Jennifer Ashley - Hard Mated

“If Sean’s on Gavan, isn’t it over?” Myka asked as Connor jumped into the driver’s side of the truck and cranked the ignition. “Tackle Gavan and make him tell you where he hid Jordan.”

“Uncle Liam doesn’t want to do that until we know the cub and Spike’s grandmother are safe.” Connor put the truck in gear and eased it down the dirt road to the bottom of the hill. “Who knows what instructions Gavan gave Nate? Like if Gavan hasn’t checked in by a certain time, do something to Jordan. Or Ella. We can’t risk what Nate might do on his own either.” Connor growled as he swung the truck from dirt road to highway. “I’ve never trusted Nate. He once held me down so Fergus could beat on me. Nate was just enforcing Shifter law—I wouldn’t shut up when Fergus the great leader told me to—but I kind of hold a grudge.”

“How are we going to know how to find Jordan?”

“Uncle Liam is working on that,” Connor said. “Liam wants you to come with us, because Jordan likes you. You can help keep him calm.”

“Poor kid.” Myka hung on as Connor wove through traffic at high speed. “He lost his mom, just found his dad, and now he’s caught in all this.”

“I know. That’s why we need you. To keep him calm so he doesn’t hurt himself.”

Myka wasn’t as optimistic that she could, but at the same time, she was glad Connor had snagged her to go along. She wanted Jordan to be all right, and the heat of her fury made her want to back Nate and Gavan into a corner and tell him what she thought.

Connor drove them to Shiftertown. Liam waited on the front porch of Spike’s house, with Ronan sitting on the porch swing, a bandage across his middle, his face pale in the darkness. His mate, Elizabeth, shared the swing with him, the worry and love on her face plain to see.

“You okay?” Myka asked Ronan as she ran up to the porch.

“I’ve had worse,” Ronan said. “Trust me.” He gave Elizabeth’s hand a pat. “Haven’t I, Lizzie-girl?”

“Yeah, because you’re an idiot.” Elizabeth put her head on his shoulder, moonlight catching on the bright red streaks in her hair.

“Why didn’t any of the neighbors stop Nate running off with them?” Myka demanded. She’d already learned that, in Shiftertown, everyone came outside the minute anything the least bit exciting went down.

“On fight night?” Ronan asked. “Are you kidding? Especially when they got wind that Spike was going to take on Dylan? No one’s here.”

Liam spoke up from the shadows. “Interesting that Gavan wants Spike to best my dad. I bet Spike can. He’s a hell of a fighter. A good way of raising Spike’s status in Shiftertown. Gavan is honing Spike to be his perfect weapon.”

“Spike isn’t a weapon,” Myka snapped. “Or a tracker. He’s a person. A Shifter person. You know what I mean.”

“Aye, lass, I do. And you both were right to kick my teeth in over it. I tend to forget that Spike is more than a thug who used to work for Fergus, my rival.” He stepped into the moonlight, his eyes glinting with Shifter anger. “Now let’s go get Jordan.”

“Where?” Myka thought about the large city of Austin, the bigger spread of San Antonio, and all the scattered towns and countryside in between. “How do we find him?”

“I have a pretty good idea where to start.”

Liam headed for the small pickup Connor had driven here. Myka again got into the passenger seat while Connor climbed over the tailgate to the truck’s empty bed.

Liam started the truck, looking confident, but Myka felt anything but confident. Worry and fear for Jordan, Ella, and Spike poured over her in endless waves.

To distract herself as they pulled away, she asked, “So what happened to your rival? To Fergus? He sounds like a real piece of work.”

Liam shot her a sideways look and a smile, though his blue eyes flickered with remembered pain. “I wiped the floor with him, lass. And then Sean turned him to dust.”

Liam drove south out of town and off the freeway to back highways. These were two-lane roads, on a Saturday night, in a part of Hill Country in which there was not much else to do but drink. Twice Liam had to dive for the side of the road while someone pulled out in the oncoming lane to pass and misjudged the distance.

Myka held on, her blood cold in her veins.

“Hang on,” Liam said. “Almost there.”

He turned off onto a long road that led into blackness. Through the open window, Myka heard the yip of coyotes, smelled dust and grass. They were a long way from the city, which was a distant glow on the horizon behind them.

Liam slowed the truck, turned off the lights, and crept along. Myka heard a soft thump behind them, and realized that Connor had dropped off the back of the truck. She craned her head to look for him, but he disappeared into the darkness.

“Where are we?” she asked, feeling the need to whisper.

“Middle of nowhere. One of Fergus’s human lovers lives out here. He tucked her back here to keep her hidden from his mates.”

“Mates?” Myka repeated in surprise. “Plural? Shifters can have more than one?”

“Fergus wanted to be an old-fashioned version of a clan leader, who technically is allowed to mate-claim as many females as he wants. He can either hand them out to lesser males of the clan, or keep them for himself. Fergus had two mates. Selfish when there weren’t enough females to go around. He always professed to hate anything human, and then it turns out he had a human girlfriend secreted away, the hypocrite. A woman called Hannah. Anyway, apparently only Nate knew where she lived—Fergus never went anywhere without a bodyguard. Nate let slip about her a couple weeks after Fergus died. I think Nate’s been seeing her himself since then, though he’s never said.”

Myka looked around. “And you think Nate took Jordan to her to hide?”

“It’s worth a shot. Another possibility is a cabin where Fergus and the three trackers used to go to hunt and run. It’s more remote, but I’m betting Gavan will think that’s the first place Spike would think of.”

Liam stopped the truck and killed the engine. Around them pulsed the sounds of the night—crickets, frogs, and the coyotes in the distance. Myka shivered. Coyotes usually didn’t bother people, but they did steal cats and dogs, and a small cub like Jordan might be all the same to them.

A house crouched in the darkness about twenty yards ahead on the other side of a ditch. No lights shone in the windows, and all was silent.

Liam opened the door with the faintest click. “I want you to stay here and keep out of sight.” No more charming Irish brogue, just quiet seriousness. “Nate obviously has a gun. Connor and I can sneak up on him, but he might come out the front.”

Myka nodded her understanding. She slid down on the seat, so she could still see but blend into the darkness.

Liam vanished. Myka tried to keep him in her focus, but he walked away into the night and was gone. The faintest rustle of grass told her he was moving toward the house.

Another rustle sounded, not as subtle. Myka saw the grass stir, caught starlight on a moving patch of fur. Connor, slinking along as a lionlike wildcat.

It was hell to sit there and wait, but Myka knew she’d be foolish to rush up to the door and bang on it, much as she wanted to. If Nate was in there, he’d either answer the door ready to shoot, or have his girlfriend hustle Jordan and Ella out the back, or both.

Myka clenched her hands. She imagined Liam and Connor circling the house, slinking low like lions stalking prey on the veldt. They’d make it to the house . . . and then what?

Would Liam sneak inside, grab Jordan, and run? Maybe have Nate shoot him in the back for his pains? And what if the bullet missed Liam and hit Jordan or Connor?