Treyton: Shifters of Timber Rock Read online

  I picked up the smartphone and looked at the snapshot. Sure enough, there was no record of her checking back in on the night she left me at the bar.

  Trip continued, “And there are two cars sitting out across the street at the bus station. One’s from Arkansas and the other says Montana. That’s not odd either considering that it is a bus station. But, when the lot’s full, that’s where the attendants direct folks to park.”

  “Another missing human girl. Great,” Noah exclaimed, leaning against the truck.

  In addition to myself, Noah and another packmate who we called Jerrick were due to travel to the lower valleys where we would meet the other six. From there, we would track the Black Ridge rogues and locate those who’d gone missing with them. If they were running around Arrow Lake and surrounding areas, their hideout couldn’t have been far.

  “What happened when I left the diner, Trip?” I asked.

  “I didn’t see anything or notice anything out of the ordinary. I was on the grill and the fry station that night actually. The other dude called in. It was so fucking busy; I didn’t even get a chance to take a break or a piss. All of a sudden, the waitresses started running through the kitchen and out the back. They said a gang was threatening to tear up the place. We’ve had shit like this happen before at Donnie’s. You know, sometimes the bikers get out of hand. If things get too rowdy, we’re told to exit the building until the bouncers can diffuse the situation or the cops get there,” Trip replied. “I didn’t know the rogues were there. They came and left quickly right out of the front like they didn’t give a damn about being seen.”

  “And let me guess, the inexperienced human bouncers that guy hires didn’t stand a chance against the rogues?” Noah replied, rolling his eyes.

  “Obviously not,” Trip muttered under his breath.

  Jerrick pushed off the truck. “Look, Trip. You don’t have to do what they say. Especially not that Abrams guy. Why are you still working there still? What’s keeping you there? I don’t get it.”

  “Hey, you don’t have to get me.” Trip pointed a finger. “And I don’t have to listen to you either. Last I checked, my alpha’s name was Draven.”

  “Guys!” I jumped between them to keep them at arm’s length. “We have work to do. Stop this bullshit right now.”

  “So, what are we looking at?” Noah asked. “Do you think this girl got picked up by the rogues?”

  I frowned and fished the lost button from my pocket. “This belonged to her. It was on the pavement at Donnie’s.”

  “Strings still attached. Looks like it was ripped right off. Smells like a woman.” Noah took the button and placed it to his nose. He was our go-to guy when it came to sniffing out leads. Shifters had an excellent sense of smell, but men in the St. Patrick bloodline were experts at it. “There was a scuffle too,” he added.

  Noah’s confirmation of what I knew didn’t make me feel any better. Why’d it have to happen to her?

  “Let’s go,” I said, slamming the tailgate shut. I tossed my truck keys into Trip’s palm.

  He caught the keys awkwardly and stared at me. “What’s this?”

  “She’s yours for the interim. Take care of her while I’m gone,” I said. “And do yourself a favor…maybe find another job. Talk to Draven about what you need. He’s a good listener. We talked to you about certain citizens when you decided to stay. Everyone here isn’t our friend.”

  Trip nodded. “I understand. I’m here for a reason. I’ll talk to Draven.”

  I began taking off my clothes and packing them into a cloth sack. Noah and Jerrick followed my lead. We were down to our pants when Trey said his farewells, jumped in the truck, and rolled off.

  “He’s a good kid,” Noah said.

  I nodded. “Yeah. We have to look out for our own and for those we care about too.”

  “What he said…about being here for a reason…there’s something or someone here he wants,” he said.

  I paused momentarily to throw Noah a hard stare. “You mean he’s not here for the pack?” I replied, jokingly.

  “He’s loyal. He belongs with us. Don’t get me wrong about that. But that same summer he stayed behind, he sort of changed. Matured. Grew up a whole lot. I think that’s why his dad allowed him to stay here with us. When we were done with the renovations at the Klausner mansion, he kept going there. Klausner has three daughters. That family owns the fucking bank. Trip, on the other hand, has only a broken-down dirt bike and maybe a stack to his name. Could you imagine…?”

  “Hmmm…” I exclaimed, biting my lip.

  “The billion-dollar question is, which of Klausner’s daughters has him sprung?”

  “Oh boy. If it isn’t one thing, it’s another. If Klausner found out that a shifter was courting one of his daughters, he’d set the whole town on fire.”

  “Yup.”

  I sighed. “Welp, that’s life. But we’ve gotta deal with one thing at a time. And I think Trip has good reasons for keeping his love interest a secret.” I looked up at the moon which was just beginning to peak near the mountaintops. “We’ve got a lot of ground to cover before we reach the lower valleys. Let’s stay together until we get connected with the others.”

  “Finally. I’m ready to run and go kick some ass,” Jerrick exclaimed. He was the pack runner. He was fast and his stamina was unyielding. If anyone could sustain the roughest terrains in the region, it was Jerrick, the most sought-after runner in our region. He often delivered messages between packs when the alphas had too much on their hands. I had confidence in the initial team selected for this mission and I was sure that the other two packs had chosen members to join us that could beat the odds now that we knew what we were up against.

  Noah, Jerrick, and I shifted into our wolf forms nearly in unison and raced to the designated place to meet the others.

  CHAPTER NINE

  TATIA

  “Where are you taking us?” a girl screamed out from behind. “We’ve done everything you’ve asked us to do. Just let us go.”

  She had demanded what a lot of us feared to demand and she paid the price for it. Not two seconds after her outburst, I heard someone get slapped hard across the face. The rope binding me jerked and all of us tumbled to the ground. A long thick rope was tied around each of our waists connecting us together. If one of us faltered, the whole line went down. And it was clear that the girl who had the breakdown had collapsed to the ground after being assaulted, causing a domino effect.

  I tasted blood in my mouth and realized that I had bitten down on my tongue during the fall.

  Yesterday, we’d been in a stuffy room with metal rusted cots. At the break of dawn this morning, the men had carted us out of there and brought us outside.

  We weren’t blindfolded this time, but we might as well had been. All around me there were nothing but trees and thick bushes for miles and miles. It seemed that we’d been walking for hours without rest. Where the hell were they actually taking us?

  Something else I noticed was that only half of us were here with the men now. Six of us. Tied together like prison inmates and forced to walk the rough terrains until we were battered and tired. I wondered what happened to the other six. Had they been let go or were they disposed of?

  The younger girl they placed at the front of line flirted with the men constantly. To make matters worse, she had told us that she was pregnant, and they knew it. I supposed that’s why they put her there—because they knew she wasn’t going to try to run off like the rest of us. She wasn’t putting on a front for the men like Katlyn and I first believed. She enjoyed this cruel game and she had something they wanted. Even if the rest of us wanted to devise an escape plan, the girl at the front of the line would be a problem. I didn’t trust her one bit.

  I swallowed and held up the tail-end of my blouse and wiped the blood from my lips. My other hand had landed on a river rock. I squeezed the rock tightly until my palm blistered, thinking how it would please me to hurl it at the face of the man who had
assaulted the girl.

  “We’ll rest here for a few minutes,” the biggest scumbag announced. He produced some water bottles and passed them out to us.

  Another dumped his sack on the ground in a huff and put his hand on his hip. “They’ve got to suck it up. If they want to survive with us, they have to learn to keep going.”

  “Shut the hell up! They’re human. Of course, they can’t keep up,” the scumbag growled. “We acquired them for one purpose only. We’ll need to get them to our place in one piece as we were told. Get that through your thick ass skull.”

  The man who protested sucked his teeth and disappeared through some trees.

  I thought I heard a stream running in the background, but I definitely noticed the birds circling overhead. Just a short distance to the left of us was a trail. It looked like a person or something frequently passed through here. Even though we were in the wilderness, there had to be someone out here. I had to believe that someone had reported at least one of us missing. I didn’t expect it to be me. No one would care if I went missing or not. I had no family. I had only been in town a couple weeks. I prayed the other girls’ situations weren’t like mine. I prayed that someone cared about them enough to be concerned about their whereabouts and look.

  “I have to go,” one of the women said meekly.

  The scumbag growled. “You can hold it.”

  “I can’t!”

  The scumbag charged us and angrily loosened the woman from the rope, leaving the rest of us tied together. “You can pee. But that’s going to cost ya,” he snarled.

  “But…no! I changed my mind,” she protested.

  Too late. The woman was grabbed by the forearm and rushed and dragged somewhere behind a tree. A few minutes later, I heard the woman’s muffled screams and bile rose in my throat. I swallowed it down and prayed I didn’t barf on my lap.

  Now I realized why bad men like my former boss existed. It was to get rid of bad men like these. No longer a member of the criminal underworld, Kozlov would spend the rest of his life in jail. I shook my head and willed the memories away. But I didn’t just chase away the memories, I chased away the regret and remorse I felt for what happened. Here I was, wishing a man like Kozlov would come and end this nightmare from hell.

  While the scumbag was gone, another one of the men stepped in, staring us down like a hawk. As I predicted, his attention waned after a while. I carefully fished the rusted strip of metal from my sock and pierced through the bloody tail-end of my blouse with it. After slicing up my forefinger trying to hack through the silky fabric, I finally managed to tear off a small piece.

  Later, when the men finally deemed it was time to go, I popped off one of the buttons on my blouse and left it along with the bloody piece of fabric tucked halfway under a rock.

  CHAPTER TEN

  TREYTON

  My cell phone vibrated on my hip and I answered it right away.

  “Treyton, I missed your call.” It was my alpha. “What’s going on out there?”

  I marched through the forest with my cell phone pressed to my ear, shoving aside tree branches as I progressed through the thick foliage. “I found a scent yesterday. We’re on it.”

  “There’s a rainstorm coming tonight. Thunderstorms are already starting to roll through certain areas.”

  “I’m not slowing down. I’ve got food, water, and there’s no shortage of shelter out here. I’m fine. So, are the guys. Noah and Jerrick are top notch and both Iron Ridge and Crystal Lake sent their best guys.”

  “That’s good to know that no one’s hurt.”

  “We’ve made no contact yet, but when we do…” I didn’t finish, but Draven and I both know this wasn’t going to end with hugs. “Plus, that rainstorm is destined to wash away the scents we’ve been tracing. I’ve gotta keep moving forward.”

  “The women are likely what’s slowing them down.”

  “Yes, but something is keeping them in this area anyway. Whatever that is, it’s sure as hell important enough for them to stick around despite us gaining on their assess.”

  “Their alpha is dead…so I wonder why they’re lingering around so close to town,” Draven exclaimed.

  “Stalling…regrouping…they’re stupid as hell.” I shrugged.

  “They probably didn’t expect a quick demise of their alpha.”

  “Agreed. Jayce’s decision has them in scrambles. They’ve made bad choices and they’re about to get caught,” I said.

  “Still, I worry about the women they have with them. Human or not, we have to free them.”

  “Jayce’s mate, Violet, was lucky enough to get help early. She would’ve been with them. So, don’t worry about me. I’ll be alright. I’m not completely cut off from civilization out here.”

  “Adam says you picked up multiple scents in an abandoned bunker.”

  “Yes. They had to have been staying there holed up for at least a couple days. My hunch is that they kept close to a dozen women in that bunker. How are things in Arrow Lake?” I asked.

  “Calm for now. Our borders are protected. Our people are safe inside,” Draven replied.

  There was a long pause on the line, and I had no doubts that Draven was worried about me, but this issue had become personal for me. I couldn’t stop now. I wouldn’t stop until I found Tatia. I had enough evidence to conclude that she was kidnapped by those bastards on the same night they got Violet.

  “One of them…one of the women…” I started.

  “One of the women what…?” Draven demanded.

  I stopped, pressed my back against a tree, and inhaled deeply to catch my breath. I fished two buttons from my pocket. They had both come from Tatia’s blouse. The most recent one had been wrapped in a bloody strip of silk. She was smart enough to leave clues. And desperate enough about escaping to risk leaving them.

  Her scent—I couldn’t get it out of my head. The smell was so familiar and distinct.

  “A woman’s been leaving clues. I met her at the bar. At Donnie’s. I think she was kidnapped. She’s bled out here, Draven. If they hurt her…” I told Draven, and then paused to get my emotions under control.

  “Don’t worry. She’ll be found,” Draven assured me.

  I shook my head. “It’s so strange. It’s like the scent is in my head. I wonder if I’m wrong about something. Is it real? Is she real? I can’t stop thinking about her. Or was I just imagining her?”

  There was a pause. Draven must have thought I was crazy or something. Maybe I was delusional. I didn’t sleep at all last night. While the other guys napped, I was consumed with guilt.

  “I trust you, Treyton. You need to trust your instincts too,” Draven said.

  “My instincts say they’re getting closer to the border. Once they cross it, it’ll be tougher to find them. These guys, the nine of us, we don’t know that terrain.”

  “None of us do. Nothing goes out that way anymore. It’s a wasteland.”

  “Tatia’s scent is just about the only reason I’ve been able to track them,” I added.

  “Tatia?”

  “Yes. Tatia.”

  “Okay, Treyton. We need to move on to the next step before it’s too late,” Draven declared.

  “We’ve just about tracked the hell out of them. Time to home in and use force. Send me some more guys who aren’t afraid to get their hands dirty. It’s about to get ugly.”

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  TREYTON

  “Do you see them?” I asked Noah as he crouched down beside me. We peered through the bushes at the vans that had just pulled up behind a row of dumpsters. “I don’t recognize any of them. Looks like a whole bunch of new members to me.”

  Noah nodded his head in agreement. “Just like Draven said. You stop them once and they just regroup and come back even nastier.”

  “Different leadership. Same fucking sleazy tactics.”

  “What the hell are they doing at an abandoned state park?” Noah asked. “It’s chained up. No one’s getting through there
.”

  Sure enough, the entrance to the park was blocked off by large barricades and secured metal gates, likely meant to keep wild and dangerous animals in and outsiders out. Every now and then, we’d hear the stories of nosy reporters and crazy wildlife researchers breaking in and getting killed by something.

  “Look.” I pointed to a second set of gates. “The locks have been cut through. Someone’s been getting in and out. This area was supposed to have been protected by the State for wildlife preservation and control. It’s not shifter territory. It’s never been.”

  “The human’s used to call it Osprey’s Bend. Used to be popular for hiking and snowboarding until it was shut down because of rabid and aggressive wildlife. After that, the natural wolves took over,” I explained.

  “Apparently, more than just the natural wolves have claimed this area?”

  “Looks that way.” I observed as one of the rogues yanked on some chains until the gate gave way.

  “They don’t give a rat’s ass about the ban…” Noah mumbled.

  Two other shifters, one from the Iron Ridge pack and the other from Crystal Lake, joined us in the huddle. They were still in wolf form and they remained that way. We were careful not to bring attention to ourselves. Shifting in and out of human form too often was a sure way to blow our cover.

  “They’re dragging the women out now,” Noah announced in a hoarse whisper.

  I peered out through the thick trees, hoping to get an idea of how many women needed rescuing. This wasn’t going to be a clean operation by any stretch of the imagination. These rogues were known to be violent, especially when they were caught off guard.

  Since it was going to take more than a few of us to rescue every single woman, I called in for more help from some trusted humans—men who had been trained in search and rescue missions just like this. This was a special case. Not just domestic. We were talking human trafficking here. The police force in Arrow Lake had already shown us that they weren’t equipped to deal with a situation like this one. They just wanted the rogues gone, but there was no way I could keep a clear conscience if we ran them up out of here along with innocent women at their disposal.