Hunted Wolf: Moonbound Series, Book Eight (4 page)

The radio on Duke’s belt crackled to life, sending a stab of tension through Viper’s body and directly into Hannah’s.

“Fuck,” Dani jumped, bumping into one of the Rangers and eliciting an annoyed grunt.

Hannah shook her head. The uptight Hollywood wolf could be a total badass one second and a cowering pussycat the next.

Rain’s voice came over the speaker. “Bravo team, what’s your twenty?”

“At the house. Half the upstairs has been blown away by the bomb.”

“And Rossi?”

“We haven’t seen him yet, Commander.”

“Someone is close,” Viper warned.

Duke nodded and pointed toward the staircase ahead filled with rubble, likely from one of the charges Vadik and Andrea had set.

Everyone moved back beneath the cover of the lower walk.

Duke and the other Rangers led point.

A lone heartbeat filtered through the tension from an above level. It wasn’t one of theirs. This heartbeat pounded from exertion.

Movement from the level above caught her attention, and she paused as her gaze met that of a man.

His brown skin glistened under the soft glow bathing the open area of the villa. Brawny muscles were smeared with dirt and grime. A narrow metallic collar encircled his throat, and wild shaggy hair fell to below his shoulders. His long unkempt beard made him look even more like a wild man.

“Freeze,” Duke’s voice thundered from just ahead of her. “Put your hands up.”

“He’s not a hostile,” Hannah whispered, taking a step forward.

“Hannah,” Viper hissed, using her name like a command.

A growl rumbled in the stranger’s chest and his honey-brown eyes glowed gold with a fury that made her seriously hesitate to take another step forward. That and Viper’s order to stay behind him.

“Who’s there?” he yelled in Spanish.

“We’re here to help,” she spoke out in broken Spanish, stepping to Viper’s side. She’d learned more than enough to get by living in Choaca, but right now at this very moment her mind was drawing blanks in every direction.

“Who are you?” the nearly naked man bellowed.

Viper snarled, raising his weapon and moving his body to block the stranger’s view of Hannah.

She stared at her mate’s broad back for a second before ducking around him again. “He doesn’t have a weapon. He’s not a hostile. He looks like a prisoner.” Hannah evaded Viper’s grasping hand this time and took a few more steps toward the staircase. “We came to help. It’s okay. You’re safe now.” She moved quickly, ignoring the under-the-breath cursing from the other Rangers, including Viper.

She couldn’t just let them shoot an unarmed man. They were here to rescue people, and her doctor’s instinct said this man needed help. Not handcuffs.

He focused his heated gaze on her, and narrowed his eyes. His voice was cold and deadly. “No one is safe until my father is dead.”

V
iper’s heart
thudded as Hannah kept walking up the stairs toward the dirty, wild-looking dude in a loincloth. “Who the hell is his father?” he said in a low voice to Duke, who stood beside him, gun similarly raised.

With four M4’s leveled at his head, Tarzan should’ve been scared, but he had a slight round to his back, and he leaned forward, like he might pounce at any moment.

Dammit, Hannah. Get the hell away from him
.

“Who’s your father?” she said, her hands out.

Her body was fully in front of the hostile, and Viper couldn’t get a clean shot off. It’d only take a second to pull out his much more accurate, much more lethal M9 pistol hanging on the back of his belt.

Could he reach it and pull the trigger before Hannah was all the way in front of the guy?

Probably not.

“Adrian Rossi,” Tarzan said.

He was on the stairs behind Hannah before the man had finished the last syllable. He grabbed her arm and pulled, hard. “Stop, Hannah.”

“No. I’m not going to let you kill him.” She wrenched away from his grip. “Get off me.”

“It’s Rossi’s son, okay? We need to neutralize him.”

“Leave her alone, asswipe,” called out the blond civilian from the back of the group.
Nick? Nack? Shit, who could remember
. “She’s a doctor.”

Viper raised his brows and stared at Hannah. “Is that right? Are you a doctor?”

“Yes.” She turned to the room at large. “Will you all please lower your weapons? He’s not going to hurt anyone.”

A gust of air caught in Viper’s lungs when Hannah’s hand made contact with Tarzan’s naked skin.

Shit, she couldn’t just take chances like that. What if the hostile had a knife hidden… well… somewhere? Then, where would she be?

Dead.
She’d be fucking dead. He wasn’t going to let her be dead.

Viper yanked her arm until she was fully standing behind him. Her protest was momentary, and once she was completely behind his body, he straightened to his full height and spread his elbows out while he held his weapon, to make the biggest target he could.

“Don’t. Viper.” Her exasperated tone was low enough, he hoped it had only been heard by him. And maybe Tarzan—that guy could take a leap for all he cared. But if his buddies heard her talk to him like that, they would…they would know. That was a tone you only used on…your
husband
.

Fucking. Shit.

Mate.

Still hadn’t sunk in.

He had to keep the guys from knowing. Thank the Lord Jesus Christ, she was wearing long sleeves against the cold, and not some tank top. And his jacket was long enough, and it was dark enough, they’d never see the tattoos.

“Just let me ask him a few questions,” he hissed back at her. He poked Tarzan’s shoulder with the muzzle of his gun. In a loud voice, he said in Spanish, “Who are you?”

“Since you’re in
my
home, how about you tell me who
you
are first?”

Mouthy sumbitch.

Hannah poked Viper in the back and he rolled his eyes. “Fine. We’re here on behalf of the United States Government, and the Alpha Council. We’re here to find Adrian Rossi.”

“I’m Gabriel.” The big hostile touched his chest and Viper flinched, his finger itching near the trigger.

“Who are you, Gabriel?” Duke asked from the foot of the stairs.

“I’m Adrian Rossi’s son.” Gabriel glanced around the room. “The oldest of his sons. If you’re going after him, I’m going with you.”

“You?” Viper chuckled. “You expect us to take you along so you can, what? Shoot us in the back?”

Gabriel’s eyes narrowed and his head shook from side to side, the dirty strands of hair moving with the momentum. “You don’t understand a thing.” He went off in such rapid-fire Spanish, Viper lost track of what he was saying.

“Wait, wait,” he said, dropping the gun just an inch and putting up one hand. “You’re talking too fast, man.”

“He said there isn’t a kid on this island who isn’t Rossi’s child.” The words came from Gonzales, and they took a while to land on the whole room. Silence echoed across the big, black space, while everyone let those words sink in.

Hannah’s hand gripped his kit from behind and he felt like she was pulling him to stand straight. Like he wasn’t going to be able to stand on his own.

“We’ve killed four guards already,” he whispered. “They were… young.”

“My brothers.” Gabriel nodded. “All of them.”

Bile rose in Viper’s throat and he choked it back. Hannah came to stand beside him on the stair. Without her to hold him, he had to think hard about his balance. Like the world was a different place after that revelation.

“Who are their mothers?”

Gabriel’s eyes went to the ground and stayed there. His mouth moved without words for several seconds and Viper could see the gravity in his eyes. Like saying it out loud would make it real.

Been there, bro. It’s best to get that shit right out
.

“Who are their mothers?” he asked again.

“The best I can tell, there were some other women he kidnapped, at first. A long time ago. But they’re gone, and so now…” Gabriel’s mouth hung open, still not saying the words.

“Was that back… in Guadalajara?” Hannah’s soothing voice seemed to have some impact on Gabriel. He looked up at her, parting his hair around his eyes.

“How did you know about Guadalajara?”

“We saw the place where Rossi kept them,” she said, almost without judgment. But no wolf alive would be able to talk about Adrian Rossi ever again without some disdain. “We have found at least one of the mothers.”

“Who are the mothers of all these guards?” Viper shouldered his weapon. The guy needed to say the words. They all knew what was coming. What had to be coming.
Say the words
.

“The girls he kept in the house.” Gabriel’s voice cracked. “His daughters.”

“Ssssssshhhhhiiiiiit,” Duke hissed. Viper heard the sound of all the guns being lowered. In the silence, the movements of the body armor seemed like shouts against what Rossi had done on this island.

For years.

He had been holding his own children captive on this island and…breeding with them. Fucking bastard.

A dry heave came from somewhere in the group, and then another. Quieter. It was impossible not to want to puke at the thought.

“These guards, then,” Hannah said in slow syllables, like she couldn’t quite process the horror. “They’re all… they can’t be very old.”

“Most of them are probably kids.” Gabriel pushed up the heavy collar on his neck. “I used to be one of them, until my father threw me into the hunt.”

Hannah gasped and reached for the collar, but Viper grabbed at her hand before she could touch him. She pushed at him. “Don’t you see. Under his collar.”

“It’s fine,” Gabriel said, putting a hand up. “I don’t care.”

“But it’s raw there. You could get an infection.”

“I don’t care,” Tarzan snarled.

Viper put an arm in front of Hannah. “Hey now, asshole. She’s trying to help you.”

“I don’t need help from a doctor.” Gabriel grabbed for Viper’s gun and, suddenly, all the weapons were aimed at him again. He screamed out, “No. I don’t want to hurt you. Just give me a gun. I need to kill my father.”

A fist tightened around his heart. He knew that feeling. Viper grabbed the guy’s wrist and held it at arm’s length. Dude smelled like a sewer, on top of it all. “Just hold on, there.” He slid up one stair, putting himself between Gabriel and Hannah. “You’re welcome to come with us. But we’re not giving you a gun.”

“But I need to kill him,” the wild man said, spittle shooting from his mouth and landing on Viper’s jacket. “It needs to be me.”

“I get it, dude, trust me. You want to kill your dad. I want to kill your dad. Hell, we all want to kill your dad.” He held the man’s wrist hard, willing him to submit. To go down. To sit and wait and let the trained soldiers handle the situation. But Tarzan just pushed back, just as hard, and stared into Viper’s eyes.

“It has to be me,” Gabriel hissed. “He locked me in a cage for nine years.”

Viper grunted. He wanted to sympathize with the guy. He’d been this angry the night his father had gone one step too far. And there had been just as many years behind his anger as there were behind Gabriel’s. But there wasn’t a day that went by that a part of him didn’t regret his actions.

As much as his father deserved to be dead, Viper wished it hadn’t been him that did it. And he wanted to save this poor dude from the same fate.

“I get that you’re pissed, and you think he won’t really be dead unless you do it yourself. But let us handle it.” He gripped harder. “I promise, man. He’ll really be dead.”

Water fell from the sides of Gabriel’s eyes and his teeth ground together, so hard, his breath came out in ragged little bursts. “I need to go with you. I’m not staying here.”

“Fine. You come along.” Viper released him. Can’t make a man’s decisions for him.
Unless you’re a 90-pound Asian woman.
Then, apparently, you’re allowed to make decisions all over the place without consulting anyone.
He settled his breath and looked over his shoulder at Duke and the rest of the guys. “There’s no one in the house, besides him?”

“Doesn’t feel like it,” Duke said. “We should clear it, just to make sure.”

“They’re not here,” Gabriel said, breezing between Hannah and Viper, down the stairs.

All of the Rangers shifted uneasily as the crazy, smelly stranger walked among them.

“I went through every room downstairs.”

“Then where are they?”

Gabriel kept walking, out the door they’d entered, like they should all obviously follow him.

Duke and Viper exchanged a look, and Duke gave the move-out command. Everyone turned to jog after the madman.

Viper grabbed Hannah’s arm as she made to follow. “Don’t do that anymore,” he whispered.

“Do what?” Her eyes were wide, innocent. Fucking beautiful, in the near-dark. Dammit, she was gorgeous. How had he not seen this before?

“Put yourself in danger.” He pushed at her, as though he could force some sense into her by sheer momentum. “Don’t.”

“I’m inherently in danger by being around you, Viper.” She reached for his cheek. “But don’t worry, I’ll stay close. I can see your fear, even if you won’t say it.”

Her smile put him on edge, but he released her arm and she descended the stairs after the rest of the group.

He raised his eyes to the skies.

What the hell? What the damn hell.

H
annah stopped
at the bottom of the stairs, waiting for Viper to catch up. Things weren’t really going according to plan and that was hard for a man like him. A man used to following a well-laid plan.

Hell, I’m used to a well-laid plan. Who am I kidding?

Bonding to Viper hadn’t been a check box on the planner that sculpted her life back home. But taking that leap had freed her from all the trappings she’d been avoiding back home. She loved her parents. Loved working at their practice. But it wasn’t enough, hadn’t been for a long time, and she hadn’t been able to tell anyone.

That wasn’t how life worked with her family. In her family, a person did what was expected. Always. She couldn’t remember the last time she’d lied to her father or mother. Maybe when she was five and had taken a piece of candy without asking…

She snorted out a soft laugh. This was way bigger than a piece of candy. In the space of the last few days she’d kept her father in the dark about everything. She’d told him she was coming home, while on a plane back to Choaca.

Now she was bonded to man who challenged every limit she’d ever put upon herself.

He was hard and sharp and angry at the world, not just her, but that didn’t dissuade her body from wanting to climb him like a tree.

Hannah started walking again, once Viper was at her side. Once they entered the dark of the house, she struggled to see much of anything. He took her by the upper arm, gentler this time, and led her through the dark hallways and out through the front door.

Fire licked at her skin where his fingers touched. Magick swelled between them both and she bit back a groan. Thank the gods he couldn’t feel her emotions yet, because island or not, they’d be off against some wall in seconds flat like Nora and Rain.

She’d have to content herself with being hungry for her mate. Not having the emotional connection yet, in the middle of what they were in the middle of was probably a blessing. It was hard enough sorting through all the extra physical sensations they were sharing. And they needed to stay focused.

Hannah needed to stay focused and try to eliminate bloodshed as much as possible. At least her actions had spared any unnecessary harm to Gabriel. The poor man. Nine years.

Who knew what they were walking into next. But these Rangers were out for blood and the alpha council wanted Adrian Rossi alive. Her team wanted everyone else alive and rescued.

They crossed through the gardens again, weaving in and around ponds and statues toward thick jungle.

Gabriel led the way, she could see the gleam of his skin under the moonlight ahead of the group. After a few minutes, she realized they were on a worn footpath. This was good. At least they weren’t going to waste time wandering around looking for where the women had been stashed.