White Knight (8 page)

“Well?” Knight asked before Bishop had a chance to hang up the phone.

Bishop leaned back in his desk chair, no annoyance or frustration to be seen. The end of the conversation that Knight, Rook, and Brynn had been able to hear had sounded positive, but Knight needed his brother to say the words.

“Atwood is willing to meet on our terms,” Bishop said. “And he agreed that it will happen within the week.”

Today was Tuesday, so by Saturday they would be that much closer to their ultimate goal. So close and yet so far away.

Brynn let out a short breath that puffed up her bangs. “That’s a good sign. He is trying, or he would have flat-out refused.”

“I believe that.” Bishop glanced at Rook. “He said he would come alone, and he requested that I do the same.”

Rook growled. “And?”

“I told him I’d consider it.”

“But you’re not going to do it.”

“Not a chance. Atwood is too powerful to be faced alone.”

“It’s likely he feels the same way about you,” Brynn said. “He thinks little of loup garou. He believes them to be mindless animals. Agreeing to meet with you alone is a risk for him, as well.”

“Maybe we can use that somehow,” Rook said.

Knight didn’t see how, but he’d leave that one to Rook.

The office phone rang, and Bishop snatched it up with a terse, “McQueen.” He frowned. “Yes, this is Alpha McQueen. Who is this?”

Knight homed in on Bishop’s emotions, catching the jump from confused to outright shock. Bishop didn’t speak, but so many other things flickered across his face—surprise, joy, and confusion chief among them.

“What’s the address?” Bishop snatched up a pen and scribbled something on the back of what looked like a building invoice. “No, thank you. This is fantastic news. My people owe your coven a debt.”

Vampires.

Shay.

Hope burned like a sun deep inside of Knight, and his beast stirred. He leaned forward in his chair, hands firmly on the arms so he didn’t leap out and shake the answer out of Bishop.

“The vampires that Jonas befriended found Shay,” Bishop said as he hung up. The bright smile he directed at Knight let all of that hope loose to shine brightly. “They have her. She’s free of the hybrids.”

“You’re serious?” Knight said.

“Perfectly. They found her wandering in the woods a few miles outside of a mostly abandoned town in western Maryland. She was alone and injured, and she was wearing some kind of collar laced with silver that had been preventing her from shifting.”

Injured. Collar. I’ll fucking kill them with my bare hands.

“Once the vampire got her back to their nest, they managed to remove the collar. She shifted immediately, and she hasn’t shifted back.”

“How long since they found her?” Knight asked.

“About two hours. They’re fairly certain she wasn’t being tracked, but they hid their own trail well. I have the address.”

“I’m going.” Knight held up both hands before anyone in the room could argue. “Period. She’s distressed. I’m the only one who got through to her after Stonehill, I may be the only one able to talk her into shifting back to skin. I’m going.”

She’s my mate. I won’t leave her alone again.

Bishop held his gaze a moment, clearly unhappy with the lack of choice he’d been given. “Fine. You’re taking Rook, Jonas, Jillian, and Tanner, and I’ll redirect Mason’s group into that area for backup.”

“Excellent.” Knight stood up, the need to act burning in his blood. His beast was also at attention, eager to find what had been taken from them. “Then let’s go.”

“We’ll take the blue SUV,” Rook said on their way to the door. “It’s fully stocked with weapons, and Rachel just refitted the first aid kit.”

“Good.” Outside in the parking lot, he yelled, “Tanner.”

His always lurking bodyguard emerged from behind a parked car. “Yes?”

“We’re going out of town.”

Tanner blinked. “Really?”

“Yes.”

Knight waited impatiently by the SUV for Jillian and Jonas to join them. Rook explained what was going on while they all climbed inside, Jonas at the wheel. Knight didn’t care that he was sandwiched in the backseat between Jillian and Tanner. All he cared about was getting to Shay.

I’m coming. I’ll be there soon.

“She got away from them on her own,” Jillian said once Rook had filled them in and they were on the road out of town. “Considering the collar she was wearing, that’s incredibly impressive.”

“The vampire said she was wounded.” Knight practically snarled the words. “He didn’t say how badly.”

“I would assume not too badly if she was on foot and then shifted.”

“The hybrids hurt her.”

“Yes, they did, and they’ll pay for it.” She tilted her head. “It’s never easy when someone you care about is suffering.”

“You suffer with them.”

“That’s true, especially when the one suffering is your mate.”

Knight met her curious gaze and didn’t blink. “Yeah.”

She smiled warmly, understanding what neither of them was saying. He hadn’t admitted to anyone that his beast had claimed Shay, that he was falling in love with her. He didn’t know how to say it, but he felt it. He lived it. He wanted her back in his house and his life. In his arms. Strong feelings he’d never had for a woman before. Feelings he wasn’t entirely certain how to act on once they were home and safe.

We have time. The hybrids will die, Atwood will pay, and then we’ll have all the time in the world to plan our future in Cornerstone.

No one was taking him away from his family. Not now, not ever.

He settled in for the ride, each passing mile bringing him closer and closer to Shay.

***

The monsters hadn’t come near in quite a while. They lurked in corners, far away, not daring to come closer after she bit one of them. A warning not to touch. Not to approach. So far they’d kept their distance.

Her new prison was darker than the old. It reeked of decay and old meat—the scent of the monsters surrounding her. It had no bed. Only cold floors and walls that echoed with distant sounds. Dull metals instead of cement and plaster. Far below the stink of the monsters was something else. Oil. And humans. Old, though.

No human had been here in a very long time.

She paced her corner, not caged but still unable to escape. She couldn’t remember why the monsters had brought her here, only that they hadn’t hurt her. She thought perhaps they’d helped her. Her neck was no longer burdened, no longer burning. They had pushed meat at her, which she wouldn’t take. She didn’t trust them.

As long as they didn’t attack, she would wait. Wait for a chance to run. Her mate was waiting for her. He needed her. Others needed her. Others she had left behind in her former prison. She had promised to go back, and she would.

Something kept her from attempting to leave this place. Something deep down that had paid attention when one of the monsters spoke. A part who understood what it had been telling her. She listened to that part of herself because she had no reason not to trust her own instincts.

So she paced and waited, aware of something imminent.

Time passed. The monsters rarely moved or spoke. They merely existed, some of them seeming to sleep while others continued to watch her.

The sounds in the large prison changed. Heavy thumps echoed. Voices bounced around, drawing closer.

She tensed and planted her paws. Lowered her head and watched the door on the far side of the chamber. One of the monsters drifted toward the door and moved a long handle. The door swung open, and the most wonderful scent of fresh air and pine met her nose. Familiar pine.

A loup garou in his weaker man shape entered. She knew him. A female followed, and she knew her, too.

The third man-shape to step forward made her blood hum and her heart thump. She yipped softly in greeting, pleased to see him. Recognizing him as her mate. He’d come for her like she knew he would. She wagged her tail and raised her head.

“Shay,” he said.

Yes. Her name.

He came closer, but not alone. She growled at the first man, and he stopped forward motion. Her mate continued on, kneeling in front of her, his face a study of so many things. Emotions she should recognize but did not. That was for her other half, the one that walked on two legs.

He held out his hand, palm up. “I’ve missed you so much, love. So much.”

She licked his palm, then nudged it with her nose. He stroked her muzzle, softly, tenderly.

“Can you shift back for me?”

She shook her head and stepped away, out of reach. She was too weak in that form. She’d been a prisoner, in pain, for so long because she’d been weak.

“I know you’re scared, Shay, but I won’t let them hurt you again. I swear.”

Her mate wouldn’t lie. She believed his promise.

She simply would not be weak again.

“If she won’t shift back now, can you get her to come with us?” the female loup garou asked.

“You want to drive home with her like this?” her mate asked.

“No, to a safe place where she can rest. We can’t leave until we find out where the hybrids held her.”

Leave. They meant to remove her from this prison and take her from the monsters. She wanted that. She whined softly and nuzzled her mate’s hand.

He stroked the top of her head and behind her ears, and she leaned into the wonderful sensations. “Will you come with us? Please? You don’t have to stay here anymore.”

She looked behind him at the four other loup garou. All familiar, one of them less so than the others. One smelled the same as her mate. The deep-down part that kept her from escaping this place urged her to listen to her mate. To trust him.

“They won’t hurt you,” he said. “All of us will protect you. Me most of all.”

The force of his promise rippled across her skin and settled warmly in her heart. She would go with him. She would follow him anywhere, man or beast. With a thump of her head against his shoulder, she moved to stand by his side—the place she had always belonged.

***

Frustration burned inside of Knight, but he kept it carefully hidden away from Shay. He hated that she was too scared to shift back, that she’d looked at all of them with anger and suspicion. He’d also hated the faint odor of blood and the matted, red places on all four legs. But she had come to him, allowed him to touch her. She was following him back through the old canning factory, toward freedom.

Jillian and Rook went ahead of them, Rook texting someone. Probably Bishop, giving him an update. Jillian carried a paper bag that contained the silver-laced collar the vampires had removed from Shay’s neck. Knight wanted to burn the thing but he understood the reason for holding on to it. The smallest piece of evidence could help them locate the hybrids’ lair. Jonas and Tanner followed behind, keeping an eye on their rear. The vampires had made the call in good faith, but they had a nasty history with the loup garou. No one wanted to turn their back completely on an old, old enemy.

Shay walked beside him, her muscled shoulder occasionally bumping his thigh. She was stunningly beautiful, her black fur shiny and long, every stride made with purpose. A true Black Wolf in every sense.

She didn’t resist his direction to jump into the rear compartment of the SUV, and no one commented when Knight climbed in with her. He settled with his back against the seat, and she curled up with her chin resting on his knee. The pair of them took up all of the available room and it was wonderful. He stroked the soft fur between her ears as they drove away from the decrepit factory long ago taken over by nature, its parking lot cracked with weeds and young trees. Down a country road, away from the larger cities and main highways.

“Where are we going?” Knight asked after ten minutes of rural driving.

“Mason sent me the address of a cabin in the woods,” Rook replied. “It’s not far from here, and they’ve already secured the area. It will give us a place to regroup and help Shay relax.”

Get her to shift back, you mean.

Knight wanted that more than anything. He wanted her to smile at him again, so brightly that the corners of her eyes crinkled. It happened so rarely that he treasured each one. He needed her to smile and laugh and tell him she was okay.

Fifteen minutes later a bumpy, mostly dirt road dead-ended in what might have been a clearing that had been taken back by nature. Tall grass and bushes held court around a falling-apart log cabin, the kind he’d only ever seen in photos. A second SUV was parked nearby, and a black furry body loped toward them through the grass.

Knight popped the rear hatch and slid out. Shay paused, hackles raising at the Black Wolf watching her from a distance. Knight sniffed. Jeremiah. She wouldn’t know him well, but she should recognize his scent as a Springwell native.

“It’s okay, Shay,” Knight said. “We’ll be safe here. There are only friends around.”

The utter trust in her golden gaze made his heart flip. She jumped out, stumbling a bit on the landing. The floor where she’d sat for the entire trip had smears of fresh blood. His body pulsed with anger. She had wounds that required tending. She needed to shift so he could clean the cuts. Knight took a blanket out of the emergency kit beneath the backseat and tucked it under his arm. He’d need it whenever she became a woman again.

Shay didn’t head toward the cabin like the others, who were meeting up with Jonas and A.J. on the front porch. She gave Jeremiah a wide berth and loped toward a thick thatch of tall grass. She wanted privacy, and he was okay with that because she didn’t seem to mind him following her.

He settled in the grass with his legs crossed, amused and wary at how it came up higher than his head. He sniffed the air, but smelled only grass, dirt, and loup garou. No sign that the vampires or hybrids had ever been in this area. It was peaceful, hidden away from the world. Isolated from everything except each other.

Shay sat on her haunches first, then dropped down so she could rest her head in Knight’s lap. He stroked her muzzle and ears, curious how it would feel to sift his fingers through her long, strawberry blond hair. Would it be as silky as her beast’s fur? More coarse because it was so curly?