He grabbed her arm. “Wait, Keira.”
She glared at him in frustration. “I’ve waited twenty-five years.”
“I know, honey,” he soothed, his fingers brushing her pale cheek. “But if they see you then they’re going to bolt. We need to have Parish arrange enough Hunters to take them into custody without the chance of them escaping.” His expression hardened. “Or hurting someone else.”
She blew out an exasperated sigh. “You’re right.”
Her immediate ability to put her personal lust for vengeance aside for the benefit of protecting her people was only one of the reasons that this female had been such an effective leader.
“I’ll have to reveal that you’re alive,” Bayon warned, pulling his cell phone from his front pocket? “Are you ready?”
There was only a brief hesitation before she was giving a firm nod of her head. “It’s time.”
“Okay.”
He punched the number on his speed dial, but before Parish could answer Keira was gently taking the phone from his hand, a rueful smile curving her lips.
“Let me.”
He lifted a startled brow. “You know how to use it?”
She shrugged. “I’ve seen my idiot captors using them. How hard can it be?”
“I’m not going to fight you for the privilege,” he assured her. They both knew that Parish was going to kick his ass for not immediately informing him that his beloved sister was alive.
“Wait here.”
She left the cabin and was halfway down the path when Bayon heard Parish answer his phone. He grimaced as the male Pantera’s tone transformed from impatience to shocked disbelief to a joy so pure it made Bayon’s heart twist with regret that he’d forced the male to suffer even one second longer than necessary.
“Christ, he’s going to fucking kill me,” he muttered, watching as Keira ended the call and then gestured for him to join her.
“Let’s go,” she urged, her earlier anguish replaced by a fierce impatience to confront her kidnappers.
He was swiftly at her side. They jogged down the overgrown path and leaped over the fallen gate.
“He’s going to capture the traitors?”
“He’s already on the hunt. He’ll meet us at the Den,” she said.
Bayon was momentarily puzzled before he realized that Parish wouldn’t want anyone to know they’d discovered traitors among the Pantera, at least not until they could be certain there weren’t any others.
And there was the added benefit that the prisoners couldn’t shift while away from the Wildlands. They were far less dangerous in human form than in puma.
They headed directly for La Pierre, skirting the edges of the Wildlands. Bayon kept a careful watch on their surroundings, prepared to attack anything or anyone who lurked in the shadows.
For the moment, he had to assume everyone was an enemy.
Even a Pantera.
It was a realization that wounded the heart of his cat.
“At least a couple questions have been answered,” he muttered.
Keira ducked beneath a low-hanging branch before glancing in his direction. “What are you talking about?”
“I now know how the enemy entered the Wildlands undetected, and how they found Ashe so easily.”
“And why my mind was so reluctant to remember what happened,” she snarled. “I could accept the treachery of humans, but not Pantera.”
Bayon shook his head, hating the knowledge that they would have to eventually reveal the betrayal of Vincent and Savoy to the rest of their people. A damned shame. It was destined to destroy the trust they’d always had in one another. At least until the danger had passed.
Whether it could ever be rebuilt was something that was in the hands of fate.
“I’m not sure any of us will be able to accept that we could be betrayed by our own people,” Bayon muttered.
They slowed their pace as they reached the edge of the swamp and stepped onto the road that marked the edge of the town. Ahead of them the neon sign hung outside The Cougar’s Den, but even as they stepped toward the wooden building built on heavy stilts, a dark-haired man was sprinting across the road and wrapping Keira in a smothering hug.
“Keira,” Parish breathed, glaring at Bayon over her shoulder. “You, I will deal with later.”
Keira smiled, despite the fact that she was being clenched hard enough to crush the breath from her lungs.
She was surrounded in the heat and scent of family, her cat purring in bone-deep satisfaction.
“Are you real?” Parish asked, his voice thick with emotion.
She rested her head on the solid width of his chest. “I’m real.”
“I’ve dreamed of this moment a thousand times only to wake and find that you were still gone. Goddamn, I’ve been so alone.”
“Not so alone anymore.” She lifted her head with a smile. “I hear you’ve mated.”
His bleak features abruptly softened with blatant adoration. Keira would never have believed it of her brother if she hadn’t seen it for herself.
“My Julia. She completes me.”
“I get that,” Keira agreed, glancing toward Bayon, who had stepped away to give them privacy for their reunion. A low growl had her sharply turning back toward her brother. “Don’t start,” she warned, her eyes narrowed.
Parish gave a bark of laughter as she slipped back into her role as older sister, unwilling to take shit from her brother even if he did have several inches and a hundred pounds on her.
“Keira,” he growled. “I’ve missed you.”
“Brother,” she breathed before forcing herself out of his arms and glancing toward Bayon.
Later they would have a proper reunion. Now they had to concentrate on protecting their people.
Moving to her side, Bayon regarded Parish with a grim expression. “Do you have the traitors?”
Parish jerked his head toward the building. “Inside.”
“Are they still alive?” Keira demanded.
A humorless smile stretched Parish’s lips, the promise of death in his eyes. “For now.”
“Good.” Keira headed for the back steps of the building, her murderous fury heating the air. “I want some answers.”
“Keira.”
She ignored her brother, taking the steps two at a time.
“You’re wasting your breath,” Bayon murmured before he was jogging to catch up with her.
A portion of her tension eased as he lightly placed a hand at her lower back. Just having Bayon near returned the courage she’d feared had been stripped from her twenty-five years ago. A steel door opened and a male Pantera offered her a slow nod of respect before escorting them into a secret chamber hidden behind the shelves of the storage room.
None of the humans drinking in the front bar had any idea there were meeting rooms, a high-tech surveillance room, and two large guest rooms for Pantera separated from them by a sound-proofed wall.
They found Vincent and Savoy on their knees, both stripped naked with iron shackles around their wrists and ankles.
The two Pantera were both older than Keira. Vincent was built on solid lines with brown hair and dark gold eyes while Savoy was a tiny female with reddish hair and eyes the color of spring grass.
Standing behind them, Talon held a gun toward the back of their heads, despite the prisoners’ mutual appearance of utter resignation.
No one was taking chances.
Talon, who had still been in training when Keira had been kidnapped, straightened his shoulders and snapped a salute.
“Welcome home, commander.”
“Just Keira now,” she insisted, glancing toward her brother who entered the room to hold his loaded gun at the prisoners. “I’m absolutely confident that Parish has done a brilliant job and I intend to concentrate on tracking down the son of bitches who kidnapped me.” Her attention turned toward the kneeling Pantera. “Starting with these two.”