Page 2 of Honey Heat (Sin & Steel #9)

When Santiago finally arrived, his truck skidding on gravel outside, relief washed through Lucio. He carefully lifted the unconscious man, carrying him to the waiting vehicle.

“I’ll take him to Martinez,” Santiago said, closing the passenger door. “You guys finish checking the warehouse.”

Watching the truck pull away, Lucio couldn’t shake his unease. Bears didn’t venture into wolf territory without reason. Either this guy was incredibly stupid or something had driven him here.

Neither option boded well.

Lucio turned to Raphael and Chopper. “I’m going head to Martinez’s. You two finish checking the warehouse, see if you can find anything that explains what our bear friend was doing here.”

The ride to town gave Lucio time to think, his mind racing through possibilities. Why would a bear shifter be in an abandoned warehouse on wolf territory? What had happened to him? Most importantly, was this an isolated incident or the beginning of something worse?

After taking care of a few things, Lucio pulled into the paved lot of Dr. Martinez’s clinic, noticing Santiago’s truck was still parked outside. He cut the engine and dismounted, moving swiftly toward the entrance.

Inside the clinic, Dr. Martinez’s office smelled of antiseptic and coffee. Lucio wrinkled his nose at the combination as he pushed through the door, his hangover still lurking behind his eyes like an unwelcome houseguest.

The receptionist barely glanced up from her computer. “He’s in exam room three.”

Lucio nodded his thanks and headed down the hallway, past framed medical degrees and anatomical charts, which always seemed out of place in a clinic catering to shifters. Through the door, he found Santiago sitting in a plastic chair while Dr. Martinez bent over the unconscious bear shifter.

“How is he?” Lucio asked, dropping into the chair beside him.

Santiago shrugged. “Martinez is still working on him. Said it looked like someone used him as a punching bag for days. Multiple broken bones, internal bleeding.”

“Shit.” Lucio leaned back, staring at the ceiling. “Any ID on him?”

“Nothing. No wallet, no phone,” Santiago said. “Whoever did this stripped him clean.”

Dr. Martinez wiped his hands on a towel. His dark hair looked as if he’d run his fingers through the strands more than once, his face lined with fatigue. He nodded at them both before speaking.

Lucio stood. “Torture?”

“Most likely. There are burn marks consistent with electroshock. Some of his fingers were broken methodically.” Martinez’s expression remained clinical, but his eyes betrayed his disgust. “I heavily sedated him. He won’t be conscious for several hours, maybe longer.”

“When he wakes up, we need to know who he is and why he was in our territory,” Santiago said.

Martinez nodded. “I’ll call when he starts coming around. For now, he needs rest.”

Past the doctor, Lucio caught a glimpse of the bear shifter. Cleaned up and bandaged, he looked even younger and more vulnerable than before. Various machines monitored his vitals, tubes and wires connecting him to bags of fluid.

“Any chance he was injected with something?” Lucio asked, remembering the serum that had trapped Diablo’s beasts inside him. “Maybe something to suppress his shift?”

“I’ve taken blood samples. We’ll know more soon,” Martinez replied. “But there are needle marks that suggest injections of some kind.”

Lucio watched as Martinez adjusted an IV drip. Something about this situation nagged at him. Why this particular bear? Why their warehouse? Why now?

“Can I sit with him?” Lucio asked. “In case he wakes up sooner than expected?”

Martinez looked surprised but nodded. “Just don’t touch any of the equipment.”

Lucio settled into a chair beside the bed. The steady beep of the heart monitor provided a rhythmic backdrop as he studied the bear shifter’s face.

An hour passed with no change. Just as Lucio was considering leaving, the bear shifter’s breathing changed. His eyelids fluttered then slowly opened, revealing dazed hazel eyes.

“Hey,” Lucio said softly, leaning forward. “You’re safe, osito . You’re at a doctor’s office.”

The man’s gaze darted around the room in panic before settling on Lucio. His lips moved, trying to form words.

“Wolf,” he finally managed, voice barely audible.

“Yes, I’m a wolf,” he confirmed. “My name is Lucio. We found you in a warehouse. Can you tell me your name?”

The bear shifter swallowed painfully. “Ethan,” he whispered. “My name is Ethan.”

“Good, Ethan. That’s good. Do you remember what happened to you, carino ?”

Fear clouded his hazel eyes. “Wanted information... about Boone. Wouldn’t stop… Wolves first. Now bears.” His voice trailed off as exhaustion overtook him.

“Who, Ethan? Who did this to you?”

Ethan’s eyes rolled back, and he slipped into unconsciousness once more.

“We need to search that warehouse more thoroughly,” Lucio said. “Maybe they left something behind, some clue about who’s doing this.”

Santiago nodded, phone pressed to his ear. After a brief conversation, he hung up. “Matias agrees. He’s sending a full team back to the warehouse. And he’s reaching out to Boone.”

“Good.” Lucio glanced at the unconscious bear, noting the pallor of his skin and the sweat beading on his forehead. Poor guy had been through hell. “I’ll head back there now, see what I can find in the security system. Maybe they didn’t wipe everything.”

“I’ll stay here,” Santiago said. “In case he wakes up again.”

Outside, the afternoon heat hit Lucio like a physical blow. He squinted against the sunlight, his hangover protesting the brightness. Climbing onto his bike, he started the engine, the vibration traveling up through his body.

As he pulled away from the clinic, his mind kept returning to Ethan’s words. “Wolves first. Bears now.” Maybe other shifter species would follow. Someone was hunting them systematically, collecting samples, and developing serums.

The road stretched ahead, heat rippling off the asphalt in waves. Lucio gunned the engine, pushing his bike faster. If someone was targeting shifters again, they needed answers fast.

By the time he reached the warehouse, several pack members had already arrived. Vehicles lined the gravel lot, and wolves moved in and out of the building with purpose.

Inside, the warehouse had transformed from abandoned shell to a hive of activity. Pack members combed every inch, searching for evidence. Raphael and Chopper were still there, directing the search with grim efficiency.

“Find anything?” Lucio asked, approaching them.

Chopper shook his head. “Nothing obvious. No dropped ID cards, no convenient trail of breadcrumbs.”

“But we did find where they were keeping him,” Raphael added, gesturing toward the back of the warehouse. “Some kind of makeshift lab setup. They took most of it but left a few things behind.”

Lucio followed him to a cordoned-off area, where a metal table stood, leather restraints dangling from its sides. Blood stained the surface, already dried to a rusty brown. Nearby, discarded vials and syringes littered the floor, along with torn packaging and cotton swabs.

“Looks like they left in a hurry,” Lucio observed, crouching to examine the debris without touching anything. “Probably when the cameras went down, they knew someone would be coming to check.”

“Question is, how did they know about the cameras?” Raphael said.

Lucio frowned. “Good point. Not many people know we monitor this place.” He stood, surveying the scene. “I need to check the main security hub, see if I can recover any footage before they cut the wires.”

The security room was tucked away in a back corner, accessible through a hidden panel in the wall. Another detail only pack members should know about. Inside, the small space housed monitors and a central computer system. Lucio slid into the chair, fingers already moving across the keyboard.

“Let’s see what you bastards were up to,” he muttered, navigating through the system.

As suspected, most of the recent footage had been wiped clean. Whoever did this had known exactly what they were doing. But they hadn’t been perfect. In his experience, people rarely were when it came to tech.

After twenty minutes of digging, Lucio found what he was looking for. A backup cache that stored periodic still images rather than continuous video. Not ideal, but better than nothing.

The images loaded slowly, revealing snapshots from the previous night. Most showed empty warehouse space, but a few captured movement—blurred figures in white coats moving equipment, surrounding the table where Ethan had been restrained.

One image made Lucio pause, his finger hovering over the keyboard.

A clear shot of a man’s face, turned directly toward the camera as if he’d sensed it.

Not wearing a lab coat like the others but a tailored suit that looked expensive even in the grainy image.

He was smiling, confident and unworried about being seen.

Lucio didn’t recognize him, but something about that smile sent a chill through him. This wasn’t some rogue scientist or hunter. This was someone with resources, with power. Someone who knew exactly what he was doing.

He downloaded the images to his phone.

Back in the main warehouse, he found Chopper examining the restraints on the table.

“These aren’t standard,” Chopper said without looking up. “Reinforced steel core inside the leather. Made specifically for shifters.”

“Whoever these people are, they’ve done their homework,” Lucio replied, showing him the images on his phone. “Recognize anyone?”

Chopper studied the photos, eyes narrowing at the man in the suit. “No, but I’ll bet Matias might. He knows all the players in this region.”

“That’s what I was thinking.” Lucio pocketed his phone. “I’m heading back to Sin’s to show him.”

“I’ll come with you,” Chopper said. “Nothing more we can do here anyway.”

Outside, more pack members were arriving, securing the perimeter and continuing the search. Lucio briefed them quickly before mounting his bike, Chopper following suit.

The ride back to Sin & Steel felt longer than usual, the weight of what they’d discovered pressing down on Lucio’s shoulders. Someone was hunting shifters again, experimenting on them, and now they had a face to put to the threat.

As they pulled into the parking lot of Sin’s, Lucio spotted Matias’s motorcycle already there, along with an unfamiliar pickup.

“Might be Boone’s,” Chopper noted, cutting his engine.

Lucio nodded, a knot forming in his stomach. Relations with the bear clan had always been cordial, but distant. Finding one of Boone’s bears drugged and experimented on in wolf territory could change that fast.

Inside Sin’s, the usual afternoon crowd had been cleared out, leaving only pack members scattered around tables. At the far end of the bar, Matias sat with a massive man whose presence seemed to fill the room despite his relaxed posture.

Boone was exactly as Lucio remembered. Tall, broad-shouldered, with eyes that missed nothing. The bear alpha wore simple clothes, jeans, boots, and a flannel shirt with the sleeves rolled up, but carried himself with unmistakable authority.

As Lucio approached, both alphas looked up.

“Found something you should see,” Lucio said, pulling out his phone and bringing up the images. He passed it to Matias, who studied them with Boone looking over his shoulder.

Cesar brought out plates of food, setting them on the table. When he saw the man in the suit, his expression darkened. “Son of a bitch.”

“You know him?” Matias asked.

Cesar nodded slowly, anger radiating from him in almost palpable waves. “That’s the guy from the alley. The hyena who had two pack members with him.” He glanced around then shouted, “Luca, come here.”

The mechanic walked over, his elegido by his side. “What’s going on?”

“Recognize this guy from the shootout on Hawk’s Landing?”

Luca examined the photo. “Tough to say. Only caught glimpses that day.” Darcy leaned against him, his hand wrapped around Luca’s arm.

“That’s one of the men who threatened me that day, when I was dog walking. The one who chased me into the park,” Darcy said, his voice trembling. “I’ll never forget those cold, flat eyes.”

It appeared that more than one person had seen this guy, but they still couldn’t put a name to his face. Lucio felt an intense urge to get back to Ethan.