This Wicked Sin

Chapter 17: Dane

Rayan and I shimmied down the factory and approached the warehouse from the shadows. We snuck quietly to the side and looked up. There was a dumpster that we could use to leap to the window. It was thankfully open.

I quietly jumped on top of the dumpster and eyed the distance. This should be a piece of cake. I breathed in deeply and let the change come over me. Shifting into a great beast wolf was usually painfully traumatic. A partial shift, on the other hand, was no issue at all. I felt a rush of power in my veins, my skin sang and my eyesight sharpened.

Claws shot out from my hands. I flexed my hand a few times. I waited for a breath. Then I leapt.

I vaulted over the wall soundlessly until I grabbed at the sill. I pulled myself over and crouched on the other side. Rayan was beside me in a second.

Rayan and I kept close to the walls. Luck was on our side. Until it wasn’t.

We were turning a corner when an alpha guard bumped into us. It was about to be a bad day. But not for us. The guard barely had a split second to cry out before I was on him. I whipped around him and had his neck in a chokehold in a flash. His neck broke like a twig in my arms. The human body was no match for my shifter-enhanced strength.

The guard fell to the floor, limp.

“Quick work,” Rayan praised. Although he’d had a gun in his arms from the time we came here, he hadn’t even lifted it once.

Though Rayan was a shifter, he much preferred to take care of things in his human form. He rarely, if ever transformed into a wolf. He claimed it just didn’t feel like him. He’d take guns and swords over eviscerating foes with his bare hands any day. Of course, most people thought that was a waste of good shifter genes. It drove my mother up the wall that he wouldn’t shift even when it was in his best interests. The most he’d do was a partial shift where his human form got enhanced senses and strength.

We looked down at the dead body on the floor. Leaving it here would raise alarms, which was counterproductive, seeing as we were trying to do this as quietly as possible.

“Broom closet?” Rayan asked.

“Broom closet,” I agreed.

We quickly pulled the body into a storage room. He would be found eventually, but by then it would be too late.

There were no other disturbances from there on out. This part was poorly guarded for a place that was supposed to house a kidnapped high-profile victim.

Finally, the passage we were looking for was in sight. I found the right door and turned the handle. The door slowly opened. There was no one on the other side.

The office looked like it had been abandoned about a century ago. Everything was old and rusting. Old documents and papers littered the space, dusty and yellow with their age.

There was a door on the other side. That must have been where they were keeping him. Rayan and I made eye contact. I nodded at him and we slowly approached the door. My hand pulled a gun from my back. Not my weapon of choice, but it would do.

If the door was locked, I didn't care who heard, I would be busting down that door. Surprisingly, it was unlocked.

I scented the air. There was a mix of scents; I couldn't pinpoint the specifics. But I picked up the faint scent I’d found back at the club.

Underneath everything, I smelled blood.

The door opened. Rayan and I burst in; guns drawn.

But there was no need. Standing in the middle of the room in a pool of blood, was Gabriel.

I was so shocked at the sight of him that I didn't immediately notice the two bodies lying on the ground.

He looked scared and shaken. My instincts screamed at me to take him in my arms and protect him from the world. His face was splattered in blood and he stood there shivering.

My eyes dropped to the two bodies. They lay in a heap. Blood seeped from them. I couldn't tell what had killed them or how. All I could see was blood. It filled my senses with a nauseating scent.

“What the f**k,” I heard Rayan mutter behind me.

Gabriel was muttering something under his breath. Even his clothes hadn't escaped the splatter. He looked like he came straight from a slasher movie.

I ignored all my instincts screaming at me to investigate what was happening. My senses warned me of danger I didn't understand. But I didn't care.

I stepped into the room, walked through scarlet puddles and brought him into my arms.

“I didn't mean to. I didn't mean to,” he kept muttering. He didn't even look like he had seen us. His body felt warm underneath my fingers. Up close, his face was flushed and his eyes were feverish.

What had these fuckers done to him? Rage simmered in my veins.

That was when I smelled it. Underneath, the strong copper tang of blood was a sweet scent.

It enveloped my senses until it was the only thing I could smell. It felt like something bloomed in my brain, changing its very chemistry.

It was like seeing a colour you didn't know existed for the very first time. Seeing the world in all its vivid glory after seeing only in monochrome all your life. It was an overwhelming assault on the senses. And yet, it was glorious.

I couldn't get enough. My knees felt weak with it.

Then it clicked. I knew this. The sweet heady smell of it.

I followed the trail of the scent and it was coming from…

No. f*****g. Way.

There was no way.

But there was no mistaking it.

The scent was coming from Gabriel.

Gabriel Corvin, the youngest alpha heir of the Raven clan, was an omega. And he was going into heat.