Chapter 16 Chris
CHRIS
Jaime’s words burned through my head like a brand, searing and relentless.
Come alone. He still has the gun.
The gun. Every time the word surfaced, my thoughts fractured all over again. I could still smell the blood from the relief tent, coppery and wrong, tangled with Jaime’s scent. My Jaime was injured and hurt.
Even worse, Jaime was somewhere I couldn’t reach. The image kept mutating in my mind, each version worse than the last, my imagination doing what it did best when fear got a foothold.
“Chris?”
The voice barely registered.
“Chris. Hey. Are you listening to what Tony’s saying?”
Levi’s hand closed around my arm, firm and grounding. I blinked hard, twice, the room snapping back into focus in jagged pieces.
My vision had gone hazy at the edges, the world narrowing down to a single, brutal truth: Jaime was out there, and I wasn’t. I looked down. My forearm had partially shifted.
Fur ghosted beneath my skin, muscles tight, nails lengthening just enough to bite into my palm.
Dang it. I sucked in a breath and forced my wolf back, snarling internally as I wrestled control away from pure instinct. This wasn’t the time to lose myself. Jaime needed my head clear, not my rage unleashed too soon.
“Sorry,” I muttered, flexing my fingers until the human shape settled again.
Levi didn’t let go right away. He studied me with that sharp, older-brother gaze that saw straight through my bullshit.
“You were starting to turn wolf,” Levi said quietly. “You gotta stay with us.”
I nodded stiffly. Stay and focus, I reminded myself.
That’s right. This was the hotel room. Cooper had mobilized fast. Faster than I’d expected. He’d sent Levi and Tony straight over the moment I confirmed Jaime was taken.
Tony sat at the small desk now, laptop open, fingers flying over the keyboard. The room felt too small. The walls pressed in on me, thick with recycled air and the lingering scents of coffee and stress.
My wolf paced restlessly inside my chest, hackles raised, every instinct screaming that I was in the wrong place. Jaime was out there. Alone with someone dangerous.
Tony laughed softly.
“Hotel security is a joke,” he muttered, then grinned without humor. “But lucky for us, it’s a predictable joke.”
“What’ve you got?” Levi asked.
“Give me two seconds,” Tony said.
He hit a few more keys, then turned the laptop so we could see.
The screen split into multiple feeds. Grainy black-and-white footage flickered to life. The hotel carpark. Early morning. Mostly empty. My heart slammed against my ribs as Tony rewound the footage, then slowed it.
“There,” he said.
I leaned forward so fast my hands hit the desk. I saw Jaime’s kidnapper immediately. Marion.
Even on a blurry security feed, there was something about him that made my wolf snarl. His posture was all wrong. Too controlled, too confident. It gave me the impression that he was the kind of man who enjoyed watching people squirm beneath him.
The footage showed him pushing a flatbed cart, a bundle covered in a tarp that looked like a body, toward a car.
Jaime. My mate.
My stomach dropped, my breath catching. I could see the shape of him under the tarp, the outline unmistakable. Even covered, even still, I knew it was him. The blood on the fabric made my heart slam.
Marion opened the trunk, shoved something inside, equipment perhaps, then manoeuvred Jaime into the passenger seat. His movements were brisk, practiced. The jerk wasn’t panicked, as if he had done something like this before.
Rage flooded me, hot and blinding.
“That bastard,” I growled.
“I pulled his file,” Tony said, voice tight now. He tapped a key and brought up another window.
Tony continued, “Marion Keller. Arrested twice in neighboring states. Vandalism, harassment, threats. Both incidents tied to anti-shifter groups. Charges didn’t stick. Witnesses recanted.”
Of course they did.
“Plate?” Levi asked.
Tony nodded. “Already got it. Running it now.”
The screen updated again, numbers scrolling too slowly for my liking. My foot tapped hard against the carpet, the urge to bolt nearly unbearable.
“There,” Tony said. “He stopped for gas on the outskirts of town about twenty minutes ago. Paid with a credit card.”
“Where?” I demanded.
Tony zoomed in on a map. “Station off Route Nine. And—” He hesitated, then frowned. “There’s more.”
“Say it,” I snapped.
“I finally traced the phone signal as you requested,” Tony continued. “Jaime’s phone.”
Coordinates popped up on the screen: a remote cabin in the woods. Old family property registered under Marion’s last name. My blood went cold.
“That’s where he took him,” I said.
“Yes,” Tony confirmed. “That’s where they are now.”
I straightened, already moving for the door.
“No,” Levi said, stepping into my path. “We update Cooper. We get a team.”
“There’s no time,” I shot back. “Jaime said to come alone. Marion still has the gun.”
“That’s exactly why you don’t go alone,” Levi argued. “Chris, think—”
I shoved him, not hard but enough to make my point. Levi staggered back a step, eyes flashing.
“Watch it,” Levi warned.
“Get out of my way,” I snarled. “He needs me now.”
“This isn’t about you!” Levi snapped.
“Yes, it is,” I shot back, chest heaving. “It’s about him.”
The room vibrated with tension. My wolf pressed hard against my skin again, teeth bared, possessive and furious. Mine. Hurt. Taken.
“What if Marion panics?” I continued, voice cracking despite my effort to keep it steady. “What if he thinks he’s cornered and decides to finish it? Jaime told me to come alone because he’s trying to keep him calm. If I show up with the pack, this ends badly.”
Levi’s jaw clenched. He knew it too. I could see it in his eyes.
“Please,” I said, the word scraping raw out of me. “Levi. He’s important to me.”
My throat closed.
“He’s my mate.”
The word settled into the room like a truth bomb, heavy and undeniable. Levi stared at me for a long second. Then he sighed, running a hand through his hair.
“You’re impossible,” Levi muttered.
“But you’re not wrong,” he added reluctantly. “Fine. Go. But I’m updating Cooper, and backup will be on the way whether you like it or not.”
“I don’t care,” I said. “Just don’t slow me down.”
Levi stepped aside. “Be careful,” he said quietly. “Don’t be a hero.”
I was already moving.
“Tony,” I said, pausing just long enough to meet his gaze. “Send everything to Cooper.”
“Already doing it,” Tony replied. “Don’t worry about Pampi. I’ll look after her.”
I bolted from the room, adrenaline burning through my veins like fire. The hallway blurred as I sprinted, my wolf snarling approval now, aligned with my purpose.
Hold on, I thought fiercely. Hold on, Jaime.
I burst out into the morning air, lungs filling with cold, clean oxygen, and headed straight for my car.
The cabin crouched at the edge of the woods. I cut the engine and sat there for half a heartbeat, hands locked around the steering wheel, breath coming too fast.
Pine sap and damp earth filled the air, sharp and clean, doing nothing to calm the wildfire roaring through my veins. I should have made a plan. I knew that.
Enforcer training drilled that into you until it lived in your bones: assess, observe, and prepare. But all I could think about was Jaime. I was out of the car before the engine fully died.
The shift slammed through me mid-stride, bones reshaping, skin rippling into fur as my wolf tore free with a feral snarl.
The world sharpened instantly. Every sound, every scent, every vibration through the ground lit up my senses.
Jaime was here. I could smell him. Pain. Fear. Anger. And underneath it all, stubborn, unyielding resolve. The cabin door stood ajar.
A warning bell rang somewhere deep in my skull, but momentum and instinct drowned it out. My wolf surged forward, shoulder lowered, ready to splinter wood and flesh alike.
I hit the doorway at full speed, and the world exploded. The crack of the gunshot was deafening. Fire tore through my shoulder, a white-hot lance that ripped a howl out of my throat.
My body slammed sideways, claws scrabbling uselessly against the dirt as I crashed to the ground. For one stunned second, I couldn’t think.
Pain pulsed outward from my shoulder, thick and nauseating. Blood flooded my mouth with the taste of copper as my vision tunneled.
“Chris!” Jaime’s voice cut through the chaos, sharp with terror.
That snapped me back. There was movement, fast and human. I twisted my head just in time to see Marion bolt past me, eyes wild, gun clutched in his hand as he ran for the trees.
Everything in me screamed to give chase, to tear him down right there and then and end this. But then Jaime cried out again, closer this time.
“Chris! Chris, are you alright?”
The world narrowed. Jaime came first. Always.
I forced myself upright, ignoring the way my shoulder screamed in protest. The pain didn’t matter. Not now. Not compared to him. I stumbled into the cabin.
Jaime lay on the floor near the far wall, hands cuffed to a thick metal pipe bolted into the concrete. His face was pale, jaw clenched hard enough to crack teeth. Blood soaked through his pant leg, dark and ugly.
My heart shattered.
I shifted back, skin tearing into human form with a grunt of pain. I didn’t bother fully shifting my left hand.
“I’ve got you,” I said hoarsely, dropping to my knees beside him.
Jaime’s eyes flew over me, frantic. “You’re bleeding.”
“So are you,” I shot back. “Hold still.”
I brought my clawed hand down and sliced through the cuffs in a single, brutal motion. Metal clanged against concrete as the restraints fell away.
Jaime sagged forward immediately, and I caught him, hauling him against my chest despite the agony lancing through my shoulder. He was warm. Alive.
I buried my face briefly in his hair, breathing him in like I needed proof he was real.
“I’m so sorry,” I whispered.
A vehicle roared outside.
Jaime stiffened. “Chris—”
“It’s okay,” I said, forcing calm into my voice even as my wolf bristled. “That’s the pack.”
Almost on cue, boots thundered on the porch.
“Clear!” Levi’s voice barked.
He burst through the door a second later, followed closely by Ethan. Yes, Ethan! Trust Levi to bring a healer with him. Relief hit me so hard my knees nearly buckled. Ethan took one look at us and swore.
“I’m fine,” I said automatically. “Help him first.”
Jaime opened his mouth to argue, but Ethan was already kneeling beside him, hands glowing faintly as he assessed the wound.
“Bullet lodged in the thigh,” Ethan muttered. “You’re lucky it missed the artery.”
“I told you I was fine,” Jaime grumbled through clenched teeth.
Ethan shot him a look. “Hold still.”
He worked quickly, precise and practiced. Jaime sucked in a sharp breath as Ethan extracted the bullet, his fingers steady despite the blood.
I hovered uselessly, every instinct screaming to protect, to help, to do something.
Ethan pressed his palm over the wound, light blooming beneath his skin as magic flowed. The smell of blood faded, replaced by the clean ozone scent of healing.
“Will he be alright?” I asked, voice rough.
“Yes,” Ethan said. “He’ll limp for a bit. But he’ll live.”
Jaime exhaled shakily, then looked up at me in sudden alarm.
“The dog show,” Jaime said.
My heart lurched. “What?”
“We have to go back,” he said urgently. “The dogs are still in danger.”
“Slow down,” I said, even as Ethan shifted toward me. “Ethan—”
“You’re next,” Ethan said firmly.
He guided me to sit, his fingers already probing the wound in my shoulder. Pain flared as he extracted the bullet, but it dulled quickly under his magic.
As he worked, Jaime kept talking, words spilling out like he’d been holding them back too long.
“Marion isn’t about to give up now,” Jaime said. “He wants to frame us.”
My blood ran cold.
“He wants it to look like we shifters sabotaged the show. Turn humans against us,” Jaime said.
“Son of a bitch,” Levi muttered.
“He said he’d finish it,” Jaime added, voice shaking with anger now. “No matter what.”
Ethan finished sealing my wound and sat back.
“Neither of you should be going anywhere,” Ethan said sharply. “You’ve both been shot with silver bullets.”
Jaime and I looked at each other. No words passed between us. We both knew.
“We’re going back,” I said.
Ethan glared. “Chris—”
“I’m not letting him hurt anyone else,” I said. “Not the dogs. Not the pack.”
Jaime nodded. “We end this. Together.”