Page 14 of Act of Command

“Sadly, that was one of the better fix ups,” offered Corbin. Every so many decades his mother tried, rather unsuccessfully, to help him cross paths with his true mate. Mostly, he ended up taking women, he had no interest in and nothing in common with, out for a fancy dinner and then he took them home, never to speak to them again. He’d get through his newest fix-up and then his mother would give him a decade or so before she pushed hard again.

Duke stepped into the training room more. “What did you just say?”

“She’s on a matchmaking kick…again.”

He shook his head. “No, the girl’s name. The one she’s fixing you up with. What name did you say her name was?”

“Mae Bertelot.” Corbin eyed his longtime friend, and when he saw Duke’s expression fall, a sinking feeling started in the pit of his stomach. A strange knowing settled over him and fear ebbed through him. “She’s on the list, isn’t she? She’s one of the women being held for auction.”

Duke nodded. “And if what the girls cracked is right, the Corporation is in a bidding war over her. The girls have pictures of Mae in there, being held, and it’s not pretty. She’s the one close to us—at least we think. Techs are giving us six possible holding places.”

“We grabbed that intel over three days ago,” Corbin said, the panic continuing to hold him in its ironclad grasp. The same fear he’d felt just over twenty years ago. “She’s been with them for three days?”

“Longer,” said Duke, his expression hard. “From what Laney and Mercy uncovered, they grabbed Mae two weeks back. They’re taking bids on her from all over the world. Her final sale date is nearly here. And, Corbin, in the write-up online for her, for those bidding, it boasts that she was the product of a supernatural breeding facility.”

Corbin’s blood went cold. Thoughts of Jane and her unborn child hit him hard, and he swayed. For a split second he feared he’d go down. Somehow, he stayed upright. The woman in the yellow dress flashed in his mind, and try as he might to get her out of his head, he couldn’t. Images of her and then Jane continued to assail him.

Striker grabbed Corbin’s bag from him, shaking him from his state of alarm. “Go and change. We’ll ready the SUVs. We’ll get the girl you stood up back. Then she can slap you across the face for standin’ her up to start with and then hug you for savin’ her.”

When Striker was panicked, the shit was bad. Corbin thought harder on the dates Duke had mentioned and then paled. “She was taken around the time I was supposed to be on a date with her. I could have stopped it. I could have protected her. I could have been there to prevent anything from happening to her.”

Duke held the folder out to Corbin and with a heavy heart, Corbin opened it. He froze, his entire body tensing, breath no longer coming as he stared down at photos of a woman he’d seen before. It was the woman in the yellow dress. In the picture she was still in it, though it was ripped, tattered and torn, her brown eyes wide with fright, a handprint bruise covering her right cheek and her lip swollen and bloody. There were no glasses on her now. She only wore fear.

“It’s her,” he managed, his finger running over the edge of a photo.

“Yes, Mae,” said Duke.

Mae was the woman in the yellow dress? The one whose very scent had called his lion forth? The one his dick had been hard over for weeks? The one he’d jerked off to thoughts of in a fucking parking lot and then again nightly since seeing her? The one he’d stood up?

The one you left to be taken by mad men, he reminded himself.

He shut off, the fierce need to get to her and protect her was all consuming. His lion side pushed through, the beast wanting to seek out those who had Mae and destroy them. Vaguely, he heard shouting and felt heavier—as if his feet were weighted as he made his way in the direction of the exit. He had to get to her. She needed him.

“Bring it down a notch, asshole!” shouted Duke, his voice piercing the confusion filling Corbin.

It took Corbin a minute to realize he was being held back by several of his men. As he lifted his arms, he saw that they were partially shifted, tan fur coating them. Claws had emerged from his fingertips and he realized then that his mouth was misshaped—as was the case when he did a partial shift. Disoriented, he shook his head, gaining something close to control once more. His arms and body returned to normal. “What happened?”

“You lost your shit,” said Boomer in a deadpan voice. “Seriously, lost your shit, dude. Not like you at all, boss.”

Malik released him and nodded. “You looked at the file on the young woman and then you started to shift as you went for the door. For a moment we all feared we’d have to hunt a lion through the city. What set you off?”

Corbin glanced down at the floor and saw the file was there, its contents scattered about. His gaze locked on the pictures of Mae, her bruises, her fear, the blood, and a sinking feeling settled over him. He thought about his reaction to her scent on the campus and how he’d been unable to stop thinking about her. About how he’d wanted to go to her, sink deep in her and lose himself.

He’d never reacted like that to anyone before.

The reality of it all hung in the air. Desperate for answers, he looked to James, knowing the good doctor would be the voice of reason. James’s face fell. He looked to the pictures and back to Corbin.

“Captain, is she your mate?” asked James, drawing a round of gasps from the men.

“She can’t be,” whispered Corbin, though he wasn’t so sure. He couldn’t look away from the pictures of her, captive, horrified. His lion beat at him, wanting out, wanting to go to her. It could help track her. It had her scent. He had to take another large breath to keep hold of it. “Can she?”

Duke grunted. “Let’s get her back, Captain. Just focus on that for now. We’ll ready the SUVs and call in some favors. Get yourself ready to go. Tut, can you assist him?”

“Of course,” said Malik.

Chapter Six

Striker waited until Malik had led Corbin from the training room before bending to retrieve the files on the floor. Duke did so as well, and Striker glanced over the information there. The sight of the woman and the condition she was in twisted his stomach. He eyed Duke. “If this ends poorly and she’s his mate…”

---