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  She looked down, crying silently. It broke his heart to see her in such pain. He scooped her up in his arms, and carried her to his bedroom. “I'm taking you to bed, and I don't mean in it in the way you're thinking. You've had a long, horrible night, and you need rest. Sheriff Brown will want to talk with you sometime soon, but he doesn't know when that will be yet.”

  “Will you stay with me?” She asked, her voice shaky. It was obvious that any thoughts of

  leaving had long since fled from her mind, and it pleased him that she wanted him near.

  “You better believe it.”

  Gently he laid her down, before stepping back to take off his shirt. He left his pants on, but he pulled his hair back in a low ponytail. Climbing in, he pulled her close.

  They talked for quite awhile, first about the events of the night before he gently led her into more general conversation. Taylor eventually fell into a troubled rest. He held her the entire night, unable to sleep from the joy of finding his mate, and the horror of realizing how close he'd come to losing it all without even knowing it. His mind raced as he thought about what he'd learned. He didn't know who was behind the murders, but his mate was in danger until it was solved.

  Any chance of her returning to her old life for awhile had disappeared the moment he'd

  answered the phone. He hoped Taylor would see reason. Her life was too valuable to him to ever risk.

  Come hell or high water, here she would remain.

  For the first time in his entire life, his soul was at peace. It overrode everything. Nothing in his life could have ever compared to finding her, and he couldn't wait to start their lives together. His free-spirited lifestyle had ended the moment he scented her, and he couldn't have cared less. Nothing mattered but Taylor.

  Two hours before dawn he fell asleep, anticipating the future. It wasn't to be, though. When the morning sun kissed the skyline he awoke, to a nightmare that would never end.

  His mate had disappeared without a trace.

  Chapter 1

  Present Day

  Wolf Town, Missouri

  Marrok jerked awake at the first sound of the feet at his doorstep, his body instantly tense and wary of possible danger. He'd been dreaming of the night he met Taylor, but that wasn't unusual. There hadn't been a night in the last thirty-odd years he hadn't.

  He blinked, pushing the lingering memories away. His supernatural senses were carefully

  honed, his body the ultimate fighting machine. In one quiet movement, he was out of the bed and carefully inching his way to his door.

  His unexpected visitor knocked briskly before saying, “Marrok, it's Connor. Open up.”

  Marrok stopped, his body immediately relaxing as he rolled his eyes. Connor was a fellow

  guardian and a major pain in his ass. “This better be good, Connor. In case you haven't heard, most people are actually sleeping at three in the morning.”

  “I know that,” Connor hissed in response. His voice was urgent, his tone revealing his anxiety.

  “This is a matter of importance. Now open the damn door.”

  It was unusual for the other wolf to actually be serious, so Marrok quickly complied. Connor

  was dressed for detail in a black t-shirt, pants, and black boots. He held the door open as the other man walked into the room. Although he was mostly healed from the attack on Wolf Town the month before, he still walked with a slight limp when he was tired. Marrok hoped it wouldn't always be so for his friend and comrade.

  Connor turned and gave his boxer shorts a pointed stare, his expression mocking. Marrok

  narrowed his eyes at him in a glare as he shut the door. “What do you expect a man to be wearing in the middle of the night?” he finally asked in a growl, crossing his arms as he waited for Connor to get to the point. “You're damn lucky I was even wearing this.”

  A mischievous grin flashed across Connor's smooth features. “You mean the staid and oh-so-

  proper Marrok actually sleeps naked? I would have taken you for the type of man to even screw in his long-johns.”

  Marrok snarled, pulling his lips back to reveal pearl-white teeth. Connor lived to aggravate

  those around him, and he did a mighty fine job of it. “You know, Connor, it's a miracle some wolf hasn't tore your ass up already,” he finally bit out. “It's just a matter of time.”

  Connor sighed, looking bored as he quickly buffed his fingernails on his shirt. “Many have

  tried. Once I hand them their ass back on a platter, though, they generally leave me alone.”

  Marrok set down on the edge of his bed, raking his long, black hair back from his face. He was tired and lonely, and he desperately wanted to escape back to his dream world with his mate, at least for another two hours. “Get to the damn point, Connor. I'm not in the mood for your shit at this time of night.”

  He missed the sad look Connor had on his face as he looked down at him. It was common

  knowledge throughout the pack that Marrok had lost his mate. None of them knew the details, though, and none of them would ever be rude enough to ask. Not even Connor, the most outspoken werewolf at Wolf Town.

  Marrok had transferred into the Missouri pack fifteen years before. He was well-known and

  respected as a wolf devoted to his role as guardian. He didn't talk much, didn't make trouble, and was honest and reliable. Marrok didn't expect pity and didn't want it. Secretly, the pack commiserated with him. Most of them wouldn't have been able to survive a tragedy like that, and they didn't see how he had. It spoke of his strength more than anything else ever could.

  “Marrok, I don't know any other way to say this so I'm just going to say it. About an hour ago, two wolves stumbled into волк города. They are only moments away from death, and the doctor isn't sure they will last the night. All we could get out of them is that they're from New Mexico, and they were being held in some type of secret research facility.”

  Marrok tensed again. Slowly, he raised his head to meet Connor's eyes. His features were frozen in shock, but his eyes were hard and alert. There was more, of that he was certain. “And?”

  Connor blanched, before groaning. He hated to be the one to break the news to Marrok, but

  there was nobody else to do it. Turning, he walked to the only window in the room and looked out at the inky darkness. “They said there was a female human in the research facility, and she was known only by the name of Taylor. It was due to her they were able to escape, and she asked only one thing of them in return. To come her and tell us, specifically you. Marrok, your mate is alive.”

  * * * * *

  Marrok walked briskly to headquarters, the wolf inside of him wild at the thought of his mate

  possibly alive and caged up. It was unimaginable. He couldn't make sense of any of it, but he couldn't allow himself to hold hopes that it was true. He wouldn't survive the loss of his mate again, even if the hope was founded upon the mistake of two beaten werewolves.

  His legs quickly burnt up the distance between his room at the barracks on the edge of Wolf

  Town, and the building that was office to the Guardians. His thoughts were locked in the past. After he'd woke up alone that morning, so many years before, he'd damn near gone mad. Immediately, he'd turned to wolf and attempted to track her, determined to find her and bring her back.

  He'd failed. It was as if his mate had disappeared into thin air. There were no explanations. It hadn't taken long to find out where she lived, or who her family was. For a year, he'd done nothing but exist on the hopes of finding her. Every avenue was explored, every lead followed. The New Mexico pack had assisted, but it didn't do any good. If not for Sheriff Brown's find, he'd all but wonder if she hadn't been anything more than a dream from a love-starved werewolf.

  She never returned back to her job or apartment again. He'd discovered quickly how little her

  parents had done for her. They never even bothered to clear her apartment. Instead, he'd paid the grateful landl
ord himself and packed it all up. Her meager belongings were stored safely in his cabin in New Mexico. There they would remain, until the day he died.

  There hadn't been enough contact, both physical and emotional, to fully claim her. There had

  been enough for the bonding process to start, though. When the hired divers found his clothing she'd been wearing that night, his soul died, leaving behind a broken shell of a man. He'd waited a year before having that done, just hoping it wouldn't be necessary. His hope had been in vain.

  Marrok hadn't claimed her the night they'd been together. He wasn't sure if it was a blessing or curse. It didn't matter, though. The wolf had found her, just to have her cruelly yanked from his life.

  There was no coming back from that, ever. For him, there wouldn't be a second opportunity. Taylor had been it.

  Inside, he felt raw, the news reopening every wound he'd buried deep. Nicole had never

  returned either, and no bodies had ever been found. Of that, Marrok was certain. He had a direct link to any and all missing person cases, and he checked the database often. It was as if both women had been wiped completely off the face of the earth. It was unbearable for him, and impossible for him to ever find closure, not that closure would have helped. Closure would be a death sentence for him.

  Although he believed he would never find her, he still held a tiny shard of hope that he was

  wrong. It was why he continued on. Should that be removed, there would be no reason for living anymore. The wolf would be ready to pass on from this plane to the next when he had solid proof there was nothing left for him here. Werewolves got one mate, and one mate, only. Should she be dead he'd join her in the afterlife, without a second thought. Wherever Taylor went, he followed. No matter what.

  A werewolf mating was so involved that the average human mind wouldn't be able to

  understand it. Most humans would move on, finding someone else to love. A werewolf never could, and they didn't even want to. Wolves had two souls, the animal and the human. A mate was designed by fate to be the complete other half to both of their two souls. A mating went far beyond love, it was bliss.

  The first fifteen years after she disappeared had been spent in complete isolation in his cabin in New Mexico. After that, he had wandered the world for a year. Late one night, in a small-town bar in Missouri, he met Alexander and Connor and made a split-second decision to transfer into the local pack. It was the second largest pack in the whole world, and he'd needed the change. He hadn't regretted it.

  Marrok cut across the empty street. Headquarters was fully lit up, but it generally remained that way. It was their version of a police department, but it also doubled as a hospital and state-of-the-art lab.

  He walked up to the plain, one-story building. Although it looked small from the outside, below ground was a completely different story. It was safer for the pack that way, and Marrok respected how carefully Alexander and Ivan had designed this town. Connor saw him coming, and he hurried over to the glass door to open it for him.

  The other guardians on duty watched him curiously, but Marrok ignored them. “I want to talk to the escaped werewolves,” he bit out, stalking to the elevator and pushing the down button.

  Connor followed him, his expression concerned. “I can't imagine what you're feeling right now, Marrok, but the wolves aren't in any condition to answer questions.”

  “I don't care,” Marrok hissed, his eyes glowing red from rage and anger. Connor's eyes grew

  wary, unused to ever seeing the other guardian lose control. “We are talking about my mate. I don't care if I have to tear apart the entire state of New Mexico. I want answers. ”

  He jabbed the button several times, but the elevator moved too slowly to suit him. Marrok

  pushed past Connor and walked over to the metal door leading to the stairwell, shoving it hard enough to nearly break it. Connor followed behind him as he ran down the stairs.

  “Where are they?” Marrok growled behind him, moving to quick for the other man to keep up.

  “Level 9.”

  He yanked the door open, not waiting for Connor to catch up with him. Moving swiftly, he

  checked each room until he found what he was looking for. When he did, bile rose up in the back of his throat.

  He edged up to the large, glass window, staring at the two men lying unconscious on the

  hospital beds. They were still in human form, and he wondered if they even had the life force and strength needed to shift. Multiple IV’s were hooked up to each man, inserted into veins from their heads down. That wasn't what horrified him, though.

  Connor moved up next to him, standing silently as he took it all in. They had been brutally and sadistically tortured. Repeatedly. From what he could see, no part of their bodies were left untouched.

  Their hair was extremely short, and he was willing to bet that the ones holding them prisoner had kept them shaved. Even through the regrowth, the thick, raised scars moving horizontally across their skulls was clearly visible. Marrok felt physically ill at the sight.

  “It's inhumane, what these men have lived through. Will they survive?” he asked Connor, his

  voice low and harsh in the silence.

  “The doctor is doing everything he can. They have the worst injuries I've ever seen.” That was saying a lot, considering how badly Connor had been injured the month before by the panther shifters that attacked them. “It's a miracle they ever made it here. We all know what a vow means to a

  werewolf, though. I reckon after what they lived through, dying free looked like a picnic compared to remaining in the hell they were in.”

  Marrok nodded in agreement. Wolf Town's doctor was a miracle worker. If anybody could heal

  them, he could. “Has the king been notified?”

  Connor nodded. “Alexander and Carole Anne are on their way back from St. Louis right now.

  They are due to arrive anytime. I was hoping we'd have more answers for them by the time they got here, but it doesn't look like it.”

  Marrok was frustrated. His body was charged, desperate to take action. As soon as he had a

  more exact location, he was leaving. There was a chance his mate was alive. He wouldn't stop until he recovered her, or knew for sure it was false information. His bag was packed and waiting in his room.

  He was ready to move out in a moment's notice.

  Marrok stood with his hands on his lean hips, his jaw clenched tight as his mind raced. The

  more he thought about it, the more he believed the story to be true. After discovering Taylor gone, he'd naturally believed her to be taken. There hadn't been a stone left unturned in his search for her, but they could never pinpoint any leads. The hope within his heart increased, like a snowball rolling down a mountain. Someone had taken the women and baited the lake with the clothes she'd been wearing.

  Taylor was alive. She had to be.

  He looked over at Connor, his expression and tone accepting no argument when he said, “I'm

  going to sit with them until one of them wakes up.”

  Connor looked at him warily, massaging the back of his neck with his hand. “What will you do

  when he does?”

  He turned to look back at the nearly-dead men lying on the beds. His expression was bleak and

  full of pain as he replied quietly, “Get answers. Then, I'm going to hope like hell my mate survives until I get there.”

  * * * * *

  Only an hour or so had passed when Alexander stepped into the quiet hospital room. Carole

  Anne followed him, her features sad as she took in the condition of the two unknown men in the beds.

  Marrok rose, lowering his dark head in acknowledgment of their status. “My King, My Queen,” he stated simply before sitting back down.

  Alexander nodded back, his blue eyes missing nothing. He was tall, his frame muscular and

  broad. The power of his alpha could be felt strongly within the cool, stark room. “Con
nor has filled us in on the details, and we've notified the New Mexico pack. Did you know that they have had some wolves to come up missing?”

  Marrok shook his head, his eyes narrowing in thought. “I have an idea that this is all connected, though. There is something going on out there, and it's not going to be anything pretty.”

  Alexander seated Carole Anne into one of the waiting chairs before pulling another one up to sit next to Marrok. “I've never asked you this before, Marrok, and I never would were the situation not so grave. Do you really believe someone has your mate?”

  Agony slammed into Marrok, making it difficult to breath. It had been on his mind since

  Connor had told him, but actually putting it into words to someone else was almost unbearable.

  Alexander's question leeched the pain to the surface, and he struggled to remain in control of his wolf.

  Avoiding eye contact, he managed to keep his tone steady when he replied, “Thirty-one years

  ago I woke up, and my mate was gone from my home. I couldn't make out any other human or wolf

  scents, although there was a trace of something I couldn't identify.”

  His tanned hands gripped the wooden arms of the chair he was seated in so hard one of them

  cracked. Alexander reached out and clasped him on the shoulder, offering what little support and comfort he could.

  Marrok inhaled deeply before continuing, “I spent the next year searching for her, determined to find her. I would have continued, but I had someone to drag the local lake. They found the clothes she'd been wearing, but no bones. It was then I finally realized there was nothing more I could do.”

  His dark eyes were haunted as the stared at the silent men in the beds. “After that I spent the next fourteen years locked in desolation, barely surviving. There was never a sign of my mate again, not after that first night together. Taylor had completely disappeared from her entire life, snuffed out like candle. She was there one day, forever gone the next.”

  Alexander looked at Carole Anne. The expression on his face was full of love, devotion, and