44. Chase #2
“I’ll let the other girls know,” she says, her practiced smile not returning before she spins on her heels.
“Interesting reaction,” Kane mutters under his breath as we make our way down the hall opposite of the back rooms.
I have to clear my throat of all the cloying hormones before I answer.
“Yeah, seems like the person that called Madden had a point. She just wanted to keep her head down.”
“Do you think she’ll stay quiet?” Kane asks.
“We just need her to stay quiet until we find Luna, I couldn’t smell anything on her that indicated she was being deceptive,” Archer says, opening the door past the custodian’s closet and leading us down a concrete staircase.
“Why the fuck’re you sending me away?” A voice yells from down the hall. Archer waves us down a side hallway to hide and listen.
“Boss’s orders,” a gruff voice says.
“Yeah, maybe your boss’s orders, but not mine, okay?” The first voice huffs.
There’s the click of a round chambering in a gun. The soft click seems to echo through the hall.
“Fine, fine, I’m gone. This shit isn’t worth dying over.” A second later, a scrawny beta man starts to pass the dark hallway we’re hiding in and his step falters, his eyes coming to dart towards us. His eyes widen in surprise.
Archer waves at him with his gun, telling him to move along and he gives a jerk of his head in understanding.
Archer peeks down the hall and flashes two fingers at us. Two guards then.
“How long do you think the boss is going to take?” One of the guards says.
“Probably a long ass time,” The second one grunts.
I make my way past Archer, peeking past the corner myself, and see two guys in business suits. Far too fancy for a place like this.
Considering the way that those two dudes are the only guards in this entire maze of a basement, I’m assuming they’re guarding something important.
Something like a kidnapped omega.
There’s the sound of a scream. It’s faint like it’s behind a thick steel door, but it’s very obviously a scream of anguish.
Luna. It’s Luna’s scream.
Her poor voice sounds so raw, like she’s been screaming for a while.
“Was that a scream I just heard through the radio?” Madden growls.
Something about that noise makes all of us go ballistic. We throw all our training out the window and instantly rush down the hall, our guns drawn.
“What the fuck!” One of the guards yells before I shoot him in the kneecap.
The other one gets a bit more of a warning from our attack and he starts shooting at us.
“Shots fired,” I grunt into the radio. Kane and Archer move forward to incapacitate the other guard. “Call the police, these guys are very obviously paid Northside goons based on the way they’re dressed. Tell them to come in quietly, though. Not guns blazing, we’ve got the situation under control.”
I slam the butt of my pistol into the head of the first guard, knocking him out. I don’t even turn to Kane and Archer, who are standing above the unconscious body of the second guard, before wrenching open the thick metal door they were guarding .
“Not a single step forward, Ward Pack,” A voice sneers, making the three of us stop in our tracks in the doorway.
Nikolai Leclair, one of Riverwell’s Councilman stands in the corner of the room, holding Luna in a headlock. He has a gun to her head.
The moment I step foot into the room, Luna’s peppermint perfume hits me like a truck. The twisted, sour notes of her fear makes my blood roar in my veins. Her perfume is also ridiculously sweet. Artificially sweet. There’s a pale sheen of sweat covering her face and body, too.
“Is she in heat?” I gasp.
“Shut up!” Nikolai growls, taking a step backward with Luna. He drags her so her toes are barely reaching the floor beneath her.
“Drop her, Nikolai,” Archer growls back. “There’s nowhere to run.”
“Your name is Nikolai?” Luna squeaks, her face twisted in pain.
“You think I’d give you my real name, you stupid whore?” His laughter is a crazed sound. The man has lost his mind if he still thinks he can get away with something like this.
The hair on the back of my neck stands up as a wave of deep dark chocolate scent washes over me.
“Drop her, you fucking bastard,” Madden barks. His dominance is so cloyingly thick it almost has me dropping to my knees.
Alpha barks don’t normally work on other alphas, but remember we were talking about how Madden is kind of inhuman? Well, I guess that applies to his dominance if he really turns it up.
Councilman Leclair moves as if his muscles are mechanical. He must be fighting this shit pretty damn hard, but he drops Luna, who falls to her knees.
Kane rushes forward to catch her and Archer surges forward to pin Nikolai to the floor.
“Holy shit, man, that was crazy, I’ve never seen a bark work on another alpha like that!” I say to Madden as we both rush to help Kane and Archer.
“Aren’t you glad I came now?” He says, a smirk on his lips. “Didn’t even have to get my hands dirty to help.”
Councilman Leclair lets out a cry of pain when Archer slams his face into the concrete. The bastard’s face is covered in blood.
“That’s for kidnapping our omega,” Archer growls before wrenching back Councilman Leclair’s arms so hard I’m pretty sure he dislocates one.
“That’s for hurting her when she was a defenseless child.
” Archer ties Councilman Leclair’s hands behind his back with zip ties and kicks him over onto his side, hard enough to break his ribs.
“And that’s for almost killing my packmate, you son of a bitch. ”
If it weren’t for the way Luna’s scent is twisted and how she’s whimpering in pain in Kane’s arms, I’d also take my shot at the councilman, but I can’t.
“Hurts,” Luna cries, curling into a ball.
“What hurts, little one, tell us. We can help.”
“Drugs. Artificial heat,” She pants out. “He—He tried to force me to bond.”
“Fuck, so you are in heat,” I curse under my breath. “We have to get her back to the bar so Char can take a look at her hormones. They weren’t normal to begin with.”
Officer Stone bursts into the room.
“Fuck,” he coughs, smelling Luna’s twisted perfume.
“We have to get out of here,” Archer growls.
Officer Stone raises his hands up like he’s surrendering. All four of our dominance swirling around in the room, brought out by our hurt omega’s vulnerability must be pretty overwhelming.
“Take him into custody,” Archer orders, nodding down to the councilman. “Let’s get out of here.”