The Maverick Pride Tales - Chapter 202: Chapter 202

He knew every inch of Megan’s sweet body, and she’d definitely kept some of what her brother made her do to herself. Evidence of healed injuries and battle wounds scarred her body. She didn’t like to talk about the hurts, and Cole had been all too happy to kiss them and make her feel good. But maybe he should have dug deeper. Maybe he would know more about where those goons had taken her.
“M-Megan, n-need to warn h-her,” a hoarse voice whispered.
“He’s awake!” Thor announced.
Four giant males from the Maverick Pride came walking in with one older Witch dressed in white following behind just as Matthew Sudak came to. Cole raced to his bedside while the others whispered.
“Easy on him,” Thor rumbled.
“Who took her? Where did they go?”
“Who ar⁠—”
“I’m Cole. Megan is my mate. Where. Is. She?”
Matthew Sudak’s eyes blazed with shame and regret, his lip trembled but he sat up, clutching at what were undoubtedly several broken ribs. Too bad Cole didn’t feel an ounce of pity for the younger male.
“Igor took her. Wants r-revenge,” Matthew said, sucking in air as he tried to move words past his broken jaw.
“Revenge on you?”
“No, her. She k-kicked his ass the last time he fought her. He che-cheated.”
Pride surged through Cole, and worry. So much fucking worry. That asshole had an ax to grind, and he had Megan.
Get. Her. Back.
His monster Wolf felt huge as he snarled the word inside his mind’s eye. Cole watched some of the others bend over and bare their throats save for a handful. He was no Alpha, but he was angry. Very angry.
“Hey, I got a hit on Polosavich. He’s got a building, a warehouse twenty-minutes east.”
“How do we know she’s there?” Sheila asked.
“Matebond,” one of the Tigers said. “I’m Mike. I found my mate once through our bond.”
“What? How?”
“I just felt her. Look, if you claimed each other, then you have a bond, right? Look for it,” the male urged.
Anger and fear warred inside him. He closed his eyes but all he saw was rage and panic, and loss. So much fucking loss. Where was she? He needed her. It wasn’t fucking fair, dammit! Cole didn’t understand how to do this. How could he help her when he couldn’t even slow his fucking mind,
Just then, Thor stepped in front of him. He put his heavy hands on Cole’s shoulders and the scary as fuck bald seer looked him right in the eyes. At first, he startled, not liking a dominant male’s hands on him. Then Cole understood. As he stared at Thor, Cole saw the impossible.
It was like falling down a rabbit hole. Nothing but hazy darkness and shadow tunnels to greet him, down, down, down, he fell. Then he found it again. That same bond he saw the night they’d claimed each other. It was bigger now thicker, the silver and amber braid somehow became a chain, and it was glorious to behold.
Love pulsed in the very air around him. The sound of growling and purring made him jump, and then he saw them. His monstrously huge Dire Wolf, his dark gray fur stirring in the magical, metaphysical breeze, and beside him an enormous she-Tiger. Bright orange with black stripes, beautiful, but yes, she was fierce.
Suddenly, the air shimmered and hummed, and magic pulsed all around him. Cole’s eyes widened as he watched the she-Cat swap fur for flesh. Then she was there. His lily! Cole ran and caught his woman, his mate.
“Megan!”
“Cole? Where are we?”
“In the other, lily. We’re in the other,” he growled, brushing her hair back from her face and growling at the bruise he saw there.
“You’re here. Am I safe? No. Shit. My body, I’m still there⁠—”
“Where are you?”
“They had a hood over my head, I couldn’t see, but we drove for a long time.”
“Was it far?”
“No, I don’t think so. Maybe fifteen or twenty minutes. I smelled fumes like from smoke stacks or something.”
“Down by the factories? Fuck. We think we know where you are. Leo has a lead⁠—”
“Matthew?”
“He’s here. He’s been roughed up, but we have him.”
“Did he set this up, Cole?”
“I don’t know. We’ll get to the bottom of it though.”
“Okay, okay,” she said, and hugged him tight.
“We’re coming, lily. You just stay strong,” he gritted out wishing he could swap places with her.
Fuck. Fuck. FUCK.
“Is there anything else you can tell me? Anything that can help?”
“H-he drugged me. My Tiger came bursting out of my skin and they were all yelling and he drugged me again. He’ll be mad. He can’t fight me if I’m drugged.”
“Look, even if it wears off pretend to be drugged, okay? Stay still. Stay safe. Fucking motherfucker,” he growled and pulled on his own hair.
“Shh, don’t do that, baby. It will be okay. I’ll buy us some time. Come for me, Cole. I trust you. I know you will.”
“I will I swear it. I love you, lily.”
She smiled and her body started to shimmer again. Her tiger was back, and the animal was panting and scared.
“I am coming for you, mate,” Cole said one last time to her Cat before closing his eyes.
When he returned to the real world, Cole was sweating and trembling with the aftereffects of traveling to another plane of existence, not to mention pure, unadulterated rage. Multiple pairs of eyes met his, and he was humbled knowing he wasn’t in this alone.
“Well, do you know what these guys want? Why they took her?” Derrick asked.
“My fault,” Matthew said, his voice raspy and filled with sorrow.
“Fuck, son, I thought we were beyond this,” Hunter growled.
“I didn’t gamble again. I swear. He just got back to the country. W-wants revenge,” he explained.
“Igor wants to fight her. A rematch. A few years ago, Matthew owed Igor some money. He offered a test of strength to Igor,” Cole growled.
“That rings true. The guy is an egomaniacal piece of shit,” Leo, Sheila’s mate, supplied.
“But instead of fighting him himself, Matthew offered Megan,” Cole gritted out.
“You offered a precious Shifter female to be your fucking punching bag?” Derrick asked and his voice rang with disgust.
“N-no. Worse. Megan is the strongest Shifter I ever met. I knew she could ki-kick his ass. But I also knew he wouldn’t fight fair. H-he hurt her.”
Cole closed his eyes as blackness and rage filled him. His Wolf howled, and Cole knew he needed the monster to keep him sane. He half-shifted and everyone around him backed up a step. Oh, he was fierce and full of pain. That Siberian Tiger prick had hurt his mate, and Cole would make sure he paid. Fuck yes, he would.
“Leo is right. We must get to that warehouse. Come,” he snarled, his voice unrecognizable.
He stomped outside, his huge, hulking body trembling with rage. There was no way he could push the beast back down inside. Not until he had her back, safe and sound. Not until he avenged her. Cole’s growl was constant now. He hopped inside Thor’s truck, the big male offered to drive which was great since his claws would likely rip the steering wheel apart.
“Stick to the backroads,” Derrick ordered from another truck where he had Hunter and the Maverick Pride males in the back.
“Uncle Uzzi, please keep watch over the others,” Derrick asked the old Witch who nodded his assent.
“Bring her back, Cole,” he said and the monster Wolf nodded.
He would do just that. Cole wasn’t coming back without her. Finding her in his half-Shift was going to be straightforward. Whatever magic helped him hold this monster Wolf shape also granted him clearer vision.
“Which way?” Thor asked.
“Go east. We follow the matebond.”
“She thinks she can pretend sleep,” Igor roared, shoving Megan’s shoulder, so she rolled over on the hard table where they’d chained her.
Her body ached from the force of her change and all that covered her were a few ripped shreds of her former clothes. One of the fuckers sneered and said something dirty. Megan didn’t have to speak the language to understand his meaning. Especially not when that chode looking motherfucker started thrusting his hips as if he was fucking the air and laughing out loud.
“I said open those eyes, bitch,” he sneered. “Do you know what I have planned for that Pack of dogs you shacked up with? They will be dead by the end of the night. Soon as I finish with you, I give order. You know, before my hands were tied. But now, Father is back in Russia, and I have all his men working for me now, little kitten. After I give you scar to match mine, maybe I keep you as pet and you can watch me tame dogs!”
“No!” Megan gasped, eyes opening wide.
“Ha! She is awake. Good. Unlock chain. Let her up. We fight, kitten. I beat you and I have earned back my honor. Do not worry. I won’t kill you,” he growled, and moved to a fighting pose.
Shit. Megan should have kept her mouth shut, but the idea of Lucy and the others being hurt because of her had sent her into a panic. The entire DWMV had been so wonderful to her, accepting and welcoming. She’d already thought of them as family. They were hilarious and so supportive, even encouraged her art. Heck, she was painting a mural across the triplet princesses’ little bedroom. It was a beautiful forest scene with a bright full moon in a purple sky with Hybrid Cat Shifters, Dire Wolves, Lions, Ravens, Tigers, and blue sparks of magic. It was whimsical and full of flights of fancy, something Megan couldn’t wait to duplicate for her own cubs someday.
Gods, she really wanted that. She wanted the chance to have a family with Cole. She’d done it. Megan had really left home and found her mate. She’d found a place she belonged, where she felt more herself than ever before. And love. Gods. Yes. She found love. The real kind that inspired poets and musicians, storytellers and dreamers, everyone throughout all the ages of civilization. Cole Mingan was the absolute love of her life.
And fuck Igor Posolavich for trying to take her away from him.
“You aren’t going to hurt him, Igor. You won’t hurt any of them.”
“Why you think that, bitch?” he sneered.
“Because, you’ll be dead,” Megan roared and leapt off the table.
Igor growled, using his claw tipped hands to rip open her left shoulder. Burning pain blinded her for a moment and she fell to the floor, slipping in her own blood. Fuck. That hurt, and she wished like hell she had clothes on. But she was Shifter and fighting nude was not uncommon.
“That is right, bitch. I give you drug, and I think Tiger might not hear so good now, yes?”
He smirked and swung again, but she ducked the blow, aiming a punch right at his throat. He was right. Something was wrong. Panic made her sweat as Megan tried to call her animal, but it was like something was separating her from her beast. She danced around Igor’s attacks, trying desperately to get to her animal, fending him off best she could. But she was tired and groggy from the bad medicine he’d given her.
No. NO! I can’t die like this.
“You were too cocky, but I think no more. Get the chains, boys. We will make her watch when I kill her dog lover⁠—”
The image of Cole being murdered by that pig of a Tiger hit Megan harder than any of his punches. She roared long and hard, the force of her yell shook the whole damn building and Igor’s men scrambled back, but it was too late for their boss.
The rage and fury she felt at the threat to her mate were unparalleled. Megan’s Tiger was back and with a vengeance. She’d managed to control her shift at a very early age. It was the true test of strength for a Shifter, and with her arms and legs transformed into some in between state of her Tiger’s claws and her human hands, Megan sliced that prick right across the throat.
Igor gasped, clutching at the bleeding mess she’d made, but it was no use. Before he fell, the doors busted open, and death came for the rest of his men in the shape of an eight foot tall monster Wolf. Cole was beautiful.
She watched him slash through the rest of Igor’s men who mistakenly thought to fight him off and avenge their boss. Megan had to lose her half-Shift, shaky as she was after the drugs he’d given her and the fighting. She’d managed to get herself caught by the last of his thugs. But one look at her avenging angel of a mate and the guy pissed himself and shoved her forward.
He didn’t get far. A group of Tigers and Wolves had him cornered, and he was tied up like a turkey and tossed over someone’s shoulder to take back for questioning. Megan didn’t know, and she didn’t care. She stumbled and fell, almost landing on the hard floor, but he was there to catch her. Her sexy as hell, deadly, and slightly psychotic, mate. She wouldn’t want him any other way.
“Cole!” she screamed, never happier than she was right then to be in his arms, even furry as they were.
“Tiger lily,” he growled inhumanly, but Megan didn’t mind.
She loved it. She loved him. And it was about time she told him so.
Just as soon as she woke up.