The small cabin tucked into the woods looked similar to many Noah had seen. The no-frills dwelling boasted a bedroom, bathroom, and combo living room and kitchen. That was where the normality ended. Before releasing Owen into the Kagan pack’s custody, the human government had insisted on several precautions to contain the potentially dangerous shifter who resided inside.
Highly sensitive triggers and locks were installed on the windows and doors. Mounted cameras monitored the activity inside and outside the dwelling. And recording devices offered a live stream of conversation the psychologists in the next state analyzed for clues to Owen’s mental health.
Noah glanced at where Chris, in his wolf form, lay in the grass several feet from the door. The other male didn’t hide his presence as protectors often did. Guarding Owen wasn’t a secret. Also, Chris owned the cabin. Or, more accurately, it had belonged to him and his deceased partner, John, before being abandoned a couple of months ago.
Noah acknowledged the other male with a slight dip of his head, then unlocked the front door and slipped inside. Owen didn’t stand or speak. Noah didn’t expect him to, nor did he bother to greet Owen. Noah walked directly to the bookshelf in the corner, snatched the tiny microphone that sat there and crushed it in his hands. The three cameras that focused on different parts of the room went next. Noah knew where they all were. He’d watched the humans outfit the place the day before.
With their privacy guaranteed, Noah grabbed two bottles of water from the fridge. He tossed one to Owen, carefully avoiding his gaze, then twisted the cap on his bottle and drank half of it. Noah recapped it and took a seat opposite of where Owen sat at the small table.
Finally, Noah glanced from the unopened bottle of spring water sitting on the wood’s surface in front of Owen to Owen’s stony face. His hazel eyes and dark brown hair were the only two features recognizable on the male from the time Noah had known him. The years Owen had spent among the humans and the select corrupt shifters who’d treated him as an object had not only hardened the once good-natured male but physically altered him.
Scars decorated his face and arms. No doubt more marked the rest of his body. The fact that they marred his skin spoke of the level of depravity he’d endured. Shifters rarely scarred due to their enhanced healing. Only those wounds treated with salt left their mark. The painful process was also the only way they could retain a tattoo through a shift. On Owen, the scars fit him, though. Combined with his cold and icy expression, Owen appeared untamed, even wild. Maybe crazed.
It wasn’t the change in his demeanor that shocked Noah. His size did.
Owen had grown in the years since he’d matured—an impossible feat. Single shifters’ bodies aged. They also gained or lost weight and muscle mass. But they did not…grow. Yet Owen had. He stood as tall as Noah and as wide.
The only conclusion Noah could make was that whatever had been done to Owen in the humans’ experimental facility had altered his physical makeup. Noah had kept his hypothesis from the human government, however. They already treated Owen as if he were a caged beast.
Hands planted on the table, Owen pushed his chair back and moved to stand. It was the same response he’d given to every male visitor since the humans had dropped him off.
“Five minutes, Owen. That’s all I’m asking for. I want your advice.”
Owen froze, half out of his seat. “I have none to give.”
“Then be my captive audience. I need to talk. It helps me work through the issues that have left me sleepless and worried.”
“Have you given up your role as a dominant?”
“No. That’ll never happen. I might slip lower in our pack’s ranking as I age, but I’ll always be a dominant.”
Owen narrowed his eyes. “I beg to differ. A dominant doesn’t admit to feeling anxious. That makes him appear weak.”
“Maybe.” Noah leaned forward. “But a shifter who doesn’t utilize his pack mates is a fool, and at the moment, I need a friend and a confidant who won’t judge my uncertainty.”
Owen held his gaze without blinking. Several long moments passed before he sat. Arms crossed over his wide chest, he leaned back in his chair. “Then talk.”
“I’m in love with your brother and his mate, Hannah Kagan. Actually, she’s mine too. The three of us are lovers.”
Owen snorted. “Well, that explains a lot.”
Noah raised a brow.
“I’ve been dreaming about the three of you.”
Noah leaned forward. His instincts flared. “Dreaming about us. What does that mean?”
“I dreamt about the three of you holding hands, kissing, lying together under the full moon’s light.” He held his hand up in a just-wait motion. “Nothing too intimate, but enough that I could guess what had happened during the scenes I wasn’t shown.”
“Shown?”
Owen’s single nod answered him.
“Explain.”
“A few years back, I was sold to some scientists. They put me through a series of endurance tests, altering parameters and triggers to see how I’d perform. It was annoying but not bad. They didn’t torture me or anything, but then they started injecting me with hormones and stuff to see if they could make me stronger and faster.” Owen motioned to his body. “It worked, but it had an added benefit the humans hadn’t expected.”
“And that was?”
“My instincts improved. I started to anticipate people’s actions. Their movements and such. The humans noticed too and increased the dosage of the drugs or maybe the kinds. I don’t know. It’s not like they asked my permission.” Owen gave a small smile. “Months passed without any more changes. They came to the conclusion I was too old to enhance further and sold me. Truth was, I just didn’t tell them about my dreams. I figured they were dreams, nothing more. Then they started to come true.”
Noah’s heart stopped before racing hard. “You can see the future?”
Owen shrugged. “No, not exactly. I think the spirit wolf shows me possibilities of what might happen. You know, like those choose-your-own-adventure books that were popular when we were kids?”
“Give me an example. Something you dreamt about.”
Excitement and a healthy dose of fear buzzed within Noah. If Owen’s instincts had sharpened so much he was anticipating the future, he’d become invaluable. On the same note, Noah had read enough of those alternate-ending books to know that what a person thought was the right path at one point in a story later turned out to be very wrong.
“I saw Hannah die in a fire. She was trying to find her way out of your house. The front door was stuck, so she tried crawling toward the kitchen. She got disoriented and…” Owen shrugged. “Obviously, it didn’t happen. She got out.”
Noah swallowed hard past the lump in his throat. “What else have you seen?”
“Little things. Lately, it’s been about Maria.” Owen made his way back to the table. He snatched the water bottle, took a sip, then recapped it. Each movement was slow, calculated, and a blatant attempt to avoid the question. Finally, he sighed. “Honestly, nothing that’s made sense.”
“Sometimes things aren’t always what they seem. Tell me.”
“I saw Maria kissing a couple of different males. None I know. She fights with one, then gets in a car and takes off. Next I see her, she’s…”
Noah waited a moment more for Owen to finish his statement, but the other male turned his attention to his water bottle, screwing and unscrewing the cap.
“That’s actually happened, Owen. Maria’s missing, and we’re worried about her. If you can give us some clue how to get her back, we’d be eternally grateful. So would Quinn and Alex, the two males you probably saw her kissing.”
Owen carefully set the bottle down. “It’s nighttime. She’s wearing a pair of black shorts and a gray top and has her hair in a braid. A bear shifter who runs a hunting camp for other shifters approaches her. They talk, then she gets into a car with him.” Owen raised a hand. “I don’t know what they talked about. I can’t hear them, only see their mouths moving.”
“A hunt…where humans or female shifters are the game?”
“Yeah. You’ve heard of it?”
“Through Ethan. He knows a human survivor.”
Owen gave a small shake of his head. “I don’t know if survivor is the right word, but there’s a clan of bear shifters who do a lot of acquisitions for the illegal networks.”
“Do you have a name?”
“Ulgran is their clan name. I think I met the oldest brother.” Owen shook his head, an irritated look on his face. “Or maybe I only dreamt about him. I don’t know.”
“And you didn’t find a way to hint about the danger Maria might be in because…?”
“Maria is Michael’s daughter, and since she left with the Ulgran shifter of her own free will, I assumed she was involved in trafficking too.” Owen squeezed the water bottle in his hand. The plastic crumpled and water rushed out, soaking his hand and thigh. “That’s the problem with my dreams. I see snippets, not the whole thing.”
“And you haven’t been around. You don’t know our pack’s problems.”
Owen snorted. “Exactly. Even if I had, nobody’s going to tell the dangerous, unstable male who’s lived his life like a trained dog anything.”
“I did.”
Owen grunted and spun on his heel. “Well, you’re the first. Even the Kagan’s human alpha female talked to me as if I’m a child when she stopped in with her mate yesterday. I sat and listened because she’s female and deserves my respect, but it was hard.”
“Riley? I’ve met her. She’s a wonderful, caring woman.”
“Maybe, but she’s too nosy. I don’t want to talk about what happened, and I sure don’t want to share how it made me feel.”
Noah stepped forward. “And why not? She’s treating you as her pack mate. When one of our own has been hurt, we reach out with love and comfort—words, hugs, caresses. Whatever it takes. I know our pack never did stuff like that, but it’s what a real pack does for its members.”
Owen glared at Noah for a long moment before his shoulders slumped. “She wanted me to talk about my experiences. What I saw. How I reacted. How I feel, but I can’t tell her the truth. I’ll get tossed into a cell again.”
Owen’s words didn’t go unnoticed by Noah. Sympathy rose. For a male who’d lived as a captive for years, being locked up was a legitimate fear. Even the small, comfy house he was in probably felt oppressive.
“Then tell me.” Noah swept his hand out to encompass the room. “There’re no more recording devices. What’s said here, remains here.”
“What’s the point? I don’t buy the whole therapeutic ‘let’s talk about our feelings’ crap. The past is over. I survived.”
“But what about those who haven’t? Or the ones still locked up?”
A tic developed on Owen’s jaw. His eyes narrowed to slits, and Noah knew he’d guessed right. Owen was a dominant at heart, always had been. Other people’s suffering would’ve angered him, especially knowing he’d been helpless to stop it.
Noah closed the distance between them. “Talk to Riley. Or one of the others. Get yourself together so you can go after them. That’s what you really want, isn’t it? You want to save those who can’t save themselves.”
“I wish my reasons were that noble.” Owen shook his head. “They’re not. But yeah, that’s what I want. To go back. Nothing will keep me away.”
With that, Owen slipped past Noah and walked toward the bedroom. The door closed behind Owen with a click. Noah stared at it a few moments more, then left. His visit might not have been as successful as he’d hoped, but he’d learned what he needed to know. Owen was not only salvageable but invaluable.
And wouldn’t that anger Michael. The male he’d deemed worthless had an ability even alphas didn’t possess.
Then again, maybe there was a reason they didn’t.