Rise to Embrace [Rise of the Changelings, Book 3] (Siren Publishing Epic Romance, ManLove) (18 page)

Rick glanced at the floor, scratching his jaw as he watched the man squirm around, trying his best to get the ropes loose.

“I’m pretty damn sure that isn’t Sasha,” Rick said to Nate. “Are you collecting hostages now as a hobby?”

Nate’s grin was wide and filled with humor as he picked the guy up by his upper arm and deposited him roughly in a chair. “As tempting as that hobby sounds, no. This here is Detective Carleton Dayton.”

“The detective who blackmailed Omar?” Rick asked as he narrowed his eyes at Nate. They did not need this complication. The entire country was looking for Rick, and Nate had brought the detective who would gladly tie Rick up in a bow and hand him over to the government. “Why did you bring him here?”

Nate smacked the man on his forehead when Dayton tried to get up from the chair. “Sit your ass down.” Dayton’s hands were bound behind his back, and the man had on a blindfold. He also had a scarf wrapped around his head, gagging him into silence.

Rick wasn’t sure what was going on, but if Nate was going to bring someone this dangerous here, he was grateful Nate had thought to blindfold the man. He didn’t need the human detective identifying the people with Rick.

“It seems the good detective here was running a side business on his own time.”

The man began to speak unintelligible words. Rick could tell the guy was pissed. He reached down and yanked the scarf from the man’s mouth.

“All of you are going to pay for this! I’m Detective Carleton—”

Rick slipped the scarf back over the man’s mouth. “We are well aware of who you are.” When the man tried to get back up, Rick planted his booted foot into the detective’s chest and gave a shove. “Didn’t he tell you to sit the fuck down?”

The detective snapped his head around, as if he could see everyone who stood around him, and then settled his blindfolded eyes on Rick.

The man was eerily accurate in guessing where Rick stood. He hoped the detective wasn’t just as good at guessing who Rick was. “So, tell me what this man has been up to.”

Nate tapped the detective on the cheek a few times, roughly. “I’m told that dear Carleton and his buddy Judge Tormel have been conducting hunting games.”

Rick’s stomach twisted. He had a feeling he knew what Nate was talking about, but he prayed like hell that he was wrong.

“From my understanding,” Nate continued, “they caught themselves young juveniles and then set them free in the woods. The object of the game is to see who can shoot and kill the changeling first.” By the time Nate was done talking, his voice had deepened to a low, menacing growl. “I think we should give this man a taste of his own medicine. There is a large forest behind this motel.”

Rick pressed his hand into the wall, steadying himself. He wondered how many juveniles the detective and judge had killed. Frantic parents had come to Rick, telling him their son or daughter had gone missing. Everyone had assumed they were kidnapped by the human hate groups that were taking the teenagers of Shelton.

Rick threw his head back and let out an anguished howl at the thought of his pack members being hunted like savage beasts. He became enraged at the thought of them running scared in the woods with no pack members there to help them.

He smashed his fist into the detective’s face and kept hitting him, over and over again until he felt arms pulling him off of the detective. Red-hot fury filled him as the detective laughed behind the scarf, and Rick knew he was looking at something inherently evil. The man had no remorse for what he had done to beings not even old enough to vote yet.

The sad thing was, no law existed that would put this man away for life. Changelings had no rights. They had nothing to help them against monsters like Dayton. Rick could scream at the injustice of this, and there was no one who would listen.

“How many have you killed?” Rick asked as he reached down and tore the scarf from around the man’s face. “How many?”

“I’m not sure,” the man answered with a laugh. “I lost count after about twelve or thirteen.”

Rick shifted, his werewolf form taking hold as he eviscerated the man. It was Nate who finally pulled him away. “He’s dead, Rick. Let it go.”

“No,” Rick replied as he backed away. “I won’t let it go until Judge Tormel meets the same fate.”

“He’ll get what’s coming to him,” Nate promised. “I can
guarantee
I will be there when he comes out of hiding.” His words were spoken vehemently as Rick returned to his human form and walked to the bathroom.

Closing the door, Rick held on to the side of the sink, rocking back and forth as he let the tears fall for those juveniles who had been hunted down and killed like a common animal. What angered him even more was the fact that animals had more rights than changelings. PETA would have been all over Dayton and Tormel had the juveniles just been plain old animals.

But they weren’t. They were living and breathing beings who had families that had loved and cared about them. Their futures had been snuffed out all for the thrill of hunting them down.

Rick shoved his hands under the water in the sink and scrubbed until they were raw, but it felt like the blood wouldn’t wash away. All he kept seeing were young faces, Alexander’s face, looking so damn hopeless and frightened. He sank to the floor, placing his back against the tub as he wrapped his arms around himself and cried.

Dorian came into the bathroom, shut the door behind him, and then crawled into Rick’s arms. Rick held on to his mate for dear life, inhaling his scent and trying to ground himself. “I was their alpha and I failed them.” He let the tears fall as he cried on Dorian’s shoulder.

“You didn’t know,” Dorian said soothingly. “I’m damn positive you would have stopped those sick and twisted bastards had you known.”

“Tormel is going to die.”

“Yes, he is,” Dorian agreed.

Rick wiped at his eyes and sat back, staring at the wall in front of him. “I’m so tired,
gatito
. I’m tired of my species dying. I’m tired of being hunted down like a rabid dog, and I’m tired of fearing I’ll lose you.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” Dorian replied. “We will win this fight, Rick. We will show them that your species won’t go quietly into the night, and that you have a voice that needs to be heard.”

Rick ran his hand over Dorian’s cinnamon-brown hair as he smiled past the ache in his heart. “How did I get so lucky having you as a mate?”

“I ask myself the same thing about you all the time,” he admitted.

“We need to do something with Dayton.”

“Nate already took care of him. I didn’t like your top enforcer when I first met him, but I see now he is indispensable.”

“That he is.” Rick stood, pulling Dorian up with him. “Men like Nathaniel Valez are very hard to come by. Aside from you and Isabelle, Nate is the only other person I would trust with my life.”

“By the way, he is out there waiting on you. He says you and him need to have a talk outside.”

Curious, Rick walked out of the bathroom, Dorian right behind him. He strode past the area where he had killed Dayton and felt no regrets.

Well, he did have one. Dayton had died too quickly. Rick went outside to see Nate standing by the front of his truck. “What’s up?”

Nate glanced over at Selene, who was standing at the rear of the truck looking pissed. He wondered what the two were arguing about now. His top enforcer was a bit dominating and pigheaded, but Selene was just as stubborn. He knew Nate liked Selene, and Nate had never told Selene how he felt.

“I did as you ordered,” Nate said as he waved a hand to the back of the truck. “But the only way I could get Sasha to cooperate was to shoot him with a tranquilizer dart.”

Rick stood there stunned for a moment. He knew Sasha was the fastest changeling he had met. The man was also just as lethal as Rick. He strode quickly to where Selene was standing with her arms crossed over her breasts, scowling.

Nate opened the back of the red Yukon, and Rick saw Sasha, in his wereleopard form, lying down in a large cage. The cat looked feral. Rick honestly wished he had a camera because he was betting he would never see Sasha in a cage again.

“I voted we just shoot Sasha with a bullet, but Nate wanted to be humane and use a dart,” Selene said as she glared at the cage.

“And I already told you that Rick can’t question a dead cat. What the hell is your problem, Selene? Ever since we caged Sasha you’ve been impossible.”

“Maybe I’m tired of Sasha and his holier-than-thou attitude. You know as well as I do he thinks werewolves are beneath him. I don’t see why you bother with him!”

“Rick wanted Sasha here. Not me. So don’t stand there like I planned all of this on my own. Why don’t you get the stick out of your ass and tell me what the real problem is.”

“Enough!” Rick shouted. “I’m at my fucking wits’ end in this damn war, and you two want to stand there and argue over a damn cat. I’ve had it! Nate, you need to go ahead and tell Selene and Sasha you have the hots for both of them because I’m sick and tired of hearing Selene piss and moan about how you act whenever Sasha is around. It’s wearing on my last fucking nerve! Don’t you think I have enough to worry about? For fuck’s sake, our species is being hunted down like rabid dogs. People are dying, and changelings are being blamed. Every time I fucking turn around, someone is betraying me. I swear to fucking god, if
one
more person betrays me, I’m going to shoot them on the spot!” Rick turned toward the cage. “Now you,”—Rick pointed at Sasha—“shift and tell me why you were trying to hand me over to Garrett, or so help me god I’m going to back this Yukon up to the river and push your cage in. I don’t care about you being a half breed and I don’t care about what others secrets you have, but you will give me my answers.”

Nate, Selene, and Sasha stilled when Rick’s tyrannical rage began to wind down. He just did not care anymore. He was tired of trying to play nice and go into this war with kid gloves on. It seemed when he was nice, people were screwing him over left and right.

Fuck being nice
. Rick was an alpha first and foremost, and he was going to start kicking ass and taking names afterward. It was about time he stepped up his game and took out those threatening his very existence.

Maybe it was the knowledge that he had failed those juveniles. Maybe it was the fact that he couldn’t save his nephew or Miguel’s parents. Or maybe it was the fact that he was fucking tired of this crap and wasn’t taking anyone’s bullshit any longer.

He had finally snapped, and he was going to get results or Rick was just going to start shooting people.

The others began to come out of their rooms, watching the scene unfold.

Sasha shifted, his long blond hair spanning out over his body. He glared at Selene, and then at Nate, before finally settling his eyes on Rick. “It’s about fucking time.”

“What are you talking about?” Rick asked.

Sasha shifted around until he was on his hands and knees. “Do you know why I never liked you, Rick?”

“No, and I don’t give a shit either.”

“Good. I’m glad to hear that. I never liked you because you were my only rival in Shelton and you weren’t living up to your alpha status. You were too soft, too lenient. Did you see where that got you?”

Rick snarled at Sasha. “Yeah, it got me traitors like you.”

Sasha laughed as he curled his fingers around the bars. “No, I didn’t betray you. I was in your house to shred your financial records so Garrett couldn’t get his paws on them.”

“And why should I believe you, Sasha? The only reason you have been decent to me for the past few months is because of this war. Before that, we hardly every spoke, and when we did, it wasn’t pleasant.”

“Because no one blackmails me,” Sasha replied heatedly. “I could give a shit less if my leap stripes my alpha status. Let them try and take my home from me. They’ll wish they never met Sasha Monroe. And for your information, I killed Larry because he was Garrett’s mole. You need to run a tighter ship, Rick.” The suggestion wasn’t given in a friendly manner. The man was mocking Rick’s lack of ability to run a well-oiled ship.

As badly as Rick wanted to drop Sasha’s caged ass in a river, he couldn’t help but believe the guy wasn’t trying to sell him out. The man turned his head and glared at Nate, but Rick knew the man was still speaking to him. “And I was meeting a man to find out why your birth certificate was so important when I was shot with a tranquilizer.”

“How was I supposed to know?” Nate argued.

“Didn’t I tell you I was working on something important, boy? Didn’t I tell you that you were going to get me killed if you kept following me? Did you think I was just blowing smoke up your ass?”

“Who in the hell are you calling
boy
?” Nate growled the words.

Rick looked over at Selene to see her staring strangely at Nate. Rick hadn’t meant to blast all of Nate’s business, but he was at his rope’s end. Something had to give or Rick was going to lose his damn mind.

“Ustedes han perdido sus mentes
!
Yo debo haber estado loco pensando en que podia ganar una guerra con los que luchan entre sí,”
Rick shouted angrily as he pointed a finger between the three. They really had lost their minds, and Rick really was wondering how he ever thought he could win a war with people who fought with each other.