Page 5 of The Alpha Grizzly’s Mate (Omegas of the Shifter Mafia #8)

Levi

I had no idea about how vast their resources were. About how close to a vigilante mafia-type group they were.

No fucking clue how badass this team was that now included my brother.

Sure, I suspected the team was packing in terms of weapons, but they were packing in a ton of other ways as well.

Beginning with the dragon named Maverick.

All I had to say was that I hoped the other guys didn’t have one like him. He scared me, and my bear wasn’t scared of much. His wingspan was wider than some of the mountains I’d seen.

“Everyone clear on what’s happening here?” The dragon didn’t wait for us to answer. “Levi and Sutton are taking the lead since they know their uncle. His name is Raphael. You’ve got the picture of him on your phone. We’re also getting a lay of the land while we’re nosing around. If they have kids or omegas here against their will, they come first.” Mav turned around to face me. “That’s good with you two, right?”

Sutton nodded. “Of course it is. Omegas and babies over my uncle. Hands down. He might be in the wrong place at the wrong time, but he’s not squeaky clean by any stretch of the imagination.”

Mav nodded, turning back around. I stretched my toes in the black leather boots loaned to me. The pants I had on had more pockets than a thief in Italy. Leather holsters strapped guns at my sides and more knives than I could count. Of course those were supplemental to my real strength, that gnarly grizzly inside me.

He wasn’t pleased about going to save our uncle. Bears were usually solo creatures, aside from their mates. Shifters packed together for safety, for the omegas, the females, and the babies, mostly, but once someone betrayed us as much as Raph had, well, my bear wanted to cut him loose. See how it was to survive on his own.

“How much longer?” I asked, uneasy about this whole thing. We had little idea what my uncle was into or if he was being held, or perhaps they had already ended him.

I didn’t want to be the one to tell Aunt Patty that news. Raphael already broke her heart enough for three lifetimes.

“About fifteen minutes.” King nailed me with a stare. He was the other scary one, as far as my bear was concerned. Lots of predators around here. Of course, I wasn’t going to tell them that. I had some pride.

Not enough pride to stop myself from taking a deep breath from that damned chair before we left, but some.

“You’re not getting green on us, are you?” Mav teased from the front seat. His shoulders shook with his chuckle.

“Green?” I asked.

“He means, you’re not gonna blow chunks.”

“Nah, I haven’t done that in years. And certainly not over my uncle.”

We pulled alongside the road and cut the engine. I heard the other car’s engine stop as well. Sutton opened the door, and I took a big gulp of air. I would kill someone if I had to but not if I didn’t.

Honestly, I hoped I didn’t have to.

“We’ll walk the rest of the way.” One moment, we were walking with little hurry, and the next, I was kicking down a door, prompted by the cries from the other side.

It was there that I found out what kind of place we had infiltrated. A house of horrors. The word horror didn’t cover what I saw.

There were five children in the yellow-painted room. Three cubs and two pups if my nose was right, and it usually was. And an underfed kitten of all things. Come to think of it, the kids weren’t that healthy looking either.

One of the omegas, Maverick’s mate, slowly walked in, pushing me aside in the process. “Hi, little ones. My name is Hutch. Do you know where your papas are? Are they close?”

That’s when I noticed. The kids were all shackled by the ankle to the floor. Children Shackled To. The. Floor. One of the pups shrugged his little shoulders. I took him in. Dark circles marred the space under his eyes. His shirt was clean but had seen better days. And his pants were at least a size too small. No socks.

Now, I was ready to kill.

“Do you know who your papa is?” Hutch prompted, crouching down to their level.

“We never met our papas. Mean peoples come in and give us bread.”

Mean peoples.

Dead peoples if you asked me. I heard shouting outside and gunfire. The rest of the crew was handling business.

“We’re going to get you out of here. You can come live with us. We have children too. A big playroom. All the food you want to eat. No one will be mean to you there.”

“You and these guys?” another one asked in the most adorable voice. I wanted to scoop him up and run him out of here.

“Yes. They are good guys. Heroes.”

One of the cubs shook his foot, making sure we saw the shackle. “But this?”

“I’ll take care of that.” Tyrus walked over to the cub with some huge cutoff tool and freed them from the floor, one by one. We would take care of getting the other parts off their legs later.

Each one of the guys had scooped one child up when the first one, the one with the striped shirt cried out, “My titty tat!”

Hammer chuckled. “I’ve got her too. Let’s move these kids to the trucks. Then we can keep searching.”

We had made our way almost out of what I assumed was the main house when a satiny shirt caught my eye. A satiny shirt for a slippery uncle. Sutton used to always say that.

“It’s Raph,” I called out to Sutton. “Right there.”

Shots rang out all around us. Mav had turned into his dragon. I could feel the heat of his fire behind my back as we rounded the house and ran toward my uncle who was gagged and tied to a tree. No guards. He probably just ran his mouth too much, and they were sick of it. Sounded about right to me.

We were almost to the tree when I ground to a halt. I closed my eyes and filtered out the sounds and smells around me to fixate on the one that had paused everything in my body and brain.

My mate.

He was here.

Among all these thieves and demons and abusers, he was here.

But there were other things to do.

While my bear wanted nothing more than to stop and chase my omega, I was here for a job.

At least I knew where to look now.

“Levi!” I heard Sutton cry out. Our uncle was struggling against my brother. Spewing nonsense and making his case before he was even untied.

“I’m coming.”

We untied Raph from the tree and dragged him toward the vehicles. I took in all the details I could, determined to come back here for my mate. I just hoped he wasn’t wrapped up in any of this or was one of the victims. If he was, my bear would go on a vengeful tirade that might not ever end.

Once we were at the vehicles and everyone made it back, I slammed my fist against the damned thing, aggravated as fuck.

“Look at me, Raph.” I fisted the front of his shirt.

“I didn’t mean to get involved in all of this. They said the omegas came here by choice. Breeders by choice.” My uncle’s voice shook. I wasn’t sure if it was because he was scared of us or the people who’d strapped him to a tree. Either way, his eyes bulged, and the sour smell of fear rippling off of him filled the cab of our vehicle.

“Tell me. Tell me about every single person in that place. Every single one. Someone you passed. Someone you saw. All of them.”

“Levi?” Sutton asked. His brow was furrowed.

He had no idea.

Yes, we’d rescued the kids and the kitten, but my bear was focused on one thing and one thing only. My mate was in there and, once these kids were safe and this jerk uncle of mine was back home with Aunt Patty, I was coming back for my omega.