25. Rory

CHAPTER 25

RORY

M issy had taken Daphne a lot further away than I originally anticipated.

Cornelius was able to pick up on the scent after we drove around town for a little bit, but only barely, and we had to drive for hours before the rest of us smelled anything. Just before sunrise, I was losing hope when we came across a man walking down the road, muttering angrily to himself.

On pure instinct, I told Matt to pull over so that I could question the guy. The second I stepped out of the car, I could smell Daphne’s scent all over him. I grabbed him by his shirt and screamed in his face until he told me where Missy was headed and why she had taken Daphne. He admitted to having helped kidnap her, and that was all I needed to know. I slugged him as hard as I could across the face, knocking him out cold, and threw him in the back of the car with Nic and me. There was no way I was letting this piece of shit get away scot-free.

After that, we made a beeline for the abandoned school building a few miles east, getting closer to Daphne with each passing second. When we spotted a car parked in the lot, I knew we’d located her. I leapt out of the back seat before Matt even put it into park and shifted immediately, crashing through the doors before my friends could suggest a more subtle approach.

I saw Missy gripping Daphne by the hair and trying to pour something into her mouth and didn’t hesitate to pounce on the woman. She didn’t have any time to react, so when I made contact with her side, she went flying across the room. Her limp body slammed into the far wall, and she screamed in pain. Daphne let out a scream as well before spitting out whatever had been put in her mouth. The sound of her fear only added fire to my rage.

Missy slid to the ground and slumped over, still alive but not looking very good. I ran across the room and sunk my teeth into her ankle, pulling her back into the open so that I could look her in the eye when I made my next attack. She hissed as my teeth hit bone and the blood dripped down my jaws. The sound she made when I started to drag her was like a wounded animal.

“Don’t!” Daphne yelled. “Stop!” She didn’t know it was me, so the fact that she hadn’t taken off running the second she freed herself from her binds was quite impressive. She stood up from the chair and put a shaky hand up in the air. I growled and turned my attention back on Missy. Nobody was going to stop me from putting an end to this woman, not even Daphne. I’d let the wolf take over, and just like when I was a kid, there was no getting control back.

Missy shook violently as I advanced, and she begged for her life between breathy sobs. I put a paw to her chest and brought my nose right up against hers, baring my teeth and dripping her own blood back onto her.

“P–please,” she said, trembling. “Don’t kill me. Please.”

Her pleas weren’t working on me, but just then, I saw a flash of fur out of the corner of my eye and was distracted by Nic’s crisp white coat. She came on the other side of Missy and locked eyes with me, shaking her head.

I snarled, speaking through gestures, Fuck off.

Don’t do this, her growl said. You’ll regret it.

This situation, the way we were standing and the look she gave me, felt eerily similar to the last time I had a human in my grips like this.

Despite my efforts to push them back, memories of the day I killed that defenseless kid came rushing back to me. The school we attended even resembled this abandoned one, and when he saw me transform into a wolf, he begged me to spare him. Nic had been screaming at me not to go for the kill. But back then, everything had happened so fast, and my friends weren’t able to stop me in time. The rage had already taken over me, and nobody had taught me how to control my wolfish instincts when that happened. If anything, I’d been taught to give myself over to the wolf, to let it have the reins.

But a lot had changed since then. I didn’t have to give myself over completely—not if I didn't want to.

I wasn’t the same person I used to be, and that was a good thing. That was why I left the pack in the first place. If I killed this woman now, that would mean I was no better than the vicious, heartless shifters I worked so hard to distance myself from.

I broke the staring contest with Nic and glanced back at Daphne. She was standing off to the side with Matt, who hadn’t shifted. He was holding her up, and even though she looked like she was mere seconds from passing out, she was still able to communicate some emotion to me through just a look.

She was terrified, but whether she was scared of me or just what I was about to do, I couldn’t tell. Either way, I never wanted her to look at me like that again.

I hadn’t come here to kill Missy. I came here to save Daphne. That’s what really mattered.

I stepped back, removing my paw from Missy’s chest and allowing her to sit up. She was far too injured to make a run for it, and when I released her, she was sitting for all of two seconds and then fainted, probably from a combination of blood loss and fear. I licked my chops and paced around her a few times to shake the rest of the rage off, then padded over to where Daphne was and shifted back into my human form. Her head lolled back against Matt’s shoulder, and she stared at me with glassy eyes. Clearly, she had been drugged again.

“Rory?” she whispered.

I smiled. “Yeah. It’s me.”

“You’re a—a—wolf?”

But before I could answer, Daphne’s eyes rolled back into her head, and she passed out. I reached for her in time to keep her up, along with Matt’s help. “Here, let me take her,” I said. “You stay here with the others and figure out what to do about Missy and her friend.”

“Where are you going?”

“There’s a hospital down the road,” I said. “I saw a sign for it while we were driving. I want to make sure that whatever Missy used to drug her wasn’t dangerous, and then, hopefully, the two of us will get a quiet moment to talk.” I laughed under my breath. “We have a lot of stuff to go over.”

Matt nodded as I scooped Daphne off her feet and headed for the door. Before I left, I looked back at all three of them and smiled. “Thanks for helping me rescue her. I never would’ve made it in time if it weren’t for you.”

“Don’t mention it,” said Matt. “You know we always have your back.”

Nic was still in wolf form, but she nodded approvingly. Cornelius had shifted back as well, and while he acknowledged my thanks with a wave of his hand, he was far too focused on examining the tools that had been laid out on the table.

“It’s a good thing we were all here to see this,” he said. “Because whoever she was going to sell Daphne to isn’t just a collector of creatures.”

Matt went to his side. “What do you mean?”

“They must be some sort of werewolf expert. All of this stuff is pure copper, and some of the weapons are laced with herbs that are known to make shifters very sick.” He looked up at me with a grim expression. “We saved Daphne, and I’m happy about that, but the threat is still out there, and somebody has to warn the packs around here.”

“I’ll leave that up to you to figure out,” I said. “At least for right now. I have more important matters to attend to.”

The man I’d punched out on the road must’ve woken up and run from the car because he was nowhere to be found when I brought Daphne and laid her in the back seat. I could’ve probably tracked him with little effort—there’s no way he got far on foot—but I would let one of my friends or the police handle it. Daphne was the priority now. I threw my clothes back on and jumped in the driver’s seat. It took me a little while to navigate the dark road that wasn’t well-marked, but eventually, I found the hospital. It was small, fitting its rural location, but it had an ER, and thankfully, nobody else was waiting when we got there.

“What’s wrong with her?” The nurse on duty launched right into action when I walked in with Daphne in my arms.

“She’s been drugged and kidnapped,” I said.

“Oh my god.” She gasped.

“I don’t know what they used to put her out, but it seems like strong stuff.” I cursed myself for not thinking about grabbing the vial before I left. “I think someone should check her vitals or whatever.”

“Follow me. We’ve got an empty bed right here.” She pulled back the curtain, and I gently placed Daphne down on top of the blankets and pillows. “Did she sustain any other injuries that you know of?” She checked underneath Daphne’s eyelids and listened to her heart.

“No,” I said. “But she was definitely tied up. I saw some ropes where I found her.”

“I see the burns,” she said, pointing to Daphne’s wrists. Seeing the evidence of what she’d been through was almost like watching it happen. I fought the urge to return to the schoolhouse and finish Missy off.

“Other than that, I think she’s alright. Just in a deep sleep.” She frowned up at me. “Now you have to start over. You said she was drugged and kidnapped?”

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I’m calling the police.” She started to walk away, then spun on her heel and shot me with a mean look. Perhaps she thought there was something I wasn’t telling her, but I didn’t care what she thought of me as long as she took care of the woman I loved. “Don’t you go wandering off, okay? You are the first person they will want to talk to.”

“I understand.” I took Daphne’s hand in mine. “And don’t worry—I’m not going anywhere.”