He finally reached the door and saw how far Heather had gone. Instead of going after her, he slammed the door and locked it. Calla jumped away from him, now that he was unable to go after Heather in time. He had murder in his eyes. “You mated that bastard, didn’t you?” His mouth twisted with hate. “You put me off for a whole year and you’ve already mated him? You’ve been dating him for what, two weeks?” He glanced around at the packing boxes. “That’s what this is all about, isn’t it? I thought you had sold your house to help pay your parents’ debt, but you wouldn’t have had time.”

The fury in his voice scared her.

She raced for the back door, but he quickly caught up with her, grabbed her, and held her pinned against his body this time. She struggled to free herself, but he was too strong.

“Let. Go. Of. Me,” she growled, trying to infuse her voice with as much steel as possible to hide her fear.

How long would it take before Guthrie and the others came to rescue her? She had to delay Baird, though she was afraid he’d just attempt to kill her rather than allow Guthrie to have her for his mate.

Baird tried hauling her toward the back door.

“Nay, let go of me, Baird! Your pack has its money back. You don’t need me any longer.”

“They have the money back, aye. But the only way they’ll forgive me for taking it in the first place without the pack members’ mutual consent is if I mate with you and bring your income and properties to add to the pack’s holdings.”

“I’m already mated to Guthrie. For life. You just said it yourself. You know I can’t mate you.”

“I don’t care. I still need you.”

“Or what?” she asked, still fighting to free herself as he made headway to get her to the back door.

“Or I’m out. The same with my brothers and my cousin who conspired with me. We’re all out. Without a pack. Without money. Power. Nothing. So you’re coming back with me.”

“You think the MacNeills will allow it?” she said, trying to reason with him.

“I don’t have any choice. Can’t you understand that?” he said, angered.

“You’ll be alive, Baird.”

“I’ll be nothing.”

There was no reasoning with him. She couldn’t free herself from him, no matter how hard she tried. He must be parked out back. No matter what, she couldn’t allow him to take her with him.

All she could think of doing was shifting. She’d never tried it before when she was fully clothed. She’d never heard of a lupus garou managing to shift while wearing clothes.

But she was desperate. If she had her wolf’s teeth, she could bite him. Even with her just making the shift, she knew he would have a hard time holding on to her.

She called on the urge to turn, her body stiffening slightly, and he quickly said, “Oh, no you don’t.”

She saw his fist right before he struck her, and she tried again to pull away. He hit her hard. Pain radiated through her skull, preventing her from concentrating enough to complete the shift. A flash of recall of when he’d done it to her before followed. She wished to God she had her wolf’s teeth bared. Then her world instantly dissolved into inky blackness.

Chapter 20

Guthrie and the others dropped everything they were doing when they heard Heather screaming and shouting that Baird had come back for Calla. Heather was crying and running as fast as she could toward the manor house, which was about a thousand feet from the carriage house.

They rushed outside, and Guthrie bolted for Calla’s place, Duncan and Oran keeping pace as Ethan and Jasper raced behind them.

“Stay in the manor house,” Cearnach said to Heather. “Call Ian.”

And then he hurried off to catch up with the rest of them. When Guthrie reached the carriage house and twisted the doorknob, he found it locked. “Calla!”

Duncan yanked out his standard lupus garou lockpicks and worked on the lock, while Guthrie and Cearnach sprinted around the other side of the house, in case the back door was open. His heart thundering, Guthrie saw Baird’s red car peel off down the long cobblestone drive to the main road. But no sign of Calla in the car. Not that he could see anyway.

Guthrie and Cearnach hurried inside the back entryway, where the door hung wide open. Guthrie hollered at Duncan and the others, who were searching in the back rooms, “Any sign of Calla in the house?” He worried then that Baird might have killed her and run.

“They’re gone,” Duncan said, stalking down the hallway. “She’s not here.”

“All right. They headed off the property the back way,” Guthrie said, hurrying for his car just as lightning blazed across the darkening sky and thunder cracked. The rains started right after that.

Duncan and Cearnach climbed into Guthrie’s car and Guthrie drove off. Oran and Ethan took off in the other, following them, while Jasper stayed behind to watch over Heather—just in case they had unexpected trouble from more of Baird’s kin.

Cearnach called Ian on the speakerphone. “Baird’s taken Calla hostage. He’s headed onto the main road. We’re in pursuit.”

“Out here, the rain is changing to sleet. Be careful,” Ian warned. “Keep me posted.”

By the time they got to the main road, they couldn’t tell which way Baird had gone.

Duncan quickly got out of the car, sniffed the wet air, then got back in the car. “His recent car fumes indicate he headed left.”

They were off again, the car roaring down the road and Guthrie going way faster than was probably safe. But no one told him to slow down. If any of their mates had been abducted, they would have felt the same way.

He just hoped they weren’t too late.

The roads wound back and forth in the hilly country, some of it edging steep cliffs that dropped away to the cold sea.

Guthrie’s heart rate hadn’t slowed down from the moment he had heard Heather’s frantic cries.

Usually his brothers would reassure each other when something was wrong—saying they would take care of it. In this case, everyone was silent, anxious, watching for any sign of Baird’s car and trying to see if it hadn’t driven off on another road along the way. No cars were traveling on this road at all, though, most likely because of the bad weather.

The road surface hadn’t completely frozen yet, but the rain hitting the windows was definitely mixed with sleet as it slid down the windshield and began to accumulate like chunks of glass.