Sassy Ever After: Mate of Honor (Kindle Worlds Novella) (8 page)

She was in an unfamiliar building, but there was an opening to a staircase, and she took it. Not far behind her, she heard the yips and snarls of wolves on the hunt and the loud voice of Victor Silverback. “Find her,” he shouted with rage. “Find her and kill her.”

Forrest texted
his brothers to meet him at the Wolfe’s Den, a bar owned by Aric Wolfe, Tristan Wolfe’s oldest son. The place was closed this early in the day, but Aric had surveillance cameras both street side and alley on his bar, and he agreed to let Forrest look at the recent recordings.

Aric and his mate Jordan were waiting at a side entrance for Forrest. His brother’s and Lara had already arrived. He hated the frantic feeling of helplessness clawing up his throat as they went inside.

The interior of the bar was neat and tidy. The table surfaces were scratched and worn, but clean. His anger heightened his senses, and it took all his control to ignore the smells of men and women who must have drunk there the night before. Bailey needed him to be sharp. To find her. He couldn’t do that if he were distracted.

Once in the back, the four Blackthorn brothers and Lara huddled around the monitor as they watched vehicles passing by at the time Lara had said Bailey was taken. Jordan Wolfe, Aric’s mate, came in with coffee for all of them. She was short and curvy like Bailey, but that’s where the similarities ended. Jordan was Latina, with dark hair and rich brown eyes. Though she had a vibrancy that reminded him very much of Bailey.

He passed on the offered coffee. His stomach had knotted with worry, and coffee would only make it worse.

Forrest kept his gaze glued to the screen. “No, thank you.”

“You’ll get her back,” Jordan said gently.

“I have to.” He gave her a brief nod and then one to Aric.

Aric smiled across the small room at his mate, and Forrest, for the first time, understood what the bond between them must feel like. He hadn’t even formalized his bond with Bailey, but he knew, with certainty, he would give his life if it meant getting her back safely.

“There,” Lara said, pointing at a van that passed by. “That’s the one.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.” She bit her thumbnail. “I think.”

Aric Wolfe brushed his shaggy, black hair back from his face. “XZP 12K. I’ll call a friend of mine at the police station to run the plate.”

“It’ll probably come back stolen.”

He shrugged. “Can’t hurt, man.”

Forrest nodded. “Thanks.”

Aric patted Forrest on the shoulder. “I’d be going out of my mind too if someone took my girl. You’ll find her. Just hang in there.”

“Wait.” Dorian leaned forward. “Run that back and forward again. In slow motion.”

“To the van?” Forrest asked. “What did you see?”

“Something. But after the van.” He gestured for Luke to keep going forward. “There. Stop. It may be nothing.” He put his finger on a silver Mercedes SL Roadster. “Unless there are more than one of those in Blue Creek, that car belongs to Victor Silverback.”

Evan stood up. “You don’t think…”

“This can’t be about you not choosing Maxine,” Luke said. “That’s extreme, even for the Silverbacks.”

Forrest swallowed the knot of fear in his throat. Maxine had attacked Bailey in wolf form last night, but it hadn’t been a serious challenge. She hadn’t even put her teeth on his little fox. If she had, he’d have done her damage. And while he knew she wanted him as a mate for reasons that involved power and politics, she didn’t love him. “She wouldn’t.”

Dorian raised a brow. “It could be a coincidence. Victor could have just been passing that way.”

Shaking his head, Forrest said, “It’s the only lead we have.”

“We have no idea where he went from there,” Lara said. “How are we going to find her?” Guilt colored her voice. “This is all my fault. She’d been out of pack crap for years, and I had to suck her back in.” Her shoulders jerked forward as a sob escaped her.

Evan put his arm around Lara. He looked at Forrest and shook his head.

Dorian put his hand on Forrest’s shoulder. “I sold Victor that car.”

“And?”

“And all my vehicles come with an anti-theft package that includes tracking.”

Forrest blinked at his brother. “So, you can find him?”

A wicked smile crossed over Dorian’s lips. “I can find him.”

****

Bailey skittered
out of the first open door after running up five flights of stairs. The musty, stained carpet snagged on her claws as she raced down the hall. The many doors on both sides of the corridors were numbered. 52, 54, 56 on one side, and 53, 55, and 57 on the other. This was a hotel. Abandoned by all accounts. She had to find a place to hide, and in fox form, she couldn’t open the doors. It scared her to make the transition to human again. She would be naked and vulnerable. A sitting vixen. But she’d have no chance if she let them trap her out in the hallway.

She could hear the howls and barks echoing in the stairwell. She had to hurry, or her window of opportunity would be gone. She concentrated on the change, forcing her fox to recede. It fought against her, her fear making it want to take charge.

Please, she begged her beast. Reluctantly, it withdrew. Quickly and quietly, she turned every knob, praying that one would open. She needed to get out of the open. Every locked door constricted the lump of terror in her stomach.

Room 59, the last one on the left was open a few inches. The lock had been jimmied, probably by squatters, and the hinge was off at the top. Bailey shoved the door open and pushed her way inside. Closing it was impossible, but she did the best she could. The room had a rusted mattress frame, a pizza box with a dried up pepperoni slice on the floor next to it, a sleeping bag that smelled of human waste, and a broken bedside table with missing drawers. The scent was awful, but the aroma coming from the bathroom was worse. Someone homeless had definitely been holding up in the place and using the toilet without running water. The conditions made her sick. No one should have to live like this. It was the reason she’d started the class action suit in the first place.

She ran to the window. Below was an alleyway. There had to be a fire escape, right? She peered down. Wrong. It was sheer brick and windows all the way to the hard pavement. She swallowed back the hot dread rising in her throat. If worse came to worse, that would be her way out. She wouldn’t let Victor or Mach use her. She’d kill herself before she let that happen.

****

“Are you sure
his car’s on this street?” Trust Avenue was on the poorer side of town. It was laced with apartment buildings with missing or boarded-up windows. Drug dealers hung out on corners, and two blocks down was an over-filled homeless shelter. He knew this because he’d been donating money to keep the place open since he’d taken over the family business. “I can’t see Victor driving his fancy car in this neighborhood.”

“I’m sure,” Dorian said. He had his laptop out and had been navigating as Forrest drove the SUV.

“This place gives me the willies,” Lara said from the back. She sat between Luke and Evan.

“I think the people who live here feel the same way,” Forrest said.

When he was in high school, he’d volunteered at the shelter on weekends. He’d had a friend whose family had lost their home, and they had to stay in the shelter for several months. It had given him a new perspective on how someone could end up in such dire straits. At the time, volunteering was the only way he knew to help. His friend didn’t want people to know about his parent's situation, so he made Forrest promise not to tell anyone. And Forrest never did. In some ways, he regretted not going to his parents to get them help. After all, even though his buddy was a human, it’s what the Blackthorns did.

Dorian gave him a strange look as Forrest parked on the curb outside the Trust Hotel, a building with condemned signs on the front windows and door. “Have you been here before, Forrest?”

“No.” Forrest looked at Dorian. “Where’s the car?”

“According to the tracker, it’s down the side alley.”

“Then let’s go.”

The Blackthorns exited the SUV like a gang going to war. If Victor had Bailey, if he hurt her, the Silverback Pack would have to find a new alpha.

The found the car parked behind the white van. “Son of a bitch,” Evan swore.

“He has her,” Dorian agreed.

The van was empty, but Forrest could smell Bailey’s scent. His nostrils flared as he swept his hand toward the side door. “That way,” he said. “They took her in there.”

Forrest followed Bailey scent trail through the rundown storage area, down a hall, and into a kitchen. He could smell blood and death everywhere, almost to the point that it obscured the sweet berry smell he’d been chasing. His brothers and Lara had scattered, not wanting to leave any area unsearched.

“Over here!” Lara shouted.

Forrest ran, his heart loud as a bass drum in his ears. Inside a walk-in freezer, the corpse of a man lay naked with his neck twisted into an unnatural position. There were two sets of clothes on the floor. A man’s jeans, T-shirt, and tennis shoes, and a woman’s skirt, top, and flats.

Forrest grabbed the shirt. “This is Bailey’s.” He could detect his scent mixed with hers.

“That’s Dale Comfry.” Dorian turned him over. “Bailey asked about him last night.”

Forrest remembered the man and the conversation. A growl ripped from his lips. “Victor was here.”

Evan sniffed the air. “Mach Larson, too.”

Lara gnashed her teeth. “That fucking asshole.” She gripped Evan’s arm. “He hates Bailey.”

Forrest knelt at the door. The aroma of musk and fur hung heaviest near the entry. Fox and wolf. “She shifted,” he said. “She must have gotten past them when they were killing Comfry.” He pounded back the hope her escape gave him. He knew with three wolf shifters after her, Bailey’s freedom was temporary at best.

“We can track better as wolves,” he said to his family. His pack.

Dorian nodded. “Let’s do this, brother. Let’s get your mate back.”

The howls and
high pitched barks of the hunting wolves made Bailey want to shift into her fox skin again, but against three large beasts, her little fox wouldn’t have a shot. Only in her human form did she have any chance at all. She searched the room for something she could use as a weapon, something better than the laughable pipe she’d thrown at Victor in the freezer. She gagged at the pungent intensity of the piss and shit piled up in the toilet. The shower had no curtain or curtain rod. The sink was an attached porcelain bowl mounted to the wall with exposed pipes beneath.

The sounds of the wolves were getting closer and trying break the pipes would only draw more attention to her. She’d touched every door in the hall. She hoped it was enough to slow them down. The mirror on the wall was cracked. Bailey grimaced as she saw her swollen and bruised cheek. She didn’t waste time on pity, though, instead, she gave the mirror a quick punch. Shards clattered down into the sink and on the floor. She ignored her bleeding knuckles and grabbed a large piece, about seven inches long and two inches wide at the base moving into a point at the top.

She pushed the bathroom door shut, hoping the smell of human feces would override her own scent, and waited.

The howls and barks stopped. Bailey held her breath.

“Little pig, little pig, let me in,” Mach Larson sang.

Heat scorched Bailey’s skin. She gripped the shard, the base cutting into her palm. The pain was nothing compared to her rage. She was going to gut that motherfucker, even if it took her last breath to do it.

“She’s in here,” Mach said. “I can smell the bitch.”

The shuffling of feet told her that all Victor and the other goon were in the room now as well. A pound against the bathroom door elicited a surprised noise from Bailey. She cursed herself for being so stupid. So careless.

“You are just all kinds of trouble, aren’t you, girl?” Victor Silverback said. “You have your nose in my business and in my pack. You know what I do with folks who cause me problems?”

The kill room kitchen gave her a pretty good idea. She braced her shoulder against the door. “Forrest is going to rip your head off, asshole.”

“Not before I slaughter his precious mate.” Victor slapped the door again, and Bailey jerked her head back. He laughed. “You may think you’re smart, but you’re nothing but a scared chicken. This wolf knows how to clean out a henhouse.”

Bailey put her back to the door as Victor turned the knob and tried to push it open.

“I’ve decided to kill you quick, chick.” He chuckled at his rhyme. “A little mercy in deference to your alpha.”

“Fuck you,” Bailey said.

“She’s mine!” Mach Larson said, anger pulsing in his tone. “You promised me, Victor. You promised to give her to me. She’s fucking mine.”

Bailey’s stomach roiled. She struggled to breathe as icy fingers of dread gripped her lungs and squeezed. She held the mirror to her wrist, willing herself the courage to act on her own behalf before the option was no longer hers. No, she thought, the neck. She could puncture her carotid, and it would be over in minutes.

Four quick, hard punches against the door sounded, then Mach shouted. “You hear that, Bailey. I will fucking own you. You’re mine, you stupid bitch.”

“She’s not stupid or a bitch,” Bailey heard someone say. “And she’s not yours. She’s mine!” Her heart leaped into her throat. Forrest. Oh, God. He’d found her.

“You’ll have to take me on first, pup,” Victor growled. Bailey heard a thick grunt from Forrest. She yanked the bathroom door open, terrified for him against Victor and his two goons.

The growls and snarls as two wolves she didn’t know took on Victor’s guy, while two other wolves cornered Mach. Forrest, naked, his muscles and tattoos glistening with sweat, as he grappled with Victor in a glorious frenzy of fists and fury. Bailey staggered into the room. She cursed herself when Forrest saw her. Her appearance startled him for a split second, long enough of Victor to connect a punch under his chin and throw him back against the wall.

“No!” Bailey shouted. She jumped on Victor’s back, her arm wrapped his neck, and she kicked herself back, pulling the Silverback Alpha to the ground with her. She tried to stab him, but he rolled sideways and threw his elbow into her jaw. The mirror shard dropped out of her hand as the pain in her face exploded in bright and vibrant fireworks.

“Bailey!” Forrest shouted. He grabbed Victor’s arm and wrenched the older alpha away from her.

Bailey rolled away and pushed herself from the floor. The wolves had taken down one of Victor’s men, but Mach had smashed the bedside table and was using a piece of wood as a club. When he spotted Bailey, her head still reeling from the blow Victor delivered, he roared and jumped over the nearest wolf, landing right in front of her. He grabbed her hair and yanked her toward the bathroom.

Forrest had Victor in a headlock, horror in his eyes as he watched. His eyes glowed amber as he wrenched Victor’s head. The Silverback alpha’s lifeless eyes were the last thing she saw before Mach pulled her into the bathroom and shut the door.

“Try to come in here and I’ll kill her,” Mach shouted. He threw her down on the floor. She landed near the sink. “Do you hear me? I’ll fucking kill her right now.”

The wolves began to whine. Bailey heard Forrest say, “Don’t. Don’t do it. I’ll give you anything you want. Just let her go.”

She’d never heard him so desperate. Frankly, she never thought he was capable of sounding so vulnerable.

“I love her,” Forrest pleaded. “You know what that means. Just let her go. You were following your pack alpha. You had to. I get that. But he’s dead now. You don’t have to do this.”

Bailey knew Mach hadn’t just been following orders. He’d had a bug up his ass about Bailey since middle school. Forrest had to know it was personal for Mach as well, but he was giving the man an out. A way to leave with his life intact.

Bailey's hands began to shake. “No,” she whispered.

He was naked and bloody from where the wolves had torn chunks from his arms and chest. His back was to the door, his flaccid prick on display.

“No fucking way.” She grabbed a mirror chunk from the ground and with a quickness she didn’t know she possessed, Bailey shoved the shard into Mach where his upper thigh, going for the artery.

The look of surprise on his face when she pulled the glass out, and blood began to spray her skin put a feral grin on her face.

“You won’t get away with this, asshole.”

When he leaned over to grab Bailey, she struck with her hand straight up and stabbed him in the throat. Blood gushed as his angry snarl turned into a gurgle, and Mach slid down the door to the floor. Bailey crawled closer to watch as the life left his eyes.

“Motherfucker, I am not your bitch,” she screamed, “and you don’t get to live.”

“Bailey!” Forrest’s alarm snapped her from her vengeance. She reached up and turned the door handle. When the bathroom door opened, Mach’s bloody torso flopped back onto the floor. She crawled over him, her head pounding as the adrenaline waned. Forrest was there then. She was in his arms.

“Safe,” she heard him say through her foggy brain. “You’re safe now.”

“He doesn’t get to live,” she muttered as Forrest smoothed her hair back and away from her face. “He doesn’t get to…”

“You killed him, baby. You took care of him.”

She looked around the room. Dorian, Luke, Evan, and Lara stared at her, their expressions slightly horrified and impressed at the same time.

Bailey blinked up at Forrest. “Why’s everyone naked?”

“Big fight, babe.” He kissed her and when he pulled back, his lips were bloody. “Don’t you remember?”

Bailey touched the side of her face. It hurt. Her whole head hurt. “I think I hurt my brain.”

“Let’s get you out of here then.”

“Wait,” Bailey said. “You love me.”

He smiled, and it was the most precious thing she’d ever seen, even with the bloody lips. “Yep.”

“Nuh-uh.”

He picked her up as if she were a feather and cradled in her arms. “I think you did hurt your brain.” He kissed her forehead.

“Dude,” she heard Dorian say as Forrest carried her from the room. “Bailey is bad ass.”

A small smile formed on her lips. “I am bad ass,” she said.

Forrest smiled as he walked with her down the hall to the stairs. “You sure are.”