Dancer's Heart (14 page)

She watched out the window and saw a lot of
males dressed all in black, carrying buckets back and forth between
all the buildings.

“What are they doing?” she asked, turning to
look at Liam and Dragos who were sitting on top of a metal
desk.

Liam said, “They’re soaking the buildings
with accelerant. It will ensure that the bodies left behind are
difficult to identify.”

A reindeer male walked into the office,
introduced himself as Rell, and then turned to Dragos. “This place
hasn’t been in operation for years, but according to the human, a
local mob run by shifters used the barn to hold abducted shifters
until buyers were located. They were going to sell Tesli to become
a sex slave out of the country. They were on the way to pick her up
when they were told about Dani. They held off on Tesli’s sale for
her.”

“Shit,” Tesli said. “If you hadn’t been
spotted I would have been gone.”

Dragos growled. “It’s shameful what sick
minds will do.”

Rell asked, “Do you know who took you?”

“No. I have no idea who they were. My mate’s
dad was among the dead. He said that I was here because he needed
money, so I guess he knew whoever these kidnappers were.”

“They’re dead now, but make sure your mate
knows to keep an extra eye out for you just to be safe. Scumbags
like these tend to have friends in low places,” Liam said.

Turning her attention back to the window, she
watched as three of the reindeer males carried containers of
accelerant toward the barn. She rubbed at the space between her
eyes, her mind slipping back to the past without her consent.

She’d been sitting by the bonfire in front of
her family’s tent with her aunt, trying to stay awake until her
family returned with the herd. They’d gone foraging in their
shifted form. The sun was starting to set, and everyone was
supposed to be back before full dark. It was dangerous for reindeer
to be in their shift after nightfall. Their vision wasn’t as sharp
in the dark as a predator’s and they could easily miss a wolf or
mountain lion stalking them. She wasn’t old enough to shift yet,
but she looked forward to spending the time with her family out in
the woods.

She’d turned to her aunt to ask if she could
have another cup of hot chocolate when the unmistakable sound of
coyotes howling echoed around them. Her aunt leaped to her feet,
her eyes wildly scanning the area as she pulled Dani to her feet
and shoved her behind her.

Coyotes stalked through the trees toward
them. Her aunt lifted Dani in the air toward a high branch and she
grabbed hold of it and pulled herself up just as the coyotes
attacked. Her aunt tried to shift to protect herself, but the
coyotes chased her into the swiftly falling darkness. She’d tried
to block out the sound of her aunt’s screams by covering her ears,
but that hadn’t stopped it. She stayed perched on the branch with
her arms clinging to the trunk until the sun rose. The coyotes had
come back and circled the tree for a while. She’d stared down at
them, and knew she was looking at natural coyotes and not shifters.
After what felt like ages, a loud howl broke through the air, and
they slunk back into the trees. She thought perhaps their leader
was calling them home.

She’d waited on the branch until she almost
fell off as exhaustion tried to claim her. After climbing down,
she’d found the herd’s belongings destroyed by claws and fangs. She
thought the coyotes were probably looking for food, but that hadn’t
made anything about the situation easier. She took refuge in one of
the tents and stayed for a few days, and then she salvaged what she
could – some food, clothes, a blanket – and began to walk. As she
wandered through the woods, she scented the metallic peppermint of
her people’s blood and knew she’d hit the killing ground. Her
people had fallen here, including her mother and father. The herd
was small, only fourteen, and she was the only child not old enough
to shift.

Days later, after the food ran out and she
was exhausted and sore from sleeping in trees and worrying about
predators, she stumbled right into a group of bears. They were
enormous, with big black claws and huge fangs. She’d thought she
would die right there, after surviving the killing spree of the
coyotes and managing to walk who-knew-how-far on her own. She’d
dropped to the ground, too tired to flee or put up a fight. Someone
picked her up, and she blinked weary eyes at the man who held her.
It was the bear king, who took her to his wife, Glory, who took her
to Alice, the woman Dani would come to think of as her mother.
Alice had loved her from that moment, even though she’d tried for
years to find any link to Dani’s family. Reindeer, however, never
used human-run hospitals or doctors, or dealt with the government –
there was no record of Dani’s birth or her parents. She was a ghost
and an orphan, until Alice adopted her, and Row had promised to be
the best big brother to her.

“Are you okay, Dancer?” Tesli asked, putting
a gentle hand on Dani’s shoulder.

“You can call me Dani, and yeah. I was just
thinking about my herd.” She touched her cheeks and found them wet
with tears she hadn’t realized she’d been crying.

Tesli sat down. “Herds are nomadic by nature.
I think it’s an instinct thing from our natural ancestors, you
know? Like how birds fly south for the winter.”

“We’re technically winter animals,” Liam
pointed out.

She snorted. “We’re nomads like our
ancestors, but now we drive RVs and caravan like circus
people.”

Liam’s brow arched. “Seriously? Did you just
compare us to circus people?”

“Or gypsies. Is there such a thing as circus
gypsies?” Tesli asked, her voice teasing and her eyes glittering
with mischief.

“Good grief,” Dragos said.

“My mate fenced in our yard and said he’d
plant willow trees for me. I think you can have safety and freedom
at the same time.”

Dragos’s dark brow arched. “I don’t have to
remind you that you said you were stolen from your own backyard.”
He gestured to his outfit. He looked ready to go to war. “We train
from youth to be fighters. Nothing is more precious to us than our
herd and our family. I can fight in my shift as well as my human
form. Our horns and hooves are deadly.”

“You can’t fight against drug-laced darts or
guns,” Dani pointed out.

His lips tightened in a frown, and Dani
wondered if she’d crossed a line. He blew out a sharp breath and
said, “You’re right. Tesli was stolen from us when she was grocery
shopping. Her guard was nearly killed trying to protect her.” He
looked over her head out the window, his eyes focusing sharply on
the movement of the males outside.

“Why are reindeer nomadic?” She rubbed at her
arms to stave off the chill she felt. It wasn’t that it was cold in
the office, it was that she found herself feeling like that little
girl lost out in the woods again, and she couldn’t shake it. She
needed Adam. She wanted him there so she could make sure he was
okay, but also so she could stick herself to his side with
industrial strength adhesive.

“It’s the way things have always been,”
Dragos said.

“Even a devastating change like the death of
my herd and my family can bring about something wonderful as time
passes. Without being adopted by the bears, I might never have
found my truemate. It was painful to lose my family.” She stopped
for a long moment, watching the males carry more accelerant,
dousing the buildings inside and out. “I wouldn’t wish that pain on
my worst enemy. But I love my mate, and I’m blessed to have him in
my life.”

Dragos smiled at her when she looked over her
shoulder at him. “You’re very sweet.”

“You probably think I’m naïve.”

He shrugged. “You know about love. I know
about war. I’ve been fighting my whole life to keep the herd safe.
It’s tempting for me to want what you have with your mate – a place
to call home that is never changing – but I still fear it’s too
dangerous for us.”

“I wonder if there are orphans like me out
there in the world, with no way to contact herds for help.”

Liam said, “That’s not a bad idea.”

“What isn’t?” Tesli asked.

“Having a website. I need to think about it a
little more, but we should have a way for our people to keep in
contact with each other. We have no clue how many reindeer there
even are in the States, because none of the herds keep in touch
with each other. If we’d been available before, your bear family
would have found us and we could have helped.”

“None of us should have to be alone,” Tesli
said.

Chapter 11

Adam couldn’t stop his constant, rumbling
growling. His wolf was agitated and prowling. He believed that Dani
was safe with the reindeer, but he wouldn’t feel remotely at ease
until he held her in his arms and was sure that she was okay. His
knuckles popped as he clenched his fists together.

“She’s safe. That’s what you need to focus on
right now,” Acksel said, turning from the passenger seat of the SUV
and looking at Adam.

“I know,” Adam bit out.

Jeremiah, who was sitting next to Adam, put
his hand on his shoulder, but said nothing. Adam closed his eyes
and ran his thumb along the underside of the engagement ring that
was still on his pinky finger. It helped him feel a little
connected to her in spite of the circumstances, as if he could
touch her through the metal.

“We’re going to make changes to ensure Dani’s
safety. We’ll do whatever we need to so you both can rest easy.
I’ve already called my partner Lucian, and he’s coming in to help
me set up safety protocols for your property,” Malachi said.

Adam didn’t know much about Malachi’s human
partner except that he worked for the military. He wasn’t even sure
he’d ever seen the male around town. Adam sighed as he thought
about security cameras on the fence, and perimeter alarms, and who
knew what else Malachi and Lucian would suggest. He didn’t want
Dani to feel like she was living in a prison, constantly monitored
and fearful.

“I can see where your train of thought is
going and you need to put the brakes on. Dani’s safety is paramount
to anything else now.” Acksel said. “Do you think I enjoyed knowing
that Brynn was tortured because of me? That I couldn’t keep her
safe?”

“Nila was taken right in front of me,”
Malachi said.

“Honey and I were both kidnapped and nearly
killed,” Jeremiah said.

Acksel shook his head. “I never realized how
many of our mates have been hurt because of their association with
us.” He blew out a breath. “But the important thing is that Dani’s
safe.
All
our mates are. Wounds heal, memories fade, bad
guys get dead. That you can hold Dani in your arms is what you need
to focus on.”

“I might kill my father,” Adam said. The
words popped out of his mouth before he could censor them.

“We’ll cross that bridge with you when you
come to it. You’re not alone here, Adam; the whole pack is behind
you. Mates are precious and to be protected at all costs. What your
father did is inexcusable.”

Adam turned his attention to the window and
watched as the scenery blurred by. Dani had been away from him for
hours. His arms actually ached to hold her, to touch her soft skin
and look into her beautiful blue eyes. She’d become an integral
part of his life so quickly, and he knew he wouldn’t be able to
survive if something happened to her.

It felt like an eternity before he finally
saw the sign for Little Lambs Petting Zoo in the distance. The
entrance had been blocked off by several vehicles, and large males
wearing ill-fitting Little Lambs security uniforms stood in front
of the vehicles.

Acksel rolled his window down. “We’re here
for Dancer.”

One of the males pressed a communication
device in his ear and said, “The wolves are here, Sire.” After a
brief moment, he gestured to the left and said, “Park there and
we’ll escort you inside.”

Adam’s heart was pounding as they pulled into
the parking lot and got out, following the males through the gates
and into the park. Under any other circumstances, Adam might have
been amused by the cheerful decorations, but all he could think
about was that his father had engineered all of this to pay a
debt.

Earlier, when he’d gotten his grandmother on
the phone, he’d been surprised by her response.

“I was expecting to hear from you,” she
said.

“You were?”

“Your father came here a few days ago and he
was pretty beat up. He wouldn’t tell us who did it, but we can
guess.” She sighed deeply, the sound of a mother wondering where
she’d gone wrong.

“I believe he had my mate drugged and
kidnapped,” Adam said, a vice squeezing his chest as he wondered
what Dani was going through. “I need to find him so I can find
her.”

“Oh, Adam, I’m so sorry.” She sounded
genuinely upset, but Adam couldn’t think past how they’d enabled
his dad to be such a mess for such a long time.

There was the sound of the phone being
covered, some whispered conversation, and then she said, “I’m
texting you the address of our car.”

“What?” He shook his head, wondering if he’d
heard wrong.

“A few months ago, your dad gave our car to
some lowlife to get out of getting his legs broken for a bad bet.
Your grandfather got a locator installed when we got it back after
paying off the debt. It disappeared last night. We were hoping he
would bring it home today, but so far he hasn’t. It’s in Crowley.”
There was a brief pause, and she said, “I know you think that we
screwed up with your dad, and you took the brunt of the fallout. I
know we failed you as grandparents, but there’s just something
about having your only child crying and pleading for his life that
we couldn’t ignore.”

Adam’s lip curled, and his wolf rumbled in
anger. “If my mate’s hurt…”