At One's Pleasure (16 page)

Rebecca woke
up groggy and in the dark.  She could feel her wrists pull against something
cold and metallic when she tried to shift off the concrete floor.  Not the best
scenario when the last thing she remembered was Cleo dropping into her arms,
unconscious.

“Cleo?”  She
cleared her throat and tried to swallow with no moisture in her mouth.  “Are
you in here?”

“Unfortunately.”

Rebecca
could have collapsed so much relief did she feel from that one word.  “Are you
hurt?”

“Only my
pride.”  The words were dry and completely lacking in any reasonable fear. 
“I’m never going to hear the end of this from Ian, and my father is going to
lose his ever-lovin’ mind.”

“Uh, Cleo. 
We kind of have bigger problems then how your dad will feel when he hears about
it.”  Then she couldn’t help it, she had to ask.  “Who’s Ian?”

“My sixteen
year old brother who has never been captured while on assignment.”

“Again, not
sure about your priorities here.  Besides, I’m sure everyone will just be happy
you’re all right.”

“That’s what
you think.”  She muttered it shifting about and clanking metal on concrete. 
“There, got it.”

“Got what?”

Then Cleo
was leaning over her in the dark and shifting her to the side.  “Got the
handcuffs off.  I must be getting rusty because that took way too long.”

Before Becca
could express her admiration, her own hands were free, and she was being pulled
up to her feet in the dark.  “Okay, that was impressive.”  Rebecca had to stop
talking when her head felt like it was going to come off.  Dizzy and nauseous,
she managed not to vomit.  She straightened, breathing through it.  “Can you
get us out the door the same way?”

“Probably. 
Hang on I need to find it, and see if there’s a light in here.”  Becca waited
by herself in the dark as she listened to Cleo moving around in the dark. 
“Bingo.”

“You found
it?”

“Yeah and…” 
The light flashed on and Rebecca had to close her eyes quickly against the
glare.  She was still seeing spots when she opened them again, slowly, trying
to adjust to the new brightness.  Then she saw Cleo across, what appeared to be
a big cement bunker.  “Light,” Cleo finished “and I can definitely get us
through this door.”  She knelt down to do just that.

“I’m sensing
an unsaid ‘but’.”

“But, I’m
more concerned with the fact that I have no weapons and until I work a little
bit more of whatever drug they pumped into us, out, I can’t shift to Lion.”

“Well,”
Rebecca said.  “I suppose it would have been a boring rescue for you if there
were no challenges.”

The door
clicked open and Cleo turned to flash a grin.  “That’s one way of looking at
it.”

“What did
you use to pick the lock, anyway?”

“Bobby
pin.” 

“Huh.”  They
both stood to either side of the door while Cleo flipped off the light and
cracked it open.  “I don’t suppose you could teach me how to do that nifty lock
picking trick?  I mean if we live through this.”

“We’re not
going to die Becca.”  Cleo whispered even as she slipped through the door. 
“Not unless you keep talking while we’re trying to make our escape.”

Right. 
Shutting up now.

“Wait here.”

Right. 
Waiting here.

There was a
few thumps and then a door opening, then nothing for the longest time.  Then
without making another sound Cleo was just back, making Rebecca jump and grab
her heart.  “Looks like they have us in a basement, I found the door but no
weapons.  We have to take the stairs cold.”

“I have no
idea what that means, but you lead and I’ll follow.”

“Silently.”

“Gotcha.”

The door to
the stairs opened with a creak and not much trouble.  When they were halfway up
the stairwell, she could hear a television in the distance and there was light
seeping through the cracks between the door and the floor.  Cleo leaned down
until her nose was right at that crack of light.  When she stood back up she
motioned to the door and held up three fingers.

Three bad
guys.  Check.

Rebecca
nodded and held her breath while Cleo worked the lock.  Then she was creeping
through and motioning for Becca to stay back.  There were more intense thumps
and a struggled, a man cursed then something shattered against a wall.  There
was an abbreviated scream at one point and then silence.

“Okay, Bec. 
It’s clear.”  Rebecca pushed open the door and blinked.  Cleo, in all her
golden loveliness was standing in what looked like a converted barn surrounded
by broken furniture and three big men that were no longer breathing.  She
leaned over and pulled a knife out of one man’s eye, making a sucking wet sound
that had Rebecca revisiting ‘the might have to vomit’ stage of the evening. 
“Look for a phone, or anything else we can use.  I get the feeling these guys
are expecting company.”

Becca looked
away from the bodies and tried to breathe through her mouth.  “Maybe the person
who hired them to take us?”

“Could be,
but if he has been here before it wasn’t anyone I’ve met.”  Rebecca looked at
her questioningly so she explained with a shrug.  “No scents I know.”

“Right.”

“Whoever it
is, we are not waiting around to find out.  Look for the phone, we are out of
here in two minutes, no more.”

Rebecca
began to search the place in earnest, leaving the dead guys to Cleo.

***

Griffin
paced the confines of his father’s living room while he waited for the Alpha to
show.  At this point he was giving him 60 more seconds before he was out the
door, protocol be damned.

“Griffin, I
didn’t expect to see you again so soon.”

He whipped
around to face the man whose blood he carried.  Angrier then he’d ever been in
his life, he seethed with rage, biting out each word.  “Protocol demands I let
you know you’ve got rogue mutts set up on your land.  You also have myself, my
enforcers and Logan McCord searching your land for our missing women and the
rogues that took them.”

“What? 
That’s not possible.  There are no rogues allowed here.”  His face was
reddening with anger even as narrowed his eyes at Griffin.  “If there are mutts
on these lands, me and mine will take care of them ourselves.”

“Well,
you’ve done a fuckin’ fantastic job so far.”  Griffin shook his head, done with
it and headed for the door.  “When you get your head out of your ass you can
find us starting our search by the old creek, where someone from your pack
arranged to ambush us last night.”

The old man
roared behind him.  “Why am I just hearing about this now?  Don’t you walk away
from me; I’m Alpha here, not you.”

Griffin
turned at the door to face him.  “If Rebecca is harmed I will come back here
and bury you for your incompetence.  If Cleo Gibbs is hurt, I’ll be the least
of your problems.  Get your house in order old man, or someone’s going to burn
it down.”

***

When Griffin
made it back to the clearing where the ambush had happened Logan was already
tracking.  Jacob had gone with him in wolf form and Linc was waiting for him
looking as hardened as he himself felt.  There job was to coordinate any search
away from where Logan was headed, if there was any search that is.  Linc had
already taken the time to pile the dead wolves to the side of the clearing so they
could burn them later, when the smoke wouldn’t interfere with the search.  The
sun had long since risen and they could feel time ticking away.  Each moment
meant Rebecca was unsafe for that much longer.

“Well?” 
Linc asked.  His voice cold, his face expressionless, but his hands fisted and
released repeatedly as he waited showing his real state of mind.  Much like the
gold that shown from his eyes.  He was close to the edge and Griffin had
nothing to offer him but his own searing rage.

“Well
nothing.  Malcolm was noticeably absent and Monteal has no idea what’s
happening in his own territory.”

“What about
the search?”

“Truthfully
I was too disgusted with his arrogant blindness to stick around and watch him
bluster.  They may or may not be coming to either try to help, or more likely
attempt to evict us from their territory.”

“Not without
Rebecca.”  Linc’s voice edged into anger briefly before he locked it down. 
“Surely he won’t expect us to walk away without our mate?”

“Whatever he
expects means shit to me.”  Griffin turned and studied the way back to the
road.  “I guess we’re going to find out now which way he’s leaning.  Someone’s
coming.”

Linc turned
and lifted his nose, sniffing the wind.  He growled.  “Whoever it is they don’t
smell local.”

“No.”  Griffin
smiled for the first time since Rebecca had gone missing.  It was not a happy
smile.  “I think we’re about to get another visit from the rogues.”

“Finally
something goes right.”  Linc started to pull off his shirt.  “Try to leave one
alive.”

“You leave
one alive.”  Griffin ripped off his own shirt, his suppressed rage turning it
in to so much confetti streamers.  “I make no promises.”

***

“What do you
think?”  Rebecca looked out over the snowy landscape.  Her words puffing heat
out in front of her she wished she could have back.  Hating the feel of the
wind whipping her stinging cheeks, she lifted her head only long enough to look
around.  It was the same snowy white wonderland she had seen every other time
she braved the wind and looked up.  It was beautiful and pristine, but even
under three layers of too large winter wear she was freezing her keister off.

“I think
we’re being tracked,” Cleo said.  Looking behind her for the hundredth time. 
“I don’t know this country as well as our followers do, and you are definitely
not going to last long in this cold.  We need to find the high ground and
defend our position until help arrives.”

“That sounds
awesome.”  Rebecca rubbed her hands over each other under the overlap of denim
jacket sleeves.  Wishing, for the hundredth time the bad guys had been a tiny
bit more sensitive to the cold.  No one had gloves when they had bundled up and
the bundles weren’t all that warm anyway.  Shapeshifters apparently, all knew
how to stay warm better than she did.  She was covered from ankle to neck in a
large dead man’s coat but it lacked true warmth. 
Cheap bastard
.  “Where
would the high ground be exactly?”

***

The wolves
came out of the forest around them in nearly identical formation as the first
attack, only this time there was no sniper rifle trained on them to take them
out, and with more than a dozen wolves the odds were significantly against them
surviving the skirmish.  But then, Griffin and Linc were highly motivated, and
their wolves were chomping at the bit to destroy those that dared to take their
mate.

Griffin had
not even changed when he ripped the throat out of the first wolf sailing at
them.  Linc jumped over the body and took out the next by wrapping his muzzle
around an exposed throat and crushing his windpipe.  After that Griffin shifted
to his 300-pound timber wolf bent on destruction and it was on. 

Even against
those odds they had decimated the numbers of the enemy when a second wave came
at them.  Bleeding from numerous cuts and even fueled by rage, this time they
were overwhelmed and went down under the assault.  They heard the distant howls
from under a pile of gnashing limbs and sharp teeth.  Seemed the pack had
arrived to defend their land.

With the new
assistance coming from what sounded like every able-bodied man in the pack,
Griffin and Linc emerged from their fights, bloodied but standing.  With howls
of rage Linc defended a distant cousin who was taking on two rogues and Griffin
took his brother Rhett’s back against another.  A wolf came at Linc from behind
and managed to clamp teeth into his fur-covered shoulder, He yelped and
twisted, then the threat was gone and he turned to see Nathan with his white
wolf snout wrapped around a hind leg, dragging off his attacker. 

When the
fight ended and the last rogue was bleeding out into the red muddy snow,
Griffin shifted, hauling the unfortunate survivor up by his neck, he shook
him.  “Change, or I rip off your legs.”  He changed, hanging limp from Griffin’s
arms was a wiry man with greasy hair and a thin body covered in bruises and
bites, including the one that caused his intestines to spill out all around
him.  “Where are the females?”

“Why should
I tell you?”  He choked on the blood coming out of his mouth.  “I’m dead
anyway.”

“Shapeshifters
are funny things.  We can survive a lot of damage for a long time even when
we’re dying.  Painful way to go.”  Griffin reached down and grabbed a handful
of the man’s insides, the guy thrashed weakly in his hold, all that was left of
color leaving his face.  “Especially if someone is motivated enough to work at
it.”  He pulled the slightest bit.  “What do you bet I can pull this all out in
one good yank?”

The man
screamed, and then he talked.

***

When Cleo
said high ground, she meant high.  By the time they had climbed up the face of
the cliff to reach the cave there, Rebecca was exhausted and frozen through.

“How did you
know this was here?”

“I didn’t. 
Thought we’d have to climb to the top and set camp where we could see what was
coming.  This is better.  We got lucky.”

All Rebecca
could think, was she would never have made it to the top, then dainty Cleo
would have hefted her inordinately large ass over her shoulder and fireman
carried her the rest of the way, which would have been humiliating, so yeah
they got lucky.  Speaking of her ass, she was pretty sure he stomach was
attempting to eat it.  “I don’t suppose we could eat now?”

“Yeah.  Food
and fire are on the agenda.”