Moonlight (21 page)

As twins, Jason and Jared couldn’t have been more opposite. Jason was a doctor. He fought battles with his mind, but Jared was a carpenter and worked out regularly. His fights were with his body and his spirit. He was tough. But I was so pissed at Malcolm right now, that seeing Jared giving me his I-dare-you-asshole glare made me want to beat him senseless.

Before I could say anything, Jason maneuvered himself between us, clasping my forearms in greeting. “Did you tell Malcolm about the jaguars?”

I nodded and rolled my shoulders back, releasing a little of my aggression. It wasn’t completely Jared’s fault. We all got punchy with the full moon so close.

Jason and Jared shared a look and then focused on me again. “So do we have a plan for tonight?”

“Ask Malcolm. He’s the Alpha.”

I walked past them toward the barn when Logan came barreling down the road to the barn. He slammed on his brakes, sending up a tidal wave of dust so thick we couldn’t see him getting out of his car. When he emerged from the dust cloud he looked confused.

“Adam? What are you doing here?”

The corner of my mouth quirked up. “Last time I checked, I live here.”

“Yeah, but your Jeep isn’t here.” He frowned. “I thought something happened to you.”

“Why?” I could feel my muscles tense. Lana had my Jeep.

“I saw the Jeep with two flats on the edge of the highway. I pulled over to see if you were okay, but there was a laptop on the passenger seat and nobody there.” He held out two metal cylinders. “Then I found bullet casings.”

I took off running and called to Jason. “I need to borrow your truck.”

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Lana

Sasha drove me back to the airport and parked on the rooftop of the parking structure. The power windows engaged all at once, dropping the glass around me. The sun bathed me in orange light while she got out and leaned against the front of the car.

My wrists were starting to ache. The metal of the cuffs was biting into my skin, and no matter how I shifted around in the backseat, I couldn’t seem to relieve the pressure. I blinked rapidly, not allowing myself to cry. I wouldn’t be able to think if I got upset. My only hope was to keep a clear head. If I could get to my cell phone, I could call 911, but it was safely in my front pocket and my hands were trapped behind my back. I was screwed.

I leaned forward, keeping an eye on Sasha. She was on her phone again, so I peered around the front seats. She had a map of Reno strewn across the floor of the passenger side in a mass of improperly folded paper. And beneath it was the black grip of a gun or…a Taser. Sasha was still busy conducting business on the hood of the car, and I looked down at the Taser again with a sigh. Even though I knew where it was, unless I got free of the cuffs, I wouldn’t be able to use it.

Great. Back to square one.

I leaned back against the seat but shifted so I sat sideways with my shoulder against the seat back, giving my wrists a break from being smashed against the metal cuffs. I stared outside watching the sky turn a deeper orange, like a fire spreading across the horizon. Time was running out. If I didn’t think of something soon, I’d be handed off to the Nero Organization, and Sasha would be free to kill Adam.

Unless that was a ploy to get me to follow her. I wouldn’t bet Adam’s life on that, though. That left me with…

Sebastian. At the front of the car. My heart started pounding. Was he here to rescue me? It didn’t look like it. I took a deep breath and forced my inner voice to shut the hell up so I could use my enhanced hearing. If I could just quiet my mind, I was sure I’d be able to hear them.

Sebastian glanced at me through the windshield, but he didn’t give me any indication, and his words were too low to make out.

It was easier to hear Sasha’s voice because it was pitched higher than Sebastian’s, and I caught little bits of her side of the conversation.

“I’m not going to let you have her. She’s my ticket and you know it.”

Sebastian said something about Nero then, but I couldn’t determine all of his words.

Sasha looked over at me and back at Sebastian. “So if they come for her, you’re just going to kill her? That makes no sense.”

I strained to hear, but all I caught was Sebastian saying, “She is a treasure…not a twisted science experiment.” I lost his voice for a second, then I heard, “She would be better off dead than with him.”

My heart sank. Sebastian wasn’t here to rescue me from Sasha, he was here to kill me if she traded me to Nero. A tear ran down my cheek, and I fought to keep my breathing slow. Sasha’s cell phone rang, distracting me from the panic that welled up inside my mind.

It was a quick call, and once she closed her phone she was in motion. As she opened the front door, she slowed and looked over at Sebastian. “Stay out of my way tonight. You owe me at least that much.”

She slid into the driver’s seat and fired up the engine. The tires squealed as she gunned the accelerator and I rolled around in the backseat, unable to steady myself with my hands behind my back.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

She glanced at me in the rearview mirror. “I’m not sure yet. I put the coordinates in my GPS so we’ll know soon.”

Not that it mattered. I didn’t have much time left.

Chapter Thirty-Eight

Adam

Jason jumped in the passenger side just as I cranked the wheel and fired the truck up the dirt road.

“What the hell is going on, Adam?”

I kept my eyes on the road, gripping the wheel so tight I thought I might crack it. I briefly considered a lie, but Malcolm knew I was leaving. No reason to keep everyone in the dark anymore. “I found my mate.” That stunned Jason silent. Then I said, “And she was driving my Jeep.”

He was quiet until we got on the highway, then he pulled out his cell phone and called Logan to find out where exactly he found the Jeep. When I pulled up behind Chaney, Lana’s scent was thick, and panic coursed through me. I couldn’t lose her. No way. Not when we were so close to forever.

I got out of the car and peered inside the Jeep. Her laptop and a small handbag were lying on the floor of the passenger side. That ruled out a robbery.

Jason walked up behind me and froze. “Jaguars have been here.”

I nodded, and resisted telling him I was in love with one of them. Instead I followed Lana’s scent away from the Jeep. At the edge of the asphalt, I picked up another female jaguar’s scent.

Sasha.

One more step and I found a drop of blood in the dust. I wiped my fingers into it and lifted my hand to my nose. My lungs constricted on the scent. It was Lana’s blood.

But one drop wasn’t a mortal wound. She had to be alive.

I rushed back to the truck, with Jason close behind.

“They must have left in another car,” he said.

I nodded, accelerating back onto the highway. “Looks that way.”

“So we won’t be able to follow their trail.” He glanced up at the sky. “Plus, we’re going to change soon.”

My eyes cut over to him. “I’m going to find her.” I looked back at the road. “Call Malcolm and tell him…” Shit, what could I tell him? I’d just told him I was leaving the Pack for a jaguar. I swallowed the lump in my throat and passed an RV. He was still my father, and I’d always be his son. “Just tell him I need him. And I hope he’ll be ready with the Pack to help me.”

Jason nodded and made a call while I tried to figure out where Sasha might take Lana. She wanted to give her over to Nero so she’d have to leave town. The airport it was.

I pulled into the terminal, rolling down the windows and breathing in all the exhaust fumes and aftershaves and perfumes, searching for any sign of Lana.

“Why are we at the airport?” Jason asked.

“Just a hunch. Help me search for jaguar scents.”

Jason nodded and leaned toward his open window. After trolling slowly past the terminals, I drove around and headed up the parking structure. The tires squealed as I made the tight turns. When I was nearing the top floor, a black Mercedes came careening around the corner and nearly hit us. I slammed on the horn and kept circling until we reached the roof.

Sebastian stood up top. Alone, like a dark sentinel. I stopped the truck and flew out of the cab. He didn’t move or try to defend himself when I grabbed his shirt and got in his face.

“Where is Lana?” I growled.

“I told you not to leave her alone, wolf. Now your mistake could cost her life.”

I punched him in the mouth, grateful to see blood bloom on his lower lip. He smiled, revealing bloodstained teeth. “If you are through being an animal, perhaps we can help one another.”

Jason came up beside us, looking at each of us before he spoke. “Adam, are you going to introduce me to your friend?”

“This is Sebastian. He’s going to take me to my mate.
Now.
Aren’t you, Sebastian?”

The jaguar raised his arrogant brow and yanked my hands off of his shirt. “Your mate? Does she know?”

“Fuck you.” I shoved him backward. It was too tempting to have him so close to me when I wanted to rip his head off so badly I could taste it. “Sasha’s got Lana.”

He wiped his lip and nodded. “Yes, she does. She’s meeting with Nero for a trade.”

“Where?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know exactly.”

My head felt like it was going to explode. I signaled Jason back to the truck. “Fine. I’ll find her myself.”

Sebastian pulled something out of his pocket. “I can probably find her a little bit more easily since I put a tracking device on Sasha’s rental car.”

With my keen wolf hearing, I caught every word and looked back at Sebastian. “Get in the truck. You navigate.”

His lip was starting to swell, making his smile crooked. Without a sound he was past us and in the back of the truck.

Sebastian was focused on his tracker while I maneuvered Jason’s truck out of the parking structure. When we hit the highway, I heard Sebastian yell through the back window. “Keep heading north. I think she’s going to the Lake.”

I glanced over at Jason as the speedometer edged past eighty miles per hour. His eyes narrowed, but he kept his voice low and even. “Since when do we work with jaguars? Ever occur to you that this guy could be leading us right into an ambush? Think, Adam.”

Keeping my eyes on the road, I did my best to keep my voice down. “The jaguars are coming from a place called Nero. They’re breeding and training assassins for hire, and if I don’t get to Lana first, I’ll never see her again. If I have to work with a jaguar to find her then that’s what I’ll do. I don’t expect you to understand. I do expect you to call the Pack and let Malcolm know we’re headed toward Lake Tahoe.”

“This is insane,” Jason grumbled, but he made the call. I nodded and focused on the road.

Jason finally slipped his phone back in his pocket. “Jared is getting everyone together, then they’ll head up to the Lake. We can change up there tonight.”

“Thanks, Jason,” I said without making eye contact. Right now the only thing I could concentrate on was the vision of Lana’s smile in my head. Everything about her taunted me as I pushed the truck faster. I could see her looking up at me when she told me she loved me. I could hear her laughter and see her dark eyes flash at me when Aren had been impersonating me the first time they met. Dammit, I could even smell her hair. I gripped the wheel tighter. I had to believe we’d get there in time. We had to.

“This is the exit,” Sebastian shouted from the back of the truck.

Once we were on the main road around the lake I slowed down, breathing in the scents, praying I’d pick up Lana’s. From the back of the pick-up, Sebastian kept watch on his tracker. This time he leaned up into the window, keeping his voice soft.

“They’re close by, wolf. Do not go gentle into that good night.”

“What the hell? Isn’t that the line from a Rodney Dangerfield movie? What does that have to do with anything?”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Uneducated wolves. It’s one of the finest villanelle poems ever written, by Dylan Thomas.” When Sebastian saw that didn’t explain anything, he shook his head. “It means do not give up. Don’t lose hope.”

My nerves were wrapped so tight I could explode at any second. Some jaguar reciting poetry was
not
helping. “Just tell me which way to go, Shakespeare.”

“I would pull over here. We should go on foot. Otherwise Sasha will hear us coming.”

Jason shot me a silent don’t-do-this-Adam look, but I parked anyway. When I turned off the key I handed the key ring to Jason. “Stay here and wait for the others.”

“No way.” His eyes shifted between Sebastian and me. “We can’t trust him, Adam. And sunset’s coming.”

I shrugged. “I can take care of myself.”

“You’re not thinking clearly.” Jason took the keys and stuffed them in his pocket. “You don’t even know if he’s helping you. You could be walking—”

“Right into a trap. I get it.” I got out and slammed the door. “This is my only shot and I’m taking it.”

“Shit, Adam. Don’t pull me into this with you. You know I can’t let you go alone.”

“Listen, Sebastian doesn’t want Nero to have Lana either. For now, we want the same thing. Stay here and watch for the Pack.” I glanced at Sebastian to be sure he heard. Since I didn’t know his motives for helping Lana, it wouldn’t hurt for him to know he’d be hip deep in wolves soon.

Jason groaned and shook his head. “Fine. Good luck.”

“Looks like it’s just you and me,” I said to Sebastian as we walked away from the truck toward the trees.

“I am only taking you along as a shield, wolf. Sasha carries a gun, and she never misses.”

“She missed with Aren.”

Sebastian raised a brow and kept moving. “So I have seen.”

When he didn’t say anything else, I realized what he wasn’t saying was probably more important than what he had. Arrogant bastard.

I struggled to keep my footsteps silent, staying close behind Sebastian. The wind whistled through the tops of the pine trees, bending the branches and masking our movement. I glanced up at the twilight sky. Fighting against the moon was painful, mentally and physically. Sweat soaked through my shirt, and I gritted my teeth to stay focused. I wouldn’t be able to hold off shifting much longer, and I couldn’t shift with Sebastian nearby. I’d be too vulnerable.

But there weren’t any other options. I had to follow him. Lana needed me.