Should have Put a Leash On It (20 page)

As a unit they ran off in pursuit of the vampire and car.

Micah was ready to tear out his fur. Remy had ordered them to wait for backup when they had followed the car for over an hour to a converted farmhouse. It wasn’t one of the buildings he had been assigned to watch over and he didn’t recognize it from any of the other pack member reports either.

It was surrounded by deep snowbanks where the grounds must have been ploughed and the snow left. Micah didn’t care where the bank came from, it gave them a good vantage point to hide nearby and ready to attack.

“I count at least four outer guards, three at the inside windows and I’d guess at double that number actually within the buildings and whatever cannon fodder soldiers Trevor has with him. I’d say he’s definitely in there though.” Hunter jogged back from where he’d been doing recon closer to the house.

Nodding, Remy asked, “How do you know?”

“The way the guards outside keep glancing back at the doors as if they’re afraid of who might come out,” Hunter replied easily, rubbing hands up and down his arms to warm himself. “Fuck this.” The shifter quickly changed back into a grey wolf.

They’d had to ditch their clothing to run as wolves. Only Remy remained human in order to keep in touch with Ashlock and the others that were on their way via the phone Remy had carried in his mouth.

A large part of him, the predator part of him, didn’t care that they didn’t know what they would be walking into. All he could think was that Rylan had been in there for seven and a half minutes. Alone and unprotected. But his human half understood the need to wait because it would give Rylan the highest chance of being rescued successfully. That was the only thing keeping him here.

Remy put a hand on his neck, ruffling his fur. “Just wait a little longer, Micah.”

Four shifters couldn’t take on that many armed guards without knowing what awaited them once they got past the doors. He knew they had to wait for backup.

Ripping himself away from the touch and looking at the farmhouse, imagining all kinds of torture and pain Rylan could be enduring, he continued pacing.

Surprisingly he wasn’t alone. Ryder joined him, walking with him to the great oak that must be at least a few hundred years old and back again. When he paused, Ryder halted, too, drawing up to his side.

The wildlife had grown quiet...too quiet. There were no birds tittering and even the trees had stopped rustling in the winter breeze.

All of them snapped to attention when an agonized howl split the air.

Rylan.

Micah took off running as fast as he could toward the large farmhouse.

He sensed Ryder right behind him and heard Remy and Hunter following.

Remy must had changed into his Alpha form because his scent dropped back, then rushed past him in a blur. Wow. Remy could move almost as fast as a vampire.

Digging his claws into the frozen earth beneath the snow, he powered forward, chasing after Remy.

Unsurprisingly, Remy was the first to reach the guards and he slammed two of the armed men into unconsciousness with a well-placed slash and punch. He spared his brother another look, smiling as he recognized the technique. He’d taught Remy that when the pup was a teen.

It was good to see Remy hadn’t forgotten the lessons.

Micah dodged to the left as Ryder ducked left, tackling two more guards while Hunter jumped over their heads to take yet another. The rest of the guards outside were quietly taken out by himself and Remy while Hunter and Ryder scouted the two entrances and windows that were this side of the large farmhouse.

Biting into the shoulder of the guard beneath him, Micah shook his head and let his wolf paws pound on the guard’s chest until he heard a snap. The guard tried to scream, but he smothered the sound in his fur by laying over the man’s face.

The guard tried to bite back, but Micah’s thick pelt protected him.

As soon as the body underneath him stopped struggling, he jumped up and took cover behind Ryder as the other wolf stepped forward.

He shifted back to human and stood watch over Ryder as he did the same. Shifting left them vulnerable for a short time as they concentrated. It was easier to go wolf than to come back from it.

“This one,” Hunter said, pointing at a wide window that looked to be above the sink in the kitchen.

He was painfully aware of Rylan still being alone inside and facing God knows what.

“Hurry,” Micah urged, only barely keeping his wolf from leaping through the hole and hunting Rylan down. The only thing stopping him in fact was that he couldn’t bear to leave Remy undefended.

Rylan would kick his ass later if he left Remy.

Micah eased the pane open once Hunter had unlocked it and Remy stepped forward to go through when Ryder stopped him.

“No, not you. Let one of us go first,” Ryder said firmly, pushing in front and hefting himself up onto the small sill and jumping inside.

Remy just stared after Ryder. He couldn’t blame Remy. That was possibly the most Ryder had said at any one time since joining the pack.

Micah pushed Remy through next and followed. He felt Hunter behind him.

Moving to the doorway that looked to lead into a spacious living room, Micah paused to wait for Hunter to join them when another howl of pain sounded from somewhere further in the house.

Without hesitation Micah ran.

He took a left once out of the kitchen and breathed in deeply. Rylan’s trail was faint, but his wolf would know that scent of wild apple anywhere. It led him to a locked door at the other end of the farmhouse.

Knocking down the solid wooden door wasn’t easy—it was at least four inches thick. He was just lucky that the hinges and the frame weren’t as robust otherwise Micah would have done a lot more damage to himself than the dislocated shoulder.

“Fuck.”

He didn’t have time to set it properly so he went for the quick fix and wedged the useless limb in the broken doorframe and leaned his weight on it until it popped. If he’d been human that would have done irreparable damage to the joint, but as a shifter a few hours would make him good as new. Not really, he’d be in a lot of pain but that was then, for the moment the nerves would be in shock and numb from the trauma.

The solid wooden door hung precariously from the one remaining hinge that was intact. He shoved it open and discovered that there was another section of the farmhouse, as if there had been an extension build to join the main house to a smaller building that must have been used for the hands at one point.

Rylan’s scent was much stronger here.

Keeping his steps light, he continued tracking his mate.

The scent of blood made him break into a run and when he noticed a splatter of crimson on the light wood floor, Micah lost all sense of being careful. His wolf snapped at him to go faster and clawed him from the inside. If Micah looked down, he wouldn’t be surprised to see claw wounds across his stomach.

He knew there were more guards, this time shifter ones around the bend but he didn’t slow down as he turned the corner. If they were trained at all, the security crew should have shifted the second they scented him. One was a wolf, but the others were large cats. If they had all shifted they might have taken him out.

Instead their first reaction when they saw him was to laugh.

Stupid shifters.

Admittedly a naked man charging at them wasn’t likely to be the most intimidating of scenes, but it didn’t worry him. The guards could laugh all they want, it would give Micah an advantage. A laughing man couldn’t react quickly.

As if to prove his point two of the four guards reached for their guns, but they were just too slow. Micah closed the distance between them and slammed his fist into the one’s face while kicking out at the other.

Behind them was another door, this one metal, with an electric keypad next to it on the wall. Rylan had to be through there. The small scuffs on the floor leading to the door said that someone had been dragged inside.

The two who’d been laughing hardest caught up and reached for their own weapons. Too late. Rage arose inside him, bubbling beneath the surface and he used the anger to fuel him.

Ducking down, he swept his leg around and expertly kicked the shifter’s feet out from under them, smiling when they fell like dominoes.

The guards were more like turtles on their back than agile shifters as they struggled to get back to their feet. Micah snaked out a hand and broke the greasy-haired cat shifter’s nose.

He combat-rolled to the other cat shifter, blocking the untrained strikes aimed at his head with his feet instead. A kick to the jaw sent the male backward with enough force to knock him out when he hit the solid stone walls.

“Shoot him, Gary!”

Micah turned to see the one with the greasy hair fumbling with a dart gun. It must be some kind of tranquilizer. Trevor must not want them dead. The former alpha was too sly not to have a backup plan in case their headquarters was compromised.

In a flash, he stood, put one foot to Gary’s knee to boost up onto the man’s shoulder. He wrapped his other leg quickly around the man’s throat, tucking his foot into the guy’s armpit and threw himself forward. The move effectively flipped them both over and forced Gary’s body to take the impact of their combined weight.

Micah jumped up and fell into a fighting stance, expecting one of the others to come at him. No one moved.

All four shifters were out cold.

“Okay, then,” he said, assessing the shifters one last time. He kicked the tranquilizer guns down the short hall away from them in case they woke up. Micah didn’t take one with him, it would only hinder him. Especially since he didn’t know what the fuck was in the cartridges. He did however take the only real gun the guards had had.

Remy, Hunter and Ryder shouldn’t be that far behind him.

He took a deep breath to help calm his pulse and focus past the rush of adrenaline that wanted him to rush through this door. That wouldn’t work. Trevor had to be in here, his scent, along with Rylan’s was too strong for anything else.

As he pressed his ear up against the door he could hear whimpering.

Micah pulled back and smothered the growl from his wolf, concentrating on the keypad. It could be any combination, any date or sequence. The panel looked to be wired to the door and Micah wasn’t competent enough with techie stuff to try and hot wire it or whatever you did to electric keypads to get them to open without the code.

That left him with one option. Guess the code.

He quickly discarded Trevor’s date of birth, the asshole wouldn’t share information about himself with his staff. Micah tried the date Trevor lost the challenge to Remy and got kicked out of the pack. If Trevor was consumed with the need for revenge then it might be that.

He entered the code and waited. Nothing happened.

He tried the date Trevor took over the pack...nothing.

“Think!” He rubbed the heel of his hand on his forehead.

Trevor was cruel, sadistic, sneaky, vain, arrogant and clever.

As he stared at the keypad he became aware that the buttons weren’t just numbers, they had letters at the bottom.

“Vain...Trevor loves himself, he’s narcissistic and thinks he’s superior to everyone else,” he muttered, getting an idea.

Taking a chance, Micah typed in the code, 873867. In other words TREVOR.

The small digital screen light up and confirmed that the code was accepted.

“Son of a bitch,” he gasped, amazed.

The door unlocked and Micah quickly opened it and slipped through the gap. He looked around for something to wedge between the door and the frame to stop it locking again.

The only thing he had was the gun he’d stolen from the guards. He couldn’t afford to waste time going back to find something else. Grudgingly, he put the weapon down on the floor and used it to stop the door closing.

A few feet from him there was a large area sectioned off with heavy wooden barrier—probably where the logs for the fire had been stored in the past. If he could make it to that, he would be hidden from view. Micah took a deep breath and ran. His bare feet on the stone didn’t make a sound.

That done, he turned around and surveyed where he was. It looked like yet another joined extension, this time the building appeared to have been used as a blacksmith at some point. The overly large and open stone fireplace with the intricate iron hanging rests on the walls gave it away.

On the plus side, he spotted an iron poker to his left.

Picking it up, he tested it in his hands. It was heavy but surprisingly well balanced. In all it was a good weapon in a pinch.

The fire roared and burned with the familiar scent of the smoke Trevor had used on Remy’s pack—probably to try and keep his guards and prisoner compliant. Micah was hoping the damn smoke would hide his scent for long enough that he could attack.

Creeping to the edge of the wooden shield, he looked more closely around the room. From his position, he could only see half the room but it was enough that he knew how many people were in here with him.

Surprise didn’t begin to cover it when he saw there were no more guards. He’d have expected Trevor to surround himself with them. Although, if there was heavy traffic coming in and out of the place, it would have increased the chances of Trevor’s posse being noticed by Remy’s patrols.

The guards, he’d seen had also all been in control of their own mind. Shifters for hire weren’t rare, but the clearly inexperienced ones like those Micah left knocked out in the hall were green. Their tranquilizer kits, the black uniform and their lack of discipline made him think they were being trained.

But why would Trevor be using green shifters as guards? Unless...Trevor was keeping them around so he could experiment on them. Maybe that was where he was getting new subjects since Remy had put the word out to other packs about Trevor. Only a handful of shifters had been reported missing from other packs in the neighboring states. That was a big drop from the hundred or so from before Remy circulated Trevor’s photo and warned other alphas of what Trevor might promise or threaten.