Claiming Mia, page 21
Mia was running out of time.
She needed options. And information.
But Jak spoke first. He tilted his head toward the wall-banging wall. “Mace is determined to claim you. It will go easier if you cooperate.” But the way he said it was off… he wasn’t threatening her or trying to bully her. It was almost as if he wanted to see if she was serious about resisting.
Mia frowned. “It’ll go easier on him if he lets us go now. Before Lucas shreds his throat.”
Jak nodded once and ducked his head. She had the feeling he was hiding a smile, but when he looked up, it was gone. “Even if the Sparks wolf comes for you, he’s not going to get in the compound.” Again, it was more of a test or a warning than a threat.
Mia scowled. “I think you might be underestimating him.”
She couldn’t decipher Jak’s solemn nod.
“If you resist the witch, it will take longer,” he said cryptically.
Mia swallowed. “What will take longer?” She shuddered again as she imagined the witch plunging a knife into her chest to carve out her still-beating heart, bloodthirsty-Aztec-style. Maybe that wasn’t what Mace had in mind, but Mia couldn’t think of anything worse he would need a witch for.
This time, Jak seemed genuinely surprised. He leaned back in his chair, eyebrows raised. “The shifting, of course.” He looked askance at her as if trying to figure her out anew.
“The shifting,” Mia echoed, still warding off visions of blood-dripping hearts. But, of course, that made sense. Mace couldn’t force her to shift on his own—he’d already threatened her life, and she’d called that bluff. And Mia knew witches were used to force the shift, but somehow she’d forgotten that in all the trauma.
Jak was examining her closely. “You don’t really understand what’s going on here, do you?”
Mia pursed her lips tight. She’d probably been talking too much. Jak worked for Mace—just because he wasn’t actively assaulting them like the rest didn’t mean he was their friend. Far from it.
When she didn’t answer, he glanced at Jeeter, then back to her. He slowly nodded. “You’ve been hiding it,” he said.
Mia had a hollow feeling in the pit of her stomach. She had let loose information that was going to somehow hurt them. She kept her mouth shut, and Jeeter’s hand slowly found hers and held it. Mia gave it a squeeze.
Jak stood up from the chair and slid it back to the corner. Then he stood before them, arms crossed, a dead serious look on his face. “If you resist the witch, you can delay the shift. If you resist submitting to Mace, you can delay that, too. But once you submit, there’s nothing that can stop him from claiming you.”
Then he turned and strode back to the door, taking up his station there like he had never left. His words made shivers crawl up her back, but he wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t already know. Or was he? The part about the witch was both relieving and terrifying. She knew the police used witches to get wolves to shift so they could take DNA samples in both forms. They wouldn’t do that if it didn’t work. Mia might be able to delay the shift, but she wouldn’t be able to stop it. Maybe that’s what Jak was telling her in his cryptic way.
But why?
Maybe he was telling her to hold out as long as she could. Because once she succumbed to Mace as her alpha, nothing would stop him from claiming her. But she already knew that. Or at least suspected it. Yet… something about Jak’s words nagged at her. Before she could think about it too hard, a sharp rap at the door made her and Jeeter both jump.
Jak opened it. In the hall outside the door stood Mace, his face still flushed from his wall-banging activities. Behind him, a tall, drop-dead gorgeous woman smirked and devoured Mia with her eyes.
Mia had never seen her before, but there was no question in her mind: she was a witch.
Chapter Twenty-Five
“I’m not waiting until evening,” Lucas growled. “I know where she is. I’m going to get her now.”
He slammed his fist down on his father’s desk, just because he had nowhere else to put the anger building inside him. His father wanted to wait… all while Lucas knew what had to be happening inside the Red Wolf compound: that bastard Mace was putting his hands on Mia, and Lucas wasn’t there to bash his face in for it. He had been such an idiot before, mired in his own head and the past and his own damn guilt about Tila. If he had just claimed Mia before, she would at least have some protection. But now… by the time he got her back… it might be too late.
Lucas’s father straightened up and examined Lucas’s clenched fist. They had been arguing for twenty minutes, circling and circling around the same issue of timing. The rest of the packs—his father’s and Llyr’s—were crammed into the office with them. The room stank of too many wolves and too much impatience as they spent precious minutes arguing how to get Mia out, rather than heading there to actually do it.
“I don’t want Mia in the Reds’ lair any longer than necessary,” his father said calmly.
Lucas reined in his fury. His father’s cool voice reminded Lucas that he wouldn’t get what he needed that way—and he very much needed his father’s help. And that of Llyr’s pack, too, if he was going to be successful in pulling Mia out, not just going in blazing and getting himself killed in the process.
“I know, I just… you know one of them is going to try to claim her.”
“If they know she’s a wolf.” His father seemed skeptical on that point, but he didn’t know Mia the way Lucas did. If she were in trouble, her wolf would come out. Lucas had just finished teaching her to do exactly that. He couldn’t imagine it not happening.
“They’ll know,” Lucas said. “Trust me… they’ll know.”
His father frowned but didn’t argue any further. He just took a breath and leaned forward over his desk, which was strewn with a satellite map of the Red pack’s compound that Lev had printed out.
“We all want Mia to join our family here,” his father said. “To come home to you and to us. But the Reds aren’t going to kill her, Lucas. If they still think she’s human, we have a day before their deadline comes around. If they know she’s a wolf, we have… less time. But they’re also less likely to harm her. So the important thing is not to get there fast, but to make sure we can succeed in getting her out. We’re only going to get one chance to do this.”
Lucas curled up a fist and pressed it into the table. Then he stabbed a finger at one of the outlying houses. “She’s here, in Mace’s house.”
His father cocked an eyebrow. “How do you know that?”
“I know him. He’s the one orchestrating all of this.”
“He has been vying to take over his brother’s place as favored son for some time.” His father nodded. “But why would he keep her there?”
Lucas took a breath. His wolf was still snorting and howling inside him to get Mia now, but his human side had calmed enough to know planning was necessary. At least they were talking specifics now.
“The main house has too many eyes,” Lucas said. “Even if this is approved by their alpha, that doesn’t mean they want every minor wolf and housekeeper to see what’s going down. The outlying houses afford more privacy.” His wolf growled at the idea of what Mace would do with that privacy: even if he hadn’t claimed Mia, Mace had a reputation for sexual predation, with a special taste for unsuspecting human females. He was the kind of wolf that gave shifters their rep for being brutal criminals and thugs. Lucas squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and forced himself to not think about Mia in Mace’s hands. Otherwise, he’d be rushing off in a blind rage at any moment.
His father looked up from the map. “All right. We’ll focus on Mace’s house first, then have contingencies for scouting the other outlying houses, if she’s not there. First, we’ll have to breach the outer security. I believe they’ve electrified the perimeter, but we need to find out what other security systems they have installed. Llyr’s pack will take point on that. Lev, I want you and your wolf-brothers to secure some weapons for us. We’ll be entering the house as wolves—I don’t want to leave any DNA traces, if possible—but we may need weapons on the way in and on the way out. Lucas, you’ll stay here and help me work out the strategy.”
The men surrounding them were restless, flitting looks to one another and tossing their heads as if they were already in wolf form. They were as eager to get started as Lucas was.
His father straightened and addressed them all. “This isn’t a game. I want exactly as much aggression as necessary to bring the girls home, and no more. If nothing else, a massacre at the Red Wolf estate would draw police attention that none of us can afford.”
The pack members dipped their head in agreement, but Lucas could smell the spike in testosterone. They were itching to draw some Red pack blood.
“I mean it.” His father’s voice had grown very quiet. Every wolf perked to listen. “Any wolf who does more than his share will answer to me.” That chilled the air a little, but they still seethed, ready to go. “That being said, no one gets captured, and no one gets left behind. Including the girls. We succeed at this, or we fail as a pack. Understood?”
The packs yipped at that, and then broke apart, heading for the door and their respective assignments. Lucas’s father held up a hand to stay Llyr and Lev before they trotted out with the rest.
“Meet back here by dusk,” he told them. “We’ll be ready by then.”
Llyr gave him a short nod. Colin, stood next to him, face gaunt and serious. Llyr gestured for Colin to follow him, which he did, fists clenched. Lucas had won the right to claim Mia, but he knew what Colin must be thinking: that Mia may yet turn Lucas down. That Colin could still win her away. And whichever wolf saved Mia would likely win more than just her appreciation. Every instinct of hers would point her toward the stronger wolf as the better mate. And Colin understood instincts as well as Lucas did.
The idea made all the fur on Lucas’s inner wolf bristle out, but to his human side, there was only one thing that was important: getting Mia out.
Lucas watched Colin leave, then caught Lev’s arm before he reached the door. “Back in a minute,” Lucas said over his shoulder to his father, then he followed a surprised Lev out the door. He pulled his little brother to the side, out of the crowd of wolves threading through the common room.
Lucas ducked his head, so only Lev could see the expression on his face. “Lev…” he started, then his throat grew thick. He cleared it out. “They might be hurting her.”
Lev’s look of surprise quickly faded into a stone-cold expression. “They damn well better not.”
“But if they have…” Lucas stared up at the ceiling for a moment. He wasn’t sure he would survive if he found her hurt. He knew for certain Mace wouldn’t survive….but Lucas might lose his mind soon thereafter.
“Lucas, Dad’s right,” Lev said with a lighter, soothing voice. “Mace isn’t going to hurt her. Especially if he knows she’s a wolf. She’s too valuable—not to just any given pack, but to wolves everywhere. No wolf in his right mind would hurt a female, especially one as young as Mia. She’s got lots of years of mating still ahead of her.”
Lucas brought his gaze back down from the heavens. “I’m not entirely sure Mace is in his right mind. But I know for certain he’ll claim her. He might have done it already.” That thought made his teeth grind, and his wolf’s jaws ache with a desire for Mace’s throat.
“I know,” Lev said quietly. “If that’s the case, we’ll just have to make sure we kill Mace.”
It was enough to pull Lucas out of his seething rage. He gave his brother a small smile. “I was kind of planning on that, actually.”
“I recommend we do it just as a precautionary measure.”
Lucas snorted a short laugh. “I don’t mind going to jail over it, Lev. But I don’t even want you on this mission. You stay away from Mace, you hear me?”
“Look at you, all giving orders! One fight with Colin, and you think you’re my alpha again? Just you try to stop me, brother.” Lev’s voice was light, but his face was deadly serious.
Lucas shook his head, but Lev’s words swelled something inside him. Lucas had screwed up in the past, but he was a different wolf now. He had to get Mia back first—nothing else came close in priority—but if he could do that, things felt possible again. From the moment she came into his life, she’d had that effect: making him feel things that had been long dead. Challenging him to be a better wolf. A better man. Maybe, with her by his side, he could reclaim the other things he’d lost. The other parts of himself. Maybe he could actually be a true alpha again.
First things first.
Lucas put a hand on Lev’s shoulder and gave him a small smile. “Just make sure you’re in wolf form while you’re doing stupid things. I don’t want your DNA all over the place if I have to kill Mace.”
Lev nodded. “Yeah, okay, boss. But it’s going to work out. Mia’s strong. Whatever happens, we’re going to get her out of there, and you’re going to have her back.”
Lucas smiled as his younger brother’s optimism. He could feel it working its magic on him as well. With his brothers by his side, they could do this.
Lev tipped his head toward his waiting pack-brothers. “I’ll see you in an hour?”
“An hour.” Lucas watched him go, then took a breath and headed back to his father’s office.
They needed to be smart about this. Like his father said, they would only have one chance. And for Lucas, everything hinged on saving the girl who was saving his life.
Chapter Twenty-Six
The witch swaggered into the room where Mia was being held prisoner. She was dressed in a way Mia could only call upscale goth: curve-hugging, slinky purple dress with a flame-like hem flitting around her shapely legs, a plunging neckline that accented her ample cleavage, and a black beaded-chain choker around her neck. The woman’s hair hung in tumbling waves to her waist, a sheet of midnight black except for the wide swath of purple-tint. Her stiletto heels made her as tall as the wolves who stayed back by the door.
As the witch approached, Mia stood up from the bed, motioning Jeeter to stay seated—if at all possible, Mia wanted to keep her roommate out of this.
The witch’s red-glossed lips curved into a smirk, and her eyes devoured Mia. “So this is your new plaything, Mace?”
“No touching, Hecca,” Mace said. “Spells only.” He had followed her into the room, closing the door and leaving his betas outside. Jak remained in the room, although Mia thought maybe Mace had forgotten about him, standing to the side, quiet.
Mia’s heart was pounding, but she managed to hold her ground against the hungry looks from Hecca the Purple Witch. Then she reached out to lift Mia’s chin with a single, long, purple-nailed finger. A shock ran through Mia’s body, like the witch’s finger was a lightning rod, and it had just conducted a thousand watts through her body, head to toe. Mia jerked violently, more a spasm of her muscles than any actual pain, but it made her gasp, nonetheless. An instant later, Mace knocked the witch’s hand away.
“I said no touching,” he growled.
The witch gave him an elaborate pout, but her black eyes dance. “But she’s such a strong one. Are you sure you won’t sell her to me?”
Mace got in the witch’s face enough that her smirk faded and a hard, flinty look replaced it. “Don’t push me, Hecca. I’m paying you well enough as it is. And I’d hate to have to tell my father that Morgan Art and Media can’t be trusted anymore—and not just as partners in acquisitions, but in all our activities.”
Mia had no idea what he was talking about, but it sounded like Red Wolf was involved in more than just investments. Somehow that didn’t surprise her at all.
The witch curled up a lip. “No need to get testy, little wolf.” Then she turned to examine Mia more clinically and with less greed. “A simple shifting spell is easily done. Then you can have your playmate, and I’ll be on my way. I have an important social media branding meeting in an hour anyway.”
Mace’s voice was cool again. “I appreciate you coming on such short notice.”
Mia braced herself as the witch looked her over. Jak was still standing quietly in the corner, watching. He said Mia could draw out the shift by resisting, so that’s exactly what she planned. But she flinched when the witch reached toward her face again. Mace growled a warning, but Hecca only pinched a single strand of Mia’s long hair between her fingers and plucked it out.
Mia’s heart hammered. A smile grew on the witch’s face. She rolled Mia’s single hair between her palms, balling the long black strand into a tiny tangle, then she held up her palm in front of Mia’s face with the ball resting in the center. The witch’s eyes glittered as she focused it, and her red lips moved, but no sound came out. Then she smirked… and a half second later, the hair burst into flame. It was quickly consumed, and the witch gently blew the drift of smoke into Mia’s face. It made her eyes water, and it smelled of burnt hair, but also of mint and lilac and a musky under scent that was pure…wolf.
Pain wrenched Mia’s gut.
She doubled over with it, choking and coughing out the smoke of the witch’s spell.
“Mia!” Jeeter’s voice behind her was quickly followed by her roommate’s hands on her shoulders, propping her up. Something sharp dug into Mia’s thighs, where she was bracing herself. When she looked down, she could see her claws had come out, her hands already half wolf.
No, no, no. Mia shrugged off Jeeter’s help—she didn’t want her roommate getting too close, in case this went badly—then she closed her eyes and fought against the shift. It was like wrestling a vaporous snake that was seeping into her mouth, her nose, her every pore… the spell was a toxin let loose upon her body, sending tendrils of change throughout her system. The tiny shifts, the parts of her that were forced to be wolf, crashed against the parts that were still human. It wrenched a moan of agony out of her. Even her wolf was crying, confused and in pain, tucking her paws up and shaking her head to ward off the force of the spell.
