Abandoned and Unseen (Branded Packs #2)(68)

Grant gave a hesitant nod. “I suppose that’s true.”

Sinclair swiftly tried to press his advantage. “Doc can dispose of the shifter while I make sure that Viker disappears.”

Of course, Grant couldn’t simply agree.

That would be too easy.

“No,” the head of security abruptly muttered, digging in his heels. “Tucker can get rid of the wolf. You go find the guards and help them bury the human someplace it can’t be found,” he commanded Sinclair. “I’m putting Viker in the pens just in case someone in authority gets wind of this mess. We’ll need a patsy to pay for this shit.”

Sinclair frowned. “But-”

“Go,” Grant snapped, his nerves clearly rubbed raw.

Tucker didn’t hesitate. He understood the worth of having Viker in their hands to reveal the truth of the SAU, but right now, all he cared about was getting his mate out of the facility.

Scooping Nicole into his arms, Tucker rose to his feet, careful to pretend to stagger beneath her weight. Then, making a straight path to the door, he headed toward the waiting elevator. Less than ten minutes later, they were in the underground parking lot.

Striding to where they’d left his SUV out of sight of the security cameras, he opened the passenger door and laid Nicole across the seat. Then, making sure his body blocked any curious passersby, he reached out to run his fingers through her tawny fur.

“Are you okay?” he demanded in low tones.

There was a swirl of magic as Nicole painfully changed back to her human form, her hair tangled and her eyes still haunted as she rubbed the large bruises that marred the side of her torso.

“Those bullets hurt,” she groused, allowing him to wrap his lab coat around her naked body. “Couldn’t you have found a less painful way to get me out?”

Neither of them jumped when Sinclair appeared to stand next to Tucker, his lean face unrepentant.

“Not if you want to be with your mate,” he drawled.

Nicole stilled, a fragile flare of hope shimmering to life in her hazel eyes.

“What are you talking about?”

Sinclair leaned against the car door. “As of now, Nicole Bradley is officially dead. At least as far as the SAU is concerned.”

Her lips parted, her gaze moving to Tucker in dazed understanding.

“Dead,” she breathed in wonderment.

Sinclair sent her a wicked smile. “Don’t worry, I’ll contact Holden to let him know you’re now a part of the Unseen Pack.”





Chapter 10


Tucker reached out to gently smooth the hair from Nicole’s flushed cheek, his heart squeezing with a love that threatened to overwhelm him.

“We’ll need to keep a low profile. I think it would be best if we go visit my mother for a few weeks,” he murmured, barely daring to breathe until she gave a slow nod of her head.

It was one thing to make plans that included this female as his mate; it was another to actually wait for her to accept that they belonged together.

“Yes,” she agreed with a tentative smile.

“Okay.” Sinclair slapped him on the back, knowing just how earth-shattering the moment had been. “I’ll come up with a cover story for your absence with the SAU.”

Leaning down to brush a tender kiss over her forehead, Tucker turned his head to glance at his friend.

“What about you?”

Sinclair wrinkled his nose. “First I need to contact the guards and tell them to return the body to the house.”

“I’ve been wondering about that,” Nicole abruptly said, her gaze ricocheting between the two males. “What body are you talking about?”

“You don’t want to know,” Tucker assured her.

He wasn’t sure everyone would understand Sinclair’s decision to steal an unclaimed body from the local morgue to leave in Viker’s house.

“Hey, I’ll have it taken back to the morgue,” Sinclair said with a shrug. “No harm, no foul.”

Tucker easily dismissed the iffy morality of their decision. As far as he was concerned, nothing mattered but rescuing Nicole.

“Then what?”

“I-”

Sinclair snapped off his words as all three of them caught the scent of a human sneaking through the gloom that had gathered at the end of the parking lot.

Viker.

Obviously the idiot had realized there wasn’t going to be any free trips to Vegas.

Tucker stepped away from the vehicle, his ears ringing and his mind clouding with a red mist of fury.

Almost as if sensing that predators were watching him, Viker slowly turned, his face paling at the sight of Tucker prowling forward.

“You.” Viker stumbled backward. “You’re alive.”

Tucker growled low in his throat, lunging forward.

“Shit,” a male voice said from behind him. “Tucker, no.”

Tucker was nearly on top of Viker when Sinclair leaped in front of him.

“Stop,” he commanded, in full Alpha-mode.

Tucker skidded to a halt, his fangs elongated as he snarled in frustration.

Sinclair held up his hand. “Yeah, I get you want to taste his blood, but we can use him,” he tried to soothe. “You can eat him later.”

Viker was pressed against a cement pillar, his eyes wide with shock as his gaze flitted from Tucker’s elongated fangs to Sinclair’s eyes that glowed with the power of his wolf.