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Rex suspected he knew. If he was right, this was a hunter from that fucking academy a few hours away. They were playing at being soldiers, but if they kept their shit up, they were going to find out what war really was.
The man just grinned as the back window lowered a couple inches, then a muzzle was slid out. Before Rex could do much, there was an odd noise, then Rex felt the sting of a needle in his neck. Lifting his hand, he grasped the dart and yanked it from his skin before he collapsed to the ground. White flakes began to fall from the sky, and the last thought he had before everything went black was,I knew it was going to snow.
Jolene
When Jolene got to work, she was actually five minutes early, but you wouldn’t be able to tell by the way the owner reacted. Dr. Thatcher started her day by asking where in the hell she had been, and before she could reply, he started ranting about there being an emergency and needing another set of hands.
The urge to tell him where to go was strong. If she let that side out, though, she’d be letting out a soldier who was capable of eliminating a man and burying his body in a discreet location without losing a wink of sleep. Jolene hadn’t been a typical soldier. No, she had been part of an off-the-record unit that did all the things no one wanted to claim. She had not only been trained to do a myriad of horrendous acts but also how to do them without remorse. That part of herself, she had learned to put in a lockbox and set about starting a new life for herself, but it didn’t go away. It was always there, just waiting for her to turn the key.
Shoving the urge down, Doc washed her hands and gloved up before she headed into the small operating room in the back of the clinic.
It was going to be a long day.
Twenty-Five
Rex
Hisheadwasthrobbing,and his mouth felt dry. As Rex slowly came back to consciousness, he kept his eyes closed and tried to figure out what was wrong. Something was off. Where was he? Why did his body ache?
Trying to take slow, even breaths, he used his other senses to piece things together. He was laying against something hard, like concrete. Concrete? Why would he be…
The scene in the parking lot came back to him in a rush. The man in the fake soldier get-up, the Pathfinder, the open window, the sting in his neck, and the snow all flashed behind his eyelids, filling in some of the blanks.
Suddenly on alert, he listened more intently and heard voices at a distance, but with his shifter senses, he could still hear them clearly.
“How long do you think it will take for them to wake up?”
“Don’t know. It’s a new formula. They tweaked the blocker and added a tranquilizer,” a male voice replied.
Fuck.They shot up him with a dose of the shifter blocker mixed with tranquilizer? Rex tried to sense his wolf, but where he would normally feel the canine, there was nothing but an emptiness. Panic spiked in his system, and the pain of his missing wolf threatened to cripple him, but he had to push all of that aside. He couldn’t lose focus or crumble when his life was on the line. The rest could be addressed when he wasn’t wherever the fuck he was being held. He had to assess his situation and figure out how to get out of it.
His head spiked with sharp pain again, causing him to wince, while he wondered why his healing abilities didn’t seem to be taking care of it. He tried to remember if the blocker affected healing capabilities, or even if the Howlers had been given any information on that, but he couldn’t think clearly through the pain.
After a few moments, he was able to push aside the pain and focus on his senses. The scent of mildew and dirt filled his sinuses as Rex concentrated on the way the voices echoed in the space. It had to be a somewhat large location with concrete floors, possibly concrete walls.
Not sensing the presence of anyone close to him, he slowly opened his eyes a sliver and attempted to look around. He saw mostly darkness, but a few feet to the left, he spotted a woman hanging from a concrete wall. She was short and curvy, and didn’t seem to be conscious. He couldn’t see much of her face with the way her head was hanging forward, but he kept scanning her body for any bit of recognition. Peeking out from behind the long strands of blond hair, he saw patches on a leather cut. One of them readShortcake.
Fuck!
His arms were up above his head, and it wasn’t from his own doing. He glanced up and saw that his wrists were cuffed and connected to chains that were affixed to the wall. He wasn’t lying on the ground, like he originally thought. He was leaning against a wall. Wrapping his hands around the chains, he braced his feet shoulder-length apart on the floor and pulled with every ounce of strength he had. It didn’t take long for him to realize that his shifter strength was failing him.
They were wholly and truly screwed.
Jolene
Multiple times throughout the day, Jolene sent text messages to Rex in order to let him know she was okay. She saw the worry on his face that morning when she insisted on driving herself to work. She was still working through things and contemplating what he told her days ago, but she was warming to the idea of it all.
The previous night, when he confessed his love for her and promised her that it was him, and not just his wolf, who felt that way, something shifted inside of her. Some part of her hesitancy dissolved as she gazed into those ice-blue eyes and saw the truth of his words there on display. He truly did love her.
During lunch, she sent yet another and began to worry when she saw that he hadn’t answered any of her texts.
JOLENE : I’m on lunch. Had food delivered and eating at my desk. Are you busy?
After a few minutes, she received a reply.
REX : That’s good. Just busy.
She felt a little better when she got the reply, but it seemed short. Jolene couldn’t put her finger on exactly why her gut was yelling at her, but it was. She contemplated contacting Axle to make sure everything was okay, but she decided that would be an overreaction. Rex was probably just busy with the plumbing he was working on that day.
