Chapter 46
Chapter
Forty-Six
ZANDER
My heart threatened to burst from my chest as I sprinted for the helicopter and launched myself into the air, reaching for the skids.
I strained as I drew near, desperate to feel my fingers wrap around the metal so I could tear the damn door open and rip Reid from the clutches of those evil bastards.
Why wasn’t he safe in the car?
Fuck, I thought I’d never be more scared than when I’d seen him sneaking around the corner of the container, but watching his limp body get thrown into the helicopter had been a hundred times worse.
I couldn’t lose him.
If I did, I’d never forgive myself.
My fingers brushed the skid and I lunged, clawing at it with partially shifted hands as I started to fall.
“No!” I shouted, trying to reach just an inch farther.
That was all I’d need. One fucking inch.
But gravity brought me crashing back down to earth.
I leaped again, but the helicopter was still rising and this time, I didn’t get anywhere near it.
“I’m sorry.”
I spun, claws extended, but came up short when it was only Momma standing behind me.
“I tried to protect him, but he knocked us all down,” she added, watching the helicopter lift above the buildings, putting more distance between us with every passing second.
“Why are you even out here?” I demanded, my shoulders heaving as I battled for control.
“A warlock attacked us and the wards failed.”
“Shit.” I kicked the ground. “They caught Hawk so they knew we were coming. That’s how they trapped us. The first thing they did was disable Nathaniel’s magic.”
Scanning Momma, I grimaced. She was battered from fighting, her body raked with claw marks and a few bites too. A chunk had been torn from her shoulder but was thankfully not bleeding heavily. Omegas healed more slowly than alphas but still faster than the average human.
Save mate, my bear insisted.
Save him.
Yeah, but how was I supposed to do that?
My legs ate up the distance around the end of the container.
“Nathaniel!” I shouted, searching for the warlock. He was in the process of having his cuffs unlocked by Knox and they both looked up at my shout. “Can you bring that helicopter down?”
Nathaniel rolled his wrists and reached toward the helicopter, his lips moving quickly as he voiced the words of a spell. Yellowish bands of magic stretched from him to the helicopter and encircled the skids. He gave a slight tug and the helicopter dipped dangerously on one side.
“Careful!” My voice broke. “Reid is on board.”
Reid, and the baby I’d come to think of as mine.
With a growl, Nathaniel tried again, but with similar results. He shook his head. “I can hold it steady so that it can’t get any higher, but I don’t know how to bring it down safely without a team. Usually I have backup for this sort of thing.”
Over the roar of the helicopter, another noise intruded. The crunch of tires over gravel.
I spun around just as a pair of armored off-road vehicles tore onto the property. They screeched to a halt near the floodlight, sending stones and debris flying.
Fuck, the traffickers had backup.
My throat threatened to close over and I debated how to address this new threat. A figure jumped out of the nearest vehicle and held out her hands, palms out.
“We’re here to help.”
What the hell?
Knox echoed my thought aloud.
“No time for explanations,” she said, and then more people spilled from the vehicles. They surrounded Nathaniel, their chanting joining his, and new threads of magic secured the helicopter on all sides.
“Tug!” the woman cried.
They all yanked on their magic, drawing the helicopter lower to the ground.
“Again.”
They repeated the motion over and over until the helicopter hung only a foot above the earth, the blades whizzing as it struggled to pull away from the intangible ropes now holding it in place.
“Who they fuck are these people?” Garrick asked, approaching Knox and me.
Unfortunately, before any of us could figure out what was going on, the helicopter door opened and a bulky man appeared in the frame.
No, wait.
It was two men.
The guy who’d grabbed Reid earlier was holding the little warlock in front of himself as a human shield. Reid hung limply from his grasp, his eyes closed, his skin almost white in the artificial light.
I moved forward, my hand on my weapon. “Let him go. Don’t give me a reason to shoot you.”
I planned to shoot the fucker regardless, but saying so wouldn’t bring Reid back to me safely.
People were moving around me and I was vaguely aware that my friends and family were rounding up the surviving traffickers and subduing them.
“If I let him go, I’m dead,” the trafficker shouted back. “Tell the warlocks to let go of the helicopter or I’ll cut his throat.”
My vision sharpened as an involuntary shift ripped through me, shredding my clothes. I stared at Reid, unable to take my eyes off him. I barely even processed what I should have done much earlier.
It was warlocks helping us.
The same warlocks we’d run from earlier?
That didn’t matter right now. The most important thing was that man could not be allowed to harm my mate.
“Why don’t you pass him out to me and then I’ll get them to release you,” Garrick said, bargaining in my stead since it was all I could do not to charge him immediately. If I did and I messed up the timing, Reid would be gone.
That’s when I noticed something.
Reid’s eyes were closed and his head dangled as if he was a puppet on a string but his heartbeat was fast. Too fast for him to be unconscious.
He was playing dead.
Perhaps that meant that together we could get him out of this predicament.
Stay calm, I willed him. We’ll save you somehow.
But as I watched, the helicopter dropped an inch and both men swayed, almost thrown clear.
Holy shit.
I roared at the warlocks. How dare they play games when Reid’s life hung in the balance?
“Calm down.” Knox grabbed my shoulder. “Shift back. He needs you in your other form.”
I forced the shift, every part of my body protesting, but the cry that came from me when I noticed the thread of red dripping down my mate’s neck was purely animalistic.
That asshole had cut him.
He had to die.