Aztec Treasure
Catnapped

Brent’s POV

Sixth Floor Waiting Room, Sault Area Hospital

James took over pushing Maria’s wheelchair when the elevator door opened on Lana’s floor. The waiting room was right there and empty; I picked a spot where I could watch the hall, the nurse station, the elevator, and the stairway. “They are going into the room now. Do you need anything when we come back? Coffee?”

I could sense Laura’s humor. “Unless they have a Tim Horton’s in the cafeteria, hospital food and coffee is a NO for me. Why don’t you find a deli or something where we can get sandwiches for the park?”

“I’m on it.” I didn’t know how long I’d be sitting here, so I pulled out my phone and started looking. I couldn’t complain about the food on this trip; Maria’s debit cards were covering everything. I searched our route to Bellevue Park, but it was all fast food and sit-down places. I stopped when I saw the name of one place, a block out of the way on Wellington. Clicking on it, I started drooling as I read the menu. “Maria, Laura, what about Low and Slow Smoked Fusion BBQ and Grill? It’s on the way, and they have our favorites.”

“What is ‘fusion’ barbecue,” Laura asked.

“I think that means you can get poutine with it. The menu has jambalaya, collard greens, and grits.”

“Sounds like a Southern transplant,” Maria answered with a laugh. “Why not? I’m sure there are picnic tables at the park, and we all know how much the little ones like their barbecue.”

“I’ll put together an order and call it in when we are ready to leave.” It would be a big one; their ‘Platter for Two’ didn’t mean two adult werewolves. I started recording the order on my note program for two adult wolves, two human females, and four were toddlers. I made sure I had plenty of meats and a selection of sides, heavy on the mac and cheese. I added appetizers of onion rings and Texas Twinkies, smoked jalapenos stuffed with cream cheese and pulled pork. I was searching for pecan pie when Laura’s panicked send filled my head.

“GUN! HELP!”

I was out of my seat in an instant. “PROTECT MARIA,” I yelled down the hall as I raced to the stairway. I felt pain through the mate bond, then nothing. My wolf roared in my head as I went down the stairs, my feet barely touching as I raced for the ground floor. When I couldn’t raise Laura by the time I hit the ground floor, I linked Maria instead. “CALL THE POLICE AND GET EVERYONE BACK HERE!”

“On it,” she said.

I reached the ground floor but still had to run through half the hospital to get to the exit. I was dodging people the whole way to the doors, ignoring the people yelling at me not to run, and barely avoiding those in the hallways. Maritza was reaching out to Maria and me over the link; she was scared of the dark. I burst through the outside doors, just in time to see a silver Honda turn onto the main road in front. I ran across the half-empty parking lot to the Alpha’s RV, almost ripping the door off. My heart sank when I got my first look at my mate.

She was in wolf form, unconscious on the floor and bleeding from her chest and mouth. “LAURA!” I knelt by her as I looked to the right; Three Tequila and Possum were out, and I could see three crying toddlers. I pulled the autoinjector out of her neck and pocketed it. “Multiple injured, get help out here now,” I sent to Maria. I picked up Laura’s wolf in my arms; I had to get her inside. “Where is Maritza,” I asked.

“Bad man!” Cheryl was holding her brother as tears filled her eyes.

“Stay here,” I said. I went back out, running with Laura to the emergency room entrance while I updated Maria with what was happening. An ambulance was parked there, and they grabbed gurneys and headed out.

The Emergency Room doors opened as I yelled for help. “Two more injured out in the RV in the parking lot,” I told the woman behind the desk. “Get me a gurney!”

“This isn’t a pet hospital,” a nurse said as I ran past her.

Screw the gurney! I went through the doors and put Laura on the bed in the first treatment room I saw open. A doctor was right behind us. “No dogs in here!”

“She’s not a dog, she’s my wife and a werewolf, and she’s got a bullet in her. Now fucking treat her!”

The doctor wasn’t happy. “I’m not a vet! I know nothing about her anatomy!”

“Take a pic, get the bullet out, and stop the bleeding,” I replied.

He looked at my eyes and agreed to do his best. “Can you make your wife human again?”

“Not until she’s awake.” We only shifted when we had conscious control of ourselves. “She had his in her neck.” I handed him the autoinjector.

“You have to leave,” the nurse told me.

It struck me that I had responsibilities beyond my wife today. I ran back outside, racing to the RV where two gurneys were parked. I opened the door, and one of the EMTs inside asked me what happened. “One of the toddlers is missing, my wife got shot, and those two were out cold. I didn’t see blood.”

The EMT by the table bagged what looked like a gray tube. “Sedatives. Fast-acting,” he said. “We need the kids out of the way so we can transport.”

“I’ve got it.” I opened my arms, and they ran crying into them. There is a bed above the driver’s area that lowers down, and I set them up there one at a time before pulling the netting across. It turned it into a large playpen. I took one quick look through the RV, making sure Maritza wasn’t hiding in a cabinet or something, with no luck. I linked with her, but she couldn’t tell me anything beyond ‘dark’ and ‘car’ with how scared she was. I told her we’d get her soon.

The first police car arrived as the EMTs finished getting the two Steel Ladies out to the gurneys. Two patrol officers got out, and I waved them to me. “We have a missing child,” I told them as I pulled up a picture of Maritza on my phone. “The kidnapper shot my wife and drugged my two friends. The other three children are safe; I’ve got them up there on the bed.”

“Do you have a description of the kidnapper?”

“You’ll have to check the security cameras since he was gone before I got out here. I saw a silver Honda leaving the lot that might be the guy; he was heading west.”

“Do you know what the child was wearing?”

I pointed under the table at the torn shirt and baby jeans. “She must have shifted during the attack. Maritza Meztli is a werejaguar cub,” I told them as I found a picture of her in her cat form. “It’s likely the kidnapper was after her because she is the only one of her kind in the world. If she changes back, she won’t have clothes.”

More police were showing up, and the patrol officer radioed in the abduction and a description of the victim in both human and cat form. It took a while, as this was the first time any of them had dealt with werewolves and werecats. I emailed the police the two pictures so they could get them to their people.

A frantic Maria showed up, pushed by James. “There is the mother,” I told the officers.

Maria had her phone out. “Maritza’s tracker pinged four minutes ago here,” she said as she showed the officers the displayed map. It was on the Great Northern Road, just south of Fourth Line East. “Next ping will be in eleven minutes.”

“It’s a start,” the patrol officer said as he called in the location. “Can we have your phone?”

“I’ll go with you,” she told him. “If you find Maritza, you’ll need me. She’s scared and alone, Officer. She might be dangerous to your officers without me there to help.” She briefly explained how jaguar bites could lead to fevers and death. “I don’t know if Maritza is old enough to kill with a bite, but you don’t want to take the chance. My daughter is scared out of her mind. It’s best if I’m the one that approaches her.”

I looked over at Maria; I was responsible for both the children and Maria, but the rest of my team was in the Emergency Room. Someone had to stay here with them. “Where is Lance?”

“On the American side. Lance will talk to the Customs agents and warn them of the abduction. Chase and the others are almost two hours out, but they are on the way back. The boat tour will dock again in an hour.”

“Go with the police,” I told Maria. “James, you take the kids inside and protect them along with Possum and Three Tequila. I’ll stay here with the police and coordinate the search with our people.”

Maria left with a detective, while more detectives and a Lieutenant showed up to process the crime scene. I ended up outside of the RV, working my phone. I called the nannies first, asking them to come up here with one of the other RVs so we could move the kids.

When I hung up, I looked at the time; it had been more than eleven minutes. I called Maria for an update. “We didn’t get another ping,” she told me. “He probably destroyed the device.”

Dammit. “Can you link Maritza?” I hadn’t heard her voice for at least fifteen minutes.

“No, she’s too far away.” Link range for an adult could reach ten miles, but we didn’t know how far Maritza’s link could extend. sᴇaʀᴄh thᴇ Find ɴøᴠel.nᴇt website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

It was still our best way to find her. “He was heading north, so have them take you to the city limits while you keep trying. If you can’t, head to the east and keep trying.” To the west was the lake; Luna forbid that he put her on a boat! “I’ll contact Lance and have him stay at the border in case they head south.”

“What if they are out of the city already?”

“I’ll work it out with Chance.” I wished her luck, then called up Lance. Their group was on 129, in Aubrey Falls Provincial Park. I asked him to pull over and gather the Pack members, and he did. I quickly explained the situation and my plan to them.

The first thing Chase did was to bring all Beta rank and below werewolves into the Arrowhead Pack so they could share the Pack link. He then divided the riders into three main groups. The first would do a thunder run to the north and then back west; they would leave wolves at every major intersection, backed up by members of the Steel Brotherhood. They would cut off any escape north into the Canadian wilderness. Some of them would retrace last night’s route from Wawa south, checking side roads along the way.

The second team would race south and do the same thing. That group would cover all roads leading east towards Toronto.

The third team would race back to Sault Ste Marie. Once there, they would search the city and the area between the main highway and Lake Superior.

Chase finished their briefs as the teams raced away. Those who weren’t ready to ride fast and hard would head back to the city anyway, meeting up back at the hotel we’d left from this morning.

The three groups would stay out until we had Maritza back.

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