The Amber Shift

Fifty-Six

Elijah

After waiting for hours for the next flight from Paris to literally anywhere in South America, Remi, Killian, and I finally touched down in Venezuela almost a full day after Remi figured out where Asher had taken Noelle. After booking a connecting flight from Venezuela to Colombia, we were in Cartegena in three hours.

When Remi announced that Asher had taken Noelle to Colombia, I'd just about lost my mind. The idea of Asher taking my mate to her father who has every intention of killing her sent waves of rage through me that I could barely control. Killian had to talk me down several times to keep my focus on the road so we could make it to Paris in one piece.

Now that we're here, I have no fucking clue what to do next.

I'm pacing around the hotel room we've just checked into so we can drop our bags off and have a place to come back to when we get Noelle out of there. "What the hell are we going to do? Just walk right in and say, 'Hey Dante, I hear you've got my mate prisoner in there. I want her back, and since our best friend brought her to you, we'd like to kick his ass on the way out.'"

"It has potential," Killian says and brings a bottle of beer to his lips.

I shoot him a glare, and he shrugs.

"If we can get Asher to answer his phone, I can try to track him. Maybe we will luck out and Dante is keeping her outside his home." Remi says, pounding away on his computer.

"So call him," I say.

"I've tried, he won't pick up for me."

"Fuck!" I rake my hand through my hair and stare at the ceiling.

"I think you need to give it a go, boss. This has more to do with you than with us. Knowing Asher's cocky ass, he will jump at the chance to shove it in your face that he has your girl."

I snort at Killian's ridiculous suggestion. If Asher picks up, I'm ripping into him, and the conversation will be over before Remi can get a hit. But fuck, I don't think I have a choice. Snatching my phone off the round table Remi sits at, I pull up my speed dial and stare at Asher's name. He sits right below Avery and Corbin. With a deep breath, I select his name and put the phone to my ear.

As the fourth ring finishes, I pull it away, ready to hang up before his voice mail answers. But the line clicks and the ringing stops.

"Ash?" There is no response. "Asher, don't be a douchebag and remain silent on me. It is the least you can do after what you've done."

"What I've done? Tell me, Elijah. What is it that I've done besides keep Noelle safe? The thing you can't seem to do," he says, and his voice is low and clipped, like he's ensuring no one will overhear him.

"I don't know. You don't think taking her against her will and handing her over to her father is a fucking problem?"

Asher's chuckle is void of humor. "God, Elijah, you really think you know everything. I haven't handed her over to her father. I convinced him to keep her alive, even after he found out about the two of you being mates." He says the last word with such hatred I can almost feel it through the phone. "And earlier, when her ability to shift was taken away, she sure as hell didn't feel like she was being held against her will when I was rubbing my cock all over her," he whispers, and I can hear the wicked grin in his words.

I close my eyes and bite the inside of my lip. If he was standing in front of me, I would pound my fist in his face until it looked like pulverized meat. But I can't lose my shit until Remi gives me the okay. "If she is so willing to be with you then let me talk to her. All she has to do is say the word, and I'll walk away."

Killian meets my gaze from across the room and his eyes widen. I shake my head once. There is no way in hell Noelle is with him of her own free will.

"I can't let you do that, Elijah. She has finally accepted the idea that she's never going to see you again and that I'm the one who will take care of her now. If she hears your voice, all my hard work will be for nothing, and I will have to start over to gain her trust again. So I'm afraid the answer to that is going to be a no," he says, and his smug tone of voice makes my blood boil.

"You son of a bitch, that's called manipulation. Man up and give the girl a choice, Asher! But you wouldn't do that, would you? You know who she will choose. I know who she will choose. You may have her body, but you will never have her heart and soul because that is mine. Do you hear me, brother? That is fucking mine!"

"For now, maybe. But she'll come around. When you're no longer a possibility for her. She'll love me. And by the way, she had a choice: Be with me and wear silver shackles for the rest of her life to tamp down her abilities or die. She chose wisely."

I slam my fist through the wall, leaving a sizeable hole and a streak of blood. "That's not a choice and you know it," I say through gritted teeth. "You are fucking with my mate. Don't make me choose between you, Asher. It won't work out in your favor."

"I haven't fucked with her yet, Eli. But don't worry; I will."

With that, he hangs up, and I throw my phone against the wall. "Fuck!" I whirl around to where Remi sits at his computer. "Please tell me you got it."

He looks up from his computer and swallows. "I did. He's at Dante's."

All reasoning exits my body, and I grab the television from the wall and throw it to the ground. The floor shakes with the impact and the screen cracks into a spider's web. I should have never let her out of my sight. And I sure as shit shouldn't have trusted Asher after he made his feelings known to her. He was too willing to fuck her that night after he knew she was my mate. That should have been my first clue that our friendship and her wellbeing meant nothing to him. I should have removed him from the situation at that instant.

I turn to Remi and Killian, both wide-eyed and pale from shock. "I'm going in. No fancy plan to execute or covert mission. I'm walking in and bringing her out."

Killian lifts a brow and takes another swig of his beer. "I understand that you are upset, but your 'no plan' is a fucking joke. You are outnumbered and dealing with a man who is more than happy to kill your mate. You need to reconsider before you get not only her, but yourself killed."

"It could work," Remi says, looking over the top of his computer screen. "You could be a distraction while we get her out. I pulled the floor plans to the house, and we can eliminate Dante's wing off the bat."

"Corbin still has connections here with a rebel pack; we can call in a favor," Killian adds.

I run my palm over my face. "If we can get the cuffs off her, Noelle could summon a handful of lycans."

"It's a slim chance of us pulling this off," Remi says.

"That's all I need." A slim chance to get Noelle out of the mayhem we are about to cause. Nothing else matters as long as we give her a chance to get away from her father. I'll do whatever it takes, even if it means laying down my life for her.