15. Blayne

FIFTEEN

BLAYNE

As soon as Ava was gone, I shifted and plowed into the forest, running deeper and deeper. The feeling of the ground flashing by under my paws felt amazing. I'd gone nearly four miles before I realized it. Not being able to shift had taken more of a toll on me than I'd thought it would. Being in my panther form was almost like a drug, and I'd been going through withdrawal. Missing an integral part of myself had taken a mental toll on me. I had to think it was similar to losing a limb.

I sprinted through the woods for over two hours, pushing myself nearly to the point of exhaustion. That was only partly because we were both enjoying it. The other reason was that I wanted to block out the emotions flooding through my mind. As soon as I'd shifted and my panther had gotten to see and touch Ava, an overwhelming sense of adoration, longing, and lust had filled us both. Even though the mating bond had been severed, my panther was still hung up on her.

The emotions hadn't stopped with my panther, though. When I'd shifted back and stood in front of her, I'd been overcome with desire. I'd wanted to kiss her. That thought had scrambled my brain and made me reevaluate things. On some level, I was irritated and disgusted with myself. But on another level, I wondered what it would have been like to press my lips against hers.

I'd come running out of the forest and shifted back to human form around nine o'clock, covered in a sheen of sweat. In my mind, my panther was more content than I could remember it ever having been in the last month.

I glanced across the street at Ava's house, and a little lump of sadness filled my chest when I saw her car wasn't there. I stood in my driveway, staring at the house. Where did she go? Had she felt the same thing I had? Maybe so. Maybe she'd had to go on a drive to clear her head the way I'd gone on a run.

Not knowing what to do with that thought, I went inside and collapsed into bed, immediately falling into a dreamless sleep.

The next morning, I headed out for work at the crack of dawn. Ava's car still wasn't in her driveway. Maybe she'd slept at her dad's house? She was taking care of him, so that was plausible. He may have had a bad day, and she needed to stay the night. Shrugging, I got into my car.

The drive to work was filled with images of her rejecting me again. Of not wanting to be anywhere near me. What if she'd been freaked out, and packed up and left? That thought alone sent my panther into near hysterics. No. That wasn't what was going on. In all likelihood, her father had needed her.

I sat at a traffic light. Why did I care what she was doing? All I'd done since seeing her in the cemetery was push her away. The idea of her leaving should have filled me with relief. Why was I now freaking out that she might be gone? My panther wanted her, but…I shook the thought away and continued driving.

The day passed in a blur. My mind filled with thoughts of Ava leaving and memories of that fleeting moment when we'd stood in front of each other, almost close enough for our breath to mingle.

A pair of snapping fingers knocked me out of my thoughts. I jerked back and blinked. Steff's crooked grin greeted me. "You good? Looked like you were knee-deep in some hellacious daydreaming."

A quick glance around the room showed Tate and Miles were looking at me, too, but instead of grinning, they seemed worried.

I waved them all off. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine, sorry. Tate's voice makes me want to fall asleep. You know how it is."

Miles burst out laughing and Tate rolled his eyes. "Very funny. Can we get back to what we were talking about?"

"Go on. Try to make it a little less dry, if you can," I said. I had no clue what he'd been saying.

"Anyway…a call came in about ten minutes ago. We're gonna have some guests soon." Tate nodded toward Miles. "Our boy here has been working the phones hardcore. We've got several alphas coming to discuss how to deal with these hunters. A sort of alliance, I guess. They all understand that if we go down, they'll be the next dish on the menu. Steff, your old alpha is flying in. After the attack on their pack, he doesn't want to be blindsided again."

Steff's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed. "Okay. I'll be ready."

Things were getting serious. In all the years the four of us had been a pack, we'd never had to deal with a threat as big as this. There was too much at stake here to shrug off any warning or turn away any form of help, including other shifter packs or crime bosses like Gio Francis. Any help was good help. These guys were my pack, my family. And their families were my extended family. If anything happened to them or someone they loved, I'd be as devastated as when Liam had died. We had to do everything in our power to end the hunter threat.

"First things first, we need to make sure our families are safe," Tate said. "I'm sending Harley and the kids on a vacation ." He made air quotes around the word. "Harley knows what's going down, but the girls do not, and the baby is too young to understand anything. I rented them a place on the Gulf Coast. How did you guys do with your ladies?"

Steff blew out a frustrated breath. "April isn't going anywhere. Absolutely refuses to even discuss it. Her brothers are hellbent on helping out. After what happened with her nephew's kidnapping and her brother getting blackmailed, they're fired up. I'll have her stay with them, I guess."

Miles nodded. "Celina's pregnant and she knows how dangerous all this is. She saw firsthand what we're up against with Mariana. I booked her a flight back out to Cali. She's gonna crash with her editor. They'd always said they needed to hang out in person, so it seems like a good cover. She can stay there as long as she needs. Until these fuckers aren't on our asses anymore."

"Have we heard anything from Gio? " I asked. I wanted to know if our dirty friend had managed to live up to his end of the bargain yet.

Tate shook his head. "Not yet. I was gonna call him today and see?—"

He was cut off by the speaker phone buzzing and Kennedy's voice breaking in. "Guys, you have visitors."

We all exchanged a look before Tate answered. "Who is it?"

"That's the weird part," Kennedy said. "Won't give me a name. Let me patch in the camera feed. Maybe you'll recognize them."

We hunched over Tate's laptop screen. The black-and-white video popped up. Sam Francis and a younger guy glared up at the camera. They shared the same facial features. The younger guy had to be one of Ava's cousins.

"Son of a bitch. Talk about speaking of the devil," Steff said.

"Buzz them in, Kennedy," Tate said. "Escort them back to the conference room." He picked up his laptop and stood. "Come on. We need more room."

We entered the conference room right as Kennedy brought in the two men. Miles nodded to her. "Thank you, Kennedy."

She stepped back out, and the door shut with a soft click behind her. Sam nodded to me, and I nodded back unenthusiastically.

"Sam," I greeted.

"Blayne. Good to see you. You look good. This is my son Kyle. Gio sent us to talk to you. There's been…" He and his son shared a look. "A bit of a development."

"What kind of development?" Tate asked, leaning forward.

Sam and Kyle sat down before Sam spoke again. "This morning, around seven one of our…uh…informants stopped a suspicious car cruising near Mr. Kelly's place."

"Wait," I said. "How did one of your guys stop a car?"

Sam looked uncomfortable at first, but then smiled. "Let's just say Gio has a few guys on the payroll who…may or may not wear police uniforms."

"Oh, for fuck's sake," I muttered, but waved for him to go on.

"Hang on," Miles said. "These guys were near my apartment?"

Sam nodded. "All our guys were briefed on what to look for. Our boys in blue thought it was weird and stopped them. Three guys in the van. Once they had them out and handcuffed, they found a bunch of assault rifles, surveillance gear, and most damning of all, a folder with pictures of all of you." He pointed at each of us. "As well as your lady friends and kids."

The temperature of the room seemed to spike. I knew the others had to be as full of rage as I was, probably more so. The anger billowed off us in waves. Sam and Kyle weren't even shifters and they could sense it. They shifted uncomfortably in their seats as they felt the energy in the room change.

"Where are they?" Steff asked through gritted teeth.

"Uh, well," Sam said. "We got them in what you'd call a meeting room of sorts. Gio and us figured you'd wanna talk to them yourselves."

"Damned fucking straight," Miles said. I'd never seen him look more furious. He was usually the calming influence of our group. But the thought of his mate and unborn child being in danger had wiped that stoic calm away.

Sam nodded his head toward the door. "Then let's go, boys."

We grabbed our stuff and headed out the door, following them to the parking lot. A few of our security techs eyed us as we left, probably wondering what had enraged us.

Tate was the first one out, damn near ripping the glass and metal door off its frame as he pushed through it. Sam and Kyle got into a sedan, while the rest of us piled into Tate's truck. We followed the Francis men in their car. Not a word passed between us. A quick glance around the car showed me all I needed to know. Barely suppressed rage, jaw muscles flexing, fists clenching and unclenching. If those three assholes knew what was coming for them, they'd be pissing their pants.

We followed the two men to the outskirts of town until we were in what looked like an industrial park. The sight of it filled me with déjà vu. It looked a lot like the place where we'd had the big showdown with Ryland.

Sam parked behind a small storage facility and got out. He waved us on and gestured for us to park beside him.

Tate got out and looked around. "Where's the holding room?"

Sam nodded toward one of the larger storage units. "In there."

Kyle pulled a key out and walked over to unlock and roll up one of the doors. Sunlight streamed in, revealing three men tied to chairs and squinting in the glare of light. They'd been sitting in total darkness for who knew how long. Two of them looked to be in their mid-to-late thirties, and the third guy was maybe twenty-three or twenty-four.

One of the older guys seemed to have heard my thoughts on the way over. His pants were wet from where he'd pissed himself. God knew how long he'd held it until he'd had to release his bladder.

The two Francis men looked at the hunters with no empathy. I had a brief flash of Liam going off to work. Was this the kind of thing he'd done back then? I didn't want to think about it. I pushed those thoughts from my mind and reminded myself that these three pieces of shit had been staking out Miles and Celina's place. With guns. Had they been getting ready to attack and kill her and the child she was carrying?

The very thought caused my lips to peel back and a deep growl erupted from my throat, joined by growls from my four friends. The sounds of the four of us growling reverberated through the storage unit, and Kyle and Sam both took a step back.

"These guys wouldn't talk for us," Sam said. "No surprise. They've been trained well. Gio didn't want us getting physical with them, said you swinging dicks would wanna have a go first. So," he gestured to the men, "do what you gotta do. The kid and I will stay outside, make sure no looky-loos get any ideas."

Sam and Kyle walked out to patrol the area. I glanced at Steff. He had a hungry gleam in his eyes. We were about to make these guys wish they'd never set foot in Lilly Valley. Especially not to fuck with our families.

Miles lunged toward them, but Tate grabbed the back of his shirt and held him back. "Hang on. You're too close to this one. Let's push. I don't want you gutting these assholes before we get answers."

Miles glared at Tate for a moment before his features calmed. He inclined his head. "Yeah, you're right. My wolf is fucking pissed. I don't know if I can hold him off."

I leaned against the wall and grinned at the men. They were listening to us talk about killing them, and all they could do was struggle against their bonds and grunt through the gags in their mouths. The younger guy and the older one who'd pissed his pants looked terrified. The other guy simply glared at Tate and Miles, almost daring them to do their worst with his eyes.

I pointed at that guy. "He's the one we have to break."

Tate looked at the one I was eyeballing, then looked over at Steff. "Got us a hard-ass here, it looks like. Wanna go first?"

Steff stepped forward and cracked his knuckles. "It would be my pleasure."

Tate and I walked up and pulled the gags out of the men's mouths. The one who was full of himself snapped his teeth at my fingers—the fucker actually tried to bite me. Instinctually, I backhanded him, my panther growling before I walked away.

Steff put his hands on his hips. "Who sent you?"

The two others glanced at what had to be the team leader, looking for assurance or some kind of clue what to say. He glared back at Steff. "Get thee behind me, Satan. We will not speak to filthy beasts such as you."

"Oh good," Tate said. "Looks like Antonio is still pushing the religious zealot angle."

Steff leaned forward and got right into the leader's face. "You think God sent you to hunt us down? Some fucking prophet maybe? I have news for you. The God you think you're following is not the real God, and this prophet or cleric you think is leading you is nothing but a rich piece of shit who's mad that his ex-wife found a new man who was a shifter.

"How's it feel knowing your big man isn't even big enough to keep his woman satisfied?"

The guy didn't flinch or hesitate. He spat a wad of phlegm right at Steff's face. Steff's head jerked back, and he used his shirt to wipe the offending bodily fluid off his cheek. He turned to look at us and laughed. The three of us didn't laugh back. We knew what was coming.

Without warning, Steff twisted back to the man, shifting to his bear as he did. In less than a second, an eight-hundred pound grizzly was standing nose to nose with the man. Before the guy's scream could get out of his mouth, Steff opened his maw and let out an earth-shaking roar.

Even I had to slam my palms to my ears to block out the sound as it echoed off the cinder block walls. Spittle flew from Steff's mouth, spattering onto the asshole's face. The two other men leaned away from the bear. The looks in their eyes told me they were positive they were about to watch their buddy get mauled and devoured in front of them. Good news for them? Steff wasn't a man-eater.

Steff's roar died and he paced around the three men, nudging them heavily with his massive shoulders. Tate stepped forward. "Ready to talk?"

The young guy's entire body was shivering; it looked like he might be going into shock. He went to open his mouth, but the leader barked at him. "Don't you say shit! Not a damned word. The Lord will protect us. You know this. Anything they do to us will only increase our reward on the other side."

Steff was behind him, and after he chastised his buddy, he leaned his face over the man's shoulder and opened his jaws. Then, very gently, he bit down on his ear. It wasn't hard enough to even hurt, but the man's eyes bugged out of his face and he jerked his head away. He pulled his ear across one of Steff's fangs and blood spurted from the wound. Hot blood ran down his neck as he screamed like a baby.

Tate stepped forward, his eyes blazing the fiery gold of a dragon. "Looks like you boys think you've got some big balls. Maybe you think we aren't all that scary? I mean, everyone's seen a bear, a wolf, and a panther. Shit, you can go to any zoo and see all that. Let me show you how bad this can get."

Tate took a few steps until he was just outside the unit's door. He glanced around to make sure no one was looking, then shifted. A massive, scaled monstrosity at least forty feet tall stood where Tate's hulking form had just been.

I heard a trickling sound and turned back to see that Mr. Piss Pants had two buddies with matching bladder problems now. All three of them stared in horrified awe.

Tate leaned down and pushed his head through the doorway. Miles and I had to press back against the walls to let his gigantic skull through.

Tate put his face right up to the three of them as Steff shifted back to his human form. A puff of smoke curled from Tate's nostrils, filling the room with stench of brimstone and sulfur.

Steff slapped a hand on each shoulder of the leader's body and leaned down. "You'll burn so fucking completely that they won't find any bodies. Your bones, your teeth will turn to ash. Are you ready to talk yet?"

All three men bobbed their heads frantically. "Don't let that monster get us," one of them squealed. "We'll tell you what you want to know."

The dragon head vanished from the room as Tate shifted back. I wrinkled my nose at the piss that now permeated the storage unit.

Miles took two heavy steps toward the men. "What was the plan for my mate? At the apartment? Were you going to kill her?"

The leader blinked in surprise, then shook his head. "You? The wolf? No. Our orders were to scout each of your homes and make sure you were at work before moving in on the actual target."

"Cops caught us," Young Guy said. "We'd already scoped the panther's and bear's places."

Tate's eyes narrowed, and he pushed past Miles. "You did all of them first? Why? What was the mission?"

"We, uh, well…" the main man swallowed hard. "We were given your daughters' school schedule and a list of their extracurricular activities. Our intel told us they would be escorted anywhere by your own security team. We…oh fuck…we were to neutralize your security team, then take the girls."

"Fucking what?" Tate leaped forward, snatched the man up by his collar, and lifted him—chair and all—into the air. His nose was pressed into the other man's nose and the flaming dragon eyes returned.

"Oh God, oh God!" the man screamed, trying to get his face as far away from Tate as he could manage. "Don't fucking eat me. Jesus, Lord Jesus, do not eat me."

Tate slammed the man back down with a bone-cracking thud. One of the guy's ankles got caught under the chair leg. The sound of it breaking was like a green twig cracking. He started howling in pain and terror, jerking his body toward his mangled leg, yanking on his bound hands to clutch his injured limb.

Now that the leader was out of his mind with pain, Tate turned to the others. "What the fuck were you gonna do with the girls? If you lie"—he held a shaking finger up to their faces—"your own whore mothers won't even recognize your bodies. Speak!"

"We weren't gonna hurt them!" the youngest guy screamed. "They're human. They're human. They get a pass."

"Y-y-y-yeah," Piss Pants stammered. "We only had to take them to tear the pack down. Antonio said you were a mixed pack, and that there was a dragon among you. He assumed that since you were the most powerful, you'd be the leader. W-w-w-we were to take the girls to flush you out. His plan was that once you were taken out, the rest of the pack would be easy pickings."

Tate's voice dropped to a whisper. "Do we look like easy pickings?"

They shook their heads vehemently. "No, sir," they said in unison.

Tate was enraged. I stepped forward to take over questioning before he did actually burn the guys to a crisp. "What caused this fresh wave of attacks? Why is Antonio coming so hard now?"

Piss Pants shrugged. "Antonio's been hell-bent on you guys, but it went to another level a couple of months ago. He's been obsessed with the Lilly Valley pack after you guys killed his daughter."

"The fuck are you talking about? That dumb-ass daughter of his accidentally killed herself. She went off half-cocked and tried to run over her own brother with a car. Crashed into a tree and died."

The two coherent hostages seemed perplexed at that. Young Guy said, "No. You guys killed her. Killed her after turning Antonio's son against him."

I coughed out a single laugh. "That's what he told the media, but surely you guys know the truth? His son is a dragon shifter. Antonio butchered the whole pack years ago and took Jared under his wing to be a tool. A weapon. And Mariana was a sick, twisted psycho. Antonio had made her like that. Starting to see a pattern here?"

"Hey, man, we only follow orders. This isn't personal," Young Guy said.

Tate leaned forward and pointed at him. "I'll bet Nazi soldiers said the same fucking thing." He turned to walk out of the unit. "We got all we need. Let's go, guys."

We followed him out and found Kyle and Sam standing in the gravel parking area. Sam nodded toward the building. "Whatcha want us to do with the garbage? Take out the trash?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

Tate shook his head quickly. "Send their asses back to Antonio. Send them with a message. Have them tell him that we're stronger than he thinks and he won't scare us. Got it?"

Sam nodded. "Got it, big guy."

We walked toward the truck, but Sam stuck out a hand and grabbed me by the arm. I looked down at his finger. "You wanna get your hands off me, Francis?"

Sam let go and held his hands up. "Sorry. I wanted to ask you a question."

"Go for it."

"Have you done anything to make sure your place is secure? Safe, I mean?"

I frowned. "Same security system all the guys have. It's as safe as it can be." Realization started to dawn on me, and I saw where he was going with this. "Is this about Ava?"

Sam shrugged. "These assholes are scoping out your houses. You don't know this yet, and I didn't tell you, but last night these sons-a-bitches broke into her rental. Bugged the place."

My panther yowled in rage and anger. A hunter had broken into her house while I'd been running around in the woods like a fucking child? I was pissed at the hunters, but more so at myself. "Is she all right?"

Sam nodded. "All good. She saw what was going on and drove over to Gio's place. Mikey and LJ went back and cleared the house and found the bug. Door was repaired this morning. I only want to make sure my beautiful niece doesn't get caught in this crossfire. You read me?"

I met his eyes and smiled grimly. "Got it. I'll keep an eye out."

Sam smiled back. "We'd appreciate that. We're gonna have guys cruising through every few hours. To be safe, you know? Just so you and yours know that. I don't want some fucking dragon eating my guys on accident. Fuck me, that was scary," Sam said, shooting a worried look over his shoulder toward Tate in the truck cab.

I nodded. "Thanks for the heads up. And…uh, thanks for this, too," I said, gesturing back toward the storage unit.

"No prob, Blayne," Sam said. He patted my shoulder and walked back toward the unit with Kyle.

The drive back to the office was damn near silent except for our breathing. Once there, we decided to head to our respective homes and check on our people. Tate was going to try to get his family out of town that afternoon, instead of waiting till the weekend.

I drove home and thought about the exchange I'd had with Sam. Something about it was off, for want of a better word. We'd talked almost like friends. Well, maybe not friends, but acquaintances who were on good terms.

I pulled into my driveway and breathed a sigh of relief when I saw Ava's car was there. That alone was confusing. I was happy that she was safe across the road. I'd spent the last ten years hating her and anyone related to her. My anger had been like a festering boil inside me for so long that it had become like a friend to me.

Now? That hate and resentment seemed to be fading.