by K J Carr
I snorted. “Boomer, I swear, has the gift of invisibility. He is like a chameleon, able to blend in with his surroundings. It was smart of you to send him with Splinter. We can leave soon.”
Baron nodded. “I sent two wolves back to get the trucks. We can go when they arrive.” He moved off to go talk with other Pack members.
Lexi walked over to me and hugged my waist. “Uncle Shane?”
I looked down on my niece’s head. I brushed her red hair back from her face. “What, Lexi?”
“We need to get Holden back. She is part of our Pack. You also need to tell her about us.”
I knelt beside the little girl. “You are right. We will get her back, and I will explain to her about lycanthropes. She arrived to heal you three. You are now well enough to shift. We owe her so much for that, baby. You and Betta and Soren are my family and I will take care of you always.”
I wrapped Lexi in a hug. Betta came over and joined us, wearing a simple shift dress that Maggie must have found for the little girl. I enclosed her in the hug.
A wail came from over near where Miranda was cleaning Soren’s leg. The pup lifted his head and then, within moments, a small six-year-old boy was lying on the deck. Miranda reached behind her and handed him shorts and a T-shirt. He pulled them on and limped over to his sisters. Lexi and Betta started to pull out of my arms, but I grumbled before pulling the boy in.
“My arms are big enough for all three of you peanuts.”
“Well, welcome back, pups.” The strain was clear in Max’s voice. He had shifted, but he was still in a lot of pain. Baron was bandaging his leg, while Maggie searched for an antibiotic shot to give to him.
“Welcome back to the living, Doc.” I grinned at my friend, my arms still clutching the kids.
Two horns honked in the driveway. I gave the pups a squeeze and then stood up.
Lexi panicked. “Where are you going, Uncle Shane?”
I wrapped one arm around her shoulders and then lifted her chin to look her in the eyes. “To go bring Holden home, Lexi. You three can stay as kids or change back to pups, it’s up to you. Maggie, Miranda and Max will stay here with you, along with some of my Pack. The rest are coming with me to get Holden.”
I went to take a step, but Lexi grabbed my shirt, tugging on it to show she wanted to say something more. I leaned down so that my head was level with hers.
“They are not your Pack anymore, Uncle Shane. Soren and Betta and I are your Pack. Maggie is your Pack. Holden is your Pack. Uncle Baron’s Pack is not your Pack.”
She moved over to stand near Max, turning to watch us go.
I stared at her in shock until Baron yelled back at me.
“Come on, Shane! The trail is growing cold!”
Turning, I moved through the house and out to the driveway, sliding into the front passenger side of the SUV that Baron now was driving. Doors slammed as Pack members joined the hunt, the cars peeling out of the driveway.
Chapter 16
Holden
I didn’t want to leave the darkness, but something was calling to me.
Holden! Holden! Uncle Shane is coming for you.
Lexi! I sobbed. I hoped that the little pup and her siblings were okay, that they had gotten away from Edward. While they were the focus of the others, he had ignored them. Was Edward working with the lab that had taken the pups? Why would he do that?
I groaned, the sedative releasing me to consciousness.
“Wake up, Holden.” A sharp slap on my cheek followed Edward’s voice.
I tried to bring my hands up to cover my face but could not move them. Shaking my head from side to side, I opened my eyes, closing them in the bright lights.
“I know you are awake. Open your damn eyes.” Edward’s voice was mild, even though his words were harsh. I squinted, looking up at the ceiling. He leaned over me and looked down, a distant smile on his face.
“There you are. I was wondering when you would join us. This part is no fun without you aware of what is happening, sweetheart.”
I tried to move my legs, but Edward had shackled them down. “What is going on, Edward?” My voice sounded weak, even to me. “Where am I? Why did you tie me down?”
“Oh, dear. Yes. You are in my private lab. I guess I could release you, but I am sure you would just try to escape. Then I would have to hurt you to make you stay here. I don’t want to hurt you, Holden. Not until I can see if my theories are correct.”
“The pups?” I tried to shake my head enough to get my hair out of my eyes, but it stayed there. Edward stroked it back and away from my face. I glanced at him, but his face was still distant. He looked more like he was looking at a specimen than a person, let alone his sister-in-law.
“The pups. Yes, well, it appears they got away. The Pack came and killed most of my men.” He hesitated and then grinned. “But no matter. As important as they are to my plans, you are the greater prize. Imagine my surprise when I found you there with them? If I had known you were shepherding them, I would have come much better prepared. We would have taken you all.” He squatted down, his head disappearing for a minute.
He reappeared with a water bottle. “Here, have a drink. You must be thirsty. I promise, I haven’t drugged this, at least not yet.” His chuckle was eerie, particularly given that his eyes kept that watchful, intent stare.
He opened the cap and put it near my lips. I took a sip and then a much longer one, spilling liquid down over my cheeks and neck, before he pulled it away from me. “Not too much. Otherwise, you may just throw it back up again.”
“What is this about, Edward? Why am I here?”
He strolled away, returning momentarily. He clasped something around one of my legs before releasing that restraint. He then repeated the movement with the other leg, before releasing my hands and helping me to sit up.
I was in a large room. There was a large wooden desk on the far wall. A short couch with matching chairs sat in front of it. Closer to me, it looked more like a lab. There were counters and glass shelving all around me on two sides. There were many medical devices and pharmaceutical vials throughout the area.
I was sitting on a table in the middle of all this.
Rubbing my wrists, I looked down at my legs. A long tether now connected my ankle to the wall. The tether wasn’t rope, but looked like a long, thin wire of some sort.
“You didn’t know where you were, did you?” The question startled me. I had almost forgotten he was there for a minute, leaning against a counter, out of my immediate reach.
I studied him, puzzled. “I did. I was working with some traumatized pups. My employer had rescued them from a lab… that had been… oh, my god! You had them! You were torturing them and experimenting on those poor pups.”
He laughed, shaking his head. Edward looked similar to Thomas except colder. His hair was a tad longer and straighter than his brother’s had been, a brown that was almost blond. His eyes were a dirty brown. Thomas had been the better looking one. His hair had been a deep brown and his eyes a light hazel that had green specks floating in them.
I always thought Edward had been trying to compete with Thomas, who was brilliant and easy to love. Not to say that Edward wasn’t intelligent, but he concentrated on different, darker things.
“Those pups, as you call them, are lycanthropes, dear Holden. Some consider them an abomination, because they are part wolf and part human. I don’t, though. For me, they are the key to what humans should evolve towards, or at least a part of that puzzle. And then, there is you.”
“Me? What is special about me?” My mind was whirling. I wasn’t sure if the man in front of me was bat-shit crazy or if what he spoke was true. I knew the pups had a high comprehension of English. But werewolves? That was the stuff of fantasies!
Edward stood up and moved closer, shoving his hands into his front pockets while he studied me. I felt like prey to this man. Perhaps I was, given he had locked me up in this room.
“You come across as human, Ho
lden. You never had a Pack. Don’t seem to need one. And yet, there is lycanthrope DNA in your genetics. How curious. Thomas had given me a sample in the hopes I could find out why you were not conceiving. I told him you needed to fuck a lycanthrope. Not a human like him. I wanted to bring you here to test this, but alas, my brother had other ideas.”
Edward moved around me. I tried to track him with my eyes, not feeling comfortable letting him out of my sight. When he got behind me, though, he leaned in and whispered into my ear.
“He wanted to run away with you. Leave so I couldn’t find you. He thought he was so smart. That I wouldn’t figure it out. So, I arranged for him to die. That picture I sent to you? I had taken it. Thomas had thought at first I would help him. He didn’t know I knew he would leave. I knew my brother. I took the picture and watched him die.”
I flung my head back, missing the man’s nose as he stood back up straight and walked around to the front of me.
“You. Are. A. Monster.” I screamed, tears flowing down my face. I jumped down off the table and tried to grab him, except the tether wasn’t long enough for me to reach him. He had planned this well.
Sobbing, I sank to the floor. Edward had killed his own brother. He had tortured and experimented on young wolf pups, who may or may not have had a human side to them. I wasn’t sure if I could believe him, but that didn’t matter. He believed all of this. He would experiment on me. He had decided I was a lycanthrope, even though it wasn’t true. I didn’t howl at the moon. I didn’t have weird dreams or feelings during a full moon. I didn’t shift into a wolf.
I screamed, the sound loud and agonizing. And Edward just laughed.
Shane
I willed the truck to go faster, but Baron wouldn’t exceed the speed limit. Not when we knew where Holden was.
We are outside the lab. I think it is the same company that had taken the pups. Splinter reported in, via the Pack bonds.
Did you see Holden? I replied before Baron could.
One man carried her in. They had sedated her or knocked her unconscious. This was Boomer.
Baron frowned at me and interjected. How many men were in the car?
An uneasiness came across the bond.
Five. Splinter answered. And, ummm… Tessa.
Baron clamped down on the bonds, shutting me from the rest of the Pack as I lost control of my anger. He held my wolf, refusing to let me shift.
“Shane, we will get Holden back. And punish Tessa. She has now crossed a boundary even Miranda cannot save her from. Execution is what she can hope for if she helped with the pups’ kidnapping.”
I growled. “She is mine to punish. The pups are my family. Holden is my mate. I get to have the first strike.”
“Agreed.” The Alpha hesitated and then asked, “Are you in control?”
I knew why he asked. At least one of the lesser males behind us in the car had shifted when I had lost control, and before Baron had closed the pathways. I wasn’t sure if I had impacted others, back at the compound. I was strong, a definite Alpha in my own rights, and I could impact them all.
I took a few deep breaths, cajoling my wolf for patience. Baron would have to either restrain me physically or banish me from the Pack if he thought he could leave Tessa alive after this. She was dead. You don’t sell out your Pack.
I nodded, having given my wolf a promise of justice. He backed away, his essence still close to the surface.
Baron reopened the bonds with Splinter and Boomer.
What happened? Splinter sounded calm, but I could feel the anxiety coming from Boomer.
Shane lost his shit and almost caused most of the Pack to shift when you mentioned Tessa. Baron glanced at me before turning back to the road.
Does it help to know they were dragging her along? She could be a victim. Boomer’s voice was tentative.
I froze. Where had Tessa been? Was she still in the Pack bonds? I looked at Baron, my eyes wide.
Baron pulled over as soon as he could, opening his car door. “Terry, drive.”
The young man jumped out his side of the car and took the driver’s seat, once Baron vacated it. Baron took his, shutting the car door and closing his eyes. Mac, a younger wolf who was making his way up the hierarchy, whined and Baron dug his fingers into the wolf’s fur. He had been the one who hadn’t been able to resist my anger.
I felt the Alpha sorting through the Pack bonds, searching for Tessa. I left that to him. No use advertising I could command the Pack. I suspected that Baron already had guessed.
“I can’t find her.” The worry in Baron’s voice disturbed me. “It is like she never was part of the Pack.” He opened his eyes.
“Ask Miranda.” I turned in my seat, to look over to my Alpha. “Sibling bonds….”
Baron sighed. “I didn’t want to worry her.” He faced the window, the car traveling fast on the highway again.
Another sigh came moments later. “Miranda cannot feel her either.” Baron looked at me, his look anguished.
I sighed. So, they had cut her from the Pack, isolating her. Was it what she had wanted or was it Edward’s doing, now that he had what he wanted – Holden? I suspected that Tessa’s usefulness was coming to the end, and she might not survive this, despite what she may think. Stupid wolf. All of this because she didn’t understand how Packs worked. I shook my head in disgust.
“Where’s Splinter and Boomer?” I turned my head to talk to Baron.
“About a block away from the lab. The small town doesn’t have many hiding places. Edward planned this well.” Baron’s voice was pensive as he gazed out the window.
“Where’s Shaz?”
“Here.”
The voice came from the far back.
I turned around, glancing into the third row of seats. Shaz, Erin, and Mark sat back there. I sighed in relief, opening the glove box and fiddling with the switches on the electronics there.
“Satellite is on, Shaz. I want the building plans for this lab before we get there. We need a way inside.”
“On it already. The Sat will help, though. There are a series of tunnels… I suspect they were older sewer tunnels or perhaps they were bootlegger tunnels or slave escape routes. They might connect with the building. Give me a few minutes.” The man started searching his tablet for the information needed.
I nodded. Shaz was our computer wiz and what we needed right now. I suspected that Erin and Mark would be just as useful. Everyone here was military, except Baron.
Even Mac had experience in the Air Force. He was an exceptional pilot, but he also was at the top of his class in explosives. He wasn’t at Boomer’s level, but he was better than most.
Baron was a good Alpha because he invited those who had been in the military into his Pack, if their own kicked them out when they returned. I didn’t understand why a Pack would not take back a wolf who now knew, not only how to kill but also knew how humans fought. It was silly to me, the whole purity thing, but many Packs thought fighting alongside humans contaminated their wolves.
Baron didn’t. He knew they were an asset. That was how he had grown his Pack so fast. It was also why no other Pack could come against him. He easily held his territory, which was almost all the states of Vermont and New Hampshire. He also encouraged those who were ready to peel off and start their own Packs to do so, becoming strong allies.
Baron would give me a good kick in the pants, once this was over. I now had the beginnings of a Pack, with Holden, Maggie, and the pups. I may even get applicants from some others on this rescue mission. Boomer had his eye on Maggie. The adrenaline junkie with the extreme submissive. Perhaps that was a match made in heaven. There had been more shocking ones that had worked well.
“Got it.” Shaz’s voice came from the back. Both Baron and I turned to look at the man, as we took an exit to head to the town.
Shaz looked like he should have turned into a weasel. He was on the shorter side and very thin. He insisted he was just small-boned, when teased. His dark hair was always
slicked back, and he wore a pencil-thin mustache. His dark eyes were small but fit his thin face, along with his very sharp cheekbones.
His wolf even was on the smaller size, albeit physically fast. And vicious. While Shaz rarely went for the neck kill, he could run or harass a much larger wolf to death. Literally. His endurance was unmatched, and his fur seemed like it was almost as slippery as his hair with all that gel in it.
“It looks like these are old bootlegger tunnels that run up to the Canadian border. There are several entrances – the best would be here outside of the town, or near the library, which is several blocks east of the lab. The lab is on top of a tunnel. While I don’t think at first they had connected it, it appears someone, about a hundred years ago, opened a passageway to it. When renovations to the building had occurred, someone had blocked the opening again.” Shaz paused.
“Does it look like Edward knows about the tunnel?” I knew that the man was intelligent and doubted he wouldn’t have investigated things like this.
“Uncertain.” Shaz mumbled.
Baron rolled his head. “We have to proceed as if he knows they are there. Assume they are protecting the tunnel entrances. They also could be a back door escape route for the man. We will have to be careful.”
Erin snorted.
Baron turned to stare at her. “Something amusing?”
Erin shrugged. “I’ve heard about Edward Black. He would have a back door. Several, I am sure. He is hoping that you, our Alpha, would come against him. He views everything like a chess game. So, even if we get the human back, he will disappear and come back later. He is a cockroach.”
Chess. I frowned, thinking about that. What pieces were still on the board? Where were our pieces?
I turned around and looked at Erin. “Do you know who works with him? What sort of security he may have?”
This time, Mark answered. “He loves the mercenary types. I suspect he has hired a few of those troops. I suspect that it won’t be easy to get into the lab, given you had gone in for the pups before. The same trick won’t work twice with him.”