Authors: Savannah Stuart
looked like a PDA and pressed a couple buttons. A flat screen against one of the walls
flashed on.
The date stamp on the screen was six months ago. It was near dusk, somewhere
close to the ocean. What city or state though, he couldn’t be sure. Stephan watched as a
team of masked, armed men surrounded a barking dog. The dog yapped and growled
but someone shot it with something—
a tranquilizer gun
. The light brown and white
Akita yelped in pain before it fell on its side. Then it shifted into a naked blonde woman
who looked vaguely familiar.
“What the hell?” He tried to act as astonished as he could.
Perez beamed at him proudly. “So far we’ve only found two females able to
undergo our testing. She is one of them.”
“How do I know this isn’t staged?” Stephan asked.
“They both have too many drugs in their system now. We’ve already started
reducing their dosage. Once you guarantee me the contacts I require, I’ll set up a live
demonstration in a very controlled setting. It will be for your eyes only,
before
we meet
with any of your friends. I’m no fool and I wouldn’t try to cross or embarrass you. We
can both make a lot of money.”
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The girl on the video cried out as they threw a net over her. Stephan’s hands fisted
at his side.
Do not change, do not change, do not change.
“Why does she look familiar?” He
needed to keep the other man talking and he desperately needed to keep his mind off
the sight of one of his own kind being hunted like garbage.
He shrugged dismissively. “She’s a model—
was
a model, for some international
clothing company.”
Stephan tore his gaze away from the screen. “Who’s the other woman in there?”
“Her name isn’t important. I got her a year ago. She’s the only one of her pack to
survive.”
“Pack?” Stephan asked while imagining himself ripping Perez’s head from his
body.
“That’s what they call themselves, if you can imagine.” He turned his attention back
to the screen and pressed another button.
A new video popped up dated two days ago. The setting was in a warehouse. That
much was clear. A man wearing camouflage fatigues lifted a two-door car off the
ground. “We’ll need to conduct longer studies of course, but so far, the results are what
we were hoping for. The human we injected is almost a hundred times stronger and his
healing capabilities are like nothing the world has ever seen before. I know this must be
a shock to you—”
“How did you find out about these…creatures?”
“One of their own kind betrayed them for a lot of money.”
Betrayed.
Marisol had said it was her fault—no! His mind immediately rejected the
thought. She’d been distraught and she’d come here to kill him. She couldn’t have done
it.
Perez continued. “This is why I wanted to do business with you. You have the
contacts I need. If you back me and provide introductions, we can make a fortune.”
Stephan’s lips pulled into a thin line. “How many of your men know about this?”
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“The four in the first video and the doctor who created the serum are the only other
people who know about this.”
“Good. I need a few days to think things over, but this is between you and me. My
men will not be privy to anything you’ve shown me here.” Stephan’s heart beat
erratically and his blood rushed loudly in his ears. The only thing keeping him from
changing was the knowledge that he was going to burn Perez’s home to the ground.
Possibly with Perez in it.
* * * * *
Stephan braced himself as he entered the beach house. As soon as he stepped inside
he was hit with an array of emotions.
Anger, hurt, fear, pain. And he wasn’t sure what was coming from whom. A low
murmur of voices trailed from the kitchen so he made his way there.
His father, Nick, Thomas and his Uncle Cosmo stood around the center island, deep
in conversation. Marisol and his mother sat at the table near one of the windows.
Marisol’s eyes were red and puffy. The wolf inside him cried out to comfort her, but
duty prevented him. He risked a quick glance at his mother. She didn’t look necessarily
angry, but her dark eyebrows rose questioningly at him.
The men became silent as he entered the room. He could feel Marisol’s gaze bore
into him but he couldn’t look at her again. If he did, he was likely to take her into his
arms and drag her upstairs to take care of her.
“You should have told me you found a mate,” his father said.
Stephan nodded at the same time Thomas spoke, “He was going to after he
wrapped his case up. A day or two would
not
have made a difference.”
As next in line to be Alpha, Thomas had more leeway than any other male in the
pack, but Stephan didn’t want his brother to stand up for him. Not now. He’d fucked
up and he deserved the rebuke.
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“It doesn’t matter. The pack comes first.” His father didn’t raise his voice because
he didn’t have to. His command and presence enveloped the entire room. At two-
hundred years old, he looked barely forty-five. Standing over six feet, there was no sign
of gray in his dark hair and his dark eyes had an unmistakable air of insight.
Stephan knew there would be time enough later to discuss his mistakes. “We have
more important problems to worry about.” As quickly as he could, he explained
everything he’d seen at Perez’s house. When he was finished, an eerie silence
descended on the kitchen.
His father was the first to speak. He focused on Marisol. “Did you know Perez was
doing experiments on shifters?”
Eyes wide, she shook her head. “No, I swear. He killed all the males of our pack
and most of the females. I thought… I just thought he hated our kind.” The truth was
there in the shakiness of her voice.
“What did you tell your boss, Stephan?” This time Thomas spoke.
Stephan paused at his brother’s question. Thomas had been looking out for him and
Nick since they were pups. It wasn’t lost on him that his brother cared about his job—
something his father didn’t concern himself over. “I lied to my team. They think Perez
wants time to think about doing business with me. I managed to buy myself a week at
the most.”
“We cannot wait a week. We’ll move against him tonight,” his father said.
The others murmured in agreement with the exception of Nick. “We need a plan
first. If this guy is experimenting on shifters, he’s going to have proper weapons to hurt
us. I think half of us should go in human form, the other half, shifted.”
His father and the others nodded. That still didn’t alleviate the fact that they didn’t
have the schematics of Perez’s house or know how many men they’d be up against, but
they’d make it work. Stephan knew the layout of the first floor so that would have to be
good enough.
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“I might be able to help,” Marisol’s soft voice silenced the rest of the room. Her
hands shook as she opened her small purse. “This is the design plan for Perez’s house.”
Stephan was across the room before anyone could move. He frowned as he scanned
it. The DEA hadn’t been able to get this because it hadn’t been recorded online
anywhere. “How did
you
get this?”
“Luck and money. I met the architect a few months ago at a club in South Beach. It
took a lot of sweet talking and cost a small fortune, but he gave me a copy.”
He held out his hand to her. She stared at it for a moment before placing her much
smaller one in his then stood. Stephan glanced at his family. “Give me a second.” They
left the kitchen and he kept walking until they were upstairs and out of earshot.
Once they were alone, he placed his hands on her hips and pulled her close. “Are
you okay?”
She tensed under his touch and shrugged. “Your family is
not
happy with me.”
“They’ll get over it.”
She swallowed hard. “I don’t really care about them…no offense. I just care what
you think.”
He wasn’t exactly happy she’d lied to him either, but that wasn’t what she needed
to hear. Part of him wanted to shake her senseless, but more than anything he just
wanted to take her in his arms and comfort her. “Why didn’t you tell me about Perez?”
“I…I didn’t think I’d even get out of his house alive. I just needed one shot to kill
him and…”
And she’d been willing to die to do it. The words hung silently in the air. He wasn’t
sure how to even digest her words. “I have to go, but we
are
going to talk about this.”
“I know,” she whispered.
So many things still needed to be said but time wasn’t his friend. They needed to
catch Perez unaware. His guard would be down tonight. Stephan had seen the greed in
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his eyes earlier. Perez was ready to deal and he thought he had a sure thing with
Stephan
Vasquez
. He’d made his first big mistake by settling in Miami.
Stephan was going to make damn sure that son of a bitch didn’t make it out of his
house alive tonight. Then he was going to hunt down whoever had betrayed Marisol’s
pack.
* * * * *
In wolf form, Stephan edged along the perimeter of Perez’s expansive backyard.
He’d already knocked out two armed guards using brute strength. Thomas, his father
and he had opted to shift because they were stronger in wolf form and looked a hell of a
lot more intimidating than the other two who’d stayed in human form. Using the
overgrown foliage and gazebo as cover, he blended in with the shadows.
The males of his pack had spread out and they were converging on the house from
all angles. It would give them the element of surprise.
With his heightened senses, everything around him was clearer. In addition to the
men he’d knocked out, a guard or someone not of his pack was nearby. He could smell
the individual. Tobacco and a specific body odor accosted Stephan’s senses. As he
peered around one of the bushes, he spotted a man sitting on one of the lounge chairs
by the pool smoking a cigarette.
Stephan could sense other bodies, but he couldn’t make out anyone else that was
closer than the lone guard. He hoped his brothers had already immobilized the outside
guards.
Crouching as low as he could, he inched toward the outside stone fireplace that sat
between him and the guard. He just wanted to stun the guy, not kill him, so he had to
be careful.
After the guy tossed his cigarette to the ground and stepped on it, he bent to pick
up his M4. In that moment, Stephan made his move.
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Using all his momentum and strength, he pounced from his hiding position and
tackled him from behind. His paws slammed into the man’s back. The guy let out a
shout as they tumbled over the chair, but his head struck the stone tile and his entire
body stilled. Which was exactly what Stephan had hoped for. Fighting for even minutes
wasn’t in the game plan. They needed to immobilize these men and take the house.
Stephan nudged him with his paw, but the man didn’t move.
“He’s out cold,” Nick murmured as he bent next to the man. He tapped his ear.
“Cosmo says it’s clear out front and I took out three other armed men. I guarantee
Thomas and Dad have taken out more.”
Stephan understood his brother, but he couldn’t respond. In shifted form, he could
project thoughts with his mind, but his brother would only understand him if he was in
wolf form too.
As they continued toward the back patio, Thomas rounded the corner. Once they
were all together by the French doors, Thomas ordered him to shift to human form.
Pain rippled through Stephan until he was on his knees and groaning. Changing
back to human form always hurt worse.
Nick had already pulled most of their clothing from his backpack by the time he
and Thomas had changed. Wordlessly, they slipped on black pants and long-sleeved
black shirts. With the weapons they’d brought, there hadn’t been enough room to
include shoes.
“Dad and Cosmo are going in through the front,” Thomas whispered.
The back door was locked so instead of wasting time picking it, Stephan broke the
glass and unlocked it manually. A piercing alarm sounded as they rushed inside. Before
leaving their family’s beach house, they’d all studied the layout of Perez’s house.
Everything on the diagram corresponded with the layout he remembered from his short
visit.
Now they simply needed to make it to the lab and figure out a way to get inside
before any cops showed up.
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“We’ve got two minutes,” Thomas shouted above the noise.
As they fanned out across the open living room, two guards appeared from around
the corner. Both men raised their guns.
Stephan fired at the one on the right. The man fell at the same time his partner did.
Either Thomas or Nick had taken him down with one shot. It had been decades since
he’d been in an all-out gunfight, but the last time had been with his brothers in
Vietnam. After almost two-hundred years of living and fighting together, it was only
natural they knew how to work as a team.