Stolen and Forgiven (Branded Packs #1)(60)

“You find him,” Soren corrected. He’d been rational long enough. His wolf wasn’t going to remain leashed. Not when Cora needed him. “I’m going to get my mate.”

Holden reached out to grasp his arm. “Soren.”

Soren jerked free of his Alpha’s grasp. “Don’t try to stop me.”

Holden grimaced, sensing Soren’s feral need to be on the hunt.

“Just don’t do anything stupid,” he ordered. “I’ll work with Jonah to try and get her back without violence.”

Soren peeled back his lips to flash his fangs. “Do what you have to do, but I’m not waiting.”

Turning on his heel, he ran toward the nearby fence, easily climbing over it and leaping to the other side. Then, halting in the shadows of the trees, he slowly shifted into his wolf.

Agony blasted through him at transforming so soon after his last shift, but he needed his animal’s superior senses to track the intruders.

Once he was fully shifted, he gave a pained howl then lowering his head, he went on the hunt.

****

Dr. Frank Talbot paced his office.

What the hell was taking so long?

He’d requested an update from the guards the moment they’d returned to the SAU headquarters. That had been—he cast an impatient glance at the Rolex that was strapped to his wrist—two hours ago.

How long did it take to toss one unconscious female in a cell and lock the door?

Dammit.

He needed to get in and see the shifter before the Director arrived.

Not only would he have a difficult time trying to explain what he was doing there at such a late hour, but there would be no way he could be left alone with the female long enough to take the samples he wanted.

His hands clenched as he turned to pace back across the large office.

He’d assumed that once he became the head of the research department, he’d be given far greater freedom in the laboratory. After all, he was in charge. But instead, he’d found that he was watched closer than ever.

Almost as if Markham suspected that he was hoping to use the blood samples and various specimens to create his very own shifter virus.

Interfering pain in the ass…

Tonight, however, Frank wasn’t going to be denied what he needed.

The female wasn’t just another shifter. She was the daughter of an Alpha. There was no way he was missing the opportunity to discover if her blood was different.

After all, they didn’t know if the Alpha gained the ability to change a human to a shifter after he assumed his role as leader of the Pack. Or if he became leader of his Pack because he could change humans into shifters.

And if his blood were special, wouldn’t that mean his daughter would be equally unique? Maybe even capable of producing the same DNA-altering elements in her saliva.

He fully intended to have his answers before they traded her away for her father.

Reaching for the phone to make yet another call to the head of security, he was halted when the door to his office was shoved open and a man dressed in camouflage pants and a tight t-shirt stepped into view.

Speak of the devil.

He glared at the middle-aged man with a broad face and buzzed hair. Richard Grant was a rigid, by-the-book ex-military paratrooper who had the personality of a turnip.

Frank stepped forward, assuming an expression of authority that he’d practiced in the mirror.

“You have her?”

“Yes.”

“Any trouble?”

Grant shrugged, folding his arms over his thick chest. “Not after she was tranquilized. Halak got too close before she was under.”

Frank arched a brow. “Dead?”

“No, but he’s missing an ear,” the man said, his voice revealing a lack of concern that was shared by Frank.

The soldiers who did the grunt work for the SAU were nothing more than tools to be used and discarded when they were no longer of value.

As far as Frank was concerned, only the science mattered.

“The female was unhurt?” he asked.

Grant gave another shrug, his resemblance to a turnip more noticeable than usual.

“As far as I can tell,” the older man said.

Frank reached for the leather medical bag that he’d strategically placed on his desk.

“Perhaps I should examine her,” he said, moving toward the door. “Have her taken to my lab.”

“No.”

Coming to a halt, Frank turned back toward his companion. “Excuse me?”

The man met Frank’s glare with a flat gaze. Did he ever blink?

“My orders were to have her placed in a cell with a guard in front of her door 24/7.”

Shit. That’s what Frank had feared. And why he was determined to get her into his lab.

“She’ll do us no good if she dies before we can get our hands on her father,” he snapped.

Grant snorted, his face hard with disdain. “It will take more than a tumble from a tree to kill one of those animals.”

“I still need to-”

“If you want the female in your lab, then you need to talk with Director Markham,” Grant rudely interrupted, clearly assuming the gun on his hip gave him some sort of power.

Like every other petty bully, Frank told himself.

When he ruled the world, a man would be judged on the size of his brain, not size of his muscles.