He hadn’t seen Sage much since he and the others had brought her back from Tajikistan, but she looked like she hadn’t slept in days. From the wetness on her cheeks, it was obvious she’d been crying, too.
Trevor’s heart went out to her, it really did, but that didn’t stop him from slowly reaching behind his back for the tranquilizer gun. With her hybrid strength and reflexes, Sage was already close enough to attack. Even if he darted her in midair, the sedative wouldn’t take effect for fifteen to thirty seconds. A hybrid could do a lot of damage in that amount of time. He could probably survive an attack like that, but if Sage turned on Alina, his partner probably wouldn’t be so lucky.
The thought of Alina getting hurt bothered him a hell of a lot more than he ever would have expected.
“Alina, start backing away slowly,” he whispered. “Things are about to go all kinds of bad.”
He’d already figured out a while ago that his partner was stubborn, so he wasn’t surprised when she hesitated. But he didn’t expect her to completely ignore him, much less step in front of him to put herself between him and Sage.
Trevor’s gut reaction was to grab her and drag her behind him, but he knew if he did, it would only freak Sage out even more.
“Alina, what the hell are you doing?” he demanded.
“Sage, my name is Alina,” his partner said calmly. “You don’t know me, but I promise that I won’t let anything bad happen to you. We need to get you back home. It’s not safe for you to be out here like this.”
Sage growled, flashing her fangs again. But she made no move to pounce. In fact, he could have sworn the red glow in her eyes dimmed a little. Maybe Sage responded better to women than men? Or maybe she simply responded to Alina. He had to admit she seemed to have a way about her that put people at ease.
Alina must have taken Sage’s hesitation as a good sign, because she stepped closer and held out her hand, palm up. “Will you let me take you home, Sage?”
The gesture seemed to shock Sage as much as it did Trevor, and she took a step back. “It’s not my home,” she growled in a tone that was filled with anguish. “I don’t want to go back there.”
Trevor held his breath as Alina moved closer to Sage again. This was frigging insane.
“Where would you like to go instead, Sage?” Alina asked. “If you could go anywhere, where would it be?”
“I want to go wherever Derek is,” she wailed. “Can you take me to him?”
The look of heart-wrenching despair that crossed her face as she said Derek’s name nearly ripped Trevor’s guts out. He’d expected her to say she wanted to go back to her family in Canada, but Tanner had been right. Her instinctive need to be with the man who’d saved her in Tajikistan was stronger than the urge to go home.
Alina gave Trevor a questioning look, no doubt wondering who the hell Derek was and how they could get him here. Unfortunately, that was going to be tough. The man was still active duty Special Forces. He was lucky to see the States more than a month or so out of the year.
“He’s a soldier,” Trevor said. “He’s probably…”
He’d been about to say Derek was probably deployed, but then he caught sight of Tanner waving his hands and shaking his head. Okay, maybe he wouldn’t talk about that.
“Derek’s currently…hard to reach,” he said instead.
Tears welled up in Sage’s eyes. “Can’t I just talk to him on the phone? Please? If I could hear his voice, that would be enough.”
Alina looked at Trevor again. All he could do was shrug. How the hell could he get hold of a deployed Special Forces soldier when he wasn’t even sure where in the world the man was?
“I promise that when we get back to the complex, I’m going to find Derek and get him on the phone,” Alina told Sage firmly. “I don’t care what I have to do. You’re going to talk to him today. I swear it.”
Sage regarded Alina silently, as if trying to decide if she should believe her. Trevor tightened his grip on the tranquilizer gun behind his back. But as he watched, the last of the red glow slowly faded from Sage’s eyes, her claws and fangs retracting. Then she threw herself into Alina’s arms, tears coming hard and fast.
Alina wrapped her arms around the girl, squeezing her tightly and promising she’d keep Sage safe and get her back with Derek as fast as possible. The heartache pouring out of the poor girl in great racking sobs was difficult for Trevor to watch. Damn, he hated seeing a woman cry. It drove a spike right through his frigging heart. Sage was like a wounded animal who was lost and confused and in pain, not knowing why it was all happening to her. He couldn’t imagine how the girl even held it together.
One arm still around Sage, Alina guided her over to the first row of pews and sat down with her, rocking the girl back and forth and making soothing sounds in her ear as she caressed her dark hair. Trevor had to admit that trusting Alina enough to bring her with him had been one of his better ideas.
Releasing his grip on the dart gun, Trevor gestured for the priest to follow him out of the church. Tanner joined them while Jaxson stayed inside to keep an eye on Alina and Sage. Considering the man had seen everything, Trevor was going to have to do some serious damage control.
“I’ve never seen a shifter lose control like that,” the old man said once they were outside. “Is she ill?”
Trevor gaped. Beside him, Tanner looked just as surprised.
“You know about shifters?” Trevor asked cautiously.
The priest nodded. “Yes. The church has been aware of the existence of these very special people for a long time. Our histories say they were poorly treated at first, but once the clergy finally realized they’re no more evil than any of God’s other creatures, the church took on the role of protecting them and their identities.”
