Lover Claimed (17 page)

“You do know that he’s going to kick your
asses when he comes, don’t you?” she asked the men.

None of the shifters acknowledged her. They
hadn’t the other times she’d taunted them either.

“How much do you think Gray is going to give
us for killing the Farkas wolf?” one of them asked another.

“So someone named Gray hired you? What about
the Yaruzi? Are they part of this too?” she asked.

One of the shifters turned to her,
acknowledging her for the first time since Alexei had tied her up.
“What the fuck is a
Yaruzi
?”

Meisha didn’t know if she should be happy or
mad. Happy, because the Yaruzi haven’t found her family and they
weren’t after them and mad because she’d gone a wild goose chase
trying to find that simple information out.

A little bit of both. The only consolation in
the entire fiasco is that she’d gotten to know Lajos and, for
whatever it was worth, she didn’t regret a second of their time
together.

“Shit, dude,” one shifter said to the other,
pulling her from her train of thought. “Don’t mention his name
around this chick. We aren’t supposed to be saying it.”

“Well, hell, it’s not like she’s going to
live to tell anyone. As soon as that Farkas brat gets here we’ll
kill her and then slice him up,” the shifter said.

“I know, but…but just don’t mention his name
out loud when we’re with anyone again. As a matter of fact, don’t
mention his name again. We’re getting a large payday for this job,
we don’t need any screw-ups.”

“Can you two stop arguing,” the one at the
window said, turning around just long enough to chastise his
friends. “I swear you guys argue like an old married couple.”

“I’m not the one arguing, it’s Boris. He
keeps acting like a bitch.”

Boris slapped his friend in the back of his
head. “I’ll show you a bitch.”

“Stop!” a voice boomed from the door,
bringing all attention to the shifter standing there.

Alexei
. She narrowed her eyes at
him.

“I need for you two pussies to stop fighting
and load up the guns.”

“We’re done,” Boris said.

“Well,” Alexei said sarcastically.

Boris and his friend exchange glances. “Well,
what?”

“Get your asses downstairs and pass them out
to everyone.” Alexei turned and left in a huff. “I swear, it’s like
fucking babysitting sometimes.”

“You heard him, Demyan,” Boris said. “Help me
carry the guns downstairs.”

“No,” Demyan said. “You help
me
carry
the guns downstairs.”

Meisha rolled my eyes because, despite her
dislike for him, she agreed with Alexei. It must be hell working
with these idiots.

When Boris and Demyan left, arms full of
guns, the one at the window was the only shifter in the room. He
was too busy looking outside to pay any attention to her.

She needed a weapon. She would be damned if
she let them take her down without a fight. Plus, all those years
learning how to escape from the Yaruzi should apply to these guys
too.

“
No, just hang tight. Lajos is coming for
you.”

“
Oh, so you’re back?”
Meisha asked the
voice in her head.

“
You aren’t a wolf. It takes a lot to keep
a link going. It weakens me.”

“
Right. How about you disconnect the link
or whatever and let me do me.”

“
Meisha.”

“
Lajos?”
She shook her head.
“Wow,
my head is getting full.”

“
I’m coming for you, baby.”

She smirked. She really was crazy. Lajos had
never called her baby before. This was just further confirmation
that she was losing her mind.

“
Rain, rain go away, come back another
day…”
She sang the song in her head, drowning out the voices,
pushing all craziness aside. She had work to do.

Since they’d patted her down and taken away
the knives tied to her shins she was weaponless. She needed to find
another one and get out of this place before they could harm her or
Lajos.

Her weapon search was on.

She turned in her chair and looked at the
desk drawer. When she’d searched it earlier she thought she saw a
letter opener, the kind with the five-inch long metal point. It
would probably bend if she tried to stab him through his jeans, but
it should go through his flimsy T-shirt with ease.

She looked back toward the shifter at the
window. He was full of muscles like the others. If she could get to
the letter opener she would have one shot at him. She’d have to
make it count, stab him somewhere that would do the most damage.
Eye, neck or side. Those were her best choices.

She scooted up on the chair. When he didn’t
turn around she leaned forward and angled her hands to reach up and
grab the handle. She paused, waiting to see if he would notice the
movement. He didn’t. She pulled the drawer out, slow enough not to
make any noise. When she had it open, she used her fingertips to
pat against the drawer contents, not daring to shuffle or move
anything, fearing any kind of noise.

Her fingers landed on something cold, solid
and sharp. The letter opener.

She wrapped her fingers around it, bringing
it out of the drawer. She leaned against the drawer, slowly closing
it.

The next part was going to be the trickiest.
She held her breath and rotated her left shoulder until it popped
from the joint.

“Shit.” She grimaced. There was no way of
getting around that pain.

The shifter turned from the window. He
squinted down at her. “What the hell is going on with you?”

“I hurt my shoulder when Alexei roughed me
up. It must’ve happened when he slammed me against the wall. Do you
want to help me reset it?”

He snorted. “Pretty soon you’ll be dead and
won’t be thinking about your shoulder pain at all.”

“Fuck you,” she snarled.

“I’m not like your mate. I don’t do humans.”
He turned around, dismissing her.

Eye. I’m going to stab him in his
motherfucking eye.

But at least he turned his back and ignored
her again. Using her good hand she moved her hands and relied on
her dislocated arm to give her the extra length she needed to get
her arms under her butt. She leaned to her side and maneuvered,
lifting her legs and feet, successfully bringing her hands to the
front.

She took some deep breaths of both excitement
and pain. She stood. He didn’t turn around.

Now or never.

She crept as fast as she could to his back.
By the time he turned around to find her freed it was too late, she
was on him. He tried to push her away but she ducked under his
outstretched hands and angled up to stab him in his eye. He let out
a scream, but she silenced it by pulling the opener from his eye
and driving it through his throat, hitting his windpipe. His
screams became gurgles.

His good eye watched her with shocked
surprise. The other dripped blood. He reached for his throat,
trying to stop the bleeding. When his eye closed and he went limp,
she trapped his body against the wall and, using her body weight,
slid him onto the floor. If they hadn’t heard his half yell, they
would most definitely hear him hitting the floor. She laid him down
and listened. Hearing nothing, she got up and peered down the hall.
No one was there.

She took her seat on the chair and worked at
the ties that bound her hands. If the others came up here and found
that she’d killed one of their own, she was sure they would kill
her now. There would be no waiting for Lajos to show up. They’d
probably kill her and toss her carcass at him.

She pulled at the last of her bindings and
stood. She needed her arm back in its place pronto. She slowly held
her hands together and used her good arm to help raise the lifeless
arm up and over her head until she felt it slip back into place.
Dislocating her arm to get out of bonds had been one of the first
things her dad had taught her. It was like child’s play.

With her shoulder back in place, she figured
she had two choices. She could leave the same way she came, out the
window, or she could leave the hard way. Out the front door.

I’ll take the easy way. I’ve had enough
adventure for one day.

She went to the window and looked
outside.

Wolf.

One was paroling the backyard.

Shit.

Still, the lone wolf outside would be easier
to get through than the six downstairs.

“Hold up, let me ask him,” said a deep voice
from nearby.

Double shit.

Someone was coming down the hall. She ran to
the desk and jumped on top of it. As soon as Boris came through the
door she stuck the letter opener in his throat. It had worked so
well on the other one and two times were a charm right?

Wrong.

Boris flailed, trying to get to her. With a
wild look in his eyes and blood oozing from his throat he stumbled
into the room. She jumped down from desk and ran out of the room,
shutting the door behind her. He was going to die. There was no
doubt about that. Hopefully he could do it in silence.

She crept to the room across the hall and
went to the window. It opened to the street. There was a couple
walking their dog. She thought about calling out to them and
getting the police involved. That would stop the shifters right in
their tracks. Maybe, just maybe, they would be too worried about
leaving before the police came to care about her anymore.

She raised her arm to flag down the
couple.

Movement across the street in the
shadows.

Lajos.

Chapter
Twenty

Lajos was busy trying to mentally coax the
dog that a couple was walking to go faster and drag them down the
street. But the dog seemed too interested in what Lajos and his
team were doing to comply. The couple was the one thing standing in
the way of him rescuing Meisha.

Hunter pulled on Lajos’ shirt. “Hey,” Hunter
said. “Is that your mate up there?”

Lajos’ attention snapped to the house where
the shifters were hiding out. “Where?”

Hunter pointed to one of the second story
windows. “Up there.”

Meisha was looking out the window. The lights
weren’t on, but he would recognize her silhouette and gestures
anywhere. His wolf reared up. He’d already had a hard enough time
keeping him calm. That was the reason he couldn’t keep a link with
Meisha; his wolf was hell-bent on coming forward and going after
the other shifters. Between trying to calm his wolf and his wolf
bombarding him with pictures of Meisha, his mind was a total
mess.

He started forward. “I have to get her.”

Hunter grabbed his arm, trying to hold him
back. “Yeah and we are. But we’re going to do it together, as a
team.”

Andras warned Lajos to do things the right
way. Otherwise Andras wouldn’t have allowed Lajos to come on the
mission. Lajos looked up at Meisha and frowned. She’d begun to work
at the screen. She was going to escape by the window. But that’s
not what had him frowning. It was what was painted on her. By the
light of the street lamp it looked like she’d been dipped in
blood.

He growled.

Without thinking, his instincts drove him to
sprint across the street. When Meisha spotted him, she began
working harder and kicked at the screen. By the time he was under
her the screen fell to the ground.

“Go away,” she whispered, shooing at him.
“They’re going to kill you.”

“I’m going to kill them,” he promised.

She waved at him. “Go you fool. I’m coming
down.”

Hunter and the rest of his team came up
behind him. “How do you plan on getting her down?”

“She can get down herself,” Lajos said with
pride.

Just then Meisha screamed and was yanked from
the window. Lajos’ heart fell to his stomach. Fuck what Andras
said, he had to go and get his mate. He ran full on to the front
door, splintering it as he crashed through.

He didn’t look to see, but he knew his team
was right behind him. He went after the first shifter he saw.
Shoulder down, he caught the shifter in the stomach and rammed him
back into the wall. The drywall cracked under their weight.

Lajos reached for the knives in his jacket
pocket and pulled them out. The shifter struggled against him and
landed a punch on the side of Lajos’ face. If Lajos had planned
properly he would’ve come through the door holding his knives, but
even so, now with a knife in each hand, he stabbed the shifter in
his sides. The shifter continued to struggle. Lajos pulled his
knives out and stabbed him again.

The shifter went to the floor. Lajos turned
and scanned the room. Everyone in his team was engaged in a fight.
His team had the other shifters outnumbered two to one. They had
this covered.

Lajos bounded up the stairs and ran down the
hall. His steps picked up when he heard crashing and banging coming
from one of the back rooms. He stopped in front of the bedroom and
tried the door. Locked. He took two steps back and then rammed into
the door, forcing it to open.

He froze in place.

There Meisha was, sitting on top of a shifter
that was in wolf form, stabbing him over and over again.

“You motherfucker!” she cried.

“Meisha,” he said.

She didn’t acknowledge him. He crossed the
floor and put a hand on her arm. She pulled away and skittered on
her hands and knees into a corner.

He reached out to her. “Meisha, it’s me.”

“Lajos?” she asked as if she were still
unsure.

“It’s me, baby.”

“He…he…wanted to eat m-me,” she
stammered.

He went over to her and crouched in front of
her. “I’m here. You’re safe now.”

* * * * *

Meisha lay on the bed facing Lajos, their
eyes locked on each other. It had been a month since the shifters
had caught her and two weeks since she felt somewhat normal. Lajos
was patient with her. He listened when she talked and was silent
when she didn’t want to. He even promised to stay out of her mind
so she could keep her thoughts about what happened private. It was
a relief to find out that she wasn’t crazy, that the voices in her
head really were Andras and Lajos. She wasn’t mad at them for
invading her mind. It was nice to not be alone, especially at a
time like that.