They were ready.
I glanced back at the SUV. Jade was looking back at me, with an intense, warm focus, and for a second, I felt as if I were the only person there. She had a way of doing that when she looked at me. She made me feel as if I were the only thing she saw. As if I were the only thing worth seeing. It was kind of surreal. Even when we were about to attack — and kill — a pack of werecougars, she could still make me feel as if I were it for her just by a look. As if I were her home.
The moment didn’t last long. Jade gave me an eye roll, and then a little chin jerk. The girls had, I noticed, piled into the SUV. Low growls filled my ears, and a throaty, seductive laugh came from behind me. I knew the laugh. I’d heard it before. Erika.
But those growls … they needed to stop. I spun on the pack, most of who were already in wolf form. “Enough,” I said. I let my scent gather and roll off me quickly in a warning, and the growls died down.
“Come on,” Erika said, tugging on the tall one’s hand. “I’ve got some friends waiting to meet you in that SUV over there.” She batted her lashes, and giggled. “I think you’ll like them.”
The four of them made their way across the yard, and I was a little surprised to see that the cougars didn’t seem at all worried about the wolves scattered around them.
Stupid, I thought, and wondered how they’d managed to hide from us for so long. But I figured I knew the answer to that. Jeff. He was obviously the brains behind the whole uniting shifters thing, and I bet he was the one who’d kept them on the move, jumping locations, and hiding in hunting camps. He was also the one who fed their sick addiction.
My inner-wolf paced restlessly within me, just itching for the moment he could tear into these monsters, and as they got closer, it was a struggle to keep him, and my steady gaze, in place. “Sorry for misunderstanding, guys,” I said. “Hope there’s no hard feelings.”
“Not a problem,” the short one said, wrapping an arm around Laura. “She’ll make up for it.” He looked around then, eyeing the wolves curiously. “You guys going somewhere?”
I shrugged. “Nowhere, really. Just a run. Wanted to see the girls off before we left. Make sure they didn’t give you any problems.”
“Why would we give them problems?” Laura asked, mystified. “We volunteered, and honestly, I can’t wait to meet them all.” Her scent was screaming excitement, mixed with a little touch of nerves. And the cougars were responding to it, although it wasn’t in the way they probably should have been. They were breathing it in, nostrils flaring, their scents matching hers. It was perfect. She mimicked Erika’s throaty laugh and smiled demurely.
Yep, definitely stupid.
I chuckled. “Glad to hear it.” I glanced at the tall one, and smiled a little. “You take care of my girls, now.”
“We will,” he said, and with that, Erika and Laura tugged them over to the waiting vehicle.
I didn’t watch them go. I couldn’t. My inner-wolf was pushing to get out, frantic to stop them, and I knew that if I tried to watch, I’d wind up doing something stupid that would ruin everything. So I looked to Jade and she gave me that warm you’re my home gaze. She smiled. I smiled. She waved. I waved.
And then she jumped into the truck and it growled to life, and as it started to inch forward, I turned back to my pack.
“Let’s get this done,” I said, and yanked my shirt off. I pulled the button and zipper open on my jeans, letting them fall. Adrenaline hit me hard and fast, the rush of the shift pulsed through my veins, and I let my inner-wolf spring free.
~ JADE ~
The drive would have been so much better if Tommy actually talked.
Tommy wouldn’t talk to me. I tried everything. I asked about Chris. His response was two words: gone home. I tried to go over the plan, he said three words: you know it. I even tried to talk about the weather and all I got to that was a grunt.
I didn’t think it was me exactly. After about five minutes into the drive, I decided that he just really wasn’t a talker. The problem with not talking, though, was that the silence was killing me. It was giving me way too much time in my head, imagining all the ways that Aidan or Dominic or Beck or Landon or Erika or Laura or any of the pack members for that matter, could die.
A week ago, I probably would have laughed off the thought of one of us dying by someone outside of our pack as a bad joke, but then Jared died and even though it was Aidan who killed him, it made us all a little less invincible to me. Because if an enforcer could die, any of us could.
I had to admit, even though I was crazy nervous, it had been a pretty smooth drive so far. We passed the checkpoint without a hitch and the girls kept the werecougars occupied during the short stop. Things were going exactly to plan. I wasn’t really sure what I’d expected, but since we’d accumulated five dead bodies in the last twelve hours and they were in the back of the truck, smooth and uneventful, wasn’t it.
I was fidgeting. Wiggling in my seat. Playing with the window. Anything to try to distract myself. And when Tommy gave me a five minute warning, I thought my heart was about ready to give out on me. Then, when the hunting camp came into view, I stopped breathing until my lungs were burning and I was gasping for breath.
“You’ve got to relax, Jade,” he said, as he maneuvered the truck slowly into the small, narrow driveway. He sounded bitter, annoyed, and he cut me a quick look. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
“I’m not worried about me,” I said. My tone was just short of a shout. “I’m worried about those kids and the girls in the car and the pack. I’m freaked out that I’m going to fail them again. I don’t care about my safety. I care about them!”
Tommy put the truck in park, and shut it off. He looked at me then, a thorough, invasive look that felt as if he were seeing right through me. He narrowed his eyes and pulled in a few deep breaths and then, he nodded, as if he’d found whatever he’d been looking for. “I won’t let you fail them.” And he sounded completely sure of that.
I nodded, because, well, I didn’t have a clue what to say to that. He must have accepted my nod as some kind of agreement, because he looked away. He did a quick, thorough sweep of the area, and for a long moment, there was nothing. No movement, no people. Nothing.
The cabin, a rustic looking log structure, looked empty — almost deserted. If it weren’t for the fire pit blazing and what looked like a pig rotating within the flames, I would have sworn no one was here.
The yard, if you could even call it that, was small. There was a clothes line strung up, running from one side of the cabin to the nearest oak, filled with clothing, and a few picnic tables that looked set for a meal.
I glanced behind us and spotted the girls parked at the bottom of the driveway, off to the side. Erika was at the wheel, scanning the dense forest beside them and I wondered, briefly, what the others were doing to keep the cougars distracted and in the SUV. But then I felt like throwing up, and I thought it was probably best not to think about it.
They know what they’re doing. They wanted to do this. It was their idea.
“Cabin,” Tommy said. “The curtains just moved.”
I swiveled back around. He was right. The curtain twitched, parting just a little in the center, and then fluttered closed again.
“What do you think they’re waiting for?” I whispered. I wasn’t sure why I was whispering, but that’s how my voice had chosen to work.
“Probably waiting for us to leave.”
“Then we should get out,” I said, and reached for the door handle.
Tommy’s hand clamped down onto my shoulder and held me back. “Not yet,” he said. “Aidan’s team is to your right. I spotted Beck up ahead and Craig to his left. No sign of Mark and Landon yet. We should wait until they come out. Buy the others some more time to get into place.”
I snapped my gaze to the right and peered out the window, searching for Aidan. It took a long second before I spotted a flash of his black coat amongst the trees and folia
ge, but when I spotted him, my anxiety started to melt, and I felt the game face I’d been faking for the last hour, fix into place. My inner-wolf started to stir, urging me to get moving, and I looked back at Tommy. “The girls ...”
“They’re fine,” he interrupted. “There are six of them in that SUV. Only two cougars in there with them. You’re not going to let them down. Trust me, we need to wait.”
My inner-wolf didn’t like that response. She reared up, clawing and pressing against my chest. She didn’t want to wait. She wanted to get outside, get things moving, and get back to her mate, and it took a whole lot of effort to force her back into the pit of my stomach. But I managed, and gave him a gasping nod. “Okay. We wait.” Because it was probably the smart thing to do, right? We didn’t even know if all the werecougars were actually in that cabin.
It took another seven long minutes for more movement from the cabin, but this time it wasn’t twitching curtains. The door swung open and a group of men filed out.
And then there were people all around us, circling the truck and the SUV behind us. It felt like a heck of a lot more than fourteen, but with a quick count, I found out it was fourteen exactly.
Someone stopped next to the truck and peered in the window. It was a lean, medium height man. He was good-looking, too, maybe twenty-five years old, with dusty-blond hair, and startlingly bright green eyes. He had a surprisingly friendly smile, considering we had five of his pack members dead in the bed of the truck. And I had no doubt that he knew they were there even though they were covered up in blankets and tarps. I could smell them and I had all the windows closed. He was even wearing a faded T-shirt with a big yellow smiley face on it.
Not really what I was expecting.
He waved and tapped on the window. His smile grew and if it weren’t for the overwhelming smell of cougar, I would have thought we were in the wrong place.
I pulled in a deep breath as I reached for the door handle, and again, Tommy grabbed my shoulder and stopped me. I sent him a sharp look and I swore I saw amusement in his eyes. “Slow down,” he said. “Just roll down the window and tell him why we’re here.”
I shrugged off his hand and pressed the bottom for the window to slide down. As soon as it was open a few inches, the man asked, “You lost?” He had a nice voice. Deep and smooth.
That probably shouldn’t have thrown me off, but mixed with his friendly smile, and the big smiley face on his shirt, it did for a second. And I found myself genuinely smiling back as I said, “Nope. I’m Jade Shaw and I’m looking for my dad.”
CHAPTER 20
~ AIDAN ~
Being stealthy in the fall was seriously not an easy task. Dried up leaves seemed to be everywhere and each time one of my wolves stepped on them, the crunching sound was deafening. And with most of the leaves now on the ground, the forest felt open, as if there were no coverage, nothing to keep us hidden.
It sucked.
I circled my group along the west side of the cabin, moving in slowly, creeping as quietly as we could. The place felt almost … abandoned. Through the trees, the yard looked empty. And it was quiet. Too quiet. The only sounds seemed to be coming from us as we moved into place.
But I could smell them. The cougars were here. That bitter lemon and birch bark scent was thick in the air. Suffocating.
There were two barbed wire cages at the side of the building. They were empty, but seeing them, knowing what they were used for, and knowing that I’d sent some of my females here, tied my stomach into knots.
Don’t think about it. They’ll never get close enough to see the inside of those cages.
Jade and Tommy were already in place. From my position, I could just make out their outlines within the truck. It was parked in the narrow looking driveway, probably twenty feet from the cabin, and behind it, as close to the tree line as it could get, was the SUV.
Up ahead, I spotted one of the other groups, waiting. Beck’s light gray coat stood out, in stark contrast with the browns and reds and oranges of the forest. I hadn’t spotted any of the other groups yet, but I could hear them. A twig snapping. Dry leaves crumbling. They were here, closing in and surrounding the yard.
Minutes passed and everything was still. It was as if the entire forest were holding its breath. Waiting. Watching.
It seemed quiet, very, very quiet.
Jade and Tommy still hadn’t gotten out of the truck. I figured they were probably seeing something that I couldn’t. Something that held them inside. Something that kept them waiting.
They had to be in the cabin, I thought. It was the only place for them to hide. If they were in the woods, we would have come across them. We would have spotted them. With so many of us surrounding the camp, I was sure of that.
A dark, weighted feeling gathered in the pit of my stomach and I fought the urge to growl. If they were in the cabin, the kids would be, too, and I wasn’t entirely sure how to get in, grab them, and get them out without drawing attention. I’d been counting on them being out in the open, and using Jade and the girls as a distraction to snatch them away.
Another minute passed. And another. And then, the door on the hunting camp banged open, and a group of men stalked out. They fanned out around the truck as another stream of them spilled out of the building, moving toward the SUV.
I kept my eyes peeled, searching for the children. Waiting for them. But there were things happening. People were gathering around both of the vehicles. Talking. Arguing.
Jade, Tommy, the girls, they hadn’t gotten out yet, but still, I didn’t like what I was seeing, and I could tell that the group with me didn’t like it either.
A man, not much older than me, approached the truck, and Jade rolled her window down. She said something to him, something that made him stiffen, and his hands curled into fists.
Everyone else froze. The talking, the arguing, all of it just stopped.
Dominic nudged my side and whimpered quietly. He swung his head toward the truck. I knew exactly what he wanted. Damn, we all wanted to move in, but the kids ...
I thought I heard something, and I froze. So did the others. And a half second later, I knew I heard something. A light, almost delicate, thump, and then another, and then another, all coming from right behind us.
I exchanged a quick look with the others, and as a unit, we pivoted, teeth bared and deadly growls rolling out.
~ JADE ~
Dead silence. My stomach lurched. Everyone outside was frozen, staring at me. And that infectious, friendly smile on the guy standing at my window was changing into something not so friendly — something dark.
He leaned in closer to the window and the look on his face was hard. The door latch popped and he yanked it open. “Get out.”
I glanced at Tommy. He gave me a small nod, and I turned back to the guy. “Um, yeah, sure. Is my dad here?”
“Depends,” he said, and gestured for me to get out.
“Depends on what?” I asked, as I swung my legs around to hop down. I guessed I wasn’t moving fast enough for him because his hands circled my waist and he lifted me out of the truck.
Tommy growled. It was low and rough and fierce, and by the time my feet hit the ground, he was already out of the truck and beside me. His hand closed around my wrist, yanking me away from the smiley face guy.
“Tommy, I’m good,” I said, attempting, and failing, to shake off his too tight grip. “Seriously, let go. I’m good.”
He didn’t let go, but did loosen up a little. They stared off for an angry moment, and I was uncomfortably aware of the werecougars moving in around us. I also thought I heard a whimper coming from where I’d spotted Aidan, but it was hard to be sure. My blood was pumping fast, my heart, pounding in my ears, and my head was starting to get a little fuzzy from the continuous stream of adrenaline that flooded through me as my inner-wolf fought to come out.
“I want to see my dad,” I said, and tried to sound demanding. It probably would have been more convincing if I wasn’t so frazz
led. “He told me to come here if I changed my mind.”
The guy raised his eyebrows and his green eyes sparkled with cold amusement. “I bet he told you to kill some of my pack mates and bring them with you, too.”
“No,” I said shortly, staring first at him, then at Tommy. We exchanged a look that I didn’t understand and I shrugged helplessly. “Look, it was either me or them.” I sighed, looking back to the guy. “I didn’t have much of a choice. But I figured you guys might want to bury them or something so I brought them.”
“How considerate of you.”
I shook my head in response and found myself looking at Tommy again. He turned his head and looked at me briefly, and I hoped he caught the huge what the hell? in my expression. But if he did, he ignored it.
The men were still inching in and I eased back, shaking off Tommy’s hand. No one else was talking. Not even a whispered sound had passed amongst the werecougars since I’d mentioned my name.
The guy, who I assumed was the official werecougars’ spokesperson, let out an assumed chuckle. He looked like he was about to say something I wasn’t going to like, but froze when Tommy grumbled, “She brought a peace offering.”
Tommy glanced at the SUV and waved a hand, then leaned back against the truck, folding his arms over his chest, and watched the proceedings with what looked like detached interest.
Erika was the first to come out. She didn’t hesitate, strutting toward us, chin high and shoulders back. Laura was next and attached to her was one of the werecougars. She was giggling and smiling and if I hadn’t known any better, I would have sworn she was actually into the guy.
One by one, my females came forward, smiling, offering little waves. They pushed their way into the circle of men surrounding me and Tommy and the truck. But the two werecougars we’d brought back didn’t follow them. They paused and blended into the circle around us.