Bounty for the Lycan Princess ~Nichols~

Lycan Ian Steel~

"Good work, John, send me the information as soon as you can!" I say to my PI.

"I'm faxing it to you now, and I will be ready to move on, Harley, by the end of the week."

"Hold on, John, you won't be going after her at all." His huffs and puffs said I've just burst his bubble.

"Lycan, with all due respect, I call some absolute bullshit on that. I'm the one who found her, and I want the bounty for bringing her back."

"We never agreed to that. You're a PI, not a bounty hunter. You've done your job, and you'll get the other half of your money once I see the file."

The bug-eyed little fuck hung up on me, but my fax machine lit up! Rage surged through me, and I slammed the receiver back into the cradle on my desk hard enough that I heard the wood crack. I've waited far too long to risk Harley getting away now. I picked up the receiver again, surprised to hear it still worked, and dialed Reins' number, but got no answer.

"Nick, I have a job, call me!"

My gaze settled on her as I leaned back in my chair. Ah, my beautiful Harley. She thought she could escape me, silly child; her photograph sits in its place, not from love but as an emblem of the one desire I could never command. Harley will pay for the trouble she's caused me by spending a little time in my dungeon before I ship her off to the training center for her reprogramming.

Colt, my wolf, doesn't surface much anymore, except where Harley is concerned; he's pushing forward now with force. 'Leave me alone, Colt!'

'I'll stop you from sending her there, Ian!'

'Fuck off, Colt, go back wherever you came from!'

Under the strict discipline of Durwood Academy, my daughter will discover abilities within herself that she could never have imagined. Only I know Harley is an innately magical guardian of Sauther Lake; you can believe I'd made sure of it. According to legend, guardians are reborn in the firstborn child of every firstborn seventh-generation female.

I'd sought the beautiful Sabrina once my research revealed she was the generation that would give life to the next guardian. Everything was working out just as I planned until Sabrina caught me one day when Harley was about three, searching for which of the four elements my daughter's power lay in.

After that, things went south on a fast train. Sometimes I half regret killing Sabrina, but she had left me no choice; I'd not gone to all the trouble of bringing her to my pack and making her my Luna, only to have her take Harley back to her clan, where the lake would protect her from me.

No one has ever escaped the consequences of betraying me and, to be sure, Sabrina would not be the first. It wasn't long before I took another mate and had another child, a son I named Kyle, my pride and joy. Once I get Harley in line, I can hand the pack over to him, knowing she will protect him as long as she lives.

My private cell phone rings. I take it out of my pocket to check the ID; it's my FBI connection, so I swipe the screen. "Yeah."

"I have the documents you requested," Craig said. "Harley is investigating Leonard's activities on the island, which, as you know, could lead her back to you. It will not be easy getting to her either. If Nick gets caught or shot, you're both on your own!"

Craig knows I would put only my best man on this mission. Technically, Nicholas hasn't agreed to take on the job. Word was that he'd retired, but I was confident he would reconsider taking this last job once he heard my offer.

"Don't worry about my end, just send me the identification as soon as possible."

"Why is it so important to you to force Harley back? She doesn't want to return to your pack."

Because she will make us unstoppable! "Can't a father love and miss his daughter?" I laid on as much fake concern as I could muster.

"Ian, I have known you too long to be sure you don't even love what you eat. Either way, I've done my part; I think we are even now, and this conversation never happened." The line goes dead.

Craig was referring to the tight spot I helped him get out of a few years back after he'd buried himself, along with everything he owned, in gambling debts, and I made them go away. As I toss the phone onto my desk, I sit back in my chair, lacing my hands and putting them behind my head.

'Why must you do this, Ian? Let her be in peace!'

'Give it a rest, Colt. Damn it!'

'Not until we take our last breath! Harley is of our blood, just as Kyle is. How can you justify sacrificing one for the other? You are an unimaginable bastard!'

'No shit, Colt, what's new? Too bad for you, there's nothing you can do about it.'

Colt growled viciously at me before receding far back into my mind. Were it possible, he'd leap out of me and into my path toward Harley. I should care that my wolf would prefer death to being trapped inside me, but I don't.

My Beta, Toby, is coming to my office door, and I can smell him from the hallway. "Yeah, Toby," I said before he could knock. He came and closed the door behind him.

"Lycan, have you contacted Reins yet?" he asked after taking his usual seat in front of my desk.

I nodded. "I have. Left a message on his machine." That's what stuck in my craw about Nick. My manipulations had never worked on him. "He'll call back, he damn well better!"