29. Celina

TWENTY-NINE

CELINA

The sound of knocking on my door woke me. I rolled over and heard my phone buzzing. Well, wasn't I the popular girl this morning? The clock on the nightstand showed that it was almost ten in the morning, which meant I'd slept almost twelve hours. I couldn't remember the last time I'd slept that long apart from the other day when Miles and I had conked out for fifteen hours. It surprised me that I was still tired.

I swung my legs off the bed and saw the note Miles had left me. It said he'd gone to work. That must be him at the door. He'd probably forgotten something. I stood and wrapped my robe over my pajamas and shuffled to the door, ignoring my phone. As I opened the door, I was thinking to myself that I needed to get Miles his own key. Or should I move in with him?

The thought was still echoing through my head as the hulking figure outside my door slammed a cloth bag over my head and yanked me off my feet. I was over his shoulder before I could even register what was going on. I was being kidnapped. Fear flooded my body with adrenaline. I slammed my fists into the guy's back and screamed for help. He was taking the stairs fast, two at a time at least. Each step slammed me back down into his shoulder, the breath bursting from my lungs, making it hard to keep screaming.

I even tried to clear my thoughts and shift like I'd done last night, but the fear made it impossible to focus and connect with my wolf. It was there, and angry as hell, but I couldn't get it to help. The fear I felt was overwhelming.

I fought for a breath and screamed for help again. My kidnapper shook me and growled. "Shut the fuck up, and you won't get hurt. Otherwise I'll give you a reason to scream."

The voice sounded familiar, and the venom in it told me he wasn't lying. I stopped screaming but didn't quit fighting. I kicked and punched all the way until he lowered me off his shoulder and tossed me into the back seat of a car.

"You asshole! Did you hurt her? I'll have your ass if you hurt her," Felicity screamed as she pulled the bag off my head.

"She's fine," the bodyguard said as he slid into the driver's seat. "I've got some new bruises thanks to her. Glad you asked."

"Fuck off," Felicity spat.

"The boss said not to hurt her, so no worries," he said and pulled out of the parking lot, tires squealing.

"Felicity? What's going on?" I asked.

She turned her angry gaze from the driver to me, her face softening as she did. She patted my knee. "Oh, pet. Let's drop the pretense. You know, and I know that you know, my name isn't Felicity. My name is Mariana, let's go with that."

I was still gasping and confused, but I still had enough wherewithal to know I should try and keep her happy. "Okay. Mariana, what's going on?"

She smiled at me. "Your fuckhead of a boyfriend stole something from my father. So, we're stealing something from him to make sure we get back what is ours. Only until we get it back, though, of that you can be sure. If this Miles loves you like you think he does, it should be a very simple exchange."

I craned around to look at the driver, the bodyguard. Miles said this guy was a shifter. Why would he keep going along with Mariana? "How can you help them do this? I just don't understand. Their whole goal is to kill your kind."

The guy's shoulders stiffened. Mariana laughed. "What are you talking about? My brother isn't some piece-of-shit monster."

Brother? I looked from Mariana back to the driver. What? They didn't even look remotely alike. "He's your brother?" I asked dumbly.

Mariana rolled her eyes. "Half brother. Dad was banging some lady on the side back in the day. Some whore he found on a business trip, probably."

Did Mariana really not know? I turned back and locked eyes with the driver in the rearview mirror. I could see it in his eyes. It was a secret he'd held close his entire life. Only a lifetime of hiding could cause the fear I saw in his face. Holy shit . Did his father even know?

I sat in stunned silence, not sure what else there was to say. We drove for what felt like an hour, then we pulled off the road and went down a gravel road that ended up in a clearing ringed by oak and pine trees. The driver parked the car and got out. He opened the back door, grabbed me by the arm, and started pulling me out.

Mariana sat forward. "Jared? What the hell?"

"Stay here and stay out of the way."

"Daddy said you weren't my boss," Mariana whined.

Jared shook his head in frustration. "Just stay here and shut up. God damn," he shouted as he slammed the door.

He pulled me toward the front of the car. Mariana rolled the window down and leaned her head out. "Celina?"

I turned to look back at her, hoping for some type of apology. "Yes?"

"I really wish things had turned out different, but you're a beast now. Your fate is sealed. I'm sorry I couldn't save you." With that, she leaned back in and rolled the window back up. That was not the apology I'd wanted.

I looked at Jared. "What are you?" He ignored me and tugged me along faster. I kept pushing. "I don't know how you've hidden it, but I can feel it. So can the others. We know."

"You need to shut up," Jared threatened.

"I can't. Don't you know what your father is doing to shifters? He's killing them. Doesn't that bother you? The way he treats them, when his own son is a shifter?"

"Mind your own business and close your mouth until this swap is made. That's all I need you to do. Got it?"

"How does that even work? Are you some special case? Exempt from his damned crusade?"

Jared yanked me close and locked eyes with me. We were so close that I could smell the mint from the toothpaste he'd used that morning when he spoke. "Shut. The. Fuck. Up. That's the last warning you get."

I stared at him, my writer's mind surging through dozens of scenarios, each one more unlikely than the last. What could cause this weird relationship? One thing was certain, Antonio didn't know Jared was a shifter. I felt sure that as crazy as he was, Antonio wouldn't hesitate to kill his own son if he knew he was a shifter.

My eyes widened as the final piece of the puzzle slid into place in my mind. It was the only thing that made any logical sense. Humans and shifters couldn't have kids, unless some type of magic came into play like with Tate and Harley. That meant…

"Antonio isn't actually your biological father, is he?" I asked.

Jared's hands snapped out and wrapped around my throat so fast I barely saw them move. The oxygen and blood were immediately cut off from my brain. I gagged and felt pressure in my eyes, like they were about to pop out of my head. I clawed at his hands, digging troughs into his skin with my nails. Blood trickled from the wounds, but he didn't release me. He actually lifted me up off the ground by my neck. Stars burst in my vision. I kicked at the ground. I barely even registered the sound of the truck skidding to a stop, the scream from Miles, or the howl of his wolf.

Jared tossed me aside. I fell to the dirt, gasping for air, coughing, and retching. I looked up and saw Miles leaping through the air toward Jared. He spun and shoulder-checked Miles. Miles landed on all fours, barely fazed, and shifted back to human form.

He pointed at Jared. "You. I want you," Miles hissed, and my blood went cold at the soulless anger in his voice.

Mariana had leaped from the car and was running toward us. "God damn it, Jared! You're not supposed to hurt her. What the hell is wrong with you?"

Jared never took his eyes off Miles. "Sorry, sis, my temper got the best of me." He nodded at Miles. "We can get this all over with quickly if you brought what you were supposed to."

The sound of shoes on gravel broke the standoff. Jared's eyes flicked past Miles's shoulder toward Tate, who was walking toward us. As big as Miles, Steff, and Blayne were, Tate was still imposing compared to the others. If he'd been standing there looking at me the way he was looking at Jared, I'd have probably cried and pissed my pants at the same time. All Jared did was raise an eyebrow and clench his hands into fists.

Tate went deathly still, and he sniffed, then tilted his head. He looked at Jared with a combination of surprise and understanding. "Miles," Tate said. "I know why we couldn't figure out what this guy was. His beast is being suppressed somehow. Something is preventing him from shifting." Tate took a step toward Jared. "Are you one of Antonio's experiments?"

Jared stiffened, his neck blazing red.

Mariana looked back and forth between Tate, Miles, and her supposed brother. "Jared? What the fuck is he talking about?"

"I can smell it on you, though," Tate said. "The dragon."

"Shut up," Jared screamed. "You shut the fuck up."

"Why would you side with hunters?" Tate asked. "They only want to see you, and us, and our kind dead. Dragon clans are dwindling like crazy. Christ, I may be the last alpha in North America, and here you are, one of my clan, fighting to eradicate us. It's like a Jew trying to help the Nazis. There aren't many of us left. If Antonio has his way, we'll all be gone soon."

Jared stared at the ground. I pushed onto my knees. I couldn't take my eyes off him. It was like he was fighting something—a deep rage or pain. His face twitched, and his lips were moving like he was having a silent argument with himself. Mariana stood to the side, staring at Jared in disgusted horror.

"Let us help you," Tate said, "You don't have to do this alone. You don't need the hunters. You need a pack. We can help. We can end what Antonio is doing with shifters. The torture? The experiments? All of it."

I had no idea what Tate was talking about. They must have discovered something new. Something that sounded even worse than hunting shifters. If what Tate was talking about was true, then the hunters were even more evil than I'd thought.

"Jared?" Mariana asked. "Are you one of them?' The words dripped with disgust and derision.

Jared looked up. "Mariana, they're only trying to distract us. Let me handle this." He looked at Miles and held a hand out to him. "Give me the file, asshole. Give me that, and you get your bitch back."

Miles snarled at him, and Tate stepped forward and glared. Waves of energy came off him, and I deduced it had to have something to do with him being an alpha because even I wanted to submit to him. Jared's head bowed slightly, almost like he was being crushed by the weight of Tate's will. He was trying to fight it, but he didn't seem to be successful.

"You need an alpha to keep your dragon in check, to prevent you from going feral. If you had an alpha, you wouldn't need to suppress your beast. You could live free."

Jared was shaking, almost jittering like a leaf in the wind. His lips peeled back in a sneer, and I could see the moment he lost control. Anger overtook him, and the beast he'd been so good at hiding finally tore free. Claws burst out of his hands where his fingers had been.

"Don't do this!" Tate shouted. "It's not worth it…just calm down."

Nothing Tate said made a difference. In fact, it only seemed to make Jared angrier. Tate was still trying to reason with him when Mariana stepped closer, staring in shock at the taloned scaled hands that used to belong to her brother.

"Jared?" Mariana's voice shook as she spoke.

"Please," Tate said. "Turn your back on your father. Join us."

The last attempt didn't go well. Jared screamed at Tate—a guttural nonsensical shriek of rage, shame, anger, and hate. I leaped to my feet and ran to Miles as Jared shifted into a dragon. His human scream morphed into a reptilian roar. I didn't turn back to look. I kept my eyes on Miles as I ran to him. The look on his face was one of terror.

Even over the sound of Jared roaring, I could hear Miles saying, "Oh shit."