Shifter Planet: The Return

by D. B. Reynolds

  “But they didn’t,” he reminded her. “Because of you, and because we don’t tolerate invaders of any kind, but especially not those who mean us harm.”

  “I get all of that, but what’s it got to do with Amanda Sumner? I know she’s here, for Christ’s sake. What’s the big deal?”

  “The big deal, as you say…” He paused, knowing his decision was the right one, but still struggling with going against Rhodry’s last position on the matter. “She’s pregnant,” he snapped out, and felt an odd rush of relief. “Amanda’s pregnant.”

  Rachel stared at him, her heart beating faster against his chest. “Pregnant?” she whispered. “How far…”

  “A few more weeks, if she holds out that long.”

  She swallowed audibly, but her words were dry, as if she needed water. “Is it a boy? A shifter?”

  “Here,” he said, offering her water from the canteen on his belt. “Drink.”

  She shook her head but took a long sip, swishing the water around in her mouth before swallowing. “Answer the question,” she said, sounding even more stressed than she’d been before.

  He studied her a moment, but decided what the hell? He’d already given away the most critical information. “Twins. Both boys.”

  “Oh no,” she murmured, lowering her head, eyes wild, as if faced with a terrible choice.

  “What? I don’t get it. A pregnancy is good news. And twins, double that. Especially twin shifters.”

  When she looked back up at him, he’d have sworn the dark gold of her skin had lost a full shade. “You don’t understand. Those babies, and Amanda, too, are terrible danger if Wolfrum’s still alive. Especially if he really is in the city. Wait. Where’s Amanda?”

  “In the city, but she’s with Rhodry and Cullen, not to mention a whole damn Guild hall full of shifters.”

  “Maybe,” she said, nodding rapidly. “That might be enough. But you have to tell them, you have to let Amanda know.”

  “Know what? Explain,” he demanded.

  “Wolfrum will go after her!” she practically shouted, as if he should have figured that out already.

  “After Amanda? But— Oh shit. The twins.” He grabbed her hand and started pulling her back to the main camp.

  “The babies are shifters, but they’re gestating in her body, and she was born in space,” she continued. “She’s the perfect incubator. They’ll have all her adaptations to space travel, which means they might even travel better than you would have.” She almost tripped. Aidan caught her but didn’t slow down. Rachel kept talking, to herself more than him. “But Amanda’s well connected. That might save her,” she muttered. “Her mother’s way up in fleet and all but married to Vice-Admiral Leveque. Rumor has it he’s a good guy. Difficult to work with, but honest. Which is saying something, coming from that family.”

  They’d reached the camp now, though she didn’t seem to realize it. Her attention was all for Aidan, who was staring at her, hands scraping long hair back from his face, eyes flashing from blue to gold as his body fought the urge to shift in the face of a danger he couldn’t yet attack.

  Rachel lowered her gaze, her expression blank, as if she were processing her own thoughts. She glanced up. “Does Wolfrum know she’s pregnant?”

  Aidan shrugged. “I’m sure. Everyone knows.”

  “He has to have a ship waiting. Nothing else makes sense. He had to have a way to get off-planet. And now that he’s failed to capture one of you…he’ll go after Amanda. And if he gets her on a ship, she’ll disappear with her babies, and you’ll never see them again.”

  …

  Ten minutes later, Rachel watched the camp dissolve around her. The fire still burned, banked to white-hot embers for the night. But nothing else was the same. No one was getting ready to sleep anymore. She’d noted the departure of Santino and a few of the others a while ago, foregoing even the two hours’ rest they’d planned. Everyone in camp was on the move, either stripping down and shifting, or already shifted and prowling the campsite restlessly, as if waiting for the order to depart.

  She felt Aidan’s presence behind her. “What’s the plan?” she asked without turning. He seemed to be the only person, other than her, who wasn’t getting ready to leave.

  “I’ve sent all the cousins to the city to warn Rhodry and to hunt down that fucker Wolfrum, if it comes to it. Cristobal and his guard are leaving in a few hours. They’ll take the tree road, too, but he won’t be able to match the cousins’ pace. Not at first, anyway.”

  She knelt and silently began gathering her things. If everyone else was leaving, she might as well, too. She couldn’t keep up with them and didn’t intend to try. But if Wolfrum was in the city, then that’s where she needed to be. The evidence was piling up against him, but she wanted to hear it from his own mouth.

  “We don’t have to leave yet, Rachel,” Aidan said. He hadn’t moved from where he’d been standing. “You can’t keep up with Cristobal’s group anyway.”

  “Thanks for reminding me.” Again. She ignored everything else he’d said and tied her bedroll to the bottom of her pack. Her other gear was already inside. She did a quick check of her weapons. She’d retrieved the crossbow bolts she’d fired at the banshees. Two had been slightly warped, which would affect accuracy, but at short range, they’d work, and she still had all her knives. That was the good thing about knives, they were always ready. She also still had the tranquilizer gun she’d used in getting off the ship—it seemed like months ago, not weeks—and plenty of tranq darts.

  Her canteen was full from her earlier trip to the river, and before he left, Santino had topped off her supply of Harp-style trail bars, along with some dried meat from the provisions brought by his Clanhome cousins. She’d decided it was a hard, four-day walk back to the city for her. She could shave that closer to three if she hustled, and if nothing ate her in the meantime. Cristobal and his shifter guard would make it in half that time, Santino’s group even faster. But she wasn’t trying to compete with them.

  She shouldered her pack and walked around the fire pit to take off in the direction she’d seen Santino go earlier, with the river on her left. Since she had no knowledge of the surrounding terrain, she’d have to stick to the tried and true method of following the river, which ran all the way to the city. She knew it wound around before getting there, but hopefully not too much. Her map didn’t give enough detail to know for sure.

  “Where are you going?” Aidan demanded.

  “To find Wolfrum,” she said without looking back at him. “Make sure you douse the fire before you leave. I think you’re the last one here.”

  “Goddamn it,” he growled.

  Rachel grinned viciously when she heard the crack of big rocks and the swish of dirt as he buried the fire before starting after her.

  “Stop, Rachel.”

  She kept walking. Yes, he’d told her the truth about Amanda, clearly going against his clan in doing so. She had to give him credit for that. But anger would give her a much-needed burst of energy, so she’d decided to nurse it a while.

  Of course, he caught up with her in about two seconds, but he made no attempt to stop her or make conversation. So, she did the same, focusing instead on heading in the right direction.

  …

  It was a silent march through the Green the first night. Rachel was forced to stop after only a few hours. She’d been on the move with Aidan for weeks getting through the swamp, finally reaching the site of the second ship, and then the adrenaline rush and stress of dealing with Cristobal’s injuries, and the fire and smoke on top of that. She’d have run all the way back to the city if she could have, but her body wasn’t going to cooperate. She needed sleep, and she needed food. Or, at least protein. The dried meat took almost as much energy to chew as it provided in nutrition, but the trail bars were sticky and sweet, and the river provided plenty of water. She’d been ready to share her food with Aidan, her anger long dissipated. But he’d shifted soon after they left the camp site a
nd had remained up in the trees the entire time.

  She didn’t fool herself into believing his presence wasn’t making a difference, and she was grateful for it. She sensed the difference in the forest as they traveled. It was a pocket of silence that followed everywhere they went, while thirty or so feet beyond them in any direction, the Green was still alive with the sounds of nocturnal hunters and their prey. It was an odd sensation, but comforting, too. When she slid into her bedroll, she missed him for all of two minutes, before she fell deeply asleep.

  She woke with the sun the next morning, feeling its heat on her back, soaking it up…before her brain kicked in and reminded her of the hard facts, which were confirmed by other hard things that were pressed up against her body. She slowly extricated herself from Aidan’s clutches, which wasn’t easy. Generously, one could say he was a cuddler. One could also say it was simply more evidence of his domineering personality. But whatever description she used, he was all over her, with one muscled leg hooked over both of hers, and a heavy arm draped over her waist. The fact that she was cocooned in her bedroll, with that fabric between them, only made escaping him more difficult. Especially since he wasn’t inclined to help.

  She finally gave up on subterfuge, jabbed an elbow into his gut, and sat up. “Aren’t you ever cold?” she asked, noting he wore nothing but the usual drawstring pants. She was surprised he’d put on that much. He stretched behind her, and she caught glimpses of golden skin over muscle but refused to turn and look.

  “If I was cold, I’d shift.”

  “Give me ten minutes to freshen up, and I’ll be ready to go. There’s trail bars and dried meat in my pack, if you want. She turned finally to look at him, focusing on his face, which was distracting enough. “Do you need to hunt?”

  He gave her an indecipherable look. “No. Be careful when you go to the river. The banks are steep in this area, and we’re in the middle of spring run-off. The water’s high and fast.”

  She didn’t really need his warning. She’d heard the difference in the sound of the river for herself last night. It had kept her from attempting to get down there in the dark. This morning she could see the incredible pounding of whitewater as it slammed its way through a series of narrow rock formations. She had friends back home who lived for the adrenaline rush of riding high-risk whitewater like this. She’d even accompanied them on a few of their trips. But she doubted even they would take on this one. The banks were high and steep, just as they’d been near the hut where they’d stayed, but this part of the river was cluttered with jagged rocks and far too narrow for even the most daring of risk-takers.

  Lying on her stomach, she scooted forward until she could stretch her arms down to the water just as she had before, settling for another quick splash of her face and hands. She filled her canteen, then rinsed her mouth quickly, the water so cold that it made her teeth and entire face ache.

  She inched back and climbed to her feet, brushing away the dirt and bits of detritus that clung to her clothes. It was more from habit than anything else. She wouldn’t be clean until they reached the city and she could finagle a hot shower. If nothing else, there was a fleet science center there, with a small contingent of live-in techs. There were no more than two or three of them, but enough that they’d have all the amenities, and bunks for visitors, too. She wondered if that was where Wolfrum was hiding. Could he be that stupid? Someone at that center must have looked the other way when the two ships landed. And fleet center or not, if the shifters wanted Wolfrum or whoever had helped him, they’d walk in and take them.

  Aidan was waiting when she returned to their cold camp. “I’m ready,” she said. She hooked her canteen onto her pack, broke off half a protein bar and zipped the rest into her pack. She then swung the pack onto her back and eyed Aidan expectantly, waiting for him to give her a direction.

  Instead, he pulled the drawstring on his pants and let them drop to his ankles, giving her an almost challenging look with eyes gone completely gold, and then he shifted.

  Rachel sighed. Asshole or not, he was still a beautiful sight.

  He leaped into the trees and raced a few yards along the branches, remaining low enough that she could get a bearing before he disappeared into the Green’s impenetrable canopy.

  “Right,” she muttered, then, out of habit, folded his pants into her pack and started walking at a rapid, but sustainable, pace.

  The morning was oddly peaceful. Again, she was sure that this was Aidan’s doing. More than once—in fact, several times—she saw signs of small animal habitation that she normally would have stopped to study. But her only goal right now was to reach the city. With luck, she’d have a little time to explore the Green before she left Harp. When she wasn’t running for her life or anyone else’s. A surge of sadness swept through her at the idea of leaving, but she told herself it was simply the scientist in her that was reluctant to leave such an unexplored treasure trove of life-forms.

  She’d just convinced herself that’s what it was when she heard the soft scratch of claws on bark and the even softer thump of padded feet on the forest floor, telling her Aidan was on the ground. She supposed it could have been some other shifter, but anyone else would have approached silently, while Aidan wanted to give her warning. And besides, he’d never have let anyone or anything else get that close.

  “You never asked why,” he said from behind her.

  She frowned as she kept walking. “Why what?”

  “You claim to be a scientist, but you never asked why we’re so reluctant to trust. Why I’m so reluctant.”

  Rachel shrugged. “I didn’t think you’d tell me.”

  Silence. And then, “Fair enough.”

  They traveled another fifty yards before Rachel finally surrendered. Still without turning, she asked, “So, why are you all so short on trust? I mean, I know about the explosion when the fleet was here the first time, but honestly, I think I’ve proven I’m not like those idiots. And the habit is too ingrained to be a recent development. It has to be something older.”

  “See, you’re a scientist, after all.”

  Rachel refused to ask again. He’d brought it up, so it was up to him to keep the ball rolling. A strong arm snuck around her waist, stopping her forward progress by simply lifting her off the ground.

  “Put me down.”

  “Stop, sweetheart. Take a break and talk to me.” His voice was a low purr of sound in her ear that made every feminine nerve in her body stand up and take notice. Especially since his pants were still in her pack.

  He put her back on her feet and turned her to face him.

  She looked up and met his gaze thoughtfully. The last thing she needed was more vague answers and stonewalling. On the other hand, she could use the break to hydrate and eat another trail bar. “All right. We’ll talk. But put these on first.” She retrieved the pants and shoved them at is chest.

  He gave her a knowing smirk but put them on. “We’ve been isolated here on Harp since its founding,” he began. “The original colony ship was intended to land on a habitable planet and never leave. It wasn’t designed to escape atmosphere. It wasn’t even built in atmosphere back on Earth. But even if it had been, it was already damaged before the landing, which was how the colonists ended up here in the first place. This was the only suitable planet they could find that was close enough for a controlled landing. Although, in the end, it was more crash than control. But all of that’s probably in your fleet’s First Contact report.”

  Rachel nodded. “It took some work, but the contact ship managed to extract the colony ship’s technical data from the beacon. I’m not an engineer, but I studied the report in preparation for this mission, so I know the ship was beyond recovery. It’s a miracle they managed to land safely at all.”

  He nodded, then took her hand and tugged her over to sit on a fallen log that was completely overgrown with vines. She eyed it carefully—all sorts of little beasties could be hiding in there—but she finally decided it was prob
ably safe enough to sit since Aidan had suggested it.

  “Right, so you don’t need me for a history lesson,” he continued, “and that’s not the point, anyway. What you need to know is that as catastrophic as that crash was, between the recovered databanks and the oral histories of the colonists, much of human knowledge up to that point survived intact. So, while Harpers have been isolated, we know the full history of human expansion into space, including all the genetic modifications designed to make space exploration, and eventually life itself, possible in many of the artificial environments created to support that expansion. And we also know how those genetically modified people were treated. Hell, it’s how they’re still treated…like machines rather than people. And what happened here? With Wolfrum betraying us, trying to kidnap a few living lab specimens for money? That’s exactly what we’re afraid of. It’s the real reason that we insist on Harp remaining a closed planet.”

  “I get that, Aidan. I really do, but I already knew about shifters. Hell, I didn’t even question your decision that everyone on that ship had to die. You think I don’t know that the only way to keep you safe, to keep everyone here safe is to make sure shifters remain a secret? After everything we’ve been through, did you really think that I’d betray Amanda and her babies? Or did your cousin plan to make sure I couldn’t?”

  His head shot up. “Never,” he snarled, then added. “Rhodry wouldn’t do that.”

  She gave a little laugh, not believing him. She didn’t even know cousin Rhodry, but she believed he’d do whatever he felt necessary to protect his family. She couldn’t even blame him for it. “Forget it. Let’s just go.”

  “Rachel.”

  She ignored him, standing and shrugging her pack into place. “We need to pick up the pace. I can’t keep up with the rest of you, but I can make better time than this. And I’d like to reach the city before Wolfrum’s dead.”

  Aidan stood and stared down at her. “All right. How fast can you travel?”

  “As fast as I need to. It doesn’t matter if I’m half dead myself by the time we get there.”