Wraith looked at her curiously, before asking in a low voice, “You can talk to both of them? In their minds? I have the same gift but haven’t been able to.”

  “I can talk to Griff. I haven’t really tried with Brady.”

  Wraith nodded slowly, before relenting. “Fine, you go with them. Might be best to have a woman on the inside to help bring Avery out. After everything she’s been through, she may not trust a male.”

  I wanted to argue, wanted my mate somewhere safe, but I knew that wasn’t going to happen. It was her sister we were saving, and she wanted to be involved. I didn’t blame her. Not only that, but she was a badass herself. I’d seen her in action and knew she could hold her own.

  “Let’s do this,” Demon said, his hands going to the hem of his shirt to remove it.

  “I think one of you needs to stay in human form,” Rooster put in, from where he was crouched behind an old piece of farm equipment just a few feet from them.

  “I agree. Demon, you fight best in human form, Shadow as his panther. Shadow, shift,” Wraith ordered. “The rest of us will surround the area and pick off these bastards one by one. It looks like most of them are outside, enjoying that nice little bonfire they have going on. Nice place to get rid of the bodies after we’re done.”

  “Agreed,” Demon muttered, his eyes meeting mine. “And, when they start realizing what’s happening, it will pull the rest of them from the house.”

  “Oh, it will take a while for them to catch on,” Big Bry said, with deadly confidence. The bastard was the only shifter I knew with the ability to camouflage himself. He could literally sneak up on anyone, anywhere, without them having a clue he was there until it was too late.

  “Killer, you stick with Bry,” Wraith ordered. “No shifting unless you absolutely have to.”

  “Got it.”

  I didn’t fully know Bry’s story, but something had happened to him years ago that fucked with his mind. Now, it was best if he fought with his fists and not as his leopard, or things could go wrong fast. Killer was the only one who was able to keep Bry’s animal under control, so he stuck to him like glue in situations where blood would be spilled.

  “Shyla, you stay by me or Demon,” I said, quickly removing my cut, then my shirt, and reaching for the button on my jeans as I toed off my boots. When she would have argued, I held up a hand, “I know you are more than capable of taking care of yourself, sweetheart, but my cat is going to feel pulled in two different directions if you aren’t with him. He’s going to want to get to you, when he should be hunting for your sister.”

  Shyla grinned, her hand resting on the butt of her Glock. “Did you forget what my gift is, Shadow? I find things. I can find anything. And, right now, I’m telling you that not only is my sister in the house, but the minute I step through the door, I will know where she is.”

  I wasn’t sure how her gift worked, but if what she was saying was true, then this mission to save her sister may have just gotten a little bit easier.

  “Even though you’ve never met her?” Demon asked.

  “I’ve never met anyone that I’ve needed to find before,” Shyla said with a shrug. “I just get this feeling inside of me, like a beacon leading the way. Right now, it’s lighting up that farmhouse like it’s on fire.”

  I gave her a hard kiss, before yanking my jeans down and throwing them in the pile of clothes I’d already removed. One of the prospects would grab them to take back to the car that was parked close by. With one last look at my woman, I crouched down and shifted, resisting the urge to let out a loud, challenging roar afterwards. The coyotes had stolen my mate’s sister, and my panther was ready to tear them all apart.

  “Make this fast,” Wraith growled, as he began to remove his own clothing. “In and out. Go!”

  I took off, Demon and Shyla right behind me, aware that my brothers were either on the move in human form or shifting if they preferred to fight as their cat. Blocking out the others, I concentrated on the old, dilapidated farmhouse in front of me. It was a large, two-story house that looked as if it were falling apart. There was a barn and a large chicken coop nearby, but I knew my brothers would be scoping them out. I was to focus on the house.

  You ready? I sent the question to both Shyla and Demon at the same time, wondering how it would work with the three of us trying to talk to each other. Hell, I was still struggling to get used to the fact that I even could talk to someone besides my brother this way.

  Ready. Demon replied, stopping behind me as he waited for my direction. Better prepare your mate for what she might find in there, Shad.

  His mate is already prepared, Demon. Let’s get moving. I felt Brady’s amusement through our link, and knew Shyla felt it too, when she said Something funny, little brother?

  There was silence, and then, Not a thing… Sis.

  Not bothering to respond, I began to move forward again, making my way to the back of the house. There was a large wraparound porch that ended in a deck on the back. Most of the coyotes had been using the front door as far as we could tell. It was the one that faced the bonfire. There didn’t seem to be much going on out back, which is why we chose to go in that way.

  Soon, we were up on the porch, and Demon was opening the door as quietly as possible. I slipped inside, Shyla right behind me.

  She’s upstairs, Shyla whispered through our link. I feel her up there.

  Me, too, Demon said, pausing by a doorway that led into the kitchen area. I’m in her mind. And, let me tell ya, she is mad as hell.

  Mad? Not scared? Shyla asked, following me through the kitchen, Demon bringing up the rear.

  Oh, she’s plenty scared, but right now her anger is outweighing her terror. She’s pacing, trying to figure out how to get away. The window is boarded up from the outside. Her door is locked. She’s tried everything.

  Get me up there, Demon, Shyla said. I got this.

  Just as we stepped in the living room, all hell broke loose. Two men strode in through a side door, one we hadn’t seen anyone else use, and froze when they saw us. One pulled a gun, but before he could use it, Demon’s knife slid across his throat. The other one turned to run, shouting loudly for his buddies, but he was too slow. I sprang from behind, my huge front paws hitting his back and slamming him down to the ground. My jaw was wrapped around his neck in a heartbeat, snapping it just before I ripped out his throat. Not that he could have come back from a broken neck, but with shifters, it was better to make sure they were dead than to regret it later.

  After I was sure he wasn’t getting back up, I swung my head around to look for my brother and Shyla. They were waiting for me at the bottom of the stairs, watching the doors for anyone else to come through. I slipped past them and headed up toward the bedrooms, where I was now catching another scent that wasn’t coyote, but it wasn’t an ocelot like my mate, either. What was that? It smelled more avian. An eagle? Owl? I couldn’t quite figure it out.

  She’s in here. Shyla stopped in front of a door at the end of a long hallway. Slipping what looked like a pocketknife from her front pocket, she squatted down in front of the lock and went to work. Within seconds, the door was opening, and we were all three inside the bedroom, shutting it quickly behind us.

  Make this fast, Shyla. We need to get out of here. We can fight better out in the open.

  Shyla placed a hand on the top of my head, her gaze on the young girl who stood across the room glaring at us. “Avery?” she whispered softly, “is that you?”

  The girl didn’t look much like Shyla, except for the dark green eyes that stared at us. Eyes full of hatred and anger. She was filthy, bruises covering her arms and face, and she was fiery mad. “Who are you?”

  Shyla smiled, moving a step closer to her. I growled, low and deep, worried my mate might be in danger. I would protect her from anyone, even a threat from her own sister.

  Shyla stopped, once again touching the top of my head with the tips of her fingertips. I’m okay. Out loud, she said, “I’m Shyla.” When there was no recognition in the girl’s eyes, she said, “Shyla Thomas. Your sister.”

  The girl frowned in confusion, slowly shaking her head. “No, you’re lying. I don’t have a sister.”

  “My mother is Alice Thomas,” Shyla said softly. “Del is… was… my stepfather. He threw me out of the house when I was fourteen.”

  Avery’s eyes narrowed on Shyla, and she shook her head again. “No, my dad wouldn’t do that.”

  Shyla sighed, sinking her fingers more deeply into my fur. “He can, and he did. Sixteen years ago.” When Avery kept shaking her head, Shyla said, “Avery, come on. You’re a shifter. You can scent a lie. Am I lying? Del Thomas married my mother, Alice, when I was two years old. He gave me his last name and treated me as if I was his daughter. Then, when I turned fourteen, he kicked me out of the house, allowing me to take one packed bag with me and the twenty dollars I had to my name.”

  Avery looked at her sister in suspicion, before inhaling deeply. A soft whimper left her lips when she smelled nothing but the truth in the air. “But, why would he do that?”

  “I have no idea,” Shyla answered honestly. “I just figured I’d done something wrong.”

  “Seems kind of funny that he kicked you out sixteen years ago, and your sister here is sixteen,” Demon cut in.

  Another low growl slipped free when I realized my brother was right. How fucked up was that?

  “Look, it doesn’t matter. All that matters, is getting you out of here safely and back home to your parents.”

  “Our parents, it sounds like,” Avery whispered in awe.

  Shyla slowly shook her head, turning toward the door. “They stopped being my parents years ago when they kicked me out, and then refused to take my phone calls over the years, which they obviously got since Mom called me when you went missing. Let’s get out of here.”

  “I didn’t know.”

  I watched Shyla stop and take a deep breath before glancing back to Avery. I could feel her pain and sorrow, and I had a feeling Avery could too, when she whispered, “It’s over and done with. It doesn’t matter.”

  “It matters to me,” Avery whispered.

  “You two can talk about this later,” Demon interrupted, motioning toward the door. “We need to get the hell out of here.”

  He’s right, Mate. We need to go.

  Without another word, Shyla palmed her Glock and left the room, waiting just outside for us to follow. I stared at Avery for a moment longer, before looking over at Demon.

  “I got her,” he said, his eyes on Avery.

  I bumped Shyla’s leg with my head, then moved past her, making my way swiftly down the stairs knowing they were all right behind me. It didn’t take long for us to get out the back door and head out into the quiet of the night. The sounds of the party we’d heard in full swing when we first entered the house were gone, replaced by stillness, except for the crackling of the fire. Large cats began to appear from the dark, all different kinds, from leopards to a huge Bengal tiger. They surrounded us, closing us in and keeping the women safe as we moved across the yard and away from the smell of death.

  10

  SHYLA

  I glanced over at Avery, my heart going out to the young woman. She was huddled next to the door, tearstains on her face, wrapped tightly in a blanket one of the patch members had given her. She hadn’t said a word since we’d left the farmhouse and started toward Phoenix to take her home. Of course, I hadn’t tried to talk to her, either. I was conflicted, unsure what to say or how to feel. She hadn’t known I existed, either. We looked nothing alike, except for our eyes. Eyes we both got from our mother. And, while I didn’t have anything else of my mother’s features, Avery looked just like her. Black hair, green eyes, small, delicate bones. So petite.

  “What kind of shifter is she?” Brady asked quietly from the front seat. I was sitting next to Avery to try and alleviate some of her fears, but I wasn’t sure it was helping. Although, she was sleeping now, so she must trust us somewhat. Unless, she’d just passed out from exhaustion.

  “Some kind of bird,” Griff said, his eyes meeting mine through the rearview mirror. “Right?”

  I bit my lip, looking over at my sister, before nodding. “She’s a falcon. So are my mom and Del. My birth father was an ocelot.”

  “So, she met Del after your mother had you, and he is her fated mate?”

  “Yeah.” Staring out the window next to me, I explained, “My mother told me she went through a time where she hated the life she was living. She packed up and took off, not having a clue where she was going. She ended up in Nashville, where she met my father. He wasn’t her mate, and it didn’t last long. Afterwards, she found out she was pregnant. She tried to raise me and stay in the big city, but it was just too much, so she ended up moving back home. She met Del a year or so later.” Sliding a hand through my hair, I sighed. “Everything was wonderful at first. He seemed to love me like a daughter. He even adopted me. He used to show me how to work on cars and he took me hunting with him. Then, everything just changed. It was almost like it was overnight. He started acting funny around me, and I remember my mom crying a lot. There were some heated discussions, but I never listened to them. I loved my parents and was afraid of what I would hear.”

  My life had been near perfect before Del kicked me out. I was adored, treated like a princess, loved above anything. Not once had I felt as if anything was wrong. Which was why it had been such a surprise when I found myself out on my ass.

  “Dad never said why he made you leave?”

  As Avery’s tentative words reached me, I glanced over at her, shaking my head slowly. “No. I showed up after school one day and my bag was packed. He handed it to me and told me not to come back.”

  “Mom has this little pink blanket,” Avery whispered. “It looks old, and well used. She sits with it sometimes. Just holds it, looking kind of lost. It has an S on it.”

  My breath caught in my throat as I rasped, “It’s mine. She got it for me as a baby. I used to carry it with me everywhere, until I was about seven or eight, I think.”

  “I saw Dad with it one night. He was in front of the fireplace on his knees, like he was praying.” Avery reached up to swipe at the tears that were streaming down her face. “He was sobbing. I’d never heard him cry like that before. I never asked about the blanket, because it made them both so sad. I thought maybe they lost a baby or something. I didn’t know.”

  Del had cried for me? He was the one who sent me away, why would he shed tears afterwards? Slowly, I reached over and covered one of her hands with mine. “It’s okay. How would you have?”

  She was quiet for a moment before she whispered, “You’re really my sister?”

  “Yep.”

  A slow smile crossed her face as she turned her hand over and clasped mine. “Good.”

  I wanted to ask her so many things, but in the end, I just sat there holding her hand until we pulled into our parent’s driveway hours later. The front door opened, and I held my breath when Mom stepped out, Del right behind her. Avery opened the car door and stepped out, crying for her mother and father as she ran to them. I watched for a long moment, before finally crawling across the seat to slam her door shut. “Let’s go.”

  “Don’t you want to say anything to them?” Griff asked, reaching a hand out to me.

  I did, so badly, but one look into my stepfather’s eyes as he glanced over at us was all I needed to realize he didn’t have anything to say to me. There might have been a hint of regret there, but there was still no acceptance. He didn’t want me at his house, didn’t want to see me or talk to me.

  “Do you want to know what he’s thinking?” Brady asked quietly.

  “Brady, stop.”

  “She has a right to know, brother.”

  I looked back over to where my mother held Avery close, her eyes on us now. But, none of them came over to the car. Did I want to know what they were thinking? Deciding it couldn’t be any worse than all of the horrible things I’d already thought of over the years, I whispered, “Yes.”

  Brady caught my gaze with his, a small smile on his lips as he said, “He’s thinking about how much he loves and misses you. That he never should have turned you away, even though his alpha demanded it since you were a cat shifter and not avian. He wishes he would have stood up to his alpha, but if he had, he would have been killed. He still would be, along with the rest of your family.”

  “Your mother is thinking about how much she wants to hold you in her arms right now. She wants to tell you that she loves you, that you will always be her princess,” Griff said quietly.

  My chin trembled as I fought back the sobs that rose up in my throat. “They love me?”

  “So much, sweetheart,” Griff whispered, bringing my hand to his mouth to kiss the back of it. “But there is still the ban on seeing you. If they do, it puts not only them in danger, but also Avery.”

  “Do they have a good life?”

  “Yes, they do,” Brady answered. “The only thing missing is you.”

  Another sob escaped. “But the other falcons, the alpha, they are good to them with me being gone?”

  “Yes,” Griff promised, cupping her cheek and wiping a tear away with his thumb. “Very good.”

  Placing a kiss in the palm of his hand, I sat back. “That’s all I need to know.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes.”

  Griff hesitated, and then put the car in reverse and backed out of the driveway. All the while my eyes stayed on the small family huddled together on the front porch, watching us go. Resting the palm of my hand against the cool glass of the window, I sent them a small smile. I saw my mom take a step toward us, but Del put his arm around her waist, holding her back. Looking out for her, like a good mate should. Now, I understood why everything happened the way it did so long ago. It still hurt, almost more than I could bear, but with it came the realization that my mother and sister were fine, happy even. I needed to let them be.

 

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