Echoes of Fire (The Mercury Pack #4)(77)
“Maybe. She’s still not answering her cell,” said Zander, glaring at his phone. “Makenna’s not answering hers either.” The enforcer had been trying to get in touch with both females for a while. Makenna had answered the first call, heard that Madisyn’s car had been hijacked, and hung up before Zander could say anything else.
“Okay, according to Jesse, she has to be somewhere here,” Derren said, straining to see out the window. A good ten seconds later, Derren stiffened. “There! I see Makenna’s car up ahead on the shoulder! Madisyn’s car is parked in front of it and . . . Shit.”
“What?” Bracken gritted out, heart pounding, as he sharply pulled onto the turnout and slammed his foot on the pedal.
And then he saw . . .
“Fuck.”
He brought his foot down hard on the brake, bringing the SUV to a screeching stop behind Makenna’s car.
“Okay, well, I did not expect to see that,” said Zander as they piled out of the SUV.
A well-built male was sprawled on the road, dark clothes torn and bloody, fruitlessly trying to fend off a hissing, spitting ball of madness while a she-wolf had a good grip on his neck. That dominant hold warned the male that just one wrong fucking move would be his last. God knew how long the females had had him pinned like that. Either they didn’t intend to kill him, or they were toying with their prey first. It was the human equivalent of one person holding someone down while their friend smacked the shit out of them.
Bracken’s claws sliced out at the sight of blood on his mate’s flank. Her blood? The male’s? Both? Didn’t matter. The male would die anyway. And he wouldn’t die easy.
His wolf lunged, wanting at the bastard. Said bastard was currently staring at the newcomers, wide-eyed, face covered in deep scratches and bite marks. And when those eyes landed on Bracken, the male swallowed hard.
“We need to get out of here,” said Derren, flicking a glance at the three human onlookers who Zander was chasing off—one of whom had been trying to record the incident with his phone but thankfully couldn’t see much from his position behind the car. “It’s unlikely, but they could have called the police, and I’m not in the mood to deal with that shit.” Most of the time, humans didn’t bother to contact the police in such situations—shifter business was quite simply shifter business—but it happened.
“We’ll deal with the male,” Nick said to Bracken. “You get to Madisyn.”
His wolf stilled, hackles rising. Bracken went to argue, eager to put his hands on the motherfucker who’d targeted his mate.
“You’re the only one she’ll listen to,” Nick went on. “And you may have noticed she has bloodstains on her fur. We need to be sure she’s not badly hurt.”
Those words got to Bracken when nothing else would have. Her kind had thick hides, which made them hard to seriously wound, but it was not impossible.
Locking his back teeth as he fought the urge to tear into the son of a bitch on the ground, Bracken took a few steps toward his mate, growling when he scented not only her blood but the goddamn hyena’s. Bracken guessed the only reason the male hadn’t shifted was that Makenna’s wolf had hold of his throat.
The little cat’s head whipped around to look at him, her eyes fevered, teeth bared.
“Come here, crazy girl,” he coaxed, trying but failing to sound gentle.
Ears flattening, she snarled at him, much the same as she had earlier when she’d warned him away from the dead vole.
“I know he’s your prize. I don’t want him, but I need to check your wounds.” That only got him a doglike growl. “Come on, Madisyn. Help me calm her. I need to check that you’re both okay, or I’m going to lose my shit.”
After a little more hissing and spitting and one last swipe of her claws across the hyena’s chest, the cat sat back on her haunches. Eyes locked on Bracken, she licked at her bloody paw. He could just make out rake wounds on her flank, and his wolf peeled back his upper lip in a snarl that promised retribution.
Bracken cautiously crossed to her. “Come here, gorgeous.” Mindful of her wounds, he carefully scooped her up. It was hard to tell through all that fur, but her injuries didn’t appear to be deep or serious. Relief probably would have felled him if his deeper emotions weren’t so firmly buried beneath the ice-cold rage.
Derren and Zander quickly subdued the hyena, who didn’t say a single word.
“I can heal the cat before you go.” Ally stepped forward.
Stiffening in his arms, the cat hissed at the Beta female.
“You’ll need to wait until she shifts back to human.” Bracken cut his gaze to Nick. “I’ll drive back to our territory in Madisyn’s car. We can’t leave it here.” He flicked a look at the hyena. “Nobody questions him, Nick. I want at him first,” Bracken stated, tone so arctic that he wouldn’t have been surprised if his breath fogged the air.
Nick gave a brief slant of the head. “We’ll put him in the shed. You concentrate on your mate.”
“Want me to ride with you?” asked Ally, biting her lip, clearly concerned for Madisyn.
Bracken shook his head. “The cat won’t want any of you around her while she’s injured.” With one last chilly glance at the hyena, Bracken slid into the driver’s seat and carefully settled the little cat on the passenger seat beside him. She lay down, tucking her tail around her. A good sign. It would be better if she wasn’t still growling.