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Chapter Twenty-Three

ETHAN

Vittorio pulls out his phone and types rapidly. “I’ll send a scout.”

He’s already offered some of his people for any search and rescue we mount.

While I’ve sent out a small preliminary search group to each area of the city, I’ve got most people combing the task force data for clues.

Long experience has taught me that no matter how much I want to run out there and find Ayo, being smart is always quicker, even if it drives my wolf crazy to stay still in here instead of actively doing something.

I turn to my IT specialist. “Why there, specifically?”

Kit taps a couple of keys and their laptop screen displays on the screen on the wall.

“I’ve got a deleted email from Irving McEwan to Nyoka querying rent being paid on that address, two weeks before he and Ayo were attacked behind Love Bites.

There are a couple of follow-up emails where Nyoka tells him to just pay it and Irving queries the address since it’s not in coven territory or the neutral zone. ”

One of Teo’s people turns the laptop he’s sharing with Jet in my direction. “The task force have Irving’s tracking data from his phone for the week before he died. One of the locations he visited was that address. We hadn’t gotten that far through checking each location yet.”

I’ve been quietly impressed with Teo’s people, even if I’m still suspicious that they’re involved in some sort of organised crime. They’ve stepped up without complaint, and I really fucking appreciate it. “That’s good confirmation to have. All right, what’s at that address?”

“A warehouse,” Vittorio says, frowning at his phone. “Lexie should be there any minute.”

Kit pulls up a satellite image of the area. “A large one too, from the looks of things. It’s in an industrial area but is the biggest property there.”

“No neighbours to question comings and goings at night,” Raj says, studying the screen.

“But what does the coven leader want with a warehouse in vamp territory? A place to hide the bodies?” Teo says.

I glare at him for even daring to mention bodies when we’re searching for Ayo.

I have to believe he’s alive. “There’s been a three-day gap between each disappearance and the victim’s body turning up, although that was shortened with Irving McEwan.

Doctor Payton confirmed that the time of death for each victim was only a couple of hours before they were found in every case. ”

“So this is our best bet,” Zaiden chimes in. He turned up with a couple of wolves to help comb through the data while his brother and several other wolves formed the search party for their territory, just in case there was something to find. “What are we waiting for?”

“Lexie’s report,” I say sternly before anyone gets any bright ideas to go rushing off.

Raj, diplomat that he is, attempts to smooth the frayed nerves in the room with a better explanation. “There’s no point racing up there only to find it’s just a storage facility or something equally benign and we have to all come back here to start again.”

Zaiden clenches his fists but releases them again, looking and smelling every bit as worked up as I feel. “We have to find him before it’s too late.”

“We will,” I say firmly. I can’t consider any other possibility.

Zaiden isn’t calming down though, and I start to worry about him being unable to control his shift in a room full of supes and equipment. Although I’m not his alpha, as an alpha I can still help him keep his human form.

Before I get more than a couple of feet towards him, Teo is already there. They’re of similar height and Teo looks him right in the eyes, expression fierce. “Get it together, pup. Ayo needs you to have your shit under control.”

Zaiden’s eyes flash with his wolf. “Not a pup, kitty cat.”

Teo narrows his eyes. “No? Prove it. Because his mate over there won’t take you on the rescue mission if you can’t guarantee you’ll follow orders.”

“Of course I can follow orders,” Zaiden scoffs.

It might have been too much to expect that people who usually hate each other would get along in an emergency situation, but thankfully Vittorio’s phone vibrating with a call breaks the tense silence before the pair across the room can come to blows.

Vittorio swipes then taps. “You’re on speaker.”

Lexie’s voice comes over the line. “ I don’t know how the hell we missed this one, V. Some of our people are on guard duty, so from the outside it looks like one of ours, but there’s some sort of sticky ward, and I can smell cats and wolves all over the place. ”

“It’s Ethan. How many?”

“ Twelve vamp guards. I don’t have a shifter’s nose so I can’t tell you exact numbers, but more than ten shifters at a guess. None visible. ”

My heart, which hasn’t been beating right since I discovered Ayo was missing, picks up its pace. “That has to be it. All right, everyone, you have your assigned teams. Let’s move out.”

It takes no time at all to split into various vehicles and get on the road. I keep my pack in one vehicle to make it easier for us to prepare en route, since each of us will lead a team at the warehouse.

We chose to put a mixture of species on each team, and while that’s risky in Birchester, it’s the best way to go when we don’t know what we’re going to find inside.

So far no one has objected to a member of my pack taking charge of each team, and that way we can maintain better communication since we have earbuds already set up to talk to each other.

As Skye floors it through the dark neutral zone streets, Cal, Raj, Kit, and Jet do their jobs brilliantly as always, easily coordinating the other vehicles and the search teams, and alerting Doc P to be on standby. All the while, their scents are full of determination.

I appreciate their quiet support more than I can say. There’s only one way I can think of to show them how much they mean to me.

When Skye’s sat nav says we’re only a few minutes away, I clear my throat. “I just want to say…” Fuck, this shouldn’t be this hard. I’ve known every single one of these people for years. I take a deep breath and try again. “When this is over, I’ll file the paperwork for us to be an official pack.”

There’s absolute silence except for the road noise. Raj is the first to break it, his scent cautious. “For the contract?”

I suppose I understand why he’d think that, why they’d all be wary. With Nyoka identified as the murderer and the task force guilty of wrongful arrest, we’re most definitely back in the running.

I take another deep breath. “No. Because… I think maybe we’ve been a pack since Kit was forced to retire. It’s time I acknowledged that.”

Kit’s eyes are suspiciously shiny. “I’ve literally never said these words before in my life, but don’t make this about me.”

That gets a couple of chuckles.

Even Cal smiles. “They’re right, Alpha. We’ve been a pack for a lot longer than that.”

I huff but tip my head in acknowledgement. “Maybe we have.”

Jet bounces a little in his seat. “I can’t wait for you and Ayo to bond. Tiny sorcerer man is going to make an awesome alpha-mate.”

“Don’t let Ayo hear you call him tiny,” Skye calls from the driver’s seat. “He’ll fireball your arse for sure.”

Banter fills the vehicle, just like it always does right before a mission everyone is nervous about. I lean against Raj and whisper in his ear, “Be my beta? Officially?”

Raj’s scent fills with such a mix of emotions that the others stop talking.

Jet leans over, forcing his face between us. “What did you do? Did you break him? Can you teach me how?”

I shove Jet’s face back none too gently.

Raj presses his shoulder against mine. “Of course I’ll be your beta.”

I scent him even though the angle is awkward. He leans into my touch just like always, but we both quickly straighten because we’re arriving at the warehouse.

“Brace,” Skye says, right before he uses the SUV to ram the warehouse gates. Since he’s probably going about seventy miles per hour despite it being a thirty zone, the gates don’t stand a chance.

It’s something we discovered about wards in a helicopter in Afghanistan. If you’re travelling fast enough, even the strongest ones shatter.

The vamps on guard at the gate scatter as twisted metal screeches and goes flying. Skye easily maintains control of the vehicle and stops in a spray of gravel as the warehouse starts blaring an alarm.

Several vehicles carrying Teo and his people, Zaiden and the wolves, Vittorio, and at least one of the search teams barrel their way in behind us.

The vampire guards are fast, but we outnumber them and our teams rapidly assemble and work together to subdue them.

One of Vittorio’s people blurs in with vampire-resistant handcuffs, allowing us to arrest the vamp guards rather than kill them.

I’m sure there will be multiple people who want to question them.

As soon as the mayor confirms us as the new task force, I’m putting in an equipment order. Without tranquillisers or handcuffs—except those the vamps can provide—I’m not sure how we’re going to avoid killing some of these people.

Oh well.

Truthfully, every fibre of my being is burning to get to Ayo, to find him and protect him from any further harm. Whatever it takes.

We spread out around the building, locating multiple entrances. We already made the call that speed was more of a priority than stealth, so as soon as we’re all in position, I give the command over the comms.

“Breach, breach, breach!”

We kick in the doors and a shiver runs over me as I pass through a sticky ward, my assigned team of Zaiden, Lexie, Jack—the leopard who works for the human police—and SJ—the tiger security guard from Teo’s hotel—right behind me . Fortunately, that ward wasn’t designed to keep people out.

Surprisingly, the warehouse isn’t one big, open space. We’re in a corridor with a lot of doors as well as branches off it, and at the far end, Cal and his team burst through another door. Of course, there are a lot of shifters between my team and his, all of them intent on taking us out.

We get to work, fighting our way through.

There are a lot more guards in here than I expected, and I’m really fucking glad my pack have backup.

SJ hesitates briefly when confronted with one of his own in tiger form, so I shift and tear the tiger to the ground.

It goes limp when I get my jaws around its neck, shifting back into an older man, maybe in his fifties.

“Get this mutt off me, SJ,” the idiot says.

Jack walks over and kicks the man in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious. “Abusive bastard.”

As Lexie handcuffs the man, I let go and eye SJ, checking we’re not going to have a problem.

“He’s my dad,” SJ says quietly, then straightens when Jack scents him. Both cats seem okay with me for now, but I’ll have to keep half an eye on them.

“This place is a maze,” Lexie says, picking up my earbud, which fell out when I shifted and ripped through all my clothes. “This is Lexie. Ethan is in wolf form. Anyone found Ayo yet?”

I want to protest, maybe shift back and take charge again even if I would be doing so naked, but my nose is more sensitive in this form and I can take down others more easily. Might as well let Lexie communicate for this team for now.

The mixture of scents I’m picking up is confusing and I can’t detect any hint of Nyoka or Ayo. When Lexie shakes her head at me I growl and stalk further into the warehouse.

“Ethan,” Zaiden says from right behind me, “I’m picking up the scents of a couple of the task force.”

Fuck. I knew that was a possibility, and Zaiden will certainly be familiar with their scents, but I’d hoped it was just Nyoka behind this. Ayo will be crushed by their betrayal.

I reluctantly let Zaiden lead the way, unable to contain my growls as the five of us race through the corridors. I have to assume that where the task force are, Nyoka and Ayo likely will be as well.

We pass Jet’s team fighting as we run, taking three different turns before coming face-to-face with four members of the task force, six shifters in their animal forms, and a black jaguar with gleaming yellow eyes. Right behind them is a plain white door.

Nyoka. I have no doubt that Ayo is behind that door. They’re guarding him, stopping us from rescuing my mate.

Like hell they will.

None of us hesitate. We dive into the fray, spells, clothes, and claws flying as the shifters with me shift. People keep getting in my way, but I’m determined to get to Nyoka, my lip curling back as I bare my teeth at him.

As soon as I get closer he snarls, baiting me. I leap at him, ready to take out this motherfucker who thinks he can take Ayo from me.

I’m immediately repelled, flying back and slamming into the wall behind me, cracking it. I shake off the daze and stalk closer more carefully this time, but the result is the same; I can’t get to him.

I throw my head back and howl.