Cannon Fodder

"Where the hell is she?" growled Mathew as he spun around in Natalia's office.

Everyone had gathered there, the monsters preferring it to any other room simply because her scent was the strongest there.

"If we knew that, do you really think that we would just be sitting here?" asked Viktor, cocking his head to the side as he studied the wolf pacing back and forth in front of the massive desk.

"Then how do we find that answer?! You are the one with the mythical tracking skills. Shouldn't you be the one to just close your eyes and figure out where she is? What is the point of being the boogeyman if you can't actually do anything?" growled the wolf.

He wanted to pick something up and throw it, but that would mean breaking something of Natalia's, and he didn't want to do that.

He wanted to shift, but there was no point. He couldn't speak to the others in that form, and this was not the time for emotions. It was the time for planning.

Taking in a deep breath, Mathew calmed himself down and perched on the corner of his mate's desk.

"We all know that she has been taken by whatever has been killing those people," grunted Greyson from where he sat on the couch. His legs were crossed and he looked like the picture of calm. However, inside he was anything but.

"I'll send out even more teams," grunted Sasha; they were scraping the bottom of the barrel now, but they needed more people to cover even more considerable distances. It didn't matter if they could hit a moving target 100% of the time as long as the could track.

"I've sent out three of my legions," added Nicholas, swirling the whiskey around in his cup. But he had yet to take a sip of his drink. "Still nothing."

"My pack can't even get her scent right now, and they are surrounding the hospital in human form to see what they could find," admitted Mathew, checking his phone yet again. While his pack was linked to him, he had also contacted Mike to send out some officers to canvas the area.

Still nothing on that end either.

"We have to be missing something… but what?" growled Dom, his skin literally rippling with his need to shift. But he refused to give in to it.

Unlike wolves, Skinwalkers didn't have that much control over their other form and were known to be feral. So, when they shifted, only their fated mate would be safe from them. Dom wasn't willing to take the chance in this room and kill everyone.

"What if we were making this more complicated than it should be?" pipped up Michael from where he stood in the shadows of one of the bookcases.

"What do you mean?" asked Levi, turning to look at the angel. He was the only one who didn't have as much of a connection to Natalia, so he seemed to be taking her abduction the best out of everyone.

"What if they never left the hospital? Think about it. It is the only place that none of the six Houses would dare venture into. Maybe that is the reason why no one can find her. They never left," explained Michael, looking directly at Nicholas.

"It's possible. We are all assuming that they know she is a monster, but what if that is not the case?" murmured the demon as he dialed a number. "Search the hospital from top to bottom. Don't leave a single rock unturned."

"So, we are doing this?" confirmed Mathew, looking at the other men. His phone was in his hand. One text as there would be another 50 wolves in that place.

Viktor didn't bother to answer, only rose to his feet and fixed his suit jacket. Looking over his shoulder to Sasha, he raised an eyebrow.

"You do know I am no longer part of your House, right?" snarked Sasha as he started texting someone.

"I am beginning to realize that you only remember that particular part when it is useful to you," grunted Viktor as he walked out of the office door, the rest of the men behind him.

"What can I say? You are the one that taught me to use all of the resources at my disposal," chuckled Sasha. "And the men will be there in a matter of minutes. Should we tell them to hold?"

"No," snarled Nicholas, looking at the other man. "Have them go in and rescue her if they can. I am not making her wait simply so we can satisfy our egos by being the one to save her. We don't know what she is going through right now, and I won't have her stressed or hurt for a moment longer than absolutely necessary."

All seven men nodded their heads in agreement. The only priority was Natalia. Anyone else was cannon fodder.

-----

I didn't even flinch as the cold blade pierced through the skin just under my collarbone and moved down to my naval.

"Are you sure you aren't a doctor?" I asked, completely calm. The pain was not even registering. I had been in this situation more times than I could count. In fact, this is the most civilized thing to ever happen in any of my kidnappings.

Phil, the phlebotomist, paused and looked up at me.

"Most are screaming at this point in time," he mused, his head cocked to the side as if he was trying to figure out what was going on. "I didn't give you anything to take away the pain, so why are you being like this?"

"Like what?" I asked, surprised. Blood was trickling out both sides of the cut, but it felt more like a paper cut than being stabbed with a knife.

"Calm. Not in pain. Not crying," he grunted, placing the bloody knife on the tray beside him as he walked over to my hand and took my pulse. "Your heart rate isn't even elevated. Are you on some type of drug? That is going to impact the viability of your organs; I can't have that."

He lifted up another syringe from the same tray he had put the scalpel down on and went to the opposite arm that had all of the blood bags hooked up on.

"I thought I tested for everything, but I need to be sure," he muttered under his breath. Taking his sample, he turned around and walked out of the room, leaving me cut open and bleeding out.