Chapter Six
Boone trailed after Jackie, knowing his brother would stop the man’s flight for freedom. His heart ached at the pain he had seen in Jackie’s eyes and heard in his voice. Something horrible had happened to his mate, and shifters were responsible.
Boone wanted to kill them.
He just needed to find who they were first. With that thought in mind, he stepped into Jackie’s living room. He gave a quick nod to Hugh before returning his attention to Jackie. He wasn’t surprised the man was on the phone. He had heard him speaking with Hugh.
He was surprised by the tight-lipped expression that crossed Jackie’s face as he hung up and put his phone away. Apparently, the guy hadn’t liked what he heard.
“Elder Hamilton says I should tell you what happened because you’re the alpha in this area,” Jackie said as he rubbed his arms, “but I think it would be better if I just packed up and moved somewhere else.”
“No!” Boone didn’t realize he’d shouted the word until Jackie’s frightened gaze turned to him. He blew out a breath as he pushed a hand through his hair. “There’s no reason for you to move, Jackie. You’re safe here. I promise.”
An agonized expression crossed Jackie’s face. “You can’t promise that.”
“I can promise that!” Boone stomped across the room and drew Jackie into his arms. His voice lowered almost to a whisper. “I can promise that, baby.”
Jackie curled his hands into Boone’s shirt, holding on as if Boone were the only thing keeping him from fracturing. “You don’t know what they did, what they can do. You don’t understand how dangerous they are.”
“Who is they, Jackie?” Hugh asked.
Jackie’s voice was muffled in Boone’s shirt when he replied. “The men who took me.”
Boone didn’t mean to growl, but he couldn’t help it. He was a lion shifter after all, and someone had hurt his mate. It was either growl or roar, and he was pretty sure that would send Jackie screaming into the night.
Boone didn’t know if Jackie hadn’t heard it or was ignoring it, but the man just kept on talking.
“They took me right off the street. They grabbed me and tossed me into a van and knocked me out. When I woke up, I was in a cage along with some other guys.” A heart-wrenching sob shook Jackie’s body. “The things they did to us…”
Boone stroked his hand through Jackie’s silky hair, trying to give him comfort. “What did they do, baby?”
“They experimented on us, shot us up with drugs that turned us…turned us…” Jackie’s gray eyes were flooded with tears when he raised his head and looked up at Boone. “They turned us into shifters.”
“Holy fuck! SP7,” Hugh said as he jumped to his feet. “They gave you SP7, didn’t they?”
Jackie nodded. “That’s what Elder Hamilton called it.”
Boone didn’t know whether to shout for joy that his mate was a shifter or rage at the world for what had been done to him. Both options were a possibility.
“Have you shifted?” Hugh asked.
“No, not yet, but Elder Hamilton said it’s only a matter of time. The others…they’ve all shifted already.”
“Baby, you know what those men did to you was wrong, right?” Boone had to be sure Jackie understood that. “Even by shifter standards, it was wrong. We don’t do shit like that.”
“Our brother Tre and his mates, Dennis and Nyle, were the ones who helped free you and bring the others to justice.”
“But not all of them,” Jackie said as he turned to look at Boone. “I think that’s who’s after me.”
Boone frowned. “Who?”
“They called him Drummond. Elder Hamilton said he was human, but…” Jackie shook his head. “I don’t know if that’s true.”
“It’s true, baby,” Boone assured the man. “Elder Hamilton wouldn’t lie to you.”
Jackie’s eyes clouded.
“Not all shifters are bad, Jackie,” Hugh said. “Most of us just want to live our lives in peace.”
