Lex took a quick phone call while Ben settled up and checked on Benoit.
Minutes later, Lex returned. “Come on. We’ll go to the hotel first. I need to check in with Cade and I don’t want to do it with an audience. Dave is supposed to meet us there shortly. Your stuff has been moved there. Benoit okay?” Ben nodded as Lex hustled them out. The nurse was pretending she didn’t see a darned thing and Ben waved and mouthed a thank-you.
Once in the car, Ben leaned back and closed his eyes. “Do you think she’s alive?”
“Can you feel her through the link?” Nina asked. “Open up, reach out. It may not work but I can feel Lex when he’s out here and I’m in Seattle so distance won’t stop it.”
“I can do that? Why didn’t anyone tell...” He shut up and instead focused on the thread that held him to his mate. And she was there, soft, muted, but alive.
“Yes. Thank God, she’s... I can feel her presence. But it’s weak. Soft. I don’t feel pain. Do you think I could feel her pain if she was hurting?”
“I don’t know,” was all Lex said as he drove through the tangled Boston streets to their hotel.
* * *
“Hey there, red, how you feelin’?”
Tegan opened her eyes and stared up into the not-unfriendly face of one of Pellini’s wolves. He put a hand on her arm and kept her in place.
“Look, you have to keep it together or you’re dead. I’m doing everything I can but...you don’t want to end up like Gina. I’m begging you, I owe Lex my life so please keep your mouth shut. Don’t push him.” His voice was the barest of sound but she heard the urgency in it. The truth.
Swallowing, Tegan nodded slightly and he patted her arm before letting go.
Don’t want to end up like Gina. God, what had happened? Was she alive? What had Pellini done to her? Every bone in Tegan’s body ached and several of them were broken. Why hadn’t they healed yet?
Tegan tried to reach out to Ben through their link. Was he dead too? Could she survive if she’d lost him? She never wanted to face that pit of loneliness again and the idea of not touching him again, of not hearing him call her red wolf or even of never seeing the way his forehead furrowed when he was pissed at her, filled her with despair for a moment.
But the flicker she felt, distant but there, alive and, she paused, lupine. If one of Pellini’s freaks had bitten him and forced the change would he hate her forever because of it?
No, he wouldn’t. He might resent it, but he wouldn’t hate Tegan for it. She believed it for all she was worth. He would find her. She’d make it out of there alive, she just had to start figuring out a game plan starting with being docile if she had to bite her tongue off.
“I’m putting you back under. Trust me, it’s better this way. It’s been a day since Boston. Chicago...” were the last words she heard as she felt the sting of whatever he’d pumped into her and she fell unconscious again.
* * *
Ben sat straight up as they’d been driving west along I-90. “Shit. She’s, I think she’s awake or something.”
Jack was driving so Lex sat in the passenger seat with Nina next to Ben in the back. Megan and Dave took the very rear. Lex turned to look over the seat. “What do you mean?”
“I’ve been reaching through the link as often as I can. It’s been sort of, I don’t know, muted, muzzy. It’s sharper now. I felt her energy touch mine.” Ben kept his eyes closed as he concentrated on her. “She’s worried but planning. I can feel her resolve. Hurting. Fuck. My bones hurt. She’s...shouldn’t she be healed by now? How can they let her hurt?” He slammed his fist into the seat and felt the leather and stuffing give under the force. Nina’s hand went to his neck and he felt calmer. Megan’s hand grabbed his shoulder and Dave took the other shoulder.
“Calm down, Ben,” Nina ordered softly. “You can’t help her like this.”
“She’s slipping away. It’s all soft again. Damn it.”
“We’ll be in Chicago in just a few more hours. We’re going to get to her in time. Know that, Ben. She’s strong. Really strong. They’re probably keeping her drugged,” Lex said, pain clear on his face.
“Why is she hurting?”
“Do you really want to think about that?” Jack asked softly.
“Yes! Would it be easier if I didn’t? Sure. But she’s my woman, I love her, I hate not knowing. I have to think about it so I can prepare myself and do the best I can for her. This isn’t the time to hide my head under the sand.” Anger cleared Ben’s mind.
“All right. There are a few reasons. First, they could be beating her repeatedly every time she heals. Each successive time it will take her longer to heal because she’ll be weaker than the last. Or, and this is a favorite of Pellini’s, he’s using silver on her. Not enough to kill her, most likely a hugely diluted injection right into the break. It won’t heal that way. It’ll keep her hobbled though.” Jack’s delivery was flat but Ben noted the man’s knuckles were white from how tight he held onto the steering wheel.
“Will she heal ever?”
“She’ll need to change but she’ll be very weakened. Weakened enough to need her wolf lured up by someone else.”
“What does that mean?” Nina asked.
“I’ll have to force the change on her. It won’t be pretty and it will hurt her. A lot. But it takes a wolf near the top or at the top of Pack hierarchy to do it. I’m hoping I’ll be enough as Second at National. If not, we’ll have to get Maxwell to do it. He’s the Alpha of Great Lakes.” Jack kept his eyes on the road and Ben wanted to do something to get there faster.
“I’ll call him, Ben. We’ll have him meet us when we start tracking. I think Jack will actually have a stronger wolf, but Maxwell is very powerful too. He’d do anything he could to help and his Second is missing too.” Lex grabbed his phone and began dialing.
They’d gotten a call sometime after midnight, right after they’d returned from a wooded area outside the city where Ben had made his first transformation. He’d then wept for the first time in years as he lay in bed, alone, knowing Tegan was out there, scared and hurt and he’d changed for the first time without her.
The caller had been very brief, stated a zip code and hung up. They’d waited in the hotel room until Templeton called them about two hours later and told them Jack was on his way. Pellini had checked in, told Templeton he’d gone to Chicago to hole up. So it was to Chicago they’d head.
The zip code encompassed a large area of Chicago but as Nina began researching, they saw a lot of that part of the city had no buildings or houses. They’d have to track once they arrived but it was closer than they’d been just a few precious minutes prior.
Jack arrived, they’d stopped at a drive-through on the way out of town, and drove west. They would have flown but Lex’s plane had some mechanical problems and Templeton’s was in use and by the time it reached them, they’d be nearly to Chicago anyway.
Ben tried to sleep on and off, they stopped to get gas while someone ran in, stocked up on food and they hit the road again. A normally fifteen-hour drive would take them just around ten with the way Jack had pushed the SUV the whole time.
* * *
“Wake her up.”
Tegan heard the order, knew the wolf who’d been helping her would have to obey. She steeled herself, knowing once she fully surfaced to consciousness, the pain of her broken bones would slam back into her.
At the same time, she felt Ben. His consciousness brushed against hers and she reached out with all the energy she had. He was nearer than the last time, some hours ago, when she’d become conscious last. He was coming to her. She had to hold on. She would.
The hands on her were gentle enough but it still hurt when whatever he’d injected her with pulled her from that quiet place she’d been resting in. Her wolf was far, far down in her consciousness, so far
down Tegan knew she wouldn’t come even though Tegan had been calling her. She needed to change to heal.
Facing the music, she opened her eyes and stared into Warren Pellini’s face.
“Look who we have. Not so tough now, are you, Warden bitch?” He jammed a knuckle into her femur where it had been broken and she barely bit back a whimper of pain.
Nervous laughter erupted from the wolves behind him. Wolves whose hearts she’d eat when she got hold of their worthless carcasses. They were werewolves, noble, strong creatures, but she scented their addictions even in her own addled state. Junkie werewolves. She shuddered.
“Got anything to say?”
She held her tongue. Ben would come for her. She had to be alive and right then, she was in no condition to fight with anything more than her wits.
“Well, wouldn’t you like to know where your friend is?” Pellini pulled a chair near and sat. She knew from the look on his face and the way the other wolf’s fingers tightened just momentarily on her ankle she had to play and she hated it.
“Is she all right?” Tegan’s voice was like sandpaper. At least her throat had begun to heal from where Pellini had nearly torn it out.
“She was quite feisty, that one. Gave my boys a good time.”
Revulsion settled in Tegan’s gut, even as guilt kept it company. She was glad if she couldn’t have helped, she didn’t hear it. It might have made her a coward but it was there nonetheless.
“Will you grieve for her? A female you barely knew? You gave your life, or you would have given your life for her. Why?” Pellini had no idea but he expected to be answered. He was not an Alpha though, she had no compulsion, other than wanting to survive long enough to kill him, to obey him.
“I will grieve, yes. She died with honor like a wolf of her station should.” Like you won’t, but she didn’t add that.
“Why give your life for her? Your mate was there in the room. You abandoned him.”
She hadn’t! He was safe, she’d made sure of it. “He was safe and it’s my job. My position. To not have tried to help would have shamed me and my Pack.” Tegan burned with the effort to keep her voice as emotionless as she could. She knew she had to answer his questions to a certain extent, and keeping him talking meant they weren’t doing to her what they did to Gina, and also gave Ben time to find her. She had nothing to send him but her presence. She hadn’t been conscious when they’d arrived so she knew nothing more than Chicago and it wasn’t like she could send an address through their link. All Tegan could hope was he’d feel her, know he was moving in the right direction.
“Position, shame, bah! It’s this attitude that keeps us where we’ve been for way too long. Do you think I care about any of that shit? I care about me and mine. The new way of the wolf is coming, Tegan Warden. Profit, muscle, dominance and our rightful place which is not alongside humans like your mate, but over them. I heard he wouldn’t change.” He snorted derisively. “Why did you ask him? Who does he think he is to turn down such a gift? We’re better than they are. They should beg us to gift them with a wolf.”
He stood abruptly, beginning to pace. “I told Maxwell but did he listen? No. Him and his precious honor and position. Of course he didn’t. He didn’t have to. He got the lake house. He got the Pack. When I threatened to leave, he waved at me and laughed. Bastard shunned me and my entire family! Well, he’s not laughing now that I hold part of his city. And he’s not laughing when the cops are suddenly all over homeless people showing up having died from the change.”
“What?” Tegan hadn’t meant to ask but shock brought the hoarse question from her despite herself. Stupid.
He smirked. “Oh I see he hasn’t told Cascadia, or even National I’d wager. Not that Templeton would do anything about it, he’s in my pocket, you know. Let me stroll right in and take over that meeting. Bet Siskiyou is sorry they sided with you now that their Third is meat. But I’ve been trying out our little renewed cocktail on the downtrodden. We’re working on refining it. Naturally until we hit right on the formula there’ll be mistakes. Humans who pretend to be so noble don’t seem to get too upset when their street people go missing.”
Her leg throbbed and her two broken ribs made it hard to breathe, she tried to shift to be more comfortable when he zeroed in on her.
“Another lovely little thing we cooked up. Just the smallest amount of silver and purified water. Injected into a wound, especially a broken bone, it impedes healing indefinitely. Hurts I bet. I love this lab. It makes me so happy to be here.”
The dude was batshit crazy. Tegan’s head swam but the connection to Ben grew stronger. He was on his way to find her.
“I’ve been wondering what it would do if we injected it into the brain. So we shot Gina in the chest and then injected the serum into her brain to see if she’d heal when her brain couldn’t react.” He laughed, a near giggle, filled with glee. “We’ve tried it on other wolves of course but it’s not every day we get a Second who’s willing to be experimented on. Well, I suppose willing is an overstatement. My boys did get mad because they had to play with damaged goods but they like blood.”
Tegan couldn’t hold back the retching. Nausea roiled through her but she’d eaten nothing so it only hurt her body even more. She tried to shut down, didn’t want to hear any more of it. Would they do that to her? She could live if she had trouble walking for the rest of her life, but her brain?
* * *
As they edged up to the building Ben doubled over and began to shake.
“What? Ben, is Tegan...tell me!” Lex ordered urgently, his own hands trembling as he whispered.
“She’s so fucking scared. God, let’s go. She’s so afraid now. They’re going to do something to her.”
Maxwell Williams, the Alpha of Great Lakes, shook his head. “We move now.” He gave a hand sign to his wolves and looked to Jack and Lex, who nodded. As a group, they moved into position, took out the guards and with one as a hostage, got into the building.
Megan and Dave destroyed the surveillance cameras as they continued down a long hallway.
Ben scented her, scented Tegan, sickness and blood, smelled her fear and her anguish.
“Don’t rush in there, Ben. Be patient,” Lex warned him. Ben knew that, he’d been on enough of these raids as a cop to know the score but his wolf itched to go and grab his mate.
Suddenly, he heard a shout and they all began to run. Jack kicked open the door and Ben tore his way through three wolves as he rushed straight to a table where Tegan lay, pale and barely conscious.
“Wait, don’t, not that one,” she mumbled as Ben started to snap the neck of the wolf nearest her bed. “He’s been helping.”
“I have. Pellini left using the back door. Be careful, that hall has booby traps!” he called out to Maxwell’s people as they ran to follow Pellini’s retreat.
“I knew you’d come.” She began to cry and Ben didn’t know what to do. His strong warrior woman, his red wolf crying in fear? He locked his knees and leaned over her body.
“You will fix her now or I will kill you,” he growled to the other man.
“I can’t. She’s got silver in her. Pellini used it before he left. It’s killing her. She has to change. I can’t make her wolf answer.”
Nina heard and with a gasp, she ran, shouting Jack’s name. Megan went to her sister’s side as Ben kissed Tegan’s face over and over, murmuring to her.
“Come on, red wolf, come out. I need you to change. I’m a wolf now too. It’s so beautiful and I want to share it with you. Please, don’t you leave me. You can’t. I demand you change right this instant!”
Jack came rushing back and Megan moved so he could get to Tegan on the other side.
“Tegan, I’m going to make your wolf rise. You have to help me. I know it’s painful out here but you’ll be better once you change.” He put
his palm on her heart and the other on her forehead.
She was so pale, sweat poured off her as she began to tremble.
“Silver seizures. She only has a few minutes now. You have to get her to change or she will die.”
“If she dies, you do,” Ben growled, never taking his eyes from her face.
He felt her wolf stir and his pushed at him. He opened himself up to it, if his wolf felt he could help, Ben would let him through. His wolf burst up through his consciousness and stood, looking at her.
Barking over and over, he grabbed her wrist with his teeth and bit, not too hard but to make her notice.
Jack mumbled and Maxwell ran into the room. He moved next to Jack and placed his hands on Tegan as well. Her wolf jerked closer to the surface.
Ben turned and barked at Lex. Lex had to help too. He rushed in with Nina, saw them all and with an anguished cry, he joined them, Nina following suit.
Her life grew dimmer and dimmer until Ben barely felt their connection. He howled then, loud and clear, howled his pain, his anguish, his fury and his passion. He felt it all leave him and fill the air.
The air around her shimmered for a moment and suddenly, a red wolf lay on the table where Tegan’s human form had been. Lex and Jack picked her up and put her next to Ben, who curled around her body protectively, placing his muzzle against her chest, feeling the rise and fall.
After a few minutes, Ben changed back and got dressed in borrowed clothing. They left Tegan in wolf form and went to the Great Lakes compound, a series of buildings on the lake surrounded by woods.
Chapter Seventeen
Tegan slowly recovered in the hours after they’d brought her back to the Great Lakes compound. She’d only changed back to human form a few minutes before and still slept comfortably in the guest suite Maxwell had given them.
Ben hadn’t left her side for hours, first when she was a wolf, her breathing shallow but gradually deeper and more relaxed, and then when she’d changed back to human form. He couldn’t believe she was there and really all right. The fear still coated his mouth, stung his senses.