Silver-Tipped Justice(14)

He opened his eyes and bit back a gasp of surprise. “Holy shit,” Kontra muttered. “There’s a fucking road.”

“All right,” Payson said loudly. “I can smell and hear you. Where did you go, Kontra?”

He looked over his shoulder and realized he had a clear view of his three friends. All of them seemed to be peering into the forest without seeing him. “It looks like we’re facing a witch or warlock or something,” Kontra warned. He cut off the three men’s grumblings by ordering, “All of you, head straight toward the sound of my voice. Don’t look at the thicket. It’s an illusion. There’s really a two lane track here.”

Once the three men stood around him and stared with wide-eyed amazement at the narrow trail leading into the woods, Kontra started following the lane. Ten minutes of jogging, and Payson hissed and ducked behind a bush off to the side.

Kontra hesitated only an instant before following him, Adam and Sam close behind. Crouching down, they waited. Not a moment later, a small SUV came rumbling up the track behind them, drove by without slowing, and continued deeper into the forest.

To their surprise, the engine sound changed, telling Kontra the vehicle had been shifted into idle. Voices, too faint for him to understand, carried through the trees. Kontra growled low in his throat when he scented Tim’s luscious smell on the breeze.

“What is it?” Sam asked softly.

“I smell Tim. He’s close,” Kontra replied, trying to stifle the growl rumbling through his chest.

“Sounds like that SUV is headed back this way. Let’s stop and ask them,” Adam said.

“That sounds like a grand idea. Payson, Sam, stay human. Adam and I will bring their vehicle to a stop,” Kontra stated, already stripping his jacket and tossing it over a tree branch.

“Got it boss. We’ll find out what happened to Tim,” Payson said, his grin turning feral.

Knowing he could rely on his pack mates, Kontra initiated his shift. Seconds later, he ruffled out his fur and cocked his head, listening. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Adam’s white tiger crouching beside him, his ears twitching.

The crunch of twigs under tires and branches smacking on metal heralded the approach of the SUV. Just before the vehicle reached them, Adam streaked across the lane. The vehicle swerved. Kontra lunged toward it, ducked his head, and slammed his massively muscled hump into the already out-of-control vehicle.

Metal crunched and gave under his hefty frame. Kontra spun around on his haunches and took in the wrecked front end, pleased at the way the axel had bent, making the tire cock-eyed. That SUV wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon. He heard shouting and watched Payson ordering everyone out of the vehicle, Sam a step behind. Kontra lumbered toward them, fixing to flank his pack mates, Adam on the other side.

“You’ve kidnapped my alpha’s mate,” Payson shouted at the four strangers who were piling out of the SUV, pulling a pale-featured Tim behind them. He waved a hand toward Kontra, indicating he was the alpha in question, who couldn’t stop a snarl from escaping him.

The one who’d been in the driver’s seat glared at them. “Tim is a member of our flock and you have no right to interfere,” he snapped.

Kontra growled at the man’s tone. Payson smirked and crossed his arms. Adam showed off his fangs. Sam planted his fists on his hips and snarled, “What part of kidnapping a mate did you miss, fuckers?” With the scar bisecting Sam’s face and the obvious anger lighting his eyes, Sam made an impressive figure.

Ignoring the look of outrage on the driver’s face and how red-faced the biggest man was becoming at Sam’s belligerence, Sam turned to Tim and held out his hand. “Do you want to stay with these men, Tim? Or come with us?”

Tim looked around the group, then stepped toward Sam. Kontra couldn’t hold in the grunt when Payson gripped his mate’s arm. Fortunately, the hyena shifter steered him toward Kontra.

“Let’s get you reunited with your mate, Tim,” Payson murmured. “He’s been a bear with you bein’ gone,” he added, snickering.

Tim’s eyes widened, then he looked at Kontra in bear form. “Oh, right. Sorry.”

“You will not take him alive!” the man who’d been in the passenger seat screamed. His words ended in a screech. That seemed to be an order for the four strangers to start shifting. Clothes were shed while feathers, beaks, and claws formed, replacing skin, hands, and feet.

Kontra leaped toward Tim, the need to protect his mate surging through him. Three of the owl shifters managed to complete their change and take to the air, but Adam smacked the fourth with his big white paw, sending it careening. The shifter’s squawk was silenced when he hit a tree and crumpled to the ground.