Claiming His Fire (18 page)

Gideon frowned, his face pained. His packmates edged closer to him, supporting him, offering what they could. These coming hours would probably be the worst for the mated shifter, be harder than any of the others simply because she was so close. This night would last a lifetime for him.

Jameson stepped right up to Gideon, face-to-face, voice rough and emotion clear as he whispered, “If I have to wear my cell phone on a collar, I will. If she’s in trouble, we’ll call you. If we see them touch her, we’ll break through the doors. If she’s in danger, we’ll bust her out. I swear to you, we won’t let them hurt her once we get her in our sights. We won’t leave her behind, and we won’t stop searching until we find her. You’re going home with your mate.”

Gideon blinked twice then nodded, his eyes more red than normal. Even in the low light of the parking lot, I could see him tearing up. His pain ate at me, made me lose focus because it could so easily be mine. My bond with Scarlett was already the best thing that had ever happened to me, the most intense emotional connection I’d ever known. But it was also my biggest weakness. I’d do anything for her, anything to keep her safe. And that made her a powerful weapon against me. Just like Kalie was for Gideon.

The mountain shifters disappeared into one of the cheap motel rooms we’d rented, hunkering down for the next few hours of torturous waiting. Our Feral Breed team followed Jameson and me around the corner of the building to the edge of the woods.

“Time to four-paw it,” Phoenix said once we reached a spot deep within the tree line. He stripped off his clothes, placing them on a branch for when we came back. “How are you going to carry your phone, Jameson?”

The big man shrugged as he pushed his jeans over his hips. “In my mouth I guess.”

I shook my head. “You’ll slobber all over it.”

“Good thing my case is waterproof.” He smirked as he set his phone down where he could easily grab it in wolf form.

“Waterproof,” I snorted as I pulled my T-shirt over my head. “You better hope it’s wolf-proof.”

The deep, dangerous sound of Phoenix’s growl interrupted our easy laughter.

“What the fuck are those?” he spat, charging toward me.

“What?” I asked.

He plowed into me, shoving my shoulder while twisting my body so he could see my back. “Are you fucking around with Scarlett?”

My stomach sank as I met Jameson’s questioning eyes. Fuck, this was so not the time. I’d almost forgotten about the burns she’d left on my shoulder blades. Hiding the subtle tiger stripes on my groin had become ingrained over the years, and the bite she’d given me was small enough to look like a bruise or a hickey. But the two handprints seared into my back were new, large, like upside down wings on my shoulders. They were also very, very telling.

Pulling from Phoenix’s hold, I held my head high. “It’s not your business, man.”

“Not my business?” Phoenix pushed me again, making me stumble and snarl. “She’s like a sister to me. What the fuck are you doing screwing around with her?”

Rebel snorted a sarcastic laugh. “You’re about to get your ass kicked, Shadow.”

“Pretty sure Beast’ll be taking a piece of your hide when you get back as well. If there’s any left.” Gates smirked and stood beside Rebel, the two watching, letting Phoenix and me work out our own shit.

Jameson leaned back against a tree, arms crossed, also watching. Knowing. And suddenly I sensed it—the man had to have a mate. I knew it like I knew my own mating bond. Why he was keeping it quiet was his business, same as why I hadn’t wanted to tell the guys about Scarlett and me. But there was no doubt in my mind he’d found his fated match.

“You guys might want to ease up,” Jameson said, giving me a smirk. “I’m pretty sure our Shadow isn’t the hit-it-and-quit-it type anymore. Not when the girl has ties to his den. Especially not when the girl is a witch and can set his dick on fire if she chose to.”

“True that.” I gave him a nod before turning back to face the angry Phoenix. “It’s not your concern.”

“Fuck you,” he spat. “Scarlett is my business.”

“No, she’s not.” I crossed my arms, keeping the claws that had pushed through my fingertips from showing. I didn’t want to fight my den brother, but I wouldn’t let him come at me and not defend myself. I understood his concern, even liked it considering the situation, but I wouldn’t let him win just because he cared for my mate like a brother. “You need to back the fuck up. She’s my business, my concern. Mine.”

That final word came out on a roar, not a growl or a wolf snarl. My tiger had staked his claim, and he refused to back down to a weaker species.

Phoenix’s eyes went wide. “What the hell did you just say?”

“Guys.” Rebel stepped between us, ever the voice of reason when things got a little too heated. Too bad I was past reason. I’d suffered through thinking my mate had refused me, I wasn’t going to deny her or let these guys think they had any say in my relationship with her. She was
my
mate. Mine. Not theirs.

Phoenix inched closer, pointing his thick finger in my face. “I can’t believe you’d do this, man. She’s family. You don’t get to fuck with my family.”

I glared at him, making sure to let my animals peek through my human eyes. Both of them. “I said back up, and I meant it. My relationship with Scarlett is just that, mine.”

Phoenix growled, forcing Rebel to grab him by the chest as he lunged for me. “You think you can take her to bed and what, claim some kind of ownership? She’s practically my sister.”

“No,” I said, keeping my voice cool and level, knowing Scarlett was probably going to be a little pissed at me for what I was about to do. “I think I can take her anywhere she wants to go and claim some kind of mating bond, you jackass.”

The woods stood silent, the world still as all four men stared at me, eyes wide.

“When?” Gates asked, his head cocked to the side.

I shrugged, still growling, still pissed. “A few days ago. It was the first time I’d met her.”

Phoenix jerked at that, and I could practically see him putting the pieces together. We’d been at his house, in his living room, and I’d not told him what happened when Scarlett walked in. He had to remember her saying “no” and running for the door.

“Why didn’t you say anything?” Rebel asked.

I shrugged. “She’s private, and it hasn’t been the easiest start for us. I didn’t want her to have to deal with the added pressure of everyone knowing about this.”

“I…I’m sorry. I didn’t know she was your mate.” Phoenix shook his head, but then his eyes widened. “She ran away that day, though.”

“She came back,” I said, simple words for a not so simple couple of days.

“I wish I would have known,” Phoenix said.

“Now you do.” I kept my eyes hard as I gave him a look that I hoped made him aware of how seriously I was taking this. “I’ll never hurt her.”

Gates gave me a one-armed hug, slapping my back in the process and making me flinch. And by the smirk on his face, he’d hit those burns on purpose. The jackass. “Congratulations. Welcome to the club. Be prepared for your space to be invaded by all things glittery.”

“Charlotte hates glitter.” Rebel smiled and replaced Gates, whispering his own congratulations as he smacked my shoulder. Phoenix followed, apologizing, reminding me that Scarlett was a package deal and he was part of that package. I just nodded, ready to hunt, ready to move on with this mission. If it were my mate out there, I’d want everyone focused and on point. And that was exactly how I intended to act—as if it were my mate in danger. It was a sign of respect for my mated brethren.

“So, we ready to hunt now that the coffee klatch is closed?” Jameson asked. His voice was filled with irritation, but his expression when he met my eyes was anything but. Loneliness, jealousy, and impatience. It rolled off him in waves. Seeping out of him. A man possessed by loss.

“Yeah, man,” I said, letting him keep his secret for as long as he needed to. “Let’s run.”

Deep in the woods, as the sky shifted from pitch black to the gray of almost dawn, we slipped through the trees toward the pack camp. Four of us had watched for hours, even circling around the site to verify buildings and terrain. We saw no movement, no shifters, no sign of Kalie, though the forest reeked of shifters. So we’d gone back to the motel to grab our secret weapon—her mate.

Gideon led our group through the darkness, his gray coat barely visible in the night. The new moon hung in the starry black above, reflecting little light to the forest floor. Packs took advantage of nights like these when the moon sat dark and waiting. They would race through the night, playing in their animal forms, jumping and running and fucking in the deeper shadows. But there would be no playing tonight, not for our group. We stalked carefully, on full alert, waiting and watching to determine our best course of action to find Omega Kalie. To save her.

The Cleaners had arrived while we’d been scouting the pack property, led by Bez who’d worked with Gates during Kaija’s kidnapping. He’d been deeply involved in the missing Omega cases from the start, handling the more violent aspects of interrogation. I’d worked with him before and respected him, so that made their presence and direction easy to take. The Cleaners were working their way in from the opposite direction, coordinating with our movements to trap the pack members in one big net.

Unfortunately, there were no pack members in the camp to trap.

Gideon paused by a tree overlooking the camp, head up, ears perked, listening and sniffing for any sign of Kalie. Body stiff, completely focused, ready for war. The camp sat less than a hundred yards away, close enough that he should be able to feel her, smell her, pinpoint her location even through the drugs. And yet he stood still as a statue, unsure. Lost.

I was beginning to lose hope, starting to plan how to track these bastards down in my head, when a car approached. The engine rumbled through the trees, growing louder as it neared.

A nondescript older model sedan appeared from the driveway leading to the dirt road on the north side of the property. The Cleaners’ side. With little more than a quiet huff from Jameson, we enacted our plan. Creeping under the brush, spreading out, hiding ourselves among the twigs and dirt. Forming a V-shape pointing away from the camp with Jameson and Rebel at the nearest ends and myself at the rear. The fastest of us all and, therefore, the last line of defense.

The car doors opened almost at once, and four shifters scuttled out. A tall man with brown hair and tattoos covering his arms pulled a woman behind him. Average height, exceptionally skinny and pale, she stumbled as he dragged her toward a cabin, her red hair hanging flat and dull past her shoulders. Kalie.

Gideon growled and inched forward, his eyes locked on his mate. Jameson turned and snapped his jaws, warning him to stay put, to stay back. To wait. My tail twitched, my wolf ready to battle, my inner cat ready to hunt. The two had very different styles, but tonight they were both on board for some tracking and fighting. We had a ton of frustration to burn off, and the fuckers dragging that poor woman across the dirt would be the ones who suffered under our jaws.

“Get her inside,” one of the men said, his voice carrying across the quiet forest.

“What’s the plan?” Tattoo asked, spinning to face his packmate, knocking Kalie off her feet. Gideon inched closer, growling low but consistent.

“We wait to see if the drugs take effect. If they do, Aaric breeds her. If they don’t, we cull her as a dud.” The man spat and ran his hand over his face. “You hear me, bitch? You’ve got twenty-four hours to go into heat. After that, it’s over. I’m not dragging your worthless ass around anymore.”

Tattoo shoved Kalie into a cabin and slammed the door, stomping toward the car. Gideon’s growl grew louder, stronger. Every wolf in our group responded in kind, quiet but not quiet enough. Instinctual, uncontrollable. These fuckers had obviously harmed Gideon’s mate. If that were Scarlett, I’d have already attacked.

“When will Aaric be back?” Another shifter asked, this one short and thin. Scrawny almost. A human turned shifter, or Anbizen, was my guess. And a recent one at that. He moved like a human, not enough wolf in his steps to have been changed for long. A kid who’d soon be regretting his decision to join this particular group.

“In a few hours. He had a meeting with The King and didn’t expect to be released until dawn.”

“So what do we do until—”

A single twig breaking behind me was the only warning I had before the weight of a wolf slammed into my back, the burn of teeth in my neck making me snarl. I jumped and rolled, trying to dislodge the beast, but he held tight. It took some serious twisting to get my claws on his side, near his belly, almost close enough to cut him open. He released his hold on me, his wolf instincts to protect such a delicate area giving me a moment of reprieve.

The dark wolf stood, snarling, my blood dripping from his jaws. I circled him, letting my wolf use his instincts for this fight. My tiger stood in his hunting stance, ready to pounce if needed, wanting to use his claws as well.

Ignoring the battle erupting around me, I kept my head high, challenging the fucker who’d snuck up on me, waiting him out. Planning his death.

He lunged low, going for my legs with a snarl…a rookie mistake. I jumped and raced around, aiming for his back leg, reaching, snarling, clamping my teeth on him.

The weight of a second wolf on my back knocked me off my trajectory and forced me to miss, rolling me into the dirt. The sneaky fucker gripped me by the ruff of my neck, hanging on as I twisted and snapped. Bastard was just out of my reach, and two of his friends were circling closer. Waiting their turn. Watching for the first sign of weakness from me. My tiger surged forward, ready to jump into the action, but I held him back. There were too many other shifters around, too many of my teammates who couldn’t know my truth.

My hesitation to reveal myself was the opportunity my attackers had been waiting for. The two wolves jumped, one slicing his claws across my hip and the other clamping down on my shoulder. I felt the tiger rush to take control, slid into the tingles of a shift to another form, but it was too late. Far too late.