Craving Her (Keeping Her Series Book 4) (17 page)

There was a stillness
that settled on the plane that had nothing to do with peace.  “For
breeding
?”
Lucas asked grimly, from his seat farther back.  Next to him, Logan looked like
Shawn felt.  But it was Lucas who said what they were all feeling.  “He gave
his fifteen-year-old nephew to another pride for breeding?” Pride lionesses’
weren’t exactly known for their compassion.  Lucas gnashed his teeth and
growled, “How many Unger females are there?”

“Eight,” the boy
whispered, starting to shake and his voice going a little shock-like at just
the memory.  “They did things. . .”  He seemed to shake himself out of it and
his mouth closed with a snap, his eyes still on the ground.

“Your family?” Mac asked,
his voice a quiet breath of anger in the room.

William lifted his
shoulders and dropped them again.  “There is just my mom.  She said I should do
better next time.”

“Fuck me,” Ben said
grimly from his seat beside Mac.  Everyone else looked grimmer and grimmer and
the boy seemed to shrink in on himself more and more.  Unexpectedly, it was Ian
who defused the tension.

“I really wanted to kill
this motherfucker before,” Ian said loudly into the yawning silence, “now I
think I’ll rip off his dick and shove it up his ass first.”  He stomped over to
the boy and knocked him on the shoulders, falling into the seat beside him like
a sack of bricks.  “Buck up.  More than likely my sister already served him his
testicles on a platter.  Fucking wanker will be crying like a little girl
before Cleo is through with him.”  Some of the shadows left William’s eyes as
he looked at Ian sitting so casually beside him.  “You know, she’s such a
dainty, little, fragile girl,” Ian looked appropriately disgusted, making
William’s lips twitch.  “He’ll probably be all burly and manly talking shit,
and then
Wham!
”  Ian slammed his fist into his hand, making William jump
with a startled laugh.  “She will
decimate
that motherfucker.”

That brought a real laugh
out of William and managed to defuse the tension that had been sucking the
oxygen from the plane.  Then Ian kept speaking, his whole demeanor one of
teenage camaraderie that put the boy at ease.  “But do me a favor, William . .
.,” he stopped and looked pained, “tell me you go by something besides
William.  Bill or Willy, anything.  William sounds like you’re as old as my
dad.”

“Hey,” Lucas muttered but
without heat, his eyes glittering in the dark as he watched his son prove once
and for all he was not as stupid or insensitive as he pretended to be.

“My name is actually Liam
after my grandfather, Liam Stalk.  Uncle Arnaud was the one who insisted on
changing it to the more mainstream William saying Liam is too pedestrian.”  He
shrugged, “He never liked my grandfather because he was Scottish.”

“What the fuck ever. 
Liam is way better than William.  Very highlander, eternal warrior sounding. 
The chicks will dig it.” 
Liam
sputtered a laugh at that, looking
pleased despite himself.  “Anyway, the favor I will ask you is never,
ever
refer
to my sister as a badass superhero again.  Especially not where she can hear
you.”  He finished with a grimace.  “It’s bad enough she could fly a fucking
tin can if someone glued on wings.  But to have her think she can fight her own
battles,” he gave an overly dramatic shudder at the thought, “what a fucking
nightmare.”

Liam looked from Ian to
the rest of the grinning men then back again.  “You have met your sister,
right?” he asked incredulous.  Then a gleam entered his eyes that was clearly
more than simple admiration.  “She
is
a badass superhero.”  Whatever
memory he was savoring of Cleo was a doozy if that glazed happy look in his
eyes was anything to go by.  Shawn didn’t know whether he should laugh at the
look or kick the little shit’s ass.

Ian flat-slapped the back
of his head.  “Snap the fuck out of
that
.” 

Then Ian shook his head,
while Liam cleared his throat and looked guiltily around at the rest of the
pack.  He skipped over the heat in Shawn’s eyes as soon as he caught that
predator stare on him.

“Dude.
” 
Ian packed quite a bit of teenage meaning into that one syllable word.  It was
actually impressive.  Then he sighed long and loud, “If you are going to be
joining Lionsgate, we have to work on your cool.” 

Liam jerked his head up
and looked around at the badass assemblage that surrounded him.  Then, when the
shock drifted away and no one argued, he cleared his throat, looking both awed
and overwhelmed.  He licked his lips and asked hesitantly, “Is that a
possibility?”  The hope was almost painful to look at.

At this point, Lucas
could have said a lot of things.  He could have told the kid that he could join
the pack if he helped save Cleo.  He could have said a flat out ‘no.’ He could
have said they would have to see about negotiations with the Gerent pride after
Cleo is free and Arnaud dead.  He could have said a lot of things.  What he
said after a long weighted examination of the boy’s hopeful face and then a
flicker of his eyes to his son was, “Welcome to Lionsgate pack.”

Liam swallowed again and
looked like he was going to burst into tears, but he held it back, and instead,
cleared his roughened throat and jutted his quivering chin.  He seemed beyond
words, but he did manage a heartfelt heard overwhelming agreement.

Beside him, Ian shook his
head and sighed long and loud, his eyes on the other boy.  “We have a lot of
work ahead of us.”

After that, for some
reason, Shawn was finally able to nod off, listening to the return of the quiet
conversations of his pack around him and thinking how Cleo would smile if she
could hear them all.  He dreamed of soaring through the jungle with Cleo on
four legs running beneath him.

CHAPTER
SEVENTEEN

Besides adopting some
traumatized pubescent lion, the flight was uneventful, and by the time they
landed at one of the layover airports and switched to the nighthawk for the
final stealth segment of the flight, Shawn was rested and feeling almost back
to normal.  If you could call coming out of his skin and feeling like his hawk
was going to rip itself out of his chest to get to his mate normal.  Which,
come to think of it, judging by the last few weeks was approaching normal for
him, but it was not the usual calm he faced on missions.

Lucas looked him over,
his eyes grim.  “The intel we have suggests that Cleo is already clear of the
compound and hiding in the jungle.  We need visual verification before we
approach.”

“If she’s in the jungle,
I’ll find her; according to the maps, the island is about five clicks across
the entire length of it, but it’s dense and she’ll be hiding, could take me
some time.”  His jaw firmed and he knew his hawk eyes were burning out of his
human face because he could see every detail of the men around him.  “Time we
may not have.”

Lucas’ look turned cold
as he absorbed that hit.  “You take the island.  Find Cleo.  We’ll approach as
if she is still being held.”  He turned hard eyes on Shawn.  “You might miss
the action.”

“I care fuck all about
that,” Shawn grumbled.  “We get Cleo.  Gerent gets dead.”

“Agreed.”

Mac came up to him and
held out a small light attached to a cord.  “Eli sends his love.  You put this
on as hawk.  When you shift to man, the cord breaks and a beacon comes to our
coms.”  Mac shook his head.  “Eli wanted me to assure you he is working on something
a little more high tech for the future where you can actually carry a mini-com
with you and speak into it after you change, but this will get the job done for
now.”  Mac’s gray eyes flashed silver.  “You find Cleo, you shift, we get the
beacon and your transport is en route to your location,” he shrugged, “as soon
as the hostiles are neutralized.”

“Looks like I didn’t need
to suit up after all,” Shawn said, his voice pitched low while he started to
remove his weapons, then his clothes.  Once he was naked, again, he shifted to
hawk.  Usually a calm and controlled predator, the bird practically blazed with
fury, a fury Shawn had been hiding successfully until now.  He flew in the
small confines of the chopper and with a caw, he landed at Mac’s feet so he
could attach the beacon to Shawn’s claw.

“Find her.  Shift to
activate the beacon.  Keep her safe,” Lucas ordered grimly.  “We will come find
you when Gerent is neutralized.” 

Well aware he was going
to miss the fight, and knowing Lucas was making sure of it after his injury, he
could have argued, but they were right.  If this was not a trap, then the intel
stated that she was in the jungle.  Probably running from trackers.  However
much he wanted to taste Gerent’s heart blood, he would always put the safety of
his mate first.  Besides, if anyone could find her and do it fast, it was a
hawk for his mate.

As soon as the stealth
chopper was low enough and close enough to the island, they opened the hatch
and he dropped.  Once he was clear of the high winds of the helo, he opened his
wings and caught the thermals away from the danger of the Nighthawk’s propeller.

He headed for the island
which was still some distance away, circling around away from the compound he
could see even this far away.  Extravagant, it looked like Gerent, with its Mediterranean
flare, the white stone and eternity pool sitting right on the beach.  It could
be seen from miles out to sea.  As an armed fortress, it seemed to lack stealth
capabilities.  But it did look like some rich man’s private paradise which
would be a lot less noteworthy in these parts than an armed compound.  But if
the plan was hiding in plain sight, the armed patrols were a little too in your
face.  Heavily armed men both walked around the compound and fanned out into
the jungle.  Looked like a small army of human mercenaries.

It always seemed stupid
to him that Lionsgate was the only pack or pride that employed shifters from
other animal groups.  They had no trouble hiring full humans, but shifters that
were not their animal were not even considered, which was why so many talented
independent rogues came their way.  Most packs killed rogues on sight. 
Lionsgate employed them; as long as they kept their noses clean and did their
job, they had a place to live and employment and some of the security you would
find in a pack without the bullshit politics.  Of course, if you betrayed the
pack, there were no second chances.  You didn’t just get fired.  You were
terminated in a more realistic way.  Moving on was allowed.  Betrayal was not.

As Shawn continued to
scan the beach, he moved further inland just above the tree line.  Then, when
he was clear of the guard patrols, he began to hunt in earnest.

***

Once Shawn was off, Lucas
gave his final instructions to the rest of them.  “We go in quiet and we assume
Cleo is still in the building.  We also know that there is at least one
friendly inside the walls.”  He looked at Logan.  “So watch your fire.  We go
in clean and quiet and we take out anyone armed.  I would love to say Gerent is
mine, but I am way past this shit.  You see Gerent, you burn his ass. Are we
clear?”

When everyone gave their
silent grim agreement, he smiled.  “Assume this is a trap and watch your six. 
Ian, you stay on my ass,” he said, his eyes grim on his son, “or I will hand
you yours.  Will . . .,” he cleared his throat, “Liam, anything else you want
to say to us before we go in?”

Liam, his eyes big where
he sat next to the grizzled pilot, shook his head frantically, “I gave it all
to Eli.”

“That he did,” Eli’s
cheerful voice came from the com.  “Most helpful he was, too.”  Then his voice
turned serious.  “As soon as you disembark I am going to give you sixty to get
in position and then it’s going to get dark down there.”

“If your virus works,”
Ben said provocatively.

“If it works?” Eli
sputtered over the line.  “Did you here that, Cassie, the way he maligns me?” 
They heard a laugh on the other side of the com and knew the women were
probably with Eli in the vault control room.

“I heard him.”  Cassie’s
voice was a little farther away, then she seemed to move closer and her voice
went deadly serious, “You guys be careful out there.  I don’t think I need to
tell you how much shit you will be in if anyone gets hurt.”

“Miley?” Lucas called.

“I’m here,” the voice
came back, and something in Lucas loosened.

“You better?”

“I am, just needed sleep.”

“I’m still going to spank
your ass for that stunt,” he growled, even as warmth replaced at least some of
the cold in his chest.

She laughed, and it was
sexy as hell even over the com.  “You’ll have to catch me first, Viking.”

“Try to stay out of
trouble.  All of you,” he said, shaking his head while Demon snorted beside
him.

“Yeah, ‘cause they are so
good at that,” Demon muttered.

“I heard that!” Clytie
called from farther away from the com making Demon smile briefly, which on
Demon was never a good look.

“Any sign of trouble there,
Eli?” Mac asked in his smoky, serious voice.

“Just from the women, but
I can handle them.”

Demon growled at the
teasing promise in Eli’s voice.  “Handle anything more than security and you
lose the hand,” he growled.

They all heard Clytie’s
gasp of outrage as Eli snorted a laugh.  “Whelp.  Take your time out there in
the fight gentlemen, and kill a few of those cocksuckers for me.”  Then he
clicked off.

Lucas shook his head at
his men and then also got serious when the pilot, an old gray-haired ex-soldier
and all wolf, spoke in a gritty voice from the cockpit, “We’ll be in position
in less than thirty.”

“Suit up,” Lucas growled,
doing the same.  His lion was itching to burst from his skin.  He did not like
having Miley where he could not get to her if she needed help, especially after
Gerent had already breeched his defenses once.  He did not like not knowing
where Cleo was, or what he was going to find when they finally found her.  He
did know that the men who held her where already dead.  Didn’t matter if she
was unharmed and free already.  It was the thought that counted, and if they
thought they could threaten his family and attack his home, they were about to
learn how wrong dead could be.

***

The Mediterranean-style
mansion was sitting directly on the beach.  An Olympic-size infinity pool
overlooked the vast blueness of the ocean, and the arched white stone windows
and doors, along with the marble tile, kept the house cool year-round, allowing
in the breezes and briny scent of the ocean. In the back of the house, the
sandy beaches ended and the wilds of the jungle began.  Not the wide open
spaces of the grasslands lions would be attracted to, but still a hot wild
place to frolic and in their case, Lucas thought,
hide
.

After everything he had
learned about the pride leader Gerent, he had expected a little more of a
challenge, but the fool’s arrogance would be his undoing.  He bet too strongly
on the fact that he could not be found.  His first mistake.  Everyone could be
found.  His second was that he relied too heavily on electronics for his
security.  They were good, but with the codes and backdoors Liam had supplied
them, it was child’s play for Eli to take them out.  And quite frankly, if a
teenage boy could do that kind of damage without detection, the whole set-up
was shit no matter how much Gerent paid for it.  Then there was his third
mistake.

“Any eyes on Cleo?” he asked
into the mouthpiece.

“I have five guns on the
second floor.  A broken window. Two women dressed as maids in the room
cleaning, and I’m smelling a shitload of blood on the wind,” Ben reported from
his perch on the other side of the building.

Lucas felt the clench in
his belly and then breathed easier when Ben continued, “No sign of Cleo, but I
can smell her trail leading away from the broken window.  She’s bleeding, but
it ain’t much and it’s not what I’m smelling in that room.  She has company,” he
finished grimly.

“I’m thinking we follow
one trail we get Cleo, the other, we get Gerent,” Demon said in his quiet grim
voice.

“How many went after
Cleo?” Lucas asked, ignoring the rest.

“Smells like maybe a
dozen full humans . . . and two male lions.”

The humans he was not
concerned about – Cleo could handle them; the lions . . . “Mac, Demon, Ben, go
after them.  I don’t want those lions reaching Cleo, or anywhere for that
matter,” he finished with a growl.  “Then get back here.  We won’t wait for you,
so don’t dawdle.”

“And Cleo?” Mac asked,
already starting to strip his weapons.

“Shawn will find her
faster from the sky than anyone else can.  Leave him to it unless you see
something he might need help with.”

“Understood.”

Lucas watched the
building and waited.  From here he could hear a great deal of what was going on
inside, so when the gunshot sounded, just before the electricity died and the
guards moved to investigate, they took their chance and followed.  Picking off
the distracted men was not exactly hard work, especially when everyone he found
between himself and Gerent was full human.  Most of them had no idea what
killed them.  Those that did still couldn’t do a damn thing to stop it.

Once they hit the house
the real fun began.  Unfortunately for Gerent, Demon was right.  Of the three
of them who were left, Ian on his six, Logan taking point, and himself, all of
them could have followed the blood scent on the wind.  They took out three more
guards while whatever distraction was happening still had the mercenaries
jumping at shadows.  So far, it smelled like maybe one more lion and the
bleeder, which Lucas thought most likely was Gerent, since it was also male
lion.  That meant four lions if they included the two in the jungle (which he
didn’t, knowing they would cease to be a problem shortly), and an army of full
human mercenaries.  Once they moved soundlessly to the third floor taking out
mercenaries as they moved, they reached the sound of the scuffle and Logan
motioned them to hold.  He disappeared without a breath of sound and Lucas took
over point, holding his position while Ian watched their backs.  He was
impatient to get to Gerent, and he could smell the bleeding lion close up
ahead, but Logan was point for a reason.  He kept a clear head, always.  And
only a fool would let his emotions get the better of him during combat.

***

Logan smelled the
fighters before he heard them, or at least heard one.  A male lion seemed to be
attempting to pin a maid and was having no luck.  Watching them from his hiding
place, Logan could tell two things by the smooth flow of the woman’s small
compact body.  She was not a normal human, and the bigger, burly lion-shifter
who had a few feet and about two hundred pounds on her was completely
outclassed.  Considering the circle of downed humans that littered the landing,
he had a feeling she had been fighting for a while.  She didn’t look it.  When
she flowed into a pretzel-like contortion and flipped lightly out of the lion’s
next rush, Logan could understand the frustrated roar that the man released. 
In the next second, it was cut off by the small pixie of a woman, who not only
flipped over the much taller man’s head but twisted and came down on his
shoulders.  With one final lunge to the side that looked effortless and took
the lion with her, Logan heard the man’s neck break.  Even as the body landed,
she was flipping off him, and turning in a fighter’s crouch to assess the next
threat.  It was mesmerizing and unlike anything Logan had seen before.  Then
she looked up and directly into Logan’s eyes.