Mason’s hands began twisting around, and thin green magical rope started to emerge, growing longer with every stroke he made. Once it was long enough to swing out, I watched as the fae went all cowboy and secured the bear.
The shifter roared the loudest I’d heard yet, and his fur started to burn in all the places the magic-made rope touched.
“Shift,” Mason demanded.
The beast tossed his head back and forth in defiance, but it was useless. He was on all fours, and there was no way he was getting out of the predicament he’d brought upon himself.
Spencer moved next to me. “You need to command the shift on him. We can’t get him into the prison like this.”
“Okay,” I replied nervously and stepped forward, then noticed the woman was no longer where I’d last seen her. “Where did the human go?”
“Jaxon helped pull her away, and Nixie has her. Focus on the mark.”
Ignoring his attitude because I knew he was right, I stared down the irate beast. His head was as big as my entire upper body, and saliva foamed from his snarling mouth.
Spencer kept a tight hold on the back of my shirt and followed right behind me as I stepped forward, allowing me to feel comfort he could pull me back if shit went south while also giving me an extra boost in confidence.
“Gene, you will shift right now,” I demanded, forcing as much power behind my words as I could.
The bear’s form began to shimmer, so I kept going. “You have no choice. You need to change to your human form.”
With one final roar, the bear disappeared. In his place was a very naked man who had been beaten far beyond anything I’d ever seen. My heart instantly hurt for him, and I wondered if maybe he was another supernatural who was being forced into the prison like I had been. There was always a possibility that the file we’d been given was falsified.
Mason snapped his fingers and shorts appeared on the guy before he was further restrained. Then, Nixie was climbing up my legs and reappeared. “The woman is awake and extremely distraught. You’re going to need to make her forget a lot of this.”
I nodded and took a step to the human, but Jaxon stopped me. “Spencer is going to corrupt the footage, so the last thing anyone will see is us arriving. She only needs to know we were here, we work for animal control with the zoo, and she’s safe to go home.”
“Got it.” He let go of my arm, and I went to the petite woman. Her shoulders were shaking, and her auburn hair covered her face. I sat on the ground with her and reached a hand to hers.
“I’m Susie. I’m going to help you.” I figured a fake name was better than my real one.
“W-w-what are y-you?” she stuttered.
“I’m a friend, and you’re safe now. I promise.” Tilting her chin up, I ignored her frightened flinch and worked my magic. “We work for animal control at the Central Park Zoo. We took the bear away through the subway, so he couldn’t hurt anyone else. You are safe and you can go home now. Nothing else happened besides us capturing the bear safely. You won’t even remember our faces when you get home.”
A haze fell over her eyes. “I can go home?”
“Yes, go straight home,” I answered softly.
She nodded and tried to stand, but her legs were still weak. I moved first and gave her my hand until she no longer shook. After she said her thanks, I watched as she exited the platform, hopefully never to remember us.
When I turned around, Spencer was already gone to take care of the cameras, Mason had opened up a portal, Blake was holding on to the prisoner, and Jaxon was waiting for me. He gave me a curt nod when I joined him.
“You did good, but don’t hesitate next time. If the shifter hadn’t been restrained, you’d have been dead.”
“How do we know he even deserves this?” I countered.
“Deacon wouldn’t have given us a tampered file. You heard what was in there. Their pack is better off without him, and so is the rest of the world,” Jaxon answered gruffly.
Trusting his judgement, I let it go and reached down to grab Nixie before we walked through Mason’s portal, leaving the subway behind, and hopefully no evidence of our time there.
Gene began to buck against his restraints, so I placed a hand on him and put him to sleep using the same spell we’d practiced earlier in the day. Once the shifter couldn’t stand on his own, Blake and Jaxon dragged him inside and brought the prisoner to the guards. That’s when I realized Spencer was missing from our group.
“Uh, guys? We left Spencer behind,” I said before Blake and Jaxon were out of earshot.
Mason slapped a hand on my shoulder. “No, we didn’t. I’m headed back to get him and the SUV now. We’ll see you in the lair before you can even miss us.” He winked, then walked through his still-open portal.
The other two continued in the opposite direction as Nixie and I headed for the room. My adrenaline was finally wearing off as we entered the lair and I plopped down on the couch.
“How did that feel?” Nixie asked.
“I’ve helped bring in prisoners before,” I answered..
She huffed and jumped onto my lap. “You’ve never been this involved with the actual capture before, smartass.”
She was right, and I wasn’t sure how I felt. Part of me might always second guess if someone was truly guilty or not, and I hated it. Mostly, I hated that we couldn’t trust our own kind.
There was a knock on the door, and I sat Nixie on the table to answer it, assuming it was Deacon or Alex, but ended up surprised by Owen’s presence.
“Cara,” he drawled.
“Owen, how can I help you?” I glanced back in the room at the clock. “At midnight, no less.”
He smirked. “Take a walk with me.”
My head shook. “I think it’s best we stay here. What do you want?”
“Where were you guys?” he asked.
“Bringing in a prisoner.”
“Who?”
I scoffed. “Are you so bored inside the prison that you’re writing a book now?”
“Don’t answer a question with a question. It’s rude,” he retorted.
“You know what else is rude? Showing up in the prison and being overly nice, all while acting like you know important secrets, and then not sharing any of them as if you’re better than us or maybe even fighting against us.”
He nodded. “Touché. Well, I guess that’s it then.”
Ugh. The stupid lion shifter was pissing me off, and I was too tired for his shit.
“Seriously? You just stopped by to be a pain in the ass?”
He grinned. “I guess so. See you around, Cara.”
The way my name rolled off his tongue had my suspicions once again on the rise. I couldn’t stand Owen but was incredibly intrigued by him. I wanted to know his story and what role he played in whatever shitshow I’d found myself in.
Though, something told me I wasn’t going to find any of those answers if I left well enough alone.
Sitting back down, Nixie was having a good laugh, likely at my expense, but I didn’t care. Closing my eyes, I decided it was time for bed, and the couch was the perfect spot to make that happen.
That was until Mason slammed the door open. “What the hell did furball want?”