License to Shift (15 page)

M
ark woke with a stench in his nose and a roar of fury burrowing out of his throat. He didn't even know why he was pissed yet, but he was angry and filled with adrenaline. Except that the sound he created was more of a moan and when he leapt to his feet to scan the environment, all he really did was contract his belly and lift what felt like ten tons on his chest.

Holy shit.

He dragged his eyes open by a supreme act of will and when he couldn't focus, the terror inside him grew exponentially.

“Calm down, Mark. You're safe. The environment is safe.” Carl's voice, and it soothed his immediate panic.

“Now wake the shit up. We need your help.” That was Tonya, her voice tight with anxiety.

He drew his focus together, forced himself to think. Oddly, his bear was dead asleep, making him the most human he'd ever felt. Which ought to reassure him, but instead made him feel disconnected from himself. The grizzly was so dominant in his mind all the time that this absence unsettled him.

“Give him a minute,” another voice said. A stranger. Female. He blinked, focusing on a pert nose covered in freckles. A young redhead with a surprisingly warm smile. She was dressed in a paramedic's uniform.

“Julie?” he asked, his voice coming out as a croak.

The paramedic leaned forward. “Let's start with the basics. What's your name—”

“What the fuck happened?” interrupted Tonya.

Then he saw Carl lean into his field of vision, a bottle of water extended. That's what he needed. He reached for it, his arms leaden. He tried to sit up but failed. What the hell was wrong with him?

“Take it slow,” the woman said, though she thankfully helped him sit up. “Does anything hurt?”

“No,” he said, more scared than he wanted to admit. “I'm so weak.”

Carl squatted down beside him, handing over the water and steadying Mark's hand. “You got hit by tranq darts. A lot of them.”

“Julie?” he repeated as he looked around. There were spilled groceries on the ground, bags he'd dropped when he fell. Focusing toward the cabin, he saw Julie's father sitting on the step looking haggard. Beside him stood a middle-aged woman clenching her fists. Her eyes had the crazy intensity of someone barely holding it together, and he knew he was looking at Julie's mother. “Where the hell is Julie?” he said, his voice growing stronger.

“We don't know,” Carl said, his voice low but with that steady patience that made him a great alpha. “What do you remember?”

“Groceries,” he said. “We went grocery shopping and she bought…”
Oh, crap.
“Garlic and oregano.”

“Why does that matter?” Julie's mother asked, her voice tight with worry.

It didn't matter except that it explained why he hadn't smelled the bastards first thing. He'd been carrying the groceries and the spices had masked any other smell. “Stupid,” he muttered. He'd been so damned stupid. He'd been relaxed and happy as hadn't happened ever. “So damned—”

“Yeah, stupid. Whatever,” Tonya said as she squatted down beside him. “Because everyone expects to be attacked by guys with dart guns. Get your head out of your guilt and start
helping
.”

Tactless, thy name is Tonya. But it worked. He pulled his focus together and looked to the car. Unfortunately, the quick shift made his brain and vision slosh about, and he had to grip Carl's arm as a wave of dizziness rolled through him. But even fighting the nausea, he was able to grit out, “Tablet. Car.”

Tonya held it out. “Already got it, but it's password protected.”

Right. And why the hell hadn't he noticed it was in her hand the whole time? He needed to get it together. “Give it here,” he said, trying to hold out his hand. Tonya didn't even blink.

“Password?”

“Fine.” He rattled it off, wondering if any of them would realize his password was Julie plus the date they'd gotten together when they were sixteen. Tonya's eyebrows rose, but she keyed it in. Carl just squeezed Mark's hand.

“We'll find her,” he said softly.

And there it was, the information he'd already known. He'd been knocked out. Julie had been taken. If she'd been killed, Tonya wouldn't be so keyed up about him helping because there was nothing he could do. But with Julie missing, he had to get up. He had to find her.

“Slow down, big guy,” the paramedic said. “You conked your head pretty good and we don't know what was in those darts.”

“So analyze the darts,” he growled as he struggled to his feet. Thankfully Carl knew better than to stop him and he kept the petite redhead back.

“We need to get you to a hospital.”

“Not happen—”

“Mark!” Carl interrupted. “There's nothing you can do here. Get yourself—”

“Got ya!” Tonya crowed, silencing everyone.

Everyone shifted, trying to look over her shoulder at the tablet. Even Julie's parents came off the porch. Fortunately, Mark was the largest and the closest. He reached around and angled the tablet so he could see the replay of the recordings.

And there was Julie laughing as she fumbled with the front-door lock. Rusty piece of shit. He should have upgraded that when he put in all the surveillance equipment. But in his stupid mind, he'd thought that anything that delayed bad guys from entering the house was a good thing. He hadn't thought that she'd be slowed down.

There wasn't any audio on the feed so he couldn't hear the pops. His memory supplied them, though, the sound of multiple guns going off almost simultaneously. Then a heavy dart appeared in her back and Julie crumpled like a rag doll.

He released a sound, half growl, half whine. It was low and feral, but it came from the man in him, not the grizzly who was still bizarrely quiet. In his peripheral vision, he saw Carl glance nervously in his direction, but he didn't say anything. His gaze was still glued to the tablet screen as two guys in hoodies and baseball caps trotted up the front steps. One continued inside the house. The other leaned over Julie, roughly checking her for weapons. She was unconscious, but it still pissed him off to see how the bastard manhandled her, lingering too long, feeling up her breasts.

“Keep it together,” Carl murmured in his ear.

Mark didn't move his gaze. “Leave it alone. My grizzly is asleep.”

Tonya and Carl both reacted to that, their heads snapping up at almost the same instant. Mark only cared because it destabilized the viewing screen. So he grabbed the tablet, watching intently as the one bastard flipped Julie over his shoulder. Thoughts spun through his brain without restraint. The guy was shifter strong, barely winded as he lifted her. He had a torn Levi's on, and why the hell did that matter? Julie looked gorgeous, even upside down and unconscious. Bastard patted her behind as he headed down the porch step. Think of something! No fucking clue anywhere. The other one emerged from the house. Also with the same kind of Levi's on. Front porch needed a good sanding and water-resistant stain treatment. Jerk number two was carrying all their research including Carl's older-than-shit spell book. Perched precariously on top of the book was the magic potion, experiment seven. It was a near duplicate of number six but with the proportions shifted.

“Damn,” murmured Carl while Tonya twisted the tablet so she could see better.

“What is that?” she asked. “Why would they take it?”

Did Tonya always ask questions in pairs? And WTF was wrong with him? His mind was spinning out of control. He couldn't focus!

“Mark!” Tonya snapped. “What is that?”

A tablet. A stupid question. A book. What the hell was she asking? Focus! “Bonding rituals. A love potion.” Mark took control of the tablet again to scroll through the video from the other cameras with a shaking hand. His mind was spitting out random facts—clouds in the sky, loose roofing tile—without any kind of sense. It ratcheted up the panic inside him because he couldn't think his way through.

“Mark, are you sure? It's completely quiet? Mark!”

Someone was speaking. Carl. Alpha. Smelled like sex and Becca. Don't think about that! Where the hell was Julie?

“Where's your bear, Mark?”

“Gone,” he grunted. Fast-forwarded through the feed from front camera one. Pretended he wasn't freaking out. Too many words in his brain and no feelings. Front camera showed a great view of spilled groceries and his ass laid out like a drunk. Lazy shit. Three darts sticking out of his body. Enough tranquilizers to drop a grizzly. As a human he'd been asleep before he hit the ground.

He watched a third asshole crouch over him, a pistol hanging loose while he talked into a cell. Cheap-ass stupid phone. Burner. Probably getting instructions from someone. The trees had that rich green of summer. Can't hear the birds on the video. Eventually, the man straightened up, kicked him in side for good measure, and then joined the guy hauling all the research. Fuckers.

Mark breathed hard, feeling the pull in his swollen side. Bastard should have killed him because nothing was going to stop Mark from killing them now. Not when the three started walking off together, clearly making crude comments about Julie.

“How quiet?”

Nothing was fucking quiet. His brain was a whirlwind of thoughts. He queued up camera- two footage and started fast-forwarding. There had to be something, somewhere. He saw Julie's parents drive up and get out of their car. Nice blue SUV. Rental. Her mom ran to him while the professor hauled out his cell phone and probably dialed 911.

“Mark!”

“What?”

“Your grizzly.”

“Asleep. As in nothing.” No roar. No fury. No hunger.
Oh shit, shit, shit, shit
—a silent thrum of panic. And simultaneously, why the panic? This was great, wasn't it? Shit, shit, shit.

Carl grabbed his wrist. “Could you shift?”

Mark tried to grab at his bear, but ended up clutching random ridiculous thoughts. Honey. Coffee. Breeze. Tablet. Julie. Julie! “No,” he snapped. And damn it, he felt completely out of control like this. Like without his bear to focus him, he was spinning wildly, which left him vulnerable and Julie lost. How he'd prayed for a few moments respite from his grizzly, but now that it was silent, he was insane with panic.

Tonya and Carl exchanged glances, but didn't say anything. Meanwhile, Mark queued up the next camera feed and started running through it, pretending to a focus he didn't have.

Meanwhile, Carl started barking orders. “I want an analysis of those darts immediately.”

“Yeah, I guessed,” Tonya said as the paramedic handed the things over. “You'll want blood work and stuff, too,” she said as they looked at Mark.

Camera showed squirrels. Leaves. Rocks. No Julie. No help. Get it together.

“Mark, we need you to go to the hospital.”

“No.”

Someone touched his arm, and he flinched. He had to watch the video feed. He had to find Julie.

“Mark, think. Your bear is
quiet
.”

He was thinking too damned much! “I know—” He was so absorbed in watching footage that he didn't process the words for a moment. But then the significance hit him. Some drug had quieted the grizzly to the point of absolute silence. And, yeah, it knocked the man out, but the grizzly was staying down while he was up and thinking. Granted, it was out-of-control thoughts, but still. This is was important if he could just focus.

Never since he was a teenager had the man been alone in his brain. And if this were possible—if there was a medication or something—that could do this without knocking him unconscious for hours on end? Well, that was good, right? Not only could it be a temporary staying measure for himself and all ferals, but the break it would give to teenage shifters was enormous. With all those hormones zipping around in an adolescent's body, even a temporary pause from the demands of the animal inside would be a godsend.

But…Julie!

He swallowed and held out his arm to the paramedic. “Start drawing my blood.”

“What?”

“Do it,” Carl ordered.

And while the woman leapt to follow the command in the alpha's voice, Mark finally hit pay dirt. “There!” he said, stabbing his finger at the tablet. Three guys tromping through the woods. One carried Julie. Bulky muscles straining. They'd get footprints for sure. Won't help much.

“What's that?” He fumbled to pause the screen. Why did his muscles feel thick and slow? Everyone peered around his finger. The smallest and youngest of the bastards. The guy had tossed his hoodie back to reveal a baseball cap turned backward on his head. The emblem on it showed up clear as day. “It's an A,” he said, trying to figure out what the stylized letter meant. It had triangles down the left edge.

“Diamondbacks,” Carl said. “Phoenix baseball team.”

Mark frowned, his mind spinning through sports images. Who the hell rooted for an Arizona team in Michigan?

“That's not much to go on,” Tonya said. “But it's more than we had a minute ago.”

Meanwhile, the paramedic was drawing his blood. She'd muttered something about it not being her specialty, but he hardly cared. And just when he was about to snap at her for the painful stab at the crook of his elbow, something else flashed on the screen.

With one arm restrained by the paramedic, he couldn't manage the video. Thankfully Tonya was there before him, steadying the tablet and the image. And there, slinking through the shadows, was a woman with short, sandy hair, long legs, and a grim expression.

Sour. Middle-aged. Bitter. Smooth carriage. Bitch. Shifter. “Who the hell is that?”

“Want to bet it's Theo's Crazy Cat Lady?” Tonya asked.

Carl rubbed his thumb down the screen. “Maybe. But I know her. I just can't remember where.”

Mark jerked. “Figure it out!”

The explosion was meant for himself, not his alpha. Too much brain work. Too many thoughts. And zero control of the mental whirlwind. Thankfully, Carl didn't snap back at him. Meanwhile, the paramedic jerked Mark back to face her. For a little thing, she sure had some strength.