exactly what our weak point was. 

“He’s still alive,” Numbers said, his voice weak. “Fucking barkeeper hung him here in his wolf form and left him for dead, but I got him.”

“Cut him down.” The voice coming out of my mouth didn’t even register as my own. My body smoldered from deep within, my wolf in sync with my human mind on our next course of action. Find who did this and kill them. Preferably in a slow and painful manner.

Shadow, the only one of us with any medical training, approached first. He stepped carefully into the puddle of thick blood on the floor until he could reach our brothers. Bending to take Pup’s shoulders from Numbers, he grabbed the smaller shifter and lifted him into his arms. Gates pulled a knife from his pocket and wrapped his hand around Pup’s ankles. With one quick slice, Pup was free. Numbers stepped back, falling into Scab, who wrapped an arm around his waist to support the exhausted shifter.

When Pup’s body became horizontal in Shadow’s arms, he moaned. And then the blood started flowing.

“Jesus fuck, he’s going to bleed out.” Gates glanced at me, his eyes wide. The five of us froze for half a second before exploding into movement.

“Get him out of the cold!”

“There’s a counter over here!”

“He needs blood! Who’s got the med kit?”

“It’s in my saddlebags.” I yanked the keys out of my pocket and tossed them to Scab. “You better run, motherfucker.”

Scab took off out of the kitchen as I swept the metal bowls and cooking implements out of the way. Shadow and Gates placed Pup on the stainless-steel counter, stepping over the shit I’d sent to the floor. Scab was back within seconds, our emergency medical supplies in his hands.

I opened the box and pulled out two large needles connected by medical tubing. Crude, but they’d do. Pup needed a transfusion of shifter blood before his heart stopped beating. It was his best chance for survival.

“No,” Gates yelled as I tied a rubber strap around my arm, ready to be the blood donor. He reached to take the strap and needle from my hands. “Let me.”

I growled and pulled away. Gates leaned closer and looked me directly in the eyes.

“Your mate may need you. Let me be the donor. You have better things to do than stand here and watch your blood flow.”

“Mate?” Numbers looked at me, his brow pinched. “You found your mate?”

“Yeah.” I looked to each man in turn. “Her name’s Charlotte; that’s who I was with in the basement.”

Numbers’ eyes grew wide. “Why didn’t you tell us she was your mate? Jesus, I left her in that room when I heard Pup scream.”

I stiffened, thoughts of Charlotte alone in the room downstairs flooding my brain. My girl was not safe alone.

“Scab and Shadow, go downstairs and grab my mate. I want us all in the same place.”

“On it.” Scab turned to leave, Shadow on his heels.

“Do not separate.” Gates wrapped the rubber strap around his arm and tied it off with the help of his teeth. “If that bartender is still around, be prepared. He’s strong and smart. Stick together and bust your asses to get back up here.”

The two shifters nodded then rushed out of the room, leaving Gates and me to care for Pup.

I helped Gates with the needles, making sure the blood was flowing into Pup before taking a step back and leaning my hip against the counter.