“Is Meggie coming to dinner now?” Lexie said. “Brody said she should hurry up and come.”
Caleb choked on a laugh at the demon’s double entendre as Lachlan opened the door.
“She’s right here, pumpkin.” Lachlan held Meg’s hand and led her from the laundry. Her cheeks were scarlet and her hair was a mess.
“I’m going to have you for dessert, Meg,” Caleb whispered, as Meg chastely kissed his cheek.
Caleb’s plans for the evening were derailed by the arrival of Meg’s best friend Kaitlyn and her mates, Sean and Aiden. They arrived just as Meg came back downstairs after reading Lexie her bedtime story. Although Meg was happy to see Kaitlyn, she felt guilty for ruining their honeymoon.
“I still wish you hadn’t had to come back so soon,” Meg said. Caleb pulled her tighter against him where she perched on his lap.
“It was worth it just to see you so happy, Meg. Let alone to bring you something to kill the sleazy Nick with.” Kaitlyn shuddered and snuggled deeper into Sean’s big chest. “He always made me feel uneasy. I just never knew how evil he was. You should have told me what he was doing to you.”
“You had a new job, and then you had all that trouble with the vampires after you,” Meg said. “I just couldn’t. I didn’t want to add to your problems.”
“Have any other vampires turned up?” Sean said.
“Nothing on that front, luckily,” Caleb said. “Do you know if Brody can scent vampires?”
“Aiden said they wouldn’t be long. He and Brody are just checking around town for Nick,” Kaitlyn said.
“I can scent vampires,” Brody said. Kaitlyn jumped as the demon appeared beside her. “No sign of Nicholas in town.”
Aiden appeared on Kaitlyn’s other side, making her jump again. “Miss me?” He leaned down and kissed her. “I missed you, my Kaitlyn.”
Caleb scented Meg’s pain and regret. “Do you think she would rather you were killed so that she could have a longer honeymoon?” He murmured the words into her ear, hoping the room full of supernatural creatures wouldn’t hear him. If any did, they were polite enough to ignore him.
“Are you going to show us this weapon?” Lachlan said, entering the room with a tray of coffee mugs.
Aiden pulled a small parcel from the back waistband of his jeans. He unbuckled the worn leather pouch and shook it gently until two cream-colored daggers sat on the leather flap. The hilts and blades were fashioned from the same material.
“They look like they’re made from ivory,” Caleb said. “Ivory will kill a Nephilim?”
“Not ivory, Caleb,” Aiden said. “The daggers are carved from the bones of vampires. It’s one of the few weapons that will kill a Nephilim.” He looked up at Brody. “Or a demon.”
Brody must have really trusted Aiden because he didn’t look scared that the vampire held something in his hand that would end his life.
“Why vampire bones?” Kaitlyn said. She had leaned away from the weapons as though they were toxic.
“Vampires are toxic to Nephilim. It’s like we repel them somehow. Maybe because our souls are no good for them to harvest.”
“You and Kaitlyn are both affected by those bones,” Sean said. He took the pouch from Aiden and held one of the daggers in his hand. “I can’t feel anything.”
Kaitlyn scrambled from Sean’s lap and went to stand with Aiden. “They’re so cold. They make my bones ache with how cold they are.” Aiden wrapped his arms around his wife and pulled her back close to his chest.
“I can’t hold them,” Aiden said. “The leather pouch kept them from harming me. One of you will have to get close enough to use it on the Nephilim. Brody can’t wield it either.”
“Where did you get such a weapon?” Caleb said.
“Vampires and the angels have been at war for thousands of years. Such weapons are valuable. The angel-born has sought out and destroyed as many as they could find, but a few have survived. As you can imagine, it would take a particular kind of artisan to create such a weapon.”
“Indeed,” Caleb said.
If vampires, angels and demons couldn’t make such a weapon, did that mean shifters had made them? Or something else?
Lachlan walked to Sean and picked up the other dagger. “I can’t feel anything either. Do we need to stick it any place special?”
“The heart,” Aiden and Brody said together. Meg shuddered in his arms.
“We just have to get him to stay in one place long enough for us to put one there,” Lachlan said.
Caleb pulled Meg close to him and breathed her scent into his lungs. He had no idea how to fight a being with the type of powers the Nephilim had. Brute strength was not going to be the deciding factor in this battle. He needed to utilize his feline cunning to win this time. Losing was not an option. He would not lose Meg.
Meg woke from a fitful sleep to find Lexie curled into her stomach and the bed otherwise empty. She touched the sheets and pillows, but they were cold. She could smell the reassuring scent of her mates, but they’d been gone for a while.
The evening before had been the cause of Meg’s lack of sleep. She’d imagined Aiden would bring them a weapon that would easily defeat Nick and rid him from her life. She should have known better. If anything the weapon brought more danger to her men as they had to stand right next to Nick in order to use it. It seemed hopeless.
Without a clock in the room, Meg had no idea what time it was. There was no light coming through the curtains, and the air in the bedroom was cold and still. Lexie was sound asleep, her little body providing the only warmth Meg felt. She felt cold to her core.
“Do we take the small one as well?” The question was whispered, but Meg heard it clearly.
She turned her head and saw why she’d been so cold. It wasn’t despondency, it was the cold air coming in the open window.
“It’s awake,” said the man climbing in the window.
Meg’s mind caught up to what was happening and she screamed Brody’s name. She needed the demon to take her out of here.
“Too late, girly,” said the man she’d seen at her window. He picked her up by her waist and she kicked him in the stomach as hard as she could. He released her with a grunt and she fell to the cold, hard dirt on her ass. The air rushed from her lungs but it didn’t stop her from shifting. She reached for her cat and ran from the barn.
She didn’t recognize the barn, or the yard outside, but she saw pine trees and she ran for them. She needed to try and hide. Hide her cat and her scent so they couldn’t track her. She was a small leopard, but she was still fast, and fear for her life had her running faster than she’d ever run before.
She had to stay alive.
Nicholas Thomson is not going to kill my mates.
* * * *
Brody heard Meg scream his name and he pictured her room in his mind. Thoughts travel at roughly the speed of light, so he was in Meg’s room an instant later. He was glad he hadn’t let the bears talk him into sleeping naked. They’d tried.
The bed contained only a sleepy-looking Lexie. He heard Landon and Elliot roar from Lachlan’s room and he gathered Lexie in his arms and went back to them before they broke the house.
“Meg’s gone.”
Landon roared again and stopped pulling up his trousers to look at his brother. “One of us needs to shift and tell Prescott.” Elliot ran from the room, giving Brody a very distracting view of his fine ass.
Landon finished dressing and looked to Brody for directions. Brody had never been asked for his opinion with the wolves. He was simply told what to do and generally pushed around. He squared his shoulders and tried to look like he knew what he was doing.
“It was a Nephilim who took her, but it wasn’t Nick. Can you get Albert and Cynthia here to look after Lexie?” He handed Lexie to Landon and she wrapped her arms around the bear’s neck as she quietly cried. “I need to go and see if I can get some idea which way they went. I’ll be back.”
Landon had his mouth open in obvious protest when Brody pictured the area he’d memorized to the north of town and left. He and Aiden had planned for this. He had landmarks all around Pine Falls to go to. He could do this. With Nicholas injured, Brody guessed he would still be close and decided to search the locations twenty miles away and work his way in from there.
He inhaled deeply from the top of the cliff where Nicholas had previously taken Prescott. “No one here.” He would find Meg. She was the reason he now had a new home and pride, a pride that loved and respected him. She had brought him love. He never thought he’d ever feel it, but he did. He loved his mates. He wouldn’t let anyone down. “Next.”
* * * *
Caleb ran for the house as soon as he heard Meg scream. He refused to believe something bad could have happened.
I was just in the barn for ten minutes
. He met a naked Elliot as he barreled out the front door.
“She’s gone. Landon sent me to shift and tell Prescott.”
Elliot had nearly completed his shift before Caleb had recovered enough to continue to run upstairs. He found Landon sitting on their bed with Lexie sobbing in his arms.
“Brody has gone to look for her,” Landon said. He stood and put his hand on Caleb’s shoulder in reassurance, Caleb nearly collapsed under the weight. His legs were shaking and weak with his anguish and fury. “Brody will be back as soon as he finds the trail. He said it was a different Nephilim who took her.”
Caleb shifted, shredding his clothes and roaring out his pain. Landon squatted and held Caleb’s head in his massive hands. “Trust Brody. He’ll find her and take you right to her.”
Caleb knew Landon was right. He needed to stay here and wait for the demon to do his job.
“Prescott, has Elliot contacted you?”
Prescott’s roar rang out as answer. He knew Meg had been taken.
“Lachlan, are you still patrolling south of the property?”
Caleb said. He’d let Prescott get his shit together for a few seconds longer.
“Yes. Do you want me to come home?”
“No. Both of you go to the nearest rendezvous points we arranged with Brody. I’ll send him to get you as soon as he finds her.”
“You trust him that much that you don’t want us searching for her ourselves,”
Lachlan said. Caleb felt his pain through their link and felt equally helpless, but Brody and Aiden were the only ones who could detect the Nephilim. They needed to trust their new pride members.
“They didn’t think Nicholas would be sufficiently healed enough to be a problem this soon,”
Prescott said. “
What if we’re wrong to trust that they’re right with everything else?”
“It wasn’t Nicholas. He has brought in another Nephilim to help him.”
Caleb looked at Landon. There was rage coming from the man, but he didn’t fear for his mate’s safety. Landon trusted Brody. “
Go to the nearest arranged meeting point and tell me when you’re there. I will send Brody to you.”
“Brody loves Meg,”
Elliot said
. “He’ll find her. I’ll wait out here for him to come back. Then we’ll go and get your mate.”
Caleb ached to be doing something. He wanted to be running to Meg’s rescue, but running aimlessly was a waste of his energy. He had known this was going to be a confrontation where he needed to use his strategic advantage to win. He just needed to stay sane while he put everything into place.
“Caleb,”
Sean said. “
Aiden has gone out to search as well. I’ll tell you as soon as I hear from him.”
“Thank you, Sean. Stay with Kaitlyn, we don’t want Selwyn Graves to use this distraction to come in and take her from you.”
Sean’s growl was low and feral. “
Aiden already thought of that. We’re safe.”
“I’ll have Brayden ready to come with us in case we need him,”
Prescott said, “
but I’m sending Josh and Shane to your ranch.”
Caleb waited and listened as the rest of the pride got into position. The ones that he might need with him were all at locations Brody had previously arranged. The rest of the pride was keeping the town and Kaitlyn safe.
He padded to the dresser and picked up the leather pouch with his mouth. Landon left the room when Caleb’s parent’s arrived. He returned moments later and took off his clothes before shifting.
“We’ll be coming home with both our mates unharmed, Alpha.”
“And with not one single Nephilim left alive.”
Caleb did the hardest thing he’d ever had to do since becoming Alpha. He did nothing but wait.
* * * *
“She’s got to be here somewhere. Keep looking,” the man said as he walked below the tree Meg was perched in. She had climbed to the highest branch that would sustain her weight, hoping her scent was lost to them from this high up. So far, it seemed to be working.
“I’m sure she came this way. I can smell her around here somewhere.” The voice of a second man drifted up to her.
Shit. This isn’t good enough. Think, Meg. Think.
“Meg!”
Aiden’s voice sounded loudly in her mind. She startled and snow rained down from the branch she was standing on.
“Something moved over here,” the man below said. She heard his footsteps approach again.