Julian dished out three plates of Fettuccini Alfredo while Tessa got them all something to drink. “I’ve been thinking,” Tessa said as she placed a couple of beers on the table for her and Gregor while setting a glass of wine at Julian’s seat. “I know you want to get in and out as soon as possible, but I think we should do a little more legwork before we do. I think I should go in as a female guard and scope things out before we impersonate the agents.”

“That isn’t a bad idea,” Julian agreed. “I do want to get Kat out sooner rather than later, but we have no idea where to begin looking once we’re on the inside. I don’t want to bumble our way through. I might not be a fan of the Feds and how they’re handling the situation with Kat, but they aren’t idiots. I’m going to try reaching out to her tonight through meditation. If that doesn’t work, we will do it your way. I have already been monitoring a couple of the women who work in the facility. After we eat, I’ll pull up the information I have on them both. One is about Gregor’s size, so I don’t think she is an option. The other one you will be more likely to pull off. You would need to wear some type of padding since you are not as large as she is, but like I said, it is doable.”

 “I’d like to go over the system they have in place, since I’m the one who’s going to be stuck out here manning the controls,” Gregor said.

“It’s pretty straight-forward, but once Tessa and I are on the inside, you’re going to have to pay attention to all the monitors. I cannot lockdown their system so only you have access. There are too many doorways where people come and go. I’m going to piggyback onto the controls so you can override any door to keep someone from following us.”

“I can do that. I would rather someone with more computer experience be doing this, but I’m not going to let you two down.”

“We know you aren’t, Stone.” Tessa placed her hand on Gregor’s arm, and the two of them shared something silently. Julian was ready for that type of connection with Katherine.

With supper eaten and the table cleared, the three of them got busy. Julian showed Gregor the controls he’d be working with while Tessa read up on one of the female guards. Tessa didn’t immediately send the woman’s picture to Jonas for a prosthetic. She was giving Julian that night to try and reach Katherine through meditation. If he wasn’t successful, then she’d call her uncle.  Gregor was confident he would be able to control the doors while they were on the inside. The system wasn’t so far different than the one Julian installed at the Pen.

Gregor continued to monitor the computer, switching screens every few minutes to watch what was happening inside FSM. Julian had considered purchasing several more screens so they could view various areas of the prison at the same time, but for now, they had to switch back and forth. When it was lights out, Julian excused himself and went outside. Even though it was ten p.m., the heat index was still in the nineties. He would have preferred to remain indoors with the air conditioning, but the stillness on the outside of the house made it easier to concentrate.

Julian reached out with his senses to make sure there was no one around. Just because they were renting the ranch that had been abandoned years before didn’t mean nobody trespassed. When he found he was alone, he strode into the barn and pulled off his shirt, tossing it across one of the stall gates. Moving to the middle of the barn, Julian phased, allowing his shifter to come out long enough to launch himself to the loft. He retracted his wings and settled on the floor, relaxing. As Frey had taught him to do, Julian closed off his senses to everything around him, focusing solely on Katherine.

Slowing his breathing, Julian withdrew into himself until he was floating. He allowed his mind to travel to where he imagined Kat to be within the prison. Envisioning her resting on a single cot within a private cell, Julian called out to her gently. Katherine? Can you hear me? He waited, giving her time to focus. Katherine? Can you hear me? He tried again. She didn’t answer, but there was something there. Something just out of reach nudging against his consciousness. Katherine, can you hear me?

Julian?

Yes, Sweetheart. It’s me.

How is this possible?

I will explain later, I promise. Are you hurt?

Not really.

Julian had to fight his shifter to remain quiet so he wouldn’t lose his focus.

Kat, I am coming for you soon. Can you tell me where you are?

I’m at FSM.

I mean within the building. Where are you within the building?

I’m in the basement in a glassed-in room.

You mean the first floor?

No, the basement. There’s no one else down here except me as far as I can tell.

Fuck! There was no indication of FSM having a basement. This was going to be harder than he thought. But he’d manage. Somehow, he would get in there and get Kat out.

Julian?

I’m here, Sweetheart. I am staying in a farmhouse not too far from the prison. I have a plan to get you out. It will take me a few days, but please, hang in there. I am coming to get you and taking you home.

I… why?

I promise I will explain everything when we get you out. I need you to trust me, Kat.

I do. For whatever reason, I do. How are you able to get into my head? How do I know this is real and not some by-product of what they did to me?

The last time I saw you before you were arrested, you were in the coffee shop talking to Dane Abbott. I followed you outside. You were wearing a tight grey skirt and pink blouse, and that day your hair was blowing all around you from the wind. The clasp had fallen out, and you were searching for it when I approached you.

I… this is crazy.

It is, but once I have you out of there, it will make sense. Please be honest with me. Are you hurt?

My eardrum is busted. Other than that, I’m recovering. The female agent in charge wasn’t aware of the torture. Well, not the physical stuff. She’s pretty good at mind manipulation.

Julian lost his connection when the beast burst through. Phasing completely while lying on his back was painful. His wings demanded to be stretched out, and Julian had no choice but to roll over. When he did, he fell from the loft. Instead of his wings engaging and keeping him from hitting the floor below, he landed hard on his stomach, knocking the breath out of him. “Godsdamn, you could have stopped the fall, you bastard,” he chastised the beast within when he could speak.

The only response he received was a roar that threatened to split his head open. “Fuck! Stop it. We are going to get her! I need to be able to reach her for that to happen.” Julian pushed himself to his feet, retracted his claws and wings, and dusted the dirt off his pants. Fucker. Instead of returning to the loft, Julian opted to remain safely on the ground.

Katherine?

Julian waited and tried several more times, but their connection was severed for the time being. He pulled on his shirt and returned to the house where he shared the latest development with Gregor and Tessa. Pulling a bottle of Scotch out of the cabinet, he poured himself a double while he spoke. “I was able to contact Kat, but what she told me might set us back a few days. She’s being held in the basement.”

“There isn’t a basement on the plans,” Gregor said, stating what they all knew already.

“No, there isn’t. I have a feeling there is a good reason for that. Kat stated she is the only one down there as far as she can tell. Either they are keeping her away from the males, or they use the basement as their torture area. She admitted to being subjected to both mental and physical torture. Her eardrum was busted.”

“Holy shit! Did your beast not come unglued?” Tessa asked. She knew from experience with Gregor what could happen when the shifter wasn’t happy. She loved to recount the story of how she dove off the roof of the Pen and Gregor phased, going after her. This was before Gregor realized she was a half-blood or that she was wearing a wind suit which allowed her to land safely on the ground. His beast neither knew nor cared. It only recognized its mate was in trouble and took over before Gregor could even think twice about it. He wasn’t the only one, either. Most of the Goyles who’d recently encountered their mates had phased for one reason or another without being able to control their beast.

“To say the least. I was lying on my back when my wings came out. I rolled over to make room for them and fell from the loft, thus breaking my connection with Kat,” Julian admitted. If Gargoyles could blush, he’d be as red as Tessa’s hair.

“Holy shit!” Tessa repeated. She glanced down at his clothes. Even knowing he was a Gargoyle and couldn’t be harmed, it was an automatic reaction to gauge someone’s injuries. He had done it on occasion with Nikolas and Frey when they were younger.

“I understand why it happened. Hearing our mate has been tortured is enough to make me want to storm into FSM and claim her, but I know that’s not possible, even if my shifter doesn’t. It wouldn’t matter if Landon or I were able to reverse the false documentation. That would only serve as a red flag and let the Feds know someone has some remarkable hacking skills.”

“Speaking of hacking, were you able to follow Agent Everhart at all?” Tessa asked Gregor.

“Not sure what that has to do with hacking, but yes. As he did when Julian tailed him, the man left and went straight home. I hung around to see if he left, but he never did. We’re going to have to get into his house during the day.”

“And hack into his home at night so you can watch and listen,” Tessa explained her statement with her hands on her hips. Julian never tired of her spunk. He prayed to the gods that Katherine would be able to hold onto her feistiness after all was said and done. Torture was meant to break hardened men who had been trained to withstand such treatment.

Gregor pulled Tessa into his lap and kissed her hard. When the kiss turned into something sensual, Julian retreated to his bedroom and closed the door. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d seen mates go from zero to naked in less than ten seconds. Julian was ready to be on the naked end of the equation with his mate instead of being the one to turn his head and try to ignore the passion burning through the room. Thinking of Katherine with no clothes on did nothing to lighten his mood. If anything, it made him edgier. He had jacked off quite often to thoughts of her small body, emerald eyes, long red hair, and those pouty lips. Ever since he’d figured out she was his mate, he’d needed to claim her. The pull to be with her, to touch her, feel her, have sex with her, was all he could think about at first. It was still on his mind, but her safety and rescue were at the forefront of his every thought.

 It didn’t take long until the door to Gregor and Tessa’s bedroom closed. Julian returned to the dining room and set about trying to find any mention on the internet of the basement at FSM. He didn’t want to have to bring in Landon, especially with Sophia’s theory about the Goyle weighing heavily. Before he did that, he pulled up his music app and found a classical album to help drown out the noises coming from the other end of the house.

 

 

Nik kissed his mate on her forehead and held her a few minutes longer, making sure she was asleep. Her pregnancy had done nothing to deter her sex drive. If anything, it had increased. If he were human, Nik had no doubt his dick would have fallen off already. Since he was a Gargoyle, his stamina gave hers a run for its money, but that meant they often found themselves having sex instead of working. Still, he would never deny Sophia anything, especially the connection she craved from him making love to her. Their bond was still growing, and with his child in her belly, Nik didn’t believe he could be happier than he was in that moment.

Slipping from the bed, he pulled on a pair of knit shorts and made his way to the archive room where he and Sophia had begun looking for information on Landon. They hadn’t gotten far when Sophia’s hormones kicked in and she had climbed on Nik’s lap, straddling him where she could kiss him deeply while writhing against his erection. After getting his mate off with his fingers, he carried her upstairs and gave her a good and proper fucking. Before Sophia was coming down from her orgasm, Nik had slowed his tempo and made sweet love to her.

At first, he had wanted to dismiss his mate’s theory that Landon Roxburgh was not who or what he portrayed himself to be. But Sophia was smart. Her mind was sharp, and she had been studying the Gargoyles for many years. She was adept at seeing patterns as well as discrepancies. Just because he was older didn’t mean he was wiser than the beautiful half-blood in his bed. Their bed.

Instead of going to the computer, Nikolas pulled out the physical book where all the names had been recorded upon their arrival in the States beginning with Nik’s uncle. From that point, Nikolas researched each listing going forward in time. According to Landon’s online records, he’d been in the US almost as long as Nik had. Landon would have no trouble manipulating the online data with regards to his identity, but there was no way he could sway the truth written in ink short of breaking into Nik’s home and stealing the journal where his name was. After three hours of searching, Nik had yet to come across Landon’s name. The longer he searched, the stronger his gut instinct was that Sophia had been right.

When his mate’s movements from the bedroom caught his attention, Nik stopped what he was doing and returned upstairs for the remainder of the night. As long as they were together, Nik would never make Sophia wake up alone. He vowed to her when they completed the mate bond to always be there for her. He held her while she fell asleep, and he kissed her good morning when she awoke. Loving his amazing half-blood was nothing short of a miracle in his mind. He thanked the gods and the fates every night for bringing her into his life. And now that she was carrying his baby? Nik couldn’t wrap his head around how blessed he was. In a few months, he would have two females to love and cherish.

 

 

Katherine needed to sleep, but she kept waiting for Julian to talk to her again. The conversation they’d had seemed so real. But how could that be? She had never demonstrated any type of psychic abilities in the past. The only thing she could think of was the hypnosis either screwed her up mentally or it unlocked some latent ability she’d been suppressing. One minute she and Julian were having a conversation and the next he was gone. She tried to reach out to him and get his attention, but it didn’t work. Maybe it was only something he could initiate. From that point on, Kat had attempted to clear her mind of anything except for him.

Her eyes were getting too heavy to hold open. Maybe if she slept, he could reach her in a dream. Katherine closed her eyes and thought about the day at the coffee shop when she met with Dane Abbott. Katherine always thought Dane would ask her out with the way he constantly flirted with her. She could get away with more at crime scenes when he was around than she could with his former boss, Kaya Kane. That woman was scary, but Kat never let Kaya intimidate her. Much. Kat didn’t cross too many ethical boundaries when she was after a story, but she did get pretty close to the line on most occasions. She had been determined to grow as a reporter until she worked for one of the national news channels, and the only way to do that was to snag the big stories.

That morning in the coffee shop, Dane was acting funny. She had fully expected him to ask her for a date. Instead, he asked her to reveal her source. When he mentioned someone in his department, she knew she needed to cut ties with Troy Quinn and fast. She’d been disappointed Dane hadn’t asked her out until she was walking away. Julian had been in the coffee shop, but he’d not paid her any attention as he typed away on his laptop. She had somehow felt his presence. To her surprise, he chased her down outside and asked if she was okay. The only reason she remembered Julian was correct in her clothing was she’d worn those colors on purpose to meet Dane, thinking the softer tones were more conducive to flirting than wearing something harsher.

When Julian stopped her, she had been flustered about Dane’s question. Troy Quinn was a snake, but he had been an informative one. It didn’t surprise her when the cop had ended up dead. Being close to Julian had given Katherine pause, making her forget about the detective she wanted to ask her out and the cop who fed her information. After their brief conversation, Kat immediately forgot all about Dane and could think of nothing and nobody except for Julian. Once they walked away from each other, she chalked her uneasiness up to Dane’s topic of discussion. Until Dane arrested her and Julian visited her in the Pen, it had been five months since she’d seen either man. Dane had been sympathetic when he took her in. He apologized for having to arrest her, but he had no choice with the amount of evidence stacked against her. What surprised Kat most was when he told her not to worry. Someone was looking into everything, and they would get to the bottom of it all.

When Julian came to see her in prison, she figured out who Dane had been talking about. Why, she didn’t know, other than Julian claimed her. You are mine. She’d never forget that conversation as long as she lived. If the man was true to his word and did get her out of FSM, she wouldn’t hesitate to let him claim her in more ways than with his words.