They were silent all the way to work. Ian had a million things he wanted to tell her, but he drove without a word, one hand in hers. 

This woman was going to drive him to madness. He'd found a white hair this morning. She was gonna turn him gray by the end of the day.

When they got in front of the practice, he asked, "You have your suit on?" 

She bobbed her head. 

"Good." 

He dropped a kiss on her forehead and she exited the vehicle. Then, as much as it killed him, he drove away. 

Glancing in the rear-view mirror, he saw the white van speed toward her, stop right in front of her, and two masked thugs came out of it, grabbing her by the arms and knees. 

And he kept driving. 

After so many years with her in the pride, Ian had come to take Hsu for granted, like all of them. Today, he remembered her value. The tween had run through a hundred scenarios while they were having breakfast. 

Scenario one: Ian stays in the parking lot, an asshole flanked by three guys comes with his dog, asks to see Tania, and slits her throat. 

Scenario two: Ian drops her off and comes back when he sees the abduction. They plunge a knife in her eye socket and leave her body on the pavement. 

And on, and on, and on. 

The extremists had decided to act today, and they were either going to do it fast, or slowly. 

The tiger inside him was enraged, failing to understand the subtleties behind the decision to leave their mate in danger. Ian's animal was a lot more manageable than the ones of alphas like Rye and Daunte, but today, he could barely restrain him. He felt the start of a shift, a tingle in his hands and at the back of his neck. 

His phone rang; he answered immediately. 

"Is it time?" 

"Yes, you can shift. Ace and Jas are on the trail. Rain took a video and—" 

He hung up, not bothering to listen to the rest of it. Ian briskly stopped his truck on the side of the road and got out, leaving the engine running. His shifts weren't fast, typically taking up to a couple of minutes; this time, he was fur and claws after one breath. Following the bond that linked him to the rest of his pride, to his alphas, he rushed to Ace. 

It took him a couple of minutes to reach Jas. 

She's safe. Calm down. 

Nothing anyone could say would make him calm down until Tania was home, and those who'd taken her were dealt with. 

He ran with the tigress, and eventually they reached the small, dainty feline who was their alpha female. She was in front of a warehouse. Ace shifted back and stood naked, her hands and feet muddy. 

"You know the plan. No improvisation."

The two animals bowed their heads. Their priority was to get Tania out of there unharmed. 

Ace stepped in front of the building, hands in the air, and shouted. 

"Hey, guys! I come in peace. I just want to talk, all right? No one needs to get hurt." 

Someone peeked out a window, and the next instant, a gunshot came from inside. 

"You have a woman in there. She's just a normal human, one of you. We want to make sure she isn't harmed." 

"Fuck off, you vile animal!" someone shouted. Three gunshots now. Ian was relatively certain they were actually aiming at Ace. They were just terrible marksmen, and the alpha female made for a small target. 

"Please. All we want is to live in peace, but if you do continue shooting at me, we will attack." 

From the other side of the building, Daunte, who'd waited there for the last few hours, hidden from view behind a rusty car, held his hand up so that they could all see his thumb up. He'd been timing it all and filming the whole thing from a vantage point.

Three, two, one...

The next shot hit Ace in the leg. 

She smirked. That was all they'd needed. 

"Go." 

Ian had never won a race against Jas until today, but he got to the warehouse before her, and he also was the first to sink his teeth deep inside the leg of a guy. Not one to be outdone, the female leaped on the man holding Tania down, and ripped out his throat, coating Tania in blood. Her wrists were bound, but she seemed unharmed. Ian's animal rushed to her, and checked her over before standing in front of her protectively, as if daring anyone to approach. The idiotic humans might have, were they not getting eaten by a panther, three tigers, and an eagle. Two or three of them would have been enough to take care of this sorry lot, but none of them had wanted to take chances with Tania's life. Vision or no vision, accidents did happen; guns were dangerous things, and someone could have shot her, had they not made quick work of their enemy. 

There were body parts all over the warehouse within five minutes, and six shifters stood over them in their human forms. Ian hadn't shifted back; his animal was still too uneasy to risk it. 

"Did you film everything we needed?" Rye asked Daunte. 

"It's in the box. I'll load it online as soon as we get home. You okay, Tania?" 

Daunte was no doubt asking because there was an eight-hundred-pound tiger standing up on its back legs, licking her face. 

She held on to his rough fur and nodded. "I'm good." 

“Let’s get out of here, then.”

“Yes. Let’s go home.”

She said it like Lakesides was her home, too.