5. Chapter 5
Conall
“You look like you haven’t been sleeping well.” Ash leaned against the stall door and watched Conall groom one of his quarter horses.
Conall didn’t look up. “Probably not since last December when I first tracked Riley down.” His lips quirked mirthlessly as he thought of that first day outside her ecology classroom. Little did he know.
The stable smelled like sweet timothy hay and horses. He ran the curry comb down Ethel’s flank, trying to find the contentment that being with his horses usually gave him. But today, even Ethel’s quiet nickering didn’t work.
The muted mating bond fluttered weakly in his chest. Riley was alive, but the implant had enmeshed into her cervical spine, and the unnatural chill and stillness were threading through their connection. He breathed in the familiar scent as worry and sorrow gnawed at him.
Ash straightened. “Is it the bond?”
Conall nodded. “It’s getting worse. She seems frozen inside. I can feel her, but it's like she's behind glass. Or maybe a sheet of ice. Everything feels muted and cold.”
“Trauma changes people.” Ash’s voice was gentle but matter-of-fact. “What Marlowe did to her—it leaves scars that don’t show on the skin.”
“Except that fucking brand,” Conall growled, then winced. His First Beta didn’t deserve his anger. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s alright. Your rage is warranted.” Ash pulled a hoof pick out of the bucket and began cleaning one of Ethel’s hooves. “Have you spoken with any of the Pack healers?”
“Three of them, and they all said the same thing. Mate bonds should strengthen, not calcify.”
“Some injuries need time and space.” Ash glanced at me. “Your wolf wants to fix, to protect, and claim. But Riley was raised by a half-feral Marine shifter. She wasn’t raised in a Pack, and she’s introverted and solitary.”
“Also stubborn, independent, and thinks she has to protect everyone around her and solve everything herself.” Conall shook his head. “She won’t let me in.”
“Can you blame her after what happened?” Ash moved to another hoof. “When you break a bone, sometimes setting it hurts worse than the break itself.”
Conall stared at Ash. “You’re saying I should step back?”
His Beta shrugged. “I’m saying patience might be your most powerful tool. She’s investigating the missing ranger in Yellowstone, so let her work and maybe find herself in what she’s good at and can control.”
“While she carries that ice inside her, and our bond feels like it’s slowly freezing to death.” Conall’s wolf stirred restlessly beneath his skin, agitated and suddenly alert.
“Or maybe while she heals in her own way. Riley was independent and self-sufficient long before she was your mate. Maybe forcing the issue isn’t the answer.”
Ash wasn’t wrong. Riley had survived years without him, and she’d taken the brutal Cognizant Registration test alone. He ached thinking about it.
Conall’s phone rang. The caller ID showed James Weber, a Pack member and a forensic scientist with the FBCI.
“Alpha, Director Langston and his four favorite lapdogs just left to fly to West Yellowstone. He came into the lab and took sodium thiopental, which suggests he plans to question someone. I heard your mate is there, investigating another case.”
Conall’s eyes went hard as he glanced at Ash. “Are you certain?”
“Yes. I overheard one of his agents talking. General Wilson from Apex is also involved.”
His back went straight. Jesus fuck, the Apex Mentis General thought he could use the FBCI to take his mate into custody. “Keep me posted if you hear anything else. I owe you.”
“Will do. Langston is a peacock with little man’s disease, but Wilson worries me. Be careful, Alpha.”
Ash was already cleaning up the grooming tools. “Where is Langston?”
“On his way to Yellowstone.”
“I heard James say that Wilson’s involved. This isn’t a standard debrief.”
Conall turned toward the Pack house. “Langston doesn’t do field work unless it affects his pocketbook or position.
He disappeared after ApGen, but that slimy asshole re-emerged like a radioactive cockroach.
Why doesn’t anything stick to these bastards?
They’ve desensitized and demoralized the population enough that nothing surprises anyone anymore. ”
“They’re experts at manipulating the system, eliminating dissenters, and promoting their corrupt cohorts.”
“What they did to her, and what she saw in that facility–” Conall growled.
“She’s a potential threat and our weakest link, at least from their point of view. They want to know exactly what we know, and they’re sending a message,” Ash surmised.
“If they guess how powerful she is, she’ll also become an asset they want to control.” Conall’s wolf clawed beneath his skin, rage and dread fueling his desperation. “Get the jet ready and call Freda. If we lose her trail…”
“What’s your plan if they take her?”
Conall’s eyes flashed gold, his wolf rising to the surface. “I’ll hunt Langston and his agents down and fucking gut them.”
A spike of energy tore through the bond, confirming his fears. Riley was already in trouble. Her distress bled through, even with the icy barrier.
“Hang on, a stór.” He tried to send reassurance back through the bond.
She didn’t answer when he tried her phone. He called Beau Harlan next. “Alpha. I met Investigator Riley Blackthorne yesterday, so I’m going out on a limb and assuming this call is about her.”
“I believe the FBCI Area Director, George Langston, and his security detail are moving to take Riley into custody, if they haven’t already. He’s bringing his kill squad and sodium thiopental with him.” Conall’s voice remained steady despite the killing rage building inside.
Beau was silent for a beat. “You’re putting me in a bad position, Segerson. I hate the Feds, but like you, I also work for them.”
Conall stared, unseeing, across the pasture. “Let me be clear. If something happens to her while she’s in your jurisdiction, which I’ll unnecessarily remind you also sits in the middle of my Pack lands, I’ll consider our truce with the Yellowstone Bison Obstinacy void.”
There was a longer pause this time. When Beau spoke again, his voice had dropped several octaves. “You skipped the pleasantries and went straight to threatening a century-old truce.”
“I don’t have time for politics or pleasantries. My mate is in danger, Harlon. We think Langston is connected to the ApGen experiments and the Chimera operation.” Conall didn’t mention General Wilson’s involvement.
“Well, shit,” the bison shifter breathed out.
Conall’s knuckles went white around his phone. “I need your help, Beau.”
“You have a strange way of asking for it.”
“I’m not asking.”
A deep rumbling sigh came through the phone. “You wolf shifters might be aggressive, pushy bastards, but a bison herd is called an Obstinacy for a reason. We’re stubborn and don’t take kindly to threats.”
Conall closed his eyes, forcing his wolf to settle. “She’s my Mate.”
The bison shifter’s voice softened marginally. “I heard what happened to her in Roswell. We have a deep aversion to branding.”
“Then help me protect her. She saw and experienced things in that facility they don’t want exposed.”
“You’re asking me to start a conflict with the Feds.”
“I’m asking you to uphold the principles of our agreement. Mutual protection against government overreach into supernatural affairs.”
“I’ll try to slow them down. And Segerson?"
“Yes?”
“Don’t ever threaten me again. Bison shifters don’t scare easily, and we can do a hell of a lot of damage when provoked.” The line went dead.
An hour later, Conall was airborne with Ash next to him. He barely registered the smooth flight or the luxury cabin, his entire focus on his mate bond.
Fuck, he barely knew what a strong, healthy bond felt like. They’d had it for less than two days before Marlowe surgically implanted that damn device and chip along her cervical spine.
Ash held out a protein drink. “You need some nourishment.”
Conall shook his head. “I’m good.”
Ash sighed, opened the lid, then held it out to him again. “You haven’t been eating or sleeping much lately, and we’re going up against Langston’s personal army. Drink.”
Conall took the bottle and drank, grimacing at the chocolate flavor that couldn’t mask the chalky protein powder. Then Ash handed him water, and he chugged it too.
“Thanks.” His phone buzzed with a text.
Parker: Langston has her. Tell me you’re close
Conall: Twenty minutes from landing in West Yellowstone. Where are you?
Parker: Two hours out
Conall called him, and Parker picked up immediately. “That piece of shit director needs to be taken out,” he snarled. “I told her to be careful.”
“Two bodyguards, the hellhounds, and Gunnar are with her. But Langston came with half a dozen armed agents. Do you know where she is now? She’s not answering, and Freda said she willingly went with them to keep everyone alive.”
“Of course I do. You think I’d let her out of my sight without a tracker on her after Roswell? I put one on the gold chain she wears.”
Relief flooded Conall. “Fuck, I could kiss you right now.”
“Try it, and I’ll shank you. I don’t understand, though. They stopped on the road just north of the Old Faithful Lodge. They haven’t moved in a good hour.”
“Roadblock, maybe? Or animals on the road?”
In the background, Conall heard a deep voice with a slight Cajun accent. “Otis thinks they might be waiting for another team, or a helicopter.”
Fear coursed through him. “You can’t get there in time, but you can track her for us.”
“Fine, but if you let anyone hurt her again, I’ll gut you myself.” He hung up before Conall could respond.
The fierce protectiveness in Parker mirrored Conall’s own. For all their animosity, their need to protect Riley united them.
“Why do you think they haven’t moved?” Ash asked.
“It might be Beau’s doing.” He hoped to god they weren’t waiting for a helicopter to transport her.