The Protector (16 page)

Cole
suddenly felt the sense of terror. The girl they were looking for was close by.
“Goddess, please let her be alive.” Not only did Cole want to reunite the girl
with her family, but if she was murdered here, a media firestorm could ensue.
Reporters and photographers would be camped out everywhere, pissing off the
local shifters. It would just be a matter of time before someone shifted and
Michael would need to step in and ensure no footage ever leaked out. Enough
hunters came to their area because of vague rumors alone. News footage would
have them all running for their lives.

Anger
rose in Cole at the thought of hunters coming after his mate, Blair. The anger
was replaced by a wave of joy. They were mated. Nothing would ever tear them
apart, as Blair was now his, forever.

There
was a scream piercing the night air, followed by shouts. Cole, Lucas, and
Michael burst through to a clearing of hard packed earth to see Caleb standing
over a young girl, while Josh watched. She was screaming and fighting him off.
“Caleb!
 
What the fuck are you doing?”
Cole yelled.

Lucas
grabbed Caleb and shoved him off of the girl. He raised his fist to Caleb and
punched him, making him stagger back. Caleb snarled, making Lucas snarl back.
They both shifted, kicked free of their clothing, and ran at each other. Lucas’s
black wolf landed on Caleb’s brown wolf, and they rolled in the dirt snarling and
trying to get something to sink their teeth into. Lucas landed on top, sinking
his teeth deep down into him, demanding Caleb submit. Caleb snarled, kicking
his hind feet out. He dug his paws and nails in, making Lucas ease up just
enough for him to get into a better position. He clamped his teeth down hard on
Lucas’s neck. Lucas snarled and snapped at Caleb.

Cole
and Michael stood by watching. When it came to wolves fighting for dominance,
others stayed out of it, even Guardians and
Kelaches
.
This was between Caleb and Lucas. Cole made a grab for Stacy and held her close
to his body. He knew she didn’t need to see this and turned her so she could
not see. “Close your eyes, sweetheart,” he instructed as he placed his
outstretched palm over her ear in an attempt to block out the noise. She clung
with all her strength, and he could feel her heavy heaves as she sobbed
uncontrollably.

 
Lucas threw his weight at Caleb, and once
again they rolled in the dirt. Lucas landed on top of Caleb, with his teeth on
his throat. Caleb finally surrendered and lay still. Lucas snarled and jumped
off of him.

 
Lucas shifted back to his human form and
stomped over to his jeans. It seemed their clothing was only a bit dirty,
nothing worse than if they had a fist fight.
“Fucking sick
bastard.”

Caleb
also shifted. “What the fuck was that about, Lucas? You attack shifters now, as
well?”

“You
were attacking that little girl,” Lucas yelled back while jerking his jeans on.

“I
was not. I was trying to help.” Caleb said while grabbing his own grey slacks.
They had not fared as well as Lucas’s jeans. They were full of tears from his
claws.

“Talk
fast,” Michael ordered in a firm tone.
“This looks really
bad, friend.”

“Josh
and I were following some leads we found.” He looked around and saw Josh hiding
in the trees. “Come out here, Josh.”

Josh
slowly stood up, holding his hands up, looking pale and shaky.

Thomas
let out a patronizing laugh. “The pathetic excuse for a PI saw this shit.”

Cole
cocked his eyebrows at Josh,
then
shook his head. “I know,
Tom. We will deal with what he saw,” he muttered, then continued. “We found the
guy that took her trying to strangle her. We threw him off of her, and I was
just trying to tell her she was safe when you burst in here.

Caleb
glared at Lucas. “Fucking idiot, ever hear of questioning before you start
attacking?”

Cole
looked between Lucas and Caleb. It almost seemed like there was tension between
the two that went much further than this one skirmish.

Cole
looked over at Caleb. “Sorry, man. You know Lucas is on edge.”
 

Cole
took a look at Stacy. Even in the dim light of the moon, he could clearly see
bruises around her neck. She was shaking violently and looking around as if she
expected to be attacked at any moment.
 

David
Mannis and another agent, wearing a blue jacket with the large white lettering reading
“FBI” on his back, walked in to the clearing. David looked around, spotted
Stacy and smiled. “You found her.”

Lucas
picked up his shoes glaring at David, then Cole. “Fucking shifters and humans
alike really need to leave me the fuck alone.” He stormed off into the woods.
“I’m fucking going home. Just leave me alone in future.”

Cole
felt regret as Lucas stalked away. No one was sure what to do for Lucas. Losing
a mate was soul tearing painful. He hoped they were doing the right thing by
leaving Lucas alone. He never did well among people or shifters for long.

Stacy
was shaking as she watched. “What was that? He was a man,
then
he was a wolf, now he’s a man again.”

David
turned and looked at Michael. “We need to fix this before any human police
question her.”

Michael
walked up to Cole and gave him a grim look. Cole knew what that look meant
“Stacy,” Michael said to her in a soothing voice. “You’re ok and perfectly
safe. Your mom and dad are on their way here to go to the hospital with you.”
Michael placed his hands on Stacy’s head. “I want you to look into my eyes and
not look away.”

Stacy
looked into his eyes. “They are glowing a little.”

“Yes,
they are, sweetheart. I am going to help you feel a bit better with them.
Do as I tell you and everything will be better.”

“Are
you going to help me forget that man?”

“Yes.”
Michael’s hands also started to glow.

Stacy
wiggled and started to cry more. “It’s hot. Your hands are hot.”

“I
know, it won’t burn you, I promise. It will get hot, but won’t hurt.”

“Ok.”
 
Stacy’s voice shook with fear, but she
started to calm.

Keeping
his eyes locked on Stacy, Michael asked, “Did you recognize the man that took
you?”

Stacy
let out another cry. “No. I have never seen him before. I would have
remembered. He said he was here for the masked man. He said the masked man
wanted him to kill for him.”

“Did
he try to touch you in a place you feel uncomfortable about, Stacy?”

Stacy
let out a shuddering cry. “He tried. When I kicked him for trying to touch me,
then he tried to really hurt me. A wolf jumped up on the windshield making him
let me go. I jumped out of the window and landed on my side.”

“What
did the wolf look like?”

“It
had light hair, tan maybe. I couldn’t see its eyes.
 
I didn’t see it long. I just wanted to get
away.”

David
walked up to them. “Thank you for your help, Stacy. You are going to feel
really strange in a bit. Try not to be scared. Michael is just helping you.”

Michael’s
eyes turned more intense as he stared into Stacy’s eyes. She tried to look
away, but Michael and David held her head still. “It’s ok, sweetie. Just relax.
Don’t try to fight me.”

“What
are you doing?” she cried.

“Making
you feel better. Keep your eyes on me.”

David
placed his hands on Stacy’s arms and patted them soothingly. Stacy quit trying
to look away from Michael and kept her eyes on him. “Do you remember a man
taking you?”

“Yes,”
Stacy replied in a flat tone.

“I
want you to remember what he looked like, every detail. When asked, you will
remember getting away from him and you were very brave. You got away before he
could hurt you. You are going to forget what happened after you jumped out of
his truck. You woke up, and we were here.”

“Ok.”
Stacy
hiccupped
a couple more times.

“You
are a brave girl and proud of yourself for getting away from him.”

“I’m
a brave girl.” Stacy repeated.

Michael
let go of her and broke eye contact. He staggered back and fell to his knees.

David
ran up to him. “You need some help.”

Michael’s
head sagged, and then he fell to his side. “Yeah, I need a ride home. I can’t
even shift right now.”

Cole
got out his cell phone. “Travis, bring a car in. Michael had to alter the
girl’s memory. He is very weak.”

“I
am almost there. We’ll get him home.” Travis’s voice broke up due to the bad
cell signal.

David
looked over at Stacy still in Cole’s arms. “Are you feeling better now,
sweetheart?”

The
girl took a shuddering breath and nodded slightly. “Yes.” She slurred as if she
was drugged.

Michael
smiled as Travis and David pulled him up to his feet. He was still leaning on
David, but he was upright. “Good, I am glad you feel better. Do you remember
who took you?”

Stacy
was struggling to keep her eyes open. “Yes, it was a man with a knife.”

Michael
grimaced in pain. “Stacy, did you ever see his face?”

Despite
the essence calming the child, her eyes teared up, “Yes, when he … when he—”

Michael
looked in her eyes. “He can’t harm you. You are safe. Cole, Agent Mannis, and I
will protect you.”

Stacy’s
eyes were locked with Michael’s. “He tried to get in my pants, and then he
tried to hurt me. I jumped out the window and woke up, and you were there.”

“I
need you to tell me what he looked like,” Michael asked.

“He
had blond hair, and—”

Michael’s
hands lost their grip when Josh fell into him.

Michael’s
cold gaze landed on Josh. “Do you have a problem?”

“Yeah,
you have your hands all over that girl. It’s sick. You’re a freak.”

Cole
heard the sound of an ambulance siren coming up the mountain road. Michael’s
eyes had lit up with
Ilithyia’s
power. Michael could
not handle another confrontation. He was exhausted. Cole was thankful to see
the ambulance coming.

“We
have company,” Cole murmured to Michael.

Michael
looked over at Caleb. “Get Josh out of here.” Then he looked at Cole. “Do not
allow him any type of communication until I can take care of him.”

“I
will make sure of it,” Cole said to Michael. He had his phone out again to make
a call.

 
Caleb grabbed Josh’s arm. “I will make sure he
stays out of trouble.”

“You
do that,” Michael said, shaking in suppressed exhaustion that was made worse
from his magic being pulled to an abrupt halt, thanks to Josh's aggression.

The
ambulance from Woodland Park pulled up next to them. “Great, they are taking
her out of the territory,” Cole said in a growling tone. They would lose most
access to the victim with her transported out of the area. It would also mean
some Feds would probably show up to investigate. That was easy to handle,
though. It wouldn’t be the first time. A few federal agents were easy to handle.
He would help them out, so they were out of here all the sooner.

“It’s
good that I took care of things now then.” Michael held onto the side of the
ambulance to try to support his weight.

The
paramedics walked up with the stretcher. “Thanks for finding her,” the medic
said with genuine appreciation on his face.

“No
thanks needed, it’s our job,” Cole said. It was the typical line most police
used. Cole looked at Michael after the medics carried Stacy off. “I have a bad
feeling a shit storm is about to start.”

“You and me both.
Fuck,” Michael swore. “What the
fuck is going on?
A human criminal in our territory?”

Cole
could only shake his head. He was just as confused. There was something he was
missing, and he just needed to find it. It felt like it was right on the edge
of his memory, but he couldn’t grasp it.

Michael
watched him. “Do you think the two crimes are connected?”

“I
really don’t know.
 
I did wonder if they
were even connected to Cassie’s abduction, but these are humans and those guys
weren’t after humans before. I need to pay another visit to Mandy. Maybe she
remembers something now that she has had a few days to settle down.”

Cole
opened his contacts to call Aaron. He was still supposed to be guarding Mandy.
As far as he knew the protection order was still in place. He hadn’t lifted it,
but technically, David was in charge of this case.

“Hey,”
Aaron answered in his customary way.

“Aaron,
I need you to question Mandy thoroughly, and record it. I need her to go over
every detail of her attack with you. We are missing something, and she is the
only adult that we can question.”