“Gone?” Emory lost control of his temper, dropped to his knees and wrapped his fingers around the woman’s neck. He forced her to look him in the eye when he said, “You wouldn’t let her leave, even if she wanted to.” His hand shook as he dug his nails into her skin. “She’d better be in the same condition I left her in. If you hurt her, so help me…”
“You’ll what?” the hag asked with a twinge of spite when he didn’t finish. “Kill me?”
Emory took several deep breaths, barely holding the wolf back. The beast inside him lashed out, ordering him to leave the man behind and let the feral portion of him take over. It would be so easy to let his fangs descend, to clamp his teeth around the woman’s throat. He’d bite down until he felt the hardness of bone against his incisors. Then he’d wait, holding her in place, making sure she died slowly. As she gagged he’d enjoy the rusty taste of her blood against his tongue, bask in her struggles as she grew weak and knew her time in this world was at an end. There would be no mercy killing, no fast snap of his jaws to ease her passing. He wouldn’t break her neck and end her suffering. He’d make it last, draw it out, wrap the scent of death around him like a cozy blanket.
He could almost smell her death, taste her life’s blood pulsing against his tongue. His skin started to burn and he felt the wolf come closer to the surface.
Back off, he ordered silently, reminding the animal within who was in charge. A sharp pounding in his temples aided him in moving away from the train of thought, to let go of the growing fury, allowing him to think clearly. Finding Mary is the most important thing. This bitch is nothing more than a means to that end.
“Where is she?” he repeated, striving for calm.
When she didn’t respond Trey placed his hand over the woman’s biceps and another loud crack followed. This time her scream was so long and loud it made Emory’s ears ring. Tears streamed down her face and merged with the snot seeping along the crest of her upper lip. It sounded like she started choking but she didn’t stop yelling as she begged.
“Stop, stop, please stop!”
“You want me to stop?” Trey lowered his face until he and the woman were at eye level. “Answer. His. Fucking. Question.”
“I don’t know if she’s alive or dead.” The panic and misery in her voice were genuine and her eyes were wide and horrified. “She ran.”
“Ran where?” Trey snarled.
“Do you think she’d tell us where she was going?” After Trey took hold of her shoulder she added quickly, “She waited until she had an opportunity to escape and took it. She killed her own kin.” The reminder seemed to bring the aging female out of her haze of pain, snapping her to attention.
Killed her kin? The Mary he knew wouldn’t swat a fly.
What in the fuck happened since the last time I saw her?
The woman’s eyes narrowed as he processed the information and she declared, “If she’s not dead yet, she will be. When Elijah finds her, he’ll kill her.”
“Elijah’s after her?” Emory’s wolf roared in fury. Her uncle had already stated he’d take her life. If he was after her now, she was in danger. “She’s being tracked?”
“He told her what would happen if she didn’t repent. He warned her repeatedly. She didn’t listen.”
“What do you mean he warned her? What the hell did he do?” Emory’s temper snapped when she remained silent and he snarled, “Answer me, damn you!”
“I’m not telling you anything else. You’ve gotten all you can expect from me, seed of Satan. Take my life but you’ll never touch my soul.” She tore her gaze from Emory’s, stared straight ahead and started reciting the Lord’s Prayer.
Fucking religious zealots.
Trey pressed his fingers into the woman’s shoulder—more than likely to demolish her collarbone—but Emory preventing him from inflicting more damage by flexing his hand and breaking her neck. She toppled forward when he and Trey let her go, her body landing motionless in the dirt.
“Why the fuck did you do that?” Trey stared down at her body with glowing amber eyes, his hair in disarray around his face. “I was just getting started.”
“We wouldn’t have gotten anything more from her, and what she didn’t say told us more than what she might have.” Emory stood and faced his furious sibling, trying to remain calm. If he was going to have blood on his hands, it would be for the right reasons. “Mary ran and she’s being tracked. We have to find her before her Elijah does.”
“Good luck.” Trey snorted. “She could be anywhere.”
“Not necessarily,” Gerald called out as he separated from the members of his pack. He and his wolves had guided them to the location where the Shepherds resided and remained on the sidelines. They were willing to fight but understood vengeance belonged to Trey and the shifters who accompanied him. The New York pack members were the ones who’d suffered the ultimate loss. One from which some might never recover.
“How so?” Trey asked.
“We picked up the faint scent of cat in the storage building.”
“What does that have to do with anything?” Trey retorted. “They kill shifters here, in case you’ve forgotten.”
Gerald’s hazel eyes started to turn orange and Emory hoped he didn’t have to keep the two Alphas from going at each other. Gerald had been patient with Trey, after all his brother had lost, but his generosity would only go so far.
“The woman said that your mate had been gone for weeks.” Gerald’s tone was curt. “It just so happens that a young female cat shifter went missing months ago. Her Alpha spread word to the packs and prides, hoping someone would have information to locate her. When she returned a few weeks back she said a young woman helped her escape. The time frame matches.”
“You think it was Mary?” Emory tried to imagine Mary releasing a shifter. She’d been terrified of him when he’d shifted in front of her. He’d had no other choice in order to defend her from her family months before. He’d seen the horror in her eyes, the revulsion. Had she overcome her fear? Was it possible she wouldn’t run when he found her, told her what she meant to him and initiated the bloodbonding that would tie them together as mates?
Gerald pulled out his phone. “I’m going to make a call and see what I can find out.”
“Do that.” Trey turned from Gerald and placed his hand on Emory’s shoulder. “If she’s being tracked we’ll have to get all the information we can from the Shepherds we haven’t killed. They might know something.”
Emory stared past Trey and studied the men lumped together on the ground. Elijah was the leader of this particular sect. Considering Elijah had sworn to kill Mary if she strayed, Emory knew he had to find his mate if he wanted to protect her.
He allowed his wolf to rise to the surface. It answered immediately, improving his eyesight and changing his fingernails to claws as he started for the men who were born and bred to destroy his kind. Killing wasn’t something he enjoyed but he wasn’t above it. Not if it meant putting an end to his misery and reuniting with the one person who could give him peace.
The only woman in the world he couldn’t exist without.
Mary.
The men thrashed as he neared but he didn’t hesitate. His pack mates surrounded him as he knelt in front of his first victim and grasped a handful of the man’s hair.
“I want to know where Elijah is.” He growled, revealing his lengthening canines, and grinned at the Shepherds’ corresponding, alarmed expression. “And you’re going to tell me.”
Chapter One
“Son of a bitch!” Mary Shepherd hissed and kneeled to rub the toe that had fallen victim to an eight-ounce can of French-cut green beans. She was pretty sure the tin container would leave one hell of a nasty bruise. Too bad Food Town didn’t have a policy when it came to situations like these. Unless she slipped on a newly mopped floor and broke her back, she wasn’t getting compensation for squat.