Morgan (18 page)

“I can tell my little prey has been here, but you are not her. Where is Morganya Petrov? Tell me and I may decide to let you live.”

The voice confirmed that he was a stranger to her, so she didn’t bother trying to focus her poor vision enough to look at him. She needed to get to the
safe room. D
rake had been at home with her while Caine, Rowan, and Gabriel were all on patrol somewhere.

Where was Drake now? He would never let a stranger get close to her.
Her baby kicked strongly, reminding her that she needed to keep fighting. She had been in a similar position before. She was blind, but still had her
brain.

“
I don
’t know where she’s gone. They had her here yesterday but I believe they decided to take her to our cabin in the woods.” Jordanna imagined there was a cabin in the woods somewhere.

“What woods? You come with me and show me.”

The man smelled of onions, and spoke in heavily accented English. He still held firmly onto her wrist and was using it to drag her roughly out of the kitchen area where she’d been preparing lunch for her men.

“
Wait
. I need my shoes,” she said.

She’d thought having a safe room installed was a ridiculous over reaction on the part of her men to her abduction last year by Aiden, but now—

“No. Come.”

He pulled hard on her arm and her belly banged painfully against the wall to the study. She gasped and let herself go limp, her knees hitting the hardwood floor heavily. The tears that sprang to her eyes were completely genuine.

“I can’t walk through the forest with no shoes. The cabin is a long way from the road.” She pulled on her arm, the bones aching painfully in his strong grip.

“Fine, get your damned shoes.”

He released her hand and she hugged it to her chest, trying to ignore the throbbing pain. Jordanna pulled herself up, wobbling a little from the shock, and moved down the hall to the study on her shaking legs. She heard his heavy steps following, but not too closely.

He must be certain he’s incapacitated Drake. Please God, let him not be dead.

She reached the study and opened the door to the safe room a scant inch or so. She was so close to safety. She just needed to close the door before he could follow her inside.

“My boots are just in the closet,” she said, praying he wasn’t close enough to see there was a whole room behind the door when she opened it.

His grunt of an acknowledgement came from across the room. Jordanna flung open the wooden door and stepped inside, slamming her hand down hard on the panel that sealed the steel door of the safe room.

It hissed shut in less than a second and she felt along the edges with her hands to make sure that she was free from danger. She was alone inside with nothing but silence and darkness. The door was sealed tight. She wrapped her hands around her belly and thanked the men she loved for giving her this safe
haven.

She let her emotions swell. Her fear and panic for Drake and their baby reached out across the mating bond. She needed her men to hear her. To feel her. Know that she was in danger.

“Or I can use the bloody phone. Argh.” She screamed as pounding on the door startled her. It shook, but didn’t open. Gabriel wouldn’t have installed a useless door. It was supposed to keep vampires out, let alone shifters.

“Jordanna, we can feel your panic. Is it the baby?”
She jumped as Gabriel’s voice sounded in her mind. They’d heard her.

“
I don
’t know where Drake is. A man tried to take me.”
Swearing and snarls filled her mind.

“Are you hurt, sweetheart?”
Rowan asked.

“Where are you?”
Caine asked.

“I’m in the safe room. I’m sore, but I’m fine. So is the baby, I think. I need Jason. I was knocked heavily against a wall.”
More growling and snarls filled her mind.
“Please. Where is Drake?”

She hugged her stomach and slid down the wall. Now she was safe and there was no doubt her men were on the way, she was feeling the effects of her fear and shock. Her baby was still inside her and she prayed it was alive and well. She needed Drake. She didn’
t want
a life without all of her mates.

* * * *

Aiden was on patrol in town. Cooper assigned him the task because h
is speed ma
de it impossible for the human population to see him and his ability to read minds made it possible for him to hear any hostile thoughts. The thoughts that suddenly filled his mind, however, came from the shifters of Eminence.

They feared for the sweet, blind Jordanna. Someone had attacked her. She had made it into the refuge purpose built for her, and her mates were on their way. Aiden was going to get there before them.

As he approached the home he saw the huge assailant running for the woods. Aiden smelled hyena. The thugs of the shifter world. He also scented blood, and heard the confused thoughts of an irate Drake Prentiss. Jordanna was unassailable in her room, so Aiden chose instead to chase the dog.

“I am following the man who hurt Jordanna and came for Morgan.”

Aiden directed his thoughts to Cooper. The enforcer of the Eminence pride would convey the information to the Alpha. He didn’t have the same blood bond with Finn that he shared with his own Alpha, Caleb, and it was proving very inconvenient.

“Can you discern whether he has come alone?”
Cooper
’s reply was immediate, his tone conveying the steely calm of the warrior Aiden knew him to be.

“He is an advanced scout who chose to show his hand in the hopes of capturing Morgan. He meant to impress Petrov and improve his standing in the pack of hyenas that serve him. It seems Petrov is killing anyone who fails him, including his oldest and most trusted pack members.”
Aiden sneered in disgust at the things the hyena’s mind continued to reveal as he followed silently behind the man.

“Bring him to the jail alive. Finn will await your arrival.”

“Is Jason on his way? Drake is hurt, as is Jordanna. She also fears for her cub.”

“Jason is in town with Bethany and I
won
’t ask him to leave her. I will have Gabe bring Jordanna and Drake to the clinic.”

Aiden pulled his mind free of the cats in Eminence as they reinforced the town and made sure their mates were all protected. He increased his speed slightly and reached out to grasp the shifter as he ran toward a van parked at the edge of the Prentiss property.

He wrapped his taloned fingers over the man’s shoulders and used their combined speeds to ram the hyena’s head into the trunk of a massive pine tree. Hyenas were strong and vicious shifters. He wouldn’t risk the town’s safety by taking the man to jail while he was still conscious. He dragged the limp body to the van and threw it in the back.

Aiden used the rope and masking tape—intended no doubt to restrain Morgan—and bound the man, although he doubted he would wake until his fractured skull had sufficiently healed. He drove back to town, his thoughts troubled by what he had discovered from the hyena’s mind. Petrov was coming with more than a dozen of his men and he would be here soon.

Cameron ran as fast as his cat was able, and the trees flew past as he sped home. His vision was acute and his mind focused as never before. His instincts were honed by the strength of his protective rage.

They had come for his mate, hurt another of the pride’s precious mates and injured one of their own. As much as Cameron’s cat demanded he seek out the threat and tear him limb from limb, he also needed to definitively secure Morgan’s safety first.

He also needed to hold her and see for himself that she was unharmed. Aiden was good, but their pride had discovered how to deflect their thoughts in order to slip past the mind-reading abilities of vampires. Therefore it was not beyond the realms of probability that others may have discovered that same weakness and be utilizing it to get to Morgan.

As he ran across the paddock to the house he saw Evan approaching from the opposite direction. Samson was going directly into town because that was where Bethany was.

“Ben and Morgan haven’t been told of Jordanna’s assault yet,”
Evan said.
“Samson has left it up to us to inform them.”

Cameron growled as he ran up the back steps and shifted. He knew he needed to find a way to appear calm so as not to immediately scare Morgan, but his cat was riding him hard to find her.

Evan ran through the door ahead of him, not bothering to shift in his haste to see if Morgan was unharmed. Evan skidded to stop by the kitchen table and Cameron ran into his rump, his head reeling.

“Fucking hell,” Cameron said. He inhaled deeply and it was not due to any sort of exertion. He simply wanted a bigger dose of the delectable aroma of his mate’s arousal.

“Fucking is right,” Evan said, growling deeply. Evan smiled at Cameron as he stalked toward the stairs, naked and erect as he followed Morgan’
s scent trail.

Cameron hadn
’t even seen his brother shift. He shook his head in an effort to try and clear his mind before running up the stairs behind Evan. They needed to get Morgan to safety, not ravish her, as he hungered to do.

“She fell asleep about an hour ago,” Ben said, meeting them in the hallway outside the room they shared with Morgan. “What’s going on? You both smell furious.”

Cameron left Evan to explain what had occurred and moved silently into the bedroom. Morgan looked like a vision. Her thick hair flowed over the pillow in silken waves, and her breasts were bare above a sheet that covered her to the waist. Her eyes sprung open and she blinked several times before smiling at him. He breathed deeply and relaxed as her fresh, clean scent calmed his raging cat.

“You are the most beautiful creature on earth,” Cameron said. He was across the room and climbing over her small frame before her next heartbeat. “I can’t believe you’re mine.” He kissed one pale pink nipple before kissing her soft, plump lips. “Do you know how much I love you?”

“I do, Cameron. I love you, too.”

His heart swelled and ached with his happiness. He’d felt her love for him through their mating bond, but to hear it was still a wondrous thing. If his cat wasn’t so stressed and angry he’d be purring right now.

“We have to go, Morgan. One of your father’s men has made it here and he has hurt Jordanna.” He wished he could have spared her this pain, but he couldn’t. Not and keep her safe. “We need to get you to the safe room at the Alpha’s now. Peata and her baby are already there.”

“No,” Morgan said, shaking her head as she tried to get out from under Cameron’s body.

“Morgan, we all die if you do. You can’t fight us on how to best protect you,” Cameron said, his voice rumbling with the growl of his enraged cat. Its calm at finding her safe had dissolved as soon as she’d tried to oppose him.

“Yes, I’ll go to Melanie’s. Of course I will. I just meant that I can’t believe Jordanna has ended up being hurt because of my father.” Her eyes had fired up to bright lavender, adding to her beauty and driving him wild.

He kissed her, his lips claiming hers as he pulled her close and absorbed the heat of their naked bodies being pressed together. The feel of her soft skin against him and the way her small hands ran over his chest made him ache for her. He’d never felt such deep need before. He needed this woman. His mate.

“Don’t start something we aren’t able to finish,” Evan said. He growled loudly until Cameron ended his kiss. “We’re sorry to have to share such news, Morgan. But we need to act before the rest of your father’s men arrive.”

“It will be too late if we don’t get you there now,” Ben said.

Cameron stood with Morgan in his arms and watched as Ben and Evan found them all some clothes.

“Are Jordanna and the baby badly hurt?” Morgan asked. “Is Jason with her now?” Cameron placed Morgan on her feet and removed the splints from her wrists.

“Gabe is taking Jordanna to the doctor now. She’s only badly shaken, as far as we know,” Cameron said. He tried to smile in reassurance, but knew he’d failed when Morgan’s eyes filled with tears.

“How do your wrists feel now?” Evan asked. He held out a pile of Bethany’s clothes and Morgan flexed her fingers experimentally before taking them from him.

“They don’t hurt at all now. Is that normal? I mean, isn’t it too soon for them to have healed?”

“The mating speeds up the healing of any injuries in shifters and humans,” Evan said.

“We need to leave,” Cameron said. He took the clothes from Morgan and handed her each item in turn as she quickly dressed. His cat wouldn’t feel easy until they were at the Alpha’s and she was within reach of that safe room.

Once they were all dressed he carried Morgan to the truck and held her in his arms as Evan drove to the Alpha’s. Asher and Barrett Pollock had been the only two recruits to stay behind and they acted as their escorts. They followed closely behind them in one of the Samson’s big armored Humvees.

Once they had left the road and made their way up the long drive to Finn’s home, Cameron saw that the ranch was in the process of being prepared for a siege.

“As much as I hope all this preparation isn’t going to be necessary, I’m glad that Cooper has arranged it,” Cameron said.

“Are all of those people shifters?” Morgan asked, as she stared out the window at the people working to bring the horses into the barn.

“Those are Finn’s parents, Theo, Paul, Chris, and their mate, Connie. His dads will be out patrolling and Connie will be in the safe room with you and the other mates,” Evan said.

“Cooper will tell us all where we’re to go,” Ben said. “He is the pride enforcer, and he will make sure everyone is well protected.”