Jayden took a breath and held it, hoping he hadn't done too much damage. He still needed the asshat to talk.
After several heart-stopping seconds, the rogue lifted his pockmarked face and growled at him. Low and hesitating. Almost as if the rogue was trying to force a whimper into sounding like something fierce.
Jayden crowded into him—ignoring the smell of death, ignoring the visions that tried to creep into his mind like rabid rodents—dominating the rogue so the asshat's instincts would kick in and he'd submit to Jayden.
"The woman that your mane miu—" Jayden stopped. The rogue probably didn't know that term. He started again. "The leader of your pride, your den, he abducted a woman and held her captive in his apartment for days. What was her name?"
The rogue's eyes looked everywhere but at him. Spittle twinkled on his unshaven chin in the lamplight. "Changed her. Not a woman no more." His voice was hoarse, like sandpaper.
"Her name," Jayden demanded.
"Don't know," the rogue said, lifting his chin. Jayden could feel the truth of his words.
"What good are you, then?" He tightened his grip on the rogue's neck, squeezing.
"Know…where she…lived," the rogue choked out, gasping for breath.
Jayden eased his grip. "Where?"
"Nearby. I can show you."
Jayden hesitated. The rogue smelled as if he was telling the truth, and Jayden was getting flashes from him of a little apartment overrun with plants, with pale yellow and blue walls. The place felt like her—his mate.
"Fine." He jerked the rogue's arm behind his back and pulled him away from the wall. "Which way?"
The rogue nodded north and they started walking, Jayden behind him, keeping a tight grip on his arm and a link into his mind. No way was he taking any chances with this one. The asshat had been to her apartment, had been one of the rogues who had abducted her. Had the rogue harmed her?
Jayden pried further into the rogue's mind, walking slowly, carefully as visions dimmed his sight. From the vantage point of a broken window, he watched as the rogue's mane miu stood over Jayden's bloodied mate and forced her to submit, biting the back of her neck, changing her, making her miun.
The vision dissolved into their present surroundings. The rogue had no other memories of Jayden's mate and had not touched her. For that, Jayden would give him a quick death. Show him mercy when the rogue had shown nothing but twisted bloodlust when killing his victims. The asshat had played with them. Began eating them while they were still alive.
Three blocks down on the left, they approached a five-story, lopsided apartment building that looked disturbingly close to falling over. He knew this place. The locals called it the golden ghetto because of its mustard yellow color. He hated that his mate lived here. Hated that she had been unsafe even before the rogues had attacked her.
"Second floor," the rogue said when they reached the elevator.
They went up, the elevator rattling and squealing and smelling like oil and mold. Jayden thanked God that they hadn't run into anyone though he shouldn't worry about the humans living here. The residents in this area all kept to themselves and kept their mouths shut from what he'd always seen. Bad neighborhoods meant closed mouths and bad eyesight. That's what his father had said while working in the Austin Police Force.
They stopped at apartment two-seventeen. The door was closed but proved unlocked when Jayden reached around the rogue and twisted the doorknob. Inside blood stained the floor in the entryway, droplets sprayed on the faded blue walls. He could tell by the smell that the blood did not belong to his mate but to an unknown man.
"Whose blood is this?" he asked the rogue.
The rogue sniffed the stale air. "Her boyfriend. Changed too."
Well fuck.
Jayden forced down his jealous reaction and led them down the hall, picking up a letter on the way. Stamped on the front of the junk mail was the name Bethany Burk. He turned her name over in his mind. A lyrical name. One that rolled off the tongue. Did she have a nickname like Beth or Betty, or did she go by Bethany? What would he call her?
Beloved.
That was sappy as hell, but he didn't particularly care. Beloved would be his love name for her. The one he would whisper against her ear, the one he would call out while making love to her, the one she would want on his lips.
In the bedroom, even more blood stained the worn-down carpet. He didn't need to ask who this blood belonged to—his mate's scent had a unique, earthy quality that called to him like nothing else. And now that he knew her full unadulterated scent, he could track her anywhere.
He had what he needed. Jayden turned, snapped the rogue's neck, and let his limp body slump to the floor. He pulled his phone from his pocket and called the first name under favorites.
"Hello?"
He winced at the sleepy-sounding voice. He should have noted the time before calling home and waking the mane mie and miu of his pride.
"Jayden? Are you okay?" Kissa asked, her voice rising.
He cleared his throat. "Yeah. Sorry for waking you. Look, I'll call back in the morning."
"Don't you dare hang up!" She sounded wide awake now. "Hold on. Here's Venor."
Jayden cradled the phone between his ear and shoulder as he dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. He hadn't slept since he'd seen Bethany—two days ago—and fatigue had finally caught up with him here in her bedroom. He glanced at her bed.
"Jay?" Venor's smooth, French-accented voice rang in his ear. "Are you there, my friend?"
"Yeah. Sorry." He took a deep breath. "I'm at her apartment. Killed another rogue. Need Clean Up sent to—" He lifted the letter and rattled off her address. "And a Relo Package completed for her, too." Clean Up meant miun who would dispose of the body and scrub the apartment of any evidence. A Relo Package meant tying up all the loose strings of Bethany's human life so that she could join the pride as a made miun clean and clear.
"What is your mate's name, Jay?" Venor's voice held a smile.
"Right. You'll need that. Bethany Burk."
"A lovely name for a lovely female. You have caught her scent?"
Jayden paced the room, his boots making a crunching sound as he walked the glass-littered floor. "Yes, but it doesn't look like she's come home since she escaped the rogue's den, V. I don't know where to look for her and unless she's close, identifying her scent won't do me any good in a city."
"You're weary. And that causes you to see only the negative. Remember all you have done in so short a time. You saved her life. You have eliminated yet another threat to her. You know her name and will find a lead by searching her home. I have no doubt that you will find her, my friend."
Jayden sank onto her bed. Closing his eyes, he spoke his worst fear. "I'm running out of time. If I don't find her soon, she's going to turn rogue."
"You must wait for Clean-Up to arrive. Until then, sleep. Recover the strength of your mind and body."
"How long?"
"I will expedite the request as much as is possible."
"Okay." He sighed. "V?"
"Oui."
"If I don't get to her in time…I just wanted to say thanks. For everything."
Silence.
Jayden cursed under his breath. He shouldn't have said anything. But Venor had to have already known that if Jayden was forced to take the life of his mate, he wouldn't survive the loss. Just yesterday, Kissa had been forced to kill her dam, and then her sire, Latif, had disappeared right after his mate's death. Jayden had no doubt that the male had committed suicide.
Latif was a wily, old cat who had survived a lot in his life, but once miun mates completed the Ritual of Generation, nothing could break that bond, not even death. Jayden knew that Latif would choose death over insanity, just as he would choose to join his mate—never mind that they weren't bonded—if she turned rogue and he had to kill her.
At last, Venor responded. "You are more than a friend to me, Jayden. You are my family. My brother. If you need me by your side—"
"No," he hissed into the phone. "No, you're newly bonded to your mate and have more than enough to deal with trying to govern the pride. I would never ask you to kill for me. She's my mate, my responsibility."