Cassidy snarled and lunged. She felt the shackles give. And then her Collar went off, and again the escalating pain swept her body.
She slammed her eyes closed and fought off the pain one breath at a time. When she could speak, she said, “What did you do to me?”
“Wired your Collar to a Taser,” Reid answered in calm voice. “When it goes off, it triggers the Taser and sends a shock along the chains.”
Goddess, help her. “Do you get off torturing Shifters? Does it get you high?”
“No.” Reid sounded, if anything, anguished. “I hate it.”
“Oh, that’s nice. Then why are you doing it?”
“I need you to bleed out without fighting me. It’s nothing personal.”
Cassidy jerked upward instinctively, then gritted her teeth and sank down before her Collar could go off again. “Well, it’s personal to me.”
“I know. I’m sorry. But you’re Shifter.”
“And to you Shifters are animals. Bred to do your fighting and hunting so you don’t get your hands dirty.”
Reid’s eyes flashed in indignation. “I didn’t breed you. My people didn’t. That was the hoch alfar, the full-of-themselves bastards. Playing with nature to prove they could. I am glad the Shifters broke from them and made them pay the price.” His anger and derision rang true.
Cassidy stared at him in confusion. “Your people? What do you mean, your people?”
“The dokk alfar.”
“I have no idea what that means.”
“You wouldn’t.”
“Enlighten me,” she said.
“There isn’t time. I have to kill you, Cassidy. I’m sorry, but it’s the only way.”
“Like you killed my mate?”
Cassidy drew another breath as her Collar started to tingle, tried to calm herself into the mode she assumed as second in command to Eric.
“Tell me,” she said, in the most composed voice she could manage. “Tell me why you’re doing this, if you hate it.”
Reid sounded less derisive, more broken. “They threw me out of Faerie, the hoch alfar. Your blood, I told you, Shifter blood, will send me back there. Nothing else will. I’m sorry.”
He lifted a long iron-bladed knife that glittered in the candlelight and touched it to Cassidy’s stomach.
Eric, Jace, and Shane were already parked on the dirt road halfway up the mountain when Diego and Xav arrived in Xav’s F-250. Diego knew without Eric mentioning it that all his trackers had already fanned out, covering the hills around the rock outcropping where the sharpshooter had pinned them down the other night.
“He’s in there,” Eric said without greeting them. “I smell him. How did you know Reid would bring her here?”
“Because he was so f**ked-up eager to grab her here when she came the last time.” Diego started taking weapons out of the truck. Besides his Sig, he holstered a Taser, and so did Xav. “Plus this was where Donovan was killed, and Reid was involved. There’s something special about this place for him.”
Eric nodded. “I thought that too.”
While they spoke, Xavier hiked a little away from them and started unloading his backpack.
“What’s he doing?” Shane asked.
“He’s going to create a diversion,” Diego said. “Reid won’t abandon his fortress unless he has to. But we’ll flush him out. When we do, you, Eric, and your guys grab him while I go in and get Cassidy. Even if we only scare him into vanishing, we still get Cassidy.”
Rescuing Cassidy was the main objective, at least in Diego’s mind. Finding Reid and stopping him, secondary.
“I’m going in there with you,” Shane said. He stood in front of Diego, big arms folded. The guy was huge.
Shane also loved Cassidy. Diego saw that. But he loved her enough to take her rejection and still make sure she was safe and happy.
“Yeah, that would be good,” Diego said. “We save Cassidy.”
Shane nodded silently but didn’t move.
Eric squeezed Diego’s shoulder, his big hand strong. “I appreciate your help, Diego. I’ll put my trackers in position. We’ll be ready.”
Diego still blamed Eric’s stupid trackers for Cassidy getting nabbed in the first place, but they could battle that out later. Right now—Cass.
Find her, take her home, hold her, love her. Never let her go.
Diego touched his earpiece. “Xav. You ready?”
“Almost there.”
Eric silently stripped down. Diego averted his eyes, but the sight of grown men suddenly removing their clothes no longer startled him. Shane stripped too, the guy so massive he’d make the most powerful wrestlers burn with envy.
Both men shifted at about the same time. Shane was close to Diego, and suddenly the space next to Diego was filled with grizzly.
Shane’s bear lips rippled as he growled, and he fixed a black-eyed stare on Diego. Dios, the man was scary, even with the Collar gripping his big neck. Shifter bears were larger than their natural counterparts, which meant Shane was gigantic. Any hikers meeting him in the woods would run away, peeing themselves.
Eric, in his wildcat form, let Diego fix an earpiece to his tufted ear. Eric wouldn’t be able to talk back, but at least Diego could keep him informed of what was going on. Eric didn’t look happy about the procedure, but he put up with it and slipped into the woods.
Xav jogged back to them soon after Eric disappeared. “Small charges, but they’ll make a lot of noise.” He stopped and stared at Shane. “Holy shit.”
Shane glowered right back at him. Xav drew a deep breath. “Remind me never to piss you off, Shane.”
Shane gave a grunt that might or might not have been a laugh, and turned away. He padded toward the rocks, with Diego and Xavier following noiselessly. They stopped on Diego’s command and crept toward the rock cave under the shadows of the closest trees.
“Eric,” Diego whispered. “We’re in place.”
A faint growl sounded through Diego’s earpiece, Eric’s answer. Diego and Xav positioned themselves on either side of the rock entrance with Shane in the shadows. Diego prayed to any saint willing to listen that this was going to work, then he drew a deep breath.
“Now,” he said to Xavier.
Xav pressed his detonator. Something flashed, then boomed in the middle of the clearing. The sound jolted Diego, and the wildlife took off. Wings fluttered and brush exploded as rabbits, birds, and deer fled the sound.