Guarding His Heart (17 page)

They finished their drinks before Lynn and Jag wished both Kitty and Mason a good night and headed home. Lynn was glad to be back in her own space where she knew everything was safe. With all the shifters patrolling the area, she knew her home hadn’t been breached in any way.

Turning, she saw Jag stripping near the back door. “Whatcha doing?” she asked, leaning against the doorframe to the mudroom.

“I wanted to run a quick loop around the perimeter. I know there are others out there, but it’s more for my own peace of mind.” Jag took three steps, putting him mere inches from her, with his bare chest just begging for her touch. “I’ll make sure there’s nothing going on then I’m coming back to curl up with you. I plan to hold you all night long.”

The deep cadence of his voice combined with the warmth of his skin had Lynn closing the distance with a sigh and leaning into his hard body. Instantly, his arms surrounded her, providing the loving embrace she craved. “I’ll be here waiting. You probably need to burn off some nervous energy too, so take a run if it will help. I’ll be fine here.”

His big hands rubbed soothing circles on her back. “You’re sure? I don’t want to leave you here alone for very long.”

Lynn was about to answer when the phone in the kitchen rang. It wasn’t too late, but most everyone called on her cell, so she wasn’t sure who would try to reach her on the landline. Upon answering, Lynn learned she’d left her cell phone in Kitty’s apartment. It turned out Kitty was already on her way over with the device, so it looked as if she wouldn’t be alone after all.

Returning to the mudroom, Lynn took in Jag’s splendid backside as he finished taking off his pants in preparation to change. “Kitty’s on her way with my phone. I guess I set it down sometime while we were talking. Anyway, I won’t be alone now, so you can take your time.” She gave his firm ass a quick smack before winding her arms around his waist and resting her cheek between his shoulder blades.

A yawn escaped before she could prevent it, and Jag turned. “You’re tired, huh?”

“It’s been a crazy few days.”

“That it has. I’ll be back soon, and we’ll see about getting a good night’s sleep tonight. You need it.”

She did, but if it meant less time spent with Jag, she’d deny it until the cows came home. Good thing she didn’t own any. “Go on. The sooner you go the sooner you come back.”

He gave her a heated look, causing her belly to flip. His bones began to snap and reshape his body into that of his jaguar. Less than a minute later, she stood next to a large black feline with the most beautiful crystalline eyes she’d ever seen.

Sitting on the floor, Lynn reached out and brought his muzzle closer to her so she could plant a kiss on his nose. He allowed her a few moments to explore him. Lynn couldn’t help but run her fingers over his sleek fur, and she discovered the spots, which were all but hidden due to his dark coloring. “I hadn’t noticed these before, but I suppose you’d have to be pretty close to see them.”

She stood, and Jag rubbed his head on her leg before looking pointedly at the door. Taking the hint, Lynn opened it for him. As he passed, he pressed his body against her, dragging himself over her thigh before curling his tail around it and giving it a little flick over her pussy. Lynn gasped. She could only imagine what that would have felt like had she been naked.

“You’re such a tease, Jag,” she laughed, earning what she swore was a leer before he darted out the door and straight to the woods.

Chapter Eight

Jag relinquished control, giving his jaguar free rein to run through the trees at top speed, yet he remained alert to everything around. So far, only the scents of Pride members reached him, men he knew were sent to patrol the area and guard against any intruders.

He’d already heard Kitty’s car pull up to the house, and surprisingly, he felt a little more secure, enough so to broaden his scouting trip. He was enjoying a sprint along the creek when his nose detected another Pride member. Up ahead a lion male paced along the bank. His head shot up at Jag’s approach.

Coming closer, Jag dipped his head in greeting before shifting to his human form. The other male took another long look across the water before changing. There were no scents other than the two of them, so Jag didn’t know what the other man had been so interested in.

“There are tracks here,” the enforcer pointed out. “Human, but I can’t scent anything. I don’t like it. There should be
something
, identifying them as human or shifter, but I’m not finding anything.”

Alarms sounded in Jag’s head.
Everything
had a scent. The only reason for that essential element of a person or animal to be missing was if it were masked. There were enough products on the market used by hunters to make it possible for one of their kind to conceal their presence. Having proof of someone using this and crossing onto Lynn’s land had his hackles up.

“How far do the tracks lead?” Once more, Jag’s beast was pushing forward, and he struggled to get the words past the snarl threatening to rip from his throat at any moment.

“These are the first I’ve found. It looks as if they were testing the land boundaries or realized the area is being patrolled.”

No sooner had the words left the male’s mouth than a scream rent the air and stalled Jag’s heart. Before he even registered the movement, his legs were pounding the ground, covering the distance to the house with the enforcer hot on his heels. He remained in his human form so he’d be able to communicate, but it was costing him in speed. Jag prayed Lynn would be safe, that Kitty would keep her promise to protect her with her life if necessary.

He skidded into the yard just in time to see Kitty being dragged from the house with a dart, tipped with a blue tuft, protruding from her neck. Her chest still rose and fell, so Jag knew she lived, but another scream and a crash from inside caused a roar to rip past his lips and rattle the windows. Already the jaguar was pressing out, his fangs and claws exploding out as black fur rippled just beneath Jag’s skin.

Next to him, the enforcer grunted in surprise before grabbing his shoulder and collapsing to his knees. A tranquilizer dart protruded from him, just out of his reach, but the damage was already done as his eyes glazed and he fell to the side.

Jag managed only two steps before he too felt a sting in his upper back, placed well out of his reach, the drug did its best to pull him under, but his determination to get to Lynn was greater. As he struggled to put one foot in front of the other, his body refusing to do his bidding. A hand shoved him from behind.

“There’s no use. You’ll never get to her in time, but don’t worry, we’ll take excellent care of her,” a voice sneered. “Do yourself a favor,
cat
, and stay by your phone. You won’t want to miss this.”

“Take…me,” Jag begged. He had no clue what these rogues planned to do, but he knew he didn’t want Lynn subjected to it. “Leave…her.”

A nasty kick to his lower back turned him just enough to see the face of his attacker, however the drugs coursing through his body left him unable to defend himself. “That’s right, son. The three bears are about to take your little golden girl back to their lair, and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

“I’ll kill…you,” Jag vowed, his speech becoming more garbled as his mouth wouldn’t move to form the words properly.

“You’ll have to find us first, and that’s something you won’t do. We’ve been preparing for this. She’ll be an example to everyone—
anyone
—who dares take a human as a mate. To those who dare to sully our bloodlines with the weaknesses of a lesser species!”

Nuts. These lunatics were full-on fanatics. They were worse than the Kool-Aid cults Kitty had accused them of being, and now, they had both women and Jag was on the ground, completely incapacitated.

“Let go of me! Oh, God,
Jag
! No, don’t hurt him, please.” The sound of Lynn begging for mercy on his behalf did nothing more than earn him another kick, this one to the stomach. “Fucking cowards! Messing with women half your size then attacking men when they can’t defend themselves?”

The man standing above Jag simply clucked his tongue. “Such a pretty little potty mouth you have. We’ll have to do something about that.”

A shove to the shoulder with the guy’s boot turned Jag to his back and made it possible for him to see where Lynn was held by a very large man. What he wouldn’t give to have Liam or one of the other shifters show up. Jag couldn’t believe the screams that had alerted him hadn’t drawn more of the Pride to the house.

As the male, who appeared to be the leader, moved closer to Lynn, she struggled in her captor’s arms. “So feisty, yet so very fragile. I’ll never understand what humans hope to accomplish by taking on one of us.”

“Maybe, it’s because most humans have no idea what you are, genius,” Lynn spat. She glared defiantly up at him. When the rogue’s hand flashed out, a loud smack following, Jag saw red. However, his rage hit an all new level when the guy stepped to the side and he caught sight of Lynn’s limp body.

Jag’s skin rippled, his bones humming as his jaguar fought to force a shift. The drug’s effects were quickly being burned off by his rage and the adrenalin pumping through his veins. The three rogues’ eyes widened as they took notice.

“Dude, we need to go,” the one holding Lynn urged. “If he’s coming out of that dose already, the others will be coming around soon too. We gotta get out of here or they might be able to follow us.”

“Yeah, it’s a miracle we were able to tranq all of them, but our systems burn this shit too fast. Let’s go,” another said then climbed into the driver’s seat of a large, white utility van.

Jag was forced to watch as Lynn was loaded into the backseat along with Kitty, who’d been restrained with what looked like some sort of silver barbed wire. The one who’d been taunting him jumped up into the passenger seat.

“Don’t forget to keep your phone handy if you ever want to see her again,” he called as his parting statement.

It gave Jag faint hope that they didn’t plan to kill Lynn outright, but then again, they could have just done that here without taking her. Why bring Kitty, too? She wasn’t romantically involved with any humans, unless they were targeting her simply for being friends with Lynn.

It was at least another five minutes before he could push himself upright. A few feet away, the enforcer who’d been hit first roused. “They took both women,” Jag informed him. “We need to contact Dylan and get men out looking for that van as soon as possible. I don’t want them getting far.”

Stumbling to his feet, Jag made it to the back door on shaky legs. He extracted his cell phone from his pile of clothing and dialed the Prime.

Dylan answered on the first ring. “Jag, why hasn’t anyone checked in? I just dispatched twenty men your way.”

“They took them. The bastards used some sort of tranquilizer and took out all the men guarding the house. Lynn and Kitty were just taken away in a large, white cargo van. Double back doors and no windows past the front doors. I need your men to divert to the streets and start looking for them now,” Jag ordered, knowing full well speaking so directly and telling the Pride leader what to do, could get him exiled from the territory. “They have Kitty tied up with what looked like silver barbed wire, but they hit her with some kind of super sedative, and she wasn’t conscious when they pulled away.”

A string of expletives were snarled over the line, and Jag heard Dylan stomping around before a door was closed. “Listen, I don’t want to explain this to Samantha until we know more. Hell, hopefully, not until we have Lynn back.” There was a pause and what sounded like the clacking of fingers on a keyboard. “I just sent a new directive to the team lead. I’ll bring more guards into the resort to keep watch over Sam and Eli then I’m heading your way. Have you heard from Liam? He was supposed to be out there somewhere.”

“Not a peep since we came home. I’m about to search for the others, but the rogue told me to keep my phone handy if I ever wanted to see Lynn again. That has to mean there’s a chance for me to free her, right?” It was the only shred of hope he had at this point, and Jag looked for any confirmation that he’d correctly understood the statement.

“It sounds like a possibility, but let’s just take things one step at a time. Right now, we need to find the van, and you need to keep your phone charged and with you.”

“I will. I really want to just take off and search them out, but I know how foolish that would be. They’re probably miles away by now, and I have no clue which way they went after getting to the main road. I’ll start looking for Liam and the others, and see you when you get here.”

* * * *

An hour later, dozens of guards, enforcers and patrols scoured the area for any signs of the rogues. Several calls had come in yet none provided news of any value. Dylan had become even more agitated when informed the shifters had masked their scent, not that Jag expected anything different.

“This will make tracking them damn near impossible,” Dylan growled, raking his fingers through his hair before pounding his fist down on the table. “If they used the same stuff on the women, we’ll be searching blindly for them, too. There had to be more than three rogues for them to be able to take down all the enforcers stationed around the house. Now, we’ll have to be on the alert for another attack, too.”

“I explained the reaction my body had to the drugs and Dr. Lewis is seeing if he can extract any of the drug from inside the darts. With any luck, he’ll come up with something to counteract the effects.” It was a long shot, but Jag was doing his best to remain optimistic. If he gave in to his fears, the rogues wouldn’t be Dylan’s only problem.

The front door slammed open and several scouts poured through. “We found the van, Prime. It was burning in the middle of a field to the south of here. There was nobody inside, and it appears they had another vehicle waiting for them there.”

For a moment, Jag’s heart had completely stalled, but at the mention of the van being empty, he breathed a sigh of relief. “Did you find anything helpful?”