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Her hands ached and her fingertips hurt so badly that she nearly stopped what she was doing. But she kept going, kept focusing on the wolf inside her and the powerful feelings that filled her. Something sharp pushed through her fingertips, the bones of her hands cracking as her fingers lengthened. She tasted blood as fangs erupted from her gums.
She felt stronger, like her body had changed on a cellular level.
With a snarl, she bared her fangs and tugged on the rope that bound her hands behind her. The rope didn’t budge for a moment, but Ashley didn’t give up. She growled and pulled harder. The back of the chair splintered first, and then the rope gave way. She took only the briefest of moments to stare at her strange-looking hands. She had extra bones, making her fingers longer, and there was dark fur over the top of her hand with black, sharp claws protruding from her fingertips.
Huh.
She slashed at the ropes binding her legs to the chair and rose to her feet, the wolf in her mind ready to kill to keep Romeo safe.
ChapterTwenty
Romeo had never been to Lagrange and wasn’t very familiar with the area, but he could feel a pulsating pull between himself and Ashley, a supernatural tether because they were mates.
Midas, seated in the passenger seat while Romeo drove his SUV with his foot to the floor, answered a call.
“That’s what we thought. Everyone’s safe? All right, thanks, Ted. Call it into the supernatural division. The head of the group’s name is Trumble. Right. No, don’t mention that we’re dealing with an abduction; just tell him that our people were lured there and we believe it was Humans Against Shifters. Keep me posted.” The call ended and Midas put the phone in the cup holder.
Maya leaned forward from the second row. “The place was rigged?”
“Yep,” Midas said. He turned slightly to look at his mate. “It was a pretty sloppy job from what Ted said, and there weren’t any people in there waiting. It was an abandoned building.”
Romeo’s grip tightened on the wheel.
“You okay?” Midas asked. “I mean, I know you’re not okay.”
“I keep getting these little surges of emotion from Ashley. Fear and panic, but there’s something like hope too.”
He wanted to kick his own ass for allowing her to get abducted.
“What I don’t get,” Maya said, “is why they didn’t take you too.”
“What do you mean?” Romeo asked.
“Well, we know that Humans Against Shifters wants to take out Midas and as many tigers as possible and drive the others away from Ohio, but if he wanted to lure Midas to a location to kill him, why not also take you? You’re part of the ambush. Brent couldn’t have known that Ashley was your truemate. He must be simply betting that she’s important enough to you for you to bring Midas to him.”
“That’s a good question,” Midas said. “But perhaps he was making a point or wanted to hurt her personally because she betrayed him by siding with the tigers. Whether he actually understands matings or not, if he was watching her, he would know her loyalties had changed.”
Romeo felt a strange emotion ripple through his connection to Ashley: triumph.
He rubbed the space over his heart. What did that mean?
“We’re close,” Midas said, looking at the GPS screen. “There’s a side road a half mile from the building. Let’s pull off there and get close on foot.”
Romeo hooked to the right and followed the road, watching the screen to ensure he didn’t go too far off track.
It was dusk, the sun rapidly setting, which would give them ample cover as they approached. Humans couldn’t see as well as tigers in the darkness, at least not without a device to allow them to, so they’d have an advantage.
He parked and turned off the engine.
“My mate’s in trouble,” he said, staring off in the direction of the poultry processing plant. He could make the outline of the roof in the distance. “Thank you for helping me.”
“Hey,” Midas said, resting his hand on Romeo’s shoulder for a moment, “you helped me get Maya from Brent. It’s only fair that I repay the favor. Plus, we need to take this maniac out for good. He’s a terror.”
Romeo nodded.
His cat simmered under his skin, wanting to race to the building and slaughter anyone who’d touched a hair on her head, but the rational part of him knew that charging the gates without a plan was stupid on a hundred different levels.
He got out of the vehicle and closed the door quietly. Midas and Maya met him at the front of the vehicle, along with the two-dozen other male and female ambush members.
