23. Claude

TWENTY-THREE

CLAUDE

" Y ou're sure, Rio?" Claude asked as he made a sharp turn. His phone was on speaker as he raced downtown, trying not to speed so much that he caught the attention of the human police. But he couldn't exactly take his sweet time either.

"Completely," Rio replied. The man sounded almost bored as he relayed the information. "The witness gave a description matching Kim, and stated she was heading toward Embraced. She wants to stay anonymous, but I can assure you we can trust her."

Claude gritted his teeth. Rio was excellent at tracking people, especially those who didn't want to be found, but Claude couldn't leave anything up to chance this time. Not when the threat of a coupe was on the line.

"Then I guess I have no choice but to trust you too. All right." Claude hung up and told his phone to dial his cousin. She picked up almost immediately.

"Give me good news," Aria said, a crying baby audible in the background.

"My informant tracked her down. She's heading for Embraced right now, and so am I," Claude said. He heard a sound of frustration from Aria.

"Where are you now?"

"Stoplight at Main and Broad." One he would have gladly blown through were it not for the squad car in the lane right next to him.

"All right. I'm sending five of my best your way. They should be there when you arrive."

Claude wanted to doubt that was true, but he knew better. Aria was fantastic at logistics, and even on maternity leave, she knew where every one of her inner circle was at any given moment.

He also felt a small sting at the implication that he couldn't handle one woman on his own. But if Kim was heading into Embraced, then she was doing so with a plan. And who knows if she was able to rally other vampires to her cause. Regardless, Kim had little if nothing left to lose, and wouldn't go down without a fight.

He swallowed his pride and thanked Aria as he drove toward the club.

True to her word, when Claude parked outside the club, five other vampires were gathering. They nodded at him and fell in line.

As they approached the door, his chest twisted into a knot. It sounded like something was already going down. He swung open the door, ran inside, and found…

Wolves.

In the moment it took him to recognize what was happening, a large gray wolf lunged for his throat. He moved quickly, dodging its teeth and kicking it in the gut. The wolf tumbled to the ground with a pathetic whimper before stumbling back to its paws. It growled at Claude, ready for round two, until another wolf slammed into it, having been tossed by a patron.

"Sir, what do we do?" one of his men asked.

That's a damn good question, Claude thought as he surveyed the massacre around him. If this were just a year ago, he would give the order to kill every wolf in sight. But times had changed; politics had changed. Killing a pack of wolves like that might destroy all the goodwill they'd been working to build up.

But he couldn't just let them kill his patrons either.

"Knock them out, disable them, do whatever needed to protect the patrons, but try not to kill!" Claude yelled as he punched an attacking wolf in the face. He followed it up with a swift kick, knocking the wolf out cold.

Scanning the room, Claude found a young woman defending herself with a jagged, broken bottle. She swiped it at a brown, shaggy-looking wolf stalking closer to her. Claude ran to her aide and tackled the wolf.

"Run!" he yelled. The woman screamed and did so. The wolf under him snarled and snapped, trying to get her teeth around his throat. Claude pulled his fist back, ready to punch her in the head, but hesitated.

Those brown eyes. He knew those eyes.

"Leigh?" It was her, there was no doubting it. But why would she do something like this? Sure, she was uncomfortable working with vampires at first, but staging an all-out attack? She was his mate. She held his baby niece in her arms.

He shook his head. Leigh wouldn't go against Tristan's wishes so blatantly even if she was putting up a front somehow.

"No. Something is wrong here," he said. But it seemed Leigh hadn't gotten the memo as she continued struggling desperately to attack. He pulled a knife from his coat, brandishing it and slicing it toward her face in a mock attempt to scare her off. It worked, and Leigh left to seek out easier prey.

Before he could figure out what to do next, there came a bevy of shouts and screams that tore Claude's attention back to the entrance. Another pack of wolves stormed in, seemingly ready to join the fray. Claude's head began to spin. Any more attackers and they'd be far too outnumbered.

But he nearly sighed in relief when he realized it was the Wolfe brothers, Aric, Tristan, and Nathan, alongside Caleb. They were flanked by a team of enforcers, and Claude realized with terror that this might be the end.

"Wait!" he shouted, running toward them. "Whatever happened, we can work through this. Stop the attack and let's talk, it doesn't have to be like this."

Aric shook his head. "This isn't a sanctioned attack," he explained. "We're not here to join these other wolves, we're here to stop them."

That fact left Claude feeling cold. Now he really knew something was wrong. The idea of Leigh joining some underground, anti-vampire attack force was unthinkable.

His men continued cornering and disabling the attacking wolves, fending them off screaming patrons as he attempted to understand the chaos.

"Listen, we think they've been drugged or under some other kind of influence," Aric continued. "But we don't know why they would have targeted Embraced. That's too specific, and we need to figure out what drove them here."

The word drove flashed through his mind, reminding him exactly why he drove to Embraced himself.

"It's Kim," Claude yelled. "She's also here, somewhere. She has to be behind this."

"Fuck, of course, it is," Tristan said, practically growling.

"How the hell is she controlling a pack of wolves?" Nathan yelled.

"Where is she? Can we find her and make her stop this?" Aric asked, looking desperate for an affirmative answer.

But Claude shook his head. "I know she's around here somewhere, but I haven't seen her yet."

Aric looked despondent, and the vision made Claude feel like he was choking on something sharp.

"That only leaves us with one choice," he said. "If it's the drug we think it is, then there's no cure for this. My father's been trying to find one for years. All these wolves have reached the threshold. They're rabid, and need to be taken down."

"No," Claude said instinctively. "No, Leigh is one of them."

"I'm sorry, Claude, we all are," Nathan said, readying himself to fight.

Claude took a step back and surveyed the club. Everywhere around him was destruction: broken glass, ripped furniture, and worst of all, blood was spilled all around him.

He couldn't hesitate any longer. People's lives were on the line.

"Do what you have to, I'm evacuating everyone else," he said before turning on his heel and rushing toward a group taking shelter in a corner booth with the table flipped on its side. He offered his hand and helped them, one by one, jump out of their makeshift fort and run for the door.

Claude's self-imposed job turned out to be easy with the Wolfe brothers taking all the attention of the attackers. But as he escorted the last group of bystanders to the door, he caught sight again of Leigh.

He watched her thrashing, foaming at the mouth, looking crazed and confused. It was wrong, so utterly wrong, and nothing like the classy woman he'd fallen for. She never would have taken drugs of her own free will, so someone must have drugged her.

Kim.

"No," he said one last time as he marched into the fray and zeroed in on her. She lunged at him again, and he tackled her to the ground.

Cure or no cure, he wasn't going to lose her. Not like this.

"Leigh, please!" he pleaded over and over. She squirmed against his grip, gnashing her teeth, but he didn't give up. "I know you're still in there, you have to fight this. Leigh!"

Slowly, Claude felt their mate bond begin to open up. A feeling like a warm embrace engulfed his senses, drowning out everything else around him.

Hunger , he heard Leigh saying in his mind. Hunger. Blood. Food. Hunger!

No , he answered her, you're stronger than this. You're more than the hunger.

I'm so hungry, Claude! she called out, making real sentences.

It drove him on further, realizing he was getting through. He drove in deeper, reaching as far as he could until he found a scared, sobbing bundle of humanity crouched deep inside the wolf.

"Come back, Leigh," he begged one last time. "Come back to me."

The wolf stilled, panting, and deep within his mind, Claude heard a cry of anguish.