“I met them in Africa….” Xan started at the beginning, not leaving out a single detail, including Ajani’s thirst for pain, the torture he’d inflicted. All of it but one thing, and he’d have to share the secret he’d kept buried, a pain he never wanted to revisit. His Alpha had ordered him, and he felt compelled to give him the ugly truth, even if he didn’t want to. Xan closed his eyes and took a deep breath, bracing for what he’d say next. Staked to the ground on his belly, his clothing ripped from him. Shame. Humiliation. What drove him to consider death as a release from the memory.
As he opened his mouth to mention the rapes, Gee’s hand came down on his shoulder. “I think we’ve got enough.”
The same thing Ajani’s pack could do to Liv, if he didn’t save her. His wolf roared, and his nails grew and gouged furrows into the wood floor. It went against all his instincts to remain in the room, and he had a damned hard time controlling his beast. Especially now he’d freed the alpine. He didn’t want to think about the things Ajani would do to his mate.
“Sun sets in three hours. We have until then to save your mate. I don’t think they will do anything to her before then, not unless you surrender and make it easy for them. You have to stay inside until we have the traps ready. You will be the lure.”
“Yeah, if they’re not already in this room, privy to all your plans.”
“They’re not. They had to pass a test to get in here.” Ryker nodded toward the door. Xan glanced down at what he’d indicated, completely unaware until that moment, of the line of salt poured around the room and across the threshold. “Gee said the demons couldn’t cross it. Bear is usually right.”
“Tested it on a Wolf who didn’t want to come in. Shoved him across the threshold.” Ryker pointed to a pile of ash.
Drew nodded. “Seems they burn pretty easy. Gave us an idea. But first we have to get control of the gas station again.”
“The others are all out there with Liv.” Xan lunged to his feet, seized the chair, and swung around to smash it against the wall.
Gee caught it and ripped it from his grasp. “This chair didn’t do anything to you. Sit.” He slammed it down and glared. “Now. I’ll be your babysitter until we have the traps set. You know the value of planning. Calm your mind, Xander Davis. The last thing you want is to get your mate killed. You were trained to keep a level head; it’s about time you use what you were taught.”
“There were five on the list I called to this meeting. Four didn’t show.” Drew glanced at Ryker and Marcus. “Go find them and bring them back. If they can’t step over the line, escort them across like you did the other one.”
Xan surveyed the room, taking a mental snapshot. Who were the missing four?
“Hey, assholes. Do you remember me?” Xan stood in the open garage bay. A hyena lifted its head from the office floor, while two of Ajani’s officers played cards at a table. They looked up at him and tossed their hands down.
“It’s dat agent. Heye, he, he, he.”
“No, shit. Of course it dat agent. We got him woman.”
“So, this is how we’re going to do this. You are going to give me my mate and then you are going to die.”
“And if she isn’t here anymore?”
“I’ll kill you.”
“Not much of a compromise. How ’bout we hamstring you and den you watch while we eat your mate? He, he, he.” The female’s eyes flashed blue. Oh, he’d pissed her off. Good. The Ilimu got froggy when pissed, jumped before looking, and he counted on it. “Den we take you apart.”
“No deal. I like my idea much better.”
Both demons at the table shifted and lunged for him. Xan twisted and dove, his body burned as though he’d leaped through a ring of fire, and shreds of his clothing flew in every direction, a victim of his rapid shift. When he landed outside, paws struck pavement. He tore across the lot and streaked up a hill and toward the forest as a white alpine. Impossible to miss in the shadows.
You want me, come and get me.
“Don’t kill them yet.”
Xan set the gas can down. “We can’t wait for dark.”
“You’re going to have to. They relocated her.”
“What?” Xan roared and whipped around to glare at his Alpha. “Tell me you’re joking.”
“I can’t. We’re looking for her and have picked up a scent trail.”
“I need to go.” Xan turned, and Drew clamped down on his shoulder.
“Stay here.” He yanked free from the Alpha and took three steps toward the woods. She could be out there dying. Suffering who knew what unspeakable acts.
God, what had he gotten her into?
“I said to keep your ass here.”
“My mate is out there!” Xan paced back and forth in front of the pit.
Shit.
All this for nothing.
Now what?
Xan shoved a hand into his hair and stared at his Alpha, until Drew turned and made eye contact.
“We’ll find her.” His Alpha tossed him a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.
Xan caught them and stepped into the denim, buttoning them up. “Alive?” He slung the T-shirt over his shoulder and glanced at the monsters in the pit, fighting the urge to take them out. “Are you certain she’s alive?”
“Yes. There wasn’t enough blood in the office where they’d held her. Liv’s a fighter—a survivor.”
“Blood? Her blood!” He roared and tossed the shirt down. His flesh began to burn and itch.
“If you shift, I will put you down.” Drew pointed. “You better back your Wolf down. The last thing I need is for you to tear off after her and get your ass snared too and both of you killed. Calm down.”
He panted, resting his hands on his knees.
Breathe in three counts. Hold three counts. Exhale three…. Shit
. He turned and glared at the demons. “Where, you fucking scavengers? Where did you take her?”
His Alpha was right, even if he didn’t like it, even if his beast demanded the demon’s blood. He couldn’t kill them, and he couldn’t run off half-cocked.
Inhale. Hold. Exhale.
If Drew hadn’t stopped him minutes before, he’d have killed them before he knew they’d moved her somewhere else. Now, they might be his only way to find her, and tearing off to find her without a plan could get not only himself killed, but other pack members. He had to pull it together.
The demons circled below, growling and snarling, lunging for the top. They’d catch earth, claw, and drop back to the floor of the trap, taking a good deal of the dirt with them.
“You shouldn’t have been so eager to shift. Now you’re stuck until sundown.” Drew knelt down by the edge and studied the hyenas. “Did you see their faces?”
“Yeah. Three of Ajani’s lieutenants. He’s not too far away. They stay close to him like Ryker does to you.” Hate oozed from the bottom of the pit.
Rage.
They wanted him dead, and if the traps hadn’t been present, he would now be in pieces.
Drew tossed a handful of soil on them and stood. “Doesn’t matter. We got two, and that makes less we have to deal with tonight. The other took off in the opposite direction, probably to report on your whereabouts. We’ll weed the rest out of our ranks here before the sun falls. Ryker is looking for the others, the ones who didn’t make it to our meeting. Your sister and Kayla are out searching for Liv with several of the pack. Xio’s sense of smell is stronger with her pregnancy. If your mate is within a fifty-mile area, she’ll find her. They couldn’t have taken Liv far, not on foot.”
“Xio shouldn’t be out here. It’s not safe.”
“You want to tell her to stay home? Shit, you know how moody a pregnant Wolf is. Besides, she can handle herself fine and has a lot of backup.”
“Against these things?”
“Xan, we’re talking about Xio.”
“Good point. I’d hate to be the demon who pisses her off.” A pregnant female could scent Liv out before any other pack member. Still didn’t have to like it. And Xio would totally kick his ass if he’d told her to hole up in some cabin and cower.
The demons knew how to mask their scents and behave to be convincing, but it didn’t explain how they’d managed to make Liv vanish. According to the hours of research Xan had done, the Ilimu took on the original victim’s DNA, making them a very deadly sheep in wolf’s clothing.
Yet, they couldn’t hide their eyes when angry or hit with a bright light. They also couldn’t shift multiple times until night. He could smell his mate on them. Interrogating them in present form would get him nowhere.
Well, fuckity fuck, fuck, fuck, they’d decided to assume their favorite form to attack him and now he’d have to wait before they could be questioned.
Didn’t mean he couldn’t prepare for the interrogation, though.
“Then we should get ready to question them, in case Xio can’t find Liv.” He stooped down and grabbed the bucket of gasoline from the station. He circled the pit, dumping the fuel all over the hyenas, soaking their coats, continuing around the trap, covering the sides as well. They may not be able to talk, but they sure as hell could understand what he did. Once finished, he tossed the empty bucket to the side.
Drew stood next to him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a flare gun, giving it to Xander. “They took your mate. I’ll let you have the honors.”
Xan turned to the Alpha. “Why did you leave me with Liv, after I tore up Gee’s Bar?”
“I saw the way she watched you. I recognized the same look from my own mate. You weren’t a bad guy, just damaged. I’ve been there. You could never hurt her. I had to listen to instinct, and it told me you were born to be together. Still didn’t mean you didn’t make me nervous.”
“Yes, we were. So you know how damn hard I am fighting the urge to go after her.”
“Yes.”
He needed a distraction. Xan stepped up to the edge of the pit to address his enemies. “I know you can’t speak right now, but I also know you damn well understand me. When the sun drops on the horizon, you’re going to shift and tell me where you’ve put my mate, or I’m going to make this really painful.” Xan snagged a bag of salt left by whoever had dug the trap. He flung a handful on them. They yelped, screeching like whipped puppies, after only a small dose of the pain they’d put him through for days.
The hyenas shook it off and snarled, snapping their teeth and jumping for the edge, only to fall back. Xan held the flare gun up for them to see. “As soon as the last of the daylight fades, you’re going to shift into humans, and we’re going to talk. Do anything but, and I’ll roast you’re asses. Clear?’
“He, he, hee. Yip.” The Ilimu looked past him to something in the treetops.
Xan glanced over his shoulder. Likely the warlord watched from somewhere. He could feel his eyes on him. “I know you’re out there, Ajani. When I’m done here, we’ll settle our score. Don’t go too far.”
Drew sent several pack members to a nearby town and to a chain toy store. If all went well, the pack would be armed with water guns of the soaking variety. The bigger the better. Yeah, the Ilimu could shift into anything they wanted at will, making it damn near impossible to kill them all. But they couldn’t run from fire, no matter what form they took. Each member of the pack had been contacted, asked to come to the office at Gee’s Bar. When they stepped over the salt line, one of the pack members gave them a glow in the dark strip of fabric to tie over their arm. The imposters would not have it, not unless they knew about it and killed some wolf to get it. Out of the
five who
didn’t show, Kayla’s mate counted as one of them. Kayla, however, had been cleared and hence the reason she’d been allowed out on the search. He had an idea why the Alpha wouldn’t let him go after his mate. Drew suspected Liv might be Ilimu.
Step two of the plan pulled no punches. Nobody wanted to do it. Many were against it. But Gee had been right. A forest fire could be the only way they could defeat this enemy. The pack used him to lure them out of Los Lobos, and from the way the hair stood on his nape, the plan had been a success. They were out there, watching, waiting. The pack set the traps outside Liv’s home in a stand of pines bleeding into a state forest, away from Los Lobos and a far enough distance not to draw attention to the pack. It would likely burn her cottage down, and they’d have to live on pack land once this ended. She’d forgive him.
Xan looked up as the last of the light sank behind the trees. Five minutes tops, and it would be go time. Hopefully, they had acquired enough Super Soakers to stop Ajani and his pack. If not, they wouldn’t live to see sunrise.
He squatted down beside the pit. “It’s showtime.”
The demons shifted. Liv’s sister and a pack member who always kept his distance, stared up at him.
Kayla?
Didn’t Drew say she’d gone out with Xio searching for Liv? Xan narrowed his eyes.
Right.
“My sister will never forgive you if you kill me. He, he, he, hey ya, he.”
“Since you’re not her sister, I’ll take my chances. Where did you take my mate?”
The Ilimu shimmered, and Liv stood, looking up at him. “I’m right here Xan. I’m scared. Please. Let me out.”
“Xan, it’s not Liv. Don’t listen to it.” Drew beamed the flashlight into her eyes. They glowed blue. “Nice try.”
The demon shifted again, this time taking on its true face, Ajani’s right-hand man. He pointed. “He, he, he, I almost had you der, government man.”
“No, if there’s one thing I know, it’s the scent of my mate, and you’re not it, no matter how good you are at masking it.”
“There are a lot of old mines around here. We threw her down one. You’ll never find her.”
Xan glanced at Drew. “It’s not their style. They like it bloody and time to admire what they’ve done. They’ve hidden her somewhere they can go back to later to finish her off.”
Drew studied him for a moment. “Yes. I think you’re right.” He pulled out his phone and dialed. “Ryker, look for fresh-dug soil. I’ll meet you where we discussed earlier. I think they’ve buried the doctor, and I have a good idea where.”
Xan glanced into the forest again. They come across the construction site, had scented she’d been through there, but she hadn’t been in the new building or any of the sheds. They hadn’t thought to look in the ground. “She’s at the new housing development. I’m going with you.”