The human was in his late teens, early twenties at most. Young enough to be malleable, old enough that there was no excuse for his behavior.
“I didn’t sign up for any of this shit. Was told to get the girl, and I’d get to… get to be like them.” The way his voice dropped at the end suggested that it just dawned on him that while he might have held up his end of the bargain, he had no leverage to ensure the favor was returned.
“How noble of you,” I replied dryly, mind spinning through my options. I honestly didn’t give a shit what happened to the human male. He wouldn’t go to the police. The wizards would get just as much information from him as they would from the few seconds we were caught on the security cameras. Besides, the wizards would probably kill him on sight in retaliation for this all going down badly.
The human’s gun-holding hand slipped briefly, and then lifted again and pressed against her temple. The woman flinched. She was a pretty little thing, with a smattering of freckles visible under her blindfold, and a bright gold locket that stood out like a beacon against her pale skin.
“Here’s the deal,” I said, hands spread out in a gesture of unthreatening goodwill. Probably would have gone over better if there wasn’t blood smeared all over my naked body. Oh, well. I tried. “We don’t give a shit about you. All we care about is the hostage. You kill her, you’re dead. If not by us, then by the wizards you were hired by. You try to kidnap her, you won’t get far before either we take you out, or the wizards catch up to you, get the information they want, and then incinerate your body. They hate loose ends.”
“And you don’t?” The human snapped.
“What sounds more dangerous? A man running around saying he saw a man turn into a wolf, or a man who can testify in human court about a kidnapping? You see any other humans taken out by wizards they trusted? You’re next.”
The man’s breath caught. Bingo.
“So here’s how it goes,” I continued, aware that every minute that passed was another minute closer to a dozen or so furious, fully-alert wizards showing up. “You untie her, walk her carefully up the stairs. We follow. You leave her unharmed at the front door and run out on the brightly lit street. We aren’t going to follow you and risk being seen in wolf form by other humans. Also don’t want my dick to freeze off.”
“What about the wizards?” The gun’s nozzle had slipped again, but the human didn’t care. He was starting to trust me. See my logic.
“You keep your mouth shut about us and run. No one will believe you anyway. Build a hut on the beach in Bali for all I give a shit. We torch this house and if you’re lucky, the wizards will assume you died in it. We all get to live another day.”
The human looked down at the hostage.
“Ten seconds to choose.”
“Or?”
“Or we write this entire thing off as a failed mission, and you die anyway. Why do you think security was so lax? The info I want from her I can get in other ways. Might just have to wait a week. I’m as impatient as the next guy, but this isn’t big enough for me to risk my pack’s lives.”
West snarled. If he messed up my bluff, I was going to be pissed. Then again, West could tear my throat out in retribution for putting his mate in harm’s way and probably avoid most repercussions.
A few seconds spun out as the human’s eyes darted between the hostage and West’s sharp teeth.
Self-preservation won out, as it often did. “Damn it.” The human pulled a pocketknife out of his pants and, with shaking hands, sliced at the ties securing her legs and torso to the chair. The female made a gasping noise as her limbs were freed, probably in pain as the blood rushed to places unused to movement for too long. “Get up,” the man snarled.
She staggered to her feet, still blindfolded, gagged and arms bound behind her. West growled, and she shrank back against the human. I couldn’t blame her. “We won’t hurt you, lady,” I told her, and she made a sound that could only be described as disbelieving.
Fair enough.
The male roughly shoved her along one way toward the stairs as I slowly circled in the other direction, the two wolves behind me. “Don’t try anything funny or they’ll hunt you down in three seconds flat,” I said, my voice colder than before.
“I know, man, I know. I just want to get out.” He started up the stairs backwards, keeping one hand on the woman’s ponytail as he dragged her up, keeping her as a shield between him and the wolves. Nyria growled her displeasure as the woman stumbled and made a pained noise.
In an agonizing dance, we moved from the basement to the front door, first the man, then his hostage, then me with Nyria and West on either side, clearly thirsting for blood. The woman’s breath started hitching dangerously as she stepped and slipped through the puddles of blood upstairs, and the human male came close to retching when he accidently stepped on a nearly dismembered hand. West whined low in his throat at the sound of the female’s distress.
Poor West. This wasn’t exactly the first date anyone wanted to share with a mate.
When they finally reached the door, the human opened it, glanced out, and winced at the blood on the dark porch. He looked me square in the eye, determination warring with fear. “I have your word that you won’t hunt me down?”
I resisted the urge to make a cutting remark about how a man with no honor was at the mercy of another man’s honor. Goal was to save this human. “Yes.”
Without another word, the human shoved his hostage forward as hard as possible and sprinted out the door. Anticipating the move, I stepped forward to catch the woman, but before I could touch her, West was in human form and had her pinned to the wall, one hand across her torso, the other on the necklace, his fingers scrabbling with the small trinket.
“West!” Nyria howled in outrage after shifting. She grabbed him by the arm and yanked hard enough that she could have dislocated a human’s arm. West barely flinched. “You’re terrifying her! Stop!”
What the…?
“It’s the damn locket!” West easily snapped the chain and brought it to his nose, face stark and almost in shock. He cracked it open, and a lock of hair fall into his waiting palm.
It had to be from his mate.
Wyatt knows what his mate smells like. Why don’t you?
I gritted my teeth. Hard.
Nyria’s hands flew over the woman as she tore at her bindings. “Are you okay?” Nyria asked anxiously. “He’s usually not this much of an ass. Seriously. He’s never done this before. It’s just that your locket has…”
As her eyes adjusted to the dim lighting, the woman’s gaze darted past them to the bodies on the floor, and a few seconds later, Nyria was holding a limp body with an incredulous look on her face. “I forgot how easily they faint.”
“She was rescued from kidnappers by a bunch of naked shapeshifters covered in blood, one of whom attacked her for her necklace while she stood in a kitchen full of butchered bodies,” I pointed out dryly. “No, seems about right. She’s probably hungry, too. Let’s get out of here.”
“The hair.” West was holding a small curl of dark brown hair in his hands as reverently as one might hold a newborn cub. “It’s her, Wyatt.”
Something dark and ugly moved inside me. Jealousy. Resentment. I shoved it back into the dark part of my soul. I could unpack it later when everyone was safe. One day I will find my mate again.
“Let’s finish up here. No—” I held up my hand as West turned on me, furious. “You can leave to find your mate tonight. I promise. But we must finish up here and get this woman to safety. Besides, she’s your best bet for an easy search. Probably her sister or best friend. We all need answers from her, and then you can set out to find your mate.”