“Tell her now before someone else congratulates her. I almost did,” Connor murmured, the words so low Jayce almost missed them.

He ignored the Alpha. As they reached the clearing near the house, he asked, “How do you want to do this?” Now that he was closer to the house, he had no doubt that Fletcher Monroe was nearby. This beta had been at the last crime scene. Whether he was involved or not, they would find out soon enough. Jayce had a pretty good idea that Monroe was right in the middle of all this.

“I’ve scoped the place. There’s only one person there, the beta. I didn’t see trip wires or any other type of trap. I noticed a window on the second floor, east side from our position, partially open. From the size of the window I’m guessing it leads to a bathroom. We can go in that way?” Connor formed it as a question, obviously not caring how they got in as long as they did.

“Sounds good to me. We need this guy alive.” Jayce wanted to question him before they turned him over to the cops.

If they even did. Normally human government institutions were more than happy to let shifters mete out justice to their own kind and rarely asked questions, but these killings had been against humans. They would want to parade Fletcher through their system, possibly have a trial. Too much red tape for Jayce’s taste, but he had no problem handing him over.

Jayce took off, knowing Connor would follow once he’d reached the window. He couldn’t jump as high as vampires could, but he had no problem jumping or even scaling a simple two-story house. As Alpha, Connor would have no issue either. Hell, they’d infiltrated Edward Adler’s home—dead APL bastard—with no problem. It was one of the times Jayce had seen the Alpha in action and he’d been impressed. Not to mention he’d heard through the grapevine how Connor had killed his former neighboring Alpha.

Getting in and getting what they wanted should be a simple task. Even if the cop who owned this house had an alarm system, it obviously wasn’t rigged to the window that was open. Most people went with the bare minimum with security systems, tagging the doors and a few windows downstairs. But never upstairs. Stupid thinking when there were people like him around.

His legs pumped, straining as he sprinted and vaulted through the air. Using his upper body strength and balance, he latched onto the ledge of the window, extending his claws to get a better grip. Taking a deep breath, he pulled his body up, held tight with one hand, and shoved the window up with the other. Thankfully it didn’t squeak; there was just a soft whoosh as it moved.

After peeking into the room, which was indeed a small bathroom with black-and-white-checkered tile, he lifted himself up and over the ledge, landing silently on the floor in a roll. Standing back, he waited for Connor to join him.

Moments later, the dark-haired Alpha flew into the room. As Connor stood, he retracted his claws.

Jayce slowly unzipped his jacket and withdrew one of his blades, then pointed to the door. Connor nodded and let his claws out again. They might want this guy alive, but Jayce believed in always being prepared.

Especially since the beta shifter had killed four unsuspecting humans. Even if the humans hadn’t been good citizens, he was fucking up the balance between shifters and humans. Something like this could start a full-scale war with countless innocents getting hurt or even killed in the crossfire. At the moment, this was a lot more important than blood trafficking. While he hated having to pick what to focus on, for the time being there was no other choice. Soon, though, Erin would be ready to take a case on her own. He was looking forward to the day that happened.

Easing the door open, he used his senses before stepping into the hall. There were two faint scents upstairs, one human, one shifter. But neither held that strong note that told him someone was directly nearby.

Slowly, he headed down a long, carpeted hallway until he reached a staircase. Paisley-patterned wallpaper lined the stairwell, ending on the first floor in a foyer with cherrywood flooring. Above them hung a chandelier, the sun glinting off it through the high windows above the front door. Too high for anyone to see them from the outside.

He and Connor stilled at the bottom of the stairs, scenting for the beta. At the same time, they both nodded toward the south side of the home. To the east and west open rooms were visible, one living room and a dining room. As they moved south through the house they entered a kitchen, where the scent grew stronger. There was a French door showing the backyard and beyond, where he and Connor had just come from.

As Jayce scanned the kitchen he nodded at a wooden door next to a stainless-steel refrigerator. Connor mouthed the word “basement” and Jayce nodded in agreement. The scent of shifter was so close and so strong now, there was no other place this guy could be. That distinctive fir and spruce blend nearly overwhelmed Jayce because the other shifter knew they were in the house. The guy’s fear was spiking his normal scent out of control and his heart was an erratic tattoo. Thanks to Jayce’s natural defense mechanisms and his age, he could cloak his own heartbeat, so he knew the beta couldn’t hear it. Jayce also had no doubt that Connor could do the same since he couldn’t hear the Alpha’s heartbeat. Still, the beta knew they were there.

It didn’t matter that Jayce and Connor had been deathly silent or that they’d virtually cloaked themselves. It also didn’t matter that Fletcher was a beta, physically weaker than they were. He was still a shifter with senses a hell of a lot better than those of humans. He might just sense something different in the air, like danger. Betas always had to be aware of their surroundings in a way alphas and warriors probably took for granted.

Right now, the acrid scent of fear was coming from behind the closed door. Taking a deep breath, Jayce opened it, his blade in one hand, and took a cautious step inside.

He froze as he felt the barrel of a pistol pressing against the side of his skull.

Chapter 17

For one moment Jayce considered telling the beta shifter to drop his weapon, but he didn’t want to take the chance that he was trigger-happy. It was unlikely that he could kill Jayce unless the beta took his head off or removed his heart from his chest. Even a silver-injected bullet likely wouldn’t kill Jayce, as he was too old, but he didn’t want to deal with a mess.

Lightning fast, he brought his right arm up at the same time he stepped forward and twisted his body. Using about fifty percent of his strength, he slammed the shifter into the back of the door. As the gun clattered onto the stairs, Jayce hauled the guy up and threw him down the rest of the stairs.

The basement wasn’t dark—not that it would have mattered, given his heightened senses—so as he descended he had a perfect view of the setup beyond the crumpled body of the shifter at the bottom. A pullout couch with rumpled sheets and a quilt thrown haphazardly over it, an older-model television, and a coffee table made up the furnishings. A few pairs of jeans, sweaters, and socks also covered what looked like a wooden bench. At least it was insulated and had wood flooring. Not exactly a dungeon.

Though Connor was silent, Jayce could feel his presence behind him as he descended. Fletcher Monroe pushed up and scooted back, his sock-covered feet sliding on the floor in his attempt to escape. As a lupine shifter he should have been more agile, no matter his ranking in the pack, but fear was an acrid cloak around him.

“I knew you’d find me,” he said as Jayce reached the last step. He brought his knees up to his chest and wrapped his arms around them as he slumped against the wall.

“Did you know it was me when you held a gun to my head?” Jayce asked quietly as he crouched in front of him, leaving only inches separating them.

Swallowing hard, the other man shook his head. “I knew it had to be a shifter, though. Almost didn’t hear you, but the stairs are above the back of this room.” He motioned jerkily with his head.

Though the beta’s fear burned Jayce’s nostrils, there was none of the almost metallic scent so common with lies. “I’m going to give you a chance to speak since you didn’t lie to me just now. I’m assuming you know who I am?”

Fletcher’s forest green eyes widened as he nodded. “Jayce Kazan,” he said so quietly it couldn’t even be called a whisper.

There was nothing but fear in his voice, which was normally a good thing because Jayce didn’t like people lying to him. In this instance, however, Jayce was worried the guy might go into shock, so he stood up and motioned to the couch/bed. “Why don’t you make that up and have a seat?”

With trembling hands, Fletcher pushed himself up and began folding his quilt, as Jayce continued. “How long is the cop usually gone?”

The shifter paused in what he was doing, but only for a moment. “Sometimes he comes home for lunch, but not often. He doesn’t tell me about his schedule.”

“Any video surveillance in this house, inside or out?”

A shake of his head as he shoved the metal frame to fold it back into the couch. “No, and I’ve thoroughly checked. But I do have this.” He lifted his pant leg up to his knee, showing a tracking anklet.

Jayce had seen the kind before. “It doesn’t look like there’s an explosive attached to it. So why not just cut it and leave?” He had a feeling he knew the answer, but he wanted to hear Fletcher say it.

The beta ran a hand through his dirty blond hair, sending it sticking up everywhere as he sat down on the couch. “They’ve got my mate. She’s pregnant and they only let me talk to her if I obey them.”

Jayce planned to get to who exactly “they” were, but first, “How is your mate? Do you have any idea where they’re keeping her or what her condition is?” It took a lot to get Jayce’s anger truly flowing, but to kidnap a pregnant woman, no matter the species, took a certain kind of monster. One that Jayce was going to rip apart.

“I have no idea where she is, but she’s close to her due date. From what I can tell they’re taking decent care of her, feeding her and even letting her take prenatal pills, but still, she’s due any day now and I should be with her.” There was a hint of desperation woven through those words. “How . . . how’d you find me?”