Chapter 36
Chapter
Thirty-Six
ZANDER
I slammed the asshole onto his front, straddled him, and wrestled him into a pair of cuffs.
Hauling in a ragged breath, I fixated on the back of his neck. My bear wanted nothing more than for me to shift and sink my teeth into his flesh. This man had frightened our mate—perhaps even done worse than that.
He didn’t deserve to live.
“Zander!”
I growled, not recognizing the voice.
“Zander, if you kill him, you won’t be able to get any information from him.”
I glared at the man limping toward me, using a silver and black cane to support himself. It took a moment for my brain to make the connection because my bear was trying to take control.
“Birch.” I panted.
He nodded. “Your mate is here with me.” He motioned to Reid, who stood beyond him and to his right. “He’s safe. If we can question this person—who I assume is a threat of some kind—then we can keep him safe. How’s that sound?”
I gritted my teeth at his patronizing tone but also knew that he was appealing to the only thing that could get through to me in my current state: my protectiveness of Reid.
My jaw cracked and my fangs started to descend. I turned to Reid and met his gaze. To my surprise, he held his head up and didn’t cower. He was clearly scared—I could smell it—but I didn’t think his fear was of me.
I growled. This wolf was frightening my mate.
And from the look in Reid’s eyes, he’d be happy for me to kill him. Unfortunately, Nathaniel was right. Dead men couldn’t answer questions.
With an effort, I retracted my fangs and got to my feet. The wolf tried to scramble away. I put my foot on his back and perhaps pressed him into the ground a bit more firmly than needed.
“I can knock him out magically,” Nathaniel said, edging closer. “It won’t do any long-term damage but might make him easier to transport. May I?”
I grunted, and taking that as an assent, he muttered something under his breath and the man went limp beneath me. I rolled him over to check that he was fully unconscious, then hefted him up and dumped him into the back seat of my car.
Clay emerged from the woods in his bear form, trotted to his discarded clothes, and shifted. “He outran me,” he called as he began tugging on his uniform.
Damn.
At least we’d caught one of them.
“Can I escort you two to the police station?” I asked, turning to Reid and Nathaniel. “I’ll need a statement from you both and your assistance might be helpful, if you’re willing.”
Reid glanced at the guy in the back of the car, his brow furrowed. “Will he stay unconscious for long enough to get there?”
Nathaniel touched his shoulder reassuringly. “He’ll remain out cold until I reverse the spell.”
Reid worried his lower lip. “Can I ride with you, please?”
My bear, still close to the surface, chuffed his approval. Reid trusted us over his new mentor. I knew that we’d keep him safe. My chest started to puff out and it was only the knowing look in Nathaniel’s eyes that stopped me from preening.
“Clay, do you mind riding with Nathaniel?” I asked as Clay—now fully clothed—joined us.
“Sure thing.” He bent to pat Jilly and gestured toward the Jeep. Nathaniel gave me a warning look and hobbled over to it.
Reid followed me to my car and got silently into the passenger seat. I got behind the wheel, checked that our captive was still unconscious, and started the engine.
“Are you all right?” I asked as I pulled onto the road and performed a U-turn.
“I’m okay.”
He sounded shaken so I doubted that was the truth, but at least he’d trusted me enough to call me. I hated to think what might have happened if the wolves had tried to abduct him. Nathaniel should have been able to protect him, but nothing was certain when it came to magic.
When we arrived at the police station, I hauled the captive over my shoulder and lugged him past reception—ignoring Nell’s startled gasp—and into an interview room, where I cuffed him to a chair that was bolted to the ground.
That done, I locked him in to keep him out of the way while I escorted Reid to Bea’s desk so she could take his statement. I would have liked to do that myself but too many other things needed my attention.
“Will you be all right here?” I asked, reluctant to leave him.
“Yeah.” He shrugged. “But I want to watch you interview that guy. I want to know what he has to say.”
I grimaced. I’d rather he not watch the interrogation, but I couldn’t deny him what he wanted. “Bea, once you’ve recorded his statement, will you take him to the observation room?”
Bea’s eyes widened but she didn’t question me. “Yes, sir.”
“Thanks.”
I radioed the patrol officers and asked them to meet Clay at the playground to begin a search of the woods for the escapee. A quick visit to Garrick ensured that the Search and Rescue team would soon join them, and then I called Dad to update him on the situation.
Finally, I went in search of Nathaniel, who was in the process of giving his statement to another deputy, and motioned for him to join me. “Would you mind waking him up?”
“Of course.”
I showed the warlock to the interrogation room. With a muttered spell, the man at the table roused. Nathaniel slipped out and I followed just long enough to check that Bea and Reid were in the observation room.
“Are you sure you want to watch?” I asked Reid. “I can call Momma to come and pick you up. Maybe take you to their place or to the Omega House, whichever you’d prefer.”
He lifted his chin, so brave in the face of the monsters from his past. “I want to be here.”
“Fair enough then.”
I returned to the interview room and sat opposite the prisoner. “What’s your name?”
He didn’t respond. At first I thought perhaps he was groggy, but on closer inspection, his eyes were clear and his heart rate was normal—slightly elevated because of stress but otherwise unremarkable.
“How did you know Pack Alpha Trent?” I tried, mentally cataloging his features. Dark hair, receding hairline, eyes a nondescript brown, scruffy facial hair.
No answer.
“Why are you in Grizzly Ridge?”
He just smirked.
My hands curled into fists beneath the table but I kept breathing slowly. I couldn’t let him know that he was getting to me. “Who do you work for?”
It went on like that for an hour. He didn’t say a word and even when I threatened to start chopping off fingers, he didn’t budge. Perhaps that was because he knew I wouldn’t cross that line, being a man of the law, or perhaps his employer was even scarier than a pissed-off grizzly shifter.
Eventually, I got up and stalked to the door.
“Giving up so easily?” he asked, speaking for the first time.
“Not a chance.” I shut the door. As I’d suspected, Nathaniel had joined Reid in the observation room. “Can you use a truth spell on him?”
“Yeah. Just maybe turn the video camera off. I’m supposed to have approval from the higher-ups before performing magic on suspects.”
He started to get up but his leg buckled. I went over, wrapped my arm around him to help support his weight and together we made our way back into the interview room.
Nathaniel withdrew a pen from his jacket pocket. “I need to write on him.”
As we approached, the prisoner jerked against his cuffs and tried to push his chair back. It was fortunate we’d used magical cuffs because otherwise he’d have busted out of them already.
“You can’t do that to me,” he snapped, his eyes wide as he stared at the pen. “I know my rights.”
“You were sniffing around my mate,” I informed him, my tone low and lethal. “I don’t care much about your rights.”
Nathaniel drew a rune on the back of the man’s hand and murmured a spell. “It’s done. I’ll sit beside you. It’s most effective if I stay close.”
I assisted him into the spare chair before addressing the prisoner again. “Who do you work for?”
He gritted his teeth and the veins of his neck pulsed angrily beneath the surface, but he couldn’t stop himself from replying. “Ace Amato.”
A thrill ran through me. We had a name. Fucking finally.
“What do you do for Ace Amato?”
He leaned back, putting as much space between himself and Nathaniel as he could, but it didn’t seem to lessen the effect of the spell. “I… find… fuck! I find and secure omegas. Especially valuable ones.”
My gut roiled at the implication. “Are you part of an omega trafficking ring?”
“Yes.” His eyes watered and I had no doubt that, if not for the magical cuffs, they’d already have shifted. Probably his fangs and claws too. “Trent was one of our main suppliers.”
“Trent is dead,” I told him calmly.
“I know.” His hands fisted and his heart rate picked up. “Ace knew about Reid. He’s a valuable omega. Magical, with the face of an angel, and the potential to create powerful offspring. Ace has a client who would pay out the ass for him, so he ordered me to bring him in.”
My gut twisted, threatening to throw up everything I’d eaten so far today. It sounded like he was talking about sex slavery, or potentially being used as breeding stock. How could someone talk about another person like they were a commodity?
“Does the man who was with you today also work for Amato?” I asked.
“Yes.”
“I want his details.”
“All I know is his name.”
“Then give it to me.” I noted down his answer so I could pass the name along to Bea to look into. “Is Amato in the area?”
“No. I don’t even know if he’s in the country. He—” He cut off abruptly, a jolt running through him like electricity.
“What was that?” I demanded.
Nathaniel frowned. “Perhaps some kind of silencing spell. Whatever it is, it’s buried deep. I can’t quite get at it.”
“Fucking hell.” If his tongue was magically tied, how were we supposed to get any information?
“Give me a moment.” Nathaniel closed his eyes, his lean frame radiating tension. “I can see the general shape of it. The spell is very specific. You might be able to get some further information. It’s been crafted to stop him from mentioning particular things, but not others.”
I tapped the pen against my chin, considering this. It made things more difficult, but surely we’d still be able to get something to go on.
“It could escalate,” Nathaniel added. “Often spells like this will start with a warning and the consequences will gradually become more severe.”
“Can you remove it?”
“Perhaps, but it would take time.”
Okay, so that was worth looking into but wasn’t an immediate priority.
I met the wolf’s gaze. “Tell me everything you know you can share without triggering the spell.”
Thanks to the truth spell, he started talking.
By the time I left the interview room, I was ready to tear out Ace Amato’s throat and that of anyone who answered to him. There were layers of evil in the world, but human traffickers and those who hurt people weaker than them were the worst of the worst.
My hands were shaking as I locked him in, gave Bea her orders, and turned to Reid.
I dragged him into my arms and gazed down at him.
His eyes were large and wounded and angry all at the same time, as if that asshole wolf shifter had stirred up the emotions he’d been trying to hard to bury.
He reminded me of a kitten who’d been kicked one too many times and was afraid to hope for anything better.
“I will keep you safe.” I held his gaze, hoping he would see how serious I was. “I swear it on my life.”