“Can’t promise anything, but we’ll look into it for you,” I state. “Write down your number and shit and if we find her or anything that will help find her, I’ll let you know. Well, me or one of my guys.” She pulls a card out of her purse and hands it to me, and I see that she’s apparently a hairdresser.
“That’s my cell number,” she says.
“As soon as I know something, we’ll be in touch, Gemma,” I reply. She nods and stands.
Halfway out the door, she turns and states, “Thank you. I know you’ll find her now that you’ve got something with her scent on it.”
Once she leaves, I slump back into my chair, the hoodie clutched against my chest, one word resonating.
Mate.
“You’re sure?” Gray asks me as we sit at the clubhouse bar, a bottle between us.
“Yep,” I reply. The minute I had the hoodie in my hands, I felt it deep in my soul. Someone out there has her and I plan to find out who, remove them from this earth, and then set about making her mine.
“So what’s the plan?”
Only my officers know about my additional abilities. “When I touched the hoodie, I felt everything that she went through and thought that night. She was taken so she could be killed for her pelt.” My leopard is shredding my chest, demanding that we hunt for her, but I’ve got Aces retracing her steps. If there’s a trail out there, he’ll find it and then, I’m going hunting.
“The Ryde driver snatched her?”
“Apparently so,” I reply, downing another shot.
“I presume Aces is running his searches. We taking the fuckers out when he finds where they’re stashing them?” Gray inquires. I grin at him, but I know it’s feral, not friendly. His answering grin tells me he’s looking forward to the fight we’re gonna face.
“Yep. She’s been missing for two weeks now. Haven’t heard anything about any dead women being found, so they’re still alive.” I know she is; the bond is faint since we haven’t mated yet, but it’s there. I can sense that she’s weakening and has been hurt, but other than that, I’m clueless.
“We’ll find her, find them, brother, and rain hell down on the heads of the fuckers who thought it would be a good idea to steal female shifters for their pelts,” he asserts.
“Figured you’d want in,” I state.
“After what my mate went through? Absofuckinglutely. How you could think otherwise is beyond me,” he replies. His old lady and mate has been a welcome addition to this merry band of shifters and despite her initial hesitance, she’s embraced her new role.
“Well, hopefully, he finds something soon. My leopard is driving me crazy.”
“Let’s go for a run,” Gray states.
“Best fucking idea I’ve heard all day.”
Jayda
I’m not sure how much more I can take. They increased my food, but barely, so I’m beyond weak at this point. I must be hallucinating, because I’ve sensed something just beyond my conscious thought and keep hearing, ‘Hold on, I’m gonna find you,’ on repeat.
It’s our mate, my leopard states.
Mate? We don’t have a mate, I reply.
Yes, yes we do, and I hope he is deliciously yummy.
Wench, knock it off. You know our last attempt at a relationship was a huge failure.
Our mate won’t be.
You can’t know that! I think back to my high school boyfriend and shudder. Granted I was an innocent, but if what we did is what is the norm, I’m not exactly thrilled about hopping into the sack with anyone, mate or not.
Billy Jenkins was a pencil dick, my leopard states. He didn’t know what he was doing, but our mate will know.
Now I want to vomit. It was singularly the most horrible experience of my life. Hell, even my first shift, as painful as it was, was nothing compared to his fumbling.
Mate will know what to do. She sounds so confident that I feel a spark of hope ignite. If we survive this hell, maybe I’ll find out what all the fuss is truly about.
I wish I could shift, but right now, as weak as I am, I’m not sure it’s possible. Plus, my leopard wants to shred my captors. Not that I don’t want them dead as well, but I need more food if I’m going to be effective. I know there are other shifters here; my superior hearing picked up on the fact that there are at least fourteen other women in cells who have been taken. All of them different; some are cats, like me, others are wolves, and I think there are two bears, maybe three, and an otter. Regardless, we’re all shifters and have been taken so they can steal our pelts, effectively killing us.
Not necessarily, my leopard states, interrupting my reverie.
What do you mean? At least she’s not waxing poetic about our alleged mate’s prowess in the bedroom.
I’ll get back to him, but this is more important. Unless they kill us, taking our pelts won’t cause us to die. We can heal from it and attack them. The visual she gives me has me shuddering; I’m sure we’d be a bloody mess and the thought of shifting then shifting back to heal makes me cringe.
That’s gonna be messy as hell, I tell her.
But with all of us, if they do it on the same day, we could overpower them. Who knows? Maybe my fur will come back in a different color and texture.
Jesus! She drives me crazy sometimes! Really? You want us to be a different color? I kind of like having white blonde hair.
I’d like to be magenta.
You know that’s not a natural color!
So, you have your dreams, I have mine.
I can’t deal with you right now, I tell her.
Fine. She moves to the back of my mind and flounces down, her back to me. Once again, I’m alone with my thoughts
