Dark Instincts

  Marcus paused with the spoon halfway to his mouth. “Jail?”

  Trey nodded. “He didn’t make bail.”

  Marcus shrugged. “So, then, we go to his apartment, take a look around.”

  “We can’t risk it,” Nick told him. “As you know, a lot of accused shifters are ‘named and shamed’—their personal details are leaked to the extremists, who not only expose those details on their website, but hang around their addresses, holding billboards and marching. Right now, Brunt’s place is surrounded by them.”

  “Shit,” hissed Roni. “Did Rhett find anything on him?”

  Dante answered, “He managed to get ahold of his criminal records and basic details such as where he works and his date of birth, but that’s all. Brunt’s a hacker; he was able to delete his proverbial paper trail.”

  “We know that he’s a lone shifter.” Trey drummed his fingers on the table. “He was banished from his pack when he was twenty-three. No reason was given publicly.”

  Marcus took a sip of his coffee. “What’s his criminal history?”

  “Short. There were accusations of stalking young girls when he was a juvenile, but nothing ever went to court. I’m assuming his pack somehow covered it up. But when he was twenty-four, he was accused of harassing a human female. Same thing again a couple of years later. Then a year after that, his human ex-girlfriend got a restraining order against him, but it’s not clear why. One thing we’re quite sure of is that he’s the jackals’ ‘tech guy.’”

  Marcus cocked his head. “What makes you so sure?”

  “When Rhett hacked into his criminal files, he was able to see a clear picture of Brunt—including the Chinese symbols on his arms. He managed to translate them. They’re three letters.”

  “Let me guess,” drawled Marcus. “S, N, M?” At Trey’s nod, he growled.

  “At least we know who the motherfucker is.” Roni briefly stroked Marcus’s thigh, still not feeling good at the whole soothing thing. Before she could pull her hand back, he gripped it tight.

  “Brunt’s court date is in a few days’ time.” Trey folded his arms over his chest. “If the case is thrown out of court, we can get our hands on him—though we’ll have to be careful, since the extremists will most likely be waiting outside the courthouse. If he isn’t released, there’s no way of us getting to him—at least, not for a long time.”

  Derren twisted his mouth. “Let’s hope Eliza’s as good as she claims to be, or we won’t get our answers from Brunt.”

  Ryan leaned back in his seat. “In the meantime, we could talk to people who know him—friends, colleagues. They might know about his habits, might have heard about some place he likes to go.”

  “No.” Roni shook her head. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned from all this, it’s that talking to ‘friends’ and ‘associates’ doesn’t help much. We need to speak to someone he pissed off. They’ll be willing to talk.” Ryan’s brows raised slightly, and he nodded his approval.

  “We could speak to the ex-girlfriend who got a restraining order against him,” suggested Dante. “From what Rhett discovered, she lives in New York now.”

  Nick smiled. “That’s when private jets come in handy.”

  Dante balked and then spat a mouthful of coffee on the kitchen floor. “Roni,” he whined. She shrugged innocently while the others laughed.

  It turned out that Brunt’s human ex-girlfriend, Margo Lincoln, was a librarian. Apparently he went for the quiet, timid, academic type. She was also pretty unfriendly and amazingly observant. She’d taken one look at Roni and Taryn as they approached her in one of the aisles of the library, and said, “You’re shifters.”

  Taryn smiled. “And you’re smart, Margo Lincoln.”

  “It’s the way you all move—controlled, graceful, stealthily.” Her tone held a tint of bitterness.

  “You seem to know a lot about shifters.” The human said nothing. “I’m Taryn. This is Roni.” As Roni was busy sucking on a lollipop, she simply gave Margo a short nod.

  Turning away, Margo inserted one of the many books she was holding onto a shelf. “If you’re here about Noah Brunt, I have nothing to say.”

  Roni felt Marcus’s surprise. All the males were spread out but within hearing range—something that was made easier by the fact that this part of the building was mostly empty and exceptionally quiet. They had figured that Margo might be less inclined to talk about her issues with Brunt if six large shifter males were surrounding her.

  Taryn tilted her head. “Why would you think we were here to talk about that asshole? I mean, we are. But why would you immediately assume that?”

  Apparently the fact that Taryn had called him an asshole went a long way with Margo, because her expression lost some of its anger. “You’re not from his pack?”

  “If he’d been a member of my pack, I’d have put him down like a rabid dog.”

  Margo narrowed her eyes, studying Taryn. “An Alpha female,” she concluded. She then turned that studious gaze on Roni. “And you . . . you could be one, if it was what you wanted. Not quite as harmless as you appear.”

  Taryn’s smile widened as she looked at Roni. “I like her. Back to the subject matter, though, Margo. What makes you assume we’re here about Brunt?”

  Margo glanced around. “This isn’t the time or the place for such a conversation. People come to libraries for peace and quiet.”

  Taryn, too, glanced around. “But as you can see, no one’s close-by. Please, Margo.”

  Margo gave a frustrated sigh. “When I got the restraining order, the extremists somehow heard about it, and they tried pressuring me to go public with my experience.”

  “Yeah, it’s not uncommon for them to harass victims.”

  “Lately, that pressure has greatly increased, and I wondered if someone from Noah’s pack would visit me to insist that I keep my mouth shut.”

  Frowning, Roni removed the lollipop from her mouth. “Brunt was banished from his pack. He didn’t tell you that?”

  Margo’s expression hardened. “No, he didn’t.”

  “I’m guessing the reason the extremists are putting more pressure on you to talk about him is because of the latest accusation made against him,” mused Taryn.

  Margo stiffened. “What accusation is that?”

  “He’s been accused of trying to kidnap a human female—a teenager. Margo, we have reason to believe he’s involved in far worse than that.”

  “How so?” When Taryn hesitated, Margo lifted her chin. “If you want me to answer your questions, you can at least have the courtesy to answer mine.”

  “Fair enough. We have reason to believe he’s kidnapped many humans in the past, that he’s working with people who are dangerous and, quite frankly, evil. But we don’t know where to find these people. We need to know as much as we can about Brunt. Maybe it can help us track down those assholes.”

  She sighed. “You want to know about Noah? He’s a very pleasant, gentle, caring man. He has impeccable manners—even while he has one of his friends beat you, he’s polite and soft-spoken. Tells you how well you’re doing. How proud he is of you. How beautiful you are.”

  Like that, Roni felt sick. “Did he hurt you himself?”

  “No. He just liked to watch.” A bitter, humorless chuckle. “He had me totally fooled.”

  Taryn bit her bottom lip. “I’m sorry to ask you these questions, I know this has to be hard, but can you tell me where this happened?”

  Margo turned her eyes back to the shelves. “I’m not sure. He came here to give me a ride home, just as he did most nights. The second we got in the car, he drugged me. When I woke up, I was bound and gagged in an empty room with bloodstained walls.”

  She stopping speaking, and Roni assured her, “You don’t have to tell us what they did. But I would like to know how you got out of there alive.”

  “I didn’t think I would. I knew I had to be smart. So when he told me how proud he was of me, I pretended to be glad. Pretended to be happy
that I had pleased him so much. I wasn’t sure if it would work—especially since his friends didn’t think he should let me go—but it did. He drove me back to his house, wearing this beaming smile. I’ll never forget that smile. After what felt like a few hours, when we stopped at a red light near his neighborhood, I took the pepper spray out of my bag.”

  Roni inwardly winced. Pepper spray on shifter eyes would hurt like a son of a bitch.

  “While he was busy screaming, I got out of the car and ran to the nearest house. The couple there called the police. Noah was gone by the time they arrived, but they found him at his home and arrested him.”

  Taryn’s brows knitted together. “So, wait . . . You’d been drugged, taken somewhere against your will, and beaten . . . and he wasn’t prosecuted for those things?”

  “It didn’t even go to court.” Another bitter chuckle. “Some members of his pack—or his old pack, whichever—got involved, discredited my accusations, and promised to keep Noah out of my life if I promised to not go public with the story.”

  Roni just bet they did. His pack might not want him, but they wouldn’t want him drawing attention to them either.

  “I’m a librarian, I don’t have more than three figures in my bank account; I had no way of fighting him legally. All I really wanted was to know he couldn’t hurt me again. He hasn’t.”

  “But you live in fear that he will one day, don’t you?” Roni understood that, because for a long time, she’d feared the other humans involved in her attack would come back for her.

  “He’s sick and cruel, and he doesn’t deserve to live.” She looked from Taryn to Roni. “Will you kill him?”

  “That’s the plan,” replied Roni.

  “Good. Make it excruciatingly painful.”

  Taryn’s mouth curved. “I think we can manage that.”

  “And his friends?”

  “Once we find them, they’ll wish they hadn’t been born. But we have no idea where to look for them. Is there anything at all you remember about the place? Maybe something Brunt once said about a certain place he liked to go?”

  She thought for a minute. “I remember the smell. Death. Blood. It was everywhere.” So it was safe to say Brunt had taken her to the jackals’ kill site. “That’s all, I’m sorry.”

  Taryn nodded. “Thanks for speaking with us, Margo. Take care.”

  Rounding the aisle, they advanced through the building toward the exit. The males slid out of their hiding places, and Marcus immediately went to Roni, just as Trey went to Taryn. It wasn’t until they were outside that anyone spoke.

  “Well, that was a wasted journey,” grumbled Dante.

  Taryn held up a finger. “Not necessarily. Margo said it was a few hours before she got near Brunt’s home, so that would help pin down the location.”

  “She’d been drugged and beaten, Taryn,” Ryan reminded her. “Being trapped with Brunt while she was so afraid . . . the journey could have seemed a lot longer than it was.” Taryn inclined her head, conceding that.

  Roni slipped the lollipop out of her mouth—only to have it snatched from her hand by Marcus. Casting a brief scowl his way, she said, “One thing we have learned is that Brunt is being monitored by his pack. They might know something.”

  Reaching the SUV they’d rented, Trey unlocked it and they all piled into the vehicle. “I doubt it. They’d have killed him to protect the pack’s reputation if they knew just how bad things are. But it’s safe to say they’ll try to get him off again. Not sure it will work this time, though.”

  “We’ll get to him,” said Nick. “Even if he is imprisoned. No one’s untouchable. I know that very well.” In juvenile prisons, the human guards were often paid to target the prisoners.

  At that moment, Trey’s cell phone started ringing. Putting it on speakerphone, he answered, “Hello.”

  “Trey, I’m not sure you’re going to like this,” said Rhett. “Well, actually, you might. I think Marcus will. Or maybe not, since he now can’t get his hands on them.”

  “Rhett,” interrupted Taryn, “make sense.”

  “Sorry. It’s just that, um, I was checking the new vids on snm.com. Quinn and Lola McGee are dead.”

  “Dead?” repeated Dante, leaning forward in his seat.

  “There’s a clip of them being savaged while in their human forms by several jackals—all of whom were in their furry form. They also destroyed McGee’s pack.”

  Marcus turned to Roni. “They might have found out that Quinn told us about the website.”

  “Or they were a little pissed at finding the female jackal dead and decided to take it out on them,” said Taryn.

  “Damn,” muttered Marcus. “I wanted to kill them myself.”

  Roni wanted to laugh at the petulant pout on Marcus’s face. “It’s okay. You can take it out on the jackals when we find them.” She fully intended to.

  “You can bet your phenomenal ass I will.” But the idea didn’t improve his mood. In fact, he wasn’t too proud to admit that he more or less sulked over the next few hours. Even later on, when Marcus and Roni took his Toyota from her pack’s parking lot and he drove to his territory, he remained pissed.

  Roni snorted. “You sure know how to brood.”

  “I’m not brooding, I’m—” Marcus halted midsentence as he approached the large security gates of his territory and noticed a familiar vehicle parked outside. Son of a bitch.

  Feeling the anger that surged through Marcus, she looked at him. “What’s wrong?”

  He pulled up outside the gates. “Wait here for me, sweetheart.”

  “You have trouble of some kind, and you expect me to wait here?”

  “It’s not trouble. There’s just someone I need to have a little talk with.” Without another word, he hopped out of the Toyota and made his way over to the vehicle. He didn’t halt until a dark, middle-aged man exited the driver’s side. “Dad.” The word was clipped, toneless.

  “Son.” His response was just as flat.

  “What are you doing here?”

  Jonas Fuller’s expression hardened. “Kerrie told me what’s going on.”

  Confused, Marcus arched a brow. “What is it, exactly, that’s going on?”

  “You’re forsaking your mate. Yes, Kerrie told me all about her vision, all about this female you’ve been dating. Even though you know how much your mate needs you, you’re forsaking her. How could you? From what Kerrie’s told me, she’s like your mother. She needs someone to take care of her, to save her, she needs her mate—”

  “And you need someone who depends on you, don’t you?” That stopped his father mid-rant. “It didn’t occur to me at first. I always felt bad for you, figured you were trapped, that you stood by Mom because she was your mate. But it wasn’t that at all, was it?”

  His father lifted his chin, but he said nothing.

  “You need someone who can’t take care of themselves. It makes you feel good to be so indispensable to someone, doesn’t it? Makes you feel good to take care of someone so broken, to have someone whose happiness depends totally on you—even to the point where you would happily enable a sickening addiction.”

  “We’re talking about you,” said Jonas. “About your mate and your future.”

  The passenger door of his father’s car opened, and Kerrie exited. This wasn’t going to go well.

  “Marcus, please don’t be mad at me for going to your dad. I needed to do something. I needed to make sure you didn’t ruin your life.” She moved toward him, but his growl stopped her short.

  “How would I have ruined my life?”

  “By getting serious with that Roni girl,” replied Kerrie. “She’s not the one for you.”

  “Says who?”

  “My vision.”

  “I don’t place much faith in visions,” he said, repeating something Roni had once said. “Not anymore.”

  Kerrie’s nostrils flared. “Has she convinced you not to listen to me? To ignore what I told you?” Marcus looked at her blankly. ?
??She’s turned you against me, hasn’t she?”

  “Don’t do something stupid, Marcus,” barked Jonas. “To forsake your mate would be the height of stupidity. You’ll spend your life wondering what could have been. You’ll abandon someone who needs you.”

  The sound of a car door slamming shut had his father and Kerrie looking at the Toyota. Marcus could feel Roni’s annoyance. Not only that, he could feel her wolf’s annoyance.

  Roni came to stand at his side. “Everything all right, Marcus?”

  “That’s her, Jonas!” exclaimed Kerrie, pointing. “That’s the one who won’t clear the path for his mate!”

  Jonas sneered at Roni. “So not only are you willing to forsake your own mate, you’re willing to make Marcus forsake his?”

  She cocked her head. “I could almost believe you care.”

  He reared back. “Of course I care! He’s my son!”

  “You care? Really? So what did you do when his mother rejected him and pushed him away? What did you do to make him feel safe and happy at home? Oh, yeah, nothing.”

  Marcus watched as his father clenched his fists. The old man had never liked being questioned or criticized.

  “He didn’t have a real mother—she was a selfish child who only saw her own needs,” continued Roni. “Did you give him affection and the assurance that he was loved to make up for that? No, you were hard with him. You forced him to lie for her and for you; you made him feel alone. He grew up feeling guilty because he couldn’t save her, couldn’t make her happy.”

  Jonas growled. “That’s not—”

  “Together, you both made him believe he wasn’t loveable, worthy, or accepted—that he wasn’t important to either of you. In doing that, you made him live a life where he didn’t give enough of himself to let people see the real him, because to do that would be to give them a chance to reject him. Instead, he rejected them first. So you tell me how, exactly, you ‘care,’ because I just can’t see it.”

  Marcus curled his arm around her, and whispered in her ear, “Shh, it’s okay, sweetheart.” Hearing her defend him like that put a lump in his throat.

  “Marcus, you can’t possibly want her!” whined Kerrie. “She’s plain and boyish and foulmouthed and selfish!”