Chase glanced up at the woman balanced on the two-by-four he was on less than a second ago in the burning car plant. At least she was safe. His death by fire wouldn’t be in vain.

His only regret was that he wouldn’t get to see his children. Well, he believed in an afterlife, so maybe he’d see his children from wherever he ended up.

Suddenly, his body was slammed into by something cold, hard, and…wet?

He flew sideways through the air and crashed onto the concrete floor away from the main fire. Sitting up, he shook water from his drenched hair.

“Sorry, Alpha.” A firefighter on the other side of the blown-open wall held a firehose on the flames. “Didn’t see you coming down.”

Chase raised a wave to him. “No problem, Eli,” he called out. Getting to his feet, he chuckled to himself. “No problem at all.”

With a cough, he headed toward the closest exit, which was where he’d parked his truck earlier. He had a pair of shorts stuffed somewhere in the back that he could slide on.

He was comfortable in his nakedness, like most shifters were. But there were humans outside, and of course, being in cold water always caused shrinkage, and he didn’t want anyone to think he was usually this size…not that size mattered…well…

Outside, fire trucks, ambulances, and other flashing lights filled the parking lot in front of the building. Responders and factory employees bustled in different directions. Some handing out blankets to those in need, others helping the injured to medical personnel.

“Chase,” River hollered from somewhere among the crowd. Of all times for his beta to open his mouth and draw attention. Chase hurried to his truck before everyone and their brother saw him—all of him.

“Hey, man,” River said, “you okay? What’s going on?”

Chase pulled a black pair of workout shorts from under the back seat and slid them on. “Hell if I know. But I’m thinking hyenas had something to do with it. You demolished that shack where Tryx was held, right?”

“Yeah,” River responded, “last week. Same day we rescued Tryx and your mate. Cleared the place then leveled it.” Julia came up beside his beta.

Chase nodded. Speaking of mates, he searched the crowd for his.

“I take it Sophia hadn’t made it to your house yet,” he asked Julia.

She shook her head. “No. You want me to call her?” Julia asked.

“No,” he said. “If she’s at home, that’s fine. I don’t need her worrying over anything.”

Sheriff Hurley tapped the hood of the SUV as he came around the front side. Soot and ash covered his uniform and face.

“Glad you’re all right, Chase,” the sheriff said. “Scared the shit out of me for a second.”

Chase bobbed his head, a little embarrassed by the concern from another respected male.

River and Julia eyed him. “What happened?” River asked.

“Nothing,” Chase said, cutting off any response of the sheriff. “Just doing my job protecting lives.” He pointedly stared at the officer beside him. He didn’t need any glorified stories getting started when he did what anyone else would’ve done.

The man lifted his hands. “Whatever you say. My official report will read otherwise,” the sheriff replied with a smile.

“I’d like a copy of that report,” River said.

Chase snorted. “Not on your life.” He turned to the town’s peacekeeper. “What do you think happened? Accident on the plant’s part?”

The sheriff rubbed his chin, staring at the smoking remains of the structure. “Not sure. I’m inclined to say it wasn’t a coincidence that the hyenas were spotted around here, but who knows?”

“I don’t get it,” River said. “Why would hyenas mess with the plant? It has nothing to do with Sophia.”

That was a good question. One Chase didn’t have an answer to. From the corner of the building, a fireman yelled out for the sheriff. Hurley motioned for Chase and River to follow. Julia stayed with the truck.

The back side of the facility was demolished. Chase immediately smelled gunpowder in the air. “Explosives,” he said.

“Shit.” The sheriff kept walking, now with a frown on his face.

River took a deep breath. “Yeah, I’m picking up hyena stench under the smoke. They were here.”

The guys stood behind the firemen as they hosed down the second floor. Seff and Riel edged out from the ragged opening, both soaked through. Chase laid a hand on each of their shoulders as a gesture of a job well done. As alpha, he complimented the good as well as disciplining the bad.

“How many didn’t make it?” he asked Seff.

“I smelled two, but the smoke interfered a lot,” his enforcer replied.

Chase nodded. It could’ve been much worse.

What was the purpose for all this destruction, he wondered.

Sheriff Hurley slapped Chase on the back. “Go on home, Alpha. I think every emergency responder in the county is here right now. Not much you can do.”

Chase agreed. He wanted to get back before his mate left the house. River walked with him to his truck where Julia was looking at her phone and frowning.

She glanced at Chase. “Soph isn’t answering her phone.”

Alarm raced through his already adrenaline-laced blood. Then his brain kicked in. “She might be outside or in the laundry room.”

Julia’s face drained of color. Whatever was going through the drama queen’s head wasn’t good. Chase glanced at his brother. River gathered his mate to him.

“I’m sure your sister is fine,” he cooed, walking her away.

Julia replied, “But the hyenas—”

Chase pulled the truck door closed on her last word. Hyenas. They were still around. Could this have been a distraction to get him away from the house so she would be vulnerable?

The wheels on his SUV spun on the wet pavement as he tore out of the parking lot. He didn’t care that others stared openly at him speeding away. The only thing he cared about was his mate.

If the bastard dogs were still around, waiting to get his mate, where had they been holed up all this time? There was a lot of forested area they could’ve hunted and survived in their animal forms. But where did the explosives come from?

By the time he passed his beta’s home on the way to his, his wolf was ready to explode from his chest. It wanted to find their mate now. To have her next to them now.

Swinging into his driveway recklessly, he saw her car and nearly melted with relief. She was home. Sleeping, he bet. She was just napping and didn’t hear the phone.

He entered through the kitchen door a bit too hastily, bouncing it off the wall.

“Sweetheart, are you home?” he called out. Steps quickly carried him to their bedroom. The sheets and comforter had been pulled up and folded back, ready for tonight. But no Sophia.

“Sophia,” he called out again. Backtracking, he walked by the front entrance and saw her purse and keys on the floor. He lunged at the door and nearly ripped it off its hinges opening it to look out.

Standing there, he breathed in traces of a pungent, musty odor, typical for inhalant anesthesia.

They came right to his fucking front door and took her.

He fell to his knees in a panic so consuming, it blocked out everything around him. That’s when he heard her. She’d communicated telepathically with him through their animals a couple times already. How had he forgotten about that?

Shifting into his animal, her wavelength came in louder and clearer.

“Chase? I need you. Hear me, please.”

“I’m here, baby. Where are you?”

“Chase! Oh my god. You’re there.”

She sounded in hysterics. “Calm down, love.” Like he should be the one telling her to calm down from the state of mind he was in a second ago. “Tell me where you are.”

“I don’t know. A room without any windows. It’s like a basement. I can’t get out.”

“Okay, love, tell me how you got there.”

He felt rage surge on the connection between them. She said, “By an asshole, shithead, fucking prick dick.”

“I take it you know this person,” he replied to her description.

“A jerk from my past. Jake Schnake. It’s a long story.”

He’d heard that name before. When was that?

“How are you? Did he hurt you?”

“I’m fine. A little nauseated from the spray he used to knock me out, but okay other than that.”

“Good. Sit tight. I have to find a way to get to you.”

“How? I don’t even know where I—” she stopped for a second.

“Sophia?”

“The bastard is talking to me. I have to go.”

“Stay safe. I will find you.” He shifted back to his human form and lay on the floor. Panic was grasping for him again. How was he going to find her? Where did he start?

The man’s name, Jake Schnake. River had mentioned that name just this morning. His brother said the man was the facility director at the lab Sophia worked at. Chase began to doubt that was who he really was.

If the guy was the director, Chase would’ve met him at least once by now. And for the director to have an animal River had never come across? That didn’t seem likely. Time to meet this guy.

He grabbed his keys off the kitchen counter then realized he was buck naked from the shift a moment ago. Shit.

Finally properly clothed, he headed to the research lab for lack of any other place to look for clues of his mate’s whereabouts.

In the distance, black smoke rose high into the sky, the dark column then bending toward the east with the air currents.

Coming around the corner to the lab’s main parking lot entrance, Chase glanced at a person standing in the shadows. The face he instantly recognized and slammed on the brakes. The truck was barely in park when he flew out the door.

In seconds, he had the rat-faced hyena around the neck.

“Where is she?” No preamble of polite words, straight to the heart of it. He only wanted one answer.

Ratface’s face bloomed red, unable to breathe. His long, skinny fingers scrabbled at the fingers around his neck. His mouth moved, though no words issued. Chase wanted it that way, just to get his point across. Answer or death.

When the piece of shit was turning dark purple, Chase released his hand and the bastard fell to the ground, gasping.

Glaring down at the scum, Chase had to control his wolf from taking charge and mauling the guy. “Give me one reason not to kill you where you sit.”

Fearful eyes turned up to him. “I know where he took your mate.”

Chase grabbed the hyena by the back of his shirt and hauled him to the passenger’s side of his truck and shoved him in. As soon as he closed the driver’s door, Chase demanded, “Which direction?”

Ratface pointed to the left. Chase skidded tires onto the main drag.

As they passed the car plant, Chase asked, “You in charge of that?”

Rat snorted. “Tried to stop it. Unsuccessfully, obviously.”

Chase really looked at the hyena for the first time. The man’s shirt was ripped in places and blood stains splotched the material. His face had scratches and dried blood on it. His pants and shoes were covered in dirt and grass stains.

“Why would you do that?” Chase asked.

Ratface shrugged and stared out the window. “Had no purpose to do it.” Chase glanced at him. What did he mean by that? “Turn here.”

He slowed and cornered onto a side street that led to the town’s reservoir. The road was seldom traveled as far as he knew. And nothing was back there.

“If this doesn’t take us straight to her, I’m killing you and dumping your body for the animals to feed on.”

Ratface sighed. “It’ll get us there.”

They remained quiet while he navigated the little maintained road until Chase asked, “You gotta name?”

“Mickey,” Ratface said.

Chase held back a retort. “As in…”

“Yes,” Mickey replied, “as in mouse.” Sadness and shame wafted from the shifter. Chase wondered what kind of childhood someone like this guy had. Couldn’t have been normal. He couldn’t imagine a rodent/hyena mix. That was fucked up.

“So, Mickey,” Chase said, “what the hell is this all about? Why are you after my mate?”

With a sigh, the dog rubbed a hand over his head. “Long story, for the most part.”

“Give me the cliff notes,” the alpha ordered.

“Yeah, fine. Some snake shifter came to Victoria Winchester, the lab’s facility director, and gave her the opportunity she’d been looking for to destroy the shifter population.”

“Why would she do that?” Chase asked.

“You want the cliff notes or the audiobook?” Mickey said.

Chase grimaced. “Keep going.”

“Anyway, all she had to do was get him the work of this Dr. Reese and he’d create a solution for her. But for her to do that, she had to find a way not to implicate herself, if she wanted to keep her job. That’s where I came in.”

“And the other dogs with you?” Chase clarified.

Mickey nodded. “Members of the group I belong to. We were tasked with getting the research. Unfortunately, Tori didn’t know that Reese setup the safe’s security features. Before, it was just used as storage with no locks. Things didn’t go as smoothly as she thought.”

Chase grunted. “I’d say.”

At the end of the paved pathway, a car sat partially hidden behind brush.

“Stop here. We walk the rest of the way.”

Chase eyed the shifter next to him, but didn’t question the directions. He didn’t smell deceit.

After passing the reservoir’s dam on foot, curiosity got to Chase. “Why are you helping me? All this time you’ve been trying to take my mate. Why the change?”

Mickey pushed through wild brush, swatting tree limbs away from his face. He was silent for so long, Chase thought he wasn’t going to answer.

But then he started. “I was in love once, a long time ago.” He snorted at his own words. “Yes, someone who looks like me actually found a woman willing to see past the facade.

“As you can imagine, my growing up wasn’t the happiest of situations. Kids are cruel even at that young of an age. If you’re not pretty or skinny, you’re not part of the ‘in’ group.

“And I was really fucking far from the ‘in’ group. Grew up fighting to stay alive. Shifter teens are worse than humans. Got into the wrong crowds, done things I shouldn’t have to be accepted, to feel like I belonged. Then all that changed when I met Nichola.

“She was a beauty straight from heaven. Knew how bad I was, but saw how much I hurt inside from the life I’d chosen.”

He laughed. “The woman must’ve been blind or something ‘cause she never once frowned with disgust when looking at me or cringed away from touching me.

“Hard to believe she came from the family her bitch older sister came from. The Winchesters. They had money and power, but no family love. Talk about dysfunctional. The gangs I ran around with had more love than her parents.

“I loved her, but she didn’t love me. She had eyes only for my best friend. For the longest time, it was the three of us, hanging out, playing video games, eating pizza. Then suddenly, Nichola decided she had to be one of us—shifter. She wanted to do everything she could to belong. Ron, the one Nichola loved, told her it was too dangerous, and he refused to change her.

“She begged me to help her. Pleaded with me. Told me her heart would be forever broken if she couldn’t be Ron’s true mate. What could I do? I loved her secretly. Had for years. I couldn’t stand to see her so unhappy. I would’ve done anything for her. And I did.

“I looked for a wolf who would change her. But she found one herself first—a piece of trash who would do it for a lot of money. How Nichola came up with it, I don’t know. Not caring about her life one bit, the bastard took the money and mauled her. I found her minutes before she bled out. I held her in my arms until she took her last breath.”

Chase’s heart went out to the guy. He currently understood what it felt like to have the only person who mattered ripped away with no hope of getting them back.

The men tramped through forest with little sound but leaves crunching underfoot. The tiny critters whose short lives made the cycle of life spin continued on their way of collecting food and carrying it back to the mound or hive.

Mama birds brought food to their nests filled with open beaks. And squirrels buried nuggets of goodies for when the snow covered the ground.

Life went on even though one precious light was snuffed too early.

Mickey had finished his story, apparently. Chase didn’t want to know any more of it. Seemed Tori Winchester, Nichola’s sister, either guilted or blackmailed Mickey into helping her get Sophia’s work.

But it still didn’t explain why the hyena was helping him get his mate back. Maybe it didn’t matter. Maybe people could change when faced with the truth of their lives.

Mickey ducked behind a bush and lifted his arm to stop Chase. The alpha crouched in behind him.

“What?” he whispered.

“The camera watching over the entrance is ahead.”

Chase leaned to the side, peeking through the pile of brush in front of them. Whatever entrance they were headed for, he didn’t see. Even with shifter eyesight.

Mickey said over his shoulder, “Stay here. I’ll be back.”

Chase watched as the man skittered from tree to tree, then climbed a sturdy ash. After a minute, Mickey jumped down and signaled for him to come out.

Chase looked up the tree and saw chewed wires dangling from a small camera. He raised a brow at Mickey.

The shifter shrugged. “It’s what rodents do. Chew on wires and never get shocked. Beats me how we do it.” He knelt at a metal sheet lying on the ground. It looked strange. Like someone just set it there and left.

Mickey wrapped his fingers into an indentation Chase didn’t see at first and pulled. Nothing happened.

The hyena blushed and quickly stepped away. “You can open this better than I can.” He pointed to the finger hold. “Normally, a remote would signal the plate to slide, but you’ll have to force it either back or off completely.”

“Okay.” Chase got down on a knee and grasped the indent. He’d use his body weight and try to wrench the plate completely off. Bracing his legs and feet, he leaned back and pulled with everything he had. If this was the way in to his mate, by god, it was going to open.

Fortunately, the sheet metal wasn’t as strong as it looked, or his shifter lent him a big paw. Either way, the piece of steel ripped from the automated track it was on and flew backward, out of Chase’s hands. It embedded itself in a tree trunk, slicing halfway through.

Good thing Mickey ducked or he would’ve been divided into two smaller pieces.

“Jesus, dude, that was close.” Mickey ran a shaky hand over his hair. “I about shit my pants.”

“Sorry, man,” Chase said, looking down the newly revealed hole. “What is this?”

Mick shrugged. “Some kind of underground military facility. Some throwback to the Cuban Missile Crisis. Has its own self-destruct button, even. The Snake brought us here to work out of until he got what he wanted. It’s been abandoned for decades.”

“Go in first?” Chase asked.

“Nah,” Mick shook his head, “this is as far as I go. Follow the hall to the end and turn left. That’ll take you to the living quarters. He’s got a lab setup. She’s probably there.”

Alarms screamed in Chase’s head, but he smelled no treachery, only…regret? Still, he’d have to be on his guard.

He held his hand out to the one-time enemy. Mick stared at it, then turned glassy eyes to Chase.

The alpha said, “Still don’t know why you’re helping me, but I appreciate it more than you know.”

Mickey grasped the outstretched peace offering. “Maybe by saving the lives of your two unborn, it’ll make up for the tiny one I lost along with their mother when all she did was love me.” He slipped into the trees and was gone.