Page 50 of Bear's Rejected Love

“No one is getting hurt,” Sam promised. “Past maybe some whiplash or vehicle related injuries. I don’t know how we can stop that van otherwise. They didn’t stand a chance against a horde of angry bears the first time we busted that lab. There are four of us right now. They can’t shoot all four.”

“Yes they freaking can!” She yelped. “I mean, probably.”

“Are we taking that chance?” Tavish asked after a stretch of silence. “I can’t see a way to stop them either. If we lose them, we might not be able to find them again. They’re heading straight for the city and if they’re taking him somewhere that means more risk for us. I’d say it’s now or never if we’re going to do this.”

“And what if the van veers off the road and flips? What if Roan gets seriously injured or killed? What if one of them gets hurt badly enough to die?” At least her brain was finally taking control back from the wild rage of the bear. It was getting back in the driver’s seat and overruling her emotions.

Kier fixed her with a dark look. “You know more than us about what he went through in the lab. You think he’d want to go through that again? If it were me then I’d rather be—”

“Okay,” she breathed. “Okay. We just have to make sure they’re okay too. They might have done terrible things and in my head, I want to make them pay, but maiming and killing would make us monsters. It would make us just like them. We need to get the van to stop. We need to get Roan out. And we need to make sure that they’re clear on the fact that this can never happen again. They can’t go after shifters without there being some kind of retribution. I’m not sure how we can scare them that badly if raiding and burning their lab didn’t work the first time, but we need to figure it out.”

“We’ll find a way,” Sam promised roughly. He punched the gas to the floor and veered out into the passing lane.

Tabitha stayed crouched down, her hands clutching the seat in front of her, bracing for the squeal of brakes and tires and then the nasty punch of one vehicle slamming into another. It was probably the worst plan in the world, but it had to work.

The guys were right. This was pretty much their only option.

Chapter 21

Roan

Whatever they’d put in that dart was weak sauce. They’d miscalculated the dosage if they wanted to keep him unconscious and biddable for a long ride. Maybe he had his other animals to thank for that?

He raised his head, even though that made it swim and pound sickly, which went straight to his stomach as a nasty echo. He saw the driver, that woman with the red lipstick. Saw her hands steady on the wheel. He blinked and realized he wasn’t just strapped or tied. He was chaineddown to the floor. A set of manacles at his wrists. His ankles. Old fashioned, torture looking devices, like they’d been borrowed from some medieval dungeon.

There was also a man in the passenger seat, he must have been hiding in the back. No one else was in the van. Just the two of them.

The worst part? He didn’t recognize either of them.

How the fuck did they find me? Why was I stupid enough to give them an opening? Tabitha. Ora. Helena. Corbin. Honor. How the fuck did they find me?

The questions played in a loop through his skull, beating and bruising his already foggy brain. He didn’t test the manacles. He knew they’d hold. They might have miscalculated the sedative dose, but they weren’t dumb enough to let him escape while they were driving. Their sense of preservation had to be stronger than that.

He closed his eyes before they realized he was awake and focused.

Focused so hard he felt his temples pound.

He focused on finding the energy inside of himself to shift. The bear could break the manacles. Either of them could. The panther, the mountain lion, the wolf, and the owl or eagle would slip right out. The owl would make escape the easiest, but he’d be fragile and small in the van. Anything else was deadly.

Anything. He’d take anything right now.

It figured that there was nothing he could call on.

Whatever was in that dart wasn’t just meant to keep him asleep. It was meant to keep him from shifting. He knew it was possible. Before Silver’s mate, Domhnall, realized what he even was, he had no idea he was a shifter. He was in his forties before he even shifted. Ever. His father and grandfather had been giving him a cocktail of crap that kept the bear at bay. He had no clue he was anything more than a man. Granted, they were rich. They had the money at their disposal to make that happen. But these people? They probably had some serious funding on their own, and they had a lab to mess around in. If they could put other animals into him, then they could certainly find a way to keep them from coming out.

He kept trying anyway. He couldn’t just give up. He couldn’t go back to any lab. He couldn’t let these people take him away from Tabitha and the kids.

Nothing happened. His temples pounded harder. His body felt weak and tingly. He wanted to yell with the frustration of being denied and taken captive once more. It was his worst nightmare made a reality.

He didn’t mean to make a sound, because he must have.

“Someone’s awake back there,” the passenger said to the driver. “Joan, he’s- holy shit, watch out!”

Roan’s eyes shot wide open at the yelled warning, but it was too late. Joan couldn’t very well watch out for whatever it was that she was meant to avoid. Metal slammed on metal. The impact of whatever the van hit caused the manacles to jerk at his wrists and feet and the jarring impact of the huge vehicle coming to a full fucking stop out of nowhere rolled through the metal frame and into his body. People weren’t meant to take the impact like that. Manacles were restraints, but they weren’t safety restraints.

Only the pain of the jarring impact kept him from losing consciousness again. His tongue felt like he’d bitten it or something in his mouth again. He could still taste blood. Maybe it was fresh. Maybe it had never stopped bleeding. Maybe he’d lost a tooth. His tongue wouldn’t cooperate to check.

Suddenly, the driver’s side door ripped open. Apparently, the impact from whatever the van had just hit wasn’t enough to scrunch the doors back on themselves. A click of a seatbelt followed and then Joan disappeared from his line of view right about the same time the passenger door screeched open, another click, and the mystery passenger got yanked out.

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