Slade yelped and snapped out the syringe.
The men threw a net over him.
“We’ve got him!”
Slade snarled. That’s what they think. He scanned for Cricket. Gone. Good.
“Shoot him again!”
The man aimed.
Slade growled as the second dart hit his shoulder. He staggered and then collapsed. Pretending. Waiting.
“Watch him,” the commanding werewolf said in a familiar voice, but with a tinge of an accent. German.
Slade caught his scent. Henri, Dr. Warner’s assistant. The bastard who overdosed him. No, made him lose his memory. He could still taste the salty earlobe he’d bitten off.
“The amnesia drug never worked on this one.”
Henri’s scent threw Slade off. Last time he encountered him in Europe, he clearly smelled like an omega. Now alpha scent diffused from his body. How the hell did he disguise his status odor?
A cage lowered from the helicopter. Slade almost passed out when he saw Cricket cowering behind a boulder. Damn it. Why had she not run away?
Pinky shouted, “Over there!”
Slade’s panic rose. His heartbeat raced, and the tranquilizer flushed from his system. His energy surged. Must protect Abella.
Slade feigned being knocked out as they approached. A beta reached for him, and Slade exploded into action. He raked the net open with his claws and ripped out the beta’s throat.
Before another dart hit him, he leapt onto the man holding the tranquilizer and slashed his chest open. He charged Henri or whoever the hell he was.
They rolled on the ground. Henri in mid-shift proved a strong foe. Slade fought to reach Henri’s throat, but he held him back with strong arms.
Cricket’s yelp struck him like a sledgehammer. No! He dropped Henri to look. She’d been darted and as she struggled to escape, she collapsed on her side. Not dead, but unconscious.
Pinky moved in and slipped a noose around her neck and pointed a gun to her head. “Get in the cage, or I’ll shoot her.”
Slade growled, but hesitated. By the time he reached her, she’d be dead.
“Shift now, Prince Slade, if you want her to live,” said Henri. The men behind Henri pointed their weapons at him.
Slade shifted and narrowed his eyes. He vowed to kill the oath breaker. “Henri, is it?”
“Henrik.” He smiled, while stroking his missing ear. “My true name. More fitting of my alpha status, yes?”
“You killed Dr. Warner.”
Henrik laughed. “He found a connection between me and Prince Raulf so I returned to clean up my mess and thought, why not invite a few of his patients on a long trip? Besides, it was his fault I didn’t apprehend you in the first place.”
“Let her go, and I’ll go quietly.”
“Why doesn’t the tranquilizer work on you?” Henrik asked.
He couldn’t deny he didn’t feel the effects of the drugs; they clearly had him at a disadvantage. However, unlike Cricket who lay in wolf form with her tongue lolling out in a stupor, he could still do plenty of damage. “Superior blood, I suppose.”
Henrik smiled. “Which makes you an ideal candidate.” He turned to Pinky. “Get her on board.”
Pinky grinned. “Yes, sir.”