Black Moon (Alpha Pack #3)(75)
Yes, that's what he wanted . . . No, it wasn't! He loved and respected Nick, all of these men. God, his head hurt.
His mate. He needed Mackenzie.
"Where's my mate? Where's Mackenzie?" he asked. God, he was so confused. And now he was getting scared, because Nick had raised the rifle to his shoulder. Kalen was looking down the scope.
Aric stared at his boss in horror. "Nick, you can't. Don't you hear him? If he's asking for his mate, he's still in there somewhere."
From somewhere out of Kalen's line of sight, footsteps sounded, coming fast up the hallway. "No!" Mac screamed. Running up to Nick, she hung on to his arm. "You said forty-eight hours! You can't do this! Melina can give him the sedative!"
And then it happened. Nick whirled and grabbed her arm, and Kalen's vision went crimson.
Mate. The man was touching his mate. Grabbing her and pushing her back as she cried. The cries went straight to his soul, and the light surged. Twined with the dark and exploded outward in a hurricane of power that he gathered and used to snap the silver chains binding his wrists.
Flinging them aside, he gripped the bars and gave a mighty pull, every muscle in his body straining. The entire structure ripped from the stone walls and he tossed it aside just as Nick stumbled backward and opened fire.
The bullet punched his shoulder and he roared in agony. His mate screamed again as Kalen fell back against the ruined wall, clutching the wound. In that moment, their gazes met and he saw her terror, felt it through their bond . . . and the truth nearly sent him to his knees. She was afraid for him. And of him. Her pain was all his fault. He had to leave.
"I'm sorry," he rasped. Regret almost felled him.
Summoning his magic, he countered the cell's damaged fortifications and vanished. Transported himself far into the Shoshone and reappeared in a place he recognized. It was the spot where he and Mackenzie had made love, so long ago it seemed. He tried to draw comfort from their place, but there was mostly debilitating grief. He'd lost her.
Lost himself, too.
His wound throbbed and he staggered, weakened by blood loss. Perhaps there was a way to heal. He shifted into his panther and collapsed under a tree, panting. He listened to the sounds of the night returning. Crickets and strange bird calls. Somewhere, the lone howl of a wolf that was a permanent resident of the forest, not Pack.
Maybe he should've let Nick eliminate him, but the last shred of humanity in him insisted that he would never have hurt anyone on his own, especially Mackenzie. There was still good inside him.
Which would be damned near impossible to prove now that he was a fugitive Sorcerer with a kill order on his head and rage burning in his almost-black heart.
* * *
Mac stood shaking, staring at the spot where Kalen had been seconds before. There was blood on the wall where he'd rested his back against it, the shot having gone through his shoulder.
"You shot my mate," she hissed, rounding on Nick.
The rest of the Pack, along with Sariel, surrounded them now, kicking through the rubble and taking in the nasty scene before them.
"You shot my brother?" the Fae asked in disbelief, appalled. One by one, every man in the Pack turned to the prince and someone whistled. Apparently not everyone had gotten that memo.
"He was about to f**king murder us all!" the commander shouted.
"He didn't go nuts and bust out until you grabbed my arm, Nick! Come on. You know it's not smart to touch a man's mate when he's in his right mind, much less when he's struggling like Kalen is!"
"You're so certain he's actually fighting to regain himself? Are you willing to bet all our lives on that?"
"Yes!"
Nick heaved several breaths, making a visible effort to calm down. "We'll find him, or more likely he'll find us. You are not to go looking for him. Is that clear?"
"Nick, that's not-"
"Is that f**king clear, Doctor?"
"Yes, sir," she seethed. Turning on her heel, she ignored her dad and everyone else and marched toward her quarters. Once there, she paced and swore until she thought she'd go as crazy as Kalen had. What the hell was she supposed to do now? Just sit here like a good little mate and wait for the big, bad wolves to make it all better?
Well, they'd probably just end up making it worse. Leave a man in charge and it was bound to get worse before it got better.
"Is that clear?" she mocked. "Well, yes, and in fact it sucks. So f**k that."
In her bedroom, she toed off her work shoes; they were flats with cushy soles, but not made for a walk in the woods. Then she stripped out of her black slacks and blouse, which weren't hiking material, either.
From her closet she fetched dark jeans and a T-shirt, as well as her best hiking boots with thick, well-treaded soles, and carried them to the bed. In five minutes she was dressed, had retrieved the flashlight she kept in the nightstand for power outages, and slipped into the corridor.
Luck was on her side as she hurried to the end and through the rec room. That way was the easiest exit without being seen by those inside, who were on the other side of the compound. But she stood outside, gazing at the path leading into the woods, and shivered. Traipsing through the unforgiving Shoshone in the dead of night wasn't the wisest course of action. It wasn't like the compound was situated in a f**king YMCA camp.