Layla Nash - A Valentine's Chase (City Shifters: the Pride) (9 page)

R
afe practically whistled all
the way to the bar after dropping Meadow off at work and kissing her good-bye. He didn't want to sit through a meeting with Edgar and the rest of the Council, regardless of what BadCreek tried. He wanted to find a new apartment, furnish it, and get Meadow tucked safely away as fast as possible. But Ruby expected him to show up, so he showed up. He'd never resented having to attend to pack business before, and the feeling that none of it mattered much made him pause before walking into the bar.

By the time he arrived, the rest of the Council occupied most of the chairs inside and Smith leaned against the doorframe. Rafe nodded to them and tossed his jacket across a stool, folding his arms over his chest. Edgar Chase spread a large roll of paper across the table in the center of the circle of alphas, frowning as he started to sketch out the perimeter of the BadCreek compound. "With Smith's help, we can get close enough to the fence to break through and access the compound here, toward the rear of the main building. Our first objective is just to understand the inside of the compound and to find the lab records."

Rafe tried to concentrate, the wolf eager to punish the bastards who threatened his mate, but he would have preferred being with Meadow at her bookstore. He leaned his elbows on the bar and studied the map from across the room as Edgar and Kaiser briefly argued about the best strategy. Rafe didn't care about sending a message to BadCreek. He just wanted to kill them. He wanted them dead so they'd never threaten Meadow again. "Why don't we just wipe them out?"

"We may not have enough people to overwhelm them, and we'd rather not show our weaknesses to them until we have to." Edgar's eyes glinted with a hint of gold, and Rafe's wolf growled in response. The lion didn't rise to the challenge but only went back to his plan of attack. "Smith can distract them, or disable their cameras and lookouts."

"My friends can assist. There will not be an issue with reaching the fence unobserved," the investigator said quietly, arms folded over his chest. Once more he looked like the scariest fucker in the room. Smith didn't need to raise his voice or threaten anything, yet the calm assurance as he guaranteed knocking out a million-dollar security system gave Rafe shivers.

Lacey Szdoka, once more the only hyena in the room and the only other woman aside from Ruby, studied her nails as she spoke. "So we get through the fence and we get into the building, looking for a lab and some records. Do we know where the alpha stays? Where his betas are?"

"The rogue wolves assisted us with some of that." Logan stretched his legs out in front of him, almost knocking over the table with the map, and laced his hands behind his head. "We have a fair idea of their schedules and likely locations, but we don't have a spy inside, if that's what you're asking. We need an informer, but so far we're unable to take one of the alpha's fighters alive."

Rafe snorted and pinched the bridge of his nose. "What about the one last night? Ruby brought him back."

"Nope," Ruby said, shaking her head. "After you took Meadow home, the bastard died."

"You were attacked again?" Smith straightened, leaning forward, and his eyes narrowed. "Meadow was attacked?"

"Meadow whacked it with that cane of yours and the damn thing dropped to the ground." Rafe rubbed his jaw. "I thought the wolf lived, but apparently not."

"I should hope not," Smith said. His expression darkened. "You should have called me."

"I had it under control." Rafe turned his attention back to the lions, not liking the way all of the alphas focused on him. "Once we're inside the compound, we target the alpha and his betas. What if we come across women and children, or the elderly?"

"Our guests indicate the women and children are isolated in the center of the compound." Edgar traced a small area at the heart of the building. "They're well-guarded. It will be impossible to get to them unless we destroy the rest of the pack."

"So we leave them to their fate," Lacey said, a thread of bitterness turning her tone ugly. "Concubines and chattel. Noble of us."

Evershaw scowled. "We'll free them eventually. This is the first step."

"This is our only opportunity to capitalize on the element of surprise," she said, the hyena queen's eyes flashing gold and red. The sudden rage caught the other alphas by surprise, and Rafe glanced at Ruby to gauge her response. Lacey's lip curled and her teeth glinted in the dim light of the bar. "If not now, when? If we go in there and try to kill the alpha, they'll double their security. They’ll come up with defenses against whatever voodoo the fae will use. It will be a thousand times more difficult to get to the women and children next time."

The silence stretched as no one wanted to admit she had a point. Rafe couldn't make eye contact with the hyena. Smith took a very deep breath, as if he could inhale all the air in the room, and caught her attention with a single motion of his hand. His tone was so smooth and even it might as well have been magic. "There will be a second attack, at the time of our choosing, and we will free the young ones and the mothers. When we are inside, my friends and I will be able to leave some... things behind to make our way easier the next time."

Rafe's eyebrows climbed toward his hairline and he resisted the urge to demand an explanation. Lacey curled one long strand of hair around her finger, over and over and over, as she studied the investigator. She didn't believe him. But then Evershaw moved and the spell broke, and Lacey lifted one shoulder in a dismissive shrug. "If you say so, Smith. I will hold you to it."

The investigator inclined his head, almost a formal bow, and gestured for Edgar to continue. The lion frowned as he looked between them, then cleared his throat. "Well. We can figure out what those traps might look like later. For timing, next Wednesday morning will likely work well. Two a.m., when the guard change occurs."

"The full moon offers the strongest power for my people," Smith said. "The next best is the waxing moon, closest to full."

"Noted." Kaiser frowned at his watch, then glanced back at Owen. "When is that?"

"Two weeks," Smith said. "I understand if you cannot wait."

"It can't," Lacey said, as Rafe said the same thing. He tried to share a sympathetic look with the hyena queen, but she didn't react. She stared right past him at ghosts the rest of them couldn't see.

Rafe frowned as the conversation went on, though he studied the hyena queen. Unlike the wolves and bears and lions, where leaders fought to take the alpha role, the hyenas followed a matriarchy. Lacey wasn't the oldest of her mother's daughters, but she was the strongest and the acknowledged heir before her mother died. He wondered if Lacey even wanted to lead the hyenas, or if she'd dreamed of something else.

Rafe glanced at his phone and frowned. Nothing from Meadow. No messages or calls or anything. He wondered if she regretted their night together, the agreement to live together. His hand clenched around the phone until the plastic case creaked, and he set it aside. He'd lost four phones that way. Even the indestructible cases couldn't compare with an alpha's rage. His chest tightened with worry. She'd said she would message him when she took her lunch, so he still had time. There wasn't any reason to worry, really.

But the wolf didn't like it. Something was wrong. He couldn't explain the sense of foreboding that gripped him, but it launched him to his feet to pace as the rest of the Council argued about the plan and pointed at the map. Ruby shot him a dark look but Rafe just waved her off, needing to clear his head. He couldn't concentrate on the plan anyway, not with the sudden feeling that Meadow was in trouble.

He might have brushed it aside and dealt with it later in the afternoon, except Smith's phone rang. He glanced at it and almost put it away, then did a double-take and frowned. "Excuse me a moment." He answered the phone and listened, not saying a word, and Rafe's heart started to race as the fae's expression darkened.

Rafe held his breath. Smith said, "Are you sure?" into the phone, and everyone else in the room went silent. A faint green glow outlined the older man, and Ruby took a step back. The air around him crackled, and Rafe's hair stood up as static ran through him.

Smith hung up, for a moment staring at nothing as his eyes flashed and the pupils elongated, then he shook himself and all the strange light faded. He turned on his heel to face Rafe, and Rafe's heart sank. Something happened to Meadow. He knew it.

Smith didn't blink or look away. "I had one of my friends watch the bookstore. She saw Meadow leaving with someone my friend didn't recognize. Meadow looked disoriented and confused, but she wasn't fighting."

Rafe's muscles tensed and his phone shattered, falling in plastic shards at his feet. The wolf went silent as Rafe struggled for control. Everything else in the room disappeared. Meadow. Taken by strangers. Disoriented. He couldn't breathe. Couldn't move for fear of shifting and rampaging through the bar until he found her and killed anyone who dared touch her.

"My friend got closer to investigate but the man was ready for her. He knocked her down, trapped her in a glass." Smith's lips parted to reveal smallish, pointy teeth, and Rafe's skin crawled. Smith gritted out the last bit, lightning flashing between his fingers as he clenched his fists at his side. "That was two hours ago. She only just regained consciousness and escaped. Meadow and the man both disappeared. None of my other colleagues have seen any signs of her. She's gone."

A low growl started in Rafe's chest, beyond his control, and crimson misted his vision. BadCreek. It had to be them.

Ruby growled as well, and the other alphas shoved to their feet. Kaiser's mournful bear eyes half-closed as he shook his head. "We'll find her, Rafe. We will."

Evershaw's brother, Todd, was already on his phone, directing his people to start searching their territory near the bookstore. Rafe couldn't think of anything but Meadow. He couldn't see a way forward other than attacking something. Attacking anything. Hurting those sons of bitches until he found Meadow and kept her safe forever. The breath rasped through his nose and the growl escalated. He had to find her. Soon.

I
woke up slowly
, disoriented, and tried to take in the room around me through a blur of white and medication. The entire room was white and plain, with no windows and no vents in the ceiling. I lay in a hospital bed, my arms and legs restrained, and panic welled up in my chest. What the hell happened? I jerked at the wrist restraints, trying to get free, and yelled as my sinuses burned with tears. No. I couldn't be in a hospital. Nothing was wrong with me.

Someone peered through the small window in the door, then it unlocked and swung in, and a man in a white lab coat, carrying a clipboard, walked in. He smiled, though it didn't reach his eyes, and a long scar on his cheek buckled. "Welcome back, Meadow. How are you feeling?"

"What the hell is going on? Where am I?" I couldn't breathe, hiccupping and coughing as I fought the restraints. "This isn't — Let me go. Let me go right now."

"You have to calm down, Meadow." He set the clipboard aside and came closer, and my instincts screamed a warning. He was bad news. Trouble. And it wasn't just that his eyes looked dead and lifeless. Everything about him dripped with disdain and anger, even if he managed a genial expression. "Take deep breaths. I don't want to have to sedate you again, but we will if we have to."

I caught a glimpse of what looked like two burly orderlies in the hall, waiting for the opportunity to drug me, and every part of me started shaking. Not again. God help me, not again. I couldn't survive it again. I shook my head and tried to slow my breathing, staring at him in sheer terror. This wasn't happening. This was just another dream. It had to be a dream.

"That's good. Very good, Meadow. Nice, even breaths. My name is Dr. West. You've been here a few days, but you had a... set-back. What is the last thing you remember?"

"I was at work," I whispered. My chest hurt. Cotton filled my mouth, made it difficult to speak, and everything he said sounded soft and faraway. Like I heard him through deep water. "A customer walked in and I was reading the cards for him, and then... I don't know."

I cut myself off before I said I got a bad feeling from the customer's cards and needed to leave, needed to find Rafe. I told the customer, a man with many more scars on his face than the doctor, something trite about his destiny and excused myself, tried to flee. I thought maybe he touched my wrist and something stung my skin, but everything went blurry and I couldn't remember. I shook my head and pulled at the wrist restraints. "Please let me go. There's nothing wrong with me."

"Meadow, you've been here for three days. You weren't at work." He glanced at the clipboard and sighed. "You hurt your ankle three nights ago and the pain medication triggered an episode. Your roommate called the hospital to check on you because you were raving about wolves and fairies and things you saw. Hallucinations."

My heart sank and bile surged and I threw up over the side of the bed. Some of it splattered on his shoes and I took vicious joy in seeing him step back, his lip curled in disgust. I couldn't even wipe my mouth, though, as I stared at him. "No."

"No you weren't hallucinating, or no you didn't believe there were werewolves after you?"

I stared at the lump my cast made under the sheets. It couldn't have been a dream. Of course Rafe existed. Rafe was a shifter. Smith was fae. I was a muse. It had to be true. "No, I wasn't... I mean, I don't know. I want to go home."

"We have to make sure it's safe for you to leave," he said. One of the orderlies came in with a mop and started to clean up the mess, wiping my face with a rough washcloth before retreating. I desperately wanted to brush my teeth. "You'll be here for a few days, Meadow. Just concentrate on being well and I'm sure you'll get through this."

Being well. That meant normal. I remembered that from the last time I'd been at a hospital like that one. My heart sank and I squeezed my eyes shut. It had to be a dream. This was the dream. I would wake up next to Rafe and he would make me breakfast and tell me I didn't need to worry about hospitals any more. I just needed to wake up.

Dr. West cleared his throat. "Meadow, we'll discuss your treatment in more depth later, after you're feeling better, but try to remember what actually happened. Your delusions were quite vivid, from what you said. You made up people and places and dates, and quite an elaborate world, to cope with the stress of your injury and the trouble you had in school."

Made up people and places? "I want to call someone," I said, concentrating on keeping my breathing even and slow. In through the nose, out through the mouth. I definitely couldn't figure it all out if they drugged me again.

"Who would you like to call? We notified your parents and your roommate was here yesterday to check on you." He stood with a pen ready at the clipboard, maybe about to take down a number or a name — or maybe just ready to take notes on whether my delusions continued and they needed to drug me more.

"My uncle," I said. I whispered it, terrified of what he would say. "My Uncle Smith. I have his number, it's —"

"Your Uncle Smith," he repeated, eyebrow raised, and my heart sank. No. No no no. It couldn't be. He wouldn't say... "The same Uncle Smith you thought was some sort of faerie? Meadow, this man doesn't exist."

"No," I said, and didn't care that his other eyebrow rose to match the first. I shook my head as desperation nearly overwhelmed me and the tears started anew. It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair. "No, I've known him for years, all my life. He's friends with my parents. He knows me. I just want to talk to him."

"Your parents have no idea who he is," the doctor said, and folded his arms over his chest. "We asked. They don't know anything about him."

I stared at the end of the bed as tears dripped down my cheeks. Uncle Smith. He was real. He had to be real. He was the only person who understood me, who told me I was okay. If he wasn't real, then that meant... "Rafe," I whispered, and sank lower in the bed, wanting to hide my face with the sheets. Rafe.

"Your roommate gave us his information. You went on the first date with him when you hurt your ankle, Meadow, but he hasn't seen you since he walked you to your car. He said he wasn't interested in calling you and didn't intend to ask for a second date. It sounded like you developed a very detailed scenario where the relationship continued, even though the date didn't go well, and drew this man into your delusions."

My chest ached with a deep burn. Gravity felt too heavy, pressing me down, and I wished it would just crush me. That I would disappear into the floor. Rafe. Rafe had to be real. I shook my head as I stared at the ceiling, my face so numb I wouldn't have felt the tears streaking my cheeks if they hadn't burned. It felt like those tears would leave scars on my skin, so that everyone would see them, would know how I mourned what I'd lost. Rafe.

Dr. West took a deep breath, and almost managed to sound sympathetic. "I'm sorry, Meadow. Take some time, relax. Someone will be in shortly with dinner."

He disappeared but I didn't care. Even the sound of a deadbolt setting in the door didn't make me do more than blink. I tried to curl up on my side and bury my face in the pillow, but the restraints kept me from getting comfortable. It wasn't fair. What if it had all been a dream or a hallucination? Rafe said everything perfectly, he pursued me and supported me and loved me, and it all sounded too good to be true. Well, maybe it was. Maybe he was a product of my imagination and some pain medication.

But Smith. Smith had to be real. My hands clenched into fists and I shook my head, wanting to bare my teeth to the world. I knew in my bones he was real. And I was a muse. All of it was real. The strength drained from my hands and they went limp on the stiff sheets. Except maybe it wasn't. I'd tried so hard for so long to be normal, to think normally and not to see all the strange things I saw... Maybe something finally broke in my head and pushed me over the edge. A shitty date, a broken ankle, a cold night. Maybe that was all it took and he was right and I went off the deep end.

I squeezed my eyes shut again and bit the inside of my cheek to keep back a scream. I wanted to be a muse. I wanted everything Smith said to be true. I liked that life better. I liked that me better, where magic existed and the world was a little more dangerous but at least I had a mate by my side. I wanted Rafe to be real, to be the man I needed him to be. I didn't want to be the crazy girl again.

I cried until my head ached and my chest hurt and I wanted to crawl into a hole and sleep forever. I'd finally found people who accepted me for me, who loved me because of who I was and not in spite of it, and they were hallucinations. Products of some faulty brain activity. Everything turned gray and dull as I stared at the wall and ignored the woman who brought me a tray of dinner. There was no magic in the world, and I wasn't special. There wasn't any reason to pretend to be normal.