Gavin (Northern Ohio Shifters #3)

Chapter 20

Chapter

Twenty

Thanks to Ryan's speedy driving, they reached Bluffton in less than twenty minutes. When the sign announcing the small town came into view, Ryan pulled over and Gavin leaped out. He closed his eyes and touched his cat, inhaling deeply and reaching for his connection to Sadie as mates.

He felt a pull to her but couldn’t quite tell where it was coming from, and he didn’t catch her scent. Hopping back in the SUV, he said, “Drive for a bit, then stop again.”

“You got it.”

Gavin put the window down and leaned out, his head on a swivel, looking for the vehicles that had been seen leaving the alley. The town seemed deserted, which made sense that Hawthorne would come to it. Buildings were boarded up, homes were in disrepair, and in the distance, it appeared that a building had been halted before it could be finished, the beams sticking up in the air like the bones of some ancient animal.

“What if she’s not here?” he said, rubbing his stomach where his gut was churning with worry. Someone had taken his mate from him. He didn’t even care that he’d almost died, he cared that she was in danger.

He’d never realized how strongly he felt for her until she’d been torn from him.

Now he knew he couldn’t live without her.

He had to find her.

He felt something grip the back of his neck and fear speared through him.

“Stop!” he ordered.

Ryan braked hard and Gavin got out of the SUV. He could see the beams of the unfinished building, they were a few blocks closer. Something about that building.

His heart clenched and fear wove through him again, and he knew he was feeling Sadie’s fear.

“I think she’s in that building,” he said. “I’m going to shift. She’s in danger.”

As Ryan filled in the others, Gavin stripped and pushed himself to shift as fast as possible. When he was on his paws, he inhaled deeply and titled his head.

He heard something.

Sadie.

With a snarl, he raced away, following his heart.

When he reached the building, he could see it was two stories and the building had been stopped before it was finished, leaving the walls open and construction debris everywhere. There were vehicles parked on the side of the building, and he recognized them from the video.

He heard a gasp and a shriek of rage and trained his gaze on the second floor, where he saw Sadie swinging a piece of metal at a group of males.

A growl rumbling in his throat, he glanced back at his friends who’d arrived, and jutted his head toward the second floor. His friends spread out and moved with him as he moved into the building. A few males on the first floor shouted in alarm as the wave of people came into the building, but Gavin only had eyes for the ladder leaning on a beam up to the second floor.

Bounding to the ladder, he scaled it as fast as he could and balanced himself on the beam that ran across the floor. He saw Sadie fighting off the males, wildly swinging the metal bar.

One male stepped up, ducked her swing, and punched her in the face. She dropped the bar with a shout of pain and stumbled back.

Gavin let out a deep bellow of anger and moved across the beam, leaping between the male and Sadie and slashing out with his claws. Gavin wasted no time attacking the male who’d punched Sadie, taking the male to the ground. The male tried to scramble out of Gavin’s reach but he wasn’t fast enough, and Gavin used his claws to drag the male back to him.

Something whiffed over his head and a male grunted as blood exploded across his face. Sadie stood next to Gavin with the metal bar and had taken out a male who’d come for Gavin.

She spun with a yell and held the metal over her head as another male rushed them. Gavin sank his claws into the male he’d taken down and swung him in a circle, sending him flying into the male charging Sadie. As they tumbled together, they headed toward the hole in the floor and fell to the first floor in a tangle of arms and legs, screaming for help.

“Victor is here! He’s the one who took me,” Sadie said, breathing hard.

“We’ll find him,” Ryan said, scaling the ladder as Gavin’s friends dealt with the humans in the building.

Sadie dropped to her knees beside him with a sob and hugged him. “Oh, Gavin, I knew you’d find me, but I was so freaking scared.”

He wrapped a paw around her back and gently pulled her close to him with a purr. He wanted to tell her that he was so sorry she’d been taken and that he was crazy about her. But since he couldn’t talk right now, he’d save that for later.

Purring deeply, he closed his eyes, thankful she was safe.

Sadie couldn’t stop shaking. She’d thought she was a goner there for a minute. Or ten. She hoped that Gavin would come for her, but when those humans flooded the second floor, she hadn’t known what would happen to her. Victor might have told his males to not kill her, but she didn’t think she would have been in good shape after tangling with them. Especially once she’d started swinging that rebar and hurt a couple of them.

“It’s clear down here,” a male yelled across the room from where he was halfway up the ladder.

“Th-thanks,” Sadie called.

She sighed and cuddled into Gavin’s warm fur for a few moments longer. “I’ve got a few things to say to you,” she said, leaning back and cupping his big, furry head. “But I’m not going to say them while you’re a tiger. But when you can shift back, we need to talk.”

He nodded with a mrrr sound.

She smiled. “You’re such a good looking tiger. I mean, you’re a sexy as hell male, but your fur is such a pretty orange color. In fact, it might be my new favorite color.”

His whiskers twitched and she smiled.

“Do you think they found Victor? I don’t want to think about him running around loose.”

He snarled.

They made their way across the room to the steel beam. She was still shaking, but she knew she needed to get to the ladder and get down to the others, so she inhaled and exhaled a few times, focused, and walked across to the ladder. She was so not a fan of heights, so she didn’t look down, just crouched and put her hands on the ladder, then swung one leg to it.

“I’ve got the ladder. You can climb down,” a male called.

She glanced at Gavin, who watched her intently and then climbed down to the ground floor.

“I think he’s going to just jump, so back up,” the male said. Once she saw him up close she realized it was one of Gavin’s friends, Devon.

She stepped back and watched as Gavin went down a few rungs of the ladder, then simply leaped to the ground with a huff.

“That was pretty cool,” she said.

Gavin’s whiskers twitched again and she recognized it as him smiling.

“Hey, Sadie, you’re okay!” Ryan said, jogging over. “Do you need an ambulance?”

“I’m okay,” she said. “A little beat up.”

She knew once her adrenalin wore off that she’d feel the effects of her abduction, but for now she was fine. She looked around the open space. There were six males unconscious or tied up, and the two that had fallen from the second floor and appeared to be dead.

She didn’t see Victor, and she was certain there were more males that had been with him.

Her heart sank.

“He got away?”

“I’m sorry,” Ryan said. “When we infiltrated downstairs, there were more males in here and while we were fighting them and sending males up to help upstairs, Victor got away along with a few others.”

“What does that mean?” she asked.

“Well,” Ryan said, lowering his voice, “one of the guys that worked with Victor said that he overheard him talking to Brent Foley, who said that if something went wrong with this abduction, he wanted Victor to focus on another shifter group and stop wasting Brent’s resources chasing after you. And he was also planning to go after a couple of white tigers we have in the pride.”

“Do you believe him?” she asked.

“Uh, yeah,” Ryan said. “I was being very persuasive.”

She smiled. “I don’t know if I should feel relieved or not. That he’s still out there running around and trying to hunt shifters…” She let the thought die without finishing it. She’d never wished someone would die before, but then again, she’d never been hunted for her fur either.

She sure as hell wished Victor Hawthorne was pushing up daisies right now.

“We’re not going to stop our security measures,” Ryan said. “But maybe you two can go back to your own home and get out of Midas and Maya’s if you’d like.”

“I’d love that,” she said. “As long as it’s safe for us.”

“We’ll do our best to make sure it is.”

Sadie watched as they rounded up the humans. A few tigers would wait for the authorities and explain that they’d attacked some shifters and let the police deal with them. She and Gavin got into an SUV, her mate climbing into the back and stretching out. She cuddled up against him, resting her head on his chest so she could listen to his heartbeat.

It was the best sound she’d ever heard.

She couldn’t wait to tell him how crazy she was about him.

Once he was back to human.

“I’m so ready to go home, Gavin,” she said.

He made an agreeing sound and purred.