The men waited on the dock, the night silent and still. Nothing moved except the eyes of the watchful, the beasts contained within the humans.

Aiden and Jackson stood in plain sight, their tall shadows barely noticeable.

Bret, Travis, and Noah hid among the vehicles parked a few yards away, crouched down against the sides.

Sam and the two other women from the pack, Jessica and Abby, were in the back of a black SUV, tied up and acting drugged.

Bret could tell Aiden was furious, but he wasn’t about to go against Travis even though he wasn’t part of the pack. Sam had spoken the truth. They weren’t mated, and Bret honestly felt sorry for the other man. If that had been Nikki…

He shook the thought from his mind. Nikki was safe back at the house. That was all that mattered.

 

 

Something was wrong.

Nikki hadn’t been able to sleep and instead paced her bedroom, nervous energy spiking through her as different scenarios raced across her mind at what was happening miles away. Vanessa was attempting to put Ava down, but the little girl could no doubt sense the worry and tension inside the house, and the fight against sleep was probably testing Vanessa’s limited patience at the moment.

A shower, anything to pass the time while she waited. After grabbing her pajamas, she closed the bathroom door behind her and was soon standing beneath the spray of the hot water, letting it pound against her head and back.

Feeling clean and better about what was happening, she got dressed and opened the door just as she heard a noise. Nikki froze, the dim light from the bathroom causing flickering shadows throughout the bedroom.

“Vanessa?” she called softly.

She tried to breathe evenly and control her racing heart. Not only was Vanessa in the room down the hall, so were two other shifters, Zach and Patrick.

I’m safe. I’m protected. Nothing is wrong. I’m imagining...

Her intuition had saved her life more than once, so she walked over to the small table on the other side of the bed and got the gun that Bret had given her a few weeks before, keeping the safety on for now.

“Vanessa? Zach?”

Her breathing harsh, she started to walk over to the door but froze again as the light breeze hit her flushed cheeks. Her eyes shot over to the half-opened window.

She hadn’t opened the window.

Before she could run or scream, she felt it—a sharp point against her throat and a broad chest behind her back.

“One little sound and I’ll kill you,” her husband whispered, his hot breath bathing her ear, his familiar strong cologne gagging her. Struggling to breathe out her mouth, she didn’t move, paralyzed.

He trailed the sharp knife down her throat to her collarbone and back up to her ear like a lover’s caress, and she felt a prick of pain followed by something wet.

Blood.

His arm came around her and grabbed the gun from her limp hand, tossing it on the bed beside them.

“How did you know?” she whispered.

Edward was silent for a moment before he chuckled.

“Seriously? Nikki, it was too easy. I’m not a fucking idiot, baby. It was just too convenient for a sudden shipment to come in right after the disaster of the last one. I had already known who was helping you. It was just a matter of getting most of the bastards away from the house, hence me pretending to go along and communicate my desire for the transaction. It worked. My men took care of the two left, and here we are. So, this is what we’re going to do. Very carefully, you’re going to move over to the window and climb out with me. I don’t think I have to mention that I would love to kill you for all of the fucking trouble you’ve caused me, but I’m willing to show mercy. At least…to the little girl and bitch I have.”

Nikki felt sick, her stomach heaving with the thought of her friend and the baby at the mercy of the monster behind her.

Oh God…

The dark voice and rough push toward the window left no doubt that he would do what he threatened. Nikki also didn’t doubt he had more men outside surrounding the house. It was how her husband worked. He rarely worked the job himself, but when he did, he never came alone.

“What have you done?” she asked harshly, her throat tight.

He nudged her harder toward the window with the knife, and she shot a quick glance at the door, her heart pounding with terror, sweat sliding down between her breasts.

Where are the guys?

Tears sprung to her eyes as she put one leg over the seal of the window. A tall man was below her on the lawn, a murderous glint in his eyes. She spied the ladder leaning against the wall, and followed by a sharp nudge from Edward, she threw one leg over and started to climb down. As soon as she got close, the man at the bottom jerked her down to the wet ground, and Edward followed close behind.

“You have the bitch and her brat?”

The man nodded, grinning. “Jack has the brat. The woman is drugged and passed out in the car.”

“Good. We’ll need them.”

They’re dead.

With a small wince of pain, she almost tripped over her feet as Edward pushed her from the back, and the man pulled her by her arm, his hand like a vice as he squeezed her flesh.

“I’ll teach you to fuck with me, bitch,” Edward muttered as they walked away from the house. “And everyone else that fucked with me.”

Nikki looked around the yard frantically, praying that someone would see them, but the yard was deserted.

Tears burned her eyes as they walked farther away from the house, farther away from any chance of help.

Bret, help us.

Bret froze, Nikki’s shaking voice echoing in his head. Heart pounding furiously, he knew they had been set up.

“He’s got her,” he whispered.

Just then, Travis froze beside him.

“Vanessa.”

That one word, whispered in pain, echoed his own terror as his Alpha’s eyes, unfocused, stared off into the distance, his lips pinched white.

Bret and Travis, as one, whirled around and took off toward the vehicles parked a few blocks away from the warehouse where they had been stationed, waiting for the contact and bastard to appear.

The men, after releasing the women, all piled into the vehicles, Bret behind the wheel. Tires spun as they raced to the pack house.

“I’m going to tear the fucker to pieces,” Travis said grimly, his large hands clenching the dash until the whites of his knuckles drew a stark contrast against the black of the interior. From the corner vision, Bret glimpsed the red eyes and tight skin as the wolf struggled to break free.

All Bret could hear was Nikki’s panicked voice begging for his help, her terror a foul taste in his dry mouth.

Lips tight, his eyes narrowed as he took another sharp turn, his facial skin rough with the coarse hair of his bear. He didn’t notice the pain of the partial shift, his claws ripping the leather from the wheel.

Sam’s own white face stared at him in the mirror, her fear a living thing.

The house came into view, and Bret barely braked before jamming it into park. He threw the door open and raced into the house.

“Nikki!”

Travis ran up the stairs behind him. “Vanessa!”

Just as they reached the top, they saw Zach’s prone body in the hall, unmoving, blood splattered on the wall.

Bret bent down and checked for a pulse. It was there but weak.

“Noah!”

“I've got him. Go!”

Bret didn't need any more urging. He took off again, but Travis met him in the doorway of Nikki’s bedroom, the fine hairs of his beast covering his whole face as rage pulled his skin taut.

“They're gone. The window is open in Nikki’s bedroom, and Vanessa and Ava are gone. They took them.”

“They shouldn't have much of a head start,” Aiden said, his own wolf visible in the glittering red eyes. “Patrick is missing too.”

Despair threatened to bring him to his knees as he tried not to imagine what Nikki was going through.

“How the fuck did he know?” Bret whispered, running his shaking hand through his ruffled hair. “And how did they take Zach and Patrick by surprise?”

“Questions saved for later,” Travis said. His Alpha looked as bad as Bret felt as they hit the porch running, jumping over the railing and landing on their feet in the yard.

Bret saw Sam racing back from the woods and heard her bark.

Travis was the first to shift, and Bret and Aiden soon followed as they took off after Sam.

They all heard the crying at the same time and skidded to a halt. Sam shifted back and jumped over a few logs, naked, the men right behind her.

Ava sat on the ground, her white nightshirt dirty with a few traces of blood that stopped Bret’s heart. Travis walked over to his daughter and nudged her neck, consoling the small child. Tiny arms circled his thick neck as she buried her dark head against the fur of her father. Travis reluctantly took a step back as Sam reached down and picked up the child, soothing her with a quiet voice.

Bret spied the paper on the hard ground where Ava had been sitting and barked to Sam just as Travis noticed it as well.

Sam picked it up and read it out loud, her voice shaking with rage and fear as Ava whimpered, fear and the smell of urine strong on the soft breeze.

 

“I didn’t kill the brat. Continue to follow and V won’t be so lucky.”

 

Bret and Travis locked eyes, their thoughts running along similar lines. There was no need for words.

He wouldn’t have killed her. Not yet…

Bret had never felt more terror, more panic than he did at that moment. No amount of experience could have prepared him for the shivers of doom that streaked through him at the thought of losing her forever.

“I’ll call Jackson,” Sam told Travis urgently.

Nodding curtly, Travis took off through the dark woods, Bret and Aiden right behind him. Their pack had dwindled, and they were running out of time.