With the steep banks corralling me in from the sides and the fact that the first two shifters are all Obi-Wan with the high ground, there’s nowhere for me to go, so… I shift. Being naked and vulnerable isn’t exactly my best idea, but at least I can talk in this form. Maybe these guys can be reasoned with?
“Hey, uh, so… how’s it going? What are you guys doing out here?” I mentally face-palm. Could I sound even more suspicious?
“Neil Cahill?” asks Dart Gun Guy.
My stomach drops. This situation just gets worse and worse. Why in the hell do they know my name? And why would they be looking specifically for me?
When I don’t respond, one of them pulls out a phone, glances at the screen, then shoves it back in his pocket. “Yeah, that’s him.”
“Wait a second,” I say, waving my hands frantically. “What’s going on here?”
But none of them bother to explain. There’s a soft puff-hiss noise of the dart gun followed by a stinging bite of pain in my shoulder. I rip the dart out, but it doesn’t matter. The world goes blurry, and I slide to the ground, my eyes slipping closed only seconds later.
Twenty-Five
Blake
Asthefoginmy mind slowly recedes and my senses return, I find myself in a terrifyingly familiar situation. Once again, I’m trapped in fur with the heavy weight of a collar around my neck and thick metal bars surrounding me.
Nothing makes sense at first, my mind struggling to recall any details, but the memories of how I ended up here gradually filter in, a devastating slideshow of all the ways I’ve failed my mate.
I walked Neil into this, insisted on coming to Rockcastle, and now…
Now, I’m almost right back where I started, and Neil is in danger. There’s nothing I’m more sure of, because even though I’mcurrently alone, and I didn’t recognize the two shifters who took me, there’s no doubt in my mind exactly who arranged all this.
Doyle.
I have no idea how he found us or why he bothered at all, but neither of those things is particularly important. Not when he’s already got me in a collar and a cage.
The only bright spot, a tiny flicker of hope in my chest, is that Neil isn’t here. That unlike Ollie, Neil might have escaped, and the best thing I can do is try to do the same so I can get back to him.
But that’s not going to be easy. Far from it.
The cage isn’t large enough for me to fully stand, my back and shoulders pressing against the top before my legs are more than halfway extended. I shove upward anyway, ramming my body into the top of the cage in the hopes that it might not be as sturdy as it appears. Something creaks, but the bars hold steady, not giving even half an inch.
Maybe I can unbalance it? Get it to fall over?
I shift my weight from side to side, but the cage barely moves, the bottom too heavy and my movements too restricted to give me enough leverage.
The quiet snick of the lock is the only warning I have before the door swings open and the two shifters from earlier file in, Doyle following only a couple seconds later. I didn’t get a good lookbefore the darts knocked me out, but now I can tell Doyle’s two goons are wearing triumvirate uniforms.
Acid fills my throat, breath freezing in my chest. If Doyle has his claws in the triumvirate deep enough that he has a couple of praetorians doing his dirty work…
I shake away the thought. I can’t lose hope. I have to get back to Neil.
Somehow.
The light shining through the doorway illuminates details in the dim room I hadn’t bothered to notice before, and my stomach drops. It drops even further when one of the new arrivals hits the switch, lighting up the entire room.
We’re in a hotel room. And not just any hotel room.
The ugly decor is too similar to the hotel we dropped Raquel off earlier for it to be a coincidence. This is the same hotel, and if I’m not mistaken, the same damn room.
But then, where’s Raquel?
A quick sniff of the air doesn’t pull up the scent of blood and it doesn’t look like there’s been any sort of struggle in here. The bed is still made and nothing’s been knocked over or seems out of place. The bathroom door is closed, but I’m pretty sure the remnants of Raquel’s scent are too faint for her to be in there.
Which means she either got away or… I don’t know.
