When He's Dark (The Olympus Pride 1)
“What the fuck did he say?”
“Bree’s gone.”
“Gone?” His beast let out a guttural roar that echoed through Alex’s head.
“She and Dani were taken from the center. Greg seems to have been drugged—he’s slumped on the sofa of the reception area looking asleep but he’s unconscious. Luke says the break room reeks of hyena.”
Terror clutched at Alex’s chest even as fury exploded in the pit of his stomach. His gaze snapped to the barn just in time to watch a white Sedan drive out of it. “That fucker.”
Vinnie gripped his arm. “No, Alex—”
“He has her.”
“You can’t run the car down and you know it. Be smart, not hasty. You can’t afford to lose your shit right now. Bree needs you to have a steady head. So shove all that rage aside or you’ll do something stupid and let her down.”
It was one of the hardest things he’d ever done, but Alex took a centering breath and stayed where he was. Because shit if Vinnie wasn’t right.
“Bray probably sent people to take her and now he’s going to meet them at a prearranged location. You want to find Bree? We follow that Sedan, but we do it smartly. Farrell, go,” Vinnie told the enforcer. “Stay out of sight. We’ll follow your hawk as best we can in the SUV, but we’re bound to lose you at some point, no matter how high in the sky and visible to us you are. Once the Sedan stops, call me.”
Farrell promptly shifted, grasped a phone with his talons, and then flew away.
Isaak put a hand on Alex’s shoulder. “Do not worry, nephew. We will find your Breasha. I say we do as dumb Alpha cat says and follow Alpha hyena. Then we can all kill him. Won’t that be fun?”
Bree’s eyes fluttered open. Her brow creased at the dim blur that greeted her. Fuck, she felt like shit. One side of her body was cold, all her muscles felt stiff and sore, and her head pounded like an absolute bitch. So she did not appreciate her inner cat’s loud hisses and snarls right now. And why did her mouth feel so damn sticky and dry? Ugh. Bree went to lick her lips … and tasted cotton.
A gag. She was gagged. Hogtied. Lying on her side on a hard, cold floor. Her heart thumped in her chest, and her stomach rolled.
“Rise and shine,” sang a deep, male voice. A voice she recognized. A voice that was accompanied by a scent she recognized.
Bree blinked several times to clear her vision. And there he was, crouched in front of her, holding a goddamn syringe. Dale fucking Bray.
“Had to give you a shot to wake you,” he said.
Panic whipped through her, making her feel like she couldn’t get enough air—especially with the ropes wrapped so securely around her body. Her heart raced in her chest just as adrenaline raced through her veins.
Her gaze darted around. She was in a van. A van that was probably parked in his underground goddamn tunnels.
“It really is a pleasure having you with us, Miss Dwyer.” Dale exchanged a smile with a broad, giant of a male standing near the open double doors of the van. A male who was also holding a tranquilizer gun.
Fuck, she needed to get free. Get out. No, she needed to rip this fucker to shreds.
“I wouldn’t bother trying to slice through the rope—it’s shifter resistant,” said Dale.
Nonetheless, Bree unsheathed her claws and tried cutting through it, but she might as well have been picking at it with her fingernails for all the good it did. She sheathed her claws and flexed her fingers. Like her toes, they tingled, close to numb with bad circulation.
Hearing a whimper, she stiffened.
“Oh, did I not mention you have company?” Still crouching, Dale moved aside, giving her a perfect view of—Shit. Dani was lying at the other side of the van, gagged and bound and bruised to shit. She’d been beaten badly, but her injuries seemed to be healing.
She looked at Bree, her eyes feverish, her mouth moving like crazy around the gag. But her words were inaudible.
Bree drew in a breath through her nose. The scents of dust, metal, and motor oil struck her senses. She peered out the double doors, expecting to see tunnels. From what she could see, they were in a warehouse of some kind. The walls were corrugated metal, and she spotted some rusted pieces of machinery, industrial shelving, and an assembly line—there were no doubt many more objects, but none were visible to her from that angle.
“I’m going to remove your gag now,” said Dale. “You can scream if you like, but no one will hear you. All that will happen is I’ll have to knock you out cold again just to escape the horrid noise.” He clawed off the gag, grazing her cheek slightly.