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“Theo, make your way to me. Leave those who’ve been recovered with the rest of the team.”
The vague terms and lack of names in Jade’s statements, and the fact that she wanted only me to move position, told me she had left someone alive.
“On my way.”
I could feel Jade’s rage and need warring down the bond. The need to hold Shae in order to reassure herself that her bondmate was safe. Then there was the rage. The other side of my girl, the one that called to my own dark side. She needed to punish the people who’d dared to touch what was hers. She trusted me to contain whoever she was holding so she could go to Shae.
Rounding the corner where we’d initially parted ways, it wasn’t long before I saw the first of the bodies. I didn’t bother slowing to take in any details; the police would handle that shit. Drake House would make it clear that everything we’d done was justified under the pack retribution laws: the legislation that allowed Alphas to do unspeakable things in the name of protecting their pack. I didn’t give a fuck who these men were; they’d been as good as dead the moment they’d taken Shae from us. A pained sound came from a doorway ahead of me that told me exactly which room Jade was in. I raised my gun as I approached the door, just in case, but when I entered, I saw there was no need.
The scene before me was straight out of a slasher movie. A sterile-looking office space spoke to the hasty set up of this facility, but the blood-spattered desk in the center of the room was the only indication it was an office at all. On the desk were vials and syringes, papers, and a closed laptop. An Alpha—the one who must have been in charge of the operation—was strapped to a chair. His chest was covered in precise cuts, the tips of the fingers on his left hand were missing, and it looked like Jade had started on his right hand as well. She stood, knives in her hands, glaring down at him. When she turned her gaze to me, I saw that the beautiful, caring woman who held our hearts had been replaced by a vengeful Valkyrie wanting to bathe in the blood of her enemies. Fuck. Not the best time to get hard but my cock didn’t care.
The bound man’s ragged breathing transformed into a pained, manic laugh before he spoke in a halting voice.
“Another of your … Beta pets, little Alpha? Can’t wait to… break this one, too…”
Before he could say another word, the blunt handle of one of Jade’s blades cracked against his skull. His chin dropped to his chest as he lost consciousness.
Jade’s eyes swung back to me and softened slightly.
“Shae?”
“No physical injuries that I could see. Go on, I’ll take him outside before the police arrive. Maybe wash your hands before you go to them though?”
Jade looked down at her bloody hands, an adorable divot forming as she drew her brows together, then nodded her head once. She moved around the desk and walked to where I stood, leaning up for a kiss when she reached me. I pressed my mouth to hers briefly, fighting the urge to deepen the kiss, then brushed the tip of my nose against hers.
“Get those vials and the laptop. Ethan will want to go through that hard drive with a fine-tooth comb, and we can pull some strings with a lab for the rest of it.”
“Understood.”
She walked through the door, heading for where Shae and the others waited for the medical transport that was due to arrive any minute. I holstered my gun and grabbed a black bag from the side of the desk and carefully loaded it up with the vials and the laptop. Pulling out one of my blades and a zip tie, I proceeded to cut the prick loose. I’d need to get his unconscious ass carefully restrained again, and out of the building as quickly as I could. I cut the tie that anchored his left foot, then the one on his mutilated hand before moving to the other side of his body and crouching near his foot.
As I worked, I contemplated how I could easily get this guy out of here if he was still knocked out. Fireman’s carry? Nah, he’d bleed all over me. I could drag him but then there would be a smeared, bloody trail to explain, and I’d still have to get him around the bodies. I had just cut the final tie when I noticed that his chin had lifted slightly and a twitch of his right hand betraying that he was awake again.
He moved faster than a man that fucked up should have been able to and reached for my gun. I pulled out of his reach and stabbed my blade into his calf. He roared in pain and slapped his less mutilated hand down on the desk, landing on one of the syringes there. I ripped the knife out and brought my arm up to block him from going for my eye or my neck, then hammered a fist into his side, hoping to crack a rib. The force of the blow caused him to double over, and I pressed my knife to his throat.
As I held it there, I remembered Shae’s face when I’d found them. Thought of Cat and the other women waiting to be sold, and of the fate of the one who had been. Of all those other Betas we suspected to have died from being injected with earlier versions of that fucking drug. I decided I didn’t give a fuck what this pathetic excuse for a man could tell us. He needed to die. Suddenly, a pinching sensation in my leg transformed into intense pain that radiated through my thigh. The distraction allowed him to slip from my hold. When I looked down, a spent syringe was sticking out of my leg and the Alpha was scrabbling away.
Struggling to stay conscious as waves of agony rolled through me, I collapsed onto my side. The Alpha used the doorframe to help pull himself up, dragging his injured leg along behind him. I gritted my teeth and managed to free my gun, firing once in the direction that he’d fled before darkness took me.
CHAPTER TWO
JADE
Theo had told me to wash my hands but the best I could manage was to wipe them on a jacket hanging inside a doorway I passed as I strode down the hall. I wasn’t going to stop to hunt down a bathroom. I needed to see Shae. Needed to hold them in my arms even more than I needed to flay the skin from that piece of shit excuse for a human. Theo would handle the bastard Alpha. Then, once the transports arrived, I would lock myself and my sweet Beta in one of the ambulances for the drive to the hospital and the EMTs would be able to do fuck-all to stop me.
The smell of fear, panic, and stale sweat nearly overcame my Alpha senses the closer I got to the area where the victims had been held. I’d memorized the plans of the building before we’d left Drake House, but it was the tugging sensation of the bond that I was following more than anything. When I turned the final corner and saw Shae, my steps faltered. They were standing with Cat, arms curled around their friend, gently rocking her from side to side. My eyes stung as I got closer, but I wasn’t about to lose my composure here, not yet. Shae had no need to don a ruthless persona, I saw Cat tap their shoulder as she saw me, and when my Beta whirled toward me, their eyes filled at the same time as their knees buckled.
I moved as quickly as I could and dropped to my own knees, sliding those last inches to catch them so that they crumpled into my arms and not onto the floor. They pressed their face into my neck and gripped the edges of my flak jacket, chest heaving as they fought back sobs. I wrapped my arms around them and strangled the growl threatening to erupt from my chest at how wrong their scent was, forcing a purr instead. It wasn’t just someone else’s scent that clung to the lab coat they had on, or the rotted fruit notes of fear and sadness that were woven through their typical blackberry blossom scent. Beneath all of that, there was something chemical. Similar to those blackberry soaps Shae had put in Ethan’s bathroom. For an Alpha—or an Omega—nothing could ever truly replicate a person’s authentic scent. There was always something false, something manufactured, tainting any fragrance that tried to mimic the real thing. Shae’s natural scent was corrupted in that same way. I moved one of my hands to the nape of their neck and massaged the muscles there, trying to ignore the way their hair felt greasy. Not because it was repulsive, but because it was another physical reminder of all they’d been through in the last five days, and I was barely holding on to my control.
Wetting my blade one slice at a time on that Alpha had helped some. Each cut had been a balm for every hour of pain I’d felt from Shae those first days. I’d started on his fingers just before Theo interrupted me, fully intending to take a finger for each day, one knuckle at a time. Some small part of me cringed at what my sweet Beta and Omega would think if they knew what kind of monster lurked under my skin. I knew the rest of my pack accepted it and understood, even if only Theo and I acted on the urge for violence and vengeance when we had to. Michaels signaled to get my attention then tipped his head toward the hallway leading to the exit. The wail of sirens was loud enough that they had to be very close to the property.
“Come on, Sunshine. The ambulances are about to arrive. Miles will be at the hospital to meet us.”
They nodded into my neck then pulled back to look up at me. Leaning in, I pressed a gentle kiss to their lips. I was conscious of the eyes on us, as well as our surroundings, but I needed that moment—that connection with Shae—before I had to put the Drake House mask back on. To be the leader, the emotionless monster, once again.
“Michaels, take the team and lead the girls out to the ambulances. One of you will accompany each of them to the hospital, if they are comfortable with that, and you’ll remain guarding them until further notice. Bodhi, you?—”
Pain ripped through my chest, and I sank back down on one knee, breathing heavily as Shae gripped my hand. I stared into their eyes as the bond between myself and Theo collapsed. It was shredding, barely anything left and, from what I could feel, he was in agony.
