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Adam snarled, wishing he could shift into his human form so he could talk.
Malachi put his hand on Adam’s head and said to Zander, one of the protectors, “Go find Doc and get him the fuck here right now.” He turned his attention back to Adam. “I smell humans and shifters. They took Dani?”
Adam nodded.
“Damn it,” he growled. Pulling his cell from his pocket, he dialed it and said, “Luke, tell Brynn to go out onto the porch and yell for Acksel. Dani’s been kidnapped, and Acksel always stays close to the house. I need him at Adam’s right away.”
Ending the call, Malachi said, “We’ll get her back, man.”
Adam struggled against the drugs in his system. He could barely lift his head from the ground. Worry for Dani’s safety was driving him insane, his wolf clawing at him to find her.
Doc, the pack doctor, appeared and knelt in the snow in front of Adam. Malachi had searched the area and found the feathered dart, similar to the one that had hit Dani, embedded in the side of the house. “I think he was hit with this.”
Doc sniffed at the dart and wrinkled his nose. “Uh, no. He wasn’t hit or he’d be dead. I recognize this drug. It shuts down the body—first paralyzing the muscles and then spreading quickly organ by organ until the recipient dies.”
“Where do you know it from?” Malachi asked.
“When I was in college, I took a course on how to recognize toxins, and this stood out as one that has no remedy because it works so fast.” He searched through Adam’s fur. When Adam winced as his fingers grazed his shoulder, Doc said, “Here, there’s a scratch. Whoever shot him must have thought they hit him straight-on and that he was as good as dead. He was very fortunate.”
“Since he didn’t get the full dose, can you counteract it?”
“Maybe,” Doc said, opening his medical bag and moving objects around within it. Adam heard glass bottles tinkling and plastic crinkling. Then Doc lifted a small vial and a syringe. He filled the syringe with a green-tinted liquid, spread the fur on Adam’s foreleg, and sank the needle into his flesh. The liquid burned as it was pushed into his body, but almost immediately he felt the drug within him begin to dissipate.
“Ah, what do you know? It seems to alleviate the symptoms. Give yourself a few minutes, Adam.”
“The fuck he’s going to do that, Doc. His mate is missing.”
“Shit.”
Malachi nodded.
By the time Acksel arrived with Ren and Sam, the beta and theto of the pack, Adam had shifted into his human form and dressed. He grabbed the engagement ring from Dani’s pocket and put it on his pinky finger. Having the piece of jewelry on him made him feel a little closer to her.
He led Acksel and the others to the outside of the fence and followed the scent of the males and Dani. There was little breeze now, so their scent was easy to track until they reached the road. Depressions in the snow and mud at the side of the road told them that there had been two vehicles waiting.
“How did the protectors miss this?” Acksel demanded. “There were two vehicles in our territory at the fucking edge of the woods and no one saw a damn thing?”
Adam wondered the same thing. Letting loose a growl, he thought over what had happened and if he’d seen anything that should have been a clue that things were about to go to shit.
Just as he thought the word ‘shit’ he realized what must have happened. “My dad.”
“What about your dad?” Acksel asked.
“I think he’s behind it. He came to us a while ago and asked for money. I turned him down, but he was pretty desperate.”
“Check your cell. Do you have a ransom demand?” Ren asked.
Adam looked at his phone, but there was no activity since Dani had been taken.
“What if it’s not aboutwhoDani is, but what she is?” Sam asked.
“What do you mean?” Adam asked, unease rising within him.
“She’s a reindeer. You said that she’s unique because her people are nomads and stay off the radar. What if someone would pay for her because she’s a reindeer shifter?”
Acksel growled darkly. “We need to reach out to the police and find out if they know of any groups in the area who might be inclined to traffic in shifters.”
“A better idea is to find my dad and figure out what the hell he did to my mate,” Adam growled.
