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But Kirsten was just an innocent bystander. She’d done nothing but her job. He was supposed to protect her, and he failed.
He quickly started to untie the guards. “I need everything. I want to know everything that you know. I want all the details about what happened while I was away.”
The guards told him how Sher came up from behind and took each of them out quietly and quickly. By the time they noticed what was happening, it was too late. Sher then took the girls up the trails, but that was as far as they saw.
They were each gagged and thrown in there, tied down so they couldn’t get free. They explained how she had thought everything out and planned everything accordingly.
He told them to each get extra hands because they were going after them. He then left them and headed outside. He shifted and bellowed a call for help. He was going to need as many people as he could get.
He took off up the trail into the woods. He followed it, catching all the spots where he could see a scuffle in the dirt. Kirsten had tried to get them free. He knew that much, and he was proud of her for that. He imagined she was holding Zara, and it wasn’t easy doing something like that while carrying a child.
His stomach dipped the farther he went because there was more than one scent. The odds were stacked against Kirsten from the start. Even if she had gotten herself free, there were several others ready to catch her. She never had a chance.
He followed the scent until he landed at tire tracks. He could tell from how large they were that they had an SUV. Sher had thought about everything, it seemed.
Fuck! That makes this even harder! Of course, Sher would think of that.
She didn’t want to be followed, and she was taking all the right steps to ensure she wasn’t. But he wasn’t letting the girls go that easily. He followed the tracks and the scent until it went deeper into the woods, and he hit the pavement.
The scent was suddenly twisted with hundreds of others, and he couldn’t follow anymore. His stomach twisted violently once more, and he growled angrily. He didn’t know what to do.
THIRTY-SIX
KIRSTEN
The first thing she noticed when she was in the SUV was how cold it was. Henry once told her shifters run hot, so it made sense to her that Sher blasted the AC. Perhaps Sher wanted to be comfortable in the middle of her rage.
Why was Kirsten even thinking about that? She was bound in the back of Sher’s car, with no way to get loose. The bonds were too tight for a human to break free from ... thick rope that cut into her flesh every time she moved. She was stuck here while Sher took her farther and farther away from the safety of Henry’s home.
Kirsten was so stupid! She should have stayed inside. She should have locked the doors and waited for Henry to return to the house. She was safe with Henry, always. He had proven to her that he would look after her for the rest of their lives together. He had promised that they would be together and that Sher would never take her place.
Kirsten was stubborn, though. She had told Henry she needed the freedom to move and needed to go outside. She loved her sunshine too much. She thought the guards would keep her safe, but Sher was too dangerous. And now look where she was. After fighting so hard to keep her freedom, she was trapped.
Surely there would be a way to get out of this. She looked around the back of the car for anything she could use to cut herself free. She might have been able to use the seatbelt to wear down the rope, but there was no way she could do that without Sher noticing.
“Don’t even bother,” Sher said, scoffing. Kirsten met her eyes in the rearview mirror. “You won’t be able to get free. And even if you do, I’ll find you.”
Kirsten hung her head. She was right in that Sher would find her anywhere she went, especially if she was with Henry and Zara. She could sniff Kirsten out now that she had her scent and could take her down with one swipe. Kirsten was only a human, and she was all but powerless against a tiger shifter like Sher.
“Thanks. I’ll just lay down and die, then,” Kirsten retorted.
“You don’t want to die just yet,” Sher said cryptically. “But I can definitely arrange that when the time comes.”
A shiver ran down Kirsten’s spine at the words. They were a warning, yes, but Kirsten knew by Sher’s tone that they were also a threat. Sher was determined to keep Kirsten on edge, she didn’t like her chances of getting out of this alive, and any thoughts she had about diving out of the car at the first chance she got were ruined by how the door did not open when she tried it.
“Nice try. It’s locked, though.”
“Yeah, thanks. I got that.” Kirsten rolled her eyes. “What exactly do you plan to do with me?”
Sher refused to answer. Kirsten glanced at the passenger seat where Zara was bundled into a basket loosely held in place by the seatbelt ... not even a baby seat! Panic rose in Kirsten’s chest. If they got into an accident, then Zara probably would not survive, and the way Sher was driving through the mountains, it seemed likely. How could Sher even think of herself as a good mother when she pulled a stunt like that?
She glanced out the window as they pulled into a clearing in the mountains. Kirsten held her breath as an enormous estate came into view. She observed fields, tennis courts, jungle gyms, basically everything an adventurous person could possibly want. They passed by them, and Sher drove up to a house so large it blocked the sun as they parked next to it.
“Where is this place?” Kirsten asked, not exactly expecting an answer.
“Never mind,” Sher said. “You don’t have to worry about being Zara’s mommy anymore. That’s my job, okay?”
The door opened, and two men yanked her out of the car, handling her roughly. She tried to tear herself away, but they were too strong, and she could do nothing as they marched her into the house. The last look Kirsten got of Zara was Sher taking her out of the basket and holding her up before the men marched her up a flight of stairs. They unceremoniously shoved her into a room so roughly that she fell to the floor. One of them untied her, but before she could react, they closed the door behind her, and she heard the click as they locked it.
