Talon (Rise of the Pride, Book 1) (18 page)

“No, you are definitely not.” She smiled.

Before she could say anything else, his phone
rang on the nightstand. He quickly scooped it up, barking into it
as soon as the call connected. Liberty knew it had something to do
with the young girl who’d been taken and she immediately felt bad
for letting Talon stay the night.

But things had gotten heated and he…well, he
was insatiable, and she ended up falling asleep after the marathon
of sex they’d had.

“I have to go,” he said, breaking into her
thoughts.

“Is there anything I can do?” she asked,
honestly wanting to help.

“Stay safe,” he ordered, pulling on his
jeans. Without his shirt, the defined muscles on his abs called to
her eyes and she licked her suddenly dry lips.

“Okay,” she whispered.

“I’ll come to the bar tonight.” He growled
low, his nose flaring as he took in her scent. “You smell like me…I
like it.” With nothing more than a brief kiss to her forehead,
Talon hurried out of her room.

She listened for the sound of the front door
closing before she found her discarded clothes. She tossed them
into the laundry basket and went to take a shower.

Inside the shower, she ran her hands over her
sore muscles. It seemed that everywhere she touched, her body ached
in the most delicious way. Between her legs was sore, but not
painful. He’d taken her like she was one of his kind, and she
accepted that. She also accepted the fact that he was part animal.
The smile that played on her lips caused a hysterical bubble of
laughter to come up from her throat. He was definitely an
animal.

Nova was still asleep when she left for the
bar. Today was her baby sister’s afternoon off and a very long
night for Liberty. She’d open
The Deuce
for lunch and work
straight through until closing. It was also Friday night. Nova
would be in for the late shift to help her with the bar.

As she stepped off the porch, she saw Winter
approaching from the woods. He was human and fully dressed.

“Hey, Winter,” she called out.

“Boss man wants me to go with you to the
bar,” he announced. Liberty looked up into his icy blue eyes and
noticed how they flickered to the upstairs window…her sister’s
window.

“Would you rather stay here?” she asked.

“No, ma’am,” he said, looking down at his
feet. “An order is an order. I don’t have a choice. Savage is
staying.” She looked over his shoulder, and sure enough, there was
a panther laying down on a bed of leaves just inside the tree line
beside the house.

“You could’ve told him no,” she chuckled.

“Not really.” He laughed when Liberty’s eyes
hardened. “When an alpha tells you to do something…you do it. There
is no rejecting his orders.”

“Seriously?” she gasped. “Like…if he told you
to go jump off of a bridge, you’d do it?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he nodded. “But a good alpha
would never order one of his pride to intentionally hurt
themselves.”

“That’s good to know,” she said, shaking her
head slightly as they walked to her car. She looked at Winter, and
then her eyes swung to the car.
This is going to be like putting
a giant in a tin can!

“I need to bring my truck,” he grumbled.

“Sorry.” She shrugged and unlocked the
door.

The bar parking lot was empty. It was an hour
before opening when they arrived. Winter went on alert, his eyes
scanning everything as they walked to the front door. Liberty
grabbed the mail from the box by the door and waited for a nod from
her protector. She stuck the key in the lock and pushed the door
open. The beep of the alarm ticked off the forty-five seconds she
had to get to the pad and plug in the number to deactivate it
before the time was up.

Winter moved around the empty bar, checking
behind the bar, in closets, and finally the kitchen before meeting
her at the door to her office.

“Let me go in first,” he whispered. She
remembered not to get close to him. The last time she’d been
accidentally touched by another man was a fresh reminder of the
pain. She’d learned the hard way not to get close to unmated
males.

Two days ago, Nova had to call Talon to the
bar because Billy Miller had stumbled into Liberty, wrapping his
arms around her in an innocent bear hug. He was just being playful,
but the pain was enough to send her to the floor. Talon had rushed
to the bar and had entered like a freight train, demanding to know
where she was. When he’d entered the office, he had to wrap his
large body around hers, letting his touch heal her. It was the best
medicine she’d ever had and that made her think of the night
before. A blush rose on her cheeks and her lower stomach
quivered.

“It’s all clear,” he said, clearing his
throat. The panther looked uncomfortable. It took just a second for
Liberty to realize he could smell her desire. She really needed to
get control of that around these panthers. “I think I’ll go wait
out in the bar for your employees. Call if you need anything.”

“Thank you,” she told him and entered her
office. The sound of his heavy boots echoed down the hall as he
walked away quickly.

She set about opening the stack of mail,
placing the ones that were bills in one pile and throwing out the
junk mail in the can next to her desk. The old desk was her great
grandfather’s and was made of solid wood, nothing like the flimsy
pieces of furniture you could buy in this day and age.

“What the hell?” she said aloud, coming
across an envelope marked for Talon. There was no return
address.

Liberty contemplated calling Talon, but it
was addressed to the bar. Tearing it open, she removed the single
piece of lined paper, unfolding it to reveal something that sent
fear through to her very soul.

The alpha for the girl.

Meet at the abandoned gas station on Hwy.
309…midnight.

There was no way she could let Talon
sacrifice himself for the girl. If he were to disappear, his pride
would suffer without his guidance. Evie was well loved by the
pride, and even Liberty knew that they wouldn’t send him if they
knew this was what the kidnappers wanted.

Liberty hung her head in her hands, trying to
come up with a way for the pride to bring Evie home. The letter
gave her hope that the young girl was still alive. She hadn’t
called out to Talon since she’d first been taken. Everyone believed
that she’d been drugged, and this letter proved to Liberty that
their suspicions were more than likely true.

But how were they going to keep Talon from
turning himself over? Would his Guardians allow that? She sincerely
hoped they would prevent him from doing something that drastic.

Unless? Maybe, just maybe, she could do
something to get Evie back to her parents. From what Liberty
understood, Evie was a very small female, even for a panther. How
long could a child live like that without lasting damage to her
young mind?

No, Liberty couldn’t let that child suffer
any more than she already had.

A plan formed quickly in her mind…she just
needed to get away to make it happen.

Talon found Kye pacing in the foyer, his
boots covered in mud. “What the hell is going on?”

“I need to speak with you,” he growled, his
younger brother’s eyes glowing amber.

“Calm, brother,” he said, pushing out his
alpha powers to control his panther. When Kye’s shoulders slumped,
he knew it was okay to touch the younger male. “Come to my
office.”

Talon waited for Kye to remove his boots and
then hurry to his office. He knew his brother was holding on by a
fine thread, but he needed to not go out on a vengeful campaign to
find her. He’d end up getting Evie hurt, along with himself.

“We will find her,” Talon promised, leaning
against his desk. He wanted to be on equal footing with his baby
brother. A young panther didn’t have their emotions in check and
could lose their temper quickly.

“I need to go…alone,” Kye stated, his voice
firm. “I have to find her and I don’t want you to hold me
back.”

“You will do as you are told, Kye,” Talon
ordered, pushing out his alpha powers, but he also felt a little
push back from his brother, who was growing into being an alpha of
his own. Someday, Kye would leave and start his own pride in
another area. Talon knew this, and would make sure his brother was
prepared before letting him go off to lead a group of people.

“Please,” Kye faltered, one knee buckling,
and Talon reached out to steady the young man. The anguish in his
eyes made Talon’s heart clench in sympathy. The thought of someone
taking Liberty would push him into the same mindset.

“You can lead a group to go look for her,”
Talon began, but held his hand up for Kye to not run out the door
until he was done with his orders. “You do this under the cover of
night if you are using your panther to track her scent. In the
daylight, you are to stay in human form. We do not want the humans
involved.”

“Okay,” he sighed. “I promise.”

“Grab Booth and Dane,” he suggested. “And you
are to report back to me
anything
that you find.”

“I promise,” his brother replied, some of the
worry leaving his features.

“Be safe, brother,” Talon said, giving him an
approving nod. “I’m going out with Savage to check the river. I
want to see if they are using the cover to the northeast of
town.”

“What about to the south of the property?”
Kye asked.

“Why don’t you take that and report back to
me,” Talon said, very proud of his brother for making the call. He
would’ve checked the uninhabited areas up and down the river
himself, but he left part of that open to see what his brother
would say.

“I’m leaving now,” Kye said.

“So am I,” Talon replied.

Chapter Twelve

Talon and Savage walked slowly along the
banks of the Coldwater River, using their keen eyesight to look for
anything out of the ordinary and their sense of smell for anything
familiar. So far, they’d been on foot for a mile and they hadn’t
found anything.

The dense vegetation along the river slowed
their progress, but eventually it opened up when it skirted a few
farmers’ fields that were full of corn, almost ready to be plowed
for the season.

“Wait.” Savage froze, throwing his arm out to
stop Talon from taking his next step. “Look.”

Talon squatted down, seeing a broken branch
and what looked like a large paw print. There was no scent to prove
what his mind was telling him, but he knew.

“Fucking wolves,” he snarled.

“That print is too big to be a natural wolf,”
Savage observed. “Hell, we don’t even have them in this area.”

“We don’t have werewolves either,” Talon
cursed. “Call the Guardians. Warn everyone that we have a problem.
Keep the women and children protected.”

Savage barked orders into the phone while
Talon took a moment to get a hold on not only his emotions, but his
panther. Never had he wanted someone’s blood as badly he did from
these wolves that had taken a
child
from his land.

“What about Liberty?” Savage asked.

“I’ll call Winter and we will go to
The
Deuce
,” he said, standing to his full height. He pulled out his
phone and took several photos of the print. The damn thing had to
have been as wide as his own panther’s paw print. These werewolves
were in his territory and that couldn’t be good.

Thinking back, the scent at Liberty’s
was…different. It was a panther, he was sure of it, but could he
have been wrong? “Tell the Guardians to be on alert. They may be
masking their scent somehow.”

It wasn’t humans who’d taken Evie. It’d been
wolves, and they were unstable in best of times. He needed to head
back to the pride and then check on Liberty.