Mel left the closet, then looked over at Nadia who shook her head. Mel shrugged and gestured that she would check out the bathroom. Nadia shooed her on and indicated she’d remain in the room on guard.
“Wulf. No one in this room. We locked all the accesses. I sensed tension from some of the other rooms on this floor, but am not sure how they mean to get to us. I’m betting on cameras in the room at the very least. So now they know we’re being cautious.
Hopefully, they chalk our checking out the room to our being Alliance soldiers and being in a strange place.”
“I don’t like this. Hurry up and get back down here. I’m sending Lia and Lorinda up.”
“Okay.”
Mel glanced around the bathroom. Since her excuse had been made up, she really didn’t need to use the facilities—and didn’t. Just as she was about to leave the bathroom, a thud from the other room caused her to draw her laser pistol from the holster at the back of her waist.
“Wulf. It’s going down.”
“Nadia?”
Mel sidled into the room. Nadia lay on the floor unconscious. There was no sign of her attacker anywhere that Mel could see.
Moving into the room, her gun in a two-handed grip, Mel turned in a circle, looking for the origin of the shot or hit that had taken out an Alliance-trained soldier. As she turned, the room began to swim around her. Too late she realized what had happened.
“Gas. Wulf…”
*
“Ansu bhau. They used gas. Nadia and Melina are down,” Wulf snarled. “Iolyn, make sure the men are ready to follow anyone leaving this property.” Wulf’s angry gaze swept the room and didn’t see either his aunt or Luka. “Father, get some of our men in here to find and secure Beria and Luka.” His father nodded, then he spoke softly into the com unit he removed from his pocket.
Wulf found Huw at his elbow. “Let’s go. We need to stop Lia and Lorinda before they, too, are captured.”
“What about Nadia and Melina?” Huw asked.
“We’ll join the surveillance teams once they check in with their report on who left the building.”
Huw nodded, although Wulf sensed his brother wanted to do something more proactive. Wulf felt the same. But the plan had been to lure the rebels into making a move. Since the plan had worked, they had to play it out to the end and hope their suppositions were correct as to the fate of Melina and Nadia in the scenario.
Just as he and Huw turned to leave the room, Lia, followed by his mother, ran into the room. Lia was disheveled. His mother had blood on her face.
Wulf and his father roared at the same time.
“Lorinda, my love,” his father shouted as he pulled his wife into his arms. “What happened?”
Wulf’s mother just shook her head and then laid it on his father’s chest and cried.
Lia explained between gasps for breath. “Four large, heavily armed men … dressed in black with hoods over their heads. As we reached the top of the stairs, they kicked in the door to the room where Nadia and Mel were. They carried them off.” Lia’s eyes were filled with anguish as she turned them up to Wulf. “We tried to stop them, but failed.” She swayed a bit, but managed to stay standing.
“Iolyn, help Lia,” Wulf ordered.
Iolyn came to Lia, his arms outstretched as if to pick her up. She waved him off.
“I’m fine. I need to see to Lorinda’s cut. One of the assholes hit her with a cudgel of some sort.”
Beria and Luka entered the room at that point and approached them, false concern on their faces.
Wulf strode to meet his aunt. When he reached her, he picked her up by her clothing and shook her. “Where are they taking them?”
“What? You can’t think I had anything to do with this outrage?” Her look of shock was not very well done. Wulf saw the gleam of satisfaction in her muddy yellow eyes, sensed the gratification of a job well-done in her emotions.
“Aunt, we know you planned this. Trust me, we KNOW.” He shook her once more.
“If anything happens to my gemate. I’ll kill you with my own hands.”
“You don’t know anything. I’m a victim as much as you or your mate.” She shrugged his hands off her and backed away. “That this outrage should occur in my home. It is unthinkable.”
Wulf’s father left his wife in Lia’s hands and came to stand beside Wulf. “Beria, we know. All the evidence from the attacks of the Galanti, targeting Wulf and Melina led to someone in the immediate family. Shots were fired just today from your terrace. And Wulf and Melina confirmed your guilt once they entered this house and read it in your emotions.”
Luka choked, then coughed in the back round. “They can’t do that. Only warriors in battle can sense the strongest emotions—and even then they aren’t accurate.”
“Not true.” Wulf glared at his uncle and aunt. “Since my bonding with Melina, I have her abilities added to mine. We are battle-mates. We read your guilt as soon as we entered the room. You are the instigators of the purist rebellion.”
“Your purpose is leadership change,” Wulf’s father stated, his eyes sad. “You always hated that I was the eldest male, didn’t you, sister?”
“I should have been born a man. I would have been the better leader.” Beria sneered as she drew herself up to her full height. “You’ll never find your mate or her friend, Wulf. I told them to kill the bitches as soon as they were away from the house.” She laughed. “The nice thing about fanatics—once they are pointed at an objective, they never stop.”
Luka attacked as soon as she finished speaking. “You stupid bitch.” He slapped her across the face. “They had nothing. Why did you confess?” Wulf’s father pulled the irate man away from Beria.
“Stop trying to act the man for a change,” sneered Beria. “I confessed since a battle-mate oath is absolute proof. Even I can see they are fully bonded—and that damn Maren family carried the battle-mate gene.”
She shrugged as she sat in the closest chair. “Plus, the rebels are out of my control.
Have been for a long time. Eliminating me will not stop them.”
“Who leads them, Beria?” Ilar asked.
“I don’t know. We always used small fish as go betweens. It could be anybody.” She laughed, a crazy, high-pitched cackle. “Who would’ve thought when we started this all that Wulf would find a bond-mate—and have her be a battle-mate on top of that?” Her laughter grew more and more shrill until she fell off the chair to the ground, her body shaking with the hysteria that had overtaken her, white froth coming from her mouth.
“Take her away,” growled Wulf to a Council security officer summoned by his father. “Lock her up in our guardhouse until we can take her in front of the Council.” The man nodded and grabbed Beria’s arm and pulled her up, then marched her out of the room.
Wulf’s father shoved Luka into another officer’s hands. “Put him in a separate room.
I wouldn’t trust him not to strangle her.” His father turned toward him. “Son? Can you touch Melina’s mind?”
Wulf shook his head. “She is unconscious and unaware of what is going on. Once she awakens. I’ll know it.” Wulf turned to Huw and Iolyn. “What are the surveillance teams reporting?”
“We have two teams following the vehicle that took Nadia and Melina from this house,” Huw said, his voice tight with tension. Wulf knew his brother worried for more than just Melina. Huw cared about the Terran Nadia more than he’d admit. “More are joining them. They will stay far enough back so as not to spook the captors. We also have air and satellite support.”
“Good.” Wulf pointed to two Gold Squad soldiers who had just entered the room.
“Take care of Dr. Morgan and my mother.”
The men nodded. He strode toward the door.
“Let’s join the chase. I don’t want Melina and Nadia being held any longer than necessary. If the captors follow Beria’s orders, they’ll kill our women when they stop.
We need to be ready to move on them.”
Huw, Iolyn and his father followed Wulf out of the house. No one said a word. They all knew what they had to do.
Chapter Twenty-One
Mel lay on something cold and hard. Every muscle in her body protested. The dull pain of incipient bruises told her that someone had handled her body as if it were a bag of grain. She kept her eyes closed, faking continued unconsciousness. She was not alone.
In the background a sudden slapping noise, that of a hand against skin, followed by a male grunt. Angry, guttural male voices spoke somewhere near her. The men spoke in colloquial Prime, but she was able to follow the gist of the conversation.
“Stupid. The leader said not to harm the females.” Obviously, the one who delivered the slap.
A second male voice responded, “The blonde bitch tried to bite me.” Nadia was alive. That was good. “Should I just let her get away with it?” The slapper snarled. “Are you telling me you can not subdue one small Terran female without kicking her in the ribs and then attempting rape?”
“She is not as weak as you would suppose,” the slappee said. “She broke my skin. I could catch some rare Terran bacteria. You know they are just a step above filthy animals.”