Mistakenly Mated (14 page)

She snapped her powerful jaws around the ham strings in his left leg and bit down hard. Willard fell to the ground, screaming in pain. He couldn’t have run any more if he tried but Susan bit through the muscle in the back of his right leg as well. Bleeding, Willard rolled onto his back, exposing his jugular. She bared her teeth lowering towards his throat, the threat clear. He pleaded, whimpering.

“Susan, Caleb’s still alive,” called Dick from behind her.

Her head whipped around and she saw Dick kneeling over Caleb. His hands glowed with a green natural energy. “We need to get help, now.”

Susan left Willard lying on the ground and trotted back to her companions. She slowly made the shift back to human.

“You know what we are?”

“Yes. We can discuss the details later. Right now we need to get help,” said Dick.

He stopped his ministrations to remove his jacket and handed it to Susan. Susan looked down at her naked body with a smirk and quickly donned the offered clothing. The jacket covered enough for Dick to open his eyes and look at her without gawking.

“Cops will be here soon. No way someone isn’t reporting that,” Susan said, indicating the flaming wreck sending a dark column of smoke into the sky. “I’ll help you get Caleb into the passenger side of the Impala.”

Dick looked down the street at a writhing Willard who tried to turn back on his front and use his hands to drag himself away.

“What about him?”

Susan followed his eyes.

“Pop the trunk.”

* * * *

Susan called Luka while driving. He agreed to meet them at a service entrance at the hospital and help Caleb as best as he could. When Susan pulled up in her little Mazda, she was the first to get Luka’s attention. He hugged her fiercely and checked her over.

“Damnitbabyareyoualright?” he asked in his usual fast tongue, a little bit faster with his worry.

She nodded her head and went to assist Dick as he pulled the Impala in behind them. Caleb had his eyes open now and he was angry as hell.

Luka got an arm under him, Dick got the other, and together they got him into a disused treatment room in the part of the basement level sectioned off for remodeling. The wounds were already healing themselves. His hands and one side of his face had received the worst damage. Luka gave him a shot for the pain as Luka cleaned the wounds to make sure to get any gravel or glass or metal fragments out before they healed over.

Caleb growled angrily as Luka pulled his rank on him as the doctor and he the patient to get him to lie still. Dick helped in his own way having explained to Susan; now dressed in some hospital scrubs Luka had found for her; and Luka what he was capable of. He held his hands over a gash in one of Caleb’s legs, chanting soft repetitive words while Susan watched the skin knit itself together more rapidly.

Caleb—regaining some of his strength—grabbed Luka by the collar of his coat and pulled him close. He snarled a single word at him, “Adrenaline.”

“Caleb, nomanthatsnotagoodidea.”

“It could have been Kerry in that car. We need to find her,” he growled, determined.

Luka pulled back from him, shaking his head.

“Notagoodidea,” he repeated.

Dick looked between the three werewolves, unsure what the hell was going on. Why did Caleb want adrenaline? He focused his gaze on Susan, who was free to give him answers while Luka continued arguing with Caleb.

“What’s happening?”

“Caleb wants adrenaline. If Luka shoots him up with it, it will kick his healing process into high gear but it could also damage his heart. Caleb wants it so he can go find Kerry.”

“Then give it to him,” said Dick loud enough for Luka and Caleb to hear. “If it will help him get up on his feet so we can go deal with the asshole behind this, then do it. I can watch out for his heart.”

Caleb and Dick shared a look—for the first time in complete agreement—they had to find Kerry. Luka gave in under the weight of that glare and prepared the needle.

“Holdhisshoulders,” he said. Dick grabbed one shoulder, holding it down while Luka grabbed the other. Luka pressed the needle into the flesh of Caleb’s chest and then slammed it home, forcing the plunger down.

Caleb thrashed on the bed. Dick chanted while trying to hold him down, trying to ensure that this went well. Healthy skin grew over the damaged tissue; the flesh underneath moved around and knitted together.

Caleb growled. They watched as his face became whole and his strength returned. When he was still, panting, they let him go and Luka hurriedly checked all his vitals. Caleb’s eyes snapped open and he sat upright on the bed. Susan took a step back in surprise.

“Now,” he said and his voice was less horse. His breathing came easier and his eyes looked determined. “How are we going to find my mate?”

* * * *

Susan led Caleb and Dick back out into the parking lot where she found a dark corner in which to park both their cars. She put the keys into the Impala’s trunk and pushed it up, revealing a bound and writhing figure inside.

Willard starred at them with wide eyes. Susan had used the remains of her clothing to stop his bleeding and gag him. She used jumper cables to bind his wrists and feet together behind his back.

Willard thrashed and tried to call out through the material in his mouth. Susan grabbed his head, pulling him up to a better seated position. He closed his eyes, his face contorted in pain. When he opened them, he saw the newly healed Caleb first. Willard wet himself. Caleb glared at him.

“I’m going to take your gag off,” said Susan in a harsh whisper. “Don’t even try to scream.”

Willard nodded, whimpering. She untied the strip of shirt from around his mouth which allowed her to pull the sock free from his mouth. It dripped wetly as she slung it down into the trunk.

“Please, oh please. Don’t kill me, please,” he begged, crumpling against the frame of the trunk.

Caleb grabbed him by his shirt and pulled his face close to his. “Why are you trying to kill my mate?”

Willard shook his head. “Not her,” he said weakly. “You. I never meant to hurt Kerry. It was an accident.”

Caleb reeled with the thought. Kerry had been shot only because he had been missed. That the car in the road he thought tried to run her over was aimed at him. The car blowing up was meant to get him, it was his car after all. Even if Kerry had borrowed it, when she didn’t come back with it, he would have looked for the car. Willard waited in the shadows for him to approach and then set off some sort of device.

“Where is Kerry? Is she alright?”

“She’s fine. She’s safe. I didn’t hurt her I swear.” Caleb growled lowly.

“That doesn’t answer where she is.”

“I can’t. He’ll hurt me if I tell.”

“What do you think I am going to do to you if you don’t?” he threatened in response. Willard looked to Susan but got the same hard expression. He looked to Dick, who turned to look away as if whatever they chose to do to Willard, he would pretend he didn’t see or hear.

Caleb growled menacingly again.

“Okay, okay. She’s with Paulie.”

“Paulie?” Susan asked, stunned. “How the hell did you get your cousin involved in this?”

“Other way round,” he said, getting a little offended. “He got me into this. If I hadn’t needed the money so bad…”

“Where is he?” Caleb asked again. His patience’s was running thin.

Willard shook his head. “I don’t know.”

Caleb shook him and Willard squawked. “I really don’t know. I forgot the address. I’m no good at remembering shit.”

“Gag him again.”

Susan took great delight in stuffing the sock back into his mouth. She shoved him back into the trunk and slammed the lid on him tight.

“I don’t understand why Paulie would do this? Isn’t he one of her best friends?” Caleb asked the pair of them.

Susan looked a little guilty. Caleb focused on her and she shivered.

“What are you not telling me?” he asked her in a firm voice.

“I thought he’d gotten over it,” she said in her defense. “When we were kids, Paulie really liked Kerry, I mean really loved her-liked her. But he’s all set to be mated next moon. I thought he was okay with Mags.”

“She’s the village maid and you’re the evil lord,” said Dick with an understanding sneer.

Caleb looked at him, remembering the tale Dick told him earlier. Paulie grew up with Kerry, been around her oh-so-attractive smell for a really long time. He’d fallen for her and now Caleb took her away. If Caleb were to die, she could mate again freely and Paulie would be first in the line.

Susan looked between them confused. “What are you two talking about?”

“Dick did some research that I can summarize like this: Kerry smells really good.”

“Like drug good,” said Dick. “He’s an addict almost and Caleb is taking her away from him. He wants her for his mate.”

“You can’t mate with a white wolf,” said Susan before she even realized what she had said. She looked at Caleb. “No, that’s not true because you did. So, what we’ve believed our whole lives isn’t true and now the only thing standing between him being with her…”

“Is me. How do we find where they are?”

“That’s the tough part,” said Susan. “Paulie wouldn’t be dumb enough to take her to his place, or even to Willard’s, and he’d never sneak her into his parent’s house.”

“Where else does he have to take her?” asked Caleb, his frustration growing.

“Literally anywhere in town. Paulie’s a real estate agent. If there is an empty house in town, he has access to it.” Susan turned on her heel and slapped the keys on the closed trunk. “Follow me. I at least know where to start.”

Chapter Eleven

“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” said Dick. He stood at the corner of the service alley just off the main drag, watching for any passersby who might see them parked back there. Susan was bent down at the lock of the estate agent’s employee entrance, picking the lock with a pair of bobby pins. Her face was screwed up in concentration. Caleb stood over, her urging her on.

“Just keep your eyes on your job,” snarled Caleb. His ears pricked when he heard the lock click and the door swung gently inwards.

Susan beamed. “We’re in,” she said.

Dick gave another quick look up and down to make sure no one was coming and followed the two into the realtor’s office. Susan navigated through the dark for the light switch. She flicked it, fully lighting the back room .

“What now?” asked Caleb. He peered out into the front where there were several cubicles with desks and computers, filing cabinets, and a large cupboard on the wall.

Susan put a finger to her lips to shush the pair of them before stepping out into the darkened front space. She walked to the cupboard on the wall. She pulled it open and began scanning the little fobs.

“There are two sets of keys missing: thirteen and twenty-eight,” she whispered. “Caleb, checked the listings over there. There should be an address for each of them. Dick, find the sign out sheet. Paulie’s boss is very rigorous about making sure he knows where the keys are and who had access to them last. Paulie complains about his system all time.”

Caleb slipped through the cubicles and started rifling through the filing cabinets. He found the listings for the houses they were showing right now.

“Thirteen is over on Oak drive and twenty-eight is on the corner of Elm Tree and Pine.”

“The house on Elm Tree and Pine was legitimately signed out for an after office hours showing. Oak drive should still be here, according to this.”

“Paulie must have taken them. He could get them back as he’s usually first in, makes a point of it, no one would know they’d been missing,” said Susan, shutting the cupboard and using the sleeve of her scrubs to wipe her finger prints.

Caleb and Dick copied her. Together they headed back into the alley, being careful to make sure the door was pushed back into place. Susan and Caleb looked at each other as if they knew where they were headed now.

Dick, however, had stopped dead and stared at the cars. The trunk to the Impala was wide open.

“I think we have a problem.”

All three of them rushed to look into the trunk. The cords used to bind Willard’s wrists and ankles were in loops on the trunk floor. In the middle was a shredded mass of cloth and a wet sock.

“He had enough energy to shift after resting in the trunk,” growled Susan, smacking the lid down. “He’ll still be slow to run though.”

“He’s got a head start,” said Dick.

Caleb started pulling his clothes off.

Dick turned away. “What are you doing?”

“We need to get after him fast,” said Caleb, looking to Susan who got his drift and started to strip too. “We can move faster if we shift and run. We can track him better too and we won’t have to stop for lights or intersections. Take my keys and drive to the address. We’ll see you there.”

Dick heard the sound of flesh and bone reshaping, saw the shimmer of deep magic and turned to see a large black wolf and the same slim petite brown wolf he’d seen before, dash away following a scent.