Page 45 of Finding Her Panthers

Harmony pauses with her hand on the door, knowing the minute she opens it, they will know what happened. Once I bit her, part of me literally entered her, my essence attached to her. That is one of the ways other shifters know they cannot bond with her. And being an Alpha will deter them even more. I am pleased that she will be a little less appealing to any shifter males that think they can sniff after her.

“Don’t worry. My brothers will not treat you any differently. If anything, they will give you more attention, excited to be the next one.” I grin at her, hoping to put her fears to rest and open my door.

My brothers freeze where they stand. Their eyes widened in recognition of the huge step forward in our journey. I round the hood to Harmony, her hesitant steps finally putting them into action.

James attacks her with a huge, squeezing her enthusiastically, making her let out a startled laugh. “Congrats, sweetheart. Welcome to the family. Officially.” He chuckles at his poor taste of a joke.

Blue slaps me on the shoulder to gain my attention. When I look over at him, he gives me a nod, moving past me to rescue Harmony from James hugging her to death. He reluctantly gives her up so Blue can hold her. He puts his hands reverently on either side of her neck, staring into her eyes, putting all of his approval in his body language. He gives her a soft kiss and one more meaningful look and turns to me.

“He still hasn’t woken up. The doc can’t pinpoint the medication he was given. His wounds should have healed by now. But he isn’t awake to shift to speed up the process.” Blue’s pain is evident in his eyes. He has a soft spot towards Tyler, too.

“The way they threw him out of the car.” James shakes his head. “I’ve never seen something like that.”

“Did you see who it was? How many were in the car?” I need answers. I need to find these assholes.

“It happened so fast. It’s not like we expected it. We were leaving the bar, frustrated at the lack of answers. We heard tires squealing, looked up, and saw a body rolling down the road. I was more concerned with the body. We didn’t realize it was Tyler at first.” James shrugs his shoulders.

“I'm pretty sure there were two in the car. One driving and the other in the back seat, doing the pushing. It had to be the man helping her, which one I don’t know. The car was the same as the description we were given.” Blue’s face is hard.

“It was chaotic. People were screaming. Humans. We had to talk out of our ass to take him off the street. It pisses me off. They don’t care who sees. That’s a dangerous thing.” James reaches for Harmony at her growl.

“We have to find them. If this is about me, she needs to stop bringing innocent people into this. I just need to know what her intention is. What is she going to get out of this? She is crazy if she thinks we will just give up and meekly follow along with her plan.” Her frustration filters through me.

“My question is, why let him go? That was the one thing she could hold over us.” I have a sick feeling in my gut this is just the beginning of the shit we will have to deal with. Something else is going on. Tyler was her leverage, and she let him go. What leverage does she have now? “Let's go in. I want to see him.”

I greet the doc with a nod before letting my gaze go to Tyler laying on the bed over his shoulder, cringing at the damage marring his face. Someone beat the shit out of him. Both eyes are black and blue, and a long knife mark travels down the side of his face, from temple to jaw. His lips are swollen and bloody. He is bare-chested, showing us the massive amounts of bruising covering almost all of it.

Harmony mirrors the rage that consumes me.

“Any answers, doc?”

“I’m sorry, Jax. I still don’t know what they gave him. I can usually scent it out. But this, this is something new, something different. Besides the obvious wounds, he’s got four broken ribs, a broken foot, and a sprained wrist. This is nothing like I have seen before.” The doc has been around for far longer than I have been alive, so for him to not know is not a good thing. That means my friend may not heal. He may not wake up, and that makes me feel helpless. That emotion doesn’t sit well with me.

“Just keep trying. Hopefully, we will have answers soon,” I urge.

“You know I will. I’m giving him something to ease the pain but without knowing what he already has run through his system…” he shakes his head sadly. “I don’t want to give him the wrong thing.”

“I know you are doing what you can.” My phone dings with an incoming text. When I read it, I try to hide my emotions. “I need to take this.” I don’t explain, hurrying away from prying ears, walking out to the street.

I hit the button to call Stephan back, not bothering with greeting him. “What the fuck do you mean Penny is missing?” I demand through clenched teeth.

“She went shopping for snacks. That woman can eat. She has been gone all day. Won’t answer the phone, and no one has seen her.”

“You were supposed to be with her, guarding her.” I look back at the house, hoping I am far enough away that Harmony can’t hear.

“I was. I was with her, but then I got a text from you, telling me to get back to the club, that there was a break-in. You said you were sending someone else to stay with her.”

“What. The. Fuck. I did not send you a message.” A shot of fear runs up my spine.

“I know that now. I spent all day trying to contact you. It just went to voicemail. The rest of the time, I questioned everyone and searched for her. I couldn’t get a hold of anyone. This is the first time I was able to get through.” He sounded desperate and I knew he was telling the truth.

“Did you go back to the last place you saw her?”

“Yes, she talked me into going into a clothing store. She was in a dressing room. Jax, her blood was on the floor.” His panic covered his voice. “When I left her, I didn’t smell anyone. When I went back and saw the blood, the place was flooded with Cindy’s scent along with a male.”

“Fuck.” It took every ounce of my control to keep the fear from affecting the bond. “I need you to be ready to go when I need you,” I order.

“Of course, Alpha. Whatever you need. We all like Penny. Harmony is part of us now, too.” The respect he is projecting is evident.

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