Page 8 of The Last Ultimatum: Part 2

I looked away as she loosened the belt and almost instantly she went from a woman to a dingo.

“Thanks, Chelle,” I told her before shutting the door and regrouping with the others. “She can shift.”

“That means it’s the new serum,” Painter said.

“I know.”

“We have a breach,” Silas told us. “I need to report this to Patrick immediately. This changes everything.”

Lachlan

Chapter 3

With this new development to consider, things began moving quickly and also at a snail’s pace. Chelle and I were confined to the penthouse while others came and went. My sole job had been to keep Chelle safe.

I was glad Tilly’s sister was okay. She was angry and scared, but okay. Still, I’d trade her for my mate any day. As horrible as that sounded, it was the truth.

I hadn’t slept last night. The whole world seemed to go still but I remained restless, tossing and turning until the sun began to surface.

Every time I closed my eyes I saw Tilly’s beautiful face. There was a part of me that wanted to get lost in that, but I knew I couldn’t snowball like that, so I kept pushing on.

Pulling out my notepad I looked back over my notes.

There was one group missing from it, but I couldn’t bring myself to write their names down.

The disappointment I felt with my team was nearly crippling. It made me reconsider asking anyone else for help, though I knew I had to get past that if I were going to save my family and rescue my mate.

With a deep breath, I picked up the phone and dialed the number I never dreamed I’d actually use—Archie’s personal cell.

The mole shifter answered on the first ring.

I knew Patrick would have him busy trying to track down any possible connections between the Verndari and the Collectors, as well as possible breaches and reasons these guys had our serum in hand. Sure it was possible that someone elseout there got their hands on the original and redesigned it as our teams had, but there was a higher probability that Westin Force has been breached.

“Lachlan?” he sounded sleepy and confused, two things I was not used to associating with him.

A quick assessment of the time change and I realized it was two o’clock in the morning there.

“You were asleep?” I blurted out.

“Yeah, that’s what you do in the middle of the night.”

“But I thought you’d be up working on the breach situation.”

“The possible breach. There’s nothing concrete yet. I have a team heading that up so I can sleep.”

“I’m sorry to bother you. I really wasn’t thinking about the time difference.”

“What is it? What’s happened?”

“Someone came into my house and kidnapped my parents, and my mate.”

There was a long pause. I pulled the phone away and checked to see that we were still connected.

“What? Your parents? Wait, start from the top. I knew you had mated, they have a caution alert on you from it. And I’ve screened the recording you sent over. I’m sorry I couldn’t send the findings directly to you, but I have orders.”

“And I’m a risk with a caution alert right now.”

I’d had to issue my fair share of such warnings. I shouldn’t be surprised to hear it, but damn it hurt to know I was being treated with kid gloves and possibly kept in the dark. This was my mate, dammit.

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