Storm (Rise of the Pride #12) - Theresa Hissong

Chapter One

Two weeks.

That was all it had taken for Storm to lose his mind over the abduction of Amaya Bradley, the nurse who worked at Landon’s veterinary practice.

With a hard jerk to the Gadaí’s collar, Storm held a printed photo of the female in front of the wolf they’d just captured. He shook the image of that photo from his mind, or at least tried. It’d been burned into his memory since he’d found it online. “Have you seen this female?”

“Fuck you,” the crazed male spat. His eyes were glowing with the need to shift, but the collar around his neck prevented him from turning into his wolf form. “I ain’t seen that bitch.”

“Get him in the van,” Storm growled, tossing the male toward Taze, his partner, in a fit of disgust. He could taste the lie from the male’s scent. The vinegary hint to the air burned his nose.

He’d been scouring the streets of Memphis for the past two weeks. While he’d run himself into the ground hunting for the men who’d taken her, Storm had only been home long enough to eat a meal and shower. Sleep only came in two to three-hour bursts before he was looking for her again.

She’d never even said a word to him before she had been kidnapped, but he would forever remember her scent from the morning he’d seen her at Landon and Noah’s home, sitting at their kitchen table. His panther immediately knew she was to be his mate.

But now she was gone.

“I’ll run these ones to the airport and meet you back here in thirty minutes,” Taze announced, placing a hand on Storm’s shoulder. Storm cut his eyes to the ground when his partner’s face fell. “Man, we are going to find her. I promise.”

“Go on,” Storm ordered as he shook off the touch, not wanting to hear anyone else promise her return. They’d been repeating the same words for two weeks, and he was losing faith. For all he knew, she was dead. Or a wolf already. He didn’t know which one was worse. “Get out of here.”

The van pulled away from the curb as he took a moment to breathe. With every inhale, he and his panther tasted the air for any sign of her scent. A pain bloomed in the center of his chest every time he ended up empty handed. His beast wasn’t doing much better.

Thunder rumbled off in the distance as he took off on foot. He had enough time to scour the seedier parts of downtown Memphis while Taze was gone. Noah and Evie were checking out a lead on a Khat house not far from his location, and he’d accepted a promise from Evie that if they found Amaya, he’d be the first one to know. As it was, his phone had remained silent for the past fourteen days.

They’d found so many new female rogues over the past week, Kraven had needed an extra transport vehicle and Taze to assist in getting them to the airport. Thankfully, Gabriel Jackson, the alpha in Colorado, was ready and willing to help them get out from under the spell the wolf alpha had on them.

Murdock had been missing since Amaya was taken. He didn’t know if she was a wolf now or not. It was only a matter of time before they turned her, and he prayed to the gods that Murdock gave her his blood before he disappeared. If not…well, he couldn’t think of that.

With a growl, he took another deep breath, scenting the air. She wasn’t there. He kicked at the rotten remains of garbage dumped in the alleyway, covering the scent of the oncoming storm. He closed his eyes and sent up a silent prayer to give him the strength to find her. The beautiful female was his, and he would do everything he could to protect her once she was rescued.

“Hello, big guy,” a female voice rang out as he turned the corner. His eyes narrowed as his panther tensed. She was dressed casually, but her relaxed posture against the wall told him a different story the moment he saw the hazy yellow specks in her eyes. “Looking for some company?”

“Take a deep breath, wolf, and ask me that again,” he warned. This female was as tiny as Evie, but she was most likely untrained. It went against his nature to harm the opposite sex, but he’d been working with the FBI to round up the rogues long enough that he wasn’t going