“You the guys that called?” one of them asked, and Beck nodded.
“We are. We found the man you really want for all the drug activity in the area.”
“I’m being set up!” the rat cried, doing his best to look pitiful.
One of the officers scoffed and stepped towards the chair, his nose crinkling in disgust. He scented like some kind of feline shifter himself and, when he reached out, silvery handcuffsclinking in his right hand, I noticed the crescent moon birthmark on the inside of his right forearm.
“I know these guys,” the officer told the beta. “I’ve worked with the pack before. So forgive me if I don’t believe you.”
The beta’s eyes darted to the cuffs and around the crowded room.
Don’t do it,I thought, while seemingly in the same moment his body shrank and sprouted fur.
The human law enforcement contingent shouted in surprise and dismay, while Rex was back in his fur-covered form just as quickly as the rat. He snarled and tore after the scrambling rodent who had scurried around feet and made a break for the open front door.
We all hurried after him, and I hated that my own shifted form would be more of a hindrance than helpful. I trusted my pack —and I would later realize that I truly had begun to think of Shifters Sanctuary asmypack— but I hated feeling as though I had zero control or input over the situation, especially while it was going pear-shaped.
Somewhere along the way, Beckett shed his clothes and shifted into his wolf form, taking off into the darkness with Rex.
We can’t lose him,I tried not to panic as I drew on my dragon’s abilities to see in the dark,Sage is relying on us.
The tense seconds felt like they were dragging into long minutes as I watched the wolf and the puma swerve as they ran. Beckett seemed to veer completely off course, until I realized that he was attempting to corner the rat and run him directly into Rex’s path.
I could hear their snarling and growling, then the startled, high-pitched shrieking of the rat as Rex launched through theair. My eyesight was not good enough to see the image clearly, but I imagined his claws were extended and his sharp teeth were bared and glinting in the moonlight.
Beckett closed the distance between himself and Rex and shifted back into his human form, which seemed to be the signal for the sheriff’s officers to make their way through the barren field. I hurried over as well, aware of Eric and Sergio hot on my heels and Brandt at my side.
Rex had practically flattened his body over the beta’s this time, his furry chest and belly heaving from his exertions.
“You can get off him,” Beck said, then thanked Eric for the pile of clothes he was extending towards our Alpha.
“You can,” the cat-shifter officer agreed, addressing Rex as well. He lifted the handcuffs again, the movement making the metal clink. “Once we get these cuffs on him, he won’t be able to shift.”
I wanted to tug those handcuffs out of his hold and destroy them for what they represented, for what the very same magic was doing to my mate, but I had to acknowledge that, in cases like this, the magic came in handy.
Rex carefully inched backwards, his muscles coiled tight, and slowly lifted his claws to reveal the shivering ball of re-captured rat.
In a moment that felt like déjà vu, Beckett barked, “Shift back,” with a wave of his alpha power. The rat shuddered and squealed, then morphed back into the huddled human version of himself.
This time, the officer was on him immediately, pulling his hands behind his back to get the cuffs on him. Heread the beta his rights, then Sergio stepped forward, demanding, “Confesseverythingyou’ve done to us and our pack.”
While my alpha’s tone was quieter than Beckett’s, it radiated with the same energy as the pack Alpha’s. He was using all the force of his own alpha abilities to make sure Sage was pardoned for the crimes he hadn’t committed, making the real criminal confess to everything he had done.
The beta bit down so hard on his lip that I thought it might bleed.
“Now.” Beckett helped things along.
It was probably (okay, okay,definitely) coercion, but I wasn’t going to lose any sleep over using underhanded tactics to see justice served, and I didn’t think anyone else in our little gathering would, either.Thiswas karma.
The beta blubbered as he began to admit all of his crimes, from taking payments to supply our people with drugs and the scent blockers, to setting Sage up to take the fall, to trying to run away when we had caught him, and a bunch of other little things in between.
Every word he spoke, specifically when it came to exonerating my mate, incensed me and mollified me in equal measures. I wanted to destroy him for daring to pin his crimes on one of the men I loved, but I was also relieved that this meant the end of Sage’s suffering.
Sergio’s arm looped around my waist as we listened, and I sagged against him, trembling as the adrenaline of the evening faded away.
“Shhh,” he murmured into my ear, low and soothing, “it’s almost over, darling. He’s coming home.”
Home.
