Page 22

Chapter Twenty-One

B y the time they got to the estate, Raschid's wolves were ready to engage the guards. Riley winced as twelve wolves immediately subdued twenty guards without even one of them getting a shot off. He knew the house itself wouldn't be so easy.

Daniel nodded, his expression grim behind his tactical gear. "Keep your eyes open. We stick to the plan, but be ready for anything."

They entered through the service entrance as planned, Kent and Asher taking point while Victor, Riley, and Daniel covered the rear. Three guards were almost too easy to take out, but the first floor was empty—no staff, no security. Daniel's surveillance had reported Pearson leaving with a driver and two men that they assumed were his personal protection.

"Is that it?" Victor whispered, his wolf's senses straining to detect any hidden threats. He could smell a faint scent of shifter, but not strong enough to identify what breed.

"Upstairs," Riley pointed. "I can sense someone."

They moved silently up the grand staircase, weapons ready, while Asher and Kent peeled off to the basement. Victor's wolf was growing increasingly agitated, sensing something fundamentally wrong about the situation. The scent of the house was clinical, antiseptic—nothing like a normal home should smell.

The attic door was locked with an electronic keypad. Daniel made quick work of it with a specialized device, and the door clicked open.

The room beyond was nothing like what Victor had expected. Instead of a bedroom, they found what looked like a medical observation room. A hospital bed sat in the center, surrounded by monitoring equipment. And in the bed, connected to various tubes and wires, lay a thin young man with sandy blond hair.

"Jacob," Riley confirmed, moving quickly to the bedside.

Victor stood guard at the door while Riley checked the boy's vital signs. Jacob's eyes fluttered open, confusion giving way to fear when he saw the strangers surrounding him, the recognizable blue and brown eyes confirming who he was.

"It's okay," Riley said gently. "We're friends of Noah's. We've come to get you out."

Jacob's eyes widened. "Noah sent you?" His voice was weak, raspy from the drugs.

"Yes," Riley said, already working to disconnect the monitoring equipment. "We need to move quickly."

"It's a trap.," Jacob whispered. "It's a trap. He knew you'd come."

Victor's blood ran cold. "What do you mean?"

"My dad—he wanted you to come here. He said Noah would lead you right to me."

Riley cursed under his breath. "And while we're here..."

"Hunter's Creek," Victor finished, already pulling out his phone. No signal. "They're jamming communications."

Daniel's face hardened. "We need to move. Now."

"Riley, get Jacob out of here," Daniel ordered, then spoke through his earpiece. "Martin, try and get in touch with Hunter's Creek, get back up if you can't. Get hold of Raschid."

"What about you two?" Riley asked.

"We're going to check on Asher in the basement," Victor said, his wolf howling to get back to his mates, but knowing they couldn't leave other victims behind.

"Be careful," Riley said as he carefully unhooked Jacob and lifted him from the bed. "This whole setup feels wrong."

Victor nodded grimly. "Fifteen minutes. If we're not out by then, get Jacob to safety and send in reinforcements."

As Riley disappeared with Jacob, Victor and Daniel made their way down to the main floor and found the entrance to the basement. Just a simple door.

"Ready?" Daniel asked, but the door wasn’t even locked. Victor stepped in and stared at the very wide open, very empty space. As they took it in Asher and three wolves ran in. "There's no one here. We've done a full check of all the other rooms."

The only items in the large space were a desk and a single computer monitor. Daniel went over and woke it up and they all stared at the screen showing a live feed— of Hunter's Creek.

"Fuck," Victor snarled, watching in horror as masked figures swarmed through the house on the screen. The timestamp in the corner showed this was happening right now. "We need to get back. Now."

Daniel was already moving toward the exit, but Victor paused, noticing something on the screen. The attackers weren't taking everyone. They were focused on a single target.

Zack.

Victor watched, helpless, as his mate fought off several attackers before succumbing to multiple tranquilizer darts. The sight of Zack being dragged away sent a primal rage coursing through Victor's body.

"It was never about Jacob," Victor realized as they sprinted back up the stairs. "Pearson wanted us away from the house so he could get to Zack."

"But why Zack specifically?" Daniel asked as they raced through the empty house.

Victor's mind was racing. The knotting. The heat. The impossible thing that had happened between them. Somehow, Pearson knew.

"We need to move faster," was all Victor said, already pulling off his clothes to shift. His wolf would be faster than any vehicle.

Daniel nodded, understanding. "Go. I'll bring backup."

Victor shifted in one fluid motion, his wolf more ferocious than usual, driven by the desperate need to reach his mates. He tore through the night, another ten wolves behind him, following the scent trail back toward Hunter's Creek, praying he wouldn't be too late.

Mo regained consciousness slowly, his head pounding and his throat raw from the gas. He blinked in the dim emergency lighting, trying to piece together what had happened.

"Mo! Thank god," Alex's voice came from nearby, and Mo felt strong hands helping him sit up. "Are you hurt?"

"I don't think so," Mo rasped, his voice barely audible. "Where's Zack?"

Alex's expression darkened. "They took him. I tried to stop them, but—" He gestured to a nasty gash on his forehead.

"Took him? Who?" Mo struggled to his feet, panic rising in his chest. “Noah?”

"Noah’s okay. It was shifters in masks who took Zack. They had weapons designed for shifters—tranquilizer guns, stun batons. They knew exactly what they were doing." He paused. “It was hard to tell at first with the smell of the smoke that they were wolves, but I can now. They took out Raschid’s men with the darts. They knew what they were doing.”

Noah appeared at the top of the stairs, his face pale with shock. "This is my fault. They came for him because of me."

"No," Mo said firmly, despite the tremor in his voice. "This is not your fault. It's Pearson's."

Alex moved to Noah's side, placing a protective arm around the younger boy's shoulders. "Did you see which way they went?"

"Toward the town," Noah said. "Three black SUVs. I saw from the upstairs window."

Mo staggered to his feet, fighting a wave of dizziness. "We need to call Victor. Tell him—"

"I already tried," Alex said grimly. "Phones are dead. They must have some kind of jammer."

The sound of breaking glass from the back of the house had them all freezing. Alex immediately pushed Noah behind him, his body tensing as he prepared to shift.

"Get upstairs," he whispered to Mo and Noah. "Hide."

"I'm not leaving you," Noah protested.

Before they could argue further, a massive black wolf burst through the kitchen doorway, hackles raised and teeth bared. Mo nearly collapsed with relief as he recognized Victor. "Victor!" Mo cried out.

The wolf's eyes locked onto Mo, relief visible even in his animal form. Victor shifted back to human form in one fluid motion, not bothering with modesty as he strode toward them.

"Are you hurt?" Victor demanded, his hands running over Mo's body, checking for injuries.

"I'm fine," Mo assured him. "But they took Zack."

Victor's jaw clenched, a muscle ticking in his cheek. "I know. I saw it on Pearson's security feed. It was a trap from the beginning."

"Jacob?" Alex asked.

"Safe. We got him out." Victor pulled on the clothes Alex hastily grabbed from the bin in the corner. "Daniel's bringing him."

Mo clutched Victor's arm. "Why would they take Zack? Why not all of us? And I thought Raschid’s wolves were protecting us?"

Victor's expression darkened. "I don’t know—"

The front door burst open as Daniel arrived with Raschid and several of his wolves. The alpha's expression was thunderous as he surveyed the damage.

"Three of my wolves are dead," Raschid growled. "The others were tranquilized."

"Shifters," Alex confirmed. "They knew exactly what they were doing."

Raschid snarled. The threat was obvious, even from a human throat.

Daniel moved through the house with military precision, checking each room. "We need to make sure this place is secure. They might come back. Raschid, can you take Mo—"

"I'm not going anywhere," Mo said firmly. "Not without Zack."

Victor placed a hand on Mo's shoulder. "Mo—"

"No," Mo interrupted. "He's my mate too. I'm not abandoning him."

“We’re not expecting you to,” Riley said. “We just need to know what we’re walking into and plan accordingly.”

"I need to be doing something," Mo insisted, pacing the kitchen floor. "I can't just sit here while Zack is out there somewhere."

Three very long hours later, they all sat around the huge kitchen table drinking coffee to stay awake. Jacob had been brought here and was asleep in Noah’s room after Riley had checked him over, or at least enough until they could get a doctor to see him tomorrow. He hadn’t been able to give them any more information and Riley had decreed Jacob and Noah both needed sleep. Alex had waited until they were both settled before he had joined them.

“I still think they should be moved,” Martin said.

“Actually,” Asher said. “The obvious decoys aside, this is still the safest place for them to be.”

“Except this was the place they were taken from,” Martin countered.

Raschid grunted his disapproval, but Martin met his gaze square on, and Mo didn’t blame him. Raschid had guaranteed their safety. But Alex had been quick to confirm it had been wolves that attacked them. In such a large pack, ordinary gammas wouldn’t recognize individual scents and would have assumed any shifters were pack.

Or at least until they got close enough to hit them with the darts and by then it would have been too late.

“I heard them say,” Alex chimed in, “‘This is the one we want’ before they took Zack, but why?”

Riley met Victor’s gaze. “Ideas?”

Victor wanted to put his fist through something.

Riley paused. “Okay, this has to be said. Zack’s wearing your mating mark.”

Victor stilled. He stared at Riley. “He submitted to me.” He knew it was very rare for alphas to wear one, but in their relationship, it had seemed natural at the time, and he didn’t know about bears. They still had to talk about it, though. The knotting in particular. No, the heat as well. He’d been blind. Deliberately fooling himself.

Riley nodded. “I’d have to check with Noah to find out exactly what he said—”

Everyone heard the growl from Alex, and Riley sighed. “I know it wasn’t his fault, Alex, but what was our fault was that we never asked Noah to repeat exactly what he’d told his father, especially in the week of their heat.” He laid a hand on Alex’s arm. “No one’s blaming Noah.”

Victor swallowed with difficulty. “What has that to do with why they targeted Zack?”

Riley gazed at him, but he knew, or could guess. It just didn’t make sense. “We know shifters were involved,” Riley said. “We know Pearson has knowledge of shifter society. You were upstairs for nearly a week mating, and afterwards, Zack wore your mating mark.”

“So did I,” Mo said.

Riley glanced at him and smiled. “Except you are a human omega. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it makes Zack—if he is a shifter omega—a better bet.”

“A better bet for what?” Mo whispered.

Riley sighed. “This was a theory,” he started. “I don’t know these kids, but from what Raschid told me”—he looked to Raschid, who nodded grimly—“all of them demonstrated omega traits. There are shifters at the school who have never been targeted, and Raschid has confirmed those are shifters demonstrating alpha tendencies.”

“Are you saying these drugs work better on omegas?” Martin asked.

Riley shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said honestly. “But what’s the one thing shifter omegas can do that no human male can?”

Victor felt the blood leave his face.

“Wait,” Asher said in astonishment. “You think Zack’s an omega?” He stared at Riley, then whispered. “And he could be pregnant ?”