“Dad!” Mariah shouted, warning me of the line of panther shifters blocking the road. My first reaction was to drive right through them. But I couldn’t risk it. There was a reason we were being stopped so far away from Nenana. No, I needed them alive enough to talk to me.
I did the best I could to keep the car on the road. Thankfully, the sun had dried everything out and I didn’t hit any black ice or puddles. We fishtailed back and forth, coming closer and closer to the bodies. They didn’t even flinch as we skidded to a stop just inches from one of them.
“Both of you, stay in the car!” I snapped at the women. I had no idea what we were walking into and I couldn’t worry about protecting the two most important females in my life too. Jumping out of the car, I did my best to look the part of coyote alpha.
“Dad! I can help!”
Mariah started to open the back door, and I immediately jumped forward to slam it shut. I gave her a glare through the window, warning her not to disobey. I heard her curse, but I also saw in her eyes that she’d listen to me.
“What are you doing in my territory?” I shouted.
The line of seven men all turned to look at the one in the center. Their leader? Their alpha? “Where’s Holland Myer?”
“What are you doing in my territory?” I asked again. But the instant the words left my mouth, one of the panthers rushed forward and punched me in the gut before I had a chance to respond.
“Marcus!” Holland screamed from the car.
The panther backed up into his line again, ignoring the glare of the one in the middle. I dropped to the ground, breath temporarily knocked out of me and the pain of an injured diaphragm causing instant spasms below my ribs. It was the reason I couldn’t speak right away and the reason I couldn’t stop Holland from rushing to my side.
“Marcus!” she cried out again. Then, her face crinkled in rage as she stood and marched over to the panther in the middle. “What the fuck are you doing, Aaron? Are you seriously listening to Elijah now?”
The way she spat the name of her ex had Aaron looking down at her with a surprised expression. “You don’t get to leave the pride, Holland. It doesn’t matter who’s in charge, that’s the rule.”
“Well, fuck you, Aaron.” She turned to all the others and said the same thing. “Fuck all of you for coming up here and interfering in something that doesn’t concern you.”
As she spoke, my animal forced me to focus on a scent in the distance. My coyotes. Or at least some of them. They were close, maybe a few miles away. All we had to do was keep the intruders distracted.
“Where is Elijah?” I asked, pulling myself up off the ground and standing by Holland’s side.
Aaron smiled, but it was evil and feral. “He’s got your pack trapped in that tiny little shithole you call a town.” Then, turning back to Holland, he added, “Is this really better?”
“Yes,” she snapped. “Anything’s better than living with your kind.”
With the sound of feet shuffling, Aaron raised a brow at the man who’d sucker-punched me, forcing him to stand down again. “Holland, you know we’re not all like Elijah.”
“Really? Then prove it by letting us pass.”
He shook his head. “Sorry, no can do. Orders and all,” he added with a shrug.
Just a few more minutes and my coyotes would be here. More stalling needed. “Hey Aaron,” I started, “do you really think your panthers can control a pack of two hundred coyotes?”
The arrogant ass huffed. “Of course. We’re panthers.”
“And my people know these lands. They have lived here for generations.”
“Well, it would seem Elijah had no trouble walking into your town and taking a bunch of them hostage now, did he?” Aaron’s smug smile made me want to take him out now. But I had to wait for backup.
“You are in shifter territory up here, Aaron. Powerful shifters with a lot of powerful friends. Are you sure you want to piss all of us off?”
The members of my pack were close…I could feel the magic brewing at the surface like a shiver and I pushed it out into our surroundings. If my coyotes needed it, I would give it to them.
Aaron sniffed the air and looked out into the woods for a moment. Had he sensed them too?
“Why are you doing this, Aaron?” Holland asked again. “This isn’t your fight.”
He took a step forward and I immediately placed myself in between her and the giant cat shifter. Aaron looked at me and then at Holland, as though suddenly figuring something out. “Oh shit,” he said with an unamused laugh. “You fucking mated with him?” he asked Holland. “Wow. Elijah is definitely going to kill everyone now.” He turned to me and pointed at my chest. “Especially you.”
I slapped his hand away and he immediately bounded forward in preparation for a fight. But a split second later, all seven of the panthers dropped to the ground after a round of shots rang out from the woods.
“Oh my god,” Holland breathed. She covered her mouth and looked back and forth at all the bodies. “Are they dead?”
“Sleeping,” Kevin’s gruff voice said from the shadows. He emerged carrying a rifle and summoned Colby and Daniel to reveal themselves too. “Bear tranquilizers. They’ll be out for a while.”
I stepped forward and gave my friend a quick hug. “How’d you get away?”
“We’d gone out for a drink and sensed something was off when we got close to home. We stashed the truck and hoofed it over to the town only to see that it had been taken hostage.”
“How many panthers?”
“We counted about forty. But when this little group broke away, we decided we should follow.” Kevin spat on the body closest to his feet. “The one leading them is fucking crazy.”
“Elijah?” Holland asked with a shaky voice.
“Yeah, I think that’s what they called him.”
“Marcus, I’m so sorry,” Holland whispered. “I never wanted this to happen.”
She sobbed against my chest as I held her close. “This isn’t your fault,” I soothed her. “We need to get there,” I said over her head to Kevin.
“I suggest we run. They’ll hear the cars.”
“Fine.” I looked back and gestured for Mariah to join us. She was texting someone and it took her a second to see us.
“They’re on their way,” she said with a quick nod to Kevin and a glance at Colby. Daniel was pulling the limp bodies off the road and hiding them in the ditch.
“Who?” Kevin asked.
“Many of our friends,” she replied cryptically. I took that to mean that Brandt and Major had come through. I wondered if the dragon would help.
“Okay, come on. We need to get there before these guys wake up.” I kissed Holland on the forehead. “Do you think you can keep up?”
She smiled up at me and straightened her shoulders. “I’ll do the best I can.”
“Let’s go.”
We all took off at a fast jog. Using the road for the next several miles helped us make good time, but when we had to veer off into the woods, I found myself helping Holland more than I planned. She was doing great, she just lacked the night vision we shifters had. Mariah and the boys sprinted out ahead to scout for trouble. I kept my magic in the air in case they needed to shift. It was tiring but necessary.
I only wished I could help Holland change into a coyote too.
As we approached Nenana, I smelled the panthers and their rage. Or at least one panther’s rage. Finding a spot on a hill overlooking the main street, we all crouched down and watched Elijah bark commands and taunt my people.
“I hate him so much,” Holland whispered.
Mariah shot her a glare and I growled a warning. Now was not the time to be a hot head and I seriously hoped Mariah was starting to understand that along with her place. Shouts of laughter dispersed into the air as Elijah and two other panthers pushed Doc Schultz to the ground. He was still a shifter, but he was old. And an old man being treated like that had me wondering how Holland had fallen under Elijah’s spell in the first place.
The panthers had started a large bonfire in the center of the dirt street, tossing chairs and other belongings into it as they ransacked the houses. Clinking their beer bottles together, they celebrated their bullying and looked prepared to stay here for a while.
“What do we do?” Daniel asked.
“I have to go down there,” I said.
“No!” Holland whisper shouted. “Maybe I can talk him down. I think he’ll listen to me.”
“That’s not going to happen,” I said. “Colby and Mariah, I want you to stay up here with Holland. Don’t let her out of your sight. Understood?”
“Yes,” they said in unison.
“Marcus, please don’t do this. He’ll kill you,” Holland pleaded.
“He won’t kill me if he knows I have you. He’ll want to take you from me first.”
“Well, that doesn’t sound like a great plan,” Holland huffed. “He’s crazy, Marcus.”
“Kevin, do you still have some tranquilizers?” He nodded and I told him to bring those with us. “Stay here, Holland. Please. No matter what you see. I am stronger than him and I don’t want you to forget that.”
The tears in her eyes spilled over onto her cheeks just before I kissed her hard. I didn’t care who was around, I wanted Holland to know that I would protect her…no matter what. I could still hear her sobs and Mariah’s comforting words as Kevin, Daniel, and I slipped off the ledge and started running toward our home. We hid in the shadows, using the trees for cover and trying to assess the situation now that we were closer. As we approached the main entrance to town, I heard a voice that stopped us cold.
“You ignorant fuck. Do you even know who I am?” Ana Luiza’s Brazilian accent was prevalent when she was mad.
“I could care less, lady,” one of the panthers said.
“I am alpha of the largest South American pack of coyotes—”
He backhanded her and she fell to the ground. A man, Lucas, rushed to her side and helped her up. “You will regret that,” she spat blood at the panther.
“Elijah?” the panther called out as though ready to rat her out.
“What’s going on here?” Elijah asked, sauntering over from somewhere behind the flames.
Ana Luiza brushed off her fur jacket and stomped her foot. “What is your business here?”
Elijah’s crooked grin set in. “My business is none of your business, chica.”
“You are in coyote territory, panther. That makes it all of our business.”
Elijah kicked her in the stomach.
I cringed when I saw it but nearly shouted at Lucas when I noticed what he was about to do. Almost in slow motion, he started to shift, flying through the air at Elijah and aiming for his throat. But Elijah was quick. Too quick even, and he grabbed Lucas by the jaw, spun him in the air, and tossed him over his head into the bonfire without so much as a grunt.
“Son of a bitch,” Kevin whispered from a tree nearby.
“You are fucking crazy,” Ana Luiza shouted. “You kill a shifter for a human girl? That is pathetic and weak and I hope you—”
Elijah swung his arm out in front of him and sliced Ana Luiza’s throat with a hunting knife he’d been concealing in his hand.
“What was that?” he asked, cupping his hand over his ear and bending down as Ana Luiza started to fall. “I’m sorry, I can’t hear you through all the gurgling.” His laugh echoed in the stunned silence. Wiping the bladed on his jeans, he took a swig of his beer and held the knife up into the air. “Two down!”
The panthers in town cheered him on and I knew that there was a real possibility I wasn’t going to make it out alive tonight. I slid back behind the tree and turned to talk to Kevin and Daniel—only to come face to face with a shot gun.
“Get up,” a deep voice ordered.
A quick glance to my right allowed me to see that Kevin and Daniel had already been spotted and were being forced to walk into town. The man with the gun pushed the barrel into the side of my head and said, “Move. Now.”
I lifted my hands and did my best not to look up toward the hill where Holland and Mariah were hiding. Pushing my magic outward, I spoke to my pack. My magic was telling them to wait, to not change until it was time. And that time would be when we had reinforcements the panthers weren’t expecting.
“Found these guys hiding in the woods,” my captor said as Elijah noticed us entering the town.
“No shit,” he mumbled. “Any of them Marcus?”
Kevin started to open his mouth, but I beat him to it. “I am.” The man pushed me forward hard enough that I fell on my hands and knees in front of Elijah. When I looked up at him, his blade sliced me across my cheek and I tried not to scream out in pain. I needed to be strong now. Stronger than ever before. I needed to show my people that we were not doomed.
I touched the side of my face and winced with the burning pain. Elijah dropped down to his knees and sat in front of me. “So, I heard you were having a bit of an alpha problem.” He pointed over his shoulder with his thumb toward the bonfire. “I believe you owe me some gratitude.”
“What do you want?” I asked instead.
“Well, for starters, I’d like some fucking gratitude. But then I’ll settle for my mate.” He spat on the ground next to me, his mouth reeking of chewing tobacco and beer.
“She does not belong to you,” I growled, doing my best not to shift. My coyote wanted his throat, but I needed all of us together to make the hunt a success.
“Oh, my little mutt. She does.” Elijah stood and kicked me hard in the ribs.
The sharp twinge of a broken bone made my stomach instantly nauseous and I knew that I had internal bruising. It would heal, I just had to suck it up. Behind me, Kevin and Daniel were fighting back and I wanted to tell them to stop. But I didn’t have time before I heard the sickening crunch of a gun barreling down on their skulls. They were still breathing, but they were knocked out cold.
“Are you going to tell me where she is?” Elijah asked.
“Fuck off,” I replied.
“Fair enough,” he whispered, then called out to the crowd, “String ‘em up!”