Chapter Thirty-One
Ethan arrived home approximately ten minutes later.
He’d ridden with the air conditioner on wide open, hoping to aid in cooling down his fevered flesh.
The elevator ride felt like an eternity, slow and grueling. He emerged inside the foyer of his penthouse and bolted up the stairs to his bedroom.
Ethan’s teeth shot down, his body bowing in a partial shift. If he didn’t get ahold of himself, his wolf would take control. And that wouldn’t help anyone. Especially Piper.
Dropping to his knees in the middle of the floor, Ethan attempted to breathe through his rage. He’d never had to fight his beast as hard as he fought him in that moment.
The wolf inside him had every right to want blood. Ethan wanted blood as well. But running off in a fury of fur was not the way to go about it.
He forced himself to calm enough to get back to his feet and then stumbled forward into his closet.
Ethan yanked open the door that housed his cash and pulled a lever along the top. The shelves swung outward to reveal a cache of weapons in the back.
Freeing several different handguns, Ethan tucked them into the waistband of his pants and snagged the proper ammunition.
“Boss?” Billy called, running up the stairs.
Ethan began loading the weapons. “In here.”
“What are you doing?” Billy rounded the corner, sounding out of breath.
Ethan had to unclench his teeth to speak. “I’m going after my mate. Where are Samuel and Gene?”
“Downstairs. I managed to wake them on the way over. They’ll have a hell of a headache but they will live.”
Ethan absently nodded, shouldering past Billy to get to his dresser in the bedroom. He yanked the bottom drawer open, took out a pair of jeans, and then snagged a T-shirt. “Call the pack. Have everyone meet at my grandfather’s place within the hour.”
Without waiting for confirmation, Ethan donned a pair of dark sunglasses and stormed back down the stairs. He barely spared Samuel and Gene a glance before stepping into the elevator.
Once in the lobby, Ethan straightened his suit jacket, careful to keep his weapons hidden and handed the valet a twenty-dollar bill to bring his car around.
Grateful for the dark sunglasses, Ethan could feel the fever burning in his eyes, knew they glowed behind the shaded lenses.
The valet arrived with Ethan’s car less than two minutes later. “Here you go, sir. Have a great day.”
Ethan merely nodded, not trusting his voice. He slid behind the wheel and closed the car door.
It took enormous effort not to floor the gas, so great was his rage. But he somehow managed.
His cell phone buzzed in his pocket minutes after he hit the freeway. He snatched it up. “Yeah?”
Billy’s voice came over the line. “I sent out a mass text to everyone to meet at Wallace’s place. I’m on my way there now. I also informed them to come armed.”
“Thank you, Billy. What about Piper’s friend?”
“I moved her to Piper’s bed. If she has as much sedative in her system as Samuel and Gene had, then she will probably sleep for several more hours. Their shifter blood is the only reason I was able to wake them when I did.”
Ethan thanked Billy once again. He disconnected the call, laid his phone on the center console, and drove to his grandfather’s house with one thing on the brain…saving Piper.
* * * *
“How long has she been missing?” Wallace demanded, approaching Ethan’s car as he slid to a stop in the driveway.
Ethan climbed out and slammed the door shut. “I don’t know. It’s been over three hours since she last messaged me. If I had to guess, I’d say at least two hours.”
Wallace pinched the bridge of his nose. “Enough time to take her back to Tampa.”
“This changes everything,” Ethan bit out. “My initial plan to negotiate with the Fosters and end this feud once and for all is no longer on the table. No negotiating. No deals. I want him dead, and everyone in his pack as well.”
“All of them?”
“Piper’s pregnant,” Ethan snarled, the fury inside him, a living thing. “If she’s been harmed? Yes, they all die.”
Wallace slowly lowered his hand, the irises of his eyes changing color. “I’m coming with you.”
Ethan knew better than to argue with his grandfather. He would do the same if he were in Wallace’s shoes.
He simply nodded, clapped the older man on the shoulder, and strode off toward the house. There was much to do and very little time to do it in.
Ethan’s pack members began to show up within the next twenty minutes. Some rolled up in vehicles while others preferred to shift and run in on foot.
“They’re angry,” Wallace pointed out, staring out the window of his old farmhouse.
Ethan moved toward the front door. “Good. I need them angry. I’ve never been more furious in all my life.”
Kicking the screen door open, Ethan vaulted over the porch railing, landing lithely on his feet before the anxious crowd. “As you all know by now, Isaac Foster has taken my mate.”
Pissed-off murmurs quickly flew through the crowd.
Ethan held up a hand for silence. “What you don’t know, something I have only come to learn of an hour ago, is that Piper carries my child.”
Waiting for the cries of shock to die down to a minimal buzz, Ethan continued. “If one hair on Piper’s head has been harmed, everyone in Foster’s pack dies. Do you understand? Leave no one alive.”
“When do we leave?” Samuel called out, his eyes still bloodshot from the sedative he’d been shot with.
Ethan met Samuel’s red-rimmed gaze. “We leave now. There will be no element of surprise. Foster will know by now that my mate is pregnant. He will also know that I’ll waste no time on plotting and planning. He’ll be expecting me.”
“We are with you,” Samuel responded, eliciting a roar of agreement from the crowd.
Ethan scanned the furious faces of his pack members. There wasn’t a shifter in attendance who wouldn’t willingly die for their alpha. They were his family…his pack.
Jerking his chin toward the vehicles, Ethan commanded, “Let’s go to war.”