A Council of Betrayal (28 page)

“No,” they answered in unison.

I gave a soft laugh. “Politics not your
thing?”

“Have you met us?” Jerry asked.

The doorman was busy on the phone, calling
the fire department.

I smiled at him. “The roof and the penthouse
are going to burn. Let them.”

I could feel his slack-jawed gaze following
me, but I heard the phone click. Hi, I’m Olivia and I will be
obeyed. Mark had an arm around Jerry’s shoulders, helping him
across the street as Jerry continued to mutter.

I held the door to the hotel open, following
behind my shifter and mage. Oh crap, I called them mine. Like I
wasn’t possessive enough.

I helped Mark get his door open, following
them in.

He deposited Jerry onto the sofa and he went
down with a groan. “How you doing, Jerry?” I asked, rubbing his
shoulders.

“Nothing some food and rest won’t cure,” he
assured me. He pawed around for the phone, lifting it to his
ear.

“As much as I’m enjoying your poor attempt at
a massage, you reek,” he informed me.

…

I set the spray to scalding in the shower,
letting it work on the kinks in my back and shoulders.

I heard the food arrive as I finished
dressing. “That was fast,” I commented, running a dry towel through
my wet hair.

“Impressively fast,” Mark said around a wad
of food.

We devoured every scrap of the food and I was
giving serious thought to ordering seconds. A yawn had me changing
my mind.

“Good night, guys.” I hauled myself up,
dragging ass back to my room. The bed felt empty without Logan. I
curled up on my side, holding the extra pillow to my chest.

…

Morning came too fucking early and I rolled
out to the bathroom, shuffling my feet. I could hear Mark on the
phone ordering breakfast for us.

“I’m getting way too used to nicer
accommodations,” I grunted to myself. Crap, and I couldn’t afford
them.

The knock on Mark’s door came faster than I
expected and I hustled to get dressed. I could expense this to
Logan and not feel guilty, right? Fuck, no.

The door opened and the cart rattled in.
Music to my ears, or really to my stomach.

I had just tied my tennis shoes when Mark
grunted, his cry of pain cut off.

I barreled into the next room. Mark was on
his side, the hotel employee holding a stun gun to his neck,
delivering far above the recommended dosage.

I lunged for him. He straightened up. I took
out the food cart in my zeal to bring the fucker down. The cart
smashed into him, hindering my takedown attempt. The taser was
conveniently rammed into my neck. Clearly, not my most brilliant
move.

I lost all control over my body, my muscles
jerking at random intervals. I rolled, pretty sure I was drooling.
That was attractive. Fucking tasers.

My vision ceased, my teeth vibrating
together. I curled around myself in the fetal position.

It felt like hours later, but I was guessing
it must have been a few minutes, before I regained my faculties. I
batted at the white, swishing clothing in front of me, finding my
arm not responding to my commands.

“Hurry, she’s waking up,” a voice hissed.

I wrapped my hand around the cool metal of
the rolling cart I was stuffed under, finally getting my bearings
before I was shoved down a steep ramp, still under the cart. I
braced myself against the poles, silently cursing my idiotic
captors. And seriously, what the fuck is going on with me getting
kidnapped so fucking often?

I gave thought to letting my momentum take me
over the edge, but I decided to wait. Look at me, having
patience.

The ground finally evened out and my empty
stomach lurched. Motherfuckers were going die bloody for making me
miss breakfast.

A hand reached under the linen to grab me. I
bit down, tasting blood. A scream greeted my ears and I released,
spitting. I fell forward from the cart, rolling to get free of the
linen before I got my feet under me, staying low.

Grunting, I turned on my heels, looking at my
would-be captors. This whole kidnapping thing ended right here. I’d
leave a bloody fucking warning for anyone else thinking I was easy
prey. I scented the air and growled disgustedly. Humans. Three
humans were going to kidnap me?

They at least had the decency to look
properly terrified.

“I’m going to kill you all,” I promised with
glee.

I launched onto the closest one, my momentum
carrying us to the ground. Landing my hands on his bulletproof
vest, I gripped both sides, pulling him up before bouncing his head
off the concrete with a satisfying crunch. Brain matter and blood
spread out in a dark pool, his eyes glazing in death.

Another barreled into me, his shoulder
knocking my head back. We landed with my back slamming hard against
the concrete. My legs were free so I slammed my knee into his side.
He huffed, his body arching away from me. Sitting up, I shoved him
off.

I turned to the side, my fingers wrapping
around the wrist of the bellhop, the taser hissing inches from my
face.

“You’re going to regret the use of that.” My
fingers closed until my thumb overlapped my fingers. His wrist
bones pulverized in my hand. Oh yeah, that was all shifter anger
and it felt fantastic.

I stood, releasing his hand with a fling.

“Back off!” a familiar voice yelled. I lifted
my eyes to the back of the hotel and saw Mark barreling down the
ramp toward us.

I smiled before the asshole I had hit in the
side tackled me. “Motherfucker,” I hissed. My arms were pinned so I
kicked out, but I was on my side so it wasn’t doing any good.

“Get away from her!” Mark screamed. I felt
the air shimmer as he shifted and a pissed off wolf landed next to
me.

“Shit,” a familiar voice exclaimed. I turned,
cranking my head to look back at Nathaniel standing next to the
getaway van.

“Don’t let him get away,” I wheezed to Mark.
He tore the throat out of the man on top of me before bounding over
me. I heard Nathaniel go down with a thud.

Shoving the body of the dead man off of me, I
stood. The bellhop, whose wrist I’d crushed, was yelling
incoherently on the concrete, writhing in pain. I looked at him for
a moment, deciding he wasn’t going anywhere, and turned my
attention to Mark.

“It’s too late, the team for Logan was
successful,” Nathaniel hissed at me. Sage’s beta. I should have
seen this coming. Mark had him pinned under a massive paw, his jaws
dripping drool inches from Nathaniel’s face.

I slipped off the concrete pad next to them
onto the asphalt.

“Sage is dead,” I reminded him, leaning
heavily on my knees. Those fucking tasers hurt.

Nathaniel sneered at me and Mark inched
closer, blowing his hair back in a huff. “It doesn’t matter. The
show must go on. I may have failed here, but our other teams were
successful.”

“Other teams?” Jerry asked behind me.

I turned. “About time you got in on the
festivities.”

He huffed, “I don’t have shifter hearing. I
got out of the shower to find Mark a drooling mess.”

I grunted, speech seemed like too much work.
From the back of my head, tightness was spreading, along with sharp
points of pain. I fell to my knees, my vision blacking out.

Logan
, his name whispered around my
head. I shook my head, pressing a hand against my forehead.
Logan
. I cried out, falling onto all fours, an awful
wrenching twisting my insides. The air coming into my lungs was
jaded with fire and I screamed again.

Where was my mate?

The torment was blinding and it wasn’t going
away. I had to get control over it, but I couldn’t. They weren’t my
emotions to control. I had to stem the flow. I had promised Logan I
wouldn’t block the mate bond, but I had no choice. I threw my
shields up forcefully, blocking myself from the rest of the
pack.

Sweet relief flooded my body. I sagged
against Jerry, my air whooshing out. Guilt was the next strong
emotion flooding me. My mate was suffering and I wasn’t sharing in
it, wasn’t helping him.

“Alright, Nathaniel, you have two options.
One, you tell me where Logan is and I kill you quickly. Two, I
slice, maim and dismember you for the information, then feed you to
Logan.”

Mark snapped his sharp teeth at him and
Nathaniel glared at him, unfazed. I’d change that.

“Your pet doesn’t scare me. I rank higher
than he does as an Alpha.”

Mark pushed his nose against Nathaniel’s. I
moved forward, resting a hand against Mark’s black-with-gray
flank.

“While my dear friend makes an exceptionally
talented negotiator, you, Nathaniel, are all mine.”

“Not to break the spell of intrigue you two
are creating, but we need to go before we are seen,” Jerry reminded
me.

“How nice, Nathaniel, you provided
transportation.” I hauled him from Mark’s threatening teeth and
tossed him into the opened cargo van. Mark followed. I shut the
door, turning to Jerry, still on the dock.

“I’ll get our stuff. Call me with a
location,” Jerry stated, carefully moving over the piles of dead
flesh. A writhing form was still on the docks.

“Hey Jerry, that guy tased Mark.” I pointed
at the groaning bellhop.

He stopped, looking down at the asshole’s
injured form with a smile.

I turned away, getting into the van, trusting
Jerry to handle it. I wasn’t leaving witnesses.

I cranked the engine and turned out of the
downtown hotel, searching for a secluded part of Chicago to
interrogate Nathaniel.

…

Thirty minutes later, I shut off the engine,
looking around at the abandoned blocks of industrial buildings.

Mark had shifted back, finding a spare pair
of badly fitting black pants in the back.

“I can’t hear anyone around us,” he
announced, listening closely.

“That was faster than I anticipated,” I
answered, spinning around in the driver’s seat.

Jerry came to a stop next to us, killing his
engine. I moved into the cargo hold with Mark and Nathaniel,
opening the driver’s door for Jerry. He slid in, handing a wrapped
leather package over my shoulder.

“Thought you would need those.” I could hear
the smile in Jerry’s voice.

I smiled, letting my fingers trail over my
knives. “You know me so well.”

“And while I know you both love a good
torture session, I have to ask why you don’t just read his mind,”
he questioned.

I groaned, “Crap, you’re right. I should have
thought of that sooner.”

I sighed, “Alright, this is going to
hurt.”

I dropped all my shields; at this point, I
was losing track of how many I had. White hot searing pain closed
down my airway. My vision gone, I could hardly feel my body.

I forced myself to see the pack structure,
the golden threads that I knew were my pack.

Blackness was starting to trickle down into
the threads. Shit.

Back to my current issues.

“Where is Logan?” I asked, or tried to or
hoped.

Please let this work
, Mark
thought.

I’ll never tell the bitch he’s so close to
her home.

I slammed my shields up, drawing a pain-free
breath. How the fuck did he know where I lived?

“We’re heading home. Leave the van, let’s
move him into the SUV.”

They obeyed my commands, securing Nathaniel
in the backseat with handcuffs.

“Call for backup. I have to keep the darkness
from spreading.”

Mark nodded, reaching out a hand to my
shoulder from the backseat. Jerry was driving and I was riding
shotgun. Hope glowed in Mark’s eyes.

I nodded, letting my focus turn away from the
physical word. I reached for Logan, feeling his agony, pain, and
hopelessness.

Hold on, Logan. We are coming.

There was no answer, not even an indication
he heard me. I dropped my head against my knees, drew my legs to my
chest, and pulled. Blackness coated the inside of my mouth, halting
my ability to breathe. Still I pulled the darkness away from Logan,
funneling it into myself, letting it fill every deep, dark, crevice
inside my broken soul.

I may not have much or be much, but I
wouldn’t let the shifters lose Logan. Even if it killed me, he
would take care of my kids.

I tilted my head back, my jaw locking with
the overflow.

…

“Olie,” Jerry was rocking me. My body was
spent. I was hanging on to consciousness by a thin thread.

“She’s stemming the flow of insanity from
Logan,” Mark explained.

I rolled my head down, a breath hissing
between my lips. It was a slow process building the walls back up
until I was mildly conscious.

It took a few long blinks for me to be able
to focus on the situation around me. I had been moved from the SUV
and had an arm slung around Jerry’s shoulder. I dropped it,
standing on my own, surrounded by an impressive number of shifters.
Darkness swarmed around us. Behind the imposing small army of
shifters was an outdated, pea green metal building, three floors
high.

“Nathaniel?” I hissed.

“He is here,” Bear answered. Now that’s the
kind of backup we needed.

“Good, keep him alive. I want to feed him to
the Alpha. How did you find this place? Are we sure Logan is in
there?”

Jerry nodded. “You kept chanting ‘close to
home,’ so we drove around until Mark heard him.”

“He alive?” Caleb asked, his eyes hopeful.
“I’m having a hard time feeling around your blocking.”

“Yes, no one’s fucking dying on my watch.
Well, except for Nathaniel. And Sage.”

Bear’s eyes widened. “Yeah, that’s another
story.” I rubbed my temples. “Okay, give me the situation.”

“Our recon shows only humans inside. From
heartbeats, maybe twenty,” Caleb dictated.

I nodded, Nathaniel laughed.

“Bring him forward.” My voice dropped
deadly.