Page 3 of Jabba's Journey

My snout instinctually rises into the air as I encounter a scent that all but possesses me. A mating call rings through the air, and it astounds me when I realize that sound came from me. But that can’t be right, I haven’t encountered anyone who could be my other half.

Shaking my head, I bury the need to rush inside to solve that puzzle, because if I don’t do this the right way, we could all suffer the consequences in ways I don’t want to chance.

They’re hurt,I convey as we stealthily begin our foray into the cave.

There are five of them, Prowler adds.

Five? We only have four club girls.

Mate, my wolf whispers to me.Save her.

We’ve managed to maneuver around several pockets of Red Caps, which I’ve alerted Cyrus about since I fully anticipate them to arrive at any time and are so deep in the cave at this point that the only way we’re able to see is due to our shifter abilities.

They’re close,Prowler murmurs, glancing over at me. I nod, my senses practically on overload at this point as I follow next to him to a smaller cave that juts out from the side of the cavern we’re currently pawing our way through.

I can smell the revulsion and dread that emanates around us as I touch my paws to the ground and listen to what the earth has to tell me. The five bodies who don’t have the stink of blood magic running through their veins are huddled together and a sigh of relief that sounds more like a huff passes through my muzzle as I make my way to where the first body lays.

While our club girls are humans, they obviously know about shifters so it’s not a surprise when I hear Candy’s voice, hoarsewith dehydration, call out, “I hope like fuck it’s one of the Iron Howlers next to me.”

Prowler yips as he moves closer while I let my eyes roam over the women, checking each one individually for damage. Each is almost skin and bones at this point, their clothes little more than shreds of fabric. The four club girls, as well as the unknown fifth woman, are all battered and bruised and rage courses through me at the fact that those fuckers dared to touch a hair on any of their heads.

Prowler shifts into his human form and crouches next to Candy. “It’s us, Candy. Jabba and me,” he says. “We’ve been looking for y’all for a long time.”

Sushi’s eyes open and she states, “Electra won’t wake up, Prowler.”

Electra? The name sends a profound sense of longing through me as I move closer to where the women are hunkered together and shift so I can put my hands on them to see how bad all of them are hurt. Hopefully, their injuries are all superficial.

Mate,my wolf whispers as I quickly and methodically run my hands over each of the women, eliciting a grunt of pain from each of them.

“Sorry, sorry,” I languidly murmur as I gather the unconscious fifth woman into my arms and nestling her into my rumbling chest, needing to touch her. I see her eyes, while closed, are sunken into her face, and her lips are dry and cracked, with speckles of dried blood on them where they’ve split open. I’m no medic like Zavier is, but even I can see that whatever’s going on with her is more than what’s typical of someone being dehydrated.

Prowler skeptically glances over at me when the rumbling turns into a chuff. My wolf is all but purring at the aspect of clutching his mate. I narrow my eyes at him in warning. A male who’s found his mate but has been unable to claim her is possessive to say the least.

Mine,I mouth the words to him, making sure my protruded canines are distinguishable.

He shakes his head and like with any of my brothers, I can read his thoughts on his face. Yeah, brother, I know. The timing is bad, but fate had a reason for bringing her into my life when she did.

Shooting him a back off look, I continue to caress my mate, thankful that I found her no matter what the circumstances are.

“How are we getting out of here, Jabba?” Sushi asks, causing me to lift my head from my mate and look into her eyes. “We’re all hurt, but I think we can follow y’all out of here.”

“Cyrus and Corbin have brothers already on the way,” I reply in an attempt to sooth her trepidation. “How often do the Red Caps come down here?”

Sushi looks at Candy, who shrugs. “It’s hard to keep up with time down here, Jabba, but it’s been a few days at least since we’ve seen anyone. I think… I think they left us here without any food or water to die.” Her last few words are barely stated above a whisper as my spine straightens in agitation.

It sounds like something those bastards would do, but right now, we need to get these women out of this drafty cave and back to the safety of the clubhouse. And the only reason I agree with what Candy’s saying is we bypassed several groups of Red Caps when we were looking for the women. If they hadn’t washedtheir hands of them, surely there would’ve been a guard or two down here watching over them. Instead, there are none. They threw away these women,and my mate, like they were little more than yesterday’s garbage.

We’re here, brothers. Gonna take care of the threats before we start heading toward y’all.Cyrus’s voice in my head is welcome right now. Prowler nods so I know he heard them as well.

“Okay, ladies, what do you say we start heading up and out?” Prowler asks.

He helps our four club girls stand while I lift myself up with Electra still tucked into my arms. Prowler leads from the front, the women holding one another up in the middle, and me protecting us from the rear, we start slowly heading toward the cave opening. I can hear my brothers fighting the Red Caps and a somewhat maniacal grin crosses my face. They made a grave mistake when they crossed two of the worst MCs to battle with because we don’t take prisoners, we bury bodies.

Soon, we’re surrounded by several of our brothers, who each take one of the injured women into their arms so we can move faster. At this point, whatever it takes so I can get help for my mate, I’ll willingly accept. I’m not one who normally feels fear, but seeing her still, gaunt face, has that emotion clawing at my guts.

We finally burst through to the outside, all of us taking in huge gulps of fresh air as I frantically search for Zavier. Finally spotting him, I run toward him and yell out, “She needs help! My mate needs help!”

And just like that, silence reigns as every brother present stops and stares in shock at me.

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