Valentina could feel her jaguar straining at her, and knew her eyes had shifted. There was nothing she could do about it, though, since she was working so hard on keeping the rest of herself human, so as she approached Elijah, she wasn’t surprised when he gestured to her eyes.

“I’m fine, just adrenaline.”

“I think we need to go down the hall. I remember a big room, but it just had the one cage in it, and the doctor’s equipment.”

“Let’s keep moving and see what we find,” she said, trying to let the waves of his anger wash over her. The truth was that a large part of why her adrenaline spiked was because of his emotions. The rage he felt when he saw the guard, and the violent protectiveness he exhibited not only toward her but to the other people in the room. They would get them all out safe and sound, or they would die trying.

He was out the door before she had even finished speaking, his alpha energy leaving a wake behind him. It was almost the kind of thing she could get drunk on; alpha energy that wasn’t being directed at her or challenging her was intoxicating.

They passed two other rooms. One was file storage. The other had a couch and table in it, but both were empty. The final room was the one they had been searching for. A big cage was in the middle with a sheet over part of it, just as he had described from his memories. They ventured further in without finding anyone.

Just as she was about to pull the sheet off the cage, there was a loud bang. The door they had just walked through clanged shut behind them, which wouldn’t have been worrying in and of itself if it wasn’t for the sound of footsteps running away from the room. Elijah sprinted for the door and yanked. It didn’t want to open at first, but after he unleashed his supernatural strength and rage on it, the metal contorted to his will.

“It’s the doctor!” he yelled over his shoulder as he went after the man.

“Elijah! Don’t!” she screamed at him, but before she could chase after him, a roar from the other side of the sheet had her head whipping back around. A large feline shape appeared against the white fabric, and she could understand why anyone who was stuck in the cage found it so terrifying. She gripped the corner of the sheet and yanked, revealing a black panther underneath. It screamed at her in a way only big cats could.

Another loud metallic bang had her turning around. She was stuck between the cat in front of her and the cat pulling at her heart. A moment later, Elijah reappeared, his face mottled red with anger and exertion.

“We’ve been locked down here. I think we can get the door open, but I heard the guy drive off. We lost him.” The last words were said with so much despair that her heart almost broke for him.

“We’ve still got the guard and all this,” she said, gesturing behind her to the computers and paperwork scattered around the room. Something else was bothering him, but she couldn’t tell what, and he clearly didn’t want to tell her, so she let it go. They had more pressing matters at that moment, anyway. Leaving him to his anger, she walked over to the panther. “My name is Valentina. Can you understand me? Is the human in control?”

Another roar as it lunged at her through the bars.

She took a deep breath and centered herself, calling her jaguar forward to share her power, and she said, “Shift.”

The cat before her melted away into dust, leaving behind the large tattooed man Elijah had seen in his memories.

“Hello?” she said quietly as the man in front of her remained on all fours, breathing heavily. She could see evidence of what had been done to him in the scars that crisscrossed his back. “Sir?”

The golden eyes of a jaguar looked up at her. “Are you real?” he whispered.

“I am. What’s your name?”

“Dante,” he gasped, as though realizing she was actually concerned about him. “Dante Williams.”

“Well, Dante, I’m Valentina, and that’s Elijah.”

“What’s going on?”

“We would like to get you out of here, but I need to know you are safe to be around before I let you out.”

“Don’t. My cat, he’s uncontrollable.”

“Completely? Would he submit to an alpha or two?” She gestured to herself and Elijah.

“I wouldn’t risk it,” Dante said as he clenched his fists at his side while a scowl took up residence on his face. “You should knock me out, if you still want to take me, that is. Just make sure you have me secured somewhere before I wake up.” He paused, and a moment later, he added in a whisper, “I don’t want to hurt anyone else.”

“I understand.” Valentina reached her hand through the bars and gave his hand a quick squeeze of support. “I’ll get you out of here, but I need you to trust me.”

“You haven’t hit me yet, so that makes you the nicest person I’ve met in a while.” He shrugged. “I’ll trust you.”

“Okay, the rest of my pack is on the way, and we are going to free the other prisoners. Then we’ll get you.”

He nodded and sat with his back against the cinderblock wall behind him.

“Let’s start getting people out,” she said as she approached Elijah.

He just nodded at her. Apparently, the male silence thing was contagious. Great.

After they were back in the room with all the cells, both she and Elijah explained what was going to happen next. The two of them were going to open the door at the top of the stairs, and when her pack got here, they would come down and make sure everyone made it upstairs safe and sound. The guard was still unconscious in her cage, and Valentina had a knot in her stomach about it. Maybe she’d crossed the line and the woman was in a coma or brain damaged? Humans were so fragile; the slightest injury could completely destroy them.

The group waited while she and Elijah exited the room. They were all uneasy, waiting for the valiant rescue to fall through and for her and Elijah to be captured and put in the cells next to them. Some of them were shifting on their feet, back and forth, as though they were trying to decide whether to run, while others picked at their clothing or chewed on their fingernails.

“You sure you heard him leave? It wasn’t just a trick?”

“He left. I’m sure of it. I could scent him before; now I can’t.”

They pushed at the door with all their strength, but it wouldn’t budge. Elijah tried ramming it with his shoulder a few times, but there were still no indications that they would be able to open it.

“Here, let me try something.”

He stared at her for a long moment before stepping aside. She didn’t know what the hell that look was about, but it pissed her off. Had she not been helpful? If she hadn’t been able to get him in touch with Victor, they never would have been able to find this place.

She couldn’t think like that, though. What she needed to do was center herself and have her jaguar work with her to get the door open. Slowly, she felt her fingers turning into claws, her hands turning into paws. They weren’t just any claws, though. They were the claws of an alpha jaguar, of a shifter, which meant they were stronger and longer than normal jaguar claws. They were all she needed, so she thanked her jaguar and stopped the rest of the shift. It was uncomfortable, to say the least.

The cream-colored talons curved viciously away from the pads of her paw, and she hoped that they could cut through the metal. She swiped her hand in a half-moon shape around the door handle, and the metal screamed under the sharp blades of her claws.

Little furrows appeared in the metal, and she knew it would take some work to get all the way through, but she could do it. An engine roared to a halt on the other side of the door. Valentina couldn’t be positive if it was one of her pack or the doctor sending some muscle after them to make sure he could come back in peace to the lab he had created.

They were both frozen, waiting for any other kind of sounds to indicate who had arrived. When her phone buzzed, she almost jumped out of her skin. She hadn’t felt the buzz in her jeans pocket where she usually kept her phone, and when she patted the area with her paw, she found that it was empty. Her heart clenched with panic. Where the hell was it?

Elijah’s hand was suddenly in front of her face, holding the phone. Valentina let out a breath she’d been holding as she shifted her hands back and took it from him and tapped the screen. The tension in her shoulders eased as she read the text message. Imogen and Kinsley were outside, and Liana and Domino were only minutes behind them, while Liam would be there soon, but they weren’t sure exactly when. She tapped out a message as quickly as she could, describing where the door to the basement was, before tucking the phone back into her own pocket.

“Imogen and Kinsley are here. I told them where we were, so they should be able to help me get the door open.”

He grunted at her, and her anger flared. Instead of releasing it, she channeled it into shifting her hands once more. She clawed at the metal in the same area she had before, slowly working her way through until she could see daylight on the other side. The metal crinkled and curled on the edges of the cuts, and she dug her claws in even deeper as she scraped over the marks again and again.

“Is that you making that godawful noise, Alpha?” Kinsley’s voice came from the other side of the door.

“Yep. Just trying to get us out of here.”

“Want me to look for a key?”

“I’d be surprised if he left one, but you’re welcome to while I keep working.”

Footsteps shuffled away while she clawed at the door. The cuts were getting wider, and though they were making progress, she needed to change tactics. She clawed across the curved vertical cuts she’d made, which allowed her to pull the first layer of the door away. Now, she could get to the second layer, and once she got a deep enough cut through that, the door wouldn’t be able to be locked again.

Valentina knew as soon as her claws had made the final cut because the door just swung away from the lock. “Finally,” she breathed as she shifted her hands back to human.

“Hey, boss,” Imogen said from where she was leaning against the desk.

Valentina walked up and hugged the wolf. She knew this situation would be hard for her since she hated seeing anyone in a cage, but that was also what made her the most suited for helping people who had been in a similar situation. “Thank you for coming,” she said into her friend’s ear.

“Anytime.”

“The dog is around the corner. I told him you were coming, but be careful getting him into the car. I’m going to head downstairs and send them up to your car. Just take them straight to Woodhaven, get them cleaned up, fresh clothes, a good meal, and I’ll talk to them about everything else when I get back.”

“Sounds good.”

“Kinsley, would you come down with me?”

The redhead nodded, her flame-colored ponytail swinging slightly behind her. Her face was calm and serious as she prepared herself.

Valentina didn’t address Elijah. He could come back down with them or not; she didn’t care either way. She just hoped that if he did, his attitude wouldn’t come with him. At the bottom of the stairs, she led Kinsley into the room where all the cells were, and was proud when the other woman didn’t even flinch at the sight of everything.

“Okay, everyone, this is Kinsley. She’s a packmate of mine and is going to lead you upstairs to where more of my pack are waiting to escort you to our estate. Once there, you can bathe, rest, eat, whatever you need most. Just ask, and we’ll try to make it happen for you.”

“Hey, guys, does anyone need help walking or going up stairs?” Kinsley asked in her librarian voice, the one that said she didn’t want a discussion, just straight answers.

Most people were standing, shaking their heads, and already moving toward her, with the exception of one woman who had a nasty cut along her midsection. Before Kinsley could go over to her and help her stand, one of the other prisoners bent over and scooped her up.

“I gotcha, sweet girl,” he said in a low rumble.

After that, they all headed out, and Valentina watched as each of them left the room until it was just her and the guard. She wasn’t up to interrogation just yet, so she poked around in the drawers and tables scattered at the back of the room. There were some old notes and ledgers and other things that she wanted to examine, so she started a pile by the door.

When she was finished in that room, she went down to the other room where Dante was still resting against the wall. He looked at her with questioning eyes when she walked in.

“I’ve got someone on the way to help me move you safely. I won’t forget about you, and I won’t abandon you.”

“Thank you,” he said so quietly that if she wasn’t a shifter, she wouldn’t have been able to hear him.

“It’s my pleasure.” She smiled at him before she began searching through everything she could to make sure they didn’t miss anything valuable.

Going through everything drawer by drawer took time, and when she heard movement in the hallway, she stopped and went to investigate, dropping off her latest find at the pile she had made by the door.

When she didn’t see anyone in the hallway, she went in to check on the guard. Sure enough, she was awake and ready to scream bloody murder.

“If you choose to scream, I’ll put you in the cage with Dante,” she said, using their own boogie man against them.

The woman closed her mouth and sat, clearly unwilling to risk being put in the cage with the panther. Valentina turned to walk out, and when she got to the door, she said, “Remember, not a peep,” and put her finger to her lips.

Quickly, she made her way upstairs and was glad to find that everyone was loaded in and ready to go. It had taken all three cars, and there were even some people sitting on others’ laps so they could all make it in one go.

“Kins, Liana,” she called out as she made it out the doorway. When her friends turned to look at her, she said, “Can you come downstairs with me? There’s some paperwork and stuff I want to bring back. Try to get an idea of what exactly was going on here.” They both nodded and prepared to leave with her. Briefly, she turned to face Elijah, who was just scowling at her. “Can you stand guard?”

“Yes, boss,” he said in a tone that gave away what his issue was. He wanted to be alpha and was tired of taking orders. Well, if that was the case, they would need to have a serious discussion.

At the bottom of the stairs, she said, “Liana, can you get the paperwork just inside that door?” She gestured to the room with all the cages, and added, “Oh, and don’t talk to the guard.”

As Liana’s caramel mane disappeared around the doorframe, Valentina led Kinsley to the other room.

“Dante, this is Kinsley, my packmate. She’s not the one who’s going to get you out of here, but he’s almost here.” She smiled at the panther, trying to reassure him. “Kins, can you take a look around, see if there is anything computer-wise that we should take? I’m going to take this pile up and put it in your trunk.”

As her friend began to poke around in the big room, Valentina grabbed the binders and folders that she had set by the door earlier and took them upstairs, quickly putting them in Kinsley’s trunk. When she turned around, she found her friend right behind her holding a stack of computer towers.

“These guys were pretty old school, so I figured I should just grab everything I could.”

“Good, now you guys get out of here.”

Kinsley, Liana, and Imogen all nodded, and Valentina waited until she watched them get into their cars and drive off before she turned to Elijah. “The guard is awake.”

He nodded and turned for the door.

She let him go so she could text Liam, sending him a quick message about what was going on and what she needed him for. She just prayed that he still kept an emergency med kit in his trunk.

When she got downstairs, Elijah was already towering over the woman in the cage. His panther eyes flicked to her as she entered the room before focusing back in on the woman.

“Where does the doctor live?” he growled.

“I don’t know.”

“What’s his name?”

“Malcolm.”

“Malcolm what?”

“How the hell should I know? I’m just here for a paycheck,” the woman said, practically spitting at him in her anger.

“Elijah, we can probably get more out of the paperwork I found than from her . . .” Valentina interjected. The last thing she needed was for this to turn violent, and by the looks of his grip on the cage bars, it could do just that.

He spun, turning and snarling at her. Instinct told her to back up, but that wasn’t who she was, wasn’t what she did. So, she stood her ground and snarled right back. Only, she couldn’t out-alpha him. They were almost equally matched in power, something she’d been acutely aware of since she’d first found him on the side of the road.

The panther paced toward her, each step a slow test of who was more alpha. When he was directly in front of her, his body pressing against hers, trying to force her to step back, he said, “This is mine. I get to question her. She attacked me. She drugged me. She helped turn me into this.” He gestured to his jade green eyes and his extended fangs. “You don’t need to be involved.”

“I won’t let you hurt her.”

“You won’t be able to stop me.” The cold way he said it sent a shiver down her spine.

“I can, and I will if I have to.” She paused before adding quietly, “Don’t make me do this, Elijah.”

“I’m not making you do anything. In fact, I’m telling you to leave. Now.”

She felt the alpha power in his voice, and she almost wanted to obey, but she couldn’t. Never had, never would play by another alpha’s rules. Her jaguar pushed at her then, and the force of it was so strong, she let the cat take over, not to shift, but to work on instinct.

“I won’t leave. I won’t let you hurt her. Please, let me try to talk to her.” She lowered her gaze while she spoke so she was watching his mouth, giving the illusion of submitting without ever doing so.

“I can get answers out of her.”

“I know you can, but gentler methods may get more answers out of her than violent ones.” She traced her hand down his arm, letting her fingers skim over his bare skin before twining them with his. “Please, trust me.”

“You have five minutes. Then it’s my turn and you can go wait outside, or I will take you outside.”

“Deal.”

She was beyond pissed at him, and she knew he could tell, but his anger was overriding everything else. As much as he wanted to beat the snot out of this woman who had abducted him, Valentina knew he wanted answers more. He needed to know why they had chosen him, why he had been turned.

Slowly, she moved around the other alpha, trying her best not to kick him in the ass as she wanted to, toward the woman, sitting on the floor in front of the cage, opposite where she was sitting.

“So, I’m sure you heard that little exchange. I need you to cooperate with me, please,” Valentina said, letting the desperation show in her eyes. “Why did you pick Elijah?”

“Who?”

She nodded toward the other alpha. “Why did you pick him?”

“It’s not us who picks. It’s the serum. All we did was go to a different bar every night and try to dose as many people as we could. People who reacted to the drug we brought back to Malcolm. People who didn’t, we left.”

“So, it was just the fact that he reacted to what you put in his drink? That’s the only reason you took him? You had no idea who he was otherwise?”

“No . . . why? He didn’t seem like anyone important.”

“What’s the drug?”

“I don’t know. Malcolm just gives it to us and expects us to come back with at least one person every night.”

“Can you tell me anything about him?”

“No, what I do is just for a paycheck. I try not to pay attention to what goes on.” Shame colored the woman’s cheeks as she wrapped her arms around her knees.

The room was filled with the stench of fear and anger, and Valentina just wanted this to be over. “Do you have any way of contacting him? Or for him to contact you?”

“Just a pager. It tells me which bar to go to and when to come back here.”

“A pager? Where is it?” Valentina didn’t think anyone still used them, but maybe the good doctor was trying to keep things low tech for a reason.

“It was on my belt, but I think it flew off when we were fighting.”

Valentina stood. “Thank you.”

Elijah was already looking for the device, and she joined him in the search. When a roar of frustration sounded behind her, adrenaline spiked through her body.

“It’s broken,” he growled as he turned to face her with a crumpled piece of plastic in his hand.

“Anthony might be able to fix it. He’s really good with this stuff.”

Apparently, that was the wrong thing to say. Elijah’s face darkened even further, and just as she knew they were about to find out who really was top dog, or cat, as it were, footsteps clattered on the stairs.

Liam’s scent reached her before she saw him.

“What’s wrong?” she said, bolting out of the room toward the doctor.

“Two other cars pulled in as I was getting out. Four guys total.”

“Shit. Here, Dante is this way,” she said, grabbing Liam’s hand and dragging him toward the last prisoner, the one she absolutely could not leave behind. “He needs to be at least partially sedated. His cat is currently running the show more than he is.”

“Good thing I brought this with me, then, isn’t it?” Liam waggled his emergency kit in his hand.

“I love you for that.” Valentina squeezed his shoulder as they went into the room with the panther. “Dante, this is Liam. He’s going to help get you out of here. More guards have arrived, so I have to go stall them, but I promise you I won’t leave without you.”

The man nodded at her once before focusing his eyes on Liam. She knew they would be fine, but she hated leaving Liam in a potentially dangerous situation. If she didn’t, though, it would get a whole lot more dangerous, so she left, running through the door and up the stairs.

At the top, she froze, assessing the intruders. They were trained, much more so than the female guard in the cage, but they weren’t supernatural. She thanked the elders for small mercies. They spread out, surrounding the building, before they converged on one point, clearly checking to make sure there was no one else on the property. If they had seen Liam exit the car, then they might assume it was just him here alone, since Valentina’s car was parked up the street in the forest preserve’s lot. They didn’t look like the types to make assumptions, though.

A shrill scream sounded from the basement, and all of them whipped their heads around before the sound was abruptly cut off. She had no choice but to shift. Her jaguar would give her the stealth, speed, and strength needed to take down four assailants. Calling her cat forth, she let her body morph and change, allowing her cat control and letting her know who the bad guys were.

Silently, she slipped out the door, moving around the vehicle to the man furthest from the entrance. He was tall, muscular, and probably either a cop or ex-military, judging by the way he moved, but the military never trained for shifters. Faster than the eye could track, she bolted from her hiding spot, launching herself at the guard when he was within reach. Her jaws clamped around his shoulder as she sailed over him and pulled him with her.

Gunfire cracked in the quiet evening. The surprise was over, at least for now. If Elijah decided to join her, then that would be surprise number two, but he was probably too focused on his prisoner and his revenge.

The man struggled in her jaw, and though a fist connected with her side a few times, when she clamped down, she felt his blood spray in her mouth, and her human side backed off a little more. She heard the bone crunch and the man gurgle as blood gushed from his shoulder.

Before she could think, her cat took off, making a break for the next man, dodging and weaving to avoid the bullets as she made her way closer. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Liam peeking through the gaping doorway, and she urged her cat to distract everyone so that Liam could escape, hopefully with Dante in tow.

She ran forward and body checked both men closest to the door before looping around the third man. All of them were trying to track her movements. She could almost feel the guns being trained on her, but with the parked cars and other sundry items, she was able to move from hiding spot to hiding spot as only a flash of fur. When she peeked around the corner of the filing cabinet that she was hunkered down by, she made eye contact with Liam and nodded at him, letting him know that now was the time to move before she exploded into action.

Leaping behind one of the mercenaries, she bit into his leg, tearing out the tendons of his knee before clamping down on the hand that held the gun. All eyes were on her as she danced around, trying to avoid the gunfire, using the man she had between her teeth as a shield. Her ears tracked the movement from the door, and she listened as a car door opened and closed, followed by a second one shortly thereafter. There was nothing she could do to mask the start of the engine, but if she roared at the right time, it might at least distract them.

Her ears pricked as she heard the engine begin to turn over, and she let loose the loudest roar she could. The scream was so violent that it left her gasping for breath when she was done, but it had worked, and the men had been too distracted to worry about the car. It was only when Liam had moved the car that they turned. Her packmate gunned it out of the parking lot, and all three men were firing at the car as it disappeared.

The sound of metal shredding reached her ears, and she knew that at least two of the bullets had made contact with the car. She just hoped that they had missed Liam and Dante. When the men rounded on her, she bolted toward the next closest enemy. The man whose knees she had broken wasn’t too much of a concern. He was bleeding out, and if he didn’t stop moving around, that would only happen faster. The other two men were the problem.

The man she had lunged toward had spun out of her reach. It resulted in a nasty fall, and she’d heard the crunch of bone that let her know not everything was in the same shape it had been a moment ago. Yet, he was valiantly getting up. Her anger was sharp as a whip inside her, and most of it was directed toward Elijah. If he had been helping her, they could have taken all three remaining men out without much fuss and been on their way, but instead, she was stuck playing cat and mouse with them.

A bullet grazed her when she didn’t get behind cover fast enough, and the wound burned. It was right over her shoulder, and she knew that if she didn’t get it seen to soon, she would have a nasty scar because of it. It didn’t help that every time she took a step, the skin felt as though it was being pulled open.

Valentina was losing her patience, and she was going to pay for it in bullet wounds if she wasn’t careful. As she reined in her impulses, she looked around for a place to move where she could attack as they walked by. There weren’t many options aside from circling around to the other side of the car, but from what she could tell of their movements, the men were splitting up and trying to surround her anyway.

She would need to make a break for it if she wanted to avoid looking down the barrel of a gun. When she rounded the corner of the vehicle, she had no choice but to expose herself as she sought a hiding spot that wasn’t quickly becoming surrounded.

A crack sounded, and pain exploded in the same shoulder that had been grazed before. She felt her body go down, hitting the ground with a thud that only made the pain intensify. Darkness swam at the edges of her vision, and the last thing she saw before it overwhelmed her was a man pointing a gun at her.