Hunted (20 page)

“I think it’s time they find out how foolish they’ve been to trespass on our territory,” Matt said.

“Not without me.” I spoke firmly, hoping he wouldn’t try to stop me.

“Who first?” he asked.

“The youngest one. Teresa said he’s the weak link. Let’s exploit it.” Teresa nodded in agreement, maybe even approval, and led us out of the control area and down a side corridor. She paused outside the second door and punched in a security code. There was a soft
click
as the lock disengaged. Her hand closed over the doorknob and she paused, looking back at us.

“Just because he’s chained doesn’t mean he can’t shift. So be careful. The first sign of trouble, I’m in there and putting him down. Hell, I might even use the same taser set up they used on Finn.”

There was no mistaking just how serious Teresa was. Not that I blamed her. She was taking a risk letting either of us in the room with the tracker. If anything happened to Matt, the pride and the clan leadership would be compromised. As for using a taser like the one used on me, well, I liked that idea probably more than I should have. But there was something about knowing they could be made to hurt as badly as they’d hurt me that seemed right, somehow.

“One more thing, you need to know exactly what we found when we searched the duffels they had with them when we took them down.” She went on to detail what could only be called kidnapping kits. Between them, the men had handcuffs, rope, duct tape, a ball gag, syringes filled with what she assumed was some sort of sedative--and she’d already contacted Stefan to have him get it tested--as well as two more tasers with barbs that looked like they’d been tainted as well. There could be no doubt the men had been prepared to do whatever it took to subdue me and transport me back to California.

Bastards!

If I’d felt any compassion for the three, any doubts about what their actual mission had been, it was gone. I no longer worried about what we might have to do to get information from the trackers. They’d either blindly followed Jennings’ orders or they enjoyed hurting people. Well, they were about to learn they’d gone too far.

Anger building, I stepped forward, ready to confront my would-be kidnappers. Matt’s hand on my arm stopped me. When I looked up at him, I was surprised by what I saw. He wasn’t watching me with worry--well, not too much. He wasn’t going to try to stop me. Instead, there was a measuring look to him, as if he was gauging my temper and approving. Then he smiled slightly and nodded. Teresa opened the door and we stepped inside.

As the door closed behind us, blue eyes filled with fear focused on us. Blond hair tousled, a bruise darkening his left cheek, the youngest of the three trackers watched warily as Matt and I just stood there. I’d been prepared for the anger boiling inside me, especially after hearing what they’d had on them when our people took them. What I wasn’t prepared for was the way my jaguar rolled over me, demanding release. It recognized the tracker as a weaker animal, one no better than a carrion eater, one any pride would be well rid of. Not that I disagreed. But I needed information from him. Satisfaction would have to wait.

“Why are you doing this to me?” he finally asked, voice soft and high-pitched with fear.

Matt crossed the distance between us and the table with two quick steps. Without hesitation, he leaned across the table and backhanded the young man. The blonde’s head snapped back and he’d have fallen if he weren’t chained to the table. Blood trickled from his nose and the corner of his mouth and my jaguar roared in approval. She liked this approach to dealing with the tracker and so did I.

“Silence!” Matt roared. I felt his power and watched in fascination as the young man began to shake. An alpha could fill the room with his power without trying. When he did release control, even a little, that power became a living thing, something you could almost see and that you most definitely could feel.

Mine
, my cat purred inside my skull.

Ours
, I corrected.

“You trespass on my territory. You attempted to kidnap my mate and injured her in the process. If you wish to live, you will answer my questions without hesitation.”

The young man didn’t speak. He didn’t need to. His fear filled the room. I could smell it, sharp and bitter. Teresa had been right. He was the weak link of the three. Perhaps that was why they’d used him as their red herring. I’d been so focused on him, on the mistakes he’d made tracking me, that I hadn’t realized I’d been led into a trap. That was something I’d have to deal with, but only after we finally dealt with these three and Jennings.

“Your name.”

“Answer him!” I snapped, easing my own control. Let him see he was in the presence of not one but two alphas. If he had any sense of self-preservation, he’d start telling us everything he knew, whether we asked for it or not.

“Steve, Steve Marchant,” he stammered.

“Your clan?”

“N-northern California.”

Good, the first tie to Jennings.

“Pack or pride?”

“P-pride. Eureka pride.”

“Jennings’ original pride,” I supplied when Matt glanced at me.

“Why were you after my mate?”

Part of me railed at being discussed as if I weren’t standing right there but another part, the shape-changer part, understood what Matt was doing. He was the clan leader. It was his job to take the lead, at least for the moment. It was obvious the young man either hadn’t accepted his claim that I was his mate or he simply was too scared to have realized how Matt named me. Fear does strange things to a person, as I well knew. Right now, it was not only loosening Marchant’s tongue but turning his brain to mush.

“W-we weren’t. We were sent to bring home our clan leader’s mate.”

Scared and stupid. He hadn’t realized his target was standing in front of him any more than he realized I was Matt’s mate. Either that or he was wasting his acting skills and ought to be in Hollywood making movies. My money was on him being that scared and stupid.

“And how were you supposed to bring her home?” Matt moved away from the table and leaned against the wall near the door. I knew why he did it. I could read the fury in him. Whether the tracker realized it or not, Matt was close to the breaking point and distance kept him from putting hands on the young man and possibly killing him before we got the information we needed.

“We were to remind her of her place with the clan and convince her to return with us.”

God, did he think we were that foolish? Or did he actually believe what he said?

“Convince her with tasers tainted with some sort of drug or poison meant to cause her pain and slow her recovery? Or is that what the handcuffs, rope and ball gag were for?” Matt demanded.

“T-those were just props in case she resisted. I swear it”

Matt opened his mouth and I placed a hand on his arm. When he looked at me, I gave a quick shake of my head. We needed more information before we showed our hand.

“Who told you to come here?” I asked. We had to get him to admit Jennings had sent him. The emails weren’t enough.

“Our clan leader.”

“Did he tell you to come here and not tell me, the local clan leader, that you were here much less why you were here?” Matt sounded calmer and I relaxed a bit.

“He said not to worry about it. He’d take care of it.”

That sounded exactly like what Jennings would do. Of course, it wouldn’t surprise me to find out he’d been more upfront with the other trackers. He’d have warned at least one of them what would happen if they got caught, reminding them it was an incentive not only to get the job done quickly but to do it before the local clan leader got scent of them.

“So what happened earlier this week in the parking garage?”

The blond looked down at the table, his hands fisted together and straining against the cuffs. “I-I don’t know what you mean.”

“Don’t be a fool!” Matt snapped. “I was there. I saw you hunting her. I saw her get tasered and I saw the results of it.”

The young man just sat there, shaking his head. Whether he realized he’d been well and truly caught or he was still trying to deny he’d done anything wrong, I didn’t know and I honestly didn’t care. We needed to learn all we could about what Jennings had been up to--and what he might do in response to his trackers being caught--and learn it before Jennings had time to respond.

My jaguar stirred, restless and angry. It didn’t like this verbal sparring. Neither did I, truth be told, but I knew we needed more information. But this was taking too long. I needed to do something to loosen Marchant’s tongue. Then my cat pushed against my control and I understood. It was time for me to act like the alpha everyone said I was. More importantly, it was time to act as Matt’s mate.

“Don’t be a fool.” I put as much disgust as possible into my voice. “Your clan leader knows you failed. Do you really think he’s going to do anything to save you? He wouldn’t dare. To do so would be to admit he’d ordered you to violate shape-changer laws. You violated our territory and the territory of other clans without permission. You assaulted me and tried to kidnap me. Think about it. If I were your clan leader’s mate, would I be here willingly? Would I be proclaiming not only my place in pride and clan but reveling in my place as mate to the clan leader of this territory?”

Now I did sneer. “Would I have stayed away from the Northern California clan this many years, cut off all contact with people I knew, if I wanted to be part of the clan?”

“You?” His head snapped up, his eyes wide.

“Yes, me. I felt the taser and suffered its effects. I know what you and your companions tried to do. We have not only the kits you had with you when our people moved in but also your laptops and cell phones. We know you came here to take me by force if necessary. That doesn’t sound like you were here to escort me back to a home I want to be at. So tell us exactly what Jennings ordered you to do.”

“I-I can’t.”

“Are you willing to sacrifice everything for him?” I shook my head. Fear and not loyalty moved Marchant. I wasn’t sure I could break through that. “He’s willing to sacrifice you for his own obsessions. Why are you letting him?”

He didn’t say anything. Instead, he studied his hands where they rested on the tabletop. At my side, I felt Matt stiffen and understood. Marchant was a fool. But he was still our best bet for finding out what we needed to know. Somehow we had to force his hand and get his cooperation.

“Tell me this, what exactly did your clan leader tell you about me?” Maybe a change of tack would work.

“He said you were his mate and had been taken from him years ago. We were to locate you and rescue you. You belong with him.” He continued to look at his hands. “He said you might not want to come with us. You’d been gone so long, he was afraid those who took you might have brainwashed you against him.”

Wow. This just kept getting better and better. Now he was claiming I’d been kidnapped. I guess we were lucky he hadn’t filed a police report along those lines. How stupid was this guy to believe him? Sure, the Stockholm syndrome was well documented but anyone who’d been in the pride or clan at the time I left would know I’d run away. There’d been no coercion and there sure as heck had been no kidnapping.

“Look at me.”

I waited, wondering if he’d comply. The fool. Instead of doing as I said, he ducked his head even further. If he wanted to sacrifice himself for Jennings, that was up to him. However, he’d soon learn what a fool he’d been to blindly follow Jennings. No one insulted me and they sure didn’t insult my mate.

“Look at me!” I repeated as I took Matt’s hand and released the last of my control.

Marchant whimpered as he complied. His eyes wide, he looked at Matt and me. There was no doubt in my mind that, had he not been chained as he was, he would have fallen to the ground, exposing belly and throat in a show of submission. Instead, the sharp smell of urine filled the room. My jaguar reveled in it. This was what power was like. This was what it meant to be an alpha.

“Now answer our questions.”

He nodded, sweat dripping from his face. He couldn’t start talking fast enough. By the time he stopped, there was no need to talk to the others. But we would. We’d make sure we knew everything we could about what Jennings had planned and what he might do now that his plans had been discovered. Then I’d be more than happy to turn the three back over to Teresa and Danny until the clan leaders met and a decision was made about what to do with them and what to do about Jennings.

“Finn, you need to calm down.”

Calm down! Had he lost his mind? How the hell was I supposed to calm down when we now had proof Michael Jennings was willing to risk everything to force me to return to California?

I closed my eyes and slowly counted to ten. Not that it helped. Since leaving the warehouse more than an hour ago, my temper had been building. So had a fear I didn’t dare voice to myself, much less anyone else. Instead, I held the temper close to me, relishing it, nursing it. I had a feeling if I didn’t, if I let myself really think about the fear lurking just below the surface, I’d take off again. Hell, that might be the best thing for me to do. At least it would keep Matt and his people safe from Jennings.

I leaned my forehead against the window and fought down the fear. Damn it, I’d given it voice. Now it was real and I had to think about it. No, I had to deal with it. Somehow. But how do you deal with something so pervasive and soul-crushing?

I started nervously when Matt reached out to lightly touch my shoulder. Damn Jennings! In just a few short hours, he’d managed to turn me back into the frightened kid I’d been that night when I’d first run away. Worse, he’d managed to do it without being near. All it had taken was seeing the preparations his trackers had made to take me, hearing them discuss what he’d told them to do if I wasn’t “cooperative.”

“Finn.”

Concern filled Matt’s voice as I lightly pounded my head against the glass. His concern only made it worse. I knew he wanted to help. He’d do everything possible to make me feel safe. I had a feeling if I asked him to, he’d call Jennings out right now and challenge him. But it wasn’t his fight. Not really. I might be his mate, but this was my nightmare. I was the one who had to end it. The problem was I didn’t know how.