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Loyalty. That couldn’t be bought.
In the end, I hand selected a small van full of three wolf shifters and a fox—a female for distraction in case I needed her. Vivian was more than a pretty face, however. She had been trained in the way of martial arts since her crawling days. I had more faith in her fighting abilities than anyone.
“Are you sure they’re in there?” Vivian asked, craning her neck toward the front of the van. “The place looks awfully quiet.”
“They’re there,” I reassured her, casting the sulking wolves a scathing glance.
Vivian was the only one who appeared up for the challenge of rescuing Bianca and Dahlia, even though the other two had not made a peep to the contrary. I wondered if she knew about the curse. If she did, it didn’t seem to affect her in the least.
The door to the van opened, and the fox shifter started toward the exit.
“What are we waiting for?” she asked, sliding open the door. “Let’s go get that son of a bitch!”
I grabbed her arm, pulling her back before she could do anything drastic.
“We’re not doing anything to Jesse,” I told her firmly. “We’re just here to—”
A yelp of terror cut my words off, and all of us jumped from the van in tandem, heads swiveling, the others shifting by rote at the scent of danger.
Blackness had fallen to block our human vision, but we were all trained for night sight. The trees and uneven terrain beyond the wall were hardly a deterrence for us, even though none of us were entirely sure where we were going.
Jesse’s compound sat just ahead, and my senses were sharper than they’d ever been, each one vying for top place as I counted several bodies out there in the night.
“Move!” I barked without thinking, my instincts on high alert.
Bianca was near. I could feel her in my soul. We broke apart like a compass, split four ways until I bit out another command, ordering the lot to follow me.
“This way!”
My intuition guided me, even when silence fell over us again. She was close, and in my mind, I called out to her, willing Bianca to make another noise.
“Stay where you are!”
A gunshot rang out, and my posse snarled, teeth snapping. Everyone but me had shifted, their furry heads rearing back to take on the weapon. The attack forced me into my animal frame, body bulging and ready to pounce as one of the compound’s guards emerged from the tree line, his eyes bugging at the sight of us.
“Holy shit!” he gasped, dropping the gun instantly. “You’re Atlas!”
He turned and started to run, but he was no match for me. I was on his back, taking him into the dirt, the skin of his neck in my teeth as he shrieked hysterically.
“It’s just a job!” the guard sobbed. “It’s not worth dying over!”
I would have laughed if I didn’t have other things on my mind.
“Where is she?” I rasped, speaking to him telepathically while in my animal form, as shifters were able to do, saliva dripping into his ear at the question.
Quivering and crying, he shook his head. “W-who?”
“Bianca Barrett and her sister?”
He jerked his arm to point east, and I released him, but not before gnashing into his ankle to stop him from running. The kid cried out again, his pleas almost breaking through to me.
“I’m sorry!” he blubbered. “I just needed to feed my family! It was just a job!”
I whipped back around to hover over him, nostrils glistening.
“A job kidnapping young women and holding them for that cretin?” I spat. “You deserve much worse than what I’ve already given you.”
Tears of self-pity rolled down his cheeks, but I’d already wasted too much time with him.
