Maddox
Anger rolls through me as I bare my teeth at the rogue beneath me. How dare he come here and try to hurt our pack? He must be really far gone to try something in the middle of a pack BBQ.
The need to make sure Red is okay calms me enough to speak through the pack bond.
“Get out here. There’s a rogue!”
“We’re coming,” Gage replies instantly.
The males of the pack who were already outside have surrounded us, and several of them offer to take the wolf from me, but I don’t want to risk him getting away before we get a chance to question him.
Chances are this is a random wolf, but just in case it’s connected to Red, I want a chance to try to speak to him.
“Shit, Maddox! Are you okay? Where’s Red?” Hunter yells as the four of them run up to me. That question has my head turning in his direction in confusion.
Where is Red? She was just a few feet behind me a minute ago.
“She was right here. She saved the little kids from the wolf by throwing herself in front of them,” I explain quickly.
“I don’t see her,” Chase says out loud, sounding panicked.
“Grab the cuffs so I can get off this asshole and look for her!” I practically yell through the bond.
“Charles has the cuffs,” Gage says aloud, just as Charles, another man from our pack, kneels beside me with cuffs and takes control of the rogue, allowing me to stand up and shift back.
I don’t bother to dress as I turn in a circle looking for Red amongst the sea of people and wolves. I find Jenn and Trevor holding their kids; the last I saw, she was with them.
“Where is she?” I ask them, my anger bubbling at the surface.
Trevor looks terrified as he shakes his head and looks around. “I-I don’t know, she was right here!”
“Where the hell is she?” Bain roars, making everyone go silent.
We all look around for a moment, and when I don’t see her, I shift back to my wolf form and put my nose to the ground where she was only minutes ago.
With so many people around, it takes me a minute, but I finally latch onto her smoky vanilla cherry scent and follow her trail to a spot below a large tree.
My pack follows me in human form as I move around the tree. There, I smell another scent, a male, but I don’t think it’s a shifter. It’s also not one I recognize. I growl as I look in the direction the trail leads.
“Someone took her,” I tell my pack, then I quickly take off after the scent as it leads into the forest.
I can feel Bain and Chase now following in wolf form while the other two run after us on two legs.
It’s best to go in both forms, as we don’t know what we will face.
I move as fast as I can while keeping track of her scent, and soon my eyes lock onto the asshole with my girl slung over his shoulder, unconscious.
Motherfucker.
I try to temper my growl so he won’t see me coming as I inform the others, “I’ve got eyes on her. Twenty paces ahead, a human man has her over his shoulder.”
He must hear us approach because he glances back and his eyes widen. I pick up my pace, and he runs a few more steps before looking back again and seeing me baring my teeth only a few feet behind him, he literally throws her over his shoulder at us before he takes off running.
I shift mid-run to two legs and catch Red’s unconscious body as Bain and Chase fly past me and take down the human before the man has made it fifteen feet.
I try to calm my breathing as I look down at her. Hunter and Gage appear at my sides, breathing heavily as they look at her in alarm. “Why is she unconscious? What did he do to her?” Hunter asks with a mix of worry and anger.
“I’m not sure. When he saw us chasing him, he threw her at me. I caught her, but she was already unconscious.”
“Let’s get her home,” Gage says, stroking her head.
“Hunter, can you help Bain and Chase bring the human in for questioning?”
He nods and leaves Gage and me with Red. I take a second to rest my head against hers, inhaling her sweet scent before turning back toward the house. The three of us walk silently as I try to take in everything that just happened and piece it together.
Were the human and rogue working together? That doesn’t make sense. The rogue seemed to target the kids, not her, so is this man, Blaze? The one who left her the note? Did he just use the distraction of the rogue to get to her?
As we approach the clearing, Max is waiting at the treeline with a large dog cage beside him. I freeze in my tracks, holding her tighter to me.
“What’s that for?” I ask as Gage steps slightly in front of us, trying to block her from his view.
“I found it, just over there behind the trees,” he says, pointing behind me. I relax a little, knowing he didn’t bring it here for her, but that only brings up even more questions. Who put it there? Was the rogue in there, and why?
“Is she okay?” he asks in concern, motioning toward the unconscious little wolf in my arms.
“We need to get her home,” I say, not answering his question. “Can you let Alpha Kane know?”
“Of course,” he says as we move to walk past him.
“Maddox!” Trevor yells, jogging over to walk with us. He looks around, then lowers his voice, “The rogue you caught… he’s gone.”
I stop on the spot and turn to him, anger thrumming at the edge of my voice as I growl out, “What do you mean, gone? Gone where?”
“Two of Kane’s personal guards took him away for questioning, but they came back shortly after saying that the rogue escaped.”
My brows pinch in confusion. “He had cuffs on. He wouldn’t be able to get those off, especially in his wolf form.” I glance at Gage, who looks just as worried, then back at Trevor.
“I know,” he says with a look that says he doesn’t believe the story either. I nod in thanks and turn back toward our vehicle.
“Theories?” I ask Gage through the bond so we’re not overheard.
“The rogue getting in wasn’t an accident. They let him go to cover something up,” Gage replies.
“Guys, we got him!” Hunter yells through the bond.
“Good. Don’t bring him back here,” I tell them.
“Why?” Chase asks.
“The rogue mysteriously escaped.”
“Goddess-damned fucker!” Chase swears.
“Hunter, meet us at the SUV. We’ll take Red home, then you can meet Chase and Bain at Jackson Point with the vehicle and a set of cuffs,” I instruct them as Gage and I reach our SUV.
“Where are we taking him?” Bain asks. “I don’t want him in the same house as Red.”
“We need to question him, and there’s nowhere else to put him. We will have video surveillance and a guard on him 24/7, and as soon as we have answers, we will get rid of him one way or another.”
He doesn’t respond, which is his way of letting me know he agrees, but he’s not happy about it.
“How is she?” Chase asks.
“Still unconscious,” I reply.
Nobody speaks again as Gage and I close ourselves in the back seat of our vehicle, our eyes glued to the unconscious little wolf and wait for Hunter. It doesn’t take him long. Within a couple of minutes, he’s climbing in the driver’s seat and taking us home.
I hold on to Red tightly, hating that I was unable to protect her from whatever happened out there. And knowing she can’t even tell us when she does wake up makes it that much worse.
Once we’re parked in the driveway, I open the door and instantly the smell of burned vanilla hits my nose, making me growl as I look toward the front door.
“Blaze,” I growl out loud. Gage and Hunter quickly appear in front of me, their teeth bared as they slowly move toward the house. I hold her tight as we approach the front steps, and the small object lying there. As we move closer, I see it’s another rose with a note.
Hunter starts to inspect the rest of the property, making sure Blaze is gone, but the scent is old enough that I know he hasn’t been here in over an hour.
Gage picks up the note and reads it through the bond so Bain and Chase will hear it, too.
“Your fur is red, your eyes are blue, I will kill them to get to you. Yours forever, Blaze.”
He looks at me and frowns, knowing this isn’t a good sign.
“What the fuck was that? Is there another note?” Bain asks through the bond.
“Yes, with a rose, they were left at the front door,” I tell him as Hunter rejoins us and the two of them go inside to make sure it’s safe.
“As if we don’t have enough shit to deal with right now,” Chase seethes through the bond.
Thirty minutes later, I’m seated on the couch, with Red in my lap and surrounded by everyone but Bain, who’s currently downstairs questioning our human prisoner.
“We should get a doctor,” Chase says with a frown, breaking the silence.
“There are no doctors in Westgrove,” I remind him. “Wolves heal on their own.”
“Then why isn’t she healing?”
“Maybe she is,” Gage says as he stares at her. “Remember how long she was unconscious after she regenerated?”
Chase’s eyes widen in horror. “You don’t think she died again, do you?”
I look down at her and move my hand along her neck until I find her pulse, making sure she’s still breathing. “We found her so fast, and she was definitely breathing when we caught up to her,” I tell him.
“I agree, I don’t think there was time,” Gage adds. “I’m just saying that being unconscious seems to be a way she often recovers, and we don’t know what he did to knock her out.”
“Come on, little wolf,” I whisper as I stroke her cheek. “Time to wake up for us. Show us those beautiful blue eyes.”
I sigh when I don’t get any response, not that I really expected that to work.
“How’s it going?” I ask Bain through the bond.
“You should get down here. Our new friend has some interesting things to say.”
I glance at the others, then gently pass Red over to Gage, who’s on her other side. Hunter takes my place, and Chase takes a seat on the ground in front of her so he can also touch her.
I don’t want to leave her, but I need to find out why she was attacked and kidnapped.
Downstairs, I find Bain and the human in our usual holding room. We’ve never actually had to use it before, but it’s the only place in this house with a lock on the outside for situations just like this.
As I step inside, the man’s eyes widen in fear from where he’s cuffed to a chair in the middle of the room. “I-I already told him everything!” he says quickly.
“I want to hear it from you,” I tell him calmly as I move to stand in front of him with my arms crossed over my chest. Bain leans against the side wall, rotating a knife in his hand and eyeing the man with the ease of someone who knows he has the upper hand.
I take a second to look the man over; he doesn’t look injured, other than the bleeding nose and puffy eyes that he no doubt received when my packmates first caught him. He must have crumbled pretty quickly, considering Bain hasn’t been down here for very long.
“Tell me, why did you take the red wolf?”
“Someone hired me to do it. I-I didn’t realize she was someone’s pet, I swear!”
“Did you release that other wolf?” I ask, ignoring his description of Red, and he quickly nods his head.
“Yeah, the guy who hired me told me where to find that wild wolf. He was already caged and everything. Then he told me where and when to let it go. Said there would be a small red wolf that wasn’t dangerous and to capture her.”
I glance at Bain, and he nods, confirming he had been told the same thing.
“What were you going to do with her?” I ask.
“Her?” he asks in confusion.
“The red wolf,” I clarify.
“Oh, he wanted me to kill her and hide the body.” My hands drop to my sides, clenching tightly in restrained anger as I step toward him. Only the knowledge that he still has some information I need stops me from ripping his head off right now.
“And who hired you?” I ask, inhaling deeply to keep my calm.
“I don’t know his full name,” he says, looking panicked.
“Tell me,” I say, firmer this time as my wolf tries to push forward with the need to hurt the man who tried to kill Red.
“He said his name was Kane.”
One moment, the human is staring at me with fear and unease, the next, his lifeless eyes are filled with shock as his blood drips from my partially shifted claws spearing through his chest and into his heart.
“Did you really have to kill him so quickly?” Bain asks, as he frowns at the dead body and rotates the knife around in his palm. “I wanted to have a little fun with him first.”
My wolf presses hard for release, wanting to rip out this man’s throat even though he’s no longer a threat.
“He was going to kill her,” I seethe, baring my teeth at Bain. “He didn’t deserve to take one more breath.”
“Save that anger for your uncle,” he says, flipping his knife closed and shoving it in his pocket. “Because he’s next, and he won’t be as easy to take down.”
My claws retract and my hands clench into fists as I think about my uncle, the alpha of the Westgrove Pack. I never really liked him, but to think he would arrange for our packmate to be murdered? It’s unthinkable and unacceptable.
“By trying to take her from us, he’s just declared war against the Silverstorm Pack,” I say, turning my eyes to meet Bain's. “And I plan to end this war today.”