Wild Fire (Wilding Pack Wolves 5) - New Adult Paranormal Romance (18 page)

The one guarding the door swung his rifle up to point at Troy. He stumbled back from the edge, hooking his arm around Zoe’s waist and throwing her back down the hall. Several shots rang out, but none landed in him. He scrambled to haul Zoe further away, retreating from the top of the stairs.

“Are you all right?” he asked in a hoarse whisper. She was fighting him, as he tried to drag her further. “Zoe,
come on!
They’ve got guns! We have to go around back.”

“They’ve got Mama River,” she ground out, then broke free. She sprinted toward the stairs, and it was like Troy’s heart had wrenched out of his body.

He stumbled after her, but she was already raising her hands and blue fire was gathering in her palms. At the edge of the stairs, she spread her arms, and a blue field snapped into place around her. Shots rang out again, but she just pounded down the steps in her bare feet, her t-shirt dancing around her hips, barely covering her. The blue shield went with her, and new fireballs formed in her hands. The men in tactical gear were scrambling to get away from her, fleeing like rats out the front door. She launched a fireball through the open door after them, and a blue flash bounced back through the darkened windows of the great room.

Jesus Christ.
She had them on the run.

Troy pounded down the stairs after her, praying her shield would hold and keep her safe. When he got outside, one of the vans was already pulling away, and the attackers were scrambling to get aboard the other two vans. Zoe lobbed another ball of blue fire directly at the closest van. The blue energy skittered all over the surface, then exploded, blowing out the windows. Troy automatically covered his face from the flying glass. Zoe was closer, but the shield was protecting her. Two of the thugs had fallen to the ground. Then the second van started to move. The back door wasn’t shut, and a man with dark hair leaned out, his face lit up with a bluish glow from an orb of crackling fire in his palm.

He launched it at Zoe.

“Look out!” Troy dove for her, throwing his body against Zoe
’s
 shield. It burned and sizzled against his skin, but they were both thrown back by the blast of energy crashing into her. Troy landed flat on his back. Zoe’s shield collapsed and dumped her on top of him. The energy from the blue fireball splashed against them—everywhere it hit Troy burned like hell. He groaned with the pain of it, but Zoe had taken it face-on—that was what killed her shield.

“Oh my God, oh my God, Zoe.” He was mumbling incoherently. She was limp against him, dead weight on top of him. His heart wrenched as he scrambled to delicately move her to the charred black dirt next to him. The front half of her shirt had been burned away, and her skin was black and charred as well.

“Oh my God, no.”
His hands trembled. He didn’t know what to do. She was still knocked out, and he was terrified of touching her and causing more pain.

Then, before his eyes, the charred part of her skin started to slough off. He was gasping for breath, but he willed the panic seizing his brain to calm. Her amazing body was healing itself, just like before—only this time it wasn’t an incendiary blast or any conventional firebomb. This was
magical
fire. But her body was casting off the parts that had been flash burned and regenerating anew all the same. He rocked back on his heels and gaped.

Then he pressed a finger to her neck, checking for a pulse. Her strong, steady beat, calmed the panic in his brain, and he could see the rise and fall of her now-bare chest. After a moment, her eyelids fluttered open.

He pulled her up into his arms. “God, Zoe, I was so afraid…” He stopped and swallowed down his words. He didn’t need to tell her that. She didn’t need to hear it, not now.

She struggled up to sitting, as if she hadn’t been a half-charred wreck just a moment before. “Where did they go?” Her voice hitched up as her gaze scanned the two thugs on the ground, wiped out by her magical fire. The remaining attackers had escaped in the other two vans.

Only then did they hear a quiet moan from another fallen figure near the porch. 
The figure’s face was shadowed by the moon, but when it lifted its head in their direction, Troy could see who it was.

“It’s Mama River!” he said quickly.

“Go to her!” Zoe said, already scrambling to stand up on her own.

Reluctantly, Troy left her side and hurried over to the older woman. He knelt down to help her as she struggled up to sitting. “Are you injured?”

She shook her head, then stopped and held it. “One of them hit me, but just knocked me down. I’m not as sprightly as I used to be.” She gathered her torn nightgown around her—it had obviously been ripped in the struggle.

Troy wanted to check her over, but it was too dark to see well. “Where did they hit you?” He had to force the words through the growl in his throat—who the fuck would hit an old woman? But he really didn’t have to ask that question. He knew these were the Wolf Hunter’s men.

Mama River patted his hand, then grabbed hold of his arm to brace herself as she stood. “I’m fine, I promise.”

Zoe hurried over to them and grasped hold of Mama River’s other arm. “Are you sure you’re all right?”

Mama River scowled. “Yes, but did you stop them, Zoe? They were taking the mayor…” She glanced at the one charred van that remained and the figures on the ground, but it was clear that neither one of them were the mayor.

“They took the mayor?” Zoe’s mouth was hanging open.

Mama River was distraught. “I tried to stop them. They broke into my bedroom. We were asleep, but somehow they knew right where to find him. They hauled him out of bed and dragged him toward the front. I tried to go after them, but then they just grabbed hold of me. Bobby tried to fight them, but they shot him with something that knocked him out before they even left the bedroom.”

Suddenly, people started streaming out of the River estate front door, half wolves and half human, charging into the scene—but the fight was already over.

Troy was relieved to see Daniel among them—he could organize the pack to go after the attackers. “The Wolf Hunter’s men just fled in two white vans. If you go now, you might be able to stop them. They’ve taken the mayor.”

“Roger that,” Daniel said then ran off, barking commands at several of the other wolves.

Troy turned back to Zoe and Mama River. “I don’t know if they’ll have any luck—the vans have a good head start.”

Zoe was busy running her hands through her even shorter hair, charred and turned up at the edges by the latest fire attack. It made Troy sick inside to watch, but it was the least of her concerns at the moment.

“They were after something,” she muttered. “Why would they kidnap the mayor?”

Troy just spread his hands—he had no clue. “How did they even know he was here?”

“Exactly.” Zoe scowled. “And who the hell was that guy throwing blue fireballs out the back of the van?”

“That was the Wolf Hunter,” Mama River said quietly.

They both turned to her. “How do you know that?” Zoe asked, eyes wide.

Mama River’s lips were pressed into a tight line. “Just before they took him, Bobby said, 
‘It’s you.’
He recognized him. If he’s using magic, there’s only one person that could be.”

Shit.
Did that mean—

But Zoe beat him to it. “Because the Wolf Hunter is a white wolf.” She pointed a finger at Mama River like she was just figuring it out. “And now he’s tapped into his magic.
Holy shit.”
She went back to running her hands through her hair.

“So… is that how he found the mayor?” Troy didn’t know how half this stuff worked.

“It has to be the magical signature the mayor was worried about,” Zoe said. “If the Wolf Hunter is using magic now, maybe he found a way to track the mayor. Remember how my grandfather said he hadn’t used magic for the last twenty years and that he was afraid to? He was afraid the Wolf Hunter
would find him
.”

Troy didn’t miss that she had referred to the mayor as her grandfather. “But he
didn’t
use his magic… did he?” He directed that question to Mama River.

She shook her head, but Zoe said, “Of course, he did.” She snapped her fingers then shook one at Troy.
“He shifted.”

Troy grimaced. Of course, that was magic, too—just not the kind he normally associated with white wolves. “What was he thinking?”

Zoe shook her head. “He probably didn’t plan on sticking around.” But she was still thinking, rubbing her chin with her hand. “Okay. So the Wolf Hunter used magic to track the mayor’s magic. Which means, he has to know the mayor is a white wolf.”

Troy frowned, not seeing her point. “The Wolf Hunter’s been after his father, a white wolf, all this time, right? I mean, he’s obsessed with finding him and getting revenge for… whatever the hell his problem is.”

“So why not just kill him?” Zoe asked like she knew the answer already.

“Because the man enjoys a good torture session?” Troy winced as he caught the look on Mama’s River’s face. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

She waved him off, but her face was a picture of concern.

“Maybe,” Zoe said. “Or maybe he needs his father for something else… the same thing
I
need him for.”

That hiked up Mama River’s eyebrows.

“We don’t have just one man’s life at stake here,” Zoe explained to her and to Troy. “I’m pretty sure the Wolf Hunter has the same database I do. The same tools. And…” She ran her hands through her hair again, obviously thinking it through. “And he’s been taking blood samples all along. Now that he has the progenitor white wolf, he has the one missing piece—the piece I was missing as well…
shit.”
She smacked both palms to her forehead. “Why didn’t I see this before?”

“See what?” Troy was still literally in the dark.

Zoe flung out her hands, but they were clenched into fists. “Now the Wolf Hunter can do exactly what I’ve been trying to do—make a superhealing serum.
Or
he could make a serum that would eliminate all traces of the magic inside us—the thing that makes us
wolf.”

The horrified look on Mama River’s face echoed in the pounding through Troy’s chest.

“He can
do
that?” Troy almost didn’t want to say it out loud. He knew she was planning on making a serum to kill her own wolf, but he half-way didn’t want to even believe it was possible. But it must be, if she thought the Wolf Hunter might get there first.

“Yes.” Zoe ground the word out. “And with it, he could wipe us all out.”

“Holy fuck,”
Troy whispered. “Well, then, we better track him down before he can carry any of that out.”

Zoe nodded rapidly. “Only I have no idea where he’s taking the mayor.”

Troy narrowed his eyes. “I might have an idea how we can find out.”

It was the middle of the night, but Zoe had never been more awake in her life.

Daniel and his men had gone after the vans, but they had no luck and came back empty-handed. Zoe was fortunate that Daniel and Skylar had stayed over at the River family estate, staking out one of the cottages in back, because they both were key to their hopes of tracking the Wolf Hunter down. Right now, Troy and Daniel were on their phones, trying to get the other white wolves—Noah, Owen, Kaden, and Grace—up the mountain to meet them, while also gathering up more wolves to help.

Zoe and Skylar were on point to find the Wolf Hunter.

Whoever he was in real life, clearly he had the resources to command a pretty substantial paramilitary force. If Daniel and Riverwise were going to take him on and try to rescue the mayor, they would need all the help they could yet. It was up to Zoe and Skylar to find the Wolf Hunter before it was too late—who knew what his plans were for his father, now that he had him.

“Are you ready?” Skylar asked her. They were huddled in the corner of the kitchen, next to the small eat-in table, staying out of the way of the others as they jogged through the kitchen, coming and going from the back of the estate to the dining room, organizing their assault force.

“Yes, I think so.” Zoe watched Troy disappear into the great room. The Wolf Hunter and his men had kidnapped the mayor less than thirty minutes ago, but the clock was definitely ticking.

She forced her hands to unclench. “I’ve never done a seeking spell before.”

Skylar’s small face scrunched up. “It’s not the most pleasant of magic, but with your connection to your grandfather, I think you’re the best candidate for it.”

Zoe nodded. It was still weird to think of the mayor as her grandfather—especially when she’d spent a lifetime trying to get
away
from the idea of being a white wolf. She sucked in a breath. “All right, let’s do this.”

Skylar dug into a small black bag and brought out a tiny vial of white powder. She unscrewed the top and tapped a small amount of the powder into her palm, then carefully screwed the lid back on and replaced it in her bag. Zoe had no idea what the whitish material was, but it didn’t matter as long as it did the job. Skylar passed her hand over the powder in a circular motion, and after a moment, blue sparks of magic flitted around and inside the white pile. Then the whole thing lifted as if a small storm were brewing in Skylar’s palm.