Chapter Twelve
Panic rippled through her as the silence of the warehouse engulfed Addison. And then, from out of nowhere, pain shuddered through her. She sank down onto the cement and wrapped her arms around her body, unable to breathe.
“Addison!” Eve’s crimson tipped fingers dug into Addison’s arm. “You have to get up. We don’t have much time.” Eve’s pale face was paler than normal, her eyes larger as she urged Addison to rise. “They’re on their way and we can’t be here.”
“Something’s wrong,” she gasped. Pain shuddered through her again, a deep pain that burned into her skin and stole her breath away. “They’re hurting Ethan.”
Eve put her hands on her hips. “Well then get your big girl panties up off that floor and get a move on.” She loomed over Addison and waggled a sharply manicured nail in her face. “Gabby needs a hospital, Ethan needs rescuing, and if we don’t get out of here we’ll be next. I don’t know about you, but even to my very human nose, that stinks!” She stared at Addison, doubled up on the floor. She turned to Trish. “What’s wrong with her?”
Trish shook her head and motioned to Eve as she stood up. “I’ll take care of it. Come here and take my place with Gabby.”
Eve nodded, settling on the ground next to Gabby’s head.
“Addison, you have to rise above the mating bond.” Trish knelt down next to Addison, her pixie face drawn tight with stress. “I’ve heard that you can do it. Use the pain, use the adrenaline and get up!”
“I can’t.” The pain was disorienting. Addison couldn’t tell where it was coming from, but she knew it was Ethan’s.
“Get up!” Trish growled, her eyes glowing green with her wolf. “Your mate needs you. We need you.”
Under the words Addison felt the call of the alpha bitch and the wolf in her responded to the command. Still trying to pull in enough air she nodded and climbed to her feet. “I’ll try.”
Trish hugged her. “You can do this.”
Addison hugged her back, desperate to find something, anything, that would distract her from the pain. “I can’t function with this bond between us.”
“You can and you will.”
“I’m losing myself and I haven’t even taken the bite from him.” She hung onto her best friend as if she were the only steady thing in the world. “When that happens, he’ll swallow me whole. I’ll be just like my mother.”
“No you won’t. Remember how dreamy the Wolfes were when they came in the lodge? How Aric doted over his mate, and how she gave him shit? She stands up to him, and he’s a big pack alpha. Do you think that she’s less of a woman, less capable because she has a mate?” Trish waited for Addison’s shake of her head before continuing, “Do you think he’s less of a man because his mate’s strong?”
Addison again shook her head. “No.”
“If they can do it, so can you. Start now. Make that mating bond serve you, instead of you serving it. Use the pain, Addison, use the love. Get us out of here.”
Another wash of pain flowed over her and she swore she smelled some kind of meat burning. Inside, her wolf howled with agony. Her whole being throbbed with the need to shift and search out her mate. Ethan needed her. Maybe she’d let the mating bond take her over, maybe she’d end up just like her mother, but she couldn’t ignore it a second longer.
Pushing the possible horror out of her head she reached for her wolf. “Come on girl, give me some of what you’ve got.” Carefully, she let just enough of her wolf out that she could feel the power surging through her but, instead of shifting, she took the metal chain mesh in her hands and ripped.
The metal strained, but didn’t break.
The power of the mating bond flowed into Addison, giving her a sudden surge of strength. She pulled harder. Slowly, the metal links popped as they tore away from their post.
“Atta girl!” Trish pumped her fist. “Use it, make it work for you. He needs you.”
Her muscles shaking, she pulled harder. The curtain of chain pulled all the way away from the pole, leaving a gap just big enough for a wolf to push through.
She turned to Trish, shaking with the need to find Ethan. “Come on, we need to get Gabby out of here.”
“You go. Eve and I can handle it.”
“But they’re on their way!”
Trish’s upper lip pulled away from her front teeth in a snarl. “Just let those assholes try to take me down. Eve, go get our phones and call the lodge.” Eve slipped through the hole in the chain link, heading for the pile of purses. Trish turned back to Addison. “What are you waiting for? Go. Before it’s too late!”
Shaking with the delayed need to shift, she stripped off her sweat-drenched clothes. Bones cracked and moved under her skin. Fur rippled out of her pores in the blessed pain of the shift. Now, she was a sleek brown wolf, small enough to fit through the hole. She didn’t even pay attention to Eve’s gasp of horror, she was through the gap and running to save her mate.
She barely noticed a shifted Trish squeezing through the gap behind her, taking up a defensive stance outside of the cage. The mating bond had taken hold. She couldn’t stop now, Ethan was in trouble.
She avoided the larger garage style door, hitting the smaller one next to it and aiming for the push bar in the middle. It swung wide and she burst out into the snow. Ethan, where was Ethan? The tug of him was so strong, she had no idea which way to go. She sniffed the air. Faint on the crisp cold mountain air was the scent of fire. Her fear pushing her faster, she ran into the woods.
The smell grew stronger until the heavy odor of smoke choked the air. Now, she could hear the sound of the fire, a vicious roaring that scared her wolf, but had her even more desperate than before. A large barn was on fire, flames crackling, dark smoke rising to the sky. She crept over the ground, hugging the trees and surveying the clearing. She caught the rumble of a large engine, followed by a burst of smaller ones. A large pick-up, followed by a string of bikes was leaving the yard, heading down the dirt driveway.
That had to be Sven and his crew, heading to the warehouse. Fear for Trish and the girls rushed through her.
Part of her wanted to race back and make sure they were okay, but she couldn’t. She was here now and she’d never make it back in time. She had to have faith in Trish and Eve and stay here. She had to save her mate.
I’m coming, Ethan.
She used the extra strength of her need to drive her wolf toward the burning building, running directly for the smoke and fire even as her beast howled out her fear of the flames.
***
Ethan choked on the smoke as inside, his beast twisted and fought his control, trying to get free and run from the fire. But there would be no running. They were trussed to the pole. The smell of his own branded flesh and fur was now being drowned out by the heavy dark smoke as the old wood of the barn caught fire.
He didn’t even have the consolation that they didn’t have Addison to comfort him. As the iron had burned its way into his skin and he’d struggled to stay conscious through the pain, he’d heard the phone ring.
Sven had hung up the phone. “No more play-time. We need to take care of him now and get out of here.” Over the chorus of no’s and awe’s he added, “Don’t think you’re getting off easy, Blaylock. We’ve got your woman. And just to screw it to you she’s going to feel every single one of us inside her before we’re done. We’re going to make her pay for what you done to us, you fucking traitor.” He stuck his finger into the freshly burned wound on Ethan’s hip and pushed, twisting his finger.
Unable to fight the pain any longer, Ethan finally passed out to the sound of his own screams.
When he’d come to, they were gone. The pungent stink of gasoline had his nose wrinkling. The first cracklings of the old barn told him—he was a dead man.
Now, the fire had spread along the base of the stalls, licking up the dry wood as if the devil himself had lit the fuse.
He struggled to free himself from the ropes, but he was tied fast. He pushed the shift, hoping to fall out during the process, or that the difference in size between paws and wrists would let him wiggle free, but the ropes only bit deeper into skin without the fur.
Would the flames burn him before the ropes burned, or would he be roasted like a hog over a pit? He laughed, the black choking sound drowned out by the crackle and pops of the fire.
Over the sound of the flames he heard a howl. His heart leapt, pounding in his chest like a base drum.
Addison!
He strained, trying to hear it again over the loud sounds of the barn being devoured, but he couldn’t. He sagged. She wasn’t here, he was imagining things. She was about to be savaged by the same men who’d done this to him.
No. Not if he had anything to say about it. He wasn’t giving up. He was going to fight for his mate to the end.
The fire climbed its way to the ceiling, crawling along the old dry two-by-fours that held up the patched metal roof. A piece fell in, crashing to the ground only a few feet away, the extra air making the fire whoosh in glee.
He turned his wrists against the ropes, ignoring the blood dripping from his wrists. There was another howl, but this one was louder. He twisted his body, searching for the source. There, silhouetted against the open barn door, was the shape of a wolf.
Even in her fur-body, his woman had it going on, he’d know that curvy feminine shape anywhere. Another piece of roofing fell, crashing between them and he flinched. “Addison, it’s too dangerous! Back away!”
But the dark shape of the wolf paced toward him through the smoke, ducking around the burning piles of debris like a shadow. He fought his bonds harder.
She finally reached him. Wolf became woman and she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and squeezed him hard. “Ethan!”
His chest squeezed tight with sheer emotional response.
“Addison, you have to go. The entire building could come down at any moment.” Even though he knew she should leave, the solid feel of her body pressed against his was incredible.
“No way. We’re getting you out.” Her fingers worked the wet bloody ropes. “I can’t get them. The knots are too tight.” She darted a look around the building. “I’ll be right back.”
“No!”
But it was too late, she was gone, racing back through the smoke to the front of the building. She disappeared for a while, then came back clutching the rustiest looking knife he’d ever seen. The blade looked dull, and the rough splintered wooden handle’s pins were rusty, but it was the best looking thing he’d ever seen—next to his mate standing next to him in all her bare naked glory.
“Good thing the tack room wasn’t emptied.” She grinned, the soot on her nose and cheeks making her look like a sexy chimney sweep as she sawed at his ropes.
He didn’t feel the cuts of the blades on his numb wrists, but he did feel the impact as he fell hard to the ground. “Umph!”
“Come on.” She wrapped her arms around him and helped him to his feet. He took a step, the pain in his hip shooting through him with every step.
A beam dropped down in front of them and they swerved, barely missing it in time. They both hesitated, looking at the flames, getting worse. Both of them were dripping sweat from the heat.
Addison lifted her chin. “We can do this, Ethan.”
“I know we can.” He dropped a quick kiss on the top of her head. “Now run.” And despite the pain driving deep into his skin he took off, pulling her with him through the thick black smoke, weaving in and out until they burst out of the building into the snow.
He grabbed Addison’s precious face and kissed her, soot and all. “You came. I can’t believe you came.” Far away he heard the whine of sirens.
“I’m sorry I doubted you—us. I thought the mating bond made me weak, but I was wrong. It made me stronger. I’ll never doubt us again.”
He pulled her close to him and they hung on to each other. “I need you Addison.”
“I need you too. But I left the girls and those horrible men are on their way to get them. We have to head back.” She shifted to wolf and he shifted right beside her, loping through the woods. The pain of the brand on his hip receded as the shift took care of some of the healing and he ran next to his mate through the woods for the very first time. A shot rang out, followed by another one. They exchanged worried glances and put on another burst of speed.