Goading the Enforcer(9)

"He broke into my house. He pushed me, challenged my wolf." Tension   seeped into his shoulders as he thought about the evening before.

"Did ye lose control, Carson?" Declan asked. He glanced at his alpha,   but the man was staring at the building, his head cocked as he, too,   listened. "Yes. I wanted him to submit and he did. A little too much,"   he growled.

"What are ye going to do? Do ye need help with anything?"

And that was his alpha. No judgment, no disapproval, just understanding,   just a desire to see the member of his pack happy. "I'm not sure," he   admitted. "I may need you to lock me up tonight."

That had Declan's brows lifting. "Excuse me?" he growled.

He grimaced as he met his alpha's concerned gaze. "Jared is going to a bachelor party."

Declan grinned. "Why not crash it? I'm sure I can get a couple wolves to go with ye to keep the peace."

That had Carson smirking. "I could do that."

Before more could be said, the buzz of power disappeared. Both men   sprang to their feet and sprinted toward the building over one hundred   yards away. Carson reached the door first and yanked it open. Men's   shouts echoed through the halls and he led the way down the corridor. He   turned a corner and spotted three men holding guns on a petrified   human.

He growled. "That's Pascal and the door to the head accountant's office. We need to get in there."

"Well we're not leaving Pascal high and dry after what he did for us. Let's take these men out."

Carson nodded once before bringing up his silenced Glock and lunging   forward. He brought the handle of the weapon down on the back of one   man's head, sending him crumbling to the ground. His alpha was right   next to him, giving a second man the same treatment. The third man   turned toward Carson, crying out in alarm. Carson swung a large fist,   connecting with the man's jaw. The human's head snapped back, but he   didn't go down, telling Carson the man had probably been altered.

Declan jumped into the fray and between the two of them, they quickly   brought the man down. Carson looked at the human, whose eyes were wide   in shock. "I'm Carson Angeni. We spoke on the phone. Where's Jared?"

Relief seeped into Pascal's expression. "Oh. Thank God!" he said. He   turned and headed into the room and Carson and Declan quickly followed.   "He already headed into the shaft." He glanced back at them while   pointing at an open vent. "That guy is flexible! I never would have   thought anyone could fit in there!"

A growl rumbled through Carson's chest, but he quickly cut the sound off   with a cough when he saw the human's eyes widen. "Sorry," he  whispered.  "When did he head in?"

"Ten minutes ago," Pascal answered after a glance at the clock. "I don't know why it's taking him so long!"

Even as he spoke, a loud thump sounded from the vicinity of the elevator   shaft. Then a loud screech echoed through the room and something   thudded on the other side of the door. Carson heard a second thud and   then a crack appeared in the wall. Quickly he and Declan wedged their   fingers into the crack and heaved, forcing the wall open.                       
       
           



       

They revealed a sweating, dirty, cursing mate. Seeing them, Jared   straightened and grinned. "Hey, Injun. Sorry it took so long. Shorting   out the security also shorted out the damn elevators and doors. I had to   hot wire them." He slapped his hands over his clothes, brushing off  the  dust and cobwebs. "Ready to go then?"

Unable to help himself, Carson stepped forward, grabbed the nape of   Jared's neck and pulled him into a hard kiss. After releasing him, he   whispered, "Now I'm ready."

To his surprise, Jared chuckled and leaned forward to give him another   quick kiss. "All right then." He turned away and Carson let him go,   following him through the door.

Declan laughed quietly, but only said, "Pascal, come with us. The others should know ye on sight, but better safe than sorry."

The four of them piled into the elevator and to his shock, he watched   Jared lean forward and scan his own eye while swiping Pascal's   pass-card. Jared met his gaze and winked. "Why do you think it took me   so long to rewire it?" He pinned a stare at Declan. "You should let your   group know that if they can get hold of a pass-card, they can use the   elevator to follow us. The retinal scan activates the shaft, but it   doesn't actually verify who is using it anymore."

Declan nodded as the elevator started moving. He spoke quietly into the   radio, ordering certain groups to stay above and guard their asses,  plus  one pair of shifters to remove the three men from the accountant's   office, while other groups needed to sweep the first floor labs and  the  cages on the third floor.

Seconds later, they stopped on the second floor and ran as silently as   possible down the hall. Declan held Pascal back since he was the   noisiest, leaving Carson and Jared up front. They came to the room   Carson had memorized on the maps he'd found and stopped at a door. He   tried the handle, but found it locked. "Shit," he hissed.

"Hang on," his mate murmured, leaning close and staring at the locking   mechanism. Jared pulled out a roll of cloth and unfolded it. He pulled   three slender rods from the cloth, tucked the wad of linen back into his   belt and inserted two of the rods deep into the lock with one hand.   With the third rod, he began to poke and prod, shift and slide them   around the small, oval hole. Carson shifted impatiently, glancing up and   down the hall uneasily. Jared must have seen the movement from his   peripheral vision, for he said, "I'm almost done." The last word was   punctuated by a faint click.

"Nice, white man," he murmured, pushing the door open. Something in his chest warmed at the soft smirk on his mate's face.

He found Dagus curled up on a cot, recognizing him from the myriad of   pictures Drake had left with them. The darkskinned man jerked to a   sitting position and backed away from them. "Who is it?" Dagus   whispered.

"Easy, Dagus. My name is Carson Angeni. I'm with Declan. We're here to help you."

He kept his tone soothing and prayed Dagus would come easily. He didn't   want to knock out the already traumatized man. The captive's words came   as a shock. "I want to hear Declan's voice."

"I'm right here, Dagus," Declan responded from behind them. "Yer brother   is worried sick about ye, lad. Let's get out of here, aye?"

Dagus's chest released a breath and a relieved smile curved his lips as he pushed to his feet. "Thank you for coming."

Carson went to him, resting one hand on his shoulder and the other on   the small of Dagus's back. "We never leave our own," he promised. "Do   you know if there are others on this floor?"

Dagus nodded. "I know the room to my left is occupied. I've heard   noises, but can't identify them. When they first put me here, there were   noises from the room on the right, but I haven't heard anything for  two  days."

"We'll start with the room on the right then," Declan said from the doorway before slipping away.

Jared moved to the left and Carson gritted his teeth as he disappeared from sight.

"Right is empty!" Declan called.

"Left is not," Carson heard Jared say right before a snarl echoed through the hall.

Carson brushed by Dagus and skidded to a stop at the sight that met him   in the doorway. A large spotted cat crouched over Jared, his incisors   inches away from Jared's throat and a low growl emanating from the   shifter's throat.

Acting on instinct, the instinct that told him another shifter   threatened his mate, Carson leapt forward. He shifted in midair, clothes   shedding from his body as he transformed into his lupine form. He   slammed into the larger animal, jaws latching onto a malnourished neck.   The skinny animal buckled under his weight, yowling piteously. Carson   immediately backed off, keeping himself between the shifter and Jared,   growling out a warning.                       
       
           



       

Declan appeared over his shoulder with Pascal at his elbow and Dagus in   tow. "We're here to help ye. I'm alpha of a nearby wolf pack. Let me   show ye the way out." When the shifter hunched in on itself and snarled,   Declan stepped forward. He held up a dart gun in one hand and an open   palm in the other. "I don't wish to hurt ye, young one. Let us help ye.   Me pack can care for ye and keep ye safe."