Page 57 of Wolf Unleashed
RAFE
“It’s too quiet down here,” Rafe said, pacing the cell. His plan to cause a diversion that would allow Tiernan to escape had backfired. One of the other shifters who’d been transported with them had ratted them out. They’d been drugged and thrown into a ten-by-ten-foot square cell with concrete on all but the side that had bars. The cell had a concrete slab for a bed, but no bedding or any amenities beyond a metal toilet and a thin plastic dog bowl that collected water from a spigot.
“Animal tranquilizers,” Tiernan mumbled to himself. “My brother would laugh me out of the pack if he knew that’s what took me down. Again. It’s getting humiliating, Rafe. First the drug-den and now this.”
Rafe stopped moving. “Tiernan.”
Tiernan rose from the bed and joined him at the bars. Three guards escorted Maddox into the lab. Black eyes glared, and then Maddox shifted. He dug his claws into a guard and bit another in the shoulder.
“Stop, or I’ll shoot the other shifters,” Murphy yelled as he aimed his gun at Rafe.
Maddox stopped fighting and shifted back to human form. A guard whipped his gun across Maddox’s face, splitting his cheek open. Another guard kicked him in the back of his knees, felling him. After a few more kicks and punches, the guards tossed Maddox into the cell with Tiernan and Rafe.
Maddox rolled onto his back. Rafe and Tiernan leaned over him.
“How’s it going?” Tiernan asked casually, as if this happened every day. Then again, it wasn’t the first time they’d been locked up together.
“Just great. I think they broke a rib.”
“Serves you right for resisting when you didn’t have a chance against five guards with guns,” Rafe said.
“Well, Heir, I figured you were sitting in this cell because you have a plan and were just waiting for me to show up. I couldn’t just stroll in here. I had to make it look good,” Maddox said, wincing against the pain as he sat up.
“Very funny. Frankly, I never thought you’d leave your pack.”
“Special circumstances.”
“So, your alpha’s not the heartless white wolf you described?”
“Oh, he is, but like I said, special circumstance.”
“Have you seen Artemis?” Rafe asked at last, afraid and eager to learn what Maddox knew.
Tiernan scented the air. “He did more than see her.”
Maddox grinned. “I got sidetracked.”
Rafe scented him. Her scent clung to the shifter like a ray of sunshine. At least he knew she was safe. “You escaped your pack, but didn’t come to find either Tiernan or me. Why?”
“Not part of the plan.”
“What plan?”
“That’s a long story. One I can’t share.”
Rafe nodded toward the bars. “Start talking before they come for us, Maddox. Maybe we can figure another way out of this mess. This time avoiding the critical mistake we all made.”
“What mistake?” Tiernan asked.
Rafe leaned back against the wall. “Not working together. We were strongest when we worked together at the DSA. If we’re going to save Artemis, we have to start thinking and behaving like a pack. All of us, Maddox, including you.”
Maddox nodded and for once said nothing.
“Good,” Rafe said. “Start by you telling us everything you know.”
* * *
ALYSSA
