“They’ll be along shortly.” He gave her a sly look. “We arrived quickly. It sounds as if they’re about a mile away.”
He jumped out of the dune buggy.
Show off!
He came around to her side of the vehicle and wrapped her in his arms as he leaned back against the door. She looked up at him and giggled. “That was fun.”
“Aye, it was. I might just have to purchase one of those.”
“You can afford something like that?” Her gaze turned skeptical.
He grinned. “Yes—
we
can afford something like that.” He lowered one of his arms from around her waist and reached into his back pocket. “Speaking of that, here.” He handed her a credit card.
“What’s this?” she asked, examining the shiny card with her name on it. She looked back at him, brow arched.
“What does it look like?”
“A credit card,” she responded, sarcastic.
“Well, that’s what it is then.”
Okay, wait a minute—this card was for her? Heat began to rise to her cheeks.
“You’re giving me money?”
He took the card from her and stuffed it into the back pocket of her jeans. “I’m not giving you anything. We’re mates, what’s mine is yours.”
The heat in her cheeks burned deeper, and it wasn’t from a blush. One thing Rynn wasn’t was a gold-digger. She took the card back out of her pocket and handed it to him.
“I have my own money. Thank you for the thought though.”
He gave her a chastising glance, took the card and placed it back in her pocket.
“Your money was transferred to my account, which is where this money will come from.”
She couldn’t believe her ears. Her anger began to build. “You transferred my money without asking me?”
Briggs sighed, a very exasperated sound. “Rynn, we are mated. It is the way of things.”
“So what if we are mated!” She didn’t care if that’s how they did things. It wasn’t how she worked. “You better put my money back in my account.” Again, she pulled the card from her pocked and held it out for him to take. “I don’t need your money.”
He didn’t take the card. Instead, he examined her with a steady gaze. “How do you expect to live off of fifty dollars?”
“Hey, fifty dollars is a lot of money to me.” She glared at him. “Besides, I don’t need anything. If there is anything I want, I’ll work and get it myself.”
Briggs glared, his jaw clenched tight and unhappiness darkened his eyes. “You won’t work.”
Oh no, he did not just say that. Well, he needed a good ear full of what’s what. Her Pops raised her to be a strong independent woman. She learned a long time not to count on others. She’d survived like that. Who was he to step in and say she should live different, without asking her. “Says who?”
“Says me,” he said firmly.
She poked his shoulder, stood on her tippy toes to get in his face. “Get this straight, wolf—I survived for years on my own. I like it that way.”
They stood like that for a while, no words said in a stare down, then a slow smile spread across his face.
Nothing about this amused her. She slammed her hands on her hips, pissed. “What’s so funny?”
He didn’t answer. Instead, he pulled her toward him and planted a spectacular kiss on her lips. When he finally pulled away and let her breathe, she wobbled on shaky legs.
“You are quite unique, Rynn,” he mused. “Forgive me for acting without your consent. I will return your money to you as soon as we get home.”
The anger boiling her blood began to rescind, her cheeks no longer burned. “Thank you.” But she wasn’t done yet, she needed to make one point very clear. “When this is done, I’m getting a job. Deal with it!”
He inclined his head. “I suppose I will have to.”
Loud roars of engines cut through the air. She’d been so focused on the conversation, she hadn’t realized the others had arrived. She glanced out to see all the others had pulled up next to their dune buggy.
Valor jumped out, approached them with a chastising glance. “Glad to see you two alive.”
Dante hopped out after him and wore a shit-eating grin. “I should have opted not to ride with the old man,” he said to Rynn. “At least you two made a bit of fun out of it.”
Valor snorted.
Rynn giggled. “It was fun.”
Hendrix came to stand in front of Rynn. “As you can all see her scent is gone.” His eyes darkened in despair. “Just vanished.”
Rynn’s heart clenched for him, how horrible. She couldn’t imagine what he must be going through. She wished she could say some comforting words to him, but doubted he wanted to hear them. All he wanted was to find his missing daughter. She’d do whatever she could to help. She glanced around and inhaled deeply. Kali’s scent was gone, but Rynn could also smell the other wolves that Valor had mentioned. Ten very distinct trails.
Valor inhaled roughly, looked at Hendrix then to Briggs and Rynn. “Let’s split up.
Each follow a trail of one of the wolves here. Find them and interrogate them—they’re the ones who will know what is going on here.”
Sayer also inhaled deeply and frowned. “These are my wolves, but not all of them.
There are other scents here I do not recognize.”
Just as his words ended, something breezed by Rynn’s head—a big gush of wind. A bug? Sounded like a pretty loud bug? Rynn swatted at her head just to be sure it was gone.
A split second later, Valor roared, “Get down.”
One second Rynn stood beside Briggs, and the next, he slammed into her and pushed her to the ground while he lay on top of her. Now, her annoyance began to build. Getting pushed around hurt. Her face was smashed into the ground and her nose wasn’t thrilled to be squished in such a way.
Loud hollers and firm orders from Valor spiraled around her. When Briggs finally let her up, she glanced behind her and discovered why. One of Sayer’s pack members, Mateo, was not moving.
Sayer rushed past Rynn, flipped him over and glanced up at Valor. His hands were soaked in blood and pain sat hard in his eyes. “He’s dead.”
A rush of chaos erupted and quite abruptly, Rynn found herself deposited behind a tree.
That was three times now and her annoyance ran strong. She suspected it was more from confusion. Mateo was dead? Someone died? How?
Everything happened so fast, her mind couldn’t comprehend what was taking place here. Before she could make sense out of it all, Briggs pointed at her. “Stay there.” Then, he shifted.
In fact, everyone did. A bit of envy flashed through her, no matter how inappropriate it was. Their shifts were so quick. It took a lot of concentration for her to shift on command.
Deep growls shot through the night air, and suddenly they were off like a bunch of starving wolves on the hunt of prey. Pretty spectacular sight really—wolves were very beautiful creatures. She suddenly realized she was alone, sitting next to a tree in the dark, while a killer was somewhere close.
Not a very settling thought and fear began to sink in. Shadows appeared everywhere.
In response to the high levels of anxiety that pumped through her veins, her body reciprocated as it always did when her emotions ran high. The magic rippled through her, then her senses became perfectly clear.
It came as a relief. Now, she could hear better and catch any sneaky bastard approaching. Not like she could do much about it, but still, at least, it wouldn’t be a shock.
Her ears tweaked and turned as she scanned the area, searched for danger and found none. The only sounds were loud growls, which came from a distance away—snaps of teeth, vicious snarls and bodies hitting the ground in a brutal manner.
Briggs?
Her concern grew as the growls suddenly dissipated to loud howls. She peeked around the tree—her vision wasn’t hindered by the darkness, but the space before her was completely deserted.
Now, she was getting scared.
What was going on? Was Briggs all right?
Just as her panic reached dangerous levels, a wolf quickly approached. His paws blasted across the ground as his breath held steady. She caught the scent before she saw Briggs’ form.
Relief settled over her.
She pounced forward, and made her way to him. When they reached one another, he nuzzled into her side and rubbed his head against hers. He nodded in the direction of the fight and took off.
As they ran, she stayed right on his flank. It surprised her how natural this all felt.
She wasn’t meant to run beside him. Her soul told her that her place was behind him. Of course, near him, but shielded by him. He was her protector, therefore, his body protected her from danger.
The others were quite a distance away, and by the time they stopped, Rynn’s legs ached. She need to work on that—go for more runs so she could keep up with the rest of them. She didn’t want to be the weakest link.
As they drew in closer to the others, her fatigue was forgotten. Four wolves had been torn to pieces with two sniper rifles off to the side on the ground. The others had already shifted back, and as it appeared, none of their group were injured.
Briggs nudged Rynn’s side with his nose, his suggestion clear. With that, she drew on their connection, allowed the magic to be filtered through him to make this quicker. It was easier to use his strength and help with the shift. This was not a time to practice.
It did just the trick. Once she returned to her two legs, which happened to be shaking a little beneath her. From fear or the strain of the run, she wasn’t quite sure, she looked at Briggs. “Who are they?”
“Not a clue, darlin’.”
Valor knelt by one of the wolves who lay bleeding along the ground. He glanced at Sayer. “Do you know these ones?”
“No,” Sayer responded. “They are not mine.”
Briggs stepped forward, leaned down to pick up one of the rifles. “Remington 700P—precision rifles.” He glanced at Valor. “They were looking to kill.”
“What has Mateo been into to get killed like this?” Echo asked Sayer.
Sayer shrugged, glanced curiously at his mate. “I haven’t heard of anything. You know him, he’s a good kid.”
Echo nodded, a tear escaped her eye. “He was.”
Sayer caught the tear with his thumb and brushed it away, then kissed her softly as he took her in his arms.
Rynn gulped.
Valor let out a frustrated breath and stood. “I do not think this has to do with Mateo.
He has no enemies, we know this.” He looked at Hendrix. “It appears someone does not want us to find your daughter.”
“Apparently so.”
“To go to these measures seems extreme,” Briggs commented. “They’ve been sitting here waiting for us to arrive?”
“Which brings the next question,” Valor added. “How did they know we were coming?”
“The Gathering,” Danika piped up. “Someone there must be involved in this.”
Valor considered that a moment. “It troubles me to believe any of our Alphas would be involved in the abduction of your daughter.”
He looked at Hendrix again, his gaze steady. “Time for honesty—have you done anything to piss someone off?”
Hendrix shook his head, his hands up in surrender. “No, nothing. My pack is quiet.
We have had no issues with any other packs for well over five years.”
Valor nodded as if he already knew that, then reached into the pocket of his jeans, pulled out a cell phone and flipped it open. He hit a few buttons, then positioned himself over by one of the wolves and snapped picture after picture until he had captured them all. After he was done, he typed a while on his phone as everyone stood around him, clueless.
Valor looked away from his phone and back to the wolves, his brows drawn together in thought, but said nothing.
A moment later, Valor’s phone beeped and startled Rynn so bad, she squealed. In response to that embarrassing display, she laughed at her shaky nerves. A week ago, she served coffee and beer. Now, she looked down at dead wolves. Her nerves were shot. If these were human bodies, she suspected she’d be in hysterics already. The effect wasn’t the same since they were in their wolf forms. Still, she was very unsettled and not quite sure how she felt about all this.
“To be expected, darlin’.” Briggs smiled at her and ran his fingers along her arm.
She felt his touch all the way down to her toes. It created a little stir—a simmer.
Briggs caught her reaction, without haste his nostrils flared in response and his gaze burned with lust.
Rynn sucked in a breath, both from reaction to him and surprise at her behavior. This was not an appropriate time to feel aroused. Why was his touch making her feel so heated? He’d touched her many times in the simple way he just had and she’d never felt that reaction before. It couldn’t be from their mating, could it?
Now, that she honed in her enhanced scent, the smell that surrounded her was powerful. She inhaled deeply, her eyes shut of their own accord from the intensity of it.
For the first time, she could smell his desire for her along the wind—it smelled thick, hot, and rich with lust.
She trembled and her sense came back to her. She snapped her eyes open, rapidly looked around to see if anyone else had smelled that. Thankfully, they hadn’t. It must be a mate thing.
Briggs gave Rynn’s thigh a little pinch, which brought his gaze back to her. His smile was about as damn delicious as she’d ever seen. He gave her a quick wink that she ignored as she attempted to focus on the job at hand—dead wolves on the ground in front of her. Resolved, to keep her mind on appropriate matters, she looked up to find Valor focused on his phone.
A moment later, he glanced away at Briggs. “They are from the Alabama Pack—
Rainer’s Pack.”
Briggs’ eyes widened. “A bit far from home.”
Valor agreed. He looked back at his phone, typed away, then raised it to his ear.
“Rainer. Yes. They’re dead.” He listened awhile. “Has he now?” He nodded. “Right.
Gather the others, find out what this is about, then join us here.”
He clicked the phone shut and glanced at the group. “Rainer has informed me that some of his pack has left their protection.” He pointed to the wolves on the ground.
“These four plus one other, who has just returned. Rainer and his mate will join us here shortly. They’re heading out on the next flight.” Then, he rubbed his face in thought, hummed a little, then looked at Briggs. “I am starting to believe that the attempt with the poison was to offset us. If Rynn had been killed, we would have been too preoccupied by that to look into this further.”
Briggs nodded as if he understood perfectly.
Rynn stood stunned. They truly believed the poison was meant for her. She couldn’t believe that. Just then another thought struck her, if Rainer was coming, so was Nera.
When it rains, it pours!
“My poor Kali,” Danika cried. “Cruel killers have her.” She looked at Hendrix with a pleading expression. “Why would they take her? What would they want with her?”
Hendrix hugged his mate and hushed her. “We will find her and kill the ones who have done this.”
Valor stepped forward toward them and touched Danika’s shoulder, drawing her attention. “Has anything been going on with her?”
Danika wiped her eyes, sniffled, and regained herself. “No. She is only twenty—she hasn’t even experienced life yet to have any trouble.”
That was laughable. Most twenty year olds knew more about life than some adults she’d met. Maybe Danika was in parent denial thinking her daughter was perfect.
“Does she have a boyfriend?” Rynn asked, but immediately regretted it.
Danika shot Rynn an angry glance. “What?”
She shouldn’t have said anything. It was pretty apparent by the glare on her face that Danika didn’t like her speaking of her daughter. Guess the nice act was just that.
As much as it did hurt a little to not be accepted for stupid reasons once again, she wouldn’t look put off. “I asked if she had a boyfriend.”
She was quite pleased with herself that her voice came out strong and steady. “It’s just from what I’ve heard in cases like these, if the victim is in her late teens or older and abducted, it’s usually love related.” She wasn’t about to tell them her theory was based off of
CSI Miami
.
Danika tone softened a smidgen, the anger that tightened her face lessened. “No. We have not allowed her to interact with males yet.”
Yes, she was living in a dream world—a very stupid dream world. “Just because you haven’t allowed it, doesn’t mean she doesn’t do it.”
Oh great, Danika’s anger came back to life in a split second. “You dare question our daughter’s morals?”
Briggs interjected, stepped a little forward to declare his protection and looked at Rynn. “I see where you are going with this.” He cut a glance back to Danika. “She has a point. As Valor said to us earlier, there wasn’t much of a struggle there. Are you positive she didn’t leave willingly?”
Danika face went through a slew of angry colors before she blasted into her wolf form and lunged at Briggs. He quickly shoved Rynn behind him. Before Danika could hit, Hendrix grabbed her hind leg, pushed her down and pinned her to the ground.
“Forgive her,” Hendrix said to Briggs. “This has been a hard time for her with her daughter missing.”
“Answer the question,” Valor demanded.
In a snap, Danika shifted and had completely calmed down. Valor had that effect.
Rynn had learned that quickly by the actions of others. He was not to be disobeyed without serious ramifications. Hendrix helped Danika up, and she dusted off her clothes then looked at Valor. “Since Kali hadn’t been exposed to a mate as such, we were planning on having one arranged for her.”
Rynn’s confused gaze found Briggs, who looked equally puzzled. His head cocked and brows tight together, those feelings sped through their bond to enhance the emotion within her.
Valor said, “You were not going to let nature take its course?”
Danika shook her head, unashamed. “We want the best for her. It was our decision to find an appropriate mate for her and bond them.”
“And she was okay with that?” Rynn couldn’t seem to shut her mouth.
No one else seemed to mind her questions, except Danika, of course. In fact, Valor and Briggs gave her looks of approval, which said they were pleased she stepped up to the plate. She hadn’t really believed Briggs when he said she held authority over the wolves, but now, she began to rethink that theory.
Still, it was all very strange and just sat funny in her stomach. She only asked because her curiosity needed the answers, then it was her smart mouth that continued on.