Chance clasped a belt around his waist, loaded with silver stars, knives, cartridges for his tranq gun, and a Restrainer collar hung off its backside. He slipped the thin gloves over his hands and donned a vest, two more specialties thanks to Jase, both light as a snowflake, but tough as Kevlar, deflecting blades, bullets, and needles. All of his pack suited up with the same.
“Ready?” Trevor asked.
Chance glanced over everyone, all dressed for battle. “Let’s go.”
They all stepped with stealth, no sound, each following the other in a single line until they reached the carcasses and fell into their designated positions. Before moving out, something wafted through the air. They all lifted their heads. The scent hit all of them at the same time, Olivia and Lindsey’s arousal laden the air.
“Lindsey, her scent is all over,” Trevor whispered. “That bastard raped her.”
“Lindsey isn’t the only one,” Jasmine said. “I can always scent a stimulated woman. Olivia’s scent is there also.”
Chance boiled inside, wanting Smoke’s head. Images ran through his brain of five Lycan raping and abusing Olivia.
He pointed at the same time Trevor did. They all crouched, in parallel of each other, and moved forward as a unit. The wind blew from the South, carrying their scent away and giving them half a chance at surprise. A small stream cut through the center of the ravine. Chance signaled, “step into the stream and follow it.” He had a gut feeling the rogue’s lair would be near the water.
They waded silently up stream only a few hundred yards. Movement. They scattered along the bank, hiding behind anything they could find. Chance stepped ahead, keeping low. He saw Smoke, naked, trudging out of the stream. Smoke lifted his head, sniffed the air, and smiled. He grabbed a pair of jeans off the ground and vanished into a dense copse of trees and bushes.
Chance recognized his mate’s gasping and panting. She was on the edge of orgasm. It aroused him and at the same time he wanted to kick some major Smoke ass. He moved fast toward the trees where he last saw Smoke. Trevor right on his tail, and the others followed close behind.
They got near the trees and found the entrance of an abandoned mine. Dir grabbed Trevor’s shoulder, and Trevor grabbed Chance by the upper arm. Dir signaled, pointing and cupping his hand around his ear, vehicles were coming their way. Chance signaled for Jasmine, Dir, and Jase, “take out the wolves coming in with the vehicles.” He knew from Olivia there were only five wolves all together, and one of them had just gone into the mine shaft. Trevor and Chance could manage whoever was inside. Both were charged high with testosterone in response to their mates’ arousal.
Olivia quieted, Chance heard nothing from inside, but her scent permeated the air, as did Lindsey’s. Trevor crouched, moving slow and meticulous ahead of Chance. The interior went dark the farther into the mine they traveled until the light from the outside disappeared altogether. A faint glow drew them forward. So far no turn-off tunnels inside the mine, so Smoke had taken the same way.
They slowed nearer the glowing light. Chance raised his tranq gun and pulled one of the little silver mist cherry’s from his belt. Trevor also raised his gun, he on one side and Chance on the opposite wall. Chance counted off three using his fingers and they both launched themselves into the room.
* * * *
Lindsey counted five orgasms for Olivia, and the poor thing was still going strong, as soon as Olivia got through one she stormed into the onset of the next. Lindsey knew she played with fire in her attempt at pulling a fast one over on Smoke, but it came easy for her, like nothing had before now. It came easy pleasuring Olivia also.
Lindsey recalled in her early twenty’s the one time she experienced sex with another woman, nothing bad about it, other than the woman left her for a man. That’s when Lindsey decided she also preferred a penis between her thighs. But Lindsey harbored an attraction for Olivia. Her friendship meant too much to ruin with sexual overtures that mostly confused Lindsey anyway.
Again, she pooled her acting abilities into a mind-set moment, and eating Olivia’s pussy became an arousing event worthy of a top-rating applause.
Olivia’s heightened panting and moans, along with her quickened undulating hips, told Lindsey Olivia was near another orgasm. Lindsey nipped and suckled Olivia’s swollen clit, sweeping her over the edge.
Lindsey’s face ripped away from between Olivia’s thighs, the brace lifted off her legs, and the strap around Lindsey’s wrists loosened and fell. Smoke pulled her up by the hair. His thick muscular arm held her away from him. His hair wet, he stood dressed in a pair of jeans and closed the jackknife he’d used cutting her wrists free. He stooped, bending her down with him, and grabbed a T-shirt and jeans from a pile on the floor. They dropped at her feet, Smoke releasing his hold. Lindsey shrugged into the jeans and threw the T-shirt over her head, glad of the covering for her nakedness.
“Wipe your face while your at it, you look like a glazed donut.” He dropped some blankets over the top of Olivia. “She won’t be singing like a rock star anytime soon, she’s too far gone. I haven’t cracked through the drug testing yet.”
“Testing?”
“Hurry, we’re leaving.”
“But, Olivia?”
“My pack will bring her. They’ve got some unfinished business to take care of first.”
He threw Lindsey over his shoulder. “Say good-bye to your friend, you’ll see her again soon.”
Lindsey said nothing. She couldn’t bear the possibility of never seeing Olivia again or leaving her friend in the dire state she was in, but it helped knowing Smoke left Olivia alive.
He ran farther into the mine shaft at lightening speed. Lindsey closed her eyes to the darkness, afraid they’d fall into a hole or something worse. She’d heard about the dangerous conditions of abandoned mines. They weren’t a place anyone should be around in case of cave-ins. They’d been running forever, maybe miles, going deeper and deeper into the earth, and suddenly they broke out of the dark. Late afternoon sun warmed her after the cool temperature in the mine.
“Where are we?” Lindsey asked, but got punched in the bottom.
“Don’t make a sound, not one,” Smoke whispered.
Again he took off at an all-out run, carrying her over his shoulder. Lindsey expected cuts and bruises from low hanging tree branches and bushes, but Smoke missed everything, even when he jumped over fallen trees. The sun sank low in the sky by the time Smoke slowed. He stopped at an old barn, a place Lindsey didn’t recognize. Smoke dropped her to the ground.
“If you try to run, I will kill you, go after your lover, and kill your friend. I trust you will uphold your bargain with me.”
“I won’t run.” Lindsey didn’t have much to live for anyway. She’d just lost the only man she’d ever loved because she stopped him short of consummating their love, and now she wore the mark of a madman. Smoke glared at her, raising the eyebrow over his amber eye.
“So, you think of me as a madman?”
Lindsey tucked all of her thoughts back into the secret box of her consciousness and smiled at him. “You can’t deny you look and act like a madman. Be honest.”
“True, but I forbid you to ever think about your lover again. If not, maybe I’ll get rid of him so you’re never tempted to betray your real mate.” He smiled. She remained sober, realizing his smile would require more of her concentrated effort, no reacting in a startled way. She ignored the side of his mouth that buried deeper than his razor sharp teeth. “You’re with me now, Lindsey. Don’t ever forget that, and don’t make me remind you. It won’t end in a good way for you.”
Smoke pushed aside a huge sliding door. A black tinted window SUV was parked inside. It looked like a Tahoe, big. He opened the passenger side door for her.
“Get in.”
Lindsey climbed into the seat, using the running board. Smoke slammed the door, walked around the back, and then came around carrying the keys.
“Let’s see if the boys left me a full tank of gas. We have a long way to go tonight, darlin’.”
Lindsey almost choked, Smoke sounded just like Trevor. She sucked in a gasp, filling her mind with images of Smoke, a means of protecting her secret place images. She’d have a challenge at forgetting her past. Smoke pulled her across the bench seat. He started the SUV and rolled out of the barn onto the road, heading west.
“Like I said, it’s a long ride. Make me feel like your man, Lindsey.” Smoke unzipped his jeans, releasing his heavy arousal. “Show me you’re my mate.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Chance and Trevor scanned the room, seeing no one. They both saw the pile of blankets move at the same time, and then heard Olivia’s panting moans. Chance charged over and yanked the blankets off, finding a naked Olivia out of her mind with arousal. He fell to his knees and roared. Chance pulled the blind from her unseeing eyes and sliced the ropes around her wrists that held her captive.
“Olivia, I’m here for you, love.” He lifted her into his arms.
“Oh, damn, Chance, they stuffed her ass with a vibrator.” Trevor coiled the hanging wire and handed it to Chance with the control. “Don’t expect me to pull that damn thing out of her. Besides, by the look of her, I think she needs it in there.”
Chance saw all of the opened jars, and he could just imagine what kind of drugs Smoke must have used on her. “Look around for pills or syringes, any kind of drugs. I need to know what that monster gave her.”
Dir and Jasmine walked into the cave with two guys in Restrainer collars and hands bound behind their backs. “Jase shot two others with tranqs, but his cartridges were full of silver. The rogues didn’t make it, so Jase is having a little camp fire, the kind that won’t last long.” Dir noticed Olivia’s state. “Chance, that woman needs some major attention.”
“She would have gotten lots of it tonight,” one of the rogues blurted. Jasmine punched him in the mouth and he fell on his ass.
Trevor snapped up one of the blankets and dropped it over Olivia’s body. Chance wrapped her as best he could while holding her. “I’m taking her to the club-house. Do you have any regular tranquilizers with you?”
“Yeah, I got some,” Jasmine said.
“Shoot these guys before driving them to the club-house, and you know what to do with them there. This mine shaft must have a back entrance, but it could be miles in risky conditions. I suggest we find out more about this place, see where it dumps out, and pick up the search from there in the morning.”
“Boss, I’d like to stay on the search,” Trevor said. “He has Lindsey. I can follow her scent, he hasn’t covered it.”
“Not alone. Take Jase with you. And remain in contact with us by using your cellphone, not through telepathy. Remember he can read us.”
Chance held Olivia closer, as her body trembled in orgasm. Tears ran non-stop from the corners of her closed eyes and her hips undulated in uninhibited abandon. He had a feeling he knew the drug plaguing Olivia. Something new, not on the market, but he’d heard about it. It might take hours before it wore off, depending on when she got it and the dosage. She’d need constant stimulation from the hormones ruling her body. Side effects were still being determined, different for each individual, but supposedly it attacked some part of the brain also. Whatever, he knew the drug was unstable. What else had that bastard taken from Dr. Linden?
Trevor scanned through the boxes of paraphernalia, found an empty syringe, capped the jars and picked them up and anything else that looked suspicious and then dumped it all into the middle of a blanket. He pulled the ends of the blanket together and tied it. “Here you go, Dir. Carry this for Chance.” Trevor winked at Chance. “You’re going to have your hands full, most likely for the entire night.”
Chance noticed the strain etching deep lines between Trevor’s brows. Chance sensed his friend’s concern for his mate. He hoped the monster hadn’t turned her. They’d still have a good possibility of rescuing her, but the longer Smoke had Lindsey, the better odds they’d never see her again. Chance scented her blood and knew what that meant. The son-of-a-bitch marked Trevor’s primal-mate. Trevor knew it also. Chance would be right there with Trevor if he could, but he had his own mate to save.
Chance made a quick pass through the room, scanning and scenting. He picked up Smoke’s blood and quaked at its familiarality, wondering what promoted that monster’s bloodshed. He hoped it hadn’t been some kind of blood exchange. Chance had heard rumors of Smoke making his own army of shifters. It went against the Lycan Doctrine of Brotherhood. Any human turned shifter must be authorized and registered with the High Council of Elders. The punishment for not following that law was instant execution for the one who turned a human.
“Good luck, Trevor. When you get a definite location, I expect a call. We’ll have your back.” Chance carried Olivia outside and saw Jase kicking dirt over a string of ashes. “Trevor needs you with him, Jase. Take plenty of your toys, there are spares inside my truck if you need them. We’ll rally for the take-down.”
“Gotcha, boss.”
They jogged back to their trucks. Jasmine shot the rogues with tranquilizers and dumped them in the back of the truck. Chance laid Olivia across the seat of his truck, while Jase grabbed the spare weapons. As soon as Jase walked away, Chance drove off, leaving the others to follow. He wanted Olivia showered and in their bed so he could wipe away any claim that monster left on her. Thankfully, he hadn’t noticed any outright marking sign on Olivia, with the exception of his own.
She whimpered as another orgasm took control of her shivering body. This might prove a long night for him and a deadly serious condition for his mate. He drove into the parking cavern of the club-house just as the sun set.
He parked and carried Olivia in the elevator and to his suite. He headed straight for the bathroom, where he laid Olivia on the carpet while he undressed. Chance turned on the shower. He opened the blanket and turned Olivia on her side. The vibrator control fell beside her bottom attached with a thin wire to the vibrator buried inside her. He turned it off.