The Ransom

Kade caught Jamie before she could throw herself through her broken room window. She fought him with everything she had, but he wasn't ready to let go again.

"Let me go! They were here! My babies were here!"

"And they're not here now." Kade wrestled her to the ground. "You running blind won't find them."

Briton shifted back to human, picked up the bedspread and wrapped it around himself. Then started arranging back Jamie's scattered phone..

Jamie finally stopped fighting. Kade let her up slowly, ready to grab her again if she wants to run again. She shifted back, naked and shaking, and didn't seem to notice or care.

"My children." Her voice was empty. "They took my children."

Briton pulled a jacket from a stand and wrapped it around her shoulders.

Jai pulled up in the car and immediately rushed inside. "I brought clothes, I figured you'd all need them."

They dressed in silence. Jamie pulled on jeans and a shirt. Beta Lucas met them at the door, a young wolf who looked barely old enough to have earned his rank.

"I'm sorry, Alpha. I checked on them an hour ago and they were sleeping. I came back to check again and found this." He gestured at the window. "I failed you."

"Later." Jamie pushed past him going towards the living room.

The living room was untouched. The kitchen was clean. Then she went back upstairs.

This time she carefully surveyed everywhere. The room looked like a crime scene. The window was shattered inward and blood spotted the white sheets.

Jamie made a sound that wasn't quite human. She grabbed the bloody sheet and pressed it to her face, breathing in her daughter's scent.

"Jamie." Briton reached for her.

"Don't touch me." She pulled away. "This is your fault. If you hadn't shown up at the gala, if you hadn't followed me, if you had just stayed away like you were supposed to, they wouldn't have known where I was. They wouldn't have found my children."

"You don't know that."

"Don't I?" She threw the sheet at him. "Just get out of my house."

"Your news never said you got married again, so who's the father of your kids?"

"I said get out!"

"Answer the question." Briton stepped closer. "Are they mine or someone else?"

Jamie's phone buzzed before she could respond. It was an unknown number.

"Hello?"

"Ms. Olive." A voice distorted beyond recognition said. "I have something that belongs to you."

The phone switched to video. A small boy and girl figure sat on a concrete floor with their hands bound to the back and tape over their mouths.

Jamie's knees nearly gave out before Kade caught her.

"Mama!" The girl's voice was muffled by the tape but clear enough to understand.

"Don't hurt them." Jamie's voice broke down. "Please don't hurt them."

"That depends entirely on you." The voice continued. "You have something we want. So surrender yourself and the children go free."

"Where? When? Tell me where and I'll come right now."

"We'll send coordinates, and you should come alone. If we see anyone else, the children die."

Then the video cut out. Jamie stared at the blank screen.

"You're not going alone," Kade said.

"Yes, I am."

"They'll kill you the second you show up," Briton added. "It's a trap."

"I don't care if it's a trap!" Jamie shoved both of them away. "Those are my babies! They're four years old and they're terrified and I'm going to get them back even if I have to die doing it!"

Her phone buzzed again. It was a message from the unknown number with an address of an abandoned warehouse.

"That's fifteen minutes from here," Jai said, already typing on his laptop. "I can have the location mapped and find all the exits before you get there."

"No." Jamie headed for the door. "I'm going alone like they said."

Briton blocked her path. "You go in blind, you're dead. Give us five minutes to scout it."

"I don't have five minutes!"

"Yes, you do." Kade pulled up satellite images on his phone. "That factory has been abandoned for three years or so. It has multiple entry points, plenty of places for an ambush. They're expecting you to run in emotional and stupid."

"I don't care what they're expecting."

"Well I do." Briton grabbed her shoulders. "Because if you die, those kids lose their mother. And maybe their father too, depending on me being the father or not."

Jamie's eyes moved over his face. "You don't get to play father now. You gave up that right when you chose Leanora over me."

"I didn't know you were pregnant."

"Would it have mattered?"

Briton didn't reply because he didn't have an answer.

Jai looked up from his laptop. "I've got something. There's a heat signature in the factory. Multiple people, looks like maybe six or seven. And two smaller signatures in the center. That's got to be the kids."

"Can you get us a layout?" Kade asked.

"Already done." Jai turned the screen around. "The front entrance, loading dock in the back, side door on the east wall. If we split up…"

"We're not splitting up." Jamie grabbed her keys. "I'm going through the front door like they asked. You three can do whatever you want, but don't get in my way."

She was in her car before anyone could argue. Kade cursed and headed for his bike. Briton and Jai ran for their car.

They reached the factory in twelve minutes. Jamie's car was already there, parked at an angle like she'd stopped too fast. She was walking toward the entrance when they caught up.

"Jamie, wait."

"No." She didn't slow down. "My children are in there."

The factory doors were open with darkness waiting inside. Jamie walked in without hesitation.

Briton and Kade followed, one on each side of her. Jai stayed outside with his laptop and a radio, feeding them information.

"Six heat signatures ahead," Jai's voice crackled through Briton's earpiece. "The kids are in the center. You've got three hostiles on the catwalks above and three on the ground floor."

The lights came on all at once. After a few seconds Briton's eyes adjusted, then he saw Herston and Hemston sat in the middle of the floor.

The boy saw Jamie first. His eyes went wide and he tried to stand but his legs were tied together.

"Mama!" His voice was muffled but desperate.

Six men in black tactical gear surrounded the children raising their weapons, all pointed at Jamie.

"Ms. Olive." The voice came from speakers mounted in the rafters. "So glad you could make it. And you brought friends. How predictable."

"I'm here. Let my children go."

"I don't think so. You see, we did some research on you. You got a very interesting family history. Your grandmother was quite the legend."

Jamie was already getting impatient. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"Don't you?" The voice laughed. "Then perhaps a demonstration is in order."

One of the men grabbed Herston and pulled a knife. The little girl screamed behind her tape.

Jamie moved without thinking, shifting mid-run. Her white wolf form cleared twenty feet in seconds.

The man dropped Hemston and fired. The bullet hit Jamie in the shoulder but she didn't stop. Then she was close enough and her jaws sliced the shooter's throat.

Everything shattered and sensing this, Kade and Briton shifted and charged. The remaining men fired but they were already moving too fast. Briton took down two and Kade handled the other.

But one man reached Herston first. He grabbed the little girl and held her up like a shield.

Jamie shifted back, blood pouring from her shoulder. "Put her down."

"Come closer and I drop her." The man held Herston over the railing of the catwalk. Twenty feet to the concrete below.

Herston wasn't crying anymore. She was completely still, her golden eyes fixed on her mother. And then her body started to convulse.

"What's wrong with her?" The man holding her looked panicked. "What's happening?"

Herston's skin rippled with her bones cracking audibly, then fur started to sprout across her arms.

"No." Jamie's voice was horror. "No, baby, not yet. You're too young."

But Herston kept shifting. Her hands started changing to claws. Her face began to elongate, and then something else started to emerge.

They weren't wolf shits, they were silver scales mixed with fur, covering her arms and chest.

The man dropped her in shock, and Herston started falling.

Jamie ran and caught her daughter before she hit the ground. They rolled together, Jamie's body cushioning the impact.

When they stopped, Herston was still convulsing in her arms, still shifting and growing scales.

"What's wrong with her?" Jamie was now crying, trying to hold her shifting daughter. "She's only four. She shouldn't be able to shift yet. Something's wrong!"

Briton stared at the little girl in Jamie's arms. At the scales spreading across her skin. At the golden eyes that looked exactly like Jamie's. At the shape of her face, even distorted by the partial shift.

And at the boy still tied up on the floor, watching with terrified eyes that were the exact same shade as Briton's own.

"Jamie." His voice was quiet. Deadly quiet. "Why do they look like me?"