My vision had gone hazy at the edges, the world narrowing down to a single, brutal truth: Jaime was out there, and I wasn’t. I looked down. My forearm had partially shifted.
Fur ghosted beneath my skin, muscles tight, nails lengthening just enough to bite into my palm.
Dang it. I sucked in a breath and forced my wolf back, snarling internally as I wrestled control away from pure instinct. This wasn’t the time to lose myself. Jaime needed my head clear, not my rage unleashed too soon.
“Sorry,” I muttered, flexing my fingers until the human shape settled again.
Levi didn’t let go right away. He studied me with that sharp, older-brother gaze that saw straight through my bullshit.
“You were starting to turn wolf,” Levi said quietly. “You gotta stay with us.”
I nodded stiffly.Stay and focus, I reminded myself.
That’s right. This was the hotel room. Cooper had mobilized fast. Faster than I’d expected. He’d sent Levi and Tony straight over the moment I confirmed Jaime was taken.
Tony sat at the small desk now, laptop open, fingers flying over the keyboard. The room felt too small. The walls pressed in on me, thick with recycled air and the lingering scents of coffee and stress.
My wolf paced restlessly inside my chest, hackles raised, every instinct screaming that I was in the wrong place. Jaime was out there. Alone with someone dangerous.
Tony laughed softly.
“Hotel security is a joke,” he muttered, then grinned without humor. “But lucky for us, it’s a predictable joke.”
“What’ve you got?” Levi asked.
“Give me two seconds,” Tony said.
He hit a few more keys, then turned the laptop so we could see.
The screen split into multiple feeds. Grainy black-and-white footage flickered to life. The hotel carpark. Early morning. Mostly empty. My heart slammed against my ribs as Tony rewound the footage, then slowed it.
“There,” he said.
I leaned forward so fast my hands hit the desk. I saw Jaime’s kidnapper immediately. Marion.
Even on a blurry security feed, there was something about him that made my wolf snarl. His posture was all wrong. Too controlled, too confident. It gave me the impression that he was the kind of man who enjoyed watching people squirm beneath him.
The footage showed him pushing a flatbed cart, a bundle covered in a tarp that looked like a body, toward a car.
Jaime. My mate.
My stomach dropped, my breath catching. I could see the shape of him under the tarp, the outline unmistakable. Even covered, even still, I knew it was him. The blood on the fabric made my heart slam.
Marion opened the trunk, shoved something inside, equipment perhaps, then manoeuvred Jaime into the passenger seat. Hismovements were brisk, practiced. The jerk wasn’t panicked, as if he had done something like this before.
Rage flooded me, hot and blinding.
“That bastard,” I growled.
“I pulled his file,” Tony said, voice tight now. He tapped a key and brought up another window.
Tony continued, “Marion Keller. Arrested twice in neighboring states. Vandalism, harassment, threats. Both incidents tied to anti-shifter groups. Charges didn’t stick. Witnesses recanted.”
Of course they did.
“Plate?” Levi asked.
Tony nodded. “Already got it. Running it now.”
