Astrid Cielo (16 page)

"You'll
do it or I'll cut this baby out and then make you watch as I kill your
mates.
 
Slowly."

A
boom sounded through the bathroom as though someone had kicked the door.

"Open
this damn door, Aspen."

The
male led her to the door and she felt him let her go.
 
Aspen reached for the door knob, but a hand
on her arm stopped her.
 
She looked up
into the face of the man who'd threatened her.
 
Beautiful sculpted features, almost perfect except for the small flaw of
a once broken nose.
 
His curly blond hair
was cut in a messy fashion and bright, baby blue eyes that
almost
screamed innocence stared at her.
 
Almost
.
 
Behind that
baby blue shined a coldness that made goose bumps rise on her flesh.
 
He was a killer.

He
stepped beside the door so that when it opened it would hide his presence.
 
But they would smell him, wouldn't they?

She
sniffed trying to scent him and was taken aback by his smile.
 
Pure predator.

"Open
the door then step back."

His
whisper was almost too quiet to hear, but the gun he produced and held at her
abdomen garnered her cooperation.

She
took a deep breath and unlocked the door.
 
A part of her was relieved she was opening the door because her two
mates would ruin it.
 
Another part of her
told herself to shut up, her life and theirs was on the line.

Aspen
turned the knob and let it open a little before stepping back.
 
Her breath caught in her throat as the door
pushed open and slowly Skylar's face appeared.
 
Her vision clouded with her tears and his nose twitched.

"Aspen,
baby, what's wrong?"
 
His eyes took
in her body and he ran forward when he noticed the blood on her belly.

Aspen
sank to her knees, though she knew she should yell out, the next few moments
happened too quickly.

The
sound of a gun, though it sounded wrong to her ears, echoed in the bathroom and
almost instantly Skylar
fell
face first in front of
her.
 
A sob tore through her throat and
she felt the shift that she couldn't stop.
 
Didn't want to stop.
 
Someone would pay for this.
 
Another shot sounded and Xavier who'd rushed
in behind Skylar crumpled to the floor.
 
Her cougar raged and leaped intent on shredding their enemy to nothing
anyone would be able to recognize.
 
The
sound was foreign to her and her cougar growled at the sharp pain that exploded
on her shoulder.
 

Her
world faded as she sank between her mates.
 
It didn't matter anymore.
 
Nothing
mattered anymore.
 
They were gone.

Shawn
couldn't help the smile that broke his face.
 
Didn't even try.
 
He had his brother's killer right where he
wanted him.
 
Of course he could kill him
now and save himself a lot of trouble, but where was the fun in that?
 
Instead he picked up the rather beautiful
female the wolves had claimed.
 

Such
a beautiful female would scream enticingly under his blade and teeth.
 
His dick hardened at the prospect of watching
the life fade from her gorgeous grey eyes.
 
Ahh
, but maybe this would be more fun than
he'd originally thought.
 
His brother had
always preferred humans; exerting his power over such a weak species was quite
entertaining.
 
But he bet this female
would put up a bigger fight.

He
held her nude body close to his and stepped over his brother's killer and the
other male.
 
He'd have plenty of time to
toy with them later, especially since he intended they follow--eventually.
 
Knowing it would enrage them further, he
stopped to smear some of the female's blood on the door.

Shawn
had some playing to do before they found them.
 
He hurried from the house and disappeared into the woods.
 
It wouldn't take long for the wolves to
filter the tranquilizers from their blood stream, and though he and his wolf
craved the confrontation, he knew vengeance would be even sweeter later.

***

Zackary
hung up his phone and sighed as his cougar calmed after speaking with
Essence.
 
These murders were starting to worry
him, starting to get a little too close to home.
 
He'd left Caleb, Wesley and Daphne at the
crime scene.
 
Murder just wasn't his cup
of tea.

He
stepped out of the woods and into Aspen's back yard.
 
The back door opened and he growled when he
saw an unknown male carrying Aspen.
 
The
change happened so quickly he didn't have time to think about it.
 
One second he was standing in his human form
and the next he was growling as a cougar at the threat to his pride mate.

"Night,
night kitty," the male said before producing a gun.

It
didn't matter.
 
He wouldn't stand by and
allow another male to harm a female.
 

Never again.
 

His
cougar growled low in his throat and pounced.
 
An angry growl followed the small burst of pain that hit his side and
his consciousness faded before he hit the ground.

Hands
on his shoulders jerked Zackary back from nothingness and he came up swinging
satisfaction flowing through him at the feel of his fist connecting with flesh.

"Damn
it, Zackary it's me"

Zackary
quit swinging at the sound of his alpha's voice and his vision cleared.

"Aspen?"
 
The sound was growled and he watched as
everyone grabbed an enraged Skylar and Xavier trying to hold them back.

"Let
me go I'm getting her back."

"Hold
him Wesley, he'll make a mistake and Aspen will have my balls if her mates come
to harm."

Zackary
released his breath."So Aspen is okay?"

Caleb's
lips were pressed into a grim line and his eyes glowed.
 
His alpha's cougar was close to the surface.

"She
was taken," Caleb growled out.

Zackary
closed his eyes and the past rolled over him like a wave drowning him.
 
He'd failed, yet again.
 

He
could hear his sister when she cried at night, sobbing while her husband did
unthinkable things to her.
 
Things he'd
rather forget.
 
What
was
worse were the bruises, the black eyes, and the defeated look that always
seemed to be in her beautiful hazel eyes.
 
But one night he was going to put an end to it.
 
He was going to save his sister.

The
crying started, he could hear her tell him no.
 
Zackary couldn't sit by any longer.
 
He ripped open their door and pulled him off her, his teenage mind not
allowing him to connect what was happening.
 
It didn't matter, because he didn't stop it, just delayed it.
 
He could barely move the next day from the
bruises that covered his body, one that had yet to gain the muscles he now
boasted.

"We're
leaving, Zackary.
 
I can't do this
anymore," Essence had said the next day while they were alone.

He
didn't understand why this time would be any different.
 
They'd incurred her husband's wrath
before.
 
Jason wasn't one to allow any
trespass without violence.
 
Spilled milk
was punishable with fists.

He
didn't say anything, honestly his jaw hurt so much that he didn't think he
could, but nevertheless she understood his unasked questions.

"I
won't raise my baby here, not like this."

Essence
swiped the tears and hissed when she touched her freshly blackened eye.
 
Zackary growled, but it came out pained as it
rumbled through his bruised and battered body.

"We'll
leave tonight, Zackary.
 
Be ready."

The
growls pulled him from the past and he opened his eyes again to find Wesley and
Caleb trying to control Xavier and Skylar.

Zackary
stood and walked toward the frenzied males.
 
It was understandable.
 
Their mate
was missing.
 
He took a deep breath and
growled.

"We're
wasting time!"

Everyone
stopped and he could actually hear the echo of his voice as it reverberated in
the air.

Skylar's
tawny wolf growled and he hissed."Do you want to get your mate back?"

"He's
right, son.
 
You need to calm down and
keep your head if you want to get her back."

Skylar's
wolf growled when the familiar voice called him son.
 
If losing Aspen wasn't enough, now he had his
guardian to deal with.
 
Charles
Ashmore's
light brown hair had lightened further with grey
over the years, even his wolf form had become greyer than the matching light
brown of his hair.
 
As always his hair
was shorn short and his dress immaculate.
 
He had always groomed himself in the same fashion for as long as Skylar
could remember.
 

"Son?"

Skylar
reigned in his wolf and with a mental sigh he changed back into his human
form.
 
If there was one thing about his
guardian he knew that once he'd decided something there was nothing that could
stop him.

"Charles."

Charles'
eyebrows raised but he made no comment.

"After
my conversation with you a few days ago I took it upon myself to check over
your last case.
 
Your need to shut out
the details of the case after it's over is a weakness I've allowed you to have
and now it has caused your mate harm."

Mate.
 
Aspen.

"What
are you talking about?"

Xavier's
voice pulled him from remnants of his last case that Skylar thought better left
forgotten.
 
It was why he took an extra
day or two after each case to pull
himself
together.
 
Remind
himself
of who and what he was.
 
Was he really
any better than the ones that he executed?
 
Hadn't he felt a moment of satisfaction to see the life drain from their
bodies?
 
But it was quickly replaced with
remorse.
 
He'd never forget retching
after his first kill and every kill thereafter.
 
This was what he was trained for, his guardian ensured that.

"...twin
boys.
 
Shawn and Shane McLemore were
under the Council's eyes after an incident with their father."

Skylar
shook his head to clear the remaining fog and listen to Charles.
 
He had to be on point to get Aspen back.

"What
did you say?"

Charles
sighed.
 

"Let's
go inside and I'll tell you everything."

The
pained expression warned Skylar that he had more than Aspen's abduction to deal
with.
 
Skylar and Xavier both growled as
they walked through Aspen's house, their new home because it had become clear
to Skylar over the past week that there was no way he would make Aspen leave
her pride, her family.

Caleb
took a seat and for the first time Skylar took a moment from his own grief to
look at the people surrounding him.
 
Of
course Xavier was beside himself with worry, a worry they both shared.
 
Caleb's eye's held barely restrained anger,
his cougar peeking out because his pride member and childhood friend was in
unknown danger.
 
Zackary sat his
shoulders slumped, the most subdued he'd ever seen the guy.
 
Zackary's eyes connected with Skylar's and he
was taken aback at the haunted look in the young male's eyes.
 
The only members of the table that didn't seem
to be lost to their despair were Wesley and Daphne, but he'd notice their looks
anywhere.
 
Stared at it in the mirror
often enough.
 
They were in the zone, one
where the safety of a victim depended on their levelheadedness and capabilities
to reign in their emotions.
 
So that's
exactly what Skylar did.
 
Despite his
wolf's unhappiness, Skylar tuned out every memory of his Aspen.
 
The way she smelled, tasted and the way her
grey eyes would light up when she smiled.
 
He relegated her kindness, passion, and their baby to the back of his
mind.
 

Xavier's
hand found his under the table and Skylar clasped his hand in his.
 
Xavier was like his personal anchor and his
wolf calmed somewhat and allowed him the chance to get the turmoil his mind had
become under control.

Charles
slid some files in front of them, the garish emblem of the modeling and talent
agency they used to keep files on their
perps
a slap
in the face.
 
He hated how secretive
everything had to be, even though he understood the reasoning.
 
This shifter crime would never grace the
television and no other's but those who sat in this room would help he and
Xavier find their mate.

He
opened the folder and growled.
 
His past
case was coming back to haunt him.

"This
man is dead."

Charles
clapped him on the shoulder.
 

"Son,
that may look like the male you killed, but rest assured his twin is still
alive and well and by the look on that young male's face, in possession of your
mate," Charles said pointing toward Zackary.

Zackary's
cougar asserted itself through his eyes, hard won control keeping him from
shifting fully.
 
Training each shifter
child managed before age one.
 
Their
animal was a part of them, but like the human it wasn't the only part.
 
Unlike the human side of them, it wasn't
always in charge.

Zackary
met his eyes and nodded.
 
So far the male
hadn't said much.

"Now
that we've got that covered, I think it's time you understand these two male's
past."

"I
don't want to understand their past, I want my mate back," Skylar squeezed
Xavier's hand tighter, "We want our mate back."

Xavier
continued to sift through the file while Skylar and Charles had a stare down.

"Sky,
I really do think you're going to want to hear this."

Skylar
broke eye contact with Charles and turned his attention to Xavier who stared at
a picture.
 
He looked up and passed the
picture to Skylar.

The
female drew his attention, tawny blonde hair and bright green eyes.
 
She was beautiful, with hair that fell in
soft waves that framed her face.
 
She
smiled, not a fake smile, but a true smile that lit her eyes with even more
loveliness.
 
Skylar looked at the bundle
in her hands, the reason she smiled so broadly reached its tiny hand toward the
camera and its tiny face sucked the breath out of him.
 
There a baby Skylar lay in the arms of what
could only be his mother, because her eyes were his and her hair was his.
 

"I
still feel her loss, even now after thirty years."

Skylar
looked up at his guardian.
 
Surely this
was a cruel joke, one designed to teach him some sort of lesson.
 
He heard the door close and Xavier stood.

"I
think you need to speak with your father alone," Xavier said.

At
that moment Skylar knew Xavier knew something, something that he was about to
learn about himself.
 
Skylar growled at
Xavier and he smiled back at him.

"I
was going to tell you, Sky, but then Aspen was taken.
 
We'll get her back," he said then left
the dining room.

Charles
sighed.

"Tell
me," Skylar growled.

"Her
name was Shanna and I knew instantly that she was mine, but I had to hold my
wolf and myself at bay for six long months to court her properly."

Skylar
looked up from the picture and stared at Charles.

"She
was human."

Skylar
nodded. If Aspen had been human he was certain they'd not be mated by now.
 
He'd be struggling with telling her what he
was and what she was to him, to him and Xavier.

"Anyways,
Shanna and I had been mated for three years when she told me that she was
pregnant.
 
You were born nine months
later and I thought nothing could break through the happiness that I felt.
 
Not my job as an agent in the Human/Shifter
relations department.
 
Nothing.
 
Then one day I came home and she was
gone.
 
You were gone."

Skylar
looked down at the picture of his mother and him as a baby then forced himself to
flip through the remaining contents of the file--pictures of victims, suspects
and information on nothing much in particular.
 

"What
happened?"

"I
searched for you two for weeks when a female wolf shifter stumbled up to the
Council with you in her arms.
 
She was
Austin McLemore's mate and she'd rescued you after hearing you cry at
night.
 
She was near death herself and
pregnant with twins.
 
Shane and Shawn
McLemore and their mother went into another pack after they were born.
 
I was too late to save your mother who'd been
tortured and killed."

Skylar
looked up and noted the tears flowing from his guardian's eyes.
 
This male was his father.

"Why all the training?"

"I
was lost without your mother, wanted to die, but you had lived and I couldn't
abandon you to my grief.
 
So, I did the
only thing I could think of.
 
I trained
you."

And
now eighteen years worth of training and the nights when his father had passed
out
drunk
made sense.
 
He'd only gripped onto life for him, because Skylar knew without a doubt
that should Aspen or Xavier be killed he wouldn't know how to go on.
 
He had two mates, so he would go on should
one live, at least for their sakes, but both—he didn’t want to think about this
right now…it was hitting too close to home.

"Why
would the council give me their case?"

"No
one realized the history between our families because I'd buried the truth so
deep.
 
I just wanted to forget,
son."

How
could this have happened?

"We
know now what happened.
 
You have a need
to not know those you're going to execute names.
 
So, you never read the files, not
really.
 
Shane and Shawn McLemore were
both slated for execution due to their crimes against human females, but you
failed to kill Shawn because you didn't realize there were two."

He'd
caused this all because he'd not paid attention.
 
And now Aspen would suffer for his mistake.

***

Aspen
groaned her whole body making its presence known with aches and pains.

I've been hit by
a bus.

She
opened her eyes and groaned the simple act sending pain spiraling through her
body.
 
She ignored the pain and the
pressing need to vomit and sat up taking in her surroundings.
 
Despite her earlier confusion, Aspen knew
she'd been taken...her mates shot.
 
She
stifled the need to mourn their loss and pressed a hand over her abdomen.
  
She had a son to protect.
 

Aspen
slid from the bed and looked out the window. Where the fuck was she at?
 
She was surrounded by trees, pine, so surely
that meant she was still in Pinewood Creek.
 
Hope blossomed but she didn't allow it to grow too much.
 
What if she were wrong?

"You're
awake"

Aspen
turned to find the same male who'd shot her mates, threatened her child and
dared to come into her home.
 
A growl
tore from her lips and the change was on her before she could think past
ripping his throat out.

"Ah ah
ahhh
."

It
was all she heard before that sharp pain hit her cougar's flank and just like
before she settled into a now familiar darkness.
 

Not
a-fucking-gain.

The
next time she woke no light poured through the window and no amount of
struggling let her loose from the ties that now bound her to a bed.
 
She stopped struggling and strained to hear
something.
 
Anything.
 
But there was nothing.
 
Except for the soft chirping of a cricket
that she was certain would drive her mad in this prison.

Settling
back against the bed she was surprised to drift back to sleep, but her body
felt heavy, as though she were in a fog.
 
The drugs still coursed through her system.
 
Tears fell unchecked from the corners of her
eyes as she allotted herself time for mourning the loss of Skylar and Xavier.