There was no way out.
They were trapped.
Chapter 2
The gates of the SWAT compound were locked as usual, but it wasn’t like that had ever stopped Kat Davenport before. Of course, she normally would have followed the fence around to the left side of the enormous compound and slipped through the small gap that had opened near one of the corner posts. She couldn’t do that now, though, since she was quite a bit bigger than she’d been a few days ago. But that was what happened when she started walking around on two feet instead of four. There were lots of places she couldn’t fit.
But on the bright side, she had hands now. It was difficult to put into words how stoked she was to be able to wiggle her fingers whenever she wanted. It made using magic so much easier. Not that she hadn’t been able to do magic before, while in her cat form, but it had definitely been more complicated.
Taking a moment to calm herself, Kat reached out with her mind and let herself feel the magic around her. She pulled it in, then whispered a simple opening spell—one of the first ones she’d learned when she was a kid—giving her fingers a little wiggle.
She wobbled a little as the magic flowed through her, immediately feeling weak. That wasn’t shocking. She was always wiped out right after her transition from cat to human form. Luckily, she’d found a foreclosed home near the compound where she’d been able to hide. She’d spent the past three days doing little more than sleeping, as well as eating food she’d found in the kitchen cabinets. Thankfully, the people who’d lived there had left some clothes, too, including the jeans, black long-sleeve tee, and tennis shoes she wore. Otherwise, she would have been wrapped in a bedsheet right now.
In front of her, the lock on the gate clicked and fell to the ground with a thud, along with the heavy chain accompanying it.
Success!
Opening the gate, Kat slipped inside. She immediately took note of Connor’s Silver Chevy Silverado parked in the lot next to the rest of the vehicles. He and some of his teammates had left days ago to go to San Antonio, but they were surely back by now. A shiver of nervousness skittered through her, and for about the fiftieth time that morning, she wondered if this was a good idea. As she’d laid on a dingy mattress over the past few days recovering from her magical exhaustion, revealing her secret to Connor had seemed like a no-brainer. He was the closest thing she had to a friend in this so-called life she led. She’d found peace and happiness in his presence for the first time in almost four years. Why wouldn’t she tell him everything?
But now that she was here, seconds away from confronting Connor for the first time in her real human form, doubts crept in. What if he didn’t believe her? What if he thought she was completely delusional and decided to call in the nice people with the wraparound loungewear? What if hedidbelieve her but now didn’t want to be anywhere near her? What if he liked her more as a cat than a person?
Forcing herself to push those fears away, she headed for the collection of buildings that made up the compound. She’d come all this way. She would see it through.
But halfway across the parking lot, she stopped, looking back and forth between the training and admin buildings, wondering where she should look first. At this time of the morning, Connor was usually at his desk in the bullpen, trying to keep up with the paperwork that seemed so much a part of every cop’s life. She remembered spending long hours as a cat watching him hunt and peck his way through the reports on the computer. She smiled at the image of him letting out these adorable little growls whenever he made a mistake, which was frequently.
But on days when the Pack did an extended physical training session, Connor could sometimes be found in the workout room, lifting weights and getting deliciously ripped and sweaty. She suddenly hoped that was where he’d be now. She’d spent several long nights during the past three days fantasizing about running her fingers over his muscular chest. Then again, she’d had that fantasy a few times a week since first meeting him. And now that she had real fingers again, there didn’t seem to be anything keeping her from living out that fantasy.
Kat stood there frozen in the middle of the parking lot, still not sure which way to go. For the first time in years, she actually missed her feline form. She’d grown dependent on a nose that always fed her loads of worthwhile information, including the location of her favorite stud-muffin belly-scratcher.
She was still lost in thought when the door of the admin building opened and Officers Landry Cooper and Eric Becker stepped outside. They both wore curious—though somewhat suspicious—expressions on their faces.
“Ma’am, you can’t just walk in here,” Cooper said. The tall officer with dark hair and brown eyes threw a quick frown at the gate—which was still hanging partially open—like he couldn’t figure out how it got that way. “That’s supposed to be locked.”
Kat gave both werewolves a smile as she walked over to them, trying to appear as casual as she could. “Yeah, I know, but I’m a friend of Connor’s. I needed to talk to him and thought I’d stop by.”
She almost laughed at the shocked expressions on their faces as she breezed past them and into the admin building. Cooper and Becker followed, but she ignored them, making a beeline for the bullpen. Connor wasn’t anywhere in sight, but Rachel Bennett, one of the two female werewolves on the SWAT team, was there, along with a few of her teammates. Even though they seemed as relaxed as they always did, Kat had the sensation that something was wrong.
“Where’s Connor?” she asked.
Before anyone could say anything, Cooper and Becker came around to stand in front of her, almost like they were blocking her way.
“He’s out on a call right now and won’t be back for a while,” Cooper said. “If you could give us your name and phone number, we’ll make sure he gets back to you as soon as he can.”
Mouth tight, Kat glanced at the sign-out board on the far wall. The names of everyone on the team were listed on one side, and there were little colored magnets arranged beside each to let their commander—and alpha of their pack of alphas—Gage Dixon, know who was available for response calls. If Connor and his pack mates didn’t keep it updated religiously, Gage would chew them a new one. She’d watched it happen a time or two. It wasn’t a pretty sight.
There was a team out on a call, red magnets beside those names. Scribbled in barely legible letters beside their names were the wordsUniversity Park, the location of the call.
There was a black dot beside Gage’s name, which meant he was at headquarters.
It was the blue magnets beside Connor’s, Mike’s, Diego’s, Hale’s, and Trevor’s names that worried her. Blue normally indicated training or schooling, but the Pack also used it when someone was out doing something strange and freaky that couldn’t be mentioned to anyone else in the police department. Which was why there’d been a blue dot beside Zane’s name for three weeks.
But it was the words beside all their names that really freaked her out.
San Antonio.
How the hell could Connor and the other guys still be down there looking for Zane? It’d beenthreedays.
Kat was about to call Cooper out for his lie when something thumped into her leg so hard, it almost knocked her off her feet. She looked down to see Tuffie, her best friend and partner in crime, looking up at her with the most baffled expression she’d ever seen on a dog. The precious pit-bull mix leaned forward and gave her a thoughtful sniff, then regarded her with a look as if to say,Did you do something new with your hair?
