Page 31 of Stolen Choices

Katia was in deep distress. Jackson didn’t know how he knew, but he did. He left the majority of the pack behind to deal with the guards, and along with Kas, Jessica, and Jane, he sped through the corridors of the brothel toward the room he’d last seen her in. He halted at an intersection. Something in his subconscious told him that he needed to go in a different direction. Whatever magic had been inside him had left him with strange inklings. He’d speak more to Jessica about it after he’d rescued Katia from here.

“This way.” He pointed down a different corridor from the one where Katia had been.

The others instantly followed him as he raced toward the farthest door from him. All instinct was telling him Katia was behind it, and she was suffering. He didn’t bother to knock. He didn’t need to when he had a polar bear with him. Kas rushed past him and straight into the door. It flew off its hinges, and they flooded into the room.

Katia was in the middle of the room on all fours. A massive burn on her side added to the bruising he’d seen last time. Her face had a distant look again as three men descended upon her with their hard dicks in hand. Kas growled and within seconds was in polar bear form and bounding toward the men. Jane joined him with her gun pointed, ready to shoot. Kas knocked one of the men flying to the side of the room and into a wall. The man slumped down unconscious, possibly dead as his neck was now at a funny angle. Other men in the room, dressed in doctors’ coats, jumped to their feet with hands held high in surrender. A man lay bleeding on the floor at their feet, claw marks scratched down his face.

All of a sudden out of nowhere an energy ball flew his way.

Weston.

The brothel owner stepped out of the shadows.

Jessica deflected the ball into one of the men who’d been about to abuse Katia. His flesh sizzled, and he screamed out in agony as the ball ripped through his chest. He slumped down onto the floor, dead. Jackson bore down on Weston, but Jessica flew over his head and captured Weston in a cage without any effort. The brothel owner’s magic could not compete with that of the witch.

“Go to, Katia,” Jessica told him. “There will be time for Weston later. She’s more important.”

He turned back just in time to see Kas running toward another one of the men. This man had a cattle prod and was aiming it at Katia. She was directly in Kas’ path—the polar bear expected her to move, but Jackson knew she couldn’t because of the magic controlling her. Her eyes were open wide as she took everything in.

“Katia you can move,” he shouted above the commotion in the room, and she rolled over to the left just as Kas rammed straight into the man with the prod. The man tried to dig it into Kas’ body, but the bear was too powerful. His thick paw came up and swiped at the man’s head, sending him into the wall. The man collapsed onto the floor with blood pooling from the injuries Kas had inflicted with his claws.

Jackson sped over to Katia and knelt beside her checking her over. She flung her arms around him, and he pulled her into his embrace.

“In my dream, you told me you were coming.” Katia pulled back and touched his face. “But this is real, isn’t it?”

“This is no dream. We’re here to rescue you.” He cupped her face in his hands and leaned forward to press a kiss to her forehead. When he tried to pull back, she held him tighter and dropped her own kiss to his lips.

“You broke Ciaran’s spell.”

He nodded.

“I’m sorry I didn’t believe you at the start, Katia.”

“But you do now, and you’re here. That’s all that matters.”

Movement behind him distracted his attention from the tigress in his arms. Jane and Kas were walking around, checking the men who’d been about to rape Katia for life signs.

“All dead,” Kas confirmed.

“Good,” Katia growled.

“What about him?” Jane pointed at the unconscious man on the floor, who was bleeding from four deep scratches to his face.

“Fix him up and send him out with a badge of shame for what he did,” Kas replied.

Jessica went over to the man and waved her hand over him. His wounds knitted together, but he was left with four jagged scars down his face and a damaged eye, clouded with white. Once the man regained consciousness, Kas, now in human form, hauled the man to his feet and dragged him out of the room. Jane persuaded the medical staff it was time for them to move as well…with a gun pointed at their heads. They didn’t argue with her. Jackson watched all this while helping Katia to her feet. He removed his shirt and draped it over her body. Even though nakedness was nothing to shifters, he wanted to shield her body from Weston’s eyes.

“Sit,” Weston ordered as they approached and Katia’s body obeyed. The brothel owner sneered, and Jackson’s anger overtook him. He raced forward, and shifting his hand to a panther’s paw, he tried to get past the bars Jessica had created around Weston.

“Jessica bring the barrier down. I want him,” Jackson roared.

“Not yet.” Jessica floated over the floor toward Katia and commanded, “Stand.”

“Sit,” Weston retorted, and Katia’s body, which had been trying to stand in response to Jessica’s order, had to sit back down again.

“Stop it,” Jackson screamed at Weston. His nose wrinkled with fury as he snarled into the cage

“Stand.” Jessica tried again, but Weston immediately responded with a countermand.