Chapter 6 - Taking care of business
“What kind of situation?” Kai stiffened.
“I tracked Adalyn using the bug on her phone and found it broken in an alley in town. I managed to pick up her scent along with two other males I didn’t recognise and tracked it to some abandoned buildings just south of the city. From what I can see from up here they have her tied up and…”
“Where are you?” Kai interrupted before he could finish. He didn’t need to hear anymore and was already bristling with anger. He was already starting to make his way south of city.
“I’ll send you my location.”
With that Kai hung up and increased his speed.
—-
On a rooftop near the abandoned buildings Arrow was observing the situation and waiting patiently for Kai to arrive. With a thud Kai dropped down on to the rooftop and quickly approached Arrow.
“Where is she?”
“Kai? What’s up with the blonde hair?”
“Where is she Arrow?” Kai didn’t have the time or the patience to explain his appearance or engage in idle chat given the situation.
Arrow pointed down to one of the windows in the building below and gave Kai his binoculars so he could get a better look.
“From what I can see, she appears to be okay but unconscious, they have her tied up in that room back there.” Arrow followed up.
Kai thrust his binoculars back in to Arrow’s hands then prepared to jump down off the rooftop in to the building below.
“Woah, wait a minute!” Arrow grabbed his arm just before he was about to jump down.
“What?!” Kai pulled back his arm aggressively. His mate was down there, unconscious and that was all he could think about.
“Something doesn’t seem right, they’ve only got three guys down there, one outdoors and two inside. If someone really wanted to kidnap her and use her against you they would have picked up her phone from the alley or tried to erase their scents from the scene to really hide their location. They just made it way to easy for me to locate her. It’s almost like they wanted you to come and get her. It doesn’t make any sense.”
“Arrow, I couldn’t give a fuck if they are expecting me or not. I’m not going to sit and here and wait to see what happens. The fact of the matter is that somebody has taken what is mine. I’m going to rip them all to shreds for touching her and if there is anything left after I’m done, then and only then will I take the time work out what this is all about.”
Kai’s eyes turned black as his wolf started to take over. He was already in combat mode. The air around him became thick and heavy as dominant waves seeped out of every pore. Arrow had only seen Kai like this a few times and every time he witnessed it he felt the pressure to drop down on one knee and kneel before him in complete submission. This was not the energy of a bastard prince, this felt like the presence of a king.
Realizing that another attempt to try to get Kai to take a step back and fully assess the situation would most likely cost him the loss of a limb, Arrow lowered his arm and yielded.
“Want me to come with you?”
Kai jumped over the side of roof on to the building below without answering. Arrow crossed over his arms and smiled.
“I’ll take that as a no then.” Arrow walked to the edge of the rooftop and looked down over the side. Kai had already disappeared. He knew that Kai didn’t need his help. He never needed anybody’s help when it come fighting and he definitely wouldn’t ask for it. Regardless, Arrow always had his back.
“Guess I’ll just sit back and watch the show then." He lifted his binoculars back to his eyes and waited for the inevitable blood bath to commence.
—-
In front of the abandoned building a slim male shifter was pacing outside the door that led in to the building. His eyes continually flitted up and down to his watch impatiently, like he was waiting for something. “Where are they?” He cursed out loud. Whoever he was waiting for was obviously running late.
As he went to look down at his watch a second time his watch suddenly came up to meet him in his face. The force of the blow sent him stumbling backwards as blood started to cascade down his face. Before he could even work out what had happened an arm wrapped around the back of his neck whilst another simultaneously covered his mouth to prevent him from calling out to his associates. He clawed furiously at his throat with both arms as he felt his airway being restricted. Kai made no sound as the shifter flailed violently against him. With a sharp twist of his arm a dull crack echoed in to the night and the shifter instantly went limp in his arms. Kai released him and he fell to ground with a heavy thud.
As Kai walked in to the building he sensed two more male shifters as Arrow had described. With how easily he dispatched the first and the clumsy way they other two were walking around at the back of the building it was clear that these guys seemed to be more like amateur thugs for hire rather than seasoned professionals. If someone on the council had worked out that Adalyn was his mate and had kidnapped her to threaten him then surely they would have hired a more professional organization for the job. Arrow was right, something about this wasn’t right.
Just then he caught a whiff of that beautiful lavender and cut grass scent. The unique calling card of his mate that he had grown accustomed to over the past year. She was close. His eyes glazed over black again as his wolf urged him on.
—-
Further inside the abandoned building the smell of diesel and car oil filled Adalyn’s nose and she slowly roused her from slumber. The smell was nauseating and as she started to wake she reflexively went to rub her nose only to find her hands stuck and bound behind her.
Her recollection of what had happened earlier suddenly came flooding back in to her mind and her eyes flew open in alarm. Scanning the room she quickly tried to make sense of her current situation. She tried again to tug her hands free from behind her back without any luck. Whatever it was that they had used to tie her hands to the pole was very secure. Even more so she could feel magical properties coming from them that was preventing her from communicating with her wolf. “Great!” If she was going to get herself out of this she was going to have to do this herself without her wolf. Not that her wolf was ever particularly reliable anyway.
Hearing the clang of her restraints against the metal pipe that she was bound to, the big hairy shifter from earlier, who originally tried to capture her, entered the room from behind her.
“Sleeping beauty finally awakens” he crooned. The guy had closely cropped hair and looked as greasy and disheveled as the rest of the room.
“Why have you brought me here? Release me!” Adalyn demanded.
Greasy stalked over to her and forcefully lifted her chin up with his hand to meet his face. “You’re hardly in the position to be throwing demands around.”
Adalyn wrenched her face out of his hand, immediately feeling uncomfortable at the way he was looking at her.
“Someone paid us a good price to hold you and I’m not the type to ask too many questions when it comes to a job.”
He stood back up and forced Adalyn to stand up with him. Now he was able to get a better look at her, he sinfully raked his eyes up and down her body then gave her a mischievous smile. He could tell that underneath her baggy clothes was a body to die for and he liked what he saw.
Repulsed Adalyn tried to step back closer to the pole she was bound to, but Greasy held her firmly in place when his thick arms snaked around her waist.
“We have a bit of time before someone comes to get you, and I think you owe me one after that elbow shot you gave me earlier.” Adalyn could feel bile rising up in her throat. The thought of this man touching her made her feel physically sick.
Things were quickly going from bad to worse. Adalyn had to come up with something fast if she wanted to get out of this situation. Thinking quickly she relaxed the tension in her body and looked up at him with doe eyes to give him the impression that she would be compliant with whatever he had in store for her.
Greasy, seeing in her eyes that she was resigned to her situation, wrapped his other arm around her waist and started to tug down the partially torn t-shirt that she had on.
Suddenly, like a tightly wound spring she jumped up from within his embrace and pushed her feet up and off his shoulder to shimmy herself up the pole. Using her full body strength she pulled back on her arm restraints to support her full body weight in the air. She then wrapped her legs around his neck and began squeezing with all of her might.
This move had completely caught him by surprise and he reached up to desperately try and clasp on to some of the material on her trousers to give himself some more leverage to manoeuvre. Failing that he started to feel the air escape his chest. Every time he breathed out she’d squeeze a bit more, like a snake trying to asphyxiate its prey. This bitch is trying to suffocate me! he thought. His panic was only hastening the process.
Please, please, just go to sleep! she thought desperately. After what felt like hours but could only have been a matter of seconds, she could feel her energy starting to wane as she fought to hold her weight up at the top of the pole. With her last ounce of strength she squeezed her thighs together as hard as she could. Finally she felt his body starting to turn slack in her grip and he slumped to the bottom of the pole, still breathing but no longer conscious.
She slid back down the pole in a huge puff of exhaustion and relief.
At that same moment another shifter came crashing through the door. He was holding both hands to his neck in an attempt to hold back the blood that came spilling out of a huge laceration in his throat. He started trying to shift last minute realizing that he couldn’t stem the flow in his human form.
Adalyn suddenly caught the scent of peppermint and oak. The same scent that left her frozen earlier in the square. Even without being able to connect to her wolf she instantly knew who it was. As if in slow motion Kai breezed in slowly behind the bleeding shifter, through the same doorway.
He was the epitome of perfection. His black t-shirt and jeans clung tightly to his frame highlighting every muscle across his body. Each step he took was graceful and confident. Everything about him oozed sex appeal. Could this be the same guy that she saw earlier? The third prince? Whilst his scent was unmistakably one and the same with the one that she had smelt earlier, his blonde hair and solid black eyes made him look like a completely different person. His wolf had taken over and the determination to finish the job he had started was evident in his demeanour.
Kai eyed her up and down as he swiftly tried to assess the current situation. His lip curled in to a small scowl seeing the rips in her clothes. If someone had touched her they were going to pay for it with their lives. They all were. Seeing no obvious injuries to his mate and the unconscious one directly in front of her, he returned his focus to the shifter in front of him who at present seemed to be the only immediate threat. The injured shifter had started to partially shift in an attempt to heal some of his injuries. Kai casually walked towards him all calm and collected. His fate was imminent and all Kai had to do was administer it.
“Turn away Adalyn” he called without breaking eye contact with the shifter in front of him. He knew what he needed to do but if he could shield her from it he would prefer it.
He knows my name? Adalyn thought silently. Had he come to rescue her?
She was already having trouble looking at the bloody scene that was unfolding in front of her, so she obligingly turned her head in relief.
The semi transformed shifter cried out as Kai delivered the final blow.