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CHAPTER NINE 
     
QUINN
As I’m walking to the dining hall at six thirty in the morning, I notice a lot of Apollo’s pride members watching us curiously and very quietly. Few of them have even spoken to me and when they do, they bow their heads and seem timid, like they’re not sure whether they should submit to me or talk to me like I’m one of them.
We’ve been back from the city for about three days and I’ve noticed little things about the pride I don’t remember from when I was here before. The main thing that stands out is that they’re quiet. It’s hard to believe around two hundred pride members could be so quiet, even when all packed into the same space, but even when everyone is in the dining hall together, they’re reserved. I can’t tell if it’s our presence causing it or if they’re always like that.
Today, as I walk to the town hall with Rowan and my brother, I notice a car heading in through the front gate. While I don’t know the faces of everyone yet, the people inside the car seem unfamiliar, and vehicles driving around aren’t extremely common when most people seem to walk and the vehicles are left just outside the walls. The whole area is a bit too compact for people to be driving.
But what I notice more than anything is the tension that fills the shifters around us. They tuck their heads and rush toward the dining hall. One woman grabs the arm of another and yanks her toward the building as I stop to watch the car.
The man in the passenger seat seems to notice the three of us are the only ones not fleeing and he turns to look at us.
“Who is that?” Graham asks.
“Clearly, someone to be afraid of,” Rowan says.
Graham stares after them. “But why?”
“A good question for the next time we pin Katalina down,” I decide as I nod toward the dining hall. “There might be a good reason everyone’s fleeing, so it’d probably be a good idea for us to head inside as well.”
By the time we walk into the dining hall that’s deadly quiet, the car is gone from our sights. The stillness of the room clarifies that something’s not right. Some of them look to me, like they expect something out of me, and others just stare at the table.
My eyes lock on to a man who I frequently see manning the gate, someone who might know just who that was driving in. He’s standing with Katalina and they say something quietly to each other before he quickly turns around and heads toward the kitchen area.
I gesture to Katalina to have her come over, but she hesitates, like she doesn’t want to. Usually, she’s all for following us around like she’s trying to get something from us that Apollo can use.
When it’s clear I’m not going to forget about her, she slowly walks over to us as I glance at my pack who is watching me closely and quietly, as though they got the memo for the day.
“What’s going on?” I ask as soon as she’s close enough that I don’t have to shout.
“With?” Why she thinks she could possibly play dumb, I’m not sure.
“Who are those people?” I ask.
She hesitates before looking around and locking eyes onto the guy she’d been standing near. “Endo? The guy I was just with? That’s Endo. I can introduce him to you sometime. He’s a nice guy. Looks a little tough and gruff, but he’s a good guy. Just quiet.”
Does she really think I won’t notice her playing dumb? “No, the people who just drove in.”
“Oh…” She shakes her head. “I didn’t see anyone drive in. I can go ask Apollo.”
And then without another word, she hurries off, like we might just forget about all of it.
“Well, that’s suspicious as hell,” Rowan says as he surveys the group with me.
“Yeah… what the hell is going on here?” I walk over to a random table and lean down so I’m more level with them in the hopes they see it as a sign we’re on equal footing and are willing to open up to me. “Can you guys tell me what’s going on?” I ask.
“With what, alpha?” a woman asks.
“Who are those people in the car?” I ask.
She shakes her head. “I don’t really know. Someone meeting with our alpha.”
I’m clearly not going to get anything out of any of them, so I head back to my table where my pack waits. I sit down across from Rowan and raise an eyebrow, but there’s not much information for us to gather without me going to the source: Apollo. And honestly, I’m not sure how keen I am on that idea.
Just as I settle in, Katalina rushes over with her phone outstretched. “It’s that officer you guys were dealing with. He wants to talk to one of you two.”
“Thank you so much,” I say as I take it from her. “Hello?”
“This is Quinn?” he asks.
“It is.”
“Great. Officer Shaw here. Look, I know I shouldn’t be telling you this stuff, but I’m tired of people treating you like you don’t matter and leaving you in the dark. So I’ve done some digging and I found information pertaining to Gina and Nathan Scott. The police received a missing person report on Gina from SCI Pharmaceuticals claiming that one of their employees had been taken hostage by a group of shifters and that they knew you guys would be heading down State Route 31. It would make sense they knew you were going down that road if they were keeping track of the guy who had the chip. After she escaped, she’d taken her husband to the ER, where they found her a couple of days ago. They apprehended her for resisting and driving off, but she’s being released this morning on account of some… odd information. It seems like they have suspiciously dropped the missing person report on her and wrote off the whole situation as a ‘misunderstanding.’ I don’t know why they did it if they’re still looking for her. I can’t tell you an exact time she’ll be out, but if you’re able to go there, I’ll alert them that you’re coming to pick her up.”
“Thank you so much,” I say.
“Of course. I’ll text the location.”
“Thank you for all your help. We really appreciate it.”
“You’re welcome,” he says before hanging up.
The phone beeps, telling me the exact location, an area not too far from here. “Rowan, I’ll have you go with me so you can be the human if we come into any trouble,” I say as I stand up. “Katalina, we’re going to have to go. Is Apollo busy? Can you tell him we’ll be back, hopefully, within an hour or two?”
She hesitates before shaking her head. “I’m not allowed to permit you guys to leave. Only Apollo can.”
I hesitate because I don’t need anyone’s permission to leave. “Alright, can you call Apollo so I can tell him I’m leaving?”
She slowly nods before tapping his number and handing the phone back to me. The phone rings and rings and rings. When it hits voicemail, I leave a message about what we’re doing. After borrowing Katalina’s phone so we have a way to be in touch, Rowan and I head out. Since our cars are outside the walls, we go by foot and walk up to the front gate. The person manning the gate looks over at me, already showing uncertainty in his expression.
“We’re headed out to our cars. I’ve left a message with Apollo that we’ll be back in a couple of hours,” I say.
The man hesitates before shaking his head. “I’m sorry, I can’t let you out without permission directly from Apollo.”
I want to snap at the man, but I know he’s just doing his job, so I take a deep breath. “I see. Then I suppose I’ll have to go straight to Apollo and ask permission.”
I’m less than pleased as I storm my way across the town to Apollo’s home. It’s a grand, three-story mansion that towers over the rest of the town. It sits toward the middle of the town, like the rest of the buildings were built around it. Every detail shows the money that went into it, from the landscaping to the large wrap-around porch. As I head toward the front door, I take note that the car that’d pulled in earlier is parked out front.
“Rowan, just… stay out of sight for now. I don’t want him getting finicky that you’re with me and refusing to let us go,” I say.
Rowan nods. “Got it.”
When I reach the door, I knock and a moment later, Harper opens it. She looks a bit surprised to see me but quickly covers it with a soft smile on her pretty face.
“Who is it?” Apollo calls.
“It’s Quinn,” she says.
As he walks over, I notice the two men from the car walking with him, like they’re also curious.
“Quinn, I’m in a meeting at the moment. Is there an emergency?” Apollo asks, voice a bit tight.
“I tried leaving without coming to bother you, but I couldn’t without your permission, as your guard so kindly reminded me. I found the woman we’re looking for and we need to go pick her up. I’ll be back within an hour or two at the most.”
“Who is this?” the man who’d been in the passenger seat says. He has dark eyes and blond hair cut short. It’s instantly clear he’s a human, which makes me wonder what business he has with Apollo when Apollo seems to hate working with humans.
“This is Quinn. He’s an alpha of a nearby pack who is staying with us for a bit,” Apollo says, never looking away from me.
“And what is Quinn?” the man asks, which makes my hackles rise. Why would a human want to know what kind of shifter I am? Curiosity? Or something more?
“A wolf. A boring ol’ wolf.” The way Apollo says it makes me dislike the situation even more.
The man scrutinizes me, dark eyes narrowed before he gives me a tightlipped smile. “I see…”
Apollo shoos me off. “Fine, go. Return quickly and don’t screw around.”
I give him a nod of respect. “Thank you. Can I take another with me?”
“Yes, just be back by dinner. I have a job for you.”
“Of course,” I say.
“Hold on,” the human says as he reaches out to grab my arm, which I pull out of his reach. “Is your pack with you?”
“They are,” I say, wondering why he’s so nosy.
“Interesting. My name’s Johnny,” he says as he holds his hand out.
“Quinn,” I say as I shake his hand, but there’s something about him that I don’t like. Even the way he squeezes my hand just a little too hard sets alarm bells off as I pull away and turn to Apollo. I give him a nod, and without waiting, hurry away to reunite with Rowan. “Well, that was fucking weird.”
“Isn’t everything here weird? I thought your village was weird with everyone running around, sniffing things, climbing roofs, but here it’s scary weird.”
The tension leaves me as I grin at him. “You were the only one climbing roofs.”
“One time. By accident.”
I raise an eyebrow as he tries not to smile. “You accidentally climbed my roof at least two times that I know of. How many times did you climb it without me realizing it?”
He makes a fake coughing sound and something that really sounds like two.
“Was that two?” I ask. “Sorry, I couldn’t hear it over the fake coughing.”
“You weren’t home so I thought you were on the roof, as one realistically assumes.”
I grin at him. “You’re so strange yet in this sexy way. Go climb a roof for me.”
He shakes his head because he’s cruel and wants to deprive me of this action. “I can’t on command or it wouldn’t be special. God, I miss your village where things weren’t wound up so tight. Where I could actually spend time with you and kiss you without fear of… Apollo the Ass.”
“Same, but with Gina’s help, we’ll be getting a little closer to ending this and going back to Winsford,” I assure him.
This time, the guard lets us through, so we get in the car as I input the location we’re headed to into Katalina’s phone.
Rowan gets behind the steering wheel and starts driving as I glance over at him. He’s such a handsome man who is mine. All mine. And right now, he’s all mine alone. How can a single person make me feel so many things?
“Are you just… smiling at me?”
“Is it creepy?” I ask.
“Like my brain tells me it should be but my leopard thinks it’s the best thing ever.”
I start laughing as I lean into him, unable to keep us apart any longer.
“I have to recharge. The center console is less than comfortable jabbing into my side but the recharge is worth it,” I say before biting his shoulder.
“What’d I get bit for?” he asks.
“Because you look rather tasty, but I probably shouldn’t sample you when we need to make sure we’re there when Gina gets out. Why won’t anyone leave us alone? Don’t they know I need to be alone with you?”
“I suppose,” he says before running his fingers over my cheek. “What if we just overthrew Apollo, and then you’d live in a grand mansion while looking down on your weak peasants and I’d stand by your side, making it very clear you’re mine and no one is ever allowed to look at you with their weak peasant eyes ever again.”
“Hmm… I don’t know… did you see how high the roof was? I’m afraid you’d fall off and get hurt during your next mating dance.”
“Ha-ha. See if I ever do anything sweet for you again.”
I grin at him as I sit up. “Well, at least we have about forty minutes to harass each other. I very barely wonder if Scott is doing well. We’ve kind of forgotten about his useless life.”
“Barely?” Rowan asks.
“Barely. Like a passing thought. I might stick my finger in his bullet wound when I see him again but that’s the extent of my concern.”
“Is… is that considered concern?” Rowan asks, sounding suspicious.
“Maybe,” I say before kissing his cheek and settling into the seat, leaving my fingers entwined with his.
Even though we only talk about mundane things, it’s nice to just sit next to him and be together with no one else around and no need to hide our relationship. All I need right now is him.
      
When we arrive at the jail, Rowan and I walk inside together. I let Rowan handle it since his eyes aren’t different enough to draw attention to us. While his white hair is showing a bit at the roots, people have so many different colors of hair these days, it doesn’t look that unusual mixed with the blond dye. It could even pass for a very light gray, but I’m secretly hoping he lets it grow completely out. He walks up to the front and smiles at the woman.
“Hi, we’re here to pick up a Gina Scott.”
She smiles and nods. “One moment.”
She scoots back and says something to someone else before they talk and the other woman hurries off. After a few minutes, she returns and talks some more before the first woman shifts her attention to us.
“So I’ve asked around and it looks like she was released ten minutes ago.”
“And did she call someone to pick her up? Where’d she go?” I ask since I didn’t see her when we walked in.
“One of the others said someone picked her up.”
“Who? Did she call a cab or a driver to pick her up?” I ask, unsure who else it could be when it’s not like she’s from this area.
She shrugs. “I’m sorry, I don’t have any information for you.”
“Can the person who saw her get picked up tell you what the driver looked like or what they were driving?” I ask.
She pushes back in her chair. “Just a moment.”
“Rowan, while you wait on her, I’m going to call Officer Shaw and see if he can help us in any way.”
Rowan nods. “Okay.”
I step outside, just in case the lady was wrong and Gina is still waiting. Or maybe she went back to the hospital to see Scott? It could have just been a rideshare or taxi someone called for her… but something tells me it wasn’t. Something tells me this isn’t good.
When Officer Shaw answers, I explain the situation to him.
“Nothing can go easy for you guys, can it? Luckily for us, they have cameras; I’ll get them to show you the vehicle. Give me a minute.”
He hangs up and when I head inside, the woman still hasn’t gotten back with Rowan. He must tell by the look on my face that I’m sure something bad has happened because he reaches out and catches two of my fingers with his and discreetly gives them a gentle squeeze. After a few minutes, a different woman waves us back and takes us into a room.
“Sorry for making you wait. So I’ve watched the surveillance tape while Officer Shaw filled me in on what’s going on. From the footage we have, it doesn’t look like she willingly got into the vehicle. I’m extremely sorry we didn’t catch this in our own parking lot. I’ll show you the vehicle and see if you can help us identify the person,” she says as she turns her screen toward us and plays a soundless video of Gina walking outside. She doesn’t get far before someone in a dark hoodie grabs her. He drags her over to the vehicle as she fights against him, but he’s clearly stronger than her and shoves her inside.
The abductor turns for just a split second, like he heard something, before he gets into the car and drives off.
Just the slight turn of the familiar structure of his face tells me it’s Brennan. If that hadn’t, the look on Rowan’s face is more than enough to show me I’ve hit the mark.
“Oh fuck,” he says.
“Do you know where they might be headed?” she asks.
“Actually, we might. They’d be heading toward the prison,” I say. “That means they’d probably take State Route 31.”
“I’ll get some people on that immediately,” she says. “Wait right here.”
She hurries out, leaving me alone with Rowan whose face is pale and his jaw is clenched tightly, telling me he’s upset, and I don’t blame him. This is his brother, this is the person who was there for him during his childhood, and now… now he’s working against us… again. I can’t imagine the pain I’d feel if that were Graham.
“Rowan, I’m sorry,” I say as I reach over and squeeze his hand.
The touch seems to jolt him out of his mind and causes him to look over at me. “He’s alone. He could have just… he could have left, run away… gotten help. But he still does what Mercer wants? He still… still lets that man control him? I don’t get it, Quinn. He was… I know you didn’t meet him before but when we were children, he’d protect me, care about me. He was kind and loving and…” His voice is breaking, and it hurts so much.
“You don’t know what Mercer did to him or how he changed him when he tampered with his shifter side,” I say.
“But look at Emery! Emery’s got some humanity left in him. He’s fine. So why is my brother like… like that?”
I’m not sure I’d say he’s fine, but I do understand what he’s saying. “I don’t know, Rowan, and I wish I did.”
“I have to get to him. What if he attacks the police? What if they shoot him or kill him? I have to stop him. I know I can do it.”
I nod, even though I’m not sure we should leave when the woman told us to wait right here. But I know if that were my brother and I wanted to run across the state to find him and save him, Rowan wouldn’t waste a breath trying to stop me. He’d join me immediately. So without a moment’s hesitation, I give his hand a last squeeze and stand up. The officer isn’t anywhere to be seen, so as we head out the door, no one stops us. We rush to the car and since I know the way home better than him, I get behind the wheel and start driving.
“Brennan’s a good guy,” Rowan says.
“I know. He has to be if my mate trusts him so much.”
He reaches out and runs his finger along my neck where the wounds from the last time we ran into Brennan are healing. “He’s a good guy.” This time it sounds like he’s trying to convince himself as much as he’s trying to convince me.
I reach up and take his hand, pulling it away from my neck, and instead hold it. “You can’t blame him for things he can’t control… for things that he had no say in. I honestly think that if we can get him away from there, we can fix him,” I say, and Rowan looks somewhat hopeful.
I call Officer Shaw as we drive just to inform him what’s happening. He insists we go back to the station and wait while the police handle it, which I lie and tell him we’ll do. He says we’ll be alerted the moment they find Gina and that they’ll do their best to subdue Brennan without violence.
I don’t even bother telling Rowan he told us to turn around, I just keep driving, steadily picking up speed in the unpopulated areas, wondering if we’ll ever even be able to catch up with him before it’s too late.
That’s when I see something out of place in the distance. As I grow nearer, I realize it’s a car partway off the road.
“Slow down,” Rowan says. “That looks like the car.”
As I slow down, I see that his car isn’t alone; off to the side are police cars, but what’s concerning is that I see no people moving around. I cautiously pull off onto the berm of the road as I scan the area, hoping to find them nearby.
“Be careful, we don’t want them shooting us,” I say as I slowly get out of the car.
Cautiously, I walk toward the first police car as the smell of blood fills the air.
“Stop where you’re at!” someone shouts, and I see a man leaning against the side of his car.
Rowan and I immediately stop and put our hands up, but I find that the officer doesn’t have a weapon or anything on him as far as I can tell. Instead, he’s tucked up against his car, like he’s trying to hide from something.
“Are you hurt?” I ask.
“You need to get in your vehicle and turn around now,” he orders, but there’s a hitch to his voice, telling me he’s not as confident as he wants to sound.
“We can help. We’re the ones who called in about Gina, the missing woman. Do you have officers out finding them?” I ask.
“Fuck,” he groans. “My leg is broken… help me get her out of the ditch.” He points down into the ditch where another officer lies at the wet bottom. Rowan rushes over to her and pulls her up enough that her face doesn’t have the possibility of going underneath the water, but doesn’t move her any farther, probably in case she’s wounded and moving her aggravates something that could be fatal.
“She’s alive,” he says as something draws his attention out in the cornfield lining the road our car is parked on.
“Rowan, don’t,” I say.
His green eyes flicker up to mine and I know the answer to that before he even says anything. “Quinn… I have to go. I can reason with him. I have to,” he says before taking off at a run.
“Fuck,” I say as I hover over the man. “How many other officers were there?”
“There are two more. I don’t know where they’re at. You need to get back in your vehicle and get out of here. We have backup coming,” he says.
“I’m going to find the other officers and make sure they’re alright,” I say as I pull my clothes off and dart into the cornfield as the officer yells at me to stop. I shift, landing on four feet as my superior senses take over. I can smell the officers, one of whom must have been bleeding, making it easy for me to track them through the corn that’s over six feet tall. I rush into it, glad I’m small enough that running through the rows is easy for me. I hear movement that causes me to halt before I catch sight of someone. The corn rustles as they still, perhaps noticing my presence.
Everything in my body tells me I need to chase after Rowan to protect him, but I have to trust him. I have to trust he won’t be reckless. But what if he thinks Brennan won’t hurt him just because he’s his brother?
“Stop!” the officer shouts and I freeze. I can’t say anything to her like this, so I back up and shift into my human form.
“You need to get out. He will kill you if he gets ahold of you,” I say.
The woman nods. “He hurt my partner. I can’t carry him out.”
“Can I help?”
She hesitates until she hears a noise and nods. “Quickly. Please.”
“Do you know where the woman is that was with him?”
“He dragged her out of the vehicle. When we tried following him… it was… a monster… the monster attacked us. I don’t know what that thing is, but it’s too powerful.”
“It’s okay. We’ll get you back. The officer at the cars said there was backup coming,” I say as she leads me over to the officer that’s clearly twice her weight—it’s no wonder she couldn’t carry him back. He’s unconscious, but I grab onto him and she helps me get him back to the edge of the field before I leave him in her care.
“Don’t go back out there. That thing will kill you,” she says as she tries to grab for me, but I slip out of her reach before she can.
“I have to. My mate is out there, and that woman is someone who could help my whole pack. I have to go,” I say as I shift and race back into the field despite her warnings to stop where I’m at. This time, I catch onto Gina’s scent that is heading in the same direction as Brennan’s and Rowan’s.
When the field turns into a wooded area, I rush into it before I come to a point where Gina’s smell breaks away from Rowan’s and Brennan’s. I slow as I realize I’ll need to make a choice.
      
ROWAN
“Brennan,” I yell as I follow his scent. I can’t tell if he’s running from me or if he’s caught up in chasing after Gina who he seems to have lost at some point since they aren’t traveling together.
Suddenly, there’s a loud noise behind me that makes me spin on my haunches a moment before Brennan leaps from a tree, apparently planning on tackling me to the ground. I skirt out of the way just in time before turning on him.
“Brennan, it’s me, it’s Rowan.”
“I know who it is,” he growls, voice unnaturally harsh for the person who always faced me with kindness. He’d protected me from our father’s wrath so many times, taken the blame so often. He’s in there. I know he’s in there, I just need to get him out.
“Brennan, please, just come with me. I’ll protect you. You protected me so many times. Let me—”
He strikes at the air before me. “Enough of your bullshit, brother. We’re not children anymore. I know you just conformed to what Father wanted. You’re as bad as him. You turned your back on what you were meant to be, you stomped down others, and now that a wolf looks your way, you think you’re a good person?”
“You allowed Father to stomp you down too. Did you forget we had no choice? We had no options for what we could do,” I say. “You encouraged me to hide my shifter self just as much as he did.”
He lunges at me and I skirt back. It’s been years since I’ve seen his true leopard side, probably since I was a child, but there’s little semblance of what he used to be in what he is now. He does have a more catlike frame, but it’s wrong, a combination of things I can’t even decipher. His fangs are longer, his claws larger, and he’s hell-bent on hurting me.
And as I stand here facing him, I start to wonder if I’m wrong. Maybe I can’t reach him anymore. Maybe I can’t get through to him.
He rushes forward to attack me and I reel back, so unsure of what to do that I nearly trip over my own tail. After a moment, I realize he’s pushing me back and cornering me against a rock wall and my inability to figure out what to do is allowing it.
I have to be able to reach him, I know my brother is still in there somewhere. “Brennan, Father told me you ran away. He told me you left me. I was angry, I was upset. I thought you just left me with that monster.”
He snarls at me, saliva dripping from his fangs. “Funny how Father never said a lick of truth our whole lives, but you believed that with ease,” he says. “Funny how quick you were to assume I would just betray you, so you deserted me.”
“It wasn’t that,” I say as he rushes me. My only way out is straight up a sheer rock face, but I take it and his claws rake across the rock as I scamper up to the top where I see movement.
“Stop where you’re at!” an officer shouts with another man behind him. Are they idiots to rush off into the woods without more backup than just two officers? And on top of that, he has a gun pointed at me, like I’m the issue.
I hear Brennan behind me, and instinct tells me to move before he lands on me and I dash forward the moment he lands in the space I’d just been.
A gunshot rings out and I realize the officer wasn’t kidding as I brace for the pain that never comes. I look up at Brennan who is standing before me, having taken the shot right to the chest.
Without missing a beat, Brennan rushes forward as the man gets off another shot that seems to miss before Brennan tackles him to the ground.
Quinn comes running up, hands in the air. “Stop! Please,” Quinn says as I watch Brennan tear the second officer to the ground before he turns to face Quinn in his human form.
There’s no hesitation as Brennan lunges for him and I slip between them and growl at him. “Do not touch my mate.”
Brennan slows and snarls at me. “So you’d pick a mutt over your own brother? How fitting,” he says as I watch the blood drip from the wound in his chest.
“I don’t want you to kill any innocent people,” I say. “So please, just listen. Just come back with me.”
And then he’s gone, turning and rushing into the trees, but this time, I don’t bother chasing him.
“Fuck.”
“I’m sorry,” Quinn says as his fingers sink into my fur. Behind him stands Gina who has her arms wrapped around her chest. “Come on. Let’s get back to the car.”
I want to follow Quinn, but I also want to go for my brother who is hurt and needs me as much as I needed him throughout my entire childhood. If I go, will it fix anything? Will he just continue to fight against me? Did he step in front of the gun for me or was it a mistake on his part? I have to believe he was trying to save me, but immediately after, he tried attacking Quinn.
So I nod and help my mate deal with the wounded officers. When we get them back, we’re asked to explain what we can. They don’t ask for anything more out of us since we’re shifters and our information wouldn’t help enough, so they send us on our way.
Quinn gets into the driver’s seat as Gina quietly gets into the passenger seat. I can tell she’s shaken up but she takes a deep breath as she sinks into the chair.
“This has been a fucking nightmare,” she whispers. “I’m sorry for leaving you guys. I never should have left. I was scared they would take me back there and driving away was the only thing I could think of.”
“I know,” Quinn says quietly as he keeps driving in the direction we were originally headed, instead of turning around and driving back toward Apollo’s. I begin to question where he’s going but Gina starts talking again and I don’t get a moment to ask.
“I need to keep my daughter safe. I’m afraid they’re going to go for my daughter next. I don’t know what to do so I begged my parents to hide her somewhere. Nathan is in the hospital. I haven’t even heard how he’s doing since I was arrested. Why the hell is this happening to me?”
“I know. It’s going to be okay. We’re going to take you somewhere safe, and we’ll see if we can get someone watching over Scott until he’s free to leave,” Quinn says before he pulls the car over on the side of the road. “Rowan, stay here.”
“Why?” I ask hesitantly.
He turns to look at me and gives me a reassuring smile. “I need you to watch Gina for a minute. I need to take a piss.”
“Right now?”
“Yes, right now. Stay here, don’t leave. Please.”
“Okay,” I say, uncertain as he gets out of the car and steps off into the trees.
“What’s he doing?” Gina asks.
“I don’t know,” I realize as I look up in time to see the black wolf take off into the trees. I want to follow him, I want to rush to his aid, but I told him I’d stay with Gina and we can’t leave her alone. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m okay. I’ve definitely been better. God, I just don’t know what to do anymore. I don’t even know what difference it makes; I feel like I’m running in circles.”
“Well, you’re with us now and we’re going to do everything we can to end this.”
She smiles at me and gives me a nod. “Thank you.”
I force a smile back, but my mind is on the wolf I can no longer see.
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CHAPTER TEN 
     
QUINN
It doesn’t take much for me to find Brennan’s scent. I know I’m being stupid, I know I’m being foolish, but I also know that my mate comes before anything. And sometimes, that even means doing things I think are absolutely ridiculous.
I follow the scent until it grows thicker and then I slow down and look around. When I hear a soft rustling, I turn and see Brennan, who’d been taking a break, probably weak from blood loss.
Sensing me, he gets up onto his feet, chest bloody and rising quickly as he breathes heavily. He growls as he takes a step toward me, probably planning on driving me off.
“Rowan loves you and has risked his life multiple times for you. Seeing you like this is tearing him up, so I’m going to take you with us and you’re going to listen to me,” I order.
“Who do you think you are, little wolf?” he asks as he towers over me.
“I am your new alpha, and this time, I’m not weighed down by drugs. You are going to listen to me. Now submit and we can go back to Rowan.”
“I want nothing to do with that man,” he growls as he lunges at me. I slip out of his reach before pressing into his space.
“You’d rather submit to Mercer?” I can see why this is so frustrating to Rowan, but I know we have to get him to see the issue.
“He is my alpha.”
“He has abused you, mutilated you… he is not your alpha. An alpha shows kindness. What kindness has he shown you? They show compassion, they—”
He lets out a roar as he lunges at me, but he can’t catch me, my small stature working to my benefit as I skirt outside his range.
“You took a bullet for your brother that you didn’t have to take. There is still the old Brennan inside you. There is humanity inside you,” I urge. We just have to figure out how to show it.
“You know nothing about me, dog,” he growls as he swipes his paw through the air.
At this point, he’s just tiring himself out as he chases me around, and with the blood loss, it won’t be long before he’s exhausted to the point where I can force him to submit.
“Your brother loves you.”
“My brother conformed to my father’s beliefs and left me to rot. He never tried to help me.”
“He didn’t know.”
“He left me alone, he left me to suffer. For days. For months. For years. I just rotted in that place; I just…” He roars out as he rushes me. This time, he’s quick enough he nearly catches me before I manage to skirt out of the way. Then I lunge at him, tackling him down to the ground. He’s exhausted and when I drive my body into his, he loses his balance and crashes into the dirt and dead leaves. I grab his throat and keep it pinned down, even as he struggles to get up. His claws catch me, but I hold him there, jaw clamped tightly as he struggles.
“Listen to me and stop fighting. We will help you.”
The fight’s not leaving him. “I want no help from you.”
“You have no choice. I will do anything my mate wants and right now, he needs and wants his brother back.”
His struggles subside slowly until he stays still, breathing heavy as blood coats his whitish-gray chest.
He shifts into his human form as I release him. I can’t tell if he does it on purpose or in a moment of exhaustion, but as he settles to the ground, I find that he’s unconscious, which makes everything easier for me.
“Why’d you go alone?”
I jerk as I look up at Rowan in his human form, Gina by his side.
I shift before looking down at my prisoner. “Let’s drag him back to the car. We have to be quick before Mercer sends the rest of the pack out to retrieve him,” I say. “Gina, he has a tracking chip in his right arm; do you know enough about it to get it removed?”
“I can remove it,” she says with a confident nod as Rowan rushes over. He helps me pick Brennan up and together we drag the man through the woods and back to the car. There, I prop him up against the side of the car and hunt through it until I find some materials. There’s a pocketknife that I hand over to Gina after shredding a shirt I’d found in the trunk to make binds and bandages out of it. As she works on getting the chip out of his arm, I help Rowan do quick first aid to his chest and bandage him up until we can get someone more experienced to help. After hesitation, I also tie his hands and blindfold him, in case he wakes up and could lead Mercer to us, even though I’m positive Mercer already knows where we are. Once Gina’s finished removing the tracker, we put him in the back seat with Rowan so I’m free to start driving back to Apollo’s pride.
“Are we being stupid?” I ask, slightly second-guessing my choice to go back for him.
“Probably,” Rowan says as he reaches into the front seat and sets his hand on my shoulder before giving it a gentle squeeze. “But… thank you. Thank you so much, Quinn. You don’t…” He takes a deep breath and I glance at him in the rearview mirror. “You don’t know how much this means to me.”
“You’re welcome,” I say as I reach my hand back and give his hand a squeeze.
About a mile from Apollo’s, I stop the car and the two of us push Brennan into the trunk. Something tells me that I want to keep this a secret from Apollo and neither of them question me, just help.
I get back into the car and look over at Gina. “While we’re here, you’re going to stay quiet, stay reserved, and don’t engage with anyone. Never go off alone with anyone in their pride, understand?”
She looks over at me from the passenger seat. “Yeah. I take it things aren’t going well?”
“Things… are strange,” I admit. “I don’t like not being in full control over a situation, and right now, Apollo is in control and I’m not sure I like the way he runs things. The issue is we have no choice.”
“I understand.”
When I drive up to the gate, they don’t open it, since they want us to leave our car on the outside, but then we’d have no way to get Brennan inside without blatantly carrying him through. “Gina, we’re going to pretend you sprained your ankle, okay?”
“Okay,” she says as I roll down the window and press the speaker button.
“I have the woman here, Gina, she hurt her leg. I was hoping to drive her in so I had less of a distance to carry her, if that’s alright?”
A few minutes pass before the gate opens and they let us in. As soon as we’re inside, Apollo is there, like he’s been waiting for us, and I pray Brennan stays quiet in the trunk or I’ll have a lot of explaining to do. I doubt Apollo would take kindly to me sneaking someone inside without his permission.
I park next to the house we’re staying in and get out before coming around to Gina’s side.
There’s no chance to get the door open before Apollo stops me. “That took a lot longer than an hour or two. You are just horrible at telling time,” he says.
“We ran into a bit of a dilemma,” I say.
“And lied to me.” His expression is sour and I’m not sure anything I say could change that.
“I… didn’t lie to you. We went to the police station to pick her up… can I explain this as I carry her to the infirmary?” I ask, really wanting to get him away from the car before Brennan makes a noise.
His eyes flicker over to Rowan who is standing near Graham. “Fine.”
I pick Gina up, glad for the excuse to draw Apollo away from the car, and head toward the infirmary.
      
ROWAN
As I watch Quinn go, I rack my brain on what to do about my brother. He could be bleeding out in the trunk for all I know, and I can’t even check on him. Not sure if it could wait for Quinn, I corner Graham and lean in to explain the situation to him.
“My brother is in the trunk. I don’t know what to do with him,” I whisper.
“The brother who tried killing Quinn?” he asks with wide eyes. “What the hell is Quinn allowing you to do?” Graham’s body instantly turns tense and I can tell he’s wanting to blame this on me since, in his eyes, his brother could do no wrong.
“Quinn went and retrieved him, not me!” I say, unable to express how happy that makes me feel. But we still have a crazed man in the trunk.
Graham folds his arms across his chest as he stares at the trunk. “I take it he doesn’t want Apollo to know?”
“No.”
“Okay, let’s get moving,” he says as he looks over at the gate, but there’s no one to be seen and Quinn had pulled the car right between two buildings to use them as a way to block people from seeing what we were up to.
He waves Trenton over and the two of them heave Brennan out.
“I’m not even going to ask. I want to ask, but I’m not going to,” Trenton says as he hurries into the building. “Never mind. I’m going to ask. Who the hell is this?”
“My brother.”
Trenton raises a thick eyebrow. “He’s tied up because…?”
“I doubt it’s because he’s a kinky boy,” Ari says as he noses his way into the situation.
The absolute last person I need to know about this is Ari with his big mouth.
“Let’s put him in one of the bathrooms,” Graham decides. “I’m still not sure if there are cameras here, but that’s probably the least likely spot for them if there are.”
We carry him into there as Ari brings a chair for him. I notice Emery is just staring at us and I remember that he knows my brother since he would’ve dealt with him while under Mercer’s care. I can’t help but wonder what he thinks about him… what he knows about him.
“You helping, Rowan?” Graham asks and my attention snaps back to him as we do our best to bind Brennan to the chair as well as a handle on the wall. Someone will have to keep an eye on him, though, since he’s not as secure as I’d wish.
As I’m stepping out of the room to get some water for him, Emery steps into my path.
“You’re making a mistake.” His voice is low and a part of me tells me that he’s probably right.
“He’s my brother,” I say as I go to move past him.
He puts an arm up, blocking me. “He was your brother. That monster is not your brother.”
I shake my head because that can’t be true. “My brother is still inside there,” I assure him. “He literally jumped in front of a bullet for me. He’s in there.”
Emery stares at me and I can just tell he doesn’t believe a lick of what I’m saying, but this time when I try to slip past, he lets me go.
Emery slowly turns to look over at Graham who is staring at Brennan, and I can’t help but wonder how right Emery might be.
When Quinn returns with Gina, I’m surprised to see another man with him. “This is Dr. Lambridge. He’s going to look over Brennan for us.”
I look at him in surprise but as the doctor goes inside the bathroom, Quinn turns to me. “He won’t tell… at least, I think. But we’ll have to chance it because Brennan could die if he doesn’t get medical attention.”
I nod, knowing that he’s right and we have to take this chance.