Pack Gems by Kuro Kusai, WhiteWolf Aura (free ereaders TXT) 📖

signaling Akira to his side with panicked confusion.

"Alpha?"

He ignored Akira to snatch up the lone note on Taylor and Kaden's bed, nearly tearing it to bits with what he read.

For one terrifying minute, he thought they had been kidnapped-- In fact, that was the reason he was in their room; even though he knew neither of them were morning people, he wanted to make sure there were no lingering wolves trying to get to them through their window.

Mason couldn't risk having them being taken right under their noses and if that meant having cranky females for the day, so be it.

He wasn't prepared, however, for an empty room.

The guard standing on his left looked just as shocked himself.

"T-they couldn't have escaped during my watch," he chattered on nervously, "I would've heard...surely, I mean--"

Mason heard an uproar start downstairs, which only lasted minutes before Axel must have joined the fray and reduced the yelling and growling to muted tones....Of course, Mason was about to change that.

Still growling, he picked up the screwdriver that was resting on top of the note in one hand and the actual note in the other, and headed downstairs.

"Axel!!"

The hostility in his voice was probably misdirected but he didn't care.

Grabbing the other Alpha by the shoulder and whipping him around to face Mason had both of them growling.

Other wolves from Axel's pack bared their teeth but he hardly spared them a glance.

"What the hell do you--"

Mason shoved the note into Axel's chest, not bothering to note his reaction in favor of pacing.

Axel gave a much more savage snarl than he produced seconds ago, "Don't tell me--!"

"They went out the fucking window!!" Mason pitched the offending screwdriver at the wall, which embedded itself into the plaster a few inches.

Axel, himself, didn't notice as he balled up the note and threw the ball at the same wall with about just as much force...although it hardly produced the same effect.

After a lengthy curse, he gathered himself,"...And how," Axel turned to survey his wolves, "Did they have a screwdriver from MY toolbox? How would they have found that?"

And just like that, the wolves that had been brawling amongst themselves, each trying to claim credit for yet another foreign wolf found on the property, were quieted.

Mason turned to watch him drill his wolves, the guilty ones squirming and quivering under Axel's gaze.

"More importantly," Mason spoke up now, "I'm more interested in knowing the guard line-up and how they managed to turn a deaf ear to the heavy-duty iron bars being removed."He gave a toothy smile he didn't feel, a few wolves took a step back. It made him feel marginally better...for the moment.

"Boss, we have another one!" Another one of Axel's wolves burst through the door carrying an unconscious stray in wolf form.

The poor bastard had just stumbled into the fire and didn't even know it.

He sauntered over to Axel awaiting further direction and praise.

"Brady, we have another situation..." Axel motioned for another wolf to take his prize down to a cell, "Care to tell us how a guard could miss hearing metal bars being removed from a window in the middle of the night?"

Oh, even better.This wolf had been on guard duty it seemed.

Mason watched the color drain from Brady's face, not following his feeble protests.

"It doesn't matter." he spit out the words, suddenly very tired, "It doesn't matter which of them slipped up. All I care about now is finding them."

Well...her.

While Mason had gotten quite fond of Kaden as well, he could honestly say that her disappearance wasn't the one that had him itching for blood.

"Right, right....for now." Axel gave a threatening glare to the few wolves who hadn't escaped the room yet.

"I'll search the perimeter with my wolves, you question the other prisoners and your wolves for leads of any kind." Mason tossed out over his shoulder, already heading for the back door.

Axel probably had wanted to argue, but he had little room to-- It was his wolves and his territory that had been invaded.

For once protocol didn't have Mason under it's thumb.

Akira and Daren fell into step wordlessly behind him.

Opening the door, his feet barely hit grass before he was stripping to shift.

The wolf in him responded easily, quick to come to the surface and bathe in his rage.

Changing always hurt, but after a certain age you just didn't feel that pain anymore. Your mind went elsewhere as your body snapped and contorted to its new proper shape.

But being too upset to relax and let his mind wander, he felt every single bone and joint change in an explosion of pain.

Opening his gold eyes, Mason sat back on his furry haunches and waited for Akira to finish his change.

Daren remained human and Mason approved of his decision, speech and a set of hands could come in handy too.

Akira gave a short sneeze, signaling he was ready.

Mason eyed Akira's dark black coat, nose and eyes. If it wasn't for his single white stripe running down the length of his body, he would have been the perfect wolf to stealth around at night--which was opposite Mason, being that he was a shocking deep crimson that did little to ever help him in a hunt.

It had actually caused him quite a bit of hell, it wasn't common to have a coat as vivid as his and hunts or missions could always be compromised with him.

But he was sure, it was also the reason he ended up as an Alpha.

Getting picked on and left out of hunts wore on him until he simply...burst.

He had been determined to prove he didn't need the element of surprise to catch any prey.

His coat became synonymous with blood as he reinforced the fact that he wouldn't tolerate any more mocking.

Mason had made his coat a prize, one he was quite proud of.

He gave his coat a shake and produced a bone chilling howl that Akira, and several other wolves patrolling nearby, couldn't resist chiming in.

It did little to ease the ache in his gut, but he pushed aside his unease and put his nose to the air and began the fruitless search for their scents.

~Taylor's POV~

Taylor was like a kid in a candy store--or maybe a kid looking through the pet store window at the puppies in awe, only these weren't harmless puppies she was oogling with a fascination that completely abandoned any attempt at politeness.

"You're fogging up the window." Kaden's amused voice floated through her subconscious, breaking the spell, "You want me to roll it down so you can stick your head out?"

Taylor glared at the window, but didn't turn away from object of her attention, "If you weren't driving right now, you'd be worse than me."

Kaden gave an offended gasp but made no move to deny the statement as she drove the Landrover toward the fancy black gates of what looked like a large, hoity-toity gated community.

Kaden broke the silence first as she watched Brendon pull his semi over to the right of the enormous blacktop driveway to allow them to pull their vehicle up to the guard house on the left side, "Sooo, do you think Brendon-Bear's been driving a little too long and pulled up in the wrong place?"

The place did look out of place and very up scale for what was suppose to be housed on the other side of those fences.

"I would say yes..." Taylor motioned for Kaden to look out the driver side window, "But how would you explain them?"

She heard Kaden suck in a deep breath of surprise at the two guards approaching her window.

They barely looked like they could breathe in the tight navy button-ups that served as their guard uniforms.

"Jesus! I'm not rolling down my window!" Kaden cried, struggling to undo her seat belt to lean further away from what could finally be their impending doom.

"I...don't think glass is going to slow them down much..." Taylor watched as the pair reached the car, each bending down to peer inside.

She studied each man meticulously, if she had been in wolf form she'd have had her ears back nervously.

The one closest to the window had to be at least 6'5, give or take a few feet, with piercing dark grey eyes and light blonde hair maintained at a short buzz.

The other man wasn't nearly as tall, Taylor guessed he was in the six foot range too, but he wasn't about to be out done. He had to have weighed in at 280lbs--maybe even pushing at the 300lb mark and none of it was fat.

Yet being as big and bulky as each man was, they didn't lumber or falter over their giant feet. They stalked.

The shorter man had a smooth, predatory gait as he navigated around his partner and rapt at the glass with the backs of his knuckles.

He waited expectantly, his hazel eyes almost glowing in the low light of the sun, giving away his human facade--as if his size hadn't already. The man had a rustic orange hue to his hair, which was slicked back loosely, giving a few lazy strands the chance to rest at the edges of his sharp jaw.

"Whaduido?" Kaden's voice came out in a rush.

"Roll down the window...a crack." Taylor added in lamely.

As Kaden rolled down the old window manually, she could see Brendon start to approach them from the other side of the driveway.

Oh, hurry up Brendon!

It wasn't that Kaden or Taylor thought these guys would kill them on the spot, it was just unnerving.

Their very ingrained lupine instincts sent them into overdrive as if to say, 'Don't you see those behemoths?! You haven't a prayer! Run idiots!'

"And you are?" Orange-slick asked in an almost condescending manner.

Kaden bared her teeth in a hostile manner but Taylor cut her off before she could voice any outrage, "Rude. Don't you know its customary to offer your name first?"

He seemed to hiss in warning, making Taylor falter in surprise.

Before he could retort, Brendon was there grabbing the man's shoulder and pulling him back.

"Now, Sean, this isn't how you treat guests is it?" Brendon towered over the man but it didn't comfort Taylor, if she had to bet on who would win in such a fight, it could be anybody's game--until the tall blonde man stepped next to Brendon, clearly warning the orange man to make a move.

He retreated, smart.

"Now then," the blonde turned to them, discovering Kaden had rolled the window down all the way, he gave a smile before continuing, "I'm Eli."

"And he's a polar bear!" Brendon chirped from behind him, still warningly close to Sean.

"Awesome!" Kaden pumped her fist up as Taylor laughed at Brendon's attempt at mirroring her earlier enthusiastic bear delivery news.

"...It is?" Eli tilted his head, looking a little thrown off balance.

"Yes, my goodness," Kaden sounded exasperated, "You know, you bears really waste your Bear-dom."

Taylor tried to recover from her own laughter to say,"It's true! If I were a bear, I would always introduce myself like this: Hi! I'm Taylor the Polar Bear, a way more awesome WereBreed than you."

Brendon laughed harder behind Eli, still having not recovered from "Bear-dom".

Eli grinned at them now, "I like you two wolves--"

"We're not as uppity as the others wolves, yeah so we heard." Kaden shot a grin at Brendon, which he returned sheepishly.

Eli gave them an amused once over, "Then maybe you can teach the abnoxious pack here a thing or too."

Taylor's smile vanished in an instant, "A...pack?"

"No, no, Eli doesn't understand wolves very well. There are no pack dynamics here, or pride, clan, herd--nothing. There's too many of each species here to have groups and territories to control."

Taylor let out a breath she didn't know she had been holding.

"Well, Eli, thanks for giving us a heart attack," Kaden grabbed her heart dramatically, "But don't worry, we'll get you up to speed on wolves--Oh. I'm Kaden by the way."

"Ah, Taylor." She supplied, still feeling the lingering affects of adrenaline through her system.

"I look foward to it," Eli handed them a clipboard through their window, and then a large red key, "Just fill