“Cheyenne’s been taken.”
We search everywhere. It takes a few hours, but we can’t find anything. Marcello tries to locate Luca or Nicky from their phones, but that leads us to the hotel where I had the car parked for the past few days. It’s not been a secret where I’ve been going or who I’ve been going with.
Up until now, the rat has only been focused on cutting off our imports, weakening our position with the other crime families, and financially tryingto ruin our business rather than making it too personal. He hasn’t gone after kids or anyone’s mate before. It’s always been a direct attack on our made men.
But now that I know it’s Luca, it makes more sense why certain people were shot or arrested. They were all people he never wanted in the organisation, but who I saw the potential in. Men and women alike he didn’t think were strong enough to be wolves. Luca only wanted one type of man in our family, and I refused to listen to his bigotry.
I’ve been so fucking stupid.
The sun begins to rise. I haven’t transformed back, so I’ve been stalking around the grounds like a feral beast. I can’t calm down. Wherever Cheyenne is, I can’t feel her. My heart breaks with every passing moment. Two days together and already our connection has become vital to my existence.
“Tino!” Junelle shouts from the back of the villa. “Tino!”
I race through the woods and leap over the stone wall. Junelle and Marcello are standing in the doorway waving me over. I stand as I near them, towering and panting.
“We’ve found her,” Junelle’s voice trembles as she presses her thumb on the screen of Cheyenne’s phone. It unlocks smoothly and opens onto a map. A littlegreen dot appears in the shape of a pair of headphones. “She must have put them in her pocket.”
“She’s down at the marina, Tino. How do you want us to proceed?” Marcello asks.
My breathing stutters. We’ve got her, hopefully. I wrap my arms around them both, unable to stop the racing of my heart.
“Round everyone up,” I say when I pull back from the hug. “I want you and Andrea to stay behind with the humans. Junelle, make Nonna show you where the weapons are stored. She won’t want to because I know she’s still holding onto the grenade launcher I told her to get rid of. I don’t want to risk anyone’s safety here, but right now we need her to be a bit trigger-happy. Lock everyone in the wine cellar until we’re back.”
“Do you think Luca is capable of ordering an attack on the villa and taking us on at the same time?” Marcello asks.
“I don’t know, but I have every intention of bringing my mate back alive before this wedding.”
Outside the marina, my heart freezes in my chest. Fear grips me like it never has before. I’m surrounded by my family, wolves I would trust with my life, but I can’t move forward. My breathing turns ragged, theback of the SUV suffocating me. My claws dig into my fur, scratching at something that won’t fade away.
I still haven’t been able to turn human again. The adrenaline is forcing my body to stay this way, ready to attack, ready to kill. The last shred of my sanity tells me this fear that is caving in my chest is good. It’s Cheyenne’s fear. It’s proof she is very alive and awake.
Focus on that truth, focus on her.
“We’ve got armed guards wandering the docks,” Dino says through the car speaker. “No clue if Luca has turned them, but they haven’t noticed me yet.”
The fact that these guards can’t tell they’re boxed in is enough for me. Luca hasn’t invested in the strongest men he could find, he’s surrounded himself with blind followers. None of these guards will pose a threat too great for him, and therefore too great for us. If what Giuseppe said is true, they’ve been soldan ideaof becoming truly powerful, but now they will die for their failures.
“We take them out quietly. Luca most likely knows we are here, but I don’t want a police swarm or tourists getting too close. Wait until you see me before you make a move.” I signal for Cristina to turn off the car.
Everything quiets.
We move slowly down from the steep incline, past quiet shops and shuttered rental properties. Nobody is awake this early on a Saturday. Even the producemarket won’t begin setting up in the piazza for another two hours. Nobody notices a giant werewolf or the crew of armed men breaking into the marina.
I rip out the throat of the first man I come upon. He’s big and too muscular to be fast. His blood sprays across my front as he tries to breathe his last breath. Around me, Ugo and Dino have partially shifted. They work in tandem, hacking and slashing away. A shot rings out and Cristina drops to her knees, blood dripping down her shoulder.
It doesn’t keep her down, though. She transforms, and before I can take two steps towards the fuckwad who shot her, Cristina tears his head from his body. She tosses it onto some poor fisherman’s boat and moves on to the next guy.
We have the whole marina cleared out in minutes. Bodies are strewn across the docks. Ugo is pissing on one of them while Dino looks disgusted. Cristina steals the shirt off one of the bodies as she shifts back to her human form.
“Head for the office, they’ll be in there,” I bark orders. “Leave Luca to me.”
It’s eerily quiet. A few dogs run out of the building once we pry the doors open, but that’s all we hear. This is a small three-story warehouse and resource offices for the marina. There isn’t much here, but it’s enoughto keep us busy searching room after empty room for signs of life.
It’s not until we are in the stairwell moving to the final floor that I hear Cheyenne. She’s screaming bloody fucking murder. I break ahead of the group on all fours, snarling like a beast to get to my mate.
The top floor is one open room of desks. Luca and Nicky are standing, wolves out and teeth bared as I barrel towards them. Luca and I meet head-on. His claws dig into my fur as I sink my teeth into his shoulder. Nicky jumps on my back and wraps his arm around my throat.
It’s like he’s learned nothing since he got made. A dog pile isn’t going to stop a wolf from protecting their mate. And two rats will never take down the family.
