Page 18 of I Ain't Lyin'

“We will handle that,” I said, walking toward the door. “As great as it is to speak with you, Captain Matthews, I’m going to go out to the rest of my team and find out what they know and actually go find my mate. You and your officers can continue to sit on your asses and look for ways to take the man down. I’m going to use the tools I have and actually act in those ways.”

Perhaps I could have been more professional with the man. But I needed to find my mate, and he wasn’t acting fast enough.

“What do you have for me?” I approached Dean and Willa in our makeshift office that we had set up at the station. “Evans said that he gave you some intel?”

“I was able to locate Morelli’s primary resident and a few locations I thought would work for hiding someone if they needed to. I was also able to locate a local witch with ties to the family. We have Officer Evans and GSC Agent Moore heading over to her residence now.”

“Good thinking.” I rolled my shoulders and took a file from Willa. “Let’s go get my mate back.”

***

From the sky, I could find the cabin quicker than if I had tried to drive there. I assume they thought the trees provided enough coverage to hide them better. They were wrong.

I guess using my location spell combined with my ability to fly above the forest and look for disruptions in the tree growth or other signs of life was an advantage they didn’t count on. Besides, it was near the lake and easier to see since there was a break in the greenery.

I landed about a mile from the cabin and dressed in the clothes I had in the bag Willa placed on the back of my dragon form. I needed to message the rest of the team and have them meet me here to get to Leo. The waiting was going to be the hardest part of this rescue mission. My beast was already growling and trying to get me to rush in and kill the men who had our mate. Luckily my training addressed overcoming that instinct and stressed the importance of waiting for backup unless absolutely necessary.

The police had handed over the full case to GSC when they saw how much more capable our agents were in magical matters than they were. Once the human authorities moved out of the way and let my team use the tools we had available to us, we had the names and locations of the individuals who were directly involved in capturing Leo and leaving me for dead. We also discovered everyone involved in the attempted cover-up of Harvey’s murder. Tracking down a few of the higher-ups in the chain, we narrowed down the location they took my mate. I chose this cabin in Albany Woods after my dragon nearly deafened me with his roar at its name. I took it as a sign his intuition was telling him that would be where we found our mate. Willa took the abandoned office building in the city, and Dean decided to try the big boss’ mansion by the beach. Whichever one of us found evidence that we had the correctlocation would alert the others to meet us for the rescue. Looked like I was right to pick the place surrounded by forest.

“I have them,” I said into the communication band that stayed on me even while I shifted between forms. “I was able to identify four living forms in the cabin, and my dragon can smell that Leo is one of them.”

“We’ll be there in ten,” Willa responded. “No one was at the office, so we had already been on our way out of the city.”

“There are a few guards at the mansion.” Dean huffed. “I didn’t see any of the key players though. I neutralized the shifters there and had the humans detained by the officers sent in. The scene is cleared.”

“I’ll wait here for you two and the others to arrive. Just hurry. My dragon is pissed.”

“I got you, brother,” Dean said. I already sent the text to the others, and they are on their way. Hold tight.”

“I’m trying, man.” I rolled my shoulders and breathed deeply. “He’s pregnant.”

“Fuck.” Dean knew what that meant to an alpha shifter. I was fighting against a beast who only wanted to protect his mate and child. “We will be there. Just wait for us.”

“He’ll be okay,” Willa added before signing off.

I just had to sit back and wait for the next few minutes. I dared not get any closer to the cabin until reinforcements arrived. Although I wanted to get to my mate, I didn’t think I should try to take on three unknown enemies by myself to do so. The GSC trains its officers to ignore our beast’s instincts to act first and plan later. We all understand that running in without backup is too dangerous and often ends in unfortunate results. I didn’t realize how hard it would be to do what we are trained. I just wanted to run in and save my mate, but I knew with the rest of the team with me, I’d have the backup magically andphysically to overcome any threat that awaited us. I just needed to believe Leo and our child would be safe until then.

“We’re here.” Dean appeared at my side several minutes later, joined by Willa and a dozen other agents from the council. “Have you heard or seen anything since our last communication?”

“No.” I bounced on my feet, anxious to get into action to rescue Leo. “I didn’t see any other guards or security measures. It seems only to be Leo and three other individuals in there.”

“We have the layout of the cabin.” Willa pulled out the blueprints and laid it on the ground. “As long as they hadn’t done any unauthorized renovations, these are the most up-to-date. The lower floor seems to be kitchen and open floor space. The upper floor has the bathrooms and bedrooms. There is no basement and only a crawlspace attic. Do you know where you detected movement during your surveillance?”

“The upper floors.” I pointed to the hallway and two bedrooms on the second floor. “One was in this room, not much movement from them. Then another one was in this room, with two other people walking in and out of the room and checking windows.”

“Are you sure they didn’t see you?” Dean examined the blueprint and looked back at me. “What kind of guy has only a couple of guards in a house and no one on the land patrolling?”

“I’m not going to complain that this guy has made this mission less complex than others have in the past.” Willa folded up the plans again and shoved it in a bag next to one of the trees to our right. “Let’s break into teams. One team will stay outside and ensure no one gets away or is missed in our prevalence. Another group will go in first and make a distraction, hopefully luring the guards downstairs and taking them out. Then Ashton’s team will go in and get Leo. Sound good?”

As we all gave our approval, we picked the members of each team. We had worked together before on other missions and knew where each member would be best served. My dragon started pushing at me again. I didn’t want to wait any longer. “Let’s go get my mate.”

Chapter Fifteen

Leo

I would find my current surroundings lovely if I weren’t held captive. The log cabin was built into the side of a mountain, creating a beautiful view from the window I was currently staring out of. I honestly thought I was going to be killed. Instead, I had been brought back to an impressive vacation home and tied to a chair, otherwise left alone. I closed my eyes and tried to reach my beast but could not. Whatever they had given me in the car to put me out for the drive here also muted my shifter abilities. Until that wore off, I couldn’t even attempt to get out of here.

I tried to think of a way to get myself loose from the rope that was keeping me bound to this chair. But every move I made only seemed to make them tighter and rub my wrists raw. If I could shift or use my magic, I would be able to free myself, but being left to mundane means, I was out of luck, it seemed. I wouldn’t give up though.

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