Gifted with Hydrangea Read online

  Chapter Nine

  Ryker was sitting in the passenger seat on their way back to the house with Neto when he felt his beloved’s pain and alarm. He tried screaming for his mate through their link when Rudo started to fade away.

  “What is it, Rye? What’s wrong?” Neto asked, as he glanced worriedly over at him from behind the wheel of their newly rented car.

  “Something’s wrong with Rudo. I felt his pain, and now nothing. I can’t contact him.” Ryker began to tear up.

  Neto reached a hand over and grabbed one of his. “Hey, calm down. He’s probably just out cold, or you would have felt your soul-tie snap. When he comes around, you’re going to need to feed him calm and confidence.”

  As they drew closer to his mate’s property, Ryker could see black smoke, a lot of black smoke, billowing up into the sky from the direction of the farm.

  “Neto, look! That’s a lot of smoke. Something’s on fire. Hurry!”

  “Call the fire department,” Neto ordered as he sped their vehicle up.

  Ryker frantically dialed 911. As they approached the house, Ryker saw both the shop and the house were on fire. As soon as an operator answered, he didn’t wait for the operator to finish before he yelled into the phone for fire trucks, then blurted out the address just as Neto stopped their vehicle not too near the inferno. Ryker disconnected the call, leapt out of the car, and began running to the house.

  “Ryker, no! Wait!” Neto yelled from behind him.

  Neto grabbed him right before he was able to run into the house and pulled him back. Ryker screamed and tried to fight him off.

  “You can’t go in there!” Neto shouted as he continued pulling Ryker back.

  Just then, the roof started to fall in. Sirens surrounded them, and firemen swarmed the property. Ryker lost his strength and fell to his knees, sobbing. He watched the firemen hook up their hoses, and began dousing the flames, but the building was a total loss, and Ryker didn’t think anyone could have lived through that.

  “Get a hold of yourself, Ryker.” Neto grabbed his upper arms and shook him. He spoke in a low enough voice so no one could hear them. “Can you still feel your bond? Focus on it. Is it still there?”

  Desperate for hope, Ryker closed his eyes and tried to find the link that bound him to his beloved. There, is that it? Yes, he’s still alive!

  “So he’s still alive?” Neto asked.

  Ryker nodded his head. Both men looked up when they spotted the sheriff’s vehicle approaching. Neto helped Ryker to his feet. He tried to wiping his tears away with his sleeve.

  Sheriff Grant had the look of sincere concern as he approached. “We got several calls in about the smoke and flames that could be seen from the road and neighboring homes. What happened?”

  Fortunately, Neto answered for him. “We’re not sure exactly. It was in flames when we got here.”

  “Do you know if your friends were inside?” the sheriff asked.

  “We aren’t sure,” Neto responded.

  The sheriff nodded his head and turned to look at the burning buildings. “I got that warrant, and we searched his place. We found a few pieces of the furniture, including the bed, but we didn’t find any of the equipment. However, we searched Mr. Branch’s office, and we found some paperwork I think you should look over. I’ll understand if you don’t wish to right now, but when you get a chance, I have it down at the station.”

  “Thank you, sheriff.” Ryker’s voice felt scratchy and sounded shaky to his own ears.

  The sheriff looked around before leaning closer. He talked in a lower voice. “Just so you know, it was a good thing I found the papers, and not anyone else.”

  Ryker watched in confusion as the sheriff walked away and sought out the captain of the firefighters.

  “What do you suppose that’s about?” Neto asked.

  Ryker tilted his head. “I wonder if he knows about shifters, and found some evidence.”

  “Since it’s the alpha’s house, it sounds about right. But how much does the sheriff know, and why would he think to trust us with it?”

  Ryker looked up at Neto. “I want to know why the stupid alpha trusted human law enforcement. Alphas and coven leaders in general, keep their distance for this very reason.”

  Neto placed a hand on Ryker’s shoulder. “Be careful. If he does know about shifters, he could be the one selling them to the scientists. Maybe you should go sit in the car. You should call Alphy. If you don’t have any objections, I want to search the perimeter to see if I can find anything that can tell us what happened here.”

  Ryker nodded. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

  Ryker sat in the passenger seat of the car they had just rented and closed the door. He felt slightly relieved when the sounds of the chaos muted. After dialing Alphy’s number, he put the phone to his ear, and watched the firemen work as he waited for his longtime friend to answer.

  Alphy’s cheerful voice greeted him. “Glad to hear from you, Rye. How’s the move going?”

  Ryker began getting choked up, so he coughed to clear his throat before answering.

  “Uh, Alphy, not so good.”

  “Ryker, what’s wrong?” Alphy’s voice turned serious and was tight with concern.

  It was just like Alphy to care. He wasn’t just an alpha. He was a close friend, or even more, family. Ryker couldn’t hold back a sob.

  “Alphy, I think someone took Rudo and Gavin. I hope they have Gavin, because if not, he could be dead in one of the buildings that are now on fire.”

  “Whoa, hold on, back up, Rye. Start from the beginning.”

  Ryker launched into everything that had happened, clear up to the cryptic comment from the sheriff.

  “Neto’s looking around to see if he can find any clues,” Ryker finished.

  “Ok, little buddy, I’m flying down there, and I’m bringing a team. You stay close to Neto. I want you safe. Use your mad skills to find anything you can on that alpha. The corrupt alphas are getting paid for the shifters they give them. Go with that age-old saying: follow the money. Keep me informed with what you find, and continue to listen to your link with your beloved. When he reaches out to you, he can help lead us to him. Let him know a lot of help is on its way.”

  Ryker was crying again. He sniffed and tried to wipe his nose with his hand, then wiped his hand on his pants.

  “Thank you, Alphy.”

  After Ryker hung up with Alphy, he hunted Neto down, and repeated what Alphy had told him.

  “All right then,” Neto said. “How about we head to the sheriff’s office to check out that paperwork? After that, we can head to our hotel to wait for Alphy there. I’ll drive the truck, and you can drive the car.”

  “Okay. Did you find anything during your search?”

  “No, and I already told the sheriff that I didn’t find anything. He agrees with me that I think that’s why the fires were set, to destroy any evidence that was left behind. I can’t even smell anything over the smoke from the fire.”

  Ryker followed behind the sheriff, and Neto went behind him, in the truck. They pulled up outside the sheriff’s station. The sheriff led them inside and into his office. He closed the door behind them and offered them a seat.

  Sheriff Grant walked around the desk and sat down, and looked at them for a moment. “My sister got mated last year,” he said.

  Ryker raised a brow, and he had to concentrate hard to feign indifference. Both he and Neto remained silent. The sheriff sighed. Reaching down, he pulled out a drawer. He placed some files on the desk and nodded toward them.

  “These are the files on everyone in the alpha’s herd. Now I didn’t know if you knew about their kind at first, but after watching you guys, like your subtle mannerisms, I’m willing to take a risk. Regarding your reaction to the fire, is Mr. Sarr your mate?”

  Ryker still didn’t answer. After a few moments, the sheriff sat back in his chair. “Look, I know how far you guys go to keep this a secret, and I know you’re worried about your two f
riends, and I swear to you I will do everything in my power to get them back, but I need to talk about what’s going on, and I need you to know you can trust me with this.”

  The sheriff turned around a framed picture that sat on his desk, to show them. It was a lovely outdoor country style wedding picture, with the couple in their wedding attire. The couple smiled in the picture, looking as happy as they should be on a wedding day.

  The sheriff pointed to the woman, who, Ryker noticed, resembled the sheriff. “My sister is all the family I’ve got. She wanted me to know about her mate because she knew she was going to outlive me, by a lot. She didn’t want to fake her death and watch me grieve for her. She wanted to have the rest of my lifespan to stay a family. She wants her young to grow up knowing me. I promised to keep it a secret, and I have. I don’t want to do anything that would endanger her.”

  The sheriff turned the picture back around. His look darkened. “I don’t know how, or when, but that son-of-a-bitch alpha that I arrested a few hours earlier, somehow figured out that I knew about shifters. He tried to threaten my sister and her mate if I didn’t arrest you. I don’t like to be threatened. And as everyone knows, if you give into a bully, they will always have a hold of you. I don’t like to be forced to do anything I find is morally wrong, and someone willing to commit that kind of blackmail, usually means they have worse crimes they are trying to hide. So I wasn’t about to bow to his wishes. I called my sister and her mate and warned them. I’m glad I did. I found out a few things about him.”

  The sheriff stopped talking and looked at both of us. Ryker’s curiosity and drive to bring down the alpha pushed him to ask, “What things?”

  The sheriff relaxed and leaned back in his chair. “My brother-in-law runs their local police force, and he has connections. He says he’s heard of some illegal, high risk gambling organization that’s starting to crop up in the shifter community. The council has been made aware, and is supposedly investigating it, but he hasn’t seen anything done as of yet. But when he checked out Mr. Branch, he learned that a few months back, Mr. Branch lost a fair amount of money and didn’t have the money to cover his losses. Until a few days later, when miraculously he did. When I looked at the paperwork we obtained from Mr. Branch’s home office, it shows a large deposit was made from some corporation.”

  The sheriff handed him a paper that was on the top of the stack in front of him. Ryker took it and looked down at it. Ryker knew the date when Rudo was abducted, and on the paper he now held, was a receipt dated the day after his abduction.

  “Phenocorps,” he hissed the name out loud as he read it with distaste.

  “You know of it?” the sheriff asked.

  Ryker looked over at Neto first, and with a nod from him, he answered the sheriff. “Yes. They’ve been abducting shifters.” Ryker looked over at the sheriff. “One of them escaped recently, and found her way to our pack. We raided it and…” Ryker’s emotions were already fragile, so he paused to get control over them as he struggled with the memory of what he learned from the survivors.

  Neto finished answering for him. “They tortured, abused, and killed many shifters, all in deplorable conditions, and all in the name of science.”

  The sheriff’s face turned sour. He stood up abruptly and started pacing. “So let me get this straight. His own alpha sold him out to them?”

  Ryker’s lower lip quivered. “Yes, we believe so, and we think he just might have done it again, just now,” he said in a shaky voice.

  Neto leaned back in his chair. “We’ve been trying to find other branches of their company so we can raid them. We have reason to believe they have more being held elsewhere,” he added.

  “Fuck! What kind of alpha would do that?” The sheriff stopped, and held up his hand. “Wait, don’t answer that. I knew this alpha was an asshole, but I didn’t know he was this big of a piece of shit. But what bothers me is he’s still in my jail cell. Which means I can’t prove he had any part in this most recent event. Either he didn’t have a part in it this time, or he’s not working alone.”

  ****

  Rudo felt like he was looking through a thick fog. His thoughts were muddled, and his body hurt. A strong, fetid smell burned his nose. It smelt like excrement and curdled blood. Memories of being in a cage with his own filth flooded back, along with thoughts of the brutal experiments and other tortures that he faced daily. At first, he thought he was still there, and that the last week was only a dream, but then, in the back of his aching head, he heard and felt his mate’s call for him.

  “Come on, Rudo. I love you. Please come back to me.”

  “Ryker?” he mumbled in his mind.

  “Rudo! Please, my love, tell me where you are. I’ve been worried sick about you.”

  Rudo tried to open his eyes, but they were still a little bit too heavy. “Can’t,” he said. “Too groggy.”

  “You need to try, my sexy lover. You’ve been gone for over twelve hours.”

  Even though Ryker’s voice was in his head, it was clearly full of pain and worry. That made his rhino growl. That is unacceptable. We need to take better care of our mate.

  Rudo fought harder to open his eyes. He was distressed when he saw he was in a cell that looked almost identical to the one he used to be in, only this one had bars for a door. He saw he was in his animal form, and he tried to shift, but failed. Damn it! Not again.

  “I’m stuck in my rhino form again. I’m in a cell, but I don’t know where,” he told his mate.

  “That’s okay, you know my brother can reverse it, so don’t worry about the shift. Let’s focus on finding your location. Look around and see if you can see anything that indicates where you are, or how long you’ve been there, at least. Anything is helpful.”

  Rudo tried to stand, but he was wobbly. It took some effort and time, but he finally succeeded. He walked around the tiny space. It was just enough room to turn around in, but there was no toilet, just a drain in the floor, which meant he would be forced to sleep in his own waste. Gross.

  “Psst, Rudo, you awake, buddy?” a whispered voice caught his attention. It sounded like Gavin. Rudo wasn’t able to speak, so he just grunted.

  “Good. Listen, they’re monitoring us, so I’m going to ask you some questions.” Gavin said the last part as if it were a conspiracy. “Grunt once for yes, and twice for no. You ready?”

  Rudo grunted once.

  “Good. How’s your head? Is it fully there?”

  Rudo thought about that for a second, and realized Gavin was talking in code for Ryker. He grunted once.

  “Well, be at ease, I’m here.”

  Again, Rudo had to think about what the meaning meant. Maybe he wanted him to tell Ryker that he’s here.

  “Ryker, Gavin is here, too. He’s talking to me from another cell. He says we’re being monitored. He’s talking in code.”

  “Okay, stud, I’ll let Alphy know. What else is he saying?” Ryker asked.

  “You at ease now, buddy?” Gavin asked.

  Rudo grunted once.

  “Good. These cells make me feel like ESP. The thought keeps ringing in my head, like a bell. It’s liberating.”

  What the—

  “Ok, he’s not making any sense. He said, ‘these cells make me feel like ESP. The thought keeps ringing in my head, like a bell. It’s liberating’. I don’t know what that means.”

  “Hold on,” Ryker said. A few moments went by before Ryker’s voice filled his head.

  “We think he’s trying to give us a location. ‘Liberating’, and ‘bell’ could mean the liberty bell, in Philadelphia, and his reference to cells could mean the ESP stands for ‘East State Penitentiary’. We’re getting ready to head out now. Stay with me, stud, while I help make the arrangements.”

  Rudo felt the rush of excitement fill him. He didn’t know if it was from him, or his mate, but he guessed it could be both. Gavin’s voice broke through his thoughts.

  “Hey, buddy, do you think dawn is coming?” Gavin aske
d.

  Rudo took that as code for “is rescue coming”. He grunted once.

  He heard the shifter sigh. “Good. There’re some others in here who need the dawn. I’m worried it might be their last, though.”

  “Rye, Gavin says there are others in here, and if I’m interpreting him correctly, they don’t have another day in them.”

  “We’re hurrying, my love. Alphy says no matter what time of day it is, we’re taking the building once we find it. Now that I know what city to look in, I’m confident I can find which one the company owns. It’s all a matter of getting past all the dummy corporations, but if there’s any more information Gavin can feed us, it will help speed up that arduous process.”

  Rudo leaned against the cold cement wall and slid down onto his butt. He couldn’t think of any way he could ask Gavin any questions, so he stayed silent, but awake, in case either person had more information.

  Ryker kept him apprised of what was going on. They organized a rescue, and had flown everyone in the jet to Philly.

  “We have other members of our pack with us to help. Raymond and Aaric sent some of their guys, and also arranged for help from the local coven in Philly. We are also getting help from two shifter groups in the city, falcons and hawks. Both were okayed by Tyler and his contact in the American council.” Ryker was confident in their help, which made Rudo feel more confident. He wouldn’t normally have trusted any shifter group in the same city that shifters were being abducted and taken to, but his mate trusted Alphy and Tyler, and Rudo trusted his mate.

  Ryker nudged at his mind. “Okay, Rudo, we are almost ready to tear into the place. Alphy says the company didn’t expect us last time, but they will this time, and they are about to clock in for the day, so this is going to be a big event. However, the local hawk and falcon shifters, as well as the local coven, have several members in law enforcement and in the mayor’s office. In fact, the mayor is a hawk, so we have full authority to go in during the day, and full protection for privacy. The building you’re in is also in a very isolated district, so it will be minimal exposure. It’s all been worked out. We’re going to wait ten minutes after the company opens. They would have waited longer, to get any stragglers, but I told them a second longer than ten minutes, and I would go in by myself.”