“No. Dad won’t leave, and Mom won’t leave without him.”
“Fuck,” he replied. “Maybe you should call a couple of Alphas from your pack to watch over them. I know you said no one is too keen on Mike, but surely your parents are a different matter.”
“Yes. Right. I didn’t even think of that. I’ve just been so worried about you and Mike.”
“I know. Alright, let’s get out of here. You can call whoever you need to call on the way.”
Kat nodded and grabbed the handle of her suitcase to pull out to his truck. He took it from her and carried it, opening up the back door and putting it in before opening the front passenger door for her to climb in.
She pulled out her phone as he climbed behind the wheel and called Max, an Alpha she went to school with who was with the pack council. She explained the situation to him, and he told her he’d get someone out now to keep an eye on her parents for a couple of days, from a distance, so her father didn’t get upset about her sending them, of course.
“Thank you, Max. I appreciate it,” she told him, ending the call and letting Travis know. He nodded and said nothing. She wanted to ask him a million other questions about what had happened but thought maybe now wasn’t the best time. Instead, she watched out the window as they drove into the city to the five-star hotel where she’d be holing up for the next few days. Under different circumstances, it might be romantic.
In the parking garage, Travis pulled a packet of hand wipes from his console and began wiping blood away from his face and neck. Now that some of it was gone, she could see the cuts and bruises on his face. He pulled on a long jacket from behind the seat and they hurried into the hotel, making a quick jaunt across the lobby and into the elevator.
It was only inside the mirrored box with its bright lights on them that she noticed the blood seeping heavily from his side.CHAPTER NINETEENTravis
“Let’s just get to the room,” Travis said, noting how upset Kat was before she even said anything.
She’d be more upset if she knew what had happened once he and his guys had arrived at the bear cabins. They had managed to catch them off guard, but only for a moment. With only a half dozen bears, he’d felt good about their chances, but that had quickly changed with the arrival of new bears.
Mike was in the center of one of the cabins. He was heavily shackled to prevent him from shifting, though it wasn’t clear why. He was a big guy, but he was also a Beta. He was no match for an Alpha wolf, much less an Alpha bear. From the looks of him, he wasn’t even a match against his Omega sister at the moment.
They’d beaten him pretty badly, and not even in bear form. He didn’t have the scratches or lacerations you’d see from a bear attack. These were scrapes and bruises from a good old fashioned beat down with human fists. One eye was swollen shut and the other was cut deeply across the brow, leaving blood to seep down into it.
From the way he was slumped over, he was likely drugged to keep him under control. It was likely easier to keep him sedated than to have to continue to beat him down when he got out of hand. Whatever the reason for his condition, it looked grim, and he was going to be a handful to move, if they got that far.
Once everyone was in place, Travis shifted, and the others followed. They had to be quick, as the bears would pick up their scent and they wanted to move in on them before they had time to shift on their end. If they could catch them off guard as humans, they could quickly get the upper hand, doing the damage to weaken them before they changed.
Past that, it was just all-out war, with snarling and growling as wolves launched themselves onto their prey. They almost had them dispatched when a couple of sleek Mercedes SUVs rolled up and a dozen more men spilled out from both sides, quickly shifting and joining the fight.
Somehow, they’d managed not to lose anyone, but a few of his pack were badly hurt. It was only because of their speed and greater agility that they were able to take them down. Travis also suspected that these particular bears weren’t in their top form due to indulging in a bit of their own product. It had been their undoing.
They’d expected that the family of a Beta would just do as they were asked, defenseless against a pack of bears. No doubt, they were well acquainted with Mike and knew what they needed to know about his family. Beta father and son, Omega wife and daughter. Not wealthy, but certainly comfortable enough to cover Mike’s debt.