“Give me everything you have,” he repeated, this time putting the bite of an Alpha into his voice.
One of her light eyebrows arched. “That’s a pretty good Alpha voice you’ve got there, buddy.”
“I know,” he said. “Em, that was a warning.” The idea that anybody would hurt any woman infuriated him, and he couldn’t wait to catch these bastards. “You don’t want to make me ask again.” He was so full of shit. She was bruised and battered, and he wouldn’t do a thing to upset her any more than she already was. Except hecouldtake her home. “Talk, or you’re coming into Silver Pack territory, even if I have to carry you the entire way.”
She studied him for a moment, and whatever she saw in his expression apparently convinced her to talk. “I don’t know anything. They put a bag over my head that had garlic in it.”
He winced. “So you couldn’t even get a scent?”
“I couldn’t get a scent.” Her frown drew her brows down and made her look a little lost.
His mind ticked facts into place. “That means somebody thought you’d recognize their scent.”
It couldn’t be the Copper Pack because they were busy trying to kill his brother right now, and it wasn’t his pack, so it was either her pack or the Granite Pack. Or it was an outside group. It wouldn’t hurt to ask the remaining Stope Packs Coalition. He pulled his phone from his jacket pocket and hit speed dial.
“Tryne here,” Jackson Tryne answered. The male was the Alpha of the Granite pack as well as being a distant cousin of Seth’s on his mom’s side. “It’s the middle of the fucking night. This better be crucial or I’m going to fucking kill you.”
Erik put him on speaker. “Jackson, it’s Erik Volk, and it’s six in the morning. You shouldn’t party so late. I’m going to ask you once, did you try to have Emily Nightsom kidnapped?”
There was silence and a rustle of what sounded like bedcovers. “What the fuck? Is she okay?”
Erik’s eyebrows rose, and he noted a light flush wandering over Emily’s high cheekbones.
“I’m fine,” she said. “It was a minor kidnapping attempt. I got away.”
“She’s bruised and battered,” Erik cut in. “And I want to know. Don’t bullshit me. Is it you I need to come and kill?”
“Well, you can try, boyo,” Jackson drawled. “But you’ll be sent home in a box.” He cleared his throat. “However, I did not, nor did anybody in my pack, attempt to kidnap Emily Nightsom. Emily?” he asked quietly.
She looked down at the phone as if it would bite her. “What?”
“How badly are you hurt?”
“I’m not,” she snapped.
Silence ticked for a few moments. “Who do you think took you?” Jackson asked.
“They used garlic, and she doesn’t know. Which leads me to think she’d recognize the scent,” Erik said. His gut told him it wasn’t Jackson. “I’ll take care of it. Sorry to wake you up so late in the day.” He tried for sarcasm, but anger over the situation hung in his tone.
“Em?” Jackson asked.
She plucked at a string on her sweater. “What?”
“I’m glad you’re okay.” He chuckled. “And, baby, if I tried to kidnap you, you’d be wherever I decided to put you.” He clicked off.
Erik’s ears tingled. Should he be pissed about that? At the moment, he was more curious than anything else. “Baby?”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s Jackson. You have to ignore him.”
Erik didn’t feel like ignoring the Alpha. “Is there something between you two?” The last thing Erik wanted to do in the world was get between Emily and happiness. She was lovely and deserved every bit she could find.
“Absolutely not,” she spat. Much too forcefully.
Erik sighed and leaned back against the thick cushions. Why did life have to be so complicated? “We seem to have gotten ourselves into a bit of a bind here.”
She threw back her head and laughed. The sound was free, and it appeared as if her body finally relaxed, even though she still favored her arm and held it against her chest. “When have you and I not gotten ourselves into a bind?”
For some reason, Luna’s sweet pixie-like face filtered through Erik’s mind. Why was he thinking about the eccentric little scientist at a time like this? “All right,” he said, taking a deep breath. “We need to start at the beginning because I’m going after these people, and they’re going to pay.”
