Ice_Reaux - Laura Wright Page 0,5

and instantly Ice’s cat went Hunter-still.

A swift glance revealed a broken window, and files scattered over the floor. There’d been a recent struggle. But that wasn’t what had his puma pressing beneath his skin.

It was the unmistakable scent that filled the air.

“Blood,” he breathed. “And the musk of an unfamiliar Pantera.”

Indy made a sound of distress, her hand pressed to her chest as Parish went to his knees to study the stain in the center of the rug. “Is she…?”

“She was alive when she left here,” Parish reassured the young female, straightening to make a quick sweep of the small room.

There wasn’t much to see. A desk with a computer, two chairs, and floor-to-ceiling shelves that were stuffed with file folders.

“I know she worked with the Healers. Was she doing anything else?” Parish asked, clearly leaping to the assumption that the enemy had taken the woman.

Not that it was much of a leap.

What else could have happened?

Indy visibly squared her shoulders, putting aside her fear so she could do whatever necessary to help her friend. “What do you mean?”

Parish nodded his head toward the files. “Was she doing any research?”

Indy chewed her bottom lip. “I know she was still trying to locate her sons. Xavier was working with her. He downloaded and printed out the patient files from the various Benson Enterprise computers we’ve gotten our hands on.”

“I meant any research that involves your people,” Parish explained.

“Our people,” Indy corrected him.

It took a minute for Parish to realize she was insisting the refugees were now a part of the Pantera pack.

“Yes. Our people,” he agreed, his tone impatient.

Satisfied, Indy wrapped her arms around her waist, her face pale. “She was working with Doc Chelsea. They were testing her blood to see what Benson Enterprises did to alter her.”

“I know she was a brood mare—” Parish bit off his words with a grimace. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay,” Indy assured him. “It was a term Karen used. She said there was no point in running from what had been done to us. We had to accept it and use the pain to make our future better.”

Ice remained silent, even as he inwardly applauded the woman’s philosophy. Most people who’d endured what she had would be too bitter to embrace life to the fullest.

“Did they discover what was done to her?” Parish asked.

Indy shrugged. “As far as I know they were still working on the results.”

Parish planted his fists on his hips, staring at the window. “Maybe someone didn’t want us finding out the exact nature of the experiments.”

Ice wasn’t convinced. “How could they know she was being tested?”

“Karen had a friend who she kept in contact with in New York,” Indy offered. “She might have said something that could have been passed on to Christopher and his band of bastards.”

“So it’s possible the bomber could have been a distraction to get their hands on Karen,” Parish murmured in preoccupied tones. He glanced toward Ice. “See if you can find a trail.”

With a nod, Ice headed across the office, carefully climbing out the broken window. Once on the mossy ground, he drew in a deep breath, locking on the scent of the unknown Pantera. Karen’s scent would be throughout the Wildlands. It would be easier to follow the smell of the intruder.

Focused on his goal, he blocked out the curious gazes that followed him as he circled past the far edge of the destroyed Headquarters and down a side path that was rarely used. It headed through the deepest part of the bogs and the ground was too soft to build homes on.

Coming to a halt, Ice closed his eyes, emptying his mind as he called on the power of his puma. Tingles of magic vibrated through him, lengthening muscle and sinew and popping bones into place. Then in a final burst of heat, he was fully shifted.

With a roar of pleasure, his cat leaped forward, easily moving over the soggy ground. He was swiftly following the trail, not surprised to find one set of footprints. Karen had no doubt been knocked out to keep her quiet as they took her from her office. They would have to carry her out of the Wildlands.

Unless…no. He would smell her blood if they’d killed her and dumped her body in the bogs.

Jumping over the fallen tree trunks and narrow channels, Ice finally reached the edge of the Wildlands.

Whoever had taken Karen had met up with the other intruders, and they’d all left at the same spot he’d