The Guardian (17 page)

Lucas wiped a tear from his face. “I know. I wasn’t
going to hurt Cassie. I was going to make her mine.”

“We have a soul bond, so it never would have worked.”
Michael stood up. “Come on, let’s find this bastard.”

Lucas shook his head. “I could say fuck you, and sit
here to watch you fall apart when your bonded mate is ripped away from you.
Turns out I am not that vicious after all.” Lucas took Michael’s offered hand
and got up. “We need to hurry. They won’t delay especially now knowing we will
be following them.”

Chapter
Seventeen

Cassie woke up to a burning pain in her body, much
like she’d felt when the essence in her was stirring. She moaned in pain and
let her eyes open. She was strapped down to a bed, with IV tubing taped to her
arms.

“Good morning.” Dani greeted her in an icy cold tone.

“What are you doing to me?”
 
Cassie fought with the restraints to try to get
free.

“Just some drugs.
I am
curious what they will do.”

The burning pain was terrible and growing worse. “Get
them out. It burns.”

“It does? Good, it is working faster than I
thought.
 
I was curious if I could change
or remove the essence from you. I have tweaked it a bit since the pregnant
chick died.”

“Get it out. Of course you can’t take the essence out,
you crazy bitch.”

“Such language,” said the mechanical voice she heard
last night.

“Make her stop,” Cassie begged while she fought to get
free.

“And ruin our experiment? No. I need weapons I can
sell. I need to change the essence in you first, so I can control you.”

“Why?” Cassie could not understand why he would want
to harm other shifters.

“Why not?
Dani here has a
good idea, sell shifters to foreign militaries. We would make a shitload of
money, and get rid of rival shifter clans all in one nice package.”

Dani stood up straight. “Shifters killed my parents,
then
split me from my twin so we both grew up unloved.”

Cassie shook her head. “Marcy
was
loved. She spoke fondly of her parents.”

“They didn’t with me. They gave me some lame ass
excuse of causing an accident that killed them, then sending us to live with
humans friendly with shifters. Bullshit.”

“That is not Michael’s fault, or mine.”

“You are one of them, and so is he!”

“So is the man helping
you!
”
Cassie knew that argument was a mistake when Dani’s face turned molten with
rage.

Dani slapped her hard.
“Bitch.
He is not. How dare you accuse him of being one of those disgusting freaks of
nature? Master is special.”

“Dani, control yourself. Go on back to your room. I
will deal with our test subject.”

“Yes, Master.” Dani glared at Cassie and stormed out
of the room.
 

Oh my God, she
is flipping crazy.
Totally freaking nuts.

He walked back into her line of sight. “Tell me about
your mother, Cassie.”

Cassie was not telling him anything about her family.
For all she knew he was going to go after them. She had no idea how she had
been born a half shifter.

“Was her name Stephanie Morgan?” he questioned.

Cassie looked at him stunned that he had guessed her
mother’s name. How could he have guessed that? She thought too late that she
should have hidden her emotions from him when he chuckled.

He leaned down and sniffed her.
“Wolf
shifter, interesting.
Tell me, how old are you?”
   

Cassie glared at him with her lips pressed tightly
together.

He chuckled again. “Let me take a guess. You are
around twenty-nine years old.”

He guessed way too close for it to be a coincidence.
People always thought Cassie was in her early twenties. She knew she looked
much younger than she actually was. He should have guessed she was in her late
teens or early twenties. She stared at him wondering why he would ask her such
questions.

“Where is your mother now?” He leaned down closer to
her.

Cassie shrugged her shoulders, still refusing to say a
word.

He ripped off his mask and put his hands on either
side of her head. His brown eyes bored into hers making her feel like she was
trapped under a spell. “I asked you where your mother was. Now tell me.”

Cassie felt her mouth open despite her best efforts to
keep it closed. “She died.”

“When?”

Cassie tried to look away from the intensity of his
stare, but she was unable to move, “When I was very young. We hid at my
grandparents for a few years, but she was killed in an accident.”

“So that is where she ran to.”

“She ran from my father. She was scared of him.”

“She ran from me.” He kept looking at her while the
stunning confession sank into her muddled brain.

“She ran from you? Why would she?”
 
The meaning settled in her mind.

He saw the moment she understood, and he nodded. “Yes,
I am your father. I know because I can see myself in you, as well as your
mother. You are a wolf shifter, as am I, and you confirmed it for me by
confessing she ran from me.”

Cassie’s eyes filled with tears, not for the joy of
finding her father, but with dread. Her mother had been terrified of her
father, as were her grandparents. They had always had a plan to escape in case
he ever found them. He had tortured her, and finding out she was going to have
a baby was the reason she’d run and hidden her from him.

“Why did you hurt her?”

“What do you know about it, girl? You were not there.”

“I know what my grandparents told me when I asked
about you. You tortured my mom, and she ran fearing for both of our lives.”
Cassie would have continued, but pain lanced through her body. She screamed.
“Get it out. It’s burning me.”

“It is just getting started. Just wait until the real
pain hits,” her father said without a trace of mercy.

“Master,” Dani’s voice came over the radio. “We’re
under attack. That fucking shifter brought a shitload of cops and
cholan
.”

“Shifters working with the police?” he asked, stunned.

“I don’t know, Master, but we have to run, now. We
can’t defend ourselves against so many.”

The walls shook with an explosion. Cassie tried to
breathe through the pain as it grew worse. She closed her eyes tightly as she
writhed on the bed.

Michael had come for her, but she feared it was too
late.

****

Michael and Cole had not ever had such a hard time
tracking that they could remember. Whoever had his mate had done an excellent
job of covering the trail. They had both shifted into their animal forms while
teams of heavily armed
cholan
waited for word. Every
shifter that had tracking ability was out looking for Cassie. It made his heart
swell with pride that so many would come out to look without being asked. This
was his clan, and he knew that they would always be here for him. They would
make sure they found Cassie before it was too late.

“Over here,” Lucas said on a small road that was
barely visible with all the overgrowth. If they had been in human form they
would have missed it. “I remember coming here. The fucker was building
something out this way.”

Cole shifted as well and looked. “A vehicle came
through here within the last few hours.” Cole pointed to the tire tracks, and
the disturbed vegetation that was hiding the driveway.

Michael nodded. “Alert the
cholan
.
If this is where they took her, I am not waiting to go and get her. If they
take their time and miss the fight, that’s on them.”

“Right.”
Cole pulled a cell
phone out of the pouch around his neck.
 
“All right, I am sending you our position now. We think we found our
target. Boss isn’t waiting, get here now.” He put the phone back in the pouch.
“Let’s do this,” he said and shifted back into wolf form.

They found a metal structure that looked new, although
whoever built it, had tried to hide it. They found an all-wheel drive pickup
truck and walked over. Michael could smell Cassie, and a drug, in the back
seat. “They've fucking drugged her.” He would kill them if she was harmed at
all.

“The guys are almost here. Keep it together,” Lucas
told him.

Michael wanted to laugh. Lucas was telling him to keep
it together. Lucas had always had sensitive hearing though. Within a few
seconds Michael heard the footsteps of Cole’s highly trained deputies. They did
not get to use their training often, but with shifter skirmishes, hunters, and
lone wolves that wanted the chance to boast of taking down a clan, Cole had
kept his men trained to fight hard. No matter how good of a fighter a shifter
was in animal form, it was no match for a well-trained man with weapons and
body armor. Today their skills were needed. Michael watched one of the
cholan
, who was a deputy in the sheriff's
department,
shoot in a flash-bang grenade. He hoped Cassie
was not in there, but there was no way around it. He had no idea who he was
dealing with, and if he was armed. He would not risk those under him due to
foolish impatience.

“I am going in with them,” Michael said walking
forward towards the armed
cholan
wearing body armor
slowly made their way into the steel structure.

“No, you’re not, Goddess dammit,” Cole whispered
harshly. “If you make one move without my men clearing the doorway, I will have
you restrained.”

Michael turned away and looked at Cole as if he had
gone crazy. “You fucking would not dare.”

Cole gave him the flat stare of a man who meant what
he said. “Try me. I will not have our guardian killed because he lost his head.
My men will make sure there is no ambush waiting for us first.”

Michael jumped when he heard gunfire erupt. “Let me go
in there. They could shoot Cassie.”

Cole and Lucas were both on him. “No, and if she is
there, hopefully she is hiding behind something. You will get your chance in a
while.”

Every shot Michael heard made his heart freeze in
dread. He imagined Cassie in there, terrified. He wanted to go to her, to hold
her and shield her from the gunfight going on. Whoever this man was, he had a
lot of men fighting.

“Several are making an escape attempt out the back,”
Travis, one of the trackers, yelled.

“Go after him, carefully. Take a gun in your harness
and kill them if they attack you.”

Travis shoved a gun in his harness and shifted. Once
he was in his panther body the harness fit him correctly. His yellow eyes
regarded Lucas for a moment before he ran off towards the escaping shifters.

“I am going after him,” Lucas said jumping up.

“Why?” Cole asked skeptically.

“Because he was one of my soldiers
in my territory.
I may not be his guardian anymore, but I still need to
make sure he doesn’t get his head blown off.”

Michael and Cole looked at him for a moment. “Go,”
Michael said firmly. “Do not make me regret letting you go.”

“You won’t,” Lucas said in a strange tone. Michael
looked at him closer, and he had a haunted look in his eyes that was not there
before. He had always worn his grief like a cloak and used it as an excuse for
whatever he had done. Now he was claiming to want to protect a young shifter
protector, and chase down those that had caused them harm.

Michael felt the presence of their Goddess seconds
before the peace she carried with her overtook him. His own presence was moved
aside with gentle, loving hands.

“Lucas, my dear hurting child.
Come to me.”

In an instant Lucas was weeping and stumbling towards
her. Michael understood his emotion. To have the Goddess wrapping her love and
peace around one was an overwhelming experience.

“Lucas, you have seen the wrong you have done. Your
heart is broken now, as it should be. I believe you are beginning to understand.
I want you to be whole once more and come home, but you cannot do that with a
darkness cast upon you. I am lifting the Darkness from you. When you are ready,
come home.”

Lucas grabbed Michael’s legs. “Thank you,
Ilithyia
.” He wept even when their Goddess’s presence
whispered out of his body. Michael was sure, for just a moment, he saw her
beautiful face hover over Lucas. She kissed him on the head and then vanished.

Lucas struggled to his feet and let his tears fall
without shame. “I am going to go and catch up with the cub.”
 
He stood and shifted into his wolf form. His
black eyes scanned the grounds, and he loped off after Travis.

Michael took the chance of everyone being occupied by
Lucas’s sudden forgiveness to run towards the building. He needed to get to his
Cassie and keep her safe.

Chapter
Eighteen

Cassie stared into the darkness, still strapped to the
bed, partly terrified she would get blown up, and partly hoping she would. The
pain was so terrible she thought she had screamed herself hoarse. It was hard
to tell by the loud gunfire what was going on, but in addition to the
explosions, if that wasn't terrifying enough, the power had gone out, too. No
windows meant she just had to lie there, with poison dripping into her veins,
in the pitch blackness.

She cried out for Michael wishing somehow he could
hear her. She had no idea who was fighting out there, and for all she knew it
was someone even worse than her captors.

A tiny light, like a firefly, lit up in the corner. It
flew towards her, and for a moment she thought it was some type of ghost. She
tried to turn away, but the tiny creature shushed her. Cassie blinked and saw
it was a fairy, but this one had some kind of tail. It glowed with the same
light as the fireflies she would catch while vacationing in Illinois as a
child.

The little creature smiled at her and chirped. It was
too tiny for her to understand, but by the smile she knew it was trying to
comfort her.
 
It flew over to the IV and
tried to pull, but the little fairy was not strong enough.

The door burst open, and the little creature fluttered
away to go back into hiding. The emergency lights were on in the hall letting
her make out shapes. A man walked into the room making her hope rise.
“Michael?” Cassie cried out.

“Orders are to kill you, rather than allow you to
suffer. Boss must have liked you. He likes to cause suffering.”

Cassie let out a cry. She was defenseless, and they
were going to shoot her here. She would never see Michael again. Pain tore in
her chest as she imagined his grief. She hoped it would not eat at him and
destroy him like it had Lucas.

She loved him so much, and wanted him to have a happy
life. When had she fallen so deeply in love with him? She wasn’t entirely sure,
but it seemed cruel for fate to bring them together, only to tear them apart.

There was a snarl out in the hall.
 
“Fuck, another one of those shifters is in
here,” one guard yelled out.

“I thought they were wearing body armor. How did one
get in like that?”

“Who the hell cares? Just shoot the damn thing.”

The roar of a wild cougar echoed off the walls.
Cassie’s heart leapt. She would know that yowl anywhere. Michael, her love, had
come for her. She would see him again, and hopefully they would live to have a
wonderful life full of friends and babies.

A guard flew past the door and landed with a thud. She
heard the roar again of a pissed off cougar looking for his mate. “Michael, I
am in here. Help me. They are going to kill me,” she yelled as loud as she
could.

“Shut the fuck up, bitch.” Someone pulled a trigger,
but it only clicked.

She knew she had just cheated death and used the
chance to scream even louder. “Michael. Help me.”

The man in the room screamed. Cassie saw the shadow of
Michael’s cougar form leaping at him. The snarling and screaming were
deafening. Hearing the sounds of the man being mauled to death, she was
thankful it was mostly dark in the room. The sounds alone were enough to make
her cringe.

The man’s screams turned to gurgles. Then all was
silent.

Seconds later he was at her side. “Cassie, are you
okay? What is that smell? Did they drug you?”

“Yes, Michael. It is the same stuff they gave other
shifters who didn’t survive.”

Her arm where the IV was inserted lit up. Her firefly
fairy was back.
 

“What is she?” Cassie asked in wonder.

“She is a
Mim-mim
light
fairy. They are rare, and travel in twos. Her little friend led me to you.”
Michael pulled the IV out and looked her over. “The fighting is intense out
there. The people who took you ran and left them to fight it out with us.”

Cassie wondered what Michael would think when she told
him her father was an evil shifter who was working with Marcy’s insane twin
sister, Dani.

He picked her up, and everything spun as dizziness
overwhelmed her. “Oh Michael, I really don’t feel well.”

“Hold on, baby. I will get you to the clinic, and the
doc will get you feeling better.” Michael kissed her forehead. “Just hang
on.”
 
She thought she could hear fear in
his voice. Did that mean she was going to die? Was he too late? She held onto
him feeling horribly sick, and the dread that she would not survive the night
was building.

She held onto Michael as he ran through the dark
building. Gunfire was still going off, but it was more sporadic now. Cassie
groaned in pain every time she was jostled.

“Stop,” a loud voice demanded.

“Aaron,
it’s
Michael.” His
voice rumbled in his chest. “I need to get her to Doctor Trask. They gave her
some kind of drug.”

“Shit, what the hell are you doing in here? They are
still shooting it out with the few people left. Get behind me. I'll get you
out."
 
They had started moving
again, but more stealthily. Aaron moved silently as they approached every
corner.

“Are you really asking me why I came in here?”
 
Michael’s disbelieving voice rose in pitch,
and his body stiffened.

“Sorry, yeah, I know you came in here after her. I
would go after my girl, too, if I had one.” There was movement to their left.
Cassie had barely noticed it, but Aaron raised his gun. “Get on your knees, or
I will shoot you,” he called out in a commanding tone.

Whoever it was responded with gunfire. Cassie screamed
as the deafening shots echoed in the corridor. Michael covered her body
with his own
. It was over in seconds, although it felt much
longer. Her ears rang in the silence, and when they started walking again, she
saw two bodies on the floor. The light was dim, but still she was not taking
any chances of seeing anything. She buried her face in Michael’s neck. She
concentrated on his scent and how safe he made her feel. Even now with the pain
burning through her, and in a shootout in a dark building, she felt safe.

Once again she saw movement, and Aaron yelled for
whoever it was to get on his knees. The cocky guard opened fire without reply.
Aaron was once again ready and returned fire. It was over just as fast as it
had begun, and they moved on through the dark building.

A door burst open, and they were in the fresh air of
the mountainside once again. She took deep breaths hoping the fresh, crisp air
would ease some of the burning radiating from her chest. It had no effect on
her pain level at all, good or bad.

“Cole,” Michael yelled. “I need help.”

“You are fucking crazy. I told you to stay with me.”
Cole’s voice was breathless, like he had been running.

Michael cut him off before he could say anything more.
"I wasn’t going to just stand there with Cassie in danger,” Michael said
in an irritated tone.
“Enough of your bullshit.
I need
a doctor for Cassie.”
 
His arms tightened
around her protectively.

“Right, come on. Let’s see if we can get a helicopter.
The park service may have one available. She doesn’t look like she could handle
a ride across the mountains.”

“No, they drugged her with the same shit they gave
Allie.”

“Shit, let me get the state patrol on the radio.”

Cassie looked over at Cole and saw him running over to
a truck with the county sheriff emblem on it. He picked up a radio and was
talking into it. She couldn’t make out what he said with all the background
noise. He put it down and ran over to them. “They are getting her up in the air
now. They were on standby knowing there was a problem out here.”

Michael climbed in the truck keeping her in his lap.
“How long before they are here?”

“Just a matter of a few minutes.”

Cassie heard the helicopter coming as she felt her
consciousness slipping. Voices grew faint, and her vision dimmed. This was it. After
everything she was going to lose her fight now. She tried clinging to Michael
tighter, hoping his strength would keep her alive. Darkness hovered, and she
felt her grip slackening.

“Don’t leave me, sweetness. I can’t live without you.”
Michael’s voice cracked with emotion as her body pulled her into the
nothingness.

****

Cassie woke up in one of the patient rooms in the tiny
hospital in Pleasant Cove. She looked around the pastel green room that had
paintings of various landscapes hanging on the walls. Michael was asleep in the
recliner next to her. His head was tilted at a painful angle as he slept.
Cassie looked around a little more and saw a lot of equipment in the room. She
had almost as much as her grandfather had. She tried to sit up, but found she
had no strength to do much more than turn her head.

Michael sat up quickly and looked at her.
“Cassie.”
 
He rubbed his eyes and stood
up. “Doctor Trask, she is awake.”

“I feel so tired.” Cassie struggled to keep her eyes
open.

Michael took her hand and kissed it gently. He kept it
pressed to his cheek as he looked her in the eyes. “Yes, I know. Those drugs
made you very ill, but you are getting better now.”

Doctor Trask bent over her. “How are you feeling?” He
flashed a light in her eyes and looked over at monitors around her bed.

“I’m tired.” She had an urge to close her eyes and
take a nap already.

“Your body has had a huge shock. I am not sure what
the intent of that woman was, but it nearly killed you.” Doctor Trask looked at
her with a serious expression.

Cassie could believe it. She felt like a war had been waged
in her body.

Michael was still holding her hand. “You had us scared
for a while, but the Doc here wouldn’t give up. I knew he was the best when we
asked him to come here as our clan doctor. Now I am even more thankful we asked
him.”

“Thank you, Doctor Trask,” Cassie mumbled as she fell
asleep.

****

When she woke again sunshine was filling the room. She
felt a little more energetic this time. She sat up feeling her muscles stretch
with her movement.

“Finally, I bet you are hungry.” Blair walked into her
room carrying a tray. It smelled delicious.

“How long did I sleep for?” Cassie felt her stomach
rumble as the smell of the food hit her.

“Off and on for a couple of weeks.
You would wake up, say a few things that made no sense, eat, then go back to
sleep.”
 
Blair gave her a look like her
grandmother would give her when she had been ill and worried her.

Thinking of her grandmother made Cassie
gasp.
“How is my grandpa?”

“He is doing great. Doctor Trask went down there and
gave him an antidote. He was up and around within a few days.” Blair arranged
her food on the tray for her as she spoke.

Any other questions were interrupted by more of her
friends arriving. Myra, Julie, and another woman she barely knew, Hannah, came
in with flowers and cards.

“Look, she is back from the brink of death,” Julie
said cheerfully.

Cassie laughed out of nervousness. It was troubling
how close she had come to dying. “I am okay.” She picked up a piece of bread
and bit into it. It was homemade and had a thick layer of butter on it, just
like she liked it.

“We are so glad as well. You have grown on us, Cassie,”
Julie said affectionately.

They talked and made sure Cassie ate all her food.
When she started to sag Blair shooed them out so she could rest.

Cassie had been wondering if Blair had gotten into any
trouble. She had a feeling Michael would have words with her at some point for
her running off like she had. She looked over at Blair. “So was Michael mad at
you?”

Blair snorted a humorless laugh. “Yeah, you can say
that. He nearly shifted he was so mad.”

“He didn’t hurt you, did he?” Cassie could not imagine
Michael hurting Blair, but if he did she was going to chew his ass out like it
had never been chewed on before.

“No, oh no.
Michael would
never hurt me or any woman. He did something far worse.”

Cassie’s eyes widened. “What did he do?” She was
breathless as she waited for Blair to tell her what was worse than Michael
hurting her.

“He gave me to Cole.” Blair’s arms were crossed, and
her lips were tight with anger.

Cassie was glad that she had always been good at
schooling her
expression,
or she would have laughed.
“He gave you to Cole, like gave
gave
?” she emphasized
in surprise.

“Like for the next month, I have to do whatever he
says.” Blair snapped the sentence out angrily.

Cassie sipped her tea before answering. “Why are you
so mad? You like him.”

Blair’s face reddened. “I do not! Whatever made you
think I liked him at all?”

“You watch him whenever he is around. If you don’t see
him right away, you go looking for him.”

Blair shook her head in denial. “I do not like him at
all, anymore. He broke my heart, and I will never give him the chance to ever
hurt me again.”

Cassie could not help the thought,
never say never
.
 
“Did he ever explain?”

“Oh yes, something about thinking I deserved so much
better than him, blah, blah, blah.” She crossed her arms again. “After I had
spent months crying for him, when I was able to go through a day without tears,
he tries to come back saying he was sorry and made a mistake. Oh too bad, I am
over him.”

Cassie could see Blair was far from being over him,
but her broken heart wouldn’t let
her
see it. “Well, I hope the month you have with him is easy.”