Morgan (4 page)

Ben walked stiffly out of the alley and focused his glare on the young officer. “Sheriff Harvey from Eminence,
Colorado
. We’ve tracked a suspect to this very cyber café. What’s going on?” He held out his badge and saw Cameron do the same.

The officer paled even further and stepped aside to let them past. “Lieutenant Wilkins is the tall man in the suit, he’s in charge.”

Ben nodded and walked toward the man in the suit. He heard Cameron’s growl begin as they approached a large pool of blood on the sidewalk. A bloodstained women’s blouse lay at the lieutenant’s feet. The scent of his mate’s blood was surrounding Ben in a haze. The rain was making the bloodstains spread and run in streams toward the gutter. Ben reined in his cat’s rage, reined in his own rage. He put his hand on Cameron’s arm and squeezed hard to stop him growling.

“
Lieutenant Wilkins,
my name is Deputy Ben Harvey. This is my brother, Cameron. We’ve followed a person of interest to this cyber café. Can we ask what happened here?”

Ben barely contained his cat as the officer told him of the murders. Two young men had had their throats cut. Apparently, a young woman had come out of the restroom at the back of the café and witnessed the entire event. The woman had then sneaked out the back door and called the police. The police had arrived just as the murderer was abducting one of the café’s other customers. She’d been injured in the attempted abduction and taken to hospital under guard.

Ben and Cameron both contained their rage as they thanked the Lieutenant and went to hail a cab. “Our mate’s in danger, but at least she wasn’t the murderer,”
Cameron said.
“I was worried for a second there.”

Ben nodded as they climbed into a taxi. “I know. Thank fuck for that.” Although Ben knew without a shadow of a doubt that he’d still want her. He would have lived on a deserted island with her if she’d needed isolating from society, but she’d be with him forever now. Of that there was no choice—she was his, and his possession of her had been set the moment he’d inhaled her scent.

Ben called Samson as Cameron gave directions to the driver. Samson had been right. A shitstorm was indeed coming to Eminence, and it was of epic proportions. Not only was someone looking for Bethany, but someone was also after his mate. Whoever this nameless enemy was, they were in for a disappointment, because they weren’t going to get her. Ben and Cameron, as well as the entire pride in Eminence, were going to be protecting her from now on. Then there was Evan. She might be his mate as well.

* * * *

Artur Petrov had a stranglehold on his cat, and it was still threatening to break out. “You just let her go?” he asked, incredulously. “You actually had her in your hands, Yefim, yet you let her go because of the politsiya?”

“Artur—”

“Stop now. I land in a few hours and I expect to be taken directly to my daughter.” He disconnected the call in disgust. These men were supposed to be the best. They were, in fact, useless.

“Ignaty, I want you to kill Yefim as soon as he takes us to Morganya. He is no longer who I need as my Beta.”

“Yes, Alpha.”

Artur had imagined he would have one of his daughters in his grasp when he landed in Michigan. His cat wanted to kill his newly assigned Beta just to assuage his rage. Twenty-one years was long enough for a man to wait. He was an old cat and had learned patience, but this situation would surely stretch the limits of even a saint’s patience, and Artur Petrov was no saint.

He needed to get his daughters back. Abramov wanted his prize. The girls were now of childbearing age and Abramov was no longer willing to wait. To have come so close only to fail was almost beyond bearing.

“
Derr`
mo
,” Artur cursed.

* * * *

Samson strode into Michael’s office. He’d just heard from the Harveys, and he was not in a good mood. “The cyber café is now a murder scene,” he said, his cat making his voice vibrate with its growl.

“I’m getting the news feeds now,” Michael said. “Where’s Bethany?”

“She’s upstairs with Jason. I’ve told her that from now on she’s not to go anywhere unless she has one of us with her.”

Michael raised his eyebrows and grimaced. “I bet that went down like a lead balloon.”

“Our mate is not thrilled with me right now, but I will make certain she’s safe.” Samson couldn’t conceive of letting Bethany or their cub be harmed in any way. It was just too horrible a thought to consider.

“I finally broke through his encryption and got a screen dump of everything that asshole looked at in that cyber café.” Michael rubbed at his eyes with the back of his hand. “He was good at hiding, but not great.”

“And you are?”

“I was highly motivated, seeing as it directly involved the love of my life and our child.”
Michael
’s smile was fierce and deadly. “Whatever information he had seems to have led him to the identity of Bethany’
s parents.
”

“What? How the fuck did they find that? You’ve been searching for over a year for that information.” Samson sat down heavily on the edge of Michael’
s desk.
“How certain are you that this is her parents?”

Michael rubbed his eyes again as he considered. “I’d need to talk to the fucker doing the searching, but everything seems to match up with what little we already knew of Bethany’
s past.
”

“Shit. Do we tell her?”

Michael shook his head. “It’s not good news. If the bastard’s information is correct, and we can only validate that once we find out where he got the mother’s name from, then Bethany’s mother died three days after Bethany was placed with social services.”

“Fuck.” Samson hesitated. He just knew the answer to his next question was going to be bad. “How did she die?”

“She had her throat slit and was thrown into a Dumpster outside of a greasy spoon in Grand Rapids. Her name was Marina Petrov. Her husband is a Russian mobster. He’s still alive and active in Russia. I’m still searching through his portfolio. It’s extensive, everything from casinos to illegal cage fighting.”

“Anyone charged with the woman’
s murder?
” Samson knew the answer to this, too. If it was a mob hit then it would have remained unsolved. Michael just shook his head as he leaned forward and started tapping at his keyboard again.

“We wait then. See what the Harveys can find out from the injured witness in Lansing. Did I mention that the witness seems to be their mate?”

Michael sat back from his keyboard again. “No shit? Both of them?” Samson nodded and felt genuine happiness for Ben and Cameron. A mate was a wonderful gift and finding her was life altering. “Have they told Evan?”

“I advised Ben to wait until they got to the hospital and could tell Evan about her condition.”

“Are you sending him down there?”

“No. I imagine Ben and Cam are going to bring their mate home as soon as she’s medically stable. She possibly witnessed two murders. She’s going to need the pride to protect her. I’ll send Asher and Barrett down to Lansing as soon as they get back here. They can continue the hunt for the bastard tracking Bethany.”

“If this is Artur Petrov’
s doing,
then we’re going to need to alert Cooper. Petrov is major trouble.”

“No one will get near our mate,” Samson said. “We can’
t lose her.
”

Samson left Michael to his work and went for a run. He’d run to the Alpha’s home and notify him personally of what they knew so far. The rain had passed and the afternoon was balmy as he relaxed and let his cat run off its anger and worry.
I’ll kill anyone I deem a threat to my mate and cub. Even Bethany’s own father.

Cameron picked up the scent of his mate as soon as they entered the emergency room. Her sweet scent was easily discernible to him, even over the cloying aromas of disinfectant, disease, and blood that permeated the hospital.

“She’s this way,” Cameron said. He stalked past curtained examination bays and stopped outside the one that held his mate. Her alleged police escort was nowhere to be seen, and Cameron had to suppress his cat's rage at her being left unprotected.

He looked at his brother and pointed at the closed curtains. He was a cat, and all his senses were heightened. He could hear the rapid beat of his mate’s heart and the small pants of her breathing. Over her delicious natural scent he also smelled her fear and pain. She was feeling a great deal of both.

She was also a cat. Her unique signature was identifiable only as feline, but not what breed. Not that he cared. She was his. His body’s aroused response to his mate was inappropriate at this time, but instinctual.

Despite her fear and pain she would feel equally aroused as soon as she scented him and Ben. She would be drawn to them, be comforted by them. The mating bond amongst their kind made certain they recognized their mate and were then incapable of walking away from them.
God bless the mating bond.

“She’s alone,” Ben whispered. “What are we waiting for?”

“Just savoring her delicious scent, and waiting for my erection to go down,” Cameron said, his voice below a whisper. He wouldn’t frighten his mate. She would be terrified enough after witnessing two murders and nearly being abducted.

“Excuse me, miss,” Ben said. “My name is Deputy Ben Harvey. My brother Cameron and I need to ask you some questions.” They were met with silence but Cameron heard her heart rate increase further as she held her breath.

Cameron searched for the gap in the curtain and slipped inside with Ben following on his heels. He gasped at the sight before him. He claimed the woman before him with his gaze. He catalogued each bruise and cut that marred the beauty of the young woman sitting on the hospital cot. His mate.

“I’ll kill whoever did that to you.”

Ben cleared his throat as their mate’s eyes grew wider and she stared directly at Cameron.
Did she expect anything less from her mate?

“I’m Ben. This is Cameron. We’re so sorry you’ve been hurt. May we come closer?”

“You said you’re policemen, so you can probably do anything you want.” Her voice was soft but firm. The acrid scent of fear filled the space between them, and Cameron’s cat wanted to snarl its anger. “Do you have some sort of identification?”

Cameron snapped his gaping mouth closed as he looked at Ben and reached for his badge. She wasn’t responding to them as a mate should. As she looked at both of their badges, she remained scared and was even becoming a little angry. He could clearly smell the mating musk in the confined space of the cubicle. His and Ben’s, n
ot hers.

“
We haven
’t been told your name yet, miss,” Cameron said. He stepped closer to the woman, testing the air with a deep breath. Definitely mate. Definitely cat. This vision of beauty was his, but she had no idea of it. She was responding exactly as a human would. All that they’d learned in Eminence of human mates told him this as a certainty.

“That’s because I haven’t told anyone my name. I was unconscious until sixty seconds ago. What did that giant ape want with me?” She looked down at her bandaged arms and winced as she flexed her fingers. “I'm sorry. I’m in a lot of pain.”

Cameron
’s gut clenched as she winced and slumped back against the pillows. She was a small woman. Her heart-shaped face was fine boned, and her skin was pale. She had sky-blue eyes with thick dark lashes. Her platinum blonde hair was long, thick, and wavy. She was stunning.

Ben walked to the side of the cot and took one of her bandaged hands in his. “Did he do this to you?” Cameron couldn’t stop the pull. He needed to touch her.

He walked to her other side and gently picked up her other hand. He was zapped with a pulse of electricity as their skin connected. Both of them gasped, but neither of them pulled their hands away. She looked up at him, her expression confused as she turned her head to look at his brother. When she swung her gaze back to him, a low growl rumbled up from his chest.

Her eyes. They were shining dimly in the bright light of the emergency bay, but they were illuminated nonetheless. The shade of lavender they had changed to was so beautiful and so unique that he’d only seen it once before on another shifter. He’d witnessed it when Bethany had been angry at Samson for carrying her from the house to their truck.

Whoever this woman was, she was related to Bethany. Now that he looked closely at her, he could see the resemblance clearly. It was there in the shape of her face and eyes. Even her hair color was the same. Which meant both mates were probably in a great deal of danger.

He looked at Ben and wished they could communicate telepathically when still human, like Wes and Troy Pollock could. Ben nodded at him. It seemed that they understood each other well enough.

Cameron tried to keep his tone light, but his protective instincts were making his cat wild. “What’s your name, honey?”

* * * *

Morgan just stared at the man who had asked for her name. He was gorgeous. Beyond hot. Tall, well over six feet, with short cropped black hair and deep green eyes.

“Morgan Trent,” she said. She looked at the other man holding her hand. He was not as tall as his brother, but just as solid. Thickly muscled with his shirt straining around thick biceps. He had short blond hair and the same beautiful green eyes as his brother.

“
Hello, Morgan. We
’re sorry you’ve been hurt. But we’re going to make sure you’re safe now,” said Cameron. He bent and kissed her fingers, the only things exposed below the bandages that adorned both of her forearms.

“I need to make a phone call right now, but I won’t be gone long.” He nodded to his brother and disappeared out between the curtains.