A tablet. A stupid question. A book. What the hell was she asking? Focus! “Bonding rituals. A love potion.” Mark took control of the tablet again to scroll through the video from the other cameras with a shaking hand. His mind was spitting out random facts—clouds in the sky, loose roofing tile—without any kind of sense. It ratcheted up the panic inside him because he couldn’t think his way through.
“Mark, are you sure? It’s completely quiet? Mark!”
Someone was speaking. Carl. Alpha. Smelled like sex and Becca. Don’t think about that! Where the hell was Julie?
“Where’s your bear, Mark?”
“Gone,” he grunted. Fast-forwarded through the feed from front camera one. Pretended he wasn’t freaking out. Too many words in his brain and no feelings. Front camera showed a great view of spilled groceries and his ass laid out like a drunk. Lazy shit. Three darts sticking out of his body. Enough tranquilizers to drop a grizzly. As a human he’d been asleep before he hit the ground.
He watched a third asshole crouch over him, a pistol hanging loose while he talked into a cell. Cheap-ass stupid phone. Burner. Probably getting instructions from someone. The trees had that rich green of summer. Can’t hear the birds on the video. Eventually, the man straightened up, kicked him in side for good measure, and then joined the guy hauling all the research. Fuckers.
Mark breathed hard, feeling the pull in his swollen side. Bastard should have killed him because nothing was going to stop Mark from killing them now. Not when the three started walking off together, clearly making crude comments about Julie.
“How quiet?”
Nothing was fucking quiet. His brain was a whirlwind of thoughts. He queued up camera- two footage and started fast-forwarding. There had to be something, somewhere. He saw Julie’s parents drive up and get out of their car. Nice blue SUV. Rental. Her mom ran to him while the professor hauled out his cell phone and probably dialed 911.
“Mark!”
“What?”
“Your grizzly.”
“Asleep. As in nothing.” No roar. No fury. No hunger. Oh shit, shit, shit, shit—a silent thrum of panic. And simultaneously, why the panic? This was great, wasn’t it? Shit, shit, shit.
Carl grabbed his wrist. “Could you shift?”
Mark tried to grab at his bear, but ended up clutching random ridiculous thoughts. Honey. Coffee. Breeze. Tablet. Julie. Julie! “No,” he snapped. And damn it, he felt completely out of control like this. Like without his bear to focus him, he was spinning wildly, which left him vulnerable and Julie lost. How he’d prayed for a few moments respite from his grizzly, but now that it was silent, he was insane with panic.
Tonya and Carl exchanged glances, but didn’t say anything. Meanwhile, Mark queued up the next camera feed and started running through it, pretending to a focus he didn’t have.
Meanwhile, Carl started barking orders. “I want an analysis of those darts immediately.”
“Yeah, I guessed,” Tonya said as the paramedic handed the things over. “You’ll want blood work and stuff, too,” she said as they looked at Mark.
Camera showed squirrels. Leaves. Rocks. No Julie. No help. Get it together.
“Mark, we need you to go to the hospital.”
“No.”
Someone touched his arm, and he flinched. He had to watch the video feed. He had to find Julie.
“Mark, think. Your bear is quiet.”
He was thinking too damned much! “I know—” He was so absorbed in watching footage that he didn’t process the words for a moment. But then the significance hit him. Some drug had quieted the grizzly to the point of absolute silence. And, yeah, it knocked the man out, but the grizzly was staying down while he was up and thinking. Granted, it was out-of-control thoughts, but still. This is was important if he could just focus.
Never since he was a teenager had the man been alone in his brain. And if this were possible—if there was a medication or something—that could do this without knocking him unconscious for hours on end? Well, that was good, right? Not only could it be a temporary staying measure for himself and all ferals, but the break it would give to teenage shifters was enormous. With all those hormones zipping around in an adolescent’s body, even a temporary pause from the demands of the animal inside would be a godsend.
But…Julie!
He swallowed and held out his arm to the paramedic. “Start drawing my blood.”
“What?”
“Do it,” Carl ordered.
And while the woman leapt to follow the command in the alpha’s voice, Mark finally hit pay dirt. “There!” he said, stabbing his finger at the tablet. Three guys tromping through the woods. One carried Julie. Bulky muscles straining. They’d get footprints for sure. Won’t help much.
