The Regent was gleeful in his madness, for that's what it surely was. He must’ve gone mad to consider such actions, let alone try to implement them.
"The Council won't stand for this, and you know it." Vaughn spoke with confidence, but knowing him as I did, I could tell he was concerned by the tension in his body.
"And who is the Therian Council going to believe? An Enforcer Quad who let a mark go for no apparent reason? Or the Regent who hired them to apprehend a thief?" The Regent tsked and shook his head as if we were naughty children to be reprimanded. "Arrest them."
I waited, as did we all, for Vaughn to give the order to resist, but it never came. I glared at him in silence as our hands were bound behind us until a hood obscured him from my vision. We were searched and divested of our weapons and communications devices and corralled into the back of a vehicle. When we were secured and the transport under way, he finally deigned to explain himself.
"There were more in the area, and we likely wouldn't have made it out. We’ll have a better chance when they think we're compliant and locked up." I didn't agree, but he was the leader and Iliam hadn't jumped in either, so it was probably a good course of action even if it chafed.
"Lorc, I want you to shift and hide. As soon as those doors open, we'll make them come in to get us. I want you to run, get to the Council and tell them what happened. Get our bondmate first if you can." Vaughn's directive chilled my soul.
We’d never split up, not since we'd formed our Quad. Lorca's denial was swift to come.
"I'm not leaving you all. We'll get out. Together." The easygoing man could be stubborn as a mule when it came to those he cared for, and I could just hear the stiff set of his jaw in his voice
"Lorca, there won't be a chance after we get within those walls. Not without assistance. The Regent only has to kill us to make our bondmate ineligible to rule. Not to mention other consequences for her." Iliam's prediction wasn’t idle. We all knew it. Without us, our mate would slowly die. Even if there were a way to counteract that, she still wouldn't be able to continue the bloodline. The Regent could, and probably would, petition the Council to be named Anax, a new king instead of a queen.
"Fine. But I'm getting her and coming for you. The Council will drag it out, and I'm not taking that risk." Lorca was pissed, but at least he wasn't arguing anymore. Not much anyway.
Vaughn wasn't done though. "Get a message to the Council, then you can get our bondmate and come for us. The Council must know in case we fail."
In case we die, he means.
The rest of the ride went by in silence after Lorca shifted and hid. The rest of us quickly did a partial shift and freed our hands, before shifting them back and playing possum.
The soldiers not being amused was an understatement.
"Where's your fourth? Don't make us come in there!" The soldier had balls, but he couldn't hide his anxiety.
"We have hoods on, you dumbass. How are we supposed to know where he went? Better yet, how did you lose a prisoner?" I taunted them, getting the expected reaction.
Finally, it was go time. Ripping off our hoods, we attacked. The reinforcements didn't take long to arrive, and that part hurt like a bitch, but Lorca got away. I smiled through my bloody teeth and spit in the face of the soldier in front of me. It was lights out after that.
Lorca
My weasel form was small, but it was fast with my shifter magic, and it blended in with the forested area I'd escaped into. A plus to being hidden from the majority of the populace was seclusion– even the prisons. The bad deal was I'd be shifting back naked, and our hotel was probably crawling with soldiers waiting for me to show up.
Plan B it was. Steal a cell phone and call the Enforcer's HQ to get a message to the Therian Council. It took hours of hanging around a park, but I finally got my chance when a lady left hers on a bench to chase a toddler across the playground.
I ended up leaving my message with the Commander who wouldn't give me the Council number. It wasn't ideal, and the man was an ass, but it's not like I could do anything else about it at the moment. He assured me he'd get a message to the Council himself and that two teams were being sent to straighten everything out. Thank fuck we had a pristine record. He'd been uncomfortably interested in our bondmate– asking more questions than. I had answers for in regards to her. Worried the Council might not act quickly enough, if they didn't understand the importance of the issue, I complied.
Clearing the call log, I left the phone on the ground under the bench to avoid being seen. Determined to find my bondmate and rescue the rest of my Quad, I set off to get what information I could and find some damn clothes.
Vaughn
It had been twenty-four hours in this hellhole, and we'd been individually interrogated for most of them. They wanted our missing member in a bad
