“Where. The hell. Is she?” The words drip with cold fury as I spin on my heel.
Grabbing the nearest man following behind us, I clutch the front of his shirt and slam his back into the wall. Ignoring Terra’s hissed warning, Cinjin and Bo restrain the other two before they can draw their weapons.
Red faced, he glares daggers at me, but grits out, “How the fuck would I know? I was assigned to watch your brother.”
“Slade,” Terra murmurs, knowing full well I’ll be able to hear her. “I’ll handle things here. It’ll be faster if you take off and see if you can pick up her trail. I’ll ask around and call if I learn anything useful.”
For a tense moment, I remain frozen. The man in my grasp turns purple and claws at my wrist, feet searching for purchase and finding none as he hovers half a foot off of the ground. One wrong breath and I’ll lose my tenuous hold on my restraint, shift right here and tear out not only his throat, but those of everyone that played a part in my mate’s disappearance, no matter how small. Yet that will only delay us further, and gods knows how much of a head start whoever took her already has. Terra checked in on her upon her arrival, but it’s beenhourssince then.
Anything could have happened to her while I didn’t even know she was missing.
Dropping him in a heap, I march out of the hallway towards the door of the precinct without another word. I don’t bother reclaiming the weapons they stripped us of; there’s no point. I’m barely holding it together as it is, and it’ll be faster to hunt her down if I shift. No way Boden or I can pass as regular wolves, but if we stick to the shadows, we should be able to make some solid headway before people start to panic and call animal control.
Shoving the door open hard enough it fractures the glass, I brace a hand on the cement banister and swing myself off the side of the steps, landing in a crouch on the sidewalk. Flaring my nostrils, I come to an abrupt stop, my head whipping to a point across the street at the end of the block.
Leaning on the hood of a navy sedan, Sabrina’s caught up talking to a police officer on the sidewalk, and relief floods me hard enough that I nearly sink to my knees. They’re too far away for me to hear what they’re discussing, but whatever he says makes her laugh hard enough that she snorts, a hand flying up to cover her mouth in embarrassment. I swear, I aged ten years in the span of five minutes, but I’ll take the rush of possessive jealousy over terrified rage any day.
Taking a second to convince myself that she’s actually here, happy and whole, I jog over, the two of them looking up as they hear me coming. Getting my first good look at the guy, my relief goes up in smoke as I stare right into the smug face of Nathan Rivers.
He scrubs a hand over his neatly trimmed, ebony beard, dark brown eyes alight with humor and satisfaction at the sight of me and my brothers coming out of his station while he keeps our mate otherwise occupied. “You’re welcome, Hawthorne.”
Ignoring him, I wrap my arms around Sabrina, plucking her off of the bastard’s car and crushing her against me, heart thundering in my chest. Closing my eyes, I soak up the comfort of her proximity, taking slow breaths and counting to ten, then again. I’d all but handed the reins over to my other half and to snatch them back at the last second has him chomping at the bit, my skin straining like wet paper holding back an avalanche of sand. The sharp tang of blood coats my tongue as I press the tip against one of my teeth, urging them to stop lengthening, sharpening, and return to normal.
Yet no matter how I try to curb the impulse, bending my mate over this wolf’s car and fucking her until she’s screaming my name sounds like a perfectly reasonable solution to all of our current problems so they’ll be reminded that she’smine.
“Everything okay now?” she asks quietly, peering first at me, then over my shoulder at my brothers.
While there’s an undercurrent of dominance to her tone, it’s clear Sabrina has the forefront right now, and it helps convince me better than anything that she’s actually okay. Safe. Because if she were in any form of danger, I don’t doubt that her other half would have taken over whether she liked it or not to ensure she survived until we could get to her.
She’s impressive, possibly stronger than any alpha I’ve ever met, but that only helps her if she’s fighting wolves that she can actually lay her hands on to siphon from. She wasn’t trained to fight like we were, hasn’t shifted yet, and no matter her abilities, they don’t mean shit if she can’t touch them or is restrained. Shot. Tranquilized. Then she’d be at anyone’s lack of mercy, where they could do anything to her that they-
Stop visualizing it. That’s not going to happen, I won’t let it. I’ll do better,bebetter for her. She won’t regret taking our name; I’ll turn our legacy into something that she can be proud of.
“No,” I admit honestly, resting my forehead against hers. “But it will be. I’ll make sure of it. I promise.”
She doesn’t protest as I keep her captured against me, humming low in her throat until she’s practically purring, and I lean into the vibrations like a needy fucking puppy. But it helps the blistering feeling subside from my skin, ensuring I don’t shift in the middle of Main Street. I’m supposed to take care of her, swore it. Yet she’s ripped my promises right out from under me, forcing me to confront how ill-equipped I actually am for the position of her guardian when I keep seekingherout for comfort.
Everything’s falling apart, and the tighter I try to hold on, the faster it all slips through my fingers.
I’m not sure how much longer any of us have at this rate before I have to accept that we’re all in over our heads, that the security we promised our mate was an illusion built on desperate hopes and dreams. Much more pressure, and our entire empire will collapse beneath our feet, and I can only pray we’ll be crushed in the rubble rather than be left to face the desolate aftermath.
“What happened?” Bo demands, finally having enough and shoulder checking me, stealing our mate.
He sits on Nathan’s car without a care, pulling Sabrina onto his lap and nuzzling her hair, the side of her neck. Bo smothers her in his scent while inhaling hers like an addict, not even protesting as Cin stands between their legs, leaning down to capture her face and kiss her breathless. Reid keeps his distance with a tortured expression that he gradually conceals bit by bit, but I refuse to feel bad for him. Call me a selfish bastard, but I want my entire family happy, and his actions are sabotaging that for two important members, so he can suffer. Maybe it’ll help knock some sense through his thick skull.
He’s a monster whether or not he sets his free. It isn’t the creature in our chests that makes us less than human, it’s us. It never could have carved a home in our souls if they weren’t already tainted, and denying that fact doesn’t do anyone any good. All he’s accomplishing by pushing Sabrina away is just that; putting distance between himself and the only good thing to happen in his life. We’re all masochists, but I didn’t peg Reid for being that self-sacrificing. He’ll get there sooner or later, though. Really, what choice does he have? A life of misery as he watches the woman he loves move on without him right under his nose, in his own home? It’s only a matter of time, and all I can do is hope he comes to his senses before the damage is irreparable between them.
What good is a self-sacrificing life if no one accepts your offering?
Nathan straightens up, adopting business mode to bring us up to speed. “Was coming in to start my shift and found a couple of Thatcher’s men wearing stolen uniforms escorting your girl out of the back of the station.” He raises an eyebrow, holding my gaze. “Imagine my surprise when she dropped them both without breaking a sweat before I could intervene. So I handled clean up and figured I’d stick around to keep an eye on things until you were released.”
“How magnanimous of you,” I deadpan, not rising to the bait.
I have to run on the assumption that the alpha of the Rivers’ pack already knows about Sabrina’s status now, not that it particularly makes a difference. I clearly can’t trust any of the surrounding packs to respect the fact that she’s already mated, so maybe this will actually be a good thing. They’ll understand if they touch her, she could drop them faster than they could draw a breath.
Which means they’ll tranq her or send humans to restrain her first. This isn’t their first rodeo, but if they’re going to attempt abducting mated women, why just her? Why not Lizzie, or Emmy, or any of the women in the neighboring packs? Maybe it’s not even about a potential mate freeing their wolves anymore and they simply hate us so much they want to strike where it hurts the most.
“Slade,” Sabrina whispers, meeting my eye.Fuck, she looks exhausted. “I’m okay. And I wasn’t about to pass up the opportunity of getting blackmail on a cop for disposing of a couple of bodies, so we’re good.” A small smile lights up her tired face as she pats her pocket before turning her attention to Nathan, knowing he’ll have heard. I can’t help but grin as he scowls, not realizing he was being recorded. I suppose it’s as they say; no good deed goes unpunished.
