A tiny thread of concern began in my chest and wound itself around my heart, squeezing as I slowed the truck and examined my surroundings.
I was in what I’d normally consider an industrial area, but between the rampant weeds on the shoulders of the road and the boarded up warehouses with overgrown parking lots, it seemed to have been abandoned for a good long time.
The concern knotted itself into dread as I reset my phone, hoping for a nearby tower to connect to.
Nothing.
Spinning the truck around in the center of the road, I stomped on the gas pedal, the tires screeching as the truck jumped forward, leaving who knows how much rubber on the road. As soon as my phone chimed to tell me it had located a signal, I was swiping the screen but before I could dial, a second notification sounded, alerting me to a new voicemail.
The knots of dread winding themselves into a ball as Paul’s sleepy voice came through the speaker.
Sorry I missed seeing you this morning, Alpha.Paul’s voice was rough with sleep and sexy as hell.I found your message and I’ll be waiting for you at lunch time.In the background of the message, I heard the doorbell ring and my jaw clenched as the realization that I’d been sent on a wild goose chase to get me out of the way set in. On the message, Paul laughed, not realizing there was any risk.It sounds like another one of your deliveries is here, Sy, so I better go.
The message switched to the automated operator and it was all I could do not to crush the phone as I waited for the timestamp. It had been nearly forty minutes since Paul had opened my front door to danger.
I stabbed my finger on his name, praying to any God listening that I was overreacting and Paul was fine, only to growl in frustration when I was immediately dumped into voicemail.
Son of a bitch!
As I flew down the road, I tried desperately to think of anyone closer than me that I could call to check on Paul but kept coming up empty. Even the local police department would take more time to arrive for a simple welfare check than it was going to take me to make it home. And, if I was right and somethingwasterribly wrong, having to answer a bunch of questions would only slow me from regaining my family and punishing the bastards that had dared to touch what was mine.
The question of whether or not Paul had met with trouble was answered before I’d even exited my truck, the air was thick with the sour taste of fear more than an hour after that damned voicemail message had been left. Still, I made a cursory check of the house, crumpling up the obviously fake note saying Paul had simply chosen to move on and throwing it on the floor.
As if.
I began unbuttoning my shirt with one hand, tapping out a text to Chuck over at ODI with the other. My inner beast could track Paul more effectively than my human form, but we would need someone on standby to bring us home. Naked, I waited for his thumbs-up response before slipping my phone into the small, silk pouch that I’d owned for more years than I could even remember. Zipping it closed, I slid the long cord over my neck and stepped out onto the front porch.
If I’d had any close neighbors, I imagine that it would have been disturbing for them to watch as my human body strained to stretch into the nearly fifty-foot reptilian form that I harbored on a daily basis. From high on my thick trunk protruded small arm-like appendages that were capped off with wickedly curved claws.Instead of the graceful head of a dragon, mine stretched intothe wide, flat triangular skull of a constrictor while the fangs protruding announced that I hailed from a time before the species had split and specialized their chosen weapons.
That I had all of those weapons and more, besides.
That I was a monster most dangerous of a time long ago.
When I shifted, my animal hindbrain took over. My long, forked tongue drawing in the air, tasting it, savoring it. Dissecting the various layers until I’d ingrained Paul’s scent in the Jacobsen’s organs in the roof of my mouth. Tasting the air again, I keyed in on the path that would lead me to my prey and in a silence that seemed implausible given the size of me, I slid off into the grass with the single-minded determination of a hunter who rarely failed.
The hunt was on.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Paul
“What?” I stared blankly at the hulking man standing on Sylas’s front porch holding a silver handgun instead of the surprise delivery that I’d anticipated when I opened the door.
“I saidget your twink ass out here now!” the man snapped, shaking the gun impatiently.
I don’t know if it was the shock of having a gun pointed at me or the fact that I’d only had one sip of my coffee before the doorbell rang but I just shook my head. “You can’t be serious,” I huffed. “I don’t even have shoes on!”
“Not my problem,” the intruder huffed back, waving the gun more menacingly. “I’m not going to ask you again, bitch!”
“Bitch? Really?” I rolled my eyes, turning my back on him. “I’m not going anywhere barefoot.” I turned back into the house an instant before the back of my head exploded with pain and everything went dark. The next thing I remember was waking up in the backseat of a compact SUV, my wrists and ankles were bound and my head was pounding horribly.
“Why the fuck did you hit him?” a sharp female voice sniped. “I told you no injuries!”
“The little fag will be fine,” a male voice growled back, clearly annoyed at being questioned. “I didn’t hit him that hard. Besides, he tried to run.”
As much as I wanted to call the dumbass out as a liar, I forced myself not to interrupt. No point in letting them know they had an audience.
“Besides,” the man continued, “it’s not like it really matters. As soon as he signs the papers, we’re offing him anyhow. Dad doesn’t want to get caught with the evidence.”
