Should have Put a Leash On It (5 page)

They hadn’t had the time or manpower to search all the warehouses, facilities and addresses in the folders Jacko and the elders had found yet, but the few they had managed to find and search had housed all sorts of nasty stuff, from cages and medical equipment to crates of weapons. Trevor was building himself his own little army of freaks.

The thought of Rylan being kept in one of those cages made Micah physically ill. The nightmares he had of Trevor standing over Rylan were terrifying. That was why he didn’t sleep much. He couldn’t bear the thought of what he might see.

As he rode his motorcycle down the freeway, heading for the last two locations on his list, he thought about the fact that Trevor must have eyes on them. Twelve places weren’t much when considered against the pile of five, three-inch-thick folders. But these were the closest to pack grounds so it was important the pack hold them and prevent interlopers gaining control of the sites.

With people working for Trevor from inside the pack and coven, the former alpha seemed to be one step ahead of them. Traitors were like an infection—if not treated, they spread. They had to take the power away from Trevor somehow and that started with finding the traitors and dealing with them.

Micah swerved in and out of traffic, changing lanes until he’d overtaken the few cars still on the road at this time of evening. Then he let loose, speeding away into the growing darkness. Half of him hoped there were some of Trevor’s minions at the next stop. He’d love to have a nice, long chat with them. Remy would only need one alive to question.

He revved the engine and pushed his baby as fast as it would go.

Micah had just finished the second to last place check when his phone rang, vibrating in his jeans pocket. The small block of abandoned buildings was just as empty and deserted as the rest of the places. One thing was certain though, Trevor was being bankrolled by some powerful people. There was no way Trevor on his own could have collected all this property, even with what he was stealing from the pack and whatever other shady business he was doing.

Micah’s helmet was rigged up with good quality Bluetooth so he accepted the call as he drove down the highway. The last place was a little secluded, so he’d do a drive-by and find somewhere to hole up and watch for a bit.

“We found him...Micah, are you there. We found him, he’s alive,” Asher told him.

Micah barely managed to swerve his bike over to the side of the road and into a patch of woodland without crashing before he started shaking all over. He cut the engine and concentrated on his breathing as dizziness swamped him. “Where?”

Asher must have heard something in his voice. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing. Cold. Where?” He couldn’t function well enough to form a proper sentence, but he needed Asher to tell him where Rylan was. His wolf wanted out, wanted to run to wherever Rylan was to make sure it was really him and he was really back. Reacting like this was scaring the crap out of him.

He started sweating and he had to flip his helmet visor up in order to breathe.

“Micah...”

“Where?” Micah smothered the growl from his wolf by stuffing his face into his motorcycle glove, hoping Asher wouldn’t hear it.

Pressure started to build up inside him like a soda bottle being shaken and he was going to burst any second. He just needed to know where Rylan was before he exploded. Then he could pick up the pieces and go support his family.

“It’s bad, Micah, I’m not going to lie. He’s at the hospital and even with Elder Lavi’s blood, there hasn’t been much improvement. Rylan hasn’t woken up, Micah, and the doctors here are taking him straight into surgery.”

Numb, Micah told Asher that he’d be there soon and disconnected the call.

Surgery? The dizziness fled under an overwhelming surge of nausea. He only barely managed to rip his helmet off and stumble off the bike in time to toss his cookies over the side of a fallen tree. His wolf clawed at him to be let free and it was harder than ever to keep in control. He’d never been this stretched, this paper-thin and fragile.

He scooped up a handful of snow and wiped it over his face and the back of his neck. The freezing wetness shocked his system and he did it again and again until he was shivering and his clothes underneath his leather jacket were soaked.

What had Trevor done to Rylan that powerful vampire elder blood couldn’t heal him? Fear clogged his throat and his wolf almost got free.

A shifter’s nature was split in half and the animal side was both them and not them. It was wild and untamable, but they learned from the time they were pups that the human side had to be most dominant otherwise they would become feral. Micah had never had a problem with his wolf, they worked seamlessly as one, but now it was as if he was tumbling over a cliff and had no idea when he’d hit the ground.

On his knees in the snow, Micah knew his wolf needed out if he was going to stand any chance of getting to Rylan in one piece. Shifting at the hospital would be disastrous. Micah ripped off his jacket and his jumper, unbuttoned his pants and pushed them off. Usually his shift was effortless, but now he writhed on the ground as his wolf forced the change.

Micah screamed and clawed at the snow as his body reshaped. It must have looked like something out of a horror movie. The moment it was over he threw his head back and howled at the sky. The sound was made up of fear, anger and relief. Wild wolves answered his call and the sound carried in the wind around him.

Not giving his bike or clothing a second look, Micah ran, his feet slamming down on the icy hard snow. He knew where he was heading and nothing was going to get in his way. Micah ducked his head as more snow started to fall from the dark sky above and ran faster, pushing his body harder. He loped over the snow-laden ground and leaped over frozen streams and ditches.

Snowflakes stung his eyes as they hit him in the face and he could barely see a few meters ahead of him when the flurry thickened and grew faster. He barely managed to dodge around a tree that appeared seemingly out of nowhere, but he didn’t slow down. His human brain couldn’t process the surroundings fast enough and he escaped a sudden fifty foot drop only by biting onto a heavy limb from a fallen tree. At this rate he might not make it to the hospital at all.

He pulled himself back up onto the ledge, scrambling in the snow and came to a decision. Micah gave himself over to his wolf, trusting his animal to know the way and get them there in one piece.

Micah’s wolf retreated from his mind, giving him back control as they neared the back of the hospital building. The long run as a wolf had left him tired, but more balanced than he’d been in a long time. He could think clearly now.

As he looked around, he realized he would have to chance going through the staff parking lot. If he shifted, he’d be naked and at risk of frostbite on some of his favorite body parts. Not to mention that if anyone caught him, he’d probably be sedated and taken to the secure ward. That wasn’t his idea of a good time.

He gave one more cursory glance around the parking lot and stepped out of the cover provided by the trees.

There were several streetlights illuminating the space, but if he kept to the shadow of the cars he should be hidden from any cameras. All he needed to do was navigate carefully through the twenty or so rows of cars, then make a final run to the building.

Once Micah reached the building he could get in through one of the windows. The cameras dotted around the building would become a problem after that, but once he got to his brothers he could call Alex and bribe the hawk into erasing him from the security feed with the promise of borrowing his baby. The baby that he’d currently left abandoned in the woods about twenty miles away.

Sprinting to the first row of cars, Micah immediately started picking his way through the lines and spaces. He was just about to cross over into the priority parking lanes when he heard a female swearing and muttering to herself. He risked a quick glance around one of the cars. She was dressed in plain clothes, but the lanyard around her neck told him she worked here. He lowered himself to the ground without making any sudden movements that would catch her attention and retreated back behind a puke green pickup.

“I swear to God some people are just too stupid to live.
Why
would anyone sit on a toaster and turn it on? Ridiculous.” The woman’s voice was laden with fatigue and irritation.

Micah changed direction as he heard the hospital staff member stomp away from the building and over to a purple mini. He ducked down until he heard the engine start and the car pull away with screeching wheels as the woman tried to make the car go faster than the salted road would allow. Damn, there were some anger issues there.

When he couldn’t hear anyone follow the woman, he continued moving toward the hospital, keeping a sharper ear in case anyone else came out of the building. Last time had been close enough. Having widespread panic and headlines about a wolf monster terrorizing the hospital wasn’t something he wanted to see because he’d been sloppy.

As he came to the last car, the one nearest the building, he scoped out all of the ground floor windows. Most of them were too high, too small or closed, but there was one that looked as if it hadn’t been closed properly and if he reached up on his back legs he could probably get through it.

A quick look confirmed that only two cameras would likely catch him, but this time of night the security room was probably empty as the next shift began to take over.

If he could get to a phone in the next ten minutes or so Alex would be able to wipe the evidence remotely without anyone being the wiser. As if a higher power heard his thoughts, he heard chatting and laughter coming closer and a few minutes later the side door opened to allow four guys dressed in security uniforms to exit. Luck seemed to be with him at the moment so he decided not waste it.

Micah made a break for it the second the last security guard car pulled out of the parking space a few rows behind him and ran straight for the window he’d picked. He reared up on his back legs and pawed at the frame. He’d been right, the window wasn’t closed properly.

With a prodding with his nose he was able to open it wide enough to get his head though and push the pane the rest of the way open. He let out a little yip of relief when the catch caught and held it open. Micah dropped down to all fours just long enough to gather himself, then leaped up. It wasn’t the most graceful of jumps, and the landing definitely needed work, but he sailed through the window and rolled to a crumpled heap on the floor.

Any other time he’d have made a wisecrack, but all Micah could think about was getting to Rylan and his brothers. Faint scent markers told him they were close. They must be on this floor and whoever was treating them must have come in here. From the smell of old coffee and the lack of medical cleaning in the air he must be in a staff common room.

Getting to his feet, he stretched his muscles and yawned. Even though the need to see Rylan was like a physical itch, his wolf wasn’t panic stricken and fighting him anymore. Micah was fully in control. That had to mean Rylan was alright, right?

When the panic had set in before he’d been too overwhelmed to deal with it, but now he was calm he realized that it hadn’t been just his emotions he was feeling but Remy’s as well. Alphas could project onto others in the inner circle sometimes, but usually just one of the betas or seconds took the brunt of it. That lucky fucker tended to be the one that was already weakened for some reason. He’d never experienced it before and now that he had, he never wanted to again. Brutal didn’t even begin to sum up the experience.

He shook out his fur and sent piles of snow flying all over the room. This time his shift was easy and pain free, his wolf simply slipping away quietly. Human-shaped again, he stood up and tested his legs, pleased when they didn’t shake or feel tired.

Micah glanced around the room, taking in his surroundings and seeing the splatters of muddy, slushy snow dripping down the sky blue walls, the muddy paw prints on the grey carpet, and the wet patches on the worn sofa where the flung snow had landed and already melted.

“Oops.”

He glanced at the clock over the window and saw it had only been an hour or so since Asher had called him. That was pretty impressive since he’d run the scenic route through woodlands and back roads.

There was a small kitchen area and he went over and rummaged through the cupboards until he found some cleaning products. He struck lucky and found carpet cleaner so he emptied nearly the whole canister onto his own paw prints and hoped a quick scrub with a handful of paper towels he’d grabbed from the counter would be enough to disguise them.

When he was satisfied the marks on the carpet no longer looked like paw prints, he threw the canister and towels in the trash and headed straight for the lockers lining one wall of the medium sized room.

A quick pop of pressure applied to the lock released the mechanism and allowed him to open the locker. He’d learned that trick in high school.

Inside the first locker he found a lovely summer dress and thick winter tights. He tossed them back in and closed the door. The second locker yielded better results, a man’s shirt and pants, but there were at least three sizes too small.

“C’mon.” He prayed for something useful in the third locker.

If he stayed in here too long someone was bound to come in and catch him. Having to explain why exactly he was walking around naked in a staff common room and breaking into lockers would take a lot more imagination than he possessed.

“Thank God,” he muttered as he pulled out a t-shirt and a pair of black sweats. They were clean and wearable, that’s all he cared about right now. He’d worry about fashion later. Or not.

He put the clothes on. The sweats were on the tight side, but didn’t look like he was wearing someone else’s clothes. He’d have to be careful with the t-shirt or he’d rip the seams if he tensed or stretched. A quick check in the mirror confirmed that while he looked like a vain gym bunny trying to show off his muscles, it didn’t look ridiculous enough that he’d get stopped.