Chapter 43
Murphy blinked hard, fighting back his bear as it pushed further to the surface.
Thick brown hair sprouted across his arms and chest as the beast grappled with him for control.
Nessa’s name echoed through his mind like the beat of a drum; powerful and incessant, reminding him of everything he was losing with each passing second.
Stop! Murphy commanded his bear, gritting his teeth as it ignored him, struggling harder to gain its freedom. If you shift now, you’ll only hurt our chances of finding her.
His bear quieted, retreating just out of sight. Still, it whispered Nessa’s name like a prayer, its terror adding to Murphy’s.
Murph? Colter asked, worry heavy in his voice.
Get to the dungeon. Now. Bring the SUV. I need to get to Nessa. She’s in trouble.
Murphy forced air into his lungs, forced his muscles to relax, when all he wanted to do was shift and charge through the woods in search of his mate. But he couldn’t do that. He couldn’t waste a moment. It was imperative he work fast. For Nessa. For both of them.
Zeke lifted his head, veins protruding from his neck, his face red with exertion as he battled against Murphy’s waves of dominance. “Let us up, Alpha. We … can help,” he pleaded through clenched teeth.
With a heavy exhale, Murphy relinquished his power over them. Each male relaxed immediately, their shoulders slumping and their limbs trembling as they quickly pushed to their feet.
Marcus was the first to ask, “What’s happened? What’s wrong?”
“Nessa,” Murphy grated out, his voice barely more than a fury-filled rumble. “She’s been kidnapped. Someone was after her. They found her, and I wasn’t there to protect her,” he choked out.
Uttering the words out loud caused a sharp sting in his chest, his lungs painfully tight as he attempted to keep his breathing slow and steady.
Focus. Find her. Save her.
He couldn’t lose control now. He was too far away from Nessa. Over an hour of terrain separated him from her last known location, and if he shifted before he made it to Jasper, it would take too long to reach him.
Murphy might never catch her scent then.
He might lose her forever.
No!
The denial was instantaneous, cutting through the haze of Nessa’s name, still being chanted repeatedly in his head.
“I can find her,” Dante stated, his eager voice piercing through the haze of emotion clouding Murphy’s mind.
The Alpha turned toward the male still locked in his cell, and he growled in warning.
“Do you think I’d trust you with locating my mate?” Murphy snapped, his hands shaking. He closed them into tight fists, willing them to cease trembling.
“You should.” Dante grabbed the cell bars, his knuckles turning white.
“I know her scent, and I’ve been in that town long enough to differentiate between the locals and unfamiliar, new people.
I’m an asset, Murphy. Please,” he said softly, pressing his body against the bars.
“Let me do this. Let me help you keep her safe, like I should have done before.”
Dante was the best tracker in their clan, surpassing even Marcus. As much as it pained Murphy to admit, the male was right. He was an asset, especially now.
Murphy refused to turn down someone who could help him, no matter what the other male had done in the past.
The Alpha snarled a warning. “If you betray me again—”
Dante shook his head resolutely. “I won’t.”
Zeke snatched a set of long skeleton keys from a nail protruding from the wall by the prison entrance before rushing back to Dante’s cell. He cast a glance at Murphy, who nodded toward the cell door in permission.
Thrusting the key into the keyhole, Zeke turned it. A soft click followed, and then the male pulled the door open, the metal hinges protesting against the movement.
Marcus clapped Dante on the shoulder once the door had fully opened, helping his brother from the cell. “You good?”
“Good as I can be.” Dante looked at Murphy, his eyes reflecting purpose and determination. Murphy had seen that look many times over the years when the tracker was hunting his prey, and each time, Dante had found his target.
The Alpha’s tumultuous emotions immediately eased, giving him a moment to collect himself. “Let’s go find my mate.”
“Do we pick up Tank on the way?” Zeke asked from behind him.
Murphy shook his head, turning and rushing toward the exit. He took the stairs quickly, all but running up them as he threw over his shoulder, “No. I’ll tell him what’s happening, but he isn’t coming with us. He’s needed here. To protect our clan.”
Hunny needed her mate, and if anything went wrong, if Murphy didn’t make it out of this unscathed, he trusted no one more than Tank to keep his bear clan safe in his absence.
The males reached the top of the landing, pushing out into the open forest. They’d barely taken a few steps toward his cabin when he heard the distinct rumble of a vehicle’s engine as it sped toward them.
Just as soon as he heard it, Murphy saw Colter’s SUV swerve through the tree line, banking left and then right along the thin trail the clan used to hike and explore. This far out in the woods, there weren’t any roads, but clearly the enforcer had no problem forging his own path to Murphy.
Nearing the males, Colter jerked the wheel, and the SUV slid to the side, tires kicking up dirt and debris. He hit the brakes, and the vehicle came to a hard stop beside them.
Rolling down the driver’s side window, Colter shouted, “Get in.” He shot a surprised glance at Dante, but said nothing else.
Murphy leaped over the hood, landing gracefully on the other side. He all but ripped the passenger door open, climbing inside on unsteady legs.
“We need to get to Nessa’s teahouse. As soon as fucking possible,” Murphy explained, barely remembering to click his seatbelt into place as the others climbed into the back seat. Just because he was hard to kill that didn’t mean a bad enough car wreck wouldn’t end his life prematurely.
“I gathered that.” The doors clicked shut and Colter threw the SUV into drive, slamming down on the gas pedal and flooring it. “Can someone explain along the way?”
Panic and fear.
That was all Murphy felt as Colter pulled into the parking spot outside Nessa’s Teahouse. The lights inside the establishment were turned off aside from one dim lamp set beside the register, illuminating the lobby as he stepped from the SUV and ran to the store’s front door.
Jasper met him as soon as he stepped inside, his shirt littered with bloody holes. Deep red stains covered his entire torso and the front of his jeans, the sight causing Murphy’s heart to constrict with worry.
Noticing the pinched look on Murphy’s face, Jasper murmured, “I’m fine. My bear shifted as I was coming to, so the gunshot wounds are all healed.”
He ran a hand through his light brown hair, guilt flashing in his eyes.
“I’m so sorry, Murph. I didn’t realize the danger until it was too late.
I thought I could fight them off, but one guy shot me while I was fighting the rest. I was afraid he’d hit Nessa, so I didn’t move and blocked the other shots.
” He took a shuddering breath. “It’s all my fault—”
“No,” Murphy cut off angrily. “This isn’t your fault. It’s mine. I should have been more transparent about the danger. I should have been here.”
Fuck! He’d never forgive himself for this.
Murphy slid a shaky hand down his face, the scent of his brother’s blood and his mate’s lingering fear stinging his nose. Other scents were prevalent, too. Specifically, the four unknown human males, each with differing colognes and odors that made his nostrils burn.
Dante kneeled, leaning over low to the ground, Marcus following suit as they inspected the lobby floor.
They both inhaled, drawing the scents into their lungs.
While normal shifters could draw in each scent and, with concentration, figure out approximate details, trackers could isolate their quarry instantly, determining which scent belonged to who in a matter of seconds.
Once they learned a scent, they never lost it, never confused it with another, even if it was coated in something foul or barely perceptible in the air.
For trackers, a scent was easy to pick up on the wind, or from even miles away, as long as the one they searched for spent more than a minute or two outside.
“Dante, you’re here …” Jasper trailed off, noticing the other male, his brows furrowing in confusion.
“He’s helping,” Murphy said simply.
“Noticed cameras outside. Gonna check the office for any security footage.” Colter pushed away from the lobby and headed into Nessa’s office.
“How much of a head start do they have?” Murphy asked his younger brother, forcing his voice to remain steady and calm. His rising panic wouldn’t help the situation, but a level head could make all the difference in finding his Nessa.
“I think I was only out for a few minutes before my bear forced the shift. I reached out to you as soon as I could. Add in the time it took you to get here … A little over an hour,” Jasper guessed.
Too long, his bear whined pitifully. He’s had her for too long. What if he’s—
Murphy cut that thought off abruptly, refusing to let it finish. Bile rose in his throat though, a new fear setting in that he hadn’t allowed himself to ponder until now.
Tony was a sick son of a bitch. If he hurt Nessa … If he touched her …
“Got something!” Colter shouted from the office.
Murphy stalked into the room, making a beeline to where the other male stood behind the computer.
He turned his attention to the monitor, staring at the recording of the surveillance footage from Nessa’s abduction.
Two males carried Murphy’s limp mate from the teahouse, not even trying to be discreet as they tucked her body into the trunk of a gunmetal gray car.
She had duct tape wrapped around her wrists and ankles and another piece covering her mouth.
Her eyes were shut, her chest rising and falling steadily.
She didn’t look harmed, not from the grainy image, but they’d rendered her unconscious somehow.
Trailing after Nessa’s captors were two more males, one walking with a pronounced limp and the other with a busted lip, the latter appearing far more angry than the first.
“That’s their leader,” Jasper pointed to the male with the split lip. “He was giving the orders and the others followed like puppets. He wanted Nessa alive.”
“Tony,” Murphy snarled. “He’s a gang leader. Nessa’s ex-fiancé,” he supplied, his vision turning a hazy sheen of red the longer he stared at the male responsible for his mate’s abuse.
The male who’d taken her from him, intending to harm her further.
We need to find her! Fuck, what if he’s already hurt her? Nes—
His bear roared, slicing at his mind with razor-sharp claws. Murphy winced from the psychic flare of pain, using it to ground him to the present.
“I saw the street they pulled into, and the direction they went from there,” Colter stated triumphantly.
“My laptop’s in the SUV. I just need to tap into the town’s computer database and I can access whatever cameras they have.
Stop lights, hack any business’ surveillance. I can track them as far as possible.”
“You think they’re taking her out of state?”
“Airport’s about three hours from here,” Marcus said. “We might be able to catch up, if that’s where they’re going.”
“I don’t think it is,” Dante cut in. “One scent in here … I noticed it a few days before I was taken. I let my bear out to run around the forest surrounding the town,” he explained.
“There’s an abandoned barn on the outskirts of the town limits, located deep in the woods, about twenty minutes from here.
That’s where they took her. I’d stake my life on it. ”
Murphy stared him down, weighing his words even as hope stirred to life within him. “Good. You just did. We’ll search there first, but if you’re wrong …” He didn’t finish the sentence, but the words hung heavy in the air anyway.
If Dante was wrong, he was as good as dead. Murphy couldn’t take another betrayal.
Dante swallowed thickly. “I understand.”
“Look at this,” Colter instructed, pointing back toward the monitor.
The males watched as Colter rewound the feed, paused, and then began playing it again. The humans piled into the gray car, a few seconds later pulling cautiously out of the parking lot and onto the street.
Less than twenty seconds later, another car followed, a lone male behind a wheel.
The image was still grainy; the features were difficult to make out, but the resemblance to Nessa was uncanny.
Colter narrowed his eyes. “That’s—”
“Angelo,” Murphy supplied. “Why is he so far behind the other car?”
“My guess? He’s tailing them.” Colter pushed to his feet. “I thought you said he worked for Tony?”
“He did.” Murphy shook his head. “We’ll worry about that later. We’re leaving.”
I’m coming, Nessa, he vowed silently, his bear roaring in agreement.